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#tori is finally playing es
shiro-sideblog · 5 months
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About your post on what cards to get, dia, tickets etc.:
Keep playing. And don't worry if you can't max all the cards you want to immediately, the items and tickets tend to accumulate when you're not looking. :D And use your audition scout tickets for more exp tickets. And you in a Society in-game? The society shop has 10 gold exp tickets weekly (but prioritize unlocking score boosts).
I know it's difficult to skip cards you'd like to have but try to think of the ones you *really* want. At least I like just looking at the event/card timeline and planning and daydreaming, hehe. Collecting Memorial Coins is slooow but it feels so good when you're finally able to get the card you wanted. Getting event cards and skipping gacha is more cost-effective, not only because gacha is luck, but event cards take a year to arrive to Memorial Shop and gacha cards only three months until they are in general pool. That doesn't guarantee anything of course but there's a chance every time you pull at least.
I'd imagine we'd get 100 whistles for SS Finals. And having event songs boosts the points (but 5* cards start from 3.5 mil unlike regular tours). But the event requires time. Do you know its structure? It has two tour maps (21 days) which means two bonus 5*s (one for fine, one for Eden). If you pick Tori and Hiyori as bonuses, you have to grind 4.2 mil points (Eichi is at 3.5 mil and Nagisa at 4.2 mil). There is a dia calculator (it's for JP, so result dia needs to be multiplied with 10): https://s-asakoto.github.io/es-calc/music.html?lang=en
Unfortunately there's no get rich quick scheme but besides dailies, be sure to play every song on every difficulty (if you're not good on higher difficulties, you can still get something), check the song missions in Main Story (you can chip them away little by little if you don't have strong enough original teams for later ones), be sure to always at least unlock the stories when they are open to read to get the dia... and don't miss logging in on character birthdays. And there are Christmas and New Year campaigns soon which means stuff. \^o^/
If you are ever able to use little money, use it for the VIP I (5$ monthly pass) that's most worth your money and has the godly 30 max BP.
Try to stay strong for the cards you really want. Ahaha, I'm very hypocritical for saying this at this point because I like too many characters and am a collector but I'm rooting for you! HappyEle is very mean for putting fine and Eden back to back, it was the same with Tempest and Conquest! D: That's why I didn't get Conquest Hiyori but I'm only two Memorial Coins short now. (Later I've surrendered my bank account to HappyEle...)
Don't worry, it's ok to feel fomo/sad not getting your fave pngs but hey, at least there are goals to work towards.
Ahhh thank you so much for putting the effort to tell me all this. I really appreciate it!
Sometimes it's a bit frustrating when I can max all the cards I want, but I will keep playing to get more tickets. Also, I'll try to check out the society shop. It's really helpful. Thank you!
This part was a bit confusing and I'm glad you explained that to me. I'm talking about the gacha cards and all. I looked everywhere for some tips and all, but mostly people were saying I must pull for the bonus cards to be able to get 3 500 000pt. So even without pulling for the bonus cards I can still get the 5* cards, I see... I didn't know that haha.
I think yeah... HappyEle is really mean when putting fine and Eden back to back. I still don't have Tempest Wataru and Conquest Hiyori because I didn't play the game back then, the same goes for fist of Idol: Togenkyo Yuzuru and Tori... sigh... But... my goal for now is to get Bogie Time Ibara haha... I hate that I didn't play any of these events... Wish I found out about Enstars earlier... I know how it feels to get any card after saving the memorial coins, I couldn't even explain how happy I was when I got my Tempest Eichi! :D
But this time I think HappyEle went crazy... I'm talking about Getto Spectacle 5* Hiyori [I don't have him...], Sanctuary fine/5* Wataru, and now Solid Eden/5* Jun...
I always a little envied people who were able to only choose one unit or character... I love them all so much...
I don't really talk about my beloved Akatsuki or Undead coming after Eden event... I'm glad that there are no Valkyrie or Alkaloid events in the near future...
When I first heard about SS finals and that there would be four 5* cards I got scared... Also thank you for telling me the structure I didn't know much about it. Ah... 4.2 million pt is too much, but I already know I have to work hard until it will happen and save as many dias as possible for this because I'm sure it's worth it. Also, I love these cards so much and both songs are literally everything to me.
When it comes to playing the songs on each difficulty I might be only able to play the hard mode and not always... I can't play the expert mode... sigh I at least will keep playing on normal mode and hard mode. Yeah, I still have to read SS stories as I only read Secret Service and Sanctuary before, and need to reread them on Enstars. I already read Sattelite and got some dias. Thanks to those stories being longer than the other ones I can get much more dias. Ah, it also reminds me that Ibara's birthday event is coming so it means dias haha XD. I wanted to try to pull for his FS1 card, but I should ignore it and just keep saving dias. Sometimes it's really tempting not to pull on their birthdays, I also had a hard time with Shu and Kaoru not pulling for them...
Hahaha, I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes too many characters. Thank you for all this, it helped me a lot and I will be also rooting for you! Hope you'll also be able to get all the cards you want in the future!
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paperconsumption · 1 year
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finally found a general summary of the situation and tbh i’m really interested in seeing how the ES takeover of yumenosaki plays out,, it’s good in that reimei students can get more appearances in yumenosaki stories, so we can focus on school life without neglecting a bunch of characters. but at the same time this is another example of ES dominating the idol industry and pretty much all of !! has been exploring the negative consequences of that
hoping for a lot of focus on the new third years navigating the change (tori’s center event please???) and also the conflict between eichi and those against the decision (TORI CENTER EVENT PLEASE???),, and just spend more time on the interpersonal conflicts regarding yumenosaki’s change instead of external problems like i keep seeing people complain about in recent stories
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boozuru · 10 months
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Ghostic - Epilogue 1
⇠  chapter select  ⇢
(NOT JP PROOFED)
Season: Autumn
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<Several days later, on the morning of event day>
Tori: I’m going out now, Yuzuru.
Yuzuru: Yes. Take care, now.
But are you really sure that it was fine for me not to show my face in the student council?
Tori: I told you yesterday, didn’t I?~  For the time being, you were on sick leave!
Also, it’s best if you don’t run around here and there today, today is filled with plans so you should save your energy!
Plus, I have the new council president and Shinobu helping me out.
And Akatsuki is doing the opening act, so Hasumi-senpai will be there. If anything, I think we have too many people onboard.
So, Yuzuru, just chill and wait at ES. Don’t do the same thing as last time and make a fuss when leaving the medical office!
Yuzuru: Fufu. If Young Master says so, I have no choice but to comply.
Well then, I’ll leave Yumenosaki Academy in your hands.
Tori: Thanks. Once I’ve overseen the event opening, I’ll come back to join the organising efforts at ES. So just relax and wait for me ♪
Yuzuru: …I just wanted to show concern for Young Master, but it seems like all I did was cause him more trouble.
Eichi-sama and Hibiki-sama also said that “You don’t have to do any work till today’s live performance” and now I’m practically forced to be on break. This is true torture.
But even so, I can feel fine’s love through these irritating things they do.
Thinking of each other, gratitude, respect - those things are too grand to be spent on me.
I hope I can repay for them through this live performance, even if just a little.
…Maybe I should head for ES as well. I hope Young Master will be safe and well during the Halloween party.
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Wataru: One, two, three… Everyone’s here!
Ah, this is it. No one has been late even once, the staff structure is truly wonderful! ★ We are ever so grateful that you are helping us build our ideal haunted house, truly… ★
Well then, it’s time for us to go check on how well it’s operating! Ready to go, right Eichi?
Eichi: Yeah. Let’s go, Wataru.
Well, we’ll leave bag watching to you then, Yuzuru. Make sure to take care of the staff’s things too.
Yuzuru: Yes. Leave it to me, Eichi-sama.
(…We had to go through a lot of ups and downs, but the ES Haunted House is finally opening its doors.)
(Eichi-sama and Wataru-sama are doing their last check of the haunted house.)
(Young Master, as the student council vice president, is in charge of Yumenosaki Academy - I can’t deny that I feel at loss just watching after people’s belongings here.)
(I want to recover here from the disgrace that was me, disturbed by delusions of ghosts.)
(Especially since unlike last year, Halloween is going to be a big-scale festival extending even to ES.)
(Us idols are not allowed to parade around grounds where the customers are to prevent confusion.)
(We will do our fan service work at our respective posts.)
(fine will be here giving out candy to the customers who got to the goal, the haunted house.)
(Things are what they are, and there is no other way around it. But it feels like I have some distance from my fans now, and it makes me just a little lonely.)
(And thus, I should make sure to deliver a performance that will reach far, all the way to those very people.)
…Oh? There’s something behind me…
What is with this white cloth…? Even if you hide your face, I can still see your cute little feet peeking out, miss ghost.
"Trick or Treat"...?
Oh, so that is what you were after. If you want candy, then you should head over there - I’ll show you the way.
But more importantly, could you show me your true form, Anzu-san? ♪
Fufu. I’m glad to see you this happy. I wished for you to come have fun at the haunted house, but wondered if it would be even possible.
We could not be more honoured if you moved your schedule around just to come see us.
But I never imagined that you would wish to play the role of a ghost.
If I recall correctly, you will be assisting us just for a little bit for the sake of future reference, yes? Eichi-sama has filled me in already.
It is a good thing to be serious about your studies, but please make sure to have fun as well.
Yes. All staff members are deeper inside. Eichi-sama and Hibiki-sama are also there, would you like to go greet them?
If you greet them with a “trick or treat”, I’m sure they will reward you with candy ♪
Yes. Until we meet again, Anzu-san.
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tokkuntradus · 3 years
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Prison Breakers | Capitulo 6
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Makoto: Gente, agarrense las bebidas de esta bolsa~. También hay golosinas.
Tori: Que cosa! Nos pusieron la reserva de la habitación al mismo tiempo!
Tori: Por qué tenemos que estar a la par de nuestros rivales y ver juntos las transmisiones pasadas!? Yo quiero jugo de naranja!
Koga: Che, esa es mi línea. Yo café. 
Makoto: Okok, acá tienen.
Tori: Gracias. Agh! Este sistema de reservas está lleno de defectos! Definitivamente lo voy a poner en la agenda la próxima en el consejo estudiantil.
Makoto: Bueno. El error ya está hecho, no se le puede hacer nada, aguantemos por hoy. 
Makoto: Ah, Ayase-kun vos querés algo?
Mayoi: Ah… Gracias. Entonces, Té… 
Mayoi: Así es. Ya no nos queda mucho tiempo hasta el inicio del juego, si ninguno piensa ceder la reserva, hacer esto es lo más fácil y rápido para mi. 
Makoto: Cierto? En fin, miremos las transmisiones juntos y después nos separamos para formular estrategias. De esta forma no habría problemas entre nosotros.
Koga: Pero hay un gran problema~
Tori: Eso eso! Un problema de animo! Eso es lo más importante! 
Makoto: Por qué se la pasan discutiendo si se llevan bien, Ogami-kun, Himemiya-kun.
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Koga y Tori: No nos llevamos bien!
Mayoi: … están increíblemente sincronizados.
Tori: Callate~! Basta! Quiero terminar con esto de una vez! Vemos eso ya!?
Makoto: Si~p. Bueno, ahí lo empiezo a transmitir~. Le doy a play y—
Koga: Nh? Che, y donde es eso?
Tori: Hay un montón de casas antiguas. Tiene una onda campestre.
Makoto: Estee. Tiene pinta de ser un pueblo fantasma en algún lado.
Mayoi: Ya veo. Primero, los participantes se dividen entre los que están del lado de los prisioneros que se esconden y escapan y los del lado de los guardias que tienen que atraparlos.
Makoto: Sip. El inicio es re parecido al de las escondidas. Los guardias tienen que dejar pasar 5 minutos hasta poder ir a atraparlos. El tiempo límite es de 2 horas. 
Mayoi: Eh? Y este botón para qué sirve?
Koga: Qué botón?
Mayoi: Mirá, adentro del área de los guardias hay una caja grande transparente, ves? Adentro de eso está el botón. 
Makoto: Ahh, ese pareciera ser el botón de la meta.
Makoto: Cuando quedan 30 minutos de juego le sacan esa caja y los guardias tienen que proteger ese botón hasta el final para ganar. 
Makoto: Al contrario, los prisioneros tienen que apretar ese botón para ganar. Esas son las reglas.
Tori: Hum. Entonces al final los guardias pueden ganar si protegen el botón rodeandolo, no? 
Makoto: Parece ser que eso no se puede hacer. Al rededor del botón hay un círculo grande dibujado en el piso, ves?
Makoto: Cuando quedan 30 minutos se reduce la cantidad de personas que pueden entrar a ese área. Creo que pueden haber hasta 3 guardias?  
Makoto: Además cuando el botón de la meta es liberado, de otro lado aparecen unas personas vistiendo un uniforme que lleva escrito salida de emergencia.
Makoto: Si los prisioneros atrapan a uno de esos ganan aunque no hayan apretado el botón.
Koga: Jajaa, ya entiendo. Aunque decidí participar porque tenía el ojo puesto en el premio, esto de predecir los movimientos del otro suena divertido, eh~...
Tori: Eh? Ehh? No entiendo, a qué te referís? 
Koga: La put-. No queda otra. 
Koga: Escuchaste bien? Por ejemplo cuando el botón de la meta es liberado, te imaginás si todos los guardias se despliegan en cercanía al área del botón?
Koga: Obviamente los prisioneros no van a tener posibilidad de apretar el botón. Pero con la llegada de esos salida de emergencia desde lejos...
Koga: Los prisioneros ya no tienen que preocuparse por los guardias y su única meta es obviamente atrapar esos salida de emergencia.
Koga: Esta regla significa que estos salida de emergencia no van a salir en la cercanía del botón, o eso pienso. 
Tori: Ah. Es eso. Por eso los guardias y los prisioneros tienen que predecir los movimientos del otro, la clave entonces es de qué forma y en donde se despliegan las personas, no?
Koga: Exacto. 
Tori: Je~
Koga: También está la posibilidad de pretender que te empezas a mover aunque en realidad te quedás escondido hasta el tiempo límite en algún lado alrededor de la meta. Es difícil ver lo que está bajo tu nariz.
Makoto: Sip. Pienso que podría ser una estrategia, pero como son las reglas yo no lo recomendaría mucho~. El riesgo es altísimo. 
Koga: Eh? Por qué?
Makoto: Porque seguro justo antes del final los guardias van a empezar a agruparse alrededor de la meta. Si eso pasara la situación pasaría a ser que no te podrías mover del lugar donde estás escondido.
Mayoi: En caso de hacer buen uso de esa estrategia, sería necesario tener un señuelo para estar en ventaja de los guardias alrededor de la meta.
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Makoto: Sip. En el caso que fuera como un juego de multiplayer donde todos los miembros son amigos usando el voice chat y estuvieran en constante coordinación pienso que sería buena idea.
Makoto: Pero la base de este juego es una batalla individual, no? Creo que en la circunstancia de que ambos no puedan mantenerse en contacto, no podrían conservar el ritmo con quien haga de señuelo.
Makoto: Incluso en los videojuegos al jugar de multiplayer con extraños, no hay algo como un requerimiento de coordinación.
Makoto: Cuando tenés experiencia en los videojuegos de alguna forma se entiende lo que el otro jugador quiere hacer.
Koga: Ahora que lo decís, tenés razón. Pero esa estrategia podría funcionar si sos más astuto que tu oponente.
Makoto: Pero bueno. Ahí es donde está lo interesante de que el oponente sea una persona y no la compu, osea que sería natural que ocurran irregularidades. 
Tori: voice, qué…? multi….? Ugh~ Ya no entiendo nada!
Tori: Qué es todo eso!? Me gustaría que hablaran en japonés para que yo entienda!
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Thanks to this wonderful idea from a tumblr user, here is more about my Hunter
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Guardians name: Chloe Faith Brask
Age: 24
Race: Human
Pronouns: She/Her
Class: Hunter
Preferred subclass(es): Gunslinger
Ghost's name: Moondance
Fireteam name: The Sisterhood
Fireteam teammates: Isabelle Brigham, Tori-3, and Sage Heathcliff
Favorite legendary weapon: Rose
Favorite exotic weapon: Ace of Spades
Favorite exotic armor: Lucky Pants
Favorite ornament armor set: Vanguard Dare
Favorite weapon ornament: Big Blind
What stats do they focus on: Mobility and Recovery
Are they offense, defence, or support: Chloe is always offense, mostly because she just springs into action with no real plan in mind.
Do they prefer being close, mid, or long range: a combination of all three
Do they lean more "Element of Surprise" or "Upfront and Aggressive": Both
Strikes, Gambit, or Crucible: Gambit
Who was their mentor(if they had one. If it is a character you created, tell us about them!): She doesn't really have one
What ship do they have: Queen of Hearts
What is their Sparrow: Gambler's Palm
Favorite Ghost shell: Spelunking Shell
Favorite shader: Circadian Chill
Favorite color: Electric Blue
Favorite food: STEAK!!!
