#After this and the thousand layers of trauma lived here nobody will get out of here they same they went in

[frenchgremlim1808]

i love you people who draw scars around the cast necks. Love you people who draw the cast with the hair messy. Love you people who draw the cast with visible eye bags and tired sore eyes. Love you people who draw the cast exhausted sick and not fit for this. Love you people who draws the cast never forgetting the absolute horror that they had to live trough

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

Monster Hunter Movie

Spoilers Will Be Present.

There are a lot of things one can say about the badness of the film.

To me there are two basic issues, which interconnect: Tone and Respect.

At the core of things the studio and director considered their own brands more important than the brand of their source material. This is an understandable mistake to make when you’re thinking business - after all how would you survive as a brand if you granted primacy to other brands all the time? - but concessions must be made or else you’re just appropriating the aesthetics.

That’s what happened here. And it’s half of what made the movie a bad movie.

I went in expecting it to be real bad and as a result I was only mildly disappointed in some missed opportunities as opposed to legit incensed the way some MH bloggers are. But I do not blame them for being angry.

The plot, basically, is: Some army folks include Artemis, who you probably know is the main character because a) she’s the captain b) she’s Milla Jovovich and c) she’s the character you played as in the movie crossover event in MH World two weeks prior. They’re looking for Bravo Team when they get sucked into a dimensional rift and dropped in the land of Monster Hunter. So far so Isekai.

They encounter a Black Diablos which doesn’t act much like the monster from the games. Also a hunter played by Tony Jaa fires a paint bomb warning shot at them - It’s unclear whether he was trying to get them to leave or just thought the paint bomb would let them know they were in mortal danger.

The Black Diablos kills one of them and they run into some rocky terrain to escape.

This turns out to be the nest of roughly a thousand Nerscylla - horrible spider monsters. These kill everyone else over the course of an 11-minute, uh, tribute to Starship Troopers I guess we’ll call it. Artemis survives. There’s a 20-second sequence I thought was very good as a scene but belonged in a non-MH film, where she escapes the nest where she just watched eggs on her buddy burst with baby Nerscylla and then suddenly rips off her army gear to check herself for eggs in this frenzied panic. Seemed like both a smart thing to do and a reasonable trauma response to expect from someone.

But it shouldn’t have happened at all.

Backing it up, the 11 minutes before it shouldn’t have happened.

Nerscylla isn’t a pack hunter. They don’t grow in gigantic broods. But more than that the whole scene was...mean-spirited, and ugly.

Something that is important to understand about Monster Hunter as a franchise is that the seriousness of the stakes - the town is always under attack, or some ancient species of monster has awoken, or some new deviant mutation is driving smaller monsters into settled areas - is always, ALWAYS tempered by a fundamental directorial optimism. I think this film may be the first Monster Hunter thing where anyone dies and we see it happening. There have certainly been characters who mourned or wanted vengeance (more in the manga than the games) but that’s always something that happened before what we’re watching, and that’s really important to the tone.

Jovovich also has absurd plot armor, which, frankly, would have been fine - possibly even admirable - if they’d been adhering to the “nobody dies on screen” rule. Having someone get blasted across the landscape and get knocked out for a bit...as a player I’d have found this hilarious. As it is, there’s definitely a “why is this lady still alive” vibe that keeps cropping up because the movie’s taken a lot of time telling us that people in its setting are fragile chunks of meat that can be torn asunder at any moment.

Anyway, after all this trauma she encounters Tony Jaa and they fight. Why? Probably because he’s a martial artist and they wanted to get some mileage out of that fact. This is extremely dumb. Again, the only place where I’ve seen anything more than casual ribbing between humanoids in anything MH is the manga, and even there it didn’t come to blows. And within the context of this film these people have no reason to think the other’s an enemy and two extremely deadly reasons - the nearby monsters - to work together. Both have been presented as smart enough to know this. But fight scene. Long, stupid fight scene.

The fight nearly becomes fatal, and they realize it’s dumb. There’s another 5-10 minutes of bonding. This is fine! Jovovich and Jaa have decent chemistry (never aimed at romance, which is kind of refreshing) and there’s a really cute Demon Mode reference and also a product placement that turns out later to be a pretty cool linguistic joke (she gives him chocolate, calls it chocolate, he later uses the word chocolate to mean tasty).

They have a plan to get Nerscylla venom and use it to hurt Diablos, maybe paralyze or put it to sleep, so they can get across the dunes it’s guarding toward Jaa’s team and the dimensional storm Jovovich came through from.

The venom doesn’t visibly have any effect, which makes the whole planning thing feel wasteful.

Also, everyone’s use of the basic Alloy and Bone set of weapons gives people who’ve played MH the impression that none of these hunters have successfully hunted any monsters ever. One of the core points with the games is the loop of fighting monsters, carving them up, and using their parts to make weapons and armor you use against other monsters. But more than that, the presence of monster-armor on your npc fellow hunters in camp makes the world feel lived in, makes the people feel like part of the ecosystem.

So with a bunch of needless gore, they kill the Diablos. I actually was kind of excited that she carved a piece off of it - ah, she was going to make armor or weapons out of this near-bulletproof monster’s hide! No, she made a pallet to carry Tony Jaa, who got hurt in the fight. Then when he can walk they leave the big ol’ scale behind. OK.

Did I mention Ron Perlman’s in this film? Well he is, and while it’s a good visual match to have him as The Admiral he’s also - like the film at large - not optimistic enough. The character he’s playing is an old warrior who’s survived tons of battles and laughs in the face of danger. Perlman’s rendition is moody and serious, which once there are fight scenes is a mismatch with his fighting style.

Like I said way up top, there’s a willingness to use the aesthetics of the beloved franchise. Just not the themes. They aren’t willing to present things from a Monster Hunter Franchise perspective, because these gritty, brutal worlds are the brand of this director. When the franchise he was working with was Resident Evil, gritty, gory brutality was a brand match and the resulting film was one of the better video game movies out there (yes, I know that’s not a high bar). Here, it led to a movie with a lot of visually beautiful work but a tone that seems directly disrespectful to its source material.

So that’s a problem.

I said the tone made one of the two big problems. The other would be an issue even if I knew nothing about Monster Hunter, which is a series of structural flaws in the direction - mostly around the pacing of the film.

Army opener, fine. Trying to set up rapport. Diablos fight, too long. Nerscylla scene, WAY too long. Jaa-Jovovich fight, WAY too long. Bonding scene, fine. Planning to fight Diablos, too long. Diablos fight, fine. Jaa’s desert near-death experience, too long (didn’t need to happen at all). Jungle region, a little long but not bad. Rathalos encounter, fine. Ship scene, exposition dump, long and also boring. Rathalos fight...

The Rathalos burns two hunters to death on screen. See above, this is bothersome. It’s also chucking people across the landscape. Jovovich gets tossed into a portal back to earth.

Also off a cliff. We’re back to the “how’s she alive?” problem. She gets rescued by the army, they start to take her for treatment, the helicopter is attacked by the Rathalos.

For a tonal mismatch this is probably the best scene. I think this idea, very Reign of Fire, is what the director really wanted from the film. MH monsters in NYC, Lagiacrus attacking surfers from underwater, all that. We couldn’t afford those sets, so we get a dragon attacking army toys in a desert.

Dragon wins. I honestly appreciated the sale of how a dragon could win this engagement. I think the direction and editing successfully created a scene where the army losing the fight felt plausible.

Of course, this makes Jovovich and Jaa taking it down feel a bit much, but okay.

And we finish with what amounts to a tease of the idea of a series. I don’t get the sense that this is a genuine appeal. I think the “idea of more fights” is the ending. It doesn’t work, mind you, but this has become a kind of trope for one way to end a video game movie.

The thing I like least about this trope is that to hype up the audience the characters in the film all seem suddenly excited to be engaging in the activity we’ve been shown to be terrifying and deadly for the whole film. NOW they think it’s fun.

And that’s an extra layer of disappointment, because it indicates that we could have been having fun this whole time, if the director weren’t obsessed with brutality.

[dotthings]

After 15.07 ended I had to sit there crying for about ten minutes, marinating in my Dean feelings. So that’s how things are going here.

[[MORE]]

Dean sure is drinking a lot. Oh sweetie. Sure he’s fine. He’s just fine. Perfectly fine. It’s not just Cas weighing on him but Cas is gone yet still out there. But away from him, and he’s feeling alienated from Cas, and Dean’s got this existential crisis about the meaning of his whole life, and he’s just not fine.

Domestic Sam and Eileen cooking together in the bunker kitchen and acting like they’ve been married for 15 years or so I CAN’T EVEN. Those moments of domesticity are important to give this story texture. It’s never going to be all about cooking in the bunker kitchen being adorable but these are complex characters with layers and whole lives and soft marshmallow centers underneath their harsh, monster-hunting shells and I LOVE IT.

