#like that feels like a decision brennan made on the spot that's just him going along with what his players think because it'd be funny

[oddeyes588]

A little late to the party but I do have some thoughts about Fantasy High Junior Year now that it's over. First of all, overall? Great season, had lots of laughs... but man, is it just me, or were there a lot of parts in this season that just... were kind of annoying? For me specifically, two big things... and no, I'm not talking about the Rat Grinders. While I'm a little disappointed with how that ended, I'm not too bothered.

Like, idk if this is a hot take or not, because they were arguably the biggest parts of this season... but I found myself especially annoyed and/or disappointed about K2 and Porter.

Like, don't get me wrong, I thought K2 was funny—especially at first—and Porter being the main villain of the season was 100% for the bit and I can respect that... but man, I couldn't help but be disappointed with Porter going full irredeemably evil, as well as just straight-up annoyed by K2's existence (at least in regards to the story. gameplaywise, making a homunculus of their cleric was VERY smart) (oh god if K2 exists in our world now she might come after me. dont forget me).

In regards to Porter... he was for sure an ass, he caused Gorgug a lot of grief with the MCAT, but he also had such a really sweet moment with him when that thing finally got signed?? It was very, like, not a perfect teacher but someone who did have his best interests in mind, paired with a really nice message about how it's alright to get mad. It was an important part of Gorgug's character growth this season! Integral to unlocking his Barbificer subclass!

...and then all of that just gets thrown away because turns out Porter was evil the whole time and this was all just leading up to his big master plan of killing a god and becoming a god of war. He was never offering genuine advice, he never cared about Gorgug or had his best interests in mind, he thought Gorgug's fascination with Artificing was stupid... and now he's dead. The End.

And that just feels... really disappointing, honestly. He was a chill guy, and yeah he had no right to bar Gorgug from pursuing what he wants and force him to take so many years of school in a single year, but it also resulted in some serious growth on Gorgug's part! It was great! Him being Evil The Whole Time felt... almost like a character assassination, honestly.

And then... there's K2...

I'm gonna be real here. I don't care if using a homunculus and shit for multiple divine intervention rolls is how it actually works in the rulebooks, and I know that objectively having more rolls is always better, especially when the stakes are high... and especially considering that Ally was not getting the rolls they needed otherwise.

This was hilarious. It was also supremely annoying, because it just fully took away from any big moment Kristen could've had this season regarding her and Cassandra after her creation... and this happened TWICE.

Like, from a storytelling perspective, I feel Brennan's pain viscerally. These episodes were truly such an experience for me, because on one hand, I was laughing at the sheer comedy of it all... but there was another part of my brain thinking this truly, truly sucked.

Kristen was figuring out her devotion to Cassandra, finding an understanding in what her role as Cassandra's cleric is... and right at the end of the season all of that kind of comes to a halt because in the end K2 did the divine interventions.

...Well, at least that still leaves some room for whatever Kristen will have to deal with in Senior year. Unlike Porter, who is dead and gone and we're definitely not bringing him back.

[systemic-dreams]

I made a playlist for Elliot Krangsdt! it's not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it. I hope you enjoy :)

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/74AkiNXEmX08a5NwEqQedm?si=MXJCo-P7Tj-arIF93s4XKw

I've been listening to this all day. what a jam. it's so different to what i usually listen to. like walking into a room with brightly coloured walls.

"sometimes the only road to take is the darkest" really hits. i think Evan only ever took that road and Elliot is still confused about having other options. like, there's a fork in the road now but the light side is unfamiliar, so he needs to be dragged in and told it's okay, it's not a trick

literally all of momento mori gets it. but it's so upbeat and almost playful in tone. i get an insomnia/insanity vibe. staying up way too long and going a little crazy. or a lot crazy.

hollow moon was very acoustic and folksy. i had to look up the lyrics because i was missing them with all the flourishes but damn. "if I made my bed, did I make the demons in it?" ummm. yes. I think as much as Evan had actual demons, Elliot is creating phantom demons to fill the holes the horrors have left in his psyche. and his decisions absolutely created the demons that plague him now. spot on.

lampshades' "fear makes us really really run around" is 100% Elliot but also Evan. whenever he was afraid or uncomfortable, Brennan would try to move him out of the scene or just leave the space. but the pilot program would follow instead of letting him go alone. which made the exits seem like transitions instead of escapes. Even Evan's exit from the school which the pilots stop in the series, is Evan removing himself from the area because he's afraid of what he will do to do people close to him. Elliot has a different problem, in that, dangerous things are happening to people he cares about and he runs around trying to fix them out of fear they will be hurt or killed.

"i'd give an arm and a leg, just to go, just to be on my own, but i need to stay and fend for myself." definitely an adult Elliot feeling. I think younger Elliot tried to leave the Krangsdts multiple times. just because of past experience with foster families either treating Evan poorly or getting eaten by monsters. and he doesn't remember, but the feeling of being in a house with people in it is not a comfortable one. I think he eventually learned he cant just go AWOL but he still couldnt live in a house with people in it. the excuse he made to himself would be: he needed somewhere to stash his vampire hunting gear and crash when he gets beat up so he doesnt look sus or worry anyone. but its more than that.

cicada days really got me with lines like "it just feels inhuman to lose this much" i mean, fr. I don't think Evan is human or considers himself human. no one can go through that much trauma and come out sane. it's a miracle or some form of magic that keeps a spark of naivety and hope and goodness alive in him. even if he's super broken. there's cynicism in his personality but it's more of a healthy scientific skepticism. it isn't despair. there's a lot of pain that comes from keeping that spark of good alive within incalculable darkness. and you get hit with "now it feels damn inhumane to get all i've dreamt of" which i think is more applicable to the later chapters i havent published. but there is massive guilt there. like, 'it's too good to be true', 'what's the catch?', why? how? waiting for it all to come crashing down because it couldnt all possibly be happening.

also, "cause when you leave you know you take more than your love" i feel hits more with K. because it's unsaid between them. there's not enough time to process feelings. they barely confess and suddenly it's time to part. and you cant say 'i love you' yet. but you want to. but it's just too much and its probably not true. and when Evan leaves, he does take that love with him and also their futures.

moonsickness is so raw with "I'm the worst mistake your god has ever made". it's too bad i don't like penelope scott's voice or tone. she might as well be ordering a pizza over the phone lol. great lyrics though. i would love to hear a cover that does them justice. i think early Elliot does feel like a mistake and that plagues him for a while. my plan was to have the pilot program flip the switch eventually and turn it into "I'm the worst mistake your god has ever made and I'm gonna make it your problem." but i don't know if i'll ever get there. writing hard hurr durr

this was so fun! thank you for sharing! I've never made a playlist for Elliot because in my mind he was always a caricature of every popular emo song i could think of. stuff that K and Cody Walsh would think is cool but in reality would be a nightmare. when i put them in a playlist, it became clear why he is my blorbo lol.

please find attached: my emo son - the playlist

[let-it-raines]

What a Wicked Game {14/15}

Killian met her in a pub on a rainy night in March. Going inside was only supposed to be a way for him to avoid the rain and fight off the demons in his head. It was a place for him to pass through, not stay. But then he was charmed by a blonde woman with a quick wit who had absolutely no interest in him or who he was.

That was a first. It was also the beginning of Emma Nolan helping to bring him back to life. It was the beginning of everything.

Five years later, with their worlds crumbling around them, Killian can’t help but wonder if this is the end of the peace they have known now that his family knows about his relationship. It wouldn’t be a problem if his father wasn’t the King of England.

rating: mature

a/n: all my thanks to @captainswanbigbang​, @resident-of-storybrooke​, @captainsjedi​, and all of you! I hope you enjoy this nice little snapshot to the future that is 100% a homage to the original insane “epilogue” 😘

ao3: beginning | current

Tumblr: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |

-/-

December 2020

Emma’s in a white dress made of ornate lace and the most intricate beading work she’s ever seen. The material hugs her body, accentuating the curve of her waist and falling to her wrists where they stop so that the rings on her hands are visible. There are three now, two on the left hand and one on the right. Her hair is falling down her back in long, perfectly curled waves, and half of it is pinned back with a diamond barrette that almost perfectly matches the tiara gracing the top of her head. A veil is attached to it, and it wraps around her body and all the way down to the ground, the lace surrounding the edges of it.

She’s wearing a tiara.

Like, a tiara worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that she wore on top of her head for hours.

It was a year and a half ago and she’s worn plenty of nice jewelry since, but there’s something about looking at the pictures hanging in their hallway that still makes Emma stop in her tracks to stare at them.

It’s the nice clothes at first, her wedding dress and Killian’s black Naval uniform that he looked so handsome in, but then it’s the smiles on their faces, the true happiness written into their lips. Their foreheads are pressed together in this one, and while their lips aren’t touching, they nearly are. Killian’s eyes are crinkled, the lines prominent, and Emma remembers him telling her some awful dirty joke that had the photographer blushing and Emma laughing until tears were flowing from her eyes.

(They’d had to touch up her makeup, and it took forever because she couldn’t seem to stop laughing at her husband.)

Their wedding was on a sunny day at the beginning of June, and most of it was a blur. Emma’s stomach was in knots for the majority of the day, not because she was nervous about getting married. It was more over having to be in front of hundreds of people in the Chapel and millions more on television, as well as having to spend half of her day with Brennan. Thankfully, he stayed away from them as much as he could, seemingly respecting them enough to let them have their day without his disapproval and overall shitty attitude. It’s the nicest thing he’s ever done for her, letting her have that day.

It was a great day.

“Who the hell is that handsome bastard in the portrait you’re staring at, darling?”

Emma huffs and turns to look at Killian only for him to come up behind her and wrap his arms around her waist, tugging her back into him before laying sloppy kisses all across her jaw and down her neck that has her stomach flipping. He’s always doing that.

“You’re so conceited.”

“Confident.”

“Eh.”

He nips at her ear, and she sighs back into him, letting heat simmer in her belly even if she knows that they can’t do anything about it right now. They don’t have time.

“You have to learn that my confidence is warranted. How could it not be when my wife makes noises like you just made when I barely brush my lips over her jaw?”

“I’m not helping your ego grow by answering that.”

Killian rolls his hips into hers, grinding into her ass, all while kissing her ear again, lavishing the sensitive spot that causes her flesh to pebble, and she just knows that he has a dumb joke in his brain about making something else grow. He’s thirty-one years old, and the amount of erection jokes that he makes is ridiculous. Granted, ninety percent of the time she wants to hear them, but that’s entirely beside the point.

“Killian,” she moans when his tongue licks along the shell of her ear while his fingers ghost over her stomach and up toward the underside of her breast, ���we don’t have t-time. We’ve got to go to Sandringham in fifteen minutes. The car is scheduled to take us to the train station.”

“Fifteen minutes is plenty of time.”

“I haven’t finished packing.”

“I suppose you’ll simply have to walk around in the nude since kissing you is the only thing I can think of doing at this moment.”

Emma laughs, but then she’s turning her head to kiss him. Their lips collide together softly, and Emma twists her body until her hands are grabbing onto the lapels of his shirt, pulling him closer to him. His mouth is warm against hers, and it sends another thrill down her spine, curling around each inch of her. His erection is hotly pressing into her thigh through his jeans, and she feels it even more when Killian backs her up to the wall behind them. When she parts her lips for him, his tongue quickly flickers into her mouth, she follows his lead, eager to feel him in every way that she can.

It’s been eight years of this, eight years of her entire body thrumming and of Emma wanting him, and while there are days that it wanes and days where just looking at his face annoys her, it’s mostly like this.

Loving him is the easiest decision she’s ever made.

Choosing to be with him despite all of the insane highs and deep lows is the best choice she’s ever made.

Killian’s a good one. No, the best one.

(And she’s not biased at all.)

She grinds into him and groans against his mouth when he hits a particularly good spot, and in the haze of his fervent kisses, she reaches down between them until she’s fumbling with the button on his jeans and popping it open all the while Killian mutters filthy curses into her mouth.

“What happened to not having time?”

“Shut up.”

“I love it when you speak to me like that.”

“You are - ”

He doesn’t let her finish, not when his lips are slamming back into hers, and he’s kissing her so deeply that Emma can’t breathe or think or even focus on anything other than the feel and smell of Killian and the way his fingers are tugging her leggings down until the warm air of the apartment is hitting against her skin.

“God, I love you,” Killian murmurs into her jaw while his hands hook under her ass and urge her to wrap her legs around his waist.

“What are you doing? Are you seriously trying to show off athletic prowess right now?”

His hands squeeze on her ass, and he feels her smirking into her skin. The bastard.

“Absolutely, I am. I can’t wait to be sore tomorrow.”

Emma’s head tilts back with her laughter even as Killian slowly enters hers, stretching her the slightest bit while her arms tighten around his neck and her legs curl even further around his waist. He better not drop her. One time he did, and they should really find a couch or something. They’ve got at least fifteen in this damn place.

But then it just feels too damn good just like this. It’s hard and fast, their bodies completely pressed together, and all of Emma’s thoughts are blurred and mixed in with Killian’s muttered curses and her harsh pants and then their mouths finding each other once more. They’re close enough that Emma’s on edge already, each of his thrusts brushing her exactly where she needs him, and her eyes squeeze more tightly shut when she begins to fall, letting Killian’s encouragements guide her until she’s there.

Damn, Jones.

He must finish quickly afterwards, his legs nearly collapsing so that the both of them fall to the ground, but he manages to keep hold of them, supporting her.

“Thanks for not dropping me on my ass.” Killian huffs into her neck at her words, and she feels him loosen his grip on her so that she’s tightening her legs and gasping as he tries to drop her. “That’s not funny!”

“I found it funny.”

“How is dropping me to the ground funny? Aren’t you supposed to love me and cherish me or whatever?”

He leaves a warm, open-mouthed kiss on the side of her neck before pulling back so that she can see the ridiculous blue of his eyes. She’ll never quite get over them. “I do love you, which is why I haven’t asked you to get down yet even though my legs feel rather flimsy right now.”

Emma kisses the top of his head before unwrapping her legs and slowly falling to the ground, her own legs shaky. “I love you, too. We should probably go clean ourselves up and pretend that we weren’t just fucking five minutes before we got in the car to go to your family’s Christmas celebrations.”

“‘Tis the season and all.” Killian kisses her again, this time slow and unbelievably soft. Those are always her favorite. “Thanks for marrying me, darling. You’re just as beautiful today as you are in all of these pictures.”

“I’m not currently wearing pants.”

“That’s the way I like you.”

He’s an idiot...who she loves so damn much.

-/-

Celebrating Christmas with Killian’s family is weird.

There’s really no other way for her to describe it. For one, they spend at least five days having to circle around Brennan, which is hard enough as it is. He’s never going to approve of her and never going to love Killian the way a dad should, but at least he isn’t outwardly hostile to them anymore. It’s more of a quiet simmer with subtle rude comments that are made when Allison is out of earshot, and as awkward and uncomfortable as it is, Emma will take it. This is how it is, and there’s so much more to Killian’s family than his dad.

