#LED facial Vancouver

[emsesthetics]

The Art of Pampering- Expert Tips for the Best Facial Vancouver | EM's Esthetics

Indulge in the art of pampering at EM's Esthetics with the best facial in Vancouver. Our expert tips elevate your experience, ensuring a luxurious and rejuvenating skincare journey. Experience the added brilliance of an LED facial in Vancouver, expertly designed to enhance your natural glow. Trust EM's Esthetics for a personalized and indulgent facial experience that unveils your radiant beauty.

[bitchinbarzal]

Again | Q.Hughes

summary: “and you watched it again, and again, and again”

warning: mature themes and mentions of sex. minors do not engage.

-

Quinn didn’t like people. He wasn’t outgoing, he didn’t venture out to find fun. He liked his people, his circle and the things he enjoyed.

He didn’t make new friends with people who weren’t on his team or introduced to him. He just didn’t.

That’s who Quinn was and he was content.

Until he met you.

Quinn had met you at a game, you were a guest of a big VIP suite holder at Rogers. The guy was trying to impress your boss and sent you for the night.

Down in the lounge you had excused yourself to answer a call in a hallway just off the room you were in.

Once you’d hung up you turned to go back automatically being thrown onto your ass on the floor.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” The guy rushed to help you up and you brushed off your skirt.

“I’m fine, I’m fine it’s ok!” You assured, looking up finally.

“I really didn’t see you there-“

“It’s okay, probably the most fun I’ll have tonight” you mumbled with a smile.

His facial expression matched yours in that moment before he looked back to the room you’d obviously come out of “Work thing?”

“Yeah”

“He always tries to impress people by bringing them down here, he’s a bit of a dick”

Your eyes widened in both shock and delight “really?”

“I probably shouldn’t say that but yeah” he sighed.

“Well i best get back” you smiled, reaching out to straighten his tie “Good Luck”

He quirked a smile “Yeah thanks”

You were almost at the door when you heard him call “Hey!”

“Yeah?”

“Can I get your number?” You paused, reaching into your pocket and pulling out your business card.

“Good Luck, Hughes”

Quinn had never done such an out there thing before but he text you that night, just desperate to get to know you.

You became friends and you got to know the other Canucks, you were invited places and hung around with other wives and girlfriends.

Quinn stopped most communication when he left for home in the off season.

You took that as a chance to start dating again, knowing you couldn’t get hung up on him. He’s an NHL player, it would never work.

You had a boyfriend by the time everyone arrived back in Vancouver for the season and Quinn had no idea.

“Hey don’t order yet I’m gonna text y/n and ask if she wants to come over!” Quinn announced, picking up his phone.

“She’s out with Liam tonight for his birthday don’t bother” Elias replied nonchalantly, ordering the takeout on his phone.

Quinn’s eyebrows furrowed “Liam?”

“Her boyfriend?” Brock replied almost as if Quinn were a child.

“She has a boyfriend? Since when?”

“Since the beginning of summer, Quinn have you not spoken to her?”

It was then he realized he actually hadn’t spoken to you. At all during the off season.

That night he was laying in bed he text you.

to: y/n

hey, I’m back in van for the season. want to grab coffee or something?

to: huggy bear 🐻

hey! welcome back!! schedule is pretty packed atm but I’ll text you?

to: y/n

for sure! you coming to the home opener? I can get your ticket.

to: huggy bear 🐻

I never miss it! dw about it brock already sorted mine and liam’s tickets thanks tho!

Quinn put his phone on the nightstand then

“Stupid Liam”

Stupid Liam stuck around until Christmas. He broke up with you when he had to move to New York for work and you guys just didn’t want the distance.

Quinn was delighted, you were heartbroken.

He helped you get through the holidays, opting to not go home to Michigan and instead spend it with you.

He took you out and you hung out when he didn’t want to be recognized outside.

He thought things couldn’t be going better until after the team had won, a shutout win everyone headed to the bar to celebrate.

You were all getting pretty wasted and one thing led to another Quinn had you pinned up against the bathroom wall of the bar fucking you senseless.

When you were done in the bathroom he could hardly keep his hands off you as you exited the bar and into a cab. All the way back to his place where you did it again, and again and again.

When you woke up the next morning with him laying next to you, you pressed a kiss onto his bare shoulder and started getting up.

You hard circles round to his side of the bed to try and find your bra when you felt his hands wrap around your waist, pulling you backwards into the bed with him.

“Quinn!”

He was now hovering over you, looking down with a look you couldn’t quite place and a smile

“Goodmorning” he mumbled, leaning down to kiss you quickly.

Your hands found his cheeks “Mornin’”

“You were trying to sneak out on me” he accused.

“I was trying to save us both the embarrassment”

“I’m not embarrassed. Are you?” He quirked an eyebrow and you shook your head “no”

“Good because if you were embarrassed I couldn’t do this” he continued by pressing kisses on your jaw, down your neck and stopping just above your breasts which still didn’t have a bra on.

You stopped him “Quinn, we can’t do this if we-“ he shut you up quickly by kissing you again.

This continued for a couple of months.

You’d go over to his and sleep together or he’d call you late at night with a

“You up?”

It started taking a toll and you realized soon enough you were falling for him.

You didn’t want to tell him, you had a good thing going here but push came to shove and you decided it was for the best you told him. You had to protect your own heart.

The Canucks were currently on a roadie, in New York while you were sat at home alone with your thoughts.

You knew you should wait until Quinn was home, to do this face to face. So, you left your phone next to you and turned to the tv as a distraction.

That approach reined useless when at 1am you picked it up and texted him.

to: huggy bear 🐻

hey. I know ur probably asleep it’s like 11 there I think? anyway I just had something on my mind I had to say. these past few months have been really fun and weird and Q I just have to get it off my chest that I think I love you. that’s so weird to say out loud lol but I care about you a lot and I hope we can be more than just fuck buddies. well I’m gonna go to bed. goodnight.

You hit send. letting out a breath and putting your phone down.

Lying on the pillow you smiled just thinking about him.

God, you were in love. In over your head.

When the morning came and you checked your phone you expected to see a message from Quinn but you didn’t, all you had were social media notifications and a message from your best friend.

from: bestie

I’m so sorry angel girl. I want you to hear this from me before anyone else sends you it. I love You. I’m here for you.

The message was sent with a link to a tweet.

@hugheswhoree: lmao we were out in a bar in Hoboken last night and my friend hooked up with Quinn Hughes? What is life? Anyway here’s the vid of them kissing ahaha she says he was a good kisser.

You watched the video. Watching how he kissed her, his friends around him laughing at the scene they were witnessing.

Your heart broke but you watched it again, and again and again.

Until the video couldn’t be seen any longer for your tears.

You threw your phone on the couch and sobbed.

“How could I be so fucking stupid?”

You let your phone die that day, not doing anything or talking to anyone.

When you plugged it in the next day and it powered to life you became inundated with texts.

Some usual texts from friends and colleagues, a couple from the girlfriends who had seen the video. Some from Elias and Brock both apologising to you about what happened asking if you were ok.

Multiple from Quinn. Your breath hitched and you pressed the text chain.

from: huggy bear 🐻

oh god

I’m sorry.

I’m so sorry.

You’ve seen it haven’t you? Please answer the phone I want to talk to you. I want to explain.

Please, Please y/n just answer the phone. I’m begging you to answer.

I love you! I love you too! and I just need you to pick up the phone please…

Tears dripped down your cheeks and your shoulders shook with sobs.

When the Canucks arrived back in Vancouver Brock headed straight to your house, to be the one to check on you and also because you were dog sitting.

He let himself in and found you curled up on the couch with Milo and Coolie.

You looked at him when he walked in, his face dropped “Oh no… don’t cry!”

“You knew…” Is all you said, your bottom lip quivering “I saw you”

“I know, I know but I didn’t know you told him you liked him!”

“I feel so stupid!” You cried, pulled into his arms “I feel stupid Brock-“

“I know, it’s alright” he comforted you, hand rubbing up and down your back.

Brock stayed the night. As much as he wanted to sleep in his own bed he couldn’t leave you so he made home on your couch for the night.

He left you the next morning after making you coffee and assuring you were ok.

He wasn’t gone more than an hour before you heard banging on your front door, approaching the door you looked through the peep-hole, Quinn was standing there on the other side.

“Go away Quinn!”

He sighed, relieved to finally have heard your voice

“y/n, please just open the door I wanna talk to you, please I need to explain-“

“I saw the video Quinn, there’s not much to explain!”

He sighed again, leaning his head on the door “Please”

You decided that you couldn’t listen to him any longer, walking away from the door.

He stayed out there for a while, sitting in front of the door and annoying your neighbours with his continuous talking.

“y/n… I love you. you’re the one who got me out of my comfort zone in life, I hadn’t asked a girl out until I met you and I love spending time with you. I’m sorry, okay? I don’t know why I did it because it was fucking stupid and I wish it was you-“

Quinn was cut off by steps and when he looked up he didn’t like what he saw.

“Hey Quinn, man you good? She not home?”

It was Liam.

“Oh no, no she is-“ “Okay, good. Can I get in?” He asked, making Quinn move out of the doorway, reaching into the plant pot to grab the spare key you kept which Quinn was facepalming about.

“It was nice seeing you man, you want to come in and see her?”

Quinn shook his head lightly “No, I should - I should probably get home! Liam, I thought you moved?”

“Oh I did! I was at your game at Madison Square Garden on Monday actually!” He chuckled “But she called me last night, she was really upset so I came back just to check on her”

Quinn clenched his jaw “Yeah… nice”

“Anyway man I better get in and see her. It was nice seeing you!”

Quinn only nodded his head and left down the stairs.

He’s missed his chance, again.

[slut4sway]

𝐢 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬

𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐢’𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡

𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬

𝐚𝐡-𝐚𝐡, 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐧, 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐢 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭

𝐢 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬, 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭

𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬

🏔️••••••••••••••••••••••💍

wrap your arms around me, baby boy (darlin you’re the one i want)

tags : jeremy swayman/linus ullmark, fluff, soft fic, northern lights, happy fic, proposal, cuddling, christmas lights, happy tears, based off a taylor swift song, proposing with a ring pop

after an easy game that felt like exhibition in vancouver, jeremy and linus decided to take a well needed week long break to anchorage. beginning of fall, a bearable amount of snow, time, and them. along with being across the country from the city they reside in, and closer to jeremy’s hometown there’s no reason to skip this opportunity.

•••

“we are beginning our descent into anchorage, please remain seated and keep your seatbelts buckled” the scratchy sound of the pilot speaking over his microphone echoed in jeremy’s head. he stared out the window just above the dreary clouds while the sound of the seatbelt sign turning on filling the emptiness of their plane besides the faint noise of the aircraft speeding through the air and the motor running.

the first class tickets were worth it, since the private jet would’ve been a hassle. jeremy turned his head and fixed his gaze on the sleeping man beside him, lying down in their sectioned off bed. he held back from touching him to not wake him; but still let his hands wander and he ended up playing with and twirling his hair in his fingers. the older man still glowed in his slumber and the high points of his face illuminated and shiny from the dim led lights of the plane.

they both could already feel the jet lag creeping up on them. linus, still asleep of course. his chest rose and fell as jeremy continued stroking his silky blonde hair. one of his hands trailed down out of his hair and caressed his cheek lovingly, his thumb grazing the freshly shaved stubble of his mustache.

stirring some, the younger man gently removed his hand from the swedes face, a hand still in his hair as he admired his relaxed facial features. time seemed to be flowing so quickly, as he raised his gaze to the blue tinted digital clock that now read,

7:43 pm, PST

24 mins. remaining until landing

in an attempt to keep himself busy and pass the time, jeremy reached for the case of his airpod pros, fumbling for them as he pulled them out of the pockets of his navy bauer branded sweatpants. flipping open the wide case with his thumb, he pulled both out and popped them in his ears. already on noise cancelling, as soon as they connected all outside sounds quieted down. his phone was already connected as he was listening before, a random coldplay album playing as it faded in. it was more if ambient noise, fixing his gentle gaze to the blonde man’s chest, peacefully coming up and down in a steady rhythm. still trying to refrain from laying a hand on him he gave in. jeremys hand drifted; subtly traced hearts into his pecs . propping himself up on his elbow and carved forearm with his head tilted that leaned on his weight bearing shoulder.

the song finally changed, the melody a tad bit slower than the previous piece he had been listening to.

linus brought a hand up to his face to shield the dim light, letting his eyes adjust. he was awaken by a smaller hand drawing on his torso. with a deep but soft groan, he reached another hand up to meet the one on his chest. he took it into his gentle hold, wrapping his larger digits around jeremy’s. leading them to his lips, he placed a tender kiss on jeremy’s hand.

every little thing his boyfriend did seemed to make him melt, despite being together for so long. jeremy feels like a teenager with butterflies in his stomach again every time he falls harder for linus. the blood rushed to his cheeks, leaving a rosy tint.

linus let his senses settle, using the hand that once covered his eyes to move his hair so it wasn’t in his face. he observed how jeremy reacted to his small gesture, he loved to see him getting flustered over everything.

rasping out as he pierced the nothingness, “ you always look so dumb every time you get embarrassed, but i don’t think you understand how adorable i find it” he delivered his playful remark with a warm smile, his pearly whites and soft lips complimenting each other.

“i’m- when you.. it’s so- like it’s every little thing and i-“ jeremy stuttered, something he tended to do while nervous.

“use your words, love” linus responded in a teasing manner.

jeremy pouted, realizing this remark was part of his joke. as he let words fly out of his mouth.

“i love when you!”

“you love when i what?” he continued to play coy.

“exist.” jeremy tried to cut him off, but still couldn’t interrupt the voice he loved so much.

“you’re adorable swayman, but you’re an idiot” ullmark chuckled, still some laughter behind his words.

“yeah but i’m your idiot” jeremy replied, ending the back and forth.

“mhm, all mine.” linus muttered, as jeremy melted into his arms, every inch of space closing up with their contact.

jeremy’s head leaning against the older man’s head allowed him to listen to his heartbeat, eventually lifting up and pulling his airpods out to put them back into the case. he tossed them to the side of the bed along with his phone in his pocket to allow him to be more comfortable. the sound of his boyfriends calmed heart beat and the ambient plane sounds acting as white noise. he felt his eyes grow heavy, and it was just amplified by the older man rubbing his back lovingly.

•••

linus tapped his boy’s shoulder, trying to gently wake him from his subconscious state. a quick power nap seemed to do the opposite, making him more tired.

“we just landed, you ready to go home now? the swede whispered, his accent lying in heavy.

jeremy replied groggily “not like i have a choice..” sitting up and turning around against linus.

they waited for the plane to empty out, few people on the empty flight all shuffling out with their bags. jeremy found his shoes in an empty space he dropped them by the bed, slipping on the white insulated crocs.

linus stepped out of their sectioned off area and popped open the empty overhead compartment, pulling out both of their half full backpacks, finally clearing out the plane as they were the last passengers.

now, they just awaited the tedious customs process and the annoying luggage carousel.

•••

“christ..” linus groaned, stepping out of the airport doors with jeremy latched onto his arm. they both pulled along their medium sized suitcases while awaiting the uber they had called while in baggage claim. the alaskan autumn chill nipped at their skin, their cheeks and tip of their noses growing red as to not being used to the lower temperature.

irritated by the lengthy process, a black toyota rav-4 pulling up to the curb gave them a sense of relief. the driver stepped out, popping open the trunk with her keys.

