#[Timeline: Marie Beaumont]

[happiestmariebeaumont]

[TIME-LINE.] - (Marie Beaumont)

[Do(e) a deer a female deer.] - (Starter: Marie Beaumont)

[Do(e) a deer a female deer.] - (Thomas O’Malley) *abortion mention

[Do(e) a deer a female deer.] - (Lock Borror)

[A valentine gift.] - (Toulouse Beaumont) ((completed))

[Candy gram.] - (Toulouse Beaumont)

[Candy Gram.] - (Duchess Beaumont)

[Cookies.] - (Rachel Crowne)

[Fine] - (Rachel Crowne)

[Checking on you] - (Rachel Crowne)

[The Dress] - (Duchess Beaumont)*nsfw topics ((completed))

[ Why do good girls like bad boys.] - (TJ Detweiler)*nsfw topics

[Come join] - INTO THE WOODS EVENT - (Event Starter: Marie Beaumont)

[Come join] - INTO THE WOODS EVENT - (Jim Hawkins)

[Come join] - INTO THE WOODS EVENT - (Abby Mallard)

[Come join] - INTO THE WOODS EVENT - (Victor Lumiere)

[Come join] - INTO THE WOODS EVENT - (Jessie Pride)

[Come join] - INTO THE WOODS EVENT - (Jessie Pride)

 [Roses] - [duchess Beaumont]

[Courage] - HAPPIESTEVENT6 - (Event Starter: Marie Beaumont)

[Courage] - HAPPIESTEVENT6 - (Reagan Rackett)

[Courage] - HAPPIESTEVENT6 - (Jim Hawkins)

[Courage] - HAPPIESTEVENT6 - (Anastasia Tremaine)

[Courage] - HAPPIESTEVENT6 - (Hans Sør)

[Courage] - HAPPIESTEVENT6 - (Deziree Tremaine)

[Dance!] - (Minnie Myshkin)

[Mom’s Mistake] - (Duchess Beaumont)

[TEXT: Meeting Ed] - (Ed)

[Useless] - (Tina Bell)

[(un)happy camper] - (Gwen Pleakley)

New blog threads

[Pep Talk.] - (Anastasia Tremaine)

[Songwriter.] - (Mary Gibbs)

[The hard talk] - (Tj Detweiler)

[natequarter]

15 and 16 for the oc ask game :D

15: How does your OC interact with the canon narrative? What about it do they change?

i'm going to do this for a couple of ocs, because some of them interact very directly and some of them intentionally have no impact:

clarence (based off one of the ghosts named by robin in gone gone) was a gardener at button house during the 1860s (roughly; i can't be arsed to do the maths). he doesn't have much impact on the canon timeline, but it is notable that it was because of george button that he died: george dared him to skate on the lake and, well, it cracked. whoops! cue george quietly walking away from the lake, whistling faux-innocently. he's good mates with robin, but not for very long, and as such is more or less forgotten as time goes by.

my ghosts in france are pretty much as distanced from the canon narrative as is possible; sophie is the only link to button house, and even then it's still pretty tenuous. they're aware of her connection to humphrey, but that's about it; i have a whole gag about how marius and estienne barely even know that england exists at all. it's safe to say that they change nothing about the canon narrative, lol.

arthur de bohun is i think my only canon divergent oc - he's humphrey and sophie's kid from something i'm writing - and he's more or less just the result if 'but what if humphrey... was happy?' (and 'what if humphrey and sophie... loved each other?' very important questions being asked here.) he primarily changes humphrey's life - in this timeline the bone plot never happens, so the ownership of button house passes neatly down to arthur and for about half a century things actually do end up happily ever after, at least until the civil war hits. anyway, what you need to know about arthur is that he's a dog person, and very moody as a teenager, and in 1605 he visits london to watch macbeth, because i just realised that he would be the right age to do that, and i love macbeth. oh, and he speaks both english and french from a young age, so there are points when he's a toddler where humphrey is attempting to play with him and he points at something in french and humphrey's just like, 'what???'

16: What aspect(s) of the universe's lore are they connected to? Do they change/add lore to the universe?

more clarence, because he fits these questions well:

based on the younger ghosts' reactions to annie in the thomas thorne affair, i have clarence as the last ghost to be sucked off at button house until mary. i don't think the captain, pat, or julian are really used to the idea of older ghosts or ghosts getting sucked off; clarence moves on a few years after fanny dies (it's all a bit full circle for him) after, and i'm quite proud of this one, 'only a taste of fanny.'

a couple of my ocs are (loosely) linked to how robin got the name robin: diuset (a celtic leader) dislikes robin, and only really connects to him, on the grounds of nature, and as such (long, long before the word robin was even used for the bird) at one point compares him to the actual bird. william de beaumont (a cringefail norman knight and would-be crusader) suggests the name robin (itself a diminutive of the norman name robert) to robin, but it doesn't initially stick and when william moves on c. 1590 robin forgets about it for a while, because it hurts. neither of them are the ones who give him the name, though.

i have quite a few ocs linked to humphrey's ancestry: his father, nicholas, and more importantly his grandfather, edmund, who is the one to be given button house (then called something else, but hopefully not bone house, because that sounds like a brothel) by henry vii. also, he's left-handed, which is obviously very important.

ownership speedrun: elizabeth's (another of those gone gone ghosts) family own button house prior to the de bohuns; before the 1300s, i headcanon that there was another house in place of the village, this time owned by the happily married but honestly rather useless geoffrey and his wife matilda (c. 1150s - this is quite a bit back); even further back, in the late 1000s (after the norman conquest), it's owned by william de beaumont. and back before 1066, it's just a village.

i mention all this because my ocs are mostly connected to button house and robin's backstory, before anything else - and if they're not connected to robin, they're connected to humphrey and sophie, because, well, i have priorities.

