#isabel santos — threads.

[oculiaperticlausi]

closed — @nomadsamwill

Isabel walks down the street, looking at her phone as she presses her lips together. "Poor Greg," she murmurs as she ignores the call once again. She hears footsteps behind her, her head turning to look over her shoulder but before she can say anything the person is standing in front of her. "Sorry, can I help you?"

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Laundering torturers' reputations with copyfraud

The wildest forensic stories are the ones where you pull at a loose thread and discover that you've got hold of a the tip of the tentacle of some kind of cthulhoid monster from the depths of hell. That's the story of Eliminalia, global fraudsters for hire.

The story starts with Qurium, a secure hosting provider that focuses on at-risk civil society groups, the kinds of people who piss off dictators with their own snatch-squads they can use against their enemies.

Two of Qurium's clients are Maka Angola and The Elephant, who had done extensive reporting on corruption in Angola related to Isabel dos Santos ("Africa's richest woman") and Vincent Miclet ("the Gatsby of Africa").

https://www.qurium.org/forensics/dark-ops-undercovered-episode-i-eliminalia/

These articles attracted a flood of fraudulent copyright notices claiming the articles were infringing, as well as fraudulent GDPR notices claiming they violated EU privacy law. The letters were signed by fake lawyers, with whom Qurium struck up quite a correspondence.

Qirium also engaged in digital forensics. They found that the fraudsters had created lookalike websites that purported to be news sites, had plagiarized the real sites' articles, back-dating them so they looked like the real sites had copied THEM.

This is an exotic, but not unheard-of, tactic for censoring the internet, and it's the kind of thing that generally works well.

"Notice-and-takedown" laws like Section 512 of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act exempt web-hosts from copyright liability if they "expeditiously remove" content upon notification.

Web-hosts *might* do a little sleuthing to make sure the notice passes the giggle-test (checking to see if there's an earlier, identical article, say) but they're unlikely to do any real forensic work before removing content, and if there's any doubt, they'll take it down.

This back-dating scam was augmented by filing false registrations with Safe Creative, a Spanish copyright registry, to give the fraudulent representations a sturdiness that would survive secondary investigations.

Qurium is exceptional in its censorship-resistance specifically because they host high-risk content for NGOs and civil society groups whom ruthless, powerful people want to censor in order to protect their reputations.

In fact, Qurium is doubly exceptional, because they didn't just ignore the takedown demands - they also dug through the headers of the emails and found themselves tugging at a thread that turned out to be a tentacle of a horrific monster.

Specifically, they found themselves unraveling the "Eliminalia" network, a grid of 300+ fake newspaper sites that exist entirely as part of a commercial reputation-laundering service that purges the web of damning evidence of terrible crimes.

Exploring this collection of fake sites, Qurium was able to group Eliminalia's clients into six thematic areas:

I. People who committed business and financial fraud, including surgeons who maimed their patients and fake universities who suckered would-be students.

II. Finance corruption, including money laundering.

III. Sexual abusers and harassers.

IV. Organized crime figures and groups.

V. Environmental crimes.

VI. Human rights violations.

Naturally, the Eliminalia fraud service also operates a vast botnet of Twitter and other social media accounts that help to suppress certain news stories for their clients.

All this begs the question, who is behind Eliminalia? Its corporate entities are registered in Spain (Eliminalia 2013 SLU), Maidan Holding/Eliminalia USA LLC in Florida and in Ukraine. All of these entities list "Diego (Didac) Sanchez Jimenez/Gimenez" as a director.

A separate entity called "World Intelligence Ltd" - a UK company also registered to Sanchez - runs the 300+ cloned news websites with plagiarized articles sporting doctored timestamps.

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11095218/officers

The syndicate's fraudulent legal demands are sometimes signed by "Raul Soto" of "Legal Department of the Brussels EU Commission" (the address given is a "virtual office" location near a real EU Commission building).

They send these fraudulent emails using ohv.fr servers, from the "abuse-report.eu" domain.

But that's just for starters. Things really get gnarly in Qurium's followup post:

https://www.qurium.org/forensics/dark-ops-undercovered-episode-ii-eliminalia-analysis-of-fake-dmca-complaints/

That's where the investigators describe what they found when they plugged all this intel into the Lumen Database of takedown notices and legal threats. These are pretty hair-raising.

