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Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Shhhh! Digital Media Presents: The Butterfly Dragon - Heroes of our Own Reimagined - Episode One - Alicia Westin



On the issue of authenticity

Authenticity, is essentially a word that has been commandeered against authors and other creators like myself whose character development and writing often includes characters of various other ethnicities. 

Authenticity is basically a way of attacking writers and other creatives, who create content that deals with people that are culturally or religiously different, or different in gender from the writer or content creator.

In other words, according to this social cult, writing a female character as a male is no longer couth or politically correct. Writing a Chinese character as a European Canadian is no longer couth or politically correct.

I'd say that writers according to this new social dialect have one of two choices:
  1. They can either every time they need to write a character different from themselves according to gender, culture or religion, that they hire a surrogate writer to write those parts for them.

  2. They can simply tell the cults wielding this new social dialect to stick it where the sun don't shine, and I don't mean the dark side of the moon or Antarctica.
Personally, I'd go with option 2 myself. The same thing I say to identity and content thieves and other parasites of that nature. They could use a good lesson in posterior anatomy.

If you don't appreciate what I've done for both women and Asian culture, then I'll gladly quit writing, and break all ties with your community in a heart beat. I'm definitely growing tired of being stabbed in the back by the very people I protected and promoted.

Brian Joseph Johns

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I'd like to point out that it was the incredible Gary Sinese Foundation that brought the issue of Veteran's rights to my attention. I've always had little respect for those who'd forget the great contribution made by those who've risked life and limb to defend those values that so many of us espouse. Perhaps the true measure of one's principles are by that for which they'd risk their life.

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In all truth, there's a good chance that thanks to the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Jonathan Swift, Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, Herbert George Wells, Jules Verne, Dr. Seuss, Stephen King, Clive Barker and Pierre Burton (for The Secret World Of Og and his ground breaking interview of Bruce Lee) that all of us are literate. Actually that goes back much farther to the Phoenecians and their first 22 character system of symbols. Literacy is important. Really it is. Literally. It allows us to approach our employer at the end of the week (with a big club) and ask: where my money?! Math important too. It help us count our thirteen fingers and toes.


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Shhhh! Digital Media Presents:

The Butterfly Dragon - Heroes of our Own: Reimagined

by Brian Joseph Johns

Episode One: Alicia Westin

Office Meeting
Six Years Ago
Toronto, Ontario, Canada


She sat uncomfortably in a chair in the office, a pair of pretty hands with long manicured and painted nails gripped her shoulders, keeping her securely in place. The rising sun now shone through the window behind them, overhead of both her and her captor, casting their shadows through the settling dust into the room.

She glanced to the desk before them where her red mask lay. Fragile. Helpless. Useless to her in her current circumstances. From there, her eyes wandered over to the left to the semi-circular portion of the large oak desk which had been notched out, as if someone had driven a sledge hammer through it precisely at the edge where its owner might have rested his wrists as he used the mouse for his computer. Miraculously, the low profile LCD panel monitor and computer to which it was connected had somehow managed to remain undamaged.

Beyond the desk, and on an adjacent wall, a credenza lay at an angle, upon its end, leaning precariously against the opposite wall from where it had once rested. A large crack creeping along its length as if someone had once wielded it as a crude club. Now it lay broken and discarded, like the baseball bat that had hit the game winning grand slam.

Not far from there, a large corner of the office that had once been its front hall, bore the impact of a body, still retaining the catcher's glove shape of an arched back. The studs behind the corner folded around this imaginary point while the floor around them was littered with chunks of drywall and ceiling debris.

Not much farther down from that point, the bathroom door to the ensuite lavatory was completely missing, for it was around the corner and forced into the shower, where the damaged walls were bent outwards, water still running from the broken faucet and the floor scattered with towels and toiletries.

Just outside of the bathroom and further down towards the far end of the office from where she was forcibly made to remain seated, the large oak door itself was cracked diagonally from corner to corner, just barely remaining in the door frame by its own balance, weight and the few wood fibres that held it together.

The morning light illuminated the cloud of still settling dust and debris, as if what had caused the catastrophe that had befallen the office had only just ceased moments earlier.