Allison, for one, is the sweetest woman alive who tries to make up for all of her husband’s downfalls (Emma still thinks she should divorce Brennan, but she knows it won’t ever happen. Appearances and all that. It’s also none of Emma’s business), and she’s taken Emma under her wing in the past two years, teaching her everything there is to know about royal life even though Killian and Emma both decided to not be as prominent as Liam and Elsa. They still work, are nearly always out and about working with some kind of charity they’re passionate about, but they’re not into all of the frills and the publicity.

Her accident still haunts her, the attacks of the media that occur every day following right behind, and it’s the reason they’re having a house built in Bucklebury so that they can have some privacy away from all of the business of living in Kensington. Emma’s doing her best, but she does not accept having to stop caring for her own life and her own wants simply because of who her husband’s family is.  

It’s still so odd, Emma thinks. She fell in love with this wonderful, normal guy, and now she’s wandering around on an estate in formal wear to celebrate Christmas instead of lounging around in her pajamas eating junk food with her parents.

Her parents who are never invited to come for the holiday celebrations and who she misses dearly and will be going to see on the night of the twenty-fifth.

But besides having to spend time with Brennan, Emma also has to spend time with all of Killian’s cousins and aunts and uncles who she can never remember the names of despite her best efforts, and follow even more insane rules about what to wear and what silverware to use and what kind of presents to give. Killian held her hand throughout this entire week last year to help her learn, and he’s having to do the same this year. Though, she’s better at it now. She’s not a total fumbling fool.

Just a little one.

But she does know to always find Killian or Liam and Elsa, and if all else fails, she can spend time with Alex and Lizzie and be completely and totally charmed by their adorableness. Seriously. Emma thinks they might be the cutest kids alive, and she’s not biased at all because she’s their aunt. Alex is somehow four now even though she swears he was just two, and he’s the funniest child Emma has ever met. Lizzie is much quieter, more of an observer than anything else, but whenever she sees Emma, she runs to her and stretches her arms out so that Emma can scoop her up into Emma’s arms.

It absolutely makes Emma’s heart swell.

“Darling,” Killian calls out to her, and Emma’s head twists around to see Killian standing across the dining room from her in his tux, “would you come here for a moment?”

Emma turns back to the cousin - Rachel, she thinks - she was just talking to and excuses herself from the conversation to walk toward Killian, who is undeniably saving her before she got swooped away to talk to someone else.

“Thank you,” she whispers into Killian’s ear once she’s close enough, pressing her lips to the underside of his jaw and leaving a mark of red lipstick.

He kisses her temple and lazily loops his arm around her waist, pulling her closer. “Darling, I was just telling Liam that you were going to be on my football team tomorrow, and that he can’t draft you for his team first.”

Emma tilts her head and looks at Liam and Elsa. “Isn’t it Liam’s turn to have first pick? You had it last year.”

“Liam gave it to me last year,” Killian says, his eyes pointed at Liam, “even though it was his year. This year is technically still my year.”

“Rubbish. When I gave you first pick it was a gift because you were a newlywed, but we’re still supposed to switch off years.”

“No, this is still my year. Last year was a gift, and I did not agree to give up my pick.”

“I’ve just said that it’s not!”

Elsa rolls her eyes, and Emma brings her bottom lip between her teeth to bite. Seeing the boys be friends is never not refreshing, but it’s also obnoxious. They bicker all of the time in this friendly but obnoxious way, and if Elsa and Emma were to walk away, neither of them would notice.

“Babe,” Emma laughs, rubbing her hand up and down Killian’s back, “just give Liam the first pick. He’s not going to pick me. He’ll want to pick someone who’s actually good so he can beat you.”

“She makes a good point, little brother,” Liam says.

“Younger. It’s younger, and fine, you can have the first pick.”

-/-

Liam picks her first for the football game the next day.

Killian plays the entire game with murder in his eyes even if he immediately picked Elsa so Liam couldn’t have her on his team.

All’s fair in love and annual Christmas football matches.

(She and Liam totally kick Killian’s ass.)

-/-

When Emma wakes, she rolls over and checks her phone.

3:01 AM, December 25th, 2020.

It’s the middle of the night...or the morning, and she shouldn’t be awake. She’s got at least four more hours left of sleep, and she should not be awake. It’s been pretty much non-stop for the four days they’ve been at Sandringham, and she should be exhausted. Mostly, though, she’s hungry.

“Killian,” Emma whispers, reaching across the bed to poke his bicep. “Killian, wake up.”

He grunts and twists his head until she can see one eye open while the rest of his face is squished. “What?”

His voice is gritty and deep, and she’s really got to wake him up more if he’s going to sound like that. “How do I get to the kitchen?”

“What?”

“Where’s the kitchen?”

Killian twists again until he’s blinking at her and rubbing his hand up and down his face. “What time is it?”

“It’s three in the morning, and I’m starving. I have never figured out how to get to the kitchen in this place.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I’m not.”

Killian grunts and rolls over, throwing the covers off of him before standing from the bed and pulling his pajamas up on his waist so they’re not hanging indecently low any longer. “Come on. I’ll take you down there.”

“You’re my favorite person in the world.”

He grunts again and starts walking away, not bothering to find a shirt or shoes, and Emma quickly follows. She’s also got to pee right now, but asking Killian to wait might not be her best option when he doesn’t seem too thrilled about her waking him up in the middle of the night. She gets it. She wouldn’t be thrilled either.

All of the hallways are dark, but Killian easily navigates them, twisting and turning and taking several different staircases until he’s pushing through a set of double doors and they’re entering an industrial kitchen that doesn’t at all mix with the rest of this house.

Emma literally has no idea how they got down here.

“What do you want to eat, love?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“Nope. What do we have?” He opens the fridge, and she steps into his space until she’s looking inside as well at what looks like a hell of a lot of baked goods that they can’t eat. They’re probably for something else. “Can we eat any of this?”

“I think the baked goods are Mum’s gifts to the staff to take home to their families, but I can make you something. Do you want a grilled cheese sandwich?”

“Do you even know me at all?”

Killian laughs, but then he’s reaching forward and grabbing cheese and butter and moving away from the fridge, shuffling around and getting everything that he needs. When she offers to make it herself since this was her idea and Killian doesn’t even like grilled cheese, he tells her that he’s got it if she can make him some tea. They’re probably not going to sleep again, so they might as well get some caffeine.

Caffeine and maybe some cookie dough that she found in the freezer.

(She can’t help herself.)

“You know,” Emma yawns, “I used to be up at three in the morning all the time, but now I can’t do it.”

“It’s because you’re getting old, darling.”

“Says the man who is in his thirties, meanwhile I can still say that I’m in my twenties for ten more months.”

“And then once you hit that thirty mark, you’ll officially be old.”

“I will not be old. Thirty isn’t old. That’s a social construct.”

“It’s too early in the morning to be focusing on things like that.”

“True,” Emma sighs, taking a sip of her tea while Killian plates her sandwich, sliding it over to her with a napkin. It smells freaking amazing. “Thank you for this.”

“It’s no problem. You’ll burn your mouth if you eat it right now.”

“Some things are worth the risk.”

Killian chuckles and leans forward to grab his own tea, taking a large gulp. “I wouldn’t get up at three in the morning to cook for anyone else. I hope you know that.”

“I do know that. I wouldn’t wake anyone else up to make me food at three in the morning. Though, I really only needed you to show me where the kitchen was. I didn’t need you to cook.”

“It’s not a problem. You’re suffering through Christmas with my family for the second year in a row. This is literally the least I can do.”

Emma finishes chewing her bite before leaning forward over the counter to press her lips into Killian’s. “I’m happy to do most everything that I have to do as your wife. It’s weird and definitely not how I ever imagined my life, but I wear a hell of a lot of Spanx for you. That’s true love.”

His eyes crinkle, and Emma is so incredibly charmed by him and his stupidly mussed hair and sleepy smile. It’s kind of ridiculous, but she loves that smile and the way his hair can’t be contained when he hasn’t combed through it.

“And I make you the grossest sandwich in existence.”

“It’d only be the grossest if it involved mayonnaise and tuna or something.”

“This is true.” It’s Killian’s turn to lean over the counter until his lips are brushing across the tip of her nose. “I truly am thankful for you and not simply because you wear Spanx for me and heels that make your feet scream.”

“Yeah, babe,” Emma sighs, her heart content. “I know.”

“Merry Christmas, Swan.”

“Merry Christmas, my love. Should we steal some more cookie dough?”

-/-

February 2021

“This is weird.”

“What is? Being here?”

“Yep,” Emma hums as she looks out the window and sees the congested streets of Manhattan. “I don’t know...I knew it would be different to be back in America, but it’s just - I don’t know. I’ve only been to New York three times, so it’s not like it’s somewhere I spent a lot of time. Driving on this side of the road is kind of freaking me out.”

Killian huffs, but then his fingers are twining together with hers and he’s pulling her knuckles to his lips to kiss right above her wedding band. “We’ve been in America for a week, darling. I feel like you should be used to it by now.”

“Yeah,” she yawns, “I know, but honestly, I can’t tell you what we’ve done this week. It’s all a sleep-deprived blur. What are we even doing today?”

“I believe we’re going to a basketball game to meet with some children and promote the North American opening of Kidding A Goal, and then tomorrow we have several charities we’re visiting before a meeting with our U.S. diplomats.”

“And then we go home?”

“No, then we have the function at NYU. I’m giving a speech, but after that, I believe we’re going home. We’ll have to ask Ariel when we get to the hotel. I’m sure she’ll have everything mapped out to the exact minute.” Emma yawns again before her eyes flutter closed and she’s lulled into drowsiness. “Emma?”

“Mhm?”

“Do you need to stay in the hotel tonight and sleep? No one would blame you if you missed the game.”

She scoffs. There are literally thousands, probably millions of people who would blame her. Brennan would be the first person, and then all of the people who already hate her would be right in line after him. She’s been hailed as some kind of American princess for years now, and all of their aides and publicists have been marketing this visit with her returning to her roots or something.

Los Angeles, Atlanta, and New York City aren’t exactly her roots.

But this is her life. She loves it even when she hates it. She can roll with the punches.

“I’m fine,” Emma promises. “Of all of the things we’ve had to do on this tour, I think going to a basketball game might be the easiest.”

-/-

The basketball game takes forever.

Seriously. How can a game that’s slated to last a certain amount of time exceed that time by hours? Either be like tennis where you have no idea how long it’s going to take or like football (soccer) where when the time is set, it usually stays that way.

This is why she’s never liked this sport.

And really, the entire time that they’re there, one of the publicists from the team talks down to her like she doesn’t know what’s going on. Granted, she doesn’t know all the rules, but there’s a difference between explaining something and talking down to someone. But it’s all fine and good, and she and Killian have a nice experience sitting courtside and stuffing their face with popcorn while sweaty men with squeaking sneakers run by them. Afterwards (and during honestly) there are a million and two photo ops, but Emma likes getting to talk to all of the kids that are there for them and for the game. They’re all adorable, and they give her and Killian matching jerseys that she feels like Killian is definitely going to be wearing more often than he should.

He seems to like basketball more than she does, but maybe she’d enjoy it more if she wasn’t so exhausted that she could fall asleep standing up.

They probably don’t get back to the hotel until two in the morning, and when they do, Killian promptly kisses her goodnight and then falls asleep.

Emma doesn’t.

Because, of course, she can’t fall asleep, and when their alarm goes off the next morning and Killian rolls over in bed to kiss the side of her neck, lingering there as he whispers sweet words against her skin, all Emma can think is that she only got two interrupted hours of sleep.

Her makeup artist is going to kill her.

If Emma doesn’t fall out from exhaustion first.

Several cups of coffee and a hell of a lot of concealer later, however, she’s good to go for another day of representing her new country to her old country.

Life gets weirder every day.

She’d do it all over again in a heartbeat for Killian.

-/-

“Love, have you packed our toiletries already?”

“Love?”

“Emma?”

There’s a tap against her shoulder, and Emma jumps, blinking several times until Killian’s blurry face comes into clearer view so that she can see the blue of his eyes and the scar on his cheek.

“Emma, darling, are you alright?”

“Yeah,” she says, waving him away and grabbing a pair of leggings out of the drawer. There’s no way she’s flying home in actual pants. That’s too long of a flight for anything that doesn’t have a soft elastic waist. She’s also wearing comfortable shoes because she’s going to boycott heels for a month. “Did you need something?”

Killian’s head tilts while his brows furrow. “I was asking if you’d packed away our toiletries. I’d like to brush my teeth again after drinking coffee, but I can’t seem to find the bags.”

“Really?” She begins to walk across the suite in their hotel room toward the bathroom. “Because they should be on the vanity. I haven’t packed them up yet. I - ”

Her feet catch in the carpet as her head suddenly begins to spin, and not for the first time in the last few days, Emma feels light-headed. But this is different. She can’t focus on anything, every object around her a pixelated version of itself, and before she can grab onto a blurred version of a dresser, she’s falling to the ground with the sound of Killian’s voice echoing behind her.

-/-

-/-

I did say this was pretty much like that original epilogue, didn’t I? Sorry to all of you newbies 😘🙈

tag list: @mrtinski​ @klynn-stormz​ @jonirobinson64​ @snowbellewells​ @therealstartraveller776​ @thejollyroger-writer​ @sherifemma​ @shardminds​ @captainsjedi​ @galaxyzxstark​ @galadriel26​ @idristardis​ @karenfrommisthaven​ @teamhook​ @spartanguard​ @searchingwardrobes​ @itsfabianadocarmo​ @owlways-and-forever​ @jamif​ @shireness-says​ @ultimiflos​ @nikkiemms​ @resident-of-storybrooke​ @onepunintendid​ @bluewildcatfanatic​ @397bartonstreet​ @killianswannn​ @carpedzem​ @captainkillianswanjones​ @mayquita​ @jennjenn615​ @onceuponaprincessworld​ @a-faekindagirl​ @scientificapricot​ @scarletslippers​ @xellewoods​ @ultraluckycatnd​ @stahlop​ @kmomof4​ @tiganasummertree​ @singersdd​ @tornadoamy​ @captainswanbigbang​

[silentlsworld]

The Quarantine in the Year Pt. 2

Hello everyone! Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has read pt. 1 of The Quarantine in the Year! I appreciate your likes, reblogs and comments dearly :) I’m awaiting an invite to set up my AO3 profile to post more frequently there but until then, I thought I’d share a pt. 2 

Disclaimer: Once again, I don’t own any of the original Bones characters, that’s all HH. The only thing that is mine is my imagination. 

