#like maybe bryan as a mercenary?

[bluemoonbabes]

So Muntz’s actor and Colonel Kellogg’s (the bald marine commando from ep 11) actor worked together on a really bad action movie, and I keep thinking about it.

[clumsyhissingcat]

No. 4: HALLUCINATIONS

Hypnosis | Sensory Deprivation | “You’re still alive in my head.” (Billy Lockett, More)

OC Whump

Hi, here is my contribution no.4 for Whumptober !

A bit of context : When he was younger, the Ensorceleur fled his home and met a man who drew him into his mercenary army. He trusted this man completely, without realizing that their relationship was anything but healthy. After years of committing atrocities on behalf of his mentor, he finally opened his eyes and left. But the experience have definitely left a mark.

If you have any questions, I'd obviously be more than happy to answer! Also, English isn't my first language, so i apologize for any mistake. Check the tags for TW and enjoy !

The world moved around without him seeming to belong to it. His body seemed to be in a different space-time, heavy and slow, while a complex choreography of fluid movements seemed to take place around. A thick, heavy fabric limited his movements and separated him from the rest of the world. On a deeper level, the Ensorceleur recognized the effects of an active substance, probably an opioid administered to calm the raging pain that had taken hold of his decomposing right arm. This recognition, however, didn't allow him to act on the consequences, which didn't help the swarm of agitated persons next to him to calm down.

Standing next to his shivering friend who was clearly in a state of shock, Api struggled to retain any vestiges of composure.

 -If there's one fucking piece of information that's correct and accurate in his file, it's that he reacts badly to opioids !

-It wasn't in his file, sir ! Retorted the young apprentice on the verge of tears.

-Then who messed with the files ?!

-I did the best I could with what I had, sir !

-Damn it!

At his wits end, the healer turned away and took a deep breath to calm himself. Well, at least the drug seemed to have greatly reduced the physical pain, which was the primary objective. On the negative side, the mercenary looked more distressed than Api had ever seen him.

The Ensorceleur buried his head in his knees with a moan, drawing his attention. The man who treated a show of weakness as the worst thing that could happen to him moaned. The healer dropped to one knee, hesitantly bringing his hands up to the other man. The problem with trying to heal an Entity completely drugged and trained to kill was that the slightest miscalculated gesture could have dramatic consequences.

-Easy, breathed a voice behind his ear before he could make contact with his friend.

Crouching beside him, Bryan regarded the Ensorceleur with a worried expression.

-If possible, avoid touching him. He sometimes reacts...violently, when he's not in his normal state.

-Has anything like this ever happened before ? inquired the healer cautiously.

The guild leader hesitated visibly, because...

-With his metabolism, yes, from time to time...Don't look at me like that ! he quickly defended himself against the healer's glare. We tried to get his cooperation on several potential treatment plans when necessary, when he was in top form, and he always refused ! Except that once he was injured, we had no choice but to try and treat him with what little medical history we had. So yes, sometimes things got out of hand, and I've seen him in that kind of state before.

The Ensorceleur muttered a series of garbled words incomprehensible to them, and Bryan winced.

-Well, maybe not like this. His reactions to opioids are one of the pieces of information he's shared with us on his own.

-Hey. I need you to focus on us and try to communicate how you're feeling. I have a drug with an antagonistic effect that may help you feel better, but with your strange metabolism, I'd rather we let the effect wear off on its own. But I need to know how you feel, Api said slowly and distinctly to his patient.

The Ensorceleur could have answered him. He could have told him immediately to give him the strongest possible dose of his magic product. In fact, he would probably have begged him to do so, had he been able to hear what Api was saying.

But the ghostly hand resting on the back of his neck like tthe executioner guillotine had ensured that his undivided attention went to the only person in the room worthy of it.

Didn’t I taught you that showing weakness is the best way to get others to stab you in the back ?

Not real. He wasn't. He was drugged, and he absolutely had to hold onto that thought. At all costs.

You've never been one to hide behind lies. But I guess that's what you needed to keep hiding behind Silver Shein's back like a scared child.

The hand had more weight now, nails digging into flesh.

It's pathetic. You look like a beaten dog. But I suppose my disgust is normal. Few artists are ever satisfied with their creations.

The Ensorceleur exhaled the liquid lead in his lungs in a long, hoarse hiss and tried to convince himself that the hand on the back of his neck was more reassuring than terrifying, whether it belonged to Api or Bryan, or even Freya, who distrusted him but wouldn't hurt him for no reason, least of all in front of Bryan's eyes.

He forced himself to open his eyes and stare at Api's anxious face hovering in front of him. Whatever he felt behind him wasn't real. Just a hallucination brought on by the painkiller. Nothing that could hurt him, just a conspiracy from his brain and senses. If he concentrated on Api's features, on his reassuring presence, then the hallucinations would have a harder time dragging him into the dark corner of his consciousness where they resided.

Except that a pale face burst into his field of vision, blocking out his friend's view. The Enchanter gasped and threw himself backwards. His skull hit the wall with a thud and a flash of white flashed into his retina for a second, just a second ; that was enough.

A leather-gloved iron fist closed around his neck, strangling the scream. A weight much heavier than it should have crushed his hips, pinning him to the ground, and Magister leaned over him, smiling broadly, his pupils two black holes dripping ink onto his face.

Perhaps your brother's son would make a better canvas...or a better receptacle !

The man's face melted, lengthened a little, and his hair grew and lightened until a mass of curls frame familiar features. A grotesque parody of Lucien laughed in his face, before vomiting black, stale blood onto his chest. The Ensorceleur received a few drops in his mouth and audibly choked, struggling to free himself from his mentor's grasp.

-No. N-no...

He’s choking

Even now, you don't beg. Is there anything that could make you give up your misplaced pride ? Are they so insignificant to you, those you claim to protect ?

-Nooo...

We'll see, whispered the abomination with his nephew’s face. We'll see how quickly you fall at his feet...

When I've repaired your mistake and got my new suit of flesh, finished Magister, his mentor, master, friend and executioner.

Through the delirious terror (not for himself, never for himself, because his master would never hurt him, but the others, the insignificant...) that clouded his mind, he became aware of an increasingly acute pain in his arm. He resumed his pitiful attempts to free himself. He was the Ensorceleur, he had to fight, to keep going, to do the only thing he was good at...

But he had never been able to make even a violent gesture towards Magister.

You love me more than you've ever loved anyone.

Warm breath on his nose. Ice-blue eyes, punctuated with shadows and shades, so close he could almost see the constellations formed by the black flakes in the iris.

I'll try to sedate him

Watch his arm

Moist warmth on his cheeks, distant and impersonal. Emotions blunted and others too vivid to comprehend that clash and leave him torn, barely able to put together the pieces that make him the Ensorceleur.

I love you.

A sharp but localized pain in his arm.

I forgive you.

The last image to followed him into the muddy waters of unconsciousness were those icy eyes. Or...warm brown, perhaps?

He prefered this softer brown.

L'Ensorceleur let himself be drawn under the surface, where neither ghosts nor memories can follow him.

You belong to me, after all.

[silent-neutral]

Ok this is more important but I forgot to include this earlier because I was distracted over his model lol, but the confusion surrounding the story-mode conflicts with his initial character synopsis (him being on vacation, etc). If anyone wants to fill me in though, you're most welcome to. and err, this also falls under spoilers, so I'll cut this here too.

Is it not odd that Dragunov entered the tournament whilst off-duty?? No one ordered him to like before, he just wilfully entered by his own accord. Okay. Later he and a few others get recruited to fight on Kazuya's/G corp's behalf via Nina. Bryan Feng and Azucena are just doing whatever they want for their own gain, but for Dragunov to just shrug his shoulders and tag along because idk, ''meh, i'm bored, got nothing better to do'' without any solid reason just seems so ooc lol....It's even more especially odd considering the Russian military were fighting *against* Kazuya and Mishima Zaibatsu.. so...um...Dragunov, bro...didn't you just... commit treason...?! x'D... Of course, I'd then say 1: either he was forced at gunpoint or 2: it was reconnaissance, a secret mission or something of that nature. However, that would contradict him being on leave and anyway, committing treason is vastly ooc for a miltary based character that 'likes taking orders' and 'is loyal to his motherland' (!!!) In the Kazuya (bad) ending, Azucena is indifferent. She goes from serving Leroy in the photo, to serving Dragunov

Look at him xD he looks displeased or bored, as I said. Like he's questioning his life's choices. Maybe he went rogue in this scenario... In fact it looks like he went from being a Special ops/Spetsnaz commander to.. paid mercenary. By enemy #1: Kazuya, no less. How the white angel of death has fallen from grace. Well, anyways, what am I saying. It's Tekken pft. The story outside the main cast was never important, we know this. And I know it's silly and contradicts itself a lot but I like to point out the holes to pacify the OCD lol. I'm content to just say that he had to postpone his leave due to a change in plans, was ordered to join the tournament, got a nice cut and went back to enjoying his time off after all was said and done. ....But uh, yeah. So much for 'being on vacation' and having a to-do list and all that.

About T8 Dragunov since I think enough time has passed to lay out some thoughts: (small spoiler under cut incase people are still playing) I think we can all collectively agree T8 Dra is Peak Dra. He is, as of writing, now #1 in the useage/popularity ranking for the top 10k players~ even after being nerfed recently. But even with those nerfs, he's more balanced now. Obviously, there are some things missing design-wise which no one should be okay with -shake fist-. The scars are just the top of the list. But I'm also sad that his uniform is not an alternate costume or something. This is a small thing (literally) but ..I'm also not ok with the nipples. Okok, I get the whole copy pasting of the body sculpts, but bruh... what the hell.. Like others have jokingly said, they look bleached. Also they're impossibly tiny, they look like they're about to disappear along with his scars. I liked the detail that went into T7's body sculpt far more, but to give credit where credit is due; they put a lot of focus into the faces! And fucking, FINALLY, they did something about his goddamn hair and ponytail. It looks so much more natural and like actual hair TT_TT <3 It was one of my forever gripes with his design, now not! haha. T7's was a major step-back from T6's. There are other things they did with his face that I freaking love, but it's just the little details, lest I gush even more. And as much as I love his ending, I think they should have included his leather notebook on the coffee table or something;

it would be apparent then that his difficult goal was to collect/build all those limited edition tanks. Missed opportunity? Well, not as much as his missing scars but eh..... nu vot. 😒

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of DC: Week of March 11th, 2020

Best of the Week: Batman and the Outsiders #11 - Bryan E. Hill, Dexter Soy, Veronica Gandini and Clayton Cowles

It’s the Outsiders vs The Assassins in a knock-down, drag out fight for their lives!

After Lady Shiva meets up with Jefferson Pierce, aka. Black Lightning, in order to convince him to join her scheme to kill Ra’s al Ghul, she and the electricity powered hero are ambushed by Ra’s al Ghul’s trusted warriors in Ishmael, the turncoat Kaliber and Karma, a villain from Hill’s run on Detective Comics. Luckily for Jefferson and Shiva, Katana arrives in the nick of time with Duke Thomas, The Signal, and Cassandra Cain, Orphan (even though her mother, Shiva, is next to her).

Dexter Soy and Veronica Gandini begin the book with an epic single splash title page, showcasing the two sides as the Outsiders pick their respective opponents. It’s an absolutely beautiful scene with the moon shining in the sky with a bright white while clouds crest over it. The moon reflects on the surface of the water that both sides are standing in, giving the epic stand off a more dynamic feel as the water crashes around them. There’s an unintentionally funny bit where Shiva is standing tall with the Outsiders, but in the background without anyone to look at because the three combatants are closer to the foreground.

Wonky page aside, Hill does a good job of catching readers up with a few of our characters' reasons for wanting to fight each other while Soy gives us several nice, up close shots of each character in eight panels. Lightning seeks revenge against Ishmael for killing one of the teacher at his school, Duke and Cass want a rematch against Karma for targeting them and injuring Duke back in Detective Comics and Katana faces off against Kaliber for betraying the Outsiders.