Favorite piece of Pre-Collapse tech(if they've seen any): A Polaroid Camera
Favorite Pre-Collapse music(if they've heard any): Country music (Prime Country ro Modern Country)
Favorite place in The Last City(if it's a place you created, give a little description!): A bar called the Golden Horse
Favorite NPC(s): Cayde-6, Banshee-44, Saint-14, and Amanda Holliday
Favorite patrol location: The EDZ
5 things your Guardian likes(can be anything): Horse back riding, camping, art, and photography
Least favorite food: Zucchini and Squash
Least favorite shader: Cayde's Dubs (unfortunately)
Least favorite patrol location: Formly Mercury, Currently Europa
Least favorite Pre-Collapse tech(if they've seen any): iPads
Least favorite NPC(s): Suraya Hawthorne
Least favorite weapon ornament: Pride of Omolon
Least favorite ornament armor set: Forbidden Visage
Least favorite legendary weapon: Any scout rifle
Least favorite exotic weapon: Whisper of the Worm
Least favorite exotic armor: Worm Huskcrown
5 things your Guardian dislikes(this can be anything): Being patient, being stuck in the tower, following orders, the Hive, and lizards
Your Guardian has to rest. What is their living space like: it's a studio loft with art supplies scattered everywhere
Does your Guardian have any casual wear?:
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What hobbies and/or skills does you Guardian have: Drawing, Painting, Riding (Horses), Photography, playing piano
What would your Guardian's lore book be called: Reckless Danger
Where was your Guardian reborn?(If you created the location, give us a little description!): Cheyenne, Wyoming
What were they wearing when they were reborn: T-shirt, jeans, and boots
What was their reaction to being reborn: "why? What? Holy Fuck it's cold!"
What was their reaction to their first rez: "OMG, that's awesome!"
After being reborn, did they meet friendlies first or hostiles: Hostiles, namely the Eliskni
Who was the first other Guardian they met?(Same thing! If you made them, give a little description!): Isabelle Brigham, Chloe's best friend and the one who makes sure Chloe doesn't over do it.
Did your Guardian get reborn with, or find, any indication of their past life? If so what do they have/found: A photo of her and her father (Andal Brask) at her high school graduation
How did your Guardian get their name(if they didn't rez with past life momentos): the photo of her high school graduation had "Chloe and Dad, Graduation 2015"
Going back to your Guardian's lore book, what would be some some quotes or passages from their book: "You can't move mountains sittin' on your backside.", "I'm a hunter, knives ARE my religion!" OR "Why aren't you prettier than a magnolia in May."  (This is directed to a horse)
Does your Guardian have a significant other: Cayde-6
Did your Guardian go explore first before going to The Last City? If so, where to: Chloe went to straight to the The Last City.
What was their reaction to first seeing The Last City: She was surprised at how many people there were.
Is your Guardian a part of a clan: No
Does your Guardian's clan have a back story? If so, what is it?(if you want to or able to share): No
If your Guardian would have a quote as a flavor text for a weapon and/or piece of armor, what would they be: "Oh, these old things, can hide hundreds of knives in them."
If your Guardian has had any interactions with any civilians (The Last City/The Farm), Eliksni, Cabal, Vex, Hive, Taken, Scorn, Rouge Lightbearers, or Iron Lords/War Lords(if your Guardian is an Old Light) tell us about it!: Chloe loved helping the kids on the Farm learn to ride horses. She loved watching the smiles spread across their faces as they rode like the wind.
Does your Guardian have any unconventional allies or connections(By Vanguard standards): She has a civilian friend named Nikki who helps get supplies and ammunitions.
How does your Guardian feel about themselves or others using Stasis: At first, Chloe had no idea how she felt about it, seeing how she'd rather blow something up with her solar. After a while, she loves using it, especially in Gambit.
Did they run The Last Wish raid? How did they react to seeing a live Ahamkara a.k.a Riven: Chloe's not one for raids
Did they run The Deep Stone Crypt raid? How did they react to the Crypt and seeing Exo Eliskni: Absolutely shock at how thay was possible
Is your Guardian from D1? How did they react to seeing Taniks alive once again: Yes, she's from D1, let's just she was not happy.
Where did they go and what did they do during The Red War: Chloe helped escort civilians to safety and taught them self defense.  She mostly worried about Cayde when he was MIA.
Here are some characters that are either polarizing or have created a strong enough mass emotion within the community. What opinion does your Guardian hold on each of them(These are only a handful of characters!)>>>
Osiris, First Warlock Vanguard, originally exiled: Grandpa!
Eris Morn, Bane of the Swarm: Slightly creeped out, but overall really good friends with Eris.
Cayde-6, Sixth Hunter Vanguard: Chloe's fell head over heels for the exo
Ikora Rey, Second Warlock Vanguard: Mad respect
Commander Zavala, Second Titan Vanguard: Eh, she could careless about what Big Blue says
Saint-14, legendary Titan, First Titan Vanguard: Exo Grandpa!
Lord Saladin, Iron Banner handler, One of the last remaining Iron Lords: Wolf Man!
Lord Shaxx, Crucible handler, Hero of Twilight Gap, living megaphone: Chloe tends to avoid Crucible if possible
The Crow, New Light, Ex-Enforcer to The Spider: She's rather cold towards him.
The Spider, The Shore's Only Law, founder of "House" Spider: Eh, Chloe dosen't really care as long as she'd paid glimmer for her services
Uldren Sov, Prince of the Reef, Master of Crows: A deep dislike for him, he left a bad impression on her when they first met. Though she has to tolerate him since Isabelle is head over heels for the Prince
Mara Sov, Queen of the Reef, Queen of the Awoken, Ex-Kell of Wolves: She tolerates the Queen.
Variks, the Loyal, founder of House Judgement: Chloe doesn't trust people/Eliskni easily. Variks is maybe maybe only Eliskni, besides Mithrax, that she likes.
Mithrax, the Forsaken, Kell of Light, founder of House Light: Same answer as before
The Exo Stranger/Elizabeth "Elsie" Bray, Granddaughter of Clovis I and Sister to Ana Bray: Chloe finds her closed off and unable to really connect with her.
Eramis, of House Salvation, Kell of Darkness: "BITCH, YOU FROZE MY GHOST! THERE AIN'T A SOUL ALIVE WHO MESSED WITH HIM!"
Empress Caiatl of the Cabal Imperial Empire: She can't stand the Cabal, so Chloe doesn't like Caiatl very much.
Taniks the Scarred, the Perfected, the Abomination, the Shadow Thief: He killed her father in front of her..... rage is all she feels
The Darkness is fast approaching. How is your Guardian handling it: Pretty well actually.
And finally, does your Guardian have any advice for any New Lights: "Think 'what would Chloe do?' then do the polar opposite..."
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crownedbyluke · 5 years
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Long Road Ahead (Chapter One)
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Estelle Finley has been friends with Ashton Irwin and Luke Hemmings for three years. When the boys bring her along on a jam-packed road trip to Cape Cod with the rest of the band, their adventures are just beginning. Through long hours driving, exploring cities, and hidden secrets, something more is bound to happen on this journey. How will this road trip change Estelle’s friendship with the friends she’s come to love so dearly?
Word Count: 3,480
Masterlist.
Luke’s blue eyes and Ashton’s hazel eyes were staring at me. I was used to their weird looks, but there was something in them I hadn’t seen before.
“Whatever it is, you might as well tell me before your eyes burst out of your heads,” I said while walking over to my desk.
“What are you talking about?” Ashton asked, a hitch in his voice giving him away.
“You both are staring at me, which usually means you have to tell me something. So come on,” I said, looking through some of the papers that were out.
“I told you she’d know,” Luke said making me laugh.
“Ugh fine. Estelle, stop being in teacher mode” Ashton teased making me laugh more.
I raised my hands up in surrender before turning to face them. I met Luke’s eyes and a shiver ran through me. I should have been used to it, but no matter how many times it happened in the three years we’ve been friends, it still took me by surprise.
“We’re going on a road trip and you’re coming with us,” Ashton said taking my eyes off of Luke.
“What? No I’m not,” I said shaking my head.
“Yes you are. You’re coming with us, Mikey, Cal, and Crystal. Oh, and you should really start packing because we leave tomorrow at six in the morning,” Luke said, an unexpected confidence in his tone..
“What? No, you two are kidding,” I argued, not believing them for a second.
They loved playing pranks on me and if this was their latest one, I had every intention of making them regret it.
“We aren’t. Completely serious. No pranks and no jokes,” Ashton said, his eyes lit up.
“For how long?” I asked, turning back to look at my calendar.
As much as I wanted to agree and let them sweep me away, I had lesson plans to prepare.
“Well, it’ll take us fourteen days to get there and then we’ll be at our final destination for three weeks,” Ashton said, moving his fingers as if he was counting midair.
“Es, we’ll get you back in time to prep for school. I promise,” Luke reassured, his hands coming to rest on my shoulders.
There was a calm that came over me with his touch. It made it impossible to not give into them.
“And what am I supposed to pack?” I asked, tilting my head back to look at Luke.
The smile that lit up his face met those ocean eyes and I was sold on whatever we were doing.
“Lots of summer clothes, some swimsuits, but also a couple things that are warmer for nights,” Luke said quietly, his fingers squeezing my shoulders.
“Well if I know where we’re going, I could pack properly,” I said, wiggling my eyebrows at him.
“Nope. That’s a secret. Now, remember what Luke said, but put some nicer clothes in there too,” Ashton said, giving me his thousand watt smile.
I rolled my eyes at him before looking back up at Luke. There was something in his eyes that made me melt into his touch even more.
“Get to packing little dove. We’ll see you bright and early tomorrow,” he said, giving my shoulders another squeeze.
The blush came across my body from the pet name. It didn’t matter how many times he called me that, it still caused the same reaction. Ashton came over and gave me a quick hug. It felt like I was still in a trance when I heard them close my apartment door.
“Shit,” I mumbled before going to my hall closet door.
I pulled out my biggest suitcase and dragged it to my bedroom. The sound of my closet doors echoed against the walls. My wardrobe was still being transitioned to summer, but I had most of what I would need or at least, I hoped. My eyes wandered over the clothes before I pulled out my phone.
E: Crys, what the hell am I supposed to pack?
My fingers ghosted over my favorite white top, fond memories coming to mind. My phone buzzed in my pocket.
C: Plenty of shorts, tees and tanks, at least three swimsuits, some sundresses, some skirts, coverups, sneakers, sandals, and like one hoodie/sweater.
E: Oh my god. I’m guessing you won’t tell me where we’re going either?
C: Nope. Under strict instructions not to.
E: Damn it. Okay. I guess I’ll get packing then.
I sighed before tossing my phone onto my bed. I took the top I had been touching off the hanger and gently placed it on my shoulder.
“Only like forty more to go,” I said, my hands falling to my hips before getting started.
                                                         ➢➢➢
The blaring sound of my alarm woke me from the peaceful slumber I was in. I hit the button and checked the time. The red numbers flashed five in the morning. I pushed myself from my bed and headed to the kitchen. My finger pushed the start button on my espresso machine after placing a mug underneath it. My feet carried me to the bathroom for the shower I desperately needed. After ten minutes, I stepped out and got dressed in my comfy clothes for the drive. I quickly put my hair into a fishtail braid and went back to the kitchen. I added milk and ice to finish my iced mocha. I glanced down to check my watch. 5:20 A.M. I went to the fridge and pulled out the vanilla greek yogurt. After chopping up a banana, I started eating as quickly as I could so I would be ready in time. I checked my watch again. 5:40 A.M. I cleaned my dishes and went to my front door. The suitcase and backpack that I packed last night already by the door. I pulled on my gold sandals and black wide brimmed hat. Just as I was clasping the last sandal, the buzzer sounded.
“Ready Es?” Ashton’s voice crackled over the speaker.
“Yep. Come on up,” I said, finger pressing to let him up.
The sun was starting to peek through the linen curtains. I cracked my door for Ash before walking over my balcony window. I snapped a quick picture, the calm of the view washing over me. There was a part of me that just wished I could stare at the sunrise for an infinite amount of time, before I was brought back to the world around me.
“Let’s go Es,” Ashton said from behind me.
I walked back over to him and grabbed my backpack.
“Still not telling me?” I asked while locking up.
“Nope,” he said, giving me a wink over the shoulder before heading down to the elevator.
We left my apartment building, a gray Range Rover idling by the curb when we walked out. Ashton hauled my suitcase into the back while I opened the door.
“Good morning little dove,” Luke said after I opened the door.
“Good morning giraffe,” I said, crawling in.
I found myself between the window and Luke with Calum on his other side. Ashton climbed into the single seat in the back.
“And we’re off!” Michael cheered from the driver’s seat.
Crystal cheered from the passenger seat to encourage him even though it was early. Her phone was hooked up to the aux, making her the DJ for the first portion of our trip.
“Mike and Crystal are driving until noon, then Cal and Ash will take over for three hours,” Luke said once we pulled away.
He was reading from a notebook that had different times written in it.
“Do I get to do any driving?” I asked, testing him.
His laugh rang in my ears before I saw his smile.
“Maybe later, but you don’t know where we’re going so you’re gonna have to wait,” he said, nudging my shoulder.
I groaned before looking out the window. California was passing by and it was hard to believe that I was really doing this with them. My ears caught the bassline of Move On by Mike Posner. My head bobbed along to the song before Calum and I looked at each other. We moved in sync with the bassline, both of us appreciating it for exactly what it was. I couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up when Calum tried dancing along. Luke looked at us like we were crazy before joining us in the groove. I caught Ashton filming us and gave him a wink. We laughed once the song was over.
                                                          ➢➢➢
Time was flying by. Luke was driving and I had a sleeping Ashton on my shoulder, Crystal nodding off next to him. I still had no idea where we were headed, but now that it was dark, it was harder to tell anyways. No matter how hard I tried to get it out of everyone, they wouldn’t tell me. I knew we had been driving for awhile, but there was no indication for how much longer we were going to be. I caught Luke’s eye in the rearview mirror. It was simple, but it made everything I was feeling more complicated. I tried ignoring and figuring out how I felt about Luke so many times. Each time, I came up with no concrete answers. What it always came down to was that he was one of my best friends and to jeopardize that because of some feelings wasn’t something I would do. My thoughts faded away when I heard the guitar from I Was Made For Loving You by Tori Kelly and Ed Sheeran. My eyes met brown this time, a strange feeling of understanding between me and Calum flooded my senses.
“It’s Crystal’s turn,” Calum said, breaking the moment between us.
Luke nodded.
“Let me find a gas station,” he said, eyes searching the signs to find one.
I adjusted a little so Ashton’s head wasn’t digging into my shoulder.
“Well, Estelle is my co-pilot because you lot keep hogging the passenger seat,” Crystal said, making me laugh.
“Ash,” I whispered, gently squeezing his shoulder.
“Essie?” he asked, eyes still closed.
“I have to get up,” I said, threading my fingers through his hair.
“But you make such a good pillow,” he almost whined.
“I know. You can use my pillow if you want,” I offered, smiling down at him.
There was a fondness I felt for Ash in that moment. He looked so young and stress free when he was asleep. I ran my fingers through his hair one more time. Luke pulled into the gas station parking lot.
“Coffee Es?” Crystal asked while opening the door.
“You know it,” I said, getting out of my seat.
I put my pillow in Ashton’s lap and pressed a quick kiss to his temple. Crystal and I were the only ones that went inside.
“I’m gonna go to the bathroom quick,” I said, heading to the back of the store.
I passed a rack of postcards making me stop instantly. Colorado landscapes and greetings from Colorado were everywhere. I went to the bathroom quick and picked one out. I grabbed a few snacks before heading back to the car. I put the postcard on the dash.
“We’re in Colorado,” I said getting Luke and Crystal’s attention.
“Shit. Okay, yeah,” Luke said, sighing a little now that his surprise was ruined.
“Luke, just tell her,” Crystal said, adjusting the seat a bit.
“Okay okay. Currently, we’re heading to St. Louis,” he said, a hint of relief in his tone.
“And I’m guessing that isn’t our final destination,” I said, taking a sip of the coffee Crystal got me.
“Nope. We’re in St. Louis for two days and then we’re off to Myrtle Beach for three days,” he said trailing off.
It was one of the many things Luke did when he wanted to keep things a surprise that drove me insane.
“Keep going,” I encouraged.
“Then in New York for four days,” he continued, the same trailing off happening.
“And then?” I asked, fully aware that there was more.
“We’re gonna be in Cape Cod for three weeks,” he said.
The excitement rushed through me causing me to turn around to look at Luke.
“You mean my number one place to visit?” I asked, thinking that I was dreaming.
“Yeah,” he said, a smirk on his face.
“Oh my god, Luke, this better not be a prank,” I said, my words coming out fast while I stared at him.
“Not a prank. I promise,” he said, holding out his pinkie.
I linked mine with his, the touch heating my skin. I turned back around, a giant grin on my face.
