#cast members who stayed with the show until Tim no longer had a use for them

[whatohitsonfirewelp]

Oh some of you are actually fucking horrible people.

In what world is it okay to degrade someone for their looks???

If you don’t like a character, an actor, a writer, anyone, fine.

But you don’t fucking degrade them for their looks???

[invisibleanonymousmonsters]

All Men Have Limits - X

Character: Dick Grayson x Reader x Bruce Wayne

Summary: A certain bat believes that Y/N is in way over her head, that she’s too naive to act in her best interest. So, whether she wants it or not, the vigilante family is going to help and protect her before she gets herself killed.

Word Count: 4,100+

Previously on…

The next three days were one of the darkest periods of Dick Grayson’s life. 

He was thrown back into the past to the moments after his parents were murdered. This felt the same but somehow worse. Because he was convinced he had the power to stop it, to keep Y/N safe.

Why did everyone he love have to die?

Was he cursed?

Was he responsible for their deaths?

He hadn’t even been able to tell Y/N how he really felt. He’d been holding back all this time, terrified that his truth would just push her away and make her decide to close off from him.

Now Dick wished he could go back in time and confess everything to her. If she had pushed him away, he would found his way back to her somehow. He sees that now – now that it’s too late.

He looked at Y/N sleeping peacefully in her bed at the manor.

Is it a miracle if conjuring was used to fight back at fate?

Dick doesn’t even remember what he said when he contacted Zatanna. He must’ve sounded hysterical and utterly desperate. His vision had been blurred from the tears he couldn’t control. 

He already blacked the whole thing out.

Zatanna told them that Y/N would sleep for a few days. Even if her magic saved her life and Y/N wouldn’t even have a scar to prove she had died, her body was still exhausted from the trauma of it all.

But even with Zatanna’s reassurance, Dick hadn’t left Y/N’s side, absolutely terrified that she was still in danger, that she could still leave them forever.

When Y/N started to shift, Dick sat up straighter in the chair that he’d pulled close to her bed.

Y/N winced before her eyes fluttered open.

Dick didn’t want to overwhelm her, so he just waited for her to fully wake up.

Y/N seemed confused when she realized that she was back in her room at the manor.

Then her gaze moved to Dick.

“Bruce, is he–”

“He’s fine,” Dick cut her off before she could get herself into a panic.

Her entire body relaxed and she let out the breath she was holding in without realizing it.

“He has a concussion and he’s a little beat up. But he’s had worse,” Dick elaborated.

She raised a brow. “You tend to say that a lot.”

Dick shrugged.

But it was true: Bruce had been in much worse condition.

“You saved his life, Y/N.”

She seemed uncomfortable hearing that and didn’t meet his gaze.

“I did what anyone would’ve done,” Y/N mumbled.

“Not everyone would be that brave.”

A silence settled between them for a few moments.

“How am I here?” Y/N finally asked Dick quietly.

But they both knew she was really asking, ‘How am I alive?’

“I’m not sure you really want to know all the details…” Dick had been dreading this conversation.

“I’m assuming you called in another favor with your magic friend,” Y/N thought aloud.

“Zatanna,” Dick confirmed. “And, yes. Something like that.”

Y/N gave him a look that told him she wasn’t going to let it go so easily.

“She used a spell that reversed your injuries. She…” Dick had to pause and clear his throat and get rid of his emotions that were threatening to spill. “She used your blood to write a spell, making it far stronger than most she’s cast. It saved your life.”

Y/N watched him for a moment.

“That must’ve been scary,” she whispered, truly understanding what she had put him through.

She simply could not imagine had it been the other way around. The idea of watching Dick die was something she hoped to never live through.

“He hadn’t left your side until Alfred basically secretly drugged him and scared him to get his own bedroom.”

Y/N moved to get out of bed.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Dick panicked as she stood up to stop her.

“I feel…” she thought about it for a moment.

“Like you were stabbed to death?” Dick offered darkly.

“No. I feel…I feel fine.”

He could tell she was telling the truth.

“Perks of magically being healed?” She offered innocently.

“Guess so.”

She moved out of the bed and realized she was wearing cotton shorts and a baggy t-shirt that she most definitely didn’t die in.

What had happened while she was asleep? How long was she dead?

Y/N went to the window and looked out at the grounds of Wayne Manor.

“What happened when the cops showed up?” She asked quietly, almost in a daze.

“You’d have to ask Tim for details. I was preoccupied with…” Dick’s words died out.

Y/N turned away from the window to look at him.

She may have survived, but that was never going to make talking about that night any easier for him.

Luckily, she understood what Dick couldn’t put into words.

Dick took in a deep breath and crossed his arms, “We got them, Y/N.”

It almost seemed to good to be true. They’d been at this for months. It took them weeks just to plan their final blow.

Y/N didn’t realize how hard it would be to believe that it was truly over.

It didn’t help that there was no returning to her old life. Too much had changed.

“With the evidence you gave the FBI, there’s not a lawyer in the world that can save them. Even if a member’s hands aren’t dirty, the public shame will be enough to neutralize them for good,” Dick added with a bit of optimism.

But he could tell by Y/N’s face that she was having trouble accepting the truth.

He took a step toward her. 

“If there’s members of The Court that slipped out from underneath us, if any of them try to come after you, it’ll just prove to the world that The Court of Owls is still operating. And exposing that will be the last thing they’ll want.”

She tried to force a small smile and nod, but it was unconvincing.

Dick closed the space between them and grabbed her hands.

“Y/N, you did it.”

“It’s really over,” she whispered, staring into his deep blue eyes.

He gave her a reassuring smile and nodded.

Then Dick’s focus shifted. He looked her up and down. “Y/N, you should really get some rest. You’ve been through a lot.”

Y/N sighed. “I think I’m gonna take a shower.” She smirked, “Get all that death off me.”

Dick frowned. “Not funny.”

“Jason would think it’s funny,” Y/N teased as she walked to the bathroom.

He playfully glared at her. “I’ll give you some space. But I’ll be down in the cave if you need me.”

Dick only got a few steps before Y/N called his name as if she’d forgotten something and rushed to him.

He looked at her expectantly.

Y/N stepped forward and locked her arms around Dick and buried her face into his shoulder. She closed her eyes and tried to control her breathing.

“Thank you,” she mumbled as his hands rubbed her back soothingly and he pulled her closer.

Dick wanted to tell Y/N that she didn’t have to thank him. He saved her life and he would do it again and again and again, and he would never expect gratitude for it. Because Dick knew that it was just as much for him as it was for her.

So instead he just held her in silence and felt the warmth from her body – the same body that had been ice cold and lifeless just days before.

When they finally pulled away, Dick was studying her face to make sure she was alright to be left alone.

He gave her one last look before leaving her.

Y/N took her time in the shower, making the water as hot as her skin would allow without giving it burns. There wasn’t a single bruise or cut on her. Her fingers traced over the place on her abdomen where the katana had been shoved through. 

There was nothing.

She wondered if there was a price to pay for such magic. Would she be held accountable? Or would it be Dick’s friend who faced the consequences?

Y/N didn’t know how long she’d been showering, but when she finally walked out, the bathroom was filled with too much steam.

She quickly put on sweatpants and a t-shirt when her stomach started growling. She couldn’t even remember when her last meal had been.

Y/N moved to her door after deciding that going straight to the kitchen was quite necessary.

But she stopped as she heard footsteps walking past her room in the hall.

She froze, thinking it was Bruce.

What would she say to him? Would he be angry with her? Would he not react at all to her resurrection? What would hurt her more between the two?

But it wasn’t Bruce. 

Tim and Damian were walking down the hallway.

“How much longer do you think he’ll stay?” She heard Damian ask.

“I don’t know. I heard the Titans have been bugging him to come back,” Tim answered. “I’m sure Kori misses him and has been texting.”

Damian just hummed in acknowledgment.

Y/N realized her hand was suspended over the doorknob.

And she had a realization: she was safe to leave.

But more importantly, she wasn’t the only one that could return to their “normal” life: so could Dick, so could everyone else in the family.

Soon, Tim would go back to his condo in the city. Jason would stop working so closely with the family he tried to disown and he’d probably stop coming around manor so often – if ever. And Bruce…Bruce would move on to new cases and return to the usual patrolling.  

Y/N turned and looked at the bedroom that had become her new home in the past few months. Her personality was nowhere to be found inside. It wasn't actually hers. She was just one of its many visitors. 

Y/N grabbed her duffle bag from underneath the queen-sized bed and started throwing her belongings into it.

Ten minutes later, Y/N had her jacket and shows on, and all of her belongings were packed in her bag. 

She still had to deal with all her equipment that was sitting in the cave. But that was a problem for another day. Right now, she didn’t have the bandwidth to deal with it. She needed to leave – before she changed her mind.

-

Y/N was just yards from the front door when she heard his voice.

“Y/N?” Dick asked just loud enough to catch her.

She froze in place.

While her back was still to him, she closed her eyes in grievance from the failure of being spotted.

She slowly turned around.

“You trying to sneak out of here?” Dick asked.

It was meant to sound teasing, but she heard his disappointment loud and clear.

“It’s about time I get out of your hair.” 

“We’re not exactly kicking you out…” Dick tried to joke.

“You said so yourself: it’s safe for me now.” She sighed and walked closer to him. “Look, I just…I need some time alone.”

Dick took it a bit too personally. Were they really that exhausting to be around? He thought she had started to see them as her own family. He thought things were OK.

“At least let me drive you,” he offered quietly.

“I called a cab. It’s waiting for me outside.”

Before Dick could say anything else, she quickly turned and made her escape.

Y/N knew what she was scared of. She was scared he’d tell her he was leaving Gotham now that the case had been solved. But she was even more scared that he’d tell her he was staying. 

She wasn’t ready to deal with either scenario.

So, Y/N did what she did best: she ran.

————————

Y/N stared at the wall of her safe house.

The silence that she had once grown used to long ago was now irritating.

Y/N hadn’t realized how accustomed she had become to the chaos of Wayne Manor until she had torn herself away from it. Even when it was quiet there, she could feel the presence of everyone.

Now she was left only to her thoughts.

And just she was about to escape the silence and go grab food at a nearby diner, there was a knock on the door.

Y/N knew for a fact that this safe-house hadn’t be blown yet – and that included with the Wayne family. It was exactly why she chose to come here instead of the one where Bruce first found her and dragged her to Wayne Manor for her own safety.

Which was why Y/N grabbed one of her guns and checked to make sure it was loaded and the safety was off before she tiptoed to the door.

She looked through the peep hole and her stomach twisted when she saw Bruce Wayne was on the other side.

She knew he could sense her presence on the other side, and there was no hiding. So she opened the door quickly.

Bruce eyed the gun in her hand. “This has become a habit of yours.”

Y/N ignored his comment, uncocked the gun, and carefully placed it on a table near the door.

When she was finally able to take Bruce in, she noted that his face was covered in bruises and small cuts. To be honest, Y/N expected more damage after being a witness to his near-death beating. 

“May I come in?” Bruce asked softly.

She blinked rapidly, realizing she had yet to invite him inside.

This was all reminiscent of that night.

And Y/N didn’t appreciate the memories and feelings Bruce was stirring up.

An awkward silence settled between them. The silence of her apartment was doing nothing to help.

“Are you okay?”

Y/N knew the question was sincere, but Bruce still managed to ask it without showing any ounce of emotion – as if he wasn’t personally invested in the matter. 

“I’m fine,” she answered quickly. Her eyes softened. “Are you okay?”

He simply nodded.

Silence again.

“You can never do that again,” Bruce declared.

“Do what?”

“You risked your life to save mine. The boys refused to tell me what happened, but I saw the footage. You threw yourself in front of me.”

Y/N remained calm as she said, “You did the same for me.”

Bruce shook his head. Because they both knew it wasn’t the same thing.

The truth was that Bruce woke up to find Dick crying over Y/N’s dead body. And then a few minutes he had watched as Dick begged Zatanna to help him.

And Bruce? Bruce had been unconscious when Y/N had needed him the most.

He had protected her all these months – with his own family and his own home – just to be useless in her final moment of need.

When Bruce finally woke up recovered to find out that Y/N had fled the manor, he knew he needed to go to her. He needed to make sure she never did something so stupid as risking her life to save him.

But now Bruce stood before her and he knew he needed to tell her so much more than just that.

“What are you doing here, Bruce? Did you just plan on lecturing me again?”

But Bruce wasn’t realized he couldn’t use any words tonight.

Ever so slowly, he stepped into her space, putting less and less space between their bodies. Y/N could feel the heat coming from him. And she sucked in a gasp from his proximity. She breathed in his cologne that she’d grown to love so much that it instantly relaxed her.

Her heart beat faster and faster as his eyes shifted down to her lips, hesitating in a way that was excruciating to Y/N. But it gave her time to resist, to allow her to shut this down before it could continue.

But Y/N didn’t want to do that.

Bruce brushed her hair away from her face, then his hands shifted slightly to cup her face. His touch wasn’t soft, but insistent.

He pressed his lips to Y/Ns. Brisk and determined. 

The tension finally snapped and pushed them to a passionate kiss that was long overdo.

Was this only going to cause them both more pain in the future?

Or was this what they should’ve done long ago?

Bruce pushed Y/N against a wall.

And then everything became a blur.

Bruce picked Y/N up and wrapped her legs around his waist for her, silently instructing her. 

Clothes were unzipped and unbuttoned, and thrown around the apartment without thought.

Their breathing was heavy and reactive to the way their hands raced across each other’s now naked skin. 

For never being at this particular safe house, Bruce found his way to the bed with ease.

From the movement of their bodies and obvious desire for one another, one thing became clear: they were never meant to only share one night together.

————

Y/N had tried with all her might to stay awake – even if that meant pulling an all-nighter.

She was trying to break the pattern. And even though Bruce had exhausted her body to no end, she didn’t want to wake up to find his side of the bed empty.

But she was shocked to open her eyes and find not only that Bruce was still in her bed, but that she had been sleeping on his bare chest with his arms wrapped tightly around her.

Y/N could feel that he was awake. Apparently he was much more disciplined than her.

Little did she know Bruce hadn’t slept at all, not wanting to miss the feeling of her against him. 

Y/N slowly lifted her head, “Hi.”

He smirked at the sleepiness in her voice.

“Hi."

“Didn’t expect you to be here still,” she admitted quietly.

“I can leave if you want.” And he meant it, even though it would hurt.

“No,” she scolded him in a breathy gasp.

The tension in his body released. 

Y/N shifted off of his chest

“And where do you think you’re going?” Bruce questioned.

She shifted so she was no longer resting on his chest, but laying on her side beside him so she could see his face.

“I just wanted to look at you,” she whispered innocently.

Bruce smirked at her answer.

Y/N made sure the bed sheet was successfully covering her nudity.

Bruce seemed amused with her sudden modesty, but said nothing of it.

“How did you find me here?” Y/N asked him.

It had been the first thing she’d wanted to ask when he showed up to her door last night. But Bruce hadn’t exactly given her a lot of space to speak last night.

Bruce’s jaw tightened, which was a message in its own. 

