Forged in Fire (Yassen & Alex, gen, 3.3k)

While trying to escape a burning building, Alex encounters an injured Yassen and proves he is every bit his father’s son.

Tags: Fire, Trapped in a Burning Building, Whump, Parallels, truly so many Eagle Strike parallels

thedenimofrose:

DOCTOR WHO | 60th Anniversary Trailer (Titles Revealed!)

Why did this face come back? To say goodbye?

hera-the-wizard:

hera-the-wizard:

when observed, are you…

a wave?

a particle?

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oh my god you’re so right

tagged → #dune #agshdhfjf

capsizedskeleton:

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mr chimes’ lost and found is the best

tagged → #fallen london #q

wip:

Don’t miss a thing! New unread activity notifications

We’re making some changes to the activity view on web — starting with unread notifications that will be highlighted blue, as well as multi-colored labels to identify those who you’re closest with.

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Why are we doing this?

You may have previously noticed that some activity items were highlighted, and some weren’t. What you may not know is why this was, and you’re not alone.

The previous, light blue highlighting indicated items that were from people you follow. Obvious, right? Well, no, not really. There are design patterns in interfaces that have become standardized from widespread usage to mean a certain thing. Highlighting notifications light blue is one of those that have come to mean “unseen” or “unread.” Which is what it will now mean here, too.

How do I know which are from people I follow?

Good news! We now have colorful labels to identify activity from people you follow. On top of that, we’ve created a new label called “Mutuals” to show people you follow and who follow you back so that you can keep track of those closest to you.

Before and after

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  1. Before: Blue highlighting used to signify activity from people you follow.
  2. After: New highlight color now used on unread activity
  3. After: Colorful new labels to distinguish activity from people you follow (following) and who follow you back (mutuals).

More to come

This is the first of several improvements we are making to activity and notifications—so stay tuned for further updates as they come!

Feedback?

Why not let us know what you think in the replies? We’d love to hear from you.

ne m’oublie jamais

klausmikelsons:

Co-Authored with @icebluecyanide

Synopsis: When a strange man turns up at Elijah’s bar to watch him play, Elijah cannot help but be inexplicably drawn to him.

Read on ao3

A/N: While this largely ignores canon, the Hollow’s plotline will be explained later.

Chapter 1: déjà vu

The hairs on the back of Elijah’s neck stand on end halfway through his third song of the night. As if a shift happened in the air without anyone noticing. He takes a deep breath, only half focused on his piano now, attempting to understand the strange feeling that seems to have taken over him. He takes another breath, frowning now, as an urge to look towards the bar overcomes him. It is not the air that shifted, no. What Elijah feels is the unmistakable sense of someone’s gaze boring into him.

When he looks up, there’s a man standing at the bar, watching him play. 

It’s hardly a strange phenomenon. Elijah is usually the cause for some attention, what with him providing live music to the place. Still, there’s something about this man that is altogether new and at the same time feels so familiar. Elijah can’t help but feel like he knows the man, even though he’s sure he’s never met him before.

The man looks like he can’t be much older than in his late twenties and he wears a dark jacket over a dark-red dress shirt. His hair is a dark blonde, just long enough to curl. Elijah can’t see the colour from here, but he has the odd notion that if he were to come closer he’d find the man’s eyes to be blue like the Mediterranean sea.

It’s ridiculous, of course. He has never seen this man before in his life.

He’s still at the piano, his fingers continuing to find the keys even as his mind wanders. The man watches him from near the counter, silently. There are other people in the bar, but Elijah doesn’t spare them even a moment’s thought.

He remembers songs, suddenly, melodies that he’s never heard before but that seem to drift into his mind and remind him of this person. He plays them on the piano like he’s practiced them a thousand times, and the man at the bar never takes his eyes off of him.

Keep reading

15-lizards:

15-lizards:

15-lizards:

Fun hair stuff bc I’m sad ab what ASOIAF could have given us:

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Is this not a fancy Baratheon woman who can’t wear her hair down bc the wind at storms end won’t allow it

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Give the Dothraki cool beads and headwear to denote status!! Give them little additions to their culture!!

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Let the northern women cover their heads their ears are COLD George

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The Braavosi should wear shells and pearls bc they live by the sea god damnit

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Targ girl coded and Lannister maiden pilled

Fun hair stuff continued!