For example, Eliminalia worked to remove articles from a Chilean website that identified doctors who worked in the dictator Augusto Pinochet's torture program.

Advocates for strong copyright and privacy protection have pointed to notice-and-takedown as a workable compromise, an alternative to the lengthy court processes that would be required to get content removed from an offline source, such as a bookstore.

But while notice-and-takedown may work well, it fails very, very badly. Torturers, mafiosi, corrupt officials and scammers can use these same expedited, low-evidence systems to remove material that truthfully describes their crimes.

This was - and is - the utterly foreseeable outcome of a "streamlined" process for censoring content without due process. It's a lucrative business that produces enough surplus capital to support full-time professionals who do nothing but find ways to game the system.

Today, we hear calls for an expansion of notice-and-takedown, often to remove content that I personally want to see obliterated: Holocaust denial, hate speech, etc.

But each one of these exceptions to hard-fought-for due process protections for speech inevitable ends up swallowing the rule. Full-time Nazis have all day to figure out how to use these rules to get evidence of their bad acts removed.

While the survivors of their bad acts struggle to master the arcane process for having their truth restored to the internet.

[tasksweekly]

[TASK 137: MOZAMBIQUE]

There’s a masterlist below compiled of over 200+ Mozambican faceclaims categorised by gender with their occupation and ethnicity denoted if there was a reliable source. If you want an extra challenge use random.org to pick a random number! Of course everything listed below are just suggestions and you can pick whichever faceclaim or whichever project you desire.

Any questions can be sent here and all tutorials have been linked below the cut for ease of access! REMEMBER to tag your resources with #TASKSWEEKLY and we will reblog them onto the main! This task can be tagged with whatever you want but if you want us to see it please be sure that our tag is the first five tags, @ mention us or send us a messaging linking us to your post!

THE TASK - scroll down for FC’s!

STEP 1: Decide on a FC you wish to create resources for! You can always do more than one but who are you starting with? There are links to masterlists you can use in order to find them and if you want help, just send us a message and we can pick one for you at random!

STEP 2: Pick what you want to create! You can obviously do more than one thing, but what do you want to start off with? Screencaps, RP icons, GIF packs, masterlists, PNG’s, fancasts, alternative FC’s - LITERALLY anything you desire!

STEP 3: Look back on tasks that we have created previously for tutorials on the thing you are creating unless you have whatever it is you are doing mastered - then of course feel free to just get on and do it. :)

STEP 4: Upload and tag with #TASKSWEEKLY! If you didn’t use your own screencaps/images make sure to credit where you got them from as we will not reblog packs which do not credit caps or original gifs from the original maker.

THINGS YOU CAN MAKE FOR THIS TASK -  examples are linked!

Stumped for ideas? Maybe make a masterlist or graphic of your favourite faceclaims. A masterlist of names. Plot ideas or screencaps from a music video preformed by an artist. Masterlist of quotes and lyrics that can be used for starters, thread titles or tags. Guides on culture and customs.

Screencaps

RP icons [of all sizes]

Gif Pack [maybe gif icons if you wish]

PNG packs

Manips

Dash Icons

Character Aesthetics

PSD’s

XCF’s

Graphic Templates - can be chara header, promo, border or background PSD’s!

FC Masterlists - underused, with resources, without resources!

FC Help - could be related, family templates, alternatives.

Written Guides.

and whatever else you can think of / make!

MASTERLIST!

F:

Maria João / Maria João Monteiro Grancha (1956) Mozambican - singer.

Stella Mendonça (1970) Mozambican - singer.

Mariza / Marisa dos Reis Nunes (1973) 1/4 Mozambican, 3/4 mix of Portuguese, Spanish, German - singer-songwriter.

Neyma / Neyma Julio Alfredo (1979) Mozambican, Portuguese - singer.

Dama do Bling / Ivánnea da Silva Mudanisse (1979) Mozambican - singer.

Gabriela Langa / Gabriela Mamie Zango Mubanguiane (1980) Mozambican - singer.

Lizha James / Elisa Lisete James Humbane (1982) Mozambican - singer.

Marllen Preta Negra (1983) Mozambican - singer.

Liloca (1985) Mozambican - singer.

Iveth / Iveth Mafundza (1985) Mozambican - singer.

