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sineala · 3 years ago

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Tony Stark and Arthuriana

Coming to you by special request, a very long post about 616 Tony's interest in Arthuriana, with a focus on all of Tony's run-ins with Morgan le Fay!

I feel like I should disclaim the extent of my knowledge here, which is that I still haven't managed to read anywhere near every issue of Iron Man -- at least, not yet, anyway -- so I'm just going by the things I know I've read, and Morgan le Fay's Marvel wiki entry is frustratingly under-cited, so it's very possible I've missed something relevant, but I'm pretty sure I've got the big stuff down. My other disclaimer here is that I'm not as big an Arthurian nerd as Tony is, which is to say that most of my familiarity comes from modern retellings -- T. H. White's The Once and Future King, Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave, Rosemary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset -- and not so much the usual classic sources on the Matter of Britain, though I've read bits and pieces of them.

(This is because I wanted to read versions of them that were as close to the original as possible but so far have not ended up finishing any of them because, well, that's hard. So I've never read the Mabinogion because I do not know Welsh. I've got the Norton Critical Edition of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, which is probably the best student edition if you're looking for something without modernized spellings, as I was. I've also got -- well, okay, it's my wife's but I'm borrowing it -- a relatively recent Boydell & Brewer edition (ed. Reeve, tr. Wright) of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), which is, you guessed it, in Latin with a facing English translation. I haven't gotten very far in it because, in case you didn't know this about Latin texts, the beginning is pretty much always the hardest, so I gave up and read some Plautus adaptations instead. Anyway, if for some reason you too want to read Geoffrey of Monmouth in the original Latin I'd recommend that one, but I can't recommend any particular English translations because I've never read one by itself. I bet you didn't think you'd be getting Latin prose recommendations in this post. I mean, maybe you did; it is me, after all.)

Okay. Right. King Arthur. Here we go.

We've got:

Flashbacks to Tony's childhood in late Iron Man volume 1

A brief discussion of Morgan's origin story and Avengers #187

Iron Man vol 1 #149-150: Doomquest

What If vol 1 #33: What if Iron Man was trapped in the time of King Arthur?

Iron Man vol 1 #249-250: Recurring Knightmare

Iron Man: Legacy of Doom #1-4

Avengers vol 3 #1-4: The Morgan Conquest

Civil War: The Confession

Mighty Avengers vol 1 #9-11: Time Is On No One's Side

In terms of universe-internal chronology, we know from Iron Man #287, from 1992, that Tony has been a fan of King Arthur since childhood. This is an issue of a fandom-favorite arc which features Tony having a lot of childhood flashbacks, including the famous "Stark men are made of iron" line (in #286) that for some reason MCU fandom decided it loved; I mean, seriously, I've seen that quoted in way more MCU fic than 616 fic. But slightly later, in #287, we get an entire page devoted to Tony's love of King Arthur.

The narration reads: "Over the next few years, I learned as my father intended. Discipline of body. Strength of character. But in what free time I was allowed, I worked my way through the school's library. At thirteen, I discovered Mallory [sic], who showed me a whole new world. A world of dedication to a cause greater than oneself. Of chivalry and honor. And the fantastic deeds -- of armored heroes."

The art shows Tony as a child sitting under a tree, reading a book labeled Mort D'Arthur by Mallory [sic] -- no, don't ask me why nobody at Marvel checked how to spell either the name of the book or its author -- and daydreaming of King Arthur, the Sword in the Stone, knights, et cetera. Just in case you somehow missed the extremely blatant hint that we are meant to understand that Tony's knight obsession heavily influenced him becoming Iron Man as an adult, we see one of his armors mixed in with all the drawings of knights. So, yes, canonically Tony is Iron Man at least partly because he's a giant King Arthur nerd, which I think is so very sweet. I love him. He's such a dork!

(This issue is currently in print in the Iron Man Epic Collection War Machine, should you need your own copy.)

This isn't actually the only reference to Tony as a King Arthur fanboy in this era of canon, either; a little later, in IM #298, we see that one of Tony's passwords is actually "Mallory." (Yeah, no, they still couldn't spell. But it's cute.)

But in terms of actual publication order, this is definitely not the first time we have seen in canon that Tony is into Arthuriana, as I'm sure you all know. I would assume, in fact, that giving Tony a childhood interest in Arthuriana is because Doomquest is one of the most beloved Iron Man story arcs of all time, and that all started at least a decade before IM #287 here was published.

The villain of Doomquest -- the one who isn't Doctor Doom, at least -- is Morgan le Fay. Yes, that Morgan le Fay. Yes, Arthur's evil half-sister Morgan le Fay. Yes, all of this King Arthur stuff is canonically real history on Earth-616. Morgan's first appearance in Marvel, per the wiki, was in Black Knight #1 (1955), which I have not read, and judging by the summary I feel like this is probably just supposed to be a straight-up comic retelling of Arthurian legends for kids; I don't think Marvel really had the whole Marvel Universe in mind as a concept in 1955, so I'm not sure this was meant to connect to anything else. I feel like this is another one of those instances of Marvel discovering that they can write comics about characters in the public domain for free -- like, I'm pretty sure that's how we also ended up with, like, Norse, Greek, and Roman mythology wedged into 616.

As far as I can tell from the wiki, the first time Morgan tangled with the Avengers (or indeed the larger 616 universe) in any way actually predated Doomquest -- it was in an early arc in Spider-Woman (#2-6) and then Avengers #187, which came out in 1979, actually right when Demon in a Bottle was happening over in Iron Man comics. If you read #187, Iron Man is not in it because he's off the team due to his drinking problem and also his accidentally murdering the Carnelian ambassador problem. So Wonder Man's filling in instead. This issue is part of Michelinie's rather sporadic Avengers run, which makes sense, I guess, considering where we see Morgan next.

Anyway, Avengers #187 is the classic issue where Wanda is possessed by Chthon, but what you may not remember from Chthon's backstory (I sure didn't!) is that he was summoned by Morgan le Fay because she was the first person who tried to wield the Darkhold to summon him. As you can imagine, this did not work out especially well for her and her followers and they had to seal Chthon away in Wundagore Mountain, which was where Wanda found him. (The Spider-Woman stuff is only slightly earlier and also appears to be about Morgan and the Darkhold; the Darkhold is not one of the areas of 616 canon I am especially conversant with, alas. It's on my to-read list.)

Doomquest, as you probably know, was a classic Iron Man two-parter in Layton & Michelinie's first Iron Man run that set up Tony and Doom as rivals; Doomquest itself was IM #149-150, in 1981, and then in their second IM run they came back and did a sequel in 1989, Recurring Knightmare (IM #249-250), and then the much later four-part sequel to that was the 2008 miniseries Iron Man: Legacy of Doom, which was also by Layton & Michelinie but generally does not seem to be as popular as the first two parts. They've all been reprinted, if you're looking for copies; I have a Doomquest hardcover that collects the first four issues and then a separate Legacy of Doom hardcover. Currently in the Iron Man Epic Collection line there's a volume called Doom, which confusingly only collects the 249-250 part of the storyline (as well as surrounding issues), because for some reason the first Layton & Michelinie run isn't in Epics yet but the second one is. So the beginning of Doomquest isn't currently in print, as far as I can tell. I'm sure you can find it anyway.

So what's Doomquest about? Okay, so you remember how Doctor Doom's mother's soul is stuck in hell for all eternity? Well, Doom's obviously interested in getting her back, and the strategy he has embarked on is to try to team up with other powerful magicians who can help him out, and he thinks Morgan le Fay would be a good choice, for, uh, his quest. Doom's quest. A Doomquest, if you will. (If you've ever read Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment, you're familiar with the part where he later ends up waylaying Strange for this and they go to hell together. And if you haven't read Triumph & Torment, you really should, because it's amazing.)

So Doom is off to his time machine to go team up with Morgan le Fay and Tony thinks Doom is up to something -- Doom has been stealing components for his time machine from a lot of people, including Tony -- and he follows him and it turns out one of Doom's lackeys has a grudge and wants to trap Doom in the past forever, and Tony gets caught up in it. Now they're both in Camelot. Surprise! #149 is actually all setup; they don't get to Camelot until #150.

IM #150 begins with Doom and Tony thrown back into the past; there's a fandom-famous splash page of them locked in combat, only to realize that they have found themselves in Camelot.

They are then discovered by knights; Doom would very much like to attack them, but Tony, who naturally would be happy to LARP Camelot forever, persuades him to play nice. Also Doom thinks Iron Man is only Tony's bodyguard so he keeps referring to him as "lackey," much to Tony's annoyance. Somehow everyone thinks they're sorcerers. Can't imagine why. The knights take them to meet King Arthur himself, and Tony has clearly had his introduction all ready to go, as he introduces himself in a timeline-appropriate manner, says he's here to apprehend Doom, and demonstrates his "magic" by levitating Arthur's throne. Doom's response is essentially "I'm the king of Latveria," which is, y'know, also valid. So they're guests at Camelot for the night while Arthur figures out what to do with them.

We then have a page devoted to Tony alone in his room, musing sadly about how alien he feels, how he doesn't know if he'll ever get home, how he could never fit in here without his beloved technology. Then a Sexy Lady shows up to keep him company for the night, and he decides maybe it's not all bad. Thanks, Marvel. I guess they can't all be winners.

Doom is using his evening much more productively; he compels one of the servants to tell him where Morgan's castle is, because he's still interested in having that team-up. Then he jets off. Literally. He has a jetpack.

The next morning Arthur's like "one of you is still here and one of you has punched a hole through the castle wall and flown off to join Morgan so I guess I know which of you is more trustworthy." He then explains to Tony who Morgan is, because Tony professes ignorance, because clearly we had not yet retconned in Tony's love of Arthuriana. Tony offers to go fight Doom and Morgan with Arthur; meanwhile, Morgan and Doom have teamed up and Morgan has offered to help get Doom's mother out of hell if he commands her undead armies against Arthur because for Reasons she can't command them herself anymore. So that's a thing that happens.

So, yes, it's Tony and Arthur versus Doom and Morgan. Fight fight fight!

Tony tries Doom first but then decides to hunt Morgan down, and in the ensuing fight we get what I think is Tony's first ever "I hate magic," a complaint that we all know he still makes even to this day.

Anyway, Tony freezes a dragon with Freon (mmm, technology) and Morgan gets upset and disappears, so the battle comes to an end, and of course Doom is extremely mad at Tony because he blames Tony for Morgan not sticking around to save Doom's mom, because I guess Doom trusted her to keep her word? Weird. (Like I said, for the next chapter of Doom saving his mother, go read Triumph & Torment.)

Doom says if he and Tony work together, the components in both of their armors can send them both home. So Tony has to trust Doom. Which he does, because he really has no other choice. They build a time machine and Tony makes Doom agree to a 24-hour truce when they get back, so they can both get home. So it all works out okay, and they end up in the present, and Doom tells him, ominously, that they will meet again. Okay, then. That concludes the original Doomquest. It's fun! You can see why fandom likes it.

