#Act 2 Part 4

[liamthemailman]

♠️♥️House of Cards♣️♦️

Act Two Part Four - Back Online

CW: Violence and injury, minor character death

“There it fucking is.”

Ace trudges forth into a small hidden clearing where a ground receiver sits, covered in snow and dead icy undergrowth. He holsters his gun and kneels down, feeling the ice melt into the fabric of his pants. He shudders, his breath fogging as they escape from his lips.

He reaches into his bag for the tools he brought along, his other hand brushing the debris off the satellite dish. Ace looks over the generator to assess for any further damages but it just seems like the signal was disrupted because the boom arm was dislodged from its place. It looked like the work of several people.

Hopefully it isn’t, Ace thinks. It would be another issue and a half if the enemy had stumbled across this site. He only figured they hadn’t because intel reports that none of the patrol routes were near this clearing but the prints in the snow didn’t suggest it was the work of a passing animal. Ace put the boom arm into place, giving the base unit a good pat as he hooked his laptop to boot up the software.

Watching the progress bar extend slowly was a bit of a bore. The flashing line seemingly taunted Ace as it slowed to a stop at about the halfway mark. He sighed, letting out a groan of frustration before turning his attention to look over his shoulder.

From the beginning of this mission, Ace had felt eyes on him throughout as he traversed the cold terrain. Again, Ace chalks it up to him being truly alone with no way to reach back to base but that didn’t really stop his mind from trailing as he sat and listened to the eerie silence of the environment.

Ace had never been one for the wilderness but he suspects something is lurking nearby. Mother Nature isn’t exactly known for her silence, especially in the desolate snowy landscape Ace finds himself in. A single cry of a lone crow shrieks overhead, tearing into the still air. Ace watches as the bird disappears between the towering peaks of the pines.

A chill causes the hairs on the back of Ace’s neck to stand. He shudders, eyeing the screen out the corner of his vision as he readjusts his scarf. The same heavy dread looms over his shoulders as Ace watches the progress bar inch closer to the end. He forgets the dread for a moment, readying his comm device to report back to HQ and call for exfil.

The line crackles to life as Ace powers it on again, static ringing in the air as Ace counts down the last few remaining seconds. He winces, busying himself as he fiddles with his GPS.

“HQ, this is Ace. Objective has been completed and requesting exfil.” Ace says, his voice rumbling into the microphone as he pushes down the push to talk. 

“Roger, meet you at the LZ in ten minutes.”

Ace was met with the same irritating static for a second but he was back online and transport had been secured, allowing Ace to start to pack up shop.

He was met with silence again, the only sounds being the zipper of his bag as he finished up, securing his laptop back inside. This seemed easy enough, Ace thought to himself.

The crunch of snow doesn’t go unnoticed in Ace’s bustling actions, whipping his head towards the source quick enough for a bullet to just miss his face. The sound cracks through the otherwise peaceful scene, sending birds away from their spots in the trees.

Jumping back, Ace scrambles for his gun as his assailant takes aim again. Adrenaline rushes through his veins as Ace’s finger finds the trigger but it was a split second too late. Another gunshot is fired and Ace lands awkwardly, holding in his grunt as the bullet lodges into his knee. He grunts, pain searing through his body like fire.

His attacker mutters something into his jacket collar, possibly reporting back to his own men or calling for backup for whatever reason. Not to be beaten again, Ace points the muzzle of his gun towards his enemy. His finger barely squeezes the trigger before the armed enemy before him gets his head blown open.

Ace watches with wide eyes as the body descends with the red mist still hanging in the air, flopping sideways and sinking into the snow. He wasn’t the one with the smoking gun. Ace whips his head towards the side where the bullet could have some from.

There in the distant horizon where the top of the snowy hill was beginning to be bathed in golden sunset light, the glint of a sniper’s scope. It was small, almost unnoticeable if not a little annoying now that Ace noticed it, the sight almost familiar. He didn’t even know he would be getting sniper support, seeing that King had sent him on a solo mission.

The sounds of several men rapidly approaching his location brought Ace out of his trance. He stumbles to his feet, hissing at the sharp pain in his knee. The bastard could literally have shot him elsewhere. Ace doesn’t waste another second, limping towards the pickup point. Just when things were starting to look up.

Ace disappears back between the trees, weaving between the trees and crouching into bushes, careful not to leave a trail of red in his wake as he hobbles along. He watches as the earlier patrol passes his hiding spot, hand on his gun in case their mutt manages to sniff him out.

