#(i want to compile an list of like absolutely wild statements he would make but idk what to do with it)

[godzexperiment]

ooo do i have an silly little idea

[balillee]

tommy's character gets far too much shit.

hi tumblr. i'm gonna need a few bitches to spread this post everywhere, essentially because i want someone, or just tommy really, to see it. so if you really want, you can screenshot it and post it on twitter, reddit, link it everywhere - go absolutely buck wild. i know he reads the VODS comments a lot, but they're chock full of people just insulting him, his character, his writing and everything about his story in the dream smp simply because they don't understand it and because they refuse to acknowledge his character's perspective (mainly because they only care about the pig). reading that many critical comments on something you've created can only make you feel worse about it eventually, and in light of all the awful techno apologist takes on his character, i wanted to basically just word vomit about how wonderfully crafted c!tommy is, as well as compile some other tumblr posts about his character.

there is a massive fuckin community of people who enjoy the character of tommy, because the character is incredible. i myself have made post after post after post commenting on and analysing tommy's character because i find that there's so much to pick apart. but that enthusiasm for his character only seems to be found on tumblr. reddit and twitter seem to hate his character, the VODS seem to be filled with comments from people who only care about techno's perspective (and treat techno as a reliable narrator, which, is the furthest thing from the truth - that guy lies through his teeth all the time), and the smp wiki is a hellscape of godawful takes and mistruths, not even on just tommy's character.

c!tommy is brilliantly acted and brilliantly written, and almost everything he does is either justifiable or has been rectified or admitted as a mistake. you can clearly make connections as to where he got his conclusions from. you feel what his character experiences, as a member of the audience, vividly.

if you look in the more objective sense, c!tommy, and this is especially in the context of him being the youngest character, is a scapegoat. people claim he's awful and destructive when in reality he's a lot less destructive than most characters on the server. a moment that comes to mind is where he diverts schlatt and quackity's attention from pogtopia by breaking part of the flag in manberg, and then replacing it so as to buy tubbo some time - he literally monologues after it about how he doesn't want to destroy but instead rebuild, and how he feels as if nobody else seems to understand that.

his arc in season two was incredible. it was very character driven, and it gave a spotlight to his motivations. at the start we see him in new l'manberg, and he's enjoying his time there, he's skeptical of his friend's presidency, but his main goal is to get back the discs so that he can stop dream and eliminate that threat. he made one screw up that didn't even matter to george, and he paid for it tenfold, even after dream had spent a while with puffy griefing the server and framing it on tommy - what tommy and ranboo did was convinient. then, in exile, we see c!tommy straight up get abused. he's gaslit and conditioned into being c!dream's friend, and in his brain he teaches himself that those acts of abuse are moments of bonding, and it eventually brings him to the point of wanting to end his own life - he's been torn away from his friends and his support system, and nobody will visit him consistently anymore because they only showed him pity, and all he had left was dream, who had hurt him.

but he doesn't die there, because while he didn't understand the full gravity of it back then like he does now, he recognises that dying isn't an escape, and he can beat dream, even if he doesn't know how. so this is where he goes to techno's place, and here's where the fandom starts to misinterpret the situation wildly.

it's the problem similar to when your parents tell you that they're owed something back because you put a roof over their head, despite that being Not How It Works. techno took tommy in and severely mistreated him emotionally. sure, and i understand this, c!techno is a bad communicator who isn't really that empathetic to anyone who isn't phil or wilbur, but that doesn't excuse the blatant lying to c!tommy's face, the guilt tripping, the friendship buying and the degrading. the day before the festival, tommy finally does something violent in his interrogation of fundy, and only then does techno tell him,,,,

that tommy's not equal to him, that techno doesn't respect him all that much, and that they're not friends.

from techno's perspective, and at the time, this was viewed as a positive development in their relationship. oh, he's starting to warm up to tommy! this friendship could really blossom!

no. from a more objective standpoint, what techno has just said to tommy is : 'i respect you only a little bit more now, because while you're starting to act more like me, you're still annoying and a burden.'

and i haven't even touched on the whole 'erasing the words 'Destroy L'manberg' from techno's to-do list' thing, because that instantly refutes the point of 'techno was upfront with his intentions the whole time' - because he wasn't! he may have said it the first time, but you also know what else he did? he repeatedly told tommy that they'd 'air the details out later' whenever the discs were brought up, and from a tommy viewer's perspective at the time, it was framed as if techno was no longer going to do that.

and i also haven't dared touch the 'i would have fought them all for you', because that's major guilt tripping if ever i've seen it.

so, the day of the festival comes, and here's where c!techno and his apologists completely misread c!tommy's thought process, and why he makes the decision he does.

tommy instantly regrets valuing the discs over tubbo, and it's framed as the culmination of tommy having become all the people he said he would never want to be like. and what does he immediately do? he tells tubbo to give up the disc, and he sides with tubbo. he puts his value in his friends, and, by proxy, l'manberg. and when he betrays techno, he tells him 'i'm sorry'.

from a more objective standpoint, tommy's time with techno is him valuing the discs over almost anything else. so, in leaving techno to be with tubbo again, he is valuing people above the discs. so when, on doomsday, techno says his 'discs aren't people' line, what he doesn't realise is that he himself fueled tommy's valuing of discs above people when attempting to fuel tommy's vengeance against tubbo and l'manberg. techno doesn't realise that he was an unhealthy presence for tommy, and an even worse influence.

what techno also doesn't seem to understand is that tommy never hated tubbo or l'manberg - tommy recognises, now at least, that his exile wasn't a product of tubbo, but a product of dream's manipulation, likely in part because at the time, especially with dream lying about tommy blowing up the community house, tommy was the only one who could see it because he had experienced it firsthand. so when techno sides with dream, it's like kicking tommy in the teeth.

and i want to mention that betraying someone doesn't necessarily make the person who was betrayed good, or in the right, or even justified, because tommy was entirely justified to leave techno. you know who else was betrayed? schlatt. but i don't see many schlatt apologists around angry at quackity for joining the rebellion.

tommy stole the axe of peace? good. it was a moment of tommy defining his self-worth, instead of having it defined by others. gone is the age of c!techno belittling him and deciding how much c!tommy should be respected. NEXT!

here's a moment i wanted to talk about that will forever be funny to me.

'i am a person.'

techno's very famous line from doomsday. techno says to tommy that discs aren't people, and that tommy should value people, despite not understanding that by leaving techno, he did just that. and what does tommy say in return, which has been omitted from every c!tommy-critical analysis, and every animatic?

