#like i picked it up like 50 pages before it was revealed

[beechersnope]

omg trick or treat red light spells danger 🏮

regretfully i do not have anything new from that verse prepared, but i do have a few other anons clamoring for max or maxiel content, so i shall offer a ghost town fic that is a bit longer than most of the stuff that i've posted for the trick or treat fills

***

The sun had already set behind the black ridge of the mountains when Daniel finally pulled onto the stretch of rough dirt road that led into the town of Coldspring.

Calling it a road was a kindness it didn’t deserve, Daniel decided after bouncing along in his truck for nearly half a mile before a haphazard collection of buildings in varying states of disrepair came into view. He felt practically an expert on the subject after spending the last fifty-odd miles on a relatively well-maintained gravel road that ran north-south between Highways 6 and 50. If he’d known what he was in for after that, Daniel might have taken the long way around—but eager to get to Coldspring before dark, he’d opted for the more straightforward route.

Daniel didn’t know much about Max Verstappen or her ultimate plans for Coldspring even after countless emails exchanged over the last three months in addition to a handful of curt, to-the-point phone calls in the last two weeks. But he did know that she would be driving a truck almost identical to the one he’d picked up in Vegas after he’d landed a couple days ago, and when Daniel pulled up alongside the only vehicle in town—a rusty pickup with a bed cap that might have been white, once upon a time—it became immediately clear that Max wasn’t here.

As soon as Daniel hopped out of the truck, his boots crunching loudly through the clumps of gravel and sand, the door to the building he was parked in front of swung open to reveal a grizzled old man in plaid and overalls, a cowboy hat adorning his otherwise bald head. His beard was halfway down to his gut, and everything about the man’s appearance set off alarm bells in Daniel’s head. He didn’t have much Este that Max had done her due diligence in making sure the former owner of Coldspring wasn’t a serial killer. At least he’d had the presence of mind to buy a gun before hauling his ass out to the middle of the desert, though he hadn’t ever really planned on using it.

But surprisingly enough, the man paid Daniel barely any attention at all. “I was expecting a lady,” he said in a gruff voice with a similar cadence to the way country folk spoke back home. His eyes moved straight past Daniel and off into the distance, like he was expecting to see Max’s truck trundling up the road any second now.

“I know her flight landed in Reno this morning,” Daniel explained, “but I haven’t had any cell service the past couple hours, so I’m not sure where she is. She should have been here by now. You haven’t seen her?”

The man shook his head. “I’ve been waiting here nearly all damn day, and I ain’t seen a soul.” Finally, his eyes drifted back to Daniel with a suspicious glint. “You the handyman she mentioned?”

“Yeah,” Daniel replied, nodding. He wasn’t sure where the man was headed with that line of questioning, but he was starting to wish he’d put on his holster as soon as he’d stepped out of the truck, just so everyone was on the same page.

The man seemed wholly unaware of the effect his presence was having on Daniel as he responded. “You’ve got your work cut out for you,” he said with a derisive snort. “That’s all I’ll say.”

Daniel had figured that, seeing as Max had bought the place for a fraction of what the land should have cost—regardless of the level of disrepair the buildings appeared to be in. Evidently, the man in front of him had been desperate to rid himself of whatever burden owning this ghost town had become.

The man seemed just as eager to get the hell off the property now that Daniel had shown up, despite the fact that Max was the one who should have been there for the passing of the torch, as it were. But after fifteen minutes of the two of them standing there in uncomfortable silence, waiting, as the sunlight rapidly waned, it became clear that something was gonna have to give.

“All right, why don’t you show me around,” Daniel finally offered. “I’ll go into town tomorrow and make some calls if Max doesn’t show later tonight.”

“You know where town is?” the man asked in a skeptical tone.

“Keep going north, right? Until you hit the highway, then west for a few miles.”

The man nodded, seemingly impressed. “Y’all did your research, at least. Don’t see how it’ll help you much with this dump, but God bless you for taking it off my hands.”

Daniel was tempted to ask why the man was so desperate to sell, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to open that can of worms with a stranger who seemed like he wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of dodge.

The man—whose name Daniel still couldn’t remember from the sale documents though he’d been wracking his brain trying to recall it since the second he’d pulled up—took Daniel’s silence for the cue it was and started to walk up the dusty road that used to be the bustling main street of a turn-of-the-century gold mining town.

Daniel was surprised by how many structures were still standing even though practically every building was crumbling at the foundations, so ill-cared for in the century since the town’s abandonment that it was a wonder there was anything left. There was a bank, a schoolhouse, a jail, a handful of residences, and a brothel, all nestled within the narrow valley that sloped up toward the crown jewel of Coldspring: its namesake—a deep limestone pit with clear blue water that lay at the base of the mountain in the north end of the valley.

The man stopped where the road had been overtaken by sagebrush just a few hundred yards from the limestone caldera of the spring. Behind it, Daniel could just make out a dilapidated wooden path that meandered up into the mountains, where the great yawning mouth of a mineshaft stood starkly amongst the vegetation even in near darkness.

“Well, that’s the lay of the land,” the man told Daniel, his eyes flitting toward the mineshaft up on the mountain for just a brief moment before returning to Daniel’s face. “If you or Ms. Verstappen have any questions, you’re welcome to call and ask, though truth be told, I’m rather relieved to be done with this place for good.”

Once again, Daniel made a conscious decision to keep his mouth shut, instead of asking the question the man almost seemed to be daring him to ask. “Where do we sleep?” he inquired instead. He’d had a long drive after all, and for all of Coldspring’s charm—or lack thereof—Daniel wanted nothing more than to crawl into his sleeping bag so he could get some rest. He didn’t harbor any delusions about sleeping in an actual bed.

“The saloon,” the man said before starting a quick pace back to their trucks, both parked in front of the building in question. “It’s really the only building still fit to live in. For now, anyway.”

“Yeah, we’ll see.”

Once the former owner had raced down the valley toward the main road, leaving Daniel on his own in the growing darkness, the magnitude of his decision to take this job finally started to set in.

When Daniel had first responded to the listing, which had asked for someone with a litany of skills better suited to a contractor and his entire crew, he hadn’t taken more than a few minutes to look up where the hell Coldspring was before deciding that the job was his.

The strain of the pandemic that had led Daniel to move back in with his parents now had him desperate to get as far away from Nashville as possible. Running away to the middle of the desert and getting paid to do it had seemed like the perfect solution. It wasn’t until after he’d actually gotten the job and signed the paperwork that Daniel even bothered to research why this particular ghost town had died.

In Coldspring’s case, it was literal. The entire town had perished without warning in the late 1800s from an apparent mass poisoning. The prevailing theory was arsenic contamination of the groundwater supply caused by a mining accident, though no definitive evidence to that effect had ever been found.

While that hadn’t been enough to scare Daniel away when Max had booked him a one-way ticket to Vegas, it was the only thing he could think about now as he unpacked all his necessaries from the truck and brought them inside the dusty saloon, which didn’t appear to have a single working source of light. Thankfully, Daniel had come prepared.

Daniel set up camp behind the bar, his lantern perched on the countertop near the windowsill as a beacon of sorts, though he wasn’t expecting Max to come strolling in any time soon. There was a deadbolt on the inside of the saloon door and a more elaborate padlock on the outside. Daniel removed the padlock and secured the deadbolt once he’d retrieved everything that he thought he might need, and then tucked himself into his sleeping bag, the lantern still sitting on the bar top casting the rest of the space into shadow. Daniel stared into the patch of darkness in the corner for a moment before finally sitting up to turn off the light entirely.

It wasn’t until he was lying there surrounded by the pitch black and the overwhelming quiet that he realized he’d never asked the former owner where he was supposed to go if he had to take a shit.

Daniel woke up bright and early the following morning from a sleep that had been fitful at best. It was difficult to get used to the change in the ambient sounds. Gone was the frog-song that had lulled him to sleep since he was a baby; in its place the rhythmic instruments of insects hiding in the brush, their melody muted now that fall was in full swing.

Daniel’s mind was busy as well. Max still hadn’t shown up, which meant that he had a long drive ahead of him before reaching the nearest town, Austin, and even then, there was no guarantee he’d have cell service. Or that Max would, for that matter.

But luck was on his side. Daniel made it up to Austin just in time for mid-morning breakfast, and his signal made a reappearance almost as soon as he crossed into town. Max answered on the first ring and out came a long, rambling explanation for her absence which boiled down to her car breaking down somewhere just outside of Fallon, where she’d spent the night, and that she was on her way to meet him in Austin as they spoke.

Satisfied with her assurances (for now at least), Daniel strolled into the little diner on the side of the highway in the center of town and sat down for a bite to eat.

There was a waitress at the head of the table almost as soon as he slid into a booth, a broad bucktoothed smile on her face as she greeted him. “Can I get you anything to drink?”

“Just water, miss, thank you,” Daniel replied. He didn’t like to rely on caffeine to keep himself going. “Do you have any breakfast specials?”

“Eggs and bacon with toast or a short stack with fruit,” the waitress recited easily. “But if you’re looking for something a bit more substantial, Pierre makes a mean chicken-fried steak.”

Daniel thought it over a minute. “Yeah, all right,” he decided. It would give him a reason to hang out in this diner a little longer, at least. “Side of scrambled eggs with that, also.”

“You got it, boss,” the waitress replied with a flirtatious little wink before sauntering back to give Daniel’s order to the cook.

Daniel watched her walk away with a bit more interest than he’d shown before and made a mental note to try to get a look at her nametag, assuming this place had the budget for something like that.

It did, as it turned out, and when the waitress came back with Daniel’s glass of ice water, he discovered that her name was Este. When Este came back with Daniel’s chicken-fried steak, slathered in thick white gravy that had his mouth watering before the plate reached the table, he also discovered that Este liked to gossip.

“You planning to stay in town long?” she asked, nearly leant up against the table while Daniel cut his steak. He couldn’t really fault her for hanging around, seeing as he was the only customer in the whole place, but he had to wonder just what she meant by it.

“In the area, yeah,” Daniel replied.

Este scoffed. “There’s not much else ‘in the area’,” she countered playfully.

Daniel took a careful bite of his steak, chewed, and swallowed. “You know where Coldspring is?” he asked her.

All the color drained from Este’s face. “You work for Don Stevens?” she asked in an almost breathless rush, her tongue stumbling over the words. “Don’t tell me he’s planning on fixing up the place.”

“Was that the guy who owned it before?” Daniel clarified. “No, I work for the person who just bought it.”

“Someone bought it?” Este sounded utterly incredulous. “You’re not staying there are you?”

Daniel nodded. ���Through most of the winter,” he replied, “long as the weather’s mild enough to work.”

A taut expression took over Este’s face as she drew back from Daniel’s table, her eyes darting toward the door, where another customer had finally come in. “Well, I’d rethink that plan if I were you,” she snapped before rushing away like her ass was on fire.

Daniel had to suppress the urge to laugh out loud.

He thought Max might find the anecdote amusing as well, but when she finally showed up a few hours later, it was clear that the young woman was in no mood for ghost stories. She looked uncharacteristically frazzled when she burst through the door of the little diner, her long blonde hair knotted up into a messy bun atop her head, and she blew straight past Este without a word, her fiery gaze fixed solely on Daniel.

“Nice to meet you,” was the first thing she said, her consonants sharp and carefully enunciated, though beneath that Daniel could still detect the remnants of a lisp. The second was: “I didn’t get ripped off by that Don guy, did I?”

Daniel shook his head. “Long as you knew you paid for some rundown old ghost town in the middle of nowhere,” he told her.

Max rolled her eyes. None of his previous interactions with her had been what Daniel would consider the height of professionalism, so he wasn’t really taken aback by her attitude, but it was a whole other thing in person, that was for damn sure.

“All right, let’s hit the road, then,” she said, gesturing for Daniel to follow her back outside.

Daniel climbed to his feet a bit reluctantly. He was sort of hoping to grab lunch before heading out to the boonies. “You don’t want to grab a bite first?” he asked. “I don’t know about you, but I didn’t exactly stock a gourmet kitchen when I packed.”

“If gourmet’s what you’re looking for, I’m pretty sure you’re in the wrong place,” Max replied with an unjustified sneer before storming out the front door.

They caravanned back to the saloon in Coldspring at a slightly quicker pace than Daniel would have liked, though even Max for all her impatience couldn’t maintain the same speed once they reached the rugged trail that led up into the mountains.

It wasn’t until they parked in front of the saloon and Max hopped out of her truck that Daniel finally took real stock of her, realizing almost immediately that this woman did not seem well equipped for living off-grid over the next three to six months, or however long she expected this damn project to take.

But he had to give her credit where it was due: as soon as her designer leather boots hit the dirt, she was already rolling up her sleeves and getting right to work.

That work consisted mainly of surveying the entire property from top to bottom and making a list of everything that needed to be done. Daniel followed along, letting Max know exactly what was required for each task in the way of supplies and manpower, and the whole time, watching the grimace on her face deepen ever-further with each new item added to her notebook.

“What exactly are your big plans for this place, anyway?” Daniel asked after they’d combed practically the whole town top to bottom—with the exception of the mineshaft looming high above them and the spring below.

“Tourism,” Max replied vaguely. “People love ghost towns.”

Daniel wasn’t sure that even the most hardcore would-be ghostbusters could be convinced to come all the way out to Coldspring to get their rocks off, but he just nodded and let Max keep believing that all of this wouldn’t just be one massive money sink in the end.

“First snowfall could be right around the corner,” Daniel pointed out to her as Max leaned down over the bar top to jot something else down in her notebook. His eyes dropped to where the first few buttons of her shirt were undone. Her fair skin was already starting to burn. He forced himself to look away. “We might not have much time to work on the exteriors before winter makes things harder than it needs to be.”