With bated breath, Ace stalks the enemies as they disappear from sight and from there makes a dash for the LZ. He turns back a final time just in time to watch the glint disappear from its spot just as the sound of a chopper overhead is heard.

“God,” Ace thinks to himself as he clambers into the helo, wincing as he assesses his injury. "I need a bloody break.”

Quicksaving...

[janedoe297-art]

HELLO???? I'm OBSESSED with their reunion scene 😭💘

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((this is also availabe as a print!!))

[puppyeared]

act 4 :(

@chipper-smol and i came to a realization

[squea]

the beach episode part 1...

aka sending corn on a vacation where i let full autonomy take the wheel!! this is gonna be the best vacation ever! nervous gulp

fun fact: corn has 10 friends! 5 of which are good friends: his mum, jaimie, maeve, jackson, and some guy on the internet he calls Wires (we're not sure if hes real)

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[averlym]

fairest of the fair

[skyedancer-rae]

TGAA 2-4 Spoilers

This is how that conversation with Barok in his prison cell in 2-4 went, right?

[ask-the-sagents]

First Previous Next

[chimerahyperfix]

ooooo I'm writing a fic ooooooooo sneak peak bevause idk when the fuck it's gonna come out ooooooo

[they-have-the-same-va]

Skyla in Pokémon Masters shares a voice actress with Hayato Kawajiri from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable - in both English and Japanese.

Voiced by Laura Stahl and Rina Sato

[probayern]

damn i missed you guys this has to be the first time in weeks that i've posted more than like 5 things in a day. i can't waaait for actual bayern tomorrow

[sag-dab-sar]

Does anyone else have cycling interests?

Like super focused on a specific show for a month, then classic music for a month, then aviation for a month, then true crime for a month. (Or one week or a few months etc). Sometime my brain is super invested in for a very long time, many years, like 9/11 or WWII or Sims, but my brain doesn't (or I guess can't) focus on them when one of the random one shows up.

And my brain goes back to some of them later for another cycle of it being main focus; then brain eventually moves onto another thing. And importantly to this— I'm rarely focused on more than 2. Sometimes its like 2 and a half at most. But I'm intensely interested in The Thing while in that "cycle." And the half being minor interest in another thing especially like a transition from one cycle to the next, or a random sprinkle of some other interest like one documentary. And sometimes my brain is frazzled and can't focus on any topic (which is stressful).

I feel like I'm just a weirdo and talking about the random thing I'm interested in for a month and it is annoying even though I wanna blab and blab and blab about it for hours.

edit: ​Also my day dreaming/writing almost ALWAYS relates to the interest of that cycle and I decide if its canon when the cycle ends. The amount of non-canon because of it lol.

[3416]

I really love equally 16-34-88.

It’s interesting the interchanging of the attitude of the fans and media towards William and Mitch.

For years, William was criticized over and over again. His relaxed and laid back attitude. His game. And his contract year back in 2018, he was in those trenches. And anyone who said anything positive about him was called crazy. And also, Don Cherry and his low key like discriminatory remarks due to the fact that he was Swedish and not the tough goon kind of playing style. He was also kind of the « guinea pig » (always changing line mates, and lines—and last year we saw that too, he’s always moving and they always throw new stuff) and he was , out of the core, the punching bag.

Now, Mitchy has always been criticized because of the toxic hyper masculine mindset of many hockey fans: he’s boyish and not buff and tough and all that jazz. But, he never got the hate and disrespect that he is getting at the end of last season and right now. He was however still well liked and respected and was often associated to Auston and scene in a more favorable light. He was second to Auston in the « it » boy factor. If this NHL documentary was made 2-3 years ago, Mitch would have been considered.

If you would have told that the Toronto fans and media would be all over William two seasons ago, I would have laughed. Like never would I have thought that I would see the day where people would actually give him credit and actually respect him and see the great things he adds. I love seeing that , but at what cost? For Mitch to become the punching bag of the team?

Fans are now saying how amazing Willy is and now figuring out that he is a good player and cool. But those same fans, a couple years ago were dragging him through the mud saying how useless he was and how he needed to get traded. And they liked Mitch. And they respected him. But now, you’ve « always hated Mitch Marner », « He should be traded ».

And I fear that it will always be this: once Mitch will be in the public’s good graces, something with William will happen and back to Mitch. It’s always been like this and will always stay this way. I don’t know why, I guess that’s the dynamic the city chose.

