Wade held Jasmine in his arms as he flew a low height down the long road to another section of the staryard, Tina on his back and Nathan and F right behind them in the air. Together, the five glided across the base grounds, taking care as to not irritate the aerial security during their search for the meeting room. Being outside for the flight, the group considered it a blessing that Wade's 'enhanced cooling unit' allowed his body to tolerate the breaching sun in the still cloudy sky, which, according to F, was dangerous to drones like her due to the inefficient cooling she and disassembly drones like her suffered from. Given F's physical fault, she had to fly under shady areas in order to safely traverse the base at day.
Originally, Wade and his friends had planned to walk to the meeting zone, but after running into a trooper experiencing a health mishap, the group did what they could to help the distressed officer. By the time he was brought to the medical ward by other soldiers, Wade found that him and his team would be at least a few minutes late if they kept on their way with their walk.
Deciding to speed things up, Wade, understanding the concern for performing such an effort, opted to carry the Fowleys around the base to the meeting area. Reluctantly, F decided to come along, carrying Nathan in a similar manner that Wade was carrying Jasmine. Taking notice of the time on his HUD, which read, "9:47 AM", Wade scouted for the building he and his friends were directed to. "8072" He said to himself, the number being for the building that would house the imminent meeting.
"They said it was down here, right?" Wade asked aloud to Tina before stopping himself in mid-air, the girl holding onto him tightly as he tried to speak over the growing sound of a retrofit Apache flying overhead.
Looking about, Tina nodded as she spotted the target building. "Yes, I believe that's the one over there!" Pointing past his head, Wade followed her finger to a large building ahead at his right. The structure was moderately tall, only about two stories high, with several soldiers and officers going in and out of the building. Wade smiled as he noticed the target number, as well as the big, bold words describing the building's designation. "8072, Briefing Center B"
"Good eye, honey. Hang on!" Continuing his low glide, Wade zoomed towards the building's entrance before stopping just meters above the ground, his two friends close behind as they slowed down as well. The troopers around them initially looked startled by the sudden arrival of Wade and his group, but quickly regained their composure as Wade hovered still above them.
"At ease! Just visitors." One of the soldiers declared as they identified the newcomers, who touched down before Wade let Jasmine down to her feet, Tina hopping onto the ground along with her.
Putting his hands up, Wade apologized for his swift surprise. "Sorry for the scare, we got delayed for a meeting we're invited to."
The soldier gave an understanding nod as he replied to the former worker drone sternly. "I can see that, just be a bit more careful next time, Mr. Carter. You gave the boys here quite a scare."
Wade returned the gesture in embarrassment as F put a hand to his back, chuckling at his efforts as Tina questioned the officer. "Is Mrs. J in there? She's the one who called for us."
The guard gave his reply as Wade and Tina pulled out their IDs for clearance. "Yes she is, Miss. The meeting's set to begin in under ten minutes." Checking the two drones' IDs, Jasmine and the others pulled out theirs as well, the watchman motioning another trooper over to verify the group. Once the guard finished checking the five's cards, he nodded in approval as the watchman spoke once more. "You're clear to enter."
"Thank you Sir, again, sorry about that spook back there." Wade replied with a smile as the trooper gave one of his own, the disassembly drone and his allies making their way towards the office door before stopping upon the call of a voice.
"Hey, Felice!" Wade turned to find the origin of the voice, F doing the same as the two quickly spotted a quartet of soldiers walking excitedly towards F. The disassembly drone glanced to her friends with a smile before turning back to the approaching entourage.
Wade examined the four troops as they got closer: Two human men, one woman, and a male worker drone. One of the male soldiers had short, blonde hair, and a small scar to the right side of their face. The second man bore a tan skin tone and had black hair, with blue strips that went down slightly in a mullet style. The woman bore a set of long, dark green hair, with the hair going down and over her left shoulder. As for the worker drone, he wore the standard green soldier helmet, single eye visor and all. He had no hair on him from what Wade could tell, and bore a pair of whiteish purple eyes on his visor.
As F walked over to the soldiers, the same one that called to her spoke again. "Felicity, I didn't expect to see you around here today! Where you been?"
The girl soldier interrupted his initial chatter. "Hang on Carlos, do you even know if she remembers us?"
"Aye, don't she have one o' them memory locks, or sumthin?" The drone added in a heavy Scottish accent.
F waved her hand as she replied to the group. "Easy, everyone. Thankfully I still got my memories, courtesy of my technician back at Central." Lowering her hand, F let down her usual persona as she gave a wide smirk to the soldiers, clearly pleased to see them. "Good to see you guys around here."
The soldiers gave light cheers to F as they all embraced her, the group having a surprise reunion as Wade and the others watched in surprise. These must've been F's old colleagues from when she was in the service, Wade thought. Quite the coincidence for them to be here at this base of all places.
Not bothering with the convenience of the matter, Wade shook the thought off as he and his friends watched F and her old friends breaking the hug, Tina wrapping an arm around her boyfriend as the second male human spoke to her in what the two discerned as Spanish. "Ay, who your new friends, F?"
"Oh, these guys?" F replied in the same language, quietly startling Wade and the others as they had never heard her speak like that until now. Glancing over to Wade, F motioned him and the others to come over. "Everyone, these are some friends I made in the past few days. Wade, Nathan, Tina, and Jasmine." She pointed her hand to the four as she said each of their names. "I met the boys here during my time on Ceres. Jasmine and Tina here are sisters."
The four soldiers gave various forms of excitement, ranging from hearty laughs to low woops and even a whistle from one of the guys. As F stood next to her old teammates, they each introduced themselves to Wade and his friends. The blonde soldier went first. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you all, name's Carlos, Lieutenant Marksman."
"I'm Private Alvaros, good with close-range and stealth operations." Said the tan soldier with a salute.
"Sergeant Lucia Vasquez, usually the one who leads this bunch around these days." The female warrior stated with a humorous smirk.
"And Corporal Duncan Wallace, at your service!" The soldier drone stated proudly as he saluted to the bunch in front of him, who gave warm smiles as Wade shook his hand.
"Quite honored to meet you all, seems you have quite the history with F." The former worker drone said as Carlos patted F on her back.
"Oh, we do! She's the one who took charge when we didn't! Did you all hear of the Pasting of Nola VI?" Jasmine and Tina gave nods of affirmation while Wade, not as familiar with such history, held his hand up in a questioning manner.
"I think, wasn't that the battle where the Navy just barely held the outpost in that system? From the Stryker Clan?" Wade asked as Carlos nodded approvingly to him.
"That's right, and if Felice weren't there, WE would've been the ones getting pasted!" Carlos' statement brought victorious cheers and "oorahs" from the group, F letting a blush loose as she chuckled at her team's praise of her efforts.
"Well, that's not wrong." Although she didn't want to break off from her friends and discuss the past few years since they'd last met, F remembered the briefing. Clearing her throat, she continued. "And as much as I'd like to chat about the good times, I've been called to a meeting here, as have Wade and his crew."
The soldier group gave understanding looks to F as Lucia spoke up. "Thought so, Carl here was real eager to see you, though."
"Maybe we can talk after the meeting?" Nathan proposed as the soldiers collectively nodded in agreement, F readying a smartcomm attachment before turning to face her friends again.
"We're probably getting low on time, you all go in, I'll catch up in a sec." Wade nodded in acknowledgement before taking Tina's hand, the lover drones continuing towards the briefing center as Jasmine and Nathan followed behind them.
Passing through the door, the four guests observed a short hallway, which seemed to split into two paths as they came closer to the other end. Looking to a sign on the wall above, they saw arrows pointing to two separate areas, "Primary Briefing Room; Main Lobby + Secondary & Tertiary" Going to the right, they entered the moderately active lobby, several officers walking and standing about in mass chatter. Walking over to the desk up against the wall to their left, Wade and his group waved a hand to the occupying attendant.
"Welcome, what do you need?" The desk attendant asked as Tina raised a finger to reply.
"We're here for a meeting, Mrs. J called us here."
The attendant nodded in understanding before directing an arm towards the other end of the room, where a single door stood. "She should be in the second briefing room down that way."
"Thank you." Tina replied warmly before she and Wade began walking towards the door, their friends behind them as they proceeded into the room.
The room beyond the door was quite sizable, a large circular table occupying the middle with several chairs surrounding it. The walls went up a few meters, with four whiteish blue lights illuminating the room. On the wall opposite to Wade and Tina were three monitor screens, all of which showed the USN in bright blue. In several of the seats were faces both familiar and unfamiliar, several men and women in varying styles of uniforms conversing about quietly or taking notice of the recent visitors. Standing up near the monitors were three people: A decorated officer whom Tina identified as a ship captain, and the so-called operatives, Tessa, albeit as a hologram, and J.
Walking slowly into the room, Wade gave a low wave of his hand as he tried to hide his nervousness. Noticing his shyness in front of the officers, Tina held his hand and rubbed his arm comfortingly while returning a pleasant smile to the staff in the room.
"Ah, Wade, Tina. Glad to see you all here." J stated with a smile as she scanned the group, raising a digital eyebrow as she noticed one missing guest. "Or, most of you, I see. Did F run off somewhere?"
Wade shook his head as he replied to his fellow disassembly drone. "Oh, no. She just ran into some old friends, she should be back-"
"Right now." F finished aloud as she entered the room, seemingly having heard Wade speaking about her absence. The warrior drone fast walked to Wade's team, taking a seat near them as they prepared to do the same. "Not too late, are we?"
"Not at all." The standing officer answered as the group took their seats, Wade and Tina sitting next to each other as they got comfortable. The captain examined the lot for a moment, glancing to J as he asked about them. "So, these are the ones you helped rescue from the Mojave?"
"Yes Captain, and they helped us out greatly in turn. This is Wade Carter, one of the captured drones whom became a disassembly drone before we could mount the rescue. The luckiest one, if you ask me." Motioning her arm over the others, she continued. "And there's his girlfriend, Mrs. Tina Fowley, and her sister Jasmine." Smirking to F and Nathan, she finished her friends' introductions. "And these two are Serial Designation F and Mr. Nathan, whom I've heard were once under your ranks."
The military captain gave a welcoming smile to the five as they returned the gesture, eyeing F and Nathan specifically before speaking to them. "Indeed they were, we still have records on their contributions to the colonies." Eyeing F, he continued. "Though, in Mrs. F's case, I won't blame her if she doesn't remember us. We've been very well aware of JCJenson's 'memory suppression' protocols when it comes to their DDs."
F laid back in her seat with a smug look as she replied to her former superior. "Well, my friend on the station's a good tech gal. She's... waived that hindrance from me."
"I see, that means your still with us, am I right, Mrs. Lee?" Unlike her friends next to her, F was not startled by her original name being said aloud, rather smiling proudly as she saluted to the captain. "Good to see you again."
"Pleased to be here, Sir." F replied as she lowered her arm, glancing to her companions next to her as J spoke up.
"Everyone, I'd like you to meet Captain Preston Mitchell, commander of the USNV Vickers down at the stardock."
Wade gave a respectful salute to Preston as he spoke first. "It's an honor to meet you, Sir."
"Thank you, Mr. Carter. I've heard about your efforts from J, you did an admirable job back there, son." Wade failed to hide an embarrassed blush from the compliment, but it quickly faded as a beep sounded from a small device on the table. It was swiftly silenced by the captain as he tapped a button on the small, pyramid shaped timer, then facing Wade's group before continuing. "Though, as much as we could use some small talk, it'll have to wait till later."
"Indeed, we're running late at this point." Said another officer, a highly decorated member of the base with dark skin, dark grey hair and a thin beard. He immediately won the attention of everyone in the room as he spoke up. "I'm General Hugh Hood, overseer of this base. I'm certain you know some of the reasons you're here with us, correct?"
Wade nodded as he spoke to Hood. "Yeah, it's cause of those rogue agents from the JCJenson corporation." Glancing to J, the corporate drone nodded in affirmation before speaking herself.
"Tessa and I spent the last hours of yesterday evening clearing up the matter with General Hood, along with several other officials stationed here." She stopped as the middle monitor behind her flashed with a banner at the top, reading, "INCOMING TRANSMISSION", and in place of the USN emblem was a textless version of the JCJenson logo. Below the profile image was another two lines of text. "N. Jenson (Company Exec); Comms Source: Yottrite IV"
"And also told our boss about what happened here too, he wanted to give his say on this ordeal." Looking to the general, J asked him, "May I put him on?"
Hood only gave a nod of approval to the corporate drone before she picked up a remote on the table and tapped a button, accepting the call as the picture shifted to show a middle-aged man in a pristine-looking business suit on the screen.
Wade and Tina glanced to each other before J introduced their guest on the screen. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the CEO of JCJenson: Mr. Noor Jenson."
Jenson gave a pleased nod to his subordinate as he spoke to J. "Thank you for the pleasantries, J. I see we are ready to discuss our plans on dealing with this 'recall' disaster I've bore witness to on the news this morning?"
J nodded as she replied to her boss. "Indeed, I've explained to General Hood here about our efforts yesterday, and, as of recent, we've just received a message from a source we believe to be close to the company."
Mr. Jenson looked down to J attentively as he spoke to her. "Well, that's quite intriguing news, J. Do you have this message available for us to view?" J and Hood both nodded in affirmation, but didn't get an immediate reply as Jenson gazed to Wade and his friends. "...And I presume these are some of the drones rescued from one of the factories?"
Again, J nodded to her superior before explaining her colleagues. "Yes Mr. Jenson, the two drones at the front in particular were among those taken by the Administrator and their subordinates." Pointing an arm to Wade and Tina, she introduced the drone couple. "The disassembly drone here is Mr. Wade Carter, a brother to his-technically speaking-owner, the late Ron Carter. The latter helped us recover Wade during an initial raid inside the Nevada facility." When bringing up Ron, J gave an apologetic look to Wade as to show she did not mean to be offending on him and his brother's relationship. "And this is his romantic partner, Mrs. Tina Fowley. I heard she and her sister Jasmine are pilots."
Jenson looked over the two drones as his obedient employee described them to him, quietly sighing as Wade and Tina returned the gaze with nervous smiles. Once J finished, Jenson spoke to Wade. "I... would say it's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Carter. But, given recent events, I don't hold fault to you for feeling frustrated at me for my... former subordinate's actions."
