valandhirwriter

[valandhirwriter]

Ghost’s first time at the MacTavish house (+Soap’s niece)

[valandhirwriter]

Duny Midnight (Work in Progress)

Got a head cold today so I'm making it worse by doing armor and fur detailing.

[valandhirwriter]

@do-androids-dream-ao3acc I did not count the sentences, but I kept it short.

When Lambert had taken the contract - shitty contract though it was - he had assumed seeing the different places of the attack would be the easy part of the hunt. But none of the people of the aptly named village Road’s End had been willing to walk him around the drawn-out farmsteads to show him where exactly their monster had struck. In the end, Eryk had volunteered - or been volunteered - to do it. Lambert was alright with that; Eryk at least seemed not to be given to sensational embellishments of the tale.

Still, Lambert did not like this one. Children, the villagers had said. It was always children that vanished. Adults got killed, and Children vanished. Lambert may have ridden past this place to begin his long journey back to Kaer Morhen, but the things he had heard described in the villages around the moor had struck a chord within him, a chord he usually would deny even existed. And so here he was, with a shitty contract and a Ranger for a guide. Swell.

Several Sentences Whatever Day...

I was tagged by @cappuccinoandglitter (thank you!) and I actually have a couple of sentences to share. There you go! Also tagging: @round--robin, @lilies-in-a-vase, @greenapplespider, @bangpop91, @loulou-land, @herrmannhalsteadproduction and whoever sees this and who I've forgot because I just... forget :)

---

“Look at me,” Buck said, and something in his voice made Tommy turn his disturbingly unsteady gaze toward him. “You're alive. That's what matters. You did your best, I'm sure. W-we couldn't reach you, I—”

“My helmet,” Tommy muttered, running his fingers through his hair in confusion. “Must have lost it during the crash.”

“Oh, damn, the radio.” Buck tapped his own helmet so hard that his skull reverberated. “Captain? Captain Myers, do you read me?"

The radio crackled briefly. “Buckley? I hope you're telling me you're heading toward Stoddard Peak, or at least south?”

“Soon,” Buck replied. “Listen, I found Kinard. He made it out, but...”

“Hell of a guy,” Myers yelled into the radio, drowning out the cheers in the background. “That's good news, despite everything. The firebreak is almost in place, but the wind has shifted.”

“Meaning–”

“Meaning you need to get out of there as fast as you can, or the fire will surround you both.”

“Understood,” Buck said, ending the call. Then he looked at Tommy. “You heard her. We can do this. We'll make a sling for your arm and get out of here.”

“No.”

There was a strange look in Tommy's eyes, a fire beyond the threatening smell and clouds of smoke. This fire came from deep within him; even his gaze seemed directed inward. 

---

[valandhirwriter]

Kaidan is a man of his word

[valandhirwriter]

@do-androids-dream-ao3acc They dropped it like that so I actually watch it before my night shift ended. :D

SABATON - Hordes of Khan (Official Music Video)

Why on earth did they drop it at 6 in the morning… Anyway, SABATOOOOON

[valandhirwriter]

I can drive a car in theory, but like you I am German and I walk. So here's my CD List:

Carolus Rex - Sabaton

Together till the End - Mono INC

The Starlit Jewel - Broceliande

A Knight in York - Blackmore's Night

Level 7 - Miracle of Sound

Von den Elben - Faun

Pray to the Hunter - Saltatio Mortis

The essential Tom Jackson - Tom Jackson

Gebet eines Spielmanns - Streuner

Somewhere far beyond - Blind Guardian

You just got an old car and it doesn't have Bluetooth. You can only buy 7 CDs and you can't repeat an artist. What are you getting?

Love this, thanks for the tag @profwonderbearthementalista ❤️

1. Tick Tick... Boom (Soundtrack from the Netflix movie)

2. Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording)

3. Evermore Deluxe Version (Taylor Swift)

4. Sing to me instead (Ben Platt)

5. Unreal Unearth (Hozier)

6. Live 2019 (Tim Bendzko)

7. Glory Days Expanded Edition (Little Mix)

Tagging @do-androids-dream-ao3acc @dark-alice-lilith @beautifulhigh @meibhin @loulou-land @champagnetommy @racerchix21

[valandhirwriter]

[valandhirwriter]

*hugs* *dances* thank you @do-androids-dream-ao3acc! I do not have much time to read at this moment, but I will read the moment I can.