Dean likes Eileen (and she made bacon, thus winning a thousand points) and the only point during these scenes Dean showed really any lightening of his burdens was seeing Sam and Eileen together and teasing Sam about her. He just wants Sam to be happy, and Sam is worried about Dean, and oh my heart *squishes them*. “That’s progress, right?” Sam tells Eileen all hopeful, because Dean went out on a hunt. Oh Sam, honey, Sam you know better than that but you want Dean to be okay as much as Dean is posturing to be okay so you’re trying to roll with it. Dean fleeing from his life into a hunt isn’t really a good sign though.

When Dean finds Lee, it’s the first time all season we’ve seen him all the way through happy. I’m not sure I’ve seen Dean look that kind of happy well...ever. My heart is SHATTERING HERE. It’s like this is the Dean that could be, if circumstances had been less brutal, if the monsters, and heaven, and hell, and God himself, had been less brutal, if his mom hadn’t died when he was four, if John had been well...not the way John was to him, and even with all that, the capability is still in Dean, that sense of joy in being alive, in being open.

This ep is kind of underscoring how important different kinds of relationships are. No matter how much I love the relationships of Team Free Will, none of them can be all the things for each other, even if it’s three instead of just two. Eileen and Sam’s rapport shows it in this ep and Dean’s rapport with Lee shows it. It doesn’t mean Cas and Sam are less important to Dean. And I think Dean and Cas really belong together and are suited, if they can climb over being their own worst enemies, and Sam and Dean are Sam and Dean, but Dean and Lee have their own thing too and it BREAKING MY HEART SEEING THIS.

Oooh Eileen makes her move and Sam seems interested and—-LOLOLOL Cas cockblocks Saileen.

Sam is so damn pissy about Cas not getting back to him I am loving it.

“Yeah, I got better.” This should be a crest on a stone shield over the bunker door at this point, everyone in it died at one point or another...but then they got better.

Cas IMMEDIATELY demanding “Where’s Dean?”

He’s so put out that Dean isn’t there akdlfjkl;asjg;lahf even though Cas doesn’t want to talk to him right now. WHERE’S DEAN. The song of the Castiel.

Dean assuming that Lee probably died after they lost touch because “I mean that’s how this usually ends” is the most hunter most sad thing ever.

But no he didn’t die, he retired and bought a bar, he’s living Dean’s Rocky’s Bar dream and everything hurts.

So Eileen realizes that whatever Sergei is planning to do about Sam’s God bullet wound is a bad idea, while Sam and Cas jump right in because they just want to get Chuck and of course it goes badly. This is peak Team Free Will dumbassery. Eileen is such a reasonable, sensible voice here but it doesn’t stop them.

Cas finally calls Dean on purpose because Sam is hurt, I mean nothing brings bickering husbands together like mutual worry over one of their kids. Also Cas is so distressed about Sam, maybe he wants Dean there, it’s almost not quite a flip on Dean praying to Cas needing Cas there personally when he’s scared for Sam.

“If you don’t help me tonight I will find you and burn you alive.” Fierce Cas protecting Sam. I’m all tingly.

So Dean asks Lee “who’s going to kill the bad guys”

“Somebody else” says Lee.

At first, Lee’s ideas about retirement sound like not a completely terrible idea, there is more to life than hunting, and maybe Dean should have the chance to explore that. Oh and it sounds like this friendship with Lee was something Dean had while Sam was an Stanford and I have so many thoughts on that, those years are left unfilled in by canon, we can only surmise and piece together. The idea that Dean was fully lonely the entire time, completely lost without his brother...maybe not so much. Much as it was also hard on Dean having Sam leave him and John behind so completely and I’m sure it hurt. But here’s the thing, they spent years apart, and both had their lives, and this look into a friendship from Dean’s past, while Sam had Jess...interesting. Again, gee it’s like more than one relationship in people’s lives matter.

Eileen looking after Sam who is suffering from a wound “down to his very soul.” Eileen’s worried little face. Cas’s worried face.

Okay okay I knew Lee could turn out to be evil, I knew that, I still shouted NOOOOOOOO. Figured ahead of time this ep could go one of three ways. 1. Djinn dream and Lee wasn’t real 2. Lee is real but good 3. Lee is real and was a friend but turns out to be a betrayer or a monster or dies (ooh fun times we went with a triumvirute on number 3)

I was actually getting annoyed at Cas for trusting Sergei in the first place but then Cas, the tactician, the smart ruthless angel, is holding a captive over Sergei. He knew Sergei might screw them over all along and was prepared.

Eileen pinning Sergei angrily up against the wall by his throat, threatening him for Sam’s sake. SAM THIS ONE IS A KEEPER.

Also Eileen reminds me a lot of Cas. They can both be soft but have this ruthless streak, this warrior fury that comes out.

Oh welp here we go, Lee let the darkness eat his heart. He wasn’t turned into a monster, and he doesn’t do it for greed, it just...ate him up, all he wanted, after his trauma, was some peace but there are costs too high and he gave up what was good about him to get some minor good fortune, his dream bar.

“If evil like that exists int he world, guys like you and me, we aren’t ever going to win”

“No one’s innocent”

“Are we owed a little happiness”

“Good or bad, the world doesn’t care. No one cares, Dean.”

So while Dean is facing this existential abyss about whether anything he’s done, all the trauma he’s gone through, had any meaning, because he found out God was outright manipulating events around him his whole life, on purpose, for entertainment, there’s his old friend, someone Dean clearly connected strongly with and cares about, spilling his own abyss out onto the table in front of Dean and the abyss in Lee is a lot darker and danker and rotted than Dean’s, and Dean’s the one who has to contend with actual freakin’ GOD screwing him over, personally, his whole life.

“Well I do.”

This is probably where I started crying during the episode, because of Dean. Because of all the trauma, all the losses, all the unimaginable horrors he’s faced, including his own inner demons, and he never gave up and he never lost his caring for the world and for others. He often doesn’t care much about himself but he never stopped CARING. And his spirit and his heart are as fierce and butt-kicking as his monster-fighting and hand-to-hand combat skills (I so enjoyed this bamf Dean fight scene) and that is why I love Dean SO SO MUCH.

*pauses to cry again*

“I am you. That woke up and saw the world was broken.” But Lee doesn’t know that Dean knows the world is broken. He knows eactly how broken the world is, how literally broken, that it’s just one of Chuck’s many drafts, and how uncaring Chuck the creator really is. It doesn’t get more world-breaking than that, and Dean knows, and IT DIDN’T BREAK DEAN. Lee’s projecting, he just can’t understand how someone who is like him, who’s witnessed horrors like what he’s witnessed, isn’t broken the way Lee is. But Dean is Dean, he isn’t Lee.

“Why do you care so much Dean?”

“Because someone has to.”

Oh hey because I haven’t made this post painful enough yet with Dean analysis, let’s take a look back at 2.20 What Is and What Should Never Be (transcript courtesy of superwiki)

“All of them. Everyone that you saved, everyone Sammy and I saved. They're all dead. And there's this woman, that's haunting me. I don't know why. I don't know what the connection is, not yet anyway. It's like my old life is, is coming after me or something. Like it like it doesn't want me to be happy. Course I know what you'd say. Well, not the you that played softball but... "So go hunt the Djinn. He put you here, it can put you back. Your happiness for all those people's lives, no contest. Right?" But why? Why is it my job to save these people? Why do I have to be some kind of hero? (begins to cry while talking) What about us, huh? What, Mom's not supposed to live her life, Sammy's not supposed to get married? Why do we have to sacrifice everything, Dad?”

But Dean is way past this, he’s gone through that stage of questioning and come out the other side. He tells Lee nobody owes him anything. He isn’t owed a reward. He just cares because he does and that’s...well, that’s kind of how life is. As fans, we talk about what our favorites deserve, and of course they deserve some peace and happiness. But that’s not always how it works...still they can keep hoping and we can keep hoping for them. The story isn’t over.

Whereas Lee, when he asked those questions about “why us, why do we have to be the heroes” came out the other side completely broken and corrupt.

The way Dean’s eyes went dead inside when he had to stab Lee. Like a light went out in Dean as Lee died. The contrast between that and his light-hearted pure joy at seeing his old friend again. JUST STAB ME TOO OKAY

Oh my goodness Dean’s return to the bunker and that awkward awkward face to face with Cas and neither of them seems angry any more even but there’s so so much negative space between them and Dean seems like he wants to maybe bridge the gulf but now Cas shuts Dean out, cuts him off, and walks out of the room, a flip on what Dean was doing in eps 1-3 to Cas. And the STARING oh my god the staring. Despite their problems, despite everything, Dean and Cas have a powerful bond and bonds don’t have to be trouble free and perfect to be good ones. They’re going to fix this, if they can climb over their walls and their issues and find their joy together. Because they are both worth it. They are also similar. No matter what’s been thrown at them, how much suffering, how much trauma. Cas, like Dean, keeps getting back up, and hasn’t lost his caring. “Too much heart was always Castiel’s problem” and it’s actually Dean’s problem too and by problem, for them on this, we actually mean great big asset.

