Round 1, Pick 2 - Jayden Daniels, QB, LSU:
NFL: It’s rare to find a quarterback prospect with A+ arm talent and rushing ability. Daniels was surrounded by talented playmakers at LSU, but I’d argue he was the biggest playmaker on that offense. He is the prototypical, new-school quarterback as a dynamic athlete who is a refined pocket passer with the touch, accuracy and timing to consistently drop passes in the bucket on deep throws.
CBS Sports: A. I love this pick. It’s a great situation for a rookie. The team has a new owner, coach and now quarterback. They can grow together. He will be the best QB in this class.
ESPN: In Adam Peters' first draft as Commanders' general manager, he opted for Daniels over J.J. McCarthy and Drake Maye. If Peters got the right man then Washington finally will have a solution to a quarterback problem that has plagued them for decades. Peters' pick will always be judged by the success, or failure, of McCarthy and Maye -- though far less so if Daniels thrives in Washington. If Daniels becomes the quarterback they hope, Washington could finally end decades of subpar play on the field. Its .399 winning percentage over the past 10 years is better than only five teams. The organization has not won 10 games since it last had a dual-threat rookie quarterback in 2012 -- Robert Griffin III. He energized the fan base unlike any player in recent memory, and the hope for Washington is that Daniels will do the same. But the Commanders need that fire to burn longer than one year, as it did with Griffin.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Has been able to fart on command since he was 9.
Round 2, Pick 36 - Jer’Zhan Newton, DT, Illinois:
NFL: The Commanders clearly read the comment above this one. They'll happily take Newton, who is a ferocious scheme-wrecker as a 3-technique and probably should have gone higher than this. They might have bypassed offensive tackle for now, with no talent worth taking here, but they interestingly are pretty stocked at defensive tackle.
CBS Sports: A+. Serious talent at DT. Powerful, polished upfield rusher with stellar hand work. Pad level raises at times but that’s nitpicking. Need meets awesome value here for Washington.
ESPN: Washington did not need a defensive tackle, and clearly have some key holes to fill, but the Commanders opted for the best player available in taking Newton. Washington drafted Phidarian Mathis in be the second round two years ago, but he has yet to make an impact playing behind Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne. They also have John Ridgeway, but beyond that they needed more help. Another key: Allen has no more guaranteed money on his contract, which runs through 2025, so the team could move on from him after this season. As a result, Newton can help this season, but take on an even bigger role in the future.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: He once ate cottage cheese on pizza, it wasn’t that bad.
Round 2, Pick 50 - Mike Sainristil, CB, Michigan:
NFL: One day, Sainristil will be your favorite nickel back's favorite nickel back. Scouts love the guy in spite of his smaller, leaner frame and despite switching over from receiver only a few years ago. His football instincts are extremely sound, and his intangibles are off the charts. This is a terrific pick for a franchise bent on completely remaking the football culture in Washington.
CBS Sports: B+. Pesky nickel CB with flexibility, instincts, and a high motor. Can beat some blockers en route to the football. Reasonable twitch and plus zone awareness. Exactly the type of playmaker the Commanders need. Tackling good, not amazing. Maybe a touch early.
ESPN: Washington's cornerbacks struggled last season. The Commanders signed three corners in free agency, but needed more players who could compete for starting roles. Sainristil will do just that, though he would play in the slot, where there also was a need. Quan Martin started in the slot at the end of the season, but the second-year pro can also play safety. Sainristil also showed he can take the ball away in college with seven interceptions. Washington needs more players like that in the secondary.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Has a flask of water that was blessed by an Alaskan Medicine Man.
Round 2, Pick 53 - Ben Sinnott, TE, Kansas State:
NFL: The newfangled Commanders seem to get this draft thing. Their three Day 2 picks so far have all been personal favorites, including Sinnott, whom I appeared to be higher on than some other media draft folks. He's got some Mark Andrews to his game, as Sinnott can find open spaces readily, has reliable hands and will break tackles in the passing game. He also gives good effort as a blocker.
CBS Sports: A+. Love this pick. Athletic, explosive athlete. Clearly the second-best receiving TE in this class. YAC skill is outstanding. Strong hands. Just not a true burner down the seam. Will be a go-to target for Jayden Daniels.
ESPN: Washington needed more versatility at tight end, which is what Sinnott provides. He can help as a tight end, but, at 6-foot-4, 250 pounds, he has the size to help as a blocker from the fullback position as well. He also showed he could catch, with 49 receptions for 676 yards and six touchdowns. The Commanders needed another tight end with pass-catching potential to pair with Zach Ertz. Washington also has John Bates, but he's more of a blocker. Offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury likes to use a lot of two tight end sets so adding someone else who can catch was a must.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Applied to be on Survivor, but doesn’t like sand.
Round 3, Pick 67 - Brandon Coleman, OG, TCU:
NFL: He was announced as a guard, interestingly, which is not where Coleman played primarily last year -- and tackle is certainly the biggest worry in Washington. But he did see time at guard, too, and has the athleticism to work in a Kliff Kingsbury offense predicated on OL movement.
CBS Sports: A. Big, girthy OT who probably kicks into guard at next level. Measurables are impressive and he’s a special mover for his size. Weapon at the second level because of that combination. Burst and finishing ability. Can recover and hand work is polished. Lateral quickness a bit slow at times. Love this pick for Washington after Daniels in Round 1.
ESPN: Washington has spent the offseason trying to rebuild and fix its offensive line. The Commanders added two starters via free agency in center Tyler Biadasz and guard Nick Allegretti. Coleman now can help at tackle, though he also started games at guard while at TCU. But the immediate need remains at tackle so the Commanders need him to fill that void. Washington cut former starting left tackle Charles Leno Jr., and does not have a full-time replacement on the roster -- which is why they need Coleman to work out. Also, Washington drafted a tackle in the fourth round last season in Braeden Daniels, but he struggled in training camp and eventually was placed on injured reserve with a rotator cuff injury. He did not show he could be a future starter last summer.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: THIS TRUE FACT BROUGHT TO YOU BY DRAFT KINGS: The crown is yours.
Round 3, Pick 100 - Luke McCaffrey, WR, Rice:
NFL: GM Adam Peters came from San Francisco, where they had another guy with the same last name. This McCaffrey is a converted QB who has settled in nicely at receiver, able to translate his football IQ and athleticism into production. He has good hands, likely will work best in the slot and is regarded as a future coach. Another culture pick for Washington.
CBS Sports: B+. Older wideout with obvious NFL bloodlines. Juice galore and can separate because of his jagged movements in the route. Salesmanship is there at times too. Not a YAC freak but will make cuts without losing speed with the ball in his hands. Length and physicality hurt him. Good hands in traffic. Nice weapon here.
ESPN: McCaffrey provides needed depth at receiver. Beyond Terry McLaurin and Jahan Dotson, Washington had too many questions at this position. And Dotson has not yet ascended to the level the organization hoped when it drafted him in the first round two years ago. At 6-foot-2, McCaffrey gives Daniels a bigger target from the slot -- Peters likes his quickness inside. McCaffrey started his career as a Nebraska quarterback and ended it as a receiver at Rice.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Pick #100. Buckle up. Only 157 more to go.
Round 5, Pick 139 - Jordan Magee, LB, Temple:
NFL: If Magee is protected well up front, he can fly around and make plays with his energetic style. But his slender frame and lack of take-on strength might limit him to passing-down duty and special teams.
CBS Sports: A-. High-cut plus athlete at the off-ball LB spot. Starter athleticism with requisite length. Inconsistent beating blocks. Can avoid them with them at times but not a calling card. Has the frame and athleticism to be a quality coverage ‘backer just doesn’t have much experience doing so to date. Range is there.
ESPN: Washington has spent the offseason rebuilding its linebacker core, adding starters Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luvu as well as backups Anthony Pittman and Mykal Walker. They also still have Jamin Davis. So Magee will have work to do in order to make the roster and contribute -- most likely on special teams. Magee has experience playing special teams. The Commanders have focused in part on adding good leaders and Magee was a two-time team captain at Temple. He started for three seasons and led the team in tackles each of the past two years. Last season he also had a team-high 14 tackles for a loss and was tied for most sacks with 3.5.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Went on a 2 week road trip following the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile.
Round 5, Pick 161 - Dominique Hampton, S, Washington:
NFL: Hampton took a longer path to success with the Huskies but developed into a good hitter with experience at multiple spots. Scouts debated where his NFL home might be on defense, but at the very least he carries good special teams experience into the league.
CBS Sports: B-. One of the best overall athletes at the safety spot in this class. Explosive, bend, suddenness, it’s all there. Play ID’ing skill should be sharper given he was at Washington for six years. Wants to be part of the action just very boom-or-bust as a tackler. Will find it in the air but not a man-coverage specialist.
ESPN: Washington has a core of young safeties with Darrick Forrest, Jartavius Martin and Percy Butler, plus veterans in Jeremy Chinn and Jeremy Reaves. The Commanders did not have a need for another safety to provide immediate help, but they could use one to develop, and that's where Hampton enters. His size -- 6-foot-2, 215 pounds -- is a good starting point. Any help in Year 1 would come on special teams -- he was named the most outstanding special teams player at Washington in 2021. He spent six years with the Huskies, starting the last two and led the team in tackles this past season. He also showed versatility, playing some corner for the Huskies.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Keeps a massive scratch and sniff sticker collection.
Round 7, Pick 222 - Javontae Jean-Baptiste, DE, Notre Dame:
NFL: An ideal camp-competition pick, JJB is a middling athlete with some stiffness, but he showed improvement as a super senior and ran back a blocked kick for a touchdown last season.
CBS Sports: A-. Started at Ohio State and plays like an ascending defender because of his athleticism, bend, and glimmer of pass-rush moves around the corner. But is an older prospect already. Plus athlete. Has to get stronger. Plenty of length. Nice roll of the dice.
ESPN: The Commanders signed three edge rushers in the offseason, but only Dorance Armstrong received a multi-year contract. They do have two young holdovers from last year's draft class in KJ Henry and Andre Jones Jr. Jean-Baptiste will challenge those two for a roster spot. Jean-Baptiste spent six years in college football -- the first five at Ohio State and last year at Notre Dame. He was a reserve for the Buckeyes but started for the Irish and led the team with 10.5 tackles for a loss and five sacks. He had the seventh fastest 40-time (4.66 seconds) among defensive ends at the combine.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Actually wanted to be a kicker but that didn’t work out so he’s this position.

Team 10 - 1.05, Jordan Love, Bijan Robinson, Evan Engram, Kyler Murray, Kwitty Paye, Jamaal Adams, Shaq Barrett, Jordan Battle, Xavien Howard, Bobby Wagner
Team 11 - 1.03, Geno Smith, Najee Harris, Stefon Diggs, George Pickens, Sam LaPorta, Nick Chubb, Roquan Smith, Chase Young, Patrick Queen, Divine Diablo
FAAB, Waivers run daily at 11:00 Eastern, 4 pt TD, 0.5 PPR
League fees due via LeagueSafe. Slow draft starting as soon as league is full.
chiefy27 on Sleeper if you want more details.

Moby has always been a mainstay in house music and electronica in general. And on May 17th, 1999, he released his fifth studio album Play to critical and commercial success, becoming a rare phenomenon in the dance world.

…..but not in the way you would expect. You see, not even Moby thought he would make an impact, and originally intended to retire after that. So what makes his success story so unique? And how did this album become the best selling electronica album of all time? Let’s take a deep dive!

A quick recap into his early career

Throughout the 80s, Moby was involved in multiple underground punk rock bands. At the tail end of the decade, he shifted his interests towards the then-burgeoning electronic music scene, moving to New York City and taking up producing, remixing and DJ-ing as a result. By 1991, his single “Go” became an instant success and propelled him into stardom. For the next few years, he scored multiple dance hits (including a remix of the James Bond theme).

It was in 1996 when he released his album Animal Rights where everything went wrong. His sudden shift to punk and metal inspired music alienated much of his fan base and proved to be a critical and commercial failure, leaving him in a bit of a disarray. By this point, much of his audience began to cast doubts as to who Moby was as an artist, and while he asserted that the stylistic change was only temporary, it didn’t stop them from leaving his side. His own touring was disastrous, and him opening for alt-rock band Soundgarden was met with boos and jeers, prompting him on leaving music altogether. But thanks to artists like Bono, Axl Rose and Terence Trent D'Arby giving positive reactions to his Animal Rights album, he decided to stay a little while longer.

Background

Play's musical direction began around the time Moby's friend, Gregor Ehrlich loaned him a 1993 box set titled "Sounds of the South: A Musical Journey from the Georgia Sea Islands to the Mississippi Delta." by Alan Lomax. In it, a wide collection of folk music recorded throughout the 20th century.
Moby began to work on Play in August 1997, but touring obligations as well as unsatisfactory mixing sessions caused multiple delays. According to Moby's manager, Eric Härle had stated their original goal was to sell 250,000 copies, which was what Everything Is Wrong (1995), Moby's biggest-selling album at the time, had sold. Moby had doubts in achieving that, and many of the labels seemed to agree. Moby lost his outlet to released Play in the US following his removal from Elektra's roster of artists, leaving UK-based Mute Records as his sole label. Looking for US records to distribute was a struggle, with major label records like Warner Bros., Sony and RCA rejecting him. Even after V2 picked up the offer, most of the journalists passed on listening to the album. By March of 1999, two months before release, Moby began contemplating on his future and felt that maybe it's best to just throw in the towel and retire.

Play debuted at number 33 on the UK Albums Chart, but fell off shortly after. In addition, the radio and network airplay the songs received was very minimal. At this point, the goal was to simply get people to listen to the music; for that to happen, Moby and his management had to get really creative. While brainstorming, the team noticed a few agencies flocking to them for permission to use the music as soundbeds. That marked the moment a huge lightbulb went off on everybody's head; there's great potential in using licensing.
Licenses weren’t exactly lucrative but it was an alternate way of exposing listeners to the music rather than just radio. Management team was very diligent in looking for licenses, nevertheless, they took painstaking care of which requests were more appropriate for certain songs. Eventually they succeeded in getting every track on the album licensed, with "7" being the last track to do so.

Singles

Play's rollout consisted of eight singles. I've listed the samples used as well as where the songs are heard. While I listed as many licenses as I could, I tried to keep it within a 5 year timeframe. Forgive me as I know I missed a few but it's tough to find older, obscure commercials.