Thanks!!!

What Kind of Love? | Emhyr/Geralt

I've recently taken a break from BuckTommy fics (yes, because of a very unsatisfying season finale) to write another 30,000 words of my other OTP. To my surprise, there's still a bunch of folk out there reading them, so, well. Here you go: What Kind of Love, Slow-Burn-Murder-Mystery, rated T. Excerpt below the cut! (Yes, I hid another Star Wars reference there!)

As they were walking side by side, they were so close that their fingers almost touched. Geralt wondered why he even noticed this irrelevant detail, why he was almost afraid about it, as if the very thought were indecent. Strange. In any case, he found it an odd behavior for a ruler to walk so close to someone beneath them. But then, Emhyr had never been a ruler by conventional standards, had he?

“You have a theory, don't you?“ Emhyr addressed him. Geralt almost flinched.

“A... theory?”

“You should never underestimate my intelligence. Or my patience,” Emhyr remarked with a sidelong glance.

“It's far from a theory. But let's assume that these phenomena are indeed all related to you, they...”

“...are deliberately directed at me, you mean.”

“They're not attacks, not yet,” Geralt reassured him, “but, yes. You could be the target, and at the same time the core of all the phenomena.”

“How?”

“Well,” Geralt began as they turned a corner, “if someone in the palace is secretly using magic, perhaps a very crude or rare form, or simply something that leaves few traces... it's possible that your presence is channeling it, so to speak. Because it's somehow, as you put it, directed at you.”

“The council chamber,“ said Emhyr, pointing to a heavy double door ahead. They stopped.

“There are no guards posted here?”

“Only during meetings, judgments and the like.”

“Judgments... like court judgments?” asked Geralt.

“Well, sometimes. Why do you want to know?”

Geralt shrugged. “A place with a negative aura,” he returned as Emhyr pushed open the doors. “It could influence the outcome.”

“You know, every time you mention this hocus-pocus, I think you're trying to waste time. Because there's simply nothing behind it.”

Geralt looked around the room that opened up before them and remarked, “Your lack of faith is disturbing.”

“Oh, I do have faith, witcher. It just may not be the same as yours.”

[valandhirwriter]

@do-androids-dream-ao3acc Thanks for the tag!

So, here we are, have fun.

Tagging: @andordean, @lohrendrell @tumbleweedtech, @regis-favorite-raven, @gauntermetaverse

TV gif tag game

Rules: without naming them- post ten gifs from your top ten shows at the moment

Oh oh yes of course I'll do that one, thanks @cull3nblaze! Top 10 tv shows? Right now? (I'm not actually watching all of those at the moment, but I'm gonna interpret the assignment as your top 10 in your current mood). In no particular order:

Very softly tagging @li-nox, @valandhirwriter, @dearqueend, @vincentvangoghs, @wintercearig12, @loureen-may, @shadowfaxgeraet-245, @cinderblanc, @iphyslitterator and @starstruckbyacomet and anybody who wants to!

[valandhirwriter]

PSA: Credit Card Phone Scam

(Or, how Tumblr just saved my ass)

I saw a PSA recently about a scam going around with spoofed official numbers calling and asking for information, and how you should hang up and call back using the correct number rather than just go along with what the caller is telling you. But this is Tumblr, so I'll never be able to find the post again.

I decided to make my own, because this literally just happened to me an hour ago. Hopefully my story can spread some more awareness and save other asses the way mine was saved.

Around 7:30pm tonight (Friday), I got a phone call from a 1-800 number. I almost didn't answer it, then I saw it was 1-800-465-4___, and I recognized that as the start of the CIBC phone number, so I picked up.

Me: Hello?

Guy: Hi, is this [MrsD]?"

Me: Yes.

Guy: Hi, [MrsD], this is _____ from CIBC, how are you tonight?

