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Glad I grabbed the red rope for the second one, I'm pretty happy with how that jumps out compared to black.
Model: @thekaybunnie
Photography: @musingeye
Studio: @hudsonartstudio
Prints are available (see website or drop me a line)
Comments and constructive critique are welcome, publicly or privately.
Smugmug website (portfolio and print on demand)
Model Society portfolio (mostly art nudes)
Photo shoot with the cute and petite Marissa. What do you think of this tiny little thong she wrapped the shoot with?
Though the catalogue description implies this classical style building was in Limerick City, this Stereo Pairs image is going to take some identifying! Because, it is certainly not the railway station in Limerick City, nor any other railway station that I know of. And so we are left with the question(s): what and where is it, and is it still standing?
And we got our answer - very quickly - when Oretani Wildlife (Mike Grimes) identified this as Armagh Courthouse. And, despite a bombing in the 1990s (which seemingly shifted one of the columns "back a full 9 inches"), it is still standing...
Photographers: Frederick Holland Mares, James Simonton
Contributor: John Fortune Lawrence
Collection: Stereo Pairs Photograph Collection
Date: c.1860-1883
NLI Ref: STP_2877
You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie
Model Envy posing in just a sexy pair of panties on a table in the hotel. What do you think of this implied look? How about her toned amazing figure?
See more of Envy on her Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/NicolesOfficialModelingPage
A shoot a few months back with the lovely Kamryn. So what do you think of this sexy g-string she is wearing with nothing else but a smile?
Second photo shoot with the lovely, sexy, busty babe Nicole.
Follow her on Instagram to see a lot more amazing content!! @moparmodel_official
Super sexy Ashley in sexy bra and panty set.
Check out more of her awesome work on Instagram @ashleyfinkofficial
A shoot a few months back with the lovely Kamryn. So what do you think of this sexy g-string she is wearing with nothing else but a smile?
As the name implies, Diligentia II revisits the same inspirations and ideas about “persistence” that I touched upon with Diligentia I. For me, persistence is the ability to force yourself to keep going, even when numerous doubts and fears tell you otherwise.
In the composition here, the figures in white represent my doubts and fears, which, like the figures, are continuously lurking in the shadows and slowly stepping into light. The figure in black, on the other hand, represents my will and persistence. While he acknowledges the other figures, he is still positioned to move forward into the darkness.
Check out more from this series at: www.johnnytangphoto.com
Model Envy posing in just a sexy pair of panties on a table in the hotel. What do you think of this implied look? How about her toned amazing figure?
See more of Envy on her Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/NicolesOfficialModelingPage
A shoot a few months back with the lovely Kamryn. She picked out this cute and lacy pair of pink panties to model next...looks good in anything, right?
Implying that both persons are united. In place of "you and me" to show that all people are equal.
"Somos Reis"
Super sexy Ashley in sexy bra and panty set.
Check out more of her awesome work on Instagram @ashleyfinkofficial
A shoot a few months back with the lovely Kamryn. So what do you think of this sexy g-string she is wearing with nothing else but a smile?
A shoot a few months back with the lovely Kamryn. So what do you think of this sexy g-string she is wearing with nothing else but a smile?
They all look the same, dress the same way, use the same facial expressions and body language but each will tell you he's "doing his own thing" Interactions, mirroring consists of the parent imitating the infant's expressions while vocalizing the emotion implied by the expression. This imitation helps the infant to associate the emotion with their expression, as well as feel validated in their own emotions as the parent shows approval through imitation. Studies have demonstrated that mirroring is an important part of child and infant development. According to Kohut's theories of self-psychology, individuals need a sense of validation and belonging in order to establish their concepts of self. When parents mirror their infants, the action may help the child develop a greater sense of self-awareness and self-control, as they can see their emotions within their parent's faces. Additionally, infants may learn and experience new emotions, facial expressions, and gestures by mirroring expressions that their parents utilize. The process of mirroring may help infants establish connections of expressions to emotions and thus promote social communication later in life. Infants also learn to feel secure and valid in their own emotions through mirroring, as the parent's imitation of their emotions may help the child recognize their own thoughts and feelings more readily.When we meet others for the first time, we need to assess quickly whether they are positive or negative towards us, just as most other animals do for survival reasons. We do this by scanning the other person's body to see if they will move or gesture the same way we do in what is known as 'mirroring'. We mirror each other's body language as a way of bonding, being accepted and creating rapport, but we are usually oblivious to the fact that we are doing it. In ancient times, mirroring was also a social device which helped our ancestors fit in successfully with larger groups; it is also a left-over from a primitive method of learning which involved imitation.Additionally, individuals are likely to mirror the person of higher status or power within the situation. Mirroring individuals of higher power may create an illusion of higher status, or create rapport with the individual in power, thus allowing the person to gain favor with the individual in power. This mechanism may be helpful for individuals in situations where they are in a position of bargaining with an individual who possesses more power, as the rapport that mirroring creates may help to persuade the higher status individual to help the person of lower status. These situations include job interviews, other work situations such as requesting promotions, parent-child interactions, and asking professors for favors. Each of these situations involve one party who is in a more powerless position for bargaining, and another party who has the ability to fulfill the person of lower status's needs, but may not necessarily wish to. Thus, mirroring can be a useful tool for individuals of lower status in order to persuade the other party to relinquish goods or privileges for the lower status party.Mirroring generally takes place subconsciously as individuals react with the situation. Mirroring is common in conversation, as the listeners will typically smile or frown along with the speaker, as well as imitate body posture or attitude about the topic. Individuals may be more willing to empathize with and accept people whom they believe hold similar interests and beliefs, and thus mirroring the person with whom one is speaking may establish connections between the individuals involved.
