If you've only read the March 21st version, I highly suggest that you read through the entire episode thus far, as I've added a prologue that is somewhat important to the overall plot, but also as it ties in with the story so far. The best stuff is yet to come, but what is here so far is definitely on par with what I'd expect from a classic Butterfly Dragon story.
Do you want to be a fashion or outfit designer?
You are an inspired student of Wing Tsun who has ascended to protect the teachings of your temple...
You are a champion martial artist, representing your fellow humanity in an eternal competition to the death... FIGHT and Finish him!
Want to pick your champion and style and then bout against the other greats of martial arts?
Play Shaolin versus Wutang [On Steam]
Play Kings of Kung Fu [On Steam]
Wanna be a Captain or Admiral?
Warning: This episode deals with sensitive topics and is intended for a mature audience. Reader discretion is definitely advised.
Chapters
- Prologue (Finished Friday March 27, 19:45 EST)
- Discovery (Finished Saturday March 21, 14:30 EST)
- Visiting Hours (Finished Saturday March 21, 14:30 EST)
- The Garden and the Dragon (Finished Wednesday April 1, 19:30)
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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.
"None can speak more eloquently for peace than those who have fought in war."
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The ALS Society Of BC
ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease) is a progressive neuromuscular disease in which nerve cells die and leave voluntary muscles paralyzed. The ALS society provides a variety of programs to combat this disease and help those with it to survive.
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The Edgar Allan Poe Museum
Because Barris told me to put it here. If I didn't, he said he'd walk. Geez. Stardom really gets to some people's heads. Maybe I could kill him and bury his heart beneath the floor boards! Or I could encase him in behind a brick and mortar wall, for shaming my family name of Amantillado!
United Way Worldwide
Two organizations whose contribution of expertise, human and financial resources and volunteer efforts provide humanitarian solutions to real world problems the entire world over. These charities operate worldwide. The United Nations Fund supports the various programs part of the United Nations' global mandate, as much a foundation as it is a roof around the world.
World Veterans Federation (Under Reconstruction) [Wikipedia]
The World Veterans Federation is a humanitarian organisation, a charity and a peace activist movement. The WVF maintains its consultative status with the United Nations since 1951 and was conferred the title of “Peace Messenger” in 1987.
The World Veterans Federation is a humanitarian organisation, a charity and a peace activist movement. The WVF maintains its consultative status with the United Nations since 1951 and was conferred the title of “Peace Messenger” in 1987.
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.
"None can speak more eloquently for peace than those who have fought in war."
Ralph Bunche, Nobel Peace Prize 1950
The Reeve Foundation provides programs for research, uniting Scientists and Specialists from many different fields to find treatments for spinal cord injury translating them into therapies and support programs.
For over 60 years, Heart & Stroke has been dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. Our work has saved thousands of lives and improved the lives of millions of others.
The ALS Society Of BC
ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease) is a progressive neuromuscular disease in which nerve cells die and leave voluntary muscles paralyzed. The ALS society provides a variety of programs to combat this disease and help those with it to survive.
Muscular Dystrophy Canada
Muscular Dystrophy Canada’s mission is to enhance the lives of those affected by neuromuscular disorders by continually working to provide ongoing support and resources while relentlessly searching for a cure through well-funded research.
Humane Society International
The Humane Society protects the health, lives and rights of animals the world over, ensuring that they too have a voice in this world. We are interdependent upon the complex web of life this entire planet over for our mutual survival. This is a world wide charity.
The Global Foodbanking Network
Ensuring that people the world over have enough food day to day in order to survive and lead healthy lives. In this challenging day and age services like this are becoming more and more essential. This is a world wide charity.
The Edgar Allan Poe Museum
Because Barris told me to put it here. If I didn't, he said he'd walk. Geez. Stardom really gets to some people's heads. Maybe I could kill him and bury his heart beneath the floor boards! Or I could encase him in behind a brick and mortar wall, for shaming my family name of Amantillado!
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.
Wikipedia
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Wikipedia
The model for what may become the Encyclopedia Galactica, a complete reference and record of history, events and knowledge of humanity and its journey beyond. It is the encyclopedia of all that we know, what we surmise that we've known and will learn in the future. Yes, Wikipedia is a charitable organization of great importance. If you enjoy what I am doing here then please take the time to donate to Wikipedia. Surprisingly only 1% of Wikipedia's users donate yet the site serves pages to millions every day.
Humble Bundle
A video gaming storefront benefiting a vast variety of different Charities in the United States and United Kingdom (hopefully soon to be expanded to include other areas of the world?). By software their software bundles and choose which Charity your money benefits and how much of your money benefits that Charity. See? Gamers can do their part too.
Multiple Sclerosis is a degenerative disease currently affecting an estimated 2.3 million world wide. By donating you are contributing to effective research in finding a cure and tipping the scales of MS research to change lives forever.
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Shhhh! Digital Media Presents:
The Butterfly Dragon - Heroes of our Own: Reimagined
by Brian Joseph Johns
Episode 11: The Point of No Return
Six years ago
Prologue
The ceiling of the office was slanted, to a sixty degree angle and made of tempered, impact resistant glass. One section, a panel in the center lay propped up on an intricate mechanical armature, fresh tropical air moving freely between the interior and exterior of the room within.
Upon the ledge of the opening, sat a large bird. One of a very rare variety for this region of the world and one regarded as a bird of prey. A predator of the avian variety, and one who dominated the skies, plucking its prey from the ground far below and from dizzying heights. This particular one though had become accustomed to eating its victims, which had been carefully selected for it each time, not by plucking them haplessly from the ground, but by fighting for them against other predators of similar ferocity.
There upon a rock on the far side of the interior of the room, on a credenza sat an iguana, nearly motionless as it baked in the tropical sunlight, warming its millions of years descended body and the container of its three chamber heart.