Each of their respective fights take place over the course of single pages for most of the issue and while there’s not much in the way of a deep story, the fights do help to expand on who some characters are, give others some catharsis and allows for one to just showcase how cool they are.

Lightning and Shiva’s fight with Ishmael is absolutely one of ideology. Blak Lightning has always been a hero, someone who was willing to save lives and give his own if he thought the cause was worth it. Lady Shiva is one of the deadliest assassins in the DC Universe and only seeks to weed the world of the weak. She sought Jefferson out because she knows that among Batman’s team, Lightning is absolutely one of the most powerful and susceptible to her way of thinking, if the right pressure were to be applied. At the same time, she sees how Ra’s al Ghul’s plot to destroy the planet would be counter to her goals.

Soy portrays Lightning with probably the most intense anger that we’ve seen from him in this story so far. His brow is furrowed and Soy inks a close up shot of Jefferson’s face to accentuate the bright blue and white that Gandini uses for his eyes. His lightning is intense, even as Shiva tells him that she knows he’s holding back, he doesn’t care as he’s acting as the distraction. We then get another page of Shiva enacting his plan. 

Soy showcases Shiva’s speed and agility through various panels as she attacks Ishmael. Soy uses speed lines and blurring to convey how quick she can move as Ishmael’s defense is whittled away before she gives him one good kick across the face. Clayton Cowles utilizes excellent lettering with an intense “KRAK” as the foot connects and a powerful “ZZZATTT” as Lightning hits him with a blast of energy. Cowles also has fantastic bubble placement as Shiva counts down on every panel before unleashing Jefferson.

As that fight ends, we get a calm scene between the two as Ishmael lies unconscious in the water, his face just so that he doesn’t drown. Shiva tells Jefferson just how easy it would be to let him drown, but Jefferson points out that that would be murder. Because... of course it would be. Jefferson is a hero and is unwilling to take a life, not because he’s on a team with Batman, but because it’s his decision.

Karma was a Markovian soldier who had something of a past with Batman. This saw him don a mask that allowed him to read the thoughts and actions of his enemies as he targets those who he felt made Batman weak - Duke and Cass. He put them through hell over the course of many issues and this is what initially caused Batman to seek out Jefferson to help train them. This series would have spun out of that arc, but for whatever reason, delays kept it off until very recently.

The fight starts off pretty poorly as Karma reads Cassandra's thoughts, making fun of her Orphan codename, much like I did earlier, and kicks her away. Karma is a quite capable fighter, but he hasn’t faced Duke in quite some time and doesn’t know about the hero’s new found power. Duke had initially had some PTSD when thinking about Karma, likely because of a bomb that the villain had strapped to a Batfan and exploded when Duke arrived to save him.

Duke’s powers over the light had been corrupted by Ishmael earlier in the series and this left him with a new ability to enshroud himself and others in a black shadow. He and Cass use this to their advantage to distract Karma, allowing Soy and Gandini pay off all of their months of pain and anger. Cassandra swings across Karmas face with both of her feet, knocking him back as the glowing red star of his mask leaves a small trail. The fight is honestly pretty one sided from there as Cass just beats the man.

The final fight between Katana and Kaliber is pretty much just an excuse for Soy, Gandini and Cowles to draw cool stuff. Kaliber fires a shot from one of his energy guns with a bombastic, transparent BOOM to accentuate its power and bright orange and yellow colors. Katana gets into an excellent pose and uses her Soul Sword to deflect and spread the blast with a “SHNNNNG” lettering that curves around part of the shot and her sword. Katana has no time to play any games with him, at all.

She also makes short work of him while revealing that she had never liked him. Cowles utilizes similar minimal panels to convey Hill’s script as she tears down his lack of discipline and honor before making fun of his hair while still being threatening. Soy makes Katana look like an absolute badass as she takes Kaliber’s gun arm in one fell swoop before kicking him in the gut. Kaliber may be something of a good eye and a trigger, but Katana, like Shiva, is one of the most dangerous women in the DC Universe with a sword and not someone that should be faced in a one-on-one close quarters fight.

With all of their enemies defeated, Katana holds her sword to Kaliber’s throat as he tries to convince the Outsiders that Ra’s only wants to “save the world.” In some respects, that could be true. He sees humanity as a disease and would rather the planet Earth and his chosen few thrive without the chaff. He’s built a cult of personality around himself and that’s how he’s maintained a following for centuries. Not that it was difficult to convert someone like Kaliber, a stock mercenary. But the merc soon reveals that this fight was meant to serve as a distraction as explosions ring out across a Cambodian town.

It’s another beautiful scene with the calm blues of the moons afterglow and the night sky itself is contrasted by the bright and fiery oranges of the explosions. My only criticism is that while the scene does feel weighty, there’s still a lot of empty space where more explosions and destruction could be. They sort of feel minor by comparison to the rest of the shot and maybe pulling in closer would help, but either way, it’s a nice scene.

Ra’s goons escape and Katana rallies the Outsiders to go and help the people. Despite not approving of Cassandra choosing to join Batman’s crusade, Shiva affirms her pride and love of her daughter and joins her in heroism, even if it’s only for a short time. Meanwhile, in the background of this story, Sofia, the metahuman who Ra’s initially tried to recruit away from Batman affirms that she wants to do good in the world and Batman leads her to choose her own identity.

Bryan Hill’s excellent Outsiders series continues to be one of the more underrated DC titles out right now as this issue was absolutely action packed thanks to Dexter Soy, Veronica Gandini and Clayton Cowles. It definitely built on these excellent characters that deserve more acclaim and a book separated from having Batman in the title because he is still barely present.

That’s also another point I will keep harping on, Batman is still a non-entity in this book and I think that’s something that this story does well. It allows for Black Lightning and Katana to grow as characters to take on the teacher role like Batman did in the original Outsiders comic. Duke and Cassandra have so much to learn, but so few Batman writers want to put a focus on them while Bryan Hill is giving them center stage alongside two big heroes. They absolutely deserve it and I want to see them in so many more things going forward.

I want this series to go well past fifty issues because it has, consistently, been one of the best paced, best drawn and best told series that DC has had going for it in a long while. This gets another high recommend from me.

Also, support me on Patreon:

patreon.com/TyTalksComics

[most-angels-are-dicks-blog]

The Mercenary

This was written by Jonah B., he is an intelligent man and you can find him @co2ultraspider he is absolutely great.

Allan Grant: Episode Two Code: Scrap Outskirts of Town (Outside Wall) 0428 I stood waiting with my green sea bag on my back and my double barrel pistol on my side. The mission was simple enough, go two towns over and provide security while another group stole the food from the food pantry. It would be easy enough if I wasn’t working fucking god damn rookies, to my knowledge it was just some lackeys from Vincent’s gang. The sun would be rising soon…I hoped the other people would show up soon or I’d just go on my own. “Hey mercenary!” came a familiar voice. I turned seeing Bryan Ramirez, a rival mercenary. Well to be honest most mercenaries were rivals, we were all trying to complete jobs to survive. Bryan wore a torn dark blue camo hoodie with navy fatigue pants, he had a black sling pack on and held a Mk-45 in his left hand. His dark red hair was tied up, but it looked still messy…he’d been in a fight recently. I looked down at his boots seeing there was specs of dry blood, it could’ve been from a while ago but given his history with Vincent something told me there was more to the story. “Hey Bryan,” I said looking back up at him, “didn’t think Vincent would hire you for something like this.” “Yeah well,” he said with a shrug, “I can be quite the convincing guy. He told me get this job done and we’d call things square.” “And you wanna square things up with him?” I asked watching his expression. He glared at me, I kept an eye on his trigger finger. “Look you wanna get this job done or do you wanna play twenty-one questions!” he yelled pushing past me. There was no point in continuing messing with him, though I did have a feeling he was lying about Vincent. “How’re we getting to Trenton?” he asked. “Had Nico equip the Sandhawk with some extra support and armor for the mission,” I said taking out the keys, “But since you and I are going I don’t think we’ll need it that much. We’ll be going inside on foot, I don’t want another accident with this jeep. Nico gets real pissed about that stuff.” Bryan rolled his eyes chuckling. “Let’s just head to the job.” He said. “Right, are you on the food pantry team?” I asked. Bryan paused, he didn’t know about the two teams. “Yeah,” he said, “I um…I’m helping with that.” Yeah he was for sure lying. Two powerful mercenaries on the same team, seemed a bit overkill. But I didn’t have anymore time for this, we needed to just get this job done, and it wouldn’t matter so long as I got paid. “Come on Bryan.” I said shaking my head as I headed towards the Sandhawk, “you know the drill.” Trenton Town (Wall Outside) 0514 We drove up to the side entrance wall stopping before we’d get in sight of the sentry. The sun was gonna rise in just around forty minutes to an hour, there’d be no room for error…or Bryan’s famous killing sprees. “Hey Allan,” Bryan said as he got out of the passenger seat, “Why don’t you do your little ability thing as see how guards we’re dealing with while I cover the Sandhawk up.” Psh, like I needed him telling me how to mercenary. I looked over at the wall as my eyes went x ray mode. Right, I guess I didn’t mention it but most mercenaries like me and Bryan had amazing abilities. For me my eyes could go night vision, x ray vision, heat vision, and tracking. Bryan could control weapons, like make them appear so…he was a walking weapons rack. “Got two guards on lookout near center of town and maybe…ten guys just around town with some big looking guns.” I said as my vision returned to normal, “should be a pretty easy fight if we do this right. We keep this quiet and quick and maybe we can avoid a town hating us in the future.” “You watch yourself Allan,” he said as he pushed past me, “I can handle myself.” So much for using teamwork… Trenton Town (Inside) 0520 As I climbed over the wall, I was able to actually see the town for what it was. Trenton was a dump…the buildings were boarded up and people looked sickly as hell. What was the point of robbing a place like this? They had nothing. I did another quick scan before I ran down the street, I spotted a figure standing on a rooftop. He wore a sleeveless jean jacket and dusty blue jeans, from the looks of him he was a mercenary. “Hey buddy,” I said as I stopped in my tracks, “You ain’t gonna wanna do this. Why don’t you just go back where you came from.” He smiled as his skin turned pale white as he grew fangs and sprouted wings, his body looking more deformed. “Ugh…gross!” I cried reaching for my gun, “Do we really have to do this?!” He screeched as he swooped down at me trying to get a swipe at me with his claws. He was fast but I’d had plenty of training against people like him, people who like to overdose on powercore energy to get stronger. Me being a test tube experiment, I didn’t have much of a choice but lately these mercenaries were getting desperate. I couldn’t shoot this guy, I was supposed to be doing this with stealth. I’d need to get this guy grounded and knock him out. I quickly scanned his body searching out his weak spots as he dove past me. I quickly grabbed on to his neck pulling him backwards, he jerked forward sending me flying into the dirt. I put my gun away taking out my knife as he charged at me again. He ran into me at full force sending me back a bit, I caught my balance as I stabbed him behind his ear. He screeched again as I tossed him into the dirt, stabbing him in the side. He changed back to normal as he struggled to get up. “Fuck…” he groaned as I walked over to him, “I-I’m not done ye-yet.” “Hey man,” I said as I kneeled down, “I gave you a chance to walk away.” I quickly got him in a chokehold, choking him out. He put up a bit of a fight but even a blind man could see the fight was over. I dropped him on the ground, as I got up dusting myself off. He might’ve actually have been a threat had he known what he was doing. No time to waste though, it’d be sunrise soon. I took off down the street running for the tower in the center of town. No doubt Bryan had beaten me. When I reached the tower I found two duffle bags outside of the tower, full of guns and medical supplies. Bryan was no where in sight, and also it seemed he’d done a number on the guards around the tower as well. “Good you finally decided to show up.” Came Bryan’s voice. I turned seeing him walking out with two more bags. “Vincent didn’t tell us to rob the place clean,” I said folding my arms, “there’s no reason to overdo it. This town is already suffering.” “Yeah well so are some of us,” he said pushing past me, “you can either help me or you can stand aside. I already stole a van from these fucks.” He was never very good at hiding lies, then again he also wasn’t much of a brains. “You sure Vincent will pay extra for this?” I asked as I picked up two duffle bags. “Man fuck Vincent,” he snarled, “fucking prick. What has he ever done to help us out? He’s just a piece of shit thug.” “He’s also our employer.” I said “One of them!” Bryan yelled dropping the duffle bags, “I’m not doing this for him Allan. Help me out or be taken down.” As mercenaries it wasn’t uncommon for Bryan and I to often bump heads, but I could tell that he was dead serious about this. But now really wasn’t the time for this, if we spent anymore time we’d end up getting caught and the stealth mission would be ruined. “Relax Bryan,” I said calmly, “You’re right, okay? Is that what you want to hear? We really don’t have time for this crap man.” “I’m not letting you in the van,” he said not looking at me, “Sorry man.” I dropped the duffle bags, balling up my fists. Goddamn it Bryan! We didn’t have time for his childish behavior. I feel it should go without saying but Bryan’s stupidity ended up getting us surrounded by guards. “Hands up thieves!” came a man’s voice. We both turned seeing four guards standing in armor, holding guns at the ready. Fuck We were pushed out in the open where another squad of soldiers stood with guns drawn, for a total of eight guards. I quickly turned on my x ray vision scanning around to look for any other guards. Two snipers were up on a tower not too far away looking in our direction bringing the total up to ten guards. Not to mention there was probably their actual army force on standby, gearing up currently for a total of possibly thirty to forty guards. I looked over at Bryan mouthing the number to him, he nodded understanding. “Scan em,” said one of the guards standing back behind us, “you know how these mercenary types are.” I sighed as I felt the cold metal of the scanner jabbing me in the neck, it beeped loudly. “Sh-shit…” the guard said quickly stepping back, “they’re one of them! Freaks!” They all raised their weapons, taking aim. “That’s a bit rude,” I said shaking my head, “You didn’t even scan my buddy.” Bryan chuckled as he stuck out his hands, the guns being yanked out of the soldier’s hands. “We don’t have time for your games,” he said as the guns crumpled into nothingness, “believe me I’d love to kill you all but I’m just trying to leave.” People, normal innocent people, began to leave their homes to see what all the noise was about. This situation could be getting out of hand, but I doubted Bryan was going to leave without his duffle bags. I took out my pistol keeping people at bay, as Bryan and I began taking steps back towards the van. “Grab the bags Allan,” he whispered as he summoned an M4, “I can keep watch of these people.” I picked up the duffle bags tossing them in the back of the van, we needed to leave. Bang! The fuck…please tell me he didn’t. I ran around the van seeing a man, middle aged bleeding out with Bryan standing over him. “What the fuck Bry?!” I yelled pushing him, “You said you’d watch them!” “He came at me,” he said with a shrug, “let’s just go man.” He walked past me, getting into the van, closing the door. I didn’t want to leave this place like this though…but I didn’t have much of a choice. A job was a job, part of being a mercenary was having people not like you. It was something that I was willing to accept. Dessert 0558 “You shouldn’t have killed that man.” I said breaking the silence as we drove, “he was just trying to protect his family.” Bryan sat in the back, laying down with his face in the cushion. “Look I didn’t want to do it,” he mumbled, “the guy fucking ran at me. It was my reflexes.” Like I’d said, he and I disagreed quite a lot but one of the biggest problems I had with him was his lack of remorse for killing innocent people. We weren’t in any danger, those people had nothing without their guns. Hell even if they’d made a bomb we’d be injured but not dead! “I’m pretty drained from all that crap,” he said closing his eyes, “Mind if we take a break before you turn in whatever you have?” We’d made pretty good time, despite Bryan being a fuck boy at the last second. I guessed we could make a quick stop. The closest town happened to be Scrap City, where Nico and Barry worked. Be a great time to see if I could get an upgrade. “Sure,” I said looking in the rearview mirror, “We’re going to Scrap City.” “Ah…going to go see your boyfriend.” Bryan laughed from the backseat. So immature. “Yes,” I said rolling my eyes, “I haven’t seen Nico in a bit of a while as well.” Yes, Nico was my boyfriend and my mechanic. He was really good when it came to electronics and weapon upgrades. I sped up, speeding through the dessert. To Be Continued….