Honey
After discovering an a cappella song from Lomax's box set, Moby wrote this song in about 10 minutes. The song had minimal radio airplay but still managed to chart in several places including the UK Singles Chart (#33) and Billboard's Dance/Electronic Singles Sales (#95). A remix was later released featuring American R&B artist, Kelis.
Licensed: Permanent Midnight (1998), The 13th Warrior (1999), Maxwell Coffee (1999), Holes (2003),
Samples: Bessie Jones - Sometimes (1960)

Run On
This was one the first Play tracks Moby made. Due to the amount of samples, putting this song together proved to be a major challenge. Sampling the original folk song "God's Gonna Cut You Down" by Bill Landford and the Landfordaires, Moby didn’t know about the song's popularity until after recording it. It’s been covered by many artists including Elvis, Bobbie Gentry and Johnny Cash.
Licensed: Renault Kangoo (199x), Harsh Realm (1999), Mercy Streets (2000), Osmosis Jones (2001),
Samples: Bill Landford and The Landfordaires - Run On For A Long Time (1949), Melvin Bliss - Synthetic Substitution (1973)

Bodyrock
Fun fact: Both of Moby's managers tried to convince him not to include the song on the album, as they thought it sounded too similar to a Fatboy Slim track, but he insisted on keeping it as he liked the song for its sample.
Licensed: Dawson's Creek (1998), Rolling Rock Beer (2000), Hype (2000), FIFA 2001 (2000), Buffy The Vampire Slayer (2001), Veronica's Closet theme (2003)
Samples: Spoonie Gee and The Treacherous Three - Love Rap (1980), Gang of Four - What We All Want (1981), Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force - Looking for the Perfect Beat (1983)

Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad
Moby originally wrote this back in 1992 as a techno song. Unsatisfied with the result, he never released it. Years later, he revisited the song, reproducing it with slower and more sorrowful tone, Eric Härle encouraged him to include it on the album. Kelis also provided vocals on a remix of this track.
Licensed: The Next Best Thing (2000), Millennium Mambo (2001), Lovely Rita (2001), Black Hawk Down trailer (2001), Associaçao Desportiva de Deficientes (2004)
Samples: The Banks Brothers and The Greater Harvest Back Home Choir - He'll Roll Your Burdens Away (1966), Delegate vs. Emo-Trance - Return to Tasmania (1998)

Natural Blues
Music video features Christina Ricci (famous for her Wednesday Addams role)
Licensed: Shadow Hours (2000), Freddy Got Fingered (2001), Joan Of Arcadia (2003), Basic (2003)
Samples: Vera Hall - Trouble So Hard (1937), Coke Escovedo - I Wouldn't Change a Thing (1976), The Banks Brothers and The Greater Harvest Back Home Choir - All the Way (1966)

Porcelain
A standout of the album, it's one of the only songs on the album that Moby sings on.
Licensed: The Beach (2000), Nordstrom 'Doorway' (2000), VW Polo 'Lunchtime' (2000), Bailey's Irish Cream (200x)
Samples: Ernest Gold - Fight for Survival (1961), Electra - Destiny (The Remix)(1989)

South Side
Initially recorded with No Doubt frontwoman Gwen Stefani, production problems forced Moby to leave Stefani's vocals off the mix of the song included on the album; her vocals were later restored for the song's single release.
Licensed: I cant find any :(
Samples: The Counts - What's Up Front That Counts (1971)
Find My Baby
The final single (obviously)
Licensed: Any Given Sunday (1999), Charmed (2000), Nissan Almera II (2000), American Express 'Tiger Woods Plays Manhattan' (2000)
Samples: Boy Blue - Joe Lee's Rock (1960), Louis Bellson, Shelly Manne, Willie Bobo & Paul Humphrey - Super Mellow (1975)

As for the deep cuts (once again, I couldn’t find them all).

Rushing
Licensed: Weather Channel (2000s-2010s)
Samples: n/a

Machete
Licensed: Play It To The Bone (1999), Mission Hill 'Andy Joins The PTA.' (2002)
Samples: Tom Jones - Looking Out My Window (1968), Incredible Bongo Band - Apache (1973)

7
Licensed: unknown
Samples: n/a

Down Slow
Licensed: unknown
Samples: n/a

If Things Were Perfect
Licensed: unknown
Samples: Willie Hutch - Hospital Prelude of Love Theme (1974)

Everloving
Licensed: Requeum For a Dream trailer (2000), Thortons Chocolates ad (200x)
Samples: n/a

Inside
Licensed: Riding Giants (2004)
Samples: n/a

Guitar Flute & String
Licensed: unknown
Samples: n/a

The Sky Is Broken
Licensed: The X-Files 'All Things' (2000) (fun fact: Gillian Anderson hand-picked this song!)
Samples: Creedence Clearwater Revival - Long as I Can See the Light (1970), SMPTE Timecode - Audio Sample (1967)


My Weakness
Licensed: The X-Files 'Closure' (2000), Any Given Sunday (1999), Behind Enemy Lines (2001), The Salton Sea (2002)
Samples: Kanak - Danse Nyinewaco De Tiga (1990)

Conclusion

Play was the breakthrough album Moby needed to break into the mainstream, landing DJ gigs across the world before he even knew it. It was the first album to have all of its tracks licensed. The licensing approach was a resounding success that helped increase the album's visibility along with radio and MTV. In fact, it was so lucrative that the album was already considered a financial success before it even reached multi-platinum sales! Overall, Play's journey to being a cultural phenomenon was a slow but gradual one, with the album re-entering the top 100 charts and have many of its songs hit the charts across multiple countries. Before you knew it, the whole blues-meets-electronica was everywhere (even Adele cited this album as an influence on 25).

Using popular songs for commercial purposes is nothing new but with Play, many viewed this album as redefining the concept of "commercial". Not everybody was on board with this, many techno purists scoffed at his approach for success, seeing Moby as an ultimate sell-out, and his music being devalued as a result. Despite this, Moby remained steadfast in his decisions. Now, 25 years on, with a staggering 12 million sold worldwide, Play still remains the best selling electronica album of all time.

Questions

What was your experience with this album? Did you enjoy it?
Do you feel the push for licensing really changed the game? For better or for worse?
Do you feel this album has any cultural relevance beyond its commercial ubiquity? Why or why not?

Thank you for this universe!
And many thanks to for being a full co-writer on this project!
Kaeden and Vichee belongs to and I thank them so much for working with us! It was an honor!
Sven belongs to Bjorn the Copper Paladin from Discord. I hope to do more with them in the future, and have tons of fun!
And don’t you worry about that final in the title! We have some news at the end!
[First]- [Prev]- {Next Story!!}

{Is the reason that everything happened to Tarlim in the first place?}

{Only up to the ramps, mostly. Trying to impress upon people the importance of accessibility for those with extenuating circumstances. At least according to the records I have access to.}

{The average person knows as much about his friends as they do about Mike Collins.}
<...Who?>
{Exactly. 20th century human spaceman, was there for their first lunar landing. Didn’t get to put boots on the ground, and nobody remembers his name now.}

{Hell, I didn’t even know about him until I put in a search query of niche historical figures just to give you an example. Yeesh…}

(Program Selected.)
(Resume Selected Media? [Y])
(Playing…)
Archived Closed Circuit Security Video - Establishment: Exterminator’s Office - Dawn Creek Division - Subbasement - Date Recorded (ST): OCT 31, 2136 - Timeframe (ST): 11:42 - 11:45
The parking bay is silent. Vans are parked neatly in their spots which frame the hallway to the armory and fuel storage for the camera. A ding is heard and something moves in the hallway. Five fully suited Venlil and a Zurulian step out of an elevator and run towards a van. The sound of a door slamming open comes from the hall roughly 6 seconds later. A stream of Exterminators pour out into the hall from the stairwell.
Their voices are indecipherable as they speak over each other. A Sulian runs into the armory and reappears with a huge flamer tank on their back. Another Zurulian can be seen with an extinguisher tank, but a Venlil bleats at them and tosses it aside. They drag the quadrupedal alien quickly into the parking garage before physically throwing them into the back of a van.
From the back of the hallway, a fluid can be seen spreading across the ground. A trio of Venlil back out of a room while holding their flamers up. They are unlit, instead spewing fuel out of their nozzles. The trio twirl around in an overly animated manner as they walk down the hall to the parking garage. A van pulls out of its spot with windows down so the passengers could let out a cheer.
A black-suited Venlil runs up to the spraying trio while waving their arms to get them out into the garage. The microphone just barely manages to catch him saying, “We need to save some for the predators!” One of the other Venlil replies, “Yes sir, Mafchi!” A short flurry of curses is heard as the gathered exterminators pile into the three other visible vans. Two of the vans speed out of the garage, forcing some other Venlil exterminators to dive out of the way in the process.
The black-suited Mafchi picks up a fuel canister that had been dropped and twists off its cap. He slings it under his shoulder and pours a line of fuel. He marches straight to the final van and hops up into the open rear. The van backs itself up to turn out of the garage. The fuel canister clatters to the ground as it pulls away. Before it clears the view of the camera, the Black-suited Venlil is seen standing in its open back. He is holding what appears to be a flare gun.
The flare sails through the air shortly after the van leaves the frame and impacts the ground. It bounces and rolls until it touches the fuel and ignites it in an instant. A small wall of fire proceeds down the provided trail into the hallway, igniting more fuel as time passes. The hallway is quickly engulfed in vividly red fire. Thick black smoke begins to pour out into the garage as the fire inches closer to the primary fuel tank.
Movement can be seen in the hallway between the flickering flames. The silver form of a Venlil Exterminator is seen rushing out of the stairwell and fighting to head towards the fuel storage room. Before they reach, a white flash fills the screen. The feed goes dead, the error code consistent with electrical interruption.
(Specified Media Concluded.)

{Who was what? Mafchi?}

{Hmmm, there aren’t any tags embedded for them. The suits do a rather good job at making the officers anonymous. Let me see…oh.}

{The, uh… the employment records for that Office were…terminated.}

{It looks like…yes, here. Record wipe in 2497. Media with less than 1 bistandannual visit were removed to save space on the university’s central server. It’s…they’re gone, gone gone.}

