#Lead is used in car batteries and also in the bullets of guns

[heliumartdump]

TW: Probably gun imagery

I'm not too happy with the lighting, but the pose looks really cool.

Labels because it may not be very clear

[iblameashley]

Crosshairs, Bullets and Affections

Military | Male | Gay

5,300 words Content: Alternate universe, longing, angst, cursing, injury / wounds, mention / depiction of blood, captivity / imprisonment, military level violence, mention of torture, gun violence, death, some German, poorly edited Gay Stuff, Love, Fluff

Inspiration for this fic

König | Kyle 'Gaz' Garrick | Kaz?

!!!SFW!!!

In the heat of battle, König saves the life of enemy soldier Gaz, leading to his capture and disavowal from KorTac. Struggling with his feelings, König faces suspicion and hostility from the 141. Assigned to integrate him, Gaz is put at the forefront of König's awkward attempts at romance, while Ghost and Soap watch from the sidelines. König asks himself the age old question, 'do you believe love can bloom even on a battlefield?'

Consequences

König sat in a surprisingly well-lit cell. The concrete walls and steel bars a clear reminder of the new reality he found himself in. The space felt cramped, but then again, Konig remembered that he's not an average sized man; his legs hanging over the small bed that he rested on.

Upon being brought to the one-four-one base, he was promptly stripped of all his tactical gear and tossed in this cell. Captain Price had been generous enough to allow Konig to keep his hood – a source of amusement for the rotation of guards – and was left to his long-sleeved shirt and pants. Though they had also taken his boots and replaced his with slippers, nothing that could be used as a weapon was left, but at least he was relatively warm and comfortable.

His eyes flickered to the calendar on the wall outside the cell. June sixteenth. Six month and - he had to think about it - four days since his confinement started.

Originally, Konig had been in earshot of some of the more creative suggestions from the members of the one-four-one relating to any information he had. Ghost, ever the pragmatic man, had advocated for a ruthless approach. He had argued that the Colonel was too seasoned to be susceptible to typical tactics, and suggested a tried and true method, according to him; jumper cables and a car battery.

Soap on the other hand, saw no value in interrogating Konig regardless. He saw the giant of a man as too big a threat to keep around and had instead suggested the use of some C4. Most of the team had assumed he was joking. They were really hoping he was joking, but his mate Gaz had been injured and emotions were running high.

Price however, understood the gravity of the situation and the delicate balance of power at play. He saw the value in Konig as an asset, and a chance to gain insight into the inner workings of a known military threat. Besides, Konig had saved Gaz's life on the battlefield, and that alone had piqued Prices interest in the man. Saving an enemy combatant and allowing yourself to be captured in the process? What the fuck had the man been thinking?

The cell door opened and snapped Konig out of his thoughts. His eyes wandered up to see Price standing there. He dragged a metal chair into the cell and the guard closed the door behind him, though stayed close; his hand on his holster, ready to make a move if Konig tired anything.

König's jaw clenched under his sniper hood as he met Prices gaze, his walls coming back up.

“I can't imagine this has been easy for you.” Price began, clearing his throat. He leaned back in the chair and crossed one leg over the other. He tried to appear relaxed by resting his hands on his knee.

“I've seen worse.” Konig fired back with feigned disregard, his accent thick and his voice raspy. “...Just another obstacle.”

Price nodded, he understood the position Konig was facing. “I understand your reluctance to speak to me -to anyone- since you were brought in, but I really need to understand what brought you here.”

Konig narrowed his eyes. Though Price couldn't see it, his lips were pressed into a thin line.

“I had my reasons.” He replied flatly. “Reasons that don't concern you.”

“I would argue that they concern me greatly, Colonel.” Price tapped at his knee, staring Konig down with curiosity. “You aided one of my men on the battlefield. Why?”

In a fleeting moment, König's eyes betrayed him, and a glimpse of vulnerability flicked between the two men.

Price raised a brow, noting the reaction and realizing there was much more to this than Konig was letting on.

“...You had the chance to run. You didn't.... and now, here you are.”

König's body tensed and he gripped at the think mattress below him. “Sometimes the cost of doing what's right is higher than we anticipate.” He replied.

“I wasn't aware KorTac knew what doing 'what's right' was.” Price said, the irony not entirely lost on him.

König sat there quietly, what was the point of replying to that particular comment?

Price let out a sigh, waving a hand apologetically.

“We don't have to be enemies, Colonel.”

“König.” König corrected.

“König.” Price smiled, “Help us, and I promise you, there will be a place for you in this task force.”

“We'll see.”

With that, the conversation had lapsed into silence. Knowing that König was unwilling to speak to him any further, Price stood up and grabbed the chair. The door to the cell opened and he left the holding area.

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Actions

Amidst the gunfire and explosions, König has spotted someone who shouldn't have been there. Kyle 'Gaz' Garrick. He'd recognize that man anywhere, though he would have noticed sooner, had the man been hanging upside down from a helicopter.

Somehow, the one-four-one had gotten involved in this particular conflict and now there were fights to be hand on two fronts.

It had happened quickly, as so many things do on the battlefield. Gaz had been stuck by enemy fire, a bullet tearing through his shoulder and sending him tumbling backwards. He landed hard on the ground and yelped out in pain.

König's instincts had kicked in before his brain could stop him, and he sprinted across the battlefield until he hovered over Gaz's prone form. He crouched down as gunfire whizzed past them, and he quickly assessed the extent of the injury.

Gaz was going to bleed out if nothing was done, so Konig grabbed the man like a sack of potatoes and hauled him to cover. He worked frantically to stem the bleeding, ripping the shirt to get a better view of the wound.

“That's my favourite shirt, mate...” Gaz had mumbled. He was too unfocused to realize who was tending to him.

“I will buy you a new one, gutaussehend.” König replied as he began to tend to the wound.

It wasn't pretty by any means, but it would do. The bleeding had been stopped, some fragments of the bullet removed and it was disinfected. König had used most of his gauze to bandage the area.

König had barely had a moment to sigh in relief when he felt a gun at the back of his head. “Move away from my mate, nice and slow you slag.” The gravelly British voice commanded him.

“Ja.” König nodded.

He moved with an impressive grace away from Gaz before slowly standing up; his hands raised in surrender.

Ghost kept his weapon trained on König as he peered down to Gaz. A mixture of shock and confusion washed over him as he saw that bandages wrapped around Gaz's arm.

“The fuck is this, mate?” Ghost grunted as he returned his full attention to König.

“I... I don't know.” It was honest. König's own mind was racing with questions about what he had just done. His heart was racing, and if it weren't for the sniper hood over his face, Ghost would have clearly seen the grimace adorning his face.

“Don't play fucking games with me. I should put a bullet in your fucking head...” Ghost snarled. His finger moved towards the trigger, but he thought better of it. Price and Soap were on the way, so there was no need to shoot the man dead. Yet. “Drop all your weapons nice and slow. And kick them away.” He commanded.

König complied and removed his pistols and combat knives, setting them gently down on the ground and kicking them out of reach one by one.

“Step back.” Ghost commanded him once more, flicking the barrel of his gun and Konig.

“Ja.” König nodded.

He took a step back. And then another until he was several feet away from Ghost, Gaz and his weapons. Ghost would have plenty of time to shoot him if he made any stupid moves.

“He will be okay if he gets proper treatment.” König explained calmly to Ghost. He was trying to diffuse the situation as best he could.

“Didn't ask your opinion, slag. Keep quiet.” Ghost hissed, though his attention was split between König and Gaz who was passed out and breathing a bit heavy.

It felt like hours had passed before Price and Soap finally made their way to Ghosts location.

“Steamin' Jesus!” Soap exclaimed as he came to an abrupt halt. He took in the scene with shock and awe.

“Guten tag.” König said a bit more cheerfully than a man with a gun aimed at him should have.

“The fuck happened here?” Price questioned Ghost as he pulled up behind Soap.

“Our German friend here wanted to play medic with out Sergeant.” Ghost nodded in Gaz's direction.

Price moved to Gaz to inspect his situation and Soap pulled his firearm and aimed it at König.

“I got yer back, LT.” Soap reassured Ghost. “I think yer the best man tae cuff the bastard.”

With that, Ghost roughly bound König's hands, his gaze lingering on the captive soldier with a mix of distrust and disdain. As they made their way to the exfil location.

The same question was on everyone's mind; “Why had an enemy soldier helped one of their own?” Not that that question would be answered anytime soon. Even as König was loaded onto the helo, he simply stared into the abyss of uncertainty.

“Scheiße” König cursed himself silently. He knew he had fucked up, but there was something that pulled at his heart, knowing that Gaz would be okay. Though he probably couldn't say the same for himself.

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Feelings

It was early in the morning when the lights flickered on and illuminated the cell, stirring König from his uncomfortable slumber. He muttered something in German, his voice tinged with annoyance until he saw Gaz standing outside his cell.

He swallowed hard and sat up on the cot. “Guten tag, Sergeant.” He croaked out.

König yawned as he leaned back against the cold concrete wall.

“Gaz. Just Gaz is fine.” Gaz advised as the door to the cell opened.

He entered slowly, and like Price had, dragged a metal chair in with him. His presence seems to fill the room with warmth. König's heart fluttered, and he began to fidget as he tried to hold Gaz's gaze.

“How are you holding up?” Gaz asked as he made himself comfortable.

“It is a holding cell, so it holds me well.” König joked. Attempted to joke. He wanted to hang himself as the stupidity of it washed over him.

Gaz chuckled and shook his head. “Okay, then...”

König's throat was dry as he struggled to find his voice a second time. His fingers seemed to dance on his knees as he gathered his thoughts.

“I am... fine.” He finally replied with a faint shrug. “Trying to make the best of this situation.”

Gaze smiled at him and nodded. “I can imagine you've been a bit bored being cooped up in here all these months.” His voice, his accent was smooth as it wormed its way into König's ear. “But you're still alive and in one piece.”

König's eyes fell to Gaz's shoulder. His arm was no longer in a sling like he has seen a few months back, and he must be healed by now.

“As are you.” He replied nervously.

“Mmm.” Gaz nodded again. “Because of you, I kept my arm and my life.”

There was an unspoken hint of gratitude to Gaz's words, but he was a bit too prideful to outright say the words 'thank you', at least right now.

“Still going through physical therapy. Still can't aim straight with it, but I'm getting there.” His jaw clenched shut and his brow furrowed as he wondered why he had admitted that to König.

“You will recover. You are still young and strong.” König smiled under his hood, he eyes softening as he spoke.

König couldn't shake the feeling of unease that gnawed at him. He didn't understand this attachment he felt towards Gaz, but he knew it was dangerous for a few reasons. Aside from the fact that he had never felt this way about another man, if he allowed himself to explore these feelings, he'd solidify his desertion.

But as he looked into Gaz's pretty brown eyes -only slightly more enticing than his pretty lips- he could help but let a flicker of hope course through him.

“There... was one other reason I stopped by...” Gaz mentioned in a casual tone, though his eyes were downcast as he said it.

“Hmm?” König tilted his head like a puppy. “Tell me, mein freund.”

Gaz hesitated for a moment, but quickly decided it was best to just be honest. “You've been disavowed.” He spoke the words slow and calmly. “Since the one-four-one never made any demands to exchange you for anyone or anything, and because you were seen willingly helping me, and surrendering to Ghost, KorTac has officially cut their losses with you. We received the news last night.” Gaz explained.

König's heart sank like a stone into the cold depths of the ocean. 'Disavowed'. The word echoed in his mind. All because he had done what he had thought was right.

He shook his head. No, this was all his fault for sure. He had helped the enemy, of course he was disavowed. He was a traitor, and he would have done the same to anyone else on his team.

He grappled with the thought of never seeing Austria again. His friends or family. Everything about his life now lay shattered at his feet, an a storm of emotions began to rage within him.

“I understand.” Was all he managed to mutter out.

And that was that. The conversation was over and Gaz knew it. So with a nod of his head he got up and left König to his thoughts.

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Decisions

There was no choice but to start integrating König into the one-four-one. Well, Ghost had vehemently opposed the idea, stating that König could never be trusted. Price had understood the concern, but also wasn't planning on sending König on missions anytime soon, let alone giving him access to restricted areas or information. Soap had also voiced his concern; first in Scottish Gaelic and then in English.

“I don't fuckin' trust him, Price.” Ghost voiced his disapproval once again.

Price rubbed at the bridge of his nose, clearly exasperated by this circular conversation.

“I understand your concerns, Ghost, but we need to make use of him--”

“It just doesn't sit right with us.” Soap interjected.

That was the last straw for Price. It had been two weeks of this conversation happening again and again, and now his own subordinate was cutting him off mid sentence.

Price was a patient man, and more than happy to entertain the thoughts and concerns of them men under him, but enough was enough.

He stood up from his chair and placed his hands on his desk. He took a deep breath and glared at both men.

“Listen to me very carefully.” His voice was low and seething with rage. “If either of you twats bring this subject up again, or if you ever interrupt me again, I will kick your asses out of the one-four-one. Now, the next thing I better hear from either of your mouths is 'yes sir' before you leave my office and fuck off. Do you understand me?” He hissed.

There was no room for black and white in Prices words, the look in his eyes conveyed his seriousness about the situation, and Ghost of all people knew how fucked he'd be without his job on the task force or Price to have his back.

Ghost and Soap nodded. “Yes sir.”

They promptly left Prices office.

Gaz had been sitting off to the side reviewing some documents as this exchange occurred. To be fair, Ghost and Soap had burst into the room uninvited, and Gaz had been working with Price at that time. He had felt no need to stand or engage as Prices limit had been reached.

And now, he sat there flipping through pages with a smirk on his face.

“Feel better, sir?” He chuckled as Price straightened himself out and took his seat again.

“Fuck off, Kyle.” Price gave him the side eye, but even his beard and tone couldn't hide the amusement.

“I have a job for you.” Price said after a long moment of silence. He reached into a box and retrieved a cigar. He took his time lighting it and enjoyed several long puffs before he continued. “This is a delicate situation, but I believe König has potential beyond information.”

Gaz's brow furrowed slightly, concern crossing his face as he processed Prices words.

“The man has been here what, seven months now? Almost eight? He hasn't once tried to make an escape, and he's been even more docile since you gave him the 'bad news' as it were.” Price puffed on. “I say we give him a real chance, and if he fucks up, we put a bullet in his head.”

Price shrugged and tapped some ashes into a nearby tray.

“I want you to take point on this, Gaz. He seems to like you, so might be easier for you to help integrate him into the force. Obviously I want you to keep a close eye on him, and you won't be alone, but you'll be in charge.”

Gaz's jaw clenched. He took his time thinking about it, but figured he would agree without protest. This was an opportunity to learn why König had helped him all those months ago. And he couldn't deny the joy he would take in superseding even Ghosts authority on this 'project'.

“What I say goes?” Gaz asked. “Outside of your final decision, that is?” He clarified.

“Your say goes.”

“Consider it done, sir.” Gaz agreed. “When do I begin.”

“Now. Why not take out lumbering German to the mess for some lunch.” Price laughed before taking a drag from the cigar.

“...yes sir.”

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Targets

König stood at the firing range stall waiting for Gaz. His nerves were frayed to say the least as he looked around the room to see Ghost and Soap off in the distance; glaring and judging him. Ghost had a hand on his pistol, still ready to put him down at a moments notice.

“Alright, big guy...” Gaz's words snapped Konig out of his daze and he looked down at the man. Into those big, brown eyes. “Let's see what ya' got, yeah?” He beamed.

König nodded and swallowed hard. He wanted to do right by the one-four-one, he wanted to earn the trust of this whole team, and he'd be lying if he said he didn't want to impress the handsome young man handing over a rifle to him.

König took the rifle and stepped into the stall -which was way too small for him- and, in an attempt to break the tension decided to tell Gaz a joke.

“Hey, Gaz...” König began, already grinning under his hood, “why did the soldier bring a ladder to training?” He asked as he inspected the weapon.

Gaz gave König a quizzical look and tilted his head slightly as he thought about it.

“No idea, why?” He finally asked.

“To reach new heights!”

There was a deafening silence in the range as Gaz, Ghost and Soap processed the joke. The moment only broke by Ghost snorting in reply and looking away.

“Fuckin hell... that was bad...” He murmured as his shoulders shook.

“That's... certainly a new one.” Gaz replied to König, trying to distract the man from Ghosts reaction. He cleared his throat and extended a hand to guide König to the targets down the range, “Alright, lets focus on the targets now.”