So that's all well and good, but you might have noticed that Tony's ability to get home hinged on Doom actually being trustworthy. And Doom was. But what if Doom hadn't been? What if he'd just stranded Tony in Camelot forever As you may have surmised from the form of that question, that is in fact a question Marvel asked themselves, because, yes, there's a What If about this! What If v1 #33 is "What if Iron Man was trapped in the time of King Arthur?"

The divergence point from canon, as you can probably guess, is the very end of Doomquest. Instead of Doom bringing Tony home, he deceives him and leaves him in Camelot. And since Tony cannibalized a lot of the tech from his armor to make the time machine, he doesn't have a way to go home.

This is not a story where Tony comes up with a way to go home after all. He really doesn't get to go home. But instead of drowning his sorrows in mead -- because, remember, Demon in a Bottle has already happened and Tony is sober now -- he decides he might as well just play the hand he's dealt. So with what's left of his armor, he defeats some enemies that Morgan rounds up to send against Camelot. And for his services, he's knighted. He is now Sir Anthony.

Tony acknowledges that he is both living the dream and would also like very, very much to go home.

He does end up having some fun in Camelot; it's not all miserable. But he obviously doesn't want to be there.

So if you're at all familiar with King Arthur, you know how this goes, right? Arthur fights Mordred and Mordred kills him. And that does happen in this version. Except Tony is right there, and with his dying words, Arthur asks Tony to rule Camelot... and Tony agrees.

So, yes, Tony Stark becomes king of the Britons after Arthur's death and he never goes home again. The end. Man, I love What Ifs.

Heading back to main 616 continuity, there is still more of this arc to go. The original Doomquest was only two issues, yes, but it was popular enough that Layton & Michelinie did a sequel a hundred issues later, in their second run of Iron Man, and that's Iron Man #249-250, Recurring Knightmare. (In the intervening issues were Denny O'Neil's IM run, specifically the second drinking arc (#160-200), and then Layton & Michelinie came back and most famously gave us Armor Wars (#225-232). I would have to say that Armor Wars is definitely the standout fandom-favorite arc of their second IM run; for their first one, I think a lot of people would have a hard time choosing between Doomquest and Demon.) But anyway, yes. Recurring Knightmare.

Recurring Knightmare is... well, the best way I can describe it is "a trip." It is definitely a sequel to Doomquest, and it is also definitely not a sequel you would ever have expected to see for Doomquest.

Much like #149, #249 is pretty much just setup. Fun setup, but the big action is in the next issue. We open with Doom in Latveria, on his throne, pondering which of his servants he should have disintegrated. Anyway, he's just hanging out there when a mysterious object appears. In California, Tony is suited up and entertaining the crowd at a mall opening when the same object also appears! He takes it to his lab. Please note that this is after the Kathy Dare incident, so Tony is still recovering and is walking with a cane. Doom sees on the news that Iron Man has found the same object, which cannot be carbon-dated, and he shows up at Tony's house. He criticizes Tony's taste in art.

Anyway, Doom basically orders Tony to work with him. Tony refuses, and then Doom sends some robots to attempt to steal Tony's version of the object because he thinks if he has them both he will be powerful. Doom manages to steal it, and when he puts the pieces together, both he and Tony disappear.

So where do they go, you might ask? Camelot?

Not exactly. The future! There is a great callback to the Doomquest splash page.

It turns out they are in London in 2093. Merlin brought them there. Tony still hates magic. And in the future, King Arthur is still there, except he is now a child, because he has been reborn. But he does remember Tony from Doomquest, at which point Tony kneels. Doom, of course, is not impressed. He asks why they have been brought to the future.

The answer is that things are going wrong in the future. If you do not personally remember United States politics in the 1980s, I need you to google the words "Strategic Defense Initiative" right now. I'll wait.

Back with me? Okay, so this is a future where Reagan's Star Wars program actually happened the way he wanted it to, and the satellites are still hanging around the Earth in the future and messing everything up, and Arthur and Merlin need Tony and Doom's help to stop them. Doom once again flies away with his jetpack, of course.

Tony is game to help, but he's not in an armor that can stay in space for long. This is when Merlin takes him and Arthur to the mall and Tony manages to get everything to upgrade his armor at Radio Shack. You see what I meant about this issue being weird.

Tony is out in space trying to disarm the SDI platform, which is where he runs into his future descendant, Andros Stark, who is in armor you will probably recognize from Iron Man 2020. He is referred to as "the resurrected spawn of Iron Man 2020" so I assume he's actually directly related to Arno rather than a direct descendant of Tony; Wiki confirms that Arno is his grandfather. This is all from way before Arno was contemporaneous with Tony in canon. Anyway, he's fighting Tony.

Oh, by the way, Future Doom exists. Future Doom would like to rule this future Earth and for some reason Andros would like to help him. Meanwhile, Present Doom finds out from Merlin that he can't leave except by magic and he can't leave without Tony, so he is reluctantly on Tony's side.

They need help from the Lady of the Lake, except the lake has been paved over and is now a parking lot. Merlin makes the lake come back and then of course they get Excalibur. Arthur is a kid, so he can't wield a longsword; Doom assumes he's going to take it because he is basically a king, and he's pretty grumpy when the sword picks Tony. Tony then uses Excalibur to destroy the space lasers, and I bet that is a sentence you never thought you would read. It's pretty cool. Tony concludes that magic has its good points. Tony stops Andros and Doom stops, uh, himself, and the world is saved and they get to go home. Also, Doom finds out Tony is Iron Man, but when Merlin sends them back he conveniently erases their memories, so neither of them remember anything about this and Tony's secret is still safe. And that's the sequel to Doomquest.

And if you think that's weird, wait until you see Legacy of Doom.

Iron Man: Legacy of Doom is a four-issue miniseries from 2008, also by Layton and Michelinie. Even though it's from 2008, it's set during a much more classic time in Iron Man, continuing on from where we left off in this Doomquest saga. We start with a framing story in 2008. Tony, who has Extremis now, is busy scrapping some of his older armors and reviewing his logs when he suddenly remembers that there was a whole thing with Doom that happened that he seems to have forgotten about until right now. So the whole thing is narrated by Tony in flashback.

Tony's in space fixing a satellite when a hologram of Doom shows up and summons him to Latveria. It's not really clear why Doom needs Tony's help in particular here, but Doom tells Tony that he's discovered that Mephisto would like to bring about the end of the world, which Doom finds, and I quote, "presumptive." So Doom has his Time Cube, and with it he takes Tony to hell.

(Yes, I promise this is relevant to Doomquest. There will be some Arthuriana shortly.)

Doom brings Tony to Mephisto, and it turns out it's a setup! Doom trades Tony for an item he wants from Mephisto, leaves, and Tony's going to be trapped in hell forever! Oh no! (I mean, he's not. But it's quite a cliffhanger.)

At the beginning of issue #2, we find out what the Arthurian connection is, which is that we learned that after the events of Doomquest, Morgan had been granted sanctuary by Mephisto in exchange for a shard of Excalibur that she had somehow stolen. Doom still wants Morgan's help with some magic -- he doesn't mention what it is here, but he says he needs someone of Pendragon blood, and that'd be her -- so he traded Tony to Mephisto in exchange for, I'm guessing, Morgan and the Excalibur shard.

I have probably mentioned this elsewhere, but Legacy of Doom #2 is one of my favorite issues of Iron Man ever, solely because of the next scene. We return to Tony in hell. Howard Stark is also in hell, and he is now a demon, and Tony has to fight him. Mephisto brings popcorn and watches. This is the one time in canon when Tony actually confronts his father, and okay, yes, it's a fistfight in hell and Howard is a demon, but that's comics for you. Howard spends several pages insulting Tony -- specifically insulting his masculinity, but that's a whole other essay -- until he finally insults Maria too, and that's when Tony fights back, because his mother taught him to be good. Honestly if you're a Tony fan I'd recommend this issue just for that scene.

Anyway, we go back to the Doom and Morgan plot, and Morgan casts the spell Doom wanted, which was fusing the Excalibur shard with Doom's armor. Then Doom sends her back to Camelot rather than hell, because he's still mad that she never helped him get his mom out of hell like she said she would.

Tony freezes Howard with Freon -- yes, the same trick he pulled on the dragon back in Doomquest -- and tells him, "You're no father of mine." It is immensely satisfying.

(I had been going to mention that I thought it was a shame that neither canon nor fandom seems to have really engaged with this confrontation, and I know canon never believes in narrative closure but fandom sure does -- and then, anyway, it occurred to me that since the framing story of Tony remembering this is set when Tony has Extremis, there's a very good chance that he no longer remembers remembering it. Goddammit, Marvel.)

(If I got to retcon one canon thing about Tony, I think "the entirety of World's Most Wanted" is up there. I mean, okay, a lot of things are up there, but WMW is definitely on the shortlist.)

Okay. Tony has now engineered his way out of hell, and he's back with Doom in Latveria. Doom has Excalibur. Doom would very much like to fight him. While wielding Excalibur. You get the sense that this is going to be bad. Another cliffhanger!

Legacy of Doom #3 opens with Tony destroying Doom's lab to buy time and running away from Doom and Excalibur. I should probably mention that Doom still doesn't know Tony is Iron Man (anymore), so he thinks he is dealing only with Iron Man, Tony Stark's lackey. Meanwhile, some scientists at SI think there's something weird going on with space. Meanwhile meanwhile, Tony is in a forest taking a breather when a mysterious old man walks up to him.

It's Merlin! Surprise! Merlin wants Tony's help to stop Doom from doing whatever he's doing with Excalibur. The sword makes you invincible and the scabbard makes you invulnerable, so Merlin sends Tony to Scotland on a fetch quest for the scabbard. Doom has now magically sent the sword in search of the scabbard, so the sword flies away to meet it and Doom follows. Turns out the thing that's wrong with space is a thing that's going to hit Earth at the exact place Tony and Doom are. What a coincidence! So Tony and Doom get trapped in a stone circle and fight some stone warriors and then Tony ends up with the scabbard. And by "ends up with," I mean it fuses to his armor. Next issue!

Legacy of Doom #4 is when things really, really get weird. A giant demon made of eyes (???) appears, and this demon is apparently what Doom had been preparing to fight (because it's mad that Doom stole one of its spellbooks), and now he can't, because the sword and the scabbard aren't together. Thanks, Shellhead.

That's when Merlin shows up and says all is not lost. They can defeat the demon... if they put the sword into the scabbard.

"But I'm the scabbard now!" Tony says, uncomprehending.

"Yes," Merlin says. "You are."

Then Tony gets it.

So, yes, Doom has to, um, penetrate Tony. With Excalibur. I love comics. I love comics so much.

So that's a thing that happens.

And then Tony flies off and, I guess, resolves to never, ever think about any of this again.

We head back to the framing story, in which Tony, now having remembered all of this, flies to Britain, buys the land the lake is on, and paves it over, presumably so it will be there for Merlin to bring back in Iron Man #250. The end.

Whew.

Okay, yeah, I know I didn't have to summarize the whole thing, but Legacy of Doom here really is one of my favorite Iron Man miniseries. And I just want to share the love. Please read it. It's great.