{Maybe, but that’ll do us no good if we don’t know their name. And because of the chaos of that incident, nobody has been able to accurately reconstruct where every individual was in that office. We’d have to already know who they were to find them.}
<...I guess that’s another person I’ll have to remember then, huh?>
{...Guess so. Speaking of remembering, perhaps you should check out Tarlim’s view again? Seeing how we were just talking about him.}
<...Sure. At least people remember his name, right?>
(Command: [exitprogram])
(Are you sure? [Y])
…
{-Program Selected-}
{-Restart From Last Playback Point? Y/(N)-}
{-[USERID-11229KMD]: procViewHist -}
{-Retrieving Transcription Viewing History…-}
{-List Retrieved - Select Desired Subject: (Tarlim)-}
{-Restart From Last Playback Point? (Y)/N-}
{-Playing…-}
Memory Transcription Subject: Tarlim, the Venbig. Date [Standardized Human Time] October 31st, 2136
No matter how much Sven and Anso griped about it, having them leave and return with the trailer was a great idea. The humans who had gone with them the first time were, to my dismay, excited to try and ride in the back. I had at least been able to impress on those four that I couldn’t let anyone else ride like that, and that they were to help with rigging a trailer with some seats.
I had to admit; they did a good job!
Several couches sat bolted to the floor of the covered trailer and even had some ropes that could be hooked across the armrests as impromptu belts. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it would work as well as any bus or short train ride! Certainly superior to jumping in the bed of a truck.
I strode out into the parking road and swayed my ears to greet Anso. Sven had stayed behind here to meet with the humans and entertain the kids, a job which he was slightly less unenthusiastic about compared to last time. “Greetings, Anso! Have you made the necessary preparations for the humans to leave with you?”
The Yotul hopped out of the truck bed and bounced to me. “We have! I have to say those humans were great workers to have helped get this whipped up so quickly! I hope Sven has been behaving himself?”
I let my tail wag behind me remembering my last glimpse of him. He should really secure his sheath straps! “He has! Been entertaining the refugees while I made sure they all had their belongings ready to go. Come on inside, let’s go gather them.”
I guided him with a wave of my arm as we turned back to the door. To be truthful, I hadn’t expected Sven to win the humans over as quickly as he did. Needless to say, his primitive attire seemed to spark joy within them, a joy sorely needed amidst the sadness of recency.
As we entered the building I noticed something, or rather, the lack of something. When I had exited only a few [minutes] prior, the building had been full of life and noise. Now, it was almost dead quiet, save for the sounds of a holovision coming from the lobby. Rather heated sounds, at that.
“I didn’t think it was already main rest claw,” Anso mused as he, too, recognized the aggravated voices coming from the lobby. “And what are they watching in there? Sounds…angry.”
“Yeah…” I trailed off as I followed the noises. As I approached the lobby, the sound of what I assumed was a Gojid yelling. “You know nothing about my family. TALK, JUST FUCKING TALK, NOW!” My ears pinned back at the foul language at play, hoping that Sven and the children were somewhere else.
As I entered the room, I saw that I was only half right. The children were thankfully nowhere to be found, but Sven was obviously present, as was most of the facility staff. I was about to ask what was going on before another voice drew my attention to the holovision, the same as everyone else. The voice of none other than Chief Nikonus.
“There were three of us who laid out the groundwork for the Federation. When Kolshian explorers came in contact with the Farsul, more than a thousand years ago, the galaxy was young. We were the first in this sector to escape our gravity well. You know about the founding of this institution, but I reiterate it just in case.”
“The Krakotl were the third,” another voice piped up from behind the camera. I thought it might’ve been another Gojid, but the voice was far too breathy. Harchen, maybe? I wasn’t given a chance to consider it further as Nikonus continued. “Yes, they were a problem from the start; aggressive, disagreeable. We tried to identify the problem, and why they were so ill-equipped for spacefaring.”
“We learned they were scavengers, who would occasionally go for fish as well.”
His next line was rendered inaudible by the shocked gasps of both the refugees and residents in the room. I was no different, drawing in a sharp breath at the abrupt admission. I remembered that Arvi had said some aliens were revealed to have eaten meat in the past, but was this the way it was decided to be revealed? With such abject callousness?
Nikonus continued to speak, looking not just proud, but smug with his words. He went on about how the Federation had saved these aliens with their manipulations, but the entirety of his body language seemed to indicate he reveled in how devastating this information would be to the people he was speaking to. How they manipulated an entire culture, a RELIGION!
What if they did the same to ours?
That horrifying thought struck through my mind like a derailing train. I had relied upon the Tenets in some of my darkest moments. Found comfort in them when there was none elsewhere to be found. To have such a comfort revealed as a lie in its entirety, used only for some other group to control you…
The voice of Nikonus hit my ears again. “Oh Sovlin, I already told you. For the small minority of species who don’t find herbivory alone, we teach them the right way. Doesn’t the religion against predators sound familiar?”
The Kolshian was insufferably proud of those words. There was no doubt in my mind now; this was mocking. Mocking a Gojid for following The Protector. For being a predator. For being different, but expecting to still be treated as a person. The Gojid were predators, they couldn’t help it, and they were already being mocked for it.
What might happen to all the other species?
I shifted my focus away from the screen to the crowd, searching for one in particular. Vichee, a Krakotl already so different from everyone else, and now my concerns for them were multiplied with every word that fell from Nikonus’ mouth. Were they okay? They had come in here to see Sven, I had seen them. Where are-
I spotted Kaeden in the corner of the room. Next to him, slumped against the wall, was Vichee. The dual colored Krakotl’s eyes were glazed over as they stared at nothing. I strode over quickly, my instincts wanting to comfort them. Kaeden was simply standing there, it was confusing that he didn’t seem to be comforting Vichee at all. As I got closer, their head tilted up to me, regarding me with an unfocused eye.
“He was right.” They said quietly. My implant almost didn’t pick it up over the sounds of the lobby. “Kaeden had asked me soon after our first meeting if Krakotl had once been meat eaters. Said it was the shape of our beaks. ‘More suited to capturing small wriggling prey than filtering algae’. He told me. I nearly flew away right then… If I had, I would have been alone with this news.”I listened, kneeling down to be closer to their level. “You’re not alone, your herd is here. Right Kaeden?”
He looked over at me and nodded. “Vichee was there with me when Earth was attacked. I’m here for them now. Kaabra and Venik are… together, elsewhere at the moment. But they will be here too.”
I flicked my ears in understanding. “Then I hope they may help in hugging Vichee until their tears are dry.” I turned an eye to Vichee. “Please, I just want you to know that you are still you. What your body does has no effect on your personhood.”
Vichee still sat, their mind still likely whirling with the new information. They lifted their differently colored wings. “I’m well aware. This lesson I already learned. But thank you, I understand what you mean.” Kaeden nodded slowly and Vichee returned to their thoughts.
“There’s going to be trouble soon, Tarlim,” Kaeden stated gravely. “News like this? Nothing good will come of it. I can already tell this won’t go over well. Keep your eyes open.”
As if in response to his words, the sound of clanking metal hits my ears. They shoot up, pivoting to locate its source. There, dashing towards the door, was the armored figure of Sven. I didn’t know him enough to know how this broadcast would affect him, but running was never the best sign. I flicked my ears goodbye to my friends and rose, following after the metal man. In my periphery, I saw the television screen had shifted to show Rolem moving onto the stage. I would have to miss whatever it was he had to say, so ducked through the doors and continued to follow the sound of metal.
As I exited, I saw that I wasn’t the only one to see Sven’s actions. Anso was bounding behind him, shouting something I couldn’t hear. Sven didn’t seem to either as he kept running, but his gait wasn’t one of fear. He looked purposeful, sprinting in a straight line. A line pointed right towards-
Towards the observing Exterminator Van.
The metal Venlil didn’t even hesitate at the presence of the fence. He leapt up in a display of strength and agility, vaulting over the barrier and continuing his beeline into the van. It was like phased through the doors with how fast he moved. There were sounds of commotion that followed his entry, and soon two Exterminators fell out of the van. One Venlil…and one Krakotl. I wonder how Kalek is taking things.
I, too, cleared the fence with only a high step and reached the van, peering in to see Sven at the controls. “Sven! What are you doing?” I asked, the Krakotl officer shivering on the ground in my periphery.
“They got my girl!” He huffed, “She’s a Gojid, they got her, I can’t let them do anything worse to her!” He tried to activate the vehicle to no avail, but his words brought up something that I hadn’t thought much over. I remember hearing about temporary emplacements that were being set up. Paly had texted me about exterminators bringing people there. Her too. And that would mean-
-THOOOOOOOMMMMM-
The wind hit me like a truck and rocked the van I was standing next to. Sven even stopped trying to fiddle with the controls to see what had just happened. In the distance, near the center of town, an enormous black cloud rose into the air, the vestiges of fire still burning in the suspended embers. I couldn’t look away from it as my mind raced with horrible possibilities as my mind tripped over itself trying to concoct a plan of action.
I wasn’t given long to think before the radio in the van crackled to life, startling both Sven and myself. “Attention all True Exterminators! The truth has come out about the taint in our midst! For too long we have lived with its danger in our presence! If any of you still hold the safety of The Herd in your hearts, come join us so we may burn ALL the predator taint from this District! Rendezvous at Vulen’s apartment complex, we shall start our cleansing there!”
The name of one of my landlords sparked familiarity in my mind. They had been working to build a series of new apartments to add to his old, and if I remembered, had agreed to house the Gojid refugees. The Gojid! Paly was housed with them!!
In an instant, I reached into the van and grabbed Sven by the arm. He tried to pull away, but my grip was too strong. “Sven! They’re gonna kill the Gojid! They’re gonna burn Paly!”
He finally managed to shake himself free as my paws became jittery from stress. “I gotta save my girlfriend! She’s in a facility! I gotta save her!”
“But they’re gonna burn people here!” I protested, “we have to do something! We need- We need People who can fight them! Kaeden! I need to get Kaeden! We can save them!”
I pulled myself away from the van and spotted Anso nearby. He must have had to go through the gate, but this was good timing. I pointed a claw at him. “Do Not Let Him drive off before I get back!”
I didn’t give him, nor the Exterminators who had recovered from their shock, time to ask questions. Paly was in danger, as were who knew how many others. I faintly heard my data pad chime from within my shoulder bag, the signal my heart was beating too fast, but I couldn’t deal with it right now. I could get the heart rate under control during the drive. Right now I needed Kaeden, he knew how to fight! How to save people when others were trying to kill them!
My paws guided me and I was back in the cafeteria before I knew it. Some of the crowd had dissipated, but Kaeden and Vichee were still in the same corner I had left them in, but with their Venlil friends now joined. Without leaving time for protest, I grabbed Kaeden’s arm and pulled him away. I heard Vichee squawk behind me, but I was in too much of a hurry. I can’t let her get hurt. I Won’t.
Kaeden started to slap my arm as I dragged the soldier across the lobby. “Tarlim! What the fuck are you doing?? What’s going on?”
“No time, they’re going to burn everyone,” I breathlessly said as I burst the facility doors open to get him to the van.
“What? Who?” Kaeden questioned, still resisting my pull. I could hear a tinge of worry in his voice, and I knew he would understand. Anso looked back from his position as he heard my approach, and upon seeing me dragging Kaeden along, he grew visibly concerned.
“On the radio, something about True Exterminators,” I attempted to explain to him as we neared the gate doors. This time, I simply spread them apart with my free paw, metal screeching against itself as the gate was forced open. “They’re going to burn every cured species they can find, and That Means Paly. I Won’t Let Them.”
Kaeden had stopped struggling as I explained the bare essentials to him, and once we approached the van, he finally had enough sense to ask the right questions. “So what exactly is the plan to stop them? We’re strong, sure, I could probably take most of them. But just two of us against a wall of those flamers?”
“Not two,” I corrected, letting go of his arm and throwing open the back doors of the van. Still seated in the drivers side was Sven, who looked back once he heard me permit entrance into the back. “We have him too.”
“Wh- the LARPer??” Kaeden asked incredulously. I wasn’t familiar with the term he used, but his tone told us all we needed to know. Sven’s eyes narrowed at the perceived insult, but Kaeden continued. “Do either of you have any formal military training?? Rushing down there is only going to get you both killed along with the others! For fucks sake, slow down! We need a plan!”
“T-There won’t be t-time f-for one,” a voice peeped in from behind us. We all turned to face the source, and we found it was the Venlil Exterminator. They recoiled under the sudden gaze of our entire party, but they managed to continue. “I-I recognized the v-voice. It w-was one of the n-new recruits. They m-might as well be Y-Yulpa. If you w-want to stop them, it’s now or n-never.”
We all stared at them for a moment in disbelief that they’d willingly hand over that information to us. They were Exterminators, weren’t they? They should be allied with the voice on the radio! Kaeden, after considering the information, gave voice to my confusion. “And why are you telling us this? You’re an exterminator, shouldn’t you be trying to help them?”
“M-My husband is the Krakotl that was in the van with me!” They yelled back, stamping their footpaw on the ground in agitation. “I-I don’t care what his ancestors did a t-thousand years ago, I will not stand for those zealots burning who knows how many people! We’re not all the same, h-human!”
I was taken aback by their words. I had given up hope that there were any redeemable souls amongst the ranks of those silver-suited brahkasses, but living proof of the contrary stood before us. Their breathing was only matched by mine as my pad continued to chime in my pack. Maybe there’s hope after all.
Kaeden started frantically looking all around, his focused gaze falling on the facility, the exterminator in front of us, and the rising smoke in the distance. After a moment's hesitation, he growled to himself and shook his head. “Fine! Fucking- if you want to prove you’re different, you and your partner stand guard at the gate! They’ll probably try to send a division here, so keep on guard! And for the love of God, go ask for help if that happens!”
My tail wagged behind me as I interpreted what that meant. “So you’ll help us, Kaeden?”
He paused for a second, an agonizing second as he fully took in the situation in his mind. But ultimately, he nodded. “Let’s go, we can figure things out along the way.”
Seizing the moment, Anso quickly jumped into the van and pushed Sven out of the driver's seat, much to their visible frustration. Kaeden quickly hopped into the passenger seat, leaving me with the problem of finding a space that would fit me. I stepped over to the back of the van and threw the doors open.
The flamers and their fuel tanks were useless to us, easy to toss all three sets out onto the ground behind me. I made sure that the flamers were disabled first, of course. Just had to snap the pilot lighters and slice a hose with my claw. Even if these two said they weren’t like these “True Exterminators” I didn’t trust them one bit. I crawled inside the cramped vehicle and wiggled myself to close the doors behind me.
As I got myself settled, I watched as the Venlil Exterminator started to inspect the destroyed remains of their weapons. I squinted a glare at them and positioned myself so they couldn’t enter with me. “You two aren’t coming,” I hissed. “You know why you’re not. Try anything with the humans, and they will stop you.”
I slammed the doors shut as their expressions fell, just in time for Anso to get the van into gear. I curled myself up against the wall of the van, watching out the back window as we sped down the road. We were on our way now. On our way to save Paly and all the people gathered because their ancestors ate meat. My heart hammered in my chest, but I would need to control it for what we were about to do. I needed to focus. I needed to breathe. I needed to be calm.
Focus. Breathe. Calm
Focus.
Breathe.
Calm…
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Memory Transcription Subject: Sol-Vah, Fleeing Predator. Date [Standardized Human Time] October 31st, 2136
My legs couldn’t carry me anymore. I had to keep going, but I didn’t have the strength. My pants became wheezes as my body struggled to keep up with the physical exertion of running almost halfway through town. I hadn’t even looked up before now, at least with eyes not blinded by tears. The pain of Mute’s rejection still stung in my soul, a pain so visceral it threatened to rip me apart worse than any Arxur. Protector, what did I do to deserve this? Is there even a Protector, or did the Federation just- just make that up?
I didn’t have time to think about that now, I needed to get to the office. From what little I caught of the broadcast, Nikonus had said they saved us before. I knew what it likely was, but…I was desperate. I just wanted to go back home and have him embrace me like he did before. The safety and love I had felt from him was still fresh in my mind, and if there was any chance I had to get it back?
I’ll happily take it.
As I approached the office, however, something seemed off. I could smell soot in the air, but not the kind of soot that came from our flamers. This was- was…dirtier smelling, as if the fuel had been impure. Upon looking up, however, I saw something that made my stomach drop. A huge plume of smoke, billowing up into the sky. It shadowed the sun itself with its immensity and hate. Did the Exterminators burn more drugs? Or…or…
I felt a renewed vigor as I started to run towards the plume, hoping against hope that I was wrong. As soon as I turned the corner, though, my worst fears were realized. Where the office once stood now sat a burning stack of glorified rubble, every single window in sight shattered and multiple holes in the outer walls. The building was split, it was as if a giant knife had come down and sloppily sliced off its front half to spill flaming debris everywhere.
I stood in front of the building I had once called my home, surrounded by screams and the awful sound of flames roaring. I knew now there was no hope of salvation, no way this could ever be undone. I would never be able to go back to the way things were, never feel the happiness I had for that brief time. I was doomed to this life, abandoned by my love, and forced to live as an abomination devoid of a home.
I suppose that’s all a predator like me deserves.
[First]- [Prev]- {Next Story!!}
You read it right: This is going to be the final chapter of "Of Giants and Journalists." With the conclusion of Sharnet and Vekna's adventure, we will now take the time to show how this announcement has affected our characters and the galaxy at large. We're excited to announce our new series, Nature of a Giant: Aftermath! This series will not be quite as in-depth temporally as Of Giants and Journalists was, mainly because not as much will be happening in as short of a time. Rest assured, though, there will still be plenty of action across the board! You just won't have to deal with over half the story only covering a week of time!
In that vein, we are also excited to announce we are working on another bonus series, one that was teased a long time ago, Venric Lawven: Legal Legend! It will be filling the gap for content while we work on the first few chapters of Aftermath to make sure the scenes are as quality as they deserve, but will have a reduced upload schedule to once a week to accommodate for writing two series at once. On behalf of both of myself and , we'd like to thank all of our readers for sticking with us on this journey. It's hard to believe this series has been going on for over a year in one form or another, but I wouldn't have it any other way! Thank you all again for your continued support, and we look forward to seeing you again with Legal Legends! And then...
The Aftermath!!

I’m coming up on the end of my first rewatch since the show ended its original run. (Currently watching season 5 episode 6) My initial impression when the fifth season ended was that this was a good, but not great, series. There are so many fantastic moments, but the show always had a habit of making the subtext text that, for me, held it back from the S tier of prestige dramas like The Sopranos, Deadwood, and The Wire.
A big part of what held me back outside of that was the time jump in season five, and this rewatch isn’t entirely dissuading me from that. It’s a crime that Michael Stuhlbarg’s Arnold Rothstein is disposed of offscreen. I know he was never the heart of the show, but his performance was never less than perfect and his dynamic with Nucky was like no other on the show. If nothing else, with all the recent trends of revivals, I would love a miniseries that shows us what was happening with the real-life crime figures in the show between season four and five. No one would be mad about more of Stephen Graham as Al Capone, Anatol Yusef as Meyer Lansky, or Vincent Piazza as Lucky Luciano, right?
One thing I definitely took for granted with the original run is the insanely deep bench of acting talent that worked on this show. When there’s a solid argument that Bobby Cannavale’s Gyp Rosetti was the weakest villain in the show, you know you’ve got an embarrassment of riches. And I don’t mean that as an insult to Gyp, several of his scenes are some of my favorites (including the one where he hangs dong like Thundergun), just that I found the other antagonists more thematically compelling. Not to mention Shea Whigham and Michael Shannon, who I desperately need to star in some kind of dark buddy comedy. Gretchen Mol, Kelly Macdonald, Paul Sparks, and of course the late, great Michael K. Williams. I don’t really think there’s a weak performance in the whole show.
I’m not really sure where I was hoping to end with this, but I just wanted to get some thoughts down about a fantastic show and I hope it can spark something in you all as well.