“DJ, please hit me with some jams,” Crystal joked, aux cord in hand.
“Well of course,” I responded, taking it from her and plugging my phone in.
It took me a moment before I found a song that fit the mood I was in. King Of the Clouds by Panic! At the Disco played through the speakers. I let the song wash over me, the words and vocals taking me away.
“I wanted to tell you when you texted yesterday, but Luke and Ash really wanted it to be a surprise,” Crystal said, bringing me back to reality.
“I’m glad it was a surprise though. It makes it that much better,” I said, unable to stop smiling.
“Look at them,” she whispered, turning the music down.
I looked in the rearview to see all of the boys asleep. Ashton had my pillow pressed against the window in the single seat while Luke, Calum, and Michael were lying on each other, their heads crooked into each other in different ways.
“They’ve gotta be used to sleeping in cars by now,” I said, looking over at her.
“You would think, but I know Mikey still struggles with falling asleep in cars. He always needs adjustment when he comes back,” she said, pushing her hair back.
“So does Luke. He usually stays at mine or makes me stay at his when he gets back because he hates being alone after tours,” I said, a small smile coming across my face.
“You sure that’s not because Luke has a thing for you?” she asked, taking me by surprise.
“What? Luke doesn’t have a thing for me,” I dismissed, waving my hand at her.
My heart had picked up when she said it, but I had to push it away.
“Estelle, you’re joking right? I’ve known that boy for awhile now. I’ve seen him go through love and heartbreak. I know when he’s into someone,” she said, her eyes glancing over at me.
“Crystal, I’m telling you, he isn’t into me. We’re best friends and that’s it. That’s all we are now and all we’re ever going to be,” I said, a hint of frustration in my voice.
I had already convinced myself of this. As much as I wanted to believe Crystal, I couldn’t. That road lead to far more hope and rejection than I was able to handle.
“But the way he looks at you-”
“He looks at me like he’s always looked at me. Besides, if he did, the feelings wouldn’t be mutual,” I lied.
The words felt like they were burning my tongue as I said them. I turned to look out the window, my head full of daydreams that the smallest part of me wished would come true.
                                                        ➢➢➢
“Okay Ash, overnight shift,” Calum said after pulling into a gas station.
Calum’s voice woke me up, causing me to move my head off of Luke’s shoulder.
“Who’s my co-pilot?” he asked while getting out of the car.
“I’ll do it Ash,” I said, tying my hair into a loose bun.
“Essie, you were asleep,” he argued, staring at me.
“I’m awake now. Give me a coffee and I’ll be good,” I said getting out of the car.
“Fine. Let’s go get some snack too. It’s you and me for six hours so we should stock up,” he said, leading me into the gas station.
“I’ll get snacks. You get refreshments,” I said before we high fived and split up.
I grabbed chips, granola bars, some candy, and a couple sandwiches. Ash and I met at the counter, his arms full of drinks. He grabbed plenty of flavored water for me and soda for himself.
“I’m grabbing two coffees quick,” he said to the cashier.
He ran back and gave the short brunette the thousand watt smile. She blushed under his gaze. We took the bags from her and went back to the car.
“You are ridiculous,” I said while we settled in the car.
“I don’t know what you mean,” he laughed.
“Oh please. You flirt with everything that has a pulse,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Excuse you, but that’s Luke. I didn’t mean to flirt with her, but she was cute,” Ashton said, laughing again before pulling away from the gas station.
“You’re right, Luke does do that a lot,” I said, picking up my phone.
“Is that some jealousy I’m hearing?” he teased.
“No,” I said, hitting play on Nintendo Game by Alessia Cara.
“I’m kidding Essie,” he said.
“Yeah I know. Why did you guys pick Cape Cod?” I asked, taking the subject off me and Luke.
I opened a bag of cheddar sour cream chips and took a sip of the coffee Ashton got me. The bittersweetness ran over my tongue, just the way I liked it. Ashton always made sure the coffee he got me tasted just right.
“Well, I was personally tired of the same California beaches every summer and Cal wanted some place that was warm, but still pretty chill. Luke pitched Cape Cod and we all agreed,” he said with a shrug.
He made it sound so simple and easy, like it was just a walk in the park for them. Then again, the boys were always like this and it was always an adjustment at first, but I had found myself getting used to it.
“Who’s idea was it to bring me?” I asked, quickly eating a chip so he wouldn’t sense the nerves I had about the situation.
“Luke’s. He remembered how badly you wanted to go,” Ashton said like it was obvious.
“Yeah. It’s been my number one since high school,” I said quietly.
“I don’t get why you never went,” he said, taking a swig of his cream soda.
“My parents never wanted to and then during college, I just never got the chance or there wasn’t time. Now, yeah my career allows for vacation, but I didn’t think anyone would want to go,” I said shrugging it off.
“Well now you got us,” Ashton said giving me a smile.
“Yeah I do,” I said returning the smile.
                                                          ➢➢➢
“Ash, your shift is over. You two need some sleep,” Luke called from the back.
Ashton got off at the next exit. Despite my best efforts, I was exhausted. I climbed into the middle seat while Luke and Crystal took over. Ashton climbed in next to me.
“Get some sleep Essie,” he whispered before pressing a kiss to my temple.
I adjusted slightly until my head was on Ashton’s shoulder. A nudging woke me up a few hours later. I slowly sat up, my eyes adjusting to the new light.
“Welcome to St. Louis little dove,” Luke said, our eyes meeting in the rearview yet again.
I looked out the window immediately. A gasp escaped my mouth as I took in the view. There was water shining in the sun and the big arch took over the sky. Brick buildings and greenery were everywhere. It was absolutely breathtaking and one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen. Luke parked in front of a brick building with two arches framing the doors.
“We’re here,” he said, eyes gleaming as he looked at the building.
“This is where we’re staying?” I asked while following everyone else’s lead at getting out.
“Yeah,” Ashton said handing me my suitcase.
We walked into the condo, the white walls taking me by surprise.
“Luke and I will take the double beds,” Ashton said.
I stopped in front of a single room with a gorgeous view of the city. I could see the water from the window and there was something about the way the arch was reflecting on it that made me smile.
“Estelle’s got this one!” Luke called after following Ashton.
I slowly walked into it, my breath gone again.
“Well, I guess this is real now,” I whispered, my fingers ghosting over the soft bed sheets.
It had felt like a dream until this moment, but everything about it still felt like I needed to be pinched. If it was all a dream, I never wanted to wake up.
Let me know if you want more and want to be added to the taglist. 
taglist loves: @thruheavenandhighwater @notoriouslyhood @24kcalum @bbycal @cashton-queen @thebookamongmen @tommossoccer @slimthicccal @a-little-international @irwinsx
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voltkaizer · 6 years
Text
I was tagged by my dear friend @hopefulencounter . Well, here we go:
Favorite game(s) from the last 5 years?
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Stellaris, Stardew Valley, Undertale, Tales from the Borderlands, Brigador, and OneShot.
Most nostalgic game(s)?
Megaman X
Game(s) that deserves a sequel?
The Suikoden series... but that’s NOT going to happen, because Konami nowadays is run by a bunch of sentient trash-bags. #FUCKonami
Game(s) that deserves a remaster?
Super Robot Wars Destiny. It had one of the most awesome line-ups, and the story was pure badass. I’d love to see it in HD, and with tweaked gameplay. (ie. so armor isn’t as thin as paper, for example)
Favorite game series?
Super Robot Wars
Favorite genre(s)?
Turn-strategy RPGs, platformers and life-sims.
Least favorite genre(s)?
First-person modern military shooters. The more saturated with thinly-veiled jingoistic overtones, the more revolting to me... Except for Spec Ops: The Line, but only because it’s a deconstruction of that type of games.
Favorite song(s) from a game?
GONG (Super Robot Wars Alpha 3) and POLLYANNA. (Mother series)
Favorite character from a game?
Samus Aran, of the Metroid series.
Favorite ship(s) from a game?
The Space Noah-class warship Hagane
youtube
Favorite voice actor from a game?
Mario Castañeda. He mostly voices movies, cartoons, series and anime, not videogames... But hey! He voices Gemini Kanon (once again) in Saint Seiya: Soldier's Soul, so he definitely counts. ;)
Favorite cutscene(s)?
Tales From the Borderlands, Episode 4 Intro Credits. The whole scene, with the crew going into space aboard a friggin’ winnebago with gigantic rocket-boosters attached to it, is incredibly hilarious, heartwarming and utterly awesome.
Favorite boss(es)?
Undertale’s final True Boss from the Pacifist path.
First console?
An Atari 2600... I think? I was like 5 years old, so I don't remember which model it was.
Current console(s)?
Mostly PC, 2DS and PS3. (I still own my Xbox360, PS2, Wii, Gamecube, N64 and SNES)
Console(s) you want?
An upgraded PC... but a PS4 and Nintendo Switch would be great, too.
Place(s) from a game that you’d like to visit?
Temmie Village, (Undertale) my Animal Crossing’s town, (or almost any AC’s town! Lots of wonderful towns out there) the Alolan region, (Pokemon Sun/Moon) among others I can’t remember right now.
Place from a game that you’d like to live in?
One of those awesome dream houses from The Sims 3, SPECIALLY one filled with all kinds of sci-fi gadgets and robots from the Into the Future expansion.
Ridiculous crossover that would never happen but would be super fun?
Animal Crossing meets Pokemon, specially if happens to be a game that melds gameplay elements and themes from both series.
Book that would make a good game?
The Disaster Artist, as a Telltale-style adventure game. That would be friggin’ hilarious and extremely amusing.
Show/movie that would make a good game?
Pacific Rim. There was a game for it, but it kinda sucked. An awesome game based on it would be sweet... Or, heck! Just include the Jaegers and their pilots in any Super Robot Wars game!
Games you want to play?
Super Robot Wars V, Super Robot Wars X, Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers, Super Mario Odyssey, Disgaea 5, Ooblets.
Have you gotten 100% completion in a game?
In a few of them... mostly retro games from before the achievement era, though. Nonetheless, I have 100% Achievements in The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Toki Tori 2+, and Scribblenauts Unlimited.
Have you cried over a game?
Way too many times to count. I love games with emotional impact behind them.
What power-up or ability would you want in real life?
A Scribblenauts’ notebook! The ability summon anything you write in it?! How awesome is that? The possibilities are truly endless.
Name your top ten favorite female characters from different fandoms, then tag ten people
Note: I’ll “cheat” a little bit by including favorite characters that aren’t originally from a game, but that have appeared in at least one. (mostly from the Super Robot Wars series)
Noriko Takaya (Aim for the Top! Gunbuster)
Samus Aran (Metroid)
Chie Satonaka (Persona 4)
Nia Teppelin (Gurren Lagann)
Hildegard von Krone (Soul Calibur)
Katina Tarask (Super Robot Wars: Original Generation)
Nono (Aim for the Top 2! Diebuster)
Fiona (Tales from the Borderlands)
Sakura Kasugano (Street Fighter)
Temmie (Undertale)
I’m tagging @deskmanic, @dynared, @mayor-nicola, @notecrossing, @townofbrooks, @flowerylogic, @arccrossing, @blue-sun-king, @official-char and @vagabondwithgiantrobots.
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kattorav-blog · 6 years
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the article from DANCE MAGAZINE February 1962
BRUHN, BOURNONVILLE AND BALLET
Introduction
In the spring of 1955, a Danish dancer of unusual promise became an international star. Dance Magazine, recognizing that his­tory was in the making, made its now fa­mous photographic record (July ‘55 issue) of the rehearsals in which Alicia Markova taught the young soloist the role of Al­brecht for the Ballet Theatre production of “Giselle." Since that time Erik Bruhn has continued to grow as an artist. Where- ever he goes, his immaculate, thrilling dancing is met with acclaim.
Last year Lillian Moore, American dance historian-teacher-author-critic and frequent contributor to Dance Magazine, long entranced with the “Bournonville style” in which the Royal Danish Ballet has for over a century trained its danc­ers, persuaded Mr. Bruhn to collaborate with her on an informal but intense study of the teaching methods of the great 19th- century choreographer. The book, co­authored by Miss Moore and Mr. Bruhn, has just been published by the Macmillan Co. Its title is “Bournonville and Ballet Technique,” its cost, $5.00.
The following is Mr. Bruhn's introduc­tion to “Bournonville and Ballet Tech­nique.” Bournonwille’s foreword to the technique manual he called “Etudes choregraphiques” is also reprinted from the lovingly-fashioned collaboration of the authors, who have successfully recreated a major link in ballet history.
[FOTO] Erik Bruhn as James in “La Sylphide.” The photos on these pages are technical studies from the recently-published “Bournonville and Ballet Technique."
 My Bournonville Background by Erik Bruhn
Hours of waiting went by. It was very noisy. Some children were crying, others playing wildly all over the place; the grown-ups talked incessantly. Some of the children, either on their own initiative or at the demand of their mothers, were prac­tising “tricks” or little solos with which they hoped to attract the special attention of the ballet master or the teachers who, at any moment now, were to decide our future.
Up to this point, all the commotion had caused me just to want to leave the place. Mу aunt (who had taken me there, be­cause my mother was busy) finally bribed me to stay and go through with the audi­tion. It cost her one kroner (about a shill­ing, or fifteen cents).
Young ballet students, 16 to 18 years old, worked very hard separating the chil­dren from the parents, putting us in lines, and eventually dividing us into groups of fifteen to twenty, in different studios. It was something of an anticlimax to find out that all we had to do was march, walk in time to music and show our feet. Then we were examined by the doctors.
When my aunt learned that I had been accepted to enter the ballet school the fol­lowing season, she rewarded me with an­other kroner.
During the long summer vacation I al­most managed to forget that I was to enter the Royal Theatre again. There I would not only attend the ballet school, but re­ceive my entire academic education. As I recall it, I had a rather difficult time adjusting myself to that special kind of world which is the theatre, or in this case, the world that children consider the theatre to be.
If  I knew little about ballet, I knew even less about the training I was to receive for the next ten years. Very soon every child in the school was aware of August Bournonville. At that time, al­though there were some contemporary works in the repertoire of the Danish Bal­let, its centre and very base consisted of Bournonville’s ballets. There were many opportunities for us children to appear on the stage. To be chosen as one of the eight children to dance in Konservatoriel was the goal of all of us. Since the same dance combinations were given in our daily classes, we all strove to perfect ourselves in the steps, so that one day we might be given the opportunity to perform them.
To be called on to fill any small role in one of Bournonville’s ballets, or even to be one of the group of children that he used in the third act of Napoli as a back­ground for the soloists who performed the famous variations and pas de deux, was the focal point of our life and work in the theatre. I used to stand with the rest of the crowd on the bridge in Napoli, dreaming of one day taking part in that wonderful dancing, or even doing one of those exciting solos that took place on the stage below us. All the principal artists who now dance in Napoli have stood in the back as children, at one time or another. Some of us even got to dance the very same solos we dreamed about.
After a couple of years at the school, I had begun to feel much better about it. With the other children, I shared in the general fun and excitement of work and play, as well as some unanticipated dis­appointments and frustrated hopes. Each year from 1937 to 1947 I passed the ballet examination unnoticed. This was good, for many of the children, through letters ad­dressed to their parents, received word that because of their lack of progress the theatre would no longer be able to keep them in the school, nor recommend that they continue in ballet. (p.39)                
During these ten years, I was trained in the Bournonville school. There were six different classes, for the different days of the week. They were “set” and were re­peated with hardly a change from the day you entered the school as a child, until you graduated, and continued on as a pro­fessional dancer. At that time the children received the same strenuous training as the adults. Everyone, whether a beginner or a member of the company, was given the same exercises.
The Bournonville school, as it is known up to this-day, was formed by teachers and ballet masters who followed him. It was based mostly on steps and variations that exist in his ballet productions. Apart from a few months of lessons from the bal­let master during my last year, I knew as a student only the set Bournonville class­es as they were taught then by the teach­ers who had charge of the children from their entrance up to the age of 18.
In the old school, the barre work was extremely short, fast and very strenuous on the legs! The centre work had very little adagio movement, and very few pir­ouette combinations of importance. The barre work was to warm up for variations which contained steps and movements which would be required in performance, and which were constructed mostly to strengthen jumps and beats. Some of these things are not used outside the Bournon­ville school. To me, however, they are not' lost steps. All my life I have attempted to master them, and I believe that they have great value when added to a good basic foundation. Properly applied, they are excellent for ballon, batterie and any allegro movement.
As it is known today, the Bournonville school is really more a choreographic style than a method of teaching. The style that this great choreographer created firm­ly established the Danish ballet and its traditions. Until ten years ago, this par­ticular style was rarely seen outside Den­mark. Then the Royal Danish Ballet began to visit some of the major cities in the western world. Several of Bournonville’s works were included in their repertoire, and for the first time an audience outside Denmark discovered his ballets and re­sponded enthusiastically to them. London, Edinburgh, New York and other cities ac­claimed his style as a new discovery. In­deed, it was entirely new to most of these audiences. Ever since it was created, this Bournonville style has been cherished by each generation of dancers in Denmark, and carefully passed on. From childhood, the dancers are taught the essence of a period that has long been forgotten every­where else.
