#one of those who died in WW1

[marietheran]

Fragment from Wind over the Sea by Geoffrey Bache Smith

    Only a grey sea, and a long grey shore,

    And the grey heavens brooding over them.

    Twilight of hopes and purposes forgot,

    Twilight of ceaseless eld, and when was youth?

    Is it not lonely here, beyond the years?

[kamiko1234]

Some people have normal hobbies, and then there's me crying over WW1 soldiers for the second day in a row on a random friday.

[mangled-by-disuse]

when over ten million soldiers (mostly teenagers and men in their early 20s) and at least as many civilians were being blown to pieces and their twitching, bloody bodies were being carried off the battlefield over a muddy morass made up mostly of dead men and horses

how many of them d'you think thought "hey, this sucks, but it's going to make a SICK lawn ornament"?

Don't think for a second, I'd forgotten about Poppy Watch.

Displays like these are outright disrespectful, and there's a whole new industry around producing these appalling silhouette cutouts that didn't exist when I was growing up.

[sunshine-tattoo]

some stuff about Alastor:

he was in his early 30s when he died in 1933

putting his birth year around 1900 or so

because of his age, there's a very good chance he fought in the WW1 trenches

hes black but had a mixed background and could potentially pass in white social circles

which was very useful since Louisiana is incredibly racist and segregation was very powerful then

he grew up speaking a mixture of English and French in New Orleans

gave himself a trans Atlantic accent at some point so he would be taken seriously

he had a very popular radio show host in New Orleans from the mid 20s to early 30s

also he was a serial killer

we don't know who he targeted as his victims (or why) but he did often eat them

my guess is rich white men who were paying slave wages during the Depression but that's just a theory

he was killed accidentally by a hunter who saw him in the swamp and thought he was a deer

which is why he has deer attributes in Hell

thought that the stock market crash in 1929 was really funny

probably because a lot of stupid rich white men lost everything

loves to cook and learned how from his mother

aro ace

Rosie the Cannibal Overlord is his very best friend

was a voodoo king when he was alive and brought those same skills and powers to Hell when he died

he is one of Viv's oldest characters, having first conceived of him during her high school days in the early 2010s

a lot of his aesthetic is based on Doctor Facilier from The Princess and the Frog

which is kinda funny that his voice actor (Keith David) now plays Husk on the show

[pinkiemachine]

Diana Prince and Steve Trevor

Okay, okay—yes—I am taking a lot of influence from the 2017 live action film, but I thought they did a pretty good job (minus the moustache. If you know, you know.) Anyway, I did make some changes. First off, Steve is British. There was a very distinct difference between the mindsets of the soldiers depending on which country they were from, and I’d prefer to explore WW1 through the eyes of a British soldier rather than American. I’m also still deciding whether or not to keep him a spy or to make him a pilot because, while at first glance at the movie, the idea of him being a spy sounds all cool, it really only serves one purpose and it’s at the beginning of the film and then him being a spy almost loses all meaning (except for that one scene at the party). I then thought that making him a pilot would be a better option because, hey, he crashes onto Themyscira in a plane, doesn’t he? And come on, you do need to be taught how to fly those things. Anyway, that aside, Steve’s personality: He’s a relatively stand-up bloke who just wants to go home and take care of his mum. It’s 1917, which means it’s been roughly three years since the War’s started. His dad’s already died in the service of his country. His older brother too. He can’t risk dying now, someone’s gotta come home to his mother and take care of her.

When his brother and father enlisted, they were all for serving. Everyone was. They were promised an easy war. A noble war. An opportunity to stand up to tyranny and let righteousness prevail. What they found instead was Hell. WW1 was unlike anything the world had yet seen—some of the things—the weapons—invented and used in this war are downright creative in their ruthlessness and twistedness. Steve’s done. He wants out. He’s not coming back.

Diana, on the other hand, still has not seen active combat. She’s battle ready and gung-ho to jump into the middle of this war… but Steve rebukes her. Their story is one about maturity and the nature of right and wrong. Is it right to fight? What’s the right way to fight? Is WW1 really justified when you look at how many men had to die? Just the nature of war, in general. A big topic, I know. But if you’re gonna write a WW1 story, write a WW1 story. And you know something, after reading about it all, the Wonder Woman movie seems downright PG by comparison.

Diana proves to Steve that there is still good in the world, while Steve teaches Diana to be wary of those who are not so good. Diana helps to bring a little joy back into Steve’s life after everything he’s been through, and Steve teaches Diana about some harsh realities of the 20th century. They balance each other out nicely.

[zachfoxx121]

Okay so I really really really like Russell Adler

Here are some of my favourite headcannons for him. (Featuring other cold war characters)

Alright so first up is his past!! Bro was born in 1937, between WW1 and WW2. He knows both German and Russian, so I like to think either his mom or dad (hell, maybe both) are immigrants from around those areas of Europe. To push that, his file doesn't say where he was born, just the date he was born. And a language is arguably easier learned if its in a household than in a book. Pronunciation and all that. Maybe his parents/one of them were Jewish too, and thats why they immigrated to the USA? It's also debatable if he was even born in the USA, since as I before mentioned, his birthplace isn't filed.

This headcannon is kinda borrowed, I cant remember who I original saw say it, but due to Adler's scar he has trouble/can't smile. It happened after 1968, but before 1981. When you ask him how he got his scar, he doesn't give a truthful answer, like Parks had said. "Oh I had trouble with a girl," "missed and fell," or "a tiger got me." My biggest guess, just from how it looks like a shrapnel wound, is its probably embarrassing. I like to think it was from a mine, maybe even a helicopter accident. But due to its position, it mightve damaged some facial muscles, and makes it hard to upturn a side/both sides of his lips. With scars, depending on how deep, nerve endings get fucked up and make it hard to move certain muscles, yknow?

This ones a bit silly, and has to do with Bell (I always play Bell as male, so sorry if I say "he" instead of "they" as their pronoun.) because I'm such a sucker for their relationship. Since Bell just kinda gets dumped on him, and their about the same build/height, I like to imagine he just dumps all his old/unwanted clothes into Bell's closet. In his file people he works with have described him as fashionable, and I don't know how good he gets paid, so he might go through clothes pretty fast to keep up with the times.

