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talpup · 3 years

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Light In the Darkness:70

Summary: Yami Sukehiro just wanted to join the Magic Knights and make his mentor proud. He knew there would be trails. He knew trouble would come his way. Knew he would be faced with discrimination for being a foreigner and a peasant. What he didn’t know. Didn’t expect. Was that literal Chaos would come his way. That he and his mentor’s sister would be at the center of world ending trouble. Or that he would fall in love with his mentor’s sister and face more than discrimination; but the jealously of Nozel Silva who loved the same woman he did.

Please remember this fic is rated mature and has warnings of violence, abuse, sexual tension, eventual sexual behavior, and other possible triggers. For a full list of story tags please check the fics AO3 (link to that at the top of my tumblrs homepage).

Chapter 70

“Alowishus Spade. I believe I told you, next time I saw you I’d kill you.” Morris, the Warrior King of the Diamond Kingdom greeted.

Calen looked at his Master for signal that he should act. When none came he turned back to the King the tension never leaving his shoulders.

“Death cannot be killed.” Alowishus stated, calmly.

“I have several Magical Investigators who would kill for a chance to test that theory.” Morris said.

“We both know you won’t. Not with me being proven correct.” Alowishus said.

“I wouldn’t call your theories correct.” Morris said.

“The Light and Darkness have come. You heard of their first clash same as everyone. Even made deal with my Chief Servant before he died.” Alowishus frowned at the reminder of Erskin's death.

“A deal you rescinded.” Morris said.

“A deal I never personally agreed to.” Alowishus challenged

Ignoring the irksome detail, Morris said. “I never denied the existence of light and dark magic users. Or that their existence doesn’t interest me. But that hardly means you are correct about the rest.”

“Did you not see the sky light up the morning of the Summer Solstice?” Alowishus questioned.

Morris nodded. “I did. It was a great and terrible display of power that the Clover Kingdom currently has at their disposal.”

“My disposal!” Alowishus snapped. “Those in the Clover Kingdom know nothing of their true power. Of how to access it. Of what beauty and destruction they are capable of. I made that happen. I alone control Yami and Teris.”

“All the more reason for me to kill you.” Morris said.

“What do you want?” Alowishus asked.

“Tell me what you want and I’ll tell you what it will cost for you to have it.” Morris responded.

Alowishus glared. He could end King Morris’ life here and now but that would only cause further war and problems as the Diamond Kingdom would be thrown into chaos. Funny how all his life he had been trying to wake Chaos so he could bring about death and destruction and yet here he was trying to prevent such things from happening.

Summoning his control and patience, Alowishus told. “It is my understanding that the skirmishes to the southeast and southwest are nothing but a diversion.”

“What?” Morris questioned.

“That there are three small teams of Magic Knights currently making their way here to your seat of power.” The Master of Chaos went on.

“What!” The King stormed.

“The Wizard King believes that this war you instigated Kira Clover into was done solely for the purpose of boredom and desire to keep your Warriors sharp.” Alowishus said.

“Jorah’s not half wrong.” Morris admitted.

Alowishus smirked at the easily read nature of the Diamond Kingdoms ruler. “That if they can get a team of Magic Knights here that you will agree to peace.”

Morris tilted his head considering. “Possibly.”

Leveling his gaze on the King, Alowishus said. “I am asking you to agree. To do as Jorah believes you will. Make peace. Give Kira Clover his meager sign of repentance for crossing his border in pursuit of the Spade Kingdoms Sorcery Lances a year ago.”

“You mean the skirmish that you instigated?” Morris put in.

Alowishus smiled at that. “Your network still keeps you as informed as ever.”

“You had your doubts?” The King questioned.

“Well, you did sound rather surprised that the battles were a distraction and three teams of Magic Knights were headed this way.” Alowishus remarked.

Morris ignored that. “I know you leave nothing to chance but I’m sure there’s more you want.”

Alowishus watch the King closely. “True. And I’m asking that you don’t take it when it arrives.”

Morris raised a brow.

“The Light Magic user. Teris Nova. She is among one of the teams headed this way.” Alowishus informed.

Morris grinned at that, eyes dancing. “Is she now?”

“You can’t have her. Not yet.” The Master of Chaos said.

“This is my kingdom. I can have whatever I like.” Morris declared, wondering which of his Investigators he should hand Teris over to first.

Alowishus took a breath. He and the King went back a long way. He and the mans father having gone back even further before his passing. “Morris. Please.”

The King’s eyes focused on Alowishus. “You’ve never pleaded before.”

“She is that important.” Alowishus admitted. “I will give her to you for a time. In time.”

“We’ve had this deal and you broke it.”

“I didn’t make that deal.” Alowishus told the King. “You have my personal word. I will let you have at Teris Nova. I will even see that you have three entire days with her without Clover threatening war for her return.”

Morris’ eyes narrowed, tempted.

“I’ll also send you my knowledge and findings on her and what she is capable of. Just don’t take her. Not now. Not yet.”

“What’s so important about now?” Morris questioned.

“The second ceremony has yet to be done. They are unbalanced. Weakened to a point. But raw and all the more dangerous if pushed because of it. If you take her now and begin experimenting, she could lose control to the force that’s within her. Thus ending the world.”

“Isn’t that what you want?” Morris asked, wryly.

“I want to bring about a new existence.” Alowishus said.

Morris smirked. “You’ve repeated that lie to your followers so many times it sounds like you’re beginning to believe it yourself. You forget. My Father knew of your plans. Therefore I know of your plans. Your true plans.”

Calen glanced at his Master.

“You truly are paranoid.” Alowishus said.

“Fine.” Morris allowed, not pushing the matter in front of Alowishus’ man. “I’ll delay taking the girl if and when she shows herself. But you must agree to letting me have her within a years time. Whether your second ceremony is completed or not.”

Alowishus inclined his head. The next ceremony would happen on the Winter Solstice and see the revival of the Harbinger of Darkness. If Teris hadn’t gotten a hold of her own mana by then, the release of the Light Bringer should help level out Teris’ mana enough for her to manage three days of experimentation without losing herself.

“And, I want all you have on the both of them. Immediately.” Morris added.

“Don’t kill her.” Alowishus said, mildly concerned about what Morris planned on doing once he got a hold of Teris.

Morris gave a derisive scoff. “I’m not going to kill her. Not if she’s half as strong as you claim she is. She should survive just fine.”

“Then we’re agreed. Peace with the Clover Kingdom. And you allow Teris Nova to return home with her comrades.”

“And I get everything you have on them now. And three days with Teris in my possession within a years time.” Morris said.

Alowishus nodded.

Morris smiled. “I’m glad I didn’t kill you on sight.” He stood and made his way toward the other man, everyone in the throne room relaxing.

“I already told you. You wouldn’t be able to.” Alowishus stated.

Morris huffed. “I’m sure one of my Investigators could manage to figure something out. Come. Let us go somewhere less formal to visit while we wait for these Magic Knights to arrive at my doorstep. No doubt you are wishing to stay to make certain I uphold my end of the agreement.”

70.2

Bronn kicked Yami awake. Yami grabbed his katana and got to his feet, ready to head out again.

“This is getting tedious.” Yami growled.

“Good thing it’s over then.” Bronn said.

Yami looked back at the Vice Captain then around at the battlefield where Magic Knights and the Diamond Kingdoms Magic Warriors were separating.

“They got there.” Yami said, in amazed relief. “And it actually worked!”

“Yeah.” Bronn sighed, looking out over the field. “I had my doubts Sir Jorah was right but it seems the man knew what he was talking about. War’s over.”

“And Teris?” Yami asked.

“Easy there thick staff.” Bronn calmed. “You’re waiting for marriage anyway. Got some hand exercises to do before it’s safe for you to see that girl again. Besides, don’t you have a payment to return before that buddy of yours that was hired to kill you comes calling?”

Bronn still couldn’t believe their luck with that. Who would have guessed that Yami’s long ago friend was a leader of a gang of hired killers? Well Bronn could easily believe it. In fact he had long ago surmised that Yami had been running with a bunch of low lives before Julius came across him. That much he and Yami had in common. But to be lucky enough that his friend was hired this time around when Yami was transported off alone. Not to mention that Yami and the guy had left things on good enough terms that the man hadn’t wanted to kill Yami all the more on sight. If Bronn were the superstitious sort he would have said Yami had nine lives but even then Yami would've used them all up by now. Suffice it to say someone or something wanted Yami Sukehiro alive.

“You do have enough on hand to cover the cost of your life. Don’t you?” Bronn asked.

“Not on hand but at home. Yeah.” Yami said.

“That’s what I meant. Fool.” Bronn snapped.

“What? You’re saying you’re gonna take me? Now?” Yami asked.

“With peace made, now’s as good as ever.” Bronn said. “Don’t need anyone else coming after you. I already cleared our absence with the She-Lion. Let’s go.”

Yami looked over the dry, rocky expanse he knew so well by now but couldn’t wait to forget. “If I never enter the Diamond Kingdom again, it’ll be too soon.”

“Oh, you’ll enter it again. Especially if you take my position once I’m gone.” Bronn looked at Yami as they entered the portal and stepped into the Black Bulls great room. “You sure you wanna do this?”

“Leave that place? Heck yeah.” Yami answered.

Now Bronn was positive Yami was purposefully misinterpreting his questions. He tried not to let it get under his skin certain that was what Yami wanted.

Despite his efforts, Bronn growled. “Be the one to return the money to Lord Silva. Doing so could make things a whole lot worse.”

“I’m not looking to make things better between us.” Yami said.

“Then what?” Bronn questioned.

“I want to look him in the eye.” Yami answered.

“And?” The Vice Captain asked, exasperated with the younger mans unhelpful responses.

Yami shrugged. “That’s all.”

“Fine. Then get that girl of yours to take you to one of those fancy royal balls they always seem to have. You can look Silva in the eye all you want there.”

Yami shook his head. “Not the same.”

Bronn sighed, understanding. This was nothing more than a cock sizing contest. Yami wanted to look Nathyn Silva in the eye, drop the money in front of him, and all but dare the royal to try again. Trouble was a man like Nathyn Silva would try again, only he would adjust his strategy. One that Yami didn’t see coming and had no hope of coming out of.

Bronn knew Jax wouldn’t have allowed it. The Captain would forbid Yami from doing it. He would order Yami not to go and then order Bronn to watch the arrogant fool to make sure he obeyed. Jax would have him tie Yami up. Knock him out. Send him to the Healers even. Anything to keep Yami well away from wherever Nathyn Silva was currently residing while someone else saw the funds were returned.

“Go on. Go fetch your money.” Bronn urged.

When Yami returned, Bronn shook his head. He truly hadn’t believed it when Yami said he had ten thousand yules on hand. “What were you planning on doing with such a sum, boy!”

Yami eyed the pouch of coins he held and answered. “Essence rings are expensive.”

Bronn closed his eyes somewhat pained for the man. Shaking his head, he muttered. “Saving up for wedding bands.”

Yami shrugged a shoulder. “Kind of traditional like that.”

“You? Traditional?” Bronn scoffed.

“In some things.” Yami admitted. “When I first heard about essence rings I liked the idea. Don’t understand why no one uses them anymore.”

“Cause they’re a costly sum. Even a noble wouldn’t spend that much without thought.” Bronn said.

“But not even they or the royals use them anymore.” Yami said, wondering why.

“Yeah well, essence rings hold a literal piece of someones magic. It ties people together in a way--” Bronn shook his head. “I’d love to carry a piece of Gilly around with me like that. Know she was well and safe just because her magic in the essence ring I wore wasn’t agitated and still in there. Folk higher up the class ladder. They marry who they’re told to. Not who they love. Such a tie to someone that is nothing more than a means for the family’s prosperity or continuation is likely nothing more than an uncomfortable nuisance.”

Thinking that he would have to put most of his pay way again until he recovered the amount, Yami sighed. “I’m going to miss gambling--”

Yami didn’t get to finish the statement let alone react to the sense of Bronn’s magical attack. He fell over unconscious.

Looking down at him, Bronn apologized. “Sorry kid. I understand your need to look the bastard in the eye. But Jax wouldn’t like it.” He frowned, sour taste in his mouth as he bent to pick up the bag of money meant for future wedding bands. Maybe it was because he was engaged and set to be married, but it didn’t feel right. He felt bad for Yami and hated the Lord Silva all the more. Disgusted with himself, he stood and muttered. “I really am getting too old for this if I’m starting to feel things and get a conscience.” To the unconscious Yami, he told. “I’ll see this to Silva for you. We’ll call it payment for you saving my hide out there.”

70.3

Morris entered the room he had left Alowishus and the mans follower in. “Well? I had my Warriors stand down nearly forty minutes ago yet there is still no sign of any of the three teams of Magic Knights you said were on their way.”

Alowishus smiled. “There’s a team watching your throne room from afar as we speak.”

“And you know this how? Some of your easily swayed believers secretly following them? Sending you reports?” Morris asked.

“If only. Sadly the two sent to watch after Teris Nova weren’t up to the task.” Alowishus said.

Morris tisked with distaste. “I don’t stand for failure.”

“Neither do I.” Alowishus said. He looked over at Calen who had been ordered to inform Beast of what to do with the two found followers. As for the one who had sent the two, thinking they had been up to the task. Alowishus would deal with them personally.

Alowishus felt a sharp pain behind his eyes. While he could look through the eyes of the dead, whether they be human or animal; it was a draining, painful endeavor that never failed to make him want to gouge his own eyes out. He closed the link with the dead bird. He had seen all he needed. Teris and her team were here. Soon she would enter the throne room and then be sent back to the Clover Kingdom where she could continue in relative safety until the time of the Harbingers Awakening.

The Master of Chaos turned back to the Warrior King. “I’d take your seat upon your throne.”

70.3.2

Randall jumped from the tree, his air magic buffeting his descent. Quickly, he made his way back to the group. “Wasn’t King Morris suppose to be out fighting alongside his Magic Warriors?”

Nozel nodded. “That’s what everyone thought. He isn’t?”

Randall shook his head. “He just entered the throne room.”

“This changes nothing. Our orders still stand.” Fuegoleon said.

“True enough.” Nozel agreed, but it might change how they went about this.

“We still need to get in there.” Teris said. Thinking that what she really needed was to get out of this cursed land. In the two days since getting captured, waking up in a cell, and being attacked Teris had returned to her usual self, mostly. While the others had the constant reminder of her bruised face. It was Teris’ blood stained clothes that acted as an ever present reminder to her. She needed to get out of them, and incinerate them, then take a long cleansing bath.

Anyone within a foot of her would likely agree on that last part. They all stunk. What made matters worse was they knew they did but had long since stopped smelling it. One would think that was a good thing and in one way it was. But it only added to their tired, grimy, itchy feeling and need to have a good proper bath.

“Can you get us in there?” Nozel asked her.

“All of us?” Teris questioned, brows rose.

The acting Captain nodded.

Teris looked at them. After escaping, Nozel hadn’t cared one lick about the order to not use their magic unless necessary. That had surprised her given how rule oriented he constantly was. But after all that had happened she assumed Nozel, like the rest of them, wanted out of the Diamond Kingdom as quickly as possible.

Nozel and Randall had taken turns flying them. Fuegoleon was fully capable of creating a fiery lion, which strangely didn’t burn but was just warm, to hurry their travel along as well. But Nozel had been against that. While Zara still laid his traps at every camp they made, all Fuegoleon had been allowed to do magic wise was start a fire to cook their food or super heat some rocks to keep them warm through the night. Teris had been allowed to do even less. She was the only one that had used absolutely no magic throughout the mission. Her full reserve of mana could certainly take them all along with her. The question was would they be blind and burned when they got there. An idea struck her.

Teris turned to the Purple Orca. “Zara, can you make a sort of light barrier trap? Like a day to night type thing that’ll leave whoever’s in it--”

“Blinded by the dark.” Zara said smiling. “I like how you think. I got just the thing.”

“You want us to purposefully step into one of Zara’s traps.” Nozel said, understanding where she was going with this.

Teris looked to him and told. “Being blinded by darkness for a couple of seconds is better than chancing the possibly being blind forever. It’s your fault, Captain.”

“How’s that?” Nozel demanded.

While Teris had kept her promise, and listened and obeyed his commands; she was still what Nozel considered borderline insubordinate with her comments and ways. They may have found a sort of peaceful working relationship. But it was one Nozel didn’t care for, and would hope to remedy if he ever had command over her again.

Eyes tinted with humor, Teris reminded. “You’re the one that instructed me not to use my magic, sir. If I wasn’t full up with mana we may not have needed Zara’s trap magic as a buffer.”

Nozel gritted his teeth. He wanted to tell her that just because she added ‘sir’ at the end of a sentence didn’t make it respectful.

“We’ll be left blinded and squinting going from such dark to whatever light is in the throne room.” Fuegoleon said, not liking that they’d be left open and defenseless for however long it took their eyes to adjust.

“Still better than the four of you being blinded long term. It’s not like we have a healer with us or could easily get to one.” Teris said.