Daisy Gonçalves (1987) Mozambican - tv host.

Júlia Duarte (1988) Mozambican - singer.

Nayla Cumbe (1991) Mozambican - singer.

Sheila Ibrahimo (1995) Mozambican - tv personality.

Filomena Maricoa (1998) Mozambican - singer.

Mingas / Elisa Domingas Jamisse (?) Mozambican - singer.

Elsa Mangue (?) Mozambican - singer.

Isabel Novella (?) Mozambican - singer.

Safira Mariquele (?) Mozambican - model.

Rosália Mboa (?) Mozambican - singer.

Yolanda Chicane / Yolanda Kakana (?) Mozambican - singer.

Irellia Veola (?) Mozambican - model and Miss Mozambique 2018.

Lidia Maolela (?) Mozambican - model and Miss Mozambique 2016.

Stephanie (?) Mozambican, Northern Sotho (from Mokopane), Portuguese, German - Instagrammer (miss_sandows).

Sheila Ibrahimo (?) Mozambican - tv host and blogger (instagram: sheilaibrahimo).

Queen Marlise Sacur (?) Mozambican - Miss University Africa 2018 (instagram: m.sacur).

Del Lombard (?) Mozambican - Instagrammer (dellombard).

July Murane (?) Mozambican - model (instagram: lyju_muranynha).

Sílvia Nickita (?) Mozambican - model (instagram: silvia_nickita).

Sheron Sultan (?) Mozambican, South African, Unknown - Instagram (sheron_fit_sultan).

Maria (?) Mozambican - singer (Instagram: thekingmaria).

F - Athletes:

Binta Jambane (1942) Mozambican - sprinter.

Ludovina de Oliveira (1955) Mozambican - discus thrower.

Carolina Araujo (1971) Mozambican - swimmer.

Maria Mutola (1972) Mozambican - track and field athlete.

Tina Paulino (1973) Mozambican - runner,

Clarisse Machanguana (1976) Mozambican - basketball player.

Leonor Piuza (1978) Mozambican - runner.

Valerdina Manhonga (1980) Mozambican - basketball player.

Elisa Cossa (1980) Mozambican - sprinting and long-distance runner.

Ermelinda Zamba (1981) Mozambican - swimmer.

Deolinda Ngulela (1981) Mozambican - basketball player.

Cátia Halar (1982) Mozambican - basketball player.

Anabela Cossa (1986) Mozambican - basketball player.

Deolinda Gimo (1987) Mozambican - basketball player.

Miriam Corsini (1989) Mozambican - swimmer.

Ximene Gomes (1989) Mozambican - swimmer.

Jessica Teixeira Vieira (1991) Mozambican - swimmer.

Leia Dongue (1991) Mozambican - basketball player.

Maria Muchavo (1992) Mozambican - paralympic track and field athlete.

Silvia Panguana (1993) Mozambican - hudler.

Maria Machongua (1993) Mozambican - boxer.

Jannah Sonnenschein (1996) Mozambican - swimmer.

Neidy Ocuane (1997) Mozambican - basketball player.

Gisela Cossa (1999) Mozambican - swimmer.

Acacia Mate (?) Mozambican - sprinter.

M:

Afric Simone / Henrique Simone (1939) Mozambican / Brazilian - singer, guitarist, dancer, and entertainer.

Wazimbo / Humberto Carlos Benfica (1948) Mozambican - singer.

Joe Madison (1949) African-American [including Mozambican, Sierra Leonean] - talk show host.

José Castelo Branco (1962) 1/4 Mozambican, 3/4 Portuguese - singer and tv personality.

Stewart Sukuma / Luis Pereira (1963) Mozambican - singer.

General D / Sérgio Matsinhe (1971) Mozambican - rapper.

Moreira Chonguiça (1977) Mozambican - singer and saxophonist.

Duas Caras / Hermínio Chissano (1978) Mozambican - rapper.

Samito (1979) Mozambican - singer-songwriter and producer.

Mr. Bow / Bowito / Salvador Pedro Maiaze (1982) Mozambican - singer-songwriter.

King Levi (1982) Mozambican - instagrammer (sr.king_dapper).

Tio Big (1983) Mozambican - tv presenter.

Azagaia / Edson da Luz (1984) Mozambican / Cape Verdean - rapper.