(Also for fem Bell, I imagine it's the same as this but with Park's old/unwanted clothes.)

Building on that, hes probably fashionable so wherever he is he doesn't seem out of place. With his scar it may be a bit difficult to blend in, but if he wears stylish enough clothes thats probably what grabs people attention more. "That guy had such a nice jacket," "did you see his shoes?" Even the difference between his '81 look and his new '91 do good to show his ability to keep up with fashion.

This headcannon is a bit more for Bell, but depending on which occupation you give them (CIA, MI6, ex-KGB) I like to imagine thats the accent they have post brainwash. With CIA, he has Adler's accent, and MI6 he copies Park's. With ex-KGB just a russian accent, which would probably be more realistic since it can be difficult to literally change an accent, but bro was experimented on so much it could have!!

I mention Adler in that because I like thinking of Bell saying a word and everyone being like "why'd they say it like Adler", because even in the USA theres so many accents!! Like even Mason and Woods have slightly different accents, especially if you think about the og voices in bo1.

This headcannon is a bit sad (and a big spoiler for the end of the "Good Ending"). After Adler shoots Bell, I think he stayed to make sure Bell was really dead. To make sure they bled out. In that though, I think he let Bell have one of his cigs, even smoked with him while he died. "Least I can do for you, kid." He didn't let Bell die alone. I really think it was hard for him to kill Bell, but he just had to shut the feeling down because it was (most likely) an order. Even though its probably more likely he shot Bell in the head, better than Arash did.

Anywho thats all I feel like typing out rn have fun with these some of them are constantly playing in my head!!!! :)))

[allastoredeer]

Do you have any headcanons about Alastor's participation in WW1? The Selective Service Act of 1917 made it mandatory for men aged 21-30 to register for military service and was later expanded to include men as young as 18, so if the stream saying that Alastor was late thirties to early forties when he died is still canon he'd have lived through that

So, I hadn't gotten to this part in my development of Alastor's backstory, but it got me thinking because, huh, how DID Alastor manage to get out of that?

Unless he just served in WW1. Which...I find oddly funny. I don't know why, but the the image of Alastor in the trenches...

But anyway, you got me curious so I looked into it. You're 100% right about the Selective Service Act of 1917 making it mandatory for men aged 21-30 to register for military service, and they even came up with different "classes" of the men who qualified, and if they exhausted one class, they'd go down to the next.

However, even with the Selective Service Act, there was still a lot of draft evasion going on. In fact, a significant amount of draft evasion happened in the South, which, as I'm sure you know, Louisiana is part of (some of it was in part of Southerners not having documentation, and thus, unable to even legally draft, which would probably give them a whole other slew of problems).

So, I was looking into how people evaded the draft. A lot of it is split up into different groups, like draft avoidance and draft resistance, with their only little list of things, but that's a lot and I don't wanna get into all of that. But my bet is on Alastor doing draft avoidance.

And there were actually quite a few interesting ones, like:

Claiming to have a mental or psychological problem (if you could find a doctor willing to certify that for you)

Student deferment, when someone is primarily in school to learn and study (or obtaining one in an effort to avoid the draft)

Deliberately failing the military intelligence tests

Professing sincere or religious ethical beliefs (join a church, avoid the draft!)

Bribery

and my personal favorite:

Being homosexual.

Because, as you know, the government can't allow the gay in the military!

And look, I'm a silly goober, so of course I immediately went to Alastor claiming to be homosexual. But the thing is, I kind of do think that is something Alastor would do for a majority of reasons.

In the 1920's, social values were evolving, and a lot of postwar "youths" began questioning traditional concepts of family, sexuality, and gender. There were "little Bohemia's" around the US, including in Manhattan and San Francisco, with communities and groups like this, and they weren't exactly unknown.

Back to Alastor, he lived in the French Quarter in New Orleans (or, at least, that's where I think he lived as a majority of mixed-raced Creole people lived there, which we know Alastor canonically is). And it just so happens, that it became the birth place of New Orleans gay community in the 1920's. There were entire gay neighborhoods, there were clubs where people dressed in the clothing of the opposite gender, they had parties and bars, and while it wasn't "the norm" to live this "lifestyle," and there was still a lot of harassment, it was still fairly normal to see. (Of course, then came what we can call the "gay panic" where government started cracking down on it, and claiming the gay community were all predators and pedophiles, and - well, you know. You know.)

But that was after/close to Alastor's death, so...

Anyway, I 100% believe that Alastor did take part and lived in communities like those. Names and labels for those things didn't exist at the time, so it's not like he knows what they're called, but homosexuals, cross-dressing, drag queens, they were normal to him. He's lived with them, partied with them, maybe even tried a few things out himself(so many headcanons, guys. So many).

This is to say, I think Alastor would 100% be comfortable claiming to be homosexual to avoid getting drafted. You've seen getting married for tax benefits, now consider becoming gay for draft evasion! I actually had a pretty fun talk about it with a friend in Discord, which only cemented it in my mind LMAO.

I have SO many headcanons around Alastor and him living in the French Quarter, in gay communities, where they challenged social norms (and we all know how he feels about challenging status quo's 😏)

But if not that, my runner up is that he totally bribed his way out of it. I don't know how he got the money, maybe he killed someone and stole their wallet, IDK, but bribery is a yes from me.

And if not THAT one, then he joined and church and claimed to have sincere religious and ethical beliefs 😇 🙏 (Yes, this is inspired by Nun Alastor, and no, I do not take constructive criticism. That's what happened guys, I was there). Besides, New Orleans was pretty Catholic, I'm sure he could find a church somewhere.

That's my take on it XD I think the one closest to Alastor's canon character would be bribery, but this is fandom, and if I say he claimed to be gay to get out of going to war, then goddammit he claimed to be gay to get out of going to war.

[historia-vitae-magistras]

i’d never even considered how the civil war would affect alfred during ww1, that’s a really interesting idea. would you mind expanding a bit more if you haven’t already?

fuck yes I can expand on that. TW for historic nastiness.

