#vladmir masters

[tom4jc]

Conflicted (book review)

Title: ConflictedAuthor: John StamperPublisher: Master BooksPages: 159 Conflicted John Stamper, a married father with four children, takes a look at public education in America. He had been a public school teacher in the Chicago Public School system and chose to leave the public schools, pull his children out of the system and homeschool them. The beginning of the book takes a look at his…

[faeriekit]

Ghosts of Those We Once Knew

a phic phight fill for @silverwing013

Warnings for: implied child abuse, accidental death, dead parents

**💚**

“Oh yeah?! And what are you going to do about it?!” Aunt Alicia snapped into the phone. 

There was a sound on the other end of the line, but Danny couldn’t make it out all the way. There was another solution, but it was…risky; it would require going into his aunt’s bedroom— a well known, forbidden domain— to pick up the only other phone hooked up to the landline. 

…There was no other time to find out what Aunt Alicia was putting off. It had to be worth the risk. Danny crept up the worn carpeting of the stairs, hoping that his sneakiness would hold up to Alicia’s discerning eyes and ears. 

Her bedroom was dark. Carpeted. …Pink. 

Whatever. Danny took a deep breath, lifted the phone off the hook, and tried not to breathe too loudly into the mouthpiece.

“You have no right to keep Daniel in your dismal, miserable, isolated hovel,” someone shouted on the other end. Danny had never heard this voice before. He sounded like someone around Dad’s age, maybe? Maybe a little…smoother, despite the blistering anger coming through the line. “You live with no human contact for nine months out of the year. You speak to no one. Do you— is Daniel even enrolled in a school? Did you get any sort of educational provisions for him whatsoever?” 

“What, so he can get cocky and blow himself up in the garage like his parents?” Alicia snapped. Danny had to clap a hand to his mouth to hide his gasp of dismay. 

“You know full well that punishing your sister’s son by restricting his access to an education and basic human companionship is not a solution to your grief for your sister. You are out of your mind.”

Aunt Alicia’s voice got low. Aunt Alicia’s voice got mean. She sounded like how she looked when Danny had fumbled the water pail from the well or stepped two steps too close to the rhubarb patch out back. “Vladmir Masters, you listen here,” Aunt Alicia muttered. “That boy is everything left of my sister in the whole damn world. He is not going anywhere. Do you understand? Not for you to fill his head with her stupid husband’s supernatural hoo-ha, and not for you to snatch up and teach himself how to kill other people the way those two killed each other. Danny stays here. If you ring me up one more time, I’m going to do more than just mail dog crap to the front step of your stupid castle in Wisconsin.”

The phone cut off. It would be an innocuous end to a phone call, except Danny can hear the clatter of plastic cracking on plastic in the downstairs kitchen.

There was a moment of silence.

“Daniel Jackson Fenton, you get your butt in here right now!”

Danny jolted, heart pounding. He—he went downstairs.

Aunt’s Alicia’s lips were pursed, her eyes tight. “What did I tell you about missing all the sticks in the yard? It looks like a wreck!”

Danny felt his breath stick in his throat.

“Well?”

“Yes, Aunt Alicia,” Danny mumbled. He looked down and away. He wasn’t caught out eavesdropping, but…was this any better?

“If those sticks aren’t piled up beside the woodshed for kindling in half an hour, you can kiss your dinner goodbye.”

Danny hadn’t had dinner in three nights. He was very lucky he didn’t need to eat as much as living kids. “…Yes, Aunt Alicia.”

“So?”

…Danny went outside to collect sticks. It took until nightfall to get all the refuse from yesterday’s storm off the ground.

Aunt Alicia ate canned corn and carrots and butchered rabbit with hot sauce for dinner. Danny ate nothing.

Danny went to bed thinking about somewhere else he could go. Mom and Dad were dead—smithereens in the blast that had killed him and brought him back to life simultaneously. Jazz was in the hospital. He had no grandparents. He had no other aunts or uncles other than Aunt Alicia.

…Who was Vladmir Masters?

*

It took two days for Danny to decide to run away.

Or. Well. Fly.

He’d figured that if he wanted to find out who Vladmir Masters was, he’d need an internet connection. His cell had been on the Fenton Fone Plan™ and had been disconnected from the Fenton Family Patented Ghost-free Satellite™ for almost three months now. But, you know…what was a public library for, if not getting information?

The two-day waiting period was mostly just Danny getting his stuff together, making sure he didn’t leave anything behind, finding anything worth stealing…

…There was a picture of Mom with her big hair at graduation, a black robe thrown over her Hazmat suit. Her hair had been so big. Lots of people were beside her, including Dad, and someone with a matching hair stripe. They looked happy.

It didn’t matter that it had been Aunt Alicia’s photo. The picture had gone into his backpack next to Bearbert Einstein and a filched pocket knife.

Mom was Aunt Alicia’s sister, but Madeline Fenton had been his mom.

…Was still his mom.

Would…would always be his mom.

Danny wouldn’t cry. He wasn’t going to cry. Still, the flying and everything was still new to him. It took almost ten minutes to get himself off the ground without floating off willy nilly.

It took another half an hour to remember how to go through walls.

By the time Danny fell (as in actually, literally, leaned up against the wall and then realized he’d not made contact the way he’d expected to) through the house wall, it was almost eight at night. Aunt Alicia was still listening to Prairie Home Companion downstairs on the radio.

Whatever. He was out of there. He was sure he looked crazy—his hair was white, which was almost impossible to hide—but all he had to do was get out of there fast enough that no one connected one teenage runaway with a backpack to Danny Fenton.

It was fine.

It was all going to be fine.

…And if there wasn’t someone who’d help him. Well. Being homeless didn’t sound…so bad…?

…Or maybe he’d just squat in the burnt out ruins of Fentonworks. That sounded fine too.

*

Morning broke. Danny ended up in a tiny town somewhere in Mississippi.

A nice guy at the coffee shop gave him a cup of water and told him where the local library was. A librarian plugged her login details for him on a public computer, and Danny was able to look up one “Vladmir Masters”…

…CEO and owner of DALVco, millionaire, and Green Bay Packers megafan.

Holy crap.

Like… There were hospital wings with his name on them. Charities operating out of his company. Every picture of the man was perfectly taken in perfect lighting with perfect suits and precise smirks and bright-white magazine article paper.

Danny went back up to the librarian. “Do you have any articles on…uh…Vlad Masters?”

The librarian smiled warmly. “Ah, school project?”

“Sure,” Danny lied, milk on his tongue.

Vlad Masters was a self-made millionaire. He lived in a castle in Wisconsin that used to be owned by a dairy empire kingpin. He went to—

Danny read the line again

—He went to the same college as Mom and Dad. The year looked right, too. They might have even graduated in the exact same year. If only Danny could still check Dad’s college ring in the bottom of their junk drawer.

Wisconsin. Vlad Masters lived in Wisconsin.

…Danny was really lucky he was never all that hungry anymore.

Danny got another cup of water at the coffee shop, washed his face in the bathroom, and got ready to fly another night.

He was no sextant, but he could probably figure out how to get to Wisconsin after a couple of hours of flying, and a little time to gauge the sky.

It would be easy.

…Danny’s white-topped, pale face stared back at him from the restroom mirror.

It had to be. It would have to be easy.

*

So, a cheese castle looked a lot like a regular castle.

Danny squinted up at the stonework. Nah, that looked like…a castle. That being said, it looked more specifically like the castle he was looking for—the one that had been featured in Vlad Masters’s house tour in Architecture Daily magazine two years ago.  

Same…roof bits. Same big door. Danny swallowed. Same…tower? Were there better words for these? There were definitely better words for all the tricky stone bits in the castle.

Whatever. Danny was praying that the man was actually home today, as opposed to flying across the country on some kind of business trip. Rich people did business trips, right?

Danny floated up to the front door. There was no doorbell.

…Danny bit his lip. Okay. So there was no doorbell. There was a very large, brass door knocker. It looked kind of like a big monster face, with a ring held in its teeth.

The knocker was just high enough off the ground that Danny had to float to get there. Lifting it was a struggle.

When it knocked, the whole door buzzed with sound.

Danny waited.

…He waited.

And…Danny waited.

No one came.

Danny picked at the skin of his lip. What if he just…went in?

Like. It was a big house. Maybe Vlad Masters just hadn’t heard him at all? Maybe he was just…in the basement or something…?

Danny paced midair. On one hand. He’d come all this way. He had to follow through. He had to see if there was…something. Anything. Anything at all—anything that could possibly connect Masters to his family.