Today I'm writing about the Aprile Family "Plot".
I'll describe how the Aprile family, (Namely Richie, partly Janice, Jackie Jr, and finally Ralph) all laid seeds to bring down Tony.
I've stated before on previous write-ups, but I'll state once more that Jackie Sr was the beloved leader of the Sopranos crew. This is highlighted in season 3, specifically the episode to "To Save us All from From Satan's Power" when in Tony's flashbacks we see a Jackie Sr that has his doors opened for him by Silvio and we see other crew members let out their chairs for him.
He was a man HONORED by his crew. He had support from NJ/NY through HONORABLE means. This is NOT the case with Tony. Tony built up his power through FEAMURDER first. We see Tony, though I believe it isn't 100% authentic, completely honors and overall respects Jackie Sr until his death. It's then Tony has to show his true character and sought the top spot.
Fast forwarding, as Richie is released, we see IMMEDIATELY he doesn't respect Tony's authority. This is highlighted in Season 2 first during Tom/Barbara elder's funeral when Tony sees Livia/Janice/Richie all together for the first time. Tony while getting a half-hearted apology from Richie tells him to BACK OFF AND RESPECT THE TITLE.
On another note, ALL of tony's enemies that he PHYSICALLY has to subdue call him "Anthony." These are all the people who saw him from his early years. This is why they have it out for him the most. They all KNOW he isn't fit to be "king". Yet his selfish nature can have it no other way. From Junior to Richie, Ralph, Feech, Blundetto (Out of jealousy), Hesh, Phil, etc each of his direct/in-direct enemies call him by his government name.
They do this is a way to MOCK him and usually due to their standing with him, (meaning he NEEDS them for some particular reason), Tony allows it. It's a very subtle clue into who has it out for Tony during the entire series.
Richie was used as a pawn for Janice, who mimics Livia's use of Corrado in the same way to bring down Tony. Richie, originally does not know/knew that Janice was using him as an overall pawn, but he himself, due to Tony not seeing him as equal and their issues of currency/the garbage business led to him being in direct conflict with Tony.
Richie, with his own personal baggage and theories on his sexuality, never has the respect to fully follow through on attacking Tony directly, Thus, he seeks out Junior to HELP aide him in his quest to retake the family/crew back from the Sopranos. Richie didn't mind Junior being in charge because him being out of the can meant all he had to do was wait and Junior's age would likely mean that eventually Richie would be in charge.
Also, Richie by episode 12 Knight in White Satin had already begun the plot to keep the Aprile family in charge by grooming Jackie Jr who then was still a student at Rutgers. We also see the closeness (though they never talk on screen) between Rosalie/Richie. She is front and center almost like the queen as Janice/Richie have their engagement ceremony.
As previously stated, I believe Janice was the overall chess player in that she was using Richie and he didn't realize it, but on the surface, Richie was marching headfirst into challenging Tony for the top spot by merging the families together and moving into a identical huge mansion with everyone noticing.
Once Richie goes to Junior to finally push through the need to usurp Tony, Junior agrees but understanding that he CAN"T be allowed to be noticed by Tony, he warns Richie to not fully commit to Albert. Junior is much sharper than Richie/Tony as far as being a consigliere (his true natural position), so he basically is the hidden middleman and puppet master for Richie. He deep down understands how the crew thinks/acts now. (End of season 2).
He knows that Richie hasn't been around long enough to garner the respect NOR FEAR needed to carry out what he wants against Tony. Junior understands that Tony will basically go to war and fight to the death (right or wrong) to keep his position. (Which basically what happens in season 6 more or less). Therefore, he plays possum and sends Richie out to do the deed and never attach his name to this second hit against Tony.
When Richie fails to pursue Albert, we see off screen that Jackie JRichie TOGETHER go to Junior to exclaim the bad news. As Junior yells ( I KNEW IT I FUCKING KNEW) he is verbally yelling out his subconscious that Richie is too week as he thought to carry out the plan against Tony.
Richie, who off camera with Jackie Jr likely already talked about strategy, THEN states to Junior that if YOU (JR) take out Tony, everybody will fall in line.
Richie in his street way, is now telling Corrado that hey, if YOU do it, everything will still work out because I don't have the muscle to do so. (Also notice that when Richie yells how he has "guys" in federal lock up who would love nothing better than to take out Barese; Junior gives him a perplexed kinda faint look like YEAH RIGHT. You can't even handle this yourself on the streets).
Junior then, realizing that Tony can NEVER find out he'd come after him twice, exclaims to Bobby his internal thoughts and says we must cut bait with Richie and let Tony know so he doesn't kills us for plotting to kill him twice. He convinces Tony that he wasn't apart of it and throws shade at Janice by telling Tony "Wonder where she is at in all this. My little Niece." Tony knows Janice's true character.
Janice provoke and kills Richie. Likely to save herself. Tony understands that now, by also getting rid of the body FOR Janice, that he OWNS her now as well. Not only did he have the proof he need that she plotted, but she also has a rivals blood on her hands AND only Tony can help her get rid of it. This was a deep and complex plot relationship most don't speak about between Tony/Janice.
In season 3, we see a now Christian-hypocritical Janice that literally is MUCH NICER to Tony than in season 2 in her initial arrival where she had this air of superiority due to age and life experience. Richie's plot to take down Tony by his OWN means dies with him at the hands of another Soprano.
PARTII of the plot now begins with Ralph/Jackie Jr.
As stated, it wasn't by accident that in season 3, Rosalie IMMEDIATELY sought out Ralphie as a spouse. This is the same method that Janice used in going after Richie except it's much more subtle. Rosalie never was away. She was the widow of the beloved boss. She was best friends (frenemies ) of Carmela the new Queen. Therefore, she didn't have to utilize the same approach as Janice. It had to be different. Not to mention, there is no way she didn't have silent ANIMOUSITY towards the Sopranos after Richie abruptly disappears. She knows how things roll. As Richie died, her standing also takes hit because the power is still not in HER family's corner still.
Thus, Jackie Jr now steps up. He started accompanying Richie in late season 2 on business disputes and Tony SHOULD have noticed him as a threat then that COULDN"T be changed. Christopher in episode Fortunate Son, is told by Tony to "keep Jackie out off it". Christopher states Jackie Jr is heir apparant prior to this.
Feech also spoke later about how power always gets passed to the son. Tony partially doesn't want Jackie Jr in involved because he understands that he becomes a rival who he'd have to deal with. It's the same in the Lion kingdom ironically.
Jackie, despite his actions was nothing more than a 21st century Tony without his dad there to carry him. Same academic profile, same Jock profile, and only difference is Jackie is being forced in the wrong direction partially due to Tony and his associates. The main one in season 3, being Ralphie who emerges more openly.
Namely, in Employee of the Month episode 4, when at at Sack's welcoming party, we see outside that Sack is secretly conversing with Ralph and Tony's worried glances notice this. The scene is very subtle in that the viewer SHOULD understand that Ralph/Sack are high level business men who have the propensity to drive home major dollars through construction. We never see Tony utilize anything but prior connects TAKEN from Junior when it comes to his business dealings. The HUD scam was grafted by Brian WITH Ralph in attendance. Tony never makes any spectacular business moves or scams that make you go wow.
The viewer finds out season 5 that the guy can't even write and is likely dyslectic. This makes total sense in why leading up, all his rivals usually don't respect him and only his closest friends do out of fear.
Tony is NOT a great or savvy businessman .He is a charming/brutal sociopath that charms up until a degree and then uses violence to take what he wants. Ralph is NOT that. He has business savvy. He is a PSYCHOPATH nevertheless.
Ralph is attempting through Johnny Sack, to plot his own rise to power in the NJ faction. This plot thickens in season 3, when Ralph, after realizing that Jackie Jr is making his move to become a member of the family. Several scenes, Ralph is bringing Jackie Jr deeper into the world with the gun, the x dealer suggestion, and taking him on missions to extort.
Ralph is poisoning Jackie with the trappings of the life. He, I believe is doing so to strengthen him to get the courage to challenge Tony and make a move while he can stay in the background and reap the fallout.
Tony/Ralph/Jackie Jr all kind of have parallels with the Lion King. Tony & Ralph playing the mufasa/scar roles while Jackie Jr is that of Simba. In a criminal way.

X-Men '97 to me is a very mediocre show. I could rant about how Trial of Magneto was changed drastically from the comics to make it seem Magneto was right, or how Storm's reason for her mohawk in the show is extremely shallow compared to in the comics, or maybe how the show jumps from event to event such as Inferno to E is for Extinction to Operation Zero Tolerance without substantially adapting them outside the most superficial things (with a cameo/shout out to other events like Mutant Massacre and Fatal Attractions), but I'd digress. Maybe I could rant how so much happens in one episode while feeling like nothing happens.
Ultimately, one character's change got on my nerves the most, and it was Bobby himself. Roberto De Costa.
In the comics, Roberto is a far more nuanced character. Growing up to a rich family, his father was a former servant who became extremely ambitious and more and more corrupt while his mother is an archaeologist who rarely has time for him. His struggles included being subject to racism for being Mulato and most of all his guilt for the death of his girlfriend, Juliana.
When Sunspot is found by the new Mutants, the Hellfire club's reavers try to capture him for his mutant abilities. In the conflict, a bullet kills his girlfriend who protects his life. This moment encapsulates a lot of Sunspot's personal conflict about being a mutant. He believes as long as he is a mutant those close to him will suffer and he feels a coward for letting Juliana sacrifice her life.
In 97, Sunspot falls into the trope of helpless kid who isn't that familiar with his mutant powers who gets sucked into the X-Men, like Kitty Pryde and Jubilee were. Now he is being taken captive by friends of humanity. I noticed off the bat how mild and non-confrontational Sunspot is being here compared to how he acts in the comics. Sunspot is one of the most aggressive and confrontational of the New Mutants, he would definitely not have taken this lying down if it were the comics.
Throughout '97, Sunspot's issues with being a mutant are the stereotypical his parents don't understand him, mostly his mother cause his dad is barely there or even mentioned. He also managed to master parts of his power he did not learn he even had until X-Force despite '97 depicting him as fairly new and unexperienced with his powers.
My point is, he acts nothing like Sunspot in '97 other than his powerset nor his personality. All they took from him is that he is rich and needs solar energy. Roberto in the comics is defined as an aggressive devil may care type who has a rigid view of right and wrong, who does not shy away from a fight. In the comics he deals with his grief of Juliana dying for him and his dad becoming more and more evil to the point his dad joins the hellfire club, chipping away at his psyche. He was the first to doubt Magneto when Magneto first became headmaster while in the show he joins Magneto just because his mom wanted him to hide being a mutant.
What was one of the most interesting things in the comics was how Sunspot's guilt for Juliana manifesting into aggression and one of Professor X's own commentaries on Roberto, how one day he very may well go down a dark path similar to his father. This actually does happen in one of the futures the New Mutants visit, where Roberto becomes just as ruthless a businessman his father once was where he builds a society where humans are second class citizens. Much of his behavior in that future mirrors his father, as Roberto's father justifies his greed and ambition by mentioning his past as a lowly servant and how poorly treated he was.
Meanwhile in '97 he is effectively reduced into a reluctant non-confrontational type who is essentially just functions as Jubilee's love interest in '97. This is very similar to what they did to Amara in X-Men Legends, using her Alison Crestmore alias as her real name instead and cutting out her entire backstory with Nova Roma and Selene just to make her into a stereotypical early Kitty Pryde stand in.
All the depth and characterization of Sunspot is just removed in '97. He is such a huge downgrade from the comics which is a shame. At least Cyclops got a good adaption in '97 that doesn't make him into an anti social Jean dependent weirdo (looking at you Wolverine and the X-Men).

So it's popular to doubt Game Pass due to a lack of understanding of the model. Xbox/Microsoft wants Game Pass to be the Netflix of gaming. We know that, but no one questions Netflix. Netflix initially had old movies and TV shows on DVD. So let's talk Netflix and their competitors.
They later did streaming. What was happening around then? Streaming wars were incomming due to Netflix becoming popular. Studios wanted more money and then thought, wait why don't we do our own at some point. Netflix started spinning up their own content in landmark deals, House of Cards whole first season was green lit. Netflix began blowing money to draw eyesballs at this point. They needed continued subscriptions growth to help mitigate the blowing of cash but they new they would only survive with engaging new titles since they were losing the back catalog that most people were watching. Yes, Bright got headlines, but losing Friends and the Office hurt Netflix.
Netflix doesn't get the ability to make a big theatrical run pop that makes 500million dollars and then the 2nd run with it being on TV. So what do they do? They end series after a couple seasons. They do things to gain acclaim or get everyone talking. 2020 came along and what were we talking about in March/April? Tiger King. It's a far cry from Bright but it took over the globe.
What did Netflix's competitors do? They launched services and made original content. A lot are flopping. I won't mention Quibbi, Vudu, Crackle or all the other low tier streaming services. HBOMax was in it's best in 2020. They got my money. They about faced on that their features releasing day and date, started cancelling shows, merged and changed their name and cancelled/scrapped completed projects. I cancelled my service and only came back when they offered it for 99¢ a month for the ad version for a year. Guess what, I'll be cancelling it when the price changes.
Disney locked in a lot of subscribers for 2-5 years pre-launch. They released a lot of new content to mixed to meh results. They made a Willion series and cancelled it after season 1. X-Men 97 got me to log into a family account to watch it starting 3 weeks ago.
CBS All Access became Paramount Plus. They went in on Star Trek and now Paramount is looking to get sold in a weird way where the IP would stay with Sony but paramount plus would get sold off?
Peacock made headlines for their Bel Air series but I've heard more people talk positive about Crackle than ever mention Peacock.
**** Back to Game Pass****
If Microsoft stick's to their plan, they will be Netflix. They need to work on getting subscriptions. I'm sure a lower tier Game Pass, that's just their phone games will get a lot of new subscribers. They won't take as many big swings like Netflix did for Bright. They will take moderate swings like Netflix did for Adam Sandler movies and stand up. They will hopefully work with TV partners to make sure new TVs can play Game Pass. They don't need a handheld if all the new Samsungs and LG TVs have a built in 100 dollar piece of equipment. They will make more TV shows and movies. They might not of made a new Fallout game, but the series made the old games spike in sales and plays.
Microsoft made a service that influenced a service that made PlayStation and Nintendo copy parts of it. Some of the same Games Journos who bemoan Game Pass as unsustainable also really want Nintendo to copy them more, usually justifying emulation/piracy.
You won't like what Xbox/Microsoft does all the time. If we lose Phil Spencer, you'll get someone way more keen to be a Bobby Kotick and keep his job then someone who loves videos as a medium. You don't have to agree or support them. Vote with your wallets. I'm just a Nintendo Day 1 fan, who owns all the systems and likes what Microsoft is building to.
P.S. a cancelled TV series doesn't get the same press as a closed game studio but the loss of jobs and impact is the same. You look at all the crew and then people hired to do related jobs... Like the craft services, security and post production services. It hurts.