“Bruceeeee,” Y/N pushed back with irritation.

“You aren’t going to like the answer.”

She glared at him. “Did you put a fucking tracker on me, Bruce Wayne?”

“Your phone.”

“When?” She asked.

“After you tried to turn yourself in to the Talons.”

Y/N sighed, clearly annoyed by the answer.

They both knew she could easily disable it now that she knew about it. Even if he hadn’t confessed it, she would’ve figured it out on her own eventually.

“You’re upset,” Bruce observed.  

“How would you feel if I did the same to you? But it’s…you. And I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“Need I remind you that we only met because you blackmailed me and threatened to expose my identity to the world?”

“You know that wasn’t the same,” she shot back as she rolled her eyes. 

“You’re right.” Bruce sighed. “I promise I will deactivate it.”

“No,” Y/N surprised him by saying. “But I will make you a deal…you can always know where I am if I can know the same for you.”

Bruce knew this was a test. Because Y/N expected him to immediately shoot down such an offer. Couldn’t such information be used against Batman?

“Deal,” he agreed.

Y/N was so shocked by his compliance that her overwhelming emotions forced her to lean into him and capture his lips in a kiss.

“Should I make us breakfast?” She whispered to him after barely pulling away from his lips. 

She lightly bumped her nose against his. 

Bruce nodded with a grin.

But before Y/N could ask what he wanted, a knock at the door interrupted them.

Her heart raced at the thought of another intrusion – and a less welcomed one.  

Bruce frowned, but remained calm.

“Stay here,” he warned before placing a light kiss on her bare shoulder.

Before she could argue, he slipped out of bed.

He put his boxer briefs on, but didn’t bother with a shirt or pants.

Even though Bruce told Y/N to stay put, she still figured a mysterious knock on the door was a sign to put clothes on.

She practically threw on her underwear, but couldn’t find a single piece of clothing she had on yesterday. Yet somehow she found Bruce’s white button down and quickly buttoned on to give herself some semblance of decency.

Bruce looked through the peephole. 

He held his breath.

Bruce would’ve rather it been an attempted attack on Y/N than…this.

“Y/N, I know you’re there,” Dick called from the other side of the door.

Bruce knew she couldn’t hear him. But he knew there was no other choice than to open the door.

Bruce looked apathetic as he faced his first protégé.

But Dick knew Bruce well enough to see that there was guilt hidden underneath.

He took in Bruce’s attire – or really, the lack there of.

Dick huffed out a laugh, “Of course. I should’ve known better.”

He shook his head and turned to leave.

Bruce slammed the door shut and rubbed his face in distress.

Before he could even think of something to say to Y/N, she rushed past him and threw the door open again.

“Dick! Wait!” Y/N called to him and caught him in the hallway.

By some miracle, Dick stopped and turned to her.

He looked her up and down, lingering far too long on the white button down she was wearing that so clearly belonged to Bruce.

“Needed some time alone, huh?” 

Throwing Y/N’s own words back at her was meant to come out harsh and cold. But it ended up sounding heartbroken and betrayed.

And, honestly, that was worse to Y/N.

She have any idea what to say to him.

What would even make him feel better?

So, Y/N just watched Dick slowly walk away.

She stepped back into the safe house with tears in her eyes.

Bruce immediately moved to her. 

“Y/N–”

But Y/N shook her head, stopping him from saying anything more.

“I should go,” Bruce told her. 

He couldn’t help himself as he reached to wipe her tears away.

“I should probably give you your shirt back,” she said between sniffles.

Had the situation been different, it would’ve sounded funny. 

But there was no humor here. 

Bruce’s innocent touch of wiping her tears away made it hard for Y/N to concentrate.

So she escaped into the bedroom and quickly changed into her own clothes.

When she walked back out, she had all of Bruce’s stuff in her arms.

Once Bruce was in his clothes again, he didn’t know what to do or say next.

It was hard for Bruce to leave Y/N when she was so visibly upset. Dick wasn’t here to make Y/N feel better this time...and that was all Bruce’s fault.

“I’m not used to saying bye to you,” Y/N finally broke the tension.

Bruce’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

A sad look flashed across her face as she processed her thoughts. “Usually I wake up…and you’re gone. You don’t even give me a chance to.”

Bruce bowed his head in shame. “I shouldn’t have done that to you,” he finally admitted to her.

Y/N nodded slowly, agreeing with him.

“But you did,” she whispered. 

Her voice sounded congested from all the tears she just shed. 

“And all this time, I let myself think it was OK or even that I was the one who had messed it all up.”

Bruce quickly shook his head. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Y/N.”

Her eyes darkened. “Why did you have to make it so hard to stay away from you, Bruce?”

An he knew he deserved that. “I’ve been selfish,” he confessed.

Bruce hesitated before giving her a slow kiss on the cheek.

It was the first time Y/N had ever seen him unsure of himself.

Without saying anything more, he turned and left.

“Goodbye, Bruce.” Y/N whispered long after he could still hear her.

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

Part XI

Did I ruin your life? Let me know 😂

[queenmaracasandlove]

At Last - Ben Hardy x Reader

Word Count: +2300

Summary: Ben has a surprise for Y/N as they’re going to a Queen + Adam Lambert concert... a proposal

Warning: just fluff really, (although mention of the fact that Y/N’s mom is dead)

A/N: I know it’s just super duper cliché but here you go... Hope you like it

MASTERLIST

Permanent Taglist: @reedusteinrambles

You could not believe what was about to happen, the dream of a lifetime was finally becoming true. You were going to see Queen live for the first time and just thinking about it made your tear up. You had a very special relationship with the rock band. You had grew up with them, your mom always playing it and singing the words to you when you were a child. For the biggest part of your life Queen was directly linked to your mother, especially now that she was not on this earth with you anymore. You remembered how reserved she was but how excited she became as soon as one of their songs was playing. You had never been able to see them on stage with her but you were going to do it today with the person that the most important in your life now.

Queen was linked with something else in your life and it was Ben Jones or Ben Hardy as he was called in the public life. It had been like in a fairytale. You were working at the Sainsbury’s next to where he lived. You knew who he was because of EastEnders but never dared to say anything. It was only a part time job and you needed to keep it to go on. He was always very polite although you could see that he was becoming sadder with time. He often came at your cashier to buy cigarettes, sometimes with a bottle of alcohol. It was not any of your business but he looked really alone even if he was with an adorable dog that you learnt was called Frankie, he seemed completely lost.

At that time your friends had convinced you to go on dating apps because they could not hear you complaining about your non-existent love life any longer. So you did create an account, spent a lot of time swipping but were always too shy to talk, wondering why you were here when everybody wanted to hook up and you needed someone to cuddle with (and maybe something more also...). Until that night when you saw Ben’s face appearing on your screen. You thought it was a joke, that someone was pretending to be him but without thinking about it you swipped right. You had cursed loudly when you saw that it was a match. You were petrified and only a few minutes later he was sending you the first message “Hello Y/N, not working tonight?”. He knew who you were and that made you go crazy.

“Are you excited love?” he asked, squeezing your hand at the back of the taxi, stopping you from dwelling on the past

“I think I’m gonna pass out” you replied

“It’s gonna be fine you know”

“Excuse me!?” you turned back to him “I’m going to meet the men I’ve been worshiping all my life and you’re saying it’s going to be fine?”

“I’m starting to be jealous” he laughed

“You should be. Now that I’m gonna put my hands on the real Roger Taylor I don’t need the substitute anymore”

You stuck your tongue out before kissing his nose. He loved how you could be so childish sometimes compared to your usual seriousness. In fact he loved everything about you. He grabbed your neck to put a kiss on your lips. Just as it was getting more intense your felt the taxi stopping and your heart started beating like mad. During the kiss you could feel that he was tensed, his jaw completely contracted.

“Are you alright you asked?”

“Yes of course. Guess I’m a little nervous too” he simply said

The concert was not about to start for at least three hours but Ben had told you that you were going to meet the band before the show. You had met him after Bohemian Rhapsody and in fact it was one of the things that had brought you closer, even if it wasn’t in the best of ways. After filming, promoting the movie and the ceremony season everything had calmed down all of a sudden and Ben had became a mess. It was part of the deal, there was to be an end everytime, it was just a difficult time between two shootings but this was different. Bohemian Rhapsody had been so special, he had felt so close to his fellow cast members, so into his role and the rush had been so high. He did not know if he could ever feel something like that again. Slowly he had started confessing to you and without realising it, you had helped him. You had listened to everything he had to say, understood his doubts, sympathised with his pain and at the time he had wanted to know about you too. He was inspired by your determination, touched by your kindness and eventually completely in love with you.

“Let’s do this love. I’m so excited” he told you

“I think I’m going to die”

You had no idea that he was as stressed out as you were, even more. His hand was somehow sweaty in yours but you did not even noticed. You followed him as you arrived in front of the back entrance, the VIP access. You were not used to that kind of thing. Even though it had been more than two years that you were dating you were not a big fan of the star system. But he made sure you were always comfortable, you were his way to stay down to earth but he was happy he could spoil you from time to time.

Soon after you had started talking, Ben and you had gone on your first date and the story had begun. He was as good to you as you were to him. You fell in love with his kindness, his talent and his eyes and so did he. You did not mind him being famous as long as he did not mind you staying in London, finishing your PhD. He was impressed by how passionate you were by your studies and how disinterested you were by his fame. And that worked out perfectly. You eventually moved in together. Of course there were moments of doubts, little fights but nothing stronger than the love you had for each other.

You had just entered the building when you heard some music playing, they were probably sound checking. You left out a little scream because of how excited you were. Ben laughed and looked at you, lovingly.

“I need to go to the bathroom. Could you wait for me here?” he asked

“Really Ben. We’re so close to meet Queen and you need to go for a wee?”

“I’m sorry I won’t be long”

You rolled your eyes as he went to the bathroom. You noticed how tensed he looked but thought that maybe it was because he had not seen Roger Taylor and Brian May for such a long time. He had also told you he was working on something special but without giving you much detail. You hadn’t ask many questions because you knew he didn’t like to talk about projects before anything was signed. You had never met Roger and Brian even though you he had told you everything he could about them, so much so that you felt like they were part of the family, at least his. You knew it was important for him to introduce you to them and that made it even more important to you. Suddenly the music stopped and you sighed, you would have loved to see them alone on the stage with the place completely empty. As you were started to worry you saw Ben coming back to you.

“Are you ready?”

“Nope, never will be. And you?” you asked, suddenly feeling stupid

“Never been so ready in my life”

You were confused but didn’t say anything as he led you through the venue, as if he already knew the place. You could feel your heart ready to burst inside your chest as you were getting closer. You were not going backstage but in front of the stage. You started tearing up when you saw them, Roger Taylor and Brian May on that platform, with Adam Lambert next to them. Of course you were a little sad that Freddie and John were not here but that was already so amazing you could not believe it was real.

Ben looked at you, he could see how your eyes were shinning and he could not stop smiling. His heart was about to burst out of his chest. He had been planning for so long and was so grateful everyone had helped him to make it possible.

“Good evening Y/N” Adam said as he was sitting in front of the piano, the two other musicians also taking their instruments

“What the fuck is going on? How does he know my name?” you asked, not sure how you were able to utter anything

“Shush” Ben said, winking at you

Was it another surprise? Ben loved to surprise you and you loved it. He was such a romantic lad and you were 100% into it. You were never able to return the favour because you were awfully bad at keeping secrets but you always had your own way to thank him. 

Suddenly you heard the first few notes and you gasped. It was your song. Not only your favourite one but also your mom’s favourite, Somebody To Love. You were hypnotised, completely lost into the song. It made you feel like you could fly. That was without a doubt one of the best moment of your life. They were playing for you, at least that was how it felt. 

It was crazy, you could remember how much this song had followed you through your life. You could still see your mom and yourself singing it at the top of your lungs in the kitchen, baking something on a Sunday. How you cried listening to it as a teenager when she was gone and you felt as if nobody would ever be in love with you. When Ben had told you it was his favourite Queen’s song and that it was the exact moment you had fell in love with him for good, and now this. 

You never wanted this moment to end but it did. You were not even able to applaud, you were too stunned.  You had cried a little and closed your eyes for a second, trying to capture the moment forever in your memory. When you opened your eyes again, the stage was empty and you panicked, you turned to Ben, trying to come back down to earth but you did not see him, until you looked down.

“OH MY FUCKING…!” you screamed

He was down on one knee. Benjamin Jones was looking right into your soul with his perfect eyes and you were pretty sure he was about to propose. Once again you started to cry, it was just the two of you now. 

“Y/N I…” He was very emotional too, struggling to utter the words he had said in his head so many time, “I love you. I love you more than anything in the world. You are the best thing that ever happened to me. You met me when I was at my worst and you’ve helped me becoming the best version of myself. I know… I know you’re going to think it’s too soon because you always overthink. You’re the thinker and I’m just, I’m just the guy who fell madly in love with the greatest human being. You’re not perfect but neither am I but we’re never better than when we’re together right?”

He wasn’t really expecting an answer but you started nodding your head like crazy, agreeing to every word that he had just said. He was so right everything, he knew you so well, even your scars and your secrets he understood without having to hear the stories behind them. He was was your confident, he made you laugh, he made you made, he made you feel alive. 

“I don’t know what the future will bring and to be honest I don’t care as long as you’re right next to me. I want to spend the rest of my life with you Y/N. Would you… would make me the happiest man on earth and marry me?”

“Yes. Oh dear. Of course. Yes”

And without any warning you jumped into his arms making the both of you fall on the ground as he was trying to get up and catch you at the same time. You needed to touch him, because you were not complete without him. 

“I love you. I love you so much Ben and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. There is nothing in the world I want more than that.”

You kissed him, a kiss full of love and of tears also but they were happy tears. Once again he had made this moment so perfect. You understood why he was looking so tensed earlier and you realised how he had carefully planned tonight. He knew what that song meant to you, somehow he made sure that your mom was part of this big step in your life and that was only one more reason why you were so sure about saying yes. You got up and he kissed you again, happier than ever.

“Shall we go, I can’t wait to introduce the person I’m going to marry to Roger and Brian. We probably also have to thank them”

“I’m just you wanted to get engaged before I met Roger because you were afraid I would elope with him. But I’m sorry Benny, I haven’t signed anything yet”

“I love you Y/N” he simply answered, still amazed you said yes

“I love you too”

[marleneoftheopera]

Do you have any ideas for who could be taking over at cast change? I have heard things about cast changes on both Broadway and London. Any rumors? I wonder who will be taking over for Tim

Well, let’s start with who is actually leaving. As of today (July 9th), Tim Howar (Phantom) and Matt Bateman (ensemble, u/s Piangi) are the only two in the London production that I know of who have confirmed they are leaving in the fall. As for Broadway, the only two I have seen confirm they are leaving is Jay (Raoul) and Laird (Andre, u/s Phantom). 

Now onto the ideas and rumors. I have heard quite a few so here they are. Again, these are rumors and I do not know if any of these are right and if they have any real meaning. 