König felt his cheeks redden with embarrassment, but he couldn't help it, his heart fluttered when Gaz was around. Without another word, he turned to the targets and readied his rifle.

Pop, pop, pop.

He fired several rounds from the first rifle and his targets. Several head shots and a few straight through the heart.

Next up was a pistol. He was equally skilled with that.

Gaz recognized his skill, and had read in his file that König had always wanted to be a sniper, so he decided 'what the hell' and wanted to give the man a chance. As he guided König to the sniper range -with their shadows in tow- the giant spoke up once more.

“Why did the soldier cross the road?” He asked, smirking like an idiot under his hood.

“I dunno, mate,” Gaz shrugged, already shaking his head. “Why?”

“To get to your side.”

“Christ...” Ghost sighed.

Gaz legitimately laughed at the joke and gave König a pat on the back. “If I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to sweet-talk me.”

“This is painful.” Soap whispered to Ghost as they finally made it to the sniping range.

“Mmm. But entertaining in its own way.” Ghost replied as the two men watched Gaz and König set up.

“Just take your time, mate.” Gaz reassured him as he stepped away and left Konig to his practice.

Sniping is a game of patience, and König had been denied his sniping career for two reasons. The first was his size; he made a better battering ram than a sniper, and the second was his need to fidget when bored. But he was determined to prove to Gaz he had what it took.

He took aim and steadied his breathing. His hands were steady and after judging the distance, he fired.

“Fuck...” he hissed under his breath. He had hit the target, but not where he had wanted.

He aimed again. He focused. He fired.

“Der mist!” He grumbled a bit louder this time.

He took one last shot and at least his something vital on the target.

With a resigned sigh, he put the safety back on and moved himself into a sitting position on the floor as the target came swooping in for Gaz's examination; and Ghosts whispered ridicule.

Gaz took time to examine the target, and was overall impressed with König's shots. Only one would have likely been fatal, had it been a person, but the other two could certainly be crippling to an enemy combatant.

“Not bad, not bad.” He nodded as he looked down to König. “Guess we'll just need to set up some more practice time for you.”

König's mood perked up at the idea of spending more time with Gaz and quickly stood up, towering over Gaz in the small box of the sniping range. “Ja, I would like that!” He exclaimed.

He looked over to Ghost and Soap and and then back at Gaz, lowering his voice. “Hey Gaz, what would be your perfect date?” He asked.

Without missing a beat, Gaz grinned and replied, “April twenty-fifth, its not too hot, not too cold, all you need is a light jacket.”

He was so fucking proud of this reply, and loved watching the gears turn in König's head.

The dumbfounded look in König's eyes tipped Soap over the edge and he buried his face in Ghosts arm, snickering at the custerfuck that was this interaction.

“O-oh... okay.” Konig replied still confused.

He handed over the sniper rifle and turned to leave the booth, in a bit of a hurry at that, and slammed his head into the top of the door frame as he attempted to re-enter the base.

“Gottverdammt!” He yelled, felling the rage build inside him. He had fucked up his sniper practice, Gaz wasn't into him, Ghost and Soap were making a mockery of everything and now his head was hurting like a motherfucker.

“You alright there, big guy?” Gaz asked in a soft, sincere voice. He placed a hand on König's arm and turned him around. He could easily tell what König was feeling.

“Yeah...” König grunted, rubbing his head. He took a moment to breath and calm himself down before continuing. “Gotta watch out for door frames, they sneak up on you...” he tried to downplay the embarrassment. “Well... maybe not you...” He added in a deadpanned tone.

Gaz let out a deep laugh, not realizing that König hadn't been joking, just stating a fact.

“Aye, Gaz here is a shorty.” I Soap joked as he and Ghost moved past the two and entered the base.

“Hey, Soap... get fucked.” Gaz laughed.

“I wouldn't talk, mate... you're shorter than Gaz.” Ghost reminded Soap before giving one last glare at König. The meaning was clear; fuck with or hurt Gaz and Ghost would ensure König disappeared without a trace.

“Fuck, never thought I'd see a man flounder so hard. Big mans got it bad.” Soap remarked as he and Ghost made their way down the corridor.

“Better than anything on the telly, though.” Ghost reported. “Four pints says he completely blows it.” He added, staring down at Soap.

“Deal.” Soap grinned.

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Secured

It was late in the afternoon, and the sun was starting its drop towards the horizon. Long shadows were cast over the ground as the ruins of of the enemy stronghold smouldered in just below. The task force was wrapping up a mission and were currently attempting to regroup back at exfil.

König had been brought along, but he had not been authorized to partake in the mission proper. Price had relegated him to extraction duty alongside two other soldiers.

There was an unsettling silence that washed over the land just after Soap had radioed in that the mission was complete and they were heading back. Maybe it was soldiers intuition, but König had a bad feeling.

Sure enough, and only moments later, the sound of gunfire echoed in the distance as Ghost, Soap and Gaz dashed from the foliage and into the open field.

Bullets whizzed by them as they ran, and they fired back sporadically as enemy soldiers burst through the cover of the trees.

“Give me a weapon.” König commanded one of his chaperones.

“Negative.” The man replied as he reached for his assault rifle. “You don't have authorization. Stand down and let us handle this.”

König wasn't asking.

Faster than the soldier could react, König slammed his hand into the mans throat, dropping him to the ground, gasping and panicking as he fought for air.

“I'm sorry mein freund.” He said as he walked away and unlatched the container that stored a sniper rifle.

He worked quickly to assemble the weapon, making sure to give it one last look before using his towering height to climb onto the roof of the truck. The other soldier finally noticed him, and the look König flashed him was warning enough. Do not try me.

The soldier nodded and returned his attention to his comrades charging in their direction.

König laid down on the roof and set up the rifle.

He licked his lips as he peered through the scope and acquired his first target. He flicked the safety off and calmed himself -as difficult as that was, seeing Gaz in danger again- before placing a finger over the trigger.

“That's it, maus... run into my trap.” He smirked as his finger pulled the trigger.

The rifle discharged with a sharp crack, the thunderous roar echoing across the landscape. It struck the target like a bolt of lightening dropping the man instantly.

“Pop.” König commented, proud of himself.

Several more booms erupted from the barrel as König took down enemy after enemy until his team was in the clear and there were no more soldiers pursuing them.

He flicked the safety back on and hopped down from the truck as Gaz, Soap and Ghost came to a halt.

“You weren't authorized to use that.” Ghost grunted, trying to suppress the need to catch his breath.

“Lay off the man, he saved our arses.” Soap huffed, punching Ghost in the side of the arm.

He walked past König and gave him a pat on the shoulder, “Thanks for the assist, chum.” He smiled.

König's eyes lit up with excitement as he turned his attention to Gaz. He extended his arms and walked with a confident swagger towards him.

“Mine freund!” He exclaimed as Gaz looked up at him, his chest still heaving and sweat dripping down his brow, “Did you see that! I got them all!” His voice boomed with pride.

Gaz just grinned and shook his head. “I can't say I saw it, but I knew you were helping us when the gunfire behind us stopped.” He joked as he took one last, deep breath. “You did good, König.”

The adrenaline was still coursing through his veins when out of nowhere he leaned down and wrapped his large arms around Gaz and pulled him into a tight hug.

“Thank you, liebling!” He was beaming under his hood.

He picked Gaz up off the ground and held him at face level.

“It's all thanks to you. It's all thanks to your trust in me.” König continued as he squeezed Gaz a bit tighter.

“Okay, okay!” Gaz laughed, patting König on the shoulder. “Put me down!”

“Nein!” König replied in a surprisingly playful tone.

Truth be told, he never wanted to let Gaz go. Fuck, he'd never have touched Gaz if it hadn't happened by impulse. That and Gaz smelled so goddamn good.

“Guys!” Gaz called out to Ghost and Soap, “Guys!” He called again with a huge grin on his face, “This dudes great, can we keep him?” He laughed loudly.

König was looking at Gaz with heart eyes, and it didn't go unnoticed by the man wrapped in his arms. How could it? He was wrapped in the mans arms!

“Make you a deal, big guy...” Gaz said in a quiet voice, slipping his hand under König's hood to ghost his fingers over the back of his neck. “Put me down, and you can take me out for a few drinks. Just the two of us. How's that sound?”

König's heart nearly gave out at the thought.

“A date?” König asked, needing desperately to know this wasn't just drinks between friends.

“A date.” Gaz confirmed with a confident nod.

“Ja.” König said as he lowered Gaz back down to the ground. “A date sounds wonderful, liebling.”

“Jesus fucking Christ!” Ghost yelled with a rage Gaz and Soap had last heard when a rookie tried to touch his mask. “Konig you walking Sequoia tree, what the fuck?!”

König's eyes widened. The soldier he attacked.

“Fuck.” He grunted, knowing he was about to face Ghosts wrath, and likely Prices when they got back to base.

Gaz bit his lower lip and shook his head. He gave König a slap on the ass and walked away, “Well have that date after you get out of solitary.” He winked at the large man and give him a finger gun.

König lowered his head and began his march to a probable death. “Es tut mir leid, Ghost!” He called out as he disappeared to the other side of the truck.

[thereddestfox]

The guns of the Fallout series and how Bethesda knows less about guns than I do about making music.

While this is mostly about the specific weapons of the 3D Fallouts, I’ll at least go over the problems of the isometric Fallouts. Also, I should mention that, while I am a gun nerd, I am by no means a gun expert. 

Fallout

The guns in Fallout are mostly future guns with modern bullets, for instance the iconic 10mm pistol being in lore the “Colt 6520 10mm pistol,” with 10mm Auto being an actual round. Although it was surpassed by the .40 S&W for being unwieldy, 10mm auto has made a resurgence in recent years and the specific pistol looks bulky enough to potentially make up for the harsh recoil.

It was here I was going to bitch about the minigun, as Minigun was originally a specific gun, and the minigun in game uses 5mm rounds, not to be confused with .223 caliber and 5.56 NATO, with them being interchangeable in guns chambered for 5.56 NATO (guns that are designed for .223 can feed 5.56 but whether or not the gun can handle the pressure and heat depends on the gun.) But upon farther reflection, the minigun in Fallout is called the “Rockwell CZ53 personal minigun”, personal implying that it is designed for infantry and probably not requiring a car battery to use. Also the minigun, along with the assault rifle, uses 5mm, which implies a new smaller NATO (or whatever replaced NATO in the Fallout universe) round that is more controllable, given that the assault rifle (8 to 16 damage) does less damage than the hunting rifle (8 to 20 damage.)

Also, this isn’t relevant to anything, but it turns out that the plasma pistol is the Glock 86. I don’t know why but I find the implication that Glock just decided to only produce plasma pistols in the future hilarious. I bet they still use the same pain in the ass to reload magazines.

Fallout 2

Fallout 2′s weapons include all of Fallout’s, but with plenty of fun additions like the G11. IDK what gun wizards HK employs but I’ve never seen an HK gun I didn’t like. That being said in game they call the P90c an HK gun. I have no idea why, the P90 is an FN gun, not an HK gun, and I don’t think they’d buy the rights to the P90 anytime soon given they have their own competitor on the market that I’m also a slut for but that’s neither here nor there. Don’t ask me which I’d prefer, I’m already indecisive about what to eat, I don’t need another internal argument.

Fallout 3

Mmmmm yes, I love my AK47 breaking after 1212 shots in a game where that can easily be a single segment of the main story, thank you Bethesda. Mmmm yes, I love not being able to repair it more than my repair skill even though it requires the same exact gun. MMMMMMMM YES PLZ fucking decide that the Fat Man should be called the Nuka Launcher in the Japanese versions of the game but don’t reflect on maybe not calling it the Fat Man in any version of the game. Especially considering that the actual weapon it’s based off is called the Davy Crocket, a much cooler less assuming name*.

*Turns out I got Davy Crocket confused with Steve Irwin, it’s still problematic but in a different direction and most importantly it wouldn't have been Bethesda’s fault.

Oh, right, this was supposed to be about guns.

It has a few guns from Fallout (but not Fallout 2), but they also changed a lot for the worst. Since I have problems with basically every gun I’ll go over them one by one.

.32 pistol: I don’t directly have a problem with this, seeing as it seems to just be a S&W Model 30, but that along with the damage implies that the .32 caliber bullets in the game are .32 S&W Long. More on that later. Also it breaks after 556 rounds, which leads me to believe that the guns don’t actually break so much as the Lone Wanderer (or Beth) just doesn’t realize that you’re supposed to clean your equipment after you use it and so they just try to replace dirty parts thinking they’re broken, which would be funny if it wasn’t such an annoying mechanic.

Chinese pistol: Why is this in 10mm? Because you didn’t want to add another ammo type? While the Mauser C96 was popular in China and the specific caliber the variants are manufactured in, fucking none of them are 10mm auto because 10mm auto is a fucking 1980s round, which means it’s inconsistent with Bethesda's version of the lore.

Scoped .44 Magnum: Why does literally every version you can get in game have a scope? I know some people do but also why is it literally everyone who owns one in this game? Guess people in the Capital Wasteland like having sore wrists.

Assault rifle: It’s a G3, which is period accurate, but the problem is it uses 5.56 NATO in game. Not only does the G3 use 7.62 NATO irl, but the 5.56 was made in the 1970s, again breaking their own lore. You could claim it’s the .223 Remington, but they specifically call it 5.56

Infiltrator: It’s the assault rifle, but with a scope, no butt stock, and a suppressor. I hope you like the gun flailing wildly now while you try to look down the scope.  I’m sorry, I can’t help but think the Lone Wanderer is using all scoped guns like this because of how dumb this is.

Chinese assault rifle: there are a few different AK variants that this could be. Guess which caliber none of them can take? That’s right, it’s fucking 5.56 NATO, because China has a defensive doctrine that is very specific about which ammo their guns use for supply line reasons. Ok, technically there were 5.56 NATO variants of the Type 81, but only 20 were imported before being blocked and it was semiautomatic anyways.

Hunting rifle: No. No. No. Why? Why is it in .32? Why does it do so much more damage than the assault rifle if it’s in fucking .32? You already have .308, just make it fucking .308. Fuck!

Lever action rifle: Second verse, same as the first. Also reminder that 10mm auto was a 1980s round.

Combat shotgun: there’s 4 or 5 different guns this could be based off of, and all of them are submachine guns. Thanks, I hate it!

Fallout: New Vegas

Literally no complaints about the guns in New Vegas. While I personally think that they should have gone with the M14 instead of the M1 for the battle rifle, there isn’t anything wrong with the rendition of the M1 and admittedly it’s a more iconic gun. They even bothered with different types of ammo and fixed the weapon durability mechanics while still leaving it in. While I still don’t like the mechanic per say it feels like it has a reason to exist with the addition of the survival mechanics, increased weapon durability, jury rigging perk, and changing of how repair works.

Fallout 4

So they did away with weapon durability (not a bad change), the crafting system (which I really love the idea of but hate the execution) has the way you upgrade weapons no only be level locked, but it’s tied to the receiver and there’s an objective best upgrade for most guns with major increases in damage and no ammo types even though the game has a system in place to swap ammo used by two different weapons (the syringer and junk jet both use this menu.) If you wanted to have a way to upgrade damage it should have been barrel length and even then it shouldn’t have been the massive percentage increases like it is. I’ll be doing this like Fallout 3 but with a bit at the end I’d like to point out.

Deliverer: We’re back to “why is this in 10mm auto” territory. The game has .38 returning for some reason, even though the only guns that use it by default are the pipe guns (we’ll get there.) You should have renamed it to .32 and made this gun use it by default. Or fuck, pretend that .380 and .38 are the same thing if you’re that stubborn and dumb, I would have only made fun of you a little bit for it. Why you gotta do the gun that killed Hitler dirty like this?

Hunting rifle: No major complaints about the gun itself, it’s always in the left handed configuration, even though everyone in the Fallout universe is right handed, but I personally don’t have an issue with this. My dad and sister are both left handed so I’m used to a more ambidextrous mindset. Also I know the reason they did this is probably to show off the animation better, but honestly who cares? My actual issue lies in the fact that this and the pipe bolt-action [sic] are the only guns that can be modified to take .50 cal, even though the combat rifle acts as a direct upgrade for this gun.

Assault rifle: Nothing about this is an assault rifle. Fully modded this gun is easily heavier than the minigun, the gun it’s based on is the Lewis gun, a light machine gun, the ingame model is bulky af, Literally the only things assault rifle about this gun are made up by Beth, the actual Lewis gun has 47 round mags and uses full-powered rifle cartridges (as opposed to 5.56 NATO, which is an intermediate cartridge.) 

