#&. maggie collins : general Tumblr posts

[tortoisesshells]

126, 200, 394

[starsspin]

maggie will always love nate, always. when they were together they were an unstoppable team. but sam’s death shook them both to their core. nate also had the additional burden of knowing that blackwell and iys could have saved him but no effort was made on their part to do so.

and it’s not to say that they didn’t fight to save their marriage. because they did. maggie did. but they were both forever changed by their grief, and nate was no longer the man she had always know. and his drinking really became a problem and she only had so much left of herself she could give to him to try and help. and in the end their marriage fell apart. but she will always love and care for him.

[gingernutsenthusiast]

right person, wrong time (variations on heartbreak)

@leemartenspoetry on tumblr

vita sackville-west & fegan’s 1924 café in dublin

everything everywhere all at once (2022)

@heavensghost on tumblr

i had to get out by indigo de souza

‘calling a wolf a wolf' by kaveh akbar

river by joni mitchell

‘english song’ in a little larger than the entire universe: selected poems by fernando pessoa

slumber by ron hicks

fish in exile by vi khi nao

penitent magdalene by antonio ciseri

@ojibwa on tumblr

this is what the drugs are for by gracie abrams & the awakening by angelo morbelli

as good as it gets by fizz

lonely this christmas by mud & picture of the christmas tree at trinity college dublin, taken by me in december of 2022

this is what the drugs are for by gracie abrams & picture by andrew collins via globalnews.ca

@inanotherunivrs on tumblr & a polaroid of me taken by my ex-boyfriend

‘in a dream you saw a way to survive’ by clementine von radics & a picture of my ex-boyfriend's window, taken by me

bluets by maggie nelson & the poolbeg generating station, dublin

‘unrequited’ by sasha m george & inheritance by matthew w. cornell

[unknown]

@ faraway on instagram & lavender sprigs farm cut by linda jacobus

the museum of heartbreak by meg leder

[unknown]

‘seaside improvisation’ by richard siken

@ dracarysgang on twitter

@-love-letters-i-never-sent

@fromdarzaitoleeza on tumblr

explosions by ellie goulding

‘i had a dream about you’ by richard siken

the beatrice letters by lemony snicket

la la land (2016)

‘catalog of unabashed gratitude’ by ross gay

@stuckinapril on tumblr

@deathlywounded on tumblr

some are always hungry by jihyun yun

‘speaking practice’ by franny choi

 a self-portrait in letters by anna sexton & a picture of my ex-boyfriend in a lake in Orfű, Hungary

@sunsbleeding on tumblr

‘there is no absolution for the fallen, only the dying’ by p.d

[soracities]

what are your suggestions for starter poetry for people who dont have strong reading/analysis backgrounds

I've answered this a few times so I'm going to compile and expand them all into one post here.

I think if you haven't read much poetry before or aren't sure of your own tastes yet, then poetry anthologies are a great place to start: many of them will have a unifying theme so you can hone in based on a subject that interests you, or pick your way through something more general. I haven't read all of the ones below, but I have read most of them; the rest I came across in my own readings and added to my list either because I like the concept or am familiar with the editor(s) / their work:

Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times (ed. Nick Astley) & Being Alive: The Sequel to Staying Alive (there's two more books in this series, but I'm recommending these two just because it's where I started)

The Rattlebag (ed. Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes)

The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry (ed. Ilya Kaminsky & Susan Harris)

The Essential Haiku, Versions of Basho, Buson and Issa (ed. Robert Hass)

A Book of Luminous Things (ed. Czesław Miłosz )

Now and Then: The Poet's Choice Columns by Robert Hass (this may be a good place to start if you're also looking for commentary on the poems themselves)

Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World(ed. Pádraig Ó'Tuama)

African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song (ed. Kevin Young)

The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing (ed. Kevin Young)

Lifelines: Letters from Famous People about their Favourite Poems

The following lists are authors I love in one regard or another and is a small mix of different styles / time periods which I think are still fairly accessible regardless of what your reading background is! It's be no means exhaustice but hopefully it gives you even just a small glimpse of the range that's available so you can branch off and explore for yourself if any particular work speaks to you.

But in any case, for individual collections, I would try:

anything by Sara Teasdale

Devotions / Wild Geese / Felicity by Mary Oliver

Selected Poems and Prose by Christina Rossetti

Collected Poems by Langston Hughes

Where the Sidewalk Endsby Shel Silverstein

Morning Haiku by Sonia Sanchez

Revolutionary Letters, Diane di Prima

Concerning the Book That Is the Body of the Beloved by Gregory Orr

Rose: Poems by Li-Young Lee

A Red Cherry on a White-Tiled Floor / Barefoot Souls by Maram al-Masri

Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky

Tell Me: Poems / What is This Thing Called Love? by Kim Addonizio

The Trouble with Poetry by Billy Collins (Billy Collins is THE go-to for accessible / beginner poetry in my view so I think any of his collections would probably do)

Crush by Richard Siken

Rapture / The World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy

The War Works Hard by Dunya Mikhail

Selected Poems by Walt Whitman

View with a Grain of Sand by Wislawa Szymborska

Collected Poems by Vasko Popa

Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas (this is a play, but Thomas is a poet and the language & structure is definitely poetic to me)

Bright Dead Things: Poems by Ada Limón

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire,

Nostalgia, My Enemy: Selected Poems by Saadi Youssef

As for individual poems:

“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver

[Dear The Vatican] erasure poem by Pádraig Ó'Tuama // "The Pedagogy of Conflict"

"Good Bones" by Maggie Smith

"The Author Writes the First Draft of His Weddings Vows (An erasure of Virginia Woolf's suicide letter to her husband, Leonard)" by Hanif Abdurraqib

"I Can Tell You a Story" by Chuck Carlise

"The Sciences Sing a Lullabye" by Albert Goldbarth

"One Last Poem for Richard" by Sandra Cisneros

"We Lived Happily During the War" by Ilya Kaminsky

“I’m Explaining a Few Things”by Pablo Neruda

"Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" //"Nothing Gold Can Stay"//"Out, Out--" by Robert Frost

"Tablets: I // II // III"by Dunya Mikhail

"What Were They Like?" by Denise Levertov

"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden,

"The Patience of Ordinary Things" by Pat Schneider

“I, too” // "The Negro Speaks of Rivers” // "Harlem” // “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes

“The Mower” // "The Trees" // "High Windows" by Philip Larkin

“The Leash” // “Love Poem with Apologies for My Appearance” // "Downhearted" by Ada Limón

“The Flea” by John Donne

"The Last Rose of Summer" by Thomas Moore

"Beauty" // "Please don't" // "How it Adds Up" by Tony Hoagland

“My Friend Yeshi” by Alice Walker

"De Humanis Corporis Fabrica"byJohn Burnside

“What Do Women Want?” // “For Desire” // "Stolen Moments" // "The Numbers" by Kim Addonizio

“Hummingbird” // "For Tess" by Raymond Carver

"The Two-Headed Calf" by Laura Gilpin

“Bleecker Street, Summer” by Derek Walcott

“Dirge Without Music” // "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

“Digging” // “Mid-Term Break” // “The Rain Stick” // "Blackberry Picking" // "Twice Shy" by Seamus Heaney