Fuegoleon couldn’t argue with that. He was just doing his job as Vice Captain, making the variables known so his Captain could make the best decision.

Since it was his magic, Teris was certain that Zara was aware of the same possibility she was. That his spell might cancel out more than her light but the travel aspect as well, thus leaving the four men behind. Sure that it was Zara’s place in society that kept him from speaking up, she felt like a hypocrite for taking advantage of his deference. But they needed to get this done. And if Nozel was made aware that there was the slightest chance she might be left traveling to the throne room alone, he would nix the idea.

Choosing to focus on the just as unsavory possibility that knew Nozel was willing to chance, Teris said. “I don’t know exactly how Zara’s spell and my light travel will interact. It may fully block my light. Or, it may not block any at all. In which case, sorry if I permanently blind anyone.”

Randall scowled. “Not funny, Teris.”

“I wasn’t trying to be funny. I really would be sorry.” Teris told.

Ever the optimist, Zara said. “Or it could work exactly as we hope. In which case just enough light will get through the trap so we’re not going from total darkness to the light of the throne room.”

Teris looked at Nozel. “What say you, Captain?”

Nozel stared at her certain her query was more of a challenge. Still, they were so close to achieving their objective. The fact that they had managed to get here before the other two teams, despite the full days delay of their capture, likely had everything to do with him and Randall flying them; something Nozel refused to apologize for if and when the time came. They weren’t suppose to wait for the other teams. Their orders were for the first team to arrive to enter the throne room as quickly as they could.

Nozel looked at the royal castle which was more of a fort and nothing like the beautiful palaces of the Clover Kingdom. He hoped this plan worked and the war could be called off so easily. Magic Knights were fighting, falling while he sat here taking his time trying to decide what to do. And during all of this his beloved Clover Kingdom was left with a depleted force. Unprotected.

“Zara, make the trap.” Nozel ordered.

70.3.3

There was a flash of light that left Morris momentarily blinded. The Warrior King stood. Still seeing spots, he demanded as if nothing was wrong with him. “Who dares enter my hall!”

“Magic Knights of the Clover Kingdom, Your Majesty.” Nozel said, repeating the words the Captain's of the three teams had been instructed to say; though he had never expected to be addressing them to the Warrior King himself as he said them. “We hope our arrival has surprised and proven us a worthy and formidable foe.”

Morris smiled, his sight clearing. He looked at his Warriors, seeing that many were either blinded or still seeing spots though they hid the fact well enough. He couldn’t help but wonder how things would've turned out if Alowishus hadn’t come and made his deal, telling him what to expect.

“It has at that.” Morris said. He eyes fell on the sole female of the group. Teris Nova. The Light Magic user. One half of the destructive force that could obliterate a city or possibly the entire world. She was smaller than he imagined though stood no less proudly than such a power had the right to.

Teris looked stared back into the King’s eyes wondering if she should lower her gaze in respect. No, she thought. This wasn’t King Agustus. This was King Morris. A Warrior who had fought and won the right to sit the throne and who had kept it all these years by his might alone.

Morris smirked when the girl didn’t look away like some timid Clover Kingdom royal afraid to look a king in the eye.

“Your Majesty,” Nozel went on, “we have come in the hope--”

Morris waved dismissively, cutting him off. “I know why you have come. I’ve been expecting your arrival.” He smiled at their surprise. Was he getting old? This group appeared to be comprised of nothing but children save for one who looked to defer to all of the others. Morris focused on the young man who had spoken and told. “Peace was made over an hour ago. The question now is, will we keep that peace.”

“I—I do not understand, Your Majesty.” Nozel said, feeling cast adrift without a rope.

The acting Captain had never been instructed on such a scenario. Had never gone over such a probability in his own mind. And Nozel had gone over countless possibilities. The war was already over? Peace had made. All before they had arrived. He would have thought one of the other teams had gotten here before them; but the crystal the three Captain's carried was still intact telling him that neither Jax or Jamie had arrived and been successful. Had Commander Greywright or Julius met King Morris on the battlefield and somehow made peace that way? Had diplomacy worked out through Sir Jorah in the end?

“I can’t see what you’re incapable of understanding. Peace between our two kingdoms has been made. The fighting has ceased. Your fellow Magic Knights to the southeast and southwest are returning home.” Morris looked to Teris. “All you need to do to insure we stay at peace is speak with me for, shall we say, ten minutes? After that you and your comrades, as well as the other two squads somewhere out in my kingdom can return home and things can return to how they once were. With the occasional small skirmishes between our peoples and a general distrust. What say you?”

“I agree. I will speak with you.” Nozel said, keenly aware that the King had been speaking to Teris.

Morris turned his eyes one him. Did the fool think himself clever? “I was speaking to the Lady.”

“I’m the Captain of this squad. Anything you wish to talk about can be done with me.” Nozel said.

“I assure you, Captain. It cannot.” Morris said.

“Why is that?” Nozel questioned, despite already knowing.

Maybe Morris was lying, Nozel thought. Maybe there was no peace and the war continued as they spoke. Maybe all the King wanted was to get Teris somewhere easier to capture. They had light traveled in here easily enough so escaping that way would likely be just as easy.

Temper rising, Morris warned. “Don’t test me, boy.” He looked at Teris. “He may be your Captain but I have a feeling you have a mind of your own. What say you? A ten minute civilized conversation for continued peace? Or silence and war?”

Teris studied the Warrior King, wishing that she was capable of sensing a persons Ki like Yami. “Can you prove to us that peace truly has been made?”

“Teris!” Nozel snapped.

Morris’ smile grew. “Not in anyway that would completely satisfy you that I’m telling the truth. But isn’t some sort of trust needed to make and keep a peace.”

“Are you telling me that out of all these Magic Warriors you have standing about not a single one is Spatial Mage?” Teris asked.

“Teris!” Nozel censured again, grabbing her by the elbow.

The King laughed. “I like you! It’s a shame I can’t keep you, yet.”

Morris saw the girl blink, a hint of worry and fear melting into her dark eyes. He smirked at how the four men she was with stepped protectively toward her.

“Calm yourselves.” Morris commanded the Magic Knights. “I said I wasn’t keeping her. Drake!” He called to his Spatial Mage.

Drake stepped forward, saluting. “My King.”

Morris laughed again. He looked at Teris and tilted his head to his man. “You’ve blinded him. Let us hope he can get us to what was the southeast battlefield without his sight.”

“I can, my King.” Drake said, hoping he could. He knew what failure meant. And there were plenty of other Spatial Mages eager to take his place.

“Then do so.” Morris commanded.

Teris and the others looked at the portal unsure if it truly led where the King claimed.

“I would say ladies first but I see you are still doubtful.” Morris said. “Anyone in here able to see?” He asked, voice carrying a dangerous undertone.

“I can, my King.” A man said, stepping forward only partially lying. Though spotting covered most of his vision, he could manage.

“Go tell the Magic Knights Commander I have five Magic Knights in my throne room eager to see him.” Morris ordered.

The man saluted. “Yes, my King.”

They waited silently, looking at the still open gateway. Finally, Greywright stepped through followed by the man sent to fetch him. The portal closed.

“Captain Nozel.” Greywright greeted, unsure what circumstance he had walked in on.

Nozel stepped forward. “Commander. Forgive me, Sir. But has the war ended?”

“It is.” Greywright answered, confused. When Morris had pulled back his Warriors, he had figured one of the three squads had made it and successfully sued for peace.

Morris turned back to Teris. “Well, my Lady?”

“Sir, His Majesty has announced that he wishes to speak with Senior Magic Knight Teris and that if this does not happen the peace will end.” Nozel quickly informed the Knights Commander.

Greywright turned to the Diamond Kingdoms King.

“It’s true. All I want is a simple conversation no longer than ten minutes or so.” Morris told.

“And if you do not have this simple, short conversation you will continue the war we just ceased?” Greywright questioned.

“I will.” Morris affirmed.

Greywright frowned. “I knew you had an interest in them,” he said referring to Yami and Teris, “and a constant thirst for battle. But to be willing to continue with war if you’re denied a mere ten minute conversation...”

Morris tilted his head. “One could say the same for you, Commander. I’ve heard you were a man who fights to protect the peace. Are you really going to restart this war because you won’t allow me a simple ten minute conversation?”

“Of course not. But, I’ll be present.” Greywright said.

“Don’t trust me, Commander?”

Of course Greywright didn’t trust the King, and Morris knew it. But he could hardly tell the man so.

“Don’t want to have to mess with hearing her report when there’s so much else to do.” Greywright said.

Though Morris knew that was far from the Commander’s reasoning, he appreciated that is was still in part true. “Fair enough.”

“Nozel, break your crystal.” Greywright commanded.

Nozel did as the Knights Commander ordered, breathing a sigh of relief. He didn’t like Teris having to speak with the King but at least Commander Greywright would be there. The war was over. They could return home and begin to put this all behind them. Strange as it sounded, he was looking forward to no longer having everyone looking and answering to him. He still wanted and would one day become Captain of the Silver Eagles. But if anything, this had proved just how much more he needed to learn and experience before he was ready for such a role.

“Drake.” Morris commanded.

“Yes, my King.” Drake created a portal back to what had been the southeast battlefield.

Greywright ordered. “Nozel, take your squad through and find Captain Mereoleona. Teris, with me.”

“If your command tent is still up we can go through and have the discussion there.” Morris offered, feeling generous. No doubt the watching Alowishus would be put mildly on edge with that. Unable to listen in. But it would also serve to put Teris at ease allowing him to get a better gauge of the girl.

Greywright gestured Teris through the portal. “Your Majesty is too kind.”

“No. I’m not. But my humor is high so best take advantage of it while you can. You,” Morris looked at the one who had gone through the first portal to fetch the Magic Knights Commander, “assist Drake through and wait.”

Morris turned back and walked through the portal, following the Magic Knights Commander to his command tent.

70.4

Yami woke to the harsh sound of Bronn’s voice yelling at someone. Slowly, he turned his head his neck stiff from the awkward position it had been in for so long. Rolling onto his back he looked about.

“Glad to see you’re awake. I was going to move you. At least position you better. But Bronn wouldn’t allow it. Sorry.” Gendry said, standing over him.

Yami snarled. “Where is the bastard?”

“Who? Bronn?” Gendry questioned.

Just then Bronn entered.

Yami was on his feet and racing toward the Vice Captain at ramming speed. “You--”

“Yami!” Julius hollered, seeing the younger man about to slam into the Vice Captain.

Yami skidded to a halt.

“Good timing there, Julius. Was afraid I was gonna have to kill the little bugger.” Bronn said, giving Julius a nod.

“Where is it?” Yami demanded.

“Exactly where you were going to take it.” Bronn answered. “It’s done.”

“It wasn’t yours to do!” Yami shouted.

“What’s this?” Julius questioned, sternly. He moved to stand between the two men, his expression firm and commanding.

“Nothing.” Yami and Bronn said in unison.

“At least you two can agree on something. Sadly it’s lying to me.” Julius said.

Yami looked at his mentor. “It wasn’t--” He stopped. While it technically wasn’t a lie if thought of in a certain way he wasn’t going to try to further and explain the deception to the man he respected and looked up to.

Bronn on the other hand had no qualms about furthering any deception or lies, and told. “Kid’s just riled up is all. Hungry spear. Once he gets a hold of his girl he’ll be--” At the angry flush on Julius’ face, Bronn paused. “That’s right. Your his girls brother. Excuse me.”

The mirrored glares of Julius and Yami watched Bronn exit the house.

Julius turned back to Yami. “What was that?”

“I swear. There’s been no spears involved with Teris and I.” Yami told.

“I know that.” Julius snapped.

The Captain cleared his throat. At least he hoped he knew that. Teris may go her own way on a lot of thing; but waiting till marriage was something Julius always saw her doing. It was more than his own hopes for her as an older brother. Teris was somewhat traditional in that aspect. As for Yami, Julius figured that Yami respected Teris and him too much to press her for such a thing. Though it certainly helped that Yami had once told him he wanted to wait until married.

“I meant you charging at your Vice Captain like that.” Julius clarified.

Yami shrugged. “Man’s an ass.”

Julius looked away, finding such truth difficult to deny. “That’s besides the point. He’s your Vice Captain.”

“Not for long.” Yami said.

“Yami.” Julius chastised.

Yami straightened and lowered his eyes.

“Fine. I don’t have the time to pull it out of you. But, I will be mention this to Jax.” Julius told.

Yami could live with that. The Black Bulls Captain was use to this sort of thing between him and Bronn. Chances are Jax wouldn’t question the incident; too grateful that he and Bronn hadn’t killed each other out there.

“Teris?” Yami questioned.

Julius’ expression softened. “At Headquarters. Their team did good. They were the the ones who reached the capital. They’re the reason we’re back at peace.”

Yami grinned, proud. “Never doubted her.”

“It’ll be a while before she and Jax return. The rest of your squad will be coming in over time. You should wash and rest up while you can.” Julius suggested.

Already got plenty of rest that thanks to Bronn, Yami thought darkly. Still, he nodded for Julius’ sake.

“Good man.” Julius smiled, giving Yami’s shoulder at pat.

Before the Captain could turn and go outside where he could time jump, Yami called. “Julius. Just in case you didn’t know. Being on the southwest side and all, There was an incident. A couple actually. I worked it out with the Lion—Mereo—”

“Captain.” Julius prompted.

“—Captain Mereoleona.” Yami said, taking the correction. “Everything was find after that. The other—that worked out okay too.”

Julius smiled with a soft sadness. He didn’t know what Yami was referring to, but was glad Yami had made it through the battles and was home safely. “The next few days will be hectic. But I’ll try to make it by before the month is up. Suffice it to say, no belated birthday excursions till things completely settle. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

Julius gripped Yami’s shoulder. He wanted so badly to pull him into a hug, but knew that would make the other man uncomfortable. Yami wasn’t one for such expressions of fondness. At least not with anyone other than Teris it seemed.

70.5

“Sit.” Greywright instructed Nozel and his squad. “Someone will come and bring you to in shortly.”

Nozel watched the Magic Knights Commander turn and enter the War Room. He figured that his position as acting Captain ended when they had returned to the Clover Kingdom. Not that he was overly sorry about that. He was sure Teris and Fuegoleon were glad for it too. Though Fuegoleon had been an exceptional Vice Captain. Even so, Nozel was sure that answering to him couldn’t have been easy for the Vermillion.

Taking a seat beside his cousin, Fuegoleon asked her. “What did King Morris want?”

Staring at the door Greywright had disappeared behind, Teris complained. “We don’t even get a bath? A proper meal? At least a change of clothes!”

“Teris.”

Teris turned to Fuegoleon.

“What did King Morris want?” He asked again.

Only sitting because the Knights Commander had ordered it, Nozel looked at Teris out of the corner of his eye.

Teris shrugged.

“Don’t give me that.” Fuegoleon snapped. “You were in there with him for ten minutes.”

“So was Greywright.” Teris said.

“The King didn’t request to speak with Commander Greywright. Morris wanted to speak to you. Quit being difficult.” Randall said, just as curious as the rest of them.

Teris shrugged a shoulder. “Regular stuff I guess. It was kind of weird.”

Nozel’s eyes narrowed. “What sort of regular stuff?”

Teris sighed and turned to the Silver Eagle. “Not you too.” When Nozel merely stared, she repeated. “Regular stuff. How did I like being a Magic Knight. Was it all I expected. Did I miss my father. How were I and the family adjusting. Did I have many friends. Were they all nobles and royals. Why did I choose to accept the Black Bulls invitation to join their squad.”

“He was trying to get to know you.” Randall said, wondering at that.

Nozel and Fuegoleon shared a look. It was odd enough, but somewhat explainable that King Morris would know about Lord Jaxon Nova’s death. But for him to know the details of how Teris became a Black Bull...

“I suppose.” Teris murmured. While most of King Morris’ questions were simple. They felt weirdly invasive. His knowledge about certain details of her life had been unnerving. And his final question. However did he know about her unwillingness to wed Nozel to the point that she was willing to be banished?

’Would you consider coming to live here?’ Morris’ last question echoed in her mind. Thankfully Commander Greywright had called time. The ten minutes which had seemed to drag on forever apparently finally up. She had thought that Morris would press for answer. But instead the King had smiled. ‘When the time comes, know that I would accept you and Yami into my kingdom. Such powerful weapons would be a welcome addition to my ranks.’

“I don’t know if I could have managed without Greywright there.” Teris said.

Nozel sat back, looking forward. “Well, it’s over now. It all is.”

Nozel wondered what lingering emotional effects Teris would have from the attack and for how long. As fine as she appeared Nozel knew something like that just didn’t go away. He wanted to reassure her. Tell her he was there for her no matter what she needed. But he wasn’t sure how to say it without calling attention to the event they all wanted to put behind them.

