#however enemies will detonate your current reality

[hozukitofu]

Enemies to lovers had not quite been able to make its intended meaning. What we have is at best haters/rivals to lovers (they are on the same side they just hate how the other is carrying on) so they bicker, with love. We mistake rivals for enemies, understandably bc rivalry is more palatable and arguably less problematic. The dynamic of 'they don't actually hate each other' gives me a high like no other. But enemies, people on OPPOSITE sides committing CRIMES against each other in an obsessive ritual, too dependent on their morals to ever consider another path, making their marks on each other in mutual destruction wounds then get struck with an epiphany mid-fight mid-stab face to face that this person is their worse half, their despicable unseen part, the pathway direct express to hell, but LIBERATION the likes which no other could ever enlighten them to, someone so fucked up but so fundamentally ALIKE, unhinged kindred spirits with the same coins same morals different sides ...

I FUCK with that

The suspense of not knowing whether feelings are reciprocated bc the stakes are LIFE ENDING and everything must fall to support this love make me FERAL over enemies-lovers. Rivalry has stakes too but it's more getting over initial distaste of someone who you've viewed as your competition aka forfeiting your pride; enemies make you reroute your entire life compass to be with the one you love bc that changes EVERYTHING yes crimes were committed and confessions were traded on deathbeds there are no villains or heroes in this story. Rivals make couples strive to be better by the other and for themselves, enemies make each other WORSE and I'm here for it

Who are enemies to lovers: eve/villainelle (MI6 agent hunting down an international killer); laurent/damen (two heirs of warring kingdoms); vegas/pete (two sides of a warring family in a torture chamber)

What ISN'T enemies to lovers: sereshaw/hangster (classic men on men rivalry they're just extra toxic); cherik (same mutant side they've been trying to divorce for so long that its everyone's problem now but the enemies are humans)

#fandom thoughts #ship dynamics #categorising tropes #romance tropes #shipping discussions #in my vp brainrot today #but i also saw a hot take on twitter that made me ask WHERE IS THE ENEMY #enemies/lovers must be toxic #problematic and evil and bloody and deranged and unhinged #it should look like someone's world had just collapsed #none of the fluff of rivalry #rivalry fundamentally does not alter any party's viewpoints #however enemies will detonate your current reality #cherik #hangster #villaineve #vegaspete

[naughtyxstories]

Body Modification Universes

OOC Notes:

all of my male muses are available for these universes

looking for partners writing female muses primarily

consent in this universe is dubious at best so please do not write in this universe if it would be triggering for you

recommend an OOC chat prior to the first starter to discuss nature of modifications [physical and mental] to be made to your muse

Plots:

Version One

In this alternate universe, body modification has become the societal norm. Once their romantic relationship has reached a certain point, her lover/boyfriend/partner has the right to simply take her to the “Centre” for the modifications. He completes the forms and ostensibly she consents by signing them as well. However she doesn’t get to see what modifications were requested or what exactly will happen to her once she goes through those doors. 

Since it has become the societal norm, everything can be found in this world such as wings, capable of flight, enhanced breast size and shape, physical alterations, mental alterations (to make them smarter or more stupid, crave sex or certain kinds of kinks they wouldn’t do before but now beg for). Some women come out with fairly minor physical changes or even improvements to their health and well-being (such as no longer needing glasses). But those are few and far between. Given free reign to change their woman to taste, so to speak, most men have taken full advantage of the situation.

After the completion of the mods, the young female must spend the next week at the Centre to ensure she is fully recovered before she can leave. Also her first sexual interaction after the modifications must occur at the Centre to ensure medical staff are available to treat someone whose mods did not take for some reason.

Plotting options include hitting that point in the relationship where the next obvious step is the trip to the Centre, a modification gone wrong and taken in by a sympathetic soul, the post-modification-surgery interactions including first sexual interaction post-mod and the list goes on. 

Version Two:

The world did not end with a bang or with a whimper. It was just slowly swept away, one kilometre at a time. It started in the middle of the ocean so no one noticed for far too long. By the time it was picked up it was over 100 kilometres in diameter. A round circle that shimmered in the light, impenetrable to the eye. Anything that passed through it did not return. They sent in drones and navy units. They sent in diplomats. They sent in cameras, animals and ships. Nothing returned. 

Once the barrier was passed through, all communication ceased. They were simply erased.

Countries rallied and global research teams formed to investigate the Shimmer, as it became known, and how to stop it. Every twenty-four hours it grew by another kilometre in all directions. They tried to detonate weapons to blow a hole in it, they tried to communicate with it, and they tried to wall it in. Nothing helped. 