(link)

[booksandwords]

Rainbow Revolutionaries by Sarah Prager. Illustrated by Sarah Papworth

Age Recommendation: Middle Primary Art Style: Colourful Topic/ Theme: LGBTQ+ People & History

Rating: 5/5

I want to start by saying this is almost problematically American given the words on the back of the book 'In every culture and in every century, LGBTQ+ people have not only existed and thrived, they have revolutionised'. So many of the stories are from people lived as a substantial enough amount of their life in the US to have their country listed as the United States. Some could have been left out in order to have more geographic diversity. As a book aimed at children, it does simplify the situation for many of them dramatically so. Alexander the Great was no exception, sexual expectation and acceptance of sexual relationships have changed dramatically through time. Which is partially the point though that is not made clear and it probably should be. So many of the people featured are bi or their orientation is maybe a guess or an assumption. I will say that maybe the write-ups are a little wordy for those in the youngest demographic. The framing on the text boxes are a nice way to bring everything together. The art style is okay, including so quotes where appropriate. The settings are effective. Like Billie Jean King's write surrounded by tennis balls, her name spelt out using tennis iconography; Ma Rainey's name stylised in a font of her time surrounded by jazz instruments; Cleve Jones with all his quilting imagery.

Have a random dump of some of the good and the bad

Alan H. Hart — feels kind of unnecessary. He was the first American person to transition with the help of medical doctors and a leader in the tuberculosis treatment field. But given Lili Elbe is in here I just think the space could have better used.

Benjamin Banneker — Bless the inclusion of an ace. A scientist.

Chevalier d'Éon — born Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d'Éon de Beaumont, aka Mademoiselle La chevalière d'Éon. A badass spy trans spy in the time of Louis XV (and Louis XIV) her entire debut wardrobe was a gift from Marie Antoinette

Christina of Sweden — What is a book like this without Christina?

Franciso Manicongo — This is one I hadn't heard of, 1500s Angola/ Brazil. The whole thing is mostly heartbreaking. But it is also fascinating to my anthropologist's brain. The idea that Angola at this point had different clothes for trans people fascinates me.

Frieda Kahlo — Another I absolutely expected, but how it was written is odd. Diego and Frieda are something else. Putting Frieda in a children's book does not allow her to be done justice.

Gilbert Baker — "Do you know the word 'vexillographer'? It's time to learn." One is that a word? Two who chose to put it in a children's book? Baker is the man who made the rainbow flag so closely linked to the LGBTQ+ community.

Lili Elbe — Lili is a badass. She was one of the first to get physical transition surgery. Always supported by her loving wife Gerda Wegener. Lili's death from complications for her fourth surgery hurts me.

Natalie Clifford Barney — It's nice to see at least one poly in here.

Wen of Han — I would also suggest people look up the story of Ai of Han, known to some has emperor cut sleeve. Wen of Han and Ai of Han are related some 5 or 6 generations apart.

We'Wha — Their identity is "lamana" it's an example of non-binary gender. The book does explain the meaning of this one, I just appreciate that it was included.

The inclusion some of the LGBTQ+ history at the end is useful. A timeline of LGBTQ+ history, Glossary, Pride and Identity Flags and LGBTQ+ Symbols. There is a selected bibliography as well, I'm not sure how acceptable they would be the demographic. It's not the best book it's not the worst book. I think it lost track of its audience somewhere along the line but it does tell the stories to the extent it does fairly well. I think it could have chosen a wider people on a global scale, possibly different identities. Look I'm ace there is only one ace and his feels a bit off, ace is not a new identity but we are often less vocal than others harder to assert historically. Do I think it is a good book? Yes. I think it would be a good choice for a child particularly for those who have a personal connection to the LGBTQ+ community or an interest in history. But I'm pretty sure there are better out there.

[ravenclaw-questions-gone-writing]

Trope Snippets

Summary: Sneak peeks into a Maribat fic that I’m working on and may never post. Easily subject to change as I sort through the plot bunnies. Following no particular time line. On my Ao3: TiredFictionGate

Chapter 1 There is me, Zio

“Lila Rossi?” Adrian asked.

Marinette nodded, rubbing her temples in an attempt to relieve her headache. “In the show, she lied for attention. I don’t know much about her. She only showed up in the first season once, but from what I picked up from the fandom, she threatened and bullied canon Marinette in the following seasons. I don’t know how much of that is fanon though. Something about chameleon salt… I think that might have been an episode name.” Marinette bit her lip. “I’m not too certain, really.”

Adrian hummed. “So how big of a threat is she?”

“Apparently she was willing to work with Hawkmoth to get what she wanted, like willingly and not just brainwashed in the heat of negative emotion. I’d say she’s a goon level minor annoyance. If I recall correctly, all she does is lie and throw tantrums when things don’t go her way.”

“Well, we’ve already dealt with Hawkmoth, so what’s the problem?”

“I don’t know.” Marinette frowned, fiddling with her bracelet. “Just a bad feeling, I guess.”

“Like scary magic intuition bad feeling?”

Marinette huffed and rolled her eyes. “Just keep your guard up. Things aren’t canon anymore, if they ever were, but that doesn’t mean things will be peaceful.”

“Things are never peaceful with us.” Adrian muttered as he opened the door to their classroom for them. Marinette hooked their arms together, ready to begin their dating charade.

Their classmates were clustered around two unfamiliar people.

“Oh gods, there’s two of them,” Marinette groaned quietly as she buried her face into Adrian’s arm. No wonder her instincts had been going off all morning, giving her the massive headache she was dealing with right now.

“Hey dudes,” Nino called. “Glad you guys aren't too busy making out to get to class on time.”

“Hey Nino, who are they?” Adrian asked, eyeing the two unknowns behind his bright smile.

“New students,” Alya beamed at them, excited to spread news.

“They’re twins!” Rose chirped.

“Hi, I’m Lila.” the female twin greeted, giving Marinette a politely dismissive look and zeroing in appreciatively on Adrian.