Bournonville was a great dancer who had been trained by some of the finest teachers in Paris during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Had travelling been easier in those days, and had the status of the male dancer been more gen­erally recognized by the European public, he might not have settled in Copenhagen. His choreography established the vital im­portance of the position of the male danc­er. Because he was a strong dancer as well as a truly great choreographer, he created roles which remain a technical challenge to this day. He not only considered the man equal in importance to the ballerina, but in some ballets made him the central figure. As a result, the standard of the male dancer in the Royal Danish Ballet has always remained on a high level.
To some degree the Bournonville reper­toire, in all its greatness, has perhaps kept Denmark from producing ballerinas in the style associated with and produced by the great Petipa ballets. However, Bournon­ville in no sense asked less of the ballerina, technically. In most of his ballets you will find her having to dance variations as strenuous and difficult as those of the lead­ing male dancer, and in the pas de deux as conceived by him they often dance op­posite one another executing the same steps. These were designed to stress the vitality and strength of the man, so some­times they may have unjustly revealed the weaknesses of the ballerina. I am speak­ing only of the actual dancing in Bour­nonville’s ballets, and not of the charac­terizations, which in most cases were pro­foundly imagined, beautifully balanced, and in perfect accord with his themes and the means of expression of that period.
The Bournonville repertoire and school developed fine performers for one specific style. However, it did not produce dancers of sufficient range and versatility to meet the challenge of today’s ballets. Therefore, changes were made in the school.
In 1951 the Royal Danish Ballet had the good fortune to obtain the services of the great Mme Vera Volkova. When she arrived, the entire school was reorgan­ized under her direction. Through her teaching and supervision of the school in general, she has improved the approach to the child, the student and the profes­sional dancer in the various stages through which they must pass. She has raised the technical standards, developing dancers with a greater range, who are more adapt­able to the various styles of contemporary choreographers. The present teachers, and especially the younger ones who develop­ed under her guidance, have naturally been strongly influenced by her way of teaching. To many in Denmark this ap­pears to be a revolutionary change, not in accordance with the long-established Bour­nonville traditions and the maintenance of the Bournonville repertoire. But, as any­one can see, the Danish dancers of today have a stronger and purer technique than ever before. Through the improvement of the school during the past ten years they are now capable of performing, and most successfully, works by such modern cho­reographers as Balanchine, Robbins, Ash­ton and Petit. Previously the new forms which they have created would have been entirely alien to the repertoire of the Royal Danish Ballet and the dancers train­ed exclusively in the Bournonville school.
Soon after I graduated in 1947, I had the opportunity to study in London and Paris, and to dance first with the Metro­politan Ballet in England and later, after a time at home, with the American Ballet Theatre. I began to get acquainted with different schools and to discover other ways of training and approach in the bal­let world outside of Denmark. I began to understand the importance of a varied and well-rounded training. For a while I even wanted to forget all about the Bournon­ville school, while I was trying to strength­en these aspects of technique which it had perhaps neglected, while gaining new and important experience as a performer in a new and different repertory.
Then, in 1951, as I was leaving Copen­hagen for my second tour with the Amer­ican Ballet Theatre, our leading Danish ballet critic, Svend Kragh-Jacobsen, gave me, as a farewell present, a rare little book, «Etudes choregraphiques», written by Bournonville himself. It consists of various exercises, beginning at the barre, through centre work and concluding with combi­nations of steps designed to improve bal­lon and elevation. Bournonville dedicates this book to his pupils and his colleagues, the professional dancers. Perhaps at the time I received it I appreciated only the generous thought which prompted Mr. Kragh-Jacobsen to give it to me, and only vaguely realized that it was possibly also meant to be a reminder of my “past".
In 1959 I brought this little book to the United States and showed it to Lillian Moore. Her interest and enthusiasm, and her knowledge of the history and tradi­tions of the Danish ballet, gave me per­haps my second reminder of my Bournon­ville background, as well as a deeper арpreflation of values I had taken for grant­ed, and an insight into things I had not realized before, in any conscious way. (p40)
In studying Bournonville’s book, I have come to feel in some ways more in contact with him, and closer to understanding his aims, than when I was first taught his school. When he wrote it for his pupils and dancers, he stressed that they should apply the exercises according to their in­dividual needs. These exercises were de­signed from his own personal experience as a dancer and teacher, and they prove his flexibility and his understanding of a dancer’s body. It is as though, in this book, Boumonville hands you personally and directly his vast knowledge of the ballet and the processes involved in making a dancer.
Some of Bournonville’s exercises are not known, or seldom practised today (or practised differently) outside Denmark. We are not trying to advocate them as a new system, method or secret. However, we think they have a definite value which would be beneficial as a supplement to any dancer's training, when applied cor­rectly (as Bournonville insisted in his lit­tle book) by the teacher or the mature dancer himself. We submit them in the hope that they may prove part of the means with which to achieve greater know­ledge and ever-expanding artistic experi­ence.                
 END
 Foreword to "Choreographic Studies" by August Boumonville
Dance is an art, because it demands vo­cation, knowledge and ability. It is a fine art, because it aims towards an ideal, not only of plastic beauty, but also of lyric and dramatic expressiveness.
The beauty which it strives to attain is not founded on vague principles of fash­ion or mere enjoyment, but on the im­mutable laws of nature.
The art of mime encompasses all the changes of the soul: the dance is essen­tially fitted to express joy and to follow the rhythm of the music.
The purpose of art in general and of the theatre in particular (whether its direc­tion be comic or tragic) is to elevate the soul and strengthen the spirit. The dance should, then, arm itself especially against the too pronounced preference of a blase public for effects which are contrary to good manners, good taste and the true interests of art.
Joy is strength; intoxication is weak­ness.  Noble simplicity will always be beau­tiful. The astonishing, on the contrary, soon becomes boring. The dance can, with the aid of music, raise itself to the heights of poetry, but on the other hand it can equally, through excess of acrobatics, de­scend to the stunts of the mountebank. So- called difficulties are executed by numer­ous adepts, but the appearance of ease is achieved only by the chosen few. The sum­mit of talent is to know how to conceal the mechanism through the calm harmony which is the foundation of true grace.
To maintain this easy grace, in the midst of the most fatiguing movements, is the great problem of the dance, and such virtuosity cannot be acquired without good exercises, designed to develop the qual­ities and eliminate the imperfections which everyone, not even excepting the greatest talents,  is obliged to combat. It is such exercises which l present here to my dear pupils as well as to my worthy colleagues, reminding them of the oft-repeated saying, that it is not so much on the number of exercises. as on the care with which they are executedthat progress and skill de­pend.
[FOTO] August Bournonrille (1805-79) is re­sponsible for the tradition and an im­portant part of the repertoire of the Royal Danish Ballet today.
[FOTO] Mlle Lucile Grahn, Bournonville’s favor­ite pupil, in “La Sylphidewhich he staged for the Royal Danish Ballet in 1836. “La Sylphide" is still danced by that company.
 Conversation with Erik Bruhn by Eugene Palatsky
Erik Bruhn, as co-author with Lillian Moore of Boumonville and Ballet Tech­nique, suggests in his introductory remarks that the book’s lessons might aid the dancer “to achieve greater knowledge and ever-expanding artistic experience.”
An appropriate phrase, for such a pur­pose largely sums up Erik Bruhn’s career to date. From Copenhagen to London to Paris to America, and then ’round the world with American Ballet Theatre, he has constantly re-examined his art, sift­ing for new experiences, new meaning, profiting from each venture. Though it may seem to the audience on certain thea­tre nights that he could not surpass him­self, Erik would retire immediately if he weren't certain of coming closer to per­fection tomorrow.
Last May, the young man was home to his haven in Copenhagen, participating in the Royal Danish Ballet Festival. He stay­ed away from post-performance recep­tions, for minds like his stop functioning in the cocktail party atmosphere. Yet, a dancer who thinks deeply about his work wants to communicate, to hear how his ideas sound, if nothing else. This he did. in quiet, unhurried conversations away from the Royal Theatre.
His thoughts revealed his concentration on the idea of giving more of himself through dance — not in generosity to the audience, but as mental-physical release, total expression, as though he were try­ing to say something with every fiber of his body and brain. He has varied his dance associations over the years to broad­en. intensify and polish this release.
As for his original reason for leaving the Danish ballet in 1947 and going to England. Erik Bruhn doesn't intellectualize. He merely felt “wrong” in the then Boumomille-dominated classes and reper­toire and felt the need to broaden his ex­perience.
Returning periodically in guest capacity. Erik Bruhn seems to dance best in Copen­hagen. In the classical pas de deux, in Chopiniana particularly, and even in the raucous  Carmen, he softens his virtuosity with a poetic restraint, a gentle mascul­inity. that is sometimes lacking in New York. At home he pours forth a noble excellence which seems to summarize his worldwide experience.
In England, on his first contact with the outside world, he saw all that was then new in ballet — Sadlers Wells, Rambert, (p.41) the de Basil Co., Petit, Babilee. He was amazed at the variety of expression.
He joined Metropolitan Ballet, the re­spectable touring company which lasted three years in postwar Britain. One-week stands, dirty hotels, bad food. “But we danced everything.” Two teenagers, Erik Bruhn and Svetlana Beriosova,  danced Spectre de la Rose. Often he was thrown into performance after semi-rehearsal, with colleagues cueing him from the wings. “This is the great challenge. Now you must show what you are, what your train­ing has meant. You must create onstage, sometimes just improvising.”
Bruhn enlarged his repertoire and vocab­ulary in Metropolitan Ballet. During a summer of classes in Paris, he tried to “consolidate” his new technique, to the point of wrenching a knee, which trou­bled him for years after.
Blevins Davis, a patron of Ballet Thea­tre, spotted him in Copenhagen in 1949, and Erik Bruhn was subsequently invited to join the company. That November he made his American debut as Benno, sup­porting Nana Gollner and Igor Youskevitch in a Baltimore Swan Lake. His early parts were Orestes in Helen of Troy, a Pink Boy in Theme and Variations, Paris in Romeo and Juliet, and an occasional Nutcracker pas de deux or Prince Charm­ing. Yet his progress was not too rapid. Though he kept reappearing for Ballet Theatre seasons, he would return each summer to Copenhagen.
It was not until 1954 that he determin­ed, “I will go back to Ballet Theatre, and stay there. If I make mistakes, I will cor­rect them there.” He began to understand that each performance was an accumula­tion of everything that had gone before, good and bad. He realized that he must step on stage each night and dance with all his strength… then reflect between performances…   and dance the next night with new thoughts on the subject, recreating everything.
The key moment is at curtain time, when “you bring all this accumulation to bear, remove you from yourself, and let it happen.”
Ballet Theatre, for him, allowed this type of maturing process. Performances night after night, quick cast changes, hard work, overwork - far different from the security and complacency of a state theatre. Each night was a new challenge, and the young Dane made it a useful one. The payoff came at the storied matinee in May, 1955, when he danced Giselle with Alicia Markova at the Metropolitan Opera House, and the world had a new premier danseur.
Giselle had been under-rehearsed. But he absorbed everything he could from talks with Markova. “She explained just what her character was doing at each mo­ment. Then it was simple. I could natur­ally respond, and find my place. When it was over, I didn’t know quite what had happened. But it had all seemed very na­tural.”
This ability to comprehend the theatri­cal purpose of each movement and mo­ment has been vital in his artistic develop­ment. He has enjoyed collaborating with Birgit Cullberg, watching her drive ahead intensely with her dramatic development, then filling in the sketch with significant movement. He realizes that mime is not separate from dancing, that a pirouette can be happy or - as with Jean, the butler - hateful.
Эта способность постигать смысл каждого движения и момента была жизненно важна для его художественного развития. Ему нравилось работать с  Бриджит Кулльберг, наблюдая за ее энергичным движением вперед, ее драматическим развитием, а затем заполнять эскиз осмысленным движением. Он понимает, что мимика  неотделима  от танца, что пируэтом может выразить счастье, или, как с Яном-слугой - ненависть.
During the three months he spent with the New York City Ballet in 1959-60, he learned to understand and appreciate George Balanchine.
За три месяца,  проведенные с the New York City Ballet в 1959-1960 годах, он научился понимать и ценить Джорджа Баланчина.
Erik disagrees with the City Center dancers who sometimes complain that Balanchine speaks to them only in technical terms, ignoring the mood and meaning.
 “If you watch him while he is counting ... he doesn’t exactly demonstrate . . . but his body inflection, his facial expres­sion indicate everything he wants.
I learned his Swan Lake by watching him work with Maria Tallchief. As he talked to her, guiding her through the adagio, he unconsciously moved about, re­acting to her movements . . . and I knew then what I should be doing as the Prince.”
He observed that a new Balanchine ballet reaches its peak performance six months after the premiere — “because Balanchine and the dancers keep working on it.” Erik Bruhn disapproves of the too- secure company which studies a ballet for three months, shows in the premiere what it has prepared, and then repeats that single interpretation on succeeding nights.
He would like to dance again with the Balanchine company, “maybe to finish learning Apollo.” But he is vague about the future. He maintains a principal goal — perfection as a dancer-person - yet he prefers to have no pattern of existence, allowing his opportunities to just happen.
He is reputed to be an excellent teacher, and he enjoys teaching. Many Danes hope he will someday be ballet master of the Royal Danish Ballet. Teaching company class occasionally in Copenhagen during the festival, he was very demanding of the boys — naturally, for he demands the impossible of himself. He spoke severely to a budding ballerina in the company, telling her she must now forget what the teacher had said about the Don Quixote variation, and rethink it herself. “You have taken, taken, taken from your teach­ers. Now you must give something.” Again, he meant “giving” as self-expression, re­lease.
Choreography still interests him; but he has composed no complete work since Festa (Ballet Theatre Workshop, 1957), which had artful moments worthy of an­other try. He gathers pieces of music from time to time, and stores them away until he should again feel the choreograph­ic urge.
Erik Bruhn expresses his appreciation for help received from teachers, partners, choreographers and directors — if he is specifically asked. He is not ungrateful, but he seems to rely on no one. Viewing his career as an introspective study, he reflects on his needs and weaknesses, and solves them himself, whether they be emo­tional dilemmas or a suspected flaw in his dance technique.
Some wavering confidence is balanced by his shining, underplayed comic sense.
Perhaps his vigorous forefathers, the Vikings, were like handsome, searching Erik Bruhn - for they, too, were world conquerors.   
END
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phyripo · 7 years
Note
7 with EstLiet ?? :D
ANOn the fake relationship trope is one of my favorites! thank you c:
also featuring: an unnecessary subplot, Latvia being a shit, ambiguous Finland & Hungary pairings, and Orange Discourse™. really.
human names are pretty obvious, I think - Tuomi is Finland, should you be confused, and Liz is Hungary : D
also on AO3 because it got way too long
I call this
Moments of Gold
Eduard is singing Céline Dion.
Toris leans against the doorpost of the livingroom and watches the back of his bobbing head, his long fingers on the keyboardof his laptop. He’s a good singer, but Céline Dion is an unusual choice. She’sone of those artists he only listens to when something is wrong.
Putting his bag of groceries on the coffeetable, Toris walks into the room to tap his friend on the shoulder.
He jumps out of his chair, interrupting himselfin the middle of singing about how cold the wind was and clutching his heart.He slams his laptop shut with the other hand, cutting Céline off too.
“Don’t – do that, good god—”
Toris laughs. “Sorry. Don’t stop singing on myaccount. Big fan of Céline Dion.”
“Shut up,” he mumbles, cheeks flushing.
“What’s up?” Toris asks, leaning against thedining table, rifling through today’s mail.
“Why would anything be up?”
“Céline Dion,” he says distractedly. He finds aletter addressed to himself, but when he opens it, it’s just a reminder fromthe library that his books are past due.
“You know me too well.” Eduard shoots him aquestioning look, and Toris shakes his head. “But it’s nothing serious, don’tworry.” He pauses, bites his thumbnail. Toris waits.
After a while, Eduard stands up and startsunpacking the groceries, putting them in neat piles on the table according towhere they should go. Their ongoing strife over whether to put oranges in therefrigerator or not is won by Toris this round, mainly because he is the oneputting them away. He does take one before he puts the rest in the vegetabledrawer along with the apples and the lettuce, and starts peeling it when Eduardfinally sighs, sitting back down.
“I did something stupid,” he admits.
“Yeah?” Toris focuses on his orange butlistens.
Eduard huffs. “You know my cousin Liz, right?She’s getting married next month.”
“Hmh. I met her on your birthday last year.” Heinspects an orange part against the sunlight and, satisfied that there are noseeds in it, puts it in his mouth. It’s good.
“And Tuomi, you remember him too?”
“Your other cousin? With the tattoos and thepokerface boyfriend?”
