#this all hinges on winning the 50/50 of course

[acheron-starrail]

Here's what I've got for Aglaea so far. Chest piece is cursed as usual.

[piccolina-mina]

The entire One Chicago franchise is a mess when it comes to the romantic components of the series. But Chicago PD continues to be the most uninspired, boring, and redundant mess when it comes to their romantic ships and how they display them.

It's as if someone holds a gun to their head and says "let's choose the most basic, young, white heteronormative relationships and smack a cutesy name on them. Fandom will eat it up!" And without fail, fandom always does.

It's bad enough that half the Intelligence Unit thinks they can only date or sleep with each other. It's also bad enough that it further contributes to Chicago PD's ongoing issue with rarely knowing what to do with its female characters beyond specific plots I've come to call the "traditionally feminine womanly plots" and tying them in with a male character where everything about them hinges on their connection to a male. And also that "there can only be one" issue where only one of the female characters can serve as the primary one while the others duke it out for screentime, plot, and relevancy (congrats on always winning Lindsay and Hailey).

But they recycle the same things ad nauseum. For eight seasons, they would rather devote all of their time cooking up romantic subplots that exclusively feature a constant rotation of Ruzek and Halstead. I get it, they're attractive, hell, I'm no stranger to thirsting over Ruz myself, but they're the lotharios of the unit as if only they can be desirable, and it's gotten so old. My God.

They would rather give us these two involved with mostly young and white women, especially their squad mates, then devote screentime to literally any alternative couple.

I mean they have SHARED a love interest. Why? The only ships they have ever devoted significant screentime or development to: Halstead and Erin, Halstead and Upton, Ruzek and Burgess, Ruzek and Upton, Burgess and Roman. Qwhite shocking, I know.

Trudy and Mouch have one of the sweetest crossover romances from the franchise, and it's so refreshing to see a middle-aged couple find love, and yet, they've all but cooled off showing them, rarely give that ship screentime, and it tends to stay in the peripheral compared to the big ships.

Dawson had a romance with Brett from Chicago Fire (another character who gets passed around to the point of absurdity), but they did very little with it, and most of THAT even took place on CF.

They gave Dawson something troubling with another law enforcement officer or whatever for like a single episode, but hell, they still devoted more time and actual arcs to the two or three times where they put Halsted in similar relationships because of course they did.

Never forget that the first relationship that dates pre-series was Chicago Fire's Gabby with *spins wheel* you guessed it, Jay Halstead.

And of course there was Erin and Severide. So pretty. So ... basic.

Yet they never attempted to give us more of Dawson and his wife or Olinsky and his. The women were barely characters on the series. It would've been something.

I don't mind Burzek. Out of all the ships, I enjoy them most more often than not, but it has been eight seasons of will they/won't they bullcrap that they've drawn out. All of these ups and downs. The one non-cop related romance Burgess had lasted all of a second and ended in tragedy because heaven forbid they DON'T put that woman through endless pain.

But they've always remained the second place ship of the series, and it's just... enough. Meanwhile, we started the series with Erin and Halstead monopolizing screentime with their romantic situationship drama, and instead of giving it a rest and changing things up when she left, they switched it out with the Halstead and Hailey will they/won't they. Why?

Heaven forbid Halstead or Ruzek don't have a piece of ass.

Ruzek was even Trudy's choice for a relationship ruse to dupe her father.

In the meantime, one of the most outlandish and unrealistic parts of this series is that Kevin Atwater-- young, smart, just as hot as Chicago PD's golden, pretty, white boys hasn't had a real, significant romantic storyline in the eight years this series has been on air.

In what universe does that make sense? Single, eligible, employed, decent black man? Da faq?

Pardon my bluntness but Kevin Atwater should be seeing more ass than a toilet seat. The fact that he isn't batting folks off with a stick is ludicrous.

He had ONE fkd up romantic storyline in his one "very special black Kevin" episode in season SIX and that's it. Pardon me? Do you know how many of those Jay has had? Twice or more than Kevin.

On a series that pairs up colleagues like it's their mission, they never once even considered taking the Burgess and Atwater relationship in any other direction beyond platonic (and even that is underused these days). I'm not even saying I would've wanted that. I'm just pointing out that it made no sense given their track record to not even tease it. But Kevin is only good for platonic purposes, I suppose.

The fact that they put all their eggs in a potential Atwater and Rojas ship, that never even came to fruition, in season SEVEN of a series Atwater has been in since the beginning when characters like Adam and Jay have already had two relationships or more under their belts by then is ridiculous.

And then there's Voight. He's the lead character and never once had a romantic storyline. If he were younger, you already know they would've went there a few times over.

Yet the closest Hank has come to one is an ambiguous scene with him talking to a sex worker in a hotel room back in, like, season two. Are we to believe that he has never once developed feelings for or even had sex with anyone else since his wife died? He's never moved on after that?

They could easily allude to him being on an ace or demi spectrum if they want, even if I would side eye them for choosing the older character to do it, but if that's the case, they should do something with that.

Even a storyline with a widowed, middle- aged hardass finding love or getting some would be infinitely more interesting and at the very least something different than the same old same old Ruzek & Halstead merry-go-round. Damn, the 50 and over crowd need love too.

And yet Chicago PD keeps feeding us the same bland diet repackaged.

Fine. Burzek has been a thing from the beginning. But after Jay and Erin WHY did they need Hailey and Jay? And if they were going to do Jay and Hailey, why in the mother loving fk did we need Hailey and Adam?

The good sis bagged not one but both of the coveted white boys.

I mean, just for variety, Dawson was right there. Kevin was right there. I wouldn't have been a fan, but hell, it would at least be something different. Much better than acting as if Halstead and Ruzek are the only viable romantic options.

Why subject her to that?

Isn't it bad enough that she's more often than not reduced to being Lindsay Lite anyway? They struggle to give her a presence that deviates and distinguishes her from Erin as is. From her troubled past, and her stage of being mini- Voight and challenging his authority, to this thing with Jay.

Hell, they even repeated a whole job offer thing.

Mind you, don't get me started on how they missed what should've been the obvious chance to make Hailey queer. If I'm stepping on toes, my bad, but everything about Hailey screamed bi or lesbian. She radiated queer energy, but INSTEAD they chose to pair her with not one but both of CPD's romantic male leads.

Why beat this well-tread path yet again?

Of all the possibilities, and all the different avenues they can explore, they just keep dipping into that same well, and it's so tiresome. It's so unoriginal and uninspired. Yes, it's just so basic. I'm talking 20th century shipping... CPD is so outdated with this and it makes it hard to invest or care about any of them, especially if you already aren't inclined to ship within the series as is.

Shock me. Thrill me. Intrigue me. Bloody hell.

[mkobooks]

Rodham - Curtis Sittenfeld

This book appeared on my radar last year when I saw a snippet on Reddit that showed--of course--a somewhat cringe-inducingly explicit sex scene between two real life public figures: Hillary Rodham and Bill Clinton. The comments were very nonplussed and even I found it difficult to stomach. At the same time, I was intrigued. I stuck it on my “to-read” list and didn’t give it a second thought until I stumbled across it on the shelf a few weeks ago. I grabbed it, thinking I’d get a kick out of the weirdness of it. To my surprise, I found it extremely compelling and, what’s more, it really scratched the itch of not having any new episodes of The West Wing or Veep to watch.

In Rodham, Curtis Sittenfeld imagines an alternate history hinging on a single, simple change: Hillary Rodham never marries Bill Clinton. A whole cascade of changes blossom from there including George HW Bush winning the 1992 election, 9/11 not happening (under President John McCain), and Trump endorsing Hillary in 2016 rather than opposing her. All that because she turned Bill’s proposal down.

On one hand, this book appears to be no more than an attempt to stir up controversy. It is, at the end of the day, a wish-fulfilment story about Hillary’s rise to power, but its commentary about how much extra women have to do to compete for the same opportunities as men is incredibly moving. At every step of her journey, people question her choices to “rebel” against tradition. She attends Yale Law School at a time where there were relatively few students and even as she excels, the men she meets seem to expect her to settle down and become a housewife after everything’s said and done. They call into question whether or not she’s suitable to be the first lady of Arkansas. Then she decides for herself that she isn’t.

Later on, once she becomes a politician (by defeating Carol Mosely Braun in an interesting minor-plot about her blindness when it comes to racial issues) she rails against the fact that she needs to hire a hair and makeup and wardrobe team all the time, the double standard between a male politician being able to have skeletons in his closet and still be electable, and why, even after all this time, people still ask her about marriage and motherhood. In this version, Hillary never marries nor has any children and she worries about whether that makes her seem too ruthless, or not likeable enough--why can an unmarried man run for office without question while she constantly needs to justify herself? 

As I was reading, I wondered whether or not this book would work with a fictional politician. Would the story of “Selena Meyer” have been taken as seriously or inspired as much discussion? I am confident that an author as skilled as Sittenfeld could probably write a story with as biting a feminist commentary as Rodham, but would I have been as interested in reading it? Probably not. So, even though writing a so-called “Hillary fanfic” is clearly a gimmick, Sittenfeld executes it so well, that I was really drawn into Hillary’s mind and her life in this alternate US.

My one disappointment was at the end. I was really getting into the election process--the silly campaign events, late night emergency meetings, debate prep... the things I enjoyed from the election seasons of The West Wing--and then the book culminates at the first Democratic primary debate and wraps up shortly after. I think I would have liked to read another 50 pages about the tail end of the campaign instead of just skipping ahead to suddenly Hillary’s looking back at how significant that debate was for her.

Spoilers!

yes, she won.

I empathized with Hillary throughout the story. It was impossible not to. Yet, I was strangely disappointed that she won. It seemed almost the easy way out, or the fairytale ending. I enjoyed reading about her struggles and her fight for women’s equality. I think her/Sittenfeld’s reflections on the glass ceiling and what she would do next would have made for a more satisfying bittersweet conclusion and I’m curious about whether it was difficult for Sittenfeld to decide the 2016 election. I did appreciate the extended punchline of Trump not only supporting Hillary rather than Bill (a tech VC, vegan Bill who runs against her in the Democratic primary via viral Trump-esque rallies featuring the chant “shut her up”), but delivering a version of his campaign announcement speech for her. 

This was a quick read and weirdly enjoyable. I recommend it, especially to fans of political dramas like The West Wing. That said, I don’t think anyone who already dislikes Hillary will get much out of it, but I don’t think this book was really written for them.

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld My rating: 4 of 5 stars

[antoine-roquentin]

Despite Donziger’s current predicament, the case against Chevron in Ecuador was a spectacular victory. The twisted legal saga began in 1993, when Donziger and other attorneys filed a class-action suit in New York against Texaco on behalf of more than 30,000 farmers and Indigenous people in the Amazon over massive contamination from the company’s oil drilling there. Chevron, which bought Texaco in 2001, has insisted that Texaco cleaned up the area where it operated and that its former partner, the national oil company of Ecuador, was responsible for any remaining pollution.

At Chevron’s request, the legal proceedings over the “Amazon Chernobyl” were moved to Ecuador, where the courts were “impartial and fair,” as the oil company’s attorneys wrote in a filing at the time. The move to Ecuador, where the legal system does not involve juries, may have also appealed because it spared Chevron a jury trial. In any case, an Ecuadorian court ruled against Chevron in 2011 and ordered the company to pay $18 billion in compensation, an amount that was later reduced to $9.5 billion. After years of struggling with the health and environmental consequences of oil extraction, the impoverished Amazonian plaintiffs had won a historic judgment from one of the biggest corporations in the world.

But Donziger and his clients never had a moment to savor their David-over-Goliath victory. Even though the ruling was subsequently upheld by the Ecuadorian Supreme Court, Chevron immediately made clear that it would not be paying the judgment. Instead, Chevron moved its assets out of the country, making it impossible for the Ecuadorians to collect.

That year, Chevron filed a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, suit against Donziger in New York City. Although the suit originally sought roughly $60 billion in damages, and civil trials involving monetary claims of more than $20 entitle a defendant to a jury, Chevron dropped the monetary claims two weeks before the trial.

In its statement, Chevron wrote that the company “focused the RICO case on obtaining injunctive relief against the furtherance of Donziger’s extortionate scheme against the company.”

Instead, that case was decided solely by Kaplan, who ruled in 2014 that the Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron was invalid because it was obtained through “egregious fraud” and that Donziger was guilty of racketeering, extortion, wire fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering. The decision hinged on the testimony of an Ecuadorian judge named Alberto Guerra, who claimed that Donziger had bribed him during the original trial and that the decision against Chevron had been ghostwritten.

Guerra was a controversial witness. Chevron had prepped him on more than 50 occasions before his testimony, paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars, and arranged for the judge and his family members to move to the United States with a generous monthly stipend that was 20 times the salary he received in Ecuador. In 2015, when Guerra testified in an international arbitration proceeding, he admitted that he had lied and changed his story multiple times. According to Chevron, Guerra’s inaccuracies didn’t change the thrust of his testimony. For his part, Judge Kaplan wrote that his court “would have reached precisely the same result in this case even without the testimony of Alberto Guerra.” In its statement, Chevron said that Guerra was relocated to the U.S. for his safety and noted that the court found that the company’s contacts with the Ecuadorian judge were “proper and transparent.”

Lawyers for Donziger said the changes in Guerra’s testimony completely undermined his original bribery allegations, which Donziger has consistently denied. In any case, that evidence emerged after the trial, and an appeals court declined to consider the new information and ruled against Donziger in 2016.

Had Donziger been criminally charged with bribery, a jury would have assessed Guerra’s credibility. Instead, in the RICO case, which was civil, the decision about a key witness came down to one person — Kaplan — who chose to believe him. That choice has set the stage for the legal losses Donziger has suffered since, according to some close watchers of the Chevron case.

“On the basis of Kaplan saying, ‘I believe this witness; I find Donziger guilty of the crime of bribery of the judge’ — on the basis of that, he’s been destroyed. That is the pinnacle element of all of the other claims against him. And if you take that one out, the rest of them — they’re just not there,” said Charles Nesson, an attorney and Harvard Law School professor. “He has effectively been convicted of bribery by the finding of a single judge in a case in which bribery wasn’t even the charge,” Nesson said of Donziger. “I teach evidence, that you have to prove what you assert. But the proof in this case is the thinnest.”

Nesson, who represented Daniel Ellsberg in the Pentagon Papers case and the plaintiffs in the suit of W. R. Grace featured in the book and film “A Civil Action,” teaches Donziger’s case in his “Fair Trial” course, using it as an example of a decidedly unfair trial. “Donziger epitomizes a person in asymmetric civil litigation who can now be denied a fair trial,” he explains to his students.

Nesson is one of several legal scholars who have opined that Kaplan has a soft spot for Chevron, which the judge once described as “a company of considerable importance to our economy that employs thousands all over the world, that supplies a group of commodities, gasoline, heating oil, other fuels, and lubricants on which every one of us depends every single day.”

In contrast, the judge has exhibited antipathy for Donziger, according to his former lawyer, John Keker, who saw the case as a “Dickensian farce,” in which “Chevron is using its limitless resources to crush defendants and win this case through might rather than merit.” Keker withdrew from the case in 2013 after noting that “Chevron will file any motion, however meritless, in the hope that the court will use it to hurt Donziger.”

[starship-squidlet]

Albert and Race’s Haunted House Adventure

Prompt: Person A and Person B both claim to not believe in ghosts so their friends dare them to spend a night in a haunted house together. After only 2 hours, they both come running out of the house terrified. When their friends laugh at them, they both try to pull the whole “Oh I wasn’t scared, I only left because *the other person* was scared” excuse.

Fandom: Newsies

Characters: Jack, Race, Henry, Albert, Finch, Romeo

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1,641

Tags: @the-cowbi (feel better soon!!!)

.*.*.*.*.*.

“I am not scared.”

Jack Kelly shook his head and walked away from the discussion.

“You are scared!” Henry’s voice was incredulous. “Both of you are. I don’t believe it.”

“We are not,” Race said firmly, crossing his arms and glowering at Henry, Romeo, and Finch, who were staring him and Albert down. “It’s just a house.”

“Just a house,” Albert mimicked Race’s position, chin raised and arms crossed, his feet shoulder-width apart—the very image of defiance.

“Oh yeah?” Finch leaned forward, practically leering at them. “If it’s just a house, then you two won’t be afraid to go up and ring the doorbell.”

Jack rolled his eyes.

“Seriously? Ring the doorbell? What are we, seven?” Albert scoffed.

“It’s not like anyone will answer; the place has been abandoned for years,” Romeo leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms and ankles. “Well, no-one… alive anyways.”

Race shook his head. “That’s stupid. We’re not afraid to ring a dumb doorbell.”

“No?” Finch arched an eyebrow. “Then go do it.”

Race paused, glancing out the window. “Right now?”

“Sure,” Finch shrugged. “Why not?”