"If your hands are getting tired, you can relax your grip. Its not like I'm going anywhere..." the lady in the seat  addressed her captor.

"You've got that right, but I'm not releasing you. I know that you're a clever girl and a tricky one too, Alicia," her captor asserted, leaving the negotiatons open very much like the business professional she was and one who'd closed numerous business deals throughout the course of her early career.

"Girl Guide's honour?" Alicia held up her hand.

"You were a Girl Guide? I could see that," remarked her captor.

"It didn't last, but I've still got the booklet. Valerie, right?" Alicia responded.

"One and the same," Valerie responded curtly to Alicia.

"Sooo... how is it that an intelligent, business minded woman like you ends up with a guy like Torman?" asked Alicia of Valerie. 

At that point, at the front of the office, the doorknob slowly turned. The slight motion involved caused the entire door and part of the door frame to collapse onto the floor, revealing a handsome dark haired man of five foot ten in a fashionably classic suit with a briefcase in his hand. Miraculously, neither the door nor the door frame hit him as they fell.

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Valerie responded to Alicia's question.

"Good morning ladies. You two look remarkably well considering what obviously unfolded in here earlier," Torman stood in the doorway assessing the damage.

"Its not as bad as it looks," Alicia replied.

"Its worse," Valerie added an edge of sarcasm.

"Tell me, how is it that two adult women can in this day and age resort to violence in situations like this?" asked Torman of them.

"Well technically speaking, neither of us hit one another," Valerie replied.

"True. It was more either of us hitting the furniture or the walls or the bathroom. Even so, the formula healed us before you got here," Alicia added.

"Its still violence and something I assumed was far beneath you Alicia, though funny you should mention the formula because that's going to be the topic of our cosy little meeting here today," Torman stepped over the debris and destroyed door frame and walked over to a countertop on the adjacent wall from the bathroom to where a coffee maker set to auto-brew had just finished brewing a fresh pot of coffee.

"Can I get you ladies a cup of coffee?" he asked them, looking over to them for the first time since he'd arrived.

Alicia was a blonde haired, blue eyed beauty in her mid twenties with the physique of an olympic athlete. Her pink lips underlined her sculpted facial features and accented her cute yet sharp nose. Her toned body was quite visible even beneath her tight fitting black pants and red shirt, across the breast of which was inscribed the letters "NS" in a somewhat crude and simplistic manner. Over the shirt she wore an expensive looking black trench coat which fell down to her knees. It appeared to be quite weathered.

The woman standing in the chair behind Alicia and holding her in place, was equally one to behold, her long straight auburn hair framed a pale compact face, complete with her soft brown eyes and perfect complexion, a mole just east of her nose, accenting her deep red lips. She wore a stylish business suit, the top three buttons on her blouse open, and much like Alicia's trench coat, her suit was spotted with patches of dust and wear and tear given the events that had previously unfolded.

"Why don't you let Valerie, get that. Isn't that how you usually do things Torman?" asked Alicia of him, quickly doing away with his polite gentile routine.

"Heh heh heh... You are a funny one Alicia and clever from what I've heard. Now you know as well as I do why Valerie can't release you, but that doesn't mean that the three of us can't enjoy a cup of coffee together now, does it?" he put his briefcase down and pulled three cups from the cupboards just above the undamaged counter. The only untouched place in the entire office.

"So what does the NS stand for on your shirt? Nitwit Secretary?" asked Torman of Alicia.

"Nice Smile. Mine, so I've been told. One sugar, one creme please, secretary Torman," Alicia requested, both bluffing about the initials on her shirt and throwing Torman's insult right back at him.

"Very sharp wit. Your coffees are on their way," Torman responded as he stirred their coffees, then carrying them one in each hand over to his desk where they were currently situated.

"Not my desk too...?!!!" Torman got a glimpse of the gaping hole in his desk, nearest Alicia.

"It wasn't me...!"  Valerie quickly responded.

"Yeah, but you zigged when I thought you were going to zag..." Alicia responded to Valerie's having outted her as the culprit.

