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In the Wake Of Humanity
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Black Widow
Apr 27 2012, 12:18 PM
Non-Registered Human
Group: Flatscan Mod
Posts: 362
Member No.: 402
Joined: 27-April 12
The wind was coming out of the East tonight and that would have mattered, once, if this had been a forest and Natasha a hunter and her prey something that would have been startled by the scent of her blowing towards it. She'd hunted like that once, just her and a deer and a moonlit snowscape, her freezing every time that the doe looked her way and inching closer when it wasn't, the wind in her face the entire time until she'd been able to leap and a knife-strike had stained the white snow crimson...
But Natasha Romanoff hunted different prey tonight. One that didn't care about what she smelled like or the direction of the wind and, besides, this high up all anyone could inhale was the fumes from the street below it felt like. New York air sometimes felt like being locked in a garage with a running car, but Natasha was used to it by now. And even if she hadn't been...well, she'd always been good at forgetting everything that wasn't the job.
By now, things as petty as mild discomfort faded into Natasha's background awareness. Lying on her stomach on a chilly rooftop may not have been the most glamorous spot she'd ever found herself in before, but it was familiar - stake-outs were a standard part of her work these days and she was as patient as a saint by this point in her life, for all that she was hardly a holy woman. It was a simple operation really, if the ease with which she'd wired the room three days prior had been anything to go by, and a small earpiece was hidden beneath the fall of her dark-red hair, black in the dark. These guys probably thought they were hard men, up and comers in the Koreans' territory, looking to shake up the fairly new gang domain with a big weapons deal that had been whispered about on the wire, but Natasha had seen a thousand of their type before. They were hardly worth her time...except someone working for the Triads had
it so. Apparently there was only room on this particular block for one group of thuggish, tattooed, organised criminals and the Chinese wanted it to be them.
By Natasha's count, there were the four Koreans she's been watching for the past week in the room now and that the dealers would match that, maybe add on an extra one or two pieces of muscle to be safe. That meant that at the time of the handover, at the time she'd want to strike and deliver them - men
weapons - to the Triad there'd probably be about ten men in the room for her to deal with.
Timing was the only point of real concern here if a message was going to be sent, if she was going to be sure to catch them all. Looking supremely unconcerned, Natasha snuck a look at her watch and then raised her compact viewfinder to her eyes once more where it was focussed on the window across and down from her vantage point. Yes, she was complacent but (for her) this was an almost insultingly easy job. She hadn't messed up something of this level since she'd been
. Some called her attitude arrogance. Others just called it knowing that you were
at your job.
Not long now
Apr 30 2012, 08:26 PM
Wade was currently peeing on a man.
Sure, when you look at it that, it seems like a completely pointless and slightly rude action. That was true, but Wade had a point behind it and he held little ill will towards the dozing guard and actually pitied the aches and pains he would get when he awoke. And the piss smell. Well, not really. Wade didn't have a super-sniffer like some other mutants he knew (cough, cough, Patch), and though he could zero in on food sources and dead bodies, Wade was not known for his sense of smell.
None of that explanation, however, is getting you any closer to knowing why Wade was peeing on a man. It started with his infiltration of the Korean Mafia-KGB whatever so he could get this damn contract out of the way and get paid. There was only a soon-to-be-dead man between him and tacos, and the world knows that you don't get between Deadpool and his food of choice. (
Especially tacos.
Of course, the only thing keeping Wade from being the absolute best in the business was the same thing that led him to hum the Mission Impossible theme song while rounding a blind corner and almost running into a guard. The full regalia of Deadpool was enough to surprise the guard into a stupor for a fraction of a second and in that moment, there was only one thing on Wade's mind.
Of course, to those playing at home, this means "What Would Deadpool Do?" Yeah, no. Wade knew exactly what he would do - so why ask that? No, no. This particular acronym meant only one thing.
What Would Dogpool Do?
And that's what Wade did. Immediately, Wade started growling at the guard, leaping with his arms spread out and biting him on the neck like he was some crazy person. Mostly because Deadpool
some crazy person. The guard freaked out, naturally, and forgot that there was a gun at his hip and instead started shoving and punching at Wade desperately. One particularly well-guided fist hit a sweet spot, leaving Deadpool curled up with his hands at his crotch and making noises that should belong to a litter of angry kittens rather a full grown man. (
Then, this shit was on. As soon as Wade recovered enough (a few seconds of whining), he wrestled the new-found gun from the guard's hands and whacked the man upside the head as quick as he could before shouting at him.
"This ain't preschool, kiddo. YOU DON'T PUNCH A MAN IN THE NADGERS."
He wasn't terribly happy at this point in time. You could shoot and stab and bruise Deadpool all you wanted, but if you remove his organs or electrocute him or hit him in the jewels? Fucking idiots. Didn't anyone have any class these days?
So, after Wade was a little less murderous, he continued with the WWDPD and pissed on the man. See? I explained things eventually. He was feeling a bit cocky now, with one man disarmed (and in a moment the guards outside the key room were disabled as well). In a typical Deadpool fashion, he paused, grinned, then pulled a Leroy. Literally.
Guns drawn and firing, Wade charged into the room with the Asian guys in it, screaming all the way.
He didn't care who the contract was, especially since the fleeting glimpse of Asianness hadn't given Wade enough time to pick out one particular face, so bang bang, he shot them all dead. It wasn't that easy, though. Two shots to one man, two and a graze to another. Both disabled, with the first dead in a minute or so and the second regrettably alive. A non-fatal hit for a third, giving that man time to pull a gun and fire a bullet through and through Deadpool's side. His body reacted to the pain, but Wade reacted to the lack of a dead guy, sending a shot through the man's skull.
"Oh, no you don't, Mister."
The last man standing shot at Wade as well, and in the close quarters, the Korean was successful in shattering a few ribs and putting a hole in his lung. The injuries were nothing new, so Wade simply shot two bullets in the lucky guy's chest while he was expecting the red and black suited hitman to fall. He'd readied his healing factor before charging into the room, so the wounds had already stopped seeping blood and were quietly reknitting their selves.
"And checkmate."
Wade was proud of himself, as per usual, and habit led him to reload the clips for his guns before holstering them and clutching at his side. Business before pain.
"Oh, that's gonna sting a little."
There was a noise from one of the men, and Wade went back to work, pulling out a katana and checking and then double-tapping the fools if necessary. He was humming and wondering if he could go rent Zombieland from the video store or something after he finished with playtime.
"Am I done here?"
Deadpool glanced about the room, nodding and pointing his sword at the dead guys as he did.
"Dead, dead, dead, dead. Yep. Hurricane Wade, out. Peace!"
With the last bit, he replaced the katana and pounded his chest with a hand before making some complicated gang symbol he saw on a TV show once before wincing at the sudden movement. His work here was done.
And now it was time to cough up blood. Yep, just a typical day.
Black Widow
May 1 2012, 04:50 AM
Non-Registered Human
Group: Flatscan Mod
Posts: 362
Member No.: 402
Joined: 27-April 12
Natasha...Natasha would like to very much state for the record and continued existence of her professional reputation that this was
her fault since her research around her mark had not revealed any other people to whom the hit was offered and she therefore had not planned for any outside interference from a 'professional' direction.
The other translation of her thought processes there was, more simply, is Natasha going to have to choke a bitch?
(The bitch is Wade. Just to be clear. Though there are of course plenty of Natasha-bitches out there, choked and unchoked as of yet.)
The problem with surveillance from outside a building's room and across a street from it was that you didn't get a view of the inside corridors. Natasha had kept track of the main exits and entrances out of a sense of general thoroughness, but nothing out of the ordinary attracted her attention and her primary focus had been on waiting for the dealers to show.
Looking back on this later, she would realise that someone had slipped past her web and that would
her off.
In the present though, her first sign that something was wrong came through her earpiece. It was a muffled noise - by both the secondhand nature of her admittedly high-tech recording gear and the fact that it didn't originate from the room in which her bugs were planted - but Natasha's ears were sharp, seemingly sharper than those belonging to the Koreans who continued to chatter in low, fretful voices between themselves. She pressed a hand to her earpiece, frowning and trying to block out the roar below of New York City at night.
It could have been a cat. It could have been a couple fighting a few rooms down. It could have been
. But Natasha Romanoff was what they called an official suspicious bitch and the fine skin between her eyebrows crinkled as she attempted to narrow down the possibilities.
The end of this particular chapter is that she didn't do it fast enough.
she hissed under her breath (really, it's too rude, don't google it) as she reached for her left bracelet, but it was already too late. She could see (and hear) the carnage being wreaked in that room, carnage she herself was not responsible for, and the red and black, the guns and the swords and the
, you couldn't be in the mercenary business and
know who that was.
Natasha would have said she was going to kill Wade Wilson, except she'd heard that was supposed to be impossible. Instead she had to settle for looking tightly unamused as she broken down her extremely temporary base of operations, swiftly and efficiently eradicating the signs of her presence here even as she heard her marks scream and die.
The most insulting part of people like the so-called Deadpool were everything that Natasha had been taught never to be - loud and ostentatious and
. Besides, his signature was extremely personalised (guns, katana, widespread mayhem) and the lack of professionalism made the woman snort in disgust even as she was a swift-moving shadow against the night sky, leaping and jumping and swinging her way across the rooftops until her feet touched down quietly on the roof of her original target.
