#|| he gets people killed at monmouth.

[fortrivmph]

"ugh connor is so aggressive he's a killing machine all he does is murder people" actually he's my sweet syrup pie and also haytham is right there putting him in the splash zone.

[ju-nebugg]

moments from trb that make me lose my mind (pt. 2)

- “once your balls drop, that beard’ll come in great. like a fucking rug. you eat soup, it’ll filter out the potatoes. terrier style. do you have hair on your legs? i’ve never noticed.” ronan lynch i love you so much

- ronan panicking and letting the mask slip when gansey was staring down that wasp

- ronan being jealous that gansey was leaving henrietta with adam and saying “do you not want me to come” and gansey responding with “i would take all of you anywhere with me”

- “the sky as blue as death above him” like WHAT

- “i didn’t realize that ‘midget’ was the adam parrish type” ronan your yearning is showing

- gansey’s smile being “complicated” when he notices adam and blue holding hands

- “…blue’s dress had gotten hitched up and gansey could see a long, slender triangle of her thigh. adam’s hand was braced a few inches away on the seat, knuckles pale with his hatred of flying. there was nothing particularly intimate about the way they sat, but something about the scene made gansey feel strange, like he’d heard an unpleasant statement and later forgotten everything about the words but the way they had made him feel.” (long quote i know but holy fucking shit)

- obligatory “i’m always straight.” “oh, man, that’s the biggest lie you’ve ever told.”

- gansey doing his little indie film main character scream to god in a field

- gansey pointing at people. so much pointing. what a dork. i love him so much

- also his vocabulary. what a NERD <333333

- ronan pissing all over the state of virginia

- gansey calling blue “the table everyone wants at starbucks”

- “i just fed chainsaw but she’ll need it again.” “this,” gansey replied, “is precisely why i didn’t want to have a baby with you.”

- adam’s immediate thought when holding blue’s hand is to worry about crushing her fingers :(

- ronan forgetting to be “cool or surly” when translating cabeswater’s latin, and apologizing over and over again good lord and gansey only responding with “it’s okay, you’re doing really well”

- the whole “coincidence because it wasn’t” trend

- gansey being SO NERVOUS to ask blue to hang out at the church, and then sounding “fourteen shades brighter” when she accepts

- gansey’s arms being super fucking ripped from rowing and blue Noticing

- “aquamarine is a wonderful color, and i won’t be made to feel bad for wearing it”

- “gansey’s voice, when he replied, was a little rough. ‘well, if you killed adam, i’d be quite upset.’”

- “on the inside, he sort of wished he looked more like the camaro. which was to say, more like adam.”

- gansey planning out his “cunning thing to say to blue when he saw her next”

- ronan walking in on adam and blue flirting and immediately shoving chainsaw in their faces. hm.

- “no matter how hard he tried, he kept becoming a gansey”

- “out of the blue?” “i’d prefer if you didn’t use that expression.”

- BUTTERNUT

- blue being reluctantly attracted to gansey’s glasses

- ronan trying so hard to give adam an excuse not to go home, and then going absolutely apeshit when adam gets hurt

- neeve’s voice sounding like a “computerized voicemail menu” (can you tell i’m in love with maggie’s descriptors)

- “gansey was just a guy with a lot of stuff and a hole inside him that chewed away more of his heart every year.” oh god

- ronan carrying all of adam’s possessions into monmouth on his back

- gansey saying things like “excelsior” and “yee haw” for no one but himself

- gansey being miserable and blue liking him better that way

- ‘“crushed and broken,” gansey said. “just the way women like ‘em.”’ correct!

- “cabeswater was just as literal as ronan was” HMMMMMMMMM CURIOUS

- ronan writing “remembered” on the red mustang and walking away without a word shut UPPPPPP

- ganseys first question after adam sacrifices himself being “was i so awful?”

- “they didn’t even have the authority to choose an alcoholic beverage. they couldn’t be deciding who deserved to live or die.”

(pt. 1)

as soon as i can stumble my way to a bookstore, dream thieves will be annotated to hell and back. expect more yelling very soon <3

[bibliophilicstranger]

A collection of various thoughts on Merlin started when I was in the beginning of Season 4 (they've languished in my drafts for quite awhile):

Yes, there are spoilers.

Things I Like:

Fashion: They're terribly historically inaccurate, but I love the costumes anyway. They're exactly what a little kid imagines medieval people wore. Morgana's in particular are beautifully done, and I like some of Gwen's as well. The flowing dramatic capes are so much fun to watch billowing every which way.

Humor: Old man Merlin in particular has me in stitches. I like the banter. It balances the seriousness and the lightheartedness well.

Geoffrey of Monmouth: I love the reference.

Sidhe: I finally know how to say this word. (Originally I didn't realize that this was the word they were saying-- I was very surprised when I discovered this word I'd seen many times before was pronounced "She" and not "Sid-he.")

Things that frustrate me:

Morgana: basically her entire character arc. It makes sense that she hates Uther and Merlin, but why suddenly hate Arthur too, when she's been close to him and capable of manipulating him? Why does she jump to trying to kill him instead of trying to get him on her side? What was up with her getting trapped with Aithusa in a pit?

Merlin: He is completely incapable of listening to prophetic advice. Or most advice period. He could end multiple threats before they become them and he doesn't.

Arthur: is completely incapable of properly securing his keys. He also is apparently blind and deaf, on top of being insensitive.

Aithusa: Kilgharrah says the white dragon is male, despite the female-looking spelling (in English, at least names that start and end with 'a' are generally female; Amelia, Alicia, Anna, Arabella, Athena, Agatha, etc.) and general deeming as female in fandom. A female dragon would make more sense-- there'd be a chance of reviving the species with Kilgharrah. Also (s)he's supposed to be a portent of good fortune-- is that just another sign of Kilgharrah's bs since none of his prophecies come true? Also where the hell is he? Why didn't he take care of/train/keep Aithusa way from Morgana and out of reach of the Sarrum?

Things I don't like:

Fashion: Their use of the color purple. Merlin and Gwen shouldn't be wearing purple when they're servants (obviously this restriction doesn't apply once Gwen is Queen). I know I said I liked it despite the historical inaccuracy but for some reason this is the bit that annoys me.

Guinevere: I know she's supposed to be nice and kind, yet badass and we're supposed to love her, but I don't. For one, I don't think she and Arthur have connection or chemistry; I think that's part of why Merthur is so popular. This relationship was so poorly done that you don't feel inclined to root for it even if you generally prefer straight pairings, and the only other regular female character is his sister, so the only other options for Arthur are characters we see only in one or two episodes. Merlin has chemistry with everyone, Arthur has chemistry only with Merlin. I think Gwen's status as a servant is a larger issue (yes, I get that her being a servant and the servant/royalty barrier gives drama and forbidden love and whatever else). It's just, Arthur is king of a kingdom surrounded by hostile kingdoms/kingdoms he has shaky alliances with. He should be marrying for normal royalty reasons! And Royalty are supposed to marry for position/alliance.

Politics: The political situation with the other kingdoms rarely mattered for more than an episode at a time.

Lancelot: his ending. Noble, yes. But a waste. His resurrection and what happens is also bs. He and Gwen were a better couple than her and Arthur.

Fancy Knights: They die. Constantly. Where do they keep getting new ones? It can't be that big of a kingdom and unless every noble woman is pumping out ten to twelve kids, there just isn't the birth rate for the number that are dying. Training knights is expensive! Equipping them is expensive! No wonder Arthur needed to recruit peasants!

Agravaine: Where the fuck was he in the first three seasons? And why is he on Morgana's side? Even if he dislikes Uther, why take it out on Arthur? If you loved your sister, why kill her child? Do you really think that's what she would have wanted? I feel like his motives weren't well built up. Certainly why Arthur trusts him wasn't.