'yes you are, but so are we.'

an acknowledgement of techno's hurt, to which tommy has already apologised for. a statement that says 'your hurt does not excuse, nor justify, the hurt you have inflicted onto us.' an acknowledgement that tommy has already learnt the lesson techno seems to be trying to 'teach' him. but you can't teach him anything by destroying.

c!tommy has had almost everything he has ever owned or built either taken from him or destroyed. ranboo even points out that the only two things of tommy's left standing are his house and his hotel, and if i'm honest, his house is dissheveled. it's a labyrinth of terror due only to how many times it's been torn apart. l'manberg being blown up didn't teach anyone anything about anarchy, or about valuing people over possessions. logstedshire being blown up didn't teach tommy to be obedient.

i could honestly ramble for ages about how nuanced tommy's character is and how much depth and complexity there is to his character's process and his relationship with others, but more than that, c!tommy is forgiving. he invites almost everyone who hates him to the grand opening of his hotel - if that isn't an indicator that he just wants friends, and not to be treated like the embodiment of evil, then i don't know what is. he holds grudges, but he doesn't really actively hate anyone, other than c!dream. but, we'll let him. c!dream deserves nothing but to be pummeled into the floor.

tommy doesn't spoonfeed his character nuance, and he doesn't really spell it out for his audience. he'll mention things like trauma and triggers in passing, but a lot of analysis on his motivations has to be picked up from what is said in passing or from what can be seen in between the lines.

i'd be here for hours if i were to talk about everything i love about c!tommy, because honestly he's one of my favourite characters, and there are so many angles you can look at his character from in terms of his age, his relationships with others, his motivations, his personality, his character arcs etc etc. so instead of doing that, i'm going to compile some much more specific analysis posts below to skim through because they highlight so many good aspects of his character.

^^ A thread about the 'yes you are, but so are we' line.

^^ About how shit the VODS comments are.

^^ A comment on how c!Tommy is actually pretty peaceful, and is actually less destructive than most characters on the server.

^^ Possibly the best c!Tommy analysis thread I've ever seen in relation to his trauma, which gives multiple perspectives.

^^ About how c!Tommy is treated as a scapegoat, and how, from an objective standpoint, he is no more violent than any other character, it's just that the little violence that is committed is blown far out of proportion.

^^ Tumblr user flypaw being a bad bitch, as per usual.

^^ c!Tommy being incredibly intelligent, and talking about wanting to rebuild and not destroy. A very underrated monologue of his.

^^ Something short about c!Tommy and c!Wilbur's relationship in Pogtopia.

^^ Less about c!Tommy, more a meta on L'Manberg. Really interesting to think about.

^^ A take on Doomsday.

I'll add some more posts in a reblog in the notes, but if anyone's post(s) is on this and they want me to take it off, let me know and I'll do that for you! Feel free to add your own banger c!Tommy takes or ones that you've found.

[ineffablecolors]

The Wife [7/?]

The Wife || Ch 7 ~ 4.4 k || Ch1 Ch2 Ch3 Ch4 Ch5 Ch6 || FF.NET&AO3 Summary: No one knows all that Emma has been through and certainly no one knows all that Killian has been through and being husband and wife doesn’t make them any less unknown to each other. And really, how can you help someone heal when you don’t even know how hurt they are? A/N: First - it has been such an amazing few days for this story, guys!! There was this gorgeous manip by @spartanguard 😍 and now this awesome illustration of Captain Jones by @marcella2727 ❤️ Second - solid MT for More-than-hands Touching, you’ve been warned guys ;)

“Well, that won’t do.”

Emma looks up from the list she is compiling. Dinner was a somewhat disappointing affair last night, seeing as Killian was supposed to be back – he was supposed to be back the evening before, as a matter of fact – and she kept delaying the meal until it looked like Granny might serve her, if she didn’t let her set the table already. So now Emma has to come up with a different menu for tonight and not focus on the fact that she feels like she has exhausted all her best ideas over the last two days.

How might Granny choose to punish her, if she makes her roast a turkey again?

She shakes her head and focuses on the girl sitting across from her. Alice seems to have abandoned all attempts at keeping her correspondence from Emma since their conversation in the library and she hopes the girl is reacting to something written in the letter in her hand, rather than becoming frustrated with her father’s continued absence.

Emma herself is somewhat less than successful on that account.

“Is everything alright?”

“Papa must bring me the latest Dickens. Robyn has already finished it and, at this rate, I will know all by the time I get my hands on it!”

Emma does her best to hide her smile behind a cough. Anyone who has known Alice for longer than a day can tell that her interest in horses and wild animals far exceeds her interest in books and the beautiful piano in the drawing room – that Emma hasn’t dared to touch yet, but nothing seems to exceed her need to know all that everyone else around her does.

“I’m sure he won’t forget. You did write it down for him.”

If the good-natured tease in her voice is obvious, Alice takes it with a smile and playfully narrowed eyes before she leans her head to the side. The gesture is absolutely identical to the one often seen from her father and Emma feels a little tingle down the back of her neck.

“You really shouldn’t tell him you don’t want anything or you’ll soon need a vanity just for all the jewelry you’ll accumulate.”

“Oh, I’m sure he won’t—“

“But he will.”

Emma’s eyebrows draw together and she gives Alice a questioning look – her tone is much too weary for the topic of presents, expected or not.

“I— Well, I do not know what it was like later on but… I remember when I was little— because I would be so happy, you see? I’d be so excited when he came back. And my mother… the first thing she always did was demand to know what he had brought her. She would make a terrible row, if he hadn’t or… if whatever it was didn’t suit her fancy, I suppose, since I can’t… can’t remember him ever coming back empty-handed.”

Emma curls her fingers around the pen in her hand and takes the deep measured breaths she normally uses to calm herself after a nightmare. This one is not her nightmare. The very thought that this is obviously one of the more vivid memories Alice has of her childhood incents her beyond words. Which is for the better since she can’t speak ill of her mother in front of her, even if she already knows that she absolutely detests this woman she never met and thankfully, never will.

Emma wouldn’t have trusted herself to behave like a lady, if she ever met the previous Mrs Jones.

Frankly, presumptuous as it probably is, she feels a sense of indignation at the very thought that such a woman carried the title before her.

“So he will get you jewels,” Alice concludes matter-of-factly. “She was always sufficiently pleased with jewels.”

“But I don’t want—“

“Oh, I know.”

Emma closes her mouth and stares at Alice, surprised by her confident tone and the soft smile on her lips.

“But the sooner you decide what you do want, the easier it will be for both of you.”

