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self-proclaimed-chaotic-good · 2 years

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Welcome to the Forgotten Realms | Hawkins Crew

Prompt: Going Inside a Book/Story

Words: 3166

Fandom: Stranger Things

A/N: Writer’s Month is over, but I’m still going to try and finish this, just three more prompts to go. I’m drawing from my limited knowledge of DnD 5th edition and light research on 1st edition, so if some of it isn’t accurate, how many people would actually know the difference between 5th and 1st? Also, while trying to wrap up the ending, it gave ‘Welcome to Jumanji’ vibes and I pictured a Nigel character popping up, but still looks like Rhys Darby. Lol look at me creating lore for a world that I might not visit again. Or won’t I?

Summary: The older group decides to play DnD, much to Eddie’s delight. A sudden storm cut off the electricity in the middle of a session, but when they looked around to find that they weren’t in Hawkins anymore.

Eddie rubbed his hands together gleefully like an evil mastermind as his new friends finished their character sheets. He had minis that he had painted in his spare time that were close enough to what they wanted their characters to look like, each of them standing right in front of each player.

Nancy was more familiar with the mechanics since the kids usually played in the basement, having picked it up quickly and helping the others when they needed it. Jonathan had admitted that Will spoke about their campaigns but never really broke down the mechanics unless he asked him. Robin was catching on, piecing her character together in no time. That left Steve who was frowning at his sheet before sliding it over to Eddie. Dustin had actually helped him build his character beforehand, but he wasn’t sure how to play him.

“Does this look… right?” Steve asked after filling out his character’s backstory.

Eddie leaned over, eagerly scanning through his character sheet and smiled. “Steve, Stevie, Steve-O. I feel like you’ve thought this character through before.”

“Ah, well,” Steve muttered sheepishly, scratching the back of his head with his pencil. “Henderson’s always wanted me to play with them, so… the roleplaying part is kind of… I don’t know.”

“Embarrassing?”

Steve nodded. “This is why I didn’t take drama, man.”

“Well, you should have, or else you wouldn’t be having this problem,” Robin said, giving him a pointed look. “And maybe you would have been less of a douche in high school.”

“Thank you so much, Robin, I appreciated your needed input,” Steve replied sarcastically.

“Hey, everyone’s gotta start somewhere,” Eddie said, patting Steve’s shoulder. “This is everyone’s first game, so we’re gonna take it easy and learn how the game works together. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. DMs love questions, unless they’re dumb.”

“I guess Steve can’t ask anything then.”

“You know what, Buckley, I’m not going to be driving you around anymore.”

“Nice try, dingus. This whole time you still drove me to school and work when you thought I had a license. There’s no way you’re going to suddenly stop giving me rides.”

“Anyways,” Eddie interrupted, “Superior Wheeler. Big Byers. How are your characters coming along?”

“We’re just about finished,” Nancy said.

Jonathan nodded. “Yeah, we figured that it’ll be easier if our characters know each other so we’d have someone to bounce off on.”

“It’s a very common method to do and helps with backstories,” Eddie said, nodding in approval. “What race and class are you?”

“Nance is a high elf ranger and I’m thinking of being a drow rogue.”

“Interesting. Very interesting.” Eddie folded his fingers together and rested his chin on them. “Drows are usually lawful evil aligned, but for my campaigns, I’m not too strict on those things as long as it creates a good story. To have a high elf and a drow know each other, that’s really interesting. Buckley.”

Robin held up her character sheet and shook it. “I think I’ve made it more complicated than it had to be. I made a Forest Gnome Wizard. It’s complicated for me because I just realized how many spells I have to manage. But we’re just level one, right? So, it shouldn’t be that bad for now, but, like, I’ve done this whole backstory that is too similar to Batman.”

Eddie nodded sagely. “Many players, no matter how seasoned they are, have done this. It’s an easy trope to fall on, but if you add your own twist to it, it could work.”

“What if when she talks to animals, instead of the high pitch tone people use, it’s gruffy like a heavy smoker?”

Jonathan snorted. “Is your voice going to be okay after that?”

“See, I made it harder on myself than it should be.”

“What if you made your character’s normal voice high pitched and when you speak to animals it's at a normal pitch?” Steve said, holding back a smile.

Robin scrunched her face. “That’s even worse.”

“I am not going to sit through a two hour session with that voice,” Nancy said firmly.

“Thank you, Nance.”

“Oh! Why didn’t I think of this?” Steve said, facepalming. “The kermit voice!”

“No! I told you to drop that already!” Robin shouted. “What’s your character anyways, dingus? I bet it’s boring.”

Steve glared at her from across the table. “Human Paladin,” he muttered.

“See. Boring.”

“Hey, now. We haven’t started playing yet,” Eddie tried to mediate. “If everyone’s ready, we can begin.” He held his hands out, eyeing them all. When they all nodded, he clapped his hands. “Alright, let me set the scene for you, adventurers.”

“Uh, guys, I don’t know if we should be going in a super scary tower without a plan,” Robin pointed out.

“Haunted, too,” Steve added.

“Yeah. Super scary haunted tower.”

“The guy at the tavern said that something strange is happening here. There’s people going missing and no one has ever used this tower in years until now,” Jonathan said.

Nancy nodded her head. “Exactly. Seeing light in the tower around the same time the first disappearance happened? There’s got to be a connection. We have to at least try.”

“Okay, so what do we know about this tower?” Robin looked down at her character sheet, then at Eddie. “With my wizardry background, would I know anything about this place?”

“Roll me a history check with advantage. You’re quite studious and one of the top of your class,” Eddie said, pointing at the D20 in front of her.

Robin nodded, shaking her hand and tossing the dice carefully. She grimaced, then rolled again, the corner of her lips turning up. “That’s an unnatural 20 for history.”

“Good. Yes, you have heard a considerable amount about this ancient wizard’s tower during your studies. He was a promising wizard that grew his power at an exponential rate. The academy was once proud to call him their own, but now they use him as a cautionary tale.”

Everyone leaned forward as Eddie unraveled the lore of the tower’s creator, Nancy furiously taking notes and Jonathan jotting down what stood out to him. Steve sat, memorized, as Eddie’s soothing voice wrapped around him, painting the picture in his mind. Robin nodded along with his words, pausing when she saw Steve staring at Eddie intensely, marking that down in her mental notes for later.

“He realized that the academy was limiting him. The prospect of harnessing dark magic grew more and more tempting by the day, haunting his dreams at night. It became too much when the academy was attacked. Their mistake was thinking that if they shielded their students from the darkness, they would never be harmed from it. As it were, you cannot protect yourself from something you have no knowledge of. The students fell one by one, overcome by power that they could not understand.”

He paused for effect, a thunderstorm with bad timing rumbled outside, causing the lights above to flicker. They all stiffened, looking up until the lights steadied. The younger kids were at Sinclairs, so they weren’t worried about them galavanting. After their stunt last time with the whole Vecna thing and running from the police, the parents of the Party made it a point to take turns having movie or game night at their houses. This also encouraged the older kids to spend more time together.

Eddie exhaled slowly, seeing the others doing the same as they tried to get back to the game. “Until, finally, our wizard fled into the restricted section of the library and poured through its knowledge. He casted a spell so great that it destroyed all of his surroundings, killing every enemy and every friend. There he stood, in the middle of the rubble, without a scratch on him. Though, he felt his blood boiling, his veins turning black, nails extending into claws, and his eyes bleeding. For a moment, his heart stopped. Within that moment, the power of the darkness took over and flooded his body with unsurmountable power.”

“Who is he?” Robin asked quietly, not wanting to break the atmosphere.

Eddie’s brown eyes scanned over the players as he smirked. Just as he opened his mouth, the power went down. There was a collective gasp around the table and shuffling as they reached over to each other to ground themselves.

“The backup generator isn’t kicking in,” Nancy said.

“You guys have a backup generator?” Robin asked incredulously, feeling Nancy stand up next to her. “Where are you going?”

“My dad was so paranoid about Russians stealing electricity all over the country that he bought this expensive generator thing,” Nancy explained, “He’s kind of late on that, though. There should be extra flashlights and candles somewhere over here if the kids hadn’t gotten to them yet.”

“Here,” Jonathan said, flicking on his lighter.

He found Nancy and helped her look through the cabinets for the emergency supplies. Their eyes adjusted to the dim light, not finding anything familiar in their surroundings. Nancy frowned, reaching out to touch one of the side tables. Her fingers touched something and she tugged on Jonathan’s sleeve to come closer. She had found a candle and he quickly dislodged it from the table and lit it up.

“What the hell,” he muttered, touching the wall that was no longer covered in wallpaper, but cold stone bricks. “Guys?”

He turned and saw that Nancy had done quick work in finding the other candles, handing each of their friends one. Steve scanned the area, scanning the dark corners of the room before announcing that it was clear. Robin ran her hands along the walls until she found a wooden torch hanging from a metal sconce. Eddie, being tall enough to pull it out, brought it over to her to light up.

Now, with a brighter light source, the party could see what had become of the room. Eddie stumbled back with wide eyes, convinced for a moment that he had fallen asleep on the couch of the Wheelers basement and would wake up at any minute. Steve stepped towards the table that they were playing at, frowning as he lifted the object that was now on his chair. A sword. A frickin’ sword.

“We’re not in Hawkins anymore,” Eddie mused, looking at Robin.

“No shit,” she muttered, “What is this? This isn’t the Upside Down. No creepy vines or particles in the air.”

“It’s like we were taken into a dungeon,” Jonathan said, joining Steve at the table where he found a traveler’s pack and knives at his seat.

Nancy looked at the new items on the table, their character sheets and minis gone and replaced with their character items and clothing. She gingerly picked up her new crossbow, testing its weight and how to hold it. She turned to Robin who was flipping through a book filled with runes that she couldn’t understand. Robin’s blue eyes widened, her jaw dropping as she scanned through it.

“I understand what this is,” Robin said in disbelief, “I can read this.”

“Holy shit,” Eddie muttered, “Are we in the game? Not the type of level of immersion I was imagining. I was thinking more like LARP or something, but…”

His eyes caught the sight of a thick leather book, replacing his DM notes and Monster Manual. He ran his fingers along the embossing of the cover, a shiver running down his spine as a whisper tickled the back of his mind. So, the others were their characters, he presumed. Steve was a paladin, Robin a wizard, Nancy a ranger, and Jonathan a rogue. He usually played a bard, but this? This screamed warlock. So, who was his patron?

A noise from above jolted everyone from their state of shock, Steve taking position in front of the group with his great sword held at the ready. Nancy grabbed the nearest bolt and took a minute to figure out how to load the crossbow.

Footsteps neared the top of the stone stairs ahead of them, a warm glow leaking underneath the wooden door. Steve gripped the hilt and planted his feet in anticipation before the footsteps moved away. He exchanged a look with Nancy and Jonathan before moving towards the stairs. Robin jerked forward.

“Be careful, dingus,” she hissed.

Steve grimaced and gave her a nod, making his steps light as possible as he ascended. As he drew closer to the door, he began to hear bustling and chatter outside, like a bar or something. He turned to look at the group with a frown, lowering his sword to peek through the crack of the door. It was a bar. Well, some medieval bar. Tavern, as Eddie would describe it.

He made his way back down and described what he saw. They agreed to go up together, changing their outfits and packing their things before moving. With all the weird shit that they had dealt with throughout the years, they knew it was best to just roll with it and find out what’s going on to stop it. Steve was at the front again with Eddie, Robin, and Nancy in the middle, and Jonathan at the back. They pulled over the hoods of their cloaks and walked out, the sound of the tavern hitting them full force.

“Ah, adventurers!” A man with a full blonde mustache exclaimed, getting up from his table with arms spread open. “I’ve been awaiting your arrival. I am Sir Arthur Calthorn.”

“Have you?” Eddie asked, stepping forward.

“Oh, yes, indeed, Edmund the Banished. I’ve sent a letter to your guild for aid. Have you read it?”

“Guys?” Nancy held out a piece of parchment that appeared in her hand towards them.

“No fucking way,” Eddie muttered as Robin took it from her. “This is the exact letter I wrote out for you guys at the start of the game.”

“So, what? We gotta deal with this evil wizard again?” Jonathan asked.

“Precisely, Pentaxl, known by many circles as Ghostwalker for his quiet deposition and silent and quick movements. Nance Swifttaker, the deadliest and most precise shot of all the realms, a pleasure to see you as always. Magenta Silvertongue, genius polyglot and one of the most powerful spellcasters to ever grace the academy.” The man, Calthorn, nodded over to Nancy and Robin before clapping a hand on Steve’s shoulder. “And the brave Steven Oathkeeper, slayer of beasts and protector of man.”

“Why do you guys have cool introductions?” Eddie whined under his breath. Nancy smacked him in the shoulder, shaking her head.

“You must help us with the darkness that threatens to spread throughout the Forgotten Realms. If the darkness spreads, then all of humanity is lost.”

“Cool. This isn’t crazy at all,” Steve muttered, sharing a freaked out look with Robin.

“And what realm are we in exactly?” Robin asked.

“Abeir-Toril,” Eddie answered before Calthorn could say anything. “One of many planets that exists in the Torilian System or the Realmspace.”

“Sharp as always, Edmund the Banished,” Calthorn said, snapping his fingers.

Eddie grimaced. “Don’t call me Edmund.”

“We need to get back home,” Nancy said, bringing back the situation at hand. “We’re not from here.”

“Of course, Miss Swifttaker, but in order to return to your homeworld, you must complete this mission,” Calthorn said, nodding to the letter. “And a key will be granted to you to take you back. Now…”

He clapped his hands and the group was teleported outside of the tavern where horses and a carriage awaited them. They looked around at the bustling and seemingly thriving city that they found themselves in, a steady traffic of carriages through the main road, market stalls lining the other side of the street, layers upon layers of districts passed that, leading up to a grand building in the middle.

“Now, come along,” Calthorn urged, climbing into the carriage. “We will be needing to meet with the counsel before you five set off.”

“Uh, normally I wouldn’t get in the car with strangers, so what’s the call here?” Robin whispered.

“He said that we will be given a key once we stop the darkness or something,” Nancy said, “And it’ll take us home. Unless we find some other way to get back without having to deal with all of this… whether it’s some kind of dream or whatever, we just have to keep moving and stick together. That’s all we can do for now. If we gain more information about this place, we’ll know where to go next.”

“See, this is why Wheeler, sorry, Swifttaker, is the leader,” Eddie said with a grin.

Jonathan nodded sagely. “So, who’s going in the carriage with the guy?”

“I’ll take one of the horses,” Steve offered, “I’m assuming that carriage can only fit four people, so…”

“I’ve got the crossbow, so I’ll take the other horse,” Nancy said.

“Okay, cool, but do you guys really think that we’ll be attacked in the middle of the city?” Robin asked, looking around. “Do you guys even know how to ride a horse?”

“I learned when I was little,” Steve said with a shrug.

Nancy nodded. “Me, too. It was during a rare Wheeler family vacation.”

“Ugh, rich people,” Eddie teased with a roll of his eyes. “I guess us peasants will take the fancy carriage, then. After you, m’lady.”

He held a hand out to help Robin in and did the same for Jonathan, much to his amusement, after Jonathan squeezed Nancy’s hand and kissed her on the forehead. Eddie turned to Steve and smiled.

“Guard the carriage for us, won’t you, big boy?” he said with a wink.

“I don’t know, am I getting a kiss on the forehead, too?” Steve played along.

Eddie’s grin widened. He leaned forward and planted an obnoxiously wet kiss on his forehead before patting him on his reddening cheek. Nancy raised an eyebrow at Steve who looked dazed until she nudged his shoulder. Once everyone was in the carriage and the other two on the horses, the group set off for what Calthorn called the Guild Quarters.

“God, I feel like I’m going to wake up any minute, having fallen asleep because of how boring the campaign was,” Robin said, her eyes darting around out the window.

“Hey, you guys were totally enjoying it!” Eddie protested.

Jonathan sighed. “Just when I thought I’d seen everything.”

The carriage merged into the traffic, being carried away towards the center of the city. Nothing looked familiar to anyone except Eddie, who’s eyes kept getting impossibly bigger the deeper into the city they traveled, seeing the map he made come to life right before him.

“Well, whatever is happening, hopefully this is a cool send off for you three before you leave for college, huh?”

Eddie turned away, feeling something pinch in his mind. A low growl echoed through his brain, a cold feeling like tentacles wrapping around him made him flinch.

“Eddie,” a familiar voice purred.

#writersmonth2022 #writer's month #hawkins crew #the older Party plays DnD #fruity four plays DnD #background Jancy #background Steddie #the party #stranger things fic #stranger things imagine #steddie #jancy #eddie munson #steve harrington #robin buckley #jonathan byers #nancy wheeler

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axwalker · 5 years

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The Trade 12

Synopsis: Liam is running for Cordonia’s presidency. To assure his victory, Constantine makes an arraignment behind his back for him to marry the rich ambassador’s daughter: Alexis O’Brien. Due to her father’s threats, she has no other option than to seduce Liam Rhys. But what happens when she falls in love with his best friend? (AU)

Pairings: DrakexMC

Warnings: I love drama and chaos so this will probably get a bit dark. In this chapter there is mention of rape, if you get triggered by this issue, don’t hesitate to send me a message and I’ll be glad to explain what happens without reading it. A lot of angst and heartbreak

Please note that this is my first series and English is not my first language. I really love ALL kinds of feedback. Don’t hesitate to comment!

Disclaimer: Some of the dialogues and settings as well as most of the characters belong to Pixelberry (except for Alexis O’Brien and her evil father George O’Brien JR).

To catch up: Masterlist

Thanks to @pedudley my awesome beta reader, your comments and encouragement mean so much. And of course, to @mskaneko for this beautiful mood board, and all the other great edits and mood boards 💕💕 Love you girls!!

Kiara being Kiara speaks a bit of French in this episode the translations are at the end of the chapter.

WE’RE ALMOST AT THE END!!

@burnsoslow @mskaneko @drxkewalker @pedudley @fromthedeskofpaisleybleakmore @pug-bitch @lauzales @desireepow-1986 @yukinagato2012 @kingliam2019 @i-bloody-love-drake-walker @debramcg1106 @speedyoperarascalparty @drakewalker04 @ac27dj @ravenpuff02 @msjr0119 @texaskitten30 @loveellamae

Liam was sitting in the living room, with a scotch in his hand when Maxwell and Alexis arrived.

“Alexis, thank god you are alright. I was worr-“ he stopped himself noticing that she had been crying. “Love, I’m sorry I made you cry. Please, believe it wasn’t my intention.”

He took a step towards her, but she raised her hand, stopping him, she felt emotionally drained. “That’s not the reason I’m crying.” She stared at him “However, I do want you to think very thoroughly about the kind of wife you want because I won’t limit myself to bear your children and smile prettily at your meetings. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m very tired, we’ll talk tomorrow. Good night, Max.” she gave Maxwell a kiss on his cheek and waved at his fiancé “Good night, Liam”

Liam was about to follow her, but Maxwell grabbed his arm. Alexis had told him everything about Abigail on the ride back and he knew she needed time alone.

“Li! Can I give you some unsolicited advice?” The blond man looked at him expectantly. “Give her some space. Let her breathe, man. You’ll talk tomorrow “

Liam nodded and left the room to go bed.

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Drake was twelve years old when he arrived at the Rhys mansion to live with Constantine and his family. Bastien had convinced the President to take the Walker children after their father had died to protect him. The president had accepted to take them in and give them the best possible education, not only as a proof of his gratitude but as a magnificent publicity stunt, he knew the voters would love it.

Drake was reluctant to go with them. Regina and Constantine were both extremely cold parents and he knew her mother had never liked either of them. What if they were horrible to him, or worst, to his baby sister?

He was so nervous that not even the thrill of living with his best friend was enough to calm him. Bastien showed them their respective rooms, both twice as big as their old ones at the old Walker cabin. Savannah was even more scared than him, her heart was beating furiously, and she was clutching her teddy bear so hard that her knuckles went white.

“It’s ok Sav, we’ll be fine here, you know Li and Leo are cool” He tried to sound as mature as he could.

Savannah couldn’t stop her tears any longer. “You always tease me when you’re with them.”

He put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it “We won’t anymore, Sav. I promise”

“I second that,” Liam poked his head into Savannah’s room. “We won’t tease you anymore Savvie. But the two of you can help us get back at Leo. Olivia and I are thinking how to prank him after he hid stinky bombs under our chairs on Livvie’s birthday. When we sat down, they exploded, and the room was reeking. Olivia was so furious she persecuted him with the knife for her cake and my dad punished us for a month” He seemed really amused by the memory.

Savannah smiled shyly behind her bear. “He really did that?”

“Yes, he also took some red coloring from the kitchen and put it on Olivia’s toothpaste, she spent the whole day with red teeth. Well, that one backfired, she was delighted when everyone thought she had been on a fight” Liam grinned at them. After losing his own mother three years before, he understood how anxious they were feeling, and he wanted them to feel welcome.