Any connection that wasn’t Aunt Alicia would be worth breaking and entering.

On the other hand. Home invasion was and would remain illegal.

Danny grimaced.

He…stuck his head through the door. 

There was a hallway on the other side. A little end table. A guest book. 

…Okay. Danny slipped through the door. He was breaking and entering now— or at least…entering. 

Inside was dark. Gloomy. Comfortable, sure— lots of soft furnishings, curtains, couches, pillow, lounging things— but very…opaque in atmosphere. 

He was glowing, he noticed. That probably was pretty bad on the “trying not to get caught” scale. 

There was no one upstairs. Danny drifted through room after empty room and up into floor after empty floor. There was a kitchen, and the food therein were largely preserved items. There was nothing in the fridge. 

Danny’s stomach cramped. There was no one here. 

…Maybe he should look downstairs? 

The castle got colder the further down he went. The windows that at least allowed the minimal light that escaped through the tree cover in the castle vanished. The only light left was Danny. 

Danny floated down deeper. 

There were doors made of metal in a long, stone hallway. Each had different numbers on them. Danny followed the rows of doors.

There were wires on the floor. They were organized by color and bound by little ties, until they weren’t, and Danny eventually ran out of tangled webs of red and blue plastic to follow. 

They ended at a closed door. 

Danny hesitated. He poked his head through. 

On the other side was a ghost. 

Danny jerked back. He’d— he clapped his hand over his mouth. That was—! And sure, Danny was something like that now, but he’d never seen—!

He should leave. Danny should leave. 

Danny barely made it three doors down. 

Going somewhere? something asked him. Danny shivered. 

The ghost appeared on his left in ethereal white, black hair pulled behind him in some sort of half-halo. Unlike Danny, who was in something like half-hazmat, half-hoodie, the ghost wore a long, glowing labcoat, appropriate PPE beneath. 

Danny’s breath fogged up in his mouth. He flinched. “Sorr—” he tried. “Sorry, I’m sorry. I’m not supposed to be here.”

The ghost looked at him with bright red eyes. Danny floated a few steps back. Spying, are you?

Danny shook his head. “No!! No, I just— I was looking for— I wasn’t spying! I’m sorry! I didn’t know you li— died here! I’ll leave!” 

The ghost’s head tilted. For a second, Danny thought that he was going to throw a punch. And then—

You’re already here, the ghost pointed out, and opened a door. Beyond it was…something similar to a doctor’s office. An examination table with the paper on it. One of those blood pressure cuffs, attached to a printer for the readout. A sink. Sundry tongue depressors. You may as well consent to be helped. 

“...Helped with what?” Danny asked nervously, fingers flexing. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”

The ghost hummed— not in the way voices hummed, but in the way high voltage sang in distant powerlines. You are newly formed, aren’t you? Most can tell a ghost’s nature from its presence alone.

Danny looked away. “Um. You know. You might be the first ghost I’ve ever met.” 

The ghost’s feet almost touched the ground. It stared down at him. It was taller than he was, and when it stared, it made Danny want to run away. 

…Truly, the ghost asked(?), and it took Danny a second to realize it was a question. 

“Maybe I died a little recently…” Danny tried, trailing off into a mumble. Was there a right answer to this? 

…I see. That would make this check-up more urgent, then. Might I encourage you to come this way? 

Danny followed him into the room. 

It felt… It looked and felt exactly like any other doctor’s appointment, excepting that the doctor involved in the process had blue skin and fangs and a hairstyle that defied gravity. The ghost still wore gloves and didn’t poke him or prod him too hard, though, so that was a bonus.

Danny got his pulse taken. (None.) Danny got his lungs checked. (Not breathing.) Danny got his resonance? looked at? Whatever that was? It was a big scanny thing that looked like an X ray and took pictures of his chest. 

The readings were real pretty, whatever they were; the whole film print was taken up with splotches of white and clear blue. It kind of shimmered when Danny tilted his head. 

You’re quite powerful for a newly formed ghost, the ghost offered, overlooking papers Danny couldn’t quite see on his clipboard. It flipped through once. Twice. You’re clearly not attached to your place of death, so that’s not why… Are you aware of any compulsions to follow an Obsession yet…?

A ghostly obsession? Danny knew what that was— it was one of his parents’ theories on why ghosts persisted after death! Was it was true? 

“Um,” Danny said, unsure. He hadn’t…had he? “Not that I know of?”

The ghost paused. It clicked its pen. It marked something down on Danny’s chart. Interesting.

Ominous. 

May I quickly test something? the ghost asked, looking up at Danny. It would only take a moment. If it does not work, there will be no other side effects other than mild discomfort and an activated flight response. 

Danny shifted. The paper crackled underneath him. “...Does it hurt?” 

No.

The ghost added nothing more. 

Danny’s…head jerked up and down. It was fine. It would be fine. 

The ghost’s hand circled his wrist. Its touch burned like fire. 

And then light, like how Danny burned away one form for another—

—Danny was left on the table, no longer weightless, no longer breathless. He was flesh. He was human again.

Vlad Masters stared back at him. 

…Huh. 

Mr. Masters— Vlad?— licked dry lips, staring at Danny, whose wrist he still held. Danny…didn’t know if he could move. Danny didn’t know if he knew how to move. 

“...Daniel?” Mr. Masters’s voice cracked. His eyes moved up and down Danny’s body, from his raggedy hair to his dirt-stained clothes to his beat-up shoes. “Daniel Fenton?”

Danny winced. “It’s just Danny,” he offered hoarsely. His throat bobbed. “You…know me?” 

Mr. Masters moved his grip to Danny’s hand, apparently moved to tears. Without the red in his eyes, he just looked…human enough. “Daniel— Danny, how did you— Are you dead? What happened?” 

Danny felt the weight of everything push down on him again, as if it had ever let up on him since the portal incident. Mom and Dad’s funerals. Jazz in the emergency room. Being resuscitated by the EMTs. Getting shipped out to Aunt Alicia’s house without warning. 

“House blew up.”

That was succinct enough, right?

The man’s face turned devastated. “I heard— I’m so, so sorry. I’m so sorry, Danny.”

…It was more concern than anyone had shown in a long time. His eyes were wet before he knew it. When he wiped his face with his sleeve, the dampness was enough to leave little streaks of mud on his face— and, ugh, he felt filthy. 

“It’s okay,” Danny lied, because it wasn’t. He pressed his sleeve to his eyes. “It’s…you know my parents?”

Mr. Masters took a deep, surprised breath. “Yes. We…weren’t in contact after we graduated from school together, but Jack always… He asked me by email to be your godfather, right before you were born. I said yes, but I have no idea if he ever filed the paperwork.” 

Oh. 

…Oh. 

There were clearly more secrets here. Mr. Masters was a ghost, and so was Danny. He lived in a giant castle that was clearly haunted, which was made obvious by the owner. He was Danny’s godfather, and Danny had never once met him. 

And he wasn’t Aunt Alicia. 

Danny sucked the spit off of his teeth with his tongue. “Can I stay here?” 

Mr. Masters made a wounded, desperate expression. “I would rather you did.” 

“Can you teach me how to be a ghost?”

The man persevered through what were clearly heavy feelings. “...If I must.” 

“Can I have dinner?” was Danny’s final question. “Like. On the regular?” 

There was a second where Mr. Masters’s eyes went red. The castle suddenly felt taut with anticipation. Fury crawled on Danny’s skin. He could feel the pressure digging in search of some way to burrow into his flesh.

And then it was gone. 

“Of course you can. You are a growing boy.”

Danny smiled shyly, barely showing his teeth. When he smiled for real in the mirror, he had fangs. It was better not to. “Cool.”

Mr. Masters nodded. And when Danny looked down at the floor, he changed his grip so that Danny could hold his hand and hop down like normal. 

“It will be alright,” Mr. Masters promised quietly. It seemed to be just as much for him as it was for Danny. “Or…I’ll take care of it. Whatever happens. You’re not alone, Danny.” 

Danny had been alone for almost half a year. It had felt like forever. “Thanks.” He sniffed. 

They walked upstairs from the basement laboratory together, in a way Mom and Dad never would again. 

[thehyperrequiem]

Tangled (Thehypercutter Style) cast

“Handsome prince Spike Rosered has been locked away in a tower since he was captured as a mechanical rose seedling by an old evil doctor. His magical rose vines has the power to provide eternal youth, and the evil Wily uses this power to keep him young. At the age of 18, Spike Rosered becomes curious about the outside world, and when a hornet uses his tower as a refuge, he asks him to help him escape.”