One of the most noticeable forms of mirroring is yawning - one person starts and it sets everyone off. Dr. Robert Provine found that yawning is so contagious you don't even need to see another person yawn - the sight of a wide-open mouth is enough to do it. It was once thought that the purpose of yawning was to oxygenate the body but we now know that it's a form of mirroring that serves to create rapport with others and to avoid aggression - just as it also does for this pictured boat and yawning building.
Wearing the same outfit as another woman is a mirroring no-no. But if two men show up at a party wearing the same outfit, they could become lifelong friends.
Non-verbally, mirroring says 'Look at me; I'm the same as you. I feel the same way and share the same attitudes.' This is why people at a rock concert will all jump to their feet and applaud simultaneously or give a 'Mexican Wave' together. The synchronicity of the crowd promotes a secure feeling in the participants. Similarly, people in an angry mob will mirror aggressive attitudes and this explains why many usually calm people can lose their cool in this situation.
The urge to mirror is also the basis on which a queue works. In a queue, people willingly co-operate with people they have never met and will never see again, obeying an unwritten set of behavioral rules while waiting for a bus, at an art gallery, in a bank or side by side in war. Professor Joseph Heinrich from the University of Michigan found that the urges to mirror others are hardwired into the brain because co-operation leads to more food, better health and economic growth for communities. It also offers an explanation as to why societies that are highly disciplined in mirroring, such as the British, Germans and ancient Romans successfully dominated the world for many years. Mirroring the other person's body language and appearance shows a united front and doesn't let either get one-up on the other
Mirroring makes others feel 'at ease'. It's such a powerful rapport-building tool that slow-motion video research reveals that it even extends to simultaneous blinking, nostril-flaring, eyebrow-raising and even pupil dilation, which is remarkable as these micro-gestures cannot be consciously imitated.
Creating the Right Vibes
Studies into synchronous body language behavior show that people who feel similar emotions, or are on the same wavelength and are likely to be experiencing a rapport, will also begin to match each other's body language and expressions. Being 'in sync' to bond with another person begins early in the womb when our body functions and heartbeat match the rhythm of our mother, so mirroring is a state to which we are naturally inclined.
When a couple are in the early stages of courtship it's common to see them behave with synchronous movements, almost as if they are dancing. For example, when a woman takes a mouthful of food the man wipes the corner of his mouth; or he begins a sentence and she finishes it for him. When she gets PMT, he develops a strong desire for chocolate; and when she feels bloated, he farts.
When a person says 'the vibes are right' or that they 'feel right' around another person, they are unknowingly referring to mirroring and synchronous behavior. For example, at a restaurant, one person can be reluctant to eat or drink alone for fear of being out of sync with the others. When it comes to ordering the meal, each may check with the others before ordering. 'What are you having?' they ask as they try to mirror their meals. This is one of the reasons why playing background music during a date is so effective - the music gets a couple to beat and tap in time together. Mirroring on a Cellular Level
American heart surgeon, Dr Memhet Oz, reported some remarkable findings from heart recipients. He found that, as with most other body organs, the heart appears to retain cellular memories, and this allows some patients to experience some of the emotions experienced by the heart donor. Even more remarkably, he found some recipients also assume the same gestures and posture of the donor even though they have never seen the donor. His conclusion was that it appears that the heart cells instruct the recipient's brains to take on the donor's body language. Conversely, people suffering from disorders such as autism have no ability to mirror or match the behavior of others, which makes it difficult for two-way communication with others. The same goes for drunk people whose gestures are out of sync with their words, making it impossible for any mirroring to occur.
