#that way its not suspicious that zeke has Just arrived in town

[albatris]

realising things abt yvonne and zeke

[tomorrowedblog]

Friday Releases for September 27

Friday is the busiest day of the week for new releases, so we’ve decided to collect them all in one place. Friday Releases for September 27 include First Love, The Day Shall Come, The Death of Dick Long, and more.

First Love

First Love, the new movie from Takashi Miike, is out today.

The film is the prolific auteur, Takashi Miike, at his most fun and anarchic, a noir-tinged yakuza film blending genres in the story of a young boxer and a call girl, who fall passionately in love while getting innocently caught up in a drug-smuggling scheme over the course of one night in Tokyo.

Judy

Judy, the new movie from Rupert Goold, is out today.

Winter 1968 and showbiz legend Judy Garland arrives in Swinging London to perform a five-week sold-out run at The Talk of the Town. It is 30 years since she shot to global stardom in The Wizard of Oz, but if her voice has weakened, its dramatic intensity has only grown. As she prepares for the show, battles with management, charms musicians and reminisces with friends and adoring fans, her wit and warmth shine through. Even her dreams of love seem undimmed as she embarks on a whirlwind romance with Mickey Deans, her soon-to-be fifth husband. Featuring some of her best-known songs, the film celebrates the voice, the capacity for love, and the sheer pizzazz of “the world’s greatest entertainer.”

The Death of Dick Long

The Death of Dick Long, the new movie from Daniel Scheinert, is out today.

Holy Crap. Dick is dead. Died last night after band practice, and his bandmates, Zeke & Earl (Michael Abbott, Jr. & Andre Hyland), don’t want anybody finding out how. That’s too bad though, ‘cause news travels fast in small town Alabama, and these guys suck at covering their tracks. The authorities haven’t ID’d the body just yet, but Zeke’s wife (Virginia Newcomb) and his daughter are suspicious already.

Sister Aimee

Sister Aimee, the new movie from Samantha Buck and Marie Schlingmann, is out today.

America’s most famous evangelist is a woman looking for a way out. Fed up with her own success, and swept up in her lover’s daydreams about Mexico, she finds herself on a wild road trip to the border. Based on true events. Mostly made up.

The Day Shall Come

The Day Shall Come, the new movie from Christopher Morris, is out today.

Before you can win the war on terror you need a terrorist—even if you have to invent one yourself. Moses Al Shabaz (Marchánt Davis) is a small-time Miami street preacher whose far-fetched revolutionary ideas find unexpected legitimacy when a Middle Eastern terrorist organization offers to help fund his dream of overthrowing the US government. The problem? His backer is the US government and it’s all part of an elaborate scheme to entrap Moses and make his arrest the latest national security “win.” But when Moses doesn’t take the bait, FBI agent Kendra Glack (Anna Kendrick) must resort to increasingly outlandish—and risky—lengths to get her man.

In the Shadow of the Moon

In the Shadow of the Moon, the new movie from Jim Mickle, is out today.

In 1988, Philadelphia police officer Thomas Lockhart, hungry to become a detective, begins tracking a serial killer who mysteriously resurfaces every nine years. But when the killer’s crimes begin to defy all scientific explanation, Lock’s obsession with finding the truth threatens to destroy his career, his family, and possibly his sanity.

The Laundromat

The Laundromat, the new movie from Steven Soderbergh, is out today.

A widow (Meryl Streep) investigates an insurance fraud, chasing leads to a pair of Panama City law partners (Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas) exploiting the world’s financial system.

Skylines

Skylines, the new TV series from Dennis Schanz, is out today.

It’s about loyalty… music-producer Jinn believes he made when he signs with HipHop label Skyline Records. But it does not take long before things get heated.

Lenin - The Lion

Lenin - The Lion, the new game from Lornyon, is out today.

Lenin – The Lion is a Puzzle RPG game about overcoming. Walk into chaos and find the claws of loneliness or carefully build your path and find the benefits of understanding and acceptance.