Eduard nods. Silently accepts the orange partToris offers him. “Pokerface boyfriend is pokerface fiancé now. And that’s kindof where the problem starts.”
Intrigued, Toris raises his eyebrows. He has ahard time imagining what the problem could be. When Eduard starts to chew on anail again, he thrusts another piece of orange in his direction.
“Thanks. I, ah… I might have told them I wasdating someone. Just because, you know… They like to tease me about being theonly one who’s still single, but lately it’s just been – hitting a little closeto home, I guess.”
Toris swallows thoughtfully. “That’s not thatmuch of a problem, is it?”
A nervous laugh. Eduard pushes his glasses upand looks at his closed laptop very intently.
“Is it?” Toris asks.
“It is when you know that –uhm.” He takes his glasses off, which is as clear a sign as theCéline Dion. “I told them it was you.”
Toris puts his orange down.
“What do you mean, you told them it was me?”
“Exactly that. I just… It was the easiest. Iknow you, and they know you, kind of, and it’s… I’m sorry.” He looks veryforlorn, even when he puts his glasses back on. Toris can’t help it. He startsto laugh. It doesn’t help when his friend starts to splutter.
“I’m sorry,” Toris hiccups, “but you have toadmit that even for you, that’s ridiculous.”
“Even for me—” he starts indignantly,but Toris interrupts him.
“It’s weird, but I don’t mind, not really. Whyis it a problem? Just tell them we – we broke up if you want to stop lying.” Hepushes his hair out of his face, still grinning.  Trust Eduard to dosomething like this. When the silence stretches on, the smile slowly slips fromhis face. “Ed?”
“No, I— Remember when I told you about Liz’swedding? She’s holding it here in town.”
“Ye-es?”
“Tuomi lives quite a way out…”
Oh. He understands what Eduard is referring to. “We said he could stayover here.”
Eduard smiles wryly. “So that means we’ve gotseveral options. You tell me I’m an idiot and I admit to my cousins that I waslying, we pretend we’ve just broken up when Tuomi comes, or—”
“Or we pretend we’re a couple,” Toris finishes,and the sentence sends an odd little shiver of anticipation through his chest.He picks up the last piece of orange and bites it in half thoughtfully. “Couldwe pull that off?”
Eduard’s light eyes suddenly have a familiarmischievous spark in them, a pleased little something that makes the corners ofToris’s mouth curl up because it reminds him of ill-advised midnight bakingsessions  in college and propositions that ended with both of themhurtling down icy streets in dressing gowns. It’s been a while since he’s seenit. They’ve both been weighed down by their jobs lately.
“I think we could definitely pull that off,”Eduard says.
“Only one way to find out.”
Eduard flips the lid of his laptop up, silencesCéline Dion when she starts wailing again, and opens up an honest-to-godspreadsheet. Toris doesn’t know why he’s surprised.
Eduard puts everything in his spreadsheet thathe seems to think is relevant for them to think of if they want to portray aconvincing couple. Apparently, he convinced his family that they have beentogether for a few months, since the beginning of the year. He’ssuitably bashful about that.
It’s weird, but Toris mainly thinks it’s reallyfunny and gladly teases him about it. The whole situation also makes for goodleverage to get Eduard to do laundry or feed the hamsters.
A lot of things on the list don’t require muchwork. The upside of them having lived together for most of the past of sixyears is that they are well aware of each other’s habits, idiosyncrasies andpreferences in many things. There are plenty of pictures with them both in it,or pictures of either one of them taken by the other. They have many sharedexperiences, and it’s pretty amusing to give what actually happened at certaintimes a romantic twist. It leaves them choking on laughter multiple times, justimagining themselves taking walks on the beach or things like that.
The most awkward thing is when they get to thepoint, about a week before Eduard’s cousin will be coming over to stay for afew days, where they realize that a certain degree of intimacy will be requiredto make the whole thing believable.
After Toris refuses to quit when Eduardsuggests so, the man sighs, pushes his glasses up nervously and says, “Then weshould practice.”
Which is how Toris finds himself trailing hisfingers down Eduard’s arm when he passes him by on the way to work in themorning, and that is actually rather nice. Grounding, in a way. It’s also whythey gradually shift closer together on the couch until Eduard curls his longlegs up and leans into Toris’s side as he reads a book on his tablet, and it’sodd, different, but not weird.
Neither of them are tactile people, but theyare comfortable with each other. And good thing.
They’re sort of avoiding the subpoint on thespreadsheet that says ‘kissing(?)’ – but, hell, if they don’t want to kiss,then that’s none of Tuomi’s business, is it?
The last point has them quickly moving some ofToris’s stuff to Eduard’s bedroom, because it’d be stupid to ask Eduard’scousin to crash on the couch when the two of them have supposedly been sleepingtogether for months.
They lie on the bed for a while, staring at thewooden slats of the ceiling, their forearms touching lightly. It’s a little narrowfor two grown men, but they’ve had worse – it was decided they would take twotents on holiday after the first camping trip.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Eduardasks. Toris turns his head to look at the man’s familiar profile, the steadymovement of his chest. His arm is rather cold despite the summer heat theycan’t quite keep out of the apartment.
“Sure,” Toris says. “It’ll be fun, Ed. Don’tworry about it.”
He props himself up an elbow so he can lookdown at Eduard, hair brushing his cheek. They both chuckle. Eduard pushes theoffending strand behind Toris’s ear.
“If you say so,” he says, still smilingfaintly. His hand is cool on Toris’s cheek when it slips back down.
Toris is quite unsure what he’s supposed tomake of that moment later, but he knows it felt nice, and for now, he’s contentto leave it at that.
Eduard’s cousin Tuomi is much the same as Torisremembers him from that one time they met, if less drunk. He also seems to haveaccumulated even more tattoos since then, which astounds Toris. He isn’twearing an engagement ring, but cheerfully explains that his fiancé, who’s outat sea right now, isn’t allowed to wear jewelry so he thought it would bestupid to get rings. Eduard lights up when the man places his guitar in theliving room, which makes Toris grin. He knows Tuomi is a professional sessionguitarist, so he looks forward to hearing him play at some point.
They’re a musical family, he realizes not forthe first time – their cousin Liz is a songwriter, and Eduard works in musicproduction himself. He wouldn’t be surprised if they’re going to come up withan embarrassing parody song for the upcoming wedding.
Toris and Eduard are in luck that none of theirfriends are in the habit of dropping by unannounced, though Toris does have tofield an awkward call from a very intrigued Raivis, their short-term collegeroommate, while Eduard shows his cousin around the apartment.
He finds the both of them on the crampedbalcony when he’s done, and grimaces at Eduard when raises his eyebrows inquestion. The man chuckles a little, but he doesn’t know that Toris instructedRaivis to send as many embarrassing texts as possible.
The three of them sit there for a while,talking amicably about this and that and nursing cold drinks. The weather hasbeen sweltering for the past few weeks; Liz picked a good time to get married.Toris is very conscious of the way he puts his bare feet up on Eduard’s chair,toes barely-brushing against his thigh. Eduard seems less conscious of how hekeeps brushing his fingers over Toris’s ankle, but perhaps he’s just better atacting.
For dinner, Toris goes and gets Thai down thestreet. Eduard steals even more from him than usual.
No one moves from the balcony until it’s pastmidnight, and Eduard might have taken some time off but Toris has worktomorrow, so he really needs to go to sleep. Tuomi yawns demonstratively anddeclares he’ll follow the example, so they all traipse inside and say theirgoodnights.
Toris and Eduard don’t look at each other whilethey shuck their clothes, a sudden awkwardness settling over the bedroom.Still, Toris is not going to wear anything more than his boxers and a t-shirt;he has no desire to get heatstroke. He sneaks a glance at Eduard when they’reboth lying on their back again, single sheet only pulled up to their hips. Healways looks odd without his glasses on, with his hair falling away from hisforehead. He looks at Toris too. Squints.
“Are your eyes that bad?”Toris asks. “We’re practically crammed together.”
Eduard huffs indignantly. “You know they are.Don’t mock my poor eyesight.”
“I’ll mock you all I want.” But he laughs,happy that the awkward moment has shattered.
“Shut up,” Eduard mumbles, but he can’t hidethe fact that he’s smiling before he turns on his side, away from Toris. “Goto sleep.”
“Night, Ed.”
“Goodnight.”
They’ll be fine.
Unsurprisingly, Eduard is already gone from hisbed when Toris’s alarm goes off. The guy always has been an insanely earlyriser. Toris goes through his morning routine without running into him, though;he’s probably out on the balcony already, maybe listening to music. He does,surprisingly, meet Tuomi, who wanders bleary-eyed but cheerful into the kitchenwhile he’s eating breakfast.
“Please don’t tell me your whole family is likethis,” he sighs.
“Like what?” Tuomi lifts a banana from thefruit bowl. “Do you have any oranges?”
“Early risers. Oranges are in the fridge.”
“The fridge?” he asksincredulously, but he does open it. “I’ve never met anyone who puts theiroranges in the fridge. Also… I don’t know. You’re up early too.”
Toris shrugs, mildly affronted that no oneappears to understand the proper method of storing oranges. He finishes hissandwich while Tuomi peels the orange, then goes to brush his teeth. When hereturns to the kitchen, he does run into Eduard, who’s winding his headphonesaround his phone and wearing a bathrobe. The balcony is chilly in the mornings.
“Hey,” Eduard says, both of them standing inthe narrow door opening, “off to work, hm?”
“Yeah.” Toris flicks a glance at Tuomi, whogestures with a piece of orange.
“Just pretend I’m not here,” he says, grinning.
Toris looks back at Eduard, momentarilyconfused, and then realizes the domestic picture they paint; he in his tackywork shirt and Eduard with his messy hair and bathrobe, hovering in the doorwayjust before he leaves. Tuomi thinks they’re shy. Eduard messes up his hair evenmore when he runs his fingers through it; Toris catches his bony wrist beforehe can start chewing on his nails again and meets his eye.
“I’ll see you this evening,” he says, softlybut probably loud enough for Tuomi to hear. “Have fun.”
“Yeah, no, we will,” Eduard stutters. “Have agood, uhm…”
Toris looks up at him steadily, searching thefamiliar light eyes until Eduard gives a minuscule nod. Then, trying not tothink about it, he leans up to press their lips together. It’s a little toohard to even be considered a kiss, and barely lasts a second, but Toris canfeel himself flushing, for once not from the heat, so he waves at Tuomi anddashes to the front door so fast he nearly trips over his own feet.
Outside, he leans against the wall and tries tocalm his heart. That was ridiculous. They should definitely get better at that.
Still. He touches his lips. Shakes his head. Hebrushes his hair away and rushes down to catch his bus. It’s going to beanother long day.
“You look tired,” is the first thing Eduardsays to him when he gets home. He’s in the kitchen, making dinner while hiscousin sets the tiny table outside.
“Well, I am.” He pulls his red workshirt over his head and throws it vaguely in the direction of the washingmachine at the end of the kitchen. The tank top he wears underneath is stickingto his back.
“Sorry.”
Toris grunts vaguely in reply, then hooks hischin over Eduard’s shoulder to look at the pans just in time for Tuomi’sreturn. Eduard smells like the shampoo he uses, which Toris belatedly realizesis a weird thing to notice, and he shivers when Toris’s hair, which has beenescaping from its ponytail all day, brushes against his neck. Tuomi only smilesand nods at them, taking some cutlery outside.
“That’s a good one,” Eduard says softly, movingthe shoulder that Toris’s chin is resting on.
“I know.” Toris smiles. “How long until this isdone? Can I take a shower before dinner?”
“Go ahead. It’ll simmer for a while.” Hegestures with his wooden spoon, which makes Toris laugh. He feels, more thanhears, the man huff, shoulder jumping.
He promises Eduard to be right out, and takes awonderfully cool shower, letting the water soothe his sore muscles. He wishes hewere as passionate about his job as Eduard is, instead of being stuck in thatstore day after boring day. It isn’t that he hates it, but it isn’t what hewants for the rest of his life either.
Well. This is not the time to think about that.
Dinner is pleasant; Eduard and Tuomienthusiastically share stories about their day, and Tuomi plays his guitaruntil the downstairs neighbor yells up at them to stop making so much noise.When Toris feels his eyes start to get heavy, he first lets his head drop on Eduard’sshoulder, which is actually not that pleasant at all, since it’s rather pointy,and then announces he’s going to bed. He stands up. Stretches. He looks down atEduard, whose glasses flicker with the reflection of the candle on the table.
“Goodnight,” the man says softly. He tilts hischin up, as if in question. Toris inhales sharply in realization.
“Night,” he returns. He puts his hands on thearmrests of Eduard’s chair and leans over to him until his hair brushes againsthis face, which makes him chuckle and push his fingers into it. Their legs aretucked together, Toris leaning against the chair. He, again, tries not to thinkabout anything, but his pulse has skyrocketed and he is very keenly aware ofTuomi sitting just there and how warm Eduard’s fingers are.
But his lips are even warmer, and this timeit’s a kiss for sure, a soft, short brush of their mouths. Toris swallowsheavily when he stands up straight, while Eduard clears his throat.
“Goodnight, Toris,” Tuomi says cheerfully, and itsnaps him back.
“Right, you too.” He scampers inside.
What in the world is going on here?It’s not even weird to kiss him, it’s just… Good.
Which is… Probably a bit not good,all things considered.
When Toris wakes with a start, it’s still dark,and he is shaking, breathing unsteadily. His heart pounds in his throat.
He can’t remember the dream – he hardly evercan – but he knows enough to have to sit up on the edge of the bed and put hishead in his hands. Try to calm his breathing. He can do this. In, out.
“Toris?” Eduard mumbles from the dark. There’sthe snap of his glasses opening. Toris doesn’t think he can speak withoutwheezing.
“Hey.” Rustling, then the mattress dipping nextto him. A hand on his back. Slow circles, ever larger.
Toris presses his fingertips against hiseyelids until the dark dances with sparks. Eduard tangles his fingers in hishair silently, and he leans back into the touch.
“Sorry,” he says.
“Don’t be. Do you want some water?”
Toris nods, but regrets doing so when Eduardleaves for the kitchen. He stares at the crack of light coming in from the opendoor until he comes back, then takes the glass of water with a small smile.Eduard sits back down next to him and resumes whatever he’s trying to do to hishair. He hasn’t turned any lights on, for which Toris is grateful.
“I didn’t mean to wake you,” Toris sayseventually, when he has drained his water. He looks at Eduard with one eye, andthe man shakes his head.
“You know I don’t mind.” He bites the thumbnailof his free hand. “I didn’t know you still had nightmares.”
Toris shrugs. “They don’t happen often anymore.Not like in college.” He studies his glass. Presses it against his wrists.“Usually when I’m sleeping somewhere new.”
“Some— Oh. You could have told me. We couldhave used your room.”
“I didn’t think about it.” Then, when he feelsEduard’s fingers tighten ever so slightly, “Honestly. That’s how seldom theyhappen. I guess I wasn’t expecting it.”
“Okay.” Eduard’s hand is slipping down to reston Toris’s neck. “If you say that, I believe you. Please talk to me if you needto, though.”
Toris half-laughs, “You wouldn’t be a very goodboyfriend if I couldn’t do that, right?”
“Right,” he breathes. Toris can’t help but lookup at him, and when their eyes meet, he becomes very aware of every part of hisbody that’s touching him all of a sudden. Their thighs and arms and Eduard’shand on his neck. They both just breathe.
“Thanks,” Toris eventually says. He soundsraspy.
“No problem.”
Again, Toris thinks, what in the world is goingon?
The next day, Toris sludges his way through amorning shift, and when he comes home, he find Tuomi arguing with Liz overthe proper storage method for oranges. He watches the two of them for a while,dumbfounded as to what she is even doing in his apartment, and where is Eduardanyway? They’re so engrossed in their discussion that they don’t even seem tonotice him. Much as he wants to chime in with his opinion, agreeing with Liz,he decides to back out to go and splash some water on his face.
Eduard is in the bathroom. He’s toweling hishair dry at top speed, and not wearing a shirt. Toris identifies a little wetlump of fabric on top of the laundry hamper as a familiar t-shirt.
“Toris?” Eduard squints at him.
“Yeah,” he says, faintly amused. “What’s goingon?”
“Liz is going on,” Eduard explains unhelpfully.He wrings his shirt out over the shower drain and throws it into the laundry.Then, he puts his glasses on and looks surprised about the fact that isactually in the laundry.
“Liz is going on?” Toris laughs. “She’s arguingwith Tuomi about oranges in the kitchen, so I suppose you’re right, but still.What’s she doing here?”
“Oranges? Nevermind that.” Eduard hobbles tohis bedroom, probably to pick out a new shirt. Toris wanders after him afterquickly splashing his face. He leans against the doorpost and doesn’t noticethat Eduard’s chest is still wet because is not looking at it. At all.
“She showed up for lunch,” Eduard explains whenhe has a clean shirt on. “Which is fine, it’s been fun, but she and Tuomi alsomanaged to get water all over me. Have you eaten?” he adds, as an apparentafterthought.