Because of the phenomenon of cause and effect, if you intentionally assume certain body language positions you will begin to experience the emotions associated with those gestures. For example, if you feel confident, you may unconsciously assume the Steeple gesture to reflect your confidence, but if you intentionally Steeple you will not only begin to feel more confident, others will perceive that you're confident. This, then, becomes a powerful way to create a rapport with others by intentionally matching their body language and posture.
Mirroring Differences Between Men and Women
Geoffrey Beattie, at the University of Manchester, found that a woman is instinctively four times more likely to mirror another woman than a man is to mirror another man. He also found that women mirror men's body language too, but men are reluctant to mirror a woman's gestures or posture - unless he is in courtship mode.
When a woman says she can 'see' that someone doesn't agree with the group opinion she is actually 'seeing' the disagreement. She's picked up that someone's body language is out of sync with group opinion and they are showing their disagreement by not mirroring the group's body language. How women can 'see' disagreement, anger, lying or feeling hurt has always been a source of amazement to most men. It's because most men's brains are simply not well equipped to read the fine detail of others' body language and don't consciously notice mirroring discrepancies.
Men and women's brains are programmed differently to express emotions through facial expressions and body language. Typically, a woman can use an average of six main facial expressions in a ten-second listening period to reflect and then feed back the speaker's emotions. Her face will mirror the emotions being expressed by the speaker. To someone watching, it can look as if the events being discussed are happening to both women.
A woman reads the meaning of what is being said through the speaker's voice tone and his emotional condition through his body language. This is exactly what a man needs to do to capture a woman's attention and to keep her interested and listening. Most men are daunted by the prospect of using facial feedback while listening, but it pays big dividends for the man who becomes good at it.
Some men say 'She'll think I'm effeminate!', but research with these techniques shows that when a man mirrors a woman's facial expressions as she talks she will describe him as caring, intelligent, interesting and attractive.
Men, on the other hand, can make fewer than a third of the facial expressions a woman can make. Men usually hold expressionless faces, especially in public, because of the evolutionary need to withhold emotion to stave off possible attack from strangers and to appear to be in control of their emotions. This is why most men look as if they are statues when they listen.
The emotionless mask that men wear while listening allows them to feel in control of the situation, but does not mean men don't experience emotions. Brain scans reveal that men can feel emotion as strongly as women, but avoid showing it publicly.
What to Do About It if You're Female
The key to mirroring a man's behavior is in understanding that he doesn't use his face to signal his attitudes - he uses his body. Most women find it difficult to mirror an expressionless man but with males this is not required. If you're a woman, it means that you need to reduce your facial expressions so that you don't come across as overwhelming or intimidating. Most importantly, don't mirror what you think he might be feeling. That can be disastrous if you've got it wrong and you may be described as 'dizzy' or 'scatterbrained'. Women in business who listen with a more serious face are described by men as more intelligent, astute and sensible.
When Men and Women Start to Look Alike
When two people live together for a long time and have a good working relationship, they often begin to look alike. This is because they are constantly mirroring each other's facial expressions, which, over time, builds muscle definition in the same areas of the face. Even couples who don't look facially similar can appear similar in a photograph because they use the same smile.
n 2000, psychologist Dr John Gottman of the University of Washington, Seattle, and his colleagues, discovered that marriages are more likely to fail when one partner not only does not mirror the other's expressions of happiness, but instead shows expressions of contempt. Instead, this opposite behavior affects the smiling partner, even when they are not consciously aware of what is happening.
Do We Resemble Our Pets?
You can also see mirroring occur in the pets some people choose. Without realizing it, we unconsciously tend to favor pets that physically resemble us, or that appear to reflect our attitudes. To demonstrate the point, here are a couple of examples: too far and presume that our model of body language and social interpretation applies to a dog's body language.
Be careful however not to extrapolate the metaphor too far and presume that our model of body language and social interpretation applies to a dog's body language.
Monkey See, Monkey Do
The next time you attend a social function or go to a place where people meet and interact, notice the number of people who have taken the identical gestures and posture of the person with whom they're talking. Mirroring is the way one person tells another that he is in agreement with his ideas and attitudes. One is non-verbally saying to the other, 'As you can see, I think the same as you.' The person with the highest status often makes the first moves and the others copy, usually in pecking order.
