#Martin Andersen

[kanerallels]

To get back into the swing of writing, I'm gonna play a writing ask game, but with a small twist! You have two options!

One, send me a pairing (romantic or otherwise) from one of the fandoms below, and an au, and I'll write a little ficlet

Or two, send me a pairing (romantic or otherwise) from one of the original characters below, and a single word or sentence, and I'll write a little ficlet! Choose wisely, and have fun

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: Souper

[at unicorn fuck club] JRR Tolkien: tonight we've got a special story from everyone's favorite fantasy writer GRR Martin: CS Lewis: Peter S Beagle: Hans Christian Andersen: L Frank Baum: Tolkien: whoops shouldn't have said that ha ha Tolkien: i mean, you're all winners in my book

Tolkien: but when i say everyone's favorite fantasy writer Tolkien: i mean terry practchett GRR Martin: oh yeah that's fair CS Lewis: yeah fair Peter S Beagle: fair Hans Christian Andersen: yes yes of course L Frank Baum: that's fair

Terry Pratchett: hello unicorn fuck club today i've got a story about a wizard who is - get this - actually very bad at his job Tolkien: oh ho ho! terry my boy, you've done it again! Pratchett: there's also girl dwarves Tolkien: [suddenly stone-faced] i hate this

Pratchett: but first Pratchett: all this story telling is hungry work! Pratchett: do you happen to have anything to eat around here? Tolkien: are you talking about... Tolkien: having Tolkien: a Tolkien: feast????? Brian Jacques: [squeaking incomprehensibly in rising excitement]

Tolkien: why, terry, my boy, what an idea! Tolkien: instead of merely DESCRIBING a feast, we'll have one! huzzah! Martin: huzzah! Lewis: huzzah! Jacques: [squeaking] i use a mercury head dime as a serving platter!

Pratchett: no no nothing so fancy as that Tolkien: eh? Pratchett: i was more thinking along the lines of Pratchett: soup Tolkien: soup? Pratchett: yeah just a big bowl of heart soup right about now would just be the best thing Pratchett: oo i just love the sound of it!

Pratchett: think about it: no work... no worries... no failures... no waste... when you serve maggi homestyle soups, the finest money can buy yet priced reasonably within your budget Tolkien: interesting! tell us more Pratchett: maggi soup! es ist echt ausgezeichnet!

Pratchett: how often have you had this problem Pratchett: say, you're on a budget but you have to feed your hungry hungry boys Tolkien: oh man i have been there! Tolkien: more times than i can count!

Tolkien: but terry Tolkien: i need something substantial and nourishing for my hungry boys. can maggi soup satisfy? Pratchett: ahh jirt my friend, maggi soup does more than satisfy! Pratchett: as the good people at maggi say, "kartoffelsalat volkswagen fahrvergnugen lebensraum!!"

Tolkien: What's that sizzling sound I hear? Pratchett: Get up! It's soup and eggs, my dear! Martin: What can I cook without much fuss? Pratchett: maggi soup would tickle all of us! Lewis: What's a lunch that's good and quick? Pratchett: Hot Maggi soup mix does the trick!

Pratchett: mm mmm! i tell you, nothing's as good as a rich bowl of maggi soup! buy some today! eat it with someone you love! Neil Gaiman: something's not right here

Gaiman: of course the power of imagination is infinite, friends Gaiman: but in all the worlds in all the multiverses of possibility, i cannot imagine one in which terry pratchett shills for soup Pratchett: [sweats] nein, nein, ich bin der echte terry pratchett!

Gaiman: if you are in fact, the real terry pratchett Gaiman: and not an imposter Gaiman: like the imposter sandman hector hall in The Sandman, vol. 2: The Doll's House Gaiman: then you won't have any trouble telling a joke Pratchett: [sweats] ein witz? du magst ein witz?

Pratchett: [sweats] i mean ha ha of course i can tell a joke Pratchett: i am the real terry pratchett after all Pratchett: [sweating intensifies] and you all know me, i'm a real spa��vogel Pratchett: Pratchett: a-are you sure you wouldn't all rather just have some soup?