Let’s start with London. I have heard two other people that another cast member or two could be leaving as well. I cannot say who those cast members are and until they themselves announce it, i do not know if it’s 100%.But there is a very good chance. I have heard a rumor that Dean Chisnall could take over as the Phantom, which would make sense in terms of time, as he finishes up in Les Miz this week. It would give him plenty of time for Phantom rehearsals. And since he has understudied LND Raoul and done JVJ, he definitely has the experience and voice for it. I would also imagine that at least a few more ensemble members will be leaving at cast change too. 

Now onto Broadway. Broadway doesn’t have an exact cast change like London, it really depends on contracts and when actors decide to leave. Sometimes they line up and a few leave at once, but a lot of times they don’t. For example, Rodney left just as Ben joined and Ali left a few months later. So it isn’t like the big bunch you get in London. But I have heard a rumor that Ben might leave. I do not know if this is true or not. Ben has been here since April 2018 I believe (somewhere around there) so if he did leave he will have done the role for a year and a half. That is a long time, but Broadway Phantom’s tend to stay on a bit longer. So maybe he will stay on another 6 months and do 2 years or maybe he will leave in the fall. He does have a small child, so he might want to be home a bit more before doing another role. We will obviously be getting a new Raoul and Andre. I wonder if they will go for another Andre who can understudy the Phantom like Laird. They do have 3 understudies now, but Jeremy seems to be in and out as of late with concerts, so they might decide to get another one just in case. But we will see. Someone told me months ago that Kaley reportedly said to someone at stagedoor that she was leaving in the fall. Again, no idea if this is true but I could see it happening. She has had 3 runs (a maybe 2 mini ones) in the show and finally got to do a principle run. Her first two ones were rather short and left people wanting her to come back. Especially with her being the youngest Broadway Christine; people definitely wanted to see her grow into it. After all this time I think she finally got a proper run and it was cool to see her grow up since 2014 and see her voice and her Christine develop. If I could I would want her to stay forever, but if she does leave, at least she got a proper run. A lot of phans like myself want Rodney or Jordan to come back after Jay leaves, as some people feel like both of them didn’t get a long enough run. And it would be great to have that diversity again. 

And finally there are the tour rumors. People have speculated that Meghan Picerno will be leaving the World Tour to either do Christine on Broadway (which if Kaley is indeed leaving would line up) or do LND Christine in the World Tour. She will not be doing the Dubai stop and has said that there are announcements coming, so they could be plausible. Or she could just be doing some opera or taking some personal time. But either her definitely out of the Dubai stop people are thinking they might bring in a former Christine in the World Tour who already knows the ropes to an extent. There are also a few rumors that a few people from the US Tour could come to Broadway, which I don’t think will happen but you never know. Tour to Broadway has been a big thing in the past. And finally, people are speculating that some of the London cast might leave to do the new UK Tour. If those two people that I can’t name do end up leaving, I could see at least one of them doing the tour. 

And finally, London and Broadway might just go with new people entirely!

So there are all of the rumors and my ideas, sorry for the long post. But now we got it all out there.

:)

[cursewoodrecap]

Session 19: Hunters and Haunts

It’s time for some proper horror movie monsters, y’all.

Before leaving Mornheim, we ask Aubrey about the scroll in her mother’s writing.  She’s baffled. “I mean, plenty of my ancestors dabbled in magic. The castle had plenty of secret rooms. But…my mom? As far as I knew, she was just a very talented gardener. That’s how my parents met! She was the castle gardener, he was the son of the lord, but she looked past that…”

She laughs nervously. “My mom wasn’t a druid. They don’t live in big fancy houses! They live in the woods and make friends with badgers! I mean, why would there even BE a druid in Mornheim?!”

“That’s a good question,” Gral admits. “Maybe to guard the old tomb in the Trollstones? If I understand correctly, it was a place blessed by one of the woods spirits they revere.”

“So you’re tellin’ me that MY MOM, Rosalind von Mornheim, was the secret mystical druidic guardian of a magic tomb that’s been on family property for, well, longer than it’s been our property?!”

“I mean, maybe? Skelbjor told us there always had to be a troll in Mornheim, maybe it’s like that?”

“I guess? Skelbjor’s been the local troll since Dad was a kid. He knew about all this?”

“Oh, nah, he just knew there’s always supposed to be a troll.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right, he’s a big galoot. Just tell me I don’t have to worry about this immortal troll demigod getting up and causing trouble. I have enough problems.”

“Don’t worry, he didn’t even get up for a direct summons from that dybbuk creep.”

Aubrey shudders. “If you ever wanna figure out a way to kill that guy for good, you have my help.”

Clem grimaces. “Believe me, I’d LOVE to.”

“Anyway. You folks cleaned up the water, stopped my people getting so sick, heck, maybe this’ll even slow down the undead situation. I owe you a lot of thanks. As the ruling lady of Mornheim, I can offer you…a bottle of hard cider or somethin’? I don’t have a lot. It takes all the money we have just to keep this place running. I’m sorry I can’t do more to reward you.”

Valeria smiles, the picture of a chivalrous knight. “I’m just glad to know there won’t be so much sickness. Hopefully things will improve for your people.”

“Thank you, I mean it. And, uh, sorry for glassing you in the face, Shoshana.”

The sorceress shrugs. “It’s water under the trollbridge. We all have family members who we would both hug and cry, and glass in the face. It’s chill.”

To everyone’s surprise, Valeria nods in commiseration.

“You’re welcome to stay if you want – I mean, things are crowded, the food sucks, and every night we get undead and penitents waking everybody up, so I understand if you don’t want to stick around. Can I treat you to breakfast?”  

We get breakfast, though the offerings are meager. Mercedes is cooking, and Aubrey scowls at her. “I’m mad at Mercedes because she’s a morning person. Also she lit me on fire yesterday.”

Shoshana nods. “Okay, I understand lighting people on fire, but being a morning person is a capital offense. I know this, because I live with THIS ONE.” She points at Valeria, who shrugs in acknowledgment.

“As ruling lady of house of Mornheim, I hereby banish 8am from my lands,” Aubrey grumbles. “My house is now renamed Midafternoonsheim. Like, 2pmheim. Especially if I spent the last day and a half chasing some regenerating superghoul through the tunnels.”

Mercedes and Aubrey tell us about taking out the superghoul they fought last night, bickering the whole time. “Okay, you don’t speak Goblin, but if I shout words in Goblin it only ever means one thing. I don’t cast buff spells. It means there is about to be fire, get out of the way.”

“If you ever find a cloak of fire resistance, I could use it,” Aubrey deadpans at us. “I might smother her with it.”

Gral chats with Mercedes – apparently she’s a skilled chef as well as a mage! “Yes, it is part of pyromancer training. To learn to respect the gifts of Brother-in-Flame, all students must take up a fire-related trade. Pottery, blacksmithing, cooking. That way if you wash out of pyromancer school, you have a trade! And you have respect for flame and know how to commune with it. Working with non-magical fire gives a natural guidance toward using Brother-in-Flame’s gifts. I will say, cooking contests at pyromancer school can get rather intense. If you burn the food, you have to burn your jacket.”

“Would you say they get…heated?” Shoshana quips, shooting finger-guns. Mercedes ignores her.

Gral considers. “Did you ever meet an orc who went by Firesong?”

“Oh yeah! Orc bard, wore a mask?”

“Uh, all orc bards wear masks.”

“Yeah, she’s why we can’t have the chili cookoffs anymore. She had to leave the Republics under, uh…circumstances.”

“She told me she has fond memories of her time there.”

“Oh, so do I! Passions were already high, and a professional orcish bard providing background music did not lower the emotional intensity. And, well, we’re pyromancers. We thought we were far enough from the swamp gas wells! If it hadn’t been for that damn bird – oh, one second.” She cuts off what was promising to be an excellent story to open the window and hand a sizable plate of eggs outside to Skulbjor.

“The first time I saw him, I jumped out of my skin,” she confides. “Have you ever met a swamp troll? They’re the reason we’re so good at fire.”

“The pyromancer school was originally founded to defend the Republics against trolls. So it was, you know, a liiiiittle bit awkward. Horrible creatures, swamp trolls. YOU’RE GREAT, SKULBJOR,” she calls out the window. “But I did almost light him on fire, until Aubrey stopped me.”

Gral murmurs an aside to Clem. “Is it just Valdian trolls who are weird, then?”

“I dunno, maybe bridges calm them down?”

After breakfast, we prepare to get on the road. Valeria resummons Aethis, and Skulbjor gives our good chomper some quality scritches. Already, the waters flowing into the town appear clearer, less foreboding somehow. Everything else is still, honestly, super Tim Burton-y, but we’ll work on that.

We head out, traveling the now familiar path to Three Oaks Junction. We’re glad to see the bloody chain banners have been taken down. The locals have even made new banners, featuring a shield with a chunk taken out of it, symbolizing they’re under the protection of Duke Shieldeater!

Business has resumed as normal. Some of the outriders are guarding the gate to provide a more visible presence. Not a lot, but they stand out. It’s more of a visual reminder that more orcs are coming and town has agreed to be under protection.

Gral’s pretty psyched his diplomatic master plan is working. Meanwhile, we’ve got trading to do. We manage to sell our old Aquilian coins to Pierre the furrier, who says they’ll be popular in the Demish court. Valeria keeps one of the coins as a collectible.

We’ve got enough stuff to carry and traveling to do that we decide to buy a cart. Clem, familiar with travel from her drow caravan days, heads over to the Used Cart Lot out behind the cart repair, where a guy named Sal shows her around. Looks like these guys do good repair work, with a line of apprentices and masters dating back to Three Oaks himself. Maaaaybe they might get a lot of business from selling carts which will shortly need to be repaired, but Clem uses her know-how and also her impressive guns to intimidate the guy into showing her the good stuff instead of the junkers.

She picks up a nice solid dark oak cart, secondhand, repaired recently. Clem checks it over and it seems pretty sturdy; seems like scavengers found it at an abandoned farmhouse. We also pool funds to buy two draft horses, a shaggy pair that came as a team package. The chestnut one is named Pierogi, and the bay one is named Chestnut. Shoshana attempts to have a Horse Girl Movie moment, but rolls a nat 1 and gets ignored.

Valeria, of course, buys a map to Hoska.

Clem checks her mail – she’s received a form letter thank you from the embassy in Schotzengrad – and sends 200 gold back home to her caravan, along with an update letter. Valeria writes a letter reporting back to Order of the Rose.

Clem gets busy decorating the cart in drow fashion to make it look presentable. She makes a start; a proper drow cart is decorated and redecorated over years and years. She encourages the rest of us to add our own designs, because in drow culture it’s important to have everyone in the caravan participate. We’re not at all familiar with the symbolic language used in drow art, but we’ll give it a try during a few long rests on the road.

Now we have a cart and horses and money and we bought some potions! We roll a mediocre enough survival check to meet the DC, so we head to Hoeska without issue.

Clem’s heard about Hoeska, which stands high in the collective memory of the czar’s military. During the Kevan occupation, it was said that castle was haunted. It was built 400 years ago by Gottfried von Hoesk, a Valdian warlord who wanted to become the first king of a unified Greatwood. He failed, but his descendants have occasionally tried again, and this is their ancestral seat of power. The elves, knowing its significance, took it as one of their first targets and stationed a garrison of 500 elves there. When the Valdian rebellion kicked into high gear, one of the big things that convinced the elves to leave was that the entire garrison vanished without a trace.

Shoshana, well, she’s heard plenty of stories about Hoeska. Every time a Valdian ghost story needs a mad wizard, or a ghost, or a vampire, or generally anything that lives in a big spooky castle, it takes place in Hoeska. Most of those stories are tall tales and urban legends, but on the other hand, there’s been an awfully long history of vampires and ghosts and mad wizards in Valdia, many of whom originated from or occupied the towering, dark castle on its isolated mountain.

Merchants who have been there say it’s a sprawling fortress; every inhabitant since Gottfried von Hoesk, from his descendants to various nobles to the elves, has added something else to castle, so it’s a big mismatch of styles. Some parts are a grim fortress, some are a luxury palace. The castle’s changed hands, but the von Hoesk family is still around and more often than not they ride in and reclaim their ancestral home. A couple of mad wizards were von Hoesks; when something truly evil goes down, usually a bunch of knights ride in and clear it out and some other von Hoesk descendant moves in. Rinse and repeat.

When the Cursebreakers were founded, their first move was to clear out Hoeska and take it over as their headquarters. It’s the Usual Suspect of spooky stuff in Valdia, but if the Cursebreakers found anything relating to the Curse there, they didn’t tell anyone.

Shoshana tells some ghost stories about it. Valeria eats them up. There’s a long Valdian tradition of “having a cousin” who worked at Hoeska as a servant and totally saw something spooky.

With the cart it takes like a day and a half to get from Three Oaks to the edge of Hoeska territory. As we approach, we see a guard house sitting on the road. Gral can see from a distance that the squat stone building appears to be abandoned. That’s not normal. We consider: should we avoid it because it probably has monsters in it, or should we go clear out the monsters and see if there’s loot? We’re gonna go see if there’s loot.

We get out of the wagon and approach, weapons drawn. The small stone building, just big enough for a couple of guards to keep an eye on the road, looks like it was abandoned in a hurry. We case the place quickly; there’s dried blood on the ground in the back storeroom. Maybe someone was killed here, or injured and brought here to get patched up? There’s not a body or anything. Gral’s keen eyes pick up a recent set of footprints; someone came in, after the guards had left, did something here, and then headed out into the woods.

The woods? In the Cursewood? Near the haunted castle? DEFINITELY full of dangerous monsters. But we’re PCs, so we want go investigate the mystery. Aethis stays behind to guard the cart, mildly weirding out the horses.

We follow the tracks into woods. Clem hears something behind her, and as she turns, a furry something whips out of brush and spears her for minor damage. She looks down and sees a scorpion stinger emerging from her torso. She barely has time to register it’s glistening with poison when she’s accosted by massive slavering jaws. This thing looks like it was once a huge wolf, but now has mutated into something far worse, and its teeth are buried deep in Clem’s armor.

Clem goes pale under her ash-dark skin, and must save against the panic and flood of memories brought up by the sudden sight of an attacking wolf.

How in the HELL did that thing get so close without us noticing?! Hell, we were following humanoid tracks – where did this monstrosity come from?!

Valeria immediately smites the hell out of it, and it does enough extra damage we suspect it’s some kind of fiend. Unfortunately, it’s immune to being Frightened, so Gral’s plan to Dissonant Whispers it past two tanks fizzles.

The wolfbeast uses the same tactic on Valeria as it did on Clem – as Valeria’s distracted by deflecting the stinger, it strikes in with its massive jaws, for a huge amount of damage.

Dammit, it’s resistant to Shoshana’s lightning, too. We’re in trouble.

As we’re barely fending this thing off, we can hear snarling and barking coming toward us from another direction. It sounds like wolves or dogs, smaller than this thing tearing through us. And Gral can faintly hear booted humanoid footsteps hurrying alongside them.