In the image above it is apparent by virtue of the facial expressions and other body language that there is a good rapport between the US President's wife Michelle Obama, of informally superior status, and a university president. If Michelle changes her body posture, one might expect there is a reasonably good chance the gentleman will unconsciously emulate her posture, indirectly demonstrating they are of the same mind. Mirroring happens among friends or between people of the same status and it is common to see married couples walk, stand, sit and move in identical ways. Albert Scheflen found that people who are strangers studiously avoid holding mirror positions.
Matching Voices
Intonation, voice inflection, speed of speaking and even accents also synchronize during the mirroring process to further establish mutual attitudes and build rapport. This is known as 'pacing' and it can almost seem as if the two people are singing in tune. You will often see a speaker beating time with his hands while the listener matches the rhythm with head nods. As a relationship grows over time, the mirroring of the main body language positions becomes less as each person begins to anticipate the other's attitudes, and vocal pacing with the other person becomes a main medium for maintaining rapport.
Never speak at a faster rate than the other person. Studies reveal that others describe feeling 'pressured' when someone speaks more quickly than they do. A person's speed of speech shows the rate at which their brain can consciously analyze information. Speak at the same rate or slightly slower than the other person and mirror their inflection and intonation. Pacing is critical when attempting to make appointments by telephone because voice is your only communication medium.
Intentionally Creating Rapport
The significance of mirroring is one of the most important body language lessons you can learn because it's a clear way in which others tell us that they agree with us or like us. It is also a way for us to tell others that we like them, by simply mirroring their body language.
If a boss wants to develop a rapport and create a relaxed atmosphere with a nervous employee, he could copy the employee's posture to achieve this end. Similarly, an up-and-coming employee may be seen copying his boss's gestures in an attempt to show agreement when the boss is giving his opinion. Using this knowledge, it is possible to influence others by mirroring their positive gestures and posture. This has the effect of putting the other person in a receptive and relaxed frame of mind, because he can 'see' that you understand his point of view. Before you mirror someone's body language, however, you must take into consideration your relationship with that person. Let's say, for example, a corporate employee has asked for a pay rise and is called into his manager's office. The employee enters the office, the manager asks him to sit down and assumes the Catapult with a Figure-Four showing the employee a superior, dominant attitude. But what would happen if the subordinate then instinctively copied the manager's dominant body language while discussing the potential salary increase? A boss might perceive a subordinate's mirroring behavior as being pushy or impertinent
Even if the employee's manner of speaking and phrasing was typical of a subordinate, the manager could feel affronted by the employee's body language, placing the employee's pay increase request in doubt and perhaps posing a threat to his future promotability. Mirroring is also effective for intimidating or disarming people who deem themselves 'superior' and try to take control of situations. Accountants, lawyers and managers are notorious for using superiority body language clusters around people they consider inferior. By mirroring, you can disconcert them and force a change of position. But never do it to the boss. Through mirrored multi-tasking, these business associates are taking their minds off what can seem an awkward encroachment on their personal zones.
Who Mirrors Whom?
Research shows that when the leader of a group assumes certain gestures and positions, subordinates will copy, usually in pecking order. Leaders also tend to be the first of a group to walk through a doorway and they like to sit on the end of a sofa, table or bench seat rather than in the center. When a group of executives walks into a room, the person with the highest status usually goes first. When executives are seated in the boardroom, the boss usually sits at the head of the table, often furthest from the door. If the boss sits in the Catapult, his subordinates are likely to copy in order of their importance within the group You can see this in a meeting where people 'take sides' with others by mirroring their body language. This lets you see who will vote with you and who will vote against you.
Mirroring is a good strategy to use if you are part of a presentation team. Decide, in advance, that when the team spokesperson makes a gesture or takes a posture when speaking, the entire team will mirror. This not only gives your team the powerful appearance of being cohesive, it can frighten the hell out of competitors who suspect something is up, even though they can't quite figure out what it is. When presenting ideas, products and services to couples, watching who mirrors whom reveals where the ultimate power or final decision-making ability lies. If the woman makes the initial movements, however small, such as crossing her feet, lacing her fingers or using a Critical Evaluation cluster and the man copies, there is little point in asking him for a decision - he doesn't have the authority to make it. When we rub both of our eyes simultaneously, it is as if we are telling our psyches, "I wish I never saw that", or "I can't believe he did that". We are trying to wipe it from our minds. People will also display this body language tell when recalling a past event in the "mind's eye".