Combat rifle: Yes Bethesda, thank you for adding .45 to the game. No Bethesda, that doesn’t mean you can start making it a rifle cartridge. Should have been the actual assault rifle, which still would have been bad given that it’s obviously a BAR, but would have been better.

Gauss rifle: great, you took a cool gun from Fallout 2 and made it worse in every way. At least you bothered to remember that it used 2mm rounds in that game.

Combat shotgun: I think they did this because they couldn’t or didn’t want to bother making actual tube magazine shotguns. If you can’t then you should do what GTA 5 did which is have you load two shells then call it a day, it looks goofy but I can at least say they did it for balance reasons and not because they’re lazy. Also it’s less based on the PPSh-41 and more just “we took the combat rifle and added some detail to make it less obviously a BAR.”

Pipe pistol: Ok, real homemade guns exist, and you can set up a low tech manufacturing plant somewhere to make them, but they wouldn’t look like this:

they’d look like this:

and are woefully inaccurate because the barrel isn’t rifled. Still, an SMG is an SMG when you’re saying “fuck you” to the British government.

Pipe bolt-action: literally the same model, but this time in .308 and the Sole Survivor racks the bolt between every shot. Still dumb.

Pipe revolver: You really need to start labling your rounds, you can’t keep doing this. You say it’s in .45, but is that .45 ACP or .45 Colt? One you wouldn’t put into a revolver, and the other you wouldn’t put into an SMG. Fucking pick one! At least it’s a different model this time.

Ok, now for the thing I was saving: half the guns in base game Fallout 4 are late world war 1 or early interwar designs. I’m serious. With the exception of the 10mm pistol, .44 pistol, and maybe the hunting rifle, every single base game small gun is pre world war two. Have a look:

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Deliverer_(Fallout_4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walther_PP

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Assault_rifle_(Fallout_4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_gun

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Combat_rifle_(Fallout_4) https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Combat_shotgun_(Fallout_4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1918_Browning_Automatic_Rifle

Also, while I’m here, I’d like to point out how dumb the missile launcher is. The base is fine, standard rocket launcher, but the upgraded variants with multiple missile tubes have nowhere for the rocket exhaust to go, meaning it would bake the operator. I don’t think I’ve seen a dev fuck up the M202 Flash so badly. Here’s a few images and a video to show what I mean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkFU7o3IAaM

Yeah, good luck using that and not killing yourself.

[razieltwelve]

Kill Order (Final Rose)

As the explosion raged against her glyph, Weiss activated Luna’s personal forcefield and all but threw the girl at one of her bodyguards. “Get her behind cover.” 

“Yes, ma’am.”

The explosion finally began to peter out, and Weiss began to bark orders at the other bodyguards. “Team 1, you’re with me. Team 2, I want you to split, take the buildings on either side. Sweep the rooftops.” She paused as a low, angry growl filled the air. “Zahn...” The wolf glanced at her, and Weiss gave the order. “Kill.”

X     X     X

What sets Oerban timber wolves apart from most of their lupine kin is not merely their size although they are the largest wolves in the world. Instead, what truly makes them unique is how heavily they make use of Aura during combat. Like chocobos, Oerban timber wolves have learned how to enhance their strength, speed, and durability using Aura.

An adult Oerban timber wolf is more than capable of completely ignoring small arms fire, and more powerful wolves have been known to remain combat capable even after being struck by anti-tank rounds. To maximise their combat effectiveness, the Yun often equip their wolves with collars and bracers that contain personal forcefields and Aura batteries. The objective is to allow the wolf to reach their opponent without sustaining major damage. Once the wolf reaches their target, the result is often largely academic.

X     X     X

Zahn reached the first White Fang assassin and simply clamped his jaws around the Faunus’s head. The assassin’s Aura flared briefly and then shattered like glass. The wolf’s massive jaws closed with a wet thump, and he tossed the dead man aside as a stream of gunfire raced toward him.

Instincts that had been honed by years of training allowed him to zigzag through the oncoming barrage until he reached his next target. This one drew a sword and swiped at his side. The wolf leapt over the blow and crashed into the rabbit Faunus. The woman screamed as he brought one paw down with punishing force. To her credit, her Aura withstood the first blow, so Zahn twisted, seizing her leg in his jaws, and swung her into a nearby streetlight.

The metal bent beneath the force of the blow, and he shook his head and brought her down onto the pavement. Her Aura broke, and the concrete sidewalk cratered. Blood splattered the ground, and he fought the urge to howl as he bounded toward the group of White Fang firing on the members of his pack.

They saw him coming, and he understood immediately that he would not be able to dodge so many attacks. Instead, he would have to rely on his Aura and the defences his pack leaders had given him. Light flashed around him as those defences and his Aura withstood the onslaught. One of the White Fang gestured sharply, and an explosion threatened to drive him back.

Zahn roared and threw himself forward through the cloud of fire and force. He slammed into the closest assassin, and his sheer mass sent the man tumbling back. Rising to his feet, Zahn rammed another Faunus into a car, crumpling the vehicle and crushing the woman against it. A swipe of his paws sent a male Faunus tumbling through the air before he lunged at the one with the most Aura.

Another explosion bloomed to life against him, and Zahn felt the bracer on his rear left leg crack. That wasn’t good, but he still had three others and his collar. More importantly, he had managed to reach his opponent. With a blur of movement, the Faunus drew a spear and stabbed at his side. Zahn dodged as best he could, and the blow skittered off his flank. His teeth closed around the man’s wrist, and he tried to bite down. His opponent’s Aura resisted the attack, so he turned it into a throw, heaving him into the wall of the building beside them. 

“You damn monster!” the Faunus drew a knife with his other hand and drove it toward Zahn’s face. 

The wolf let go of the man’s wrist and jerked his head back before lowering his shoulder and driving it into his chest. The corner of the building broke off, and the pair of them rolled across the road. Zahn was on his feet first, and he struck with brutal force. He seized the Faunus’s left ankle in his mouth and used it to slam him into one of the trees that lined the sidewalk. Wood cracked, and Zahn bit down harder. Still, the White Fang member’s Aura refused to break. A desperate slash of the knife clattered against Zahn’s defences, and the wolf swung his head back around and smashed his opponent back into the ruins of the tree. Finally, his Aura broke, and Zahn darted forward.

“Get away from -”

CRUNCH.

Zahn tore off his head and most of his torso with one bit and then turned to scan the rooftops. One of his pack leaders was leading an assault further down the street. There was no need to go to her side. She was well protected. Instead, he would do what he did best. He would hunt. Movement from a nearby rooftop draw his eyes, and Zahn broke into a speedy lope.

X     X     X

Granite had worked for Weiss Schnee for the better part of five years. He’d been forced into battle several times while serving her, but this was by far the largest conflict he’d been involved in. In a way, he wasn’t surprised. With her wife away on a critical mission, Weiss was far more vulnerable. If Ruby had been here, it was entirely possible that all of their assailants would already be dead. Teleportation and ultra-high-speed movement were absolutely unfair sometimes.

Of course, that was what he and the others were for. Weiss packed more firepower than entire teams of hunters, but she was relatively fragile compared to her teammates. If she got hit - and that was a big if given her defensive glyphs - she wouldn’t be able to simply shrug it off the way someone like Yang Xiao Long could. But as long as he and the other bodyguards could protect her, Weiss was essentially living artillery. 

Case in point: the majority of the White Fang’s forces further down the street were currently being bombarded by bolts of super-heated ash travelling at rail-gun-like speeds. Upon impact those bolts would not only inflict hideous damage due to their speed but they would also explode, completely enveloping their target in ash that had been heated to thousands of degrees.

The only thing he and his team needed to do was keep the rooftops clear. A sniper was one of the only threats that stood a chance of getting Weiss, and they’d already eliminated several as they swept the rooftops. Once this was all over, there would definitely have to be an investigation. The White Fang had been all but destroyed for years. How had they managed to gather the resources for an attack of this magnitude?

However, his thoughts were soon interrupted as something burst out of a nearby roof. Well, crap. That was a war mech, a salvaged and heavily modified Atlas model by the looks of it. 

“Take it down!” Granite shouted. “Don’t let it fire!”

It was impossible to be completely sure of its load out, but the mech had several missile pods and what appeared to be a heavy plasma cannon on one arm. 

“Take out the plasma cannon!” Granite pointed. “Aim for the plasma cannon!”

Missiles filled the air, and he and the others were forced to take cover. He peeked around the corner in time to see the plasma cannon beginning to charge. 

“Damn it.” He raised his rifle and fired, but the bullets simply bounced off the mech’s forcefield. However, he must have done some damage because there was a sound like breaking glass as Zahn crashed through the forcefield and bit down on the cannon hard. “Watch the wolf,” he barked. 

Swinging back and forth, Zahn managed to brace his feet against the mech’s chassis. With a savage jerk of his head, he ripped the front half of the plasma cannon apart. The weapon shrieked and began spewing plasma everywhere. The wolf leapt clear, and Granite gestured wildly.

“Bring it down! Bring it down!”

One of the other bodyguards picked up a piece of rubble and threw it. The other man’s Semblance turned the projectile into a makeshift grenade, and it exploded against the mech’s side. The machine lumbered and then toppled off the rooftop. 

“Don’t let up!” Granite pointed. “Target the cockpit!”

X     X     X

Weiss took a moment to scan the street for any further danger. Good. The White Fang had been dealt with. Even so, she asked for a full sweep of the area before moving to where Luna had thankfully been kept safe. At her side, Zahn walked proudly. The wolf had proven his worth yet again, and nothing made him happier than doing his bit for his pack.

“Good boy.” Weiss reached over to scratch him behind his ears. “Good boy.” She noticed the blood staining his jaws and muzzle and paused. Hmm... she should probably clean him off a little before they met with Luna. 

X     X     X

Author’s Notes

It’s easy for people to forget because he’s so friendly and easy-going, but Zahn is more than six hundred pounds of lupine death that has been carefully honed over generations of selective breeding with years of training to hone his instincts. Backed up by technology, an adult Oerban timber wolf is extremely dangerous. That said, those same things that make him dangerous make him perfectly safe around Luna. The idea of actually harming her goes against all of his instincts and training. What makes wolves like Zahn even more dangerous is that they are also trained to work together if necessary. Together with their handlers, packs of Oerban timber wolves can and have brought down even S Tier Grimm.

The best bit is that after this, Zahn will probably spend his night being used as a teddy bear by Luna. Since she was kept safe behind cover during the whole fight, she wasn’t scared for herself so much as she was scared that something might happen to Weiss, Zahn, or the bodyguards, many of whom she has come to think of as friends since she’s known them for as long as she can remember.

If you’re interested in my thoughts on writing and other topics, you can find those here.

I also write original fiction, which you can find on Amazon here or on Audible here.

[stone-man-warrior]

November 22, 2020: 7:43 pm:

Is there a way that the young man could be said to be a pair of studio monitor speakers? If so, then the part of the story that includes the 15 year old specification originted in terror orders presented by Amercan Music Supply on november 19 at 2:02 pm where many studio monitors were advertised.

Look at these:

Mackie Thump 15A 1300 Watt 15" 2 Way Powered Portable Loudspeaker Pair

At AMS website, they are a fantastic bargain at less than $700 for the pair.

See that the speakers shown on the backside say they are 1000 watt, while the ad says they are 1300 watts.

These are representations of two Royal Canadian Mounted Police Terror Impostor Police disguised as State Police in your state. They work for the British Throne. They are at the event in real police cars, wearing real police uniforms, they have real guns, bullets, radio’s, dispatch to all of the other real and impostor police, they can do distraction, detour, delay, confusion service, and arrest people. They are paid with real paychecks from real State Departments of Transportation, but they are impostors who are terror soldiers providing support services for other terror murderous soldiers at the events.

Do math. Compare other speakers from that ad. Solve terror at the Black Friday pre-show event at the Malls of America. There is way too much information contained in the AMS product descriptions for the speakers featured in that ad that day to say here or on tumblr. ( I am doing it anyway. I first wrote this on my suspended Twitter account, then, I had an epiphany when I understood what it all means, so, here you go, what it all means)

You have to read the descriptions, and also look for similar small coded details that keep repeating between the different brands and models of speakers, many are only two or three characters of letters and/or numbers, so, it's very complicated and subtle. I don't know what the read actually is, but I see a theme, built of many small components to create some kind of loud event, big, quality, and is not expensive for what you get, in a horrible, mass-murder kind of way.

When you look at Adam Audio products:

Adam Audio T8V 8" 2-Way Powered Studio Monitor at AMS.

Think about a perspective from Vatican leadership reading the specs to you. notice that the Adam Audio is "T8V 8 2-Way" very important there.

I only want to point out that 118 Ronald Reagan Freeway right there highlighted in blue, you can go look at the other information on your own.

The QSC brand works for saying "Quebec" and that advertised model that day was 2000 watt. So, when it's "2000" it's also "AD" just add 20 for the Ten20 location.

K-12 is specified here. Comes with Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 2 per car, disguised as State Police in USA.

(Read that description as if you are a traveling SDA Canadian terror soldier who also works at the Department of Transportation as a road construction builder who is out on attack for Global Domination and are prepared to begin hoisting small children into a giant size blender so that you and your terror army can replace those US kids at school with your own kids from Canada.)

QSC K12.2 12" 2000 Watt Powered Speaker

This JBL brand is the preferred stage brand for professional performers. That advertised model is for a rechargeable battery specification, to say "There are nitrous Refill vans, trucks, tanks at the venue where the victims will suffer repeated battery and terror soldiers can easly recharge their empty tanks as needed" James B Lansing, JBL.

(The “Ducking” feature highlighted means that there will be SAG operatives to direct you to the hidden nitrous refilling tanks, or summon mobile ones as necessary. The nitrous soldiers will simply “duck” into a van, or between some parked campers for cover while they refill their empty tanks of poison gas for making it easy to capture victims. This is what those “100,000 Amazon Delivery Van were made for, was a news item last year. The vans are said to be “Renault” electric powered vans... 100,000 of them for Amazon Prime.)

JBL EON One Compact All-in-One Rechargeable Personal PA System

The 15 Y/O dies though, the way I read the comm. The whole ad looks like comm for the same kind of terror attack that was done at the Grants Pass Walmart in around 2001 or so, now that I stepped the fuck back and had another look at it after the Wisconsin Mall thing.

They took the shoppers by force and put them into a giant blender, where the victims were ground up into a liquid pulp, water and seeds were added, then the terror bastards sold the product they called V8 Red Hydroseed, to the Oregon State Government for profit to be sprayed onto road sides as erosion abatement.

(This Denon DJ Unit means Donald Trump is at the helm of the attack at the Malls of America. You have to understand that Trump has been leading a vast terror army since 1980 or even before that, so, he has been running the Pope’s giant blender for a long time, since way before he became US President)

Denon DJ Prime 4 Standalone DJ System with 10in Touchscreen

=========================

From there, you can do your own research. There is all of the information necessary to learn, to solve, to act, to stop the mass murders and preserve USA and preserve Freedom itself.

That is all I care to do on this one. I witnessed this event when the circus came to town and set up shop at the local Walmart many years ago.

8:15 pm.