Deadpool was a blight on the reputation of mercenaries everywhere...and yet, somehow,
he was good at what he did. It frustrated Natasha endlessly and...seriously? He'd
on a guy? Left
DNA evidence
at the site of a hit?
He'd never have survived the Red Room.
Natasha made a face and skirted the urine-soaked guard currently cluttering the floor, passed the other downed men as well. Her guns were a comforting familiar weight in her palms when she slid them out and, yes, this was already a loss, she knew that. But
needed to talk to Wilson about this because,
She paused. Took a breath. Swung around the damaged doorframe into the room, all braided red hair and sleek black material and guns trained on a man she'd heard they wouldn't succeed in killing, but hey it made her
better if she allowed herself to imagine shooting him. In spite of her speed and dynamic entry, though, her expression was cool and her tone almost conversation when she spoke.
Natasha said by way of greeting, automatically putting the window at her back.
"I believe you're poaching hits again."
May 9 2012, 08:53 AM
Yep, that was Deadpool. That annoying little bug that fell into your web and the fucked the placed up by tossing and turning and tearing the spindles of your barb-wire silk until he managed to destroy everything and cocooning himself in the process. Top that off with the fact that Wade was probably a stink bug and had super-exoskeleton and still wouldn't die. In any world or metaphor you can come up with, Wade was essentially the Leroy Jenkins of it. (
Reference for you people.
That being said, he was currently trapped in that one room, nursing at his injuries. Yeah, sure, Deadpool could heal fast, really fast, but there was a finesse to it. Lacerations? Cuts? Torn muscles? Easy peasy, lemon squeezie. The hole through his side was proving to be an annoyance to Wade (especially when he was being an idiot and poked his finger through) since even though the bullet was not stuck inside him, it had still torn through muscle and more importantly organs. Organs that were leaking and generally being messy. Gross. That was healing very slowly, and Wade could expect most of the damage to be fixed in five or so minutes.
The real issue, however, was the hole through his lung and the broken ribs. The bones were going to heal really,
slowly, and other than a shooting pain or two, Deadpool could handle it. Besides, shooting pains made him focus more. "Oh, hey, tacos, I could get tacos later, OW, oh, right, I'm still in trouble here." That kind of stuff. His lung was already reknitting and hopefully the bullet was residing somewhere nonlethal or else Wade was going to have to play doctor later, which was going to suck balls. The coughing was the real issue here. To a normal person, the coughing would be nominal, unimportant to the rest of the issues, but, damn it, it was affecting Deadpool's ability to ramble, and he couldn't have that.
Especially since a new player showed up to the game.
Wade, who was 98% talk and stupid, still had that 2% instinct that forced him to reach for his guns when the lady in black (and red hair) showed up. He relaxed when he saw it wasn't an Asian dude and began speaking, waving around his weapons as he did.
"Oh, hey, thereeee,"
Deadpool drew out his words, digging into the trash heap of his mind to identify the semi-familiar design of the obvious mercenary-friend-person.
Black Widow.
"Oh, yeah, thanks. Black Widow, right."
I never said Deadpool didn't cheat off of his parentheses, just that the parentheses never gave him useful information. It'd tell him what he forgot to TiVO, but not, you know, the combination to unlock a high security door. It was usually "C4", Deadpool had come to understand.
"Poaching hits? Me?"
Deadpool asked, semi-innocently, as he gestured with the barrels of his guns towards his chest and ended up coughing violently for his attempted drama. Were other people contracted for this hit? Wade didn't know. He could have tried to check, but all in all, Wade preferred spending that time watching The Real Housewives of Atlanta/Orange County or trying to call Nitro Circus to let him be featured on the show. No could do, apparently, but it was still time well spent. Coughing finished and DNA spread all over the crime scene via blood (not like that was really going to stand out), Wade went back to work. Talking, that is.
"Did you call dibs? Damn, I'm never invited to these meetings where dibs get called. Do you guys just not like me?"
He grinned, then made a pouty face under his mask.
Just shoot him now, please.
Black Widow
May 10 2012, 04:11 PM
Non-Registered Human
Group: Flatscan Mod
Posts: 362
Member No.: 402
Joined: 27-April 12
Natasha had wrists that looked as if too firm a gust of air would snap them, but there was an unerring, quiet steadiness to the angle of her arms as she levelled her guns at him. It was an uncharacteristically and directly aggressive move for her, but the Merc with a Mouth had a reputation and the only consistent thing about him was his inconsistency. He was unpredictable, dangerously so, and it seemed to Natasha that being
was the only thing that actually made him so excellent at his job when he was loud, talkative and about as discrete as a punch in the face, all traits that
have seen him in jail a long time ago.
And yet he was a famous name in their corner of the world, shadowed and criminal as it was. Natasha wasn't about to ignore that, especially not when he so obviously had the physical edge on her. She may have hated the garishness of his outfit (so much red...) when her own was matte and dark and anonymous, but even a blind man could have seen the body and the muscles that lurked beneath all the garish cloth.
For once, maybe her guns were necessary.
But it seemed, at least, that she was an infamous in her own way as he was. Natasha supposed she ought to be worried about being identifiable, but then Wilson
in the business and one could run in the circles that she did only so long without becoming notorious (when one was successful, anyway.) So she didn't deny her identity and merely arched an eyebrow at him, expression neutral and watchful all at once (you know,
the guns.)
she said coolly by way of confirmation. Codenames. She could do those.
"And you're Deadpool. Consider this our formal introduction."
Actually, as far as the average mercenaries went, drawn guns in a room full of dead bodies probably
what counted for a typical first meeting. Huh.
Natasha's stance stiffened when his guns moved, but...um, okay. He was pointing his gun at
. She didn't quite know what to think about that. If he'd looked even vaguely threatening towards her, she wouldn't have been afraid to shoot (please, it wasn't as if she could kill the guy) but his casual treatment of a weapon was both appalling and compelling all at once.
"Did you not see my post on the facebook group?"
she asked archly, but Natasha was already resisting the urge to sigh. In all honesty, if there were people out there placing multiple hits on the same people, this sort of thing was
Annoying, since she liked to see her jobs completed - failing was bad for one's reputation - but it wasn't as if she was exactly strapped for this cash. Being good meant you got to charge a lot.
She did actually sigh then and, making a decision, put her left gun back in her thigh holster. It slotted into place with a neat click and the other was merely lowered to hip-height, her stance less aggressive now for all that she hardly looked relaxed, or like an easy target.
"Try not to make a habit of stealing my kills, Deadpool,"
was what she told him in the end.
"I had these guys staked out for a week. And I get tetchy when my dates don't put out at the end of the night."
May 29 2012, 11:34 AM
Wade had a special kind of magic about him. Sure, this is the WoHverse, and magic is not allowed, but Hell, Wade had
. If it was not magic, it was a guardian angel (or devil, really), and if not that, then maybe Deadpool should go research how his luck was faring to see if he had some kind of quiet luck mutation. People had those, right? Though Deadpool having any kind of mutation that was
would definitely be a first. If anything, he needed something with explosions. Loud obnoxious explosions. Maybe firework type things that rained candy like C4 pi�ata. Candy and buckshot. (
Back to the magic.
) Oh, right. Deadpool had some kind of magic going on that allowed him to do incredibly stupid things and face very few consequences that he could not already deal with. That was the beauty of a stolen (borrowed?) healing factor. Wade was allowed to be stupid.
And this stupid allowed Wade to have four guns pointed at him. Two of his own. Two of Black Widow's. He supposed that he should probably point the guns
the woman pointing the business end of her weapons toward him, but Deadpool just nonchalantly ignored that fact. He did not put his guns away, though, instead letting his arms fall to his side in a relaxed position and gesturing with the barrel of the weapon in his left hand when needed. After he started to speak and began coughing violently, Wade took a second to concentrate intensely in hopes that his healing factor would work a little harder and reluctantly returned one gun to it's holster in favor of using that hand to hold his side.
Deadpool was not stupid. At least not in this particular sense. He knew that it was extremely risky for him to put away one of his weapons in the presence of another mercenary, but he also knew that holding the wound in his side shut would be a lot more helpful than moving about and tearing it open as he went. Besides, he was not about to be paid for killing Black Widow, and everyone and their brother knew that you could not kill Deadpool even if you tried.
�Pleasure's all mine, spider-lady.�
Wade began after he'd calmed his coughing down again, noting with a sense of satisfaction that the pain from coughing was getting less and less with each time. Deadpool's Healing Factor, for the win.
�There's a Facebook group?�
Wade threw a note of incredulity (bonus points awarded for spelling that word right the first time) into his voice, and he went back to pouting in jest.
�I bet you guys even have events and invite all the cool cats to the group.�
He made a hrmph-ing noise and did his best to glare at Black Widow from the other side of the white panels in his mask. Sometimes it was hard to be a masked merc. No good way of showing facial expressions.
�If you don't want me poaching, then you'd better damn well tell me so. Money is money, Widow-person.�
Failure. That name was a failure.
) Wade ignored the Parentheses for the time being. He was much more intent on healing than debating references with structures of the written language.