I am 18+ and all characters are 18+
Hey there everyone! I’m looking for someone to play as a celebrity for me but in a classic girl next door style roleplay. The thinking was that you would play as a girl who’s just moved into the house beside mine and we begin from our first interaction. There’s many ways that we could do this. Maybe you could move in with your parents and at the start we have to sneak around without either of our sets of parents finding out we’re sleeping with the person next door. Maybe you move in with your friends after moving the year before to college/university and all your friends have been trying to set you up with a man for a while. Or maybe if you like a more scandalous scenario you move in with your boyfriend/husband and you end up cheating on him with me because he is so boring. Or potentially you have your own scenario, I’d love to hear those too! Whatever we choose this will brew into a full blown love story between us both, where eventually you leave the girl next door title behind and become the girl who I wake up next to every morning.
I’m looking for someone who doesn’t want to rush things and likes a good detailed role play ideally, so if you’re someone who does one line responses/ low effort replies then I’m afraid I’m not the partner for you! My only other request is that so I know you have read the full post I’m asking you to in your opening message tell me who you would like to play as and also how long your responses are. Thank you!
Celebrities: Sydney Sweeney, Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, Kourtney Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian, Madison Beer, Margot Robbie, Chantel Jeffries, Sommer Ray, Alissa Violet, Katie Sigmond, Charli D’Amelio, Pineapplebrat, Maren Turmo, Lauren Alexis, Sabrina Carpenter, Anne Hathaway, Millie Bobby Brown, Erna Husko, Bella Poarch, Sssniperwolf, Taylor Swift and Addison Rae. Or bring your own suggestion and maybe we can make it work!

Spoilers ahead…
Dear Karthik Subbaraj,
Congratulations on yet another interesting movie, and for resisting the impulse to name this one, too, after a food item. Iraivi is an unusual feminist film, in the sense that it’s seen entirely through the prism of sympathetic male characters. Your men aren’t monsters who drink or cheat on their wives or subject them to torture. They do these things, yes, but… differently. Arul (SJ Surya) drinks, but only to drown out his sense of failure – he’s a director and his film is in the cans, being held hostage by a sadistic producer. Michael (Vijay Sethupathi) has sex with Malarvizhi (Pooja Devariya), and he continues to lust after her after his marriage to Ponni (Anjali) – I love that all your women have names that suggest classical heroines, including Arul’s wife Yazhini (Kamalini Mukherjee) – but it’s a marriage he committed to in a hurry and he still hasn’t reconciled himself to it. He’s being a bastard, certainly, but he’s not a one-note villain. And the torture they inflict isn’t the stubbing-a-cigarette-into-the-wife’s-bare-arm variety. It’s more mental than physical.
So we get women who are collateral damage – and I include Arul’s comatose mother (Vadivukkarasi), and the nurse who’s not allowed to do her duty – of men being men. They’re being babies, really. Yazhini tells Arul that he should get on with his life, write another story, make another movie. He says it’s like her trying to have another child while still pregnant with their daughter. (Yes, all these men end up with girl children.) He’s a wallower – but maybe all artists are. You like to do that, don’t you Karthik? Even in a film like this, you deliver a commentary about filmmaking and the artist. Why, even Arul’s father is a sculptor, and though we never see him ill-treating his wife (thank you for sparing us the clichés of raised hands and raised voices), we’re informed that he’s responsible for her state. His son’s following the father’s footsteps. Maybe you’re trying to say that the wives of obsessed artists are doomed to become collateral damage. Your films make us think, Karthik, so thank you for that.
All your stories have at their centre a filmmaker, or at least (in the case of your first film, Pizza) a storyteller. And through them, we seem to hear your voice. “Works of art should not be in places where they are not respected.” “Namma padam pesanum, naama pesa koodadhu.” You compare masala movies to a massage with a happy ending. (I laughed, but please don’t judge me when I say I rather like massages with happy endings – I refer to masala movies, of course.) We even get a line of dialogue about Dolby Atmos. (What will the B/C-centre audience make of this, Karthik? But then you don’t really give a shit, do you? More power to you.) And you like your insider jokes. That crass, egoistic producer who does not care about art – he reminded me of the crass producer from your earlier film, Jigarthanda. You like Rajinikanth too. You referenced Thillu Mullu in Pizza, Thalapathi in Jigarthanda, and now you have Arul singing Malayala karayoram, Michael singing Oorai therinjikitten.
Or is that more of an Ilayaraja homage? You like to keep the audience guessing, right? When the Bobby Simha character in Jigarthanda said he was a Shankar-Ganesh fan, it appeared that you were mocking the endless Ilayaraja nods in Tamil cinema, but here you are, doffing your hat to the maestro. “Raja Raja dhaan.” Arul says this… twice. (By the way, which is that nightclub which plays Maanguyile poonguyile? Do let us know.) And the reuse of Unnai thaane – first in a scene between Michael and Malarvizhi; later in a scene between Michael and Ponni – is the kind of Easter egg we come to your films for. Let me list some others, though I’ll probably need to watch the film a second (or third) time to get them all. The name of the bachelors’ quarters is Ambal Mansion – it goes with your theme and title. I didn’t get the bit about the windmills (something connected to the gust of wind that makes the row of cycles fall over in the first scene?), or why you showcased the book of Shanta Shishunala Sharif’s poems. (I confess. I Googled up that name. I can’t remember the last time a Tamil film made me Google something up. Madras, maybe.) And despite your note at the beginning that Iraivi is inspired by the works of K Balachander (he made female-centric films, but I don’t know if I’d call them feminist films), this is really more of an ode to Mani Ratnam, isn’t it? Specifically, Aayidha Ezhuthu. The three men, one of them – the impulsive one – named Michael. The film starting out as Arul’s story, then becoming Michael’s story, and finally Jagan’s (Bobby Simha) story. The finale with the woman on the train. Plus, the arc of the Madhavan-Meera Jasmine plot was essentially about being easily misled (in the case of the man) and becoming collateral damage (in the case of the woman.) And yes, the rain. All that rain. As though the skies were weeping for these women.
Am I digressing, Karthik? If I am, I’m just following your style, which is the opposite of simple and linear. As a result, I find your films longer than they need to be. (You may feel the same about my reviews.) For instance, I did not care for the scene in the nightclub where a director is felicitated. I realise it was there as a last straw for Yazhini, but it felt redundant. But I suppose they couldn’t be any other way, because you like these shaggy-dog stories that you then embellish with novelistic detail. I love the way you introduce your characters, the time you take with them. Our films lay out characters and their relationship to each other the minute we set eyes on them, but you make us wait to know how Arul is related to Jagan and where Michael fits in and so on. And when it appeared that a semblance of a plot was kicking in (something about Arul needing money to buy back his film), I dug out my phone and checked: it was a whole hour into the movie. Borrowing an image from Malarvizhi’s profession (oh wait, she’s an artist too; she’s literally an artist), it’s like daubs of paint slowly forming a bigger picture.
And you really like an expansive canvas. Not only does the crass producer have a brother, you also bring in his wife later on, to conclude a deal he began making. These segments practically form a mini-movie, with another woman left reeling by the actions of her man. Your films have this… density. They’re packed – with characters, with complications, with information doled out in bits and pieces. (A character says, “Un kitta onnu sollanum.” And instead of hearing what he has to say, we cut to someone else.) Take the scene where Michael asks Arul for money he is owed. You just need to get Michael to Arul’s antiques shop, so the next part of the plot can be staged. Arul could have told Michael to collect the money at the shop. Instead, this is what we get. Arul tells Michael to wait for a week, when he can get the 50 lakhs he is owed. Michael says he wants only 10 lakhs. Arul says he has only 8 lakhs, he’ll give the remainder later. Michael goes to Arul’s father, in the hospital. He has only 5 lakhs. And he directs Michael to the shop, to get the remaining 3 lakhs. Your signature intercutting adds to this texture, Karthik. Shots of Michael and Arul’s father in the hospital are intercut with shots of Arul hunting for booze. Shots of Michael and Jagan outside a courtroom are intercut with shots of Arul being consoled by his father. Happenings are stretched and meshed the way they would be in real life, and not compacted according to the page-per-minute requirement of screenplay-writing textbooks.
I could never predict where the film was going (win!), what these people were going to do (again, win!) –though I must admit I found this to be the weakest of your “twists.” The subplot about stealing sculptures, too, I found rather conceit-y, something half-heartedly cooked up to fit with the title and the theme, rather than something plausible, something these people would do. When Michael, here, commits murder, with a hammer, I went, “This mild-mannered chap? Really?” But then, even in Jigarthanda, I wasn’t quite convinced that the characters would do the things they did. They seemed to be puppets of a screenplay rather than credible human beings, whose actions evolve organically from who they are (or at least, who they seem to be).
But even if I am not convinced by the overall trajectory of your characters, I love how fleshed-out they are on a moment-to-moment basis. I loved the scene where Arul barges into Yazhini’s house, after their separation, on the day of her engagement to someone else. In a lesser film, she would have asked him to get out, and he’d have dug his heels in, and she’d have cooled down and… But here, she rushes straight into his arms. And you make us see why. She was frustrated, fed up with him. But she’s also confused. Was she hasty in abandoning this man? Should she move on with another man? Does she even need a man? With just this one scene, you’ve compensated for the underwritten heroine of Jigarthanda. The story arc may be Arul’s, but Yazhini registers as a fully formed character. Similarly, Michael’s arc allows for the delineation of Ponni and Malarvizhi, and through Jagan, we get glimpses of his mother, and possibly of all womanhood as viewed by a compassionate man. And then you say that women don’t need even this compassionate man (poor chap!), that they have to emancipate themselves instead of looking for a penis-wielding emancipator. What delicious irony, given that you begin the film with women talking about marriage, tying themselves to a man!
Or not, in the case of Malarvizhi, who is easily the film’s most interesting character. Her husband is dead, and she doesn’t want love anymore – only sex. When Michael buys her a diamond necklace, she gives it back to him – she can buy her own trinkets, thank you very much. But the character feels shoe-horned into the film, Karthik. I felt betrayed – and I bet she did too – that after a point, she was used simply as a plot device to get Michael and Ponni together, and also to illustrate Michael’s (who is now standing in for all of mankind) hypocrisy. I felt she deserved more. And yet, I appreciated your generosity in fleshing her out like all the others, without judging her. She gets to be the rare woman in Tamil cinema who dumps the man, and the way she lets go of Michael is echoed in the way Arul lets go of Yazhini, with a heavy heart and some playacting. A side effect of the Malarvizhi subplot is the reassurance that Vijay Sethupathi is still interested in making cinema, rather than just massy entertainers targeted at the box office.
Ponni gets a better deal (and Anjali is terrific, raw and expressive in a way she has never been). In a great scene – rather, a set of book-ending scenes – Michael tells Ponni that he was forced to marry her, and she’s going to have to “adjust” to this if she wants to be with him. Much later, she throws the “adjust” word back on his bearded face when he asks her if she slept with someone else. In a different kind of movie, we’d be invited to see this symmetry, stand up and applaud. But you’re too subtle for that, Karthik. Iraivi is your subtlest film. Which is why I winced at the melodramatic lines about men and women, most of which came towards the end. Aan, using the long-sounding vowel, versus penn, with the shorter one – for such a visual filmmaker (this is another outstandingly shot film, less showy than Jigarthanda and probably richer for that), do you really need the crutch of linguistic special effects from another era of filmmaking? Also, when the rest of your film is so allusive, isn’t there another way you can explain the twist without having a character resort to such an inelegant information dump?
And why is it that your films come together more in the head than in the heart? Why are they easier to admire than love wholeheartedly? I used to think it was because your characters are essentially deceitful, self-serving and unsympathetic, so though we were invested in what they did, we didn’t really warm up to them. But here, you have Ponni and Yazhini and Malarvizhi – and they’re still remote. But perhaps this is bound to happen when there are so many people, so many strands, when we don’t follow one person’s simplistic “you go, girl” journey like we do in, say, 36 Vayadhinile? But when the parts are so well-crafted, we don’t complain as much about their sum not adding up to a satisfying whole. I am sure that you will, one day, make that wholly satisfying film, but for now, thank you for these parts. Thank you for the ambition. I felt there were too many songs (some good work by Santhosh Narayanan), but thank you for ensuring that they don’t break character, the way songs usually do when a character speaking in his or her voice suddenly segues into the playback singer’s voice. Thank you for giving us SJ Surya, the actor – I never dreamed he had such a capacity to hold a scene, to hold the screen. Thank you for continuing not to sell out. Thank you for trying to do so much, even if not all of it needed to have been tried. And thank you for making me fight with myself, for not making it easy to decide if you’ve made a “good” film or a merely “okay” film. For now, Iraivi is a fascinating film, and that’s enough.
Sincerely, etc.