[co2ultraspider]

Allan Grant

Allan Grant: Episode Two

         Code: Scrap

 Outskirts of Town (Outside Wall)                                                                    0428

            I stood waiting with my green sea bag on my back and my double barrel pistol on my side. The mission was simple enough, go two towns over and provide security while another group stole the food from the food pantry. It would be easy enough if I wasn’t working fucking god damn rookies, to my knowledge it was just some lackeys from Vincent’s gang. The sun would be rising soon…I hoped the other people would show up soon or I’d just go on my own.

         “Hey mercenary!” came a familiar voice. I turned seeing Bryan Ramirez, a rival mercenary. Well to be honest most mercenaries were rivals, we were all trying to complete jobs to survive. Bryan wore a torn dark blue camo hoodie with navy fatigue pants, he had a black sling pack on and held a Mk-45 in his left hand. His dark red hair was tied up, but it looked still messy…he’d been in a fight recently. I looked down at his boots seeing there was specs of dry blood, it could’ve been from a while ago but given his history with Vincent something told me there was more to the story.

         “Hey Bryan,” I said looking back up at him, “didn’t think Vincent would hire you for something like this.”

         “Yeah well,” he said with a shrug, “I can be quite the convincing guy. He told me get this job done and we’d call things square.”

         “And you wanna square things up with him?” I asked watching his expression. He glared at me, I kept an eye on his trigger finger.

         “Look you wanna get this job done or do you wanna play twenty-one questions!” he yelled pushing past me. There was no point in continuing messing with him, though I did have a feeling he was lying about Vincent. “How’re we getting to Trenton?” he asked.

         “Had Nico equip the Sandhawk with some extra support and armor for the mission,” I said taking out the keys, “But since you and I are going I don’t think we’ll need it that much. We’ll be going inside on foot, I don’t want another accident with this jeep. Nico gets real pissed about that stuff.” Bryan rolled his eyes chuckling.

         “Let’s just head to the job.” He said.

         “Right, are you on the food pantry team?” I asked. Bryan paused, he didn’t know about the two teams.

         “Yeah,” he said, “I um…I’m helping with that.” Yeah he was for sure lying. Two powerful mercenaries on the same team, seemed a bit overkill. But I didn’t have anymore time for this, we needed to just get this job done, and it wouldn’t matter so long as I got paid.

         “Come on Bryan.” I said shaking my head as I headed towards the Sandhawk, “you know the drill.”

 Trenton Town (Wall Outside)                                                                          0514

           We drove up to the side entrance wall stopping before we’d get in sight of the sentry. The sun was gonna rise in just around forty minutes to an hour, there’d be no room for error…or Bryan’s famous killing sprees.

         “Hey Allan,” Bryan said as he got out of the passenger seat, “Why don’t you do your little ability thing as see how guards we’re dealing with while I cover the Sandhawk up.” Psh, like I needed him telling me how to mercenary. I looked over at the wall as my eyes went x ray mode. Right, I guess I didn’t mention it but most mercenaries like me and Bryan had amazing abilities. For me my eyes could go night vision, x ray vision, heat vision, and tracking. Bryan could control weapons, like make them appear so…he was a walking weapons rack.

         “Got two guards on lookout near center of town and maybe…ten guys just around town with some big looking guns.” I said as my vision returned to normal, “should be a pretty easy fight if we do this right. We keep this quiet and quick and maybe we can avoid a town hating us in the future.”

         “You watch yourself Allan,” he said as he pushed past me, “I can handle myself.” So much for using teamwork…

 Trenton Town (Inside)                                                                                   0520

           As I climbed over the wall, I was able to actually see the town for what it was. Trenton was a dump...the buildings were boarded up and people looked sickly as hell. What was the point of robbing a place like this? They had nothing. I did another quick scan before I ran down the street, I spotted a figure standing on a rooftop. He wore a sleeveless jean jacket and dusty blue jeans, from the looks of him he was a mercenary.

         “Hey buddy,” I said as I stopped in my tracks, “You ain’t gonna wanna do this. Why don’t you just go back where you came from.” He smiled as his skin turned pale white as he grew fangs and sprouted wings, his body looking more deformed. “Ugh…gross!” I cried reaching for my gun, “Do we really have to do this?!” He screeched as he swooped down at me trying to get a swipe at me with his claws. He was fast but I’d had plenty of training against people like him, people who like to overdose on powercore energy to get stronger. Me being a test tube experiment, I didn’t have much of a choice but lately these mercenaries were getting desperate. I couldn’t shoot this guy, I was supposed to be doing this with stealth. I’d need to get this guy grounded and knock him out. I quickly scanned his body searching out his weak spots as he dove past me. I quickly grabbed on to his neck pulling him backwards, he jerked forward sending me flying into the dirt. I put my gun away taking out my knife as he charged at me again. He ran into me at full force sending me back a bit, I caught my balance as I stabbed him behind his ear. He screeched again as I tossed him into the dirt, stabbing him in the side. He changed back to normal as he struggled to get up.

         “Fuck…” he groaned as I walked over to him, “I-I’m not done ye-yet.”

         “Hey man,” I said as I kneeled down, “I gave you a chance to walk away.” I quickly got him in a chokehold, choking him out. He put up a bit of a fight but even a blind man could see the fight was over. I dropped him on the ground, as I got up dusting myself off. He might’ve actually have been a threat had he known what he was doing. No time to waste though, it’d be sunrise soon. I took off down the street running for the tower in the center of town. No doubt Bryan had beaten me.

           When I reached the tower I found two duffle bags outside of the tower, full of guns and medical supplies. Bryan was no where in sight, and also it seemed he’d done a number on the guards around the tower as well.

         “Good you finally decided to show up.” Came Bryan’s voice. I turned seeing him walking out with two more bags.

         “Vincent didn’t tell us to rob the place clean,” I said folding my arms, “there’s no reason to overdo it. This town is already suffering.”

         “Yeah well so are some of us,” he said pushing past me, “you can either help me or you can stand aside. I already stole a van from these fucks.” He was never very good at hiding lies, then again he also wasn’t much of a brains.

         “You sure Vincent will pay extra for this?” I asked as I picked up two duffle bags.

         “Man fuck Vincent,” he snarled, “fucking prick. What has he ever done to help us out? He’s just a piece of shit thug.”

         “He’s also our employer.” I said

         “One of them!” Bryan yelled dropping the duffle bags, “I’m not doing this for him Allan. Help me out or be taken down.” As mercenaries it wasn’t uncommon for Bryan and I to often bump heads, but I could tell that he was dead serious about this. But now really wasn’t the time for this, if we spent anymore time we’d end up getting caught and the stealth mission would be ruined.

         “Relax Bryan,” I said calmly, “You’re right, okay? Is that what you want to hear? We really don’t have time for this crap man.”

         “I’m not letting you in the van,” he said not looking at me, “Sorry man.” I dropped the duffle bags, balling up my fists. Goddamn it Bryan! We didn’t have time for his childish behavior. I feel it should go without saying but Bryan’s stupidity ended up getting us surrounded by guards.

         “Hands up thieves!” came a man’s voice. We both turned seeing four guards standing in armor, holding guns at the ready. Fuck

           We were pushed out in the open where another squad of soldiers stood with guns drawn, for a total of eight guards. I quickly turned on my x ray vision scanning around to look for any other guards. Two snipers were up on a tower not too far away looking in our direction bringing the total up to ten guards. Not to mention there was probably their actual army force on standby, gearing up currently for a total of possibly thirty to forty guards. I looked over at Bryan mouthing the number to him, he nodded understanding.

         “Scan em,” said one of the guards standing back behind us, “you know how these mercenary types are.” I sighed as I felt the cold metal of the scanner jabbing me in the neck, it beeped loudly.

         “Sh-shit…” the guard said quickly stepping back, “they’re one of them! Freaks!” They all raised their weapons, taking aim.

         “That’s a bit rude,” I said shaking my head, “You didn’t even scan my buddy.” Bryan chuckled as he stuck out his hands, the guns being yanked out of the soldier’s hands.