Wade shook his head lightly, taking Jenson's light apology with a faint smile as he replied to the CEO. "Actually, I don't. The only person I have such feelings put towards is," He hesitated for a moment, his anger at Dr. Halloway returning for a short moment before he eased himself. "..That bastard Halloway."
"The feeling's mutual, Mr. Carter. Dr. Halloway has been trying my patience for years now, especially with you and your fellow disassembly drones." Looking to J, then F, he returned his gaze to Wade before questioning him on his new body. "I don't know if J has told you of this, but if there's one truth my company has admittedly not held up to for a while, it's our quality. Recently, some of my research staff here made blueprints for an upgraded variant of the disassembly drone design. It's intended to fix several faults we expected to be nonexistent previously, most notably that atrocious cooling unit."
As a schematic pulled up on the left monitor, everyone glanced to the improved design before F spoke up about it. "If I may ask, Mr. Jenson, how big of an improvement is this new cooling unit supposed to be?"
"Good question, F. Frankly, it's supposed to do away with the issue entirely. Saves us from sacrificing enormous supplies of oil for the poorly built unit in the previous iterations. We even tested it with a repaired drone just a few days ago, and it worked flawlessly." Then, glancing to Wade again, he questioned the former worker drone on his new form. "Speaking of, how does your enhanced body feel, Mr. Carter? I'm certain it feels better to not have to-"
"Actually, Mr. Jenson," Wade interrupted, pulling out one of his canteens as he answered the CEO on his upgrades. "I guess Halloway changed up the blueprints, cause unfortunately this new cooling unit didn't cure the overheating problem. I... kinda learned that the hard way." Wade glanced to Tina apologetically, still feeling bad from her seeing him eat the corpse of the dead murder drone back at the factory.
The corporate CEO grimaced in frustration as he took in Wade's statement, already intolerant of the head researcher's actions as he replied. "...I was worried about that, Edgar always likes to run things his own way, making excuses for that 'Administrator' he watches over." Taking an agitated breath, he continued on with his spew on the two culprits of yesterday's events. "It was only because of all the very impressive creations and enhancements she and her research team provided that I tolerated them for so long, but this..." Sitting up straight in front of the camera, Jenson finished sternly. "J said the Administrator... Cyn, I believe? She was apparently something worse than we presumed originally, and I'm very inclined to believe so after yesterday."
"As well as the program tied to the Administrator, the AbsoluteSolver." J clarified before receiving an agreeing nod from Mr. Jenson, standing corrected on his placing of blame.
Raising a hand, Nathan asked about the supposed plans. "Yeah, about this "Solver Project", what do we plan to do about that?"
"Good question, Nate." Tessa replied as she crossed her arms before looking to Jenson and beginning her explanation. "Initially, we were going to investigate the other factories spread across Earth in order to get some more info on the Administrator before things get worse. But, just this morning, it seems someone else saved us the trouble." Just as Tessa neared the end of her sentence, J held up the remote again, tapping a few buttons before the left monitor shifted to show a slightly grainy video onscreen.
The video only showed a single being, a worker drone, dressed in a chrome suit and bearing a set of yellow eyes. Behind them was what appeared to be a vacant room, a few shelves holding many books within them standing still in the back. The drone's visage indicated they were filled with immense anxiety, terrified of being caught as they spoke quietly to the camera.
"I can only hope someone gets this in time, they're gonna be on me once they find out the transmitter screens are down!" Turning the camera, he showed what appeared to be a large factory room, several more of the mysterious conveyor belts like at the factory slotted next to each other. It was hard to discern every detail due to not only the window reflection, but also the dark lighting in the inactive conveyor room. Filming the room beyond, the drone continued. "Dr. Halloway's a madman, he's got more of those stolen drones being brought here and he's going to be overseeing it in the afternoon tomorrow! I've seen what happened back in Nevada, I can't take this any longer! I'm at coordinates ##.######, -###.###### Please, send someo-"
The suspicious, partially scrambled transmission immediately cut off to static, leaving Wade, Tina, and their friends with confused expressions as Tessa spoke up. "Yeah, that caught me by surprise too."
"So, that guy says they got more drones being sent 'there', but... where is there, exactly?" Jasmine asked with immense curiosity.
"I was hoping you'd ask that, Mrs. Fowley." The technician replied as she glanced to J, who tapped a few more buttons on the remote before speaking over her boss-friend.
"While the transmission itself isn't much to work off of, our friends from Comms over here managed to intercept the signal earlier, and even better, discern where it originated from." As J started her explanation, the screen shifted once more to show a large city, with one skyscraper highlighted in red as it was zoomed towards on the screen. "That scrambled audio wasn't a simple glitch, it was intentionally done so as to hide key information for us to uncover. Upon cleaning up the message, we managed to recover a set of coordinates, which direct to this structure here, in San Francisco."
Wade and his friends stared at the building in shock, examining the tall structure as it stood over the shorter buildings in the city. Tina broke the silence in her gaze. "So, this is another factory? It looks... terribly different from the one we got out of."
"Not exactly, Mrs. Fowley." Mr. Jenson answered, Tina and the others looking to him as he continued. "THAT is the Administrator's main laboratory, its location was kept on the down low so other authorities and terrorist groups wouldn't find out what the buildings true purpose was." Sighing, Jenson completed his reply. "But, with this recent mistake of Halloway's, that place has lost all purpose for us at the company."
Wade raised a hand to speak. "So, we're going to pounce on that place? Get Halloway before he runs off again?"
"Exactly." General Hood replied as he looked up to Mr. Jenson. "This whole 'recovery/recruitment' effort has gotten out of hand all across Sol. We've gotten countless reports of people being killed because of this, be it the brutal robberies here in Nevada or the bloodbath on Ceres. Even if Mr. Jenson refuses to cooperate, this has become a dire matter for us now. One way or another, this insanity will be stopped with due haste."
The CEO nodded in acknowledgement before explaining his own plans for the mission. "Speaking of cooperation, upon seeing what was happening at Earth, I ordered a detachment of our corporate starships in orbit at the time to depart for Sol in order to help with investigating the situation. They're not warships, but they are well-armed. I'll dispatch them to your authority upon concluding this call." Glancing to Wade and his team for a moment, Jenson continued. "As for the mission, I may not have much of a say, but let it be known that you have my blessing to do whatever it takes to end this madness. I don't care what you do with Halloway or any of his lackeys, or what happens to that facility down there... I want that program shut down."
"Thank you for the extra hands, Mr. Jenson. We'll make sure this Administrator is dealt with." Hood replied gratefully as Wade sat firm in his seat, Tina and the others following suite.
"General?" The former worker drone said aloud, catching Hood's attention before he made his request. "I know I'm not a soldier, but I want to help with dealing with Halloway and his grunts. After what he did, after losing my brother, I can't rest until I see that man stopped."
Tina raised a finger as well. "As do I, Wade could use a hand with those people, and given how we did during our escape run out of that place, I think the two of us make quite the duo." She glanced to Wade with a smirk as she referenced their combat prowess when flying together.
Nathan and F stood up before the latter gave her own request. "Sir, I wish to take part in this mission as well. I can also recommend Wade for you too, as I fought alongside him during the factory raid."
"Wouldn't mind giving a hand myself! And I'm sure my pal Kurtis would love to help, he's here at the base too!" Nathan added with a confident smirk, the group's determination encouraging Jasmine to stand up as well.
"I'd like to help too." She stated simply, a smile on her face as the general and his companions observed the five guests.
Admittedly, Hood knew it would be a bit absurd to allow these people to take part in an operation which would certainly involve bloodshed, especially considering most of them merely had civilian status at the moment. But, upon careful evaluation of the five, their desire to see this problem dealt with, and the fact that some of them had experience on the field...
He paused his train of thought as Captain Mitchell spoke to him. "General? I read up on the Fowleys' files when we recovered Mrs. Jasmine here, they provided service in their early careers." He smirked to the pilot sisters as he finished adding his say. "And to be frank, we need more people like them here. The records we have of them showed them to be damn fine pilots."
Tina blushed at the praise from Mitchell as she spoke to the general. "That is true, we uh... did get discharged for our... 'fancy maneuvering'."
"Sir?" Jasmine said, the general's attention on her as she added to the conversation. "Even if our flying is a bit out of protocol, Tina saved a lot of people on that starjet a few days back. I can promise you, she's an excellent woman to have at the wheel."
Glancing to Wade again, Hood took in his face, one of begging desperation as he spoke once more. "Please, Sir. My brother, the troops he brought from the Coalition, Halloway's gotten them all killed cause of this. I want to do this. I HAVE to do this, at least for them."
The good general took a deep, quiet breath, considering his decision once more before finally revealing it to Wade and his friends. "Mr. Carter, Fowleys? I'm probably making myself a fool for saying this, but you're permitted to assist us in this mission."
The drone couple contained their gratefulness in the form of ecstatic grins as Wade replied to the general. "Thanks, General. We won't let you down."
"And Mrs. Lee?" Hood said as he glanced to F, who returned the gesture as he told her, "You're technically under Mr. Jenson's authority, whatever his answer is, it's mine as well."
Bringing her yellow-orange eyes to her CEO, F awaited Mr. Jenson's answer. "F, yes? I heard Mr. Hood call you by a different name just now, I assume you have some experience with the army?"
The warrior drone nodded as she explained herself. "I once inherited the name of Felicity Lee, Mr. Jenson. I served under the USN Defense Forces before joining the DD Division." Then, glancing to the military staff near her, she finished with, "I had hoped to provide my enhancements to the Force one day."
Jenson gave a hint of a proud smile as he finally gave his decision. "Well, it seems you'll finally get that chance. From now on, even after this mission on Earth is over with, you're hereby dispatched to serve under the USN."
F admittedly couldn't hide her excited smirk as she flung a salute to her now former boss. "Thank you Sir!"
Looking up to Jenson, General Hood asked the CEO, "Mr. Jenson, how long until your ships can reach Earth?"
Jenson glanced down at his communication console as he answered the military leader. "At max speed, their Ion drives should be able to bring them into orbit in as little as one to two days. I believe there should be some ships within the system that could help as well."
"Signal them when you can, Mr. Jenson. We could use all the help we can get from them." The CEO nodded to Hood as he stood firmly to the viewer, the general turning to face Wade and his colleagues. "And Mr. Carter? We'll be mobilizing our forces immediately after this meeting concludes. It'll be a minute, but I want you to gather whatever items and belongings you'll need for this operation. Be ready to head to the flight pads in no more than three hours."
"Understood Sir!" Wade said with a salute, Tina, Jasmine and Nathan giving their own as Jasmine raised a finger.
"What about the area around the lab? That place looks like it's in the middle of the city."
J raised a finger as she told Jasmine and the others about their resolution of the civilian obstacle. "Shortly after reporting our findings on the transmission, Hood told us that they were sending in some teams to clear out the civilian population within several miles of the facility. Once we get there, it should be of no concern."
Jasmine sighed in relief as Tina spoke up. "So the people should be safe from any sort of danger?"
"Correct, Mrs. Tina." Preston answered before continuing. "Given the resistance Halloway and his men showed during the Coalition's raid, they most certainly won't hold back there."
"One more thing, Sir." Nathan asked. "The Coalition's going to help us out with this too, right?"
"You can count on it, Mr. Nathan." The Vickers' captain replied as he looked to J, then to Jenson as he spoke further. "I met the leader of the Coalition's detachment working with us when I was introduced to J and Mrs. Elliott here, they intend to see this conflict finished. I highly doubt they're willing to sit back and let us do this by ourselves."
"And their help will be much appreciated." Hood added, everyone's attention returned to him as he looked to Tessa, curious eyes scanning her holographic form. "And Mrs. Elliott, if I may. Do you mind heading down here to assist us in our investigations later on?"
"Funny you say that, General. I'm almost done with my own snooping around on the JCJ up in orbit, Cyn has some small departments of hers aboard, and I thought I'd gather some more intel before coming down." Glancing to Mr. Jenson, she saw him giving an understanding nod before returning her gaze to the military staff. "I should be down there by the evening, judging by where you're located."
"Do what you must, Mrs. Elliott. We could use whatever you find." Hood replied firmly as he turned once more to the JCJenson CEO. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Jenson. We will get to the bottom of this."
"It's my pleasure, General." Glancing to J and Tessa, he spoke to them once more. "J? Contact me when you've finished with Halloway and his Administrator."
"It'll be done, Mr. Jenson." The obedient servant answered before saluting firmly, receiving a final nod from her boss before he ended the transmission.
With their off-world guest out of the way, Hood looked to Wade and his friends, J, Tessa and Captain Mitchells sharing the gaze with them as the general spoke to them in finality. "Well, you know what comes next everyone. You're all dismissed for now. And remember, landing zone by 1300."
"We'll be there Sir." Wade said with a nod as he and his friends stood up, pushing in their chairs before making their way out to the door.
As they neared it, Wade stopped for a moment as they heard Hood call to one of his friends. "And F?" The soldier drone looked to the general as he continued. "Before we depart, would you mind changing your uniform? I believe it could help with identifying you from the other disassembly drones more easily." Glancing to J, then back to F, he finished with, "I recall hearing about the most formidable drones having clones prepared, yes?"
"Correct, Sir. I'll stop by the nearest barracks while I can." F replied before turning back to the door with her colleagues, Wade opening the door for them all as they passed through. After them, Wade passed through himself, shutting the door to the meeting room as he returned to the lobby.
Walking about together, F spoke to Wade and the others. "Well, that went smoothly. I'll be heading down to the barracks, then head over to your place to help out."
"Actually," Wade replied, raising a finger up as he asked his fellow murder drone, "You think you could bring your friends over? We could get to know each other while we're getting ready."
F glanced to Nathan with a smile before returning her eyes to Wade. "I could see about that. You're gonna like them, I can promise you that."
Taking Tina's hand, Wade walked with his girlfriend alongside Jasmine and the others, nearing the hallway they came through as they prepared for the walk back to the apartment.