The Ending: We never get the golden age or restoration of magic promised. There are implicit time skips, but we don't get to see it. It would have been cool if they did more of the 'lighthearted magic issue of the week' in the later seasons, where we got a better sense of the prosperity of Arthur's Camelot instead of darkness and constant attack. Honestly there were so many loose ends, no wonder everyone's so busy wondering when we're getting another season to wrap everything up in modern times.

[queer-ragnelle]

Hello, I saw your answer (and therefore explanation) of Gawain and his many lovers and wondered if you also had some insights into the relationship between Kay and Bedivere? Was that a solely adventure buddies kinda thing or a little bit more perhaps? Anyways I hope you have a lovely evening

hey there!

oh yay i love them! i incorporated a lot of bedivere into my kay webweaving post and in my book series i modeled their relationship after real life knights sir john clanvowe and sir william neville. let's get into it! :^)

for starters, kay and bedivere are two of the oldest arthurian characters, so their "history" is long. which is very fun! in the mabinogion, kai and bedwyr refer to each other as "companions." the word is sometimes applied to all members of arthur's fellowship (ie "companion" of the round table) but i really enjoy the idea that it can speak to a deeper connection than "coworker." let's look at a couple passages.

in culhwch and olwen, kai and bedwyr are sent by arthur on a quest. their introductions are back to back with a list of their fun magical powers. notably, bedwyr's opens like this.

they are the definition of "comes as a set, do not separate." their apparent inseparability becomes a theme from here. later, kai works some blacksmithing, prompting this exchange.

literally what is this supposed to mean? if "companion" refers to all of arthur's men, then explain this...wild. off to a strong start. then comes the rescue of mabon, where kai and bedwyr ride together on the back of a huge salmon.

and here's some kickass artwork of this adventure by margaret jones, which i scanned for all to read!

but wait, there's more. last note about the mabinogion is that kai has his own turn of phrase referring to bedwyr's missing hand, which can seem a bit mean-spirited, but is received as more of an inside joke.

crazy stuff. okay. brace yourself for our boy geoffrey of monmouth's the history of the king's of britain. here kay and bedivere gain roles that go hand in hand, seneschal and cupbearer ("server" and "butler" in this translation). when arthur has to fight and kill the giant of mon saint michael, he chooses only two people to bring with him. guess who.

later, during the war, they are assigned to co-command one of the factions.

and then.....the ending. bedivere is slain, and kay sacrifices himself in the effort to retrieve his body.

sick and twisted narrative choices, geoff. i'm looking away.

to answer your question, yeah, i think together they make the most wonderfully annoying middle management married couple in camelot and menace all their employees in an ever-revolving door of "go ask my husband" that drives everyone mad. arthur finds it highkey hilarious<3

thanks for asking!

[mask131]

Arthurian myth: King Arthur (1)

Loose translation of the article "Arthur (Artus)" from Catherine Rager's "Dictionnaire des fées et des peuples invisibles dans l'Occident païen" (Dictionary of fairies and invisible people in the Pagan Occident).

ARTHUR (Artus)

Mythical king of a cycle of romans, the tales of the Round Table, also known as the Matter of Britain, which blossomed throughout all of Europe from the 12th to the 15th centuries. Among those texts, we find numerous romans by Chrétien de Troyes, and The History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffroy of Monmouth, alongside its very loose translation Le Roman de Brut by Wace, itself rewrote by the priest Layamon in his poem Brut, and later, by Malory in his La Mort d'Arthur. Arthur was originally a historical warlord killed around 537 at the battle of Camlann, but he then became a super-human character identified to another Arthur, the great god of the pantheon of the Britons, and thus symbolizing the fight of the old kings of Great-Britain against the Saxon invaders.

The father of Arthur is the king Uter Pendragon who, despite his human appearance, seems to be a figuration of an Underworld king. He claims to be Constantine's descendant - the Celts, during this era, were Romanized. Arthur's half-sister is the fairy Morgane. As for his wife, the incomparable Guenievre ou Guinevere, her name means in its Welsh form (Gwenhwyfar, Gwenhwyvar) "white spirit", "white ghost". Some considered that Guenievre, who is recurringly kidnapped, is a resurgence of the Greek goddess Persephone. Their son, Llacheu, has the gift of second-sight/clearsight, as he knows the secret of material elements and of nature.

The relationships between Arthur and the Otherworld make him a magical character. In the roman of the Saxon Layamon, Brut, we see elves assist to his birth and gift him - he will be powerful, wealthy, generous and have a long life.

As many other heroes, Arthur receives his sword, Excalibur, from a supernatural creature. It is the Lady of the Lake that offers it to him. Indeed, the weapon he took away from its rock had been broken during a previous battle. Merlin, to replace it, brought the king to the shore of a lake, where an arm with white silk came out of the water, offering him the magical sword ornate with dragons - it is Excalibur, the Caladbolg of the Irish Fergus, a sword forged in Avallon. Before his death, the king will task sir Bedevere with bringing back Excalibur to the lake, where the mysterious arm appears again out of the water and takes it back. The Lady of the Lake always offers her protection to the king.

Arthur rides a black horse, a color associated to the realm of the dead: he can, as such, cross the waters that separate the afterlife from the realm of the living without his horse going wild with terror. The Book of Taliesin, a Welsh text of the 13th century, tells how the king went to the Underworld and brought back from it a magical cauldron (prefiguration of the Grail) which offers to knights an endless supply of food, but stays empty for the cowards.

Arthur is a purifying hero who gets rid of the monsters that plague the universe, just like Hercules, Theseus, Finn mac Cumhail or Cûchulainn. His first exploit was to kill the boar Twrch Trwyth which was ravaging Wales (Mabinogion of Kulwch and Olwen).

Once king, Arthur represents a solar-themed strength and wisdom. Advised by Merlin the enchanter, he establishes a rule of peace and justice (for twelve years according to some, for forty according to others), and presides at Carduel the Round Table, whose nature confirms that Arthus is both belonging to the supernatural, and an image of the Sun. His court can be found at Camelot - which might be Cadbury Castle, in the Somerset, but is before all the idealized town, the perfect city, the seat of knowledge, poetry and alchemy. The court keeps moving depending on the tales. The lord regularly sends his knights fight for just causes (and, after the Christianization of the legend, for the quest of the Grail containing the blood of the Christ), but himself rarely appears as a warrior. He sometimes even appears to figure a god of war who is above the mere battle, similarly to the goddess Badb.

For a marvelous life, a prodigious end: in his Vita Merlini, Geoffroy of Monmouth tells how the king, killed by the treacherous Mordred, his nephew and likely incestuous son, is carried on a magical boat by fairies that came from the Atlantic (where the realm of the dead is located). He is accompanied there by the Lady of the Lake and by three queens: the queen of Northern Wales, the queen of the Terre Gaste, and Morgane. Healed of his wounds by the latter, he stays with her, the Lady of the Lake, and their six sister-fairies, in the island of Avallon, "The Isle of Apples", which is sometimes a name for the Sidh/realm of the fairies, sometimes synonymous with the Blessed Islands or Fortune Isles. In Layamon's Brut, it is elves that take to Avallon the dead king, and it is the elf-queen Argante that brings him back to life. In truth, he returned to the place he belongs to, this Otherworld where there is no death, no suffering, no decadence, but only youth, feast and joy. His people hope for his messianic return, either in times of war, or simply so that he can offer them wise advice. In Cornwall, king Arthur supposedly appears in the shape of a black bird with red-colored beak and claws.