Soon it was devouring entire islands and coastline. People fled. The Shimmer was coming. A mindless, voracious, unstoppable enemy that seemed to have no plan, no purpose, but to consume the world.

But the leaders of the world had a back-up plan. A last resort that had been in development since the reality of the threat had been made clear. There was only one hope left - to abandon Earth and try to find another world on which they could survive. 

As the end grew nigh, the citizens of the world put together a life-raft of survivors, their best and brightest, their children, their scientists and loaded all of their knowledge and their hope into a trio of space ships. They launched in time, each ship carrying the last of humanity into a different direction, each hoping to find a habitable world.

Does humanity deserve a second chance?

Life on one of the ships, the Acheron, took a twisted turn.

It was a skeleton crew for a long time as the bulk of the ship’s inhabitants lay in stasis. Just a few crew and the ship’s captain. Lost in space and unsure of their very survival, the crew occupied a ship which was designed to be inhabited but it was not. Not really. The waking crew grieved and thought of their home world. They received no communications now. Nothing current. Just old television and radio programs, bouncing around the universe endlessly. Canned laughter from the long dead. The world was gone. They were alone.

Over time a sort of madness grew. The Captain and his first officer were the first infected, entranced by their power and the lack of oversight.  The scientists initially resisted. But over time, even they grew curious. With tens of thousands still in stasis, a few experimental losses surely wouldn’t be so dire. They started with one. Everyone knew she was only on board because her father was extraordinarily wealthy. He had funded a great deal of the components and bought berths for many noteworthy artists on the condition that his daughter got to go as well. 

So they moved her to a separated stasis pod, unconnected from the others. Curious to see what they could do, they started simply and each time, they pulled her out of stasis to see if it worked. The experiments took months but there was little else for them to do. Even those that initially resisted, that disdained what was occurring, began to collaborate. The moral sway of their home world grew weak and distant as they grew more and more isolated. By now they had lost communications with the other ships. They truly felt like they were the last of humanity. 

Once they had done all they could to their first ‘patient’, they added a few others to their collection, each twisted by the experiments inflicted upon them.  The modified human beings were changed such that they mentally couldn’t recognize themselves, even in a photograph, or have any recollection of their past lives. They became known as the “Companions”.

For some the scientists had changed their skin, hair or eye colour to unnatural shades. Some were merely perfected and exaggerated versions of the various cultural reflections of beauty from home but still within the realm of ‘normal’. They added secondary features, larger breasts, tightened their holes so it always caused the Companions to cry out in pain when they were used. Some craved the taste of a man’s cum, a woman’s pussy or even piss. Some begged to be used, often and thoroughly.  Some craved pain. Or the sweet metallic taste of blood. Some lost the ability to walk and were obliged to crawl everywhere. Some grew wings and could fly around the cargo bays, perching high in the rafters. A few seemed to hold onto their humanity for too long, becoming enraged. Those failed experiments were ejected into space.  

Some were silly and cutesy, exaggerated little fuck-dolls who were charming and adorable but didn’t have two whole brain cells to rub together. 

An Elite member of the crew could choose the Companion’s changes from a laundry-list of options. A menu of genetic tortures and modifications. Did you want your companion to tolerate pain or experience unending pleasure, with no loss of sensation? The options were endless from physical modification to mental reprogramming so that they would serve their selected “owner” with all appearance of willing submission.

#body mod au

[wherestoriescomefrom]

sorry to bother but i remember reading something about you writing a paper on how happiness is weaponized in hp and i was wondering if you had any links? i'd love to read that

Shit, anon! I lost this ask entirely because I thought my tumblr glitched or you deleted it!! Don’t worry though, I’ll do my best to answer it and I hope you find out that I answered it. I’m really unsure about the notification system on tumblr currently. 

So unfortunately, the paper you are talking about was never published because it was one of my earliest papers as an undergrad student, so it requires a lot of cleaning up before its anywhere close to publishable. If you would really like to read it, you can dm me privately, and I don’t mind emailing it at all. It wasn’t specifically about weaponised happiness, but rather the role of laughter in talking truth to power. The title of the paper is “MischiefManaged: The Interaction of Humour and Fantasy in Harry Potter.” 

I’m going to take out some of the arguments I had originally written, so you can have a sense of the paper and the overarching thesis. I’ll also attach my bibliography under a Read More link. Anytime you see a line break, assume that I’m quoting from a different part of the paper! 

“The regulation and order of theDursleys is a method of exercising control over Harry. Their sense of normalcycomes from having avoided this complex other world and from making sure Harrynever finds it. Hogwarts becomes a welcome world, one of mess and magic,disorder and laughter, where Harry finds himself through the contrasts.             