Both of them, Cas last week, and Dean this week, undergo something separately that shows them why they have to get back into the fight, and not run away from everything (or each other, I think, that’s tacit). “If I stay here nothing changes” Cas said in 15.06. Cas was able to prove to himself, for himself, that he could save people, that he wasn’t an entire failure, and Dean went through an experience in 15.07 that jolted him to connect with his own sense of caring again, to feel the meaning in who he is and what he does, and how much he cares. Despite Chuck’s nonsense, he still cares about everything, so much it hurts.

[radiantcutice-blog]

No Honor Among Thieves

Len doesn’t know where it went wrong.

Maybe- Maybe it’s because he was distracted. Preoccupied by things back home, by Thawne and Barry and how the kids are- maybe that’s why things failed.

But even that isn’t right. Distraction doesn’t account for this mayhem, not when this plan has been in the works for months. Hell, it hadn’t even been Barry- if he had showed up, plans B through L are reserved for him, depending on when he arrived and who he’d gone after first.

It’s the damn Feds. Again, shouldn’t be a problem- except they know. They know every single move the Rogues make, every strategy in their arsenal, every single weakness. Things they shouldn’t know about this job in particular.

They go after Hartley first, taking out the ears of the operation, their early warning system, as well as the danger of his mind control. He goes down with a sonic blast targeted at his implants, flute forgotten as he scrambles to try and shut them off, fingers fumbling in his pain. It gives the Feds just enough time to slap cuffs on him, confiscate his gloves and his flute, and hustle him off. They leave the sonic device on to keep him in too much pain to pick his cuffs, twisting and writhing in the grip of the two agents that drag him along as he tries to escape the noise.

Rosa gets the Boot, fired off before she can even react, the hook clamping around her ankle and anchoring her to the ground in an instant. He snarls, reaching for his belt and the offensive tops within, but another squeeze of the trigger sends 90 thousand volts through him and he drops to his knees. The second the pulse lays them out flat, and the agents don’t even give Roscoe’s muscles the chance to relax before yanking their arms behind their back, making her cry out in pain as they cuff her wrists and begin confiscating her gear.

Mick they corner with a gun not unlike Len’s, bringing the temperature in the room down and meeting the gout of flame he sends at them with a blast of cold, causing the same explosion of steam that Mick and Len crossing streams usually does. It knocks Mick back, growling low as he struggles to his feet, but they’ve frozen the floor, too, like he’s a damn speedster they’re trying to keep off balance, and there’s a crackling crunch of snow cleats breaking through the thin layer of ice as they rush him. He manages a good few swings, clocks one with his gun and sets another’s gear on fire, but his teeth are chattering and he can feel the panic creeping up, and it distracts Mick just enough for a Fed to shove a cattle prod in the back of his knee to bring him down, leg muscles spasming painfully and losing any footing he had on the frozen floor. Crashing down, the Feds pile onto Mick even as he struggles against them, getting him restrained and his gun taken away before some asshole cracks him in the back of the head with their own weapon, and the blunt force head trauma on top of years of it makes Mick’s vision swim almost immediately.

They drag him into the hall where Lisa stands, looking frantic at first but then cold and hard, just like Len, teeth bared as she skates her way towards them, fists clenched. Mick tries to shout a hoarse warning, but Lisa’s too set on her icy rage and doesn’t realize one of the agents is brandishing Mick’s gun until the flames melt the ice from under her blades and send her hurtling ungracefully to the floor. The same cattle prod used on Mick gets jabbed into Lisa’s gut, making her convulse until they decide she’s had enough, cuffing her before one of the agents tosses her over his shoulder.

Another two agents drag Roy into the procession, the Rainbow Raider hanging unconscious between them, his glasses in one of their fists. His tech might be formidable, but Roy’s never been a physical fighter, and a flash-bang to overwhelm his hardlight constructs was all the Feds needed to get to the man himself and knock him out.

Len would have to be an idiot to ignore the explosions, breaking into a jog with his safety off as he heads towards the nearest Rogue- safety in numbers, they’ve got this down- only to find Digger backed into a corner and swaying, swearing up a storm as he clutches his head, his boomerangs scattered across the floor or stuck in the walls.

It feels like being whisked by Barry- going so fast that, for a moment, the world sometimes seems like it’s at a standstill- before Digger’s head swells and bursts outward, a splatter of blood and gray matter painting the walls and the ceiling, and Len hears a sound- is that his voice? Is he screaming?- before he fires his cold gun into the room, icing the four agents who’d surrounded Digger and watched as he-

As he-

In a burst of rage, he smashes his gun down against the forearm of the man holding the detonator, breaking it off from the elbow down to shatter against the floor as Len moves past them, reeling it all until there’s just a shard of ice where his heart should be. He’s calm. He’s rational. He can make this work, even with the plan gone to hell.

First priority is Digger’s body. Len is methodical as he ices it, like he would a patch of ground or a particularly tough safe; his eyes are vacant, unwilling to really look at the body of one of his best friends, the man who was a brother to him, fucking de-

Shaking off the thought physically, he releases the trigger and turns away from the flash-frozen corpse, shouting for Sam and finding him in the reflection off an iced Fed not a few seconds later, looking absolutely haggard.

“Cold, what the fuck’s- oh, Christ.” Even in the reflection, even behind his helmet, Len sees Sam’s eyes go wide at the sight of Digger. “Is he…?”

“Get him outta here, Scudder.” There’s no room for argument and Sam knows it, leaving the relatively safety of the Mirror World to collect Digger’s frozen body from the floor as Len ices over a large patch of the wall to make a larger surface for them to pass through.

There’s a plan in place for this, as much as Len hates to admit it. It’s been haunting him for years, the thought that they’re all mortal, and he’d hoped to never use Avernus for anything more than someone dying of old age in their sleep. Wishful thinking, he supposes, but who wouldn’t want their family to live their longest and fullest lives? Hell, nobody deserves to die like this, not even a miserable bastard like Digger, not even after he’d killed that Gotham capitalist.

Sam fires his gun into the ice and it ripples for a moment before settling, the younger man adjusting his grip on the body before looking back at Len. “Stay here. I’ll be back.”

“You don’t give orders,” he growls, but Scudder doesn’t relent, baring his teeth back at Len.

“Job’s gone to hell, Snart, you’ll stay fuckin’ put while I get everyone I can into the goddamn mirror, not go running around to get yourself offed by more Feds.”

Len’s hand flexes around the grip of his gun and then loosens as he nods curtly. “I’m last through.”

“I know, Len,” Sam assures him before stepping into his reflection with Digger’s body.

He can’t help pacing while he waits- part of Len wants to smash the frozen agents to snow, part of him wants to run to find his sister, his husband- but Scudder’s right. Damn him, but he is. They need to get out of here, and Len running off half-cocked and angry, so angry, no matter how he’s tried to freeze it out, will just get him killed.

Like Digger.

Sam’s hand emerges from the ice a few long minutes later and Len takes it, stepping through the reflection, used to the way it clings to him, like emerging from being underwater until the surface tension finally breaks. The Mirror World is never pleasant, and he’s glad for Scudder’s hustle to the next bright spot in the murky and imbalanced dimension, dragging Len through the floor-length mirror in the front hall of the den and then firing his gun again to shut the portal down entirely.

It’s a good thing, too, because Len takes a few deep breaths before turning on his heel and slamming his fist into the mirror.

The way it shatters is utterly unsatisfying, the ugly way his knuckles pop bringing him no catharsis, and the voices that call out in response-

“Len!”

“¡Dios!”

“Cold!”

Only three. Three plus Digger, dead, headless, frozen, and neither Lisa nor Mick among them-

He turns back around to see Sam, Marc, and James staring at him in concern. Marc’s hair is more of a windswept mess than usual, Sam’s helmet is discarded to show the furrows in his brow, and James looks almost green, lips pressed in a thin line as he watches Len from behind his domino.

“What the fuck was that,” he asks aloud, and none of them answer, so he raises his voice. “What the fuck was that? That wasn’t Flash, or Icon, or Rocket- those were the damn Feds, and they nabbed half of us. They m-” The words stick in his throat, if only because he sees a bright puff of red hair around the corner.

“Uncle Len?” Owen.

Len wants nothing more in this moment than to have died in Digger’s place.