Spike Rosered as Rapunzel (Megaman X5)

Blast Hornet as Flynn Rider/Eugene Fitzherbert (Megaman X3)

Fireman as Maximus (Megaman 1/PU)

King as Pascal (The Owl House)

Burn Dinorex and Wheel Gator as The Stabbington Brothers (Megaman X2 and Megaman X5)

Dr. Wily as Mother Gothel (Megaman)

Plantman as King Frederick (Megaman 6)

Woodman as Queen Arianna (Megaman 2)

Forknights as The Royal Guards (Pizza Tower)

The Vigilante as The Captain of The Guards (Pizza Tower)

The Noise as Shorty (Pizza Tower)

Knightman as Attila (Megaman 6)

Chargeman as Vladmir (Megaman 5)

Bubbleman as Big Nose (Megaman 2)

Captain Caviar Cookie (Cookie Run) as Hook Hand

Various Robot Masters/Reploids (Megaman Classic and X) as The Pub Thugs

Bonus!

Zero (Megaman X) as Cassandra

[back-and-totheleft]

"I love Jane Fonda, but she was wrong"

Oliver Stone is in Jerusalem and he wants to talk about nuclear power.

Stone is in town to receive a lifetime achievement award at the 40th Jerusalem Film Festival opening which took place on Thursday, and on July 14 he will be present at a screening of his latest documentary, Nuclear Now.

Certainly, no one can challenge his reputation as one of America’s master filmmakers, although some have criticized the festival for its decision to honor him because of his politics, particularly concerning Russia and Ukraine, as well as statements he has made on Israel.

His experiences in war inspired his screenplay for Platoon, a drama about a naïve young recruit fighting in Vietnam, which won the Best Picture Oscar in 1987 and for which Stone received a Best Director Oscar. In 1990, he won the Best Director Oscar again, this time for Born on the Fourth of July, a drama based on the life of Ron Kovic, a disabled veteran who became an anti-war activist.

For years, Stone alternated between war movies, including Salvador and Heaven & Earth, and movies critical of US life, among them Wall Street, in which Michael Douglas won an Oscar and uttered the iconic, “Greed is good” speech. He also made Natural Born Killers, an indictment of America’s worship of violence and the popularity of tabloid TV. In addition, he has had a stellar career as a screenwriter, writing Scarface and Midnight Express, for which he won an Oscar in 1979, among others.

But what’s on Stone’s mind is nuclear power and he is disappointed that I was not provided with the opportunity to see Nuclear Now before our meeting. The interview hangs in the balance for a moment, but I promise he will have time to talk about Nuclear Now after we speak about his early career.

I bring up his 2020 memoir, Chasing The Light, and mention that the first chapter in his book is called “Child of Divorce.” Was his parents’ divorce, which made him distrust authority figures, the defining event of his life?

“Yes, a lot. I’m thinking about it. People would always nail me and say, ‘Vietnam is your defining moment,’ and I say, ‘I’m not sure, you have to think about your life’” going back to childhood.

Asked whether he began by making war movies that criticized violence and then focused on what was wrong on the homefront, he said, “I wasn’t looking for things that were wrong, I was looking for drama. I’m a dramatist. And you can’t go about it like a journalist, saying, ‘Here are the problems of the world.’ I went about it with what’s exciting to me.”

He found a key drama that fascinated him in examining the story behind the JFK assassination, which he made into the 1991 feature film, JFK. Since then, he has made a few dramas – his last one was the 2016 Snowden, about the US whistleblower who exposed widespread surveillance in the National Security Agency – and many documentaries and docu-series for television. While some have expanded on conspiracy theories about the JFK assassination, others, particularly in recent years, have focused on Russia – he made a 2017 series featuring interviews with Russian President Vladmir Putin – and his sympathy for its government and foreign policy.

Asked about Persona Non Grata, a documentary film he made as part of the HBO series, America Undercover, which details his journey through the West Bank in the early 2000s and his unsuccessful attempt to interview former PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, he said, “He couldn’t quite trust me at first, but he kept me around.”

When Israeli tanks moved into Ramallah, Stone and his crew managed to get out, no thanks to the US government, which “didn’t do sh*t” to help. Asked whether he has been following current Israeli politics, in particular the anti-reform protests, he said, “It just goes on and on and on, this story, it was Ramallah then, Gaza, and now it’s Jenin.”

I wondered whether he feels he has a Jewish identity, and he replied, puzzled, “I was raised Protestant.”

Still, wasn’t his father a major influence in his life? “He had profound wisdom . . . he had anger and strength, he had those qualities, but he shied away from rabbis.”

Secular Zionism played no part in his upbringing, although, as he thought about it, he said, “I have this Jewish strength to some degree, and anger, and persistence, yeah, persistence is important.”

Some of this anger is in evidence when he talks about a subject he is passionate about, what he sees as the “warmongering” of various Democratic administrations, particularly when it comes to the Russia-Ukraine issue. Stone’s criticism of what he sees as the lingering “neoconservative” influence on US policy in Ukraine and Russia is very much on his mind as we talk.

Although he reviled Donald Trump, he couldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton, whom he thinks was a “bloodthirsty secretary of state,” and instead voted for Jill Stein.

“Basically [US officials] chose the [Ukrainian] government, they financed it.” It was the US, and not a popular uprising, that brought former president Petro Poroshenko to power, he said, repeating what he has stated in interview after interview.

He sees the massive outpouring of world support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia as a frightening return to Cold War politics. Current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “is what he is, he’s a puppet,” Stone says, and then adds sarcastically, “Although I like that he’s demanding we go to war on his behalf, demanding nuclear weapons, demanding NATO.”

And now, Stone says, it’s really time to talk about nuclear power, which he sees as the best way to create clean energy and help control the climate change crisis.

“I’m scared about the future for my children and hopefully my grandchildren and I think the consciousness of the world is just more scared, more aware of heat waves.”

The Russians, he said, have a much better regulatory agency for nuclear energy than the Americans. But given his propensity to spot “the big lie” in anything the government says and does, does he really trust the US government to handle nuclear power safely? Surprisingly, he does. “When it comes to specialization, I think so, I mean I would trust the FDA to some degree, yeah.

“You can always be suspicious, but the government... but when it comes to the technical processes, they are pretty good, pretty good because there are standards, scientific standards... They stopped [developing nuclear energy] actually in the 80s after Three Mile Island, which they turned into a nightmare, which wasn’t, it wasn’t a nightmare...”

He continued: “I love Jane Fonda, but she was wrong.”

Then, urging me to attend the Nuclear Now screening, he headed to meet his wife for dinner.

-Hannah Brown, "Oliver Stone comes to Jerusalem to discuss nuclear power," The Jerusalem Post, Jul 14 2023

[normanemilioleongoodworlds]

franceinfo: DIRECT. Guerre en Ukraine : Kiev réclame que la Russie soit exclue de l'ONU

franceinfo: DIRECT. Guerre en Ukraine : Kiev réclame que la Russie soit exclue de l'ONU.

Est-ce Vladmir Zelenkov qui devient incontrôlable ou les Etats-Unis d'Amérique qui l'agitent, en forme d'instrument, comme une marionnette à leur guise ?

Is Vladmir Zelenkov out of control or are the United States of America the master of the Ukrainian puppet ?

Le fâcheux précédent du Japon impérial quittant la Société des Nations (SDN) devrait mettre du plomb dans la cervelle de plus d'un.

Imperial Japan quitting NS ( Nations Society) must negatively inspire each of us today.

Est-ce la fin des Nations Unis que cherchent certains, l'anarchie internationale ?

Is the end of the United Nations wanted by someones, international anarchia ?

[l3v14th4nscxmslxt]

The Obey me Brothers and the League of Legends experience…

Ft: Gn! mc if mentioned at all

Lucifer:

Wouldn’t play…willingly- probably would be dragged to play with like Levi and Diavolo or something.. would probably play Darius or vladmir idk why he seems like those darius mains those ones who carry and split push a lot. Would play with you not often tho bc he’s busy-

Mammon:

PYKE! And probably draven probably likes his design and character. Type of support pyke that shouldn’t be playing support and kill steals a lot would invest in his ashen knight pyke skin.. would probably start out by playing miss fortune aswell bc of her name and bc of her difficulty- would definitely play more if you played and would def wanna be your support to “protect you” he just kill steals so gl with that-

Leviathan:

Cracked at the game- would play support and top mainly.. plays seraphine nami also likes mages like veigar and fizz- would love to play support for you his heals and cc carries almost always gets an S but rlly unlucky with chest pulls and loot. Owns a lot of skins from impulse spending (ngl me too) he would be the one to gatekeep arcane from non league players 💀 but overall rlly good to play with and rlly good at the game too^

Satan:

Yummi and rengar need I say more… would probably like playing a more complex role like jungle than support would probably also play Jhin and do really well his first time playing… definitely rages if he’s playing against a broken character like master yi and yasuo loves to play with you but you but you might need to turn off his all chat before he destroys the others team for killing him… Definitely prefers just watching arcane likes the lore and stuff

Asmodeus:

Evelynn… yeah that’s it would adore her I stg would probably also like seraphine and ahri thinks they are cute.. adores kda and learned all the dances to the songs probably wouldn’t play that much as the others but would if you wanted to. Would def find out a players social and ruin their social life if they are toxic towards you or him in anyway.

