#* come on guys it’s time for a revolution / closed starter.

[mast7r]

lyric inspired sc / fuck u lynn u get this instead (affectionate)

         "   do   you   think   the   killer   is   more   of   a      '   spice   girls   '      or a      '   michael   jackson   '      kinda   guy   ?   knowing   their   music   taste   could   be   KEY   to   surviving   ,   @vanstabbed   ,   you   never   know   .   "

#vanstabbed #i hope this ends their friendship <3 #* come on guys it’s time for a revolution / closed starter. #* change the story. become more than this walking tragedy / ic.

[pzfr]

Various Favorite The Megas Songs Inspired Sentence Starters

Adjust as needed (pronouns, punctuation, combining lines, etc.) when sending these in. EVOLUTION OF CIRCUITRY

"Stand with me, and we'll begin a new society."

"Power up the revolution. It's time for an evolution."

"Take down their institutions, and put an end to human cruelty. We will be free."

"I say they owe us a debt. Today, it's time to collect."

"We keep our heads held high, and start the fire."

"I'll send the spark of war along the wire."-

ANNIHILATION OF MONSTEROPOLIS

"Sitting on my throne up in the sky."

"You better watch out, guy: Anyone who comes this way will die."

"No one in this world can understand who I am."

"That is why I'm my own biggest fan."

"Do you know what it's like to be built this way?"

"With only the power to push others away?"

"I'll return in full everything that they're owed."

"The annihilation of everyone you know and love."

"For if I can't walk among them, then I will walk the world alone."

"There'll be a fire in the sky... And your doom will RAIN down!"

"There will be a tombstone with The Planet EARTH, *ENGRAVED* ON IT!"

"You've a heavy role to bear: do you think you can carry it?"

"I'll usher in the end. Upon my thunder chariot..." HARDER THAN STEEL

"Now you stand to lose everything you see... Unless you stand up for what you believe."

"Get back your edge: You will win this fight."

"Your legend will live on. Our sons will sing your song."

"You're coming back. Word travels fast."

"You will not be a relic from the past."

"They're still with you all through these years."

"This is your chance."

"This is your town."

"You don't just break the mold, you beat it down."

"You've got back the touch-- the power."

"You've trained so hard, this is your finest hour."

"The bell's rung out. There's no turning back now."

"They're on your side, just fight like you know how."

"He's on the ropes, that's when you see the look."

"The tide has turned. You've got nothing left."

"They say throw in the towel. But that you won't accept."

"As the lights go out, the crowd's begun to sing."

HAYSTACK PRINCIPLE

"This is not my home. It's where I'm locked away."

"Would you believe this isn't me? That what you get isn't what you see?"

"I'm not a bad guy. I'm just designed that way."

"No matter what I try, I can't help but hurt those close to me."

"And I can't see a way out this time."

"It's hard to blame them: I even scare myself."

"Being built to kill seems to be detrimental to my health."

"He's on his way down. I hear him just above. I guess it's his job when pushing comes to shove."

"How can I retract these claws?"

"You can't take back the damage you cause."

"How can I take off this mask?"

"You can't remove the fear you cast."

"How can I turn off this hatred that fills my eyes?"

"You can't shut down where your path lies."

"When can I stop being bad?"

"If that's who I am... then I'll fight who I am!"

I'M NOT THE BREAKMAN

"Hard to see the good through your trail of dead."

"You say you’ll do all you can to save them."

"Killing your own won’t make you human."

"I woke to turn this man to cinder."

"My rage repairs what once was broken."

"They lost me. Forgot me. Made you from parts of me."

"If you’re the one, my father’s son... then what am I supposed to be?"

"You say these things you do are what you choose: This thing you call your will I call a ruse."

"We follow our path, we walk the program."

"I’ve accepted the machine I am."

"I wear a mask to hide what’s been erased."

"How do you kill a man who has your face?"

"My heart is gone there’s only fire."

"I’ve met my maker and the man’s a liar."

"He tore my heart from my chest to give to you."

"I'm not broken. I was the first." GEMINEYE

"Stars are out tonight. They’re shining bright."

"Our sign is up in the sky; The stars don’t lie."

"Think I need a private eye."

"Someone wants me dead. So I called on you-- to learn his name, pick apart the clues."

"'Someone wants you dead', That's what you said. What can I do?"

"I'll watch your back. You make up for what I lack."

"I’ve had all I can take. I think it’s time. I go my separate ways."

"You speak for me. Everything goes black."

"How could I be so blind-- falling behind?"

"We're alike in mind. Two of a kind."

"But it's getting lost in the more you find."

"I forget my name. It's all the same."

"The clues had lead us to a dead end."

"The hired gun was on his way and we were both as good as dead."

"If we were both taking the big sleep... I swear I'll take the rat out myself first."

"I think we’ll never leave this deadly place. I know we’ll never see the light of day again." GAMMA UNCHAINED

"Initialization complete. System activation in 3.02 minutes."

"Forgive me for what I have done. I've never felt the need to confess."

"This war has gone on much longer than any of us would have guessed."

"I've heard the names that they call me some sting, some can't help but ring true."

"I have to live with what I've done and find the strength to continue."

"Tell me why I'm the one that they fear? And for him they cheer?"

"Stand, for you are now unchained."

"You'll bring peace to a world gone insane."

"I'll give you power, you take control."

"I cheated, the lies that I told. It's all for a future that I have seen."

"The death, the lives that I stole... the end has to justify the means."

"I gave him power, a new heart. It filled too quickly with his rage."

"γ:\[NAME]>\sys/activation γ:>[peacekeeping]/calculation γ:>…[solution\extermination]."

"I know that I am no longer the same. The game has changed."

"What good is power? You're out of control!"

#RP meme #Ask Meme #Sentence Meme #long post

[opedguy]

China Warns U.S. on Pelosi’s Visit to Taipei

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), Aug. 19, 2022.--Showing just how bad U.S.-Chinese relations have gone under 79-year-old President Joe Biden, China issued a stern warning about 82-year-old House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 9D-Calilf.)  upcoming visit to Taipei.  China has been locked in a better fight to dominate the Island nation of Formosa, a refuge for Chinese nationalists fleeing the 1949 Maoist Revolution led by Gen. Chiang Kai Shek.  Biden officials led by 59-year-old Secretary of State Tony Blinken and 45-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan have so deeply insulted Beijing that there’s no room for error in U.S.-China relations.  No president in modern history has done more to wreck U.S.-Russian and U.S.-Chinese relations than Biden, for some unknown reason likes provoking 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin and 69-year-old Chinese President Xi Jinping.  Biden’s insults keep flowing like a broken pipe.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian said there would be serious consequences if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi goes ahead with her expected entourage visit to Taipei in August.  “If the U.S. side obstinately clings to this course, China will definitely take resolute and forceful measures to firmly defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Lijiian said, acting like the Biden ordered a U.S. aircraft carrier and flotilla through the South China Sea.  Things have gotten so bad under Biden’s leadership, that the margin for error is minute.  Generations of U.S. president maintained close relations with Chinese Taipei.  Things changed dramatically when former President Jimmy Carter signed the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, ending the 1954 Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty.  Since the Maoist Revolution, Beijing knows to keep its hands off Chinese Taipei.

Biden’s wise-guy attitude has leaked through every aspect of U.S. foreign policy.  Biden let his years as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee get to his head, thinking he some kind of foreign policy scholar.  Biden is a shell of his former self, ravaged by age but protected by the Democrat Party defending the octogenarians like Pelosi.  While no decision is officials yet for Pelosi to lead a delegation to Taipei, Beijing watches U.S. moves like a hawk.  Pelosi is supposed to lead a delegation to Taipei, Tokyo, Singapore, Jakarta, spending some down time in Hawaii, something Pelosi thinks in the perfect summer vacation.  But give the volatile relations between the U.S. and Beijing, Pelosi and the Democrat leadership should not push things to the breaking point.  Biden said May 23, breaking a longstanding rule of “strategic ambiguity,” that he would defend Taiwan.

Biden’s comments about Taiwan throw gasoline of burning embers in Beijing, looking to pick a fight with the U.S.  Given the sate of world affairs with Biden fighting a proxy war against the Russian Federation, the White House can ill-afford  to provoke the Peoples Republic of China [PRC].  Biden’s State Department knows that China has entered into a strategic alliance with Moscow to counter U.S. supremacy.  Now fighting a proxy war in Ukraine against Putin, Biden has few options before the U.S. is at war witth the world.  Biden thought his Western Alliance against Moscow was enough to bring Putin to his knees but he sadly miscalculated.  Putin has found many allies to compensate for U.S. and EU sanctions against the Kremlin.  When it comes to China, Biden continues to ignite the flames.  Remember Biden said repeatedly that the Feb. 24 Ukraine War was “unprovoked and unjustified.”

Biden show astonishing tone deafness to what he does to antagonize Russia and China.  He can’t imagine that supplying Ukraine unlimited advanced U.S. weapons antagonized the Kremlin.  When it comes to the run-up to the Ukraine War, Putin asked Biden for months to renegotiate security arrangement for Ukraine, all of which rejected by Biden, calling Putin’s ideas “non-starters.”  So Biden likes to provoke Putin and Xi Jinping, then deny that he did anything wrong.  When it comes to Ukraine, look how the war morphed into not a border dispute between Ukraine and Russia into a U.S. proxy war to topple the Russian Federation. Biden expressed his views clearly March 26 in Warsaw, Poland, saying that Putin should not remain as Russian President.  Biden’s views were echoed by 69-year-old Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin who said April 26 that the aim of the war was to degrade the Russian military.

When it comes to Beijing, Biden is treading on thin ice with Pelosi planning a visit to Taipei in August, part of her summer vacation.  “The United States must be fully responsible for all the consequences caused by this,” said Lijian, warning the U.S. that Beijing will not take more U.S. provocation.  Beijing knows Pelsoi’s critical track record against the PRC.  If the U.S. wished to change its posture to Taiwan, they should rescind the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, recognizing only one China, the one in Beijing.  Visiting Taipei kicks dirt in Xi Jinping’s fact, only making an already tense situation worse.  If China invades Taiwan, what is Biden going to say, China’s actions were “unprovoked and justified?”  Biden has enough on his plate to create a new critical incident in Beijing.  Whatever Pelosi’s vacation plans, she should reroute her itinerary away from Taipei holding her meetings on Zoom.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

[youvebeenlivingfictional]

The Depths

Part Eight of Take Your Time

Two Days | Masterlist | Guilt

Pairing: Oberyn Martell x Reader x Ellaria Sand Rating: M (this may go up—if it does, I will give everyone fair warning before there is any explicit content) Notes: I hope y’all had a good week! 🧡

Warnings: Cursing; angst; yearning

Summary: There are moments, small, infrequent moments, when a flicker of guilt passes between Oberyn and Ellaria.

The first day underwater is terrifying.

You’re queasy; you can’t keep anything but tea down. It’s not sea sickness, it’s nerves.

The boats are all in order, your team is set for the dive. Everyone is buzzing with excitement as they look over the plans that you’ve set out for them for the day. The first couple of days will be used for observation, planning, and photography. The water is cool; the visibility is better than anticipated. When you surface, you have fewer bubbles of fear, and more bubbles of nerves. A lot of the structures that you can identify as part of the Old Palace been very badly corroded; some have become artificial reefs for marine life, and you already know that you can’t disturb them, lest it harm the ecosystem that’s taken form. There were a few things glinting at the sea floor, a few materials that you believe are copper, but couldn’t get a good enough look at at the time—your tank had been low on oxygen, and the team in the boat had been urging you to surface for the last hour.

You tug your gear off, sucking in a breath of fresh air and raking a hand over your face. Your team is chattering around you, delighted, volleying species spotted, structures noticed. You cast your eyes back toward the water. The artificial reefs, what they were covering...Well, you’ll have to review the pictures, but you’re certain, based on what you’ve seen in drawings, that those were key components to the upper portions of the burial chambers. If you’re right, then there will be no touching them—the Dornish ecological society won’t allow it. “...Boss?” You turn your head back to your team. Someone’s said something to you and you’ve missed it. You push a smile onto your face. “Sorry guys, what’s up?” -- Oberyn and Ellaria see very little of their archaeologist in the week following. It’s not that they don’t try—they certainly do. They drop in on her classes, leave notes with invitations for dinner or drinks the desk in her office. They even take The Red Viper near the area of the dive once. They see her pulling on her gear just before she drops off of the boat and into the water. Oberyn watches her during one of her lectures. Where she’s had an ease, a joy to talking about these topics before, the archaeologist is now distracted and almost rigid in her teaching. He’s seen the papers, he knows that the early findings underwater haven’t been nearly as promising as she’d hoped. It’s beginning to wear on her, the threat of failure. And there are moments, small, infrequent moments, when a flicker of guilt passes between Oberyn and Ellaria. They know what else lays at Blackmont Cove—they know what she’s looking for, and they know that she won’t find it in the depths. But they’ve kept their anonymity for so long—they’ve managed to stay afloat by being careful. Doran and the Sand Snakes went out of their way to destroy so many depictions of them, save for the ones that remain in Blackmont Cove. If they’re found...Well, it’s not worth thinking about what may happen.