The bird, though not looking at it directly, had noticed it long ago, for it had been seated in its current position for nearly six minutes, observing its surroundings cautiously as it evaluated its strategy, for it had become accustomed to there being a price for such a succulent meal each time it had come to the strange tropical behemoth of a home.
The bird searched the walls of the room beneath it, an office and connected solarium, carefully seeking out any recluse from where a threat could emerge (as had occurred previously according to its own experience), though all thus far it had easily overcome.
It turned itself, quietly, not daring to look directly at its prey. Instead, it lined itself up, its body and wings, and then at the last moment, its head and eyes became fixated upon its prey, a reptile of comparable size, and then stepped silently into the air within the office, dropping about a meter before fully extending its wings, readying itself to grab its prey.
As it flew, it was watched by two pairs of eyes, each of its own purpose and each very different from the other, despite a glaring similarity between the two.
The bird's talons became forthwith extended as it arrived clasping the iguana, which upon finding itself trapped by the bird's giant claws, began struggling, twisting itself left and right as it tried to escape the bird's grip. The bird's beak, razor sharp, shot down at the iguana's head a few times, piercing the reptile's skull and from that point it was over.
Or so it seemed.
Another, much larger reptile that had been waiting on the other side of the credenza, out of the bird's line of sight, sheltering itself in the brightness, a giant suddenly moved far faster than it might have appeared such a large beast of a creature could. Its jaws opened and clamped around the bird, crushing both the eagle and the iguana as it bit down, and the two became the meal of the dragon.
The phone rang, and the head of the person to which the third pair of eyes belonged turned as he spoke.
"What is it Sombrio?" a deep and piercing voice emerged from the man seated in a large chair behind the desk.
"Señor Zekestes? I've an urgent call from a Señor Torman on the line," Sombrio responded through high fidelity electrostatic micro-speakers installed in the office, the voice emanating from everywhere.
"Give him over," Zekestes responded.
"Mr. Zek I presume?" Torman's voice emerged through the speakers as Zekestes turned his chair away from the carnage unfolding in the solarium.
"El Heredero del Torman. We have not spoken since your father's passing," Zekestes responded, now suddenly spurred into the moment after having watched such a delightful sport of his own design.
"This is our second time talking. I want to strengthen our ties to your Hacienda, and given my track record with regard to our incursion into a most profitable and undetectable market, I am seeking your approval, Señor Zekestes," Torman spoke firmly and confidently despite being a man barely halfway through his twenties.
"My favour, Heredero del Torman. You are seeking my favour. Don't play me for a fool," Zekestes responded.
"Something that I hoped would come with your approval, for I have much to offer. Much," Torman continued.
"Tell me Heredero del Torman, what could one such as you offer a man who has so finely tuned the world around him to his own liking, that there would be little that one such as that couldn't already get. Would you care to elaborate?" the words came slowly from Zekestes mouth, each one spoken with eloquence and command.
"From my position on the board at Tynan and Associates, I've already amassed a mountain of successful billion plus companies, building them up from their pocket cash startups into multi-billion dollar companies, and this foundation has been the means by which you've been doing your laundry. We've never done it any differently, and my father never asked you for anything," Torman brought up his own track record to Zekestes, and that of his family.
"And now you want to cash in on his exceptional legacy?" Zekestes responded.
"I want North America," Torman spoke boldly and firmly.
"Canada," Zekestes responded.
"North America," Torman replied, unmoving.
"Canada and Mexico. Final offer," Zekestes replied, not in the slightest bit intimidated or flustered.
"North America," Torman would not give in.
"Your father would simultaneously be very disgusted, and very proud of you Heredero del Torman. I am however, neither. Why would I even consider what you are requesting of me? A very one sided deal I might remind you," Zekestes spoke calmly, as if amused by this sudden turn.
"You, like all other men who wield power, are at the beck and call, the whim of something far greater and something that you'll never overcome. Many men have tried and failed. Juan Ponce de León certainly did. You're older than a man like myself, so what does every man who has power but lacks time seek? Immortality," Torman's words left his tongue with the sales pitch of an eternity.
"And you offer me this fool's pursuit?" Zekestes responded, his voice taking on a tone of irritation.
"We've been having problems recently. Over the last year. There has been a wrench... or better yet, a wench in the works so to speak," Torman explained to Zekestes.
"So I've heard," Zekestes responded, Torman unable to read him.
"Well, I've been able to figure out, a lot about this girl. For one, she's got some kind of scientific background. Expertise. Two, she seems to be very close to Tynan and Associates, which as you know is in our neck of the woods," Torman explained to Zekestes.
"And...?" Zekestes became interested in the tale he was now hearing.
"I've got a man on the inside. He's going to help me find out how she did it," Torman continued confidently.
"How she did what?" confirmed Zekestes.
"How she alone took down squad after squad of my best men. Over the course of eight months, I've had nearly a hundred percent turnover rate. That is, our top notch specialists in that field of protection, they've all quit because of her. I've been replacing them with thugs, and that has not panned out well, but they are a little less obvious, and through them and their effort, I've been able to find out quite a bit. Enough to know to get a man inside of the Medical Research facility. He's going to look into it for us. And if this lady can do what the rumours say she can do, we might have a front door to immortality. The means to make men like you and I, into gods..." Torman's words found purchase in the depths of Zekestes most secret of obsessions.
"And if you succeed, you will be King of North America, and I will be Juan Ponce de León..." Zekestes smiled as the final aspect of his grand plan fell into place.
On the other end of the office, where a full grown Comodo Dragon stretched out in the sun, the eagle and the iguana were gone, not a feather nor a scale of them left.
Discovery
Toronto South Research Facility
Tynan and Associates Medical
Alicia sat in the meeting room with the four other research leads, Alan (as indicated by the name tag on his lab coat), the Director of Research Operations seated at the head of the table.
Alan tapped the table with the pen from his tablet computer, which also sat on the table face up a few inches away as he listened to Gerald finish the last of his research update.