“Well… it’s almost dark,” Race said. “I wouldn’t want to…”

He trailed off as Finch, Romeo, and Henry dissolved into laughter. Even Jack, spectating from the other side of the room, chuckled.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Albert took a step forward, getting up into Finch’s face. “We’re not scared. And not like we need to prove it or anything, but if you really want us to, we will.”

“Yeah, we’ll go ring the stupid doorbell,” Race grumbled.

“Even in the dark?” Romeo teased.

“Even in the dark,” Race shot back.

“Too late,” Finch shook his head, grinning at Albert, who had yet to back down.

“Whaddaya mean?” Race asked warily.

“The dare isn’t just ringing the doorbell any more,” Finch turned to him, still grinning wickedly. “Now, the dare is to spend the entire night in the haunted house on the hill.”

.*.*.*.*.*.

An hour and a half later, Jack found himself at the foot of the hill upon which the highly debated “haunted” house was seated. “This is stupid,” he grumbled.

“Yes, and?” Romeo sighed.

“You’re surprised that we’re doing something stupid?” Henry laughed. “Have you met us?”

“You know, Finch, this really seems like a disproportionate escalation of the original dare,” Albert mumbled, staring at the iron gate spanning the winding drive that led up the hill to the house, barely visible for the trees surrounding it. It was a cloudy night, and near the new moon, so there was almost no natural light, and the streetlights had ended a few blocks back. A chill, fierce wind whipped through the trees, rustling leaves and making the branches creak. If there was any night suited for adventures in a haunted house, this was it.

Finch shrugged. “Hey, you didn’t take the easy road when it was offered. It’s not my problem if you don’t like the hard road.”

Albert faded into indecipherable mumbling, glaring at the heavy iron gate.

“Well…” Race sighed, “I guess we’d better get this over with.” He pulled—hard—on the gate, and it opened slowly with an ear-splitting screech, the rusted hinges protesting the movement. The bottom of the gate scraped across the asphalt of the driveway. The sounds set their teeth on edge, and shivers down their spines. Once the gate was open about two feet, Race slipped through. “Youse comin’?”

Albert slipped through the gate after Race, and both stopped to look back at the others.

“Hey, the dare isn’t for us,” Finch copied Albert’s position from earlier: arms crossed, feet spread, chin raised. “You’re the only ones who have to spend the night in the house. We’ll be waiting here for you in the morning.”

“Hey, that’s not fair!” Race protested.

“Yeah, what are ya, scared?” Albert’s voice was dripping with sarcasm.

“It’s not our dare,” Romeo laughed.

“Have fun,” Henry teased, giving them a little wave.

Jack rolled his eyes.

“Whatever,” Albert spat. He spun on his heel and started walking up towards the house; Race was a beat slower, and Albert grabbed him by the arm and hauled him along as he stalked up towards the first bend in the drive.

“Are we seriously going to wait here all night?” Jack groaned once the other two were out of sight.

“Theoretically,” Romeo yawned.

“And why exactly do I have to be here?” Jack asked.

“Neutral party,” Henry shrugged.

“You weren’t involved in the original dare, and you have no stake in this whole thing,” Finch explained. “That makes you a neutral party. Uh… a supervisor, if you will.”

“This is stupid,” Jack grumbled.

.*.*.*.*.*.

They had arrived at the bottom of the hill at 9:47 in the evening. Jack and the others at the bottom had gotten bored pretty quickly; they cycled through games of hacky sack, trying to climb the ten-foot stone wall around the bottom of the hill, and racing up and down the empty street. By 11 PM, they were bored out of their skulls.

When 11:30 rolled around, it found Jack, Romeo, and Henry sitting on the ground with their backs to the stone wall. Finch was the last one standing, bouncing the hacky sack on his own, from foot, to knee, to elbow, to shoulder, to head, and back down. It was actually fairly impressive. Jack yawned.

The closer it got to midnight, the quieter they all became. Bets had been made as to how long Albert and Race would last in the house. Romeo had already lost, having guessed that the two wouldn’t even make it up to the drive. Henry’s deadline of 10:30 had come and gone. Finch’s bet had given them until midnight. Jack—only participating in the pool for lack of anything better to do—was the only one who seemed to have any faith in Albert and Race making it in the house until morning. Admittedly, his idea of morning in this case was 3 AM, but it was generous, especially compared to the others’ bets.

Romeo checked his phone. “11:50. It’s getting close, Finch. Down to you and Jack… Who will be the winner?”

Jack shook his head. He drew his knees up to his chest, folded his arms over them, and laid his head down.

Finch got bored with the hacky sack and joined them on the ground. “I’m not actually sure who got the worse end of this deal—them for having to be in that creepy house all night, or us for having to spend it out here.”

Romeo shivered and pulled his hands into the sleeves of his hoodie. “You don’t actually think it’s haunted, do you?”

Finch scoffed. “Of course not. But it sure is sketchy. And on a night like tonight, things can seem… fuzzy. Especially if you believe in ghosts and stuff, like those two nerds.”

They heard Albert and Race before they saw them. In the stillness of the night—the wind having died down to a gentle breeze by 11—their voices carried through the trees.

“It’s not my fault,” said Albert, his voice bitter.

“Well, it’s not mine,” said Race.

“Then whose is it?”

Race’s reply was unintelligible. The four boys at the base of the hill traded knowing glances and grins, jumped to their feet, and hurried to the iron gate, still open from when Race and Albert had entered.

“Hey there!” Romeo called, still grinning wickedly, as Race and Albert rounded the nearest bend in the driveway.

Both boys froze, staring at them like a pair of deer in headlights.

“What, did it get too scary for you?” Henry leered.

“No!” Albert shot back. “I wasn’t scared. Race was starting to get freaked out, though, so we decided to come back!”

“I was scared?” Race’s voice shot up an octave. “I was fine. You were the one who screamed like a little girl when the wind blew the shutters against the wall!”

“Well, at least I didn’t jump out of my skin and grab your arm so hard that I nearly broke it when that bat flew down the stairs!”

“At least I didn’t think that the broken chair was an animal!”

“At least I didn’t think the bearskin rug was alive!”

Their back and forth continued the rest of the way down the hill. The other boys were laughing by the time Albert and Race joined them, both pale-faced and fuming.

Finch checked his phone. “Midnight exactly. Looks like I win. Pay up, boys.”

“You took bets?” Albert’s voice was low and hoarse.

“You bet on our fear?” Race scowled.

“Yep,” Finch laughed, accepting his winnings from Henry and Romeo. “Hey, be glad that I’m the one who won—Romeo didn’t even think you’d make it to the house. He doesn’t believe in you at all.”

“Jack’s the only one who did,” Romeo said with a shrug. “He thought you could make it until at least 3 AM.”

Albert and Race squeezed through the gate one at a time, then Race pulled it closed behind them. They all winced as the screeching and scraping sounded out again, even louder for the stillness of the night.

Once the gate was shut, they started walking home.

“Is there a reason we didn’t drive here?” Albert groaned.

“What, is it too spooky out here to walk back?” Romeo teased.

“Shut up,” Albert aimed a punch at Romeo’s arm, but the smaller boy dodged it deftly, jogging ahead of them. Albert followed, and the two danced down the street, trading mock blows as they slipped in and out of the beams of the streetlights.

Finch and Henry walked side by side on the sidewalk, Jack and Race trailing along behind them. “So, how was it?” Jack asked, nudging Race with his elbow.

“It really was pretty spooky,” Race said. “Also, apparently I’m afraid of bats…”

[strengthnerd]

The World Strongest Man

 “WORLD STRONGEST MAN 2020” 11th -  15th November in Bradenton Florida!!!!!

25 monters competitos

1: Ervin Toots @ervin.toots 2: Terry Hollands @terryhollandswsm 3: Eddie Williams @eddiejowilliams 4: Graham Hicks @grahamhicksuk 5: Luke Richardson @lukeerichardson 6: Maxime Boudreault @max.boudreault23 7: Tom Stoltman @tomstoltmanofficial 8: Robert Oberst @robertoberst 9: Evan Singleton @evan_trex_strongman 10: Brian Shaw @shawstrength 11: Rob Kearney @worlds_strongest_gay 12: Mateusz Kieliszkowski @kieliszkowskimateusz 13: Martin Forsmark @forzmark 14: Adam Bishop @adambishopstrongman 15: Oleksii Novikov @novikov_strong 16: Jerry Pritchett @jerrypritchettstrongman 17: Konstantine Janashia @konstantine_janashia 18: Kevin Faires @kf_strongman 19: Luke Stoltman @luke.stoltman 20: Mark Felix @markfelixwsm 21: Ari Gunnarsson @ari_gunnarsson 22: JF Caron @jfcaronstrongman 23: Mikhail Shivlyakov @mikhail_shivlyakov 24: Vytautas Lalas @vytautas.lalas 25: Iron Biby @ironbiby Alternate/Reserve: Trey Mitchell III @berserkerlifter Alternate/Reserve: Ole Martin Kristiansen @olemartinkri Alternate/Reserve: Eythor Ingolfsson @eythormelsted Eddie Hall Presenter Magnus Ver Magnusson @magnusvermag Head Referee Colin Bryce @colin.bryce Tournament Director Main Sponsor @sbdapparel

repost @https://www.instagram.com/worldsstrongestfan/

this is where the magic happen where monsters collide with each other batting the title WHO is the strongest  man. The World’s Strongest Man competition is about more than just force: it is about stamina, skill, tactics, training and strategy. Every event below is designed to push the Strongmen to their absolute limits, challenging not only their physical strength, but their agility and mental toughness too. there are variety of events that the test the competitors and they are :

1)OVER ARM PULL

Pulling a phenomenally heavy object along a course may not sound like ground-breaking event territory in the world of the Strongmen, but there’s a twist for the Arm Over Arm Pull: the athletes have to remain sitting, and stationary, with their feet resting against a solid base at all times.

Using a rope, the Strongman must then pull an object down a course in the fastest time possible. It appears that the Arm Over Arm pull is, at first, about upper body strength, but actually depends more strongly on leg strength and grip. Most athletes will bend their knees, pull the rope tautly, and almost complete a leg-press style movement to gain speed and traction during the pull. Legs are much stronger limbs than arms, and this technique gives the Strongmen more power and more force behind their pull. In fact, it’s their grip that often causes them to fail at this event, as the roughness of the rope means keeping a tight grip becomes virtually impossible. Especially, when the items they’re pulling range from planes, to boats, to giant tyres.

2)ATLAS STONE 

The Atlas Stones are often regarded as the signature event in the WSM contest. As the final event of the whole competition, this event often determines the winner.

Introduced in 1986, the Atlas Stones are five heavy, spherical stones which increase in weight from 100 to 160 kg. They need to be placed on top of five high platforms that span a 16–33 ft. long course. In the early years of this event, it was extremely rare for competitors to be able to lift all five Stones, but now the expectation is that all will be lifted, and it’s the time it happens in that now determines a winner.

Originally, the Stones were lifted onto platforms at waist-height, but over the years the event has evolved and the Stones have increased in weight, and the platforms in height.

This iconic event is strongly associated with some of the biggest names in WSM history: Marius Pudzianowski, Magnus Samuelsson, Magnús ver Magnússon and Žydrūnas Savickas have all conquered the event, and emerged as WSM title holders.

3)BLOCK/ KEG TOSS

The Keg Toss is inspired by the long tradition of Highland Games. Based on the idea of a weight-for-height competition, the Keg Toss relies on pure power to succeed. Competing Strongmen have to throw kegs of increasing weight over a 4.42 metre wall, clearing it in one throw.

There have been several historical variations to this event too: back in 2003 and then again in 2006, concrete blocks – not kegs – were the objects that the athletes had to toss over the walls. During these years, the height of the wall, not the weight of the object, was what increased.

With the kegs – which are now used exclusively over blocks – ranging in weight from 15kg to 24kg, clearing the walls in one go is no mean feat.

4)CARRY  AND DRAG

Anvils, anchors and chains are carried over a fixed distance. The Strongmen compete five at a time, and have to carry two anvils first, before dragging an anchor over the same distance, attaching a chain to it, and dragging it back to the starting point.

An anchor and a chain are carried to the end of a set distance, where they must be attached to each other and then dragged back the same distance.

Visually impressive and impossible to take your eyes off, the Carry and Drag event is gruelling for even the most accomplished Strongman.

Weights: Anvils 130kg each Anchors and Chain 300kg.

5)FAMERS WALK

First launched in 1983, the Farmer’s Walk is one of the most well-known and most iconic WSM events.

It originally made its debut in Christchurch, New Zealand, but back then was known as the Fergus Walk. Initially, wooden implements weighing 80kg were carried by the athletes and it was the thickness, rather than the weight, that caused competitors the most problems. When this event launched, the emphasis was on the distance the Strongmen could travel with their weights. Whoever made it furthest around the oval track was declared the winner.

Today, the re-named Farmer’s Walk focuses on covering a set distance within a certain time limit and the apparatus the athletes carry can be dropped and picked up without limit. As the objects become heavier and heavier over the years, the event has come to be known as the Giant Farmer’s Walk – with each item tipping the scales at 160kg each…

That means since the event’s creation in 1983, the weight of a single object is now the same as the old combined weight, showing that each year really does bring with it a new calibre of Strongmen!

6)FINGALS FINGERS

One of the newest events in the WSM competition, Fingal’s Fingers was first launched in 2000 and takes its name from Fingal, a mythological Gaelic hunter-warrior. The event revolves around a series of hinged poles – or fingers – being lifted, starting from a horizontal resting position and flipped over to the other side. The poles get progressively heavier and longer as the event progresses, making the challenge to flip the fingers tougher and tougher as the timer counts down. The event is scored by time and by how many of the poles a competitor was able to flip over.

It’s fast, tough and unforgiving and as a result is used frequently in WSM competitions, both in the Heats and in the Finals. With weights ranging from 200kg to over 300kg, athletes are pushed to flip all five fingers with the pressure of the clock ticking as they do so. Turning all five isn’t enough, it’s whoever can turn all five the fastest who will be victorious.

7)FRIDGE CARRY

No standing in front of an open fridge door, wondering whether to have seconds or not here as the Fridge Carry sees Strongmen compete to carry two fridges along a 30 metre course. A yoke and a crossbar are used to stabilise the fridges, weighing between 415kg / 904lbs.

The athletes then have 60 seconds to complete the course… a phenomenal test of strength which has grown to become one of the most-recognised, and iconic events in the world of the Strongmen.

8)GIANT DUMBELL PRESS

The Giant Dumbbell press seems like one of the more straightforward WSM events, but that doesn’t mean it is any less grueling to succeed in.

In order to compete, the athletes have to lift single-handed dumbbells from the ground and onto their shoulder which they then must raise vertically over their head whilst fully extending their arm upwards. With four dumbbells weighing between 100 and 115kgs this is no mean feat. Scoring – and winning – the competition is dependent on the time taken to successfully lift as many dumbbells as possible.

9)GIANT LOGG LIFT

Giant is definitely the right word to describe this event as it’s an entire tree trunk – not just a log – that the Strongmen have to lift to conquer this part of the competition. The tree trunk is erected horizontally onto a stand which has handles built-in at one end. The athletes have to grip the handles with their backs to the trunk and lift it over their head as many times as possible within a set time limit.

The challenge here is the number of repetitions that can be achieved before the timer runs out. With the average trunk weighing 380kgs (830lbs) the athletes need stamina and strength, as well as an iron-clad grip to smash this event.

10)HUSSAFEL STONE

This event was first introduced into the WSM events repertoire in 1992. Legend has it that the stone was originally crafted in Iceland over 200 years ago and used by an Icelandic pastor to help keep one of his stable doors open. The stone is still kept in Husafell, Iceland, at the site of Pastor Snorri Björnsson’s stables.

The stone itself is a flat, somewhat triangular rock weighing 182kgs. The challenge for this event is to carry the stone held high across the chest over a set distance whilst being timed. During the three years in which the WSM competition was held in Africa, a newly shaped stone was crafted in the shape of the African continent and the event was temporarily renamed as the Africa Stone.

11)LOADING RACE

Five objects, each weighing between 100–164kg, are loaded onto a truck bed or a similar platform over a course of about 50 ft.

Anchors and chains, sandbags, anvils, lobster pots, masts, blocks of ice, wine casks and beer kegs are some of the items that have to be lifted. The athlete who manages to load all of these objects onto the platform in the fastest time is declared the winner. The weight of the objects – surprisingly – isn’t the defining factor in this event: the overall shape of the objects, their dimensions, and the terrain (which can range from rubble to sand to snow) the athletes have to cross to get to the loading bay are all more significant than weight alone.

Twists to the event’s structure have been introduced up over the years, challenging the Strongmen in new and ever more inventive ways. The 1992 Loading Race had five 90kg barrels as the loading objects, which the Strongmen had to wade into a lagoon to retrieve before returning them to dry land. Other variations over the years have seen the Strongmen wade through Bahamian sand, to boats in the Ocean, and through Icelandic snow, to retrieve items to load onto the platforms.