Beelzebub:

I feel like he would main bard I just like have a feeling would probably queue for fill and not know what he’s doing you are gonna have to seriously coach him how to play.. would like playing sett but would hate not being in the same lane as you :( enjoys tahm kench he likes that one chef skin he has… would love playing with you but please coach him before queuing and teach him 😰

Belphegor:

Aphelios… I’m just gonna say it make the connections on your own it all would make sense omg. Would also enjoy lissandra veigo and vex mains any role he doesn’t rlly care would like playing with you would tease you if you have a worse kda than him or died in a funny way. Might fall asleep in endgame bc of long revival times. Plays with you beel,Levi and diavolo for a full team comp. (He would be super toxic asf if someone pisses him off in chat 0-0

[immortalonus]

Victorian AU 2: Jack

So, fun fact-I actually do know how to fully ink and color a work, it's just that my work flow is terrible for whatever reason and I rarely get stuff done.

I love his jacket, but not his eyes, face, and left hand, all of which are wonky. I think the biggest problem is that the face just doesn't read as Jack! Looking back at my initial sketch, it seems to mostly be an issue of his facial hair + the face is too round just in general. My man Jack needs more rectangles to look like himself :/

Oh well, at least he still wears orange.

The interesting thing about men's fashion is how little it seems to have changed over the centuries - take off the bowler cap, jacket, and switch the suspenders for a belt, and this clothing set wouldn't look too out of place in the modern day.

While facial hair was going out of fashion in the 1890s due to the rise of the Gibson guy ideal of a clean shaven, freshly cut young man coming into vogue, since jack is an older guy without much interest in haute couture of any kind, it would make sense that he'd be slow to switch out his mustache and beard.

A self trained expert in mechanics, Jack was born to an old, strict clan of exorcists who were expert in the use traditional exorcism and anti-ghost techniques. Jack grew up as the black sheep of the family, being too loud, too fidgety, and too prone to questioning his elders to endear himself to anyone.

Afflicted with a sense of wunderlust and a fascination with the science and innovation his kinfolk so disdained, jack set off as soon as he could, working as a traveling exorcist and itinerant preacher, spending every dime he made on machine parts and magazines of para-natural phenomena.

The only time he ever settled down from his wanderings was to study. Since he had no money to pay for tuition, however, he had to make due with a janitorial job, where he would make a point to clean something in the background whenever class was in. It was during this period that he met both Vladmir Masters, a low class student who took on massive loans in an effort to lift himself out of poverty, and Madeline Walker, a young lady who transferred from the university of Edinburgh to seek further education and opportunity in the United states.

The unlikely trio would become fast friends, for a time, all fascinated by the supernatural and the chance to apply modern science and techniques to these mysterious phenomena.

Unfortunately, this all fell apart in their final year, when an attempt at a real ritual to contact the spirit realm put Vladmir in a hospital and Jack, as the lowest status of the three, being forced to shoulder the blame and leave his position at the campus. Maddie would join him, forgoing her own promising career to join him on his adventures, eventually marrying him formally a few months later. they both felt bad for Valdmir, but with the man hospitalized and comatose with skin lesions all over his face, there was very little they could do.

By the time Danny and Jasmine are young teenagers, the two elder Fentons have settled down and made something of a name for themselves, being frequent guests of famous paranaturalists, hypnotists, and magicians, traveling from town to town hawking their famous Fenton wares and ghost-busting tonics (Sales improved dramatically when Maddie took jack's place as the face of the business.) Jack couldn't be happier, though he has begun to consider settling down for his family's sake, allowing his kids to make more stable connections and get the kind of solid education he himself was denied.

[officialotakudome]

New Post has been published on Otaku Dome | The Latest News In Anime, Manga, Gaming, Tech, and Geek Culture

New Post has been published on https://otakudome.com/vampire-academy-adaptation-announced-for-peacock/

Vampire Academy Adaptation Announced For Peacock

Vampire Academy has been announced for Peacock:

ABOUT THE SERIES: 

Showrunner / Writer / Executive Producer / Director: Julie Plec (The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, Legacies)

Showrunner / Writer / Executive Producer: Marguerite MacIntyre

Executive Producers: Emily Cummins, Don Murphy, Susan Montford, Deepak Nayar and Jillian DeFrehn

Directors: Bille Woodruff (first episode), Luis Prieto, Jesse Warn, Erica Dunton, Geoff Shotz and Julie Plec

Author: Richelle Mead

Produced By: Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group

Format: 10 x 60 min episodes, YA drama

Filming Location: Spain

From executive producer Julie Plec comes a story of romance, friendship, death, sex, and scandal. Vampire Academy is based on a series of young adult paranormal romance novels by international bestselling author Richelle Mead. In a world of privilege and glamour, two young women’s friendship transcends their strikingly different classes as they prepare to complete their education and enter royal vampire society. This serialized and sexy drama combines the elegance of aristocratic romance and the supernatural thrills of the vampire genre.

Series Description: St. Vladmir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school — it’s a hidden place where vampire royals are educated and half-human teens train to protect them from the savage ‘Strigoi’ vampires who would like to see them destroyed.

SERIES REGULARS: 

SISI STRINGER (Mortal Kombat) will play Rose Hathaway, a vampire-human hybrid known as a Dhampir.  Fiery and outspoken, Rose is a true fighter in spirit and in practice.  She always jumps into action, and more often than not, this results in demerits.  She might be the strongest fighter in her class, but her success will depend entirely on her willingness to toe the line when it counts.

DANIELA NIEVES (Sex Appeal, Five Points) will play Lissa Dragomir, a Royal Moroi vampire.  Growing up the younger sister to the heir apparent, Princess Vasilisa Dragomir is a carefree, kind-hearted, royal princess coasting through her studies and happily chasing fun.  Lissa is uninterested in the political machinations of the Royal Court or the hypocrisy of Moroi royal society.  But with a sudden death in her family, Lissa is thrust into a role she’s neither trained for nor is emotionally equipped to handle.

KIERON MOORE (Masters of the Air, Sex Education) will play Dimitri Belikov, the model of a Dhampir guardian: lethal, disciplined, discreet, and totally committed to his role as bodyguard to the ruling Moroi, the “good,” mortal vampires of his world. He lives by a deep moral code, but beneath his stoic, watchful surface, there’s an expansive spirit that could threaten to expose the underlying tension between his sense of what’s right and his formal duty to the Moroi.

ANDRÉ DAE KIM (Degrassi, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) will play Christian Ozera, a Royal Moroi vampire.  Intelligent and thoughtful, Christian is the pariah of the school and royal court, due to his parents’ unforgiveable societal sins.  Well-read and hungry for knowledge, he searches for faith-based answers and discovers a kindred spirit who is also looking for the truth.

J. AUGUST RICHARDS (Angel, Generation) will play Victor Dashkov.  Victor is a Moroi noble vampire with a heart of gold who’s highly regarded for his role as advisor and political strategist to Moroi dignitaries.  He’s a fierce loyalist who uses his intelligence and influence to protect that which he values most: the well-being of his husband and two adopted daughters, as well as the betterment of his Moroi community.

ANITA-JOY UWAJEH (West End’s Cyrano de Bergerac and King Lear), will play Tatiana Vogel.  Tatiana is a Moroi vampire and political underdog who slowly takes the royal court by storm.  Motivated by love and a sense of justice, Tatiana has a unique skill of making herself seem of no consequence until we realize much too late that she was always the one to watch.

MIA MCKENNA-BRUCE (West End’s Billy Elliot The Musical, The Dumping Ground) will play Mia Karp, a student at St. Vladimir’s Academy. Witty, cutting, and just the right kind of ruthless when necessary, non-Royal Mia has a long-term plan to social climb her way into the ranks of royalty, with all the privilege and freedom that entails. A plan complicated by her instant chemistry with Meredith, a Guardian-in-training, as Mia struggles to reconcile her attraction to Meredith with her lowly status.