         “We don’t have time for your games,” he said as the guns crumpled into nothingness, “believe me I’d love to kill you all but I’m just trying to leave.” People, normal innocent people, began to leave their homes to see what all the noise was about. This situation could be getting out of hand, but I doubted Bryan was going to leave without his duffle bags. I took out my pistol keeping people at bay, as Bryan and I began taking steps back towards the van. “Grab the bags Allan,” he whispered as he summoned an M4, “I can keep watch of these people.” I picked up the duffle bags tossing them in the back of the van, we needed to leave. Bang! The fuck…please tell me he didn’t. I ran around the van seeing a man, middle aged bleeding out with Bryan standing over him.

         “What the fuck Bry?!” I yelled pushing him, “You said you’d watch them!”

         “He came at me,” he said with a shrug, “let’s just go man.” He walked past me, getting into the van, closing the door. I didn’t want to leave this place like this though…but I didn’t have much of a choice. A job was a job, part of being a mercenary was having people not like you. It was something that I was willing to accept.

 Dessert                                                                                                        0558

         “You shouldn’t have killed that man.” I said breaking the silence as we drove, “he was just trying to protect his family.” Bryan sat in the back, laying down with his face in the cushion.

         “Look I didn’t want to do it,” he mumbled, “the guy fucking ran at me. It was my reflexes.” Like I’d said, he and I disagreed quite a lot but one of the biggest problems I had with him was his lack of remorse for killing innocent people. We weren’t in any danger, those people had nothing without their guns. Hell even if they’d made a bomb we’d be injured but not dead! “I’m pretty drained from all that crap,” he said closing his eyes, “Mind if we take a break before you turn in whatever you have?” We’d made pretty good time, despite Bryan being a fuck boy at the last second. I guessed we could make a quick stop. The closest town happened to be Scrap City, where Nico and Barry worked. Be a great time to see if I could get an upgrade.

         “Sure,” I said looking in the rearview mirror, “We’re going to Scrap City.”

         “Ah…going to go see your boyfriend.” Bryan laughed from the backseat. So immature.

         “Yes,” I said rolling my eyes, “I haven’t seen Nico in a bit of a while as well.” Yes, Nico was my boyfriend and my mechanic. He was really good when it came to electronics and weapon upgrades. I sped up, speeding through the dessert.

To Be Continued….

[antlerscolorado]

chapter 7, part 3

The Antlers Motel is just as Walker remembers it from his unfortunately extended stay there. The lobby still smells like mothballs, with the same furniture and decor that probably hasn’t been updated since the late 80s. The complimentary coffee display looks virtually untouched. Even the woman standing behind the desk in the lobby looks familiar, but then again, most bored motel clerks tend to be interchangeable. Her eyes go wide as Walker whips out his DPR badge, letting her get enough of a look at it to see it’s obviously important and governmental.

“Are you from the FBI?” the desk clerk asks, her voice hushed, almost reverently so. She looks only old enough to be in college, or just out of it, with an eyebrow piercing and a short, uneven haircut she obviously did on her own. The tarnished name tag pinned to her shirt reads ROSEMARY.

“Yes,” Walker says. It’s not technically a lie, not in the broad sense - most DPR agents are authorized, and even trained, to present themselves as FBI or Defense Department agents to civilians. It saves people with absolutely no knowledge of the supernatural from having to ask a lot of stupid questions, and then get a memory wipe. “Have you seen a woman around, kind of on the short side, long black hair pulled up in a ponytail? She might have been with one or two others. They probably checked in yesterday, or last night, and checked out earlier this morning.”

Rosemary is nodding in recognition even before Walker finishes talking. “Yeah, I saw her. Her and her friends checked out a couple hours ago.”

“Did she say anything about where they were going?” Landis asks, speaking up for probably the first time since they left the apartment complex. He’s on the other side of the small lobby, inspecting a crooked painting of some deer drinking from a stream.

“Nope,” Rosemary says. “She didn’t really say a lot. Just gave me the keys and left. I figured she was in a hurry.” She lowers her voice again, looking intently at Walker. “Is she...you know, a criminal? Are you tracking her down because she’s a serial killer or something?”

“Something like that,” Walker says.

“Is there any way you could let us into the room she was in?” Landis asks. He makes his way back over to the desk, standing just beside Walker. Rosemary seems to have just accepted that he’s also an FBI agent, even though he has no badge, and is wearing what Walker is pretty sure is his work uniform for the diner. “It hasn’t been cleaned yet or anything, right?”

“Uh - no, no, I don’t think so.” Rosemary spins around in her chair, studying the rack of cubbies behind her and eventually unhooking a key from one. She puts it down on the desk between her and Walker. Room 112. “Are you gonna need to tape it off or something?”

“Nah,” Walker says, taking the key. “We’ll be quick.”

“And we’ll bring the key back when we’re done,” Landis adds.

Rosemary nods, looking appreciative. “I’ll tell the cleaners to leave it alone until you come back.”

“Thanks,” Landis says. He flashes Rosemary a smile, holding the lobby door open for Walker as they leave.

Walker grunts noncommittally in gratitude, letting the door swing shut behind him with a heavy thud, and falls into step beside Landis, searching for Room 112. He still has his doubts about investigating Jenny’s motel room. She works like a machine - there won’t be anything left behind for them to find. Nothing that she doesn’t want to be found, anyway. If she’s decided to really dedicate herself to fucking with them, maybe she’ll have left a few items of no consequence, or red herrings that will lead them in the complete opposite direction. But knowing Jenny, the place will be wiped clean.

Or she trapped it somehow, Walker thinks grimly. But she’d have no way to know that we’d be coming here, and she probably wouldn’t want to risk killing any of the motel workers. Not her style.

Then again, he has no idea about her traveling companions. That’s what worries him the most, because for as long as Walker has known her, Jenny has always preferred to work alone. So either there was something about this job she didn’t think she could complete on her own, or, more likely, someone’s paying double because they really want Austin to get wherever he’s being taken. Walker doesn’t feel great about that, but he feels even worse having absolutely no information about Jenny’s backup - no descriptions, no M.O.s, absolutely nothing.

“Walker,” Landis says abruptly. Walker blinks, snapping back into the present and realizing that Landis is, in fact, standing at a door several yards behind him. He probably would have walked a full lap around the building, or right into the woods, if Landis hadn’t stopped him.

“Are you okay?” Landis asks, as Walker joins him in front of the door to Room 112. “You seem, uh, distracted.”

“I’m fine,” Walker snaps. He shoves the key into the lock on the doorknob and twists, pushing the door and letting it swing inwards, revealing the dark motel room. “Stay out here until I make sure it’s safe.”

He still doesn’t like the idea of bringing Landis along with him. Landis is barely a DPR agent - might not even end up being one at all, depending on what Jacob ultimately decides to do with him. The only reason Landis is even affiliated with the DPR is because Austin called in a favor. He doesn’t have training, or useful powers, or anything, and he’s certainly not equipped to take on a handful of hired mercenaries. At some point, Landis is going to become dead weight, and Walker knows he’ll have to pick up the slack.

Then again, if Landis’s performance in the duel in Hell was any indication, he’s more than capable of holding his own against people who outmatch him in every conceivable way. Walker lingers on the thought for a moment, staring inside the motel room. Okay, well, maybe he’s not as useless after all. Still, this would go so much faster if I was on my own.

“You think it’s a trap?” Landis asks, also peering inside the room.

“I don’t know what I think it is yet,” Walker says.

“Jeremy could -”

“No offense,” Walker says, “but I sort of trust my own judgement more than your friend who I can’t even see. Will you just let me handle it?”

Landis makes a noise of dissent, but hangs back regardless. Walker steps inside the motel room and flips on the light. Nothing happens - well, the light turns on, but aside from that nothing happens. For all intents and purposes, Room 112 looks just like the room Walker stayed in when he was living at the Antlers Motel, but with two beds instead of one. The furniture is all where it should be, the TV off, the bathroom door wide open. There’s even been an attempt made to straighten up the beds before leaving, the pillows arranged neatly and the covers pulled up into place.

“See anything?” Landis asks.

“Not yet,” Walker says. “Hang on a sec.”

He laces his fingers together and stretches his arms out in front of him at a downwards angle, cracking his knuckles. It’s been a while since he did anything truly fancy with his powers, but it’s sort of like riding a bicycle. The training is already ingrained into him. All he really has to do is flex the right muscle.

Rolling his head from side to side, cracking his neck, Walker casts his powers out over the room like a net, enfolding each piece of furniture within it. There’s a slight mental strain - nothing more than an itch, really - as he extends his grasp to more and more individual objects. First the television and the heavy desk lamps, then easy things: the bed sheets, the pillows, the cushion on the small armchair tucked into one corner. The drawers are the hardest - making sure they pull out, not float up, takes a little bit of finesse.

Once he’s satisfied with the range of items under his control, Walker gives them all the most gentle tug he can muster. He hears Landis gasp behind him as everything, simultaneously, drifts out of place. And it is pretty cool. From an outsider���s perspective, Walker imagines that it looks like someone suddenly turned the gravity off inside the motel room. The beds are about a foot off the ground, pillows and sheets bobbing above them, close to the ceiling. The desk and its chairs wobble in midair, drawers sliding forwards with heavy, wooden sounds. But still, aside from the floating, nothing looks booby trapped or out of the ordinary.

“Okay,” Walker says, “you can come in. See if you can find anything that looks off.”

He can hear Landis enter the room behind him, then the sound of the door closing, and the chain lock being slid shut. Probably a good idea. If any of the staff saw this, we’d have a lot of explaining to do.

Landis steps around him, kneeling to look under the beds. “How long can you keep that up for?”

“A while,” Walker says. With a bigger room, this trick might be harder, but he’s feeling barely any side effects right now. It’s possible that he’d get fatigued after about an hour or so, but he doubts they’ll be sticking around that long. “See anything?”

“No.” Landis gets back on his feet. “How’d you learn to do that?”

“Department training,” Walker says. “It was a pain. Check the drawers, will you?”

Landis checks the desk drawers, and comes up empty, then wanders over to the nightstand in between the two beds, and the small drawer where motels usually keep their Bibles. His eyes widen, and he fishes inside, coming up with a folded sheet of printer paper and three small, laminated cards.

IDs? Walker yanks one out of Landis’s hand without even thinking twice about it, catching it as it zips towards him. It’s a driver’s license. Walker adjusts his glasses and examines the picture on the card, a vaguely familiar man with patchy facial hair and a nose ring. I’ve seen him before, somewhere. Where do I know him from?

“I’ve got Vera Collins and Glen Burke,” Landis says, examining the two cards in his hands. “Both Antlers residents.”

“Bryan Henley,” Walker reads off of the ID he grabbed, glancing up at Landis. “Ring any bells?”

Landis’s eyebrows furrow. “Yeah, actually - Austin’s coworker. When I called the library, his boss said that Bryan never showed up to work, and Austin was supposed to take his shift.”

“Shit,” Walker says. “Well, he’s dead. Dunno about those other people, but since their IDs are here…”

“Yeah, probably dead,” Landis agrees.

“What’s with the paper?” Walker asks, unceremoniously dropping everything else in the room as he joins Landis next to the nightstand. The floor shakes a little as the heavier pieces of furniture come down, and Landis jumps at the sudden, cacophonous noise.

“No idea,” he says, tentatively opening the paper and smoothing it out against the top of the nightstand. There isn’t much on it - a basic, grainy map with a route traced on it, probably printed off of a website. The route starts in Antlers and ends outside of town, in a city Walker recognizes as being four or five hours away. And underneath the map - a note, in loose, bubbly handwriting that most certainly doesn’t belong to Jenny.