But the Arthuriana fun doesn't end there! In fact, now we get an Arthurian-themed arc that actually isn't in Iron Man comics. It's in Avengers! Iron Man is involved, though.

(There is also apparently a Morgan arc in Avengers #240. I actually haven't read it. It seems to be yet another Spider-Woman arc. I get the impression that this isn't really Arthuriana other than having Morgan in it fighting Jess, though, so it doesn't seem quite as relevant. Morgan also apparently has some appearances in FF, Journey into Mystery, and Marvel Team-Up, but those seem like more of just basic villainy. Also, probably not involving Tony.)

Kurt Busiek's 1998 Avengers run, volume 3, is in large part the kind of Avengers run that is a nostalgic love letter to older comics. Heroes are heroes and villains are villains and good triumphs over evil. The Avengers all live in the mansion and are BFFs. I love it. It does assume that you are already a fan of the Avengers, because it starts out by summoning pretty much everyone who has ever been an Avenger and is available to the mansion, and that is... a lot of people. Thirty-nine, by my count. Also, when the entire team is magically whisked away, we are treated to the following narration, as Steve disappears: "And Captain America's last thought, as the world goes white around him, and he with it -- is that Iron Man would hate this."

The narration doesn't tell you why Iron Man would hate this, or how Captain America would know that Iron Man hates this. This is not explained later on. But if you have read comics -- or if you have read the above summary of Doomquest -- you know that Tony is absolutely, one hundred percent, thinking, "I hate magic." And Steve knows it.

The reference is not relevant to the plot; if you don't get it, you'll be fine. But that's what I mean when I say this is a nostalgia run. There are definitely Easter eggs for people who have read a bunch of comics. Busiek does this a whole lot in his work -- there's a reason you can buy an annotated edition of Marvels -- and, yeah, it happens here too. Just know that there will be references you're not getting, if you're new to comics.

Anyway. So Busiek's run actually starts out with an Arthurian arc, #1-4, "The Morgan Conquest." The name is a dead giveaway. Yes, Morgan le Fay is back. Again. For once, Doom is not involved.

The Avengers are all back from their sojourn on Counter-Earth after fighting Onslaught -- don't worry about it -- and mysterious things are happening. There are a lot of monster attacks. So pretty much everyone who has ever been an Avenger is summoned to the mansion, at which point we learn from Thor about some mystical artifacts that are being stolen. (They are the Norn Stones and also the Twilight Sword. That sounds like something from a Zelda game, doesn't it?) The Avengers go to try to stop this, end up in Tintagel, and then they run into Mordred. He wants to capture Wanda, presumably for Magic Reasons. Morgan le Fay casts a spell on all of them, reshaping reality. Yes, all of them. Surprise!

So now all the Avengers are living in a medieval castle and/or town; Morgan is their queen, and thanks to the power of mind-control they are all basically living in Ye Olden Times. The Avengers are all some variety of knight, except for Wanda, who is chained up in the dungeon so Morgan can steal her magic and use it to fuel all this reality-warping.

Wanda calls for help, and that snaps Steve (Yeoman America!) out of the mind control (or altered reality or whatever you want to call it) pretty fast, because Steve's always been very good at resisting mind control, and then Steve promptly goes and snaps Clint out of it, because I guess Steve is also good at inspiring people to snap out of mind control. "Oh, man!" Clint says. "Not another alternate reality! Not again!" (I assume he's referring to Counter-Earth? Maybe?)

So Steve and Clint go around reassembling the Avengers and orienting them as to reality. They get Jan and Monica easily, but then Steve insists on trying to get Tony because, I guess, he likes Tony and would really like to hang around Tony, who is half-naked and asleep in his bedroom, and certainly I am reading nothing whatsoever into this. Clint tells Steve it's not going to work. Tony has historically been fairly susceptible to mind control; it was only pretty recently at this point that he'd been doing Kang's bidding in The Crossing. But the more serious impediment is that this is Tony Stark and he would obviously like to LARP being a knight forever and ever. Tony, therefore, does not believe Steve, and throws him and Clint out of his bedroom and into the barracks.

"Iron Man's a good guy, normally," Clint says. "But he's waaay too into his whole nobleman/lord of the manor trip. That spell musta hit him right where he lives!"

Clint speaks the truth, clearly.

Anyway, they go around and manage to make pretty much every Avenger in the room other than Tony snap out, and attempt to rebel against Morgan while Tony is stil fighting them because he is Still A Knight. There's a lot of punching, because some of the Avengers still aren't free; they weren't ones Steve found.

The day is saved when Wanda manages to channel Wonder Man and break free. This gives the Avengers a fighting chance against Morgan and the Avengers are all lending Wanda their power when Tony finally snaps out of it and is on the side of good.

Then they take Morgan down, go home, and attempt to figure out which of these thirty-nine people should be on the active Avengers team. Hooray.

But that's not the end of Morgan le Fay showing up to screw around with Tony's life! There's more to come! Not much, but there is one that I know of, and at least one more memorable reference.

(I haven't read all her appearances or anything, but one of them definitely involves Tony; I can't swear that he doesn't appear in any of the other books Morgan shows up in, but it'd be a cameo for him, because I only know of one more arc that she's in in a book that Tony stars in.)

In a few more years, we have now entered the part of Marvel Comics history where Brian Michael Bendis writes all the Avengers books at the same time for, like, seven years running. It was sure A Time. There were a lot of word bubbles.

And the thing about Bendis is, Bendis looooooves Doomquest. If you're familiar with the very end of his tenure at Marvel where he made Doom be Iron Man after Tony got knocked into a coma in Civil War II, you have probably figured out already that he likes Doom. But he also likes Doomquest, specifically.

I mean, if nothing else, the giant splash page in The Confession where Maleev redrew the climactic Doomquest fight while Bendis had Tony talk about how deeply meaningful to his understanding of the world this all was -- and how it allowed him to predict Civil War -- was probably a big clue, right?

As far as I am aware, Morgan le Fay makes exactly one more appearance in Tony's life. And that's in Mighty Avengers vol 1 #9-11. Only one of those issues is named, so I'm going to assume the arc is named after it: Time Is On No One's Side.

You remember Mighty Avengers, right? The deal with the Avengers books at the time was that after Bendis exploded the mansion and made the team disband in Avengers Disassembled, the main Avengers book was no longer called just Avengers. Instead, the main Avengers book was New Avengers, and that was the only Avengers book. Then Civil War happened, Steve got killed, and New Avengers became the book about what was left of the SHRA resistance (i.e., Steve's side) after the war. So about halfway through New Avengers, Mighty Avengers starts up, and Mighty Avengers is about an extremely fucked-up and grief-stricken Tony Stark trying to run the official government-sanctioned Avengers team, with Carol's help. This is the comic with the arc where Tony turned into naked girl Ultron. You remember.

So, anyway, there's this Mighty Avengers arc where Doom is Up To Something (there are symbiotes and a satellite involved) and somehow Tony and the Avengers end up in Latveria, punching Doom. Also, by the way, Doom is visiting Morgan in the past because he likes her. The Avengers attacking his castle made him have to come back to the present, so he's kind of cranky. And he fights Tony, and in the course of the fight, his time platform explodes and sends Doom and Tony and also the Sentry to... the past.

This is one of those times where you should definitely look up the comics if possible because the way the past is visually indicated here is that it's colored with halftone dots the way you would expect old comics to be colored, although they have modern shading and color palettes. It's very charmingly retro.

So the three of them are stuck in New York in the past, and naturally they would like to leave. There's one person in this time who has a time machine and it is, of course, Reed Richards. Doom and Tony have a lot of banter in this arc; I think it's entertaining.

Sentry has to be the one to break them all into the Baxter Building because of that power he has where no one will remember him. So they do that, travel forward in time, and end up in Latveria in the present again except Doom is gone and also things are currently exploding where they are.

Doom, of course, has made a side trip to visit Morgan again and he asks her to help him build an army, because I guess this is what their relationship is like. So the rest of the Avengers are captured by what look to me like Mindless Ones and are in a cave in magic bondage, because comics. Jess comments that at least they aren't naked, because she too is remembering that memorable New Avengers trip to the Savage Land. Doom threatens Carol in some creepy sexist ways and eventually it turns out that Tony and the Sentry are fine and everyone kicks Doom's ass. Business as usual.

And the last page of the arc is Morgan alone, wondering where Doom is. So technically Morgan and Tony don't come face to face here, but I think she counts as being at least partially responsible for ruining Tony's day here. And then Secret Invasion happens and Tony has a very, very bad day.

There are a few more Morgan appearances after this, but, as I said, I don't think any of them involve Tony. She shows up in Dark Avengers, apparently, which was one of the post-Civil War Avengers titles I didn't read, and I know that recently, on the X-Men side of things, she's been in Tini Howard's Excalibur one, which I have only read a little of. No Tony there. Just a lot of Morgan and Betsy Braddock and Brian Braddock and the Otherworld.

If you are interested in Morgan's other appearances, you might like this Marvel listicle that is Morgan le Fay's six most malicious acts. I pulled some of the Darkhold backstory from their discussion, but it's not really focused on Morgan and Tony.

So there you have it! That's everything I know about Tony's love for King Arthur and every run-in I know about that he's had with Morgan le Fay! One of two terrible people in Tony's life named Morgan! Actually, I don't think we've seen Morgan Stark in a while. I wonder if he's alive. There should be a Morgan & Morgan team-up. I should probably stop typing and post this.

The tl;dr point is that you should all read Doomquest and its sequels, especially Legacy of Doom. They're great!

#posts i actually wrote

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tlanwen · 4 years ago

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Every time wenzhou should have (or could have) kissed in the entirety of Word of Honor (2021)

a few disclaimers- 1; MEGA spoilers for the whole entire show. yes, all the way up to episode 36. 2; we have gotten so so many sweet moments in this drama and there is no doubt in my mind that the production crew did their absolute damnedest to give us a genuine love story with all the constraints that were set on them. they did a fucking incredible job and the lengths they went to to embody wenzhou’s love and bond on screen is commendable to say the least. and i owe them my life. However i just think said sweet scenes just scream ok now kiss at very specific moments, and i need to get it out of my system. Long ass fucking post under cut!

are you strapped in. ok let’s go

The rooftop scene (Episode 9)

earlier in this ep we get the legendary “the world isn’t important, what’s important is finding your soulmate” monologue, perfect setup leading up to their rooftop drinking date. the “why won’t you ask me why i’m happy?”// “i know you’ll tell me, in your own time” exchange??? a killer. a kiss would fit in perfectly, ideally right after zzs shushes wkx (and wkx shuts his mouth. for once). quite literally this moment is Made for a first kiss.

“You look like a worried mother“ // drinking by the road (Episode 12)

man, this episode. I can’t decide which moment is more suitable (and both happen in busy streets so that rains a little on our emotional parade), but at this point we’ve got acknowledgement on both sides that they’re willing to accept each other as the people they truly are, and they’ve rescued their surrogate son from impending doom twice. but i am leaning towards the latter scene, esp bc of the way zzs leans into wkx while they’re talking. he hasn’t done that much up until now. kiss kiss.