Clem misses on her first panicked swing but catches it on the upswing, Great Weapon Master letting her drive the blade deep. Valeria slices it good too, vines tearing through its corrupted flesh. Gral tries to Phantasmal force and fails) It swings its poisonous tail, and Valeria goes down, unconscious. Then it chomps on Clem. Clem is down – except, hold on, not so fast. She uses Last Gasp to use her Second Wind as she falls, in accordance with the Deal she has made with the Pale King.

Panicking, Shosha deals it thunder damage which it does not resist. BIG BOOM THO. That was dumb of me.

Shoshana, panicking, hits the thing with thunder damage. It doesn’t have resistance, but now everything in the forest knows we’re here. As Valeria passes her first Death Save, Gral shouts a Healing Word to keep her alive.

Three large hounds burst from the trees snarling and howling. A voice in Elven shouts “Alexei! Kill! Go for legs!”

Gral can’t understand Elven, so he goes for the neck with his sickle and draws a nasty gash across its throat. The thing glances around, snarling, furious at being deprived its meal, but it recognizes it’s in danger and withdraws, sprinting away into the forest.

A large wood elf wearing a tattered Cursebreaker coat steps out of woods holding a club and a heavy blunderbuss. He whistles sharply, and the hounds abruptly stop their pursuit. “No further!” He gestures, and the hounds spread out and form a perimeter.

“I do not know you,” he says in Valdian, though with a thick elven accent. “You fought the Shusva.”

“…The what?”

“That thing, the Shusva. At least, I found name in book. Seemed similar to this, yes? I am Ser Boris, of Cursebreaker Knights. What brings you here? Is dangerous territory.”

“Kyr Valeria Argent, at your service! We’ve been working with Ser Quentin Morozov.”

A grin breaks across his thickly bearded face. “Ah, Ser Morozov! I know him. The grumpy one! He talks to people, finds what is in hearts and minds. Goes to towns, finds cultists. As he is to the people, I am to the beasts.”

“Yes, we had information for him and needed to make a report. Also we were trying to meet up with another person headed this way?”

He grimaces. “How recently? This Shusva has been stalking roads.”

“Um, recent?” Shoshana interjects. “But he’s accompanied by two fuckhuge goliaths, so…?”

“Oh, yes, him. He is fine. Oh! You injured it!” Ser Boris cries, distracted. He pulls out a small waxed pouch and grabs a chunk of flesh off Clem’s blade. “Good! With this, we can track its scent! Not today, though, you are wounded. Must get you two to castle.”

“These are Alexei, Sasha, and Xander,” he introduces his hounds, which have heeled obediently.

“You are – ah! A drow!” He greets Clem in Elven. “You are very far from home!”

“Ah, home is where you make it,” she replies in kind.

He laughs. “Indeed, indeed. Come, we must share stories back at castle! I move here during war, think it would be peaceful.”

“Yeah, bit of a mistake, huh?”

“I do well enough. I have my dogs, I receive employment. And coat! Employment with coat is better than employment without coat, da?”

We go back to our cart, and Ser Boris is immediately taken with Aethis. “Oh, my! A wonderful beastie. Is it Celestial? May I see teeth?”

Valeria’s happy to make introductions.

“Have you cared for such a creature before? They are adapted for warm streams, not cold woods like these, you know.”

“Do they need any further care than occasional spellwork? That’s all they told us at the academy,” Valeria says, puzzled.

“Is gift from Rack, no? Then double important you take good care! It does not need it, but you must. Caring for exotic mount in inhospitable climate is difficult task. I will give you literature. You would not believe poor beasts Dr. Galvan had, I am giving him dietary instructions, seeing if I can create sweater for them to keep warm…”

He goes back to cooing over Aethis. “Nice luster on scales, though that is expected. Feets---oh, you’ve been running on hard road, you’ll get used to that. Very well. Castle is this way!”

He whistles, and the three hounds form a triangle around group. “Do not wander too far off, they may try to herd you.”

It’s somewhere around here that the pun finally hits the players. Ser Boris. Three dogs. …Cerberus.

The path winds up to the dramatic gates of castle Hoeska.

“Now if you look there, you will see castle.” A lightning bolt cracks dramatically across the sky, casting the castle in ominous silhouette.

“It always does that. It is very stormy around here. I do not know why. Impossible to get good sunlight. I worry for Alexei, he likes to frolic in sun, in fields of flowers. I am not allowed to let him in garden. How will Alexei frolic without field of flowers?”

There’s a Cursebreaker Knight at the gates, some kind of battlemage with a big staff. Next to him is a grim figure in full plate, holding a halberd and looking distinctly displeased to see us.

“Do not mind them, the castle guards do not appreciate us being here,” Ser Boris tells us cheerfully. “It is okay, we have permission. They do not like that we do their job better than them. Hello friend!” He waves. “These are guests, please open gate!”

The guard glares.

“Pretty please, open gate for Ser Boris and friends? And Alexei and Sacha! Oh, have you met Xander yet?”

The guard silently opens the gate, his withering scowl not diminishing a bit.

“I do not know what problem is. Must have woke up on wrong side of bed,” Boris chatters as we enter. “Maybe should not leave lunch where dogs can get it. Guard knows I am here with dogs! Maybe dogs have done nothing wrong ever in their life and guard should apologize for making such a fuss!”

We’re past the castle walls, in a large courtyard before entering the keep proper. As we pass our carts and horses off to some stablehands, we notice a familiar cart and two draft gatorbeasts in the stables, with quilted blankets thrown over them against the chill.

Parked incongruously among the carts is a looming metal construct in a hulking, vaguely humanoid shape, with buzz-saw arms protruding from the front and a machined metal owl mask affixed to what might charitably be called the face area. Peeling paint on the front reads “Valdian Tree Company,” and it’s chained to a heavy wagon proudly bearing the insignia of the Sturmhearst University College of Engineering.

Ser Boris shrugs. “Many visitors are here now. One shows up with that thing. I do not like. Not natural, so much metal moving on own.”

We step into the grand hallway of castle, past another set of guards and a big statue of a fine-featured man in armor, labeled Gottfried von Hoesk. Ah, Ingborg and Bjorn are there, drinking.

We hear someone clear his throat imperiously, and turn to see Ser Quentin, regarding us with annoyance. “You’re late,” he bites out pointedly.

“Uh, did we make an appointment to see you? Because I was certainly not informed,” Shoshana snarks back.

He doesn’t take the bait. “So. The Pale King.”

“…Yup!”

“That letter and those words are why we’ve been stuck here. You’ve been escalated to the higher ups, who would very much like to hear what you have to report in person. Follow me. The dogs can stay here.”

Ser Boris grumbles. “Is fine, they do not bite! Well, they might bite sandvich. I could go for sandvich. I get us all sandviches, yes?”

We head up grand winding stairs, into the more palatial section of castle, and find ourselves passing through long dark galleries full of portraits of von Hoesk ancestors. The eyes follow us as we walk by, natch.

The path we take is DEFINITELY a little bit Scooby Dooby Doors. Ser Quentin Definitely Does Not Get Lost on the way there, what are you talking about? “This place was built by a succession of mad architects in an intergenerational argument with each other, of course it’s a damn maze,” he huffs.

Eventually, we are taken into a small, elegant drawing room. Two figures sit in comfortable armchairs in front of a roaring fire.

“Allow me to present Ser Brigid Konig,” Ser Quentin states formally, gesturing to the old woman calmly knitting in the chair on the left.

The other chair holds a tall man with sharp cheekbones, a fine black and red outfit, and rather similar features to the statue in the foyer. “Our host, Ludwig von Hoesk,” Quentin introduces stiffly.

“Hello,” the old woman, Ser Brigid, greets us warmly. “Our dear Quentin has told me so very little about you. Quentin, did you offer them anything to eat? It would be quite rude to let our guests go hungry.”

“I am told Ser Boris has arranged for sandwiches,”

“Perfect. Sit down, everyone, pull up a chair.”

Gral unnatch 20s a perception. That Ludwig von Hoesk – maybe Gral’s gotten better at picking up on this sort of thing since we’ve spent so much time in in Mornheim, but there’s something odd about that fella. He’s a little too still when he sits still, his motion a little too deliberate. And his skin is awfully pale. The old lady? Her, he can’t get a read on, even with a 20. Daaaaang.

“If you would, please, tell us of your travels. Ser Morozov tells us you first worked together in Ovruch; why don’t you start there?” Ser Brigid asks.

We take turns describing the entities we’ve seen, how we’ve fought them, and how they seem to categorize themselves. We produce the Eyegis as evidence of the Key, and explain what the Astronomer told us regarding the concept of Prisoners.

Ludwig, though very reserved, seems keenly interested in Clem’s tale of Mornheim. Once we’ve told our tale, he asks us to produce the tapestry we took from the cultists in the manor. He examines the partially-woven image carefully, tracing a thin finger over the crowned, skeletal figure.

“Well, Luddy, does it look familiar?” Ser Brigid asks smugly.

The aristocrat is too dignified to roll his eyes, but just barely. “It does. If we’re just going to-“

“Oh, we’d have to clue them in sooner or later. They’ve done more in a few weeks than half my agents have done in years!”

Ser Quentin grumbles audibly. She ignores him.

“Ludwig, is that the symbol you described to me?”

“Yes.”

“And the name?”

“Yes.”

“Do you consider that independent verification of what I told you?”

“Yes.”

“So I think you owe me something, old friend.”

He lets out a huffy, aristocratic sigh. “Yes, fine. You weren’t lying, and I was right not to kill you. I apologize for doubting you.”

“Thank you. Oh, the sandwiches are here!”

He turns his attention back to the tapestry. “Yes, this is the thing that appeared to me and offered me a position at the head of its armies.”

…oh?!?!

He rolls his eyes at our alarm. “I refused, naturally,” he sniffs.

“I should hope so!” Valeria says, and removes her hand from her sword hilt.

“I have no interest in submitting myself to some power-hungry usurper.”

Ser Brigid winks at us. “Perhaps I should re-introduce us properly. My name is Ser Brigid Konig. I was on my way to Valdshart when the city went dark, to formally retire as the Duke’s chief vampire hunter.”

“And this is Ludwig von Hoesk. His son built this castle! For the past couple hundred years, my office has been dedicated solely to hunting and killing him. Greetings!”

She rolls her eyes at her companion, who looks a bit miffed. “Really. They would have figured it out eventually. And you are not subtle about it. With the spooky castle? And the red and black outfit? C’mon, Luddy.”

“A few years ago, shortly after the curse manifested, I had a dream. This in itself is quite unusual; I do not normally experience dreams. In it, a creature resembling the figure on your tapestry appeared to me, offering a position as general of its armies. As its power grew, it would gain control of all undead in Valdia, and it would like myself and my followers to be the first and most honored of its forces. Naturally I refused. There is only one king in Valdia, and it is not some strange skeletal specter.”

“Wait, we have a king?” Shoshana blurts. “…oh. You mean yourself, don’t you.”

“Yes. It was my son’s idea. And what can I say, I spoiled the boy. Now, I was wondering what to do about this vision when who shows up but a bunch of angry knights with crossbows? Not that we’re not used to such incursions.”

“Oh, I’ve been trying to storm this place for years,” Ser Brigid agrees airily. “Every time we try, a mysterious new von Hoesk heir shows up with money and a whole court of followers! People buy it every time. Wishful thinking, I suppose.”

“She accused me of being behind the Curse,” Ludwig explains dryly. “I argued otherwise, and eventually we came to an agreement. Which is why Brigid Konig, my worst nightmare, HAS BEEN LIVING IN MY HOUSE.”

“Yes!” she agrees, with a beatific granny smile. “This way, if you ARE behind it, I can kill you!” She lifts the blanket she’s knitting just enough to give us a peek at the crossbow hidden underneath. Gral sees runes on the crossbow similar to his heartseeker bolts. “The rules are simple! I get to use his house and money, and his people assist as we try to get to bottom of this thing! And in exchange, I don’t kill him!”

Ludwig sighs. “She removes the monsters. I don’t appreciate monsters in my land, and I genuinely will do anything in my not inconsiderable power to drive out these ruinous Prisoners. Even if it means entertaining a woman who’s been a thorn in my side for the last sixty years.”

“Not a thorn, arrows!” she retorts cheerfully. “And a scythe one time. You got better, you big baby!”

“Of course I got better, I’m a vampire.”

Quentin sighs. “Needless to say, all information disclosed in this room is top secret. Frankly, if it were up to me, I wouldn’t have chosen to divulge even this much.”

Ser Brigid turns her level gaze on him. “Please. The orc would have spotted something and said ‘My goodness, Kyr Argent, I suspect something is up with that handsome and brooding fellow,’ and then she would have Detected Undead, and killed several guards, and the castle would be on fire, and we’d be in the dungeons having this conversation, but it would be far more awkward!” She turns to us. “Have I read the situation right?”

“…yup,” admits Valeria.

“See? Now Quentin, dear, eat your sandwich, you’re far too skinny.”

Ludwig is not eating a sandwich. He has a glass of red wine, of course.

They grill us a bit about the Key, specifically, and the Sturmhearst scholars we met who seem rather susceptible to the whole knowledge-seeking lure.

“Hmm, yes. We have several guests here, two of whom are professors. Professor Galvan, whom you’ve met, and a visitor from Sturmhearst. Professor Bjork, from the College of Engineering. I have some suspicions about things going on there. He’s told us a few concerning stories; you might want to pick his brain and get your take on the situation.”

“Such an august institution,” Ludwig agrees. “I gave some of the money to start the place, I’d hate to see it go bad.”

We wonder if he knows Dr. Wendell. But it’s getting late, and while the party discusses their experiences in great detail, we’re going to cut session and pick back up once they’re ready to go meet some other guests of the von Hoesks.

[junker-town]

Tua Tagovailoa will be the NFL’s only lefty QB. Here’s why it matters

Tua Tagovailoa will be the first lefty quarterback in the NFL since Kellen Moore’s retirement.

Protecting a lefty’s blind side isn’t always as easy as moving a good offensive lineman to right tackle.

Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa doesn’t exactly look like the prototypical NFL quarterback prospect, and it’s not because he’s just 6’0. It’s one of Tagovailoa’s other traits that will make him one-of-a-kind in the NFL: He’s a lefty.

Now that he’s a member of the Miami Dolphins, who picked him fifth overall, Tagovailoa is the only left-handed quarterback in the league. The most recent was Kellen Moore, who was a backup for the Lions and Cowboys before retiring in 2018 to join the coaching ranks. The last two NFL touchdown passes thrown by lefties came from Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant and Titans safety Kevin Byard on trick plays in 2016 and 2018, respectively.

The NFL hasn’t always been an exclusively right-handed fraternity for quarterbacks. Steve Young and Ken Stabler were a pair of lefties who had Hall of Fame careers. Michael Vick, Boomer Esiason, and Mark Brunell all went to multiple Pro Bowls too.

Why lefty quarterbacks are rarer than ever is hard to say. A few NFL coaches and executives hypothesized baseball could be the reason. But Young told ESPN a likelier explanation is the rigidity of high school coaches who are afraid to change their playcalls and protections.