She focuses back on her list and on not reading anything in Alice’s statement that is not really there.

*****

His thumb slides back and forth over the smooth stone – it’s cold and unyielding – both things that she probably imagines herself to be and both things she is not.

“Does the gentleman like this one?”

Killian blinks up at the jeweler and shakes his head. No, the yellow sapphire is captivating but it is not the colour he wants, no matter how hard the salesman tries to pursued him that it is. So he ignores the pursed lips and sour expression on the man’s face and lets his eyes roam freely over the displays.

Over the years, Killian has learnt the advantages of compromise but it has never come naturally to him. So, while he should really be heading home soon, if he doesn’t want to arrive when everybody has already gone to bed and while he is gradually becoming acquainted with a new kind of exhaustion – one born of the ache in his left forearm that kept him company all night and the other ache that feels a lot like homesickness, Killian can’t bring himself to settle for something that doesn’t feel right.

It is utterly ridiculous, of course, this supposed homesickness. He used to sail across the world for months on end without even laying eyes on a spot of land, let alone setting foot on it. Let alone coming home. And yes, he feels absolutely wretched wasting any of the time Alice is at home and yes, he worries that he has led Emma astray by underestimating the duration of his trip and thinks – perhaps rather fancifully – that the delay might cause her some worry and yes, it has been almost four full days now – longer than he wished and anticipated his business to take. But none of that justifies this kind of fretting and whining – be it only in his mind. He is not a young lad on his first leave and it does him no credit to think and act like one.

So he grits his teeth and rubs at the spot just under his elbow that sometimes manages to alleviate the pain and continues to patiently slide his eyes over the different gems and metals before him. He will be making his way home soon enough, he just wants to make this last purchase. It takes him by surprise – how much he genuinely wants to find something that she will like, something that will suit her.

His eyes catch on a hue that looks almost familiar, set as it is among little white stones rather than black lashes.

“May I see this one?”

The jeweler obliges him and presents the ornament with a flourish that is completely unnecessary – Killian already knows he will be walking out with it.

*****

“What is she, looking for buried treasure or something?”

Ruby turns to find the kitchen window wide open and her grandmother leaning out of it, glaring at the spot where Emma is preparing flower beds. Or rather, that seemed to be her idea when she took her gloves and tools and seeds out into the front garden, before she seemed to get lost in an almost hypnotic state of digging.

Ruby passes the old woman the empty glass of water she brought to their mistress and gives her an admonishing look.

“Granny.”

“What? She keeps digging like that, there won’t be any soil left for her to plant anything in.”

“She is worried.”

“What is she worried about? I told her yesterday that he is always too optimistic when planning his travels.”

Ruby squeezes one eye shut and leans an elbow on the windowsill. She wishes Emma asked her or even Alice about why Captain Jones might be gone longer than anticipated. While Granny isn’t wrong – he always relies too much on the belief that everyone will be as quick and punctual and efficient in getting down to business as he is – Ruby is sure that her grandmother probably didn’t put too much effort into acknowledging and soothing Emma’s feelings.

Admittedly, Mrs Jones can be admirably self-possessed when she truly puts her mind to it, but all one needs to do is catch her in a solitary moment to see the feelings rolling beneath her calm and smooth surface.

She took the first two days of her husband’s absence in stride, Ruby will even go so far as to say that she was tentatively excited to prove to herself and everyone else that she could handle the household on her own for a bit. But lunchtime on the third day was as far as that feeling carried her. After that Ruby could almost see the doubt and anxiety sneaking in. Emma did not enjoy being the solitary queen of the house and she enjoyed the idea of being left to it for an undetermined period of time – of Killian being gone for an undermined period of time – even less.

Turning her attention back to the front of the house, Ruby catches her impatiently trying to brush awry blonde strands over her shoulder with the back of her dirt-smeared hand, there are quite a few stains on her purple dress already and a definite air of frustration and lack of peace to all her movements and Ruby wonders if she should ask Peter to fetch Alice.

Miss Jones, being much more familiar with her father’s idiosyncrasies and poor time management, and thus, not at all concerned by a day or two’s delay, will certainly be able to coax Emma back inside and placate her for some time.

Then she catches sight of the dark shape coming up the road and sighs in relief.

“Ah, thank the Lord, she would’ve dug us all into a ditch in another day or so.”

Ruby ignores her grandmother and keeps her back to her and her grin hidden. There is a detectable trace of satisfaction in Granny’s grumbling and Ruby knows that, in all honesty, she has been rather pleased with Emma’s discomfiture the last two days.

It’s not until Roger’s hooves are trampling down the path leading to the main entrance that Emma’s head jerks up. Ruby can’t see her face – though the absolute stillness that seems to arrest her every muscle is clear enough – but she does have a perfect view of Captain Jones and the way he leans his head to the side, as if trying to determine what on earth his wife is doing in the dirt on the front lawn. His voice is heavy with the miles he has just ridden but it carries easily in the golden, late-afternoon hush.

“You should know – I was a naval captain, not a pirate. And if I were, I certainly wouldn’t have buried my treasure in front of the house.”

Ruby hears Granny chuckle, probably pleased to have her treasure talk mirrored by Killian himself.

He dismounts with obvious weariness but practiced ease and Ruby is about to head inside as well when she sees Emma get to her feet and almost run to the man before her – her momentum arrested by her body colliding with his, his sudden and forceful exhale audible in the bubble around them, her hand coming up and probably getting dirt in his hair.

Ruby knows she should look away but for a moment she is caught in place by her guilt over the fact that none of them took the proper time and care to provide Emma with the reassurance she obviously needed.

Captain Jones seems equally frozen for a second before his right hand tentatively settles on the shoulder blade of the woman in his arms. His face is partially obscured by falling strands of golden hair but Ruby can swear he leans in to catch the scent on them.

Glancing over her shoulder, she is chastised to see that Granny has gone back inside to provide the couple on the front lawn with some privacy and when she turns to look at them again, there is a foot of space between them and Emma is obviously in the process of realizing that she is covered in a fair amount of dirt.

If gambling was an appropriate pastime for women, Ruby would bet her next wage that the captain doesn’t care one bit.

*****

As he rides off to find his daughter and Jolly, Emma takes a moment to collect and glare down at her dirt-smeared self. She is distinctly aware that this is not the picture she is meant to present to world and husband alike but her actions currently seem to take precedence to the state of her person in their ability to fluster and embarrass her.

“Idiot,” she mutters under her breath as she imagines looking at herself from the side, or maybe just from Killian’s perspective, and realizes how childish she must have appeared.