Old texts from which Rabelais took his inspiration mixed together the legend of king Arthur and the one of the giant Gargantua.

In Guillaume Apollinaire's burlesque "Arthur roi passé roi futur" (Arthur, king past, king future, 1914), king Arthur returns, wearing a shining armor, to Buckingham Palace where Georges IX is ruling. After having tested the authenticity of the ghost, Georges IX abdicates and lets the throne return to the old lord of England.

[pub-lius]

aaron burr pt. 1

hey y’all.... how y’all doing.......

so ive been gone for a while. sorry about that. but! i have a lot of posts to work on. i only have three more historical figures to do for @thereallvrb0y because i love him, and then imma post my notes from A People’s History of the French Revolution by Eric Hazan, so i am back. anyway, it’s burr time

but before i get into everyone’s favorite bisexual with a receding hairline, i have to give a little disclaimer. these notes are OLD. like from 2020 old, and while I always trust my sources, i don’t trust my ability to read my own handwriting, so if you go on the google doc and see Burr’s notes and you’re like “this makes no sense”, i don’t understand what i meant either. they’re also the most disorganized notes i have, but im not taking them again so. this is what we’re stuck with besties. 

The Start of the Shitshow

Aaron Burr Jr. was born at Newark, New Jersey on February 6, 1756. His father was a highly respected clerical scholar who served as a pastor of the Newark First Presbyterian Church and as president of Princeton University. He contracted a fever and died when his son was only one and a half. His mother was a daughter of noted Puritan theologian and scholar Jonathan Edwards, who was remembered for his passionate speeches. She died when he was two, so he got the whole orphan arc over with very quickly. 

He and his sister, Sally, lived with family friends until 1759 when Uncle Timmy Edwards of Stockbridge Massachusetts became their legal guardian and local pain in the ass. He was highkey abusive and we don’t like him. They moved to Elizabethtown, New Jersey in 1760, and Uncle Fuckface noticed that Burr had inherited his parents’ intellect, but not their piety, because he was too busy serving cunt to pray. He was also described as high-spirited, independent, precocious, and self confident, which sounds about right.

He had a fairly advanced education, studying with a private tutor until he was 13 when he got into Princeton, and he graduated from there at 16, which was round the age of most freshmen there, so that’s pretty sick. He enrolled in Reverend Joseph Bellamy’s school at Bethlehem, Connecticut in 1773 to study ministry, until he realized he couldn’t accept the Calvanist discipline nor avoid the distraction of the town, or maybe just got tired of the highly not okay gay relationship with Bellamy, so he moved to Litchfield, Connecticut in May 1774 to study law under his brother-in-law, Tapping Reeve. (Burr moves around so much, I never know where this mf is at any given point). \

Burr didn’t get his degree in law (yet *foreshadowing noise*) because his studies were interrupted by the revolution

The War *eagle screech and fireworks*

Burr joined the march on Quebec as an uncompensated “gentleman volunteer” in 1775. During the December 31 assault, he attempted to carry General Montgomery’s body back after he had been shot and killed by grapeshot, which won him an aide-de-campship to Washington’s staff. However, he was almost immediately reassigned to General Isreal Putnam because he didn’t like Washington’s office, which I can’t blame him because we all knew that shit was stressful. Washington also didn’t seem to like Burr much, but like Joseph Reed worked there, so Washington obviously wasn’t firing people bc he didn’t like them. 

Under Putnam, he received a commission as a Lieutenant Colonel and commanded his own regiment, which was a vast improvement to the rank as one of Washington’s aides, because they weren’t considered actual Lt. Colonels and they were constantly at a desk, which Burr would not tolerate. He saw action at Monmouth, and his regiment suffered heavy casualties, and he was also ordered by Washington to determine future movements of the British in New York. He commanded troops at Westchester, NY, and imposed rigid discipline that brought order to the frontier outpost. 

He resigned his commission in 1779 due to stress and exhaustion. This was a pretty great military career, and he was proud of it. People called him “Colonel Burr” even after his service. 

After the war

He traveled often after leaving the army and continued his law studies. In 1782, he began his law practice and married Theodosia Bartow Prevost, a widow of a British officer he had been hardcore flirting with. Their wedding was actually unplanned, bc her sister was getting married and Burr was invited so they were like “why have two bitches get married when you can have four” so they had a cute little double wedding. 

Burr moved to New York in November, 1783 after the British evacuation, along with Burr’s two stepsons and their infant daughter, who lavished special attention on his only child and supervised her education. If you want more info on Theodosia Jr., I answered an ask about here here. 

Burr was an able lawyer, working mainly for non-whigs (loyalists/tories, neutral parties during the war). This worked in his favor and he rose to prominence. This is around when he began his famously neutral political philosophy, the whole “don’t let them know what you’re against or what you’re for” thing Lin Manuel Miranda is obsessed with. 

He served a single term in the New York assembly during the 1784-85 session, and left public life until 1788, when he played a minor role in the NY debate over ratification of the Constitution. The Sons of Liberty (bc they’re still around apparently) considered Burr as a possible delegate to the ratification convention, but he declined. He had some reservations over the Constitution, but abandoned them when a majority of the states ratified it. 

He supported Richard Yates along with Alexander Hamilton during the 1789 gubernatorial election. Yates was an anti-federalist and a friend who helped Burr win admission to the Bar (which btw there was this whole thing about Burr fighting so that college credits before the war didn’t have to be retaken after the war or whatever idk i can’t remember). Yates lost to George Clinton, who appointed Burr as attorney general in 1781, so he didn’t really lose anything. 

Clinton also helped orchestrate Burr’s Senate election in 1791, unseating Philip Schuyler. Now, this did cause beef between him and Hamilton, like in the musical, but this wasn’t their first beef, especially since Burr dueled Hamilton’s brother-in-law soooooooo...

Also, during this time, Burr’s daughter, Sally, died in October 1788 at three years old and four months of an unspecified (i think) illness. 

Okay, that’s it for now, but the other posts are coming soon because I’m literally dedicating the next to days to this and only this so yay! hope y’all missed me <3 

[friendofcars]

random line from trc: "his heart was a grave" :)

hi!

my guess: i'm almost certain i know this one. it's from bllb when the kids are at fox way and adam figures out that blue saw one of them at the church watch (and soon after figures out that gansey is the one fated to die). no idea which chapter though. i believe the line is when adam and blue step outside to talk, but i'm not sure.

the answer: bllb, chapter 25. it is indeed outside fox way when adam gets blue to join him outside the house so he can confirm his suspicions.

my thoughts: this is probably one of my favorite lines in the series. it's so short and simple but it's such a precise summary of adam's perspective on love and interpersonal connection. we know that adam associates attraction with pain/fatality ("he was attracted to her like a heart attack" "and here was ronan, like a heart attack that never stopped"). this is, of course, thinking beyond romantic/sexual attraction to a broader sense of relationships, informed by him growing up in an abusive household where his connection to family members is dangerous rather than protective or fulfilling.

so that's half of the problem- adam has been hurt by those that should have loved him, so he feels he'll cause himself pain by allowing himself close to people. the other half, emphasized here, is far more pervasive in adam's narration: his fear that he will hurt those he loves/that those in his proximity are in danger. the best example is adam's nightmare (in the tree and in noah's room at monmouth) that he's killed gansey, that he's too much like his father and is irredeemably dangerous. so when he learns gansey is fated to die, he immediately assumes he'll be the guilty party. he's always attributing potential to do harm to himself (despite him being capable of deep empathy and heroic gestures!). a grave, like death, like gravity, is an inevitability. adam sees his capacity to harm others as something that will inevitably be fulfilled. he sees violence as a heavy and immutable feature of his upbringing.

this line also really strikes me when i read it because it reminds me of chapter 1 of the raven boys when blue sees gansey's spirit on the corpse road: “he was so real. when it finally happened, when she finally saw him, it didn’t feel like magic at all. it felt like looking into the grave and seeing it look back at her.” because like adam, blue has grown up seeing her capacity to love intertwined with her capacity to harm due to her curse. it's a lighter burden for her because of her loving and supportive family, but both adam and blue are haunted by their love for gansey because they see it as a hazard to him. for them, to love gansey is to kill him. they don't yet know that their love will resurrect him too.

my final note on this is mentioning a grave feels apt for a book about caves but don't have more to say about it.

