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dai-png · 4 years ago

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Lessons~ Hawks

word count 2,100

"Y/n I believe we have been over this You have to cut the attitude, or other agencies won't want to work with us!", hawks explained. "This agency means a lot to me, and I need you to put more effort into it." You nodded, listening to the same agonizing mantra.

You rolled your eyes as you sat in front of his desk " Well Hawks, since you know how it should be, maybe you should teach me instead of repeating yourself every day", you said in a mocking tone.

Hawks walked over to his office door and locked it, while closing all the windows

He continued on over to his desk, standing in front of you. "You know that's not a bad idea but, before we do anything I would like your consent to touch you in any way I see fit."

You almost laughed in his face due to his ridiculous request, but you couldn't deny yourself such an opportunity. Yeah he pissed you off most of the time but he was such a sight to look at

You looked him up and . " Yes, you have my consent." You said

Hawks lifted you up and sat you on top of his desk; the faint smell of his cologne filling your nose. "Lesson 1....begins now, " He rasped.

You stayed quiet when you felt him nearing towards you, his dominating aura spilling out.

"You're pretty quiet for someone who always has some smart shit to say, Where's all that talk now, beautiful, hm?" He smirked

You squirmed underneath his gaze, knowing that he was full aware of your arousal.

Hawks was always very observant and nothing ever went unnoticed with him, it was truly scary sometimes, because he could be far away from you or the agency itself and he still knows everything that goes on.

You shifted your attention back to hawks and saw that he was tugging on the hem of your button down shirt. The air in the room becoming seemingly thicker as he played with one of the buttons.

"Wouldn't it be a shame if.... Oops." he said undoing a button; "I'm really sorry my finger slipped, but it bothers me that only one is undone, so it looks like i'm going to have to undo the rest." Hawks grinned

You grew irritated as his fingertips were just barely touching you. "Hawks how the fuck is this going to help me?" you muttered.

He grabbed your chin, closing the distance between you two. " You really need to learn how to shut. Up." He growled, keeping his face close to yours.

"You see Y/n, the reason I have you on top of this desk, touching you so faintly is because I want you to learn your place, If that means I have to fuck the attitude out of you, I will not fail to do so." He scoffed

You looked at him astonished by his words, but you wanted him to touch you even more because of it. Hawks continued to hover over you, observing your body language.

Getting impatient, you grabbed his tie pulling his body even closer to yours. He chuckled by the sudden move.

" Aww, Look at you becoming so bold."

He groaned, feeling the bulge in his pants growing bigger. "I'll ask you one more time before we do this y/n, do I have your consent to touch you in any way I see fit?" You let go of his tie and reassured him

" Yes you have my consent, I promise."

Hawks smiled, while trailing his fingers down your chest. His touch was gentle but his eyes were full of lust.

"I strive to make you ache for me beautiful, now be a doll for me and take off your bra, I mean I would do it myself but, I can't let you have too much of my touch without earning it, now can I?"

You shifted on top of his desk, doing as he said. You stared down at your bra as it fell to floor, leaving you completely exposed. Your nipples hardening as the cool air hit your chest. Even though you were staring at the floor you could see Hawks keeping a vigorous gaze on you.

He leaned down to place sloppy kisses on your neck and collar bone, his warm tongue sliding across your skin, it's almost enough to make you moan his name, but you know better than to give him the satisfaction.

"Playing the quiet game are we?, If you think that you can stay quiet for long then you've got it all fucked up angel." He rasped in your ear.

You squeaked as you felt him rubbing his middle and his forefinger against your slit. Your hips grinding further into his touch and the wet spot on the outside of your panties becoming more evident.

"Tsk Tsk Tsk, See now I have to draw back, because someone's being a greedy little slut." Hawks said taking his fingers away from your pussy.

You grew irritated and blurted words you knew you would regret " You probably couldn't get me off anyway." You shrugged

Hawks furrowed his eyes and reached under your skirt, grabbing the hem of your panties, jerking them down. His hands roughly grabbing your hips and pulling your unclothed pussy into him. You could feel his precum leaking through his dress pants.

" You talk a lot of shit, I think it's time I shut you up. Get on your knees like a good girl." Hawks threatened.

The anger radiating off of him made you realize he wasn't fucking around. You quickly got off of his desk and sunk down to the ground. Hawks pulled up a chair directly in front of you, sitting with his legs spread like he was some kind of god.

He stroked his dick at the sight of you being so vulnerable, his tip red from teasing it so much. He gathered his precum on his fingers and motioned for you to come closer.

" open your mouth and taste this, I want you to have a preview of what you will be tasting before you start choking around my dick."

You opened your mouth around swirled your tongue around his fingers letting the sticky substance marinate on your tongue. " I need more.", You thought. You had never thought you would be this fucking horny for a man that would work your nerves every single day. A man that had always criticized and annoyed the hell out of you.

But here you are, on your knees, wanting to beg for more. Wanting him to touch you in ways that no man or woman could ever imagine. You wanted him- no you needed him.

"Well angel, I'm waiting, hurry up and take me into that sweet mouth of yours." Hawks grinned

You hesitantly wrapped your lips around the head sucking it softly. You didn't really know what you were doing and Hawks caught on to that very quickly. " Do you need me to teach you how to do it?" He asked. His tone was a bit more sincere rather than mocking.

You shook your head yes and patiently awaited for his instructions.

" Don't take it all in your mouth at once just suction the head a little, yeah just like that." Hawks grunted, while guiding you.

His hands tangled in your hair to keep your head in place, you could feel his body tense up as his length touched the back of your throat. You gagged as tears swelled up in your eyes, the sensation almost becoming too much for you.

"F-Fuck angel that's it, look at you taking my dick like a champ." Hawks chuckled. His Groans becoming louder as you bobbed your head up and down, your throat tightening around him.

He looked so good like this, his head thrown back with low lidded eyes, looking down at you. His groans were so deep and sultry sounding. Listening to him made your pussy wet. You reached down to touch yourself, gliding your fingers against your slick.

Hawks grip on your hair tightened as he pulled you off of him, " What the fuck do you think you're doing, he said raising his brow. " Do you need to be touched that bad angel?" He laughed

"No that's not it I just-" You tried to say, but you were taken back by hawks guiding you too his lap.

"Well since you're so damn eager, come and sit on this dick, come and show me who's boss why don't you? He teased.

You sat in his lap, wrapping your arms around his neck while, slowly sliding down on his girthy dick. You winced a little from how much he filled you up, the mixture of pain and pleasure taking over your body

You looked at hawks whose body was all tensed and frozen, you rotated your hips around him just to get used to how big he was. But your hips came to a halt when you felt a hand wrap around your throat.

F-fuck, quit playing around and just start bouncing already, please? He begged.

"Please?!" you thought. Hawks was never the type of person to beg for anything.

Hawks was always a very dominating man, a man that never let his guard down for anybody. Always wanted people to obey and take commands but right now that seemed to be dismissed.

His hips bucking up into you, out of anticipation, just waiting for you to do something, anything

You took advantage of his vulnerability and slid down on him, painfully slow. You smiled at how he squirmed underneath you, whimpering like you were his mistress.

"Damn it Y/n I swear- you have one more chance to quit teasing me or else" Hawks warned.

You raised one eyebrow and smirked at him. "Or what Ha-........ You were silenced by him lifting you up and walking from the chair to the couch in his office.

He laid you down and pinned you all in one swift movement. " Alright beautiful I let you have your fun but now it's my turn, so get on all fours and arch it for me. He smirked

You turned your body around without any hesitation and placed your ass up in the highest position it could go. You pushed your ass back against him wiggling it a bit, still not wanting to give him that full satisfaction.

"Is that an invitation sweetheart"? "Well if you insist."

Hawks gripped your hips slowly pushing in. You moaned feeling him stretch you once more. His precum leaking inside you.

He loved the way you felt around him, so warm and inviting. His dick dragging along side your sopping walls was just enough to make you wail

"What, does that feel good? Those deep and slow strokes just penetrating your little hole." Hawks chuckled

You wanted to retaliate and say something back but he was just making you feel so damn good.

"Feels so good Hawks-, ahh please." You purred

You started push back on him, matching his thrusts, your slippery pussy was gripping him so tightly. Your hands gripped the sides of the couch as he pounded you even harder

Nothing but The sounds of his balls slapping your clit and the squelching of your pussy, filling the room.

"Hah- quit squeezing around me like that or I'll-" Hawks breathed out

He was losing his control his thrusts becoming sloppier and his groans getting louder as each second passed. He leaned down and aligned his mouth on your neck.

"Come on baby, don't hold back, let it go for me." He soothed

You reached down and rub your clit vigorously, feeling your walls convulse and throb around his dick.

Hawks breath staggered as he felt you let go around him, your pussy was tugging at his dick over and over again, wanting to drain his cum filled balls.

Damn, you look so pretty cumming all over my dick."

Hawks pulled out, turning you over onto your back. " Open your mouth for me beautiful, and take all of my cum, don't you dare let a drop go to waste."

He grunted, while fisting his dick a few times, before spilling his seed at the back of your throat. You took all of it, obeying him like a good girl.

Hawks soon collapsed on the couch with you, His wings covering and embracing the both of you.

I hope you're prepared beautiful, because lesson two starts tomorrow.

#mha #mha fanfiction #hawks #hawks x reader #pro hero hawks #hawkssmut #hawks imagine #hawks x y/n

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teaandatale · 4 years ago

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Hello I’m late to the party but pls tell me more about SteggyDiplomatic???

Late Reply to WIP Game

Hehehe, I thought you might be the one to ask me about this one. SO, it’s not quite what you were thinking I’m sure, BUT congrats, you picked the one SUPER SECRET STEGGY FIC IDEA that I put on that WIP list.

Why super secret? Idk, my brain decides some fic ideas need to stay super hush hush until they are fully realized. Also because in my head this one is a saga, where I have literally have it in mind that there will be 3 Parts to this long fic. As is the preview here.

Also this one kind of goes real dark, so read on at your discretion.

Basic Synopsis: Peggy & Steve are both children of Diplomatic parents. Steve’s father is a particularly powerful politician. That’s how they meet, as children in some Diplomatic Day Care while at some UN Conference or Summit, or similar. Steve gets picked on by some of the other kids (Gilmore Hodge in particular) and Peggy, who is already a mouthy wise-cracking 6 or 7 year old, has paid attention enough to her brother and parents using big words to use them to her advantage. Because their parents work closely, they end up crossing paths more and more as the years go on. They also start sending each other pen pals letters when they are separated, developing their own code. They’re each others first crushes, and in their teens, while the Carters are in NYC for UN meetings, the unsaid things between them becomes an understanding. They go on a museum date and Peggy gives Steve his first kiss in Central Park. By the time they graduate high school, they’re pretty serious, to the point where Peggy decides to move to New York to attend college. The fic would follow their lives into adulthood, and their growing relationship.

Because Steve’s dad has a military background along with his political work, Steve ends up following in the “Family Business” in a somewhat SHIELD like organization... But one that definitely is quietly overrun by Hydra. Peggy also follows into Diplomatic work, and creates her own ties to SHIELD. There they meet Howard Stark much as we know him in canon, as well as the Jarvises. Steve & Peggy start to think about the future, carving one out for each other -- starting a family away from the Diplomatic life, away from NYC.

But then a series of tragic and mysterious events occur. Bucky’s unit gets targeted and he’s KIA. The organization’s Steve’s father runs, dark side begins to come to light. Then Steve’s mother contracts a mysterious illness and passes away. While Steve is grieving, Peggy starts to put together some pieces of intel, especially from her side of SHIELD. She knows something isn’t right about Steve’s father. And once she’s onto him, Steve’s father starts to sow seeds of doubt and poison Peggy’s image in his son’s eyes. Peggy fights it. Until she finds out she’s pregnant. But she never gets a chance to tell Steve. Whatever his father’s toxic influence strength, it’s taken hold in Steve, to the point of him saying he could never love her. Peggy, at her wit’s end, needing to regroup and figure out how to move forward with becoming a mother, leaves him a letter with the sonogram. Steve never opens it.

Flash forward to Part 2.

The Rogers men have done their part to isolate Peggy, Steve having been successfully radicalized by his father, taking his place as second in control, engaging in the heinous side of SHIELD. Months and months go by... And Steve eventually, away from the influence of his father, happens upon Peggy’s letter. He reads it, and whatever hate his father created melts away. She was pregnant. That’s what she had been trying to tell him that last time they met. Steve reevaluates everything Peggy had been trying to tell him about Steve, about his father. He confronts his father, carefully avoiding mention of the baby.

“You think I don’t know you knocked her up? If my efforts to make sure that bastard child isn’t miscarried didn’t work, she’ll still be stuck with the bastard of a bastard. Unmarried and a stain on her family. You will never see them. Never,” his father says. “Besides, do you really think she would want anything else to do with you? Not once she hears all the horrible acts that Steven G. Rogers took credit for. Oh yes son, I planned for all contingencies.”

It’s the first time Steve fights him directly, physically leaving scars on his father’s face and has the flee, branded a fugitive from justice now that his father has falsified Steve’s involvement and blasted it through all media.

Steve doesn’t care. He’s done with the family operation. Done with the toxic family that turned him against the love of his life. That was pregnant with his child. If he still had a child... He hopes so. He’s lost too many people already.

With Natasha & Sam’s help, after shaving his face and head and overall changing his appearance, he leaves for the UK, in hopes of tracking Peggy Carter down. Only there’s no trace of her. Or a child. Anywhere. She’s become a ghost.

In the middle of nowhere England, alone, tracking any lead he can find, he clutches Peggy’s letter to his chest, and hopes he can rectify this one day, to make amends for betraying the one person who always saw him for who he was. He keeps a low profile in shitholes in London, trying to find the Carter family, while avoiding his father’s radar. He starts to realize even Peggy had secrets he didn’t know about.

Years go by without a trace... Until there’s a scent on the trail...

Peggy’s kept this particular fake public safe house for years. And though she doesn’t really live in it, even in the dark, one night she knows something is not right. She fakes taking off her coat, setting down her purse until she’s got her weapon loaded. She can’t deny that her heart is in her throat. There, in the dark of the kitchen, a split second after she flips the light on, is Steve sitting at her table, hunched in the chair, jaw tight, and eyes of a wild animal. He’s grizzled, and looks dangerous. Even if she’s expected this to come, fearing this the second word got out that he went missing, she’s terrified. His mouth turns into a grimace letting out a single sound.

“Wh-”

Peggy aims her hidden weapon and shoots. His eyes go wide and he’s crying out in pain. She remains standing, tall and steady, gun at the ready. His fingers come up to feel the dart embedded in his neck.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Peggy,” she hears, each subsequent word more slurred than the one before. What shocks her most is his tone, hardly mad that she shot him, more annoyed than anything. It was the tone of Steve, her Steve, not the monster. He slumps over the top of the kitchen table. She blinks, watching him for a moment, hesitating until finally, a minute later, she calls Stark for reinforcements. She doesn’t cry, does not move an inch, not until the vehicle pulls up in the drive.