Silly, she has been and continues to be even now – as she gathers her gardening tools and wonders what gown she should change into for dinner – completely ridiculous. But, truthfully, she can’t help it and she feels a rare bound of pity for her own self because of that.

Is it her fault that she never had a friend come running to her room as a child? Is it her fault that she never got to welcome a parent when they returned from a journey? Is it her fault that she never received a lover come to pay his respects? Is it her fault that all she’s known is people leaving and not once has she seen someone come back?

No, Emma tries to tell herself that none of that is solely her fault and yet, she cannot help but scold herself for reacting so disproportionately to the situation now. That thought is probably what makes her jump back and flush the second she walks in and comes face to face with Granny.

“Give these here,” the old woman takes the dirty tools from her hands and shoos her up the stairs. “Go wash yourself and get changed for dinner, I’ll fix everything else.”

Emma stares at her – a little dumbfounded by the woman’s strict but almost indulgent tone.

“Go on then. They’ll be back any minute now and I have a mind to feed and put you all to bed early tonight.”

Emma feels her face stretch in an uncontrollable grin that doesn’t diminish in the least at Granny’s eyeroll. The old woman tries to glare but, with Killian back, the high spirits have obviously already permeated the whole house and affected even its crankiest inhabitant.

*****

Mrs Lucas’s plan proves harder to execute than Emma expects, seeing as there are apparently traditions to be kept after dinner.

For the first time, Emma sees Alice put her foot down and refuse to let her father go into his study. Then again, he doesn’t fight her too hard on it. Killian demands to distribute whatever he has brought with him, Alice demands to hear all about Roger’s antics during the journey and, naturally, Alice prevails.

And Emma swears under her breath and does her best to dab away the tea she spits out with her laughter as Killian explains in almost ungentlemanly detail the interest Roger took in a passing mare in the middle of the road. He points out that his horse is absolutely unbeatable when it comes to speed and durability and makes better time than any other even with the unexpected detours but, if the way his ears have flushes a little is any indication, expedience has often cost him more than one embarrassing encounter.

“Now,” Killian slaps his hand on his tight and reaches for the satchel he left by his chair, drawing out two books. “The latest of the overpraised and overprized Mr Dickens.”

“Oh, come now, papa,” Alice snatches the books eagerly and passes one to Emma.

She takes it instinctively and lifts her questioning eyes to Killian, who just shrugs and smiles at her.

“You better be prepared, love, she likes to discuss each chapter as she reads and there will be no consideration for whether or not you’ve fallen behind.”

“I only do that when I know you’ve already read the book!” Alice argues indignantly. “And, anyways, I can write to Robyn, while I wait for Emma to finish it.”

Killian’s face turns to a stone for a second before he moves his gaze back to Emma’s and she does her best not to shrink from the way his eyes probe into her – hard and demanding. It’s probably only the slight indignation she feels at this measure of suspicion and the confidence in her own trust-worthiness that makes her stand her ground and stare right back at him until he sighs deeply in what is definitely a combination of acceptance and relief.

“Well, then,” he coughs a little and takes a moment to adjust to the new reality of one more shared secret between them and Emma can’t help but wonder how many there really are in the room – some swirling freely around now, some still hidden in the private recesses of only one or two of them. “Speaking of Miss Hood.”

His hand reaches into his left breast pocket and takes out two poaches – one blue and one red, their quality obvious in the intricate golden patterns on them. He drops the red one in his wooden hand and catching Alice’s eye tosses the blue one at her with a practiced movement and a grin.

She catches it the way Emma imagines all children who still remember tossing a ball around with their fathers catch things.

“Is it for her?”

Killian shakes his head.

“I’ll leave it to you to procure jewels for your own lady,” he tells her with a teasing movement of his eyebrows and Emma can’t help feeling extremely glad that she knows enough to be here for this.

Alice pours the contents of the pouch in her palm and Emma smiles at the oblong, childlike shape her lips assume and the roundness of her eyes.

The locket in her hand is indeed a piece of art – the gold glimmers warmly in the firelight, a heart with another heart raised on the left half of it, a beautiful blue stone set in its corner and gorgeous vine-like engravings running along the other side. But it’s not until she flicks it open that Alice lets out a choked little sound – the perfect child of a laugh and a sob, and in the next moment she is flying across the room and throwing herself in her father’s arms.

Killian seems much better prepared for this attack than he was for Emma’s earlier, his left arm tightening around her waist as his hand raises up to cradle her head. When he meets her eyes over his daughter’s shoulder, Emma is already wound tight as a spring and ready to look away or even leave the room but the warmth in his eyes keeps her where she is. If he is recalling her own display as well, he does not seem to find the need to shy away from it.

“May I?” Alice asks as she pulls back and, at her father’s nod, rushes to Emma’s side, handing over her new treasure and swaying a little before her, obviously impatient to receive her praise of it.

And she is not unreasonable in her expectation. Aware as she now is of Alice’s constant struggle between her homes and her loves, Emma has a hard time retaining her own composure at the perfect union of the contrasting miniatures inside – Killian’s dark hair and hard edges and the blond waves and soft curves of a girl about Alice’s age.

“It’s gorgeous, sweetheart.”

Alice beams at her and, looking at Killian, Emma saves this moment in her mind as the first time she has seen Killian Jones look quite proud of himself. When their eyes meet again he seems to remember the red pouch in his prosthetic.

“Ah, as for this—“ he moves to sit a foot away from her on the settee as Alice makes herself comfortable on the rug in front of the fireplace.

“You didn’t have to—“ she swallows and tries to soften her voice.

It’s completely unreasonable of her to be upset with him and she is not, not truly. Only, after what Alice told her, she hoped that Killian won’t bring her anything, that he would know she didn’t expect him to pay in gems to enter his own home, and now she can’t help but feel a little sad and just a little insulted.

“I told you I don’t need anything.”

At least some of her thoughts must flow through into her tone because Killian draws back and gives her a confused, uncertain sort of look before he bows his head to stare at the small bag in his hand.

“Aye, that you did.”

His voice is quiet and strained and sounds like he is conversing with himself rather than her – he sounds almost angry and now Emma feels rotten for tarnishing his return and cooling the warmth in the room in literal seconds.

“I just—“ but she can’t really explain without betraying Alice’s confidence and she doesn’t want to sour his mood further by talking about his late wife.

“No, you’re quite ri—“

“I’m glad you’re back.”

His eyes rise sharply and take their time searching hers and Emma doesn’t dare look away and make her words seem like a becoming platitude rather than the plain truth.