They get the notes that they leave for her back—slipped under their doors or pinned to the bulletin boards outside of their offices. They bear responses like Sorry, the dig is too busy, or, Some other time. This happens for weeks. They can’t even catch the archaeologist after her classes—she steams out of there, and they know she’s headed for the dive. Ellaria inspects the latest note that she left for the archaeologist—another invitation to the open-air market. This one just has a hurried scribble that reads Can’t. She glances up as Oberyn comes into the office, sees the slight calculation and subsequent concern in his expression. “You look troubled, my love,” He says. Ellaria holds the note out for him, and he takes it, looking over the response. She sees his brow furrow just a touch. “A disappointment, but not a surprise,” He passes the note back to her. “I suppose,” She concedes, looking down at the note again. Oberyn rests his hands on Ellaria’s hips as he considers her expression. “...What is it?” He presses. She takes in a deep breath, her eyes flitting around the office. “It’s just...Quite rare that we meet someone that understands so much about...The lives that we knew. It was refreshing.” Oberyn hums, urging her on, and Ellaria meets his gaze, “I let myself get my hopes up, and now it feels...Foolish.” Oberyn smooths his thumbs in soft circles along her sides. “It’s not foolish to want someone, or to appreciate their prowess.” “Yes. You spent many hours appreciating her prowess.” Oberyn chuckles, raising his hand and cupping Ellaria’s cheek, “Be serious a moment.” Her mirth drops away as quickly as it arose, and she lowers her eyes to his chest. “Well,” She says, “Whatever happens, I enjoyed our time together.” Oberyn nods, tipping his head up and brushing a kiss to her forehead, then her lips. “Giving up so easily? Now who is being timid?” He teases. “There is a difference between being timid and taking the proper caution. I attended her class this morning—I’ve never seen anyone so tired.”

-- The Dornish Ecological society is staunch in their insistence that you leave the artificial reefs alone, as you knew that they would. You’re on the phone with them when you hear a knock on your office door. You glance up and spot Oberyn there. Something in your gut clenches—something nervous and twisty. You hold your hand up and point to the phone.

Oberyn nods.

And you figure he’ll leave, but instead he steps further inside and shuts the door behind himself. You narrow your eyes a little bit, lowering your eyes back to the files in front of you and refocusing on the conversation.

“Right…” You answer into the phone, “No, I understand that that species has become a vital part of the Harbor—...I understand, I’m not proposing that we—” It hurts you to press on, “I’m no longer proposing that we raise and restore those structures.”

Out of the corner of your eye, you can see Oberyn still in his looking at your shelves; you see him tip his head back toward you, clearly listening in on your conversation. You clear your throat before you go on:

“But I would like to get a better look at a few of the objects along the sea floor in the area. I think they may’ve been uncovered by the most recent tide…Yes, I had a hydrographic survey done. The area I’m proposing to excavate along the floor is minimal in regards to the entire site, but I'd like to retrieve them before the next tide…I could run the survey down to you now...Yes. Thank you,” You hurry to hang up before you bend over your desk, hurriedly gathering your materials. You glance up as you feel Oberyn turn to face you fully.

“Is there something I could help you with? I’m sort of in a hurry.”

“I can see that,” Oberyn nods, “...The structure you won’t be raising, is that—”

“Yes,” Your answer is hurried and clipped. It’s not your ego that tells you that Oberyn has been keeping up with the dig—it’s how well you’ve come to know him, his fascination and love of Dorne’s history. That brings back that twisting feeling, and take in a deep breath, trying to rid yourself of it You stack the folders and files that you need and grab your bag, shifting it onto your shoulder.

“I gotta go,” You skim around the desk, “So—Sorry that you’ve wasted your time coming over here—”

“It wasn’t a waste—”

“Feel free to stay and to—to browse whatever books you like—”

Oheryn catches hold of your hand, stilling you, and you turn to look up at him, brow furrowed. He’s watching you with something that you can’t quite place—it seems too near concern, too close to something warmer, and you don’t want to read too far into that. “Take a moment for yourself,” He urges you, “Not now, but...Slow down, sweet—when you have time.” Maybe he doesn’t mean for the advice to irritate you; maybe it’s not just the urging, maybe it’s the softness of his expression—maybe you feel that the man has no right to look at you softly, with a concern that should be pointed at someone like Ellaria. You shake his grip off and reel away, slipping out of your office and into the hall. It isn’t fair—what does a man like Oberyn Martell know about time?

Tag list: @massivecolorspygiant ; @mylittlelonelyappreciationtoo ; @recklessworry ; @paintballkid711 ; @peoniarose ; @fantasticcopeaglepasta ; @missredherring ; @writeforfandoms ; @grogusmum  ; @phoenixhalliwell ; @donnaa ; @natandtasha ; @quietpainter ; @acrossthestars ; @elen-aranel​ ; @letsfly-andbe-free​ ; @wonderlandgabby​ ; @amneris21​ ; @you-didnt-see-that-cuming​ ; @blueeyesatnight​ ; @ayamenimthiriel​ ; @librariantothejedi​ ; @revolution-starter​ ; @softdindjxrin​ ; @whovianayesha​ ; @youngkenobilove​ ; @emotionalsupportdaydreams​

#oberyn martell x reader #oberyn martell x reader x ellaria sand #oberyn martell/reader/ellaria sand #oberyn martell x you #oberyn martell x you x ellaria sand #Oberyn Martell/You #Oberyn Martell/You/Ellaria Sand #Ellaria Sand x Reader #Ellaria Sand x You #Ellaria Sand/Reader #Ellaria Sand/You #Take Your Time #The Depths

[pandoraborn]

I’ve been holding off on this for months, mostly because I was afraid of the amount of backlash I’d get, since people here really don’t seem to like Techno, but I’m gonna go forward with this anyway.

I want to talk about c!Techno and why I think he’s an amazing character.

This is not Tommy!critical. I love c!Tommy, and I think he’s a great character, but it’s really unfair to base the morals and actions of one character based on how they treat Tommy, and Techno got hit with that the hardest.

For starters, I want to talk about the exile, and the day the pair split. I have insisted from the beginning that Tommy betrayed Techno, and the reason isn’t because Techno is an uwu woobie who is a victim. Techno was an asshole, yeah. Tommy made the choice that was best for him, and I fully support that.

The reason Tommy betrayed Techno is because they never actually talked about going their separate ways. Techno took Tommy to L’Manburg with the expectation that they’d be going back to the snowy cabin together. Tommy had that same expectation. At the last minute, when Techno was pleading with Tommy to pearl out and get to safety, Tommy had left him hanging, leaving Techno with no other choice but to run to safety against thirty other people.

Techno is an asshole, but he didn’t deserve that.

He meant what he told Tommy at the desolation of L’Manburg, that he’s a person too. People have a tendency to use others for their supplies, for their strength and knowledge, and Techno was definitely hit with this the hardest. People used him for his ability to grind the best gear and weapons and even potions, and even back in the revolution arc, no one actually came forward to tell Techno what was really going on. Though, in that instant, not even they knew, because Techno was getting mixed signals from both Wilbur and Tommy, so that can’t even be held against him.

Wilbur was saying blow it all up. Tommy was saying get it back. Techno was going to go with the option that aligned more with his beliefs, thinking Wilbur wasn’t going to turn on everyone last minute, and that they were on the same page.

We all know Techno’s views aren’t the best. But I’m so tired of people using a flawed viewpoint to point out how evil Techno is. After literally funding an entire revolution and realizing it wasn’t what he thought it was, because no one actually set him straight, the very people he spent weeks helping, losing sleep over, formed a butcher army to hunt him down.

Next, I want to talk about the fact that everyone keeps saying he manipulated Tommy. I rewatched the bedrock bros streams, from Tommy’s point of view. I rewatched them again, and I’m wondering if I’m crazy here, because Techno told Tommy multiple times he was planning on blowing up L’Manburg. It was one of the very first conversations they had. I was under the impression Techno hid it in the book because it would just spark another argument.

Tommy knew what Techno wanted. Tommy was very close to siding with him, up until they reached the community center and Tommy re-allied with Tubbo. Tommy knew the whole time that Techno wanted L’Manburg gone. Of course he’s allowed to disagree and switch sides, which is why I say I’m proud of him. But to say that Techno never once brought it up to Tommy is a straight up lie, because Techno did. Go rewatch the vods, Bedrock bros absolutely did have that conversation, more than once.

I think Techno is a very interesting character. He’s steadfastly loyal until he’s given a reason not to be, he cares about his friends and allies, which is why I think he’s in the position he’s in now. It isn’t because he’s evil or held on a leash by Dream, it’s because Dream warned him that he was going to be executed and gave him a map that helped him find something that literally saved his life. Which means Quackity and Sam are using Techno and testing how strong his loyalty is.

I highly doubt that Techno would willingly wander into prison to see Dream if he didn’t actually care about the man. Dream might be the big bad villain, but Dream did save Techno’s life, it’s not just about Techno owing him a simple favor. Of course Techno’s going to repay that debt, because it’s a steep one.

Techno cares. Techno cares and he loves and he shows it in strange ways. He might be monotonous in tone, he might come across as aloof, but Techno is one of the most passionate characters I’ve ever seen on the smp. His love and loyalty toward his friends really shows. You can see it with Phil, you see it with Ranboo. You see it with his complicated relationship with Tommy. You see it with Dream.

To write all this off because “oh he’s the anarchy guy” is completely erasing what a deep and amazing character Techno really is, outside of his relationship with Tommy.

Because to base everything he’s done or will do around how Tommy feels is incredibly unfair, especially since not every other character is held to that standard, except maybe Phil. But Phil is a rant for another day.

TL:DR: Techno’s better than people give him credit for, and I want to spread more c!Techno positivity because the criticism is draining.

#dream smp #technoblade #oops i ranted #technoblade positivity #in this house we don't tolerate anymore techno slander #the negativity has gone on for too long #mild c!tommy crit

[a-secret-bolton-vampire]

Daenerys Stormborn, Part 2: Wake the Dragon

Oh hey, I have part 2 already! Guess my brain is really focused on Dany now. In part 1, I talked about Dany's arcs from AGOT to ASOS, exploring the narrative and thematic purpose of her journey. However, the most important part of her journey occurs in ADWD, and sets the stage for some incredibly exciting developments to come in TWOW. For part 2, I'll be talking about the gradual transformation of Daenerys into a slightly different, darker character for the future.

Breaker of Chains & Mhysa

Slavery has been an important background element throughout Dany's time in Essos, even in AGOT, but it becomes front and centre in ASOS. She accepted the Dothraki, a society that uses slaves for many things, and wasn't too perturbed at the use of slaves in Qarth. However, it is in Astapor where she finally realizes just how bad the institution is, as she tells Xaro:

"Whence came this madness? Should I count myself fortunate that you did not free my own slaves when you were my guest in Qarth?" I was a beggar queen and you were Xaro of the Thirteen, Dany thought, and all you wanted were my dragons. "Your slaves seemed well treated and content. It was not till Astapor that my eyes were opened."

As mentioned last time, ASOS is when she begins to take control of her destiny, and she does so by beginning a revolution to free the slaves of Slaver's Bay. She believe she has a greater destiny lying ahead of her, that there is a reason for her dragons, the red comet. She also has great empathy for people and sees this disturbing injustice being played out with nobody to stop it. But she has the power to do so, and thus she begins by going fire and blood at Astapor, killing the Good Masters and freeing all the slaves. Afterwards, she leaves the city with a ruling council of a priest, a scholar, and a healer and moves to Yunkai.

She does a different approach with Yunkai, negotiating with the Wise Masters to surrender their slaves and to leave them in peace. And then when she arrives at Meereen, she decides to stay and rule as its queen. This is where things begin to get difficult for Daenerys. The ruling council of Astapor is overthrown by a butcher named Cleon, who said the council was conspiring to bring back slavery, who declares himself King of Astapor, enslaves the children of the former Good Masters to make new Unsullied, and tries to ally with Daenerys against Yunkai, who has resumed slavery.

Daenerys is not interested in any war with Yunkai. The reason she stays in Meereen is exactly because she learned what happened when she left Astapor. The fire and blood approach didn't work. You can't just dismantle such a deeply engrained system so easily. So instead she opts to rule, and protect the people she can. While a lot of readers view Dany's actions in Meereen as pointless, the whims of a naive girl, and poor leadership, I actually think it's the opposite.

For starters, Dany realized that she can't simply burn the slavers to end slavery, but she needs to stay and instill changes. While King Cleon repeatedly begs for Daenerys to join the war against Yunkai, she refuses, and warns Cleon to not do such a thing. She turns out to be horribly right, as Cleon is killed, Astapor is sieged, before being slaughtered, burned, and sacked, to be reinstated as a slave city once more. Likewise, the Yunkish siege Meereen, first by creating a blockade in the bay with ships, and then by having armies amassed outside the city walls.

In addition, refugees from Astapor begin to pile up outside the city, and a deadly plague called the pale mare (for the horse from Astapor that arrives at Meereen) begins to sweep the starving Astapori freedmen, who begin to resort to cannibalism to survive. Dany blames herself for leaving Astapor a mess, but does not wish to have the same thing happen in Meereen. She wants to protect the people she's freed, not just from the Yunkish, but herself as well.

When a sheepherder brings the burned bones of his daughter, Hazzea, who was killed by her dragons, Dany has Rhaegal and Viserion chained in the dungeons below the Great Pyramid to prevent them from causing any more harm. However, Drogon is still loose, unable to be found. In addition, when the sons of the harpy, a terrorist group opposed to the emancipation of Meereen, begin massacring freedmen, Dany decides to raise a tax on the Great Masters and have all families of suspect loyalty send a child to serve as a hostage and cupbearers. Yet, as the killings continue, she has grown close to the children and decides not to have them killed.

Now, some of you may notice that I am taking a lot from the Meereenese Blot essays written by Adam Feldman. That's not only because they are really well written essays, but ones that GRRM himself has approved of.

"I read those when someone pointed them out to me, and I was really pleased with them, because at least one guy got it. He got it completely, he knew exactly what I was trying to do there, and evidently I did it well enough for people who were paying attention."

So I am retreading some of the ground Feldman has laid, but it's important to do so if I am to build up to what I think is going to happen in the future of Dany's story.

As Feldman notes, Dany's own actions (or in the case of the cupbearers, inaction) actually made a peace possible, because the Yunkish saw that she was someone who is capable of mercy and not a (in their eye) violent mass murderer. Knowing what happened with Astapor, and seeing what happens when her dragons are unleashed with Hazzea, Dany decides to make peace with the Yunkish and marry Hizdahr.

Under the peace, Meereen itself would remain a free city, but the Yunkish would continue to sell slaves. They even sell them in markets outside the walls of Meereen, which displeases Daenerys extremely. In addition, slaveowners could bring their slaves into Meereen without fear of them being freed, and the Yunkish promised to respect the rights of the freedmen in Meereen. Yet, despite the peace and the progress made, she feels as though this is a defeat.