[hiding-under-the-willow]

Remembered I made this crossover au forever ago and went a little crazy about it <3

[misshoneyimhome]

S’s summer fic rec list

➼｡ﾟ

This summer has been full of incredible fics, so I just wanted to share a small list of the ones I’ve read over the past few months that deserve a special shout-out 🥰

(I know there are so many more that could be added, my apologies) 🌺

_

I Wish You Would // William Nylander by @wildrangers

By @laurenairay:

felt like magic - N. Hischier I can't help it if I like it - M. Martin no hesitation, what are we waiting for? – M. Tkachuk

Betting On Brats | Nico Hischier by @sc0tters

Don’t Chirp My Girl | M. Knies by @hockeybabe

Elsker by @mp0625 (Freddie Andersen)

By @couldawouldashoulda50

From Completely Different Worlds (William x OC Loren Girard) Chapter One - Easter Seals Skate Chapter Two - Bath time Chapter Three - The Filler Chapter Chapter Four - Time Alone Chapter Five - Toasting to the Present Chapter Six - The Whiskey Lounge Chapter Seven - The Inevitable

[synonymouswithanonymous]

More from Paris

And FB posted a cute video of AHA and puppy Charlie.

[kaiowut99]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Episodes 129-130 Subbed (Finalized)

(Previously: Episodes 127-128 Subbed [Finalized])

(Check out my Subbed!GX Stream Masterpost!)

TURN-129: The Threat of the Three Phantasms! Judai VS Martin

Martin provokes Judai by using the students that have become Duel Zombies as hostages, leading the two to confront each other. The duel begins, with Judai being mindful about Martin's three Phantasms. Martin summons his zero-ATK Chaos Core, placing one card face-down to conclude his turn, as Judai summons his Elemental Heroes hoping to settle things right away. Meanwhile, Johan combs the desert with O'Brien to find the spot where the capsule containing the Rainbow Dragon card landed, but...

TURN-130: Rainbow Dragon Awakens

Johan returns to Judai with the Rainbow Dragon card in hand, going on to duel against Martin alongside Judai. Practically unbothered about their disadvantageous summoning conditions, Martin succeeds in summoning the three Phantasms--Raviel, Lord of Phantasms; Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder; and Uria, Lord of Divine Flames! Not to be outdone, Johan gathers all seven of his Gems on his field and in his Cemetery, going on to finally summon Rainbow Dragon. The three Phantasms VS Rainbow Dragon--which side will be victorious...?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Episodes 129 and 130 are now finalized, and it's the final confrontation between Judai and the being possessing Martin--who might be all too familiar to him. With Johan running off to grab Rainbow Dragon (everyone's ticket home) before joining Judai to pit it against the three Phantasms as Misawa recommended, the fair bit of action going in 129's first half as everyone does their part to get Judai to the House of Sand duel arena in one piece and Martin's strategy of skirting by the three Phantasms' tough summoning conditions in its second half (with some neat art/animation throughout thanks to Kyoung Soo Lee's animation team), and the Duel Zombie plot getting its conclusion with Yubel's first appearance in the flesh in 130, things in Season 3 so far come to a head here. There's also the lead-up to Rainbow Dragon's summoning in early 130, including some jealousy on Martin/Yubel's part in seeing Johan so close with Judai? 👀 The summon itself is iconic, and Yubel's full appearance later is also a standout moment, as is Johan setting up the big finish and Yubel's "bye for now" at the end--and we'll see next episode how Judai takes it. (130 also sees the first use of the "Sad Duel" OST which is neat; surely won't cause any feels later.)

(Quick Translation Note: During Judai's Chaos Neos turn in 130 [after the eyecatch], as Judai uses Necrodarkman/Necroshade's effect to summon Neos, I did add a "Technically a Tribute Summon" side-note to the line since he calls it a "Special Summon;" this is the second time this error's happened this season [Necrodarkman's text says "no tributes needed when summoning," but that would imply a Tribute/Normal Summon], and while I'd want to fix it like I did in 119, this time it actually affects the gameplay: he then goes on to make an illegal play by somehow summoning his Black Panther to form Chaos Neos [and EN Shuffle's anime text doesn't mention him getting to summon another Monster other than the Glow Moss he summons with it]. A case of "Hikokubo forgot," for sure. 🙃)

Animation error-wise, I fixed up 11 in each episode, for 22 total; mostly minor split-screen-related quality-of-watching fixes (though 130 really loved its diagonal split-screens...), but each episode did have one or two card-error-related ones I fixed up. There was also a blink-and-you-miss-it one with Yubel that I fixed in 130 (first full appearance and they were flubbed in one of their first scenes, smh). Details under the cut below as always, for the interested!