“Hey, kid,” he says softly. “Didn’t mean to wake ya.”

“Is everything okay?”

Swallowing back the shake in his voice, Len nods. “Just job stuff, Owen. You need somethin’?”

The boy almost shakes his head, then shrugs instead, looking at his feet.

“How ‘bout Marc comes and reads you one of his boring old books to help you get back to sleep,” he suggests gently, and Owen looks up again to shoot Mardon a hopeful glance.

“Can we keep going with Connecticut Yankee?”

At a loss for words for a brief moment, Marc spares Len a helpless look before smiling gently at Owen. “Of course, niño.”

Marc reaches out to squeeze Len’s arm before following Owen back through the house to the boy’s room, leaving him with Scudder and Jesse, the latter looking ready to squirm out of his skin as he glances at the hallway and then back down, not looking at Len or Sam.

Len watches James until Marc and Owen’s footsteps fade and Owen’s door clicks shut, a chill crawling across Len’s skin as his blood freezes in his veins.

“Trix. Look at me.” James lifts his head and Len sees his Adam’s apple bob, hands curling into fists as he holds himself back from drawing the cold gun once more. “Tell me you didn’t.”

“Snart, we don’t know it was an inside job-”

“Don’t fuckin’ gimme that, Scudder, we know damn well it was. No way the Feds would get the drop on us otherwise.” He steps closer to Trickster and the young Rogue flinches. “James. Answer me.”

A soft wheeze escapes him before he musters words. “Cold, I swear to God, I didn’t think-”

“You didn’t think what, Jesse? You didn’t think they’d really catch us? You didn’t think they’d get so many?” It takes everything in Len not to grab James by the front of his uniform and shake him. “You didn’t think they’d murder one of us?”

“No! No, I didn’t, I just thought-”

“They’re the fucking Feds, not the CCPD! They’re competent, especially when some meshugenah hands them all the intel they need because he thinks- what, exactly? What were you thinking, you fucking idiot?”

James shoves Len back, shame turning to something ugly and defiant in the face of Len’s anger, and Len has to put a hand up to keep Sam from stepping in.

“I was thinking about this, Cold! The way you treat me, the way the Rogues fucking treat me- how I never get the chance to prove myself-”

”Prove yourself?” Len cuts in, “Kid, what the hell are ya talkin’ about? You haven’t needed to prove yourself since you first joined up! You made it through the trial period, you showed us you had the skills- that was all we needed! You’re a Rogue! End of story!”

“But it’s not! You all still treat me like a child-”

“You’re second-youngest!”

“-and like you don’t want me around-”

“Because you’re an ass, James, not ‘cause you’re not capable!”

Jesse makes a disgusted noise. “Like everyone in this group isn’t an ass sometimes!”

“Not everyone’s a navel-gazin’ homophobic jerk, James, and you know it damn well,” Len snaps back. “You, you were a pain in my ass, in everyone’s asses, and I stood up for you. I played the leader card, more’n once, because you were family, James. You were my fucking son, and I wasn’t about to put you out.”

A hush falls as James stares at Len, the oh-so-clever Trickster finally at a loss for words. His breath shudders, and Len watches him struggle through his emotions as the words sink in. Sam shifts uncomfortably in Len’s peripheral vision.

“Cold- Len. I’m sorry. I don’t-” His voice falters. “I dunno what I was thinking.”

Len wants to forgive. He does. He didn’t spend years handpicking a team with the intention of giving up on them, or leaving them behind. He didn’t cultivate a family just to turn his back when things got rough, but this-

This is beyond rough.

He hadn’t brought James in, young and scared and alone but so, so brilliant, just to drop him on his ass again. It’s been years of Len trying to help James, make him a better man as well as a better criminal, and to see he learned nothing- to see him betray the family, to see him orphan Owen-

“You broke my heart, kid,” Len admits quietly, raising his hand to halt any answer and talking over James when he doesn’t take the visual cue. “You broke my damn heart, but if you’re out, you’re out.”

His eyes are steely even as Jesse tries to reason with him. “Len, come on-”

“That’s enough.” The words hurt, but Len gets them out, even if his voice is hushed. “Go tell your Fed buddies that James Jesse’s all theirs. The Trickster’s dead.”

James recoils, brows drawn together. “You can’t do that.”

“I can, and I am,” Len assures him. “Trickster’s dead. And if Jesse sets foot in the Gem Cities again, he’ll be dead, too.”

Stepping out of the way, Len gestures from James to the front door. “You know the way.”

The silence draws out between them as Jesse stands there, a tremor in his frame as he stares at Len, as if the look will change his mind, but Len is set. His hand drops to his gun when it starts getting too long for his tastes, and only then does James look away, eyes on the ground as he hustles past Len and Sam, leaving without another word.

Len watches him go and allows himself one shuddering breath once the door shuts behind James, covering his eyes for a long moment before he gets it together.

Cold. Hard. Calm. He’s fine. They’re all gonna be fine.

Everyone but Digger, that is.

He pulls his phone from an inside pocket of his parka, turning it on and dialing a number he knows by heart, eyes distant as he listens to it ring.

“Hey. Yeah. Yeah, I know what time it is. Listen, Flash. I need your help.”

[iamkellyadams]

Healthy Eating Diet Plan To Lose Weight For Women Over 40 (Lose 10 pounds in 10 days)

On this page you would learn how a 40 year old mother lost 84LBS doing NO exercise, discovering the FEMALE FAT-LOSS CODE missed by modern medicine, that grantees shocking DAILY WEIGHT LOSS using nothing but a simple 2-step ‘flavor-pairing’ ritual.

In a hurry? Watch this short video where she explains how this simple ‘Flavor-Pairing’ ritual completely melted all her body fat and saved her from a near death medical emergency.

So if you’re a woman, over the age of 40 who wants to reclaim her life inside the body she DESERVES while living her very own Cinderella story like thousands of other women finally able to transform themselves…

…Pay close attention and keep reading.

Because the breakthrough discovered at the END of many weight loss failures…

Is guaranteed to be the first step in YOUR SUCCESS.

Using ‘Falvor-Pairing’ For Rapid, Safe and Rewarding Weight Loss

Did you know?

Almost 100% of diet and exercise programs don’t work. In fact, Stanford Medical puts the failure rate for female weight loss at about 98%…

But what about that 2%?

That tiny 2% of rapid, reliable and safe solutions that literally work for every single woman who try it…

It turns out they all have one thing in common and it’s referred to as ‘flavour pairing’.

Actually 21,748 ‘Flavor Pairing’ success stories have been officially recorded since August of last year.

→ Join the 2% club (Flavor-pairing Explained + Instructions) ←

The frustrating part about this female-only ritual is…

It’s been hiding in plain sight for centuries…we’ve just been looking in all the wrong places!

It was only until dieting almost killed her, that one woman stumbled onto the secret that saved her life and transformed her body in record time.

Instead of dieting, counting calories, popping pills and doing hours of cardio… She began ‘Flavor-Pairing’ her favorite foods and lost 84lbs in 6 months, and never gained it back!

Ask yourself these 5 questions:

1. Are you struggling to lose 5, 10 or 20 pounds and you want to get results fast?2. Want to lose a little or a lot of unwanted fat from your trouble spot areas, but have NO IDEA where to start?3. Have you tried the workout DVD’s, some diets, or crazy routines but you’re feeling stuck?4. Are you convinced that you need a blueprint, but not sure where or how to start? (without depriving yourself, or counting any calories)5. Want to finally transform your body and your health and be happy each and every day!? (without actually “dieting” or taking out the good things in life)

If your answer to any of the questions above is YES, then I want you to check out – ‘Flavor Pairing Secret’ -And Trigger Your Total Body Transformation TONIGHT! and possibly change your life forever!

“Ticking-Time-Bomb” of the Female Metabolism

But, before we need to get some context behind why the female body gain so much weight after certain age and never seem to let the fat go…

Doctors recently discovered ‘Female-Only Fault-Line’ triggered in your early 20’s that hardwires your body to crave weight gain for the next 30 years of your life after you cross 30.

Even worse AND Surprisingly…

Nobody ever talks about how this condition quietly needles away at your immune system deliberately crippling your ability to fight off disease and maintain your figure.

Which is why Carly could barely feel her body imploding inwards on itself until it was too late.

For 86 to 92% of women over the age of 40,

The weight just creeps on soooo s-l-o-w-l-y while actually “stalking” your vital organs…

And then before you know it –

Your fit, healthy, happy and disease-free body is GONE and YOU are left wondering:

“What happened to the old ME!?”

Meet Carly Donovan Creator of ‘The Cinderella Solution’ The only female fat loss system which works

She looked through her once youthful eyes, now fenced by fine-lines and age-spots….

