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Class 156 Convention: The Sequel. East Midlands Railway really like sending their 156s to Lincoln at the moment, with numerous ex-Anglia and EMT versions showing up. A plain blue liveried one departs from platform 4 while a purple and white one sits at platform 3, plus these two sitting in platforms 1 and 2 being observed by a crow on the signal gantry.
Yet again, the East Midlands liveried 156 is looking quite good while the the transferred one is in a right state and its appearance just makes you wonder how much chewing gum is stuck under the seats. The one in platform 3 looks okay, but given how the livery has been applied to the end I have a feeling it might be an East Midlands one in purple/white.
I prefer the way the yellow ends are positioned on the EMT livery to other liveries on the 156 (probably because I'm used to it) despite the paint ignoring the panel lines and wrapping around the sides. When the side colour wraps around onto the front like on the ex-Anglia unit, it makes the train look too narrow. Plus the black window surrounds & black on the end door looks way smarter. The only tiny problem is where the position of the orange line means the grey roof intersects with the the yellow in an awkward manner.
24.1.21
Hey guys, school is inevitable, so I’m going to be posting a lot today. This is also a sequel to Extermination 1… Yeah, I’m actually saying that. Disclaimer, you should read part 1 first because it is kinda important and I put tons of work into this.
Link to part 1: www.flickr.com/photos/purist_lego_minifigs/51177735500/in...
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“JOHN,” Battlestar yelled, “YOU’RE GOING TO DIE, GET BACK HERE!”
John Walker, also known as U.S. Agent was holding a horde of zombies back. He was buying the group time to escape. His shield was slowly breaking —as his shield wasn’t vibranium— John was no longer holding them off. It was a sacrifice.
“AGH! Open the door already,” said Walker.
John’s shield broke and he was dead in an instant. Battlestar by his side started shooting at the zombies. Unfortunately it lured more zombies and they started piling up cornering the group of survivors.
RATATATATATTATA!
“The Punisher?! What the? What are you doing here,” asked Speed Demon.
“Punishing demons, get through the d##n door before the Hulk barges through,” the Punisher replied.
“But, don’t you kill peo—“ Speed Demon asked.
“Shut up before I change my mind.”
Electro, Blizzard, Speed Demon, Punisher, Boomerang, and Battlestar went into the police station and blockaded the door. In the holding cell they found some surprises. Cletus Cassidy, arrested for killing his whole family and accidentally bonding with the symbiote and becoming Carnage and Goldbug, arrested for stealing jewelry from a cash for gold store. Goldbug pleaded for help, saying he can be good. Cassidy on the other hand shrugged and flipped the bird.
BANG! BANG!
“OH MY GOD,” Boomerang yelled, “did you just kill them?”
“I put them out of their misery, f##k off,” the Punisher replied.
The group moved upstairs and went into the armory where they stocked up on guns. Sadly, most of it was gone, but Boomerang managed to find a bullet proof vest and a few pistols. The rest found nothing but a few bullets and half eaten donuts. Boomerang shared the guns, knowing that he would barely use them because he was more skilled with his boomerangs (obviously).
Crack!
The group heard a noise coming from a supply closet. Punisher went up to the door and pulled his rifle out to kill whoever was in there. Blizzard ended up telling Punisher to stand down to find out who it was. They slammed the door opened and found no one, but a rat. Blizzard soon went to the roof to see the city's destruction. There were no more screams. Just flames, flipped over cars, and dead corpses everywhere. Speed Demon would later follow Blizzard to the roof.
"Hey dude," Blizzard said.
"Hey," Speed Demon replied, "What are you doin' up here?"
"Contemplating life. I feel like robbing and doing crime was just a waste of time. My life is just... nothing, ya know?" Blizzard explained. "It's like I am a failure in life."
"Oh, well I guess," Speed Demon replied. “To be honest, I feel fine, I have F-ING superpowers!”
“You ain’t getting my point. Never mind,” Blizzard said.”
“Nah, I getcha, you feel bad because… wait, what is that?” Speed Demon responded.
“HULK’S HUNGRY!”
Hulk and the other super zombies barged into the police station. It was definitely not a good sign at all. Hulk, Wolverine, Silver Surfer, they were all there. The whole Sinister Six, Spider-Man. There was no way for the team to survive. A zombified Quicksilver and Whizzer appeared soon after the rest. The whole zombie army was there. Speed Demon was the only one to lure them away. He only could run for half an hour due to the food shortage. Blizzard started freezing some, no effect, but it gave them time to run. Life was unforgiving. Godspeed.
Another streetview find in a tiny Angus village. Off the road for over 20 years.
M567 XSP
*a Preview rather than a Sequel
Vehicle make: NISSAN
Date of first registration: February 1995
Year of manufacture: 1995
Cylinder capacity (cc): 1392 cc
So in the last year, I have had 5 seriously dramatic sunsets. You know the type. You start shooting and chasing the light, and when it is all done, you actually end up with 3-4 really awesome shots.
This was one of those nights. Ironically, another was the following night on Ruby Beach (but more on that later). This show was taken about 5 minutes after the "Beautiufl Drama" shot shown below, while the sun was behind a cloud. Its also not a long exposure like the one below. I did blow the best shot of the night. I was doing a 4-minute expsoure was the sun was dropping below the horizon. The problem? I left the f'cking lense cap on!! Oh hell yeah, I was pissed.
Tonight's sunset looks like it will be kinda bland. I am trying to figure out were to go. I'm thinking Alki, not sure.
Backstage photos from the original Team Starkid musical, "A Very Potter Sequel".
I was the photographer for AVPS, the sequel to the popular "A Very Potter Musical." For more info on the people behind the show, the musical, or the sequel, see the Team Starkid site: teamstarkid.com
More backstage and post-show photos are posted on the Starkid Facebook page: facebook.com/StarKidPotter
Photo © Chris Dzombak 2010 | Use without permission is prohibited.
chrisdzombak.com | chris@chrisdzombak.com
Belgian postcard by Edit. Decker, Brussels, no. P.U. 51. Raquel Welch in The Biggest Bundle of Them All (Ken Annakin, 1968).
Today, 15 February 2023, American actress and sex symbol Raquel Welch (1940) has died at the age of 82 after a short illness. She was one of the icons of the 1960s and 1970s. Welch first won attention for her role in Fantastic Voyage (1966). In Great Britain, she then made One Million Years B.C. (1966). Although she had only three lines in the film, a poster of Welch in a furry prehistoric bikini became an amazing bestseller and catapulted her to stardom.
Raquel Welch was born Jo Raquel Tejada in 1940 in Chicago, Illinois. She was the first of three children born to Bolivian Armando Carlos Tejada Urquizo, an aerospace engineer, and his Irish-American wife Josephine Sarah Hall, who was the daughter of American architect Emery Stanford Hall. At age 14, Raquel won her first beauty title as Miss Photogenic. She graduated from high school in 1958 and a year later, after becoming pregnant, she married her high school sweetheart, James Welch. Seeking an acting career, Welch won a scholarship in drama, took classes at San Diego State College and won several parts in local theatre productions. She got a job as a weather forecaster at KFMB, a local San Diego television station. After her separation from James Welch, she moved with her two children to Dallas, Texas, where she worked as a model for Neiman Marcus and as a cocktail waitress. In 1963, she went to California, where she met former child star and Hollywood agent Patrick Curtis who became her personal and business manager and second husband. They developed a plan to turn Welch into a sex symbol. After small roles in a few films and TV series, she had her first featured role in the beach film A Swingin' Summer (Robert Sparr, 1965). She landed a seven-year nonexclusive contract at 20th Century Fox and was cast in a leading role in the sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage (Richard Fleischer, 1966) opposite Stephen Boyd. Welch portrayed a member of a medical team that is miniaturized and injected into the body of an injured diplomat with the mission to save his life. The film was a hit and made her a well-known name. Fox Studio loaned her to Hammer Studios in Britain where she starred in One Million Years B.C. (Don Chaffey, 1966). Her only costume was a two-piece deer skin bikini. Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Tantalizingly wet with her garb clinging to all the right amazonian places, One Million Years B.C. (1966), if nothing else, captured the hearts and libidos of modern men (not to mention their teenage sons) while producing THE most definitive and best-selling pin-up poster of that time."
Raquel Welch stayed in Europe for the French comedy Le Plus Vieux Métier du monde/The Oldest Profession (Michael Pfleghar a.o., 1967), a typical European anthology film of the 1960s. A collection of sketches on prostitution through the ages, made by a pan-European cast and crew. Some of the most sensual stars of the era played the leads: Michèle Mercier, Elsa Martinelli, Anna Karina, Nadia Gray, Jeanne Moreau and Welch. She played Nini in the episode La belle époque/The Gay Nineties by German director Michael Pfleghar. When Nini discovers by accident that her antiquated customer (Martin Held) is a banker, she pretends to be an honest woman who has fallen in love with him. She even pays him, just like a gigolo! Varlaam at IMDb: "Raquel Welch stars in the most amusing episode, relatively speaking. It's apparently set in the 1890s Vienna (Emperor Franz Josef is on the paper money). One could probably say that Raquel's greatest classic role was as the injured party in the Cannery Row lawsuit. Finely nuanced she was not, normally. But she makes an appealing light comedienne here, and she can really fill a lacy Viennese corset. The Belle Époque it assuredly was." Next, she appeared in the British seven-deadly-sins comedy Bedazzled (Stanley Donen, 1967). She played the deadly sin representing 'lust' for the comedy team of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. In Britain, she was also the title secret agent in the sexy spy spoof Fathom (Leslie H. Martinson, 1967). In Italy, she starred with Monica Vitti and Claudia Cardinale in Le Fate/The Queens (Mauro Bolognini, 1966) and with Edward G. Robinson and Vittorio de Sica in The Biggest Bundle of Them All (Ken Annakin, 1968). Back in the United States, she appeared in the Western Bandolero! (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1968) with James Stewart and Dean Martin, which was followed by the private-eye drama Lady in Cement (Gordon Douglas, 1968) with Frank Sinatra. She caused quite a stir in her ground-breaking sex scenes with black athlete Jim Brown in the Western 100 Rifles (Tom Gries, 1969).