Max glanced up sharply, but if she’d intuited the focus of Daniel’s gaze, she didn’t make any indication of it. “I guess we better get started, then,” was all she said in reply.

Over the next week, Daniel managed to make significant headway on repairing the foundations of the major structures in town, though he still wasn’t convinced some of the smaller residences could actually be saved. Max was a surprisingly big help throughout the whole process; Daniel had anticipated more traditional foremanship on her part, but when it came right down to it, she didn’t seem at all afraid to get her hands dirty.

With another human being sharing the saloon floor—albeit on the other side of the bar, out of view—the town didn’t seem quite so threatening at night. Daniel slept well after each day of strenuous manual labor, and with Max keeping them supplied with fresh food from town, Daniel was missing a lot fewer creature comforts than he’d expected.

By the end of the first week, the days started to blend into each other. Without being able to rely on his phone, which had been tucked into his backpack turned off since the last time Daniel had gone up to Austin with Max for gas and propane, there wasn’t much to keep him tethered to the trappings of the outside world as he worked. It was everything Daniel could have hoped for and more. Complete and utter freedom.

But Daniel couldn’t quite seem to shake the sense of unease that came over him every time he caught a glimpse of the abyssal void of the mineshaft in his periphery. Sometimes he forced himself to stare up at it for minutes at a time, squinting against the wind that howled through the valley in the late afternoons, trying desperately to convince his subconscious that whatever movement he’d thought he’d seen in the darkness was just a trick of the light.

The next time Daniel went up to Austin on a supply run, he bought a calendar from the gas station and started marking the days.

It was a Tuesday when something finally happened that Daniel couldn’t explain, nearly two weeks after his first arrival in Coldspring. He was doing measurements in the old jailhouse, flummoxed as to how to begin restoring the damn thing without just knocking it down and starting all over, when he heard it.

“What?” Daniel called out frustratedly. It was the fifth time Max had called his name in the last twenty minutes with no additional response. After the sixth, Daniel finally threw down his measuring tape and notepad and stalked out of the building to see what she wanted. But when he walked outside, Max was nowhere to be found.

It was only after he turned a full one-eighty degrees that he spotted her, sitting out on the porch of the saloon where she usually hung out when she was thinking over a problem. The only thing was, Daniel could have sworn he’d heard her calling him from the opposite side of town.

Daniel slowly turned his head again, his eyes drifting upward to the mineshaft that Max still hadn’t made any mention of in her grandiose plans for restoring the town. He squinted hard as he stared up into the darkness, half-convinced that if he tried hard enough, he could make sense somehow of the disquiet that fell over him every time he remembered the source of Coldspring’s demise.

“What are you doing?” Max asked.

Somehow, she’d managed to come up behind him without making a sound. Daniel whirled around to face her, and then glanced over her shoulder at the place where she’d just been sitting to find the chair on the porch empty, though he wasn’t sure what to make of the relief he felt at the sight.

“Were you just calling my name?” Daniel wondered.

Max shook her head. “No, why?”

“Nothing,” Daniel replied. “Don’t worry about it.” Then he put the whole thing out of his mind and got back to work.

By the end of the third week, Daniel was positively certain he was going stir crazy.

He hadn’t had any more auditory or visual hallucinations, or whatever the hell it was that he’d experienced the week before, but he was waking up every day painfully hard in his sweatpants with no hope of release. It didn’t help that he was spending each night in the saloon just a few feet away from Max, who hadn’t shown the slightest bit of interest in Daniel since they’d met—and honestly, Daniel was kind of grateful for that, but it didn’t help him address the more immediate problem he was facing, and that was that he desperately, urgently needed to get laid.

Per their agreement, Daniel was entitled to a full two days off of his choosing every week. Today was a Friday. Barely five minutes after waking up, Daniel had decided that he was going to make a trip up to Austin that afternoon to see if Este was maybe a little bit interested, even after their sour farewell at the diner that Daniel had been carefully avoiding since their first encounter.

Este wasn’t interested. Georgie, a tall English tourist who was dressed more appropriately for mid-July rather than late-October, was.

“Please tell me you have a hotel somewhere around here,” Daniel muttered against Georgie’s sweat-soaked skin as he pressed her up against the cab of his truck. He had a knee wedged between her bare thighs, and he almost felt like he would die if he didn’t get inside her in the next five minutes.

“I have one of those van conversions,” Georgie replied with an awkward giggle. “Got a whole mattress in the back. We could really make my bed rock, you know?”

Daniel nodded, barely registering a word she was saying. He was pretty sure he would have followed her off a cliff if she asked nicely enough in that moment, but when he finally pulled away from her so they could do just that, it wasn’t Georgie’s face looking back at him. It was Max’s.

Then Daniel blinked, and like that, whatever he’d seen was gone. But the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach was only growing stronger.

“What’s wrong?” Georgie asked, reaching forward to pull Daniel back in.

He dodged her and stumbled back a few feet. “I have to go,” he said, mouth dry as he fumbled through both pockets before remembering that his keys were attached to his belt. “Sorry, I—”

Daniel didn’t finish the sentence before climbing into his truck and speeding away, leaving Georgie and the rest of Austin behind.

But when Daniel finally made it back to Coldspring about an hour later, Max’s truck was gone. She hadn’t said anything to him when he’d left that morning, but a cursory examination of the saloon revealed a note hastily written and taped to the bar top. Went 2 Fallon for more supplies. That was it, no further explanation of when she planned to be back or why it was so urgent that she’d left midday for an errand that would take her at least six hours of driving to complete.

Frustrated with Max, but more-so with himself for letting this damn place get the better of him, Daniel buried himself in his sleeping bag and screamed into his pillow until he tasted copper in the back of his throat.

It was dark when Daniel woke up on the floor of the saloon, and it took him a moment to realize what it was that had woken him. Usually, on nights where the moon was full, as it had been the past two nights, the light shone straight through the saloon windows, illuminating the entire space with an eerie glow. But when Daniel’s eyes opened, all he could see was blackness, and there was a disorienting period of half-awake confusion before it finally dawned on him that the shape obscuring the moonlight belonged to a person.

Daniel’s blood ran cold. Instead of opting for fight or flight, his body simply froze.

Daniel watched as the shadow moved, completely silent, with none of the tell-tale creaking of the wooden floorboards underfoot that had become the de facto confirmation of either his or Max’s presence within the saloon. He held his breath as the shadow drew closer, and then—

“Max?”

She put a finger over her lips and moved closer as Daniel sat up in his sleeping bag.

“What is it?” he asked, in a whisper this time.

Max answered with a press of her lips against Daniel’s, surging into him, forcing his mouth to open to the insistent pressure of her own. She tasted metallic, but her hands against Daniel’s thighs were electrifying, distracting him for the moment from the strangeness of the encounter.

Then he remembered himself—remembered that Max was his boss and that there couldn’t be a worse idea.

Daniel pulled away sharply, and as he did so, he caught a glimpse of a face that wasn’t Max’s face, desiccated and bone white. But when he blinked, the apparition was gone, and it was Max staring back at him again, though there was still something about her that seemed…off. Different, somehow.

“If we’re going to do this,” Daniel started to say before just as quickly backtracking. “We shouldn’t,” he finished, though it felt like he was trying to convince himself more so than Max.

Once again, Max didn’t respond, but when she leaned forward to kiss him again, this time, Daniel didn’t put up a fight. He tangled his hands tightly in her long blonde hair as she laid a trail of bites along the hollow of his throat and down his chest, his other hand struggling to find a way to take off whatever it is that she was wearing. A nightgown? Bloomers? Before this, Daniel had never seen her go to bed in anything less than a crewneck and sweatpants, but maybe that was the reason she’d gone to Fallon, to plan for this—whatever this even was.

 Finally, Daniel managed to literally tear the undershirt off of her. With it gone, he drew back to appreciate the way her breasts were illuminated by the moonlight. Under other circumstances, it might have all been very romantic, but as it was….

Daniel quickly flipped Max over onto her back, temporarily getting himself tangled in his own sleeping bag before managing to break free. She stared up at him quietly, her expression calm and supplicating. The silence was a bit unnerving, but it wasn’t hard to ignore now that Daniel had his thumbs tucked into the waistband of her lacy bloomers. He slowly pulled them down, savoring every centimeter of skin revealed to his eyes. He was surprised to find a full thatch of dark blonde pubic hair between her thighs, but he certainly wasn’t disappointed.

When he ducked his head down to press his mouth against her cunt, Daniel was startled once again by the sharp metallic taste, the same as her tongue. It took him a moment to get used to, but then it faded quickly, and all Daniel could taste was a familiar mix of sweetness and salt.

Max sighed quietly when she came with her thighs flexing against Daniel’s face. He sat back, fingers shaking to unknot the front of his sweatpants, his cock so hard it almost hurt. Condoms, he remembered belatedly. There was a stash in his backpack on the other side of the bar.

“I’ll be right back,” Daniel reassured Max before running around to the front of the saloon to grab his bag.

The condoms weren’t in the pocket he remembered putting them in, which led to a frustrated scramble as Daniel searched every pocket and seam for them before finally finding them tucked between the pages of his notepad. He breathed out a quiet sigh of relief as he tore one away from the rest before hurrying back to where Max was waiting for him.

Only she wasn’t there.

Daniel stared down at the imprint in his pillow where Max’s head had just laid, his mind conjuring up a vivid memory of her moonlit blonde hair standing out starkly against the black fabric. He stood up slowly, examining every corner of the saloon for any sign of her, but she was just…gone.

“Daniel.”

He turned his head to find the door to the saloon hanging open on its hinges. Through the darkened entryway, he caught a glimpse of something out in the sagebrush, a distinct silhouette with bright eyes, reflective like an animal’s, but whatever it was he’d seen, it disappeared too quickly for Daniel to get a good look at it.

Daniel slowly stumbled over to the open doorway. He peered outside cautiously, taking note of his truck, which was parked on its own next to the vacant spot that Max’s vehicle had occupied before he’d left for Austin yesterday. It didn’t make sense. He should have heard her pulling in, loud enough to wake him, or at the very least, driving off again. Had she parked further down the road? How had she gotten out of the saloon without him seeing her?

Daniel swallowed, trying to clear his throat so he could call out to her, but as he stared out over the lonely valley, his vocal cords seized up, a paralyzing fear suddenly washing over him like a tidal wave. Daniel stood there just a moment longer, and then reached forward to slam the saloon door shut. His fingers were trembling as he secured the deadbolt. It was a long time before he managed to fall asleep.

Daniel woke the next morning to the sound of tires crunching against the gravel outside the saloon. He ripped himself from his sleeping bag immediately and stumbled out into the daylight, his eyes slitted against the sun’s late-morning brightness as he watched Max hop down out of the cab of her truck, looking for all the world as though she’d had a perfectly peaceful evening.

“Where the hell did you go?” Daniel demanded as she walked over to the front door of the saloon.

Max paused, looking a bit startled by the venom in his tone. “Didn’t you see my note?” she asked.

“I mean last night. What the hell is wrong with you?”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Max countered. “I left yesterday right after you did. I just got back. And good morning to you, too, by the way.” She stormed past him into the saloon with a quiet ‘asshole’ muttered under her breath.

Daniel remained standing there on the front porch for a minute or two, he wasn’t quite sure. When he finally came back inside, he walked straight past Max and into the backroom, which might have served as living quarters once upon a time before the gaping hole in the wall had rendered it unusable. The mirror still worked, though, for all its spiderweb cracks and layers of dust, and Daniel approached it with a trembling hand pressed to his collar.

Daniel stood in front of the mirror for a few seconds, just staring at his own reflection as if to reassure himself that he was still real, and then at last, tugged down the neck of his t-shirt to reveal a pattern of pale white marks that trailed down the side of his throat to his sternum, tracing the exact path of Max’s mouth the night before. They weren’t bruises—the exact opposite, in fact, as though the pigment in his skin had literally been leached from the places where she’d marked him.

All Daniel could hear was the sound of his own heartbeat pounding in his ears as he stared at the marks. Then something—a face in the mirror that wasn’t his own. Daniel whipped around to find nothing waiting over his shoulder, just the same gap in the wall that had always been there, opening up onto the sagebrush-covered landscape, illuminated fully under the bright sunlight.

But Daniel could have sworn he’d seen something.

When he finally emerged from the backroom a few minutes later, Max was standing at the bar, her eyebrows furrowed in concern. “Are you feeling okay?” she asked him.

Daniel nodded. “Fine,” he lied. “Just a little….” He paused and swallowed hard. “Have you noticed anything strange lately?”

“Strange like what?” Max asked.

Daniel just shrugged.

Max laughed. “You should really stop letting the locals tell you ghost stories about this place,” she advised.

Daniel forced a smile and nodded. “You’re right,” he told her.

“Come on, then,” she said. “Let’s get back to work.”

#my fic #trick or treat ask game #this might be the last one i do for the night #but i'm not kidding about it being long it's like 6k #sorry for bus drivering pierre esteban and george but i needed randos

[mybrainproblems]

15x20 "carry on" timing marks

or, as i scribbled at the top of the page "i heard that if you watch 15x20 carry on for a 10th time, it unlocks the secret good supernatural finale * i redid all of the timing mark notes today so these should be more exact than what i had before

i've watched 15x20 nine ten times so you don't have to! (but you should! bc folks should be in the habit of fact checking!)

also bc it rustles my jimmies so bad, i want to reiterate: 15x20 isn't a shorter than average episode! it's 41m48s until the credits and 42m19s in total, which is normal!

timing marks (now with ad break marks!) are below!