A/N: I’m trying to bounce between all our beloved character’s lives and capture them as accurately and in character as I can. I really hope you like pt. 2 and feel free to leave advice, ideas in the comments <3 

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

Cam sighed as she walked into the living room. She could hear her sons’ laughter as well as her husbands. The thought of her family eased her worked up nerves. She loved the little family she had created. Though Michelle was now in training at Quantico which meant a busy schedule, she still came home time to time. Well, before the world went up in flames, she would frequently come home and bond with her brothers, play with, help them with school and get to know them. 

The boys had even settled in amazingly. Granted, it took some time for all three of them to get used to the home and it had shocked them that would all be able to stay together so that made the first few mornings emotional when they saw each other at breakfast. All in all, they had become quite the little family and the boys had such a great impact on her and Arastoo’s lives.

“Isaiah! Yeah! Do it!” Tyler encouraged.

“Wait boys! I-I-don’t think-” Arastoo’s voice was drowned out as a ‘pop-pop’ was heard.

Running to see if anyone was hurt, Cam stopped short staring at the mini volcano that was sitting on her very expensive chenille rug and had just recently erupted.

“What-What is going on?”

Model airplanes and Hum Vs sat scattered around the floor along with mini soldiers lined up ready for battle. Isaiah sat with his arms covered in a mixture of red and orange food dye and Tyler had it in his hair. Cameron sat to the other side finishing up another Hum V model with a goofy grin on his face twinning the one on his father’s. Arastoo beamed at his boys. The fact that he had not one but three sons to play with and experiment with gave him so much joy.

“THAT WAS AWESOME!” he laughed out.

“Oh really, guess we know who’s going to clean my rug.” Cam muttered before shaking her head. She turned and walked away into the kitchen to grab a wine, a beer, a double scotch, anything to keep her mind off her rug that would more than likely stain and the fact that all four of her boys had the same maturity level. 

“Hey Dad, is Mom angry?” Tyler asked a little worried he’d upset his mom.

“She’s probably only a little upset. Don’t worry about it. I’ll go talk to her.”

“Quarantine really has had her on edge huh Dad.” Cameron contributed.

“Yeah, you got that right son. I’ll be back. In the meantime, how about we try to focus on building the boats instead of testing if the volcano works?” Arastoo stood up and walked into the kitchen and found Cam leaning over the counter, head bowed and body tense.

“Hey, Cam. Babe talk to me. What’s wrong?”

Sniffling Cam looked up, “Felicia. She-she-”

“Hey, it’s okay. Calm down. I’m right here.” Arastoo reassured her and rubbed his hands up and down her back the way she loved. She had once told him that if she was ever upset beyond words, that helped her to calm down. Cam looked up and smiled at her husband before taking a deep breath continuing.

“Geor-George called me. He said that Felicia was at work. You know how instead of having everyone work at home, her office decided to take shifts. Well, it was her week and apparently someone in the office failed to tell them that-that-”

“Oh no. Cam…”

“She’s tested positive Arastoo. George said that he had to rush her to the hospital. It-it-it’s not looking good right now. The doctors are doing what they can, but they told George that the next twenty-four hours could be life or death for her.” Cam broke at that point and turned to bury her face in Arastoo’s chest. Not knowing what else to do, Arastoo held his wife with everything in him.

“Shhh. Cam breathe my love. It’ll be okay. She has to be. In Allah’s name she will be.”

“You-you-you can’t know for sure Arastoo and we-we were just starting to have a really great-really great relationship.” Cam hiccupped.

“Yes, I can Cam. Trust me. Felicia is a fighter. She’ll be okay.”

“Mom? Are you okay?” Isaiah poked his head into the kitchen followed by Tyler and Cameron.

“We’re sorry that we erupted the volcano over the rug. We’ll clean it up.” Tyler offered.

“Oh boys. It’s not you I’m upset at. Come over here.”

The boys walked over to their Mom and engulfed her in one big hug. Cam closed her eyes holding her boys to her. She never thought she would ever become a mother and then Michelle came into her and she was beyond grateful and once again thought that would be it. But then, she married Arastoo and worried he would be upset at her not wanting to get pregnant but then he mentioned adoption and she was on board especially when Brennan had connected them with a foster care facility in Mississippi which connected them to their three boys. She held them to her like her life depending on it and right now, the strength and reassurance of family was what she needed most.

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

Back at the Booth-Brennan household…

Booth could hear his son’s giggles and what sounded like Christine muttering to herself. He opened and his eyes went wide, and he had to try his best to not laugh at the sight in front of him. Hank had apparently gotten hold of the baby powder he had bought yesterday and stored in the bathroom cabinet. Even though he and Christine were already eight and eleven years old respectively, Brenna still purchased baby powder for them regularly to use after showers and baths. It helped them stay fresh and prevented chaffing which was always a plus. Hank had other ideas of its use though. The two entire jumbo containers had exploded over Christine’s room. Her floor was drenched in powder and Hank was currently in it making a snow angel. Christine had powder stacked on top of her head that looked like it had been dolloped there like whip cream on a cupcake. He chuckled involuntarily.

“Dad! Look! I made Christmas!” Hank shouted from his spot on the floor. He was drenched in it and looked like Casper the friendly ghost.

“DAD!” Christine whined.

“Okay-okay-okay!” Booth chuckled again. Bones would have lost it and blown her top he thought.

“It’s not funny Dad! This is like the third time this week Hank’s come in here and wreaked havoc.” Christine stared at her father indignantly. A stare she had inherited from her mother and it didn’t help that she had the same blue eyes. Just before lockdown, Angela had come over with Katherine and Brennan and Christine and they had a girl’s day lounging around the house. 

There had been a lull in cases for the FBI-Jeffersonian duo and so the women decided to take the day off together. It was then Angela had offered to cut Christine’s hair giving the little girl bangs. She looked so much like her Mom did when she first returned from Maluku and was the splitting image of Temperance Brennan right now as she stood with her hands on her hips, lips pouting, and eyes narrowed.

“Okay. Hank, why did you want to make Christmas?” Booth tried to reason with his son.

“Because I’m bored and Christmas time means fun in the snow and then Auntie Angela and Uncle Hodgy comes over and we get together with the whole family and go see the lights and then-and then we won’t be stuck in the house by ourselves.”

Booth sighed. He had figured Hank’s restlessness was because of being in quarantine but they couldn’t help it. When the news had broke that the virus had spread across the country, he and Aubrey as SSAs had made the executive decision to leave the division under Aubrey’s control so Booth could be home with his family. He had offered to consult with Aubrey virtually if needed along with Brennan. Brennan had immediately decided that she would stay with her children at home. Jessica and the other interns would keep the lab running on their quarantine schedule. Brennan would consult with them virtually as needed and would grade their papers, supervise their dissertations and identifications from home.

Though taking classes virtually, Christine and Hank visibly missed routine. Hank especially missed going to school and running around interacting with his friends. With nowhere to really release his energy, Christine had been on the receiving end for the past four months.

A/N: And scene... sorry to leave it on a lil cliffhanger but I promise more will be coming and what FF writer would I be if I didn’t leave cliffhangers <3 

[ollyarchive]

Olly Alexander Just Wants to Be Straight with You

BY

BRENNAN CARLEY

PHOTOGRAPHS BY

ALEX RESIDE

The Years & Years frontman is back with a new single, a new hair color, and a new outlook on straight men.

Olly Alexander walks into GQ's photo studio and removes his hat, revealing a shock of brightly dyed red hair. Whether that means something to you or not depends on how familiar you are with and fanatic about the British singer's incredibly popular band, Years & Years. The trio's already put out one incredible album (2015's Communion), picked up fans like Katy Perry, and are now gearing up for their sophomore project, coming this summer and anchored by the just-released "Sanctify", which chronicles Alexander's experience sleeping with and falling for a straight man. It's an effortless synth-pop song with vivid religious imagery, a sticky chorus, and cheeky lyrics like "You don't have to be straight with me / I see what's underneath your mask," which is sort of Years & Years' sweet spot: Just when you think you have them figured out, they take you to a deeper place than you thought pop music could go.

Alexander, who's 27, is also known both for his acting work (you may have seen him on Skins) and for his outspokenness as a member of the gay community (his 2017 BBC documentary, Growing Up Gay, is a phenomenal watch). Boyish in appearance but confident in presentation, Alexander lounges in a windowless green room in lower Manhattan, fielding our questions about self-care, new music, and—yes—straight men.

GQ: When did you start working on the album? Olly Alexander: It was September 2016. We had finished up the majority of our touring. We were gonna take a break, and I...didn't take a break. I just started working on the second album. I did take like three weeks where I just deliberately did nothing and read books and stuff at home. But I also went to Taiwan and Bali by myself. It was a really good trip. It was fun.

I love being alone. [A solo vacation's] not for everybody, but I just like how you can do your own thing at your own time. You don't have to give a shit about anyone else's preferences, what they want to do. And you make friends and stuff.

Have you always liked being alone? Solitude is very restorative for me, especially because I spend so much time around other people and performing to people. And when you're on tour, you're sharing a bus with 20 people.

How did you handle needing solitude on the road? It's tough because you're constantly traveling, and you're in this whirlwind with no stability. I definitely got better at creating my own personal alone time within the company of lots of other people. It would be like, "Don't talk to me. I'm reading my book. I'm inside my bunk on my tour bus, and it's like literally a coffin." No one can come in, and I can just close the curtain and be here and be alone. And then, also, I would do things. It's fun touring. In America, the drives are so long, and then you make a stop over in El Paso or Cleveland. In Cleveland, I remember we had a day off, and I just Googled "things to do in Cleveland," and number three was "the cemetery." So, I went! And it was a good cemetery. Spend more time in cemeteries.

Why'd you jump right back into writing after the first album cycle wrapped? In my mind, I was like, "I'll just get loads of songs out of the way because I know how this process works. It's gonna take a really, really long time to find anything good, and I just want to get a good chunk in right now. And then I'll take the rest of the year off and start again in the New Year."

Once I started doing it, I was like, "Oh, I actually really like writing music." When you're touring and promoting an album, I wasn't writing any music or necessarily being super creative at all, and I forgot how much that's very important to me. It was encouraging because there's always a part of you that thinks, "Maybe I just can't. I won't be able to do it again. I won't be able to write another song."

Where did "Sanctify" come in the process? It came pretty early. I've been having a lot of encounters with straight guys that were not being straight with me and were struggling, to put it lightly, with their sexuality. I was very fascinated by that dynamic because for starters, it's a very common experience, I think, for gay men to fall for a straight guy.

I mean, I've done it. I think for a lot of gay guys, you're at school and fall in love with your straight friends. That happened to me, and I think that's really super common. But also, now that I'm an out gay man—very out—I've noticed how some straight guys gravitate...it's weird because I've almost found myself having these encounters with straight guys and find myself playing this saint and sinner role, or like this angel and devil, because I'm leading them down the path of "sinful gayness," but also I'm helping them satisfy the sexual desire that they feel they can't get anywhere else. It's strange to have that dichotomy, and so I was like, "I'm gonna write a song about it!"

Most of my straight crushes happened when I was younger, where it's like, "Oh, I feel like I can lust after this person because it's likely never going to amount to anything because they're straight, so it's not gonna hurt me in the end." I relate to that 100 percent. That's something that I felt when I was younger. But then it happened to me recently where I was like, "Am I having feelings for this straight guy? What is that about?"

It's like you said: Putting away your emotions and investing in someone that ostensibly is never gonna give you that back. It's kind of heartbreaking. Why would anybody put themselves in that position? I think when you're a gay guy, navigating the dating world and romance, it's hard enough. If you're just stepping outside of all of that bullshit and just putting it on a straight guy, you're right: "Oh, that will never happen. My feelings aren't gonna get hurt." Even though they always kind of do. You're lying to yourself.

Have you felt from straight men—or men that present as straight, I suppose—that they've projected those angel and devil roles back on you? Yes. It's funny because it's like you feel the sense of responsibility to not fuck up this guy that's clearly struggling with his sexuality, but then resenting the fact that I had to tread on eggshells.

Is it especially hard for you to date because you're you? Yeah. It's funny because I downloaded Grindr. I was newly single toward the end of 2016, and I've been in relationships all throughout my 20s, and I was like, "I really want to be single, and I need to be alone." I think it's the right decision, but I'm literally like...I haven't seen Call Me by Your Name, and now I just cannot watch it because I'm just like, "Why would I watch depictions of two men being in love when I know I'll die alone?" I just can't handle that right now.

Anyway, when I was newly single, I downloaded Grindr because I'd been in relationships or I'd been in the band. I couldn't have Grindr, but then I was like, "Wait, but why the fuck can't I have Grindr? I want to have this experience." You know? So I downloaded it and I was on it, and then it was just weird because people would think I was catfishing myself, which was kind of a head fuck.

Grindr has some great things about it, but it also has a lot of negatives, and it's just very hard to trust anybody. It just feels like this meat market of dick pics and sex positions. "Are you a top or bottom?" It does kind of depress me a bit, even though I love to hook up as much as the next guy. It's good for that, but people would think I was catfishing myself, or they'd be like, "Oh, I'm such a big fan," and that's kind of a turnoff, so it didn't go super well for me.

You know how some people have dreams of moving to Florence or living in Seoul? You can still do all of those things, but I always think for queer people, "Well, I kind of need to live somewhere where I'm not gonna face abuse." A queer-friendly place. I think a lot of straight people forget that sometimes. They're surprised when I say that to them.

I think the assumption with straight people is that it's 2018 and even though things are better for gay people, it's not entirely true. I went to a wedding in San Antonio with my partner a couple of weeks ago, and I remember thinking, "Oh! This is the first time in a long time that I have not felt comfortable!" Yeah, I totally agree with you. Back when I had a boyfriend, if we were getting a cab together, I would a be a little uncomfortable kissing in the back of a cab. A lot of that has to do with my own issues around internalized homophobia that I grew up with, but at the same time, I do live in a really gay-friendly city. But if you leave London, half an hour away, you feel like it's a completely different landscape, and, you know, it does feel very threatening to just hold your boyfriend's hand or be yourself.

That is the reality for most queer people. I think we have made amazing strides in so many ways and we can be super happy about that, but it would be delusional to think that everything's fine. It's also because the LGBT community is so diverse, so intersectional, and I think people outside of the community forget that. But people within the community forget it, too. We don't actually reach equality unless everybody has equality, but if you're used to privilege, true equality feels like oppression. Unfortunately, we're white gay dudes, and we are a minority, and we have our own systems of oppression, but we're also at the top of the privilege tree. I think there's a lot of imbalance there.

I'm always gonna support my siblings in the community, but it does make me really sad to see how much racism, sexism, and transphobia that exists from within, and I think there are lots and lots of reasons for that, but we just can't really lose sight of the fact that we're all fighting similar battles.

You use the word "queer." A lot of people are still uncomfortable with that. Yes.