Anywho, enjoy! I did think about also working on 131, but I figured it'll serve as a good cool-down episode to work on before we get onto Season 3 Part II--though before that, I'll jump back into TFSP to re-translate Sora's story events, as well as also work on finishing up my "dub-uncut" edit for ARC-V episode 2. Stay tuned!

Fixes and Edits! (129)

Over the recap of 128's ending, as Judai reacts to Martin's announcement by saying he'll make him pay, with a surprise double lip shadow as he moves his head up to speak, I reprised my fix from 128 correcting that.

After the title card, as we pan over to Kenzan before he turns to tell Misawa to take Jim's place in keeping watch for Duel Zombies, Kenzan's right ear is actually not fully drawn in. I fixed this first in Photoshop, taking the last frame before he turns and editing his drawn left ear into place on the right, tweaking it to fit into place and account for the shading that was there; once done, I went into AfterEffects and did some motion-tracking to re-pan that frame across the shot before masking out the fix over the footage.

Later, during the boss Duel Zombie rush getting in Judai's way to the arena, Jim notices that Judai, Misawa, and Rei are surrounded; he slides down a pillar on the Academia building before Asuka jumps down to join him in rushing over, but for a quick two frames, Asuka has a second mouth as she moves her head--though that's corrected a frame later before she moves the frame after that, so it's odd they let it slip there, lol. Anyway, a quick fix in Sony Vegas as I masked the corrected bit of the third frame out over the error in the prior two.

A bit after that, as things ramp up between our crew and the Duel Zombies, Kenzan runs over tributing his Dark Driceratops and Gilasaurus to summon Dark Tyranno--but for some reason, he's holding a Fusion/Polymerization card in the air (also kept in the dub). Fixed in AfterEffects, applying a Dark Tyranno proxy in its place and adjusting it as Kenzan swings his arm around and the shot pans up from him as Dark Tyranno's summoned.

Later on, as Martin gets his first turn started by summoning Chaos Core, Judai notices it has zero ATK, while Martin slides up on a split-screen declaring his setting a card to end his turn--but a few things happen: 1) for the first frame as Martin slides in, Judai is moved upward in the frame but not fully drawn; 2) Martin's slide-in is only three frames long compared to the usual 7-8 frames, as it is on Martin and Judai sliding out of the split-screen; and 3) the border between their splits flickers for a quick frame before they start to split out to show Martin's field on the next frame. To fix this, using Sony Vegas, I first cropped the scene slightly to keep Judai fully in the frame (I also added a zoom-out back to the original position after the split-screen as Martin's card is set on the field), then working off of that, I redid Martin's slide-in to be smoother and last the usual 7-8 frames (by reversing his slide-out from later in the shot) while moving Judai upward behind him--though this led to Judai not being fully drawn for 2-3 frames like the original error as Martin's split caught up to cover him up, so I took those frames into Photoshop and drew in the rest of him as needed. Came out nicely! (Gif of the original slide-in; gif of the revised slide-in)

A bit later, during Judai's second turn, Tag Request is used to summon Necrodarkman, but it's missing from Judai's second Monster Zone (where it appears later). Fixed in AfterEffects by applying a proxy, using motion-tracking to apply it during the zoom-out as its ATK counter pops up before then adjusting it as Judai swings his arm around.

After Judai has both Necrodarkman and Sparkman attack Chaos Core to use up its destruction protection, Martin emphasizes how pointless it was, while Judai slides in on a split-screen to activate Flash Fusion--but Judai's split starts to slide in a frame early, before Martin moves for it; fixed this in Vegas by masking out the first bit of Judai's split slide-in, moving Martin slightly behind it. Then, as their split-screen ends, the first frame of their split-out to show Flash Fusion activating has Martin and Judai starting to move, but Martin's missing a border on his split that comes back in the next frame; fixed in Vegas by adding a border along the edge of his split.