"...so what that means is that we've run into a few snags with the technology we developed to adapt the bacteriophages for our purposes, and it seems that during its lysogenic phase, its prematurely injecting the host DNA, with the wrong genes, meaning you have a block of genes intended as a protein recipe which the host cell instead chemically treats like RNA instructions, and we ended up with an inert RNA messenger which ceased our bacteriophage factory dead in the goop so to speak..." Gerald used a laser pointer from his seat to indicate where the problems had occurred by using a computer projected image that lay presented on the screen at the end of the room.
"So where does that leave us, in terms of a solution?" Alan asked Gerald, whose thinning hair could not hide the buildup of sweat he was feeling under the duress of stress.
"At this point, we have no active solution, or any idea of how we might fix this. On the other hand, the bacteriophages that we've managed to produce without engineering their reproduction are proving to be quite effective against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in tiny bacterial colonies, but without the engineered reproduction, we can't apply these gains at the scale of deployment we've targeted," Gerald continued delivering the facts as Alan rubbed his face with his hands in frustration.
"Are there any suggestions on how we can overcome this? Anyone?" Alan looked around at the faced lining the table.
"Another strain of phage? One much closer to the one we're trying to engineer?" Sylvia suggested.
"Good suggestion Doctor Uphadaya. Well?" Alan responded to her, then looking to Gerald once again.
"We're in the midst of using a distributed computing network, World Community Grid, to do a search against the known strains of phage, but that search hasn't yet turned up anything and it could still take months. We're talking comparing in excess of about six thousand gene pairs, distributed through three different points in the host DNA, against the billions of phage strains we've cataloged. Do the math," Gerald responded somewhat sarcastically and politely.
"What about large language models? I read recently in a peer reviewed paper that they were able to optimize a number of search algorithms that have stood for almost two centuries without contest. Maybe it might be worth looking into?" Alicia suggested from her place beside Sylvia.
"LLMs? They're still in their infancy, and by the time we devise a sufficient query and they're able to run it, we'll have found one with distributed computing, if one exists," Gerald replied, he himself somewhat frustrated at having to report his efforts in front of the other researchers.
"What about some external input? Maybe getting some outside expertise in on this?" Alicia continued with another suggestion, unwilling to give up.
"What about Katya Piotr and her husband Victor?" suggested Alex from beside Gerald.
"I tried contacting them in Russia about two years ago for this, when we were in early development. They were bound to another project at that time, and weren't available," Gerald replied, satisfied with his answer.
"I just read in Scientific Nature that they just finished a project in Vancouver, for U of V, which would mean that they're available," Alicia continued, raising her eyebrows in a manner that Gerald found to be condescending.
Alan looked to him sternly, as if backing up Alicia.
Gerald sat up in his chair and straightened his back.
"I'll give them a call as soon as we're done here..." Gerald quickly acted to get the pressure off of himself.
"Good. So we're not dead in the water on that. At least yet. So what's the status of the Series Y formula? Any responses from Health Canada yet on our approval for pharmacologically controlled distribution and human consumption so we have something to give the share holders?" asked Alan of Alicia and Sylvia.
"I received word yesterday that it has passed the first round of tests, with two more rounds to go. They've also approved the studies we coopted from Future Tangent, and will be approving their data soon. The next two phases will take another month before we have the approval that Mr. Norler is anxious to hear about," Sylvia responded to Alan's question.
"At which point we can setup for production using the new facility and everyone will make lots of money, the share holders will be happy, and we'll still have jobs... So what about you Alicia. You've been pretty quiet about your specialized applications of the Series Y. What's going on with that?" Alan turned to face Alicia, his gaze now as intimidating as it had been upon Gerald.
Gerald smiled slightly at having the pressure taken from him and its having found its way to the lab's favourite girl.
"I've been isolating what it would take to adapt the Series Y for the treatment of spinal problems, especially nerve damage, which has applications with other degenerative diseases such as Muscular Dystrophy and Multiple Sclerosis," Alicia was quick to offer him the context of her research work.
"And how's that going. You've been busy an awful lot. A few late nights too, from the security logs. Care to let us in on your progress?" Alan began tapping the pen on the table, and at that moment Alicia could empathize with Gerald's earlier predicament.
"Its been... remarkable. Quite an adventure so far, and lots of action for sure. Once the Series Y gets in there, it really just kicks ass..." Alicia said to Alan, doing her best to throw him off under the pressure and drawing a bit of laughter from the other researchers at the same time.
"Good. I'll be looking forward to a full report, no less than ten pages. A PDF file in my email no later than next week. Let's say Tuesday?" Alan said to her firmly.
"Yes sir. I'll have that for you before then..." Alicia's spirits seemed slightly diminished and she shrank in her chair ever so slightly.
"Alright. Lets get back to it. Gerald? Use the last half hour we have to get on contacting Katya and Victor Piotr right away! Are we all on the same page?" Alan looked to his researchers, who each nodded in turn.
...
Alicia stood by her desk and grabbed her purse. She quickly grabbed the zipper and opened it, checking it carefully for the three vials of the modified Series Y, the same formula that had turned her into a super-powered super-athletic guardian of the night. She then checked found the key to her desk, and unlocked the top drawer, finding within a small metal cabinet within which were the only other three vials of the modified Series Y.
"Can't lose these..." Alicia said to herself, as Sylvia snuck up behind her.
"Don't let him get to you. I know he can be intimidating, but that's why Tynan put him here, otherwise we'd have it far too easy. Sometimes, a little pressure can keep us at our best," Sylvia said to her in a comforting voice.
Alicia quickly closed the top drawer and deposited the key back in her purse.
"Thanks, but really, we're all grown-ups here. We don't need to be baby sat like that you know. We're motivated by this. Its our life!" Alicia replied to her.