This is peace, she told herself. This is what I wanted, what I worked for, this is why I married Hizdahr. So why does it taste so much like defeat?

The thing is, Daenerys has had to sacrifice so much of herself and her morals to get to this point. Yes there is peace, even if it is tentative, Meereen would not be sacked by the Yunkish, but slavery is still going on, and she thinks that she has let herself and other people down by agreeing to peace and allowing the Yunkish to continue slavery. She has agreed to peace to people she loathes and thinks are despicable, she has married a man she does not love and does not love her, she has chained her dragons in the pit below, she has allowed the fighting pits to reopen. This comes to ahead at Daznak's Pit when she is at the height of her discomfort.

The boar buried his snout in Barsena's belly and began rooting out her entrails. The smell was more than the queen could stand. The heat, the flies, the shouts from the crowd … I cannot breathe. She lifted her veil and let it flutter away. She took her tokar off as well. The pearls rattled softly against one another as she unwound the silk.

And then Drogon arrives, and in the chaos of him attacking the boar and being attacked by the soldiers in the pit, Dany tries to calm him, but he spits fire at her, and she tries to tame him by whipping him into submission. Here, Dany is quite literally fighting herself. She herself in this moment represents the Queen of Meereen, someone who desires for peace. Meanwhile, Drogon represents the dragon inside her, who wants to unleash blood and fire on her enemies. In the end, Dany climbs onto Drogon and they fly away together, which foreshadows and symbolizes Dany's later decision to choose being the dragon.

Despite her frustrations in Meereen, the peace was a good first step. Not to say that it solved every issue, it didn't, but that doesn't need to be the end of it. Daenerys could forge new peaces, new agreements, and if she stayed in Meereen, she could implement great changes throughout Slaver's Bay. But what is done is done, and cannot be undone. The peace that was forged is now gone. Next comes war.

The House with the Red Door

Before we move on to Dany's final chapter and what that means for the future, we must take a look at a very important part of her backstory which is one of the main elements of her own story. Sure, destiny, greatness, prophecy, power, and identity are themes with Daenerys, but at the center of it all is the desire for home. Dany was born on Dragonstone, but was whisked away to Braavos, and there she lived in the house with the red door, with Viserys, Ser Willem Darry, and their servants.

To Dany, the house with the red door was the only place in her life she called home, and she has very fond memories of it, of Willem, or the lemon tree. But after Willem died, they were kicked out and forced to become beggars on the streets, selling off their possessions and travelling the Free Cities. The red door was closed and gone forever after, but the dream of having a home hasn't.

Daenerys has a desire for home, for love, for family. Throughout her childhood, Viserys would tell Dany all about Westeros, how they need to take back the Iron Throne, that the Seven Kingdoms were the most beautiful lands in the world. And sure enough, soon, Westeros represents the idea for home and belonging to Dany.

"I pray for home too," she told him, believing it. Ser Jorah laughed. "Look around you then, Khaleesi." But it was not the plains Dany saw then. It was King's Landing and the great Red Keep that Aegon the Conqueror had built. It was Dragonstone where she had been born. In her mind's eye they burned with a thousand lights, a fire blazing in every window. In her mind's eye, all the doors were red.

Although she takes on the mantle as the new head of House Targaryen and carries on Viserys's dream of taking back the Iron Throne out of a sense of duty, she also does so for desire to belong in a place she can call home. It's a nostalgic feeling she gets of the old days, that she wants to relive again.

But then other ambitions get in her way. She frees the slaves of Slaver's Bay, and decides to stay in Meereen to try to ensure that her revolution succeeds. Thus, her quest for home is put on hold. Throughout ADWD, she gives up parts of herself, to try to become one with the Meereenese; marrying Hizdahr, reopening the fighting pits, chaining her dragons, dressing in the Ghiscari fashion, and making peace. But in the Dothraki sea, hundreds of miles outside Meereen, she finds that she wasn't being her true self, that she can never be the Queen of Meereen, or become a true Meereenese.

I must keep walking. Water flows downhill. The stream will take me to the river, and the river will take me home. Except it wouldn't, not truly. Meereen was not her home, and never would be. It was a city of strange men with strange gods and stranger hair, of slavers wrapped in fringed tokars, where grace was earned through whoring, butchery was art, and dog was a delicacy. Meereen would always be the Harpy's city, and Daenerys could not be a harpy.

The series is all about the human heart in conflict with itself, and Daenerys in ADWD is one of the best examples of that. She was struggling with her two competing titles of Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons, but in the end she was not comfortable with being the Breaker of Chains. This final transformation she undergoes in the Dothraki sea really sets the tone for what she will do in the future, and how she will change as a person and character.

Mother of Dragons

Daenerys X is one of the more bizarre chapters in the series, since it follows only one character alone with her thoughts, but it works extremely well as a character study, and the development over the course of the chapter is one of my favourites in the whole series. Through all the hallucinations and visions and dreams Daenerys has during this chapter, it's important to remember that they all (apart from possibly Quaithe) are her, so the discussions she has are with her own internal thoughts directly.

The topic of Targaryen madness reoccurs throughout the series, but it's ADWD where it is brought up the most. Now, the topic of Targaryen madness will be another post i will do in the far future and won't discuss in depth today, but the matter is that Dany is aware of some of it, even if she hasn't fully accepted the truth of her father. She fears that she is succumbing to the madness at points.

"Your Grace?" Missandei stood in the door of the queen's bedchamber, a lantern in her hand. "Who are you talking to?" Dany glanced back toward the persimmon tree. There was no woman there. No hooded robe, no lacquer mask, no Quaithe. A shadow. A memory. No one. She was the blood of the dragon, but Ser Barristan had warned her that in that blood there was a taint. Could I be going mad? They had called her father mad, once.

Later, she implies this fear again to Barristan.

I lived in fear for fourteen years, my lord. I woke afraid each morning and went to sleep afraid each night … but my fears were burned away the day I came forth from the fire. Only one thing frightens me now." "And what is it that you fear, sweet queen?" "I am only a foolish young girl." Dany rose on her toes and kissed his cheek. "But not so foolish as to tell you that. My men shall look at these ships. Then you shall have my answer."

But in an early version of Daenerys III, the answer Daenerys gave was "myself". She fears what would happen if she "woke the dragon", as Viserys put it. She's afraid of succumbing to the madness that consumed her father and probably was consuming Viserys. She's afraid of what would happen if she unleashed her dragons, how many innocents they would kill. But in the Dothraki sea, she begins to question her decisions, starting when she woke up after finding blood between her thighs:

"I am the blood of the dragon," she told the grass, aloud. Once, the grass whispered back, until you chained your dragons in the dark. "Drogon killed a little girl. Her name was … her name …" Dany could not recall the child's name. That made her so sad that she would have cried if all her tears had not been burned away. "I will never have a little girl. I was the Mother of Dragons." Aye, the grass said, but you turned against your children.

The importance of this quote cannot go unnoticed. She thinks about Hazzea all the time throughout the book, feeling deeply guilty about what Drogon did to her. But here, at the end, she cannot remember her name. The in world explanation is that, of course, she is delirious from being in the wilderness eating berries and being sick, but thematically this is her slowly turning away from the people she freed. Next comes a dream with Viserys (long quote incoming):

She dreamt of her dead brother. Viserys looked just as he had the last time she'd seen him. His mouth was twisted in anguish, his hair was burnt, and his face was black and smoking where the molten gold had run down across his brow and cheeks and into his eyes. "You are dead," Dany said. Murdered. Though his lips never moved, somehow she could hear his voice, whispering in her ear. You never mourned me, sister. It is hard to die unmourned. "I loved you once." Once, he said, so bitterly it made her shudder. You were supposed to be my wife, to bear me children with silver hair and purple eyes, to keep the blood of the dragon pure. I took care of you. I taught you who you were. I fed you. I sold our mother's crown to keep you fed. "You hurt me. You frightened me." Only when you woke the dragon. I loved you. "You sold me. You betrayed me." No. You were the betrayer. You turned against me, against your own blood. They cheated me. Your horsey husband and his stinking savages. They were cheats and liars. They promised me a golden crown and gave me this. He touched the molten gold that was creeping down his face, and smoke rose from his finger. "You could have had your crown," Dany told him. "My sun-and-stars would have won it for you if only you had waited." I waited long enough. I waited my whole life. I was their king, their rightful king. They laughed at me. "You should have stayed in Pentos with Magister Illyrio. Khal Drogo had to present me to the dosh khaleen, but you did not have to ride with us. That was your choice. Your mistake." Do you want to wake the dragon, you stupid little whore? Drogo's khalasar was mine. I bought them from him, a hundred thousand screamers. I paid for them with your maidenhead. "You never understood. Dothraki do not buy and sell. They give gifts and receive them. If you had waited …" I did wait. For my crown, for my throne, for you. All those years, and all I ever got was a pot of molten gold. Why did they give the dragon's eggs to you? They should have been mine. If I'd had a dragon, I would have taught the world the meaning of our words. Viserys began to laugh, until his jaw fell away from his face, smoking, and blood and molten gold ran from his mouth.

The dream terrifies Daenerys, but once again, Viserys (really herself here) is telling her she is stalling in a place she doesn't belong, that she needs to go home, that she should embrace being a dragon. The climax of this comes right after she realizes Meereen would never be her home, where she argues with Jorah (again, herself):

Meereen would always be the Harpy's city, and Daenerys could not be a harpy. Never, said the grass, in the gruff tones of Jorah Mormont. You were warned, Your Grace. Let this city be, I said. Your war is in Westeros, I told you. The voice was no more than a whisper, yet somehow Dany felt that he was walking just behind her. My bear, she thought, my old sweet bear, who loved me and betrayed me. She had missed him so. She wanted to see his ugly face, to wrap her arms around him and press herself against his chest, but she knew that if she turned around Ser Jorah would be gone. "I am dreaming," she said. "A waking dream, a walking dream. I am alone and lost." Lost, because you lingered, in a place that you were never meant to be, murmured Ser Jorah, as softly as the wind. Alone, because you sent me from your side. "You betrayed me. You informed on me, for gold." For home. Home was all I ever wanted. "And me. You wanted me." Dany had seen it in his eyes. I did, the grass whispered, sadly. "You kissed me. I never said you could, but you did. You sold me to my enemies, but you meant it when you kissed me." I gave you good counsel. Save your spears and swords for the Seven Kingdoms, I told you. Leave Meereen to the Meereenese and go west, I said. You would not listen. "I had to take Meereen or see my children starve along the march." Dany could still see the trail of corpses she had left behind her crossing the Red Waste. It was not a sight she wished to see again. "I had to take Meereen to feed my people." You took Meereen, he told her, yet still you lingered. "To be a queen." You are a queen, her bear said. In Westeros. "It is such a long way," she complained. "I was tired, Jorah. I was weary of war. I wanted to rest, to laugh, to plant trees and see them grow. I am only a young girl." No. You are the blood of the dragon. The whispering was growing fainter, as if Ser Jorah were falling farther behind. Dragons plant no trees. Remember that. Remember who you are, what you were made to be. Remember your words. "Fire and Blood," Daenerys told the swaying grass.

And here is where everything changes. She has spent time trying to protect innocent lives, to make peace, not war, to be loved and accepted by Meereen. But here, she decides that it is time to do away with that. Meereen is not her home, Westeros is, and it's time to wake the dragon and burn Yunkai. No longer will she be burdened by the idea of a cost of innocent lives, no longer will she fear herself, and no longer will she linger. When the time comes, she will burn her enemies and leave for Westeros.

I need to make a few things clear here, however. For one, I don't think she's mad now, this is just her resolving her internal conflict. For another, I don't care what she does to the slavers. They deserve what's coming for them. She will still care about the innocent, but she's now going to go full-blooded Targaryen and burn cities to the ground, and this will mean massive collateral damage she will try to rationalize away.

Daenerys has now transformed into a different, much darker character, which I feel will continue to define her for the rest of the series. She is now the Mother of Dragons, in her entirety, and Essos is about to bleed and burn. I really appreciate how GRRM put this together, and that she didn't stay fire and blood after Astapor. His character development is realistic, and sometimes the development is not linear. In part 3, I will be discussing predictions about Daenerys's arc and story in TWOW, more specifically what she will do in Essos.

#asoiaf #asoiaf meta #asoiaf character arcs #daenerys targaryen #daenerys stormborn #mother of dragons #adwd #meereen

[autumnleaves1991-blog]

What do you think each of the TF guys reactions would be if the reader (who is on the same level as doc to them) got groped in a bar they were all at? 🌺

I’ve always wanted to do one of these headcanons where the TF boys react to something. Thanks for the request.

Warning: Language, violence, over-protective.

The boys reacting to you getting groped at the bar. 

Benny: Ben doesn’t think he just throws out his fist and connects it with the fuckers face. No one is going to disrespect you like that. He will make such a mess of the guy that they will both get kicked out of the place. But he would do it again in a heartbeat to protect you. 

Santiago: I wrote a whole story about this... but Santiago would push you behind him and get right in the guy's face. This man is Delta Force and took down drug lords in Colombia for the past three years. He can be scary when he gets that look in his eye. The guy apologizes before running out of the place. Santiago takes you home and reminds you how much he loves you. 

Frankie: Frankie is the sweet one of the group, but he has a dark side that he keeps inside. You see it for the first time when you are at the bar, and some guy gropes you from behind. Frankie is on him in a second, bending his arm behind his back and shoving his face into the bar top. “You are going to fucking apologize to her right now,” the guy scared and saying sorry, “If I ever see you touch anyone without their permission again,” he leaves the threat open, and the guy scatters when he’s free. Frankie comes over to you and cups your cheeks, “I’m sorry, amor, that fucker won’t ever touch you again,” pressing a kiss to your forehead and folding you in his arms. 

Will: Someone touches you without your permission, Will is going to do something similar to Frankie. These two are the strong silent types except after the guy leaves, and he makes sure your okay...Will will follow him and put him in a headlock in the parking lot, scaring the shit out of the guy so bad he pisses himself. Then Will will come back in and hold you close the rest of the night, not letting anyone close enough to even accidentally brush you. 