Ace Nells / Nelson Elísio Célio Nhachugue (1985) Mozambican - singer and presenter.

G2 / Guerte Geraldo Bambo (1985) Mozambican - singer.

Hugo Diogo (1985) Mozambican - tv host and rapper.

Laylizzy / Edson Abel Jeremias Tchamo (1988) Mozambican - rapper-songwriter.

Hernâni da Silva (1989) Mozambican - rapper.

Deltino Guerreiro (1990) Mozambican - singer.

Messias Maricoa (1993) Mozambican - singer.

MC Roger / Rogério Dinis (?) Mozambican / Portuguese - singer.

Ras Haitrm / Rui Paulo Matavele (?) Mozambican - singer.

Eduardo Carimo (?) Mozambican - multi-instrumentalist.

Dom Wilson (?) Mozambican - Instagrammer (domwilson_odm).

Feliciano dos Santos (?) Mozambican - musician.

Ivan Dread (?) Mozambican - Instagrammer (ivankhoteja).

Edy Son Leonely Cumby (?) Mozambican - Instagrammer (_da_maafia).

M - Athletes:

Leonel Pegado (1931) Mozambican - footballer.

Vicente Lucas (1935) Mozambican - footballer.

Manaca / Carlos Alberto Manaca Dias (1946) Mozambican - footballer.

Abdul Ismail (1948) Mozambican - hurdler.

Stelio Craveirinha (1950) Mozambican - long jumper.

Shéu / Shéu Han (1953) Mozambican - footballer.

Eduardo Costa (1954) Mozambican - sprinter.

Pedro Mulomo (1954) Mozambican - long-distance runner.

Jaime Rodrigues (1955) Mozambican - sprinter.

Vicente Daniel (1956) Mozambican - sprinter.

Leonardo Loforte (1956) Mozambican - sprinter.

André Titos (1958) Mozambican - sprinter.

Henrique Ferreira (1960) Mozambican - sprinter.

Domingos Mendes (1961) Mozambican - hurdler.

Archer Fausto (1962) Mozambican - boxer.

Pedro Gonçalvo (1964) Mozambican - sprinter.

Alberto Machaze (1964) Mozambican - boxer.

Chiquinho Conde (1965) Mozambican - footballer.

Daúto Faquirá (1965) Mozambican - footballer.

Lucas Sinoia (1966) Mozambican - boxer.

Paulo Noronha (1966) Mozambican - triple jumper.

Pedro Cruz (1966) Mozambican - swimmer.

Domingos Chivavele (1966) Mozambican - swimmer.

Sergio Fafitine (1969) Mozambican - swimmer.

Arnaldo Ouana (1969) Mozambican - footballer.

Jojó / Jorge Miguel Moreira Larrouy Fernandes (1970) Mozambican - footballer.

Nelinho  / Nasser Amade Carimo (1971) Mozambican - footballer.

Tomás Inguana (1973) Mozambican - footballer.

Tico-Tico / Manuel José Luís Bucuane (1973) Mozambican - footballer.  

Sérgio Lomba (1973) Mozambican - footballer.

Nuro Tualibudane (1973) Mozambican - footballer.

Macamito / Paulo Macamo (1974) Mozambican - footballer.

João Rafael Kapango (1975) Mozambican - footballer.

Ilidio Matusse (1975) Mozambican - swimmer.

Armando Sá (1975) Mozambican - footballer.

Jossias Macamo (1976) Mozambican - footballer.

Paulito / Antonio Trigo (1976) Mozambican - footballer.

Hélder Muianga (1976) Mozambican - footballer.

Bineesh Vadavathy (1977) Mozambican - cricketer.

Dário Monteiro (1977) Mozambican - footballer.

Carlos Fumo Gonçalves (1979) Mozambican - footballer.

Sete Muianga (1979) Mozambican - basketball player.

Genito / Eugenio Fernando Bila (1979) Mozambican - footballer.

Gerson Novela (1979) Mozambican - basketball player

Helton Samo Cunha (1980) Mozambican - footballer.

Tininho / Miguel Ângelo Karim Simões Fazenda (1980) Mozambican - footballer. 

Paulo Murinello (1981) Mozambican - ruby player.

Gabito / Gabriel Macuvele (1981) Mozambican - footballer.