Drake smiled seeing his sister was calmer and shot a grateful look at Liam. He put his arm around Savannah’s shoulders and winked at his best friend “We will definitely think of something”

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Drake had waited a more than an hour before leaving the beach so he wouldn’t arrive at Theron’s mansion at the same time as Max and Alexis. When he finally started driving his mind drifted to the day after his mother had left. He took a deep breath remembering how sad and scared him and Sav had been and how much Liam had wanted to comfort them. All that pain because his mother had decided to abandon her own children without looking back. It astonished him that Alexis had thought that the two situations were remotely similar. She had been strong and generous, where her mother had been flaky and weak. Alexis would do anything to keep her daughter safe, his mother couldn’t care less about them.

Drake sighed thinking of her, of the roller coaster of emotions she had put him through. And now that he had finally understood the reasons behind the way she was acting, his only wish was to kill George O’Brien with his bare hands. That asshole had not only failed in protecting Alexis, but he had had the nerve of making her feel guilty and worthless. He had abandoned her when she had needed him the most and then he had forced her to give up her own daughter. His blood boiled thinking of Alexis, young, terrified and alone, and of her pain so raw, so deep despite the years. He remembered her soft voice telling him that she had never felt safe before him. That son of a bitch had to pay.

He dialed Kiara’s phone.

“Drake?”

“Hi, Kiara. I just wanted to know if Ambassador O’Brien is staying at your estate tonight with the rest of us.”

“Uhm, yes. I think my staff gave him the blue room, you know?” Kiara lowered her voice. “The one where you and I almost…”

Drake sighed, they had almost slept together ten years ago during a Beaumont Bash and she wouldn’t let it go. “Yes, I know. Thanks Kiara”

“Wait, Drake, I think he’s-“

Drake stopped the call and speeded up, he wasn’t thinking clearly, the only thing in his mind was to teach that monster a lesson.

When he arrived at the house, he jumped out of his car and entered the mansion furiously. In less than a second he was in the room Kiara had mentioned. He slammed the doors open only to find her, sitting in the bed.

“Coucou! (1) You got me all curious, Drake. You hung up the phone so fast, I couldn’t tell you that George is out of the country. He had some business to do in France” She stood up and walked towards Drake, putting her arms around his neck. “Why are you looking for him?”

He grabbed her arms and put them away. “Something for the campaign, forget about it.”

“S’il te plaît mon chéri. Tu as l’air très énervé ! (2) It has to be something more than a simple professional matter”

“I don’t speak fucking French Kiara and is not of your business. Good night.” Drake left the room as angrily as he had entered it.

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Hakim Theron was satisfied that the campaign had finally reached Castelraillan. It would be much easier to carry out his plans without worrying about missing crucial information.

Penelope had proved effective, but she didn’t have the brains or the wit to take matters into her hands. Plus she had to keep an eye on him, his secret weapon, the one who would definitely destroy Liam’s presidential dreams.

Hakim hoped that the boy didn’t take his betrayal personally, it wasn’t something he had against him or even Constantine, as much as he disliked the old man. It was what was best for Cordonia. Liam wanted to change too many things too fast and that could be dangerous for his country’s stability. It would be better for everyone, if things could go back to the way they were.

He smiled seeing Alexis and Tariq’s pictures, it was ironic that Constantine had brought to his son’s campaign the woman that was going to, unknowingly, destroy it.

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Alexis got into the car that was going to take her to the rally at Castelraillan and decided to check the final details of her last speech on the ride. She sighed thinking about how much she wanted to keep on working with Liam. Ironically, he had fired her because of Drake but Drake wasn’t the reason she wanted to be part of the campaign. The reason was Liam. His passion, his ideas, and his determination to change his country inspired her and made her admire him.

“Can I come in?” She turned her head to the car’s door and saw Liam with a couple of coffees and some pastries in a box.

“My father is waiting for me in the other car, but I much rather share these cronuts with you.” He smiled charmingly.

She couldn’t suppress a smile. “Well, if you bought too many cronuts, I could always help you with that.”

He entered the car and sat next to her, opening the box. “Take one.” He handed her one of the coffees. “And here’s a latte too”

She didn’t have the heart to tell him that she drank her coffee black, no sugar. Like Drake.

“Thank you, Li.”

He leaned to give her a soft kiss stroking her cheek with his hand. “I’m sorry about your role in the campaign, Alexis, but I really think it is for the best. I know you think that it’s about Drake, but it’s not.”

She shook her head rolling her eyes.

“Well, not only,” he conceded. “If I win you are going to be the First Lady of this country. You should be focusing on preparing for that, my love.” He kissed her knuckles. “You will have a lot of charities and philanthropic work, and of course you should be planning our engagement party and our wedding. I wouldn’t expect nor want that you limit yourself to smile prettily. I need a partner, someone I can trust next to me. But being my wife won’t be easy.”

Alexis nodded, finally acknowledging what her life would be from that moment on. Fancy and uncomfortable dresses, high painful heels, endless galas, and boring meetings for the hundreds of charities she would preside but would have no real involvement in.

Alexis was going to have to accept the fact that she wasn’t her own person anymore. Her dreams of hiking and camping in the forest, traveling around the world or writing a children’s novel one day weren’t a possibility any longer. Becoming First Lady would bring a whole set of responsibilities and she would have to live with that.

However, the worst part would be learning how to live with an eternal broken heart. She focused on the view behind the window. “I know, Liam. I’ll ask Max for help to plan the party and the wedding.”

“Perfect darling. And you can also count on Regina” The limousine parked “Here we are.”

When they got out of the car, dozens of paparazzi were waiting for them. Liam put his arms around her protectively and they quickly reached the temporary campaign’s quarters that had been set for the rally.

Drake felt her presence before she walked in. She was beautiful in a simple red dress and light makeup, but her facial expression was gloomy, highly contrasting with Liam’s joyful one. After a few seconds, she saw him and her face softened immediately. They locked eyes with each other only for a moment but they both felt the electricity passing across the room and turned around grinning. She took her computer and went to work on the other side of the room.

“Drake, can you bring me the results of the last polls in Castelraillan?” Liam was with Olivia checking some numbers before his speech and had missed their exchange.

“Of course, here they are. They show how your numbers have increased since Hakim declared his support.” He handed him a USB and added trying to sound casual. “Do you have the speech? I have to double-check that all your facts are correct”

Liam went mute for a second. “Alexis has it. I’ll go ask her for it”

Olivia cocked her brow. “What? Do you need some extra cash, so you took a second job running errands?” She snorted “Don’t be ridiculous, Liam. We have to look at these polls before you start the rally. Drake is a big boy; he can go himself”

Drake went looking for Alexis and spotted her immediately on the other side of the room.

“Hey O’Brien. I need to check the speech.” He said with a soft smile.

Her breath hitched seeing him grinning at her. Those dimples. “Hi, Drake!” She felt like a teenager again. Her ability to form coherent sentences or look at him without blushing were both gone, so she feigned to be deeply interested in her computer. Drake pulled a chair and sat next to her.

He lowered his voice so only her could hear him. “How are you doing, Lexie?”

“I’m fine, Drake. Thank you. Talking really helped.” Her eyes were bright and grateful, and he had to actively fight his hand’s urge to touch her.

“I’m here for anything you need, baby.”

She looked fondly at him, but suddenly remembered where she was, and most importantly, where her fiancé was and cleared her throat, standing up.

“I’m going to take five minutes, but you can read the speech here on my computer.” She shot him a sad look before leaving. It was better that way.

The rally started one hour later, Liam went up on stage and people went crazy. Alexis smiled, he was a great politician, she might have written the speech, but it was him who was bringing it to life. The fact that he actually believed in what he was saying, definitely helped.

She saw the crowd cheer and applaud at the other side of the curtain.

All of a sudden, Drake stood up behind her, his musky scent immediately inebriating her. He leaned towards her and whispered in her ear.

“We didn’t finish our conversation, O’Brien.”

His warm breath and his low raspy voice in her ear made her shiver. “I don’t know what you mean, Walker”

He shot a glance towards the stage where Liam was talking about education. Then he looked back at her. She was playing nervously with her chocolate hair, finally setting all of it on the left side of her head, leaving part of her neck uncovered.

The temptation was too great, he leaned towards her again and placed a small kiss on her nape while his fingertips gently brushed her back.

She closed her eyes savoring the brief moment, the feeling of Drake behind her was exhilarating and nerve-wracking at the same time.

Drake placed another small kiss but on her shoulder this time. Then he turned to her ear again.

“I need you, Lexie. Don’t shut me down again.”

She turned to him “Drake, I can’t do this. Please, don’t make it so hard.”

He didn’t take his eyes off of her.

Suddenly, a burst of applauses took them out of their bubble. Liam had finished his speech and was walking off the stage shaking hands and smiling widely at his followers.

“Come on, Drake. Let’s avoid another pissing contest. If Li sees you two together again, he’s going to lose it” Olivia glared at Alexis.

“Go with her, Drake. Please,” Alexis begged.

He shook his head but left with Olivia.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maxwell sighed content. He had coordinated the whole rally with Ezequiel’s help, Kiara’s brother had been very helpful. He had asked him out, but he was too in love with Rashad to accept.

He knew that he and Kiara had broken their engagement, but he hadn’t had look for him yet. Rashad was on his own path, and he had to respect that. Lost in his thoughts, he didn’t notice the presence in front of him. He looked up and was surprised to see Rashad watching him

“Hi, Max,” He said smiling.

“Hi, Rash. How are you doing?” He grinned back.

“Fine, it’s definitely weird to be back at my ex-fiancé’s house but I’m more convinced than ever that it was the right decision. I’ve missed you.” He set his hand in Maxwell’s knee and looked him expectantly.

“Are you sure about this Rashad?” Maxwell’s eyes were full of hope “Are you ready to try something real with me? To come out for good?”

Rashad nodded “I talked to my father; he wasn’t as shocked as I would have thought. He wasn’t thrilled but he said he’ll be supportive. I think that he really, really hated Kiara, so anyone else is an upgrade for him.” He chuckled.

“Even me?” Maxwell cocked his brows inquisitively.

“You’re the most amazing man in the world, Max” Rashad pulled Maxwell’s head towards him and kissed him. “I was dying to do that”.

Maxwell smiled mischievously and took Rashad’s hand. “I’ll show you upstairs what I’m dying to do”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day, Alexis was having breakfast with Liam in the main room. He wanted to make plans for their upcoming engagement party.

Maxwell entered the room with a huge smile plastered on his face. When he saw Alexis, he took her hand forcing her to stand up, and started to spin her around the room while he sang, under Liam’s amused look.

“L is for the way you look at me

O is for the only one I see”

She cackled “Max!” He twirled her around once more before elegantly dipping her, as he finished singing.

“V is very, very extraordinary

E is even more than anyone that you adore can”

Liam laughed. “Should I be concerned about you stealing my fiancé, Max?”

He chuckled. “She’s definitely a catch, but not really my type.”

“Let me guess.” She pointed her finger at him beaming. “Rashad and you’re back together?”

Liam cocked his brows in surprise. “What? Rashad is gay? Are you and Rashad together, Max?”

Alexis laughed. “You didn’t notice all those cute little looks that they’re always throwing at each other?”

“I can be slightly oblivious sometimes.” Liam smiled sheepishly

She hugged Max. “I’m so happy for you! You’re the best friend anyone can hope for, you deserve all the happiness in the world.”

“Aww! Stop, Blossom, you’re going to make me cry and I can’t have red, puffy eyes on my first day back with Rash.” He looked pensive for a second before talking again. “Actually, there’s something I wanted to run by you. I would love to bring Rashad to your engagement party as my official date.”

“I don’t even understand why you’re asking, Max. You can come with whoever you want.” She turned to Liam.

“Of course, Max. I don’t care who you bring as long as you come.”

“Aww, guys! I love you! Group hug!” He threw his arms at both of them before leaving. “I’ll go tell Rash.”

Alexis watched him go, delighted to see him so happy. She looked at Liam who was serving her a cup of coffee and put her hand on his. “You’re a good friend, Li.”

He placed the coffee maker on the table and took her chin between his thumb and index. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, but I’m hoping that we’ll be able to take care of that with some time.” He leaned to kiss her.

“I have to run, darling. I have a lot of work to do. Will you go shopping with Max for your wedding dress?”

She shuddered but managed to give him a small smile. “Yes. We have an appointment with Ana de Luca later. That’s all I’ll be doing with my day today. It’s fascinating, isn’t it?”

He ignored the acid remark. “You’ll love her. See you later, my love.” Liam kissed her before leaving the room.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After days of trying wedding and engagement dresses, Alexis was more than exasperated. She had never been someone who cared much about clothes and the only thing she was doing lately, was to shop.

She was even more exhausted from avoiding Drake. Every fiber of her being was pulling Alexis towards him but being close to each other was a torturous pain for both of them, so she tried to stay away from the campaign quarters as much as she could. She shuddered thinking about her engagement party. Drake would have to be there and watch her getting officially engaged with Liam. He was going to have to smile and congratulate them. She felt like screaming, the pain was getting too much to handle.

She took the keys to her car and drove to the nearest bar.

Five or six cheap whiskey glasses later, she was still sitting on a stool, incapable of moving. The moments she had spent with Drake were replaying in her head like a broken record. The day they had met, and that amazing kiss. The night stargazing or drinking whiskey in the cellar. The way he had taken care of her the night she had seen Brad again. How he had comforted when she had told him about Abigail. The conversations and the confidences they had shared. The hours spend discovering and loving each other. She missed how safe she felt with him. She craved their fights, his eyes, his kisses, his arms around her, his deep, raspy voice, his strong hands. Alexis didn’t know how she was going to do to live the rest of her life without him.

She was getting really drunk. It would be better if she called Max to take her back to the house.

“O’Brien” The familiar, manly voice startled her.

“Drake…how-?”

“Someone recognized you and called me”. He pointed at the back of the bar where Bastien nodded at them.

“You didn’t have to come, I was going to call Max.”

He sat on the stool beside her and called the barmaid. “I’ll have the same than her.”

Then, he turned to her to stroke her face. “I’m always going to come, Lexie. Always.”

She exhaled a sad breath. “Drake, I have to marry him. I don’t want to, but I have to.”

“We have to tell him the truth, Alexis. I know him since we were kids, he’ll understand.”

She sneered. “He’ll understand that I have been lying to him for months? He’ll understand that his father and mine have been plotting behind his back? He’ll understand that he loves me but I’m ... I’m …” She ran her hand through her hair desperately.

“You what, Alexis?” He lowered his head to meet her eyes. “You what?” He cupped her face making her face him “Tell me, you what!”

“I love you, okay?! I love yo- “

He crashed his mouth with hers stroking her face with his thumbs. It was hungry, desperate. It was soft and hot and breathy, and passionate. The heat rose in their cheeks as their tongues intertwined and they had to come out for air, breathless and giddy.

He held her head so her forehead would rest on his “I love you too, Alexis. I love you so fucking much it actually hurts. I never thought I would be the kind of guy who would tell a girl he’s crazy about her, but here I am, mad about you.” He sighed. “Insane about you.”

Her heart was beating faster and faster. Her head kept telling her that it was a mistake but the pull to him was stronger and she kissed him over and over until they needed to come out for air again.

After a while, she came to her senses.

Her eyes watered looking at him. “The reason Liam is acting controlling and possessive is that he’s feeling insecure. And he’s right. I love you. You are the love of my life, Drake.” Drake listened to her as he softly rubbed her face. “So I can’t really blame him for acting the way he is. I know he would never hurt me. I know he loves me. But even if I tell him the truth, I have to marry him.” She took a sharp breath. “If I’m honest with him there’s two possibilities. Either he calls off the wedding and Abigail will be in danger. Or he’ll agree to marry me to help me but he will be heartbroken.” She stroked Drake’s cheek too. “Telling Liam doesn’t solve the problem; we would only break his heart even more. The only solution is to accept things as they are, Drake. I’m sorry.”

He stared angrily at her “So that’s it? I love you, Drake but I’ll be marrying Liam in three weeks. You’re not even going to fight?”

“Don’t be unfair, Drake you know there’s nothing I can do.” Tears were falling off her cheeks as she spoke “Please, leave. I’ll call Maxwell”

She gestured the barmaid for another whiskey.

Drake stood up and turned her stool towards him, so she would be facing him. He leaned towards her taking her chin with his fingers “I would never leave, Lexie. Never. I don’t care if you marry him. I don’t care if I have to wait for the rest of my life to be with you. I won’t leave. As you long as you need me, I’ll be right here.”

She gave him a sad smile. “Even if we can only be friends?”

“Even then.” Drake returned her sad smile. “You can always count on me, baby.” He put a strand hair behind her ear, before kissing her forehead. “Now, let’s get you out of here before you drink their whole lot of whiskey”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three days later, Liam was getting ready for his engagement party. He put his tuxedo on and looked in the mirror. He felt nervous, he was completely in love with Alexis, but he couldn’t help but feel uncertain. He kept on trying but she seemed unattainable, always kind, and gentle but never really there with him. Liam shook his head putting those thoughts aside, they were getting married in three weeks and, then, she will be his. There was nothing to be afraid of.

Liam had arranged one limousine for the five of them so they would arrive together like a solid family. He had invited Leo to come with them too, but he said he would arrive a little later, surely drunk and with some random woman. It was exasperating but he couldn’t take care of that now.

When the car pulled over at the O’Brien’s mansion and Alexis came out, Liam grinned. She was gorgeous. He offered her his arm and took her to the limousine, with George behind them.

Constantine and Regina were already inside waiting for them with a cold champagne bottle.

Alexis sighed. Perfect! The man with no heart and the wicked witch of the east.

George spoke with a content expression on his face. “Well, we’re close to Election’s day and we’re almost sure that we will win. We should toast to that”

“A glass of champagne, dear?” Regina questioned.

She smiled politely.“Yes, Regina. Thank you” And keep them coming.

After clinking their glasses, Constantine turned to Liam “Are you ready, son? All Cordonia’s press will be there, you’ll have to give interviews and take some pictures” He paused to focus on Alexis “We all know how much you hate that dear, but you’ll have to do it tonight. Do we understand each other?”

She stared at him contemptuously. “I’m more than capable to answer some questions, Constantine but thank you so much for your concern.”

Liam grabbed her hand “Please, father. Alexis doesn’t need you to tell her what to do.” He turned to her. “By the way love, you look beautiful”

She looked at him gratefully. “Thanks, Li. You look very handsome too.”

The limousine parked at the venue chosen by Regina. Liam squeezed Alexis’s hand.

“Let’s do this”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maxwell had everything ready. He had planned the party with Regina, after a few days, it had become clear that Alexis wasn’t at all interested in the party, or in the engagement.

He had greeted most guests and was only waiting for them. When they finally arrived, he instructed them on how to make their entrance. George came down the stairs first, then Regina and Constantine, and finally, in the middle of a round of applause, Liam, the candidate, and Alexis.

Drake was at the other end of the room with a glass of whiskey in his hand. His heart raced at the sight of her. She was breathtaking with a red strapless dress that brought attention to her breasts. It was tight, and had a long skirt with a slit that gave a tantalizing view of her tanned, long leg as she descended; her big eyes and crimson lips were framed by her shiny brown hair. She was a vision, A gorgeous vision. His mouth went dry instantly, he knew that his promise of being only his friend will be very difficult to keep.

His fist clenched seeing Liam put his arms around her and kiss her in front of everyone. In front of him. He felt like punching someone, and seeing George next to them, he knew exactly who. The rage didn’t let him see the brunette sitting next to him.

“Salut, Drake. Ca va? (2)” Kiara asked seductively.

“I have told you a thousand times how annoying it is when you switch languages like that Kiara. Pick fucking one and stick with it. It’s called commitment.”

She giggled. “I love how direct you are.” She placed her hand on his thigh “I really really love it” She started to rub his thigh, but he grabbed her hand.

“Well, I’m happy you appreciate my bluntness, you’re going to love this, I need some time alone, Kiara. Have a good night.” He turned towards the bar and asked for another whiskey.

Alexis didn’t miss anything about their exchange, her blood boiled when she saw Kiara place her hand on his thigh but smiled to herself when she saw Drake take it off.

Liam hugged her from behind.

“How are you doing, love?”

“I would love another glass of champagne, Li,” she answered.

He signaled the waiter to come and serve them. He clinked his glass with her and kiss her on the cheek “You won’t believe how happy I’m tonight, not only I’m way ahead in the polls, but I have In my arms the most beautiful woman in the room.”

Olivia huffed. She had a thousand things to coordinate and Drake wasn’t of any help getting wasted on the bar. Of course, she understood him, even if she still loved Liam, her feelings weren’t as raw as Drakes’ and she had had years of training.

She approached the happy couple seething, she would love to know Alexis’s intentions. It was obvious how crazily in love with Drake she was. Was she marrying Liam only for his position? Olivia had to find out.