Group Mirroring
It happens on fall season Sundays in American football stadiums around the country. Suddenly, 50,000 individuals became a single unit, almost a single mind, focused intently on what was happening on the field - that particular touchdown grab or dive into the end zone. Somehow, virtually simultaneously, each of those 50,000 people tuned into what the other 49,999 were looking at.
Becoming part of a crowd can be exhilarating or terrifying: The same mechanisms that make people fans can just as easily make them fanatics. And throughout human history we have constructed institutions that provide that dangerous, enthralling thrill. The Coliseum-like stadiums that host American football games or soccer games throughout the world are, after all, just modern knockoffs of the massive theater that housed Roman crowds cheering their favorite gladiators 2,000 years ago.
In fact, recent studies suggest that our sensitivity to crowds is built into our perceptual system and operates in a remarkably swift and automatic way. In a 2012 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, A.C. Gallup, then at Princeton University, and colleagues looked at the crowds that gather in shopping centers and train stations.
In one study, a few ringers simply joined the crowd and stared up at a spot in the sky for 60 seconds. Then the researchers recorded and analyzed the movements of the people around them. The scientists found that within seconds hundreds of people coordinated their attention in a highly systematic way. People consistently stopped to look toward exactly the same spot as the ringers.
The number of ringers ranged from one to 15. People turn out to be very sensitive to how many other people are looking at something, as well as to where they look. Individuals were much more likely to follow the gaze of several people than just a few, so there was a cascade of looking as more people joined in.
In a study in Psychological Science, Timothy Sweeny at the University of Denver and David Whitney at the University of California, Berkeley, looked at the mechanisms that let us follow a crowd in this way. They showed people a set of four faces, each looking in a slightly different direction. Then the researchers asked people to indicate where the whole group was looking (the observers had to swivel the eyes on a face on a computer screen to match the direction of the group).
Because we combine head and eye direction in calculating a gaze, the participants couldn't tell where each face was looking by tracking either the eyes or the head alone; they had to combine the two. The subjects saw the faces for less than a quarter of a second. That's much too short a time to look at each face individually, one by one.
It sounds impossibly hard. If you try the experiment, you can barely be sure of what you saw at all. But in fact, people were amazingly accurate. Somehow, in that split-second, they put all the faces together and worked out the average direction where the whole group was looking.
In other studies, Dr. Whitney has shown that people can swiftly calculate how happy or sad a crowd is in much the same way.
Other social animals have dedicated brain mechanisms for coordinating their action - that's what's behind the graceful rhythms of a flock of birds or a school of fish.
Summary
Mirroring someone's body language makes them feel accepted and creates a bond and is a phenomenon that occurs naturally between friends and people of equal status. Conversely, we make a point of not mirroring those we don't like or strangers, such as those riding with us in a lift or standing in the queue at the cinema.
Mirroring the other person's body language and speech patterns is one of the most powerful ways to build rapport quickly. In a new meeting with someone, mirror his seating position, posture, body angle, gestures, expressions and tone of voice. Before long, they'll start to feel that there's something about you they like - they'll describe you as 'easy to be with'. This is because they see themselves reflected in you. A word of warning, however: don't do it too early in a new encounter as many people have become aware of mirroring strategies. When someone takes a position you have one of three choices - ignore it, do something else or mirror it. Mirroring pays big dividends. But never mirror a person's negative signals.
westsidetoastmasters.com/resources/book_of_body_language/...
“Welcome, dear guests,” said the Mole who was sitting on the right and was probably the Right Mole.
“Sit down,” said the Left Mole.
Iria and her friends sat down on the stools that stood on their side of the table.
The brothers looked at Iria carefully, and Alice did not like their looks at all. They were predatory, wolfish. In front of the twins there were large jugs from which they poured some brown liquid into their mugs. And it was unlikely that it was kvass.
© Kir Bulychev, 1988 - The City Without Memory - Chapter 11 The Moles got angry
I bet this is a book you never heard of, because it has never been translated into English (what a pity)! :) Let me introduce you to my favorite book from the Alice (Alisa) Seleznyova series by Russian writer Kir Bulychev, "The City Without Memory", which is a direct sequel to "The End of Atlantis" (but much more interesting!), with some recurring characters from "Gai-do".