Taglist: @chicken-ona-stick @agirllovespancakes @jedi-mando @ghostwiththemostbitch @the-purity-pen @paintballkid711 @wasicskosgirl @fantasticcopeaglepasta @sarahjkl82-blog @lunarthoughts @jedi-mando @idreamofboobear @aerolanya @rebelliouscat @veracruz-djarin @marvelprincess1994 @thirstworldproblemss @spacelatinoss  @martellthemandalor @kesskirata @waatermelon-sugaar @jitterbugs927 @helga1031  @greeneyedblondie44 @mamacitapascal @oldstuffnewstuff @yespolkadotkitty @heythere-mel @justanotherblonde23 @artsymaddie @anetteaneta @aellynera @lucifer- @houseofthirst @phoenixhalliwell @spider-starry @thewayofthemandalorian @santiagogarcia @gunslinger2000 @omlwhatamidoinghere @linkpk88 @tlcwrites @mariesackler @demoncrypt1066 @goalkeepernerd @meshlamando @xjustmenobodyelse @seasonschange-butpeopledont @josepedropascal @revolution-starter @blufanfictionthings @nicotinebirds @dreamer-101 @hyperfixatingmenever @whatisawwhileoutandabout @queenbbarnes @sacklerscumrag @peterhollandkait @itspdameronthings

#Triple Frontier #Autumn Writes #frankie catfish morales #william ironhead miller #Benny Miller #santiago pope garcia #Headcanons

[sokkastyles]

Thinkin about how Zuko finds Katara’s necklace on the prison ship.

Katara’s necklace and what it represents, the memory of her mother, is not just something she uses throughout the series to empathize with others. Katara, especially in season one starts a revolution like, every three episodes, and each time the memory of her mother is a motivator.

Katara’s mother was killed because she was (mistakenly) believed to be the last waterbender, and it’s not just the survivor’s guilt that Katara has to live with, although there is that, too. It’s that Kya was killed because of what she represented, a threat to the Fire Nation, the biggest threat coming from the Southern Water Tribe.

Kanna ran away from the Northern Water Tribe and an arranged marriage because she wanted more from her life than to be told what she could and couldn’t do as a woman. We don’t know why she kept the necklace but presumably it was a reminder to her of what she had overcome and fought against, because that’s the meaning it has for Katara.

Just...the journey that this necklace goes on and how it threads its way through the lives of these characters, and what it represents.

Like...Katara does the impossible and leads a revolution of earthbenders on a metal ship, because she met a boy and told that boy about her mother and that boy needed help.

Then Zuko finds the necklace and he carries it for nine episodes...which, I mean, bad Zuko. He tries to bribe her with it and Katara, starter of revolutions and robber of pirates, last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe, tells him to jump in the river.

I wasn’t thinking about them at all in a shipping context at this point but it’s not surprising that people were back when the show aired, and it’s not even the whole “enemies to lovers” thing, Zuko literally wears her necklace around his wrist, it’s a physical tie connecting them together, and of course Zuko’s hunt for the Avatar connects him to the gaang in a way that is obvious foreshadowing for their intertwined destinies.

Then when they meet in the North, Zuko and Katara’s fight is charged with emotional energy, they have banter, they match each other in ability, he recognizes that she’s become her own master now, and she did that through beating the guy who made Kanna’s necklace, because Katara kicks sexism in the teeth, and the necklace takes on a new meaning, too.

Fast forward to the end of season two, and Zuko connects with Katara through the loss of her mother, symbolized by the necklace, the necklace he carried for nine episodes. Like yeah, he was being a villain when he did that but look where they are now.

I was gonna say that “The Southern Raiders” is the close of the Necklace Arc but no! There’s more!

Katara literally stood next to Zuko and helped him defeat his sister, who chose her father’s legacy whereas Zuko chose his mother’s. And Zuko actually gave to Katara what both their mothers gave to them, sacrificing his life for hers. And this time Katara is able to use her gift, her tribe’s legacy, the thing her mother died for, to give that life back to him.

How many children who had lost their parents did Katara help throughout her journey? All of the gaang, Haru, Jet... And she carried that necklace with her, wherever she went. She carried the memory of her mother, and her gran-gran’s fighting spirit, and it made her strong.

#katara #zuko #zutara #kinda #atla meta #this was half a zutara meta and half a katara's necklace meta

[mast7r]

lyric inspired sc / through me (the flood), hozier

               "   i   almost   forget   -   then   i   wake   up   and   remember   again   .   this   war   /   all   the   graves   /   all   the   losses   ,   and   how   many   more   ...   i'm   sorry   ,   @lycantied   .   i'm   thinking   of   loss   and   how   to   measure   it   ;   i   didn't   even   think   about   WHO   i   was   talking   to   .   "

#lycantied #sorry about the edging on angst it was hoziers fault im in a brain rot spiral #* come on guys it’s time for a revolution / closed starter. #* change the story. become more than this walking tragedy / ic. #v. how the fates choose / tbd.

[downwiththeficness]

A Need So Great-Chapter 18

Summary: Eva Moore is assigned to work the last year of her contract with the DEA in Colombia. She just wants to get to the end of her tenure, but she keeps getting drawn further into a string of murders in the city. It isn’t long before she’s forced to face the ghosts of her past.

Word Count: ~2,000

Warnings: Oral M!receiving

A/N: For the purposes of this story, Carrillo isn’t married--or, if you like, divorced. A/B/O dynamics are prevalent, and they come with their own warning. The overall rating for this story is Explicit, although not every chapter will contain adult themes.

Taglist: @dirtynerdy98 @1zashreena1 @heresathreebee @deliciouslyclassytrash @maybege @kid-from-new-zealand @clydesducktape @revolution-starter @autumnleaves1991-blog @jedi-mando @buckysalefty @anaeve

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8.5, 9, 10, 10.5, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21

Eva was laying in bed at Horacio’s house, reading a novel she’d picked up at the corner store, switching between it and the English to Spanish dictionary as she tried to translate.  Though her skills had definitely improved, she still found herself flipping through the pages of the dictionary in frustration as she came across and entire sentence that she couldn’t quite understand. It was slow going, but without having to go into the office every day, Eva had the time.

The door opened and shut loudly, startling her. Quietly, she set her book aside and slid off the bed, padding as softly as she could through the bedroom door and down the hall. Keeping herself against the wall, she peered around the corner. At this point, she couldn’t be too careful.

Horacio was leaning against the counter next to the refrigerator, an ice pack on his hand. Concerned, Eva rounded the corner, hands already coming up to pull his hand to her chest. She lifted the pack, hissing when she saw that it was bruised, cut in a few places.

“What the fuck happened?”

He closed his eyes for a moment, as if he really didn’t want to get into it. Eva tugged just a bit on his arm, lifting her brows. She expected him to answer her.

“We found a man who Vanessa had been paying off to keep tabs on your whereabouts outside of work,” he explained in a moderate tone, “He didn’t want to talk. We worked on him a bit. When he did talk, we knew we had to run a little recon on your apartment.  There was a guy waiting for you inside.”

Eva stared for several seconds, then her eyes dropped down to the hand she was holding, “Was he…?”

“Yes.”

“Did you…?”

“Yes.”

She felt the air go out of her, “That’s good.”

“That’s not good, Eva,” he countered, tapping his first finger under her chin to get her to look at him, “It means that we were right. There are more coming.”

For the first time in a really long while, Eva hated being right.

She thought about it for a minute, “Did Vanessa pay him out?”

He shrugged, “I’m waiting for a call to confirm.”

More waiting.  All she had been doing since she got let go was wait. It was for the best, but Eva chafed at the inaction.

“What happens if we have confirmation?”

“I give the information to Javi and let him add it to our file, which is growing by the moment.”

Needing a change in subject, Eva lifted the ice pack, gauging the damage, “Does it hurt?”

He lifted one shoulder, “A little.”

Mouth curling into a smile, she asked, “Was this the guy who wouldn’t talk, or the guy who wanted to kill me?”

There was a beat of silence, then, “The guy who wanted to kill you.”

That was more telling than him taking on this mission to track down an endless line of people who were under Myra’s thumb. Eva lifted his hand and tenderly kissed one of the bruised knuckles.

“I’m a little sad that I didn’t get to watch,” she admitted, lifting her eyes back to his face.

His brows drew together, “Its not a pretty sight.”

“Big Guy, you uppercut a guy unconscious before we even started dating,” Eva drawled, pulling him from the counter and leading him to the couch where she sat him down and crawled into his lap. “I can definitively say that violence isn’t going to scare me.”

Casting her a strange look, Horacio wrapped an arm around her middle and pulled her in to rest against his chest. He pushed her hair over her shoulder, nosing over her skin and inhaling. Eva sighed, little tingles of awareness coursing over her body everywhere they made contact. He’d beaten a man, and then killed another, tonight—all in an effort to keep her alive. It stunned her how casually he talked about it. It stunned her more how proud she was that he was willing to go so far for her sake.

Holding his jaw with both hands, Eva ran her thumbs over his cheekbones, her expression soft. Shifting forward, she peppered his face with little kisses, her heart warming at his bemused chuckle. She kept going, laughing when he tried to pull back, only to be stopped by the couch cushion. Eva pressed her advantage, kissing everywhere she could reach, laughing even more as his face scrunched despite the dimple revealing smile stretched wide over his lips.

He gripped her underneath her chin, tilting her head down so that he could give her a proper kiss, a chaste press of his mouth to hers. Then another, longer kiss, his tongue darting out to swipe over her lower lip. Eva gripped his biceps for balance and took a third kiss, deeper and harder than the last. It felt like no time at all before they were making out on the couch like teenagers, the ice pack thrown on to the carpet with a wet plop.

His arms held her tight, one hand drifting up and under her sleep shirt to knead her breast, thumb circling over the nipple. Eva could hear the desperation in her own moan, even as it rolled out of her throat. He mouthed down her neck to her collarbone, teeth nipping at the sensitive skin.

The phone rang and Eva jumped. Horacio pulled back, kissing her soundly on the mouth before leaning over and picking the receiver out of the cradle, holding it to his ear. He continued to hold her as he spoke, a muted voice responding over the line. His fingers drifted lazily over the naked skin of her thigh, circling.

Eva widened her stance, letting more of her weight rest on his hips, on the growing erection in his forest green slacks. Holding his gaze, she gave him the smallest circling movement, just a little bit of friction to stimulate the both of them. The hand on her thigh tightened just a fraction in warning, but his eyes were warm and aroused. Green. Light.

Running her hands over his chest, she rocked forward and up, using the motion to lay a kiss on his cheek, far more innocent that the kisses she was giving him not a minute before. She could feel his breath on her neck and shoulder, faster than normal. His voice was entirely too calm when he spoke next. That needed work.

Adjusting her stance, Eva dropped one foot, then the other to the ground and let her body slide down his until she was kneeling on the floor between his legs. He watched her go, looking torn between censuring her and letting her do as she pleased.

Massaging his thighs, Eva got comfortable, eyes flicking upwards to gauge his expression. His mouth was parted, eyes dark and focused. The hand over the phone by his ear was clenched, the other laying flat against the couch cushion.

Hands tracing up to his stomach, Eva felt for his heartbeat, a quick pulse in his chest, belying body language that could conceivably be described as calm. That was progress. Eva laid her cheek against his thigh, keeping as much eye contact as she could. She placed one hand on the opposite knee, pushing very slightly. Obediently, he let his legs fall further open.

Pursing her lips to keep the smile away, Eva rubbed her cheek up his thigh until she reached the bulge beneath his fly. She exhaled, letting him feel the heat from her breath. Then, she tilted her head and, meeting his eyes, licked him from base to tip. He inhaled, nostrils flaring, eyes narrowed and gaze hot. She did it again, putting a little bit more pressure on him with her tongue.

For a few minutes, that’s all she did, until the fabric of his pants was wet and he was pulsing with every touch. Reaching up, she slipped his belt through the buckle, nimble fingers flicking open the button and carefully lowering the fly.

She looked up, fingers tucked into his waistband, just to make sure he was okay. Breathing uneven, he pulled his bottom lip between his teeth and lifted his hips in invitation. The conversation continued, though Horacio more than once had to cover the mouthpiece of the phone when she drew him into her mouth, tongue extending to get at as much of him as she could. His moan was strained as he worked to keep it inside.

Eva pushed her hands up his chest, the material of his uniform and undershirt catching on her wrists and drawing upwards to reveal the thick trunk of his torso. She lifted her mouth, letting his cock fall to his stomach for a moment as she took him in. Chest heaving, red in his cheeks, pants pulled down just past the bend of his ass—Eva had to bite her tongue to keep the moan of want inside.

Sucking him back into her mouth, Eva pumped him with one hand, the other slipping down to cradle his sack. The thighs on either side of her tightened a little bit more with every down stroke, and she could feel the tension in his hips as he worked to keep them still. He was only a little bit successful, they rolled up to meet her, keeping time with her rhythm.

Above her, his voice cracked. She looked up. His eyes were closed, the hand on the couch pushing hard into the cushion. His responses to whoever he was talking to were short and sharp. In her hands, he hardened further, and she could feel his sack drawing up against his body. Eva sped up.

Grabbing her shoulder for purchase, Horacio pressed a bit into her movement, trying to slow her down. She gripped his hand, slotting her fingers between his and setting it on the couch very deliberately. Eva could taste the pre-come that was leaking from his tip, knew that he was getting dangerously close. From above, he ended the conversation with a terse goodbye, slamming the phone down into the cradle with a sharp moan.

“Eva,” he breathed, finally letting his lungs take in the air they needed. “Eva, come here.”

He tried to pull her up, but she caught that hand and pushed it into the couch as well.  Without use of her own hands, it took more concentration to keep her body over him, to keep licking and sucking and tonguing him. In her grip, his hands flexed, but remained where she put them. Fingers entwined with his, Eva breathed through her nose, hollowing her cheeks.