“I’m glad to be back,” he says carefully but his features relax a little and Emma lets the corner of her mouth lift up in reply. “Would you—“

He extends his hand in the space between them, the vibrant red resting on his palm is a tantalizing offering and Emma cannot deny her curiosity. She reaches over tentatively and lets her fingers pull on the golden strings, opening the pretty package, before she turns her own hand palm up and leaves it before his, the tips of their fingers brushing lightly.

Killian manages to appear both amused by her antics and nervous about whatever it is that he has brought her. And all that on top of the exhausted air he has carried about him since he dismounted Roger and the obvious relief of being back in familiar surroundings and the slight mellowness of the bottle of wine they shared over dinner and the way he has been favoring his left side in a way that she has never seen before despite his injury.

Emma cannot imagine being disappointed, no matter what tumbles out of the pouch he tips into her expectant palm. And then she doesn’t have to imagine anything.

“Oh.”

“Well, I… I thought you couldn’t go to your first ball as a married woman without an engagement ring.”

She doesn’t know if that is perfectly reasonable or perfectly unnecessary but she is most certainly not going to make up her mind right now, seeing as she feels like she is on the very verge of being hypnotized by the object in her hand. A pirate her husband might not be, but how to find treasure he most certainly knows.

The sing is simply stunning – solid gold that manages to look both delicate and eternal, a perfect circle of little white gems which are unmistakably diamonds. But the best part, the part that refuses to let her eyes blink closed is the stone in the middle – she does not even know what it is called, she just knows it’s the perfect mixture of blue and green and absolutely mesmerizing.

“If you’d like something else—“

Instinctively her hand closes around the ring and she pulls it toward her chest. Killian huffs out a little laugh and his posture finally seems to relax completely, while Emma flushes at her childish antics and extends her hand toward him again.

“Do you mind?”

His eyes narrow with something much different from displeasure and his tongue swipes over his lower lip as he contemplates her for a moment. Emma raises her eyebrow a little expectantly and he finally picks the ring between two fingers and uses the others to gently nudge her hand over. Despite the late hour, spending the better part of the day on horseback and the fact that her own fingers are habitually cool, his skin is as warm as always. His fingertips are calloused and his palm looks almost twice as large as her own and Emma thinks she has never been so conscious of the power in a man’s grip.

This time, unlike their wedding day, when he slips the ring on her left hand, she doesn’t watch the motion, she watches his face. Killian, on the other hand, is carefully focused on his task, the new ring clinking lightly against the wedding band on her next finger as he pushes it past the knuckle. It’s an almost perfect fit and Emma is about to remark on that when she feels his fingers move beneath hers and his eyes rise up to meet hers.

It seems to take half the evening for her hand to reach his lips and it’s only as they press against her flesh that Emma realizes he was probably giving her the time to decide if she wants to pull away. As it is, even if she felt any such inclination, she wouldn’t give up the knowledge that the only cold point on Killian Jones appears to be the tip of his nose for anything in the world.

*****

She wakes up in the dead of night. The fire in the hearth is down to the last embers and the night outside is starless and Emma stays on her side, burying her face further into her pillow and drawing her knees up, taking those deep, measured breaths that have served her well for years now.

They have brought her back to herself after nightmares featuring all sorts of places and faces and painful moments past and imagined, surely they can help her heart settle down after a little dream of her husband’s lips on her own.

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For more: MY FANFICS   MY BOOK   MY BLOG

[alivingghost]

Hi! Can you do a list of your ten favorite movies? I was wondering if maybe you could break them down just a little like horror, feel good, need to cry movies etc.

I would LOVE to! Thank you for such a sweet and thoughtful ask! there may be more than ten there are more than ten. Here’s my list:

Movies that make you look at your life and ask yourself many questions:

Almost Famous - My favorite movie. It’s based on the true story of the youngest writer of Rolling Stone. Don’t look up anything else about the movie. Just watch it. Tell me when you do. The best line is, “The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we’re uncool.”

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl - I actually just saw this, but it made me laugh hysterically, then sob uncontrollably. They portray cancer very realistically. A self-hating boy unwillingly befriends a dying girl. The characters are ALL extremely unique. They all made me laugh.

Into The Wild - I adore Chris McCandless and many people disagree with me. Watch it. Choose your side. This movie always makes me sit for about thirty minutes afterwards and just not know what to do. It’s based on the book about the true story of Chris McCandless, who essentially erased himself from society and went to live in the Alaskan wilderness. His soul was too wild for this world.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Love this movie. It makes me feel good, but it also makes me feel like I’m not living my life how I need to be. It pushes me to do that. Plus, Ezra Miller is perfect as Patrick. It’s a very beautiful coming-of-age story that isn’t your typical high school cutesy movie or story. It deals with some heavy topics.

Inside Llewyn Davis - Oscar Isaac playing guitar and singing. Cat. Weird story. Very mellow movie. Very calming music.

Whiplash - The opposite of the previous movie. This movie gives me anxiety. The music is stellar, however, and the story is a must see. Everyone’s performance is haunting and on-point. I didn’t think I would like it going into it, but it’s one of my favorites now. Drummer wants to be the best. Intense.

Frank - Weird. Well worth a watch. Michael Fassbender wears a papier-mâchéhead.

Capote - Follows Truman Capote as he wrote In Cold Blood, one of my favorite books. He falls in love with a killer. Very good.

Dead Poet’s Society - Beautiful. Robin Williams plays a new English teacher who begins to use different and unorthodox methods of teaching. Slightly gay. Sad. You will cry.

Horror Movies that range from weird to funny to terrifying to mind-fuck:

Green Room - Anton Yelchin is amazing in this movie. It’s pretty gory, but don’t let that deter you. A punk band is trapped in a venue after witnessing a crime. This movie is my favorite horror movie. It’s terrifying. I didn’t know Patrick Stewart could scare me this much.

Cabin in the Woods - A parody of horror movies. Every monster you can imagine is in it. Very funny. Very scary.

Southbound - FREAKY. Love this movie, it’s also my favorite horror movie. Anthology. Things you don’t want to see, but secretly want to see.

The ‘Purge’ Movies - Our world, but for one day each year, crime is legal. The movies get better as they go along. I haven’t seen The First Purge yet, but Election Year was great. I adore the concept, I think the political statement it makes is iconic.

Trick R’ Treat - Another anthology. Halloween vibes. Funny little guy named Sam who kills people. Vampires. Monsters. Murderers.