And... I’ll leave you there ;)

#about fic #steggy #my brain has many ideas just little time #thesokovianaccords

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certifiedceraunophile · 4 years ago

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KLAROLINE FALL BINGO PREVIEW.

@eliliyah @klarolinefallbingo

Prompt: Dias De Muertos

Honestly the relevancy of the prompt comes far to late in the story but it’s there, kinda. But hey it’s there.

MASQUERADES

(CinemaAU)

Sometimes all she needed was to take a breather. A single moment. One pause.

Breathe in.

To collect her thoughts and emotions. To steady her bearings.

To state in a repetitive loop all the reasons why punching one Niklaus Mikaelson in the balls would be a marginally bad idea.

And breathe out.

Forgive her, but The man was infuriating. Okay?

And unashamedly so. Not a whit of genuine compunction behind that facade of ‘Inescapable Charisma and Unadulterated Allure.’

Definitely not her words.

Nope. No sir.

These were the words of a certain Greta Martin, editor-in-chief for the first October issue of People Magazine.

With one Mega-frustrating arrogant blonde blue-eyed dimpled asshat demon going by the name Klaus slapped to the front of said issue.

And Nope if anyone asks,

No, she did not literally just shred -In a shredding machine no less, because efficiency, thank you very much- the first copy of the magazine she bought, after reading the beginning eight lines on his exclusive, recounting what a ‘delightfully satisfying and marvellous experience the entire three months of shooting turned out to be.’

Ok one Black-hole sized pause right there please.

Thank you.

A single beat.

And....

The Absolute Fuck?!

She’s sorry. Marvellous experience?

Excuse her, but say what?

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Beg pardon but What?

Excuse her.

But Marvellous experience, as in, aggressive quotation marks scratching the air “Marvellous experience” is NOT how she remembers it.

The slap in the face obvious discrepancy to both their stories is definitely not blind to her.

He called 84 re-takes that lasted four whole hours for one eight minute long single-shot single-angle scene, Marvellous.

He called having ice-cold Whiteclaw thrown square on his face by a Absolutely-done-with-wild-gust-of-agitated-Blonde-Fury on the eighth day of set, Marvellous.

He called having two separate make-up artists downright quit after being unable to touch up her makeup every thirteen seconds because she ran her hand down her face in unbridled aggravation every time her eyes landed on him, Marvellous.

He called the same experience where, she had to literally rush out of a set, under the ruse of a bathroom break, Twice in the course of three months, so that she can peacefully go through the motions of a rage-fueled emotional meltdown, complete with angry frustrated tears and a relentlessly colourful diatribe, cursing every man in her life who bore even a sliver of resemblance to the stormy-blue-eyed spawn of satan that was her co-actor, Marvellous.

God. How the hell did he possibly think he could get away with this,

How did he think he was going to smooth over the transparent inconsistencies between her interviews and his, without raising at least a few confused questions from bloodthirsty intuitive fans and the Press in general.

Given how her talk-show interviews and magazine exclusives gave the steady image, that

1. Klaus Mikaelson is a dick and a half, with an overgrown ego so ginormous that even the entirety of Tinseltown is ‘plainly restricting of his nonpareil talent in histrionic execution.’

2. Klaus Mikaelson is an arrogant narcissistic asshole that Hast pronounc'd upon his brethren yond this day f'rth that gent shalt with ev'ry smidgen of purpose in his life striveth to be the Unrivalled Bane of Caroline Forbes’ Existence.

3. The process of Creating the undeniable tour de force Masterpiece that was ‘100 years of solitude.’ The newest Christopher Nolan Direction and Production in theatres right now, that already has definite Academy Awards Nomination in the talks, was anything but Marvellous. She admits, It was so so gratifying and made her heart full with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, that left her giddy with such lighthearted contentment for days, after the phenomenal response it garnered post-premiering, Yes. But that does not capsulate how frustratingly tiresome and emotionally debilitating the entire creation process was. Hell it was downright painful at times.

4. Would she voluntarily take another movie with Klaus Mikaelson as a Co-star alongside her? You can get back to her when the sun starts to rise from the west and the answer would still be a definitive NO.

Now of course she wasn’t this brazen with her claims she knows how to be cute and classy and concise.

But she definitely did not mitigate the truth of her statement, she’s had enough training with her PR department to know what to say and how to say it but she’s sure that nobody had been able to overlook her less than companionable remarks about Klaus.

For example

The Stephen Colbert Show:

Stephen: “So Caroline tell us about the process, the Making of it, how everything fell into place like tiny puzzle pieces to reveal at last this grand, Grand Picture.”

“The process? Well the process was certainly not...pretty...but after every time we finished a scene, however small or inconsequential it may have seemed to the plot, there was this immense sense of ‘there-Done it. And done it well.’ ”

Jimmy Kimmel Live:

“Klaus Mikaelson, well my Co-star is um....eccentric at best.....”

Jimmy: “and at worst?”

“Well..... I guess” -hellish, heinously intolerable, a cruel mean bastard- “....Unyielding...?”

The Ellen Show:

“Well Klaus was a..... demanding partner and it took Herculean efforts to meet his exacting standards, but I can understand how that paid off so well on screen. The end result when I saw it for the first time, it damn well paid off.”

Ellen: “so he is absolved of his admittedly ‘uphill’ personality then?”

She laughs awkwardly,

“Ye-ah....No.”

followed by more laughter dissolving the painstaking grimace she’s trying to tamper down.

Oh and the worst.

The Late Late show with James Cordon:

During the ‘Fill Your Guts or Spill Your Guts’ segment

James: “So....I’m going to give you, let’s see, Ah there, the Bird Saliva.”

Caroline: “James!.... Damn it, you are so not making it into my good books, and....God. That’s just disconcerting I mean, How do they even, I don’t know... collect it?”

James: “Well there’s a whole process of harvesting it from the salivary glands and—“

Caroline: “Never mind! Nope. No need for the details, please, James, a lady’s delicate sensibilities are at stake. And unless the question is ‘what is your social security number?’ I’m not drinking this poison.”

James: “Now Caroline you wound me, I can assure you everything on this table is edible albeit being marginally unpalatable—“

Caroline: “Marginally?!”

James: “You should try the Cow’s tongue. It’s delectable.” Followed by a sagely nod.

Caroline: “Now I’m just intensely bothered. You’ve definitely lost all claim for a spot in my good books.”

James: “Ah well, speaking of staying in your good graces, here’s a question that will have you downing that Saliva in seconds.”

Caroline: “Hit me.”

James: “Well then, ‘Name Any one CO-star with whom you have worked with in the past that you would never volunteer to work with again.’”

Pause.

And the audience descended.

“Like I said, speaking about staying in your good books.”

Amidst the raucous screams, whistles and laughter, it didn’t even bother Caroline, the clarity and speed with which the name

‘Klaus Mikaelson’ flashed in the front of her mind, like a large Neon LED sign from a typical Vegas Nightlife scene.

It took her a total of three seconds to know that she was going to answer with his name because, well just look at that drink in front of her,

Sure if you bend over real low and squint in the right light it may look like a harmless Daiquiri, but a Daiquiri it was not.

No. This was Bird Freaking Saliva,

Come on, you can’t possibly ask her to put that in her goddamn mouth.

Like NO.

Just no.

So sue her for protecting her taste buds that are yet to experience many more exotic flavours and textures of food from all around the world.

But then again she can’t possibly outright just say “Oh that’s easy, Klaus Mikaelson.”

That’s exactly the kinda PR trouble she wants to stay above and definitely didn’t need to be wrung out dry by her Spitfire Mistress-of-Hell Publicist Katherine Pierce for.

(Who also alternates as her BFF, occasionally, mind you.)

So she puts on a good show, dropped her head in her hands, gave a healthy long groan, looked up and gave James her best wounded Puppy Dog eyes, to which he was clearly not immune to, judging by how he looked a touch chagrined, but the game was just as much as beyond his hands as it were hers,

She looked to the audience “You guys are so mean, it’s not even funny.”

And grumbled a bit more till everyone was laughing and pitching forward and back on their seat amused by the poor Blonde’s Dilemma.

So she looked up to the heavens as if to ask for some unknown deity for deliverance and guidance, and poised herself to drink,

Only to put the glass back down in the last second in a begrudgingly weak show of caving in, and blurted out reluctantly,

(She’s a glorious actor, she’s aware.)

“You know what, Nope. He’s just gotta deal with it, okay?.”

Deep breath

Or was it the audience taking a deep breath and holding it in,

“ItsKlausMikaelson,PleaseDontKillMe.”

Pause again.

And the auditorium transcended.

Well,

she handled that, pretty well, if she does say so herself you know.

Apparently Kat Disagrees.

Apparently She Blew It.

She blew it so hard she could’ve knocked down the third little pig’s brick house.

Ironic since she always envisioned Klaus as the Big Bad Wolf who huffs and puffs and just generally blows.

Apparently her little admission was a PR disaster.

And Kat was furious.

The two minute edited clip that encompassed the question, the reluctant grumbling and finally the confession was apparently now a viral video on all social networking platforms.

They were trending on twitter under the hashtag

#KlarolineUnrequitedLoveIsABitch.

But her admission to being generally averted on taking up Klaus as a colleague again was apparently only one half of the video,

The other half....

Well the other other half was Klaus with his personal confession.

God, it wasn’t even a confession,

it was a—a Mockery, yes that’s it, a Mockery,

Of Her, no less

Basically Here’s the run down of the second insidious half of the video,

Klaus sitting in front of Graham Norton, in all their British glory, going live on The Graham Norton Show,

when asked about Caroline Forbes, his “partner” on scene has the audacity to let out this evil little amused huff and say:

“Caroline?” Another amused huff. “Well Caroline, Christ, where do I start? She’s an absolutely glorious presence on set. Her energy....it’s infectious, She hits you like a blonde hurricane of sunshine and snark and you’re just left staring up at the sun thinking, ‘you need to catch up mate, if you want to be half as bright and burning as her.’”

And Caroline thinks maybe this is the feeling of your brain imploding within the confines of the skull.

TBC

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pagerunner-j · 6 years ago

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So: writing.

I haven’t written any fic in ages. I’ve had ideas bouncing around for a while, but long story short, morale was low. A project came up, though, that sounded like a good excuse to bust one of those concepts out of the closet, and I started tinkering around with it this week to see if it might work. Of course, I promptly realized it’ll be WAY too long, sooooo...yeah, I’ll have to go back to one of the other ideas instead.

Still, I’ll probably have to finish this one eventually, too, because now I’m invested. Dammit. ;)

For now: have the first draft of the first section as a preview. Future!Keyleth goes back to Whitestone to inspect something very interesting up for auction...

The placard in the display case read, Lot 19: Automaton clock, 830-835 PD, Whitestone Society of Artists and Artisans.

The label was understated, but the tabletop timepiece was anything but. It resembled a classical building, surrounded by miniature figures. A small bird perched on the rooftop, viewing everyone below. Most curiously, at least unless you knew Whitestone’s history, a bear had pride of place before the front door. It was rearing up on its hind legs, standing taller than the townspeople. None of them seemed afraid of him. One even seemed to be offering something, although she, and everything else, was suspended in motion. The delicate handle on the back of the clock suggested its potential. The stern guard standing nearby also suggested its value.

The woman who’d walked up to see it did her best to ignore the guard—a tall order, considering he was a very tall half-orc—and bent closer to the case.

Her reflection in the glass was faint, but it still showed the vivid red of her hair and the intent flicker of her eyes. She’d dressed in muted, formal clothes like everyone else, but she moved like they fit uncomfortably. Her short hair was brushed down far enough to cover her pointed ears, but her sun-bronzed complexion and freckled nose still stood out in this town, as far north as it was and as close to the edge of winter. She could have disguised those features better, but doing so hadn’t felt right. Even the name she’d registered under — “K. Ashe” — wasn’t exactly a lie. She could only hope that no one would think she was more interesting than the extraordinary artifacts in this room. So far, she’d been proven exactly right.

After all, the Frederickstein-Graves collection, built up over the years by cousins and companions of Whitestone’s ruling family, ran toward the esoteric. It also kept an eye to local history. Ms. Ashe had surveyed the catalog already, which included an elaborate game set dating back to the re-opening of continental trade routes (lot 9) and an unusual harp by a 10th-century artificer famous for her impossible-to-mimic performances (lot 12). But the prize items claimed connection to Whitestone’s greatest villains and heroes. Ms. Ashe had already overheard an enthusiastic discussion about a set of onyx jewelry that once passed through the hands of Lady Briarwood. It came complete with legends about a curse. From the sounds of it, that was somehow adding to the lot’s appeal. She hadn’t even wanted to ask.

But then there was this clock.

Whitestone’s renowned artisans’ society was founded by Percival Frederickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III, said the catalog on page 32, where she’d left a slender bookmark. De Rolo was Whitestone’s original Sophist of Native Ingenuity and member of the legendary group Vox Machina. This automaton clock, styled in the manner of his clock tower installation, dates from the period of his involvement with the guild and was gifted directly to the Frederickstein family. He has been credited in family documents as the maker of this timepiece.

Ms. Ashe, who had some familiarity with de Rolo handiwork, reached back into distant memories for a comparison. It took more effort than she was expecting. Suppressing a wince, she tilted her head to see the clock at a better angle.

“Magnificent craftsmanship, isn’t it?” said someone behind her. When she glanced up at the glass, she saw a young woman in a tailored suit, with her dark hair bound in a tidy braid. Her smile was just as tight, just as precise. “It’s truly something to see it up close.”

“It really is,” the redhead agreed. She straightened and turned around. “Jewel of the collection, everyone’s saying.”

“For once, the wisdom of the masses is entirely correct.” The woman’s smile had gone a touch condescending. “I traveled all the way from Rexxentrum to see it. It’s good to know the journey wasn’t wasted.”

“Did you now.”

“Indeed.” She proffered a hand. “Celia Corrigan-Whitburn. And I suppose you’ll be one of my rivals at auction, Miss…?”

“Ashe,” she answered, and then, somewhat awkwardly, “Kiki, specifically. To my friends. And the occasional rival.”

“Kiki. Really. Well, that’s charming.” Celia smiled again, mostly to the guard. “I don’t suppose I could persuade you to show us the clock in motion?”

“That’s a question for one of the specialists, ma’am.”

“Of course. Could you call one over, please?”

His expression didn’t change, but he touched his earpiece and murmured something Kiki couldn’t hear. She reflexively reached up to her own ear, touching the jewel that still hung there, but as ever, it remained perfectly silent.