Toris nods.
“Good. How do you feel about going to the lakethis afternoon? I’m afraid Tuomi and Liz are going to break our house down ifwe stay here, and I don’t think Mrs Grumpy downstairs would appreciate that.”
Laughing, Toris agrees to a trip to the lake.No movement will be required at the lake; maybe he can even take a nap, as longas they take a parasol… Which they don’t have, he’s pretty sure. A tree willdo.
He did not anticipate the orange argumentlasting all the way through the car ride there.
Later, when the sky is already turning vaguelyorange and Eduard is, inevitably, turning vaguely red, and Toris didn’t take anap but he is covered in sand and Liz is wearing Tuomi’s shirt as a cape, thefour of them lounge around by the edge of the lake until Tuomi proposes to goget his guitar, which he insisted on bringing, from the car. He and Liz start ascuffle over his shirt. Eduard grins widely, and Toris has to smile at him.
“You feeling alright now?” Eduard asks in anundertone. He pushes his glasses up on his sweaty nose, scrunching it a little.
“Yeah.”
Eduard nudges him with his shoulder. “Good.”
Liz, having won the battle for Tuomi’s shirt,flops down across from them, spilling sand everywhere when she shakes out herlong hair, wavy from the water.
“It’s good to be out for a while,” she says. “Ihad no idea so many preparations went into a wedding. Then again, I guess it’sonly as complicated as you make it.”
The both of them mumble vague confirmations.Eduard sags into Toris a little, like he does when they’re on the couch. Torisshakes his head at the weird tense of the thought; as if it’s a habit thatthey’ve had for a long time instead of a week-old one they forced uponthemselves. Even if forced is a big word.
“But look at you two!” Liz continues. And thento Tuomi as he returns with his guitar, “Aren’t they adorable?”
Tuomi just laughs, and Eduard makes anembarrassed noise, hiding his face against Toris’s shoulder. The sand scrapesunpleasantly between them. How did it get there, even?
“Aw,” Liz continues, grin wide, “don’t be likethat, Ed. We’re happy for you!”
“They’re shy,” Tuomi mumbles, plucking at hisguitar, gently tuning it.
“Only because you’re embarrassing,” Eduardretorts, though he’s still leaning on Toris’s shoulder.
He doesn’t move for a while, even as Tuomistarts playing, and Liz joins him in a medley of classics sung in terribleharmonies. Clearly, Eduard is the best singer in the family. When Liz asks toplay the guitar for a minute, Tuomi orders her to go wash the sand off first,which results in her pointing out how much sandier than her Toris is, which inturn, of course, results in all of them splashing into the water, even Tuomi.
While Toris is attempting to rinse the sandfrom his hair, leaning back into the lake, Eduard hovers nearby. He shakes hishair out. Raises his eyebrows at him in question.
Eduard smiles wryly and asks, “You wouldn’thappen to know why Raivis has been sending me texts with kissy faces in them,would you?”
“No idea,” Toris says, widening his eyes in anattempt at an innocent look, but he starts laughing at the same time, so it hasvery little effect.
“Sometimes I really don’t like you very much,”Eduard sighs. Toris only laughs louder, then gets a mouth full of water whenEduard pushes him over. When he resurfaces, spluttering, his friend isgrinning, the familiar sparkle in his eyes once again.
“What? You can’t dunk me,” he says,faux-innocent. “I’m wearing glasses.”
But these are old glasses, Toris knows that,worn specifically because they might get wet. And he’s not giving up a chanceat revenge. He lunges at Eduard, a battle cry that’s half laughter ripping fromhis throat. They both go under the cool water this time, and up again, andEduard splashes water into Toris’s face when Toris attempts to trip himunderwater. There are drops sliding down his glasses, but he’s grinning whilethey splash around like children.
After a short while, their battle dies down,and Eduard slides his glasses up into his hair. They’re submerged up to halftheir chests now. Tuomi and Liz are shouting in amusement from nearer theshore. Toris sees Eduard’s gaze flick over to them, though he can’t imaginehe’s seeing much of anything at the moment. They hover close together.
Eduard’s fingers are on Toris’s waist, andToris’s own hand floats somewhere near his chest. Fingers curling. He looksover his shoulder at Eduard’s cousins. Liz waves. Tuomi winks. He looks back atEduard. His eyes are sharp without the glasses framing them.
When Eduard leans forward to push Toris’s wethair away from his face, Toris expects the kiss. He touches Eduard’s chest.
He doesn’t expect it to last.
But it does.
It lasts long enough for him to wrap both hisarms around Eduard’s neck, pulling himself up so they’re the same height. Totaste the water clinging to his lips. Feel the long fingers slide down hisback. Eduard is warm. Toris feels overheated.
He can’t say how long it really was, but whenthey break apart, the hooting coming from the shore snaps them both back toreality.
“Get some, Ed!” Liz shouts. Tuomi breaks downlaughing.
“We’re, uhm…” Eduard starts, and doesn’tcontinue.
“We’re getting good at this,” Toris offersbreathlessly, looking anywhere but his face.
The only reply he gets is a weak, “Reallygood.”
By the time they’re back home, everyone isexhausted, so they take turns showering and crash. Toris is grateful for thefact that he doesn’t really have to talk with Eduard.
“Night, Ed,” he says.
“Goodnight,” Eduard replies. “Good dreams.”
“Good dreams,” Toris mumbles into the dark. “Ihope.”
Only two more days.
The next day, a Friday, dawns as sunny as therest of the month, and with Toris pinned in place by half of Eduard’s weight ontop of him. It is very uncomfortable.
“It’s too warm for this,” he mumbles,attempting to push him off. And, ew, they’re sticking together. “Why did youthink that was a good idea?”
“’Cause ‘m very smart, ‘s why,” comes theunexpected, barely decipherable reply, muffled into Toris’s shirt.
Toris has a hard time believing that at thisexact moment. He pushes at Eduard until he moves, looks at the clock and seesthat it is still insanely early – of course, or Eduard would have been up – butnow he’s awake, so he might as well go and take a short shower. With anabsentminded pat on Eduard’s head, he hobbles to the bathroom.
When he’s done, Toris finds Tuomi in thekitchen once more. He is trying to feed the hamsters.
“Hey,” he greets.
“Hi, Toris. Off to work again?”
“Hm, no. I’ve got the day off. Just couldn’tsleep.”
“It’s the heat.” Tuomi nods in sympathy.
Toris ambles down to the mailboxes after eatinga slice of bread with some honey, saying hi to their grumpy downstairs neighboron the way and speedwalking away from the overzealously religious gentlemannext to her. He has no desire to try to be converted today.
There is a letter addressed to him in the mail,his name and address printed on a neat label. His heart leaps into his throat.He quickly takes the mail back to their apartment, where Eduard is now alsofloating around in the kitchen. His fingers shake when he fumbles the envelopeopen. Eduard chews his disgusting cornflakes slowly, obviously staring at him.
Dear Mr Laurinaitis, Toris reads, and then he has to take a deepbreath before reading the next line. When he does, he presses his lips togethertightly to stop a loud yell from escaping.
“Toris?” Eduard asks softly. He looks up athim, clutching the paper. Grins so widely that his cheeks hurt, lower lipcaught between his teeth. Eduard’s eyes widen. He puts his spoon down and jumpsup.
“Yeah?”
“Yes!” Toris bursts, waving the letter back andforth. “Yes, yes, yes!”
Eduard utters a cry of triumph and throwshimself at Toris, nearly knocking him over with the force of his hug – andnothing about that is acted, Toris can feel it in his bones. Eduard knows howanxiously he’s been waiting for this message, was more confident than Torishimself that it would be a positive one. He wraps his arms around Eduard’sneck, burying his face in them.
“I told you,” Eduard mutters into his ear. “Ifucking told you, Toris.”
“I know, I know.” He pulls his head back alittle, and somehow it’s the most natural thing in the world to lean hisforehead against Eduard’s, their noses touching. Toris is still unable to stopsmiling, and his vision is slightly blurry beyond the turquoise of his friend’seyes, but it doesn’t matter. Eduard’s hands are on his back, barely-moving intiny circles. What part of this is acted, if any part, he can’t tell, and thatdoesn’t matter either.
“Congratulations,” Eduard whispers, his breathhot on Toris’s skin. He slides his fingers around his jaw slowly, and somehowthis is worse, and at the same time so much better than kissing him. They areclose without doing anything else, just breathing. Their legs touch, from kneesto hips. Never before have they done anything like this, but Toris wishes thatthey would. It makes him feel safe. It also makes him feel… Tingly.
A faint cough pulls them both out of theirweird stasis.
Tuomi looks amused, pretending as he is to bevery interested in the lock screen of Eduard’s tablet.
“Uhm,” Eduard says. He removes his fingers fromToris’s face and steps back.
“Should I go for a walk?” Tuomi asks, nowlooking up through his pale eyelashes. “It seems as though you two havesomething to celebrate.”
Eduard actually glances back at Toris as ifasking for an answer to that, but he shakes his head. If anything, he isn’tsure what’ll happen if they’re left alone now, when the warm air seems tocrackle between them. Whatever that is, it probably isn’t much good.
“Sorry,” Eduard just tells his cousin, butTuomi waves it away.
“And congratulations, on whatever that is,” headds, at Toris.
“Oh, well.” He starts grinning again, unable tohelp himself. He catches an undeniably fond look on Eduard’s face. “I’ve got anew job! The historical library in town is – was, I guess – looking for a newcustodian. And it’s me!” He waves a little, awkwardly. Someone like Tuomi, withhis tattoos and his guitar, probably isn’t that interested in old books andwould think it is incredibly boring to hang around them all day, but Toriscan’t imagine anything better. He loves history, as much as Eduard loves musicand his freaky computer codes and the disgusting cereal.
“Congratulations!” Tuomi repeats, moreheartfelt this time. Shaking Toris’s hand enthusiastically, he adds, “That doescall for a celebration! How about I make dinner tonight?”
Eduard makes a strangled noise. Tuomi rolls hiseyes at him.
“I promise I won’t burn down your house. You’ve got tolet that go, Ed, honestly.”
Burn down their house? Alarmed, Toris looksover at Eduard, then back at Tuomi.
“It was only the kitchen,” the man assures him. Not veryreassuringly. “I was fourteen! I panicked!”
“I don’t think Uncle Daniel ever forgave you,”Eduard muses.
With a bright smile, Tuomi says, “I don’t thinkhe did! That’ll be fun at Liz’s wedding tomorrow. Toris, care for some groceryshopping?”
Even when he’s in Eduard’s car, Toris is unsurehow he got roped into this.
Grocery shopping with Tuomi is fun, butexhausting. He bounces through the supermarket, pointing out things he likes toToris from time to time, talking about his fiancé and who he has played guitarfor lately and the song he and Eduard have made for Liz’s wedding. He actuallysings a few bars of that one, which results in an employee giving him a verystrange look indeed, but he seems not to care. Toris is vaguely impressed.
“You know,” Tuomi says, when they’re finallyback outside, the heat slamming into them like a wall, “I really amvery pleased about you and Eduard.”
“Oh?” Toris asks faintly, feeling a trickle ofguilt settle in his stomach.
“Yeah!” He shoves their shopping bag into thetrunk of the car and wipes his messy blond hair out of his face. “You’re goodfor him, I think that’s obvious. Whether as a friend or, you know, a boyfriend.Ed deserves to be happy.”
“That he does,” Toris can’t help but agree.
Tuomi nods slowly, opening the driver’s sidedoor.
“I think you make him happier.” The words aresoftly spoken, but Toris has to lean against the scorching exterior of the carfor a few seconds when they seem to hit him square in the chest like an evenbigger wall.
When he thinks about it – imagining the future,he’s always pictured Eduard there, in some undefined role, but next to him.What if he wouldn’t be? The thought makes him shiver.
“Toris?” Tuomi asks from inside the car.
“I think he makes me happier too,” Toris tellsthe shimmering air over the parking lot.
They spend the afternoon in a nearby park.Tuomi plays the guitar and Eduard refuses to sing until Toris goads him intoit. He really is very good.
This leads to Tuomi telling Toris that the bothof them used to be in a choir – Eduard looks mortified to have this revealed,especially when Tuomi turns out to have a picture saved on his phone of Eduardas a little boy in a frankly adorable purple outfit. The cousins scuffle overthe phone. Toris laughs and doesn’t complain when Eduard flops over his legs afterthe inevitable defeat.
Later still, Eduard anxiously chews on hisfingernails while Tuomi putters around in the kitchen, having shooed him outminutes before.
Without looking up from his book, Toris reachesout and tugs his hand down. He lets his fingers linger on the warm skin of hiswrist and reads the same paragraph three times without parsing a single word.Eduard is still.
Tuomi’s spaghetti tastes delicious. Toris makessure to compliment him profusely until he breaks down laughing and Eduard pushesat his shoulder in embarrassment.
A cool wind rolls into the city by nightfall,so they move inside and play some cards. When Tuomi proposes to turn it into adrinking game, Toris grits his teeth and breathes slowly. He’s trying to starea hole into the tabletop when he feels Eduard’s long fingers curl around hiswrist, then down to his palm and between his own fingers, tangling their handstogether.
“I don’t drink,” he tells Tuomi, who shrugs andtilts his head curiously, but doesn’t ask anything. Eduard squeezes his handslightly.
That night, when they’re both crammed intoEduard’s bed again, Toris finds his friend’s arm and runs his fingers down thewarm skin, feeling goosebumps rise under his fingertips.
“Night, Ed,” he says.
“Goodnight.” He sounds hoarse.
How will this end?
The next day, Tuomi and Eduard put thefinishing touches on the embarrassing song they created for Liz in the morning,and before the afternoon, all three of them walk through the heat to where thewedding will take place, which is just around the corner of the street. Torisfeels slightly guilty about coming along, since he has only been invited as‘Eduard’s boyfriend’, but he can’t very well voice that thought while Tuomi isstill right there, can he?
Toris is caught, for the first time that he canremember, by the thought that Eduard looks good. He has gotten abit of a tan lately, and the top buttons of his neat white shirt are undone,revealing the dip of his throat. Objectively speaking, Toris knows he’sgood-looking, if a bit dorky most of the time, but he’s never… Noticed.Never looked at Eduard and thought, yes, now that’s someone I want to—
He shakes himself. He doesn’t really thinkthings like that anyway, not often.
Not until he really knows someone.Until he’s learned to care about their personality and oddities and the waythey bite their nails or sing along to Céline Dion when they’re stressed.
Oh, god.
How long has he been falling in love with hisbest friend without even realizing it?
The wedding is beautiful; Liz looks gorgeous,and she seems so happy that Toris feels himself get a little emotional too.Although that might also have something to do with Tuomi blowing his nose nextto him. Eduard can’t quite hide his laughter.
Eduard’s parents arrive later in the afternoonto congratulate Liz and her brand new spouse. Toris and Eduard share one lookand bolt.
“We forgot about my parents!” Eduard hisses,while they’re hiding behind the cake, which is a giant thing in several shadesof green. It tasted great. Toris wonders if he can get away with taking anotherslice.
“No, really?”
“What if she tells them we’re dating?”
Toris tugs Eduard’s hand down from his mouth.“I don’t know! Let’s just play along? At some point we’re gonna have to pretendto – to break up. Right?”
They look at each other again, longer thistime. Eduard pushes his glasses up, averting his gaze.
“Right. Okay.”
They needn’t have worried, because Eduard’sparents leave quickly after saying goodbye to Eduard, apparently having morepressing matters to attend to than their niece’s wedding.
“Ah, well, you’re a Mets or you aren’t a Mets,”Eduard shrugs, which makes very little sense to Toris, but he lets it slide. Hegenerally doesn’t see much of Eduard’s parents; he thinks he’s only met themthrice in all the years he’s known Eduard. His own mother used to come overevery weekend in college until he wanted to impress a girl and decided to beembarrassed by it.
He smiles down at his soup. That girl never didlike him very much.
Afternoon weddings are good, he has decided.Even if they are very hot. You don’t have to mess up your entire sleepschedule, people are less inclined to get drunk, and you can actually see thenewlyweds scowl at their cousins(-in-law) when they perform their embarrassingsong.
After dinner, there is some more dancing, thetraditional speeches from friends, and by ten, things are winding down. Nodoubt they’ll go on for a while, but Toris really doesn’t feel much for hangingaround with people he barely knows, who thinks he’s his best friend’sboyfriend. He seeks out Eduard, who’s talking to one of Liz’s new in-laws, andasks him for the keys to the apartment – since they gave the spare set to Tuomi.
“You’re going?”
“Hmh. If you don’t mind.”
Eduard bites his lip. “I think I’ll come withyou, actually. I’ve got to take Tuomi to the airport early tomorrow morning. He is flying out to see his fiancé.”
So he says goodbye to the woman he was talkingto, waves at Liz, who’s dancing with Tuomi’s dad, and walks home with Toris.The cool wind is back, rolling through the street and ruffling his hair, tintedred in the light of the setting sun. Toris catches himself thinking beautiful,and his heart clenches, because it’s nearly over. Their little charade.