�And unless I know you called dibs, it's free game.�
Not that Deadpool played by the rules anyways. He was unpredictable � that was his entire game. But then Widow did the unexpected as well and put away one of her guns, which made Wade a little happier. He did not particularly want any more bullet holes in him today, thank you very much.
�Are we calling a truce? Hardly be fair for you to have to fight me out of prime. Still wouldn't be fair to you, just much less fun for me.�
Wade did not wait around for the answer, holstering his second gun and making a point to touch and straighten out his katanas in their sheaths as if to remind the Widow that he had more weapons than just high-speed projectiles. He was still a mercenary at the end of the day. An insane one. A loud and obnoxious one. But a dangerous one all and all.
�I don't think these guys would have been good dates anyway. They were really,
bad shots.�
So says the man with two bullets in him.
Deadpool continued ignoring the Parentheses, poking at the wound in his side to find that there was only surface tissue left reknitting now. He did the same for the wound in his chest, which was still healing but much farther along than before. Good. Soon he would have no bullet holes in him once again. That was a pleasant thing for Wade.
Black Widow
Jun 14 2012, 01:42 PM
Non-Registered Human
Group: Flatscan Mod
Posts: 362
Member No.: 402
Joined: 27-April 12
That made Natasha's eye want to twitch. Just a little. She'd thought she'd reached a point in her life where the words of others couldn't get to her, ice-cold operative that she'd made herself into, but there was something about the merc with a mouth mangling the name by which she was known in the underworld - a name that was meant to inspire
and represent competency and being the best at what she did - that got to her. That alone was enough to earn him her displeasure, even if her response was just to sigh internally and watch with coolly clinical eyes as he seemed to do his best impression of coughing up a lung.
Having heard of Deadpool's...approach to any and all missions, this was a definite possibility and, really, sometimes it wasn't fair the advantages that powered people had. Natasha avoided injury by being precise, by planning her hits and by working damn hard to not be in the place her opponents expected her to be when they were aiming a strike at her, all the while still attempting to get the job done. Wilson and his healing factor though...he could take hits that she as a human could not. Now, she didn't have any strict opinions regarding the whole pro- or anti-mutant stance in the political world right now, but she
object somewhat when she felt that powers made up for sloppy technique.
It was just the
of things, okay?
"In complete agreement with you on that one, Wilson,"
was her admittedly somewhat snippy reply in response to his discussion of the allocation of 'pleasure'. Natasha was never normally so easy to rile, but apparently she was having a bad day. (Having one's hits poached tended to do that to a person, in all honesty.)
The glare had little impact on her (mainly because she couldn't see it, but hey) and Natasha returned to looking infuriatingly unruffled and competent, sleek and well-presented in her appearance as she bent down to examine one of the dead men.
"Personally, the annual company picnic is my favourite,"
she said, almost absently as she allowed a bare hand to hover a scant few centimetres above the body, feeling the warmth still radiating from the fresh kill.
"And as for 'dibs', there are standards to be had, Wilson. My employers wanted this done
, with the minimum of mess left behind."
She looked pointedly around them at their surroundings.
"I'm assuming your client was not quite as fussy."
She stood up, skirting the ever-expanding pool of blood and other bodily fluids originating from the closest body - she may not have been finicky, but dousing one's self in viscera was never a smart move. Plus, you know,
"I don't see any point in trying to kill you,"
was her frank response, accompanied by an idle shrug of the shoulder.
"No one's paid me to take you out and you haven't insulted my mother. No motive whatsoever."
Her lip curled briefly as she looked around the room again.
going to clear up after yourself, aren't you?"
It wasn't any skin off her nose if he didn't, but...well, there were
. A certain way of doing things that people in their profession had. It would have been amusing, the way in which Natasha was looking a little like a scandalised minister's wife, except for all of the dead bodies of course.
Jul 1 2012, 10:22 AM
The twitch that represented the Black Widow�s dwindling patience was ignored, and instead Wade scratched at the newly knitted skin where his wounds had been. It was remarkable how damn
the healing process was. Pain was unimportant. Pain was a constant feeling when you were in this business, but the itchiness? Obnoxious. If Deadpool had been prone to pondering such things, he�d probably come to the realization that the feeling was from his body weaving tissues back together and such, but no. Wade was much more content to mentally complain.
At least until it was time to actually complain.
�See? You don�t even invite me to the company picnics.�
You�d probably put razor blades in the food.
�It�s a team of highly trained assassins. I don�t think they�d eat the food anyways. Poisons, yanno?�
Wade was completely distracted when the Widow went to examine a dead man, and Deadpool shifted his weight to his toes in order to crane and �examine� that fine piece of ass. Healing factors were the best buffers for being a perv. Ohmaigawd, she had a nice ass though. (
Down, boy.
) You shut up.
She looked back up at him, and Wade pointedly started rocking on his feet like he was bored and no, what, he hadn�t been looking at her ass, geez, what�s wrong with you. A large shrug indicated that Deadpool did not, in fact, give a fuck.
�Dead is dead. My clients don�t care, s�long as the contract is dead.�
He squinted on the other side of his mask, tapping his chin with one hand before pointing to one of the dead fellows.
�Pretty sure it was that guy.�
He jerked a thumb back toward another man, who looked pretty similar, to be honest.
�Could have been that guy.�
Who knew? Wade was about as subtle and precise as a shotgun blast, but it didn�t really matter if the contract was still dead at the end. Casualties were part of the job description.
With a flourish of drama, Wade clasped his hands together and tilted his head.
�Oh, thank you, Spider-lady, for deeming me unworthy to kill.�
Part of him was completely and totally pissed off at this fact. The pride bit. You know, the random bit of Deadpool that, when offended, overrides most of his �common sense� and makes him do stupid shit. Sure, whatever, she said she didn�t have any motive, but that was only a few word changes away from, �I don�t care�. Grinning, Wade made an entertaining decision that was probably going to ruin Black Widow�s day
even more
�Oh, I gots the cleanup covered.�
He reached into one of the random pouches on his person (and then another) and pulled out a few hand grenades. There was another grin on his face, half sadistic, half sarcastic, as his sense of pride allowed Wade to do complete, utter stupid.
�Hope you run fast,�
and that was all he said before pulling the pin on the explosives and tossing one to the front, two to the side, and running like hell toward the nearest window. Fantastic! He was going to get to do one of those exciting leaving explosion camera shots. The damn artists better give this credit, later.
Black Widow
Jul 7 2012, 08:36 AM
Non-Registered Human
Group: Flatscan Mod
Posts: 362
Member No.: 402
Joined: 27-April 12
Oh, the
She'd never met the infamous Deadpool before, but he was as famous in their field of work as she was. More so, actually, and she had no qualms about admitting that. It was as if he'd been around for longer than she had and was, rather obviously,
more flashy than she was. And noticeable. (Red and black, seriously? And
But he had a reputation for insanity, one that Natasha was only just experiencing for herself now, and he certainly wasn't doing anything to make lies out of what the Widow had heard about him. He was messy and dangerous, erratic and unpredictable and just down right chaotic until it actually came to the part of the madness that involved getting the job done.
he was deadly and effective, if more dramatic than Natasha was herself unless she was being paid to make a point.
Right now, though, he just sounded nuts. Mainly because a lot of what he said was not in response to words that
had spoken and, fucking hell, assassins with voices in their head. How had he not been caught yet?
she caught him staring at her ass, which earned him a narrow-eyed and warning look (on the job, she didn't take shit lightly, especially not from masked crazies who'd just poached her kill) before rolling her eyes and letting it go. Of course he'd looked because, a, she had an amazing ass thank you very much and, b, she'd heard rumours that he was some sort of cockroach mutant, namely one that would never die. So at least he didn't have to worry about her shooting him in the brain for perving on her when she was working.
of you to give them more bodies than they paid for,"
she said, voice dripping in sarcasm as she resisted the urge to facepalm.
"I'm sure they'll appreciate it."
Ugh, it was just so senseless and messy and poorly-organised, unlike Nat who liked to creep in and out and draw as little attention to the scene as possible. This was just evidence waiting to be discovered and, wait, what?
(Backtracking, this explained the earlier 'Oh the
she ran fast, but she didn't exactly enjoy it when an incipient explosion was close on her heels. The only real option she had left was the window Deadpool
used and so, spitting curses in Russian as she went, she fiddled furiously with the heavy bracelets wrapped around her wrist, pulling free the thin wire stored there and looping it through convenient notches at her belt line, even as she she jumped and dove and felt a shard of glass slice at a spot beneath her ear where she hadn't quite covered all of her face with her arm, and then she was tossing the loose rappelling end of the wire out in the same motion as she fell...
Aug 15 2012, 06:57 AM
A lot of things were going �wrong� at this moment.
For Deadpool, �wrong� was a term used by other people. He had no plans. He had very few preferences. Avoiding pain for the sake of avoiding pain was relatively pointless, and Wade could handle more of it than any person could imagine. It was only the sane who were limited by their bodies. Absolutely nothing could be done to him that changed the way he worked or thought, and no amount of pain could �break� someone who was already broken. He did not like getting hurt (most of the time), but it was only a minor inconvenience in the scheme of things. It was remarkable how people tended to try to put pieces back together - namely, those mortuary goofs. It was obnoxious, though, waking up on a slab. (�Slab�. He didn�t know the right term, but TV never lied, right?) One minute he�s getting torn in half, the next, his pieces are back together and he�s naked and cold and annoyed. Fucking scientists trying to solve problems. Solving problems AND taking away his weapons. It was a sad fate.