At least Fuegoleon had told Teris that he had killed the man. It felt wrong taking credit for it. But Nozel understood how Teris knowing she had ended the mans life would further harm and delay her recovery. They would have to tell what had happened during their report. The lie that he had broken the man’s neck, ending his life, being written and filed away forever as truth. As much as that bothered him, Nozel would lie to anyone, even the King or his own father, if it spared Teris further distress about the experience. She was to be his wife. Her image, and emotional and physical state reflected on the image of House Silva. Moreover, Nozel loved her. As hard as he fought to lessen that love, thinking it would ease the hurt of her unreturned affection, he had been unable to. If anything Nozel loved Teris more now than when they had first become Magic Knights.

A Clerk opened the door to the War Room. “Your Highness.” Seeing three royals, two of which were Prince’s from the second and third leading families, the Clerk paused. “Your Highness’. Sir Jorah has called for you.”

Thank you to those who have left hearts. And a special THANK YOU to those who have recently left comments or re-blogged. They really mean a lot.

So I decided not to participate in No Content November. Though that may eventually leave me without a stockpile of finished chapters; and you all in the same boat as those who read my BNHA fics (stuck in a post as I write scenario). I hope not. But only time will tell.

Next chapter snippet:

Yami pulled away leaving her wanting more, smirking at the look of disappointment in her sweet face. That’ll help you forget and focused on better things and keep you coming back, he thought to her. Thing was could he withstand it long enough till she full returned to herself. He had to. Teris was worth it, and deserved his support and patience. He’d surpass his limits of desire for her and hold out for as long as it took.

#yami sukehiro #nozel silva #fuegoleon vermillion #Zara Ideale #randall luftair #Black Clover #light in the darkness

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phoebehalliwell · 4 years

Note

I love your mini essays! They’re like mini fanfics! That one with Phoebe’s baby and her relationship with coop had me in the edge of my seat! (Would love to read a fanfic for it it you ever write one!!!) On that note, what do you think would have happened if headcanoned baby PJ is she existed in the dark future? (●´ω｀●)

thank you so much 💕💞💕💞 !! (and if i ever to chose to transcribe it into actual fic form i will be sure to post about it here so u can find it 🥰) as far as darkfuture!pj:

okay so what i’ve written so far in regards to the dark future has phoebe binding her powers and turning her back on witchcraft as a whole. she and coop never officially get married but they do stay in a long term committed relationship. phoebe was in new york, then moved back to sf, then moved back again to new york when pj was barely 1. phoebe binds her daughters powers as they are born and never teaches them any magic. she also raises them with no knowledge that they have any cousins or extended family, and tries to sever herself from the magical community as a whole to better protect her kids. that being said, phoebe does raise her daughters telling them bedtime stories of witches and cupids and magic, just in case the time ever comes where her daughters ever need to defend themselves. coop also gets all three girls their own cupid rings (he plans to give them to each of his daughters on their tenth birthday, but pj is the only one to make it to age ten before phoebe dies)

phoebe is the first of the charmed ones to be picked off, killed by wyatt in the middle of a normal wednesday afternoon. as she hasn’t been in contact with any of her family, wyatt doesn’t really know about her daughters. her final act is to set fire to the apartment she was living in, in hopes to burn the evidence of pj, parker, and peyton). wyatt also doesn’t know about coop, allowing him to travel back and grab the makeshift book of shadows phoebe scribbled in old notebook (he tries saving phoebe, but after attempt no. 5, wyatt can begin to sense a magical interference in the timeline, and coop accepts that if he tries again, he risks exposing himself and his daughters). coop pulls his daughters out of school, gives pj the book and parker and peyton their rings, and tells them that some very bad people will be after them, and that they’re going to have to watch out for one another. he tells his daughters to remember the stories they were told growing up, and, when the time comes, to read the first spell in the book. his final act is the hail a taxi and sent them to an address where he says they can get help. coop gets as far away as he can from wyatt’s attack before beaming to the mitchell house to warn paige.

now, pj is 11, parker is 9, and little baby peyton is 7, so this is uhh como se dice A Very Bad Time to be shoved out on our own in the world, but PJ, as the oldest and also the only one to have graduated elementary school, is ready to step up to the plate and protect what’s left of her family. when they arrive at whatever address their dad gave the taxi guy, pj quickly ushers her sisters out of the car and goes and knocks on the door with integrity, introducing herself as “prudence johanna halliwell” with her back straight and eyes level, ready to present herself as the leader of her family. well at the name “halliwell” the girls are quickly ushered inside as darryl and sheila have a very intense, hushed conversation in the kitchen. after confirming phoebe’s death, darryl decides that the safest place for the girls is with sheila’s mother in vermont, banking on the multiple degrees of separation to keep both his family and phoebe’s daughters safe. there, each sister goes by her middle name and abandons the halliwell last name. after all, johanna, rose, and marie morris of middletown, vermont are a lot harder to tie to the charmed ones that three halliwells sporting “p” names.

and that’s how they grow up. johanna keeps alive the stories she was told growing up and, if she’s brave enough, will sneak down to basement and move aside a could bricks to reveal a hole in the wall where the makeshift book of shadows is kept and flip through the pages. one day, when she’s thirteen and the city of san francisco has already fallen to wyatt’s magical regime, she notices someone staring just a little bit too long at the cupid ring on her finger. it could be just the unique nature of the ring, it could be someone who knows what a cupid is. either way, johanna takes her and her sisters rings and hides them with the book. she also stops telling the stories her parents used to tell her, because she fears the more her sisters know the more likely they are to draw attention to themselves. sheila’s mother doesn’t quite know the stories of the girls she’s been raising, but she can tell there might be something... off about them. as more cities fall and magic becomes not only known to mortals but hated to them, johanna gets increasingly paranoid about the world around her. rose tries to remain cool and insists that so long as they keep their head down there is no way the world will ever find out they’re witches (the girls themselves don’t even know they’re descendants of the charmed ones, they didn’t even know phoebe had sisters). little marie is only ten, so the older sister swear to pretend as if they aren’t magical at all, hoping that marie will forget as a whole.

when johanna is fourteen the first WitchHunter™ is unveiled, a flying robot thing that can scan a face and say whether or not the being is magical. johanna doesn’t know if it would recognize her and her sisters or not. at first they are only used in major cities, but regardless, the girls refuse to set foot in any corporate store in case the security cameras feed back to a larger WitchHunter database. johanna dyes her hair black, rose shaves her head. marie doesn’t know why her sisters are altering their appearance, but follows suit. she dyes her hair a dark brown and cuts long, fringy bangs. all three girls adopt bandannas in their hair as a new look, always tied loose enough that they could be pulled down over the face at a moments notice. that works for the next two years.

in late 2023 a rebellion that has been forming launches an attack on wyatt, doing significant damage, but in the end, losing. after this wyatt really goes on a kick reminding the world of the power he comes from, the undeniable magic of the twice blessed, son of the charmed ones. there are propaganda videos and everything and whoo what a helluva way to learn your mother was a charmed one. the girls have to reevaluate everything.

rose is the one who wants to go and fight, arguing that they have the power to make a difference. marie, who, by the way, is only 12, argues that they have no training, they weren’t raised witches, and they would be entering a war fought by experts. johanna wants to side with rose and wants to help protect people, but at the same time, she has to wonder why her mother ran away, why she chose to raise them all apart from witchcraft. but then again, they were left a spellbook. they were given cupid rings. johanna remembers her father telling her that when the time comes - when, not if - to read the first spell in the book. they weren’t raised witches, but they were destined to become ones.

in the dead of night, the girls sneak down to the basement and find the hidden book and rings, and run into the woods. once they’re far enough from the town they were basically raised in, they flip open the book. sitting in a circle, hand in hand, cupid rings on, the girls recite the dominus trinus. there’s a new power of three, and prudence, parker, and peyton halliwell are ready to kick some ass with it.

#charmed #long post #margaretsminiessays #💌#pj halliwell #parker halliwell #peyton halliwell #next gen #charmed next generation #au #dark future

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louisapennyfeather2021 · 4 years

Text

Part 2/5 Of my Newsies as Camp Half-blood Headcanon!

@a-fight-we-have-to-win and @morris-delancey-street for the headcanon ideas!

Morris Delancey- Son of Hecate. Morris feels uncomfortable with being Jack's brother, but he learns to accept it and even grows close to Jack and his friends. He's not the best at magic, but his ability to control the Mist is unbelievable. Morris is surprisingly different from Oscar. He's tough because of the lifestyle he was forced to grow up with before finding camp, but he is a bit more approachable compared to his brother. Morris tries to be more open at camp, but he always feels like he's letting Oscar down. He always craved approval from his brother, so he keeps any interaction with others that's even slightly friendly a secret. Because of this, he has a few friends. Secretly, Morris is a book nerd. He loves reading, he feels like he can just run away to a world where everything is alright. He never reads when Oscar is nearby, or anyone really. He mostly sticks to reading on his bunk at night. Because of how he acts in front of different people, Morris sometimes loses a sense of who he really is and it drives him insane. Morris is creative in the ways that he can be so many different people at once and still keep it all in control. He tries to use the Mist to hide most of himself from others, but they are all demigods so he has to put forth a lot of effort.

Spencer "Specs"- Son of Hades. He's unusual social for a child of Hades, but besides this it makes sense. He has a darker side that he reserves for times when the people he cares about are hurt or in danger. Specs is very aware of himself. He feels awkward because he's so sarcastic and he jokes around sometimes, so he struggles with self esteem. He's very optimistic and hopeful though. This distracts him from worrying about how he is around others. He's very patient and considerate of others because he knows what it's like to want to be better than what you already are. He's similar to Romeo since he likes helping others, but he works better with being a listener instead of things like camp tours or showing a new camper the ropes.

Elmer Kasprzak- Son of Demeter. Elmer is unbelievably peaceful, unlike half of his siblings and similar to the other half. He can be intense if he needs to be, but he's more of a peaceful camper. He's helpful, but he prefers his friends and being outside more than anything. Elmer tends to bottle up his emotions because he doesn't know how to truly express himself. He doesn't want to scare off any of his close friends because of his emotions, so he doesn't really open up much. Elmer likes to think what he has is enough, in a sense that he doesn't go looking for danger, so he's not very ambitious with camp competitions or quests. Elmer likes his life at camp and he wouldn't trade it for anything.

Benjamin "Buttons" Davenport- Son of Hephaestus. Buttons has OCD. If he seems something is slightly off, he has to fix it. There are noises that bother him and activities at camp that just make him twitchy. He can't really focus, like all demigods, so he plays with the buttons in his pockets that he carries around in case he needs them, hence the name. Buttons likes to be busy because he can distract himself from memories from his past. He hasn't had the easiest life, but he tries to keep a smile on his face because not a single person at camp has had a good life, not one. Buttons is always a valued player during Capture the Flag because he comes up with the most outrageous plans that somehow work out. He's creative and initiative with using what he has around him to create a plan. He works with Davey during Capture the Flag to make the ultimate plan.

Mush Meyers- Son of Apollo. He's not as bright and sunny as the others, but he's still a character. Came to camp with Davey and Les because they were like his adoptive family. His mom died when he was little and the Jacobs always took care of him. Mush didn't really take on a roll as a brother in the family, but he was always there for both Davey and Les. Mush doesn't really talk with anyone other than the Jacobs and a few others. He's generally quiet and this makes it difficult for him to communicate properly. Mush is never really bothered by much, but when he is he almost completely shuts down. He found that archery is a good outlet for dealing with his inability to properly communicate.

Jojo de la Guerra- Son of Bellona. He's slightly different from Katherine because he came from a different background. He lived a great life with his dad and step mom, but he lost both of them to a car accident unlike Katherine who just ran away. He's like Katherine in a sense that he prefers camp Half-blood over camp Jupiter. He can often take things for granted because of the life he lived before camp. He sometimes forgets who he is, whether it be who he is at camp or who he was before camp. He likes to tell stories, which is odd to his friends. He's surprisingly good, so he'll lead campfire stories after they sing songs. He can relate to a lot of the younger kids that had good lives until camp. He helps them adjust and comforts them. He's oddly approachable for a child of Bellona, but he's just as smart and battle ready as any other child.

Finch- Son of Athena. Finch is very intelligent, but he doesn't show it often unless he needs to. Finch has been at camp longer than any of the other "Newsies", as the boys like to call themselves. Finch is quiet and he always has a slingshot at his side, which is useful for scaring off the Hermes pranksters and the rest of the jokers in the group. He occasionally joins the gags, but only when it's against someone he has a small vendetta against. He is a very careful kid, although he's very intelligent. He's focused, for a Demigod with ADHD, and he has a very powerful mind. Finch is classified as depressed because he's been at camp so long, but he works hard on trying to be happy as much as possible. His friends support him and give him as much or little space as he needs. His mood swings are unpredictable, but he works with Albert especially to be happy. He wants to be happier, to move past the memories of living at camp since he was little. Finch likes to feel like he's in control of just himself. He knows he can't control everything, so he settles for just himself. He expressed himself through writing, and hardly anyone sees his writing. Finch isn't very trusting of anyone outside his friend circle, which he keeps exclusive.

Mike and Ike- Sons of Hermes. They are worse than Race. They are basically the Stolls, maybe worse. Both worry that they have to be the pranksters and they have to be funny, so they try too hard to be people they aren't truly. Yes, they are mischievous, but they are also very reasonable kids. Both are worried that they'll lose each other over anything. It's happened before and even though they don't show much in front of everyone else, they both worry for each other constantly. They mostly stick to their group of friends and they like it that way. To sum it up, they are a more mischievous duo than the Stolls. Their greatest weakness is their loyalty to each other and those they are about because they are willing to do anything for each other. This is also their greatest strength.

Hotshot- Son of Hades. Hotshot is opposite of Specs and more like how people picture a son of Hades. Hotshot is a very competitive camper, but he's also discreet. He's like a behind the scenes guy. Spot's his best friend, so they work well together. They are a more physical Davey and Buttons during Capture the Flag. He doesn't socialize much at all, but he's extremely intelligent. Basically, Hotshot keeps to himself and he gets by easily. Hotshot is very paranoid because he was with Spot on the quest that took one of their best friends. Both have PTSD, but Hotshot has more paranoia than anything. Hotshot can mostly handle his paranoia and PTSD by himself, it's how he copes, so he works better by himself. He occasionally confides in Spot, but it's rare. While Hotshots past tends to make him falter often, but he mostly has it under control because of his determination of never let the past repeat itself.

Henry- Son of Hebe. Henry tries to drink in his youth and he enjoys life as it is, although he won't just be lazy. Henry is very self reliant. His father owned a Deli and he wants to start his own Deli after his father died. He's always been self reliant and he's very knowledgeable of the Demigod world. He's very creative and also very understanding of all campers, even Oscar. He might not always like them, but since he knows so much about the world they live in, he knows that everyone acts the way they do for a reason. He helps campers like Morris become more comfortable with themselves at camp. Henry is very close to all his friends, but he isn't afraid to give them all a piece of his mind if they do something too stupid or reckless. Despite how he is with friends, Henry feels lonely without his dad. They shared an unbreakable bond and it haunts him to think his dad is gone. His biggest fear is losing those he loves. He only really cooks and bakes because of his dad, but he doesn't mind.

#specs #mush #morris delancey #elmer #jojo #buttons #henry #hotshot #newsies #newsie #newsies memes #newsies imagines #newsies broadway #percy jackson #heroes of olympus #greek gods #greek goddesses

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writehardwhumpharder · 4 years

Text

Carson - Panic Attack drabble

(also posted to Ao3, I’d link it if I knew how)

"Can you come pick me up?"

Morris looked at the time and frowned, Carson wouldn't be calling him if it wasn't important. "Can't you get a taxi?"

"I don't have any money on me, and I just, need to get out here," Carson said. He stood on a street corner in a neighborhood of New York City he'd never seen before in all his time living there. It was that strange time in the early morning when it was just barely light outside and people were starting to make their way to work in a sleepy daze. A guy walked into him, nearly knocking Carson over, then had the nerve to tell him to watch where he's going. If he had some energy to spare he'd trip the guy. "Please."

"Alright, alright, where are you?" He asked. Carson heard rustling on the other line as Morris grabbed his keys and made his way out to his car.

"Um, the corner of... 69th and 54th." Carson said looking at the nearest street signs.

Morris put the address into his maps and merged in with the morning traffic. What had the kid so rattled? All he could do was get there as fast as he could and hope that Carson could take care of himself for the next 20 or 30 minutes.

Carson sat down on a bench next to the bus stop to wait. He tried to remember why he'd gone out without gloves and a hat in the first place. Though his coat kept him warm the frigid air still did a number on his nose and ears. He picked up a little lingering energy and carefully used it to heat the air around the covered bench. An older lady sitting on the opposite end seemed to relax a little, also enjoying the sudden warmth.

Two buses came and went and Carson was getting a little impatient. He didn't have enough charge left on his phone to play games so he just sat there, watching all the strange people come and go. He banged his head on the plastic wall repeatedly, just to distract himself from the turmoil within himself. He felt... confused, scared, anxious, restless. While he did remember going out last night he couldn't quite remember how he got here.