Okay to prelude— I don't typically do 1:1 state/gov to character but considering the cession of the south into a separate state and the US itself is the Union, my boy is in blue. In this blog's universe there is no schizophrenia or split personality or Doppelgänger or any other representation of the south. It gutted him and he lost feeling in a lot of his usual area and it severely weakened him but he represented the United States and that means union blue. And considering the north really doesn't have all that much moral leverage on the south especially in matters of racism, it's not much of a jump. If you aren't crazy about that, look away now.

So. Trench warfare. It's as old as humans bashing each other's heads in. Defensive ditches are an archaeological feature across the applicable world. But it's the American Civil War that might hold the gold medal for largest gap between how technology designed to kill had advanced spectacularly over any innovation that might save lives. I won't say deadliest because you do have the Taiping Rebellion around the same time but a lot of that was sièges and counter sieges and river based naval engagements. But anyway— rifled artillery and direct fire techniques had changed the game and soldiers were driven underground behind parapets and sandbags. Around Petersburg especially. And it's towards the end of the war when the Confederacy is increasingly desperate and hand to hand fighting is getting more common and more brutal. Entire regiments were lost in hand to hand mêlée. And if a soldier didn't die instantly, it was off to a field hospital. Guts ripped open by iron shells, lungs hanging from the tips of bayonets, wounds so infected they glowed, limbs hacked off by a surgeon who hadn't washed his hands in six days and sepsis rot so foul someone can taste it on the air even with the mouth closed. Malaria and typhoid so fucking bad the army cots would literally shake apart from how bad men shivered when the chills aspect of the fever cycle hit. I know it's fashionable right now especially on vintage fashion YouTube to say people in history weren't disgusting but like, I've been in archives for years. Yeah it fucken was. Never was medicine so far behind the ability to kill.

So Alfred's probably died a solid dozen times half of which from shitting himself because he's probably riddled with parasites. He's been shot, stabbed, slashed. Shaken, rattled and absolutely steam rolled. And the final part of his almighty trauma is this is happening just up the river from where he was born in Jamestown. Alfred is on his belly in the earth beneath the feet of the people that bore him and then rejected him, begging his Protestant God and any of his own people listening and the very earth itself to protect him, to keep him alive as shell after shell lands around him.

When every battle is over, the dead rot in piles across the fields and trenches. The famous photos of the Antietam and Gettysburg dead are days old, you can see some of the bodies had been looted. There were so many dead and so many dying that upon its tardy entrance into world war one, the US had a more coherent body management and disposal program than any other of the entente powers. Who had already been at war for nearly four years.

So yeah, in my opinion he got ten steps into a front line trench where the British and especially the French were just causally walking on bodies, he vomited so hard New York felt California rattling around in there and said fuck it. My boy was either off to cleaner pastures like Belleau Wood or the air corps. It was too much too soon and he just couldn't keep it together in those conditions. They knew what bacteria were by WW1 and he was a burgeoning world power. So he probably only went full himbo with dysentery twice in France so it wasn't as bad as his civil war flop era but oof. That smell, the screams, pressing himself into soil that is not his own yet again is too recent and too vulnerable. He can't do it again so soon.

[void-occupation]

hi! I'm trying to get other peoples opinion on this-

what do you think alastors human life was like?

sorry it took me so long to answer this one, I've been busy lol

are we talking about what I think for canon, or the headcanon backstory that exists purely for angst? Because those are two veeery different answers lol. I'll just answer the canon opinion, and maybe do another part about my headcanon if anyone's interested

As far as I know, it's been confirmed that Alastor's mother was colored, and at least hinted that she practiced voodoo. I think that his father is also confirmed to be white, and I know we're all pretty sure by now that he was abusive. We know Alastor likely became a radio host, and was a serial killer (obviously lol) who hung around Mimzy frequently enough. For simplicity's sake, I'll say that Alastor was born in the year 1900, making him 33 when he died

Now, for the speculation. I feel like his parents only married when his mother got pregnant, which resulted in her being outcasted from the Vodun community. I believe she still would have taught her beliefs to Alastor, which probably angered his father, who was most likely Catholic based on the most popular religions in the area at the time. I don't know if it would be ore likely that Alastor's father killed his mother and Alastor killed him because of it, or if Alastor killed his father because of the abuse and lived with his mother until she died of illness. Either way, his father ends up out of the picture. For this, I'll say that his mother lived.

Something I don't usually see people take into account is that the US got officially involved in WW1 in 1917, and started drafting 18yo boys in 1918 - ironically enough when Alastor was 18. The law that prevents "the only surviving son" from being drafted wasn't even thought of until 1964, so Alastor wouldn't have been spared from the draft. I believe draft contracts were about 2 years long, so unless he was injured, Alastor would have spent about that much time in combat. He likely had PTSD from that, but they didn't know what that was at the time, so it would have gone untreated.

He gets home when he's 20ish, and eventually becomes a radio host, befriending Mimzy in the process, but he struggles when he comes home. Nothing seems to alleviate the awful feeling building in him since he came back, and then his mother dies. He snaps. Based on that pre-canon comic, Alastor typically targets predators/abusers ("I do hate those who can't show a little more respect towards those of fairer means"), which makes it pretty ironic (or purposeful) that his name literally means "Avenger".

He hears a woman screaming late at night on his way home, and sees a man cornering her in an alley. Maybe the screams remind him of his mother, or the things he saw overseas, or maybe he's just angry, but he picks something up and bludgeons the man to death. Later, he can't stop thinking about how good it felt to end such a miserable creature, so he does it again. And again. Until eventually, he's killed dozens of men just like his father, and he's reporting his own murders on a news broadcast for the police.

I like to think he didn't practice cannibalism until he got to hell. But if he did practice while alive, it probably would have been during the Great Depression. Times have gotten hard, and while he still has his job, money is tight, and it would be so much easier if he just took a cut or two from the man he just murdered.