Anyways, back to the point. Things going wrong. Ahem, �wrong�.
The explosion was all sorts of right. It was perfect and wonderful and exactly what the sadistic Deadpool wanted.
, it sent shards of glass and bits of burning things pounding into Wade�s back and shoulders like annoying mosquitos. After the first few, the feeling was dismissed. He was long used to ignoring pain, and after the initial shock, it was more of an ambient thing. Wade would regret this later, but he had a feeling he was going to regret his other choices a lot more and a lot quicker.
Namely not having any sort of tow line. His imminent issue was the ground rushing up at him, and a quick inventory check reminded him that he neglected to pack his grappling hook, parachute, and/or Bat-cape. Fuck. This was not going to be pretty. In a few seconds, Wade made a point to kick in his healing factor then he went to his happy place, completely ignoring the ground flying up at him and the mental screaming of the Parentheses.
There would be no point in explaining everything that happened after this moment. It was fairly obvious. There was a reason Wade wore a red and black suit, and it wasn�t just because it was cool. (That was a contributing factor, though.) His body would heal on it�s own, give or take, but the suit masked the blood and it held all the appropriate bits together so that when the shit hit the metaphorical fan - or, more accurately, Deadpool�s human-strength body hit the non-metaphorical and very real road.
A indeterminate amount of time passed before Wade started �waking� up again. Technically, he had never been asleep, even with the massive brain/skull damage, but he had a stasis-mode, almost like a video game pause, that kicked in with a certain amount of damage. The first thing Wade did was cuss. Internally. Because he�s a god damn superhero, kids, and Superman doesn�t curse. Then, he and the Parentheses exchanged words, with Mr. P updating Wade on how much approximate time had passed because certainly the assassin didn�t know.
A quiet groan escaped before Wade�s usual mercenary immunity to pain and expressing pain kicked in and silenced him. Complaining was another story, but actually making noises was unprofessional, and God knew Wade had to be professional.
�That�s gonna bruise.�
He started to push himself up, pausing when he realized his arm was broken and that much weight wasn�t going to fly. Grumping internally, Wade rolled over, setting the bone in his arm and checking the other, tweaking his nose unceremoniously until the cartilage fixed itself in the right position and generally shifting body parts until they were in the normal position. The shattered skull would be slow to heal (well, �slow�), but Wade could take bullets to the brain and still run. Having a fracture in the bone did nothing to him, especially since the bleeding and soft tissue damage was mostly healed already.
Now, to check on the spider and see if her web worked right.
Black Widow
Aug 20 2012, 05:01 PM
Non-Registered Human
Group: Flatscan Mod
Posts: 362
Member No.: 402
Joined: 27-April 12
You didn't want to be facing an explosion, not as it happened.
Plus, heroes don't look at explosions.
Projectile glass, flames chasing down the path of least resistance through the oxygen in the air - you didn't want your vulnerable side turned towards that, the soft line of your jugular, the meat of your abdomen, your eyes, your mouth...
No, explosions and the human body in general didn't mix well. And
the person who had actually set off this particular blast, Natasha hurt and bled and healed just like any other human being. A mortal wound, for her, was just that -
. So an explosion like this?
It could hurt. It
hurt. And Natasha's job was to make sure that, in the face of that certainty, the damage wouldn't be too great.
She'd already thrown herself through a window. You only did that when you were desperate, what with doing so equating to risking gutting yourself on the jagged glass that you went soaring over. And, already, blood leaked from a gash in her hairline, only distinguishable in its presence because of how wet it felt, not through temperature since it was so freshly spilled from her body But that was the least of her concerns in the moments when her world slowed down, as if the time between heartbeats stretched on and on...
The explosion would come. And she needed to balance both not ending her life smashed into the concrete below from the fall and not baring the most delicate parts of herself to the gouts of glass and flame and shrapnel that the impending explosion would soon be spewing outwards... She twisted as she fell, knowing rather than feeling that her rappelling wire and its minute grappling hook had made contact with the ledge of the windowsill she had just thrown herself out of.
Because it was all about the math now, the calculations as to how much wire to let out so that her weight would catch, so that she would swing
the building below the window and the floor from which the explosion would erupt. Because down there, she would be safe. Well, safer. And what mattered now was that arc happening
Her weight caught on the wire - painfully, jarringly - and she started to swing inwards,
as the world seemed to turn to red and gold fire, impossibly loud and blindingly hot. Natasha ducked her head automatically, but she felt the heat
across the back of her neck, felt the moment when the hair coiled at the base of her skull caught alight, felt the burning stab of several fast-mocking, sharp,
things colliding with the meat of her shoulders.
It hurt. Oh, it
. But her face was protected, her throat and stomach and chest too, and if she was capable of feeling pain then she wasn't blown to bits. Always a good thing.
The noise was deafening, though, the percussive blast more than a little disorientating, and Natasha lost a few moments there. When next she blinked though, blinked and really
with her eyes, she was dangling flush against the wall - dizzy and bleeding and more than a little scorched, but conscious and fully capable of moving all of her limbs. Nothing was missing (nothing important anyway) and in spite of the almost deafening ringing in her ears Natasha, even as she hung there, Natasha was already casting around to assess the situation.
had prevented herself from hitting the ground, but Wilson...
He lay there, below here, looking dead or unconscious for all intents and purposes. But Natasha knew better. More than that, she knew three other separate things - that he was even
insane than the rumours said, that he could heal from wounds like the one sending blood pooling around his skull right now...
...and that she had no intention of being around when he woke up.
Laboriously, painfully, she pulled herself up the wire. Hand by hand, inch by inch. Her shoulders and the wounds there burned with the effort and the skin around her hairline felt scorched, scalded. But her muscles worked well enough and her wiry, desperate sort of strength, that had certainly not left her. She'd climb back up to the room from which the damn explosion had originated. She'd climb up higher than that afterwards. She'd be gone by the time Wilson even opened his eyes behind that stupid mask of his because she needed to get back to her apartment, back to where she had a suture kit and bandages and vodka, lots and lots of vodka.
But this was most definitely not the end with it. Wade had stolen her kill tonight. More than that, though, he'd injured her, assaulted her
. And at some point - when she was less hurt, less injured - he
pay for this.
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Botanicals; Herbalism; Medicinal Herbs
Cholesterol can be both good and bad, so it's important to learn what cholesterol is, how it affects your health and how to manage your blood cholesterol levels. Understanding the facts about cholesterol will help you take better care of your heart and live a healthier life, reducing your risk for heart attack and stroke.
Herbal Medicine refers to folk and traditional medicinal practice based on the use of plants and plant extracts for the treatment of medical conditions. The use of herbs to treat disease is almost universal among native peoples. A number of traditions have come to dominate the practise of herbal medicine in the west at the end of the twentieth century:- * The Western herbal tradition based on Greek, Roman and medieval sources, * The Ayurvedic tradition of India, * Chinese her...
Cholesterol as related to Herbal Medicine
- Cholesterol Natural Therapies: Garlic, Red Yeast Rice, …
Learn about alternative therapies to help control your cholesterol levels, including herbs, supplements, and dietary approaches.
- Forget Lipitor and other statin drugs - The top 7 natural ...
Natural remedies and cures help maintain normal levels of cholesterol without the need to take pharmaceutical drugs that produce dangerous side effects. Green tea ...
- Herbal Medicines & Cholesterol: Part 1 « Cholesterol ...
High cholesterol is at the root of many conditions, including heart disease. Michael Richman, MD, FACS is here to show you how to manage your cholesterol ...
- Lower cholesterol: Using Herbs as Medicinal Foods
High cholesterol is directly linked to diet and lifestyle, and as such, using herbs as medicinal foods should be a first line defense and treatment
- Lower High Cholesterol With Herbs and Supplements
Natural treatments to lower high cholesterol, including supplements such as artichoke, niacin, plant stanols/sterols, and more.
- Cholesterol Herbal | Cholesterol Herbal Remedies …
What are cholesterol herbals; how do cholesterol herb lower cholesterol, some cholesterol reducing herbs are Cinnamon, Red Yeast Rice, Fenugreek, etc.
- Can Herbal Remedies Help High Cholesterol? | LIVESTRONG.COM
Can Herbal Remedies Help High Cholesterol? Last Updated: Mar 20, 2014 | By Jessica Bruso. Aloe may be helpful for more than just treating sunburns.
- Alternative Medicine Solutions for High Cholesterol
Information about holistic treatment options for high cholesterol including home remedies, herbs, supplements, vitamins, diet and other alternative therapies.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
More information:More about Emancer
More Underground Reviews Current Updates Print article Rating explanation
Let's think - Norway - Metal - Black Metal. Correct! EMANCER play Black Metal of the fast and grim sort, no keyboards or overtly many melodies or many calmer or slower passages, mostly between fast and damn fast, with cold guitars, very grim vocals, somehow sounding pretty old-school, yet without sounding outdated.
The only thing that doesn't fully fit are the clean vocals of "Celebrate Perfection", which sound a little misplaced. The sound itself is brilliant, given the fact that it has been produced on their own PC, I know many regular studio-productions, which are clearly overshadowed by this one, respect!