Celia, who was speaking again, didn’t seem to notice.

“I was sent to inspect this at the behest of my employers,” she said. “We specialize in far more complex devices, but we still appreciate the classics. Especially when their makers are so interesting. Ah, there we are.”

The auction specialist, a tall human woman with an aquiline nose, nodded a greeting. “I understand you’re interested in the de Rolo clock.”

“Are you saying that’s its official provenance, then?”

“We can’t say it with 100% certainty, but all the hallmarks we’re aware of are there. I can show you one or two of them. Just a moment.”

While the guard hovered close by, she produced a small key and unlocked one side of the display case. Then she reached in with one gloved hand and pointed.

“That right there, of course, is the famous trained bear that belonged to the reigning de Rolos,” she said. “Trinket, by name. You’ll see him in motifs across Whitestone even today.”

“Trinket,” Celia repeated wryly. “Whatever inspired that name for a bear?”

“We don’t actually know,” the specialist admitted. “Much of Vex’ahlia’s history before becoming Baroness remains vague. But the popular theory is that since her husband was so clever in crafting trinkets, the bear was nicknamed thus to prove he was one of her own.”

Ms. Ashe, who knew that that wasn’t the story at all, twisted her lips but kept her mouth shut.

“The building is a stylized representation of a de Rolo property,” the specialist went on, indicating architectural details and commenting over a few. “Back in the 9th century, it was a shop. Part of the economic renaissance of Whitestone after being reclaimed from the Briarwoods.”

“It was a bakery,” Ms. Ashe added, unable to help herself this time. “The Slayer’s Cake. You can see part of the logo on the sign.”

The specialist’s eyes lit up. “Good eyes. Yes, that’s the name we have on record.”

“Again with the strange titles,” Celia remarked. “Slaying cakes?”

Kiki felt like she had to reply. “It was a tongue-in-cheek reference to another guild. The Slayer’s Take. Still exists, but under a different name and very different regulations. They hunted a few things too close to extinction, so now they claim to be about responsible wildlife management and environmental stewardship.” She quirked an eyebrow. “I understand a druid or two nudged them in that direction.”

Celia sniffed. “The Green Coalition at work again. We’ve had debates with them about our mining operations.”

“I imagine you have,” Kiki said under her breath.

“So what was the connection between the Slayer’s Take and a bakery?” Celia asked.

“The bakery founders used to be members,” said the specialist. “It was something of a retirement venture, after they were done with the adventuring life.”

“Actually, they opened it slightly before they fought…” Kiki began, then shook her head and waved a hand. “But close enough.”

The specialist turned to her. “So you’re also a student of local history.”

“Something like. Just…long experience.” Kiki shrugged one shoulder and changed the topic. “But this clock. Anyone could make a clock themed around the city. Is there a maker’s mark to identify it?”

Celia nodded as if she also wanted to know. The specialist gently tilted the clock back to show the symbol on the base. “The mark is for the artisans’ society,” she said. “We have a chart of different iterations of this logo. This is the earliest, the one Lord de Rolo personally designed. It didn’t acquire the double border until the 850s.”

“Hmm,” Kiki said, studying the little symbol.

“Also, the way the figures move is very typical of his work. Let me show you.” She set it back down and delicately wound the clock.

Celia bent closer this time. Kiki, her attention caught, didn’t move. She just held her breath and waited as the gears turned and the hands realigned, and the figures began gradually to stir.

“Look here,” said the auction specialist, indicating the townspeople in motion. “The articulation is particularly clever. My favorite is the woman offering a pastry to the bear.”

Kiki whispered something that might have been a name, but no one else heard it. The clockwork bear, though, lifted his head and seemingly looked straight out through the glass at her.

“The scene’s all very prosaic, isn’t it,” Celia said. “You’re right, though; the craftsmanship is terribly clever. There’s familiar techniques here, actually. I’ve seen clockwork like this before. Might lend credence to a few theories.”

The bear took a polite sniff of the pastry. Kiki’s side glance was less friendly. “What sort of theories do you mean?”

“That there really were ideas exchanged between Mr. de Rolo and our company founder. Maybe even outright collaboration.” She paused. “Well. Our honorary founder, I should say. The original inventor of the rifles that we licensed and continued developing. Did I mention I work in weapons manufacturing?”

“You might have left that out,” Kiki said thinly. “Are you speaking of…”

Celia’s tone turned conspiratorial. “Dr. Anna Ripley,” she answered with a smile. “She may still be a controversial figure, but I’ve always found her fascinating. And I’ve studied both her works and those of her competitors for a very long time.”

The clock chimed, and the bird on the rooftop opened its beak in a warning caw. Kiki, struck dumb, distantly felt that it might have been laying on the dramatic irony a bit thick.

The specialist, who’d missed that exchange while listening to something over her earpiece, closed and locked the case before nodding to them both. “If you’ll excuse me, it seems I have another auction-goer to speak to. But it’s good to see your interest. If you have other questions, come find me. I’ll be here until the end of the afternoon.”

“Of course,” Celia said, smiling brightly. “Thank you.”

The specialist walked off. Celia, too, readied to go. She faced Kiki again, though, and gave her one more little smile. It was taking on distinct shades of a smirk. “I hope you understand my interest in this item now, at least.”

“I do,” Kiki said, her voice low.

“And if I might ask—because now I’m curious—what brought you here to bid on this?”

She thought about it. “History,” she said at last. “Legacy. And a certain personal interest.”

“Care to share what kind?”

Kiki met her gaze levelly. “No.”

Celia’s eyebrows lifted. Then she started to laugh. “Well. You’ll make for an interesting competitor after all. But I’ll warn you, the Whitburn Company coffers run deep.” She winked. “I’ll see you at the auction, Miss Ashe.”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” Kiki said, and watched Celia go. The woman’s heels clicked rhythmically on the stone floor, almost mechanical in their precision, and only slowly grew quieter until they were lost in the sound of the crowd.

Kiki let out a long, long breath when she was gone. She looked briefly at the guard, who didn’t react, then slowly returned to the case. He didn’t seem bothered when she pressed one hand to the glass for support, at least. And if he was listening when she murmured one last thing aloud, she found she didn’t care.

“Oh, buddy,” Keyleth said to the little clockwork bear. “This just got a lot more complicated.”

Trinket roared his agreement before slowly, slowly winding down, going silent and still once more.

#critical role #fic #keyleth

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amoveablejake · 2 years ago

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World in Motion

Here we go again.

As I write this we are one week away from the 2022 World Cup, which really I can’t believe. This World Cup feels like it has just appeared out of nowhere in part because it is taking place in the winter rather than the customary summer which means that there has already been half a season of football before this new international tournament takes to the world stage. And although this World Cup feels like it has appeared out of nowhere, the conversations regarding certain aspects of it have been going on for quite some time. This World Cup really shouldn’t be happening where it is, its sport-swashing and we know that. FIFA knows that and Sepp Blatter has even said that over the past week calling awarding the tournament to Qatar a ‘mistake’. There is a dark cloud that is hovering over this tournament and one that should not be ignored. So with that in mind, it does make this World Cup all the more different and not in a positive way at all. From a writing side of things, I wanted to say journalistic but I’m not there yet, I will ofcourse be following the tournament unfolding as there still will be narratives to discuss and highs and lows of this competition all the while knowing that the bigger picture here is one that should definitely be learned from.

This World Cup feels a bit like a changing of the guard. For many football players who have become icons of the modern game this will (most likely but we never can tell) their last time out to this tournament. This may well be Lionel Messi’s last World Cup and despite his best efforts it will probably be Cristiano Ronaldo’s last outing aswell. Neymar has also mentioned it may be his final tournament but I’m not so sure. To go alongside this upcoming departure of big names, there are many young talents now breaking through the teams. Infact, looking over the World Cup squad announcements, I would say that there is a general feeling that most of these teams are young teams. They perhaps lack the experience that squads going to major tournaments have had in the past and I like that. A lot. Teams with younger players yes, make more mistakes but they also take more risks. They have more exciting plays and the highs are felt more with them as are the blows. Mbappe at the 2018 World Cup is an example of a young player making the tournament his own through dazzling play and I have a feeling that the Frenchman is going to make the last World Cup appear to be only a warm up this time around. Likewsie Jude Bellingham for England has become a pillar of German football through his performances for Borussia Dortmund and many eyes will be on him this time around. Particularly those eyes of this little island nation.

I am sure that this won’t be the last World Cup piece I write this year, infact I am certain of it. If anything this is more an introductory piece rather than a preview as that may be to come. This is only the opening gambit of more writing to come but even so I am contractually obliged, if not emotionally obliged to mention the England team, aren’t I. Look, England are entering this tournament from their worst run of form since 1958. They are entering it from the heartbreak of the 2020 (2021) European final. They are entering it knowing that on paper, their group is probably one that they should win if not at the very least progress from. When the squad was announced this week I was cautiosly excited. Yes, there are names on the list that I wouldn’t have picked but there are some I would have and am excited about (Maddison, please don’t let me down). Do I think that its a squad that will inspire fear into the hearts of many of potential opponents that we could face? No. Do I think that this team will win the World Cup, I’m not sure but I do think that this team is going to take its fans on quite the ride. This is an England team that has the potential to do great things and to provide moments that will sit in our hearts and minds forever and I’m hoping in a positive way. Look, I said that this isn’t a preview piece and so I’m not going to make any predictions now about who will win but, you have to believe right. Even though, you know, its never going to happen, you have to believe that maybe, just maybe, it will come home. This is a very different World Cup with a multitude of aspects to consider and I really have no idea how its going to play out but I am ready to embark on this journey.

-Jake, a man still keeping up with Duolingo, 13/11/2022

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jswdmb1 · 6 years ago

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King For A Day

“Well the way that we're living,

Is all take and no giving,

There's nothing to believe in,

The loudest mouth will hail the new found way”

- XTC

The State of the Union and the Democratic response will be on tonight and I will not be watching (I’ll actually be at the Loyola game where you should be too!). This is not some sort of meaningless protest but rather a part of honoring a commitment I have made to myself not to waste any given day. This also has nothing to do with any personal dislike I have for the current president or anyone else in office as I haven’t paid attention to one of these addresses in years (if ever). It’s a pointless exercise that somehow became a tradition that nobody ever wanted.

The Constitution only requires that the president report back to Congress from time-to-time on how things are going. This was back in a time when that type of report would have been necessary due to the lack of technology we have now that allows everyone to keep tabs on everybody. It was also because of the legitimate separation of branches of government existed where Congress and the executive branch generally stayed pretty far apart. The State of the Union was typically a written report and basically served as an inter-office memo to keep the two branches updated on their activities and that’s about it.

At some point in the 20th century, this changed and the address became delivered by the president in person at the invitation of Congress. If you really want to know who, why, when that happened feel free to GTS (I don’t know and don’t do research here). The television era turned the address into a political spectical that somehow morphed into a sacred tradition of our democracy. That, of course, never was the intent of the framers of our Constitution and they certainly wouldn’t approve of an administrative provision becoming a partisan showcase. Besides, with the advent of 24/7 information using technology that the founding fathers could have never imagined, the whole point of providing a status update has become obsolete. This is true with much of the way we govern, which brings me to my real point - we need a Constitutional Convention.

When our Constitution was drawn up, the writers were incredibly prescient and put in safety valves for updating it when needed. They were way too smart to believe that they could get things perfect, and certainly did not intend for the document to turn into the equivalent of Moses getting the commandments on two stones. Parts of the Constitution were left vague for this purpose, or were unintentionally created ambiguously, so that future leaders would have the flexibility to adapt with a future no one could possibly predict. These safety valves would ensure that the democratic ideals that upon which they founded our nation would stay intact no matter what changes around it take place.

The first one everyone knows is the Constitutional amendment. Congress can propose an amendment if two-thirds of each chamber approve it. It then goes to the individual state legislatures, and if thirty-four approve it (also two-thirds rounded up for you math junkies), then the Constitution is amended. This, of course, was used immediately for the Bill of Rights. Over the past 200+ years since the passing of the Bill of Rights, there have been only seventeen more amendments with two of those cancelling each other out (the prohibition of alcohol and the subsequent repealing of said amendment). If you had started a pool among the original members of the first Constitutional Convention about how many amendments there would be in the next 250 years, I’m guessing none would have gone for just 27. They probably would have envisioned hundreds going through by this point in time.

Now i am not suggesting that amendments are too hard to get passed. The mechanisms put in place were designed to make it difficult to adopt frivolous or partisan changes to the basic structure of the government the framers designed. This has largely worked (prohibition being the exception), and the amendments passed so far have been appropriate. The problem is that the partisan divide that a two-party monopoly has created makes any potential for an amendment to ever occur again almost impossible. Remember, when the constitution was drawn up, there really weren’t political parties, or at least they did not exist in the form we see now. At best, the framers likely assumed there would be many parties out there and cooperation among them would occur avoiding any one or two taking firm control. Of course, that did not happen, and it has led to the constitutional amendment becoming impotent.

So then how do we get progress accomplished without the ability to change with the times as our forefathers intended? An easy answer would be the rising of at least a third-party (if not more) that would break the stranglehold the Democrats and Republicans have over our current government and force some bipartisan efforts to make or change laws that are for the better of the majority of Americans, not just a few that have the power and/or money to lobby Congress. I have not totally given up on this notion as I think the weight of internal pressures will break apart one if not both major parties at some point (my bet is that the Republicans go first simply because they have strayed so far from their core ideologies). That may take a while, though, and we cannot sit around and wait. Fortunately, the founders gave us another safety valve.

Without congressional approval, two-thirds of the states (again that is thirty-four) can call for another constitutional convention. Impossible, you say, but think about it. All that is being passed in this case is to have the convention itself not what happens there or what is discussed. While thirty-four states may not agree on the reason why this needed, that is not relevant. There could be competing motivations from states on complete opposite ends of the political spectrum that come to the same conclusion that a convention is needed. Supposedly, twenty-seven states have passed such a request (again, I don’t research so I don’t know if that is true). If seven more states go with this notion, then one is happening whether Congress wants it or not. And, the president has no say in this whatsoever. It is very likely he/she would not be allowed at such an event (in the accounting world, we call this an internal control). This becomes a much less far-fetched scenario compared to the long-shot that an individual amendment would have in this environment.

What would be discussed at a constitutional convention? Well, that is up to the participants, but I think the focus should be on a re-balancing of power among the branches and reducing the consolidation of power a few old, rich, white men have accumulated, which is holding government hostage for the rest of us. Items to explore would be reducing the power of the executive order, instituting term limits (including for the Supreme Court), and revising or eliminating the incredibly outdated concept of an Electoral College. Two other issues that need prioritization are campaign finance and gerrymandering. My guess is that a guy like Thomas Jefferson would throw up if he saw a map of my congressional district and the money that was spent to get it that way. While none of these topics will get settled easily or quickly, some forum is needed for the debate to occur. As the recent shutdown showed, the current government is not a place for any sort of healthy exchange of ideas to take place. Even well=meaning and intelligent politicians (yes there are a few - in both parties) have no shot at making a difference due to the stranglehold of their own party leaderships. A convention would give at least those folks an open forum to get ideas on the table.