…And at her stomach and legs, Now trapped behind inflated layers of fat and embarrassing cellulite

This was the first time God had given Carly the courage to weigh herself in what seemed like years,

..Only to realize that the once-slender body of her 20’s and early 30’s was now paralyzed with 84 MORE pounds of fat since the last time she stepped on the scale.

If you are a woman with more than 10,15,… or even better 20+ pounds to lose YOU need to pay close attention… Because the breakthrough Carly uncovered only a couple hours after she suffered a dreadful stroke

…Hooked up to tubes, laying in a hospital bed – Not only saved her life…

…But triggered a flood of what scientists call the weight-loss doubling molecule that lays dormant inside even the most stubborn female metabolism.

Which is why her friends, her family and even Carly’s doctor were shocked – when this sequence not only ended her battle with hypertension, pre-diabetes, endometriosis, and even depression…

…but compelled her body to initiate a 22-hour-a-day fat burning sequence that grew stronger with each passing day!

You can watch Carly reveal her full transformation story along with the secret ‘Flavor-Pairing Ritual’ she used to melt away over 80 pounds faster than she ever thought possible – without pills or depriving herself on the latest fad keto, calorie counting, satisfaction stripped diet … Click here to see her full story.

The Origins of Flavour Pairing

Flavor pairing is not a new thing but almost 160 years old practice designed by the planet’s slimmest, longest living and most disease-resistant country.

This could actually transform female body into a fat-torching furnace that burns hotter with each passing moment.

While at the same time generating a “recount weight-gain defence system”,

Making it almost biologically impossible for the fat to wickedly reappear like it always does… you know what I’m talking about….

This kindergarten-simple ‘flavour-pairing’ ritual has the power to transform your body.

Sadly, you’ve never heard of this secret because it’s so closely guarded by their nation’s top gatekeepers, it wasn’t until a few highly respected doctors and government officials broke their code of silence that Carly and her team unleashed the flood of age-reversing enzymes.

DIY 10-Second Flavor-Pairing Trick for Female Weight Loss

→ Simply Follow This Plan and You’ll Succeed ←

3 Fat Hoarding “Evil-Step-Mother-Hormones”

The truth is, 200,000 years of evolution have conditioned the female body to alter your hormones at different stages of your life, so you too can build a human being with your body. And that’s a big deal.

You see, during puberty, your 3 ‘Queen’ beauty and youth hormones – Insulin, Cortisol, and Estrogen – do everything possible to make you more attractive to the opposite sex/others keeping you slender, level-headed and energetic.

However soon after, those ‘3 Queens’ start acting more like ‘Evil Step Mothers’ after puberty all the way through menopause by continuously cycling your body for pregnancy each and every month.

First, Insulin who used to be your “skinny-hormone” keeping you slender, makes it almost impossible for you to lose weight and keep it off.

Then, your “Happy-hormone”, Cortisol transitions to your “Anxiety-Stress-Depression & Sadness (for no reason) Hormone”.

Finally your “Pretty-Hormone”, Estrogen that kept you wrinkle-free, toned and energized soon causes age spots, loose skin and cellulite.

This is simply your body switching form “find-a-mate” mode to “procreate” mode.

And because it’s our job as women to carry on the human race, we end up building bodies that look great for making and protecting our babies…

…and not so good for the beach and little black dresses

And listen,

I know your goal in life is to be more than some baby-making machine,

But from a biological standpoint, The female body only cares about two things:

Staying Alive and,

Making More Lives

Think about it,

Your body is literally designed to build a bigger, warmer and softer environment to help you create the next generation of humans.

So that’s why when you use traditional diets, exercise and pills that treat the problem from the outside-in,

You are actually fighting ongoing losing battle against 200,000 years of evolution, while damaging your hormones and dismantling your metabolism with every pound you lose.

That’s why as soon as you stop dieting or working out, your body starts to gain all the weight back almost immediately while punishing you with headaches, depression, irregular periods and poor sleep.

Sound familiar?

That’s your body literally saying,

“I don’t think so Missy!”

This is all beginning to make sense, isn’t it?

Think about it…

All those diets that have counting points, carbs and portions that force intense cravings and binge-eating actually damage your insulin, causing uncontrollable weight gain, insulin-resistance leading to diabetes and other life threatening diseases.

And it’s these high-intensity routines, DVD’s and gruelling fitness classes that actually skyrocket cortisol levels doing irreversible damage to your joints while creating microscopic scars on your heart.

And please don’t tell me you’ve thrown your money at commercial weight loss clinics like Weight Watchers, Dr Berstein.

I know they work for a little bit but 92% of us gain the weight back while priming estrogen levels for constant headaches, irregular periods and endometriosis along with ovarian, breast and cervical cancers.

The sad (and very scary) truth is:

Even though you lose the weight at the start using these “fat-first” cardio-saturated rabbit-food diet methods, You’re causing permanent damage to your metabolism, your immune system… …and especially your vital organs with every pound you lose using these recycled, blunt-force-trauma methods.

Trying to lose weight this way is the same as using sand-paper to take off your makeup each night….

….it’s overkill, it doesn’t make sense and more importantly – IT’S DANGEROUS!

And trust me I know,

Giving in is easy because each one of their million-dollar marketing tactics preys on women like you and me by seducing you with exactly what you want to hear in your most vulnerable moments…

That all ends today.

Because the truth is, 

Each time you try these temporary “outside-in” approaches it’s like having razor-sharp thorns poke thousands of tiny holes in your metabolism making it even more pain-staking to lose weight on your next attempt.

It’s not fair and you deserve better!

So let me ask you this,

Doesn’t it make more sense to use a trusted solution that works from the “inside-out” to sync WITH your metabolism in order to ignite your true fat-burning potential,

So YOU TOO can experience the permanent weight-loss victory you deserve?

Today it’s finally time for you to seize control and…

Lose weight 6 times faster than today’s most popular commercial diet without counting a single calorie…

Look and feel 10-20 years younger by eating the “comfort-food” TV Doctors are getting paid to say is unhealthy…

Burn fat faster in female trouble spots by freeing up fat cells for use as “on-demand” energy.

Live 22% longer by stacking carbohydrates in a way that actually strengthens your heart while you lose the weight.

Achieve the freedom from hunger and food-obsession using a “procrastination-method” used in Alcoholics Anonymous for over 75 years.

Find the “golden-window” of when to drink wine and still lose weight by simply using the stopwatch on your smartphone.

→ THE CINDERELLA SOLUTION ←

Learn how the ‘Flavor Pairing Ritual’ supercharges female metabolism and helps you lose 1lb a day

Testimonials

‘ I was lost before… and I would have stayed lost without my new guardian angel! Thank you so much for my new lease on life.’ ~Susan, Oct 2018

‘It’s just so clear and simple. My husband can’t believe my results…. Frankly, neither can I. Thank you guys so much for everything you do!’ ~Karen, Jan 2019

‘I feel like a new woman… I know I’ve still got a way to go but I actually feel like I’m on the right path now… a path I can stick to!’ ~ Kelly, Feb 2019

‘I thought it was too late for me… THANK YOU for reminding me that age is just a number!’ ~Joanne, Oct 2018

‘I love the results. I love the coaches. I love the community. I love everything!!!’ ~Rebecca, Jan 2019

‘Even my doctor is impressed… and he’s tough to impress! lol thank you so much!” ~ Sarah, Feb 2019

jQuery(document).ready(function(){ setTimeout(function(){ window.newVuukleWidgets({ elementsIndex: 3871, articleId: 3871, img: "https://gethealthremedies.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/GHR-BI-1-150x150.jpg", title: "Healthy Eating Diet Plan To Lose Weight For Women Over 40 (Lose 10 pounds in 10 days)", tags: "", url: "https://gethealthremedies.com/diet-plan-to-lose-weight-for-women-over-40/", }); }, 2000); });

The post Healthy Eating Diet Plan To Lose Weight For Women Over 40 (Lose 10 pounds in 10 days) appeared first on Food, Health & You.