Donnie Darko- Mind-fuck. Lots of sci-fi elements, but it’s in horror because of a few plot elements. A jet engine falls out of the sky and crashes into Donnie Darko’s bedroom. There’s a man in a creepy bunny suit named Frank.

Brick:

Brick - A movie that takes a modern, teenage twist on the film noir. Very nicely done. Funny in a very tasteful, dark way. Hard to describe the plot. Good movie for any mood.

Feel good/funny/musicals/’YES’ and ’UGH’ movies:

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - One of my favorites of all-time. I love the graphic novels and love the movie. Absolutely hilarious. Scott Pilgrim must defeat the seven evil exes of the girl of his dreams.

Across the Universe - Basically a compilation of The Beatles’ songs in a really wonderfully done movie set during the Vietnam War. The covers of the songs are AMAZING. All the characters are based on The Beatles’ songs.

Moulin Rouge - A writer falls in love with a performer. Singing. A little odd.

Baby Driver - Great soundtrack. A young get-a-way driver ends up caught in a heist he doesn’t want to be a part of. The laundromat scene has great colors. Very wonderful cinematography.

LGBT Movies that remind me how great it is to be gay:

The Way He Looks (Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho)- Adorable gay movie. Happy ending. A boy falls in love with a blind boy.

Kill Your Darlings - Based on the life of Allen Ginsberg, my favorite poet, as he was first entering college. Allen gets caught up in a murder. Gay. Watch it then read some of Ginsberg’s work. My favorite poem of his is ‘America’.

Paris is Burning - Watch if you love drag queens. Wonderful LGBT movie.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch - Great music. Love the musical, as well. Sad, but hilariously exciting story. A boy is convinced to have sexual reassignment surgery in order to escape Germany during the war. It’s never truly clarified if Hedwig is trans, which is such a wonderful mystery to their story.

I Killed My Mother (J'ai tué ma mère) - Sort of coming-of-age. Mother and son relationship. There are some really visually appealing scenes.

[bakechochin]

The Book Ramblings of April 2019

In place of book reviews, I will be writing these ‘book ramblings’. A lot of the texts I’ve been reading (or plan to read) in recent times are well-known classics, meaning I can’t really write book reviews as I’m used to. I’m reading books that either have already been read by everyone else (and so any attempt to give novel or insightful criticisms would be a tad pointless), or are so convoluted and odd that they defy being analysed as I would do a simpler text. These ramblings are pretty unorganised and hardly anything revolutionary, but I felt the need to write something review-related. I’ll upload a rambling compiling all my read books on a monthly basis.

At Swim-Two-Birds - Flann O’Brien I’m not going to call this a postmodern text, mainly because the term puts a sour taste in my mouth but also because all the descriptions of this text as ‘postmodern’ are worded to make it seem that this definition is incidental, and that O’Brien wasn’t setting out to write a text of the postmodern era. This somewhat softens the blow of the fact that I, a resolute advocate of the romantic and the grotesque, should indulge in something as heinous as postmodernism. This is an odd book composed of lots of different parts in lots of different odd ways. I tried to put it alongside The Third Policeman, and figured that Policeman was my preferred read because it had linear storytelling, but I had to alter this statement because this book technically has linear storytelling too - the only problem is, the storytelling is fragmentary and scattershot as shit. Some people will inevitably call this the book’s major strength and then castigate me for having the very AUDACITY to criticise the book when I clearly don’t have a clue as to what constitutes a good read, and then I remember why I don’t like postmodern texts. But I digress. This is a labyrinthine book, and my attempts of describing its exact structure may very well come across as comically obtuse, but for what it’s worth I’ll give it a shot: a student in Dublin writes a novel in which a novelist writes into existence a multitude of characters, who rebel against said novelist by writing their own pieces of literature to alter the course of their realities and break free of their archetypes. This is an incredibly well-written book, because O’Brien is a fucking genius who won’t let any scrap of information go to waste in his world-building and who will explore every possible element of an idea to spin some truly fantastic fucking yarns. (I also want to give a special commendation to one of my favourite lines of all time, in which a club-footed character’s rhythm of walking is described as ‘iambic pentameter’; that's so fucking good). The temptation now is to argue that all the great aspects of the book’s writing are entirely separate from the postmodern aspects, but there are some moments in which the postmodern experimental writing nonsense that we’ve come to expect fortuitously dovetails with what I like about the book; for instance, there are instances in which our student author abandons chunks of his writing that he deems to be slow and boring, and replaces it with streamlined lists detailing the events of the plot. We must stop a second, on this point, to examine exactly how the sausage is made with this ramble writing process; in my previous book reviews, I’ve criticised books for skimming over important elements of the plot via a dismissive narrator for fucking up the pace, but in this instance I’m totally down with such nonsense, not in the name of postmodernism, but in the name of streamlining the book and cutting out some of the unnecessary extraneous fat. The comedy in the book is subdued (perhaps less overtly amusing than that which can be found in The Third Policeman) and mainly derives from the absurdity of characters crossing paths and disparaging one another, with gunslingers and fairies and grand characters from Celtic mythology all playing play cards, and there’s a strange encapsulation of the Irish spirit in everyone’s long rambling conversations about not much at all. The best content is to be found within the works of our student author; the actual life of said student is not as compelling as one might have hoped, for whilst it is written with the same high quality as the rest of the book, the events that it is describing are rather dull in comparison, and in any case did not live up to Dylan Thomas’ description as being ‘loud, dirty [and] boozy’. I can’t help feeling that I haven’t been able to capture the magnitude of this book in so measly of a ramble, so for what it’s worth, go and pick it up for yourself. Just be aware that you will, at some point, have to slog through deliberately turgid and daft staves of old Irish lays, and it will only occasionally be graciously interrupted by another character. WOULD I RECOMMEND?: YES, SO LONG AS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE GETTING INTO

