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#would like go on about how star wars was loosely based on ww2 and like omfg i think every day lately about how dumb so many ppl are that
sheerioswifties · 3 years
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Good morning everyone!
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marvelstarwarsetc · 3 years
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I’ll Be Seeing You - B. Barnes
Summary: In which the reader was in WW2 with Steve and Bucky, and she and Steve realize that Bucky is still alive during the fight on the bridge. 
Warnings: Fight scenes, Angst.
A/N: I am absolutely terrible at summaries but this has been floating around in my head for so long and I finally finished writing it. I set it up so that there could be a Part 2 if people like it enough and want me to write one. I could definitely turn this into a series if I was motivated enough to do so lol.
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A ghost. That’s how Natasha had described him at the hospital, with a look of fear in her eyes that was rarely ever present on the former assassin.
Ghost was certainly a perfect way to describe him. He came out of nowhere, striking hard and fast, aiming to kill. 
His face was completely concealed under a mask and a pair of black goggles, dark hair hanging loosely around his face. He wore a black tactical suit, the left sleeve missing in order to showcase a metal arm with a red star painted amongst the silver plates. 
It was clear he had some form of the super soldier serum running through his veins, his strength and agility close to if not beating that of mine and Steve’s. He was a skilled fighter, each of his fluid movements calculated and thoroughly thought through. Each blow Steve and I dealt was dodged expertly, the assassin known as The Winter Soldier never missing a beat. Had it not been for the fact he was trying to kill us I would almost be in awe of the way he moved.
As my back collided with yet another parked car I sighed, taking the brief moment Steve had allowed me when he started another assault on the soldier to refill my lungs with the air that was just knocked out of me. Then I was back in it, striking the soldier from behind, in time with Steve’s blows at the front.
But the soldier was good, he was fast, and not nearly enough of my hits were actually landing. If they were ever landing at all. 
It was when he turned to face me that I finally got the upper hand, using the momentum from his turn against him, I slammed my fist into the side of his head. The force was enough to send him stumbling back a few steps, and it caused his goggles to drop to the ground. His eyes met mine with a murderous glare and I felt my body still completely, my own eyes widening in both horror and recognition.  
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I knew those eyes. A stormy mixture of blues and greys, colder than I had last seen them. But I knew them. I knew those eyes a lifetime ago, stared into them more times than I could count. Watched various emotions pass through them the longer I knew the person those eyes belonged to. They held little to no emotion now, just pure anger. A pain resting so deeply in his stare that you’d miss it if you didn’t know the person those eyes belonged to. But I did. I knew those eyes, and they held no recognition as they regarded my own covered face. 
I wore the mask to help keep my private life private. To separate the Avenger from the person. It was bad enough when someone recognized me from the exhibit at the Smithsonian and had more questions than I had answers. The tech Tony had installed in the mask was also an added bonus, the assistance of Jarvis more than welcome in a fight. But right now, the mask felt like a mistake. 
It felt like a barrier between me and the man who fell from that train all those years ago.  
He had been dead for about 70 years. Him standing here in front of me was nearly impossible. But then again, Steve and I were both meant to be dead ourselves, and we both were standing here fighting with him now. He regarded me curiously, no doubt wondering why I had stopped fighting back, those familiar eyes taking in my relaxed stance and my arms hanging limply by my sides. He threw another punch and I could hear Jarvis’ voice in my ear reminding me that the fight wasn’t over yet and offering assistance if I needed it. I could hear Steve yelling in the background, voicing his concerns on why I was no longer fighting back. Steve was begging me to continue fighting back. But Steve hadn’t seen his eyes yet. He didn’t know.
The hits kept coming and as hard as Steve tried to fight him off of me, as loud as Steve’s shouts got for me to fight back. I couldn’t. The memories of eyes filled with hope and longing paralyzing me as my body hit the ground. 
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I was running late, as usual. The briefing with Captain Rogers and the rest of the Howling Commandos once again running later than expected. We were meant to be going over the schematics of our mission for the next day, but everyone kept getting distracted by the news of the band the army was bringing in for tonight. An effort to raise the troops’ spirits. It was what everyone on the base was discussing, each of the soldiers trying to find a date for the night’s festivities. Peggy and I had already turned down several invitations from various desperate soldiers.
 Every time Steve tried to bring the attention back to the mission, Dum Dum would bring up whether or not Steve planned on asking Peggy to be his date for tonight, and all of the guys would tease the captain as he blushed helplessly. 
It was inevitable that he would ask her, that much was clear. But the guys just loved to ruffle our captain’s feathers, which would have been fine if I wasn’t meant to meet with Peggy and Howard an hour ago about about some new weapons for the mission tomorrow.
Seemingly noticing the annoyance on my face Steve’s turned to a look of recognition and he apologized for keeping me from my meeting with Peg and Stark, and dismissed me from the briefing. 
I was about halfway to my destination when a familiar voice called out after me, stopping me in my tracks and causing me to roll my eyes in mock annoyance at the pet name he refused to stop using.
“Hey, Doll! Wait up!” Turning, I watched as Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes jogged towards me with a leather bound book gripped tightly in his left hand. My journal, I recognized.
“Don’t call me that,” I said softly, for what felt like the millionth time since we had met at that gym in our home town of Brooklyn all those years ago. He smiled at me, a mischievous glint in his eye since we were both more than aware he would only continue to call me that.
“You left this on the table, you were in such a hurry that you must’ve forgotten it.”
I take it from him with a small smile and a quiet thank you, and then continue to walk towards where I knew Peggy was waiting for me. No doubt thinking of all the ways she was about to murder me for being so late. I expected Bucky to go back to hangout with the other guys, but was surprised when he fell into step beside me, his hands resting in his pants pockets as we walked. 
When the building came into view his left hand reached out and gently gripped onto my right arm, causing me to halt and turn to him. 
He looked at me softly, a longing resting in his blue-grey eyes that I had seen numerous times before. A look that was shared between the two of us more times than I could count.  
“Doll-”
“Don’t call me that.”
A laugh left his nose in a huff as the sides of his mouth raised in a smile, his eyes looking towards the winter sky before looking back to me. 
“Y/N, I actually came looking for you because I wanted to ask ya something.” He started, his voice soft as he continued to look at me with those same eyes that I couldn’t help but feel myself get lost in.
“I thought you came to give me my journal?” Another laugh, and then his eyes once again focused on me.
“I was wondering if you’d be interested in going to see the band tonight?” His voice was nervous, his eyes full of hope and something I couldn’t quite place. I knew what he was asking. I was hoping he wouldn’t.
It’s not that I didn’t want to go with him. In any other scenario I would have said yes in a single heartbeat. However, this wasn’t any other scenario. I was the only woman in the Howling Commandos, the only woman on the front lines in the entire U.S army. Getting them to accept me even after Dr. Erskine gave me the serum was almost impossible. Every day that I am here I have to prove myself. I have to be better, stronger, faster. I didn’t need to show my true feelings for another soldier and have everyone use it as a means to try and get rid of me.
And if that wasn’t enough of a reason there was the obvious one. We were in a war. A war where people died constantly and there was nothing to do but keep fighting. I had already lost my father and three brothers to this war, my twin included. I refused to let myself get close to someone and then lose them too. Losing my twin brother almost killed me. And looking into Bucky’s eyes I knew that losing him would be more than I could handle. 
Still, not being able to find the strength in my heart to turn him down directly I did what I always did. Deflected.
“I fully intend on going to the band tonight,” I stated in a matter of fact tone, my eyes betraying me when I had to look away from his stare. 
“You know how I meant it, Doll.” His voice was soft, yet steady, and his gaze never once faltered as his blue orbs bore into mine.
“Don’t call me that,” I said meekly. My eyes cast completely at our boots in the snow now, not being able to find the strength to look at him any longer. All it did was make me falter in my reserve.  
I heard him sigh, and then he said my name so softly I almost didn’t hear him. The softness in his voice cause my eyes to meet his, and his smile was kind, though it didn’t reach his eyes. 
“At least save me a dance, Doll?” 
I simply nodded my head slowly, words not coming to me in that moment. The way he was looking at me was causing my brain to malfunction, I was sure of it. I couldn’t go as his date, but what was the harm in one dance?
“I’ll see you tonight then, Doll.” 
And then he was gone, leaving me alone with my thoughts before I turned around to see a smirking Peggy standing behind me, her arms crossed over her chest as she looked at me knowingly.
“Alright then, since you’ve managed to skip our meeting almost entirely I don’t see the point in trying to start it now. Stark will just have to explain things to you before your mission tomorrow. Now, we have a dance to go get ready for.” 
I smiled at my friend thankfully, before the two of us made our way to our shared tent to try and find something in her closet to wear tonight.
By the time we finally walked into the large tent the band was playing in, the party was in full swing. Men and women were dancing and laughing gleefully, something that had become a rare sight in recent years. I couldn’t remember the last time I had been to something like this, or even had worn a dress. 
Peggy had leant me a sea green number, with long sleeves and had what Peg called a “floaty A-line skirt” that came to just below my knees. It was possibly the most comfortable dress I had ever worn, which is what made me agree to keep it on even though I much rather would have put my trousers and boots back on. Peg had even done a little makeup on me, and it made me realize that I don’t think I’d ever worn makeup in my life. 
“Y/L/N, You might finally give Barnes a heart attack tonight looking like that.” Dum Dum called from behind me, making me shake my head with a light laugh as I turned to my fellow Howling Commandos. They were all regarding me with curious looks, no doubt wondering how Peg got me to agree to wear this. 
“Forget Barnes, I think I’m having one right now!” Morita clutched at his heart with a dreamy look on his face, causing Dum Dum to hit him on the back of his head with a laugh. I only chuckled at my friends’ antics.