[sunaddicted]

Cyanide

Happy Villains Day!!! TW: torture, graphic descriptions of violence, suicide attempt Cyanide Waterboarding, compared to other types of torture he had endured lately at the hands of the Chinese, was almost boring; you rationally knew that nobody was actually trying to drown you and, while unpleasant, it didn't leave too many damages behind.  After all, what was a bit of water in your lungs when you had danced with death several times as a Double-Oh agent? Or maybe he was going insane. Tiago had considered that possibility - it wasn't as if there was much to do in a prison, apart from picking apart his own mind - and he wasn't quite ready to exclude it. Especially since it was starting to feel like there was someone else in his head, someone snake-like and vicious and thirsty for revenge in almost a biblical way - someone who called himself Raoul. Someone Tiago was terrified of.   So, he took the waterboarding sessions as chances to hide in a corner of his mind where not even Raoul could follow - or, if he managed, he couldn't actually make any damages: childhood memories weren't as fickle and fragile as many other parts of the psyche, a golden veil seemed to shroud them and not even the passing of time could make them lose their shine.   The rag that was dropped on his face, and almost seemed to get stuck to his skin as if it had been imbued with glue, stank of mould and old water - Tiago couldn't help gagging, head instinctively tossing to the side to avoid choking on his own tongue and vomit. Not that he had enough in his stomach to actually throw up: it was only acid that came up his esophagus, inexorable like a slow column of lava sliding down the sides of a volcano. Tiago didn't particularly enjoy it, but the trauma was necessary to trigger in his mind the necessary mechanisms to make sure that his consciousness got lost in the darkest and most protected depths of his memories; it couldn't be avoided and Tiago had learned to crave it, to crave the brutality that came with having his body vandalised in such a way.   He did realise that it wasn't exactly an healthy way of thinking. During training, they had called it dissociation - Tiago thought about it as salvation, to be completely honest. Maybe it would only make the pricks in Psych think about him as a dangerous and deranged - but sacrificable - asset to be kept under strict surveillance, instead of an agent that had endured hell to keep their precious  secrets hidden. It had happened already, Tiago remembered it well - Raoul made sure that he remembered in great detail, murmuring in his ear that protecting them wasn't worth it; he had been put in a holding cell, not dissimilar to the one he was currently trapped in, and interrogated for days to make sure that he hadn't been twisted beyond reconnaissance  during captivity. Really, those cells all looked the same - sleek metallic surfaces everywhere, a hole in the ground, neon lights flickering on a ceiling stained with humidity. Unless you were somewhere in Africa, then they looked like muddy huts so hot that every breath burnt like fire down dry and dehydrated lungs. They smelled the same too: the stinking of fear apparently didn't change too much, independently from which country around the world had you captive - acrid with piss, shit, vomit and sweat that wouldn't be washed away until someone broke you out or you found your way to freedom in the form of a barely recognisable corpse. And, in the end, no matter whether it was the Chinese or the Russians or MI6, the same exact things happened in them; people were pushed beyond salvation, human beings reduced to filthy bags of flesh and bones that had lost their minds under the pressure of torture - an instrument mankind had been honing for centuries, elevated it up to a form of art.   The first splash of water was freezing, though Tiago was pretty sure that it seemed colder than it actually was because of the fever burning up his skin. If he thought about it, it almost brought him some relief - which was admittedly fucked up and rather badly at that. But did it truly matter when he was going to die a horrible death, far away from home? Home. Tiago hadn't been home for a long time and he didn't mean London, with its grey skies and and grey streets and dark brown buildings. No, London had never been his home but it was a place he felt bound to - where a small and perpetually angry lady that didn't look half as much scary as she actually was had given him a purpose and tethered him to earth, keeping him from floating up to a world where only he existed. Home had been the island his abuela had bought when he was just a child; a small affair, nothing to boast about, even with his short legs Tiago managed to walk around it in a couple of hours. Back then, though, Tiago had felt like a prince in a secret fortress that other people could only dream of owning. Behind his closed eyelids, Tiago looked down at his feet and smiled when he could see his toes wiggling in the golden sand, eyes narrowing to spot the small shells and shards of long-dead corals mixed up with it; it made the beach shine with a light bubbly pink colour under the strong sunrays that Tiago had always wondered about whether it truly was there or it was a product of his imagination.   Even back then, Tiago hadn't burned easily thanks to his olive skin but still his abuela insisted on slathering sunscreen all over him “It doesn't matter whether you burn or not, nene , you need to protect the deeper layers of your skin” she chided, a benevolent smile on her face even as she kept him still with a firm grip on his forearm before starting on a lesson about how his skin regenerated itself. As a child, Tiago had listened attentively but hadn't asked himself why actually his abuela was so cultured; he didn't knew much about her, apart from the fact that she was his maternal grandmother and that she had taken him away from his family when his mother had refused to leave her abusive husband. He didn't remember his parents’ faces, nor their names: his whole family had been his abuela and the hoard of local animals that thrived on the island.   For some reason, he'd never gone back; despite distinctly remembering just how much he'd missed the island he had grown up on, something in his heart had pushed him away from home - whether ambition or the fear of revealing his weaknesses to invisible enemies, he didn't quite know. Tiago had left for university and when his abuela had fallen sick and instead of moving back into the island to take care of her just like she had taken care of him, he had moved her to an hospital where she had slowly died; the last sound she had heard was the tapping of his fingers on the keyboard of the laptop, not the whispering of the breeze amidst the palm trees: it was Raoul’s biggest regret, the reason why he had yielded to MI6 and started to work for them. It was his rather poor attempt at atoning for his abuela’s cold death. To be completely honest with himself, it wasn't even that: it was his attempt at escaping from his past and the pain, without realising that he was throwing away all that had been good in his life up until he had nothing left but anger and loneliness eating away at his soul. Olivia Mansfield had known how to take advantage of that and exploited the mix of feelings born out of grief to the country's advantage, turning him into someone he wasn't: in a way, she had been the shaping hand when it came to Raoul - a monster that, up to the moment the Chinese had started torturing him, had been leashed and soothed by the government authorised killings. Tiago didn't delude himself with the idea that Raoul was born in that particular prison, his voice was too familiar. Too seducing to escape.   Tiago walked along the beach, studying the way the waves foamed white at their crests, glistening under the strong sunlight, before languidly crashing on the wet sand, spreading out until there was only a thin veil of salt water lapping at his feet. He'd always found it a peaceful vision, one in which he could easily get lost: the colours captivated him, swirled in his head until they morphed into new images - blooming flowers, ripening fruit, variegated butterflies fluttering too close to the sun and - Falling down. Spiralling out of control. Crashing into the now stormy sea to die a horrible death: drowned, salt water both soothing and corroding the burnt wings. “An apt metaphor” Raoul murmured smugly, hands clasped behind his back and a gleefully cruel smile in place. “Get out of here” Tiago ordered, turning on its heels to glare at the projection in his mind. Raoul arched an eyebrow, a tiny but smug gesture of victory “I'm in your head” he pointed out rather uselessly, voice infused with disgust at the fact that even such a simple thing seemed to be out of Tiago’s grasp “I would love to get rid of you if I could, believe me” “I'm the one in control” Raoul nodded towards the butterflies still falling into the sea - there were thousands of them coming from the balm-like darkness of the small tropical forest, only to fly to the end of their already naturally short lives “Doesn't look like it” A slap - or better, the heavy and metallic taste of blood - momentarily brought Tiago back to reality and he looked up at a blurry face as he coughed water up from the bottom of his lungs and prodded at the cut on the inside of his cheek. It was during those painful explorations that he remembered it: the capsule of cyanide embedded in his molar, the last resort and one he had never thought of using - not even when he'd been buried alive for two days in Saudi Arabia. “But it's been months now, hasn't it?” Raoul's voice echoed inside his head and Tiago tried to shake it away: he wasn't supposed to manage to break the barrier of his consciousness and come at the forefront of his mind “The coward's way out must sound wonderful to you right now” It did - especially if it meant that he would be rid of Raoul once and for all. Tiago prodded the tooth again, jaw aching with the effort to avoid clamping down and breaking the crown so that he could pierce the capsule and let the poison do its job.  “With your rotten luck, you'll survive it” Raoul hummed, sitting in the sand with his head angled up to soak up in the sun. How Tiago wished that the prophecy hadn't revealed itself true.  

[newstfionline]

As migrants flee for Canada, fears are rising over the perils of frigid illegal crossings

By Tim Craig, Washington Post, December 15, 2017

Chad Cosley tracks them as if they were deer.

He looks for footprints and frequently checks his network of trail cameras, which had been documenting wildlife along the U.S.-Canada border but now also capture would-be refugees fleeing the United States under President Trump.

“I was up there hunting just on November 4, and we had fresh snow,” said Cosley, 45, who owns a parcel delivery service. “The following morning, we had four sets of footprints walking all the way up to the border with Canada, and there was a glove laying there on the ground--brand new, with perfume on it--so it was definitely a gal.”

Since the start of the year, more than 1,000 people have made similar journeys through this tiny community in far northwestern Minnesota in an attempt to enter Canada by avoiding official border crossings, part of a nationwide surge as Trump advances his campaign pledge to make life uninviting for undocumented immigrants and some aspiring refugees. The exodus, also playing out in border towns in the Northeast that lead to Quebec and Ontario, is rattling local officials on both sides of the border who are now angry about being shoved onto the front lines of America’s divisive immigration debate.