12)OVERHEAD LOG LIFT

The Overhead Log Lift was introduced into the WSM event series in 1980. Originally, the Overhead Log Lift was about lifting the maximum weight possible, but today athletes compete by lifting a wooden log from the ground then raising it overhead as many times as possible within the time limit; returning the weight back to the floor in a controlled fashion each time before attempting to do the next lift.

The Overhead Log Lift began life as a beer barrel lifting contest before the logs were introduced. The first winner of the Log Lift in 1980 was legendary Strongman Bill Kazmaier who powered 157kgs from the floor over his head. He won the event over the next two years too, setting world records with each lift. The current world record holder is the incredible Žydrūnas Savickas with a lift of 212.5kgs.

13)PILLARS OF HERCULES

The mythological tale of the Pillars tells us that Hercules, having to cross a mountain on his way to the garden of the Hesperides, used his superhuman strength to smash it into two pieces rather than climb over it. When these two pieces of the mountain fell into the sea they formed what we now know today as Gibraltar and Monte Hacho. Ever since, these two halves of the mountain have been known as the Pillars of Hercules.

Our Strongmen may not be smashing mountains in two, but they are our modern day Hercules… and for this event they prove their strength by standing on a raised platform, in a fixed position, and using chains to keep two huge pillars either side of them upright. Each of the pillars weighs 160kgs, and there is no time limit, the event will be over when the Strongman is no longer able to support both pillars.

14)POWER STAIRS

Whilst a few flights of stairs leaves most of us huffing and puffing and longing for the lift, Strongmen are powering up stairs carrying a selection of three humongous items all the way to the top. Power and speed are necessary to conquer this event, as the items range in weight from 182–273kgs and are lifted all the way to the top.

Moving from step to step requires speed and strength, and it’s not necessarily the tallest athletes that have an advantage here. The Power Stairs are designed to test every element of the athletes’ ability, and require stamina and skill to conquer.

15)SQUAT LIFT

The Squat is one of the original events from the very first WSM contest. Still going strong (if you’ll pardon the pun) today, this event first began life with women suspended in giant metal birdcages being lifted up as the Strongmen squatted down to lift the bars that the cages were attached to.

Although the competition has evolved since 1977, it is still spectacular to watch and tough to complete as the Strongmen now lift items that weight up to 400kgs… including concrete blocks, tractor tyres, cars and even people.

The challenge is to lift the objects as many times as possible whilst remaining in a fixed position, with only the strength they can put into their squat to help them.

As the WSM contest has continued to grow and evolve, the keg and barrel squats have become more prominent, with Mariusz Pudzianowski and Laurence Shahlaei performing some incredible Squats. In fact, Shahlaei has built a reputation for being one of the most powerful Squat competitors in WSM history, often becoming the only competitor able to squat the heaviest weight. No mean feat, considering this event remains one of the oldest, and toughest, ones to compete in.

16)VEHICLE PULL

Few WSM events are more impressive than the vehicle pull. Introduced in 1977, it’s the jaw-dropping one-to-watch as vehicles such as trams, boxcars, buses and planes are pulled across a 100 ft course, by hand, in the quickest time possible. Originally, the Strongmen would wear a pulling harness, but today it is more common for them to have a harness and a pulling rope. The old harness-only system did see to give an advantage to the competitors with the strongest body weight.

The vehicle is often chosen to reference a previous winner or the current host city of the current competition. The 2007 competition featured a fire truck in a nod to 2006 champion Phil Pfister, a professional firefighter, and the 2008 qualifying rounds featured a coal truck, a reference to the coalmining industry in West Virginia where the competition was held that year. The terrains also change yearly too, with vehicles being pulled on snow, ice, sand and concrete. Other variations to the competition also include filling a tram with passengers for the Vehicle Pull in 1979, meaning the total vehicle weight actually topped 4535kgs.

It’s double WSM Title winner Bruce Wilhelm who holds the record for the first ever pull in the contest’s history, completing the 21 metre course in exactly 14 seconds and proving that this event is about more than just size and strength; that it’s about stamina, strength and skill.

[brajeshupadhyay]

Tokyo: Yoshihide Suga charted an unlikely course to the cusp of Japan’s premiership. While most leading Japanese lawmakers come from elite political families, Suga is the son of a strawberry farmer and a schoolteacher from the country’s rural north. He is known more for expressionless recitations of government policy than flashes of charisma. And at 71, he is even older than Shinzo Abe, who suddenly announced in late August that he was resigning as prime minister because of ill health. Yet on Monday, Suga, the longtime chief Cabinet secretary to Abe, was overwhelmingly elected as leader of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party during a conclave at a luxury Tokyo hotel. The party has governed Japan for all but four years since the Second World War and controls Parliament, virtually assuring that Suga will be elected prime minister during a special session this week. He will have to hit the ground running. Suga will take office in the middle of a pandemic that has devastated Japan’s economy, effectively erasing years of growth under Abe. Japan also is facing deepening pressure from China and North Korea. And it is losing a prime minister who built his foreign policy legacy partly on successful management of President Donald Trump, the mercurial leader of Japan’s most important strategic ally. While Suga has vowed to pick up where Abe left off, he has never clearly articulated his own vision for Japan, the world’s third-largest economy. “Generally, politicians have at least a facade of expressing ideals,” said Megumi Naoi, an associate professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, who said she would usually expect “policy statements about the ‘type of world that I want to see.’” Despite nearly a quarter-century in national politics, Suga, who served essentially as Abe’s chief of staff and as the main government spokesman, “hasn’t really come out with very strong policies,” Naoi said. Still, news of his ascendance appeared to have reassured the nation after a string of revolving-door prime ministers. And in Japan, where stability often outweighs ideology, Suga appealed to a tradition-bound political establishment that resists change. In quickly locking up what had initially seemed a wide-open contest, Suga demonstrated behind-the-scenes political skills honed while serving Abe for nearly eight years. “How quickly the talk coalesced toward Suga shows his political acumen,” said Mireya Solis, director of the Centre for East Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington. In many ways, Suga seems like yet another in a long line of dour Japanese politicians. The most exciting nugget to emerge in recent news reports is the revelation that Suga, a teetotaler with a sweet tooth, starts and ends each day with 100 situps. On his website he says he likes river fishing and karate. Suga, who declined a request for an interview, has promised to pursue some of the departing prime minister’s most cherished goals. He is expected to further push for a revision of Japan’s pacifist Constitution and the return of Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea. He has also said he would roughly stick to Abe’s signature economic formula, known as Abenomics, combining easy monetary policy, government spending and structural changes of industries like agriculture. After showing a tiny sign that he might stake out new policy — a potential increase in a tax that has hampered consumer spending — Suga quickly backtracked. With global turbulence from the coronavirus pandemic and rising geopolitical threats in Asia, many Japanese may feel that a successor who stays the course may be just what the country needs. “Japan is not a country with revolutionary reform taking place very often,” said Christina L Davis, director of the Program on US-Japan Relations at Harvard University. “Especially in times of crisis and uncertainty, being seen as a stable crisis manager could be an asset.” Suga may epitomise the status quo, but he has been a catalyst for significant change. He is credited with helping Abe push through contentious security laws that allow Japan’s military to join overseas combat missions alongside allies. He was also considered a strong proponent of a bill, passed two years ago, authorising a sharp increase in the number of foreign workers permitted in Japan. Some glimpses of his political hand have raised concerns. Critics say Suga was the architect behind some of Abe’s more authoritarian impulses, including his consolidation of power over Japan’s extensive bureaucracy and tactics to silence criticism in the news media. “I think Suga is more dangerous than Abe,” Kihei Maekawa, a former vice education minister, told The Sunday Mainichi, a weekly magazine. With Suga as prime minister, Maekawa predicted, “bureaucrats will be servants or act as a private military.” But perhaps the biggest question — which arose after Suga became the front-runner — is just how long he might last. The answer may hinge on, among other things, his handling of the pandemic, the postponed Tokyo Olympics and the increasing tensions with China. There are suggestions that Suga might call a snap election soon after he takes over. If successful, he could strengthen his hold on power. If not, said Ken Hijino, a professor of law at Kyoto University, “maybe this is just an interim leader, and they will come up with some surprise younger, more attractive face to go into the general election.” But for now, Suga appears to enjoy considerable public support, with more than 50 percent of those surveyed in a national poll last week backing him to be prime minister. While voters see Suga and Abe as something of a pair, their family backgrounds could hardly be more different. Abe is a third-generation politician and the grandson of a prime minister; Suga had an unremarkable upbringing in rural Akita prefecture, along with two older sisters and a younger brother. “He was so quiet that no one paid attention to him,” said Hiroshi Kawai, a high school classmate who works as a tour guide in Suga’s hometown, Yuzawa City. “We have such proverbs as ‘great talents are slow to mature’ and ‘a wise falcon hides its talons’,” Kawai said in a telephone interview. “Now, I realised that those words were created for Suga.” According to a biography by Isao Mori, Suga’s father suggested he work on the family farm, but Suga decided to move to Tokyo. He took odd jobs, first with a cardboard company and then driving trucks at the old Tsukiji fish market, before enrolling at Hosei University. When he decided to pursue politics, lacking family connections, he asked the career services center for an introduction to a member of Parliament. In 1975, Suga took a job as secretary to Hikosaburo Okonogi, a member of the House of Representatives from Yokohama, Japan’s second-largest city. His duties included buying cigarettes and parking cars. He also quickly learned how to cater to a constituency. At Suga’s wedding to his wife, Mariko, in 1980, according to Mori’s biography, a supporter of Okonogi said he had bought shoes for Suga because he “quickly wore them down” going door to door to visit voters in the district. The Sugas have three sons, but in a debate last week, Suga admitted that he had rarely been home as they were growing up. In 1987, he ran for a seat on the City Council in Yokohama, where he became known as a “shadow” Yokohama mayor. He helped develop transportation links to the port and pushed to reduce waiting lists at city day care centers. “He has four eyes and four ears,” Koichi Fujishiro, a former chairman of the Yokohama City Council, said in a telephone interview. “He worked from morning to late at night.” In 1996, Suga leapt to national politics, winning a seat in the lower house of Parliament. During Abe’s first, fumbling stint as prime minister, from 2006 to 2007, Suga served as minister of internal affairs and telecommunications. Even after Abe left office following a series of scandals, Suga remained loyal. Abe rewarded that loyalty when he came back as prime minister in 2012 and chose Suga as his chief Cabinet secretary. According to Kenya Matsuda, author of Shadow Power: Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, Suga urged Abe to focus on the economy rather than the nationalist agenda that had consumed his first term. Last year, Suga took some steps to come out of the shadows. When the government officially unveiled the name of the new era marking the enthronement of Emperor Naruhito, it was Suga who dramatically revealed a calligraphic rendering of the name, Reiwa, earning him the sobriquet “Uncle Reiwa.” Suga has also trumpeted his brainchild, a system that allows citizens to donate money to local governments in exchange for locally sourced gifts. Many small-town governments, however, have lost money by spending more on gifts like marbled wagyu beef or shipments of fresh lobsters than they raised in donations. On foreign policy, Suga has worked to fill holes in his portfolio. He visited Washington last year, the first chief Cabinet secretary to make such a trip in three decades. For Abe, personal diplomacy with Trump has been crucial. If Trump wins reelection, the question, said Solis, of the Brookings Institution, “is whether Suga can work the magic or whether that was a bromance between Trump and Abe not to be repeated again.” Motoko Rich and Makiko Inoue c.2020 The New York Times Company

http://sansaartimes.blogspot.com/2020/09/japans-next-prime-minister-yoshihide.html

[catalogercas]

There are people in the notes & comments that don’t know about tumblr’s November 5.

So…

Let’s set the stage here:

It is Thursday November 5, 2020. Most of the world, including the US is still observing some level of COVID-19 pandemic measures. The US’s President is currently Donald Trump, much to the chagrin of more than 50% of the US population and probably a lot of the rest of the world. The trajectory of US politics and the US response to COVID-19 hinges on the results of this election.

The US presidential election was held two days ago on Tuesday November 3, and, as the poll results are being reported, as of this evening, it still looks like Trump is winning the election. However, not all precincts in several states have reported. Many US residents (like myself) are refreshing maps provided by various news outlets to see what states are providing their electoral votes (all of the votes for the state) to republicans (red, Trump) or democrats (blue, Biden). The map is very red, but the race is tight and there’s enough electoral votes to flip the map blue between a few “swing” states, specifically: Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Nevada.

It’s taking a long time, by US standards, to determine the election because there are an unprecedented amount of mail in ballots due to the pandemic, and, as these ballots are being counted, Trump is demanding, via Twitter, to “Stop the count.”

A lot of tumblr users, especially US users, obviously, are posting about all of this and waiting to see if those states are going to flip blue.

The US election is the focus on tumblr.

No one, except very dedicated Supernatural fans, are watching Supernatural Season 15 Episode 18 Despair.

However, everyone who has been in fandom heavy spaces on tumblr, is well aware of the existence of the Supernatural fandom and the large portion of the Supernatural fandom that ships the angel Castiel and one of the show’s main protagonists, Dean Winchester. The ship, Destiel, has been around as long as Cas.

The episode that is airing is not the show’s finale, so there is an assumption that if the show runners decide to make Destiel canon, it would happen then. Also, a lot of Supernatural fans have stopped watching the show for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to, the writers coming up with misogynistic and homophobic storylines and queerbaiting with Destiel.

The last five minutes of Supernatural coincides with one of these states having their ballot count flip blue.

In those five minutes, in order to save Dean from being killed by a Grim Reaper, Cas confesses that he is in love with Dean. (Two seasons earlier, in order to save his adopted son, Cas made a deal to return to the Angel after life, the Empty, when he experienced a moment of true happiness. A moment he experienced by confessing his love.)

The Empty takes Cas and Billie, the Grim Reaper.

Dean does not respond to Cas and seems to still be processing what Cas said when the episode ends.

Regardless, Destiel is now at least half canon, and everyone was expecting it about as much as the Spanish Inquisition.

Tumblr loses its mind. About the election. About Destiel.

There are posts about Dean processing his emotions at the speed Nevada counts its ballots. There are posts about Cas going to super hell to turn states blue.

There are posts about a homophobic love confession and burying your gays.

Apparently Putin is resigning. Of course he is.

Everything feels like a chaotic fever dream.

(Putin was, obviously, not resigning, but it took at least a few hours for this misinformation to stop circulating tumblr)

yo it’s literally november 3rd. what’s next the 4th? and then. no it can’t be.

[who-likes-cake]

the dribble artist

It was a school day Jamal was running down the hall as fast as he could, he was almost late for math as he was running he felt his hair gently touching the back of his head because of the air.