“Fabrizio. Just call me Zio,” the male twin smiled, his eyes sweeping calculatingly over the two reincarnators and lingering on Marinette in a predatory way.

“You expected there to be one Rossi, but you were wrong, there is me, Zio.” Marinette mumbled into Adrian’s ear, trying to ignore her growing headache. Could they be any more obvious?

Adrian choked on air and turned away as he attempted to cover up his laughter as a coughing fit. “Mari!” he hissed, sending her a glare with no heat.

Marinette gave Adrian a cheshire’s grin before turning back to their two new classmates and giving them a customer service smile that was so natural only Adrian could tell the difference. “I’m Marinette and that’s my boyfriend Adrian. It’s nice to meet you two.”

“Sickeningly sweet as always,” Alya cooed teasingly.

“Marinette’s the class president and big sister, if you need anything, just go to her.” Alya explained needlessly.

“Hey, doesn’t Zio mean uncle in Italian?” Adrian asked.

Fabrizio gave a short chuckle. “Yeah, I was something of an older brother for my old class too, kind of like you.” He said, giving Marinette a playful wink. “But they called me uncle because it’s already in my name.”

Marinette gave him a polite nod, customer service smile still on her face. “How interesting! I’m sure you’ll fit in just as well here.”

Thankfully Bustier came in and the class dispersed and went to their seats. Marinette was seated in the back and away from either of the Rossi’s who apparently liked to sit up front.

-

“There’s something off about them,” Adrian commented once they’d made it to their hero hideout that they still didn’t have a name or code for. “They’re magical aura is too strong for people without cores. Or is that a twin thing?”

“Twins with magic have a habit of either cancelling or amplifying each other’s powers. So yes, it’s probably the twin thing. What I thought was interesting is that it doesn’t feel completely human in nature.” Marinette answered, taking notes on the things she’d noticed about the Rossi twins before she forgot them. “An atavism, I’m guessing.”

“Magical creature blood, abilities, and no training.” Adrian nodded. “That’s not a good combination. On the bright side, they’re probably not even aware they have magic and they definitely can’t use it if they haven’t formed a core.”

“A fairly safe assumption but there is a chance they could learn and figure it out on their own.” Marinette tapped her pencil against the pages of her notebook. “We should figure out what they’re descended from to prepare...” She words devolved into mumbling over her notes.

Adrian huffed. “You’re being paranoid. They’re just kids.”

Marinette stopped tapping as she pursed her lips and gave her partner a dirty look.

He rolled his eyes and leaned back against the bookshelves. “Yes, yes. I know. Be prepared for anything. Don’t underestimate someone based on their age, gender, alignment, or anything else.”

“They won’t be kids forever.”

Adrian sighed but despite his misgivings, he gave his own observations. “I’m certain their magic has a connection with the moon but it’s not a moon alignment. It’ll take a while to sort through the possibilities but I’m positive that what they use is metaphysical in nature.”

Fortune telling, illusions, mind reading, mind control, hypnotism, puppeteering… that sort of thing.

“And that Fabrizio kid is the stronger twin.”

Marinette nodded, she’d noticed that too. “At least they’re not descended from Selkies, the magic doesn’t feel quite like that special signature combination feeling. I can’t rule out Sirens though.”

“Thank the gods,” Adrian muttered. Selkies were a pain to make enemies of as their songs could neutralize or strengthen certain kinds of magic. Sirens, while more vicious, were far more manageable.

“I know you’re busy planning how to take them down but don’t you think we should train them or something?” Adrian asked. “Untrained magic users can be pretty dangerous.”

“I'm biased but they seemed to me like the kind of people who would abuse power. Trained magic users willing to abuse their powers, particularly when dealing with mind magics, seem far more dangerous, if you ask me.”

Marinette sighed and leaned back into the couch she sat on. “But I’ll leave it up to you to decide if they should be trained but please learn what kind of people they are before you make that decision. Watch them for two months, at the very least.”

Adrian nodded.

“And ask the Beaumont's, the Li’s and Father for advice.” Marinette ran a hand through her hair. “You should also-”

“Marinette,” Adrian stressed. “I get it, I’ll be careful. Stop worrying.”

“Telling me to stop worrying isn’t going to make me stop.” she hissed. Nevertheless, she forced herself to relax.

This was actually written a while ago, when I wanted an eviler Rossi than Lila.

-

In this fic, Lila's basically a minor inconvenience because reincarnated Marinette used to be and sometimes still is worse than Lila when it comes to manipulations and the like. So I needed someone worse than Lila to be the bad guy and since Adrian is also a reincarnator, it can't be Adrian salt. So I made Fabrizio the magical stalker creep to pick up the slack. He's where I was going to shove all the Adrian salt, but he's since been replaced since I couldn't figure out how to fit him into the timeline. Might save him for another fic.

Sorry the characters are all flat, I was just testing them out.

Chapter 2

[gothika666faerie]

Savannah Walker’s Character Bio

Name: Savannah Maria Walker

Age: 22-25, canon that Bertrand is 13-15 years older because May-December romance

Nickname(s): Savvy Van, Little Lady and Commoner

Height: 1.55m

Weight: 49kg

Build: Petite and rather busty with shapely hips, athletic too due to her liking of walks, trekking and hiking.

Hair colour: Chocolate brown with reddish undertones

Eye colour: Dark brown

Skin: Tanned from her love of beaches

Sexuality: Bi and monogamous

Relationship(s): Drake Walker, brother. Prince Liam, friend. Olivia Nevrakis, confidante and friend. Lady Kiara, confidante, friend and language tutor. Maxwell Beaumont, close friend. Bertrand Beaumont, friend graduated to lover and currently, unknown.