However, he still has to dispose of the less edible bits (clothes, hair, bones, etc), and he does so in the bayou behind his house. One day though, there was a hunter who for some reason thought he was a deer. Barking Alerts Alastor of his presence, and he takes off, dogs close behind and baying loudly. Then a gunshot cracks through the air, and Alastor feels a split second pain in his head before collapsing to the ground. The bullet somehow didn't kill him, but it did paralyze him, so there's nothing Alastor can do to fight when the dogs eventually begin tearing into him. In the end, it was the blood loss that killed him as he was mauled, and it seemed like an eternity before he finally succumbed to that. (this is what breeds Alastor's severe dislike (read: fear) of dogs

this is pretty rough, but I figured I'd probably better just get it all out at once lol. Let me know what you think!!

[rolley-polley-pillbug]

Hi guys! I'm doing hasbin hotel full personality/charecter/storyish redesigns. So to start here's Sir Pentious.

So here's the first redesign. Chester pentious was a British fighter pilot in ww1 who died some time in the 1920s. For his redesign I wanted to lean more into the pilot aspect which didn't really get mentioned much in the show. In my opinion when designing these charecters they didn't actually put much thought into it. Not that they're not visually pleasing but it seems like they didn't do all that much research before the design. For example with sir pentious they were obviously going for an old-time steam punk look. But they didn't actually pick out a set time that he's from. They just hint at him being from the 1900s. (I assume.) So I looked up older pilot uniforms from that time period and gave it to him. I also made him a flying snake for obvious reasons. For the angel design I kept the uniform but heightened the quality of it. The jacket made of some more expensive material (silk or satin?) Instead of the usual tweed, his scarf has more knots tied indicating better quality, rings on his fingers...things like that. I also gave him wings. At first I thought about giving him bird wings but my sister recommended wings that resembled one of those older flying ships. I also dulles down his teeth and gave him lots of heart shaped things. One funny bit I did was removing his evil goatee when he becomes an angel.

[satisaranea]

𝐇𝐀𝐘𝐌𝐈𝐓𝐂𝐇 𝐀𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐘: 𝐀𝐍 𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐆𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐀 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐍 𝐖𝐀𝐑

now that sotr's coming up (and you know that i don't care about it,) i thought it'd be as good of time as any to talk about my analysis of haymitch's character from the standpoint of a WW1 buff + understander of what he went through in his own experiences that pairs with the similarities of soldiers from a time so long ago. so here you go, haymitch and the way he fights his own war, even after the games. i compared him to a soldier from ww1 due to the close resemblances and the later treatment of them, rather than any other wars.

𝐏𝐓𝐒𝐃 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐔𝐌𝐀

haymitch is affected by a mixture of repeated traumas; the event of the 50th annual hunger games/second quarter quell, it's aftermath and the loss of his mother, brother and girlfriend, and the rise to mentoring 48 tributes in the 25 years of compulsory and consecutive time as a mentor. he bares witness to the degradation of man through the juxtaposingly beautiful arena, which comes to be splattered with gore and mass murder. where others gawk at his beauty, haymitch fends for himself and even manages to take out 2 careers before meeting maysilee donner, one of the 4 total tributes from 12.

their allyship is ‘hard to break,’ defined by katniss in her narration and the two attempt to find a conclusion to the games (‘maybe there's something we can use,’) referring to perhaps a major weapon at the end of the arena if not a clue. when maysilee breaks off the alliance during the final 8, she does this out of sparing the two the pain of killing each other. when she dies suddenly after departure, he's there to hold her hand until death and is likely stricken with that first wave of grief.

his then battle between district 1 career girl and himself leads him to aquire a major injury; near disembowelmemt as he is forced to hold in his intestines, ‘stumbling’ through the forest where hitherto, he had been on the edge of when finding the arena's forcefield. he uses this to his advantage to then kill her with her own axe, which he dodges and it files overhead the cliff and back into her head. this entire interaction and battle sets the tone for what will come post-games, the slaughter of haymitch's family for showing up the capitol in such a public and prominent way.

however way they die, snow's murder of his family is an example; an experiment to later bring up to the future generations of victors after haymitch, and to hold over his head for the rest of his life.

the hunger games, mockingjay

𝐄𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓

we cannot say for sure if this combination of events is what leads haymitch into a spiral towards the alcoholism we know binds him in the main trilogy, but it is an impactful enough experience to contribute. haymitch goes on to mentor 48 tributes (the same number of tributes that fought in the 50th games,) who all die to our knowledge minus katniss and peeta, the winners of the 74th hunger games, 24 years after his intial win. with 46 deaths to shoulder as a mentor, haymitch is in constant grief of his losses, and is consistently humiliated by his inability to bring any children home to his district due to several factors: the squalor and impoverished nature of 12, the starvation undergone by children of all ages, including those legible for the reaping, and the helpless of a mentor's role. if their tributes aren't deemed attractive by sponsors, then they are already fighting a losing battle.

with years of these failures, it can be assumed that haymitch eventually stops putting effort into his mentoring, accepting the imminent realization that all his children are to die.

the hunger games

𝐀𝐃𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

haymitch's alcoholism is one of the centerpieces first viewed within his character, with its toil harsh on his body and mind. (see: all descriptions of haymitch throughout the trilogy) he remains solitary, confined to his suffering and refusatory to any help unless forced upon him (see: employing hazelle.) he lives in equal squalor like the people in his district despite his riches, with his life centric to the bottle and blotting out his world with drink, yet having the funds to have a better upkeep and is unable to due to the purgatory he forces himself into at the hands of his losses and overall, his sins within the hunger games.

the hunger games, catching fire

𝐇𝐀𝐘𝐌𝐈𝐓𝐂𝐇 & 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐋𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐍 𝐖𝐖𝟏

in the 10th anniversary interview with suzanne collins (included in the hunger games special edition,) collins mentions haymitch suffering through a war.

it is both physical and spiritual, with the second quarter quell being damaging enough in nature to gain the description of a war. he is compromised from healing because that war only spreads in other areas, and he is forced to battle endlessly between himself, his PTSD and his addiction.

haymitch's ways of coping (sleeping with a knife, being then provoked into immediate fight rather than flight in waking, sleeping with the light on, becoming solitary and shutting out any other people,) are reminiscent to men after the great war.