I thought, okay, this is a sales call. Right before I'm about to sit down for dinner. Typical. Mentally, I'm already putting together an exit strategy, preparing to say no to everything and get off the phone ASAP. But then—

Guy: We've just flagged suspicious activity on your CIBC Visa card. It was an online BestBuy transaction for $980.00. Was that your transaction?

Me, flustered: Uh. What? Sorry, how much?

Guy: $980.00 at BestBuy, was that you?

Me: Oh. At BestBuy?

Guy: Yes, your card was used at a BestBuy in [town nearby]. Was that you? Did you go to [town nearby] today? You don't live in [town nearby], right?

Me: Uh. No?

Guy: Okay, so I need some information to verify this transaction.

By this point, my brain had caught on that something about this was hinky. First of all, I thought he said it was an online purchase, then he said it was in person. But maybe I'd misheard, he was talking fast. My second thought was that every other time there was a suspicious transaction, I got an automated phone call and a text message with instructions to call back. I've never had a person call me directly.

My third thought was, well, the phone number on the caller ID was right....

THEN! I remembered a Tumblr post I saw recently, and I remembered what it told me to do.

Me: I'm skeptical about this call. I'm going to call CIBC myself and look into this.

Guy: What? Ma'am, you can just tell me, I can verify—

Me: No. Thank you, but I'll call the number on the back of my card.

Guy, getting more agitated: Ma'am, if you look at the number on your card, you'll see it's the same number.

Me: You know that can spoofed, right?

Guy: Uh— but ma'am—

Me: Sorry, but I need to make sure. I'm going to call CIBC directly.

The guy kept sputtering, but I hung up on him. In that moment, I really didn't think that he was a scammer. In fact, I thought I was being paranoid and was maybe kinda rude to the guy. I wondered if I was being overcautious, and I felt a bit guilty.

I called the number on the back of my credit card, waited 15 minutes for an agent, and told him what just happened.

IMMEDIATELY—

Agent: You didn't tell him anything, did you?

Me: No. I said I wasn't in [town nearby] today, but that's it.

Agent: Good. You did the right thing by calling us, let me look into the transaction for you.

Then, a minute later:

Agent: I'm not seeing any transaction like that. There's no flags on your card, nothing suspicious at all.

Me: So it was a scam?

Agent: Yep. Entirely fake.

I was honestly surprised. I really thought that there was some kind of mix-up and that I would be apologizing to this guy for being rude to his colleague.

Looking back on it now, I can see all the telltale signs of it being a scam call:

Time of day. Early evening on a Friday, chances are people are either sitting down for dinner or in a hurry to get somewhere. In this situation, a lot people probably wouldn't think twice about giving "the bank" some information just to get off the phone. (Joke's on them, I have no life!) But the way that I reacted to his introduction did evoke the desired reaction of Ugh, what now? Leave me alone! that the scammer was banking on (pun intended).

Sense of urgency. The scammer spoke fast, threw details at me quickly, and made sure I knew that I had to give him my information right away. This honestly threw me off. It was overwhelming, and I felt concerned and a bit frantic for a few seconds until I thought about what I know about scams and what I'd just read in that Tumblr PSA.

Complete lack of empathy or understanding about my skepticism/anti-fraud precautions. The last time I had to get a new credit card number due to fraud, the agent I spoke to said things like "I know this is frustrating", "I'm sorry this is a hassle", etc. And of course the CIBC agent I spoke to tonight was immediately grateful that I'd called them directly and reassured me that CIBC would never ask for information. By contrast, the scammer was outright dismissive of my concerns and got agitated when I wouldn't just trust him right off the bat.

Emotional provocation. Similar to #2 & #3 above, the scammer was very good at making me feel things. Worried and fearful at first, then guilty about being suspicious, to the point where I actually apologized to the guy. (Granted, I am Canadian, but still!)