“You have to come and talk to Francesco, the Italian’s ambassador, Liam” She shot an angry look at Alexis. “And your father is looking for you.”

Alexis seemed surprised. “What for?”

Olivia arched her brow “Do I look like your fucking secretary or do you need glasses?”

“Olivia, please,” Liam scolded her.

Alexis was about to answer with a snarky remark but when she saw Olivia’s eyes, she recognized the pain. Olivia was hurting as much as she was but for a different man.

“It’s fine, Li. I’m going to go look for my father. See you later.”

Liam took her hand and pulled her body towards him to kiss her “See you soon my love.”

Drake stood up furious after seeing the kiss. After all the whiskey he had had to drink the only thing he cared about was talking to her. He saw her walk away from Liam and Olivia and enter the hall, he tried to pass the couples dancing in the dance-floor as fast as he could but when he was about to go out, Max called him.

Alexis reached the hall. Her father was waiting for her with an envelope in his hand. “What does this mean, Alexis?”

George threw the envelope at her. When she opened it she saw a few pictures of her from a week ago, from the night she had told Drake about Abigail. They were hugging and kissing in the photos.

“Did you have me followed? How dare you!” Alexis was furious.

George took a step towards her. “How I dare? Me?” He grabbed her arm “You’re behaving like a whore but you think that it’s me who have to explain myself to you?” He yanked her arm.

“LET.HER.GO” Drake growled.

George laughed but freed her arm. “Prince Charming himself” He snickered. “Well, his best friend. This is a family matter, Walker. Leave.”

Drake ignored the ambassador. “Are you ok, Lexie?”

She knew Drake and she had to avoid a fight at all costs. “It’s fine, Drake. I’m fine. Really.”

“Good, baby. Go back inside.” He rolled his sleeves.

She didn’t move “Drake, please.”

Everything happened so fast that George didn’t have the time to react before he felt Drake’s fist connect with his jaw.

“You’re nothing but a piece of crap.” Drake grabbed him by his shoulder and gave him one, two, three punches in his stomach.

“You shouldn’t even be allowed to live, you piece of crap.” He slammed him against the wall. George was trying to defend himself, but the younger man was stronger and faster. “What asshole? If it’s not a defenseless woman you can’t fight?”

“Drake! Stop!” The music in the party was too loud but Maxwell and Rashad were close to the door and they had seen Drake beating the Ambassador. They both took him by his arms, using all their strength to pull him apart from George.

Drake tried to free himself. “Let me go! I‘m going to kill this motherfucker!”

George sat at the floor seething with fury. “You’ll pay for this Walker. I swear” He turned to Alexis. “Tell Constantine that I wasn’t feeling good. And you better keep your promise with Liam. Unless you prefer this filthy asshole to Abigail.”

Drake screamed at him. “Don’t you dare to threaten her”

Rashad got himself in the middle. “Come on, Drake. Let him go”

George stood up and limped away from them.

Drake looked at Alexis. Maxwell grabbed Rashad’s shoulder. “They need to talk, Rash. Let’s go back to the ballroom.”

Alexis was beyond furious. “Why!? Why do you have to do that!? Now he’ll have something against you too. I’m not only going to be worried about Abbie. I’ll be worried sick about you too, Drake.” Her eyes watered.

He cut the distance between them, there was nothing worst for him than seeing her crying. He cupped her face and cleaned her tears with his thumbs. “I can’t let it go, baby. I told you, no one would never put a finger on you, again. After the way he’s treated you he deserved that and much more. You know that.”

“I don’t fucking care about him, Drake. You don’t know how he is, what he’s capable of.” Alexis sobbed, terrified. “I can’t lose you.”

“He’s threatening his own daughter, Lexie. Believe me, I can imagine what he’s capable of. And I told you the other night, you will never lose me. I swear.” He kissed her lips tenderly.

She smiled through her tears, noticing his bloody knuckles. “Let’s go put some cold water on that”

Maxwell came out of the ballroom with a wet cloth. “I brought this for your hands, Drake. Lex, Liam is looking for you, he’s giving his engagement speech. You better come in first and alone” He threw an apologetic look at Drake.

Liam smiled as soon as he saw her coming through the door.

“There you are, love. Where’s your father? I wanted to give my speech now.”

“He wasn’t feeling well, Li. He won’t come back tonight so you can give the speech now.”

Liam looked at her suspiciously but didn’t reply.

He went to the top of the stairs with her. Maxwell nodded at the band on stage, so they’d announce Liam’s speech.

“Alexis and I are delighted, thrilled and honored to share our intentions for the rest of our days with you. Standing together in front of all the very special people in our lives to announce our engagement makes our private dreams public and, in a way, real. Thank you for being here, for your love and well wishes-”

Suddenly, the buzzing and noise of telephones beeping were all they could hear, but Liam made an attempt to ignore them.

“Alexis has made me the happiest man in the world. With her, by my side, I understand what the writer Francis Scott Fitzgerald meant when he said, ‘I love her, and that’s the beginning and end of everything.’-”

He stopped talking, everyone had their eyes glued either on their phone or on Alexis. She searched Drake, he was seething looking at his phone too.

Finally, among a trail of whispers and gasps, Alexis and Liam reached Drake and Maxwell and grabbed their phones. Alexis saw her world collapsing when she read the article. It was entitled “An Affair to Remember” and was illustrated by some very suggestive photos of her and Tariq the night of her attack.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a corner of the ballroom, Leo Rhys smiled. Hakim’s plan was working perfectly.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Kiara:

Please honey, You were really angry (...)

Hi! How is it going?

#drake walker #drake x mc #drakexmc #drake walker fanfic #trr #trr drake #trr fanfic

71 notes · View notes

cruddyborderlandstheories · 5 years

Text

i walk in 20 hours late sipping a starbucks hot cocoa

i don’t like coffee

promethea!!!

awwwwww yis

tl;dr: uhh wow i talked a lot today, sorry. Mostly about whatever the fuck that thing Rhys is handing us is, how it ties into the dig site we see like maybe it’s a piece to activate it, maybe the dig site isn’t a Vault but instead a teleporter or something and needs multiple pieces to activate. so i guess kinda like a Vault but not that kind of Vault. Also if said dig site is actually on Promethea because that’s, like, DEFINITELY Elpis behind it. and like, okay, maybe we used the giant space gun to destroy the asteroid fields and make room for elpis and teleport elpis there, or maybe we teleported the dig site to pandora because it needs to be opened since Moon = Key and maybe Promethea’s moon was destroyed by the giant space gun (TM) and turned into asteroid belt, or maybe the dig site was always ON pandora and it’s not actually a Vault (because the Map would have pointed it out), but still. lots of possibilities here. oh and i go over the Battleborn easter egg and talk about Tannis is Not What She Seems (and pray she won’t end up being evil bc I love her) and I wanna believe the Eridians sent that message, not the cult ‘cause fuck those guys they probably can’t see the future they probably just adopted the name. also I ramble about how gorgeous this planet is for like... 30 minutes. but damn it really is pretty.

man this was a fun thing to wake up to and then have to wait like 8 hours to actually fully take a look at lmao

“Home to the Atlas corporation headquarters, Promethea is a metropolitan world covered in futuristic towers of chrome and glass. A recent siege by Maliwan has turned the urban environment into a warzone; their mechanized infantry patrol the streets, rodent/insect hybrids known as Ratches infest the sewers and back-alleys, and the Children of the Vault are seizing the opportunity to recruit displaced and disgruntled citizens. Atlas CEO Rhys Strongfork is getting desperate.“

“... Children of the Vault are seizing the opportunity to recruit displaced and disgruntled citizens”.

yeah that’s the most important part of this description for me. I really really like the idea of that, and it could tie into the whole Mayhem is Coming tagline for the game as, like many people have speculated, the Mayhem we hear about is the spreading of the cult/the psychos across the universe. A very interesting tie-in to the marketing campaign, as it’s clear we’re now the target of this cult propaganda, like the citizens of Promethea are (were? this is all past-tense since marcus is telling this story, isn’t it?)... like the citizens of Promethea were.

And we know that Atlas is trying to protect the citizens in the tunnels, so it’d be really interesting to see the two get into a direct conflict over a group of citizens. Like Lorelei tells us it's a hostage situation or whatever and we run in and it’s more of a brainwashing situation. Worse if the citizens decided to switch over without any brainwashing. oof.

im also curious about the number of hexagons we see on Promethea. The shapes look identical to the ones on Pandora’s page, so I’m curious if this is an accurate representation of how many areas will be on each planet.

just sayin’.

We do know that Pandora has more than those 3 listed areas (from Supmatto’s new video! can’t believe i missed the stream. ah well.)

“Covenant Pass”. I wanna believe this is near the area where we go find Sanctuary-III, at the very least that one tunnel-y area?

you know the one

this one, it’s right next to Sanc-III afterall.

Also thinking it may not be the name of a huge area, but instead the name of one of the smaller areas within that area? like the ones where when you discover it you get experience points? yeah.

the name makes me think this is someway related to the CoV cause of the word ‘covenant’, an agreement. We also know this area is directly near this one bandit camp which I’ve theorized before is a sun smasher camp

(you can see the back of sanctuary-III near both areas)

so it’s possible there was an agreement made and both could pass freely through that one tunnel, or the twins were able to build that wall close to this camp. idk, just spitballing ideas.

So then it is possible there’s only 3ish areas on Pandora, but I really hope not unless they are BIG areas. There are most likely more than 3.

oh but we’re here to discuss Promethea

sorry i forgot.

For Promethea we got the Titan Skyway, the Atlas Campus, and the Meridian Seaport.

Titan Skyway reads to me like that giant road we keep seeing in the trailers

like this one, which is giving me huge Bloodshot Stronghold (Damtop) vibes. Which is one of my favorite levels to play as melee Zer0 with execute and many must fall so... please let this be what i think it is. i may end up running that map just for funsies at the end of the game. mm if it didn’t take running the actual bloodshot stronghold every time i wanted to play the damtop level, i’d be running it all the time. sigh.

Atlas Campus immediately made me think of the Meridian Metroplex, but that’s definitely not it. In the instagram trailer we see Rhys on the ‘Atlas HQ rooftop’ with Zer0, so I’m gonna imagine Rhys is somewhere in the Atlas Campus.

Now if this is like an actual college campus, which i don’t think gearbox would do due to the implications, that’d be wild. I heard they had a mall designed for somewhere in the meridian metroplex, but we’re probably not actually allowed inside. which makes me sad, but also it probably holds no significance on the story. but then again... neither did caustic caverns. hmmmmmmmmm

oh also rhys is holding

whatever the fuck this is

uhhhhhhh... huhhhhh...

tbh i legitimately thought this was their attempt at macgyvering a vault key at first lmao

i know it’s a mission object because it has those glitteries, but... it reminds me a bit of Gortys’s core but i really don’t think that’s it. maybe another Atlas project to try and open a Vault? It just doesn’t look Eridian to me.

then again

this appears to be at the eridian dig site so... maybe it actually is Eridian. Definitely new to me.

some way to get inside the Vault area maybe? I can’t imagine that’s the actual Vault Key, because the one we see in the We Are Mayhem trailer doesn’t match.

you know i’ve been thinking more about vault colors

this one appears pink which... alright. maybe something to do with seraphs/seraph crystals.

The bl1 Vault was blue, the bl2 Vault was purple, the Vault of the Sentinel was... purple? blue? pink? all of the above? ... bisexual? tbqh there was a LOT going on there lol. wasn’t the Vault of the traveler yellow? either way

the big question here is: does each Vault have its own color scheme?

I wonder what that means since the Vault Mey has turned red now... it’s probably leading us to the big boy. the Vault to end all Vaults.

now wouldn’t that be fun

right back to Promethea sorry

final listed area we get is called the Meridian Seaport. Which, if you know me, has got me all like 👀👀👀👀👀👀

water area? why yes PLEASE

i was actually talking to someone on reddit about said ‘seaport’ and it got me wondering if maybe this area is where we’ll find that one car from the Mask of Mayhem trailer.

i can’t imagine what else those wing-like things on the side would be for. but i am definitely not a car person, like the closest i get is being a fan of Transformers, so maybe someone can enlighten me.

I am wondering if this area is the one we see in the instagram trailer with Moze

here

also i know we see water near where we find Zer0 in the demo, but that’s not really a dock area, more just a viewpoint. this has me thinking it’s an actual dock because the buildings are all off in the distance. It reminds me a lot of NYC actually lol

and interestingly enough i write about an assassination mission at a port on Promethea in one of my fanfics, but tbh i wasn’t actually expecting anything like it to be in-game. That was kind of an assumption I made since the area with Zer0 had water and I can’t believe I’m going to have to go back and edit it to be canon-compliant, cause I legitimately didn’t...

anyway.

Should i go over the instagram stuff now? I feel like i should go over the instagram stuff now.

see here is my problem with this

no moon

you’ll understand why once i compile my evidence

no moon

no moon!!

no moon

i even watched both time lapses during the amd stream and there was no hint of the moon (i understand promethea is in a state of perpetual twilight, but i thought maybe it would show up somewhere. it doesn’t. in fact it only shows the sun and this asteroid belt).

where is my moon, randy?

well let me tell you what i’m thinking here so you’re not even more confused

let’s go through that instagram video showcasing Promethea again

you should recognize this!

this is from that one video i reblogged like 4 times because i kept debating whether or not it was on promethea or pandora. now we can assume it’s on promethea but let me ask u something

if promethea doesn’t have a moon...

what the everloving fuck is that?

in fact, let me ask something

what does elpis look like in bl3?

look familiar?

hell yeah it does

now...

is this actually promethea?

I can’t imagine gearbox would be using footage that ISN’T from the planet they’re showcasing in a video about said planet. because that’s naughty. Plus, Rhys is shown giving us something that looks very similar to the tech in that area, and I can’t imagine we’d go through all that trouble just to get that tech then immediately go back to Pandora with whatever it is. whatever happened to the Promethean Vault Key we see in the We Are Mayhem trailer?

so there’s 2 options here if we’re under the assumption that dig site is/was on Promethea.

This dig site was moved from Promethea to Pandora

Elpis was moved from Pandora to Promethea

Now i went over ALL of this in an old post. (seriously, give this a read if you haven't already, i go into this in a lot more detail than i will here). but we kinda got some new information.

My first instinct is that this dig site is on (or moved to) Pandora. just, 100% Pandora. the moon, the spiky rocks in the background, what look like Rakk near the back, there’s no asteroid belt in the sky. etc. etc.

do the blue sparkles have anything to do with it? maybe!

Also again, im not 100% certain this is actually a Vault. It just... doesn’t feel right to me. If this was actually on Pandora the entire time, then we’d have known about it through the Vault Map. We would have gone to open the 3rd Vault on Pandora before bl3 even began. If this really has been on Pandora the whole time, I do believe this isn’t actually a Vault. I go over this in that previous post I’ve made and I’m still standing by it. I think this is just an Eridian ruin and the Vault shape is just a statue or whatever. I could be 100% wrong, but that’s my first instinct if we’re being lead to believe this is on Pandora.

Now I’m curious why this dig site was never mentioned in bl2 if it WAS on Pandora this whole time. And, again, if it actually does end up being a Vault, there’d be a huge plot hole with the whole Vault Map thing if it was on Pandora all along.

So was it moved here? Yeah... probably. For what reason? I... have no idea. How? similar answer. Lily couldnt’ve done it, she doesn’t have her powers anymore. Maybe activating it with whatever Rhys gives us makes it teleport to Pandora. For... reasons.

If it is a Vault, maybe it requires Elpis to open it. for some reason. We know Moon equals Key, so it could play into that. It definitely looks like it’s positioned directly in line with elpis.

but why would a Vault built on Promethea need a moon from a totally different planet to open it?

Because Promethea’s moon was destroyed.

That asteroid belt? I don’t think that’s there just for funsies (okay maybe the artists had funsies but the actual writing? yeah). And that big gun looking thing we see in both concept art and in the trailer? i think that thing fucked up Promethea’s moon to the point it shattered. So they couldn’t open that Vault.

alright, we all cool on this version of the theory?

let’s flip it on its head.

let’s consider:

Elpis was moved from Pandora to Promethea

NOT possible i hear you say

but hear me out.

what’s our reasons for saying this is Pandora?

“the moon, the spiky rocks in the background, what look like Rakk near the back, there’s no asteroid belt in the sky. etc. etc.”

Elpis? teleported! bah!

Spiky rocks? Well! We hear typhon mention a quarry, don’t we? one with brittle rock. This very well could be the quazmarian quarry he talked about where he found that very first Vault (and Vault Key). After all, if he fell into a hole and found it, it makes sense that there would be a shitload of dig teams trying to clear it out for easy access.

Rakk? We see those on Athenas, too, during the Happy Together trailer. Plus, they’re super chubby on the bottoms compared to what we see of the Rakk in the Claptrap Presents Pandora video. Maybe they’re not even Rakk.

Finally. Ah. The asteroid belt.

Well, if you believe that that giant gun could’ve obliterated Promethea’s moon, then is it so hard to turn around and believe that it’s actually obliterated the asteroids surrounding Promethea?

in fact, if we really ARE moving Elpis to Promethea, wouldn’t it make sense that we can’t have asteroids hitting Elpis for fear of worsening the Crackening and breaking our own moon?

In FACT, do we even SEE any asteroids above Promethea in that trailer shot of the bigass gun?

I THINK NOT.

There’s more to this theory, though.

from claptrap presents pandora

from the we are mayhem trailer

yeah, they COULD be celebrating the destruction of Elpis (because i would not be surprised if those are both near the same area)

lets think of something new, though. Elpis being blown up was totally 2015, with Zarpedon. That’s SO last season, Calypsos.

Plus, why would the calypsos even want the moon destroyed? is that not the home of a Vault that would allow them to see the future? how fucking powerful would that be, being able to see the future??? Jack knew what he had to do to win the Pandora games (even if he uhhh didn’t get to see that last bit because of Lilith), so why wouldn’t the Calypsos want to see their own futures?

There is the argument that they’ve already gone to Elpis and didn’t like what the Vault showed them, but I kinda assumed that they’d have gotten the funky eye things like Zarpedon did if they really did see what the Vault showed them. Given that Jack’s was interrupted by Lilith, we don’t really know if that’s truly the case.

I’m 100% down to blow up the moon cause Good Riddance, but also it needs to make sense WHY the calypsos want it blown up other than like shits and giggles? which... fine, but the story..? Elpis has to be important somehow. They have to want it blown up for some reason. A show of power? awesome, maybe they got that giant space gun. Moon = Key, so maybe they think if we can’t get this Vault, nobody can? sure why not. Destroying Pandora? Sure, but why blow up elpis when u could just also blow up pandora?

either way, if the game gives us an actual reason as to why the twins are blowing up the moon, we’re all fine and dandy. if they’re going it just because then yeah, im gonna get kinda testy.

anyway my point IS

The effect around elpis here looks strikingly familiar to the effect that appears around Lilith (and the cultists) when they’re teleported.

so it would be much cooler if, instead of blowing up Elpis, they were actually celebrating its movement.

And it would be very interesting then, if this tied into that Easter Egg we got.

You know the one:

Because yeah im still iffy on the implication that this is from the Calypso twins. Why wouldn’t they want the Vaults opened? isn’t that the grand plan?

maybe this could be from the Eridians or the Guardians on Elpis. If Elpis was teleported from Pandora to Elpis, maybe the translation from Eridian -> English is slightly off, or simplified for the message. (on vs orbiting for example)

Visit Promethea -> Where we are right now, or where we’re going to go. We need you there.

Children of the Vault -> Yes, it could be the CoV cult that’s being referenced, but the way this is broadcasted, through morse code, spoken like an actual cryptic message and not, you know, with that Calypso flair... me thinks the cult simply adopted the name “Children of the Vault”. I think this may either be referencing Sirens, or the Vault Hunters/Crimson Raiders. Maybe the twins picked up this broadcast and that’s why they immediately head to Promethea after they steal Lilith’s powers.

We are not on Pandora anymore -> shit dudes we got yeeted to Promethea, help us. Or... we’ve moved elsewhere. We’re not nearby, we escaped, we fled, come find us on Promethea.

Tannis is not what she seems -> this one... I don’t believe the Calypsos actually know anything about Tannis. If they do, then she was possibly the one to rescue/experiment on them, turning them into artificial Sirens or whatever, but then... isn’t Tannis exactly what she seems? She’s crazy, she totally would experiment on the twins. That is EXACTLY what she seems like.

The people who would know about Tannis not being what she seems... the people who can see the future? The Guardians of the Sentinel’s Vault (maybe just the Guardians/Eridians in general). The Watcher can speak (speak? she uses telepathy, doesn’t she? that’s why Brick asks Lilith what she says) eloquently, I imagine there has to be more than one Watcher-like Guardian. Or this is the Watcher herself sending the message.