00:00 - episode start / then & now 00:43 - start bunker intro montage 03:57 - title card 04:00 - piefest 05:36 - dean gets pied 05:38 - robert singer laughs in the background (evil!) 05:55 - we meet our victims of the week 06:28 - dad gets stabbed from behind by a vamp 06: 59 - mom dies 07:51 - kids get taken 07:58 - our lads meet the police 08:17 - officer tells them the mom's tongue was ripped out 09:19 - the vampmimes! 09:57 - vampmimes gonna attack another family!! 10:25 - ad break (~3min) 10:27 - the lads catch a vampmime 11:12 - oh we're torturing again? (or at least threatening to) 12:31 - salmondean arrive at the barn 14:11 - find kids in the barn 14:21 - vampires look like they're in a police lineup 14:24 - kids escape 14:40 - ad break (~5min + CW promo) 14:55 - vampmime barn fight starts 15:37 - WHO?? 15:46 - jenny super secret boss reveal flashback 16:37 - sam kills her like. immediately. 17:08 - stabby-pokey 18:16 - sam wants to call ambulance, dean says no 18:40 - The Monologue Begins 22:29 - "always keep fighting" LMAO 24:20 - dean finally kicks off 24:44 - ad break (~3min) 24:46 - dean's unlit funeral pyre 25:49 - sam wakes up alone in the bunker 28:36 - picks up dean's other other phone 30:11 - sam turns the lights out on the bunker 30:15 - ad break (~5min + walker promo) 30:24 - dean's burning pyre 30:25 - dean arrives in heaven 30:39 - bobby! 31:58 - "it's the heaven you deserve" 32:18 - "cas helped" 33:51 - start driving montage 37:10 - song cut for old!sam death 37:50 - neoni carry on cover picks up 38:55 - dean arrives on the bridge 39:53 - "hey, sammy" 40:46 - pan out from salmondean on the bridge 41:05 - credits 41:10 - 4th wall break and fckn jump scare 41:48 - "aaaand.... cut!" (again, said by robert singer) 41:50(ish) - ad break (~3min)

many thanks to @chiaroscuroverspn for seeing me post about how i wished i knew where the ad breaks were and checked their DVR recording to look up the timing marks. once i knew roughly where they were it was so easy to see where those ad breaks are bc of the longer cuts to black between shots/scenes. (incidentally, they seem to be right before chapters 4, 5, 7 & 8 on the DVD)

* please note that i didn't add the runtime of the ad breaks to the timing marks since 99% of ppl will be watching it without ads and i didn't have the exact time for how long each ad break ran so i didn't want to throw things off

#i'm a whole new level of freak #finales georg #spn

[greenlantern94to04]

Green Lantern Corps Quarterly #8 (Spring 1994)

When Hal Jordan went bonkers in GL#50, he didn't just kill the Green Lantern Corps -- he also killed Green Lantern Corps Quarterly, the anthology series that, as the editor goes out of his way to point out in this final issue's letter column, was still selling pretty well when it got cancelled. DC could have kept the series going with past stories of the Corps, or maybe current stories of past Corps members, but I guess they wanted to go all in on the "only ONE Green Lantern left" thing and felt this series undermined that idea, so they asked Lobo to stop by and help kill it.

The stories included in this loosely "Emerald Twilight"-connected issue are:

"The Book of Endings"

The issue's framing story is written by Superman editor Mike Carlin, which I'm guessing means it had to be done at the last minute and he drew the short straw at the office. This story reveals that, while Hal and Sinestro where fighting in GL #50, they didn't even notice that the Book of Oa, the massive book containing the history of the Corps and the Guardians of the Universe, was burning up right in front of them (and neither did the Guardians, apparently, or they would have thrown some water on it or something).

As the oversized pages burn, we see stories that have absolutely nothing to do with "Emerald Twilight," like...

"Close Encounters"

This story is set during World War II, when Green Lantern Abin Sur, Hal Jordan's predecessor, is sent to Earth to stop a murderous madman -- but not the murderous madman, because the Guardians have forbidden him from interfering in human wars. Abin's target is an alien mercenary called Dask N'oir, who comes to Earth looking to offer his services (and sci-fi weapons) to the Nazis. Fortunately, the Nazis aren't big on multiculturalism and don't understand alien languages, so they think Dask is a demon and try to fight him.

The Nazis are so spooked that some run off to the Allied side to ask for help against the "demon." There, they bump into the 1940's Flash and (non-Corps affiliated) Green Lantern, Jay Garrick and Alan Scott, who bravely confront Dask... and are knocked out in one blast.

Abin Sur shows up to arrest the alien criminal, but he too gets easily knocked out when Dask shoots some yellow goo at his hand that incapacitates his Green Lantern ring. When Abin wakes up, he realizes Dask stole the ring, leaving him defenseless. That's when Abin notices that one of the unconscious Earthlings around him happens to have an off-brand GL ring on his finger...

So, Abin borrows Alan's ring and goes off to fight Dask, eventually tricking him into shooting that yellow goo at his own hand, thus allowing Abin to retrieve his ring. Before leaving with Dask, Abin returns Alan's ring and wipes his and Jay's memory of the encounter. The story ends with Abin looking forward to the day he can return to Earth (spoilers: he shouldn't) as Alan wakes up and wonders why his ring is in the wrong finger.

"Bad Intentions"

This one is written by future Guy Gardner: Warrior writer Beau Smith, and features an extremely Beau Smith character called Probert the Bad One, a sort of alien Conan the Barbarian with guns. One day, right after Probert has blown up a T. Rex to rescue a kid from being eaten, a Guardian shows up to ask him for help in taking down his sector's Green Lantern, Krudd, who has used his ring to take over a wealthy planet. Great pick, Guardians.

Probert only agrees to help because Krudd has taken his former lover, Poola, as a concubine, but he refuses to take the ring the Guardian offers him, because Probert don't wear no pansy-ass rings. (This might explain why Poola is a former lover.)

Of course, Probert regrets that decision once he's fighting Krudd and realizes his machine gun is no match for a power ring that can conjure up anything, including anti-machine gun force fields. Just as he's saying that, a GL battery materializes right next to him. Probert starts trying to activate the battery with various oaths ("It's probably something girly-like. Flower flower, give me the powers.") until he lands on something that works: "GIVE ME THE JUICE!"

Suddenly, despite still wearing no ring, Probert is imbued with green power, which he uses to materialize more guns. Krudd fights dirty and is actually quite good with the ring, so Probert ends up taking it away by cutting his finger off with a green energy knife (at least he didn't cut off the entire hand, unlike some other maniac).

Once Krudd is incapacitated, the Guardian comes back to take him and Probert's power away, but Probert says nah, it's his now. The Guardian takes that to mean that Probert has agreed to continue helping them "on retainer" and vanishes before Probert can protest.

He still ain't wearing no ring, though.

"Yella Belly!"

In this Gene Ha-drawn story, L.E.G.I.O.N. sends Lobo to Garnet, the most crime-ridden planet in the universe, to collect a criminal. This puts him in conflict with Garnet's very un-Green Lantern-like Green Lantern, Jack T. Chance. Lobo's not in the mood for fighting one of his many '90s ripoffs... until Jack calls him a "yella belly." Big mistake.

In the fight that ensues, Jack tries killing Lobo with a green chainsaw, but the ring stops him because that's not within its parameters. "Letting its wearer get kicked in the nuts" is within those parameters, though.

Jack tries shooting Lobo in the head with a regular gun, but Lobo catches the bullets with his teeth and headbutts him after playing dead. As Jack is recovering from that blow with the assistance of some booze, Lobo gets an idea based on Jack's hurtful remark from earlier: he covers himself in the yellow blood of some other alien he'd killed earlier and exploits the ring's yellow weakness to beat the crap out of Jack, yelling "Yella belly! Yella belly! YELLA BELLY!"

Lobo tries stealing Jack's ring, but it's "encoded by his D.N.A." and can't be stolen... so, for the second time this issue, someone cuts a ring-bearer's finger off. By simply "wearing" Jack's severed finger on top of his own, Lobo is able to access the ring's power and thinks about all the wonderful things he's gonna do with it (starting with exploding L.E.G.I.O.N.'s planet) -- until the ring informs him that it only works in planet Garnet, killing Lobo's interest.

As Lobo leaves with that criminal he came for, we see the finger crawling back to Jack and reattaching itself to his hand. Upon waking up and learning that Lobo left, Jack takes that as a victory and declares himself the baddest dude in Garnet. (Until he was easily beaten by Hal and left for dead in space, anyway.)

Back to the framing story, the narration concludes that the Guardians are a bunch of incompetent asses and kinda had this whole "Emerald Twilight" thing coming. All the stories in this issue feature a ring being stolen and used for nefarious purposes (not always in that order), so maybe it has a point. As the Book of Oa finishes burning, we get a small glimpse of the future: it appears to be a young man...

...wearing a crab on his face?! Huh, weird.

Plotline-Watch:

I guess the above panel means this issue is technically the first appearance of Kyle Rayner's classic "crab face" costume, discounting ads and stuff like that. This should be going for hundreds on eBay, not a couple of bucks!

We'll see Probert the Bad One return on Guy Gardner: Warrior pretty soon. Alan Scott will also make some appearances there, starting sooner than you might think.

Lobo and L.E.G.I.O.N. will cross paths with Kyle Rayner in the near future, though they won't be called L.E.G.I.O.N. anymore...

Speaking of Lobo, as he's leaving Garnet's atmosphere, he kicks some little dweeb off his flying vehicle while exclaiming "One side, fan boy!" I have no idea if that's supposed to be someone in particular or if it's just a random joke, so I will assume it's the titular fanboy from the 1999 Fanboy miniseries by Sergio Aragonés.

And speaking of planet Garnet, I looked it up and its next appearance is in Superboy and the Ravers, of all places, so I guess we'll see that eventually over at the '90s Superman blog.

Guy-Watch:

Guy Gardner: Warrior #19 continues the "Emerald Fallout" storyline and also Guy's fight with Militia (or as Guy has started calling him, "Melissa"). Ice helps, but then she starts getting a little too aggro (a side-effect of her new powers) and tries to take on Militia all by herself while leaving Guy behind, which doesn't go too well for her.

With Ice down and Guy's new armor malfunctioning, Militia's really got our hero by the balls. Militia picks that moment to reveal his identity and why hunting Guy was so personal to him: he's Guy's supposedly dead cop brother, Mace Gardner! Cue emotional "family reunion" music.

Mace resented Guy for becoming a superhero so, after getting crippled, he faked his death and volunteered for government experiments that gave him his legs back at the cost of making him look and sound like a '90s supervillain. Just when it seems like Mace might kill him, Guy's yellow power ring, which has been on the fritz for the past two issues, gets a sudden burst of energy that allows him to defeat his bro in about two seconds.

Seeing that Militia failed them again, his superiors at the Quorum decide to ditch him and remotely disable his armor, leaving him crippled again. What's all this stuff got to do with "Emerald Twilight," you might ask? Not much, until Alan Scott suddenly shows up (told you he'd be back soon) and tells Guy the universe is in danger. So, you know, TO BE CONTINUED.

#green lantern #mike carlin #beau smith #gene ha #hal jordan #green lantern corps #guardians of the universe #sinestro #abin sur #alan scott #jay garrick #the flash #probert the bad one #lobo #l.e.g.i.o.n. #guy gardner #ice #militia #kyle rayner #quorum #jack t. chance #gimme da juice #little dweeb who gets murdered by lobo

[shakespearefreak]

An American Girl Christmas 2023

(Finally getting around to posting my photos from Christmas, only a few days late!)

The first Christmas surprise, at least for Makena and Evette, came before opening a single gift. As everyone filed into the main room, Jip took off ahead, barking excitedly. When they followed, the girls saw why. Maritza was kneeling by Jip, patting him. “MARITZA!” they cried in unison. She leapt to her feet with a grin. “KAY! EVIE! Hi!!”

The reunited friends piled into one big group hug while Jip jumped all over them, wagging his stubby tail furiously.

Once the girls had calmed down, it was time to look inside everyone’s stockings! (Evette, who celebrates Yule and thus doesn’t have a stocking,* sat down to catch up with Maritza, who of course doesn’t have a stocking yet.)

*Evie knows that, like most Christmas traditions, hanging stockings has pagan roots, but she also feels that nowadays it’s mostly associated with Christmas.

(A better look at what everyone found in their stockings)

Time for presents! Just look at all those pretty packages!

Samantha went first. She found a lovely winter hat with a silver bow and a card tucked into the band. “To: Samantha, From: St. Nicholas,” it read.

Samantha went first. She found a lovely winter hat with a silver bow and a card tucked into the band. “To: Samantha, From: St. Nicholas,” it read.

Inside, she found a gorgeous winter coat of a deep blue velveteen that matched the hat band, trimmed with white fur, as well as a pair of black mittens. She put everything on to model it. “Oh! It’s beautiful!” she gasped. “And it will be just perfect for playing in the snow… these mittens will be much better for making snowballs than my fur muff!”

Next it was Nellie’s turn. “Ooh, I got a big one too!” she cried in surprise, sitting down to open it. (She tried to open the wrapping paper carefully so she could save it — no matter how financially stable she was now, part of her would always remember growing up poor — but Marley convinced her that wasn’t necessary. She felt rather guilty ripping the pretty paper, but she had to admit it was kind of fun.)

“Look, Sam! I got a hat, too!” Nellie looked through the rest of the box’s contents. “And mittens, and a coat, and a little cape! Oh, wow!”

Nellie put on her own new coat set, and the two girls grinned at each other. “Now all we need is snow!”