[beardedmrbean]

A deadly and dangerous viral trend is making a comeback, and it landed a 13-year-old New Jersey boy in the hospital — as his mother hopes her son's story serves as a wake-up call for other parents.

It's called the "Benadryl Challenge," which first made the rounds several years ago and prompted the FDA to issue a warning, stating that overdosing on the over-the-counter allergy drug can be fatal. The medication's labeling has warnings as well.

The Monmouth County teen was rushed to the emergency room at Riverview Hospital in Red Bank earlier in April after swallowing an unknown number of Benadryl allergy pills while his parents were out on a rare date night. His condition was so dire, he was moved to Jersey Shore University Medical Center soon after.

His mother, who did not wish to share her name, said in a phone interview with NBC New York that her son "was curled in a fetal position on the floor, eyes dilated, like staring into space, couldn’t move, couldn’t walk.”

Dr. Stacey Doumas, a psychiatrist at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, said that education goes a long way in avoiding such scenes.

"I think pretty often the kids are pretty uneducated about these things, and they don’t realize how dangerous it might be," said Dr. Doumas. "They think so many people have done it already, so they must know what they’re doing, so it must be OK...They’re not reading the real news, they’re seeing the challenges and stuff like that and they don’t realize the real dangers, that someone died from doing this."

The so-called "Benadryl Challenge" has recently made something of a comeback, and now TikTok has blocked the search for any video with the Benadryl name in it. The company said it has done so since 2020.

And yet the craze persists on the internet. In Ohio, 13-year-old Jacob Stevens died earlier in April after consuming a dozen or so pills in an apparent attempt to get high.

"Watch your kids because Jacob had taken Benadryl ever since he was a little tiny kid. And I don't think that he would have ever thought that it would have hurt him," said his grandmother, Dianna Stevens.

Back in New Jersey, the 13-year-old has now recovered after being in an ICU room at Jersey Shore. His mom said he doesn’t yet appreciate the gravity of what happened, but says he is remorseful.

"We need awareness to help our children and ourselves to become aware of the danger," the mother said. "We need a safety plan now, and every parent should have one.”

The mother said that she has now locked up all the medications in the house — a very good idea, according to Dr. Doumas.

"From when they’re little you hide dangerous medications so they don’t accidentally take something. As they get older you hide dangerous medications so they don’t intentionally take something," Dr. Doumas said.

The maker of Benadryl, Johnson & Johnson, calls the challenge "a dangerous trend and should be stopped immediately."

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, July 9, 2024

Most Americans who vow to leave over an election never do. Will this year be different? (USA Today) The idea of moving to another country to protest a presidential administration or political policy isn’t new—think the Vietnam War or even vows to move following the re-election of President George W. Bush. Even Trump once joked he might leave if Biden was elected. Typically, relatively few who vow to leave actually make the move, said Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels, a University of Kent migration scholar and expert on Americans abroad. But this year, as voter anxiety hits the red zone ahead of a divisive election contest between Trump and President Joe Biden, there are signs that Americans from a cross-section of society are taking a more serious look at the exits. The percentage of U.S. citizens who would settle abroad if they were able reached 34% in a March 26 poll by Monmouth University, up from 12% since 1995. Monmouth polling officials said they believe the political rancor of recent years likely helped fuel the rise.

Beryl unleashes high winds, heavy rains in Texas (AP) Tropical Storm Beryl unleashed heavy rains and powerful winds along the Texas coast on Monday, knocking out power to more than 2 million homes and businesses and flooding streets with fast-rising waters as first responders raced to rescue stranded residents. Beryl had already cut a deadly path through parts of Mexico and the Caribbean before making a turn, sweeping ashore as a Category 1 hurricane in Texas early Monday, then later weakening to a tropical storm. At least two people were killed. The National Hurricane Center said damaging winds and flash flooding will continue as Beryl continues pushing inland. More than 2 million homes and businesses in the Houston area were without electricity, CenterPoint Energy officials said, and crews cannot get out to restore it until the wind dies down.

Comeback story (NYT) America’s so-called “left behind” counties—the once-great manufacturing centers and other distressed places that struggled mightily at the start of this century—have staged a remarkable comeback. In the last three years, they added jobs and new businesses at their fastest pace since Bill Clinton was president. The turnaround has shocked experts. “This is the kind of thing that we couldn’t have even dreamed about five or six years ago,” said John Lettieri, the president of the Economic Innovation Group, a think tank that studies economic distress in the U.S. Those counties span the nation but are largely concentrated in the Southeast and Midwest. Researchers say it’s too soon to know exactly what’s changed, but there are theories. The pandemic disrupted some long-running patterns of where Americans live and work; some people appear to have fled cities like New York for remote jobs—or for the chance to start a new company—in less expensive areas.

Is college worth it? Poll finds only 36% of Americans have confidence in higher education (AP) Americans are increasingly skeptical about the value and cost of college, with most saying they feel the U.S. higher education system is headed in the “wrong direction,” according to a new poll. Overall, only 36% of adults say they have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education, according to the report released Monday by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation. That confidence level has declined steadily from 57% in 2015. Some of the same opinions have been reflected in declining enrollment as colleges contend with the effects of the student debt crisis, concerns about the high cost of tuition, and political debates over how they teach about race and other topics.

El Salvador’s president threatens to use gang-crackdown style tactics against price gougers (AP) Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, famous for his heavy-handed crackdown on street gangs, threatened to use similar tactics against price gougers. Since 2022, Bukele has rounded up tens of thousands of suspected street gang members—often on little evidence—and filmed them being frog-marched in their underwear though vast new prisons. In a speech late Friday, he threatened to use the same tactics on wholesalers and distributors who he blamed for a recent steep rise in the prices for food items and other basic goods. It’s all very much in character for Bukele, who once described himself as the “world’s coolest dictator.”

Can you ‘Trump-proof’ NATO? As Biden falters, Europeans look to safeguard the military alliance (AP) Growing skepticism about President Joe Biden’s reelection chances has European leaders heading to the NATO summit in Washington confronting the prospect that the military alliance’s most prominent critic, Donald Trump, may return to power over its mightiest military. NATO—made up of 32 European and North American allies committed to defending each other from armed attack—will stress strength through solidarity as it celebrates its 75th anniversary during the summit starting Tuesday. Event host Biden, who pulled allies into a global network to help Ukraine fight off Russia’s invasion, has called the alliance the most unified it has ever been. But behind the scenes, a dominant topic will be preparing for possible division, as the power of far-right forces unfriendly to NATO grows in the U.S. and other countries including France, raising concerns about how strong support will stay for the alliance and the military aid that its members send to Ukraine.

France’s left-wing surge (BBC) Nobody expected this. When the graphics flashed up on all the big French channels, it was not the far right of Marine Le Pen who was on course for victory. It was the left who had clinched it, and Emmanuel Macron's centrists—the Ensemble alliance—had staged an unexpected comeback, pushing the far-right National Rally (RN) into third. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the veteran left-wing firebrand seen by his critics as an extremist, wasted no time in proclaiming victory. His alliance, drawn up in a hurry for President Macron's surprise election, includes his own radical France Unbowed, along with Greens, Socialists and Communists and even Trotskyists. But their victory is nowhere big enough to govern. France is going to have a hung parliament. None of the three blocs can form an outright majority by themselves of 289 seats in the 577-seat parliament.