[breckstonevailskier]

How to improve Jancy and Jopper in Stranger Things Season 3

 I know that this is gonna sound strange, but after reading some posts  around Reddit and Tumblr about how Jonathan's and Nancy's storylines  really deserved better in season 3, I had an interesting thought: what if the Jonathan/Nancy and Joyce/Hopper storylines were combined into one single storyline?This  not only would've tightened the narrative, but it also would've fixed  several problems a few people have complained about in season 3. One, it  would've fixed Hopper's characterization as Jonathan and Nancy would be  quicker to call him on his behavior a lot more willingly than Joyce,  with Jonathan likening the parallels between Hopper's new attitude and  what he, Will and Joyce went through with Lonnie. This would've made  Hopper realize in introspection how out of line he was getting mad at  Joyce for blowing off their date to go see Mr. Clarke, and that he  should be a better role model towards Eleven and Mike. Two, it would've  given Jonathan more screentime with his mother, something that was also  lacking in season 3. And three, it would've given Nancy a much more  compelling thread for her character arc.Here's how I'd combine the two arcs: Episode 3: “The Case of the Missing Lifeguard” After  Nancy and Jonathan find Mrs. Driscoll eating her fertilizer in her  basement, they call the ambulance. Once the ambulance arrives and Mrs.  Driscoll is taken to the hospital, accompanied by Callahan, Nancy and  Jonathan decide that if they're going to run something by Tom about this  story, they're gonna need some help from an expert: Hopper. Hopper just  makes perfect sense to be a mentor to Nancy, because he's a former big  city cop, and he's a dogged investigator who knows how to connect the  dots as repeatedly shown throughout seasons 1 and 2. And he'd know a  thing or two about how you don't run a story without credible sources to  back up your claims, because police detectives and journalists have a  lot in common, the only difference being one has a badge and the other  doesn't. So Jonathan and Nancy seek out Hopper, and drive up  to the old Hawkins lab at the same time that Hopper and Joyce show up.   After pooling all of their information together, they split up to  search the place. Nancy goes with Hopper, and Jonathan goes with Joyce.   I'd do it this way because Nancy has shown proficient use with firearms  against the Demodogs of seasons 1 and 2 and even volunteered to be  Hopper's backup during the showdown here last October. This also gives  Jonathan and Joyce the opportunity to have a mother-son character  moment.  There's a lot of emotional weight coming back here for them,  since this was the place where Bob died, Bob was practically the dad  that Jonathan and Will wished they had instead of Lonnie, and Joyce is  considering moving out of Hawkins (this fixes the fact that we never saw  Joyce talk onscreen with her sons about moving). The character  moment is cut short when Hopper and Nancy are ambushed by Grigori.  Grigori puts up a good fight with them both, but it's not as one sided  since he has to take on two people at once. Hopper is less beaten, as  Nancy manages to get hold of a gun and scares Grigori off before he can  land the last blow on Hopper. Grigori gets away, despite Jonathan and  Joyce attempting to give chase in the Byers' car. Episode 4: “The Sauna Test” For  Jonathan and Nancy, it's a big deal as they realize now that the  Russians are present in Hawkins, maybe trying to get into the Upside  Down or worse, finding Eleven. Before they can do anything about their  new leads, they're fired by the flayed Tom. But Jonathan and Nancy are  convinced that Tom is in on it too, but for the wrong reasons. They  think that he's firing them because he's in league with the Russians,  unaware of what Billy and Heather had done to Tom the night before. Nonetheless, they aren't giving up on finding the truth. They  go to City Hall to convene with Joyce and Hopper again, who are there  to talk to Larry Kline since Hopper remembers seeing Grigori coming out  of Larry's office. Once again, I'd place Nancy alongside Hopper as he  interrogates Larry. When Larry threatens to put in a call to Tom at the Post,  Nancy laughs, “You really think that’s gonna do anything? Seeing as  I’ve been fired already.” But Larry turns his ire on Nancy, and decides to insult her obsessive pursuit of justice for Barb. Nancy snaps and breaks Larry's nose. They both pin Larry to his office  table, and interrogate him to get him to reveal what the Russians are  doing at Starcourt. Joyce and Hopper take Larry back to his house to get the  property records of the lots the Russians are buying up. While this  happens, Nancy and Jonathan go to Starcourt Mall to talk to Steve, as  while Jonathan hasn't quite 100% forgiven Steve for breaking his camera,  they know about his friendship with Dustin, that he works at Scoops  Ahoy and he may have noticed something unusual. To their surprise, Steve  believes every word of what they say, and tells them about the activity  he witnessed last night with Robin and Dustin.  Jonathan and Nancy  reconvene with Joyce and Hopper, and they pool their information. Jonathan is the one who goes to  the hospital to check on Mrs. Driscoll, and witnesses her being  activated by the Mind Flayer. Episode 5: “The Flayed” Meanwhile,  Nancy and Joyce go with Hopper to check out the properties from Larry's  list, and discover Alexei. Since Robin is out of contact, the four  decide that they need to have someone to take Alexei to Murray Bauman so  he can translate. Nancy and Jonathan are the most acquainted with  Murray, since he helped them get the truth out about Barb last year, and  it was in his house that they made love for the first time, so they  insist on going together. Hopper offers to go with them, since he's  concerned for the possibility that Grigori will be after them, after  some back and forth between the three of them. Joyce elects to remain in  Hawkins to look after Will. So Nancy, Jonathan and Hopper  make their way out to Murray's, while Joyce remains behind in Hawkins  and talks with Will, Mike, Lucas, Eleven and Max. Through them, she  learns about what's happened to Billy, and remembering what happened  with Will last year, suspects that the Mind Flayer is back and is  creating an army. With Hopper unavailable, Joyce gets in touch with  Callahan and they go back to the hospital to check on Mrs. Driscoll.  Unfortunately, she's not there when the two enter her room. Joyce and  Callahan are then attacked by the flayed Tom and Bruce, and Joyce  succeeds at killing both of them, though Callahan is badly wounded and has to be hospitalized. Episode 6: “E Pluribus Unum” Nancy,  Jonathan and Hopper get Alexei to Murray's place. Along the way,  there's some character growth for the three as Jonathan talks with Nancy  about Joyce wanting to move, while Hopper tries to give Nancy some  words of advice on how being a journalist is no different from being a  cop. The scene at Murray's is slightly different. Murray can't help but  tease Nancy and Jonathan about last year, much to their embarrassment  and to a bemused face from Hopper. Nonetheless, they  interrogate Alexei  and get him to reveal that the  Russians are attempting to access the  Upside Down and that they are  opening a portal beneath Starcourt.  Jonathan and Nancy remember what Steve told them, and worrying for their  respective brothers' safety, Jonathan insists that they return to  Hawkins immediately. Episode 7: “The Bite”

Meanwhile,  back in Hawkins, to find the Mind Flayer, Eleven uses her powers in an attempt to psychically communicate with Billy, learning of his troubled childhood and finding the Flayer at the mill. Billy senses Eleven's presence, giving the Mind Flayer access to her location, and reveals that the Mind Flayer's plan is to kill her in revenge for her closing the gate. The Flayed converge on the mill, dissolving into an organic mass and merging with the Mind Flayer. Joyce determines that the Mind Flayer is coming for  Eleven and for Will.  Will senses the Mind Flayer approaching and it  attacks them before they  flee, wounding Eleven. They rush Eleven to a  safe place where they can hide her and treat her wounds. Dustin contacts them over walkie-talkie to try and explain the situation with  Steve before he loses battery power. Through some process of  elimination, they figure out where Dustin is and make their way to the  mall. (Basically, Joyce switches places with Jonathan and Nancy)

Hopper's group, made of himself, Jonathan, Nancy,  Murray and Alexei, make their way to the fairgrounds in Hawkins in an  effort to search for Nancy’s and Jonathan’s brothers as well as Joyce,  but they are spotted by Kline, who alerts the Russians. Grigori almost  manages to get the drop on Alexei, but Nancy shoots and wounds him in  his shoulder just before he can fire. The bullet is not enough to kill  Grigori, but enough that his shot misfires and Alexei survives. The  group catch up to Larry, where they learn that the agents are looking   for the children at the mall, and Nancy and Jonathan get the joint  satisfaction of beating the shit out of Larry. At the mall, Eleven's  group arrives in  time to stop the Russians from shooting Dustin's  group.

Episode 8: “The Battle of Starcourt”

The  final battle then goes down mostly the same. Nancy and Jonathan's car  fu with Billy still happens. But there are a few areas where I'd make  some more changes. Namely,  while the others distract the Mind Flayer by  attacking it with  fireworks, Nancy and Jonathan get to beat the shit  out of Heather, to get back at her for flaying her dad (their former  boss), while Steve, Robin, Eleven and Max fight with Billy.   Eleven is  able to awaken Billy's mind from his memories, weakening the Flayer's  control enough that Steve is able to bash Billy's skull in with his nail  bat, allowing Max to deliver the finishing blow and giving them both  the satisfaction of payback for the season 2 finale where Billy almost  beat Steve to death. (And while I'm at it, have Max feel no sadness over  Billy's death, but instead relief that he's dead)As for closing  the gate to defeat the Mind Flayer, I change this part of the battle  just a bit. Namely, Alexei is by Joyce's side while Hopper is fighting  Grigori in the gate room. Nancy and Jonathan come to their aid after  defeating Heather. Hopper fights with Grigori in the gate room as the  others prepare to shut down the gate. Hopper throws Grigori into the  machine, causing it to go haywire and block his  exit. There  are a couple possible endings: 1) Nancy, Jonathan and Alexei somehow manage to  rescue him, and Alexei has to switch  places with Hopper. Joyce shuts down the gate, Alexei choosing to  sacrifice his own life in the process of taking down the project that  he'd worked on. Or 2) Hopper still sacrifices himself, and Alexei defects to Dr. Owens when he arrives with the cavalry.   In either ending, Murray buys out the Hawkins Post and rehires Nancy. In  ending 1, he also rehires Jonathan as the paper's photographer, while  Nancy divides her time between writing stories and being Hopper's  reserve deputy. In ending 2, the Byers still move away.      

[bisexualstokes-archive]

Atrophy (2/?)

Chapter (2/?): Still Alive Rating: Teen+ (For: Language, Graphics Depictions of Violence) Summary: He wasn’t in the box Chapter Notes: An update? So soon? I know, right? But I’m riding a huge wave of inspiration ;) @letswaitforme, @deltajackdalton, @impossiblepluto, @mutatedsilverunicorn, @12percentplan, @telltaleclerk...idk, who else wants to be tagged in updates of this fic?? lemme know ;)

Previous Chapter | Read on ao3

He wasn’t in the box. He wasn’t in the box. He wasn’t in the box.

Maybe if he repeated it over and over in his mind, it would become true, and he wouldn’t be surrounded by glass walls, holding back packed dirt. Dirt that was so tightly packed, that it seemed like it wasn’t dirt at all, but a solid wall of vaguely textured color. Was the box always this small, not long enough to hold his entire body without his joints bending? He’d been in there for so long, his whole body was numb.

The light was defunct, he shot it hours ago, didn’t he? Wait, where was his gun, where were the bullets? Did that vile woman finish off the poor, unfortunate officer with his gun? She had taken everything else from him, after all.

He couldn’t hear the soft whir of the fan, nor could he see one. Was he really in the box longer than the time it took for the battery to die? Did his consciousness somehow survive the suffocation, sentencing him to an eternal life in his premature grave? Were the last five years of his life some sort of fantasy, a vision to his oxygen-starved brain of what could have been?

The green glow from the plastic cylinders that weren’t actually next to him, was reverberating to the rhythm of his erratic breathing. The exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide was a miracle, a gift that he was extremely grateful for. Too grateful--his body was working overtime, his heartbeat was just as irregular, trying to compensate for the robbery of control...over everything.

He knew it didn’t help, to look at his watch for the passage of time. Not that he could, anyway, as the wrist that bore the watch was stuck somewhere between his right ankle and left knee. He wanted to know how long he had been trapped in this hell, alternating between the past, of the box he definitely wasn’t in, and the present, of the car trunk, void of any light.

Part of him hoped that maybe Veronica had forgotten about him, that she fled the scene with the evidence, and maybe he would be found before his body began to decompose.

Another part of him knew that she wasn’t finished with him yet, a thought, which made the contents of his stomach churn.

And a third, final part of him questioned if this was some sick exercise in exposure therapy. He read about an FBI case, a few years ago, in which a counselor turned serial killer killed his victims by exposing them to their worst fears. No wonder he was hesitant in going.

She seemed smart enough, sadistic enough, to slip through the cracks in his defenses, in the same way this latest therapist seemed to. Forcing him to revisit painful memories, when he just wants to find a way to move past them. Not that she even knew that about him...or did she? Was she another stalker? Did she know he was going to be at that scene, specifically targeted him? Why else would she want to “keep” him?

He needed to resist, defy her in any small way he could. Easier said than done, given that the only body part he had any control over at the moment, was his eyes. But the paralysis wouldn’t last forever. A few hours, at most, unless he faded into unconsciousness, or a coma.

He needed to stay awake. Should be a piece of cake. He’d done it before, in the box.

But, he wasn’t in the box.

There was no sound inside the trunk itself, the car’s engine was off. Distant sounds, seemingly miles away yet right outside the trunk, were telling Nick that time was passing, with or without him. Other cars were starting, neighborly greetings, birds chirping.

Birds. He liked birds. If he was lucky, maybe he’d get to see one again before everything came to an end. There was a lecture on birds, that he wanted to attend. Greg had told him about it.

Greg...he should be at the diner with him, eating breakfast. He could hear his phone buzz, it must have been him, asking Nick where he was.

Scraping, he also heard the sound of metal scraping pavement. It made the hairs on the back of his head stand up, goosebumps on his arm. At least...he assumed that it did.

A deep rooted instinct, a mentor’s voice, told him to assume nothing.

The scraping came to a screeching halt. He wondered if it would wake up the immediate next door neighbors, if by some sheer luck they would call the authorities.

CLUNK-CLUNK-CLUNK.

Nick’s heart jumped out of his body, got stuck somewhere in his throat. Shrill laughter, as the trunk was opened, and he was nearly blinded by daylight.

“Ah, we’re all good now,” Veronica announced to her captive as her laughter died out. She was holding the camera in one hand, and something small, metal in the other. Handcuffs, he identified. “I picked up these for later.”

She tossed the handcuffs onto his face, they slid off, landing right in front of his mouth. It was then that she seemed to study Nick’s face, which he was trying desperately hard to not have a reaction to. He tried to avert his eyes, counting the fibers of the trunk’s interior, thinking about how maybe his body would leave a trace of fiber, leading to the car’s identity.

“Did you know…” Veronica started, as if she were about to tell Nick the most interesting fact in the world. She left him in suspense, picking up another object in her free hand. Something long, wooden. She poked his body with it, playfully giggling as his body didn’t squirm. He would have tried not to, if his body had any sense of movement.

She removed the wooden handle away from him, spun it around to reveal the other end, which was a metal spade. She moved the shovel towards his head.

“That poor police officer…” she continued, in a mockingly sad tone, poking the dirt-coated, rusty tip into his cheek with each word. A mark was left, that he wouldn’t be able to feel for quite some time. Using the shovel, she then lifted his head off of the trunk’s surface, bouncing it a little as she held it in place. His neck would hurt later, from the strain.

She fiddled with the camera, Nick could hear soft noises, which he recognized from when he would zoom in on a shot. When she seemed satisfied, she looked back at Nick, her finger on the button.

“...Was still alive when I buried him?”

Click. Flash.

He wasn’t in the box, but he was somewhere worse.

--------------------------------------------------------

Greg Sanders was looking out the window, waiting for a car that would never come. His fingers on one hand were absentmindedly stirring his third cup of coffee. The other hand was rubbing the numbers on his phone, pressing in Nick’s number, again and again and again.

He knew Nick was never late without reason. He also knew that Nick would have at least texted him, telling him he was on his way.

He was starting to get worried.

He left a voicemail on the third call.

“Hey...Just...wondering if you were still coming? I can wait, as long as you need me to....I know how things can get busy, Cath said you were on a solo...Just...call me back.”

After sending one final text with similar dialogue, he threw his phone to the counter, dug his jittery hands between his arms, leaning against the table.

“You ready to order, hun?” the waitress asked. “Or you still waiting on your friend?”

The sympathy in her voice indicated to Greg that she’s seen this happen before, maybe even had it happen to herself. It didn’t make it feel any better.

“Yeah, uh...I’ll have the sunrise special, and I know what he’ll--”

Greg stopped mid-sentence as his phone buzzed. He eagerly picked it up, staring at the message long enough for the waitress to get the hint.

Sorry man, can’t make it. Something came up.

[sacrimarked]

Combat, Tools of the Trade, and Cars.

Abriell is not built for fighting.   The combination of osteoporosis,   hemophilia,   and a compromised immune system make her very vulnerable to injury and infection,   and any injuries she receives are much more likely to be fatal.   This given she tends to avoid straight fights,   favoring traps,   ambushes,   or directing sturdier individuals whenever possible.   Unfortunately such solutions aren’t always feasible,   in which case she falls back on the use of small caliber and low-recoil firearms to deal with threats up close and in person.   Over the years Abriell has narrowed down her preferred weapons to a relatively short list while still covering a variety of uses,   making it easier to keep stocked on ammunition and parts than if she were to use a wider variety.