Groaning, his hips jerked upwards, nearly gagging her. Eva had to let go of one of her hands to keep him steady in her mouth. The added sensation of her fist bobbing in time with her mouth pushed a pained grunt from his chest, a rumbling growl following. The hand she still held tightened.

“Fuck, fuck,” he spit, and then she could feel the initial pulse of his orgasm.

She swallowed down what she could, a bit dripping down his length and between her fingers. She used the extra lubrication to continue pumping him until he was spent. Pulling off, Eva sat back on her heels and took him in.

Horacio was sweating a bit, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath. Eyes closed, mouth open, head tilted back. Beautiful man. Eva smiled and pushed up so that she could sink into the couch next to him. He pulled his pants back up over his hips, but left them open. Then, he flung an arm over her, head lolling to the side to look at her.

“I think I needed that,” he said. His brows quirked a little, “Maybe not while I was on the phone with Javier trying to discuss bank statements.”

Eva laughed, “Do you think he knew?”

“I don’t care,” he replied, cupping her cheek and kissing her. He stood, pulling her with him, “Come on, I need a shower and I want you with me.”

#narcos #horacio carrillo #carrillo #A Need So Great

[cosmiciaria]

Assasin’s Creed III Remaster review - Spoilers! - Long post!

I wanted to keep this spoiler free, but as this game is such a narrative experience, I don't think I'll be able to. I'll try to keep them at minimum, but be warned: there are major spoilers ahead. By the way, this game is almost a decade old, so y'all had plenty of time to get spoiled beforehand. And if you're reading this, it's because you like this game and you probably know how it ends.

Review under the cut because this is way too long. 

As always, I express my feelings and impressions regarding my experience with a game – I write it because I like writing reviews instead of, I don't know, recording a video for YouTube. I'm not a YouTuber and I feel safer behind a keyboard where people don't point out about my weird accent (the accent every Hispanic person has when they speak English). Since the pandemic started, I found refuge and comfort in AC games, with Syndicate being my first contact with the franchise, and Unity solidifying my love for it. I found strength and weaknesses in all the installments I've played, which are almost all of them by now (excluding the first AC with Altaïr, the new saga with Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla, and Rogue). I've also platinumed three of those games I've played, and I'm on my way to platinum this one, so I think I can speak from a deep fan standpoint by now.

Since Syndicate, I studied from up close each of the protagonists of the mainline games. I felt drawn to Arno because he looked like one of my oc's (and his girlfriend looked like my oc's girlfriend as well); I wanted to learn about Ezio because he's a fan favorite; I wasn't at all impressed by Edward but ended up growing fond of him; I respect Altaïr for what he means to the Brotherhood; but I can safely say, that I haven't felt as attracted to a main AC protagonist as I felt with Connor.

From the moment I knew he was a native American (such a bold choice, it seemed for me) I felt instant attraction – but not the, idk, physical (he's a cutie I give it to you), but because of what he could bring about as a main character. A perspective we don't usually get to see, and personally, as I'm not American, a point of view to educate me on a different side of history. I wanted to see what they could do with him as the star of the game, I wanted to play with him and understand how someone like him could rise up and become a protagonist of such a well known and beloved saga of games. I applaud this decision from Ubisoft, whether they did it because they wanted to look progressive or not, I don't care, I'll always cherish that the protagonist of a famous videogame is a Mohawk. And with the American Revolution as the main stage, no less. Such an important scenario to strengthen the virtue of independence, patriotism and love for a country, going hand in hand with a character that represents America even more than the Founding Fathers.

(Also I'm a Hamilton Fan Trademark so I couldn't stop singing random parts of songs while playing this game, it was a nightmare every time Lafayette appeared on screen because I JUST HAD TO start mumbling Guns and Ships)

I lunged blindly into this game – I'd only spoiled myself the very ending because I played Black Flag before – so imagine my surprise when I first saw Haytham, Connor's father, as the main protagonist.

So here's the deal. Let's clear this out of the way.

I thoroughly enjoyed the game. It was what I expected and more.

But.

Yes, there's always a but in AC games, you know the drill.

As I kept playing with Haytham, charming though he was, I kept thinking to myself "ok but when does Connor come into play". I also already knew Haytham was a Templar, so the end of the first few sequences didn't catch me by surprise – actually, what caught me by surprise was that there was no mention of Assassins or Templars during the "prologue" with Haytham, instead you're left to believe they're all Assassins until he prays to the Father of Understanding and you realize with a gasp "oH NoO!".

You play with Haytham the first three sequences. One of these have the most memories out all of the sequences more or less. This whole thing can take up to three to five hours depending on how much time you wish to put into exploring or completing the optional objectives. And still no signs of Connor.

Connor does come eventually – as a child – by sequence 4. It's not until the end of sequence 5 that you get to play as (almost) adult Assassin Connor, so maybe five or six or even seven hours into the game and you're barely starting.

I know what they did here. I understand. And this is what I meant when I said they were going for a 'narrative experience'. To make you play as Haytham before, to lure you into a false sense of safety believing he was an Assassin working for a just cause, to make you feel invested in his relationship with Ziio – only to discover he's one of the bad guys, that will eventually give birth to our true hero of the game – it sediments everything perfectly. It tells you everything you need to know to understand these characters and their motivations. I can see where they're going and some of it can be quite predictable, but it was done right. On the narrative aspect at least.

I got used to Haytham by the time we switch to Connor, we're used to his cloak and his three pointed hat – his accent, his sassiness, his everything. You grow fond of him and you think, hey, maybe it isn't so bad to not play as Connor, I can roll with this – until the sudden change happens. The game completed its purpose: let you know and care for Haytham, only to strip him away from your hands and bring you the real protagonist with an interesting background that didn't need to be told, but it was instead shown to us players. What a better way to tell a story.

But the problem is – most of Haytham's memories are fillers. For starters, the very first memory where you appear in the opera house (similar to that one at the end of Black Flag… mmm) serves as a tutorial for climbing and killing with the hidden blade. Then the whole memory on the ship to Boston – completely expendable and removable, the story doesn't suffer from it. All the memories used with Haytham as tutorials – how to shield from an open line of fire, how to use ranged weapons, how to sneak and find stores and viewpoints, how to use horses and walk on snow, fricking Ben Franklin – everything, everything could've blended in better. You could still tell the story you wanted in only one sequence playing with Haytham, and end it the way it does end in sequence 3, without avoiding any important detail to frame Connor's backstory as well – but instead, this part with Haytham does feel like it overstays its welcome, and by the end you're just hoping it ends soon, it drags on for too long, and there's no real sense of thread pulling the strings together here, everything just kind of 'happens'.

But the never-ending prologue doesn't end there (badam tum tsss), because Connor still isn't an Assassin. Connor is not Connor actually, as I had been led to believe prior to playing this game: his real name is Ratonhnhaké:ton, which I wish it was used more often than it was. Ratonhnhaké:ton is like four or five years old when you first play with him, and his village is assaulted by what we assume are Charles Lee's men, a Templar and companion to Haytham. Ratonhnhaké:ton swears revenge upon these putrid British invaders and he grows up resenting the death of his mother, who died in the fire provoked by these Templars.

Not even knowing what a Templar or an Assassin is, Ratonhnhaké:ton is sent by one of "the spirit guides" (actually, Juno, one of the Precursor people) to seek the Brotherhood. When he's around 14, he sets out of his village into the wide world and finds Achilles, who will become his Assassin mentor – that is, after completing a set of tasks that yet again seem to go on forever. Ratonhnhaké:ton turns into Connor to cover his true origins, a name I thought it was random, but by the end I realized how wrong I was.

It isn't until Connor turns 17 that he becomes a fully-fledged Assassin – and you might think, well, Ezio became an Assassin at the same age – yes, but it didn't take him five sequences to reach there. I can't believe I'm defending Ezio.

It's not that I didn't enjoy playing as Connor when he was a kid, no, and I also don't think that part of the game should be skipped since it shows his people, family and friends – maybe comprised, yes, into only one sequence – the real problem here is the fact that first you need to play what could be considered the longest prologue ever, even longer than Kingdom Hearts 2's one, and you're teased with grasping the real protagonist but no, because there's still more 'prologue' to cover with Connor's rise to the Brotherhood. The real, real story, begins in sequence 6, and even then you still have a lot of tutorials to listen from the NPC on duty.

And if you do the maths – you're halfway through the game – halfway! – and you're just starting. The game has twelve sequences and the meat of the plot is on the last six. Then, why did I play all the previous parts?

For the 'narrative experience' thing I talked about. They wanted to lay the groundwork for a better, compelling storytelling, and I can appreciate it, but not when it hinders the pace of the game this way.

That is, certainly, my biggest issue with the game. The pace. If you're going to give me such a slow start, introducing characters non-stop, and only give me resolutions, discoveries and action packed sequences on the later half, then the story isn't balanced at all – I understand that at some points you need to slow down and sink in what's going on; you can't also introduce ten characters in one cutscene because that's just bad story telling – but the memories of this game are clearly not well organized and weren't thought with the player in mind, but rather with the story in mind. To think that the first mission you do as a full Assassin is to receive more and more tutorials on how the fast travel points work and how you can lower your notoriety (as far as gameplay goes in this mission, it's only walking around at a slug's pace to follow the NPC giving you instructions) it does feel like a slap in the face after all the things and hours and effort you put into it to finally reaching this point (which, I remind you, it's by sequence six!).

It's at this point where I can't blame people for not following through with this game. I have plenty of friends who abandoned it even before reaching this part. And I found myself having trouble to return to it: I only wanted to go back to it because I knew I had to like Connor, I knew he wouldn't disappoint me as a character.

Boy, was I RIGHT!

Now, to be honest, I may be biased, like I said: I was instantly attracted to Connor due to his backstory and I wished to see what he could bring to the table. And I have to say, he didn't disappoint me at all.

Maybe you know or maybe you don't, but up until this point, my fave Assassin was Arno: he showed weaknesses and he suffered the consequences of his actions, to the point of no return, that rendered him vulnerable and a mere human being. And I love me a good vulnerable character who knows their limits and strives to get out of that pit. I love me a good, compelling character that has growth and agency and isn't made of cardboard or has a one-dimensional personality. And Connor delivered on this front.

Connor might very well be my new fave Assassin. I'm sorry, Arno. I still love you babe. But Connor… I never found myself rooting for a character more than I did with him. I wanted him to succeed, I wanted his people to be saved, I wanted to see his ideals become a reality – and he's got so much agency, he's a storm when he comes into a scene, his naivety mixed with the brutality of his killings, the simplicity of his reasonings – he's an idealist, and he fights for it, whether we like it or not, and that devotion to his own creed is at least respectable, let alone admirable. He's never downplayed for his upbringing or his ethnicity, he works among the most notorious people as if he was another one of them, he's well respected in his community, he shows kindness and always offers a helping hand to those in need, but never doubts to plunge his blade into this opponent's throats, fearlessly, he doesn't mind telling George Friking Washington to shut the hell up and not follow him because he'll kill him (there's such a pleasure in a native reprimanding enslaver Washington) – he's, simply put, a great hero.

I've seen many complain that he's boring, or that the actor who played him, Noah Watts, delivered lines in an emotionless way – the only thing that could make him 'boring' is the fact that he's not a lady's man like Ezio was, and to my eyes that's a plus. He speaks slowly and modulates well in English because that's not his mother tongue, and I can appreciate when a company puts these little details, like his way of speaking changing throughout the game as he gained more confidence with this new language he was learning to use. As non-English native speaker, I certainly can commune with the feeling of adapting my tongue and my brain to a new language, and I also know that I speak weirdly to those who are native, maybe I don't have the same intonations, and maybe I sound emotionless as well, who knows, but I can't think of a better portrayal of a non-English character speaking English in videogames than this one. They remained faithful to his culture, and even though I noticed Noah didn't speak Mohawk as fluently as English, I can still feel pleased with the fact that Connor speaks in his mother tongue in all of the scenes he interacts with Mohawks (that's something they did better here than in Unity, where not a single character has even a French accent. I switched the language spoken to French in my subsequent playthroughs, much to my disappointment, because I really liked the Canadian actors). I know subtitles may seem threatening to some, but I wish they did this more often: deliver more lines in the original language of each of the protagonists. It shows care and respect. And I think this game excels at respect.

So, yes, I liked Ratonhnhaké:ton, as you can see. Maybe a lot. Too much.

I also really, really enjoyed his relationship with Haytham.

When Haytham appears back in to the fray it's when the plot picks up. Their interactions are gold: I love the rivalry, I love that Haytham is constantly testing his son, and I love the tiny bits that may show or make us believe that Haytham has a soft spot for him – I love that we never truly know what's going on through Haytham's mind, why does he do the things he does – but what I enjoyed the most about these two fighting together is the fact that they represent opposing forces, a clash of interest, and they bring back the concept of the blurred line between the Templars and the Assassins, their different methods. Haytham represents the collectiveness of the Templars, through him we learn of what they truly uphold as right and just, and behind some of his reasonings you can see sense and understanding – you comprehend his goals, you get to know your enemy, your antagonist, which is something, for instance, the Ezio trilogy lacks (because Templars bad bad pium pium die Templar bad guy) and Unity and Rogue tried to do but ultimately ended wasting its potential. I never understood Templars more than I did through Haytham, and sometimes I found myself nodding at some of his statement, like 'hey… huh… he's not that wrong about this…'. But still, we're led to believe that the good guys, the Assassins, are never wrong, so we pull through with Connor – only to realize that yes, Haytham was right in many aspects, and yes, Haytham has lied to us and he needs to be stopped.

It's here when my love for Connor reached its ultimate stage: when he denies both his father (Templars) and Washington (for whom the Assassins were working). It's here where you see the true agency of this character. It's not black or white, as Ezio's games were; it's not that he was expelled against his will from the Brotherhood like in Unity; it's not that because of a clash of interest now he resorted to the Templars, like in Rogue; no, it's the philosophy of the very first AC game with Altaïr: Templars and Assassins are one and the same, they only differ in their methods, and when Connor comes to this realization, his struggle is visible and he puts his people first. Like always.