Talking about disguises & mustaches (and getting on one’s knees?¿) (Episode 13)

this scene is so fucking sugary and light, they’re just teasing back and forth (zzs! teasing wkx! that’s new!). we also get the severely cute “wait, did you just admit that my face is outstanding?” line. just kiss already.

Rain divorce (Episode 14)

angst? did someone say, pain? if this were a regular boring romance flick, this is were the tragedy-ridden kiss would go. wkx is watching the future he planned for both of them crumble right in front of him, trying to come to terms with the fact that zzs is dying (and that he did it to himself, on purpose.), and zzs is just kind of going thru it. the rain really would add to the drama of it all, like Right after the “fortunately, fortunately...” line. punctuate it with a kiss. would also add to the irony of wkx saying he hasn’t fallen yet, and yet here he is, a mess, bc of this information he wasn’t ready to receive (thanks ye baiyi).

3rd child rescue and cave chats (Episode 16)

we’ve had the angst, we have the begrudging /i’m mad at you and i love you but i dont like you right now/ moments, and in comes more rain and wkx monologuing. zzs saying that wkx isn’t evil and that he has a kind heart is exactly what he needed to hear. and i just think he should’ve finished it with a kiss <3

Drunk mess wkx (Episode 17)

why is this man allowed to drink. this is all so much take your fucking pick. after the “my lips are the perfect size, right A-xu?” comment, the ”does it hurt?” coupled with wkx’s hand reaching out to zzs’ chest. the “i’m just scared. could you not die on me?”?? zzs tucking in a very drunk and sad man and saying “one day you’ll open up your heart to me, until i achieve it even god can’t tear me away from you” just............. pick a line any line.

Tumbling out of the cave under Longyuan Cabinet (Episode 18)

specifically in that birds-eye shot where it slowly pans over to their disheveled faces after the romcom-esque tumbling out of the tunnel (that was framed oh so romantically in the episode trailer. complete with romantic music). like are you Kidding me.

((i’m skipping ep 19-21. i think some people would say at any point during the cave scenes/the shidi/shixiong reveal would also be fair game, but in my opinion it’s far too much of an emotionally volatile situation so i can’t see any kiss potential. the hand holding and comforting was much appreciated tho))

Wkx sneaking up on his deep-in-thoughts husband (Episode 22)

secluded lake? check. all alone? check. gentle smiles in a tense moment? we got a bingo. at this point zzs knows who wkx actually is And respects his decision to go by his own chosen name as a separate entity from the healer sect he came from (for his own personal, maybe misguided reasons). and i just think that *screams*

Waking up from the stress induced sleep (thru the power of hand holding?) (Episode 23)

this whole thing was so much, and the way the scene is framed to look like it was zzs’ touch that literally woke up wkx, And the way he looks at him after he wakes up. yea. kiss methinks.

Literally the entirety of the night time venting/healing/spilling ur guts out scene (Episode 24)

Ok i’m about to contradict myself here, i said im not going over ep 19-21 because Volatile Emotions, and this scene is also very viscerally emotional and intense but oh my God the intimacy! the openness! i had to look away multiple times during this scene bc it really seems like a private moment we shouldn’t be privy to. i cannot in good conscience say that, had wkx not kind of stormed out at the very end, a kiss would be guaranteed. whether to soothe zzs after so much crying or whatever other reason.

Painting restoration (also episode 24)

wkx’s second love language is acts of service and this episode is all the evidence i need to make that statement. we do get a very cute heartfelt family hug in here and wow cute but im sorry i cannot let go of the fact that there should have been a kiss here. i really hate inserting photos in textposts but i have to bc i need everyone to understand how much zzs looks like he wants to devour wkx whole after he realizes what he’s doing

look at it. he’s down bad.

More drinking! yay! (Episode 25)

just soulmates drinking and talking in the hush of night after their kid has been put to bed. always a great way to start an episode. they’ve settled into 4 seasons manor at this point and it doesn’t look like they’re going anywhere, they just look so comfortable in these shots. if u dropped a quick peck on the cheek in there i wouldn’t blink twice.

Narrow escape from dying with (and for) each other, courtesy of ye baiyi (Episode 27)

at this point most secrets are out of the bag, they see each other fully and were about to be killed 4 seconds ago. we’ve got the perfect setup, zzs already grabbed wkx by the face, the only thing between them and a kiss was the looming threat of sepsis.

speaking of episode 27, The spice grinding scene (have i mentioned i fucking love episode 27)

just two soulmates grinding spices at night. this scene is so lighthearted and cute, after a whole episode of emotional turmoil and cementing how emotionally vulnerable they're willing to be/how dedicated they are to respecting each others’ boundaries while still supporting each other, a kiss would fit in for sure.

Literally any point in the new years celebration (Episode 28)

waaAAAAA family decorating, bickering, and dinners. if i was writing it in i would put it right after chengling runs off to watch the fireworks, leaving wenzhou alone with each other. but anything goes really, they’re in their element all episode.

Knight in shining (red) armor rescue (Episode 30)

first of all- fuck prince jin, second of all, THIS SCENE ARE YOU KIDDING ME. literally the damsel in distress getting rescued. complete with a horseback ride! and wkx kneeling in front of zzs and acknowledging him as his master (and therefore himself as part of the sect again!!!!). so many emotions. i dont even care if they’re in front of all their new disciples. a romantic kiss is necessary. it would be so easy for zzs to take the hand he’s patting wkx with and use it to drag him up into a kiss.

Hairpin scene (Episode 30)

i’m not even gonna say anything. these bitches engaged on screen. good for them

“Save it, you“ (Episode 32)

god. just god. zzs gently floating down to wkx, thinking he’s gonna throw his life away in anger Again and getting so very in his face. and saying That. with That smile. what else is an option. there is no other option. just kiss.

“Senior, please let me handle this“ (Episode 33)

i am willingly ignoring how fucking painful this scene is if you think about it for longer than 3 seconds. wkx isn’t dead! and the asshole forgot to tell his beloved to not do anything stupid while he was away! oopsie! zzs is a)very mad, b)very relieved, c)is about to experience a lifetime’s worth of regret in about 3 minutes. but first thing’s first, the love of his life isn’t dead. that deserves a kiss.

Drunk wkx 2: painful boogaloo (Episode 34)

these episodes are so painful to re-watch lol. wkx clinging to zzs’ waist and talking about how easy it is to be a good happy person when he’s around him. they probably couldn’t manage a proper kiss between the alcohol in wkx and the Pain in zzs, but a gentle forehead kiss would fit in well while zzs is softly petting wkx’s head (still resting on his chest. that’s an important detail).

Wedding aftermath (Episode 35)

i’m so distraught. anyways. you can’t tell me zzs was going to sulk away to die alone like some sort of tragic housecat while wkx is recuperating after the battle (and after losing the second most important person in his life) without a kiss. not without giving him the gentlest of forehead kisses.

Literally at any point in episode 36

i’m watching this tomorrow but i don’t need to. i don’t care. we know what happens. we know how it ends. if you’re about to give up your life to keep your soulmate alive you best preface it with the kiss of a lifetime.

#shan he ling #word of honor #shl #wenzhou #woh #meta??? this isn't meta its just a faux-systematic review of most significant moments in the show by a very very unstable person #enjoy <3 #im NOT FUCKING READY FOR TOMORROW. IM NOT #I WANT OUT THIS WAS A MISTAKE.#is this the stupidest most unnecessary thing i've ever written? yes

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thebiasrekkers · 4 years ago

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Make It Right [BTS Mafia AU]

Plot: “It’s always darkest before the dawn…” It’s a dog-eat-dog world in Seoul, South Korea. One has to dwell in the shadows in order to reach for the light. What are you willing to sacrifice in order to feel the sunlight on your face? What will it take to drag you back into darkness? How long will the journey be to make it right?

Rating: NC-17 // NSFW

Pairings: Jin x OC | Taehyung/Hoseok x OC | Yoongi/Jungkook x OC

Warnings: Graphic Violence (bloody violence), Heavy Language, Angst, Slow Burn, Smut

Previous Chapters: Prologue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55

Links: FAQ || BTS Masterlist || Admin E’s AO3 || Admin E’s WP || [ REQUESTS ARE OPEN ]

Word Count: 3,239

Tag List: @prisczero, @pinkpjmin, @btsaudge, @flowerwrites06, @unoriginal-username15432, @halussali, @shrimpmsg, @ggukkieland

AN: I need to quit fooling you people. Because the trust issues are going to get worse. Maybe this is a silver lining? Maybe? Yes? ...I’ll go away now.

Chapter 55: Sea

“Praying that we’ll remain in this desert till the end. Praying that this isn’t truly our reality.”

© thebiasrekkers (Admin E). All rights reserved. Reposting/modifying our work is prohibited. Translations are not allowed. Plagiarism/stealing is not tolerated by any means. Legal action will be taken in instances of theft.

Two Days Later Jeju Island – Seogwipo South Korea

When Taehyung first came to, he felt warmth blanketing his entire body. Every so often, a gentle brush of cool air passed over him. His limbs ached and it felt like a stone was being pressed against his chest. Breathing was a seemingly impossible task. When he could breathe, the sensation of phantom glass fragments scraped along the insides of his lungs. Coughing was a regular occurrence. Through said coughing fit was how he was able to pull himself back to consciousness.

For a moment, he believed he had, in fact, died. There was a part of him that even accepted it. But he wouldn’t have accepted it with a smile, of that he was most certain.

There were people waiting for him; people he would potentially be leaving behind.

The faces of his brothers and of the woman he loved yanked him from the abyss.

An old man sat next to him, moving a fan slowly over his body. Sweat seemed to cover him from head to toe and there was a large basin of ice beside him. Again, Taehyung coughed and tried to sit up. But the old man placed a hand on his shoulder, gently urging him to lie back down on the futon. What energy he managed to muster quickly slithered out of him, the weight of exhaustion overwhelming him all over again.

Had he actually died?

“Don’t make such a fuss,” said the old man.

The stranger’s skin was bronze from being out in the sun, his worn and wrinkled hands and face gave testimony to the life he lived. His hair was a salt and pepper gray, frazzled from being whipped around in the ocean breeze just outside. Despite his seemingly austere appearance and gruff tone, his dark eyes were gentle as he continued to move the fan back and forth over Taehyung’s prone form.

Taehyung squinted slowly, the light peeling in from the window almost blinding him. He tried to lift his arm to shield his eyes, but found it more difficult than he’d anticipated. Sensing his distress, the old man shifted so his small frame could block as much of the light as he could.

“Where am I?”

The question croaked from Taehyung’s throat, surprising him. Attempting to swallow, he mentally reeled at how terrible he sounded.

He heard the man scoff, a sympathetic smirk pulling at his thin lips. “My home,” he replied simply, resting the fan on his knee, “you’ve got the devil’s luck, young man.”

Taehyung tried to smile but realized it probably looked like a grimace. “You don’t know the half of it, Oroshin.”

He watched the man’s smile widen a measure. “You’re young, but I see you still have some manners.”