Hogwarts becomes Harry’s escape – “frombeing the oppressed and ignored, Harry becomes the often feted cynosure. Frombeing alone, he gains the huge new family of the school and the domestic familyof the Weasleys, with whose children he becomes friends. From being without apurpose, his life is given structure and meaning.” (Manlove 186)             

The world of Hogwarts is analternative – a carnival of belonging and acceptance. The normal rules do notoperate here, and Harry often notes this. The mirror image to life with theDursleys is in life with the Weasleys, a motif that repeats itself both in anemotional acceptance and a physical difference. For instance: 

Lifeat The Burrow was as different as possible from life in Privet Drive. TheDursleys liked everything neat and ordered; the Weasleys’ house burst with thestrange and unexpected. Harry got a shock the first time he looked in themirror over the kitchen mantelpiece and it shouted, ‘Tuck your shirt in,scruffy!’ The ghoul in the attic howled and dropped pipes whenever he feltthings were getting too quiet, and small explosions from Fred and George’sbedroom were considered perfectly normal. What Harry found most unusual aboutlife at Ron’s, however, wasn’t the talking mirror or the clanking ghoul: it wasthe fact that everybody there seemed to like him. (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 23)

Themad world of Hogwarts gives Harry the language to rebel against the Dursleys.Magic becomes a liberating force, and, interestingly, we find this languagetranslated into humour. One of the first instances of the Dursleys being unableto bully Harry is in Hagrid’s arrival. Hagrid’s response to Vernon Dursley’sattempts to control the situation are simple – giving Dudley Dursley a pig’stail. This comical image is meant to invoke laughter in us, and seems to teachHarry as well. Harry’s first active act of rebellion against the Dursleysoccurs in Harry Potter and the Prisonerof Azkaban, where Harry blows his Aunt Marge up. Images of comic releaseare used alongside magic for both the young audiences, and the larger politicalpoint being made about translating the language of resistance. Magic existsbetween gaps of reality and unreality; interacting with humour allows it tobecome a powerful statement against overpowering authority.” 

“By creating this identity, thearistocratic ‘Purebloods’ ensure a binary between the two identities. Bylocating this identity within a body, a target is created, and the way theauthority interacts with this body determines the nature of this body. It isthis very body that is later punished. This identity itself is constructed:there is no definite way of being able to trace a bloodline back to itssources, and as the ‘trimmed’ portions of the Black family tree demonstrate,almost all the so-called ‘Pureblood’[1] families have a certainamount of ‘Muggle Blood’ mixed in. However, they very naming of the blood status is what allows the society to assumethere are differentiations. 

Thenaming itself gives authority figures like Dolores Umbridge the legal authorityto ‘cleanse’ the Wizarding society. Nomenclature is crucial in the creation ofa shared enemy – similar to the innocuous ‘Mudblood,’ Voldemort’s regime in theMinistry of Magic brings out similar chilling identifications. Emily AsherPerrin analyses that Harry is termed an “Undesirable” (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 190) – once again, aninnocuous term, once stripped of the political connotations. Therefore, thesocietal situation created by the very existence of the term ‘Mudblood’ is whatallows a Voldemort, and, more importantly, an Umbridge.

The segregation of identities occursbetween racially different creatures, as well. The most touted example for thiswould be the treatment of the Houselves. Once again, common place, everydaynames and objects are used to define their identity. Wizards have the privilegeof defining their relationship with Houselves, and lack of education ensuresthat they will never find a framework outside this definition to operate in.”

“Thelanguage Harry learns to assert his identity against the Dursleys is intimatelysimilar to the language that the youngsters of Harry’s communities have tolearn to assert their identities against legally sanctioned authority figures.Harry’s wit and sarcasm against figures who hold power over them is a commontrope within the Dursley household; the threshold is crossed when he uses thesame language to speak to figures like Severus Snape and Dolores Umbridge:

‘Whodo you imagine wants to attack children like yourselves?’ enquired ProfessorUmbridge in a horribly honeyed voice.

‘Hmm,let’s think ...’ said Harry in a mock thoughtful voice. ‘Maybe ... LordVoldemort?’

Rongasped; Lavender Brown uttered a little scream; Neville slipped sideways offhis stool. Professor Umbridge, however, did not flinch. She was staring atHarry with a grimly satisfied expression on her face. (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 213 - 214)

 ‘Doyou remember me telling you we are practising non-verbal spells, Potter?’

‘Yes,’said Harry stiffly.

‘Yessir.’

‘There’sno need to call me “sir”, Professor.’ (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince 138 - 139)

 Wedo not necessarily see Harry directing sarcasm and wit towards teachers beforethis – Professor Umbridge breaks this barrier, and we see Harry rebellingagainst the corrupted undercurrent of the world he loves so well. His responseto this corruption is similar to his response towards the Dursleys, accessing alanguage of ridicule and mockery to make his point.