Raquel Welch's most controversial role came in the comedy Myra Breckinridge (Michael Sarne, 1970), based on Gore Vidal's 1968 novel. She took the part of the film's transsexual heroine in an attempt to be taken seriously as an actress. The picture was controversial for its sexual explicitness, but unlike the novel, Myra Breckinridge received little to no critical praise. It is cited in the book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time. Jason Ankeny at AllMovie: "Her situation was unusual; she was certainly a star and a household name, yet few people ever went to see her movies." Welch took a measure of control over her screen persona, producing and starring in Hannie Calder (Burt Kennedy, 1971), the first film in which she carved out a place in movie history portraying strong female characters and breaking the mould of the submissive sex symbol. She altered the image further with Kansas City Bomber (Jerrold Freedman, 1972), insisting on doing her own stunts as good-hearted roller derby star Diane 'KC' Carr. She followed that with a series of successful films in Europe that included the thriller Bluebeard (Edward Dmytryk, 1972) starring Richard Burton, the swashbuckler The Three Musketeers (Richard Lester, 1973) - for which she won a Golden Globe, the sequel The Four Musketeers (Richard Lester, 1974) both with Oliver Reed and Michael York, and The Wild Party (James Ivory, 1975). A big hit in Europe was the French action-comedy L'Animal/Animal (Claude Zidi, 1977) starring Jean-Paul Belmondo. Raquel Welch's unique persona on film made her one of the reigning icons of the 1960s and 1970s. Later, she made several television variety specials. In 1980, Welch planned on making a comeback in an adaptation of John Steinbeck's Cannery Row (David S. Ward, 1982), but was fired by the producers a few days into production. The producers said that at 40 years old she was too old to play the character. She was replaced with Debra Winger. Welch sued and collected a $10.8 million settlement. She starred on Broadway in Woman of the Year, receiving praise for following Lauren Bacall in the title role. She also starred in Victor/Victoria, having less success. In 1995, Welch was chosen by Empire Magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in Film History.
Sources: Jason Ankeny (AllMovie), Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), David Carless (IMDb), Bob Taylor (IMDb), Varlaam (IMDb), TCM, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
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The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series created in the 1960s. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel (Ian Hendry) and his assistant John Steed (Patrick Macnee). Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants. Steed's most famous assistants were intelligent, stylish and assertive women: Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman), Emma Peel (Diana Rigg), and later Tara King (Linda Thorson). Later episodes increasingly incorporated elements of science fiction and fantasy, parody and British eccentricity. The Avengers ran from 1961 until 1969, screening as one hour episodes its entire run.
The pilot episode, "Hot Snow", aired on 7 January 1961.
The final episode, "Bizarre", aired on 21 May 1969.
The Avengers was produced by ABC Television, a contractor within the ITV network. After a merger in July 1968 ABC Television became Thames Television, which continued production of the series although it was still broadcast under the ABC name. By 1969 The Avengers was shown in more than 90 countries. ITV produced a sequel series The New Avengers (1976–1977) with Patrick Macnee returning as John Steed, and two new partners.
In 2007 The Avengers was ranked #20 on TV Guide's Top Cult Shows Ever
1961: With Dr David Keel (Ian Hendry)
The Avengers began in the episode Hot Snow, with medical doctor, Dr David Keel (Ian Hendry), investigating the murder of his fiancée and office receptionist Peggy by a drug ring. A stranger named John Steed, who was investigating the ring, appeared and together they set out to avenge her death in the first two episodes. Afterwards, Steed asked Keel to partner him as needed to solve crimes.
The Avengers followed Hendry's Police Surgeon, in which he played police surgeon Geoffrey Brent.[3] While Police Surgeon did not last long, viewers praised Hendry. Hendry was considered the star of the new series, receiving top billing over Macnee, and Steed did not appear in two episodes.
As the series progressed, Steed's importance increased, and he carried the final episode solo. While Steed and Keel used wit while discussing crimes and dangers, the series also depicted the interplay—and often tension—between Keel's idealism and Steed's professionalism. As seen in one of the two surviving episodes from the first series, "The Frighteners", Steed also had helpers among the population who provided information, similar to the "Baker Street Irregulars" of Sherlock Holmes.
The other regular in the first series was Carol Wilson (Ingrid Hafner), the nurse and receptionist who replaced the slain Peggy. Carol assisted Keel and Steed in cases, without being part of Steed's inner circle. Hafner had played opposite Hendry as a nurse in Police Surgeon.[3]
The series was shot on 405-line videotape using a multicamera setup. There was little provision for editing and virtually no location footage (although the very first shot of the first episode consisted of location footage). As was standard practice at the time, videotapes of early episodes of The Avengers were reused. Of the first series, two complete episodes still exist, as 16 mm film telerecordings. One of the episodes remaining does not feature Steed. The first 15 minutes of the first episode also exists as a telerecording; the extant footage ends at the conclusion of the first act, prior to the introduction of John Steed.
The missing television episodes are currently being re-created for audio by Big Finish Productions under the title of The Avengers - The Lost Episodes[4] and star Julian Wadham as Steed, Anthony Howell as Dr. Keel and Lucy Briggs-Owen as Carol Wilson.
1962–64: With Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman), Venus Smith (Julie Stevens) and Dr Martin King (Jon Rollason)
Patrick Macnee as John Steed and Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale
Production of the first series was cut short by a strike. By the time production could begin on the second series, Hendry had quit to pursue a film career. Macnee was promoted to star and Steed became the focus of the series, initially working with a rotation of three different partners. Dr Martin King (Jon Rollason), a thinly disguised rewriting of Keel, saw action in only three episodes produced from scripts written for the first series. King was intended to be a transitional character between Keel and Steed's two new female partners, but while the Dr. King episodes were shot first, they were shown out of production order in the middle of the season. The character was thereafter quickly and quietly dropped.
Nightclub singer Venus Smith (Julie Stevens) appeared in six episodes. She was a complete "amateur", meaning that she did not have any professional crime-fighting skills as did the two doctors. She was excited to be participating in a "spy" adventure alongside secret agent Steed (although at least one episode—"The Removal Men"—indicates she is not always enthusiastic). Nonetheless, she appears to be attracted to him and their relationship appears similar to that later displayed between Steed and Tara King. Her episodes featured musical interludes showcasing her singing performances. The character of Venus underwent some revision during her run, adopting more youthful demeanour and dress.
The first episode broadcast in the second series had introduced the partner who would change the show into the format for which it is most remembered. Honor Blackman played Dr Cathy Gale, a self-assured, quick-witted anthropologist who was skilled in judo and had a passion for wearing leather clothes.[5] Widowed during the Mau Mau years in Kenya, she was the "talented amateur" who saw her aid to Steed's cases as a service to her nation. Gale was said to have been born 5 October 1930 at midnight, and was raised in Africa. Gale was early-to-mid 30s during her tenure, in contrast to female characters in similar series who tended to be younger.
Gale was unlike any female character seen before on British TV and became a household name. Reportedly, part of her charm came from the fact that her earliest appearances were episodes in which dialogue written for Keel was simply transferred to her. Said series script writer Dennis Spooner "there's the famous story of how Honor Blackman played Ian Hendry's part, which is why they stuck her in leather and such—it was so much cheaper than changing the lines!"[6]
Venus Smith did not return for the third series and Cathy Gale became Steed's only regular partner. The series established a level of sexual tension between Steed and Gale, but the writers were not allowed to go beyond flirting and innuendo. Despite this the relationship between Steed and Gale was progressive for 1962–63. In "The Golden Eggs" it is revealed that Gale lived in Steed's flat; her rent according to Steed was to keep the refrigerator well-stocked and to cook for him (she appears to do neither). However, this was said to be a temporary arrangement while Gale looked for a new home, and Steed was sleeping at a hotel.
During the first series there were hints Steed worked for a branch of British Intelligence, and this was expanded in the second series. Steed initially received orders from different superiors, including someone referred to as "Charles", and "One-Ten" (Douglas Muir). By the third series the delivery of Steed's orders was not depicted on screen or explained. In "The Nutshell" the secret organisation to which Steed belongs is shown, and it is Gale's first visit to their HQ.
Small references to Steed's background were occasionally made. In series three's "Death of a Batman" it was said that Steed was with I Corps in World War II, and in Munich in 1945. In series four episode "The Hour That Never Was" Steed goes to a reunion of his RAF regiment.
A film version of the series was in its initial planning stages by late 1963 after series three was completed. An early story proposal paired Steed and Gale with a male and female duo of American agents, to make the movie appeal to the American market. Before the project could gain momentum Blackman was cast opposite Sean Connery in Goldfinger, requiring her to leave the series.
Series transformation
During the Gale era, Steed was transformed from a rugged trenchcoat-wearing agent into the stereotypical English gentleman (he had first donned bowler and carried his distinctive umbrella part way through the first season as 'The Frighteners' depicts), complete with Savile Row suit, bowler hat and umbrella with clothes later designed by Pierre Cardin. (The bowler and umbrella were soon changed to be full of tricks, including a sword hidden within the umbrella handle and a steel plate concealed in the hat.) These items were referred to in the French, German and Polish titles of the series, Chapeau melon et bottes de cuir ("Bowler hat and leather boots"), Mit Schirm, Charme und Melone ("With Umbrella, Charm and Bowler Hat") and Rewolwer i melonik ("A Revolver and a Bowler Hat"), respectively. With his impeccable manners, old world sophistication, and vintage automobiles, Steed came to represent the traditional Englishman of an earlier era.