Have you had a moment where you've said to yourself, "I am comfortable using this and here's the reason why"? Yeah. Whenever I have these kind of conversations, I try and say I personally like "queer," but I understand that it's really painful for many people, and I've had a few people get offended with my use of the word, which I do completely understand. I'd like to think I have enough humility to be able to engage with that person that has the problem with that word, and I would listen and I would try and learn something from that experience.

I suppose for me, I like it because it feels very inclusive. "LGBT" is also good, and both feel separate but also similar. I don't know. I would be interested to hear what you think about the word and the use of the word.

I feel the same way. I think it's a generation who grew up knowing that word as an insult and a slur, that's hesitant to let a younger generation reclaim it. I think in 20 years, the gay twentysomethings at that time will be using "fag" as slang, but I was called it when I was younger, and I'm not comfortable yet letting that word be reclaimed. Yeah, I feel the same way about that [word], too.

It might say more about me than it says about them. Maybe I should be thrilled that they're so comfortable to take that word, especially when we're having the conversation about "queer." I'm comfortable using "queer," but it's also because the kids who were bullying me when I was 12 and 13 weren't using that as an insult. Exactly, yeah. I have not grown up with being victimized by that word. That is a super important distinction. But some gay guys feel like it diminishes a gay identity, and I love being a gay man. I identify as a gay man all the time, but I also like to identify as queer. I suppose it feels like it encompasses my gay identity, but it also encompasses some other stuff—a more fluid approach to my gender. And I feel like when I spend time with my friends who identify as genderqueer or non-binary, queer feels like the best word for us all as group. Language is so multifaceted, and these are words that we can employ in different situations, and they don't have to be fixed. If we're just carrying on these conversations, then I think we're fine.

You talked about the people that you have surrounded yourself with. Have you built up a support system within the community? Oh yeah, 100 percent. I moved away from home when I was 18 to London, and what I did was just try to find my family and people that I felt could understand the experience that I was going through. I've met amazing people. I've also lost amazing people along the way, and unfortunately that's normal.

I'm not saying that being straight is easy, but when you're gay, you don't really have a familial network or support system. You have to find that. Also, I think there's a whole erasure of queer people who are in their 60s, 70s, 80s, and so there's this collective anxiety about aging and who's gonna love us and who's gonna take care of us and what if we don't have kids because we don't have any rulebooks for that or any guidebooks for that. It feels completely terrifying, and I know that I'm not alone in thinking that.

Do you worry at all about getting older? For sure. Now I feel a little bit more comfortable with it and I think, "Oh my God, I'm so happy that I'm not gonna have to worry." I don't want to have kids, and that's just a personal choice. It's nothing to do with being gay or not, but I used to worry that "Oh, I'm gay, and that means I can't have a longterm relationship or get married or have kids." That was just the thing that you were supposed to have, that everybody was supposed to have. Now, of course, we do live in a world where it's totally normal for gay guys to get married and have kids.

Now I kind of feel like, "Oh well, I feel like I can just be empowered enough to make the choice to not have those things. I don't want them," and still live a full, happy life and get old and be a mad gay guy living by the sea like Grace and Frankie. That's literally all I'm aiming toward, is living like Grace and Frankie.

You just mentioned how we're meant to assume that we won't have long relationships. I've been in a relationship for almost four years, but the way that straight people talk about the length of their relationship, as if it's like...you know how when you have a dog, and it's like, "Well, he's 8 in dog years, but he's 64 in human years." People seem shocked that we're able to carry out longterm monogamy. I know. On the one hand, I think one of the great things about being gay, I find, is it's not a given that you're gonna immediately enter a monogamous relationship with somebody that just has to last as long as possible, and it fails when it ends. It's like one rule, and it's not to cheat. I love that it feels like there are more possibilities. For myself as a gay guy, I feel like, "Oh, maybe I could have a different kind of relationship," which is great but...

The rulebook is different. Exactly. But at the same time, it does show the double standard that gay people are viewed as less likely to be able to commit. I think there are lots of reasons for that, and I don't want to jump to, like, "Oh, well, straight people just think that gay guys are deviant and promiscuous," you know? There's a seed of truth to that, still, that it is kind of a surprise to see a longterm relationship.

It's crazy how we have one relationship model. I think even five years ago, people weren't super aware of what polyamory meant or being in a throuple. And I was like, "Maybe I wanna be in a throuple?" And I was like, "Actually, that seems like the best relationship ever." I just wanna be the unicorn in the throuple, and I can live in the next house to the couple. Wait, this sounds so fun. How can I arrange this?

I'm sure you can arrange that. I know. In my mind, I'm working toward the Grace and Frankie throuple situation. I'm just gonna get high by the beach all day. Maybe see my husbands or whoever they are a couple times a week.

Styling by Nick Royal

[wavenetinfo]

WATCH New body camera footage shows chaos, carnage inside Pulse nightclub: Part 1

The Orlando police released 11 hours of new body camera footage on Wednesday from inside the Pulse nightclub on the night of the worst mass shooting in modern American history almost one year ago.

The footage contains dramatic scenes of chaos and carnage as first responders tried to save the wounded and hunt down the shooter who killed 49 people in the name of the Islamic State.

In a series of interviews ahead of the release of the footage to be broadcast tonight on “World News Tonight With David Muir” and “Nightline,” first responders and survivors told ABC News that the memories of that night, and the emotions stirred by them, are still raw.

“Several of us commented that this was gonna change the city forever,” said Roger Brennan, the police department’s commander on the scene, “and probably change what we do forever.”

By early morning on June 12, it had already been a violent weekend in Orlando. Litte more than 24 hours earlier, a young singer named Christina Grimmie was shot and killed while signing autographs for fans following her performance at the nearby Plaza.

On Saturday, Pulse, a popular spot in the city’s gay community, was packed with patrons, many of them young revelers eager to forget the previous night’s tragedy.

“We were all in a great mood,” said Jahqui Sevilla, a young woman who was at the club with friends. “We were in the club dancing. It was, like, one of the best nights I had — that turned into the worst day of my life.”

SLIDESHOW: Mass Shooting at Pulse Nightclub

‘)

Just after 2:00 a.m., a man named Omar Mateen, the 29-year-old American-born son of Afghan immigrants, entered the club, armed with a military-style assault rifle, and opened fire. Mateen, a security guard from Port St. Lucie, was an angry and troubled man with a history of violence and failure.

An off-duty police detective working security at Pulse radioed in, and less than a minute and a half later, backup units began to arrive. One officer, Graham Cage, heard the call and jumped on his bicycle. He ran into the club while everyone else was running out.

“I had a helmet, but a bicycle helmet,” Cage said. “It’s not gonna do a whole lot with that.”

As patrons rushed for the exits, the shooter rapidly fired shots from inside the club. The bullets missed Sevilla but hit the two friends she was standing with, one fatally.

“He had a gunshot wound to his chest,” she said. “That’s when I saw that he was injured. He was nonresponsive.”

The first responding officers returned fire, forcing the shooter to retreat further into the club. As those officers followed in pursuit, they passed bodies, dead and wounded, everywhere.

Police training calls for officers to head straight to the active shooter, even if it means ignoring the victims.

“A person reached up and asked for help, but at that point we didn’t know where the shooter was, if he was detained, if he was deceased, or what was going on,” said Kyle Medvetz, one of the police officers who responded. “So as much as I wanted to help, I could not help him until we know for sure the shooter was detained, contained or deceased.”

The shooter had barricaded himself in the bathroom with several hostages, which according to Maj. Mark Canty, who led the Orlando SWAT team, required the police to change their strategy.

“This went quickly, very, very quickly from an active shooter to what we call a barricaded gunman to a hostage situation,” Canty said.

The shooter was still inside, cornered and dangerous, but rather than immediately storm the building, Canty decided to wait. It was a decision that would later be criticized by some, as it would take three more hours for police to gain full control and get all the wounded in the back to safety.

Chief John Mina, in the command post, however, says it was the right call.

“During that whole three hours, we were in there saving people from the dance floor, from dressing rooms, from the other bathroom,” Mina said. “We took 22 people out of the front bathroom. Once we were inside that club, there were no more gunshots until the final assault.”

Play

Police release new body-camera footage from Orlando shooting

A half an hour after he first opened fire, the shooter called the Orlando police department dispatch center.

“I want to let you know I’m in Orlando and I did the shooting,” Mateen said. “I pledge my allegiance to Baghdadi on behalf of the Islamic State,” referring to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS.

Sgt. Andy Brennan, a trained hostage negotiator, was working an off-duty detail at a bar downtown that night when he responded the radio call from Pulse and headed to the dispatch center. He engaged the shooter over multiple phone calls, listening to his rants about ISIS and Syria.

“You need to stop the U.S. airstrikes,” Mateen said. “They need to stop the U.S. airstrikes, OK?”

Meanwhile, officers used the time to get as many victims out as possible despite concerns that the shooter might attempt to hide among the victims.

Officer James Hyland arrived in his personal pick-up truck, which a partner quickly turned into a makeshift ambulance.

“We didn’t have any ambulances or anything there. He just started loading people up,” Hyland said. “And he was just going back and forth, doing one run after another, after another, after another.”

Other trapped victims who could not be reached used their cell phones to call loved ones, who then called 911 to plead for help on their behalf.

“My girlfriend’s in the bathroom,” said one caller. “There are now four dead in the bathroom and two more are bleeding out. If somebody doesn’t get there soon they’re going to die.”

“Yes, my son is shot in the club in the Pulse in Orlando, and he’s still in the bathroom where he’s bleeding,” said a sobbing mother. “He got shot, and nobody’s going in for him.”

The rescue operation continued until Andy Brennan, the negotiator, heard words from the shooter that quickly changed the dynamic for everyone inside the nightclub.

“By the way, there is some vehicles outside that have some bombs, just to let you know,” Mateen said. “Your people are going to get it, and I’m going to ignite it if they try to do anything stupid.”

He escalated the threat, telling the negotiator that he had “a vest,” before abruptly hanging up.

“When you start talking about explosives,” said Roger Brennan, the scene commander, “now you have to pull your resources back.”

The information circulated among the officers on scene, but not a single officer pulled back to safety.

“We were in it to win it, you know?” Medvetz said. “And we didn’t want to leave.”

Instead, the police prepared to move in. With victims still trapped inside the nightclub, and the suspect threatening to set off explosives, Andy Brennan knew he was running out of time.

In his fourth and final phone call with Mateen, Brennan tried again to persuade him to come out of the nightclub without his weapons, but after making his demands, Mateen hung up.

It was after that fourth phone call that Mina decided his officers would have to storm the back bathrooms of the nightclub. 

“I wasn’t going to sit here in this command post and hear that explosion, knowing that he was going to blow up everyone, all those hostages inside that club, because there were many hostages left inside,” he said.

After getting Mina’s go order, the SWAT team moved toward the back bathrooms where they knew hostages were hiding.

“They said, ‘Hey, we’re going to push the air conditioning unit in, but before we do, you guys have to catch it because if you let it drop or make any noise, the killer is going to know where you’re at, and he might shoot through the walls and kill you,’” said Canty.

Canty said the hostages reached up to grab the air conditioning unit when it was pushed in and were able to set it down without making a sound. Eight hostages were able to escape from the nightclub through that opening, police said.

“I think the first person that came out was the person that was injured,” Canty said. “They were able to get out by themselves.”

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First responders to Pulse shooting describe eerie scene inside club

Inside a different area of the nightclub, Jahqui Sevilla also made her escape, carrying a friend who had been shot in the chest. He later died from his injuries. Her father, Benigno Sevilla, an Orlando firefighter, was waiting outside for her.

“I give her a quick once-over, make sure she has all her body parts,” Benigno Sevilla said. “I knew she was one of those who could be killed or injured.”

“It wasn’t until he was there and I knew that I could kind of just, like, collapse in his arms and I would be OK,” Jahqui Sevilla said.

After the air conditioning unit was out, police decided to move forward with their final assault. Officer Rob Woodyard drove an armored vehicle called a Bearcat toward the nightclub and tore open holes in the wall to create an escape route. SWAT team members following the Bearcat and then pulled hostages to safety as they ran out. 

“Every person we got out was a victory for us,” Woodyard said. “At that point, we know that we need to get these people out this building. So one by one, they’re coming out of these holes, and it’s a great feeling, seeing them come out.”

Even with the Bearcat, officers said they were still being cautious because the suspect had told them there were explosives. Canty said there was also a concern that the suspect would start firing on the hostages as they ran out, and they knew people were still trapped in that back bathroom.

“You’re trying to save as many people as you can,” Canty said. “There’s 13 people in that bathroom, you want to save them, there’s five with him.”

But the plan worked. Once the Bearcat came through the wall, police said Mateen stepped out into the open and started firing on the officers and the Bearcat.

“It was just, like, a wall of freedom,” said Michael Ragsdale, another officer who responded. “There was 30 seconds of just the most awesome sound you could hear, because it was us returning fire towards him.”

During the shootout with Mateen, Mina said a bullet struck Napolitano’s helmet. If it had been an inch lower, Mina said, Napolitano “would have been dead.” But instead, Mina said, the officer “went down to the ground still returning fire, and the other officers returned fire, killing the suspect.”

When the call went out over the police radios that the suspect was dead, Andy Brennan said, a “giant cheer went up” inside the command center.

“We all hollered, ‘Yay!’” added Bill Hammer, a dispatcher. “It was a big uproar.”

After hours of fighting, the massacre was finally over, but the officers involved felt there was little to celebrate. Mina said he and many of the officers were heartbroken by what happened.

“I was very proud of the police response, but still, you know, this person went in and killed 49 of our community members,” he said. “And so as a community, we were devastated.”

Editor’s note: Jahqui Sevilla was killed early Monday in a car crash.

ABC News’ Pete Madden, Lauren Effron, Randy Kreider, Cho Park, Margaret Katcher, Alex Gurvets and Erin Galloway contributed to this report.