Again, he attempted to sit up and failed. The old man seemed to take pity on him, reaching out with his thin arms to help him. When he was up, Taehyung winced at the tight feeling around his chest. He rubbed at it gingerly as the elder pressed a cold compress to his temple. Willing himself not to shrink back at the sudden cold, his eyes wandered around the abode to serve as a distraction.

He could tell that it was the home of a local fisherman. Quaint, humble and quiet; save for the crashing of waves along what he could only assume was the beach nearby. The salt was prevalent in the air, seeping in through what cracks existed in the house. Even though he could feel the cold wind, the floor was warm beneath him.

“Did you save me?”

Dipping the cloth into the ice water, he wrung it out and pressed it back to Taehyung’s head. “The gods saved you, my boy. You were already washed up on the shore when I stumbled across you.” He watched his eyes shifting to his shoulder and Taehyung reached up to touch the dressings over his injury. “I managed to purge the toxins out of you.”

His eyes narrowed. So it was poison, he thought angrily, shifting his gaze to the space between his knees, Lee Jooheon, you son of a bitch…

Taehyung lifted his eyes to meet the old man’s. “How long have I been out?”

“Couple of days now. The worst of it passed yesterday.”

Even though he still ached all over, Taehyung quickly shifted to sit on his knees, bowing his head low to the old man. “I’m in your debt, Oroshin.”

“Nonsense. It’s human nature to help those in need.”

Taehyung raised his head. “It’s a cruel world we live in now. Your kindness is rare in it.”

“Your view of the world is too narrow, my boy.” The old man lifted the fan and smacked Taehyung’s wrist with it. “Now enough of this. Sit comfortably.”

He did as he was told, sitting with his legs crossed in a more comfortable position. “Oroshin, I hate to burden you further, but would you mind taking me into town? I need to get back to Seoul as soon as possible.”

For an uncomfortably long moment, the old man peered at Taehyung – as if gauging what his motive was. But there was only one thing on his mind. He needed to get back to his brothers and warn them of the danger that was coming. There would still be time for them to find Eden and return her to the place she belonged.

…at Jungkook’s side.

Jooheon’s words slammed through his body like a wrecking ball, causing him to visibly shudder. Taehyung couldn’t believe it now that he was lucid. How had Jungkook managed to hide such a huge secret from them all? Then again, they’d all been so busy anticipating the moves of the Jade Fangs that a lot of things could have gone amiss. Something as small as eloping could easily be overlooked.

That didn’t mean he was any less salty about it.

When I get back, he and I are gonna have a little chat…

“Well,” cut the old man’s words through his thoughts, “it’s a good thing this washed up with you then.” He reached into a nearby drawer and pulled out Taehyung’s wallet.

He bowed as he took it from him, opening to see the paper money was worthless. So were his cards. But his ID was still intact. That was the only thing that mattered. If he could prove who he was, getting money would be easy. He peered at the old man expectantly who raised his brows at him.

“I’m assuming my phone didn’t make it?” The elder shook his head and Taehyung sighed. Of course it wouldn’t have made it. That would have been the luckiest break he could get outside of being alive. “I’ll just have to buy another one.”

“Eat something and then I’ll take you to town. You can’t function on an empty stomach.”

Taehyung flashed him his best boxy smile despite the agony he continued to feel. “Thank you, Oroshin.”

After filling his stomach with three full helpings of rice, soup, and freshly caught fish, he thanked the old man profusely for his kindness. When he asked his name, the elder simply smiled and told him to come back when all his business was taken care of. Taehyung promised he would return to repay him for saving his life.

There wasn’t much time to waste. He needed to procure funds to buy a plane ticket back to Seoul. He would worry about a phone once he landed safely. Besides, Taehyung didn’t think he could handle the slew of missed calls and voicemails demanding to know of his whereabouts. He went on blind faith that everything was okay; that his brothers were able to find something out on their end since it was obvious that his own trail was a perfectly placed trap.

The flight back to Seoul was only an hour, but he felt like time crawled at an agonizingly slow pace. The time he had alone on the plane was enough to cause Taehyung to fester in his own guilt. He was angry at himself for falling for such a setup, and he was even angrier that he hadn’t seen it for what it was.

Maybe Hyungwon was right, he thought bitterly, narrowing his eyes as he stared out the window, we’ve gotten fucking soft.

But he stood by what he said. This wouldn’t have been a problem had they taken the Jade Fangs out five years ago. Sacrifices be damned. At least they could avoid the headache inducing bullshit they were suffering right now.

He replayed the scene on Dragon’s Head Cliff repeatedly. No matter how many times he thought about it, Taehyung’s conclusion was the same every single time.

…if I hadn’t dodged, whatever came at me would have hit me straight on. He frowned. They were really trying to kill me.

The thought left a bitter taste in his mouth. Curling his hands into fists on the arm rests, he closed his eyes – attempting to stave off an oncoming migraine.

They would be dealt with.

They would all be dealt with.

Taehyung wouldn’t rest until he made sure of it.

Seoul - Cheongdam; Gangnam District South Korea

As soon as he landed in Seoul, he purchased a phone at one of the stores in the airport, activating it on the spot. There were several voicemails and he rolled his eyes. He didn’t have time to listen to them. Now that Taehyung could confidently say he’d met the Reaper at the Gates of the Underworld and walked away, the only person he wanted to see was the woman carrying his child. He had to make sure that he wasn’t dreaming; still sleeping from the effects of the poison.

Taehyung needed just a little more reassurance that he wasn’t dead. That he wasn’t already in Hell.

Hailing a cab, he gave instructions for the driver to take him to Raelyn’s hospital. The woman was so stubborn, insistent on continuing to work as her belly continued to swell with the life in her. Taehyung told her constantly that she didn’t need to work anymore, especially while she was with child. But she was hellbent on having her way and who was he to deny her the freedom to do as she pleased?

He’d have been a fool to try.

Taehyung quickly paid the cab driver, thanking him for getting him to his destination so quickly. He raced through the parking lot, up the steps and just barely clipped his shoulders in his impatience in waiting for the sliding doors to open wide enough to give him entrance. One of Raelyn’s co-workers that he recognized spotted him, her expression forming into shock before melting to discomfort almost immediately. He skidded to a halt in front of her, blocking her path as she seemed to mentally prepare herself to flee.

“Eunsoo-ssi,” he huffed, attempting to catch his breath, “where’s Raelyn?”

She averted her eyes, shrinking back from him as he took a step toward her. Canting his head slightly, he couldn’t hide the confusion on his face. She’d never treated him like this before. In fact, he remembered her playfully doting on him like she would a younger brother. This sudden standoffishness seemed a little unwarranted.

“She…” Eunsoo paused, taking a breath, before lifting her face to meet his gaze. Her brows were furrowed harshly and he could swear that her eyes looked glassier than they had just a few seconds ago. “She’s at the funeral hall.”

Taehyung frowned. “Why?”

“I’m sorry, I have to finish my rounds.”

Eunsoo quickly bowed, side-stepping him to disappear around the corner to the next hall. His gaze followed her as he was left in the main lobby alone.

What the hell is going on? he thought as he made his way toward the elevators. Pressing the button to give him entrance, he pressed the button that led to the mortuary floor where funeral services were typically held. Did something happen to one of their co-workers?

It didn’t take him long to make it to the funeral hall. Various other families were dressed in their traditional mourning attire and rows of wreaths with white carnations lined the walls. White ribbons hung from them, traditional hangul printed on them with the names of the deceased. He barely took notice of them, his eyes frantically searching for any sign of Raelyn.

The weight of sorrow that filled the hall was palpable, making the uncomfortable feeling welling up in his chest almost unbearable. He couldn’t place his finger on it, but Taehyung swore that a dark cloud of dread was hanging over him. He quickly shook his head, attempting to chase the nagging voices from his mind.

This was crazy. He needed to get his head together.

Just as he took another step, he stopped as someone dashed out of one of the rooms. He blinked when he realized the woman dressed in a traditional white mourning garb was Jimin’s older sister. She covered her mouth, smothering a sob, and Taehyung could only blink when she paused just seconds before colliding into him. It seemed to take her a moment to recognize who he was, as it did him for her. Her face was puffy and swollen from all the crying she’d done.

“N-Noona,” Taehyung stammered out, an icy sensation slithering down his spine, “what are you doing here?”

Her bottom lip quivered uncontrollably, her hands reaching out to grasp at the sleeves of his jacket. “Oh, Taehyung-ah,” she choked out, curling her fingers into his arms, “Jimin-ie…he…he…”

Slowly, he craned his neck to peer at the three wreaths lining the walls just outside the room she’d vacated from. He read the names on each of the ribbons draped over the wreaths. Taehyung’s heart froze for half a second before slamming viciously against his chest.

“No way,” he murmured, looking back at Jimin’s sister, “…Noona.”

Instead of answering him, he watched her collapse to her knees – a wailing sound bursting from her. Taehyung heard his very soul shattering as he pivoted on his heels, his legs carrying him into the mourning chamber.

It was crowded, bodies shuffling around as people cried or whispered among themselves. Taehyung didn’t bother removing his shoes as he stepped up onto the small landing. He saw Raelyn out of the corner of his eye. She was the first one to spot him, making her way toward him. But instead of relishing in the comfort of her embrace, the very thing he had so desperately been seeking out since he’d woken up, Taehyung stepped just out of her reach. His eyes focused on the three portraits situated on the table where various foods and flowers were placed.

“Taehyung-ah.” Seokjin called to him, but his voice sounded muffled from the incessant buzzing in his ears. He heard him say his name again and he still couldn’t hear it well.

All he could focus on were the smiling faces of Jungkook, Eden, and Jimin looking back at him from the black frames encasing their visages.

As he took another step, he saw someone move to step in his path – blocking his view of the pictures. When he lifted his eyes, he was now staring into Hoseok’s stern face.

“Where have you been?”

Taehyung continued to stare at Hoseok, blinking slowly as his mind attempted to catch up. He opened his mouth to speak and found he couldn’t find the words.

“We thought you were dead.”

The phrase shook Taehyung; rattling his bones. He visibly flinched, took a breath, then glared up at his older brother.

“Hyung,” he finally managed to say, his voice dropping a full octave, “what is this?” Raising a hand, he pointed to the side of him and gave a wide flourish to the entire scene surrounding them. “What the fuck is this?”

A hand fell on his arm and he felt Raelyn’s swollen belly pressed against his side. She buried her face into the curve of his shoulder, suppressing a sob as she pulled him close. His body felt stiff, like he’d turned into a marble statue. This was all some joke. It had to be. There was no way that any of this was real.

“How?”

“The Jade Fangs were responsible,” cut in Seokjin.

Taehyung’s eyes narrowed. “There’s no way that—”

Yoongi sighed gently. “You told us her location, Taehyung-ah.”

It was like someone dumped a bucket of ice water over his body.

“W-What?” That was impossible. He hadn’t been able to obtain that information. “I didn’t—”

“We realize that now,” added Namjoon. When Taehyung glanced at him, he nearly hiccupped at the dark expression painted over his brother’s face. “They texted us from your phone. It was all a setup from the start.”

Again, silence filled the small space around them save for the members of Jimin’s family who came, as well as friends.