Either way, if, later on in the game, Tannis starts showing signs of not being what she seems, then... wouldn’t it make sense that the only characters who knew this were the ones who could see the future? And given the new info, it makes sense that the Guardians/Eridians/yougetthegist would know her by name, because she could be the one who turned herself into an artificial Siren. Or figured out how to create artificial Sirens. Whichever (both?). Which is kinda big news in the Eridian world, I’m sure. Plus, the wording using ‘What’ instead of ‘Who’ is kinda a big pointer. I’m almost leaning towards the idea that Tannis tried to give herself Angel’s phaseshifting abilities. I can’t see Tannis with actual offensive abilities... It wouldn’t really fit her character. But I can 100% see her with mad computer hacking skills, to the point she could ruin anything with a flick of her wrist. Yeah, I can see that.

And I really hope Tannis doesn’t end up being a villain. She could do so much good with her intelligence and newfound powers and tbh it’s really nice seeing a character with autism not treated like Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory (the butt of every joke). She feels real to me (as someone with autism)- she’s got her obsession (Eridians/Sirens/the Vaults), her crazy intelligence, the social phobia/unawareness. I really like her as a character (going from betraying us in bl1 to realizing her mistake and immediately trying to help and assisting the Crimson Raiders) and I’d really hate for her to become the villain just for... idk a shock twist? The shock twist should be that she’s a Siren or whatever, not that she’s going to betray us. I like Tannis :( And all the message says is Tannis is Not What She Seems, not that we shouldn’t trust her or that she’s going to betray us.

Do Not Open the Vaults -> well this is the whole thing, isn’t it? this is why I think this message has some sort of Eridian origin, instead of the Calypsos cult. The Calypsos WANT the Vaults open. They want that ‘universe-destroying’ power. They want to absorb the powers of the Vault monsters. Shit, even we Vault Hunters want to open the Vaults for some of that sweet, sweet loot. But who doesn’t want the Vaults opened? The Eridians.

oh yeah we were talking about Promethea. how the fuck did i get here?

oh the moon

yeah it could have just been a shot in the Instagram trailer they used to show off the ‘Eridian alien technology’. that’s not fun to talk about tho lmfao. plus the thingie Rhys holds matches up so well with the cool technology we get

anyway

the instagram trailer. we’re not even like halfway done with this post btw. still gotta do those beautiful screenshots

trailer

sorry it’s like 1am im starting to lose focus im shifting into sleepy mode

i just love the aesthetic of this city.

also. that one building with the 0 on it? you can’t convince me Rhys didn’t give Zer0 their own skyscraper.

oh, you want an entire building to store all your loot and trophy kills? OF COURSE ZER0 ANYTHING FOR YOU

yes....... Eridian log.

im really excited to see it glowing. especially since it’s glowing red, like the Vault Map/key/you know. I hope that has some significance.

i did boost the brightness and noticed it was part of a wall, not just one slab found elsewhere. makes me think this is part of a Temple. maybe part of the dig site below? we know that one is connected to some sort of building. and if it glows red, that’d be a really neat tie in to why Atlas always has that glowing red aesthetic going on in their bases.

still not done talking about this shot. yeah the stuff on the right looks similar to the thing Rhys hands us. NOT why i brought it back up tho. The guardian statues in the back seem very ‘low poly’. VERY different to the guardian statues we have on Pandora. they’re also holding staffs which is new.

compare

these ones also seem much buffer than the guardians we see. with shorter necks, as well.

Maybe these are statues of ACTUAL Eridians? not just Guardians or any other construct (further proof for my theory Pandora was a Guardian production planet lol) but like what Eridians actually look like.

shorter necks, thicker limbs (because why would the constructs NEED muscles?), actual bodies that aren’t thin as twigs. I think we found it boys

this is the ideal Eridian body

no cause, seriously, if they ARE guardians, why are they so BUFF?? i don’t GET IT

also weird this atlas gun isn’t wrist mounted. Atlas sniper confirmarinoed? or just an Old Atlas gun. sure. that too.

Moze on a turret near what i assume is the Meridian Seaport. She has what i think is an Atlas pistol equipped. There’s a dead guy leaning up against some cinder blocks, all cozy-like.

better shot of the area. We talked about this earlier, so moving on!

Okay... so is THIS the New Atlas sniper? it looks like nigel thornberry’s nose

smashing.

we saw this before, too. im actually really excited to look out over the Promethea skyline from the top of a skyscraper. also, idk, rhys’s hand looks like a yaoi hand to me. like his fingers are above the F in strongfork, right? look how far away his thumb is. YEESH.

it’s actually ONLY rhys lol

An Atlas soldier at work! I like that their gear has the crimson lance logo on it. And the new Atlas symbol. I feel like if we have to fight these guys, the crit spot is gonna be that backpack.

maliwan robo!!!

a big boy. one of the flying ones too iirc from the We Are Mayhem trailer.

Atlassss in the back. it’s weird that the second A in Atlas is the logo, not the first one. the first one is a triangle. that’s weird is it supposed to be signalling something else? a triangle with a circle around it. i don’t even know what that might be a logo for. hm.

oh also police bots i guess, but we see these dudes a lot.

im more interested in this thingie in the back. wonder what happened to it/what it is

ratches. blegh.

i hate these things jfc. they’re so gross.

i like that maliwan is just claiming things by throwing their flag up on it. that’s not how this works! that’s not how any of this works!

anyway.

how are those screenshots lookin

pretty good.

im pretty sure i’ve mentioned this before, but i love that they named this part of the city Meridian and then kept the Eridian logo in the spelling. it’s so fuckin dorky to me.

also i know we’re supposed to hate these robos, but at least they’re getting some characterization as enemies. the loaderbots in bl2 do this but not to a degree that they get their own interactions (LB being the exception of course). I like this.

also i love that parts of the city are color coded. like red and blue parts are different areas. It’s such a neat way to help people not get lost (cough, me) and it fits great into the design of the city with the neon lights and bright colors. I noticed this in the gameplay demo as well, tho i don’t remember if it was followed. Also I’m pretty sure that symbol up there

is what the blue area is called. could be wrong. but i think i saw this during the demo as well.

i think this is going to be my favorite area to visit on Promethea, hands down. I love this little living area. It feels so unlike anywhere we’ve visited in previous games, like it feels like somewhere Gaige could be from. Actually, iirc Roland was from Promethea, wasn’t he? Be wild if we visited his house here. Anyway, I’m also excited about the trees. Fucking! Trees!

and cars!!! holy shit yeah on Pandora we only ever saw like light runners or bandit technicals and the occasional bus. all the cars were broken down and stripped for parts! It’s really cool to see actual full cars here.

wow i am excited over the most mundane shit lol

wait till you guys hear about the PARKING LOT

OHHHH YEAH

CROSSWALKS TOO

lol im actually- i just love this area. i love it so much. this is lovely. i love the giant glowing reactor in the background too, i 100% hope we get to interact with that (posssssibly blow it up. maybe just a little.) I can see this area being the area we have to run through to reach the entrance of that thing. I mean, it’s just RIGHT THERE.

Also would not be surprised if this KV fellow is waiting for us there. “Who wants to BANG a billionaire indeed”. He’s totally gonna be a boss fight. BANG i imagine means more shooty shooty than innuendo... innuendo...

it sounded better in my head.

the symbol for the red area possibly on that tower in the back?

I’m like, 60% sure this isn’t the area we explore with Lorelei, so maybe this is the Titan Skyway? also maybe the bridge Moze and Fl4k drop off of in the Happy Together trailer.

hate. i would quote AM here but im tired so just imagine the entire ‘Hate’ quote here because i HATE these things.

there’s also a big skelly in the back, i wonder just how big these fuckin things can grow. hopefully uhhh like a cow died here or smth. cuz fuck man.

this area is also super green and watery so i wonder if this is a sewer or smth. that’d be wild lol

Another shot of the city. It’s so fucking beautiful. I really love how they went all out for this. Opportunity was great, but it wasn’t nice to look at. Promethea is fucking STUNNING. I love this place way too much. Never even been here before.

also i love the fog coming up from the bottom. Maybe this shot is taken from the water? god if we get to go on the water and then it starts fogging up i might actually start crying lol.

this building is my favorite by far i think. I love the way the middle turns in. I have no idea how that’d work like... from an inside standpoint, cause the ground would just be slanted under you but im sure they made it work somehow.

anyway. im gonna go cry myself to sleep over how beautiful this game is. sorry i talked like... WAY too much during this one lol.

also i just thought of this while writing the tl;dr but maybe that item rhys gives us is after all the Promethea stuff is over, even the Vault(s), maybe we need it to activate something in that vault statue area on Pandora and that’s our way to like some important Vault or the Eridian homeworld or smth and we gotta collect all the pieces to activate it. like it’s a teleporter. Maybe Rhys had a piece because that’s what was in the Vault of the Traveller. I mean it would make sense because if you didn’t want someone to have something, you fuckin hide it in a box that’s teleporting across the galaxy at random intervals. That might be our way to the Eridian Homeworld. Now wouldn’t that be neato...

#borderlands #bl3 #borderlands 3 #promethea #wow sorry i just WENT OFF tonight #it's 2am tho so nighty #i did my best #time for sleep

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silverjirachi · 5 years

Note

So what are you planning on your next dnd storytime?

idk i just released The Big One about how i sold my soul for the first time in game. my group and I did a Small Bullshit Pirate Campaign where I played Pirate Rhys so I’ll probably do that (in one part of it I dressed up as a prostitute in order to rob someone). i can also talk about how i sold the rest of my soul to save the party and a gate to hell opened up in one of our big final fights and Rhys got pulled into hell in a back alley in Melorand.

i also wanna have one where I film it as Rhys and then have my DM react to it and tell everyone what actually happened versus what Rhys said. That will probably be for our big fight/back alley one.

so that’s what’s cookin’ currently 😊

(I sadly am running out of Good Rhys Material™ to do for storytimes because my group and I graduated college and scattered to the winds, we’re only just now getting on playing again via discord. That’s why I wanna transition to doing other stuff with Rhys too but… have no idea what that will generally look like.)

THAT SAID IF YOU HAVE SUGGESTIONS PLS LET ME KNOW

i live to please and i’m here to entertain

#rhys #my youtube #dnd storytime #Anonymous #dnd

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tkmedia · 3 years

Text

Premier League 2021/22 preview: Vastly-improved Chelsea can wrench the title off Pep’s City

The soccer treadmill starts up again with the return of the Premier League on August 13. The post-lockdown period has been a pretty relentless one for the game's leading players, although at least there has been a longer break this summer than last. Still, the fact remains that England's top flight will resume less than five weeks after the finals of Euro 2020 and Copa America, the stars of which have only just returned to training in many cases. With this in mind, the squad depth of Manchester City warrants plenty of respect as Pep Guardiola's side go in search of a fourth title in five seasons. The Spanish boss is well versed in having to rotate his players - City have regularly contended for all four trophies on offer in recent years. They look well stocked in defence where it should be remembered that Aymeric Laporte wasn't even first choice for much of last season, while the midfield is overflowing with talent - something which looks set to be enhanced by the arrival of Jack Grealish. With Sergio Aguero now at Barcelona, the lack of established centre forwards is the biggest concern. Gabriel Jesus remains but won't be able to play game in, game out, given the demands placed on this squad by the cup competitions. Unless the Harry Kane saga takes another twist, it looks like Guardiola will again be looking to employ his midfield and wide options as 'false nines' pretty often. To be fair, the likes of Kevin de Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and the ever-improving Ferran Torres are all capable when called upon to carry out that job. However, in a season in which Aguero played little, it was notable that City's goal output fell to 83 league goals - a decent number for most sides but well down on their own tallies of 102, 95 and 106 in the three previous campaigns. Clearly a signing of Kane's stature would make that less of a worry - and highlights the problems punters face betting prior to the closure of the transfer window - but in the here and now it's at least a slight concern, as is the fact so many of their stars were involved in the latter stages of the summer international tournaments. While they remain the team to beat, I can pass at around 4/6, particularly given there has been just one successful title defence in the last 12 years. Question marks over Solskjaer Cross-town rivals Manchester United were runners-up last season and have again spent big in a bid to improve. Jadon Sancho's arrival for £73million makes for a fearsome attack, especially if Mason Greenwood can continue his ascent which rather stalled in the first half of last season. Raphael Varane also looks a good upgrade in defence but it is the midfield which will be the biggest concern to those thinking of backing them at 17/2. Bruno Fernandes has been a revelation over the past 18 months but his inclusion has undoubtedly meant Paul Pogba hasn't been used in the best way. He's regularly been forced into a wider or more defensive role and United fans aren't the only ones who will have watched his performances for France in the summer and asked why isn't he being utilised in the same way at Old Trafford? That's a mark against Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and doubts still remain over his managerial ability at the very highest level. He's certainly not got a great record in the biggest games - May's Europa League final was another where opportunity slipped away, while United won just one of their six matches against their fellow top-four clubs last season. I'm not sure too many people would choose Solskjaer as their man if Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel were the other options and this off-pitch role is an area I can see United falling short in. Liverpool a tempting price Klopp's Liverpool are a tempting price. Much went wrong for them last season but most could be put down to some dreadful luck with injuries. To lose both first-choice centre-backs to long term injury within weeks of each other was the biggest blow but both Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez are fit again now, with Klopp having also added Red Bull Leipzig's Ibrahima Konate as to bolster the defence. The Reds actually coped well for a while without their two central defenders but a devastating period in the new year saw their title hopes collapse. With hindsight it was almost certainly a mistake by Klopp to plug the defensive holes with his best midfielders - Fabinho and Jordan Henderson were both regularly asked to play in the backline and that undoubtedly weakened the side in forward areas. The likes of Nat Phillips and Rhys Williams showed during the run-in that they were capable stand-ins. Had they been trusted earlier, Liverpool may well have created a title race. I have few doubts the well-established 'Fab Three' forward line will still provide plenty of goals - although I'd expect Diogo Jota to be forcing his way into the side a lot this season, as long as he stays fit. Roberto Firmino's spot certainly came under threat towards the end of 2020/21. Gini Wijnaldum will be missed in the midfield but Klopp appears to have a ready-made replacement in Curtis Jones, who should feature more this season and it would be no surprise to see him in the England squad at some point. Some will be concerned about the January loss of Mo Salah and Sadio Mane, both of whom will be at the Africa Cup of Nations. However, there seems a good chance Liverpool will be able to negotiate a deal which sees them leave after playing Chelsea on New Year's Day. If that's the case, they'll only miss league games with Brentford and Crystal Palace. In short, it's not the big problem it might first appear. This isn't a vastly different team to the one which won the title just over a year ago but while Klopp's men were seriously considered, preference is for Chelsea at the same price. Best bet Their 2020/21 season was one of two vastly different halves with the arrival of Thomas Tuchel producing a huge upturn in fortune. There was massive improvement, particularly in defensive areas, and that was highlighted by the Blues' run to Champions League glory under their German boss. However, Chelsea also picked up notably in domestic competition too with only champions Manchester City winning more points across the second half of the Premier League campaign. A related point is that under Tuchel, Chelsea won at Liverpool and Man City and drew at home to Man Utd. They managed to pick up only one point against those three opponents when Frank Lampard was in charge in the first part of the season. Essentially, Chelsea have looked much better tactically under Tuchel with the defence organised and tough to break down. Antonio Rudiger returned from the cold and made you wonder why he had been left out so long. In wide areas, Reece James and Ben Chilwell offer plenty and in the centre of the park, N'Golo Kante, a man who knows what it takes to win Premier League titles, remains one of the best midfielders in the league, while Jorginho was arguably Euro 2020's star man. Attack is where Chelsea will need to improve if they are to triumph - they had only the eighth-best record for goals scored last term - but they are clearly working on that. They remain keen on signing Erling Haaland, although Borussia Dortmund don't look likely to sell, while Romelu Lukaku, another of the world's best strikers, has been mentioned as a potential alternative. Money appears to be there for Tuchel to spend and a marquee arrival can be expected before the transfer deadline. But even with the forwards in his current squad, Tuchel has talent to work with. Timo Werner will surely be better with a season in England under his belt and those who watch German soccer will know he's a better finisher than the one we saw for much of last season. The same can be said about Kai Havertz, while more can also be expected from Hakim Ziyech, whose career at Stamford Bridge got off to a bad start due to injury. Christian Pulisic and Mason Mount are others with plenty to offer going forward and a manager of Tuchel's ability should be able to formulate a plan to get the most of these players, something Lampard simply couldn't. On paper, a gap of 20 points is a huge one to bridge but that doesn't take into account how Chelsea picked up after Tuchel's arrival. If anyone is to challenge City this season, I feel it's most likely to be the Blues and they look worth a bet at around 5/1. READ MORE: Jack Grealish’s iconic moments for Aston Villa and England Read the full article

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anniemar · 7 years

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Vikings Season 5 Trailer Breakdown

So it is me, recently absent AnnieMar, trying to slowly get back into writing. I’ve always loved funny recaps of things, so I figured I’d do one for the Vikings Comic Con trailer. Let me know if you dig it, I’d love to do them for other things too.

*Be careful for possible spoilery speculation below ... if you care about that sort of thing.

Okay. So it seems as if the new season of Vikings is reflecting a theme that’s been going on in pop culture as of late … the “civil war”. MCU gets one. DC gets a Batman v Superman ... and perhaps a reflection of our current political climate. You get a civil war, and you get a civil war … EVERYONE GETS A CIVIL WAR!

We start out with Sigurd’s funeral with a point of view shot from Ivar, who in the previous teaser, looked pretty grief-stricken.

Apparently in Vikings-land you’re able to attend the funerals of people you’ve murdered, and not like, be thrown in Viking jail or anything. I’m sure there will be consequences to his actions though, some of which seem to be stemmed from Ragnar’s actions. Sins of the father and all that …

Thanks a lot Ragnar.

So at the heart of this show, it was always a story about brothers, both literal and figurative. Blood brothers and spiritual bros. The betrayal and the loyalty between them. We had Ragnar and Rollo. We had more of the “true wuv” brotherhood of Ragnar and Athelstan, and then whatever it was that Ragnar and Floki had. So now that Ragnar is dead, how does this show go on? Well … we just keep adding MOAR BROS.

And why can’t there be a dynamic of sisters you might ask? Well … basically the generation of girls that would be the same age as the sons of Ragnar ARE ALL DEAD.

I also counted a whopping two women that I recognized in this trailer. One. Two. Lagertha and Astrid. No Torvi, no Margrethe, no Judith, no … well, you get my point. Only brothers matter, people.

Jesus. Why do I watch this show …

DO BETTER, VIKINGS.

So let’s see who’s on #TeamIronMan and #TeamCap, shall we? With one side wanting some semblance of order and the other side wanting the freedom to do what they damn well please. I think we can guess.

ANYWAY.

Someone is saying, “you are Ivar, son of Ragnar Lothbrok, and many fear you.”

I have no idea who’s talking here, maybe Harald? But there’s some really cool shots of Ivar looking seriously delighted to be evil, especially one during a storm. Maybe he finally got to blood eagle somebody.

Then we see Lagertha looking pretty upset at what she’s looking at. She’s got the warpaint on, so I’m thinking someone she loves is dead on the battlefield. Or it could be that the Civil War battle will lead to half of Kattegat being slaughtered.

Worth it?

I don’t know, maybe she should have watched or read Marvel’s Civil War first.

LISTEN TO TONY STARK, LAGERTHA.

But I can say this … Ivar won’t care that half of Kattegat could potentially be slaughtered. He cares about avenging his mother. He cares about what he perceives as Ragnar’s wish for him to be his one true legacy. Does he actually care about the people?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

“You have only seen the beginning of the end,” the Seer then says. “The consequences of Ragnar’s death are not yet played out. Prepare yourself.”

Thanks a lot Ragnar.

And by the way, I AM NOT PREPARED.

Then we have Ivar speaking, giving us, the audience, a history lesson on what exactly a civil war is … “there is going to be a war. A war between brothers. A war that will make me the King of Kattegat.”

Thanks, Ivar.

And honestly he very well could do this. The show doesn’t give a shit about actual history (cough sigurdandblaeja cough). It’s very unapologetic about that. Making him the king of places he was actually king of is just too damn predictable.

But I digress.

We get a few shots that go pretty quick ... sup Aethelwulf! ... Bishop Heahmund (who seems to be an afterthought in this trailer for some reason), Bjorn, Astrid being kidnapped, Ubbe looking a bit shocked and seriously pissed the fuck off. Ivar in Jedi garb with popped blood vessels in an eye … hmmm, how did he get those? In battle? During a tirade? Ivar, are you constipated? You really shouldn’t strain …

And here is me:

“Ivar and Harald are coming,” a woman says. I can’t tell who’s speaking here. Maybe Astrid? Perhaps she’s being sent as a message after being kidnapped.