Complete Short Stories - Saki In my ramble on Dahl I blindly said that Saki’s work predicted Dahl’s brand of black comedy despite knowing very little about Saki’s writing, and upon now having read Saki’s short stories I can say that this statement holds true as far as comedy goes, but not in terms of said comedy being black comedy. Indeed, I think that these stories will become progressively less black as time will go on, and the special high-class demographic satirised in the stories dwindle from contemporary society, or at least evolve into a different form than that which is presented in these pages. Like Dahl, Saki is clearly very engrossed in a particular social circle or group of people, so much so that he is able to perfectly and amazingly depict their forms and their foibles, but when Dahl wrote about suspicious law-dodging rural folk or cunning sorts getting one over on the system, Saki delves into the lives of the Edwardian English social elite; the blurb compares Saki’s setting to those written about by Wilde, but Wilde is on another fucking level when it comes to heavy-handed satire and ludicrous sensationalism. These stories are safer than the shit you’ll find in The Picture of Dorian Gray, but no less entertaining. The focus of the stories rarely deviates from the Edwardian elite (and when they do, the stories are often a tad forgettable as a result), but the form that the comedy takes varies a tad from story to story. Some of the stories are centred on one specific character, being structured like a monologue or a very one-sided conversation from that character’s perspective, and in these cases the comedy arises specifically from the intricacies of the character. The blurb proudly boasts of Reginald and Clovis, both of whom are great characters (though perhaps more similar to one another than different); Reginald’s stories make up Saki’s earliest work, and suffer inasmuch as their reliance on rather specific erudite references that aren’t exactly instantly recognisable for the modern reader, and Saki has a strange habit of injecting a mention of Clovis into miscellaneous stories that he really doesn’t seem to belong in, but regardless of these niggles there is much to recommend in these stories, for the two characters run rings around their peers and continuously amuse with their matter-of-fact responses to dire situations. A lot of the comedy was in the vein of overt farce, which surprised me a tad; I really ought to have seen it coming, because plunging lofty characters into base or ludicrous scenarios is the easiest way to punch holes in their inflated egotistical self-images, but I really didn’t expect stories involving people (supposedly) magically turning into wolves or deceptions about killer butlers. This was an especially jarring turn of events, considering that some of the earlier stories in the collection were farcical but in a rather subdued way, with cases of mistaken identity or bizarre unexplainable turns of events; the fact that the social elite were the ones experiencing such ridiculous fates tied in very well, not just because of the simple juxtaposition between serious proper people engaged in shitshows straight out of a pantomime, but because the escalation of such scenarios are facilitated by the characters’ high levels of income. I did still very much enjoy the more farcical stories, even if they were not what I was expecting.  In the vein of Dahl, there were a number of great black comedy twists in the collection, usually about turns of fate sending hapless fools up shit creek, or animals (and occasionally aunts) being abruptly murdered, and they are unanimously funny because they come as a pleasant shock and don’t rely on knowledge of Edwardian living. If nothing else, a snort can always be had at Saki’s character names, which I can only assume are deliberately ridiculous and over-the-top; I remember reading that Wilde had a selection of family names that he would repeatedly use in his fiction, for he was always in danger of using the name of a real-life upper-class family who would not take kindly to having their family names appropriated for satirical caricatures of upper society, but Saki seems to have avoided this problem by using names that no one in reality could possibly fucking have. Overall, I’d especially recommend the stories in the collections Beasts and Super-Beasts, The Chronicles of Clovis, and Reginald in Russia, for whilst Saki’s earliest and latest works have some great stories in them, it is his middle body of works that has consistently good content. WOULD I RECOMMEND?: HELL YES

Other shit that I read: Medieval Bodies by Jack Hartnell (absolutely amazing and very much up my alley (I damn nearly yelled out loud with glee when I got to the section on the stomach and I was gifted with no less than nine new articles and books to check out on the subjects of gluttony and farting and medieval mischief), wryly enjoyed how every chapter ended with the sort of insipid half-conclusion that I’m used to writing for formality’s sake in all of my uni essays, would recommend for an introduction to medieval bodies and for some good banter about bones and penis trees), and The Stories of Slang by Jonathon Green (a book with content more interesting than the way that it is imparted, everything is strangely written in a sort of haltering stop-start way, something of an overload of very similar information, would probably just recommend checking out the bloke’s website, for while his research is comprehensive and interesting it didn’t really need to be published in its own book).

[rollinbrigittenv8]

Nevada Gun Tourism is Still Steady After Vegas Shooting

Gun tourism is among the major tourism drivers in Nevada and likely won't slow down after the Las Vegas mass shooting. Pictured is the Oasis Gun Club in Mesquite, Nevada, where the Las Vegas gunman resided. Travel Nevada / Flickr

Skift Take: Don't count on mass shootings to deter travelers' interests in gun tourism. Guns are big business and are a major driver for some travelers, most of whom have no bad intentions.

— Dan Peltier

It was business as usual Monday at Battlefield Vegas, a shooting range where guests can fire all manner of automatic weapons and even drive a tank over a car.

Employees in military fatigues escorted guests. A group of Asian tourists took photos of themselves manning the gun of an armored personnel carrier. Three patrons, holding targets riddled with bullet holes, declined to chat about their experience as they left. “We booked this a long time ago,” one said.

Establishments like those in Las Vegas where tourists and locals can shoot military-grade weapons underscore how deeply the gun culture is embedded with many Americans and the challenges President Donald Trump and other politicians face when they try to change gun laws. U.S. Representative John Lewis, the Georgia Democrat, and former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, a gunshot victim, are among those who called for tighter regulation.

“If you want to add to your once in lifetime experiences, put Battlefield Vegas on your ‘Bucket list,’” Anthony W., a visitor from Oakland, California, raved on Yelp.com last month. He chose the “D-Day package” which included firing a Thompson submachine gun and said, “I’ll be going back soon for another experience.”

About 3.5 miles away from Battlefield Vegas, a gunman wielding high-powered weapons opened fire Sunday night on an outdoor concert from the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas casino. He killed 59 people and wounded more than 500. Trump visited the city Wednesday to offer support for the victims, police and paramedics, and to survey the scene.

“We will be talking about gun laws as time goes by,” he said Tuesday. At a press conference Wednesday at a Las Vegas hospital he declined to comment further.

50 Caliber

A billboard for Battlefield Vegas offers enthusiasts the chance to shoot a 50-caliber machine gun for $29. Machine Guns Vegas promises the best shooting deal in town, from $99 for its “Urban Assault Experience” which includes firing the Colt Commando, the Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun and a Glock 17 handgun.

Machine Gun Helicopters takes the show into the air, letting patrons fire automatic weapons from a chopper in what it calls a “true door gunner experience.” A video clip shows the customer cutting down a couple of human dummies perched on a sofa out in the desert.

“We believe, as we always have, that there should absolutely be more stringent control on the types of firearms private individuals can own and the processes they must go through in order to own those firearms,” Machine Guns Vegas said in an emailed statement. “There were many factors contributing to this tragic event, but there is no doubt that the shooter’s ability to inflict so many casualties was heavily due to the types of weapons he had access to.”

The others declined to comment or didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Sales Rise

“Typically after mass shootings, gun sales go up,” said Avery Gardiner, co-president of the Brady Campaign, a group that seeks to reduce gun deaths. “I would guess that activity at shooting ranges follows that pattern, too.”