“They’re gone, Taehyung-ah.”

Twisting his face to look back at Hoseok, he noticed his other brothers crowding around him in a semicircle. It wasn’t until his vision went out of focus that Taehyung realized he was now crying.

“What?” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “What do—”

Hoseok’s face softened, his brows furrowing before he closed his eyes. “They’re gone.”

The sun slowly set over Seoul’s cityscape. Lights blinked with life in succession, illuminating the darkness. Taehyung listlessly stared out over the vast expanse while standing on the hospital’s rooftop, lips puckered out while indulging on a sucker. He didn’t remember running from the mourning chamber. He didn’t remember banging his knee on the steps as he tripped over his own feet upon his ascent.

No one chased after him. They knew better. They knew he would likely implode if they did.

Taehyung didn’t stay for the cremation process. He would have thrown himself into the flames right along with them. Selfish? Of course he was. He was man enough to admit that all he could see was red.

Pulling out his phone, he crushed the candy between his teeth. Scrolling through the numerous voicemails left by Hoseok, he stopped until he saw Jimin’s name. His thumb hovered over his name, trembling, before he pressed down on the screen.

It automatically played the message on speaker mode.

“Ya, Kim Taehyung,” came Jimin’s voice from the receiver.

Taehyung’s brows furrowed, hearing the pained chuckle that followed.

“…you son of a bitch. How could you just take off for the gates of the Underworld alone? Huh?”

His grip tightened on the phone, feeling his arm shaking from the force of his hold. There was an uncomfortable stretch of silence before he heard Jimin speak again.

“Don’t even think about stirring up a bunch of shit without me. Jungkook and I will be there soon.”

Without any warning, Taehyung fell to his knees. The phone fell with a clatter beside him as his hands gripped onto the roof’s railing. His whole body shook, his silent sobs rattling through him. The tears that streamed from his face were hot and thick. He swore he could feel his own blood leaking from his eyes.

Jungkook.

Jimin.

Eden.

They were gone.

Mercilessly ripped away from the life they more than deserved to live.

Someone had to answer for this.

Someone was going to answer for this.

“I’ll make them pay,” he growled, glaring at the landscape as he ground his teeth together, “I swear to your God, Jimin-ah…”

I’ll fucking kill them all.

6 notes · View notes

itfirmokdigital · 4 years ago

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Best Premium URL Shortener Online Free Saas Business

What about turning the main instrument you use in your online business into a lucrative business?

Don’t have the foggiest idea of what I am discussing? At that point you haven’t watched our video on the main device you should begin utilizing in your business. In this article, I will tell you the best way to set up your premium URL shortener online free and transform it into a business that can get you a huge number of dollars each month.

What Is SAAS?

Content Summary

You without a doubt are utilizing Netflix to watch films, Grammarly to address your punctuation and spelling as you are composing, or L-ink.me to abbreviate and follow your connections. These are SAAS models.

SAAS; or programming as a help, is cloud-based assistance where as opposed to downloading programming to your work area PC or business organization to run and refresh, you rather access an application by means of a web program.

We will help you assemble a similar device as L-ink.me. Use it in your own business, or even beginning a lucrative Premium URL Shortener SAAS business on the web. On the off chance that you need to likewise make a blog, check our articles here and here.

Premium URL Shortener Setup

How about we start together figuring out how to assemble our Premium URL shortener.

Necessities

What are the prerequisites required for the arrangement?

Premium URL Shortener Script

VPS server

Domain Name

Custom Theme

Getting The Premium URL Shortener Content

The content we will use in this arrangement can be purchased by anybody. It costs simply 33$ to purchase this content and begin utilizing it in your own business.

Getting An Domain Name

An area name is pivotal. As for our situation, the area name we are utilizing is l-ink.me. You need to get an area name to use for your administration.

Space names can be purchased efficiently from beneath suppliers.

NameCheap

Domain.com

GoDaddy

Getting A VPS Worker

What Is A VPS Server?

At the point when you need to distribute a PHP site or content or any web application, we do what we call “web facilitating” which just methods transferring the documents and data set into a public worker so it very well may be accessibly Online over the web.

Where we will have our administration will be on a VPS worker. It is extremely prescribed to get a committed VPS worker to profit by the best exhibition for your administration.

Where you can get a VPS? From underneath obviously.

Contabo

Hostinger

Hostgator

For our situation, we will utilize Contabo as it gives the best offer however you can pick any supplier you feel good with.

Thus, we should start.

Note: In this instructional exercise: I will utilize Contabo

So Let’s perceive how we can get a VPS worker from Contabo.

Get a VPS Server From Contabo.

1: Open Contabo Website.

Open your internet browser and explore to Contabo VPS Page.

You will see various VPS design, to begin with. You can basically begin with the least expensive choice to Install WordPress, it will be all that anyone could need.

Later on, when you develop your business, you can scale up and get all the more remarkable VPS with Higher assets.

2: Set VPS Options

On the Next Page, you should choose a few choices

In the Operating System Option, Select Ubuntu 20.04

At that point in the Administration Panel, Select LAMP

Furthermore, last choice, In the Addons, check “Singular converse DNS”

In the event that you were elevated to enter the PTR record, enter your space name, and That’s it.

Presently, Just Continue to the charging page, and affirm your request. I think different advances are basic and clear as crystal.

In like 24 hours, Contabo Team will arrangement the Server and send the subtleties to your email this way:

Guide Domain Name to your VPS Server.

All right Friend, Now we have a Domain and a VPS Server. In any case, they are not associated!

Your VPS Server can be gotten to now through the IP address that Contabo Team sent you by email. obviously, we would prefer not to get to our WordPress site through an IP! We need to utilize our space name.

So essentially, we will plan the space name to our VPS IP, so then we access the VPS and the WordPress site through both the area and the IP.

Design your DNS Records:

Just open DNS the boarding zone in your Domain Provider (Godaddy for my situation) and alter the fundamental A record this way:

have: @ focuses: YOUR SERVER IP.

Transfer The Script Files To The Server.

To begin with, download the content from codecanyon.

Presently unfasten the document you download from the webpage. At that point transfer the main.zip inside to your worker.

To transfer the documents, you need an application called WinSCP.

It is a free apparatus and you can download it from here.

Associate with Your VPS Server utilizing WinSCP, and Update the PHP Files to the worker to this way: “/var/www/html”

By and large, the documents would be zipped, so we need to remove them.

Associate with your VPS worker utilizing any SSH customer like clay. furthermore, Let’s beginning!

Simply open Putty and enter the Server IP or Name, and Press Open.

It will ask you to login, simply enter “root” as the client, at that point enter your secret key which is shipped off you by email.

Note: while composing the secret key, clay will currently show it for security reasons, however, It’s there, simply type it!

Furthermore, you are In!

We should introduce the unfasten utility utilizing the accompanying order:

sudo well-suited get introduce unfasten

Clear clay screen to make in clean utilizing the accompanying order:

clear

Change index to/var/www/html utilizing the accompanying order:

disc/var/www/html

Unfasten the “.compress” document utilizing the accompanying order:

unfasten YOUR FILENAME*.zip

*Note: the document name might be diverse for your situation, so supplant YOUR FILENAME with your record name.

Presently, Move the most recent envelope substance to the upper index so it tends to be gotten to straightforwardly – > use WinSCP

Simply duplicate all the documents inside the “YOUR FILENAME” envelope and glue them straightforwardly in html organizer.

Documents Uploaded. Done!

Make a Database

Again to Putty SSH Client and Let’s make our data set utilizing the accompanying orders.

What’s decent, is that we have MySQL introduced as of now as a component of the LAMP Stack, however, we need to make a data set and a client for our application.

To begin, sign in to the MySQL root (managerial) account by giving this order:

mysql – u root – p

You will be provoked for the root secret phrase, simply compose or glue it and press Enter.

To begin with, make a different data set that your PHP application will utilize. You can call this anything you desire, yet we will utilize TestDb (you can utilize any name you need) in this manual for keep it straightforward. Make the data set by running this order:

Make DATABASE TestDb DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;

Note: Every MySQL articulation should end in a semi-colon (;)

Then, we will make a different MySQL client account that we will utilize only to work on our new data set. Making one-work information bases and records is a smart thought from an administration and security angle. We will utilize the name DbUser in this guide. Don’t hesitate to change this on the off chance that you’d like.

We will make this record, set a secret key, and award admittance to the data set we made. We can do this by composing the accompanying order. Make sure to pick a solid secret word here for your information based client:

Make USER ‘DbUser’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘enter_a_custom_password_here’;

Award ALL ON TestDb.* TO ‘DbUser’@’localhost’;

You presently have an information base and client account, each made explicitly for Your PHP application. We need to flush the advantages so the current occurrence of MySQL thinks about the new changes we’ve made:

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Exit out of MySQL by composing:

EXIT;

Done!

Design the Premium URL Shortener

Since we have transferred the content to the worker and made the data set, the time has come to begin arranging our application.

Open any internet browser and add your space name in the location bar.

As should be obvious, we are on the top-notch URL shortener establishment page.

This will show you all the prerequisites required and what is as yet absent. Along these lines, how about we fix what is absent!

The main issue we see is the config_sample.php isn’t open. We should give the required advantages.

This record can be found in/var/www/html/incorporates/so open WinSCP and explore to the required registry.

Presently right-click on the document and set the authorization to 777 as demonstrated underneath.

Presently, we should fix the substance/envelope. Similarly, go to/var/www/html and right-click on the substance organizer and give the 777 authorizations similarly. Something more is to check the case beneath.

Presently invigorate the page and you can see that the issue has been settled. Nice.

Presently since all prerequisites are met, we can continue by squeezing this sentence. Sure!

Associate with the information base

The time has come to associate with our information base.

Simply fill in the required information for the host(localhost) dbname and the client you made with the secret phrase.

Presently make the design record.

Goodness! We have the beneath blunder.

How about we settle.

Go again to WinSCP, into/var/www/html/incorporates, and how about we rename the config_sample.php document to config.php.

Return to your internet browser, and presto, the information base is effectively imported!

From that point forward, simply enter your administrator subtleties and proceed.

At that point erase install.php.

Related Post: What is web hosting & How Is It Important In the year 2021

Furthermore, magnificent! Our application is introduced and is fit to be utilized.

To change your presentation page, you can utilize another topic. In our administration l-ink.me, we are utilizing a topic. You can look at it, yet this is absolutely discretionary.

We have something final to fix. Attempt to sign in to your application and you will get a mistake.

To fix this, duplicate beneath square to/and so forth/apache2/destinations empowered/000-default.conf record.

Open 000-default.conf then reorder the substance underneath into the record and save.

You can perceive how we did this in the underneath picture.

After this, simply restart the apache administration utilizing clay.

sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

Presently return to the site and invigorate the page. Attempt to sign in. Wonderful! Presently everything is working appropriately, and your application is prepared!

Secure Premium URL Shortener with a Free SSL.

SSL declarations are utilized inside web workers to scramble the traffic between the worker and customer, giving additional security to clients getting to your application. How about we Encrypt gives a simple method to get and introduce confided in authentications free of charge.