I can only guess that Ivar has been hanging out in England and is coming back to Kattegat. Perhaps he was successful in his campaign against JRM and wants to come home. And of course, be the motherfucking king. I’m absolutely floored by this, because for one, IVAR IS STANDING AND SORT OF WALKING, TWO FOR YOU GLEN IVAR and perhaps even more shocking is it looks like King Harald and his brother Halfdan are on opposite sides.

I don’t know if this is some kind of covert operation on the brothers’ part, or if they actually had a falling out, but it seems as if all Harald has now are his gods, since the other two people he loved are a., dead princess, and b., hanging out with Bjorn and Lagertha.

“I will support you against Ivar, if you support me against King Harald,” Lagertha says to Ubbe.

So what this says to me is that Ivar isn’t Lagertha’s main focus at the moment, Harald is. And Ubbe’s focusing on Ivar, which breaks my heart, considering he was such a big bro to him last season. Not sure if this turn is all about Sigurd’s death or if there’s other things factoring into it, but Ubbe is definitely not on #TeamCap, I mean … #TeamIvar. He is flat-out against Ivar.

And this is going to do nothing for my very shameful low-key shipping of Lagertha and Ubbe. Can their ship name be Lubbe? Hm.

“A Civil War can only bring tragedy,” Bjorn says. Bjorn went to see Captain America: Civil War, you guys, so he knows. And he’s #TeamIronMan … I mean, #TeamLagertha.

LISTEN TO BJORN, YOU GUYS.

Damn, I never thought I’d say that ...

“I can never forgive Lagertha for murdering our mother … OF COURSE I AM GOING TO KILL HER,” Ivar then screams.

I mean … Can Alex be anymore OPPOSITE of the character he plays?

Both Ivar and Ubbe look scary as hell in this scene. The lighting has Alex’s eyes practically glowing, teeth bared, and Jordan has that look where he’s being very intimidating by grinning at whoever is talking to him, basically telling them that he’ll take great pleasure in making you regret what you’re saying.

“You can try,”Lagertha says.

YAAAAS QUEEN.

Like. How do I choose?! I love them all of them. Ivar, Ubbe, and Lagertha.

And so we have the lineup of warriors, who just last season were all on the same side in England, avenging Ragnar’s death. They were once avengers. And now there’s a Civil War.

Heh.

Sorry. Here we go.

So obviously there’s a battle. Lagertha cuts someone’s head off. Ivar kills a dude, stabs him in the face. Nothing new. Then we’re given shots of Floki out to sea, meditating on a boat, in the middle of a storm.

We see Bjorn hanging out in the desert, and exploring some new fashion accessories.

They are going on manpain, I mean, spiritual journeys, you guys. Then there is a flash of Heamund, because we must remember that Jonathan Rhys Meyers, a movie star too cool to show up to Comic Con, will be gracing us with his presence this season. Then a very sad looking new girl, and a few flashes of some people getting it on.

“The end of our world is here.” Lagertha says, to a sweeping scene of Floki and his single tear, on a very dreary and deserted beach, and then watching a volcano erupt.

Perhaps this is where Lagertha meets her end, and the first generation will completely hand everything over to the second generation.

Or perhaps not. Because I am of the opinion (and perhaps it’s an unpopular one) that the show could go on without Ragnar, but not both Ragnar and Lagertha. The show needs at least one. I’m not sure the (non-Tumblr) audience cares about the brothers enough yet to let them carry all of it.

So who’s on the final roster?

On #TeamIronMan we have Lagertha, Bjorn, Ubbe, Halfdan.

On #TeamCap we have Ivar, Harald, and Hvitserk.

On #TeamBlackPanther, or rather #Team “I don’t want anything to do with you people, I’m here for my own reasons” … Floki.

And on team #WeAreNotImportantEnoughToBeInThisTrailer we have many Saxons, Margrethe, Torvi, and Rollo/Gisla.

Come on November 29th. I’ll never be completely ready, but COME AT ME BROS.

#vikings #ivar the boneless #ubbe #lagertha #hvitserk #sigurd #ivar's heathen army #bjorn ironside #vikings trailer recap #vikings trailer breakdown

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doctorwhonews · 7 years

Text

Torchwood: Aliens Among Us - Part 1

Latest Review: Written By: James Goss, Juno Dawson, AK Benedict Directed By: Scott Handcock Lead Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Tom Price (Sgt Andy Davidson), Paul Clayton (Mr Colchester), Alexandria Riley (Ng), Jonny Green (Tyler Steele), and Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper) Supporting Cast: Stephen Critchlow (The Mayor), Rachel Atkins (Ro-Jedda), Ruth Lloyd (Vorsun), Sophie Colquhoun (Madrigal), Rhian Marston-Jones (Quenel), Lu Corfield (Brongwyn), Rhys Whomsley (Osian), Sharon Morgan (Mary Cooper), David Sibley (Vincent Parry), Sam Béart (Catrin Parry), Anthony Boyle (Hotel Manager), Sam Jones (Toobert Jailert), Wilf Scolding (Personal Trainer) Released by Big Finish Productions - August 2017 In receiving the licensed green light to revive Doctor Who’s first full-fledged TV spin-off show, Torchwood, as an ongoing series of audio dramas in May 2015, Big Finish set themselves arguably their most daunting challenge since embarking upon a mission to do likewise for Who back in 1999. Like its mother show in the 1970s, the four season-strong, adult-geared BBC sci-fi drama had reached the height of its televisual powers by 2009, producing an award-winning miniseries in Children of Earth which suggested its writers had finally perfected their efforts to blend universe expansion with compelling, mature storylines capable of attracting newcomers alongside ever-devoted followers of the Doctor. Just as the arrival of iconic figures like Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and John Nathan-Turner bred behind-the-scenes troubles which ultimately sealed Who’s 19-year hiatus, however, so too did Torchwood’s golden age of on-screen success reach a swift, turbulent crescendo just moments after its apex. The Starz-produced fourth season Miracle Day lacked the narrative momentum, multi-faceted supporting characters or overall British charm which had reaped Children of Earth such universal acclaim two years beforehand, once again prompting a previously beloved sci-fi saga to enter an indefinite purgatorial state, particularly as its showrunner Russell T Davies faced heartbreaking personal struggles not long after the run’s Summer 2011 broadcast. But between their sensational opening trio of monthly runs featuring beloved characters like Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Ianto Jones and of course the indomitable Captain Jack Harkness (if you’ve yet to try The Conspiracy, Uncanny Valley, Zone 10, Broken or Corpse Day, then head to Big Finish’s website when you’re done here and remedy that error), the tremendous The Torchwood Archive serving as both a fitting series coda and 10th anniversary special, and box-sets like Before the Fall offering profound insights into the titular secret agency’s mysterious past, Big Finish have more than confirmed their status as the brand’s perfect gatekeepers for the foreseeable future. Next up on their agenda, then? Continuing the story where Miracle Day left off, albeit making a few welcome course corrections en route to ensure that Season Five doesn’t trigger another near-death experience for Torchwood. Even with the support of the mighty Russell behind them, can the studio pull off such a Herculean feat, no longer simply hopping between eras of the show for standalone romps but instead conveying a whole new arc over the course of 12 episodes and three box-sets? Let’s begin the quest to find out with Aliens Among Us – Part 1, evaluating each of the four hour-long instalments in detail before ascertaining whether James Goss and company should ever have bothered embarking upon this audacious campaign… Changes Everything: “Torchwood is dead.” There’s an unmistakable sense of irony about wright James Goss’ decision to invert the title of Torchwood’s pilot episode in naming Season Five’s opener. While the Cardiff of “Changes Everything” has undergone no shortage of transformations, between mass immigration, mass homelessness and mass alien infiltration, while Jack and Gwen were fighting to end the Miracle in the US of A, this compelling first chapter largely works to re-establish much of the show’s pre-Miracle Day status quo, from the shattered but still intact Hub to the team’s iconic SUV to Jack and Gwen back in business at Torchwood Three’s helm. Much of the real change, then, comes with Goss’ introduction of two deliciously morally and psychologically complex new – potential in one case – recruits to the team this time around. Enter the irritable but courageous civil servant Mr. Colchester and the intrepid but concerningly ruthless ex-paparazzi Tyler Steele, the former of whom comes off as initially closed-minded yet has plenty more to him than meets the eye and the latter - brought brilliantly to life as an unashamedly slimy rogue by Jonny Green - bound to rile most listeners with his self-serving rationale as much as he does the rest of the team. For reasons that will become obvious by the end of the hour, Russell’s influence upon the characterisation of these two new players is as clear as daylight, lending them the same dramatically layered but equally realistic personalities that one would expect of any of the Doctor’s 2005-2009 companions or indeed any employee at Torchwood until the Miracle. It’s thanks to this pair of ever-evolving characters largely taking centre-stage – especially in Tyler’s case – here that a somewhat necessarily by-the-books set-up storyline revealing the existence of an unseen alien community pulling the strings in Cardiff remains thoroughly engaging to sit through, though that’s not to say the plot doesn’t pack any dramatic heft in its own right. Much as we’ve encountered plenty such shady organisations such as those behind Season Four’s Miracle or indeed the Committee at the heart of Big Finish’s Torchwood monthly range to date, that the latest foes to emerge from the Rift provoke racist sentiments and terror attacks across Wales’ capital city gives “Changes” a disturbingly relevant edge, the depiction of bombings taking countless lives sure to unsettle anyone following today’s headlines but all the more relevant a subject matter for the show to tackle. As with most season premieres aiming to kick-start a season-spanning arc, the extra narrative legwork “Changes” must perform ultimately robs the opening outing of the chance to become a stellar standalone outing, but even so, by injecting the show with a fresh, volatile new team dynamic at Torchwood Three and harrowing poignancy via its topical real-world ties, Goss sets Aliens Among Us off on a promising trajectory indeed. Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy: “Right then, let’s go to a hen night.” Has any episode title ever served to summarised the core tenants of Torchwood as a work of mature yet oft-hilarious drama than the epithet Goss attributes to Season Five’s sophomore outing? Probably not, but thankfully the man responsible for helming the brand at Big Finish doesn’t get complacent off the back of this unparalleled achievement, instead finding time to devise a largely isolated storyline which dedicates almost an hour’s worth of time to developing bothEve Myles’ Gwen and Paul Clayton’s Colchester, not to mention exploring the fascinating interplay between these two world-wearied soldiers as they march into one of their most unlikely – not to mention hugely comedic – missions yet. Laden with outrageous set-pieces – from absurd hostage situations to drunken car chases – and unsubtle but warranted politico-religious commentary, Goss’ script follows these veteran crime-fighters in their efforts to determine how young Madrigal’s upcoming wedding nuptials are connected to the still-mysterious powers manipulating Cardiff for their own ends, only for their investigation to result in the increasingly inebriated Maddie causing them no shortage of explosive grief throughout the night. One does admittedly get the sense as “Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy” progresses that Goss thought this delightfully disbelief-uprooting premise was entertaining enough to fuel an entire hour of audio drama, since the second act of proceedings feels rather padded, throwing in convoluted further plot developments and additional characters who don’t add a great deal to proceedings beyond further exposition surrounding the nature of Madrigal’s betrothal. All the same, with Myles and Clayton on top form as they explore how their respective characters deal with leading lives of near-total dishonesty when balancing work with family ties, with Sophie Colquhoun’s Madrigal serving up a veritable array of painfully chuckle-worthy one-liners with each successive pint consumed, and with Goss even finding time to resolve loose plot threads from Titan Comics’ Torchwood strip by revealing the fate of the Ice Maiden’s crew, “Gravy” achieves more than enough in its running time – and builds more than enough intrigue for what’s to come – to stave off any occasional sense of plot tedium. Most importantly of all, that Episode 2 gave yours truly the joy of writing out its pitch-perfect title in full for this review is reason enough for its existence. Orr: “Who knew there was an alien black market right in the middle of Cardiff city centre?” Clearly not content with allowing Goss to expand Torchwood’s core roster with Colchester and Tyler, Juno Dawson adds another player into the mix with Orr, a third RTD-endorsed recruit whose alien heritage affords her some, well, alluring abilities that play glorious havoc with each member of the team here. “Orr” once again marks a near-complete tonal departure from its immediate predecessor, returning to explore the haunting implications of extremist fanatics for a Cardiff already at economic war with itself, while also throwing in aspects of romance and series-changing tragedy for good measure along the way. As one might well imagine, handling such a delicate balancing act – and having to carry the burden of progressing Aliens Among Us’ overall arc in a far more substantial manner than “Gravy” with the full-scale arrival of the season’s core antagonist – would prove a challenging at best prospect for even the most accomplished of scribes. Sure enough, what with tackling weighty concepts like housing shortages, illegal commercial transactions hidden in plain sight and shapeshifts forced to cater for their onlookers’ sexual fantasies, Dawson can’t quite avoid imbuing “Orr” with a lingering sense of tonal discontinuity at times, struggling to decide whether to focus on the hearty laughs Orr’s powers inspire, the aforementioned topicality of her plot or indeed setting up a twist set to inextricably alter Aliens Among Us’ trajectory for the next nine episodes. Thank goodness, then, that the merits of those individual plot and character threads are strong enough to leave the listener suitably chortled, emotionally wrought and ultimately captivated to discover what lies around the corner as soon as the show’s iconic end credits sting kicks in. As shown by her sublime Torchwood one-off outing The Dollhouse back in April, when left to her own devices Dawson’s got more than enough comedic and dramatic chops to pull off a standalone storyline for the range, but even if “Orr” can’t quite match that entertaining Charlie’s Angels-riffing adventure’s lofty heights, as a penultimate instalment for Part 1 it’s got more than enough to keep fans and newcomers alike engaged. Superiority Complex: “All life is equal – animal, mechanical and everything in-between.” Those wanting Part 1’s concluding instalment to serve as a gripping mid-season finale which leaves one desperate to hear the next four episodes might need to restrain those expectations somewhat. Much as “Superiority Complex” affords the whole team plenty to do as they infiltrate a prospering alien hotel to determine the source of recent on-site murders, with John Barrowman clearly relishing Jack’s newfound role as a typically flirtatious barman and Orr’s abilities granting her unprecedented access to employees’ psyches, it’s certainly not concerned with resolving or substantially progressing many plot threads established so far, barring a last-minute cliffhanger which promises dire straits for Torchwood Three come October’s Part 2. With that disclaimer out of the way, though, listeners can focus on simply enjoying the sheer lunacy of the team’s present situation, one member hiding a particularly juicy secret as she spars wits with disgruntled guests and Orr’s encounters with the hotel’s true management proving both ridiculous and tangible given the current exponential growth of artificial intelligence. Between uniting Jack with a British monarch in The Victorian Age and transforming Cardiff into a disease-ridden warzone in Outbreak, AK Benedict is no stranger to devising logic-eschewing premises anyway, but “Complex” tests the extent to which your disbelief can be suspended like never before, an experiment which if nothing else ensures an unpredictable listening experience presumably akin to watching an episode of the original TV series while under the influence of narcotic substances. Better yet, come Episode 4’s credits we’re left with the unmistakable, gratifying sense of a truly reinvigorated Torchwood, one packing a familiar status quo but with revitalising new elements in the form of the team’s latest recruits, and the fresh, unstable dynamic between protagonists old and new ensuring that both the standalone and arc-orientated instalments compel. If Goss and company could work to justify Kai Owen and Tom Price’s top billings as Rhys and Andy – neither of whom get much in the way of dramatic meat until “Superiority” – next time around, and develop the elusive Ro-Jedda as a multi-dimensional antagonist for Jack et al to battle, then Part 2 could take the show to Children of Earth-rivalling heights once more, but for now, the show’s well and truly back on form, and long may it reign as such at Big Finish. http://reviews.doctorwhonews.net/2017/08/torchwood_aliens_among_us_part_1.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

#TORCHWOOD #BIG FINISH #{s{BFAliensAmongUs01}}

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vampirecatboy · 4 years

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ok I low key wanna request all the ocs you listed but I'll just keep it to 2 lol. Kira (ofc :3c) and Aja because i just love him lol

i mean you know i would absolutely, happily spend at least six hours doing everybody, but Kira and Aja are good choices lol

Full Name: Kira Mag Raith (fun fact for the people, Mag Raith is pronounced Mag Ray, yay Irish!)

Gender and Sexuality: cis man, he’s pansexual but skews toward men because i’m gay and can’t help it lol, he’s also polyamorous

Pronouns: he/him

Ethnicity/Species: clavat, so basically half-elf, and ethnicity does work a bit differently in our campaign, but he’s white-coded, and speaks with an Irish accent of varying strength (it’s stronger when he’s upset or with his family, good luck understanding him if he’s upset and with his family)

Birthplace and Birthdate: born in Cairn, tbh i haven’t really thought about his birthday, but i get strong earth sign vibes from him, maybe Virgo? so let’s say August 31, the liminal space of days like it seriously doesn’t feel like it should be real

Guilty Pleasures: napping in sunbeams, i was going to say jk but i actually love it, so he naps in sunbeams but is a bit embarrassed about it

Phobias: what’s that vegetable cats are afraid of? cucumbers? “they have dark energy, trust me”, or humiliation. cucumbers and humiliation

What They Would Be Famous For: alleged attempted murder on television, on a more serious note he’d probably prefer not to be super famous, like celebrity-style, he’d probably prefer to be a folk hero or urban legend or a cryptid lol

What They Would Get Arrested For: he has done nothing wrong, ever. idk maybe assault or public disturbance for fighting someone in public, maybe trespassing if he sleeps in the wrong shed or barn

OC You Ship Them With: bit of Justice, but mostly Rhys

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Rhys again, but despite everything it’s not all that likely, Rhys is a jerk but he’s not a murderer

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: fantasy or adventure, but he’s not much of a reader

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: deus ex machina, it’s the easy way out and he doesn’t like it

Talents and/or Powers: he’s spent a lot of time perfecting his bow skills, so he’s very good at hitting long-range targets, he’s also great at keeping secrets

Why Someone Might Love Them: first off, he’s small and adorable, but mostly he’s very considerate and trustworthy, and he’s a great listener. he’s really not going to be mean unless you’re mean first

Why Someone Might Hate Them: misinterpretation of his demeanor/behavior probably, or if someone decides he’s responsible for problems they caused Rhys

How They Change: please my sweet boy i’m begging you, open up to someone please, that’s what i’m hoping for at least, he needs to learn how to really trust others

Why You Love Them: he is..... my boy....., for real though, he’s genuinely so sweet and he cares about people a lot and even though Dmitri tries to possess him from time to time, i love that he’s basically nothing like him

time for spicy boy!

Full Name: Aja, i have not given him a last name. i have no excuse.

Gender and Sexuality: cis man, he thinks he’s straight but he’s so not, i haven’t given him a concrete label but queer is applicable

Pronouns: he/him

Ethnicity/Species: ifrit (the pathfinder version of a fire genasi), plus he’s a sorcerer with a draconic bloodline, so somebody at some point fucked a dragon and he’s got some of that

Birthplace and Birthdate: oof i can’t give a town name but he lived up in the mountains? he is, however, such an Aries, let’s say his birthday is April 4

Guilty Pleasures: mackin on Dmitri he reads erotica, i’m not gonna beat around the bush, he’s always seen seducing women, so obviously the dudes he hangs around expect stories of his conquests, unfortunately he has perpetually shitty luck with bedding women so he is a big ol virgin, but no way is he telling anyone that, basically he takes the scenes from the erotica he reads, modifies them a bit, and pretends they’re his experiences (it’s worked so far, luckily all those dudes he talks to really don’t do much or any reading)

Phobias: he doesn’t like being on boats in open water, he’s a fire elemental with a red draconic bloodline, on a base, instinctual level he does not feel safe when surrounded by water (he’s alright in the rain though)

What They Would Be Famous For: allegedly sleeping with several noblewomen, maybe a princess or two (someone mentioned a queen once and well, he’s not going to deny it)

What They Would Get Arrested For: arson. no story there he just. likes fire.

