#18th year - Salvation

[tnyj-3]

SY_0 - S-R_0 - Remedy Of 2019 (2022): Full Tracklist Completed.

View the 2022 Life Mixtape Entry here: TNYJ-4 - SY_0 - S-R_0 - Remedy Of 2019 (2022) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

[xythlia]

𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐎 — 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓

kinktober week two | biting | vampire!satan x f!reader

What Goes Bump In The Night week two is here! The theater two showing is all about vampires, so when those fangs are bared make sure your necks are too~

› you're a caged bird, no hope of faith or flight to save you from the beast that holds you in an iron grip. But do you even want to be saved?

› warnings : ambiguous 18th century setting, biting, vampire au, blood/blood consumption, kidnapping, stockholm syndrome, use of pet, sacrilege/religious themes, mention of killing, reader has hair long enough for it to get in their face, noncon, cervix fucking, creampie, choking

› word count : 3k+

🔪 what goes bump in the night?

The human mind possesses a remarkable ability to adapt.

You had quit marking time here long ago, it only served to drive you deeper into despair and slowly it became clear the only choice left was to make the best of being trapped in this rotted cathedral. So be it. Things became less horrid once that shifted inside you, he was kinder for one. Less bouts of intense rage although it wasn't perfectly remedied by your obedience and you suspected the real source of his rage was his own despair at knowing there was no solution for what he was. He also allowed you more freedom of movement, though only within this decrepit place.

You also suppose it makes sense he would choose this place to be a prison, for both of you. What you don't understand however, is his would be devotion to a being that did not create him nor hold any love for him.

"Leave me." Satan greeted you. His eyes never even moved to you, it almost made you feel miffed he couldn't even be bothered to properly rebuke you.

"I didn't even know you were here," you lied. He's always here. Always in the shadow of this altar when he's not slipping into your bedroom, attempting to find a much different form of salvation. This place was obviously once resplendent, but years of abandonment have reduced portions to rubble. This main part of the cathedral was nothing more than a half cracked maw, sucking in the freezing night air.

"I couldn't sleep," you muttered, maybe more to the neglected pews than to him.

You both knew you were lying, his acknowledgement coming in the form of a bland hmph. It was strange, you hated and reviled him especially when he would lurk into your room at night but something you couldn't really describe would rear it's head as an ache for him. You were now wholly dependent on him and you loathed him for it.

When those venomous eyes finally train on you it nearly makes you reconsider. Coming to him like this was a mistake, especially if you don't tred carefully-

"Maybe I should use you to sate my own desires," he cuts off your train of thought. "How wretched you are. You call me beast more times than I can count, yet you sulk into this place wanting to be bed by said beast." He sneered, tone shot full of mocking. You were caught out.

A pit opened in your stomach, but it wasn't unpleasant. No, it was a funny mixture of desire and disgust. He was right, though that would never pass your lips.

So you decide to lie again, even though you know he can practically taste the desire wafting from you, knew you were wet the moment you walked in.

"That's not what I want from you-"

"Then leave!" He practically snarls and you wish you had the nerve to strike him. He knows perfectly well you can't leave, could never leave. He tore you away in the night from all you ever had, all you ever knew and dropped you into this decaying church because try as he might he can never resist what he is.

Your own lips curl into a snarl. "You're nothing but a pathetic creature that would spend all of his eternity knelt for a god that deafens its ears to him."

You don't stop even as he rises to stand, every movement radiating aggression as he comes closer to you. You want to hurt him even a fraction of how badly he's hurt you, the ugliness of it twines together with your arousal, twin snakes squirming in your belly.

"You're pathetic. You know no god will ever look at you in joy so you capture women, cage them and break them so at least someone will gaze at you in sick adoration-"

The words die as a garbled sound of pain as his hand grips your throat, pushing you forcefully against a half rotted support beam. The position was oddly intimate, allowing you to smell the tang of the dust that had settled on him from spending hours in that repentant pose. That shameful arousal spiked inside your gut at the way he bared those fangs at you, the way he held you in place by your neck.

"Aren't you the one gazing in adoration, pet?"

The stone floor suddenly at your back was roughly fractured in sharp contours, horribly uncomfortable but it mattered not. You blinked away the start of tears in your eyes at the breathtaking sensation of being laid out flat, you always forgot about his strength when enough time passed but his small display of violence was thrilling to you in a vile way, so was the pain.

All of Satan's focus was zeroed on you as he hunched above your trembling body. The look on his face was dark, making your thighs squeeze together in a way you wish didn't happen. His flaxen hair was haloed by the cracks of moonlight from the crumbling ceiling,for a millisecond you swear he looked like one of those stained glass depictions of an angel.

"Please not here," you squeaked out.

"What? Are you afraid god will strike you down?" He asked, then whispered, "Do you really think he cares? He has yet to save you."

You swallowed thickly, noting how his eyes tracked the movement with their overblown pupils. This was a terrible idea, one you regretted now but it was too late. You'd poked the bear until claws came out and there's no asking for them to be retracted.

In the tense quiet he brushed a stray strand of hair from your forehead, the act so gentle, so intimate it nearly made you forget that you were but a meal and a thing to fuck. The faint stench of old blood brought you back to reality, knowing it came from his hands.

So, his faux repentance was prompted by another killing. It always is.