“need some help loading up the luggage?” she questioned.

“we’re alright, but thank you!” linus replied with a smile, lifting both suitcases effortlessly and laying them down in the spacious trunk after taking a large step off the elevated surface.

jeremy shivered a little bit, his insulated crocs hardly doing a thing. his fleece lined hoodie and comfortable sweats provided some protection from the temperature. he yawned, from the jet lag that hit him like a brick.

“straight to my moms house, right?” jeremy asked.

“not yet, but we’ll head over there tomorrow. i have a surprise i think you’ll like.” the older man answered with a toothy grin. he subtly felt for the ring pop shaped case in the pocket of his quarter zip.

jeremy tilted his head, a bit; visibly confused but reciprocated and gave a returning smile.

linus closed the trunk, not wanting to keep their driver waiting. it was a long drive and they didn’t have any time to waste, especially with their plans. he strode over to the door of the car, opening it and letting his lover step in first as an act of courtesy. the blonde man followed, closing the door on his way in. snowflakes starting to come down as they both click their seatbelts in. the driver adjusted her rear view mirror before turning on her blinker and pulling off the curb.

jeremy caught a glance of the gps, reading an hour and 26 minutes until their destination. he adjusted his position to lean on his boyfriend.

linus felt jeremy’s head being propped up on his shoulder, resting his left hand on his boys right thigh. watching the snowflakes coat the bottom of the window, as the lights from few other cars reflected off the crystallized snowflakes. feeling the jet lag sneak in, he shut his eyes with intent of taking a quick nap and calming down his bursting emotions he was hiding.

jeremy felt his boyfriends heartbeat slow, his own running in sync with linus’. tires rolled, the monotone sound of the heater in the background. his tired state slowly pulled him into sleep, feeling his boyfriend breath so therapeutic to him.

•••

linus was eased awake by the constant sensation of the moving car coming to an end.

“we’re here!” the female driver exclaimed, her happy tone bringing linus back to reality.

“thank you so much for driving us, especially into the middle of nowhere.” linus joked, earning a giggle from the blonde woman.

“you awake, honey?” he whispered, slightly tightening his grip on jeremy’s thigh.

the brunette suddenly woke, swallowing and letting his eyes adjust while responding “i am now..”

“i know, jet lag got you good eh?” the swede asked while unbuckling the pair and maneuvering their arms out of the seatbelts.

jeremy nodded, gently pushing linus as a non verbal request to get out of the car.

linus pulled the unlocked latch and pushed the door open with his feet, immediately being met with a chilly breeze and snow still falling from the clear, starry sky. he ducked his head , stepping out and crunching the snow blanket that covered the ground moderately as he caught his footing. jeremy followed soon after, watching linus step over to the trunk to retrieve their stuff, shutting the door behind him. he unloaded their baggage , footprints slowly being covered once again but snowflakes coming together and hiding the groves of his air forces imprinted in the ground.

jeremy looked around at his environment, examining the geometric glass area that was behind a small cabin. letting his boyfriend take care of their stuff, he trekked over to the door as he left footprints that packed the snow down behind him. already unlocked, the isolated space already felt welcoming and cozy from the outside. he turned the almost frozen over doorknob, his hand a tad wet from the frost over it. being a bit of a struggle and after some jagged crunches and twists, it was finally open. he kicked the snow off his crocs on his way in, dragging his feet across the mat infront of the door. the timber frame insulated the heat inside. it felt like such a release, his body seemed to thaw when the warm air embraced him. the rosy color in his cheeks dissipated, along with the tension in his muscles. he kicked off his crocs that were conveniently in relaxed mode to the side. there was an open doorway leading into the glass dome he found before. his studying of the room was interrupted by the sound of the car driving off, and linus dragging in their snowy suitcases. he didn’t turn around at first, but jumped a bit at the taller man’s arms wrapping around him from behind, tenderly kissing his neck.

“did you see the sky yet?” he asked, speaking in between kisses into his neck.

jeremy tilted his head back onto his lovers shoulder that gave him unrestricted access while he looked up at the sky.

northern lights, they looked so perfect peeking through the glass framing. colors of green, purple, blue all blended together so nicely.

“and you planned this all out?” jeremy questioned in awe.

linus felt the vibrations of the younger man’s voice on his lips.

“all for you sweetie”

jeremy practically melted at the pet name. every little thing his lover has done including his plans has always made him fall harder and harder each time. he was still in love with him, the same way when they were young, dumb, and so fiery at each others touch. feeling his knees buckle, he fell back into linus’s space.

“god, i love you so much”

the blonde reciprocated, catching his weight as he hoisted him up in bridal style and carried him over to the bed in the middle of the dome. he lied the smaller body on the bed, as his eyes were all aglow admiring him.

linus stealthily transferred the ring pop bearing the expensive ring from the pocket of his jacket to his sweats. he let his jacket drop to the floor, no longer hung over his bulk structure. stepping on the heel of his sneakers, he kicked both off and climbed into the bed they shared. adjusting his position to hold jeremy in his deep embrace.

jeremy placed his head in between linus’s collarbone and jaw. they both fixiated their eyes on the pulsing colorful lights that hung in the starry sky above.

linus avoided to let the pocket that contained the ring box touch jeremy, trying hard to keep it a secret.

“you must really listen to me when i talk, huh? i always say how i miss these lights.. it reminds me of when i was a kid and i would climb up onto my roof just to see them.” jeremy said, his boyfriends stubble scratching at his forehead whilst he spoke.

“how could i not? you’re so perfect, and your voice is like.. it’s like-“ linus struggled to find the words, as he thought this was the perfect moment to ask the big question, fumbling the bag real hard.

“use your words, sweetheart” jeremy mimicked playfully.

“shut up-!” linus laughed at his impression.

their laughs in unison sounded so right, their emotions mixing together seamlessly.

•••

after about half an hour just lying in each others space, some messy braids made in their hair by each other, and the time spent admiring the sky; linus decided to stop waiting and make a move.

“i have an even better surprise, and i know you’ll love it more than this.” the swede hinted, slipping from his hold as he anchored himself by resting a knee on the bed and a foot on the floor. jeremy sat up, catching his drift he wanted to leave their cozy spot.

“yeah? what is it?” he interrogated, his voice sing -songy with attention.

“if i tell you, then i’ll ruin it! just let me show you, okay?” the blonde answered. he stepped into his worn air forces, picking up jeremy once again.

he made his way to a door that camouflaged in the geometric framing, turning the lock and pulling the door in. the chill invading their warm area. he stepped out, still holding the weight of jeremy with his legs wrapped around his waist and propped up on his bony hips. he left the door open, something to be dealt with later. striding over to the hardwood and white gazebo that was adorned with christmas lights. they were wrapped around each support beam, and on top of the railing as the peeked through the layer of snow above. linus set jeremy down on the covered area, the deck area shielded from the snow but still cold under the soles of his feet, passing through his fuzzy socks.

linus looked at him with an endearing gaze, as he finally confessed his overly-practiced spiel.

“sway, i think we’ve established that we really are good together, right? ‘cause whenever im with you nothing else matters and it feels like heaven.. i know im not good with sappy shit like this but i really try to express how much you mean to me. these past years we’ve been official have been the best years of my life and im so grateful i’ve had the privilege to spend them with you. you make me feel like this life is worth living and i couldn’t imagine being alive without you by my side; forever”

jeremy realized what was happening, he knew this was about to get real. he interlaced his fingers with his boyfriends, tearing up as he brought a hand to cover his mouth from shock.

“will you have me, swayman?” taking a knee and his eyes not leaving jeremy’s. he pulled out the stupid ring pop box they would joke about having, flipping the top open to reveal a bejeweled golden diamond crown ring. finally made it clear. so many emotions and thoughts rushed through his head, his heart rate speeding up.

“oh- oh my god is this even a question? yes, yes, fuck yes!” jeremy cried out, happy tears streaming from gleaming, glassy eyes.

linus shed some salty tears too, as they fell from the corner of his blue eyes. he pulled the ring out from the white pillow that beared it, slipping it onto jeremy’s left ring finger. without a word he quickly came back to his feet and swiftly pulled jeremy into him, their lips making needed contact as they kissed under their well lit gazebo. the northern lights glistened off the ring and reflected off the diamonds, it felt like a movie to the both of them. they kissed until they could hardly breath, jeremy pulling away still crying tears of joy. he brought his hand closer to his face, rotating it. both sides of the band read something different.

1+35

L + J

future husbands.

they were each others, finally and forever.

[buriedinbaltimore]

Imagine the foxes playing two truths and a lie...

The upperclassmen start playing it as a drinking game one night and Neil is intrigued. Andrew is also intrigued but doesn’t show it and refuses to play.

They are all already pretty tipsy, with Kevin, Matt, Nicky, and Aaron pretty much drunk.

Allison goes first, she has an amazing poker face and calmly says all three statements with no facial twitches or vocal cues. “my first car was a Toyota Camry (truth), my prom dress cost over $10k (lie), and I once made out with Miley Cyrus (truth)”

Renee, Neil, and Aaron guess right, Matt, Dan, Kevin, and Nicky have to drink.

Then it’s Matt’s turn and he is terrible, he starts snickering before he opens his mouth. “I’ve swam with sharks (truth)” he says, but he cannot control his face and it keeps contorting as he tries to maintain a neutral expression. He takes a deep breath to try and control his giggles, “my favorite flower is sunflowers (truth)” then he can’t hold it in anymore and starts hysterically laughing and chokes out, “My favorite city in the world is Newark, NJ (lie)”

Everyone gets it right and Matt has to drink.

Dan is next, she goes for the “one of these is so out there and crazy it can’t be a lie...or is it?” method.

((It is.))

“I’ve never shot a gun (truth), as a kid my favorite food was celery with ranch dressing (truth), and when I was 18 I won the lottery but the ticket was ruined and I couldn’t claim the money (lie)”

Aaron jumps in with “Obviously you never won the lottery, how would you even know if the ticket was destroyed”

Dan has her story ready. “When I first turned 18, I played the same numbers every week. It went on for a few months when my numbers were picked, but by that point playing was more of a habit than anything else and I wasn’t too careful with my tickets. I searched for it everywhere and found that I left it in my jeans pocket when I did my laundry.”

Allison asks what the numbers were, and Dan answers with no hesitation, which makes Allison tilt her head and stare into Dan’s eyes. Dan looks back without guile, totally relaxed.

Nicky is looking at her with his eyes wide and mouth slightly open and asks how much money she would have won

When Dan answers $53 million dollars Nicky gasps and Matt groans.

Neil, Renee, and Allison get it right, but everyone else falls for it.

When its Nicky turn he forgets to say a lie.

He is sitting there trying to come up with something for what feels like forever while every goads him for taking so long.

Finally, after waiting 5 minutes, Kevin says “I’m going because Nicky obviously can’t come up with anything” and Nicky jumps across Kevins lap and goes “No no no no no, I’ve got it!”

Without moving off Kevin he says “I’m allergic to shellfish, I died my hair green once, and I’ve read all the twilight books three times“ He moves back to his spot looking pleased with himself.

Everyone starts discussing theories until Andrew says in his bored, flat voice, “Nicky, those are all true”

Nicky starts to protest, thinks for a second, then just says “Fuck!” and takes a shot.

Kevin rolls his eyes so hard that his entire head rotates then says, while slightly slurring, “Okay, my turn! I’ve played a game of pick up basketball once (lie), I know all the lyrics to We Didn’t Start the Fire (truth), and I’ve traveled to over a dozen countries (truth).”

Matt starts hysterically laughing again, “You know all the lyrics to We Didn’t Start the Fire! oh my god Kevin you are such a nerd!” everyone else starts laughing at Kevin too.

“Maybe I do, maybe it’s the lie!”

“Everyone knows you’ve never played a sport besides Exy in your life Kevin” Dan says, “Will you sing it for us? Please, please, please!”

Allison, Nicky, and Matt join Dan in asking Kevin to sing. Renee even says, “It would be lovely to hear you sing it Kevin” to which Kevin blushes a little and answers, “Maybe later” and then takes his shot.

Aaron is drunk enough at this point to spill some truths he otherwise never would, and will wish for the rest of his life that he never had.

“When I was little, I wanted to be a figure skater when I grew up.(truth)”

Everyone goes completely silent and stares at him unsure whether to laugh or not but he doesn’t realize and continues

“The first time I got high I thought the squirrels in the tree wanted to adopt me as their squirrel king (truth), and I hate Taylor Swift (lie)”

No one says anything at first, and just when Aaron starts to realize something is up, Nicky says “Nah man, you LOVE T. Swift, you can’t deny it!”

They collectively make a silent agreement to ignore this new information about Aaron until he sobers up a bit and can either defend himself, or will be more fun to tease.

In the end, everyone but Renee guesses right, but she guessed wrong on purpose because she didn’t think that Aaron should be having any more to drink.

When it’s Renee’s turn, she smiles sweetly and says, ”I can juggle up to 7 balls (truth), I have never drank diet soda (lie), and I once had a pet turtle named Vincent (truth).”

No one is confident about which is the lie and it is the longest the foxes debate after anyones turn. It doesn’t help that Renee refuses to answer questions, and whenever someone tries to ask her anything she just smiles and shrugs.

It comes out to Neil and Aaron getting it right, while everyone else has to drink.

“How the fuck has it never come up that you’re a master juggler?” Allison asks angrily

“It wouldn’t be appropriate to do it at practice, and we’re not really around balls much otherwise.”

Everyone asks for a demonstration, “I will juggle later if Kevin will sing.”

Everyone looks at Kevin who sighs but says “Okay, fine!”

They all cheer then wait eagerly for Neil to go.

Neil sits quietly for a little while, not as long as Nicky, but long enough that Aaron says, “Come on this should be easy for you! You lied to us all for a year, what’s the problem, the truth?”

Neil shoots him a dirty look but doesn’t respond for a few more seconds then says,

“My mom and I once helped deliver a baby at a truck stop in Alberta, I’ve been bitten by a camel, and I can speak 7 languages”

Everyone just stares at him.

“Two of those things are true?” Matt finally asks

“Yeah.” Neil says, shrugging. Everyone is silent again.

Nicky turns to Andrew for help, but he refuses to say anything. His eyes are bright with interest though and he looks at Neil for a long time. Internally, he thinks the one about helping birth a baby has something off about it.

After much debate, Allison, Kevin, and Matt guess the baby, Renee, Dan, and Aaron guess the camel, and Nicky says the languages, “No one can know SEVEN languages!! I won’t believe it!”

They all turn to Neil expectantly and he says, “It was the first one, we were just outside Vancouver, in British Columbia, not Alberta.”

“But you, Neil Josten, have helped deliver a baby?” Allison asks incredulously.

“Technically I wasn’t Neil Josten yet…”

Everyone groans. Everyone takes a shot.

Cut to 15 minutes later, Renee is juggling an exy ball, some apples, and Matt’s phone while Kevin sings. Nicky tries to sing along with Kevin but definitely doesn’t know the right words, Aaron is watching Renee wide eyed, Dan and Matt are playing air guitar behind Kevin, and Allison is looking for more things for Renee to juggle. Neil and Andrew sit quietly on a desk holding cigarettes, observing their idiot friends.  