Education: Savannah double majored in Gender Studies and Cordonian History. Her dissertation concerned how Queen Annelyse Adair and Valentina Greaves queered Queen Kenna Rys’ narrative journey during her relinquishment of Stormholt in the Great War of the Five Kingdoms. Previous essays are “Dressed to Kill: Annelyse Adair and Femininity on the Battlefield” and “Bad Women: Hex and Azura’s Quest for Pure Nations”. While Drake preferred a simpler occupation and thus dropped out, Savannah has a thirst for knowledge and ended up graduating with Honours. Bottom line: She is not just a party girl, she is an intellectual party girl.

Personality: Feisty, determined, outspoken, enthusiastic, impulsive, romantic at heart, sexually liberated, imprudent, rather sensitive, prone to violence when provoked, hapless, hoydenish, has a taste for luxury and has a heart of gold (if you deserve it)

Favourite food(s): Eclairs, Spanish paella, mushroom risotto and lobster linguine.

Least favourite food(s): Green tea (she prefers floral or fruit teas and macchiatos), Cordonian Rubies (only eats them if they are baked and sweetened) and cronuts (sorry, Maxwell, they are too sickly for her)

Favourite drink(s): Double chocolate macchiato with whipped cream, blackberry tea, jello shots, tequila, white wine, champagne and whiskey. (She holds her liquor better than Drake and is often their designated driver and caretaker.)

Favourite book(s): This is an impossible question for her because she is a voracious reader, but it has to be a toss-up between Marguerite Duras’ The Lover and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. Savannah gravitates towards magical realism, romance, erotica and the philosophical and feminist.

Favourite poet(s): Christina Rosetti, John Donne, Sappho, John Wilmot the Earl of Rochester and Anne Sexton.

Favourite TV show(s): The Crown and the Flame! She ships Raydan and Kenna and Dom and Sei. Her role model in life is Annelyse Adair and she hopes and prays for a new season. Maxwell is trying to get her into Most Wanted but she thinks the hiatus is heart breaking.

Favourite Disney movie(s): Aristocats, The Fox and Hound, Tangled, Brave, Moana and Fantasia.

Style: Savannah has two moods: girlish, floral and vintage and sexy, man-killer little black/red/white dresses with striking lipstick

Horoscope: Libra

Kink(s): Savannah is a slut for older men (ahem, look who her lover is), BDSM, erotic asphyxiation and being dominated/dominant. She loves men in suits too and enjoys exhibitionism.

Favourite body part(s): Proud of her lips, boobs and legs. Wishes her ass was slightly perkier and shapelier.

Talent(s): She is a confident, devil may care dancer, has a head for dates and timelines, is adept in academic writing and finds it easy to communicate with strangers and network effectively.

Party trick: She can deep throat a champagne bottle and suck the cork out.

Proudest moment(s): Punching Tariq in the face and breaking his nose. Tariq is afraid of her. Moreover, presenting her dissertation at an international conference on Women in Cordonian History. Also, getting Bertrand to weaken enough for him to open to her.

Lowest moment(s): Running out crying after a Beaumont Bash (reasons still undefined), throwing up on Bertrand after drinking too much (this is not said reason) and having Imposter Syndrome while completing her dissertation

Pet peeve(s): Sexists, misogynists, racists, homophobes, prejudiced minded people, elitists, cold tea, ignorance, male chauvinism, misandrists, people who try to explain feminism to her, animal abusers and Tariq.

Favourite animal(s): Kittens, puppies, hamsters, dwarf rabbits, mouse lemurs, sugar gliders and peacocks

Favourite music: Indie, rock, classical and emo.

Celebrity crush(es): Rufus Sewell, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kit Harrington, Colin O’Donoghue, Peter Capaldi, Colin Firth and Jeremy Irons

Favourite movie(s): Bridget Jones trilogy, Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula, Crimson Peak, Alice in Wonderland, Midnight in Paris, Mad Max, anything by Studio Ghibli and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Personal secret: She is helpless in riding a bicycle.

Intimate secret: If a guy bites her ass during oral, she goes nuts.

Deep dark secret: She is a great believer of the ten second rule when it comes to food.

Deepest fantasy: To be tied up and blindfolded and have the man/woman do whatever he or she wants with her. Also, to be fucked in a confessional booth. And, a foursome with Kenna, Annelyse and Valentina.

Favourite position: Sideways from behind gets her all the time.

Cuddling: Yes. Absolutely, yes. She gets needy afterwards.

Great ambition: To be a professor at her alma mater, to compile an anthology of the missing narratives in Kenna’s pilgrimage and to travel with the man of her dreams by her side (Bertrand, why did you fuck up?)

Greatest fear(s): Loss. Dark silence. Failure. Being stuck in a rut.

What she looks for in a man: Confidence, an element of mystique and power, a soft centre in a hard cocoon, V-lines, treasure trails and strong jawline. She loves hands too. Intellectualism as well and if he is well-read, she is all for him. Had the biggest crush on Raydan for the longest time.

What she looks for in a woman: Delicate yet voluptuous bodies. She loves shy types, but a wild girl is always fun. Girls with tongue piercings get her going. Girls with gorgeous wavy hair and a good butt. Sweet, loving, adventurous and willing to learn girls are the way to go. HC that she has gone all the way with Kaitlyn Liao.

Tattoos or piercings: She wears earrings and has “Carpe Diem” tattooed on her hip in elegant cursive. She has a tiny rose tattoo on the inside of her ankle.

Believes in: Feminism, LGBTQA, religion as being a guider of virtue rather than restrictive conventions, that whiskey is sometimes better than vodka and that age is but a number in relationships. Also, one cannot have too many pets and children should be reserved as an option, not a target in life. Also, true love will come if you are willing to make what you have now, the love you share with the person you know you love, become true and deep and eternal.