The effect this has is manifold: themethod to critique authority becomes humour. By belittling Umbridge’s ideas,Harry is able to expose how hollow they are. This method also helps to establisha sense of community: since humour is a function of a shared set of values, wesee its use as a tool of rebellion a way to unite a voiceless minority. NevilleLongbottom articulates this himself, when he points out “It helps when peoplestand up to them, it gives everyone hope. I used to notice that when you didit, Harry.” (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 432) Oppression and restrictions are battledby communities, communities willing to laugh at the ones who create theseoppressive structures.”

“The schoolwide campaign of pranksagainst Umbridge is instigated by them [Harry and Friends], used by them to undermine herauthority, to make her rules seem worthless and arbitrary. Their act oftransgression has interesting consequences, for the community that they aretrying to bring together. “Now you mention it,’ said Hermione happily, ‘d’youknow ... I think I’m feeling a bit ... rebellious,” (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 533) becomes a sentimentthat gives the language of rebellion to the students of Hogwarts, many of whomhave not faced ideology in operation before Umbridge. In fact, expressinghumour in the face of oppression seems to erase “signs of fear” from Fred’scountenance. The creation of the Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes is what allowsstudents to access this sense of power over Umbridge, and it is usedeffectively against her over and over again.

The similarities between Umbridge’sregime and Voldemort’s regime are uncanny. As a foreshadowing, Harry’sexperience with Umbridge teaches him how to articulate himself againstVoldemort’s claims to power. When Harry attempts to infiltrate the Ministryduring the rule of Voldemort, hidden under the political façade of PiusThickness, once again, the products developed by Fred and George Weasley. DecoyDetonators, Extendable Ears, Skiving Snackboxes, and other pranks are used toinfiltrate a serious political institution, and used effectively. The Weasley’sWizard Wheezes becomes a rallying cry for humour even during the time whenVoldemort is at large, without the legal sanction of the Ministry. “U No Poo” (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince 91)is a masterminded subversion of the Voldemort’s attempt to construct hisidentity as something larger-than-life. Voldemort uses names to terrify peopleinto submission. By making his very name inaccessible, he makes his identityuntouchable, inconceivable and fearsome. The prank created by Fred and Georgeis extremely clever in the way it recaptures this space, reducing Voldemort’sunspeakable terror into something that everyone can access withoutapprehension.” 

Foof!! That Went long. Hope it answered your questions, Anon, and I’m including the bibliography. Mind, if I was writing this paper again, that bibliography is going to be much longer, so if you want more reading material, let me know!!! 

Works Cited

Bakhtin, Mikhail. “Introduction.” Rabelais and His World. Indiana UP, 1984. 1 - 59. E-book.

Barrat, Bethany. “Azkaban: Discipline, Punishment, and Human Rights.” The Politics of Harry Potter. Palgrave Macmillian, 2012. 85 - 95. E-book.

Barrat, Bethany. “‘By Order of the Hogwarts High Inquisitor’: Basis of Authority.” The Politics of Harry Potter. Palgrave Macmillian, 2012. 85 - 95. E-book.

Barrat, Bethany. “Purebloods and Mudbloods: Race, Species, Power.” The Politics of Harry Potter. Palgrave Macmillian, 2012. 59 - 85. E-book.

Barrat, Bethany. “The DA (Dumbledore's Army): Resistance From Below.” The Politics of Harry Potter. Palgrave Macmillian, 2012. 85 - 95. E-book.

Foucault, Michel. “The Body of the Condemned.” Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Vintage Books, 1995. 3 - 32. E-book.

Manlove, Colin. “Frightened of the Dark: The 1990s.” From Alice to Harry Potter: Children's Fantasy in England. 2003. 169 – 193. E-book.

Mendlesohn, Farah. “Crowning the King: Constructing Authority in Harry Potter.” The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon, ed Lana A Whited. University of Missouri Press, 2002. E-book.

Perrin, Emily Asher. “The Harry Potter Reread: The Deathly Hallows, Chapters 13 and 14.” 26 February 2016. Tor.com. Website.

Westman, Karin. “Spectres of Thatcherism: Contemporary British Culture in JK Rowling's Harry Potter Series.” The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon, ed Lana A Whited. University of Missouri Press, 2002. E-book.

Whited, Lana A, M Katherine Grimes. “What Would Harry Do: JK Rowling and Lawrence Kohlberg's Theories of Moral Development.” The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon, ed Lana A Whited. University of Missouri Press, 2002. 182 - 211. E-book.