‘A Little Scary’: Ukraine Tries to Stay Neutral in U.S. Political Dogfight (NYT) Ukraine, which depends on American military aid for its survival, has long tried to maintain bipartisan support in the United States. That has never been easy, but it is getting harder, especially with the increased possibility that Donald J. Trump, no great friend of Ukraine, will return to the White House. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is asked in nearly every interview what a second Trump administration would mean for Ukraine. While Mr. Zelensky chooses his words carefully, sometimes the emotional weight of the assumption behind the question—that Mr. Trump could end American military assistance, allowing Russia to succeed in destroying the Ukrainian state—spills into view. Mr. Trump’s claim last week during his debate with Mr. Biden that he alone knew the path to peace is “a little scary,” the Ukrainian president said in an interview with Britain’s Channel 4 News. “If there are risks to Ukrainian independence, if we lose statehood—we want to be ready for this, we want to know,” Mr. Zelensky said in a subsequent interview last week with Bloomberg. “We want to understand whether in November we will have the powerful support of the U.S. or will be all alone.”

The Killer Stalking Sri Lanka’s Men (NYT) Something odd has been happening to young men in the sultry farming and fishing communities of Sri Lanka. Since the 1990s, men in their 30s and 40s have been turning up at hospitals with late-stage kidney failure, needing dialysis or even transplants. In some communities, as many as one in five young men is affected. Their condition has no clear cause; in fact, it is called “chronic kidney disease of unknown origin.” But experts say the illness is most likely the result of exposure to extreme heat, and the resulting dehydration, as well as an overuse of toxic pesticides that have seeped into the groundwater. The trend is most striking in young men, but some women, too, seem to have the disease. And children as young as 10 already show early signs of kidney trouble.

After 9 Months of War, Israelis Call for a Cease-Fire Deal and Elections (NYT) Israelis on Sunday marked nine months since the devastating Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7 and the start of the ensuing war in Gaza with a nationwide day of anti-government protests at a time that many here view as a pivotal juncture in the conflict. Primarily calling for a cease-fire deal with Hamas that would see hostages return from captivity and for new elections in Israel, protesters brought traffic to a standstill at several major intersections in cities and on highways across the country. But many Israelis, among them the families of some of the hostages, fear that the cease-fire efforts could be torpedoed not only by Hamas, but also by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel who, they say, might prioritize the survival of his government over a deal that could topple it. The leaders of two ultranationalist parties who are key elements of Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition have threatened to bring the government down if the prime minister agrees to a deal before Hamas is fully destroyed—a goal that many officials and experts consider unattainable. The far-right parties in the governing coalition “don’t want a deal,” Shikma Bressler, a protest leader, said in a social media post early Sunday, adding, “They need Armageddon.”

Nearly 1,000 homes in Cape Town destroyed by storms as city braces for a week of bad weather (AP) Nearly 1,000 homes in informal settlements in Cape Town, South Africa, have been destroyed by gale-force winds, displacing around 4,000 people, authorities and an aid organization said as the city braces for a week of damaging storms. South African weather authorities said Monday that Cape Town and surrounding areas are expected to be hit by multiple cold fronts until at least Friday, bringing torrential rain, strong winds and flooding. The worst-hit areas are expected to be the poor, informal settlements on the edge of South Africa’s second biggest city.

Pope: We need the ‘scandal’ of faith (Vatican News) What the world needs now is “the scandal of faith,” Pope Francis said during his homily for Mass on Sunday, in the Italian city of Trieste. “We need a scandal of faith” that is not indifferent to the problems of this world, but that is rooted in the Incarnation, a faith “that enters history, touches people’s lives, and becomes a leaven of hope and a seed for a new world.” Pope Francis insisted that God is found precisely “in the dark corners of our lives and of our cities,” and among “the least, the forgotten, the discarded.” All too often, he said, we are scandalized by little things, when instead we should be outraged “in the face of rampant evil.” Like Jesus—who, despite being rejected and even tried and executed, “remained faithful to His mission”—we Christians are also called to be prophets and witnesses to the Kingdom of God, in whatever place or situation we find ourselves.

[tinyravenfeathers]

@tran-shar Completely correct, the extremely small body of unknown-authored works of Arthur and the rest of the knights were Welsh.

I know it's been said before and I can't find the thread/post right now but Arthurian mythology is entirely cobbled together from fanfiction--really, really old fanfiction.

As far as literary historians and other nerd types like me know, the first King Arthur accounts were meant to be historical. So some monk who thought that this or that historical battle would be a good lesson to the people or somesuch and wrote it all down but probably embellished a bit and just went "you know, I think the Lord's name was... Arthur, that has a nice ring to it. And he killed, mmm....900 men? sounds good!"

And then other people started writing RPF about this guy, and Geoffrey of Monmouth's version got hella popular so people started writing fanfic of that, and it just started spiraling out of control back when printing and book-making was still, in some cities, being done by hand.

Oodles of fanfiction, if you could get your hands on it, and published at your own expense. There is no canon, basically, because no one can claim that any piece of writing about Camelot is more valid than any other piece because there is no single, accepted, true author and there's no original text (at least not one that contains everything everyone would like it to) and the entire thing is strikingly similar to a very exciting party that just happens to give copyright lawyers headaches on sight. But the people at the party which is still going strong for multiple centuries are enjoying the fuck out of it, writing about these characters because they like them and because they can.

Thus: Gawain and the Green Knight is canon, but so is Disney's Sword in the Stone. The Vulgate cycle featuring Lancelot is just as valid as every single freaking version of Merlin. There is genuinely no reason to claim that any one of the above is less canon than the others, because there is only fanon.

And in this day and age of pre-packaged, corporate run-enjoyment and the freaking stranglehold Disney exerts over things people enjoy...I think having a mythology entirely made of fanon is absolutely beautiful.

I'm only putting English-speaking options.

Scotland is not an option, since I believe that Jenkins as an Englishman has some issues with them and that he chose the place for the Annex himself.

[ink-through-her-veins]

Geoffrey of Monmouth interviews the knights of the round table for the history books. It turns into therapy.

“Arthur is a fair and just King, except when Merlin is involved. Have you seen the man? He’s thin as a rail and has the survival instincts of a suicidal deer. Yet, Arthur brings him everywhere! I have nightmares about him getting killed. And it’s not even my own grief I fear. Arthur will be unbearable if Merlin dies.” - Percival

“Hate the Princess. He’s awful, all nobles are. I’m only here for Merlin.” -Gwaine

“It has been my longest held dream to be a Knight of Camelot. I owe all of it to Merlin.” -Lancelot

“The knights had discipline before Arthur adopted Merlin’s feral friends. I had to carry Gwaine home from the Rising Sun twice last week. Which should be Percy’s job. He’s as big as a mountain. Clearly Lancelot is insane. He’s secretly courting Gwen or Merlin—or maybe both!—but either way he’s driving Arthur to distraction with jealousy.” -Leon

“I was only knighted because the King had a crush on my sister. I may lose my title when he realizes that he’s head over heels for Merlin, but I’m enjoying it while it lasts.” -Elyan

It becomes a weekly thing and Geoffrey is forced to add a footnote to history proclaiming Merlin is the King’s best friend. He hopes people in the future understand what he means.