What are the chances of this? I really don’t know. Even if they are low, it is our only shot. If our country was a football game, we are down seven with the ball at the fifty yard line with three seconds left. The only play to save the game and go to overtime is a Hail Mary pass. While the odds of completing one of those is very low, we have to at least take a shot or the game is over. The impacts of the most recent shutdown were real and hurt regular Americans deeply. Without change, that is a preview of what life is going to be like in this country if we continue to allow the current stakeholders to keep consolidating power, money and influence to advance their self-interests at the expense of our freedoms as we know them. A while back I wrote a post hoping I’ll be alive to see the country celebrate its tricentennial. I now have a more modest goal of seeing this government survive to its 250th birthday. A nice present for that celebration would be a constitutional convention to go along with the tall ships and fireworks that will inevitably be trotted out (that will be in 2026 if your really have to ask). We should start working now at lobbying our state politicians to push for approving a convention. I have no idea if Illinois has already passed such an amendment, but I’m going to ask my representative in the state house to look into it (remember she owes me a favor after stopping by my house during her campaign and interrupting my afternoon game shows). It all sounds crazy (hey, that’s my calling card), but we have no choice. If we don’t try this,then it is the football equivalent of taking a knee and ending the game. I don’t think anyone at that first convention wanted us to do that, and I, for one, will do my best to not let it happen.

Cheers,

Jim

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monkey-network · 7 years ago

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Good Stuff’s Best of 2017

WARNING: I’d like to thank everybody who was here for me when times were low. Thank you, take care out there, and enjoy.

Cartoons; the one thing that I will continuously watch until I go blind. 2017 was an emotional handful and an exhausting trudge, can’t deny that, and I’m counting down the best cartoons/animations I’ve seen and loved this year in no particular order. Only two rules, no sneak previews of future projects (sorry to Unikitty and Hideo Kojima). Here we go....

10. HANAZUKI: FULL OF TREASURES

This was a sleeper hit tbh. The fact all the episodes were free on Youtube blew my mind, but having a well structured story with a lovely cold space color palette, actually relatable characters, and a sinister undertones below its tender, colorful charm to be as a nice headliner to when Friendship is Magic came back in spring. It was an inviting start for the year, and with the guy behind Motorcity and Superjail taking the helm and having two more seasons being produced, Hanazuki is something I find is in good hands come 2018.

9. LITTLE WITCH ACADEMIA

Four long years. I waited FOUR long goddamn years...and fuck me was it worth it. A spectacle is what I can call Little Witch Academia. Almost every episode dazzled me with its stage made bravado and confidence that always made me say, “Okay. Let’s make it til’ the next week”. Even when things got serious, LWA knew how to have fun and make the most of its concept. There is a sense of predictability sometimes, but the series would still throw you some good curve balls to never lose your interest. What did lose my interest was Netflix’s sorry excuse of a dub. The movies: fine. But Netflix, try that again, with any other anime, and I will rip your nuts off.

8. Now I might be cheating here since it’s not a cartoon, but shit it might as well have been

CUPHEAD

The effort that went into this is phenomenal, beyond the many other games of the year no doubt. While not everything is animated, I could tell they were cutting corners in some areas, the frame BY frame animated enemies, bosses, and effects made this one of the most visually colorful and alive games to date, next to Mario Odyssey. Not only was this game a frustrating yet joyous romp to start and finish, but the music and art flawlessly channeled the essence of a time where the word “cartoon” was only starting to make good progress. My favorite character would have to be Satan King Dice, whom is an animated homage to great musician and composer Cab Calloway. His stache, his clothing, even his Cheshire grin captured the cool, jazzy vibe Calloway always provided in his performances. He and his fight was the highlight of Cuphead for me and I hope this game, if a sequel isn’t possible, is well remembered for its unexpected excellence in how a video game can look.

7. CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS/L-EGGO BATMAN

Faithful is what I can describe these two. Captain Underpants was just an awesome book to elementary schooler me, but to see a well animated, well written movie about a dude in his underwear was nothing short of a simple yet powerful masterpiece. As for Batman, this is one of the three truest DC and Batman movies around this time, and it has a gay undertone with Batman and the Joker’s relationship (how can you not pull that off, Suicide Squad?). While not a big fan of lego myself, The Lego Movie put my faith WB making another one equally as good, and they did not disappoint. It’s a shame it got snubbed at the Golden Globes, it deserves the award more than the Boss Baby. Plus it had a Superman that didn’t bore me while having a terrible CGI lip job that’s only made worse by his two way dick nose....

Justice League costed 300,000,000 dollars.............

6. DANGER & EGGS

To me, this series felt like one of the few steps forward the world took to make the LGBT+ community feel more welcome and inspired in public outlets; a small step, but progressive none the less. It is a colorful and lively action comedy, a first to be created by a transgender person, where you can see a non-binary character, a pride fest, diverse background characters of orientation and ethnicity, and it feels like they are a part of the world and not footnotes that states that you should respect queer, bi, ace, and so on based on a say so. It’s a show don’t tell type of series and it brightened my summer before I had to remind myself that college exists and is expecting me.

5. TANGLED: THE SERIES

*ring ring* “Hello?” Ye, Disney? How fucking dare you?

My hype for this was undoubtful. I love Tangled the movie, I consider it one of my favorite 2010 disney flics beside Wreck it Ralph and Moana. And when the art style was up for a preview for this (?), I just sat and waited until it finally premiered and damn. I never stopped loving it, but it is until episode 16 where the series starts to hit high note after high note with the direction it’s going for the story. The fact that this all takes place not long after the movie makes the thought where Eugene and Rapunzel finally get married feels all the more earned. It’s working its way to a happily ever after, I adore this show, and this makes me appreciate Frozen a bit more for how far that’s fallen in the world after its one year of fame. Seriously, Gigantic had to get chopped, but Olaf can still live? Give me a break, Disney.

“Sir, I understand your enthusiasm....but this is Domino’s.” Then I will have the 5.99 large with Salchicha and pepperoncini with a liter sprite on delivery.

4. MADE IN ABYSS

This was so beautiful, so awesome, and much better than...

I wasted my life and I cannot say that I will ever reclaim that time proactively again the Anime

Made in Abyss is like Hunter x Hunter except Gon’s more booksmart and Kilua’s a timid robot. The bond between Riko and Reg was a fucking dynamic and heartfelt where Riko’s helps build Reg up and Reg kept Riko and himself safe with his bodily arsenal. That and this series has the best world building where they not only give the low down on almost everything about the titular abyss, but the atmospheric environments and the designs of the inhabiting creatures made this a unique world to want to explore myself. It knew what to show, and knew what to share. When things got serious, I actually tensed up at the thought of shit truly going down; they knew how to soften the terror while maniacally instill fear in us for the safety of the traveling kids. I want to recommend this link to an awesome breakdown of how great Made in Abyss was. However, as it seems that a season two has gone down the abyss as well, and I’m afraid it can’t come back up.

3. LET’S BE HEROES!!

Is it safe to call this the M.U.G.E.N. of cartoons? Just an all up mashup of stuff I love in a Saturday morning? Campy, action, and laid back, this is something I can be sober or grab some kush and I would be enjoy the show just the same. They even have references you might not have ever heard of, but might like the search. OK KO’s a popcorn cartoon, it’s not for everybody, but it established itself well into the modern CN era when Adventure Time finally has to move on.

2. SAMURAI JACK

Getting this out of the way: episode 6 toiled the final season of Samurai Jack for me. Not gonna go into detail, but if that episode was remade, I would have been more satisfied looking back. However, that does not stop me from saying this is how a revival should be, this is how a reboot should work, THIS is how you can bring nostalgia back. Samurai Jack was great back then, but this season, wrapping up the loose plight of our boy trying to get back to the past and defeat the demon Aku, was satisfactory to many fans. Even those who’ve never heard or remember Jack could just enjoy this as a dynamic mini-series; it gives you context of what happened before without having to recap the original plot of it. For non fans, it’s mostly about an ageless samurai, longing to return to his own time, stuck in the future for over 50 years to the point of losing his honor and his mind. It’s a binge worthy 10 episode season, originally intended to be a movie, and aside from polar opinionated finale, this made Samurai Jack feel great to love again.

1. TRUE AND THE RAINBOW KINGDOM

This is a personal choice from me because 2017 was an honest to god terrible year for me; nothing but turmoil, season to season, and the struggle to cope with that despair in a way I felt actually could help. However, this small series here boosted my spirits because even with it being a show for little kids that I originally wanted to watch as a joke, the competent, enthusiastic spirit it had just moved me in a way that cartoons that I love for eons could only try to do on a whim. It’s not the best made cartoon, it’s not something I sincerely recommend to you all, but it helped me realize that the best thing about life is finding and seeking things that don’t just distract you from the hard and testing times reality puts on you, but gives you a moment of honest bliss and happiness that can influence your outlook on looking forward to better things because things like this, cartoons like this, CAN make you feel better.

*sniff* Which is why, the actual cartoon of the year....

1. is STEVEN U., BABY!

Just kidding, guys! You will NEVER win, Steven!

TEEN TITANS GO! WINS IT AGAIN, BABYYYY! ONCE AGAIN BABY (i don’t even like it no more...), YOUR NEW FAVORITE SHOW (i don’t even fucking like it no...) RISES TO THE TO-

But Steven Universe in Space, though. That’s when it’ll be great again.

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your-dietician · 3 years ago

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Entertainment heat wave is coming this summer: What to watch for | Entertainment

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/entertainment/entertainment-heat-wave-is-coming-this-summer-what-to-watch-for-entertainment/

Entertainment heat wave is coming this summer: What to watch for | Entertainment

Remember 2019, when hot girl summer became a motto for living with confidence?

Well, with life getting closer to normal and vaccines nudging the pandemic into — fingers crossed — the rear-view mirror, 2021’s entertainment calendar for the next few months has a similar mood.

Call it a hot everything summer.

Blockbuster movies are returning to theaters. Live concerts are set to resume. Television and streaming shows are back to being a nice part of the mix, not a sole entertainment lifeline. And with travel heating up again, beach books can actually be read on a faraway beach.

To navigate this soaring heat index for fun, here is a list of recommendations that are sunny, breezy, steaming and sizzling. You get the idea.

Hot Jeff Daniels summer

Michigan’s resident acting great always keeps it real — remember his plaid dad shirt at February’s virtual Golden Globes? His latest project evokes his home state’s ethos of blue-collar endurance. “American Rust,” a nine-episode series premiering Sept. 12 on Showtime, stars Daniels as the police chief of a Rust-Belt Pennsylvania town who is feeling “ticked off and kind of jumpy” when a murder investigation tests his loyalties. If the preview looks a bit like HBO’s gritty “Mare of Easttown,” that’s a very good thing.

Hot goofy summer

In real life, metro Detroit native Tim Robinson could be a calm, collected guy. But as a sketch comedian, he’s made an art form out of wildly overreacting to life’s little embarrassments. “I Think You Should Leave,” his mini-masterpiece Netflix show, is back July 6 with a second season. Besides brilliantly making himself the butt of the jokes, Robinson always remembers his hometown friends. Let’s hope for repeat appearances by his pals like “Detroiters” co-star Sam Richardson and Troy’s own Oscar nominee, Steven Yeun.

Hot retro Motor City summer

The Detroit of the mid-1950s comes alive in director Steven Soderbergh’s “No Sudden Move,” available July 1 on HBO Max. The crime drama starring Don Cheadle, David Harbour, Benicio del Toro, Jon Hamm and more is about some low-level criminals given a simple assignment that draws them into a mystery that stretches to the heights of the automotive industry’s power structure. The film was shot last year in Detroit under strict COVID-19 safety measures, because Soderbergh, who filmed 1998’s “Out of Sight” here, would accept no other city as a substitute.

Hot road trip summer

Six years ago, a young waitress from Detroit created a viral Twitter thread about a bizarre journey she took to Florida with a new friend to do some freelance stripping. It was as compelling as a novel and as vivid as a movie. Cut to June 30 when “Zola” hits theaters starring Taylour Page and Riley Keough. It’s a comedy and a thriller that defies expectations and makes J-Lo’s “Hustlers” seem mild. Director Janicza Bravo and screenplay co-writer Jeremy O. Harris have created a raunchy adventure that still respects A’Ziah (Zola) King as a strong woman and original writing voice.

Hot action dad summer

Yes, Matt Damon is now old enough to play a Liam Neeson-esque outraged father out for justice. In “Stillwater,” Damon is a worker for an Oklahoma oil rig who must travel to France to try and clear his daughter (Abigail Breslin) of murder charges. Think “Taken,” if it were a serious drama directed and co-written by Tom McCarthy of “Spotlight” fame. It comes out July 30, just in time to make Damon’s fans from his “Good Will Hunting” days feel ancient.

Hot reboot summer

It has been almost a decade since “Gossip Girl” ended its run, which is way too long to be without fashion tips from impossibly beautiful rich kids. The newly reimagined “Gossip Girl” on HBO Max arrives July 8 with some notable improvements, like the inclusiveness of its cast of newcomers. But it’s bringing back the original narrator, Kristen Bell (who grew up in Huntington Woods), as the voice of the title character with the hidden identity.

Hot sweating summer

Sweating is a bodily function, but what exactly is it all about? “The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration,” out July 13, will explore the biology, history and marketing behind the moisture that makes us glow (to use a polite term). It covers everything from the role of stress in sweat to deodorant research that involves people who can sniff out, literally, the effectiveness of a product. Since the New York Times recommended the book as one of its 24 summer reads, you know that author Sarah Everts did sweat the details.

Hot Olympic star summer

The 2021 Tokyo Games, which run July 23-Aug. 8, will feature the world’s best gymnast, Simone Biles. She still enjoys competing, but quarantining gave her some time to improve her work-life balance, as she told Glamour for its June cover story (which comes with a dazzling photo spread of Biles). “Before I would only focus on the gym. But me being happy outside the gym is just as important as me being happy and doing well in the gym. Now it’s like everything’s coming together.” For the 24-year-old GOAT, the sky — or, maybe, gravity — is the limit.

Hot variety show summer

“What percentage of white women do you hate? And there is a right answer.” That was among the questions posed by internet sensation Ziwe to her first guest, Fran Lebowitz, on the current Showtime series that carries her name. Combining interviews, sketches and music, “Ziwe” deploys comedy to illuminate America’s awkwardness on issues of race and politics. The results are hilarious, so find out about Ziwe now before her next project arrives, a scam-themed comedy for Amazon called “The Nigerian Princess.”