"Yes, it is our life, but don't forget that we're playing with a lot of other people's money. We know our own scruples and what drives us. They don't. The only thing that speaks to them for us is the numbers, and honestly to do justice by them, we've got to produce. Alan is their inside man, and that's harsh reality for us. At least we still get to do what we love," Sylvia explained to Alicia.
At that moment, Alicia's phone rang. She quickly searched her desk for the source of the ringing and then answered it:
"Tynan Research. Alicia speaking," Alicia answered the phone in a professional and friendly voice as it was still jut before five in the evening.
"Doctor Westin? Hi. Its Walton Norler calling. I hope that I'm not taking you away from anything pressing?" he asked her politely.
"Uhhh... Mr. Norler? What a surprise? No. Not at all. I was just finishing my day as you called," Alicia responded, quickly letting Sylvia know with whom she was talking.
"Good taste Alicia! I'll see you tomorrow," Sylvia said as she smiled at Alicia, and headed for the parking lot exit.
"Look. Alicia, you wouldn't happen to have a little time for a coffee, would you? I was hoping to speak with you about a matter that could benefit from someone with your expertise," Norler said to her without revealing any details as to what that might entail.
"Sure... I could meet with you for a little bit. I was going to see a friend in the hospital..." Alicia informed him.
"Great. Meet me around back of the Coffee Club, over on Ellesmere Avenue. I'll be waiting for you. I'm sorry to hear about your friend," Norler offered her some compassion.
"So am I. I'll see you soon," Alicia responded and then hung up.
...
Alan watched as Alicia and the remaining researchers left the office, leaving most of the building empty except for himself and the on-site security staff.
When he was certain that there was nobody around, he stepped over to Alicia's desk and pulled out her chair from the desk and sat behind her computer.
"Now. Lets see what goldilocks has really been working on..." Alan said as he pulled a USB device from his pocket.
He plugged it in, and watched as the device unlocked her computer and files. From that point, he began going through them and examining them in detail, one at a time.
...
Alicia's car pulled into the Coffee Club parking lot, and she drove around to the back of the coffee shop chain store and found herself greeted by a black Audi A6. Norler sat in the driver's seat wearing a pair of Oakley Holbrook XL sunglasses. He gestured over to her and beckoned her to park her car and come over to the passenger seat of his.
She did as he requested, then getting out of her car and running quickly over to the passenger side door and getting in.
"You're looking good. How are you?" Norler looked to her and smiled.
"I'm good. You?" she asked him, already blushing.
"Same. So, lets go for a quick drive. Are you hungry?" he asked her.
"I think I could use a bite to eat," she responded politely.
"I was thinking fast food. Something we can eat in the car. You have any preferences?" he asked her politely.
"How about a chicken burger?" she suggested.
"I'm fine with that. So over to Captain Wing Ding's then?" he confirmed with her.
"Sure. That'd do just nicely," she smiled as Norler put the car in drive and pulled out through back and onto Ellesmere Avenue.
"Alicia. The reason I contacted you is because I need you for a special job. Its related to research and you'll be doing this work in the exact same place that you work. Interested?" he asked her, as they pulled up to a traffic light.
"Go on..." she responded.
"There's just one thing. It could be a little bit risky, even dangerous, so I'm going to need you to be extra careful and extra discrete..." Norler advised her.
"I think I could muster that up," Alicia agreed.
"You'll have security, though you won't know who they are. There will be people watching your back. Let me explain. My colleagues and I recently discovered that one of our peers. I can't say who, for your protection, is playing an insider's investment game, and has been tampering with the companies we've been investing in. We had an incident recently at one of our facilities, and the evidence our investigators were able to uncover points to our peer, and we have reason to believe that there is going to be a tampering or sabotage of some kind that targets our Medical Research facility..." Norler explained to her carefully as the light turned green.
"Go on?" she beckoned him.
"I'm going to need you to keep an eye on things, and especially anything that might point to tampering or sabotage of Tynan projects. We don't know exactly what we're looking for, but we do know that vandalism and sabotage has been involved in ninety-seven percent of the cases involving this particular peer. Do you think you could do that for me?" he asked her, looking momentarily to her and admiring the subtle curve of her cheek and her blinking lashes from behind her sunglasses.
"I think I could accommodate you, but what's in it for us?" she asked him, looking to him with an ever so slightly seductive glance.
"Who?" he asked her.
"Medical research. What's in it for us? What can you do to help our research?" she asked him.
"Wow. I mean. Wow. I was going to offer you a bonus, and you're asking me for something that will benefit our company? Are you for real?" he asked her.
"Yes, but I tick a little differently than most. If you can do something for us in research, and maybe throw in a little bonus too, I'll do it," she replied.
"Alright. You come up with an idea of how we can improve the research department, and I'll see that it gets done. Fair?" he asked her.
"Fair. And what about my bonus?" she asked him.
"Well... How about the two of us have dinner together. Soon," Norler suggested to her, looking over to her as they continued along Ellesmere.
"How soon?" she blushed slightly, and returned his glance.
"Like next week soon. Thursday?" he confirmed with her.
"Seven o'clock," she smiled.
"I'll pick you up. I'll surprise you," Norler said as they pulled into the drive through of Captain Wing Ding's.
"I can only hope that I can return the favour," she smiled seductively once again, trying her best not to blush.
...
Alan popped the USB device from Alicia's computer, having copied numerous files related to a sub-project called Modified Y. He tucked the USB device into his pocket and then with gloved hands, began going through Alicia's drawers one at a time. When he got to the locked drawer, he pulled and found it to be open and unlocked.
"She must have forgot to lock it. Well... what do we have here...?" Alan said as he found the steel cabinet within the drawer.
He opened the lid and spied three vials, each filled with a bright green liquid. He took all three of them and pocketed them in with the USB device and then carefully closed the drawer, checking if the latch had caught. He pulled it twice as hard as he could and found that the drawer was now locked.
After having covered his trail, he returned to his office and sat behind his desk and dialed a number.