Annual sales of guns and ammunition in the U.S. total about $13 billion, according to data compiled by IBIS World. About 141,500 people are employed directly in making and selling firearms, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents the industry.

Some advocates, like Gardiner, argue ranges provide a valuable service for responsible firearm owners, giving them a place to learn how to use weapons safely and responsibly.

Nevada is far from the only state where enthusiasts can shoot high-caliber weapons on a range. Businesses in Kentucky, Arizona and Georgia advertise similar experiences. Las Vegas may be unique though in both the number of establishments and their proximity to one of the world’s largest tourist destinations.

“You see all those ads all over Las Vegas,” said Rommel Dionisio, an industry analyst at Aegis Capital Crop. in New York. “On billboard and magazines, that’s what they say, the ability to shoot automatic weapons.”

Restrictions on private ownership of automatic weapons date back to the Prohibition era, according to the Brady Campaign. The National Firearms Act of 1934 didn’t outlaw such guns, but it made them hard to get. Sales were recorded in a national registry. Owners underwent a background check and had to meet certain requirements.

Additional restrictions passed in 1968 barred the sale of imported weapons “with no sporting purpose” to civilians, and automatic weapons were determined to fall in that category. The Firearms Owners Protection Act of 1986 banned civilian from possessing machine guns made after May 19 of that year, limiting ownership to older models. An assault weapons ban passed in 1994 expired 10 years later.

Nevada has long been associated with the Wild West and gun culture. The Nevada State Museum, just a few blocks from the capitol in Carson City, has an extensive firearms collection on display, everything from blunderbusses to Gatling guns.

“Nevada has some of the laxest gun laws in the nation,” Gardiner said.

This article was written by Christopher Palmeri and Alexandra Stratton from Bloomberg and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.

[touristguidebuzz]

Nevada Gun Tourism is Still Steady After Vegas Shooting

Gun tourism is among the major tourism drivers in Nevada and likely won't slow down after the Las Vegas mass shooting. Pictured is the Oasis Gun Club in Mesquite, Nevada, where the Las Vegas gunman resided. Travel Nevada / Flickr

Skift Take: Don't count on mass shootings to deter travelers' interests in gun tourism. Guns are big business and are a major driver for some travelers, most of whom have no bad intentions.

— Dan Peltier

It was business as usual Monday at Battlefield Vegas, a shooting range where guests can fire all manner of automatic weapons and even drive a tank over a car.

Employees in military fatigues escorted guests. A group of Asian tourists took photos of themselves manning the gun of an armored personnel carrier. Three patrons, holding targets riddled with bullet holes, declined to chat about their experience as they left. “We booked this a long time ago,” one said.

Establishments like those in Las Vegas where tourists and locals can shoot military-grade weapons underscore how deeply the gun culture is embedded with many Americans and the challenges President Donald Trump and other politicians face when they try to change gun laws. U.S. Representative John Lewis, the Georgia Democrat, and former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, a gunshot victim, are among those who called for tighter regulation.

“If you want to add to your once in lifetime experiences, put Battlefield Vegas on your ‘Bucket list,’” Anthony W., a visitor from Oakland, California, raved on Yelp.com last month. He chose the “D-Day package” which included firing a Thompson submachine gun and said, “I’ll be going back soon for another experience.”

About 3.5 miles away from Battlefield Vegas, a gunman wielding high-powered weapons opened fire Sunday night on an outdoor concert from the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas casino. He killed 59 people and wounded more than 500. Trump visited the city Wednesday to offer support for the victims, police and paramedics, and to survey the scene.

“We will be talking about gun laws as time goes by,” he said Tuesday. At a press conference Wednesday at a Las Vegas hospital he declined to comment further.

50 Caliber

A billboard for Battlefield Vegas offers enthusiasts the chance to shoot a 50-caliber machine gun for $29. Machine Guns Vegas promises the best shooting deal in town, from $99 for its “Urban Assault Experience” which includes firing the Colt Commando, the Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun and a Glock 17 handgun.

Machine Gun Helicopters takes the show into the air, letting patrons fire automatic weapons from a chopper in what it calls a “true door gunner experience.” A video clip shows the customer cutting down a couple of human dummies perched on a sofa out in the desert.

“We believe, as we always have, that there should absolutely be more stringent control on the types of firearms private individuals can own and the processes they must go through in order to own those firearms,” Machine Guns Vegas said in an emailed statement. “There were many factors contributing to this tragic event, but there is no doubt that the shooter’s ability to inflict so many casualties was heavily due to the types of weapons he had access to.”

The others declined to comment or didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Sales Rise

“Typically after mass shootings, gun sales go up,” said Avery Gardiner, co-president of the Brady Campaign, a group that seeks to reduce gun deaths. “I would guess that activity at shooting ranges follows that pattern, too.”

Annual sales of guns and ammunition in the U.S. total about $13 billion, according to data compiled by IBIS World. About 141,500 people are employed directly in making and selling firearms, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents the industry.

Some advocates, like Gardiner, argue ranges provide a valuable service for responsible firearm owners, giving them a place to learn how to use weapons safely and responsibly.

Nevada is far from the only state where enthusiasts can shoot high-caliber weapons on a range. Businesses in Kentucky, Arizona and Georgia advertise similar experiences. Las Vegas may be unique though in both the number of establishments and their proximity to one of the world’s largest tourist destinations.

“You see all those ads all over Las Vegas,” said Rommel Dionisio, an industry analyst at Aegis Capital Crop. in New York. “On billboard and magazines, that’s what they say, the ability to shoot automatic weapons.”

Restrictions on private ownership of automatic weapons date back to the Prohibition era, according to the Brady Campaign. The National Firearms Act of 1934 didn’t outlaw such guns, but it made them hard to get. Sales were recorded in a national registry. Owners underwent a background check and had to meet certain requirements.

Additional restrictions passed in 1968 barred the sale of imported weapons “with no sporting purpose” to civilians, and automatic weapons were determined to fall in that category. The Firearms Owners Protection Act of 1986 banned civilian from possessing machine guns made after May 19 of that year, limiting ownership to older models. An assault weapons ban passed in 1994 expired 10 years later.

Nevada has long been associated with the Wild West and gun culture. The Nevada State Museum, just a few blocks from the capitol in Carson City, has an extensive firearms collection on display, everything from blunderbusses to Gatling guns.

“Nevada has some of the laxest gun laws in the nation,” Gardiner said.

This article was written by Christopher Palmeri and Alexandra Stratton from Bloomberg and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.