“That might take a while,” Marley cautioned (it was an unseasonably warm and rainy Christmas Day, with temperatures in the 50s).*

*I spoke too soon, though! It snowed here yesterday… unfortunately, it was a mixture of snow and rain, definitely not good for doll photos.

Virginia was next. She found a smallish, gold-wrapped package addressed to her. “I think it’s a book!” she said, feeling its weight through the foil.

She was right! “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle,” she read the ornate gilt lettering on the leather-bound cover, then paged through the inside. “Oh! This is the Holmes Christmas story! I can’t wait to read it!” (She also promised Samantha, who is another big Sherlock Holmes fan, that she could borrow it once she was finished.)

Josefina had a small box wrapped in red and gold paper. The wrapping bulged awkwardly in places, as if the object within were irregularly shaped, and when she picked it up, it rattled like there were a number of smaller objects inside. The rattle and the heft of the box felt somehow familiar…

Josefina gave a low gasp as she removed the paper to reveal her beloved memory box, filled with mementos: her late mother’s silver thimble, a square of the lavender-scented soap she’d always used, and a swallow feather and turquoise nugget that reminded Josefina of her; a rattlesnake rattle from her father’s childhood; and the heart-shaped milagro Tía Magdalena had given her during a trying time, to remind her not to lose hope in her heart’s desire. She held the box wordlessly with shining eyes, afraid if she were to try and speak she’d simply dissolve into happy tears.

Makena’s present was simply but prettily packaged in a small pink gift bag. “Ooh, I wonder what this is?”

It ended up being a long golden necklace. Delicate butterflies dangled from the chain on slender strands of gold, seeming to flutter and dance with every little movement. “Oh! I know exactly what outfit to pair this with!”

Finally, it was Evette’s turn. Hers was a lumpy package wrapped in paper as green as her dress, with a design of fir branches and snowy pinecones, topped with a silver bow.

She unwrapped it to reveal a white lacy shirt. “Oh, it’s so pretty!” she said, holding it up to show everyone. “I can’t wait to try it on!”*

*She did, in fact, try it on before changing for Kwanzaa, and it looked amazing on her, but I didn’t get a picture. 😕

The girls returned to the main room, chattering and showing each other their new gifts… just in time to save their Christmas Dinner from a certain curious dog! “Jip, NO!” several girls cried in unison while Sam dragged him away by his collar, his wet nose sniffing furiously at the scent of roasted turkey.

✨🎄 Happy Dollidays! 🎄✨

#christmas #cw: christmas #american girl #american girl dolls #makena williams #evette peeters #maritza ochoa #samantha parkington #nellie o'malley #josefina montoya #virginia wilde #truly me 115 #doll oc #jip the dog #yule #dollblr #doll photography

[kimikiui]

Why You Should Vote for Hakupo

Hello. Good evening, morning, afternoon, brunch, sleepytime whatever time it is for you right now. I am here to sell my little autism creature to you. This is going to be a fairly long post so, just sit tight.

The second round of polls will not be out for a couple of hours. I wanted to reblog the post with this, BUT- I have class at 3 when the polls are released. Plus, gotta get those non Hakupo believers before they vote for anyone else, amirite?

Also the stickers used between catagories are the official line stickers by Pikomaru ➜ https://store.line.me/stickershop/product/3951590/en

Reminder; It's only Shinji sweep until its Hakupo sweep.

No, I'm not putting a section breaker because even if you don't read it, I want you to see the sheer size of this... It's an essay at this point. Let's get started shall we?

What is a Hakupo?

Hakupo Tsukishiro is a energetic and powerful masculine voicebank for Utau (and amadeusy but we dont talk abt brunnnoooo). He was released all the way back in 2010 and has had many important milestones in his 13 years of distribution. Four compilation albums, 7 voicebanks, 2,500+ fanarts (that i all have), and uses by really awesome people *points to the crowd*. That's all of you guys out there. <3

Hakupo as a character is inspired by moe, thanks Clarice. Like most moe characters, he's a bit air headed and happy go lucky person. His positive attitude is sometimes brought into original songs he's featured in, which just makes me smile- girlbosses love a good pick me up song.

Also he has a stupid little coat and pants. This is all you need to know to vote for Hakupo, but I will continue forward incase you are still on the fence.

Cool Hakupo Facts

He almost has the same exact suggested range as Miku (C3 to E5)... His is actually larger... he goes higher (C3 to G5).

The "Do Re Mi FâåÁaæ↓" incident of Christmas 2020, contact me I will elaborate further.

There is a little bit of an evil twin thing going on. Yeah. This is a win.

His genderbend design Kohaku is revealed when you turn down the brightness of his official reference sheet (he pulled a scott cawthon guys).

He hates to be called cute and have his head patted... which is cute.

Despite looks- His description says he has curly hair come on guys- LITTLE FLUFF.

By looking at his official Twitter bot, there's a few extra things we can learn about him. He is very stupid, very impatient, has a horrible sleep schedule, bad at multitasking, and can't stand still (I can elaborate more on these if asked).

I wrote a 43 page Utau cartoon pilot script with Hakupo as the main character. Shameless plug.

I also wrote my college admissions essay about Hakupo. Thanks for getting me into college Bobo!

Sick Bobo Uses

Get boboed.

What does Bobo mean to me?

I found Hakupo 7 years ago now, sitting in the middle of an Utau melody. I told myself I would just turn off my tablet and listen to the music. Yeah that worked- guess who was next after the screen turned off. BOBO! I needed to see the little creature creating this melody. I turned on the screen, and was not disappointed. Fancy twink in a oversized tailcoat with weird pants. I remember rambling to my mom later about how cool he was, why he was so unique, and why this one specifically caught my attention.

He's been my special interest since then, everyone around me knows Hakupo wheather they like it or not. He's about 80% of everything I draw, 50% of what I talk about, and 100% of my little creature I snuggle up with every night.

Literally.

I have a Hakupo bodypillow. Can't sleep without him.

Anyways, he's helped me find a lot of my best friends *coughcoughmeatcoughrevcough*, never fails to make me happy, and helped everyone around me realize I'm extremely autistic. The least I can do is write an ungodly long propaganda post while drinking my coffee at 9 am.

Stan Bobo Oobieero.

Hakupo Memes for Propaganda

GO VOTE FOR HAKUPO ON @utaupoll AT 3 PM EST

Thanks, have a nice day.

#kiui speaks #i am so pissed that im gonna b in math #why is 30% of my grade attendance #utau poll #utau #hakupo tsukishiro #propaganda #hakupo sweep #i spent 3 hours writing this

[djservo]

sending this to you early before i forget (and i will forget), april is OVER. the year really starts zooming past march it's scary! april reads, were there many of them? what did you think? other media interests also what's the spring/summer reading vibe?

april summary

you could probably tell by my lack of goodreads updates but my ass was NOT reading this month omg. 2 books but Barely since the first I started in February and the latter and I only just finished on the 30th WAHHH it's been stupid busy and stressful at work these past few weeks to the point where my free time could only consist of simply hanging out and watching movies/survivor and other thoughtless little things like that 4 my own sanity. in hindsight, absolutely not the best time to take up two meaty theory/cultural criticism books smh!! I was too ambitious, and while I could've just called it quits and picked up a more manageable/digestable read, I thought I'd be able to brave it out eventually... meanwhile my pdf of Man's Rage For Chaos sits abandoned + bookmarked at a measly 50 pages in amongst dozens of survivor screenshots LOL Sigh! it may just have to be another DNF because I don't think I have it in me to absorb another 300+ page long pdf just yet (it was a feat getting thru Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture at times)

but OK, onward!

Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl — a juicy romantic drama masquerading as just another foodie book. I would've been perfectly satisfied if it'd been the latter (I really loved Tender at the Bone) but when I TELL U I was gasping and clutching my pearls every other chapter, scandalized at every corner!! the book follows her foray into the world of being a food critic, during which she finds herself in two different affairs while married to her longtime husband/companion (who is revealed to have also been cheating on her at the time rip). Somehow she managed not to make herself come off as a victim, so clearheaded and honest with her actions and mistakes, but part of you also can't help but root for her a little -- to flourish in her career, to grow a backbone, to come to the harsh realization that sometimes people just grow apart no matter how much history there is. So much wisdom and heartbreak!!! And, as she was about 30 during this period, my favorite reminder that the intrigue and possibility of Life(tm) isn't nearly over after your mid 20's--it's hardly even begun at all. and then of course all the food descriptions, glorious and sensual as always. Tampopo (1985) instantly came to mind: food + sex + woman's quest for the Meaning of it all, you simply gotta love it

Theatre of the Oppressed by Augusto Boal — I don't think I can add anything substantial to this even if I tried LOL I'll say I'm always tickled by any critiques and callouts of western civilization, and his connection of US presidents defending "reactionary imperialist interests" regardless of "character" (or political party) = the enactment of terror that's natural when it comes to the succession (hah) of oppressive forces... floored babes!! tell it like it is!! ok I lied, one more point -- a lot of this book discusses this radical methodology of theatre that involves the audience, allows them to interact, adjust, implement meanings as a means of revolution and there's this big brained review I read on goodreads that connected it to TWITCH STREAMS of all things, specifically gamers who allow the chat to vote on/make the decisions while the gamer performs these choices. I feel like there's so much Meat there... an analysis of the interactive nature of the internet/contemporary popular media and its influence on the way we perceive free will... anyway.

I started a saucy short story collection that'll hopefully keep me titillated, and I think I'll also treat myself to a fun graphic novel moment after my failed lil scholarly attempts hehe movie-wise I got sucked into this awful franchise The Brotherhood by David Decoteau which is basically college fratboys/hunks who have to fight some killer and/or mystical force of evil in the most homoerotic way possible (the filmic equivalent to trashy little convenience store pulpy softcore erotica methinks).... 6 full films of regurgitated storylines and gratuitous shower scenes and I must admit I had a blast !!! it morphed into a sorority-slasher theme, which then morphed into a broader theme of Tormented Women(tm). It's been a loose goal of mine to keep my letterboxd watchlist number lower than the amount of films I've logged for the sake of staying manageable/realistic, but there's now a scarily small difference of 5 films between the two 😢 so i think I'll try to stick to my watchlist as best I can this month 🫡 and ofc watching survivor as always, nothin new there yeah yeah I'm predictable

#cheesehair #asks #reads

[brian-in-finance]

Robert Wilson

Video 📹 clips at https://twitter.com/jradloff/status/1520979184536932353?s=21&t=r6Agn18hEFB8_PHY205lVg

Outlander's Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan Answer Every Question (Well, Almost) About That Season Six Finale

The pair reveals the hardest part of the episode to film, and where the series is most likely to pick up when it returns.

Outlander's season six finale just left us with one hell of a cliffhanger. It's going to make however long this next Droughtlander lasts even harder to get through. At least knowing that production is well underway on the new season is of some comfort. With any luck, we'll be getting answers before spring 2023. (Now is a good time to point out that if you haven't watched the season six finale yet, bookmark this page and come back once you have.)

So let's get to the good stuff, shall we? The episode—titled “I Am Not Alone”—opens with the theme song, and not a cold open as is usually the case. We soon understand why: Claire—or if it's not Claire, it's a woman who looks nearly exactly like her—is seen at a diner in the late '50s or so with a fellow companion (most likely a young Bree) ordering a Coke, burger, and fries. That's really all we get before we shift back to the late 1700s as Claire is about to be arrested for a murder she didn't commit.

Richard Brown, the head of the Committee of Safety, says he will leave the Ridge only when he has Claire in his possession. Jamie is not about to let that happen, and neither is Claire: She shoots one of Brown's men who tries to capture her. All hell breaks out in the form of a shoot-out, and we see that brief moment from the opening credits where Claire purposefully walks out of her house with a rifle and takes aim. Meanwhile, Jamie says Claire being mistakenly arrested for Malva's death is only an excuse for revenge on Marsali for killing Richard Brown's brother Lionel (from the season five finale).

Robert Wilson

Much further away, we take a break from all the chaos and see Roger and Bree as they travel to Edenton. They discuss if and when they'll eventually tell Jemmy about time travel and what they went through to be together.

Back at the Ridge, there's a break amongst the violence as everyone regroups, but Claire and Jamie know they have a huge battle ahead of them. All I can think of (aside from their safety, of course) is their poor house and the mess they'll have to clean up. Of course, they'd be only so lucky to have that problem; at this rate, survival is all that matters.

Hundreds of miles away, with Jemmy asleep, Roger and Bree get busy while talking dirty about cars (you had to be there). But in all seriousness, it's a lovely moment between the couple.

As that's happening, Claire and Jamie start talking about what they'd want for their last meal; Claire votes for a cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke from Carmi's, a diner she used to take Bree to when she was little. “That was our regular order,” she tells her husband, and now that opening scene makes a lot more sense.

Meanwhile, Claire wants to know where their friends are, like Ian, to help them out of this predicament. Jamie says he doubts they're coming because they would have been there by now. Claire starts to spiral and thinks no one wants to help her because maybe they think she really did kill Malva. It's a harrowing thought, but my attention quickly turns to Adso, who is alive and well and walking in front of the fireplace.

Jamie then tells Claire about several of his near-death experiences over the years as they reminisce about days gone by. Jamie says a psychic of sorts once told him he was a cat and he saw the number nine, so Claire thinks that means he must have nine lives. (Appropriate.) We then see Adso (again!) eating his meal, and I really hope the writers are going to write this little guy in more in season seven. What a scene stealer!