“Dulce Et Decorum Est”by Wilfred Owen

“Notes from a Nonexistent Himalayan Expedition”by Wislawa Szymborska

"Hour" //"Medusa" byCarol Ann Duffy

“The More Loving One” // “Musée des Beaux Arts” by W.H. Auden

“Small Kindnesses” // "Feeding the Worms" by Danusha Laméris

"Down by the Salley Gardens” // “The Stolen Child” by W.B. Yeats

"The Thing Is" by Ellen Bass

"The Last Love Letter from an Entymologist" by Jared Singer

"[i like my body when it is with your]" by e.e. cummings

"Try to Praise the Mutilated World" by Adam Zagajewski

"The Cinnamon Peeler" by Michael Ondaatje

"Last Night I Dreamed I Made Myself" by Paige Lewis

"A Dream Within a Dream" // "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe (highly recommend reading the last one out loud or listening to it recited)

"Ars Poetica?" // "Encounter" // "A Song on the End of the World"by Czeslaw Milosz

"Wandering Around an Albequerque Airport Terminal” // "Two Countries” // "Kindness” by Naoimi Shihab Nye

"Slow Dance” by Matthew Dickman

"The Archipelago of Kisses" // "The Quiet World" by Jeffrey McDaniel

"Mimesis" by Fady Joudah

"The Great Fires" // "The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart" // "Failing and Flying" by Jack Gilbert

"The Mermaid" // "Virtuosi" by Lisel Mueller

"Macrophobia (Fear of Waiting)" by Jamaal May

"Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong" by Ocean Vuong

"Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou

I would also recommend spending some times with essays, interviews, or other non-fiction, creative or otherwise (especially by other poets) if you want to broaden and improve how you read poetry; they can help give you a wider idea of the landscape behind and beyond the actual poems themselves, or even just let you acquaint yourself with how particular writers see and describe things in the world around them. The following are some of my favourites:

Upstream: Essays by Mary Oliver

"Theory and Play of the Duende" by Federico García Lorca

"The White Bird" and "Some Notes on Song" by John Berger

In That Great River: A Notebook by Anna Kamienska

A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib

The Book of Delights by Ross Gay

"Of Strangeness That Wakes Us" and "Still Dancing: An Interview with Ilya Kaminsky" by Ilya Kaminsky

"The Sentence is a Lonely Place" by Garielle Lutz

Still Life with Oysters and Lemon by Mark Doty

Paris, When It's Naked by Etel Adnan

[penguwastaken]

We all saw it coming eventually, but we finally made it to Ace Attorney-ifying the names of the cast of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony. I don't think this really requires an explanation, so I'll just get on with it.

Clair DeLune

Ace Pianist

A play on "Clair De Lune"

Roboso

A combination of "robo" and "oso," the spanish word for "bear"

Ursula

Ursula comes from “ursa” which means “bear”

Bearzerk

A combination of "bear" and "berserk"

Sleuth

A sleuth is a group of bears

Bearuto

A combination of "bear" and "Naruto"

Cristine Divine

Ace Artist

Cristine is a play on “christian”

Divine means of, from, or like God

The name of the god she worships is Deitus, which comes from "deity"

Roly Tarzant

Ace Entomologist

Roly comes from roly-poly

Tarzant is a combination of “Tarzan” and “ant”

Maggie Trick

Ace Magician

A play on "magic trick"

H0-P3

Ace Robot

H0-P3 looks like “hope,” referencing how K1-B0 looks like the Japanese word for "hope"

His nickname is Hopey

His creator’s name is Professor Robotiktokov, a generic Russian sounding name with "robotic" in it

Dipper Armstrong

Ace Astronaut

Dipper is a reference to the constellation

Armstrong is a reference to Niel Armstrong

Belle Ringer

Ace Maid

A play on "bell ringer"

Lierre Knight

Ace Supreme Leader

Lierre sounds like “liar”

Knight is a reference to the horse shaped chess piece, matching his checker pattern and his original last name, Oma, which means "king horse"

Alex Ploorer

Ace Folklorist

A play on “explorer”

Vienna Gents

Ace Caregiver / Ace Assassin

A play on “vengence”

Her nickname she's given by Dipper is Vienna Roll

Lola Babbit

Ace Inventor

Her name is a reference to Lola Bunny

A babbitt is a bearing metal that sounds like “rabbit”

The rabbit theming matches her original name, Miu, which means "beautiful rabbit"

Jett Setter

Ace ??? / Ace Survivor / Ace Adventurer

A play on “jetsetter”

Collin Victor

Ace Tennis Pro

A play on “convict”

Casey Truman

Ace Detective

Casey has “case” in it

Truman has "true" in it

Truman is also a reference to the Truman Show

Aikee Dojo

Ace Aikido Master

A combination of “aikido” and “dojo”

Venera Dressup

Ace Cosplayer

Venera sounds like “veneer”

Dressup is a play on “dress up”

And that's everyone from Danganronpa V3 along with the entire main series. Maybe I'll do a bonus post for extra characters, but that's everyone for now.

[ionlybleedbubbles]

Writing tips deep in my heaps of cringe, that are actually good (imo) :

When writing in third person, don't say what a character cannot do while talking from their perspective. Frame the idea by telling us what they can do, or through the opinion of other characters. For eg. Instead of saying "Mattie was bad at flying planes", say "Mattie preferred cars to planes, and would much rather his brother do the plane-flying." See? Now you've even managed to drop in a nod about his brother. You could also say, "Kevin felt safer when Mattie's brother flew the plane than when Mattie did." Put the blame on Kevin - don't judge Mattie yourself. As a narrator you must pretend to always be on your MCs' side. Ofc, this would vary with different styles of narration, but this is a general rule.

Show how important a character is by how much time you take to talk about them. You would describe your MCs well, and bring up their hobbies and interests. You wouldn't describe a background character as much. You can use this to humanize or dehumanize characters. You may initially talk very little about the main villain yourself, and rely on dialogue among the other characters. This makes the villain feel like a force rather than a person. As the story progresses though, and you decide you want to drop in a *hairflips dramatically* sad back story, you can humanize the villain, and make them more understandable as a person.

Learn from art. Try describing different sceneries or portraits as practice. Also practice writing comic books or manga as stories. Visualizing your story as comic or manga panels can really help you understand pacing and paragraphs. Take note of their vibrance and positioning.

Learn from people's mannerisms and how they are received by other people. For eg, when we ask my dad a question, he pauses to gather his thoughts before speaking. Out of respect, we wait silently during this pause. This shows how confident and charismatic my dad is. A friend of mine only verbally roasts people within our friend group, and apologizes profusely after. This shows she is both empathetic and extremely quick-witted. I could create well rounded characters based on just examples as simple as these.

This tip is what I like to call 'the fake solution' and is employed by many famous authors. For this, you force readers to make assumptions. Maybe about how the magic system works, or about who the villain is. Make it seem like the characters have come to a conclusion and that conclusion is the final solution to conflict. Then tear down those assumptions and create a whole other ending. Similar to the red herring, except this time it's all in the characters' heads and dialogue. Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy is a good example of playing with assumptions forced upon readers by the writer.

In your first chapter, focus on creating potential. You don't have to jump into the heart of the action right away, but you have to make sure your readers understand the potential for this action. For example the opening chapter of Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Boys is relatively low paced, but it leaves you with questions. It makes you wonder who the boy who talked to Blue is, and how Blue will deal with life after such a strange prophecy. This makes you need to continue reading, to find answers.