Song Title	Artist	Episode Number
"Vampire Empire"	Big Thief	1
"Unfollow Hate"	Killa Fonic	2
"Knock on Wood"	Amii Stewart	2
"H.O.O.D"	Kneecap	2
"More is Less"	The Murder Capital	2
"Lavender"	Biig Piig	2
"(I'm A) Ramblin' Man"	Waylon Jennings	3
"It's All Your Fault"	Bobby Lee Trammell	3
"Oh No"	Biig Piig	3
"Time After Time"	Cyndi Lauper	4
"Zeu"	Spike	4
"Another Round"	The Scratch	4
"Blue Suede Shoes"	Party All Night	5
"Suspicious Minds"	Find Young Cannibals	5
"Without Me"	Ezra Williams	5
"I Want To Know What Love Is"	Foreigner	5
"You Were Always On My Mind"	Willie Nelson	5
"I Can Talk"	Two Door Cinema Club	5
"Le belle 7"	Franco Tonani	5
"Burning Love"	The Computers	5
"Gone For Good"	GA-20	6
"Don't Cling To Life"	The Murder Capital	6
"The Parting Glass"	Cara Dillon	7
"Old Note"	Lisa O'Neill	7

Cigarettes and rebellion have always gone hand-in-hand, and in an age of cigarette packet-sized health warnings, now more than ever, smoking a fag says: 'I do not give a fuck.' But if Brandon Flowers is hoping to strike a seditious pose by sparking up at the start of the interview, it's not going according to plan. The Killers' frontman is on all fours rooting through the junk that carpets the anteroom at the band's rehearsal space. "Has anyone seen my lighter?" he asks, rocking back on his heels. The question hangs in the air while Brandon cocks his head, waiting for an answer like a meerkat listening for a predator. Twenty-five years old and with a delicate bone structure, there's something almost dainty about him. Receiving no response, he returns to his search. "Oh, Jeez," he sighs. "I had it just a minute ago."
It's a scene that emphatically does not suggest a rebel without a cause. The mess isn't helping. The Killers' HQ - an industrial unit sandwiched between a construction supplier and the offices of a housing development just off Dean Martin Drive in West Las Vegas - is ankle-deep in designer clothing. A Dior Homme suit lies crumpled by the door; there's a pile of shoes topped like a sundae by a pair of Marc Jacobs trainers; and anyone wishing to enter the shoebox room the band use as an office must negotiate a mountain of discarded jeans. Many items are identifiable as coming from the wardrobe of Hot Fuss, The Killers' hugely successful 2004 debut album - triple platinum in the UK with two weeks at Number One and five million sold worldwide. Look! There are the shirts, ties and suit jackets they wore when they thrilled Glastonbury 2005 with indie rock anthems Mr Brightside and Somebody Told Me. That was the crowning moment of a two-and-a-half year tour that finally concluded in October of last year. It seems that after playing that final date in Miami, they returned to Vegas and shrugged off their image onto the floor of this bland white box.
Now a fine layer of dust covers the dead clothes. The Killers have no further use for white tuxedos on their second album, Sam's Town. Today, Brandon wears a black polo shirt, black pin-stripe waistcoat, black jeans and black boots. Where there used to be a layer of foundation, there is now a beard - an untrimmed beard at that. Dave Keuning (30, guitar), Mark Stoermer (29, bass) and Ronnie Vannucci (29, drums) all echo Brandon's black ensemble. Ronnie has added Aviator shades and a handlebar moustache for a dash of motorcycle cop, Dave's frizzy bubble of hair gives him a Marc Bolan-ish air, and there's something very teenage about Mark's scuffed Vans.
Short of walking around wearing sandwich boards saying, "Our new record is a bit heavier than the last one," The Killers couldn't hope to communicate that message more effectively. And they have gained some musical girth on Sam's Town. The pop hooks that made Hot Fuss so irresistible survive intact - see the ringing guitar riffs on first single When You Were Young - but there's a newfound punchiness, coupled with an epic sweep. The minor-to-major uplifts on Bones are fabulously dramatic, the coda to Why Do I Keep Counting? thrillingly intense. Comparisons to Bruce Springsteen have been made. If they overstate the case a little, they are at leaset qualitatively accurate. The Killers are back and this time it's serious - they've got the bootlace ties to prove it.
"Hey, it says here that Springsteen's headlining Glastonbury next year," shouts Ronnie, who's flicking through the NME. He nods sagely at the page without looking up.
"Really?" asks Dave, nicknamed Crazy Dave on account of his alledgedly volatile nature.
"The Boss is headlining one night, we're playing second on the bill the next night and Kylie's headlining the Sunday," says Brandon, charging like a bull through Michael Eavis' as-yet-unannounced line-up with what subsequently proves to be a characteristic gaucheness.
But that lighter is proving elusive. This being America, none of the people hurrying to-and-fro prepping the world for the release of Sam's Town smokes. Manager Robert Reynolds - Bobby Rey to the band - barks into his mobile, booking his band onto eye-wateringly demanding tours. "We're going to make a lot of money," he cackles to himself before switching calls to make a series of stern pronouncements on legal matters. Dave, Mark and Ronnie disappear for a jam session. Artwork is approved, B-sides are decided on and schedules are hammered out.
"I can't find it," Brandon says, finally. But he's not going to be denied the opportunity to underline The Killers reinvention with a puff of smoke. "Let's go to the gas station. I'll have to buy one. It's too busy to talk here anyway."
+
Brandon's black (of course) Volkswagen Touraeg four-wheel drive is barrelling down West Flamingo Road into town. "I was a bell boy there," he says, pointing out of the driver's window at the stucco facade of the Gold Coast casino. "I was working there when we were signed."
Coming from Las Vegas, it is perhaps inevitable that casinos play a big part in The Killers' story; not only is Sam's Town named after one, it was recorded in one, too.
The band began writing songs while on the road with Hot Fuss, turning up early for soundchecks to run through new ideas. On a trip home to Vegas, George Maloof, a hotelier known for cultivating famous friends, invited them to record the album in the new studio he'd built at The Palms, his flagship hotel-cum-gambling den. When the tour finished in October 2005, they returned to Vegas and spent five month finessing the songs they'd sketched out on the road. Then, in February, they decampled to the third floor studio at The Palms and recorded Sam's Town over 11 weeks.
Producer Flood (U2, Depeche Mode) encouraged them to experiment. They overdubbed, fiddled with synthesizers and played with new equipment. It took them five weeks to get the backing vocals right. The band sang the harmonies, then double-tracked them four times. The end result recalls Queen wondering, "Is this is the real life? Is this just fantasy?" When Ronnie, a trained classical percussionist, brought some kettledrums down, eyebrows were raised; but the fabulously bombastic coda on Why Do I Keep Counting? vindicates his indulgence.
"That's kind of the Ben Hur of the album," he says. He's not wrong. Sam's Town is a record on an epic scale. "Yeah, it has drama," he continues. "But, at the same time, I think it's a little more exposed than Hot Fuss. It's a little more naked. Last time it was about a lot of fictional things." By "fictional", Ronnie means that Hot Fuss wore its predominantly British influences for all to see. Brandon's taste in music is rabidly Anglophile - he constantly references The Smiths, The Cure and Joy Division - and it showed. By contrast, Sam's Town is an unequivocally American record. The lyrical imagery is pure American dream - cars, girls, wide-open spaces and escaping to a better life. "We're burning down the highway skyline/On the back of a hurricane that started turning/When you were young," sings Brandon on When You Were Young. That's the basis of the Springsteen comparisons then, though the lack of pathos more closely recalls another blue-collar rocker from New Jersey - Jon Bon Jovi.
The phrase "this town" recurs throughout the album, and it's always receding into the distance as The Killers escape to a new life. "This town was made for passing through/I never did get along with everybody else," sings Brandon on This River Is Wild. On Read My Mind he "never really gave up on breaking out of this two-star town", while on the title track he offers something of an explanation: "Nobody ever had a dream round here."
"With the first record, there was this feeling that there was this world out there that we didn't know," says Mark later in the day. Before The Killers, he studied philosophy: now he's their quiet one. "We wanted to get out and away from this and be somewhere else. We hadn't had a lot of experience - hadn't travelled much - then we were gone for three years. We didn't sit down and say that we wanted to make a record about how we're glad to be home, but that's what happened naturally."
It's not an angsty record. The Killers have already escaped with Hot Fuss, and, having done so, they view the experience fondly now they're back. There's a mistiness to Brandon's eyes as he explains how the album got it's name.
"Sam's Town is a casino on the edge of Vegas," he says. "I grew up in Henderson, which is out on the way to the Hoover Dam. My mom and dad lived in a trailer park, and my dad used to hitchhike up and down Boulder Highway, which is the only way you could get to Vegas. Sam's Town was the first thing you saw on your way in to town. So, when you're driving down Boulder Highway from Henderson, I always thought you finally knew you were getting somewhere when you saw Sam's Town. It was kind of like a beacon."
"It's not a completely American album," contines Brandon. "We still have our English influence, but we're also from the Wild West. Somehow we've managed to unify all that on this album. it's just such a perfect resemblence of what we are."
At the petrol station, Brandon rummages through the glove box looking for change to buy a lighter. "This is a great album," he says, pointing at Highway Companion, the latest from iconic American rocker Tom Petty. "I've always been a big fan of his. He's such a great American artist."
Yes, Brandon: we get the point.
+
When Brandon finally lights his cigarette, he smokes it awkwardly, like a child mimicking something he's seen the grown-ups doing. However, when he cheerfully admits that, "I feel the same mentally as I did when I was 12," it's not a knowing nod to the fact that he sometimes behaves like a loveably precocious child, but a reference to an unusually comprehensive grounding in pop music at an early age.
When Brandon sings about "this town", he doesn't mean Las Vegas. He means Nephi, Utah or Henderson, Nevada, where he spent his childhood. His parents are Mormon and he is the youngest of six children. "I was a surprise," he says. "I've got a 42-year-old sister." If he was issues about his "surprise" status, he chooses to gloss over them. "It turned out perfect because my brother was a teenager when I was a kid," he says. "He would bring home things like Rattle And Hum by U2 and I would watch it. I remember he bought Live In Dallas by Morrissey. It was always him watching these things, or his door was shut and you'd hear The Head On The Door by The Cure blasting through the house and rattling the walls."
The Killers were formed when Brandon answered an advert Dave had placed in a local paper in late 2002. Dave cited Oasis as a big influence; Brandon had seen them play recently and responded; and, as Dave has said in previous interviews: "He was the only person to reply to my ad who wasn't a complete freak." However, the band was born in Brandon's brothers bedroom.
"His room was like a shrine," enthuses Brandon. "It was a holy place. I wish I could show you a picture of it. It was covered in posters. There'd be a big picture of Elvis wearing a bow tie that just said 'The Smiths' [the artwork for The Smiths 1987 single Shoplifters Of The World Unite]. You had The Cure wearing face paint [the artwork to The Cure's 1985 single In Between Days] - all that kind of stuff. I remember Morrissey being on the cover of the NME, with the halo [from 1985] - stuff like that. You just wanted to know about these people 'cause they were so cool. My brother seemed like such a cool person. But he was a teenager, so he wasn't going to be that nice to me, a kid."
Brandon was fascinated by his brother's collection of music, magazines and posters, but he was denied access to them - officially, at least. "I would sneak in," he says. "I knew he'd be angry if he found out, but I would go in as soon as he left the house." For a long time Brandon was too scared to actually play anything. "That didn't come 'til later. I just used to go in there because I liked it. Then I got to the point where I'd actually take a tape out and put it in. It took more guts to do that."
It was a life-changing moment. "I was ten and the first song I played was Sing Your Life by Morrissey. I remember dancing about to it."
The lyrics to Sing Your Life include the lines, "Sing your life/Just walk right up to the microphone/And name all the things that you love/All the things that you loathe." It's intriguing to wonder what Morrissey makes of the neophyte he inspired with these lines.
Eventually, Brandon inherited his brother's tape collection. "It was around the same time CDs started coming out in a big way. He started buying CDs and gave me his tapes. And that was it: it took off from there. I got a hundred of the best albums - all the New Order, all the Morrissey, all The Smiths, The Beatles. I started buying posters. I went to see The Cure in concert. It was just kind of a continuation of my brother. And it was nice because, though my parents were strict, they were already used to it from him. There was no, 'My dad doesn't understand me,' or any of that kind of stuff. My mum likes The Smiths."
Brandon was 13 and his favourite band was late-'70s/early-'80s American new wavers The Cars, and particularly their jaw-droppingly catchy 1979 single Just What I Needed.
"I wouldn't exist without that song," he says. "That was the one. I remember driving around with my mum when I was 13, and we're living in Nephi - a really small town - and I felt so cool when I put that song on. Like: 'I have something that none of these kids I'm going to middle school with tomorrow have.' That excitement is what music's about, isn't it? That's why I understand the mentality of people that don't like us because we've sold so many records. I used to like it when no one else knew about a band. So I get that - I do."
+
Brandon's first band was called Blush Response. It was never going to work out. Not because he refused to move to Los Angeles with them, but because he is utterly - comically - shameless. He's given to making outrageously boastful statements like: "It's not like the '60s, '70s and '80s now. There are only a few bands around that are really good, that just do it. I mean, there's what, five or six of us?"
For the record, in Brandon's estimation, those bands are Franz Ferdinand, Razorlight, The Strokes, The White Stripes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and, of course, The Killers.
"I don't want people to think I'm lumping myself with other people just to make us sound cool," he says. Really? It sort of sounds like you are. But he just steamrolls through it. "Yeah, but you know what I mean," he says, grinning at his own cheekiness. He's so disgracefully forward you can't help but laugh along with him - Oh you are awful, Brandon! But joking aside, The Killers are the most commercially successful of all the bands he mentions.
Later, back at the rehearsal space, the band run through Sam's Town at deafening volume in preparation for the forthcoming tour - first the US, then the world. The infectious, almost contagious, chorus of When You Were Young sounds fabulous, as do the U2-like guitars and Twin Peaks synths of Read My Mind. Meanwhile, Smile Like You Mean It and Somebody Told Me benefit from the newfound harder edge.
They somewhat heavy-handedly underline the new direction by playing Paranoid by Black Sabbath and Get It On by T Rex. That's the thing: The Killers are not a subtle band. Their songs are like a wet kiss from a girl who's a bit too drunk. They are big and brash, and not everyone loves them for it. Mr Brightside and Somebody Told Me might go down as well at hip nightclubs as they do on the festival circuit, but the DJs play them with the same guilty look they wear when playing a pop record.
"I hate that," says Brandon. "Like writing a song you can hum somehow cheapens it? It makes me think of this quote by Morrissey. Everybody knows how he read Oscar Wilde, Keats and Yates when he was growing up and that he wanted to be a writer. He was talking to this journalist who asked why he hadn't become a writer, and Morrissey said: 'What I do is more powerful than what you do because I can write down these words and you get it to a melody. How can you beat that?' I'm of the same opinion. I don't understand why a good melody that's memorable is a bad thing."
Being dismissed as pop particular aggrieves Ronnie. "When we first came out we got compared to Duran Duran all the time. Jesus Christ! We got a keyboard player now all of a sudden he's Nick Rhodes! Come on!"
"The people who criticise us for being too poppy don't get it," agrees Mark. "I think that's the problem with a lot of rock music. People are afraid to write a song any more. Either that or they can't. And that attitude hurts music in general. The best bands ever have all written great songs. You can still do it and do it intelligently and it can be original. This isn't a studio creation with a producer writing these songs for us. We're not Avril Lavigne, or something like that. We're a real band writing real songs, just like a punk band would do, except that we write pop songs."
You get the impression that The Killers knack for showboating pop hooks that border on vulgar is inextricably tied up with the brazen side of Brandon's personality. But while his ebullient charisma, not to mention the songs themselves, mitigates his outrageousness, there is a less attractive side to his ego. He has a combative streak. He can't resist taking pot shots at emo bands, notably Fall Out Boy, whith whom The Killers share an A&R man.
Has he heard how many emo kids it takes to change a light bulb? "No." None. They just sit in the dark and cry. It's a full 30 seconds before he stops laughing. When he does he admits: "Yeah, we've had problems with other bands. You know, when you walk in the room it's like..." He whistles the theme to The Good, The Bad And The Ugly. "We're like gangs."
And while the other members of the band are diplomatic on the subject of Brandon, you don't have to read too deeply between the lines to conclude that there have been internal issues, too.
"Some people will think Brandon's the big genius," says Dave, visibly bridling. "There are songs, such as Why Do I Keep Counting?, where he's written every note. But there are others, like When You Were Young, that were more of a collaboration - like Mr Brightside, where I had some of the music and Brandon came up with the lyrics. We always have arguments about who wrote what. The truth is that we all help in that process."
When asked how success affected them, Ronnie says: "There were certain things that needed adjusting. When you're on tour for two years, people can get a little needy. It doesn't help that you're surrounded by yes men and everybody's working for you. At times we've had to say, 'Who do you think you are?' to people. No one wears the trousers, but some people would like to. I think if it wasn't for the people in the band kicking each other in the ass... Let's just say there was some ass-kickin'."
It doesn't take a genius to work out whose ass needed kicking most often.
+
It's the following day and The Killers are back at their rehearsal space. The topic of discussion is what to wear in the video for Bones, the second single. It's a big deal: the director is Tim Burton. "I feel like Frank Sinatra when I sing it," announces Brandon. "With maybe a little bit of Morrissey and a little bit of Elvis, too."
Of course he does. But if securing the services of Tim Burton tells you one thing, it's that The Killers are about to get even bigger, perhaps even make the leap to the same level as Coldplay et al. Already stars, they are about to become superstars. Brandon can hardly wait.
"Do you know that Rolling Stone didn't want to put us on the cover last time," he says indignantly. "They didn't think we were stars. We sold five million albums! What more do they want from a band?"
Whatever was required, Brandon would be happy to do most things. "I'll do stuff that some people don't want to do, 'cause I want people to hear the music," he says. However, even he has limits. "The Rolling Stone thing made the record label think: 'What can we do to make them stars?' If I go on vacation with my wife, do they have to send somebody to be there to take pictures of me? Is that how you become a star? I don't want that. I walked down the red carpet one time and I realised I don't like it. But you don't have to walk down the red carpet for people to hear your music. We do still have some of that indie blood running through our veins."
He heads off at a tangent: "When you walk around Liverpool, you think of The Beatles, or you go to Manchester and you think of The Smiths or Oasis. I want you to come to Las Vegas and think of Sam's Town. And I think we've started to capture that, which is a truer version of The Killers, 'cause that's where we're from."
He pauses.
"I used to live across the street from Sam's Town. Maybe it'll be like our Abbey Road where people go to take pictures."
Is that what he'd like?
"I wouldn't mind it," he says, desperately hoping it will come true.
He puts a cigarette between his lips, looks down at his trouser pockets and pats them in search of the lighter he bought yesterday.
"Hey, I don't suppose you've got one?"