He remains true to his personality. He's grown, he's seen the truth, but he must make a decision. And after all, we're here because we want to see him protect his people. That's his real main driving force and we root for him because of it.

Now, I've spoken a lot about our main character. But, what about the secondary ones?

Achilles, Connor's mentor, hides more than he's willing to share – but slowly his backstory unfolds. In his homestead, Davenport, you're able to build a community with different townsfolk that you can invite to live with you through special sidequests, which combine plot and gameplay seamlessly. Through the homestead missions, you get to know Achilles and the other inhabitants and you see them thrive and grow into a tight-knit community close as family. I daresay that these missions were my favorite out of the whole game, and seeing the town grow not only in NPC's walking around but also in sounds, steps, people working and laughing and dogs barking and kids playing, gave me all the fuzzy and cozy feelings of a warm blanket in winter. Most of Connor's innocence and kindness is shown through these missions, and there are also some really good jewels hidden there, like the quest that asks you to guide the pigs back inside – damn. This game gave me very good laughs.

On a gameplay level, this game is light years away from its predecessors – the parkour alone has been revamped and revitalized, making it more fluid. Free running now isn't a chore anymore. Now you can hunt, which is a great part of Connor's backstory and culture, so it's good to see they blend gameplay with plot like this. There's a crafting system that took me ages to understand, but thankfully I got the hang of it. The combat is pretty much the same (counter kills always for the win) and the difficulty remains quite easy, as the games that came before. I wasn't looking for a challenge so I'm fine with it. Now, if you're looking for a challenge… the optional objectives got it covered for you. Because, good lord, they made these stupid main missions so much unnecessarily HARDER and IMPOSSIBLE to complete without having three or four ragequits and sometimes you have to restart up to ten times. To be honest, I never found myself more enraged with the optional objectives than I was with these missions, and I thought Unity's optional constraints were stupid ass complicated, I was wrong. This game. Must be. The most. Annoying. Piece of videogame. To platinum.

Apart from the 'oh I want to die optional objectives' thing, you have naval missions – which, yes, you guessed it, take place on a ship – I guess they were testing the mechanics for a (not so far away) future pirate game, because I can see the seeds of what later Black Flag came to be. It's serviceable and it fulfills its purpose, but as I don't like ships much, I left it on hold for the endgame. 

If you don’t dig the naval missions nor the main missions, there’s plenty to do in this game: you have the aforementioned homstead missions, the club challenges (which can take... quite a while), the underground fast travel points (a nice change of pace, though you can easily grow tired of them), the liberation missions, which will see you help liberate a city from Templar control and recruiting a new Assassin apprentice, much like in Brotherhood and Revelations; taking Forts, hunting like there’s no tomorrow, courier, delivering items and message delivery missions, a ton of collectibles, etc, etc. 

You might realize I stopped talking about the plot by the time I reached sequence 6 – yes, it's because I'm a little upset with it.

I said that we're here because we want to see Connor protect his people and triumph against the Templars. Yes. We receive that, yes. Amidst. A thousand. History. Lessons.

In my Ezio's Collection review, I complained that in Revelations we were shoved history in the face – I hadn't still finished AC3, because then I would've mentioned something about it. Connor comes across all the important figures of the American Revolution in such a contrived way – he acts as a guardian angel of this revolution, aiding each of the emblematic characters that took part in. I can roll with it in my suspension of disbelief (how come this one person was present at every major event, you know), what I can't roll with is the fact that he was present at the Declaration of Independence – this is some Ken Follett level of bs of probability of something happening to a character. Besides, it's always latent though never truly explicitly addressed, but Connor's skintone was something that should've deterred him from even speaking to someone like Washington – let alone, be present at the moment they signed the Declaration. He does mention at some point that freedom and this new nation was only for white men, and that he acknowledged that slaves deserved as much freedom as everyone else was fighting for; I'm glad he addressed the elephant in the room, though I'm also glad they didn't make the whole thing about it, because normalizing a character like this as a main protagonist was the main idea, I think, when they chose a Mohawk to represent the American Revolution. Still, that someone like him was able to achieve all he achieved in a plot like this, it only means he has some kind of Main Protagonist Shield, otherwise I doubt this could've served as a realistic story for anyone else in the same situation as him. It's, uh, a little hard to believe, that's all. Whereas I can see Arno existing within the historical frame of the French Revolution, without being the one that let the guillotine fall on King Louis' head, this one was a little more far-fetched.

I haven't touched upon the Desmond part – the present day of this game is more, uh… present than ever. And I loved it! I loved it because it delved deep into the Precursor's lore, and also it fleshed out Desmond's relationship with his father, and we actually do shit with Desmond – though that part of the Brazilian stadium, huh, for a company that paid too much attention and consulted with experts on the Mohawks, they clearly left Brazil out of their investigations. I forgive them, they tried.

The music… didn't have as much personality as other installments, it was kind of there, and right now I can't evoke a single theme except for the main menu one, so there you go, it's quite forgettable for my taste, sadly.

I forgot to mention that: this game looks gorgeous. I played the Remastered version of the game, and sometimes it looked like it was done for the PS4 instead of being a remaster (it does look better than Black Flag which came afterwards!). Lighting is magical, the trees breathe life into the screen, the water effects are crystal and realistic; many times I felt like was horse-riding in a Last of Us game (yes, I just compared Ubisoft to Naughty Dog, don't hit me). Davenport Homestead is my favorite location, now more than ever, because it's not only beautiful, but it also means home.

This game accompanied me in a very important moment of my life: I sprained my ankle and I spent a week in bed recovering, while also pondering about my job and the prospects of my future; I took many decisions while playing regarding what I want for my life. I cried at the end because I realized I had become too attached to the characters and because I was so sad to see Connor keep losing things. It all comes full circle by the end. It's a very mature ending, maybe a little unfulfilling, but reality is often disappointing and not everything needs a happily ever after.

All in all, my major complaint goes to the structure of the game and the poor organization they gave to it (AND THE OPTIONAL OBJECTIVES DAAJKSDAD). But Connor as a character in itself made it all worthwhile for me. And I'll always cherish him. I know he won't resonate with everyone, but he resonated with me.

#videogame review #review #assasins creed iii #ac3 #aciii #connor kenway #ratonhnhaké:ton #ubisoft #haytham kenway #assassins creed #assassins creed 3

[extremelyblackandwhite]

i wanna know what love is - 09

Pairing: rockstar! sebastian stan x writer!reader

Warnings: mentions of sex

A/N: sebastian’s performance is inspired by pour some sugar on me scene in rock of ages and a few scenes of bat out of hell (i’ve linked both if you guys are interested). fun fact, the lipstick and nail polish y/n is wearing in this chapter is emblématique by chanel which is one of my favourite combos ever. i’ve been so happy to receive your feedback, it just always makes my day. thank you so much everyone xx

Last Chapter // Next Chapter

Sebastian woke up with the loud sound of bass reverberating through the wall. He lifted his torso, looking at the TV where Pulp Fiction was playing and then to the wall he’d had her pinned last night. At the memory of that, the memory of her hands reaching for him before the employee interrupted and he ran off, he bolted off the bed and rushed over to her bedroom, pushing open the double door but coming face to face with nothing. She wasn’t in, her bed was made an her pyjamas were nicely folded and laying on top of her bed. 

He closed the door behind him and walked over to the entry room. His bandmates were rehearsing one of his beginning songs. Sebastian looked at the room expecting to see Y/N sat somewhere with her ridiculous yellow coloured notepad and an unholy amount of disposable cameras. 

    - Hey, where’s Y/N? - Sebastian asked through the loud sounds of drums, bass and guitars, and, surprisingly, still was heard by Fred, who removed his headphones, placing them over their neck. - She’s nowhere to be found.

   - She’s out with Mary. - Fred said, a nice smile on his face that his wife finally had someone other than them to hang out with. 

   - Great, I need to talk to her. - he grabbed his jacket from the holder, putting it over his pyjamas, not even caring he was still shirtless and wearing his sleeping trousers that had holes where trousers shouldn’t have holes. However, showing up in pyjamas in public wouldn’t be the worse thing he ever did. - Where did they go?

   - Hey, man, calm down. - Anthony took over, placing a hand over his shoulder before he bolted off into Las Vegas. - We have a show today, you have to rehearse. The girls are gonna be at the venue tonight and then you can speak with Y/N. 

   - Yeah besides she’s been stuck with us for almost a month, she needs a bit of girl time. - Michael added, throwing Sebastian the microphone which he caught mid air. - Besides, you’re sober for rehearsal and we’re not gonna miss that. 

On the other hand, Mary had taken Y/N to The Grand Canal Shoppes which she had hoped would blow her mind. Mary was right, Y/N was stunned at a shopping centre with a full blown built in canal with canoes. The shopping centre itself had been built like a pre-French revolution castle and the stores Mary was walking in had things that could buy her whole studio flat in NY. 

However, Y/N’s mind was still on Sebastian and how he had kissed her yesterday. She shouldn’t have allowed this, she knew what type of man he was yet when he did it she couldn’t help but reciprocate the favour. 

   - Isn’t this cute? - Mary held a black stretch jersey corset dress from Burberry, calling for Y/N’s attention. Y/N’s eyes scanned the dress, it was a beautiful dress. Not exactly something she would pick as she didn’t go out enough to use that or had enough money to pay for it. - C’mon, try it on. 

  - No, I mean, it’d look better on you anyway. - Y/N did not want to let out she couldn’t afford the dress, she had already paid for a highly expensive breakfast so there was nothing on her bank account saying that she could afford a new collection Burberry dress. 

  - C’mon, Y/N. The other girls are never around when I come in besides we have a show today and we need to look good. Consider it a gift from me to you, please. - she held the dress against Y/N’s chest, pushing her to the dressing room. - Besides, if you want to get Sebastian’s attention you can’t dress like Little Boo Peep. 

  - What? - Y/N said before being pushed into the dressing room and being told to dress. How did Mary know about Sebastian? Had he told her? Had he told the boys who then went to tell her? Was she a mind reader? Who knew. After Y/N was done with her thoughts, she had already put the dress on and she couldn’t help but notice the difference from her others dresses to this dress. This dress looked like it had been sewn on her, showing all her curves and all her assets. She came out of the dressing room and before Mary could even start speaking compliments she went in strong. - How do you know me and Sebastian kissed?

  - I don’t, you just told me. I did know he had a soft spot for you but I did not know how far it had gone. - Mary walked her over to the big mirror, holding her shoulders. - You look gorgeous.

  - What do you mean soft spot? - Y/N spoke, her hands smoothing over the fabric. Sebastian did not have a soft spot for her, he’d spent the past month poking fun of her clothing and not answering her questions. For Mary, however, who’d known Sebastian since the beginning it looked obvious. 

  - Well, for starters he gave up his room in the bus for you and last night he was so red I thought he’d might explode.

  - But he has a room in the bus, I got the one on the lower ground floor. He has the whole second floor for himself. 

  - No, the second floor is for rehearsing. His bedroom is your bedroom, I know that because I’ve caught him with several girls in there. - Mary said, carefully handing out her card to one of the employees. - But let’s not talk about boys, Y/N. 

After a lot of bickering between the two girls, Y/N eventually took the dress with the promise that she would give it back once she became a big shot lawyer. They spent most of their time in one of the restaurants of the WestGate until they decided to go back to the villa. The band had already left to do a soundcheck so the girls had enough time to get ready. Y/N did not recognise herself in the mirror. She was always used to get ready quite quickly and not really care much but right now here she was, wearing a very expensive beautiful dress, high heels and putting on her very favourite lipstick and nail polish. It had been a gift from her parents once she entered university and she had forever cherished it.

She came out of the room to see Mary putting her shoes on while holding a file in her hand. Mary was a lawyer, a very good one too, and following Fred she would bring work into everything and still have the best time of her life. It was almost entertaining to Y/N how people from different sides of the work spectrum had come together. 

The two girls walked to the lobby where a very nice car was waiting for them and Y/N could no longer picture herself going back to her studio flat in NY, paying stupid amounts for a single bagel. Now she understood why the 1% did everything to remain relatable. 

They reached the venue in a few minutes where a huge queue was already waiting to enter and get a sight of the band. Mary and Y/N, however did not wait in the queue. Mary took her to a small black door in the back being guarded by a guard who smiled once he saw her. 

  - Hello, William. How are we doing, tonight? - Mary asked, grabbing a few passes from another man, handing one to Y/N. 

  - I’m very alright, Mrs. Mary and how are you doing tonight?

  - Buzzing, first time I have the company of someone who doesn’t want to speak about new breast pumps or tummy time. - Mary shook Y/N’s shoulder making her smile. - This is Y/N Wiley, she’s from Rolling Stone. 

  - Very nice to meet you, Miss. - he shook Y/N’s hand and opened the door for them. Mary rushed through the hallway along with Y/N before rushing the right front of the stage. 

Y/N couldn’t help but be stunned at the venue. It looked just like what her father and mother used to say they looked whenever they went to do their own articles. The band still wasn’t on stage but she could see the venue starting to fill up with people screaming their names. 

The band was in the back, tuning their instruments and getting into their outfits, preparing for another show. Sebastian kept peeking at the audience to see if he could get a peak of Mary or Y/N but all he could see was darkness as the lights were still off. 

  - Hey Sebastian, c’mon. Band circle. - Michael patted him in the back before they placed their hands in a circle, while some assistants put their sound ear plugs on their ears.

Y/N’s heart skipped a beat as she heard the song begin and the light started to flicker. Sebastian walked into stage, leather trousers, leather jacket and no shirt which made Y/N’s cheeks go red, making her thank the dim lighting on her. She had to admit he knew how to command a room and specially the attention out of everyone. He threw his jacket onto the audience, a bunch of girls shrieking to get it as he wrapped the cord of the microphone loosely around his neck, singing his heart out.

Mary elbowed Y/N in her side, forcing her to dance out, by raising her arms in the air. She had to admit she was having fun, but at the same time she couldn’t take her eyes out of him. He was electrifying, too much. The show finished and a row of people screamed out as they left the room and before Y/N’s could recover from that, Mary was pushing her backstage. 