By contrast his partners were youthful, forward-looking, and always dressed in the latest mod fashions. Gale's innovative leather outfits suited her many athletic fight scenes. Honor Blackman became a star in Britain with her black leather outfits and boots (nicknamed "kinky boots") and her judo-based fighting style. Macnee and Blackman even released a novelty song called "Kinky Boots". Some of the clothes seen in The Avengers were designed at the studio of John Sutcliffe who published the AtomAge fetish magazine.
Series script writer Dennis Spooner said that the series would frequently feature Steed visiting busy public places such as the main airport in London, without anyone else present in the scene. "'Can't you afford extras?' they'd ask. Well it wasn't like that; it's just that Steed had to be alone to be accepted. Put him in a crowd and he sticks out like a sore thumb! Let's face it, with normal people he's weird. The trick to making him acceptable is never to show him in a normal world, just fighting villains who are odder than he is!"[6]
1965–68: With Emma Peel (Diana Rigg)
In 1965 the show was sold to United States network, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). The Avengers became one of the first British series to be aired on prime time U.S. television. The ABC network paid the then-unheard of sum of $2 million for the first 26 episodes. The average budget for each episode was reportedly £56,000, high for the British industry. The fourth series aired in the U.S. from March to December 1966.
Previously The Avengers had been shot on 405-line videotape using a multicamera setup, with very little provision for editing and virtually no location footage. The U.S. deal meant that the producers could afford to start shooting the series on 35mm film. The use of film rather than videotape was essential, as British 405-line video was technically incompatible with the U.S. NTSC videotape format. Filmed productions were standard on U.S. prime time television at that time. The Avengers continued to be produced in black and white.
The transfer to film meant that episodes would be shot using the single camera setup, giving the production greater flexibility. The use of film production and the single camera production style allowed more sophisticated visuals and camera angles and more outdoor location shots, all of which greatly improved the look of the series. As was standard on British television filmed production through the 1960s, all location work on series four was shot mute with the soundtrack created in post production. Dialogue scenes were filmed in the studio, leading to some jumps between location and studio footage.
Diana Rigg as Mrs Emma Peel
New female partner Mrs Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) debuted in this series, in October 1965. The name of the character derived from a comment by writers, during development, that they wanted a character with "man appeal". In an early attempt to incorporate this concept into the character's name, she was called "Samantha Peel", shortened to the awkward "Mantha Peel".[7] Eventually the writers began referring to the idea by the verbal shorthand, "M. Appeal",[8] which gave rise to the character's ultimate name. Emma Peel, whose husband went missing while flying over the Amazon, retained the self-assuredness of Gale, combined with superior fighting skills, intelligence, and a contemporary fashion sense.
After more than 60 actresses had been auditioned, the first choice to play the role was Elizabeth Shepherd. However, after filming one and a half episodes (the pilot; 'The Town of No Return' and part of 'The Murder Market'), Shepherd was released. Her on-screen personality was deemed less interesting than that of Blackman's Gale and it was decided she was not right for the role. Another 20 actresses were auditioned before the show's casting director suggested that producers Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell check out a televised drama featuring the relatively unknown Rigg (she had earlier guested in an episode of the TV show; 'The Sentimental Agent' that Clemens had written). Her screen test with Macnee showed that the two immediately worked well together, and a new era in Avengers history began.
A prologue was added to the beginning of all the fourth series episodes for the American transmissions. This was to clarify some initial confusion audiences had regarding the characters and their mission. In the opener, a waiter holding a champagne bottle falls dead onto a human-sized chessboard; a dagger protruding from a target on his back. Steed and Mrs. Peel (dressed in her trademark leather catsuit) walk up to the body as the voice over explains: "Extraordinary crimes against the people, and the state, have to be avenged by agents extraordinary. Two such people are John Steed, top professional, and his partner Emma Peel, talented amateur. Otherwise known as The Avengers." During this voice over, Steed pours two drinks from the wine bottle and Mrs Peel replaces her gun in her boot. They clink glasses and depart together. Fade to black and then the opening titles proper begin.
Film location plate presented by ABC TV to the Stapleford Miniature Railway, which is still in use today
In contrast to the Gale episodes, there was a lighter, comic touch in Steed and Peel's interactions with each other and their reactions to other characters and situations. Earlier series had a harder tone, with the Gale era including some quite serious espionage dramas. This almost completely disappeared as Steed and Peel visibly enjoyed topping each other's witticisms. The layer of conflict with Gale – who on occasion openly resented being used by Steed, often without her permission – was absent from Steed's interaction with Peel. Also the sexual tension between Steed and Gale was not present with Peel. In both cases, the exact relationship between the partners was left ambiguous, although they seemed to have carte blanche to visit each other's homes whenever they pleased and it was not uncommon for scenes to suggest Steed had spent the night at Gale's or Peel's home, or vice-versa. Although nothing "improper" was displayed, the obviously much closer chemistry between Steed and Peel constantly suggests intimacy between the two.
Science fiction fantasy elements (a style later known as Spy-fi) emerged in stories. The duo encountered killer robots ("The Cybernauts") and giant alien carnivorous plants ("The Man-Eater of Surrey Green").
In her fourth episode, "Death at Bargain Prices", Mrs Peel takes an undercover job at a department store. Her uniform for promoting space-age toys is an elaborate leather catsuit plus silver boots, sash, and welder's gloves. The suit minus the silver accessories became her signature outfit, which she wore primarily for fight scenes, in early episodes, and in the titles. There was a fetishistic undercurrent in some episodes. In "A Touch of Brimstone" Mrs Peel dressed in a dominatrix outfit of corset, laced boots and spiked collar to become the "Queen of Sin".
Peel's avant-garde fashions, featuring bold accents and high-contrast geometric patterns, emphasized her youthful, contemporary personality. She represented the modern England of the Sixties – just as Steed, with his vintage style and mannerisms, personified Edwardian era nostalgia. According to Macnee in his book The Avengers and Me, Rigg disliked wearing leather and insisted on a new line of fabric athletic wear for the fifth series. Alun Hughes, who had designed clothing for Diana Rigg's personal wardrobe, was suggested by the actress to design Emma Peel's "softer" new wardrobe. Pierre Cardin was brought in to design a new wardrobe for Macnee. In America, TV Guide ran a four-page photospread on Rigg's new "Emmapeeler" outfits (10–16 June 1967). Eight tight-fitting jumpsuits in a variety of bright colors were created using the stretch fabric crimplene.
Another memorable feature of the show from this point onwards was its automobiles. Steed's signature cars were vintage 1926–1928 Bentley racing or town cars, including Blower Bentleys and Bentley Speed Sixes (although, uniquely, in "The Thirteenth Hole" he drives a Vauxhall 30/98), while Peel drove a sporty Lotus Elan convertible which, like her clothes, emphasized her independence and vitality. During the first Peel series, each episode ended with a short, comedic scene of the duo leaving the scene of their most recent adventure in some unusual vehicle.
For this series Diana Rigg's stunt double was stuntman Billy Westley, Patrick Macnee's stunt double was Peter Clay.
Fifth series
After one filmed series (of 26 episodes) in black and white, The Avengers began filming in colour for the fifth series in 1966. It was three years before Britain's ITV network began full colour broadcasting.
This series was broadcast in the U.S. from January to May 1967. The American prologue of the previous series was rejigged for the colour episodes. It opened with the caption The Avengers In Color (required by ABC for colour series at that time). This was followed by Steed unwrapping the foil from a champagne bottle and Peel shooting the cork away. (Unlike the "chessboard" opening of the previous series, this new prologue was also included in UK broadcasts of the series.)
The first 16 episodes of the fifth series begin with Peel receiving a call-to-duty message from Steed: "Mrs Peel, we're needed." Peel was conducting her normal activities when she unexpectedly received a message on a calling card or within a delivered gift, at which point Steed suddenly appeared (usually in her apartment). The messages were delivered by Steed in increasingly bizarre ways as the series progressed: in a newspaper Peel had just bought, or on traffic lights while she was out driving. On one occasion Steed appeared on her television set, interrupting an old science-fiction movie (actually clips from their Year Four episode "The Cybernauts") to call her to work. Another way Steed contacted her was in the beginning of episode 13, "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Station" when she enters her flat and sees a Meccano Percy the Small Engine going around a circular track with a note on one of the train cars that says "Mrs. Peel" in bold letters, she then walks over to Steed who says "you're needed". At the start of "The Hidden Tiger" Peel is redecorating her apartment (wearing a jumpsuit and drinking champagne); she peels off a strip of wallpaper, revealing the words "Mrs Peel" painted on the wall beneath. She turns to see Steed in the apartment removing another strip of wallpaper, revealing "We're needed" painted underneath on another wall. In another instance Emma enters Steed's flat to find he has just fallen down the stairs, and he painfully gasps, "Mrs Peel, you're needed." Often the episode's tag scene returned to the situation of the "Mrs Peel, we're needed" scene. "The Hidden Tiger" returns to the partially redecorated apartment where Steed begins painting a love heart and arrow and the initials of two people on the wall, but paints over the initials when Peel sees his graffito. In "The Superlative Seven" the call to duty and the tag both involve a duck shooting situation where unexpected items fall from the sky after shots are fired.
The series also introduced a comic tag line caption to the episode title, using the format of "Steed [does this], Emma [does that]." For example "The Joker" had the opening caption: "Steed trumps an ace, Emma plays a lone hand".('The Joker' was to a large extent a re-write colour episode of the earlier Cathy Gale b/w era story; 'Don't Look Behind You' as were a few other later episodes re-writes in colour of b/w era tales.)