This is pretty light hearted imo (Also I have literally never posted on Reddit, lmk if I need to change this post in any way!)
So I follow the Tumblr AITA blog and recently there was a post from a film bro. He was asking if he was an asshole for calling his coworker stupid for liking Avatar (the blue people one).
To summarize his initial submission, he gave brief information on how he and his coworker (emphasis on him calling this guy his coworker) had movie nights. He made a point of saying his coworker had terrible movie taste which was why he often chose movies. This one time, though, his friend suggested watching Avatar.
This dude DESPISES the movie. Enough that, when his coworker gave reasons for why he liked the movie, this dude called him stupid. Multiple times. And then got into an argument bad enough the coworker slept on the couch. I'll get to that in a second.
Dude was very clearly expecting Tumblr to be on his side.
When I say this guy was an asshole, I'm saying that around 97% of people voted him an asshole. The poll ended recently, but the guy decided to make a response post. The AITA blog will usually reblog additional info posts, but this guy for most of this response was antagonizing the people who called him an asshole (myself included - some of the comments he addressed I had made in my initial judgement). He also doubled down on his friend being stupid because of having a bad taste in films.
The ONLY reason the AITA blog reblogged the response is because he - very briefly - clarified the couch comment.
Apparently, the guy wasn't just his coworker. He was his roommate too. (He never clarified if they share a bed.)
This is where I decided to be petty.
At the end of his response post, he claimed that people online couldn't think critically. And something about just how insufferable this guy was, not only in how he talked about media, but how he had no remorse for how terribly he spoke about and to his friend.
So me, being an English-loving and majoring college student who has been feeling a void at the lack of essays I have been required to write now that classes are out, decided to write a critical analysis of the post.
I initially focused on the response post, figuring that I would just implicitly write about the initial one. He had bullet points of the various comments the Tumblrinas made so I bullet pointed my analysis too. - I spoke about EACH of the points he made. - I applied rhetorical analysis to his response and, eventually, his initial submission (because this man did not comprehend that people were not, in fact, just mad at him because he disliked Avatar). - I analyzed the hell out of his tone. - I quoted exact sentences from the post to analyze specifically. - I CITED which paragraphs the sentences were from. - I brought in STATISTICS - twice! (I wasn't expecting this when I started writing the analysis, but got excited when I realized I could include it.) - I wrote a CONCLUSION too!
This man implied he wanted people to think critically about his post. So I chose to do a critical analysis of it.
I don't know, I stumbled upon the response late at night and the small idea to point put flaws in the logic of the response spiraled into an essay on a Tumblr post. But I actually did have fun! It's only been a couple weeks since classes ended, and while essays aren't the most fun, I've found myself missing doing critical analysis essays.
My professors and high school English teachers would be so proud. But also so sad that I never spent this much effort on my essays but spent it on a post the op will likely never read :')