Either way, Tagovailoa is a unicorn of sorts in the NFL.

That’s more than just a piece of trivia, though. Tagovailoa’s left-handedness is something the Dolphins will have to account for moving forward. Particularly, when Miami builds an offensive line to protect him. History shows that can be easier said than done.

Other NFL teams have struggled to protect their lefty QBs

The last left-handed passer drafted in the top 10 was Matt Leinart. The Arizona Cardinals picked the Heisman Trophy winner 10th overall in 2006 and thrust him into the starting lineup just a few weeks into his rookie season.

The Cardinals finished the 2006 season with a 5-11 record, and their rookie quarterback threw 11 touchdowns with 12 interceptions. The following offseason, Arizona tried to provide Leinart some help by drafting Penn State offensive tackle Levi Brown with the fifth pick in the 2007 NFL Draft.

Brown was the starting left tackle for the Nittany Lions and earned All-Big Ten honors in his junior and senior seasons. However, he was immediately moved to right tackle with the Cardinals.

In most cases, a left tackle is considered significantly more valuable than right tackle. While the quality of pass rushers who line up on the right side has forced teams to invest more in right tackles as of late, the left tackle is still the offensive lineman responsible with protecting a right-handed quarterback’s blind side. With Tagovailoa at quarterback, that will need to be flip-flopped.

Arizona got poor results when it moved Brown to the right side. It wasn’t until 2010 — the year Leinart was released by the Cardinals — Brown was moved to left tackle after three lackluster seasons on the opposite side.

“I was hoping they’d do it earlier,” Brown told AZCardinals.com at the time. “I was hoping I’d be there to begin with. I don’t know what direction they were trying to go, but I’m here now.”

Left tackle didn’t work out either. Brown was traded to the Steelers in 2013 for literally nothing at all. Pittsburgh cut him a few months later and Brown is best remembered now as one of the worst draft picks the Cardinals ever made.

It’s impossible to know if Brown’s career was wasted by the transition from left tackle to right tackle. But finding an elite right tackle to protect a lefty’s blind side isn’t as easy as drafting the best offensive tackle in the nation and moving him to the right side.

The Broncos tried the same thing when they drafted Tim Tebow in 2010, and found slightly more success. A year after picking the lefty quarterback, Denver used a second-round pick to take Orlando Franklin, a mammoth lineman who played left tackle and left guard at Miami. Tebow only made 14 starts in two seasons with the Broncos, but Franklin stayed at right tackle even when Peyton Manning took over.

Even though he didn’t drown on the right side, Franklin was eventually moved to guard prior to his fourth season with the Broncos. He excelled on the interior and earned a five-year, $36.5 million contract with the Chargers.

If there’s a lesson for the Dolphins, it’s this: It needs to be wary of drafting a player without experience at right tackle. Assuming that player will make the transition smoothly is a dangerous risk. Fortunately, solving the problem is getting easier.

It’s becoming less difficult to find quality right tackles

Former NFL offensive lineman and current SB Nation contributor Geoff Schwartz spent most of his career — which spanned from 2008-2015 — playing on the right side of the line. In his words, “I couldn’t play left guard to save my life.” He’s not alone. Plenty of offensive linemen say there are significant challenges that come with switching sides.

“I really believe a lot of guys are more efficient at one side or the other,” Rams offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth told PFF in 2012. “Sure, most tackles are good players and can play both sides, but usually there is a vast difference in how technical or athletic they are one side to the other, if they keep switching. I really could never see myself as a right tackle, I’m a left-hand dominant guy all the way.”

But recently, an emphasis has been placed on training linemen to avoid being pigeonholed. Versatility is an increasingly valuable skill. While many players may still struggle with swapping sides, there are others who have prepared for the possibility.

There are even elite draft prospects with a wealth of experience on the right side. Two of the consensus top four offensive linemen in the 2020 NFL Draft — Tristan Wirfs and Jedrick Wills — were right tackles in college.

Wills was responsible for protecting Tagovailoa’s blind side in college and earned first-team All-SEC honors doing so. He’s expected to be an early draft selection this April, often appearing in the top 10 of mock drafts. Both Wills and Wirfs are nothing like the right tackle of old: a bulldozer who specializes in run blocking and is a bit too slow to effectively pass block.

“Right tackles are no longer stereotypical road graders,” Stephen White wrote in his breakdown of Wirfs’ abilities. “Instead, I’m starting to see a lot of ‘dancing bear’ types who I would normally expect to see at left tackle lining up and playing well on the right side. Wirfs is just another example of that shift.”

So is Wills, Alabama’s starting right tackle during both the Jalen Hurts and Tagovailoa eras. While Hurts is right-handed, Wills told Rich Eisen that blocking for the two quarterbacks only meant slight differences in the called protections. Ultimately, the goal was always the same.

“No matter what side of the line you’re playing on, you have to protect,” Wills said. “At the end of the day, you have to ball no matter what.”

It’s unlikely Miami will get to pair him with Wills or Wirfs. Regardless, finding a tackle prepared to play on the right side may not be as difficult as it was for the Cardinals back in 2007.

Tagovailoa’s handedness won’t determine his NFL fate

There are valid reasons to be nervous about Tagovailoa’s ability to lead the way for the Dolphins for the next decade or two.

He’s shorter than most NFL quarterbacks, a real concern even if it hasn’t stopped Drew Brees, Russell Wilson, or Kyler Murray. His supporting cast on the Crimson Tide offense — including an elite pair of receivers in Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs III — could have made him look better than he actually is.

Most importantly, Tagovailoa’s injury history could give teams pause. Even if he’s received “overwhelmingly positive” reviews from doctors on his hip surgery recovery, Tagovailoa has also had surgery on both of his ankles.

All those could be why Oregon’s Justin Herbert surged ahead of Tagovailoa in many mock drafts.

On the other hand (pun very much intended), Tagovailoa played in two national championships at Alabama — winning one of them — and finished his collegiate career with 87 touchdowns and just 11 interceptions.

Which hand Tagovailoa uses to throw is far down on the list of reasons he will or won’t succeed in the NFL. It’ll shape the way Miami builds its offensive line moving forward, but that’s a challenge that isn’t so daunting anymore.

[crohnsdigest]

The Coronavirus can be stopped but only with harsh steps the experts say.

Terrifying though the coronavirus may be, it can be turned back. China, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan have demonstrated that, with furious efforts, the contagion can be brought to heel. Whether they can keep it suppressed remains to be seen. But for the United States to repeat their successes will take extraordinary levels of coordination and money from the country’s leaders, and extraordinary levels of trust and cooperation from citizens. It will also require international partnerships in an interconnected world. There is a chance to stop the coronavirus. This contagion has a weakness. Although there are incidents of rampant spread, as happened on the cruise ship Diamond Princess, the coronavirus more often infects clusters of family members, friends and work colleagues, said Dr. David L. Heymann, who chairs an expert panel advising the World Health Organization on emergencies. No one is certain why the virus travels in this way, but experts see an opening nonetheless. “You can contain clusters,” Dr. Heymann said. “You need to identify and stop discrete outbreaks, and then do rigorous contact tracing.” But doing so takes intelligent, rapidly adaptive work by health officials, and near-total cooperation from the populace. Containment becomes realistic only when Americans realize that working together is the only way to protect themselves and their loved ones. In interviews with a dozen of the world’s leading experts on fighting epidemics, there was wide agreement on the steps that must be taken immediately. Those experts included international public health officials who have fought AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, flu and Ebola; scientists and epidemiologists; and former health officials who led major American global health programs in both Republican and Democratic administrations. Americans must be persuaded to stay home, they said, and a system put in place to isolate the infected and care for them outside the home. Travel restrictions should be extended, they said; productions of masks and ventilators must be accelerated, and testing problems must be resolved. But tactics like forced isolation, school closings and pervasive GPS tracking of patients brought more divided reactions.

Editors’ Picks

You Can Take Care of Yourself in Coronavirus Quarantine or Isolation, Starting Right NowThe Accusations Were Lies. But Could We Prove It?Is It OK to Take a Walk? It was not at all clear that a nation so fundamentally committed to individual liberty and distrustful of government could learn to adapt to many of these measures, especially those that smack of state compulsion. “The American way is to look for better outcomes through a voluntary system,” said Dr. Luciana Borio, who was director of medical and biodefense preparedness for the National Security Council before it was disbanded in 2018. “I think you can appeal to people to do the right thing.” In the week since the interviews began, remarkable changes have come over American life. State governments are telling residents they must stay home. Nonessential businesses are being shuttered. The streets are quieter than they have been in generations, and even friends keep a wary distance. What seemed unthinkable just a week ago is rapidly becoming the new normal. What follows are the recommendations offered by the experts interviewed by The Times.

Scientists must be heard

The White House holds frequent media briefings to describe the administration’s progress against the pandemic, often led by President Trump or Vice President Mike Pence, flanked by a rotating cast of officials. Many experts, some of whom are international civil servants, declined to speak on the record for fear of offending the president. But they were united in the opinion that politicians must step aside and let scientists both lead the effort to contain the virus and explain to Americans what must be done. Just as generals take the lead in giving daily briefings in wartime — as Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf did during the Persian Gulf war — medical experts should be at the microphone now to explain complex ideas like epidemic curves, social distancing and off-label use of drugs. The microphone should not even be at the White House, scientists said, so that briefings of historic importance do not dissolve into angry, politically charged exchanges with the press corps, as happened again on Friday. Instead, leaders must describe the looming crisis and the possible solutions in ways that will win the trust of Americans. Above all, the experts said, briefings should focus on saving lives and making sure that average wage earners survive the coming hard times — not on the stock market, the tourism industry or the president’s health. There is no time left to point fingers and assign blame. “At this point in the emergency, there’s little merit in spending time on what we should have done or who’s at fault,” said Adm. Tim Ziemer, who was the coordinator of the President’s Malaria Initiative from 2006 until early 2017 and led the pandemic response unit on the National Security Council before its disbanding. “We need to focus on the enemy, and that’s the virus.”

Stop transmission between cities

The next priority, experts said, is extreme social distancing. If it were possible to wave a magic wand and make all Americans freeze in place for 14 days while sitting six feet apart, epidemiologists say, the whole epidemic would sputter to a halt. The virus would die out on every contaminated surface and, because almost everyone shows symptoms within two weeks, it would be evident who was infected. If we had enough tests for every American, even the completely asymptomatic cases could be found and isolated. The crisis would be over. Obviously, there is no magic wand, and no 300 million tests. But the goal of lockdowns and social distancing is to approximate such a total freeze. To attempt that, experts said, travel and human interaction must be reduced to a minimum. Italy moved incrementally: Officials slowly and reluctantly closed restaurants, churches and museums, and banned weddings and funerals. Nonetheless, the country’s death count continues to rise. The United States is slowly following suit. International flights are all but banned, but not domestic ones. California has ordered all residents to stay at home; New York was to shutter all nonessential businesses on Sunday evening. But other states have fewer restrictions, and in Florida, for days spring break revelers ignored government requests to clear the beaches. On Friday, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, chief medical adviser to the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said he advocated restrictive measures all across the country.As State Pleas Mount, Trump Outlines Some Federal Action; Senate Democrats Block Stimulus PackageMarch 22, 2020 In contrast to the halting steps taken here, China shut down Wuhan — the epicenter of the nation’s outbreak — and restricted movement in much of the country on Jan. 23, when the country had a mere 500 cases and 17 deaths. Its rapid action had an important effect: With the virus mostly isolated in one province, the rest of China was able to save Wuhan. Even as many cities fought their own smaller outbreaks, they sent 40,000 medical workers into Wuhan, roughly doubling its medical force.

Latest Updates: Coronavirus Outbreak

As lockdowns spread, debate about costs grows.As the epidemic in New York explodes, other states worry about domestic contagion.Spanish soldiers find residents of nursing homes ‘absolutely abandoned.’ See more updatesMore live coverage: MarketsU.S.New York In a vast, largely closed society, it can be difficult to know what is happening on the ground, and there is no guarantee that the virus won’t roar back as the Chinese economy restarts. But the lesson is that relatively unaffected regions of the United States will be needed to help rescue overwhelmed cities like New York and Seattle. Keeping these areas at least somewhat free of the coronavirus means enacting strict measures, and quickly.

Stop transmission within cities

Within cities, there are dangerous hot spots: One restaurant, one gym, one hospital, even one taxi may be more contaminated than many identical others nearby because someone had a coughing fit inside. Each day’s delay in stopping human contact, experts said, creates more hot spots, none of which can be identified until about a week later, when the people infected there start falling ill. To stop the explosion, municipal activity must be curtailed. Still, some Americans must stay on the job: doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers; police officers and firefighters; the technicians who maintain the electrical grid and gas and phone lines. The delivery of food and medicine must continue, so that people pinned in their homes suffer nothing worse than boredom. Those essential workers may eventually need permits, and a process for issuing them, if the police are needed to enforce stay-at-home orders, as they have been in China and Italy. People in lockdown adapt. In Wuhan, apartment complexes submit group orders for food, medicine, diapers and other essentials. Shipments are assembled at grocery warehouses or government pantries and dropped off. In Italy, trapped neighbors serenade one another. It’s an intimidating picture. But the weaker the freeze, the more people die in overburdened hospitals — and the longer it ultimately takes for the economy to restart. South Korea avoided locking down any city, but only by moving early and with extraordinary speed. In January, the country had four companies making tests, and as of March 9 had tested 210,000 citizens — the equivalent of testing 2.3 million Americans. As of the same date, fewer than 9,000 Americans had been tested. Everyone who is infected in South Korea goes into isolation in government shelters, and phones and credit card data are used to trace their prior movements and find their contacts. Where they walked before they fell ill is broadcast to the cellphones of everyone who was nearby. Anyone even potentially exposed is quarantined at home; a GPS app tells the police if that person goes outside. The fine for doing so is $8,000. British researchers are trying to develop a similar tracking app, albeit one more palatable to citizens in Western democracies.

Fix the testing mess

Testing must be done in a coordinated and safe way, experts said. The seriously ill must go first, and the testers must be protected. In China, those seeking a test must describe their symptoms on a telemedicine website. If a nurse decides a test is warranted, they are directed to one of dozens of “fever clinics” set up far from all other patients. Personnel in head-to-toe gear check their fevers and question them. Then, ideally, patients are given a rapid flu test and a white blood cell count is taken to rule out influenza and bacterial pneumonia. Then their lungs are visualized in a CT scanner to look for “ground-glass opacities” that indicate pneumonia and rule out cancer and tuberculosis. Only then are they given a diagnostic test for the coronavirus — and they are told to wait at the testing center. The results take a minimum of four hours; in the past, if results took overnight, patients were moved to a hotel to wait — sometimes for two to three days, if doctors believed retesting was warranted. It can take several days after an exposure for a test to turn positive. In the United States, people seeking tests are calling their doctors, who may not have them, or sometimes waiting in traffic jams leading to store parking lots. On Friday, New York City limited testing only to those patients requiring hospitalization, saying the system was being overwhelmed.