Even when it came to the core’s contracts: Willy and Mitchy always get this EXTRA je ne sais quoi. Like this extra negative energy and they can never satisfy anyone. They are greedy weaklings or whatever.

Also, I was thinking about Auston captaincy and it reminded me about how he was heavily considered in 2019 but the whole allegations and the story about him harassing this woman when he was drunk ruined that chance. And, people did criticize him and he got scrutinized. But, it kind of, I think, it fizzled away pretty quickly within the Toronto scene considering how heavy that story was. It doesn’t haunt him.

Now, if it was Mitch or William, people would bring it up and it would tarnish them way more. They could not escape it.

Sorry for the long ass rant, it’s just so funny and frustrating: if one gains recognition, the other one has to go down.

gonna start out by saying i don't think mitch/auston/other ppl weren't asked about the doc. i think they're way more private esp in a time that was gearing up for the playoffs, lol. and i think anyone with a brain right now knows mitch is still the second best player on the leafs. everyone just gets high off point totals alone from the prior seasons.. like i seriously saw ppl claiming matthew tkachuk would be drafted higher than auston after the 22-23 season, lolll.

i agree there's a divide about them in the coverage and i have a lot of thoughts of my own about this too. i'm not a longterm leafs fan beyond the past couple of years so i can't speak to how willy or mitch were treated before 2022 beyond old headlines/stuff i've seen but not lived through, but i've definitely been here for the shift about mitch lately and well...

i think some of it is by virtue of them playing the same position. everyone 'has an issue' with the core 4 (ive never understood who the fuck the core 4 even refers to.. sometimes its about the forwards, sometimes its about the leadership group flkdjsklf... whatever fits the current narrative ig) being all forwards and taking up the cap bc that's not 'proven', but it's such a bullshit excuse. i think if you look at their contract situations of the past, willy did a lot of things mitch is getting shit for now, lol. he did hold out into the season for money while mitch gets lambasted for using that as a negotiation tactic (which again.. i wasnt around for those negotiations and i get it was ugly to ... leak or use public perception or whatever but) on those first contracts. willy's father was also involved in his holding out in the most recent negotiations but that's not smth i see thrown around at him despite every comment under every post about mitch including paul's name without him so much as uttering the word contract, lol. it's frustrating to me to see the double standards at this point. i understand longtime fans have lived through shit about willy, but i have a hard time imagining the vitriol levels of right now being topped. it's just every single day about every single thing compounded by the fact that leafs fans have even less hope than they used to bc of how many years in a row they've lost.

i admittedly don't love them equally at all, and if anything, the fanfare about willy the past year has made me like him less. it's not really his fault but i do think he's slightly overpaid now (and watching ppl now claim mitch has to take willys deal or less is hilarious) and overhyped for what he actually brings. his playoff stats are being overrated too. since it all comes at a cost to mitch in the media, it's been way worse to watch for me and unavoidable that i come away feeling negative about him, lol.

i'd be interested to see if the tides ever do turn back toward willy now that he's bulked up, grown facial hair, proven he can score with an up-to-this-point useless clutchness. i doubt they will, but i have a hard time envisioning what's gonna happen after mitch signs an extension and who will become the scapegoat w players locked up for more years. the constant hate has to get exhausting at some point, right? like jflkjdsklf... but not with leaf fans so who knows what will happen. i can't really say what would have happened if mitch or willy were ever involved in scandal like that, but i think if it happened right now, ppl would be ready to forgive willy for anything and sentence mitch to death over nothing so. some people were blaming him for his own carjacking when it happened like.. lol. i can't see into the future but all i know is i'm VERY fed up with the way coverage and reaction is right now. and i don't even think the media is an accurate depiction of how a lot of fans feel about any of it, but if it's hammered home enough... idk.

[number1traumalover]

This is random af, but I just finished watching season 4 of TUA(the umbrella academy) and I am extremely agitated

So, multiple paragraph long(super long) rant under the cut

First things first, let me clarify that this series isn't the worst I've seen, and that s1 and s2 were both goldmines. I do think season 3 and 4 definitely could of done better, though.

To sum up s4 in a few words, RUSHED, UNNECESSARY, and PLOT HOLES. For example, the entire love triangle thing Diego, Five, and Lila was unwanted and pointless. Not only did it degraded Five and Lila's characters so much(c'mon five, you're smarter than that), it was also just a waste of screen time. Lila and Five getting lost on the subway contributed almost NOTHING to the story. It was mainly just a setup for the pathetic relationship they had. The only beneficial thing that came out of it was Lila and Five being able to navigate the subways, which led to Lila's family and Allison's daughter escaping(this was also a terrible writing choice, but we'll get to that later). By pitting Diego, Five, and Lila together they unraveled 3 WHOLE FUCKING YEARS of hard work and dedication to getting Five to slowly grow on them. Overall, 0/10. Hated the love triangle.