The "Mrs Peel, we're needed" scenes and the alternate tag lines were dropped after the first 16 episodes, after a break in production, for financial reasons. They were deemed by the U.K. networks as disposable if The Avengers was to return to ITV screens. (Dave Rogers' book The Avengers Anew lists a set for every Steed/Peel episode except "The Forget-Me-Knot".)
Stories were increasingly characterised by a futuristic, science fiction bent, with mad scientists and their creations wreaking havoc. The duo dealt with being shrunk to doll size ("Mission... Highly Improbable"), pet cats being electrically altered into ferocious and lethal "miniature tigers" ("The Hidden Tiger"), killer automata ("Return of The Cybernauts"), mind-transferring machines ("Who's Who???"), and invisible foes ("The See-Through Man").
The series parodied its American contemporaries with episodes such as "The Girl From AUNTIE", "Mission... Highly Improbable" and "The Winged Avenger" (spoofing The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Mission: Impossible and Batman, respectively). The show still carried the basic format – Steed and his associate were charged with solving the problem in the space of a 50-minute episode, thus preserving the safety of 1960s Britain.
Comedy was evident in the names and acronyms of the organizations. For example, in "The Living Dead", two rival groups examine reported ghost sightings: FOG (Friends Of Ghosts) and SMOG (Scientific Measurement Of Ghosts). "The Hidden Tiger" features the Philanthropic Union for Rescue, Relief and Recuperation of Cats—PURRR—led by characters named Cheshire, Manx, and Angora.
The series also occasionally adopted a metafictional tone, coming close to breaking the fourth wall. In the series 5 episode "Something Nasty in the Nursery" Peel directly references the series' storytelling convention of having potentially helpful sources of information killed off just before she or Steed arrive. This then occurs a few minutes later. In the tag scene for the same episode, Steed and Peel tell viewers – indirectly – to tune in next week.
For this series Diana Rigg's stunt double was stuntwoman Cyd Child, though stuntman Peter Elliot doubled for Rigg in a stunt dive in "The Bird Who Knew Too Much".
Rigg's departure
Rigg was initially unhappy with the way she was treated by the show's producers. During her first series she learned she was being paid less than the camera man. She demanded a raise, to put her more on a par with her co-star, or she would leave the show. The producers gave in, thanks to the show's great popularity in the US.
At the end of the fifth series in 1967, Rigg left to pursue other projects. This included following Honor Blackman to play a leading role in a James Bond film, in this case On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Rigg and Macnee have remained lifelong friends.
1968–69: With Tara King (Linda Thorson)
Thorson and Macnee
When Diana Rigg left the series in October 1967, the British network executives decided that the current series formula, despite resulting in popular success, could not be pursued further. Thus they decided that a "return to realism" was appropriate for the sixth series (1968–69). Brian Clemens and Albert Fennel were replaced by John Bryce, producer of most of the Cathy Gale-era episodes.
Bryce had a difficult situation in hand. He had to find a replacement for Diana Rigg and shoot the first seven episodes of the new series, which were supposed to be shipped to America together with the last eight Emma Peel colour episodes.
Bryce signed his then-girlfriend, 20-year-old newcomer Linda Thorson, as the new female costar and chose the name "Tara King" for her character. Thorson played the role with more innocence in mind and at heart; and unlike the previous partnerships with Cathy and Emma, the writers allowed subtle hints of romance to blossom between Steed and King. King also differed from Steed's previous partners in that she was a fully fledged (albeit initially inexperienced) agent working for Steed's organisation; his previous partners had all been (in the words of the prologue used for American broadcasts of the first Rigg series) talented amateurs. Bryce wanted Tara to be blonde, so Thorson's brown hair was bleached. However the process badly damaged Thorson's hair, so she had to wear wigs for the first third of her episodes, until her own hair grew back. Her natural brown hair was not seen until the episode "All Done with Mirrors".
Production of the first seven episodes of the sixth series began. However financial problems and internal difficulties undermined Bryce's effort. He only managed to complete three episodes: "Invitation to a Killing" (a 90-minute episode introducing Tara King), "The Great, Great Britain Crime" (some of its original footage was reused in the 1969 episode "Homicide and Old Lace") and "Invasion of the Earthmen" (which survived relatively intact except for the scenes in which Tara wears a brown wig.)
After a rough cut screening of these episodes to studio executives, Bryce was fired and Clemens and Fennel were summoned back. At their return, a fourth episode called "The Murderous Connection" was in its second day of production. After revising the script, it was renamed as "The Curious Case of the Countless Clues" and production was resumed. Production of the episode "Split!", a leftover script from the Emma Peel colour series, proceeded. Two completely new episodes were also shot: "Get-A-Way", and "Look (Stop Me If You've Heard This One) But There Were These Two Fellers".
Dennis Spooner said of the event that "Brian left The Avengers for about three episodes, someone took over, and when Brian came back, it was in a terrible state. He was faced with doing a rewrite on a film they'd already shot." The episode had a story error where Steed leaves for a destination. The villains then realise this and pursue him – yet arrive there before Steed does. It was fixed by having a character ask Steed 'What took you so long?', to which he replies 'I came the pretty way'. "You can only do that on The Avengers you see. It was just my favourite show to work on."[10]
Clemens and Fennel decided to film a new episode to introduce Tara King. This, the third episode filmed for the sixth series, was titled "The Forget-Me-Knot" and bade farewell to Emma Peel and introduced her successor, a trained but inexperienced agent named Tara King. It would be broadcast as the first episode of the sixth series. Tara debuts in dynamic style: when Steed is called to Headquarters, he is attacked and knocked down by trainee agent King who mistakes him for her training partner.
No farewell scenes for Emma Peel had been shot when Diana Rigg left the series. Rigg was recalled for "The Forget-Me-Knot", through which Emma acts as Steed's partner as usual. Rigg also filmed a farewell scene for Emma which appeared as the tag scene of the episode. It was explained that Emma's husband, Peter Peel, was found alive and rescued, and she left the British secret service to be with him. Emma visits Steed to say goodbye, and while leaving she passes Tara on the stairway giving the advice that "He likes his tea stirred anti-clockwise." Steed looks out the window as a departing Emma enters the Bentley driven by Peter – who from a distance seems to resemble Steed (and was played by Patrick Macnee, wearing a bowler hat and umbrella).
Bryce's original episode introducing Tara, "Invitation to a Killing", was revised as a regular 60-minute episode named "Have Guns Will Haggle". These episodes, together with "Invasion of the Earthmen" and the last eight Peel colour episodes, were shipped to America in February 1968.
For this series the government official who gave Steed his orders was depicted on screen. Mother, introduced in "The Forget-Me-Knot", is a man in a wheelchair. The role was taken by Patrick Newell who had played different roles in two earlier episodes, most recently in series five. Mother's headquarters would shift from place to place, including one episode where his complete office was on the top level of a double-decker bus. (Several James Bond films of the 1970s would make use of a similar gimmick for Bond's briefings.)
Added later as a regular was Mother's mute Amazonian assistant, Rhonda (Rhonda Parker). There was one appearance by an agency official code-named "Father", a blind older woman played by Iris Russell. (Russell had appeared in the series several times previously in other roles.) In one episode, "Killer", Steed is paired with Lady Diana Forbes Blakeney (Jennifer Croxton) while King is on holiday.
Scriptwriter Dennis Spooner later reflected on this series. "When I wrote "Look (Stop Me If You've Heard This One) But There Were These Two Fellers", that was definitely the last series. They were going to make no more, so in that series we went right over the top; we went really weird, because they knew there weren't going to be any more."[11]
Spooner said the series "worked because it became a parody on itself, almost. You can only do that so long." Overall he attributes the success of the show to its light approach. "We spoofed everything, we took Mission: Impossible, Bad Day at Black Rock, High Noon, The Dirty Dozen, The Birds... we took them all. The film buffs used to love it. There were always lines in it that people knew what we were talking about."[11]
Vehicle wise, Steed continued to drive vintage green Bentleys in the first seven episodes in production. His regular transport for the remainder of the series were two yellow Rolls-Royce cars. Mother also occasionally appeared in silver Rolls-Royces. Tara King drove an AC 428 and a Lotus Europa. Lady Diana Forbes Blakeney drove an MGC Roadster.
The revised series continued to be broadcast in America. The episodes with Linda Thorson as King proved to be highly rated in Europe and the UK. In the United States however, the ABC network that carried the series chose to air it opposite the number one show in the country at the time, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Steed and King could not compete, and the show was cancelled in the US. Without this vital commercial backing, production could not continue in Britain either, and the series ended in May 1969. The final scene of the final episode ("Bizarre") has Steed and King, champagne glasses in hand, accidentally launching themselves into orbit aboard a rocket, as Mother breaks the fourth wall and says to the audience, "They'll be back!" before adding in shock, "They're unchaperoned up there!"
************************************************************************************
Courtesy of Chatwick University Archives, 1960
As all photography-people know, we take tons of photos during a photoshoot, some of which never emerge to see light of many computer screens. I upload extra photos on Instagram, so there will be Insta-exclusive photos there. :D
Please follow me on @rainwaltz if you have an Android/iPhone! Instagram is really fun and has tons of cool filters and many doll-folks there too. If you don't have an Insta account, you can still view my photos on via web here. Sorry for the pimping, heehee. Please tell me your Insta username if you have one as well so I can follow you~
Also I'm going away tomorrow so I will be absent from Flickr for a while. I should have internet access though so I will be updating preview photos on Instagram if I have the time. <--- more incentive to get an Instagram account! :D
Destination Unknown Sequel: My Next Passport Photo: Han(d)s(Free) Solo Saving PrincesS In Turmoil, Without Looking Like Darth Vader! - IMRAN™
The economic meltdown in 2009 & subsequent time rebuilding meant little travel abroad. That was followed by years of opportunity lost to the pandemic years.