For good worldbuilding, study at least a little bit of history. Wars and military tricks make for good free prompts. If your world contains vibrant races, make sure you research and incorporate the history and implications of racism, social hierarchy and trade. Understand how this will impact travellers and mercenaries (audiences love those). Make up your own old wives' tales and coping mechanisms.

Understand that the best stories are written around an idea rather than a character. Your protagonist is simply the face of your story. The weather of the world reflects on the protagonist's choices and health. Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games focuses on the dark side of media and politics and how they are used to control a people. Notice that by the third book, Katniss, our protagonist, is doing very little herself, though her few moments are loud and powerful. Katniss could achieve nothing alone. It takes a whole bunch of people to fuel the revolution. Note that it is completely okay to write a character based story, if that's what you like. But there are tons of those. If you really want to make an impact, make an idea-based story.

Respect all your characters equally. You may love some characters more than others, but remember all your characters are representatives of people. Make sure each of them has a voice and a chance to prove themselves.

Use prose to your advantage. Let the length of your sentence define whether the sequence is fast paced or slow. For example, if your want to show surprise, your sentences must be short. Instead of saying "She snatched the last dagger and stared at it, observing each engraving", say " She snatched up the last dagger. Each engraving was sick, gnarled. "

That was a heck of a long post, but that's all from me. Feel free to add your own or contradict anything I've written.

[thesweetnessofspring]

Trick or treat! 🍂

What name would Katniss and Peeta choose for their October baby?

I have such a hard time deciding on what the toast babies names are! All of the names in the series have such meaning, and Katniss in particular has a strong and flat-out stated meaning to hers that I think it's a tradition she would continue. I generally prefer to still call them by "the girl" and "the boy" even in fanfiction and none of the names I've seen or can think of sit quite right for me.

Katniss got her name so that she'd never starve as long as she could find herself. Her father, preparing her for the harsh world she lived in, provided her with a name of survival. We aren't given a reason for Prim's name and the only reference to it is that the primrose she was named for is "lovely."

So what would Katniss and Peeta want to instill in their child? This child born into a world that is safe enough for them, yet has left their parent with vast grief and immense love. This particular child born in a blaze of their father's favorite color, a season of foraging and preparing for the dark time ahead?

Girl Names

Dawn: A new start, a new day, a rebirth. Perfect for their first little toast baby.

Dove: A bird that represents peace, and a world born anew.

Heather: A hardy flower that endures through hardship.

Magnolia ("Maggie"): Magnolias are common and important in the US South. A flowering tree, they are strong, enduring, and beautiful. There is also medicinal uses for magnolia, including as a sleep aid and to reduce anxiety.

Boy Names

Glen: Another word for a clearing, it remind me of the meadow that represents the peace after so much loss.

Jasper: A semi-precious stone, I love that this is connected to Peeta's name (Peeta->Peter->"Rock"). Jasper has a link to warding off evil and being a protection.

Oak: A tree that produces acorns there is a practical use to oaks, as well as being a symbol of strength and how something small (an acorn) can become something mighty. And Gabriel Oak is a very Peeta-like character from a book that Suzanne Collins has acknowledged influenced Katniss's character.

River: Constantly moving and turning, this name would remind the little one that life changes. As another water name, it connects this little one to his momma.

[swayhere]

canon starter call - open to anyone !

i have a strong urge to write some canon muses, so if you would be interested in writing against any of the canon muses listed under the READ MORE below, please comment/IM me and i can send a starter your way or reply to one of your starters.

i do not require you to know anything about my muse's canon, but i'm more than happy to tell you about it if you ask. i'd be happy to write canon muses against your ocs! also, mixing fandoms is 100% ok with me unless your canon muse is problematic and makes me uncomfy. my canon muses do not have all their memories or relationships from their life unless we plot it, but they will have the same general personality/ambitions.

if you are willing to write against my canon muses but don't care which, just like this post, and i'll take a look at your open starters and/or send you a closed starter at random with a muse i think fits the vibe.

*please don't agree to write against my canon muses if you're one of those picky weirdos that will be up in arms if i don't write a cannon muse exactly how you would.

( if you'd prefer to write against an oc muse only, check this post. )

canon muses i'd like to write: bold = extra big muse rn. strikethrough = exclusive, so not rn.

muses from tv shows: 

911 — eddie diaz , evan buckley , athena grant , bobby nash , karen wilson

911: lonestar — carlos reyes , grace ryder , judson ryder , t.k. strand , owen strand

as the world turns — dr. reid oliver , luke snyder

boy meets world — shawn hunter , jack hunter , angela moore , topanga lawrence

chuck — sarah walker , chuck bartowski , bryce larkin 

degrassi — jimmy brooks , sean cameron , ellie nash , marco del rossi , sav bhandari , drew torres , zoe rivas , miles hollingsworth iii , tiny bell , esme song , 

gilmore girls — jess , luke

good trouble — gael martinez , jamie hunter , callie adams foster , mariana adams foster , evan speck , joaquin perez , dennis cooper 

how i met your father — sid , ian , sophie , jesse

how i met your mother — marshall eriksen , lily aldrin , victoria

how to get away with murder — laurel castillo , connor walsh , oliver hampton , michaela pratt , frank delfino 

jessica jones — jessica jones

lost — kate austen , juliet burke , daniel faraday , desmond hume , sayid jarrah , sun-hwa kwon , claire littleton , walter ‘walt’ lloyd , charlie pace , hugo ‘hurley’ reyes , shannon rutherford , miles straume 

new amsterdam — lauren bloom , elizabeth wilder , casey acosta

new girl — nick miller , winston bishop , cece parekh

one tree hill — nathan scott , lucas scott , keith scott , chase adams , brooke davis 

outer banks (obx) — jj maybank , kiara carrera

please like me — arnold 

rosewell, new mexico — michael guerin , maria deluca , isobel evans

scandal — olivia pope , prezzy fitz

scooby doo — daphne blake

stranger things — robin buckley , steve harrington , jim hopper , chrissy cunningham , eddie munson , max mayfield , eleven , mike wheeler 

superstore — jonah simms

the 100 — finn collins

the bear — richie jerimovich, carmy berzatto , marcus , sydney adamu  

the mindy project — danny castellano 

the office — ryan howard , jim halpert , pam halpert , kelly kapoor , holly flax

the politician — river barkley , astrid sloan 

the young & the restless — sally spectra , adam newman , chelsea lawson , phyllis summers , lily winters , sharon newman , chance chancellor , victoria newman , tessa porter , amanda sinclair , cole howard

younger — josh , kelsey peters

muses from books: 

along for the ride ( book version only ) — eli stock , auden west , maggie  

one of us is lying ( book version only ) — cooper clay , nate

red white & royal blue — alex claremont-diaz , prince henry , zahra bankston

we were liars — gatwick ‘gat’ matthew patil

muses from movies: 

dead poets society — neil perry , charlie dalton , todd anderson

harry potter — lee jordan

les mis — enjolras , grantaire 

super 8 — joe lamb , martin , preston

twilight — irina denali , jasper cullen

[anakinfallen]

top 9 books

tagged by @gayarthur

(not in any order)

1. in memoriam by alice winn

as soon as i started reading this book i knew i wanted to reread with a pen. queer book set during ww1