Hot ice road summer

Take the driving skills of the reality series “Ice Road Truckers” and add one stoic dose of Liam Neeson and you’ve got “The Ice Road,” which premiered Friday on Hulu. The adventure flick involves a collapse in a diamond mine, the miners trapped inside and the man (Neeson) who’s willing to steer his ginormous rig over frozen water to attempt a rescue mission. Crank up the AC temporarily!

Hot kindness summer

There is a better way to be a human being, and he shares a name with an Apple TV+ series. “Ted Lasso,” the fish-out-of-water sitcom about an American football coach (Jason Sudeikis) who’s drafted to lead a British soccer team returns for a second season on July 23 —the date that Lasso fans will resume their efforts to be more empathetic and encouraging, just like Ted. Only there’s a new sports psychologist for AFC Richmond who seems impervious to Ted’s charms and home-baked biscuits. She doesn’t like Ted? We’re gobsmacked!

Hot podcast summer

When Michael Che guested on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” recently, his segment was interrupted repeatedly by Dave Chappelle, who kept plugging his “The Midnight Miracle” podcast available on Luminary. What Chappelle was selling is worth the listening. “The Midnight Miracle” brings him together with his co-hosts, Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey, and his famous friends from the comedy world and beyond for funny and though-provoking conversations interspersed with music. If you were a fly on the wall of Chappelle’s home, this is what you might hear.

Hot series finale summer

The last 10 episodes of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” start airing Aug. 12 on NBC, a too-short goodbye to one of the most underrated comedies in TV history. You can give all the glory to “The Office,” but the detectives of the Nine-Nine could go toe to toe with Dunder-Mifflin’s Scranton branch in terms of quirkiness, humanity and office romances and bromances. It’s hard to pick a favorite dynamic among the characters, but the irritated father-incorrigible son vibes between Captain Holt (Andre Braugher) and Det. Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) are sublime.

Hot musical comedy summer

Keegan-Michael Key and “Saturday Night Live’s” Cecily Strong lead a star-studded cast in “Schmigadoon!,” an AppleTV+ series premiering July 16 that magically transports a backpacking couple to a land of 1940s musicals. Until Broadway reopens in September, this parody love letter to the power of musical theater should do nicely. And the premiere episode’s song “Corn Pudding”? Catchy!

Hot nostalgia tour

Hall & Oates are criss-crossing the nation with enough 1980s hits —”Maneater,” “Kiss on My List,” “I Can’t Go for That,” “You Make My Dreams Come True,” etc. — to make you want to trade your mom jeans for spandex leggings. As if they weren’t enough top-40 goodness, their opening acts are Squeeze, still pouring a cup of “Black Coffee in Bed” all these years later, and K.T. Tunstall, whose “Suddenly I See” is immortalized as the anthem of “The Devil Wears Prada.”

Hot all-female, all-Muslim punk band summer

A British import now airing on the NBC streaming spinoff Peacock, “We Are Lady Parts” would be notable alone for defying stereotypes about Muslim women. But this sitcom about an all-female, all-Muslim aspiring rock band is a gem of both representation and laughs, thanks to characters like Amina, a shy doctoral candidate in microbiology whose complaints about a guy she calls “Bashir with the good beard” inspires a song.

Hot documentary summer

While Woodstock has become synonymous with epic music gatherings, the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969 is finally about to get the pop-culture recognition it deserves. “Summer of Soul: (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised),” directed by the Roots drummer Questlove, will hit theaters and Hulu on July 2. It chronicles a mostly forgotten event that drew superstars like Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, the Fifth Dimension, Sly & the Family Stone and B.B. King. Using his vast knowledge of music, archival footage and interviews with performers and those who attended, Questlove has created a history lesson that’s also the best concert you’ve never seen before.

Hot Marvel summer

Once you’re all caught up with the summer streaming sensation “Loki” on Disney+, please turn your attention to two new films. “Black Widow,” the long-awaited star turn for Scarlett Johansson’s former KGB assassin Natasha Romanoff, makes its debut July 9. It’s followed by “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” set for Sept. 3 and starring Simu Liu (“Kim’s Convenience”) as the martial arts master of the title. All brought to you by the corporate global entertainment domination machine that is Marvel.

Hot biopic summer

“Respect,” starring Jennifer Hudson, arrives Aug. 13 at theaters, nearly three years to the day the world lost the Queen of Soul. Although Cynthia Erivo gave a fine performance earlier this year as Franklin in “Genius: Aretha” on the National Geographic network, the odds are good that Hudson, chosen by Franklin herself for the part, will be the definitive screen Aretha.

Hot fiction summer

Terry McMillan calls “The Other Black Girl” essential reading. Entertainment Weekly describes it as “‘The Devil Wears Prada’ meets ‘Get Out,’ with a little bit of ‘Black Mirror’ thrown in.” This debut novel by Zakiya Dalila Harris mixes office politics with suspense in its story of Nella Rogers, an editorial assistant who’s the only Black staffer at a noted publishing company. When Hazel, a new Black employee, is hired, things seem to be improving. But then Nella starts receiving ominous unsigned notes. Sounds like yet another reason to keep working from home.

Hot slow dance summer

After nearly four months on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, “Leave the Door Open” remains the song most likely to provoke a quiet storm on the dance floor. The hit single from Silk Sonic (aka Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak) may sound like a cover of a long-lost ‘70s classic R&B tune, but it’s a contemporary song that can make you forget the humidity long enough for “kissing, cuddling, rose petals in the bathtub, girl, lets jump in.”

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scriptaed · 7 years ago

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a reflection of 2017 as a writer

In an effort to continuously better myself, I’m just going to write a thorough reflection of this blog on the year of 2017! So whether you joined me at the beginning, middle, end, or even prior to 2017, feel free to reminisce or read along with me!

Paper Hearts

January 3: Paper Hearts (Part 10) was posted, marking the beginning of the end of an era which, in my opinion, really garnered a new, wide audience for me on this blog.

April 12: The Paper Hearts series finally comes to an end after a 6 months run. I didn’t know writing love triangles could be so taxing, because while some rooted for Jungkook (mainly Jungkook stans) and some rooted for Jimin (mainly Jimin stans), I was torn apart as a writer because I liked both characters yet some readers were a bit pushy and trying to force their ideas on me. Overall though, many of you guys were so so kind and patient, and I’m incredibly thankful that many of you have stayed even after Paper Hearts.

The Labyrinth

January 7: Chapter 25 of the huge project, The Labyrinth, was posted after the long awaited revelation in Chapter 24 (which, surprisingly, amassed a huge response/feedback from a group of Labyrinth readers I never even knew existed before!) This was a huge step towards the completion of a series I had struggled to finish since January 2016.

August 1: The Labyrinth finally comes to an end with 41 chapters. After struggling for many months to convince myself to write despite the lack of a response, 2017 was the year I finally came to realize I write for myself - which ultimately worked out in the end as more and more readers started reading, only for The Labyrinth to become one of my most read/known of works! (It’s still my favorite work of all time)

Star-Crossed

March 7: My longest oneshot to that date (of course, until Between Us and Infinity came along) finally makes its debut titled as Star-Crossed! At first it didn’t garner as much attention, but that made the few feedback that I did receive all the more special. I was so proud of myself for creating something so cohesive and trudging through a month long of constant writing. Little did I know, it would become my first oneshot to hit 1k notes.

Between Us And Infinity

March 20: One of my proudest moments of the blog when I posted the first “preview” of the beginning processes of my outline for a oneshot I later would not even expect to be my biggest work yet. (link: x)

April 7: A month later and I would only have 2-3k or so words written out to post as a preview, (link: x)

June 6: A day after my birthday and the colossal oneshot has FINALLY been posted. Despite it not garnering much attention at first (only to become one of my most read works later), I was extremely proud of finishing the project. Standing at 35k, it is the longest works of mine up to date, and my first oneshot for Taehyung.

Bygones of the Sun

April 24: Shortly after finishing my last series, Paper Hearts, I dove right into another series I had in mind for a month or so - the next most read work/series of mine, BOTS. Surprisingly, it didn’t actually receive as much of a response as it does now, but it was and still is one of my favorite works because of how much effort I put into it. From the plot to the header and title (yes, I took 2 days to think of the title), everything was crafted with immense care.

The Crimson Prince

November 11: My writing speed suddenly dropped to an all time low as I became bombarded with adjusting to the college life and just in general going through a writing slump. This was originally supposed to be a series when I first wrote the one-shot at the end of 2016, but I decided to scrap it and rewrite it all after a year of growth as a writer.

After a couple months of drafting, I finally managed to crunch out TCP in a matter of a few days. Although it didn’t grasp as much attention as I had hoped in the beginning, I was so grateful for the response that did come through, for it resonated with the emotions I was attempting to capture through this 20k work (which I did not expect to turn out so long). Ultimately, I’m more than grateful that there are many of you guys who still read this one-shot.

Ink Nemesis

December 16: After hesitating on starting yet another series with an ongoing series, BOTS, I recalled that I was writing for myself and that there is no better time to write than when you are inspired; so, I posted Ink Nemesis. I’ve had the entire plot for the first chapter and a few later chapters planned out for a month prior, so it was really nice to finally post it for you guys to read, especially since I’m lacking in the Yoongi fics department. Although I don’t think it quite received as much attention as I would have liked (which seems to be a trend), I really didn’t mind at this point. I write for myself, and I’m thankful for those who do read it. Plus, it’s only the first chapter, and the exciting parts are still to come ;)

Drabble Game

June 17: In an attempt to rid myself of a writing slump, I decided to start a drabble game. While accepting around 25 or so requests, my main goal was to write for more of the members and post something short while working on other one-shots which always turn out to be longer than I planned.

June 21: Behind Closed Doors is the first fic to kick off the drabble game, and to my delight, many of you guys still find it one of my most angsty works yet. I’m glad that it’s my first drabble for Yoongi (one of my three only fics I wrote for Yoongi this year, sadly).

July 1: Although my main goal was to write more for the hyung line, Namjoon especially, I didn’t manage to post a huge one-shot I have in the works for him this year. Therefore, Misplaced is, unfortunately, my only work for Namjoon at this moment; however, I’m glad that it received great feedback and that many of my soft Joon stans enjoyed the read. To be honest, I was quite surprised at how much attention it gained.

July 7: Nothing Like Us is the first fic I wrote for Jungkook in a long time since Paper Hearts. Although the plot is simple, I’m happy to say that I was still able to evoke the essence of angst in such a short piece of work - especially since most of my works tend to have extensive plots and length.

December 1: And of course, this blog wouldn’t be the same without So I Heard You Like Bad Boys. Now, this, I DEFINITELY didn’t expect to gain as much attention and feedback as it did. I initially thought it was a cute drabble - which ended up being 4.4k, way longer than I expected, as usual - but I didn’t expect it to gain the most amount of notes out of all of my works. Compared to The Crimson Prince, which has thorough plots/concepts and months of effort poured into it, I managed to write this drabble in a few hours. Although I’m a bit salty, ultimately I’m glad that this drabble is proof that smut is not “required” to make a great story and receive attention. Fluff can be just as powerful of a tool as angst or smut.

#personal #discusserino #2017

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omegatheunknown · 5 years ago

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...In which I thoroughly (yet naively) survey Metallica.

More than a month ago I finished reading Masters of Doom, which in addition to being an interesting history of PC Gaming’s pioneering id Software and stirring nostalgia about the halcyon days of 90s first-person shooters, made frequent and compelling reference to the influence of heavy metal on the aesthetic sensibilities of John Romero (though he’s ultimately more of a Dokken fan, which I can’t speak to.) Listening to the actual soundtracks of Doom, Doom II, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D led me straight into a curious survey of Megadeth, then Metallica, briefly Slayer, Anthrax, back to Metallica, Exodus, Sepultura, Suicidal Tendencies, Overkill, back to Megadeth and then back Metallica, over and over Metallica. I am listening to Metallica now.