"What about the bathroom and shower? That was all your fault!" Valerie reminded her.

Alicia looked back towards Valerie, a scathing smirk on her face as she spoke:

"What was I supposed to do? You came at me with the bathroom door and that was just after you checked out your batting average on me with the credenza"

"The shower too?" Torman paused after having placed their coffees on the only unoccupied space on his desk given the lack of real estate thereupon.

"What about insurance? Wouldn't that cover this?" asked Alicia of them optimistically.

"There's no insurance coverage for something like this," Valerie replied to Alicia.

"Torman's a crook. I'm sure he'll figure out a way. I mean, he already figured out how to buy his way onto Tynan And Associates' board of directors, didn't he?" Alicia asked the two of them.

"I earned my way onto the board fair and square," Torman lied to them both as he finished making his coffee and returned to the desk.

"Ok. How are we going to do this?" asked Valerie of Torman.

"Get a firm hold of her, and pick her up from the chair. Walk around the desk to the other side, keeping her away from me. Put her in the guest chair and I'll get over to my chair and we can get this meeting under way," Torman advised Valerie on their relocation issue.

Valerie's hands slid down to the end of Alicia's shoulders, and then down her arms, pinning them both to her sides. Valerie then easily lifted Alicia up from the chair, keeping her legs facing away from her while walking around the desk, carefully avoiding Torman and ensuring that Alicia's legs were out of kicking distance from him as well. Torman then awkwardly made his way around to his desk and sat in his chair, placing his coffee on the desk and his briefcase beside him as Valerie sat Alicia in the guest chair across from him.

"Now. How many other people have you told about this formula of yours?" asked Torman of Alicia.

"None. I'm still trying to figure out how you found out about it?" Alicia responded, looking up to Valerie pleadingly.

"Hence why she was poking around here in the wee hours and exactly how I caught her," Valerie directed her attention at Torman, hoping that he'd acknowledge her having thwarted Alicia's corporate espionage.

Valerie loosened her grip, and Alicia immediately took advantage, kicking the desk and launching their coffees into the air, one hitting Valerie square in the face and scalding her, the other just narrowly missing Torman.

Alicia then launched herself into the air and through the window behind Torman, Valerie having lost her grip. She quickly scaled the side of the building using window ledges and flag poles and had almost escaped when she was suddenly back in the chair, Valerie with her grip firmly on her arms, Torman facing her, his eyes deadly serious. It was as if her escape attempt was only a dream, though she swore that she'd truly just escaped.

"That almost worked but as you can clearly see, I have countermeasures against that sort of thing. Don't try that again," Torman said to her with a fierce look in his eyes.

"How'd that happen...? I clearly got away...?!!!" Alicia asked him when she suddenly realized the truth.

"Her-cules behind me here obviously already used the formula. It appear that you used it too... You can somehow rewind time... like an instant replay..."  Alicia now knew that they'd had the formula for longer than she'd assumed.

"Who else did you tell about the formula Alicia?" Torman leaned back in the chair and put his legs up on the desk, taking a sip of his coffee.

"How did you find out about it in the first place?" asked Alicia of Torman.

"I'm the one asking the questions here!" Torman became angry momentarily, and Alicia could have sworn that she felt the entire building rumbling.

"Look, I just want to bring this miracle to the world, and you want to use it for your own personal gain. Ironic that you accused me of being a crook, when you're the one who has been galavanting around the city, stealing from and sabotaging local businesses," Torman asserted himself, then looking to Valerie, who seemed to throw him a skeptical glance.

"Valerie, you have no idea what she's been doing since she created this formula. She tested it on herself against Tynan policy. She's trying to fund her own research firm so she can steal the formula, when we can bring this to the world and make a change for the better. Cure Cancer. Muscular Dystrophy. Spinal Bifida and many other diseases," Torman said exactly what he knew that Valerie wanted to hear.

"He's lying! He's taking the words right from Walton Norler's mouth. I've been trying to bring down your corrupt network of thugs who've been facilitating your illegal hostile takeovers of struggling businesses for the last three years!" Alicia broke, never realizing that she was being played by Torman the entire time who'd just tricked her into revealing her playbook.