#the people??? want me to answer??? #harry potter #speaking truth to power #fandom meta #My writing #hello void this is ridiculosity

[crowblackbird]

Mars and The Morning Star: Part 1.

EXT. BLACK KETTLES' CAMP - EARLY MORNING

A man dressed in black body armor suit, a Future Soldier, STEVEN QUINN(33). He has suddenly appeared in the middle of the infamous attack on Black Kettle’s sleeping village, it is November 27, 1868. Steven has to scramble for his life, having suddenly appeared in the midst of a wave of gun fire from rifles and Gatling guns.

Screams and pounding horse hooves explode into his semi-conscious mind. Steven lays low, he hides under a near-by willow bush. Before Steven is flashed forward in time, he is glimpsed by a WOMAN. She catches a glimpse of a man, his shoulders shine a black glint from his bullet-proof solar suit. Bullets tear at the willow bush around him and into the ground around him. He disappears. A Lakota Woman named MORNING STAR(21) has seen Steven appear and disappear. However: she returns to the reality she is going through. A US Cavalry Soldier has fallen, an arrow has found it's mark through his back, he falls to his knees. She dives and grabs for his sabre. The US Cavalry Soldier turns around to face her, he draws his pistol. Morning Star reacts quickly with the sabre and stabs it through his throat. The US Cavalry Soldier slumps, his life pours out of his throat. She pushes herself backwards under a willow, hiding herself from the thundering US Cavalry war horses early morning charging attack on her village. Hiding behind her and with her, under the willow bush is a small boy, her son.

Morning Star still holding the sabre reaches for the Soldiers foot and pulls him close. She pulls off the Soldiers blue coat, using the Soldiers blue coat to protect herself and her little son. She reaches out from under the coat and takes his pistol too.

US Cavalry thunder to and fro in the Black Kettle’s Camp. The US Cavalry gallop over the bodies lying, cutting them more, even: the pieces, mutilated men, women and children cut all to  pieces.

Many of the US Cavalry with knives - scalp; with their rifle butts - knock brains knocked out; murder children two or three months old; Indians of all ages lying there: infants and warriors: all rudely awaked then slaughtered by US Cavalry troops.

Screams. Gunfire. Shouts. Battle cries. Horses rear, Snort, Whinny, Roar and bite. US Cavalry shout their Victory.

Under the US Cavalry Soldier’s jacket, Morning Star hears the thunder outside, she feels her heart beating, as if it would give away her position. In the mix, of the blood curdling screams of all the mother’s in the camp, dogs bark, and dogs yap.

Morning Star holds the little boy, her son: as close and protective as she can. Her son doesn’t make a sound, neither does she.

INT. STEVEN QUINN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

Steven Quinn is blasted back to his own time zone: 1997, his former world. He's there long enough to see the answering machine beside the phone flashing a red number one. The world before him flickers once more. He grimaces from the bullets of the gatling guns. They fall out of his suit to the floor, scatter to the floor as the phone flashes. Steven grimaces and disappears.

INT. FUTURE SOLDIER TIME CHAIR ROOM - EVENING

He's back in his Future Soldier time-chair. Steven squints, wondering if this is the right place, feeling unsteady.

STEVEN What the hell’s going on? (shouts)

The TIME TECHNICIAN at the helm of the Time-Chair Room works frantically on the computer dials, levers and buttons. Also in the room, are TWO GUARDS, in case of enemy infiltration.

TIME TECHNICIAN Just hang on there Soldier, we'll have you back in your time period shortly.

STEVEN I need help, I’ve been shot. What's happening? (shouts)

TIME TECHNICIAN We're under-fire, but we'll send you home first. Don't worry.

STEVEN No. I need help. The Time Technician taps at the glass keyboard, he presses, RECUPERATE. Steven receives an injection from the back of the Time-Chair seat into his shoulder.

TIME TECHNICIAN If you want, we can keep you here. (chuckles) You’re lucky to be on the last Time-Chair out of here.

The Time Technician taps at the glass keyboard, he stares intently on the screen, despite the building beginning to shake. The two guards with him look nervously at each other. They turn to the main entrance, and aim their rifles. They are LOCKED and LOADED. Their mission: protect and disappear.

The enemy on the other side of the door is: THE SOLDIERS OF MARS, they begin to cut through the door with their RED HOT fire-power. A round of fire ricochets through the door, off the floor and into the Time-Chair.

TIME TECHNICIAN (cont’d)  (sees it) Okay, we’re outta here!

He taps at the glass screen, hits ENTER! Steven disappears. The Time Technician and the Two guards disappear too.

The Soldiers of Mars blast through the doors, no one is there. The room EXPLODES in a blast of WHITE, the room was set to self-detonate.