I needed fo get my passport renewed before I got a chance to travel on this again this year, much less going into space.
I think this would be perfect for my future passport photos. With biometrics and cameras watching us getting from homes to airports, who needs photos of us anymore? It depicts how masks, hoodies, and noise-cancellation headphones, can insulate and isolate us in travel, while we still yearn to boldly go and explore whole new (and very old) worlds.
Almost like Han(d)s(Free) Solo Terrestronauts, seeking to save a beloved princess from turmoil in a galaxy far away or a town nearby. But, ideally, doing it without looking like Darth Vader becoming a white hood-wearing kl@n$man. 😀😀
Have you been traveling? Where did you go in recent days or past years? Share your traveling or airport or passport photo below!
© 2022 IMRAN™
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Εισαγωγή
Χριστιανική ταινία «Το μυστήριο της ευσέβειας: η συνέχεια» Το ευαγγέλιο της επιστροφής του Κυρίου
Ο Λιν Μπόεν είναι ένας ηλικιωμένος ιεροκήρυκας που πιστεύει στον Κύριο εδώ και πολλές δεκαετίες. Αφότου αποδέχθηκε τον Παντοδύναμο Θεό , τον Χριστό των εσχάτων ημερών, οι πάστορες και οι πρεσβύτεροι, οι αντίχριστες δυνάμεις, τον καταδίκασαν, τον απέκλεισαν και τον εκδίωξαν από τη θρησκευτική κοινότητα. Αλλά παρόλο που επιτέθηκαν, καταδίκασαν και παγίδευσαν τον Λιν Μπόεν, εκείνος δεν οπισθοχώρησε από φόβο. Αντιθέτως, η πίστη του έγινε πιο ακλόνητη από ποτέ, και αυτό τον οδήγησε να καταλάβει επιτέλους ότι οι πάστορες και οι πρεσβύτεροι του θρησκευτικού κόσμου παρουσίαζαν ένα ψεύτικο ενάρετο παρουσιαστικό. Ταυτόχρονα, έμαθε ότι μόνο ο Χριστός είναι η αλήθεια, η οδός και η ζωή, και ότι μόνο ο Χριστός μπορεί να σώσει, να εξαγνίσει και να οδηγήσει στην τελείωση τον άνθρωπο. Λόγω αυτού, ήταν αποφασισμένος να ακολουθήσει τον Χριστό, να γίνει μάρτυρας για τον Χριστό και να καταβάλει κάθε δυνατή προσπάθεια για να επιδιώξει την αλήθεια, να επιζητήσει τη μετατροπή της διάθεσής του, ώστε να γίνει αληθινός μάρτυρας για τον Θεό. Μόλις το Κινεζικό Κομμουνιστικό Κόμμα ανακάλυψε ότι ο Λιν Μπόεν είχε αποφυλακιστεί και δεν είχε αλλάξει, ότι δεν είχε απαρνηθεί στο ελάχιστο την πίστη του και ότι πίστευε, μάλιστα, στην Αστραπή της Ανατολής, ότι πήγαινε παντού για να μαρτυρήσει ότι ο Κύριος Ιησούς έχει έλθει ξανά και ότι Αυτός είναι ο Παντοδύναμος Θεός, το ΚΚΚ τον καταχώρησε ως καταζητούμενο και πήγε παντού για να τον συλλάβει. Ο Λιν Μπόεν αναγκάστηκε να αφήσει την οικογένειά του και, σε κάθε μέρος στο οποίο μαρτυρούσε το έργο του Παντοδύναμου Θεού των εσχάτων ημερών, κατόρθωνε να οδηγήσει πολλούς ειλικρινείς, καλοκάγαθους πιστούς στο πλευρό του Θεού. Αυτό το βίντεο παρουσιάζει την αληθινή ιστορία τού πώς ο Λιν Μπόεν διέδωσε το ευαγγέλιο και μαρτύρησε για τον Θεό.
Πηγή εικόνας: Εκκλησία του Παντοδύναμου Θεού
Όροι Χρήσης： el.godfootsteps.org/disclaimer.html
The extra-long sequel to: www.flickr.com/photos/133558185@N07/23290211525/in/dateta...
Chris Peterson’s eyes snapped open. He was in some kind of interrogation chamber, immobilized in the grasp of a wicked apparatus. Assumably he was still on board the Blabber superweapon. A dark, cloaked figure stood before him, its emotionless visor reflecting his own face back at him.
“So, you’re finally awake,” it said, in a rather disinterested voice, “I would’ve thought my neural stimulators would’ve woken you up faster, but I guess you don’t have enough brain mass for them to be effective.”
“Nice torture chamber,” said Chris, looking around with a smirk, “I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect such high-grade facilities from an Overlord of your, erm, caliber.” He smiled to himself as he surveyed the forbidding room. Doubtless this darkly arrayed being felt rather put out by his coolness, he thought, after all it’d gone through to look intimidating. Maybe it even felt a little insecure, after all…
“AH!” Chris cried, his train of thought cut short as he turned his head and found himself staring down the four barrels of an oversized laser turret.
“That… That’s big,” he added, trying not to look like he’d almost wet himself.
“I have some questions for you,” said the figure. Chris’ face hardened.
“I’ll never tell you anything, murderer. I’d sooner be smashed to subatomic particles than breathe a word to you,” he said.
“Well, then I suppose there’s no point in keeping you alive,” said the figure, turning away. Light suddenly blazed in the turret’s barrels, promising to literally blow Chris to atoms in a few seconds.
“Wait, wait, wait!” he screamed, “I’ll talk, I’ll be reasonable! I’ll say anything you want! Just turn that thing off!” The upcoming blast faded away back into the depths of turret and the figure turned to face him once more, chuckling.
“Your endurance is truly heroic.” it said, a sarcastic smile in its voice, “Now, onto the questions. First, what is this? A laser plunger?” The figure pulled out Chris’ weapon of choice, igniting its glowing conical end.
“No, no, that’s an Electromagnetic Extractor,” Chris explained, “Though, now that you mention it, it does kinda look like a toilet plunger… Aw, cummon, why’d you have to point that out? I never noticed it before!”
“Moving onto the second question—what is this?” the figure pulled out Chris’ Superdimensional Karate Assistant & Travel Evolver (SKATE) board, throwing it down on the floor. In its folded state, it rather resembled a mangled duck made of titanium, but Chris knew it was much more powerful than it looked. He thought fast. If this overlord found out that his SKATE board was an interdimensional conveyance that could go nearly anywhere in the universe in a matter of minutes, it would doubtlessly use it for its own purposes. And that would be… Bad. Really, really bad.
“Oh, uh, that’s um, uh… That’s kinda personal,” he said, wracking his brains for a conceivable lie.
“If you’d rather not tell me, I can just melt your face off and figure it out myself.” suggested the figure, glancing at the turret.
“No, no, if you really wanna know, I’ll tell you,” protested Chris, “It’s a… Mobile waste disposal system.”
“It’s a what?” asked the figure.
“It’s a portable toilet,” Chris elaborated.
“Ahuh,” said the figure, glancing at SKATE with a mixture of newfound disgust and curiosity. “Moving on—why, and more importantly how, did you just walk into my Blabber and sabotage my Phlebotium Core? Do you have any idea how freakishly hard it was to get the Phlebotium to make that? Do you? Because I feel like, if you did, you would’ve thought twice before blowing the entire thing to smithereens without a thought about the trials of an Overlord.” The figure’s voice, previously apathetic and emotionless, started to betray some annoyance.
“Oh, I know how hard it was for you to get that. In fact, I was the reason it was so hard for you to get your Phlebotium whatchimidoohickey. And, if everything had gone well, you would’ve never even gotten it in the first place,” said Chris, with some pride he couldn’t conceal.
“Is that so?” asked the figure, “What great operative do I have the honour of addressing?” His voice was laden with sarcasm.
“I’m Chris Peterson,” said Chris, “And I’m not an operative. I’m a freelancer.”
“I can tell,” said the figure, eyeing the Electromagnetic Extractor with contempt. “May I ask why a freelancer would sneak into a top-security superweapon-equipped space station that belongs to an obscure overlord without a planet to his name?”
“Uh…” said Chris, trying not to cross the line between bragging and blabbing, “No reason. Or at least, not one I’m going to tell you.”
“Well, alright,” said the figure, “Send me a postcard from the afterlife.” The turret powered on once more, this time so quickly Chris could feel the heat of the forthcoming beam on his face as he shouted in panic.
“Fine, fine! I’ll tell you! Just don’t blow me up!” he cried frantically. The dangerous light in the turret’s barrels slowly backed away, but did not leave entirely this time, lingering like the gleam of insectoid eyes.
“To clarify, it wouldn’t blow you up—it’d melt you. Slowly,” explained the figure, “Now tell me why you blew up my Core.”
“Well…” said Chris, hesitantly, “You kinda used your superweapon to wipe out six billion people or so… And that’s not cool. Thankfully your Blabber thing kinda blew up when you used it, so you backed off for about twenty years. But then you came back, and with your new fancy Core you were gonna be able to hit multiple planets in a row without a hitch and scare everybody into submission. And that really wasn’t cool. So I blew up your Core.”
“Certainly you had to have a better reason than that you thought my conduct ‘wasn’t cool’. Plenty of people think what the Overlords do isn’t ‘cool’, but few have the pluck to strike back against them. Or the tech, for that matter. So why’d you do it?” asked the figure.
“Because it was the right thing to do,” said Chris, proudly.
“Oh please,” snorted the figure, rolling its eyes behind its visor, “Everyone says that. What’s the real reason? Do you have friends down on my target of choice, perhaps?” The darkly-clad being wandered towards the big screen that displayed the planet the Blabber was orbiting. Chris new it well. Very well.