Isolate the infected

As soon as possible, experts said, the United States must develop an alternative to the practice of isolating infected people at home, as it endangers families. In China, 75 to 80 percent of all transmission occurred in family clusters. That pattern has already repeated itself here. Seven members of a large family in New Jersey were infected; four have already died. After a lawyer in New Rochelle, N.Y., fell ill, his wife, son and daughter all tested positive. Instead of a policy that advises the infected to remain at home, as the Centers for Disease and Prevention now does, experts said cities should establish facilities where the mildly and moderately ill can recuperate under the care and observation of nurses. Wuhan created many such centers, called “temporary hospitals,” each a cross between a dormitory and a first-aid clinic. They had cots and oxygen tanks, but not the advanced machines used in intensive care units. American cities now have many spaces that could serve as isolation wards. Already New York is considering turning the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center into a temporary hospital, along with the Westchester Convention Center and two university campuses. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said on Saturday that state officials were also considering opening isolation wards. In China, said Dr. Bruce Aylward, leader of the World Health Organization’s observer team there, people originally resisted leaving home or seeing their children go into isolation centers with no visiting rights — just as Americans no doubt would. In China, they came to accept it. “They realized they were keeping their families safe,” he said. “Also, isolation is really lonely. It’s psychologically difficult. Here, they were all together with other people in the same boat. They supported each other.”

Find the fevers

Because China, Taiwan and Vietnam were hit by SARS in 2003, and South Korea has grappled with MERS, fever checks during disease outbreaks became routine. In most cities in affected Asian countries, it is commonplace before entering any bus, train or subway station, office building, theater or even a restaurant to get a temperature check. Washing your hands in chlorinated water is often also required. “They give you a sticker afterward,” said Dr. Heymann, who recently spent a week teaching in Singapore. “I built up quite a collection.” In China, having a fever means a mandatory trip to a fever clinic to check for coronavirus. In the Wuhan area, different cities took different approaches. Cellphone videos from China show police officers knocking on doors and taking temperatures. In some, people who resist are dragged away by force. The city of Ningbo offered bounties of $1,400 to anyone who turned in a coronavirus sufferer. The city of Qianjiang, by contrast, offered the same amount of money to any resident who came in voluntarily and tested positive. Some measures made Western experts queasy. It is difficult to imagine Americans permitting a family member with a fever to be dragged to an isolation ward where visitors are not permitted. “A lot of people’s rights were violated,” Dr. Borio said. Voluntary approaches, like explaining to patients that they will be keeping family and friends safe, are more likely to work in the West, she added.

Trace the contacts

Finding and testing all the contacts of every positive case is essential, experts said. At the peak of its epidemic, Wuhan had 18,000 people tracking down individuals who had come in contact with the infected. At the moment, the health departments of some American counties lack the manpower to trace even syphilis or tuberculosis, let alone scores of casual contacts of someone infected with the coronavirus. Dr. Borio suggested that young Americans could use their social networks to “do their own contact tracing.” Social media also is used in Asia, but in different ways. China’s strategy is quite intrusive: To use the subway in some cities, citizens must download an app that rates how great a health risk they are. South Korean apps tell users exactly where infected people have traveled. When he lectured at a Singapore university, Dr. Heymann said, dozens of students were in the room. But just before he began class, they were photographed to record where everyone sat. “That way, if someone turns up infected later, you can find out who sat near them,” Dr. Heymann said. “That’s really clever.” Contacts generally must remain home for 14 days and report their temperatures twice a day.

Make masks ubiquitous

American experts have divided opinions about masks, but those who have worked in Asia see their value. There is very little data showing that flat surgical masks protect healthy individuals from disease. Nonetheless, Asian countries generally encourage people wear them. In some cities in China where masks are compulsory, the police even used drones to chase individuals down streets, ordering them to go home and mask up. The Asian approach is less about data than it is about crowd psychology, experts explained. All experts agree that the sick must wear masks to keep in their coughs. But if a mask indicates that the wearer is sick, many people will be reluctant to wear one. If everyone is required to wear masks, the sick automatically have one on and there is no stigma attached. Also, experts emphasized, Americans should be taught to take seriously admonitions to stop shaking hands and hugging. The “W.H.O. elbow bump” may look funny, but it’s a legitimate technique for preventing infection. “In Asia, where they went through SARS, people understand the danger,” Dr. Heymann said. “It’s instilled in the population that you’ve got to do the right thing.”

Preserve vital services

Federal intervention is necessary for some vital aspects of life during a pandemic. Only the federal government can enforce interstate commerce laws to ensure that food, water, electricity, gas, phone lines and other basic needs keep flowing across state lines to cities and suburbs. Mr. Trump has said he could compel companies to prioritize making ventilators, masks and other needed goods. Some have volunteered; the Hanes underwear company, for example, will use its cotton to make masks for hospital workers. He also has the military; the Navy is committing two hospital ships to the fight. And Mr. Trump can call up the National Guard. As of Saturday evening, more than 6,500 National Guard members already are assisting in the coronavirus response in 38 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. High-level decisions like these must be made quickly, experts said. “Many Western political leaders are behaving as though they are on a tightrope,” said Dr. David Nabarro, a W.H.O. special envoy on Covid-19 and a veteran of fights against SARS, Ebola and cholera. “But there is no choice. We must do all in our power to fight this,” he added. “I sense that most people — and certainly those in business — get it. They would prefer to take the bitter medicine at once and contain outbreaks as they start rather than gamble with uncertainty.”

Produce ventilators and oxygen

The roughly 175,000 ventilators in all American hospitals and the national stockpile are expected to be far fewer than are needed to handle a surge of patients desperate for breath. The machines pump air and oxygen into the lungs, but they normally cost $25,000 or more each, and neither individual hospitals nor the federal emergency stockpile has ever had enough on hand to handle the number of pneumonia patients that this pandemic is expected to produce. New York, for example, has found about 6,000 ventilators for purchase around the world, Governor Cuomo said. He estimated the state would need about 30,000. The manufacturers, including a dozen in the United States, say there is no easy way to ramp up production quickly. But it is possible other manufacturers, including aerospace and automobile companies, could be enlisted to do so. Ventilators are basically air pumps with motors controlled by circuits that make them act like lungs: the pump pushes air into the patient, then stops so the weight of the chest can push the air back out. Automobiles and airplanes contain many small pumps, like those for oil, water and air-conditioning fluid, that might be modified to act as basic, stripped-down ventilators. On Sunday, Mr. Trump tweeted that Ford and General Motors had been “given the go-ahead” to produce ventilators. Providers, meanwhile, are scrambling for alternatives. Canadian nurses are disseminating a 2006 paper describing how one ventilator can be modified to treat four patients simultaneously. Inventors have proposed combining C-PAP machines, which many apnea sufferers own, and oxygen tanks to improvise a ventilator. The United States must also work to increase its supply of piped and tanked oxygen, Dr. Aylward said. One of the lessons of China, he noted, was that many Covid-19 patients who would normally have been intubated and on ventilators managed to survive with oxygen alone.

Retrofit hospitals

Hospitals in the United States have taken some measures to handle surges of patients, such as stopping elective surgery and setting up isolation rooms. To protect bedridden long-term patients, nursing homes and hospitals also should immediately stop admitting visitors and do constant health checks on their staffs, said Dr. James LeDuc, director of the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch. The national stockpile does contain some prepackaged military field hospitals, but they are not expected to be nearly enough for a big surge. In Wuhan, the Chinese government famously built two new hospitals in two weeks. All other hospitals were divided: 48 were designated to handle 10,000 serious or critical coronavirus patients, while others were restricted to handling emergencies like heart attacks and births. Wherever that was impractical, hospitals were divided into “clean” and “dirty” zones, and the medical teams did not cross over. Walls to isolate whole wards were built, and — as in Ebola wards — doctors went in one end of the room wearing protective gear and left by the other end, where they de-gowned under the eyes of a nurse to prevent infection.

Decide when to close schools

As of Saturday, schools in 45 states were closed entirely, but that is a decision that divided experts. “Closing all schools may not make sense unless there is documented widespread community transmission, which we’re not seeing in most of the country,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, a former C.D.C. director under President Barack Obama. It is unclear how much children spread coronavirus. They very seldom get sick enough to be hospitalized, which is not true of flu. Current testing cannot tell whether most do not even become infected. In China, Dr. Aylward said, he asked all of the doctors he spoke to whether they had seen any family clusters in which a child was the first to be infected. No one had, he said, which astonished him. That leaves a quandary. Closing schools is a normal part of social distancing; after all, schools are the workplaces for many adults, too. And when the disease is clearly spreading within an individual school, it must close. But closing whole school districts can seriously disrupt a city’s ability to fight an outbreak. With their children stuck at home, nurses, doctors, police officers and other emergency medical workers cannot come to work. Also, many children in low-income families depend on the meals they eat at schools. Cities that close all schools are creating special “hub schools” for the children of essential workers. In Ohio, the governor has told school bus drivers to deliver hot meals to children who normally got them at school.

Recruit volunteers

China’s effort succeeded, experts said, in part because of hundreds of thousands of volunteers. The government declared a “people’s war” and rolled out a “Fight On, Wuhan! Fight On, China!” campaign. It made inspirational films that combined airline ads with 1940s-style wartime propaganda. The ads were somewhat corny, but they rallied the public. Many people idled by the lockdowns stepped up to act as fever checkers, contact tracers, hospital construction workers, food deliverers, even babysitters for the children of first responders, or as crematory workers. With training, volunteers were able to do some ground-level but crucial medical tasks, such as basic nursing, lab technician work or making sure that hospital rooms were correctly decontaminated. Americans often step forward to help neighbors affected by hurricanes and floods; many will no doubt do so in this outbreak, but they will need training in how not to fall ill and add to the problem. “In my experience, success is dependent on how much the public is informed and participates,” Admiral Ziemer said. “This truly is an ‘all hands on deck’ situation.”

Prioritize the treatments

Clinicians in China, Italy and France have thrown virtually everything they had in hospital pharmacies into the fight, and at least two possibilities have emerged that might save patients: the anti-malaria drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, and the antiviral remdesivir, which has no licensed use. There is not proof yet that any of these are effective against the virus. China registered more than 200 clinical trials, including several involving those treatments, but investigators ran out of patients in critical condition to enroll. Italy and France have trials underway, and hospitals in New York are writing trial protocols now. One worry for trial leaders is that chloroquine has been given so much publicity that patients may refuse to be “randomized” and accept a 50 percent chance of being given a placebo. If any drug works on critical cases, it might be possible to use small doses as a prophylactic to prevent infection. An alternative is to harvest protective antibodies from the blood of people who have survived the illness, said Dr. Peter J. Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. The purified blood serum — called immunoglobulin — could possibly be used in small amounts to protect emergency medical workers, too. “Unfortunately, the first wave won’t benefit from this,” Dr. Hotez said. “We need to wait until we have enough survivors.”

Find a vaccine

The ultimate hope is to have a vaccine that will protect everyone, and many companies and governments have already rushed the design of candidate vaccines. But as Dr. Fauci has explained multiple times, testing those candidate vaccines for safety and effectiveness takes time. The process will take at least a year, even if nothing goes wrong. The roadblock, vaccine experts explained, is not bureaucratic. It is that the human immune system takes weeks to produce antibodies, and some dangerous side effects can take weeks to appear. After extensive animal testing, vaccines are normally given to about 50 healthy human volunteers to see if they cause any unexpected side effects and to measure what dose produces enough antibodies to be considered protective. If that goes well, the trial enrolls hundreds or thousands of volunteers in an area where the virus is circulating. Half get the vaccine, the rest do not — and the investigators wait. If the vaccinated half do not get the disease, the green light for production is finally given. In the past, some experimental vaccines have produced serious side effects, like Guillain-Barre syndrome, which can paralyze and kill. A greater danger, experts said, is that some experimental vaccines, paradoxically, cause “immune enhancement,” meaning they make it more likely, not less, that recipients will get a disease. That would be a disaster. One candidate coronavirus vaccine Dr. Hotez invented 10 years ago in the wake of SARS, he said, had to be abandoned when it appeared to make mice more likely to die from pneumonia when they were experimentally infected with the virus. In theory, the testing process could be sped up with “challenge trials,” in which healthy volunteers get the vaccine and then are deliberately infected. But that is ethically fraught when there is no cure for Covid-19. Even some healthy young people have died from this virus.

Reach out to other nations

Wealthy nations need to remember that, as much as they are struggling with the virus, poorer countries will have a far harder time and need help. Also, the Asian nations that have contained the virus could offer expertise — and desperately needed equipment. Jack Ma, the billionaire founder of Alibaba, recently offered large shipments of masks and testing kits to the United States. Wealthy nations ignored the daily warnings from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the W.H.O.’s director general, that far more aggressive efforts at isolation and contact tracing were urgently needed to stop the virus. “Middle income and poorer nations are following the advice of international organizations while the most advanced nations find it so hard to implement it,” Dr. Nabarro said. “That must change.” In declaring the coronavirus a pandemic, Dr. Tedros called for countries to learn from one another’s successes, act with unity and help protect one another against a threat to people of every nationality. “Let’s all look out for each other,” he said. click here to read more on crohnsdigest click here to buy the Best supplements for the immune system: Natural remedies to boost your immune system click here to read top tips to keeping fit and healty Read the full article

[schrodingers-rufus]

Contact

Even later late-night stream-of-consciousness Marble Hornets time-travel fic, sequel to Last Chance. [AO3 link]

“Hey, Alex, do you have Tim’s number? Oh. Uh, yeah, sorry about that. I must’ve forgotten to transfer the numbers to my phone. I’m not really by a computer right now. No, I swear, I’m fine, I just--Thanks. Thanks, I definitely owe you one.”

---

“Hi, I’m--can you transfer me to the electronics department? I’m uh, looking for a camera, and I thought I’d call around and ask about prices.”

---

“Mom? No, no reason. Just thought I’d, I dunno, check in.”

---

Jay pulled the thin sweatshirt tighter around himself, hand shaking as he locked the car door behind him. The wind was picking up, and with what little sunlight was left, he could see thick, black clouds rolling in. It was summer--he knew it was supposed to be summer--but a chill had still managed to seep into his bones, one he couldn’t completely attribute to the oncoming storm. His mind flicked back--Entry #17, Entry #20--the strange comments about the cold, wearing jackets in the middle of the afternoon. It was only the beginning of June; things shouldn’t have been moving this fast.

He pushed open the door of the McDonald's and slid into a booth, the brightly-colored pleather seats snagging on his jeans. He’d order later.

He tried calling Tim earlier in the evening, asking to meet--well, he tried texting first, but Tim’s phone rejected it. Tim’s response was short, blunt; he was staying with Brian, so he wouldn’t be able to just get up and leave. Jay, making a split-second decision that he hoped he wouldn’t regret, told Tim that Brian was welcome to come along, and that it was really important, and that he’d pay for their food if that helped any. (Apparently, it did.)

Jay checked his watch. The rain started coming down.

Jay checked his watch again. With some effort, he slid back out of the booth and ordered a small box of fries.

Jay checked his watch again. He flipped his phone open to check for messages. He missed Twitter.