FADE TO BLACK. FADE IN:

INT. STEVEN QUINN'S APARTMENT – NIGHT

Steven, the Architect, and also of North American Indian decent. Steven is half Irish white - half Lakota man, walks into the apartment; he notices his apartment is bare.

The photo of his parents stands out: DEIRDRA(28)his Lakota mom - FRANK(38) his Father of Irish heritage. They stand in front of a wooden two-story house, built by Frank.

His apartment is not supposed to be so bare, it is missing many things, empty picture frames, missing furniture, and wall hangings. Bare book shelves with dust outlines. The entertainment center with his parent’s photo has more dust outlines. The TV, DVD player and stereo don’t seem to be touched.

He tosses his briefcase onto the spot where the coffee table would have been. The answering machine beside the phone flashes a red number four. He plays the messages, but the first three are clicks, hang-ups.

The final message is AUDREY'S (29) voice. Audrey is the recent ex-girlfriend of Steven.

AUDREY (answering machine voice) I won't be coming back, and I’m sorry that you don't want to try to make things work. I don’t know why you won’t talk to me?

Steven walks to the fridge in the kitchen, he cracks opens a beer, guzzles it, crushes it, tosses it to the side, he turns on some music, and cracks open more beers and drinks and drinks. He plays the message over and over again, he continues to drink. This is how he copes.

He starts to dance, but stumbles. Finally he falls, he tries to stand, he stumbles all over his apartment, he crawls to the couch and plays the message one more time, he falls asleep before hearing it one last time.

A FEW HOURS LATER - SAME

Steven wakes from the couch; empty beer cans are strewn at his feet towards the TV. A cigarette ashtray on his briefcase is filled to overflowing. He flicks on the TV, on the News is a report on the death of Princess Diana.

He rubs his head, like he has been through the same car accident. He rises and heads to the kitchen, opens the fridge, grabs a beer and cracks it open. He guzzles it, cracks open another and drinks this one slower. He stands by the fridge nursing his hang-over.

He returns to the couch, he presses plays on the answering machine message one more time, he presses stop.

Her voice rings, echoes in the mostly empty apartment.

The phone RINGS, the call goes to the machine.

AUDREY (cont’d) (Through the Answering Machine) Steven, I know you’re there. We can work through this, I can be here for you. But, not there. Come to me. Here it’s quiet, calm with a beautiful sunset every night. (she pauses)

Audrey is quiet. Steven can hear her breathing, he can feel her voice hanging in the air.

AUDREY (cont’d) (Through the Answering Machine) I will give you some time, I can wait. I don’t know how long love can wait, but I will wait as long as I can, and as long as I have to. (She hangs up.)

He plays the message one more time, then he presses delete. He turns on the TV to a music channel.

EXT. FUTURE SOLDIER PROGRAM, TUCSON, AZ. - DAY

The Future Soldier Program is located in an underground bunker in Tucson, AZ. Tucson, AZ., is a barren moonscape. The Tucson of the past is a ruined rubble, hardly a sign of the former city.

Downtown Tucson is only a charred black crater, it’s old city blocks lie empty, empty vehicles slump into melted asphalt craters, the streets of Tucson reveal a destruction of apocalyptic events. The only surviving vegetation is the cactus, and the tumble weed; which rolls through pushed along by the hot desert wind.

INT. FUTURE SOLDIER PROGRAM - TUCSON UNDERGROUND - SAME

Two SOLDIERS, both in official government capacity, both dressed in black body armor suits, watch Steven Quinn, the visual seems to be coming through his TV set.

Voices are OFF SCREEN.

One of the Soldiers is the HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICER ROSS(40’s). Ross speaks to the other Soldier, RECRUITMENT OFFICER TAYLOR(30’s).

ROSS He's perfect.

TAYLOR Yes sir. I think so too.

ROSS Pull up his profile.

Ross reads on a screen before them a brief summary of Steven Quinn's profile.

ROSS (cont’d) Relationship over. Life nearly over. Doing well as an Architect, but what's a career without one’s health. What does he have anyway?

TAYLOR He has lymphoma.

ROSS Lucky for him, we can fix all that now.

TAYLOR Shall I? Send him a message?

ROSS Yes, send him the Future Soldier Message.

Taylor taps on the computer screen, finds what he is looking for, then he taps on the send button; the broadcast loop is sent. The broadcast loop is a message from a Recruiting Officer. The broadcast Steven was watching his suddenly been interrupted. Steven doesn’t notice. Steven has fallen asleep.