Abriell’s list of other equipment is quite extensive,   and it’s effectively impossible for her to keep it all on hand at any given time.   It’s vital for Abriell to have as much information as possible before leaving for a job in order to best plan what equipment is going to be most useful.   In the best circumstances a missing piece of equipment can be worked around,   in the worst it could lead to disaster.   Abriell’s tool kit covers a massive range of utilities and uses,   from mold-able plastic explosives and detonators to common steel nails and rope.

The transport of Abriell’s weapons and equipment obviously requires reliable vehicles,   of which she has two.   For day-to-day travel,   local jobs,   and easy lightweight work Abriell drives a 2013 Volkswagen Passat B6 sedan.   The Passat’s engine has been modified to run on pure ethanol,   and the trunk features a false bottom under which she can hide illegal items.   For more demanding situations Abriell also owns a 2015 Ram 1500 imported from the United States.   The 1500 has been modified further than the Passat,   featuring an extended bed supported by a second rear axle,   a slide-out storage compartment beneath the bed,   and an aftermarket off-road suspension.   The rear half of the 1500′s cab has been gutted for increased storage space and,   like the Passat,   its engine has been modified to run on ethanol.

A complete list of Abriell’s weaponry and equipment can be found under the cut,   due to length.

Updated: expanded list, categorized items

Weaponry:

3lbs Semtex and 4x remote detonators 1lbs thermite mixture and 6ft magnesium ribbon 25ft 50 grain det. cord 25ft 200 grain det. cord 4x detonation triggers 12x blasting caps 2x M67 fragmentation grenades 2x M84 stun grenades 1x M14 TH3 incendiary grenade 1x M8 white smoke grenade 1x Glock 26 Gen 4 and 110x rounds 1x KRISS Super V and 300x rounds 1x M4A1 carbine and 300x rounds 1x 12ga Remington Max Versa and 60x rounds 1x Blaser R93 LRT with custom stock, mounting system, and 25x rounds 1x Colt Paterson revolver and 15x rounds 1x H&K HK69A1 and 3x 40mm grenades 5x .338 lapua magnum tranquilizer rounds 5x .338 lapua magnum depleted uranium rounds 30x 9mm silver bullets

Supernatural Deterrents:

1x gallon jug of holy water 1x box of various religious symbols and iconography 1x iron stake 1x 5lbs bag of road salt 1x book of exorcisms

Recording and Surveillance:

1x Huawei MateBook with charger and USB mouse 1x long range wifi antenna 1x wireless surveillance and security system 3x infrared capable video camera 3x handheld audio recorder 3x Shure SM7b microphone with cloudlifter 1x Scarlett 18i8 audio interface 3x 100ft XLR cable 3x digital camera with external flash and motion trigger

Tool Kit:

1x propane torch and 1x extra propane tank 1x butane torch and 1x extra butane tank 1x oxy-acetylene cutting rig 1x pair #5 shade cutting goggles 1x 12oz hammer 1x 5lbs sledgehammer 1x 14in hatchet 1x 6lbs pickhead axe 1x 21in bow saw 1x battery powered drill with charger 1x set of standard drill bits 1x screwdriver set 3x pairs of pliers in various sizes 1x pair combination wire cutter and stripper 1x pair bolt cutters 5x boxes of steel nails 5x boxes of steel screws 1x set stainless steel lockpicks 1x stethoscope 2x 100 watt floodlights with optional stands 5x 25ft extension cords 5x 5 outlet power strips 2x 3800 lumen flashlights and 12x spare batteries 2x 6000 lumen headlamps and 12x spare batteries 2x pairs night vision goggles 1x pen light

Medical:

2x first aid kits 1x sterile emergency surgery kit 1x sterile hypodermic injection kit 4x 40mg bottle morphine 5x 35g pouches Celox clotting granules 1x box small vinyl gloves 

Travel:

2x backpack SINCGARS radio 2x handheld SINCGARS radio 2x heavy duty backpack 4x heavy duty duffle bag 1x black leather briefcase 2x pre-loaded cell phone 1x portable cd player with ROSENROT cd 1x dark green rain poncho 1x pair hiking shoes

Misc. Survival Gear:

3x 60ft roll duct tape 3x 60ft roll electrical tape 2x 100 count box of fireproof matches 2x box of slow burning emergency candles 1x 12ga flare gun and 4x flares 100ft dynamic climbing rope 1x box Westfarthing salt 2x box nature valley granola bars

[omghealthdrink]

Attention Chp. 8 - Preview 2

Note: This is the opening part of the chapter, unfortunately it’s not finished yet. It’s the last section I’m sharing from Chapter 8 until posting. If it’s boring/stupid/needs yeeting just say so. Also please show some love to @hanghr, she made an amazing piece based on the previous preview that needs to be shared more! 

Okay. For those who sticked around, here it is:

Drip. Drip.

They were finally outside of that blasted cell. Fareeha was beyond joy to see a familiar face in the dank, underground base. It may not be the junkyard she last visited, but damn. Drip. All of Junkrat's bases looked exactly the same. Everywhere was full of concrete. Drip. Old, creaky ventilator shafts hummed in sync like a mechanical battle drum. Light generators illuminated the closest tunnels, but did not allow proper scouting of the area without the risk of getting caught. Drip. Creaks coming from above made a few heads turn upwards, making observers note a combination of water and hot steam pour out of the ventilation shafts. Drip. Cold wind blew against the damp walls surrounding the escapees, making them hyper aware of everything around them.

Slow, rotating ventilation fans crept against ill kept ducts, white noise filling in air with thick anticipation. Danger was near.

Drip.

Especially.

Drip. Those constant. Drip. Never stopping.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip. Goddamned water droplets which never seemed to end falling.

One even ended up on Fareeha's nose, making her instinctively back away and immediately shake it off. She got lucky.

It was clean. And wasn't sludge.

The musty smell that followed after breathing in their first intake of air did not cover the painful groan coming out of the Russian donna, who was being supported by Fareeha and the cowboy themed bounty hunter. She had fallen to the ground after being released from the electroshock chair, barely able to stand. Fareeha was disgusted at the fact that Zarya's inflicted shock waves had been triple the amount she received.

The first thing Fareeha did after freeing herself and Zarya was to frisk the Roadhog torturer in case he had some valuable information. A map or something. He had an old fashioned walkie talkie on his possession, but nothing more. Cursing loudly in Arabic, Fareeha spent precious minutes searching all over the prison cell, lamenting about her lost phone, but not loudly enough to draw attention.

After giving up search, the Egyptian helped Jesse support Zarya towards the rusted, noisy steel door. Noticing it was too hard for Zarya to talk, Fareeha wordlessly asked Jesse what to do next. Shaking his head from side to side, Jeese re-examined the surroundings.

"While I admire the fact that you're still alive missy," Zarya gasped in pain, but did not retort, "I'll have to let you go now. We can't carry you at the same time, I'm afraid. Makes us all vunerable." Getting Zarya's weight off his hands, Jesse opened the Black Jack's gun barrel with a strong twist, adding three more bullets into the empty chambers. "Last three," spinning it and jamming the firing ammo back in place, Jesse fixed his retrieved poncho upwards, perhaps a reaction out of the cold. "We need to conserve our bullets."

"Easy for you to say." Fareeha's voice croaked, feeling like she hadn't spoken for months. "At least you found your weapons."

"I was lucky the guy who tortured me had them on him. But I know where your firearms are. And missy's too. Not that you need to rely on them completely to kill someone, unless you've lost your touch." Hissing out between cletched teeth, a wounded bear told Jesse to stop calling her 'missy'. "Anyhow. 'Reeha. Miss," Zarya groaned at the ignored advice, "We need to find Junkrat's main gun cabinet. It's our best shot to stock up and retrieve our weapons. I'm sure I saw first aid kits lying about there. If not, that is our best location to find them." An eye twitched with annoyance at the sight of Fareeha's face, lowering one side of a hat that had seen better days.

"Not to mention getting rid of that thing off you. How the hell did you get that? Did Junkrat feel lucky? Or is there by mistake?"

Pharah let out a much needed laugh. "Both-" Laughing was a mistake.

The muscles under the burn mark were still reeling from the sudden burning iron mashed into her skin, shocked nerves keeping Pharah from using all of her facial structure temporarily. Turning her head towards the left side of her cheek, Fareeha's neck felt slightly exposed against chilly winds, having grown tired of the rumbling pipes. Painfully low artificial light sparked through ill kept electric lighting, some of them humming irritating buzzing noises above them.

"The sooner we get home the better."

"Da, da," Zarya agreed wholeheartedly, "I can't vait to see, see m-my little sun again."

Memories of pain and unabashed fury resurfaced in both escapee's minds. "And get our revenge." Pharah had managed to restrain any sign of pain with all her might. But the memory of that brand burning down, smashed fiercely against cheek and bone...

Like she was some sort of CATTLE.

"Da, nesomnenno. But first, home and rest. Maybe some broth too."

Fareeha looked upwards towards her taller, buffer associate. The reddened rope and stuffing marks were still lingering on Zarya's battered state too. "He really wanted to kill you. That bastard."

Drip. Lowering her head, Zarya started shaking, her body remembering its limits. "Da."

"We're gonna steam roll him, making him writhe in pain and regret messing with us."

Noting that this calmed Zarya down a little, Pharah clenched her teeth, feeling powerless at their situation.

"Look at us. Cowering and fleeing in the dark. Like we're a bunch of mook-"

Clearing his throat a little after observing in slience, Jesse raised his hand, urging the two freed mobsters to remain silent. Crouching in the shadows, all three heard quickening heartbeats pound into their ears, as clear footsteps started walking towards their closed cell. Fareeha looked upwards. No wonder it was so dark from the outside.

'We need to reach the storage area. That is where the gun cabinet is. Follow me, and you'll both be fine.'

Perhaps it was the wrong time to go back. Maybe she missed the phone and it was still there. Junkrat's henchmen were careless.

Just like--

Holding their breath, all three released it simultaneously after echoing footsteps went back towards the opposite direction. No time turning back. Letting a little sigh of relief escape, Pharah couldn't help but miss a certain partner in crime, whom she had promised to return to her side no matter what happened.

'I know you've been at one of Junkrat's hideouts once, but this place is different 'Reeha. Let's just say he learnt from the last time he had unexpected guests.'

Fareeha had to fight herself to keep a snort climbing from her throat, whispering back. 'It doesn't look that different.'

Waiting until the patrolling shadow faded from sight, the escapees waited the signal.

"Okay. Now. This way."

"Jou'd b-better knov vhere jou're going, covboy."

"Don't worry, if we get lost, I'll tell you first missy."

"Za-Zarya hold still or Mei will mark my other cheek with a cold iron stick and worse."

Facing a fuming ovtcharka in his line of sight, Jesse smiled, still wary of their surroundings. "No wonder you're still alive. Follow me."

-

Reaching a hidden hatch undetected, Fareeha stayed on guard as Jesse removed the sachets of grain hiding the iron lid. "This is where I came from. We'll go first left, get your weapons, then we're out of here. We'll find some plasters if we're lucky."

Feeling Zarya stumble, Fareeha kept her stance steady. This kept the Russian woman from commenting.

After removing a heavy box, the last barrier between their cell and freedom, a consistent noise of falling water started to sound audible.

When Jesse lifted it, there were no more doubts. A ladder became visible. Zarya lurched back out of instinct, dragging Fareeha with her.

"No vay. Ve are not going through severs, suka bljad. Either ve lover the vater levels or ve find another vay."

Irritation showed on Jesse's scowl. "Let me ask you a question. Were you tied up?"

"Da-"

"Were you tied up and half naked?" Jesse continued, not giving Zarya a chance to respond. "Were you cuffed up from your wrists, punched into your liver, shocked with a cable attached to a car battery for days, with nothing but water and rats for company?" Pointing towards the ladder with his eyes, Jesse started climbing down. "If I can go through this, you can too. Come on. Before the alarm's set off by one of those idiots."

Going down last, Fareeha helped Zarya climb the ladder very slowly, before reaching the lower ground herself.

"Close the hatch. That will stall them." The water was probably freezing cold.

And it was.

Shaking off the memory of Junkrat's bellowing face, Pharah resumed giving Zarya support, all three walking forward in the tunnel ahead, following the leader. "Stay close. From now on, we're in hostile territory." Glancing towards the never ending corridors and pipes, careful about the camera's locations situated on corners and ice cold water beneath them, they marched on. 

Kicking a loose pipe out of the way ("No one's here during this hour.") Jesse raised a heavy gate by rotating a tough valve, giving up after it got stuck.

"Fareeha, I need your help. Can you stand on your own for a second missy?"

"I ca- can lead a country on my ovn."

"Good. 'Reeha, come replace me for a second. Maybe you can make this valve move faster than me."

Making sure Zarya leaned on the nearest wall securely (“Mei?” "Mei.") she turned the stuck value around until it stopped. "Nice and easy..."

To everyone's dismay, Jesse kept shaking the knob when the exit didn't budge.

"Shit. It's jammed."

"Pro- probably locked."

"Marmaladed."

Two people turned their heads instantly. "Seriously Amari? N-"

Unmistakable splashes of footsteps smothered through the water, steadily heading towards their location.

Heart pounding through every second, Jesse started pushing the door outwards, a lock preventing all of them from hoisting towards safety.

"SHIT-!! Not now--!! This wasn't locked before-!"

"Zarya come-! There's no tim-!!"

"GO--!!"

"What?!"

Jesse aimed his gun towards the chipped metal lock, the close range being an advantage. The pistol ejected one single bullet shell.

"Two more."

Grabbing the nearest loose pipe and using it as a shield, Zarya yelled back. "I'll reach jou. Let go of the valve and RUN!"

"We can't leave you! No fucking-!"

Fareeha yelled when Jesse pulled her towards the exit, the iron gate slowly falling back in place, barricading between them and Zarya.

"JESSE! Zarya's still-!"

Many sparks started to hit Zarya's makeshift weapon and the gate, sharp projectiles breaching through the gate's defensive walls.

"Hold still."

With nerves of steel, a stone-cold killer was convinced to not move a muscle, never passing a second glance. Using Fareeha's shoulder to steady his arm, Jesse made short work of two mooks running towards Zarya, two clean shots landing on their temples making them stop.

"I owe you that much missy! Make sure to don't die now!"

"GO-! Vat the hell are jou-!"

Pistol smoke echoed dangerously close to Fareeha's blind spot. She felt herself being dragged from the edge of her tattered shirt's collar. An empty cartridge fell beside her, but did not let it be a distraction. "Let me go-!! We have to stay behind!" Fareeha could only see Zarya knock out visible mooks with the force of sheer grit. Out of sixth sense, Fareeha could tell Zarya was distracted.

"TO YOUR RIGHT-!!"

Zarya flung the blood-stained pipe towards her right, stopping a surprise attack just in time.

"Hah! Spasibo shakal!! Just like in Moscov-!!"

The falling gate shut down like a guillotine, but not before Fareeha tossed the discarded cartridge sharply for a headshot, aiding her friend once more. "Don't let this fuckhole be your goddamned grave, or it’s my head Mei will roll!! Rip their fucking hearts out!! You hear me Zarya--!! Rip their fucking hearts out--!!!" Swinging with all her might, Zarya knocked down three charging henchmen with her makeshift shield, knocking another's teeth out with no remorse.

"This way! QUICK!"

Finally listening, Fareeha ran towards the door, furious when Jesse started barricading it from their side after slamming it shut.

"What the fuck are you doing-??"

"The intelligent thing. If Zarya makes it she'll knock it down," sealing the door, Jesse rushed towards the ladder. "We can make it, but we're completely weaponless now." Gunshots hit the only barrier they had, the hinges moving with every impact.

"This was supposed to be a shortcut. She can find another way to catch up from here. For now, stick with me."

Jesse reached out a gloved hand to an old associate's direction. 

"For old time's sake."

Regretfully, Fareeha followed Jesse, the temperature around them feeling colder and colder.

Feeling time slow down around her, Zarya looked back, enemy blows and adrenaline the only energy pounding through her veins.

Pharah was safe. She owed nothing to that gunslinger. Zarya had sharper focus now that she saw clear.

"STAY ALIVE AMARI-! I'LL REACH JOU SOON-!!" Another mook biting dust, Zarya now tossed the pipe forcefully to stop three at once, picking dropped machine guns from the dead and firing until she stopped spinning. 

Pulling her trigger-fingers away after looking down at the empty gun barrels, Zarya took breath. Falling to her knees, she looked around a pile of corpses, blood, and emptied bullet shells.

Only psychopaths count.

Drip.