"Get me Mister Torman..." he asked the man on the other end.
Visiting Hours
Alicia stepped into the hospital room, the nurse closing the door behind her. There on a bed with a nasogastric tube run into her right nostril lay Helayne, her cheeks pale and her eyes closed. A monitoring station was wired directly to the wall, and several nodes were attached to various points on Helayne's body.
Alicia examined the monitoring device and could easily see that Helayne was in stable condition, though she had little if any brain activity. Whatever there was that was left of her, was not enough for her to wake up and greet her visitors. She was at that point, being kept alive by the machines to which she was connected.
"Hi buddy. Its me. You remember our deal from high school. Well, it turns out that I've got a date coming up and its a special occasion and so I'm going to need another dress, which means that you haven't kept up your end of the deal..." Alicia wiped her eyes as she spoke to her nearly lifeless best friend.
"So... if you could just find it in yourself to get up and finish what you started, then we could all get on with our lives... and continue being friends... and find our soul mates and get married so that us girls can have our girls night every once in a while... Get all funny and giggly on a bottle of a wine and talk about old times..." Alicia said to Helayne, who still remained motionless, a slow and steady breath cycling within her lungs.
Alicia grabbed hold of Helayne's hand and held on tight. For a minute. For ten. For thirty.
And then the hospital room door opened.
"Hey! That's my friend! What are you doing to her!" a woman with a slight French accent stepped into the room, and Alicia recognized her from the warehouse where Helayne had been shot.
"I'm her best friend..." Alicia said to the French lady.
"Oh no you're not! I'm her best friend!" the French lady responded.
"From high school. Helayne and I went to school together," Alicia explained to the lady.
"Are you Alicia by chance?" asked the lady of Alicia.
"That's me. One and the same," Alicia nodded affirmatively.
"Helayne mentioned you. I'm Monique. Monique Defleur," Monique introduced herself.
"Alicia. Alicia Westin," Alicia offered her hand and they shook.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but I feel like we've met..." Monique said to Alicia, looking closely at her and unable to recall where she'd seen her before.
"Well that couldn't be, because I've never met you, and I'd remember that and all, especially with the wild colours in your hair..." Alicia replied.
"I'm a model. A fashion model. Or at least I was going to be, thanks to our best friend..." Monique explained to Alicia.
"You'll still be a fashion model. Doctors are good at what they do. Soon, maybe not today, but soon, she's going to wake up and get up and leave, and resume her life from where she left off. She'll give us a call and we'll all go out together. Who knows? Maybe, another Doctor might have given her some very very strong medicine... but it might take a while to work... We'll just have to wait and see..." Alicia said to Monique.
"She's still breathing, and anyone who can do that after what she's been through has to have a strong force in her soul..." Monique said quietly, though not enough to keep her words from Alicia's ears.
"...a soul like a dragon..." Alicia added, the two of them stood there quietly watching Helayne as she lay lifelessly, a slate, now blank, whose story had seemingly been lost.
The Garden and the Dragon
There was nothing at all. Just an infinite and impenetrable darkness whereupon the one dreaming such a pause, could not distinguish between whether their eyes were open or closed. Even darker than if they were. Just absolutely nothing.
Time did not seem to exist in this darkness, and as such nothing could progress. Nothing could move to penetrate its endless barrier.
And yet, there was something. Yes. There had to be. An awareness. A thinker. Someone who was perceiving all of this and one who had once possessed senses. Five of them, and a possible sixth. A sixth sense through which the thinker was now able to see.
Then light. Brighter than bright. Blindingly so. Too much of it. But no sound.
The light grew dimmer until eventually there was form.
Shape. It was curved and plentiful. The more the light dimmed, the more there was colour. The more there was colour, the more became apparent.
Silence, but there was motion. She was on her back, on a bed of some kind. She was floating. Flying in the direction of her feet. There were people around her. Walking close beside her as she floated. They wore masks. It was a ritual.
A rumbling from beneath her. Sound. They were wheels. Rubber wheels on bearings. She wasn't flying, she was being wheeled somewhere. It was a hospital.
Then there was a sharp pain in her chest, and then the blackness once again.
This time, when she opened her eyes, she beheld that she was surrounded by the luscious colours of a fertile garden. She was laying on her back, on the grass. She leaned up quickly and looked around, noting the flower scented fragrance of the air.
There was a wall of hedges, carefully trimmed to perfection from behind which an attractive woman in a red zhiju shenyi stepped forth. Her age was indeterminate, though she appeared young. Perhaps in her early thirties, though there was wisdom in her eyes that went far beyond. She was glowing with a vibrant essence that seemed to permeate the air around her.
She too was Chinese, and as Helayne Ying's eyes slowly adjusted, she recognized the woman in question.
"Jinn Hua?" Helayne asked of the woman.
"Butterfly Ai Yuanlin Ying. It has been far too long," Jinn Hua replied.
"But... I thought you...? Wait? Does that mean that I'm...?" Helayne asked of the woman standing before her as she got to her feet.
"No. Not in the sense that you understand it. We are both... Let us just say that we are in between phases of life. We're at one of the points between this life and the next," Jinn Hua stately calmly as Helayne brushed the grass and soil from her dress.
Helayne looked at her hands, her body, then her legs and feet beneath her, observing that she was not glowing as was Jinn Hua.
"Why am I not...?" asked Helayne.
"You are not fully here. You have one foot here, and one foot from where you came. You won't remember, but you nearly ended up here entirely, but we had a friend stop that from happening. You aren't finished yet, and have much to do in the material world before your time is up, and there are forces at work in that world that will undo the crucial balance that has preserved and protected the planet for many millennia. Nothing is permanent except change, but some change can violate the laws of the universe by creating permanence, especially before its time," Jinn Hua gestured to a path just off of the grass, though they both had to step over a tiny wall of flowers between, which they both did without touching a petal.