A bit later, as Judai and Rei look on while Phantom of Chaos takes the shape of Hamon, there's a quick frame on their split-screen where there's a flicker along the border between them before they start to split apart in the next frame. Quickly fixed this in Vegas by holding the prior pre-flicker frame over the flicker frame.

Shortly after, Martin tells Judai that his Hamon!Phantom of Chaos can't deal him any Battle Damage, Judai sliding in for a split-screen as he clarifies that it can deal Effect Damage--but Martin moves a frame early for the split-screen, before Judai starts sliding in in the next frame; quickly fixed this in Vegas by just holding Martin still over the early-move frame. Then, after Martin clarifies and they split apart to show Hamon!Phantom of Chaos about to use its effect, they don't actually split apart in the first intended frame of the slide-out--instead, Martin is moved to the left within his split but both splits are kept in the same position before properly splitting apart in the next frame, with Martin's split back to normal. Fixed this in Vegas by redoing both Martin and Judai's splits in this first frame to actually start splitting them out, keeping Martin's split consistent with how it looked and how it goes on to keep sliding offscreen.

Later, once Johan comes onto the scene and suggests joining the duel, surprising Martin, he and Judai slide in on a split-screen as he proposes tag-teaming with Judai and Martin's LP increasing accordingly, but two things happen: 1) the first frame of the slide-in has their split already mostly onscreen, and 2) they're then moved within their split over the next two frames before they finish their slide-in in their final position within their split; fixed this in Vegas by redoing the Judai/Johan split's slide-in to be smoother. Then, after Martin agrees to Johan's terms and they split apart, two other things happen: 1) they start to split out the frame after Martin's last open-mouth flap, not holding for a frame or two with Martin's mouth closed, and 2) the Judai/Johan split almost seems to overtake Martin's because their split expands over his as he slides out; fixed these up by redoing Martin's slide-out to start after holding Martin's closed mouth for a frame or two, then keeping it consistent as he slides out.

In the preview, as we see Rei looking on at the light emerging from Martin, an odd error happens where it looks like the animators forgot to scrub away the lines on Rei's face indicating how shading should be applied; this happens only on the two linked keyframes, not the in-betweens as she moves in shock, with shading lines also on her earlobe in the second keyframe. I fixed this for 130 proper first before applying it here, taking the two keyframes into Photoshop to redraw her skin and skin shading to wipe away the lines; to apply it here, I applied the two keyframe fixes and also masked part of the Japanese title for 130 over the edit (thankfully with the text having the white glow, the edit is pretty seamless).

Fixes and Edits! (130)

As Judai fuses Bubbleman and Featherman, Judai slides in on a split-screen to call out Sailorman; as his split compresses out, there's a quick frame where the top border is drawn halfway into what's still there of his split, leaving the top borderless. Fixed in Sony Vegas by applying a new border on top, masking in part of the split to wipe away the erroneous border.

A bit later, Judai and Martin are on a split-screen as Yubel within him sees how he "read [my] mind" with how Dark Summoning God has more to it than its zero ATK; they split apart as he activates Dark Summoning God's effect, but it takes Martin an extra frame to move with Judai's split as it slides out. Fixed in Vegas by making it so Martin moves simultaneously with Judai starting to slide-out.

A bit later, Judai's shocked to learn that Dark Summoning God lets Martin Special-Summon the three Phantasms unconditionally; Martin/Yubel clicks into a split-screen commanding the darkness in their heart to release their hidden feelings, and as they split apart, the first frame of the split-out actually has the sky background behind their splits before it then shows the light behind Martin as he's about to summon them in the next frame. Fixed in Vegas by masking in some of that light between them in the first frame of their split-out.

A few shots later, Rei and O'Brien look on as the Phantasms are summoned; as their split-screen splits out, O'Brien's split takes a frame longer to fully slide offscreen. Fixed in Vegas by just replacing that frame with the frame after once they're both offscreen.

Later, as Johan's excited about having gotten all seven Gems together, a smiling Judai and annoyed Martin slide in for a split-screen; as they split apart, it takes Martin's split a frame longer to slide offscreen. Fixed in Vegas by masking part of Martin's split-out to shift it a frame earlier and time it with Judai's.