RHIAN BLUNDELL (Torchwood: Believe, Doctor Who: The Dread of Night) will play Meredith, a smart, strong-willed Dhampir who is a keen observer, which makes her an excellent strategist and a valuable asset. She has little patience for Rose’s volatility or Mia’s elitism, and regularly calls both of them out.

JONETTA KAISER (Tales, Breakwater) will play Sonya Karp.  Quiet, careful and decidedly odd, Sonya is not of royal bloodline and sits out on the fringe of Moroi society, preferring to spend her time in the library or her gardens.  Not a person who likes a scene, nonetheless she has a quiet but profound power of her own. She is taken by surprise when a Dhampir Guardian named Mikhail shows interest in her, a relationship that will expose both the brightest and darkest parts of her heart.

ANDREW LINER (Grown-ish) will play Mason Ashford.  Charming, loyal and popular, Mason is Rose’s main competition in the quest to become the number one Guardian-in-training.  Though their relationship is casual on her side, he is hopeful she will finally look at him and see him as something more.

[hoteldicbloarchive]

@thefvrious​ sent: ☾ ( heather from vladimir ) ! 137. “i’ll wreck this if i have to.”

she was all fire and thunder. clenched fists and white hot anger, mossy hues aflame. emotions weren’t something she tended to wear on her sleeve, heather more often than not preferring to keep such things neatly tucked away, creating an almost unreadable appearance to the outside world. but anger was something she’d never quite mastered the art of concealing. it bubbled and boiled just beneath the surface at all times; thick and dark and spilling forth despite her best efforts to contain it. “i’m fucking serious, vladmir.” her gaze was unwavering and lethal, her jaw tightly clenched. she shook her head, a humorless scoff tumbling past the threshold of her lips, followed by a trembling sigh. “i’ll wreck this if i have to. watch me.”  

[i-am-a-green-rock]

Five’s a Storm - Part 1

cross posted on AO3 here!

Lukas Bondevik is a freelance magicker with an uncommon affinity for the supernatural. He picks ups jobs that either pay well or interest him, if he even picks a job in the first place. He's just a grad student trying to work his way through his Master's, sometimes getting worried about his stepbrother when he comes home at some ungodly hour of night, sometimes finding his stepbrother not at all worried when he comes up at an ungodly hour of night, but between grinding through his homework and hiding his magicking from his brother, life is pretty good for Lukas.

Well, that is until he gets attacked on a job by a pesky troll. He should've used another spell, but instead, he gets rescued by a Romanian, annoying as hell frost magician.

"Whatever the hell is the Society of Troubles? It sounds just as bad, if not worse, that what's that one group's name- the Bad Touch Trio?" " . . . we're not that bad."

In which Norway is a passive-aggressive college student and magicker, Romania is really helpful, Iceland keeps secrets, Hong Kong's firecrackers are worse than firecrackers, and Romania is just done.

The Society of Troubles is exactly how it sounds.

All four members specialize in the magic required to create troubles for humanity, specifically, a natural disaster or two. The Society as a whole was feared because all of its members could wipe a city off the map with just a glance, at least, according to the rumors. Of course, at least one of them could be beneficial to people, but all of the members were antisocial magickers that only got together because they could all deal some devastating damage to the environment. They were all quite close, but among the four, two pairs of people were even closer.

Arthur Kirkland of floods and monsoons, and the founder of this mess of a magical society.

Vladmir Popescu of blizzards and avalanches, and the closest friend Arthur had.

Leon Jia Long Wang of wildfires and droughts, Arthur's college classmate's little brother from Hong Kong.

And Emil Steilsson of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, Leon's boyfriend hailing from Iceland.

The perks of being in a magical society was that it was much easier to procure job opportunities than it was when going as a solo magician. This was even more so when the society was comprised of only some of the strongest magicians in Europa. The Society of Troubles had made its fame by taking a couple of the hardest jobs, but also the most profitable jobs, and actually succeeding in completing them. It wasn't until after they were paid that some other members of the magicking community found out that the Society had actually left a visible impact from their jobs. The Society was fined for leaving traces of magic where ordinary people couldn't encounter magic, but after that, their reputation changed from one of a small, barely-surviving society to a highly exclusive, high level magic society. Arthur, as the Head of Society, refused any prospective members, as he and the rest of the Society wanted to keep membership to just their friends.

However, the problem with these problematic four is that they wanted to make the biggest bang with the biggest spell, no matter how devastating the result. Their alignments may as well be "Chaotic Neutral" in this sense. The biggest spell, though, was to make a storm that spanned the entire world, but there was one little problem.

It takes five people to summon a storm, and they only had four. For this spell, they needed a wind affinity magician in particular.

Their solution?

Put an ad in the magic community's newspaper.

That should solve their problem. Right?

[fultossbkt]

Former world champion Viswanathan Anand’s struggles continued in the USD 150,000 Legends of Chess online tournament as he suffered his sixth consecutive defeat with a 2-3 loss to Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia. Anand started the sixth round match with a draw as he came up with good defensive moves to keep the Russian at bay in a 53-move draw. However, Nepomniachtchi went ahead by pulling off a 34-move win in the second game. The third saw the players sign peace after 48 moves. The five-time world champion then fought back well to claim the fourth game in 42 moves to push the contest into the Armageddon (a tie-breaker). Nepomniachtchi won the decisive tie-break in 41 moves to shatter the hopes of the 50-year old Indian superstar and left him winless after six rounds. World champion Magnus Carlen continued his winning run and tops the standings with 17 match points. Nepomniachtchi is second on 16 followed by compatriot Vladimir Karmnik (12). Anand, who is making his debut on the Magnus Carlsen Tour, lies ninth with three points. Legends of Chess is a unique event where Carlsen, Ding Liren, Nepomniachtchi and Anish Giri, semifinalists at the Chessable Masters (part of the Magnus Carlsen Tour), received an automatic invite and are up against six legends aged 40-52, who have been at the top of world chess at various points in their career. The winner of this event will qualify for the USD 300,000 Grand Final, scheduled from August 9 to 20. Results – Round 6: Ian Nepomniachtchi beat Viswanathan Anand 3-2; Magnus Carlsen beat Ding Liren 2.5-1.5: Anish Giri beat Peter Leko 2.5-1.5; Vladmir Kramnik beat Boris Gelfand 3-2; Peter Svidler beat Vasyl Ivanchuk 3-2. Source-: India express.com #fultoss_bkt https://www.instagram.com/p/CDJCho7niuY/?igshid=1tfjtoqf2g9q9

[blogwritetheworld]

October Spotlight – Reading People: The Art of Interviews

by Lisa Hiton

Reading is key to becoming an excellent writer. The practice of reading teaches us many skills about writing—sentence structure, inventing vivid images and character development. The attention we pay to reading words can also be given to reading people. It is the writer’s job, after all, to bring people—invented and real—to life on the page. It’s why the reading (or observing) of people is perhaps the writer’s greatest tool. Whether you’re writing a biographical piece about a loved one, an athlete, or a teacher, or inventing someone in a story, the reader needs to find elements of true people in your pages.

There is no better test of one’s ability to read people than by conducting interviews. Interviews require research, preparation, and most importantly, a capacity to listen to your subject. It is in the listening that a great interviewer can begin to open up their subject and allow for spontaneity where a conversation may organically go, if only we prompt our subjects with deft care.

Reading People

There are many keys to conducting successful interviews: researching your subject, staying current on topics you may talk about with your subject, preparing great questions, and so on. What is harder to plan for is the attitude or mood of your subject. Let’s say you’re interviewing an athlete and you want to talk about overcoming a recent injury, but they’re reluctant to discuss their health with you. What might you do? Do you change the subject entirely? Do you ask more follow-up questions? A lot of this will have to do with reading your subject in the moment of the interview.

At the beginning of the interview, for instance, you may find yourself speaking more than your interviewee. As the interview becomes more comfortable for both of you, allow your interviewee to do more of  the talking.The more interviews you conduct, the more comfortable it can be to let the subjects speak for themselves. We can learn these nuances and practice them. Especially by following along with a few masters who have written books about the art of interviews.