And finally, I cannot stress enough: the spoofed phone number. I am a pretty well-informed person. I keep up with news about scams and whatnot. I know that phone numbers can be spoofed. I've been in front of my phone when it just starts to ring and I can see the auto-dialler number appear briefly before it gets replaced with a number that has my area code. But tonight—early evening on a Friday—I was cooking dinner and my phone was across the room. It had rung several times by the time I got to it. I only picked it up because I recognized the CIBC number. And when the scammer started his spiel, the fact that the number was the same was enough for me to give him just a tiny moment of trust. Had he actually gotten past that first barrier and started requesting my information, I think I would have caught on, because people asking for sensitive information over the phone is a huge obvious red flag. I like to think I would have caught on, anyway. But maybe not! That fake number almost had me.

TL;DR: No matter what the number on your caller ID says—that it's your bank, your energy company, your internet provider, whatever!—if the person on the other end is requesting sensitive information urgently, don't panic. Stop. Think. Then tell them nothing, hang up the phone, and call your service provider yourself using a verified phone number.

[valandhirwriter]

No, Bail dismisses the whole thing. Because if he believed it was possible, he would at least say, they are looking into it, and will try to verify Cassian's intelligence. But he later needs convincing by Mon and Draven. Even Mon - who know Cassian and who knows that Luthen's intel was very good most of the time - needs Vel to speak to Cassian.

In the movie "Hunt for Red October", there is a scene where Jack presents the idea that Red October might be trying to defect. Most present dismiss it, as total nonsense. Only that one senator does not. He is honest, and tells Jack, that he does not know what to think, but keeps all his options open - hence he sends Jack to work that theory, in case Jack is right. I would have expected Mon and Bail, both having ample experience with the Empire, to be more like that. To at least assume it is possible, and have someone chase down those leads, in case it is real. This outright dismissal, this not ruling in the other Senators, shows a fundamental lack of leadership and a deep lack of understanding of what they are up against. Which, after seeing so much already, borders on naivety.

To me that scene made clear why the New Republic will fail worse than the old one - with that leadership they will be vulnerable and on shaky feet. I guess we see here why the remnant Empire ultimately was able to form the New Order.

when andor first tells them about the existence of the death star, out of everyone in that room, bail organa is the most vocal in dismissing its existence.

bail organa. from alderaan.

let that sink in

[valandhirwriter]

The sun is shining, time to roll in the dirt.

[valandhirwriter]

Emhyr var Emreis

Get your Great Sun T-shirt now! Tried, tested and worn by none other than the magnificent emperor of Nilfgaard!

Price tripled for shirts personally worn by His Imperial Majesty!

Many thanks to @gauntermetaverse for this image! Tweaked the image a bit in photoshop.

[valandhirwriter]

It is an irony that after living 18 years under the Empire, after witnessing the massacre of the Jedi, after witnessing countless atrocities... Bail is still unable to grasp how destructive and how evil the Empire, and the Emperor especially, is.

when andor first tells them about the existence of the death star, out of everyone in that room, bail organa is the most vocal in dismissing its existence.

bail organa. from alderaan.

let that sink in

[valandhirwriter]

The interessting point is, that Cassian was a victim of the Republic, as he was found by Maarva pre-Clone wars. Because for Kassa the violence began on Kenari, with his tribe's death. Even his "rescue" by Maarva has a questionable side, as she basically kidnaps him. So the violence is a state that preceded the fall of the Republic, and that bled seamlessly into the Empire.

need to unpack the way jyn was found by saw and abandoned, a failed attempt at protection from violence, kleya was found by luthen and trained, protected but not sheltered from violence, cassian was found by maarva and loved, but there was no protection from the violent death of clem. all these damaged children were shaped by the people who raised and mentored them, but also by the state of the wider galaxy, the inescapable violence and exploitation of the occupation. they all became killers, all basically condemned to use violence against to the existing social order in order to overturn it. they did not ask for the conflict, they were born into it, a generation who didn't know peace, from the core with jyn to the rim with cassian, it didn't matter where. they all came together to fight the same fight in the end.

[valandhirwriter]

After three haircuts and some delightful evenings spent with texturing out his armour I finally have Rex finished for @ribbonkandy!

[valandhirwriter]

fan of kisses on the forehead ... a bit hard to do with a helmet but sometimes you gotta work with what you have