men were seen as cannon fodder, and after the horrors experienced, would come home disabled from wounds or reeling from shell-shock. this led to violent outbursts, reoccurring incidents with those they loved (say, soldiers being locked in a survival mindset and being easy to trigger/easy to induce into a mindset that made them feel like as if they were still in the trenches,) along with ostracisation from society when they realized the severity of the men's wounds, both physically and mentally. within war, the level of alcoholism skyrocketed in and out of battle, to combat the horrors pit against them in a falsely patriotic hell. coming home, these men would turn to vices to numb themselves of what they had seen, which would amalgamate them into tortured victims of withdrawal, violence, anger and waste. the devastation of shelling, barrages, explosions were events so cataclysmic it didn't just injure the men physically; it was so deeply psychological to the point where shell-shock could easily skewer the mind's thoughts.

haymitch himself didn't fight in what we define a war — more of a killing game remincent to those in colosseums; had for entertainment rather than for good of land and people (with the games originally being a way of penance for the dark days and rebellion from the district.) however, his rebound from the events of the games were so significant that it aligns with historical definitions and examples of PTSD.

he lives in an agony so poignantl that self-medication is the only way out of his memory, and without it, he's hallucinatory; screaming at the things he tries to escape.

𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍

all this to say that suzanne collins sets up haymitch's character in a way that serves relatablity to historical struggles — and defines him as an allegory of this through his own unique, tumultuous way of coping and dealing. his trauma is such a devastation to him that it actively prohibts him from any betterment, which is only reinforced by his ceaseless mentoring.

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

not really enjoying tumblrs trend of comparing Thomas Andrews to Stockton Rush 😒Could you share how the two differ despite the fact they died by their own creations?

ive been trying to figure out how to tackle this ask for a few days now because theres so much to disentangle, but disentangle i will.

see, this comparison relies on common misinformation and misconceptions about titanic. its a ship thats been romanticised and mythologised for decades, and every portrayal of it from william randolph hearts yellow newspaper coverage to robin gardiners conspiracy theory to jim camerons film.

what im gonna list to disentangle this whole thing is by no means an exhaustive list of titanic misconceptions, only those relevant to this topic

-titanic was a cruise ship - titanic was an ocean liner not a cruise ship (ive detailed the differences in a different ask here)

-titanic was a brand new unique ship never seen before - not true, ocean liners had existed for decades. theres debate about which was the first, but many agree that its the ss great western which launched in 1843. titanic wasnt even the first launched in her class; that honour goes to the rms olympic.

-it was built with substandard materials and cut corners - this is one of those where theres potentially some truth, but its been misrepresented. theres some evidence that the rivets werent the best made, but the board of trade cleared the ship and she was built with the same materials and basically the same design as her sister ship, rms olympic which sailed for 24 years under the nickname "old reliable" and literally rammed a u-boat during ww1 when she was requisitioned as a troop ship. ultimately, the builders were not blamed in the wreck inquiry and the materials used were not substandard.

-it was built as said above due to the choices of j bruce ismay - yeah so this one obviously ties into the above. theres a lot of unreliable sources who seem to believe ismay oversaw the entire design and every cut corner was due to money. this simply isnt true and isnt how this sort of thing worked. white star had a contract with harland and wolff wherein they would build the ship agreed upon and when it was finished, it would be presented to white star and undergo sea trials, and during that time, white star could reject the ship if they considered it substandard. this is what happened to the ss city of rome. unles. the design itself was to be changed a la britannic after titanic sank (improving safety measures), white star could not interfere. ismay could not force them to use different materials.

-it was all ismays fault - okay, i could go on about this for a long time, but this ask isnt about ismay. the gist of it is that history has blamed ismay due to the influence of william randolph hearst (yeah, the guy from newsies and supported hitler) who hated ismay and blamed him entirely. actual evidence shows ismay helped a lot of people during the sinking itself.

-titanic was badly designed - ive kinda gone over this a little already, but again, titanic was not badly built. she was practically identical to olympic which was a fantastic ship. in the design, no risks were taken. most of the designs were enlarged versions of parts of previous successful ships. she was considered the safest ship on the sea. four of her water-tight compartments could be breached without her sinking which was a big fucking deal.

-thomas andrews was the sole designer - there was actually a team of designers that included andrews. he didnt even draw up the original plans; that was alexander carlisle.

-titanic sinking was a unique situation - yeah nah, boats sank a lot around that time. literally two years after, there was a similar disaster with the rms empress of ireland which goes entirely forgotten nowadays. in the same decade, you also had the sinking of lusitania in 1915, principe de asturias in 1916, volturno in 1913 and even thrown in princess sophia in 1918.

-the sinking was actually caused by a coal bunker fire - this is simply horseshit and im sure im gonna end up having to explain and debunk that one too

-the crew were taking unnecessary risks to win the blue riband - this myth is widespread because of the movie, but titanic was not trying to beat the record of the fastest ship from southampton to new york (thats what the blue riband) is; she physically couldnt. it was held by mauretania at that point with a record of 26.06 knots/48.26 km/hr. titanics top speed was 23 knots. white star as a line never focussed on speed and ismay never told the captain to speed up.

-she was "unsinkable" - this is a little harder to disentangle. the claim itself was "practically unsinkable", but the context of that was to do with how safe titanic was as mentioned above. also, the idea of an unsinkable ship was not quite to white star or harland and wolff; most of the shipping industry believed it.

-almost everything youve heard about the life boats - okay so here you need to throw out your preconceptions of what a life boat is because our modern conception does not match that from the early 1900s. to not get into all the details of life boat philosophy at the time (if you do wanna know, just send me an ask lmao), the main purpose of life boats at this time was ferrying passengers to a rescue ship. that was it. this attitude was informed by both the wrecks of the ss valencia and ss clallam, as well as the miraculous rescue of the rms republic. titanic did not have enough life boats for everyone because it was never expected for the passengers to be alone in the life boats for hours; it was not a design flaw, it was a feature.