When he got there he tried to get to his desk without the teacher noticing he was late. But, sadly he got caught and that's how he got landed in detention for the rest of the day. As the hours passed, he felt himself slowly drifting off. His eyes started drooping, his head falling on his desk and then he found himself dreaming about his favorite movie. He was imagining himself laying on the couch eating lays chips and watching his favorite movie for the 22nd time.  And just when the dream started getting good Snap! Snap! Snap!. It was his teacher Miss Shirley telling him to get going “come on it's time to go home” so Jamal grabbed his backpack and headed to the bus. Honestly, the bus was like detention, but worse, nothing to do just sitting there but also bullies!  Josh Brogan is the worst bully ever! Jamal knew this because first of all he's in 4th grade and he's been in this school for 5 years. Also his house is next to Josh’s and everyday after school Josh would chase him down the sidewalk. Jamal could feel his hand slowly going up the cold railing. As soon as Jamal got on the bus he started getting noogied and people were laughing at him for no reason and then Josh said “hey look its basket boy” and all of Josh's goons started laughing. Jamal started feeling embarrassed, his face turning red and then “ hey Jamal you miss your daddy”  and again Josh and all of his pesky friends started laughing. Jamal felt like he was gonna cry but he knew if he did Josh and his goons would make fun of him. And he started to remember when he was 4 his dad saying ”if anyone starts annoying you fight back, because, if you don't those people will just keep annoying you.” So Jamal stood up, he looked at his fist and he socked Josh straight in the face. “DON'T TALK ABOUT MY DAD!!!” Right after he punched him he got scared “you’re gonna regret that”  Josh said and Josh stood up and kicked Jamal straight in the knee. Jamal fell to the ground. And with his eyes barely open he saw Josh walking away, his bloody nose dripping. And just like that it was Jamal's stop he got off ready to lay down and watch The Shining for the 22nd time he stepped in his house, his knee about to give out and then Jamal heard this “ sweetie get changed into your shorts we gotta go to basketball”. Ugh... Jamal thought but he knew that arguing with his mom wouldn't do any good so he started getting changed and as he did his knee started stinging out of nowhere it felt like 50 hornets plunging their stingers into his knee and he was so tempted to tell his mom. But, ever since he told his mom that his head hurt she babied him for that whole week and Jamal hated that so he didn't tell his mom. He came downstairs and told his mom he was ready and told her to go outside to the car. He immediately grabbed a band aid and slapped it on his aching knee and he ran outside while slightly limping. He got in the car and his knee started to feel better. While his basketball team was playing one of Jamal's teammates passed the ball to him and of course while he was about to shoot the basket Jamal's knee started to hurt and he couldn't shoot it. So he pawned it off to Joshua “what are you doing you could have made that shot?” Jamal started to feel like everyone was watching him even though they weren't He started thinking these dumb thoughts. What if they kick me off the team? And of course as he was making dumb conspiracy theories the other team made a basket that he could have saved. “Come on man you're being weird today” Joshua said “Im sorry, Im sorry, I just have got a lot going on.” Jamal's mom was waiting for him outside.“Did you win?!” Jamal's mom said exceedingly, hoping for a positive answer.  “No Jamal said (as he sighed) “and it's all my fault”. “Honey don't think that but anyway we gotta go, your sister has ballet and if she doesn't she’ll FREAK!! And you know what happens when Sally has a tantrum so let's go” Jamal and his mom started to drive and they kept hitting speed bumps. Jamal felt his stomach fluids wishing around and his body bumping up and down. A little while back before they went to the basketball, as Jamal was getting the band aids he also grabbed a notebook.  So he slipped that out and started doodling. He was drawing something random and he didn't even know what it was, but when he was finished he realized that he had been drawing himself punching Josh. He quickly hid it because he didn't want his mom to see his drawing and say “it's too violent” and then they got back to his house and his mom immediately rushed inside. I don't even know how but in like 1 minute she came back out with Jamal's little sister fully dressed and they drove off to go to ballet. So Jamal went inside and grabbed his notebook and a bag of lays chips and sat down and turned on the shining and started drawing. He found himself back at that drawing of him and Josh and he started thinking “why is Josh so rude like there's literally no reason at all, but then he thought that maybe there was a reason, maybe Josh was actually a nice person and then something happened. He didn't realize how long he had been thinking but he looked at the TV and his movie was over and his chip bag was empty. Jamal decided  that he needed some vitamin d so grabbed his notebook and headed outside. As he sat down, he could feel his knee boiling hot. Jamal was in pain but it was good pain and that's why he was staying out there. As he was drawing he heard a loud clunk against the road he looked up and it was Josh and his goons with their small scooters on the road. Jamal started to feel very worried that they would hurt him but they stared at him and then they ran? Jamal looked back and his brother was in his car.  “Were those kids hurting you?” “No but they were about to” Jamal said as he started to rub his knee. “Well its a good thing I got here in time” Max said. Jamal headed inside. About 30 minutes later his mom and his sister were home. “Time for dinner were having meatloaf.”” Why meatloaf?” I don't like meatloaf!” Sally said in a disgusted voice. Jamal didn't like meatloaf either but he knew that he couldn't argue with his mom like his sister. It would not do anything, Jamal thought. As they were eating their food, Sally, after every bite, would gag hard and again and again and again... until she vomited. Jamal and Max immediately stood up and walked away even though he wasn't done with his food. He didn't have much of an appetite after that anyways. “Time for bed everyone.”  Jamal was disappointed because he and his little sister went to bed at the same time. Jamal, a 9 year old went to bed at the same time as his sister, a 5 year old, but again he didn't argue. As he brushed his teeth he started thinking about his dad about how his dad slammed the door so hard it sounded like it was gonna fall off the hinges. Jamal got a paper cup, put some water in and swished and gurgled. “Ew why do you have to gurgle, be normal” his sister said as she was waiting outside the door. Jamal headed to his room and he plopped onto his bed and  he laid down covered himself with blankets and then his sister ran in the room and  jumped on his bed.  Her knee landed straight on his knee and it  hurt like crazy! But he didn't tell anyone. His sister snatched like 2 of his blankets ran in her room and shut the door and locked it. Jamal turned off the light and went to sleep. Jamal felt a wave of confidence after he punched Josh that morning. Jamal got ready for school. It was a normal school day... boring classes, bla.. bla.. bla. Jamal was being bullied on the bus and when he got home he stepped into the kitchen and said confidently to his mom  “mom i don't like basketball.” “ U mm, OK, I guess we can cancel basketball for the rest of the year”. Jamal felt happy for the first time in a while and one thing he learned from this experience is that you don't have to do something you don't want to do.

The end.

[sambergscott]

The Most Romantic Heist Of The Year

because the idea of them using any holiday to heist now is my favourite!! concept!! ever!! 

holt + kevin invite all the couples round to their house for a valentine’s day dinner party + for team bonding, or so the email claims

jake + amy, rosa + jocelyn (PRICE!), charles + genevieve, terry + sharon and hitchock + scully all show up in the formal wear requested by the hosts

amy actually wears the red dress from the party ep because a) she looked super hot in it b) it’s valentine’s day c) jake thinks she looks super hot in it

hitchcock is in shorts obvs

when they arrive they quickly realise this is not a dinner party it’s a HEIST

holt + kevin announce the rules: they have until midnight to find a stuffed bear holding a heart that says “happy valentine’s day”. it’s couples vs couples. “we’ve been planning this since we got home from shaw’s bar on cinco de mayo,” kevin says, an evil gleam in his eye. “we’re going to wipe the floor with all of you.... + i hope you enjoy your evening in our humble abode”

holt has never been more in love with his husband

hitchcock + scully somehow find the valentine’s bear first. nobody knows how. they don’t have it in their possession long

predictably, charles + genevieve spend most of the evening in the kitchen looking through holt + kevin’s cupboards + feeding each other

when hitchcock + scully walk in LITERALLY HOLDING THE BEAR IN THEIR ARMS genevieve grabs it off them + charles is so turned on they start making out in the captain’s kitchen

hitchcock + scully sit there the entire time eating a lasagne

jocelyn (PRICE!) is new to this heisting thing + is super confused by everyone’s weird energy

but also she recognises how important it is for rosa to win for the very first time + manages to swipe it off genevieve when she’s getting them more drinks

jake + amy have been in the library the entire time scheming/flirting

they’ve also been listening (mostly disgusted) to everything happening in the kitchen..... a buttdial from scully may for once work to their advantage!!!

holt + kevin of course have secret cameras and mics everywhere + are watching from their bedroom with cheddar ready to enact their plan at the perfect moment

ok back to terry + sharon

terry is RIDING HIGH after his cinco de mayo win + is determined to extend his reign as champ, whereas sharon is just enjoying holt + kevin’s fancy wine + a night away from the kids

it’s 22:50. jocelyn + rosa are locked in a guest bedroom with the bear, planning on waiting it out until midnight

however, a locked door is no match for terry jeffords!!!! he breaks the it off his hinges with his bare hands while sharon watches in shock, downing the rest of her wine as she thinks about how much that door is going to cost them to replace

(they’re supposed to be taking the girls to disney!!!! they can’t afford to be reimbursing his boss for broken doors!!!!)

then terry tries to tackle rosa to the floor to steal the bear

unfortunately for him, rosa pulls a large knife out of her skin-tight jeans

“ugh fine you win”

“great!” sharon exclaims, thrilled this is over and she can get back to drinking wine with her gorgeous husband “heists are dumb”

jake and amy are not so submissive

jake somehow climbs through the window in a white vest John McClane Stylez, distracting the couple, while amy grabs the bear from the floor where rosa had dropped it in the midst of the action

she stuffs the bear under her dress like a fake pregnancy belly + heads for the library

she is stopped in her tracks by cheddar the dog

she immediately sneezes bc Allergies

when she tries to escape in the other direction, another corgi appears

then another

and another

it’s basically antoni porowski’s dream

amy, however, can’t breathe

before she can shout for jake, holt + kevin emerge from their master bedroom

“hello, imbecile” kevin says à la shawn from tgp

amy gasps, clutching her oddly shaped belly

“give us the bear,” holt says, enunciating every word

“whaaaaat? i don’t know what you mean. i don’t have it. i don’t even know what bear you’re talking about”

“the one under your dress, santiago”

“there’s not a bear under my dress. i’m pregnant. jake knocked me up. it’s a girl”

“yeah right,” holt scoffs “i gave you that one last year”

“fine. i do have the bear but you’re not getting it. in less than one hour jake and i will regain our rightful positions as the greatest couple in the nine-nine”

“not if i have anything to say about it” (again, read that in shawn’s voice) “cheddar... ATTACK”

cheddar + all cheddar’s brothers + sisters excitedly bound towards amy, tails wagging

she screams, letting the bear fall to the floor “make them stop!!!!”

cheddar bites the head off the bear before holt + kevin can get him to back off. they grab the beheaded bear + retreat to their bedroom while amy runs downstairs to get the epipen from her purse

but alas!!!! there is one last twist!!!!

at midnight, holt + kevin are of course smug af with their teddy bear until rosa pulls an identical one from out of her leather jacket

(nobody knows how she hides these things, everyone is too afraid to ask)

“you never specified WHICH bear was the real prize since you didn’t know jocelyn gave me an identical one this morning AND since our bear is the only bear that is intact, i believe that makes US the winners”

holt + kevin are opening and closing their mouths like goldfish. they’ve been played

the rest of the squad congratulate rosa + jocelyn (PRICE!) on their victory

many alcoholic beverages are consumed

holt insists they cheated and demands a rematch

“.... easter egg hunt anyone?”

[spacebrick3]

Evenfall University: Ring of Fire Part 2

Part 2 of Mira’s adventures at Evenfall, and we’re introduced to some more of @note-katha‘s 1) amazing world of Evenfall, and 2) the main characters of her story!

Her classes, like her time at the university, don’t get off to a flying start. Hard for them to when she doesn’t believe in the course material. Which is why we find her now arguing with one of the professors: one Nina Wyst, Th.D (Doctor of Thaumaturgy), teacher of the Introductory Second Circle class at Evenfall.

“I don’t care whether or not you think I’ll be able to ‘wield the powers of creation and destruction at will’!” she scoffs, standing next to her desk and slamming a palm onto it, “because those don’t exist!”

“Miss Niemczyk,” and at least she can pronounce her name right, “that’s really not my concern. My subject doesn’t hinge on your belief, though your grade may. The midterms and final exams will test your abilities to perform with at least a modicum of power within your given circle - Second, I hope, for all of you, because if not you’re in the wrong class-“

She refuses to take the [obvious] hint to sit down and stop arguing. “So as long as I find a good special-effects crew, I’m set?”

“You will be taking the exams alone, Mira. Otherwise, it would be considered cheating.” She gives a lazy grin, tilting her chair back by another degree. “Look. You chose to come here, why not gain something from it? It’s not my problem if you believe in it, but it’s certainly yours.” 

With a snap of her fingers, a marker appears in her hands, and Wyst turns to the board behind her. The rest of the students react half a second later, muttering among themselves. “Second Circle magic, as I’m sure you’re aware, is the highest circle of magic people are gifted with, as well as the highest we are permitted to access. Highest in power, as it were, though lowest numerically, because of…numbering systems. Those old Babylonians were onto something, if you ask me-“

“Ever heard of Clarke’s third law?”

She sighs. “I try to encourage my students to be questioning, and you are succeeding admirably. Too admirably. Be quiet and let me do my job as a teacher, please.”

“‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’ - Clarke, in 1973. You tell us that what you do is magic - well, I don’t believe you. If you went around and showed a laptop, or a movie projector, or - or a car, or a plane, to people from 3000 B.C. then they would say it’s magic, too.”

“You’re interested in technology, then, Mira?” she asks, pinching her nose.

She is, although normally people mean computers and if(else) statements and tiny circuit boards when they ask that. ‘Technology’, to them, is just whatever the newest widespread innovation is, and those are all in computers. They’re done and over aeronautical engineering - except in the fuckin’ military, and she wants nothing to do with that.

“I guess?” is the best she can offer.

“Fine, then. Consider the Second Circle…materials science, of a sort. 3-D printing, engineering, chemistry - whatever field you want to say we’re talking about. After all-“ she smirks- “I am not telling you about magic, but instead about technology. Is that acceptable?”

“Um-“

“Because if it’s not, I may have to ask you to leave. I can only tolerate so many disruptions in my class, Miss Niemczyk, and while I applaud your spirit I find it misplaced. Understand?” Getting a glare - but silence, also - in response, Wyst spins the marker in her hand and turns back to the board. “Great! Before we have a more formal introduction to the magic, or ‘tech’, there is some administrative paperwork to handle - if any of you do manage to injure yourselves be aware that you may have a tricky time getting insurance to cover it…”

Mira sulks - there’s no better way to put it, even to herself. She slumps back in her chair, crossing her arms and muttering indistinctly under her breath. snatching the prerequisite forms from the poor front-row student assigned to pass them out with a grumble. Yes, you can call it technology, but that doesn’t - why do you choose to call it magic, then? she demands, in her inner world where she can win the argument. What do you gain by associating it with the mystical, huh? 

Unfortunately, winning the argument with herself does not put her in a better mood, or even a less argumentative one. You ever heard of Klass’ law? Because that’s one thing you didn’t address: any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo, and so is your ‘magic’. Just because you call it something different-

The girl next to her, in a glaring orange sweater - it’s not even pastel, sweaters are supposed to be pastel - taps her on the shoulder. “Hey - aren’t you the one - didn’t you say the same thing earlier?”

“That magic doesn’t exist?” Mira gives her a suspicious look, this unknown factor with dark brown skin and a full page of notes already scribbled on her page. “Were - were you taking notes of that argument?”

“No!” she whispers, guilty look giving her away. She’s even worse of a liar than Mira, who at least knows enough to deflect the conversation. “Maybe…look, it was interesting! It’s a compliment!” Even as she says it, though, she flips the pages in what she a) probably hopes is a casual manner, and b) definitely isn’t. “So? Are you the one from orientation?”

No use in denying it. She hoped she’d be noticed, wouldn’t she? She supposes she has only Samantha to thank for the whole school not already knowing her name, and whoever asked that question about the First Circle. “That’s me.”

“Why’d - I mean - what magic do you have? Or…um…” She flounders, realizing the problem too late. “…tech…”

She lets it go on longer than it needs to, a small smile creeping back onto her face. “I’m in here. Only two choices, really. Take a guess.”

Her gaze takes in Mira’s flame-red hair, the burn marks that still creep up her arm (when she finds whoever ran Steve’s Sulfur, they will die, and it will involve copious amounts of their flawed product), and her sullen mood. There’s only one conclusion she could come to: “Destruction?”

It’s the wrong one. “Guess again.”

“You’re…creation? Hey!” She brightens. “I’m creation, too!”

“Statistically, half of this class is,” Mira says flatly. “Nothing special.”

She waves it off. “So, uh, I know your name - Mira, I assume, unless she got your name wrong - but you don’t know mine, obviously. I’m Kalavathi - but you can call me ‘Kal’, everyone does - Nayri.” Kal holds out her hand, realizes it’s currently holding a pen, and quickly swaps hands. “Nice to meet you…?”

She sighs. “Course. Mira Niemczyk, don’t bother spelling the last name.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Their class is still doing nothing, Wyst going over the particulars with a nervous-looking student. “Hey - want to come over for dinner tonight? I think we’re - well, I’m positive we’re probably making pasta again because it’s what we can cook and what we like. But there’s always extra, too, and our other roommate…um…” Her mouth tightens. “She doesn’t generally come to dinner with us, so the invitation is open to you.”

It’s - an easy choice, actually. Harmony and Aishwarya and Nitya have no cooking skills - probably didn’t need them, at their fancy prep school in California - and her meal options are limited there. Meal options and conversation options, given that they all know each other and seem more content to talk within their group. Her own room - it’s one thing she brought from home, snacks, and the food truly is bigger in Texas - is just lonely. “Sure. Why not?” “Sure. Why not?”

Kal beams. “Great! See you at six!”

They separate after that, Kal heading to her own classes and Mira to Astronomy. It’s a useless class until it can start meeting at night - which the professor promises her is soon, just the moment they know her classmates can tell Mars from Mercury. But for now absolutely nothing is happening, which gives her the chance to fuck around on her laptop (she told herself she was going to get work done, and then she didn’t).

Still, she manages to lever herself out of the dorm and trudge over to where Kal said hers was, the weather only a light drizzle of rain. She doesn’t think she’s seen the sun since she arrived, and is almost starting to believe Harmony’s theory of magical rain. Almost. 

She stops. Starts. Turns the other way, to check who she saw leaning uncertainly against the wall. “Samantha? Is that you?”

Her glasses almost fall off her face - they’re horrendously unbalanced, sliding down every time she so much glances at the ground. Samantha does a lot of that, it seems. “Yes - Mira, I wasn’t expecting to see you…”

“It’s not that large of a campus, we’d probably run into each other-“ Wait. “How do you know my name? You told me yours but I never told you mine,” she says with a frown. 