"She's been stealing from these companies to fund her own private firm, where she has plans to get rich, while ripping Tynan And Associates off of their formula!" Torman leaned forward in his desk, opening his briefcase and throwing a printed list of companies and various criminal statistics in Valerie's direction.

Valerie examined the list with one hand, keeping a hold of Alicia by the back of her neck with the other. 

What Torman didn't tell her was that these companies were his holdings. He'd acquired them all at extremely undervalued pricing. Well below market and projected value. According to the figures Valerie was seeing, it was as if the value of these companies suddenly dipped from a much higher projected net worth.

"These companies' values crashed just before you bought them...! That's a little circumspect, Torman," Valerie read between the lines.

"They crashed because of her sabotage. I rescued them when they were on the brink of folding. I revived them, saving them from the damage this woman caused to their value. She's trying to pass the blame off onto me, like I'm the ring leader of a network of criminal thugs," Torman explained to Valerie, who looked to him again, asking herself how she could question the man with whom she'd been romantically involved since her teen years.

"That's exactly what you are!" Alicia responded aggressively.

Valerie looked to Torman and then to Alicia, now disgusted that she'd been so easily tricked by someone that she barely knew.

"You had me fooled, Girl Guide!" Valerie turned her skepticism towards Alicia.

"Don't you see? He's playing you! He's been playing Tynan And Associates since he joined their investment strategist team and the board!" Alicia pleaded with Valerie, neither woman truly knowing the other.

"I rescued Tynan And Associates from the bear pit, and I'm going to see that the formula is going to reach the medical industry as the cure we project its going to be," Torman addressed both women, though only one of them was fooled.

"What are we going to do with her?" Valerie asked Torman.

"The only thing that we can do. I've made arrangements to rescind her into the custody of the SIA.  The Special Investigative Agency, and they'll bring her to justice with the material evidence I've accrued against her," Torman explained to Valerie.

"And where do I fit in?" asked Valerie.

"I'll need you to make sure she ends up in their hands, safely..." Torman assured her.

At that moment, a phone inside of the right pocket of his suit jacket began ringing.

He reached into the pocket with his left hand, and put the phone to his face and answered.

"Speaking," Torman responded.

"You have her?" asked a man with a deep and willful voice.

"Yes. She's secured. Ready for delivery," Torman assured the man on the other end of the phone.

"Good. Then bring her to Warehouse 3A at Port Pier near the waterfront. What about the formula?" asked the man with the deep voice.

"I don't have it yet. I'm going to bring that to you directly when I do," Torman advised him.

"Do you really think it wise to be taking such a risk when we're this close?" asked the man with the deep voice.

"I've got all of the bases covered," Torman assured him.

"She can't come with you. She's a liability," the man with the deep voice told him.

"I know," Torman held his hand over the phone, and blew Valerie a kiss.

"Everything's been arranged. We'll be taking Alicia to the Port Pier in the downtown just off of the Queen's Quay, to a warehouse, where we'll hand her off to the SIA..." Torman smiled at Valerie.

"And then we'll talk about those future plans we were discussing... Our engagement party? Our wedding?" Valerie reminded him.

"Yes. Absolutely. I wouldn't have you any other way," Torman smiled and returned to his phone conversation, holding up his index finger to Valerie, urging her to be patient.

"Be there in one hour and don't bring anyone else. We'll take care of them both at the same time," the man with the deep voice hung up and Torman pocketed the phone.

"Alicia, you're about to be learn what real justice is. Let's get going, Val. Be careful with her," Torman smiled at Alicia menacingly.

"What about my coffee?" asked Alicia.

"Bring it," Torman responded.

"What about the office?" asked Valerie as she carefully hefted Alicia from her chair.

"I've got a crew coming in today to get started on repairs. Should be finished in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, we can do most of our business from home," Torman lied, smiling as he packed up his briefcase.

"Does that mean we'll have some personal time together?" asked Valerie, as Alicia reached for her cup of coffee.

"Absolutely! We'll have plenty of time for each other," Torman lied again as he led the way through the rubble and wreckage and out to the elevators.