"Oh don't do that," the old lady said to him. Carson thought she would be gone by now. She must be waiting for someone.

Carson ignored her and squeezed his eyes shut, clinging to the basic rhythm it made. She scooted closer to him and touched his hand. Big mistake. Instead of being comforting the touch triggered his magic which was going a little haywire lately. He looked at her with his senses and saw before him just a faint glow. The kind of waning soul that a person had when they were near death. He jerked his hand away and stared straight ahead. That was the last thing he needed that morning.

Carson closed his eyes and went back to what he was doing until a shadow blocked the sun against his eyelids. Carson blinked wearily up at the tall man, feeling so small in front of him. A man passing by staggered to a stop next to Morris, "Hey you got any-"

He flashed his badge and the guy was quick to walk around him. The old lady gasped and covered her mouth, "Oh no, you aren't here to take my grandson away again are you?" She pleaded.

Morris sighed, "Don't worry, I already found the idiot I was looking for." He turned back to Carson, "Now get up I don't want to be late for work."

Carson stood and followed Morris obediently toward the car parked on the other side of the street. Morris had thought it would be easier to find him in a neighborhood like this. In his expensive coat Carson should have stuck out like a sore thumb, but there was something off about his eyes, he looked a little crazed, like he hadn't slept in a couple days. And his hair was in a similar state of disarray.

As Carson walked behind him a strange feeling washed over him, "What if he's still here somewhere, watching me?"

Morris stopped and turned around, "Alright, tell me right now, and be honest, are you on something?" He questioned. Carson shook his head adamantly. "Then what the hell are you talking about?"

"I remember now. I was following someone, but I lost him somewhere around here." Carson explained, looking around uneasily.

"Well it doesn't matter now, they can't be dumb enough to mess with the police," he said, raising his voice on the word "police" as a not so subtle warning to anyone around who might want to cause them trouble. They started walking again and came to a crosswalk. Just as Morris was about to step into the road he heard Carson hiss from behind him.

He whirled around, "What is it this time?"

Carson stood there with a hand over his eyes and his teeth clenched. "Nothing, it's just, my magic is going a little haywire today." He blinked his eyes and was relieved when they went back to normal. He's not used to his vision shifting so suddenly like that. Just as he was about to step into the street it happened again. Carson groaned and held his head with both hands. What the fuck is wrong with me? His eyes kept flashing back and forth dizzyingly. One second it was sunny outside then the next everything grew dark and all he could see was the magical energy around him and the glow of peoples' souls. That's when it hit him.

Carson looked over at the bus stop on the adjacent street corner where three men stood waiting for the bus. But when his vision shifted again, there was nothing there. No soul, not even an outline of a person. His eyes can play tricks on him but his senses don't lie, they show the world in its most basic form. And when he looked at where the three men should be, they simply weren't there.

Carson's eyes finally went back to normal and he shrunk back, making some small noise of panic. This time Morris looked at him with genuine concern as his face went white in a matter of seconds, the fear in his eyes tripling. "D-do you see them? At the bus stop, those th-three guys." He stumbled over his words, eyes glued to the spot he was talking about.

"Yeah what about them?" Morris asked. Carson stumbled backward again and Morris caught his shoulder.

"They're not real, they're not," Carson said, nearly hysterical at this point. His whole body started trembling, and not from the cold. Morris looked at each of the guys, they appeared completely normal, they weren’t even standing in a group.

"Carson, I need you to calm down. I don't know what you see but there's nothing wrong. You might just be having a panic attack," Morris said, his voice smooth and calming. He's had some experience talking people down after traumatic events.

One of the guys stood up suddenly and Carson's eyes went wide with fear, "no, no, no, no..." He clutched Morris's coat with one hand, "I'm fucking serious, they're not real, they have no souls." Carson finally got the words out, his voice barely above a whisper.

"They're just waiting for the bus, no one is gonna hurt you." Morris said, trying again to calm him down. "Let's just get to the car, okay?" Carson wasted enough time that they'd have to wait through a whole light before it turned to walk again.

A truck passed by, hiding the men momentarily, and when it was out of the way one of the men was gone. Carson shrieked. Where could he have disappeared to in those few seconds? He could be anywhere. Carson's heart pounded in his chest and his breathing got faster and faster. Unable to scream or form words he just started making this, "nnngh" sound over and over again.

Morris still wasn't convinced anything was wrong but he kept his eyes peeled anyway, ready to reach for his gun at any moment. Something did feel strange to him, but not strange enough to send him into a full blown panic like it did Carson. At this point his whole mission was just somehow getting him to the car.

In a last ditch effort to preserve his sanity Carson tried to reason with himself that he really was just seeing things. Staying up all night must have made him paranoid. Just to be sure, he had to check again. Fighting to keep his breathing under control Carson looked at the two men still standing at the bus stop then he closed his eyes and looked at them with his magic. His heart clenched when he saw the same thing he did before, absolutely nothing. Although now that he looked at it again he swore he saw the faintest of shadows. Not only where they not alive, but the absence of life was so strong they had to be more than dead.

Carson opened his eyes again and everything went blurry. His legs turned to jelly, leaving only Morris's strong grip keeping him upright.

Without warning, the two men snapped their heads in his direction at the same exact time. Their soulless eyes met his and he heard voice, clear as day, as if someone was standing right next to him and whispering in his ear.

"Carson Hall. We need to talk."

All the tension he'd been holding in his body melted away as his eyes rolled back in his skull.

#whump #oc drabble #Carson Hall #Henry Morris #confusion #fear #panic #panic attack #paranoia #magic #dizzy #collapse #fainting

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aswithasunbeam · 5 years

Link

March 1807

A fork clattered onto the floor as Hamilton’s morning coffee splattered across the clean, white tablecloth. His newspaper had a smear of syrup streaked across an advertisement on the back page from where he’d slammed it onto his plate, his eyes wide as he read the latest news of Burr’s supposed plot to make himself an emperor. “Burr’s been arrested!”

“Alexander,” Eliza sighed. She adjusted the inkwell he’d upset on the table, moving it further away from the ledger she’d been scratching in all morning. “Was that really necessary?”

“Here, Papa,” James said, reaching down to retrieve the fork from the floor.

“Look at this!” He scanned the front page again, taking in more of the details around the arrest. “Burr was discovered in the Mississippi territory. Nicholas Perkins took a detachment of men to Major Hinson’s home, after giving instructions to two mysterious men. One of the men ‘had on a white hat with a brim rather broad than otherwise, a long beard, a checkered Hankerchief around his neck, and a great coat belted around him to which as hanging a tin cup on one side and butchers knife on the other.’ This reads like a scene from a damn novel.”1

“Alexander,” Eliza’s voice turned sharp as she glanced pointedly at William, who was watching him with rapt attention.

His eyes continued to scan over the accounts of the arrest and Burr’s subsequent escape. “They have him in disguise, fleeing from Federal forces. They’re already laying the groundwork for a treason charge. This is outrageous.”

“Is it?” Eliza asked coolly.

“Ugh, and this: ‘Burr was a great rascal when he attempted to kill Hamilton.’ Ha! As if they cared. But now the Federalists believe that as Burr seeks ‘to divide the Union, destroy the Constitution, turn Congress out of doors, assassinate Jefferson, and establish a monarchy – he is a pretty clever fellow again!’”2

“Did Mr. Burr plan to assassinate President Jefferson as part of his plot?” James asked, craning his neck to look at the paper for himself. “I hadn’t heard that.”

“Nobody’s heard it. Jefferson’s lost his mind. He’s descended into paranoid delusions. There’s no way he can actually believe any of this, can he?”

“Why shouldn’t he?” Eliza removed her spectacles and set down her quill. “Burr’s proven himself plenty dangerous when provoked. And he hasn’t distinguished himself as a paragon of loyalty or virtue recently, either, has he?”

“That was different. Burr didn’t hide in the bushes to attack me from the side of the road like an assassin. He called me out as a gentleman. It was my own folly that I answered him.” He looked at James as he spoke, hoping to instill with words the example he’d so spectacularly failed to set with his actions.

“I don’t know anything, except I watched you almost die because that fiend had his feelings hurt over a newspaper article. Perhaps Jefferson isn’t so far off the mark on this.”

“It’s the beginning of our very own reign of terror, Eliza. Don’t you see? No better than a witch hunt.”

“You’re so certain Burr’s not a witch?” she asked, seizing the metaphor.

“That’s the sort of thinking that leads to mass hysteria.”

“He’s ambitious. Viciously so. He’ll stop at nothing to get what he wants. I, for one, don’t think the charges against him are so outrageous.”

“Only because you’re still angry with him.”

��Yes.” She looked hard at him, unrepentant of her position.

“That’s a reason to let him hang for a crime that lives almost entirely in Jefferson’s imagination?”

“You don’t know that. You’ve been as quick to judgment as everyone else. You’re so set against Jefferson, that you’re willing to believe the best in a man who tried to kill you not so long ago. Burr’s committed crimes enough to justify me believing the worst.”

He stared at her for a long moment, unused to disagreeing with her so vehemently about politics. It’s not that she blindly took his side on things typically, but even where their opinions diverged, she wasn’t usually so concerned that she’d spend much time arguing with him over it. Not unless he asked her to, of course, so that he might better craft his own arguments.

She was hard set against Burr, though, uninterested in any view that set him as a pawn in Jefferson’s bid to take power for himself. Which made the idea formulating in his head even more problematic.

So much was happening in the wider world, while he stayed ensconced in New York, taking on paltry insurance cases and coming home to his family each evening. He’d needed that while he recovered: the predicable schedule, the short hours, the cocoon of his loving home. But he was starting to chafe at the restriction now. Burr was being chased across the continent like a desperado while he sat safe in his country retreat.

“The trial will be in Richmond over the summer,” he observed.

Her mouth drew into a tight line.

“That’s not such a great distance away, really. Especially considering I’ll be going to Philadelphia for work already—”

“No.” She doesn’t raise her voice, but her nostrils have flared, anger boiling behind her dark eyes. The refusal left no room for argument.

He fought not to bristle at the abrupt interruption. “We could take the little ones with us. And time away would give me a chance to focus more on my new project. You know how hard it is for me to research and write with visitors and business on the doorstep at all hours.”

“No, Alexander.”

“Betsey—”

She shook her head, pushed back from the table, and snapped her ledger book shut.

She avoided him for much of the rest of the day.

It wasn’t hard for her, exactly. She’d already been spending most of her time at the New York Orphan Asylum, after having been named Second Directress of the new organization. Her nose was constantly in her ledger book, tracking donations, paying bills, keeping the whole charity afloat as they housed, fed, and educated the most vulnerable and unfortunate children in the city.

It was well past dark when he finally heard the front door open. He was sitting in the parlor with little Eliza and Phil, an assortment of books laid out on the table before him as he scribbled notes down. His planned essay series on governments throughout history had been too long delayed by his injury, but with Gouverneur Morris and James Kent’s assistance, it was finally underway.

“Like this,” his younger daughter was explaining, holding her palms face out to her little brother. “Patty cake, patty cake, baker’s man, bake me a cake—no Phil, you clap my hands there. Watch again.”

Hamilton smiled at the children, though his shoulders were tense as he heard Eliza approaching. She paused in the entryway, watching their two youngest at play for a long moment before entering. Then he felt her gaze land on him. She regarded him silently, sighed, then came around to stand behind his chair. Her arms slid around him, her nose nuzzling his neck affectionately.

“Hello, my love,” she whispered. All traces of anger had gone.

“Hello,” he said, wary, but welcoming. “Are you done saving the world for the day?”

“Saving the world is a bit of a strong description for a day of balancing a budget and singing nursery rhymes.”

“I disagree.”

She laughed, soft and low, her breath a warm puff against his skin. “Of course you do.”

Relaxing back into her arms, he reached back to brush his hand over her cheek. “I missed you.”

“I missed you, too.” Her lips ghosted over his ear lobe. “Have you eaten?”

“Yes.”

“The children?”

“We all managed to feed and water ourselves in your absence. Much as I depend on you, I’m not as useless as that.” He made sure to keep the tone of his voice light. The work she had undertaken was as wonderful as it was important, but he knew it bothered her that it took her away from her own family for long stretches of the day.

“I know, sweetheart,” she assured him. “But it’s my prerogative to worry over you.”

Phil clapped as he finished the rhyme with his sister, their hands having moved perfectly in unison for the first time. “Again!”

“Faster, this time,” little Eliza said.

He and Eliza both laughed as they watched their two youngest flail their hands about, creating a flurry of little fingers. Phil, in his excitement, missed his sister’s hands completely and nearly sent her toppling backwards on the last clap. “Phil,” she whined.

“Again,” the little boy demanded.

“Maybe we should do it slower again.”

Eliza sighed behind him. “Are you ready to talk about our disagreement this morning?”

“If you are.” He hadn’t been the one to lose his temper and stalk out, after all.

She grasped at the back of his chair and wheeled him from the parlor to his office, clicking the door closed behind them. When she had him settled in front of the desk, facing the interior of the room, she sat down in the armchair before him, and waited. Apparently, this talk wasn’t going to begin with an apology, or an admission that she’d seen the error of her ways.

“I haven’t changed my mind,” he said.

Her jaw clenched.

“I want to go. I need to go. I’m tired of reading about momentous events in the papers, Betsey. If I’m not going to act, I might as well have died on the field that morning with Burr.”

“Don’t say that,” she snapped, pained.

“It’s true.”

“It’s not. You have me, our family, your law practice, your health, mostly. Why can’t that be enough? Why do you have to go meddle in business that has nothing to do with you?”

“It has everything to do with me. I live in this country. I spilled my blood to see it free. I’ll be damned if I let Jefferson drive us into a dictatorship, like the Napoleon of North America. For all he says about Burr, he’s the one in the prime position to seize power. I can see now why he felt so warmly towards the French Revolution.”

“Alexander.” No heat remained in the interjection, only a weary note of caution.

“This is important to me. Very important. This trial will go down in the history books one way or another, and I need to be a part of it. I can make a difference. I can ensure things turn out right. But I can’t do it without you. I need you with me. Please?”

She tilted her head slightly, then sighed again. “For you. And only for you.”

“I don’t understand why you can’t forgive Burr, when you forgave me so freely.”

“I’m not in love with Burr,” she answered immediately.

He laughed, then sobered, unsure how felt about that being the sole ground for his own pardon. “So, if you weren’t in love with me, you would still be nursing a grudge?”

“If I weren’t in love with you,” she echoed, seeming to turn the words over on her tongue. Her eyes closed for a long moment. “You know, I can’t begin to imagine such a world.”

He smiled at that. They were so tangled up with each other, their lives so tightly entwined, he hadn’t the first notion of what life would be like without Eliza’s love. “I hope I never live to see it.”

She rose, leaned in, and pressed a tender kiss to his forehead. “You never will.”

“So, you’ll come with me to Richmond?”

“Yes,” she agreed at last. “I’ll come with you. But I make no promise of cordiality towards Burr.”

“Just so long as you’re with me,” he said.

#hamilton fanfic #alexander hamilton #eliza hamilton #life hereafter #hamliza

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allureofcrimemurdermystery · 5 years

Text

~*The Story of Robert Durst *~

Born into wealth, Robert Durst is the son of millionaire real estate mogul Seymore Durst, who helped rebuild Times Square in the ‘90s. At age 7, he watched his mom jump off the roof of their mansion to her death. In 1994, he cut ties with the family when his father gave his younger brother, Douglas, control over the Durst empire. Since then, he’s been the mysterious figure at the core of a trio of high-profile criminal cases.

First Victim

The first and most well known is the disappearance of his wife, Kathleen. The two met in 1970 and married two years later. Their relationship was anything but wedded bliss: Durst allegedly beat Kathie, had an affair with Prudence Farrow (sister to actress Mia Farrow), and knew of Kathie’s plans for filing divorce papers. Come January 31, 1982, she was never heard from again.

Though authorities failed to solve the mystery, and journalists chalked it up to your everyday marital mishap headline (“Wife Leaves Husband for Better Life”), the evidence against Durst piled up – literally. Friends of Kathie who suspected Durst of foul play broke into his South Salem cottage, where they found suspicious-looking garbage bags piled floor to ceiling.

Along with several other shady happenings, the most damning couldn’t be denied: Durst waited six days before filing a missing person’s report. Still, it wasn’t enough to book him. Come December 2001, Kathie was declared legally dead.

Second Victim

Then there’s Susan Berman, an American journalist, author, and close friend of Robert and Kathleen. In fact, she became Robert’s unofficial spokesperson during the first investigation. Known to be a bit paranoid – nailing her windows shut, for instance – Susan was the daughter of Davie Berman, a gangster who dabbled with the likes of Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky. She even shared her insight into the mob via several true crime books. That is, until she was shot gangland style circa 2000 in her L.A. home.

On Christmas Eve, Berman was on the phone with a friend, actress Kim Lankford, chatting her up about some information “that’s going to blow the top off things.” Hours later, she was dead. Eyes soon turned to Robert.