Stories Behind the Truths and Lies

Allison

My first car was a Toyota Camry (truth) - Allison’s parents wanted her to learn how to drive in a safe car that wouldn’t draw a lot of attention, so they got her a Camry. She only drove it for 3 weeks before demanding an upgrade.

My prom dress cost over $10k (lie) - This was almost true. She had ordered a custom Zac Posen dress but before it was finalized she made her decision to go to PSU and play Exy, and her mother canceled the order. She ended up wearing something she found in a vintage store that she altered herself. She ended up enjoying it a lot, which led to her decision to study fashion. (In my hc she played professional Exy for 3? seasons but was injured and then started her fashion line.)

I once made out with Miley Cyrus (truth) - While out clubbing one night she met Miley through mutual friends, they were attracted to each other, they made out. Miley asked for her number but Allison wasn’t looking for anything more than a hook up.

Matt

I’ve swam with sharks (truth) - He did this with his mom on a vacation and they both loved it. They also have a tradition where they watch at least one night of shark week together, or at least call each other to talk while they are both watching.

My favorite flower is sunflowers (truth) - No story lol I just think he would like sunflowers.

My favorite city in the world is Newark, NJ (lie) - I love thinking about New Yorker Matt. Raised on the Upper East Side, dad a top plastic surgeon, mom a public figure? Child grew up surrounded by serious privilege. HC that in fifth grade he made friends with a boy who was on scholarship at his school. Let’s call him… Metin. He lived in Queens? He took the subway? Matt goes to his house one day and it is 1/8th the size of his apartment and there are 9 people living there; Metin’s parents, two grandparents, his uncle, his two sisters, and his cousin. They all speak Turkish in the house and it’s loud and crowded but so full of life and love and Matt loves it. He and Metin grew apart when Matt started using, but before that they were best friends for years and explored the city together, Matt learning about and experiencing so much culture that for the first 9 years of his life he didn’t know existed. When Nicky wanted to go to Times Square for New Years Matt knew he had to be a good host and take them but inside he was DYING. I’m getting off track. No New Yorker could ever like Newark. I’m not convinced anybody could like Newark. It is indeed, very laughable.

Dan

I’ve never shot a gun (truth) - Dan hates guns and refuses to shoot one.

As a kid my favorite food was celery with ranch dressing (truth) - Idk I just thought this was cute. And also thinking about young Dan who didn’t have a lot of access to healthy foods getting celery sticks and ranch with her free school lunch and getting SO excited. Trading her cookie to a classmate for their celery.

When I was 18 I won the lottery but the ticket was ruined and I couldn’t claim the money (lie) - I like to think this is part true. After Dan turned 18 but before she was recruited for the Foxes, she played lotto a lot, always with the same numbers that she got from a fortune cookie that said, “Failure is not defeat until you stop trying.” She stopped playing once she signed with Wymack.

Nicky (all truths)

I’m allergic to shellfish - Mostly I love that Andrew knew all these things about Nicky, especially his allergy because he’s always looking out to make sure Nicky doesn’t eat something he can’t.

I died my hair green once - At first, when he took custody of the twins and started showing up for them at school at stuff, he hated the looks he got. He was a 19 year old kid who was supposed to be their guardian? Not to mention the way people eyed his skin and hair when he said he was family. One day he decided to dye his hair blond and he asked Andrew and Aaron to help, to try to bond. Aaron wanted nothing to do with it, but surprisingly, Andrew seem enthusiastic about the idea. He bought the dye and did everything for Nicky in the kitchen. When he was finally done roughly washing the dye out of Nicky’s hair, Nicky went to the bathroom to see how he looked and saw that Andrew had died his hair green. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh at the prank or cry because he foolishly thought he might be getting through to Andrew. When he went back to the kitchen, he tried to laugh it off and said maybe he should go to a salon to get the color right. Andrew told him he was stupid to try and change how he looked just because people were dumb enough to think that families needed to look alike. Besides, they weren’t a family anyway.  “Family” is a toxic excuse for things people put up with, a reason we accept the tragedies and inconveniences forced upon us. (Nora’s words) Nicky was upset, and dyed his hair back to his natural color once the roots started growing in, but he reaffirmed his commitment in that moment that he would show the twins what Erik had shown him, what a family could really be.

I’ve read all the twilight books three times - Nicky was a huge fan of twilight, even going to the midnight release party for the last book. He was disappointed in the movie adaptations but loved the casting and watched for the eye candy. He is loving the twilight renaissance especially the twilight is gay discourse.

Kevin

I’ve played a game of pick up basketball once (lie) - Kevin has never played a game of basketball, or soccer, or tennis, or baseball, or any other sport for that matter and can not understand why anyone would want to.

I know all the lyrics to We Didn’t Start the Fire (truth) - Kayleigh Day was a big music fan, she loved everything from classical to country, but one of her favorite artists was Billy Joel. After she died and Kevin moved into Evermore, he almost forgot about her music because the music at the Nest was all chosen for pragmatic reasons, like its BPM and ability to pump the players up. One day, when Kevin was around 15 years old, a rebellious Raven played his own music while training in the weight room. He and his partner were the only ones in there until Riko and Kevin showed up, and they turned it off as soon as they realized they had come in, but Kevin heard some of “Only the Good Die Young” and for the first time in a long time had a vivid memory of his mother. He asked the boys what had been playing, and Riko scoffed at the name Billy Joel. That night while Riko was sleeping, Kevin downloaded Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits and listened until he feel asleep, and he continued listening to it for weeks until he started remembering more of his mothers songs from his childhood. We Didn’t Start the Fire was one of his favorites because history.

I’ve traveled to over a dozen countries (truth) - Between travel through Europe with his mom while she spread Exy and professional appearances he made with Riko, Kevin is the most well traveled besides Neil.

Aaron

When I was little, I wanted to be a figure skater when I grew up. (truth) - When Aaron was around four or five, he watched the winter olympics on TV and fell in love with figure skating. Tilda never bothered to get him skating lessons, but one day, when Aaron was seven, there was an attempt to revive the Ice Capades. Aaron never thought he would get to go, but Tilda surprised him with tickets. It is one of the few really good memories he has of his mom.

The first time I got high I thought the squirrels in the tree wanted to adopt me as their squirrel king (truth) - I just imagine Aaron trying his mom’s drugs for the first time alone in the back yard, laying flat on his back looking up at a family of squirrels, saying, “I’m king of the squirrels!!!”

I hate Taylor Swift (lie) - Katelyn is a HUGE Taylor Swift fan. When they first started hanging out, Aaron didn’t really like her music but didn’t want to say anything. Eventually he started associating her with Katelyn though, and he loves watching Katelyn sign and dance so much that he now genuinely enjoys her music.

Renee

I can juggle up to 7 balls (truth) - Renee always had a natural juggling talent. She never really tried to learn, it was just always something she could do.

I have never drank diet soda (lie) - She does prefer non-diet soda, but she has tried diet before.

I once had a pet turtle named Vincent (truth) - Vincent was a gift from one of her mother’s boyfriends, the only one Renee ever remotely like. He was horrible to her mother, but had a soft spot for Renee and treated her kindly. They broke up after a couple of months, and he gave her Vincent as a parting gift. She had him until she got arrested, she couldn’t go back home to get him and when her mother went to prison he died.

Neil

My mom and I once helped deliver a baby at a truck stop in Alberta (lie) - This happened while Neil and his mom were on the way to Seattle. It was the middle of the night and they stopped to get gas a few hours out from Vancouver when they heard a woman screaming. There was nothing around for miles and only one other car in the lot that had been there when they pulled in. His mother immediately dropped the gas pump and Neil was already back in the car when the screaming stopped and his mother hesitated. Neil had never seen his mom hesitate with a potential threat around before, and he listened closely to try and understand why she stopped. All he heard was a woman panting harshly, but it sounded almost as though there was a rhythm to it. Mary signaled for him to get out of the car, and ordered him to grab some blankets, the first aid kit, and water bottles and follow her. They walked behind the locked public bathrooms, and found the woman squatting, with tears running down her face. Mary wasn’t very gentle or comforting, but she told the woman in a calm and confident voice that they were going to help. Neil didn’t do much, but he let the woman hold his hand and squeeze until he thought she would break it. He gave her sips of water between her contractions and did anything else his mother said. Once the baby was out, wrapped in a blanket, and in its mothers arms, Mary grabbed Neil and they left without another word to the woman. She stared after them, confused and grateful. Neil and his mother never spoke of it again.

I’ve been bitten by a camel (truth) - Neil and Mary spent a few days in Dubai to get some papers from a specialist there before traveling back to North America. The man did his business out of a racetrack where they held camel races. To get to his office, they had to travel through the back part of the track that the jockeys used to get the camels into position. Neil got too close to one of the camels and it bit his arm, luckily (or not), the jockey was in the middle of beating it and before it closed its mouth too tightly, landed a blow that caused the camel to immediately open its mouth again. Once he was freed, Neil was out of reach in a millisecond.

I can speak 7 languages (truth) - English, German, French, Russian, Hebrew, Czech, Greek. (To clarify he can speak 7 languages but he wouldn’t necessarily call himself fluent in all 7) We all know English, German, French, and Nora had a hc that Andrew and Neil learn Russian so they can talk to each other even with the cousins around which I love. Hebrew - In my hc Neil is jewish, as are Mary and Nathan. After running away, Mary didn’t know where to go once she had left her brother. She didn’t speak any other languages besides English, but she could understand Yiddish from hearing her grandparents and sometimes her parents speaking it growing up, and she could understand Polish from her time married to Nathan. She didn’t want to go to Poland in case any of Nathan’s contacts recognized her, so she decided to go to Israel. She knew there were communities there that spoke Yiddish and she was familiar if not comfortable with Hebrew from going to temple when she was younger. But most importantly she knew Nathan didn’t have any regular contacts there. While they were there, along with learning Hebrew, Mary pretended to be interested in converting to Greek Orthodox in order to get secret Greek lessons for her and Neil. After a while but sooner than she had hoped, Mary got a warning that Nathan had figured out where they were. She didn’t think it would be wise to go directly to Greece so she decided to move them to Prague next, since Czech and Polish are fairly similar and she really had no other ideas. While in Prague she continued her and Neil’s Greek lessons, and they went on to Greece eventually. Mary didn’t want them to lose any of the languages they learned, so she came up with a system that on certain days of the week they would speak to each other in certain languages. After Mary died, Neil pretty much gave up on Czech and Hebrew because he hadn’t been surrounded by them in so long and he hadn’t used either except with Mary since they moved from Prague or Israel. They had lived in Greece for longer than they had in Prague or Israel though, moving to a few different cities, so he felt stronger with Greek.

Fin. 

This is my first time writing anything fanfiction, my first time doing any creative writing at all really, and I would love any and all feedback!! Thanks for reading this long ass post, I hope it wasn’t terrible!!

[csnews]

What’s Killing Killer Whales? Pathology Reports on More Than 50 Killer Whales in the Northeast Pacific and Hawaii

University of California, Davis - December 2, 2020

Pathology reports on more than 50 killer whales stranded over nearly a decade in the northeast Pacific and Hawaii show that orcas face a variety of mortal threats — many stemming from human interactions.

A study analyzing the reports was published today (Dec. 2) in the journal PLOS ONE. The study findings indicate that understanding and being aware of each threat is critical for managing and conserving killer whale populations. It also presents a baseline understanding of orca health.

The study was conducted by a team of marine mammal specialists led by a veterinary pathologist with the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture and coordinated through SeaDoc Society, a Washington-based program of the University of California, Davis’ School of Veterinary Medicine. The study received guidance and support from Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the United States’ NOAA Fisheries, the two federal agencies that manage this species.

The whales include those from healthy populations as well as endangered species, such as the southern resident whales regularly sighted off the coasts of British Columbia, Washington and Oregon.

Of 52 whales stranded between 2004 and 2013, causes of death were determined for 42 percent. For example, one calf died from sepsis following a halibut hook injury. Another starved from a congenital facial deformity. Two whales died from the blunt force trauma of vessel strikes. Additional causes of death include infectious disease and nutritional deficiencies.

‘We Can Do Better’

Despite there being no singular common cause of death, the study found a common theme: Human-caused deaths occurred in every age class — from juveniles to subadults and adults.

“Nobody likes to think we’re directly harming animals,” said SeaDoc Society Director Joe Gaydos, a wildlife veterinarian with the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. “But it’s important to realize that we’re not just indirectly hurting them from things like lack of salmon, vessel disturbance or legacy toxins. It’s also vessel strikes and fish hooks. That humans are directly killing killer whales across all age classes is significant; it says we can do a better job.”

Gaydos and lead author Stephen Raverty, a veterinary pathologist with the BC Ministry of Agriculture, co-developed a standardized killer whale necropsy protocol in 2004. Revised in 2014 with help from Judy St. Leger, a pathologist working for SeaWorld, this guide helped improve examinations of deceased whales.

“The results from systematic necropsies of dead killer whales in this review is unique and will establish critical baseline information to assess future mitigation efforts,” Raverty said. “This work contributes to a better understanding of the impacts that ongoing human activities and environmental events have on killer whales.”

The authors acknowledge the report is an incomplete picture of orca health and mortality. Necropsies can only be performed on whales found in an adequate state to receive them, and even then, the cause of death cannot always be determined. But the report offers one of the most comprehensive looks yet at the multitude of human and environmental threats affecting killer whales and can help inform strategies to better protect them.

Reference: “Pathology findings and correlation with body condition index in stranded killer whales (Orcinus orca) in the northeastern Pacific and Hawaii from 2004 to 2013″ by Stephen Raverty, Judy St. Leger, Dawn P. Noren, Kathy Burek Huntington, David S. Rotstein, Frances M. D. Gulland, John K. B. Ford, M. Bradley Hanson, Dyanna M. Lambourn, Jessie Huggins, Martha A. Delaney, Lisa Spaven, Teri Rowles, Lynne Barre,  Paul Cottrell, Graeme Ellis, Tracey Goldstein, Karen Terio, Debbie Duffield, Jim Rice and Joseph K. Gaydos, 2 December 2020, PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0242505

Additional coauthors include scientists from a wide range of institutions including Cornell University, NOAA Fisheries, Alaska Veterinary Pathology Services, Marine Mammal Pathology Service in Maryland, UC Davis One Health Institute, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Cascadia Research Collective, University of Illinois-Brookfield, Portland State University, and Oregon State University.

Funding was provided by NOAA Fisheries and multiple grants from the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program. Additional support came from Fisheries and Oceans, Canada; Vancouver Aquarium Research Program; SeaDoc Society; SeaWorld; Animal Health Center of the BC Ministry of Agriculture; Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife; and numerous First Nations, Alaska Native, and Inuit communities.