Associate with your Server utilizing the Putty SSH customer. furthermore, Let’s Start!

Stage 1 — Install the Let’s Encrypt Client

How about we Encrypt declarations are gotten by means of customer programming running on your worker. The authority customer is called Certbot.

To begin with, add the archive to introduce Certbot:

sudo add-adept archive PPA:certbot/certbot

You’ll have to press ENTER to acknowledge.

At that point, Update the bundle rundown to get the new vault’s bundle data:

sudo well-suited get an update

Introduce Certbot’s Apache bundle:

sudo well-suited introduce python-certbot-apache

Certbot is presently fit to be utilized.

Stage 2 — Set Up the SSL Certificate

Producing the SSL endorsement for Apache utilizing Certbot is very direct. The customer will naturally get and introduce another SSL endorsement that is legitimate for the spaces given as boundaries.

Essentially run the accompanying order: (change the space)

sudo certbot – apache – d YOUR_DOMAIN_NAME

You will be approached to give an email address to lost key recuperation and notification, and you can pick between empowering both HTTP and HTTPS access or constraining all solicitations to divert to HTTPS. It is typically most secure to require HTTPS except if you have a particular requirement for decoded HTTP traffic.

That is it!

Test your site now and it ought to be SSL scrambled.

Done!

Rundown

To summarize, all that you require:

Get a Domain Name.

Get a VPS Server.

Guide Server IP to Domain.

Transferring File to the Server utilizing WinSCP.

Make a MySQL Database For Your Application.

Overseeing MySQL Databases.

Whenever you have done the entirety of this, you will have your premium URL shortener administration ready for action. In the event that you incline toward watching this instructional exercise as a video, you can check it underneath.

#saas #saas landing page #urlshortener

0 notes

justanothercinemaniac · 7 years ago

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Epic Movie (Re)Watch #233 - National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Spoilers Below

Have I seen it before: Yes

Did I like it then: Yes.

Do I remember it: Yes.

Did I see it in theaters: No.

Format: Blu-ray

1) There are five theatrical films in the Vacation franchise, this is the only one I’ve seen. I’ve never seen the need to see the other ones, honestly. This one’s already good enough.

2) The opening animation over which the credits is a strong start to the film. It establishes a classic Christmas vibe and silly/slapstick humor. There’s nothing particularly PG-13 about the animation, just PG. It’s not raunchy or rude, just funny. I think that’s an important thing because it’s what makes Christmas Vacation as good as it is. Not the occasional raunch (which is very limited, I think) but instead the silly family elements. Not to mention it sets up a great original song.

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3) The opening carols scene in the car with the Griswold clan does well to establish that dynamic. Clark is a little TOO enthusiastic but it’s sincere, Ellen is supportive, and the kids are kind of over it all.

4) This first encounter with the truckers is very strong. It shows two of the films best comedic elements: Clark’s ability to take things too far and then the build of it. Each choice makes the situation worse and worse leading to an inevitable, unexpected, hysterical climax to the scene.

5) I love Ellen.

Ellen: “Clark, stop it! I don’t wanna spend the holidays DEAD!”

6) Honestly, there are a lot of great little dialogue exchanges in the movie. I dig it.

Ellen: “Clark.”

Clark: “Yes honey?”

Ellen: “Audrey’s frozen from the waist down.”

Clark: “That’s all part of the experience, honey.”

7) When you make a comedy, you HAVE to have a good sense of humor. That’s the entire point! This film succeeds there. It’s odd, ridiculous, slapstick, and silly. Born from escalating problems and crazy “solutions” as well as a nice element of absurdity humor. Clark’s sticky fingers, everything on Christmas Eve, the sled, it all lends itself to this idea.

8) Julia Louise Dreyfus is in this movie. That is all.

9) Of course Chevy Chase is great in this movie, he’s freaking Chevy Chase! But Beverly D’Angelo is equally as good.

While the straighter of the two actors, the one who sees more clearly, D’Angelo gets a number of clever and hysterical moments in the film. She has a great chemistry with Chevy Chase but helps to make her Ellen MORE than Mrs. Griswold. She’s her own character, full of life and personality, patience and flaws, just truly wonderful.

10) I always like that Clark has a Tasmanian Devil coffee mug. It speaks to his fun energy as a character.

11) I never really got why Clark lies to Mary about not being married. It gives Chase a funny outlet to play flustered, but there’s nothing in this film which suggests to me he’d cheat on Ellen.

12) The arrival of the extended Griswold clan is perfectly done. A clear sense of family conflict and insanity is conveyed not only by the performances but the quick editing and off kilter camera angles. It’s very well done.

13)

Clark: “Russ, when was the last time I overdid anything?”

14) Remember how I said Beverly D’Angelo is crazy funny?

Audrey: “Do you sleep with your brother? Do you know how sick and twisted that is?”

Ellen: “Well I’m sleeping with your father.”

15) Much of this film benefits from a pacing that allows us to check in with the whole family here and there, supporting its heart and characters.

16) I actually analyzed the scene where Chevy Chase falls off the roof for a Physics for Filmmakers class. The class was horrible but I had fun with the project. I’d share some of what I wrote but it’s long and boring. Basically the gist of it is the ice can’t travel to the gutter like that but also the velocity of the gutter changes between shots.

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17) I don’t know why, but my family always quotes this line like crazy.

Margot: “And why is the carpet wet, TOD?”

Tod: “I don’t KNOW Margot!”

18) Clark’s failed lights attempt.

There are two things which stand out in this scene: Clark’s in-laws are freaking awful and his immediate family are great. The in laws just relentlessly mock Clark leading Audrey to stand up for her dad.

Audrey: “He worked really hard, Grandma.”

I love that. I love seeing Audrey getting to show some real love and support for her dad instead of being sidelined as a stereotypical teenage girl. It’s freaking great.

19) Clark in the attic.

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Firstly, Clark’s mother in law is an idiot. “Oh, the ladder to the attic is open. It must’ve just fallen or something, there can’t be ANY way a person is up there. I shouldn’t check or anything.” Jerk.

But most importantly, the attic scene is the best representation of the film’s heart. Holiday movies need a good heart to it, good emotion, otherwise they’re just a lazy cash grab. This film’s heart, its focus on family and familial love, are one of the reasons it has held up as well as it has 28 years later. Clark’s sentiment over watching old home movies, supported by a great Ray Charles song, is one of the best parts of the film.

20)

Clark: “Honey, you honestly think I’d check thousands of tiny little lights if I wasn’t sure it was plugged in?”

21) The fact that the solution to the problem with the lights is so abundantly simple is great. Also relatable. How many of us have plugged something into the wrong plug and obsessed over what was wrong?

22) Cousin Eddie just showing up when he does helps give the film an extra bit of energy to propel it in its last hour. Honestly if we had stuck with what was going on with no change or development it might’ve gotten a little dull, but Eddie is just a perfect source of fun family conflict.

23) Some of Clark’s asides when Eddie shows up are just freaking hysterical.

Clark: “If I woke up tomorrow with my head seen to the carpet I wouldn’t be more surprised than I am right now.”

24) Randy Quaid as Cousin Eddie.

Eddie is this film’s ultimate scene stealer. Quaid, reprising his role from the first Vacation film, plays Eddie as totally sincere and honest. Yes he’s a dumbass, yes he causes problems, but there is not a hint of malice in his performance and that’s important. You need to like Eddie, despite his idiocy, you need to root for him along with the other characters. He’s a sweet guy, he just causes a lot of problems, and he fits perfectly with the rest of the cast.

25) Brian Doyle Murray as Mr. Shirley is a great Scrooge-like character in this film. You understand he’s pretty much a pill before you even learn what he did about Christmas bonuses.

26) The saucer sledding scene is crazy fun, but I never got how Cousin Eddie and the kids were able to see Clark go as far as he did. Like, we see him go through woods where no one else is, across a highway, and into a WalMart. And they’re just up on the hill reacting?

27) Clark’s pool fantasy.

The key part to this fantasy is not the presence of a pool, but how happy it makes his family. Clark doesn’t want to let anyone down. He wants to be a traditional patriarch and provide for his family. To not succeed 100% feels like a failing to him, that’s why the pool is so important to him.

28) The conversation Clark and Ruby Sue have together about Santa Claus continues to show off the film’s heart but mores how it balances heart and humor. There’s some crass language mixed in but it doesn’t undermine the emotion of the scene.

29) And now it’s Christmas Eve, and EVERYTHING on Christmas Eve is just one big problem after another. The night descends further and further into chaos before the movie is over which is truly freaking great!

30) Aunt Bethany and Uncle Lewis are a great late addition to the film. For animation fans, the actress who plays Aunt Bethany is also Betty Boop and Uncle Lewis is Dr. Finklestein from The Nightmare Before Christmas. They’re totally nuts, nonsensical, and just fun to watch.

31) All the cat-in-the-box movement is done by Chevy Chase.

32) That Turkey is SO dry!

All the crunching is so uncomfortably funny, leading into a hysterical extended dinner table scene which is a lot of fun.

33) Honestly these next batch of notes are going to be commenting on how each gag works so well. For example: the dad cat gag, for some reason, is extremely funny!

34) Ah, the Christmas bonus.

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This scene is so freaking great. The entire film set it up, we’ve been waiting for this bonus. Meaning the surprise of it is as great for the audience as it is for Clark. The big setup, how much is riding on the bonus, means the fall is even greater. And Chevy Chase’s rant is one of the greatest movie rants EVER! I love it.

35) Clark’s following mania is great to watch, specifically the hilarity and insanity of the squirrel chase.

36) I’m just gonna leave this here.

Clark: “This is a full blown four alarm Holiday emergency here! We’re going to press on and we’re gonna have the hap-hap-happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap danced with Danny FUCKING Kaye!”

37) The heart to heart between Clark and his dad is a nice reclaiming of the heart that Clark almost lost with his rant. And just when everything seems okay…

38) Eddie happens.

39) I love Ellen.

Ellen: “I’m sorry, this is our family’s first kidnapping.”

40) The police response seems a little excessive, but I guess when a wealthy white guy is kidnapped they bring out the freaking marines.

41) Where Ellen’s hand is in this scene (and where it returns to) was improvised by Beverly D’Angelo.

42) And despite the movie ending on a joke, the ending does have a nice sweetness to it. A sincerity about the madness of the holiday spirit and its equal success.

Christmas Vacation is a holiday treat that grows better with time. The humor is supported by a strong cast and equally strong heart. Chevy Chase is obviously great, but other cast members such as Beverly D’Angelo and Randy Quaid get their time to steal the show. Filled with endlessly iconic holiday movie moments, it’s a great treat for the holiday season.

#Christmas Vacation #National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation #Chevy Chase #Beverly D'Angelo #Randy Quaid #Epic Movie (Re)Watch #Jimming the Camera #Brian Doyle Murray #Movie #Film #GIF

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owenstrachan · 5 years ago

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INFOGRAPHIC – Cloud Computing: Answers to Your Why, How & What + Bonus Tips for SMBs

Cloud Computing in 2019: Answers to Your Why, How & What + Bonus Tips for SMBs

By now you’re probably familiar with the term cloud computing, as it’s been regularly featured in the technology media for over a decade. However, many businesses still aren’t sure exactly what the cloud is or how much it can help them.