2. blue lily, lily blue by maggie stiefvater

this book (and trc in general) had me in a chokehold when i read it in high school, not plot just vibes, the levels of mutual pining had me going insane

3. if we were villains by m l rio

i started this intending to only read about half go to bed and then finish it the next day because i’d already read one book that day and i finished it that night. another book i need to revisit with a pen. it has it all: murder, shakespeare

4. a man called ove by fredrik backman

this book is translated from swedish. the last book i read last year and the end had me sobbing. grumpy old man (who reminded me of my granddad) developing meaningful connections with his neighbours

5. the hunger games by suzanne collins

it feels like such a basic answer but this was one of the first books i ever sat down and read in one day. i borrowed it from the school library that morning and started it when our teacher gave us “free time” during our social science class and finished it at 1am. also when i was first on tumblr i was a hunger games blog (not this tumblr but my old one rip)

6. the poppy war trilogy by r f kuang (i know i cheated by including the entire trilogy but i don't care)

just this entire trilogy is so good (definitely check trigger warnings before reading though). i was originally intrigued by this series because it was described as “what if azula was the avatar” but it is so much more than that. explores the effects of war and colonialism

7. weather girl by rachel lynn solomon

one of my favourite romance books, two people who work for the same news channel work together to gets their divorced bosses back together (i just really love this trope, see: one of my favourite romcoms is set it up). touches on mental health issues.

8. six of crows by leigh bardugo

another super basic answer but i also hate that this book is considered a "booktok book" when it was originally a "tumblr book" but i loved all the crows (and also the pining between kaz and inej). just ✨fantasy heist✨

9. vicious by v e schwab

i have always been a big reader but this book got me seriously back into reading after i graduated uni and started working full time. the relationship between victor and eli is just so good and toxic and fascinating. i just love the way v e schwab writes

special mention to summer sons by lee mandelo because it was so so so good

and also the bumper book of peanuts comics because i love flicking through it when i need a pick me up

this list was genuinely so hard for me because i read so many books and then forget about them except for the feeling it left me

it also started with me trying to give short descriptions as to why i liked the books and ended in word vomit

also going to plug my storygraph (and if you see i'm 50 books behind on my goal no you didn't)

tagging @shitouttabuck @fatedking @disasterbuckdiaz @enchantingverse @uelut-erinaceus @killianjonesz

[fundielicious-simblr]

Bonus!

I finally bit the bullet and did an updated group photo for gen 3 because I wanted to replace the header I have for this account right now. I'm still stuck on what to do for a profile picture, but I'll figure it out eventually I guess. When planning out the posing for this, I was inspired by @duggardata to do some info points for my sims, so I'm going to be doing some basic and random facts about these little bunches of pixels to end the year. This ended up being a mini thesis, so grab a snack if you plan on scrolling down, and I'll put the post under the cut to save your scrolling the TL. When I started this it was meant to be a small cute post with random information, and has now become an actual analysis. If I've missed anything or if i find more that I can talk about, there definitely can be more of these later down the line.

I'm going to queue this for 11:30pm my timezone, so I wish you all a very happy new year, may you get everything you desire and more!

This is all 36 people that make up the 3rd generation. I've arranged them in birth order, so this is technically chronological I guess. I did mess up when I got to the end because I forgot about Ashton (Allan & Casandra's 13th - the irony 😂) and plopped her further down than she should be.

Names L-R:

Back: Adalynn Leonard, Barrett Collins, Macie Collins, Carter Paulson, Abbey Hill, Brittany Dahlmann, Zoe Moreno, Valentina Townsend, Alan Paulson, Tanner Collins, Maggie Wright, Celeste Paulson.

Middle: Kyra Shearer, Reece Collins, Kristyn Crocker, Sabrina Crawford, Beckett Collins, Amira Eichelburg, Priscilla Roberts, Annette Collins, Jarrod Paulson, James Hunt, Charles Collins, Zachary Paulson.

Front: Rory Godwin, Ruby Rae Godwin, Parker Collins, Ava Grace Godwin, Conner Paulson, Jarrett Paulson, Gabriela Hunt, James Lee Collins, Matthew Collins, Ashton Collins, Amelia Godwin, Archie Collins.

Now onto the stats!

Basics

Out of the 36 :-

Men: 17

Women: 19

The split between men and women is 49/51 (don't quote me on my maths, I dropped maths classes as soon as I was able to 😂) Within the siblings groups it's definitely not as even, though the final results even themselves out. Gender roles are heavily enforced in these households, so ones that are female heavy (Allan and Casandra's 8 girls to 5 boys) compared to those that are male heavy (Claire and Ryan's 6 boys to 4 girls) will have different experiences. Having girls being born earlier in the birth order definitely helps lighten the load when there's a new children every other year.

Marriage

Marriage is definitely a stage of life that fundies emphasise for their kids, with purity culture pushing for them to be married as soon as possible to (A) prevent sin and (B) produce children as fast as possible. Of course, there's those for whom marriage doesn't happen at the desired time, but in times like this the advice is to wait "on the Lord's timing".

For those eligible for marriage out of the 36:

21 are married

1 is engaged

1 is in a courtship

The average age for marriage is 22. The youngest age being 18 (Maggie, Reece, Priscilla) and the oldest being 29 (Abbey)

I don't have exact data for the courtships so I can't do an average, but I can say the longest relationship prior to engagement was Abbey and Adam's - they dated for two years before getting engaged.

Speaking of dating, fundies and many other conservative christians push courting rather than dating. They reason that it's more serious and with the purpose of marriage, and if you add in purity culture there's the argument that they're saving 'pieces of their heart' for their future spouse. Out of the 23 couples who are either married or on their way there, only 2 couples kissed before marriage: Abbey & Adam and Brittany & Colton. These two couples weren't held to as strict standards as their cousins due to their parents outlook on things, they already knew that their daughters didn't personally agree with the convictions on purity (plus with brittany marrying into a well known political family, they saw it as a means to an end 😂) The other 19 couples (soon to be 20) saved their first kiss for the altar, as will the one courting couple (Zachary & Kelsey). Only 3 couples had no touch courtships the whole way through (and this number is debatable because I myself couldn't keep a storyline straight hehe - but from the character personalities and different plotlines let's agree with 3): Reece & Stacie, Alan & Tessa, and Tanner & Tabitha. In all 3 cases it was the girls family that set the stricter rules, which is more common as girls are engineered to guard their purity.

As if common with real life fundies, the older the kids get the faster they get in courtships that end in marriage. This is one of that things that you can't really predict since people's stories are different, Adalynn was the first one to get married 13 years ago, and the next family wedding was Barrett's 3 years later. In the first 9 years since the 3rd generation started getting married, 8 couples were married. The beginning of the next decade is when things started to happen in a flurry, 5 couples got married with four of them having their first child in the same year (this wont make sense, but if i try to make it fit real world parameters i'll acc go insane HAHA - this is fictional so it's allowed not to make sense) The most couples to get married in a year is 7 couples, and with the 13 left I doubt that there will be the same back to back that was happening earlier. The girls have gotten married faster than the boys, but that was to be expected when you consider that gender roles play heavily into fundie culture. It's easier to marry off a daughter to be a wife and mother than having to marry of a son, she will be provided for but he needs to be in the place where he can provide for a family that has the potential to grow exponentially. Obviously because this is a game where reality is suspended, the men in the game don't have to do much to be providers.