-that fucking stupid ship swap myth and the idea that the crew were trying to sink the ship - i dont even want to get into why this is bullshit, plus ive also debunked it in another ask

i highlight all of the above to emphasise the fact that titanic was not a badly built ship. she was designed well, built well and sailed well. many experts agree that the way that she hit the iceberg was the only way she could have sank.

this is not the case with titan and stockton rush. in a previous post, ive gone over the design of the titan, the flaws in it and what experts in the field believe, so im not gonna go over it again, but rest assured, the titan imploded because of rush's actions and decisions.

titanic did not sink because of thomas andrews. its due to his design that anyone survived the titanic because she stayed afloat for over two hours which allowed the crew to launch all the life boats. thomas andrews himself helped many survivors during the sinking and evacuation.

he also was not a rich man using a gravesite as tourism; nepotism was certainly involved in his career but he spent ten years working his way up in the company, helping with the design of countless ships. he was mostly regarded as a good man who worked hard and recognised the hard work of others.

its honestly ludicrous to compare them because the disasters themselves are simply not comparable. the titanic did not sink because of the folly of rich men cutting corners; titan did.

thomas andrews, for any faults he had, knew what he was doing and built a good ship that was unlucky. almost every other ship he helped design didnt sink or if they did, most of them were due to ww1.

its just such a ridiculous comparison, and thats all it is. without the misconceptions and misinformation about titanic, the comparison simply falls apart. its built on a foundation that fundamentally misunderstands the titanic disaster.

if you want to talk about shipwrecks caused by stupid decisions made by rich men, go look up the last incarnation of hms captain or the gunilda or the fucking vasa if you want, you can literally go see that one. but dont besmirch the memory of a guy who, by all acounts, died a hero helping other survive.

[dangermousie]

I once spent most of an evening reading particularly horrifying passages of Ethel M. Dell's The Bars of Iron (a huge 1916 romantic bestseller) out loud and would like to share my knowledge of this amazing "work."

Bars features a most unfortunate heroine - an impoverished widow whose child has died, she attracts the love of a younger, gorgeous heir to a Baronetcy. Alas, when Avery and Piers marry, she finds out that Husband n.2 is the one who murdered Husband n.1.

Upon realization of said fact, Wife runs away back to Husband's ancestral home to try to collect her wits, only for Husband n.2 break the door of her bedroom down, behave in such a manner that if I didn't know better, I would have assumed this was a horror novel about an abused woman locked in with an ax murderer, and cap the evening of fun and games by raping his pregnant wifey.

Did I mention he's the hero?

We are supposed to feel deeply for his pain as he feels so guilty for killing Husband n1 in a brawl and running away and then falling for a gal only to find out he made her a widow and he can't tell her the truth. The only emotion Husband n2 inspires in me, however, is a strong desire to brain him with a frying pan until his brains leak out his ears.

There is also a saintly dying child who murmurs religious platitudes. Because having a thirteen-year-old girl die painfully from tuberculosis is a good way to get Wife and Husband n.2 in the same house - you have got to be kidding me - I am supposed to care about romantic intrigue between a brainwashed weeping pot and a murdering rapist and not the poor dying child, wtf??? Did I mention that said child was sent to stay with Wifey by child's mother, Wifey's best friend, as a result of Wifey telling her about the rape because that would help them reconcile. Yeah, Mother of the Year she is, sending her teen daughter into a house with a murdering rapist. Awwww.

Also, Husband n.2 is very excited to go off to fight in WW1 and thinks it's the best thing to happen ever and will make men of everyone. I was very excited for him to go off too, because there was a chance he might get blown up or eaten by rats in the trenches.

Alas, no luck. At the end he comes back wounded and they reconcile. Happy end. Cue my barfing.

I consider self taken in - this is the fourth novel of hers I read (I love trashy old books) and this is the first with rape. I thought I lucked out and found a trashy teen-twenties novelist who didn't have that, but no luck.

The prose, however, is so deliciously purple a whole new color palette should be invented for it.

Piers went like an automaton, but he could not utter a word. His mouth felt parched, his tongue powerless. Avery! Avery! The woman he had wronged--the woman he worshipped so madly--for whom his whole being mental and physical craved desperately, yearning, unceasingly,--without whom he lived in a torture that was never dormant! Avery! Avery! Was she lying dead behind that lighted window? If so, if so, those six months of torment had been in vain. He would end his misery swiftly and finally before it turned his brain. Maxwell Wyndham was guiding him towards the conservatory where a dim light shone. It was like an altar-flame in the darkness--that place where first their lips had met. The memory of that night went through him like a sword-thrust. Oh, Avery! Oh, Avery!

[lusyscilly]

My favorite headcanons about the Di Angelo family. I have a genuine interest in them, so please bear with me!

Maria di Angelo was born in 1909 and met Hades and Persephone in 1932, during a party at the Italian embassy in the US. She had Bianca in 1933, and Nico in 1935 (I refuse in any way Rick's idea that the two were born at the end of the 20s, it doesn’t make with the timeline, but when does it make sense?)

She had an older brother, Michele, who was born in 1907, a younger sister, Elisabetta, born in 1919, and an older cousin, Giulio, born in 1908

Giulio went to live with them after the death of his father during WW1 because he was already an orphan of his mother, who died during childbirth. They grew up all together

These four kids didn't have many friends, except for the Adriani siblings, Alessandro (1906) and Vittoria (1909, but younger than Maria)

The Adriani are from both Naples and Rome (because of an arranged marriage), while the Di Angelo are from around Venice

The two families became friends because the two fathers met during the war and continued to see each other after the end of it because they both went into politics. The Di Angelo's became an ambassador, while the Adriani's a senator

During her adolescence, Maria had a little crush on Alessandro, but he always saw her as a little sister

Maria had a relationship with both Hades and Persephone but decided to cut it after Nico's birth, not because she wanted to but to protect her children from her father and older brother

She and Alessandro got married, to help her, but also to hide the relationship between Alessandro and Giulio (it was her idea, and she knows everything). They got married in 1937

Vittoria is Maria's best friend and always supported her

Ironically, I think Di Angelo's flower symbol is a white chrysanthemum, and Maria gave one to Michele before he went to Russia

All the family died during the war, while the Adriani siblings survived and are the only ones who remember them as people and not as symbols

The two parents died a few months before Italy's entrance into the war, Giulio and Elisabetta both died of pneumonia in 1942 (early year), while Michele died of hypothermia in Russia during the retreat (1943). Maria died because of Zeus, obv (in 1944)

Nobody in Italy knows what happened to Maria and her kids, even though Alessandro and Vittoria tried to find them. They became some sort of urban legend

Alessandro was sent to Africa during the war, hoping to see them again once he returned, but that never happened

Plus, I think Hades amplified Maria's sight. You know, when mortals can see over the Mist? Yeah, Maria could manipulate also her dreams, but this led her to make some sort of contact with Naomi Solace. The two of them started to see each other every night, and both of them started to develop some feelings for each other, a mix of eros and agape, something like that

Some of Naomi's songs are about her, like "Girl of the Forest" or "Fallen Angel" (I know, they are cringe titles, I'm very sorry!)