For another example, let's talk about the variety in quality, shall we? I will admit that the first 2-3 episodes of season 4 were pretty decent, and I actually liked them, but you could see the quality of the episodes just go down as you progressed through out the season. The ending was clearly rushed, and to me it seems like they were running out of a budget and they knew it. Not a great look, 0/10.

Anyways, its time for my dearly beloathed plot holes. Since I have too many and it would take too long for me to explain them all, I'll just list them all quickly.

Wouldn't Grace, Claire, and Lila's other kid existing in another universe cause a kugelblitz to exist, since their mothers are dead, and thats exactly the reason for why the Sparrow kugelblitz existed?

What happened to the other children with Marigold in them? There were 43 in the umbrella timeline and 19(give or take) in the Sparrow timeline. Why would they also get obliterated when the umbrella siblings got consumed by the cleanse?

Why did Luther get his monkey body back when he drank the Marigold? The monkey body had nothing to do with the Marigold, henceforth shouldn't be associated with his powers.

If it was made so that Five never existed in the first place, then the Commission never would've existed, meaning that Five never would've been hired to assassinate Kennedy, meaning that the whole fucking timeline would be messed up(there's probably more examples of this)

Speaking of the Commission, why did Five found it in the first place? The old Five in the freezer at the commission had half of his arm chopped off, meaning that he founded the commission after the scene with the Guardian. He would've had to reset the timeline in order to gain access to what he needs to start he Commission, but if he reset the timeline, then he wouldn't have his arm chopped off, meaning that in another universe, Five and the others found a way to escape the Oblivion without resetting the timeline. If so, how the fuck did they do that??

Killing the tua shouldn't have erased all the Marigold, since Reginald's wife would've still created the durango and marigold on the other planet BEFORE it had reached earth. And if Five and co didn't exist, the Marigold just would've found another host. THIS DOESNT MAKE SENSE??

The new powers that some of the tua members got make no sense??? Why can Lila shoot laser eyes AND copy powers? How come Klaus can fly? That has nothing to do with his spectral themed powers, and everyone knows that he just makes himself levitate by having ghosts lift him instead. In the scene where Diego is delivering packages (the night after Ben spiked their drinks) how come he's able to make them land directly where he wants them? There's no metal in letters or envelopes??

(There's more plot holes, but I don't have the time and patience to list them all.)

LONG story short, the ending to the grand series finale was kind of disappointing. I genuinely think they could of done a better job on it.

[writterings]

procastinating at work but here's my philosophy for today: it's okay to hate a behavior in someone else but also understand that this behavior does not make them a bad person. like i HATE when i'm venting or talking about a serious problem i have and then the person i'm talking to starts trying to relate by talking about a similar experience they've had. like absolutely hate it. make me feel like the focus is being taken off me and it genuinely is in some ways, regardless of your intent. yeah, i understand that's your way of trying to comfort me -- but that's not the way i need or want to be comforted, and that's what matters in a situation where i'm coming to you to be helped.

and that's okay! like. no one is in the wrong here unless i have explicitly asked you to support me in a different way and you're intentionally refusing, or if i lash out at you when i could just disengage. it just means you're not a person i should go to for help when talking about my problems. we can still be friends, you and i can probably support each other in different ways, but we're just incompatible in this regard. and that's like....okay. it's okay to be incompatible with people.

[newvegascowboy]

The thing with Eagle Flies and Dutch genuinely enrages and saddens me so much like. It's hard to put into words.

[doublel27]

Thank you GMM, ending Wandee Goodday on the high note of Dee flatly telling Ter he chooses Yak because of how Yak makes him feel and how wonderful Yak is and Kao sending them what looks to be a mermaid tail or fairy wings. Yak got to punch two different men who don’t understand the word no.

Oyei and Cher are engaged. Everyone is happy and you’re not dropping part two so I can assume we have no angst left to angst over.

Certainly no loans. Certainly no absent fathers. Certainly no parental deaths that haven’t been fully explored. Certainly no rejected narcissists who keep losing and want to win a scholarship.

Just happy boys in love. What an ending.