“Ehm…” stuttered Chris. The fact was, it was actually his planet, and he did have a dear friend or two down on it. He didn’t feel like admitting that was a good idea, though. Revenge ran deep in the blood of the Overlords. Or at least in blood of the ones who had blood.
“That would be an interesting revelation,” the figure continued, “I wiped out everybody on this planet with my first strike, except for a couple thousand or so. It’d be rather ironic if, out of that ridiculously small tithe of people, someone managed to grow up and then acquire the tech to sabotage my second design. Ironic and annoying.”
“Heheh, it is kind of ironic,” said Chris, before he could help himself. “I mean, uh, that you were thwarted at the same planet twice; the first time because you didn’t have a powerful enough Core, and the second time by a guy like me. You just can’t catch a break, can you?”
“Seemingly not.” said the figure coldly, “I have one last question: Where’s your girlfriend?”
“My what?” asked Chris.
“That lady you were with in the Core Room. She’s not showing up on any of my scanners. Not even giving a life reading. Normally I’d just assume she’d been smashed, but my security cameras and motion sensors seem to be telling otherwise. I’ve been catching glimpses of her for about an hour now. Where’s she hiding, and how is she doing it?”
“First off, she is NOT my girlfriend,” said Chris, “She’s just… No, not that… And secondly, I have no idea where she is. Even I can’t find her most of the time.”
“What stealth tech is using?” asked the figure.
“I dunno,” said Chris, which was true. He was bad at remembering names, especially technical ones. The lights in the turret’s barrels began to get brighter, and the figure turned round again.
“Don’t try and play games with me, freelancer,” it said, “You and your not-girlfriend are much more likely to live if you surrender. Just tell me how I can detect her and I’ll spare your lives.” Chris could feel the heat of the turret’s blast on his face, getting hotter and hotter.
“I seriously don’t know!” he cried, “Honestly! If I did I’d totally betray her like a weakling, but I really don’t!”
“Then why should I keep you alive?” asked the figure. Chris’ face was beginning to burn, and the light was so bright now he could hardly see. And then, quite suddenly, the turret switched off, the light exploding in its barrels as its containment field failed. A chunk of shrapnel hit the figure over the head, knocking him across the room. One of the floor grates was pushed aside from below, and out of the hole it left leapt the very woman they’d been talking about.
“Charlotte!” cried Chris, in surprise. Without replying, she snatched his Extractor and SKATE off the ground, grabbed him by the shoulder, and switched on the latter. A giant invisible sphere deformed the world around them, the interrogation room fading away as a wormhole sucked them into another dimension.
“This isn’t the end!” cried the figure’s voice, and then the physical world vanished.
Destination Unknown Sequel: Legalized Torture: Skinny Seats For Fat Passengers - IMRAN™
I had my first flight as an unaccompanied child in Pakistan more than 50 years ago in the glory days of PIA. I was a cute chubby kid but even the economy seat on Boeing aircraft of that era could have seated nearly two of me.
Now, half a century later, even half of an average American adult has to squeeze into what airlines still insist on calling “seats”. My aviation fascination and passion for flying have not waned. But even as a not too fat or wide-ass adult the width of most airlines’ seats is nothing but legalized torture.
Having decently long legs I do appreciate the somewhat back-to-normal seat-to-seat distance you can see in this photo. But don’t be fooled. The extra space is because it is an exit-row seat. Next, look at the sexy svelte shape of the seat in front of me. Now imagine the typical person ahead of you at a grocery checkout or airline check-in line fitting in that. Exactly. Impossible.
Even more illustrative of the problem is the width of armrests which are also the separation between adjacent passengers. Today’s armrests are now literally *narrower* than two fingers width. It’s true. I’ve measured them and taken pictures too. I know what I’d like to do with those two fingers and where I’d like to shove my full arm. 😏😀
I would love to see the CEOs of Boeing, Delta, and the seat manufacturer try to sit in three adjacent seats for 3, much less 6 or 12, hours. Ideally they should sit for a three days long congressional inquiry — while being kept belted in those seats, together! 💺💺💺
What do you think? In the meantime, that vision of them unable to even squirm in their seats will make me smile as I enjoy my love of flying with gratitude. ✈️❤️🙏
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This is the sequel to the first set of Mamma and Cubby shots I had posted earlier. My apologies for not getting this concluding set posted sooner. We had a bit of family chaos...{it happens 8-)...} but things are calm at the moment.
The lead image was taken shortly after the boar stepped out of the brush at the lower end of the estuary. I have tried to post the photos in order as the action unfolded. The female is well aware of the boars presences and her focus and posture convey her anxiety. It didn't take the cubs long to pick up on their mother's mood, although she had not yet begun vocalizing to them or physically pushing them ahead.
In the second photo the cubs have visual contact with the boar and their agitation has ramped up considerably. It was at this point that the sow began herding the youngsters up stream, putting herself between them and the advancing male. She pushed them for several hundred yards until they finally crossed a second estuary. Here, she had evidently had enough because she suddenly stopped, turned and took a stand on the bank. The male halted on the opposite bank (4th photo) and now both the cubs and the sow were vocalizing.
The boar remained where he was, pacing back and forth huffing and grumbling his displeasure but he did not advance across the water. The female held this position for several minutes..........sending warning signals across the stream until she was comfortable turning her back. Then she ushered her cubs up the opposite bank and turned up a different estuary leaving the male rumbling and fuming on the far bank. {Yes, at least this time ..........a happy ending !! }
*Footnote:
Just an aside bit of info for those of you who are interested. The male grizzly is extremely territorial and will attack and kill cubs, especially male cubs which he views as competition. He does not recognize his own offspring, to him they are interlopers. This forces the female grizzly to be an extremely attentive mamma or her brood will not survive their first spring. The cubs in this series still had the white natal ring visible around their neck which means they were spring born. This was a very protective mamma.
This is a double sequel - an attempt to recreate this photo www.flickr.com/photos/77297749@N05/8651464390/in/photolis... with the (much delayed) second volume of a trilogy.
PS This is also the first photo here using my new tripod.
Italian postcard. G.B. Falci, Milano, No. 1920s. Biancamaria Hubner as Saita and Emilio Vardannes as the Inquisitor Stefano Donato in La congiura di San Marco (Domenico Gaido, 1924), the sequel to Il ponte dei sospiri (Domenico Gaido, 1921). The main role of Rolando Candiani, acted by Luciano Albertini in the original, was played in the sequel by Amleto Novelli.
In this film Rolando Candiani (Novelli) has become Doge of Venice and his great aspiration is to satisfy all the needs of the Venetian people and to defend the integrity of the Venetian Republic. However, the followers of the ex-Doge Foscari conspire against him. But Candiano is helped by Scalabrino (Celio Bucchi), a gentleman who has become the head of a band of acrobats, and by Zanze (Bianca Stagno-Bellincioni) , a woman of the people. Together with a monkey these two manage to prevent all the traps of the enemies and to save Rolando. For several reasons almost all major parts were played out by new actors.
Émile/ Emilio Vardannes, pseudonym of Antonin Bénévent (Paris, 13 January 1873 - Paris, 13 December 1951) was a French actor, director and screenwriter, who had a prolific career in Italian silent cinema.
Vardannes was descended from the Bénévents, a well-known French family of circus and theatre artists. The same family also included the character actor Noël Roquevert (born Noël Bénévent), whose paternal uncle Vardannes was. Himself the son of a former health officer who became a dentist in Grenoble, Antonin Bénévent joined the army at the age of 19 and fought in the Algerian campaign between June 1892 and June 1896 in the 3rd Zouaves regiment where he was posted as a drummer. On his return to civilian life, he became a travelling actor with his brother Auguste (1862-1937), father of Noël Roquevert, in the Bénévent Theatre, a family theatre company that toured mainly in the west of France. He then went to Paris where he was hired at the Eden-Comédie, where he worked in 1907-1908 as dramatic and comic actor and took the pseudonym of Émile Vardannes.
Thus Vardannes was already an established and experienced theatre actor, when in 1909 he was hired as an actor and film director by Pasquali & C. in Turin and then by Croce & C. in Milan. In 1911 he was hired by Itala Film, where he was employed as a comic actor, starring in the films of the Totò comic series (which he had already started at Pasquali and Croce), of which he himself was subject and director. At Itala, Vardannes also acted in historical dramas such as Giulio Cesare (1909, playing Brutus, and Principessa e schiava (1909), in both cases with Adriana Costamagna in the female lead. In 1912, Vardannes moved on to Milano Films where he starred in a comic series as a new character named Bonifacio. He returned to Itala Film in 1913, where he was employed not only as a comedian, but also as a dramatic actor. He played the role of Hannibal in Itala's 1914 super-production, the epic Cabiria by Giovanni Pastrone. Recalled to the French army in August 1914, Vardannes returned to France and was first posted to the territorial infantry before moving in May 1916 to the 20th Train Squadron where he was promoted to the rank of brigadier a year later.
Demobilized in January 1919, he returned to Italy where he resumed his activities, acting in many of the Maciste films of 1920-1921, but also the Tolstoy adaptation Il cadavere vivente (1921) and the sequel to Il ponte dei sospiri: La congiura di San Marco (1924), starring Amleo Novelli. With Biancamaria Hubner, Vardannes acted in La congiura di San Marco, Saetta, principe per un giorno (Mario Camerini, 1924) starring Domenico Gambino, and Mario Guaita-Ausonia's last film La donna carnefice nel paese dell'oro (Guaita, 1926). As a director, in addition to the comedies, Vardannes' most important film was L'oro degli Aztechi (Aztec Gold), made in 1920 in co-direction with Umberto Mozzato. At the end of the silent era he returned to France, where under the pseudonym of Vardannes he had supporting parts in four late silent films and three early sound films, the last of which, Adieu Léonard by Pierre Prévert, was made in 1943.