Would be a miracle, if EMANCER could not find a label with this, because the potential absolutely is there, fans of old-Norwegian Black Metal should keep an ear open, sound-files can be found on the homepage.


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YOU cannot put an age on beauty, style and grace as model grandmother Betty Haste is proving.
Betty has been enjoying a new found career as a fashion model at the age of 62.
The mother of three and grandmother of nine, has been modelling for clothing brand isme since September last year.
Betty, a size 12-14 and five foot five inches tall, was chosen to represent the dynamic and attractive 60 plus generation.
So far she has modelled for three of isme's campaigns including the summer collection, the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics, and has others lined up for Autumn and Christmas.
Betty, who lives in Corringham, says: "I never thought in my life that I would become a model so it was a bit of a shock that it happened when I was in my sixties!
"I find it strange to think of myself as a model - I just think it is lovely to be able to represent women my age and show fashion is still for us!"
The retired nursery nurse was one of six women chosen for Isme's model competition.
Over the years Betty has seen a lot of upset and heartache when ten years ago she lost her mother and eight months later her husband Dave age of 52. Her father also passed away three years ago and Betty then made the difficult decision to move out of her London home to be near to her three daughters and grandchildren in Corringham.
"It has been hard to adjust to life but I am so lucky to have three wonderful and supportive daughters, and almost enough grandchildren to start a football team!
"Seven grandsons and two granddaughters who's ages range from Joe who is 20 years old, down to the two youngest 19 month old Frankie and 15 month old Lola. My family are extremely proud of my isme adventure, I think they like having a model as a mum."
Since modelling Betty has had a whole new insight into the world of fashion.
Betty says: "It is fantastic to be able to speak to the stylist on the shoot about what colours and styles suit me.
"I have discovered more about my personal style than in my whole life. In my forties I would just play it safe and try to blend into the background but now I like to stand out."
Betty believes women in their sixties can be bright and bold while still being stylish.
She says: "A lot of older women think they can't away with certain clothes but you can!
"I love to wear bright colours now, like purple and white and I know with Isme the clothes are made to look stylish and unique."
Now she is in the spotlight Betty likes to take time to keep herself looking good.
She says: "I'm still very busy running after my grandchildren and walking my son's dog so that keeps me active and healthy. Also, I even the odd facial now. My daughter treated me to one and I loved it so every now and then I'll treat myself to one."


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LOS ANGELES—Vivid Entertainment has announced that it will be producing Sister Wives XXX: A Porn Parody at the end of the November, directed by B. Skow.
The popular TLC reality TV series Sister Wives is about the relationship dynamics of a modern-day Utah-based polygamist family, including salesman-husband Kody Brown and his four wives—Meri, Janelle, Christine and the recently added Robyn.
To assist in casting the movie Vivid is holding an open casting call for adult performers who want to audition to play the role of Kody or any of his wives. Agents should contact producer Shylar Cobi at email@example.com.
"I'm a big fan of this show and I feel the possibilities for parody are practically endless," Skow said. "We'll have fun spoofing the characters and taking that extra behind-the-scenes step inside their bedrooms to understand their erotic sides."
Sister Wives has been a monster hit for TLC; its series finale this week drew 2.7 million viewers. The show hasn't been without controversy, though. Brown currently is under investigation in his home state for felony bigamy.


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Jerusalem Planning Over 5,000 New Arab Housing Units
Holy city's municipality planning new housing in four different Arab neighborhoods, says it is also destroying illegal structures
By Gil Ronen
First Publish: 11/18/2009, 7:52 PM
The Jerusalem Municipality is plowing ahead with plans for construction of more than 5,000 housing units in Arab neighborhoods. These include the following:
- A master plan for the Tel Adasa neighborhood in northern Jerusalem, where 2,000 new housing units are planned.
- A master plan for the Arab a-Sawahara area for a new housing compound with 2,500 units that is currently being prepared for discussion at the local council and district council levels.
- A master plan for the Dir el-Amud and Al-Muntar areas in Beit Safafa in southeastern Jerusalem, currently in advanced planning stages.
- A construction plan for 172 housing units and public buildings at the Jabal Mukabar neighborhood, which has completed the mandatory waiting period and will soon come up for additional discussion and approval in the district council.
The municipality noted that it is also destroying illegal structures in the Arab sector. Three buildings were demolished Wednesday: a structure, 90 square meters in size, that was built on public land in Isawiya; a structure in Wadi Hilwah, also built on public land, sized 32 square meters; and three temporary structures in Silwan that served as pens for sheep and horses. All of the structures were razed after courts ordered them to be torn down.
Mayor Nir Barkat noted that the Jerusalem Municipality is acting to meet the demands of both Jewish and Arab residents for new housing on a basis of equality.
Tags: Real Estate


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Off Roader Gets Auto Option
Isuzu's FTS 800 4x4 model is now available with an optional five speed Allison automatic transmission giving Australia's mining and emergency services workers access to a rugged 4x4 truck that is easier to operate for longer over difficult terrain. The Allison five speed is specially designed for use in medium to heavy duty trucks and will enhance the FTS 800's ease of use and reduce driver fatigue in demanding conditions. The transmission communicates and integrates with other systems in the truck via CANBUS technology, providing a seamless operation and smooth shift quality. A 'first-gear hold' function further enhances the model's off-road capability and assists when negotiating steep downhill stretches. As with other FTS 800 4x4 models, the automatic variant features a full-time four-wheel-drive system with a central differential lock. The FTS 800 4x4 Auto models have a GVM of 13.9 tonnes and are powered by Isuzu's EuroV compliant SiTEC Series III 235 engine which produces 176 kW of power at 2400 RPM and 706 Nm of torque between 1450 and 2400 rpm.


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Heart-Warming Moment of the Day: Mourners Applaud As Ed Koch's Coffin Is Carried Out to 'New York, New York'
Prepare to be heart-warmed.
A Who's Who of New York politicians and power players packed Temple Emanu-El on the Upper East Side this morning to bid farewell to Mayor Ed Koch. Among the eulogizers was Bill Clinton, who returned home early from a trip to Japan. "We miss you so much because we all know we are doing a lot better because you lived and served," Clinton said. Mayor Bloomberg alluded to Koch's famous campaign motto "How'm I doing?" when he described Koch "getting up to heaven, meeting God, and saying with a big smile, 'How'd I do?'"
The funeral ended on a particularly moving note. Koch's coffin was carried out of the temple to sustained applause and the organist's rendition of "New York, New York."


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Over the last few months we've seen and heard about the great talent that Joe Gibbs Racer Joey Logano has. Last year he took the Camping World Series East Championship and in May he won the inaugural Carolina 500 in the ARCA Series, all before his 18th birthday. In his third nationwide series start he took victory at the Kentucky Speedway becoming the youngest victory winner in any of NASCAR's three big series. Now there are plans that young Joey Logano will inherit Tony Stewart's vacant Sprint Cup seat next year. Which leaves me to wonder, is he ready for this big ride?
We've seen in the past how drivers that started racing in the Cup Series with very little seat time behind the wheel of a stock car have failed miserably. A notable example would include Casey Atwood who drove started driving in Sprint Cup with Ray Evernham at the young age of 19. After a ho-hum rookie season in 2001, he was moved over to a new ride that Evernham had teamed with Jim Smith, but the partnership dissolved and left Atwood with out a ride. Atwood has never found a new full time ride he still gets the occasional ride here or there.
A more current example would include Michael McDowell. McDowell finshed 2nd in the ARCA/Remax Championship last year and was tapped by Micheal Waltrip to drive his 00 car starting at the 6th race of the year in Martinsville. How was McDowell prepared for this big opportunity? He had one Nationwide start at Daytona. McDowell is now out of the 00 while hired gun Mike Skinner now tries to get the team back in the top 35 in points.
Even the new onslaught of open wheel drivers has had trouble getting adjusted to getting adjusted. Names like Dario Franchitti, Sam Hornish Jr, Patrick Carpentier and A.J. Allmendinger have all struggled getting adjusted to the Sprint Cup series and all have few starts in the Nationwide Series or the Truck Series. More starts would have helped them get used to handling these heavy beasts of a car.
So is Logano ready for prime time? Maybe. Being with an experienced team like Joe Gibbs Racing will help. All the other drivers listed in this little rant are not on the best of times. But certainly more track time could help and lets hope JGR has the horse sense to keep him in the Nationwide Series a little longer.
Too much, too soon?
By Johnq Smithy ,
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What do you wish for when you see a falling star? More specifically, what would you wish your life to be like if you absolutely, positively could not fail?
Life coach Martha Beck provides the inspiration for your answer in her new book, Steering by Starlight.
Her premise is that we're all meant to follow our North Star our own, unique path in life – but our struggles and setbacks often take us off course.
We've become distanced from our authentic selves. We're distracted by others expectations, our past wounds and the other baggage we drag around with us.
To tap into our destiny, Beck encourages us to become the stargazers of our own lives and reconnect with our deepest inner purpose. This will require a mental metamorphosis, a three-part process.