 (( A bio of what I canon Savannah to be like. Please take note, fellow Bertvannah shippers and Savannah fans. Also anyone who wants to RP with me Bertvannah. @smartlillian @neonschoices @feisty-mary @mochiiiiiiiii @pixelbirb-choices @stormyskydancer @chelseareferenced @dopecatcollins @asherella-is-a-dork-3 @brittney-beaumont @mrskaidanalenko ))

[princessnijireiki]

d'eon de beaumont is like "wow I gave my whole life for france so I kinda don't wanna know how the revolution ends bc that is simply TOO much information but oh my god your modern timeline has freedom of gender expression... that's super cool :')"

(game keeps misgendering d'eon as male, too, which made more sense in the context of the period setting marie antoinette stories, bc she was referred to almost exclusively as a man at the time... like it would've been historically inaccurate & anachronistic to do otherwise, though obviously the gamedevs are just on a "pointing out LGBT subjects, characters, and narratives is taboo" wavelength, for non-historical reasons. but it feels awkward & sketchy at minimum in these new 2021 scenes, which also CLEARLY don't want to explicitly address sexuality or gender identity at all, when the game's writers decided d'eon's goodbye party event was a trip to fucking sephora for makeovers.)

priscilla is extremely babygay and enjoying a top-model-allison-esque career and doesn't wanna go back to the repression of victorian london where she very much didn't fit in because she had a case of Early Feminism, but she also has that "house of m" genre awareness that existing outside your own reality isn't stable, is an illusion, and deprives you of the people you love back home (incl her world's version of the MC)... and so even though she hates the idea of going back home, she chooses to do a heartbreaking photoshoot w the main character for their goodbye so that she doesn't forget priscilla + their shared emotional bond are real??

meanwhile vitto puzo is like "I was the first one snatched up by spacetime magic & have been thrown into your world as an undocumented 1920s gangster dude for OVER A YEAR and I was cool with that & was rolling with the punches until I realized you (aka My Literal Wife) have been in this city THE WHOLE DAMN TIME & that broke my heart & crumbled my resolve baby I missed you so much 😔" and you gotta be like "dude you need to go back to nyc where the me who is actually your wife is there being herself full time, you CANNOT fixate on the me who's here rn bc I'm a whole different lady from 100yrs in your future in this world" even though it's an emotional struggle

I haven't read light's little goodbye chapter yet but just. holy shit yk.

wait why is this in-app anniversary event in my phone game literally sad

[doubletsandprose]

Shakespeare and his Contemporaries - John Fraed (1851)

Rear Left to Right: Joshua Sylvester, John Selden, Francis Beaumont, (seated at table to left) William Camden, Thomas Sackville, John Fletcher, Sir Francis Bacon, Ben Jonson, John Donne, Samuel Daniel, Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh, the Earl of Southampton, Sir Robert Cotton, and Thomas Dekker.

-Wikimedia Commons

A “Kind of Tudor Hall of Fame”

I commence this blog with what is most likely an apocryphal Victorian painting. Pictured above is John Fraed’s rendition of Shakespeare and his literary contemporaries at the Mermaid Tavern--a venue which resided on Elizabethan London’s Cheapside in Bread Street.  According to the traveler and writer Thomas Coryate, by the second decade of the seventeenth century, established writers of the period, including Ben Jonson, Francis Beaumont, and John Donne, had formed a club that would convene on the “first Friday of every month” at the Mermaid. Here they would gather to feast, drink, and converse of intellectual matters, often debating to determine who was the superior wit. Much of what we know or what tradition passes down about the Mermaid Tavern is steeped in literary myth, making it howsoever worthwhile to distinguish from fact or fiction.

This painting has also gone by the title Shakespeare and his Friends at the Mermaid Tavern, a name, which I believe lays a thicker wash of idealism over Elizabethan and Jacobean literary history. Both of the painting’s names emphasize Shakespeare’s prominence while treating the other writers as supplementary. This subordination has an effect of galvanizing the literary energy of early modern London around Shakespeare as its center. When faced with the question of historical accuracy, recent scholarship agrees that it is unlikely that Shakespeare partook in what Coryate called “The Worshipful Fraternity of Sirenaical Gentleman” (Sirenaical deriving from the French word for mermaid, sirené). In History of the Worthies of England (1662), Thomas Fuller recollects witnessing Shakespeare and Jonson at the Mermaid regularly engage in what since are regarded legendary “wit-combats,” in which Shakespeare was often triumphant. However, as Ben Jonson biographer Ian Donaldson has observed, Fuller was only 8 years old in 1616, the year of Shakespeare’s death, and would not have possibly witnessed these so-called “combats” nor engaged with the early seventeenth century patrons of the tavern.

Sir Walter Raleigh is frequently credited as the club’s founder and some sources online and in Shakespeare databases treat this as fact. However, at the time the club would have been founded, Raleigh had been imprisoned in the Tower of London for his involvement in the Main Plot against Queen Elizabeth’s successor, James VI and I of Scotland and England. Upon his succession, James imprisoned Raleigh in 1603 and didn’t release him from the Tower until 1616–the year of Shakespeare’s death. Given this timeline of events, it is highly improbable that Raleigh convened with Shakespeare et all at the Mermaid, let alone founded the club. Moreover, it would be uncharacteristic for a man of Raleigh or Southampton’s station to socialize in local London taverns.

Sir Walter Raleigh c.1588 - National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG 7

w/motto: “Amore et Virtvte” (with/by love and virtue)

-Wikimedia Commons

Shakespeare was nevertheless familiar with the Mermaid. Extant records indicate his real estate dealings with the tavern’s landlord, William Johnson, and it is common knowledge that Shakespeare had connections and worked with men like Beaumont and Fletcher, the latter taking his place as the house playwright of the King’s Men after his death. Additionally, according to the Dramatis Personae of the first edition of Jonson’s collected Works (1616), Shakespeare had acted in two of his plays, Every Man In His Humour and Sejanus. It is safe to say these men were acquainted with the playwright from Stratford and they might have indeed shared a drink and conversed from time to time at the Mermaid or other local taverns for that matter.