Peggy went off to find Steve, and I found myself getting lost in the crowd searching for a familiar pair of blue eyes. 
Dum Dum must have recognized what I was doing, because he only made a sound of disapproval before taking my hand and leading me over to the dance floor, guiding me in the steps to the dance that everyone here seemed to know but me. 
"I thought you turned him down when he asked you to be his date?” Dum Dum asked me in between steps, and I rolled my eyes softly.
“I suppose I should have guessed he’d go back and tell you all of our conversation.”
“When are you gonna stop pushing him away and realize what everyone else already knows?” My friend asked me softly, knowing it was a touchy subject for me. Dum Dum knew full well why I was so reserved about admitting my feelings for a certain blue-eyed soldier. One night with a bottle of bourbon and the man had me confessing all of my greatest fears to him. 
“Timothy, you know why I don’t.” The use of his first name caused the man to let out an additional sound of disapproval as he led me through the next part of the dance. 
“Aren’t dames supposed to know how to dance? You step on my foot again and I might lose it!” He joked, my hand coming out to swat at his arm. 
“Call me a dame again and you’ll lose more than just your foot!”
Over the course of the next few songs I found myself dancing with each one of the Howling Commandos, excluding Steve, who was dancing with Peg happily. Both wore big smiles, and the sight warmed my heart and made me question myself for a moment. 
Peggy and Steve were clearly in love with one another, and it was clear that they would end up spending the rest of their lives together when this was all over. Their love for one another was so clear that everyone who took one look at them knew it, and no one thought of Peg as any less strong because of it. So why would it be any different for me? 
My thought was cut off when the song ended and the male singer took a break, a woman taking the stage in a beautiful dress, the sparkles making her seemingly shine. The band started a new song, something much slower than the last few. I let go of Jim and thanked him for the dance, before excusing myself and heading for the exit. 
We had an early mission in the morning. An important mission at that. We finally got a good lead on where Zola would be heading next, and were going to board the train and stop him before he could get to his next destination. If this mission was successful and we captured the scientist, it would give us a leg up on The Red Skull. A leg up that could possibly mean an end to this war. 
I had just exited the tent when my body collided with another, nearly knocking me off my feet before a large pair of hands grabbed my forearms and stopped my body from colliding with the snow covered ground. 
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I went to apologize, but stopped when I looked up to see Bucky standing in front of me in his uniform, his hands still lightly grasping my arms. His smile overcame his entire face when he looked at me, and the sheer happiness in his eyes was enough to make my heart swell. 
“All these years and I don’t think I’ve ever seen ya in a dress, Doll.” His tone was playful, yet warm, and in that moment I couldn’t find it within myself to argue with him about that name.
“You’re late.” I informed him softly, his hands now leaving me and causing a cold feeling to fill my body from the loss of contact. Though he didn’t pull away from me, and was still so close I could feel his breath on my face.
“Had some stuff to do before tomorrow, but I made sure to come down to dance with my best girl.” 
Ignoring the fluttering in my chest I took a step away from him, reminding myself of why I couldn’t get close to him.
“I was just leaving-”
“Just one dance, Doll. You promised.” And before I could say anything Bucky took my hand in his, his right hand moving to my waist to hold me delicately, starting to sway us slightly to the new song that was just beginning to play. 
I recognized the song. It was a soft one, with a pretty melody. I think the original singer’s name was Billie Holiday, but the woman on stage sang it just as beautifully. The words reaching something deep inside of me. 
I'll be seeing you In all the old familiar places That this heart of mine embraces All day through  
I wound my free hand around the back of his neck affectionately, bringing the two of us closer than we ever had been before. From this angle I could see every shade that nestled inside of his blue eyes, the colors swirling as he looked at me with that look in his eyes that I still couldn’t place. The look that set my skin on fire every time he looked at me like that.
In that small cafe The park across the way The children's carousel The chestnut trees The wishin' well
“Doll, there’s something that I’ve been wantin’ to tell ya for a while now,” He began. A nervousness setting in his eyes and mixing with that unknown feeling. 
“What is it, Buck?” I asked, my voice in a near whisper. The nighttime air was cold, yet comforting as the soldier held me in his embrace, the band’s song wrapping around us as it floated through the air. 
I'll be seeing you In every lovely summer's day In everything that's light and gay I'll always think of you that way
“You look absolutely stunning tonight, Doll.” He let out in a breath, his nervous eyes still focusing on mine. 
“You’ve been wanting to tell me that I look stunning tonight for a while?” I joked lightly, causing him to laugh. 
“No. Well not no, you do look stunning tonight. So stunning. Absolutely beautiful, not that you’re not beautiful all the time! I think you’re always beautiful, which kind of has to do with what I’ve been trying to tell you-”
I cut him off with a soft whisper of his name, not wanting him to finish his sentence because I didn’t have the strength to hear it and then have to walk away and pretend that I didn’t.
I'll find you In the morning sun And when the night is new I'll be looking at the moon But I'll be seeing you
“Buck, Please don’t.”
“I know that you’re scared, Doll. I know and I understand it, I do. I understand it because every time I look at you, I am so terrified of losing you. I know that things are tricky right now-”
“Things aren’t tricky, Buck! We are in the middle of a war. Either one of us could die at any time. We could die tomorrow, and I can’t lose you. That’s why you can’t finish your sentence, because there’s just too much we could lose if you do.”
“Doll, Y/N. Me not saying it won’t stop either of us from losing the other. Whether I say it now or don’t one of us could still die. And don’t you think it would be so much worse to lose each other without having told each other what we both already know?”
I'll be seeing you In every lovely summer's day In everything that's light and gay I'll always think of you that way
The song continued to play but we had stopped dancing by now, just desperately holding onto each other as Bucky’s words hung in the air.
“You are everything to me, Y/N. My light, my laughter. The reason I get out of bed every morning to face another day of this war is knowing that I get to do it beside you. I look at you and I forget every bad thing that’s happening. I look at you and I’m not in the middle of Siberia fighting a war that we might not win. I look at you and I’m back in Brooklyn, watching the cluelessly beautiful girl sweep around the gym just waiting until everyone leaves so she can start throwing punches at the bag. I look at you, Doll, and I’m home.”
By the end of his confession tears were lining my face, freezing against my skin as the cold Siberian night air brushed against them. His hands let go of me and instead came up to hold my face delicately, his thumbs reaching up to brush the tears away. 
“I love you, Y/N. More than I’ve ever loved anybody else. More than someone can love another person. It fills me completely. Every ounce of my being is you. And I know that you’re scared. And I know that you probably won’t say it back to me because you’re the most stubborn person I have ever met in my life, and that’s okay. It’s okay if you can’t say it back right now. It’s okay because I know that you love me too, even if you can’t say it.” 
He finally ends his confession with a lingering kiss to my forehead, pouring so much love into that one simple gesture, and then he lets me go. He gives me one last smile before telling me he’ll see me tomorrow, and turns back towards his tent.
I'll find you In the morning sun And when the night is new I'll be looking at the moon But I'll be seeing you
I’m shocked back to reality when this version of Bucky’s fist lands a hit so hard to my face that the metal of my mask cracks, finally making me have to take it off to avoid it slicing into my skin further. 
The second the mask leaves my face his assaults stops coming. When I open my eyes he isn’t the winter soldier anymore. The look in his eyes is a mixture of hurt, anger, confusion, recognition, and that look I haven’t seen in nearly seventy years.
It’s clear that whatever Hydra’s done to him had jumbled his mind. If they hadn’t, he would have recognized Steve right away. 
I lay motionless beneath him, not daring to make a move as his mind tries to process what’s going on. I can see the confrontation going on in his head as every emotion presents itself in his eyes.
Finally, he focuses back on me and removes the mask from where it covered his nose and mouth. Physically, he has barely aged in the last seventy years. But all the innocence that remained on his face then was completely absent now. His features hardened by heartache and death. 
In the background I can hear Steve’s gasp as he finally realizes who we had been fighting and why I had stopped the moment I saw his eyes.
“Bucky?” Steve asks, drawing Bucky’s attention from me as he gets up and turns toward his once best friend.
“Who the hell is Bucky?”
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2018: #2-GUIDE TO DOCTOR WHO
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Previously, cult horror-related tv series such as The Night Stalker, Dark Shadows, and the Outer Limits have been examined. Even though Doctor Who is primarily a science fiction tv series, over its 55 year history it has delved into horror many times. After Darren McGavin’s The Night Stalker series was cancelled in 1975, I sadly still tuned in at the same day and time in case it ever came back (see 2015: #5-GUIDE TO THE NIGHT STALKER). Weepers! Eventually it was recommended to me to watch this Doctor Who show, but I was not interested in another Marcus Welby, MD series at age 6. I tuned in anyways to find an argumentative older man yelling at people, and I soon became bored and quit watching the series. However, I was encouraged to persist and watch further episodes, so I did. One twenty-two minute episode was shown a day. A few episodes later and the older argumentative man was now in an apocalyptic world with people devolving into monstrous green werewolves! It was terrifying! I was hooked!
Doctor Who was scheduled to premier on November 22, 1963, but it was delayed until the following day due to the assassination of President Kennedy. It features an alien, a Timelord, who can change its body, and currently the Doctor’s latest body is female as played by Jodie Whitaker, with her debut episode appearing for the first time this Sunday afternoon! This alien serves often as the savior of the Earth as well as the closest the universe has to being a good, near-godlike force. The original series ran from 1963-1989 featuring the Doctors’s first seven bodies or “regenerations.” In 1996 Doctor Who returned in a U.S. production with a new regeneration of both the Doctor and his primary villain, the Master. In 2005 the new series continued with a new regeneration, but in later seasons it is revealed that one regeneration was skipped between the tv movie and the new series. This regeneration, technically the ninth, played by John Hurt, renamed himself the War Doctor. The new series has also featured the Eleventh Doctor, played by David Tennant, who consumed a regeneration to heal himself, and eventually the Doctor used all of his thirteen regenerations. But he got more, and he even doesn’t know how many.