Education

Education is important as it shapes a person's thoughts and opinions, therefore fundies are more than likely to homeschool their children so that they are in control of what their child is exposed to. For those who think total at home education isn't where the Lord is leading them, there are other options available such as a homeschool co-op and private christian schools, with the last resort being the public education system.

The 2nd generation are quite diverse with their belief systems, influencing their thoughts and opinions around how they educated their children - and let's be honest, finances do play a certain role here whether you like it or not.

Allan & Casandra - Casandra totally homeschooled all 13 of their children through K-12.

Branden & Lea - Lea homeschooled their 3 children from kindergarten through to grade 8, and for high school the kids attended a private christian school.

Claire and Ryan - Claire totally homeschooled/currently homeschools their 10 children.

Danielle and Sebastian - Danielle totally homeschooled/homeschools their two children.

Elaine and Taylor - Elaine homeschooled/homeschools their 5 children through a homeschool co-op that she taught at prior to having children. The kids are educated by various teachers that specialise in different subjects using an approved curriculum.

Fletcher and Cara - They've chosen to send their son to a private christian K-12 school.

Grayson and Keira - Keira homeschools the kids until they're in grade 8, then they send the kids to a private christian school for high school.

When it comes to university, fundies definitely don't push it onto their children as they see it as a place where they'd be brainwashed. As the times have changed, there have been more and more conservative christian universities that have opened up that cater to fundies, so there are more fundies getting a tertiary education.

Right now there are only 8 out of the 36 sims that have gotten degrees or are actively pursuing them:

Beckett - He's the only one of his siblings to attach themselves to a university, even if his degree was in Bible & Missions at a very conservative bible college. His siblings' skill sets are either self taught or they were mentored by someone, though his sister Amira is doing an associates degree at some point (I just haven't figured out in what yet).

Abbey - She has an distinguished degree in biology and currently works as a marine biologist. I sent her and her sister to the in game university and physically sent them to classes and everything (which is something I'm never doing again HAHA). Back then I also didn't have the thought to send them to a christian university, so let's pretend she just skipped everything evolutionary for her degree.

Brittany - She has a distinguished degree in communications and worked as a political commentator before getting married. She and her sister were the first girls to go to university from their cohort (as well as the first to not be homeschooled), especially since they're in the first phase of the 3rd generation when the 'vibe' in their extended family was very conservative.

Tanner - He has his MD and is now working as a doctor (using the in-game university mechanics) he was also the first boy to attend a secular university, but there obviously weren't as many opinions on him doing it than on his sisters doing it.

James - He has his degree in Bible Counselling with a focus on Youth and Ministry from a local bible college in his area. It was a two year degree to help create missionaries that could be sent out to help churches. He met his wife whilst at university and they married as soon as they graduated, they now live in henley on Bagley as missionaries assigned to help grow a church there. His sister Gabriella doesn't know what she wants to do (i also have no clue), so that will be revealed in due time.

Kyra - She got her degree in early education and is now a kindergarten teacher at a private christian school, she even met her husband at the school through his niblings. Her mother (Elaine) being a teacher and her father also being college educated was definitely an inspiration to her. Being educated in a homeschool co-op also helped her realise her love of teaching.

Rory - Rory is currently at a local university getting a law degree (for my game i'm using a mix of education systems, incase you get confused) and is currently enjoying it. He initially wanted to join the police force like his uncle and cousin, but decided on enrolling in university instead. His parent's are encouraging him down the political route, but with a law degree he can do anything.

Ruby Rae - She's currently in nursing school and is enjoying learning the curriculum. In my head she's always been that character that I'd send off to nursing school, especially with her uncle marrying a nurse, it just felt meant to be for her character. I initially envisioned one of allan and casandra's girls maybe going to nursing school too, but in the end it didn't pan out.

The only ones I can say are definitely attending college in some form are James Lee (Fletcher), Matthew and Archie (Grayson). They'll be like their parents and go to fairly conservative universities and go on to live your average fundie-lite conservative life.

Children

CW: There will be mentions of pregnancy, problems with getting and staying pregnant, pregnancy loss, and infertility of various kinds.

Fundies think of children as gifts from God, with many taking that ideology and running with it, usually ending up with children in the double digits if their fertility agrees with it. The notion of being 'quiverfull' implies that a couple don't use any methods of contraception, with the idea that if God wants them to have a child then they will conceive and birth one. 6 couples of the 2nd generation (Allan to Elaine, then Grayson) were all open to whatever kids the Lord would give them, and they ended up with a variety of children - one couple having 13 and another having just 2. Life throws various curveballs, or as they say "the Lord works in mysterious ways", so there can be many plans that don't work out - let's not forget that people's fertility isn't always textbook. Casandra had 2 miscarriages that I didn't plan in game, the mod I have gets triggered by certain conditions and the alert was a surprise to me. I don't roll for pregnancy losses, unless difficulties getting and/or staying pregnant are part of that character's story for whatever reason e.g. Madelynn, Stacie, etc.

Out of the 21 married couples, only 4 don't have children: Abbey & Adam, Beckett & Mandy, James & Emma, and the newlyweds Parker and Lana.

Abbey and Adam - They're not quiverfull so they've got a timeline for when they'll have children, but they definitely want them.

Beckett and Mandy - They've been married for around 4 years and have not yet had children, they're marked as a quiverfull couple so they're not preventing pregnancy, there's just no children as of yet. Honestly speaking, I haven't thought that far about the ways that children appear in their storyline but I have 3-4 options about where things could go.

James and Emma - These two are in the same boat as Beckett and Mandy in terms of their views on children, they want them but haven't 'been blessed' with them yet. In the actual game they're side characters, so I let the 'Neighbourhood Stories' take over their story unless I see it necessary to intervene.

Parker and Lana - They're newlyweds, so there could be a pregnancy announcement from them any day now. Though I have taken real life parameters into consideration with how fast a couple does conceive, since in real life it can take the average 'healthy' couple up to a year to get pregnant. So you'll just have to wait and see when Lana will be posting a sonogram 😂

Of the 17 couples that have children, they have birthed a whopping 50 children that make up the ever growing 4th generation. There are currently only 2 pregnant women that are gestating 3 children, which is I think the lowest to ever happen by holiday season. The speed at which they have children has definitely sped up the more couples get married. When Adalynn got married in 2010, she had cousins still being born, so for the first five years (2010 - 2015) the 10 grandchildren that were born came from her, Barrett, and Valentina (let's not forget that Kyleigh had triplets then twins back to back, so she went from zero to five children in 3 years)

The 10 children born in the 4 years after that are from Adalynn, Barrett, Carter, Valentina, and Brittany. The next 3 years (2020-2023; i use years to count so i don't get lost, but I make it a point not to mention years in the posts cause that adds opportunities for confusion 😂) were a wedding and baby boom, bringing us to the present day. 2020 had 5 couples marry and birth four children, 2021 holds the record for the most weddings and the most children born: 7 couples married and there were 12 children born. 2023 isn't finished in the game, but so far there has been 1 couple married with another set to marry at the end of the year. So far in 2023 there have been 5 children born, and the pregnancies that are in game aren't set to give birth this year so that's the number for that year.

With all these births happening in waves essentially, how fast are these sims multiplying? In true duggardata fashion I've got the intervals ready for you:

Adalynn & Mason - 9 children in 13 years of marriage: 7 singletons and 1 pair of twins, 8 boys and 1 girl.