What is not certain is evidence proving Shakespeare was attached to this club of men of letters or met with them regularly. In the painting in question, Shakespeare is placed center-stage, acting as the figurehead of what Victorians considered their country’s literary Golden Age. Raleigh, a prominent statesman, despite his imprisonment, and the Earl of Southampton, a patron of Shakespeare’s early narrative poems, stand together in implicit approbation of this learned club. In this respect, Fraed’s painting is more saturated in Victorian romanticism for the past, a “kind of Tudor hall of fame,” as Richard Altick puts it (citation pending), than it is concerned with historical accuracy. Given the composition of the figures, the painting attempts to affirm Shakespeare’s place as the definitive writer and genius of the English Renaissance, and as a definitive influence on the men writing in his time. One might even expect Fraed to include Christopher Marlowe seated on Shakespeare’s left if it weren’t for its historical impossibility–but the air of idealism seems to adore the notion.

I start this blog off with a short and admittedly incomplete survey of Fraed’s painting as a good starting point for the sort of work this blog aims to do. Shakespeare was hardly the self-ostracizing genius who wrote his plays in solitude–he collaborated frequently with the likes of Thomas Middleton and John Fletcher–nor was he the deciding factor of the rich and multifaceted Tudor-Stuart stage. Many other playwrights and poets, including women like Mary Wroth, Elizabeth Carey, Emelia Lanier, and Katherine Philips, were prominent shapers of the literary scene. With that said, this is not so much a Shakespeare blog than it is a blog dedicated to Shakespeare’s time and the early modern world in which he and his contemporaries produced and were produced...

More to come soon,

E

Works Cited

Donaldson, Ian. Ben Jonson: a life, Oxford UP, 2011.

Dutton, Richard. Ben Jonson: Authority: Criticism, London: Macmillan, New                York: St. Martin’s, 1996.

[princessalethea]

YA Scavenger Hunt–ARE YOU READY??

In June, the Alliance of Young Adult Authors is sponsoring a massive young adult scavenger hunt. This is a chance to meet some new authors, grab a bunch of free books, and sign up to win a whole bunch of epic prizes!

RULES

Each author will be given a special keyword, which will be bolded and all caps like this: BUTTERFLIES.

All you have to do is visit all the author’s sites in this order, write down the special keywords to discover the short story, then enter the giveaway with the completed secret legend HERE.

There will be one main giveaway for the main prize, but most of the participating authors will also have smaller giveaways for free books, amazon credit and author swag, so make sure you read their post carefully to see what else they’re offering while you’re on their site for the keyword.

THE MAP (participating authors)

Cindy Ray Hale

Katherine Bogle

Melle Amade

David Kudler

A.M. Yates

Alethea Kontis

Stevie Rae Causey

Katlyn Duncan

Debbie Manber Kupfer

Meredith Rose

N.M. Howell

Lara Ann

K.M. Robinson

J.A. Culican

Heather Karn

Rob L. Slater

Dylan Keefer

Sarah K. Wilson

L.J. Higgins

Gina Marie Long

Em Kazmierski

Travis Hall

Heather Young-Nichols

Anna Santos

J.L. Weil

Jo Schneider

Rebecca Fernfield

Kristin D. Van Risseghem

Martine Lewis

Tara Benham

Stacy Claflin

Beth Hammond

Erica Cope

Nicole Zoltack

Char Webster

Sabrina Ramoth

T.J. Muir

Raquel Lyon

Beth Rodgers

S.L. Beaumont

Eva Pohler

Melanie McFarlane

Cheryllynn Dyess

Audrey Rich

Amanda Zieba

Sandie Will

Elle Scott

Angie Grigaliunas

Ashley Maker

Mandy Peterson

Audrey Grey

Elisa Dane

Amy McNulty

Melinda Cordell

Monica Leonelle

Claire Luana

Frost Kay

Preeti C. Sharma

Bentz Deyo

April Wood

Lena Mae Hill

Angel Leya

Wendi Wilson

Wendy Knight

Chogan Swan

Tamara Hart Heiner

Norma Hinkens

Patti Larsen

Megan Crewe

Jamie Thornton

Jessie Renée

T.A. Maclagan

Lydia Sherrer

Phyllis Moore

P.D. Workman

J.A. Armitage

K.N. Lee

Angela Fristoe

Rhonda Sermon

G.K. DeRosa

Erin Richards

Ali Winters

Larissa C. Hardesty

Kristine Tate

Debra Kristi

Bella Rose

Cortney Pearson

Jeff Kohanek

Kristal Shaff

Rachel Morgan

Emma Right

C.L. Cannon

Joanne Macgregor

Lindsey Loucks

Farah Kuck

Erin Hayes

Jesikah Sundin

Dorothy Dreyer

Danielle Annett

C.J. Ethington

L.C. Hibbett

Madeline Dyer

Katie John

Nicole Schubert

Rachel Medhurst

Tee G Ayer

May Freighter

Heather Dyer

Jen Minkman

J.L. Gillham

Karen Tomlinson

Kate Haye

Megan Linski

Martina Billings

Jo Ho

Brian King

Inna Hardison

Rachel Bateman

Sally Henson

J.L. Hendricks

A.L. Knorr

T.M. Franklin

Konstanz Silverbow

felisha Antonette

Jake Devlin

S.F. Benson

Laurie Treacy

Emily Martha Sorensen

Leia Stone

T. Rae Mitchell

J. Keller Ford

Kat Stiles

Jessica Hawke

Elyse Reyes

Sophie Davis

Bianca Scardoni

Jenetta Penner

David R. Bernstein

Olivia Wildenstein

Derek Murphy

Starts June 1st!

Just go through the “treasure map” above to find the keywords and reconstruct the secret legend. Once you’ve got it, enter for the grand prize HERE. Don’t forget to keep an eye out for other giveaways or free books as you search for the keywords, most authors will be offering their own prizes as well.

For rules, updates or trouble-shooting, make sure to check out this main post which will stay updated.