There's this movie/show that keeps showing up on my YouTube shorts, but I can't ever find the name of the film! There were two alien girls, one was wearing a blue hat and a bandage over her nose, some guy said she was appropriating his culture, then the friend dragged her to the bathroom to do a makeover (I assume), a girl walks in the bathroom and sees the alien girl without her hat, and starts screaming. The short ends there. I saw another short from the same film (I think. Unless they combined two different films on one short)- where a barista sees a lady with her man, leans over and gives him an Upvote, pressing tge up arrow on his shirt. Barista says "i hope thats not too forward" while she oogles him with her eyes. Some other lady showed up at the coffee shop and the barista told her to go somewhere else because she didn't have enough upvotes. The customer said she had already been to 5 other shops, begging the batista to just let her get a coffee. The short then cut to the two alien girls mentioned above.
Please help me find this film, I've been wanting to watch it for several weeks now but can't even find it in my YouTube history!

Hello! This is something I have been wanting to do for a while!
Hans is an interesting character, and one no one can really agree about. He pretty much has been forgotten about in recent years, with the only thing being talked about is how he was a bad twist villain. People say his reveal just has him change personality all of a sudden, and that there was no hints before.
Well, here is all the things I have found out and observed about Hans in Frozen, that do in fact reveal him as a villain way before he refused to kiss Anna!
Fact number 1!
He is based off of the Evil Mirror!
Every character in Frozen is based off of someone in the Snow Queen book. Elsa is obviously the Snow Queen, while Anna is Gerda, and Kristoff is supposedly the Robber girl. Interestingly, they all represent Kia in some way. Elsa has his character journey, while Anna gets his curse, and Kristoff is a boy.
With Hans, he is based off of the Evil Mirror, and how they did this, was to have Hans reflect the personalities with the people he is with. With Anna he is bubbly and excited. With Elsa he is regal and somewhat somber. And with the Duke he is annoyed and quick to anger. He also is scared and worried with the villagers.
Here is some examples showing these character shifts.
When Anna and him go to ask Elsa for her blessing on their marriage he is all giggly and hyper with Anna, but then he switches to Elsa's personality and becomes regal to try and convince her. He even speaks more proper "Your majesty, if I my ease your...".
Then with the next scene after Elsa runs away, he is worried like Anna, but when they confront the Duke who is freaking out, Hans shifts between the two. He is defensive of Elsa like Anna is, and a little goofy still with her, but then he quickly gets irritated with the Duke just as the Duke is also very irritated with Anna and believing Elsa is a monster.
He better reflects the Duke later in the movie when we see Hans helping the villagers. With the villagers he has a very worried air about him, but as soon as the Duke starts talking to him, he immediately gets annoyed and then angry, matching how the Duke is acting.
All of these character shifts keep happing through the rest of the film until he reveals his true personality to Anna.
Fact number 2!
The Chandelier!
When Hans and the solders reach Elsa's castle, Hans actually tried to kill Elsa here. When Hans stops Elsa from killing the Duke's men, by saying "Queen Elsa, don't be the monster they fear you are". Elsa stops and lowers her guard. We then see from Hans' perspective and he notices the guy pinned to the wall raising his crossbow to kill Elsa. Then, for a brief moment we are shown Hans' face and he looks up before he runs to the guy to try and stop him. Hans runs over and grabs the crossbow and aims it up, shotting, the chandelier. Hans had noticed the chandelier was right above Elsa, and he attempted to kill her with it while making himself look like he had tried to save her.
Fact number 3!
Hans is a chameleon!
Not literally, but when asked about Hans, the directors called him a chameleon, because he quickly adapts or blends in to situation. Most villains have a plan that they use to manipulate the hero's with. They are usually the ones in control. But Hans never has a solid plan, and he is constantly having to change tactic due to Anna and Elsa's decisions.
His initial plan was to try and woe Elsa into marrying him. But, as Hans said later in the movie, "nobody was getting anywhere with her". So he switched over to Anna, with plans to kill Elsa later. This is actually visually shown with his clothing as well. When Anna first meets Hans, he is in a blue shirt and pants, with a purple scarf tie on his neck. This matches Elsa perfectly, showing he was going after her initially, but then when we see him again he is wearing something that matches him with Anna.
But then Elsa's powers are revealed and Arendelle is cursed. Hans plan changes to trying to get the people on his side, and making Anna and Elsa look bad. He apparently let Anna go alone so that he could later take the army up to Elsa's castle and try and make it look like Anna and Elsa were conspiring to destroy Arendelle when the people see them together. With the people, he tries to act good and caring, like a good leader, and is constantly trying to act like the good guy. Constantly saying they are not to harm Elsa, because he wants to come off as noble and like he is always giving her a chance, because despite Elsa having just cursed the land, she is still Arendelle's queen and the people still love her, they are just confused and worried about what she is doing. So Hans tries to paint himself as benevolent, waiting for Elsa to slip up, either by refusing to lift the curse, or by hurting someone.
And this tactic works. Later in the film, Hans says he will go look for Anna, but he is stopped and told that if Anna is dead, he is all Arendelle has left. Then when Anna comes to him to cure her frozen heart, Hans' plan changes for the last time. He knows he cannot save Anna because he does not love her. But he no longer needs her. He has gotten the admiration of Arendelle, and now he also has a good excuses to kill Elsa. So he locks Anna up, and gets the final confirmation that he is in charge now, by saying Anna is dead and she married him right before she passed away. Finally having full control and because everyone believes Anna died because of Elsa, Hans condemns Elsa to death.
Fact number 4!
"Love is an Open Door" shows how manipulative he is of Anna!
Now, Hans was always going to have a song that showed that he was not right for Anna. Originally it was a song called "Your You", and it was meant to sound like a love song that Hans is saying to Anna, but he is constantly mocking her throughout it. The creators felt like it gave away to much so they created "Love is and Open Door".
Now, I am no song writer or experts, so these are just my opinions on what and where it shows that Hans is just using Anna.
Him saying he has been searching for his own place, and then gesturing to Arendelle, is a big one a lot of people point out. Another one is also how they sing out of sync for most of the song as well, showing how they are not actually compatible or synchronized with each other.
What I noticed however, is that whenever Anna leads the song, they are compatible, but when Hans tries to lead, Anna always says something wrong. The biggest one is of course Anna saying "Sandwiches", to which Hans quickly brushes it aside and acts like that is what he was about to say. But recently someone also pointed out that there is a part where Hans says "You", and Anna replies with "And I", and they both say together "Were just meant to be". Now, if you did not notice why this is a clue, like I did at first, pretty much they both say Anna. Hans saying "You", is referring to Anna, and Anna saying "And I" is just referring to herself. The lyrics are not saying Anna and Hans are meant to be, it is instead saying Anna and Anna are meant to be.
The only time Hans takes the lead and it works, is at the very end, where he asks Anna to marry him.
Outside of the song, there is some other hints of manipulation before as well. Apparently the line "I would never shut you out", is very manipulative. Anna is acting vulnerable and telling Hans the hurt she has over Elsa shutting her out. Hans takes this sad topic in Anna's life, and tries to make himself look good, by telling her that if she is with him, he won't act like that. He does not tell Anna he is sorry that her sister seems to ignore her for no reason, nor does he try to help Anna figure it out, by suggesting that perhaps the burden of one day being queen made Elsa feel like she needed to grow up quicker.
Fact number 5!
"You can't marry a man you just met".
This is actually something I never see anyone talk about. Anna is immediately mocked and educated about trying to marry Hans to quickly, but not Hans.
See, we all know why Anna is so quick to try and marry Hans. She has been locked up all her life and barely knows how the real world works, or even how to make real relationships with people, whether it is friendships or romance. Hans is the first person in her life and she is clinging onto him. But what is Hans' excuse? He was not locked up all his life, and he clearly has seen the world and knows how it works. He even came as a representative of the Southern Isles. But he is rushing his engagement with Anna. He could have asked if they could start courting, but he immediately jumps to engagement.
Hans is 24 in the film, and Anna is only 18, yet no one questions Hans in trying to marry Anna immediately after meeting her for just a day.
Downsides
Is Hans actually a really well thought out villain? No, there are a lot of problems with many of my points. Hans being based of the Evil Mirror, while cleaver, is not really something people would know unless they looked it up, not like the rest of the cast and how it is clear who they are supposed to represent. It is also not that clear as Hans does not have much screen time, so his character shifts are not all that noticeable noticeable.
Then there is his plan. It was never going to work. Even if he managed to marry Anna or Elsa, he was never going to be king, just a prince consort. And then even if he killed Anna and Elsa, then Arendelle would go to one of their relatives, and not to Hans.
And of course, Hans smiling nicely after Anna, after he fell into the water. A lot of people think this shows that Hans was initially good or in love with Anna. After all, no one is around, so there is no point on keeping up the act.
This scene makes it seem like the creators are just trying to trick the audience. But that is giving the audience false information about Hans' character, so it is bad writing.
My theory is that Hans has always acted like this to survive. He acts like a kind and harmless guy because as the 13 in line, he really has no power or influence, so he has to keep on peoples good side. But, as the story continues on and Hans gains more power and influence, his true personality finally comes out.
But of course, this is only a theory and I don't really have evidence for it.
There is also the question of if he wanted Elsa dead, why did ne not just let the guy shot her. My guess is that if Elsa died there and the eternal winter was over, then that guy would have become the savior of Arendelle and not Hans. So Hans tried to act like he was trying to save her. still does not make that much sense, because if she died by the chandelier, the credit would still go to the guy and not Hans.
Conclusion!
I think Hans is a really good and thought-out villain! at least much more then people notice or give credit for. He is not perfect and there is a lot of flaws, but he is also really cleaver and maybe with a few tweaks of the story, could have been great.
Well, that is all I have to say for the moment. What do you think? Do you like Hans and did you learn anything new about him from this?

Today's additions are:

• We don't suck, we blow! - Chimneys (Tags: hip hop, jazz, rock, beat, beats, fusion, hip-hop, jazz, rock, samples, Hamburg) [JazzLab]
  
• Haishen - Awaken the Endless Deep (Tags: metal, rock, ambient, post-rock, progressive, Rochester) [Needlejuice]
  
• Vulvodynia - Entabeni (Tags: ) [Unique Leader]
  
• Intervals - memory palace (Tags: metal, progressive, rock, independent, instrumental, prog, Toronto) [Independent]
  
• Oppress. - The Subtle Art of Turning Gold into Shit (Tags: black metal, extreme metal, metal, death metal, United Kingdom) [Independent]
  
• Clæmus - Mercurial (EP) (Tags: metal, experimental rock, progressive metal, Wellington) [Independent]
  
• Francisco Domínguez - Arrosa xuriaren artean (Tags: classical, avant garde, contemporary, electronic, Vitoria Gasteiz) [Ensemble Sinkro]
  
• Markgraf - Hohenbaden (Tags: black metal, heavy metal, metal, Baden Baden) [Independent]
  
• Demersal - Demersal (Tags: metal, hardcore, metallic hardcore, screamo, Odense) [Independent]
  
• yaya bey - Ten Fold (Tags: hip hop, hip-hop, r&b, r&b/soul, rap, soul, Brooklyn) [Big Dada]
  
• Knocked Loose - You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To (Tags: metal, metalcore, beatdown, hardcore, metallic hardcore, numetal, sludge, Louisville) [Pure Noise]
  
• The Tangent - To Follow Polaris (Tags: rock, yes, genesis, prog, prog rock, progressive, progressive rock, van der graaf generator, London) [InsideOut Music]
  
• Sidus Atrum - “Розірване Небо (Torn Sky)” (Tags: female fronted metal, metal, atmospheric, blackened death doom, blackened doom, blackened doom metal, death doom metal, doom metal, ukrainian black metal, ukrainian metal, Kyiv) [Independent]
  
• GOD MOTHER - Sinneseld (Tags: death metal, grindcore, hardcore, metal, power violence, Stockholm) [Independent]
  
• Bab L' Bluz - Swaken (Tags: blues, psychedelic trance, funk, gnawa, Marrakesh) [Real World]
  
• Speed Dealer Moms - Birth Control Pill (Tags: electronic, idm, los angeles, analog, breakcore, breaks, experimental electronic, jungle, leftfield, rave, Winnipeg) [Evar]
  
• EABS - Reflections of Purple Sun (Tags: jazz, jazz fusion, ambient, breakbeat, hip hop, jazz, jazz-funk, poland, spiritual jazz, techno, Wrocław) [Astigmatic]
  
• Vaticinal Rites - Cascading Memories Of Immortality (Tags: brescia, death metal, italy, metal, Brescia) [Everlasting Spew]
  
• Thot - Delta (Tags: rock, industrial rock, noise rock, post-metal, post-punk, post-rock, Brussel) [Pelagic]
  
• Shane Parish - Repertoire (Tags: alternative, fingerpicking, folk guitar, jazz, music, solo guitar, Athens) [Palilalia]
  
• we broke the weather - Restart Game (Tags: boston, rock, garage prog, jazz fusion, math rock, nu-jazz, post-rock, prog rock, progressive rock, psych rock, stoner rock, Somerville) [Independent]
  
• Brad Mehldau - After Bach II (Tags: jazz, classical, genius, piano, piano solo, Amsterdam) [Nonesuch]
  
• Brad Mehldau - Après Fauré (Tags: jazz, classical, genius, piano, piano solo, Amsterdam) [Nonesuch]
  
• Sonus Umbra - Whiteout Hi Res (24 bit) (Tags: progressive rock, rock, Chicago) [Progrock.com's Essentials]
  
• Dälek - Negro Necro Nekros (Tags: hip-hop/rap, hip hop, hip-hop, rap, underground, underground hip hop, Union City) [Ipecac]
  
• Iravu/Mumuksu - Sudra (Tags: atmospheric black metal, black metal, death metal, extreme metal, metal, rabm, ambient, blackened doom, dark ambient, doom metal, red anarchist black metal, Malaysia) [Iravu]
  
• SVNEATR - Never Return (Tags: atmospheric black metal, black metal, blackened death metal, canadian black metal, metal, progressive black metal, Vancouver) [Prosthetic]
  
• SYK - eartHFlesh (Tags: metal, black-metal, death-metal, extreme-metal, groove-metal, progressive, Italy) [Season of Mist]
  
• Yi-Ting Lu - An Unopened Seashell (Tags: bassoon, contemporary classical, guitar, harp, piano, saxophone, New York) [New Focus]
  
• Dreare - Foregone (Tags: metal, drone, instrumental, post-metal, progressive, synth, Czech Republic) [Independent]
  
• Sithu Aye - Kindness (Tags: metal, djent, instrumental, progressive metal, Glasgow) [Independent]
  
• Mountainscape - Iridescent (Tags: blackgaze, metal, instrumental, post-blackmetal, post-metal, post-rock, soundtrack, Reading) [Celestial Diadem]
  
• Ehtëk - Íncst (Tags: atmospheric black metal, black metal, metal, post black metal) [Independent]
  
• no funeral records - Gil Cerrone / Letterbombs Split (Tags: australia, finland, kitchener, on, punk, emo, emoviolence, screamo, skramz, Canada) [Independent]
  