The Art of the Interview: Lessons from a Master of the Craft by Lawrence Grobel: Lawrence Grobel has conducted interviews with some of the world’s most beloved celebrities. His experience interviewing stars for the likes of Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, and others has informed his book The Art of the Interview. This craft book begins by drawing differentiations in interviews for different media outlets. From print, to radio, to television, Grobel draws the landscape of interviewing for beginners. He then delves into the nitty-gritty: researching, planning good questions, dealing with publicists, and dealing with reluctant subjects. The latter chapters of the book cover getting subjects to open up to you, editing your interview, and the overall structure of interviews.

Ask More: The Power of Questions to Open Doors Uncover Solutions, and Spark Change by Frank Sesno: The central skill of interviewing people is asking questions. Frank Sesno’s book, Ask More, is entirely about questions themselves. Sesno’s organized the book by categorizing kinds of questions: diagnostic questions, strategic questions, empathy questions, bridging questions, confrontational questions, creativity questions, mission questions, scientific questions, interview questions, entertaining questions. As an Emmy-award winning journalist for CNN and director of GWU’s school of Media and Public Affairs, Sesno has mastered not only the art of interviewing, but of asking questions—both of his subjects and of the world entire.

The book ends with a question guide. After studying Sesno’s eleven categories of questions, this guide offers us step-by-step instructions toward asking more powerful questions of ourselves and our subjects—be they people or fields of study. Each of these mini-guides goes through different skills and ways to frame each category of questions, as well as including a question-writing prompt.

Mastering the Study of Interviews

A master of interviews and conducting conversations is Oprah Winfrey. We often think of journalism at the forefront of interviewing. And while Oprah was and is a journalist, her approach to understanding people through their own stories has changed the scope of interviews, oral histories, and the rigor of talk shows.

As she said in her commencement address at Harvard University in 2013, Oprah realized she wanted to be a journalist spontaneously, at a young age: “My television career began unexpectedly. I was in a Miss Fire Prevention contest. That was when I was 16 years old in Nashville, Tennessee[...] During the question and answer period the question came, ‘Why, young lady, what would you like to be when you grow up?’ And by the time they got to me all of the good answers were gone. I had seen Barbara Walters on The Today Show earlier, so I responded ‘I would like to be a journalist. I would like to tell other people’s stories in a way that makes a difference in their lives and the world.’ And as those words were coming out of my mouth I went, ‘Whoa, this is pretty good. I would like to make a difference. I would like to be a journalist.’” And so, it’s not just that Oprah realized what she wanted to do, but something essential about the core of it—that engaging with people also meant to engage with their stories. And that by simply coaxing stories out of people, a larger sense of the world could be accessed by the masses.

As a lifetime fangirl of Oprah Winfrey, the most I’ve ever been moved by her was hearing her commencement speech as I graduated from Harvard in 2013. As she talked about success, failure, and changing the world, here was the passage I found most striking:

The single most important lesson I learned in 25 years of talking every single day to people was that there is a common denominator in our human experience. Most of us, I tell you, we don’t want to be divided, what we want--the common denominator that I’ve found in every single interview—is that we want to be validated. We want to be understood. I’ve done over 35,000 interviews in my career. And as soon as that camera shuts off, everyone always turns to me, and inevitably, in their own way, asks this question: (whispers) Was that okay? I heard it from President Bush. I heard it from President Obama. I’ve heard it from heroes and from housewives. I’ve heard it from victims and perpetrators of crimes. I even heard it from Beyonce in all of her Beyonce-ness. She finishes performing, hands me the microphone, and says, ‘Was that okay?’. Friends and family, enemies, strangers—in every argument, in every encounter, in every exchange, I will tell you, they all want to know one thing: Was that okay? Did you hear me? Do you see me? Did what I say mean anything to you? [...] My hope is that you will go out and try to have more face to face conversations with people you disagree with. That you’ll have the courage to look them in the eye and hear their point of view. To help make sure that the speed and distance and anonymity of our world doesn’t cause us to lose our ability to stand in someone else’s shoes, and recognize all that we share as a people.

No matter who you encounter, no matter how much you may share or disagree, if we keep those vulnerable truths at heart, we can answer those questions by listening with soul and empathy so that we may answer with a truthful yes.

First Lady Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey: The Next Generation of Women: Held during the United State of Women Summit in 2016, this conversation between these two inspiring women addresses many issues women continue to face in our modern world. As you watch the interview or read the transcript, here are some prompts that may help you prepare for your own interviews:

How would you describe the arc of this conversation?

Who is responsible for guiding the conversation?

Break the conversation into movements. Title each movement.

Within each movement, who speaks more? What is the role of the listener?

How does each speaker frame their questions? How does this help the listener/reader?

Annotate the questions raised in the conversation. Label each based on the eleven distinctions from Frank Sesno’s Ask More.

Treasure Troves of (and for) Writers

While we’ve gone through a few of our favorite specific interviews, we’d be remiss not to include a short resource of our favorite homes for literary interviews. Here are three places on the web where you can read and hear conversations with some of your favorite literary figures from all over the world.

The Paris Review Interviews Archive: A longstanding tradition—since the 1950’s!—The Paris Review is home to interviews with the world’s most beloved literary figures. Toni Morrison, Kazuo Ishiguro, James Baldwin, Gabriel García Marquez, Elie Wiesel, Maya Angelou, John Steinbeck, Harold Pinter, T.S. Eliot, Truman Capote, Vladmir Nabokov, Joan Didion, Jean Rhys, Kurt Vonnegat, Cynthia Ozick, Tom Stoppard, Chinua Achebe, Margaret Atwood, Jeannette Winterson, Ray Bradbury, Lydia Davis, Claudia Rankine, Ha Jin, Orhan Pamuk, Hunter S Thompson. Browse through these interviews and many more on The Paris Review’s archives or check out the publication’s Interview anthologies.

Divedapper: Divedapper is a web project devoted entirely to hosting interviews with voices in contemporary poetry. Interviews are posted every other Monday between founder, Kaveh Akbar, and contemporary poets. The poets featured are at different places in their careers, so you can find poets with excellent debut books as well as more established poets in the archives. Claudia Rankine, Danez Smith, Richie Hofmann, Morgan Parker, Franny Choi, Kazim Ali, Monica Youn, Oliver Bendorf, Solmaz Sharif, Ocean Vuong, Fanny Howe. They’re all there and more are coming each month!

Bookworm: Bookworm is a podcast hosted by Michael Silverblatt that boasts “intellectual, accessible, and provocative literary conversations”. Silverblatt has recorded conversational interviews with the likes of just about every living writer you could imagine: Jacqueline Woodson, George Saunders, Jeanette Winterson, Morgan Parker, Kate Tempest. So when you’re looking to practice listening, Bookworm might just be the next binge-worthy literary podcast for you.

So, dear writers, as you think about who you might interview for this month’s competition, take these lessons in listening and asking great questions with you. May those who ask questions and those who answer them in these resources be a source of inspiration to you as you begin your own adventure in reading these books and the people you’ll soon be questioning.

About Lisa

Lisa Hiton is an editorial associate at Write the World. She writes two series on our blog: The Write Place where she comments on life as a writer, and Reading like a Writer where she recommends books about writing in different genres. She’s also the interviews editor of Cosmonauts Avenue and the poetry editor of the Adroit Journal.

[two-lost-souls-of-strangerv-blog]

chapter 3

It replayed,  her words...on his mind. The thought of his lips on her neck, his teeth sinking deep. The blood flooding out of the puncture wounds. The images that flooded his mind filled his heart with red. Red, the color of passion, The color of anger, of Rage...The color of blood. Crimson red. 

Caleb was filled with a flurry of significant emotions. He wanted to tear Vladimir limb from limb. He stormed down the street and saw him. Standing in front of his house. He held back with every ounce of self discipline he could muster.

 Caleb was turned in the early 1900′s and originated from a European country. He had over a hundred years to learn how to hide his accent. He was a young man when he was turned, Turned by his then fiancé. She was killed by a witch hunter. The pain never left his heart, but perhaps that is why he grew to love Serena. She had the same passion, same spark in her eyes that Adrianna had. 

His eyes narrowed as he walked up to Vladimir. 

“I have a few words to express to you Vlad...” Fire burning in his eyes, his fangs starting to grow between his lips. Vlad looked at him, taken back. Vladmir was known to be a vicious master Vampire, but also could be quite the coward. “What is it child?” He hissed a tone very condescending to the much younger  vampire.  “If I ever catch you near Serena again, I will strip your corpse of its skin and watch the life force shrivel from your body as you burn alive, in agonizing pain beneath the rays of the sun...”  Teeth bared, he threatened Vladimir. Thing was, Caleb meant every word of it. 