[offender42085]

Post 0498

Liam McAtasney, New Jersey inmate 674174G, born 1997, incarceration intake in 2019 at age 23, sentenced to life

Murder, Robbery, Disturbing Human Remains, Tampering with Evidence, Hindering Prosecution, Conspiracy

Liam McAtasney was sentenced to life in prison without parole for murdering his childhood friend Sarah Stern in December 2016 and enlisting the help of his former roommate to toss her body over a New Jersey bridge.

McAtasney was also sentenced to an additional 10 years for desecration of human remains. That sentence will run consecutively.

In February 2019, a Monmouth County jury found McAtasney guilty on all seven counts against him, including first-degree murder, conspiracy, desecrating human remains, tampering with evidence and other charges. He was accused of strangling 19-year-old Stern, his high school classmate, in December 2016 and enlisting her prom date and his former roommate, Preston Taylor, to help throw her body off a bridge in Belmar, New Jersey, according to authorities. Stern’s body has never been recovered.

Prosecutors argued that McAtasney killed Stern for the thousands of dollars that had once belonged to her mother, who died of cancer in 2013. They claimed McAtasney planned Stern’s death for six months and his aim was to get money from her lock box, which he believed was stuffed with cash.

The defendant looked down while listing to the victim’s family impact statement, never making eye contact with Stern’s father. But just moments later, when prosecutors described the details of his crime and argued for consecutive sentencing, McAtasney wiped tears from his eyes.

Prosecutor Meghan Doyle charged that his tears in court were fake and McAtansey has shown no remorse.

Defense attorney Carlos Diaz-Cobo argued McAtasney had no prior criminal history and other counts should run concurrent.

Judge Richard English ultimately sentenced the 21-year-old to life without parole plus 10 years, saying, "This is really a heinous event since this involved two people who knew each other since grammar school. He came up with this plan for six months prior and convinced someone else to take part."

Also present in the courtroom was Sarah’s classmate and Liam’s good friend Anthony Curry. In a sting operation with police, he secretly recorded McAtasney, capturing what prosecutors argued was McAtasney’s confessing to the crime. Curry made no comment.

Judge English credited Curry with breaking the case: "If not for Mr. Curry, this could have been a cold case."

During the trial, jurors were shown a video of Curry’s hidden camera recording.

"It took me half an hour to kill her... The worst part of it is I thought I was walking out [with] $50,000 to $100,000 in my pocket," McAtasney said on the tape. "She had one safe that she took money out [of], and she only had $10,000."

"He was treating her life like a joke," English said.

English said "McAtansey made several mistakes even though he thought he was the smartest person. He didn’t count on [his former roommate and Stern's prom date] Preston [Taylor] giving up faster than anyone I’ve ever seen."

Taylor pleaded guilty earlier to first-degree robbery, second-degree conspiracy to commit robbery and second-degree disturbing or desecrating human remains.

Taylor, who testified against McAtasney, said McAtasney told him Stern had the "type of money somebody would kill for" and that he planned to get her drunk and take the money left by her mother.

Taylor was sentenced to 15 years for his role. See post 220.

3j

[dsabian]

Arthur's got no idea how long this particular argument's been going on. He's had a vague impression of people passing them in the hall, one or two maybe pausing or trying to interfere, but countering Merlin’s complete idiocy is taking all of his focus.

All Arthur wants is to go for a little hunt in the woods. Just for a day. Or two. Without the entourage of servants. Or guards. Or knights. But when he informed Merlin of this, instead of getting the acquiescence owed to him as King, Arthur got called some very creative names and a lecture on how unbecoming it would be for him to 'gallivant' or 'shirk his duties' or 'get killed for being a clotpole who wants to play in the woods instead of dealing with the tax reports'. Which is not at all what he's doing. It's a coincidence that Monmouth is due to give a (lengthy) speech on the state of Camelot's financial health through the decades at the next council meeting.

Pointing this out to his Court Sorcerer did not, however, mollify Merlin. Indeed, it seems to have given him incentive. Arthur’s just about had enough and is ready to use the always effective tactic of asking Merlin which one of them is actually King, when he notices that the other man is gesticulating at him with a bunch of flowers in one hand and what looks to be a leg of roast chicken in the other. Arthur’s eyebrows quirk as he watches the hunk of meat being waved in the air by an irate Merlin.

"Merlin."

"-and if you think I'm going to just drop everything I have going on to-"

"Merlin."

"-follow you around while you stalk innocent bunnies-"

"Merlin!"

Merlin's mouth stays open for a moment before he snaps it shut and scowls. "What?"

"Why do you have flowers? And chicken? Did you magic something to try and bribe me with?"

Merlin scowls harder before bringing his hands and their contents up to eye level. At which point he just looks confused.

"I mean the food is reasonable, I can understand you trying to win me over with dinner. But flowers? Really?"

Merlin's eyes widen as he focuses back on Arthur. "I didn't do this! And certainly not for you! You're the last person I'd magic flowers for!" His cheeks redden as he says it though so Arthur smirks.

He's about to needle Merlin about it further when there's a muffled laugh from somewhere along the corridor. Merlin whips round and Arthur peers over his shoulder. They both watch as Guinevere and Gwaine give in to the giggles they've obviously been trying to repress. Leon is standing next to them looking amused and exasperated at the same time. Merlin holds his hands up to them.

"Did you do this?"

The only answer he gets is the giggling becoming full blown laughter.

"Serves you right," Arthur says, causing Merlin to turn back to him. "If you hadn't been arguing treasonously with your sovereign, you'd have noticed them slipping you the pretty flowers."

Merlin looks betrayed for a moment before he starts to smile. "And if you hadn't been arguing with your wise and eminently sensible Court Sorcerer, you wouldn't be holding a chamber pot."

The laughter from behind Merlin doubles in volume as Arthur looks down, his eyes widening in horror. "What? How?"

"Truce?" Merlin asks. He's the one smirking now.

"Truce," Arthur grits out, dropping the offending item with a clang.

"I'm thinking we maybe can go for a short trip to the woods."

"Two days."

"One. With a stop at that pie stall you like in the lower town. But we'll need someone to take notes for us at the meeting."

"I think we'll need two someones to take notes. Wouldn't want to miss anything."

Merlin nods sagely, "Quite right, it's a very important meeting."

Leon, the only sensible one in the corridor, takes one look at Merlin and Arthur conspiring together and slips away as quietly as he can.

The knights + Gwen have figured out that when Merlin and Arthur argue, you can give them something to hold and they will accept it and just keep holding until their argument is over.

Que both King and Court Warlock holding a bunch of random shit in the middle of the hallway and being very confused about it because their friends think they’re hilarious.

[crispycostumes]

as a follow up to this post: link (prequel here), you are now welcome to the sequel: an analysis of any and every time mint is mentioned in conjunction with gansey in tdt 

the first and second times are in chapter 5 when he and Ronan are up and talking about how Ronan’s dreaming works. 

“Tell me what it’s like.” Gansey stretched to get a mint leaf from his pocket. He put it on his tongue and spoke around it. “Walk me through it. What happens?”

(he doesn’t understand Ronan’s dreaming and right before this they had been talking about the violent night horrors that almost killed Ronan, gansey’s best friend who he loves so fucking much. i feel like i don’t need to explain the way this plays into the whole mint ordeal) 

and then before they decide to go to the barns.

“Gansey considered. He looked to where his keys sat on the desk beside his mint plant. The clock beside it, a repellently ugly vintage number Gansey had found lying by a bin at the dump, said 3:32.” 

the third time is in chapter 18 when noah and him find ronan in the first floor of monmouth

“Inside, the small smells of the building — the rusty fixtures, the wormholed wood, his mint plants — had been overtaken by an unfamiliar odor. Something damp and strangely fertile and unpleasant.”