The garden itself was alive and full of life, with flowering blossoms on every tree, hedgerow and plot along their path. There were many insects too, those necessary to fertilize the flowers and ensure their generations to come. Bees buzzed happily around the garden, busily collecting nectar and hence the pollen necessary for the flowers' reproduction. There were butterflies too, and many of them, flying from flower to flower much like the bees and with similar purpose, despite their lack of a hive hierarchy or social structure. Sometimes their flapping wings would throw flower pollen into the air, some of which would pollenate other flowers and the circle of life in the garden was maintained in a perfect orchestra.
In the distance, a short walk through the garden, Helayne saw a towering pagoda and beside it, near its base, the upper floors of a vast temple structure.
"I've been watching over you, for a long time. Oh so many times how I wanted to talk to you. To let you know that things would be alright. And yet in every peril you faced, any point which might have easily undone you, something always happened just in time to save you. Someone above me, who was keeping an eye upon us all," Jinn Hua began explaining as they walked.
"But you disappeared, and we never finished our training. I was lost without you Sifu. You left us when we needed you most. Aikiko, Myung and I," Helayne said to her mentor, the hint of disappointment in her tone.
"There are many things that make our path difficult, without the need for us to make it difficult on ourselves. Mentors. Teachers. We too have difficulties we have to overcome, and sometimes those difficulties can be surmounted with the right kind of effort, and sometimes they can't be overcome at all. At that moment anyway. There are many things that you do not know, Ai. You do not know from where you came or about your destiny," Jinn Hua's voice became soft and nurturing, perhaps masking the great pain she'd felt in having to abandon her students and her school.
"Aren't we all part of a destiny of some form? Something I learned from you," Helayne responded to her Sifu.
"Yes, we are, but it is more imperative for some of us to know that we are, and that we must endeavor to embody that responsibility as best we can. I was trying to hint at you that there were much greater things in store for you, Butterfly, but you did not take the hint. You only assumed that what we all shoulder on our road to that destiny is exactly the same thing, and that is not the case at all," Jinn Hua explained to her student.
"But aren't we all progressing together towards some kind of final purpose, and on our road we each take a piece of the weight along the way. That is what I thought you were trying to say. Its what everyone says, and does. Its the way of the world," Helayne responded in defense of her impression of things.
"You always were very protective of others. Even now you're protecting the concept of equality, Helayne, but you are also mixing up two ideas, equality and similarity and that is where you, and everyone else are wrong. We might be equal, but we're none the same. We are all unique in some way shape or form. If the ox pulls the plough in a rice field, does that mean that the chickens should be made to do the same?" Jinn Hua asked of Helayne.
"No. Obviously. The chickens are too small and weak to do so," Helayne responded.
"So there you arrive at the correct answer, and that is that we are not all the same. Not even every ox can pull the plough. Some are better tasked to haul the rice to market. A better sense of direction. Better steadiness of hoof along the dirt road. We are all different, and in as much, we are better suited at some things than other things. A wise leader, must know and understand this about those they lead, and you Helayne are or will soon be, a wise leader. Of many. But that is not the end all be all of your destiny," Jinn Hua gestured towards the temple, which upon their having passed the most recent hedgerow corner revealed itself and its full magnificence.
Helayne looked up from the path to take in the temple before her, and it intsantly reminded her of another temple, one to which she'd been with her parents when she was but a little girl.
"Its just like GuangZhou..." Helayne smiled as she recalled seeing the same temple, but through the eyes of a one year old little girl in her mother's arms.
"Its modeled after that very temple. And you haven't even seen the interior," Jinn Hua began up the steps towards the main entrance.
"You aren't going to to try to convert me, are you? Maybe take my secrets and use them as weapons against me if I ever become your enemy, or burden me with a great weight that you'll use to control me, or give me test after test that you know in advance that I'll fail every time, and that you'll use to bilk me of everything I have, are you?" asked Helayne ever so cautious at that point.
"Its ironic how often that happens in this day and age, but we do not do that here. I am not asking you for anything, or to burden you with anything other than what you need to know for you to continue your journey and to meet your destiny, for the greatest path of the rest of your life is just around the corner," Jinn Hua stood outside as two uniformed guards wearing Song Dynasty armour opened the doors for Jinn Hua.
Jinn stood there at the entrance, looking to Helayne near the bottom of the steps.
"The choice is yours, but so is the bounty," Jinn Hua smiled invitingly.
"I think my friends need me, and if this will help get me to them and in a position where I can better help them, then so be it. Speaking of, how are they? I mean if I nearly... did they?" Helayne replied, and the confidently began walking up the steps.
"They're fine, but they are also in grave danger, and will not make it without you anymore than you'd have made it without them," Jinn Hua assured Helayne, after which the two of them stepped through the front doors of the Temple of the Butterfly Dragon.
The interior of the temple was still. A pair of potted plants greeted them as they entered the temple, one of them lush with leaves and blossoms, the other barren, dried and brittle, serving as a reminder to our presence and impermanence. The sounds of the garden beyond were not stifled and still very much a part of the overall purpose. It was almost as if Helayne could still hear the butterflies, each and every one of them. The fluttering of their wings and the pattering of their tiny feet across flower petal and leaf alike.
As they ventured through the temple's interior into a secluded library of scrolls, a collection so vast that it filled the shelves around them, leaving very little space in the room for the viewing table, and the few paper lanterns which were managed under the strictest of conditions.
"This is and has been my recluse since my arrival. It is both my center of centeredness and my source of knowledge and peace. I often marvel at how both of those words are so distant, and yet essentially mean the same thing," Jinn Hua said out of the silence, alluding to her pursuits since her disappearance from Helayne's, and the lives of her other students almost a decade ago.