Campira / Samuel Luis Chapanga (1982) Mozambican - footballer.

Jorge Duvane (1982) Mozambican - middle-distance runner.

Marlon Acácio (1982) Mozambican - judoka.

Paíto / Martinho Martins Mukana (1982) Mozambican - footballer.

Albino Cossa (1982) Mozambican - footballer.

Almiro Lobo (1982) Mozambican - footballer.

Custódio Muchate (1982) Mozambican - basketball player.

Manuel de Jesus Lopes (1982) Mozambican - footballer.

Fanuel Massingue (1982) Mozambican - basketball player.

Domingues / Elias Gaspar Pelembe (1983) Mozambican - footballer.

Samir Adam (1983) Mozambican - basketball player.

Danito Parruque (1983) Mozambican - footballer.

Maurício Pequenino (1983) Mozambican - footballer.

Octávio Magoliço (1984) Mozambican - basketball player.

Eduardo Jumisse (1984) Mozambican - footballer.

Dario Khan (1984) Mozambican - footballer.

Mano / Celso Halilo de Abdul (1984) Mozambican - footballer.

Carlos Chimomole (1984) Mozambican - footballer.

Kurt Couto (1985) Mozambican - hurdler.

Lamá / Odimba Otshudi Lamá (1985) Mozambican - footballer.

Fernando Mandlate (1985) Mozambican - basketball player.

Sontio / Apson Manjate (1985) Mozambican - footballer.

Edson Madeira (1985) Mozambican - judoka.

Momed Hagi (1985) Mozambican - footballer.

Ricardo Campos (1985) Mozambican - footballer.

Francisco Massinga (1986) Mozambican - footballer.

Josemar Machaíss (1987) Mozambican - footballer.

Hélder Pelembe (1987) Mozambican - footballer.

Zainadine Júnior (1988) Mozambican - footballer.

Simão Mate Junior (1988) Mozambican - footballer.

Mexer / Edson André Sitoe (1988) Mozambican - footballer.

Leonel Matonse (1988) Mozambican - swimmer.

Telinho / Stélio Marcelino Ernesto (1988) Mozambican - footballer.

Saddan Guambe (1988) Mozambican - swimmer.

Diogo António Alberto (1989) Mozambican - footballer.

Zé Luís / Luis de Sousa Pereira Vaz (1989) Mozambican - footballer.

Flavio Seholhe (1990) Mozambican - runner.

Chakyl Camal (1990) Mozambican - swimmer.

Reginaldo Faife (1990) Mozambican - footballer.

Jerry Sitoe (1990) Mozambican - footballer.

Pio Matos (1990) Mozambican - basketball player

Jeitoso (1991) Mozambican - footballer.

Maninho / Manuel Fernandes (1991) Mozambican - footballer.

Mussa Chamaune (1992) Mozambican - canoeist.

Geraldo Matsimbe (1992) Mozambican - footballer.

Juliano Máquina (1993) Mozambican - boxer.

Bheu Januário (1993) Mozambican - footballer.

Ludovico Corsini (1993) Mozambican - swimmer.

Edson Almeida (1994) Mozambican - footballer.

Reinildo Mandava (1994) Mozambican - footballer.

Clésio Baúque (1994) Mozambican - footballer.

Edmilson Gabriel Dove (1994) Mozambican - footballer.

Alberto Mamba (1994) Mozambican - runner.

Joaquim Lobo (1995) Mozambican - canoeist.

Gildo Vilanculos (1995) Mozambican - footballer.

Luís Miquissone (1995) Mozambican - footballer.

Faisal Bangal (1996) Mozambican - footballer.

Witi / Witiness Chimoio João Quembo (1996) Mozambican - footballer.

Igor Mogne (1996) Mozambican - swimmer.

Creve Armando Machava (1996) Mozambican - hurdler.

Denilson da Costa (1998) Mozambican - swimmer.

Nelson Nhamussua (2001) Mozambican - basketball player

Dias Alface (?) Mozambican - long-distance runner.

Vicente Santos (?) Mozambican - middle-distance runner.

Neuso Sigauque (?) Mozambican - boxer.

Raimundo Franisse (?) Mozambican - swimmer.

Ntewane Machel (?) Mozambican - swimmer.

Edgar Martins (?) Mozambican - swimmer.