Alicia contemplated her situation and how she'd arrived at that moment, which knowing Torman, might be her last. She asked herself how life's path could lead to this, when all that she'd wanted to do was to use her smarts to do her part for the world. She started strolling through her memories in search of answers.

Clinical Psychology

Twenty Years Ago
Suburbia
Toronto, Ontario, Canada


"Mrs. Westin? Doctor Gordman is ready to see you and your daughter now," the receptionist announced to Theresa Westin, who gave the receptionist an unsettled smile in response.

"Alicia? Give me your hand," Theresa reached for her daughter's hand as Alicia discarded the PHD trade magazine through which she'd been reading, placing it carefully on the reception coffee table.

"Did you know that mitochondria are the fuel source for most cells in the body?" asked a twelve year old Alicia of her mother.

"I know that now. Thank you for sharing that with me," Theresa said as they followed the receptionist to Doctor Gordman's office.

"...and that cells reproduce by something called cellular mitosis. They literally split in two, meaning the quantity of their population can be generationally represented by a series of bits in a computer in powers of two..." Alicia continued explaining to her mother.

"Is that so? Then there must be a lot of them..." Theresa asked her daughter.

"...thirty to forty trillion of them according to latest estimates... that's a lot, isn't it mom?" Alicia replied, jumping happily as she responded.

"It is! I guess we won't be running out of them any time soon then, will we?" asked Theresa, knowing from experience how to engage her enthusiastic daughter.

"No. Can I count to forty trillion?" asked Alicia of her mother as they stepped through the door into the Doctor's office.

"You could, but it would take you close to four hundred thousand lifetimes to do so Alicia if you counted one every second," Doctor Gordman introduced himself to the two of them.

"Good to see you Doctor. How have you been?" asked Theresa of the older balding man in his middle fifties.

"I've been keeping well, and I hope that its the same for the two of you? Why don't you take a seat and make yourselves comfortable and we can discuss the test results," Doctor Gordman smiled at the two of them.

Theresa and Alicia each took a seat in front of Doctor Gordman's desk as he returned to the chair behind his desk and sat in it, leaning forward to examine Alicia's file.

"Is there a problem with her results?" asked Theresa of Doctor Gordman.

"That depends upon how you define the word problem. In terms of her learning ability, she's off of the charts. She's one smart cookie let me tell you. However, being a smart girl can sometimes lead to social problems, such as making new friends or having difficulty relating with people. But Alicia's just too darned sweet for that to happen, right?" Doctor Gordman smiled at Alicia.

"Right!" Alicia responded, giggling a bit at his remark.

"Well that would explain her social difficulties," Theresa responded, looking to Doctor Gordman and then to Alicia.

"Sometimes having too many friends can be a difficult thing. You've got to make time for every one of them you know, so sometimes its better to keep a few friends, with whom you're very close and I'd bet that Alicia will shine in that area, if she isn't already," Doctor Gordman responded.

"...or you could do something really good and nice for a lot of people at once, and then you'd have a lot of friends!" Alicia quickly caught on.

"Or you could do that, but why don't you start with one friend first, and then from there, you'll inevitably meet more people, though remember, that its just as much up to them to be a friend as it is to you, so don't ever sell yourself short Alicia," Doctor Gordman suggested to his little protegé.

"Never try to buy friends Alicia. They should like you for being you, and not for what you can give them," Theresa added, looking to her daughter.

"Is that all that's on your mind?" asked Doctor Gordman of Theresa.

"Well, keeping up with her can be a little troubling, but I'm doing my best," Theresa assured Doctor Gordman.

"She really should have little trouble at school, but her biggest hurdles are going to be having a healthy social life. Its rare having a gift like hers, and those who do often struggle with the social part of life. Especially in this day and age. Finding some way to balance her lifestyle and activities will definitely help," Doctor Gordman leaned back in his chair.

"Any suggestions about where we might begin?" asked Theresa.