(Sources: Italian and French Wikipedia, IMDb)
A redone version of the original HDR 360 version I did - this one is a bit more dramatic and I actually like this one better.
I took my Volvo for a little run to the supermarket this morning, and obviously looked for the most appropriate car in the car park to park it next to.
I've seen this Sunny around locally for several years now, but it's another of the many that I've never managed to get a photo of.
It's done 99k miles, and only seems to be doing around 1000 per year. It's MOT is up at the end of August and has had rust/corrosion issues for every MOT since 2010, so you have to wonder how long it's got left.
Both original looking number plates from 'Widnes Car Centre' which still seems to be in business as a Nissan main dealer, albeit now under the 'Bristol Street Motors' name.
A sequel to my prevous caption. Again, not sure the lettering works but let me know.
The text in the caption reads:
Michelle looked down at her large breasts and smiled. Most girls would be jealous of my girls she thought. Her breasts had stopped growing after taking that magic pill
and she'd had a chance to
examine her new body.
She checked off the list
in her head.
Vagina, check.
Hips, check.
Nice curvy bottom, check.
Luscious lips, check.
Long legs, check.
Then the doorbell rang.
Michelle answered it.
A man stood there. "Hello Michelle," the man said, "I'm Phil and I'm here to take you to the movies."
"Er I don't..." Michelle started and then saw the man was holding a gun.
"This isn't optional. The wizard only turns men into girls so he can use them in his porn films. I'm here to escort you to the movie studio where you will stay. The pill did more than turn you into a girl. It will keep you looking like this forever but you now have new obligations."
This was built for a Lego IDEAS contest, and if you want to give it a like, you can do that here: ideas.lego.com/challenges/2d3f47a4-66c9-4f41-92ee-87ccc9f...
20 years after the release of the original, LEGO Studios finally greenlit the sequel, and it looks like the whole crew is back together.
In this build I wanted to show off one of my favourite themes, LEGO Studios, specifically the subtheme "Monsters". With references to the old version, but also other themes and sub-themes, I wanted to honor the theme that is often overlooked.
The build shows the set of Vampire's crypt, behind wich you can find some workers setting up lights and a green screen. With the director and actors, the set is surrounded by camera rig, sound personnel, makeup artists and special effects supervisor that has a slight problem with the smoke machine. As you move along, on the other side you can find makeup and dressing part, since this is a smaller set. With costumes and set pieces of some other "movies", you can also find two actresses sharing a cup of coffe while the angry producer is staring at them.
I hope you like it :)
So I've been tagged every now and then over the past year and a half, but then Kodi posted his tag and tagged me and I thought, "Why not?" I will try to keep my facts a bit more brief this time around.
1. Welcome to my room! This is as relatively clean as it gets. Everything gets shoved to a corner and magically, there is indeed a floor under my feet!
2. As you can tell, I am very dark and brooding, hence why I have my wrist being attacked by Spider-Frog. I've had that frog since 2007, and he can still fit on my wrist!
3. I'm so dark and brooding in fact, that I cut my hair. Actually, the real reason was because I had not cut it in a year and 3 months or so, and I am about to begin another semester where I will be working with clay on the wheel. I don't have anything to tie my hair up with except for catching the back with my work apron which hangs on the out-most bedpost.
4. By my feet, you can see many of my work done on the wheel in spring. I've done it before, but I still prefer hand building. The glaze colors also suck from my current university. My community college had a better selection, and I still get some stuff glazed over there for free because it helps fill the kiln there so that no energy is wasted. They don't need my help at the university. But yeah, that's what I have to show by my feet.
5. Also, check out my feet! Well they one is hiding behind a leg and the other is being cropped off. I have 5 pairs of footwear: Dress Shoes, Nice Regular Shoes, another pair of the Regular Shoes used only for working in the art studios, so really, my normal shoes, a pair of Moccasins, and then Sandels that I hardly ever wear for anything.
6. Speaking of a bed. I have finally moved back to the lower bunk of my bed after probably 8 or so years. I used to sleep on a couch in the den for a few years, and then I moved to the top bunk of my bed and slept on a blanket laid on top of the plywood, and now I'm back to a real mattress.
7. One of my pillows has dinosaurs on the case because dinosaurs are awesome!
8. Is that something I should be proud of? I mean, I am 21, so...
9. Screw it, dinosaurs are awesome, I'll never grow up, you can't make me!
10. I guess that's why I still mess around with all of this LEGO stuff. I have three bookshelves in my room for display and storage, and all the books are from when I was a kid, and berried in the bottom shelves and shoved in the corner.
11. You can't see the corner though, and that's because I have 14 of my 43 bins blocking the way. It took a long time to sort all the pieces into their respective colors, but now I am sorting certain colors with more than 2 bins into type. Progress is slow.
12. That bin full of packing peanuts used to be full of random pieces though, so at least I have those pieces sorted and they have the potential to be used. I never went digging in the bin because I would always forget about it, and there was all that stuff on top of it. I had those pieces go unsorted for 13 years.
13. 13 years ago, I was given one family's collection of pieces from their 3 high school and college aged sons, and then I've also had a friend donate pieces, and then most recently, a bunch of stuff from my pastor's son's old collection consisting of late 90's and early 2000's sets still mostly in tact. And all of the donations were for the low, low price of FREE! It pays to let people know you like LEGO, and it also pays to just be nice because then they give you free stuff. Now if only I could get my other friends to give me there stuff.
14. This is primarily why I don't use Bricklink and think a lot of people that go crazy with it, I'm looking at you Aaron, are well, crazy. He had $30 to spend and he managed to cut a $300+ order down to the $30; insane. I tend to just build with what I already have because most of it, I still haven't even gotten around to using in MOCs. I do actualy have a Bricklink order in the works though, and it is mainly for pieces to replace the broken ones in my Star Wars collection, and the ones I keep stealing because they are going to be a lot easier to use when loose.
15. I will end my rambling, I think I failed in trying to keep things brief, but I tried to tie them all in to one another. The final fact is that I am actually running out of room for the Star Wars collection and it spilled over into my room now, and to be honest, with all the rehashes, the jacked up prices, and the randomness of some sets, mainly those battlepacks, as well as all the Episode VII sets looking very bland, I am actually losing interest in adding to my collection. I'd rather try to get some of the older ones I missed out on that have yet to be rehashed. My goal was never to collect every set, but a lot of the time now, I buy the set, and display, but never play. There are some I can't pass up on, but it is getting a bit ridiculous.
Sorry, I suck at these tagged things. Actually, I am writing more like I do on MOCpages. I probably wrote more than my first Tagged. That's why my descriptions of MOCs that are also on MOCpages have links for more details. I don't like flooding Flickr with too many images and then a bunch of detail on each image.
I have tagged people. Do with that what you will.
An update (sequel?) to a vignette I originally photographed in late 2015.
The setup for this shot was surprisingly needlessly complicated, as I ran into multiple issues with proper lighting. The scene was shot in a dimly-lit room, with red and yellow spotlights shining up against a dark red cloth behind the cemetery. I rigged up some wires and LEDs to create some hard blue highlights against the tombstones. The big problem was glare which kept ruining the zombie's face, so I had to constantly reposition my reflector disc for each shot just to achieve the best lighting, while keeping the background dark. Later in Lightroom I remixed the colors by emphasizing the orange background, and desaturating the blue highlights.
I started of shooting for a Transformers series. This is the first of the series, doing it the X-MEN sequel way - this is the last frame of the series. Post Transformers-II and Transformers-I will follow.
Day 74/365This is kind of a sequel to my recent image "Wish Upon a Star"
www.facebook.com/katelinkinneyphotography/photos/a.765210...
Also for some reason this image ended up making me think of Harry Potter when I saw the finished product lol
Should there ever be a sequel to the book "An Incredible Journey - The First Story", 2018 will be one of the chapters that will require a good few pages. It will be a defining year for First Aberdeen. Restructured during 2017, Aberdeen is now managed strategically from Glasgow and operationally the team is split between Aberdeen and Larbert. There is very little Aberdeen based staff now have direct control over.
One of the big challenges over the last decade has been the increasing pressure from Glasgow to restructure Aberdeen drivers pay and conditions which are considerably better than other First depots in Scotland and according to one former First Director, better than Lothian Buses too. Of course the Aberdeen employment market is radically different to other parts of Scotland where driver recruitment is much easier, largely down to competition from the oil and gas sector. Now the barrier of a local Aberdeen management team has been removed and the oil and gas sector has been laying off more than it recruits, Glasgow has seized the chance to push through a new contract. Only four drivers voted for the new conditions (one of which now admits he got confused and crossed the wrong box) in a decision that First Scotland MD Andrew Jarvis has described as "disappointing" and one driver described as "turkeys not voting for Christmas", First is pushing ahead with 12 weeks legal notice of change to the drivers conditions which is expected to start a protracted period of industrial action by driving staff. It is likely First Aberdeen drivers will withdraw from driving for up to two hours a day taking buses of the road between school times similar to the last dispute in 2009. That dispute was different as drivers were pushing for increased pay in conditions. This time they are simply refusing to accept a pay cut for longer working hours.
Around 20 First drivers have made it known they will leave the company if the changes are implemented as they stand in a move that will see the company lose many of its Platinum and hydrogen drivers while others have indicated they will take early retirement at the earliest opportunity. Anticipating this First have been actively recruiting new drivers, particularly as the new contracts will restrict the ability of driver to work significant overtime due to the longer driving hours taking shifts to the max of UK legislation.
For First management the change will vastly reduce the single biggest cost at Aberdeen depot enabling it to minimise the impact of service cuts as Aberdeen is forced to meet high targets set by First Bus for number of passengers per bus per hour designed to maximise profit to enable parent FirstGroup meet its challenging debt repayment commitments.