There was a clatter at the door, the loud roar of rain-on-pavement, and Jay jerked upright to look. Two figures, half-soaked and dripping, one holding his jacket closed in shaking fists and the other pulling the hood down from over his head and no, no, no, that wasn’t right.

The hooded figure--Brian, he knew that was Brian--scanned the crowd, spotting Jay and waving, and Jay managed a half-wave back, but he couldn’t meet his eyes, too busy staring at his sweatshirt. (Had he ever worn that in the tapes? He couldn’t have--if Jay hadn’t caught it, the viewers would, right?)

“Hey.” Brian slid into the booth across from Jay, and Tim followed, making one last glance at the door. Leaning forward onto his elbows with a wry smile, Brian continued, “How’d the doctor’s appointment go?”

“Fine,” Jay managed, still dazed, still processing. He tried to pull himself together. “I’m fine, just--just dehydrated, that’s all. Low blood sugar, too--maybe I skipped lunch or something. They just had me drink some water and orange juice and let me go.”

Brian raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

Tim spoke up then, eyes cast down at the table. “What’s with the camera?”

“Cam--? Oh. That’s just for--” Jay mentally flicked through a list of excuses, none of them good. Thinking back to the ribbing his viewers gave him after “a documentary on hotels”, he cringed inwardly. Jay guessed honesty was the best policy, though given who he’d just realized he was dealing with, he could never be sure. “That’s...sort of related to what I wanted to talk to you about.”

Tim fixed Jay with an unreadable look, reaching out to gently turn the camera lens away.

He didn’t turn it off, though, so Jay counted it as a win.

Brian sat back, grinning. “Well, before we get down to anything serious, I’d say dinner is in order.”

“We already had dinner,” Tim mumbled.

“Second dinner, then.” Brian nudged Tim with an elbow. “Get out, I’m being summoned by the siren-song of free food.”

Tim obliged, snickering under his breath. “Does this count as ‘carbo-loading’?”

“God, it still sounds like a foreign language when you say it.” Brian made a show of stretching his leg. “And as the only one here who is a newly-minted second-year member of the most renowned university cross-country team in the county, I say yes. Yes it does.”

Tim rolled his eyes, muttering about it being the only university team in the county, and Jay followed them silently, listening to their banter with the camera held low. He ordered last, indulging in a fried chicken sandwich--a dollar more than a regular burger, but he didn’t have to pay for a hotel room that night, so he could afford to splurge a bit, even with the cost of Brian and Tim’s food factored in.

Soon they were back at the booth, trays in hand, and Jay could feel the time he had left to put off the conversation running out. He took a bite of his sandwich.

“So,” Brian said through a mouthful of reconstituted beef, “What’s up?”

Jay forced himself to finish chewing and swallow, feeling Brian and Tim’s eyes boring into his skull the longer he took. “It’s, uh. About today.”

Brian nodded, waiting for him to continue. Tim’s eyes flickered to the window before settling back on Jay, and Jay had to resist the urge to turn his head to see what he’d been looking at.

Jay took a deep breath. “So, I did see something, out at Rosswood. That wasn’t some joke, that was. That was real.” Jay rubbed at his eyes before continuing. “And that thing that I saw, it was dangerous. I know it’s dangerous, but if you asked me how I knew, you’d probably call me...y’know, crazy or something.”

Tim’s mouth constricted in a thin line, and Brian leaned back, crossing his arms. “Try me.”

“That’s--that’s why I called you guys here, I guess.” Jay drummed his fingers gently against the top of the camera, now sitting back on the table. “Well, Tim, specifically. Because I, uh, I know you’d know what I’m talking about, for the same reason why I know that thing’s dangerous.”

Tim pulled his hand off the table, but for a second Jay thought he saw it shaking. “We’ve only seen each other once, maybe twice before today. What the hell makes you ’know I’d know’?”

“Because--” Jay didn’t have a good answer, and he knew it. He sank down to the table, hands gripping his hair and pulling.

“What’d you see out there?” Brian asked, more gently than Jay deserved.

Jay forced himself to sit back up, to let go of his head. Instead he gripped the handle of the camera, still stiff from disuse. “I saw...well, it looks sort of human, but it’s really clearly not. It’s like a man, but the arms and legs are too long, and the face is--”

Jay barely had time to notice the sound of a tray hitting the floor before Tim’s fists were clenched in his shirt, yanking him up and out of the booth.

“Who put you up to this?” Tim was wild-eyed, feral. “Alex?”

Jay tried to push back, mind still reeling too hard to put up a decent fight. “I--nobody, I--”

“Bullshit.” Tim’s face was close, too close, and Jay winced as saliva hit his cheek. “I don’t know who told you, but it’s not funny--”

And then Brian was there, looping his arms under Tim’s, pulling him back and away and forcing him to lose his grip on Jay’s shirt. Jay scrambled backwards just as Tim escaped, turning to face Brian with a wide-eyed, painful expression Jay finally pegged as betrayal.

“It was you, wasn’t it.” Tim spoke softly, voice shaking. “I know I had one of those--those episodes when I was staying at your house. You told me I did. You said I didn’t say any--anything about what I saw, but how am I supposed to believe that?” Tim reeled back, and though Jay looked away when his fist connected, he kept the camera steady.

Brian started to stammer an explanation, an apology, maybe something else, when a woman in a uniform rounded the counter, shouting at the three of them to get out and threatening to call the police.

They found themselves cowering under the narrow overhang, backs against the wall of the restaurant. Tim was still shaking, and Jay knew he should wait until Tim cooled off, but he had to say something.    

“Nobody told me but you, Tim,” Jay started to pace, limited by the narrow strip of dry sidewalk. “But you don’t remember. Nobody remembers. I know things from--I just know things, alright? And I know you think that thing’s not real, but I swear, Tim, it is, and if we don’t keep it away from everybody, people are going to end up dead.”

Tim stared.

“I’m--I’m from the future, I guess--Iike, like one of those movies, where time resets, but only one person remembers, and I don’t know how many more chances I get, but we have to fix this, or what’s the point?” Jay covered his face with his free hand, taking a deep breath. “And I guess that’s. The truth,” he finished haltingly, afraid to look up and see disbelief.

“Prove it.” Tim’s voice was hard.

Brian spoke up more quietly, and when Jay finally looked up, he could see that he was nursing a black eye. His posture was unusually hunched, withdrawn. “Tell us something you...couldn’t know.”

A hundred thousand ideas flashed through Jay’s mind, none of them good, but he’d already started talking, “Okay, that site where we had to host our post-production projects last semester? YouTube? That gets...really big. And there’s this place where--where people post really short messages, like ‘microblogging’, I think they call it, and that--everybody uses that, and--and--” Stupid, stupid. He needed to say something they could verify. “Tim, I’ve--I’ve seen your medical records. Somebody--” Brian, but he couldn’t very well say that. “--Somebody steals them from your doctor’s office, in 2012, and gives them to me. You used to be a patient at--at that hospital that burned down, near Rosswood, and you’ve got these pills, anticonvulsants, I think, and they don’t fix everything, but they help, because that thing, when it’s nearby, people start having seizures, and--” Jay could hear his voice climbing, becoming more hysterical, but he couldn’t stop it. “--you gave them to me, once, and I told you to cut it out, because they were just a band-aid, they couldn’t actually fix anything, but--”

“Shut up,” Tim cut him off, voice rough.

Jay shut up.

“Say you’re right,” Tim started, warily. “Say that thing’s real. And it’s been real. And you’re from the future. What next?”

Jay leaned heavily against the wall. “Well, first thing’s first: We stop Alex’s movie.”

Brian snorted quietly. “I think we can call that a mercy killing.”

Jay grimaced. “More than you know.”

Tim whirled on him, eyes wide. “We’re not gonna--”

“No!” Jay waved his hands in surrender. “But if we don’t get Alex away from Rosswood and that thing, he...might. With the, uh, killing.” One hand absent-mindedly rubbed at his side.

Tim and Brian were silent at that. Jay didn’t mind; it gave him more time to think.

Finally, Brian spoke up. “So, what is with the camera?”

“A few things.” Jay held it higher. “It’s mostly for--for memory. I--well, all of us, really--started losing memory, so I kept the tapes around so I could look back and see what happened. I also had--had to show people. Warn them, and stuff. It shows up on the tapes, so that’s proof. Last thing was sort of a bonus: it messes with electronics, so sometimes you can pick up on the camera when it’s around. I mean, usually at that point, it’s too late, but it’s still useful sometimes.” Jay cut himself off. He’d put too much thought into this. Granted, that camera was probably the only thing that kept him alive for four years and seventy-nine entries, so he guessed he owed it the time.

“Sorry I asked,” Brian said, grimacing.

“Sorry I punched you in the face,” Tim said quickly. At Brian’s raised eyebrow, he kept going. “Sorry, I was just thinking about it, and I...” Jay could see the lighter in his hand, though he didn’t take out a cigarette. “But if this turns out to be some Candid Camera bullshit, you are getting another black eye.”

Brian shot Jay a look, and with a start, Jay lowered the camera.

Brian turned to Tim, though Tim’s eyes were still locked on the pavement. When he spoke, he spoke quietly, almost too quietly for Jay to hear. Jay hoped the microphone was strong enough to pick it up. “If it helps back up his story, I...think I’ve seen it. Out the window, last time you slept over.”

Tim stared. Jay did too, for that matter.

“Tall guy, no face?” Brian mimed as he spoke. “Wearing a suit?”

“Holy shit,” Tim whispered.

“I thought I was just misremembering what I saw, but, uh.” Brian scratched at the back of his head. “Guess not.”

“Guess not,” Tim agreed, still wearing that thousand-yard stare.

The rain started to let up.

“Now that you’ve been...warned and all, I guess I should head back.” Jay tried to remember the address of the apartment he’d rented that summer. It was fuzzy, but he could probably get there on his own. He hid his camera under his sweatshirt. “I got your numbers from Alex, so it shouldn’t be too hard to keep in touch.”  

Brian stepped forward. “No.”

Jay turned on his heel, already halfway into the rain. “No, what?”

“No, we’re not splitting up.” Tim answered for him.

“If we’re in a horror movie, we’re not breaking rule number one.” He paused. “I mean, rule number two is ‘don’t have sex,’ but I don’t think we’ve got a problem there.”

Tim shoved him, and he snickered triumphantly.     

Jay sidled back under the overhang, hesitant. “Then what? You all come over to my place? Crash on the floor of my studio apartment?”

“Au contraire,” Brian raised a finger. “My parents were already expecting one friend to sleep over. I doubt they’d mind two.”

Jay’s mind locked up on ‘friend’, and he could feel himself smiling, despite efforts to the contrary. “Okay. Alright. That’s not how I expected tonight ending at all, but, that makes. A lot of sense.”

“Of course it does.” Brian slung an arm around Jay’s shoulder, and Jay stiffened with surprise. “Existential terror sleepover.”

“Let’s, uh, try to not die,” Tim added.

Jay let himself be herded to Brian’s car. “Yeah, let’s...not do that this time.”

Brian stopped in his tracks. “What?”

“Nothing!”

[rayramsayus]

My First Professional Stage Management Responsibility

One more experience I will never forget was a time that John Wayne had a gathering on his boat in San Diego to support a charity that I can no longer remember. Mr. Wayne, Aldo Rea. Tim Hutton and others were there and we took the ship out for a spin, I got to attend as Josie Pollack’s friend. I found Mr. Wayne to be friendly and somewhat opinionated and, at times, funny. He was 6’4”, the tallest actor I had ever met at that point. John Wayne was legendary and his personality was intense, to say the least.

Well, it’s time to talk about something that happened that really changed my future. I had been volunteering my time in the theatre’s production department and especially with the stagehands, I had been volunteering to work with the stage manager and some point Mr. Doolittle told me that the theatre would sponsor me to become an Equity Stage Manager.

He even went so far as to put up the money for me to join the AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists Union ) as well as the Actors Equity Union that is required for you to be certified as a stage manager, I was accepted and became a certified Stage Manager. Boy, you don’t realize how many performers and crew members count on your professionalism and focus. I remember when Doolittle told me about my first stage manager job at the Huntington Hartford, The play was called “Private Lives” by Noel Coward and it was set to star Brian Bedford and Tammy Grimes. He told me that he had arranged for me to have lunch at the Brown Derby which was just across the street from the theatre.

Well wow, I was excited and showed up dressed in my best coat and tie to meet them. Well, the meeting was going beautifully when all of a sudden I sneezed for some reason and threw out my lower back, launching me into extreme pain and the ability to straighten up or walk for that matter. We had to call an ambulance so I could leave the restaurant and get some care for my condition. They took me to an emergency room where they ultimately gave me some muscle relaxers and stretched my lower vertebrae back into place which virtually illuminated a substantial amount of my pain and mobility.

So the good news was that I was back on my feet within 48 hours. Well, I thought my career as a stage manager was totally over and especially being considered to be the stage manager for the “Private Lives” show. Fortunately, the doctors gave the release to go back to work and the stars of the show said they would be happy with me being the stage manager for the show. So I was not fired before I even got to start and I thanked them for their faith in my abilities to perform the duties. So I was good to go with my first professional stage management responsibility thanks for Brian Bedford and Tammy Grimes faith in my abilities to do the job.  When you consider the fact that I had never professionally stage-managed a show and I was only 25 years old at the time.

Note: To give an explanation for what happened with my back. I later learned that I had some curvature of my spine and that my last vertebrae did not form properly. Because of this, I was getting a lot of pain occasionally from my lower back. It could be brought on by something as small as a sneeze or bending over incorrectly.  When it would go out just shaving would be very painful. When it would go out it would take several days for me to get back to work. I finally had enough and went to see an orthopedic surgeon. As part of his evaluation, he took a series of X-Rays and other spinal checks.  He informed me that my problem was the fact that I had some curvature of my spine since my last vertebrae did not form properly and because of this a lot of the cartilage surrounding my lower vertebrae was deteriorating. He told me he could operate on this but couldn’t guarantee that the outcome would totally solve my condition.

Then he told me that my best solution would be a series of exercises that would build up my muscles surrounding the vertebrae. He then said something I have never forgotten. If you will do these exercises every day you can illuminate the pain and back issues for many years. Then he said I know you won’t do it because no one I tell to do this actually does it, I told him if I can make the pain and inconvenience go away I will definitely do the exercises every day forever. He said that most of the people just didn’t stick with it. It’s going to take you several months to accomplish what you need. Well, I did it, I go to the gym 5 days a week and since I do I have not had an issue with my back since then.

Well, the show went off without a hitch and everyone was very pleased with my stage management capabilities. I also became fast friends with the performers in the show and kept in touch for a while. The next show I got to work on was “Bell Book & Candle” starring Zsa Zsa Gabor. Ms. Gabor was a real piece of work. Basically, she wasn’t a very nice person. She went through 8 dressers during the rehearsals alone. We were having real difficulties finding anyone to want to work with her. Most of the time she was just plain rude to the crew and others in the cast who had to work with her. Everyone loved her sister but hardly anyone liked her. That said, the show went off well despite her and her less than good reviews. She thankfully didn’t give me much trouble and even asked me to work with her in her wigs business which I refused to do.