[isaacathom]

i wrote out a really rough summary of progression in the game and im wondering whether the player should encounter dante before the tower???? like, cause you fight him twice, once in a double battle with Felicity and once when he has the legendary (or you do idk) but should you meet him earlier? Felicity has two appearances prior to her two battles (excluding the post game battle) so should he have them too? his photo is present in the office, since hes the Org founder, but.... yknow....... should he be there?

idk when he’d show up, though. also have no idea when JUN shows up! wheres he!! like i have him pegged to show up in the eastern base, where Felicity is briefing him and he’s protesting before leaving, but.... like...... you gotta fight him some time. when you do. in the base with Small Fry? but why would HE be THERE. he’s based almost exclusively in the east, except for that one time where he was in the west base. but that makes sense too, because the idea is noone would suspect this eastern doctor of being out in the western deserts - it was an alibi thing. also that was their HEAD of operations so yknow how it is. but now their head is actually IN the east, or much closer, so he should be there too? so why would he be with SF in the central north? its not his place

like i can justify him being able to escape, because Rhia is the first responder, and she isnt going to arrest Jun. she wont fucking do it. the only way you could get her to arrest Jun is blackmail. so when she arrives to, as she expects, clean up your ass and get you out, she’d let Jun leave out the back entrance safely. her explanation if contradicted by your own statements is that there wasnt anyone else in the building when she arrived. and thats fine. Rhia’s ass is covered, itll contribute to that sense the player should get that she’s a fuck ton suspicious, but WHY WOULD JUN BE THERE. whats he doing there. like, Jun is in the east base because Felicity is specifically briefing him on what he needs to do - his instructions are to head to the legendary base. He protests that, as a doctor, he should be present in the City. the conversation ends with no obvious winner, except Jun clearly won because he goes into the City instead. or something. but what does he get from being in beechworth? he doesnt get anything out of that. though i supposed since he’s that much under Felicity and Dante’s thumb that if they told him to reinforce the beechworth base he’d have to do it. i guess its all about backups. the core base was located in Mildura, with the back up base being located in the East. so when Mildura fell (~7 years ago) they relocated their core to the East, and started setting up another back up, this being Beechworth. so when You, the player, slam into Beechworth and get SF arrested, you fuck it.

so the idea there is that, since they’re on the cusp of enacting their plan to cement Org superiority in the region, they want to make sure they have their backup JUST IN CASE something goes wrong. so they send Jun, one of their senior members, to go to it and ensure it can support any emergency - proper supplies, proper facilities, etc. i guess that works. hes like, their Tech man. he’s got respect among the grunts and he’s loyal, so it makes sense to send him to scope. of course, when they get the news that the police have been called the beechworth property they absolutely lose it. Dante is absolutely furious. maybe thats when he shows up - when you leave the house, Elliot is there to greet you, and very shortly afterwards Dante arrives, commending you on your performance. he lives in the area, probably. its a front, hes absolutely livid, but he HAS to check whats happened. he knew Jun was in the area, and that SF had been in that house for the past period, so he was checking it out under the guise of more...... humanitarian concern. of course, the report is that the only person captured was SF, due to you holding them up, and that every other person who had been in the building has fled. but they get absolutely terrified. hence, Felicity’s panicked meeting with Jun in the East to make sure he does EXACTLY as he is told. under no circumstances is he allowed to tell anyone whats happening and under no circumstances is he to be captured.

admittedly you can actually encounter Jun before the East scene in the base, when you first arrive in town, because you can visit his house and talk to him and Bronwyn. OOH!!! OHH FUCK. that could be it. thats the ticket. thats why you go into the east base. Zeke, who had been just sorta around at this point, notices Bronwyn taking Jun into the house. thinking Jun looks sorta like how you described the ‘doctor fellow’ to him earlier, he catches you when you leave the gym and tells you. you go in, he stays outside, and when you dont return he gets scared and calls Elliot. HMMM nice. i like that. all good ++ nice shit.

ok so thats Jun solved. he shows up at least twice prior to the tower (only one battle - he’s not a front facing operative due to hid reputation, he works almost exclusively in the background). but what about Dante? so Dante shows up in beechworth, because he lives in the area (he’s a retired man and its very pleasant out Beechworth way, imho), and then he shows up at the tower. and he’s mentioned before these points, and theres a big portrait of him in the Org offices. i like that, i think. he doesnt need to be everywhere, because that would defeat the point, but he needs to clearly exist. ooh, OOH, a fun misdirect might be to make people think he’s the e4 who’s retired. cause that is also mentioned many times, and when he says he’s retired and lives in the area, the player might go ‘huh’ and write him off as a side character, like Akio/Charlotte/Kaimana and all that. niiice.