She rushed into the arms of her husband, kissing him like no tomorrow as she stood behind to knowing what to do. She gave Fred a smile as she noticed her and as she was about to find somewhere to sit when someone came behind her, raising her into a hug, she turned her head to see Sebastian who set her on the floor once the rest of the band gave them a confused look.

 - You were fantastic. - Y/N said playing with her bracelet. 

 - You look fantastic. - he took a good look at her, from head to toe. - Where’s the white dress?

 - Mary got this for me. It’s worth my whole flat. - she said making him laugh at her incredulous look. 

 - Hey Y/N, let’s get some drinks. - Mary pushed on her arm.

 - Wait, when you return I need to speak to you okay. - Sebastian said and she nodded as Mary walked her over to the bar, blurting out a series of drinks that Y/N never heard about. Anyway, all she could think was about Sebastian and what he could possibly want. Mary gave her a short smile, noticing that her friend was stuck in the middle of her thoughts.

 - That was some hug. - she commented, holding herself on her elbow on the bar top. - You gotta tell me what you guys discuss afterwards. Meet me in my room, girls night. 

 - It’s probably about Rolling Stone’s article. 

 - With that dress, it is probably shagging.

 - Mary! - Y/N’s cheeks warmed up. Mary grabbed the tray from the bartender and started to walk to the back to meet the boys, laughing with Y/N. The sight Y/N saw a few feet away from her however made her stop laughing. She saw Sebastian leaned against the wall, a cigarette stuck in the middle of his lips as a girl had her arms on top of his shoulders.

She took a step backwards, her stomach hurting by the mere sight of what she had just seen. Mary noticing this followed her line of sight, her face twisting in disgust as she placed the tray on the stage. 

 - Let’s go, honey. It’s boring here anyway. - Mary patted her on the shoulders taking her phone to text Fred they were leaving. 

#sebastian stan #sebastian stan x reader #sebastian stan imagine #sebastian stan fanfic #bucky barnes imagine #sebastian stan AU

[theuniversitychallengereview]

UC 50.35 - Imperial vs Warwick

This is episode thirty five of this years University Challenge. Almost exactly one year ago, on 23rd March 2020, the UK was plunged into what we thought would be its only lockdown. Instead it was the first of going on three, four? Where does a lockdown end and a Tier 4 start? Manchester, where I live, has basically been in lockdown for most of the twelve months since then, and who knows how much longer this one is going to actually last. 

There is a peculiar magic to a revolution of the sun, with the circularity giving meaning to the meaningless marker of three hundred and sixty five days. Somehow it feels so much more momentous that a year will have passed than that a day less than a year has passed. You remember what you were doing as the lockdown was announced, where you watched Boris make his serious address from. The tingles of fear, and maybe even guilty nervous excitement made me restless. No one knew what any of it meant. So many things have changed since then, but in some ways we are exactly where we were. Stuck inside, nowhere to go, with no concept of when life will return to normal. 

There was also a University Challenge match on the 23rd March. I don’t know if I watched it on the day. Probably not. I wrote about it six days later, by which point I was working from home with a pile of books stacked underneath my laptop acting as a makeshift stand. There is something strange about being able to read exactly what I was thinking at the time everything was starting. The following paragraphs are taken directly from that blog, and it still feels like we are in the same limbo state.

What is going on? When I wrote the last blog it was pretty clear that we were in a dire situation, but the inaction of the Government left it feeling like we were in some kind of limbo state, just waiting for the disaster to hit us. But then action was taken. Lockdown.

We now know exactly what we have to do (I was going to list the ‘Stay Home’ instructions here, but if you’re getting your lockdown lowdown from a University Challenge blog then frankly there’s no hope for you anyway), but it still feels really surreal. You’ve never done a home workout in your life, but you’ve done two in the past three days. People say ‘social distancing’ as if its always been a well-known term that was commonly used in daily life. There are never any beans (screw your toilet paper shortages, its the beans that really matter).

We’re still in limbo, really, because we have no idea how long this is going to last. And we’re still waiting for the disaster to hit, because the worst of it hasn’t yet, and the lockdown won’t start properly helping for a few weeks. So what do we do? What can we do? You feel like you want to be distracted from all that is going on, but also to be clued up to the eyeballs with the latest news.

So we do what we can. We stay inside. We call our friends and family and play that stupid ‘chips and guac’ game on Houseparty. We take solace in books, or films, or TV…

As I did a year ago, I’ll try and distract you all (and myself too), with some words about a television quiz show. Let’s not bother with the rules, here’s your first starter for ten...

Imperial and Warwick have already played each other in this years tournament, with the Avonsiders coming out convincing winners, 200 to 120. They then beat another of the semi finalists, Magdalene, Cambridge, by 200 to 160. Fans of a nice round number, it seems. 

But I wouldn’t write Imperial off. They followed up their loss to Warwick with magnificent wins over King’s and Durham. Their skipper Kohn is the most in-form player left in the competition, and has averaged more than six starters a game. 

Having lost their first round match to Strathclyde, Imperial were given a reprieve via the high-scoring loser play-offs, and boy did they take advantage of it. This coincided with the gap in filming caused by Covid, and Kohn used the extra time to train intensely - think Stallone in Rocky but its just a guy furiously reading (with the same music playing, obviously).

Warwick, meanwhile, have had a relatively smooth path to the last four, winning by an average of 92.5 points. However, if you dive a bit deeper into those statistics, the margin has been decreasing each time (150, 100, 80, 40...), so if Imperial could get stuck into them early on then we’d have a real match on our hands. 

Kohn is quickest on the buzzer for the first starter, and they take three bonuses, with Kohn saying that ‘this is giving me strong Dr Faustus vibes’, before giving Dr Faustus as the correct answer for the third. His speed is his downfall on the next starter though, and he loses five points with a neg, allowing his opposite number Rout to pick up the scraps.

A very long-winded biology question falls to no one, before another Imperial neg, this time from Wong, let Braid in to take the lead for Warwick. An incredibly easy bonuse set on Shakespeare extended this for them, though they didn’t recognise ‘Night of the Living Dead’ from its description. 

Marrow, Imperial’s resident smiler, took the first picture starter to her evident delight, and a couple of bonuses tied the game at thirty fives. Braid is unlucky with his guess of ‘suffer no fools’ on the next starter - the answer is ‘suffer fools gladly’. 

A trademark rapid-buzz from Kohn took the lead back to London, before a second neg from Wong allowed Braid to level the game again. Imperial’s tactic seems to be to win the buzzer race, regardless of whether or not they know the answer. So far they have three negs to three correct starters. An inspired guess of semi-colon from Marrow stole back the initiative. Neither side could string together a run of starters yet. 

Not wanting to let Kohn have all the credit, Rout comes in super early on the next starter with Hamiltonian Operator. By now we have reached the music round, in a riveting but so-far low-scoring match. Kohn takes us to seventy apiece with the musical starter, giving Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck as his answer, even though the question had only asked for one person (to be fair to him, the question asked for ‘a bandleader and soloist’, making it seem as though they were two different people, but anyway, Paxman lets him off).

Both teams are making a dangerous habit of dropping bonuses, and six pass in succession with no correct answers. A pair of starters from Burrell, along with a few made five pointers, including some on Bulgarian football teams, gave Warwick the biggest lead of the match so far - fifty. 

Kohn isn’t content to give up so easily, and takes the second picture starter, along with a pair of bonuses. Braid stumbles on a chemical elements question, and again Kohn takes advantage. Dismissing some of the bonuses as too easy, Imperial close to within ten. 

Pollard gets his first starter of the evening with Yuri Gagarin, and a rare full set from Warwick gave them a thirty five point lead. A supremely clutch buzz from Kohn keeps Imperial in it, but Braid is quickest to identify/guess that a million seconds is two weeks (to the closest week), possibly putting the game beyond the reach of the Londoners. Paxman wastes some time by going on about how stupid it is to know that fact, and Warwick waste some more time with a lengthy conference on the bonuses. They are forty points clear, and probably heading to the final. 

But HANG ON!

Braid negs. Thirty five points. 

Kohn trips over his tongue, but gets the answer out in the end. Twenty five points. Could they do it?

No (sorry to have built up your hopes, if I did). The gong follows soon after, with Imperial still twenty five points adrift. 

Final Score: Imperial 135 - 160 Warwick

Probably a deserved win for Warwick that, but Imperial were an absolute delight and it was a pleasure to watch their evolution over the course of the tournament, especially Kohn’s performances on the buzzer. 

I’m looking forward to the second semi-final next week, which also promises to be a barnstormer. See you then.

If you’ve enjoyed this, but can’t wait until next week for another fix of University Challenge, then you can check out my Patreon, where I’ve been reviewing the 2015/16 series.

#university challenge #bbc2 #warwick #imperial #jeremy paxman

[autumnleaves1991-blog]

Does this count as a head canon? TF boys and their reaction to their SO killing someone for them. Saving their life (I imagine that they would also be apart of delta force or something )

TF Boys Reaction to S/O saving their life.

Frankie ‘Catfish’ Morales: Frankie would be so shook having you gotten that close to the danger that you had to save him. He would make sure you were okay and then would spend the entire night holding you close to his chest, placing kisses on your forehead. Both of you needing the closeness to remind yourself that the other is okay. 

Santiago ‘Pope’ Garcia: Santiago would be incredibly turned on by the whole thing. Watching you come in like one of the superheroes he would read about as a child, to save him. But there would also be this deep underlying worry about the impact this would have on your mental health. While he’s proud of you and so thankful that you were there, he knows the weight of taking a life. 

William ‘Ironhead’ Miller: Will is always the strong silent type until you stand in the way of a bullet meant for him and take out the shooter. While he knows he should be thankful he is fucking pissed at you for putting yourself in that type of danger. When you get alone later he lets you have it, shouting at you and unleashing a wave of anger that you’d previously never seen out of the Captain. It’s not until you are in tears and biting your lip to stop the sobs that he calms down and pulls you into his arms whispering apologies and telling you how scared he was. He loves you, and the idea of losing you was too much for him to handle. That night he sneaks you into his bunk and holds you close, and makes love to you with such tenderness you are crying for a completely different reason. 

Benny Miller: When Benny saw the barrel of the gun turn on him, he knew this was it until you screamed and charged the shooter knocking him down. The guy getting a few good hits on you before you took him out. Benny takes you to medical and stays the whole time you are patched up and then looks after you all night. He doesn’t say much of anything which is almost scary because Benny never shuts up but you realize he’s terrified. Because for those few moments he thought he was going to lose you. He doesn’t say anything when you lift the blanket and he crawls under, holding you close to his chest and holding you in an almost bruising embrace.

Taglist: @chicken-ona-stick @agirllovespancakes @jedi-mando @ghostwiththemostbitch @the-purity-pen @paintballkid711 @wasicskosgirl @fantasticcopeaglepasta @sarahjkl82-blog @boxdyeblonde @rosiefridayrogersunday @yeah-seems-legit  @mimimi-stuff @lunarthoughts @jedi-mando @idreamofboobear @aerolanya @rebelliouscat @veracruz-djarin @marvelprincess1994 @thirstworldproblemss @spacelatinoss  @martellthemandalor @kesskirata @waatermelon-sugaar @jitterbugs927 @helga1031  @greeneyedblondie44 @mamacitapascal @oldstuffnewstuff @yespolkadotkitty @heythere-mel @justanotherblonde23 @artsymaddie @anetteaneta @aellynera @lucifer- @houseofthirst @phoenixhalliwell @gunslinger2000 @omlwhatamidoinghere @linkpk88 @tlcwrites @mariesackler @demoncrypt1066 @goalkeepernerd @meshlamando @xjustmenobodyelse​ @seasonschange-butpeopledont @josepedropascal @revolution-starter​ @blufanfictionthings​ @nicotinebirds​ @dreamer-101 @hyperfixatingmenever​ @whatisawwhileoutandabout​ @queenbbarnes​ @sacklerscumrag​ @veuliee2​ @evyiione

#Triple Frontier #Headcanons #Benny Miller #santiago pope garcia #frankie catfish morales #william ironhead miller #Autumn Writes

[aion-rsa]

HBO Max New Releases: May 2021

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Do not adjust your WiFi settings. No, you are not experiencing a severe case of Deja Streaming-vu. HBO Max’s list of new releases for May 2021 are indeed highlighted by two very recent WarnerMedia hits.

For starters, Tenet finally makes its long-awaited HBO Max this month. Mark your calendars as May 1 is the day that you can finally watch Christopher Nolan’s latest cerebral thriller. Of course, Tenet already had its theatrical release, but obviously that was not really an option for many of us. In addition to Tenet, Wonder Woman 1984 makes its triumphant return to HBO Max this month on May 13. The Wonder Woman sequel already premiered on HBO Max this past December, now it’s getting a second run on the streamer.

In terms of newer originals, May is relatively light for HBO Max. The Jean Smart-starring comedy Hacks premieres on May 13. The latest Adventure Time: Distant Lands special arrives on May 20. May also contains two prominent finales with The Nevers closing out part 1 of its first season on May 15 and Mare of Easttown wrapping up its case on May 30.

It’s also not a big month for Warner Bros. theatrical releases. The only one to speak of is Those Who Wish Me Dead on May 14. Thankfully that will be augmented by some library titles on May 1 including The Interview, Jackie Brown, and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Here is everything else to expect in May 2021.