OK, back to the real story: It's now the middle of the night, and Jamie must wake Claire up to tell her that the fisherfolk are coming. They've been sent to the Ridge to negotiate on behalf of Richard Brown. Things quickly escalate and talk turns to the possibility that Jamie killed Malva, not Claire. Then Richard Brown appears and says Claire must stand trial because if she's really innocent, what is there to be fearful of?

Eventually Lizzie and several of Jamie and Claire's allies show up, but Jamie says he and Claire have no choice but to leave with Brown and stand trial. Tom Christie then appears and says he will travel with them to make sure no further evil will be done. “Surely justice is mine if it be anyone's,” he declares. Jamie agrees, and I can only hope that Lizzie will take care of Adso, but I'm going to need some sort of confirmation.

Before Jamie and Claire leave, Tom says they should stay one more night at their house, in their own bed. Jamie thanks him. While Tom is far from the typical Outlander villain, there's something to be said for his kindness in the face of such turmoil.

Robert Wilson

On their last night in the house (at least for now), Claire reiterates to Jamie that they have a beautiful home, as if this is the last night they'll ever spend there. Jamie says this won’t be the last time they see it. In bed, Claire says she’s scared. They caress each other’s faces and have one more intimate lovemaking session before they embark on the unknown. It’s so very Mr. and Mrs. Smith with the shards of shattered glass and bullets and broken furniture around them even though they aren't each other's enemies.

The next morning Claire and Jamie are in a wagon as they prepare to say goodbye to the Ridge. On the journey, Tom Christie comes over at a resting point to give Claire some food. They will soon continue on to Wilmington, which is 200 miles away. One of the men wants to go to Cross Creek, but Richard says Jamie’s aunt lives near there and there’d never be a fair trial. Meanwhile, Richard condescendingly says Jamie need not worry, as Salisbury doesn’t have a court, but he let everyone know Claire is guilty. Tom is sitting nearby and seems to take pity on Claire for what she's having to go through.

Back at the Ridge, Lizzie tells Ian that Claire and Jamie have been taken. More on that later.

While in the wagon, Jamie tells Claire that Brown is losing control of his men and this is more trouble than it’s worth. Claire says Tom is very tired and wants to know his purpose in all of this. So do I.

Before we can get answers, people in the nearby town start throwing rocks and stones at the wagon, which hits Claire in the head. Tom yells at the townspeople to stop, that this isn’t justice. He tires to get Richard Brown to get a hold of his men, but that's not quite working so Tom shoots at them. Tom also looks really ill, and I'm truly worried that if something happens to him then Claire's life will really be in danger.

Back to Roger and Bree, who are traveling through the most gorgeous of green landscapes. I need to know where this magical setting is. Jemmy is super cute and tells Bree’s pregnant belly that he loves his future baby brother or sister so much. He also scratches his head, which causes Bree to notice he has lice and they'll have to cut his hair. You know there's something more to this, and there is: Bree notices a mark on her son's head, which Roger identifies as a nevus. It's nothing bad, he says, and doesn't usually develop until kids are two or three. Roger then nonchalantly says he has one as well and they're hereditary. Ding dong! Bree realizes that Jemmy is for sure Roger's son, and Roger immediately has Bree cut his hair, too. What a moment!

Robert Wilson

In less happier news, Claire’s hands are bruised and bloody from the rocks and stones that were thrown at her in the wagon. Jamie says Richard might regret all of this since the act of just getting Claire to a place to put her on trial is more than he bargained for. Later, Jamie goes outside to relieve himself and sees none other than young Ian! And he's not alone: Ian brought help! Jamie is thrilled but cautious and advises Ian not to act on anything yet and just stay close. Jamie says he if he tries to escape, it will look like an admission of guilt. Ian says he'll keep an eye on things and follow along.

Later, one of Richard Brown's men dies, but Richard doesn't care. “We ride on,” he says. But when Jamie is told to get out of the wagon to get water, Richard's other men start beating up on Jamie and take him captive. To his and Claire's horror, Richard orders his men to ride off with her. Richard says he’s not doing this for revenge on his brother Lionel because he knows he wasn’t a good man and what he did to Claire was awful, but this is because she’s a murderer. Then Tom rides up and says, “What the meaning of this? You promised not to hurt them.” Tom, have you not learned anything? Anyway, Tom will go supervise Claire because he promised Jamie he wouldn’t let her out of his sight. But Claire is beside herself. Even so, Claire says—via a voiceover—that Tom is right, because without him, she would be good as dead. Her only small hope is that if news of her arrest reaches Wilmington ahead of her, then maybe it will reach Roger and Bree in Edenton as well.

Much later, Claire is scared that Jamie is dead and Tom won’t admit it if he is. She then looks outside the wagon and sees she's in New Hanover. She’s placed in a prison block and locked up by the town sheriff without any food or water. But Tom, who really is looking out for Claire, comes by with some sustenance. But most important, he says, “Believe me, your husband is alive. Trust in God. He will deliver the righteous out of danger.” She responds by asking if he thinks she's righteous. He says he won't leave town and to trust in that too. You have to wonder just what Tom knows about his daughter's murder. Anyway, Richard Brown walks by Claire's cell and says he'll see her at the gallows. Yikes.

And then, as if this jam-packed hour couldn't be any more intense, we see Jamie tied up near the water. Brown's men are going to put Jamie on a ship to Edinburgh, Scotland. One of those men, Oakes, tells him he'll never see Claire again. Just as Jacoby is about to pummel Jamie with a large log, young Ian kills Jacoby from a hilltop above with his bow and arrow. Jamie is saved!

Robert Wilson

Well, not yet. As young Ian and the fellow members of the First Nation use their weapons to kill the rest of Brown's men, they take aim at Oakes, who still has Jamie tied up. Jamie tells Ian and Chief Bird not to kill Oakes because he knows where Claire is. Then Ian says, “So do we, uncle.” Chief Bird shoots Oakes with his rifle and the bullet goes straight through Oakes's hand into his eye socket. This has to be the most gruesome killing we've seen in some time, right?

Chief Bird walks up to Jamie and says, “I told you I would fight with you, Bear Killer.” Ian releases Jamie, and I'm so elated, I can't stand it. Then, in one of the most gorgeous establishing shots we've seen on the show, Jamie, Ian, Chief Bird, and the other good guys ride off in the sunset to rescue Claire.

What an episode, right?! But will Tom still be alive by the time Jamie gets to Claire? He's also been through the ringer, and while he has vowed to protect Claire, I don't have the same faith that Richard feels the same way about Tom. When Jamie does get to Claire (because obviously he has to), what kind of shape will his wife be in? And will the show follow the books in regards to revealing Malva's killer?

That's where Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan come in. They hopped on Zoom from Scotland to try and answer my questions. Take a deep breath and read on.

Robert Wilson

Glamour: I got Mr. And Mrs. Smith vibes watching Claire and Jamie battle it out against Richard Brown and the Committee for Safety in the first part of the episode.

Sam Heughan: Am I Angelina?

Caitriona Balfe: You're definitely Angelina.

How hard was that to shoot? Because no pun intended, but you're literally shooting at everything, and everybody's shooting at you.

Caitriona: It was fun. It was sometimes hard for me to get off the floor. [Laughs.] I was six months pregnant, and I was a little concerned about what my child was thinking was going on out there. But we had fun, right?

Sam: We did. Interestingly, we shot all the exterior stuff first, so any conversation out of the window [that Jamie has with] the guys we shot maybe weeks before, and then we did all the interior scenes. It was kind of a bit of a jigsaw, but it was fun. I think that scene—the last supper—is beautiful. Caitriona, you spent the whole scene lying on the floor.

Caitriona: Yeah. But then I would have to get up at the end of it. We did multiple takes and they're like, “Can you get up?” I was like, “Oh.” [Laughs.]

Sam: And then we're blowing the house up. I think at one point they did have to redo it, didn't they? They had to reset a room. But anyway, we had to schedule all the interior stuff until the end of the shoot.

Robert Wilson

Jamie and Claire have a bittersweet last night in the house. What stands out for you about doing those scenes?

Sam: One of my favorite shots is Jamie and Claire's intimate scene when they're upstairs. When they're by the fire and the camera pans out and you see the destruction, the bits of the house that's completely broken, I think it's a metaphor for their reputation and for their whole world, right? It is being blown apart.

Let's talk about Tom Christie. He's not necessarily the best guy, but he's clearly looking out for Claire's wellbeing. Is it because she helped save his hand or might it be because he knows she really didn't kill Malva?

Sam: Or is it C, something else?

Caitriona: I think you're going to have to keep watching to find this all out. What has been lovely is that Mark Lewis Jones (Tom Christie) is amazing. Over this whole season, we've been able to see all of these layers under Tom. When we first met him, I think we can all agree that he was a bit of a pain in the ass. As we've gotten to know him more, he's a complex and complicated guy. There is a lot of heart there, I think.

Robert Wilson

When season seven premieres, will the storyline pick right up from where we leave Claire in the season six finale? Or will there be a bit of a time jump?

Caitriona: I don't know what we can say. They didn't actually tell us, so we can potentially just tell you everything.

Sam: Yeah, I don't know.

Caitriona: Very soon after. Should we say that?

Sam: It's either A, directly after, B, fairly soon, or C, something else.

Well played, Sam. That last scene where young Ian comes in with Chief Bird and rescues Jamie had me cheering. What did you appreciate about that moment, for both the character of Jamie and you as an actor?

Sam: Firstly, working with those actors, you have a beautiful arc there, a beautiful story of Jamie not being sure which side they would be on and being reluctant to give them weapons. And then eventually he does and ultimately they're used to protect and to save Jamie. Working with our First Nation, they were such fun. We had a total blast with them. They really brought a lot of their culture and heritage to set. Outside of shooting, as well, there was a lot that we were talking about our different cultures and they were really fun. It's a beautiful ending and it's up an upbeat one as well. There's a chance that Jamie's going to come back and find Claire and rescue her.

Ha! “There's a chance.”

Sam: There's a chance. He might. He might.

We've got to find out who killed Malva. We still don't know.

Sam: We don't know.

Caitriona: We'll never know.

We better know. I have to know.

Sam: A, you'll know. B, you know where I'm going with this.

I already know the title of this piece. It's going to be called multiple choice with Sam Heughan.

Sam: C, something else.

Well, thank you for making the time while you're in the middle of filming. Although since Sam had the day off, maybe he's drunk right now. I don't know…

Sam: If I was, I think…

Caitriona: A, he is. B, he's not. Or C, something else.

Sam: C, something else. I'm high. No. [Laughs.] I'm normally I'm drunk on these. So this is a first. We're learning something here.

And happy birthday too. By the time this piece runs, it'll be the day after your birthday. I hope they're throwing a big surprise party for you.

Sam: Oh, they are? Oh great.

Caitriona: Yeah. The Mariachi band is ordered, balloons are coming.

Sam: Aw, wonderful.

Jessica Radloff is the Glamour West Coast editor and author of the soon-to-be-published book The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series (October 11, 2022). You can follow her on Instagram @jessicaradloff14.

https://www.glamour.com/story/outlander-season-six-finale-recap

Remember… working with our First Nation (actors), they were such fun. We had a total blast with them. They really brought a lot of their culture and heritage to set. — Sam Heughan

#Tait rhymes with hat #Good times #Outlander #Season 6 #Finale #Interview #Glamour #1 May 2022

[crescentblossom66]

A hat in time writing prompts: Prompt 3 Stupid Computer

It was a nice and pleasant late summer night, the air in the desert was not too hot and not too cold either, the night sky twinkled with countless stars and everything was nice and peaceful.....until a loud frustrated screech emerged form the movie studio within said desert.

“Come on ye stupid electrical peck neck, work already!” Sitting in his dark office with nothing but the light from the monitor illuminating the deep wrinkles of his scrunched up face, was the Conductor. He shook the pain in his wing away that the hot boiling coffee left him with, after he hit the edge of the desk with his cup in anger, making it shatter.

Why today out of aaaalll days did the old thing decide not to work! He had a script to write, and today was the only day that he finally had enough time to do so, heck he had even been looking forward to it as a new idea hit him last morning during recording. A train that could warp through time, now THAT was a novel and amazing concept!

His sharp talons clicked on the old, but still nice and clean mahogany table. Well, at least It HAD BEEN clean, now coffee stained its expensive surface. With a sigh the owl got up and got a towel, he wiped off the table and cleaned the small puddle on the floor, after he carefully picked up the broken pieces of the cup. He stared unblinkingly at the monitor that had been showing him the word 'welcome' for the past 15 minutes, he had tried rebooting it, he even pulled the plug out and then back in, but nothing, it showed the same screen that has been taunting him for the past half hour.

“One o' the greatest modern devices created by bird, what a joke!”, he mumbled until suddenly he was plunged into darkness as the monitor turned black, only for it to light up with a sight that would freeze the blood of PC gamers everywhere.

The evil, the dreaded, the all-hope-crushing blue screen of death!

The owl chuckled, a rather sinister smile started to form on his beak.“Ye've got to be kiddin' me.” His talons balled to fists and his feathers rose up, as his anger flared up higher than it had in months. The last time was when the DJ had the gall to say that his train, his beloved baby, was old fashioned and was harming the environment more than 50 cars combined. What had the 'environment' ever done for him?! One would think that an 80s disco circus attraction like him would know of the word; vintage.

The yellow owl grabbed the keyboard and broke It over his knee, the keys fell to the floor soon followed by the monitor, which he had punched a hole into and then shoved done his desk. “YE THINK YE CAN WIN AGAINST ME?! I EAT YER CIRCUITS FER BREAKFAST!”

He stood there panting as he heard someone approach...at this hour? It was 02:21am.