1 June 2017 | 2:43 pm

Source : ABC News

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[writingsubmissions]

UFC on Fox 23 Preview

WHAT'S HAPPENING: *It wasn't much on paper, but in practice, UFC's offering on FS1 over MLK weekend wound up being perfectly fine, even though the ending was pretty much a total bummer. As a lot of people expected, Yair Rodriguez pretty much styled on B.J. Penn before becoming the first man (at least in UFC) to knock him down, eventually landing a ridiculous amount of blows on the ground against the Hawaiian legend before it got stopped, and leaving all of us wondering exactly what the hell we're doing here. The weird part is, in some ways Penn actually looked better than expected, at least technically - he had some brief early success clinching Rodriguez up, and landed a few solid strikes at one point based around his jab, but he just looked so old physically that the optics were absolutely awful, particularly once Rodriguez figured things out and was basically hitting Penn at will. It's kind of amazing looking back that Penn was once UFC's welterweight champion, given how small he looked here - nowadays, his natural weight class may be bantamweight, let alone featherweight. But anyway, Penn looked old even in his last fight two-plus years ago, so this was just...really, really bad. Anyway, who knows where we go from here - Rodriguez is now among the ranks of fringe contenders at featherweight, even though it's still unclear exactly how good he is - he's obviously talented and probably a top ten fighter or so at worst, but one does get the sense that there's a level where his dynamic but not particularly strategic style gets figured out and stifled. Though, on the other hand, there are guys like Anthony Pettis who can ride that all the way to a championship reign before it happens, so maybe Rodriguez is just in that class of fighter. And as for Penn, he should probably hang it up, moreso now than ever, but this is also the third or fourth straight fight of his where people have been saying that. *And a bunch of other fights happened, nothing too amazing, but also nothing too bad. Going through the rest of the main card, the biggest thing about the co-main was that two of the three judges seemed to be the only people in the building who thought Joe Lauzon beat Marcin Held, and this included Lauzon, who immediately started shaking his head after the decision was read for him and used his post-fight interview to make clear that he lost the fight. It was a bit of an ugly one, as after Lauzon had some success early, Held mostly just out-wrestled him and neutralized everything he did - on the one hand, Held didn't really do much with a lot of the advantageous positions he had, but on the other hand, Lauzon also didn't really do enough to win the fight either. Ben Saunders won a perfectly fine fight that could've gone either way that there's not much to say about, and I suppose the biggest win on the main card went to Sergio Pettis, who solidly won a fight over John Moraga and suddenly finds himself as sort of a contender. Sergio's sort of taken the complete opposite path of his brother Anthony - while Anthony burst onto the scene as a dynamic phenom, Sergio went through some struggles early in his UFC career and got kind of written off before putting together a really steady, well-rounded game and racking up decision win after decision win. So Pettis is now one of the best rising young fighters at flyweight, but unfortunately in a division with a champ that's currently cleaning house, that basically makes me worry that UFC doesn't rush Pettis into a title fight just for a lack of other available options. *As far as the prelims go, well, we already have 2017 submission of the year pretty much wrapped up, as Aleksei Oleinik hit one of the weirder ones in UFC history, an Ezekiel choke on Viktor Pesta while being fully mounted. On the one hand, Pesta probably should've seen it coming, as Oleinik already has close to double-digit wins via Ezekiel choke in his long career, but on the other hand, it's a strange choke that you don't really see often, and I don't think anyone expected it, least of all Pesta. As far as other standout performances, BJJ stud Augusto "Tanquinho" Mendes made good on his blue-chip prospect status, getting a narrow win over Frankie Saenz in a fight that looked like it was being set up for a Saenz victory. Although he's lost three straight, Saenz is a good fighter, so hopefully they hang onto him, especially since this was the best fight of the night. When it comes to other notable stuff, heavyweight Walt Harris looked good in picking apart fellow prospect Chase Sherman, Nina Ansaroff finally got her first UFC win with a one-sided performance over Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger, and Devin Powell continued the curse of Dana White's reality show, "Lookin' For A Fight", losing a one-sided decision to fellow debuting fighter Drakkar Klose. It's a funny one, that, particularly since it's Klose that's the projectable athlete and fits much more in the mold of who Dana White has personally signed, rather than Powell, a reedy brawler-slash-scrambler. *Well, Conor McGregor against Floyd Mayweather has progressed from "completely not a thing" to "almost completely not a thing," per a bunch of people. I'm assuming this basically has to do with WME-IMG looking at pay-per-view numbers for 2016, realizing that their biggest pay-per-view year ever was built on the backs of McGregor, Ronda Rousey, and possibly Brock Lesnar, and then realizing two of those people are gone and panicking about how to top it. The big thing a few weeks back was Dana White doing a radio appearance and offering Mayweather and McGregor $25 million each for the fight. This was dismissed pretty much immediately, given that it's less than Mayweather's made for a fight in years, and Floyd soon said as much, laughing off White as someone he used to remember carrying his bags. And to make the offer even stupider, $25 million is about twice as much as McGregor has made for a fight in his career, so you're pretty much telling McGregor his market value is double what he was already making, and now he has even more leverage to use that against you. Good work all around. Also, in a side note that should probably just be tagged onto this story, Nate Diaz applied for a boxing license in Nevada and is apparently close to getting it, so who the hell knows what long game the Diaz brothers are trying to play. *Bellator had a show. Tito Ortiz tapped out Chael Sonnen, who looked awful off the gas, in what was Ortiz's final fight, so now Sonnen is damaged goods, even though he'll be able to talk people into watching. I mean, the card did a really good rating, so there's that, but it never feels like Bellator is building momentum towards anything. Paul Daley kneed Brennan Ward's face in, so that was pretty cool, at least. *The Ultimate Fighter is coming back for a twenty-fifth (and perhaps final?) season, and the coaches have been announced - new bantamweight champ Cody Garbrandt and former teammate (and former bantamweight champ himself) T.J. Dillashaw. As long in the tooth as TUF is, these seasons start to live and die more and more based off the feud between the two coaches, and with the bad blood from Dillashaw's departure from Team Alpha Male, and Garbrandt replacing him as the top young fighter in the camp, this should be a good one. The two are slated to fight sometime after the show wraps, which will probably wind up being UFC's big July pay-per-view this year. As for the cast, it's going to consist of former TUF fighters, including some who are on the UFC roster, but none of the names leaked are particularly inspiring - either middle-of-the-road UFC roster guys like Zak Cummings or James Krause, guys who are past their prime like Joe Stevenson, or just fuck-ups there for personality who can't really fight, like the infamous Junie Browning. So...that'll be something. *A whole bunch of news is going on about various camps. First of all, it looks like the Blackzilians camp is pretty much no more after almost a year of rumors - team owner Glenn Robinson was going through issues with his main company filing bankruptcy, and apparently as time went on, this started to affect the camp. So, basically, a lot of the coaches, including striking coach Henri Hooft, and a lot of the team's best fighters, like Rashad Evans, Anthony Johnson, and Kamaru Usman, have all set up shop at Combat Club elsewhere in Florida, which essentially looks like the Blackzilians rebuilt under a new name. Meanwhile, the Blackzilians' main rival, American Top Team, lost one of its own mainstays, as former welterweight champ Robbie Lawler has surprisingly left the camp, where he pretty much revitalized his career, in favor of somewhere to be determined. And in a pretty interesting move, heavyweight Travis Browne has moved from the Glendale Fighting Club to Black House - it's interesting mainly because Browne is the boyfriend of Ronda Rousey, and moved to her team once the two started dating, and given how much of a hard line Rousey keeps when it comes to loyalty, this really does suggest that Rousey is done with Glendale coach Edmond Tarverdyan. On the plus side, at least the I.R.S. no longer considers Tarverdyan a fraud, as he's settled an ongoing case for a reported $160,000. *So the death knell for UFC Fight Pass may have come, as Eric Winter, head of the service, left after eighteen months on the job. Winter was a bit of a coup when he was hired from Yahoo! Sports, and he really did an awesome job with UFC's streaming service, getting the whole website re-designed, making sure a whole bunch of fights got cataloged and uploaded, and often making sure that the service would get one of the better fights on the card, as the "Fight Pass main event" was a landing spot for a lot of really excellent fights. Winter's stepping down to spend more time with his family, and it appears to be his decision, so it's unclear exactly where Fight Pass goes from here - 2017 has already been a bit down, since it looks like we're back to the service just getting the bottom-tier fights for the first two cards of the year, but then again, both of those cards have been so thin that that may not exactly be an indication of anything. *UFC re-booked Jessica Andrade and Angela Hill for the upcoming Fight Night in Houston, and it looks like this may portend an interesting change in UFC's drug testing policy. Basically, Hill, who was cut from UFC in 2015 and then spent 2016 moving up the ranks and becoming Invicta strawweight champion, was tabbed as a late replacement to face Andrade at UFC 207, but wound up falling victim to a quirk in the language of the drug testing policy - basically, anyone who was formerly in the UFC drug testing pool would be subject to a four-month window of testing before being allowed to fight again. This was to prevent guys from basically fake retiring, juicing up, and then suddenly returning, though, the rule only really initially came to light when UFC waived it to sign Brock Lesnar, who kind of wound up doing exactly that. Anyway, UFC I guess finally realized they could set the rules here and waived the rest of the four months for Hill, and the statement in which they did so included a note that apparently UFC and USADA are working to change this policy, so that fighters who are cut involuntarily from UFC aren't subject to these waiting periods, which would also make previous UFC fighters available once again as late-notice replacements. Good, smart stuff. *And now just a bunch of notes to wrap things up. UFC is currently off Russian TV, which is a bit odd as the company is seemingly set to expand into Russia as much as they can - basically, UFC I guess has left negotiating up to a third party who is demanding a much bigger contract from their Russian TV partner, and said network is balking. This all sort of feels like UFC's attempt to expand into China, which was scuttled as a bit of a disaster after a failure to understand the complex national politics going on. Invicta held another show - a good one as always - headlined by Megan Anderson beating Charmaine Tweet to become interim featherweight champion, basically the top true 145er out there with Cris Cyborg dealing with drug test issues. Anderson then called out the Holm/de Randamie winner, and given that the Australian prospect has marketable good looks and can beat the piss out of people, we should see her in UFC sooner rather than later. World Series of Fighting postponed their next show to a date a few weeks later, suggesting things aren't that great at everyone's favorite byzantine MMA pyramid scheme, and French prospect Tom Duquesnoy finally signed with UFC. Duquesnoy's topped prospect lists for years, and he's currently both the bantamweight and featherweight champion of BAMMA, one of the top promotions in Britain. Duquesnoy's reportedly had an offer on the table for years, but was just waiting until he felt ready to make a run in UFC, and even though he's just 23, apparently that time is now - I look forward to seeing what he can do. ------ BOOKINGS: *There's some actual pretty big stuff that's been announced, but let's do the usual run-through chronologically. First, as mentioned above, the Super Bowl weekend show in Houston added a fight between strawweight contenders Jessica Andrade and Angela Hill in a fight where Andrade will pretty much lock up a title fight if she wins. It'll be interesting to see what happens if Hill takes it, though - UFC just sort of threw her to the wolves as a 1-0 kickboxer in her first UFC stint, but she's improved greatly since then, and this would be a hell of a statement in a return. Plus with a few injuries on the card, some undercard fights got changed - with Sheldon Westcott out, Niko Price comes back from his debut win over Brandon Thatch to fight Alex Morono, Volkan Oezdemir will become the first Swiss fighter in UFC history when he steps in as a replacement against Ovince St. Preux, and with Evan Dunham and Johnny Case both hurt, their original opponents, Abel Trujillo and James Vick, will square off. And I guess to make up for the loss of a bout in that Trujillo/Vick shuffle, UFC added a late-notice heavyweight bout, with Anthony Hamilton facing the debuting Marcel Fortuna. *From there, we head to Brooklyn, where UFC 208 got a viable co-main to seemingly round out the card, as Anderson Silva will surprisingly return to take on Derek Brunson. The matchmaking makes sense if you figure the two are close in the rankings and Brunson was the best guy available for Silva to face on the date, but it's still a weird fight. Brunson isn't exactly a dream fight, someone UFC seems to be looking to build, or someone that Silva can just beat, so it's sort of minimizing the asset that is an Anderson Silva fight at this point, but it's still an interesting matchup to see exactly where both guys stand at middleweight from a purely sporting standpoint. Unfortunately, UFC 208 also wound up losing two fights in order to bolster the Halifax card a week later, but more on that in the next bullet point... *The original headliner for Halifax was supposed to be Junior dos Santos taking on Stefan Struve, but with Struve hurt and a search for a replacement turning up fruitless, dos Santos has been taken off the card entirely (more on him in a bit) and the new main is Derrick Lewis taking on Travis Browne in a fight originally slated for Brooklyn. It's not the biggest main event, but UFC actually wound up doing a good job filling out the rest of the card after a few weeks of radio silence. In what one assumes will be the co-main, Johny Hendricks will be moving up to middleweight to take on Hector Lombard, in a matchup of guys who badly need a win to rebound from a really rough 2016. Plus there's some other fun stuff - Liz Carmouche and Sara McMann will square off at bantamweight in a fight between two veterans who are suddenly relevant again, and with Gilbert Burns injured, Paul Felder's bout at UFC 208 has been scrapped, and he instead faces Canada's Alessandro Ricci here. Plus there are two fights in UFC's "let's get some Canadians on the card" division: British Columbia's Ryan Janes takes on Gerald Meerschaert at middleweight, and Halifax-based featherweight Gavin Tucker makes his UFC debut against Sam Sicilia. *And then there's stuff for March! The nightmare is finally over, as everything's finally agreed to, and Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson will face off at UFC 209 for the interim lightweight title. It's a hell of a fight between two excellent contenders, and the third time UFC has tried to put this fight together, but the whole interim title thing does feel a bit cheap since Conor McGregor is still fully healthy - this really seems like a deal where WME-IMG is just seeing the upside of having two title fights on a card without realizing that a second title probably doesn't really mean anything if it's just sort of made up, and if anything it just sort of hurts the drawing power of belts in the long term. One could say this is what UFC needed to do to have this fight go five rounds, but, well, they can just sort of arbitrarily decide that anyway. So that's the lone new fight for UFC 209, while the card the week after from Brazil added four undercard fights. Bethe Correia returns to face Marion Reneau, Jussier Formiga and Ray Borg square off in a fairly relevant flyweight fight, and in a fairly interesting featherweight bout, original TUF Brazil winner Rony Jason takes on Canadian prospect Jeremy Kennedy. Plus, UFC has signed TUF Brazil 3 alum Paulo Costa to debut on this show - he was initially matched up with Alex Nicholson, but Nicholson got hurt almost immediately after that fight was announced, so instead Costa faces South Africa's Garreth McLellan. And then we go to the London card, which still doesn't have a main event, but added two more undercard bouts to seemingly fill out the card - Tim Johnson and Daniel Omielanczuk square off at heavyweight, while bantamweights Lina Lansberg and Veronica Macedo square off in a bit of cruel matchmaking - Lansberg just fought Cris Cyborg at 145, while Macedo is so undersized for the division she might even be better off at strawweight. *UFC's still filling out stuff for March, but UFC 210 and UFC 211 are already set - 210 will be taking place in Buffalo on April 8th, while 211 heads to Dallas on May 13th. There's only one fight announced so far for Buffalo, and it's a good one, as Gegard Mousasi looks to keep breaking through in this latest run at middleweight by taking on former champ Chris Weidman. But it looks like UFC might be loading this one up, as there's a few big fights rumored for this card - the strongest one seems to be that this is where Daniel Cormier will finally defend his belt against Anthony "Rumble" Johnson, but there's also some whispers that the Jose Aldo/Max Holloway featherweight title fight may take place here, as well as a fight between Frankie Edgar and Ricardo Lamas, although all of that has yet to be confirmed by someone that credible. And as for Dallas, this all seems to be preliminary, but apparently the targeted main event is Stipe Miocic defending his heavyweight belt against Junior dos Santos, who I guess between Cain Velasquez's injuries and Fabricio Werdum feuding with UFC over money sort of wound up skipping the line, though JDS also has a win over Miocic in a pretty fun war that took place at the tail end of 2014. Also, there's two more bouts apparently set without a date just yet - as mentioned above, Cody Garbrandt is expected to defend his bantamweight title against T.J. Dillashaw after this coming season of TUF, and apparently Joe Rogan let slip that Anthony Pettis's return to lightweight will be against Russian striker Mairbek Taisumov. ----- ROSTER CUTS: 1) Tim Kennedy (18-6 overall, 3-2 UFC, last fought 12/10/16, L vs. Kelvin Gastelum): Longtime middleweight contender Kennedy retired, which had been brewing for a while, leaving behind a sort of complicated legacy. Kennedy kind of seemed like someone everyone could get behind - a former military sniper who earned a Bronze Star, Kennedy would fight between military commitments before being able to fight full-time as his career started with Strikeforce. And Kennedy had a ton of success as mostly a grinder - he would come up short in title fights against Jacare Souza and Luke Rockhold, but Kennedy was a solid third in Strikeforce's middleweight division, earning wins over guys like Robbie Lawler and Melvin Manhoef. And when Kennedy's UFC tenure started, it looked like he was pretty close to earning a title shot himself - he got a deathly boring win over Roger Gracie to start, but followed that up by knocking out Rafael Natal in the main event of a fight at Fort Campbell, which was a cool moment, and then getting another main event win in one-sided fashion over Michael Bisping. But Kennedy lost a fight to Yoel Romero in controversial fashion in late 2014 - Kennedy seemingly had Romero on the ropes at the tail end of round two, Romero's corner used a bunch of tricks like "forgetting" to take the stool out of the cage to buy Romero time to recover between rounds, and an obviously frustrated Kennedy took his eye off the ball and got knocked out in the third round. That loss and the way it happened seemingly broke Kennedy's will to compete in MMA for a bit, as he took about two years off and made an occasional bad headline. Kennedy spent his hiatus doing some weird reality show where he was hunting Hitler, and would just spend a lot of time in the alt-right sphere of things, appearing on shows with Alex Jones and firing off the sporadic crazy post on social media, highlighted by one where he talked about killing women and children while in the military, circling it all back to show that having PTSD is a choice, essentially calling those who suffered from it mentally weak "pussies." Just...gross stuff. So Kennedy finally returned in 2016, at first slated to fight Rashad Evans at Madison Square Garden, but after Evans had medical clearance issues, Kennedy wound up taking on Kelvin Gastelum this past December. And Kennedy looked like his old self, overpowering Gastelum for a bit, but that lasted about a round, as Kennedy suddenly gassed, and basically got wrecked before the referee called things off in the third round. So about a month after that, Kennedy retired via social media, and, say what you will, it looks like he'll be focusing on efforts to help unionize MMA fighters - hopefully that becomes a positive part of his legacy. 2) Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger (6-4 overall, 0-3 UFC, last fought 1/15/17, L vs. Nina Ansaroff): Jones-Lybarger announced her retirement a few days after her loss to Ansaroff, although honestly, she was probably getting cut after a 0-3 UFC record anyway. Jones-Lybarger, a former basketball player out of Arizona, is obviously an athlete, and was a solid pickup by UFC in late 2015, given that she was coming off a win against solid vet Zoila Frausto to cap a 5-1 record. But she never really showed much, as she seemed to struggle to impose her game against UFC-level athletes, even as the matchmaking sort of moved her down the ladder - a debut against top contender Tecia Torres did her no favors, the follow-up against Randa Markos was just sort of a sloppy affair, and a bout against Ansaroff, who was 0-2 in UFC herself, was just mostly a one-sided beating in her hometown. ----- UPCOMING UFC SHOWS: 2/4 - UFC Fight Night 104 - Houston, TX - Dennis Bermudez vs. Chan Sung Jung, Alexa Grasso vs. Felice Herrig 2/11 - UFC 208 - Brooklyn, NY - Germaine de Randamie vs. Holly Holm, Derek Brunson vs. Anderson Silva 2/19 - UFC Fight Night 105 - Halifax, NS - Travis Browne vs. Derrick Lewis, Johny Hendricks vs. Hector Lombard 3/4 - UFC 209 - Las Vegas, NV - Tyron Woodley (c) vs. Stephen Thompson, Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov, Mark Hunt vs. Alistair Overeem 3/11 - UFC Fight Night 106 - Fortaleza, Brazil - Vitor Belfort vs. Kelvin Gastelum, Edson Barboza vs. Beneil Dariush, Mauricio Rua vs. Gian Villante 3/18 - UFC Fight Night 107 - London, England - Corey Anderson vs. Jimi Manuwa 4/8 - UFC 210 - Buffalo, NY - Gegard Mousasi vs. Chris Weidman 5/13 - UFC 211 - Dallas, TX - Stipe Miocic (c) vs. Junior dos Santos ----- UFC on Fox 23 - January 28, 2017 - Pepsi Center - Denver, Colorado Even though UFC's slate for early 2017 is fairly disappointing in the wake of them loading up big shows in November and December, they did well to put together a solid card here, as the company continues to sort of nail down the Fox format. We've got a photogenic fight on top that may determine a title contender, the biggest test yet for what could be UFC's next great heavyweight, and two really solid action fighters. And even the undercard is pretty solid - the top two prelims are pretty strong, and while things rapidly go downhill after that in terms of relevance, thankfully a lot of the card is prospects with some upside, rather than low-ceiling veterans matched together due to there not being much else to do. At least on paper, this card looks like it could be the highlight of the first two months of the 2017 calendar, so hopefully it comes through in practice. MAIN CARD (Fox - 8:00 PM ET): Women's Bantamweight: (#1) Valentina Shevchenko vs. (#2) Julianna Pena Welterweight: (#5) Donald Cerrone vs. (#12) Jorge Masvidal Heavyweight: (#7) Andrei Arlovski vs. (#10) Francis Ngannou Featherweight: Alex Caceres vs. Jason Knight PRELIMINARY CARD (Fox Sports 1 - 5:00 PM ET): Middleweight: Sam Alvey vs. Nate Marquardt Bantamweight: (#4) Raphael Assuncao vs. (#7) Aljamain Sterling Welterweight: Jingliang Li vs. Bobby Nash Light Heavyweight: Henrique da Silva vs. Jordan Johnson Middleweight: Alessio Di Chirico vs. Eric Spicely Light Heavyweight: Marcos Rogerio de Lima vs. Jeremy Kimball PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass - 4:00 PM ET): Flyweight: Alexandre Pantoja vs. Eric Shelton Lightweight: J.C. Cottrell vs. Jason Gonzalez THE RUNDOWN: Valentina Shevchenko (13-2 overall, 2-1 UFC) vs. Julianna Pena (8-2 overall, 4-0 UFC): Welcome to the new normal, as this fight, which UFC has been trying to put together for a while, will probably determine Amanda Nunes's next challenger in the first fight of the post-Rousey era. And it's a pretty excellent fight, pitting striker against grappler in what's becoming a rarer and rarer matchup of the two obvious top contenders for a title. Back in late 2013, when Julianna Pena pretty much ran through the rest of the TUF 18 cast to become the first female Ultimate Fighter winner, there was some thought that she might be facing Ronda Rousey for the belt sooner rather than later - for one thing, she looked good in her fights, but with marketable good looks, a friendship with Rousey blood rival Miesha Tate, and a division that was still in an early state of flux, Pena had all the tools to work her way up the ladder in fairly short order. But that got derailed almost immediately thanks to a massive knee injury suffered before her first post-TUF fight, and things have gotten sort of weird from there. In the cage, Pena has done her job well enough since coming back, running through Milana Dudieva in her comeback fight and then getting wins over Jessica Eye and Cat Zingano, but outside of the cage, she hasn't really connected with the fanbase much, and if she has, it's been quite negatively. Essentially, if Pena pops up in the MMA news, it's usually for one of two things - either one of a surprising amount of bar fights she and her teammates seem to find themselves in, or just some weird comment where Pena apparently thinks she's a much bigger star than she actually is, demanding a title shot and just pretty much making it clear with every fight that we should be thankful she's fighting rather than holding out for a title shot she thinks she's already earned. All that talk is well and good, but there's a point where it becomes more delusional than anything, and Pena's probably past that - unless she manages to win this fight, of course. On the other side of things, Valentina Shevchenko just sort of quietly became a contender in pretty quick fashion - she came in as a late injury replacement on the last card of 2015 and beat Sarah Kaufman, and then had a performance that looks even better in retrospect against Nunes, becoming the second fighter to last fifteen minutes with the current champ and winning a fairly one-sided third round in a close decision loss. From there, Shevchenko was seemingly expected to be a set-up win for Holly Holm to rebound against after losing the bantamweight title, and I could see the logic - Shevchenko is primarily a striker by trade, and Holm had already theoretically proven herself to be the best striker in women's combat sports, but after a slow start, Shevchenko pretty much figured Holm out standing and then started to use her wrestling, earning an increasingly lopsided win and establishing herself as a top contender. So, yeah, this is a really fascinating fight - Shevchenko's proven herself to be a top-tier well-rounded fighter in just a little over a year in UFC, while Pena's still somewhat of a question mark, and it's unclear if she's truly at the level of a title contender, or just sort of at the top of the next tier. Pena's two most recent fights, those wins over Eye and Zingano to get her into this spot, are just weird ones because they're so one-dimensional - either Pena or her opponent just keeps looking for the clinch and to grapple, and Pena's been able to win narrow victories by using strength and positioning to do just enough to win. But she's really unproven on the feet - outside of some flailing punches early in the Eye fight that did not look good, there's just not enough to go on to call her striking game anything other than a question mark. Add in some questions about how good those wins over Eye and Zingano really are - Rousey's fall from grace has sort of shown that we're in the middle of an evolution process in women's MMA, and Eye's losing streak and Zingano's flat last few fights suggest those two may be on the wrong side of it - and there's just a lot of uncertainty around Pena's resume, though she's enough of a talent where any skepticism should also be laced with some optimism. Pena definitely still has a shot to win, particularly after re-watching Shevchenko's fight with Nunes - I remembered it being a lot closer of a fight before Nunes got tired and Shevchenko took over, but Shevchenko did struggle a lot early when Nunes was able to get her to the ground and get on top of her, and that pretty much figures to be Pena's gameplan. One would think that Shevchenko should just be able to keep the fight standing and probably handle Pena rather easily on the feet, but if nothing else, Pena's last two fights have shown she can usually get the fight where she wants, although that comes with the caveat that Zingano, and Eye in particular, have some questions about strategy. A Pena victory is certainly possible, but I just have too many concerns to call it, so I'll say that Shevchenko wins this rather handily, in fact keeping things on the feet and just out-striking Pena - I'm assuming Pena is better than some of those flailing punches she showed in the Eye fight, because if not, a quick finish is certainly on the table, but instead I'll say that this is more of an extended beatdown, finally ending late due to a TKO stoppage. Donald Cerrone (32-7 [1] overall, 19-4 UFC, 6-3 [1] WEC) vs. Jorge Masvidal (31-11 overall, 8-4 UFC, 5-1 Strikeforce, 2-1 Bellator): A fun fight here, as Donald Cerrone, as always, is keeping busy, and good on Jorge Masvidal for calling his shot. It's pretty impressive how quickly Cerrone regained his momentum in 2016 - after losing a lightweight title fight in one-sided fashion to Rafael dos Anjos, Cerrone pretty much seemed eternally cemented as UFC's top non-contender, a fan favorite who was probably better off fighting whoever's available as soon as possible and putting on a good showing rather than trying to make a focused run for a belt. And, well, Cerrone's sort of split the difference - he moved up to welterweight just to take another fight that eventually wound up being against Alex Oliveira, and with that his striking has taken another leap forward, as he became the first man to knock out Patrick Cote, the first man to knock out Rick Story, and the first man to cleanly knock out Matt Brown, quickly becoming a contender once again despite not really changing much in his approach to taking fights. At the moment, Cerrone doesn't really seem to have a clear path to a title shot, with Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson scheduled for a rematch, and the winner likely to get Demian Maia, who's holding out for a well-deserved title fight, so, as "Cowboy" is wont to do, he's just taking whatever fight is available, so here he is in his hometown against Jorge Masvidal. Credit to Masvidal for being a smart man, since while many fighters just say they'll fight whoever UFC puts in front of them, Masvidal straight up called out Cerrone after his win over Jake Ellenberger this past December, putting a fight on management's radar that nobody else was probably thinking of at the moment. Masvidal's had a strange career - he came up in the same Miami street-fight scene that birthed Kimbo Slice and turned into a pretty solid, well-rounded fighter, fighting all over the world in Japan, the nascent days of Bellator, and Strikeforce before landing in UFC. But Masvidal's also ridiculously frustrating - he's not much for overall fight strategy, and even when he's winning a fight based off his talents, he has a bad tendency to start coasting, making his wins closer than they need to be and even sometimes turning them into losses. Anyway, this should be a solid win for Cerrone - he has some flaws, particularly when dealing with fighters who can pressure him like Brown did, but I really don't have any faith in Masvidal to do what he needs to do and keep winning rounds - plus even the grappling game is sort of a wash, as both guys are underrated on the mat. I'll give Masvidal the benefit of the doubt that he's tough enough to survive all three rounds with Cerrone, since he hasn't been knocked out since 2008, even though Cerrone's on a streak of breaking formerly unbreakable chins. So I'll say Cerrone wins a clear decision in a fight that's fun and never quite reaches blowout status. Andrei Arlovski (25-13 [1] overall, 14-7 UFC, 0-3 Strikeforce) vs. Francis Ngannou (9-1 overall, 4-0 UFC): A really, really fascinating fight here, as Francis Ngannou is the rare blue-chip heavyweight prospect, and he has a shot to become a legitimate contender way quicker than anyone could've really anticipated. Ngannou was always viewed as someone with potential, as the Cameroonian fighting out of France is a giant mountain of a man built like a NFL defensive lineman, but he was only about two years into the sport when UFC signed him in late 2015. But, well, Ngannou wound up being a natural when it comes to picking things up, as you can trace a clear line of upward progression through his four UFC fights. In his first bout, against Luis Henrique, Ngannou mostly got taken down at will before uppercutting Henrique's head into the bleachers, and by his next fight, against stud wrestling prospect Curtis Blaydes, Ngannou was stuffing takedown after takedown without much of a problem. After a quick showcase win over Bojan Mihajlovic, Ngannou showed last month that he's somewhat scarily already learned submissions - Anthony Hamilton tried to clinch up with him and wear him out, but Ngannou just grabbed a kimura and basically took Hamilton, who's a large man himself, down by sheer force, getting the quick tap. So Ngannou is pretty much the prospect to watch at heavyweight, especially given that he's one of the younger fighters on the roster at age 30, though there's still a bunch of questions to be answered when he goes into deeper waters, like how he responds to getting hit and exactly how he'll deal when facing higher level athletes that he might not have such an obvious advantage against. It'll be interesting to see what type of a challenge Andrei Arlovski offers him, particularly as his career is sort of sputtering after the luck of his UFC comeback run has started to turn the other way. A former UFC heavyweight champ over a decade ago, Arlovski was sort of left for dead after a run of four straight losses in Affliction and Strikeforce from 2009 to 2011, three of which came via vicious knockout - basically, the book was out that Arlovski suddenly had a glass jaw, which at heavyweight is pretty much a death sentence. But Arlovski quietly rebounded a bit, racking up wins in various promotions, though when UFC re-signed him in 2014, it was still seen as little more than a novel signing for depth in an extremely thin division. But the next two years saw Arlovski make a run towards an unlikely title shot - it included deathly boring decision wins over Brendan Schaub and Frank Mir, but Arlovski also scored quick knockouts of Antonio Silva and Travis Browne that, admittedly, haven't aged particularly well. And in 2016, the luck pretty much ran out - Stipe Miocic ran through him in just 54 seconds en route to his own title shot, Alistair Overeem knocked him out, and while a loss to Josh Barnett was less one-sided, Arlovski eventually got tapped out late there as well. As it is, Arlovski's pretty much just a fringe top-ten fighter at this point - while he's not particularly physically imposing anymore, he makes up for that by just knowing what he's doing; despite the recent knockout losses, Arlovski's done a solid job of protecting his chin, especially compared to where he used to be, and he basically has a much better sense of physical space and technical striking than at any point in his career. So there's the chance that, by being the smaller and quicker guy, Arlovski can just use his veteran savvy to avoid danger and pick Ngannou apart - and hell, given that we haven't really seen Ngannou get hit, that may also turn downhill quickly into some sort of a knockout. But, more likely than not, Ngannou will probably use his athleticism to hit the great equalizer and put Arlovski's lights out. I do think Arlovski's a bit underrated here - Arlovski's currently between a three- and four-to-one underdog, and he really could just make Ngannou chase him and wear him out in an ugly fight - but I'll say Ngannou in fact does get another first-round knockout and makes the win look a lot easier than it actually is. Alex Caceres (12-9 [1] overall, 7-7 [1] UFC) vs. Jason Knight (16-2 overall, 2-1 UFC): UFC pretty much always opens up the main Fox card with a good action fight, and with this one, they've done it once more. Alex Caceres is a frustrating talent, since while he has a bunch of skills and often puts on an exciting show, it's unclear whether or not that's all coalesced into anything all that good. Caceres was more notable for his "Bruce Leeroy" persona rather than anything he really showed in the cage on season 12 of TUF, but UFC still saw fit to pick him up thanks to his potential. It took a bit for that gamble to pay off, as Caceres started 1-3 in the UFC, but it eventually did, as Caceres soon reeled off a five-fight unbeaten streak that was mostly over the lower reaches of the bantamweight division, but culminated with what was a big win at the time over Sergio Pettis. And even the fight that snapped that streak, a July 2014 loss to Urijah Faber, was considered a plus performance at the time for Caceres, since he gave a much better showing than expected from a non-contender. And then, well, the wheels came off a bit - Caceres lost in an upset to Japanese vet Masanori Kanehara, and then got blown out of the water by Francisco Rivera, causing Caceres to move back up to his original weight class at featherweight. Results have been mixed - after an obvious tune-up win over Masio Fullen, Caceres looked outstanding for two rounds against Cole Miller before almost losing the fight a few times in the third, and his