Rogerio Silva (?) Mozambican - swimmer.

[thesinglesjukebox]

Bonus Tracks for week ending July 6th, 2019

Whether you’re recovering from celebrating Canada Day or the 4th of July, planning an epic Bastille Day celebration, or just figuring out how to commemorate Kawhi Leonard signing with the Clippers or the eighth anniversary of that gum you like coming back in style, we’ve got plenty of writing to distract you!

Here are some of our works featured this past month:

June 8th: Isabel Cole on Magic Mike XXL; Josh Langhoff on an Aretha Franklin documentary; Ryo Miyauchi on idol group Shiritsu Ebisu Chugaku.

June 15th: Claire Biddles on the Manic Street Preachers and Prince; Alfred Soto on Bob Dylan and The Cure; Josh Langhoff on “the Saw Lady” and 80s pop nostalgia.

June 22nd: Pedro João Santos on Carly Rae Jepsen and DJ Ariel Zetina; Claire Biddles on Hot Chip.

June 29th: Thomas Inskeep on R&B radio in 1982 and recorded Christmas music; Joshua Copperman on Black Midi.

Still not sated? See Frank Kogan’s top singles for the first third of 2019, as posted on Dreamwidth. Check the comment thread out too, as it includes Jessica Doyle and Sonya Nicholson discussing the year in K-pop exploitation come to light and David Cooper Moore on modal music.

[davidhccarter]

The Foundation of Heaven (Excerpt)

Sitting in a chair outside of his small village home, Juan watched the natives go about the business of their daily chores.  He had time off from tax-collecting, as all possible payments had been made.  He had been very busy with those duties for the past two weeks, and Pavel had him scouring every corner of Santo Domingo for delinquent colonists.

All we need is enough money to reach Cuba and pay for the armament and weapons, he thought.  The money for other expenses had already been saved up by him, and, he hoped, Eduardo too.

Eduardo had been saving money, but much of it he’d spent on whores, gambling and other vices of the exotic island.  The two did not spend much time together, as they probably should have, seeing the need to coordinate their plans.  Largely, it was because of Juan Miguel’s marriage, and also because of their respective workloads.

Spain was neglecting the new empire.  Isabel the Catholic had been charmed by Columbus.  She was even interested, sporadically, in the well-being of “her” Indians.  But her husband never was.  His main interest was to secure the wealth of the Indies.  The late Queen left him half of the income from the islands.  But it was well known that the Indies were in decline.

Through most of his reign, Ferdinand left the affairs of the colonies to Juan Rodriquez de Fonseca, Bishop of Burgos, and after 1511, to the Archbishop of Rossano, a former protege of the late Isabel.  Fonseca was feared during this time, afterwards despised.  Peter Martyr called him a man “of illustrious birth, genius and initiative”.

Juan had decided to stay with Mapecha’s people, instead of the colonists.  He helped build their small home, of semi-Spanish style, that blended in rather well with the huts of the Tianos.  It was a modest beginning, to say the least, but she was close to her mother, and the exposure to the native populace gave him a chance to understand their world better.

Witnessing first hand their suffering, he had a platform with which to appeal to the local administrator, Fr. Hernandez, also.  The friar had known all along that something like this might happen, when the young idealist first opened his mouth at the dinner table.  And before Juan and Eduardo could ask for any help for their journey, he was already making arrangements for their departure.

“Come inside.”  The adventurer’s young wife called to him from their home, in a language mixed with Spanish and Tiano.  It was a call he dared not heed, and he left from outside to go to her.

Her soft kisses entreated him to more, and he quickly forgot his desires to leave the island.  He removed the few threads of clothing her scarcely clothed body, and held her close, falling down gently on the blanket covered, grassy mattress they used for a bed.  He’d made love to a lot of women before, but none like his wife.  Her soft caresses and warm demeanor incubated him from much of the coldness he’d known.  Running his fingers through her long dark hair, he flirted with the paradise that was her being, and opened his heart wider to the New World.

When Don Eduardo finally stopped by, after a long hiatus, he brought with him news of their possible departure.  Mapecha quietly left as the two discussed the information.  “Perez is heading out to Cuba soon, with financing from Friar Hernandez,” he explained.

“How soon?”  the intrigued Juan Miguel asked.  