There are a variety of rare facts about Doctor Who. A spacesuit costume from the series was reused in the Empire Strikes Back and worn by the scaly bounty hunter, Bossk. Peter Cushing starred as Doctor Who in two movies in the 1960’s (see 2018: #1-GREAT HORROR FILM ACTORS). The two color movies are remakes of popular televised stories featuring the evil alien race, the Daleks. One of the films, 1966’s Dalek’s Invasion Earth 2150 AD, included British comedian Bernard Cribbins as a police officer, and he joined the tv series in 2007 as another character. The movies differed from the tv series by Cushing portraying the character as a human, not an alien. There is an original pilot of the series from 1963 that had a significant scene removed from the first story, An Unearthly Child. The First Doctor, portrayed by William Hartnell, shares that he and his granddaughter are from the year 5,000 and may be humans. By cutting that from the final broadcast, it made alien bodily regeneration a much more plausible concept. The Doctor also is not always the benevolent good guy. In An Unearthly Child, the Doctor prepares to cut the throat of an unconscious caveman because he is annoyed and wants to leave prehistoric Earth. In Doctor Who canon, there is still at loose a future evil incarnation of the Doctor, once known as the Valeyard. Big Finish has dozens of the continued audio adventures of previous regenerations of the Doctor including many of the surviving actors who played the Doctor as well as supporting cast members.
There is much written about Doctor Who, but for the purposes of Halloween we are primarily interested in horror episodes as well as potential crazy costumes that could be made based on aliens in the series. If you have a spare plunger and a box, you can make a Dalek costume. Dressing as one of the regenerations of the Doctor is easy if you have any of the specific costume elements. The easiest is probably to dress as the Third Doctor with a velvet smoking jacket. A lot depends upon if you require your costume to be widely recognizable to not. Don’t dress as the Doctor’s time and space vehicle, a blue police box, the Tardis; that is stupid. The three best aliens to create costumes for include: Alpha Centauri, appearing as a green, hermaphroditic, one-eyed Beholder from Dungeons & Dragons with a high pitched voice (see 2015: #3-STRANGE MONSTERS FROM DUNGEONS & DRAGONS). Alpha Centauri is one of the few characters from the original series that have reappeared in the new series. Another amusing costume option is the Face of Boe, a large sleepy head resembling a Japanese Nuppeppo yokai (see 2018: #10-YOKAI). Or perhaps an alien from the planet Vortis which are large, vaguely humanoid insects, such as the Menoptra bee/butterfly people. Doctor Who is a series that offers cosplayers a huge amount of possible costumes as well. The series is a wealth of creativity.
Doctor Who has a lot of episodes, and out of the entire series, here are the ten best horror-related stories:
10-The Chase: features the First Doctor encountering Dracula and the Frankenstein monster.
9-The Unquiet Dead: Christopher Eccelston, technically the Tenth Doctor, finds zombies and dead ghost-like aliens possessing bodies.
8-The Pyramids of Mars: the Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker, has major problems with an Egyptian god and his mummy servants.
7-The Brain of Morbius: Baker’s Frankenstein episode, but featuring a Hitler-like Timelord trying to be more than just a brain in a jar.
6-Midnight: Tennant in a tense, claustrophobic episode about a telepathic thing outside of a stalled tour bus on a deadly planet.
5-State of Decay: Baker versus a giant vampire, the ancient enemy of the Timelords, on a planet ruled by vampires.
4-The Daemons: The Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, dealing with a giant horned demon running across the English countryside, summoned up by a satanic cult led by The Master.
3-The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit: Tennant discovers the physical, Godzilla-sized body of the Devil himself, a being from the universe that existed before this one.
2-The Seeds of Doom: Baker meets The Thing, including in a polar setting.
1-Inferno: Pertwee popped into a parallel world and is faced with a dreadful apocalypse with the planet rapidly being destroyed, people devolving into green werewolves, the world is ending and there is nothing he can do. This scared the crap out of me when I was six years old. The episode set a Guinness Book of Worlds Record for the longest drop by a stuntman. It is also one of the longest complete stories.
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There are many other Halloween-worthy episodes of Doctor Who. The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances are two very popular episodes with Eccleston in WW2 investigating very creepy unexplained phenomenon, and he also meets John Barrowman’s very popular assistant, Captain Jack, in that story. The Caves of the Androzani is an acclaimed Phantom of the Opera story with the Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison. Werewolves appeared in Tennant’s second story, Tooth and Claw. An infamous mummy appeared in Mummy on a Train with the Thirteenth Doctor, Peter Capaldi. Many of Patrick Troughton’s episodes, who is the Second Doctor, are lost and missing. But there is surviving footage of his stories versus the Abominable Snowmen, who were quite frightening skulking about in the London sewers. A prehistoric lizardman species is discovered on Earth in Pertwee’s The Silurians, and an aquatic version of the species is encountered in Pertwee’s The Sea Devils, one of my all-time favorite stories of the series. The Master as virtually an undead lich appears in Baker’s The Deadly Assassin (see 2013: #10-LICHES). Baker’s The Horror of Fang Rock flows just like a horror film, with people barricaded in a lighthouse to escape a prowling monster. The largest monster that has appeared in the series was a tentacled, Lovecraftian swamp monster the size of a city in Baker’s The Power of Kroll. Doctor Who tends to be at its best when delving into horror.
There are some noteworthy Doctor Who stories that were planned or written, but they were not made. The adventures that almost happened! Pertwee’s Third Doctor was planned to start the tenth season with “Deathworld.” It was about the President of the Timelords basically playing chess with Death, and he summoned up the first three Doctors to be pawns in his game. The Doctors were to materialize in the Underworld to face the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as well as personification of the Seven Deadly Sins. Content from the plot seems to have drifted into the stories: The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors. Pertwee’s final story had to be changed because the actor portraying the First Master, Roger Delgado, was killed in a car accident. “The Final Game” was planned to reveal that the Doctor and the Master just were not brothers, but they were the same person – divided into two halves – with the Doctor effectively being a Freudian ego and the Master as the id. Both the Master and the Doctor were planned to die in “The Final Game.” The Master was going to permanently die saving the Doctor, yet the Doctor would regenerate. There was also a second U.S. tv movie planned with McGann’s Eighth Doctor which would have included a major redesign of the Daleks. A third Peter Cushing film was planned but cancelled, Daleks vs. Mechons, based on the story, The Chase.
I have attended some science fiction conventions and have had correspondences with some of the stars of the series. I met Pertwee several times, including once with Elizabeth Sladden, aka the assistant, Sarah Jane Smith, at the Granada Theatre in Chicago in 1989. I met and chatted with Tom Baker who is really tall, about the various death scenes he had in various roles. But I spent an entire morning with Peter Davison, Sandra Dickinson, his then wife who appeared in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and the series producer, John Nathan Turner, wearing a bad Hawaiian shirt. We all sat together with less than ten others and watched Davison’s excellent Cyberman story, Earthshock, more than a year before it aired in the United States. There is nothing better than sitting next to the lead actor in Doctor Who and watching them star in the series in a great story. I had correspondence with the Sixth Doctor, Collin Baker, who wrote me that he was not sure how much longer the BBC would keep him in the role, and he was fired shortly later. I also ran into the enigmatic Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy at a bar the night before a convention. I was sitting with the stars of the cult British science fiction series, Blakes 7 including Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow, and Brian Blessed (see 2011: #7-SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTIONS). Over the shoulder of Gareth Thomas could be seen Sylvester McCoy sitting at the bar by himself, silently and sadly meditating on his ale. I had correspondence with another Master, Anthony Ainley, one of my favorite actors in Doctor Who, and he wrote back to me on his wonderful Master stationery.
Doctor Who offers a wealth of treasures for Halloween. If not costume ideas, then sheer entertainment. I am very much looking forward to the new season starting this weekend. Not only has the lead actor changed but so has the entire production team, sets, producers, etc. I was totally turned off by the previous Steven Moffat production team, so I am looking forward to the new Chris Chibnall team. It’s one of the only series that regularly reinvents itself, and few series exceed being fifty years old. Just about anything goes in Doctor Who, from very odd aliens to all sorts of monsters – even McCoy’s Seventh Doctor encounters a dragon in one story (on Monday see 2018: #3-DRAGONS)…
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ignaciaslight · 7 years
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all of them for all your muses
fck u anna. at least i have a manageable amount of characters. #roASTED #jk #ily
Put a tarot card in my inbox and I’ll answer the question! // NOT ACCEPTING. (blame anna for that. jk i’ll probably answer some more of these)
bc u were a fcker i’m putting my answers under read more for the sake of people’s dashes. 
The Fool: What is the stupidest thing your muse has ever done?
Dany: Oh boy, the stupidest thing? Wow, that’s a lot to choose from for her. But the stupidest has gotta be when she was five and she superglued her hands together so she could have the greatest karate chop known to man. Now that was an interesting hospital visit. 
Sabina: Don’t know if this counts as stupid, but when she had kids way back when, she’d go through a list of names before she actually yelled at the right child. (She had four kids). 
Alexnder: Kissing a telephone pole in the winter because his older sister dared him to. She said if he did it, he’d get to kiss her friend who he had a crush on at the time. 
Dean: He is also a muse that classifies as doing a bunch of stupid shit. The stupidiest thing would be stealing a book from another dragon in the 50s. Never steal from a dragon unless you want to be dead. And yes, this was a dragon he slept with. No, he didn’t get a book, but he got stitches. 
The Empress: What would your muse name their children?