A Ghanaian woman’s body was found in a ditch near this small Minnesota town in May. She was an asylum seeker who succumbed to hypothermia while trying to cross the border. Residents fear there will be calamities in coming months as travelers encounter winter here, when a frigid northwestern wind scours barren fields separating Minnesota from Canada’s Manitoba province, making the traverse through blizzards and across frozen swamps a harrowing and life-threatening trip.

The concern has intensified, with county officials publicly calling on the Trump administration and Canada to waive a policy that prevents would-be refugees from passing through official border crossings. That plea has been met with silence.

Although rural Minnesota overwhelmingly supported Trump in last year’s election, some residents are troubled by his hard-line immigration policies, given the impact on their towns.

“For us, it’s a shocker to see these people wandering around,” said Leroy Clow, 73, a retired farmer and electrician. “It’s nice-dressed families--like they could be your neighbor--but they are scared and don’t know what else to do.”

According to the Canadian government, 9,335 people made asylum claims at land ports of entry between January and October, including those picked up after crossing the border from the United States at unauthorized locations. That is more than double the average of annual claims made from 2011 through 2016.

Counting asylum requests at airports, marine terminals and immigration offices, the Canadian government processed more than 41,000 applications this year through Oct. 31, nearly double the total processed in all of 2016.

The influx overwhelmed Canadian immigration authorities, who scrambled to open temporary shelters during the summer, including briefly converting part of Montreal’s Olympic Stadium into temporary housing.

By hiking through rural communities, the migrants to Canada are largely bypassing a 2002 agreement between the United States and Canada that was designed to manage movement between the countries.

The Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement requires migrants to claim asylum in the first safe country they reach, unless they are minors or have family ties at their next destination. The agreement means those who try to cross from the United States into Canada at official border posts are turned away; a loophole permits asylum claims to be made by individuals who enter Canada covertly.

For many migrants fleeing the Midwest, the fields here in Kittson County, Minn., have become the favored entry into Canada. Just west of the county line, Interstate 29 in North Dakota leads to an official border crossing.

After arriving by car from cities across the Midwest, asylum seekers drive on the highway to the last exit before the Canadian border, Pembina, N.D.

From there, some follow the twisting Red River on foot about five miles north into Canada. Others wander through Kittson County farms and marshes until they arrive near St. Vincent, which has a population of just 64, or here in Noyes.

Noyes has a railroad yard but is largely abandoned. There are just three inhabited houses--two of which are owned by one family, according to local residents. But the town abuts Emerson, Canada, once a bustling entryway to the Canadian frontier but now home to just 700 residents.

Crossing the border illegally here is perilous, especially at night and during the winter. If migrants do not align their planned route to lead directly into Emerson, a city of just eight square miles, they could wander for days in vast, desolate stretches of the Canadian prairie, authorities said.

The Ghanaian woman who died near Noyes this year apparently became disoriented in a field and stumbled into a drainage ditch, according to the Kittson County Sheriff’s Office. The 57-year-old woman had been living illegally in the United States and was trying to reunite with relatives in Toronto, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

In December 2016, a truck driver in Manitoba province found two men from Ghana wandering along a highway and suffering from frostbite. The men, each of whom had to have several fingers amputated, told Canadian media that their U.S. visas had expired and that they feared the Trump presidency.

Doug Johnston, a council member and firefighter in the combined Canadian municipality of Emerson-Franklin, said local rescue squads now are called out several times a month after receiving emergency calls from lost or disoriented asylum seekers.

“It seems the worse the weather, the more people we can get,” said Johnston, noting that temperatures can drop to minus-20 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter. “They are calling 911, but it can get so cold their phones go dead.”

He said that families sometimes become separated as they cross the border.

“We are not always finding them together, but we seem to eventually catch up and find them,” Johnston said, pausing to look out over a snowy field extending beyond the line of sight. “At least to my knowledge.”

Many of those fleeing to Canada are Africans or Haitians, according to local officials.

The outflow of Haitians began late last year, when community concerns first surfaced that Trump was going to rescind temporary residency permits issued in the wake of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake.

The Department of Homeland Security this month finalized the policy change ending temporary protected status for an estimated 60,000 Haitians but set an 18-month window for them to depart voluntarily.

Temporary protected status for more than 370,000 people from Honduras, Nepal, El Salvador, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen remains in place, although the Department of Homeland Security has signaled that those groups’ protected status is under aggressive review. Temporary protection for 263,000 citizens of El Salvador could expire as soon as March.

U.S. and Canadian officials say the rate of asylum seekers crossing the border into Canada appears to have slowed in November and so far this month. But local officials in this sparsely populated area and activists from immigrant-heavy communities say they fear the slowdown might be temporary.

Abdullah Kiatamba, executive director of African Immigrant Services in suburban Minneapolis, said such worries are well founded as U.S. policy shifts.

“A lot of people are concerned and think that it’s better in Canada, and they can create a new life instead of waiting hopelessly and endlessly that something will change here,” Kiatamba said. “There are three layers to this--a new anti-immigrant bias, unpredictably and the trauma of waiting to see if there will be more cancellations” of protected status.

Jacques LeBlanc, president of the Haitian American Community Association in Chicago, said thousands of Haitians now live “day by day.”

One 48-year-old woman crossed the border into Quebec this spring with her husband, son and brother after they said local police and federal immigration agents began harassing undocumented immigrants in suburban Atlanta. She had been living in the United States for 13 years.

“When Trump first got elected, all the police would go around to the apartments and say, ‘Come over here,’ banging on the doors,” said the woman, who is Honduran and asked not to be identified while her case for protected status in Canada is pending. “I got scared and scared for my son.”

So she paid someone $600 to drive her to the Canadian border, she said.

“I am hoping here in Canada, I can live without fear, and in peace, and nobody is going to look for me,” she said.

Eric Christensen, Kittson County’s administrator, worries that tens of thousands of people could decide to flee north if the Trump administration starts deporting Haitians or removes protected status from others.

“I don’t think there is enough of Haiti left to suddenly hold 60,000 people, so Canada is the only option for the people pushed off,” Christensen said. “And if he ever pulls the protection for Honduras or El Salvador, we would have a flood.”

Tom Denton, executive director of Hospitality House Refugee Ministry in Winnipeg, Canada, which has mentored and cared for some of the asylum seekers crossing the border from Minnesota, said that forecasting future arrivals “all depends on what’s happening in the United States.”

American “politics is so volatile right now, every day we wonder what is going to happen next,” Denton said, adding that he thinks the Canadian government ultimately will grant asylum to about half of the refugee claimants who recently fled the United States.

Here in northwestern Minnesota, the prospect of even more-heated debates over immigration policy is dividing local residents.

Once a Democratic-leaning county, Kittson went for Trump in last year’s election by more than 20 points after voters here concluded that he was more attuned to rural American concerns about population loss and stagnant local economies, residents said. Kittson County has lost half of its population since 1960; it now has 4,300 residents.

But at the Chale’s Oil service station, where locals gather to socialize while buying gas for farm equipment and waiting to have tires replaced on trucks and tractors, some residents wondered whether Trump’s immigration crackdown has gone too far.

“Some of them have been here so long, and they have families,” said Matt Chale, 27, whose father owns the century-old service station. “Why would you take the dad away from kids and send him to Mexico? That is just wrong, and I didn’t vote for Trump for this.”

Shane Stewart, who owns a 500-acre farm nearby and also voted for Trump, is not as sympathetic.

“I can’t even figure out why we have all of these refugees, or whatever you call them, and I am not in favor of them being here,” Stewart said.

Johnston said Canadians want to be neighborly but worry that unpredictable policy in Washington will keep manifesting itself in migrant flows through their sugar beet and wheat fields.

“Is it going to stop tomorrow? Is it going to stop five years from now?” said Johnston, noting that various studies estimate 11 million to 12.5 million undocumented immigrants are living in the United States. “Are they all coming to Canada? What if even 1 percent comes?”

[iamkellyadams]

Flavor Pairing Ritual Supercharges Women’s Metabolism

Rapid, Safe and Rewarding Weight Loss for Women

In this article you’ll learn how one woman discovered the FEMALE FAT-LOSS CODE missed by modern medicine and LOST 84 POUNDS using a simple 2-step ritual (aka. flavour pairing ritual – more on this below), that grantees shocking DAILY WEIGHT LOSS.

In a hurry? Watch Carly explain how this simple ‘Flavor-Pairing’ melted away 37 pounds in just 20 days.

So if you’re a woman, over the age of 25 who wants to reclaim her life inside the body she DESERVES while living her very own Cinderella story like myself and the other women you’ll meet today…

…Pay close attention and keep reading.

Because the breakthrough discovered at the END of her weight loss failures…

Is guaranteed to be the first step in YOUR SUCCESS.

Falvor Pairing & Weight Loss

Did you know?