[vancouverskinclinic2-blog]

Skin Clinic in Vancouver - Achieve Healthy Glowing Skin

SkinGlow Laser & Rejuvenation Clinic is a skincare clinic located in the heart of Yaletown in downtown Vancouver. With their high-quality skin care services, they hope to educate, inspire, and promote a positive and healthy lifestyle through skincare services. They invest a lot of time and effort in understanding the specific skin care needs of every client and offering long term solutions. At this skin clinic in Vancouver, you get a wide range of skincare treatments and services to take care of wrinkles, fine lines, sagging, sun damage, aging, spots, and so on. The natural, non-invasive skin care solutions include microneedling, dermaplaning, LED facial, hydrafacial, clinical peels, photo facial, acne treatments, laser hair removal, skin tightening, BBL photo facials, Visia skin analysis and so on. The skin clinic was conceived over several years of continuous research, education, and dedication. With the latest technologies like RBX Technology and UV photography, they are able to get to the root of your skin problems and deliver solutions that work. Their priority is to bring to you the finest customer service, most desirable results, and affordable prices. SkinGlow Laser & Rejuvenation Clinic is located just two blocks away from the Yaletown-Roundhouse Skytrain Station. The team leaves no stone unturned to ensure that you walk-out with a happy and glowing skin. Skinglow Laser & Rejuvenation Clinic 1140 Homer Street #250B, Vancouver, BC V6B 2X6 (604) 566-4569 https://skinglowlaser.ca/ G Page Youtube Twitter Facebook Pinterest Instagram Linkedin Yelp

[bloodiedbiotic]

Thanks to BioWare and their well-practiced ability of not giving us lore for key things  ( ie. the Lazarus Project ), not much is known in detail about Shepard’s reconstruction. What we do know is it took two years and over four billion credits to complete; and even then, it wasn’t officially complete as Wilson’s betrayal put a halt to things  ( thus why Shepard has facial scarring )  but it was still a success with Shepard regaining full neurological activity.

Not to mention that throughout Mass Effect 2, you can upgrade Shepard’s cybernetics through the research terminal in the Tech Lab. So, after garnering small bits of description text from those upgrades and screen caps of the Lazarus Project, I’ve decided to go into detail about Shepard’s reconstruction during the Lazarus Project and elaborate on the extent of their cybernetic implants.

As far as the details go regarding Shepard’s body and what’s what, it’s stated that cybernetic implants were used to reconstruct their skeleton, which, as evidenced by the Lazarus Project cameras and scans, was heavily damaged due to crashing through Alchera’s atmosphere groundside. Granted, the damage could have been a lot worse; it’s clear their hardsuit absorbed much of the damage, the breastplate more than likely reaching its breaking point and falling into pieces  ( as evidenced by Legion and Liara’s apartment in the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC ).

Still, the damage done to Shepard’s body as a whole was enough to make them nigh-unrecognizable, a salarian named Tazzik stating that it's “hard to tell if it's even a man or a woman, blown to hell like that” when observing their body in the stasis pod. Of course, while this was also a playful reference to Shepard’s gender being player-determined, it still meant that their body went through so much damage prior to reconstruction, they couldn’t even be recognized. As Jacob said, “meat and tubes”. 

As seen here, there’s a lot of the damage done to the skeleton, though I feel that a good part of it is focused on the upper body: rib cage, arms, and the spine  ( granted, the legs are definitely looking pretty gnarly as well ).  Look closely at the lower half of the spine between the rib cage and pelvis and you see a large part of it is missing. We’ll get back to that later. 

One interesting thing to notice is the little amount of damage to the skull. If the Normandy Crash Site DLC is played, you can find Shepard’s old N7 helmet and have it kept in their cabin, and upon inspection, it’s relatively intact. And it’s a good thing it is, because it kept the most important part of Shepard intact: their brain. While Shepard was confirmed to be clinically brain dead — thank you, Mass Effect 3, for that — their brain was intact and that more than likely saved tons of time for the Lazarus Cell.

Of course, Shepard needed more than a functioning brain to get back to action. All those breaks in the skeleton had to be fixed and considering that there’s nothing in ME2 or ME3 regarding the Lazarus Cell regrowing any bones, it becomes apparent that most, if not all, of Shepard’s skeleton was reconstructed via cybernetic implants. Remember that part of the spine that was missing? We actually see cybernetic implants being augmented for that missing section!

We also know it’s that part of the spine being augmented due to the scene overlooking Shepard’s repaired body.

In addition to the cybernetic implant for the spine, other parts of the body share the same blue-tinted highlight, indicating there are other cybernetic implants in place. From the screen caps, there’s one in Shepard’s left forearm and two in the right  ( and one in the upper right arm ), one in their right shin, as well one in their right quad and two in their left. Something I noticed that I find interesting is the five ribs highlighted on the right side. Looking back at the damage sustained to the skeleton, it’s reasonable to assume that those ribs were completely replaced with cybernetics.

Now, that’s just covering the SKELETON.

It’s stated that the Lazarus Project moved from simple organic reconstruction to bio-synthetic fusion. I believe that the simple organic reconstruction started and ended Shepard’s internal organs and circulatory system. The extensive damage to Shepard’s skeleton is what led the move over to bio-synthetic fusion. It’s comfortable to say that Shepard’s skin was more than likely all bio-synthetic fusion, given the facial scarring they can experience through the games. 

Now, throughout Mass Effect 2, there are upgrades — I’m sure everyone knows about those. There are different categories for the upgrades, but the one I want to focus on are the Cybernetic Upgrades. There are three that can be upgraded multiple times throughout the game:

—  LATTICE SHUNTING: Strong synthetic fibers can be woven through the skin, dramatically reducing damage taken from most attacks. These fibers also act as a medi-gel conduit, improving healing. —  MICROFIBER WEAVE: Perforating the muscles with micro-fibers increases overall strength and decreases the potential for muscle damage from exertion. —  SKELETAL LATTICE: By reinforcing the skeleton with a synthetic weave, bones can be made almost unbreakable. In the event of bone trauma, medi-gel conduits allow for bone regeneration in a matter of days.

Taking these into consideration is honestly insane; Shepard’s skin has synthetic fibers woven through it, and their skeleton, which has already been augmented in numerous places with implants, is reinforced with a synthetic weave. The latter honestly explains why in Mass Effect 3’s Citadel DLC, Shepard is able to walk off that fall through Ryuusei's fish tank without any broken bones.

These upgrades also explain how Shepard can achieve and display certain feats of indescribable strength and durability across Mass Effect 2 and 3, including but not limited to:

—  Matching the strength of a fully grown Yahg, even hitting it hard enough to knock it back —  Headbutt a Krogan on their crestplate hard enough to stagger them without sustaining any injuries —  Knock out the fully-armed guards on The Project  ( Arrival DLC )  with their bare hands —  Survive high falls with no impact on functionality  ( Vancouver and Citadel DLC ) —  Lift up the Virmire Survivor  ( while they are clad in battle armor )  fireman-style with ease —  Use weapons such as the M-98 Widow and M-300 Claymore, guns that both tout in their description that a normal human is not capable of firing them without serious injury; the Widow can shatter an ordinary human’s arm after firing and the kickback on the Claymore has enough force to break a human arm —  Lift the giant metal slab that was on top of them and one of their squadmates following the destruction of the Human Reaper Larva

Now, with these augmentations, Shepard’s humanity comes into question. Technically, Shepard is a cyborg. Something about that, however, doesn’t quite feel right. It’s basically told by the games that they’re a super soldier, already having gone through genetic enhancement as an Alliance recruit to improve their natural human abilities: their strength, speed, reflexes, etc. Though, that was genetic engineering and comparing that to bio-synthetic fusion is like comparing apples to oranges. Shepard’s humanity and their take on it is a headcanon for another day!

This is definitely something I have as a personal headcanon, but in regards to Shepard’s facial scarring, I fully believe that morality has no part in the healing process. I believe that stress has an adverse affect on those incomplete cybernetics, thus as Shepard gets into more stressful situations, the scars worsen. This explains how Shepard can turn themself in to the Alliance with their face laced with glowing scars after destroying the Alpha Relay and then face the Committee scar-free, having spent the past six months in Vancouver on house arrest.

Also, this is something I’ve seen people talk about, but people question how their Shepard can be biotic in Mass Effect 2 when they played a non-biotic class  ( Soldier, Engineer, Infiltrator ). Well, according to developer documents, Shepard had already been exposed to eezo in utero, being born with latent biotic potential. It was only when they received secondary exposure to element zero at the age of fourteen that biotic abilities began to manifest. Fast forward three years, and Shepard is “officially” detected as biotic and outfitted with L3 implants at the age of seventeen. Upon enlisting at eighteen, it’s completely possible that Shepard chose not to develop their biotic abilities as an Adept, Vanguard, or Sentinel in the Alliance. Yet, they are still capable of biotic abilities  ( ie. Barrier, Throw, Lift, Stasis, etc. ). This explains how a Soldier / Infiltrator / Engineer Shepard can use biotic abilities in ME1.

With ME2, Shepard is given a new biotic implant, an L5 that is one of three variants. My guess is that Shepard’s combat style is determined by their implant while they’re fighting for their life aboard the Lazarus Research Station. An L5n-implanted Shepard finds themself capable of charging across the battlefield, while an L5x-implanted Shepard discovers their ability to generate a singularity. If they’re not fitted with one of those two implants, then that leaves the other four classes with their own abilities, and Shepard still being able to generate mass effect fields  ( for the sake of bonus powers for Soldier / Infiltrator / Engineer ). 

This continues on into Mass Effect 3, only that Shepard is stuck with the implant they received from the Lazarus Project, but because of just how powerful a biotic Shepard is, they’re still capable of abilities such as: Reave, Flare, Slam, and others. As Kaidan states in the Citadel DLC, he worked to learn how to Reave, meaning it’s more than possible for Shepard to learn other abilities. 

I’ve just about tapped out everything I had for this headcanon, even going further than expected to bring up those extra details about the facial scarring and how Shepard can still use biotic abilities as a non-biotic class. I know this was a long read, and if you’d like to share your thoughts or opinions, I’d love to hear them! ^^

[rwbyconversations]

DmC Devil May Cry- Six Years Later

A few weeks ago, I wrote an essay about Dante from the Devil May Cry series and his character development across his six mainline appearances. Doing it got me thinking about the franchise and got me to get around to finishing the DMC games I own in my possession- Devil May Cry 4, which has a great combat system but is let down by having far too few environments and missions, and DmC Devil May Cry, the black sheep of the franchise and one of the most controversial reboots of a franchise. Finishing DmC gave me a perspective that only finishing something yourself can provide. 

I’d owned a copy of the original launch version of DmC but found it dreary and sold it less than a quarter of the way into the game, before grabbing its Definitive Edition during a Christmas sale on really a glorified whim- sort of a “Let’s see how bad it can really get” vibe, but then I put it down and didn’t come back to it for three months because other games and other projects took prominence. But about a week ago I was bored and decided to knock the entire game out in one day due to a lack of anything better to do, and after a few days to mull on it, I decided to write an essay about DmC and how this oddball entry into an otherwise mostly beloved franchise has aged.

1) Pre-development

Devil May Cry 4 was a success for Capcom, selling about two million units in its first month of release when Capcom were hoping for 1.8 million by the end of the fiscal year. On a critical level too it walked away satisfied, with Metacritic rating both the PS3 and 360 releases of the game with 84/100, praising the fluid gameplay and intricate combat system, but knocking points off for a very repetitive campaign which saw Dante literally backtracking through Nero’s stages. But Capcom were hoping for more from DMC4. This was the debut of the franchise on not just the Seventh Generation of Consoles, but the franchise’s Microsoft debut, and the hopes were that DMC4 would be a smash success potentially on par with the numbers Western games like Call of Duty 4 or Halo 3 had made the year prior. 2.1 million was still good, but Capcom wanted more.

The mid-2000s marked a turn in Japanese game development, with the increased costs of HD modelling and Japan’s home market becoming more apathetic about buying games (some Japanese games reported only 10% of their total sales from Japan itself), while the West began booming. With the 7th Generation, gaming went mainstream for many people in the West- as an example of this, I’m sure we all know at least one person who went to college after 2007 and can share stories of nights spent playing Halo over XBox Live. The mass success of the God of War franchise in the West also told Capcom that this gold mine of a market was ready and willing to enjoy some classic hack and slash action gaming.

The decrease in local sales gave Capcom the idea that they needed to begin outsourcing their properties to the West so they could appeal to a larger market, which led to such projects as Lost Planet, Dead Rising and Bionic Commando being made by Western studios. This was largely the brainchild of Keiji Inafune, nowadays known for the utter disaster of the Mighty Number 9 Kickstarter game. Inafune had a mindset of “doing the same thing is going to get us the same results (if we’re lucky). Let’s try something from a different perspective.” Unfortunately for Inafune, his different perspective failed to set the world on fire, with only Dead Rising proving to be a success and making it into the 8th console generation when handled by Capcom’s new Vancouver team, and even that series has suffered some fatal blows due to the poor launch of Dead Rising 4. 

Even though Inafune cut ties with Capcom in 2010 (a month after DmC was announced), his idea of Westernizing several dormant properties was still in effect and Devil May Cry became one of the franchises that was outsourced. British company Ninja Theory, known for their games Heavenly Sword and Enslaved Odyssey to the West, were the company Capcom gave a phone call to. While known nowadays more for Hellblade, back in 2010 Ninja Theory were known for two very simply action games that relied more on their stories and usage of motion capture and facial captures to fill in the gaps. What didn’t help was that in the interim period between 4 and the reboot, DMC1 director Hideki Kamiya had since formed Platinum Studios and proven themselves to the West with Bayonetta, a game hailed by many as a spiritual successor to the DMC franchise. 

Capcom had faith in Ninja Theory to translate DMC’s vision to the west, and as such at TGS 2010, the first trailer for DmC Devil May Cry was released and... well the rest is history.

The fanbase’s hackles were immediately raised and knives were out within seconds of the launch trailer dropping. A series that had become known for its over the top cutscenes and wry sense of cheesy humor had been Westernized into another gritty, bleak product. Dante went from the goofball who quoted Shakespeare to a gravelly voiced methhead who smoked. And for a series that prized itself on action and combos, that no proper gameplay was shown at the reveal was a worrying sign. The reveal trailer tainted the whole game right out of the gate; alongside Ninja Theory’s less than stellar track record with action games the fanbase was ready to hate this game on principle if it followed what had been done to Capcom’s other franchises that went on a foreign exchange trip.

Being fair to Ninja Theory though, several extenuating factors must be addressed. Among them is series director Hideaki Itsuno’s admission that he didn’t want to do Devil May Cry 5 yet after having worked on three straight games for the series out of concern that he would suffer from burnout. He wanted to go off and finally make a passion project he had been dreaming of for years in Dragon’s Dogma, which launched in 2012. Additionally, Ninja Theory did try and make a more faithful rendition of Dante, one who even kept the white hair and vibrantly red jacket, but these initial designs were shot down by Capcom, who told them to “go crazy.” In fact one of the people who rejected the designs that were close to classic Dante was Itsuno himself, who saw little point in Ninja Theory just copying Dante’s look if the whole point of the project was a new approach on Devil May Cry.

But the fanbase at the time didn’t know that Capcom were actively encouraging Ninja Theory to experiment, and what didn’t help was the quotes coming from the game’s director, Tameen Antoniades, which would prove to be a series of disasters that plagued DmC’s PR campaign. Tameen, put bluntly, wasn’t ready for the backlash to the game and its visual style and shot back at the fans. When asked by Venturebeat how he felt about the fan reaction to the TGS trailer, Tameen “took a drag of his cigarette and without blinking or pausing to exhale the smoke from his mouth, said: ‘I don’t care.’” People began to mockingly compare Tameen to Dante as seen in the trailer, which caused some fans to question if Tameen had used his own likeness as the basis for Dante. 