“About a month from now.”  His friend answered.  Juan would have to think things over.  He’d grown deeper in his relationship with his wife over the past few months; passing the pangs of anxiety that come with the ceremony of marriage to an emotional point of no return.  At times, he wondered if he was going too deep, realizing his desire to depart for new lands.

“We aren’t getting any richer here.”  Eduardo pointed out to him, noticing his lack of excitement.

“I know, but things are changing.  I hope this trip leaves on time, or -”

“Or what?”  his friend interrupted.

“Jesus, I might have a family.”  Eduardo could see, and had for some time, that his friend was sprouting roots on the island, but he wasn’t making any great strides towards leaving himself either.  If the friar got word of the debt he was quickly amassing he might not be able to go.  A fact Juan was not absent in pointing out to him.  At any rate, the news was welcome, and now all Juan had to do was tell his wife.  Eduardo would have to lay low and exercise some restraint.

Reviewing the manifest of upcoming departures from the island, Hannibal came across Perez’s and, for some reason, his heart lightened up, and he thought for the first time of leaving Hispaniola.  His work had been rewarding, but he thought maybe there was something else out there for him.  Up to now, day-to-day labor was all he had known, but he was beginning to think of other possibilities for his life.  Far from desiring to be a conquistador and enslaving other peoples, he thought that maybe he could learn more about the dynamic of what he was experiencing, what they all were experiencing, in this “New World” of the Americas.

[oculiaperticlausi]

closed — @heartofasoldier

Isabel sits at the bar, listening to the soft chatter around her. Maybe she'll find someone good tonight, a different sort of con or even just a night of fun. She lifts her eyes up to find a pair on her. Her eyebrow arches as she tilts her head to the side, picking up her shot glass as she raises it up to her lips without allowing her gaze to leave his at least until her head tilts back to drink the shot in one swift motion. She doesn't plan on making the first move, not tonight. And if he decides not to come over then... She'll find someone else.

[oculiaperticlausi]

closed — @plantfeed

It wasn't surprising, the second she spots his form with the blonde on his arm. She had to be the infamous Jenny, the one he wouldn't shut up about every time the two of them fucked. It was one of the reasons why she made sure to guard herself whenever she was around Jude Dempsey... yet a foreign feeling settles in the pit of her stomach. She avoids him most of the night but the storm and forced proximity has her gaze finding him and one of the times his gaze finds her. In which she turns to walk to the bathrooms, hearing the footsteps following her. "Don't worry," she scoffs, turning around to face him. "I don't plan on telling your precious Jenny about our bathroom meet ups."

[oculiaperticlausi]

closed — @brightstvrlights

Isabel holds the glass in her hand. These masks were such a silly thing to wear, it reminds her of the Cinderella Story. How the fuck was Austin so shocked to find out it had been her under the mask? It still makes no goddamn sense to her. It's like when people couldn't recognize Clark Kent without his glasses. Honestly? Some people were lucky they were surviving out here. She slips into the empty space next to him, raising her eyes up to him. "You look only a little more handsome out of that paramedic outfit of yours."

[oculiaperticlausi]

closed — @brightstvrlights

"You're here. I didn't think this was your scene."

[oculiaperticlausi]

closed — @doomcd

"At least I can say the liquor isn't disappointing."

[oculiaperticlausi]

closed — @nomadsamwill

"Sharing is caring, ain't it?"

[oculiaperticlausi]

closed — @brightstvrlights

"You look miserable," isabel murmurs as she leans her elbow on the bar next to him. "Why?"

[oculiaperticlausi]

closed — @brightstvrlights

"Come on," the blonde hums, reaching for the shot glass. "Did you really expect him to forget your beautiful face, Addi?"

[oculiaperticlausi]

closed — @brightstvrlights

"Don't tell me I'll end up regretting being your date to this thing." Isabel approaches the bar where he's standing, her gaze shifting in a direction. She can't exactly pinpoint what he's staring at but it distracts him enough for her to pluck the shot glass off the surface of the table. She raises it up to her lips, tossing it back in one swift motion.

[oculiaperticlausi]

closed — @demidevildiva

"Hi..." Isabel peeks at them through her hands. "You going to let me in or...?"

[oculiaperticlausi]

closed — @eclvpses

"Okay, I'll help" Isabel picks up their phone and holds it up. "Say cheese."