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The Dornish are absolutely gagged over intricate golden headdresses

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The ironborn lace their hair with metal rings, sometimes bc they paid the iron price for the metal and want to show it off (Asha) sometimes bc they’re metrosexuals who think it looks swag (Theon)

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I think slick bumps and loops are all the rage in Yi Ti. The higher the loop or bump, the higher the status. Also delicate pins and hair accessories made of precious stones and metals

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The Qartheen obviously like to show off their wealth, but I also think they took a page from Yi Ti’s book and kept the styles fancy but still sleek

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And the Tyroshi not only enjoy their crazy colors but also LIVE for extreme opulent wild hairstyles no I will not take any criticism

MORE!!!

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I think the Riverlanders love a braid crown bc they need to keep it clean in all the rain and mud. But they make it pretty with ribbons and the flowers that grow on the Trident, especially on their weddings

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The Summer Islanders def love color and adorning their hair, especially in all their ceremonies and celebrations. Feathers, flowers, ribbons, and especially wooden beads made from the Goldenheart trees

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Ladies in the vale love being extra so they def wear big headpieces and hats with long flowing veils. They also cover their hair bc the wind is not kind in the Eyrie.

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Okay so I think the westerlands and the reach have really similar styles bc women want to show off their pretty hair and their wealth so they do this half up half down business and decorate with pearls and fine fabrics. This is also what king’s landing looks like bc Margaery and Cersei are trendsetters

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The free folk don’t have many options, so they essentially always wear a fur hood of some kind bc live in permanent ice lands. But I do think they add ornamentation with bone beads and antlers and stuff like that

Young Yassen quotes (Eagle Strike/Snakehead)

I collected some of my favourite descriptions of a young Yassen from the Eagle Strike prologue and Ash’s stories in Snakehead and I thought I might share them here in case anyone is interested:

The other man was slim, fair-haired and twitching with nervous energy. He had chosen the name of Cossack. He was just nineteen years old. This was his first kill. (ES, p. 10)

The younger man was not afraid, but he was tense and excited. (ES, p. 12)

“Your dad wasn’t sent there alone. He was accompanied by a young assassin, one of the best who ever came out of Malagosto. I understand you met him. His name was Yassen Gregorovich.” (SH, p. 195)

Curiously, your dad was in charge of his training for a time. He told me the boy was a natural. It’s funny, isn’t it? In a way, the two of you and Yassen had a lot in common. (SH, p. 196)

I had nine men, and even though John was our target we were all carrying live ammunition - not blanks. Yassen might have been able to tell the difference. He was that smart. We were all wearing concealed body armour. John wouldn’t be aiming at us when we moved in but Yassen would. And we already knew he was a crack shot. (SH, p. 197)

As for Yassen, it was like some trick in a film. One minute he wasn’t there, the next he was, with John next to him. It was a ninja technique - how to move and stay invisible - and the irony was, it was probably your dad who’d taught him. (SH, pp. 199-200)

“He looked up just as a complete stranger shot him in the heart. Yassen didn’t do it quickly. I remember thinking that I’d never seen anyone so relaxed. (SH, p. 200)

“Yassen Gregorovich had plans of his own. He was halfway across the square, making for one of the side streets. But then suddenly he stopped, turned round and fired three times. The gun had a silencer; it hardly made any sound. And this time he wasn’t aiming for the chest. His bullets hit one of my men between the eyes, one in the side of the neck and one in the throat. Two of them died instantly. The third went down and didn’t move. (SH, p. 201)

“He was ten years younger than me. A Russian kid who’d got sucked into all this because his parents had died in an accident. And he’d beaten me. He’d taken out nearly half my team. I was going to be next. (SH, p. 203)

it’s kind of amazing to me how half-hearted the ‘modernising’ of the Alex Rider books in later editions is, like in Skeleton Key they changed the Gameboy into a Nintendo DS and the Rayman game into Super Mario, except then Horowitz made a pun with Rayman/radioactive rays and suddenly Alex is thinking about how Rayman is an appropriate game for a secret geiger counter despite only playing Super Mario so far

and in Eagle Strike Yassen’s “tape-recorder and a well-thumbed exercise book” gets changed to a “MacBook and a pile of CDs” except literally the next paragraph has Yassen turning off his tape recorder again lmao

like I get why maybe they want to update the technology/games to make the books less dated (tho personally i really enjoy the dated tech) but at least make sure you’re consistent/do it everywhere ahsldfhs