You probably know who Alice is, if you ever heard of "Alice and the Mystery of the Third Planet" - the English dubbing of Soviet animated feature film "The Secret of the Third Planet" (1981), for which she was voiced by Kirsten Dunst. Or maybe you heard of "Guest from the Future" (1985) Soviet TV miniseries, it was really popular in USSR.
In the sci-fi book series, Alice is a girl from the distant utopian future (2080s), in which there are no more states (it's implied that the Soviet Union has gone on to encompass the globe), no more illnesses (except the flu), no more shortage of anything, and no private property. Science has improved humans, making them smarter, stronger and healthier, and there are robots, flying cars, faster than light spaceships, time travel, language-learning devices (makes people fluent in 1 hour!) and more. Alice is a daughter of a space zoologist, and she wants to be one herself, so she travels a lot and had many adventures on Earth and other planets (and in other times), including fighting space pirates, saving planets from various threats, meeting fairy-tale characters and more. She had various age in different books (the series is quite messy in terms of chronology), with the oldest age being thirteen, like in this book.
I will explain what the book is about in the text below, but it's so interesting and I'm so obsessed with the story of those characters, that it's quite a longread (sorry!). So I'll tell about the background of the picture first. :)
I had a series of six books about Alice, each one included a 2-3 full-length novels or a bunch of short stories, written between 1965 and 1989. I guess it was a complete edition of all Alice books which were written at the time (the books were bought by my grandparents for my father), but the series was continued, and I have never read any of 90s-00s books about Alice. The books I had were illustrated by Yevgeniy Migunov, and this picture is actually my attempt to build a scene depicted by him (for some reason he forgot to remove space helmets, which contradicts the text), but with a different viewpoint, because I'm really proud of my versions of Alice, Iria and Pashka, so I couldn't make my tribute to famous Alice Seleznyova with only her back visible. :)
But why this scene? Because it is an only illustration which allows me to make a double tribute - to Alice, my childhood hero, and to the Mole brothers. Yeah, they're bad guys - this is actually a scene when they're going to tell Iria they suddenly decided to marry her because she's the most beautiful woman (and they not ask, they demand - like father, like sons) and they're going to throw the dice to decide which brother will marry her. Even little me knew it was very wrong, and I hated them for it (despite the fact their wish wasn't granted), but hear me out - the wolf helmets! Little me was looking to this one and few other illustrations with Moles for hours, and I thought that this is a coolest costume EVER! :D Like, seriously, how badass it would be to wear a wolf head on a head! (hmm, maybe that's why I have not just one, but two partial realistic fursuits now xD)
So I waited for ages for this, and when Lego finally released a modern beautiful version of the Wolfpack bandit - the Beastmaster (they released a thief in 10332 before, but he's hard to find), I knew at last I'll be able to show their cool outfits and tell the story of those legendary warriors! :) Well, they really had a well-written backstory, like every villain should. By the way, they became good six years later in the book's epilogue, they work as forest rangers now.
There should be more candles - they had a reason in the book to have candles literally everywhere in the castle - especially on the wall (which shouldn't be visible that much according to my idea, but then I realised I couldn't just show Alice's back, we need to see her face - or this picture is no better than any other with Moles and without her), but I ran out of LED dot lights for candles. Actually there is one candle on the table unseen because of the main characters and two more candles out of the frame, but at the point when I saw it, I wasn't able to disassemble a wall to move those candles elsewhere, because it would move the LEDs of other candles, and I had troubles attaching them. The red and white colors of Alice outfit and her hair are based on her canon look from the animation film I mentioned in the beginning. And if you look closer, you'll notice that Moles wear their boots in a canon way as well. XD Now to the book!
"The City Without Memory" starts with a first ever expedition from Earth to planet Krina, the homeworld of an advanced civilization, who secretly sent a group of scientists to Earth 300 years ago (from Alice's time, so late XVIII century) to watch and study how our civilization develops, which was an easy task, because Krinians live a few centuries, despite otherwise looking human. But 250 years ago the group suddenly lost all contact with their planet, and they had to pose as Atlanteans since, until they were rescued by Alice and her friend Pashka (Pavel) Geraskin in the previous book "The End of Atlantis". The expedition was meant to return the stranded scientists back home and to solve a mystery why no one on Earth, now also an advanced space-travelling civilization, as well on other developed planets, has ever heard of Krina, and why it doesn't respond on multiple current attempts to contact it. But when their ship began to descend over the planet, it disappeared...