She couldn't tell the difference between the cold water and her own blood anymore.

Drip. More came. Of course they did. Threw a tear gas too. An act of cowards.

Zarya could barely breathe. 

Pain shot up from her knees, having no realised her body met the ground. Feeling them swell, Zarya could only hiss in agony, rising up to run. Feeling a rough hand pull back from the opposite direction, Zarya could only gasp as the one person she wanted to crush smiled back at her. "Good thing I found you again. Mei would've been so disappointed in me." A surge of bellowing laughter echoed through the tunnels, as Zarya finally let the adrenaline rush subside, fatigue taking over the unforgiving punch landing into her ribs.

"Take her back to the cell. I've been too soft."

Kneeing her to the face, Zarya spit fresh blood, as she fed off the urge to scream just to give Junkrat a false sense of security. Letting his mooks drag her horizontally back towards the cell, she kept her injured head low, pretending to be the pelt of a bear not yet killed.

Sorry... solnyshko...

Despite her inner strength, Zarya was still human.

I... cannot make it tonight...

Fareeha and Jesse retreated back to the shadows once the alarm bells started ringing, alerting everyone of their escape.

‘Shit. Stay behind. I'll scout ahead.’

Knocking the wind out of a running henchman with three swift punched slammed into his gut, Pharah dragged the heavy unconscious man's body where she was, to not be seen by anyone else, arming herself in a wink of an eye.

Quietly moving up to the side, Fareeha waited for Jesse's signal, charging forward, hitting another unsuspecting guard in the neck.

No matter what.

[socomtacticalairsoft]

How to begin with Airsoft

Making a start

Once you have your Airsoft weapon, you will probably be looking to join a skirmish site as soon as possible to start playing.

However, before you can go ahead with Airsoft games, there are several things you have to consider to ensure you are fully prepared when you arrive at a skirmish site ready to undertake Airsoft activities.

Face Protection

Body shots are generally harmless although close-range shots could make your body jump a little bit or leave small welts.

While chest protectors can be bought to give you added protection against the plastic pellets fired from Airsoft guns, they are not a necessity. However, face protection is.

It is important to protect your eyes as any object flying into an eye can be damaging, particularly considering the speed of the pellets as they are fired. Goggles can be purchased to protect your eyes from any possible damage.

Masks and helmets are also available to cover your eyes and give your entire face and head protection.

While pellets won’t cause major damage to the face, any small welts that appear on your face will be much more visible than on your arms and legs which should be considered when you return to the real world following Airsoft.Transporting Your Airsoft Gun

If you are carrying your gun on public transport or in your car en route to a skirmish site, the gun will need to be concealed in a bag or any other object which keeps it out of public sight.

Having the gun out in the open, even in a car, could cause unnecessary worry for members of the public and the police may be needlessly called out.

Battery & Charger

When you’re in the heat of battle, the last thing you want is for your gun to run out of power.

That is why it is important to charge your battery beforehand and it is also helpful if you bring spare batteries along so that these can be switched in and out throughout the day.

We have a number of batteries and chargers to choose from so you can gain a sense of the limits of each battery to know how many shots you can fire before the battery runs out.

BB Pellets Ammo

You’ll need ammo for your gun. BB pellets are small metallic balls which are fired from your gun which acts as your bullets during the game.

BB pellets can be fit into any Airsoft gun although pellets of a certain weight are usually more suitable for one type of gun over another.

We have a number of BB pellet options for you to discover, allowing you to work out the most suitable pellets you need to fit into your gaming strategy.

Register as a player

You can register with the United Kingdom Airsoft Retailers Association (UKARA) for free to allow you to join in Airsoft games at skirmish sites.

You will be required to play three games on a UKARA registered game site over a two month period.

  Safety

Is it dangerous?

Any object flying into your eye will hurt and cause damage to your eye but with the speed at which pellets are fired, there is an added danger to your eyes.

Goggles, helmets and masks all offer protection for your eyes which are at risk of damage if they are hit by a pellet.

In a skirmish site where everybody is wearing the correct protection, there is little danger caused by the firing of pellets itself.

Many sites will enforce the rule for all participants to wear suitable eye protection which eliminates the only danger which comes from the firing of bullets towards another person.

The main danger of Airsoft is the terrain.

Although sites will be cleaned up regularly and debris will be removed, the terrain itself might be difficult to navigate.

Hilly areas may be harder to traverse safely while muddy areas can lead to falls and slips.

The franticness of battles means a lot of the time, you may be on the run which also creates the potential for people to fall over so any injuries associated with falling can be applied to Airsoft.

Airsoft guns should not be used against any person in any other circumstance than as part of an Airsoft game.

Members of the public won’t be wearing anything to protect their eyes so shooting at them puts them at serious risks.

Guns must be concealed in a bag and unloaded so that the gun isn’t seen as a danger by any member of the public who spots it.

Carrying an Airsoft gun in public is a danger to yourself as police may become involved or you could even be tackled by someone who suspects you are carrying a real gun.

The speed of firing pellets is dangerous to small animals which can be killed by them. Animals should not be shot at with pellet guns under any circumstances as we know you know.

Does it hurt?

With the rate of speed at which pellets are fired from guns, you may be forgiven for thinking that the impact of it against your body would hurt.

Any pain you may feel when you are hit by a bullet is an instant sensation, like having a rubber band snapped back against your skin but the pain won’t linger.

Body shots are generally harmless although close-range shots could make your body jump a little bit or leave small welts.

Chest protectors can be bought and thick clothing can be worn to give you added protection against the plastic pellets fired from Airsoft guns.

Unlike paintball, you won’t leave the Airsoft game with bruises from the pellets. Close range shots onto unprotected skin can draw blood but won’t pierce the skin.

It is most likely that the pain you feel will be similar to the pain you might feel after exercising.

Running, climbing and jumping may play a huge part in your game so you may have some sore limbs afterwards and if any of these activities leads to you falling over, that may cause you a bit of pain too.

How to begin with Airsoft was originally published on Socom Tactical Airsoft Shop Blog

[filmery]

Stream of Consciousness

from Iron Man

****WATCH OUT FOR LOTS OF GRAMMATICAL ERRORS****

fav marvel opener- flipping comic book pages -never read any whoops

no one is wearing black- back in black

sexist- driver woman

rdj is =iron man

peace sign kid holds- he dies so thats why tony does peace sign

"older guy cant work camera" clishe

uggggh shaky camera

why was he with the troops/ not in helicopter?

zoom into bomb fast- GREAT fast comedic moment just before sadness

he shud not have been conscious after explosion that close

WTF IS THAT UNDER HIS SHIRT WTF- IFITS ARMOR IT SHULD PROTECT HIM

al quaeda to soon

so hes steve jobs- made a frikin computer in his garage

ewww rbj with no beard- bad cgi :( cant u just shave and get over urself?

yes weapons are the key to peace hahahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHhahaha

rip terrence howard as rhody

"too cool for award" cliche

"bald guy is bad" cliche

"hes always working" uhhh besides a few montages.... no he really just parties

only talks to cute girls....... uggggh

military funding? ha more like military debt ahahahahah 20 trillion is iron mans fault

jarvis is wing man after one night stand???? idve thought hed think tony was cheating lol

"girl wakes up with just guys shirt" cliche

"guy wakes up and leaves before girl wakes up" cliche

cat fight ha+2 points

literal and figurative island haha

so tony aint smart, he just uses jarvis

he obvi doesnt know how t4he faa works

i was gonna get REAL mad if tony didnt buy a painting cuz it was "too expensive" but we good

tonys a dick

yet pepper finds him attractive

ksorry

yaaaas rhody calling him a baby cuz he FING IS

im pretty sure laser shows in airplanes are illegal

"im not drinking them gets drunk" cliche

in my opinion from what ive collected, you cant be feared AND respected. fear takes over and you do things based on fear, not fromrespect - also how will blowing up people help them respect you? unless youre talking about getting respect from those u protect and those u kill cuz thats completely differeent then

"i respectfully disagree" or do you "fearfully disagree"

starts out as all techno talk, then turns into baby talk wtf

that shock wave conviently stopped right after it hit them

montage of painful surgeyr cliche

ewww that pipe in his nose as groooooooss

"dont do that but dontexplain" cliche

the dude cant understand english how did he know that tony refused????

why tf wouldnt u test it ANYWHERE BUT THE MIDDLE EAST?????

why cant they just wait and order the missile

k so this scene is srs and all but WATCHING HIM CARRYING THE CAR BATTERY IS SOOOO FuNNY I CANT

"no he wont" OK NOW U CANT UNDERSTAND U POS

"theyll never find u" cliche

why is his friend here?

how does he know how to build it? tbh he probs just had jarvis do it back home

how does the gov not know hes selling weapons to terrorists? we cant be that corrupt can we?

so hes building his ring thing but they DONT FING NOTICE THATS THERES NO MISSILES AT AlL??????

and they didnt question them the entire time

lemme peek but not go in and investigate

"i have steady hands" and then he crashes his car and LOOK! Doctro strange!

when a speech starts with a history lesson, u know its been rehearsed u poser

honestly... hot coal in mouth- worst way to die fml

props to marvel for not telling how fast theyre moving so i cant bust them for not being able to get it done

why the circle around the chest thing

wouldt one of their rules to be able to see u at all times

ctrl i is italicize hahahaha

why did the lights shut off but no the clearly hookedup laptop?

i enjoy the rock music as background music- not ur stereotypical ( yet awesome) hans zimmer score

yaaaaaas bitches run

gun shootsthen rebounds onto him- pretty sure thats not how physics work

if anyone should die, its tony tbh that whiny bithc

-2 for killing an actual good guy

how does not one of those bullets penetrate his suit?

----not enough use of the word penetreate

k no theyd keep shooting

tony: everythings on fire and im dying

ouchie that giant fall

how does he know hose helis are good?

DONT TOUCH HIS SUNBURNT AND BLISTERING SHOULDERS RHODY EWWWW

+2 for cheeseburger yas

-2 for burger king ew

doesnt sheild deal with aliens not terrorists?

newsreels? hes not THAT old

+10000 for ACCOUNTABILITY AND RESPONSIBILTY WOOOOO

k hes obvi doing the best thing here and now everyone gets pissed for him TRYING TO SAVE PEOPLES LIVES EHY IS THAT BAD?????? HE ALREADY HAS a shit otn of money LET HIM BE

fuck u and ur segway obidiah

the other thing..... dont put ur name on it

jokes on u! it was alqueade

+100 for mad money reference!!!!!

...so pepper didnt know about it so whyd he blame her for .3 seconds?

pepper is useless omg PUT YOUR HANDS IN HIS CHEST

why did he say dont take out the magnet but all of a sudden u dont need it?

i wonder if they actually built robots for tonys btterfingers

rhodeys we need pilots speech was just proven again by the aircraft landing in the hudson

so non military= humanitarian now? and if so why that bad?

honestly surprised that jarvis isnt some hot lady voice

k raza with sunglasses= morpheus

why is the mask the most vital part for raza?

tony crashing into wall is why u should ALWAYS WEAR A HELMET KIDS

obadiah is NOT playing the piano

+2 for not trusting obidiah

daaaamn if thats 1% whats 100% capacity

and he still doesnt wear a helmet

k his eye holes are so small how can he actually see?

run before walking leads to lots of problems later in life tony

at leaast he checked atc

goddammkit u made smol child drop ice cream

beginners luck

rip that baby grand he probs didnt know how to play

+2 for that fire extinguisher

+50 for Pepper being a cutie with that gift

how does tony not have his liscence revoked? hes a shit driver and can hire a chaffeur

STAN LEE BABE

RIP COLESON OMG :'(

so just fire pepper and marry her

pepper is totally right and tony should seperate who actually matter to him

how is a lot of olives 3?

im not my company- THEN TAKE UR NAME OFF HOE

no, modern day hell s walking those 15 miles and watching a car and heli and camera lady who are fine and can get there in 20 minutes

i sincerely hope that these footages were planned and not real

is this the news or a documentary?

just realized he never gave pepper her drink lol

yeah, let the kids watch their dad get shot thats fine omg

after that hit, he looks like a lion

why did he say colonel rhodes form weapons development? that name isnt that common

there was 0 time for radio contact omg

the only thing i could think during this scene was SERPENTINE SERPENTINE SERPENTINE

k now im getting a lil tired of the electric guitar

finally obi has been outted geez

im feeling some west side story WITH snaps

why is raza telling obi what he ALREADY KNOWS CUZ THEYVE BEEN IN CONTACT

how has no one noticed that obi just GOES TO THE MIDDLE EAST LIKE ALL THE TIME

this scene between pepper and tony is THE MOTHER of cliched lines

WHY DIDNT SHE SHUT DOWN THE COMPUTER STUPID WEIRDO

he tried to push his hair back hahahaHAHAHAHAHhaha

not scraps obi.... he had his own stuff

im just imagining obi hidig under toys couch haha

that dick took his shirt!!!

yaas beethoven reference

props to makeup people for his paralysis on point!

sorry but paralysis seems to me like U CANT FING MOVE TONY

i thought the old reactor needed a magnet

OF ALL THE CARS TO STEAL RHODY YOU STEAL THE AUDI

goddman all these chains

JUMP SCARE COMING HAHA I KNEW IT

-2 awful jump scare

yes middle age mom- honk at the GIANT FING ROBOT

nooo not the hydrogen powered bus!

gooood iron freezes before stainless tell

daaamn obi is a real bad shot

and radiation now floods the malibu land area and thosands are illed thanks to tonys reactor

sk glad hes corrected the mediait aint iron

coleson never briefed tham

that was longer than 90 seconds

iron man- STOP TRYING TO BE BATMAN

great ending 10/10

affter credit scene: 10/10 avengers yay

[abcnewsgathering-blog]

CAMERAMAN’S CHALLENGE ON MOSUL’S BATTLEFIELDS - GET THE SHOT WITHOUT GETTING SHOT

(Aaron Hollett inside an Iraqi military vehicle travelling to the war zone in Mosul - Photo: ABC News)

Filming the battle to reclaim the Iraqi city of Mosul from Islamic State for the Four Corners program, ‘Highway to Hell’, was a dangerous and difficult assignment for cameraman Aaron Hollett. He and Middle East Correspondent Matt Brown came under fire as conflict erupted between government forces and IS fighters. They also had to contend with difficult weather conditions, limited food supplies and keeping camera and communications equipment charged in areas with no electricity. 

By Aaron Hollett

We ended up making three trips to Iraq for the Four Corners story, each one was very different. Our last one was the most dangerous. Before we left, we had security and safety briefings and phone hook ups with our managers in Sydney. I wasn’t sure what to expect and some mild anxiety had gone through my head in the weeks leading up to the trip. In the end it all turned out well.

(Correspondent Matt Brown and cameraman Aaron Hollett on assignment in Mosul for Four Corners - Photo: ABC News)

I took my large P2 camera. Some people like to shoot on smaller cameras, such as a C300, but I feel I miss things while fiddling around with buttons. I can operate my PX5000 with my eyes closed and it puts out great pictures. The standard and wide lenses never fail me and they are of high quality. The C100 I have in the office is not equipped with the lenses I would need to cover a war. I can zoom very quickly with the standard lens on the P2. I try to never miss a shot. I always shoot on at least a five second pre-roll when in a conflict zone. This allows me to catch the audio of something unfolding if I haven’t yet pressed record, so it means the camera is always rolling. For example, I can pan straight over to Matt Brown and get his reaction to an explosion.

We were assigned to the Iraqi regular army, the Golden Division (Iraqi special forces), which dropped us close to Mosul. We based ourselves in Bartella. Our fixer found us a room in a house that some Iraqi soldiers were using. It still had ISIS slogans scrawled on the walls with a spray can. The ISIS soldiers had left only a couple weeks ago. There was rubbish everywhere, piles of it. It stank, especially the toilet.  I later bought some bleach and cleaned it, much to the amusement of the soldiers we were staying with.

(Where Matt and Aaron stayed in Bartella - Photo: Aaron Hollett)

One night I was working, making proxy files of our vision, and a soldier came in and said  “dinner is ready!” I said, “I am sorry I have to work.” He pointed his AK at me and said, “You must eat,” giggling as he spoke! I sternly told him not to point a gun at me but I don’t think he really got why I was so alarmed.

Each day we left with all our gear, not knowing if we would be back to the house or if we would stay out with the Iraqi army. On the second night we headed out, we stayed out. We left our car at an outpost and took only what we needed in a backpack. I had four camera batteries and no charger. There was no electricity anywhere in the suburbs. Conserving batteries was the most important thing on my mind, that and knowing when to stay down or lay on the floor.