Naomi still dedicates some songs to Maria, even though she knows she's not here anymore

Plus, during HoO, when Argo II is in Venice, Nico, Hazel, and Frank meet a group of friends who are wandering in the city. They are very similar physically to Nico's relatives and one girl in particular reminds him of Maria. They aren't their reincarnations, but they are similar to them. This girl is also obsessed with Naomi's music and Di Angelo's story

And those are my main headcanons about them, right now I cannot think of others, but if I have others, I will share!

[knucklestheenchilada]

Hi it’s me I’m asking abt the radiation girls bc EVERY TIME I see that wristwatch factory post I’m so confused bc I don’t know what to google to get answers pls infodump on me

Beans you have no idea how happy this has made me, cw that I'm adding pictures that may be unsettling to some viewers also this is very long, like reaaaally long

TLWR: The Radium Girls died horrific deaths due to painting watches with radium paint and the corporation responsible tried to cover it up. This tragedy helped to form OSHA

Okay so! The Radium Girls (i wrote radiation in the tag by accident whoops) where factory workers who painted clock hands and instrument dials with radium luminescent paint around 1920. 100 years ago! Neat!

So, this was back when radium and by extension radiation had just been discovered. Back then radiation was thought to be able to cure cancer, it was in make-up, toothpaste, fancy spa water, even butter. Radioactive tonics were being sold as a miracle cure snake oil. It was even called Liquid Sunshine with espresso like effects. And what can radium do my dear Beans? (besides kill you) It can glow.

Radium luminescent paint made clocks readable in the dark, which was a big deal when digital clocks and non-toxic-glow-in-the-dark stickers didn't exist. In WW1 soldiers needed to be able to see their clocks for maneuvers that needed precise timing in the dark/in trenches without being spotted by the opposing side (at the time wrist watches were seen as a lady thing until the war)

One of the factories that made those watches opened in orange NJ in 1916 called the US Radium Corporation (USRC). They hired about 70 women, the recorded youngest 14, to paint watches for the military with the paint. It was actually considered a fancy job, as it paid three times as much as a regular factory job at the time and the women were listed as artists in their town’s directory. They soon were called radium girls and they were 5% of female workers in the US. An estimated 4000 workers were hired by corporations in the US and Canada between 1917 and 1926. Working in one of these factories was a big deal

Radium paint powder is super pretty and after work, the ladies would sprinkle it on themselves and dance in it. They would wear their favorite dresses to work so they could get some of the paint/powder on them so they could glow all the time. Because how cool is the dame that's shining like an emerald in the dancehall when no one else is? The radium dust, since its dust, was in the air itself - so these women were breathing it in constantly, sometimes they would rub it on their teeth as a joke and they would paint their nails with it so they could glow as well. They started getting called ghost girls because when they'd walk home in the dark, they'd be glowing like a ghost. When they would blow their noses the tissue would glow

How do you paint those tiny bits of watches that need to glow? With a very tiny paint brush Beans! The technique they were taught to get these teeny tiny numbers on wristwatches (which sometimes were only 3.5 centimeters wide) was called lip pointing. After painting each number the woman pit the tip of the paintbrush between their lips to make it a fine point. With every digit, the girl swallowed a little bit of radium.

The women started to experiencing side effects of unknowingly feeding themselves radium pretty quickly in the early 20’s, including: chronic exhaustion, tooth and jaw pains, and stillborn births. 22 year old Molly Magia had to quit her job at the radium factory because of the aching pain in her limbs that was so agonizing eventually she was unable to walk. She had been wrongly diagnosed with rheumatism and was prescribed just aspirin at first. Soon, she lost most of her teeth and in their place were agonizing ulcers would grow. The entirety of her lower jaw and the roof of her mouth and even some of the bones her ears were said to be one large abscess. Her entire lower jawbone had become so brittle that her doctor removed it by just lifting it out

Her jawbone was riddled with teeny holes and this is because the body treats radium as calcium substitute but instead of strengthening the bones like calcium, radium kills off the bone tissue. The women weren't yet aware of the culprit, of course, that's because the specialist who had begun to ‘help’ them was Dr. Frederick Flynn of Columbia University

After declaring there was unquestionably nothing wrong with them, he turned out not to be a licensed physician but a toxicologist working for the very radium factory that the women worked for the USRC and the man who was introduced as his colleague was actually a vice president of the Corp. The USRC also paid off local doctors and dentists to tell the women that they were sufferings from syphilis and eventually that was their cause of death, which was shameful to the family

When the girls started dying from their radium poisoning, the first was Maggie on September 12th, 1922. She was 24 (that’s my age). The cause of death was listed as syphilis. 18 year old Grace started to work as a dial painter on April 10th, 1917, just 4 days after the US joined WW1. By the time Maggie died, Grace was having trouble with her jaw and suffering pains in her feet and so were other workers

Their legs broke underneath them (literally), their spines collapsed, and soon more were dying. The USRC denied any responsibility for the deaths for almost two years but when their bottom line was threatened by the shrinking sales due to the rumors that were spreading about the dangers of radium in 1924, they commissioned an expert to look into the rumored link between the dial painting profession and the women's deaths

The independent study confirmed the link between the radium and the women's illnesses but instead of accepting the findings and making the changes that had been suggested, the USRC paid for new studies that published the opposite conclusion. They also lied to the Department of Labor which had begun investigating about the verdict of the original report. In 1925, a doctor named Harrison Martland developed tests that proved once and for all that radium had poisoned the women

Martlin discovered that when radium was used internally essentially honeycombed the woman's bones. In 1925, Grace’s spine was basically crushed and she had to wear a steel back brace. She decided to sue the USRC but she spent two years searching for a lawyer who was willing to help her. She said, ‘It is not for myself I care; I am thinking more of the hundreds of girls to whom this may serve as an example.’