You are a natural mystic, she asserts, all humans are. But given our culture, it's likely that every time your being starts to assume the gentle curve of the mystic's soul, something else your peers, your parents, your own rational mind slices into you forcing you back to the rational shape you're 'supposed' to be.
Beck's first step is Dissolving, meaning clearing the metaphorical clouds and letting go of the thoughts and feelings that make you miserable no matter what our thoughts, if they obscure our sense of joy and purpose, they're always inaccurate.
As your Dissolving period ends, your Dreaming begins. This is the most magical part of the process, says Beck, and should be a time of active reflection and openness to flashes of insight. Your nighttime dreams will contribute to this not necessarily as literal interpretations of what your future holds. Instead, they'll begin to add information that will transform what appears to be chaos around and within you, into synchronicity. This will help you chart your path for the future and success.
Being Daring is the final stage, and can be likened to the butterfly emerging from the cocoon. It's now an entirely new creature, but one that still carries the core of what it once was and is. And this is you. You must seize the chance to make personal growth a part of your everyday life.
Beck has coached thousands of clients, and swears that her strategy works with persistence and confidence and that revealing your destiny is a done deal.
It's worked for us. Facing a daunting change in our life, we had the privilege to gaze at a dazzling canopy of stars from a rooftop worlds away from home. It was incredibly moving and reminded us of Beck's advice (her first book was Finding Your Own North Star). The fears fell away and our resolve to take the leap out of our comfort zone felt exhilarating.
We've never looked back – though we often look up.


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Report: Miami Dolphins sign Charles Grant
Defensive line help just keeps flowing into the Miami Dolphins' ever-evolving roster.
Tonight it's controversial former Saints defensive end Charles Grant who is reportedly headed to Miami. Grant, a ninth-year veteran, has signed a two-year deal that could be worth up to $4.5 million, according to NFL.com.
E-mails to Grant's agents seeking confirmation were not immediately returned. He was cut three years into a seven-year, $63 million contract with the Saints that paid him $20 million in guaranteed money.
Grant was cleared in May of an involuntary manslaughter charge in his home state of Georgia. That charge dated to a February 2008 incident in a Blakely, Ga., nightclub in which Grant was stabbed in the neck and a 23-year-old pregnant woman died.
Grant paid a $1,000 fine for public fighting. Grant also paid $20,000 to cover the cost of the investigation by the sheriff's office.
He still faces a likely civil suit from the family of Korynda Reed, the woman who was killed as an innocent bystander.
Grant, who turns 32 on Sept. 3, is apparently slated to stay at end even though he's moving from a 4-3 scheme to the Dolphins' 3-4 defense.The Saints, however, often used a three-man front, so the transition might not be as problematic for Grant, who has 47 career sacks and 16 forced fumbles.
Grant, a regular starter who suffered a season-ending triceps injury in Week 17 last season, missed the Saints' run to their first Super Bowl title and was released on March 5. He was selected by the Omaha Nighthawks of the United Football League but did not sign.
A first-round pick out of Georgia in 2002 — he was taken 25th overall with one of the three draft picks the Dolphins gave up for Ricky Williams — Grant had 5 1/2 sacks last year for the Saints, who added former Bears pass rusher Alex Brown this offseason.
Grant joins nose tackle Montavious Stanley and defensive end Marques Douglas as veterans who have signed with the Dolphins to replenish a unit depleted by the July 15 retirement of Jason Ferguson and the July 22 news that Phillip Merling, the projected starter at right defensive end, would miss the season with a torn Achilles' tendon.
Grant received a four-game suspension after a positive drug test in 2008. He has yet to serve that suspension because of a lawsuit filed by a pair of Vikings players against the makers of the supplement in question.
Once the Dolphins sign their top two draft picks, defensive end Jared Odrick and outside linebacker Koa Misi, and place Merling on injured reserve, they will still be one player over the 80-man limit for training camp. It's possible they will release one of their other defensive linemen.
For now, Grant joins a crowded group of options to start opposite Kendall Langford. Ikaika Alama-Francis, Ryan Baker, Lionel Dotson and Tony McDaniel also are in the mix at that spot.


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When Karyn Howard's father passed away in 2008, she was convinced that it would be one of the hardest things she'd ever have to deal with. Little did she know that a call from Bank of America a few days later was about to make the ordeal much, much worse.
"It was the absolute worst phone call of my life," she says. "The bank knew that there was a death and that he had no estate. The debt collector started screaming at me, saying she would call me every day until I paid the debt. And then over and over again, each time I told her to stop calling me, she kept screaming in a 'Friday the 13th' kind of voice: 'Every day, every day, every day!' I burst into tears and sobbed in front of a client."
Karyn's father owed money on a pickup truck he had purchased a few years prior. When he passed, Bank of America repossessed it. However, the truck's value wasn't enough to clear the balance in Karyn's father's name, so the bank sent debt collectors after his survivors.
"Apparently, they read his obituary, found my grandmother and called her. My grandmother sang like a canary, happy to have someone to talk to, and she gave them all kinds of information, including how to find me."
A collection agency working on behalf of Bank of America began calling Karyn continuously, both at home and at the vineyard where she worked as an events coordinator. Over the course of two months, the collector belittled Karyn, threatened her with lawsuits and insulted her late father. Though she begged the representative to stop, the calls only got more persistent. Finally, Karyn was forced to seek legal help. Her attorney had to send two letters threatening to sue for harassment before the calls stopped for good.
"Every phone call that that woman made was, in fact, illegal," says Ms. Howard. "I don't have hatred for many people, but I do truly believe that there is a special place in hell for that woman and for anyone who works for those companies."
Dying in Debt
The story of Karyn Howard's father is just one of many penned by the banking industry in recent years. As retirement savings shrink and Social Security vanishes, more and more elderly Americans have been forced to rack up debt that they'll take with them to their graves. A recent survey by CESI Debt Solutions discovered that nearly 40% of retirees have accumulated credit card debt that they know they can't pay off. Additionally, a study by the University of Michigan has revealed that people aged 55 and older now account for 20% of all the bankruptcies in the United States, which is 8% more than that group accounted for last year.
However, rather than making an attempt to dissuade people from dying while in a state of debt, some financial advisors are actually encouraging it. Since your debts can't be passed on to your heirs as long as the debts are in your name alone, many retirees are looking at their credit cards as a way to live out their remaining years in comfort on the creditor's dime. "Financial institutions haven't been perceived as the friendliest and many people blame them for the recession," says Neil Ellington, CESI executive vice president. "They think, 'Hey, I'm not going to pay back these guys who ripped off America."
Lenders, as you might guess, aren't keen on the elderly and the terminally ill turning their unsecured loans into a liability. As corporate banks have repeatedly shown, profit margins are the alpha and omega of the industry. So, in order to recoup what losses they can, they turn to debt collectors. According to the ACA, the leading lobby of the banking industry, the entire collection process is really just a service to ensure that the elderly continue to receive lines of credit. However, a brief look into the practices of these collection agencies reveals something far more sinister at play.
An Industry of Terror
Despite the banking industry's glowing testimony, collection agencies are little more than white-collar thugs for hire. As Tony Lloyd, a former manager for debt collector DCM Services LLC of Minneapolis told the Wall Street Journal, "The big selling point is that these collectors offer banks a cushion that shields them from actually having to do the gritty work of going after dead people's families." Their recovery strategies typically involve using condolences to coax money out of a grieving widow or anyone else that seems vulnerable.
Carole Brady Fleet, grief counselor and author of "Widows Wear Stilettos," knows the process all too well. She began receiving calls from collectors less than a month after her husband died. After expressing sympathy that her husband had passed, they told her that she was responsible for all of the debts in his name – including ones he had accumulated years before the marriage. They asked if she had any life insurance or other assets she could use to pay off his balances. When she said she didn't, they threatened to sue. "These are people who were trying to take advantage of someone who was at their most vulnerable in every physical and emotional sense," she says. "They were counting on that vulnerability to resolve their debt crisis, which is deplorable."
When their underhanded seduction techniques fail, collection agencies often resort to threats that go above and beyond their powers as defined by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Making derogatory phone calls – a nonstop barrage of them – is their favorite tactic, but they've also been known to "inform" their target's friends and co-workers about the debt. If the victim isn't humiliated into paying, the collectors will threaten wage garnishment or home liens. According to Fleet, some agencies even send letters on legal letterhead to trick the mourning survivors into believing they're being sued.
Worst of all, the incidents are far from isolated. According to court documents, Nordstrom, Citigroup, Wells Fargo & Co., J.P. Morgan Chase and Discover Financial Services have all been identified as clients of firms that collect dead people's debts. While many corporate spokesmen swear that their banks never pursue debt from family members who aren't obligated to pay it, the growing number of pending lawsuits against debt collection agencies and the banks they represent suggests otherwise.
Business is Booming
Collecting debt from the dead, as an industry, is growing. When you consider that many collection agencies stand to make 40-50% of their gathered debt in commission, it only makes sense. DCM Services LLC of Golden Valley, one of the largest collection agencies in the country, was one of many companies to expand their workforce last year. In their interviews, they tell prospective employees that they can expect two free breakfasts a week, flexible work hours, access to an exercise room, 15-minute massages at their desks and a $1,000 bonus after six months. All they ask in exchange is that these new executives collect at least $60,000 a month from a contact list that includes the family members of deceased debtors.