• Eat Your Own Head - The Trawler - EP (Tags: alternative, rock, alternative, grunge, independent music, math rock, math-rock, post-rock, rock, London) [Drongo]
  
• GNAW THEIR TONGUES - Hagetisse - The fountain of fallen stars (Tags: black metal, drone, experimental, Smallingerland) [Independent]
  
• Crystalline Thunderbolts Pierce The Sacred Mountain - Shine Like The Suicidal Madness Of The Sacred Amethyst (Tags: black metal, drone, experimental, Smallingerland) [GNAW THEIR TONGUES]
  
• No Teeth - Decadence In Breeding (Tags: experimental, art rock, experimental rock, garage, noise rock, post-punk, Newcastle Upon Tyne) [Post Post Music]
  
• JOURS PÂLES - DISSOLUTION (Tags: asphodèle, black metal, blackgaze, emotional black metal, french black metal, jours pâles, ladlo, melancolic metal, France) [Les Acteurs de l'ombre]
  
• Atavistia - Inane Ducam (I will lead into nothingness) (Tags: black metal, blackened death metal, death metal, melodic metal, metal, brutal metal, epic metal, melodic death metal, Vancouver) [Independent]
  
• Black Hole Deity - Profane Geometry (Tags: brescia, death metal, italy, metal, tech death metal, brutal death metal, tech death, Brescia) [Everlasting Spew]
  
• olim - Because (Tags: atmospheric black metal, black metal, blackgaze, metal, post black metal, post-black, Greater Sudbury) [Independent]
  
• Bleached Cross - Columns of Impenetrable Light (Tags: punk, darkwave, electronic, experimental, post-punk) [Independent]
  
• Windows96 - Yes Da Da Da (Tags: electronic, chillwave, psychedelic, synthwave, vaporwave, São Paulo) [Independent]
  
• ELECTROMANCER - Enforcer (Tags: thrash metal, 80s, metal, metalcore, instrumental, metal, progressive metal, synthwave, video game music, Australia) [Paul Wardingham]
  
• svrm - Прощання (Tags: black metal, metal, Kharkiv) [Independent]
  
• Chase Elodia - Have, Know, Want (Tags: jazz, indie, jazz, rock, Brooklyn) [Biophilia]
  
• Paradox Rift - Ensnared (Tags: metal, deathmetal, grindcore, melodic death metal, progressive metal, Cleveland) [Independent]
  
• MATTHEW SHIPP - THE DATA (Tags: jazz, matthew shipp, avant garde jazz, avant-garde music, free jazz, improvised music. rogueart, jazz piano, new york jazz, piano, Paris) [RogueArt]
  
• The Rhythm Method - Pastorale (Tags: acoustic, classical, experimental, classical, contemporary classical, experimental, flute, holiday music, new music, post asmr, string quartet, New York) [Independent]
  
• Katt Rán - SÁLA (Tags: alternative, folk, icelandic, nordic, pagan, viking, Delft) [Svart]
  
• John O'Gallagher - Beast (Tags: jazz, alto saxophone, free improv, free jazz, "john ogallagher", modern jazz, nu jazz, spiritual jazz, vinyl, whirlwind recordings, Birmingham) [Whirlwind]
  
• Liturgy - Immortal Life II (Tags: experimental, black metal, Brooklyn) [Independent]
  
• A Night In Texas - Digital Apocalypse (Tags: ) [Unique Leader]
  
• Like Moths To Flames - The Cycles Of Trying To Cope (Tags: metal, metalcore, hardcore, Columbus) [UNFD]
  
• Rendered Helpless - From Nothing Comes All (Tags: death metal, deathcore, doom, metal, progressive, slam, slamming brutal death metal, sludge, Christchurch) [Independent]
  
• Colin Stetson - The love it took to leave you (Tags: experimental, indie, jazz, instrumental, Montréal) [Envision]
  
• Cosmic Jaguar - El Era del Jaguar (Tags: death metal, metal, technical metal, technical thrash metal, thrash metal, avant-garde, progressive metal, world music, Zhytomyr) [Independent]
  
• BALWEZO WESTIJIZ - Tower Of Famine (Tags: black metal, sweden, Kitchener) [Profound Lore]
  
• Cruce Signatus - Cruce Signatus (Tags: dungeon synth, metal, synthwave & darksynth, Milwaukee) [Independent]
  
• Gaylord - Baseball Bats and Butterfly Knives (Tags: grind, grindcore, lgbtq, metal, queer, queercore, antifa, black metal, lgbtq, Canada) [Independent]
  
• Mark Guiliana - MARK (Tags: jazz, rock, electronic, instrumental, jazz and improvised music, Los Angeles) [Edition]
  
• Summoning The Lich - Under The Reviled Throne (Tags: death metal, metal, thrash metal, St. Louis) [Prosthetic]
  
• Houle - Ciel Cendre et Misère Noire (Tags: black metal, death metal, melodic black metal, metal, Paris) [Independent]
  
• Luna Li - When a Thought Grows Wings (Tags: alternative, dreamy, groovy, indie, pop, Los Angeles) [In Real Life]
  
• The Plot In You - Vol. 2 (Tags: alternative, hardcore, metal, metalcore, post-hardcore, rock, Ohio) [Fearless]
  
• Drawn from Ichor - Up Into The Wolfs Jaw (Tags: death metal, metal, Sheffield) [Independent]
  
• TESTO - Marya.Ivan (Tags: idm, world, dub, folklore, jungle, world music, Saint Petersburg) [Independent]
  
• Anna Gadt, Marta Grzywacz, Natalia Kordiak, Gosia Zagajewska - VOICEACT (Tags: anna gadt, cecil taylor, gosia zagajewska, impro, jazz, marta grzywacz, natalia kordiak, vice, free impro, fsrecords.net, improvisation, music, piano, Warsaw) [Fundacja Słuchaj]
  
• Pijn - From Low Beams Of Hope (Tags: experimental, rock, ambient, doom, drone, post-metal, post-rock, Manchester) [Floodlit]
  
• JACK - Split with Chadhel (Tags: rock, grindcore-crossover, hardcore, punk, Hungary) [Independent]
  
• Milton Nascimento & Esperanza Spalding - Milton + esperanza (Tags: jazz, New York) [Concord Jazz]
  
• Fake Fruit - Mucho Mistrust (Tags: punk, indie rock, lunchmeat, oakland, post-punk, wobbly, Oakland) [Carpark]
  
• Fire-Toolz - Breeze (Tags: electronic, idm, alternative rock, cybergrind, electro-industrial, emo, experimental, experimental electronic, fusion, glitch, grindcore, jazz fusion, new age, noise, noisecore, prog, Chicago) [Independent]
  
• Oxygen Destroyer - Guardian of the Universe (Tags: angelcorpse, metal, morbid angel, death metal, death thrash, death thrash metal, demolition hammer, kreator, morbid saint, vader, Seattle) [Redefining Darkness]
  
• Soften The Glare - EP III (Tags: rock, math rock, progmetal, progrock, Raleigh) [Independent]
  
• The Flying Luttenbachers - Spectral Warrior Mythos 2 (Tags: experimental, grindcore, modern classical, no wave, noise, post punk, New York) [UG Explode]
  
• TALL MARY - When Will I Find Something New (Tags: drone, experimental, noise punk, post rock, Vancouver) [Kingfisher Bluez]
  
• Цар Стангра - Битката за Фиорда - На живо в Сагене (Tags: black metal, bulgaria, metal, dark ambiant, folk, ritualistic, Canada) [Independent]
  
• Anarchÿ - The Spectrum of Human Emotion (Tags: melodic metal, melodic thrash metal, metal, technical thrash metal, progressive metal, progressive thrash metal, speed-metal, thrash, thrash metal, St. Louis) [Independent]
  
• PreHistoric Animals - Finding Love In Strange Places (Tags: alternative, alternative rock, prog rock, progmetal, Sweden) [Dutch Music Works]
  
• THE LAST OF LUCY - Godform (Tags: metal, brutal death metal, death metal, deathcore, grind, grindcore, hardcore, mathcore, progressive death metal, progressive metal, tech death, technical death, technical death metal, us death metal, United States) [Transcending Obscurity]
  
• And So I Watch You From Afar - Megafauna (Tags: alternative, instrumental, rock, Belfast) [Independent]
  
• ColdCell - Age Of Unreason (Tags: atmospheric black metal, black metal, depressive black metal, extreme metal, metal, Basel) [Independent]
  
• IXION - RESTRICTION (Tags: electronic, metal, ambient, androids, atmospheric metal, blade runner, doom metal, electronica, gothic metal, robots, synthwave, France) [Independent]
  
• William Soovik Grand Finale - Once More, Dear Friends! (Tags: contemporary jazz, experimental, free jazz, gothenburg jazz, grunge jazz, jazz, rock, saxophone, swedish jazz, Gothenburg) [Independent]
  
• Carb On Carb - Take Time (Tags: new zealand, punk, emo, emo revival, midwest emo, pop punk, Whanganui) [Independent]
  
• اکوان (Akvan) - سووشون (Tags: black metal, black metal from iran, blackened death metal, iran, iranian black metal, metal, Iran) [Independent]
  
• Claire Cross - Sleep Cycle (Tags: jazz, ambient, australian jazz, chamber, contemporary jazz, folk, minimalism, nu jazz, progressive rock, Berlin) [Art as Catharsis]
  
• Extortionist - Devoid Of Love & Light (Tags: deathcore, extortionist, hardcore, industrial, metal, metalcore, unique leader records) [Unique Leader]
  
• Sebastien Ammann - Change Of Course (Tags: jazz, New York) [Ropeadope]
  
• Pallbearer - Mind Burns Alive (Tags: epic doom metal, metal, Little Rock) [Nuclear Blast]
  
• COGNITIVE - Abhorrence (Tags: death metal, metal, progressive, slam, technical death metal, grindcore, Jersey) [Metal Blade]
  
• Botanist - Paleobotany (Deluxe Edition) (Tags: metal, avant-garde, black metal, experimental, hammered dulcimer, San Francisco) [Prophecy]
  
• NOCTURNUS AD - Unicursal (Tags: black metal, death metal, metal, heavy metal, Tampa) [Profound Lore]
  
• Kulk - It Gets Worse (Tags: alternative, norwich, doom, doom metal, heavy, post-metal, psychedelic, sludge, stoner metal, stoner rock, United Kingdom) [Human Worth]
  
• Inner Landscape - 3H33 (Tags: metal, post-hardcore, post-metal, Lyon) [Independent]
  
• Eigenstate Zero - The Malthusian (Tags: metal, deathmetal, djent, jazzmetal, melodeath, melodic death metal, nogenre, prog, progressive death metal, progressive metal, techdeath, Stockholm) [Independent]
  
• DAVID MURRAY QUARTET with Marta Sanchez, Luke Stewart and Russell Carter - Francesca (Tags: david murray, luke stewart, composition, improvisation, jazz, marta sanchez, Zurich) [Intakt]
  
• BORDERLANDS TRIO with Stephan Crump, Kris Davis, Eric McPherson - Rewilder (Tags: eric mcpherson, kris davis, stephan crump, composition, free jazz, improvisation, jazz, Zurich) [Intakt]
  
• Big Chef - Mud Wrestling Sydney Sweeny Perched High Upon a Mountain Peak, Beneath a Canopy of Shimmering Starlight (a millennial's american dream) x :) (Tags: beefcore, deathgrind, death metal, deathcore, metal, thall, djent, goregrind, grindcore, slam, slamming brutal death metal, Australia) [Independent]
  