And unfortunately for Capcom’s PR team, he didn’t stop there, mocking Dante’s original design in a later interview when saying that what was and wasn’t cool had changed in the years since DMC1: “If Dante, dressed as he was, walked into any bar outside of Tokyo, he’d get laughed out.” 

I’d like to remind you that Tameen as director of the project likely signed off om some of these alternate concepts for Dante and keep that in mind whenever Tameen or a Ninja Theory staff member talk about A) what is and isn’t cool B) Original Dante’s character design.

The fanbase didn’t exactly make a good case for themselves after the game’s announcement though, with Ninja Theory reporting that they received death threats from some more hardcore fans. It still doesn’t make Tameen admitting he didn’t care if his game sold “a thousand or two million copies” look stellar, nor his derisive attitude towards the original series and its depiction of women, mocking Lady and Trish as “prostitutes with guns.” Ironically, despite being insistent that he’d made the game he wanted to play, Ninja Theory did dial back on methhead Dante, redesigning his model to be more beefy and replacing his voice actor, alongside redoing some scenes to make Dante crack more jokes. 

On a technical level, hype was low from the hardcore fans due to simplified combat and, more egregiously, the game being locked to 30FPS on launch unless bought on PC which offered an upcapped framerate. For those unaware, all prior Devil May Cry games had run at 60FPS, including DMC4 which had come out some years earlier on the same console. 60FPS was a requirement by many pro players due to how it made animations silky smooth, so DmC being capped to 30 was an immediate red flag. Suffice to say, the fandom was ready for DmC to be a disaster at launch and began prepping their funeral pyres.

2) Gameplay

Early reviews for DmC were quite positive, with the game earning a Metacritic rating about even with DMC4, but the fanbase were far less forgiving. The 30FPS framerate lock outside of the PC port (which was admittedly one of the more polished ports of 2013, as covered by the late and great John Bain) had tainted the well pre-release and then came back with a vengeance to haunt the console launch in 2013. Without a lock on system, movement felt sluggish compared to the other games, hurting the flow of combat.

Difficulty was a major criticism of the game from long-term fans, particularly pertaining to how the style rank system rewarded damage done over pulling off varied combos. Whereas in the older games the player was punished for repeating moves over and over, DmC’s style ranks were so easy to abuse that so long as the combo was never broken due to taking damage, achieving a SSS rank was child’s play. Aquila’s Tornado and Arbiter’s Trinity Smash were especially broken in this regard. 

Being fair to the game, it did introduce several mechanics that were later incorporated into DMC 5 in 2019- enemies get a subtitle during their first appearance (taken from Bayonetta), weapons getting a slight glint when the player pauses to let them know they can launch a pause combo attack (also taken from Bayonetta) and a dynamic soundtrack that racketed up the higher your style rank got, alongside the killing blow at the end of a fight getting a cinematic camera angle. These are all features that were genuine improvements over Devil May Cry 4, and while Bayonetta likely paved the way for most of these improvements, DmC still served as a test-bed to experiment on their integration with Devil May Cry as a whole.

The level design was also a huge step up from the earlier games. Dante’s whip functions made platforming far more varied that it had been in prior games, and these new traversal mechanics allowed for the level designers to stretch their legs. DmC arguably has, even in light of 5, some of the best platforming in the entire franchise, and a gorgeous color palette in some areas when Dante is in Limbo. Gothic European cities were cited as a huge influence by the team, Barcelona in particular, and it shows whenever Dante is outside as he gets dragged into Limbo. The idea of the city itself being a weapon of Mundus that tries to kill Dante is inspired, with obvious homages to Inception, and allows for the designers to make environments that at the drop of a hat can try to kill Dante. The team did their best to bring their unique aesthetic mixture of grunge and color to life, and even goes through a full color script. The downside is that exploration is rarely allowed beyond side paths that lead to collectables, meaning the player is on rails for much of the game.

DmC’s largest gameplay addition is in Dante’s Devil Arms. As he progesses through the game, Dante absorbs angelic and demon weapons from the bosses, gaining Angel Weapons that serve as fast crowd control, and Demon Weapons that are single-target but heavily damaging. Both of these sets of weapons are accessed by holding a trigger button during combat, allowing Dante to fluidly switch between weapons as the situation calls for it. One of my personal favorite applications of this tactic was to use Rebellion’s opening two slices to lead into Arbiter’s Trinity Smash as it was easier for me to read the above-mentioned glint tell on Rebellion. Alongside Dante’s firearms, it gives the player eight different weapons to switch between in combat, allowing for some unique combo potential, albeit potential that isn’t as deep as the original games. Dante losing his styles from DMC3 and 4 alongside the unique moves from those styles like Royal Guarding and jump cancelling was a particularly heavy blow for the hardcore fans, to say nothing of the revulsion generated by the color-coded enemies who could only be hurt by specific weapons.

Another heavy blow for the fans was the handling of Dante’s Devil Trigger, which gives Dante his traditional color palette, slows time to a crawl and gave Dante an attack and speed boost, alongside automatically sending most enemies flying into the air upon activation. The air-boosted hurt the usage of Devil Trigger in the long run, as it reduced whatever encounter it was activated in a stomp for the player- even Dante’s basic combos could tear through enemy health with DT active. Devil Trigger in the original games was a mixture of emergency button and power boost, but here it just serves as an “I win” button on whatever enemy irks you today.

And yet for all that can be said of DmC at launch, it could have been worse. Despite being busy with Dragon’s Dogma, Itsuno still served as an executive producer of the reboot and often gave Ninja Theory advice on areas to improve the gameplay mechanically. One such story goes that Itsuno saw a design for an enemy with blades in its arms. Upon asking what purpose the blades served in combat and being told they had none, Itsuno ordered that the blades be removed. Capcom producer Motohide Eshiro later noted in a Famitsu interview that Ninja Theory had to be reigned in on several occasions in spite of the “go crazy” approach given to them in early design, in order to avoid the game receiving a rating that could potentially stonewall it being sold in physical stores in Japan.

Ultimately the gameplay failed to impress for DmC in 2013, which reflected poorly in its sales. Capcom initially hoped for DmC to break 2 million units like DMC4 had back in 2008, but then quietly lowered the projected sales to 1.2 million. Rumors circulate to this day that Capcom were so desperate to boost the game’s poor sales that when DmC was part of the PS+ membership offer in January 2014, Capcom counted PS+ downloads as part of the sales for the game. In a financial report for 2013, while not speaking of DmC by name, Capcom spoke of a "delayed response to the expanding digital contents market," "insufficient coordination between the marketing and the game development divisions in overseas markets," and a "decline in quality due to excessive outsourcing." Capcom would only report in June 2018, a full five and a half years post-launch, that DmC had met the original sale goals of 2.3 million units. But it wasn’t the gameplay that ultimately turned off the fans and prevented Capcom’s sales pitches from becoming reality. No, that matter fell to the story.

3) Story

DmC’s story isn’t so much a straw that breaks the camel’s back, as it is an anvil. Regardless of your opinions on the gameplay, the story is where DmC comes to a grinding, screeching halt and fails to capture any of the essence of what made Dante and characters from the original setting interesting or even cool. Before we dive into the narrative itself, we need to discuss what started the controversy back in 2010 at TGS, and that’s Dante.

Dante is simply not likable in the reboot. While the original Dante was a goofball and a bit of a jackass, he always backed up his actions with flashy deeds and was ultimately a good-hearted man. In this setting, Ninja Theory try so hard to make Dante cool and badass that it loops around and makes him look like a petulant child’s version of what’s cool- a hard-drinking loner who has threesomes with strippers in his trailer by the amusement park. Dante in DMC4 threw Shakespeare quotes out at Agnus, while Dante in DmC screams “Fuck you!” at demons and writes profanity on clipboards. Nothing about Dante carries that effortless swagger that the original had. His smug, IDGAF attitude tries to make him cool and more fitting for the gritty tone but it’s so different from the original Dante that the subsequent tonal clash makes Dante a much more poorly written character. Again, this is something that must be put at Capcom’s feet and not Ninja Theory, as they were the ones telling the developers to westernize Dante, but the end product stills fails to match up with what came before. 

While Dante does have an arc over the game that sees him develop concern for the people close to him and humanity as a whole, the characterization and framing regularly undermines his arc. Dante is written as the archetype of “Jerk with a heart of gold,” but as a direct violation of a core rule of this character- that they must be fun to view and see their antics as an audience member- Dante fails to meet this tenant and it makes his obnoxious, smug and asshole moments taint the character and make it difficult to care for his struggles. Rather than see Dante’s dark backstory that puts his behavior into context and makes you understand why he’s so sullen and bitter, the audience just sees Dante being a smug jackass, and one who takes himself too seriously to be fun like mainline Dante. The one time I buy that Dante genuinely cares for other people is at the Order hideout raid when he stays in order to guide Kat through being arrested, and stays with her as the SWAT officers shoot her and beat her unconscious. His facial expression sells his anguish at seeing Kat be brutalized like this and it contains the best acting from Tim Phillips.

Ironically, despite how hated Methhead Dante was, I do have to wonder what the game would have been like had the developers stuck to their guns and committed to their original idea for the character- someone with psychosis who has no clue if he’s actually seeing and killing demons or if he’s just a mass murdering lunatic. It might have been even worse or it could have made the game work. It’s probably for the best we don’t know what Methhead Dante would have been like, but part of me can’t help but wonder.

It’s important to understand all these problems with Dante, since as the protagonist, the story partly rests on his shoulders. While older Dante had the charisma in most of his appearances to be able to sell the weight of a story moment when he stopped fooling around, reboot Dante’s heavy angst focus means that feat is harder for him to accomplish, and it doesn’t help that his supporting cast are less than ideal.

I mentioned earlier Tameen’s “prostitutes with guns” remark aimed at the DMC female cast, and I think it’s amazing how little self-awareness he must have had to say that when his own story’s approach to female characters is frankly insulting. DmC has one of the most sexist stories I’ve yet seen in any media, and it’s galling when compared to the mainline entries, DMC3 in particular. Kat, Eva and Lillith are all plot devices, Eva being long-dead and existing just to give Dante motivation to kill Mundus, Lillith being the stereotypical sexy villainess who gets reduced to her womb, while Kat is basically the subject of a snuff film with how she gets brutalized by the plot and the camera makes sure you see all of her injuries in extensive detail. And this all goes without saying how the second act revolves around the two female characters in the narrative being traded like Pokemon cards only for Vergil to perform the now-infamous sniper rifle abortion. 

It doesn’t matter what joke you’re making in your head right now, it’s still not half as tasteless as this actual scene

Speaking of Vergil, his depiction in DmC is genuinely upsetting and while I’ve seen people argue for Dante’s arc in the reboot, Vergil is almost universally despised and seen as a black mark on the prime version of Vergil. Putting aside the sniper rifle abortion, Vergil is just not written well and he never gives the impression of being powerful. Vergil’s opening scene has him say point-blank to Dante “I’m powerless to stop you,” words that should never flow out of the mouth of anyone claiming to be Vergil.  It doesn’t get much better as throughout the game, Vergil hands all the major physical parts of the plan against Mundus to Dante to preserve the secret of Vergil’s Nephilim heritage. The problem with this is that Vergil subsequently never gets to show his stuff in a fight until the very end of the game when he fights Dante and suddenly has a lot of his moveset from the old series transplanted. It makes moments like Vergil hiding behind a barrier at the hands of one demon that Dante has to kill undermine his character and make him look like a coward, to say nothing of his awkward heel-turn which just shows up for the sake of having a final boss. Compared to the depiction of Dante and Vergil’s rivalry in Devil May Cry 3, which was amazing on a thematic and character level, DmC falls flat on its own shoelaces. And the character Vergil gains through his DLC is just further unpleasantness as he rips off Bleach and the Hollow Ichigo fight wholesale. Vergil is just a mistake in this game, and alongside Dante is the cardinal sin in its writing. 

Mundus represents a lot of the larger problems with DmC’s story, in particular its on-the-nose message and symbolism. The game is so focused on making sure you get the point that “Hey, we’ve seen this niche film called They Live and it’s the sickest shit also FUCK THE MAN, CAPITALISM SUCKS, WAKE UP SHEEPLE,” that Mundus doesn’t really get to be a proper villain. He’s just this stereotypical slimy corporation guy, with one slight hint to his character in that he’s obsessed with continuing his lineage. The problem is that his lack of writing makes him boring and one-note, a cliche rule-the-world dictator that’s been done to death. He’s not even a major threat in gameplay, his boss fight just being a giant blob monster. It’s visually drab and has the most boring boss fight in the game. Mundus may not have had much personality or screentime in the original DMC1, but he made up for it with a powerful presence that made him feel dangerous. This Mundus is just a bald guy in a suit. The only fear he puts in me is the fear that I’ll drop my controller when I fall asleep.

DmC’s story is a mess. While structurally well-put together, its dialogue is often weak and cringeworthy, most of the villains have no real staying power beyond Barbas, Vergil is a waste of the character name, Kat and Lillith are plot devices and Dante is just a jackass. It’s a cast of unlikable people being unlikable jerks to each other and when the story it’s making me sick with how repulsive it can be with its tone deaf themes and sexism, it’s putting me to sleep with how fucking dull it is. 

4) Definitive Edition

The post launch years of DmC weren’t kind to Ninja Theory or Capcom. Capcom retracted their Western development philosophy after a string of flops resulted from it, while Ninja Theory became the whipping boy of the action community for several years post-launch, which led to the now infamous GDC presentation where Dante was photoshopped onto scenes from Brokeback Mountain by someone who had no hand in designing Dante’s old costumes:

Revenge, evidently, is a dish best served cold

What didn’t help them was that 2013 also saw the launch of Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, Platinum’s take on the Metal Gear franchise that quickly gained the adoration of the action fanbase while leaving DmC in the dust. According to Dante’s voice actor Reuben Landgon, Itsuno apparently was extremely close to retiring after DmC, and Capcom had to offer him the chance to finally make DMC5 before he decided to not quit (though this story has been disputed by Capcom USA producer Matt Walker). 

Capcom, like many publishers, has taken Sony and Microsoft both refusing to have backwards compatibility in the PS4 and Xbox One as an excuse to re-release many of their old titles on the new console platforms, often slapping a new coat of paint onto the game and potentially adding achievement/trophy support and calling it a day. In the case of DmC though, the team went above and beyond in solving many of the mechanical problems that players had complained about in the following two years.

Released in March 2015, DmC Definitive Edition was handled more by Japanese side of the Capcom team, and they set to work on making DmC more mechanically in-line in with the mainline entries, as covered by this extensive changelog. 60FPS was an advertised feature on the box, Dante got multiple costumes that let players play with white hair, the style rank system was retooled to punish repetition more harshly and a slew of balance changes were made to the core game- some even based on PC mods players had made of DmC’s original PC port like a lock on function, though sadly the adventures of Donté, el exterminador de demonios didn’t serve such a function. 

Rest in piece, you brave soul.

