Castiglione in Teverina

Old town in Lazio, Italy. Adox Golf II with 75 mm Steinheil Cassar lens on Redscale XR film.

Happy new year!

«Franken-Ikonta 6x6», Kentmere 400

(This camera had a broken shutter, so I «transplanted» a working lens/shutter assembly from an Adox Golf with holes in the bellows. Two scrap parts became a unique Ikonta 523/16 with 75mm f/4.5 Cassar lens in a simple Pronto shutter.)

Mutch & Robilliard (B 1981), Nyoti Cassar, 2022

Jake Cassar

the thing about Cassandra and Varric is that they are just SO GOOD, SO CHOICE, SO 👀🥺😳 because like...they hate each others guts, they have so much in common, they’re both the family renegade, they both lost their only brother, they both have grand, outsized public personas that eclipse the people they actually are, brave and stubborn and loyal to a fault, they would very probably - with little sentiment and hardly a second thought - die for each other, but lock them in a room together and you’d return to an icy silence at best, they won’t give each other a single goddamn inch, after their biggest fight both of them will apologise to YOU the Inquisitor and admit they were at least partly wrong but they both point-blank refuse to talk to each other, but Cassandra WILL speak to you earnestly and gently about Varric’s faith and his virtuous heart, and Varric WILL write an entire NOVEL just...for a joke...for the lulz... as if writing an entire smooshily romantic smutty romance novel is an absolutely normal amount of effort to put into a Jape™ for someone who hates you, because of COURSE they hate each other, Varric even tells Dorian outright that just because two people don’t get along doesn’t mean they’re going to kiss, not like in his books, but the thing is his books are EVERYTHING because he believes in stories and so does Cassandra, it’s how they met after all, they’re both romantics, idealists, people who care so much about the world and everyone in it, people who believe deep down in sunsets and roses and happy endings and heroes, she dragged him halfway across the world because she believed he could help and he stayed because he wanted to believe it too, she loves his books but she can’t stand HIM of course she can’t, she’s a Seeker of Truth and he’s a professional liar, and he’ll get along with just about anybody, embrace the rogues and reprobates of the world with open arms but not HER, she expects too little of him and demands too much, she’s got a stick up her ass except when she doesn’t and he takes nothing seriously except when he does, but no they’ll just keep sniping and bickering like an old married couple and fighting side by side as the world falls apart around them, looking everywhere with eyes wide open except at each other

it is time. to think about cass's froggy boxers

Jake Cassar by Jake Abarbanel

Once again inspired by @just-late-roman-republic-things.

Unarmed Ancient Romans in a Haunted House

(It's a good things swords aren't allowed.)

Octavian: He wasn't feeling well when this was proposed but insists on coming, then screams at the jump scares and somehow ends up hiding in a field next door.

Agrippa: He heads through and has no reaction at all to the scares. On the way through he sees a door hanging off its hinges and pulls out his all purpose tool to fix it. If Octavian is still hiding in the field when he exits, he goes to find him.

Mark Antony: He is laughing at most of the scares and chatting with the scare workers. If one manages to startle him, they get punched in the face, but they all go out for beers afterwards so it's cool. (If he gets outside before Agrippa, he goes to get Octavian out of the field with a big sigh. He does tease him about this.)

Lepidus: He is a cautionary tale and becomes the subject of local legends as he reluctantly went into the haunted house after Antony and Octavian told him to, but he never leaves. Some say on late nights, you can hear a voice crying in the night, "Why did I think we were a trio?"

Cicero: He explains to his group the psychology and special effects behind the haunted house as they go through it. Yes, he shrieks at a jump scare, but then immediately says, "Ah, see, the startle scare activates one's sympathetic nervous system and triggers an acute stress response that prepares the body to engage in either fight or flight." His group might not enjoy this, but Cicero does.

Dolabella: He is one of the scare actors and absolutely takes it too far with his act. He is the one punched by Antony.

Julius Caesar: Let's be honest, he just bought tickets for his friends and supporters who wanted to go... But if pressed, would absolutely be the guy talking about how it was not going to be scary in line so the scare actors decide to gang up on him throughout the entire thing and make his experience miserable.

Pompey: He boasts even louder than Caesar about how he is unable to be scared. That leads to a gang of scare actors picking on him as well until he runs out screaming, but once outside he pretends he was laughing the entire time.

Crassus: He stays outside and partners scared looking people with a group of large, brave people working for him for a nominal fee. Haunted house escort service. Not THAT kind. (That costs extra.)

Brutus: He manages to get through the house, finding the attitudes of Julius Caesar and Magnus Pompey as horrifying as anything inside the house. (Except for the clowns. They are admittedly worse.)

Common marmoset - Brazil

Photo by Emmanuel Cassar on Unsplash

Fringe - Through the Looking Glass and What Walter Found There by Jon Cassar, David Fury.

Betty Who by Zak Cassar

Cassandra/Varric, respite, hopeful tone?

“Respite.” It’s not a word that features in many of his novels. There’s enough to get done in two hundred pages without his lead stopping for a cup of tea by the fire, and his publisher didn’t pay him by the word, anyway.

But then again, this shit wasn’t so bad. The sun was warm and the breeze was cool. Shade and sunlight made an intricate web through the trees above him. Below, Sera and Dorian kicked water at each other as the Inquisitor sprinted through the shallows between them, laughing as he’d scarcely seen them do. Maybe he should start writing more scenes with meandering streams, he thought. More moments with the main character’s boots off, their toes tickled by tall grass, and a wide-brimmed had shading their eyes. What harm could it do the good guys to breathe a little?

It certainly wasn’t hurting the Seeker who lay to his left on their shared bank. Her armor was neatly deposited beside her, abandoned for his latest and filthiest work of smut. She breathed easily and turned another page. He checked the number on the corner and marveled at her ability to remain unreadable in the face of complete debauchery. He admired it, truly.

She peeked an eye at him out from behind the cover, and he took the opportunity to give her a knowing wink. “Getting good, huh?”

Cassandra grunted in feigned annoyance, then rolled over to her stomach and shook her head. “The things that you write, Varric.”

“They’re the things that you read, Seeker,” he joked back.

She looked at him again, only for a moment before a deliciously coy smile spread across her lips. She put the novel down, then raised herself to her knees and then to her feet. She towered over him like the tree above, and ran a finger along the scruff on his jawline. “If you behave yourself, dwarf,” she teased in a low murmer, “perhaps I will show you that they are also the things I do.”

… Well, shit, he thought, nearly scrambling to his feet to follow her towards the tents. There was definitely going to be a lot more R and R in his next book.

Tracklist:

First Nation • Gadigal Land • Change The Date • Terror Australia • Desert Man, Desert Woman • Wind In My Head (Makarrata Version) • Uluru Statement From The Heart / Come On Down

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