[danithebookaholic-blog]

A Book You Picked Solely Because of the Cover

The Fallen: The Fallen and Leviathan

by Thomas E. Sniegoski

This week’s suggestion on the Pinterest Reading Challenge is to pick a book solely based on its cover. So, I looked through my collection of books that I’ve gathered up through the years and thought to myself, “Hum… what looks good?”

With this week’s suggestion, I didn’t have the full pleasure of “judging a book based on its cover”—because I am trying to go through the hundreds of books that I already have—I’ve read all the synopses on their covers before. But I did make myself pick through a selection of books based on a few guidelines: the book couldn’t be a movie or TV show, it couldn’t be a classic that everyone knows the gist of the story line, and it couldn’t be one that I’ve been itching to get my hands on. I made myself look through the ones that I haven’t looked at for a while, the ones that were bought on a whim, written by someone I’ve never heard of before, or given to me from someone who reads genres that I’m not that into. This week I was going to make sure it was something different for me… Or so I thought.

Looking solely at the covers of the books I had collected—a couple fantasy, several YA and children’s chapter books (I don’t know why I gravitate to these so much!), a mystery, and a memoir—I kept coming back to the same one over and over. A black and white photograph of a lone figure with the title written in red. The lighting in the photograph had the lone figure highlighted in all the right places—the contours of his face and muscular arm—this alone will have you thinking to yourself that this must be some kind of romance novel, a spinoff of a harlequin perhaps and this will catch the females of the audience and make them want to pick it up. But romance novels are not my thing, so that is not what caught my attention. It was the dark angelic wing protruding from his back, and with a title of The Fallen, I couldn’t help myself but to pick it.

Some History:

The Fallen: The Fallen and Leviathan is a Young Adult read. It was originally published in 2003 and reprinted in 2010 with the new above picture on the cover. It is book one of five in The Fallen series, and it turns out it was also made into an ABC Family movie, Fallen, in 2006. (Oops! So much for those guidelines I made for myself!)

The Synopsis:

***SPOILER ALERT***

I wrote this review a little different than usual. I’m not sure why, other than this is how it came out, and I apologize that it 1) reads a bit like a school book report, and 2) does give away some of the ending.

 Aaron Corbet is a child of the foster care system and has finally found a foster family who he regards as his mom, dad and his brother, Stevie. On his eighteenth birthday he can suddenly understand and speak languages of all kinds even though he’s had no education in them. On top of that, he comes across a “homeless” man who begins following Aaron, telling him about his troubled past and the future that is to come: Aaron is Nephilim—the son of a mortal and an angel—and he has been chosen to redeem the Fallen.

The angel Verchiel is the master of the Powers and a Messenger of God. His duty is to cleanse the earth of the filth that the Fallen have produced upon the earth: Nephilim. Using his human hounds and divine senses he tracks down Nephilim and purges them from the earth. The Nephilim he’s currently hunting is Aaron Corbet.

With the help of Zeke, the Grigori, Camael of the Fallen, and his best friend Gabriel, Aaron transforms into the Nephilim he is, and not a minute too late: Verchiel has finally found him and is ready to purge his filth from the earth. A battle ensues and Aaron turns out to be more powerful than Verchiel originally thought. Aaron injures Verchiel, who flees, taking Stevie with him. Now Aaron must not only fulfil the prophecy, but find his brother before Verchiel turns him into one of his human hounds.

Aaron and his posse begin a road trip in search of Stevie, with a powerful pull toward Blythe, Maine. Along the way they encounter a group of Orishas, another product the Fallen have created. However, the Orishas are ruled by Verchiel, who has bestowed the mission of killing Aaron upon them, but they don’t succeed. Only one Orishas remains, and before fleeing it gets a small revenge and bites Gabriel.