As they arrived at a reading table, Jinn Hua suddenly spun, striking out at Helayne with a perfectly centered fist. Helayne dodged it easily, side stepping the affair and redefining their stance to a perpendicular achievement of balance. Helayne was at a ninety degree angle to Jinn Hua's onslaught, her intent now directed at a point where Helayne no longer was. Helayne merely negotiated Jinn Hua's strikes from the side, completely absent of threat and yet remaining enough so defensively to prevent Jinn Hua's strikes from doing harm anywhere.
"You've improved Butterfly. Yet, your success is going to require a marriage between the material and the eternal, for you and your friends - your peers in the grand scale of things to come - are at an impasse against something much more foreboding and imposing upon your destiny," Jinn Hua suddenly found an opening in Helayne's defenses, even at a ninety degree angle.
Her right arm forced through Helayne's left hand defense, sliding sideways along the length of her arms to eventually strike at her throat.
"You were always... A Butterfly, Helayne. Avoiding. Dodging, and then out of nowhere, countering in ways most could never anticipate. Yet, there is much more about your style that needs to be ferocious, for you are a part of a dynasty that stretches beyond time itself..." Jinn Hua turned her head to the right, looking directly into Helayne's eyes, if not her soul.
Helayne suddenly recalled a distant memory. One in which she and her mother, and father were on a hike with their only daughter. Through the fields and flowers of a distant place, deep into a park in Ontario's northern reaches. A park frequented by many, and yet there were few who'd found the depths into which Helayne and her parents had found.
They'd set a place setting for themselves. All three of them. A blanket, in the midst of a field. A warm day in the midst of a natural setting. The flowers alive, all of them as were the countless butterflies and bees tending to them, each and everyone in one of nature's most profound harmonies.
And then.
"You remember that, don't you Butterfly?" Jinn Hua quizzed her student.
"My mother was a Butterfly, though she often held the position with contempt against you, and your imposed ideology... Your barbaric enforcement of ideas..." Helayne responded in defense of her family.
"You still don't see, do you? Your parents protected you. They did everything they could to ensure that our real enemy did not reach you before you realized your true destiny," Jinn Hua implored Helayne to be seated across from her in the library at the research table.
"But I... I have done my best. I've done what is necessary. What is..." Helayne responded, struggling to find her words.
"There is a difference between what is necessary and what is best, dragon..." Jinn Hua responded in one final monotone.
Helayne looked to Jinn Hua inquisitively, somehow lost in her understanding of the circumstances and Jinn Hua's words.
"That day... in the park... at Grand River conservation?" Helayne recalled.
"Your memory is returning, Butterfly," Jinn Hua encouraged her recall.
"They were..." Helayne recalled as the onslaught emerged from the forest surrounding their picnic blanket.
Helayne was no longer a twenty four year old woman, but now a little girl once again, on a blanket in the middle of a field as both of her parents got to their feet to confront those closing in on them.
When the thunderous crack of the first gunshot broke the silence, echoing through the valley in which they had setup their family feast, her mother moved first, dodging the trajectory of the high speed projectile easily. Her father turned to her mother to ensure that she was alright. Her mother smiled and winked at her father, and then her, and that's when the first of her tears found their way down her face.
As their attackers got closer, the explosive firepower of the snipers in the woods increased, and yet with every shot, her parents somehow dodged, and miraculously avoided harm.
One shot echoed forth from the woods, and her father, moving very quickly and humanly so, plucked her up from her place on the blanket just in time as the impact sprung a cloud of dirt and grass just behind them. Even the attackers paused to look in the direction of the one's who'd fired the shot at young Helayne. Shortly thereafter, his screams were heard and echoed through the valley much like the reports of rifles that had fired upon her mother and father. When his screams ceased, the attackers continued their progress forward towards her mother and father and when they arrived, the sounds of the rifles ceased, and what unfolded was a visceral and bloody confrontation.
As the first of the attackers, nine of them in all, closed in on her family, her mother moved first. A single kick to the attacker's groin, and then when he bent over in pain, a second kick (with her mother's other leg), sent him backwards to the ground, unmoving.
Her father moved next with a ferocity she'd never seen of him. He was quick and his strikes razor sharp. As the first to attack him paired up with another, he moved and quickly incapacitated them both at the same time. A punch to the center of the rib cage of the first, and then a quick fist to the side of the head of the other, and they were both down, leaving the odds at six versus two by that point.
The remaining attackers too learned from their mistakes, this time forming up as trios - three on one on each side of the blanket facing off against her mother and father as she cried in the middle of the blanket, lost and frightened.
Her mother struck the one on her left flank first, perhaps hoping to create a distraction for the other two. He fell quickly as the other two closed in on her to grappling distance, which they did. Helayne watched as her mother dropped the first and then was quickly grabbed by the other two, in a life or death struggle against remainder of her attackers. She writhed and fought against them, perhaps panicking and then she once again found focus, getting hold of the wrist of one of her attackers, and twisting it quickly and ruthlessly in a direction that it was not designed to twist. Her attacker cried out in pain, and from the sound of his scream, she quickly found his head and silenced him with an elbow strike, while the last secured his grip on her from behind. He wielded a knife which he pressed against her throat as Helayne watched in horror.
Her father had, at that point been holding off his attackers. Restraining himself as if by some force of will to preserve his daughter's innocence. When he caught sight of the knife at his wife's throat, it was almost as if he at that moment became a different man, as if the term mortal was no longer applicable.
Helayne watched as a rage, a ferocity overcame him. Even his eyes began glowing, becoming enflared as he struck out at his attackers. With one kick, he dropped the first two, and then with a successive punch, the third. At that moment, Helayne saw something in his aura that was not meant for the eyes of mortals. He had become something else.
Something fierce. Something dangerous. Something ancient, beyond time itself.
He moved as quickly - no - quicker than the eye could see as she recalled and in that moment, he had traversed the distance from his fallen attackers to the very knife held to his wife's throat, which he now gripped protectively and firmly in his own bloody bare hand.
He held it, staring into the eyes of his wife's assailant as she stepped away and to her husband's side as the realization of her mother's attacker arrived. He knew it was over and that he was done, the blade of the knife in her father's grip slowly contorting, folding under the pressure of his grasp.