Dany: Well, as you know with being thany trash, you already know the names. But I’ll throw some out there anyways: Beatrice, Elanor, Rosie, Henry, Alexander (lmao yeah), Thomas, Benjamin, and Charlie. 
Sabina: She had four children and here are their names: Katrina, Phillip, Simon, and Rhoslyn
Alexander: Ella, Jackson, and Nora.
Dean: Never wants kids, but he had a little girl he never met and her name was Robin. 
fuck after doing two of these i’m already done jfc why did i take up this challenge to do all of them? Judgement: Would your muse ever go back to their most recent ex-lover?
Dany: FUCK NO (her ex-lover would be Dean). She has a Teddy, she is perfectly fine with that old Welsh plant nerd. 
Sabina: She’s had lots of “lovers”, I use that term loosely. She’d rather use the term companion, but she’s not activiely looking for one. To be honest, if her husband was alive, still, she’d want to be with him. (but yes she is very happy with Raphael)
Alexander: No
Dean: Maybe (it was Dany and yes he still loves her). NO
The World: What has been your muse’s greatest success?
Dany: Tbh, actually finding someone who loves her completly. (i’m a sAP OKAY AND SHE IS TOO)
Sabina:Well, she’s a CEO, so. 
Alexander: He read 40 books in one summer when he was twelve. 
Dean: He won a poker match based all on bluffs. 
The Sun: What was the happiest moment of your muse’s life?
Dany: The happiest moment of Dany’s life probably would be the moment when she was at her grandparents’ for the weekend back when she was nine. Her grandfather played old jazz, her grandmother helped Dany bake, and her grandfather started a flour war. The not fun part of that memory was having to clean the kitchen—they all did it, though. Even then, I guess, it was fun for Dany. 
Sabina: When she first held her first born baby, along with holding her children for the first time in general. 
Alexander: When he won a spar against his siblings back when they trained together. 
Dean: V-E Day. 
Wheel of Fortune: Does your muse believe in luck?
Dany: Yes, but she’s always shit out of luck. 
Sabina: No
Alexander: Yes. 
Dean: No
The Hierophant: What is one rule or law your muse would never break?
Dany: this is a toughy. Probably something to do with vandalism with CERTAIN (American) national monuments. Not all of them, but certain ones. 
Sabina: Well, now in modern times, theft. 
Alexander: Talking in libraries. 
Dean: Oddly enough, something to do with jaywalking
Strength: Name a time when your muse had to be strong in the face of danger or trouble.
Dany: Her whole life, basically. 
Sabina: When she lived on the streets with her sister. 
Alexander: He’s a hunter. So…
Dean: He was in WW2
The Star: If your muse had one wish, what would it be?
Dany: It’s moribid, but for her mother to have died during childbirth. She feels, that if her mom had died during childbirth, she wouldn’t’ve had to go through foster care and her father wouldn’t be in jail. Her mom basically was the root cause of her childhood trauma. 
Sabina: for her family to still be alive. 
Alexander: To not be a hunter anymore.
Dean: To know his daughter. 
The Magician: What would your muse draw if given paper and markers?
Dany: Well, in canon, she can’t draw for shit. In some AU”s she can draw, but for her main verse? yeah stick figures. Something to do with Captain America, probably. 
Sabina: Lmao Raphael, probably, when he wasn’t looking. Joking with that (mostly). She prob would draw a still life of water lilies, i think. 
Alexander: Doesn’t like to draw. 
Dean: A stupid looking squirrel reading a book because he’s “nuts for knowledge.” bye. 
The Emperor: Name a time your muse has broken the rules.
Dany: Lmao. Uh. All the time. 
Sabina: Back in the good ol’ days, she stole food for her and her sister. Also, she’s old as fuck. I don’t have the time to go through all the times she broke the rules. 
Alexander: He has to break and enter into places as a hunter. 
Dean: He gambles illegally and does illegal shit all the time. 
FUCK THERE ARE SO MANY TO ANSWER how am i nOT DONE. 
Death: If your muse had to change something about themselves, what would they change?
Dany: Her past.  also to not be allergic to cats. 
Sabina: She’d like to be mortal. 
Alexander: His insomnia. 
Dean: His cowardance (yep. he’s a coward in the context of not seeing his daughter). 
The Chariot: If your muse ruled the world, what would they change first?
Dany: Make foster care a better system.
Sabina: Access to health care and food to be more readily available.
Alexander: Doesn’t want to rule the world. 
Dean: FIND THE LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA. 
The High Priestess: What is the smartest thing your muse has ever done?
Dany: She doesn’t do many smart things.  BUT to be sappy here—Probably letting Teddy in her life bc he’s helped her become a better person. 
Sabina: Helping those in need and also, preserving artifacts and art. 
Alexander: Not pissing off his sister when she was pregnant when he visited her and his brother inlaw. 
Dean: Leaving his longtime girfriend and daughter behind. He wouldn’t’ve been good for them in the 60s. 
Temperance: Would your muse remain calm despite the worst circumstances?
Dany: Depends on the circumstance. 
Sabina: Yes. 
Alexander: No. 
Dean: No. 
The Lovers: At what age did your muse first fall in love?
Dany: When she was seventeen, living on the streets. It was with a twenty-year-old woman who kept her under her wing when Dany pissed off the wrong person. She struggled with drug addiction, though, and Dany tried her best to care for her. (but if we want to actually go into how dragons actually love someone, it would be when she met teddy llmao so that would be when she was 24)
Sabina (awh shit i have to do math for this old fuck): When she was 37 lmao. She never really felt romantic love until she met her husband. Dragons don’t really feel that intense love all the time, it usually happens once. Idk if that makes sense. I’m going crazy answering all these. 
Alexander: When he was twenty three. 
Dean: fuck i have to do math for him too  dslfjk I don’t think he’s really fallen in love with someone. Then again that might just be me going crazy answring all these. 
The Hermit: If your muse were trapped alone on an island, name three things they’d have to have..
Dany: Well, she’d hate everything. She hates water. So tbh. Yeah. I can’t think of anything bc she’s too freaked out in my mind to even come up with anything. Yeah. Hahaha yeah. She’d rather die than get trapped on a damn island surrounded by water. 
Sabina: Sketchbook, pencils, and a compass. 
Alexander: A knife, water purifier, and probably a book of some kind. 
Dean: A pilot, a working airplane, and fuel for an airplane. There’s no way he’s getting stuck on an island. 
The Moon: Has your muse ever had something unexplained happen to them? If so, what?
are you really going to make me answer this?
Dany: Um. Well. Learning she was a dragon was one of them. 
Sabina: No
Alexander: Woke up on the other side of a state once, didn’t know how he got there. 
Dean: No
Justice: What’s something your muse has been dying to admit or confess?
Dany: She loves pop music. So much pop music. 
Sabina: Her favorite snack is one of those chocolate ice cream pops thing. 
Alexander: Hates the color fushia. 
Dean: Still loves likes hates Dany. 
The Hanged Man: Name a bad habit your muse can’t give up.
Dany: Burning things. 
Sabina: Peeling off a new manicure. 
Alexander: Biting his nails. 
Dean: Gambling. 
The Devil: What was the worst relationship your muse has ever had?
Dany: With Dean. 
Sabina: Probably with some painter in Italy during the Renaissance. He snored. Really loudly.
Alexander: He’s never really been one for relationships. He’s more so a one night stand kinda guy. 
Dean: With Dany. 
The Tower: What event would trigger your muse’s breaking point?
Dany: Her fear of water
Sabina: A reminder that she can’t save everyone. 
Alexander: Having to physically fight his family to get out of the hunting life.  
Dean: Meeting his daugher. 