Arriving in Blythe, they find Gabriel a doctor to treat the infected Orishas bite, but the townsfolk here are a little strange: they look suspicious of everyone and act as if they’re being controlled. That is everyone but Dr. Katie McGovern, who later tells Aaron that she, too, is an outsider, new to town. She came to town because her ex-boyfriend, Dr. Kevin Wessell, had e-mailed her with a strange request that she visit, but when she got to town he was missing and hadn’t been in to see his patients for days.

Katie enlists the help of Aaron around the office until Kevin hopefully returns, but after finding several strangely mutated animals in Kevin’s freezer, she begins to think that Kevin may have dug up some dirt on the town that someone didn’t want him finding out.  Katie and Aaron agree that they need to find out what’s going on around the town and try to find Kevin, but the mission is doomed from the beginning when Katie turns up missing herself. Aaron begins the mission alone, only to find himself in the lair of Leviathan, “that spark of uncertainty in the Creator’s thoughts as He forged the world—that brief moment of chaos—before Genesis.”

Leviathan, a great sea monster, entraps its victims by making their mind’s eye see whatever paradise it wishes to see, then swallows them whole and lives off the life force stored inside them. Aaron finds that both Camael and Gabriel are in Leviathan’s stomachs, and knows that in order to save them he must overcome his fear of letting the Nephilim power within him out and do the one thing the Archangel Gabriel could not: destroy Leviathan.

Aaron defeats Leviathan and frees all those within Leviathan’s stomachs including his friends and the Archangel Gabriel. Aaron then fulfills the prophecy and forgives the Fallen who are found within Leviathan’s many stomachs and sends them to their Heavenly home. But before The Archangel Gabriel ascends he gives Aaron another hint about the prophecy he is fulfilling and a wink of information about who his real father is.

The Fallen concludes with the townspeople of Blythe, Maine being released from their captor’s control, Katie and Kevin reunited, and Aaron with a lot of questions: Who is his real father? What does his father have to do with the prophecy? And where is Stevie?

The Review:

The Pros:

Of course, I liked The Fallen, it’s right up my alley (so much for breaking out of my habits and trying something new!) First, it’s a YA read, so you know I’m hooked there.

Second, it’s a present-day mythology just like the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan or The Mortal Instruments and Shadowhunter series by Cassandra Clare, both of which I’m a big fan of. To take a myth—and I use this word to group together the whole, so please you Christians out there don’t hate on me for using this word, I’m a Christian, too! —but to take a myth such as angels or Greek gods and to create a new story for them is awesome! You’re taking those classics that a lot of people don’t read any more because they find them boring or too difficult to understand and are making them readily available to today’s societies so that Genesis, Matthew, Luke, Homer and Sophocles are getting a new—and usually younger—generation to ignite and share their stories again.

Third, something that I found that set The Fallen apart from most YA books was the language. I, myself, don’t have the best vocabulary by any means (I should have listened to my mother and studied for those vocabulary tests!), but I have grown my knowledge and understanding over the years, and this book still had me looking up words in the dictionary (or rather dictionary.com, yay technology!) I like that about a book! I like that while I’m reading for pleasure I’m still learning things. I don’t think that everything should be dumbed down so everyone in the general population can understand it. I think you should always be learning something and improving on yourself, and if that means you must get a dictionary out to understand what’s happening in the storyline then that’s great! You learned something in the process; you made yourself better and had a better experience because of it!

The Cons:

Aaron Corbet is a little fake. He’s too good and not moody enough to be a teenage boy and a child of the foster system who has just found out that he’s this mythological creature. In the beginning, you’re told that he has a troubled past, that he was moved from foster home to foster home, but the person sitting in front of you is polite, never causes a stir, and when he does have an emotional outbreak of some kind its abbreviated and almost void of emotion. Almost like his outburst were an afterthought, like Thomas Sniegoski’s editor said, “Hey, don’t you think he would be a little upset that this is happening?” The lack of emotion he shows when someone he loves is hurt or killed is the biggest one for me. He doesn’t cry, he doesn’t get angry and yell, he just tells himself that he can’t believe that they are hurt or dead. I understand shellshock, but I think this is a bit more than just that. Aaron is not fleshed out enough to be a real person, but then again, I guess he really isn’t, after all he is Nephilim.

