#mmed

[mysteriawrites]

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS FOR US

An: an (extremely) last minute entry for a writing contest im in for @mysticmessengerenglish enjoy! (Sorry if it flows weird it’s been a long time since I’ve written dialogue and didn’t have time to proof read)

Tomorrow would be the day I had been waiting for. The day we had been waiting for. Tomorrow i would finally tie the not with the love of my life. I was so excited i could barely sleep. Suddenly there was a knock at the door of my hotel suit.

“Come in,” I called out quietly as to not disturb the neighbors at such a late hour.

In came my beautiful fiance Jahee Kang. Her caramel eyes were warm as always despite only being illuminated by the moonlight, and her chocolate hair was tied up in a cute little ponytail. She wore a simple sill night gown that made her look like a goddess.

“What are you doing here love you know they say it’s bad luck for lovers to see each other before their wedding day,” I tease.

She raises her hand to her mouth and let’s out a quiet giggle.

“I know my love, but i just couldn’t sleep without you especially with wedding jitters,”

“I know the feeling,”

The two of us gaze into each other’s eyes lovingly for a moment before i speak up again.

“Why don’t we talk until we get tired won’t to go to sleep. I won’t tell I saw you if you wont,”

She let’s out another adorable chuckle,

“Alright sounds like a plan,” she replies as she sits next to me on the bed.

“So what’s the first thing you want to do once we’re finally married,” I ask.

“Well of course i want to spend our honeymoon enjoying your company and enjoying the view from the balcony of our suite in paris”.

I hum in acknowledgment “that sounds lovely”.

“What about you,”

“Me? Well i want to do that thing they do in the movies where i bridal carry you past the threshold of our new home,”

“Waking up to each other every morning, cooking you breakfast in bed.”

“Opening that cafe you’ve always dreamed of.”

“Rainy nights cozying up to each other in front of the fire.”

“Date nights on the roof.”

“Food fights when cooking dinner.”

The two of us laugh at our fantasies, seeming to get more riled up instead of winding down.

“What about a kid?” I ask cautiously looking to her face for a response.

“A kid?”

“Yeah, I know we’ve talked about it, but I would really like to raise a kid with you Jahee,”

She sits in silence for a few minutes and i think I’ve overstepped and am about to call it a night, but she cuts off my thoughts with a smile.

“I think a kid would be wonderful,” she smiles.

“Would we have our own or adopt,” she asks

“I’m not sure I guess that’s something to think about later,” i reply

“Think of all the cute outfits we could have them wear.”

“And decorating their room.”

“Reading them bedtime stories.”

“Playing pretend with them.”

“The first day of school.”

“We would be right there for them to make sure they aren’t scared,” I say taking her hand.

We look into each other’s eyes and just sit there with our fantasies of the future. No matter what we ended up doing: where we lived, where we worked, whether or not we had a kid even, we knew that as long as we had each other every moment of our new lives would the most magical moment ever. The ups and the downs.

So when my wonderful Jahee walked down the isle the next day in her beautiful beige wedding gown, lace veil, and bouquet of roses surrounded by all our friends I knew the next chapter of our lives would be my favorite of the whole story.

The two lovers sealed their beautiful wedding vows with a kiss and lived happily ever after.

[magistralucis]

Paul: I found out about Aljoscha's death via a phone call from my wife; at that time I was in Sweden. The news hit Flake hard. But honestly, it didn't upset me that much. I've been contemplating why. To me, Aljoscha had already been dead, essentially, because one couldn't talk to him anymore. He ate less and less, and was as gaunt as a skeleton. He wandered about with his pendulum and talked nonsense. He bid farewell not with a bang, but with a whimper (lit. gradually, 'allmählich'). In that respect, it was not so surprising nor painful for me. I was sadder to realize Feeling B no longer existed. That was worse for me, far, far worse - that upset me more.

Flake: My friend Paulo called me after dinner, and told me about Aljoscha's death. I nearly spat the food back out, and called Paul. We all have to die someday, he said. Just great (’na toll’), I said.

- Paul and Flake on Aljoscha’s passing, from Mix Mir Einen Drink (2010) by Ronald Galenza & Heinz Havemeister, pp. 420-421.

[magistralucis]

Flake: Compromising wasn't what you'd call Aljoscha. Sometimes he got angry when Paul annoyed him. Sometimes we argued politics for hours while driving, we shouted too. Once Paul was so furious that while driving, he yanked out the ignition key and hurled it out of the window. They really got into each other's hair, until Paul couldn't stand Aljoscha's stubbornness anymore. The two were good opposites.

- Flake Lorenz, from Mix Mir Einen Drink (2010) by Ronald Galenza & Heinz Havemeister, pg. 430.

[magistralucis]

Paul: In Moscow I got to know the Russian soul, which is also important for a person. Say, for example, you're sat in the subway with a Russian. You say to him: your shoes are real nice, then he'll take them off and give them to you. And if you don't accept them, he'll knock you down. It's an incredible country. Such jovial and relaxed people.

- Paul Landers on the time he spent in Moscow as a child, from Mix Mir Einen Drink (2010) by Ronald Galenza & Heinz Havemeister, pg. 115.

[magistralucis]

Flake: I see the last years of Aljoscha like one long farewell. I think Aljoscha didn't miss anything in his life. And maybe, to say at some point - that's it now, and bye - is a good way to part with life. I remember often how he always laughed, regardless of the good or the bad. One time he tried to screw in a lightbulb, but screwed in his finger and got jolted. He was glowing to the soles of his feet, but there was just his bleating laugh. Even in the most embarrassing situations he would laugh his warm laugh: that's what I miss most about him.