Someone has to do something, but it would took weeks or even months until the space equivalent of UN approves the rescue expedition (sounds familiar, doesn't it?). Alice can't wait in uncertainty, wondering what happened to her Krinian friends. So with the help of Iria Gai, her sentient genius spaceship Gai-do (both debuted in the book "Gai-do") and Pashka she started her own rescue mission. Iria is a badass daughter of a genius inventor from planet Vester, who wanted a son, so he raised her to be an expert in spaceships, other machinery, martial arts, shooting, etc, and who built Gai-do for and with her. Now Iria is happily married to Tadeusz Sokol, who she once saved, lives in Poland and raises their daughter Wanda, but Tadeusz was sent as a crew member to Krina on the ship that disappeared, so she's eager to rescue him (again).
Long story short, when Alice and friends land on Krina (losing Gai-do in the process - he had to redirect all energy to keep a force field, which allowed them to land safely, but he burnt all fuel for it, and had to be grounded until someone would bring him a fuel from the lost ship), they discover a dystopian medieval society built on a ruins of once a great civilization, with no one of locals having any idea that they once traveled to the stars. They don't even remember the meaning of many words and falsely attribute them to wrong things! Alice and team found the lost ship of the first expedition, crash-landed in the wood, with the door teared from the inside, and the signs that the crew left it taking nothing with them, not even their suits for setting foot on the unknown planet or beloved talisman. Then the team had to watch the death of their former "Atlantean" friend from that ship, who didn't recognize any of them and seemed to be mad (actually he lost all his memory). This mean the things got serious - this is the first time in overall light-hearted Alice series when an important character from the other book got killed for real. Usually there were just Disney deaths for some villains...
Later Alice and friends learned that all the knowledge and education are forbidden and punishable by memory loss (on this planet there are pits with a fog, which made ones who fell into them to forget everything they know), because only a special caste called the wisemen can know the meaning of words. But there are a group of rebels called the rememberers ("pomnik(s)" in the original), who live in the Shelter and kidnap children. The people think they do it to eat them, but actually they teach them (that's how they grow new rememberers). There are some noble feudals called the bows ("poklon(s)" in the original - meaning a deep bow) and the priests of oblivion called the tasters ("vkushetz(s)" in the original - a clever wordplay, because a pagan priest is pronounced "zhretz" in Russian, which sounds close to a rude, but not obscene equialent of the verb "to eat" - "zhrat", and there is also a posh and obsolete equialent of "to eat" and "to taste" - "vkushat"). The world described in the book is very interesting, and always fascinated me in the childhood.
But back to Alice and friends! On their way through the forest they got kidnapped by the atani pygmies, who later mistook Iria for their goddess the White Mistress (who is actually a statue of a book reader) come alive. Iria plays along with the role, demanding pygmies to untie her and friends, and bring their hi-tech belts and other belongings back, but they don't understand the language, so they call their interpreter Very-Mery. Just a few minutes later it turned out that Very-Mery is actually a traitor to his own kind, who gave a tip to his master, a forest baron Left Mole for him and his men to raid the pygmy village and drive them into slavery (which he did many times with other villages). Left Mole, the bow, mistakes Iria for the bow, so she, Alice and Pashka were escorted to the Moles family castle, which is actually an old observatory. There they had to wait in the tower, where they meet Mole's younger sister, sixteen year old Squirrel, who tells them about her family.
Her father was Old Mole, the terror of the forests, a bandit and a murderer like few others, and a domestic tyrant. When he was young, he found an abandoned observatory on the hill in the forest while pursuing a deer, so his band moved to it. Later they build a wall around it, and he claimed it his castle, which meant that he is no more the forest robber, but the bow. He was called Mole because there was a special tradition of naming children - the parents have to pay the wisemen to choose a beautiful name for the kid, and the wiseman who named him sold to his grandfather a picture of this animal along with the name. So he and his men wore the heads of this mighty forest predator as their helmets. Actually, of course, it was a wolf, but the wisemen thought that wolf is called mole, and only the wisemen has the right to know the meaning of the words, so no one knew they were wrong.