My other qualm with The Fallen is defeat is too easy. With each battle scene—if you can really call them that—the fight was ended really before it began. These are some big monsters he’s going up against, and yet I saw how the end of each battle was going to play out from the moment they started. There was no adrenaline rush of “is he going to make it?” in any of the battle scenes. From the beginning, you knew he was going to be just fine and good would prevail over evil once again.

The Wrap-Up:

Overall, I enjoyed The Fallen. I thought it was a great storyline with a good mystery: I want to know who Aaron’s father is myself! Who is this—as Camael puts it— “angel of formidable power to have sired one like [Aaron]?" ? And does he ever find Stevie? All the questions Aaron has at the end of the book are questions I have too, which is a sign of a good story. The author has you hooked to make you want to pick up that next book. Which I plan on doing just that!

 From one wine-loving bookaholic to another, I hope I’ve helped you find your next fix. —Dani

 Love this book? Check out The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare or one of her many other Shadowhunter series.

Pair it with: Lost Angel’s 2016 Mischief—Fruit-forward and jammy, with hints of cocoa.

Not all good wines are expensive, and this one is just that: good, easy on the wallet and fits with the trouble that Aaron gets himself into.

Start a conversation: What book have you chosen based solely on its cover and why? Was it worth the gamble?

Have a book you’d like to suggest or one you’d like me to review? Please feel free to leave your comments down below.

[isaacathom]

im thinking the big Fires in Urica took place just a year ago - that way i can have all that evocative bushfire country without having to explain why its been so bad for so long. can have ruins n burnt out cars and shit. i mean, youd assume the cars would be gone, but theres probably some around. like, i thinking one location near Gym 6 is the ‘Scorched Forest’ - wasn’t always its name, but it will be many years before its original name is fitting again. its full of firey pokemon and probably some Komalas. and i thinking on the route through the forest, there could be burnt out cars there, that people abandoned as they realised they couldnt make it north and fled back south, to town. itll be probably be all around the lake and a bit further north along the route to the next town.

plus it means that the idea of the Org slowly eroding at the status of gym leaders is actually happening. Even if its because of an event the org/team weren’t involved in (i fucking hope), theyll take advantage of this fact. they are similarly waiting on the 8th gym leader to make a slip. They ARE aware of the laundering, of the money stealing, but they’re waiting for a public slip, or a good moment to capitalise on this knowledge to swoop and kick the out.

the only gym leader who doesnt strictly fit this mold is Isaac, who is firmly in the Org’s hands as an ally. but thats part of the idea - theyre supposed to be the orgs connection to the people. theyre an authority - they ARE a gym leader! and if they’re suggesting the gym leaders are failing in their duty, you’re inclined to believe them, yknow! so, if the Org can find a few ‘good’ gym leaders, convince them to side with them, they’ve got it all in the palms of their hands. Sonya is probably the only real spanner in the works because she’s very vocal about how irresponsible the Org firefighters were during the Big Fires by listening to the Gym Leader at the cost of peoples lives. shes basically the only problem. all the other gym leaders fall neatly into place. except for maybe gym 5, which would explain the delivery your character is sent on - Felicity would very much like to start making connections with 5 so she can keep a better eye on him and catch him if he slips, which he inevitably will. of course, 5 is so astoundingly lazy that this actually fails, because he makes you take it to the mayor of a near by town instead, because he refuses to deal with it. an older man who tries his best and thus is of little use to the Org.