OC You Ship Them With: Dmitri, naturally

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Dmitri, but it’s not personal, there are plenty of dudes who hear about him sleeping with their wives so like, any of number of them would have no problem hiring an assassin (or a bounty hunter with a penchant for killing his targets) to go after him

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: erotica and maybe a touch of romance, a guy can dream

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: there are some romance/smut tropes he gets sick of, anything to do with virginity and purity and virtue and deflowering a maiden, both on a personal level and also on a “virginity is a social construct used almost exclusively on women to determine their worth” level. also some of those male writers really do not know how certain parts work. as soon as he sees the word “tight” he throws the book away

Talents and/or Powers: want something burned? toasted? roasted? singed? he’s got you covered. he’s a skilled, powerful sorcerer with a preference for fire magic. also he’s obviously a great liar and a hell of a charmer

Why Someone Might Love Them: despite his reputation as a philanderer, he’s a gentleman and he’s drowning in that respect women juice, he’s not pushy, if she’s not interested, he backs off, and i mean, 20 charisma score, he’d have to really flub for someone to not love him

Why Someone Might Hate Them: ah those husbands do not like some sexy fire boy comin in and boinking their wives, supposedly very well, also he’s very showy and that can get on people’s nerves

How They Change: he has a Gay Crisis and suddenly “oh, maybe.... men too?” and i mean, Dmitri does suss out his myriad of lies about sexual conquests, and he eventually does kind of open up about his insecurities because Dmitri just kinda listens and doesn’t criticize or mock him and really only adds things like “wow, that really sucks, i’m sorry dude.” and that’s all he really needs

Why You Love Them: he’s hot, he dresses slutty, he’s a master of charm, and yet..... 73 years old and he has not seen a naked woman in real life. also the blushing mechanic i gave him, where instead of blushing, his hair kinda flares up like a ghibli character but with fire..... too cute. also he’s smart. i’m pretty sure intelligence was his highest stat after charisma, at like 16, and i love that for him

ah thank you i always spend so much time on these and i love it lol

#astralwasteland #i closed the tab this was in like halfway through writing it and lost everything #that added a good chunk of time to composition lol #dnd tag

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fablewoven · 5 years

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Kassidy Verse Drabble

“Do you ever wonder if it’s you?”

Of course she wondered if it was her, but when the question was asked by your ex-boyfriend, it was harder to take seriously. Especially when the conversation hadn’t originally involved him. Some days, being friends with her ex was hard...other days it was easy. The friend group had had to adjust to the buildup and the fallout, and so had the two of them, but today was a little harder. It had been easier for Rhys than it had been for Kassidy to warm back up to being friends, but out of the two of them she had been more emotionally invested in their relationship so this question stung a bit.

“I’m going to regret asking but: why do you think it’s me?” Kassidy asked, too curious about his answer to keep her mouth shut.

Giving a little shrug, he looked at her. “Because you have a really bad habit of going after emotionally unavailable men and getting too attached too fast.”

The problem with that answer, was that Kassidy couldn’t even argue that he was wrong. Twice, she’d been in relationships that weren’t defined, and the one that actually had been labeled, had been with Rhys, who was never emotionally available, even during sex. She felt a pang in her chest as she thought about it, still feeling like it was a sore subject. It hurt to admit that the only guy she’d ever slept with wasn’t even that into her, and the guy she actually wanted to sleep with now, wasn’t even sure what it was he wanted.

When she was 16, Aaron, her first boyfriend, hadn’t even really been her boyfriend. He just liked hanging out with her, and holding her hand and leaning his head on her at lunch. Labels weren’t his thing, he just wanted the comfort, but when kissing entered the equation and he still didn’t want to pull the trigger on the relationship, Kassidy walked. A year later, she and her friend Caleb had a similar relationship. By that point she had been ready to finally get to make out and grope a bit like all her friends were doing, but it had for some reason made her feel so guilty, not even being able to call him her boyfriend. He was always busy too, so it was always on his time table, and eventually the guilt won and Kassidy couldn’t do it anymore.

Through all of it, Rhys had been that acquaintance of their good friend, Miles, who introduced them in the first place. At that point, Kassidy was pretty over guys and wanted to focus on her classes and her extra curriculars, and Rhys had a new girl every few months. She convinced herself that he wasn’t her type, but then college happened and she published her first book and something changed. He was nicer to her, and she was too naive to realize it was just to get sex, and he did what the others didn’t: he asked for a label.

“What was your excuse, anyway? Aaron and Caleb were my own fault--I’ve come to terms with that already--but you asked me, remember? Yeah, I moved way too fast with Teddy, and I shouldn’t have jumped the gun like that, but there’s a tiny childish part of me that wants to blame you. You starved me of affectionate intimacy and made me feel like shit, and he gave me all of it before anything even started with whatever we almost were.” Kassidy admitted to him.

Rhys nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I did want to define it. I knew you because we were friends, and I knew that any form of sexual intimacy would be unattainable unless I made a gesture of commitment. High level of douchebaggery, I know, but it’s not like I hated you, Kass. I still care, I just didn’t want the responsibility of catching stronger feelings than mild affection. I liked our banter, and I liked that you were a little jealous of my ex that month before I asked. Men like feeling wanted too, you know? Also, you knew me too, before you agreed to being my girlfriend. You knew I kept people at arm’s length and you still ran headfirst into it thinking I’d change for you, even though we both knew you hated to be that girl. You still became her.”

“Yeah, because the hopeless romantic in me thought that being friends meant you respected me,” Kassidy responded, hearing the resentment in her voice, but he was right: she had become that girl that she hated, that thought she was the exception to his rules. She’d set herself up for this disappointment, and it hurt.

“I did respect you. We only ever had sex on your time table, and the biggest issue you ever had was me not sticking around to cuddle. I barely liked cuddling during movie nights with our friends, but there had to be a compromise,” Rhys reminded her, which only made Kassidy feel that pang return, a lump in her throat forming as well.

Sighing, Kassidy shrugged her shoulders. “Forgive me for thinking at first that something nice would come from losing my virginity to a guy I trusted. You’ve really set the bar, Rhys.”

She could still vividly remember how that night had almost ended things before they had really begun. How he’d acted like he was fine with her nervousness and faked being sweet, because then he’d reacted to her quite negatively when they had to stop when it hurt. The mood got killed, but he toughed it out for her and she thought it would all be fine, until he got off and she didn’t, and he left ten minutes after, leaving her with a mess to clean up, and crying her eyes out for a few hours because she felt vulnerable and inadequate. They barely texted, didn’t see each other for a week after, and then he pretended like the whole mishap hadn’t happened, making her feel the need to bury it deep down and just act like she was perfectly fine until they got a rhythm down and things started being mostly pleasant for her.

A feeling that always got ruined when he would never stay after, and she realized he’d already gotten the ‘prize’ of her virginity and it was just sex for him and nothing more.

“Some guy will come along and make it all better for you, but until then, you’ve gotta stop blaming the rest of us. You’re the one picking these guys to let in that can’t commit 100% to you. You even know it going in, and you still think some miraculous thing is going to change the odds, and it doesn’t. I’m not saying I wasn’t an ass,” Rhys said quickly, Kassidy glaring at him. “I was, okay? I was an ass. I’m only saying that you figure out what you want and who you want it with, and you put blinders on. You act impulsively, and then have a breakdown about it later. You forget: I know you. I know how much time you spent upset after I left sometimes. Yeah, I could have tried to make you feel better, but I figured you were a big enough girl to handle your own feelings. I apologized for the tear I gave you that first time, and I only ever initiated things when you were in the mood for it and sending me the signals. Besides, it wasn’t bad sex--you were just the one who was more emotionally attached to what it meant rather than what it was. I never stayed because I knew it wasn't going to last and I didn't want you to get that deep in it.”

Justifying his actions of being emotionally closed off about something she viewed as so intimate, made her want to punch him in the face, but it also made her sad. Mostly because, he wasn’t wrong...not really. She was an emotional person, who used her writing as an outlet and did go after what she wanted, the consequences be damned, and she was doing it again. Dwelling on something that was beyond her control, pining for something that hadn’t even really become a thing. She’d just latched on and told herself it was something great, and it was really just an ‘almost’ that might never take full hold. Still, it bothered her that he was acting like he'd been cold for her benefit, when it was really to help him justify his crappy behavior.

“It is complete bullshit that you're sitting here right now telling me you were a douchebag so I wouldn't catch feelings. I already had the fucking feelings, Rhys, you just didn't. You needed a reason to not feel guilty that you were using me in between sex buddies, but… at least you’re saying I wasn’t bad in bed,” she decided to say, realizing she really didn’t want to discuss Teddy with him, nor really get into this what happened between them had happened, and she had tried her best to ignore it so they could all be friends again. Not only that, but where Teddy was concerned, it was not her place to explain a thing and she didn't want his opinion on the subject because it didn't matter. “I’ve been lowkey worried I was bad in bed and that’s why you always got dressed so fast.”

Rhys shook his head. “I just don’t like cuddling after, it has nothing to do with your performance. If anything, I just didn't want to risk a chance of feeling any guilt. You’re not the only woman I’ve run out on after the deed was done.”

“I don’t know why that makes me feel better, but it does,” Kassidy admitted, taking a breath and then nodding. “I guess it is me.”

“You’re never gonna find the right guy if you keep the blinders up,” he explained, giving her a little smile. “Just...stop letting guys walk all over you, and stop expecting to get 100% when you know they can only give you less than that. That’s how you end up here, pining over someone that showed interest, but isn’t ready or sure or whatever his problem is. Interest only means so much, and you can’t bank intimacy on it. Now...I wanna do some PVP instead of dwell on feelings. Are you up for it?”

“I’d rather do the Halo Campaign again, but yeah, I’ll honestly do anything else to not have to talk about this with you anymore.”

#c: Kassidy #v: Writer to Be #rhys cransten #headcanon #kassidy things #//i needed to flush out some of her intimacy issues #//and her trust issues #//in a drabble #//because she and rhys are still in the same friend group in every verse #//and their interactions are far from 'normal'#//also teddy mention because he's her main ship on this blog #//and their angst is superb

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grumpyandgorgeous · 7 years

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Today’s the day: it’s Emmy longlist day.

If you have followed me for awhile, you know I always do this; this year I thought I’d link back to my previous write-ups and realized there were eight previous posts for me to link back to. Eight! This is my ninth time doing this. I am just as surprised as you are. Here they all are, if you are interested. And here we go!

We start this year with Voice-Over Performance in animation, and Bojack Horseman breaks in with its first ever nomination, for Kristen Schaal as Sarah Lynn. I would be pleased if she took this--I just like Kristen Schaal--but honestly, this category is an enigma. Some years it seems to be about a celebrity guesting on the Simpsons, sometimes its about a nuanced performance in a long-running animated series, and sometimes it about the breadth instead of the depth by nominating a performance who just does a lot of characters on one show. There's some of all of that this year (if we're counting Kevin Kline's nomination for Bob's Burgers, which we so are). I don't know who will win this.

Likewise, I am not sure of what to root for in Animated Program, as the episode of Archer is just the premiere (which is fine, but not great) and the Bob's Burgers and Simpsons episodes are pretty week. Kind of nice to see Elena of Avalor get a nomination though, right?

I tend to not focus heavily on the casting categories when I haven't seen a majority of the nominees, but the Casting for Limited Series has to go to Big Little Lies, right? Even the children are excellent, just amazing. I'll be offended if this doesn't win. I understand how Fargo could win it... but it shouldn't.

A nice surprise in Choreography--Mandy Moore (not that Mandy Moore) gets nominated twice, but once for Dancing With the Stars, and once for So You Think You Can Dance. I don't think I've seen that before!

Heading back to Big Little Lies, I don't know how much of a chance it has in a lot of the technical categories, but I would be pleased if it saw wins for Cinematography, Contemporary Costumes, Single-Camera Picture Editing... the list goes on. (I think Handmaid's Tale probably has Period/Fantasy Costumes sewn up, ha.) I forget how much I liked the show until I think back on these aspects of it and remember, Oh wait, it was really very good. I would love for this to carry over to Directing too, but I am surprised as how strong The Night Of has come on in the technical categories, not because I doubt its merit, but because it wasn't really the buzziest thing on HBO this year. There must have been some heavy HBO campaigning, because I saw it turn up on a number of critics' lists to expect nominations, but I am still a little surprised.

In lieu of any Queen Sugar nominations, I would be pleased to see Ava DuVernay win a directing award for 13th.

Main Title Design! I was so excited for this and to be honest, the nominees are a little disappointing. The opening for Feud: Bette and Joan was in my mind the frontrunner heading in, and that hasn't changed in the slightest. The problem here is that three of these are the exact same set of titles. I actually quite liked the American Gods theme when I first started watching it, but then I saw the Crown... they're the same title design. So is Stranger Things, but at least it has the benefit of the image that it it focuses on in very tiny amounts on a black background being typography. Honestly, go watch them. These are all the same titles. It's amazing. Westworld's theme is nice, but Bette and Joan's is something special. I hope it wins. (This is possibly the one place I want it to win.)

Did you know Lifetime had mad a movie version of Suite Francaise? I did not either, but it got a nomination for Original Dramatic Score for a limited series or movie.

Original Music and Lyrics is weird. I don't really get the Mickey Mouse short nomination (although you should totally go watch it because there's a real Ren and Stimpy vibe to it which I never would have expected), and I'm not into the Lemonade homage from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, so that leaves us with the songs from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, SNL, and 13th, all of which I think have a reasonable shot. The Crazy Ex-Girlfriend song grows on you as it goes along, but "Last Christmas" and "Letter to the Free" both feel a lot more relevant and political. I could see this one going either way. SNL might win on a wave of SNL wins, but there are a surprising number of technical nominations for 13th that lead me to believe there's some real industry support for the doc and this could win from that. It's an interesting category.

I'm not so good at discussing the intracacies of music, so the Original Main Title Theme Music is a difficult category for me to assess. However, in my opinion anyway, I would rule out the themes to Victoria and The Good Fight right off the bat, and i would through Genius in there too were it not composed by Hans Zimmer, and so for that reason we can't rule it out. Stranger Things I think is the leader here, because it manages to be iconic and retro all at once. The Feud music is also nice, but I am actually very fond of the Westworld music, even if in the key changes it kind of reminds me of the Carnivale theme. (Miss you always, Carnivale.) Still, I think Stranger Things is almost a lock on this one.

Finally, the acting categories.

Lead Actor in a Comedy is basically all the same faces, plus Donald Glover. It's the only one of these shows I watch, and he is wonderful in it, but I feel its more likely he'll be taking awards for his work behind the camera. Jeffrey Tambor could take this again, but with Transparent not taking a series nom for the first time, it might be on its way out. Anthony Anderson then? I thought he would have won this already, to be perfectly honest. Who knows how this will go.

Lead Actor in a Drama is equally mystifying. Several of the actors in this category are overdue--Matthew Rhys, Bob Odenkirk--and some shouldn't be here at all--Liev Schreiber, Kevin Spacey, Milo Ventimiglia--and then we have Anthony Hopkins, who is legendary but maybe not for Westworld, and Sterling K. Brown. This Is Us broke a lot of ground this year, so I would not be shocked by Sterling K. Brown winning, but network dramas are always going to have a hard time going up against the prestige nominees on cable. This is one to watch.

Every time I think Sherlock is the worst its ever been, it wins awards in America, so I think Benedict Cumberbatch is a solid choice to win Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. Should this go to Ewan McGregor for going all Tatiana Maslany? Probably. But honestly i have no stakes in this race. Just not Cumberbatch.

So both the leads of Grace and Frankie got nominations for Lead Actress in a Comedy, which I think means they will cancel each other out. There are a couple familiar names here (I keep waiting for Tracee Ellis Ross' moment but I fear it's not coming), and a new face in Pamela Adlon, which between that and her TCA achievement lead me to think she's a frontrunner here. But... Allison Janney has moved herself up to Lead from Supporting, and it is very hard to place bets against a prior winner, even if it wasn't for this specifically. So who knows? Here's a fun fact though: if Janney wins this category, she will have Emmys for Supporting Actress in a Drama, Lead Actress in a Drama, Guest Actress in a Drama, Supporting Actress in a Comedy, and Lead Actress in a Comedy. All she'll have left is a Guest Comedy Actress and the Limited Series awards! I don't know if this will be some kind of a record for sheer breadth of acting categories, but it would be fun for someone to find out.

But hey, can we talk about how for yet another year, there's nothing for Catherine O'Hara killing it on Schitt's Creek? Seriously, she is just straight-up nailing it on a weekly basis. David and Alexis are the heart of the show--and a good amount of the humor, yes--but Moira is just an eccentric actress delight. Robbed yet again. And if not Catherine O'Hara, why not her SCTV co-star Andrea Martin, so much fun all decked out in Chico's looks on Great News? She's the best part of the show, and I'd much rather see them here than Grace and Frankie.

Lead Actress in a Drama--I've heard zero buzz for How to Get Away With Murder this year, but she was a previous winner, and there is some recenty history of repeat winners in this category. I thought the Americans was going to win some acting trophies last year, but nothing came of it... and I wouldn't put it past the Television Academy to give an award to a show just as the critics have said it had a weaker season. So who knows, if the episode really sells Keri Russell, or Matthew Rhys back in Lead Actor, I could see it. The same goes for the perennially-nominated Robin Wright. My heart wants to give this to Elisabeth Moss though. This is Hulu's breakthrough year so this could be the winner.

Ooooooooooooof, the category that has been the heaviest now for two straight years. I have seen a LOT of awards prognosticators say this is Jessica Lange's, which shocked me, because I would have absolutely said it is Nicole Kidman's, because she was breathtaking, and Feud was only OK. But the problem here is that Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon could split the Feud vote, and Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon could split the Big Little Lies vote, and then where are we? Felicity Huffman for American Crime, or Carrie Coon for Fargo. I wouldn't mind either of these, necessarily--all the women nominated here are very talented--but this is a Big Little Lies award if there is any justice in this world. And Nicole Kidman, unlike Julia Roberts when she got that Normal Heart nom a few years ago, is not so snobby as to talk down about the Emmys while she's at the damn Emmys, so she's definitely a winner that TV could get behind even though she's primarily a film actress. I mean god, she went to the Stanley Cup playoffs and wore a jersey and everything. SHE'S OF THE PEOPLE NOW. Give this to Nicole, please.

Also, many apologies to Lauren Graham, totally shut out for the Gilmore Girls revival. One day you'll get something, Lorelei.

Supporting Actor in a Comedy is so many repeat nominees and winners, but if Alec Baldwin doesn't win this, it will be an actual honest to goodness upset. Who else has a chance? It doesn't matter if you don't like the Trump impression (which I don't, for the record). It was the buzziest comedy performance of the year. The president got angry about all of it. He's gonna win.

I don't know anything about Supporting Actor in a Drama except that I have been rooting for Jonathan Banks for like, many years now, on two different shows, so I would be very happy to see him win.

Supporting Actor in a Limited Series... I haven't seen The Night Of. I kind of figure it's going to go to The Night Of. But Alexander Skarsgard is very good at being very awful and having two faces? It feels almost cruel to reward him for being a good abusive husband but he's a very good abusive husband. I also enjoyed Alfred Molina's performance in Feud, so who knows where this is going.

As much as it pains me to say it, I think Anna Chlumsky has fallen out of her possible winning window for Veep, so I don't think it is ever going to happen at this point. But there rest of the faces for Supporting Actress in a Comedy are good ones. I think you have to give it to Kate McKinnon for just wearing so many hats this year, but I love Kathryn Hahn in absolutely everything she does, and Leslie Jones feels just as deserving as any cast member of SNL. And while I am not a huge Vanessa Bayer fan, I'd be happy for her to win just for that damn Totino's ad. No bad wins here.

Uzo Aduba hasn't won for Supporting Actress since Orange is the New Black switched to drama, right? I don't know if any women of the Handmaid's Tale are going to break through this one when they don't have quite the role recognition here as the other nominees. Millie Bobby Brown could win, as crazy as that sounds, considering that the cast won the SAG. Chrissy Metz is the name I am seeing from a lot of prognosticators. And Thandie Newton--well, how can you root against Thandie Newton. I'm going to give this to Millie Bobby Brown for now, but I am keeping my eyes on Chrissy Metz.

Regina King has now won the Emmy for Supporting Actress in a Limited Series for two years running, and I am not about to root against her for a third trophy, even if this year was the least buzzed about season of American Crime, and it was subsequently canceled. She's going to have strong competition--watch out for Laura Dern, I think--but she's had strong competition before. I liked Jackie Hoffman a lot in Feud, but i don't really think either of the Feud roles really hold a candle to the rest of the nominees here. Could be interesting on Emmy night but, once again, I am rooting for Regina King.

There is something a little insulting about the only nominees for a show called Girls being random male guest stars, right? A little bit? No offense to Riz Ahmed or anything. I don't love Girls by any measure, but it's a little weird. I would give this one to Tom Hanks because of David S Pumpkins but hey, who knows how these things work anymore. I certainly don't. Guest Actor in a Comedy--some host of SNL, a guy on Girls, or Hugh Laurie on Veep. I think Dave Chappelle killed his chances when he said to give Trump a chance, but it was a big deal for him to be on SNL, so I wouldn't necessarily discount that. If I had to nominate an SNL host here though, it really should have been Chris Pine. Boy was totally ignored.

I think Carrie Fisher has the sentimental vote for Guest Actress in a Comedy, but Melissa McCarthy honestly was much better as Sean Spicer than Alec Baldwin ever was as Trump. The thing working against her is she submitted her own episode, and it was arguably her weakest appearance.

Honestly, the best thing for the guest categories is Nightcap, the underseen heir to 30 Rock on Pop!, the channel that replaced the TV Guide Channel. Ali Wentworth knows a lot of people and they all seem game to come on and skewer their image in the most embarrassing way possible. There were a number of standouts in season one, but Gwyneth Paltrow as a kleptomaniac who doesn't eat "that goop shit" and who apparently goes around negotiating guys down to handjobs from blowjobs was my personal favorite, but really so many celebs were great. Debra Messing also should be really gunning for a nomination for this for next year with the episode that just aired this week. idk, I'm a fan.