BROADCAST LOOP Dear Mr. White. Welcome to a message from the future. We are in the business of traveling back in time to recruit soldiers in a fight for the past, present and future. You have been selected because of your current health situation and your current personal situation. When your service is complete, you in your healed condition, your currently incurable disease and you will have the chance to resume a life. Your current life, a complete new life or continue a life in our time period. Transporter Officers will be with you momentarily.

The door is knocked upon. The Transporter Officers look like bankers, or businessmen in formal black suits. They find Steven asleep on the couch. They walk in and each take a wrist and grip a shoulder. They disappear with Steven in their grip.

In the apartment, the answering machine records another message from Audrey.

AUDREY You prick Steven, why aren’t you calling me. Where are you? Hello? Are you there? Steven? Will I ever hear from you?

Audrey hangs up. The answering machine flashes.

INT. FUTURE EARTH - TUCSON UNDERGROUND – DAY

Steven is seated at a monitor, watching Recruitment Officer Taylor on his screen.

TAYLOR Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the future.

Steven looks around, taking a look at the future. The future is dark, gray, cold steel.

TAYLOR (cont’d) You were all chosen for a reason, your health. Everyone of you is either dead or dying, and here in the future we have the cure. This afternoon, you will be cured of your illness. In exchange you will be expected to give us one year of your life as a Future Soldier. This year you give us, we will use over and over again, until we win.

Steven looks around, as the others look around at one another. All unclear about how this will work.

TAYLOR (cont’d) One year is not a long time, but in the battle for the future. You’ll be surprised at what a difference year can make.

Recruitment Officer Taylor holds up his left hand.

TAYLOR (cont’d) In a few moments, an ATTENDANT will come by and a chip will be inserted into your left hand. It will travel your blood system and in this chip will be your cure, your new lease on life. This chip will also serve as your locator. You will also be asked to put on the Virtual Reality helmet and relax. You will watch a video of the rest of your original earth life.

The ATTENDANTS dressed in black solar powered suits walk down the rows of prospective Future Soldiers. Each one before Steven receives a stamp on their hand. The first ones to receive the stamp smile, laugh that there is no pain.

TAYLOR (cont’d) Now please put on your helmets.

The Prospective Future Soldiers put on their helmets after receiving a stamp. They watch their movie. Some are moved to tears by the images they see.

After Steven has his stamp, he rubs his hand and also has the same surprised reaction. He takes his helmet and puts it on.

EXT. CEMETERY - DAY (STEVEN’S VIRTUAL REALITY VIDEO)

AUDREY(29), a beautiful and youthful stands crying at the grave of Steven White, as his casket is being lowered down into the ground.

Along with her are several members of her family. Audrey’s MOTHER(55) comforts her, her arm is around her and she holds her daughter close. Audrey breaks down and screams as dirt is poured, covering his casket.

[agentreaperhere-blog]

Comparison

Russia Vs. EU And USA

Do you by any possibility view the Globe Glass Soccer Championship Tournament in Sth Africa in 2010. There have got been reported programs to make T-14 Armata tanks unseen to enemy radars. Russia reported earlier that it plans to produce 2,300 T-14 Armata tanks by 2020. Until the tank becomes fully operational, Russia's armed service relies on the T-90A, which features a 125mm cannon, remote-operated machine gun and autoloader. A T-90A survived a immediate strike from a TOW missile in a military services conflict in Syria recently.

With a limited reference of proper warheads on high signal, you can end up being guaranteed that the preliminary targeting is normally heading to end up being all the hard military services possessions. Neither aspect is normally going to possess the property available for a long buying list. ICBM's are seen as a use it or shed it asset. If you do not use them they will become taken out in a major strike. Both the USA and Russia would put a high priority to get all the missiles launched mainly because quickly as possible. Most SLBM's would become held in hold though they would still observe some launched at control and control property as the 1st volley in any comparison.

For the initial fifteen years of the nuclear period, from 1945 to 1960, U.Beds. nuclear battle setting up was a incomplete affair with little or no coordination among the providers and prevalent duplication of concentrating on. It had taken some period after Hiroshima and Nagasaki to institutionalize the functional setting up procedure in the several departments and organizations of the U.Beds. federal government. The nuclear battle setting up procedure surfaced in a period of fast-paced technical transformation, tremendous development of the nuclear arsenal, enhancing cleverness features to find goals in the Soviet Union, extreme rivalry among the military services providers and among the specific and specific commands, all brought to a high boil by the doubts, stresses, and worries of the Cool Battle.

Furthermore, the financial may of the US provides allowed it to keep a substantial stockpile of navy, surroundings power, and army materiel - therefore substantial, in reality, that the power of the All of us equipped forces is certainly larger than that of the following five equipped forces combined. On the other hand, Russia's economy was devastated when USSR out of cash apart. While it is usually continuously rebuilding its armed forces, there is usually little doubt that it is usually still much away from intimidating the US armed service dominance.