Another collection agency, CFS II, recently announced its intentions to expand nationwide. In a press release, the company praises the economic downturn for creating 10,000 new jobs in an industry that preys upon people whose lives were ruined by it.
And these companies are doing more than just expanding. They're also developing new schemes to make themselves that much more believable. These days, collection agencies know that the odds of fleecing a widow for the full amount of her husband's debt are low, so they come out of the gate offering a "compromise." Instead of covering his full balance, she can either give up his life insurance policy or pay $25 a month and then hand over their next tax return. After that, the collection agencies are willing to forget the whole thing ever happened.
How to Solve the Crisis
The government's efforts to curb deceptive and illegal debt collection practices have been self-defeating so far. Though the FTC has slapped million-dollar civic fines on a few egregiously unscrupulous collection agencies, they've yet to issue any sort of regulation preventing the harassment of mourning family members. In fact, this past summer the FTC declined to impose an amendment to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act that would prevent collectors from contacting the family members of deceased debtors for at least 45 days.
Fleet, who has turned counseling debt-hounded widows into a career, says that it's up to the family members of the deceased to assert their rights. Since collectors are not legally allowed to harass you, it only takes a certified letter threatening a lawsuit to get the vultures to stop circling. "Many times, banks and collection agencies count on the fact that you are too distressed to fight or argue," she says. "The last thing banks expect is an angry missive that asserts your rights and threatens to report them to both the Federal Trade Commission and to the media."
Debt collectors cross the line so frequently that it's actually possible to turn the harassment into a financial gain, as Craig Cunningham did. He went $100,000 into the red when the sub-prime mortgage industry collapsed and took his investments with it. Now he makes his living baiting debt collectors and suing them for the infractions. He keeps his debt alive to ensure that the collection agencies continue to call. Every time they threaten to put a lien on his house or call him outside the hours established by the FDCPA, he records it and submits the evidence and an accompanying lawsuit filing to a judge. Cunningham has collected more than $20,000 in settlements so far without ever enlisting the help of a lawyer.
While Cunningham's strategy is by no means common, it provides a glimmer of hope. The banking industry's habit of illegally harassing the family members of deceased debtors has barely been touched by the media, and it's been largely ignored by the government. For every Linda Long in the headlines, there are thousands of widows who fall for a collection agency's tricks and give up money that they desperately need to keep themselves out of debt. The banking industry is in total denial. It won't admit that its hounding is only perpetuating the problem, and it will continue to operate in blissful ignorance of the havoc it wreaks until someone speaks up.
It's time for America to stand up for itself. Anyone with a credit card in their name should be pushing for legislative reform to stop this illegal practice before it goes viral. At the very minimum, the "cool down" period that the FTC shrugged off should be imposed. In every state, not just some of them, collection agencies should be forced to inform the families of the deceased, before they ask them for contributions, that they aren't legally obligated to pay a debt. A verbal request to cease and desist should constitute a legal kill switch on collector calls.
These aren't meager requests. These are rights that the government is denying every American. The banking industry's agenda is apparently more important, and until we speak up and demand a change, things will only get worse.


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PTS property acquires and develops sites throughout the North West, with a focus on Warrington, where we can add value through refurbishment, redevelopment or in securing new tenants for vacant property.
We have no borrowings, owning all our assets outright. We do not need funding to secure any purchase so are able to make quick decisions. If we feel positive about a property we guarantee to follow it through, with completion most probably in two weeks.
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Late last year when some players from the new J.E.M. Iranian Jewish basketball league informed me they were playing in an official and organized basketball league in Beverly Hills, I thought they were joking. But to my pleasent surprise the league and its players are a reality and perhaps one of the few very productive organizations I have seen come to existance on behalf of local Iranian Jews in their 20's and 30's.
My article this week in the Jewish Journal not only explores these basketball games but also a unique trend of dating among young Iranian Jews that has arisen from the league. Our blog's podcast also chatted with some of the J.E.M.'s basketball players about their thoughts of the league.
The podcast can be heard: here
The following are some great images I captured of the J.E.M. basketball leagues championship game late last year:
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Giula Borio Sheds Her Shirt to Show Her Sexy Lingerie
January 17, 2014 | Playboy International Models, Giulia Borio | Post A Comment
One Playboy International model we can't get enough of is Giula Borio. This blonde minx rocks the line between sweet and sultry. Covered up in a shirt and pants, her blonde hair hangs over her shoulders and makes her look quiet – that sweet girl next door. But this babe is anything but!
Pulling off her top, she busts out with her sexy lacy lingerie. Her breastare practically spilling out of her top and thankfully she helps them. Freeing them big fake tits from the bra, Giula Borio runs her hands over her body – her creamy skin delighting her fingertips. Who needs clothes at all when you're one hot sex kitten like Giula Borio.
Enjoy more nude pics of Giula Borio inside the Playboy Cyberclub
Giulia Borio Bares All in a Wine Cellar
December 15, 2013 | Playboy International Models, Giulia Borio | 1 Comment
There is something stunning about Giulia Borio's face. The beautiful Playboy International model from Milan, Italy is gorgeous – there is no doubt about that. But the charms of her face are built on more than simple beauty. There is a look in her eyes and a delicious poutiness to her lips that make you just want to drink her in before kissing her endlessly.
Then there's that body – slender and curvy in all the right places, with phenomenal muscle tone that makes her look almost sculpted by a talented artist. Her long blonde hair shimmers with golden highlights and her pail skin is silken. Giulia Borio is a true living work of art.
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Giulia Borio Ditches Her Hoodie to Show Off Her Goodies
October 7, 2013 | Playboy International Models, Giulia Borio | 2 Comments
Giulia Borio is a hot and tempting Playboy International model hailing from Milano, Italy. This gorgeous blonde waif has the natural beauty of a girl next door, coupled with a true sensuality that takes your breath away. In the simplest of lingerie or an oversized shirt, her slender charms are mesmerizing and exquisite. When she bares her breasts and allows you to take in their full glory, you know those lovely tatas will be showing up in your dreams for weeks to come.
Giulia Borio doesn't attempt to make herself up in any special way. Her hair hangs free and easy around her face and her wavy locks follow their own way. This beautiful Playboy International Model believes in living her life like that – free, natural, and without reservation – going her own way in every way she can!
Giulia Borio Bio
Measurements: 36B-24-35
Height: 5′ 7″
Weight: 120 lbs
Birthdate: June 19, 1987
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A large number of fish from the Potomac River have been pulling a RuPaul and changing their sex.
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey pulled a bunch of male sea bass from the river and found they were producing eggs—something boy fish don't usually do. The culprits of the Victor/Victoria change: chemicals in the water that affect the lil' swimmers' hormone levels.
Oddly enough, this isn't the first time the fishy flipflop has befallen; intersex fish have popped up in Chesapeake Bay and off the San Diego coast.
The Potomac supplies drinking water to thousands of D.C.-area residents, who understandably fret that downing a glass of water might cause Johnny to change to Jenny. Water officials swear, however, that there's no cause for alarm.
"There is no indication that people should not drink the water," says Thomas Jacobus, general manager of the Washington Aqueduct. The fish were unavailable for comment.
Rightsizing should be a part of every replacement cycle's evaluation process.
PUBLIC WORKS Staff
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The successor to the C Series line is particularly well-suited for applications where...
In Nevada, where water is scarce and growth is at an all-time high, municipal and...
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An arrest was made in Phoenix on Monday for the murder of a New York-born Roman Catholic priest and beating of another reported the Associated Press. The elder, beaten priest administered the last rites to Reverend Kenneth Walker as he lay dying in the rectory of Mater Misericordiae (Mother of Mercy) Mission last Wednesday evening.
The 28-year-old murdered Catholic priest is one of eleven siblings, born in Upstate New York. Kenneth Walker heard his calling due to the "traditional Latin Mass" he attended in high school with his large family. According to CNN both the slain priest and the injured one are members of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, a small order founded in 1988 devoted to the renewal of the "traditional Latin Mass." Walker was ordained only two years ago.
Last week Father Joseph Terra, 56, called Phoenix police in what was originally a "burglary" that has now ended with a homicide arrest. The area around the Catholic Church has been described as "deserted and dangerous at night." Reports vary with an "unofficial" church statement that claimed there were more than "one armed burglars." However, police have only arrested a single individual in the homicide of Father Walker along with other charges, based upon "forensic evidence" from the priest's car. A 2003 green Mazda Tribute was stolen the night of the murder and later found abandoned.
Richard Walker was fatally shot and died at the hospital. Father Joseph Terra gave the dying Catholic priest his last rites after he was critically injured with an undisclosed weapon.
Father Richard Walker's devoutly Catholic family was comforted by the fact that the wounded priest was able to give him his last rites. Sasha Keys, Walker's stepsister, spoke on behalf of the murdered priest's clan.
For Catholics, receiving your last rites basically guarantees you're going to heaven. That's one of the biggest reasons we have to smile.
The injured Phoenix Catholic priest has since been moved out of ICU and is allegedly in "good spirits." A Requiem Mass for Father Richard Walker occurred Monday morning at Saint Catherine of Sienna Roman Catholic Church. His funeral will be held in his hometown of Maple Hill, Kansas.