2 notes · View notes
redlegomaniac · 7 years
Text
Shot Down [WW2]
Disclaimer : Dreamworks owns everything WWII Shot Down Dear Hiccup, This letter is in response to your most recent sending. It was good to hear from you again, as always, and I was ecstatic to learn of your promotion in your wing. Berk is quiet without you. I miss you, and dare I say it I miss your cousin too - to an extent. I am proud of you son, more than you can ever imagine. PS: I saw Heather Oswaldson the other day, she looked nervous about seeing me. Stay safe and write soon, - Stoick Dearest Love, I am writing to you with a heavy heart. I hope one day you will forgive me, or hold some semblance of respect for me in the future. There were dried tear stains on the paper. I cannot wait any longer, My Love. I want to have a future with someone and to live without the fear of losing that someone everyday…I have been seeing another man, while you have been away. I realize that I am selfish, and for that I am sorry. A Thousand Apologies, - Heather
A young man, nearly twenty years old with auburn hair and forest green eyes, held the small pieces of paper between his index finger and his thumb. He sighed, and looked up to the empty room around him. He checked his watch, reading eleven o’clock pm. Normally he would be in his bunk right now, sleeping quietly through the night along with the others of his wing. Normally, he’d be missing his home. Today was different. The air was damp, and the dew dripped from the blades of grass outside the lounge house he was in. The night’s darkness was noiseless, and the only light of the room he was in was the flickering candle before him. He put his elbows and hands on the table, tapping the rhythm of an old tune he had heard from his mother years ago. He should feel tired, but he wasn’t. He had slept the day’s afternoon away. The door opened, and a figure stood in the doorway. “Are you ready?” The young man didn’t answer. Instead he held the letter from Heather over the flickering flame, and let it burn in his hand, ignoring the heat of the burning paper even as it neared his fingers. The man standing in the door stared with wide eyes, then listened to the young man’s words. “Is anyone ever ready?” Hiccup stood up, picked up the note from his father and folded it before sliding it in his left chest pocket, and sighed. “What were the survivability predictions again, Eret?” The man standing at the door retrieved a notepad from an inside pocket of his coat and thumbed through the pages. “Uhhh… Well it’s double digits.” Eret said carefully. “Freddy Ingerman ran the numbers twice, and given what we know of the region so far…” “I know.” The auburn haired man replied shortly. His high school sweetheart had just given up on him, and he couldn’t find it in himself to care at the moment. He was thirty minutes away from embarking on a solo reconnaissance mission over Denmark. Hiccup clenched his fists, breathing in and out once before walking past the other man, leaving the room and entering the silent night. The two men walked down the stretch of flattened dirt they called a runway towards the hangars and the barracks. “So…eh.. “ Eret said sounding a little unsure. “Is everything alright?” He asked seeing the scowl Hiccup had adopted. “Just…..Just some problems at home.” Hiccup mumbled. “I got a letter… She’s been cheating on me.” Eret sucked in a breath. “That’s harsh, mate.” He muttered. “It’s just… we were high school sweethearts and now I don’t know what I’ll do without her.” Hiccup talked with a hand out before him, swaying his hand to emphasize his point. Eret yawned, “I wouldn’t worry about it too much, Mate.” A lull in the conversation, and then he continued. “D’you think I can get a cup of tea before we leave?” Hiccup sighed. “I don’t understand you Brits and your tea.” The British man gasped in shock as he placed a hand over his heart. “Oh you wound me, Haddock.” They heard the sounds of boots running towards them, and looking back they saw a figure approaching quickly. “Haddock, Eretson. You two are to report to the briefing room immediately. Further instruction will be delivered there.” The figure, an eighteen year old private, said, saluted, then ran off. After sharing a glance, they walked in silence towards the briefing room. Freddy Ingerman was there, being the top analyst on base, and likely the smartest man there besides Hiccup. “Evening, Haddock and Eretson.” “Evening.” They responded together. Hiccup took a seat, resting his head on an open palm as he leaned slightly onto the armrest while Eret stood at the edge of the room. It was cold in the room, and the ceiling lamp that hung by the wire swung slowly. Freddy Ingerman clasped his hands together. “Right, so you both know your flight paths?” The two pilots nodded, and Hiccup stood up, glancing at Eret. “I’m ready if you are.” He said, to which Eret nodded, and Freddy spoke up. “Great! I-uh, I’ll let traffic control know you’re leaving.” The analyst left the room, leaving Hiccup and Eret together once again. Ten minutes later the two pilots, with Hiccup piloting a Lockheed P38-G Lightning painted a dark navy blue with black stripes, and Eret piloting a stock model of a Supermarine Spitfire MkVb, made their way onto the airstrip to take off into the early dawn’s dark sky. “Traffic Control this is Night Fury 1-1, ready for take-off.” “Copy that Night Fury, you are clear for take off.” The twin engined plane slowly crept down the runway, extending the plane’s control flaps to takeoff position and pushed the throttle lever forward, increasing speed in a rumbling crescendo. After a few moments, Hiccup lifted off the ground, and he flicked the switch for the internal cockpit light on, as well as flicking the switch for the landing gear to retract. Eret took off shortly behind him, taking up a spot on his right around 20-40 meters away to give the larger aircraft room to maneuver. Hiccup leaned his head to the edge of the cockpit glass, to see where his wing-mate had ended up, and saw him wave in his own cockpit. He waved back, and smiled softly. Hopefully there wouldn’t be any problems with this early morning flight. Stars twinkled above them, and Hiccup notified Eret that he was turning his light off. It was times like these that he loved about being a pilot. Just, to be able to experience the sight of stars and sometimes the planets much closer than anyone else in the world. He sighed, and wished the war to be over. He wished to be home. He reached forward, a grabbed a photo that was lodged by the edge of a screw that helped secure the compass’ covering. He snorted, remembering what he had said to Heather when she had sent him the photo of them together. “I’m going to put this next to my compass, so that I will always know how to find home.” He sighed, and felt the small ache of his heart tug at his feelings. No. Not now. He can cry when the war is over. He took his feet off the rudder pedals, and halfway stood up in his cockpit in an attempt to stretch his legs. In the distance he saw large masses of clouds, and above those clouds he saw flashes of white light. He clicked on his radio. “Haddock to Eretson, how copy?” Eret’s british voice was barely louder than the white noise of the radio. “Solid copy, go for it.” “Looks like we have a storm coming up.” “Uh-huh, yeah I see it too, Mate.” There was static, and then he spoke again. “We’re about a kilometer from where I need to turn around.” “Copy that, Eretson, I’ll be fine from here. Drinks are on me when I get back.” The British man’s laugh came over the radio, “Godspeed Haddock, I’ll hold you to that drink.” Hiccup looked to the side to see the British fighter plane dip down before rolling to one side and turning around to return to the airfield. Hiccup pulled the flight stick towards him, and the plane began to climb upwards into the clouds. Pelting rain and thundering lightning did not worry him, he had flown through storms before. This is like any other storm, he reminded himself. There’ll be pockets of clear sky here and there. He was glad he was in a larger plane, since the turbulence didn’t affect him as much. He flew alone across the Channel, making his way to mainland Europe, and from there he’d be flying towards Denmark. He had been tasked with taking pictures of cities and manufacturing complexes, but because it is dark and the moon cannot shine through rumbling clouds, Hiccup feared that his mission would be doomed a failure. Lightning flashed before him, illuminating the skies and the ground to his south. When he saw land, he was supposed to head East, so after checking the compass, he rolled to his left and banked in a wide turn to conserve speed before aligning himself to the horizon when the compass dial rested on North East. He stayed within sight of the coastline, however the only sight he had of the coastline was when lightning flashed around him. Thunder rumbled louder than the engines on either side of him. He looked out over his right wing, watching freezing rain slide across the side of the cockpit. Looking forward once again he saw an opening in the dark clouds, and after pulling the flight stick this way and that he maneuvered toward it. Hiccup took his hands off the controls, letting the plane fly itself since he was out of the clouds, and stretched. After a breathy sigh he popped his knuckles and reached down under the main console for a pair of wool gloves and a thick scarf. The temperature was dropping, and the standard issue wool insulated leather jacket wasn’t helping as much as it should. Hiccup retrieved the small pieces of clothing from the net-sack that was tied to additional screws going into the console and placed the gloves on his lap while loosely wrapping his neck in the scarf. He picked up the gloves and slid them onto his hands, and flexed his fingers to get used to the additional movement for the stiff finger sections. Even in the darkness he saw the cloud of breath as he exhaled. Since he was the designated reconnaissance pilot, the plane mechanics suggested that they take off as much weight as possible to make him faster and lighter. Unfortunately, this meant removing the cockpit heating system. He looked at the altimeter, and saw that he was at seven thousand meters above the ground. The moon made an appearance soon after, shining down it’s dusk rays on the ground. Hiccup looked up, really hoping someone on the ground didn’t see a black dot move across the white moon. He was fully above ground now, having flown inland from the coastline. It was a quiet night, and the rumbling engines beside him almost lulled him to sleep, but unfortunately, he was jolted awake at the sight of green traces of light flying over him. Hiccup cursed, punching the throttle forward and looking back to see two black lines with circles. Orange and white muzzle flashes made Hiccup duck into his seat. Bullets flew around him, luckily not hitting the plane. He lowered the plane’s nose, hoping to lose them when he converted his altitude to speed. Hiccup looked back again, seeing the two hostile planes gaining on him, and when he turned around he realized there was a third plane in front of him. He rolled, using his elevators and ailerons to barrel roll out of the way of the incoming spray of bullets. He heard and felt several thumps, looking out over his left wing he realized that he had been hit. There were holes punched out of his wing, and Hiccup narrowed his eyes in frustration. Of course there would be a German air patrol at night. Hiccup rolled to the left, and dove in an attempt break the enemy pilots’ sight of him. He looked up, and saw the rectangular wings of the enemy planes continue in a straight line before the lead plane banked left, and the second plane followed soon after. It was a three versus one scenario. It’d be near impossible for him to win. That didn’t mean Hiccup would give up. Instead, adrenaline pumped through his blood and he watched the black shape heading away from him. He maneuvered the plane so he could line up the gunsight with his target. He checked behind him quickly, realizing that he had separated this pilot from his wingmates, and adjusted the gunsight to be just before the target. Hiccup pressed down the button to fire his machine guns, sending a salvo of red tracer bullets after the enemy plane. He saw sparks, letting him know that his bullets hit, and watched as the plane in front of him rolled to the left. Hiccup stamped down on the rudder pedal, jolting his plane to the right while pushing his flight wheel to the left. The contradicting forces made a stable line of travel for the gunsight, and Hiccup fired the guns again, this time also squeezing the trigger for the P38’s cannon. Hiccup straightened out, and dove to dodge the wing of the enemy plane that had been ripped off with gunfire. He sighed. One down, two to go. Flak exploded around him, nearly blinding him and sending shrapnel through his wings. He cursed again, and rolled the plane again when he saw a black shape approaching him quickly. Green tracers pelted the right engine, and Hiccup pulled the throttle lever all the way back to kill speed. The hostile plane overtook him, and began to rise back into the clouds. ‘If he’s in front of me, where’s the other?’ He thought, and ducked while punching the throttle forward again when green tracers flew just past the edge of the windshield from the side. Hiccup chose to go after the enemy pilot that was rising back into the early morning sky, and he looked back to see the other pilot turn towards him and unleash another volley of machine gun fire, striking the right engine again. Hiccup extended the flaps to combat position, giving him more lift and agility, and he pulled the flight stick back and fired a salvo of cannon and machine gun fire towards the enemy in front of him. The red hot tracer hit the fuel tank of the other plane, causing it to burst into purple, orange, and red flames. He was losing speed, and the other plane was gaining on him again. In the fireball of the other plane, he recognized the shape of the fighter to be a Messerschmitt 109 fighter. “Messershit.” He laughed to himself, knowing that he wouldn’t make it home. The white tracers of the cannons’ behind him ripped holes close to his engine, instead clipping the underside of his wings and tearing the flaps off. His plane lurched to the right side, and Hiccup decided to roll with it. He turned the rudder to the left, to avoid a flatspin(1). He felt his stomach rise into his chest as he dove down, going from five kilometers in the sky to two kilometers. He pulled up as hard as he could, knowing that the plane could take the stress even if he couldn’t. The Messerschmitt had dove behind him as well, but pulled up much earlier than Hiccup did. He looked forward, seeing tall trees and open fields in some places. He was alone, and he was going down. Somewhere. He was still able to choose where that may be. Hiccup peeked out from behind the seat once again, seeing lonely log cabins and larger fields. He cursed again when the messerschmitts guns tore off the tip of his left wing, and ducked when the bullets did not stop. He felt several thumps along his back, praying that the steel plate behind the seat did not fail him. He felt a sharp piercing pain in his arm and saw that he had been shot. The cockpit glass had been punched through. Hiccup looked at the ground before him, realizing that he was way closer to it than he had thought. Trees scraped at the underside of his wings, and a tall one snagged and snapped the elevator off. “O-oh shhiiIIT!” The nose dove downwards, and he roughly pushed the lever for the flaps all the way forward. The extra lift brought his nose up. Hiccup looked to the right, to see a wing that had a multitude of holes. Hiccup shut his eyes tightly, a single tear streaming down his cheek as the wing skidded across the ground, and that finally made the rest of the plane fall to the snowy ground as well. The straps holding Hiccup to his seat snapped, and he lurched forward, hitting his head on the leather pad under the gunsight. His head was pounding, but he was alive. That’s all that mattered. Everything hurt, and with fumbling and bloodied fingers, he unlatched the cockpit hinge, and pushed as hard as he could. He was forced back into the seat by the weight of it, and he tried again, with both hands. It gave, and swung over his head before snapping the bolts off that held it to the plane and falling to the snow. Hiccup half stood on unsteady legs, and brought one leg up and over the wall of the cockpit before stumbling and landing on his side in the cold snow. “Pappa! Det er piloten!”(Papa! It’s the pilot!) He heard, at the edge of reality. He heard the snow crunching below feet, and knew this was it. This was the end. He pushed himself to roll over, and try to stand before collapsing to his knees. A few meters away from him stood a young woman and an older man. Hiccup’s vision pulsed with white and red, but he saw a shotgun in the man’s hands, and he began kicking away from them. He didn’t get far however, because he hit the cold metal of his crashed airplane’s tail, yet he covered his head in his arms. The man’s voice was gruff. “Amerikansk?”(American?) Hiccup froze, lowering his arms and nodded slowly. He didn’t know what the extra ‘sk’ was at the end, but he recognized American. The man smiled, and spoke to the woman.“Astrid Finder slæde, tak.”(Astrid find the sled, please) The girl, Astrid, looked at him and nodded before running off into the darkness of the night. The man slowly walked forward, and took his finger away from the shotgun’s trigger. “Du er sikker.”(You are safe) Hiccup blankly stared at him. “Safe.” The man said, and that was when Hiccup slumped over, unconscious. Astrid returned with the sled, and the man loaded him onto it while Astrid poked around the cockpit to see if there was anything of use. Under the seat, she felt leather, and gripped it before pulling it out from under the seat. She also noticed a photograph of the man on the sled and a dark haired woman standing together. “Kom, Astrid.”(Come, Astrid) The young woman looked up, nodded, and followed along as the man tugged on the rope to the sled, dragging Hiccup back to their home. The man pulled the sled to the edge of the patio space, and carefully moved around the pilot before lifting him and carrying him up the stairs and through the door to the cabin. Astrid then dragged the sled around the back of the house and leaned it against the wall before going inside. She saw that her father had placed the man on the floor, and had stripped his shirt off. “Hvad nu?”(What now?) “Vi plejer ham til helbred, så du og han vil blive med dine fætre i Sverige.”(We nurse him to health, and then you and him will join family in Sweden) Her father, narrowing his eyebrows as he inspected the gunshot wound. “Hvad?”(What?) Her blue eyes went wide. “Hvad med dig?”(What about you?) “Jeg skal blive.”(I must stay) Her father kept his eyes away from her, before blinking a tear away. “Astrid, find saks og bandager.”(Astrid, find the scissors and bandages) Astrid went and searched through the cabinet drawers, before finding a wooden box containing string, bandages, and needles. She passed the box to her father, and went into her bedroom. “Jeg går tilbage til at sove, Papa.”(I’m going to sleep, Papa) “Godnat Astrid, sov godt.”(Goodnight Astrid, sleep well) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Waves rocked the fishing boat, and Hiccup groaned in his sleep. Astrid’s father looked out over the rest of the foggy bay, hoping they would have a smooth sailing. His daughter sat at the front of the boat, silent as a stone. She must’ve been angry at him. “I’m doing this for you, Eliza.” He looked down to his left, to see the American sleeping. He didn’t know how the pilot was still alive after the crash. If he had slid any further he would have gone into a tree. If he had fallen any other way, he would have skidded into other trees. The bandage on his left arm was still in place, though he did not remove the bullet fragments. Hiccup woke up slowly, feeling the slight rocking of the boat. He opened his eyes slowly, and tried to move. He couldn’t move, his body was too sore. He looked up, seeing a man at the wheel. Where was he? He gasped for air, feeling a white thrashing pain in his arm and in his chest. “Godmorgen, amerikansk.”(Good morning American) He stayed silent, his eyes were wide, and slowly, he sat up, feeling muscles stretch and bones shift painfully. “Amerikansk?” Hiccup looked at the man. “Why am I alive?” “…” “Uhm… Parlez-vous français?”(Do you speak French?)Hiccup’s mind was foggy, and french was the only other language he knew, aside from broken German. The man’s features brightened. “Oui.”(Yes) “Pourquoi suis-je vivant?”(Why am I alive?) “Parce que vous êtes - Amerikansk.”(Because you are… American) The man pointed at his ring finger, and Hiccup saw the ring, and then the man pointed at a US flag patch that was on Hiccup’s jacket.
Oh. Hiccup made a mental deduction that his wife must have been from America. Astrid looked back, seeing the American talking in a mixture of English, French, and Danish. Land came within sight, and she beckoned for her father to watch for sea-rocks as they entered a very small and secluded cove. Hiccup looked at the girl at the front of the boat, seeing her braided blonde hair sway as she turned. She had the brightest blue eyes he’d ever seen, they reminded him of the sky, and he turned away to look behind them. There were no words shared between them, and by how her eyes turned darker as she looked at him he presumed that she didn’t like him. “Oh!” Hiccup looked towards the man, and Astrid’s father retrieved a leather bound book from inside his coat. He held it out towards the American, and Hiccup looked over it, realizing that it was his journal. “Yours.” He accepted it tentatively, and opened the cover of it, finding the photo of him and Heather staring at him. He sighed, taking the photo in between fingertips and tearing it in half. The man’s eyes widened in surprise. Hiccup put two hands together, making a heart shape, and split them to symbolize a broken heart, then sighed. The man pointed at the book, and then to the girl. “She find book.” He said, with a thick accent. “Je vous remercie.” (Thank you) Hiccup said. On the shoreline there were two skinny figures, dressed in brown fur coats. From what Hiccup could see, they were twins. Astrid’s father cut the engine, and let them drift towards the pebbled shore. The man explained through hand gestures and broken french that they were family that had fled Denmark before Germany invaded. He also made sure to tell him that they were crazy, and to not be shirtless around the girl-twin. Later that evening, after Astrid’s father had returned to Denmark, to their little log cabin, Astrid walked carefully around her new home. For now, that is. When the war was over she fully intended on returning home. She heard, “Me Likeeyyy,” coming from the living room, and walking in there she caught sight of Hiccup’s bandaged torso. The girl-twin was giggling, while the male twin was standing behind the counter, making retching noises into the wastebasket. “Ruffnut, nok.”(Ruffnut, enough.) Astrid said. “Awe, men har du set amerikaneren?” (Awe, but have you seen the American?) Astrid sighed, secretly looking at his toned torso, and poured herself a mug of water before returning to her room. Slowly overtime they had gotten used to the American living with them, the twins found that he was fun to mess with, and that he didn’t get angry often. They had also discovered that he was a much better cook than the rest of them. Astrid thought he was handsome, and overtime they had grown closer. They often didn’t share words, until he stood in the doorway of her room one evening. He looked down at a dictionary. “L-Lær d-dansk?” (Teach Danish?) Hiccup asked slowly, annunciating each syllable carefully before pointing at himself. Months passed after that night, and most of the day Astrid taught him Danish. And, while she taught him Danish he taught her the basics of English. Hiccup sat at the table, with a pencil in hand and a paper before him. He was drawing, in the early hours of the morning, and Astrid crept up slowly behind him. She watched as the flame of the small candle flickered this way and that before she got sight of the charcoal on paper. She realized he was drawing her. She breathed silently, before resting her chin on his shoulder, simply watching his hand move. When he was done, he moved the pencil to one corner, and drew a rose, and a heart, and wrote H + A inside of the heart. She smiled, feeling a warm feeling in her chest before turning and kissing his cheek. 0o0o0o0 Annnnnnnd done. Finally. *whew* okay time to disappear again, probably.
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Bionic Eye, Miquela & Manchester United
Congratulations SpaceX for their sucessful manned Crew Dragon mission to the ISS.
Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. It's not as great as Steve Austin's bionic eye from the Six Million Dollar Man, but it's pretty cool. Scientists have made a bionic eyeball inspired by the actual working of the human eye. This cool tech isn't ready to go in a human head yet, but when it is we can only hope it's cheaper than Steve's eye.