For the drivers they fear less time at home with their family due to longer shifts with more time, upaid, stuck in the City Centre without enough time to make it home. They also fear the financial impacts of reduced pay and less overtime as many drivers struggle to pay mortgage payments higher than drivers elsewhere in the UK.
For the passenger it seems likely bus travel will be disrupted off peak in the near future making students travelling to university and patients travelling to hospital and doctor appointments very difficult. It will also damage further the market for passengers travelling to shops, already in decline as the online market grows, Asda again expanded its online operation in Aberdeen by 20% last week as demand continues to grow. Longer term the passenger fears that a prospective service network change at the end of March will bring significant cuts to services to ARI, the Airport and night time links.
Recruitment analysts in Aberdeen also point to growing recruitment in the old and gas sectors as older workers take early retirement under the pressure of downsizing on their workload which could very well give First Aberdeen a perfect storm in late 2018 as the many ex oil and gas sector workers being employed as drivers quit to go back to the industry. As one worker put it a six week oil and gas contract can pay more than a year driving buses for First.
There are also health and safety fears being pushed by the Unite union over the risk of drivers becoming tired at the wheel.
37639 on the much neglected Platinum concept on Union Street at 10am in the morning with very few First buses to be seen. How many will still be running by the end of the year?
A sequel to something I did already for Prozac05 here (for friends only due to partial nudity). As with all sequels the producers try to reach a broader audience, (PG 13 instead of R by simply wearing a bra), increase the special effects (36 pictures instead of 9) and have a higher budget at hand (Canon EOS 30D instead of Konica Minolta Z2). However the production time was 9 month in both cases.
Explore it in large!
The sequel to this. For the Rogue-Fearr RFT.2, I was aiming for the body style of a Class 1(?) Buggy/Truggy and the relative "comforts" and overall design (NOT body style) of this.
No interesting backstory here, you'll have to come up with it yourselves or wait 'til I have the motivation :D
Sequel to the Undead Situation , The Undead Haze is Eloise J. Knapp' second novel.
This second opus takes us and Cyrus V. Sinclar, our favorite anti-hero, on a quest across zombie land... Check out my review of the book on Bricks of the Dead!
Many thanks to my buddy Pixel Fox for the Photoshop edits on this picture!
the sequel-- same ocean, different state. this time with him present:
She sends me pictures of the ocean in an envelope.
So there still is hope.
Yes, I can be healed.
There is someone looking for what I concealed in my secret drawer,
in my pockets deep,
you will find the reasons that I can't sleep
and you will still want me.
But will you still want me?
Well, I say come for the week.
You can sleep in my bed
And then pass through my life like a dream through my head.
bright.eyes
These are frame grabs from the video movie "Lisa Goes Dress Shopping". It didn't win any awards but it should have! If you want to see the sexier sequel "Lisa Tries On The Dress Inside The Dressing Room" you will have to private message me.
With the recent release of Tom Cruise’s movie, the sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick,” it got me thinking about the afternoon I spent with Kelly McGillis at her Brooklyn brownstone drinking lemonade. McGillis starred in the original “Top Gun” with Cruise. I was there to get her signature on her drawing for my “Autographs” project.
My “Autographs” project was something that I came up with and worked on during the 1980s and early 1990s. Basically I wanted to meet famous people and I did it for own enjoyment. What I would do is the drawing of the celebrity and then figure out how to get to them. Eventually I would get in contact with their secretary, assistant or manager and work through them. Some of the best people were the guys at the stage doors at Broadway shows. They loved my project and I would usually get to the star. Over the years I was able to get the autographs of President and Nancy Reagan (I just loved that my drawings were actually in the Oval Office), Al Hirschfeld, Liza Minnelli, Elizabeth Taylor, Malcom Forbes, Stephen Sondheim, Spike Lee, Mel Tormé, Paloma Picasso (I have a signed Picasso), Michael Jackson, Lucille Ball, Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Jeremy Irons, to name a few.
Kelly bought a brownstone in our Park Slope neighborhood. Right around the corner. I figured that she would be an easy one to get to since I saw her in the neighborhood all the time. She wasn’t an easy person to draw. In her film roles, at the time, she always looked different. I had go down to our video store and rent “Made in Heaven” to use as reference to do this drawing. I finished the drawing and went to return the video. Well who should I see walking right in front of me but Kelly with her, finding out later, assistant. In doing this project I never really wanted to talk to the celebrity on the street. I preferred talking to their people. But, she was there and I awkwardly went up to them. I nervously explained who I was and my project. They were kind of suspicious, but they gave me Kelly’s agent’s name and told me to contact him. I did. I sent a package of my signed drawings and my story. A couple of days later I got a phone call from Kelly’s assistant, Kristen. We set up a time for me to go over to her house. The meeting was great. Lemonade was served. They looked at my project and really enjoyed it. Kelly was really nice and said that I made her look too good. I told her that she always looks different in her film roles and it was hard to draw her. She seemed to like that.
When I told her that I worked for MAD Magazine she said something that I have heard that many celebrities have said, “I knew that I made it when I was in MAD Magazine!”
This celebrity meeting was quite nice.
You can see other "Autographs" drawings here: www.flickr.com/photos/leselect/albums/72157677401151292
DRD * The Arcade * Serenity Style * GEN-Neutral Event * Sequel
thecollectivemusingsofcat2.wordpress.com/2016/03/16/a-tou...
A sequel to 'Ten Frames.'
07/11/22 edit: Oops, I now count twelve frames (not counting unframed works). Oh, well...
Tualatin Beard's Framing
19200 SW Martinazzi Ave
Tualatin, OR 97062
This story is a direct sequel to this one: www.flickr.com/photos/strintfire/6207596882/in/photostream
Previously, it was... pretty unreadable, so I corrected it, now it should be better. My english is shit thom so you will help me, if you will point to some mistakes.
The Spectre slowly floated from behind of the cliff, winking with bright yellow eyes.
Commander raised his fist. "Stop."
The Spectre was graceful, majestic.
Spectres are occasionally seen in the different corners of the planet. Usually they were immovable distant figures disappearing into nowhere, if someone will try to get closer.
However, some people saw them close enough to distinguish several basic external features - a long cloak (presumably tissued), metal collar or breastplate and large, not always anthropomorphic helmet.
These observations have allowed to identify a few monuments, found in different parts of the world with the Spectres. Monuments represent an "armor" of Spectre, opened like a flower and interwoven in an intricate design. Cloak always tosses over the monument, like a flag. Has been suggested that it is dead Spectres, although it isn’t clear how they could be killed – because those monuments are indestructible, scientists failed either to budge nor to damage them.
In a further researches this material demonstrated the ability to absorb the entire spectrum of light at certain angles of observation, so for this Spectres was named.
Later the material itself was called “deusite” for the unfathomable propeties.
However, later scientists found out that the esper’s nerves are covered with a thin layer of deusite, which gives them their powers, however, if deusite somehow separated from the body of the esper, it instantly evaporates and desintegrates, so it did not allow further researches.
Spectre was three meters tall, in the dark-purple cloak, covered with golden ornaments, his breastplate and helmet lookes like a polished silver, and four of his round eyes softly glowed with golden shine.
He slowly and carefully, under the wary eye on the squad, work free a long shiny tentacle from under the cloak and... waved with a six-fingered palm in a welcoming gesture.
- Kira, what’s happening? – commander asked.
Spectre, gaze swept (no one could figure out how he did it, not even moving his eyes) the team and stopped at Kira.
Looked right into her eyes. It was inexplicable, how the four lamps can look in the eyes, but so it was.
- I don’t know. – Kira clearly said.
And then the time seems stopped for her.
A voice started to sound in her head. Soft and deep, it wasn’t heard with ears, but with the mind, it wasn’t poured into her head, but arisen from within it.
"The time has come."
These were not the words, but the antecessors of words, pure meaning, unencumbered with the standards of language. Kira’s mind itself built it in the voice and words.
"I am The One Who Watching, overseer of the White Monolith."
The image of a huge white stone ran along the border of Kira’s mind.
"We were watching your people. We watched you. "
Stream of thoughts and memories. Recognizable, like her own. Yet they were strangers. In these memories, she saw herself from a side.
"We saw your awakening."
Image of a scorched wasteland. Smoldering crater in the center of a huge crevice. Fragile white body curled up in the middle of it. Defenseless. Unique…
"We saw awakening of your people."
Thin radiant wave, covering the entire planet in a few seconds and closing at the other pole. Wave of pure energy, not clouded by laws of physics and common sense.
"It's time to learn the truth. And your purpose. "
Time dramatically returned to normal.
Spectre slowly turned his hand into a fist, leaving only one finger sticking.
He stretched out his hand and slowly ran his finger along the string, quietly hanging two meters away from him. String opened up with the movement of the finger, like a giant flower, and soon became a large rose-like vortex, glowing with soft yellow light.
Spectre gaze swept the squad and crooked his finger.
"Follow me."
Then he quickly bounced back and passed through the vortex, and instantly disappeared in it. String carried away a little bright spark.
Kira stepped to the vortex.
- Kira, respond! What is this light, what happened to the spectre? - Commander's voice sounded surprised.
Clips on the Kira’s helmet opened up, enabling the helmet to fall into the Kira’s hands. She turned to the squad, the wind blowed her hair like a red hurricane.
- Excuse me. I'll be back soon. - she said with a smile, and then, in three steps, she covered the distance to the vortex and jumped into it.
Portal quickly began to shrink.
- What the ... - said the Monk, took his sword and tried to block the portal, but vortex just huddled for a second around the sword, then uttered a melodious rang and finally shrunk, leaving the Monk with half of the blade in his hand.
The sun slowly rised over the valley.
Engraving is part of the Hippocrates aphorism, " What medicines will not cure, iron will cure"
Credits to the Arch and SPW.
Enjoy and don't forget to comment.