Suggested Links
- What language did Jesus speak? Pope Francis and Netanyahu disagree
- Children's coloring activity that easily explains a Gospel story
- Satanic Mass cancelled at Harvard, continues at a Chinese restaurant
- Pope Francis ordained thirteen new priests on Mother's Day
- Vatican condemns kidnapping of missing Nigerian girls


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By Philip W. Sandstrom
Copyright 2005 Philip W. Sandstrom
Photography Copyright 2005 Julie Lemberger
Tonight at Danspace
Project at St. Mark's Church, Danspace Project presents "The Living
lives Not Among the Dead. Why Seek it There," with music by Bill
Cole, played live by the Untempored Ensemble, and dancing directed
by Douglas Dunn. I spoke to Cole and Dunn Friday at Pangea restaurant
in New York City.
W. Sandstrom: What's the impetus for this collaboration, the
third between you?
Bill: Actually,
I think it's the fourth. There's "Unrest," (created) at Bennington...
Douglas: ..."Rubble
Dance Long Island City," a film by and with Rudy Burkhart...
Bill: ...and
"Coca Moca."
Douglas: So this
is the fourth collaboration....
PWS: Okay, so
why this collaboration and why now?
Douglas: Good
Bill: I did this
(music) piece on my 65th birthday. I saw in this piece a lot of
shapes and forms; I saw a lot of things in it that would work well
in collaboration with dance. So, I sent a copy of the whole thing
to Douglas and couple of months later he wrote back saying, "Let's
try it."
Douglas: As for
why now, we've been thinking about this piece for a while, this
is a good moment in terms of schedule, we've enjoyed collaborating
before so why not again? When you find a collaborator that you like,
it's good to go back!
PWS: So the direction
of this project is music-driven starting out with Bill's score?
Douglas: Yes,
not only is it driven (by the music) but also because of the music
and the way Bill approached me about the music, I decided to try
something different. Because the piece is so rich, because there
are seven live musicians present, I felt Let's have a music concert
with some dance attendant to it, rather than a dance concert, or
a mutual concert, or the music being an accompaniment to the dance.
I wanted to see if I could create an environment together with Bill
where the music was the foreground and the dance was, not a background,
but a middle ground. In doing that we decided to put the musicians
onstage in the (north) eastern quadrant near the altar, and we're
going to dance on the altar and around them with the audience on
three sides. It's a kind of an arena, the musicians are right there
in the arena, and we (the dancers) are spread out. We're not focused
like we would be if we were on one end or if all the audience were
on one side. My idea is a playful open space with the musicians
as a central element.
PWS: So do you
have dancers doing different things in different areas of the stage,
while the musicians are playing in their area?
Douglas: Exactly.
Bill: There's
also going to be a narrator.
PWS: Why the
text, and why Chief Fela Sowande?
Bill: I originally
composed this piece with this text; it's taken from the epilogue
to "The Learning Process" a two-volume treatise by Fela Sowande.
There is so much music in the text itself, that's originally why
I did this piece of music, to use it with the text. The text guides
the work. I like the way the music and text fell together.
PWS: Are the
words of the text to be understood or does the voice, that performs
the text, serve primarily as an additional instrument?
Bill: The text
is part of the whole creation. You can listen to the words, watch
the dance, listen to the music, or all three at the same time. The
text is going to help the audience work through the piece.
Douglas: The
text is very clear. It occurs in discrete moments, short paragraphs,
it's sung, or spoken-sung, it's performed, it comes out of the music.
There is a strong dramatic element to the text; it has a great dynamic
range, and it becomes especially powerful near the end of the piece.
PWS: So, the
text was the basis for the original piece of music; do you use the
actual words, the meaning ofthe words, to influence your creation
of the dance?
Douglas: I have
tried to take in the entirety of the score. Instead of following
the music, I've tried to deal with characteristics of the score
and get these characteristics into the dance. It's not a linear
following of the music. Some of the themes (in the music), as mentioned
by Bill, are chaos and order, wilder vs. contained. I tried to include
these in various levels of the dance. In certain phrases of the
dance there are classical kinds of movement interrupted by wackier
kinds of movement and energy. I have not synchronized with the chaos
and calm of the music, but it's in the dancing in the individual
level and on a broader level.
PWS: So, what
we'll see is your dancing reacting to different parts of the score
but the movement and music are juxtaposed but not synchronized?
How else do you work with the music?
Douglas: Yes,
the score is implicit in the dance but not time-line explicit. I
listened to the music very carefully; I really wanted to connect
with it even in an oblique way. But there are other things that
we vary, for example the piece of music is in two parts; we're not
going to have an intermission but we're going to have a little break,
so I divided the dancing into two parts. One of the analogies I
made with the music is that this order/disorder concept in the music
could be analogous to movement and stillness. In the first half
the dancers have movement to do and positions in which to be still
and they have some choice as to how much of (each of) those two
things they are to do.
As part of the containment
aspect of the piece, that I feel in the music, in the first half
the dancers must stay in a specific part of the space -- they can't
go out of their territory. Within this containment, with the dancers
never connecting, never leaving their territory, after 35 minutes
you begin to feel a kind of pressure, the kind of pressure that
I feel in the music. This is another analogy that I'm trying to
translate into dance terms.
Then in the second half
I decided to make the whole dance flow: It goes downstage, they
return upstage, it goes down, it just flows. The four (other) dancers
do that while I'm the stuck one. I represent: Can we get down? Can
we flow? Can we move?
Whether the audience
sees these aspects behind the movement, that I see in the music,
is not important; they'll see that the dancers are contained in
the first half and flow in the second half. They'll pick up stuff
that they're not aware of that will give them a sense of having
been through an experience.
PWS: How is this
collaboration the same or different from your other collaborations
Bill: In the
other collaborations the dance came first; Douglas had an idea of
where he wanted the dance to go and he also had some ideas on how
the music should go. But in this collaboration the music was already
set, the words were already set, so the dancing is going to be around
the music. Neither the music nor the dance will be central -- I
see it as one creative effort. That's the key in collaboration using
different mediums.
Douglas: I don't
see it as a dance piece, I see it as a combination of all these
elements. I see the piece made for this type of space -- I can't
see it on a regular proscenium space. The audience will be in the
space on three sides. With the altar it's sort of a landscape with
performers on different levels.
PWS: Could you
explain the title, "The Living lives Not Among the Dead. Why Seek
it There"?
Bill: It's explained
in the text. It's about the chaos of the day, in human beings and
throughout the world. You don't want to live with the dead, you
want to live with the living.
PWS: (to Douglas)
How did you respond?
Douglas: I wasn't
literal; I responded to the idealism. I don't make grotesque dance,
I don't make comic dance, I try to make beautiful dance. You have
seven musicians, texture is very rich, and an overall sound, and
you still hear the individual. I want the audience to be forced
to see individuals doing complex phrases. I made very specific phrases,
that are tricky and complex for each dancer but we all learn them,
the phrases. So the audience has the chance to see the same thing
repeated in various ways at various times in various parts of the
space by different performers. Each phrase is a specific aesthetic
thing; I want them to be as beautiful as a plant or an animal.
PWS: "A phrase."
Okay, what's your definition of a phrase?
Douglas: A phrase
is a unit of movement that has some arc to it. For me it would be....
First of all it's a counted measure, then you put another measure
next to it, so on and so forth until you have a dance. There are
two levels, the detail -- the actual unit of movement -- and then
what it grows into. Phrasing has to do with musicality; some dancers
have it and some don't, some choreographers work with it and some
don't. I've always been very interested in musicality. You can't
remember movement if you don't have any music to dance unless you
understand the rhythm of the phrases. Many dancers that learn to
dance to music, if you take that music away, they can't dance. They
could learn to but it's just not a part of their training, because
they haven't learned to internalize the rhythm without the aid of
music. I mostly work without the rhythm of music; that's how I was
trained, to have my own rhythm without depending upon music for
a source of rhythm.
PWS: When you
get into the theater, what's the process? How are you going to go
about putting it together?
Douglas: They
play; we dance! What my interest is going to be is that we coordinate
the dance and the music. We've timed the dance with the music, and
if he goes too fast we'll run out of music.
PWS: How do you
coordinate with the music? Do you have landmarks in the music to
guide you to achieve the proper placement of dance to music?
Douglas: Landmarks
-- that's the word. We're just learning them. It's not so much that
we have to coordinate exactly with the music; we just want to end
at the same time.
Bill: My group
is an improvisational group, and all the musicians have worked with
dancers. I want them to be able to respond to the dancers. We collaborate
with the words and with the dancers.
PWS: So you've
given your musicians the freedom to react to what Douglas is doing
if they see a certain synergy happening. They can go with it?
Bill: Yes.
Douglas: But
the piece, the structure is pretty clear, right?
Bill: Oh absolutely.
Douglas: The
sections, the sections, that's going to stay, right?
Bill: Oh, absolutely,
no, no, I'm not going to play any tricks on you.
Philip W. Sandstrom is a theater consultant who has worked in
production and lighting design, management, and producing, as well
as a consulting editor for 2wice Magazine. Disclosure: Philip W.
Sandstrom and Laurie Uprichard, the executive director of Danspace
Project, have had a near-familial relationship for a number of years.
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