“Boss is everyth-”

“PECK OFF!” The poor express owl that only wanted to check if his boss was alright, ran away so fast he tripped and fell, scared of the yellow bird's outburst.

The Conductor slumped back in his chair in defeat, he may have won the battle, but the machine won the war, he would not be able to write his script without it, and writing it by hand would take too long...never mind the fact that writing page after page would hurt like peck after a while. He felt incredibly tired now, maybe he should just go to bed and rest for a bit, after all he hadn't slept in three days.

That would mean that he'd fall behind the schedule though, and how would he win with his movie not being the best it could be? His ear-like feathers rose when he heard a soft knock on his door.

“A-Are you okay, boss?” The owl that had run away just minutes before had returned. He was either very stupid or very brave, or maybe too kind for his own good.

“I'm fine, laddie, go home.” His own voice shocked him when he heard just how exhausted he sounded. The door slowly opened and revealed the fidgety figure of an express owl.

“You look tired, boss, maybe you should take a few days off or something.-” the yellow bird only groaned, “-I-I mean i-it's only a s-suggestion.” The owl prepared to lose his hearing as the yellow owl inhaled deeply and sat up straight in his chair again, he chuckled.

“Ye want some days away from recordin',eh?-” He stopped for a moment, the presumed end of the sentence made the brown owl even more nervous 'Maybe I should just fire ye, then.'

“-Maybe yer right, lad...maybe we all need a break.”

#a hat in time #ahit fanfic #ahit conductor #ahit express owls #ahit writing prompts

[womanexile]

Speaking of celebrity culture & the literary buzz lately on twitter… youtu.be/hnP0DnCfuNU m.youtube.com/watch?v=oQsHyLRBUzo - some of these are TS selections. Hmm, now that I think of it, that literary reaction video made me wonder if the mysterious non fiction memoir rumored on twitter yesterday could be about Marjorie. That’s be cool, especially since that time period has drawn compelling comparisons to today and its ripples effect- 50s,60s,70s- like Elvis & Marilyn biopics. Her grandparents had to leave Cuba during that time. Jack Antonoff is a Kennedy collector - he wore vintage pin at Grammys. Marjorie song mentions of wishing she kept receipts & was left closet of backlogged dreams. She has a lot of resources -people & access- it is like a puzzle or whodunit- Agatha Christie (Angela Landsbury tales as old as time- weird how it is like an homage- she passed away around release). She likes that type of stuff, CSI, L&O:SVU, Criminal minds, Oz, etc- Shondra Rimes has definitely been an influence. Lol, Olivia H show was spotted in NY recently & was at concert last night. For example- the politics & celebrity culture (Kennedy & Cuba crisis in that era made me think of the Windsor royal family). The Crown or even celebrity involvement with the Ukraine/Russia war. Coincidentally TS ex secretly fought in it- news came out around TS latest album. The sections & stories on evermore & folklore reminded me of TS library (books, TV, film & music) tastes. Like the Taylor & Burton equivalevent of cancel culture. She has always been fascinated & influenced by history, visited museums & sites, picked up vintage items & exposed herself to various cultures. Lol, on the other hand- I think HS could do this too- or maybe they do already. It’s a creative way to work, express themselves but maintain privacy. Revealing their sources without exposing their life fully, yet educate others- relatable & applicable life lessons. Exploitation of kids for sport (Hunger games & Squid games)- reality TV, K-pop, Disney & nickelodeon- topics- cancel culture. History repeats in a way- we don’t always learn from the past… ‘ghosts.’ It’s true that internet like social media has spread things faster & influenced decisions that impact society. In their own way celebrities like HS/1D & TS for example, have utilized their influence and popularity to make their mark on today’s culture. Innovators & trendsetters- they tap into the pulse of society’s interests. They have a special gift/knack/skill to utilize today’s tools to draw ideas from past & present to spin/twist with words/puns/idioms that help their projects go viral globally and influence the future. They are as SM posts have revealed- Scrabble players/ game players. Turnabout fairplay. It is something that those before them were unable to take advantage of- and well, why not? Lol.

Sorry for the scramble of random thoughs- my page refreshes & autocorrects, ugh. Lol. Jotting it down before I lose it like other posts.

I think this memoir is mostly gonna be about Taylor but I’m sure she’s gonna talk all about her grandmother. This book is going to be 544 pages long. It’s gonna have a lot in it. I’m really excited for it.

TS & HS are so well read. Harry is such a poet & Taylor such a storyteller. If they ever worked on something together it would have the power to change the world.

[annegirl13]

Four DNFs

So, um, we are halfway through February and this is what I have to show for it—four books I didn’t enjoy enough to finish reading.

Must Love Books by Shauna Robinson

I think I read the most on this one. I got maybe a third of the way in early in the month and then forgot about it. I got it to be my first “blind date” book. It hit a little too close to home (main character is depressed and underpaid for all she does at work) but it was also kind of boring and forgettable. Case in point, I got a notification this morning that my library loan had been automatically returned, and I just kind of shrugged and went, “Oh, I forgot that thing.” I’m sure someone would love it, but it wouldn’t have gotten higher than 3 stars from me if I’d finished. 🤷‍♀️

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett

I wanted to love this one. Terry Pratchett is a favorite and my sister and I were going to buddy read it. And I can see how somebody would like it. It’s Pratchett’s twist on The Pied Piper of Hamelin and I a got shades of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM too. I read that book last year and enjoyed it. This book, though…

I have a big issue with the Liar Revealed trope and it seemed like that was exactly where this was going. I also didn’t like any of the characters. I think other people would enjoy it—Terry Pratchett is fantastic—but this one wasn’t for me.

The Accidental Detectives: The Disappearing Jewel of Madagascar by Sigmund Brouwer

I picked this one up at random in a classroom library. It was written in the 50s maybe? It was just not my level. I think some of the kids in that 3rd grade class might like it, but I just couldn’t get into it. I figured out whodunit about two chapters in and the “boys throwing worms at each other” subplot was not my thing.

Interestingly, I also read a bit of Encyclopedia Brown that day. (Not including it here because I read maybe one chapter, I’ve read it before, and I never intended to finish it that day.) I think the little mysteries in Encyclopedia Brown were better written than the big mystery in the other book. 🤷‍♀️

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

I wanted to love this one. “Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted palace in space”? “The most fun you’ll have with a skeleton?” Fun! Sure! Sign me up. Except that was not what I got. I only got 40 pages in, so maybe I just needed to push through, but what I got was one cool fight in the midst of a lot of world building dump. I know a lot of people like this book and 40 pages out of almost 500 is nothing, and I’m going to give it another chance. I’m going to get the audiobook with my next Audible credit. But the part I actually read? Not too gripping. 🤷‍♀️

I have been rereading some favorite fan fiction, and I listened to a lot of a podcast, but I haven’t really been reading much. Ah well. I’ve got other books to try and half a month left.

#book review #miss anne reads

[nyx-b-log]

buckle in, it's a long one! on top of finishing what i was reading last week, i also got through a few manga volumes, so there's plenty to talk about!

i'll put it under a cut, but the books discussed are:

all the living and the dead by hayley campbell (finished, favourite)

take it back by kia abdullah (finished)

truth be told by kia abdullah (brief)

hikaru ga shinda natsu vol 2 (finished)

my brother's husband vol 1 (finished, favourite)

i hear the sunspot (started)

mitsuboushi colours (started)

skulduggery pleasant by derek landy (started)

children of time by adrian tchaikovsky (started, brief)

semantic error (manhwa)

i actually finished all the living and the dead on the sunday i posted last week, but it was late so i decided to do the write up this week.

i honestly got a lot out of it, i think it's a very valuable book to read if you're even remotely concerned about or interested in death, even if parts of it are emotionally difficult to read. what starts off as a more journalistic 'here's these people and here's what they do' kind of book takes something of a turn about halfway through after one of the things the author experiences sticks with her more than she expected, so there's that to be aware of. i liked it, though, and it made it easier to read in longer chunks after that.

well-written, well-researched, and features a lengthy index and 'further reading' section divided into topics so you can explore whatever you're interested in in more detail. very much recommend.

it took me a few more days to finish take it back, but i did it! well within deadline too. have very, very mixed feelings on the ending; it felt like the author just added some extra twists in purely as gotcha moments without really considering whether they made sense or the wider ramifications, which is odd for a book which is normally pays more attention to that kind of thing. but, everything up to that was tense and enjoyable in all the ways a legal thriller should be. the discussions of class and race were also appreciated.

after that i actually started book two in that series, truth be told, but my next audiobook loan came in so i've shelved it for now. i got about an hour in and found it less immediately gripping but i am looking forward to going back to it. that audiobook also only has one performer, rather than three.

cos i've had two of the later books in the series sat on my tbr pile for about 4 years now (maybe longer), i thought i'd do a reread of the skulduggery pleasant series via audiobook this time. rupert degas, the guy reading them, is really good, and i'm having a fun time with them. good cleanser after take it back. really wish the music that plays in between each chapter wasn't so long though, even if it's pleasantly jazzy.

i also started children of time tho admittedly i only got about 50 pages in and haven't picked it up since, but i liked those 50 pages! it's long, tho, this'll take a while to get through.

i would have read more of it but i got a bit distracted by the semantic error manhwa? was feeling a bit miserable and devoured the drama (which was great) in like two days to make myself feel better, and then immediately went to read the manhwa. everyone is noticeably more of a dick (and more horny) but i don't mind. very sad yu-na isn't in it as much tho, she was probably my favourite character in the drama.

right, manga!

finished vol 2 of hikaru ga shinda natsu which i think i enjoyed less than the first one, but was still very good. had some better individual moments plus some big reveals!! makes me want to reread it and pull out what i missed. vol 3 came out this week too!! but i don't have it yet :( i'm looking to collect the series in physical, so it might be a few months yet before i keep going. a bit more of the vol 1 voice comic was also released in tandem with vol 3, so i watched that too (it seems to have a slightly bigger budget? good for them).

after that i read vol 1 of otouto no otto (aka my brother's husband) which was excellent, i really really liked it. it's follows yaichi as he gets a sudden visit from his (dead) younger brother's canadian husband, and how the two of them interact. worth noting that yaichi is homophobic (even if he doesn't realise) so there's some slurs used, but the story itself challenges that homophobia. there's also some queer history lessons in between some of the chapters; in this volume it was on the legality of same-sex marriage (as of april 2015) and the history of the pink triangle.

the art is fantastic, and i'm really looking forward to reading more and following how yaichi comes to understand where and he and his brother went wrong, and how he grows as a person. also kana!! is the sweetest thing!! read it for her, honestly.

more briefly, i've started both mitsuboushi colours and hidamari ga kikoeru (aka i hear the sunspot), but am not even halfway through either.

mitusboushi colours is a sort of palette cleanser for me? cute girls doing cute things kind of manga, very simple. i'm dipping into it when i feel like it.

hidamari ga kikoeru is a BL manga set at a university about a loudmouth in need of a job becoming the notetaker for a boy in his class with hearing difficulties. enjoying it so far, taichi has great energy.

oh god is that everything? i think so. anyway congrats for reading this far, i'll update again next week! (hopefully with less 😭)

#bookblr #books #reading #manga #all the living and the dead #take it back #hikaru ga shinda natsu #otouto no otto #truth be told #children of time #skulduggery pleasant #mitsuboushi colours #hidamari ga kikoeru #semantic error #sorry for how long this is but there was a lot to say! #i'm also technically reading ouran high school host club but that doesn't really count #anyway #see you next week #kana best girl #scheduled

[ctlightner]

Storygraph Wrapped 2022

Went on Storygraph today and found my wrap-up for 2022

It's hard to believe I only read Iron Widow a year ago. I know it's new(ish), but it's been on my mind all year, so it feels like I first read it 5 years ago. It's one of the few YA books I've been able to get through and be excited about in a long time, and of course I've pre-ordered the sequel!

I'm less surprised that something TMNT related is my last-read book. Statistically speaking, TMNT had the best chance at being either first or last or both, given my brainworms

Not surprised Fantasy is my most-read genre. I've been trying to branch out a little more over the last few years, but old habits die hard. Banger year for comics, though, and I don't see that changing any time soon. Need to try and work a few more Horror into my diet this year.

I admit, I don't go out of my way to seek out queer books. By that, I mean that I try to read diversely, so queer books are definitely something I seek out deliberately, but I tend to see it as a bonus rather than the whole reason to go into something. Then again, I rarely read Contemporary anything, so there's a reason why I don't read issue-focused queer fiction as often. I've been reading more Non-fiction lately, so if I see a spike in queer lit, it'll probably be from a non-fiction angle.

I've been slowly acquiring a taste for romance books. Most of these pictured are probably there as a secondary genre, but I've read a few that were primarily Romance. The issues I'm having run parallel to me not enjoying a lot of Contemporary (which is a good portion of primarily Romance books), and also having been burned many times when I try to read Fantasy Romance. FanRo tends to lack in either of the genres while favoring the other, so I'm very, very wary about it. Recommendations appreciated.

More stats below the cut.

I've been tending towards shorter books lately. I used to be able to devour 800 pages epic fantasies, but my tolerance for high page counts has dropped significantly. The last super long books I think I read were Mistborn Era 1 seven years ago. Frostheart also doesn't feel like a tome to me because it's Middle-Grade, and MG books actually have lower wordcounts overall, and sometimes bigger font and illustrations that can pad things out. If "Escape" had been formatted like and adult book and had zero illustrations, it probably would have been closer to 250-300 pages at most.

Novellas are my recent loves, especially the Singing Hills Cycle. Into the Riverlands was not my favorite (that still remains The Empress of Salt and Fortunes), but it was pretty good. I think I'll try to reread the three books sometime this year.