Can’t say I’m sure why. Without meaning to sound condescending, I’d always assumed if thrash metal appealed to me, it might have happened when I was a teenager. Perhaps environmental factors were at play, but at my most susceptible and angst filled years, the garage rock revival was in full swing, as was something of a (perceived? I will never know if this was a widespread thing. I wasn’t nearly as online then) grunge renaissance. Grunge was locked in as tonal and aesthetic sensibility and my friends’ bands were grungy pop punk with a bit of emo sprinkled on top. As I said, the questionable excesses of youth, complete with pretension about what is good (The Stooges, The Pixies, The Strokes and NIRVANA) and what is silly and ridiculous (Nu-Metal’s relative strength and the silliness of bands like Korn and Slipknot did not help Metal’s esteem.) A respect but low level of enthusiasm for Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden didn’t manifest anything serious any time in the last fifteen years. Thrash’s underground roots put some doubt in the mind re: whatever vague supposition my teenaged peers and I had about the opposing forces of punk and metal (though I do remember actual arguments with a fan of what I described as ornate but soulless arpeggios who thought PJ Harvey’s oeuvre was unsophisticated and boring.) There’s a lot of grunge’s DNA in early Metallica. Which kind of makes it all the more bewildering that I haven’t been here before. All that wasted time listening to Mudhoney! Also, not to spoil the ending, how bewildering it is that Metallica absolutely fell to pieces in the 90s. Kill ‘em All is a stupidly exciting record. Had I been around to hear it in the 80s, it would’ve melted my brain. I assume if I heard it in the 00s it would’ve done the same. I think part of the issue with Metallica is that when I was a precocious kid/tween they were not nearly at their best and the only second hand exposure you get to a well-established but no longer thriving band is their hits, and even post-survey I don’t particularly care for ‘One’ or ‘Enter Sandman.’ (Then again, at the height of Metallica v Napster you’d think young Zaq would’ve been a little more curious... and those mp3s would’ve be right there...) Anyway, Kill ‘em All: devastating and fun. Imagine if Mötley Crüe was ever any good (were they?) No, that’s insane. And gives a person very little to go on. High energy from the jump, utter shred. Reminiscent only of a slower, hopelessly outclassed version of the same thing, which is to say I think if you slowed a track like The Four Horsemen down you’d end up with a dreary sounding Sabbath number but why would you want that? (A different day perhaps.) Definitely the sexiest of the Metallica albums, just a little bit of the electricity of hair metal bleeding in at the edges, though the most wicked excesses are in flurries of virtuosity. “Bass solo, take one” -- much as I enjoy ‘Hit the Lights,’ ‘Jump in the Fire,’ ‘Seek & Destroy’ (and other imperative calls to action,) I think the bass solo ‘(Pulling Teeth)’ that splits the album is my favourite bit. Ride the Lightning -- actually, speaking of Cliff Burton, he of the improbable bass solos -- supposedly he planted the seeds of music theory/actually thinking about the music in his bandmates’ heads, leading to acoustic guitars, curious instrumentals and harmonies winding their way into the sophomore album. This probably also led them to getting way ahead of themselves and veering out of their lane, but in the meantime, Ride the Lightning is a lot more varied to listen to than their debut. Yes, it continues to wail, but it wails in new and exciting ways. ‘Creeping Death’ and ‘Trapped Under Ice’ are the choicest tracks. ‘Fade to Black’ is a pretty good song by the standards of a power ballad and is a nice dimension to add to the album but I’d point out that it portends Metallica’s inevitable doom. Master of Puppets is considered (nearly anywhere I’ve looked) the undisputed champion of thrash metal albums. I would kinda love to have a dissenting opinion here, but it feels impossible to deny. It is stunningly heavy and loud and kinetic. It’s definitely a twin to its predecessor, they share a layout, right up to track 4 being a power ballad. As a set they’re the Pokemon Red/Blue of Thrash. Anything other than the subtle evolution in the playing and production would’ve been weird as hell -- album number three and they nearly perfect the genre. On the subject of Metallica’s power ballads, I’d make the point that ‘Welcome Home (Sanitarium)’ is the pinnacle of their efforts -- gorgeous and grotesque in equal measure. And like Ride the Lightning follows ‘Fade to Black’ with an extra-heavy track, ‘Sanitarium’ is followed by the vicious gatling gun of ‘Disposable Heroes,’ as emphatic an anti-war song as one could imagine. Again special mention to a Cliff Burton feature -- ‘Orion’ is an oddity in the Metallica canon, can’t imagine there’s anything else like it that I’ve missed. It’s the most appropriate space marine soundtrack I’ve ever heard, it previews a much nerdier version of Metallica that starts writing about horrors from outer space. My impression is that long after I’ve moved on to another passing phase I’ll retain a fondness for their instrumentals, all five of the main ones are excellent. ...And Justice for All just isn’t as good as the previous two. This is becoming less about Metallica and more a tribute to Cliff Burton, but fact is -- his phenomenal bass lines are the secret sauce, and in the absence of Burton (and apparently due to Ulrich’s hearing loss?) the bass is often lost in the mix. It still wails, though relying more on arpeggios and prog-y tempo changes and layered arrangements -- with ‘loud’ as the governing principle in the mix, the instruments all have a bit of a unnatural synthetic quality, the effect is much more processed than the earlier albums and it occasionally sounds like a flat wall of sound... which is about to become a theme, oh boy. Though it does convincingly sound like a mutant off-shoot of the Ride the Lightning/Master of Puppets aesthetic, just a shaggier and excessive cousin prone to wild mood swings. Seven of the nine tracks are at least six and a half minutes long. At 9:48, ‘To Live is to Die’ is the first song in the catalogue that I would consider straight tedious (Though the title track is about the same length and it’s quite good!) At the end of the album, ‘Dyers Eve’ appears as a great redeemer, probably the best expression of what they were trying to do here. Oh yeah -- ‘One.’ Honestly it gets there. It’s a very pretty song. I think what I don’t like about the ballads is Hetfield’s voice when he’s singing (as opposed to when he’s growling, yelling, barking) may as well be someone trying to do a Brad Roberts impression. Though maybe that’s not the issue, I always enjoy The Crash Test Dummies. Metallica/Black Album. I don’t like this. Or, I don’t like it very much but I recognize it’s pretty good. Definitely has its moments (’Of Wolf and Man,’ ‘Through the Never.’) Seems like an odd stumbling block. This was a massive hit. ‘Enter Sandman’ is a classic rock song. Of sorts. It ain’t thrash, though it’s definitely still a heavy metal album in the vein of Black Sabbath and the like. Reading about the composition I understand they were tired of what they had been doing, they felt like impostors and wanted to strip it back some, and in that sense it’s an accomplishment. It’s dark and heavy and somber and pretty sad in parts. I feel like if Metallica had collapsed into the sea and never been found afterward/gone their separate ways this would’ve been an interesting finale, but as it stands, through the lens of history I have to reckon with the fact that this is the first of four albums produced by Bob Rock and it’s easily the best of them. It’s going to get worse before it gets... less worse. Which is not to say I don’t appreciate the orchestra and the cellos and a bit more variation in the compositions but... whither Thrash? ‘Holier Than Thou,’ silly as it is, captures a bit of the lost spirit, Maybe it’s exhausting to be that band for too long. It’s a perfectly natural thing to want to progress and not make the same album over and over again, but I can’t help but feel like they abandoned their perch atop a style where they were the greatest of all time to be (at first) a pretty good metal band and then a ‘hard rock’ band. This is Jordan switching to baseball and then for some reason trying ice hockey. I’m reasonably sure ‘Nothing Else Matters’ sucks pretty viciously, though Metallica writing a love song has a conceptual appeal and I could understand people liking it. Load. Gosh, what an appropriate title. I think if you asked Chad Kroeger what his favourite Metallica album is, he’d absolutely say Load. Metallica skipped over grunge and went straight to post-grunge. It’s also so long! There’s so much of this very mediocre album. Reload. What the fuck is this. It starts off with the Soundgardenesque (well, Rusty Cage-esque) ‘Fuel’ with its fun but asinine chorus, it doesn’t do anything particularly interesting after. Just like its sibling, it’s almost eighty minutes long of sluggish, middle of the road 90s rock. Garage, Inc is amazing by comparison to anything else put out by Metallica in the 90s. Two discs, the second compiling covers from as far back as 1984, 1987′s Garage Days EP and the b-side to some awful Load song that’s just four Mötörhead covers. ‘Whiskey in the Jar,’ of course, but also ‘Am I Evil?’ Sabbath’s ‘Sabbra Cadabra’ and an exuberant cover of Queen’s ‘Stone Cold Crazy.’ It’s not solid gold but there’s a lot of stuff to like. S&M (Symphony and Metallica, but... you know.) Definitely has it moments, particularly with the older stuff -- ‘Call of Ktulu,’ ‘Master of Puppets,’ ‘The Thing That Should Never Be’ with symphonic accompaniment is very cool. St. Anger is the big ‘comeback’ album that came out when I was 15 and thus acutely aware of big music releases. I feel like I could’ve skipped the opening paragraphs of this essay and just written that as explanation of why I didn’t care about Metallica. I’m sure there was some good heavy metal happening around the turn of the century but at the time this was happening, Limp Bizkit, Saliva, Staind, Kid Rock, Godsmack, Sevendust, Slipknot, Drowning Pool, Korn, Trapt and Linkin Park (probably the best of the bunch? right?) were the biggest things in metal. Hence, in 2003 we are gifted... Nu Metallica. The title track is very bad. There are no guitar solos to be found. There aren’t any ballads to be found (that’s mostly fine.) I’ve done three tracks. I’m not listening to the rest of this. It’s just not worth it. Death Magnetic was a big surprise as a I soldiered on. Bob Rock is gone, Rick Rubin is in. Say what you will about Rubin (another time, perhaps) but for whatever reason, after a twenty year hiatus (1988-2008,) the thrash is back. I was beginning to grapple with the idea that Metallica had been past their prime my entire life, and while that’s still probably true, here they are at least dabbling with the style that made them such a big damned deal. Which is not to say this is an amazing album. It’s good though! But you can hear, even on the opening track, how exceedingly compressed the sound is. Everything is loud on this album! Without exception! All the time! It’s all peak! Consequently it’s a tiring thing to listen to all the way through. Apparently there are different versions available that turn down the mix a bit, but the Spotify version is evidently the original, as it is just a brutal onslaught of noise. It’s not a great album to sit through, but individual tracks are welcome. There’s even an instrumental for the first time since ...And Justice For All. Lulu (with Lou Reed) -- Laugh all you want, I don’t think this is as bad as Load and Reload. It’s really god damned weird, sure, and it’s not ‘good’ by any conception of (what is ‘the good,’ etc) but it’s at least interesting here and there. Hardwired... to Self-Destruct suggests a certain inevitability to the path. With or without the play-acting in the 90s (Hetfield has speculated that Ulrich and Hammett were interested in being a U2-sized band complete with the frivolous and monolithic pretensions) they might have ended up here anyway, a bunch of dudes in their 50s making a heavy metal record that is doomed to be nowhere near as vital and electrifying as the groundbreaking stuff of their youth, but is practiced, professional and what the fans have come to expect. It’s pretty good, but there’s no chance it’s their best work. Read a review that called it their best work in 25 years, which is... damning with faint praise, but definitely true. Anyway they’re in the zone. ‘Moth Into Flame’ is a pretty good example of what we’re dealing with here -- thesis, antithesis, synthesis, in this case, arriving at ‘generic Metallica.’ If there’s more Metallica on the way it’ll be pretty much like this, chugging along like Springsteen or the Rolling Stones. It seems super unlikely they’ll ever surpass their first five albums, but I think that’s true of just about every band ever. In conclusion, I’m not doing this same process for Megadeth. :P

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nighttimepixels · 7 years ago

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answering asks^^

anons & @jellyont okay, can i seriously hug all of you? <3 <3 i’m seriously all kinds of emotional and have been treasuring your messages. i’ve got one hell of an anxiety disorder, so it means the absolute world to me to know that you like my silly art and animations, and that you’d take the time out of your day to send me such sweet messages. even though sometimes i take a while to respond in these posts, i always try to reply to you all-! to me i only would ever want to try to answer you cuties, sweetness has nothing to do with it - except for how sweet all of you are. <3 <3

gonna go be flustered for 20 years now no worries

ahhh thank you so much, sweet anon! <3 i’ve definitely been the biggest fan of that depiction of his relationship with the skelebros (though i also have a number of fics/other hc interpretations of him as dadster or otherwise that i enjoy too, heh). and as for him falling into the core, ohhh i’m so relieved to hear that. a lot of people seem to either veer on the side of Asgore being purely a cinnapapa victim of grievous circumstance (which i personally just don’t... agree with), or that he would simply just be one of the ones who’d forget. i ended up musing on the circumstances - as Royal Scientist, Gaster would certainly know Asgore, and i like the idea that they were friends... at one point. that terrible feeling when you lose a friend despite your efforts to reach out as they change under terrible circumstances into someone who it is just not healthy to be close to, no matter how much you care/cared for them... i thought that just applied so well.

i’ve got some ideas for further art with him, both in the ‘origin’ circumstances and during/post void, so i may try and do those soon! <3 thank you for your kind words and interest ;v;<3

tumblr what the heck. i’ve checked it a few times now in the past day, and sometimes it seems to be marked, and others it isn’t...?? i’ll admit that i touch on some dark themes re the child’s soul and tough decisions, moral and ethical grey areas, but nothing... “nsfw” or outright censorable, i don’t think?

sigh. thank you so much for the head’s up - hopefully it gets resolved, i’ve tried to mark it for review, so fingers crossed. agreed on tumblr really needing to get their algorithms sorted, spaghetti code inner machinations or not.

kasfk thank you, love ;//v//; <3 honestly, heh, i’m always working on something. animations and stills alike. and ahhh, favorite thing...? well... aside from the obvious skelebros and undertale i’d say interactions and shitposty shenanigans X) and also looping gifs, particular when i can spend the time to make the motions in it loop really naturally (like that Stretch gif i did of him smoking along the windowsill).

least favorite...? oh gods. anything to do with mech or vehicles, honestly, especially in pixel form... which, ironic, because the thing i’m ‘most’ working on currently involves precisely that. since you asked about both, here’s a tiny preview of it-

super tiny window bc super incomplete.

... and i’m making multiple shots of it, no less. OTL|||

@letsallbecalmchaps yes i have! <3 it really was super cute :) and color palettes... oof, that’s definitely a hard one. you’re right, i don’t use ‘pure white’ for the skeletons - choosing palettes is something that... i think is definitely developed over time? and it’s something i’m still absolutely figuring out. my best recommendation is to try working with some of those ‘limited palette’ challenges to get a feel for how coloring and shades work when you only have 4-6 colors to work with (plus it’s a great exercise in silhouettes and the like). beyond that... for me, i’ve settled more on certain palettes based on the tone of colors and schemes that i like. for me, it tends to be a bit warmer, but muted (i don’t usually work in super-saturated colors). the skelebros present a challenge in that, as various colors really come into play for each au skelebro. so really - try experimenting! look at palettes you like, try experimenting, and check out tutorials online about choosing palettes and shading. (and tip on shading that i’m sure you’ve seen - try to stay away from shading with black, even in pixel art! shade in more or less saturated versions of the color you’re working with, and shift a small amount in one direction or the other on the color wheel/spectrum that you’re working with. play with it! it’s a lot of work to find what you like, but so rewarding when you do.)

ah, that’s @with-a-whisper! :) iiii have two potatos following me, actually, so i’m not sure who you’re referring too - though both of them are total sweethearts from when i’ve interacted with them! <3 i try to loop in different cuties when i can, heh.

i believe you were referencing the Axe gif i did for tyranttortoise’s latest SSLL chapter - thank you so much-! <3 i’ve been experimenting with a few different things, i like the kind of ‘cutscene’-esque look that it ended up leaning towards, so i’m happy to hear that you liked it too! <3

@ate-wapakels69 pshhhh thick thighs and squishy tummies unite! <3 pretty sure that just makes you even more of a 69/10 love ;D and heck yes i know ace attorney, it’s one of my favorite game series! <3 sadly i’ve never played the original apollo justice games, and i’m still trying to get my hands on edgeworth’s investigations, but outside of that i’ve played most of them, including the layton crossover. i love those nerds so freakin much. <3

you have bestowed your affections onto quite the lucky skeleton, and i’d say you have quite the lovely taste indeed. a glorious pair you shall make, drunken or otherwise. X) <3 <3

... not gonna lie, i’m pretty sure i legitimately squeaked when i got this message, @kissthethunder-!! and then blushed, way too much. for a very extended period of time.

i mean, everyone, c’mon, let’s be real-

SUCH A CUTIE.

fellow sin-ster, you make my life happier, and are loved right back! keep being your fabulous self - you share so much joy and hilarious delight with your wonderful shenanigans and fantastic writing :)

oh sweetheart, vent art is absolutely normal and weird in no way at all. every artist i know - and writer, and creator of any variety - has made vent art. creating is such an emotionally-involved experience, it’s only natural for someone to want to explore or express their feelings in their preferred craft(s) - and vent art is no different. if you want to post vent art, then by all means please do! it’s an unfortunate given that some people aren’t fans of it, but if that’s the case, they can either scroll by or choose to not follow. it’s easy to forget, but tumblr is a blogging platform. you’re not required to only post ‘professionally’, or otherwise. if you’re having troubles keeping up with what you feel your blog is demanding, then take a step back and take care of you. if you want to post that kind of art and are nervous to on your main blog/art blog, then you can always create a sideblog that you can have as a more personal one.

to answer the other part of your question more directly - yes, i absolutely draw vent art. sometimes it’s just... general content involving skelebros that i feel comfortable posting. that one you mention specifically was vent art, yes.

it’s okay to not be okay.

i’ve drawn a number of things, some far rougher than others, to vent. i don’t post all of them, not by any means, sometimes it just doesn’t feel like something i want to share.

but... hmm. if you’re feeling nervous about it, and alone ,then let me share one that i drew a month or so ago when i was hitting a really bad low. i’ll put it below a cut, as your question is the last one on this post (so anyone who doesn’t want to see it, know that there aren’t further asks below the cut - just an example of my own more personal vent art).