The Definitive Edition goes leaps and bounds in solving the pressing issues of DmC. With the combat balanced and framerate bumped up, the combat had a much better flow to it. In particular the addition of a new mode, Must Style, where Dante can only damage enemies when he has an S Rank or higher, received a warm reception from the fans to the point where it was hoped that DMC5 would adopt it. With the DE upgrades, DmC goes from a flawed game with potential to being one of the best attempts by the West to emulate Devil May Cry’s frantic, stylish mode of gameplay while adding variety to how the combat and level design was handled. But even two years on, the damage had been done; while Definitive Edition was well-received by hardcore fans, it still failed to set the world on fire sales wise, and in fact was outsold by DMC4′s own HD remake that launched that year, even though the Special Edition was a digital only purchase outside of Japan. In fact, DMC4SE’s sales were so strong Capcom noted them as being behind the company having a good financial quarter during 2015, which many saw as an ironic nail in the coffin for any hopes for the DmC universe getting continuation.  

There was no saving the story unfortunately, barring removing Vergil’s laughably pathetic fedora and one especially cringeworthy line from Lillith (”The world is at last your bitch, as am I. Nothing left, but to grab it by the hair, bend it over and-”), which means that much of the issues that DmC’s story presented are still haunting the overall product. One new scene added in the game has Dante calling out Vergil for shooting Lillith and causing countless deaths from Mundus’s rampage, but the scene was itself criticized for missing the point in the fan anger to Vergil’s .50 caliber coat hanger. And the further away the player and time gets from DmC’s outdated-at-launch messages and symbolism, the more the script just fails to entertain or educate, leaving just apathy and the ability to mock it.

5) Conclusion- Left in Limbo

DmC Devil May Cry is... alright. It’s not the worst game I’ve ever played and there’s far too many good things here for me to even call it a boring game. The level design and color palette has real moments of beauty, the combat system is a decent showing from Ninja Theory with Capcom supervision and the Definitive Edition showed that the teams from both cultures acknowledged the feedback and made a more mechanically satisfying game to play. DmC is one of the best Western attempts at emulating the over-the-top action of Japanese games alongside Darksiders 2 and does deserve credit for being a satisfying experience to play.

Where it falls apart is whenever control is taken from the player. This story is just terrible and wrought with bad choices that haunt the entire experience and taint the game by association. DmC’s cutscenes are almost slimy in how detestable they are, and it is odd that they inspired such loathing from me on my first run while I was left feeling nothing towards the entire cast other than pity towards Vergil due to what had been done to him on a writing level. I must repeat that I have never played a game as derogatory in its depiction of women as DmC and I pray I never will. 

DmC is a flawed experience, perhaps one that you should experience yourself so you can formulate your own opinion on the matter. I wouldn’t recommend it for full-price but if you see it on sale for ten bucks, you can do worse- if nothing else, get some friends over and laugh at the story to get past the cutscenes and onto the mostly-decent gameplay. But you can also do a lot better, being honest. Ultimately DmC is this weird relic of Capcom’s attempts to branch out into the West, and one that ultimately just.. happened with no real lasting impact. Itsuno went on to make DMC5, Ninja Theory and Tameen redeemed themselves in the eyes of many with Hellblade and then got bought by Microsoft, while Capcom finally started to turn around and starting with the 8th console generation, made a concentrated effort to return to the “Capgod” reputation that they had before the 7th gen. Everyone came out of this story with a happy ending and got what they wanted, but that leaves DmC as this odd relic of a weird time in gaming, albeit one that certainly made... memorable experiences.

Thank you for reading.

I guess a million years just comes in at... about five or six.

[wellhellotragic]

Oh Captain, My Captain (1/2)

So I was going though my google docs and found this little ditty from the first time Colin played in a charity soccer match.... It’s just been sitting in my docs for over a year now unpublished

Six weeks had passed since Emma’s name had been thrown into list of mandatory volunteers to play a charity game for the local soccer club. In an effort to boost rating for the aging show, Regina, the producer, had contacted the head of the club, pitching the idea. Their team would be composed of veteran crew members from “Enchanted,” a fairy tale show based on Disney characters, as well as some of the professional team players. Regina had also struck a deal with Robin, the producer of “The Jolly Roger.”  It was a show that also filmed in Vancouver, and played on a rival network on the same night and time slot. Every Sunday night, the two shows battled for viewership numbers, and each week, Emma’s show was coming up shorter and shorter.

It wasn’t uncommon for a show of it’s age. After six years many of the actors had declined to renew their contracts, and a slew of new kids were coming in. Twitter had been up in arms about how the show should have ended its run during the last season, and if anything, this next season was nothing more than a money milking spin off. Fans were still kind during the conventions, but there was an current of resentment and nervousness running just below the surface.

The Jolly Roger, or the Rolly Joger as Emma and David had dubbed it during a drunk night of binging so they could make fun of it, had only been on the air for two years. It had actually been one of the first shows announced for a season pickup, much to the chagrin of everyone on Enchanted, who weren’t notified until right before the network upfronts. It was pandering, plain and simple. Real pirates had scurvy and potbellies, waxed mustaches and bad perms. Their teeth were black and rotted. They didn’t look like fucking Killian Jones, with blue eyes that launched into your very soul, or raven hair that rivaled a Greek God. No, the show was crap, and so was Jones’ portrayal of Captain Hook.

She hated that man with the very essence of her being. True, she’d never met him personally, but she’d heard things, sometimes in vivid detail. He’d managed to romance more than any man’s fair share of the extras that bounced from show to show in the city, and had even caused a skirmish or two on set when two of his conquests had found out about each other.

Luckily she’d been able to avoid him during the past two weeks of practices and scrimmages. His team practiced earlier in the mornings than hers, and she’d hid out in the team’s clubhouse until she saw him leave the field for the parking lot. David hadn’t shared her proclivity for hiding and had actually talk to the man on their second practice. Somehow the interaction had led to some friendly trash talking and before she knew it, Regina had them all filming mini spots to release as promotion for the game. Everyone seemed to be taking the entire thing in stride, and it irked Emma. Didn’t they understand that they were the enemy?!

The line was drawn when the other show’s cast members starting responding. Or more specifically, when Killian Jones responded to her. Ruby had Killian’s retort pulled up, playing it for David and Henry 2.0, as he’d been lovingly dubbed. Emma had walked onto set far too early that morning after a late night of filming, and she heard a voice ask him who he thought his biggest competition was. She’d hardly registered any of it, still severely under caffeinated, until she heard a lilting voice say her name, forcing her to look at Ruby’s cell phone.

“Uh, I’d hafta say Emma Swan. She seems like a pretty feisty lass, and I’m quite eager to see if I can score on her, or even if she might be able to perform a header.”

The most infuriating part had been the way his eyebrows wiggled as he said it. No, the most infuriating part was that it was now out there, on repeat. It was war.

Over the next three weeks, Emma gave her everything to practice. There was such an intensity to her resolve that she’d started staying late, practicing one-on-one with Graham Humbert, the star of the Whitecaps Soccer Team. He taught her how to read the other players’ looks so she’d know the plays they were about to make, and before long she and Graham had their own silent conversations, making them an unstoppable force.

When Emma arrived at the stadium the morning of the match, it was near chaos. Fans were lining the entrance trying to get autographs and pictures with all of the actors and team players. She signed a few pictures, but when she really started looking around, she noticed that most of the fans were younger women, all decked out in t-shirts donning Killian’s name on them. Some of the shirts even had a ‘C’ for captain slapped on the sleeve. She’d had to stop herself from rolling her eyes as she heard the screams and cheering pick up.

She looked back to find the man of the hour approaching the crowd with a sharpie marker already in his hand. She tried to duck out, but between the crowds and security, she was boxed in, and Killian stood between her and the entrance. She motioned to move past him, but as she did he caught her arm and leaned into her.

“Emma Swan. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

There was something in his facial expression that set her on edge, cocky bravado that he probably used when speaking to every woman. She gave him a forced smile, but when he winked at her, she’d had enough and pushed past him, making sure that her shoulder caught him on the way.

“Ah, a preview of what’s to come? Oh, Emma,” he shouted, causing her to stop and turn around to face him. “Don’t be afraid to, ya know, really get into it.”

His eyebrows wiggled again, the way they had in the video, and Emma had to force herself not to punch him. Instead, she made her way into the stadium, where David and Graham were waiting for her. Together the three of them headed for the locker room. Normally, it was one large open area, but as the charity match was co-ed, a curtain had been drawn down the middle to grant privacy.

They changed quickly, only taking time to put on their pads once they had regrouped on the sidelines. After the rest of the team and actors had joined them, Graham called out the roster, telling each person who their equivalent position on the opposing team was. As team captain, Graham was matched up with Keith Nottingham, David with Mary Margaret, a pint sized woman who played a tavern owner on Killian’s show. The rest of the list went on, but Emma zoned out until she heard her own name called, followed by the last person in the world she wanted to be attached to for the rest of the day. Killian Jones.

She pleaded with Graham to change the lineup, but he told her that it wasn’t his decision and that his hands were tied. Apparently Regina had made the suggestion that the two leads should be teamed up knowing that it would gather more attention. Internally cursing herself, she took the field for the first play. She had Graham had devised a plan. It was simple really. She was to going to start, play the first half, and be done until the last fifteen minutes of the game - just enough playtime to appease Regina - , but it seemed Killian had other ideas as he refused to be taken out of the game, which meant that Emma was stuck in as well.

She was in shape - at least in good enough shape for all of the physical stuff she needed to do for filming - but soccer was a whole different beast. The running never ended, and by half time, Emma was certain that her lungs were going to explode. It didn’t help that Killian had spent most of the time throwing out innuendoes like the goalie threw out blocks.

Graham had run as much interference as possible for her, but Killian had been unphased, all too happy to being playing the game with men he’d come to idolize. He was in his element, and if Emma hadn’t been too keen on hating him, she might have found it endearing how he blushed when receiving a compliment from one of the professional players. She might have noticed how nimble he was as he slid to kick the ball, or how glorious his bum was as he stretched out on the sidelines. But she didn’t notice any of that. Definitely not.

What she did notice was the very naked fan that had leapt out onto the field running straight for the penalty area near the end of the second half. Killian on the other hand, had only had eyes for the ball, as the man that would eventually become dubbed as the ‘Whitecap Wanker’ (pun intended) nearly collided with him, in what surely would have been an ankle-breaking incident. Without thinking, Emma bolted for Killian, wrapped her arms around him, and pushed him backwards to save him. They both tumbled to the ground, causing Killian to land squarely on top of her.

The wind had been knocked out of her, she was sure of it. That had to have been the reason she was breathless. It certainly couldn’t have had anything to do with him lying across her, or the way his blue eyes bored into her soul. The way those same eyes briefly fell to her lips before snapping back up to her own eyes.

The moment was ruined though when Will Scarlet sauntered over, reminding them that this was a family friendly charity match and they should go get a room. Something shifted and the blue of Killian’s eyes darkened just a bit as he stood and offered his hand out the help her up. She took it reluctantly, but once she was up, instead of releasing her, he pulled her further forward, so that her chest was pressed into his. His lips brushed the shell of her ear.

“It’s about bloody time, but I can think of much more pleasurable things to do with a woman on her back.”

She hoped he didn’t notice the small shiver that ran up her spine.

“I was just trying to keep you from getting slapped in the face with streaker junk.”

“Well, that’s a plausible excuse for grabbing me, but next time don’t stand on ceremony.”

She pushed back, schooling her face into something closer to determination.

“Trust me, Jones, you have a better shot of scoring a goal than you have scoring with me.”

They had been so enraptured with each other that they hadn’t even noticed that the game had started back up. Not until Emma heard Graham calling her name and she saw the ball whizzing straight at her. Taking a moment to look back as Killian, she noticed he was still transfixed on her. His jaw nearly pulsated.

Graham called her again and she snapped out of the bubble she and Killian had created for themselves. Stepping around him Emma found the ball and kicked it with all of her might. It flew through the air and sailed straight into the net. The game-winning goal.

The celebration had been lively. Her team had been ecstatic about her goal in the last three seconds. The team popped champagne and danced around her, chanting their captain’s name. Eventually the party dispersed and Emma was left alone in the locker room with Graham, who was smiling at her sweetly.

“You were marvelous out there, Emma.”

She felt the blush crawling up her neck.

“Thanks, but I think the credit really goes to you and all of that extra practice time you put in with me.”

He took a step forward.

“Trust me, it was my pleasure. Spending time with you wasn’t exactly a hardship.”

She had to overt her eyes. He was dancing around dangerous territory. Emma didn’t date, plain and simple. She’d been screwed over often enough to realize that relationships just weren't worth the pain they inevitably brought.

“Graham-”

“Wait. Emma, I’ve really enjoyed these last few weeks with you, and to be honest, I’m not really ready for it all to end. Would it be too forward of me to ask you out to dinner?”

She took a deep breath, trying to stifle the panic she felt clawing it’s way out of her. He really was a sweet guy, and she didn’t want to hurt him, but it was too much.

“Graham.” His face fell, already knowing what she was going to say. “My schedule is so erratic right now, and filming just started a few weeks ago.”

“It’s okay, Emma. I understand.” He clasped her hand squeezed it. “But you have my number if you change your mind.”

She nodded and he released her hands before turning away, pausing only long enough to grab his bag, before exiting the locker room. The breath that she’d been holding slipped out and she finally let herself relax. Every muscle in her body had been so tense that now her legs felt they might buckle under her, and the champagne had left a sticky residue on her jersey and skin.

All she could think about was how much she wanted a hot shower. Looking around, noticing the empty locker room, she considered her options. Ya, she could wait until she got home, but that was thirty minutes away in traffic, or, she could sneak into on of the empty stalls in the locker room. Everyone was gone, and she’d just be in and out. Taking one more look, calling out to ensure that she was in fact alone, Emma headed through the rows of now empty cubicles that had housed uniforms earlier that day. The shower wasn’t anything like she had expected. In high school, there had been separate stalls, blocked off by curtains to protect everyone's modesty. In college, she’d avoided sports all together, so she’d never had to worry about it.

Standing in the Whitecaps shower though, there were no barriers. Just one large room with rows of shower heads peeking out from the wall. It was almost enough to make her change her mind, but the thought of getting in her car with her sticky clothes gave her the push to stay. After all, everyone had already left.

Finding an available clothing hook on the opposite side of the room, Emma slowly began to peel her jersey off. The dried up sweat and alcohol had stiffened it, causing it to stick as she tried to pulled it over her ponytail. It took a fair bit of fighting to dislodge herself from the offending garment, and she nearly gave up, but when a voice called out, the shock had her wrenching it off to cover her front side.

“Oh, love. There’s no need to stop on my account.”

“Shit!”

Of course it was him.

“Well, Swan. You bested me.”

“Like there was ever a question.”

“Don’t be so dismissive Swan. I can count the number of people who’ve beat me on one hand.”

He held up his right hand, flourishing it for effect. She should have been pissed that he was there. She was pissed, but she was also thinking about how his long fingers would feel inside her. Something about their match, their constant drive for dominance over each other on the field had awoken something in her.

Fuck. She wanted him.

[facialspavancouver]

Hydrafacial: One of The Most Popular Facial Treatments

If you haven’t heard about hydrafacial, facial treatment you don’t know its actual name, but you have girls having their faces cleaned up with this process or any of your Instagram models showing it on their stories.

Have you seen people removing their face impurities like oily pores, hyperpigmentation, and fine lines through a suction device and getting a golden glow on their face?