Skills

Fundies are known to have their kids learn a skills, usually in the form of musical instruments. From my own childhood as well as research I've gathered via many hours of watching and reading, a musical instrument is the best thing to learn as the 'easiest' way to glorify God is through music. Music plays an important role in worship services, and so having children that can play instruments well allows for them to 'be of use' for worship; families also capitalise on said talent and travel around playing music as a ministry.

The skillset of the 2nd generation does play a role into how their children ended up:

Allan worked as a carpenter (and by carpenter i mean he reached level 10 of the woodworking skill and would just make things to sell) whilst being a Pastor, before retiring and working as a Pastor fulltime. He didn't learn how to play an instrument as he was focused on learning a skill that would help provide for a family.

Branden found his skills in writing, he worked as a writer in the writer field and wrote books that now provide him with royalties, like his brother, he wasn't enrolled in music lessons as his parents had other priorities set for him.

Claire was enrolled in music lessons and found she had a real skills for playing the piano as well as writing music, her mother also had her and her sisters learn homemaking skills such as gardening, cooking, balancing a checkbook and how to run a household. Claire put being a wife and mother first, but also continues to use her skills to minister for the Lord. She's become well known for her performance as well as her hymnal music arrangements (think Kim Collingsworth-esque vibe) and also teaches music as various music camps from time to time.

Danielle learnt how to play the violin as well as learning how to be a homemaker, and as she got married later in life she was the person who stepped in to run the house after her mother passed. She uses her skills whenever asked, like playing at church or at various worship events, but she's mainly focused on gardening and baking.

Elaine learnt how to play the piano and used to play at church and various events, but found her joy was in teaching. She took over homeschooling her younger siblings and went on to earn her teaching qualifications.

Fletcher was taught the piano by his older sisters, but lessons weren't pushed on him by his parents. He went on to focus on fitness and joined the police force after finishing highschool.

Grayson was more book focused and didn't learn an instrument, similar to Elaine he focused more on books and studying and ended up going to medical school.

Harley is the youngest girl and learnt how to play the guitar as a girl, as she was the youngest she didn't have to perform as often as the older siblings did. She went on to get a degree in Fine Arts and now works as the editor in chief at San Myshuno's biggest fashion magasine.

It's easiest to display the information based on the sibling order from gen 2, so here's the list of the various skillsets of the 3rd generation:

A -

Casandra being your typical conservative fundie woman, made sure that all the kids got music lessons, whatever she couldn't teach herself she found someone to teach them. Piano: Since Casandra plays the piano she taught the kids until they were in their teens, then if they chose to continue they could get lessons with Claira. Adalynn, Macie, Zoe, Beckett, Charles and Ashton chose to learn the piano and so far Zoe is the only one who has taken that and made it a career of sorts like her aunt Claire. Violin: Macie also chose to learn violin, with Amira, Priscilla, and Annette also learning the violin. Guitar: The boys mostly chose to learn the guitar, Barrett, Reece, and Parker all chose the guitar, with Maggie being the only girl to choose to learn the guitar. Of the 13 kids to learn a musical instrument, only Zoe has taken it and made it something that monetarily supports her.

B -

Lea learned how to play piano growing up, and enrolled all three of her children in piano lessons. Abbey, Brittany, and Tanner all had piano lessons until they were in their teens and focused on different extracurricular activities once they joined the private christian school.

C -

Claire made sure all her children know an instrument, the four girls (Valentina, Celeste, Kristyn, Sabrina) all know both the piano and the violin, with the 6 boys all learning piano and Carter and Alan also learning how to play the guitar. There were many suggestions of them starting a family band, but Claire and Ryan didn't feel that the Lord was leading them in that direction.

D -

Both James and Emma have learnt to play the piano, James' wife Emma can play the piano, violin, and the flute and has her degree (from a biblical college) in music with a focus on worship music.

E -

Elaine put all the kids into either piano or violin lessons, Kyra did lessons in both until she was a teenager, Rory did piano until he was a teenager, Ruby Rae did violin lessons and still plays at church, Ava Grace continues to play Piano, and Amelia still does violin lessons.

F -

Fletcher and Cara put their son into organised sports, so no music lessons this side.

G -

Keira wanted her boys to have some musical knowledge, so Matthew does guitar lessons and Archie does piano lessons.

That's all I've got for now, but as I was doing this I definitely found more things that I could write about in a few months. I hope you enjoy this!

[felinedetached]

🍄❄️ 🦴 gday banshee

DJ!!! Afternooon <3

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

Oh god uh. I love the idea of Sakura & Ino keeping their competitiveness even when they get together! With much less vitriol involved, of course, but like. Competing over who's team will pass the Chuunin exams first when they're both Jounin instructors - stuff like that.

❄️ ⇢ what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best?

SO this depends on the fandom! For BNHA which I don't read a huge amount for anymore I love stories that deal with Izuku's stalkerish tendencies! I don't really have a dream author I think, because I've read a few already and most of them were great! I'd just like to see more.

For ATEEZ I just want more fics that deal with the lore! More specifically: I don't like the direction the lore headed with Golden Hour, and so I'd love to see a fic that took the lore the direction I thought it was going to head - with ATEEZ heading back to World A after destroying the chromer & immediately trying to figure out how to prevent World A from becoming World Z. Like, okay, I know this was unrealistic because this IS coming from a corporation and what corporation would ever write actual rebellion and anarchy in a way that actually works, but I had hopes!! I have no real dream writer for this either, mainly because I have already internalised that if I want to read this I'm going to have to write it myself.

Oh also Gothic horror. I'd just love to see more people writing Gothic horror in general.

🦴 ⇢ is there a piece of media that inspires your writing? 

Oh, SO many. You have opened pandora's box.

Music/MVS: - Sweet Juice, Purple KIss - Phantom, WayV - Don't Stop, Ateez (unfortunately this MV only exists in 480p now) - Halazia, Ateez - The World Ep.1: Movement, Ateez - Guilty, Taemin - Blood, Sweat & Tears, BTS - Deja Vu, Dreamcatcher - Chill Kill, Red Velvet - Animal Farm, Bibi - Grand Romantic Life, Mom Rock - Don't You Dare Forget The Sun, Get Scared - Cradle, The Joy Formidable - Thumbs, Sabrina Carpenter - Six Feet, Patent Pending

Books: - The Gloaming, Kirsty Logan - Wilder Girls, Rory Power - The Raven Cycle, Maggie Stiefvater - The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien - Frankenstein, Mary Shelley - Dragonsbane, Patricia C. Wrede - The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

Shows/Movies: - Addams Family (original tv series + 1990s movies) - The Magicians - The Untamed - The Sandman - The Witcher - All Of Us Are Dead - Castlevania - Derry Girls - Hotel del Luna - Spirited Away - Princess Mononoke - She-ra - Violet Evergarden

Misc: - Betrayal at the House on the Hill (board game) - Outlaw Kings and Rebellion Chic by Alister MacQuarrie - The poetry of Siegfried Sassoon, but especially Glory of Women and The Hero

All of this is just off the top of my head, or stuff I could look over at my bookshelf and go "oh yeah, that" about. I'm sure there's a lot more that's inspired me in my life, including probably half of the stuff we read and watched in high school — The Great Gatsby, Atonement, Pride & Prejudice, Macbeth etc — but this is the stuff memorable enough to stay with me!