... it’s very rough. but like i said, it’s vent art. it’s not always about being perfect, or polished, or ‘the best content’ - it’s okay to do things for yourself, to self-insert or not, and to make art not just for your perceived or desired audience.

what’s most important is for you to take care of you. it’s easy to overlook how much heart is poured into your art/stories, like you’re putting a little piece of yourself in every one. take time for you, to build yourself up, to work through the weight of the hardships you go through, to find inspiration, to just... be.

hopefully me sharing a rough example of my own more outright vent art is... well, i hope you know that i’m here in solidarity with you. pursue art in all the ways you want to, and let yourself explore - for yourself, not just for others.

#pixel answers #long post #thank all of you for your questions!! <333 #i'm so sorry for it taking a bit to reply sometimes #i wanna hug you all for how sweet you are ;v;#wish i had the time to draw something for each and every one of you #you all deserve the nicest things #go treat yourself to something nice today - even just a nice bath with some candles or a snack you've been craving #<3 <3 <3 #also kudos to mettaton anon for finding the minimal mtt content on here-!#should pixel him properly some time #hmmm #night answers

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induratis · 7 years ago

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Alright so update on The Tot:

My laptop screen broke like two fucking months ago. And they keep fixing it, yes, but the new screens are all defective so I’m gonna fucking kill someone. Anyway. I work tutoring kids M/W/F and go to class T/TH. I’m really busy and tired all the time. I thought joining group verses would help my muse but it’s only made everything even more stressful. I will be talking to the moderators of all the groups I’m in (I think it’s just HP and Friends) and see where I will go here from now. I have felt really dragged down on all my profiles due to expectation and the emotions of others. I understand that to people on here that I am a person that gives good advice and you would like to be my friend our of character. But this is not why I come online. I don’t enjoy socialization. I don’t benefit from it when it comes to analyzing my characters. My thoughts and emotions get tainted by the opinions of others and it distracts me from getting into character. That’s just the way I work. I don’t mind chit chatting. But I’m not social. I’ve never been social. I’m funny and outgoing but I am very very introverted. I get overwhelmed very easily. And I am guilted into things all the time because I’m still learning to find my voice. Only just watching the SDCC panel and S5 preview has made me realize that I want to focus on the heart of my characters. I will be changing to an EXTREMELY strict canon representation of Clarke. I will not be roleplaying anything from prior seasons anymore. It doesn’t interest me. I want to develop my character forward, not back. The only things I will do of the past are pre-show things, since we did not get to explore much of the Ark before Clarke’s incarceration. I will still have a modern verse and a twin/clone verse but those will not be my main focus. I will also be very selective with who I decide to do Hunger Games and Harry Potter themed threads with. Those verses will most likely be private. I will be switching to be a plot-heavy profile, but leave room for spontaneity. One liners will remain one liners and be in the moment. They will be dropped once the night/day is over because the moment will no longer apply. As for Octavia ( @hisprometheus ) I will be leaving all groups I have joined. I will be switching her over to a more meme-based blog rather than threads, unless the threads are plotted. I will also not be accepting continuing memes on ANY of my profiles any longer. Octavia is my babe. I want to be challenged when I write against people. I do not and will not woobify or erase Octavia’s ugliness to suit your shipping needs. She is really not the girl from season one anymore, and playing solely that side of her doesn't interest me whatsoever, even though I know it's an aspect of her. She is stubborn, she is constantly grieving, and she is not a consistently likable person. I will not bend my character to make you happy. I will not be shipping with her except for a select few already established verses, of whom I will contact once I finish this giant mega post of my thoughts and emotions, lol. In canon, the only person she loves, that is alive, is Bellamy. Indra and Kane take a low seat under that. And then she moderately cares for, respects, etc, the rest. My Canon Octavia will NEVER be with anyone from Sky Crew. Ever. If she were to be with someone, it would be a grounder. And it would be mostly physical, rather than emotional. But just because she might fuck your character, does not mean I want to ship. The only place I would consider mildly shipping is in a modern verse. The same ideas applys to Octavia as they do to Clarke. I will not be doing any AUs other than light modern stuff, or heavily plotted modern worlds. If there is no world logic, I cannot play within the world. It’s not the way my mind works. The only things that interests me on Octavia right now are things within The Bunker or things on The Ark/Skybox. I’m actually hella craving Skybox things for Octavia but I might just write a series of drabbles. I will not be playing anything else on her. Hunger Games and Harry Potter verses will be private singular threads. I will not be playing Bellamy ( @mythosraised ) within The 100 fandom anymore. I will be making him a main mythology verse that will take precedent. This means disbanding PraimParadise, which most likely fell apart anyway, though I would like to explore that world more but I might just write a fanfic instead. He was intended to be VERY private profile and due to how much attention he was getting, I decided to expand him further. But that will not be the case now. I will be reducing who he talks to within t100 way way down. His purpose for me will serve to be as a safe haven away from my Clarke and my Octavia when I just want to do my own fandomless things. I don’t have the time/pathos/effort to cater to the people that use ships to fulfill a lack in their own life, or people that want to date Bellamy/Bob in real life and play against my Bellamy as a self-insert vessel for that. The reason I play Bellamy is for Bellamy. Because he is there in my head and wants to be heard. When I envision Bellamy, he only wants to talk to his two Octavias (Kate's and Jasmin's), to bother Katie Bell (heyo Dani) and meet all the Greek Gods and Goddesses. In this mythological verse, he is a reincarnated version of Hades' son and that will be his main verse so I can get a new perspective. Otherwise, he's mildly interested in modern things and some Harry Potter stuff. And if I do decide to do t100 stuff, it will be post-s4 during the 6-years and then post the six years as well. And while I ship Bellarke, I can't delve into it on his profile any longer. It does me a disservice. If I do decide on changing this, I will be single ship Bellarke. But I haven't found anyone I'd be willing to do so with that fits the way I want to play my Bellamy.

#psa.

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viewwrangler · 7 years ago

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I have to admit, after he got himself out of his hospital bed to vote to begin this mess of a debate ... I genuinely did not expect McCain to reject this particular version of the bill.

Mind, it’s an utterly insane process at the moment. Several Senators only agreed to vote “yes” for the bill on the explicit condition that it would never be enacted. Which ... why would you DO that? (... well, OK, I know why they did that; it gave them the cover of having voted for the bill -- and thus “tried” to enact a core GOP campaign pledge -- without having actually done some thing horrific to the nation’s health care. They can now shrug and say, “Oh, well, we tried.”)

The fun part is that this bill, in its full “please dear god we never want this to become law” glory, was meant to get them to conference with the House to hammer out something they could all live with. (Well, that was never happening, but anyway.) And now they have no bill to take to conference. They’ve already defeated the House bill, and their own bills -- all five of them -- have failed in the Senate. There is quite literally nothing to conference about/with/on.

McCain 'no' kills Senate Obamacare repeal (politico.com)

The Senate Republicans’ push to dismantle Obamacare collapsed in dramatic fashion early Friday morning, when two centrist GOP women and Sen. John McCain of Arizona teamed up to sink an already scaled-back effort to dismantle the 2010 health care law.

McCain and GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska teamed up with all 48 Democrats reject the Republicans’ so-called skinny repeal plan, tanking the measure by a vote of 49-51. The Senate GOP had already pretty much shunned the proposal, viewing it mostly as a route to go into negotiations with the House.

But in gripping floor drama that began to unfold after midnight Friday, it appeared McCain had his mind made up that he would be the pivotal third vote to sink Obamacare repeal. Vice President Mike Pence talked to him at length, but it didn’t seem to change the Arizonan’s mind.

McCain previewed what was to come shortly before he entered the chamber, telling reporters: “Watch the show." [...]

Oh, what a circus! What a show it has been!

And if anyone thinks it’s all over now ... well. The GOP funders will have their money, by hook, by (especially) crook, and by threatening to pull their funds and primary the hell out of Congress. So we shall see how things go from here. I would expect that Ryan will release the House so that they can flee DC and to somewhere to hide from their funders (who will be livid that they have to pay taxes! unavoidable ones!) and from their constituents (who will be livid that their alleged representatives tried to kill them). So much hiding, so little country to hide in...

McConnell pulled the bill and returned it to the Senate Calendar. What that means is that, should they figure out how to flip McCain’s vote, they can go through this all over again. That said, while it has been “returned” to the calendar, it doesn’t look like they have any immediate plans to get back to it, especially if the House is released for the August recess. (The Senate may technically not go on recess, as neither the Republicans nor the Democrats trust Candidate Orange not to fire Sessions and try to make a recess appointment for an attorney general who will fire Mueller.)

(A measure of how unexpected this was: as of 1:00 am Central time, both the Times and Politico articles have a severe case of split personality, leading with the fall of the horribly misnamed Health Care Freedom Act, and then abruptly careening into discussing the process in a way that makes clear that the body of the article was written earlier, with the expectation that the act would pass.)

As for McCain ... well. I suppose knowing that you will not be standing re-election and that you have more personally important things to do than to strip the country of its health care does focus the mind wonderfully. One can but hope, anyway.

That said ... I am curious. McCain was the key vote to advance this mess to the Senate floor ... where it promptly got much much messier. Had the bill failed to advance to debate, it would have been over(ish) days ago. Allowing it to go to debate, and having the CBO desperately scoring the various proposals -- at the low end, 16 million would have lost coverage, and at the high end, 32 million -- having that happen over and over threw the utter cynicism of this process -- which he publicly detested -- into sharp relief. It also, one suspects, did major damage to the GOP. (And possibly incalculable damage to McConnell’s standing as Senate majority leader, especially with Candidate Orange in the White House.) So ... one wonders what his game plan actually was.

#senate #us politics #health care policy

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midnightstarsky · 8 years ago

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VS Cartel AU fic Chapter 1 Part 2: Lots of Hileon

This is my cross-over fiction of vatanim sensin and the narcos history/tv show. Finally, after two months of plotting here’s the first part of the story. I hope you guys enjoy this!

Note: I don’t own any of the VS characters or narcos characters. These are characters based loosely on history so I any similarities are due to that.

All of these parts can be found under vs cartel au tag on my blog, where you can also find gifs and previews for the story and narcos show. And you can find a mash up trailer.

Hope you enjoy!

This one continues off where the other one left off, and this one is more hileon focused, going into their relationship in this world and their lives together so I hope you guys enjoy this.

Chapter 1: The Beginning Part 2

In the meantime, Ali Kemal and I graduated from college and did our training stint at Quantico in Virginia. We returned to Chicago and started work as DEA agents. We were stationed locally, mostly doing small time cocaine busts. In my earliest conquests, I got a ten-kilo bust and the guys and I went out to celebrate at a local bar. I was the youngest of the four, so of course they decided to mess with me. Didn’t expect Ali Kemal to let them sink so low though.

Chicago 2012

Leon laughed as he sat back down to his two DEA friends and his brother. He clinked his glass against theirs as one of them proclaimed, “To Leon’s promotion!”

His superior took a drink, “I see a bright future for you, kid.” Ali Kemal raised his glasses, “Hear, hear!”

Leon smiled proudly as he drank from his glass. His brother gave him a proud smile before he started to regal them with a story of his own big bust from this week. They talked and laughed for a few minutes before the story ended leaving them in a comfortable silence.

Finally, Leon’s superior and his partner shared a look before glancing at Leon with smirks. Ali Kemal smiled into his glass.

Leon returned their stares with a raised eyebrow, “What’s going on, guys?”

One of them leaned forward and said slyly, “That girl has been checking you out the whole night.”

Leon rolled his eyes and scoffed, “Right.”

“No, she has! She hasn’t taken her eyes off you all night, man,” his other friend promised.

Leon shrugged as he leaned back to finish off his drink, “Fine, but I’m not interested.”

Ali Kemal smirked, “I wouldn’t be so hasty, bro. She’s your type, dirty blonde hair and pretty blue eyes.”

He glared at his brother, having made it clear that he wasn’t interested in dating anyone, but Ali Kemal ignored his glare and said, “Seriously, she’s your type, look.”

Leon sighed dramatically and turned around and felt his eyes widen.

There was Hilal chatting up with one of her friends from college, laughing at something the other girl was saying. She was resting her chin on her raised hand as her hair fell around her face and her eyes twinkled with mirth.

She looked beautiful.

Leon grabbed at his collar in an effort to loosen it, feeling like he couldn’t breathe properly. She was the only one who could get him so flustered, he’d sooner face a trafficker with a gun than to have to face Hilal sometimes. And yet he craved time with her, didn’t care if she dismissed him or fought with him. He loved being around her. He couldn’t help it, even after all this time he still had feelings for Hilal. It didn’t matter that they didn’t see each other much since the two of them started college and that they saw each other even less since they started their respective careers; each time he could steal a chance to see her was a cherished one.

It didn’t even matter that Hilal didn’t feel the same for him.

That was a lie.

He turned back to the others and asked almost desperately, “She was checking me out? Me?”

The other two men tried to reassure him, but Leon wasn’t asking them.

Leon directed the question to his brother, who studied him for a moment before nodding, “She’s interested, bro.”

Leon glanced hopefully back at her, telling himself it wouldn’t hurt to try. Maybe Ali Kemal was right, maybe he should put his feelings out there and if she didn’t feel the same at least he would finally have an answer. And if Ali Kemal was right, she might feel the same.

He looked over at Hilal one more time before turning to his friends, “All right, I’m giving it a go.”

They smiled and cheered as he stood up and made his way to Hilal.

He came up beside her and tried for a cocky smile, “Hey.”

She stopped talking to glance back at him with a smirk, “Hey, you’re not going to get too drunk, are you?”

Leon ignored her to ask playfully, “Heard you were checking me out the whole night.”

Hilal’s smiled disappeared as she looked down and said quietly, “Don’t flatter yourself, Leon.”

Leon felt his heart break a bit and his shoulders slumped. Well, he had his answer now and it felt a million times worse than not knowing. Rejection from the woman he had loved for the past seven years hurt far more than pining after her.

He was going to kill his brother, and then his friends.