• öz ürügülü - Della Morte dell’Artista (Tags: frank zappa, jazz, mats morgan band, morgan ågren, mr. bungle, panzerballett, secret chiefs 3, snarky puppy, experimental rock, film music, fusion, jacob collier, odd time signatures, oriental, poil, progressive, Zug) [Independent]
  
• Maddalena Ghezzi - Dolomite (Tags: electronic, jazz, avant-garde, contemporary, contemporary jazz, songs, London) [Independent]
  
• Gatecreeper - Dark Superstition (Tags: crust, death metal, doom, hardcore, metal, Arizona) [Nuclear Blast]
  
• Liraz - Enerjy - انرژی (Tags: farsi, global disco, world, electropop, persian, pop, retro, world-disco, Tel Aviv Yafo) [Batov]
  
• i Häxa - Part Two (Tags: alternative, dark ambient, dark folk, electronic music, indie, trip hop, London) [Pelagic]
  
• Karen Willems - JUJU (Tags: soundtrack, avant-garde, percussive, sound collage, Maldegem) [Werf]
  
• ZILF - Reanimated (Tags: alternative, djent, indie, mathcore, metal, metalcore, rock, technical metal, thrash metal, United Kingdom) [Independent]
  
• Layale Chaker & Sarafand - Radio Afloat (ICR031) (Tags: arabic jazz, world, arabic jazz, arabic vocals, chamber music, improvised chamber jazz, improvised piano, jazz, jazz and improvised music, violin, world music, Brooklyn) [In a Circle]
  
• Ambient Jazz Ensemble - Spirit Dance (Tags: jazz, ambient, ambient jazz, ambient jazz ensemble, chillout, cinematic, cinematic jazz, jazz, lounge, lounge music, rnb, London) [Here & Now]
  
• Tzompantli - Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force (Tags: metal, black metal, death metal, doom metal, heavy metal, Pittsburgh) [20 Buck Spin]
  
• James Ilgenfritz - Stay Logged In On This Trusted Device (Tags: experimental, New York) [Infrequent Seams]
  
• Joe Rocca - Hybride (Tags: hip-hop, hip-hop/rap, r&b, rap, soul, Montreal) [Bonsound]
  
• Thought Trials - This Has Always Been With You (Tags: rock, ambient, electronica, instrumental post-rock, post-rock, Buffalo) [Post.]
  
• Christopher Cerrone - Beaufort Scales (Tags: classical, classical contemporary music, classical, contemporary classical, electronic, experimental, new music, vocal, vocal ensemble, Brooklyn) [Cold Blue Music]
  
• wthAura - gumballs (Tags: alternative, experimental, rock, intstrumental, math rock, prog rock, Philadelphia) [Independent]
  
• Gabriel Dharmoo - Vestiges d'une fable (Tags: classical, experimental, avant-garde, classical, contemporary, contemporary classical, vocal, Toronto) [Centrediscs]
  
• Le Double - Le Double (Tags: alternative, electronic, contemporary classical, contemporary jazz, new music, poetry and music, Canada) [Corne de brume]
  
• Hvile I Kaos - Lower Order Manifestations (Tags: black metal, experimental, metal, chambermusic, neoclassical, occult, Los Angeles) [Independent]
  
• Viacrucis - Melhorament (Tags: atmospheric black metal, black metal, blackened death metal, death metal, metal, rouyn-noranda, atmospheric, cathar, metal noir, occitan, occitanie, Gaspé) [Independent]
  
• Gabriel Genest - As It Is (Tags: jazz, canadian jazz, chamber jazz, contemporary jazz, modern jazz, Montreal) [Independent]
  
• Darko - Greyscale (Tags: a wilhelm scream, melodic hardcore, propagandi, punk, strung out, technical melodic punk) [Lockjaw]
  
• Federico Bonacossa - Elettroarmonico (Tags: contemporary classical, electric guitar, experimental, New York) [New Focus]
  
• Hemotoxin - When Time Becomes Loss (Tags: death metal, melodic, metal, thrash metal, progressive, technical, San Francisco) [Independent]
  
• JISEI - POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS (Tags: deathcore, punk, beatdown, deathcore, falsegrind, hardcore, lgbtq+, trans, Vancouver) [Independent]
  
• Maudits - Précipice (Tags: metal, ambient, instrumental, post, Paris) [Independent]
  
• Avoid Humanity - Between Now and Never (Tags: metal, hardcore, Bucharest) [Independent]
  
• Kavyesh Kaviraj - Fables (Tags: creative jazz, jazz, avant garde jazz, contemporary jazz, jazz and improvised music, jazz piano, modern jazz, nu-jazz, Minneapolis) [Shifting Paradigm]
  
• Nebula Orionis - The Long Path to Nowhere (Tags: metal, ambient, atmospheric black metal, cinematic, cosmic, space metal, Russia) [Independent]
  
• TERAMAZE - Eli : A Wonderful Fall From Grace (Tags: metal, progressive metal, progressive rock, rock, Melbourne) [Independent]
  
• Gnarwhal - Altered States (Tags: hard rock, rock, fuzz, stoner, Yellowknife) [Independent]
  
• Lower Automation - Welcome to My Deathbed (Tags: alternative, experimental punk, goth, industrial, math punk, mathcore, noise rock, post punk, punk, Illinois) [Independent]
  
• MULA - Cúmulo abierto (Tags: punk, rock, spoken word, experimental rock, free jazz, improvised music, jazz, noise, noise ambient, prog, Bogotá) [Independent]
  
• Nyktophobia - To The Stars (Tags: black metal, death metal, metal, Datteln) [Apostasy]
  
• EVILYN - Mondestrunken (Tags: metal, brutal death metal, death metal, dissonant, dissonant death metal, experimental death metal, progressive, progressive death, progressive death metal, tech death, technical death, technical death metal, United States) [Transcending Obscurity]
  
• OGIVES BIG BAND - Boisterous Love (Tags: experimental, hard rock, metal, metalcore, noise rock, progressive, progressive hardcore, psychedelic, soundtrack, hardcore, Bristol) [Stolen Body]
  
• Arx Atrata - A Reckoning (Tags: atmospheric black metal, metal, black metal, blackened doom metal, epic black metal, post black metal, Nottingham) [Independent]
  
• Progfox - Visitation III (Tags: Metal) [schitzocore entertainment]
  
• Voidsmen - Ice Age Part 0: Blood Furnace (Tags: metal, salt lake city, doom, doom metal, sludge, space doom, space metal, space rock, Salt Lake City) [Independent]
  
• Filip Żółtowski Quartet released by Alpaka Records - BiBi (Tags: electronic, hip hop, jazz, fusion, hip hop instrumentals, jazz, nujazz, Poland) [Filip Żółtowski Quartet]
  
• Strelitzia - Winter (Tags: rock, emo, experimental rock, independent, indie rock, math rock, math-rock, midwest emo, post-hardcore, post-rock, Gilbert) [Independent]
  
• Ugly Robot - The Space Between Us (Tags: rock, classic rock, experimental rock, indie rock, indietronica, math rock, Albuquerque) [Independent]
  
• Anoxide - Morals & Dogma (Tags: death metal, metal, brutal death metal, goregrind, slam, slamming brutal death metal, United States) [Ghastly Music]
  
• Otomo Yoshihide and Chris Pitsiokos - Uncanny Mirror (Tags: experimental, avant-garde, free jazz, improvisation, jazz, noise, New York) [Chris Pitsiokos / ELEATIC]
  
• Alex Harding & Lucian Ban - Blutopia (Tags: jazz, avant-garde, modern classical, piano, post bop, New York) [Sunnyside]
  
• On Ka’a Davis - …Here’s to Another Day and Night for the Lwa of the Woke (Tags: Jazz) [Tzadik]
  
• SHOKRAN - Duat (Tags: metal, djent, math, oriental, progressive metal, solo guitar, Russia) [Independent]
  
• Black Dresses - LAUGHINGFISH (Tags: alternative, electronic, industrial, noise pop, sci-fi, Toronto) [Independent]
  
• Sushma Soma - THE MOUNTAIN HAS THE LAST SAY (Tags: carnatic, experimental, indian music, world, world music, tamil folk, Singapore) [Independent]
  
• Les Fantômes du jour - Ravages (Tags: progressive rock, rock, art rock, nantes, post-hardcore, post-metal, post-prog, post-rock, progressive metal, Nantes) [Ajna Management]
  
• Clear Clover - Spectate (Tags: industrial metal, metal, rock, ambient, electronic, industrial, instrumental, new age, progressive metal, vaporwave, Montreal) [Independent]
  
• A Wake In Providence - I Write To You, My Darling Decay (Tags: ) [Unique Leader]
  

So I just fought multiple campers back to back. The specially annoying one was this guy with Cooler, Broly DBS, and Vegeta Blue. All the guy did was sit on the corner, spam beam assist and the ki blasts, beams, etc, non stop. Specially with the Vegeta blue (if somebody can tell me how to actually manage to get close to Vegeta Blue I would appreciate it)
How do I actually fight these people?

Hi everyone, I am looking for my biological father with limited information.
Here is the information I have that's definitive

• Donated sperm to a sperm bank in the late 90's (presumably in LA but that's not 100%)
• White 6'0 tall male born in 1971 in the USA with blonde hair and blue eyes
• Was in a frat and has a master's in film, bachelor's in communications
• Played ice hockey and basketball in high school, was a sports host while in college
• Has one brother born in '69, parents were born in '45 (Mother) and Father was born in '47.. Polish (paternal) and German (maternal) ancestry
• Maternal grandparents were born in Germany
• Was a sports host starting in 96 at least until 99. Is nearsighted
• Dream of directing/writing in Hollywood Hills in '99. Counts Spielberg as biggest insp. Described as having a surfer attitude
• Described most of family as HS grads and laborers except brother who was a school teacher
• Slanted handwriting
• Said he jumped on a plane and left in a cut out of audio, presumably talking about going to college for a cool football player

Any help/guidance would be appreciated.
Thank you.

St Louis Blues guitar tabs download as PDF on: https://paidtabs.com/search/KiKZdyO_K6M
Click here for a free preview of the score (first page)
This score has 6 PDF pages
Credit: this score was transcribed/uploaded by @JeffoAPG
If you cannot find the score, it might be because of a copyright issue. Click on "Request" button at PaidTabs.com to request and get the score.