Don’t let our trip home get too boring. Catch us if you can! :) - H + O  

7.2 || 7.4

[netunleashed-blog]

Release date, trailers and theories

http://www.internetunleashed.co.uk/?p=19571 Release date, trailers and theories - http://www.internetunleashed.co.uk/?p=19571 Get set for The Long Night Spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 7 below… Got Season 7 GIF by Game of Thrones – Find & Share on GIPHY Discover & share this Game of Thrones GIF with everyone you know. GIPHY is how you search, share, discover, and create GIFs. The Long Night is here, everyone. Game of Thrones Season 7 bowed out with an epic final episode in which we learned of Jon’s true parentage and saw The Night King and its Ice Dragon break down The Wall and move on Westeros. But we’re looking forward to Game of Thrones Season 8 already, so here’s absolutely everything we know about the show’s final episodes, including release date, casting news and trailers.  When is Game of Thrones Season 8 returning? At the 2018 Television Critics Association tour, HBO‘s programming president Casey Bloys offered more details on when we will see GoT‘s final outing. With the show previously announcing 2019 for its release, Bloys was asked if he could be more specific. “First half,” he said. After Game of Thrones‘ official account confirmed a 2019 release date for the show, Metro published an interview with Maisie Williams in which she appeared to say it will return in April 2019, after wrapping in December 2018. In the interview, she reportedly said: “We wrap in December and we air our first episode in April [2019]. That’s a four-month turnaround for these huge episodes. There’s a lot that goes into the final edit. You would not want to rush this season at all. We owe it to our audience and our fans to really do this final season to the best of our abilities.” However, Williams has denied giving the quote reported by Metro, writing on Twitter: “This Game of Thrones release date ‘quote’ I’ve supposedly given is completely false and taken from an interview I did years ago. Just a tweet letting you know this game of thrones release date "quote" I've supposedly given is completely false and taken from an interview I did years ago. — Maisie Williams (@Maisie_Williams) January 30, 2018 Game of Thrones Season 8 was originally slated to return in late 2018 or early 2019. Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa, previously suggested that the show would return in 2019 during an interview with Variety, and HBO officially confirmed the news on January 4. “Send a raven. #GameofThrones returns to @HBO for its eighth and final season in 2019,” a tweet from the official GoT Twitter reads. See that below. Send a raven.#GameofThrones returns to @HBO for its eighth and final season in 2019: https://t.co/FpWV0O0L9i — Game Of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) January 4, 2018 Who’s going to die in season 8? As Entertainment Weekly reports, a data scientist has done loads of maths with 2,000 characters from GoT and figured out the likelihood of various character deaths. You can see them below – with Daenerys at the most risk: Daenerys Targaryen – 83.77% Jaime Lannister – 72.91% Tyrion Lannister – 70.76% Bran Stark – 66.02% Cersei Lannister – 60.39% Jon Snow – 58.99% Euron Greyjoy – 54.95% Sansa Stark – 50.28% Arya Stark – 49.04% Gendry – 39.87% What have HBO said about season 8? The full statement reads: “The epic fantasy series Game of Thrones will return for its six-episode, eighth and final season in 2019. David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, David Nutter and Miguel Sapochnik will be the directors for the new season. Writers for the new season are David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, Bryan Cogman and Dave Hill. The executive producers of the series are David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Carolyn Strauss, Frank Doelger and Bernadette Caulfield. Co-executive producers are Bryan Cogman, Guymon Casady, Vince Gerardis and George R.R. Martin.” Official promo poster for Game of Thrones season 8! pic.twitter.com/RkxvL5llnN — King Jon Snow (@LordSnow) February 27, 2018 Why will season 8 take so long? In January 2018, HBO boss Casey Bloys spoke to Entertainment Weekly to explain the long wait. “Here’s what I’ll tell you,” he said. “They take the time they need to do the show at its highest level of quality. As the show has gone on, it’s gotten bigger — big battle scenes, big special effects.” He continued: “These things take time. Here’s the one thing I can assure you: Dan and Dave were not sitting around on a beach waiting to go back to work. They’re perfectionists and this is the soonest it can come back at a level of quality that they are comfortable with.” How many episodes will there be in Game of Thrones Season 8? As confirmed by show runners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, Game of Thrones Season 8 will feature just six episodes. Though it is likely that each episode will be a feature-length, so anything from 60 mins to 120 minutes. Speaking about the end of the show, Isaac Hempstead-Wright (Bran Stark) has said: “It won’t go the way some people want. It will be too happy for some people, or too sad, or too whatever. That’s the nature of an ending… Nothing more is coming, and the certainty of it being over will definitely bother people.” Talking about shooting the final season, Maisie Williams told NME: “It’s the end of an era. Everyone’s playing it cool, at the moment I’m focused on absolutely nailing it – I have an expectation in my head of how I want it to be, how I want this to go. I just really hope I achieve that. Because sometimes, looking back you can tell ‘yeah, I wasn’t concentrating enough’. I just want to live and breathe every minute of this season because once it’s gone, it’s gone.” Addressing concerns that six episodes were not enough to complete the show’s storyline, Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei) told Metro: “It definitely will not be a rushed conclusion. They’ve taken the exact number of hours to tell the story they want to tell and it will be brilliant. [Show bosses] will never leave the fans unsatisfied, they won’t leave the fans left short, it will go over and above the fans expectations as they do every season.” Will there be any new characters in Game of Thrones Season 8? The gigantic cast list for the show has been expanding season-on-season since its inception – and yet more are being added for season 8. According to fansite Watchers on the Wall, the first major casting for season 8 has been made for a character called Harry Strickland – who, in the books, is the leader of a mercenary group called The Golden Company. You may remember in season 7 we learned that Cersei had sent Euron to fetch the Golden Company from over the sea in the eastern land of Essos, to help her conquer Westeros. Fans initially theorised that Daenerys’ old friend Daario Naharis might be leading this group, which might have challenged his allegiances to Cersei – but it looks as though this theory has been scuppered, and Strickland will be a brand-new villain. Strickland is reported to be played by Marc Rissmann (The Last Kingdom, Into The Badlands) after his Thrones character’s name was added to (then deleted from) his CV and his agent’s website. He is expected to appear in two episodes. That's a wrap on #IntoTheBadlands Season 2 is going to be amazing… #outofcontrolhair pic.twitter.com/cUbzHJJtwj — Marc Rissmann (@rissmannmarc) December 7, 2016 Another actor has also been cast, according to Lisa Richards Agency. Seamus O’Hara will play Fergus, according to his Spotlight page. Fergus is not a name from the books, so there’s no knowing what his character will do yet. See a picture of him below. The lengths an actor goes to – @ShimyO in full flow for 'Deporting Patrick' @KaboshTheatre @ImagineBelfast pic.twitter.com/SjE8bWEB8Z — Paula McFetridge (@PaulaMcFetridge) March 15, 2016 According to Watchers, more castings are due soon: they are for characters currently referred to as ‘Northern farmer, 25-35’, ‘Sassy and attractive girl, 18-25’, ‘Northern sentry, 18-25’, ‘Sailor, 35-50’ and a couple of guards, in their 20s and 30s. See the full descriptions here. Watchers has also reported that a new character from the Frey clan may appear. Danielle Galligan has been cast as character named Sarra, and Watchers have noted that the only Sarra to appear in the A Song Of Ice and Fire book series is Sarra Frey – one of Walder Frey’s granddaughters. Game of Thrones has been known to recycle common names for small characters – but this one seems to close to just be a coincidence. Also joining the cast is EastEnders star Alice Nokes, who Watchers report will be playing a non-book character called Willa. Though the credit now appears to be deleted from her agency CV, ‘Willa’ is thought to be appearing in episode one, two or four of Game of Thrones season 8. Is Game of Thrones Season 8 the last series? Alas, yes. The showrunners have opted to split the final seasons into a smaller runs, but will make lengthier episodes. But basically, it’s endgame for these characters and maybe Westeros. In an interview with Metro Williams has explained the difficulties of shooting the final season. On seeing the script she said she thought it would be “an impossible challenge” to shoot. “For the final season as a whole it was just so impressive,” she said. “My first real thought was, ‘Oh god, we have to shoot this now. And it is kind of an impossible challenge. It will be really difficult’. I am currently on my way to a night shoot, which is week four of 12 weeks of night shoots. It’s just huge. The task is huge. But, there’s no better way to leave the show, to be honest.” Sophie Turner recently revealed what each cast member was presented with once they finished filming. “I wrapped shooting in Spain – like, the whole of Game of Thrones,” Turner told Digital Spy. “But I remember the first time, when I wrapped in Belfast with the crew that we worked with so often, it was in the Winterfell courtyard.) “I wasn’t even shooting there, but the director, David Nutter, called me into the courtyard, because he knew it was my last day on set. He said to the whole crew, ‘Sansa Stark is leaving Winterfell for the last time.’ “As you can imagine, I bawled my eyes out,” she added. “Then David and Dan presented each actor with their favourite scene of their character in a storyboard, with a little note on the back. That set me off as well. As soon as they brought that out… And the documentary crew saw me. It was just a nightmare, to be honest – I was just bawling.” Is it going to include plots from the book? Since its inception, the show and the book series, A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R. R. Martin have existed on an uneven time schedule. This means that parts of the book appear in the show further down the line, and that the show does not incorporate every storyline in the book. Since the end of Season 6, the show has been running on completely fresh material – as its storylines went beyond that of A Dance With Dragons, Martin’s last finished work. One specific scene had everybody in tears, says Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister). “We had a giant read-through with all the cast in October,” she told Mashable, “and I think pretty much everybody cried at one point. And it was… pretty surprising.” HBO’s Francesca Orsi has also told the Hollywood Reporter that the read-through of the final script ended with 15 minutes of applause by those in attendance. Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss with George R.R. Martin Is there a Game of Thrones Season 8 trailer? Not yet, but when production begins – some images will begin to emerge. So will George R. R. Martin write the ending? It’s hard to say just how involved he is with the show’s finale. Just weeks ago Martin said that he hadn’t caught up with Season 7 of the show, but in previous series he had several writing credits for episodes. In 2014, however, Benioff and Weiss said that they had sat down with Martin and learnt how the book’s were going to end. So whether they decide to follow Martin’s blueprint, or continue to take the show in their own direction is up for debate. But considering that the show has taken a distinctly different path from the books in its later series, and Martin’s currently slow writing pace – Game of Thrones Season 8 could provide the definitive ending for the saga. According to HBO’s President of Programming Casey Bloys, the show will shoot several different endings in a way to combat hackers and keep the finale secret. “I know in Game of Thrones, the ending, they’re going to shoot multiple versions so that nobody really knows what happens,” he said . Where can I watch Game of Thrones Season 8? As per previous seasons, Game of Thrones Season 8 will originally air on HBO, and then on Sky Atlantic the following day in the UK. Game of Thrones GIF – Find & Share on GIPHY Discover & share this Game of Thrones GIF with everyone you know. GIPHY is how you search, share, discover, and create GIFs. Has Game of Thrones Season 8 started filming? Yes. Filming began in Belfast late last year, and in January it was revealed that the show would be returning to Dubrovnik in Croatia to film part of the King’s Landing scenes for the final season, as reported by The Dubrovnik Times. Cast members including Gwendoline Christie, Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Kristofer Hijvu, John Bradley and Iain Glen arrived in Iceland in late January 2018 for filming, and in February it was reported that filming had begun in Dubrovnik, though it’s currently unknown which actors are involved in these scenes.  