The cloud is a method of locating IT software and services in a remote data center and then accessing them across the Internet. By outsourcing the maintenance of your technology infrastructure to a third party, your business saves the expense of buying and managing its own IT hardware while enjoying greater stability and reliability.

Those benefits have led to strong, sustained enthusiasm for cloud computing, with 77% of companies now hosting a portion of their IT infrastructure in the cloud[i]. Despite that interest, many businesses still aren’t clear on the full potential of the cloud.

There Are Many Types of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing comes in several different forms, each with their own optimal use cases. Here are some terms you may have heard, and the differences between them.

Public Services the public can access through a commercial service provider.

Private A secure and sophisticated cloud solution hosted on-premise or on third-party data centers that are dedicated solely to your organization.

Hybrid A customized mix of on-premise and public cloud resources that are configured to your needs.

Software as a Service (SaaS) Software for end-users that resides in a public cloud and is accessed over the Internet.

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) A software environment that can be rented on a flexible basis – often for software development, and deployment of applications without having to worry about typical hardware or software maintenance.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Virtualized compute and storage resources that are accessed via the Internet, saving infrastructure costs.

What Can Cloud Do for My Organization?

Cloud computing is popular for enabling a new level of productivity and reliability. Here are the most common reasons companies look toward the cloud.

42% — Providing Access to Data from Anywhere 38% — Disaster Recovery 37% — Better Flexibility 36% — Reducing IT Staff Burden[ii]

With Data in the Cloud, Collaboration Improves

Allowing employees to effortlessly share ideas and data increases their ability to work and innovate.

90% of business leaders who have implemented the cloud say that it’s improved business processes.[iii]

A Financial Case for Cloud Computing

Another reason decision-makers are enthusiastic about cloud computing is that it lowers CAPEX and provide greater financial efficiency.

74% of chief financial officers say of all the emerging technologies, cloud computing will have the largest positive financial impact on their business.[iv]

Rest Better with Your Back-Ups in the Cloud

Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) is a relatively new but quickly growing field, which uses the power and flexibility of cloud computing to safeguard businesses against catastrophe.

More than 40% of U.S. enterprises have already adopted DRaaS, while 20% more are planning on using it in the near future. [v]

A Cloud Solution for Any Industry

Cloud computing is no longer just for high-tech companies – there are now reliable, secure cloud solutions for businesses of every size and in every field.

77% of enterprises now have some portion of their infrastructure in the cloud.[vi]

Healthcare – 12% of healthcare workloads were running in the cloud 12 months ago. 39% of healthcare workloads are running in the cloud today [vii]

Legal Services – Adoption of cloud-based services stood at 68% in 2018, up from just 51% in 2015. [viii]

Financial Services – The finance cloud market is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 24.4% and will reach $29.47 billion in size by 2021. [ix]

The Most Popular Cloud Applications

You probably use several cloud applications in your daily personal life without even knowing, like Netflix, Facebook and Uber. But there are many other cloud services, such as Amazon’s Amazon Web Service (AWS) and Microsoft’s Azure, that are growing rapidly.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Amazon AWS is the largest provider of public cloud services, with a focus on infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (Paas) resources, such as compute, database storage, and content delivery services. Amazon’s revenue from AWS hit $6.7 billion in 2018, about 40% of the company’s total revenue.[x]

Microsoft Azure Azure is a large, continually-expanding set of cloud services from Microsoft, including SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS tools. The Azure service provides an attractive ecosystem for companies adopting either public or a hybrid cloud. Azure is currently the fastest growing of the major cloud service providers.[xi] [Beating Amazon, Google, and IBM]

E-mail is the #1 cloud-based business application, after web and general productivity software.[xii]

Office 365 Office 365 is one of the most popular cloud productivity suites available. Over 56% of organizations globally are now using Microsoft Office 365. [xiii]

Google G-Suite G Suite, another highly popular productivity solution, has been adding approximately 1 million users a year since 2016.[xiv]

Cloud Security

Cloud security was a major concern in the past, but it’s much less so now that vendors have improved upon security protections. Today, the cloud is used to increase the overall network security of organizations.

According to Gartner, companies that setup visibility and security controls for their cloud applications experienced 33% fewer security issues in 2018.

Public cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) workloads will suffer at least 60% fewer security incidents than those in traditional data centers.[xv]

Despite the Benefits of Cloud, Migration is Still a Problem

Though cloud adoption has gotten easier – moving services from on-premise servers to the cloud – a process known as cloud migration – still poses great difficulties.

The most significant challenge during cloud migrations:

Data Migration 58%

Security Requirements 56%

Application Optimization 44%

Regulatory Compliance 40%[xvi]

The best way to avoid the difficulties inherent in cloud migration is to partner with a cloud computing expert, who can help you navigate the challenges and make the most of your cloud investment.

Manhattan Tech Support – NYC’s Cloud Expert

If you need help making sense of the cloud, we’re happy to help. For over 20 years, we’ve been one of New York City’s leading cloud experts, and we’re enthusiastic about sharing that expertise with small and midsized businesses in NYC.

Want to talk to a cloud expert with experience in your industry? Contact us at 212-299-7673 or [email protected]

SOURCES

[i] https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2018/08/30/state-of-enterprise-cloud-computing-2018/#649ecc8d265e

[ii] https://www.spiceworks.com/marketing/state-of-it/report/

[iii] https://www.trackvia.com/blog/productivity/increase-productivity-switching-cloud/

[iv]https://www.bdo.com/GETATTACHMENT/022227F4-AA2E-4A8B-9739-B0AD6B855415/ATTACHMENT.ASPX?2017-TECHNOLOGY-OUTLOOK-REPORT_2-17.PDF#page=10

[v] https://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/storage-management/survey-reveals-tech-trends-reshaping-data-storage.html

[vi] https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2018/08/30/state-of-enterprise-cloud-computing-2018/#609d781265e3

[vii] https://www.truenorthitg.com/cloud-computing-in-healthcare/

[viii] https://www.legalitprofessionals.com/legal-it-columns/65-guest-columns/11267-tips-from-the-trenches-for-a-successful-cloud-migration

[ix] https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/finance-cloud-market-1053.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIj6jqrcal2QIVCx-GCh3lnwi7EAAYASAAEgLG5fD_BwE

[x] https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2018/10/17/how-much-will-aws-contribute-to-amazons-near-term-revenue-growth/#11add3af2a53

[xi] https://www.channelpartnersonline.com/2019/02/07/azure-still-king-in-public-cloud-while-azure-grows-fastest-ibm-falls/

[xii] https://www.comptia.org/resources/cloud-computing-trends-research

[xiii] https://www.techrepublic.com/article/saas-suites-like-office-365-driving-cloud-deployments-with-2x-adoption-of-g-suite/

[xiv] https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2019/02/g-suite-5-million-users.html

[xv] https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/is-the-cloud-secure/

[xvi] https://deloitte.wsj.com/cio/2018/11/11/the-state-of-cloud-adoption/

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merrile677vbucks-blog · 6 years ago

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bloody-maiden · 8 years ago

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We found a hard drive in a cave

(via Heartblast) | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 |

So it's about 5:41 am from the time of me starting this and I just wanted to keep a little report of what's going on. Me and four colleagues are down here in South America on a bit of pleasure, bit of business expedition. Think of what we do as freelance archaeology, we go out of our way to get tips on possible sites that haven't been properly dug yet by a more... well, appropriate party.

Anyway, normally it's not as fascinating as it sounds. We go and find some dirt and sometimes an old pot is in it and we sell it to a collector, a museum, or whoever. That's our payday. But tonight we came across something odd, it's sitting right next to me in our command tent while the rest of the guys are still down in the site looking for more.

It looks like an old computer hard-drive, but we found it in an old cave system that wasn't on our maps and our informant never ever mentioned this. He said to just go out in the rain forest a ways and we'd find a cave that had some promising potential.

What we had found was a bigass hole in the ground that we had to rappel into. Not new to us, but it didn't match the description of a "small cave". Once down in there we turned over some dirt and found nothing, but Jeffrey saw some rock that he claims "didn't look right", and next thing I know he's rolling this boulder out of the way like The Hulk but turns out it didn't weigh much at all. Whatever it was, it was blocking a tunnel that had been smoothed out. By who? Who knows. We got excited though, sites like these usually have some good shit and if this tunnel hadn't been excavated before we were in for quite a find.

First thing we found though was this hard-drive. Just sitting right out in the middle of the tunnel. I about stepped on the damn thing if Jeffrey hadn't caught me by the elbow. It was in a ziplock baggy or something similar, the bag itself was filthy. It was covered in something sloppy like mud and dirt and old cave dust had settled on it for some time.

They sent me back with it, and here I am. I've got a laptop out that we normally use for satellite links. In the bag with the hard-drive was a working connection cable, lucky day huh? Only problem: It's encrypted. I'm no tech guru when it comes to stuff this advanced, but I do handle our equipment so that's why the guys sent me back with it.

Right now I'm running a program on it to see if I can force my way in, but I think we'll need to take this to a specialist. Every now and then I think I make a breakthrough, but the harddrive doesn't open up. It's like it just "dumps" a bit of information or data out periodically, maybe that's how this program works? Like I said, not much of a hacker.

I'm gonna keep a report of what comes out of the hard-drive and the general state of our excavation here starting now, in case I lose all of this data by some screw up.

UPDATE 1 Alright.

It's about 6:00am now give or take and the hard-drive has spit some data out. Looks like text files that I had to open with a few different programs until one ended up reading it right. It's like a list of e-mails, maybe this was the backup of some email server? Not sure what it was doing down in the cave all the way out here though. Here's what we've got so far:

00:00:05

FROM: Human_Resources

TO: All_Staff

SUBJECT: Happy New Year

Congratulations everyone on another successful year with PLUTO. Normally we have a little party but as you all know things have gotten very exciting in the past couple weeks. On the verge of a breakthrough, I don't think anyone here minds that we have cancelled the New Year's party in favor of mandatory overtime. Continue to work hard. Everyone's compensation will reflect the bounty of our discovery.

00:03:40

FROM: Robert S.

TO: Charlie P.

SUBJECT: Yeah, I really didn't want a break anyway.

Can you believe this shit? Mandatory overtime? Now, after the hell we went through this past week?

00:11:12

FROM: Charlie P.

TO: Robert S.

SUBJECT: Re: Yeah, I really didn't want a break anyway.

They don't give a shit about us down here, you know that. That email was more for the big wigs and the "scientists" upstairs. We're just glorified janitors. At least we get to leave soon, I miss my wife haha.

Weird, huh? Not sure exactly what this hard-drive is for or where these emails are from. While the decryption program continues to plink away, not doing much of anything I feel, I overheard on comms that Andrew found another boulder like the one Jeffrey pushed out of the way. Behind this one though was something that got us all super excited: a door. Not just a doorway, but like an actual man-made door. We're definitely onto something here.

UPDATE 2

While the guys are trying to figure out how to get this door open, more email files became available.