the plan of the Org, really, is to dismantle the gym leaders while boosting their own ‘ratings’, if you will, so that eventually there will be noone to prevent them holding total control. the order of events gets a little shaky, but be assured that throughout ANY Team events in the game, the Org is sabotaging the gym leaders to make them look incompetent. except for a few, like Isaac, who they are deliberately securing as a power base. the city is very safe. there are a couple of slips, mostly because sometimes something has to happen (something such as what will probably introduce you to the Team :D). thats when they call Rhia in. in fact, ooh ooh, ooooooooh. i can play into that with when Rhia meets you. like shes telling you to watch out for Elliot, that he isnt super trustworthy, and then she has to leave, hence not getting into specifics. because SHE, over any other police officer, is called to handle an occurence in the city - because shes the least mobile. yknow, w/ the walking stick. she’s faster than they think, but you can only go so fast. though, if theres an event with Rhia in the city, that doesnt really let me do the whole ‘skip the gym’ thing.... hmm. well, it doesnt necessarily, but.... hm. there was definitely going to be an event in 3rd town, with Will, but having Rhia in that seems like overkill. we’ll just say the city is Safe. until the whole Fuck Shit, anyway.

what causes that, anyway? is it staged as like, a Team raid? an Org lockdown? both?? just a big fuck off confrontation. like, i guess the idea is that Team/Org is preparing to find the Legendary pokemon (whooo areeeee where???? where????? the east??????) and the Team is supposedly trying to attack the Org headquarters to prevent them interfering. so the city is in chaos as they come under Team attack (with a Team that seems suspiciously numerous) but you, having learnt the truth while you were in town 8 (theres a base there and Zeke probably tips you off, or Elliot, or both) strike at the Org tower with your bros to try and fuck them up. then you get to the top (dealing with Rhia and your rival, possibly) and fight Felicity and Dante, and both of them fucking scatter. just phoop right outta there. go ‘oh fuck’ and leave. whether they then both head for the legendary or just Dante, im not sure. i think the idea is that they split up, with Felicity attempting to salvage the Org, and Dante going to finish the Team shit, because someones gotta do it. course you kick his ass, he gets arrested (by the Champion, odds on), and you’ve done it. gj, buddy. Felicity PROBABLY intended to meet back up with Dante so she could take the legendary off of him and present it to the public. the thing with this event now, with you throwing a spanner in the works, is that now they have noone to frame. you already arrested Small Fry earlier (uh, nooorth? around SOnya’s town but not actually related to Sonya. well, not explicitly. the implication is that theyre probably trying to fuck her over), and while Jun was supposed to be there, in order to take the fall, he is currently still in the City dealing with the fucking riot shit. Rhia has gone AWOL in the sense that Dante sure as shit cant contact her (shes either like. in the city helping. contacting the International Police. or like. chasing down Felicity but with a huge delay so shes substantially behind). There’s noone left for Dante and Felicity to throw under the bus except each other, and they cant Do that. Dante probably has a few grunts with him, who were scoping the place in advance, but none of them are Big enough to take the fall adequately. theyre stuck. its a desperation move. instead of taking the legendary as the Orgs property, he plans to take it as th Team’s property, and if he’s not seen with it, he’s still fine. he’ll delay the big confrontation until a time when he can set someone up. he’ll capture the legendary and flee. of course, you arrive before Felicity ever can, defeat him, free/tame the legendary, and the Champion also arrives to fuck up his day. nicely done.

this went tangential as fuck but i suppose the summary is - the org is slowly eroding trust in the League by presenting themselves as the superior defensive body (by throwing the gym leaders under the bus, notably ex-6, 5, Will, and 8, with shades of 7). Sonya’s town is burnt to shit still. The city goes into turmoil after Felicity locks you in the base in town 8 (from which you are freed by Elliot, probably), as a ‘distraction’ by the Team so they can go claim the legendary. of course, the People dont know this, but the Org do. so Dante and Felicity prepare to leave for the legendaries place (theyre waiting on a few key individuals, notably Jun) until you arrive with your Squad and you fuck them up. they flee separately, with Felicity seemingly disappearing, and Dante appearing at the legendary’s home to capture it. you fuck him up, he’s arrested by the Champion, all is well.

also Isaac is Org-loyal and its a deliberate plan to keep using the good influence of the gym leaders in order to get rid of the bad ones. eroding the power source as a whole, if that makes sense. Isaac is trusted by the people and as such anything they say that’s against gym leaders, even slightly, would be more readily accepted than anyone else saying it.