“Oh! I, uh, I heard you shouting,” she mutters. “You…are very loud, sometimes. You were shouting, and saying that magic didn’t exist - like you did earlier. She said your name - Mira.”

“And you were just hanging around outside my class?”

“I - I had nowhere else to go,” she says with a hint of something indescribable, an echo of Mira. “The Third Circle class doesn’t start yet…and where else should I have been? You’re the only person I know - that I met - and-“ She drops her head in her hands. “Right. I will stop talking, and just leave, because clearly I am just making things - worse.”

Mira catches her. “Yeah, you’re not getting away that easily. Come on.” Her arm is cold, though it’s probably just the rain. It’s only September, it should be 80 degrees, and instead it’s 50 and wet, she grumbles to herself. “You said you didn’t have anywhere to go, right? I’m extending an invitation - of an invitation, but she did say there’s always extra-“

“I don’t understand,” she says uncertainly.

“Sam - I’m going to call you Sam, unless that’s not alright…” She waits, but the other girl doesn’t give her a response. Probably alright then, she thinks. “I’m heading to food with some not-yet-friends, and you are joining me.” It’s not quite a request, but Sam doesn’t object, and so the two of them arrive at the Melpomene rooms without a problem. Without a conversation, either, because Sam seems happier to stay quiet.

It’s only when she gets there she realizes she has no idea which of the rooms in the imposing - smaller than the others, but no building in Evenfall looks truly modest - structure is home to Kal and her roommates, nor is there an easy way to find out. “You wouldn’t happen to know their address?” she says, looking around the front room to see if there are mailboxes, labelled with name and room number.

“What did you say her name was?”

“Kal - Kalavathi Nayri. Why? Do you know her?” she asks, frowning. No. She can’t, because she said Mira was the only one she knew. “Which dorm are you in, anyways?”

“Nayri,” she says to herself, turning the name over. “Nayri. Creation magic. Creation magic is…” [Sam’s] feet take her, almost of their own accord, into the center of the room. “This level. Somewhere around to the left, I think. Depends where the corridors will take us.”

Mira follows her gaze, but can’t see anything. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You can’t see it? It’s a…green glow, that of creation - only one in this whole dormitory. Perhaps only those gifted with Third Circle, mind or soul…those who see the spirits of magic that inhabit Evenfall. Everyone has one…” She blinks. “It doesn’t matter. Where can we find the suite?”

She laughs. She can’t help it. “You can see people’s fuckin’ spirits, but not the doors? Over there,” she says, pointing. “It’s labelled. Suite number one, and there’s only two. Don’t think we’ll have to worry about corridors.” She knocks, feeling that there should be something a little bit more to it. “If we’ve got the wrong people, though-“

Her warning doesn’t get finished - she doesn’t know how to finish it, either - because it’s Kal who opens the door. “Oh! Hi, Mira! Welcome to the tragedy dorm, but don’t worry! As far as we know, nobody has died here!”

“Yet,” she says, glancing inside. It looks almost identical to hers, though already starting to bear the touches that will make it a space to live in - a stack of notebooks tilting dangerously on the table and pencils already scattered on flat surfaces. “The ‘tragedy dorm’?”

“They’re named after the Muses,” she answers. “Ours is Melpomene, who deals with tragedy. I think they all are, which makes sense, the Fifth Circle at least is supposed to be artistic,” she says. “And…I don’t know your name,” she continues, pointing at Sam. “Or who you are.”

She leaves the statement open, the implicit question that Sam doesn’t pick up on. “Um…alright…?”

“Introduce yourself,” she says, poking her in the shoulder. 

“Samantha Venera, Third Circle,” she says automatically. “And you’re Kalavathi Nayri, Second Circle, creation. Who are the other two people - there is…violet? Indigo? Fifth Circle, time, and a bright orange - voice, I think.” She frowns. “Creation, time, and voice, an interesting combination.”

Both Mira and Kal give her a strange look. “How - yes, but-“ Kal starts.

Sam smiles. “You’re at a magical university, aren’t you? Shouldn’t you be expecting the unexpected? You have a witch in there who can meddle with time itself, perhaps you should broaden your horizons.” An uncomfortable moment of silence follows, her gaze flicking between the two of them. “I’m sorry. Perhaps - never mind.”

“Right then.” Kal doesn’t let it bother her for long. “We have food inside, and I’m sure you’ll be interested to meet my friends. And I’m, um, sure they’ll love to meet you - maybe don’t tell them about their, auras or whatever you’re looking at…”

She doesn’t. “Ardis Akiya-Blair-“ The tall, almost stretched-looking boy at the end of the table gives a wave- “Juli Cárdenas Rivera Silva Vicente-“ Next to him is a girl, slightly shorter (‘shorter’ in this case still towering over Kal, Mira, and Sam), in a mishmash of bright colors that somehow works - even if she can’t look at it directly for more than ten seconds. “This is Mira Niemczyk, from the Second Circle class-“

“Two things: Juli is overrated, call me Jules, and two, aren’t you the one from-“ Jules starts.

“Yes. Problem?” she asks with a pointed glare.

“I was just - well, anyway. Pasta is done, and it’s - not getting any warmer, so let’s eat first?” She’s deflecting, but she doesn’t care because a) she doesn’t want to be known as ‘that one person from orientation’, and b) it does look like good food. Mira takes her bowl with a mutter of “thanks”, the others around the table following as they get theirs.

It doesn’t last long. “So you really don’t believe in magic?” Ardis asks around a mouthful of pasta. “Even now that you’ve had your first classes and all?”

“Am I supposed to?” she replies acidly. “Why should I believe in it? It’s not made our lives better, it’s not being used to - stop wars, or end poverty, or do any of the things magic is supposed to be able to. It’s just for people here in the backwoods to fuck around with, yeah? And I’m not saying society got almost infinitely better when people, as a whole, stopped believing in magic, but…it did.”

“…but none of that denies that it’s real, does it?” He shakes his head, shooting an odd glance at Sam. “Like…being hungry is inconvenient, and if we were able to stop it’d be better for everyone, but - I mean, if we didn’t believe that we were hungry when we were we’d all be dead.”

“And yet magic isn’t essential for life, so…”

Juli clears her throat. “Ignoring the socioeconomic implications of magic - there is a more interesting question: Mira, we’re going to the forest probably tomorrow-“

“Are we?” Ardis asks, at the same time Kal says “Don’t tell her that!”

“What? It’s not like she’s going to report us - are you?” she asks, expression changing in a heartbeat. “You’d better not, and you-“ She jabs a finger at Sam- “um - I don’t know you, but Mira says you’re alright, so don’t.”

“You can trust me,” Sam answers, with another slightly-unnerving grin. “And I don’t know what you are expecting me to report - it’s not against the rules-”

“So you’re going to the forest?” Mira says. “What does that have to do with me?”

Juli looks guilty now, tapping out a rhythm on the tabletop. “So, obviously, we’re warned against going in the forest because of any dangerous magical creatures there. They’re, um, apparently a little more dangerous than the regular types of creatures, although that wasn’t going to stop us-“

“And me?”

“Well - do you believe these ‘magical creatures’-“ she makes the air quotes- “exist?”

“No.” Her pride, at least, won’t let her say otherwise.

“Exactly! There are some, uh, theories floating around that say they’ll avoid you if you don’t believe in them - it’s why no one from outside Evenfall gets killed - probably. So we’re inviting you with us to try and not die to them-“ 

Kal leans over, tapping her on the shoulder. “We are?” she whispers, not quietly enough.

“Yes! We are now!” she whispers back. For a supposedly dangerous expedition, if the forests of Evenfall are so dangerous, not a lot of planning seems to have gone into it. Not that college students would necessarily plan ahead for anything, regardless of its danger. “So - you in?”

Mira sighs. “Sure-“

“I’m joining you,” Sam says.

“What - I mean, we weren’t planning-“

“Too bad,” she says with a smirk. “You invited Mira to help protect you - there are things in the forest, things of spirits and spectres that I don’t think she’ll protect you from. I can help you - and I will, find what you want to find and avoid what you should.” She shrugs. “And though there’s no official rule against it, I doubt the professors or the TA here would be especially pleased if I were to report you.”

Ardis looks the least convinced. “I suppose there isn’t any way out of this.”

“Sorry. No.”

“Right, then.” He sighs. “Forest tomorrow it is.”

Tag list: @lady-redshield-writes, @no-url-ideas-tho, @ratracechronicler, @ken-kenwrites, @ravenpuffwriter, @cirianne, @lonelylibrary @maxbeewriting, @endlesshourglass, @thebloodstainedquill,  @anip-ocs, @note-katha @dreamwishing, @incandescent-creativity, @fatal-blow, @danafaithwriting, @wri-tten, @writingwhithotchocolate, @katekyo-bitch-reborn, @klywrites and @dogwrites!

[argumate]

Wait is there a new prediction market? The website still seems to show 2016.

yeah baby! we’re going back to our roots and doing this old school, and it all starts by sending me an ask that goes like this:

yo argy, here are my updated ranges:

 - Sanders 25-50 - Warren 10-30 - Biden 0-15

or whatever numbers make sense to you; think of the range like if someone said “I think Sanders has at most a 10% chance of winning” and you’re like no way, it’s at least 25%, and someone else said Sanders is the hot favourite, I think he has a good 80% chance of victory! and you’re like no way, it’s 50:50 at best, then boom you’ve narrowed Sanders down to 25-50 and that’s what you tell the market.

from a trading point of view that means you are willing to buy at 25 or lower and willing to sell at 50 or higher, and differences of opinion are resolved by making the appropriate trades up to a credit limit that increases each week.

over time you issue and accumulate a stack of IOUs that are conditional on various outcomes: Sanders winning, Sanders not winning, and your final net worth hinges on the actual outcome of the Democratic primary, so choose your probability ranges wisely! (you can update them later of course).

last thing is to take all this trading activity and spit out the aggregated wisdom of the market and see if that ends up tracking closer to reality than last time, when we totally blew it.

[chaotic-good-hawke]

Gymnophoria - From Another Perspective

prompt originally from @that-cat-over-there from this post. (thank you again, friend!)

Part 1 can be found here. 

I was inspired to write the scenes from the other perspective. 

Link to work on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16329293

Kirkwall, 9:31 Dragon

Marian Hawke downed her first shot of the night, feeling the cheap burn at the back of her throat.

The Hanged Man was filled with its usual crowd of miscreants and ruffians, the best of which were sitting with her at their usual spot. Varric sat at the head of the table with his legs crossed and set on the table, nursing his beer. Fenris was next to him and was reluctantly drinking along. Aveline had just arrived and took a seat next to Fenris, still in her city guard armor. Isabela was next to Hawke, already several shots in and in peak Isabela form.

Varric was shuffling the cards. They were going to play Wicked Grace once Carver arrived with Merrill (Maker, how did she manage to get so lost?) and Anders found his way from the clinic.

It promised to be a good night.

“Deal the cards, Varric!” Isabela exclaimed.

“Be patient, Rivaini, we will start when the whole crew is assembled.” Varric said, continuing to shuffle.

“I am bored! Someone distract me.”

“What do you want to do, Isabela?”

“Do you have to ask, Sweet thing? We could go back to my room and entertain ourselves.” Isabela said, trailing her finger along Hawke’s arm. Hawke laughed, but did consider it.

“Whore, do you ever stop?” Aveline asked.

“No.” Was all Fenris said.

“Spoilsport, Captain Manhands.” Isabela grumbled into her cup.

“How about a bet? There is a dart board over there.” Varric suggested.

“But no darts, Varric. And last time Corth yelled at us when you fired Bianca at the board from across the bar.” Hawke said. “We don’t want to get thrown out THIS early.”

The group went silent for a minute considering their options. “Well, how about this then. I bet you 50 silver that you can’t pick up someone from this bar.” Isabela suggested.

“I can do that easily, Bela.” Hawke said with confidence. “You’re on!”

“Hawke, are you really going to do this?” Aveline asked.

“Yes, Hawke, are you?” Fenris asked, with thinly veiled curiosity.

“Of course!” Hawke downed another shot. “Varric! You like me, right?”

“While I am flattered-”

“No, it can’t be someone you know, Hawke.” Isabela protested.

“You didn’t specify that!”

“Well I am now!”

“Fine!”

“Will you two please stop shouting?” Aveline asked, rubbing her temple. “Maker, why I associate with you…”

“You love it, Aveline.” Hawke said, then, turning back to Isabela. “Fine, someone I don’t know.”

Hawke surveyed the bar, trying to find a likely candidate. Most were drunks, or regulars, or regular drunks.

There has to be someone suitable here…

But then, Hawke spotted a perfect mark at the bar. He had golden hair, muscles, from the looks of it, and he definitely looked lonely.

“Him, I will pick that guy up, using my incredible skill and then you will owe me 50 silver.”

“Hey, I want in on this bet.” Varric said. “50 silver says Rivaini manages to steal him out from under you.”

“Varric! Have you no faith in me?” Hawke said, dramatically.

“I’ve seen you try to flirt, Hawke. It was sad.”

“That was for a job, this is entirely different.”

“Whatever you say, will you take that bet?”

“Yes! Just to spite you!” With that, Hawke waved Nora down and requested a drink be send over to the gentleman.

She waited for the drink to be delivered. When it was, she forced everyone to look away, to not make it obvious.

She looked across the bar at him and waved. He looked concerned or confused. Hawke elbowed Isabela. “See, already he is looking my way.”

“You do know how to pick them, Hawke. He looks very fit, indeed.” They took a moment to eye him, imagining how his obvious muscles looked underneath his clothing. The man looked away and downed his drink.

“Ah, getting his courage up?” Isabela purred.

“We shall see. Now is my chance.”

“Honestly, Hawke…” Aveline said, shaking her head.

Hawke rose from the bench and started towards the bar, with her best sashay. The man watched her. Suddenly, he rose from the stool, threw down some coins, and practically ran from the bar.

Hawke heard Varric laughing behind her.

“Sweet thing! You scared him off!” Isabela exclaimed and Hawke made her way back to the table. “I think that means I win.”

“No one is to mention any part of this to Carver.” Hawke said sulkily, handing over the coin to Isabela.

“Not a word, Hawke, not a word.” Varric said, still chortling.

Maker, I will never live this down.

Haven, 9:41 Dragon

Dorian strolled around the small village of Haven. It was quaint, in a Southern fashion. The villagers side-eyed him as he walked, whispering and gawking. You would think he was the Elder One the way they acted.

He heard the sound of clanging steel and wandered on down the steps through the gate. He found before him a glorious sight. The Commander was fighting another rather strapping fellow, both of them down to their shirts, which, sweat soaked as they were, left little to the imagination. Well, many people’s imaginations, Dorian found he could come up with a few things.

Their bout came to an end and the commander moved to a side bench, lifting a ladle of water. Some of the water trickled down his body.

Bless the Maker.

The commander turned and met his eyes. Dorian raised his brow and cocked his head to the side, giving the man a long look. The man in question looked down and, if his eyes were not deceiving him, the Commander was blushing.  

“You are looking quite intent about something, Dorian.” Lavellan said, stepping beside him. The Dalish mage had taken to him, after their jaunt to the future. She was one of the only ones to even treat him like a person in Haven.

“Just enjoying the wonderful view, darling.” Lavellan turned and seeing where his gaze fell, touched his arm lightly and started laughing.

“Oh, I see. Just enjoying the natural wonders of the South, huh?” She said, the laugh still in her voice. She looked towards the Commander and waved, a wide grin of mirth on her face. He gave a half-hearted wave back before turning and walking away.

“Ah, you scared him away!” Dorian complained.

Lavellan playfully slapped his arm. “I did not! It was probably your leering at him!”

“I was not leering! I was admiring!”

“Of course, dear Altus. Of course.”

Skyhold, 9:41 Dragon

Lavellan left the rotunda. She had just left a shocked and delighted Dorian on the second floor. He was the first one she told about her night. About her amazing night.

She was a cheerful person by nature, but even for her, she found herself grinning more than usual. As she greeted various people in the hall on her way to the war table, she found an extra bounce to her step and had to keep from outright whistling.

Cullen was cautious about a relationship. He was so adorably awkward and sweet at times. She understood that he was struggling with his lyrium withdrawals and that made him want to take things slow.

Lavellan had been fine with taking things slow. With the Inquisition, it was almost impossible to spend any time together, but they had made it work: a chess game here, a walk in the moonlit there. Then, last night, Cullen made a move, a much bolder move than she had been expecting.

Lavellan reached the door to the War Room and entered, hearing the now familiar creak of the hinges. She quickly looked to Cullen and she felt herself smiling again.

“Good afternoon, everyone! What’s on the agenda today?” She asked, looking to the other advisors.

“Ah, Inquisitor, yes, we have several Orlesian nobles visiting that wish an audience with you…”

Josephine and Leliana started detailing the meetings she would have throughout the days and the information she would need to talk to the nobles. Really, they were invaluable in that department.

“Lady Bellington can be a bit…verbose at times.” Josephine said.