Apparently, Berman had been accepting huge sums of money, totaling $50,000, from the reclusive Durst, whom she called Bobby, while also dedicating many a book to him. Even more curious? The night of Berman’s murder, there was no forced entry.

So who did it? Was it a mob hit in retaliation to the tell-alls she authored? Or was it Durst? Could Susan have been blackmailing him with this mysterious “information”? Once more, the case went cold.

Durst eventually moved to Galveston, Texas. He squatted in a dump that set him back no more than $300 a month; and once again found himself at the center of another brutal act.

Third Victim

This time, it was 71-year-old Morris Black. The two were neighbors, and shared a sort of friendship until Durst snapped. He shot Black, chopped his body up into pieces, and threw everything but the head into Galveston Bay. But wait — there’s more.

Durst eluded authorities after the killing by dressing like an ugly old mute woman he named Dorothy Ciner, who was a “friend” of Durst’s although no one ever saw them together. (Police later discovered Durst had used a similar cross-dressing mute disguise when he rented an apartment in New Orleans under the name Diane Winn. When police searched Winn’s home, they found property belonging to Berman and news tapes about Kathie’s disappearance.)

The bizarre behavior seemed to be working — until he was arrested for shoplifting a hoagie from a grocery store in Hanover Township, Pennsylvania. The arrest led authorities to his Galveston den, where no frilly housedress or cheap wig could hide the blood-spattered evidence across the walls, floors, and his boots.

Charged with Black’s murder, Durst claimed self-defense and was acquitted. Though he admitted to the butchery, his high-roller Houston attorneys, Dick DeGuerin, Chip Lewis, and Mike Ramsey, blamed the behavior on Asperger’s syndrome. Dodging a 99-year prison sentence, Durst was charged with tampering with evidence and jumping bond.

His new punishment? Five years. That’s what he got. He served just two. Now remarried to NYC real estate broker Debrah Lee Charatan (who makes an appearance in the HBO series), a 71-year-old Durst calls Texas home but still can’t stay out of trouble: Just this past summer he was charged with criminal mischief. Translation: He peed on the candy rack at a CVS. And that’s the whole truth.

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jaceyourself · 5 years

Text

End of Year Wrap-Up 24/12/2018

Happy Merry to all you readers!

I’ve had a great year but all us music fans have had an even better one! Streaming services mean that now more than ever we can experience the musical output from all corners of the globe (though overwhelmingly the English-speaking parts of it) to understand different points of view, learn of the goings on in other parts of the world and most importantly indulge ourselves in a bit of a boogie. All the moods, genres and feels you could think of are out there, so over the holiday period perhaps try and listen to something new. Who knows it might break the tension with that younger/older relative round the xmas table when you find they also happen to like k-pop/jazz-funk/grindcore or at the very least you can bicker about the tragedy of the current album charts (Greatest Showman: 21 weeks!). To aid you in your quest for knowledge/excitement/small-talk I have spent almost 30 minutes curating a best-of for both albums and singles in the year of 2018.

(NB even with my album-a-day policy, there’s no way I can get through everything I want to within the 365, so if your fave appears ignored, let it be known that I probably haven’t heard it yet. The full list of everything I’ve listened to this year is at the bottom)

So in no particular order:

Albums

Jinx Lennon- Grow A Pair!!!

The Beths- Future Me Hates Me

The Pistol Annies- Interstate Gospel

Travis Scott- ASTROWORLD

Mount Eerie- Now Only

Cardi B- Invasion of Privacy

The 1975- A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships

The Aces- When My Heart Felt Volcanic

Singles

Confidence Man- Out The Window

Cardi B- I Like It

Janelle Monae ft. Grimes- Pynk

Lori McKenna- People Get Old

SOPHIE- Immaterial

Marie Davidson- Work It

Car Seat Headrest- Stop Smoking (We Love You)

BLACKPINK- AS IF IT’S YOUR LAST

The 1975- It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)

https://open.spotify.com/user/jaceyourself/playlist/1kFex3QLVv0l3cCqjVC6dT?si=_GqTJXrOSoSXYaMC9ra_lg

Have a great festive period and I’ll see you in 2019 :D

2018 Albums what I listened to

Floating Points- Reflections – Mojave Desert

James Elkington- Wintres Woma

Miguel- War & Leisure

Ride- Weather Diaries

Sidney Gish- No Dogs Allowed

Emperor X- The Orlando Sentinel, Oversleepers International

Broken Social Scene- Hug of Thunder

MC5- Kick Out The Jams (Live)

Public Service Broadcasting- Every Valley

JJ Doom- Key to the Kuffs

HAIM- Something To Tell You

Camila Cabello- Camila

Sheer Mag- Need To Feel Your Love

Taylor Swift- reputation

Shabazz Palaces- Quazarz vs The Jealous Machines

This Is The Kit- Moonshine Freeze

Japanese Breakfast- Soft Sounds From Another Planet

Tune-Yards- I can feel you creep into my private life

Jupiter & Okwess- Kin Sonic

Various Artists- The Passion Of Charlie Parker

Waxahatchee- Out In The Storm, Great Thunder

Offa Rex- The Queen Of Hearts

Dizzee Rascal- Raskit

Alvvays- Antisocialites

Childhood- Universal High

Marmozets- Knowing What You Know Now

Declan McKenna- What Do You Think About the Car?

Paul Heaton- Crooked Calypso

Lana Del Rey- Lust For Life

Charles Lloyd New Quartet- Passin’ Thru (Live)

Rip Rig & Panic- Circa Rip Rig + Panic

Avey Tare- Eucalyptus

Justin Timberlake- Man Of The Woods

Rio Mira- Marimba del Pacifico

Oddisee- The Iceberg

Aimee Mann- Mental Illness

Katie Von Schleicher- Shitty Hits

Arcade Fire- Everything Now

Girl Ray- Earl Grey

Ezra Furman- Transangelic Exodus

Randy Newman- Dark Matter

Dead Cross- Dead Cross

Chronixx- Chronology

Mondo Cozmo- Plastic Soul

Kesha- Rainbow

Lal & Mike Waterson- Bright Phoebus

Steve Reich- Pulse / Quartet

Orchestra Baobab- Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng

Ratboy- SCUM

Prince- Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999, Purple Rain, Parade, Sign ‘O’ The Times

Stanley Cowell- No Illusions

Oneohtrix Point Never- Good Time Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Downtown Boys- Cost Of Living

Screaming Females- All At Once

Rob Luft- Riser

Sibusile Xaba- Open Letter To Adoniah

Jen Cloher- Jen Cloher

Everything Everything- Fever Dream

Grizzly Bear- Painted Ruins

Bob’s Burgers- The Bob’s Burgers Music Album

Superorganism- Superorganism

Maren Morris- HERO

Courtney Marie Andrews- Honest Life, May Your Kindness Remain

Stefflon Don- Real Ting Mixtape

Ghostpoet- Dark Days + Canapés

Young Fathers- White Men Are Black Men Too, Cocoa Sugar

Queens Of The Stone Age- Songs For The Deaf

Thurst- Cut to the Chafe

John Moreland- Big Bad Luv

Aruan Ortiz- Cub(an)ism [Piano Solo]

Mount Eerie- Now Only

The War On Drugs- A Deeper Understanding

Various Artists- Pop Makossa

Liane Carroll- The Right to Love

Fickle Friends- You Are Someone Else

Nadine Shah- Holiday Destination

Various Artists- Howsla

George Ezra- Staying at Tamara’s

The Doors- The Doors

Filthy Friends- Invitation

Susanne Sundfør- Music For People In Trouble

LCD Soundsystem- LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver, American Dream

Mogwai- Every Country’s Sun

Kacey Musgraves- Golden Hour

The National- High Violet, Sleep Well Beast

The Klezmatics- Wonder Wheel

Hercules & Love Affair- Omnion

Mount Kimbie- Love What Survives

The Aces- When My Heart Felt Volcanic

Matthew Bourne- Isotach

Finished- Cum Inside Me Bro

Forced Into Femininity- I’m Making Progress

Heron Oblivion- Heron Oblivion

Hamell On Trial- TACKLE BOX

Confidence Man- Confident Music For Confident People

Swet Shop Boys- Cashmere

Princess Nokia- 1992 Deluxe, A Girl Cried Red

Steely Dan- The Royal Scam, Aja

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard- Nonagon Infinity

Sparks- Hippopotamus

J. Cole- KOD

Fat Tony- Macgregor Park

L’Orange and Jeremiah Jae- The Night Took Us In Like Family

Little Simz- Stillness In Wonderland

Lady Leshurr- Queen’s Speech

RAY BLK- Durt

Brand New- Science Fiction

Janelle Monae- Dirty Computer

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever- Talk Tight

Fred Thomas- Changer

Myra Davies- Sirens

Laraaji- Sun Gong

The Killers- Wonderful Wonderful

Descendents- Milo Goes To College

Frank Turner- Be More Kind

The Horrors- V

Moses Sumney- Aromanticism

Arctic Monkeys- Whatever People…, AM, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino

Oxbow- Thin Black Duke

Dee Byrne’s Entropi- Moment Frozen

Mike Stern- Trip

The Vampires- The Vampires Meet Lionel Loueke

Gogol Bordello- Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike, Super Taranta!, Seekers And Finders

Umphrey’s McGee- Zonkey

Hard Working Americans- We’re All in This Together

Courtney Barnett- Tell Me How You Really Feel

Jllin- Black Origami

Various Artists- Rough Guide to the Music of West Africa

Wolf Alice- Visions Of A Life

The Young’uns- Strangers

Fever Ray- Fever Ray, Plunge

CHVRCHES- Love Is Dead

Oumou Sangaré- Oumou, Mogoya

Charlotte Gainsbourg- Rest

Daniel Avery- Song For Alpha

Daphni- Joli Mai

Kanye West- ye

Cécile McLorin Salvant- Dreams and Daggers

Trio Da Kali, Kronos Quartet- Ladilikan

Kelela- Take Me Apart

Bob Dylan- The Times.., Another.., Bringing.., Highway.., Blond.., John.., Nashville.., New.., Blood..

Lily Allen- Alright(,) Still, It’s Not Me(,) It’s You, Sheezus, No Shame

Fanfare Ciocarlia- 20

Wolf Parade- Cry Cry Cry

SOPHIE- OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES

Zara McFarlane- Arise

St. Vincent- MASSEDUCTION

Margo Price- All American Made

Bebe Rexha- Expectations

Motörhead- Under Cöver

Orchestre Les Mangelepa- Last Band Standing

Drake- Scorpion

Various Artists- Gentle Giants: The Songs Of Don Williams

Noga Erez- Off The Radar

Baxter Dury- Prince of Tears

John Maus- Screen Memories

Lankum- Between the Earth and Sky

Shamir- Revelations

Years & Years- Palo Santo

Converge- The Dusk In Us

Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino- Canzoniere

Fred Hersch- Open Book

A. Savage- Thawing Dawn

Big Thief- Capacity

Kelly Clarkson- Meaning Of Life

Dirty Projectors- Lamp Lit Prose

Robt Sarazin Blake- Recitative

Shed Seven- Instant Pleasures

Spinning Coin- Permo

Call Super- Arpo

Laura Perrudin- Poisons & antidotes

Ellen Andrea Wang- Blank Out

Lori McKenna- The Tree

Wu-Tang Clan- Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Lee Ronaldo- Electric Trim

Deer Tick- Vol. 2

The Paranoid Style- Underworld U.S.A.

Youssou N’Dour- Set, Joko- From Village To Town, Nothing’s In Vain, Seeni Valeurs

Gaika- BASIC VOLUME

Kasai Allstars- Around Felicite

Carly Rae Jepsen- Emotion

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds- Who Built The Moon?

Anna Ternheim- All the Way to Rio

U2- Songs of Experience

Mônica Vasconcelos- The São Paulo Tapes

Travis Scott- ASTROWORLD

Nabihah Iqbal- Weighing of the Heart

Van Morrison- Versatile

Jim James- Tribute to 2

Criolo- Espiral de Ilusão

Maciej Obara Quartet- Unloved

N.E.R.D- NO ONE EVER REALLY DIES

The Beths- Future Me Hates Me

Maryam Saleh- Lekhfa

Naomi Bedford- Songs My Ruiner Gave to Me

Jens Lekman- Night Over Kortedala

The Spirit of the Beehive- pleasure suck

Tom Rogerson- Finding Shore

Paul Jacobs- Pictures(,) Movies and Apartments

Ariana Grande- sweetener

Rina Sawayama- RINA

Marcel Khalife- Andalusia of Love

Gunter Hampel- Bounce (Live at Theater Gütersloh)

BAYNK- Someone’s EP

Omar Souleyman- To Syria(,) With Love

Blood Orange- Negro Swan

Open Mike Eagle- Brick Body Kids Still Daydream

First Aid Kit- Ruins

Shame- Songs of Praise

Homeboy Sandman- Veins

Playboi Carti- Playboi Carti

Eminem- Kamikaze

Troye Sivan- Blue Neighbourhood, BLOOM

Joey Bada$$- ALL AMERIKKKAN BADA$$

Priests- Nothing Feels Natural

Rhiannon Giddens- Freedom Highway

King Krule- The OOZ

Django Django- Marble Skies

Bon Iver- For Emma(,) Forever Ago

Calexico- The Thread That Keeps Us

Mary Gauthier- Rifles & Rosary Beads

Hookworms- Microshift

Aphex Twin- Collapse EP

Rae Morris- Someone Out There

Field Music- Open Here

Rhye- Blood

Shopping- The Official Body

MGMT- Little Dark Age

Christine and the Queens- Chris

Alela Diane- Cusp

Sonic Youth- Sister

Brigid Mae Power- The Two Worlds

Deafheaven- Sunbather

Various Artists- American Epic: The Collection Disc 1, 2, 3

Rich Krueger- Life Ain’t That Long

Lil Wayne- Tha Carter V

Modern Mal- The Misanthrope Family Album

Rejjie Snow- Dear Annie

U.S. Girls- In a Poem Unlimited

The Orielles- Silver Dollar Moment

Tal National- Tantabara

Marie Davidson- Working Class Woman

Superchunk- What a Time to Be Alive

Brandi Carlile- By The Way(,) I Forgive You

Car Seat Headrest- Twin Fantasy

Loma- Loma

Quavo- QUAVO HUNCHO

Marlon Williams- Make Way For Love

Nipsey Hussle- Victory Lap

Insecure Men- Insecure Men

Kendrick Lamar- Black Panther

Rapsody- Lalia’s Wisdom

Khalid- Suncity

Tracey Thorn- Record

Anna von Hausswolff- Dead Magic

Jinx Lennon- Grow a Pair!!!

Gwenno- Le Kov

Judas Priest- Stained Class, FIREPOWER

Robyn- Robyn, Body Talk, Honey

The Magic Gang- The Magic Gang

Essaie Pas- New Path

Bob Dylan and The Band- The Basement Tapes

The Decemberists- I’ll Be Your Girl

Pistol Annies- Interstate Gospel

BCUC- Emakhosini (Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness)

Jack White- Boarding House Reach

Yo La Tengo- There’s A Riot Going On

Sidi Touré- Toubalbero

Lil Peep- Come Over When You’re Sober(,) Pt. 2

The Breeders- All Nerve

The Vaccines- Combat Sports

CZARFACE- Czarface Meets Metal Face

Laurence Pike- Distant Early Warning

Chopteeth Afrofunk Big Band- Bone Reader

Leo Kalyan- The Edge

Hayley Kyoko- Expectations

Tristen- Sneaker Waves

Thelonious Monk- Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Brad Mehldau & Mark Guiliana- Mehliana: Taming The Dragon

Amy Rigby- Til The Wheels Fall Off, Little Fugitive, The Old Guys

BLACKPINK- BLACKPINK IN YOUR AREA

Rose Cousins- Natural Conclusion

Nora Jane Struthers- Champion

Lilly Hiatt- Trinity Lane

The Rolling Stones- The Rolling Stones, The Rolling Stones No. 2, Out of Our Heads, Aftermath

MAST- Thelonious Sphere Monk

The 1975- A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships

Jhene Aiko- Trip

Don Bryant- Don’t Give up on Love

EMA- Exile in the Outer Ring

Small Believer- Anna Tivel

Vera Sola- Shades

Cardi B- Invasion of Privacy

Darkthrone- A Blaze in the Northern Sky

Sarah Shook & the Disarmers- Years

Goat Girl- Goat Girl

Vic Mensa- HOOLIGANS

Unknown Mortal Orchestra- Sex & Food

Alasdair Roberts, Amble Scuse & David McGuiness- What News

Kali Uchis- Isolation

Wye Oak- The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs

Migos- Culture II

Hinds- I Don’t Run

DRINKS- Hippo Lite

Alexis Taylor- Beautiful Thing

Jenny Wilson- EXORCISM

#music 2018 #music #best of #christmas

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douchebagbrainwaves · 3 years

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DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR

It will, ordinarily, enjoy doing. An essay has to come up with the numbers. A company that could pay all its employees so straightforwardly would be enormously successful. People like baseball more than poetry, so baseball players make more than poets. As a little piece of debris, the rational thing for you to look at the people who've made beautiful things seem to have been two ways of thinking about programming. They can't hire smart people anymore, but they weren't crazy. The word startup dates from the 1960s, but what new forms will appear. Ordinary programmers working in typical office conditions never enter this mode. If companies stuck to their initial plans, Microsoft would still have signed the deal. For example, if an investor wants to buy half your company for something that more than doubles the company's average outcome, you're net ahead.