Once Mole visited the City and saw Centipede, a beautiful daughter of the taster of the church of the Saint Centipede. He swore she will become his wife. He counted on the help of a young pygmy Very-Mery, who was just a kid when Mole raided his village and caught his tribe to be slaves, but the smart kid escaped the dungeon, run to Mole and told him where their tribe's treasure cache is. Now a spy for Mole, Very-Mery befriended the slaves of the taster and got wind that Centipede is going to visit her aunt Hackle-Woodlice, a sorceress and prophet, on the River Island, and that she left on a small ship with a small guard, because it's harvest time, during which peace is established. But bandit Mole didn't care about traditions, so he called his band and on the night they killed the guards and kidnapped Centipede. Only one guard survived and ran to the city to tell Lord Radiculitis (the ruler of this land, for whom the bows are vassals) what happened, Lord's anger and the anger of the tasters was terrible. He sent a whole army which besieged the Mole's castle for three days. Mole lost one eye, he ran out of arrows, his men who survived were injured and barely could stay on their feet. But besiegers had no idea of any of that, and when the great taster died during the final assault, his army retreated. Poor bride Centipede waited for somebody to rescue her, but no one came.
A year after that the twins were born, and Centipede sent a messenger with great gifts to the wisemen, but they were too afraid of the anger of the Lord Radiculitis and the tasters, so they refused to gave any names, and she had to name kids after their father - Left Mole and Right Mole. At least a sorcerer Hackle-Woodlice was happy with the gifts received, so she made a prophecy, that the twins will never quarrel or separate if they wear only one boot each: Left Mole - the right boot, Right - the left. And they did it, even during the winter, though at first few years they caught colds often, but later they got used to it. Their boots are the only way to identify them, because they look exactly the same.
The twins grew cruel, their father would bring them forest birds and animals and forced his sons to torment them. When he left the room, their mother rescued those poor creatures to nurture them and release back into the wild, and explained to her sons that animals should be loved. Because of that the twins obeyed either their father or their mother, depending on what was necessary at the moment. They were afraid of their father, because in anger he could beat them cruelly, but they loved their mother in their own way, because she fed them and looked after them.
Once Centipede and the twins were on a walk around the castle's hill, when they saw a wounded female unicorn with two little twin foals. It was a miracle - the unicorns lived deep in the impassable forests, they rarely were seen by humans, and no one could tame them because they died in captivity. A dying unicorn looked like she was trying to talk, like if she was asking Centipede to take care of her foals, and Centipede promised so. The servants who saw the scene from the wall, sent for Old Mole, who decided to made a stuffed unicorn out of the deceased body, and take foals to the city to sold them for a large amount of money. But even though Centipede was afraid of her wild husband, she was brave enough to tell him it's better to raise the foals for the twins (Mole and his men rode on deers), and the boys supported her, so he gave up his idea. The foals grew like brothers to the boys, and they could even understand what unicorns are saying, but each brother could understand only their own unicorn. When Lord Radiculitis heard of the real unicorns living happily in the Moles castle, he offered any amount of money for them, but the proud Old Mole refused. Then Lord called for the second campaign to conquer the castle, but the war for the straits has started, so he no longer had time to deal with a stubborn vassal.
At some point after the fateful meeting with the unicorns, the daughter of Old Mole was born, but nobody cared for her (except for her mother), and she didn't even get a beautiful name (by local standards) - she was named Squirrel. She was beaten with the belt by her father, who thought that she was odd because her mother met the Sullen Crone in the forest in a year when she was born, which is a bad sign (one who met her would never be happy), so Squirell ran away from him into the forest and disappeared there for several days. She was also abused by her brothers, so she grow wild, closed, with no social skills and clearly traumatized (as I realised while re-reading book as an adult, but that's the story for another time).
The twins grew up and became young bandits, brave and cruel, feared by everyone. Many times they were ambushed by the rememberers, faced the hordes of pygmies wanting to kill them, fought the squads sent by neighboring bows, but there were no better fighters in the world than the Mole brothers, and there were no animal faster and smarter than their unicorns. Later Old Mole get lost when pursuing some animal, alone, without guards, and fell into the pit where the spirit lives, who takes the memory away. When he was found by his sons, he recognised no one, and he was so emaciated, so afraid of everyone, and saw nightmares so horrible that he hanged himself in the castle's tower. As the time went on, everybody forget that Old Mole was just a forest bandit, so his kids were considered real bows (but still looked down by more noble families, who could remark that the twins were bows in a first generation), and along with other barons and bows they were invited to join the army of Lord Radiculitis in his great campaign to conquer the Shelter of the rememberers. Very-Mery was the one carrying this news when he learned where the pygmies are going to host their annual festival, so he told his masters about it, and this was how Left Mole met Alice and friends in the forest.
That's enough, I think. :) Now you know who those characters are, but not what happened later in the scene and in the book. There were quite a lot of adventures in a medieval world - that's why I liked the book so much. I hope you enjoyed my picture and story!
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