Lavellan laughed at that, “Verbose? Why, Josephine, you never cease to amaze me with how you manage to make even the most awful nobles sound nice. I remember Lady Bellington from Val Royeaux and verbose is putting it mildly.”

Josephine and Leliana then started debating about whether Lavellan should speak to her alone or if they should have a messenger interrupt them.

Lavellan looked to Cullen and found his eyes intently on her. She ducked her head and felt a blush coming to her cheeks. He most certainly was not focusing on the meeting.

She met his gaze again and raised her eyebrow just so, before letting her eyes trail across his armored form, communicating that she was quite pleased with what she saw and what she knew was underneath all the armor.

“Commander?” Josephine asked. Lavellan started suddenly, straightening and refocusing.

“Yes, Josephine?” Cullen asked in reply.

“Did you have any suggestions to add?”

“No, I think you and Leliana have it well in hand.” He had recovered quickly, well done. Lavellan felt a smirk on her face.

“Excellent, Commander, now if we move on to this other matter…”

Lavellan focused on the meeting and took some notes on her upcoming meetings, but she did notice that Cullen was pointedly not looking her way.

Poor man, I am so very distracting.

The meeting came to a close and Leliana and Josephine left, talking about some recent gossip. Lavellan leaned against the doorframe and waited for Cullen to leave. He finished gathering his notes and looked up at her. He instantly smiled at her and Lavellan couldn’t help returning it.

How can one man do this to me?

As they left the room, Lavellan took his hand in hers and gently tugged him down to her. She had a wicked glint in her eye and she whispered into his ear, “Tonight, you can undress me for real, not just with your eyes, Cullen.”

She saw him freeze, her words taking hold.

Oh, yes. I have plans for you tonight. She thought, pulling the still dazed Commander through the hall.

[ultralifehackerguru-blog]

New Post has been published on http://www.lifehacker.guru/fall-movie-preview-50-movies-you-need-to-know-about/

Fall Movie Preview: 50 Movies You Need to Know About

Not only does Fall bring chillier temperatures, pumpkin spice lattes, and cozy sweaters but also plenty of reasons to go to the movie theater (or stay on the comfort of your own couch with new Netflix originals, if you’re into that sort of thing). The season kicks off with everything from a heartbreaking family drama from the creator of This Is Us to the long-awaited Halloween rebootthat will surely give us nightmares long after Fall transitions into Winter. This is also the season when Oscar hopefuls emerge and holiday blockbusters start coming out by the dozen, so there’s seriously something for everyone. If you need an idea of what to see from the end of August all the way to Christmas, then take a look at the list ahead.

1 Operation Finale

Image Source: MGM

The scoop: With a large crew to back him up, Mossad agent Peter Malkin (Oscar Isaac) goes on a covert mission to Argentina in 1960 to find the Nazi officer who masterminded the Holocaust. Mélanie Laurent, Haley Lu Richardson, Ben Kingsley, and Nick Kroll costar.

Release date: Aug. 29

2 Sierra Burgess Is a Loser

Image Source: Netflix

The scoop: The story focuses on Sierra (Stranger Things star Shannon Purser), a smart high school student who unintentionally begins catfishing her crush because of a case of mistaken identity. She teams up with Veronica, the school’s typical popular mean girl (Kristine Froseth), in hopes of winning over her crush, played by The Fosters‘ Noah Centineo.

Release date: Sept. 7

3 The Nun

Image Source: Warner Bros.

The scoop: Even the poster for this follow-up to the Conjuring franchise is enough to send chills down our spines, so we can only imagine how terrifying the actual movie is going to be. This time around, we travel to 1950s Romania, where a nun and a Catholic priest are sent by the Vatican to investigate the mysterious suicide of another nun at a monastery. What they don’t realize is that an intensely powerful demonic force is already there, waiting to claim them.

Release date: Sept. 7

4 Mandy

Image Source: RLJE Films

The scoop: Nicolas Cage and Andrea Riseborough star in this thriller set in 1983. The pair play Red Miller and Mandy Bloom, who lead a remote, peaceful existence in the Pacific Northwest until a sadistic cult destroys everything they hold dear. The invasion sparks a tale of bloody vengeance that will have you on the edge of your seat.

Release date: Sept. 14

5 The Predator

Image Source: 20th Century Fox

The scoop: Alfie Allen, Olivia Munn, and more star in this sequel, which will see soldiers teaming up to battle the vicious extraterrestrial we all know and love (to have nightmares of).

Release date: Sept. 14

6 White Boy Rick

Image Source: Columbia Pictures

The scoop: This based-on-a-true-story crime drama follows young teen Richard Wershe Jr. (Richie Merritt), who goes on to become an undercover FBI informant in the 1980s, although his life tragically ends in disgrace and life in prison. Matthew McConaughey plays his father, Richard Wershe Sr.

Release date: Sept. 14

7 A Simple Favor

Image Source: Lionsgate

The scoop: A Simple Favor, a Paul Feig-directed thriller, stars Anna Kendrickas Stephanie, who seems like she just wants to track down her missing BFF Emily (Blake Lively) . . . but what if she actually had something to do with her disappearance? Although Emily has always seemed like an elegant, aspirational, and all-around put-together human being, she’s also been hiding a dark side from both Stephanie and her own husband, Sean (Crazy Rich Asians actor Henry Golding), which creates an even more complex mystery.

Release date: Sept. 14

8 The Land of Steady Habits

Image Source: Netflix

The scoop: Ted Thompson’s novel The Land of Steady Habits is coming to Netflix this Fall and stars Ben Mendelsohn as Anders Hill, a family man in his mid-50s living in an affluent part of Connecticut who finds himself in a rut. With his son’s college tuition paid off, Anders leaves his wife (Edie Falco) and goes on a clumsy search for freedom.

Release date: Sept. 14

9 The Sisters Brothers

Image Source: Annapurna Pictures

The scoop: This Western drama picks up in 1850s Oregon, where a gold prospector finds himself on the run from an infamous duo of assassins, the Sisters brothers. If that isn’t enough to convince you to watch it, hopefully the star-studded cast is: Jake Gyllenhaal, Joaquin Phoenix, John C. Reilly, and Riz Ahmed star.

Release date: Sept. 19

10 The House With a Clock in Its Walls

Image Source: Universal Pictures

The scoop: A young boy goes to stay with his uncle in a creaky old house and soon realizes that there’s much more to the home than meets the eye — get ready for thrills, chills, witches, and warlocks.

Release date: Sept. 21

11 Quincy

Image Source: Netflix

The scoop: Rashida Jones teamed up with Alan Hicks to direct this Netflix documentary about her father, Quincy Jones, aptly titled Quincy. The film is an intimate look into the life of the music industry icon, exploring his impact, the way he’s transcended racial and cultural boundaries, and the ups and downs of his career over the last 70 years.

Release date: Sept. 21

12 Nappily Ever After

Image Source: Netflix

The scoop: In this Netflix romantic dramedy, Violet Jones (Sanaa Lathan) appears to have it all together — a great job, a doctor boyfriend, and a gorgeous head of hair — until a devastating, life-altering event shatters her illusion of perfection. With her carefully maintained world crumbling around her (and her boyfriend taking up with another woman), Violet decides to figure out just what, exactly, she actually wants out of life.

Release date: Sept. 21

13 Life Itself

Image Source: Amazon Studios

The scoop: This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman just can’t help himself when it comes to making people cry. Not only are we emotionally broken by his hit TV show each week, but the man is also gifting us with a new drama, Life Itself, that’s sure to be a tearjerker. The film hinges on a ridiculously beautiful couple (Oscar Isaac and Olivia Wilde) whose life together — from their first meeting to having a baby and raising their child — spawns “a multi-generational love story” that stretches from New York City to the Spanish countryside. Of course, in true Fogelman fashion, one tragic event is what connects it all. It also stars Mandy Patinkin, Olivia Cooke, Laia Costa, Annette Bening, and Antonio Banderas.

Release date: Sept. 21

14 Colette

Image Source: Bleecker Street

The scoop: Keira Knightley has returned to the world of period films, and we couldn’t be happier. The actress stars as Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, an author who is coerced into ghostwriting a novel for her husband, Willy (Dominic West), after moving to Paris. After the story becomes wildly successful, she’s inspired to fight for creative ownership and against the traditional gender norms of the early 20th century.

Release date: Sept. 21

15 Night School

Image Source: Universal Pictures

The scoop: Night School stars comedian Kevin Hart as a wildly successful salesman who eventually runs into trouble when an explosion at work leaves him out of a job. Unfortunately, his prospects look slim since he dropped out of high school, so he decides to take night classes at the local high school — taught by Tiffany Haddish’s tough-as-nails instructor Kerry — along with a few other troublemakers in order to get his GED and a better career.

Release date: Sept. 28

16 Boy Erased

Image Source: Focus Features

The scoop: Garrard Conley’s heartbreaking 2016 memoir is coming to the big screen, starring Lucas Hedges as Jared, the teenage son of a baptist preacher (Russell Crowe) who is forced to endure a church-supported gay conversion program. The film also stars Nicole Kidman, Joel Edgerton, Xavier Dolan, and Joe Alwyn.

Release date: Sept. 28

17 Private Life

Image Source: Netflix

The scoop: This Netflix film tracks a stressed-out couple — an author (Kathryn Hahn) and her husband (Paul Giamatti) — as they endure multiple fertility therapies to get pregnant. The drama also stars Molly Shannon and Emily Robinson.

Release date: Oct. 5

18 Venom

Image Source: Sony Pictures

The scoop: Tom Hardy’s upcoming Spider-Man spinoff, Venom, sees the villain in all his terrifying, gory glory. The trailer promises that we’ll see Eddie Brock’s (Hardy) transition and struggle going from investigative journalist to symbiote host, finally referring to himself as “we.” (Shiver!) His ex-girlfriend Anne Weying (Michelle Williams) and Riz Ahmed’s evil Dr. Carlton Drake (who will later become the film’s main antagonist, a fellow symbiote called Riot) also appear.

Release date: Oct. 5

19 A Star Is Born

Image Source: Warner Bros.

The scoop: Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s romance, which is the fourth iteration of this story, follows a has-been rock icon (Cooper) who discovers a ridiculously talented young singer (Gaga). Not only do they embark on an epic love story, but they’re also forced to navigate some thrilling triumphs and devastating pitfalls as they tackle the music industry.

Release date: Oct. 5

20 Bad Times at the El Royale

Image Source: 20th Century Fox

The scoop: Did God herself cast Bad Times at the El Royale? Because this thriller is seriously stacked with talent. Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Cailee Spaeny, Lewis Pullman, and Nick Offerman play a group of strangers who find themselves clashing at the titular creepy hotel, owned by Jon Hamm. According to the film’s description, “Over the course of one fateful night, secrets are unearthed, and everyone will have a last shot at redemption before everything goes to hell.” Apparently “hell” is code for “Chris Hemsworth shirtless.”

Release date: Oct. 12

21 First Man

Image Source: Focus Features

The scoop: Ryan Gosling plays Neil Armstrong in this biopic, which reunites him with La La Land director Damien Chazelle. Based on the book by James R. Hansen, the drama looks equal parts heartfelt and intense and also stars The Crown‘s Claire Foy and Bloodline‘s Kyle Chandler.

Release date: Oct. 12

22 Apostle

Image Source: Netflix

The scoop: Occult horror-thriller Apostle stars Beauty and the Beast‘s Dan Stevens as Thomas Richardson, who returns home to London in 1905 only to discover that his sister has been captured by a cult led by the dangerously charismatic Prophet Malcolm (Michael Sheen) and is being held for ransom. Thomas sets out to rescue his sister, infiltrating the cult’s island community and eventually uncovering an evil secret.

Release date: Oct. 12

23 Beautiful Boy

Image Source: Amazon Studios

The scoop: Get your tissues ready, because Timothée Chalamet will break your heart in this Amazon Studios adaptation of Tweak and David Sheff’s gut-wrenching memoir, Beautiful Boy. Chalamet’s character goes from a lighthearted, suburban big brother who enjoys family time to a young adult battling a devastating methamphetamine addiction. Steve Carell plays his father, and their relationship will shake you to your core.

Release date: Oct. 12

24 Serenity

Image Source: Universal Pictures

The scoop: Anne Hathaway and Matthew McConaughey have reunited years after Christopher Nolan’s existential Interstellar for another stressful cinematic experience: enter Serenity. In it, a very blond Hathaway asks McConaughey to murder her abusive husband (Chappaquiddick‘s Jason Clarke) by dropping him smack dab in the ocean, much to the delight of any nearby sharks. Despite the grim premise, the trailer still makes the movie look pretty damn sexy, for what it’s worth.

Release date: Oct. 19

25 Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Image Source: 20th Century Fox

The scoop: Melissa McCarthy flexes her dramatic acting chops in Can You Ever Forgive Me? as Lee Israel, a real-life magazine writer whose life took a turn when she started forging and selling letters supposedly written by late, legendary writers. She later pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to transport stolen property in 1993 and eventually wrote a memoir about her life, upon which the biopic is based.

Release date: Oct. 19

26 Halloween

Image Source: Universal Pictures

The scoop: A David Gordon Green-directed reboot of the terrifying franchise sees Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her role as Laurie Strode from the 1978 original. Now older (but perhaps not altogether wiser), Laurie has spent years praying that her attempted murderer, Michael Myers, would escape from his psychiatric ward so that she can get revenge for the trauma he put her through by killing him herself. Well, thanks to a bus crash, she gets her wish, and the unstoppable homicidal maniac is let loose on the world once again.

Release date: Oct. 19

27 Wildlife

Image Source: IFC Films

The scoop: Do you hear that? It’s the sound of Oscar buzz for Wildlife, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan as a couple who move their son to Montana in 1960, only for their marriage to fall apart.

Release date: Oct. 19

28 Galveston

Image Source: RLJE Films

The scoop: After mob hit man Roy (Ben Foster) discovers his boss has hired assassins to take him out, he goes on the run with a young, troubled woman named Rocky (Elle Fanning). As they make their way to Galveston, they desperately try to outrun not only the mob but also the demons from both of their pasts.

Release date: Oct. 19

29 An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn

Image Source: Universal Pictures

The scoop: In this quirky comedy, Lulu Danger (Aubrey Plaza) is already deeply unsatisfied in her marriage to Shane (Emile Hirsch), but things only degrade further when a mysterious man from her past (Jemaine Clement) arrives in town to perform an event called “An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn; For One Magical Night Only.”

Release date: Oct. 19

30 Suspiria

Image Source: Amazon Studios

The scoop: As a follow-up to award season darling Call Me by Your Name, director Luca Guadagnino has dramatically changed courses by remaking one of the scariest horror movies from the 1970s: Suspiria. It follows Dakota Johnson’s ambitious young dancer, Susie, arriving at a world-renowned dance company led by a mysterious artistic director (Tilda Swinton), who will send Susie on a journey filled with darkness (translation: satanic rituals, witches, curses, murder, etc.). Mia Goth, Lutz Ebersdorf, Jessica Harper, and Chloë Grace Moretz also star.

Release date: Oct. 26

31 Bohemian Rhapsody

Image Source: 20th Century Fox

The scoop: The long-awaited Queen biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, stars Rami Malek as the group’s legendary frontman Freddie Mercury and also dives into the musician’s relationship with Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton) and the creative process behind some of Queen’s biggest hits.

Release date: Nov. 2

32 The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

Image Source: Disney

The scoop: Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is a beautiful look at the magical world young Clara (Twilight’s Mackenzie Foy) stumbles upon one Winter night. Her new surroundings include a dashing soldier (Jayden Fowora-Knight), a gang of mice, the Sugar Plum Fairy (Keira Knightley), and a tyrannical Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren). Will Clara be able to locate the strange and mysterious key that can restore harmony in this parallel world? Considering real ballet superstar Misty Copeland has a starring role, we have high hopes for this.

Release date: Nov. 2

33 The Girl in the Spider’s Web

Image Source: Columbia Pictures

The scoop: In the first book since David Lagercrantz took over the Millennium trilogy from the late Stieg Larsson, Lisbeth Salander (Claire Foy, taking over for Rooney Mara) investigates an organization called the Spider Society. In the first trailer for the highly anticipated follow-up to 2011’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Foy looks unrecognizable as she terrorizes men who have harmed other women and confronts her dark, mysterious past.

Release date: Nov. 9

34 Outlaw King

Image Source: Netflix

The scoop: Chris Pine is leaving the 1980s behind for the 1300s, as he plays real-life Scottish king and rebel hero Robert the Bruce in Outlaw King. The Netflix historical drama hails from Hell or High Water director David Mackenzie and tells the true story of the reluctant medieval king who finds himself drawn into a vicious battle with King Edward I (Stephen Dillane) and his vengeful, violent son, the Prince of Wales (Billy Howle).