A few shots later, as Johan grabs Rainbow Dragon from his hand to summon it, a quick QUALITY error happens as his mouth is drawn bigger and closer to his chin than it had been a few frames earlier, despite not moving. A quick fix in Vegas by just masking his earlier face over the error frame.

Once it's summoned, Rei and Amon look up in awe at Rainbow Dragon before we see O'Brien doing the same, but as their split-screen splits apart, Amon moves but Rei's split is kept in place and loses its border, while the sky is between/behind them before O'Brien appears there in the next frame (along with a minor coloring error on Amon). Fixed in Vegas by redoing their split-out in this first frame to properly move their splits and add a border to Rei's while adding O'Brien behind them, then redoing part of Amon's split-out to also fix that coloring error.

Later, as Judai uses EN Shuffle to Special-Summon Glow Moss from his deck, we see that he's missing Glow Moss in the fourth Monster Zone on his Disk (where it is a bit later) as EN Shuffle fades away. Fixed this in AfterEffects by applying a proxy and fading it in to appear as EN Shuffle fades. (The dub, for some reason, opted to just hold the shot after Glow Moss is summoned but before EN Shuffle fades, or they just didn't fade out their dubified EN Shuffle--not sure if it was to not deal with fading the card in? [They also didn't bother editing their dubified Dummy Marker to shrink and fizzle away when Uria's effect destroys it, instead holding it still when flipped up...])

Later on, after Martin/Yubel says they've even restored their body from the Duel Zombies' Duel Energy, Johan is taken aback, while Judai slides in on a split-screen confused about the "body" mention--but the first frame of Judai's slide-in has his split already mostly onscreen, while it takes Johan another frame to start moving for the split; fixed in Vegas by moving Johan in sync with Judai's now-smoother split starting to slide in. After that, they split apart to show a smiling Martin, but it takes Johan's split an extra frame to slide fully offscreen; fixed by masking out Johan's split-out and shifting it a frame earlier to be timed with Judai's.

A bit later, as Rei looks on at the light emerging from Martin, an odd error happens where it looks like the animators forgot to scrub away the lines on Rei's face indicating how shading should be applied; this happens only on the two linked keyframes, not the in-betweens as she moves in shock, with shading lines also on her earlobe in the second keyframe. As noted under 129's list, I fixed this for 130 proper first before applying it in the preview there, taking the two keyframes into Photoshop to redraw her skin and skin shading to wipe away the lines.

A bit after that, with Yubel fully in the flesh, they toss away Martin's body towards Rei, but a blink-and-you-miss-it error happens in the last frames of that shot, as the layer of black over their neck and arm/shoulder aren't drawn in. Fixed this in Photoshop first, as I took the 4-5 frames involved--one with what's left of Martin's cape over them, then the others as their arm slightly moves after fully tossing Martin--and drew in the layers of black and black shading on their neck and arm/shoulder, then went into Vegas as I used it to mix the fixed frames into the footage.

[arsonandhockey]

enjoy this piece i did last year and absolutely loved!!

[andreisvechnikov]

road tripping ✈️

[jabberamongthetrees]

Swag and Sway October 2024

[kasperikapanenisbetterthanyou]

hockey team thickness - Carolina Hurricanes 2024 VERSION (roster as of 27.07.2024)

[sarcasmchandlerbing]

Below the cut there are other team polls if you want to vote in them too!

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[kanerallels]

First Meetings

(Well I said I'd do it and I'm doing it. Kyvis Origin story, starting now. I've posted one or two other parts of this story here and there, so I'm gonna do a master post at some point! But for now, here's a link to the second part, and here's the first story! Set in a semi-futuristic world, but not so futuristic as to be unfamiliar)

Kate Davis considered herself a professional of her trade. Not necessarily the best, of course—not yet. She’d never done a job that was truly legendary, that would have others talking about it for years to come. But she was quick and smart, and hadn’t been really caught or seen for years.

Which was a good thing in her trade, which was that of a thief.

Frankly, Kate had never considered herself much good at anything else. She’d tried other things, and was currently barely holding down a job at the Starbucks near her house. But, as with the others, she knew she wasn’t long for it. If for no other reasons than she was terrible at customer service, and tended to blow off work for her real job. And truth be told, nothing made her light up like the thrill of cracking a safe, slipping past guards, breaking into a house that was far too fancy for her to ever set foot in otherwise.