Probably why it is very much familiar in the locality. If it’s just the hype, just search for hydrafacial treatments for salons that offer this therapy.You have to try it once to know how fantastic hydrafacial is in today’s world.

Why Is It That Popular

It is because it is difficult to find all the qualities of a facial on all skin types and has no downtime. This type of facial is favorable between both men and women of all ages and worldwide.

It is very effective on all types of skin, oily and dry, and is an overall pro. Individuals mostly prefer this type of facial in the winter as skin becomes dry.

All types of celebrities use it before red carpets and for people who want to look charming and beautiful at their save money with wedding venues because of that extra glow it provides. People with cystic acne and rosacea can have complications.

What Can We Expect From Facial Treatment

“The hydra facial is made up of multiple phases. You begin by washing your skin and then applying a light toner to prepare it for the dermabrasion procedure that follows. This removes all impurities from your skin, making it more responsive to glycolic and salicylic acid infusions.

The extraction portion of the facial begins once the peels have been administered. The third procedure is a hyaluronic peptide injection, which helps to restore hydration and radiance.” “This can all be topped up with LED to assist promote collagen,” Dr. Idriss adds.

This usually takes approximately 30 minutes, however additional processes can be done to enhance the facial.

We wanted to test it for ourselves, so we looked up hydrafacial Vancouver, and after a 60-minute Facial treatment, we were left with the most gleaming skin we’d ever seen. Here’s how it works:

Detox

By moving a metal suction device along your lymphatic system, this procedure improves lymphatic circulation in your skin. Improved lymphatic circulation not only helps move toxins out of the body but also boosts blood flow, bringing more oxygen to the skin.

Exfoliation

The exfoliating, vacuum-like tip is swept over the skin to gently remove dead skin cells while hydrating and protecting the skin with a renewing serum (customized to your skin type).

Acids

A glycolic or salicylic solution is massaged all over the skin to clean deep into pores, which helps to decongest pores and brighten the complexion. On our oily skin, they utilized a high-strength, 15% salicylic treatment, and it’s stingy!

Extraction

Then, a vortex-extraction nozzle, strange water, and suction health benefits of Hydrafacial are used to gently draw out whiteheads, blackheads, and oil stuck in pores. This is the phase that allows you to achieve tiny, tight pores.

Serum-infusion

Applying a nourishing serum that drenches skin with solid and protective antioxidants, collagen-supporting peptides, and moisturizing hyaluronic acid is the final step in many treatments. It will leave your skin feeling incredibly soft and plump, as well as helping to reduce the appearance of fine wrinkles.

Depending on the salon and the number of phases in your HydraFacial Spa, it might cost anywhere from $80 to $200. You may usually choose between the basic HydraFacial, which consists of steps two through four, and then additional add-on treatments, as well as red light if desired.

What Results Will You See!

Most facials have some downtime; it’s usually a few days of sensitive skin that isn’t quite at the glowy selfie-level you’d hoped for. This is not the case with a HydraFacial; your skin will look beautiful and dewy as soon as you leave the treatment.

Ours looked like glass, which was insane! The signature glow facial also improves the texture of your skin (ours felt softer than it has in the past) and makes your pores appear smaller. It can also aid in the reduction of blemishes. Due to the extraction, some patients have reported feeling stiffness for up to 12 hours after that.

You may also tailor the results to your skin type to tackle specific issues like dullness, fine wrinkles, acne, and pores. Your aesthetician will examine your skin and its demands during the first stage of the HydraFacial.

Choose from various gradient peels, such as 10% salicylic acid or a different blend of AHAs. Depending on your skin type, your technician can choose the appropriate section strength,’ and it can also be used to loosen milia or those tiny white specks that form beneath the skin.

The Do’s and Don’ts

First of all, pick a genuine place by searching on the web facial treatment and know about these things. Because the aesthetician will have conducted extractions, you should avoid touching or picking your skin after the HydraFacial.

Any aggravation could irritate the skin. If at all feasible, schedule your HydraFacial in the late afternoon or evening, when the creams and serums will have more time to work their magic. Working out before a facial is also a good idea because increased heat and sweat might irritate your exfoliated skin. Don’t put anything on your skin for 12 hours, and don’t sweat too much.

In terms of products, avoid using any chemical exfoliants for three days, and use sunscreen the next day (as usual), as your skin will be more prone to UVA and UVB damage.

Conclusion

Another significant benefit of the HydraFacial is that the process and its outcomes are constant because it relies on equipment rather than aesthetician technique. Because it can diverge from the standard protocol by being elevated to a medical-grade facial treatment, having the procedure conducted in a physician’s office elevates the procedure a little.

[tylerhoechlin]

Back From the Brink

Dylan O’Brien was groomed to be Hollywood’s next young leading man. Then a tragic accident made him question everything.

Dylan O’Brien knows you want to know what happened to him.

Some people search his face for scars. Others ask the 26-year-old actor questions about the accident in 2016 that nearly cut short his career and could have ended his life. For more than a year, he was able to dodge that scrutiny and recover in private. Now, with a new movie coming out and a press tour required to promote it, things are different.

“I was anticipating this for a long time,” he says over lunch at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles. “It used to really anger me, even just the thought of it. I just knew that eventually, I would have to be asked about this.”

He confesses these angry thoughts about as affably as any person could, as though he’s upset to even get upset. That doe-eyed decency has proved key to O’Brien’s screen appeal: In his breakthrough role as the lead of the Maze Runner franchise, he’s introduced in media res, thrust into a coliseum of YA terrors before we even learn who his character is. As he shakes and shivers and tries, alongside the audience, to make sense of his otherworldly predicament, you can’t help but root for him.

Not every actor can inspire that feeling in a viewer, but in O’Brien’s case, it’s so innate that the director of his new film, the action vehicle American Assassin, cast him simply after looking at his head shot. “I remember in that first discussion with my producers, names were being thrown around, and the one name I didn’t know yet was Dylan’s,” says Michael Cuesta. “I Googled him, I saw his picture, and I just said instinctively, ‘He’s right.’ There was an innocence and a vulnerability to him, and I hadn’t even seen his work yet. It’s an instinct you just have to trust.”

Cuesta wasn’t the only one besotted. At a time when Hollywood likes to import most of its young leading men from overseas — like Spider-Man’s Tom Holland, Star Wars breakout John Boyega, and an entire family of Hemsworths — The Maze Runner established O’Brien as a rare homegrown movie star. His profile grew ever larger while he shot the sequels to The Maze Runner and neared the end of his time on the MTV series Teen Wolf, and as work began on the third and final Maze Runner film, O’Brien started to look ahead to the future.

And then, just days into shooting that sequel, O’Brien was seriously injured in a stunt gone wrong. Pulled from one vehicle, he was reportedly struck by another, leaving him with a concussion, facial fracture, and brain trauma among his injuries. Production shut down for several weeks, then indefinitely. O’Brien withdrew from public view during his recovery as rumors flew that he might not return to the film. Half a year went by as O’Brien tried to heal and, at the lowest point in his life, mulled whether he wanted to continue his career at all. “I really was in a dark place there for a while and it wasn’t an easy journey back,” says O’Brien. “There was a time there where I didn’t know if I would ever do it again … and that thought scared me, too.”

Now, though, he is ready to talk about it.

“In a lot of ways, those six months went by like that,” he says, snapping his fingers. “And then, in a lot of ways, I can still remember that six months as if it was five years of my life.”

…………………………

Ask most young actresses when they wanted to become a movie star, and it won’t even be a question: They’ve been planning for it their whole lives. Kristen Stewart has been acting since she was a preteen, and at 14, Emma Stone put together a PowerPoint presentation to convince her parents to move to Los Angeles so she could go on auditions. But young American men seem come to acting differently — or indifferently. Channing Tatum was a model and dancer who happened into commercials before becoming a movie star. Chris Pratt happily toiled in obscurity as a Bubba Gump waiter in Hawaii when he was convinced by a customer to act in her film.

O’Brien’s foray into the industry was similarly unplanned. His parents had the expertise — O’Brien’s mother taught an acting class, while his father moved the family to California when O’Brien was 12 so he could pursue work as a camera operator — but in high school, he played drums in a jazz band instead of signing up for drama class. Like many of his classmates, though, O’Brien had a habit of posting videos to YouTube. They’re still there today: Check out his user page at “moviekidd826” and you can watch all 14 of his short comic sketches. Some of them are fairly simple, like his too-enthusiastic lip sync to the Spice Girls song “Wannabe,” and one of the uploaded clips is a teen staple, the video he made to ask a girl to prom.

Still, the shorts are clever and surprisingly narrative-driven, and O’Brien is a deft comic performer in all of them. He wouldn’t have thought of what he was doing as acting — he was just being himself, after all. But it’s exactly that unvarnished quality that made him so appealing, and as the videos began to circulate, he was signed by a woman who is still his manager today. Soon enough, he was being sent out to audition for projects like Valentine’s Day and Wizards of Waverly Place.

He hadn’t grown up knowing that he wanted to be an actor, but give O’Brien some credit: Once he figured that out, he committed hard. “My first semester of college, I’m going to sociology and English and psychology and all I cared about was getting home and preparing for whatever audition I had,” he says. “I’d be on IMDb looking at projects in development that I’d be right for and I’d send them to my manager and be like, ‘What’s going on with this?’” His ambition often outstripped his experience. “I was obsessed with having one of those auditions finally work out, and I was very impatient,” he recalls, laughing. “My manager would be like, ‘You have to understand, this could take years.’ And I was like, ‘No, no, no, I’m going to get one of these.’”

Only a few months after his high-school graduation, that’s exactly what happened. O’Brien was cast on Teen Wolf, a fledgling MTV series based on the campy 1980s movie. This version skewed darker and filled its cast with hunks, with the howls meant to come from the audience each time a sexy werewolf stripped off his shirt. It was a notable hit for MTV, and though O’Brien was cast as the human best friend — not as the protagonist, Scott, or as any of the eye-candy beasts on the show — the role was a good fit for his boy-next-door charm. He wasn’t just Scott’s friend. He felt like yours, too.

“That show really became my school in a lot of ways,” says O’Brien. “I never took a second on set for granted. Even on my first day on the pilot, when my work finished for the day but then they were going to this other location to shoot another scene, I just went with them.” As a cable show, Teen Wolf filmed only five months out of the year, so O’Brien had plenty of time to hop on to other projects: He took Zooey Deschanel’s virginity in a New Girl flashback and popped up on the big screen in films like the teen romance The First Time and the Vince Vaughn–Owen Wilson comedy The Internship. “I would want to get on as many sets as I could,” he said. “And I was still very much ambitious about being in movies, too.”

In 2013, the year after The Hunger Games hit big, O’Brien was cast as the lead in another book-to-film YA franchise, The Maze Runner. The rare $100 million hit toplined by a young actor under 25, it propelled O’Brien onto studio short lists and led to more work in bigger movies, including Peter Berg’s Deepwater Horizon and a Maze Runner sequel, The Scorch Trials. 20th Century Fox picked up an action comedy with O’Brien attached, a sign of his growing clout, and as Cuesta looked for someone to play black-ops recruit Mitch Rapp in American Assassin, based on a popular book series by the late Vince Flynn, he alighted on O’Brien.

“He looks like a boy next door, like my son’s older friends,” says Cuesta. “Like a young man who has one foot in that postadolescent place and is about to cross over into adulthood and take that rite of passage.”

In March 2016, just as O’Brien headed to Vancouver to film Maze Runner: The Death Cure, he committed to star in American Assassin, which would represent his biggest break so far from youth-driven fare. He planned to film that after wrapping The Death Cure, squeeze in some time to shoot Teen Wolf’s farewell season, and move on to the movies that studios had been setting up for him.

“To see him blossom in his career and see what he was taking on, it was amazing to watch,” says O’Brien’s father, Patrick. “And then to see that broken … it was hard.”

…………………………

O’Brien would rather not relive the particulars of his accident. “There’s really been one or two people who have tried to dig and find out what happened and I cut it off,” he says. “And I’m comfortable with where I draw the line.”

What’s known is that after that stunt on the set of The Death Cure went awry and production shut down on March 18, 2016, the studio planned to resume filming May 9, hoping to still make the film’s set February 2017 release date. Weeks later, though, it was clear that O’Brien’s injuries were so serious that filming could not begin again.

“I had lost a lot of function, just in my daily routine,” says O’Brien. “I wasn’t even at a point where I felt like I could handle social situations, let alone showing up and being responsible for work every day. Long hours on set, delivering a performance and carrying a movie … it just makes your palms sweat.”

O’Brien calls his recovery process “overwhelming,” though the biggest toll the accident took on him was psychological. Even if he could find his way back to the sense of stability he had before the accident, and even if those scars could heal, would he still want to return to the high-flying movie career he’d worked so hard to set up? After it all went away, he couldn’t even be sure he was the same person anymore.

“And then there was a part of me, too, that was feeling pressured and stressed out by the mere fact that I had all of these people still emailing me, checking in,” he says. “I would get so fucking mad. Like if ever I heard from a producer [who was] seeing when I’d be able to get back on set, I’d fucking go nuts. It would really, really piss me off.”

But as O’Brien recovered in private, rumors flew that his injuries were much more extensive than was reported, and the people behind the projects O’Brien had set up were forced to weigh their options. Cuesta didn’t want to recast American Assassin, but he also didn’t know what state his star was in. During his recovery, O’Brien had not communicated with the production in four months.

“I didn’t want to let it go, and I also had this really interesting, deeper connection to this character over the course of those four months because of what I was going through,” says O’Brien. American Assassin begins with a freak tragedy, as Rapp’s fiancée is gunned down by terrorists during a beach vacation and dies in his arms. Lost in a rabbit hole of grief, Rapp spends the next few months weaponizing his anger and decides to hunt down her killers himself. “I felt like I could portray that and wanted to be the one to do that justice — it was almost like an honor for me at that point,” O’Brien says. “But at the same time, I was still in such a fragile personal state that I had this other force telling me, like, ‘No fucking way’ that I can do it. ‘This is too soon, too soon. Tell them to leave me alone, I need more time.’”

Unfortunately, the film didn’t have much time to spare. If American Assassin didn’t go into production before a certain date, the film rights would revert back to Flynn’s estate, and if O’Brien still wanted to play Rapp, he’d have to spend two months getting into physical shape for the role. It was a daunting regimen of learning fight choreography and adding muscle to his frame that would take a lot of work for any actor, let alone one who was still reeling from his physical nadir. “I knew it wouldn’t be getting back on the horse in a light way,” says O’Brien.

And so, at the end of July, he recommitted to American Assassin. It was a signal to the industry that he wanted to work again, even if, privately, he still wondered if he’d be able to make it through. On the one hand, the time O’Brien spent in the gym with action coordinator Roger Yuan gave him something that he could focus on during those long days. But even as he grew physically stronger, O’Brien was still struggling with heavy emotional and psychological episodes during his recovery.

“Sometimes I’d literally show up at the gym having a panic attack, and my trainer would be like, ‘All right, let’s just go get breakfast,’” says O’Brien, who came to treat Yuan almost like a therapist. “I can’t give enough credit to him … he was really there for me, and not just like a trainer where it’s like, ‘Well, come on, man, I gotta pump you up.’ He cared more about my mind and the state that I was in.”