But then, does either of them really want it toend? He’s uncertain about the answer to that question. Uncertain if he wants toknow, really.
They laugh about the parody song all up thestairs and into their apartment. Toris pulls his hair out of its half-upponytail and stretches. Yawns.
“It’s not that late yet,” Eduard says, clearlyamused. It is barely half past ten, but Toris is knackered.
“Your family is very tiring,” he jokes, combinghis fingers through his hair. Eduard huffs.
“I can’t say you’re wrong.”
Toris smiles. Looks up at him. The tip of hisnose is a little red, and so are his cheeks. A button or two more of his shirthas come undone. Toris tilts his head thoughtfully.
“Toris?”
Then he decides not to think about it any more.He hooks his fingers into the shirt, fingertips touching hot skin. CatchesEduard’s widening eyes, the familiar-unfamiliar flicker in them. He catches thetiny nod. So he kisses him.
This time, he does expect it to last, and itdoes. Eduard’s hands are in his hair, tangling in the messy strands, keepinghim close. Like Toris was going anywhere. He closes his eyes tightly, presseshimself as much against Eduard as possible. Hands on his shoulder blades – helets his fingers curl into the shirt – and legs tucked together, and his lipsare searing against his own. They are sweet and full and Torischases after Eduard when he pulls back ever so slightly, because he doesn’tthink he’ll ever get enough of this.
And then the front door opens, and Eduardsprings back, pressing himself against the opposite wall in the narrow hall.His lips are red and his breathing hard, and he looks dejected when he seesTuomi standing in the doorway, holding his hands out apologetically.
“Sorry for interrupting,” he grins. “I wasright behind you, I guess I should have known.”
Toris swallows. Eduard pushes off the wall.
“Good catch,” he mumbles at Toris, and then hedisappears to the bathroom. Toris stares after him.
“Sorry?” Tuomi says again. Toris can’t help buthate him a tiny little bit at the moment.
Eduard is pretending to sleep, and Torisdecides not to say anything to him. They’ll figure it out in themorning.
Of course, Eduard is gone when Toris gets up togo to work, which is much more enjoyable knowing he won’t be doing it for muchlonger.
He still isn’t home when Toris gets there inthe late afternoon, and he doesn’t respond to his texts either.
Well, fine. If he wants to be childish, Torisisn’t going to argue with him about that. He’ll have to come around.Eventually.
When Eduard does show up, he brings dinner andlooks suitably bashful. Also weirdly apprehensive.
If Toris was waiting for him to say anythingabout last night, he is disappointed. Eduard seems content pretendingeverything is back to regular. He even sits on his previously-normal spot onthe couch. All of it makes Toris feel unsettled, and vaguely angry. He knows thatwasn’t nothing. Both of them know that. Eduard can’t possibly think it isn’tlike that for him, can he?
All in all, it makes for a rather tenseevening.
“I’m going to go to sleep,” Eduard announces atabout eleven. It occurs to Toris that he could have moved his stuff back to hisown bedroom, but he just…
“No,” he says, standing up.
“What?”
“No, you’re going to listen to me. Please. Iknow you read my messages, and you didn’t respond. I was worried. And nowyou’re acting like—” Toris makes a vague hand gesture.
Shrugging, Eduard says, “I’m sorry. It’s been aweird week, you have to admit.”
“Yes, I’ll grant you that.” Toris steps up tohim, inserting himself into his space. He tucks his hair behind his ears. Biteshis cheek. Sighs. Eduard swallows visibly.
There it is again, that crackle between them.Toris tries to catch it.
“Eduard,” he says, and the man in questionparts his lips, “I swear to you, I didn’t know Tuomi was right behind us lastnight. For all I knew, he was still dancing with some aunt or uncle or godknows who.”
Eduard’s eyebrows crease. He opens his mouth.Closes it. His eyes are bright.
“Then why did you kiss me?” he whispers.
“Why did you kiss back?” Toris returns. “Youobviously didn’t know.”
It’s silent for a long time, but neither ofthem breaks away from the other’s gaze. Toris can feel his heart beating in histhroat like a drum.
“Because I wanted to,” Eduard eventually says.
“Yes?”
“And I want to. And I know… Iknow things have been weird, but I just…” He sighs. “I don’t know, Toris. MaybeI’m getting it all wrong, you know? Maybe we’re both confused.”
“If we were…” Toris thinks for a few seconds.“If we were confused, then we still ought to figure it out. But I don’t think Iam.”
Eduard leans forward, almost touching theirforeheads together, and whispers, “Why did you kiss me?”
“Because I wanted to, Eduard.Because I realized that I’ve never imagined my life without you in it, and whenI did, it scared me. Because it felt right. What more do you want?”
A huff, and a smile edging around his lips.Long fingers on Toris’s jaw. He curls his own hands into Eduard’s shirt.
“Nothing, really,” Eduard says, and he kissesToris.
It lasts.
43 notes · View notes
yumenosakiacademy · 5 years
Text
metr0con 2019 saturday diary
cosplayed/breakfast: same as the other 2 diaries. snack: a twin kitkat.
my eyes only, buckaroo. for future me.
can i b real w u i waited until 3 am to type this n a lot (esp from panels/early in the day) is HELLA fuzzy!!! sry! ;w; also it’s like. 4 am as im typing this n im not in the mood to write a diary! recalling everything is tiring, yknow? n i need to go to bed ghh... anyway!!
we left late bc i couldnt decide who to cosplay n i arrived late :(( anyway, it hadnt been 5 minutes there when i dropped my plastic purple heart ring i had from the dentist n i was so sad :( but i went to the bn-ha panel n i dont remember a lot of it sry. i remember iida wore a giant floppy sunhat that said Sunny Vibes on it tho n momo wore a black n white striped dress w sunflowers!
After this was cafe-stuck and it was fun! everyone kept calling jade a furry n i asked nepeta if she’d ever seen Nyan Neko Sugar G!rls to which she said no n someone asked her if she’d heard of/seen nek0para n she said she’d heard of it but it was “a bit.. too Extreme/Much for me.....” and someone asked the group (vriska, jade, john, dave, nepeta, tavros, aradia) why they were doing this and they said it was equius’ and john’s (i think?) prank that got way too out of hanf bc kanaya made the outfits for reals. someone asked vriska if she was a furyr cuz she had a spidersona and throughout the panel vriska and tavros kept talking abt how vriska took away his legs/him not having any. i asked the aradia n vriska if they’d work good together to make a good hall0ween themed cafe if this cafe were real n they were like “what’s hall0ween?” n the others told them it was a holiday that had candy n dead bodies n stuff! n someone asked abt who has the least human rights or just rights in general n john was like “jade u dont rights, ur an animal” n jade was like “trans rights”.
i decided to skip the d-dlc panel bc i didnt rly wanna write poetry cuz i do that at home n i dont rly care abt theories n discussing stuff like that so! i went walking around the dealers room n stuff. my crown actually came off at this time n i remember feeling like my crown had fallen off bc i thought i heard the mini whoosh it makes when it falls down but when i looked behind me, it wasnt there so i checked the aisles nearby n it wasnt there so i assumed someone had snatched it off my head but after a lot of walking, i found it half-underneath a con table w black tablecloth?? so i picked it up n went to the cosplay help desk and the guy safety-pinned it to my wig so i was all good to go!!
after that, i tried to look around to see if i could find any ens-tars cosplayers bc the meerup but i didnt see any so i was like oh well whatever im going to the LL panel anyway. so i went to the aki hana panel n i have videos of it! so im not rly gonna talk abt it. they played kings game there tho and “who’s most likely”! they said “who’d like an!mal crossing the best” n my immediate thought was rin so i raised my hand but the answer they had thought of was kotori, which actually makes much more sense haha. they said my answer was valid tho. i still got candy for answering! anyway the punk set ruby next to me ended up being the hifumi from yesterday that gave me the flower tin n they said it was nice to see me again n i said i wasnt able to go to the ES meetup bc i was only told when it was, not where it was, n they said that Eri/Eli (?) 9im guessing that was the host of the meetup) had to cancel it n i went oh. at the end of the panel i received a kotori pic! also a girl dressed up as a witch complimented my tsukasa outfit n i knelt down n said “thank you, princess” or smth i was like “i had a ring that i was gonna use to like. pretend to give to pretty girls but.. i lost it” n they seemed flattered but we parted ways!
after this was the aqours panel n the hanamaru did a dance n the you also did one but then they started playing the p0cky game n Headphones n i got kind of bored so i left n i heard “tsukasa!” n it was the jakurai from yesterday (that told me abt the meetup) dressed as mao in a yukata w their friend as oni ritsu n they looked so good! the jakumao apologized saying the meetup was cancelled. i think we talked for a sec then i went to go check out the rw-by q n a n it was a whole lot of roasting from the audience haha bc they did questions one at a time (ex: questions for yang, now questions for blake...) n i asked yang how she gets her hair so nice n she went “...nice?” w an unbelieving laugh/tone then they moved on n i was confused but oh well! they asked summer how she felt abt sloppy seconds bc taiyang n how taiyang’d feel abt a 3rd wife n nora got asked how many pancakes she could eat at a time n she was like “how much time do ya have?” n after the qna they started playing a weird game n it was rly boring so i left but the panel was almost over anyway. 
after i left i ran into a ramuda n they recognized me as tsukasa n they’re into ES n they said they hadnt watched the anime yet n they were surprised to see valkyrie in it bc they thought they werent gonna b but they said they hope the anime doesnt butcher shhu bc they like shu n know a lot of ppl hate shu n stuff. we talked abt the ES cosplayers at the con for a bit n i told them abt the ritsu+mao cosplayers n we had anice time talking n they said they rly liked rabits n i was like oh dude me too!! “i havent met anyone who hates ryu-seitai. like, Good.” n they were like “how could you hate ryu-seitai, they all wanna b nice n make friends” n i was like “yea mayb except midori” there was more but yea! i also ran into the witch girl n her friend from earlier bc they went “tsukasa!!!” n her friend (cosplayin smth from hn-k) showed me they had/got a leo plush n i was like “OH MY GOD. HE’S FINALLY BEEN FOUND!! HOLD ON CAN WE HAV A PIC W IT” so we took a pic of the leo plush beside my “where is leo??” sign like!! hell yea! n i was like “leo needs to pay child support. he’s evading his taxes. tax fraud” or smth around this point i think. at some point, on the escalators, i noticed a juto n a samatoki but when they got off the scalator they were heading for the exit so i couldnt rly ask for their pic so i decided to try n find em later.
then i went to the bn-ha panel but it was full to the BRIM but i made the mistake of sliding into the middle of an empty row for a good seat but the prson sat in front of me had big poofy hair so i couldnt see like half of the characters n ppl filld all the seats to my left n right so i couldnt leave. i was rly bored n trapped so i went on my ipad for almost all of thepanel n read part of a chiana/zu fic n stuff until the girl w the big hair left then i focused a Little more on the panel but i was still bored so wehn i noticed the ppl to my right all leave except the one guy next to me, i left the panel. i was sad bc at the time of that panel, there was a DR murder mystery panel that i couldve tried to attend instead but i was trapped so i couldnt :((
after that i decided to wander around for a bit before idolfest but when i went in at 5 pm, i 4got just how small that room was n how few chairs it had, n there were ppl standing against the walls so i leaned my sign against the right of the double doors BUT I LOOKED AHEAD N THERE WAS!! A HYPM!C PERFORMANCE STARTING TO HAPPEN!! DIVISION RAP ANTHEM WAS STARTING UP N MTR WAS ON THE STAGE!! but there were tall ppl standing in front of me n i was crowded against the back so i raised my ipad way above my head n started recording n watched them thru my ipad util someone opened the right door n i had to scramble tog rab my sign n lean it against me somehow n it made my fildiming falter but!! god i was just so exciting bc i wasnt expecting A HYPM!C PERFOAMNCE!! they did so good too ;w; after that, it was a solo hanayo perfoamnce then 3 songs from a non-anime-specific idol group that did 3 voca songs (one of which was LUVVVORATORY!!) n another non-anime dol group that did kpop songs (they were rly pretty n good) n then a you solo then a you/hane duet! ALSO during the hypm!cperformance, te juto n sama n a gentaro were dancing in front of me n right after the perfoamcne, a BB group opened the door but realized they missed the hypm!c performance n left n i decided to try n find em later too. 
after the last performance, there was still time, so a samus came over to me n asked to take a pic of my sign n they said they like ens-tars too n they said they cosplay tsukasa too n they ran a panel as him back in georgia n we talked abt best boys n i showed them all the keychains on my bag n when i pointed at mika n said 2nd best boy they went “:o me too!” n there was a lot more said but we went on talking for a while abt ens-tars n they showed me pics of the tori n arashi cosplayers that day they saw. 
after that i just walked around for like 45 minutes until the samus saw me again n waved me over so i was talking w them n they were apparently drinking alcohol despite being 18 n their friend was 23 n we were just talking abt stuff n i noticed a trigger group on the escalator n we called out to them n i took their picture n samus was like “dude it’s so cool that ur into id0lish7 too” n then we kept talking n at one point the samus was like “tsukasa i luv u” n made a lil finger heart n i tried 2 make one but my hands were kinda full but i managed to make one! they also said earlier today, they saw a sasuke cosplayer getting arrested n they took a pic of it for their snapchat lmao n it was them in front of a cop car n they said the person said “dont touch me!!” to the cop. the friend w samus said the only idols he knows were the combie one n that saki was def best girl hands down like, its a fact n i was like “ur right. it not even a hot take, its the Facts.” anyway then i wnted to walka round a bit more so i did n at like. 7:10 i decided “why not go near the photosoot area n registration to see more cosplayers that r there bc ive just been walking repetitive loops around the dealers room entrance n the con floor so! there could b some new cosplayers there! n lo n behold i found a tenn n ryuu that i had seen briefly earlier! n took their pic! then less than a few ftaway, i tried to walk past some ppl but there was a bag in the way so i stepped over it (like, not on it, i mean. like, Over, to avoid it) but i noticed it was an MTC itabag n the person next to it had bunny ears n it!! was the juto n sama i was looking for! so i took their pic n was talking abt how cool it is to see more hypm!c cosplayers here this yr until some guy came up n started telling the samatoki they looked like kaworu n they mistook them for kaworu n they said they didnt kno who i was supposed to b but i looked nice (iirc?) so i left n near the prop check table, I SAW THE BB BOYS! so i ran up to them n asked for a picture n then i started talking abt the hypm!c thing n there being so many this yr when there were none last yr n the jiro was like “aa ur tsukasa” n we started talking abt ES a lil bit n the anime then i complimented their ritsu+mao plushies on their bag n left!
after that i just roamed the halls until 8 pm. then the v0ltron panel! keith n lance hd like, a roasting rivalry going on n keith was like “i keep getting bullied! i dont deserve this!” n i kept askiing questions. me, a green ranger, a dave, n the dave’s friend were mainly the ones asking questions lmao. anyway keithd b like “lance dont touch me oh ew” and i asked keith what his fav anime was since he said he was a weeb n he said blue ex0rcist n i asked keith if hed seen LL (bc LL cosplayers were dancing to the music outside the panel room n i heard it) n lance was like “oh yea, he knows all the dances. he does them in his room” n keith denied it n at one point, i was like “since keith n lance share one braincell, who has it the most” n they said keith. the bonding moment was also mentioned a lot and alluras death n how lance can get much more “game” than keith (like, ladies. sorry im tired they might hav used another term) and an amami in the audience told lance to fortnite dance with him aftr thelance fortnite danced n!! just. a lot happened. it was a very casual-ish panel imo. haha.
after that i 4got that the bn-ha panel was at 10 not 9 so i just decided to wander then hit up the dance floor for most of the duration n i spotted the juto n sama n a nurse ramuda that i remember the samus talking abt n also someone who looked like the arashi the samus showed me but in an ali!ce madeness returns dress  o i asked the ramuda for a pic and then started dancing and the juto got into one of the dance circles n just started going hard as HELL n i was just dancing in the area they were near n out of the corner of my eye i’d see juto just absolutely KILLING IT w their dance moves bc they were dancing in front of their friends (occasionally w samatoki or posing w them) n i was just jamming out n during a slow song i pulled up a pic of chiaki on my ipad n started slowdancing w my ipad n the girl near me was like “that’s a Mood” n i think i heard the possibly-arashi n the others laugh a bit bc i was slow-dancing w “chiaki’ haha but god the dance floor was WILD! there was a guy w a saxophone at some point playing along w the music then a guy w a guitar! n we yelled lyrice to dont stop believing n stuff.
the the bn-ha panel! ...i was bored. most of the time i put tape on my leo sign and looked up wigs on ebay n stuff n sometimes i couldnt hear v well bc i sat near the back. they started up like, truth or dare but w a beach ball to decide who got to ask the dare or w/e? but i noticed a gentaro in the back of the room so i was like “ill just wait until the end of the panel then ask for their picture” then trivia started n they eventually asked what episode dabi appeared in n i was thinking “ep 7 of the most recent season” n some guy guessed that (he was the only one who fuessed) but the izuku n katsuki looked at their paper n i heard them mutter “episode 31″ so after somebody guessed ep 42 n the panelists said ‘”guess between 30-42--” i said ep 31 n went up n got a pack of aiw stickers but i shoulve taken the superhero shirt tbh. aftr that i decided to leave n asked the gentaro for a pic n they were one of the ryuus earlier they said n also a jakuarai from yesterday! they were like “oh! ur the tsukasa i keep seeing/running into!” n i was like “oh! hi!”
idk what convo this was in but someone was like “do u like how they did anzu?” n i was like “oh she’s so cute they rly said Fuck Anzu Haters” n they agreed.