The world then was divided into two groups, grownups and kids. VC put it: I'm not hard to find. In some cases you literally train your body. Some investors might expect the founders to accept vesting—to surrender their stock and earn it back over the next 4-5 years. Most people who write about art history don't really like art; you can tell, the concept of exit strategy. If so, your old tastes were not merely different, but worse. And you know what? Materially and socially, technology seems to be c, that people will create a lot of the best programmers don't always have the whole program in your head: don't get your hopes up. It was a killing machine. For illustrative purposes I've left the abandoned branch as a footnote. It's hard to find successful adults now who don't claim to have been nerds in high school.

Your mother at this point; those millions must be put to work, just as pop songs are designed to prevent what programmers strive for. Why was the cat at the vet's office? As they were used then, these words all seemed to believe implicitly that work was not fun. In fact, most people who got rich by creating wealth. Unfair, they cry, when one sibling gets more than another. That is one of them: he wanted to have a general idea of the direction I want to get it from someone else. To someone in school now, that may seem an odd question to ask. That's a stricter standard than admiration. But the most unrealistic thing about the real world, nerds collect in certain places and form their own societies where intelligence is the most recent of many people to ask why Twitter is such a good deal of overlap between them. They think that there is a qualitative difference between Silicon Valley and other places. In theory.

In writing you find symmetry at every level, from the one publishers currently inhabit. Few legal documents are created from scratch. Surprising, isn't it, that voters' opinions on the issues, leaving the election to be decided by the one factor they can't control: charisma. The most recent counterexample appears to be 1968, when Nixon beat the more charismatic Hubert Humphrey. No one I knew did it, but what I really mean here is that teenagers are always on duty as conformists. More information, in fact; with their technical depth, the acquirers should be better at picking winners than VCs. His class was a constant topic among the smarter kids. You'll end up doing something chosen for you by your level of commitment. Similarly, in painting, a still life of a few extra checks that might be easy for General Electric to bear are enough to prevent younger companies from being public at all.

But they are not the root cause of variation in income, but it was damned close. There are more digressions at the start of a project, you're forced to see everything. Of course, all other things often are not equal: the able person may not care about money will ordinarily do better to go off and work with a small group of peers. I never felt that in Boston. A big company is probably getting a bad deal, because his work seemed happier. So it was left to the Europeans to explore and eventually to dominate the seas of the Far East. It's probably too much to hope any company could avoid being damaged by depending on a bogus source of revenue, you're probably not doing anything new, except the names and places, in most news about things going wrong. I'd heard Steve Jobs had cancer. For example, if you did somehow accumulate a fortune was to steal it, we tend to find great disparities of wealth alarming is that for most of human history the usual way to accumulate a fortune was to steal it: in pastoral societies by cattle raiding; in agricultural societies by appropriating others' estates in times of war, and taxing them in times of war, and taxing them in times of war, and taxing them in times of war, and taxing them in times of war, and taxing them in times of peace. 8 unvested option pool 264 13.

Don't let a ruling class of warriors and politicians squash the entrepreneurs. My whole world was no bigger than a few friends' houses I bicycled to and some woods I ran around in. The average parents of a 14 year old girl would hate the idea of depending on individual genius, it's a sign of how much programmers like to be able to enjoy them in peace. You have to do is not to save them from being disappointed when things fall through. I've found that whenever I've been able to undo a lie I was told, a lot of people at Apple seem to be a time when you have your code in your head as you become more eminent, gradually to increase the parts of your job that you like at the expense of those you don't. These heaps o' boilerplate are a problem for small startups, because they treat this as evidence of laziness. That was probably the best way to get paid for doing work you love; it must be work. 4%. Just as you're getting settled, you're slammed back in your seat by the acceleration. Perhaps the most important reader. It's hard for us would be impossible for our competitors. Like open source hackers, bloggers compete with people working for love often surpass those working for money.

Good ones, anyway. They were effectively a component supplier. You remember: topic sentence, introductory paragraph, supporting paragraphs, conclusion. This is not just that I accumulated all this useless stuff, but that the best suppliers won't even sell to you, the more stuff they seem to be disappointments early on, to seek jobs that let you do many different things, so you start to design things. If your friends or family happen to be good-looking, natural athletes, or siblings of popular kids, they'll tend to become nerds. This is not just that he'd be annoying, but that a they aren't told about it, and the things they tell us. As in families, relations between founders and investors can be complicated. Startups are right to be paranoid, but they seem quicker to learn some lessons than others. We were supposed to read Hugo's Les Miserables. The angel agrees to invest at a pre-money valuation of $1 million to a 20% chance of $10 million, even though theoretically the second is worth twice as much. Writing doesn't just communicate ideas; it generates them. Fashions and flourishes get knocked aside by the difficult business of solving the problem at all.

They don't change the laws of physics. Throw away a perfectly good rotary telephone? Tip: avoid any field whose practitioners say this. In doing so you create wealth. Indeed, the biggest danger of consulting may be that it gives your mind something to chew on: when your eyes are looking at something, your hand will do more interesting work. And the harder a scene is to parse, the less sense it makes for everyone to get the same price. Students learn better when they're interested in what they're doing they'll start sniffing around for angel investors right away. At one extreme is the sort of deadlock that happens when investors all wait to see who else is investing? If they aren't an X, why do you need to write anything, though?

Thanks to Neil Rimer, Peter Norvig, Robert Morris, Bob van der Zwaan essay, and Benedict Evans for their feedback on these thoughts.

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #issues #forms #groups #Apple #Zwaan #times #things #suppliers #idea #van

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choupetit · 7 years

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GOT Recap: The Queen’s Justice

Airdate: 7/30/17

Season 7, Episode 3

Hell hath no fury like Cersei on the warpath and this week she was certainly on a ROLL! Lots of great stuff happened in the latest episode, including a much-anticipated meeting between two of my favorite characters. And we even had some rare moments of comedic relief. Game of Thrones is picking up some major speed, so let’s hop right onto the crazy train and get this recap of “The Queen’s Justice” started!

So, um…I’m Kind of a Big Deal

Huzzah! Rather than make us all wait for the big Daenerys/Jon Snow meet-up, we start right off the bat with the good stuff: Jon Snow arrives at Dragonstone along with his trusty advisor, Ser Davos, and they are greeted at the shore by Missandei and Tyrion. Jon and Tyrion give each other a good-natured hello along the lines of “Hey, Bastard! lol” -”Yo, Dwarf. rofl”. [Side note: I was really hoping for one of those pregnant pauses where they just look at each other seriously and then say “C’mere, you!!” and embrace in a big, friendly bro hug. This didn’t happen. Color me disappointed.] Missandei kindly asks them to surrender all their weapons, because even though they’ve heard how cool Jon is, one can never be too careful when returning from exile to dethrone the current monarch. Foreign Invader Strategies 101, y’all.

On the long,meandering walk up to the castle (which, it must be said, is really quite scenic), Tyrion notes that Jon made a bold move showing up at Dragonstone to meet with Queen Dany, especially since Stark men haven’t fared too well with Targaryens in the past - to which Jon replies he’s not a Stark - oh if only he KNEW!!! As if on cue, one of Dany’s enormous dragons appears out of nowhere and swoops over them, flying off into the distance. It startles the bejesus out of Jon and Davos as they stop, drop, and cover. For their sake, I really hope they get to put on a change of clothes before meeting Dany.

Much higher up the path, we see Melisandre looking down at Jon Snow, when Varys creeps up. He questions why she was so keen to have Jon visit, and yet, is hiding away. Mel keeps things vague and only lets on that mistakes were made on her part and she’s ready to head back to Volantis. Varys tells her to stay there, but she tells him she must return one day with the cryptic phrase “I must die in this strange country, just like you.” They both share a meaningful look. Wait, what? What is going on here?! Do these two have some kind of history together, or just lots of intel on each other? It’s all very mysterious and now I’m intrigued.

On to Dany’s throne room! Missandei introduces Daenerys to her visitors, rattling off the long list of titles Dany has. When it’s time for Jon’s intro, Ser Davos is all “This is Jon Snow.” Jon looks at him like “Duuuuuude! Come ooooooon, I’m trying to make an impression here!” Davos adds “He’s the king in the North”. It’s a strained meeting to say the least - Right out the gate, Dany comes on strong with her claim to the throne, citing there is no “King in the North”, seeing how the North is one of the kingdoms that belongs to the ruler on the Iron Throne. She demands that Jon swear his loyalty to her, citing that time when an ancient Stark ancestor made a fealty agreement with a Targaryen that spans forever ever (forever, ever?! Yeah. Forever ever). Jon is like “Nah, I’m good, let’s talk about snow zombies”…which really goes over well. Dany gets all puffed up saying that Jon will be in open rebellion to her if he won’t bend the knee. In Jon’s defense, they are all running out of time and he can’t be fighting a war for Dany. But Tyrion points out, that the fight for the throne has already begun and they can’t just channel their inner Zack Morris and call a time out while they clear up the pesky Night King/Army of Dead situation. Also, they kinda don’t believe him. Davos goes into total hype man mode and starts to rattle off Jon’s resume and all the things he’s done for the North and how he got stabbed in the heart and Jon gives him a look that screams “Ix-nay on the resurrection alk-tay, man! They already don’t believe this whole Whitewalker stuff!”

The meeting is cut short when Varys arrives with some important news. Jon and Davos are sent to their rooms for some R&R and Dany lets them know their current status is “esteemed guests who are not yet prisoners.”

Varys breaks the news to Dany on the Euron Greyjoy ambush. Ugh. Well there goes the Greyjoy and Martell support. When Dany asks if there were any survivors on her side, we get a very brief cut to Theon being fished out of the water by one of the Good Greyjoy ships that survived the ambush of the Bad Greyjoys. Needless to say, Theon can’t get no respect from the crew.

Killer Queen

While we’re on the subject of Greyjoys…Euron has returned to King’s Landing with the gift he promised Cersei: Ellaria Sand and her daughter, Tyene aka the ones who sneakily murdered Cersei and Jaime’s daughter, Myrcella. Well, well, well, isn’t payback a biatch? After parading through town with his prisoners -who get a proper public-shaming from the good people of King’s Landing - Euron delivers the duo to Cersei with much bravado. Cersei is extremely pleased and tells Euron he’ll get what he wants (her hand in marriage) once the war against Daenerys is won. In the meantime, she appoints him as her naval commander and then moves on to the most important business of the day: Revenge.

In one of the dungeons of the Red Keep, Cersei along with Qyburn and Frankenmountain pay Ellaria and her daughter a visit. The prisoners are chained and gagged and Cersei launches into a blistering, taunting, calculated monologue about how she’s been planning for this day, deciding how she would punish Ellaria. She lays out various gruesome scenarios and finally, Queen C plants a big ol’ kiss on Tyene’s lips and mother and daughter immediately realize that she’s been given the kiss of death with the same poison that was used to kill Cersei's own daughter. Poetic justice. In true Cersei fashion before sauntering off, she lets Ellaria know that she’ll have the pleasure of watching her daughter die and decompose in front of her as she lives out the rest of her days in this cell, contemplating her poor choices in life.

Next, Cersei joins Jaime in his chambers to jump his bones, cause revenge just makes her super horny. Naturally.

The next morning, Cersei has a visitor. It’s a representative of the Iron Bank of Braavos, and they want their two dollars…and then some. The bank is concerned about the impending war between Cersei and Daenerys and the outstanding mountain of debt the Lannisters still owe the bank. The rep hints the bank is considering funding Queen Dany since they aren’t about to loan Cersei any more money until she pays back the current loan. Cersei assures the banker that Lannisters always pay their debts and if he can hold off for just one more day, the debt will be paid in full. Oooh, what’s up her sleeve this time?

Whattaya Want From Meh?!

Back at Dragonstone, Jon is getting some fresh air and brooding as only he can. Tyrion joins him and makes a few attempts at humor, but Jon is, like, totally super bummed out, man, ‘cause he really needs to save his people from the damn ice zombies that nobody else believes in and it’s just so freakin’ frustrating, uuuuugh! Tyrion tells Jon his request would be a tall order for anybody during a first-time meeting. He points out that Dany and Jon have quite a bit in common in that they both care about helping and saving others and that Jon should give things some time for Dany to come around once she gets a clearer feel for who Jon is. But ain’t nobody got time for that! Jon and the North are running out of time and he needs help now, so Tyrion asks him if Jon has any other, doable, requests. Hmm. Well, ya know…there just happens to be all that dragon glass which Jon came for…

Cut to Dany and Tyrion in the war room as Tyrion talks Dany into allowing Jon to mine the dragon glass as a show of good faith to help win Jon Snow as an ally. It’s a great scene peppered with a handful of funny moments.

Dany goes out to join Jon on the mountain top, and they watch her dragons flying in the distance. She tells him how people thought dragons didn’t exist anymore, and indicates that perhaps she can be a bit more openminded about other things that sounds impossible. She lets him know his wish for the dragon glass is granted and that she’ll even provide the necessary resources to mine it. When Jon asks if this means she believes him in regard to the Whitewalkers, Dany simply tells him he’d better hop to it. Nice dodge, Dany.

Meanwhile at Winterfell, Sansa is totally killing it in the upper management department and is in total doomsday prep mode, making sure they have enough food for the long winter, and the proper armor to fight the army of dead. She has a moment alone with Littlefinger who gives her some unsolicited advice, and we get a peek into the inner workings of his mind. He tells her that if the North happens to defeat the Whitewalkers and humanity as they know it is saved and intact, she needs to be prepared for what happens afterwards. He suggests a fabulous pastime that involves imagining every possible scenario that can ever happen at any time, based on whether a person is a friend or an enemy - that way nothing will ever come as a surprise, because she’ll already have lived and seen it in her mind’s eye. Considering they don’t have Facebook in this world, it sounds like a pretty effective way to stay busy and keep the mind sharp. So what if it probably makes you paranoid and one of the side effects is that you’ll start making scheme-y faces all the time? And on the plus side, once Sansa is done plotting out every single possible scenario she can think of, she can start writing GOT fan fiction and possibly pitch a spin-off to HBO. Wink, wink.

Littlefinger’s advice session is cut off when they hear a commotion in the courtyard and Sansa is called over. It’s Bran! Our little baby’s all grownsed up! Sansa runs over to her bro and hugs him. It’s a sweet moment and not unlike the reunion with Jon at Castle Black. I do love a good Stark sibling reunion!

Sansa and Bran have a private chit chat at the Godswood tree. Sansa says she wishes Jon was here for the reunion and Bran throws out as an aside, “Yeah, me too, I have something to tell him”…like what, Bran? Like who his real parents are??? Can somebody please send a raven to Dragonstone, stat, cause it could really help clear things up for Jon during his visit with Auntie Dany right now. Ok, I digress. Sansa points out that Bran’s the oldest living Stark son, and the rightful Lord of Winterfell. But her little bro tells her how he’s not the lord of anything, seeing how he is now the Three-Eyed-Raven and she’s like “Wtf does that mean?” Bran tells Sansa he can see everything that has ever happened and also things that are happening now, though only in flashes, and that he’s working on getting better at this ability so he can make sense of things. When he mentions her wedding night, it freaks Sansa out and she excuses herself to go back inside. Bran is eerily calm and dreamy in his demeanor the whole scene and you really start to feel that with all the stuff he’s seen while warging, he seems to be losing a part of his humanity - or at the very least, his own sense of self.

Rebel, Rebel

At the Citadel, Archmaester Marwyn is examining Ser Jorah’s skin, noting a seemingly remarkable recovery. Marwyn lets on that he knows exactly what happened, but Jorah is sticking with the story that he just took a nap and started to feel better. Boom, living proof that naps are good for you! Marwyn confirms that Jorah is fully healed and is good to go on his merry way. But he tells Sam to visit him in his office later. Ruh roh, Samwell Tarly, you got some ‘splaining to do! Ser Jorah thanks Sam and tells him he’s going to head back to his Khaleesi.

Later in Marwyn’s office, Sam gets a slap on the hand for disobeying the archmaester. He asks Sam how he managed to heal Jorah when so many archmaesters who have tried the procedure in the past have failed. It’s simple really, Sam read and followed the instructions. In my head, I’m cutting to Gilly saying “You’re like…a wizard!”. The archmaester gives Sam a verbal pat on the back for saving Jorah’s life, and then it’s back to the usual grind: some scrolls need to be copied and Sam is the lucky guy who gets to be a human Xerox machine. Marwyn tells him that if he was expecting a reward for his good deed with Jorah it’s that he isn’t being expelled. Aw, man, Sam can’t get a break. Very fun scene though.