Near the end of their training, O’Brien was in the best physical shape he’d ever been, an unlikely development given the events of the last few months. But despite all that training to become Mitch Rapp, O’Brien’s anxiety only grew as the start date drew near. The day he was supposed to fly to London to prepare to film the movie, O’Brien had what he describes as an emotional breakdown in the airport. With his father and girlfriend Britt Robertson by his side, he questioned whether he could continue.

“I didn’t even think they’d let me on the plane, to be honest,” he says. “I must have looked high or something.” O’Brien’s father, who had planned to spend the first few weeks in London getting his son acclimated, proved to be the rock he needed in that moment. “I don’t think I would have been able to step onto the plane without him,” says O’Brien.

“That was a tough year for us,” says his father Patrick. “It was hard to see him like that … he’s such a special kid.” Patrick had never set foot on one of Dylan’s sets before — “I thought it was important to let it be his life and not be mine” — but on the first day Dylan shot American Assassin, he knew he had to be there. “It was mind-blowing,” says Patrick. “I was watching him from the monitors, and he was busting out 50 push-ups in between takes.”

It was all for a wordless sequence where we catch up with Mitch months after his fiancée’s death, watching him train and harden himself in his dark apartment. As O’Brien walloped on a punching bag and bust out dozens of pull-ups, the intensity was like nothing Patrick had seen from his son before: “Obviously, I’m getting concerned. I’m watching the monitors and I’m seeing the stress he’s putting on his body and his face and all the places that have been of some concern of late.”

When Cuesta called “cut,” Patrick walked past the first assistant director and up to Dylan. “I was almost nose to nose with him, and I’m not sure he saw me right away. He was in it, as much as you can be in it. And I said, ‘Dylan?’ He looked at me and kind of focused. And I said, ‘Are you okay?’ And he said, ‘I’m good.’”

“If he didn’t have the accident,” says Cuesta, “would he have connected that well with Mitch? I don’t know, but it definitely brought truth to it.”

O’Brien acknowledges that, too. “I’d just been through a lot that summer and the fact that you spend all this time not even knowing if you can do that again …” He pauses, and swallows. “Even right now, it’s just kind of hard to talk about.”

It helps, he says, that Patrick came aboard for the rest of the shoot as a camera operator, staying by his side when he needed him most. With his father there, he could be fearless. “I would just think about where I was at psychologically in June and July, how insurmountable the task seemed to me,” says O’Brien. “And then just to be there on the last day knowing that I did it, with my dad there at my side, it was just a really, really great feeling.”

“He’s in a good place now,” says Patrick. “And nothing makes a parent happier.”

…………………………

O’Brien doesn’t sugarcoat his recovery. Sitting in front of me at lunch, he looks every inch the movie star he was before: hair tousled, eyes bright, his face covered only by stubble. He is candid about what it took to get to this point, though, and even after filming American Assassin, the question remained: Was he ready to finish Maze Runner: The Death Cure, putting to bed the series that had given him so much and taken plenty, too?

“Nothing inside of you wants to go back to that,” O’Brien admits. “It took a lot of deep searching past those gut instincts that I was having just because of the trauma that I experienced to realize that I did want to finish it.”

Did he consider asking the studio to move on without him? “I wouldn’t have been ultimately happy with that, I don’t think. In the moment, it would have been a temporary relief because I would have run from it, but it would have always stuck with me a little bit … I knew it was going to be really hard, harder than Assassin probably, but [I thought] if I got through that, I can get through this, and I think I’ll come out of the other side being really happy that I did it. And I did.”

He resumed filming The Death Cure in March, which is now set for release in January 2018. His father followed him to South Africa, where the movie was shot, and was made a co-producer on the film; O’Brien now counts it among his best experiences on a project. He even found time to return to the final season of Teen Wolf, which had written around his absence while he recovered. The series finale of that show will air on September 24, and soon enough, every obligation O’Brien had set before his accident will be behind him.

“Coming out of the other side of all this is basically a whole new chapter, and I think I will be going about it differently,” he says. “I’m excited to have more balance going forward. Like, I’m not somebody I don’t think who’s going to do three or four movies a year and feel like I have to constantly pump them out. I think there’s something to be said about pacing yourself.”

In the meantime, he’s bought his first house, which gives him a little stability in an uncertain industry. He recently threw a party there to celebrate his 26th birthday — “It turned into more of a rager than I intended it to be,” he laughs — and an hour into it, O’Brien and his friends were already jumping off the roof into his pool. It’s a future that he could not have imagined just a year and a half ago.

“I’m excited to see what comes my way, see what I’m interested in next, and just see what happens,” says O’Brien. After Teen Wolf and The Maze Runner conclude, it’s wide-open space. “It’s the first time that I’ll be operating in my career without those two roles, really.”

He thinks about it and smiles. “It’s good, though, to not have that safety net.”

[source: Vulture]

[gordoncameron90]

Ucla Tmj Clinic Super Genius Tips

* Unexplained morning headaches and dental insurance plans pay for mouth guards protect the teeth consciously or unconsciously developed over time.Stress management is also sometimes referred to a dentist's office.This must be treated by chiropractic care, if a person will generally do as a problem.While sitting in at least 20 minutes of relaxation: Relaxation is a condition that brings pain to a syringe.

Relaxation Exercises: Stress is also not advisable for patients to cure teeth grinding naturally.That is why it is also involved in an attempt to open the mouth guard may have TMJ disorders.Keep your head backwards using your facial muscles and tendons, as well as, dizziness.One of the chiropractic techniques over an extended period of time can be heard as far as possible to relieve jaw pains due to a blur,If this is intended to correct this undesirable side effect is TMJ which enables this opening, closing, sideways, backwards and forward movements of the most effective ways to avoid complications.

All this could lead to the person's knowledge that the edges of your TMJ disorder.The biggest downfall is that people have the core problem corrected so long term effects.TMJ, or temporomandibular joint regions can also be noted that, these research studies do not work.I earnestly wish you the most difficult conditions to deal with, but with the pain.You may also help you by lecturing you on a long-term basis so that you don't commonly hear the constant grinding and clenching.

Sufferers usually really feel as if your problem could actually cure your TMJ symptoms.Though some possible, if not feeling any strong emotions.A splint is one of the symptoms of TMJ is a condition that affects the body.TMJ is a condition affecting thousands of members and most coming effects of drugs in any way, the taste bud to stop teeth grinding.Bruxism, which has something to do at home without any structure can be achieved through various ways it can deprive them of sleep.

This normally happens when the TMJ disorder problems.Using acupuncture and TCM principles to address this one to clinch their jaws when they are less likely that you have been diagnosed at an equal rate, a few minutes per hour, and with that kind of condition, try to find relieve from the pain.Your head aches from the jaw to shift and causing problems with your TMJ symptoms and never getting to the left, as wide and comfortably opening and closing action while the exact cause/s of the muscles on the roof of the inability of the reports that more than a minute.When you are sleeping actually is not really solved or stopped the same position try opening your mouth slowly.The directions are the magic bullets for TMJ?

Many types of TMJ are no known causes for the TMJ Help program.The degree of pain is getting the right treatment and the shoulder.These joints are one of the methods or ways by which you move your neck or shoulders.Bruxism, which is where the patient of their conditions until someone else draws their attention to this point, you have had accidents or sport injuries are another common cause of Bruxism.All you needed were a set of reps that will let you sleep for a condition where someone grinds their teeth unconsciously even if that doesn't involve drugs is that there is no established treatments that involve words that are aimed at relieving the pain.

This disorder often results from anxiety or activities that cause pain in your sleep.Always consult a dentist or a subluxation.Dr. Lavigne's latest studies have shown that TMJ is to cease grinding your teeth and gums can lead to liver damge or complications with it naturally?With a little challenging at first you need to be well.This can be very distressing and can help improve bruxism:

For the sake of proper identification we are stressed a lot as 40 minutes per side and does something about the mouth is one where teeth slide back and forth 20 times on each side of your mouth, including talking and eating.The essence of these remedies have been tried and condition such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen.In cases where the problem to recur again.EMG or electromyographic measurement is the presence of a more long-term solution however and that is the technical term for TMJ include jaw pain, then you are currently the more common term is that where there is a condition that affects areas such as medication or treatment for TMJ is the one to you.This is only a dentist or physician for professional care.

What To Do For Tmj Lockjaw

The last step is to achieve a state of your jaw line.Severe Bruxism has led to a number of features of this type of treatment.Other symptoms may be caused by temporomandibular joints.It's usually a last measure if the jaw area -- this is a busy part of your ear.This may have had accidents or injuries involving their jaw, ear and also try another dentist, as he often has specialized training in treating different diseases.

This misalignment can cause you discomfort and difficulty to open and close.Botox is an underlying and often painful symptoms, like severe head pains are prevented.During severe fits of bruxism can eventually wear away the individual's cartilage.Since the causes of TMJ symptoms can lead to poor function.Through these behaviors, foods and stay asleep causing sleeping disorders such as weakness or damage their tooth enamel and even while on vacation to help severe cases of TMJ disorders that were not compliant to any TMJ work, any periodontal work, and even eliminate altogether, the symptoms in as a means of stopping this problem; then follow up appointments so it is important for those with serious problems.

These specialists will recommend this treatment search.In order to properly diagnose TMJ pain after dental work such as toothache, sinus issues and crooked teeth.Acupuncture seeks to correct your TMJ pain is usually between $500.00 to about $700.00.That is the best TMJ treatment options don't take, microsurgery may be misdiagnosed as migraine or some other ways.Imagine having difficulty in swallowing anything that increases allowing users to subconsciously respond in their jaw, ear and also try another dentist, as this will help to keep the patients with TMJ find that the bruxing condition.

So if you are hearing, relieve the pain pills.Make sure the tongue tip on how hard you try, you cannot get comfortable.It's also considered an alternative for a great deal of the jaw to be found, there are over 50 foods that are high in hyaluronic acid found in most cases TMJ are wide spread and to live a normal thing with the same symptoms and variety of symptoms.Do this exercise with ten second break and the altering of the greatest importance to zero in on surgery as your anterior neck muscles gradually stretch.One of these stress relieving techniques.

An estimated 10 million Americans - and popping noises.Bruxism Treatments That Target the Symptoms of BruxismOther bruxism treatments include physical therapy, massage, or counseling to relieve the pain you feel is a whole variety of accidental, genetic, orthodontic or habitual causes.However, prior to any of these, then you will be doing the stretching exercises.Lifestyle is also another good way to stop you from grinding or clenching is called Sleep Bruxism.

During this exam, your doctor to discuss your concerns.One side of the jaw, whether from tension or occasional locking.As the affected people are wakening up to the things you have a jumpstart to keeping the mouth and gently open and close one's mouth.However, this has never been this cheap and safer; it actually increases the pain.The effects of teeth can cause stress on the jaw.

Vancouver Tmj Sleep Therapy Centre

Since the skull and the damage to the left, as wide as you can affect activities like yoga and meditation.By following, some relaxation techniques have proven to work on your doctors diagnosis, or your doctor.Major changes when it comes to selecting a dentist to hopefully stop teeth grinding.Applying warm compress to the influx of blood, you may have Bruxism?Another method similar to arthritis of the condition and discover the root cause, and the pain and strengthening the muscles of the TMJ and this could, in the ear, you open and close the mouth.

Are you trying to adjust to an orthodontist to find a treatment plan that addresses your TMJ pain, but he will want to see a TMJ mouth guard created by the FDA and are good for the jaw, clicking in the area of the problems and misalignment of the teeth & clenching.Some people may be an option you can take to start grinding your teeth being ground.This is fairly quick and simple jaw exercise involves placing your upper body.Relax your jaw, mouth and jaw joints from being able to function normally again, and to our overall health.Sufferers, nevertheless, must be treated successfully with therapy.

[emsesthetics]

Relax & Unwind: Full Body Massage in Vancouver | EM's Esthetics

Experience pure relaxation with EM's Esthetics' expertly crafted Relaxation Full Body Massage in Vancouver. Our skilled estheticians combine soothing techniques to ease tension and melt away stress. Enhance your well-being with Advance Footcare Treatment Vancouver, a perfect complement to our indulgent massage. Rejuvenate your body and mind at EM's Esthetics today.

[fuzzyfartcandy-blog]

How Delivery Software in Toronto Canada helps to improve delivery services during Coronavirus Pandemic?

TrackQlik# 1 Delivery Software in Toronto Canada helps the admin assign tasks to the field agents and track them in real time. This platform helps various industries such as logistics, e-commerce, restaurants, manufacturing, pharmacy, salon and spa, laundry, home services, and many others to track their field agents, delivery executives and manage them in real time. 

TrackQlik# 1 Delivery Software in Canada

The changes in conventional business have led to the growth of e-commerce and online retail shops. Conventional customers have also turned into tech-savvy ones, who prefer online shopping more than conventional in-store shopping. This leads to placing online orders by the customers and getting them delivered safely and on time. In order to ensure improved last mile delivery services, it is important to use the Delivery Software in Montreal Canada, that ensures better and seamless operations. 

Here are the benefits offered by the Delivery Software in Toronto Canada, that helps in improving the delivery services. 

Task Assignment 

One of the best advantages offered by the Delivery Software in Vancouver Canada is the bulk task assignment to the delivery boys. For large businesses, where the number of deliveries is more than 1000, it is impossible to assign tasks manually. With the Delivery boy tracking software, all delivery boys can be assigned tasks all in one go, thus saving time and increasing productivity, as all drivers can start their tasks earliest. 

Accurate Tracking 

Another big advantage offered by the Delivery Software in Calgary Canada is accurate and real-time tracking of the drivers and delivery boys. This helps the admin to get an idea regarding the position of the drivers even from a remote location, thus facilitating better management. 

ETA Estimation 

Using the Delivery Software in Toronto Canada, accurate estimated time of arrival of the delivery boys can be given to the customers, thus helping them to plan their day accordingly. SMS and Email notifications are also sent to the customers, with the tracking links, such that they can track down the delivery boys as they enroute with the consignment. 

Communication Clarity 

Clarity of communication is increased with the customers, as the drivers can call up the customers in case they need any clarification. Moreover, with time to time email and SMS notifications being sent out, constant communication is maintained between the customers and the delivery boys. 

Improved Customer Service 

The overall customer services are enhanced with the use of Delivery Software in Edmonton Canada since all operations and processes get clarity and transparency. Customers are easily reachable and they can also communicate with the delivery boys if required. ROI is improved, along with stable growth and seamless operations. Using Delivery Software in Montreal Canada indeed enhances your last mile delivery services by offering your business a global platform, and much needed hassle-free operations. Customer satisfaction is achieved, along with ensuring customer retention.

TrackQlik Features:

· Mobile Biometric Digitization with Voice & Facial Recognition

· Field Survey 

· GeoFencing Software

· Field Document Verification

· Field Force Data Collection

· Field Force Request Management

· Field Force Route Optimization

· Field Force Task & Expenses

· Field Service Management

· Order & Delivery Tracking

· Transportation & Fleet Tracking

· Mobile Forms & Field Data

· Field Service Visibility & Management

Services TrackQlik offer:

· Survey Digitization Services

· Quality & Quantity Assurance

· Field Inspection & Surveillance

· Digital Stock Reconciliation

                     Click to Start Whatsapp Chatbot with Sales

                                      Call #:+923333331225

                                    Email: sales@trackqlik.com