The next show was probably the one I was most proud of. There was a group of actors that came together to start a theatre group called the Plumsted Players which was a group of very famous actors who wanted to produce some classic plays that hadn’t been produced for years. Some of the members of the group where Henry Fonda, Robert Ryan, Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury, and Agnes Moorehead. And many others that I just can’t remember. I was privileged to have met and become acquainted with Helen Hayes (first lady of the American Theatre), Angela Lansbury and others. From the 50’s and 60’s era. One of the things that I found incredible was the language this woman would use would make you cringe. You didn’t want to make a mistake because when they came off stage they could out curse any man alive. The women I met and worked with could hold their own with any man. Their language just blew me away. Hearing the first lady of the theatre say things you would never say to a woman. My next show was “Our Town” starring Henry Fonda, at the Huntington Hartford theatre. I have got to say one of my favorite actors back then was Henry Fonda and the chance to meet him and work with him was a dream come true. Mr. Fonda was much more than I expected. He was a really nice man and very appreciative of everyone who worked with him. That said, he and I got along beautifully and he was very kind to everyone on the crew and the other actors working with him in the show. The show was a huge success and was sold out every night to great reviews. Mr. Fonda made it a point to introduce me to his wife at the time as well as kids Jane & Peter. Jane was very nice and Peter could have cared less and not all that friendly as he at the time was basting in his success with “Easy Rider”. Of all the shows I ever worked on Henry Fonda was the only star to attend the cast party at the end of the show He stayed until the party ended, engaged in conversation with everyone and posed for photos with just about everybody.

He had the uncanny ability to make everyone feel he truly appreciated your efforts in making the show a success. He always made you feel that you were a friend, not just an associate.

We kept in touch and when he decided to write produce another play. He got in touch with Josie Pollack and asked if I would stage-manage his new play which he was going to open at the Santa Barbara Civic Theatre. The theme of the show was the Generation Gap (which was a hot topic back then”. It was a one-man show and all I was responsible for was making sure the sound and lights were working and there as I remember some supported video he used on the topic. Back then the problem was that your children didn’t like you and the Vietnam War was extremely unpopular and there were many anti-war demonstrations and many blamed everyone over 40 and were doing anything to stop the war and Henry Fonda’s Daughter was, unfortunately, the poster child of the conflict. I remember coming to the theatre to do a rehearsal and test the sound, lighting, and video to make sure all was working,

The post My First Professional Stage Management Responsibility appeared first on Ray.

from Ray https://rayramsay.com/my-first-professional-stage-management-responsibility/

[big2showcom]

Marvel Movie & TV Show

So far as big screen superhero adventures go, the two biggest names in the industry are Marvel Studios, the group behind , and Warner Bros., the studio responsible for assembling the . However, long before Captain America: Civil War and Batman v Superman: Length of Justice, until Iron Man, and even before 2002’s genre-defining Spider-Man, there was Bryan Singer’s .

Released way back in 2000, X-Men combined a group of super-powered people in a thought-provoking action blockbuster that   had been half summer scene, and half an thought-provoking drama. The end result was a franchise which, while it has noticed its ups and downs over time, has endured and lived for seventeen decades, and is still showing no signs of quitting. The tenth and latest film from the series, , started into a spectacular $88 million, and is now closing in about $200 million people and $550 million worldwide.

What is next for Deadpool, Wolverine, Professor X, and the rest of 20th Century Fox’s stable of Marvel characters? Let us Look at Each Fox/Marvel Project Currently In Development.

The X-Men movie series has generally skewed towards largely self-serious, timelinessalong using a strong serving of big-budget action/adventure. 2016’s eschewed all of the internal logic and stoic characterization of this franchise in exchange for broad and raunchy R-rated comedy… And it worked! Deadpool, despite being the smallest budget of any X-Men movie at just $58 million, proceeded to function as highest-grossing movie in the series yet — shooting in a remarkable $783 million worldwide.

Though the talent has been changed around slightly a sequel was quickly green lit. The first Deadpool has been helmed by Tim Miller in his own directorial debut, and it was anticipated that he would return for the protagonist. But, Miller finally awakened ways with the job due to creative differences with celebrity and producer Ryan Reynolds. Eventually, David Leitch (John Wick) stepped in to take the reins on Deadpool 2.

While plot details are being kept under wraps, it is known (based on the post-credits stinger of their very first movie) which Cable will take a look. Since that time, a amount of actors were rumored for the job, by Pierce Brosnan and Brad Pitt into Stephen Lang and Russell Crowe, it looks like every middle-aged top man has been considered for the time-traveling cyborg. The current frontrunner appears to be none besides Michael Shannon (Man of Steel). Whatever the case turns out to be, a formal announcement is anticipated soon. In the meantime, Drew Goddard (Netflix’s Daredevil, Cabin in the Woods) has been brought in to gloss the script to the subversive superhero sequel, which will feature Zazie Beetz (Atlanta) as fan-favorite comic character Domino.

Deadpool 2 has no formal launch date however, but Fox includes March 2, 2018  and June 29, 2018 penciled in to their Marvel movies, and it is fair to anticipate Deadpool to property on the earlier date, together with the second being earmarked for New Mutants (but more about this in a little).

For a time, it was speculated that, after Deadpool 2, Deadpool 3 would ostensibly focus on the X-Force group, together with Deadpool himself becoming part of the film’s costume of mutants. Recently it was confirmed that Deadpool 3 and X-Force are, in reality, two individual films, both of which are being proposed at the same time. Based on how scheduling finally ends up, it is possible   audiences might receive two movies starring Deadpool over the course of a single calendar year. Deadpool 3 does not have a director yet, however Joe Carnahan (Stretch, Narc) has been connected to write and possibly direct X-Force.

It’s too early to tell exactly what Deadpool 3 might entail, although it’s likely it might set the stage for X-Force. In the comics, the X-Force is a top-secret squad of mutants sent on key black-ops missions (believe Stryker’s team at X-Men Origins: Wolverine), and the rotating roster of mutants on the group has showcased Cable, Deadpool, Wolverine, Psylocke, Domino, and a lot more, incluing — that is the case — Dead Girl. It’s currently unknown which, if any, of these mutants will show up in the movie, although it’s exceptionally improbable which Wolverine will look, despite Ryan Reynolds’s fantasies.

Between Deadpool, Logan, also X-Force, it is clear that Fox is willing to let the X-Men brand stretch its legs and research new thoughts outside of their franchise’s recognized confines. This trend is set to continue at the approaching X-Men spin-off, New Mutants. The creative  group behind The Fault in our Stars (director Josh Boone, writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber) are top this particular X-Men story, which is being described as “John Hughes meets Stephen King.”

New Mutants, such as seemingly any big-name blockbuster nowadays, is being pitched as a trilogy, and will likely include the iconic Demon Bear from the comics. The throw is now unknown, however, with filming scheduled to occur in May, formal announcements ought to be right around the corner.

The movie is expected to contain characters like Cannonball, Wolfsbane, Magik, and Sunspot, all of whom will likely be played by teenaged actors. Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) will be firmly rumored to the Use of Wolfsbane, and James McAvoy might make an appearance as Professor X. While no release date has been announced, expect this one to heat up quickly, as it is forecast to enter full-tilt production.

2016 saw two X-Men movies hit theatres. To begin with, Deadpool arrived and blew away expectations, making well over ten times its own funding in global grosses. It was. 2016’s other X-Men movie, Apocalypse, while by no way a dismal failure, failed to enrapture audiences such as Deadpool or 2014’s Times of Future Past, earning $543 million worldwide on a funding of $178 million. Not a collapse, however maybe not a lot to write home about.

Still, the X-Men brand   is stronger compared to the box-office under-achiever here and there, and production on the next chapter of this mainline X-Men saga is now underway. It was previously rumored that the movie would be eligible X-Men: Supernova, however, that’s since been revealed for a mere placeholder, and also the picture’s true title stays under wraps. However, dependent on this working title, as well as plot threads out of Apocalypse, it is likely that the new film, set from the 1990s, will inform its own version of the Dark Phoenix Saga, which explores   the immense energy inside Jean Grey (Sophie Turner). This story was previously hinted at in X2: X-Men United, and then made into a subplot within 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand. It’s now anticipated that the movie will give that story the attention and care that it deserves.

It’s currently unknown which cast members are returning, because the contracts for show leads James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, and Michael Fassbender have all run their route. In terms of directing responsibilities, Bryan Singer is stepping aside to let somebody else take the reins, and the current frontrunner is Simon Kinberg — q longtime writer for the franchise, dating back into The Last Stand.

Gambit’s very first appearance at the X-Men movie world arrived from the oft-maligned Origins: Wolverine, in which the card-playing cajun had been played by Taylor Kitsch. A Gambit sacred movie  was rumored to follow along, but after the tepid critical reception to Origins, it quietly faded away.

The legend goes that, until the character has been cut out of X-Men: The Last Stand, a young Channing Tatum had auditioned to perform with the explosively-charged mutant. In the past several decades, Gambit has surfaced as a potential star vehicle for Tatum. For a little while, it was anticipated the Gambit, directed by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity), could hit theaters in summer 2018, however the film struck a snag in August 2016 if the director dropped out to unite DC’s Dark Universe.

As of right now, the strategy will be to get Channing Tatum to return to Gambit after he completes work on Steven Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky, where stage Fox will have found a new director, and — hopefully — a script. Whether this strategy finally stands outside, or when Gambit is met with much more delays, is anyone’s guess. Thinking about the standing of Louisiana’s favorite mutant superhero, it is far better to wait a little longer to get a movie that is better than to be stuck using a sub-par product.

This year, X-Men expanded into the area of tv with Legion, a cerebral and visually enthralling take on mutants and their abilities which feels like a cross between 1960s psychedelia and the movies of Nicholas Winding Refn (The Neon Demon, Just God Forgives). At best, it is only tangentially-related into the larger X-Men movie series, but that should not be held against the series; after all, this criticism is every bit as true of Logan and Deadpool. The series has been shown to be successful, and David Haller’s journey by his own psychosis will continue at a second season, which was recently purchased by FX.

Legion might be a far out trip into the outskirts of this X-Men world, but a more traditional television project is also in the works; a series together with the working title of Gifted has been ordered to series from Fox, and is likely to broadcast this fall on the community. The very first incident is being directed by Bryan Singer himself, the guy who was at the helm to the first movie and also three of its sequels. While plot details are being withheld, the series will center on a set of youths that are mutant and their parents on the run by the authorities. It will be set within the larger X-Men world, although it is unknown if some big-screen actors will soon be making appearances on this series.

—

Which of these projects are you most excited about? Do you think there is still hope to get a Wolverine/Deadpool teamup movie someplace down the line? Sound off in the comments!

Key Release Dates

Deadpool 2 launch date: Jan 12, 2018

from BIG SHOW http://big2show.com/marvel-movie-tv-show/

[danielshar]

First Feature Film - Update #11

It’s been a couple months since I’ve done one of these (all previous entries can be found HERE), but I’m excited to report that, in recent weeks, we have made some significant progress on this movie.

In mid-March, I received the first full draft of the original score from our brilliant composer, Mike Malarkey. It was super exciting to hear all the music he created, and one of the songs even made me choke up. I don’t think it’ll be long before we have a completed soundtrack.

In late March, I received the first draft of the color correction from the very talented Brandon Danzyger. Having watched the unaltered footage so many times, it was awesome to see how Brandon managed to make it all look so much more cinematic. I also don’t anticipate it being much longer before we have a fully color-corrected version.

I know I’ve been talking about this for a while, but we’re still honing the trailer, with our very prolific editor Matt Kitchen now carrying the baton. I really do think we’re getting close to the finish line with it now. If you want to be among the first to see it once it’s done, please join our mailing list by sending an email to scrapsmovieofficial@gmail.com. We promise not to bother you unless we’ve got something we’re pretty sure you’ll enjoy, like a finished trailer, or a hilarious bonus scene, or info on how to watch this movie when it’s done.

Speaking of things for you to enjoy, I’d like to end this post by plugging a few new projects involving some members of our cast and crew, along with a hopefully interesting SCRAPS-related tidbit to go with each.

- Mike Brunlieb and Emma Pope did a wonderful job together in an episode of Shrink, an awesome new show on Seeso that I would highly encourage you all to watch. There’s tons of great Chicago talent in the series, including Thomas Kelly, who took many of the BTS pictures available in Update #10.

Tidbit: Tim Baltz, the co-creator and star of Shrink, happened to be visiting Chicago on the night of our wrap party last April, so he stopped by and karaoked the Ying Yang Twins’ “Whisper Song” alongside Nicole and I, much to our delight/everyone else’s horror.

- Next up, Jo Scott and Jeff Murdoch were recently named finalists for the 2017 truTV Comedy Breakout initiative. These two have made a ton of hilarious comedy together over the years, both on stage and on camera, and I’m rooting hard for them to break all the way out soon, whether with this initiative, or through other avenues. In the meantime, check them out at http://seriouslyunprepared.com/videos/.

Tidbit: the only fully improvised scene in SCRAPS belongs to Jo and Jeff. They work so well together, and I feel so lucky that we were able to highlight/lean on their chemistry for what ended up being one of my favorite parts of the movie.

- Lastly, the other big project I've had on my plate for the entirety of this process is now online. Just as she produced and AD’ed SCRAPS, the invaluable Nicole Bishop also produced and AD’ed the independent pilot presentation for Jonathanville TV, which I co-created with Jordan Haynes and Charles Pettitt under the direction of Marty Schousboe. Visit www.jonathanville.tv to see our 15-minute TV pilot presentation, some bonus clips, and some text-based jokes, all from the world of a public access TV station in a fictional Arkansas town.

It’s also worth noting that John Shaw, our insanely skilled DP and associate producer for SCRAPS, helped shoot one of the segments in this pilot presentation, which deliberately looks amateurish because it’s public access, so please know that he nailed that, and don’t go expecting SCRAPS to look anything less than professional.

Longer, Nostalgic Tidbit: the first time I ever told anyone the idea for this movie was on July 24, 2015 in the Kansas City airport on the way to Arkansas to shoot the pilot presentation. Marty, Charles, and I were waiting for Jordan to pick us up when I found the courage to tell them about the dream I’d had a few days prior, and how I thought I might be able to spin it into a movie. Thankfully, they were encouraging and supportive of that idea.

Four days later, we flew back to Chicago, and Nicole and I stopped for dinner at Sonic. The two of us sat in the parking lot for a long time, eating and talking as I finally had a chance to tell her about the dream and the movie idea it had spawned. She too was encouraging and supportive (as always), and her enthusiasm about helping me make it happen is what really got the ball rolling. Three weeks after that conversation at Sonic, I had a first draft of the script completed, and the rest is history that you can read all about in the previous updates to this blog.

Alright. I hope that gives you all enough to stay entertained until we have SCRAPS ready for you to watch. I appreciate you taking the time to read this, and I hope to be back with more good news sometime soon!