Note: I do not own Howl’s Moving Castle, so all rights go to Studio Ghibli. Monetization is allowed, just send me a link to the finished audio, credit me, and ask before you make any changes (this includes gender swapping of any kind). Even though I do use “They/Them” a few times in here, I use that so I don’t have to write she/he every time. Just wanted to explain in case anyone was confused.
Note: Around 1203 words
(Talking to self) Alright, I got the snacks, sodas, tea, blankets, plushies, pillows. Am I missing anything? Right! My wonderful partner, the movie, and our fuzzy pajamas. Ordered these specifically for our movie night. They’re gonna love them!
(Talking to listener) Babe! Everything is ready for our movie night!
….
Yes, I even set up a pillow fort on the couch. We’ll be nice and comfy while we watch the movie.
….
Of course Rocky is gonna watch with us! It’s not a movie night without our favorite pupper! He’s even wearing the Calicifer dog collar I got him for Christmas.
….
You got a surprise for me? That’s very sweet of you, honey. I always love your surprises and I actually got one for you too.
….
[Chuckles] Sweetie, if I told you it wouldn’t be a surprise. Come down when you’re ready and we will give each other our surprises. Does that sound like a good plan to you?
….
Excellent! I’ll be down here getting the movie set up on the TV.
….
Alright, now what is this surprise you have for me?
….
A Calcifer plushie!? I love it! Thank you so much, baby! [Kisses Cheek] You’re way too sweet to me.
….
[Chuckles] Yes, Yes. I’ll give you your surprise now. Remember when you were doing some online browsing for Howl’s Moving Castle Pajamas last week?
….
Well, I ordered them last week and they just came in today. Also, got myself some too, so we can match. I know it sounds cheesy, but I thought it would be cute. [Sheepish Chuckle]
….
Phew! I’m glad you think it’s cute, despite it being somewhat cheesy. The pajamas I bought for you say “May all your bacon burn.” Thought it fit you, since you say that exact same line every time I make bacon. Also, I somehow managed to find a set that was decorated with pictures of Howl’s bird form. There was only one pair left in my size and I took that as a sign from the universe to buy it. They were also on sale, so that helped a bit.
….
Of course the plan was to watch the movie while wearing these! Me, you, and Rocky can all match! Let's get changed so we can look cute and comfy?
….
Alright. I’ll meet you here in a few. Can’t wait to see you looking all cute and cuddly
(Time skip)
Babe, I’m ready when you are. (Talking to self) Gotta rearrange the pillows to make it perfect. Wanna make this as comfy as possible.
….
[Talking to listener] You look so adorable! It's almost too much for me to handle. I might die from cuteness from overload.
….
Please don’t hide your face, darling. I’m just telling the truth. You’re already so adorable, these pajamas just make you that much cuter.
…..
You think the same for me. Well then….
…..
No! I’m not blushing! [Thinking to self] I just got called cute by the most adorable person on this planet! And I’m dating them! I’m the most lucky person in history!
….
Huh? Oh, I’m alright. Just zoned out for a second there. Now, how about we begin our movie night. Already have the movie, snacks, and pillow fort all set up.
….
Yeah, yeah, I’ll scoot over. Or…. (Flirty) You could just snuggle on my lap? I’m sure I’m much more comfortable than the couch.
….
Lovely, you just make yourself comfortable and I’ll start the movie.
(Time skip)
…..
I agree. Sophie honestly should have had a better position. I didn’t really like Fanny because it always seemed she took advantage of Sophie’s kindness. At least Lettie was nice.
….
Yeah, I also noticed they didn’t add the third sister, Martha. Guess they wanted to slightly change the plot direction. They sometimes do this with movie adaptations of books.
….
Howl will soon make an appearance, don’t worry.
….
Glad to see I’m not the only one in this house that thinks Christian Bale did an excellent job as Howl. His voice really did the character justice.
….
Yes! Especially when he has his epic freakout sesh. I swear that man is a five year old in an adult body. He’s even worse in the third book.
….
I won’t give away spoilers, since you haven’t read it anyway. However, I will say that you will laugh your head off when he makes his appearance.
…. (Time Skip)
You alright there, honey?
….
Seeing the Witch of the Waste’s blob monsters scared you? You wanna snuggle into me for comfort?
….
There you go. And no, I won’t laugh at you for being scared of them. I will admit they can be very creepy, especially when they are masquerading as humans.
….
Sorry for the subject change, but I like how Miyazaki can make characters that are instantly recognizable. Like, you can take one look and know that either it's from Ghibli or from a company that employs former Ghibli animators. They just have a certain look and feel to them.
….
Yeah, Mary and the Witch’s Flower is a good example. The film was made by Studio Ponoc, which had animators who previously worked at Ghibli. Even the director was previously from that company.
….
Oh, you want some snacks? Alright, which one would you like? I got chips, cookies, an assortment of candy, and some moon pies. I also tried to make some Calicfer themed cupcakes to make it a bit more fun.
….
Alright, you want a cupcake, some chips, and a Diet Coke. Gotcha.
….
I’m glad you like cupcakes. Wanted to make sure I got their cute little faces just right. For a first attempt, they didn’t turn out too bad.
….
(Talks to dog) Rocky! No you silly pupper, you can’t have a bite of the cupcakes. They have chocolate in them.
….
No, the literal puppy dog eyes are not gonna work on me.
….
Here, just chew on your bones and toys. There you go, good pupper.
….
(Talks to Listener) Right, we should get back to the movie. And yes, I’ll make sure Rocky doesn’t steal anymore food. Honestly, I can see him try and do one of those complicated thief plans from the movies. You know, the one where they crawl into a ceiling duct and suspend over the target on a cable?
….
Knew you would find that funny. Ok, let’s start the movie up again.
…. (Time Skip)
Why does Miyazaki always know how to make people cry? I mean, seeing Sophie embrace Howl in his bird creature form is so beautiful. I always tear up at this heart wrenching scene. Anyway, I have a stupid question for you: Would you still love me if I was a bird hybrid creature like Howl?
….
Awww! You’re so sweet! It's nice to know if I started to sprout feathers, you’d still love me.
….
Of course I’d still love you if you also started to sprout feathers as well! You’d always be the same beautiful person I fell in love with, with or without black-blue feathers.
…. (Time Skip)
Now that was a wonderful movie. I’ll never get tired of seeing it with you. I do have something important to tell you.
….
Instead of a small fire demon holding my heart, you are the one who holds it. The moment I gave it to you, I always knew it would be safe in your care. I love you so much [Kiss] never, ever forget that.
….
And yes, I’ll never forget that you love me too. Now how about you and I get some sleep. Goodnight sweetie.

ELIMINATED - Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All at Once - 29.1% of all votes. Everything Everywhere All at Once was released in 2022. The film had seven wins, including Best Actress for Yeoh, at the 95th Academy Awards. Yeoh was selected for Best Actress of the year in a lineup that also included Cate Blanchett in TÁR, Ana de Armas in Blonde, Andrea Riseborough in To Leslie and Michelle Williams in The Fabelmans. Yeoh also garnered nominations at the BAFTAs and Critics' Choice Awards, as well as wins at the Golden Globes and SAGs for her performance as Evelyn Wang.
Feel free to use the comments as an area for discussion. Votes will only be accepted through this Google Form.
• Charlize Theron as Aileen Wuornos (Monster)
• Marion Cotillard as Édith Piaf (La Vie en Rose)
• Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers (Black Swan)
• Cate Blanchett as Jasmine Francis (Blue Jasmine)
• Brie Larson as Joy Newsome (Room)
• Olivia Colman as Queen Anne (The Favourite)
• Emma Stone as Bella Baxter (Poor Things)
RANKING:

1. Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Wang (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
   
2. Frances McDormand as Mildred Hayes (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
   
3. Julianne Moore as Alice Howland (Still Alice)
   
4. Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II (The Queen)
   
5. Hilary Swank as Maggie Fitzgerald (Million Dollar Baby)
   
6. Emma Stone as Mia Dolan (La La Land)
   
7. Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf (The Hours)
   
8. Jennifer Lawrence as Tiffany Maxwell (Silver Linings Playbook)
   
9. Kate Winslet as Hanna Schmitz (The Reader)
   
10. Halle Berry as Leticia Musgrove (Monster's Ball)
    
11. Jessica Chastain as Tammy Faye Bakker (The Eyes of Tammy Faye)
    
12. Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich (Erin Brockovich)
    
13. Reese Witherspoon as June Carter (Walk the Line)
    
14. Frances McDormand as Fern (Nomadland)
    
15. Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher (The Iron Lady)
    
16. Renée Zellweger as Judy Garland (Judy)
    
17. Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy (The Blind Side)
    

Social media showoffs are shaming me off my backside
By Jeremy Clarkson (The Sunday Times, May 29)
An extensive study has found that fat people are twice as likely to stay at home and not do any work as thin people. This is costing the country eleven hundred and seventy billion a year and everyone is running around wondering what on earth can be done to stamp out this slobbishness.
The Tories say the answer is to make sickness benefits harder to get, while Labour says it’s going to change the school curriculum so that kids spend less time in the classroom learning about important stuff such as pronouns and diversity, and more time in the playground doing star jumps. And it is going to ban adverts for fast food.
That won’t work, though. When I wake up in the morning with a thick head and a mouth full of what feels like wallpaper paste, I know that a Big Mac will soak up all the sick and sort me out. And if McDonald’s is banned from advertising its products, it’s not as if I’ll suddenly forget.
The main problem I have with this fat-makes-you-lazy theory is that I can think of lots of fat people with a good work ethic. Cyril Smith, for instance. He was very busy. So was Henry VIII. And so, if I’m honest, am I. Yes, I realise that I’m seen by many to be the sexiest man alive, but underneath the muddy tweed coats I am something of a porker. And I haven’t had a day off sick since the 1980s, when I was actually much thinner.
I have more evidence to back this up. When I first went to Vietnam in the early 1990s, the vast majority of the population was as thin as it was industrious. People ate tiny portions of fatless food, so the men looked as if they’d stepped out of a Lowry painting and the women, in their ao dai dresses, were the personification of style and elegance.
Then, in 1997, western food arrived — so if you go to Vietnam today, everyone is as big as they are in Barnsley. Has this slowed them down? Has it hell as like. They may be carrying a few extra pounds, but the Mekong still looks like the Port of London did in the 19th century, and the Vietnamese capacity for building factories makes the Chinese look slovenly.
So I think that the people who conducted this study have got it the wrong way round. Fatness doesn’t make someone lazy. Lazy people become fat. You may start out looking like Willem Dafoe or one of those heroin chic catwalk models, but if you sit in front of the TV all day, watching Homes Under the Hammer and washing the endless frozen pizzas and crisps down with gallons of full-fat Coca-Cola, you will quickly become a human barrage balloon. And soon you will be too enormous to work because you can’t even get out of the front door.
It’s not obesity that needs tackling, then. It’s the root cause: bone idleness. And that brings me on to another study, which suggests that if you sit around all day lazily looking at Instagram and TikTok and X, you will soon become Jabba the Hutt and you will die at the age of 19, from fatness.
There are all kinds of hare-brained theories, from (usually American) professors who want to get their names in the paper, saying that people who use their phones for five hours a day are 43 per cent more likely to develop a fatberg in their colon, and that if you spend half an hour scrolling while on the loo, you will be too vast to stand up again. Unless you have a rectal prolapse, which is another likely outcome.
This is all nonsense, because the truth of the matter is that social media is as motivating as Jordan Belfort. Honestly, I can think of nothing that is more likely to make a fatso get off its couch and go for a lumber round the local park. Nothing.
As I have already explained, I wake sometimes on a Sunday morning in a puddle of self-inflicted misery and when I tune into TikTok to take my mind off the pain, I am assaulted with a never-ending stream of videos featuring people making the most of their weekends. They’re out for a bike ride, or they’re growing asparagus and radishes.
There’s one girl in what I suspect is Milton Keynes who goes into her back garden every day and films herself skipping. I want to throttle her because I know I should be in the garden skipping too, or making a little house for the blue tits, or climbing Snowdon, or whatever the Labour Party has called it these days. These perfect strangers send me on a guilt trip. And surely they must do the same for the lazy people who are watching as well.
It’s even worse on Instagram, because here it’s my friends — hiking in the hills of southern France, or having a family picnic with bread they’ve made themselves, or chopping logs. It’s like I’m living vicariously in one of those Ski yoghurt commercials where everyone somersaulted out of bed and got on a horse. And I’m lying there unable to decide who I want to shoot more: them or me.
Even on the platform of bile and madness, X, things are no better, because here we find people energetically marching to demonstrate how feverishly they want to end oil and plastic and business, and spraying paintings and trying to smash Magna Carta. Not sure what the reasoning was for that one, but at least they were up and about, doing something with their lives.
I’m aware, of course, that social media has its faults, but causing obesity isn’t one of them. You never see fat people on there eating crisps and smoking and getting sloshed. It’s people in store rooms and warehouses and offices having a laugh, and it therefore does a better job of making work look like fun than a boring man with adenoids and Playmobil hair saying he’s going to ban Ronald McDonald from our lives.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
And here's the Sun column: "Formula 4 champ Abbi Pulling proves you don’t need testosterone or neck like birthday cake to be top racing driver"
An excerpt: "For the second year on the trot, a poll of 2,000 women has revealed that the sexiest man in the UK is . . . me. I’m sexier even than Idris Elba and Cillian Murphy and King Charles. And a lot sexier than Piers Morgan who limped home in a pathetic 40th place. I think he was even beaten by Joseph Merrick. Obviously, I’m amazed by the result but only because so many people say they’re surprised."
Clarkson's columns are regularly collected as books. You can buy them from his boss or your local bookshop.