Vladimir grimaced and shot back “I haven’t the slightest clue of what you are talking about child, but if you ever threaten me again I will...”  “You will what?! Im far faster, stronger and you know as well as I do I could snap your neck right here, right now..”  

Vlad looked up at Caleb, knowing that he was very well right. “Yes child, you may have brute strength, but it is I who holds the wisdom and clever mind to always win...to always charm others against you. Remember that now...for you’ve just made a very grave mistake to cross me...” 

With that, Vlad walked away. Caleb watched as the tall ominous figured disappeared in the distance. Caleb knew he was in deeper than he bargained. He also knew he would fight to the death for Serena if he had to. He lost Adrianna to a savage murderer, he wouldn't lose Serena the same way..

Later that evening, Caleb went to check on Serena. He brought along a good friend of his, Izumi.  She was also a vampire much to Serena’s ignorance. However, unlike the other Vampires, Izumi was very peppy, happy and cheerful. She came off more like a highschool cheerleader than anything. Caleb thought the cheery company would help take Serena’s mind off of the awful attack.

Izumi and Serena seemed to get along really well. Caleb felt a bit of relief watching the two talk and laugh. “Yeah, I just don't understand whats going on in my town, I mean...lately its like the town is being infected by people on drugs or possessed by something awful” She brought up, just making conversation when there was an awkward silence. 

Izumi presumed Serena knew about it. “What do you mean?...” Of course, being the kind of girl Serena was, her curiosity was now peeked. She was a special agent for the FBI, and looking deeper into things was her forte. “Well, it started a few weeks ago. A few stranglers here and there. Eyes bugged out, walking like something out of a George Ramero film...Ya can’t talk any sense to them either. They just sprout back gibberish” 

Immediately the wheels in Serena's mind started turning.  “You’re over in Strangerville yes?” Izumi nodded in reply.  “Oh no, here we go again”  Caleb whispered to himself, overhearing the two girls talking. “Whenever Serena gets curious it usually ends up with her on a wild chase..” Serena smirked “Curiosity killing any cats never really phased you Serena!” He said with a laugh. 

 Serena thought to herself for a moment, why wasn’t the FBI having her on the case? Perhaps it was because she was still new and this was for a more seasoned agent? Well she was going to solve this on her own, prove herself. She was determined. If she could look into this, solve it on her own, she would surely get the recognition she deserved from her supervisor. 

Later that evening, after Izumi had left, Caleb asked to talk to Serena. “Sweetie, I understand you have a passion for the unsolved mysteries of this world, but you’ re not seriously considering getting involved with this Strangerville case, are you?” “Of course I am Caleb, have you ever seen me to back down from a challenge?” 

“I just think its a bad idea...you have no way to protect yourself. What if these people are on serious drugs? Or they are possessed by some evil entity?” Serena scoffed “Evil entity? Don't tell me you believe in the supernatural?” Caleb chucked. If only she knew the truth.... 

Abruptly, Serena started to get her jacket on, his words falling on death ears.. “and Its just, what if your supervisor gets angry that you interfered with a case they are already working on? You don't think this could cause some repercussions?”

“When it comes to saving the world, does a hero ever really care about the fall out?”

[verybitchywitch-blog]

LET YOUR FOLLOWERS GET TO KNOW YOU!!!

I see these all the time and they always suck and its always silly information, so heres a more intellectual and exciting one. They always talk about followers and physical features and nothing that makes up someone as a person, so heres one for your personality and life experiences. Don’t forget to tag people you want to get to know!!!

Tagged by: @wonderfulwicca

Name? Cassie

Age? 17

Height? 5′9.5

Where you’re from? East Anglia (UK)

Favourite song? My favourite songs of all time are Fear of the Dark by Iron Maiden, Master of Puppets by Metallica, Pyramid Song by Radiohead and Rabbit Heart by Florence and the Machine

Favourite Book? Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov or A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (A close second is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick)

Favorite smell? Chanel No.5 and Chanel Chance hahahaha or lavender

A memorable experience? Doing shots in the pub on new years

Countries you’ve been to? Uhhhh....off the top of my head Japan, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Hong Kong, Australia, US, Mexico, Equador, Galapagos Islands, Crete, Cyprus, Malaysia that’s all I can think of so far I’m very lucky

Countries you’d want to go to? I’d like to visit Iceland, Thailand and Japan again

Languages you speak? English and French (I’m taking my A level this year)

Favourite subject in high school? English I’m such a nerd but when I’m writing essays about poetry that I love, like John Donne or John Keats

Hobbies? Reading, watching movies, being witchy, getting drunk, playing the piano and ‘cello, going on walks, playing with my doge

Favourite plant? Cacti

Favourite food? Pasta with tomato sauce, spinach and nutritional yeast #alldayeveryday or cereal

Views on modern society? Pretty good

Favorite era and why? Ooh good golly I feel like I’d fit in the 1920s because those dresses oh my

Have tattoos, Piercings? I have 2 ear piercings in each ear and a stick n poke

Want any? I kinda want to get my nipples pierced?? but idk yet because I’m a massive pussy and I’m getting a cat face on my ribcage when I turn 18

Thoughts on love? Never felt it

Spirituality? Pagan witch (hellenic) was brought up christian and was super into it for 15 years until I began to find it boring idk

10 facts about you? *I collect Blythe dolls and Pullips, I currently have 6 Blythes and 1 Pullip (They’re super expensive Japanese and Korean art dolls) *My favourite TV programmes are Death Note, Yuri on Ice, Glee, Dance Moms and Death in Paradise *I can’t cook for shit and I know I’m gonna starve to death at uni *Fashion is one of the most important things in life to me, I follow fashion week like the gospel *The only games I play are Left 4 Dead 2, Goat Simulator, Huniecam Studio and Minecraft *The only music I listen to on the daily is metal, classical and electronic *My favourite metal genres are melodic death, doom, black and thrash *I’m constantly keeping up with the youtube drama *I’m obsessed with graveyards and the decay we find all around us *My favourite poems are The Flea by John Donne, Love’s Philosophy by Shelley, La Belle Dame sans Merci by Keats and In Our Tenth Year by Simon Armitage (also Disabled by Wilfred Owen)

[courtneytincher]

Russia’s Election Hackers Are Back—and Targeting Soros

Sean Gallup/GettyThe Russian intelligence agency behind 2016’s election attacks is training its sights on billionaire financier George Soros, The Daily Beast has learned. The move comes hot on the heels of a surge in U.S.-focused hacking by Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate with similarities to 2016 in targeting and methodology. Laura Silber, chief communications officer for Soros’ Open Society Foundations, confirmed the hack attempt, but couldn’t provide additional details over the weekend. “We were aware of an attack,” Silber told the Daily Beast.Last month Microsoft quietly seized a new batch of 10 deceptive domain names the company says were set up by the hackers known as Fancy Bear,  the group intelligence officials and independent analysts have long attributed to Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate, the GRU. Those web addresses imitate genuine domains used for Microsoft services like Sharepoint, an unmistakable sign that they were intended for use in phishing attacks, in which a victim is tricked into typing their password into a fake login page. Mueller Finally Solves Mysteries About Russia’s ‘Fancy Bear’ HackersOne domain targets a Singapore-based investment firm, and another references the Berlin anti-corruption organization Transparency International, which Russia has targeted before. Others are generic or ambiguous in their targeting.  But one seized domain, soros-my-sharepoint[.]com, jumps out as a clear reference to Soros, a past GRU target from Russia’s 2016 election interference.  An additional four phishing domains registered in the same time frame appear to target Soros’ Open Society Foundations, said Kyle Ehmke, an intelligence researcher at the Arlington, Virginia-based cybersecurity firm ThreatConnect.  Those domains haven’t been seized and ThreatConnect hasn’t found enough evidence to definitively link them to the Russian hackers, said Ehmke. The Kremlin’s targeting of Soros and his organization carries echoes of 2016, when the GRU dumped 2,500 files stolen from the Open Society Foundations for the debut of “DC Leaks”, the fake leak site the spies created for their 2016 election interference campaign. “SOROS INTERNAL FILES – BIG DATA”, the site announced at the time.Some of the stolen files were reportedly altered to create the appearance that Soros was secretly financing Russian opposition candidates, making the leak politically useful to Vladmir Putin. More importantly, the Soros dump earned DC Leaks instant credibility in American right-wing circles, where the 88-year-old Hungarian-American philanthropist plays the role of villainous global puppet-master in countless conspiracy theories. Russia’s Internet Research Agency—the so-called “troll farm, later indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller—pushed the same trope on its Facebook and Instagram feeds in the run-up to election day. One meme featured a close-up of Soros against a backdrop of anti-Trump picketers. “No lives matter for those who sponsoring [sic] anti Trump protests,” the caption read. Another imagined Soros confronting the late Senator John McCain. “Hey Johnny, I’m paying you a fortune. I don’t care how much cancer you have, get back to DC and backstab Trump.”The Soros targeting comes in the wave of what one expert describes as a fresh wave of Fancy Bear attempts against political nonprofits in the U.S. that ran from last December to March or April of this year, using similar tactics to the mass phishing campaign that famously ensnared Hillary Clinton’s campaign chief in 2016. “It’s a similar type of activity to what hit Podesta,” said Robert Johnston, the former Marine Corp captain who investigated the 2016 DNC breach, and now heads the financial cybersecurity firm Adlumin. “These were against political organizations and NGOs. The FBI has reached out to of bunch of them.”Putin’s Hackers Now Under Attack—From MicrosoftIn 2016 Microsoft sued Fancy Bear in federal court in Virginia and won, unopposed, an injunction allowing the company to seize any web addresses registered by the GRU’s hackers that imitate a Microsoft product or service.  The company has seized over 100 domains so far.Experts caution that Russia’s hackers have always cast a wide net, and there’s no way to tell what their motives are in revisiting old haunts now. It may be pure intelligence gathering, or the opening salvo of a 2020 election interference campaign.“We don't know whether they are ultimately looking to compromise targets for influence operations, internal intelligence uses, or both,” said Ehmke.Either way, Russia likely views its 2016 efforts as a success, and is certain to try for an encore. “I think you should absolutely anticipate a very vocal Russian interference in the 2020 elections,” said Johnston.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines

Sean Gallup/GettyThe Russian intelligence agency behind 2016’s election attacks is training its sights on billionaire financier George Soros, The Daily Beast has learned. The move comes hot on the heels of a surge in U.S.-focused hacking by Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate with similarities to 2016 in targeting and methodology. Laura Silber, chief communications officer for Soros’ Open Society Foundations, confirmed the hack attempt, but couldn’t provide additional details over the weekend. “We were aware of an attack,” Silber told the Daily Beast.Last month Microsoft quietly seized a new batch of 10 deceptive domain names the company says were set up by the hackers known as Fancy Bear,  the group intelligence officials and independent analysts have long attributed to Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate, the GRU. Those web addresses imitate genuine domains used for Microsoft services like Sharepoint, an unmistakable sign that they were intended for use in phishing attacks, in which a victim is tricked into typing their password into a fake login page. Mueller Finally Solves Mysteries About Russia’s ‘Fancy Bear’ HackersOne domain targets a Singapore-based investment firm, and another references the Berlin anti-corruption organization Transparency International, which Russia has targeted before. Others are generic or ambiguous in their targeting.  But one seized domain, soros-my-sharepoint[.]com, jumps out as a clear reference to Soros, a past GRU target from Russia’s 2016 election interference.  An additional four phishing domains registered in the same time frame appear to target Soros’ Open Society Foundations, said Kyle Ehmke, an intelligence researcher at the Arlington, Virginia-based cybersecurity firm ThreatConnect.  Those domains haven’t been seized and ThreatConnect hasn’t found enough evidence to definitively link them to the Russian hackers, said Ehmke. The Kremlin’s targeting of Soros and his organization carries echoes of 2016, when the GRU dumped 2,500 files stolen from the Open Society Foundations for the debut of “DC Leaks”, the fake leak site the spies created for their 2016 election interference campaign. “SOROS INTERNAL FILES – BIG DATA”, the site announced at the time.Some of the stolen files were reportedly altered to create the appearance that Soros was secretly financing Russian opposition candidates, making the leak politically useful to Vladmir Putin. More importantly, the Soros dump earned DC Leaks instant credibility in American right-wing circles, where the 88-year-old Hungarian-American philanthropist plays the role of villainous global puppet-master in countless conspiracy theories. Russia’s Internet Research Agency—the so-called “troll farm, later indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller—pushed the same trope on its Facebook and Instagram feeds in the run-up to election day. One meme featured a close-up of Soros against a backdrop of anti-Trump picketers. “No lives matter for those who sponsoring [sic] anti Trump protests,” the caption read. Another imagined Soros confronting the late Senator John McCain. “Hey Johnny, I’m paying you a fortune. I don’t care how much cancer you have, get back to DC and backstab Trump.”The Soros targeting comes in the wave of what one expert describes as a fresh wave of Fancy Bear attempts against political nonprofits in the U.S. that ran from last December to March or April of this year, using similar tactics to the mass phishing campaign that famously ensnared Hillary Clinton’s campaign chief in 2016. “It’s a similar type of activity to what hit Podesta,” said Robert Johnston, the former Marine Corp captain who investigated the 2016 DNC breach, and now heads the financial cybersecurity firm Adlumin. “These were against political organizations and NGOs. The FBI has reached out to of bunch of them.”Putin’s Hackers Now Under Attack—From MicrosoftIn 2016 Microsoft sued Fancy Bear in federal court in Virginia and won, unopposed, an injunction allowing the company to seize any web addresses registered by the GRU’s hackers that imitate a Microsoft product or service.  The company has seized over 100 domains so far.Experts caution that Russia’s hackers have always cast a wide net, and there’s no way to tell what their motives are in revisiting old haunts now. It may be pure intelligence gathering, or the opening salvo of a 2020 election interference campaign.“We don't know whether they are ultimately looking to compromise targets for influence operations, internal intelligence uses, or both,” said Ehmke.Either way, Russia likely views its 2016 efforts as a success, and is certain to try for an encore. “I think you should absolutely anticipate a very vocal Russian interference in the 2020 elections,” said Johnston.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

July 15, 2019 at 10:21AM via IFTTT

[chalabrun]

I. ( Basic Information. )

Full Name: Marya Vladmirova Constantinova

Nickname(s): Mary, Maria

Aliases: Maria Siegel, Mary Blake

Age: 30-35 

Date of Birth: September 27th, 1883

Species: Human, distant Isu

Ethnicity: Uzbek & Ukrainian/Volga Tatar

Nationality: Russian

Gender: Cisfemale

Pronouns: She/her

Orientation: Demiromantic, demisexual

Political Affiliation: Liberal

Religion: Russian Orthodox

Language(s) Spoken: Russian, Ukrainian, Yiddish, English, Turkish

2. ( Physical. )

Hair Color: Black, worn long; cut off later in life

Eye Color: Dark brown

Height: 5′11″

Weight: 150 lbs

Build: Curvy mesomorph

Tattoos: N/A

Piercings: Ear buds pierced once each

Clothing Style: Due to being middle class, she wears clothing appropriate to her time and class, but often employs disguises depending on who she is pretending to be and what alias, such as a Russian noblewoman to infiltrate Rasputin’s inner circle. Otherwise, for her assassin garb, she wears long, fur-lined military-style men’s frock coat with a fur-trimmed hood, insulated trousers and moose-skin chaps, insulated combat boots, and a thick wool tunic for a shirt. She wears elbow-high, thick suede gloves and a deerstalker hat paired with her hood.

3. ( Health. )

Physical Ailments: None

Neurological Conditions: High-functioning Autism

Allergies: Peanuts

Addictions: N/A

Drug Use: N/A

Alcohol Use: N/A

4. ( Occupational. )

Brotherhood: Russian Brotherhood

Mentor: Master Alexei Petrovich Ivanov

Rank: Rank 5 Disciple / Assassin, First Rank

Induction: December 1890

Equipment: Firearms, a Prussian sabre

Specializations: Assassination & espionage

5. ( Abilities. )

Free-running

Assassination

Espionage

Reconnaissance

Escape Artist

Swordsmanship

Gunmanship

Eagle Vision

Disguise

6. ( Quirks and Aspirations. )

Goals: To avert the crisis that Rasputin is brewing in Russia

Fears: That she will fail the Brotherhood and it will fall prey to the Templars

Hobbies: Hunting, knitting, swordsmanship, equestrianism, self-study, reading

Habits: N/A

8. ( Relationships. )

Father: Vladmir Grigorvich Yefimov

Mother: Hana Olganova Constantinov

Sibling(s): N/A

Children: TBA

Spouse: TBA

Pet(s): TBA

9. ( Personality and Astrological. )

Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius

Temperament: Sanguine

Moral Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Primary Vice: Wrath

Primary Virtue: Justice

Element: Water