Along with reading more books in general, I've been using my library more. The reason why it took me over a month to read Tender is the Flesh is because like 5 holds came in and I was suddenly given Deadlines.

Very interesting to see that over 50% of my 5 star reads were comics. I knew I read a lot of them this year, but it's nice to know I really liked a good portion of them, too. Unsurprised that the prose fiction I gave 5 stars were on the more literary and stylistic side of SFF.

I read Evelyn Hardcastle for a reading club. I'd heard of it before, but hadn't heard anything about it that would have made me pick it up otherwise. It's a very weird book. I like the time loop structure of the plot. It's pleasantly confusing and I honestly love how the constant body-jumping kept me on my toes. However, the gimmick did start to wear out its welcome a bit the longer it went on.

I grew very disillusioned by the ending, however. Up til about the last quarter of the book, it's designed as a time loop whodunnit. Very interesting. However, by the end it starts to turn into a weird, sudden exploration of the futility of the prison system. as someone who's been digging into prison abolition/restorative justice lately, I was at first intrigued by the idea, but the final few reveals ended up severely clashing with the story that came before hand. I think it ended up generating exponentially more questions about the world of the novel than it answered, and it didn't present these questions in a way that was looser, softer, less important to question due to the themes being explored.

For contrast, I also read Thistlefoot last month, and though I have a few complaints, they're not complaints about the worldbuilding. Thistlefoot is a fairy tale, a book of magical realism, filled with soft magic. and it doesn't pretend otherwise. Evelyn Hardcastle, starts out in a way that let me go along with it; I didn't feel the need to question why this guy was trapped in a body-jumping time loop. By the end, when the author tries to give answers for questions I didn't really have, it made the whole thing unravel now that the author was shifting into harder worldbuilding.

As for the TMNT actor autobiography... it's not very good. I could only ever recommend it to hardcore TMNT fans who would get something out of reading a self-published autobiography by an obscure actor in the 90s films. It's clear he wrote the book himself, though, so I have a deeper appreciation for the effort put into it than whatever Evelyn Hardcastle was trying to do.

I don't care about keeping track of the series I'm reading. I don't read 200 books a year (only 56 in 2022... a lot higher than non-readers but still nothing compared to some Booktubers), and I try to DNF when I know I'm not going to like something.

I am going to try rereading more books this year. I Am Not Immune To Consumerism, but I am trying to inoculate myself a bit. Going to not buy any more books from now til June, and try to reread a few of my top favorite books. I miss the days when I used to reread books over and over and get something new out of them.

I've already decided that Hogfather is going to be my Christmas read every year, and the Collector's Library edition is probably going to be the first book I get on July 1st.

I'll be honest: could probably stand to DNF even more. Some of the books I actually marked back onto my TBR rather than as a DNF. Often it's because I know I wanted to read it, owned it, and just wasn't feeling it. Other times it was because I'd barely gotten 10% into it and therefore didn't consider it even as something I was really reading.

That being said, ACOMAF has one more chance for me to try and read it at the behest of my friend or else I'm just gonna give up. Maybe if I borrow their physical copy I'll have better luck (I don't read a lot of ebooks, and if the library makes me give back a slow-going book before I'm done, I won't fight that hard.)

Speaking of physical books, I have a shitton of them. I primarily read physical books. I'm going to try and read down my physical TBR this year so that I can clear up my shelves a bit. 35/56 owned books in 2022 isn't bad though!

And that was reading for 2022. Lots of interesting insights for myself. Here's to a great 2023!

#reading #books #bookblr #storygraph #book review

[the-firebird69]

There's two diplomatic shuttles meaning in the middle of the two fleats, yes and they're discussing it we see them waving

There agreed to do it at least try it and they're going to use a heavy handle this stupid m************ it comes out of them after this it's going to be non-stop threats I guess everybody so get all arm up and man up and we're going to get rid of this nasty pieces of crap and Trump and Dan mac daddy says

Now we've seen a lot of action before I've never seen these people so mad in my life and something that got them angry recently and usually it's big and it's real well we think it is is the flagships the same they're stopping people from getting them including Tony s and nobody's doing the damn thing about Giants and other stuff and nobody can get on any page because he's losers and you turn around and then Tony yes will be doing it but right now Trump is one of those fat ass in the way NBA cuz that's what they do that's their motif and culture no one wants some City with them God damn way figuring again talking about how things they want dollars and someone Sprint account this month and someone didn't notice they don't know, this is hurtful cuz I said it's poor and you revealed your stuff to everyone and everyone's kicking your ass cuz your stuff sucks now all your stuff is a reflection of your masters then you're stupid and all because you have to bother outside and you're not supposed to it's taboo will you retard leaders strategy it's way too late now since it's don't even ask them there's such idiots about it.

The fleets are approaching the target area and they're all heated up every single shift they're all picking targets against the approaching we're running assholes who are armed with weapons to destroy people and not clones they're starting to see the function more so a lot of them did but wow what a day. Well they pursue the other idiots cuz they're so damned annoying it's writing a planet like the threatening shatteredome is there are a few up there the whole place might go up they say so we're monitoring and of course we had to invade with monsters these people are stupid about it it's not that great we have to hide now this

This fleet is blowing its horn the foreigners fleet and it's fast is 700 trillion in all the fleets of theirs this one is about 2 trillion ships against 50 million roughly and they're not responsive they blow it again it's a sound in space it is extremely European sir shut your damn mouth does and put some message out we wish to speak with you and they don't say anything

Out of the side of one ship cuz the pile of it looks like people and it looks like Max and the other side of the ship is a pile of Europeans it's like a couple trillion ships what happens when you don't back off Trump and Dan so they're not backing off and they sent this gross message and the bodies are kind of old. It's a lame message it's just going to attract fire and the trumps and Dan ship says back in English we don't have anything to talk about in the Europeans and Asians and more to say "then prepare to take fire we will wipe you out for your indiscretions" in those words

Mac is quickly approaching, his voice could be heard on the intercom or someone who works for him and he says this get out of my way you little fleet and then send back immediately no make us Max has the order open fire and as discussed.

Europeans say open fire those targets and they're pointing at the black stone ships they're polarizing them.

There's not one ship left it's not on fire and they're hitting them until they first or break the pieces that plays gone and there's some huge explosions for the skulls went up.

And Trump is resigned and says then we're out then it's going to try something rude on our son momentarily.

Thor Freya sending troops now

This is awesome but I'd rather not hear these idiots all day but that's where it goes I have to ever saying it that's good ridiculous but it's okay otherwise

Hera

Fire at them all. Keep John rima Lord out of here

Zues

Is it a surprise Trump wouldn't immediate you are you're such an idiot I can't believe you're so stupid

Thor Freya

Hell of a saying this and we all want to say something it takes a lot of effort to get these messages out and these idiots stretch it out but I'll say what's going on or I'll tell you these people to go f themselves but really Trump and Dan need to leave he discovered something about them it won't change anything they're doing for any price at all so you get rid of them I'm going to get rid of them now

Olympus

[blackjackreader634]

Scratch Off Strategy

Ny Scratch Off Strategy

Scratch Off Strategy For Tn Games

Scratch Off Strategy Florida

How To Improve Your Chances Of Winning Scratch-Off Lottery Tickets!

$50 Scratch Tickets. Ticket Price: $50 Start: 1/18/2021. Ticket Price: $50 Start: 10/5/2020. Ticket Price: $50 Start: 8/17/2020. Texas Lottery » Games » Scratch Tickets » Scratch Tickets Home Page Games. Powerball® Mega Millions®. Florida Scratch Off Plays; How to Win the Florida Lottery; Florida Lottery Strategies. Pick Hot Numbers. Avoid Cold Numbers. Wheel Your Number Selection. Join or Create a Syndicate. Stack Your Stake Money; Richard Lustig 7 Time Winner Reveals Secret. Buy 10 in a row. My theory – if you are going to play these scratch-off games, you need to buy 10 in a row in order to increase your chances of winning. Remember, repeated losing tickets are a sign that you are going to come across that winner. STICK TO ONE SCRATCH-OFF GAME. DO NOT JUMP AROUND FROM SCRATCH-OFF TO SCRATCH-OFF. Scratch-Offs New scratch-offs come out every First Tuesday.

Disclaimer:

All of the information inside this report reflects my own personal opinion and my own personal experiences. I am in NO way guaranteeing any winnings, results, etc. and am not responsible for any losses that may occur as a result of you using this information and/or gambling irresponsibly. By reading on you agree to these terms.

Introduction to Winning Scratch Offs:

I am sure most of you have played scratch off lottery tickets before, sometimes they are called 'scratchers.'

They are lottery tickets that you scratch with a coin to reveal a prize (or not).

With scratch-off lottery tickets, you win cash instantly! In most states, you can cash any prize up to $500-$600 at any location that sells lottery tickets.

I have won scratch off games MANY times and over the years have developed quite a few tips that have helped me increase my winnings and have some very nice winnings as well, such as $500 winners occasionally and $50 - $100 winners all the time!

You can almost call my collection of tips a 'system' but it doesn't really beat the game or cheat in any way whatsoever. It just improves your odds of winning by a significant amount!

My strategy is this. It is VERY unlikely that you will win the TOP prize, because usually there are only about 8 or 10 available out of hundreds of millions of tickets that get printed.

With that said, when I play scratchers I am not aiming for the top prize (i.e $250,000 on a $5ticket). Of course winning the top prize would be great don't get me wrong ... but it's unlikely.

Ok, let's get started with tip #1...

Play New Games!

The first tip and one of the most important ones that I will discuss, is the concept of playing 'new' games.

A 'new game' is a scratch off lottery game that is brand new and just came out recently. Most states and countries come out with new scratch off games monthly or a least quarterly. These are the ones you want to play, and this is CRUCIAL. Why? Because some scratch off games have been around for several months or even over a year ... Which means that many of the prizes have already been won and claimed for those games. Not only the TOP prizes (which can be pretty substantial amounts of money sometimes) but even the smaller prizes such as the $2 - $500 prizes can be mostly gone if a game is old.

It's not rocket science, but it makes perfect sense and you might not have thought about it before. The more all fresh and new the game... the more fully loaded with prizes it must be.

The new games are chock full of prizes! They have all the $10, $20, $25, $50, $100, $200, $250, $500, $1,000, $2,000 and $5,000 prizes unclaimed and you are much more likely to win one of these prizes on a newer game.

You can check the lotteries' website or ask the cashier which games just came out recently and other times you can tell which ones they are because they correspond to a certain holiday or month. Most state lottery web sites will tell you how many prizes a game has left, this way you can go to the store with useful knowledge on which games are worth playing and which to avoid.

Remember, we're not shooting for the TOP prizes ... But the $50's, $100's and $500 prizes are always great!

Lucky Numbers & The Best Performing ticket numbers 0, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 17, 18, second to last, last. I have won countless times on tickets with the above numbers.

What do I mean by numbers?

Every scratch off game session is a roll of tickets. Normally the whole roll adds up to $300 or $600 in the dollar or two range, much more now that we have $20 and $25 and soon higher.

That means in a roll of $2 scratch off tickets, there are 150 tickets -- which adds up to $300. If they're $5 scratchers, then there would only be 60 tickets in that roll.Each ticket has a number on the bottom of it. The first ticket in the roll will be numbered '000'. This may vary from state to state and is not a hard number, so ask if thinking about buying a roll.

The next ticket will be 001, then 002 and so on. So in a roll with 150 tickets, the first ticket is number 000 and the last ticket is number 149. (Because the first number is 000, NOT 001). I have found that certain ticket numbers perform VERY well consistently, over and over again ... even in different geographical locations.

NOTE: YOU CAN ASK THE CASHIER WHAT THE TICKET NUMBER IS BEFORE YOU BUY IT, THEY DON'T HAVE TO TELL YOU, BUT IT IS NOT AGAINST ANY RULES.

If the cashier won't tell you, have a talk with the store's manager to straighten things out. If the store isn't friendly and cooperative buy your tickets somewhere else.

Although they might think you are a little strange! And, if you're going to ask the number of every scratch off ticket they have ... make sure no one is behind you in line!

Understand, they will not should not sell you out of sequence tickets from the roll, if you find my theory successful you must buy the surrounding tickets as necessary around the ones I recommend to get them.

My favorite time is when I walk in and there are only a couple of tickets left, and I ask if they have more of that roll and they say yes and I buy those last tickets and 18 off the top of the new roll.

In my years of playing (and winning a large part of the time!) I have had much success with the following ticket 'numbers': 000 (The first ticket of the roll) 006 007 008 011 012 017 018 And then the second to last and last tickets, which the number will vary.

I like to play $5 scratch-offs the best. There are usually 50 tickets in the roll, with number 049 being the last ticket.

In this case, 048 would be the second to last ticket. I've had great luck with that number, as well as 049 (the last ticket of the roll).

'Winners In A Row'

What do I mean by 'winners in a row' ?

It's pretty simple. I have noticed a pattern. Sometimes when there are more than 2 winners in a row ... There will be a run of winners that sometimes lasts for 5-10 tickets!

I know that the lottery is supposed to be completely random and it is and random often includes clusters. However, These patterns over YEARS of time cannot be merely coincidence. So, please don't go out and squander your life savings thinking that this is going to be the answer. But, I bet it will increase the times you win when you play scratchers!

Let's say you're playing a $2 scratch off game and you win a free ticket so you get the next one. It's another free ticket (or a $2 or $4 prize). Then you get the next one (or two) and you win on one of those or both. Now you know you've hit a run. So far you've played 4-5 tickets but you only paid for one, $2. You can probably afford another $10 to spare if you hit one of these situations. In many of these cases, I have continued to play and after a few tickets there was a $25, $50 or even a $100 winner. MANY times.