main event fight against Yair Rodriguez over the summer was a strange one, as both guys just sort of did stuff without much of an overall plan, with Rodriguez mostly getting the better of things. And that's sort of still Caceres's game - he just kinda does stuff, even if you can see him mixing things up and picking his shots a bit more than he used to. On the other side of things, we have Mississippi's Jason Knight, who's quickly making a name for himself as a featherweight prospect to watch. After a completely nothing UFC debut where Tatsuya Kawajiri just kept taking him down, Knight showed out in his sophomore effort against Jim Alers, showing a propensity for trash talking, volume striking, and basically just not giving a fuck that led to him getting the moniker "Hick Diaz" in some circles. And he pretty much followed that up against Daniel Hooker in Australia this past November - Knight just throws a lot of volume and doesn't particularly care what you do to him, showing some Southern machismo the whole while. And I think that's going to throw Caceres off - while his performances are inconsistent from fight to fight, or hell, even round to round, they're still mostly predicated on dynamic bursts of offense, and I figure Knight is just going to get in Caceres's face, overwhelm him with punches, and just sort of prevent Caceres from gathering his bearings about what he's going to do next. I doubt Knight finishes him, since he hasn't shown much knockout power in the UFC to date, but I still think it'll be a fairly one-sided, but still pretty fun, decision win. Sam Alvey (29-8 [1] overall, 6-3 UFC, 1-1 Bellator) vs. Nate Marquardt (35-16-2 overall, 13-9 UFC, 1-1 Strikeforce): A solid enough fight here between veteran middleweights that could wind up in a pretty brutal knockout. It's nice that Nate Marquardt settled into a late-career niche and UFC figured out what to do with him; after a long stint as a middleweight contender and lower-tier card main eventer in UFC, then a brief run in Strikeforce, Marquardt's second UFC run was just sort of getting depressing. Marquardt lost four of five fights upon his comeback, and save a win over a similarly shot James Te Huna, it looked like Marquardt had just suddenly finally gotten old, as knockout artists like Jake Ellenberger and Hector Lombard destroyed him rather quickly, and younger, more athletic guys like Brad Tavares and Kelvin Gastelum made him look old and completely done as a fighter. But Marquardt was able to knock out C.B. Dollaway in a fight that seemed set up to be an easy win for Dollaway, and after being run through by another young athlete in Thiago Santos, UFC seems to have finally gotten the hint, realizing that Marquardt is a greatly diminished athlete, but still a dangerous veteran with knockout power, and putting him against fellow veterans in fights he can actually win. God knows there's enough non-athletes at middleweight. So anyway, after a brutal knockout of Tamdan McCrory, Marquardt returns to try and make it two straight against "Smilin'" Sam Alvey, who had a bit of a breakout in 2016. Alvey's always sort of been a weird cult favorite on the UFC roster, a giant, goofy ginger with a permanent grin that walks out to Train and gives these weirdly enthusiastic post-fight interviews, where he just sort of rants and raves about how great things are, including [insert city here] and calls out his next opponent. Alvey looked like he might be on the cut line after coming back from a broken jaw and losing to Elias Theodorou in June, but instead Alvey wound up fighting three times in under four months - his wife, always in his corner, and seemingly always pregnant (and a former America's Next Top Model winner - live the life, Sam), had another child, so he's gotta pay the bills - and has racked up three straight wins over Eric Spicely, Kevin Casey and Alex Nicholson. Alvey still doesn't have a ton of upside, but at least he seems to be carving out a niche, particularly since UFC seems to be putting him in more prominent situations on cards recently. This is a super-weird fight to call - Marquardt is still dangerous and has veteran savvy in spades, but sometimes he looks just awful out there, although that may just depend on his level of competition. And Alvey just has a ridiculously weird counter-striking style that's extremely low-percentage, but still works for him - Alvey just basically refuses to engage first, and just sort of hangs back and waits for an opening where he can blast his opponent with a power punch down the middle. When it works, it's an awesome knockout, but when it doesn't, things can turn into sort of a slog, as Alvey just kind of neutralizes his opponent while doing nothing himself. So this could go any number of ways. I sort of discount the possibility of Alvey winning via knockout, since I think Marquardt has enough experience to not give him the opening, but if this is one of those fights where Marquardt looks shot, that's entirely possible. So I could see this turning into a war of attrition where Marquardt isn't really able to do much, Alvey chooses not to, and this goes to the cards; but, I'll actually say that Marquardt is able to find an opening at some point and nail Alvey with a knockout shot, plus there's always the possibility that Marquardt just takes things to the ground, which he hasn't done in a while and doesn't really seem to be Alvey's strong suit. But as far as an official prediction, I'll take Marquardt via second-round KO. Raphael Assuncao (23-5 overall, 7-2 UFC, 3-2 WEC) vs. Aljamain Sterling (12-1 overall, 4-1 UFC): A really well-made and interesting fight here, pitting two fringe bantamweight contenders badly in need of a win against each other, as well as continuing the streak of Aljamain Sterling's fights being a little bit lower on the card than they probably should be. UFC's never really seemingly made him a priority, but Sterling's been a blue-chip prospect pretty much since he came onto the scene - Jon Jones comparisons were inevitable, given that Sterling's also a lanky black athlete who wrestled in upstate New York before starting in the same gym as Jones, but while it's not really an apt comparison in terms of style, it was looking pretty suitable in terms of results for a while. Sterling was pretty much using his wrestling at will to just keep running through opponents as he moved up the ladder, and after tapping out Johnny Eduardo to finish out his UFC contract, it seemed like the world was Sterling's oyster. But for whatever reason, MMA promotions just don't really seem to see much in Sterling, who's a charismatic and talented guy - Bellator reportedly didn't even make an offer, and while he got a pay raise from UFC, it still seemed low for a future marketable contender. And then things hit a further snag last May - in a bout against Bryan Caraway that seemed set to build Sterling towards a title shot, Sterling just sort of fell apart after a dominant first round, getting tired and showing a whole bunch of holes in both his striking and his takedown defense. Thankfully, Sterling's still at the point where he can fix some of those mistakes, but it was a concerningly poor performance late in that fight, and "The Funk Master" badly needs a rebound win against Raphael Assuncao, the dark horse of the bantamweight title picture. At the end of 2014, Assuncao seemed pretty much set for a title shot - he's sort of bland and won't get anyone excited, but he's damned good, and was riding a 7-0 record, all in the UFC, after cutting to bantamweight, including a win over then-champ T.J. Dillashaw. But an injury forced him out of a slated fight with Urijah Faber, and a long layoff pretty much killed all the momentum of Assuncao's career - he didn't return until UFC 200 after twenty-one months on the shelf, and even then there were rumors he fought injured while losing a rematch to Dillashaw in a fight where Assuncao still looked sort of good, but clearly lost all three rounds. Losing a fight to Dillashaw is no shame, but given where his career is and the fact that, frankly, he's not the kind of guy who'll get fans clamoring to see him in a big fight, Assuncao badly needs all the wins he can get, including one here. It's a really well-matched fight, but at the end of the day, I think it really just comes down to if Sterling can get Assuncao to the ground and keep him there, and sadly, I'm not really all that optimistic. Caraway just seemed to blow Sterling's game wide open, showing that at least as of last May, if you pressure Sterling and can counter his single strikes from a distance fairly effectively, he doesn't really do a whole hell of a lot while playing defense. And while Assuncao may not have the type of footwork to pressure Sterling quite like Caraway did, Assuncao's main strength is his ability to counter on the feet, so unless Sterling's patched those holes in his game (which is in fact completely possible for a talent like Sterling), the striking game figures to be all Assuncao. And Assuncao's takedown defense has pretty much been on point - Caraway and even Dillashaw, two talented wrestlers, weren't able to do much with him, and even when they got Assuncao to the ground, he pretty much popped right back up. Admittedly, Sterling might wind up being at another level, but again, it's somewhere else where I'm not optimistic. Despite my pessimism, I still give Sterling a shot here - mainly banking on his solid coaching at Serra-Longo and the fact that he's a top-flight kind of talent - but everything on paper favors Assuncao, so I'll say the Brazilian takes a clear decision. Jingliang Li (11-4 overall, 3-2 UFC) vs. Bobby Nash (8-1 overall): This could be a pretty fun fight, but I say this as someone who's a big fan of Jingliang Li, the one decent fighter to come out of UFC's now-abandoned efforts in China. And Li's not just decent by the low standard of Chinese fighters, he's pretty solid overall, as he could easily be 5-0 in the UFC - his loss to Nordine Taleb was a close split decision, and he was winning a fight against Keita Nakamura before getting caught in a last-ditch submission attempt. At first, Li lived up to his "The Leech" nickname, mostly being a one-dimensional wrestler, but he's developed a pretty solid boxing game over his UFC career, flashing some good technique and knockout power. After a few opponents fell out of fights on a few different cards, Li winds up here in Denver to fight Michigan-based newcomer Bobby Nash. Nash seems fine - he looks like an alright-enough athlete and has some solid striking himself, but honestly not a ton stood out, at least at the moment. That's alright enough for now, since Nash is just a little over two years into his pro career, and he seems like he could at least stick around if he's matched up against lower-level UFC opponents often enough, but I don't think Li is that. This should be a fight where Li is controlling most of it, since Li should be the better striker and the better wrestler, but the saving grace for Nash is that Li's defense is still quite poor in pretty much every area, and Nash has shown fight-ending ability both in terms of knockout power and submissions. But I expect Li to just do what he wants unless he gets stopped, and given that another negative for Nash is that I really didn't like the way he reacted to getting hit, sort of backing up to collect his thoughts, I'll call for Li to stun him early and move in for the kill for a first-round knockout. Henrique da Silva (12-1 overall, 2-1 UFC) vs. Jordan Johnson (6-0 overall): A perfectly fine light heavyweight bout here. Henrique "Frankenstein" da Silva has kept busy, with this being his third UFC fight in under four months, but it's hard to tell if he's actually any good - he didn't come into UFC with much in the way of expectations, and while he's had an alright amount of success mostly through sheer aggressiveness, all save one of his UFC fights have come against debuting opponents, and the level of competition doesn't seem to be all that high. So da Silva looks to rebound from the lone loss of his career, a submission to Paul Craig, against yet another debuting fighter, top light heavyweight prospect Jordan Johnson. A former wrestler at both Iowa and Grand Canyon University, Johnson's pretty much a raw grinder at this point, though he has some submission skills, and seems to have taken to striking well enough that he's been on a lot of top prospect lists at 205. And Johnson's done about as well as could be expected, getting six wins without a ton of trouble, and doing so in RFA, one of the top regional promotions you can go to in the US. This isn't quite a gimme - since Johnson's still just under three years into his pro career, I do have some questions about how he can react if da Silva decides to go into Frankenstein mode and just charges forward with little regard for defense - but Johnson does have enough wrestling skill, and da Silva has enough defensive liabilities, that I can just see Johnson grinding out a fairly one-sided decision by winning round after round, with a possibility of him getting a submission at some point. Alessio Di Chirico (10-1 overall, 1-1 UFC) vs. Eric Spicely (9-1 overall, 1-1 UFC): A neat fight here at middleweight. It's hard not to root for Eric Spicely - he came across as an easy fan favorite on season 23 of TUF, since he's overcome a pretty horrible amount of adversity, leaving a broken home as a teenager, pulling himself together after the death of his girlfriend in a freak canoeing accident, and just eventually got his life on track. But despite being a pretty solid fighter and making the final four of the season, there was some concern he wouldn't get a contract - Spicely's sort of a pudgy, physically unimpressive guy, and his grappling-heavy style seemed like something Dana White would really hate. But Spicely did wind up getting a shot, losing in what was honestly pretty embarrassing fashion via quick submission to Sam Alvey, and that seemed to be that for Spicely's career in the UFC. And, well, it was supposed to be, but a funny thing happened - in the whole purchase of UFC by WME-IMG, apparently the paperwork to terminate Spicely got lost in the shuffle. So, come August, Spicely apparently got a call explaining just that and offered him one of two options - to get cut, or to fight Thiago Santos, a top-fifteen fighter with destructive power, on about a month's notice in Santos's home country of Brazil. Spicely took the latter choice, and, wouldn't you know it, wound up out-wrestling Santos and scoring a first-round submission, getting one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, and the biggest one (at least per betting lines) of 2016. Good on him. So after that, Spicely returns a few months later to fight Alessio Di Chirico, one of UFC's recent signings out of Italy, a country that's increasingly starting to build a MMA scene. Di Chirico's solid - he seems to be a strong athlete, and has some solid boxing, though his grappling game is still a little bit of a question mark (at least at a UFC level) and he still seems rather raw overall. So this pretty much boils down to a striker-versus-grappler fight; Spicely obviously wants to get things to the ground, since that's the only place he's had any real high-level success, and Di Chirico should be able to take this if it remains standing. Di Chirico seems to have some decent takedown defense, with the caveat that Spicely might be the best wrestler he's faced to date, so I'll call for the Italian to mostly keep this on the feet and win a decision, though this is really a coin flip of a fight. Marcos Rogerio de Lima (14-4-1 overall, 3-2 UFC, 0-1 Strikeforce) vs. Jeremy Kimball (14-5 overall, 1-1 Bellator): This is one of those fights that doesn't really mean a whole hell of a lot, but pretty much exists to be a fun brawl, and I'm okay with that. Not a ton was expected of Marcos Rogerio de Lima off of TUF Brazil 3, but "Pezao" has done well enough for himself, getting over .500 in UFC by pretty much just being aggressive as hell and always searching for the finish, which has wound up with all five of his UFC fights ending in the first round one way or another. He was slated to face John Phillips, yet another Conor McGregor teammate being signed by the UFC, but with Phillips having visa issues, the late-notice call went to local Colorado fighter Jeremy Kimball. Not a ton of recent footage is out there on Kimball, but his M.O. seems to be the same as de Lima's - to just hit the other dude in the face really hard, and worry about the rest later. So these two guys are probably going to swing bombs at each other, and since de Lima's been doing it at a higher level, I'll say the Brazilian takes it by first-round knockout. But this is really just a fight wherever who hits the first big bomb wins it. Alexandre Pantoja (16-2 overall) vs. Eric Shelton (10-2 overall): This most recent season of TUF - built around flyweight champions from promotions all over the world competing in a tournament for a title shot against UFC kingpin Demetrious Johnson - was the best in years in terms of talent, but for whatever reason, UFC didn't really sign a lot of guys off the show, I guess figuring that since a lot of other top promotions don't have flyweight divisions, they could afford to be patient. But these two guys, both standouts on the show that made it to the final four, got the call and square off here. Brazil's Alexandre Pantoja, then the champion of top American promotion RFA, was the top seed on the season (even if most people beforehand did favor the eventual winner, Tim Elliott) and didn't really do a ton to dissuade that - while the Nova Uniao product wasn't all that dynamic on the show, he showed he could hold his own pretty much anywhere and do well against whatever opponent came his way. On the other side of things, Eric Shelton, an Illinois native who was the champion of Midwestern promotion Caged Aggression, pretty much came out of nowhere to go on a run through the show - Shelton was relatively unknown and seeded at number fifteen, and then just used his athleticism and a high-level wrestling and grappling game to impress time in and time out, even going close enough with Elliott that the decision easily could've gone the other way and sent Elliott to the finals. It's a hard one to call, but as a general rule, it's better to go off of pre-TUF resumes rather than the results during the season, which can be a bit fluky, so for that reason I favor Pantoja to get a decision, since he has more experience and a better camp behind him. But Shelton's gotten here by outdoing expectations time after time, so him doing so once more is entirely possible. J.C. Cottrell (17-4 overall, 0-1 UFC, 1-0 Bellator) vs. Jason Gonzalez (10-3 overall, 0-1 UFC): Somewhat surprisingly, this is the one clear fight on the card that's between two guys that are definitely on the cut line, as both lost their UFC debuts in rather one-sided fashion after coming in as injury replacements. Oklahoma's J.C. Cottrell stepped in on short notice and lost to Michel Prazeres via decision on the Holm/Shevchenko card this past summer; Cottrell's game is typically built around using his wrestling to set up spots where he can jump onto a submission, but I'm not really sure it'll work at a UFC level, and Cottrell looks like the sort of "quadruple-A" fighter who can take care of a lot of guys in smaller promotions but will struggle on a major stage. On the other side of things, we have California's Jason Gonzalez, who came in with a little bit of hype after a decent stint on TUF 22 and a career as a finishing machine on smaller shows - Gonzalez is a gigantic lightweight with knockout power, and has a pretty dangerous submission game to boot. But he got shockingly knocked out in the first round by Drew Dober at UFC 203, casting into doubt exactly how much success Gonzalez will have, since Dober isn't exactly a knockout artist. Still, he's impressed me more than Cottrell, so I'll say Gonzalez gets the second-round knockout, though it's hard to have a ton of confidence in either guy at the moment.