(note that he apparently has several mint plants in his possession)

the fourth time is in chapter 19 after the whole gang goes to the barns and buries the night horror. 

“With a gentle oath, Gansey jammed the tip of the shovel into the ground and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. He stuffed a mint leaf into his mouth. “I have blisters. Nino’s? ””

(they bury a night horror, a terrible monster that attacked ronan and gansey and tried to kill them both. they’re at the barns when they’re not supposed to be. gansey is wound up and strung out, he is not having a good time. and what is his method of dealing with this to not bother anyone else with his feelings? mint leaf)

(it also struck me while i was editing this that gansey knew this entire time that this was the year he died. and then he thought he was going to get killed by a nightmare monster,,, my poor boy)

the fifth time is when the gray man breaks into monmouth in chapter 23

“And it’s you. The sword in my spine. I seem to have lost my wallet somewhere.” The Gray Man let the compromised door fall open. A smell of musty paper and mint rolled around him. Dust motes played over a thousand books; this wasn’t quite what he’d expected. “When you were vacuuming under Calla, did you happen to see anything?”

the sixth through eighth times are blue noting how much and how constantly gansey smells of mint. first when blue goes to monmouth after gansey leaves. (hah, leaves)

“An hour later, Noah let Blue into Monmouth Manufacturing. The sun had made the space vast and musty and lovely. The warm, trapped air was scented with old wood and mint and tenthousand pages about Glendower. Although Gansey had been gone only hours, it suddenly seemed longer, like this was all that was left of him.”

then it continues as noah and blue are spending time together

“One of Gansey’s EpiPens bounced against the interior of the topmost drawer as Blue withdrew a fancy pen. She copied Gansey’s blocky handwriting onto a Nino’s receipt as Noah put on a preppy sweater he’d found balled under the desk. She ate a mint leaf and breathed on Noah’s face.”

“Without any particular discussion, they curled on top of the blanket, each taking one of Gansey’s pillows. It felt illicit and drowsy. Only inches away, Noah blinked sleepily at her. Blue crumpled the edge of the sheet against her nose. It smelled like mint and wheatgrass, which was to say, like Gansey.”

(then she admits she has a crush on him) (also further proves that he smells so much like mint that mint becomes synonymous with him for the people in his life)

the ninth time is in chapter 33 when gansey and adam are at the party for gansey’s mom

“Jesus Christ,” Gansey said tragically, his eyes on the gathering. “Oh well.” He flicked an invisible piece of lint off the shoulder of Adam’s suit and placed a mint leaf on his own tongue. “Good for them to see your face.”

(neither adam nor gansey was comfortable at this party, gansey knows that they’re about to have a difficult ass conversation, and he’s been carrying the weight of everything adam’s sacrifice made him feel alone. He’s been afraid and agonising over losing adam and adam leaving him (and we all know how gansey feels extreme anxiety around the fact that he doesn’t perceive himself to be as important to other people as they are to him). he’s anxious and wound up and strung out and uncomfortable and in a situation where he doesn’t have full control. and he’s also been wearing his richard gansey iii mask all night, something we know he partly developed (or at least the ease with which he uses it) to hide his violent ptsd from people)

the tenth time is in chapter 36 when gansey and adam have their argument about the whole cabeswater debacle

“Gansey turned to him; his breath was all mint leaves and champagne, him and them. He asked, “Why did you go to Cabeswater without me, Adam?””

(very big thing that “him and them” and the distinction between the smells of the people at the party and gansey, two very different things in adams mind. gansey, to adam, is encapsulated by the smell of mint)

the eleventh and twelfth times are in chapter 45 when adam and gansey leave his parents house and his mom gives them gifts

“Next was Mrs. Gansey, peering out the window to verify that her driver was out front before saying, “Dick, I’ve gotten you another mint plant to take back. Don’t forget it. Adam, I picked you up a rubber plant, too. You boys never think about feng shui.”” 

(this is something his family knows about, at least in the peripheral) (could it be something they’ve encouraged? do they know the real reason?) (she knows he already has other mint plants but also knows that he will gladly accept another)

and then

“As the boys were headed out the door, Gansey holding his tiny mint plant and Adam struggling beneath a five-gallon pot of rubber tree, Helen came down dragging a tiny black wheeled suitcase.”

and then the thirteenth time is in the same chapter in the garage

“Just get back, he thought. Get back so you can find out . . . “Look, just flash your lights if something goes wrong,” Gansey said, standing before the open door of his black Suburban. He ordinarily kept it here, but no one really trusted Adam’s new vehicle to make the drive across the state. Gansey rocked the driver’s side door a little. Adam could tell that he wanted nothing more than to ask, Are you all right? or What do you need, Adam? The mint plant, placed on the dash, peered anxiously around Gansey’s shoulder.”

(and as we all know from miss maggie herself, every time an object is closely described, it’s describing a person. and mint is previously said by adam to BE gansey. what does this tell us? well you see, gansey is anxious and the symbolism is turned up to fucking 11. Mint Theory™ truthers rise)

the fourteenth time is in chapter 51 when gansey and blue have their not-kiss

“He leaned toward her — her heart spun again — and pressed his cheek against hers. His lips didn’t touch her skin, but she felt his breath, hot and uneven, on her face. His fingers splayed on either side of her spine. Her lips were so close to his jaw that she felt his hint of stubble at the end of them. It was mint and memories and the past and the future and she felt as if she’d done this before and already she longed to do it again.”

the fifteenth time is in chapter 52 when blue gets home from the great big not-kiss that didn’t mean anything at all whatsoever 

“Her mind took the memory of mint and spun it into a related memory of him, one that Gansey didn’t have yet: the first time she had ever seen him. Not at Nino’s when he asked her out on Adam’s behalf. But that night in the churchyard when all of the spirits of the future dead walked past. One year— that was the longest that any of those spirits had. They would all be dead before the next St. Mark’s Eve.”

(the memory of mint easily turns into one of gansey himself)

then the last and number sixteen is in that same chapter 

“Her mother climbed into Blue’s narrow bed. She jerked at the pillow until Blue allowed her a few inches of it. Then she lay down behind Blue, mother and daughter like spoons in a drawer. Blue closed her eyes again, inhaling the soft clove scent of her mother and the fading mint of Gansey.”

(and once again we see this: gansey is mint to these people)

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

The thing I love about Arthurian mythology is that it's basically entirely made up of fanfiction, and nobody seems to grasp exactly what that means.

Look, as far as we know, the first King Arthur accounts were at least slightly meant to be historical. So either there was a guy named Arthur at around that time, who may or may not have been anything like the Arthur of legend, or some monk couldn't remember who really fought in that battle and just went "well, Arthur's a nice name. And, let's see, he killed... 900 men."

And then people started writing RPF about this guy, and Geoffrey of Monmouth's version got so popular that people started writing fanfic of that specifically, and then some of that got so popular (particularly with new OCs like Lancelot and Galahad) that they started writing fanfiction of that, and it all just spiralled from there.

And the thing nobody seems to get is that this means that there is no canon.

Like, technically you can't claim that any piece of writing about Camelot is more valid than any other, because there's no single, accepted, 'true author' and there's no original text (at least not one that contains everything everyone would like it to) and the entire thing is just a fucking mess of people enjoying themselves and writing about these characters because they like them and they can.

So like, Gawain and the Green Knight is canon, but so is BBC's Merlin. And the Vulgate cycle. And Disney's Sword in the Stone. There is genuinely no reason to claim that any one of these is less 'canon' than the others, because there is only fanon here.

Seriously, you could go away right now and write a fic in which Lancelot fucks a dragon, and if enough people like it then it will just become canon. It will just be an established fact of Arthurian mythology that Lancelot fucked a dragon (à la Donkey from Shrek) at some point.