I grew up playing Episode, so naturally when I found this game I was immediately captivated by it. I started playing since season 2 and I was hooked with the story, the interaction, the plot, and most importantly, the characters🥹 I stayed loyal to this game because no matter how bad some of the seasons are, I still lowkey feel attached to some of the characters, specifically Andy, Henrik, Bobby, Chelsea, Jin, Bella, Bea, AJ, Harry, Priya, and Lottie. These were some amazing personalities (in my opinion) in the game by far and I really loved them so I cant really bring myself to stop playing the game no matter how bad the new seasons may be. Aside from the characters, I really liked the system and concept in season 2, your choices had consequences, characters actually remember the good and bad shit you did, MC wasnt always the favorite or center of attention, you needed to really invest on a character if you want something to happen whether its to couple up or be besties, and finally back when each characters had their own personality and routes no matter the choices we made in the game (just like the Rocco route in s2)
Im not gonna stop playing this game no matter how bad the new seasons may get because at least its better than not having to play it at all. It may never be as good as s2 but at least i still get to play Love Island and hopefully have more biases🫶🏻

Hi all! Help me clear out my life of backups and samples I'll never use. Hopefully you'll find a new HG or something you've always wanted to try in my stash. I've priced everything to sell and do feel the prices are fair and low but of course I'm willing to bundle. The prices are based off what I actually paid for the products, not the retail price. I buy most things on sale and you'll get a discount on top of what I paid.

• Shipping is $5 for 4oz, $10 flat for anything over 1lb
• My home is smoke free home in CA. I have a dog that has no access to my room where my makeup and skincare is stored
• Payment via paypal goods and services. I cover fees
• I will only ship to the address on file with paypal, so please make sure your shipping address is correct when paying.
• First come, first serve. I'll hold request for 2hrs and then move on to the next in line
• $6 minimum per order

Makeup

Eyeshadow Verification: https://imgur.com/a/EEtDTYL

• Colourpop You Had Me At Hello (Used 1-2x) $10
• Bobbi Brown Long Wear Cream Eyeshadow Stick Dusty Mauve & Golden Pink (BNIB) (FS $16, MS $8)
• MAC Paints Bamboom (BNIB) $7
• MAC Eyeshadow All that Glitters (BNIB) $8
• Bare Minerals Gen Nude Eyeshadow Palette Rose (Used x2) $10
• Too Faced Better Than Chocolate (BNIB) $15
• Smashbox Covershot Ablaze Eyeshadow Palette (BN) $10
• Colourpop Sorbet Eyeshadow (Used x2) $4
• Clarins Palette 4 Couleurs 2 Rosewood (Used x2) $13
• Makeup by Mario Glam Quads Party Glam, Bronzey Glam & Rosey Glam (swatched) $8 each or $20 for 3
• Colourpop Colourstix Warm Up (Swatched x2) $3
• Eyeko Double Stack Eyeshadow Stick Dusk/Dawn (BINB plus sharpener) $4
• Bobbi Brown Rich Color Eye Shadow Royale 8 (Light Useage) $5
• MAC Single Eyeshadows Twink x2 (BNIP) $4 each
• Catrice Liquid Metal Eyeshadow Mauves like Jagger, We are the Champagnes & Under Treasure (light use) $6 for all 3

Base Products Verification: https://imgur.com/a/YB476xo

• Bobbi Brown Vitamin Enriched Face Base mini .24oz $8
• Becca Light Catcher Finishing Veil 01 Scattering (BNIB) $8
• Covergirl Clean Fresh Skin Milk 340 Light (BN) $5
• Georgette Klinger Marula Primer (BN) $5
• Too Faced Born This Way Powder Translucent (BNIB) $11
• Makeup Forever Mist & Fix Hydrating Setting Spray mini 1oz (BNIB) $6

Blush/HighlighteBronzer Verification: https://imgur.com/a/jhbuklM

• Natasha Denona All Over Glow 1 Light (Swatched x1) $10
• Tarte Amazonian Clay Waterproof Bronzer Park Avenue Princess (Lightly Used) $8
• Benefit Dandelion Twinkle Highlighter mini (BN) $9
• Milani Baked Blush Belle Amore (Swatched x1) $6
• Wet n Wild Pac Man Power Pellets Blushlighter (Swatched x1) $4
• NYX Matte Bronzer Medium (Swatched x1) $5
• Sleek Blushes Pixie Pink (Swatched x1) $4
• Grande Glow Plumping Liquid Highlighter (BN) $5
• Laritzy Cosmetics Cream Highlighter Virtue (BNIB) $4
• The Beauty Crop Blush Duo Mauve-lous (BNIB) $3
• Topshop Cream Blushes Flush (Light usage) $2 or free with purchase of 2 or more items
• Ciate Bamboo Bronzer Palm Island (Swatched x1) $5

Eyeliners/Mascaras/Brows Verification: https://imgur.com/a/RmvE8EM

• Sephora Retractable Brow Pencil 05 Neutral Grey Brown (BNIP) $9
• Makeup Forever Brow Gel (BNIB) $5
• Tynt Smokey Eye Pencil Pinot Noir (BNIB) $3
• Mally Beauty Gel Waterproof Eyeliner Onyx (BNIB) $3
• Ciate Fierce Flicks Precise Pro Tip Liquid Liner Black (BNIB) $5
• Clinique Quickliner deluxe size (BN) $3
• Clinique High Impact Mascara full size (BN) $8
• Tarte Maneater Mascara Black (BNIB) $9
• Wander Beauty Upgraded Lashes Treatment Mascara (BN) $8
• Too Face Damn Girl Mascara Travel Size (BNIB) $5
• Tynt Brow Definer Brunette (BNIP) $2
• Tori Belle Cosmetics Magnetic Eyeliner and lashes (BNIB) $5

Lips Verification: https://imgur.com/a/3Kgc3YS

• Lancome Juicy Tubes 02 Spring Fling & 07 Magic Spell (BNIB) $10 each
• Patrick Starrr Lip Snatcher Lip Liner Outta Line (BN) sold
• MAC Love Me Lipstick Under the Covers (BNIB) $9
• MAC Lip Pencil Subculture (BNIB) $10
• Clinique Chubby Stick melon (BNIB) $7
• Bobbi Brown Crushed Lip Color Angel, Sunset & Grenadine (BNIB) $14 each
• Bobbi Brown Luxe Lip Color Mini Neutral Rose (BNIB) $7
• Bobbi Brown Crushed Lip Gloss Free Spirit (BN) $14
• Bobbi Brown Extra Lip Tint Born Nude (BNIB) $12
• Laura Mercier Creme Smooth Lip Color Palm Beach (Swatched x1) $6
• Anastasia Matte Lipstick deluxe size Dead Roses (BNIB) $3
• Visee Lip Oil 002 Hold Me (BNIB) $9
• Nars Lip Gloss mini Priscilla (BN) $2
• Saint Luxe Lip Liner Duo (BNIB) Free with Purchase
• True Lucsious Super Moisture Lipstick Vintage Rose (BNIB) Free with Purchase
• Laura Geller Color Lustre Lip Gloss (BN) $5

Skincare Verification: https://imgur.com/a/TfQlafY

• Estee Lauder Revitalizing Supreme+ Moisturizer and Youth Power Soft Creme 2.5oz (BNIB) $45
• Origins Charcoal Face Mask (BN) $10
• I'm From Rice Mask (BNIB Exp 12/25) FS $15, minis $4 each
• Klairs Freshly Juiced Vitamin E Mask (BNIB Exp 6/25) $4
• Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream .5oz (BNIB) $15
• Paula's Choice Hyaluronic Acid + Peptide Lip Booster (BNIB) $14
• Innisfree Pore Clearing Clay Mask (BNIB) $8
• Saturday Skin Yuzu Vitamin C Bright Eye Cream (BNIB) $15
• Kate Somerville Goat Milk Moisturizing Cream (BNIB) $15
• Klairs Midnight Blue Calming Cream (BNIB Exp 2/25) $20
• 111Skin Rose Gold Radiance Booster (BNIB) $18
• Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye Concentrate Matrix (BNIB) $25
• I'm From Pear Serum (BNIB Exp 9/24) $18
• Rovectin Skin Essentials Activating Treatment Lotion (BNIB Exp 10/23) $10
• Wishtrend Quad Active Boosting Essence (BNIB Exp 12/23) $12
• Mudmask Eye Cream (BN) $11
• MudMask Blue Clay Mask (BN) $5
• Alpha H Liquid Gold 100ml (BNIB) $17
• Clinique Moisture Surge 2.5 oz (BNIB) $25
• Shani Darden Retinol Reform 10ml (BNIB) $6
• Biossance Squalane Marine Algae Eye Cream (BNIB) $15
• Tower 28 SOS Daily Rescue Spray 1oz (BN) $5
• Fenty Beauty Total Cleansr Makeup Removing Cleanser Mini 1.5oz (BN) $4
• Dermelect Self Esteem Beauty Sleep Serum (BNIB) $9
• AHC Essential Real Eye Cream for Face (BNIB) $8
• 111 Skin Nocturnal Eclipse Recovery Cream Mini .5oz (BNIB) $5
• Akar Restore Eye Serum (BNIB) $16
• Barbor Hydra Plus Hydration Ampoule Concentrates (BNIB) $10
• Derma E Advanced Peptides & Collagen Serum .5oz (BNIB) $8
• Symbiosis London Tightening and Replenishing Eye Mask (BN) $10
• The Body Shop Drops of Youth Liquid Peel (BNIB) $8
• French Girl La FLore Botanical Serum (BNIB) $6
• Good Molecules Niacinamide Serum (BNIB) $3
• Ulta Skincare Watermelon Refresh Sleeping Mask (BNIB) $4
• Exuviance Sample Bundle: $8
  • Deep Clean AHA Cleanser
  • Glycolic Expert Moisturizer
  • A.G.E. Less Everyday Moisturizer
  • Overnight Transforming Complex
• Peach and Lily Sample Bundle: $15
  • Glass skin face polisher
  • Glass skin refining serum
  • KP Bump Boss Microderm Body Serum
  • KP Bump Boss Smooth Body Lotion
  • Power Calm Hydrating Gel Cleanser 1oz
  • Match Pudding Antioxidant Cream .84oz
• Acne Sample Bundle: $10
  • Cerave Foaming Facial Cleanser
  • Origins Checks and Balances
  • Proactive Green Tea Moisturizer
  • Sephora Clean SKin Gel
  • Vichy Acne Control Daily Moisturizer
  • Purity Pore Extractor Clay Mask
  • Ulta Pore Strips (8pack)
  • Thayers Witch Hazel Facial Toner
• Anti-Aging Sample Bundle: $10
  • L'Oreal Age Perfect Midnight Serum
  • Keys Let Me Glow Illuminating Serum
  • Lancome Genifique
  • Shiseido Benefiance Eye Cream
  • Tony Moly Plump-kin Retinol Eye Cream
  • Bare Minerals Skinlongevity Serum
  • Pat Mcgrath Divine Skin The Essencw
  • Love Wellness Call Me Collagen x2
• Lux Sample Bundle $10
  • Estee Lauder Nutritious Melting Soft Mask
  • Peter Thomas Roth Ultimate Solution 5 Multitasking Moisturizer
  • Fresh Black Tea Age Renewal Cream
  • Sunday Riley Afterglow
  • Perricone MD Growth Factor Firming & Lifting Serum
  • Dermalogica Biolumin-C Serum
  • Dior Dream Skin Skin Perfector
• Moisturizer Sample Bundle $10
  • Ulta Beauty Honey Miel Peel Off Mask
  • It Cosmetics Confidence in a Cream x3
  • Vichy Normaderm BHA Exfoliating Serum
  • Proactiv Renewing Cleanser
  • Philosophy Purity Clay Mask
  • Vichy Liftactiv B3 Serum
  • Mario Badescue Facial Spray with Aloe Herbs and Rosewater
  • Belif The true Cream Moisturizing Bomb
  • Kylie Skin Face Moisturizer
  • Clinique Dramatically Different Hydrating Jelly
  • N07 Future Renew Damage Reversal Serum

Other Verification: https://imgur.com/a/jgUpId

• Eyeko Eyelash Curler (BNIB) $5
• Bobbi Brown Eye Blender Brush (BNIP) $9
• L'Occitane Hand Cream 1oz (BN) $5
• Body Care Sampler $12
  • Mario Badescu Coconut Body Butter
  • Mario Badescu Coconut Body Scrub
  • Dionis Goat Milk Body Lotion
  • Dionis Hand & Body Goat Milk Cream
  • Crepe Erase Body Firm
  • Hempz Body Moisturizer Ocean Breeze
  • Mega Babe Space Bar Detoxifying Underarm Bar x2
  • Osea Undaria Cleansing Body Polish
  • Crepe Erase Body Smooth Pre Treatment
  • Ulta Beauty Coconut Cream Scented Body Lotion
• Perfume Deluxe Size Bundle 5 for $25
  • Victor and Rolf Good Fortune
  • Commodity Paper
  • Ralph Lauren Ralph's Club
  • Armani Aqua di Gioia
  • Lancome Idole
• Burberry Her Eau de Parfum 1.0oz + Deluxe size dabber (BNIB) $50
• Moschino Fresh Couture Eau De Toilette 1.7oz (Sprayed x2) $30
• Clinique Happy Perfume 1.0oz (BNIB) $20
• Maison Margiela Replica Springtime in a Park 3.4oz (BNIB) $60
• Maison Margiela Replica On a Date .34oz (BNIB) $15
• Mugler Alien Goddess Supra Floral .34oz (BNIB) $11

ISO List:- Try me on Suqqu Eyeshadows and Blushes- Charlotte Tilbury Eyeshadows

Does anyone else get an insane amount of joy when Hank and Ladybird don’t even place in the competition? Like first off it’s very obvious Hank loves LB more than he does anyone else in the family and second of all why would you ever actively compete against your own child? If anything Hank should be on the side lines cheering Bobby on.