Robots are here, and they're coming for your jobs. Now even actors don't have job security. Miquela is a CGI replacement for advertising models is now leaving Instagram and breaking into acting. Which raises a concerning question. How long until they replace the podcasters?
Football manager is one of the most popular management simulators. Recently they've come under fire from Manchester United for copyright issues. Despite letting it slide for almost 30 years, Man U have decided it's time to sue.
This week in gaming DJ jumps at shadows in Alan Wake and Professor goes full Groundhog Day in Into the Breach.
Bionic eyes giving sight
- https://bgr.com/2020/05/24/bionic-eye-human-prosthetics/
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2285-x
The Rise of Virtual actresses: Miquela
- https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/may/25/are-virtual-actors-about-to-put-hollywoods-humans-out-of-work-miquela
Man United suing Football Manager
- https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/may/22/manchester-united-sues-football-manager-makers-over-use-of-name
Games Played
Professor
– Into The Breach – https://store.steampowered.com/app/590380/Into_the_Breach/
Rating: 4/5
DJ
– Alan Wake – https://store.steampowered.com/app/108710/Alan_Wake/
Rating: 4/5
Other topics discussed
Sailor Moon Redraw : Jar Jar Binks edition
- https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1854154-sailor-moon-redraw
Cochlear Implant (A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted neuroprosthetic device to provide a person with moderate to profound sensorineural hearing loss a modified sense of sound. CI bypasses the normal acoustic hearing process to replace it with electric signals which directly stimulate the auditory nerve.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochlear_implant
Why some people turned down a 'medical miracle' and decided to stay deaf
- https://www.insider.com/why-deaf-people-turn-down-cochlear-implants-2016-12
Lil Miquela Instagram profile
- https://www.instagram.com/lilmiquela/
James Dean will be digitally resurrected for a new film. Is it movie magic or dark arts?
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/11/07/james-dean-will-be-digitally-resurrected-new-film-is-it-movie-magic-or-dark-arts/
Peter Cushing CGI resurrection in Star Wars Rogue One
- https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2016/dec/16/rogue-one-star-wars-cgi-resurrection-peter-cushing
The Drip: having a large amount of swag typically used in the context of clothing
- https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=the%20drip
Adobe Voco (Adobe Voco will be an audio editing and generating prototype software by Adobe that enables novel editing and generation of audio.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Voco
Detroit: Become Human (Detroit: Become Human is a 2018 adventure game developed by Quantic Dream and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit:_Become_Human
South Park – They Took Our Jobs
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-kgb1QtSnU
Football Manager ((also known as Worldwide Soccer Manager in North America from 2004 to 2008) is a series of football management simulation video games developed by Sports Interactive and published by Sega.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_Manager
P90 (The P90 or ES C90, as it was previously known, is a submachine gun featured in the Counter-Strike series. They are based off FN P90.)
- https://counterstrike.fandom.com/wiki/P90
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_P90
Generic Trademark (A generic trademark, also known as a genericised trademark or proprietary eponym, is a trademark or brand name that, because of its popularity or significance, has become the generic name for, or synonymous with, a general class of product or service, usually against the intentions of the trademark's holder.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_trademark
An introduction to YouTube Copyright in United Kingdom
- https://www.bl.uk/business-and-ip-centre/articles/an-introduction-to-youtube-copyright
Pro Evo Soccer (More experienced gamers often use "patches", editing the actual game code and modifying the graphical content to include accurate kits for unlicensed teams, new stadiums, and footballs from Nike, Inc., Puma,Umbro and Mitre, as well as more Adidas balls. Most patches also contain licensed referee kits from FIFA and the official logos of the various European leagues.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_Evolution_Soccer#Gameplay
Quantum Break (From Remedy Entertainment, the masters of cinematic action games, comes Quantum Break, a time-amplified suspenseful blockbuster. The Quantum Break experience is part game, part live action show—where decisions in one dramatically affect the other.)
- https://store.steampowered.com/app/474960/Quantum_Break/
Control (After a secretive agency in New York is invaded by an otherworldly threat, you become the new Director struggling to regain Control in this supernatural 3rd person action-adventure from Remedy Entertainment and 505 Games)
- https://store.steampowered.com/app/870780/Control/
Elvis the Alien (Elvis (real name: Aelphaeis Mangarae) is an alien from the Maian race. He is a 'Protector' (bodyguard) for the Maian ambassador who travels to Earth at Daniel Carrington's request.)
- https://perfectdark.fandom.com/wiki/Elvis
‘Labyrinth’ Sequel: New Director revealed
- https://deadline.com/2020/05/labyrinth-sequel-scott-derrickson-director-maggie-levin-write-script-doctor-strange-1202943188/
‘Labyrinth’ Sequel idea : Jennifer Connelly’s Sarah grows up to be the Goblin King.
- https://twitter.com/kaytaylorrea/status/1265493556988387328
Love, Stranger (TNC Podcast)
- https://thatsnotcanon.com/lovestrangerpodcast
Shout Outs
22 May 2020 – Pac-Man turns 40 - https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/pac-man-turns-40-seven-secrets/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web
The yellow dude with the insatiable appetite for power pellets is turning 40, having racked up everything from sales records to a breakfast cereal. And there is no gaming icon who is more recognizable — or who has done more to bring gaming to the front of the collective cultural mind. Pac-Man’s raison d’être is chomping dots. And Iwatani says food was central to the design of the character. As he thought about how to design a game that would attract female players, he thought about how much his wife loved to eat dessert. That verb — eat — began the thought process that led to the game. The original name for Pac-Man in Japan was Puck-Man. Midway Games, which distributed the title in the U.S., changed it to Pac-Man so vandals wouldn’t cut out part of the P to create something that didn’t fit in a family-friendly arcade. The name Puck came from the Japanese expression “puck puck” which loosely translates to “munch munch.” When Pac-Man made his debut on May 22, 1980, video games were largely considered a boy’s club. Creator Toru Iwatani, in a panel presentation at GDC 2011, said he wanted to create a game to change that. “The reason I created Pac-Man was because we wanted to attract female gamers,” he says. “People had to go to the arcade center to play games. That was a playground for boys. It was dirty and smelly. So, we wanted to include female players, so it would become cleaner and brighter.”
22 May 2020 – Perfect Dark turns 20 - https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/perfect-dark-20-years-old-fans-want-new-game/
Rare Ltd's Nintendo 64 classic Perfect Dark turned 20 years old. Released on May 22nd, 2000, the game was Rare's follow-up to GoldenEye 007. Rare originally intended to make another Bond game, but was outbid by Electronic Arts. Instead, Rare decided to develop their own franchise, introducing the world to protagonist Joanna Dark. The resulting game was a massive success, and a prequel was released on Xbox 360. Although critics widely praised its graphics,artificial intelligence, and number of multiplayer options, they frequently criticised its occasional frame rate drops. The game received the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Moving Images Award for 2000 and theGolden Satellite Award for Best Interactive Product in 2001. The game is occasionally cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. A remaster, also titled Perfect Dark, featuring enhanced graphics and online multiplayer, was released in 2010.
22 May 2020 – Berlin WW2 bombing survivor Saturn the alligator dies in Moscow Zoo - https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-europe-52784240
After hatching in Mississippi, Saturn was soon brought to Germany, residing at the Berlin Zoological Garden. It was here that his association with Adolf Hitler originated, as Hitler reportedly enjoyed visiting the zoo and especially liked the alligator. It was from this period that the popular rumor emerged that Saturn was Adolf Hitler's "pet". This may have originated with the author Boris Akunin, a Russian writer who hypothesized in an article that this may have been the case. In actuality, he was not Hitler's personal pet, as he was on public display at the zoo. However, some sources report his display at the zoo as being part of a personal menagerie of Hitler's, while Dmitry Vasilyev, a veterinarian at the Moscow Zoo, contends that while Saturn was not Hitler's pet, the two certainly came into contact, as Hitler was known to have visited the Berlin Zoo on occasion. During World War II, much of the Berlin Zoo was destroyed. Of the zoo's 16,000 animals, only 96 survived. When the aquarium building was destroyed by a bomb on 23 November 1943, 20 to 30 alligators and crocodiles were killed. Press reports documented that the streets near the aquarium were littered with alligator andcrocodile corpses, but that some, including Saturn, had survived and were wandering through the city in search of food. Saturn was discovered by British soldiers three years later. The British then gave the alligator to the Soviets in 1946. He lived at the Moscow Zoo until 22 May 2020, when he died of old age.
23 May 2020 – Lost series finale turns 10 - https://observer.com/2020/05/lost-series-finale-the-end-jean-higgins-jeff-pinkner-damon-lindelof/
The 10-year anniversary of its series finale, “The End,” was a grippingly divisive chapter in modern pop culture history. Although the final strokes of its conclusion were not set it stone when that pilot first aired, consideration to the endgame had always been brewing. To unpack how the series navigated the minefield of fan expectations while battling the network for direction, Lost‘s conclusion was rockier than most fans at home realized. From the very beginning of the show’s development, the Lost title was meant to have a double meaning. Yes, the characters themselves were physically lost in the world on this mysterious island. But, more crucially, they were each spiritually lost in their own lives. The show always tried to remain true to the characters and, by the end, to some spiritual outlook about life and our purpose. It also edged open new doors into its story even as the show approached its very end. Lost often felt artistically bold, but that didn’t come without drawbacks. “The End” polarized audiences deeply. Several critics named it among the worst series finales of all time, while others called it an underrated masterpiece. Regardless of the ongoing debate that still ensnares “The End,” Lost as a whole remains one of the most acclaimed television shows in history.