And I really don't know why we don't take more advantage of this.

[mychemicalrachel]

Rovinsky 37

“Dead on the outside / alive on the inside.”

Send me a ship and number (1-100) for a small fic!

Sometimes Ronan dreamed about Kavinsky the same way he dreamed of Cabeswater. Magical entities both too big to be contained to a physical form. They were not long for this world and so Ronan dreamed; dreaming about them was easier. In his own head, he could feel them in ways they no longer existed in reality.

Reality, Kavinsky told him, was what other people dreamed for him.

Now the reality was this; Cabeswater and Kavinsky both dead. Ronan here, alive and alone.

His dreams didn’t do either of them justice, not when he dreamed like this– like a human instead of a god. There was a staticky film over it all, the kind of disconnect that told Ronan he was sleeping. Not awake, not wandering the astral plane, not dreaming with intent. They were dreams that were simply memories. He was careful to keep it that way, in fear of bringing back a replica of either the forest or the boy he missed so much.

Tonight though, as soon as Ronan slipped into unconsciousness, he could tell there was something different. A charge in the air, electricity in the breeze; he was awake, and he was not. He was somehow somewhere in between.

He wasn’t in Cabeswater like usual, but it was similar. Trees reached out of the ground all around him, towering mountains that seemed too big and too close, a winding creek with deep blue depths and a bottom he could see but knew innately that he could never reach. He didn’t recognize the place, but he recognized the feeling, the magic of it.

“Fancy seeing you here.”

Ronan knew the voice, just as he knew the feeling of the forest, and something like pain surged in his chest because it sounded just like him. Seldom did Ronan’s dreams surprise him anymore. He had control, he had intent, and he had not planned on dreaming of Kavinsky tonight. He wanted to close his eyes and think of something else, anything else, anywhere that wasn’t here. Aglionby, Monmouth, the Barns, St. Agnes. But the scenery around him didn’t change. Kavinsky was there, clearer than any memory, any idea, grinning at Ronan.

“Of all the magical forests in all the towns in all the world, you sleepwalk into mine.”

Ronan just stared, mesmerized. He had long ago accepted that he would never see Kavinsky again, not outside of the memories and fantasies contained in his head. There were often times when Kavinsky didn’t talk at all because the real Kavinsky was unpredictable and sometimes Ronan couldn’t imagine what he might say. This sounded as close to real as Ronan thought his brain would be able to get.

“Hey, fuckface. How’s the connection?” Kavinsky’s fingers snapped in front of Ronan’s face and he flinched. “Can you hear me?”

“You look so real.”

Kavinsky’s lips curled. “All natural, baby.”

God, he sounded so real, too.

“Do you dream about me often?” Kavinsky asked.

Because it was a dream, Ronan admitted, “All the time.”

The answer seemed to please Kavinsky and he came closer. “So which fantasy is this?”

Ronan could smell something like fire, not the typical scent of cigarettes on Kavinsky’s breath, but something more industrial. Burning oil and gasoline. He closed his eyes. He didn’t want to think about that, Kavinsky standing on the top of his car, the dragon overhead coming closer and closer. He thought of the field of cars, a peek into Kavinsky’s head, lying next to him on the hood of the Mitsubishi, his skin blistering in the sun.

But when he opened his eyes, everything was the same. Except the twinkle of amusement in Kavinsky’s eye.

“I don’t know,” Ronan said. He thought of icicle fireworks and hornets with butterfly wings and the result was the same; nothing. “I can’t change it. I can’t make anything.”

“That’s because you’re not in charge here, darling.” Kavinsky breathed in deep, looking all around. Slowly, the background started to shift. The trees melted away, becoming skyscrapers. The creek flooded and as it reached Ronan’s shoes, it turned to snow. “I am.”

“You’re not real.”

“Fuck you I’m not real. Could a dead person do this?”

Behind Kavinsky, the mountains shifted. Peaks grew wider and wider and taller and taller, stretching out and breaking off into pieces that took flight in the air. The familiar screech of a dragon echoed in the distance. 

“Stop.” Ronan was only mostly certain he actually said it, but the dragons didn’t listen. They screamed and thrashed and fire followed them as they beat their wings higher into the sky. It wasn’t like Ronan’s nightmares. They weren’t trying to hurt him– they stayed far enough away to serve only as a reminder that Ronan was not the one in control.

“You–” Ronan started, “you can’t be real. You’re a dream.”

“Aw, that’s sweet,” Kavinsky smirked. “Not so bad yourself, Lynch.”

“Fuck, K! You’re not alive! I went to your funeral! I saw you die!”

Kavinsky nodded seriously until Ronan was done talking and then said, “You saw my body die.”

“That’s the same fucking thing.”

“Is it?” Kavinsky turned to look back at his dragons, floating on the horizon. “Death is just the reality of the situation, sweetheart, and you know how I feel about reality.”

Reality is what other people dream for you.

When Ronan found his voice, it was rough and dry. “What are you saying? Are you saying you’re alive?”

“No,” Kavinsky said. “Keep up, dumbass. You saw me die. I’m saying that I’m here.”

“Here,” Ronan repeated. “Where is here?”

“Here,” Kavinsky gestured to the skyscrapers and the snow and the mountain dragons. Here was whatever he decided it could be. “And here–” he tapped two fingers to his temple.

“You’re saying you’re alive in your head,” Ronan said. “Subconsciously?”

“In a dream, I think. In this… dreamspace. It’s been nice fucking around in here, don’t get me wrong. Got some much needed R and R. But, turns out, dreaming isn’t actually all that fun when I can’t bring anything back. That’s where you come in. I need you,” Kavinsky focused back on Ronan, his eyes so alert and real and alive. “I need you to get me out.”

“How?” Ronan asked. There were a lot of things he could ask, but that seemed to be the most important. If it was possible to bring Kavinsky back, then the why and why not were not important. Only how.

“I don’t know,” Kavinsky shrugged. “How should I know? Use your brain, figure it out.”

“Kavinsky–” Ronan started, and stopped. This wasn’t real, it was reality. Kavinsky was dead, he was alive. He was dreaming, he was awake.

“You’re the only person who can help me,” Kavinsky said. When he stepped closer again, it was more than burning oil and gasoline. It was Kavinsky, everything about him that Ronan had somehow managed to forget. He was as real as ever, his touch warm and solid as he slid his hand into Ronan’s. “I’m out here. Come and find me.”

When he kissed Ronan, the press of his mouth was unfamiliar. Something Ronan didn’t think he could imagine if he tried. Something he never wanted to forget.

When he woke up, a pair of white sunglasses was gripped in his hand. They weren’t the first pair of sunglasses he’d brought back, an entire drawer of them was evidence of that and evidence of the fact that no matter how many times he tried, he could never get them just right. He could never get the right color, the right shape, the obscure design on the earpiece. But these– these were perfect down to the very last detail.

Ronan’s heart seized. He didn’t want to hope because what if he was wrong? He couldn’t get his hopes up just to lose Kavinsky again.

But… What if he was right?

What if Kavinsky was still out there, trapped in some dream limbo, unable to find his way back to the living?

Ronan remembered the first time he tried to dream a copy of these sunglasses; how he’d studied the way they fit over Kavinsky’s long nose, how he could barely see Kavinsky’s eyes behind the black lenses, how he’d focused so hard–

He hadn’t even been thinking of the sunglasses tonight.

Kavinsky’s kiss still burned on his lips, something he had never had the chance to feel when K was alive. It was so real.

Come and find me, he’d said.

Ronan didn't even know where to start, but he tossed the blankets off and got up.