Winner After Winning Same Prize As Price Of Ticket

Ok that might sound confusing, but it's really easy to grasp, trust me.

I find that if you win a cash prize that is equal to the same prize of the ticket (i.e winning a $10 prize on a $10 scratch off ticket) -- you will often have a prize right after it.

So basically you've already broken even, and now you're re-risking (reinvesting) your money back into the very next ticket.

I did this the other day on a $10 scratch off ticket. I won $10, cashed it in and played the next one and won $250!

Of course it's not guaranteed to work, but it has worked for me a lot of times in the past, with all different priced scratchers from $2 - $20 tickets.

'Work' A Roll - 'Break The Game'

I usually buy my lottery tickets at the same convenient store near my house.

Whenever I spot a new game, I'll give it a shot... especially if it's on the first ticket or early on in the roll.

I'll scratch one there and maybe buy the next one if I didn't win and I'll bring it home. (ALWAYS PLAY RESPONSIBLY and DON'T SPEND MORE THAN YOU CAN AFFORD!)

If I lose that one as well, or win a free ticket which is common... I will wait until the next day and play the same game.

One time I played one single game over the course of a week. Finally ... I won a $500 winner on that same roll!

Could you imagine if someone else bought that ticket before me?!

Of course there's luck involved but you do IMPROVE YOUR ODDS OF WINNING when you do things like this. ; - )

Buy A Roll

If you are in the financial position... You can also buy an entire, unopened roll for $300 and scratch off EVERY ticket in the roll!

Of course, as I mentioned before, it is unlikely that you will win the TOP prize ($10,000+) although you theoretically can.

However, what if you won $5,000 or $1,000? Even $500 would be cool!

Or you could just break even or come out a few bucks ahead, but either way it's all in good fun!

The point is... Buying a whole roll DEFINITELY improves your chances of winning a decent prize!

If you're not in the financial position to do so ... You can always go in on a roll with a friend or a group of friends ...

'Ask The Cashier'

When you go into a store to buy a scratch off lottery ticket, don't be afraid to converse with the cashier or lottery counter person and ask questions before you choose the ticket that you want to purchase.

I have asked cashiers what number the ticket is on every time I've ever bought a scratch off ticket. I just explain to them that it is a luck thing!

I have also asked if anyone has claimed any big prizes on the game I'm about to purchase. If they say, 'Oh some guy just won $50 on that game a few hours ago' I will stay away from it.

There's usually a nice winner in every roll -- At least a $25 winner, but almost ALWAYS a $50 and even a $100 winner. And every few rolls, there will be a $500 winner in there. These prizes are NOT uncommon! It's only the bigger prizes that are rarer like the $1,000 and up ones.

What NOT To Do!

Do NOT play irresponsibly and spend money that you don't have or cannot afford to spend

Do NOT continue to play a roll after you've won a prize like $50 or $100 from that roll

Do NOT play old games

Do NOT think that you are going to win every time you set out to play

Do NOT buy tickets out of a machine, if you must, buy in groups of $10 one $10 or two $5 or five $2 or ten $1

Do NOT take this information as a guarantee of any kind

Do NOT reveal your secrets to anyyone in your town or you will soon find them in your line!

Know when to stop - Play responsibly!

Conclusion

If you implement all of these tips into your scratch off lottery playing, I am sure that you will experience an increase in winnings.

Based on my experiences alone, I have no doubt that these occurrences are more than just coincidence -- Especially considering how often they happen (for me).

Remember to play the NEW games, meaning the ones that just came out recently. These are chock full of prizes!

Gambling and gambling addiction can be serious problems and I do not wish to condone out of control gambling or bad habits in any way.

My intention is to simply share my tips with fellow lottery enthusiasts who will most likely be playing anyway, with my tips or not!

'You can't win the lottery, if you don't buy a ticket!' - You can apply this quote to so many aspects of your life. Sometimes, if you don't 'take action' -- Nothing will happen!

Here's to your scratch off success,

Thanks for visiting Lotto-Logix!

Florida Lottery Scratch-Off game top prizes are limited. Click the game name for information about other valuable cash prizes available to be won in these Scratch-Off games.

Game NumberGame NameTop PrizeTop Prizes RemainingTicket CostTop Prize Winners & Retailer Information5019 $500,000.000 of 6 $5.00Winner Report5018 $30,000.005 of 12 $2.00Winner Report5017 $30,000.002 of 8 $2.00Winner Report5016 $30,000.002 of 16 $2.00Winner Report5015 $30,000.002 of 20 $2.00Winner Report5014 $30,000.005 of 16 $2.00Winner Report1485 $15,000,000.003 of 4 $30.00Winner Report1485 $1,000,000.0024 of 24 $30.00Winner Report1484 $500,000.0015 of 16 $5.00Winner Report1483 $50,000.0010 of 10 $2.00Winner Report1482 $5,000.0048 of 52 $1.00Winner Report1481 $2,000,000.005 of 8*$10.00Winner Report1480 $1,000,000.0020 of 24*$5.00Winner Report1479 $100,000.0032 of 36*$2.00Winner Report1478 $10,000.0088 of 100 $1.00Winner Report1477 $2,000,000.006 of 8*$10.00Winner Report1476 $30,000.0014 of 16*$2.00Winner Report1475 $30,000.004 of 12 $2.00Winner Report1474 $500.001,116 of 19,951 $10.00Winner Report1473 $1,000,000.002 of 4 $5.00Winner Report1472 $50,000.004 of 8 $2.00Winner Report1471 $10,000.0016 of 36 $1.00Winner Report1470 $5,000,000.005 of 10*$20.00Winner Report1470 $1,000,000.009 of 20*$20.00Winner Report1469 $2,000,000.005 of 10*$10.00Winner Report1468 $1,000,000.005 of 10 $5.00Winner Report1467 $100,000.0012 of 20 $2.00Winner Report1466 $10,000.0046 of 80 $1.00Winner Report1464 $150,000.007 of 15 $3.00Winner Report1463 $10,000.0010 of 20 $1.00Winner Report1462 $2,000,000.002 of 4 $10.00Winner Report1461 $1,000,000.002 of 8 $5.00Winner Report1460 $100,000.004 of 10 $2.00Winner Report1459 $10,000.0019 of 50 $1.00Winner Report1458 $500,000.007 of 14 $5.00Winner Report1457 $5,000,000.006 of 8 $20.00Winner Report1457 $1,000,000.0018 of 24 $20.00Winner Report1455 $10,000.004 of 34 $1.00Winner Report1450 $1,000,000.0070 of 155 $30.00Winner Report1448 $50,000.001 of 12 $2.00Winner Report1447 $10,000.009 of 40 $1.00Winner Report1446 $2,000,000.001 of 8 $10.00Winner Report1445 $1,000,000.001 of 12 $5.00Winner Report1444 $100,000.003 of 20 $2.00Winner Report1443 $10,000.0020 of 100 $1.00Winner Report1441 $30,000.004 of 15 $2.00Winner Report1440 $30,000.001 of 16 $2.00Winner Report1439 $3,000.008 of 75 $1.00Winner Report1434 $5,000,000.004 of 12*$20.00Winner Report1434 $1,000,000.0018 of 40*$20.00Winner Report1431 $5,000.0022 of 75 $1.00Winner Report1428 $3,000.0010 of 75 $1.00Winner Report1427 $2,000,000.001 of 10 $10.00Winner Report1421 $150,000.001 of 8*$3.00Winner Report1419 $1,000.00170 of 420 $1.00Winner Report1418 $500.00445 of 56,303*$10.00Winner Report1416 $3,000.0027 of 84 $1.00Winner Report1413 $30,000.001 of 10 $2.00Winner Report1412 $1,000.00127 of 420 $1.00Winner Report1409 $50,000.002 of 72 $2.00Winner Report1408 $10,000.005 of 100 $1.00Winner Report1407 $5,000,000.003 of 9*$20.00Winner Report1407 $1,000,000.0015 of 45*$20.00Winner Report1404 $5,000.0020 of 84 $1.00Winner Report1403 $30,000.004 of 30*$2.00Winner Report1398 $5,000,000.001 of 6 $20.00Winner Report1398 $1,000,000.001 of 20 $20.00Winner Report1396 $20,000.002 of 30 $2.00Winner Report1391 $2,000,000.001 of 8 $10.00Winner Report1389 $50,000.001 of 20 $2.00Winner Report1388 $10,000.0043 of 136 $1.00Winner Report1382 $1,000,000.001 of 6 $5.00Winner Report1377 $30,000.001 of 30 $2.00Winner Report1372 $10,000.007 of 100 $1.00Winner Report1371 $50,000.002 of 40 $3.00Winner Report1364 $250,000.003 of 16 $5.00Winner Report1361 $20,000.005 of 30 $2.00Winner Report1357 $30,000.002 of 10 $2.00Winner Report1349 $250,000.002 of 16 $5.00Winner Report1341 $250,000.003 of 16 $5.00Winner Report1338 $250,000.001 of 16 $5.00Winner Report1331 $250,000.001 of 12 $5.00Winner Report1302 $250,000.004 of 20*$5.00Winner Report1298 $500,000.004 of 24*$5.00Winner Report1297 $50,000.0011 of 40*$2.00Winner Report1259 $50,000.005 of 80*$2.00Winner Report

Ny Scratch Off Strategy

*Denotes games that have been reordered or have been delivered to the Florida Lottery in more than one shipment.

Scratch Off Strategy For Tn Games

Note: Games may be reordered, and top prizes may increase proportionally.

Scratch Off Strategy Florida

Prizes, including the top prizes, may be unavailable at time of ticket purchase due to prior sale or other causes occurring in the normal course of business.

[god-whispers]

apr 30

yesterday i was talking about audio bibles and someone hearing the Word of God for the very first time.  then we told about the effect it had on a blind, old man.  someone who had spent their whole life in darkness and in a single day, he received sight and eternal life at the same time.  how SUDDENLY is that and how magnificent is our merciful God?

i stop and look around at americans and how blessed they are to have that Word in such abundance.  i can't help but notice how casually they take this blessing.  even a lot of christians, i am afraid to say.  how often do we put off reading for a more "convenient" time.  we consider it a not "necessary" thing.

this is the Word of God.  this is Jesus Christ Himself, revealed in depths His first coming only hinted at.  i have heard stories of those in darkened lands that have risked being buried alive in a coffin to obtain just a few pages of His Word.

this Word is all things.  it is light, life, truth, freedom and so much more.  what if tomorrow a decree was made that all bibles are to be burned?  how much do we have stored in our hearts that can never be taken from us?  can you recite the promises God has given us to stand on?  "so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;  it shall not return to Me void,  but it shall accomplish what I please,  and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."  isa 55:11

i too am blessed.  i suppose i may have as many as twenty bibles, or more, in my very home.  some partially read and marked.  some of various translations.  one that i know was my mother's and has her markings in it.  i have all these bibles and translations at my finger tips.  yet, when i am not listening to an audio version read to me, i always pick up this one little bible.  it is all marked up and hi-lighted, marked up with notes from years before when my writing was still legible.  it is tattered and worn, the spine is almost coming apart.  it is my treasure.

i have hear people discuss before, "what would you grab if the house was on fire"?   i would grab that little bible.  it is tear-stained and blood-stained in spots.  a few pages are torn a little.  i have pasted notes and words given by interpretation in it.  it is part of me.  as i read it daily, it is usually will tear filled eyes.  i often have to stop and refocus.  "how could God love me so much that His Son would suffer so?"

daily i find new and deeper revelations from passages i have read so often before.  his promises become more precious to me upon every reading.  i think it is called "daily bread" for a reason.  it is my nourishment for the day.  now i know what Jesus meant when He said:  "I have food to eat of which you do not know."  john 4:32  i feel as if i were partaking of the heavenly manna which the children of israel were fed with.  i suppose i really am.  Jesus has said:  "this is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die."  john 6:50  this is the eating of His flesh we acknowledge when we take communion.

do you have an appetite for heavenly reads or are your appetites still satisfied with those of this world?  if so, then you may not like the place He has prepared for us; the place He is coming back to receive us to.

i remember when i was a child, i used to turn up my nose at certain vegetables without even tasting them.  but i am no longer a child.  i have tasted those things and found them quite enjoyable.  i have tasted the manna and i have found it, ALL SATISFYING.  it is nourishment and desert all wrapped up in one.

i look at the world and where it is heading fast.  (i think only the blind cannot see it.)  perhaps bibles will be burned and confessing Jesus may someday mean our lives.  it does now for many.  will you be fed and nourished enough to withstand those times of famine?  "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord."  amos 8:11  will you have oil enough for your lamp when He summons?

i beg you all, begin now to "fatten" yourselves up.  let the Holy Spirit replenish your oil supply as you feast.  it's later than we know.  so i end as i have begun; with suddenlies.  the time of SUDDENLIES is upon us.

[coffeeflavored-tears]

just finished iron widow by xiran jay zhao, and all i can say is aaaaaaaaaaaa

#it’s 2 am so sorry for being illiterate #but #spoilers in the rest of the tags #shimmin come back :(((((((( i miss him already #yizhi i am literally in love with you #also thanks for murdering your dad like i hoped you would since we met him #zeitan can i have your hand in marriage????? 🥺🥺 #but anyway #the whole ‘hunduns being th native species and humans being invaders’ thing wasn’t really that surprising??? #like i picked it up like 50 pages before it was revealed #i also thought that sima yi was gonna betray them #and i am so sorry for that cuz i love him with my whole heart #anyway fucking amazing #iron widow #xiran jay zhao