In the mess of his emotions he missed the way Hilal’s eyes glanced up to study him, how her eyes widened a bit and her mouth dropped open as if she had realized something.

“Sorry, for bothering you, Hilal,” he murmured as he turned to leave.

“Leon,” she called softly.

He stopped and turned around suddenly, “Those guys were messing with me, can you at least write down your number on a paper so I can show them up? If I go back there I’m going to be ridiculed the whole night, and I could really live without that tonight.”

Hilal glanced back at the guys laughing at his expense and she glanced back at the bartender, “Do you have a pen, I got some assholes to shut up.”

“Thanks,” he said gratefully.

She smiled up at him and handed him the page, “See you at dinner at mom’s place tomorrow.”

He felt his heart clench, but he nodded and grabbed the paper before saying, “Drive safely.”

“Don’t worry, Mr. police officer,” Hilal reassured him playfully.

“I’m DEA, Hilal,” he reminded her but she waved him off.

“I can hear their obnoxious laughing from here, shut it down,” she ordered.

Leon nodded dutifully before strutting back to his friends and forcing himself to give a broad smile while he felt his heart break, “I got her number.”

They sputtered, “No way!” “Read it,” he shoved the paper in their faces.

“That’s your handwriting!” one of them protested.

“You know that’s not true,” he countered as he shared a glance with his brother.

Ali Kemal smiled at him but Leon mouthed, “You’re dead.”

His brother’s smile dropped quickly.

That night, Leon was about to get ready for bed as he heard his brother, “Look, Leon, I’m sorry. I really thought she had feelings for you. I really wasn’t trying to mess you, I was just trying to get you to make a move. It’s been seven years, Leon, at least now you have an answer and can move on with your life.”

“I’m tired,” Leon repeated firmly from behind his bedroom door, “I have a long day tomorrow.”

He heard his brother sigh from behind the door before stepping away.

He sat down with a sigh and grabbed the paper with Hilal’s number. Funnily, she had given him her real number, he’d thought she would just scribble a couple of random numbers down. He’d already had her number, memorized it even. He sat there studying the familiar handwriting tracing the letters as he sighed sadly. Finally, he flipped over the paper on his nightstand, not wanting to be reminded of Hilal anymore.

It was time to move on

That was when he noticed some extra writing on the back. He grabbed it and read the words.

You’re a DEA Agent, Leon. Maybe you should know when people are lying to you.

I’m quite partial to DEA Agents with brown hair and hazel eyes.

Leon grabbed the phone and dialed.

And just like that I was completely and irrevocably hers.

I proposed to her six months later. Truth is, I probably would have proposed after that first date but Ali Kemal wouldn’t let me near a jewelry store that entire week. Hey, when you know, you just know. When I finally did ask her to marry me, she interrupted me to ask me what taken me so long.

Leon had this all planned, had taken Hilal to her favorite spot in the downtown botanic gardens. He had brought her favorite book to read to each other and had planned this beautiful picnic. He had made all her favorite foods and had even ordered sweets from the patisserie Hilal loved visiting. He had really gone all out to make this the most romantic proposal, even had to promise Ali Kemal tickets to the Blackhawks game to make sure that no one in the office would call on him. Everything had gone according to plan, like out of a book. They had just finished the cake when he stood up and pulled Hilal up with him. She smiled up at him curiously as he reached into his pocket.

Hilal gasped as he got down on one knee.

But leave it to Hilal to interrupt a perfect proposal from her impatience.

She didn’t even let him speak she just tackled him to the ground and he felt his head hit grass and swore that he was probably going to wake up with a bruised back tomorrow morning.

He let out a groan.

Hilal’s eyes widened and she moved off him, “I’m so sorry, Leon. But, I’ve been in love with you for the last six years. I’ve been ready to say yes for quite some time, love.”

He couldn’t help his silly grin, “Really?” She shyly pulled on her hair and nodded before leaning down to kiss him. Only for her lips to hit his palm. She pulled away surprised.

He gave her a mock glare, “Well, I’ve been in love with you for seven years. And I’ve been planning this moment for the past seven years so you do not get to ruin my moment.”

Hilal rolled her eyes, “Leon.” “Hilal, I’m being serious,” he pouted, “Is this really the romantic proposal that we’ll want to tell our children? That mommy cut daddy off and wouldn’t let him finish his question because she’s so impatient.”

“Children? You haven’t been imagining those too?” she asked him sternly.

“That’s for me to know,” he responded quickly as he sat up and started to pat the grass off his clothes, “But if you must know, we have two girls and one boy.”

Hilal raised an eyebrow but before she could say anything he cut in.

“Now, let’s try this again,” he said as stood up and held out his hand.

She sighed but took his hand, “You’re being ridiculous.”

“Humor me,” he ordered.

He pulled her up and then picked up the ring that had luckily stayed in its box during the fall. Then he made a great show of getting down on one knee and looking up lovingly to Hilal who was trying hard to be serious but failing epically with giggles.

“Hilal, be serious,” he practically whined.

She rolled her eyes, “Ever the romantic, fine.”

He gave her one last glare before making a big show of opening the box.

Hilal comically brought her hands over her mouth and gasped.

He raised an eyebrow but she shrugged, “I’m humoring you.”

“You’re overdoing it, Hilal,” he pointed out.

“No, I’m not,” she protested annoyed.

Leon decided to drop it, knowing full well that they could go on for hours when they were on a roll.

“Hilal, we’ve grown up together, I’ve seen you at your best and your worst. You’re stubborn, impatient, quick to anger. But you’re also kind, brave, and have the most beautiful mind in the world. You’re perfect, Hilal. There’s no one in the world who knows me better, and no one that I want to share my life with more. There’s isn’t a minute in the day where I’m not thinking about being with you. When I crack some case, or make some bust, all I want to do is run and tell you about it. And my favorite part of the day is when you tell me about your day. I already know the answer to this, but for the sake of my whole planned evening to go perfectly, tell me again,” he said with a smile.

She smiled tearfully at him but didn’t interrupt him.

“Will you marry me, Hilal?” he asked softly.

“Yes,” she said breathlessly sticking out her hand.

He slipped the ring on her finger and stood up cradling her hand in his. He gazed down at her lovingly as she gave him the brightest smile in return.

“Now can I kiss you?” she asked softly.

Leon nodded before he leaned down to kiss her tenderly, wrapping his arms around her.

They broke apart and Leon leaned his forehead against hers. They stood there for a moment.

“Is that a good enough story for you?” she murmured.

“The best,” he replied.

We were married eight months later.

It was the happiest day of our lives, but one thing marred it. Hilal couldn’t quite stand that Yildiz couldn’t bother to stay for the wedding. Her sister further turned heads when she announced she was going back home to Greece, ignoring both her mother and mine’s warnings. Yildiz shrugged them off and said, “It’s where I belong.”

She was gone the next morning.

#hileon #hilal x leon #vatanim sensin #vatanim sensin fic #vs cartel au #ch 1 part 2

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hotarla · 8 years ago

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My Thoughts: “Quan Zhi Gao Shou” Episode 6: “Sword Saint”

Greetings “Quan Zhi Gao Shou” (”The King’s Avatar” / “Master of Skill”) fans, sneaking in like a certain chatty ninja for another “My Thoughts” episode summary! As always, the anime is speeding along and, in my opinion, leaving some of us in the dust. If anyone is interested, the conclusion of this episode leaves us at around chapter 122 of volume 2 in the light novel so go and check it out when you can!

Major kudos goes out to @noirliesl-sideblog for all her help with gifs for the show! Without her, I’d be posting over 50 screenshots of a certain character! Please be advised, there may be spoilers!

The first thing of note that we see (apart from the gorgeous opening that I watch EVERY TIME) is the title screen and we know that something interesting is about to go down.

When I saw THAT (and the title which translates as “Sword Saint”), I knew exactly who was going to appear. But, before we can meet this character, we conclude the matters from the previous episode.

From the last episode, Ye Xiu and Co. meet up with Tyrannical Ambition members, 10th server guild leader Cold Night and Jiang You, guild leader for all of Tyrannical Ambition from the Heavenly Domain, disguised as Crowd Lover. Jiang You has come over to assess the skill level of Ye Xiu and Co. while, at the same time, helping his guild set the record for Frost Forest. For large guilds backed by clubs, setting first kills and records help promote their guild and club.

He is alarmed when Su Mucheng fires off a perfect Delivery Gun (which only pro players can do) and he starts to get suspicious about her identity, and of Ye Xiu’s. Luckily, Ye Xiu lightly reprimands her for using such pro player tactics and Jiang You, as Crowd Lover, writes it off as her being lucky...

After a time lapse of around three days in order to practice their teamwork and reach level 25 to set the record, the team heads off!

In the meantime, Liu Hao from Excellent Era continues to hold a grudge against Ye Xiu. After finding out from someone (whom I assume is Chen Yehui, in-game guild leader of Excellent Dynasty from the Heavenly Domain) that Ye Xiu’s goal in setting records for the big guilds is to get uncommon materials to upgrade his silver weapon, the Thousand Chance Umbrella, he decides to try and thwart Ye Xiu’s plan of returning to the Glory stage by setting the records himself and befriending Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim character under the alias, Hateful Sword.

Tang Rou is originally concerned about the Frost Forest record broken by Excellent Dynasty but Ye Xiu doesn’t care: his true purpose was always for the uncommon material payout, not the records. Besides, they were all at level 25 already so a new dungeon record was now available to set.

After adding Liu Hao’s Hateful Sword as a friend, Liu Hao attempts to toady up to him. Ye Xiu tells him that he’s too busy with partying in the dungeon and sends Steam Bun over to him to fight a few duels. When asked whether Bun wants to fight in a Fixed or Level field, our nooby Bun replies with a cute “What’s that?” testing the limits of Liu Hao’s patience! And, after purposely losing a few matches, a system announcement about Lord Grim comes up: Congratulations on beating the record for the Boneyard!”

Later, Liu Hao joins Lord Grim’s party to beat the record for Boneyard, hired by the Blue Brook guild. Shortly after learning about the new strategy Ye Xiu has developed for running the dungeon faster (by stuffing monsters into cracks dotted throughout the dungeon to avoid fighting them), Liu Hao finds out that Excellent Era has a competition match that same night...with Blue Rain and the chattiest pro player in all of Glory, Huang Shaotian, nicknamed the “Sword Saint!”

Fun fact: the Glory Alliance actually changed their rules specially for Huang Shaotian: dead players are not allowed to talk!

After another miserable loss for Excellent Era, Liu Hao is asked whether he still wants to set the Boneyard. With a look of utter resentment, Liu Hao makes the call: we’re setting it! But, when the record ultimately comes out, Ye Xiu does not appear surprised. The reason? He’s known all along that Hateful Sword was Liu Hao! Tang Rou wonders out-loud whether the record can be broken again but, as usual, Ye Xiu has an ace up his sleeve. And, who is that person lurking around outside the internet cafe? A thief? A ninja?

No, it’s Huang Shaotian of Blue Rain! Looks like he’s come to help Ye Xiu out! After greeting him, Shaotian complains chattily to Ye Xiu: what if someone recognizes him!?

As Shaotian continues to complain about being too popular and recognizable (love the posters of Yu Wenzhou with his Swoksaar, Huang Shaotian with his Troubling Rain, and Han Wenqing with his Desert Dust in the background) and asking way too many questions about Ye Xiu’s forced retirement (while laughing loudly at Ye Xiu’s efforts in creating a new strategy to use for a low level dungeon like Boneyard), Ye Xiu snarks back at him: talk any louder and everyone’s going to know you’re here! Shaotian immediately shuts up: low profile, low profile!

Once Shaotian, with his 10th server account Flowing Tree, Ye Xiu and Co. finally enter the Boneyard dungeon, Shaotian’s complaining starts up again: this level 25 Vampiric Lightsaber is just a lame orange weapon, this is just trash for someone pro like me! When asked about who their new companion is, Ye Xiu is about to reveal Shaotian’s name when...

Steamed Bun, being the simple noob that he is, starts up his random questioning: what is your astrological sign? When Shaotian gives him an answer and Steamed Bun starts singing a silly song about astrological signs, even a chatterbox like Shaotian gets annoyed!

Ye Xiu tells Steamed Bun to sing later and Shaotian starts up his annoying chatter again, asking repeatedly about the new strategy. He continues to chatter to everyone and anyone who would be willing to listen to him as Ye Xiu demonstrates his new strategy, asking machine-gun questions that he gets no answers to. However, even with all the chatter, the camaraderie can be seen between Ye Xiu and Shaotian, and he can still focus on the job ahead.

After the demonstration, Shaotian wonders out-loud if Excellent Dynasty also used the same strategy to set the record. Ye Xiu confirms his suspicions: Hateful Sword was Liu Hao of Excellent Era! Both Shaotian and Steamed Bun look confused for a moment before it clicks: a spy! Steamed Bun rants and raves cutely for awhile before Ye Xiu tells him to stop.

Mucheng also wonders why Ye Xiu would let a spy into their group and Ye Xiu replies calmly: if a pro player was going to help them practice, why not? Shaotian laughs at Ye Xiu’s shamelessness and asks him how he was so sure that Ye Xiu and Co. would be able to beat the record using the same strategy. Ye Xiu just smirks at Shaotian: that’s because we have you and that level 25 orange weapon we just got! Shaotian once again gets angry over Ye Xiu’s shameless behaviour before realizing that he has a guild invite from...Blue Brook!? Oh no, my cover has been blown! Ye Xiu sighs and tells him to read more closely: the invite came from Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim. Shaotian settles down briefly before his chatter breaks out again. At this point, Ye Xiu is resigned to his fate and dully asks Steam Bun to start singing again, if only to drown out the chatterbox sitting beside him, talking his ears off...

And that finally concludes episode 6! As always, Huang Shaotian is the cutest chatterbox ever and I can’t even describe the randomness that is the brick-loving Steamed Bun. Of course, after seeing the preview for episode 7, I’m even more excited! Four more days! Let’s see what we have in store for us this week!

Ohhhh, my my my! Is that Wang Jiexi, fanboy Plantago Seed, Qiao Yifan, Gao Yingjie, MORE QIAO YIFAN, Zhou Zekai and more Wang Jiexi!? Looks like the members of Tiny Herb (and maybe Samsara) are coming out to play! Can’t wait to see what’s going to happen! Especially Qiao Yifan, like aaaah, he’s a cutie! Guess it’s time to wait (impatiently) for this week’s episode. Until then, 再見! (Goodbye!)

Profile of the week: Huang Shaotian’s Troubling Rain

#quan zhi gao shou #qzgs #the king's avatar #master of skill #spoilers #ye xiu #ye qiu #huang shaotian #qiao yifan #tyrannical ambition #excellent era #excellent dynasty #su mucheng #tang rou #zhou zekai #wang jiexi #gao yingjie #episode 7 #chatterbox

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