"Why not do some things together as a family that are just about fun, like going to the park and playing badminton or frisbee together. Try something that's for all of you that doesn't involve so much thinking as much as it does doing. Encourage her to take part in the school activities with other children, and not just hang out by herself. I'm sure that Alicia would have a lot of fun, and so will you and Jack especially if you take some time for weekend outings together. Speaking of, say hi to Jack for me,"Doctor Gordman suggested, leaning forward towards his desk where he rested his elbows.

"I will. Thank you very much Doctor Gordman," Theresa stood and took Alicia's hand.

"Schedule another appointment in six months and let me know how things have been, and if you need anything before then, just give me a call. And you Alicia, you just keep on being the sweetheart that you are," Doctor Gordman followed them to the door and let them out.

After they'd scheduled a follow up appointment, they made their way back to Theresa's car. Alicia stopped to admire a butterfly that had followed them from the garden outside of the office building to the car.

"Can you help me find a friend?" Alicia asked the butterfly as it quietly perched on her finger.

The butterfly turned on her finger to face her, as if it was looking at her, and then it flew off into the air and back towards the garden.



Their First And Only

Nineteen Years Ago
A Suburban School Park
Toronto, Ontario, Canada


Alicia lay on the grass on her back, her best friend Leland lay beside her doing much the same. It was a sunny day during the summer break and the two of them did what they usually did on Saturday afternoons together, talking in the park.

Alicia had accrued a bit more baby fat as her mother had called it, and despite it marking her as a target for the torment of other school kids, she really didn't notice. She'd met Leland in the playground a year earlier (just after her visit to Doctor Gordman's) and they'd become best friends ever since.

Leland, though not quite as quick as Alicia was no slouch either. His grades were amongst the top of his class, though he often found himself having to work for it much more than his best friend, to whom it all seemed to come naturally.

Leland much like Alicia, was a bit of a science geek and like her, he often read science magazines and kept up with the sciences online. The two of them however liked to spend time out of doors together. They had both been shy when they were younger, and home bodies at that, lacking the confidence and motiviation to get outside and enjoy the world around them.

Since having become friends, their lives changed immensely, for they found that they both felt fearless when they were together. The world seemed to lose its intimidating edge, and what other people said about them didn't matter as much as it had when they were alone.

Their friendship wasn't so much a romance as it was a friendship in its purest sense, though the thought had occurred to them each at different times, though neither of them pursued any such avenue. Perhaps they loved what they had so much that they'd dare not risk it by complicating it. They'd seen many other things seemingly stable in their lives quickly fall apart by trying to improve them in some way. So they remained very close friends, and in fact, were the only friend the other ever had.

"Want to play a game?" asked Leland of Alicia as they watched the clouds change shape in the sky.

"Sure. What game?" asked Alicia, the warm breeze blowing over them.

"I don't know. I just made it up. Its called, the future. You tell me something about what you want to do in the future, and then we'll both look at the clouds to see if it gives us any clues about it," Leland explained his simple little game to her.

"Alright. I want to do something where I help people," Alicia spoke, keeping her first time playing this game to a very simple dream of hers.

They both stared at the clouds above them, and then Leland spotted what he thought looked like a nurse's hat which he quickly pointed out to Alicia.

"See! Right there!" Leland pointed up at the cloud formation.

"That's so cool! A nurse? I never thought about that. They help lots of people. Maybe something like a Doctor..." Alicia elaborated on her hopes of her future.

"Look at that one!" Leland pointed to a cloud formation that looked like a magnifying glass.

"That's like a banjo!" Alicia replied.

"Its a magnifying glass, silly," Leland corrected her.

"We're both right," Alicia corrected Leland.

"Well a magnifying glass is a lot closer to Doctor than a banjo..." Leland came at it from a different perspective.

"True, but you can't play Living Room by Tegan and Sara on a magnifying glass..." Alicia giggled and rolled over to face Leland.

"You got me there," Leland replied with a smile.

"What about you? Your future?" Alicia asked him, rolling over onto her front as she watched him closely.

"Its difficult..." Leland's voice trailed off.

"No it isn't. I mean, you have something you're dreaming of becoming when you're all grown up. Haven't you?" Alicia could have made some suggestions for him, but she wanted to hear it from him.