It helped that her targets were almost exclusively the rich, arrogant, and corrupt. There was something satisfying about taking from people like that. Her boyfriend, Derek, didn’t seem to see it the same way. He’d told her on many occasions that she should do jobs with his gang, that he was working where the money was. Kate had just laughed at him—she didn’t let other people choose her jobs.

Hence why she was currently picking the lock on the office door of a senator who was not only the proud owner of three houses, but was a bit of a creep as well. He’d been at the Starbucks where she’d worked a few days back, and Kate had seen him hitting on her co-worker—a shy girl who was just out of high school, making her easily a quarter of the senator’s age. She’d gotten his name off of the order, and it hadn’t taken long to formulate a plan against him.

The lock clicked, and Kate let herself into the office. Getting into the building had been embarrassingly easy, and she knew for a fact that the senator was out on a lunch break. That didn’t mean she was going to sit around and wait for him to return, though. She had too much professional pride for that.

The safe was situated at the back corner of his office, not obscured by a thing. Kate rolled her eyes and knelt next to it. “Your owner is a moron,” she muttered to it, getting to work on the lock.

A few minutes later, it clicked open, revealing the contents. Allowing herself a smirk, Kate unzipped one of the pockets in her backpack and began filling it with stacks of cash.

She was halfway finished when she heard voices outside the door. Oh, no—he’s not supposed to be back yet. Smacking the safe door shut, Kate yanked the zipper closed. Slinging the backpack over her shoulder, she made a snap decision and darted forward just as the door opened.

She made it behind the door as it swung open, admitting two men. Neither of them was the senator, but both were talking animatedly, and didn’t notice as Kate moved. “Yeah, apparently there’s supposed to be some kind of robbery here today. That’s why all those law enforcement guys are here. Weird, right?”

“You can say that again,” agreed the other man as Kate caught hold of the door knob before it could fall closed. Silently, she eased it open again. “Can’t imagine what they’d steal from here.”

The first man snorted. “Try not to make it so obvious that you’re new. Now, what did Senator Littlejohn want from here again?”

Kate didn’t wait to hear the response. Slipping through the doorway, she let the door drop closed as she turned—and ran smack into someone.

Stumbling backwards, she caught a brief impression of a man wearing a button down shirt and a frown. Oh, crap.

“You’re not supposed to be up here—” he started, and Kate cut him off by doing the only thing she could think of. She punched him in the face with a satisfying crack, and took off down the hall.

She heard shouts behind her, but didn’t stop. At least, she didn’t stop until she careened around the corner and came face to face with another man. This one, unfortunately, was holding a gun.

��Good afternoon, miss,” he said, his voice mild and polite, with what sounded like a British accent. “Would you mind putting your hands in the air? I’m afraid you’re under arrest.”

Kate held back a groan, but did what he said. Double crap. Just when I say what I did about not getting caught.

Her backpack was taken, and she handcuffed and led down the hall to a meeting room, empty except for a table and two chairs. Kate was cuffed to one of them, while the man who’d stopped her took the one across from her.

“I’ll admit, it was mostly good luck we caught you,” he said conversationally. He was older, with graying brown hair, and was dressed in a neat, inexpensive suit. “None of us had the faintest clue you were already in the building. It was just bad luck for you that had us sweeping this floor when you were sneaking out. Bad luck for Chambers, as well,” he added as Kate heard the door behind her open. “How’s the nose, Chambers?”

“Could be worse, sir,” came the reply, and Kate glanced up as the man who she’d punched stepped into view. His nose was swollen and crooked, and he wore a frown that deepened as he met her gaze. Folding his arms, he settled behind the older man, like he was waiting for judgment to be passed on her.

Kate already disliked him.

The sound of a throat being cleared pulled her attention back to the older man, who was flipping through a file. “We also didn’t know it was you coming—well, not for sure,” he said. “We had a list of thieves that were known to hit targets like this, but we very nearly took your name off the list. We would have if Chambers hadn’t brought it to my attention that you work at one of those American coffee shops the good senator likes to frequent.”

Kate couldn’t hold back a scoff, and the man glanced up at her. “You disagree?”