Release date: Nov. 9

35 The Oath

Image Source: Roadside Attractions

The scoop: Ike Barinholtz and Tiffany Haddish’s dark comedy sees a husband and wife attempting to survive “life and Thanksgiving in the age of political tribalism.” In other words, they sit down for dinner with their extended family and find themselves viciously sparring with their Republican relatives over a new government policy that will require citizens to sign a loyalty oath to the president. When two government agents (John Cho and Billy Magnussen) enter the mix, the holiday dinner fully goes off the rails.

Release date: Oct. 12

36 Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Image Source: Warner Bros.

The scoop: Not only does the Fantastic Beasts sequel take us to Hogwarts back in the day, but it also introduces young Dumbledore (Jude Law) and young Newt Scamander in a few nostalgic flashbacks. Of course, the film also moves to years later, when Dumbledore has to team up with adult Newt (Eddie Redmayne) on his journey to Paris, where he’ll no doubt run into the evil Grindelwald (Johnny Depp).

Release date: Nov. 16

37 Widows

Image Source: 20th Century Fox

The scoop: Another all-women heist flick is arriving this year. Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen has teamed up with Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn for Widows, a thriller about four women who are forced to step in to repay the debt their husbands — a gang of thieves who die during a heist gone wrong — couldn’t. The women in question? Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez, and Cynthia Erivo, who look more than capable of sticking it to the men in their town who don’t think they “have the balls to pull this off,” according to Davis’s Veronica.

Release date: Nov. 16

38 Creed II

Image Source: Warner Bros.

The scoop: Michael B. Jordan’s boxer is back! This time around, The Land director Steven Caple Jr. is at the helm while Ryan Coogler serves as an executive producer, but Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, and Phylicia Rashad are all reprising their roles. The film picks up after Adonis’s defeat by “Pretty” Ricky Conlan in Creed, as he struggles to balance his boxing career with his relationship with Bianca (Thompson), as well as training for a fight against Viktor Drago, the son of former prize champion boxer Ivan Drago (who killed his father, Apollo, during an exhibition match).

Release date: Nov. 21

39 Second Act

Image Source: STX Entertainment

The scoop: Real-life BFFs Jennifer Lopez and Leah Remini join forces for Second Act, which follows Lopez’s Maya as she struggles to climb the corporate ladder at the big-box store where she works because of her lack of an Ivy League degree. When her close friend and coworker (Remini) gets her son to “Cinderella” Maya’s résumé and internet presence — think: photos of her with the Obamas, climbing Kilimanjaro, a degree from Wharton — she suddenly finds herself with a fancy new job on Madison Avenue. Milo Ventimiglia and Vanessa Hudgens also star!

Release date: Nov. 21

40 Green Book

Image Source: Universal Pictures

The scoop: Peter Farrelly’s Green Book is based on a true story about two men in the 1960s who form an unlikely friendship. Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali stars as Dr. Don Shirley, a world-class black pianist, who hires Tony Lip (Academy Award nominee Viggo Mortensen), a Bronx-born bouncer, to drive him on a concert tour that extends from Manhattan to the Deep South. Using the “Green Book,” which serves as a guide to the establishments that were safe at the time for African-Americans, the pair navigate the ups and downs of their lengthy road trip together.

Release date: Nov. 21

41 Robin Hood

Image Source: Summit Entertainment

The scoop: Do you like roguish vigilantes? Or scenes that feature 50 arrows being shot at once in slow motion? How about dramatic dialogue like, “Who is he? He’s all of us.” If any of those things appeal to you, then good news: you’re going to love Robin Hood. The gritty adaptation of the classic “steal from the rich, give to the poor” tale stars Kingsman‘s Taron Egerton as the masked hero, as well as Bridge of Spies‘ Eve Hewson as Maid Marian and Jamie Foxx as Robin Hood’s mentor, Little John.

Release date: Nov. 21

42 Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2

Image Source: Disney

The scoop: Ralph and Vanellope have big adventures ahead of them! The adorable duo from Wreck-It Ralph are back for the colorful sequel, Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2. Six years after the events of the first film, Ralph (John C. Reilly) and Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) stumble upon a WiFi router in their arcade, which sends them on a high-flying journey around the World Wide Web. Luckily, the internet access means they’ll bump into a few Disney princesses — Merida, Moana, Anna, Elsa, Rapunzel, and more! — as well as other iconic internet figures.

Release date: Nov. 21

43 Mary Queen of Scots

Image Source: Focus Features

The scoop: Following the life of young Queen Mary after she is widowed at age 18, the biopic focuses on her relationship with rival Queen Elizabeth. Saoirse Ronan is starring as Mary Stuart opposite Margot Robbie as Queen Elizabeth I. Joe Alwyn and Guy Pearce also costar in the heated historical drama about an age-old story of family ties and dueling women in power.

Release date: Dec. 7

44 Aquaman

Image Source: Warner Bros.

The scoop: Prepare yourself for a more in-depth look at the world of Aquaman and his family. We’ll finally get to see Aquaman’s parents — his mother, Atlanna, played by Nicole Kidman, and his father, Tom Curry, played by Moana actor Temuera Morrison — as well as future wife Mera, played by Amber Heard. And no superhero film is complete without a proper villain, which we’ll get twofold thanks to Abdul-Mateen II’s Black Manta and Patrick Wilson’s Orm.

Release date: Dec. 21

45 Mortal Engines

Image Source: Universal Pictures

The scoop: In a postapocalyptic world, London has now become a giant machine that has to eat other cities to survive. Hugo Weaving, Jihae, and Robert Sheehan star in Peter Jackson’s adaptation.

Release date: Dec. 14

46 Bird Box

Image Source: Getty / Anthony Harvey

The scoop: Josh Malerman’s horrifying novel is coming to Netflix with a whole lot of star power. Sandra Bullock is set to play a mother struggling to keep her two children alive in the midst of an apocalypse that turns people into violent monsters and finds herself faced with navigating them down a dangerous river while blindfolded in search of salvation. Academy Award winner Susanne Bier is in the director’s chair, and the film also stars Trevante Rhodes, Sarah Paulson, and John Malkovich.

Release date: Dec. 21

47 Welcome to Marwen

Image Source: Universal Pictures

The scoop: Welcome to Marwen is directed by Robert Zemeckis and based on Jeff Malmberg’s award-winning 2010 documentary Marwencol and sees Steve Carell playing the real-life Mark Hogancamp, who was beaten into a coma by five men and spent 40 days in the hospital. After the attack left him with brain damage and PTSD, Hogancamp immersed himself in an intricate world of World War II-era miniatures as a form of art therapy. Carell is joined by Leslie Mann, Diane Kruger, Merritt Wever, Janelle Monáe, Eiza González, and Gwendolyn Christie.

Release date: Dec. 21

48 Mary Poppins Returns

Image Source: Disney

The scoop: Mary Poppins Returns will have your inner child freaking out. The sequel takes us back to Cherry Tree Lane, where we get to see Emily Blunt as the lovable nanny and Lin-Manuel Miranda as her dancing companion.

Release date: Dec. 19

49 Bumblebee

Image Source: Paramount Pictures

The scoop:Oh, you thought you’d seen the last of the Transformers franchise? Think again. After 2017’s fifth addition (called Transformers: The Last Knight), a prequel titled Bumblebee posits that “Every adventure has a beginning.” The action film will center on the origin story of the beloved Transformer and introduce the series to a few new stars (Hailee Steinfeld and John Cena).

Release date: Dec. 21

50 On the Basis of Sex

Image Source: Focus Features

The scoop: This biopic stars Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) as a young Ruth Bader Ginsburg as she fights for gender equality on the road to becoming a Supreme Court associate justice. The film also has a stellar supporting cast, including Kathy Bates, Armie Hammer, Justin Theroux, and Sam Waterston.

Release date: Dec. 25

(C)

[videogamelover99]

Waking Days Ch.3 - Vegas Lights

A/N Guess this is back you guys. I’m so glad you’ve been patient with me for so long, and finally this chapter is out. I’m hoping to get posting at least once a month now. For now here’s this chapter.  AU by @doodledrawsthings​. Based on @pengychan​‘s Flat Dreams fic. 

“Please tell me that’s not it.” Dipper knelt down in the grass.

“I’m afraid it is.”

“I doesn’t look too bad.” Mabel said, turning her head with a forced smile on her lips.

“It looks horrible.”

“It’ll be okay.”

Stanford laughed at the twins’ bickering, but the laugh was clearly forced. Over the brief period he and his brother visited Dimension 52 the hole grew even more, now taking on a shifting mess of color, glowing an intimidating red that bathed the rest of the tree in an almost demonic hue. Golden thread wove through both sides of the crevice, the physical representation of the effects of the chronometer. It bore close resemblance to a gaping, bleeding wound, held closed by half-attempted stitches. A leftover memory of Bill Cipher’s terror, not that different from what Ford remembered of the Nightmare Realm. It felt wrong just being there.

The Oracle showed up regularly, if it was just to check up on the rift or on the Pines Ford wasn’t sure, but the being soon became an almost normal presence in the household. The visits of his old friend reassured as much as they troubled the scientist. If anything, he should be glad she had agreed to help, but the frequently worried look on her face made Stanford extremely unnerved. If a being with knowledge of the future wore that look, then certainly things weren’t at all good.

If that wasn’t concerning enough, the way Cipher turned tail and left every time Jheselbraum came around certainly was. Ford would almost feel sorry for him if it wasn’t for, well, everything.

Stan, while quite suspicious at first (‘no, she hadn’t tried to possess me. Do you really think I’d fall for that trick again?’) Had quickly warmed up to the oracle. After trying (and failing) to sell some of his junk to her, the conman had somehow decided she was the next best thing since sliced bread.

…

“I’m rich! Finally!”

It was a cool, misty Sunday morning when Stan suddenly burst through the back door, the poor thing squeaking on its hinges, and tossed a packed-looking duffel bag onto the kitchen table. The other members of the Pines family, who just a few seconds ago were eating breakfast, all stared at the new item in bemusement.

“Uh, Grunkle Stan, what’s with the suitcase?” Dipper finally asked, poking the thing lightly with a finger.

“Ooh, are you going on vacation?” Mabel stood on her chair to get a better look.

“We were on a vacation for nine months.” Stanford pointed out, hardly taking his eyes off of the paperback he was reading.

“Oh yeah, but would you really call battling sea monsters every day a real vacation?” Dipper frowned.

“It is for this family.”

“Okay, no, I’m not going on a vacation, though right now that sounds really tempting.” Stan butted in, reaching over Dipper’s shoulder to unzip the duffel bag. Inside was green, and not the kind you find on trees either.

“Wow.” Mabel whistled appreciatively, looking at the bag full of hundred dollar bills in a newfound light.

“Who’d you rob?” Her brother frowned, peering at the cash with a much more wary look.

“Nobody! Nobody that actually needed it, at least.” the old man shrugged.

Ford finally put down the book, eyeing the money. “This isn’t from that pug trafficking incident you told me about, is it?”

“Hey how’d ya guess?”

“Pug trafficking?” Mabel now looked a lot less awed.

“Hey, don’t worry, Sweetie! I promise no dogs were harmed. Scout’s honor.”

“You were never a scout…” Ford muttered, once again picking up his book.

“So anyway, I’m rich. Who knows what I’m going to do with it?”

“Buy a really expensive perfume?”

“Build a new room for Soos.”

“OOH! Buy a trained tiger!”

“Great pitches kids, but nah.” Stan grabbed one of the handles, pulling the money closer. “There’s one place I’ve been dying to go to. Hadn’t been there since my marriage.”

“You got marri-”

“Anyway, waddaya say, Sixer? Ready for some nightlife? Babes? Action?”

Stanford slowly put the book down, and met his twin’s gaze with his own, steely one. “The universe is falling apart at the seams. Our enemy is living under our roof. And you want to drag me to- to- that-”

“Wow, way to ruin the fun. After thirty years in sci-fi land I’d expected ya to lighten up already.”

“You’re sixty, Stan, not exactly ideal age to go gambling, and we don’t have time for this.” The scientist stood up, tucking his paperback under his arm. “I’m going downstairs to figure out how to save the world. Again. You can do whatever you want.” And just like that, he left, leaving his three family members staring at each other in silence.

“Okay, I coulda handled that better.”

“Uh, Grunkle Stan? Why exactly did you want to take Grunkle Ford to Vegas?” Dipper asked.

“Okay, so, I may or may not owe a giant sum of money to someone-”

“Of course.” Dipper rolled his eyes.

“And gun-slinging backup doesn’t hurt...Also fun.”

“I don’t think he’s the type, Grunkle Stan.” Mabel stated sadly.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“Bill is.” Dipper mused.

“Wow, okay, no. Could ya imagine having that monstrosity on a road trip? Ugh, I don’t even wanna think about it.”

The girl snorted. “Yeah, I think I can.”

“Speaking of which, where is the little creeper gone?”

“Uh…” The twins shared a look. Mabel shrugged helplessly. “We should probably find him before he burns down the forest or something.”

“Good point.” And with that the two disappeared, leaving Stan alone with an unfinished piece of toast and a bag full of illegal cash.

“Huh. Is that something I should be concerned about?”

Stanley whirled around, bag suddenly clutched to his chest. “Jesus Christ, lady, give an old man a warning!”

Jheselbraum (he got it right, right?) raised an eyebrow, folding her arms and leaning casually on the edge of the table. “Strange, I do not think that man knew his name was going to turn into something explicit. But I suppose it happens.”

“I- what?”

“Nevermind.” The oracle turned her attention to the bag. “And I’m guessing that was 100% legally acquired?” She couldn’t quite hide the amusement in her voice.

“Oh yes. Absolutely.” Stan gave her a sarcastic grin. That grin slipped away quickly, however, as the cogs in his brain began to turn, suddenly giving him an idea as he eyed the woman in front of him. “Say, what’s yer opinion on road trips?”

…

“I can’t believe you talked me into this.” The alien in the shotgun seat shifted uncomfortably, struggling her best to say annoyed. Stan brought the car into the left lane, quickly passing a truck on the side.

“Really? Ya didn’t exactly seem that reluctant goin’.”

“I- We should be working on closing the rift, not, not galavanting on some weekend quest to pay off a guy you stole from.”

“Hey, who said anything about stealing? I was borrowin’.”

“And i suppose the death threats that he leaves in your voice mail are friendly banter?”

“Aw, you’re being sarcastic. And here I thought you were a stick in the mud.”

“...” Nora sat back in her seat, tossing one leg over the other, and stared out the window. Bits of Oregon wildlife flew past them, forrest green melting into a choppy blir as the car flew by at a grand total of 50 miles an hour. The Stanleymobile really needed to upgrade.

It didn’t take long for Stanley to admit the real reason he was reluctant to go alone. Apparently he was completely willing to blow all of his money by himself. No, what got him concerned about bringing Stanford was not company as much as muscle. Owing a lot of money to a crime boss apparently did that to you.

“And what exactly do you want me to do?” She frowned. “Sit there and look pretty?”

“We-ell.” Stan paused, scratching his cheek with one hand, the other resting on the steering wheel. “You can see the future, right?”

“It’s not that simple.” She frowned. “Also sorry for not seeming that excited, but if you were planning to use that to win some easy money, you’re out of luck. My vision doesn’t work that way.”

“And what’s ‘that way’?”

“Complicated.”

“Fine.”

There was silence. Nora didn't really know why she was so antagonistic toward Stanley. So far, the human hadn’t done anything that would deserve it, if the whole using-her-for-gambling thing didn’t count. But there was something in the back of her mind, an itch that was scratching at her, telling her that the man next to her was not what he seemed.

That was truly ridiculous. She looked into his and his brother’s timeline many times. She knew him, just like the rest of the Pines, like the back of her hand. And yet-

Maybe she just wasn’t used to the company. Back in her own dimension, the Oracle had many people with whom she’d conversed. Many came to the mountain to seek her guidance, and the company was always welcome. But there was always some barrier, a wall between her and the other that prevented her from truly- what? Connecting? She was always there to get wisdom and assistance. It was a long time before she could just speak to someone, without needing to be that.

It felt refreshing, but also slightly off-kilter.

“Y’know, that’s not the only reason I wanted to bring Sixer.” Stan’s voice made the woman turn back to him, her thoughts pushed back into a jumbled mess for the time being.

“Oh?”

“He just- hasn’t been sleeping for a while, y’know? And I thought- ‘hey, great idea. Let’s get him to ignore the second end of the world for a while’. Didn’t exactly work, but it’s the thought that counts, right?”

Nora sighed through her nose. “Your brother isn’t like that. You know it.”

“Yeah...yeah.”

“He’s very determined. Very passionate. That isn’t a bad thing.” The woman brought her hands up to fiddle with her pendant, lost in thought. “But it can easily get out of hand.”

“Yeah, I get what ya mean.” Stan frowned, staring straight at the road ahead. “You know, he called me too old to go gambling.”

The woman paused for a moment. “I am one trillion years old, if that makes you feel any better.”

“Huh...wow. Uh...you look younger than your years?”

“Thanks.”