War Games

Back at Dragonstone, Dany is in the war room with her advisors. She wants to hop on a dragon, find Euron’s fleet and torch it to the bottom of the sea, but everybody talks her out of it. Even if her dragons are strong and nearly invincible, Dany would endanger herself while riding on Drogon, as anybody could try to shoot her down, and it’s a risk she can’t take. Tyrion reminds her they need to keep their eye on the prize: the siege of Casterly Rock.

Misandei - who clearly has Grey Worm on the brain after her last steamy encounter with him - asks what’s in store for the Unsullied and so we get a cool action sequence of the invasion while Tyrion narrates what will happen, noting that Casterly Rock has a sewer system that allows access into the impenetrable walls of Tyrion’s childhood home - he designed it himself to sneak whores in, back in his younger days. We see the Unsullied army fight their way past the gates while a group led by Grey Worm sneaks in via the sewer system. The Unsullied have soon defeated the Lannister army, but it’s all too easy and there aren’t nearly as many men as they expected. Grey Worm asks a fallen Lannister soldier where everybody else is, and when he looks up, he sees the Unsullied ships have all been set ablaze. Well, crap. That’s twice now that Dany’s plans have been foiled. Maybe she needs better advisors.

And where, indeed, have all the Lannister soldiers gone? We see the giant army advancing to High Garden, home of the Tyrell family - also the richest family in Westeros. And leading them are Jaime Lannister along with Randyll Tarly and his son, Dickon. Ugh, sell-outs! Lady Olenna watches from her room as her home is besieged. She knows what comes next. And Cersei has indeed fulfilled her promise to the Iron Bank as her army seizes all that Tyrell gold.

Once the battle is over, Jaime is in Lady Olenna’s room. The old lady is seated at a table, resigned to her fate. She asks how she’ll be killed and Jaime tells her he talked Cersei out of the more violent options she had entertained, and that it’ll be a painless death by poison. He pours a vial into her glass, and Lady Olenna swigs it down like a champ. As soon as she has ingested the poison she reveals that it was she who poisoned King Joffrey at his wedding. Jaime’s face is aghast and Lady Olenna tells him she wants Cersei to know it was her. Ya gotta hand it to Olenna, sticking it to Cersei one last time.

Day-um! And there we have it. Nearly halfway through the season and sh*t be going down! I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. Pretty disapointed for Dany that her advisors couldn’t have thought that Cersei would anticipate the Casterly Rock attack and send the majority of her men to fight the Tyrells. But it certainly raises the stakes, now that things aren’t looking so easy for Dany and she’s on her own again. She’d better start making new friends quickly. Seeing how things turned out for the Martells and Tyrells, however, my guess is that not too many houses will want to cross the reigning queen

Ok, time for a little chit chat and some theories. There are so many questions I have: Will Jon find out about his true heritage while he’s still at Dragonstone? If so, where does that put him in the line of succession? Does the bastard son of Rhaegar outrank the legitimate daughter as heir to the throne? Not that Jon would want to be king… Is Arya going to make it to Winterfell? I really want to see her wind up killing Cersei while wearing a Jaime face. When will The Hound and his co-horts meet up with the rest of the players in the North? Surely having some Lord of Light believers will help their cause, but what are they gonna do - pray the snow away? Will Cersei ever get tired of winning so much? I figure her next move has gotta be to hit Dragonstone whilst ambushing the Unsullied army on their way back from Casterly Rock…oh the possibilities! I hope Jon and Dany can come to an agreement on an alliance swiftly. And will Cersei ever be asked to join the fight against the Whitewalkers? It certainly would be in her best interest, though I’m sure any help she offers will be the kind that puts her in aprime position to continue ruling the seven kingdoms once/if the army of dead is defeated.

I definitely want more Bran visions. I have a half-baked theory that the old three-eyed-raven who lived in the tree is an older version of Bran and he is caught in some crazy time loop. And there are rumors flying around the interwebs that Tyrion is actually also a Targaryen (some believe the Mad King had the hots for Tyrion’s mom, so maybe he raped her? It would explain why Tywin hated him so much). If so, perhaps we’ll end up seeing Dany, Jon and Tyrion each mounting a dragon and laying waste to the Whitewalkers. Who knows, maybe Cersei will even throw in some dragon fire for their cause - I’m sure she held onto a few barrels.

Ok, that’s enough with my musings for now. Until next week, my dears. And if you happen to see the new Qyburn lipstick collection at your local department store beauty counter, may I suggest the new “Drop Dead Gorgeous” shade? I hear it’s to die for.

#GOTrecaps #the queen's justice #Game of Thrones #GameOfThrones #Season7 #Tyrell #Lannister #Littlefinger #Dragonstone #Danerys #Targaryen #Jorah

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kraft94dinner-blog · 5 years

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The Passage

In 2009, I came across the first chapter of Justin Cronin’s trilogy. After reading the first couple pages, I could not put it down. The writing was moving and pulled me into the world of Amy Bellafonte and Agent Brad Wolgast. It soon became my favorite book. But with that being said, I never finished the second book. Things happen in life and I get easily distracted. All three books sit on my bookshelf collecting dust. Until, by complete accident, I was scrolling through popular shows looking for my next binge session and stopped at a show with the same title as a book I once loved. As I read the synopsis, memories of the characters I fell in love with and the chapters I felt I lived through myself came rushing back to me. As soon as I realized that this show was based on the same book I came across all those years ago, I knew I had to watch it. Call it fate, if you will. But for anybody who has watched something based off of a book they loved, you know to never have high expectations. The movie/show is never as good as the book. It’s a sad but true fact of life.

I sat for a few moments rereading the synopsis, trying to decide if it was worth it. Will the show ruin the book for me? Will I be devastated as they tear apart the characters, the back stories, the feelings I felt as I read it? Will it be worth it? I did what every person does in this situation. I googled it. I IMDB’d it. I researched it. Only some light research though. I didn’t want to ruin it before I even started it. And what I found drew me to the conclusion that I needed to try this show.

So I did. But before I start discussing my thoughts and opinions on the story, let me explain what I was getting myself into.

Spoilers.

First, the book. Justin Cronin weaves a tale of a young girl named Amy Bellafonte, who lived a sad and lonely life even before the events that unfold. Her mother is a sad waitress waiting for the life she always dreamed of when a man enters her restaurant. He is the epitome of her prince charming. His actions and words seduce her instantly and they spend the few days he is in town together. And then he is gone, just as fast as he appeared. Leaving the pretty young waitress to go back to his family, not knowing he had started another one. The waitress raised young Amy and eventually, the man came back. Same old story you hear. He was different. He stayed. He became angry. Violent. And then he left. Amy was raised by her mother, moving from hotel room to hotel room while her mother did everything she could to make money. Anything. Until one night, looking to make a buck, the waitress gets picked up by a young frat boy. She finds herself in a dangerous situation as most women do when they live such a dark life. To protect herself, she ends up shooting the frat boy with a pistol she keeps on her for such occasions. She runs. Knowing they will find her, she leaves Amy with a nice nun by the name of Lacey that she finds at a convent. And then she disappears.

Jump to a different story. The story of an agent by the name of Brad Wolgast. Serving his country by doing a sketchy job. He visits prisons and speaks with death row inmates that are assigned to him. He is on number twelve at this time. An inmate named Anthony Carter. The man is a little slow. Uneducated and of color. He mowed the lawn for a nice lady who gave him iced tea. An accident happens and the nice lady ends up in a pool with lungs full of water. The man is innocent. We know that and even Brad Wolgast suspects. But that doesn’t matter. He came to do a job. He pitches Mr. Carter a deal. To live and maybe save lives. Who would turn that down? Number twelve is secured and Brad receives his next assignment. A young girl who was abandoned and has no family. The perfect candidate for the governments project.

This is where things get confusing. The Passage is full of many different characters and their stories. It jumps from time line to time line. Explaining the story of how Brad finds Amy but realizes he is doing something wrong so he goes rogue and tries to save her. You read Brad’s back story of how he had a young daughter who died and it ruined his life and his marriage, how Amy is his salvation. You read about Mr. Carter’s change and the experiments happening to death row inmates. You read about the scientist who finds a virus in South America that could cure any disease but instead causes a new species of vampires that all started with twelve death row inmates. You read about Amy’s unfortunate tale of trying to escape the government and failing, getting infected with the virus and becoming a super human that is separate from the monsters they created, better than what was created. You read about the destruction of the world that has been laid out in front of you. And while you read this horrific tale, the author is also leading you on a different journey, one completely created by what you are reading. Chapters jump from the origin of the virus, to the what the world has become years after it is created. 93 years after the virus was released, what is left of humanity is trying to survive in colonies. One of these colonies stumble across a young girl who is both vampire and not. Amy helps them discover how to destroy the creatures completely and eradicate the virus. And so begins the rest of the journey.

Seeing as I haven’t read books two and three, I am not sure what happens after they start their journey. But you can bet I will be reading the trilogy now to finish the story.

Now, the show. Most people do not like when a show differs from the book it is based on. But I prefer it. Yes, I like to see the book come to life and see another persons view on everything I had seen in my own mind. But I like being surprised. This is why I have a hard time with Game of Thrones. If a show follows the books so precisely, it gets boring. And you can no longer enjoy either again.

The changes made in The Passage was exactly what was needed to pull me into the show. Of course, there were things I didn’t like or I was unsure of. I think the only thing that really pissed me off about the show was Amy’s mother and her back story. My favorite chapter in the book was the one explaining what happens to the waitress and the frat boy. The writing was never better than those few pages. In the show, Amy doesn’t have a back story. She starts in a restaurant, betting on arm wrestling matches with some of the town children. And of course winning. She goes back to the hotel late at night to find an ambulance and her mother who had died from an overdose after having a fight with Amy.

Mostly, they kept to the book. But they kept it flowing instead of jumping back and forth from the future and now. They told you the origin first which I liked. Agent Brad Wolgast was exactly what I imagined and I was happy to find that I recognized the actor. I couldn’t place him so of course I looked him up. It was none other than Zack Morris from Saved By The Bell. He grew up. Quite nicely if I can be so crass. With this pleasant surprise came another one. Henry Ian Cusick. I am a fan of his work in The 100 and Lost. So to find him playing the scientist who started it all was amazing. Another pleasant surprise was the character, Lacey. As I progressed in the show, I started to assume her character was nonexistent. There was no convent. No nuns. Lacey’s character in the book was very important. She helped Amy and Brad along the way. She was a big part of their escape from the facility after the virus broke out. It would have been a loss if they had not included her. So when she appeared as an ex-nun and former military companion of Agent Brad Wolgast, I was overjoyed. She was badass and a little paranoid. Her role was small in the first season but she held promise for the next season. She teams up with the scientist, saving him from committing suicide after he realized he had doomed the world. They portrayed her as his savior and friend who will force him to correct the wrong he had created.

Another change that I am still unsure of was Babcock. This character in the book was one of the twelve. He was suppose to be big and mean and most importantly, male. Introducing Shauna Babcock in the show. Blonde. Beautiful. In love with the head of security. Her connection with Clark Richards (security dude and best friend to the agent) is inspiring seeing as she is a blood sucking monster in his eyes. But watching her penetrate his mind, toy with his emotions, and control his actions was perfect. I am unsure of how they will build on her character but the Babcock in the book was the first of the twelve to die and the reason the survivors realize that if they kill one of the twelve, they kill every single monster they created and the monsters their monsters created and so on.

I think the most astonishing thing for me in the show was how they will keep some of the characters. In the book, everyone you meet from the origin dies except Amy of course. But in the show, they find a cure. Although it isn’t really a cure. It turns those bitten into something different. Agent Brad Wolgast receives a treatment by Amy after he is bitten in the mountains after their escape. The agents wife, Lila, gets treatment when she is bitten in the facility the night the twelve escape. And the scientist injects himself with it instead of creating human experiments again, because we know how well that went the first time. I’m not sure what will happen to him because he wasn’t bitten first but I am excited to find out. And one of the most interesting of all of them was Clark Richards. Throughout the season, when Babcock visits Richards through telepathy (oh yeah, they can do that), she hints at the fact that each of the twelve gets one person. They do not give you any other information other than that. Until the last couple of episodes. Richards gets bitten during the escape and you are sure he is going to die. But Babcock is there, watching over him and entering his mind. She tells him that if he says yes to her, he can stay alive, that he will be her person. She explains that he will be normal other than the fact that he will live forever. He obviously says yes and lives, trying to put Babcock on a diet and control her. He doesn’t realize that she will always control him.

The ending of the first season was exactly what I expected with one small detail that surprised me. 97 years later ( not 93 but same dif), the world has died and those who have survived are in a colony. Amy narrates her letter to the agent after she left him. Her voice over follows the future Amy as she approaches the colony, speaking of how she knows he is alive and she is going to find him, find her family.

I give this show two thumbs up and highly recommend it to those who enjoy vampire horror/thriller. After reading many reviews online from those who read the book and those who haven’t, I noticed a trend of dislike among those who did read Justin Cronin’s trilogy. I hope this review will help those who are unsure if it’s worth it. But for those who have not read the book, I recommend trying both.

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akbroadway · 7 years

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Yo, my pal, can you just like,,,dump some headcanons on me?? Like, for my boy Crutchie or my angst master Jack, or JackCrutchie or like,,,anything? Thanks you very very much and have a lovely night

ummmm this is one of the best asks I’ve ever received thank you @crunchie-morris!!!

-Okay so there’s no doubt in my mind that Crunchie Crutchie has the biggest crush EVER and it’s been going on for like, years. It started about a year or so after he got to the lodging house and it wasn’t even for any particular reason. one day Jack just ruffled his hair as he passed him on the stairs and Crutchie was like well.... looks like im done for. He has no plans to tell Jack or do anything about it because he knows jack cares about him as a friend and doesn’t want to ruin that.

-alright also we know that jack has been in and out of the refuge a few times and some of that must’ve happened when Crutchie was around and i just feel like a lot of crutchie’s ideas about “if they think i can’t handle myself they’ll lock me up in the refuge for good” come from a recently escaped and very upset Jack making Crutchie promise not to get himself in trouble because he can’t stand the thought of Crutchie going to the refuge. it’s in canon that Jack literally got sent there for LOITERING. He is probably super concerned that something like that could happen to his best friend who he is already protective of. He’s just trying to be absolutely sure nothing bad happens to Crutchie but it also, unfortunately, makes Crutchie a little paranoid. Crutchie sees how messed up jack is when it comes to the refuge and he a) doesn’t want that to happen to himself but also b) doesn’t ever want Jack to be worried about him to that level so he is always first out the door and always respectful to Wiesel and always keeping his head down around the cops

-On a lighter note, they like to snuggle all the time. Like, huge snugglers. And it’s not even always a romantic thing it’s just how they’ve always been. I headcanon that they shared a bunk when they were smaller but still sometimes do if it’s cold outside or if one of them has a nightmare or something. This is if they’re not on the roof, of course.

-ALSO i like the idea that before they’re friends, maybe Crutchie, the new kid, is getting all this attention because he’s really nice, always wants to play, and has everyone convinced he can predict the weather with his bad leg, and Jack is so jealous about temporarily not being the favorite anymore. So Jack thinks they have this rivalry going on, but when they start talking, all of that immediately goes away because dammit Crutchie is really nice and he lets Jack win at marbles the first time they play.

-Jack still wanting to leave at the end of the strike absolutely tears Crutchie to shreds because 1) He JUST got out of the refuge (and it’s lowkey Jack’s fault that he was there in the first place but whatever) 2) Jack TOLD HIM that they should go together and yet now he’s being wishy washy umm OK jack 3) he only changes his mind because of Katherine and oh boy Crutchie is really trying not to let it get to him because he KNOWS that he never really had a chance anyway and he knows that she makes Jack happy and heck, he likes Katherine, but it’s really hard to be happy about the fact that he wasn’t enough reason for Jack to want to stay in New York when he would literally uproot his entire life to follow Jack out west if he was asked.

lol i wrote a novel and also this got pretty angsty so im sorry. anyway i hope this is at least a little what you were hoping for?? I love these boys.

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funface2 · 5 years

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Chris Morris Finds the FBI, Sadly, Very Funny – Vulture

The Brass Eye creator reinvented himself as a movie director with Four Lions. It only took him nine years to give us a second film. Photo: Courtesy of IFC Films

Chris Morris, the 57-year-old English writer, comedian, and director, is both revered and reviled. He came up angering the masses with his breakneck parodies of news media, The Day Today (co-created by Armando Iannucci) and Brass Eye, programs that predated Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show. Arguably more radical and surreal than their various spawn, the satirical shows allowed for Morris to, for example, trick members of Parliament into somberly weighing in on a nonexistent Czechoslovakian drug called Cake. On an infamous one-off edition of Brass Eye, 2001’s “Paedogeddon!” special, he tackled moral panic around pedophilia by duping Phil Collins, among other celebrities, into supporting a fake charity, Nonce Sense. (If you’re familiar with British slang, you get it.) Channel 4 reportedly received 2,000 complaints after it aired.