“With the good part, yeah,” Kate said flatly. “He’s a creep, and if you’re here defending him that makes you just as bad.”

“We’re not defending his actions, we’re preventing you from breaking the law,” the other man—Chambers, Kate thought—spoke up. “His wrongdoings don’t make yours right.”

“I disagree,” Kate said. “I think anyone who takes payoffs from drug cartels and worse deserves to have his money taken.”

“A sentiment I’m sure you’re not alone in,” the first man cut in. “However, that’s not what we’re here to discuss, Miss—Davis, isn’t it? Kate Davis?”

Kate didn’t answer. The less you give them, the better, she thought. Because things could only get worse from here.

“Well, Miss Davis, I’m Agent Andersen. And I’m here to offer you a chance to escape from your otherwise unpleasant fate.”

That got Kate’s attention. Frowning at him, she said, “I was just caught robbing a senator. If I’m lucky, I’m going away for that. But most likely, you’re going to take me out to some back alley and get rid of me.”

“That’s what you think of us?” Chambers said, a look of disgust crossing his face.

“That’s how law enforcement works these days,” Kate shot back. “Surprising that you don’t know that, Officer. Or maybe you are as dumb as you look. I did think I heard an echoing sound when I punched your stupid face—is it actually hollow in there?”

He frowned even more deeply, and Andersen spoke up. “Miss Davis, we are not going to kill you. You’re quite right in your assessment—most government agencies are corrupt these days in the States. Luckily for you, I’m not from the States. And catching criminals is something of a passion for me. So your deal is as follows—you hand over the person we ask for, someone more valuable, and you go free. Otherwise, you go to prison. Simple as that.”

Kate felt her gut plummet. “But it’s not,” she said. “And you know it. Because prison is a death sentence for almost everyone these days.”

“In most situations, yes,” Andersen agreed calmly. Meeting her gaze squarely, he asked, “So. Would you like a way out?”

Oh, she hated this. She hated the idea that this man with his accent and his strange manner, to say nothing of his scowling sycophant, were in control of her life.

But she didn’t have much of a choice.

“What do I have to do?” she asked.

[ifreakingloveroyals]

Through the Years → Queen Mary of Denmark (1,040/∞) 3 July 2025 | Queen Mary of Denmark arrives for the opening ceremony as Denmark launches their EU presidency at Aarhus City Hall in Aarhus, Denmark. (Photo by Martin Sylvest Andersen/Getty Images)

[leslie-red]

Our sweet vikings family <3 Always.

I love them so much.....

[enterfilm]

LA BÊTE (Bertrand Bonello, 2023)

Tres diferentes épocas convergen en esta película para conciliar una génesis común que mediante innumerables correlaciones alegóricas reflexiona acerca del extrañamiento ante el cambio. Un pasado indescifrable, un presente figurado y un inminente futuro. Cronografía de un delirio cinematográfico plagado de referencias y en cuyo eje transversal y espiritual se sitúa un personaje concéntrico: Gabrielle. El sonido del Evergreen de Roy Orbison pareciera un eco de su In Dreams en Blue Velvet, y el título de aquella canción, además, adquiere un doble sentido en la película de Bonello, que comienza con los desesperados gritos de Léa Seydoux sobre un verde que se fragmenta y difumina policromáticamente. En cierta forma y aunque audibles, podrían considerarse los gritos silentes ante la revelación de la bestia a la que Henry James alude en su aflictivo relato. Este sería el oxímoron resultante ante la depauperación existencial como consecuencia de la falta de atrevimiento y viveza en la toma de decisiones. No decidir también es decidir. Recelar del amor es tenerle miedo y, al final, solo queda echar la vista atrás, darse cuenta de que ya es tarde para comenzar de nuevo. La monotonía impera y la tragedia se encamina hacia su dodecafónico acto final: "When love is evergreen, evergreen. Like my love for you"...

[synonymouswithanonymous]

Paris/JM out with Charlie!

They all made it! Glad they got rid of the ww2 bomb at the train station, imagining it being there for 80 years just waiting, is insane to think about. Glad it didn't go off and kill/injure people.

Definitely see the comparison of those 2 actresses, especially Madelaine P!! JM is so beautiful! Those 2 could possibly play sisters/twins! All 3 beautiful gingers!