HBO Max New Releases – May 2021

TBA Gomorrah, Season 4 (Max Original) Oslo, (HBO Original Film)

May 1 17 Again, 2009 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, 2012 (HBO) Anaconda, 1997 Anger Management, 2003 (HBO) Baby Boom, 1987 (HBO) Barry Lyndon, 1975 Black Hawk Down, 2001 The Cable Guy, 1996 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 2005 Cursed, 2005 (HBO) Daddy Day Care, 2003 Darkest Hour, 2017 (HBO) Darkness, 2004 (Extended Version) (HBO) The Dirty Dozen, 1967 Dumb & Dumber, 1994 Employee Of The Month, 2006 (HBO) Firehouse Dog, 2007 (HBO) Flight of the Intruder, 1991 (HBO) Free Willy, 1993 Frida, 2002 (HBO) Generation Por Que? (HBO) God’s Not Dead, 2014 (HBO) Good Morning, Vietnam, 1987 (HBO) Happy Feet Two, 2011 Happy Feet, 2006 Harley Davidson And The Marlboro Man, 1991 (HBO) Hercules, 1983 (HBO) Igby Goes Down, 2002 (HBO) Igor, 2008 (HBO) Insomnia, 2002 (HBO) The Interview, 2014 Jackie Brown, 1997 Kansas, 1988 (HBO) Magic Mike, 2012 Menace II Society, 1993 Michael, 1996 (HBO) Mortal Kombat, 1995 Movie 43, 2013 (HBO) Muriel’s Wedding, 1995 (HBO) My Baby’s Daddy, 2004 (HBO) Mystery Date, 1991 (HBO) Norbit, 2007 (HBO) Para Rosa (For Rosa) (HBO) Precious, 2009 (HBO) Rabid, 1977 (HBO) Romance & Cigarettes, 2007 (HBO) Rosewater, 2014 (HBO) Rudy, 1993 Rush Hour 2, 2001 Rush Hour 3, 2007 Rush Hour, 1998 Save The Last Dance, 2001 (HBO) Save The Last Dance 2, 2006 (HBO) Senseless, 1998 (HBO) Separate Tables, 1958 (HBO) Serpico, 1974 (HBO) Serving Sara, 2002 (HBO) Summer Rental, 1985 (HBO) Tenet, 2020 (HBO) The Debt, 2010 (HBO) The Immigrant, 2014 (HBO) The Kingdom, 2007 (HBO) The Last Of The Finest, 1990 (HBO) The Perfect Man, 2005 (HBO) The Tuxedo, 2002 (HBO) The Wings Of The Dove, 1997 (HBO) The Witches Of Eastwick, 1987 (HBO) Tomcats, 2001 (HBO) Trust Me, 2014 (HBO) Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection, 2012 Varsity Blues, 1999 (HBO) Welcome To Sarajevo, 1997 (HBO) When Harry Met Sally, 1989 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, 1971 Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, 2018 (HBO) Words And Pictures, 2014 (HBO)

May 2 Uri and Ella, Season 1

May 3 300: Rise of an Empire, 2014 Pray, Obey, Kill — HBO Docu-Series Finale

May 6 Hunger, 2008 Legendary: Season 2 (Max Original) Take Me Out To The Ball Game, 1949 That Damn Michael Che — Max Original Series Premiere West Side Story — TCM CFF Opening Night, 1961

May 7 La Boda De Rosa (Rosa’s Wedding) (HBO)

May 8 Greenland, 2020 (HBO) Re:ZERO — Starting Life in Another World: Season 2, (Subtitled, Episodes 14-25) (Crunchyroll Collection)

May 9 Axios (HBO)

May 10 Jujutsu Kaisen: Season 1, (Subtitled, Episodes 13-24) (Crunchyroll Collection) Race for the White House: Season 2 The Crime of the Century — Two-Part Documentary Premiere (HBO)

May 13 Hacks — Max Original Series Premiere Wonder Woman 1984 — 2020 (HBO)

May 14 Those Who Wish Me Dead — Warner Bros. Film Premiere, 2021

May 15 The Personal History Of David Copperfield, 2020 (HBO) The Nevers: Part 1 Finale (HBO)

May 19 Apple & Onion, Season 2A

May 20 Adventure Time: Distant Lands – Together Again — Max Original The Big Shot with Bethenny — Max Original Season Finale Ellen’s Next Great Designer — Max Original Season Finale Territorio (Close Quarters) (HBO) This Is Life with Lisa Ling: Season 7

May 23 In Treatment: Season 4 Premiere (HBO)

May 25 Cinderella Man, 2005 (HBO) Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (HBO)

May 26 Curious George, 2006 (HBO)

May 28 A Black Lady Sketch Show: Season 2 Finale (HBO)

May 30 Mare of Easttown: Limited Series Finale (HBO)

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Leaving HBO Max – May 2021

May 11 Mud, 2013

May 13 Bullitt, 1968 The Searchers, 1956 Take Me Out To The Ball Game, 1949 West Side Story, 1961

May 16 Annabelle Comes Home, 2019 (HBO)

May 23 Mortal Kombat, 2021

May 28 The Operative, 2019 (HBO)

May 31 All About My Mother, 1999 All the President’s Men, 1976 Amistad, 1997 (HBO) The Avengers, 1998 The Beguiled, 2017 (HBO) The Bishop’s Wife, 1947 Black Christmas, 2019 (HBO) The Blind Side, 2009 (HBO) Blood Work, 2002 Blue Streak, 1999 Bombshell, 1933 The Book Of Henry, 2011 (HBO) Book Of Shadows: The Blair Witch 2, 2000 The Bridges Of Madison County, 1995 Butterfield 8, 1960 Captain Blood, 1935 Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, 1958 Cats, 2019 (HBO) The Cider House Rules, 1999 (HBO) Cinema Paradiso, 1990 (Director’s Cut) (HBO) Cradle 2 The Grave, 2003 Critical Care, 1997 (HBO) Cruel Intentions, 1999 (HBO) The Dancer Upstairs, 2003 (HBO) Dangerous Liaisons, 1988 The Dead Don’t Die, 2019 (HBO) The Dead Pool, 1988 Death Becomes Her, 1992 (HBO) Defending Your Life, 1991 Dirty Dancing, 1987 (HBO) Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, 2004 (HBO) Dolores Claiborne, 1995 Doubt, 2008 (HBO) Downhill, 2020 (HBO) Driving Miss Daisy, 1989 Drop Dead Gorgeous, 1999 East Of Eden, 1955 Emma, 1996 (HBO) Emma., 2020 (HBO) A Face In The Crowd, 1957 Father Of The Bride, 1950 Flipped, 2010 Giant, 1956 Heartbreak Ridge, 1986 Hot Fuzz, 2007 (HBO) Hunger, 2008 Jaws, 1975 (HBO) Jaws 2, 1978 (HBO) Jetsons: The Movie, 1990 (HBO) Justice League: Gods And Monsters, 2015 A Kiss Before Dying, 1991 (HBO) The Last King Of Scotland, 2006 (HBO) The Last Kiss, 2006 (HBO) Lego: Justice League: Attack Of The Legion Of Doom!, 2015 Life As We Know It, 2010 Life With Father, 1947 Little Women, 1949 Living Out Loud, 1998 The Long Kiss Goodnight, 1996 Magnum Force, 1973 March Of The Penguins, 2005 The Matrix Reloaded, 2003 The Matrix Revolutions, 2003 The Matrix, 1999 Maverick, 1994 Misery, 1990 (HBO) Mortal Kombat, 1995 Mortal Kombat Annihilation, 1997 Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge, 2020 Nell, 1994 (HBO) Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always, 2020 (HBO) Papillon, 1973 A Patch Of Blue, 1965 Phantom, 2013 (HBO) Phantom Thread, 2017 (HBO) Project X, 2012 (Extended Version) (HBO) Ray, 2004 (HBO) Richie Rich (Movie), 1994 A Room With A View, 1986 (HBO) Sanctum, 2011 (HBO) Scream, 1996 Scream 2, 1997 Scream 3, 2000 Se7En, 1995 Selena, 1997 Shaun Of The Dead, 2004 (HBO) Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows, 2011 (HBO) Skyline, 2010 (HBO) Snakes On A Plane, 2006 Snow White And The Huntsman, 2012 (Unrated Version) (HBO) Stuart Little, 1999 Stuart Little 2, 2002 The Thin Man, 1934 Tightrope, 1984 True Grit, 2010 (HBO) Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family, 2011 Unforgiven, 1992 Veronica Mars, 2014 Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, 2007 Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, 1966 X-Men: Dark Phoenix, 2019 (HBO) X-Men: First Class, 2011 (HBO) You Can’t Take It With You, 1938

The post HBO Max New Releases: May 2021 appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3vxkNhB

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[charmingnines]

priorities - DE artfest day 1/reverse au

summary: 

“You’re such a dick,” Nines muttered. “I called you an ambulance,” Gavin offered. “Never mind,” Nines said.

When Nines gets hurt on the job, his android partner, Gavin, stops to help him. Featuring workaholic tendencies, humans being idiots, and love confessions in the face of injuries.

read it below vvv

Nines didn’t keep partners for long. It wasn’t like he tried to push them away; Nines just didn’t work well with other people. He knew his own flaws. He was closed off, uptight, and a workaholic. If people couldn’t deal with it, then they could go beg Fowler for a new partner, what did he care? Nines was fine working alone, used to it even. He solved case after case on his own, staying at the precinct long after his coworkers left.

It was a good system. At least it was a good system, until Fowler got it in his head that the precinct could use the good press hiring androids gave. Nines didn’t hate androids; he’d been horrified at the events of the revolution, but supporting android rights and having one as his partner were two very different animals.

Hank, his brother Connor’s android partner, seemed great. Hank was very polite, something of a little shit as Nines got to know him better. Connor hadn’t been the same since his kid had passed away and Hank somehow got Connor to smile more than he had in years. Connor seemed a little less broken when Hank was around, maybe even happy sometimes, and that was enough for Nines.

Nines’ partner on the other hand…. Gavin was a prototype, an advanced model. He was also kind of an asshole (Nines would know; he was one too). Gavin was confrontational, blunt to the point of rudeness, and swore like a sailor. The only reason he and Nines hadn’t torn each other’s throats out was because Gavin was a surprisingly competent detective. He could keep up with Nines intense focus on work in a way his previous human partners couldn’t. Though, Nines figured Gavin had an unfair advantage there as he didn’t need to sleep.

There’d been a disturbance call that morning and Fowler had put Nines and Gavin on it. “You look fuckin’ terrible,” Gavin said in greeting, sliding into the passenger seat of Nines’ car.

Nines didn’t dignify that greeting with a response, just side-eyed Gavin and started the car. Nines hadn’t gotten any sleep (when did he ever?) and he wasn’t in the mood to verbally spar. Gavin, of course, looked perfect as usual with his curling brown hair falling just so over his intense gray eyes. Even with that scar on the bridge of his nose (seriously, what Cyberlife freak put a scar on an android?) he was handsome. Looking at him made Nines angry, so he looked away and drove.

Nines and Gavin approached the house they’d gotten the disturbance call about. The front door was hanging off its hinges. When Gavin moved it aside, a man burst out the house, running at an inhuman speed. He had to be an android. Gavin took off after him immediately, android speed letting him keep up. Nines ran the opposite way, looping around the block in hopes of trapping the perp between he and Gavin.  

Nines saw the perp coming his way and took out his gun. He took aim. “Put your hands up!” Nines called. The perp kept running towards him. “Stay way you are!” Nines demanded. “This is your last chance!” The perp wasn’t stopping. Nines grimaced and shot the man in the leg. The wound was non-fatal, but should’ve been enough to take him down. Should’ve being the operative word there- the man seemed completely unaffected by Nines’ shot. Had Nines missed? No, Nines saw blue blood running down the man’s leg just as he tackled Nines to the ground.  

Nines did his best to wrestle the man, but really it was no match. They rolled over a few times before the perp pinned Nines, slamming his head into the concrete. Nines saw stars. Vaguely, he noticed the weight of the perp on top of him disappear and heard the sound of his retreating footsteps. Nines tried to sit up and nearly blacked out. I’m just gonna lay down, Nines thought dizzily. Gavin will catch the perp, he always does.

Nines hissed in pain as someone touched the wound on the back of his head. “What are you doing?” Nines said, through gritted teeth.  

Gavin was kneeling down next to Nines, one hand supporting his neck, the other inspecting his wound. Gavin snorted. “Keeping you from bleeding the fuck out,” Gavin responded. He shifted his position so Nines’ head rested in his lap.

“Your clothes,” Nines protested.  

“I’ll send you my dry-cleaning bill,” Gavin said drily.

“You’re such a dick,” Nines muttered.

“I called you an ambulance,” Gavin offered.  

“Never mind,” Nines said. He looked up at Gavin, whose gaze was focused intently on him. Gavin was probably scanning him; he’d done it before, just to get a rise out of Nines. Gavin’s LED flickered between yellow and red. The yellow didn’t concern Nines; Gavin’s LED was usually more yellow than blue anyways (Nines theorized he was constantly looking up new hair products). Red, on the other hand… Nines had never seen it turn red before. “You’d tell me if I was gonna die, right?” Nines asked.

Gavin frowned. “You’re not going to die,” he said. “You’re just extremely concussed.”

It was Nines’ turn to frown. “You let that guy go, to help me, when it’s just a concussion?”

“Just a concussion,” Gavin muttered. “It’s brain trauma,” he said, in his best humans-are-idiots voice.

“Mild brain trauma,” Nines corrected.  

Gavin’s LED flickered red again. Unthinkingly, Nines reached up and touched Gavin’s face. He wasn’t sure what he expected to happen. For Gavin to calm the hell down, for starters. But Gavin didn’t seem calm. He seemed frozen beneath Nines’ fingers. “I’m gonna be okay,” Nines said softly.

“I know,” Gavin said defensively, but beneath the anger he sounded unsure.

“You don’t have to… prioritize me,” Nines said, dropping his hand.  

Gavin’s eyebrows knit together. Then he took Nines’ hand in his own. “Yes,” Gavin said. “I do.”

“Oh,” Nines said. For Gavin to put Nines above catching a criminal felt like… a big fucking deal.

“Yeah,” Gavin replied. Then he kissed Nines. Gavin’s lips were warm and soft and he ran his free hand through Nines’ hair, careful not to touch his wound. Gavin pulled away, eyes softer than Nines had ever seen them.

“Please tell me that wasn’t a hallucination,” Nines said.

Gavin’s LED spun blue. “It wasn’t.”

Nines let his head drop back into Gavin’s lap. “Thank God.”

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