Other women's legs were shortened and they spontaneously fractured, sometimes the moment a woman realized she even had radium poisoning was when she caught sight of herself in a mirror in the middle of the night. The radium had embedded itself in their bones and had caused them to glow from the inside out

By then doctor Martin had also found that the poisoning was fatal as there was no way to remove the radium from their bodies. Grace was finally able to find a lawyer named Raymond Berry who along with Grace and four fellow workers Catherine Schaub, Edna Hussman, Quinta McDonald, and Albina Latrice accepted their case in 1927. They were seeking $250,000 in damages which is about 3.4 million today.

The USRC wanted to delay the trial as much as possible with the hope that all the women in the case would die before the outcome would be reached, so they kept calling these long recesses for months and months

By the time that women finally appeared in court to testify in January of 1928, none of them were able to raise their arms to take the oath #

The case was finally settled in the woman's favor in 1928 and it became a milestone of occupational hazard law and raised the profile of rad poisoning just as Grace had wanted. By 1927, more than fifty women had died as a direct result of radium paint poisoning. Despite denials of any fault by the USRC after the lawsuit they and other factories that dealt with radium laced paint changed the working conditions. They banned the lip pointing and they gave them protection protective clothing to minimize exposure and after these simple changes were instituted (which actually had been suggested and ignored years before by that independent study)

More women rightly sued which the radium companies appealed several times but in 1939, the Supreme Court rejected the last appeal. The survivors received compensation and the death certificates of the women who’s had been put as syphilis were changed to radium poisoning

Maggie's body was disinterred. Her bones were glowing.

The Radium Girls case was one of the first in which an employer was made responsible for the health of the company's employees and it led to regulations that saved lives and ultimately to the establishment of OSHA. Before OSHA was set up, 14,000 people died on the job every year. Today it's just over 4500 (which is still a fucking lot). The women also left a legacy for science that's been termed invaluable as it revealed the dangers of radium, so thankfully people stopped using it

Marie SkłodowskaCurie's notes from the 1890s are still considered too dangerous to handle without protection due to the high levels of radioactivity and are stored in lead line boxes. She died of aplastic anemia in 1934 resulting from long term ionizing radiation exposure

[the radium girls: the dark story of America shining women by Kate Moore was the main source for this post, some name’s may have been spelt slightly wrong and for that Bee (that’s me) is sorry]

[everythinglucymaudmontgomery]

A Few Words in Defense of Poor Robin and the Time She Was Living In

It's been really interesting to read everyone's vitriol regarding poor Robin. I remember reading this book through at least twice before and never thinking of Robin as anything other than a fellow prisoner of Jane's. Is she a good mother, by no means, but I've always felt that she's doing the best that she can under the circumstances.

I think that her life is a literal living hell. She has a husband across country that she desperately loves but most likely thinks despises her because I KNOW she despises herself. She is forced to be a social butterfly by her mother and she can't even express her emotions by crying at night in her own room because her mother will be able to tell and will find some new creative way to torture her and, by extension, Jane. Her daughter whom she loves fiercely, evidently looks just like her father and is a constant reminder of what she lost/threw away. She is playing a part in a horrific nightmarish play just to survive because she doesn't know what else to do. At that time, and under those circumstances, I don't doubt that she sees living with her mother's horribleness is her best option for providing for Jane. I can't imagine how many times she has most likely visualized running away with Jane by herself but most likely is more afraid of the two of them starving to death and NO mother ever wants to remotely consider that option.

I'm also pretty sure that the time frame for this book is sometime in the 20s/30s. According to the website for the Canadian Museum of History, Canada was among the most profoundly affected countries. So add that to Robin's fears for their livelihood.

And please let's not forget that, for all of Robin's faults, Jane does not doubt that her mother loves her. I have more to say in defense of her and Jane and their secret ways of expressing love but since I don't want to give away any spoilers to those who haven't read it yet, I will refrain.

Another thing that I have found is very interesting about how Maud wrote both "The Blue Castle" and "Jane of Lantern Hill" is that she writes more strictly from one point of view. As common as that is in many books, one thing I always liked about the Anne books was that you got all of these wonderful insights into the minds of other characters. I have seen it a precious few times so far in Lantern Hill.

The reason I point this out is that most of how we are seeing Jane's life play out is from the perspective of an 11 year old. Don't get me wrong, a very perceptive (at times) and wise beyond her years, 11 year old, but an 11 year old, none the less. They are not known to be the most broad minded of people and have a tendency to color the world with a narrowness that can alter reality to some extent. We do have to take a lot of her experiences and outlooks with a grain of salt giving others the benefit of the doubt at least.

I have often found it very difficult bordering on impossible to read books from other time frames without being influenced by the modern sensibilities and customs I am used to. For example, how could Cinderella's stepmother get away with taking her own house away from her after her father died and treating her like a slave? Oh wait. This was not the 21st century, orphans were not looked at the same. In fact, most people looked at orphans as if it was THEIR own fault that they were orphans, like losing your parents makes you a bad person and not worth time or pity.

Am I excusing Robin's behavior? As a mother, NO. Do I think the grandmother should be excused. HEAVENS NO! But I do try to put myself in their shoes as much as I can and remember that this was a different time and place. Not to mention, as a sufferer of mental health issues and knowing that that was something that was not touched with a ten foot pole back then and good lord knows what genetic predisposition they had in that regards on top of living through WW1 and the Great Depression AND the Spanish Flu Pandemic!!!!

Anyway, I hope this makes some semblance of sense to my dear fellow lovers of L.M.M. It's been so interesting and enlightening getting to hear the different thoughts and outlooks from fresh readers of this little known but wonderful book.