Remembrances
25 May 1939 – Sir Frank Watson Dyson - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Watson_Dyson
English astronomer and Astronomer Royal who is remembered today largely for introducing time signals ("pips") from Greenwich, England, and for the role he played in proving Einstein's theory of general relativity. In 1928, he introduced in the Observatory a new free-pendulum clock, the most accurate clock available at that time and organised the regular wireless transmission from the GPO wireless station at Rugby of Greenwich Mean Time. He also, in 1924, introduced the distribution of the "six pips" via the BBC. Dyson was noted for his study of solar eclipses and was an authority on the spectrum of the corona and on the chromosphere. He is credited with organising expeditions to observe the 1919 solar eclipse at Brazil and Principe, which he somewhat optimistically began preparing for prior to the Armistice of 11 November 1918. Dyson presented his observations of the solar eclipse of May 29, 1919 to a joint meeting of the Royal Society and Royal Astronomical Society on 6 November 1919. The observations confirmed Albert Einstein's theory of the effect of gravity on light which until that time had been received with some scepticism by the scientific community. Dyson died on board a ship at the age of 71 while travelling from Australia to England in 1939 and was buried at sea.
25 May 1981 – Ruby Payne-Scott - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Payne-Scott
Ruby Violet Payne-Scott, Australian pioneer in radiophysics and radio astronomy, and was the first female radio astronomer. On 18 August 1941, Payne-Scott joined the Radiophysics Laboratory of the Australian government's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). During World War II, she was engaged in top secret work investigating radar technology, becoming Australia's expert on the detection of aircraft using Plan Position Indicator (PPI) displays. After the war, in 1948, she published a comprehensive report on factors affecting visibility on PPI displays. She also made important contributions to prototype radar systems operating in the 25cm microwave band, achieving significant improvements. Payne-Scott's expertise as both a physicist and an electrical engineer distinguished her among her colleagues, most of whom lacked a formal physics education. From 1946 to 1951, Payne-Scott focused on these 'burst' radio emissions from the sun, and is credited with discovering Type I and III bursts, and with gathering data that helped characterise Types II and IV. As part of this work, together with Alec Little, she designed and built a new 'swept-lobe' interferometer that could draw a map of solar radio emission strength and polarization once every second, and would automatically record to a movie camera whenever emissions reached a certain intensity. In 2018, the New York Times wrote a belated obituary for her, detailing how her work helped lay the foundation for a new field of science called radio astronomy. In 2008, CSIRO acknowledged Payne-Scott's contribution to science, and established the Payne-Scott Award, intended "for researchers returning from family-related career breaks". She died from complications of dementia at the age of 68 in Mortdale,New South Wales.
25 May 1981 – Fredric Warburg - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredric_Warburg
Fredric John Warburg, British publisher best known for his association with the author George Orwell. During a career spanning a large part of the 20th century and ending in 1971 Warburg published Orwell's Animal Farm as well as Nineteen Eighty-Four, and works by other leading figures such asThomas Mann and Franz Kafka. Other notable publications included The Third Eye by Lobsang Rampa, Pierre Boulle's The Bridge over the River Kwai, Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf and William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Warburg started his publishing career in 1922, as an apprentice at Routledge & Sons, where he came under the tutelage of William Swan Stallybrass, a man he regarded as "the greatest scholar-publisher of his day". After Stallybrass died in 1931 Warburg became increasingly dissatisfied with Routledge and in 1935 he was dismissed. Later that year he and Roger Senhouse purchased the publishing firm of Martin Secker, which had gone into receivership, and renamed it Secker & Warburg. The firm became renowned for its independent left-wing position, being both anti-fascist and anti-Communist, which put it at loggerheads with many intellectuals of the time. He died from Congestive heart failure at the age of 82 in London.
Famous Birthdays
25 May 1865 – Pieter Zeeman - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Zeeman
Pieter Zeeman, Dutch physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Hendrik Lorentz for his discovery of the Zeeman effect. In 1896, shortly before moving from Leiden to Amsterdam, he measured the splitting of spectral lines by a strong magnetic field, a discovery now known as the Zeeman effect, for which he won the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics. This research involved an investigation of the effect of magnetic fields on a light source. He discovered that a spectral line is split into several components in the presence of a magnetic field. The importance of Zeeman's discovery soon became apparent. It confirmed Hendrik Lorentz’s prediction about the polarization of light emitted in the presence of a magnetic field. Thanks to Zeeman's work it became clear that the oscillating particles that according to Lorentz were the source of light emission were negatively charged, and were a thousandfold lighter than the hydrogen atom. This conclusion was reached well before Thomson's discovery of the electron. The Zeeman effect thus became an important tool for elucidating the structure of the atom. He was born in Zonnemaire.
25 May 1889 – Igor Sikorsky - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Sikorsky
Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky, Russian–American aviation pioneer in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. His first success came with the S-2, the second aircraft of his design and construction. His fifth airplane, the S-5, won him national recognition as well as F.A.I. license number 64. HisS-6-A received the highest award at the 1912 Moscow Aviation Exhibition, and in the fall of that year the aircraft won for its young designer, builder and pilot first prize in the military competition at Saint Petersburg. After immigrating to the United States in 1919, Sikorsky founded the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in 1923, and developed the first of Pan American Airways' ocean-crossing flying boats in the 1930s. In 1939, Sikorsky designed and flew the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300, the first viable American helicopter, which pioneered the rotor configuration used by most helicopters today. Sikorsky modified the design into the Sikorsky R-4, which became the world's first mass-produced helicopter in 1942. He was born in Kiev.
25 May 1944 – Frank Oz - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Oz
Frank Richard Oznowicz, American actor, puppeteer, director and producer. He began his career as a puppeteer, performing the Muppet characters of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle in The Muppet Show; and Cookie Monster, Bert, and Grover in Sesame Street. He is also known for the role of Yoda in the Star Wars series, providing the voice for the character in several films and television series. His work as a director includes Little Shop of Horrors , Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Score and Death at a Funeral . Oz has performed as a Muppet performer in over 75 productions including Labyrinth, video releases, and television specials, as well as countless other public appearances, episodes of Sesame Street, and other Jim Henson series. His puppetry work spans from 1963 to the present, although he semi-retired from performing his Muppets characters in 2001. Oz is also known as the performer of Jedi Master Yoda from George Lucas' Star Wars series. Jim Henson had originally been contacted by Lucas about possibly performing Yoda. Henson was preoccupied and instead suggested Oz to be assigned as chief puppeteer of the character, as well as a creative consultant. Oz performed the puppet and provided the voice for Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back , Return of the Jedi , Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace , and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Oz had a great deal of creative input on the character and was himself responsible for creating the character's trademark syntax. He was born in Hereford,Herefordshire.
Events of Interest
25 May 1895 – Oscar Wilde arrested for indecency - https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/oscar-wilde-is-sent-to-prison-for-indecency
Writer Oscar Wilde is sent to prison after being convicted of sodomy. The famed writer of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest brought attention to his private life in a feud with Sir John Sholto Douglas, whose son was intimately involved with Wilde. Homosexuality was a criminal offense and serious societal taboo at this time in Britain. Wilde had gone back and forth between hiding his sexual orientation and attempting to gain some measure of public acceptance. At Wilde’s first criminal trial, he was cross-examined extensively on the “love that dare not speak its name.” Wilde managed to secure a mistrial when a lone juror refused to vote to convict. The second trial began on May 21. Although many of the potential witnesses refused to betray Wilde by testifying, he was convicted. The judge remarked at his sentencing, “It is the worst case I have ever tried. I shall pass the severest sentence that the law allows. In my judgment it is totally inadequate for such a case as this. The sentence of the Court is that you be imprisoned and kept to hard labor for two years.
26 May 1897 – Dracula goes to sale in London - https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/dracula-goes-on-sale-in-london
The first copies of the classic vampire novel Dracula, by Irish writer Bram Stoker, appear in London bookshops on May 26, 1897. It earned him literary fame and became known as a masterpiece of Victorian-era Gothic literature. Written in the form of diaries and journals of its main characters, Dracula is the story of a vampire who makes his way from Transylvania—a region of Eastern Europe now in Romania—to Yorkshire, England, and preys on innocents there to get the blood he needs to live. Stoker had originally named the vampire “Count Wampyr.” He found the name Dracula in a book on Wallachia and Moldavia written by retired diplomat William Wilkinson, which he borrowed from a Yorkshire public library during his family’s vacations there. Vampires–who left their burial places at night to drink the blood of humans–were popular figures in folk tales from ancient times, but Stoker’s novel catapulted them into the mainstream of 20th-century literature. Late 20th-century examples of the vampire craze include the bestselling novels of American writer Anne Rice and the cult hit TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The 21st century saw the wildly popularTwilight film and book series. 
25 May 2010 – Fireball was released in Italy
-https://www.scifihistory.net/may-25.html
- https://www.betafilm.com/en/product/d/fireball.html
- https://horrornews.net/559/film-review-fireball-2009/
On this day in 2010 (in Italy), Fireball burned up the charts of the home video marketplace.  The feature starred Ian Somerhalder and Lexa Doig, and here's the plot summary : Tyler “The Fuse” Draven is a former pro linebacker who has finally hit rock bottom. Draven has been caught using steroids and is no longer allowed to play pro football; if that’s not enough he has a news reporter constantly harassing him waving a camera in his face. After attacking the news reporter Tyler is sent to prison and one would think that would be the end to this mans story however a fire erupts in the prison and melds with the steroids in Draven’s blood stream causing him to suddenly be able to control heat and fire, now somebody is gonna pay!
Intro
Artist – Goblins from Mars
Song Title – Super Mario - Overworld Theme (GFM Trap Remix)
Song Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GNMe6kF0j0&index=4&list=PLHmTsVREU3Ar1AJWkimkl6Pux3R5PB-QJ
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