(A man carrying his injured daughter through Mosul’s war ravaged streets - Photo: Aaron Hollett)

We spent the morning on the top of the hill on the front line. The Iraqi army rained down fire on the city below. Helicopters from the air and small tanks from the ground hit targets next to the river. Their aim was to clear the last pockets of ISIS on the east side of the Tigris river. 

(Helicopter firing on ground targets - Photo: Aaron Hollett)

There was so much gunfire, it was hard to tell if it was outgoing or incoming. The  soldiers told us to stay away from the windows, but seemed to stand right in front of them! It was confusing to say the least. There was confusion and panic. At one stage they informed us that ISIS fighters were heading towards us on motorbikes, they never arrived. Gunfire erupted around us, shots often went over our heads, some hitting nearby walls. The distinctive zing of a passing bullet often had me taking cover.

(On patrol with Iraqi soldiers - Photo: Aaron Hollett)

That afternoon we got the order that the group of soldiers we were accompanying were ready to move into the city below. As we walked in I was a little anxious, not knowing exactly what we were going into. The soldiers were sure there were many ISIS fighters in houses not far from us. I could hear plenty of fire and as we made it down to the bottom of the hill we saw our first dead soldier being carried by his fellow soldiers. I knew we were getting close. The streets were jammed with locals’ cars, they were there to prevent ISIS driving suicide car bombs through the streets.

(Cars blocking the streets to stop suicide bombers - Photo: Aaron Hollett)

We walked another 500 metres and soldiers began to door knock houses, looking for a good place to spend the night. We ended up in a house that a doctor owned, taking over the top floor. It had a good roof from where the soldiers could see across the suburb. The eldest son of the house proudly showed us his dad’s paintings, something that was illegal under ISIS. These artworks would have attracted lashings if found. There was understated happiness that Daesh had been driven from their part of the neighborhood.

As the sun went down we decided to get our beds together and try to get some sleep. We grabbed whatever blankets and mattresses we could and bunkered down. I woke about 3am to the sound of massive explosions. It was cold, below zero, and the warm bed and safety of the house were tempting, but I dragged myself out of bed and went onto the roof.

(Click here to watch dramatic footage of fierce fighting in Mosul captured by Aaron Hollett)

I greeted the soldiers on the roof, with my inadequate Arabic. Coalition airstrikes were happening frequently and there was a massive firefight with helicopter gunships over the ridge. I didn’t have a tripod, so I perched my camera on the edge of the wall. I started recording audio on my iPhone and waited with my camera on five second pre-roll. Bam! I rolled and hoped for the best. Two strikes happened and I hoped I got shots of them, they were so far away. They didn’t blow up with a massive fireball like they did in Gaza.

Things quietened down for a bit and I returned to bed. As the sun came up, I again woke to lots of gunfire. I ran up the stairs and found the soldiers in a gun battle. There were tracers flying everywhere and they were yelling about snipers.Matt ran up the stairs half asleep and instantaneously recorded a piece-to-camera. After about an hour it stopped and one of the soldiers brought up some dry biscuit type bread. They flicked water on it, which made it soggy and a horrible texture but I wasn’t complaining. That was all there was to eat and we didn’t know when we would eat next. Someone then opened a jar of cream cheese - GOURMET!

(A huge sign declaring an area controlled by ISIS - Photo: Aaron Hollett)

That afternoon we headed back to the staging point we had left the day before.We again passed the massive ISIS sign, it had until a day earlier heralded that this area was controlled by ISIS. Hundreds of refugees were streaming out of the suburbs, families waved white flags as they escaped. I expected more action, it was to come in the next day.

I wear a flak jacket and helmet on these types of assignments. There were bullets and other projectiles constantly passing over our heads when we were on the front line. You need to know when to be extra cautious and when you can take a bit of a breather. We had a security adviser travelling with us who is ex-British military.

(Matt Brown reporting during fierce fighting - Photo: Aaron Hollett)

I talked to Matt a lot about risk. We have covered many of these stories together. I trust Matt with my life, you have to when you are in it together. He is a great teacher and is always reminding me of things to consider. For example, Matt repeated over and over, “Always be on the lookout for where you can find cover if we come under attack”. This includes doorways, culverts, front gates, basically somewhere that you can shelter from fire.

One challenging part of this assignment was that we had no field producer. We were on our own. It was a very quick turn around for Four Corners and they needed to get translations and logging started as soon as possible. So every night after the day’s filming, I had to make proxy files of all the interviews and get them to our Lebanese producer in Beirut for translation. This seems like an easy task, but it is time consuming and really you just want to go to bed.

On the nights we weren’t on the frontline, squatting in houses without electricity, Matt and I sat together and went through each card. We picked interviews that needed translating and named them with date, card number and a description - e.g.’200116_Card12_RedScarfLady_proxy’

I cut them into segments from the proxies generated by my camera (another reason I don’t use the C100 when you need proxies quickly) in the Final Cut editing system. I made them as small as I could, then compressed them again with HandBrake. The smaller the better, it cost $7.50 a MB to send. From there I had to upload them to Dropbox for our producer in Beirut to access. I used the Thuraya or the BGAN mini satellite dishes (I took both so I had a back up). Each night I had problems sending the files, often I would spend two hours trying to get them through. There was an American controlled airbase right next to us and I think this may caused some issues with out internet signal. Matt also scripted and sent over the internet using the satellite dishes. Once this was done, I’d pack the gear up and get ready for the next day.

When we eventually arrived back to our busted home in Bartella (dubbed Hotel Bartella) I would put my camera batteries on charge, along with GoPro cameras, mobile phones, external batteries and laptops. We had limited time to do this. A full camera battery charge would usually take at least five hours. I had two chargers. The Army would put on a generator as soon as night fell, but it could stop at any time, depending on the amount of fuel they had. Batteries were a major issue on this trip. It was cold and batteries don’t work at their best in cold conditions. Most nights it was zero or below. I really had to conserve batteries, as each day we didn’t know where we would be the next. I begged people to use their car batteries so I could get any charge back into my batteries. I had a few inverters that changed 12 volts to 240 volts.

(Aaron using an inverter attached to a car battery to charge camera batteries - Photo: ABC News)

I have always found Iraqi people warm and welcoming. Even as they fled their houses for their lives, they were warm and polite. It humbles me and I use these encounters to keep me going. In one town ISIS had only been pushed out the day before. We watched as men shaved off their beards for the first time in two years. We came across a hipster looking guy who told us that he was reborn and how he was so happy. Those moments were brilliant, they also make great television.

(Men having their beards shaved in a liberated neighborhood - Photo: Aaron Hollett)

We ventured into towns that had only recently been recaptured and they were badly damaged. We went into churches that had been badly damaged. We filmed a child that had minutes before died. I feel that sometimes when you see things in black and white and through a small eyepiece, somehow it doesn’t seem as real. I am often concentrating on the technical side of things.

Matt and I talk about things we see afterwards, but the dead girl didn’t affect me as much as many might expect, though seeing her bundled into the ambulance on top of all the people inside was pretty hard. It just struck me as crazy, it’s not normal for anyone in this world. I also witnessed the body of an ISIS soldier that was hanging on a light pole on the way into Mosul. He had been shot in the head. Soldiers told us that he admitted to executing several families.

As I have written previously, I have always undertaken counselling to mitigate mental health issues that might arise from exposure to traumatic events. The thing that I take away from these horrors is that I appreciate what I have so much more. I don’t whinge much about my life anymore. I know that I have a good life, I can go home after the war, I can have friends over for dinner, my girlfriend and my family are safe.

Once the story went to air, an amazing flood of congratulatory messages reached us. It was really great to see the effect the program had on people. Peers of mine commended me and total strangers even wrote to me, saying thanks for an amazing insight into this conflict. It was also a significant professional experience to shoot a whole Four Corners program. I am privileged to be able to cover these sort of stories. I am due to come home at the end of the year and it’s a reality that I really don’t want to think about.

WATCH FOUR CORNERS HIGHWAY TO HELL

RELATED STORIES: 

Reporting from the front line of the fight against Islamic State by Matt Brown

More stories from Aaron Hollett here.

Click here to return to the Back Story home page or catch up on stories from the past four years on our archive page.

[davidbwalliam]

Gun Range Cleaning Tips: GunStuff TV Interviews James Barthel, CEO of MT2 Firing Range Services about and Lead Reclamation for Indoor and Outdoor Shooting Ranges

MT2.com | Firing Range Services | Gun Range Cleaning | Firing Range Cleaning Services | Shooting Range Cleaning Services | Shooting Range Lead Mining - #1 and Nationwide Professional Environmental Firing Range Lead Reclamation Maintenance Contractor for both Indoor & Outdoor Firing Ranges

In this episode, our President and CEO was interviewed about gun range cleaning services; keeping firing ranges, their shooters, and employees safe from the dangers of lead.

Whether you are interested in hunting, home defense, or men and women in uniform, GunStuff TV brings shooting sports into 150 million homes for your edutainment.

The GunStuff Mission Statement:

GunStuff advocates safe and responsible gun ownership.

GunStuff demystifies firearms for those who have no experience using them.

GunStuff teaches our viewers how to protect themselves and their families with superior force and training.

Our show aims to be engaging, informative, and supportive of our 2nd Amendment rights.

   You can watch the full episode here.

  Chris – GunStuff TV: Today we have with us. James Barthel from MT2. Thanks for being on the show, tell us what you guys do.

James Barthel: Our company, MT2, Firing Range Services is the largest environmental service provider for firing ranges nationwide, and we provide Gun Range Cleaning for both indoor and outdoor ranges. We help build ranges, renovate ranges, we do a lot of maintenance of ranges and working with the owners of ranges to keep them safe. We clean up a lot of lead and those bullets and the shot that you all shoot that fall on the ground or into the traps. We’re actually able to reclaim those bullets and lead shot, and produce money for the ranges, and to share, to put back into the range and operate it. We build indoor ranges, outdoor ranges and we work all over the country. We’re the largest company in the United States that just specializes on firing range services.

Chris – GunStuff TV: Well, one thing I’ve always wondered when I’m out shooting at the range, on an outdoor range, how do you guys control the lead and the environmental impact?

James Barthel: Yeah. As you would imagine on an outdoor firing range, it’s really important that the lead remain on the range, right? Assuming we’re all good shooters and we never have to worry about any poor shots, but assuming we’re all good shots, we want the lead to stay in the berms. What MT2 does, is we work with the owners to build either dirt berms or put in steel berms, so that the bullets go into a backstop like they’re supposed to. At the Apopka police range in Florida, we do a lot of work for law enforcement, we were able to work with them to build up their berm, so that the bullets stay on the range and readily able to be removed for recycling.

Chris – GunStuff TV: I guess you planted the grass and everything?

James Barthel: Yeah. What you want to do, especially in a place like Florida where, as we all know, it does rain a bit, is you want to make sure that the dirt stays up on the berm, and that it’s not washing down with the bullets, so we’ll put in bullet catchers over the top. We put in walls to keep the bullets from going between the different shooting areas, and we also seed and put down sod to keep the heavy rainfall from washing away those berms. You want to keep the lead in the berm and you want to keep the berm up.

Chris – GunStuff TV: Underneath, is this some sort of a shale? Or what grabs the lead?

James Barthel: Well, in that case, it was an earthen berm, but often berms will have traps installed in them, so that the bullets will go into a steel trap, or into concrete that has rubber on it, and the rubber then collects the berms. I know many of us have been on indoor ranges where you see the backstop is full of granulated rubber, ground up rubber, and that acts as a deacceleration, this allows the bullets to then collect and then eventually fall to the bottom of the berm, so that they can be reclaimed.

That’s the big thing about shooting is these ranges fill up with lead, and unfortunately sometimes that lead has been known to come back at shooters, especially if it’s a heavily used range like for law enforcement, but we go in there and we help build the range, we put ground rubber, or dirt, or help install steel traps. Then we help remove the lead either into buckets, or we have big machines that we pull into these outdoor ranges and we generate 55-gallon drums of lead. These 55-gallon drums weigh upwards of 3,000 pounds each, so as you imagine, that’s a lot of lead that is incorporated in Gun Range Cleaning.

Chris – GunStuff TV: That’s impressive. That’s a lot of shell casings.

James Barthel: Yeah. We’ve reclaimed about 30 million pounds since we’ve been in business, and we work with recyclers, and we try to put those bullets back into use. The bullets, as we know, have lead, but they also have some antimony and other alloys that are added that allow them to do their jobs. Often these bullets that we’re all shooting down range get to be sent back and put back into use.

Chris – GunStuff TV: The lead itself, this is dangerous, isn’t it?

James Barthel: Oh absolutely. Yeah, it is. You have to clear this off the range on a regular basis, because people get lead poisoning on it, after it being in the air and hitting the back substrate and everything. I mean, all that has to be cleaned out on regular basis, on every range across the United States.

Chris – GunStuff TV: James, I guess what you’re talking about is by reclaiming all of this, it makes it a lot safer for the individual shooters, and then at the same time it takes that lead back into the environment so that people can actually reuse it in, I guess it goes back to gun manufacturers, is that right?

James Barthel: Yeah, that’s correct. It’s kind of like, your car battery. Your car battery is full of lead and acid; you use it properly, you maintain it, you make sure it’s safe and then when it’s done being used, you recycle it so that it can come back again for a useful purpose. That’s what the gun industry’s been doing for decades, and that’s what we help them do, is make sure we keep the shooter safe, the workers safe, and the environment from being impacted by these concentrations of lead.

Chris – GunStuff TV: If anybody would like to talk to you folks. Where would they find your website?

James Barthel: Our website is easy to find, www.mt2.com and there’s a lot of useful information on our website. We’re a major source of information including for NRA and NSSF, and a lot of the ranges around the country, so a lot of useful information on lead and how to keep yourself safe, and how to protect the environment is on our website.

About MT2 Firing Range Services:

MT2 specializes in providing environmental firing range services, Gun Range Cleaning, and lead remediation. We are the nation’s #1 largest professional contractor for all your indoor and outdoor firing range service needs including:

Lead cleaning services

Lead reclamation & Brass recycle

Range Maintenance, HVAC systems support

Consulting and Assessment by our OSHA/EPA experts!

Range Construction and Renovation

Lead Remediation & Abatement

  We operate from regional offices across the country and always pay the highest value for range lead Guaranteed!!!!

You Operate a Firing Range. We Get the Lead Out!™

        The post Gun Range Cleaning Tips: GunStuff TV Interviews James Barthel, CEO of MT2 Firing Range Services about and Lead Reclamation for Indoor and Outdoor Shooting Ranges appeared first on MT2.com | Firing Range Services | Gun Range Cleaning | Firing Range Cleaning Services | Shooting Range Cleaning Services | Shooting Range Lead Mining.

Related posts:

Safety and Lead Management Tips for Firing Ranges from MT2 Firing Range Services Certified Industrial Hygienist.

Understanding How Lead at Shooting Ranges Presents an Opportunity for the Firing Range to Protect their Shooters and Employees

MT2 Firing Range Services at 2018 SHOT Show

from MT2.com | Firing Range Services | Gun Range Cleaning | Firing Range Cleaning Services | Shooting Range Cleaning Services | Shooting Range Lead Mining https://mt2.com/blog/10830-gun-range-cleaning-tips-gunstuff-tv-interviews-james-barthel-ceo-of-mt2-firing-range-services-about-and-lead-reclamation-for-indoor-and-outdoor-shooting-ranges/

[marilynngmesalo]

White cop who shot black teen gets nearly seven years in prison

White cop who shot black teen gets nearly seven years in prison White cop who shot black teen gets nearly seven years in prison https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

CHICAGO — The white Chicago officer who gunned down a black teenager in 2014 was sentenced Friday to nearly seven years in prison, ending an explosive case that arose from a graphic dashcam video and added fuel to debates about race and policing and law enforcement’s “code of silence.”

Jason Van Dyke was convicted last year of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery — one for each bullet fired at Laquan McDonald. Attorneys on both sides agreed that if he behaves in prison, the 40-year-old could be released in less than three and a half years.

McDonald’s family lamented that the penalty was too light. His great uncle said the sentence reduced Laquan McDonald’s life to that of “a second-class citizen” and “suggests to us that there are no laws on the books for a black man that a white man is bound to honour.”