TIMELINE

Authors will post the rules and the full list of participating authors sometime in June, and have their post up and visible on their site/blog, with their keyword, by June 1st. Readers just need to go through the list, find the words, and use the story to enter for the grand prize.

  The post YA Scavenger Hunt–ARE YOU READY?? appeared first on AletheaKontis.com.

from YA Scavenger Hunt–ARE YOU READY??

[mitchbattros]

Live Updates: Blasts at Plant in Crosby, Texas, Underscore Worries About Storm Damage

A series of small explosions shook a chemical plant northeast of Houston on Thursday and more blasts were expected, after floodwaters shut down the cooling systems that kept the chemicals stable. It was one of a host of new dangers emerging in the aftermath of Harvey, once a Category 4 hurricane, as floodwaters receded in many Houston neighborhoods and the storm moved through northeastern Louisiana and into Mississippi.

In a region dotted with chemical factories, oil refineries, natural gas plants, and other potential sources of combustion and toxins, the explosions at the Arkema plant near Crosby, Tex., underscore the worries that many people have about the lingering dangers that damage from the storm, which was downgraded to a tropical depression on Wednesday night, poses to the region’s infrastructure, economy and health. It appeared that the health and safety risk from the plant was limited; Houston Methodist San Jacinto hospital in Baytown treated 21 first responders for chemical exposure, decontaminating them and then discharging them. The area within 1.5 miles of the plant was evacuated, but it is sparsely populated. The plant produces chemicals called organic peroxides, and Rich Rennard, an Arkema executive, said that smoke from the blasts was “noxious,” an irritant to the lungs, eyes and possibly skin, but he would not say whether it could be called toxic. A total of eight containers at the plant lost refrigeration and can be expected to detonate as the chemicals in them decompose, officials said, but they could not predict how soon others would explode. In Beaumont, about 70 miles east-northeast of Houston, flooding shut down the system that supplies running water to the entire city on Thursday, prompting a hospital to evacuate. With most roads in and out of the area under water, and the Neches River still rising, federal officials are trying to get enough bottled water into Beaumont to prevent a health crisis. In Houston, officials ordered mandatory evacuation of areas around the Barker Reservoir, as flooding from that overwhelmed basin, and the nearby Addicks Reservoir, continued to pour into neighborhoods on the city’s western edge. In other parts of the city, floodwaters receded, exposing countless losses and new hazards, like ruined and abandoned vehicles blocking roads, damaged electrical systems, and mold. Here is more on the latest: Local officials said there were at least 38 deaths in Texas so far that were related or suspected to be related to the storm. Officials throughout southeast Texas said they were prepared for that number to inch higher as floodwaters began to recede. Vice President Mike Pence and other cabinet officials were visiting the Corpus Christi, Tex., area on Thursday to meet with storm survivors. President Trump plans to donate $1 million of his own money to help storm victims in Texas and Louisiana, the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said on Thursday afternoon. Tom Bossert, the White House official spearheading the administration’s response to the storm, on Thursday estimated that 100,000 houses in Texas and Louisiana have been damaged or destroyed — and said Mr. Trump will seek billions in aid in the coming weeks. More than 30,000 people remained in shelters in the region, and Houston fire officials said they would begin the painstaking search of homes in the city to make sure no one was left behind. The process could take up to two weeks. “The shelter mission is the biggest battle that we have right now,” said Brock Long, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA also reported that 95,745 people in Texas have been approved for emergency assistance, which includes financial help with rent, repairs and lost property. The agency has so far disbursed about $57 million to citizens in Texas. The police in Houston rescued 18 people overnight, Mayor Sylvester Turner said on Twitter on Thursday morning. The mayor also said there had been no arrests or citations for breaking the city’s curfew for the second night in a row. What went wrong at the chemical plant? The plant’s owner, Arkema, said the site had been without power since Sunday and the water was six feet deep in some areas. But the organic peroxides stored there need to be refrigerated or they become unstable. With a storage warehouse warming up, the crew transferred the chemicals to diesel-powered refrigerated trailers. Then the backup generators designed to keep refrigeration units operating were flooded as well. The units apparently warmed to the point where the chemicals exploded overnight. The chemicals, which are used in making plastic and other materials, start to decompose as they warm, which creates more heat and can quickly lead to a rapid, explosive reaction. Some organic peroxides also produce flammable vapors as they decompose. Mr. Rennard said that Arkema employees had no plans to enter the site until the water had significantly receded, given the instability of the chemicals there. The blasts were not expected to affect chemicals in other parts of the plant, he said, and the company was able to monitor the status of the containers remotely. “We’re not going to put anyone in harm’s way to try to restore refrigeration,” he said. Pence: ‘The American people are with you.’ Vice President Mike Pence and several cabinet officials arrived to a sunny, hot and humid Corpus Christi, Tex., around midday on Thursday before heading to nearby Rockport to speak with victims of the storm. “The American people are with you,” he told a crowd in Rockport, outside a church that was damaged by the storm. “We are here today, we will be here tomorrow and we will be here every day until this city and this state and this region rebuild bigger and better than ever before.” About 21,000 federal workers have been mobilized in response to the storm and Congress is expected to debate passage of a multibillion-dollar emergency aid package in the coming weeks. Mr. Pence said that he had spoken with Mr. Trump by phone from Air Force Two earlier in the day and asked if he had any words for survivors of the storm. “He just said ‘Just tell them we love Texas,’” Mr. Pence said. Mr. Trump, who visited the area earlier in the week, is expected to return to Texas on Saturday. Mr. Pence was joined in Texas by the secretaries of homeland security, energy, transportation, veterans affairs and labor. Beaumont is running out of water, and a hospital is evacuating. With a record-breaking flood sweeping through Beaumont, taps there ran dry Thursday morning, and officials there said they could not predict when homes and businesses in the city of almost 120,000 residents would have running water again. The city manager, Kyle Hayes, said at a midday news conference that he would not be able to assess flood damage to the city’s water pumps, or give a timeline for fixing