[wavenetinfo]

The Orlando police released 11 hours of new body camera footage on Wednesday from inside the Pulse nightclub on the night of the worst mass shooting in modern American history almost one year ago.

The footage contains dramatic scenes of chaos and carnage as first responders tried to save the wounded and hunt down the shooter who killed 49 people in the name of the Islamic State.

In a series of interviews ahead of the release of the footage to be broadcast tonight on World News Tonight with David Muir and Nightline, first responders and survivors told ABC News that the memories of that night, and the emotions stirred by them, are still raw.

“Several of us commented that this was gonna change the city forever,” said Roger Brennan, the police department’s commander on the scene, “and probably change what we do forever.”

By early morning on June 12, it had already been a violent weekend in Orlando. Litte more than 24 hours earlier, a young singer named Christina Grimmie was shot and killed while signing autographs for fans following her performance at the nearby Plaza.

On Saturday, Pulse, a popular spot in the city’s gay community, was packed with patrons, many of them young revelers eager to forget the previous night’s tragedy.

“We were all in a great mood,” said Jahqui Sevilla, a young woman who was at the club with friends. “We were in the club dancing. It was like one of the best nights I had, that turned into the worst day of my life.”

SLIDESHOW: Mass Shooting at Pulse Nightclub

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Just after 2:00 a.m., a man named Omar Mateen, the 29-year-old American-born son of Afghan immigrants, entered the club, armed with a military-style assault rifle, and opened fire. Mateen, a security guard from Port St. Lucie, was an angry and troubled man with a history of violence and failure.

An off-duty police detective working security at Pulse radioed in, and less than a minute and a half later, backup units began to arrive. One officer, Graham Cage, heard the call and jumped on his bicycle. He ran into the club while everyone else was running out.

“I had a helmet, but a bicycle helmet,” Cage said. “It’s not gonna do a whole lot with that.”

As patrons rushed for the exits, the shooter rapidly fired shots from inside the club. The bullets missed Jahqui Sevilla but hit the two friends she was standing with, one fatally.

“He had a gunshot wound to his chest,” Sevilla said. “That’s when I saw that he was injured. He was non responsive.”

The first responding officers returned fire, forcing the shooter to retreat further into the club. As those officers followed in pursuit, they passed bodies, dead and wounded, everywhere.

Police training calls for officers to head straight to the active shooter, even if it means ignoring the victims.

“A person reached up and asked for help, but at that point we didn’t know where the shooter was, if he was detained, if he was deceased, or what was going on,” said Kyle Medvetz, one of the police officers who responded. “So as much as I wanted to help, I could not help him until we know for sure the shooter was detained, contained or deceased.”

The shooter had barricaded himself in the bathroom with several hostages, which according to Major Mark Canty, who led the Orlando SWAT team, required the police to change their strategy.

“This went quickly, very, very quickly from an active shooter to what we call a barricaded gunman to a hostage situation,” Canty said.

The shooter was still inside, cornered and dangerous, but rather than immediately storm the building, Canty decided to wait. It was a decision that would later be criticized by some, as it would take three more hours for police to gain full control and get all the wounded in the back to safety.

Chief John Mina, in the command post, however, says it was the right call.

“During that whole three hours, we were in there saving people from the dance floor, from dressing rooms, from the other bathroom,” Mina said. “We took 22 people out of the front bathroom. Once we were inside that club, there were no more gunshots until the final assault.”

A half an hour after he first opened fire, the shooter called the Orlando police department dispatch center.

“I want to let you know I’m in Orlando, and I did the shooting,” Mateen said. “I pledge my allegiance to Baghdadi on behalf of the Islamic State.”

Sergeant Andy Brennan, a trained hostage negotiator, was working an off-duty detail at a bar downtown that night when he responded the radio call from Pulse and headed to the dispatch center. He engaged the shooter over multiple phone calls, listening to his rants about ISIS and Syria.

“You need to stop the U.S. air strikes,” Mateen said. “They need to stop the U.S. air strikes, okay?”

Meanwhile, officers used the time to get as many victims out as possible despite concerns that the shooter might attempt to hide among the victims.

Officer James Hyland arrived in his personal pick-up truck, which a partner quickly turned into a makeshift ambulance.

“We didn’t have any ambulances or anything there. He just started loading people up,” Hyland said. “And he was just going back and forth, doing one run after another, after another, after another.”

Other trapped victims who could not be reached used their cell phones to call loved ones, who then called 911 to plead for help on their behalf.

“My girlfriend’s in the bathroom,” said one caller. “There are now four dead in the bathroom and two more are bleeding out. If somebody doesn’t get there soon they’re going to die.”

“Yes, my son is shot in the club in the Pulse in Orlando, and he’s still in the bathroom where he’s bleeding,” said a sobbing mother. “He got shot, and nobody’s going in for him.”

The rescue operation continued until Brennan, the negotiator, heard words from the shooter that quickly changed the dynamic for everyone inside the nightclub.

“By the way, there is some vehicles outside that have some bombs, just to let you know,” Mateen said. “Your people are going to get it, and I’m going to ignite it if they try to do anything stupid.”

He escalated the threat, telling the negotiator that he had “a vest,” before abruptly hanging up.

“When you start talking about explosives,” said Roger Brennan, the scene commander, “now you have to pull your resources back.”

The information circulated among the officers on scene, but not a single officer pulled back to safety.

“We were in it to win it, you know?” Medvetz said. “And we didn’t want to leave.”

Instead, the police prepared to move in. With victims still trapped inside the nightclub, and the suspect threatening to set off explosives, hostage negotiator Brennan knew he was running out of time.

In his fourth and final phone call with Mateen, Brennan tried again to convince him to come out of the nightclub without his weapons, but after making his demands, Mateen hung up.

It was after that fourth phone call that Chief John Mina decided his officers would have to storm the back bathrooms of the nightclub. 

“I wasn’t going to sit here in this command post and hear that explosion, knowing that he was going to blow up everyone, all those hostages inside that club, because there were many hostages left inside,” he said.

After getting Mina’s go-order, the SWAT team moved towards the back bathrooms where they knew hostages were hiding.

“They said, ‘Hey, we’re going to push the air conditioning unit in, but before we do, you guys have to catch it because if you let it drop or make any noise, the killer is going to know where you’re at, and he might shoot through the walls and kill you,’” said Canty.

Canty said the hostages reached up to grab the air conditioning unit when it was pushed in and were able to set it down without making a sound. Eight hostages were able to escape from the nightclub through that opening, police said.

“I think the first person that came out was the person that was injured,” Canty said. “They were able to get out by themselves.”

Inside a different area of the nightclub, Jahqui Sevilla also made her escape, carrying her friend who had been shot in the chest. He would later die from his injuries. Jahqui’s father, Benigno Sevilla, an Orlando firefighter, was waiting outside for her.

“I give her a quick once-over, make sure she has all her body parts,” Beningo Sevilla said. “I knew she was one of those who could be killed or injured.”

“It wasn’t until he was there and I knew that I could kind of just like collapse in his arms and I would be okay,” Jahqui added.

After the air conditioning unit was out, police decided to move forward with their final assault. Officer Rob Woodyard drove an armored vehicle called a Bearcat towards the nightclub and tore open holes in the wall to create an escape route. SWAT team members following the Bearcat and then pulling hostages to safety as they ran out. 

“Every person we got out was a victory for us,” Woodyard said. “At that point, we know that we need to get these people out this building. So one by one, they’re coming out of these holes, and it’s a great feeling, seeing them come out.”

Even with the Bearcat, officers said they were still being cautious because the suspect had told them there were explosives. Canty said there was also a concern that the suspect would start firing on the hostages as they ran out, and they knew people were still trapped in that back bathroom.

“You’re trying to save as many people as you can,” Canty said. “There’s 13 people in that bathroom, you want to save them, there’s five with him.”

But the plan worked. Once the Bearcat came through the wall, police said Mateen stepped out into the open and started firing on the officers and the Bearcat.

“It was just like a wall of freedom,” said Michael Ragsdale, another officer who responded. “There was 30 seconds of just the most awesome sound you could hear, because it was us returning fire towards him.”

During the shootout with Mateen, Mina said a bullet struck Officer Napolitano’s helmet. If it had been an inch lower, Mina said, Napolitano “would have been dead.” But instead, Mina said, the officer “went down to the ground still returning fire, and the other officers returned fire, killing the suspect,” Mina said. 

When the call went out over the police radios that the suspect was dead, Brennan said a “giant cheer went up” inside the command center.

“We all hollered, ‘Yay!’” added Bill Hammer, a dispatcher. “It was a big uproar.”

After hours of fighting, the massacre was finally over, but the officers involved felt like there was little to celebrate. Mina said he and many of the officers were heartbroken by what had happened.

“I was very proud of the police response, but still, you know, this person went in and killed 49 of our community members,” he said. “And so as a community we were devastated.”

ABC News’ Pete Madden, Lauren Effron, Randy Kreider and Cho Park contributed to this report.

31 May 2017 | 9:29 pm

Source : ABC News

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