In June, a fan posted a video that appeared to suggest filming for the King’s Landing scenes in Belfast is still ongoing – and the new footage hints that much of the city could be destroyed in a fire, with its iconic dome being shown completely ablaze. Better quality video. I hadn’t seen the small fire on the left #GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/o5VWOccD06 — A Red Priestess (@a_red_priestess) June 22, 2018 At the SAG Awards in January 2018, Peter Dinklage revealed to Variety that the crew were “about halfway” through filming season 8, adding: “It’s the final season, and it’s a long one so we’re taking our time.” In a post to Instagram last year, cinematographer Fabian Wagner posted a picture of himself alongside some of his colleagues, including director Miguel Sapochnik – with the caption “Back on Game of Thrones for prep of the final season and the team is back together”. The team behind some of the show’s greatest episodes – ‘Hardhome’, ‘Battle of The Bastards’ and ‘The Winds of Winter’ – are back for Season 8. In September 2017, Variety reported that each episode of the new series is budgeted to cost at least $15 million, far surpassing Netflix’s The Crown as the most expensive TV show ever ($10m per episode). Speaking to TV Guide, Liam Cunningham (Davos) revealed that the show will be filming until summer 2018. “When you think about it, up until last season we’d have six months to do ten episodes, so we’re [doing] way more than that for six episodes. So that obviously will translate into longer episodes.” Emilia Clarke has revealed to the Telegraph that her and the cast will be on a social media ban as the show films. ”We have a very strict social media ban this year because people need to stop spoiling it for everyone. It’s really frustrating.” Earlier in 2017,  HBO president Casey Bloys said, “I know in Game of Thrones, the ending, they’re going to shoot multiple versions so that nobody really know what happens. You have to do that on a long show. Because when you’re shooting something, people know. So they’re going to shoot multiple versions so that there’s no real definitive answer until the end.” The cast are clearly having a lovely time filming, if this tweet from Belfast pub Kelly’s Cellars – including Grey Worm actor Jacob Anderson – is anything to go by: As you may have noticed, Winter Is Coming. Or Coming Back. Or whatever.But whatever it is, it was a pleasure to welcome some of the cast of Game of Thrones yesterday evening. Because that's what they do.They drink. And they know things. pic.twitter.com/UyhlYHb9NY — Kelly's Cellars (@kellyscellars) March 4, 2018 On March 9, new photos emerged of a potential filming location in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter. HBO have reportedly spent £1 million on the building of a new makeshift castle in the city, and it is reportedly now nearing completion, with images of the structure being released in March. Who’s directing? It’s been revealed in Collider that David Nutter (who directed Red Wedding episode, The Rains of Castamere) will be directing episodes 1, 2 and 4. Miguel Sapochnik, who’s become known for action-heavy episodes like Hardhome and Battle of the Bastards, will be directing episodes 3 and 5. Showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff will be co-directing the sixth and final ever episode of the show. Who’s going to be in Game of Thrones Season 8? Unless told otherwise, we can assume that all the main characters will be returning for the show. So Jon Snow (Kit Harrington), Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner), Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) will all feature in the epic finale. It was also confirmed in March that Headey’s body double Rebecca Van Cleave, who stepped in for Lannister’s walk of shame in the season five finale, will return in season 8.  Littlefinger (Aidan Gillian) came to grisly end at the end of Season 7 at the hand’s of The Stark sisters – so he’s well and truly out. The director’s commentary on the season 7 DVD and Blu-ray has confirmed that Benjen Stark – aka Coldhands – died in the final episode of season 7. Describing the scene when Benjen saves Jon from the army of the dead and heads into battle the wights, director Alan Taylor says: “He meets his end here.” However, some are speculating about whether or not Benjen could return as a wight. A big question remains about Tormund and Beric Dondarrion – two of the heroes who went beyond The Wall to capture a White Walker. At the end of Season 7 finale, The Dragon and The Wolf, we saw The Night King make his offensive on The Wall – and Eastwatch, where both characters were based. Neither character were killed on screen, so there’s a big chance they would return – but will it be as the living or the dead? However in a now-deleted post to Instagram, Kristofer Hivju – who plays Tormund – was spotted in Belfast, Northern Ireland recently alongside with the cast members we know to be starring. The same applies to Gendry, who returned midway through Season 7 after a lengthy absence. He too went beyond The Wall, and was last seen making his way back to Eastwatch to have a raven sent to Daenerys for reinforcements. He wasn’t spotted at all in the finale, so his location is also a mystery. We know that The Night’s Watch will be returning though. Ben Crompton, (Lord Commander Eddison Tollett) confirmed to Chronicle Live that he will return and that he was at the table read for the script with Kit Harrington – aka Jon Snow. We also know that Alys Karstark – whom Jon asked to swear fealty to him in season 7 – will be back for season 8, thanks to a listing on the website of actor Megan Parkinson’s agent. Next to Alys Karstark in the ‘fealty’ scene was Ned Umber (Harry Grasby), who has been spotted in Belfast, suggesting he will also appear in season 8. Will we see Ghost again? Jon’s direwolf, Ghost, has not been seen in the show since season 6 – a fact that’s in part down to the show’s CGI budget. In 2016 director Miguel Sapochnik explained: “It’s an incredibly time consuming and expensive character to bring to life,” adding that in the episode Battle of the Bastards he chose to include scenes with the CGI giant Wun-Wun rather than those with Ghost. In December 2017 a group of fans started a campaign to raise £500,000 to contribute to the show’s CGI budget and ‘guarantee’ Ghost’s return. HBO have not yet commented on the campaign. What’s going to happen in Game of Thrones Season 8? Well, it’s going to be The Great War, isn’t it? The show and book have teased at lengths that the ultimate battle in the show is between the living and the dead – and now that The Night King is through the wall, that showdown is going to come sooner rather than later. Obviously, there will be other smaller plotlines, but as the show moves towards its conclusion, every storyline sits within the lingering chill of The Night King’s assault on Westeros. In a recent interview with Time, Kit Harington teased that this season the show is “bigger than it’s ever been”. Meanwhile, in January 2018 Emilia Clarke told Access that the series is worth the wait. “Oh my god, it’s gonna be worth it,” she said, adding: “I don’t know if anyone’s ready. I don’t know if TVs are ready.” She continued: “I read the scripts this season and I, in some kind of a daze, walked out of my house… and about three hours later I came home and I still hadn’t taken it all in”. However, speaking to The Times in January 2018 Maisie Williams has said viewers might not be shocked by the show’s denouement. “I don’t know if it’s gonna surprise people,” she said, “but it’s just different to what you think it’s gonna be.” One person who doesn’t seem to give a damn is Cersei Lannister, who is already manoeuvring to defeat Daenerys and Jon’s armies once the battle is ‘over’. This was despite her promise to pledge her Lannister men to the cause. Basically, she’s going to screw over whoever she can to keep her icy hands on the Iron Throne. Photos taken in Dubrovnik in February suggest a meeting is set to take place between Cersei and Jon Snow in King’s Landing, in a scene believed to be from the fourth episode of the season. It’s not clear whether the former enemies will eventually become part of the same team or whether Cersei is somehow tricking Jon. Jon and Dany, meanwhile, got it on in the final episode as they started their journey from Dragonstone to Winterfell – with Tyrion lingering outside with a concerned look on his face. His concerns are likely different to ours, as Bran and Sam Tarly exposed Westeros’ best kept secret – that Jon is actually a Targaryen, that his real name is Aegon, and that he’s actually the rightful heir to the throne. Oh, and that means Dany is his Aunt. That will obviously play a big role in what comes next for the happy couple – but let’s quickly go through the big questions that remain. Judging by a sneaky pic taken at Titanic Studios, Belfast, the Dothraki could play a huge role in the new episodes. The pictured hut was like many we saw in earlier Seasons in Essos – where the Dothraki were based. A hut at Titantic Studios, where they're filming Game of Thrones. From Los Siete Reinos: https://t.co/jiB6RkOKmR pic.twitter.com/t2ZpP9orlk — Crown_For_A_King (@Crown_ForAKing) September 8, 2017 The fighters were rarely used in Season 7, but this leaked photo could suggest that the Dothraki’s motives, and maybe even Essos will feature more heavily in Season 8. Unsurprisingly, the battles are going to get a whole lot bigger too – with one taking a staggering 55 days to film. According to ever-reliable fan site WatchersOnTheWall, the cast and crew recently wrapped a massive battle which was filmed over 55 consecutive night shoots. The length of time is more than what it took to film some of the the previous large-scale action scenes. A since deleted Instagram post features a thank you note from assistant director Jonathan Quinlan, who recognises the hard work of the team. “”When tens of millions of people around the world watch this episode a year from now, they won’t know how hard you worked,” the letter reads. “They won’t care how tired you were or how tough it was to do your job in sub-freezing temperatures.” What are the big questions that need to be answered? What’s going to happen with Jon and Daenerys? Either way – it can’t end well. Bran Stark is adamant that the pair need to know the truth about their ancestry, and you best believe he’ll find a creepy way of telling them. In the final episode, we also learn that Rhaegar and Lyanna Stark married before giving birth to Jon (Aegon), meaning that due to the line of succession (Rhaegar’s dad, Aerys II was killed by Jamie Lannister), Jon is actually the rightful heir. That whole scenario begs a lot of questions – some we’ll never know the answer to. Does Jon want the throne? Probably not. Will Daenerys and Jon still feel the same way about each other when they find out? Hopefully not. And will it cause serious friction between the pair as they battle The Night King? Almost certainly. Game of Thrones GIF – Find & Share on GIPHY Discover & share this Game of Thrones GIF with everyone you know. GIPHY is how you search, share, discover, and create GIFs.   What was Tyrion doing outside of their room? Perhaps the weirdest part of the whole scenario was Tyrion lurking outside of their room with a pretty confused look on his face. Throughout Season 7, Tyrion was adamant that Daenerys needed to begin thinking about a successor, much to her displeasure. Since her miscarriage early on in the show, Daenerys has repeated the prophecy that she cannot bear any more children. So Daenerys needs to start thinking about who will succeed her, Tyrion says, but Daenerys thinks its all a ploy for Tyrion to be named the successor. Was Tyrion concerned about that whole situation because he’s worried a Dany child would be as obsessive, and potentially dangerous as she shows signs of being? Or did something happen between Cersei and Tyrion in that meeting room in King’s Landing? Tyrion was pretty shocked at the news at the news of Cersei’s ‘pregnancy’, and sounded distraught at the news of Tommen and Myrcella deaths. Could he be turning back to team Lannister? Surely not… Is Cersei actually pregnant? Well she says she is. But it’s been pretty conveniently timed. As Jaime’s loyalty appeared to wane, she revealed the news that she’s pregnant with their child. But during the Season 7 finale, Jaime abandoned Cersei and King’s Landing – and told her that “I don’t believe you” before he stormed out the room. This most likely refers to her order for The Mountain to kill him, which he didn’t, but nothing can be ruled out with Cersei. Mothers Day Drinking GIF by Game of Thrones – Find & Share on GIPHY Discover & share this Game of Thrones GIF with everyone you know. GIPHY is how you search, share, discover, and create GIFs. And, in a recent interview, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau appeared to confirm that this was the case. He told Vanity Fair: “That’s, of course, said in a moment of passion. Who knows if it’s true? I’ve almost been married 20 years—June 6th will be our 20th anniversary—and I’m very, very lucky. I have a wonderful wife. But over 20 years, there are times where you have fights. “You can be so angry that for a second in your passion and anger you can go, ‘Oh, fuck this.’ Of course, three seconds later, you go, ‘No, no, no. What am I doing? What am I thinking?’ . . . I think the fundamental emotions are the same in every relationship. As a setup for the season we’re shooting now, it was just amazing.” Are we finally going to see Clegane Bowl? The big throwdown we can all get behind. A fight between brothers Sandor Clegane, our beloved antihero The Hound, and his ghastly brother, Gregor Clegane, The Mountain, has been longed for by fans for a while now. In the Season 7 finale, we got a brief glimpse of what that could look like as the pair squared up at the Dragon Pit in King’s Landing. Will some of the main characters turn into White Walkers? Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays Jaime, certainly thinks it’ll happen. “You know some of the main characters are going to get turned. There are going to be some blue-eyed main characters running around, ” he told Esquire. “And, god, I hope it’s not me. That’s three hours of make-up in the morning.” Is Bran Stark actually The Night King? This popular theory picked up a bit of steam in the last few months, as we learned more about Bran’s powers and saw more of The Night King. The crux of this theory is, basically, that Bran Stark is actually The Night King. The theory suggests that Bran warged into The First Man as he is turned into a White Walker by the Children of the Forest and became trapped in that body. It’s pretty full on, but definitely plausible. Take a look here for the full lowdown. Scared Game Of Thrones GIF – Find & Share on GIPHY Discover & share this Season 6 GIF with everyone you know. GIPHY is how you search, share, discover, and create GIFs. How will the show end? Emilia Clarke has teased her final scene, saying of the experience: “It fucked me up. Knowing that is going to be a lasting flavour in someone’s mouth of what Daenerys is…” Clarke confirmed some widely theorised directions for her character as she spoke of “shooting for the first time with several of the show’s top stars, including Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark) and Maisie Williams (Arya Stark)”, as well as mysteriously teasing Daenerys “doing all this weird shit – you’ll know what I mean when you see it.” Kit Harington has also hinted at an “emotional” finale. Speaking to BBC Radio 2, he said he was glad that the pressure is now off his shoulders but that he has “always enjoyed” the massive success of the show. “I’ve actually just wrapped on Thursday last week,” he continued. “And it’s just been this amazing journey. I kinda said to them on my wrap speech that it’s always been more than a job. “They were a family and it was my life. I’ve loved every minute of it. I’ve been quite emotional all last week thinking about having finished it.” On July 18, Natalie Dormer revealed that she knows how Game of Thrones will end. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Dormer – who played Margaery Tyrell on the show – said: “I’m excited to see the next season. I’m on the edge of my seat like everybody else. “I know A to B,” she said about her knowledge of how the show will finally end. “I know what B is, but I don’t know how they get B. But I do know B.” Meanwhile, Sophie Turner’s new tattoo could also hint at what lies in store for her character’s future. Turner recently got a new tattoo of a dire wolf and the words: “The pack survives.” Tattoo artist Lauren Winzer shared an image of her handiwork on the star’s body on Instagram, which you can see below. Stay tuned for for more Game of Thrones Season 8 information Source link

[focalwriterworks]

THE GUNMAN

Jeff Spicoli trades in his surfboard for some semi-automatic hand guns in this taut, Luc Besson style European thriller.  Starring five-time Oscar nominated actor and winner of two Academy Awards, Sean Penn.