"I want to become a bird..." Leland stared at the sky as he watched a lone sparrow gliding through the wind.

"No. Seriously..." Alicia urged him.

"To fly free and away from our troubles here... all the way up to the sky..." he spoke solemnly and as if he'd found peace.

"That's not a future, Leland," Alicia giggled, kicking his shoe with her foot.

"It is for me. Its the perfect future..." a tear found the corner of Leland's eye and dripped down the side of his face and into his ear.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know you were so sensitive about the future. That was fun, but lets do something else that we can both play," Alicia suggested.

"Alicia?" Leland spoke as if he didn't hear her.

"Leland?" Alicia responded, still giggling.

"Would it be too much if I asked you for something?" asked Leland, still distant and his eyes toward the sky.

"Like what?" Alicia asked him.

"Something personal," Leland responded.

"and that is...?" Alicia continued grilling him for the answer.

"A kiss," Leland replied, his eyes focused above.

"I thought we weren't going to be like boyfriend and girlfriend...?" Alicia became very nervous and uncomfortable.

"We aren't. We're best friends, though if I could have a kiss from anyone in my future, it would be you..." Leland said to her, his eyes still focused on something distant.

"Then lets see where the future takes us..." Alicia suggested anticipation rather than impatience.

"We're living in the future Alicia, because it simply doesn't exist. Its our imagination and the future never comes unless we live it now," Leland reasoned with her.

"I don't understand..." Alicia looked to him, now confused.

"Please...?" Leland turned his head to look at her.

She became very nervous and shaky, as if suddenly smitten with stage fright and an intense fascination  with the idea all at the same time.

She positioned her lips just above his.

"Close your eyes," she said to him.

"You first," Leland replied.

Alicia closed her eyes, an angel's face just above his.

"Are your eyes closed?" she asked him.

"Yes," Leland lied, not wanting to miss a moment of her closeness to him.

She slowly lowered her lips to his and when they touched, it felt like heaven.

They remained lip-locked for seconds, before Alicia became overwhelmed and withdrew herself from him.

"Did I do something wrong?" asked Leland of her, his face pink and as flushed as hers.

"No. Its just too much for me at once..." Alicia replied, her eyes still closed.

"But at the same time, it was perfect..." she continued, keeping her eyes closed for a few seconds more before she opened them, taking in Leland's flushed face.

She lay her head on his chest and listened to the beating of his heart as the breeze gently caressed the two of them.

They knew not how long they lay in the field in the park, but it was the last time they ever did.

...

Three months had passed since their outing into the field at the school park and much had changed since that time.

Alicia wore her best dress as she sat in the corner chair drinking juice from a straw in her glass, her eyes red from her tears, which by that point had run dry. Across from her on the sofa were Leland's mother and father, one of them weeping and the other doing a much better job of hiding it. Alicia's mother sat on the sofa beside Leland's mother, doing her best to comfort them. Various relatives and friends of the family populated the house as they celebrated what little time in life their lost Leland had.

A little girl no more than five years old, one of Leland's cousins ran up to Alicia in her chair and spoke:

"What's Leukemia Alicia?" asked the little girl, knowing that if anyone had the answer it would be Alicia.

"Its... Its what took Leland away from us..." Alicia responded softly, fighting tears once again.

"Why...?" asked Leland's cousin.

Alicia realized how little she truly knew, for she had no answer to give.

"I don't know," Alicia responded, for the first time in her life.


To be continued in The Butterfly Dragon - Heroes Of Our Own Reimagined - Episode Two - Ai Yuanlin Ying


Credits and attribution:

Special Thanks To Rocket Fuel Lakeshore Blvd West, perhaps the best place in history to get a coffee, circa 2001-2004. Miss you all very much.

Artwork: Amy Wong, Wendy Pusey, Ghastly, Birdman, Brian Joseph Johns, Daz3D, Unreal Engine...

Tools: Daz3D, Corel Painter, Adobe Photoshop, Lightwave 3D, Blender, Stable Diffusion (Easy Diffusion distribution), InstantID, Sadtalker, Google Colaboratory, Microsoft Copilot (Windows 11), Hitfilm, PhotoPea (a great web based Photoshop stand-in if you're on a low budget or in a pinch), Borderline Obsession...