There's also an incredibly large amount of fanfiction that changed my life once I read it, and so many that I've literally sent to friends with the caption "I want to write like this". So to other fanfic authors: I love you.

Writers truth or dare asks!

[coffeejerk]

selective, private, & headcanon based 𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐆𝐈𝐄 𝐄𝐕𝐀𝐍𝐒 of 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐒 (𝟏𝟗𝟔𝟔). temp rules + bio under the cut!

𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄𝐒.

i'm still working on rules specific to maggie. for now, please refer to the general guidelines on my dio blog.

consider this blog low activity. maggie is not my main muse, and she can be a little fickle sometimes. I'm a lot more active on rejectshumanity.

content warnings specific to this blog include: alcoholism, memory loss, parental death, mental and physical abuse, kidnapping, attempted brainwashing and grooming, medical malpractice, and the lingering effects of trauma.

PERSONAL BLOGS DNI. this is a private roleplay blog, not a fandom blog. i appreciate the interest, and you're welcome to follow if you don't touch my posts, but please DO NOT reblog my threads, headcanons, or graphics without my permission. doing so will result in a block.

𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐓 𝐁𝐈𝐎.

maggie evans was once your average sassy teenaged diner waitress in the spooky seaside town of collinsport, maine. that was before she was kidnapped by its resident vampire, held captive, tortured, and nearly turned, all for her resemblance to josette — a long dead woman for whom he pined.

there in his rotting house, barnabas collins dressed her in the woman’s clothes and told her that maggie evans was dead, and that her loved ones have already forgotten her. that she should be thrilled to become josette collins; how if she would only submit to him willingly, they could be so happy together.

when maggie resisted, he drained her blood to keep her in a fugue state, terrorized her with threats to her loved ones, and imprisoned her in a basement cell, threatening to kill her if she did not comply. 

miraculously, maggie escaped with the aid of sarah, the ghost of barnabas' little sister. after discovering a secret tunnel connecting her cell to the outside, she was found wandering the beach in tattered rags, unable to explain or even remember the full extent of what had happened to her. she was sent to windcliff sanitarium, where efforts to recover her memory proved fruitless until years later thanks to the meddling of dr. julia hoffman.  

since then, she has survived far too many abductions, brainwashings, memory wipes, and murder attempts to count. these days, maggie runs her diner with a weariness unbecoming of her young age. yet as traumatized as she is, she hides her troubles behind a kind, but wary smile.

𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐒. (under construction)

i. the beginning and the end of the world / maggie's semi-charmed life as a waitress in collinsport prior to barnabas' introduction.

ii. fanged creatures in my dreams / this is where most of the spooky stuff happens. follows maggie after barnabas comes to town, up until she leaves the show. my main verse for ds muses.

iii. a stake in her boot and a gun in her home / big finish audio verse set after the tv show with some canon divergences, and my go-to verse for non-ds muses. maggie takes over ownership of the inn and diner, where she acts as a welcoming face for weary travelers and hosts bi-monthly paranormal investigation meetings. primarily inspired by clothes of sand, beyond the grave, the harvest of souls, and bloodlust.

iv. maggie's bizarre adventure / jjba part 3 au. details tba!

𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐒.

icon template / psd / dash icon

[emiliosandozsequence]

Do you have any good book recommendations?

i do!! it depends on what you're looking for but!! here's my favorite books 💕

the sparrow series by mary doria russell

phantom by susan kay

back roads by tawni o'dell

brother by ania ahlborn

mistborn trilogy by branden sanderson

the legend trilogy by marie lu

the raven cycle by maggie stiefvater

his dark materials trilogy by philip pullman

daughter of smoke and bone trilogy by laini taylor

lost souls by poppy z brite

drawing blood by poppy z brite

house of leaves by mark z danielewski

marly's ghost by david leviathan

scars by cheryl rainfield

the wayfarers series by becky chambers

the child thief by brom

the sandman by neil gaiman

the southern reach trilogy by jeff vandermeer

the hunger games quartet by suzanne collins

i also have a book blog here where i talk about what i'm currently reading and just book stuff in general!! and a book page here where i also track what i read!!

[widowshill]

A-Z Fandom Asks: N, P, R? (that wasn't planned, just. happy accident?) please and thank you!

A -> Z FANDOM ASKS.

N - Name three things you wish you saw more of in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

my number one is r/v obviously <3 i do actually feel kind of spoiled with the shippy stuff ive found in some old blogs though, i tend to adopt the rarest of rarepairs so i'm not complaining. but more is always better! and i'm steadily converting people to the cause 🏴‍☠️

generally speaking i think the pre barnabas episodes could always use more love. it's quite different tonally to later on and I can understand why folks might skip it for those reasons, but I fervently protest the idea that they're boring ! I'm biased of course because my faves are the 1966'ers, but there's so much delicious character work going on, and I think ... you need the rotted b&w gothic foundation for the technicolor house of horrors built on top of it, if that makes sense. i also think barnabas is kinda :/ it should be pre and post laura collins if we're all being honest with ourselves here.

hmmm. possibly a symptom of like, only being here / a tiny bit on twitter and not on like, actual forums, but i would love to see more long ass ds metas. love to read the insanely smart things b.lack s.ails people (and p.otc!) post on the reg. need that about haunted maine ppl

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).

okay well you can guess where i'm going to go with this west indies piracy au go

The Collinses are descended from merchant wealth in England and currently control a small port city in the Bahamas. the family's connections to the Marquess of Winchester manages to land Roger an appointment as governor, although everyone knows the title is only a formality: his sister runs everything, including Roger. once prosperous, a combination of over-fishing, hurricanes, and an earthquake twenty years past has left the town desolate, and the sand beneath their feet liquefied. rather than abandon what she has built, Elizabeth is determined to hold on, but without any support from England for what they feel has no hope to turn profitable, the family turns to investing in forced trade.

enter Burke Devlin, a privateer employed under a letter of marque signed and sealed by Roger Collins. Devlin is the best, most profitable, and most infamous of their captains, often dining with them at their table and a close friend of the governor. For a while they enjoy mutual prosperity with Spain's wealth, and pirate labor. But the world is growing more respectable around them, and what was once the fringes of civility is gradually becoming its center. The way to survive is no longer with the pirates. When Burke is captured and tried for piracy, his benefactors turn their back on him: he is sacrificed, essentially, as a figurehead for the port and governor's respectability (vaguely à la Kidd). Even his wife sends written testimony against him, and remarries before her husband officially swings, to his former friend and sponsor, Roger.