Moments earlier, Van Dyke acknowledged the teen’s death, telling the judge that “as a God-fearing man and father, I will have to live with this the rest of my life.”

The sentence was less than half of the penalty that had been sought by prosecutors, who asked for 18 to 20 years. But it went far beyond the request of defence attorneys, who argued that Van Dyke could be released on probation. The prison term was also a fraction of what Van Dyke could have faced had he been convicted of first-degree murder, which carried a mandatory minimum of 45 years in prison.

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Judges typically rebuke defendants during sentencings, even for much lesser crimes, and they often explain why they imposed the sentence they did. But Judge Vincent Gaughan did neither in his brief comments from the bench.

Friday’s testimony came a day after a different judge acquitted three officers accused of lying about the shooting to protect Van Dyke, who was the first Chicago officer found guilty in an on-duty shooting in a half century and probably the first ever in the shooting of an African-American.

The lead defence attorney, Dan Herbert, said Van Dyke “truly felt great” after learning his sentence. “He was happy about the prospect of life ahead of him” and someday being reunited with his wife and two daughters.

The prosecutor who oversaw the case said he can live with the sentence.

“Our goal was to find the truth, present the truth and ask for justice. … It was not revenge,” special prosecutor Joseph McMahon said.

The judge’s decision to deem the second-degree murder conviction the most serious crime — siding with the defence on that question — may also have spared Van Dyke a far longer term behind bars.

Had Gaughan sentenced Van Dyke on the 16 counts of aggravated battery, as prosecutors asked him to do, he could have faced decades in prison. Each aggravated battery count carried a mandatory minimum of six years, and the judge could have ordered those sentences to be served one after the other.

After the judge’s announcement, Van Dyke’s older daughter began crying and said “I want him home.”

The case triggered large street demonstrations when the video emerged, and authorities prepared for potential unrest in October, when the verdict came out. But there were no sign of protests following the sentence.

Activist William Calloway called the sentence “a slap in the face to us and a slap on the wrist” for Van Dyke.

The issue of race loomed over the case for more than four years, although it was rarely raised at trial. One of the only instances was during opening statements, when the special prosecutor told jurors that Van Dyke saw “a black boy walking down the street” who had “the audacity to ignore the police.”

On Friday, several black motorists testified that the officer used a racial slur and excessive force during traffic stops in the years before the shooting.

One of those witnesses, Vidale Joy, said Van Dyke used the slur after pulling him over in 2005 and at one point put a gun to Joy’s head. He said Van Dyke “looked infuriated” and seemed “out of his mind.” Under cross examination, Joy acknowledged that he did not allege Van Dyke used a slur in his first accounts of the stop.

Another witness, Ed Nance, struggled to maintain his composure as he looked across the room to identify Van Dyke. Testifying about a 2007 traffic stop, he said the officer cursed and slammed him on the car’s hood, grabbed him by the arms and pulled him to the squad car.

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Van Dyke’s relatives tried to defend and humanize him, saying he’s a good father and not racist.

His wife said her biggest fear was that somebody would kill her husband in prison “for something he did as a police officer, something he was trained to do.”

She looked up over her shoulder and addressed the judge directly: “His life is over. Please, please. He has paid the price already … I beg for the least amount of time.”

On Thursday, Cook County Judge Domenica Stephenson cleared former officer Joseph Walsh, former detective David March and officer Thomas Gaffney on charges of obstruction of justice, official misconduct and conspiracy.

Stephenson accepted the argument that jurors in the Van Dyke case rejected: that the video that sparked protests and a federal investigation of the police force was just one perspective of the events that unfolded on the South Side.

The judge said the video showed only one viewpoint of the confrontation between Van Dyke and the teen armed with a small knife. She found no indication the officers tried to hide evidence or made little effort to talk to witnesses. She singled out how they preserved the graphic video at the heart of the case.

The video showed Van Dyke opening fire within seconds of getting out of his police vehicle and continuing to shoot the teen while he was lying on the street. On the footage, the teen is seen collapsing in a heap after the first few shots. Bullets kept striking his body for 10 more seconds.

Police were responding to a report of a male who was breaking into trucks and stealing radios on the city’s South Side.

City Hall released the video to the public in November 2015 — 13 months after the shooting — and acted only because a judge ordered it to do so. The charges against Van Dyke were not announced until the day of the video’s release. He soon lost his job.

The case cost the police superintendent his job and was widely seen as the reason the county’s top prosecutor was voted out of office. It was also thought to be a major factor in Mayor Rahm Emmanuel’s decision not to seek a third term.

The accusations triggered a federal investigation of the police department that found Chicago officers routinely used excessive force and violated people’s rights, particularly minorities.

Click for update news Bangla news http://bit.ly/2FJW0Af world news

[ronevry]

Quincy Todd On The Good Old Days, 1922

Quincy Todd On The Good Old Days

By Roy K. Moulton, 1922

“In the the old days," says Elias Q. Higginbotham, "we do not have so much foolishness like this here sex stuff and so forth like we have got now and it is not such a job to live as it Is now."

"You must be getting to be a very old guy, indeed," says Quincy Todd, "to be looking back and wishing for the good old days."

"We don’t have to learn how to run fifteen or twenty new invention every year in them days," says Elias Q. Higginbotham, "and people stay to home and the girls behave themselves and there is not so much shooting going on. Every time you turn around now some of your friends is in some kind of a scrape and is getting all shot up and there is more damfool ideas than you can shake a stick at."

"The good old days are the bunk," says Quincy. "If you would have to live in them good old days right now you would go bugs Inside of a week."

"We do not have flappers running around in them days."

"Oh, yes you do," says Quincy. "But you call them by a different name. There is never no time since the flood that we have not had a crop of flappers flapping around and making the men look foolish. When I am a young feller we have 'em. Oh, yes, indeed. They are very brazen creatures who ride on bicycles, just like the men, and their skirts are away up to their shoe tops. They give the town something to talk about, believe me. As for the women in the shows, there is no comparison. Did you ever see the 'Black Crook'?"

"I did, forty years ago, and it was so tough they had to run it out of my home town."

"Some flappers with that show?"

"I'll tell the world."

"They also have a few flappers back in the days of David and Solomon."

"Seems to me I've heered tell about them."

"And they have just discovered that in ancient Egypt they had a bunch of flappers that could make our girls look like one-lung Fords for speed. Them Egyptian flappers knew more tricks to intrigue the male imagination in them days than the entire population of Hollywood."

"But they do not have so much shooting in them days," says Elias Q. Higginbotham.

"No, they do not," says Quincy. "And the reason they do not have so much shooting in them days is that they have not got any guns.' They also do not do any joy riding, for the reason that they do not have any automobiles. But even in them unregenerate days they have quite a number of methods of bumping a fellow off if they get so they lose their taste for him. Katie de Medici and Lucy Borgia used to get rid of their friends very neat by inviting them to a party and passing them some loaded hooch. Then they would tell these blokes to rise up and drink a toast to their queen, which they did, and the next thing they know they do not know anything.

"The dames back In them days shake a very mean poison vial and when they mix up a potion for one of their favorites he is a selling plater the next minute.'

"The poor ladies in them days cannot dig up the dough to invest In sleeping powders, and so when they are tired of their old man who is working down in the Pyramid brick yard they send him the dinner pail at noon and enclose therein one adder or asp or viper, whichever comes handy, and when the old man opens said dinner pail the little present jumps out and it's nighty-night for another old-fashioned husband.

"There Is more plain and fancy poisoning going on before firearms are invented than you can tell about in a twenty-four-page newspaper, and when one guy wants to shoot another he has to do it with a dagger. There is a time during the reign of the Louies in France when a guy Is about as safe on the street after six o'clock at night as he is in a dynamite factory with a cigarette going. Killings are so common in those days that they never get into the newspapers, and the reason they do not get into the newspapers is that there are no newspapers."

"But there seems to be more shooting the past few years than ever before," says Elias Q. Hig-ginbotham. "I don't see what is getting into people nowadays, anyhow. One word leads to an-other and then the clang of the ambulance gong is heard in the stilly night"

"There are two reasons why there seems to be more shooting," says Quincy. "One Is that there are more people to do the shooting and more to be shot at, and the other reason is that when there is a shooting nowadays you see more about it in the papers. In the old days, especially In the West, when there Is a shooting the local paper says something like this:

“'BUCK JONES dead. Bullet wound. Rest in pieces.'

"Nowadays when a guy gets bumped  off they publish inter views with all the relatives as far removed as third cousins, the man who sold the gun twelve years before, all the brothers and sisters of the taxicab driver who hauled the victim to the scene, the woman in the case, if there is one, and there generally is; the heroine's hairdresser, her manicure, her maid and the lady who makes her hats. Then there are pictures of this heroine at all ages from eighteen months to the present time, a picture in bathing suit, one in ball gown, one with her dog. If she owns a  car she has pictures of herself in that and if she doesn't she borrows a car from some dealer for the purpose. Then there are columns of what the victim's broth-ers and sisters and cousins think about it and a picture of his grandfather.

"The feller that does the shooting and bumps the other guy off gets to be quite a hero and his cell is so full of flowers it looks like a Broadway greenhouse.

“'That's why maybe you think there is more shooting than in the old days — because you hear more about it. In the old days the newspapers lacked facilities and couldn't do the job up right.And nobody reads all this stuff -– nobody  but the people. I'll bet you haven't missed a word of any shootin' story in the past fifteen years."

"Well, the old days was the goods at that," says Elias Q. Higginbotham. "People do not go chasing after a lot of freak idears and philosophies in them days. They are too sensible."

“Say Bo,” says Quincy, “when I aam still a very small kid I see people chasing spooks and dabbling in mental telepathy, patent medicine, superstition, fairy stories, gold bricks, patent light-ning rods, booze cures, gold mine stock and hypnotism. They are very daffy on these subjects.

"The only reason they do not monkey with radios, psychoanalysis, New Thought, phono-graphs, fireless cookers, dustless mops, Orientalism, vers libre, Dadaism, Kant, problem plays and synthetic gin is because they do not have them great modern improvements in them days."

"That's the heck of it," says Elias Q. Higginbotham. "Nowadays the gol dum inventions is so thick that it takes all a feller's time to run the inventions and he don't have any left to devote to his business. If the ding-swizzled telephone ain't ringin' the patent stamp licker out of order or somebody Is tryin' to get him on the radio or the dictagraph has sprung a leak."

"And in the old days it took a day and a half to get from the Bronx to the Battery. If you wanted to get word to any guy on a business matter it took six days to get a letter to him. If you wanted to set up for a friendly game at night you had to sit by a tallow candle that wouldn't light up the interior of a plug hat. In the Winter you would sit in front of a log fire with your chest roasting and your back freezing. If one of your friends got shot you wouldn't hear of it until three weeks after he was buried.

"Well, there's no use argying about it," says Elias Q. Higginbotham. "The good old days is gone and they never will return."

"Well, then," says Quincy, "there is one good thing to say about them after all."

"What's that?" asks Elias Q.

"That they never will return," says Quincy.

[filmfanatix]

WHY I LIKE TEEN SLASHER MOVIES In summary, they’re fun to watch. Even if the script is bad, you come out of the theater with a shit-eating grin on your face telling everyone you just came from a roller-coaster ride inside. And if the script is really bad, you’ll still get a kick out of it too. Sappy dialogue, clichés, cheap special effects, and bad acting – I mean, what’s not to love? But for the uninitiated, here’s my list of why this horror/suspense genre is worth every single peso you paid for: 1. The characters. There’s aways bound to be one of these or a mix of these: a. The innocent lead star, usually female. b. The joker/sidekick friend. c. The blond, shallow, and narcissistic, popular girl. d. The jock. e. And where there’s a jock, there’s gotta be a nerd. f. The strange brother or parent or cousin. g. The mastermind, usually made to look like a mad scientist. h. And finally, there’s the monster. Their commonality – they all look like movie stars. After all, who wants to watch a film with plain-looking stars? 2. Tools used. a. If it were a vampire film, there’s the wooden stake and a mallet. b. In the same genre, there’s the indispensable crucifix hand held or worn around the neck, the bible, and the holy water. c. An overused cell phone that’s fun at the start but will soon wear itself out because there’s always no signal in the lair of monster. d. A gun, which will later on be unnecessary for the monster is always impervious to bullets. e. A flashlight preferably on its last remaining breaths before the battery conks out. f. A knife that will pierce and kill anyone except the monster. In fact in slasher films you’ll hardly see a gun as the weapon of choice by the killer. Guns are boring, knives mean there’s going to be a chase first before the slashing could happen. That’s why they’re called slasher films. g. A can of gasoline. In teen slasher movies, every house, barn, or school has one lying around. h. A beat-up pick-up truck that looks like it can travel the stretch between the house and the main road, before it stops dead. i. Keys to a car or a scary room but usually just for the car. Keys are interesting because there’s always a bunch of them held by a ring key holder so that we can get to scream as the teenager would be victim (they all die, so no surprised there) fumbles her or his way through the process. Either that or he keeps dropping it and starts all over. j. On the other hand, the key to a car is a key that doesn’t ever seem to fit the ignition because it keeps falling off the hole for some reason. k. The monster’s creepy, isolated lair. l. The monster's mask. Reference to Scream and Friday the 13th. Even Freddie Krueger's badly burned and melted face is a form of mask. 3. The dialogue. The dialogue in teen slasher films is very well defined and they’re sole purpose is to tell the audience that no matter what, these teeners will never follow what they’re being told. Typical! The rules of logic will never apply to them. Cliché dialogue also allows the viewers – mostly teenagers too – to confirm or face their fears like some form of a catharsis. They include: a. Don’t go in there! b. Stay where you are/stay right here. c. Hello? Is anyone there? d. I’ll be right behind you. e. Don’t have sex or you’ll die. f. Trust me, I’m a police officer – teenagers defy order so with institutions that restrict their actions like the police or the school principal and faculty, even the religious order like the priest or a nun, will never be followed. Which is just as well because oftentimes in many slasher films, the first to die are the police, the priest, or the professor anyway. g. There’s something out there/He’s out there. h. It’s all in your mind. i. Oh my God, run! j. Eat this or suck on this! Or any prevailing teen dialogue being used commonly by teens at the time of the movie. k. If you let me go I swear I won’t tell on you. l. Go to hell! Burn in hell! m. I killed him, he’s dead (referring to the monster). This is of course untrue because in teen slasher films, the monster never really dies. With the monster infinitely more interesting than the other stars of the film, the producers’ money is really on him or her because they mean one thing, that vulgar F word - “franchise.” The real star of Friday The 13th is Jason, in Predator the alien, Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy Krueger. The list goes on. 4. So who gets killed first in a teen slasher movie? Why the blonde of course. I think teen slasher movie writers are given a bible to follow and whoever wrote the bible equally hates the cliché, “blondes have more fun.” This person therefore is out to show the world that, well, no they don’t. Could this person be a plain-looking brunette? 5. But the more interesting question is, apart from the lead, who gets killed the last? Is it the jock who’s usually partnered with the sexy blonde? Or the nerd? Come to think of it nerds have more fun in teen slasher films that to kill them off early in the movie sometimes takes away a point of interest. Teenagers I think relate to the witty nerds as many of us do. Besides they always have this bored, incredulous look on their face that they know what happens next and that the script sucks. 6. How they’re killed. Because this genre is called a teen slasher film, the teens are of course subjected to a lot of decapitation. As expected the sexy blonde gets her just desserts by being slashed where it matters – the face. Sometimes her entire head gets cut off. This spells doom for the actress who plays her because she isn’t going to be in any sequel. The nerd usually dies very creatively and by his or her greatest fear. If he fears since childhood that ominous shadow, then the shadow kills him. If it’s the boogey man, then that’s what he gets. The jock, for some reason, isn’t killed straight away. His muscles and lack of mental abilities means he can be very useful in tight places en route to the final battle between good or evil. 7. It is during the final battle that the romantic interest of the lead star is either killed or temporarily incapacitated. Because the lead star is almost always a girl, she needs to be rescued as the monster gets at her after a prolonged chase. Sometimes he is killed off too like all the rest. But he’s a dispensable character anyway so I don’t really care. 8. The final battle and how this to me makes the movie worth it or not. If it makes it too easy for the lead protagonist to win against the monster, then the writers sold out. For me, there’s nothing like an extended battle scene where the lead now calls the shots. Like in the Home Alone movies, I get that adrenaline shot when you know good will prevail against evil but let evil work for it for a change. After all he will come back for the sequel.