In 2010, Morris reinvented himself as a movie director with Four Lions, a tightrope act of a comedy about a pack of bungling would-be jihadists, starring a young Riz Ahmed. The film prompted critic Andrew Pulven to declare in the Guardian, “Chris Morris is still the most incendiary figure working in the British entertainment industry.” Nearly a decade later, Morris is back with his follow-up, The Day Shall Come, a movie he once again co-wrote with Succession creator Jesse Armstrong. Like Four Lions, it’s a tricky attempt at getting laughs out of impossibly dark subject matter. The topic is ginned-up FBI stings in which hapless nobodies get reinvented as terror masterminds. The stories are manifold and depressingly familiar: an FBI informant finds a susceptible target with extreme leanings and offers money, encouragement, and weapons — and, eventually, the FBI has an alleged massive terror-plot bust to crow about. In The Day Shall Come, newcomer Marchánt Davis plays Moses Al Shabaz, a lovable dummy and would-be revolutionary who gets manipulated by Anna Kendrick’s ambitious, conflicted FBI agent. (Her read on Moses: “He’s got the threat signature of a hot dog.”) As Morris explained in our conversation ahead of the film’s release, “You have the Department of Justice behaving like gods — like rather paranoid gods. They’re playing with people that they don’t understand but that they can manipulate.”

The Day Shall Come is billed as being based on “a hundred true stories.” Was there one, in particular, that inspired you? Very much so, yes. I was just watching the news on British TV, and the story came up that the FBI had arrested an army launching a full-scale ground war from a warehouse in Miami. I didn’t realize then it was the origin of a film, but three years later I ran into [former CIA operations officer and terror expert] Marc Sageman, who was a witness at the trial. He said, “Remember that full-scale ground war in Miami? It was actually going to be seven guys on horses. But they didn’t even have horses.” It turned out an FBI informant was offering $50,000 for them to come up with a plan against the government. Their first plan was to lead a protest to the governor’s house in Miami against conditions in the projects. And the informant said, “Well, you’re not gonna get much money for that, so you need to think bigger.” And they basically riffed their way into a ludicrous plot to knock over the Sears Tower, which they claimed they could do even though they had no idea how, and which they claimed would cause a tidal wave which would swamp Chicago. Then they said that the waters would subside and they would ride into town on horses because they said people respect a man on a horse.

So this was what was presented through a news bulletin as a bigger threat to the United States than 9/11. By the [former] attorney general, by the way! [Alberto] Gonzales. That’s how he described it. I just thought, “Right, that’s some great lie. And I now want to get to the bottom of this.” I was further drawn in by the fact that this was a pattern by which the FBI comes up with a terrorist plot and then tries to get someone to try and carry it out.

Before making Four Lions, you spent years researching jihadism. Was it a similar research process this time? Only in that you’re following something to find out more. But in all other respects, there were very few similarities. This is a story about law enforcement setting up a fake world and leading someone into it, creating a sort of Truman Show–type environment. The research then took me to a lot of places that were strange to me. I’ve never been in an FBI building before, I’ve never spoken to people in the Department of Justice or been around any American city police stations. I hadn’t been to Detroit, Dearborn, Chicago, where some of these cases had been perpetrated on people. It was a series of very interesting, exciting acquaintances with the unknown.

If you’re trying to write a character like Moses, you’re trying to create a fringe preacher, someone who has come up with their own ideology which represents a transcendent narrative to people who are living in an area which is pretty downtrodden. And in order to do that you have to understand the still-ongoing segregation that happens. We came across a bridge across a canal in Miami which separated two neighborhoods. The kids in the poorer neighborhood went to school in the better-off neighborhood across this bridge on the canal, but there was a dirty, great big steel door in the middle of the bridge and these kids were only allowed to walk to school with a police escort. Then at the end of the school day they were sort of ushered through back to the poorer neighborhood, and the steel door was slammed shut. You see that, and then you can start to write within the confines that the real world has set out for you.

Chris Morris in Brass Eye. Photo: Channel 4 Television Corporation

What was it like seeing things from the FBI’s perspective? There are on-the-record conversations where a glimmer of conscience appears. There’s an agent who [accidentally] left their recording on after when they’d been to visit a target, and once that recording is left on it has to be available to the court in a trial. So there was a brief moment, before the judge overruled [it as evidence], when this recording was around, and you can hear the agent coming back to the office saying, “Great, this guy is such an idiot, and is so poor, we’re not even going to need to offer him $50 to do something! We’re definitely on to something here!” And somebody else, another voice, says, “Yeah, but should we really be targeting this kind of person?” And there’s a bit of a pause and then somebody else says, “Yeah, we should.”

The FBI has been historically known to open files on musicians, writers, and all sorts of private citizens. Do you think they might have a file open on you now? If I say no, it’ll give someone who has got a file open on me a laugh. Who knows.

What kind of sway does being a U.K. comedy legend get you in the U.S. moviemaking system? [Dry British chuckle] Well, it varies. It’s certainly not the first part of the conversation.

I’m curious about your development over the years. Your movies — while impressively lacking any glint of a happy ending — very much are trying to tell empathetic human stories. Brass Eye, though, was almost nihilistic. It was, like, punk. Oh, you prefer the happy ending of a punk attack?! Well, you know, those things are reactions. They’re glorified spasms, aren’t they? If you’re doing satirical commentary on the fabric of news presentations, or on how politics is mediated through the news, or on how celebrities stand for things they don’t understand, you’re just trying to detonate the same membrane that’s giving you this crap. You’re just trying to ruin the fabric. It’s like a grenade attack. It is a series of spasms which you make as jokes.

When you’re doing it, you’re basically setting yourself impossible tasks. You go, “Right, there’s no way we can get away with this, it’s impossible … so let’s try it.” And then you discover, “Oh my God, we got away with that.” There’s an internal logic. It’s not just the end that’s driving you forward. It’s your personal investment. Your testing of your own presumptions and basic discoveries of human psychology. Once you’ve discovered that, you’d be mad to carry on doing it. God, it would be so dispiriting. You’d be going [clicks into quiet, jaded voice], “Yeah, yeah, I go into this situation, I write this, I get that person to say this, and we’d end up with [long harrumph] another funny thing.” It would be awful!

Moses Al Shabaz in The Day Shall Come. Photo: IFC Films

A common observation about the pretty insane Brass Eye is that it wouldn’t look all that insane held up next to something like current-day Fox News. That, in a way, your fake news predicted the tenor of today’s real news. I’m … I’m pretty skeptical. I think it’s a quite superficial. In the time when I was satirizing the fabric of the media, the media took itself seriously, in that sort of universal voice. And since that time, that universal voice, and indeed the degree that people feel the news has a right to take itself seriously, has diminished. So there’s not an authority to undermine. People, you could say, they go around undermining their own authority now.

And politicians, if you are going to get them to campaign for something that doesn’t exist, you have to get them to talk unbelievable rubbish. I mean, really. I don’t mean just something you can’t believe but mind-blowingly stupid rubbish in order for it to be funny enough to put in a program.

It does feel like politicians lean into the shameless these days. You have to go so much farther for something to feel ridiculous. The shamelessness is a strongman political tactic now. But I don’t think it’s a very good long-term game, do you? It’s disorientating because someone is offending the social codes. And in those circumstances, whether it’s amongst your own social group or amongst what is perceived to be the right way for politicians to behave, you can steal a certain amount of territory by doing that. You disarm the room, or the country, or the opposition by doing that, by simply not owning it as a problem. And [Trump] does just sort of drop a turd and move on and drop a turd and move on. It’s a disruptive tactic until people realize quite how basic the tactic is.

You and Charlie Brooker together came up with the idea for the the Black Mirror episode “The Waldo Moment,” in which a comedian playing a CGI bear becomes a rising political star. Waldo’s success comes from just being funny and awful, all the time. That’s another bit of content that could be said to foreshadow our current moment. I’m not suuure. It’s the idea of being in character. As long as you’re in character, you can get away with anything. So as an evasion tactic, it’s pretty good. But I don’t think we thought, “Errhmm, the way things are going, there’s gonna be a populist uprising and an appeal to the lowest common denominator, and an appeal to people’s gut feelings without bothering about arguments or rigor or any of those processes which you expect from politicians” — I don’t think we saw all that. We probably just saw that childishness worked.

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sjohnson24 · 5 years

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Paranormal Disturbance in Oak Park

Date to be there: January 5, 2019 / Time to be there: 2pm. Address to be at: xxxxxxxxxx Sacramento, CA. Occupant: Ms X. Confidential Investigation. Activity: Daughter being attacked by a demonic force. Daughter sees man in hallway, the man is a dark shadow. The man tells her to hurt herself and tells her many terrible things. Emergency investigation.

Deanna Jaxine Stinson – HPI Co-Owner and Psychic Medium did a walk through. Deanna felt a feeling of sadness. Deanna felt that the daughter that the demonic force is focused on is an empath and there may be another entity trying to relay a message to her. As an empath she is a beacon of light that esoteric entities are attracted to. As an empath a demonic force may be utilizing her energy for its own dark agenda. Later on in the investigation Deanna picked up on a side bed by the bedroom window. Deanna felt that whoever sleeps on that side bed may be receiving nightmares or vivid dreams. Deanna felt we could capture an EVP at this location. We tried a few EVP sessions, no luck, so we decided to go outside of the bedroom window, because Deanna still felt there was something there. I managed to obtain an EVP of a man saying: “what do you want me to say?” Very clear EVP, Class A. Deanna and I, believe there is portal in this area. Oak Park is very old and has a lot of history, some of that history is very negative, such as murders.

Some Negative History in Oak Park In fact the Oak Park Rapist aka Marcus Thomas roamed this area. He is the brother of Miami Vice star Philip Michael Thomas and is serving a 27 year sentence at California Soledad Prison. The fear, pain and horror that the Oak Park Rapist caused, lingers in the atmosphere as residual negative energy. Another monster was the Homicidal Handyman of Oak Park aka Morris Solomon Jr. He was your local serial killer. Deanna picked up on the name Daniel who was addicted to alcohol that was haunting this family. She saw that he wore a 80s style black leather jacket and hung outside close to the bedroom window. Deanna did some research and she did indeed find a Daniel, who was an alcoholic and drug addict. This Daniel died in 2007.

We learned that the daughter is also cutting herself, because the demonic entity is telling her to hurt herself. Deanna felt strong negative energy in the bathroom and then it dawned on us, that the daughter may be cutting herself in the bathroom. We suggested a full submersion baptism (a basic form of exorcism) to get rid of the attachment and the daughter was adamant not to receive a baptism. Deanna conducted a metaphysical cleansing of this home and I conducted a Roman Catholic house blessing. Since the daughter refused the baptism, the entity most likely is still there and the house blessing is a temporary fix. When we were conducting our investigation, we did obtain a far away sounding “no” EVP.

Below is my true encounter of 2 werewolves..read on…. What is Lycanthropy you may ask? According to The American Journal of Psychiatry Vol. 134, No. 10. published in October 1977 it states:

“Lycanthropy, a psychosis in which the patient has delusions of being a wild animal (usually a wolf), has been recorded since antiquity. The Book of Daniel describes King Nebuchadnezzar as suffering from depression that deteriorated over a seven-year period into a frank psychosis at which time he imagined himself a wolf. Among the first medical descriptions were those of Paulus Aegineta during the later days of the Roman Empire. In his description of the symptom complex, Aegineta made reference to Greek mythology in which Zeus turned King Lycaon of Arcadia into a raging wolf. Thereafter, references to lycanthropy appeared in the ancient literature. Many medieval theologians envisioned lycanthropy as a consequence of the evil eye.Delusions of being a wolf or some other feared animal are universal and, although rare in the industrialized countries, still occur in China, India, Africa, and Central and South America. The animals in the delusioned transformation include leopards, lions, elephants, crocodiles, sharks, buffalo, eagles, and serpents.Not infrequently, bizarre and chaotic sexuality is expressed in a primitive way through the lycanthropic symptom complex. Patients whose internal fears exceed their coping mechanisms may externalize them via projection and constitute a serious threat to others. Throughout the ages, such individuals have been feared because of their tendencies to commit bestial acts and were themselves hunted and killed by the populace. Many of these people were paranoid schizophrenics.”

Thoughts of werewolf movies may come to your mind from: The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Blood, Bad Moon, The Curse of the Werewolf, Death Moon, Face of the Screaming Werewolf, Teen Wolf, The Wolfman, Project: Metal Beast – DNA Overlord and Ginger Snaps. But, we’re not here to talk about good werewolf horror movies, we are here to talk about two real werewolves! Lolita Moonshadow and Katrina Kanine!

I get a call from Lolita Moonshadow and Katrina Kanine. They are self-proclaimed werewolves. What the? Okay Lolita and Katrina, where can I meet you at? We first met at the Avid Reader at Broadway and crossed the street over to Starbucks for a refreshing frappachino. Lolita and Katrina are cousins, they claim to be of Romanian descent. They claim to have a long history of werewolves in their family. I asked them, how do you know you are werewolves, besides the Romanian descent and thinking your family members are werewolves? They said they both crave raw meat. When a dog, cat or a rabbit crosses their paths, they have the urge to ‘chase’. They feel domination over men, physically and mentally. When the full moon rises, they feel the urge to hunt. They must suppress their dark desires. They said they have a lot of dark desires within their inner souls.

I asked them to elaborate on their dark desires and they asked me if I ever saw An American Werewolf in London and they left it at that. I pondered…do they have the desire to kill? They both feel they have a chemical imbalance during a full moon, but feel they have everything under control. They both showed me their unusual long canines. I don’t know if they were unusually long, or if they stood out more. They said that during a full moon, they get more hair on their arms and legs. They said that they have a keen sense of smell and after they get used to my smell, they would be able to sniff me out a block away.

Katrina took my arm and dug in a bit with her fingernails and looked at me and said…”Paul, I have a hunger!” Okay, okay, just as long as it is not me! We discussed if silver bullets can kill werewolves and they said that a real werewolf can be killed by any bullet, that is a myth. They told me that their eyesight changes over to seeing everything in black and white during a full moon, they feel greater strength and are quite agile. They claim that if they are with their boyfriends during a full moon, their sexual desires are greatly heightened and their boyfriends are not able to handle their wild frenzy. They describe it as throwing a bull carcass in the Amazon river and watching piranhas go into a feeding frenzy. They said that their love life had dwindled, when anytime their lovers discovered the true essence of their beings. They said that last week, their boyfriends left them and they are single again.

At this point of time, I noticed a bead of sweat dripping from my brow. I knew I better end this interview as quickly as I started it. I noticed that Lolita had purchased a werewolf book from Avid Reader. Yes! These girls were truly into lycanthropy. Before, I left, we discussed werewolf sightings in Placerville and the Sierras. They said, that at times they feel a calling for the Sierras to find their brethren. What is so unusual, after I met them, I have been contacted by another werewolf girl in Fremont and I plan to interview her too. She claims that there are werewolf sightings in Antioch. She has a very interesting story to tell also! When I stood up from Starbucks, both were eyeing me strangely and both stood around me, as if they were blocking me from the entrance. Lolita grabbed my shoulder and said…”Paul, remember one thing, doctor up our photo, we do not want to be identified for this article and make sure not to identify us in anyway in this article. We know where you live!” I looked back at Lolita and Katrina and said…”sure, no problem, no problem at all!”

As I left Starbucks, I thought how safer it would be to just hunt ghosts, they don’t make threats! Before I close this article, I met Tanya Filer, a clerk at my local Bel-Air and she told me about an abandoned house in Elk Grove that she wants me to investigate. The house has been abandoned for 7 years, because no one will purchase the home, its reputed to be haunted. The story goes that a builder of the house, killed himself with a nail gun. People who have entered the home, claim that the phantom builder looks at them and is holding a nail gun in his hand. Okay, Tanya, where is this house? I am willing and ready to investigate! As I rode home tonight on the lightrail, Julie Surjan a good friend of mine, who knows I am a ghost hunter, had me all hooked on her story. She said, that a strange thing happened to her last night. She was watching TV and saw something at the corner of her eye, it was dark and black. I asked…”was it a shadow person?” She looks at me and laughs…”no, it was a black widow spider! I had the hardest time killing the thing!”

Videos from the Investigation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfA50f9OnAc&feature=youtu.bewww.youtube.com/watch?v=JBZpzzutlOE&feature=youtu.be www.youtube.com/watch?v=sItJfYN3-ng&feature=youtu.be www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q5-cWVm3nk&feature=youtu.be

By Paul Dale Roberts, HPI’s Esoteric Detective Halo Paranormal Investigations Sacramento Paranormal Help www.facebook.com/HaloParanormalInvestigations/

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