Burke manages to escape before his hanging, and turns to piracy in the Mediterranean – after ten years, in 1698, he comes back to raid the Collins shipping fleet, with the eventual goal not of razing Collinsport to the ground, but of installing himself as governor there. One of the ships he captures carries a special passenger – the new governess, sent for from England – and he personally delivers her to their doorstep, but not before she can witness how different Captain Devlin is from the terrifying stories about him and his crew.

the governess also brings news from England: William III has passed a new law against the pirates in the West Indies. any person to aid and assist, or maintain, procure, command, counsel, or advise the pirates, are condemned to the same loss of property and life as the pirates themselves.

meet also:

maggie evans, the no-nonsense tavern wench, and her sweetheart, the honest merchant sailor joe haskell that hates pirates and everything they stand for

carolyn stoddard, who has a copy of Exquemelin in both French and English and has memorized every word, and is violently jealous of vicki for dining with a scary pirate captain. she'd like nothing better than to be kidnapped out of the governor's mansion. her cousin david loves the stables and knows everything about horses ... including how best to spook them.

sam evans, former court painter, now art forger

julia hoffman, naturalist (and other sciences as required)

bill malloy, who oversees the merchant fleet and the warehouses, and carries carolyn home from the docks or the tavern by the scruff of her neck, if he has to.

laura collins, sent away to bedlam for hysteria, managed to come back, and is now setting boats on fire as a hobby

the blairs, hailing from massachusetts: james, a well-respected lawyer eventually revealed to be working with devlin, and his cousins, nicholas and cassandra, political and religious exiles who spent some time in maritinique, where they both adopted quimbois practices.

jason macguire, irish smuggler, and willie loomis, former indentured servant working out his sentence in america. they have a run in with cousin barnabas, who's been making his questionable fortune in the east indies rather than the west, and who definitely does not do any cannibalism.

R - Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom?

ROGER AND JULIA. in other places, eleanor and flint >>>> also elizabeth and barbossa. i feel like this is forming a pattern of some kind hang on

[castielsupernatural]

im cheating and sending u the same numbers that you sent me because theyre like, the best questions okay 1, 2, 15, 19 KISSES

hiiiiii bestie my answers aren't nearly as interesting as yours sadly, i could NEVER be as well read as you. this got long so the tldr is don't listen to me for book recs just go to jess :)

1. book you’ve reread the most times?

technically it’s probably twilight but let’s say it’s not, and in that case let’s say it’s the raven boys by maggie stiefvater. it’s definitely my most heavily annotated book and i tend to date my annotations and well there’s just a lot of them

2. top 5 books of all time?

i’m gonna do a fiction list and a nonfiction list and again be nice bc i’m not super well read 😭😭 also in no particular order

fiction:

catching fire by suzanne collins sorry i’m a slut for the second book in a series

a gathering of shadows by v.e. schwab see above

the dream thieves by maggie stiefvater sigh. see above

six of crows by leigh bardugo

the secret history by donna tartt sorry women

nonfiction:

dark waters: flood and redemption in the city of masterpieces by robert clark

the power broker: robert moses and the fall of new york by robert caro

the line becomes a river: dispatches from the border by francisco cantù

dopesick: dealers, doctors, and the drug company that addicted america by beth macy

unsettling truths: the ongoing, dehumanizing legacy of the doctrine of discovery by mark charles and soong-chan rah sorry for listing a book on religion. also if these guys names mean anything to you pls do NOT look at me

15. recommend and review a book

ok ok gonna do my fave nonfiction i've read recently and some of you have been unlucky enough to hear me talk about it but it's the power broker by robert caro, it's a 1,200+ page brick of a nonfiction book published in the 1970's as a biography of robert moses and just new york city infrastructure in general. i read a lot of nonfiction and honestly a lot of the writing is just bad even if the content is interesting but this was seriously one of the most well-written pieces of work i've ever read and it completely changed the way i think about local government. some fun excerpts and all my notes:

granted, part of the fun was i read it with my dad and we had a lot of fun bonding over it, but still! it's been such a cool foundation for other works on urban studies, too - i recently finished davarian l baldwin's in the shadow of the ivory tower: how universities are plundering our cities and there was a whole chapter on new york that i felt really well-equipped to engage with

19. most disliked popular books?

ok not to be one of those ppl that are like teehee i hated it before it was problematic but genuinely i never got the hype about harry potter. i think the problem is i read them out obscenely out of order and probably just a little too young (i started with the order of the phoenix when i was 10) but nevertheless i've just never cared. more recently i read the midnight library and i was so unimpressed i was this could've just been a supernatural episode we didn't have to do all this

book asks <3

[terrorpenned]

some r/v au things kicking around in the brain (or in my art lmao)

V has a new wedding dress made that is heavily inspired by, though not an exact replica of, Josette’s dress, taking a mix of regency style and late 1960s/early 1970's (which are already in partnership in fashion). she borrows Naomi Collins' wedding veil, and Liz gives her a string of pearls that first belonged to Annabella Collins –– a symbol of the Collins prosperity born of the sea.

Wedding flowers: blue delphinium (dignity and grace, youth, new life, remembrance), calla lilies (magnificent beauty, rebirth or resurrection, the goddess Hera), lily of the valley (return to happiness: "The naiad-like lily of the vale. Whom youth makes so fair, and passion so pale" ) and blue jasmine (amiability, loyalty, integrity, trust, "On the blue flower which, Brahmins say. Blooms nowhere but in Paradise.")

" The jasmine, with which the queen of flowers, To charm her god, adorns his favourite bowers Which brides, by the plain hand of neatness drest, – Unenvied rival! – wear upon the breast; Sweet as the incense of the mom, and chaste As the pure zone which circles Dian's waist."

They're married out on the terrace but, predictably, rain interrupts them, and they have to rush inside to the drawing room to finish the ceremony. Roger cheats and carries her over the threshold before they're officially married.

They fly to France for their honeymoon, staying on the beaches of Biarritz in the Hôtel du Palais. They make several excursions to sightsee in the rest of the country, including a few days in Paris to see the Louvre and the Palais Garnier. V returns home with several paintings to add to Collinwood's collection, and Roger with several bottles of wine. Vicki also picks out an André Courrèges for Maggie, an Yves Saint Laurent for Carolyn and a Givenchy for Liz. for David, a lapel pin with a guillotine motif inspired by 1790s designs.

Rog's proposal is very Maxim-esque. It happens outside on the cliffs, not at breakfast itself, but right after. Since David is old enough to go to Real School, he no longer needs a tutor and governess, but Roger assures her she's still needed at Collinwood and she can stay on with him. ("Do you mean you want a secretary or something?" "No, I'm asking you to marry me, you little fool.")

They're generally supported (especially by Julia) when they announce the engagement, and Carolyn is delighted to have her as an official member of the family (though it takes some getting used to thinking of her as an aunt). Liz is highly skeptical and would try to talk Roger into calling it off; Vicki has to work hard to convince her that’s what she wants. the plus side is that he’d never do anything to hurt V because if he did Liz would flay him alive. not one single foot out of line.

Maggie would also be on Liz’s side, certain at first that the power disparity favors Roger and his happiness, but Vicki would eventually bring her around. Maggie, along with Willie and Joe, is probably one of the few who realizes or cares what it means for Vicki socially/economically to rise through the ranks and marry into the Collins money/power. most of them would view it as marrying Roger, but V’s fellow working class characters see it as marrying into the family, and Roger comes second.

The engagement lasts a while for legal reasons, though not for lack of Rog's trying to hurry their lawyers, since neither of their spouses can be served divorce papers (being yoinked back to the eighteenth century or being transformed into a vampire as your alternate identity don't count for much in court). they're able to get annulments on the basis of mental incapacity –– r.e. Rog's mental state when he married Cass, and the speed –– and fraud –– vis a vis Jeff's real identity. it's not pleasant, and involves lots of testifying about adultery in the courtyard, which leads to their first real fight.

Though he buys her a few things in France, his big wedding present is a car of her own to live in the Collins garage: a Triumph TR6 in Royal Blue with tan interior. Carolyn is allowed to drive it; Roger is not.