I'm all in for Alexis Bledel for Handmaid's Tale as I frequently hear that she's a person's favorite part, but I don't know if that's likely. Ann Dowd is here after being a nominee in supporting actressi in a limited series, so maybe she has a real shot at one of them. And you can't rule out Barb, because the academy is just as dumb as the rest of America for nominating an extremely minor character who barely appears for an Emmy.

I know Ben Schwartz already has an Emmy that he shares with Dan Harmon for writing that "Recession Oscars" opening theme where Hugh Jackman said he hadn't seen the Reader , but if he can win outright for the Earliest Show, I am fine with that. Same for Lauren Lapkus, easily the highlight of Pete Holmes' Crashing, which is pretty weak overall.

I can't be the only one rooting for Martha and Snoop for reality hosts for their dinner party show, right?

Outstanding Comedy Series: the same old names, plus Atlanta. I'll root for Atlanta or black-ish. Veep had a very weak year and Silicon Valley was dreadful. This category needs some refreshment.

Outstanding Drama Series went the opposite direction: two repeat nominees in Better Call Saul and House of Cards, but five new faces in first season shows The Crown, Handmaid's Tale, Stranger Things, This is Us, and Westworld. Again, the SAG for best cast went to Stranger Things, so I would not be surprised at it coming through here too, even though it is not at all the type of drama the Emmys typically go for. I would think it comes down to Stranger Things or This Is Us, both of which got heavily nominated all over, but especially in acting.

Fargo did better in nominations than I think anyone expected it to, so it can't be entirely ruled out for Outstanding Limited Series. I want this to be for Big Little Lies, but female-centric domestic series don't have a good history here--I think this show was excellent in all facets, but its recognition really came down to the fact it has movie stars in it and a high-profile team behind it. I don't know if that's going to carry over to a win here, even if it absolutely should. The Night Of has done very well in nominations, and the subject matter is far more up the Television Academy's alley. Also, this category tends to be a good one for Ryan Murphy, so a Feud win isn't out of the quetion either. I am hoping level-headedness prevails and we get a Big Little Lies win. But I also know exactly why that won't happen.

Outstanding Television Movie will probably go to Sherlock because it wins at its worst, but I think it's very promising that Black Mirror got nominated here for San Junipero, the one episode everyone loved this year. The lack of nominations overall for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, despite the attachment to Oprah's name, does not bode well for it. The Wizard of Lies has a healthy little group of nominations and this is Weighty Serious Stuff which the voters tend to go for, so that's my dark horse here.

A number of the nominees in Variety Talk had kind of breakthrough moments in the era of Trump. John Oliver won this last year and were it not for all these Trump-reactions, I'd give him an easy repeat. And that could still happen! He could be the new Daily Show. The voters are notoriously lazy--after all, we saw Modern Family get nominated again this year for Best Comedy and it is 2017. If I had to tip it away from him though, I would say this is Stephen Colbert's or Jimmy Kimmel's to lose. Jimmy got nominated elsewhere and made headlines for the stuff with his son; Colbert really turned it around and put Jimmy Fallon out of contention in both nominations and the ratings and that could be rewarded. I'll be interested to see where this goes.

Best Friends Whenever, also known as My Beloved Show About the Gay Teens, was never going to get a kid's programming nomination, but why did Girl Meets World get one for its worst season? Ughhhhhhhhhhhh.

I said several years ago we need a teen category for the MTV shows and Degrassi, and I still believe that. Several years ago they consolidated the informational children's into the scripted kid's stuff and that was a mistake--we should have like three or four kids categories, not one. If I ever get to be on the board, I will be address this, you better believe me. There are children who can vote, I am sure, and I want their opinions.

Very happy Leah Remini's Scientology show got a nomination for Outstanding Informational Series or Special. Good for Leah Remini.

BIG DEAL ALERT: in this year of Chip and Joanna Gaines being EVERYWHERE, will Fixer Upper win the Emmy for Structured Reality? I think they might. This would be huge for HGTV. And yet another puzzle piece in the Gaines world domination plan. I wouldn't necessarily mind that, but I don't want to live in Texas, and I don't want my furniture to have chipped paint on it, so maybe I do mind actually.

I think Born This Way is likely the lock for Unstructured Reality, but I wasn't even aware Gaycation had aired a second season to make it eligible and... I should give it another chance, probably. But why is this getting nominated when States of Undress is also on Viceland and it is fantastic? I know, I should shut up about States of Undress, but it's just so goddamn thoughtful. Even if Hailey Gates doesn't always get it quite right in her ending narration, I think there is something about her that makes the show so much more compelling than Gaycation. I think it goes to more interesting places--not on the map, but just with what it chooses to explore. I'm always enchanted by it, I always learn something. I just want it to have a million seasons forever.

oh my god am I almost finished please

Writing in a Comedy! This is a definite toss-up between "B.A.N." and "Streets on Lock" from Atlanta. I could see "B.A.N." winning just because of the sheer variety of what composes the episode, and because Donald Glover wrote it and the Emmys like to reward the mastermind of the series here. But I think "Streets on Lock" is actually the stronger episode, so Stephen Glover could get a win here. I don't think Silicon Valley or Veep have a shot, and Aziz won last year, and this category (unless you're a 30 Rock who stays around forever) likes to inject fresh blood. So this is an Atlanta win, but the episode has yet to be determined.

(Though if Veep DOES win the comedy writing, it'll have to be for Georgia, which is the most heartbreakingly painful episode of the season, and also the best one.)

I genuinely don't know where Drama Writing is headed. Stranger Things? Let's guess Strangers Things.

I can't believe I'm rooting for David E Kelley but--Big Little Lies for Limited Series writing, please! Please. Charlie Brooker has a nom here for San Junipero again, and that would be a pleasing result as well. And I even like the Oscars episode of Feud, but I think that would be a better win for direction than writing (was it even nominated for direction? I'm not going back to look now). Fargo, again. The Night Of, again. This could be a really good night for The Night Of, I'm thinking.

Seth Meyers gets his first Emmy nomination for Late Night in Variety Series Writing. (Sidenote: Vox wrote a thing about snubs and said he got no noms, which I tweeted them about, and then got a "we'll make it more clear." Which they then changed from "Seth Meyers--HOW DID IT GET ZERO, it needs to be recognized, it's so good, blah blah blah, why hasn't it made a breakthrough" to "SETH MEYERS--ONLY ONE?" which is not making it clearer, it's re-writing it, it changes your original point even when you don't change the text. I know people make mistakes but if you are a tv critic, and it's Emmy nominations day... read the longlist! Please! This is like when, oof what was it, Vanity Fair? I forget. But I think Vanity Fair--no, it was Harpers Bazaar--did an Emmys write-up and totally made up history by saying "oh, remember when Fargo controversially beat True Detective for best miniseries a few years ago" when THEY WEREN'T EVEN IN THE SAME CATEGORY. OK, these aren't the same, but I just get annoyed by things that can be very easily cleared up.) I think this is going to Colbert, Oliver, or SNL though. Probably SNL unless we're just staying in the John Oliver lane, or rewarding Colbert for overcoming Jimmy Fallon. (I realize I talk about Jimmy Fallon like he's a dragon, but I really don't like him.)

Now Variety Special Writing--here's where Samantha Bee has a very good chance with her Not the White House Correspondents Dinner.

And that's it! I did it! Like four hours... but I did it. And we'll be back next year, guys! My tenth edition then! But before that, we'll have Emmy night. :) Thanks for reading!

#emmys #no one's gonna read this lets be real alex

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onpassive-blog · 6 years

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OnPassive Honest Full Review 2019

Hey everybody how you doing this morning it’s Scott Nelson here and I am absolutely thrilled just to take a few minutes this morning I’m going to try to keep this as brief as possible but I just wanted to get with all of you who are thinking about getting started you’ve been requesting information about OnPassive and and when it’s actually going to be going live and what makes fun passive so powerful and really most importantly why are literally thousands almost 14,000 online marketers all around the globe have joined on passive and the really interesting thing is is that it has never been advertised were very restrictive as founding members of OnPassive as to what we can do and what we can post we we never had a website and there has not been a website for OnPassive and really the only way over the last five or six months that anybody even knew about OnPassive was by being privately invited by individuals by word-of-mouth to watch two videos that were recorded back about five six months ago by the founder and basically it was just real real vague amount of information because you doesn’t remember when Ash and his team were starting the idea of OnPassive at that particular time there wasn’t even a name that was publicly released so no website and no name and you gotta wonder why are thousands of people.

I think we’re probably seeing close to a thousand people now joining every week probably four or five thousand and once again we haven’t even launched we do have about a month and a half two months ago a website that is available for the people that are active and paid founding members and that is a site where we get all of our updates from the leadership of the company in the owner and CEO and it is really gonna be a very exciting time as I believe the future is truly unlimited with OnPassive now let’s just immediately address right up front I do not work for OnPassive I am a founding member I joined because I have been a full time work from home business entrepreneur for most of the last 45 years and I have been full time working for myself from home for about 26 years now so I’ve seen companies come and go I understand the industry I’ve owned small companies I’ve been CEOs I have gone around the u.s.

And I have spoken and teach tanned trained people in how to generate income from home I’m a seven figure earner over the last 15 years really just really got involved and really had my first big success about 15 years ago and it has been a marvelous career for me and the purpose of just in really in wanting to encourage people that are watching this is to take the step and join OnPassive now you can join right now as a founding member that that opportunity is gonna go away probably in the next few days the next few weeks nobody knows for sure but I kind of sensing by listening to our updates that are done usually on a weekly basis that we are going to be launching what we call our founders advertising campaign which is basically going to allow you if you can get in take immediate action to participate and actually potentially see people that are registering as founding members and based on your positioning when you join obviously there is a good likelihood that you could actually see some people sign up as founders and actually be placed below you so that when we go live with OnPassive obviously you’re gonna be getting paid right away even though you don’t know the people and you didn’t do anything to recruit them how this is going to be made possible is because of the exclusive database that on passive actually owns that’s right we work with I believe it’s four or five of the largest data providers these are people that give data of names and phone numbers and email addresses of some of the top marketers online marketers network marketers affiliate marketers all around the globe and this database is in excess well in excess of I believe four million right now that we own exclusively with OnPassive and about 10% of those about four hundred and twenty thousand people on that list will very soon in the coming days ahead receive an invitation to come to our what we call our Go founders website and there they will be able to register as a founding member and grab their position even before we go into our beta testing with our OnPassive website.

So this is a very very exciting time and if you’ve always dreamt of being involved at the very beginning do not be fooled I know that we’re coming up on about 14,000 founders but I believe that between founders and members of OnPassive in the coming year – we could literally see millions millions of people globally that will be joining OnPassive and guess what because this is a hundred percent hands-free opportunity you are going to be able to take advantage of the massive momentum remember momentum happens after a company is in business normally anywhere between six months and two years and that is when the company just literally explodes in growth I’ve seen companies that I have been with that have gone from two thousand to twenty thousand during momentum in a matter of couple of weeks so this is going to be such an exciting opportunity and a fantastic online marketing platform that is going to be offered with OnPassive .

So I think you can start to get the idea why there are literally thousands of people joining every month as founders even before OnPassive goes live so let’s just look at a few of the bullet points and let me try to take this very quickly so I don’t keep you long because I know that most of you are wanting to get involved it’s just a matter of going to the website link that is given to you by the person that shared this little video with you and you can get signed up right away at least while there is time because once the campaign is ready to go and that seems like it’s just a few days maybe a few weeks away today being the 13th of February 2019 I would be released Rhys I don’t know for sure but I would be really surprised at the campaign will not be running by the 1st of March that’s my own humble opinion and everybody knows opinions aren’t worth anything so please don’t quote me as saying hey he told me no that’s what I think but I think I’m pretty accurate ok so why should you I mean if you have a network marketing business that you’re promoting right now maybe you have two or three or maybe you’re involved in a cryptocurrency opportunity maybe you are an affiliate marketer maybe you have private label nutritional products maybe you’re selling over on Amazon maybe you have a skill set that you want to promote yourself as a teacher or a trainer or maybe you are a philly –it with a company network marketing online does it make any difference this platform that is being developed in its in its finishing stages at this point in time will literally sell solve all of the problems all of the problems that current online marketers network marketers affiliate marketers and more have this is a platform that is going to give you and me and all people that are working online or a network marketing or direct selling a hundred percent success rate it’s it is a hundred percent fully automated ok can you imagine hands-free automated traffic generator.

There are gonna be a lot of marketing tools I can’t even tell you because we haven’t even seen the finished product yet but I do know in talking with the owner and leaders just what he and his team are doing behind the curtain right now everything is being very much hush-hush because believe me there would be a lot of people out there and programmers online that would love to have a little peek behind the curtain right now to find out what’s going on so can just for imagine a minute just imagine what’s your greatest problem if you’re working online most of the people that are watching this are online marketers or net workers right is you don’t have people that are buying your products that are even getting to your website that’s because you don’t have people that you know you may not have a marketing list like I do I mean I have a list of about 5,000 people because I started building it about 15 years ago and most of you 99% don’t have a real good warm market there’s really maybe not even such a thing as a warm market friends-and-family usually aren’t very good with OnPassive everybody wins and so you can even register anybody in your family your friends your neighbors anybody 18 years and older that lives in the US and around the world can can get signed up and because it’s fully automated that means you just don’t have to do much so everybody is gonna be given a go founders when you become a founding active paid founder before we launch you’ll be given a go founders website that will be yours for life and then of course our marketing platform OnPassive will launch here very very soon so you will actually have as part of your monthly membership you’re gonna actually have fully targeted incredibly powerful it belongs to you nobody else will have it it won’t be old traffic it won’t be lead generation companies selling lists like they do right now for thousands of dollars and they’ve been sold to a thousand other people the data that we get sent through our automated traffic generation platform from our databases these are exclusive relationships with the largest data companies in the world will send traffic targeted traffic not people looking for free vacations or free giveaways and and drawings to enter a thousand dollar gift certificate no these are real people that are working currently in network marketing direct marketing online marketing you name it.

That are truly professionals and the greatest need for any marketer period is visitors so that’s also another name for traffic ok this system is so powerful that it will recruit and sell for you that’s right you heard me correctly turn it on pay your monthly membership we have four different levels that you can choose from three of the four include traffic daily not monthly not quarterly no these people will be directed to your website where they can register for free try it out for seven days and if they like it they can upgrade and become an affiliate for as little as $25 and that this is a one-time out-of-pocket because it is a very unique self-perpetuating compensation plan that will earn you and then as you earn commissions you will actually progress through a series of 4 3 by 10 matrixes producing unlimited and fully automated hands-free income for you and your team for the rest of your lives that’s right you know this is what is so exciting but if I was just talking about income and I really didn’t focus on the actual benefit of the traffic that course that’s huge and that is probably the most valuable part of OnPassive and the monthly membership but now think about marketing tools ok videos autoresponders unlimited sales pages artificial intelligence state-of-the-art proprietary if you don’t know what proprietary means it means they’re built by our team that’s right they’re built by our engineers our software developers the very best in the world we have I think a team of customer service engineers software people that is nearing over 200 right now and we haven’t even launched OnPassive but they work all around the globe they workin Asia they workin Europe they workin China they workin the United States you name it.

We work24/7 around-the-clock because we’re constantly building and refining these proprietary state-of-the-art marketing tools and platform that’s built for you and I and it uses artificial intelligence that will completely blow you away but when I looked at this and I talked to ash our owner and our CEO of this platform here’s the thing you have to understand no one has these tools nobody ever will have these because we own all of our software and all of our back office we don’t we don’t just go out and rent marketing platforms like every other company does they go out and they they buy a go into an agreement they buy a let’s say autoresponder that does follow-up and they pay $50,000 to a company then they charge you $29 a month for that and then you get a video software platform that they pay $50,000 and if you want that that’s gonna be another $29 but before you know you got a hundred two hundred three hundred dollars a month just in pain for copycat marketing tools and advertising platforms believe me I know I’ve used them I paid for them I have a company right now that I’ve been with for about a year and I paid $30 for a autoresponder follow-up system 30 bucks a month that’s almost $400 a year for one tool now keep in mind with these propriety market proprietary marketing tools these are going to be included in the monthly membership and you’re gonna get all of them at that particular level and as you go to the higher levels that produce much more income potential you’re gonna have even more specific and upgraded marketing Suites of tools that will be included at each level of membership with on passive okay so think about the advantages nobody has them and they’re all included in the monthly membership app depending on what level you want and how many more you need okay and once again people ask well do I need to have a business or can I earn with OnPassive or what if I don’t have a business or I’ve got three different businesses I sell on Amazon I have a white label product I’m in a network marketing business this is an amazing platform because you can use the tools the training and everything to promote any and all online businesses so if you’re a network marketer affiliate marketer any type of marketing you can use this for and new tools will be developed so we can even approach people that want to promote their traditional businesses maybe a real estate agent or you know an insurance agent things like that so all of these things are available and coming very very soon so the final thing is um then the most common question I get you may say well I don’t have a businessI’m not a network marketer I’m not selling anything but I’d love to be able to have an opportunity to generate income from home by simply telling people about on passive of course the greatest need for the 8% that’s failing in their home-based businesses is exactly what we are offering with OnPassive .

When we go live everybody in any network marketing company the ones that you know that 98 99 percent that aren’t making it any money whatsoever we’re here and we solved all of the problems and that’s really why thousands of people are already joining us as founding members when nobody knows about us yet I mean we could go live in two or three weeks or a month and we could be at 20 to 30 thousand founding members before we even go live to the world and in talking the other day to some people I was asking a group of people what they thought based on what they’re hearing we could grow to and they all believed we could we can see somewhere between one and five million over the next year or two that will be members of OnPassive so for those of you that understand what I call first mover’s advantage my goodness gracious is this exciting okay so yes to answer that last little bullet point you don’t have to worry you don’t have to worry you don’t have a business I have put out a video and you can certainly get it if you want I sent it to most of you but it goes through a little bit about the simple but the most powerful compensation program that I have seen in my 40 almost 45 years of working from home that is self perpetuating that just means that I can start for $25 out of pocket and never have to reach into my wallet again because I can just let the system work for me and build income and it will basically promote me in to the higher level matrixes that will enhance my earnings by you know a thousand percent so you don’t have to worry when you start if you like what you see sign up for free take a look if it makes good sense to you when you take a look you got a seven day free trial and then let it earn for you plug it in get yourself active you can join as many of the matrixes as you want if you want to prepay I think it’s very wise but but you don’t have to start for twenty-five bucks and and use the tools I recommend getting some traffic if you are not at the second third and fourth matrix yet then we have traffic that will be available that you can purchase or better yet once you reach the second matrix level membership and the third and the fourth you’ll have thousands and thousands of visitors each and every year that are coming to your website and registering and you’re gonna get paid on every one that becomes an affiliate.

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#onpassive #gofounder #imonpassive #getpaidto #mlm #homebusiness #onlinemarketing #marketing #recruiting #localbusiness #getpaidtoday

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entergamingxp · 5 years

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Half-Life: Alyx review – a legend returns in elegant form • Eurogamer.net

The Strider is the greatest of all Half-Life’s creations, if you ask me. Sure, you could argue that it’s just another spin on HG Wells’ tripods, but seriously, look at the thing! Those legs, so horribly long and horribly jointed, that hideous hint of poultry flesh and machinery spliced together, all pain and wrongness. In Half-Life 2, I watched one of this awful lot stoop to duck under a bridge, and the thing about the Strider is that it never reminds you of just one thing, always a horrible bodging-together – almost a flamingo as its joints worked, yet almost grandparent nipping up into the attic for something heavy too. An internal life: that sense of self-preservation and cruel intelligence they have, of seeing only their own priorities. That sense of being autonomous in the moment, but also deeply mission-driven. They give me goose-bumps because it’s so entirely clear that they can probably get goose-bumps themselves.

Half-Life: Alyx review

Developer: Valve

Publisher: Valve

Platform: Reviewed on PC with Index

Availability: Out 23 March on PC

I had been waiting for this moment, then. Half-Life: Alyx, set five years before the events of Half-Life 2 and delivered sixteen years – is that possible? – since Half-Life 2 and thirteen years since Episode Two, the last installment. (How we had talked at the time about that gap between the first two Episodes. We had no idea.) Suddenly, City 17 lies before me once more. I am on a rooftop somewhere: Alyx Vance, 19-year-old daughter of Eli Vance, on reconnaissance for the resistance.

The metropolis is a mess of alien cables, black and heavy, draped thoughtlessly and sagging over honey-coloured European architecture with its weary finials and tiles and crenelations. It’s VR, so a moment or two to look at the creamy skybox dithering into distant mist, then another moment to delight in a nearby radio, fiercely analogue tech, that can be picked up and heaved around, the dials turning and moving a little marker along the display, an aerial that properly extends and everything.