The Story: This is familiar story and movie plot material, maybe Jack Reacher (2012) is the most recent film I can think of, but countless other films where a hero is established, in this case Sean Penn's James Terrier, who eight years after an African mercenary killer-for-hire event is now being sought by an undisclosed enemy in what Terrier believes is retaliation, or revenge, for the actions he carried out on the job.  People are out to get him, regardless, and he doesn't know who or why but uses all of his paramilitary resources and killer instincts to find out who and stop them before he, and a girl he once loved, Annie, played by Jasmine Trinca, are dead.    

The Goods: About an hour in there's a highly characteristic move by what appears to make Terrier a smart man (until then I’m not sure just how smart, or stupid, he is, there’s just a lot of shooting, hiding and running).  He discovers a rigged bomb in his hotel room, with trip wires waiting for him, which he’s able to quickly disable it, slip out into the open so they see him, re-enter his room to allow them to see the device not working and upon which he re-connects the bomb and uses against these guys as they try to muscle their way into his place.  It's a well worked-out scene that plays quickly but is long enough to sink your teeth into, to watch and follow and enjoy as the scene takes its course.  It's quite possibly the only redeeming thing about this film, and though it’s like one or two nifty scenes in Taken (2008), it's sort of an anomaly in movie-making these days.    

Directer Pierre Morel was the cinematographer on a slew of Luc Besson films like The Transporter (2002) and Unleashed (2005), and camera operator on Taken and From Paris With Love (2010) which is why The Gunman feels familiar both in theme, character and action.  Not a bad thing necessarily, but can this genre ever be too much?  A change of location helps certainly as the action takes us to Barcelona, London, Africa and Gibraltar.  

The Flaws: It's so similar to Neeson and Cruise films that it makes me think Penn did it just to be a) more relevant or b) because he needs the work.  Not because he needs an Oscar.  Which is slightly disappointing.  I think the key to identifying with heroes is that we sort of want to be like them.  Who wouldn't want to be Tony Stark, or Neeson's Bryan Mills, or Cruise's Maverick, or better yet any number of 007's.  Unfortunately there's nothing here in Penn's character that makes me identify with him.   While he can fight better than a lot of the dudes I mentioned, still, he lacks a certain manliness—maybe it's just stature—that says, hey, I'm a super-hero kind of guy you should be rooting for.  And I think that's where a good speech comes into play.  If you can't win me with the action, then tell me something stirring that I can walk away with.  

We don't really get to know Terrier. Outside of running with a gun, shooting, using hand-to-hand combat. Maybe this is truly who he is. Annie loves him, but I can’t think hand-to-hand combat is why she loves him… she doesn't seem the type.  She's a humanitarian worker.  Helping poverty-stricken citizens of a small Republic of Congo town. Javier Bardem has a small part in the film, who also loves Annie.  At times after about thirty minutes in The Gunman has a whiff of Against All Odds (1984), which if you see that '80's Jeff Bridges movie now it's awful (that movie in turn a remake of the classic noir film Out of the Past (1947)).  The triangle of two men, and a woman they both love, it doesn’t work.  But that odor soon passes and we get back into some gunplay.  A chase, a hunt, some suspense.  A hero stung with an ailment from his days as a hired hit man in a Tommy Bahama shirt that prevents him from being completely healthy…you can’t help but think of D.O.A (1988), Crank (2006), or any number of films where the hero will doesn’t die from the hands of bad guys will do so from some crazy trauma or ticking drug bomb.  

Bardem’s character, Felix, a part of Terrier’s team back in the day, peaks with some kind of babbling incoherent speech that seems to be a cheap way out of this small part in the script, for Bardem.  If you've ever heard or used the phrase in reference to actors, "he called it in," yeah, well that's the first and only impression I get from Bardem, and he did so from a 1990’s Motorola flip-phone.  But I'll blame it on the script. Penn is an Oscar-winning actor whose nominations and wins are pretty much banked on strong monologues. We don't get any of that in this film, which is fine, but there might be some subconscious expectation of that.  To see him running around with a gun, and knives, in doing what Tom Cruise does in Mission impossible films, doesn't give him much of an opportunity to deliver some choice words.   In terms of balance, a term that Felix uses in a scene where he is flexing his refined, domesticated side in the business world, balance is what this film needs in terms of something more verbal to counter all this action.   I imagine that's why many action films are just what they are, fun, mindless escape.    

And it's why Die Hard (1988) still sets the standard in action films.  The conversation between John McClane and Sgt. Al Powell, in that nice first break in the gun fighting action, in the first film, is the best example of slowing things down and getting to know the characters; letting the audience catch their breath.  

The Call: Stow the dough.  While the fist-fighting, knife play and gun-fire chases are thrilling it’s not something you’ll miss if you just wait a while for the rental.  What makes one hero like John McClane, James Bond, Ethan Hunt, Han Solo or Peter Parker any different from James Terrier?  It’s the fact you want to be these guys.  Part of why we watch.  We live vicariously.  In The Gunman we don’t do that.  Instead we just watch.  And feel nothing.  When Idris Elba appears very late in the film, for what amounts to be maybe ten minutes of screen time, he outshines and overshadows every single hard working thing Penn has done in this film—nearly two hours of it—by just standing there and saying a handful of choice words.  And that’s the stuff, say, a James Bond like hero, is made of.   Rumors are that Elba will be the next Bond.  I look forward to that day.  And that’s what The Gunman amounts to folks. A psalm for ten minutes of Idris Elba.    

Rated R for strong violence, language and some sexuality.  Running time is 1 hour and 55 minutes.    

By Jon Lamoreaux

[antlerscolorado]

chapter 7, part 2

Landis pulls his feet up onto the couch, hugging one knee against his chest as he flips through channels on the television. For once, he’s alone - Otter and Austin both off to early shifts, the ghosts mostly dispersed to find something better to do. Even Richard is off on his own today. Summer is starting to wind down in Antlers, but there’s no shortage of abandoned shops to visit, or strange things to find in the woods.

Landis, on the other hand, has learned not to take a quiet apartment for granted. Knowing how crazy things can get at the drop of a hat, it’s nice to be able to sit around and do absolutely nothing for a few hours before work. But just as he settles on a local channel with some early morning cooking show, and starts to think about grabbing a snack, there’s a knock on the door. It’s as though the universe has read his mind and decided he doesn’t deserve a respite - or Otter forgot his keys again and came back for them. Landis turns the TV volume down a few notches, and listens for another knock, or a voice through the door. Neither comes.

“It’s Walker,” Jeremy announces, floating through the wall just to the left of the door, and startling Landis badly enough to make him drop the remote.

“Jesus,” Landis breathes, bending over with one hand braced against the arm of the couch. “You scared me. I thought you all headed out already.”

Jeremy shrugs. “I was planning on sticking around.”

He doesn’t offer any more in the way of explanation, and Landis doesn’t ask. Jeremy has never out-and-out expressed any ill will against him, but it’s easy to spot the resentment bubbling just under the surface, especially after living with him for six-odd years, and being in a band together for longer than that. He’s the only one in Paper Museum who seems largely devoted to giving Landis the silent treatment, only speaking to him when strictly necessary.

And yet, Jeremy’s still lingering in the living room, watching Landis with some small amount of interest. Landis gives him a quizzical look on the way to the door, but Jeremy, as per usual, says nothing. On the other side of the door, Walker knocks again, though it’s more of a pounding this time.

“Austin, I swear to God, I’ll tear it off the hinges -” He stops short as Landis unlocks the door and opens it, blinking for a moment in surprise. “Oh. Hey. Is Austin home?”

“Nobody’s home,” Landis says.

“Then who were you just talking to?”

“One of the ghosts.” Landis gives Walker a once-over. He looks sweaty and panicked, like he ran all the way here for some reason. An emergency that he needs Austin for? Landis’s stomach clenches with impending anxiety, but he tries not to let it show. “Austin’s at work.”

“He’s at work?” Walker asks, his voice raising and cracking.

“Maybe you should come in,” Landis suggests, a little too late, as Walker is already pushing past him into the apartment. He locks the door behind Walker, following him across the living room into the kitchen where Walker begins to pace, chairs scooting out of his way as though a force field around him is repelling them.

“Okay,” Walker mutters, “okay, this is bad. Not as bad as it could be, obviously, because everyone’s still alive, but we probably missed our window to get to Austin before they do.”

They? Who’s they? The sick feeling in Landis’s stomach deepens as he considers the full implication of what Walker is talking about. Someone - someone capable of murder, apparently - is after Austin. And it’s not like that’s anything new, but the fact that Walker is panicking about it is almost certainly cause for alarm.

“Is Austin…” Landis says haltingly, unsure if he even wants to finish the question. He feels a sudden chill in the kitchen and looks to one side to see Jeremy floating through the wall, spectating with mild interest. “Is he - you know -”

“No, no, he’s not dead,” Walker says, waving off the idea with broad sweeps of his arm. “Well, probably not. He should be more valuable to them alive, but I don’t exactly relish the idea of him being stuffed in a car with a bunch of mercenaries on their way to God knows where. Can you - you’ve got his work number, right? Can you call?”

He pulls one of the kitchen chairs up behind him and throws himself down onto it, sprawling his legs out and slinging his arms over the back. His chest rises and falls heavily, locks of hair plastered across his face with sweat.

“Do you want some water?” Landis asks. Walker waves him off again.

“I’ll get it. Call the library.”

“Okay,” Landis says, hesitantly turning towards the phone. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see one of the cabinets opening, a glass bobbing unsteadily out of it in midair.

Austin’s work number - the main number for the library - is scrawled on a note attached to the fridge, just underneath the number for St. Sithney. Landis brings the phone across the room to scrutinize the number, carefully punching it in on the keypad. He twists the cord nervously around a finger as he waits for someone to pick up, running through scenarios in his head of how the conversation might go. Just don’t let them know there’s an emergency. Austin might still be there, and if you can give him enough warning, maybe nothing bad will happen. Or maybe he’s not there, and -

“You’ve reached the Antlers Public Library,” a voice on the other end chirps, after only two rings. “This is Channery Cantwell-Miller speaking, how can I help you?”

“Um,” Landis says, and swallows hard, trying to keep his throat from tightening with anxiety. “Is, uh, is Austin Jones there? I’m his boyf- his roommate. He left his wallet here, I thought I could come down and give it to him on my way to work.”

“You know, I haven’t seen him today,” Channery says thoughtfully. “He usually doesn’t come in until the afternoon.”