- Flake Lorenz on Aljoscha’s passing, from Mix Mir Einen Drink (2010) by Ronald Galenza & Heinz Havemeister, pg. 420.

[magistralucis]

Also, two more things: 1) you're very welcome for the reviews, your fics are wonderful (and holding up really well, in case you were wondering :) a question us fic writers often ask ourselves...) and 2) I don't know about the Anon, but if you have pieces and bits to share about R's lives in East Germany, I would be delighted to read about it! I suppose Aüslander and Radio are about it in some ways, aren't they?

I’m back now and can answer this at last. What a night.💖💖💖💖💖💖💖 always for the support > w <

There is so much about the band’s lives in East Germany I have to share - so much, actually, that I’m not sure where to begin. I once compiled a list of R+ literature one should aim to read if you want to study them as people, among which were included MMED and Werner Lindemann’s memoir (Notizen Eines Vaters) about his son and life in East Germany. The only problem with these resources is that they are in German, and I had a translation project going for both of those books. MMED in pieces (it’s a massive book) and Werner’s memoir chapter by chapter. Maybe I should start picking that up.

Here are the links to my translation of NEV. They were created some time ago but the links are still valid. I got a fair length of the way into the book.

September

October

November

December

January

February

Finally, a little tidbit about Paul’s childhood in East Germany from MMED (snippets tied together from page 112 onwards). When he was little he lived in Russia for a year. This fact holds a lot more interest for me now than it did several years ago because I am now learning Russian, so I’ll share it with you.

PAUL: I was quite the little grub, perhaps it was also due to my mother, who was born in Poland. My father came from the then-German territories in Czechoslovakia. My mother has certainly given me her Polish comfort, a zest for life counted [for something] there […] For a year I lived in Moscow. This was in the third grade, we lived there because of my parents: my father is a professor of Slavic languages, who worked at home, and my mother taught Russian at the School of Foreign Trade. I quickly learned accent-free Russian, as children learn quite quickly.

This time in the Soviet Union shaped me very much. When we were on the Sea of Azov in Ukraine on holiday, near Chernobyl, there was nothing to eat. I do not know what it’s like today, but I learned there what it means to have nothing to eat. Just like that. My parents went to the market once a week - a day-long endeavour, because they had to push the bus when it went uphill. Then my father would come back late, and he would have with him three pieces of butter! That was the real killer (orignal: ‘das war der Hammer für uns…’) for us, it was really cool. My father is no longer able to eat eggs since that time, because we only ate eggs - as there were still chickens. My mother always made Ölkartoffeln, so potatoes cooked in oil, quite funny stuff. The good thing there was that you learned abstinence, that there were certain things which simply did not exist.

[magistralucis]

Paul!!! Oh my God, I had no idea he had actually lived in Russia - I knew he spoke Russian, but damn... it's with anecdotes like that I truly understand how different life was between Eastern & Western Europe after the 50's (because the late 40's weren't a walk in the park in Western Europe either, as far as I know, with the rebuilding and everything). It's crazy to think how much it has changed since the 90's too... The culturel upheaval, whiplash even, it must bring...

Yep! That’s basically the realization I had when researching these things for the first time. Not to mention lives were different between Eastern Bloc countries as well. It explains a lot about the band members’ attitude to life, I think, with all this context in mind - especially Flake’s. He’s so outspoken about his Ostalgia but until MMED and his own book, he’d never explained his experiences in detail.

Paul loved Russia. When he was growing up he was quite a sickly child who had to be sent to yearly health camps to build his strength and learn self-maintenance. He was not fond of East Germany’s way of solving his problem, but it seems that he was greatly improved by the Russian experience...

PAUL: It's an incredible country. Such warm and relaxed people. When I returned to Germany after a year, everything [there] seemed silly to me. I simply could not participate in the usual laments - oh, there is no ketchup and there are no bedsheets. That was spared me; I'd known what real lack was. My suspicion is, if all East Germans spent a year somewhere out of the country - not Russia, but (for me) in some disgusting province in the USA - they would have all come back and Germany would have seemed a really good country and no one would have complained any more. By forcibly holding onto the people who lived there, East Germany created the pressure first. The Russia experience was perhaps also why I did not want to leave [East Germany], because I knew things could get much worse than it was there. Of course I didn't want to go Russia at first, I cried. But when we came back to Germany, I asked: 'Papa, when are we going home again?'

[reversecauliflower]

Addressing Allegations: A Comprehensive Response to the Claims about Sapphyra

The allegations, initially brought forth by @reversepromise1 on both Tumblr and X on the 16th of February, and further detailed in the document titled "Sapphyra Victim Testimonies" released on March 10th, encompass a range of serious accusations including Doxxing, Abuse, Ableism, Racism, Misconduct, Drama, and Bullying. In light of these events, a group of staff members of Mystic Memenger and MMED admins have joined hands to investigate and understand the gravity of the implied transgressions.

We have responded to each claim - and have done our due diligence with providing transparent and honest evidence to fill in the gaps.

What you can find below is a document that addresses each claim, offers context, supports each with reliable sources, and provides insights and testimonies of people  who offer differing perspectives on the matter.

We underline a stance against further attempts to dishonor individuals' reputations online. There comes a point where such actions cross a moral boundary that should not be breached.

To the readers, our only wish is for you to read our work with an open mind and willingness to hear other side of the story. There is much yet to be revealed, and it is our hope that through our efforts to shed light on the case, we were able to provide you with a full insight into the case.

Reader discretion is advised.

Thank you and please take care going forward.

CLICK HERE TO READ