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noticiasq · 6 years
Text
"Respuestas de privacidad" planteadas por el nuevo informe falso de DCMS ... - TechCrunch
Nueva Noticia publicada en https://noticiasq.com/respuestas-de-privacidad-planteadas-por-el-nuevo-informe-falso-de-dcms-techcrunch/
"Respuestas de privacidad" planteadas por el nuevo informe falso de DCMS ... - TechCrunch
Un primer informe con cuerpo de la comisión parlamentaria británica que está realizando una encuesta sobre desinformación en línea a partir del otoño de 2017, incluido el control sobre cómo se recopiló información personal de las personas de los servicios de redes sociales como Facebook y utilizado para el perfil de los votantes y la orientación de los anuncios de campaña, y cuyo presidente, Damian Collins, es miembro del partido conservador del gobierno del Reino Unido, contiene una curiosa omisión.
Entre los muchos problemas planteados por el informe están las preocupaciones de privacidad relacionadas con una aplicación de campaña desarrollada por una empresa llamada uCampaign que, al igual que Cambridge Analytica (y ahora aparentemente desaparecida), funcionó tanto para Ted Cruz como presidente y para la campaña presidencial de Donald J. Trump, aunque en su caso ha desarrollado aplicaciones para campañas para distribuirlas entre los seguidores gamify digitales para que hagan campaña a través de una herramienta que les facilita y socializa # 39; (es decir, compartir con los contactos) los mensajes y materiales de la campaña de als.
El comité se refiere a uCampaign en una sección de su informe que trata sobre la "focalización de datos" y el escándalo de Cambridge Analytica en Facebook, en particular, donde escribe [ énfasis ]: [19659006] Se han expresado preocupaciones sobre la privacidad de los datos relacionados con otra herramienta de campaña utilizada, pero no desarrollada, por AIQ [AggregateIQ:AkaunasocietydidaticanadesechehalavoratoperCambridgeAnalytica y que aún está siendo investigado por los organismos de control de la privacidad en el Reino Unido, Canadá y Reino Unido. Columbia]. Una compañía llamada uCampaign tiene una aplicación móvil que usa la estrategia de gamificación para campañas políticas. Los usuarios pueden ganar puntos para actividades de la campaña, como enviar mensajes de texto y correos electrónicos a sus contactos y amigos. La aplicación fue utilizada en la campaña presidencial de Donald Trump y Vote Leave durante el referéndum Brexit.
El desarrollador de la aplicación uCampaign, Vladyslav Seryakov, es un veterano militar del este de Ucrania que estudió programación de computadoras en dos universidades soviéticas de élite a finales de los años 80. El inversor principal de uCampaign es el magnate estadounidense de fondos de cobertura Sean Fieler, que es un colaborador cercano del multimillonario partidario de SCL y Cambridge Analytica, Robert Mercer . Un artículo publicado por Business Insider el 7 de noviembre de 2016 establece: "Si los usuarios descargan la aplicación y aceptan compartir sus libretas de direcciones, incluidos los números de teléfono y los correos electrónicos, la aplicación tomará los datos [to] a un proveedor externo, que busca coincide con la información del archivo de votantes existente que podría dar pistas sobre lo que puede motivar al votante específico. Thomas Peters, cuya empresa uCampaign creó el & # 39; la aplicación Trump, dijo que la aplicación se está "volviendo absolutamente granular" y, con permiso, enviará varios mensajes evaluados por A / B a los contactos de los usuarios en función de la información existente. "
Lo curioso es esa Collins & # 39; Conservative Party también tiene una aplicación de campaña creada por ¡lo has adivinado! – uCampaign, que la fiesta lanzó en septiembre de 2017.
Aunque no hay nada en los listados de aplicaciones de iOS y Android para la aplicación Conservative Campaigner que identifique uCampaign como desarrollador , si accede directamente al sitio web de uCampaign la compañía enumera el Partido Conservador británico como uno de sus clientes junto con otros partidos políticos de derecha y organizaciones como el (pro-gun). ) National Rife Association; la lista SBA (antiaborto); y, de hecho, la campaña UK Leave Leave (Brexit), (esta última) como lo destaca el informe de DCMS.
La participación de uCampaign como desarrollador de la aplicación Conservative Campaigner fue también confirmada (en junio) por (ahora ex) Director Adjunto y Jefe de Estrategia Digital para el Partido Conservador, Anthony Hind, quien – según su perfil LinkedIn – también dirigió la comercialización en línea de la fiesta, entre mediados de 2015 y, bueno, a mediados de este mes
Pero mientras, en su respuesta inicial a nosotros, Hind él confirmó de inmediato que participó personalmente en la adquisición de uCampaign como desarrollador de la aplicación Conservative Campaigner, no respondió a ninguna de nuestras preguntas posteriores, incluso cuando planteamos inquietudes específicas sobre la política de privacidad que la y rsquo; aplicación utilizada antes del 23 de mayo (justo antes de que el nuevo marco de protección de datos GDPR de la UE entrara en vigor el 25 de mayo), un período en el que muchas aplicaciones han actualizado su depreciación La política de privacidad como una precaución de cumplimiento relacionada con la nueva norma de protección de datos.
Desde el 23 de mayo, la política de privacidad de la aplicación Conservative Campaigner se ha referido a la política de privacidad del Partido Conservador. Sin embargo, antes del 23 de mayo, la declaración de privacidad era una copia literal (firmada) de la política de privacidad de uCampaign. (Sabemos que hemos recibido una sugerencia de una fuente, y la hemos verificado nosotros mismos.)
Aquí hay una captura de pantalla del intercambio que tuvimos con Hind en LinkedIn, incluida su única respuesta:
Lo que parece bastante embarazoso para el partido conservador, y de hecho para Collins, como presidente de la comisión de DCMS, dadas las "preocupaciones de privacidad" válidas que su informe ha planteado sobre el uso (y la Datos para la orientación política: la política de privacidad de uCampaign tiene, por ejemplo, una reverenciada actitud "liberal" hacia el intercambio de datos personales de los usuarios de la aplicación (y de hecho sus contactos serían sido capaz de reunir desde sus dispositivos).
Aquí hay una muestra de los datos: uso compartido de permisos Esta empresa estadounidense ofrece los datos de sus clientes & nbsp; [ énfasis el nuestro] de acuerdo con su política de privacidad:
APOYO A LA CAMPAÑA Y ORGANIZACIONES ALINEADAS
Compartiremos su información personal con campañas de terceros seleccionadas por usted a través de la plataforma. Además, podemos compartir su información personal con otras organizaciones, grupos, causas, campañas, organizaciones políticas y nuestros clientes que creemos que tienen puntos de vista, principios u objetivos similares a nosotros.
FRIENDS OF UCAMPAIGN
Podemos compartir su información personal con otros usuarios de la plataforma, por ejemplo, si vinculan su libreta de direcciones con nuestros servicios o si lo invitan a utilizar nuestros servicios a través de la plataforma.
TRANSFERENCIA COMERCIAL
Podemos compartir su información personal con otras entidades afiliadas a nosotros por razones internas, principalmente con fines comerciales y operativos . uCampaign, o uno de sus recursos, incluida la Plataforma, puede venderse, u otras transacciones pueden ocurrir cuando la Información personal es uno de los activos comerciales de la transacción. En este caso, su información personal puede ser transferida.
Para explicar esto, el Partido Conservador ha pagado una aplicación de campaña que, de acuerdo con la política de privacidad que tenía vigente antes del 23 de mayo, compartiría los datos personales de sus seguidores con organizaciones que los propietarios de uCampaign – quienes El comité de DCMS declara que tienen estrechos v��nculos con "el multimillonario partidario de SCL y Cambridge Analytica, Robert Mercer", visto como ideológicamente afiliado a sus objetivos, independientemente de estas entidades.
Curiosamente, el Partido Conservador parece haber tratado de borrar algunos de sus enlaces públicos a uCampaign: cómo cambiar el enlace del sitio web del desarrollador en la página de la aplicación Conservative Campaigner en el sitio web del Partido conservador (mientras que antes estaba conectado al sitio web de uCampaign).
Como veterano de la revista satírica del Reino Unido Private Eye bien podría decirse – ¡simplemente imaginado!
Una de las "características" enumeradas en la aplicación Conservative Campaigner invita a los seguidores de Tory a: "¡Invita a tus amigos a que te acompañen en la aplicación!". Si este fuera el caso, los datos de sus amigos habrían sido absorbidos por uCampaign incluso por otras causas de su elección.
Se informa que la versión de la aplicación Campaigner incluida en Google Play tiene más de 1.000 instalaciones (iOS no ofrece ningún intervalo de descarga por aplicación), lo que, aunque no representa un número muy grande, podría representar cantidades de datos personales exponencialmente más grandes si los contactos de los usuarios se sincronizaron con la aplicación donde serían recogidos por uCampaign.
vinculando uCampaign y la aplicación Conservative Campaigner directamente a la oficina de prensa del comité de DCMS, antes de la publicación de su informe, el 12 de junio, cuando escribimos:
La cuestión que nos preocupa aquí es que el partido conservador podría ser una fuente inconsciente de datos de orientación para organizaciones políticas rivales, a través de una aplicación que parece ofrecer casi ningún límite en lo que se puede hacer con los datos personales.
Antes de la última actualización de la aplicación Conservative Campaigner, la política de privacidad era simplemente la repetitiva uCampaign T & Cs, que permite al desarrollador compartir información personal de los usuarios de la aplicación (y contactos de la libreta de direcciones) ) con "otras organizaciones, grupos, causas, campañas, organizaciones políticas y nuestros clientes que creemos que tienen puntos de vista, principios u objetivos similares a nosotros.
Esto es increíblemente amplio.
(potencialmente cientos de personas por usuario) podrían pasar a múltiples organizaciones no identificadas sin el conocimiento o consentimiento. (Se crearon otras aplicaciones uCampaign para la NRA y, por ejemplo, para aborto.
Los términos y condiciones actuales también permiten el intercambio con proveedores estadounidenses.
Dadas las preocupaciones muy públicas de los comités sobre el acceso a los datos de personas con fines de orientación política Estoy ansioso por saber si el Sr. Collins tiene alguna preocupación sobre el uso de la infraestructura de la aplicación uCampaign del partido conservador?
Y aunque le preocupa la falta de una política sólida de protección de datos por parte de su propio partido para garantizar que los datos valiosos sobre el real no se transmitan simplemente a entidades desconocidas y no relacionadas, quizás al mismo tiempo. extranjero, quizás no, sin consideración o responsabilidad hacia las personas en cuestión. [19659009] Desafortunadamente, este correo electrónico (y un seguimiento) al comité de DCMS, que solicitaba una respuesta de Collins a nuestras inquietudes sobre privacidad, permaneció sin respuesta.
También vale la pena señalar que la propia política de privacidad del Partido Conservador (que ahora utiliza para su aplicación Campaigner) es bastante generosa con respecto a los permisos que concede para compartir los datos de los seguidores, incluida la declaración quién comparte datos con :
El partido conservador más grande
Socios comerciales y consejeros profesionales
Proveedores
Proveedores de servicios
Organizaciones financieras: como proveedores de tarjetas de crédito
Organizaciones políticas
Representantes electos
Organismos reguladores
Investigadores de mercado [19659045] Organizaciones sanitarias y de bienestar
Organismos encargados de hacer cumplir la ley
El organismo de control británico criticó recientemente a casi todos los partidos políticos del Reino Unido cuando se trata de administrar datos de votantes, alegando haber enviado cartas de advertencia a 11 partidos políticos y también emitió avisos que los obliga a aceptar auditorías de sus prácticas de protección de datos.
Claro que no es solo una compañía privada En los últimos años, la clase política se enfrenta a muchas preguntas embarazosas ya que los reguladores muerden dónde y cómo fluyen los datos.
Esta no es la única historia embarazosa: preocupaciones de privacidad de los datos relacionados con una aplicación de política "Tory". A principios de este año, el entonces ministro a cargo del informe digital, Matt Hancock, lanzó una aplicación auto-promocional y autofirmada dirigida a sus votantes para estar al tanto de las noticias en Matt Hancock MP.
Sin embargo, los desarrolladores de aplicaciones (Disciple Media) inicialmente ingresaron a la política de privacidad incorrecta y se vieron obligados a lanzar una versión modificada que no otorgaba derechos no específicos y extrañamente tónicos a los datos del usuario para el ministro, como por ejemplo, que la aplicación "podría divulgar su información personal al editor, la empresa de administración del editor, el agente, la empresa de derechos de autor, el & # 39; 39; la etiqueta de registro del editor o editor (según corresponda) y de cualquier otro tercero, que se utilizará junto con las promociones u ofertas adicionales de usuarios que pueden ejecutarse ocasionalmente o en relación con el venta de otros bienes y servicios ".
Por supuesto, la aplicación de Matt Hancock fue una iniciativa de relaciones públicas (y financiada por) un MP conservador individual, en lugar de una herramienta formal de campaña pagada o un partido conservador destinado a ser utilizado. por cientos (o incluso miles) de activistas del Partido para ser utilizados durante las campañas electorales.
Entonces, aunque hay dos problemas de privacidad relacionados con Tory, solo uno regresa a la organización política del Partido Conservador.
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ginobosio-blog · 7 years
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«My Immortal» es una canción interpretada por la banda de rock estadounidense Evanescence, compuesta por Ben Moody, Amy Lee y David Hodges, y producida por Dave Fortman y Moody. Inicialmente, la grabaron para su primer extended play, Evanescence (1998), pero no la incluyeron en la edición final. Luego, la volvieron a grabar para su primer álbum demo, Origin (2000). Tras firmar un contrato discográfico con Wind-up Records, la agrupación la incluyó en su primer álbum de estudio, Fallen y en su tercer extended play, Mystary, ambos de 2003. En diciembre de ese año, la compañía discográfica la publicó como el tercer sencillo de Fallen. Sin embargo, una grabación modificada, conocida como «versión de la banda», fue enviada a las radios en lugar de la del disco, por petición de los miembros de la agrupación. «My Immortal» es una power ballad en los géneros del rock gótico y el pop que trata sobre una persona atormentada por el fantasma de un ser querido. De acuerdo con Amy Lee, vocalista de la banda, la letra está basada en un cuento que Ben Moody escribió de adolescente y no está relacionada con ninguna experiencia personal. La canción tuvo una buena recepción por parte de los críticos musicales, quienes apreciaron su estructura y la voz de Lee. Además, recibió una nominación al premio Grammy a la mejor interpretación pop vocal por un dúo o grupo de 2005 y fue condecorada en los BMI Pop Awards de ese mismo año. Por otro lado, encabezó los listados de Canadá y Grecia y se ubicó entre las diez primeras posiciones de las listas de países como Australia, Estados Unidos, Italia y Reino Unido, en los que obtuvo certificaciones por sus altas ventas.. Para su promoción, Evanescence interpretó «My Immortal» en el programa Late Show with David Letterman y en los Billboard Music Awards de 2004. Asimismo, la incluyeron en el encore de sus tres giras, el Fallen Tour (2003), The Open Door Tour (2006–2007) y el Evanescence Tour (2011–2012). Por otro lado, fue utilizada en la película de 2003 Daredevil, así como en programas de televisión como Smallville y So You Think You Can Dance. Además, ha sido versionada por artistas como Gregorian, Lindsey Stirling y Andrea Begley. «My Immortal» es una power ballad de piano perteneciente a los géneros del rock gótico y pop. Según una partitura publicada por Alfred Music Publishing en el sitio web Musicnotes.com, está escrita en la tonalidad de la mayor y está interpretada en un tempo lento y libre de 80 pulsaciones por minuto. El rango vocal de la vocalista se extiende desde la nota la hasta do♯ Blair Fischer de MTV News comparó a la canción con la música de Enya. Por su parte, Adrien Begrand de PopMatters llegó a la conclusión de que Lee «hace su personificación de Sarah McLachlan y Tori Amos». La letra de «My Immortal» está basada en una historia corta que Moody escribió cuando era adolescente. «My Immortal» es considerada por algunos periodistas como una de las canciones más exitosas de Evanescence. ************************* "Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use"
(vía https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVWHyCnrX6s)
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