Landis swallows again. He stares at the note on the fridge, tracing the pen strokes with his eyes, trying to keep himself grounded. “Yeah, I know. He left about two hours ago, said he was covering someone’s shift.”

“No one told me they needed their shift covered today.” Channery sounds perplexed, and Landis can hear her shuffling papers and tapping keys on the other end, probably checking to see if she missed any word from an employee that they weren’t coming in.

“He said he was working nine to five,” Landis says, in case it’s any help.

Channery hums to herself. “No, I don’t see anything from anyone about that. But Bryan Henley was supposed to work nine to five today, and he hasn’t been in either. It’s possible Austin agreed to cover for him, and was going to let me know when he got here.”

“And he’s not there.”

“No, he hasn’t come in.” There’s a twinge of worry in Channery’s voice. “Has everything been alright with him? He was a little moodier than usual back at the beginning of the summer, and I thought maybe -”

“Oh, he’s fine,” Landis says, maybe a little too quickly. “I’ll try his cell phone. Thank you!”

He flies across the room and slams the phone down into the receiver before Channery can say anything else. His intestines feel heavy and knotted, his pulse too loud in his ears as he takes a seat at the kitchen table.

“Don’t bother with his cell phone,” Walker says. His glass of water sits empty on the table in front of him. “I tried it three times on my way over. He’s not picking up.”

“So he’s already gone,” Landis says.

“Yeah. They must have got him on his way to -” Walker cuts himself off, jumping up out of his chair and starting to pace again. “Fuck! They must have already had him when Jenny was talking to me at the diner! That’s why she was so fucking smug - I knew there was something up with her - god damn it!”

Landis runs his hands through his hair, trying to unravel the situation in his mind. “Wait. How’d you know Austin was gone in the first place?”

“One of the people sent here for him is...she used to be a friend of mine.” Walker exhales loudly, still pacing. It’s clear that it’s something he’d rather not talk about. “We ran into each other at the diner, and there’s no way she’d be in a backwoods place like this unless someone was paying her to be. I figured she was either here for me or Austin, and she left without me, so, process of elimination.”

“Why would she be here for Austin?”

“Are you kidding?” Walker asks. “You know who his brother is, right? They could probably ransom him off for, like, tens of thousands of dollars. Or threaten to kill him to make Jacob do whatever they want. Think about it.”

“Isn’t it your job to make sure that doesn’t happen?” Landis asks pointedly.

“Look,” Walker says, “I wasn’t exactly expecting a bunch of mercs to come into town and just scoop him up off the street. But, point is, it’s also my job to get him back safe and sound. So if you don’t have any leads, I’ll start looking somewhere else.”

“He should try the motel,” Jeremy says, still hovering in the air, trying his best to stay out of Walker’s way.

“You should try the motel,” Landis repeats. Walker gives him a look.

“Why? They’re long gone, by now.”

“It’s worth a shot, though,” Landis admits. He’s a little surprised that Jeremy is helping out, but it’s best not to look a gift horse in the mouth. “Maybe they left something behind, or told the desk worker where they were headed. Maybe someone saw something, I don’t know. You can’t expect to just pick up their trail out of the blue.”

“Fine,” Walker says. “Okay. Fine. Motel it is.”

“And I’m coming with you,” Landis says, standing and crossing back into the living room to put on his shoes. He’s still in his uniform for the diner, but that doesn’t matter. He’ll call in sick on the way to the motel.

“Like Hell you are,” Walker says. “These people are mercenaries. They kill for a living.”

“I used to kill for a living,” Landis comments dryly. “I think we’ll get along just fine.”

Walker makes a choked noise, but no retort. He doesn’t protest when Landis follows him out of the apartment, locking the door behind the two of them on the way. Landis, similarly, says nothing when Jeremy silently drifts out to the parking lot with him, then leads the way to his car. There’s no room to complain - the more of them there are, the more of a non-zero chance they stand against the people who kidnapped Austin.

7.1 || 7.3

[co2ultraspider]

The Mercenary Episode 3

The Mercenary

 Episode 3: Nico

 Scrap City                                                                                         0640

         This town was one of the nicer ones around, seeing as no gangs were present and the town was mostly inhabited by underground scientists and a few mercenaries. The walls and other defenses were kept in check by the citizens and for the most part it was safe, maybe even I’d have trouble taking this place over. The town had robots made from scrap material and powercore energy, most of the weapons they used were also created through powercore energy. Scrap city was probably the second best city town in the country, which wasn’t saying much since the thing that made this place great was Nico. As I parked the van a scientist ran over to greet me before I could even get out of the damn thing.

         “Good to see you Mr. Grant,” he said as he caught his breath, “I suppose you’re looking for Nico?” I opened the door making sure to slam it shut.

         “Hey!” Bryan yelled from the backseat, waking up, “Keep it down damn it!” I smiled, folding my arms.

         “Yes I am,” I said leaning on the van, “he leave for a bit or something?” The man looked at the ground not meeting my eyes, I knew I was intimidating but this was a bit much.

         “He was…captured.” He said, “We told him not to-”

         “Where is he!” I yelled as I tried to control my rage.

         “There’s a town not too far from here,” he said taking steps back, “some of our guys said they saw him go there, south I believe.” I shook my head getting back in the van. What idiots would take Nico? He wasn’t a fighter and if they’d known any better they’d know not to fuck with someone I cared about.

         “Dude what’s going on?” Bryan asked from the backseat. I gripped the wheel as I quickly drove out of the gate. “You’ve got your murderer face on…” I looked in the mirror noticing my eyes were giving off a faint red glow. I rubbed my eyes, shaking my head.

         “We gotta go get Nico,” I said with a sigh, “seems there must’ve been a misunderstanding.” Bryan smiled as he moved up to the front.

         “Aww yeah boy,” he laughed taking out his gun, “bout to go shoot some bitches.” For once, he was right. No one fucks with the people I care about, not ever again.

 Unknown Town                                                                                           0714

           “Look at them.” I said as we pulled up on the town, there were only a couple guys outside of the wall. The town looked to still be in development cause I’d never even seen the place before. I quickly scanned them seeing no immediate threat, we could easily take them. I also couldn’t find Nico in the area so perhaps they had him hidden away somewhere else, didn’t matter I wouldn’t be leaving without him. I got out of the van walking over to the group of people outside of the walls, they wore rundown armor but didn’t look like much. Bryan sighed as he got out of the van following behind me, I could tell he didn’t really feel like doing this. Before we could get too close the group noticed us coming closer and stopped working on the wall, so much for the stealth route.

         “Hey,” I said matching their glares, “nice start for defenses, left wall is a little weak but I’m getting distracted.” I reached in my pocket taking out my pistol, “Where’s Nico!”

         “Put the gun down Grant!” came a deep voice. I turned seeing a guy with short black hair with what seemed like white highlights. I’d done some research on people like him, he was an Alpha. The military, after a hard loss, joined all the branches and appointed certain people with powercore energy. He wore dirty navy fatigues and seemed unarmed.

         “And why should I?” I asked, he smiled taking out of piece of paper, “The hell is that?”

         “Your orders,” he said, why was he proud of that? Not to mention why did he have those? “You ran out on your duty, you’re a deserter!”

         “Ooooo Allan,” Bryan taunted, “I can’t believe you ran out. For shame!” I didn’t like how this guy knew stuff about me like that, it creeped me out.

         “Don’t think you’re any better,” Alpha said glaring at Bryan, “after all you murdered your whole division. You’re no better than Grant.” I balled up my fists walking towards him.

         “And who the hell are you?” I asked, “Some punk who thinks they’re better than the rest of the world? You don’t know me.”

         “Ha you’re Allan Grant,” he said stuffing the paper in his pocket, “former navy sailor, now a mercenary after running out on his duty. We’ve got your boyfriend inside the walls, unharmed. We only came to get the two deserters.”

         “Hey man,” Bryan yelled summoning a gun, “I’m no deserter! I was properly relieved!” I rolled my eyes aiming my gun at the people behind us.

         “And no way are we going down!” I added, “So fuck you.” Alpha smiled, shaking his head.

         “Suit yourselves,” he said, “looks like this is happening the hard way!” Two guys charged forward at me, transforming into wolves. I quickly dodged shooting them in the back of the head. More wolves seemed to be coming from out of the city gate, just what they needed more backup. We were outnumbered, this was not a fight I wanted to have. I needed to get Nico and get out of here.

         “Split up!” I yelled pushing Bryan, “we’ll meet up back at Scrap City!” He moved out of the way as a wolf tried to get a bite at him.

         “You’d better be there,” he said pulling up his face mask, “you can have the van to get Nico back, I’ll be fine.” With that he ran off jumping over wolves and shooting his way through the growing pack. I kicked one wolf in the face as I ran through the gate and into the city.

           I switched to my x ray vision searching the city as a pack of wolves chased me through the streets, not my ideal morning but what could I do. Not too far in a building I could see three figures. Probably two guards watching over Nico, nothing I couldn’t handle. Still had to deal with these stupid wolves though. While I was thinking a big white wolf jumped in front of me cutting me off, definitely the Alpha.

         “Beat it flea bag!” I yelled jumping on his head and rolling over him, “Don’t got time for this crap!” I turned around shooting him before running towards that building. I kicked the door open seeing Nico and two girls standing over him.

         “Allan!” Nico cried, I couldn’t help but smile seeing him safe…for the most part. He had shoulder length dirty blond hair and wore a torn gray jacket and dusty black cargo pants. He looked like he was just having the time of his life with these two girls.

         “Sup.” I said closing the door and locking it, “I’m here for my boyfriend, so…”

         “We’re not going to stop you.” One of the girls said, she had short dark brown hair and wore navy fatigue cargo pants with a navy blue top. The girl on the other side of Nico also had short brown hair but wore navy fatigues with a black top, not much of a difference but I could tell they were trying to not match.

         “Not yet at least.” The other girl said, “I’m Phoebe and this is my sister, Penelope.” Penelope looked like see wanted to rip my face off to be honest but it seemed like she had enough restraint to not do that.

         “Why’re you letting me take him?” I asked as Nico walked over, hugging me.

         “We don’t really care what you did in the past,” Phoebe said with a shrug, “honestly we’re kinda hoping to see you fight in the future. So you can just head on home for all I care.” Part of me wanted to ask what she meant by that but….the greater part of me didn’t care. I’d gotten Nico, now it was time to get out of this damn place.

         “Don’t think we’re doing you any favors!” Penelope yelled as I walked away, “we will be meeting again!” I turned back, my hand reaching for my gun.

         “Just let it go,” Nico said putting his hand on mine, “Please…” I sighed as I looked into his eyes, he was beyond cute.

         “Okay,” I said tucking my gun just to be safe, “back to scrap city we go.”

  Scrap City                                                                                                   0925

Nico’s Garage

 Two hours! It literally took us two hours just to make it back safely, thanks to Alpha deciding he wanted to chase us down. The stupid wolves than began attacking the van, almost destroying it. If it wasn’t for Nico’s quick thinking I don’t think we would’ve made it out of that hellhole.

         As we got to the garage, Bryan was already there and it seemed he’d raided the fridge.

         “How were those mean ol’ wolves,” he laughed cracking open a can of powercore energy, “You guys share rabies together?”

         “Laugh it up Bry,” I said balling up my fists, “you won’t think it’s so funny when I shove my foot up your ass!” He rolled his eyes, taking a sip from his drink.

         “Lighten up would ya,” he said as his eyes flashed dark blue, “don’t gotta be all macho cause Nico’s here.”

         “Who said you could go through my fridge Bryan!” Nico yelled whacking him with a rolled up blueprint, “That stuff isn’t cheap you know!” Bryan looked up but did nothing, he wasn’t stupid enough to hit Nico.

         “Can you not hit me,” he sighed pushing Nico back, “I just want to relax for a little bit, Allan get your man!” I smiled as I plopped down on one of the couches, kicking my feet up. So maybe we didn’t finish Vincent’s job but we could handle that after a quick nap, besides…What’s the worst that could happen?

  To Be Continued…