them, until water began to recede, which he said would happen no earlier than Saturday. He added that the city was working on setting up bottled water distribution centers. Lack of drinking water poses a survival risk for people trapped in the city, and Mr. Long, in his morning update, said that it was of particular concern to FEMA, which would look to distribute water. But Harvey dropped 47 inches of rain in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area, and most roads into the cities remain impassable, making relief shipments of bottled water difficult. Executives at Baptist Beaumont Hospital decided to evacuate because of the water shutdown. The hospital began to transport most of its 193 patients by ambulance and helicopter to hospitals outside the city, and to discharge those who could safely go home, said Mary Poole, a hospital spokeswoman. Christus Southeast Texas-St. Elizabeth Hospital in Beaumont decided not to evacuate, but until the city water supply resumes, it will only admit new patients who need critical or emergency care. The hospital, which has 256 patients, told nonessential employees not to report for work. Beaumont’s water comes from two pumping plants, a primary one on the Neches River, and a secondary one drawing from wells north of the city, Mr. Hayes said. But both were inundated, and by Thursday morning, the pumps were out of action. The Beaumont Police Department posted pictures of the flooded main pumping station on its Facebook account. City officials made it clear that Beaumont was in the early stages of dealing with the flooding, and did not provide details of the number of dead, or how many people had been rescued or were in shelters. Our reporter Rick Rojas is in Beaumont, his hometown. Read more about his journey home here. ‘So much despair,’ one evacuee says. At the George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston’s main shelter, evacuees have been learning of deaths from social media and from watching news reports on an enormous projection screen. “Part of me wants to just break down crying because it’s so much despair,” said Billy Cartwright, a construction worker who has been staying at the convention center since Monday. “I feel pretty grateful, but part of me’s pretty sad. It’s pretty bad.” Mr. Cartwright, 44, said he believed he had lost all of his possessions to the flood. “I try to think that when all of this passes, just like any other tragedy, America always bounces back,” he said. The flooding threat has not passed. The rain continued across the far eastern part of Texas and the western part of Louisiana on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service, even as the storm lost power as it moved northeast. Flash flood warnings were in effect in East Texas, the lower Mississippi Valley and in the western parts of the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys, where the storm was expected to spread over the next several days. Some rivers in southeastern Texas remained at record levels Thursday — some were still rising and setting more records — as the deluge made its way downstream, and swollen reservoirs released some water into streams. Near the Louisiana border, the Neches River at Beaumont rose on Thursday to more than five feet above its previous record — more than 14 feet above flood stage — and it was projected to keep rising through Friday. Beaumont has received about 47.35 inches of rain since the storm first arrived. At two flood gauges in the suburbs west of Houston, the Buffalo Bayou remained two to three feet above the old record for the fourth straight day, nine to 11 feet above flood stage, and it was not expected to drop for several days. Southwest of Houston, the Brazos River at Richmond broke its flooding record on Thursday, reaching 10 feet above flood stage, and was not expected to crest until Friday. A Houston school district delays reopening as Austin offers help. After initially saying schools would open on Tuesday, Sept. 5, the Houston Independent School District announced Thursday that classes would not resume until Monday, Sept. 11. Superintendent Richard Carranza said more than 10 percent of the city’s schools sustained water damage or had lost power. Families have reported that they lost hundreds of dollars’ worth of new school supplies and clothing in the storm. The district also announced, via Twitter, that uniform rules would be relaxed through January. Houston public school students will have access to three free meals per day, regardless of family income, for the duration of the 2017-2018 school year. Also on Thursday, officials in Austin announced plans to open their classrooms to potentially hundreds of displaced students whose families have fled there to move in with relatives or seek refuge in shelters. “We want them to know we have their back,” Mayor Steve Adler said. “They’re welcome in our town and there is a place for them in our schools.” School officials have been circulating through shelters to advise families from storm-battered southeast Texas that their children will be able to enroll in Austin schools as early as this week, said Paul Cruz, superintendent of the Austin Independent School District. At least 100 students staying in the shelters have signaled their interest in attending. The students are also being invited to attend any of the district’s Friday night football games, he said. Port Aransas is trying to get back on its feet. When 120 m.p.h. winds lashed this beach town where Hurricane Harvey made landfall, they smashed some things and spared others. Houses were pushed off their foundations, while shacks next door were spared. Big trees stood as small trees toppled. At Spanky’s Liquor on the main street, the windows shattered, the walls collapsed. “The roof? It’s about 100 feet that way,” the owner, Tom Hamilton, said as he paused from sweeping the pieces and pointed toward a house with a boat capsized against the porch and a surfboard lodged in a tree. But miraculously, nearly every bottle of liquor was still intact on the shelves, now standing under an open sky. On Wednesday — the first full day Mr. Hamilton had been allowed back to his store — a crew of employees packed boxes of bottles in the sun. Like many on the island, Mr. Hamilton and his staff were beginning the long, often quiet ordeal of loss and recovery. Christy Lambert pulled out her phone to find a photo of her home in Aransas Pass, just across the bay. There was nothing left but a single kitchen wall. Most of her possessions had blown away. “When I saw it, I cried, I cried for hours,” said Ms. Lambert, who fled the storm and returned Monday. “I don’t really have anything but a few things I packed and $40,” she said. “It’s going to be hard to come back from that, but as long as I can keep working, I’ll be O.K.” Legal aid lawyers are preparing for more cases. Lawyers for the poor in Texas are expecting more cases in the wake of the storm, on matters including the denial of disaster relief claims by FEMA and landlord-tenant disputes. David Hall, executive director of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, said his office, which is based in Austin, expects to handle an additional 15,000 client matters this year, on top of the 20,000 to 25,000 client cases it usually opens each year, and to field a 1,000 calls a day related to damage. Click to Post