The difference between the present economic prospects of the United Expresses and that of the Russian Federation is certainly fundamental. To start with we require to look at the relatives debts buildings of the Western world versus the East. In the United Expresses obligations are increasing and the slums and homelessness are growing, concealed behind United Expresses' Potemkin Community ultra-wealthy gentrified metropolitan areas like Ny in New York Town or Washington N C and its rich suburbs.

This represents a sea change in Russian attitude towards its military technology sector. During the Cold War, a history of Stalin-era obsession with protection, the armed forces sector was totally covered from any feasible relationship with the civilian economy, producing in huge imbalances in technology spread into the domestic economy to the present.

Another sector of facilities production fineness from Russia is normally the outstanding advancement of Russia's United Truck Firm. Russia's Putin, then-Prime Minister, went to the starting of the extremely advanced brand-new cutting-edge railroad car stock of United Wagon's Tikhvin Railway Car Building Place in 2012 at a cost of almost $1 billion. Since then United Wagon provides grown up to end up being a main world-class creator of advanced specific railroad wagons, and is normally bigger than any Western european freight truck manufacturer with 22,000 wagons a calendar year.

The Soviet-era weapons style reporting agencies stay prominent internationally. Russia's aerospace market, for example, offers benefited greatly from international exports to non-Western nations, which proceed to Russia to buy effective fighter jets that are cheaper than their Traditional western options. China today uses even more on protection annually than Russia, but still imports systems and advanced weaponry from Russia.

Best now, the U.S. spends more on its military than any other nation, with a defense budget of 639 billion dollars for 2018. It's such a large budget, that even 5 emerging nations' defense funds collectively no longer surpass it. Relating to the Global Firepower index, Brazil's armed forces spending budget can be presently 24.5 billion dollars, Russia's can be 44.6 billion, India's can be 51 billion, China's can be 161.7 billion and Southerly Africa's can be 4.6 billion. Mixed, BRICS countries possess a protection spending budget of 286.4 billion dollars. This is even more astonishing when you consider that China and India are both in the top countries for highest military expenditures.

Russia and the US are older rivals. They became essential allies during the Second Globe Battle, but the connections became a extremely extreme rivalry that endangered the very lifestyle of every living becoming on the world. Certainly, there had been many occasions which could have led to a nuclear confrontation between the two powerful countries. Fortunately, both countries were well aware of the outcomes of an all-out nuclear battle.

This 2002 research was produced in a period when the globe got double as many nuclear weapons as we possess today in 2016. The high sound the alarm weapons are fewer and possess smaller yields in 2016. The list of high priority targets still remains high which means that there will be no available weapons for countervalue targets of population centers.

You might not become capable to make use of any weapons in your energetic stockpile that was not currently used in the field. Since the USA simply no much longer will keep large amounts of nukes in the field, you will not really make use of all of your proper resources in the initial exchange. The nukes that used to be kept on alarm in the field have been removed from the Navy's surface fleet and the Air Force's available active weapons. These nukes would have to end up being taking place from inventory first and after that packed onto automobiles. This will take some extra time. Knowing that these locations will be the first targets of a nuclear strike, time is usually one point either side wont have got obtainable to free.

In truth it would end up being significantly much less. A higher focus of detonations would consider place over military services goals and would end up being most likely 10-30 moments better in focus over those areas. 13 If they had been utilized in battle it is certainly less likely even more than 40% would obtain utilized also in a total battle situation. So the actual area of intense devastation in a nuclear battle is certainly someplace between 150,000 and 300,000 pillow mls or 1/384 to 1/192 of the world's property mass.

Today, the rivalry can be no much less serious. While the two possess not really actually involved in a immediate battle, they have used proxy countries and participants to test each other's capabilities. When the USSR disintegrated more than two decades ago, it was assumed that Russia would no longer pose a threat to the US as the former tried to adopt a more democratic type of authorities like that of made Traditional western countries. However, Vladimir Putin's takeover of the Russia is negating that old assumption. While Russia is just a shadow of its former self, it cannot be denied that it still owns a very formidable arsenal, not counting its still numerous nuclear warheads. In reality, Russia is certainly recommended to end up being the second most effective nation in the globe after the US.

If such an inquiry is definitely carried out - and presuming it's not a pre-packaged deal that starts with the summary of Russian sense of guilt and assembles whatever is definitely necessary to prove” the case - the investigation should also obtain testimony concerning Putin's suspicion that Secretary of State Clinton, the Country wide Endowment for Democracy and the Soros corporation experienced a hand in the aborted snow revolution” in Moscow from 2011 to 2013.