Behind me, inside a little conservatory, there is a video call from Dad, and more importantly there’s a range of felt pens that have been used on the dirty glass to map Combine movements, but which can also be used to – what? – do anything really. Graffiti, Killroys, my daughter’s name in my own instantly recognisable handwriting, somehow captured inside a video game space. I’m on the move, so I heave back a hidden door and explore a few dingy Winston Smith bedsit rooms. Then out again onto a different ledge and, do tell me, what in the world is that sound?

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That sound is a strider, horribly large and horribly close, heaving its carcass body up the side of a building, stepping where it wants because the crumbling world of human things is not really a concern for an alien invader. It stops. Has it seen me? I stare up – because it’s VR, I’m actually staring up – at this awful, wretched thing that I have always loved, and which is now here more fully than ever before, its knotty joints bolstered with servo-motors and shards of the Combine’s black-slate tech. It hasn’t seen me. It doesn’t care. It turns and unplugs a clump of cables from a nearby building – the human world is its junction box – and then it’s off into the distance. And yes! I had been waiting for this moment. And this moment did not let me down.

Not my only encounter with a strider in Half-Life: Alyx, but I’ll honestly try to spoil little more than that. What I should say is that for the last few days I have been a bit of a strider myself, strangely focused on a private agenda, strangely blind to the finer details of the human landscape around me, as I have navigated City 17 with a VR headset covering my eyes – two worlds, one laid over the other. All this, as I’ve taken on headcrabs and Combine troopers and all the rest, all this as I have puzzled and rewired and upgraded – while simultaneously bodging around my own PC set up by my desk. House cats and scarves dumped on the backs of chairs startled me when I brushed against them at the wrong moments – generally moments involving headcrabs. My daughter, moving a doll’s house behind me one afternoon, almost finished me off in a boss fight when we bumped together. “When you’re behind me, tell me you’re behind me!” I said. Five minutes later, when I was deep in the horror of the underground somewhere, she obliged, having snuck up close before announcing, “I’M BEHIND YOU, DADDY.”

In other words, Half-Life was always going to work in VR. But what’s fascinating is how it works. If you’re expecting an explosion of let’s-try-anthing creativity a la Boneworks, a game in which every conceivable kind of physics interaction is gleefully gimmicked together as you tumble through its wonderfully scrappy campaign, you’re going to be a bit disappointed. Half-Life would rather focus its ambitions – and in turn rein-in the scope of what you can do – than risk breaking the illusion or frustrating the player. Something is lost in that decision, certainly. It’s Alyx’s way or the highway. But a lot is gained too.

As a result, Alyx is marked by restraint. Which is to say, I think, that it understands that VR itself is still such a continuous gimmick for many people that it can play things straight, paring the Half-Life concept back closer than ever before. Yes, it has radios to play with and the inevitable VR piano to prod out a Goldberg Variation on, but it’s not one of those VR games that serves as the equivalent of those early 3D movies where people were forever throwing knives at the screen. Most of the time, it uses VR to steadily put you deeper and deeper into the fabric of this grimy, flaking Victory Gin world.

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This is a simple story, direct yet consequential, studded with wonderful set-pieces, most of which are pitched towards a sort of sci-fi-tinged survival horror: you, a gun, ammo scavenging and them lurking all around as you slowly inch towards your next destination. VR is used to continue the Half-Life ambition, begun with that tram-ride back at Black Mesa and extended via the Gravity Gun and the magnifying glasses and the facial animation tech of Half-Life 2 to truly embed players in its reality. Cats, children, scarves and bookcases aren’t just victims of this approach. They feel like an important part of it.

The basics are straightforward. All I’m going to tell you of the plot is that you’re trying to meet up with your dad and figure out what big strange thing the Combine’s currently so excited about. Events zip along quite briskly and objectives are always clear. If there’s a problem, it’s that the game is hemmed in a little, in terms of narrative, because it so clearly has one specific job to do.

The controls are as clear-headed as the narrative. Playing room-scale or simply standing with a more confined space, you can choose one of four movement options, two of which work brilliantly as teleport jobs while the other two offer continuous movement guided by either the hand or the head and seemed to me pretty clumsy and nausea-inducing. Whatever movement you choose, one hand generally holds a weapon or gadget – switching them is as easy as pressing a button and waving your arm up and down – while the other is always free for interacting with the environment, opening doors, grabbing ammo clips from your backpack and ramming them home, priming grenades before lobbing them.

Both hands wear gravity-gloves, a cobbled-together precursor of the gravity gun. They’re beautiful things. Hold your hands up and it’s like some addled genius has built mittens for your out of diodes and Technical Lego, while little displays show you your health and ammo levels. These things are not for pulling sawblades out of walls and firing them into crowds of zombies, though. They’re precision affairs, a little flick of the wrist yanking a highlighted object out of the environment and bringing it into your hand with a neat little slap.

The gloves have been created by a new character, Russell, played by Rhys Darby, who despite being cast as a genius, stays wonderfully close to Murray, the dim and easily bruised band manager from Flight of the Conchords. Because Alyx also speaks – a performance from Ozioma Akhaga that is forever revealing different facets of personality, while being wonderfully alive to graveyard wit – the game is essentially a two-hander, Alyx out in the world while Russell monitors her progress from a distance, cowardly, prideful, tender and quirky by turns. I love this combination. Beyond anything else, following up the biggest video game in the world with a Rhys Darby simulator is a total power move.

The texture of the game these two travel through is relentlessly – and gloriously – practical, pragmatic and down-to-earth. This is a game about navigating space and killing everything you meet, but it’s all so carefully wrought. A nervous skittering on the soundtrack is ultimately the buzzing of an old fluorescent light tube. Puzzles are made of gravity, stacked boxes, and wood used to prop open windows. These challenges can be maddeningly clever, but Newton always keeps them honest at the same time. Elsewhere, a vaguely celestial sounding clue in the main plot turns out to have a very mundane solution, while car posters you pass on the remains of the subway show boxy Soviet saloons accompanied by ad-talk that’s even more oppressive than usual: Reality Defined. This is science-fiction with both feet on the ground.

This works because the interaction, enlivened by VR, is tangible and playful. It elevates everything, from wiring puzzles – a real theme of this game, using both a gadget that allows you to see electricity flowing through gates inside the walls, and a bit of good-old-fashioned cable-following – to hunting for ammo and other supplies, including the worm-eaten hockey pucks of grey stuff you use as currency in the machines that allow you to upgrade your weapons.

Weapons are real presences because of VR. It’s not just that you have to change clips and pull that slidey thing at the top of the pistol before you can shoot the zombie that’s already groaning towards you. It’s that they have a complex, weighty, rattly presence in your hand. You can sense these guns are each one thing made from many smaller things working together. Valve has always been good with this stuff, and the upgradable weapons of Alyx are very special. From that pistol and a shotgun to something a little more exotic, they’re filled with character and a sense of power, even before you start adding laser sites and bigger clips.

Gun management as well as gunplay, wiring puzzles as well as hacking challenges, traversal with physics hurdles so nicely weighted that you can predict the outcomes in your head: all of the various aspects of Alyx appear simple, but they all work together to bed you deeper and deeper into the game until you reach the point where, if you’re like me, you’re talking back to Russell out loud as you catch up after each fight.

Oh man, but never forget: at the very center of it is all is those incredible gloves. The gravity gun has always had a habit of working its ways into other games for me. Not directly, of course. It’s just that I’ll be playing Gears of War and I’ll see a grand piano or a panel truck and think: I wish I could just lob that somewhere. The gravity gloves have already gone beyond that. They have a habit of getting into my head. I’ll be lying on the sofa and thinking: I wish I could just flick that book from the other side of the room into my hand. At the front door I’ll wish I could turn around and grab my keys from the stairs. The things I could do with Jaffa Cakes, mate.

The gloves are a less ostentatious kind of magic than that offered in Half-Life 2 – again, you won’t be chucking a car at anyone with them – but in some ways they’re a more startling kind of magic. I was half an hour in and pausing mid-reload to pull an interesting bit of set design off a distant shelf and inspect it. The levels are filled with bits and pieces to pick up and examine: cutlery, pipes, video cassettes. Chuck in the reloading and this is stuff you can get good at – you can master it until you’re fighting through the apocalypse and foppishly checking out the detailing at the same time. Half-Life has always sought to startle, which is probably why the last instalment came out in 2007. The right material, the right opportunities, take time to present itself.

What detailing that lost decade or so has allowed for! This is a game that has been allowed to percolate. City 17, strangely noble in its ravaged state, a faded relic being steadily eaten by alien technology, is still one of the great locations in video games, even if you tend to just see bombed out apartment buildings, train yards and subway stations for a lot of the campaign. But the greatest details this time around are the Combine tech, which has never been so monolithically grim. Outside it’s grey sheeting and stark angles: designs that could give you a nasty cut. Inside, though, it’s often big chunks of offal instead of circuitry, as if Darth Vader had teamed up with Fergus Henderson, the man behind the nose-to-tail eating movement. Health stations, pretty much unchanged from the first game, are so much more visibly present in VR. You inspect the squealing white worm that is squished to make the lurid Mountain Dew healing substances, and then you have to pull down a plate and rest your hand on it, enjoying the dancing jabs of a dozen little syringes while you scan the surroundings for oncoming threats.

All of this stuff comes together with wonderful set-pieces. Due to the exhausting nature of VR combat, massive pile-ons like Nova Propsekt are out of the question, ditto the open-world ram-raiding of the White Forest. Instead, troops are dropped in surgically – their strangled tannoy barking giving you a moment to panic and hunt for ammo and hopefully come up with a plan. As for the bestiary there’s a shocking new enemy who I won’t spoil, but even the old guard return and bring a vivid kind of enhanced fear with them. I had dreaded VR headcrabs, and then the game not only introduces them but immediately loses the first one in some pipework. That was a nice two minutes. (I regret to inform you that there’s a new kind of headcrab now too, even if its design can’t quite match the queasy supermarket horror of the original.) Elsewhere it feels like a testament to the brilliance of the original creature design on this series that you feel dread rather than nostalgia whenever one of the classics turns up again. Or maybe it’s another sign of the sheer weight of immersion Alyx can conjure: there’s a real sense of apprehension when the game leads you out of the light and back underground for a spell. You live in these spaces while you move through them.

There are ingenious set-pieces, increasingly piling up towards the end of the campaign, but I’m so struck through by the sheer thrift of a lot of it. It’s that restraint again: make the VR work, get a handful of killer things out of it, and then repeat and remix without breaking the spell. There are Hollywood moments that will stick with me, but I also remember being in a room filled with oil drums while a tank of explosive gas was being winched up towards the mouth of one of those horrible limpet things that sit on the ceiling. That’s the kind of clock Valve likes to put in a scene to add suspense. Hitchcock would be proud: you can see all the moving parts and yet the magic is still there.

And the more I played of Alyx, the more I thought about how VR and Half-Life were made for each other. And the more this left me thinking about the G-Man, the shadowy figure in a suit who turns up at crucial moments throughout the series and does intriguing stuff. The G-Man is the focal point for a lot of lore conspiracies in Half-Life. Who is he? Is he human? Is he Gordon Freeman himself?

Let’s not worry whether he makes an appearance in Alyx or not. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Because throughout the course of this game, I think I worked out who he really is. He’s Valve. Think about it: inscrutable Valve, a company that seems to see further than most, that seems to have a separate agenda to that of most developers – and who, granted, doesn’t always seem to be entirely benevolent. The G-Man disappears for long periods of time, but then turns up just as events have caught up with his intentions. It’s his way or no way at all. He waits for the right pieces to appear, and then he makes the most of them with little apparent effort.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/03/half-life-alyx-review-a-legend-returns-in-elegant-form-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=half-life-alyx-review-a-legend-returns-in-elegant-form-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

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flauntpage · 5 years

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Phillies Ace Aaron Nola is a Man Without a Rotation

As Aaron Nola mowed down the hapless Mets en route to an 8-3 victory Sunday, it was difficult not to think of the ineffectiveness of the rest of the Phillies’ starting rotation.

Nola didn’t need to bring his best stuff to the ballpark. His teammates jumped on Mets starter Zack Wheeler in the top of the first inning, plating four runs and building a comfortable lead before Nola even toed the rubber. Nevertheless, he delivered a performance befitting his status as the best pitcher on the staff.

For nearly seven innings, he was dominant; for five of those frames, he was unhittable. Nola kept the Mets off balance with a steady diet of fastballs, curveballs, and changeups, never giving them an opportunity to climb out of the hole they dug for themselves at the beginning of the game. Any signs of fatigue from a 120-pitch, 8-inning outing five days prior in Atlanta were not evident.

After a disastrous April that saw his ERA peak at 7.45, Nola has improved with each passing month; at the conclusion of Sunday’s outing, his ERA sits at 3.74. Carving up New York’s lineup was a fine follow-up to the start in Atlanta, which served as Nola’s most impressive start of the 2019 season.

The Phillies front office is undoubtedly ecstatic as Nola reverts to his 2018, N.L.-Cy-Young-Award-finalist form. And yet, Matt Klentak and company must be wondering why their organization seems unable to develop any of their other young guns into a dependable rotation piece for an aspiring contender.

This past offseason, which culminated in the signing of Bryce Harper, was supposed to mark the end of the Phillies’ long journey through the baseball wilderness. Moreover, the spending splurge in the winter was meant to add to a solid foundation rather than usher in a complete overhaul. The various seeds the franchise had planted in the fruitless years of 2013-2018 were overdue to bloom.

We were told during those years to be patient. The team had to let its young talent develop, and what better way to hone one’s craft than in the crucible of the big leagues?

We watched as Vince Velasquez learned to become a pitcher instead of a thrower. Four seasons into his tenure, we are still waiting for the transition.

There are times when Velasquez dazzles the opposition with his overpowering fastball. The most compelling evidence of this ability came in one of Velasquez’s first starts in a Phillies uniform, when he struck out 16 San Diego Padres en route to a 3-hit, complete game shutout:

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All but three of Velasquez’s punch outs came via the fastball. Also, take note of how frequently he hit catcher Cameron Rupp’s glove. When Velasquez commands his fastball, he’s in control. When he loses his feel for the pitch, or when opponents catch up to the heat, the wheels fall off. Velasquez’s inability to develop even one secondary pitch that he trusts and on which he can rely has prevented him from taking the next step in his development.

In truth, Velasquez has thrown more sliders thus far in 2019 than he has in the past. Per Fan Graphs, Velasquez has gone to his slider 22.3% of the time. This increased usage has come at the expense of his other offspeed pitches, however. In fact, Velasquez has called on his fastball more this season than at any point in his career, featuring the pitch 68% of the time. Without a quality offspeed pitch to keep them honest at the plate, hitters can key in on the fastball. Too often against Velasquez, they do.

Despite Nick Pivetta’s inauspicious 2018 campaign, we were told that 2019 would be different for the young hurler. Citing spin rates and a preponderance of soft hits, the disciples of sabermetrics targeted Pivetta in the preseason as a candidate for a breakout year. NBCSN’s Corey Seidman laid out a compelling case for Pivetta:

These days, it’s common to see teams, writers and commentators refer to pitchers as being unlucky when their batting average on balls in play is higher than the league average. It’s not always the case. Sometimes it’s the easy way out.

Pivetta, though, actually was unlucky.

According to Sports Info Solutions, the Phillies’ range and positioning cost Pivetta 24 runs last season — seven runs more than anyone in the majors. The Phillies, with their league-worst defense in 2018, had three of the top five pitchers in this unfortunate category, with Vince Velasquez and Zach Eflin tied for third at 14 runs.

It wasn’t just the analytics community that was bullish on Pivetta. Jim Salisbury wrote a preseason column focusing on the pitcher’s improvement, which was bolstered by the laudatory whispers of a few anonymous scouts.

Notwithstanding a two-start stretch in June in which Pivetta quieted the bats of the mighty Dodgers for six innings, and then tossed a complete game against the Reds, 2019 Nick Pivetta has looked a lot like 2018 Nick Pivetta. To be sure, he’s been the recipient of bad luck. But Pivetta has a knack for making a bad situation worse.

Take his most recent start against the Braves on Wednesday. Pivetta made quick work of Atlanta in the first three innings. In the fourth, a throw by Rhys Hoskins to second base on a double-play attempt hit runner Dansby Swanson in the shoulder and bounced off Jean Segura’s chest. Instead of two outs and the bases empty, Pivetta was forced into a high-leverage situation against Josh Donaldson. Donaldson promptly deposited an 80 mile-per-hour curveball into the Braves’ bullpen. Pivetta would concede another three-run home run to Austin Riley in the sixth inning. Resident Crossing Broad beat writer Bob offered up a succinct assessment:

Not sure I’ve ever seen a pitcher worse at navigating himself out of trouble than Nick Pivetta. Then again, if nobody is going to hit, I guess it doesn’t matter.

— BobCrossingBroad (@BWCrossingBroad) July 4, 2019

Perhaps the most confounding of all the Phillies’ development projects is Jerad Eickhoff. In 2015, the Phillies acquired Eickhoff, among other prospects, from the Rangers in a trade for Cole Hamels. It’s worth taking a quick detour to revisit the Phillies’ spoils from that trade, especially as Klentak considers which of his minor league treasures with which to part in exchange for an asset that can bolster the Phillies’ ability to contend for a playoff spot. In exchange for Hamels and Jake Diekman, the Phillies received the aforementioned Eickhoff; catcher Jorge Alfaro; outfielder Nick Williams; pitchers Jake Thompson and Alec Asher; and veteran pitcher Matt Harrison.

Harrison would never don a Phillies uniform, having suffered a back injury that would end his career. His inclusion in the deal essentially increased the prospect haul the Phillies were able to ransom from the Rangers. Alec Asher is currently pitching in China, while Jake Thompson has taken his talents to South Korea. Alfaro was included in the deal that brought All-Star catcher J.T. Realmuto to Philadelphia. Williams is toiling in Lehigh Valley, while Eickhoff continues to struggle with his health and consistency on the major league roster. Keep all of this in mind in the next few weeks as debates rage over which prospects are “untouchable” or “can’t miss.”

Eickhoff is the anti-Velasquez. He features a “show me” fastball that sets up an effective slider and a devastating, 12-to-6 curveball. When he’s at his best, Eickhoff can dominate a lineup. Most of the time, especially lately, Eickhoff has not been at his best. Before his demotion to the bullpen in June, Eickhoff served up 5 home runs in a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Shortly thereafter, Eickhoff landed in an even more familiar place: the injury list.

Last, but certainly not least, we come to the curious case of Zach Eflin. The best word to describe Eflin’s career thus far would be erratic. Very rarely does Eflin retreat to that bastion of pitching mediocrity- the quality start. Instead, he will either turn in a remarkable effort or a regrettable performance. One month of exceptional outings might convince an observer that Eflin has turned a corner in his development. Sure enough, though, he’ll follow a hot month with a multi-start cold spell.

The only consistency Eflin offers is inconsistency. So it seems to go with the rest of the young horses in the rotation stable.

As the front office prepares for the second half of the season and a looming trade deadline, GM Matt Klentak must consider whether the club he has fashioned for the 2019 campaign is worthy of reinforcements that will deplete his prospect pipeline. If he decides to make midseason roster upgrades, the first item on the shopping list must be a starter. It should probably be the second item as well.

Indeed, the Phillies have suffered through a rash of injuries that have depleted their bullpen corps and stolen key contributors from their everyday lineup for stretches of time. The extended absences were a major driver of their June slide, which drove them from first place in the NL East to third. If it weren’t for the lifeline the Mets offered in the past week, the Phils quite possibly would have been sitting below the .500 mark heading into the Midsummer Classic.

During a 162 game season, the offense will endure dry spells. The bullpen might not always offer effective relief, especially when the injury bug bites. The one ingredient that can carry a team through the rough patches and propel them to the playoffs is quality starting pitching. Even matchup-happy managers like Gabe Kapler learn to appreciate the value of a pitcher who can regularly deliver six to seven innings every outing, thus saving the innings a bullpen might need to work. Overtaxed relief arms can spell disaster for a contender in August and September, as Kapler learned the hard way last season.

Klentak should not need to go to the trade well to augment his staff, but the collective output of the starters outside of Nola has forced his hand. Which of these pitchers would you count on to make the start in a one-game wildcard playoff, assuming Nola were unavailable and Jake Arrieta is unable to return to form? Each one boasts undeniable talent, but neither Eflin, Eickhoff, Pivetta, nor Velasquez has been able to put together the puzzle pieces of their potential to unlock the mysteries of consistent big league performance.

Klentak has been at the poker table long enough to realize the one ace in his possession will not be enough to win. It’s time to deal in for a better hand, or fold and wait for the next draw in 2020.

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