Almost 100% of diet and exercise programs don’t work. In fact, Stanford Medical puts the failure of female weight loss rate at about 98%…

But what about that 2%?

That tiny 2% of rapid, reliable and safe solutions that literally work for every single woman who try it…

It turns out they all have one thing in common and it’s referred to as ‘flavour pairing’.

Actually 21,748 ‘Flavor Pairing’ success stories have been officially recorded since August of last year.

Join the 2% club (Flavor-pairing Explained + Instructions)

The frustrating part about this female-only ritual is: It’s been hiding in plain sight for centuries…we’ve just been looking in all the wrong places!

It was only until dieting almost killed her, that one woman stumbled onto the secret that saved her life and transformed her body in record time.

Instead of dieting, counting calories, popping pills and doing cardio… She began Flavor-Pairing her favorite foods and lost 84 lbs in 6 months!

Are you weight-loss resistant?

Did diets stops working a long time ago?

Want to join the 2% Club and lose the weight forever?

Do yourself a favour… you deserve this:

Flavor Pairing: Trigger Your Total Body Transformation TONIGHT!

“Ticking-Time-Bomb” of the female metabolism

Doctors recently discovered Female-Only Fault-Line triggered in your early 20’s that hardwires your body to crave weight gain for the next 30 years of your life after you cross 30.

Even worse AND Surprisingly…

Nobody ever talks about how this condition quietly needles away at your immune system deliberately crippling your ability to fight off disease and maintain your figure.

Which is why Carly could barely feel her body imploding inwards on itself until it was too late.

For 86 to 92% of women over the age of 25,

The weight just creeps on soooo s-l-o-w-l-y while actually “stalking” your vital organs…

Then before you know it-

Your fit, healthy, happy and disease-free body is GONE and YOU are left wondering:

“What happened to the old ME!?”

Meet Carly Donovan Creator of ‘The Cinderella Solution’ The only female fat loss system which works

She looked through her once youthful eyes, now fenced by fine-lines and age-spots….

…And at her stomach and legs, Now trapped behind inflated layers of fat and embarrassing cellulite

This was the first time God had given Carly the courage to weigh herself in what seemed like years,

..Only to realize that the once-slender body of her 20’s and early 30’s was now paralyzed with 84 MORE pounds of fat since the last time she stepped on the scale.

If you are a woman with more than 10,15,… or even better 20+ pounds to lose YOU need to pay close attention… Because the breakthrough Carly uncovered only a couple hours after she suffered a dreadful stroke

…Hooked up to tubes, laying in a hospital bed – Not only saved her life… …But triggered a flood of what scientists call the weight-loss doubling molecule that lays dormant inside even the most stubborn female metabolism.

Which is why her friends, her family and even Carly’s doctor were shocked-When this sequence not only ended her battle with hypertension, pre-diabetes, endometriosis, and even depression… …but compelled her body to initiate a 22-hour-a-day fat burning sequence that grew stronger with each passing day!

You can watch Carly reveal her full transformation along with the secret ‘Flavor Pairing Ritual’ she used to melt away over 80 pounds faster than she ever thought possible – without pills or depriving herself on the latest fad keto, calorie counting, satisfaction stripped diet … Click here to see her full story.

The origins of Flavour Pairing

Flavor pairing ritual is not a new thing but almost 160 years old practice designed by the Planet’s Slimmest, longest living and most disease-resistant country.

This could actually transform female body into a fat-torching furnace that burns hotter with each passing moment.

While at the same time generating a “recount weight-gain defence system”,

Making it almost biologically impossible for the fat to wickedly reappear like it always does… you know what I’m talking about….

This kindergarten-simple ‘flavour-pairing’ ritual has the power to transform your body.

Sadly, you’ve never heard of this secret because it’s so closely guarded by their nation’s top gatekeepers, it wasn’t until a few highly respected doctors and government officials broke their code of silence that Carly and her team unleashed the flood of age-reversing enzymes.

DIY 10-Second Flavor-Pairing Trick for Female Weight Loss

Female Hormonal Imbalances and Weight Gain

The truth is, 200,000 years of evolution have conditioned the female body to alter your hormones at different stages of your life, so you too can build a human being with your body. And that’s a big deal.

You see, during puberty, your 3 ‘Queen’ beauty and youth hormones – Insulin, Cortisol, and Estrogen – do everything possible to make you more attractive to the opposite sex/others keeping you slender, level-headed and energetic.

However soon after, those ‘3 Queens’ start acting more like ‘Evil Step Mothers’ after puberty all the way through menopause by continuously cycling your body for pregnancy each and every month.

First, Insulin who used to be your “skinny-hormone” keeping you slender, makes it almost impossible for you to lose weight and keep it off.

Then, your “Happy-hormone”, Cortisol transitions to your “Anxiety-Stress-Depression & Sadness (for no reason) Hormone”.

Finally your “Pretty-Hormone”, Estrogen that kept you wrinkle-free, toned and energized soon causes age spots, loose skin and cellulite.

This is simply your body switching form “find-a-mate” mode to “procreate” mode.

And because it’s our job as women to carry on the human race, we end up building bodies that look great for making and protecting our babies…

…and not so good for the beach and little black dresses.

And listen,

I know your goal in life is to be more than some baby-making machine,

But from a biological standpoint, The female body only cares about two things:

Staying Alive and,

Making More Lives

Think about it,

Your body is literally designed to build a bigger, warmer and softer environment to help you create the next generation of humans.

So that’s why when you use traditional diets, exercise and pills that treat the problem from the outside-in,

You are actually fighting ongoing losing battle against 200,000 years of evolution, while damaging your hormones and dismantling your metabolism with every pound you lose.

That’s why as soon as you stop dieting or working out, your body starts to gain all the weight back almost immediately while punishing you with headaches, depression, irregular periods and poor sleep.

Sound familiar?

That’s your body literally saying,

“I don’t think so Missy!”

This is all beginning to make sense, isn’t it?

Think about it…

All those diets that have counting points, carbs and portions that force intense cravings and binge-eating actually damage your insulin causing uncontrollable weight gain, insulin resistance and diabetes.

And it’s these high-intensity routines, DVD’s and gruelling fitness classes that actually skyrocket cortisol levels doing irreversible damage to your joints while creating microscopic scars on your heart.

And please don’t tell me you’ve thrown your money at commercial weight loss clinics like Weight Watchers, Dr Berstein –

I know they work for a little bit but 92% of us gain the weight back while priming estrogen levels for constant headaches, irregular periods and endometriosis along with ovarian, breast and cervical cancers.

The sad (and very scary) truth is:

Even though you lose the weight at the start using these “fat-first” cardio-saturated rabbit-food diet methods, You’re causing permanent damage to your metabolism, your immune system… …and especially your vital organs with every pound you lose using these recycled, blunt-force-trauma methods. Trying to lose weight this way is the same as using sand-paper to take off your makeup each night…. ….it’s overkill, it doesn’t make sense and more importantly – IT’S DANGEROUS! And trust me I know, Giving in is easy because each one of their million-dollar marketing tactics preys on women like you and I by seducing you with exactly what you want to hear in your most vulnerable moments…

That all ends today.

Because the truth is, 

Each time you try these temporary “outside-in” approaches it’s like having razor-sharp thorns poke thousands of tiny holes in your metabolism making it even more pain-staking to lose weight on your next attempt. It’s not fair and you deserve better! So let me ask you this, Doesn’t it make more sense to use a trusted solution that works from the “inside-out” to sync WITH your metabolism in order to ignite your true fat-burning potential, So YOU TOO can experience the permanent weight-loss victory you deserve? Today it’s finally time for you to seize control and…

Lose weight 6 times faster than today’s most popular commercial diet without counting a single calorie…

Look and feel 10-20 years younger by eating the “comfort-food” TV Doctors are getting paid to say is unhealthy…

Burn fat faster in female trouble spots by freeing up fat cells for use as “on-demand” energy.

Live 22% longer by stacking carbohydrates in a way that actually strengthens your heart while you lose the weight.

Achieve the freedom from hunger and food-obsession using a “procrastination-method” used in Alcoholics Anonymous for over 75 years.

Find the “golden-window” of when to drink wine and still lose weight by simply using the stopwatch on your smartphone.

Click below to learn how the ‘Flavor Pairing Ritual’ supercharges female metabolism and helps you lose 1lb a day

LEARN MORE – THE CINDERELLA SOLUTION

DIY 10-Second Flavor-Pairing Trick for Female Weight Loss

You too can join the army of women, Who are now raving fans of the female only flavor pairing solution discovered…The one that has already allowed 16,000 women. To lose over 100,000 pounds in the last 11 months alone.

The post Flavor Pairing Ritual Supercharges Women’s Metabolism appeared first on Natural Wellness and Remedies.