May ROTMs have landed and a few of us are waiting on some mystery bundles. The records I've seen on the most tables are Little Richard with it's slick jacket and Earl Sweatshirt. Clint Black, Alice Coltrane, and Don Blackman are all spinning around as well.
A reminder for ROTMs: Moving forward, newly released ROTMs are going to be exclusive to memberships and swaps for 3 months. For example, our May ROTMs will not be available in store until August. With this in mind, anything within 3 months of release is a "good deal." Other titles can be used with store discount codes, so you may be able to get them cheaper in the store. We're getting our first release of ROTMs with way, with January titles hitting the store.
Bonus records are now gone, but referral codes can get you discounts on multi-month memberships if you're interested in joining. Don't forget to check the referral thread to grab a code or reach out to some individuals if you're considering a 3 ($20 off), 6 ($40 off), or 12 month ($80 off) plan. It's a win-win for everyone.
This month's preview focuses on the June Swap Preview. Remember that not all swaps are "good deals." Some titles cost less than the price of your subscription. Prices for store titles will be included, while past ROTMs range from $37 for some 1LPs to $41 for other 1 and 2LPs and $49 for other 2LPs for members. You can also click "Learn More" and see the member price in your swap preview. With the new titles in swaps, we're seeing values a lot closer to your monthly prices.
All value is based on the new add-on price ($36). If you previously bought a 3, 6, or 12-month subscription, you're at that price on your main track until that subscription ends (I think this is the last month for this). Swapping for credit will get you that old price, which is something to keep in mind at this point. Know your price and know your value. Your price may vary, depending on what subscription level you're at, so be aware of how much you're paying each month before swapping. In no way is this a judgment on the music, but I'm just trying to make sure members don't pay subscription prices for a record that is significantly cheaper in the store.
Titles are broken down into 4 categories (New/will go quickly, solid recent options that are good value, questionable value, and do not swap) themed for September ROTMs with examples from the current swap preview. There are still some great deals to be had, even if we aren't seeing the crazy anthology value.
As always, feel free to post questions about specific titles you may be interested in. The community is very knowledgeable about pressing details and sound. I'm sure a lot of members would be willing to share their reviews of the pressing quality, even if it's in a category that you may not agree with:
Isaac Hayes - Swap Moses: Let Swap Moses part the seas and guide you to the promised land. These titles are the best of the month. Be on to grab them ASAP! They could be a repress of past ROTMs that have been long gone or store titles that aren't around anymore. They're some of the community's favorites. Waitlisted titles under $36 are a gamble. Some stock could've been pulled back. Get them while you can!
Essentials: N/A
Classics: Nina Simone (waitlisted)
RHH: Wu Tang (waitlisted)
Country: N/A
Rock: Little Richard (was locked down from adding toward the end of last month. I'd lock this one in if you want it because I don't forsee it lasting past this month outside of TBT)
Dolly: New Harvest
Store Titles: The Story of Memphis Rap ($269), Yuji Toriyama ($35 but waitlisted), Sampha Unnumbered ($37 but waitlisted), Tony Rice ($35 but waitlisted), The Story of The Comedy Store ($199), Ted Lucas ($27 but waitlisted), ATCQ - Love Movement ($80)
Harry Nilsson - A Little Touch of Swaps in the Night: You won't have to be on quite as fast as other titles, but a touch of these swaps will make for a great month. We're starting to see them selling out a little faster, so if you're interested in something, it's probably a good idea to grab them in swaps. You may have had your eye on and now have some reviews to base your decision on. I don't expect a rush for these titles, but keep an eye on them as the swap window goes on and they may move to low stock. These are recent ROTMs (Past 6 Months Listed), recent represses you may have missed, or in-stock store titles listed for more than the price of your subscription or an add-on track that may be on your wishlist. I also added some that have been popular with VMP subscribers. These are pretty safe bets for the value of your subscription and our frequent swappers.
Essentials: Alice Coltrane (swap exclusive), Harry Nilsson (swap exclusive), Willie Nelson P&S (swap exclusive until July), Fleetwood Mac (now in store), Labelle (now in store), Herbie Hancock, Ray Charles, Ray Barretto, Santigold, Bone Thugs, Stevie Nicks
Classics: Don Blackman (swap exclusive), Oliver Nelson (swap exclusive) Gary Bartz (now in store), La Lupe (now in store), Hector Lavoe, The MarKeys/Booker T, David Porter, Hound Dog, Wynton Marsalis, McCoy Tyner, Thelonious Monk
RHH: Earl Sweatshirt - Doris (swap exclusive), O.C (now in store), Boogie Down Productions (now in store), Masta Killa, Lupe Fiasco, Run DMC, Aesop Rock, Atmosphere, Q-Tip, Goldlink
Country: Clint Black (swap exclusive), Alan Jackson (swap exclusive) Rodney Crowell (swap exclusive until July), Billy Joe Shaver (now in store), Guy Clark (now in store), Wille Nelson (& Family), John Prine, Bobbie Gentry, Waylon Jennings
Rock: Little Richard (swap exclusive), Stevie Ray Vaughn (swap exclusive), Heart (swap exclusive until July), The Replacements (swap exclusive until June)
Store Titles: Chromeo ($45) La the Darkman ($42), Usher - My Way ($53), Kronos Quartet ($40), Willie Nelson - I Don't... ($39), Kiefer ($42), Oneohtrix Point Never (Again $45), Sarah Evans ($39), JOHN ($40), Alicia Keys (Girl on Fire $43), Euphoria S1 ($42), Busta Rhyme ($40), First Choice ($40), Rexx Life Raj ($40), Wayne Shorter Live ($46), Moses Sumney (L@B $40), Alan Braufman ($58), Euphoria S2 ($42), T-Pain ($41), Saba - FGT ($46), Altopalo ($44), Fly Anakin ($41), Black Milk ($40), Mariah Carey - Butterfly ($48), Atmosphere ($43), Joe Bataan ($40)
Charlie Worsham - Swapperband: Like a rubberband, going for these titles is a stretch. You don't save any money (or very little), so be sure to think it through. Have you had your eye on this title for a while or are you just considering them due to the fact that they're in swaps? These titles are close to the price of an add-on track, so don't dive in without considering if you REALLY want them. Think twice about these titles and ask yourself "Would I buy this if it wasn't in swaps because I'm not saving money?" These are often labeled "Swap exclusives" and store titles around $36. It may be a tough decision to swap for these.
Store Titles: Jules ($35), John Glacier Surf Gang ($35), Honky Tonk Angels ($35), OFFAIR: Dr. No's Lost Beach ($35)
Big Pun - Swapital Punishment: Don't punish yourself (or your wallet) by going after these titles. These are titles that I'd encourage you to look elsewhere to purchase, wait for a sale, or buy for less on discogs. This is my personal Do Not Swap list. As an alternative swap for credit and buy in the store, go to Discogs to look for the same pressing at less than the price of your subscription (most applicable for past ROTMs), or wait for a sale. Take your time to find a deal, as these aren't going anywhere. Most of these titles have been around for a long time, and this is VMPs way of getting rid of extra stock while making a few extra bucks. This includes in-stock store titles under $35 and older ROTMs which have been around for years.
Essentials: Aaliyah, Torres, Lapsley, The Books, Kevin Morby, Silvertones, Townes Van Zandt, Experience Unlimited, Sleater Kinny, Jim Sullivan, Dirty Projectors, Beverly Glenn Copeland, Grizzly Bear, Caroline Rose (all showing for less than an add on track in US on Discogs)
Classics: Sarah Webster Fabio, Leon Ware, Frederick Knight, Isaac Hayes, Abbey Lincoln, Teddy Pendergrass, Charles Musselwhite, Sylvester (all showing for less than an add on track in US on Discogs)
RHH: Open Mike Eagle, Queen Latifah, Da Brat, Lord Finesse, Big Boi, Future, Nappy Roots, Eyedea & Abilities, Young MC, E-40, UGK, Gang Starr, J Dilla (all showing for less than an add on track in US on Discogs)
Country: Reba McIntyre, Sam Hunt, Loretta Lynn, Brad Paisley (all showing for less than an add on track in US on Discogs)
Store Titles: Blvck Svm and Pilotkid ($28), Babsy Konate ($25)

I (28f), my husband (31m), our son(1m), my SIL(29f let’s call her Tara), and my BIL(19m let’s call him Jay) all live just moved in a house a little over a month ago. We all agreed to split the rent. My husband and I rightfully take up 2/4 of rent cost because that’s fair. My husband and I have been paying all other bills/utilities.
For some additional context my BIL(we’ll call him Jay) failed his senior year of high school last year as my MIL(Call her Vera is a single parent with a sponsor as a coparent we’ll call him Brian) was traveling for work and wasn’t able to fully focus on Jay’s schooling ect. Jay loves video games a lot and had been playing video games instead of doing schoolwork including instances of Vera taking away the devices and him sneaking them back.Tara, who until the last 4 years pretty much raised him and at the time lived 4/5 hours away, took his game console from him only for my Brian to buy him a PC instead.
My husband has been wanting to step in and help for a while to kind of act as a “father figure” for Jay. I convinced my Vera to allow us to take over and get him through his second senior year, with lots of pressure from Brian and Tara. The PC came with him as he needed it for school. Despite Tara, Vera, and I protesting that he won’t stay focused. We made an agreement he sends his grades to my husband and does chores and he can have play his video games when he’s not working, weekends and breaks for school. Well Jay will be graduating this year at the end of the month.

Over the weekend Tara and I drove to Vera’s home, who lives a couple hours away, for Mother’s Day. It was about 11am, Tara had just gotten off work as she works 3rd shift and I slept in a bit as I had a late night with my 1yo. Jay doesn’t go as he had to work that night and my husband left ahead of us with the baby as he had other things to do earlier that day. I ask Jay to do dishes and take the trash out before we leave and before he goes to work as we were running . We come home later and neither was done. Jay says he didn’t hear me say it. My husband tells him it’s cool do it when he gets home. Everyone goes to bed as we’d all been gone all day and Jay starts on his chores. 

Monday morning Vera calls asking Tara insisting that she goes to Jay’s school to check him out as there’s only a few weeks left of school and Jay has finished all schoolwork. I know the issues that we’ve had this semester including an instance of Jay showing grades from another semester so that he can keep his gaming privileges for the weekend as per our agreement with him. Him missing days due to having the wrong days for a school break and him lying to us saying he didn’t need to go to his classes in the morning(my husband called the school and it was a blatant lie). So it’s safe to say I think it’s a bad idea as he can still be failed for missing too many days.

Tara loses it because she’d gotten up later in the night and saw Jay up on his game and the task/chores weren’t done and she’d had to tell him to do them at around 3 am. She’d also woken up around 8 am and he hadn’t gotten up for school so she’d had to also wake him up for school(my husband had to do this multiple times last week as well and he had an important test). She says he needs to stay in school. I tell Vera it’s fine but my only worry is his tardies and absences. Vee calls the school and confirms Jay is good to go. They say yes. So now I’m like ok cool. 

Tara calls Brian and starts ranting at him about what Jay did the night before and having to wake him for school. He says he feels like we(Tara and I) were jumping on Jay and treating him like a kid, which I can see that. I tell him no the same task/chores he does I do as well besides the trash. I just don’t have to be told as if I see something needs to be done and have time I do it. I also cook, I do grocery/supplies shopping for the entire house and my husband and I pay all utilities. He just continues to say well he pays rent there too. I get angry and just say well we pay everything else. He continues trying to talk over me and reiterating how Jay is an adult. He also starts playing the age card making it seem like because he’s older i need to respect him and just listen and not talk back. I let him talk and he’s just saying the same things over again about Jay being an adult and I just say “well you buy him food and other supplies then.” He then decides that he wants Jay to move out. I just need to know if I’m the AH here? Because I’ve been thinking I could have handled the conversation better with my FIL.
Editing to add: FIL has a job that requires a lot of traveling so BIL is being moved into an apartment not with FIL and he will be footing the cost of the rent only and for a limited time. FIL also is extremely distant as a parent because of his job(since before BILs birth) usually only assisting when money is needed for both BIL and SIL(sometimes).
Also editing again to add: that due to our agreement being broken it’s now causing the rest of us to pay more. Which is why I feel like I may be the AH as well.

Hey family! I have had a hankering for some more episodes with guests, especially with the new show format. I think these folks have incredible potential:
Tony Hawk and Jason Ellis- OG Podcasters, LGBTQ+ allies, and they both did so much for skateboard and podcasting worlds. Check out their podcast Hawk VS. Wolf. I couldn't believe the slander of you dinguses wondering if Tony was cringe or not. Bonus idea: teach Ethan how to ollie.
Bobby Lee and Andrew Santino: you have had Bobby on plenty of times but both of them together is just pure magic.
The Jokes: why hasn't this happened yet? Let's get The Jokes to perform. I would love a live version of Midget Matzah.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard: best band in the world, coming on tour soon, a couple members went on Tim Heidecker's podcast, they dressed in drag to play a show after Tennessee banned drag, and most of their music spreads positive messages about conservation.
Any wildlife/conservation professional. The show has covered so many topics throughout the years but I think a little more light can be shed on the issue of climate change and nature resource degradation.
Peace and love!