“Though maybe if you stop dressing like it’s the war time…”

The oracle frowned, wrinkling out her skirt. “What’s wrong with the way I dress?”

“Nothing! Way better than wearing a wizard robe, anyway. Just looks like you came straight from the 1940s, is all.”

“Uh huh.”

“Oh hey, by the way, it’s Nora, right?”

“...yes.”

“Huh.” Stan snorted. “Knew a gal named Nora once. Real pain in my ass. You’ve got a lot in common.

Nora rolled her eyes. “Keep driving.”

“Sure thing.”

…

The first thing to assault her eyes were the lights. Hundreds of them, bright neon and colorful, hanging on buildings, advertising food, hotels, casinos. People stood on the sidewalks and threw pamphlets at tourists and passersbys, cards containing contact info of strippers and nightclubs, people yelling, cars honking aggressively, music blaring from hidden speakers, fountain jets raining down, illuminated by multicolor lights. There was so much, too much, it was overwhelming- Nora couldn’t look away. That man on the street- wife walked out on him, having a midlife crisis, taking it out on the girl next to him. The girl- adulterer, before she was even eighteen, raised in the middle of nowhere, wanted a life. What she got was angry drunkards and little pay. The woman on the street, tugging her child after her- married, on vacation, is about to meet her oldest daughter after a year apart. Every person, every place and every conversation had something to offer her, a troubled past, and hopeful or depressing future...She was used to this, used to the rapid fire of her predictions, fates intertwining, alternating, branching out into infinite different scenarios. But there was just so much...

“So, uh, what’d ya think? Worth the trip?”

Nora jumped, whipping around to look at Stanley hero, brother, savior, liar- “Uhh, it’s...something?”

“Come on! City of chance, of risk and it’s ‘something’?”

“It’s just...it’s a lot.”

…

After hustling into the hotel, via underground parking, Stan elbowed his way through the long, carpeted corridors of the hotel lobby, his companion trailing a few paces behind him, looking around at the crowd with wide eyes. The receptionist at the desk eyed both of them with a bored expression. Checking in was the easy part. Trying not to get jumped by a crime boss was another. Stan eyed his phone as he led Nora to the elevators, the bag of cash, discretely covered up by as stack of dirty clothes, over his shoulder. Floor 19 7pm. See me. The vague text sent an uncomfortable prickling feeling down his spine. He’d faced the end of the world, and yet the threat of organized crime still rubed him the wrong way. Call it bad memories. Being stuck in the trunk of a car for 31 hours could do that. He needed to make this quick and high tail outta here. And, Stan quickly reassured himself, he wouldn’t exactly be alone.

Though looking over at the oracle, who now eyed the fancy furniture and decoration with with annoyance, Stan wondered just how much faith he could put in his new inter-dimensional buddy. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her, per say, hell, he’d trust her over the angry yellow demon any day. Still, there was something off about her. Something that Stanley’s instincts had to remind him constantly of. Just how much did Ford really know about this woman? And who said she was who she said she was? Call him paranoid, but when was he not? Came with the trade, so to speak.

“So who are you meeting with? And how much can I bet on your survival?” Nora jumped up on the bed, the obscene amount of comforters bouncing under her weight.

“Nice to get some reassurance for once. And couldn’t you just look and see, anyway? Don’t you know the future?”

“I could…” she shrugged, “but it wouldn’t tell me anything. Not really.”

Well that was vague as hell.

The man grumbled, shouldering his duffel bag. “So your one superpower is basically useless. Well why the hell did I bring ya here then?!”

“That’s what I’ve been asking.”

Stan sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Look, just...I’ma go and had ‘im the cash, hopefully won’t get jumped, and you, uh...do whatever you wanna do. I don’t know, watch TV or something.”

“You didn’t answer the question.”

“What question? Okay, bye!”

And he ran out, slamming the door behind him as he did.

…

He did not find the guy. The vague text message was the only thing he got, and after about an hour of scouting the corridor of Floor 19 Stan finally gave up and shrugged it off, deciding that the cash should be good for something, and made his way downstairs for the one thing this place was truly famous for.

...

“Hey buddy.”

Stan scraped up his tokens and grinned at the speaker lazily. “Yeah?”

The man looked like he was in his late thirties, his face still free of any wrinkles. Dark hair framed his long, oval-shaped face, a pair of expensive-looking spectacles sitting on his hook-shaped nose. “I see you’ve got quite a streak going. I won’t bother you, but I was wondering if you’d be interested in a game against me?”

“What kinda game?”

The man grinned, a golden tooth glinting in the dim lighting. “A game of opportunity.”

“Huh.” Stan watched the man grab a free table, sitting down and gesturing at the older man to follow suit. “I think I like ya already.” He sat down opposite. “So what d’ya want to bet on? Start small?”

The man was still smiling, something that Stan would find unnerving without the buzz of alcohol. “Oh no. There’s a loss far worse than money you can recover. Of course, I’d be needing the same in return.” He leaned in closer. “Time is much more precious than money, my friend.”

It was poker. It was literally just poker, and looking back, Stan kinda wished it wasn’t. Looking at a mystical game of chess or some kind of enchanted contest of weirdness would at least be bearable. His ego would still be intact. But poker? No, even the price of what he lost could not compare to just how humiliated he felt losing at the thing he was best at. But Stan lost, and the man just swept up all at chips, the subdued smile never leaving his stupid, pointy face. “Such a shame, really. I had honestly hoped I’d finally found a worthy opponent. You were close, my friend, but them’s the breaks.”

Stan briefly tore his hands away from his face to sigh, looking at everything but the man. “So what? You said we weren’t betting on cash. Just tell me what ya want so I can go already, you sleazy bastard.”

The man’s face warped into something truly sinister, his smirk spreading across his face. “I already took it, my friend.”

Suddenly, Stan felt like he was hit on the head with something impossibly heavy. Everything spun, his limbs felt incredibly weak, and as he stood up on wobbly legs he felt his spine curve downward a lot more than before. His eyesight was just awful, and it didn’t clear even as he rubbed his eyes. The skin on his hands felt thin and papery, and as the man slowly stumbed out of his seat and towards the hotel elevator, he knew that something was terribly, terribly wrong.

...

While Stanley went off on his quest to pay back what appeared to be the mafia, Nora realized there wasn’t really anything to do for her, not really. Watching television was like subjecting herself to a primitive form of mind-control. She could, of course, meditate, but that grew harder and harder the more time she spent on earth. Everything else was too distracting, too bright and loud for her to find that small empty space to bury her thoughts in. They just came crashing back in after she dispersed them, assaulting her with visions and worries and questions that she, for once, did not want answers to. She’d agreed to come here, why? To get away from Bill, was the immediate answer, but that didn’t work out the way she had wanted it to. Now instead of Bill there was Stanley. Stanley, who argued and made poor excuses and laughed at his won lame jokes in a way that made Nora’s heart ache. It was new, but incredibly familiar, like a case of deja-vu that did not end in a few seconds, but only strengthened every time Stan threw some banter her way. Honestly she’d have preferred Bill sulking around somewhere to this, this open interaction she didn’t have for so, so many years. It wasn’t until Ford’s brother left that she could finally start to sort it all out in her own head.

There was some scrambling behind the door. Nora sighed, opening her eyes. For a second she thought it was the mafia, but as the rest of her five eyes granted her a brief vision, she realized that was not the case. Something was terribly wrong.

The Oracle flung the door open, and a man tumbled into her, almost bringing both of them to the ground. A raspy voice whispered curses under his breath, and Nora finally recognized her human friend. Slowly, she closed the door with her free hand, using the other to help the man onto the bed. 

...

“What. Did you do.”

“We-ell, I, uh, hey you know how it is. The city of lights and all that, hadda at least give it a go-” There was a cough, but the voice did not clear up, just as ragged.

“...”

“A-and look, I thought I had pretty good odds, y’know? Been here more than you can count, have way more luck than imaginable, so, y’know…”

“Stanley, please tell me you didn’t make a bet with a god.”

Stan looked to the side, hands fiddling on his lap, and tried to ignore the sudden vicious pain in his back. And the ache in his joints. And the sudden rattle that appeared in his breath. “I can explain.”

Nora glared at him, the pointed look twice as terrifying. “Oh yes please do.”

“So, uh, there was this guy-”

“Oh who am I kidding! I should have known you would do this.” The woman threw her hands up, pacing back and forth in the suite. “I did know you would do this. But I didn’t- I didn’t think this you would be that stupid.”

“Alright, point taken! Now would ya stop trying to insult me every five sec- agh!” The con-man hunched over, his speech suddenly interrupted but a long coughing fit. It tore at his throat and made his chest ache like nothing he had ever felt before. Great. This is how I die. Over a stupid bet.

Wasn’t that how he expected to die, anyway?

The Oracle rolled her eyes, waiting until the hacking stopped and Stan regained his breath. “Right, don’t talk.”

“I got it.” He whined back, his body still fighting to cough up his own lungs.

“So, there was a man? And I suppose he offered you a drink?”

Stan shook, pounding his chest with all the strength his now frail arms could give him. “Was already drunk.”

A frustrated sigh. “And I suppose after you got hammered he offered you a deal?”

“A bet.” he coughed out.

Nora sighed. “But not for money.” She sat down next to him, shoulders hunched over.

“Oh yeah! He said somethn’ all mysterious-y, something like ‘You have-’”

“A loss far worse you can recover.” She finished for him. “I know what timeline this is.”

“Yeah, exactly that...You’re worse than my mother.”

She cracked a smile. “I’m an oracle. I’m worse than anyone’s mother.” Then she frowned. “You look terrible, by the by.”

“Thanks, I kinda guessed.” Stan slowly slid off the couch, straightening his back and heading toward the bathroom at a steady pace. “Well, time to see how well I-”

The scream and crash that came out from behind the door startled Nora to her feet. “Are you alright?”

“I’m hideous!”

“Well, yes.”

His hair was white. Pure white, like a blank sheet of paper or the way the goat looked whenever Mabel was in a mood for playing dress-up. It was still there, thank God, but looked a lot thinner than it did only a few hours ago. The wrinkles that started showing up around the time he hit 40 were somehow only deepened, the now grey-ish skin sagging in places and folding up in others. What was once his face now seemed wrong, an unwarranted glimpse into what he should not be able to see, a punch of an existential crisis right in the gut, a-

“Stanley? Are you alright in there?”

Stan slowly backed away from the mirror, away from- that, shuffling out  of the bathroom with more effort than should have been necessary.

Nora stared up at him from the edge of the bed.

“I think I just aged thirty years in one day. And man, I wish that was a joke.”

The Oracle sighed, casting her eyes somewhere Stan couldn’t follow, “You’d bartered on the thirty years you wanted back. And you lost.” She stared at him dead in the eye. “What did you think would happen?”

“I didn’t think anything! That guy-” Stan cut himself off, doubling into a wracking cough that made his aged body hurt in all the places he didn’t know he had.

“Careful, don’t have a heart attack, you’re ninety-two already.” Nora muttered under her breath, and the man wondered if that was a joke, too. “Okay, here’s what’s going to happen.” She stood up, carefully guiding Staney to the armchair in the corner, helping him sit. “You are going to stay here, and hopefully not die by the time I get back. And I,” she stepped back, something settling in her gaze that made the con man shift a little. It was at that moment that he really saw something ancient before him, more ancient than even he felt like right now, and that thought chilled him to the bone. “I’m going to fix this.”

Stan blinked. “Got a plan more detailed than that?”

“Yes.”

“...Care to explain.”

Nora rolled her eyes. “The man that aged you, he’s most likely a lesser god or some kind of spirit. I’ve seen a couple of his type before, but never this bold. Anyway, their ‘deal’ is time. More correctly, lifespan. They barter and bet on the victim’s years, the mortal hoping to gain a few more decades on this plane of existence. Of course, it’s rigged, and the mortal always loses. This kind of gambling, ‘life gambling’, is banned in about 5 billion dimensions. This one as well. Still, I suppose Earth is remote enough to not me noticed by interdimensional relations. Or so they thought.”

“So, okay, he’s some kind of demon life gambler? What’s the point of taking time away though? Does he sell it?”

The Oracle smiled. “No, though that would be a feat to see. They consume it, the life force they take from people. Old gods have so few followers that their powers deplete to almost nothing. The only way they can keep themselves immortal is feeding off regular people.” She shrugged. “Though some of them do it for fun. Life force is still a lot of energy, after all.”

“And you’re- what? Gonna call the space cops on him? Take him for a night on the town?”

“Honestly, who do you take me for?” The Oracle straightened up, turning to head out the door, a smile already forming on her lips. “I’m going to beat him at his own game.”

[rickjsposts]

NFL Wk 6, Circa Picks, Week 5 and Season to date Recap, variance, comments on investing all posted

New Post has been published on https://www.rickjshandicappingpicks.com/nfl-wk-6-circa-picks-week-5-and-season-to-date-recap-variance-comments-on-investing-all-posted/

NFL Wk 6, Circa Picks, Week 5 and Season to date Recap, variance, comments on investing all posted

Week 5 in the NFL turned out hinging on Indy last Monday night. It was a cover so I went 3-2 in the Circa bringing my record there to 

16-9 or a 64% pace. That is not a bad place to be heading into week 6. Unfortunately this week was a nightmare week to handicap for me.

But it started out good as Phil was +7 in the 2nd contest I am in. Up until this weeks my picks were identical. But with Phil moving to +7 I now have a winner and stand at 18-8 or 69.2%!

My picks this week in the Circa are: 

Bears +4.5

Wash +6.5

Giants +9.5

New England +3.5

Tenn +6

In the other contest where you also pick 5 against the spread each week my picks are :

Phil +7 W

Giants +9.5

Tenn +5.5

NE +3.5

Raiders +3.5

Raiders looked much better then they do now, and they started looking worse before I placed my Circa picks. So, Wash and the Bears are two differences in the contests.

In the all spread contest I have been hugging the 50% line and sit at 40-40.

In the Westgate NFL Contest the top 5 had a good week going 3-1-1 getting them back to the break even market after a disastrous start.

The top 5 this week:

Cle

GB

Chargers

Dallas

KC

I am fading two of the picks in the Circa contest and two of the picks in the other contest. Right where I like to be:)

All things being equal you want to be on the fade side of the top 5 picks.

On the investing side of the service a great week last week. I had 3 short put sales that all easily cashed. These are trades I put

on Thursday morning with a Friday expiration.  The profit was a bit higher then usual because of AVDL 7.50 puts that an unusually high premium to sell. So a +850.00 2 day trade.

Then I have a medium term short put sale that cashed in HEAR for +600.00.

Short puts are an excellent way to pick up cash, but of course they have their risks also. I try to minimize those by my screening methods and limiting most of them to a Thursday trade with a next day expiration. Since posting these they have exceeded my best expectations.

I have almost 400 trades now and have a win rate of 94.5% and a profit factor of 3.75. The drawdowns have been minimal.

Also I received a question from a subscriber I would like to share.

No doubt it was prompted by the MLB season.

The question is essentially why is it you do much better on sports that have spreads rather the money lines?

The answer as I see it has to do with VARIANCE. For the 20+ years I have been posting my picks the variance on spread games has been about 20% of ML games.

You have to think as betting money lines as flipping a coin with a .10% edge. The odds are 50/50 and you have an edge, but the swings are going to be substantial as a result of variance. In addition, the public is not so transparent on ML games as they are on spread games. So the contrarian approach is not going to be as strong.

In some instances the “sharps” have removed most edges in ML sports. So you might ask, why wager on them? For me, I just need an edge, I am used to high variance having played limit poker for many years. I take it in stride. I can go through 4 racks and not be rattled. As long as the game is good and I am playing at my best I view variance as part of the endeavor.

A good friend was sitting next to me when I lost 4 racks in a very short time. Great hands that got dusted. And he asked “Isn’t it time to quit”? My reply was what is the difference between going through 100 big bets in 4 hours or 3 weeks? Variance is what it is. you are not going to eliminate it by picking an artificial stopping time.

The same applies to quitting when you quickly get in the lead. If you are flipping a coin with someone and getting 6/5 on a coin flip, would you quit because you had a big lead?  If so, gambling is not for you:)  The time to quit is when your opponent has had enough or runs out of money.

Saying that, not everyone is equipped to handle gambling that has a high variance to it. And that is something everyone has to decide for themselves. If you fall into that category you would want to stay away from ML sports. If you cannot take losing 30 units in stride save yourself some grief.

The issues of course are more complex then that, but this is a good start on a complicated question. I always welcome questions.

I have sent out 1 NFL play today to subscribers.

Its not too late to jump on board. We have plenty of NFL and College FB left. In addition, the NHL is in full swing and NBA regular season is almost here.

Just go to rickjshandicappingpicks.com and choose the monthly option on the paypal menu. That one has the most value, and every option has a 3 day free trial

Good Luck Today

RickJ

RickJ’s Handicapping Picks

rickjshandicappingpicks.com