Hi all, have gone through several iterations of this query already from my edits and writing circles, plus looked through the resources on here. I'm at the point where the words are swimming, so I am excited to get your critique on board! All feedback helps. Also attaching my opening 300 words. I do have a title but leaving blank for now for traceability, hope that's okay!
To note: I swap out my comps based on agent interests. Other comps include Ready Player One, Camp Zero, Feed, Elysium (film). The constant is Black Mirror. Open to thoughts! I know comping blockbusters is a no-no, which ironically I have done here with HG, but it truly is what best describes the post-capitalist society of haves and have-nots/themes of media exploitation I've written. If I am specific about it, do you think it is okay?
Dear AGENT,
Eighteen-year-old Yojana “Hanny” Marks is unremarkable, which is brutal in a near-future where Atmosphere buys talent for cash in their annual auction. Desperate to pay for her mother’s cancer treatment, she bargains the only thing she has in a Faustian deal with the tech corp - Her memories.
Enter HanSim: An immersive virtual reality game where players unlock the limitless pathways of Hanny’s future, built from the memories she sold. Mortified, she would much rather escape to her Louisiana bayou refuge. Instead she’s yanked across the Continent and into the spotlight by the enigmatic Jaxon Dewinton, an influential (and annoying) activist sponsoring HanSim. In the glitzy Arctic capitol of New Churchill, it’s hard to build trust when everyone - Jaxon included - seems to know her future well before she does. The game takes a turn when anarchy breaks loose in the virtual world, and players find unchecked possibilities for good and corruption... And revolution. Only so many puppeteers may handle the threads of her fate before she must struggle to wrest control for herself.
Complete at 87k words, [TITLE] is a YA crossover science fiction/dystopian novel, featuring a star-crossed romance B-plot. This story is for fans of Black Mirror, bringing a dark twist on the premise of infinite realities in Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library, and is reminiscent of the sociopolitical world building in Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games. [PERSONALIZATION.]
[SHORT BIO].
Thank you for your time. If you'd like to see what pathways you could unlock in the Simulation, you can contact me per the details in my signature.
[SIGNATURE]
FIRST 300 WORDS
I knew taking the shortcut under the stilts was a bad idea when the body swung into my path, hanging from the scaffolding like a puppet. The dead girl rhythmically swayed, as if she were listening to the distant blues music from the celebrations up above. The haunting symphony continued as she tinkled amongst a deteriorating variety of talismans and charms. These petty voodoo relics were a mockery of the lost city of New Orleans, and a poor excuse for the bad energy plaguing our town’s underbelly. It wasn’t the hexes that killed the girl.
I clung to the damp shadows as I assessed the lynched corpse. She was near my age, but too bloated to recognize. Judging by the flies circling her neck, she had been dead for a few hours. No immediate danger, then. My sigh of relief turned into a retch as the stench wafted through the humid air. Mixed with the usual smell under the stilts of rotting wood, mildew, and stale urine… I needed to move on before it was joined by vomit.
I shuddered and scurried away, side-stepping around puddles and swill in an attempt to cushion my footsteps. This proved difficult because the ground was more bog than dirt; a patient open-mouthed monster slowly devouring my town. The marshy earth swallowed another few millimeters of Franklinton each year, so the stilts were shackled together haphazardly, built upwards in a snail-paced panic. If we ever questioned our fate, all we had to do was look out in the bay where New Orleans was now an underwater resort for the elite Advanced
I gagged again as a wriggling maggot fell onto my scalp. I batted it off frantically, letting out an instinctive cry of disgust.

I’m a big of fan of gangster films especially mafia films. I’ve seen a lot of them, too many to mention here, but would love some suggestions in case I missed something. It could be also a comedy like Analyze This or Micky Blue Eyes. Nothing pre-Godfather however since I’m not a fan of films that old. Thank you.

Hey ya'll
30/M from NC here. After doing a lot of reflection on my last relationship, I realize what I want, what I need, and what I can't compromise on and I feel like it's time to get back out there.
About Me * 30/M * Residing in NC, originally from Jersey. Here to stay so I apologize if that’s a dealbreaker. * 6'5, 260lbs (weight loss surgery patient) * Blue eyes, shaved head. Beard (Ginger apparently) * Politically moderate, respectful of all views * Non-religious and I'd prefer if you aren't either as it's just caused conflict in the past. * Employed full-time and enrolled in school full-time.
A few things I enjoy

• Movies/film study - horror and Star Wars are my jam.
• Gaming - Xbox, PS5, PC - always down to try something new and drink/shoot the breeze!
• Cooking - I'm one hell of a chef
• Amateur Mixology
• Reading
• Writing
• Hiking/camping when my health allows - the dogs love hiking!
• Bonding with my two dogs - Yes, I will provide all the pictures you desire!

What I'm looking for * US Based Female (sorry, but it's too hard with timezones) * 25-35 years old * Appearance doesn't matter much to me, however traits like voice, eyes, and smile will win me over. * Strictly monogamous * Someone who seeks quality time - phone calls, gaming together, movies together. Bonus points if you're within 5-6 hours and we can easily meet up. * Emotionally available - please have done the work to heal from your last relationship! * Looking to ease into things, definitely a friends-to-lovers arc. * No smoking/420(edibles and vape is fine)/drugs. If that's your thing, more power to you but we won't be compatible long-term, unfortunately.
For communication, I have Discord, Snapchat, and good ole' texting.
Send me a chat with your favorite horror movie and let's get this started!

Hey!
I've been single for 6 years and I've decided to do something about it! I've tried a couple of dating apps in the past and quite frankly they suck. I've posted on here a lot over the last few years and met some cool, and some not so cool, people so now here I am rewriting my post again to see who else is around!
I'm 26 and from South East England. Physically, I'm fat (cuddly 😛) I've got short brown hair, blue/greyish eyes, a nose, 2 arms, 2 legs, and all that usual stuff. I'm also 6'3 so if you fancy sitting on my shoulders and seeing what the weather's like up here then I'm definitely up for it! I'm pretty strong as well so even if you're "cuddly" I'll still most likely be able to get you up there 💪 I wouldn't say no to you doing the same for me either, but there's a 110% chance you'll be crushed if you try so I'll definitely have to make you sign a waiver or something 😛
Pictures are available on request, although if you're the type to ghost immediately after seeing my face then I will spend the evening sad in bed so don't do that 😒
Personality wise, I'm pretty shy and quiet in person until I get to know someone well. The MBTI test says I'm an INTJ and the description seems to fit fairly well, although it also says I have the same personality as Gandalf so I guess it could definitely be worse. Relationship wise I can be quite dorky and weird when I'm with someone I know well enough. I'm also a massive fan of cuddles so hopefully you like them as much as me!
In my free time, I do quite a lot of gaming, although not as much as I used to. I've got a massive box of films and TV shows that I'm gradually working my way through. It's mostly horror and sci-fi films at the moment, and I could definitely do with someone else to cuddle up and watch them with! I'm also into Warhammer 40k, but I haven't built or painted anything for ages so I've mostly got a cabinet full of grey plastic at the moment... I would like to do some travelling to tick things off my bucket list, but travelling alone is never as much fun as having someone to go with! I'm currently looking into a trip to Svalbard, but a lot of the activities have a minimum of two people so it'd be even less fun to travel there alone!
For other discussion topics, I've got a soft spot for anything paranormal or conspiracy theory related, anything science related, or pretty much anything else you can think of!
So who am I looking for? Well;

• Preferably someone in the UK (especially down in the South East), I can drive so basically anywhere in the country is fairly easy to get to.
• I don't mind if you're from abroad, but please speak good English, and preferably be from somewhere with not too big of a time zone difference, unless you're awake at odd hours of course!
• Physically I don't really have a "type". Anything from normal up to thicc with 5 c's is fine by me. I'm totally not bothered by height, even if somehow you're taller than me. I would say I have a thing for more "alt" types though so if that's you then you should definitely message! (Although you totally should even if you're not).
• Overall I'm just looking for someone kind, caring, and non-judgemental who actually wants to talk to and spend time with me as much as I want to talk to and spend time with them.

If you've made it this far and like the sound of me, congratulations! Come and message me for a free cookie!

Hey!
I've been single for 6 years and I've decided to do something about it! I've tried a couple of dating apps in the past and quite frankly they suck. I've posted on here a lot over the last few years and met some cool, and some not so cool, people so now here I am rewriting my post again to see who else is around!
I'm 26 and from South East England. Physically, I'm fat (cuddly 😛) I've got short brown hair, blue/greyish eyes, a nose, 2 arms, 2 legs, and all that usual stuff. I'm also 6'3 so if you fancy sitting on my shoulders and seeing what the weather's like up here then I'm definitely up for it! I'm pretty strong as well so even if you're "cuddly" I'll still most likely be able to get you up there 💪 I wouldn't say no to you doing the same for me either, but there's a 110% chance you'll be crushed if you try so I'll definitely have to make you sign a waiver or something 😛
Pictures are available on request, although if you're the type to ghost immediately after seeing my face then I will spend the evening sad in bed so don't do that 😒
Personality wise, I'm pretty shy and quiet in person until I get to know someone well. The MBTI test says I'm an INTJ and the description seems to fit fairly well, although it also says I have the same personality as Gandalf so I guess it could definitely be worse. Relationship wise I can be quite dorky and weird when I'm with someone I know well enough. I'm also a massive fan of cuddles so hopefully you like them as much as me!
In my free time, I do quite a lot of gaming, although not as much as I used to. I've got a massive box of films and TV shows that I'm gradually working my way through. It's mostly horror and sci-fi films at the moment, and I could definitely do with someone else to cuddle up and watch them with! I'm also into Warhammer 40k, but I haven't built or painted anything for ages so I've mostly got a cabinet full of grey plastic at the moment... I would like to do some travelling to tick things off my bucket list, but travelling alone is never as much fun as having someone to go with! I'm currently looking into a trip to Svalbard, but a lot of the activities have a minimum of two people so it'd be even less fun to travel there alone!
For other discussion topics, I've got a soft spot for anything paranormal or conspiracy theory related, anything science related, or pretty much anything else you can think of!
So who am I looking for? Well;

• Preferably someone in the UK (especially down in the South East), I can drive so basically anywhere in the country is fairly easy to get to.
• I don't mind if you're from abroad, but please speak good English, and preferably be from somewhere with not too big of a time zone difference, unless you're awake at odd hours of course!
• Physically I don't really have a "type". Anything from normal up to thicc with 5 c's is fine by me. I'm totally not bothered by height, even if somehow you're taller than me. I would say I have a thing for more "alt" types though so if that's you then you should definitely message! (Although you totally should even if you're not).
• Overall I'm just looking for someone kind, caring, and non-judgemental who actually wants to talk to and spend time with me as much as I want to talk to and spend time with them.

If you've made it this far and like the sound of me, congratulations! Come and message me for a free cookie!