Instead of facing his fate against her father, he ran. Fleeing in the direction of the tree line. As he did, a single shot rang out from the woods. One of their own snipers had finally deciding that his usefulness had expired and in the next moment he was dead, felled to the grass.
There was one more shot, a final reminder. Barely missing her father's head, though he'd remained fixated in the direction from which it had come. Fearlessly.
Those remaining in the woods ran, while those around their family picnic who'd survived picked themselves up from the ground, not even helping each other or checking on their fallen comrades, fled. They ran, fleeing without principle or honour.
"You have always felt so removed from community. From society. From being what you are, and yet you are a part of something that predates time itself. Something you've always suspected. Something you've always known. And yet you've never wielded that knowledge in harm or reprehension of others. You instead helped your best friend to find herself. Alicia. You used your skill and art to craft a dress for her, and that friend is now a frontrunner for the search to find a permanent cure for Cancer and many other degenerative disabilities. You have inspired those around you, giving them rise to their own ambitions and inspiration. You recently helped life a girl's spirits, Monique, saving her from a much different life and fate than was in store for her. You are part of a legacy you cannot easily discard. Your mother is a Butterfly, and your father is a Dragon. A real, true Dragon. You have the delicate nature of your mother. Her love of life. Her discipline. Her commitment to responsibility, and yet, despite your connection to your father, you lack everything about him that protected you. You've always seen him as a peaceful, and kind and loving man, never examining what he held within. What he kept contained, to protect you..." Jinn Hua paused, getting up from the table and walking over to a nearby fire, upon which was poised a now boiling pot of water.
She then, and eloquently so, began preparing their tea. Purposefully. Meticulously. Continuing until it became ceremony of something much greater. The silence did not intrude nor deny Helayne of any repose. Instead it confirmed what she'd heard thus far and then at some point beyond, Jinn Hua presented her with a hot cup of tea, after which, she took her seat and resumed their talk.
"You are and always be a part of something that you must face. Like your parents, who did everything in their power to protect you, to shield you from this path of volatility, for you are pursued by something that seeks to wield what you innately possess, though those trying to possess it never being worthy of such a gift, as they long ago denied their own worthiness thereof and still do until this day," Jinn Hua continued, taking a sip of her tea.
"You are very much the Butterfly, Ai Yuanlin Ying. However, like your father, you need also to be the dragon," Jinn Hua paused.
"So this all about me becoming a raging, furious and angry reptile?!!!" Helayne responded sarcastically.
"East and West have very different ideas about the idea of a dragon, or its true nature, though only real dragons can elicit that as fact and fiction. They... dragons that are, are real. They are true, and exist, but rarely reveal themselves to mortals. They wield wisdom, and fury in droves, though their wisdom prevails over pointless violence, but their capacity for both creation and destruction is what gives weight to their words. You have one side of that equation, Butterfly. The reason, and the only reason that you ended up here, where I have been allowed to intervene on your behalf, is to give you another chance. To become what you were always destined to be. The first of the first. The only to have ever existed. The one, true..." Jinn Hua paused as she weighed the words in her throat.
There was a long pause, as if the loss of heat from their tea had become an economy unto itself. Helayne realized that what Jinn Hua had presented to her was a portrait of her own life. She had become not what she'd wanted of her own will and intent, but what she'd assumed her parents expected of her. She was once again facing off against the same demons of her ideas related to expectations. What she'd assumed her parents wanted of her versus the person she truly was.
"What do I have to do, Sifu?" Helayne asked of Jinn Hua.
"Therein lies the problem, Ai Yuanlin Ying. This is however, the point of no return. Once we proceed down this path, you are committed to a purpose and idea. Ask of me nothing, but instead, be yourself, and from that point, I will teach you to integrate the dragon. And you will become the true dragon. The Butterfly Dragon," Jinn Hua paused and the two enjoyed tea together in silence from that moment on.
...
In an apartment in downtown Toronto, a mobile phone that lay on the desk there within. The tumblers on the locks suddenly cackled and clacked as the apartment's occupant opened the door, entering their abode as the phone ceased ringing.
"This is the last the last time I forget my phone. I f#cking swear," Aikiko looked up at the ceiling of her apartment, crossing her fingers as the threw the F-bomb.
She grabbed the mobile phone which she'd forgotten before leaving, and checked her messages.
She deleted the first two, and then listened to the third:
"Aikiko? Its Myung, and no, this isn't about the latest episode of The Witcher. Its about Helayne. She's made contact with you know who. I saw it in a dream early this morning. We have to find Kyoshi Hind and 'Tiger' Hoon Kwang, if we're ever going to make this work... I'll call you later or better yet, you call me when you get this message," Myung's voice was urgent and familiar.
FINAL THOUGHTS
To be continued in The Butterfly Dragon: Heroes of our Own Reimagined: Episode 12 - Full Circle.
Written by Brian Joseph Johns
Credits and attribution:
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)
Thank you to the divine Miss M and to Hirose of our Own for the inspiration for the character Aikiko Tanaka. May they always embody the empowerment of women and their self determination.
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
Iaido: Train For Katana Mastery Like Samurai
The original weapons focused curriculum under which Samurai became masters of their art
Extensive courses for calisthenics and body strength, stamina and flexibility
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.
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)
Thank you to the divine Miss M and to Hirose of our Own for the inspiration for the character Aikiko Tanaka. May they always embody the empowerment of women and their self determination.
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
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
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
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
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
Iaido: Train For Katana Mastery Like Samurai
The original weapons focused curriculum under which Samurai became masters of their art
The original weapons focused curriculum under which Samurai became masters of their art
Extensive courses for calisthenics and body strength, stamina and flexibility
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.
This content is entirely produced in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at 200 Sherbourne Street Suite 701 under the Shhhh! Digital Media banner.