DeepSeek AI for suggestions on exercises to improve aspects of describing scene and settings with a more sensory focused grammar.

InstantID by: Wang, Qixun and Bai, Xu and Wang, Haofan and Qin, Zekui and Chen, Anthony. Research Paper Title: InstantID - Zero-shot Identity-Preserving Generation in Seconds.

Sadtalker by: Zhang, Wenxuan and Cun, Xiaodong and Wang, Xuan and Zhang, Yong and Shen, Xi and Guo, Yu and Shan, Ying and Wang, Fei.
Research Paper Title: SadTalker: Learning Realistic 3D Motion Coefficients for Stylized Audio-Driven Single Image Talking Face Animation.

Gratitude: Our Mentors, Senseis, Sifus, Sebomnims, lifetime inspirations, family, friends, the Nomads (ask Stanton about that one), the Music, the Movies, the Theatre, the Arts, ASMR, (both YouTube and Bilibili and the many other creators on those platforms), the Gaming and Developer communities and of course, the audience.

Martial Arts (in the words of real experts and at least one comedian): https://brucelee.com (home of the real Dragon and an entire family of inspirations), http://iwco.online International Wing Chun Organization (International presence of a very scalable intensity martial art, protected and developed by Shaolin Nun Ng Mui) and the alma mater of Jinn Hua's own specialized variation thereof, https://iogkf.com International Okinawan Goju-Ryu Karatedo Federation (even Hanshi had his teachers), https://itftkd.sport International Taekwondo Federation (Here there be Taegers), https://tangsoodoworld.com Tang Soo Do World (the path of Grandmaster Chuck Norris), https://www.aikido-international.org International Aikido Federation (how else would Navy Chef Steven Seagal liberate a Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier from a team of hijackers?), https://www.stqitoronto.com Shaolin Temple Quanfa Institute (The City Of Toronto's own Shaolin Temple), https://www.enterthedojoshow.com Master Ken's Ameri-Te-Do presence (If we can't laugh at ourselves, then we can at least laugh the loudest at others, and other Zen)

Magic (performance, illusion and perhaps the real thing): Magic Week Archive (I'm currently growing this section so stay tuned)

Special thanks to Aitrepreneur, Mickmumpitz, Hugging Face and the YouTube educational content producers, including those catering to the AI content production pipeline and of course AlphaSignal.

Shi Heng Yi Shaolin Training For Self Mastery 
A reknowned Sifu under whose tutelage you can study the theory and practical applications of the Shaolin Arts for health, physical and mental wellbeing in every day life

Shi Heng Yi Shaolin Training For Self Mastery 
A reknowned Sifu under whose tutelage you can study the theory and practical applications of the Shaolin Arts for health, physical and mental wellbeing in every day life

Jesse Enkamp: Karate Nerd
Jesse, a reknowned Sensei who runs his own dojo, explores the world of Martial Arts, traveling to many exotic locations to meet practitioners of a variety of different arts

Sensei Rokas: Martial Arts Journey
A reknowned Sensei of Aikido who in seeking to understand the roots of Aikido and its applications, seeks to stress test its effectiveness in a number of real world situations while studying its history

Seamus O'Dowd
An extensive growing archive Katas, Techniques and Waza (mostly Shotokan)

Iaido: Train For Katana Mastery Like Samurai 
The original weapons focused curriculum under which Samurai became masters of their art

Tapp Brothers Exercise For Better Motion 
Extensive courses for calisthenics and body strength, stamina and flexibility

Special thanks to Canva for inspiring other creators and giving them the tools

Special thanks to Captain Crunch and his wonderful sister!

Special thanks to Bandcamp for giving indie music artists a home under one roof

Something to give you perspective: The very first teacher had no formal education, didn't graduate and was self taught, but only because they had no other choice. We do.

This content is entirely produced in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at 200 Sherbourne Street Suite 701 under the Shhhh! Digital Media banner.

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