That blood-crusted hand glided down the column of your throat, making you flinch. You could tell by the hardening of his eyes that it was the wrong involuntary action to have, but there was no taking it back. That hand dipped inside your neckline to trace the curve of a breast before stilling above your heart.

"You're always so afraid," he said. It sounded almost regretful. "You know I don't mean to hurt you?"

"I don't." You whimpered. Finally a portion of truth. For all his occasional nicety it always wound back around to pain. A pain you got used to, tolerated, even sought out such as tonight, but you could never ever be sure that he would never hurt you.

He laughed and it was a mad sound, ricocheting off the cold indifferent stone and making you flinch again.

"You're just as detestable as I am, do you know that? Skulking in, acting on your own shameful desires, pretending you're not. Pretending you don't enjoy this little dance we do." His speech was coming out hard, rapidly. "I could tear you into shreds, leave nothing but ichor and parts and there's nothing you could ever do to stop me."

It was sick, how delighted he looked as you shrank against the floor. Even now your defiant streak became prevalent.

"You won't kill me," but you hardly sounded sure.

"Would you like to test it?"

You clenched your jaw, staying silent, although your trembling worsened.

Before you realized it he was leaning back, icy hands moving down violently to rip at the linen trousers you wore and horror washed over you. Horror that this was no longer a scathing back and forth, and that this time he really might make good on killing you.

"What are you doing- stop!" You cried out in dread but his movements didn't falter, no matter how much you struggled against him pulling at the fabrics of your clothes until the seams tore, leaving your cunt bare to his gaze and your ass to the bite of the frozen stone floor.

You yelped in pain as he tugged you down, scraping your back against the stone and raised your legs up, propping them on his shoulders in a hardened grip. Terror kept you locked in place even when his hands disappeared, fumbling with his own waistband looking down you saw how erect he was in his hand. Thick and tip dripping precum as you feel him smear it between your folds, and you bite down hard on your lips in anticipation of fresh pain.

As he roughly guided himself inside you struggled anew, crying out from the unprepared stretching as his girth forced your muscles and slick walls to part. Something like lust overcame you as you felt him fit fully inside, the head of his cock brushing against your cervix. It made you go limp, a gasped sob rising from your chest as he pushed your legs up against your breasts before forcefully placing your hands to hold the backs of your thighs.

His movements started slow, his breathing ragged feeling you clench around him. When he started thrusting with more vigor the back of your head scraped painfully against the floor, making you yelp as cool tears pooled in the shell of your ears from sliding down your cheeks. It hurt, the way it always did and brought a dull pounding pain that flowed through your entire body.

It was raw, being fucked into jagged stone with no consideration from the man sucking and nipping at your skin. A mockery of intimacy, but in a repulsive way it sustained you. Feeling his balls smack against the fat of your ass, gasping his name in broken syllables, feeling his fingers slip down to prod at your clit; it guaranteed your survival.

As you shift to wrap your arms around his neck an aggressive sound leaves him. All the pain made your back arch, trying to escape the ground while at the same time providing him a deeper reach that brought a burst of ecstasy to you. Pain and pleasure intensely mixed and muddled your mind as your body jostled with his cruel pace. Whatever pain there was would be rewarded, there was solace in that.

With no space between you that scent of iron and rot returned, pairing with the smell of your own acrid sweat and his golden hair tickled your cheek as he bit down with intent this time.

The wail that rang against the unfeeling cathedral left you unbidden, an animalistic response to the searing, nearly blinding pain of teeth sinking into your flesh. Sobs left you in ripping spurts, your nails clawing at his back but it did little to stop him. His pace never broke, if anything the way he circled your clit only picked up speed and your cunt spasmed around him.

It was strangely beautiful, feeling yourself coming undone and slipping away as your eyes never left the gap of starlight breaking through the musty darkness from the vaulted ceiling. The pain was ebbing away too, like a hazy afterimage that you couldn't hold onto. Faintly you knew the wet warmth seeping against your skin was your own blood, he always is a sloppy eater after all. It makes you crack a small smile, and distantly you know you look insane: fucked out, bloody, yet smiling up to the sky while he doesn't stop pumping into you, doesn't stop sucking and grunting against your skin. A barbaric display beneath the unsympathetic eye of the moon.

Though there is a happiness in knowing the dance ended the way it always does. That tomorrow you'll wake up, sore and feeling sick, but alive still.

As your eyes flutter closed and you go limp in his hold something shifts, though you're no longer awake to catch it. To him this suffering of eternal existence would perhaps be lessened if you were also eternally present, and without your current fragility.

Thick spurts of cum flood your throbbing cunt with his last sloppy thrusts as he keeps drinking, past his fill and past the point of no return. You'll wake much, much later as little more than a fledgling beast with base instincts but it thrills him to think of your anguish once you regain a sense of self.

Whatever poison you spit at him as a human would pale in comparison to what will surely leave your mouth once you realize what he's done to you. But snapping that iron will of yours a second time will taste even sweeter than you do at this moment.

[communist-manifesto-daily]

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific - Part 4

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Thus Karl Marx wrote about the British origin of modern materialism. If Englishmen nowadays do not exactly relish the compliment he paid their ancestors, more's the pity. It is none the less undeniable that Bacon, Hobbes, and Locke are the fathers of that brilliant school of French materialism which made the 18th century, in spite of all battles on land and sea won over Frenchmen by Germans and Englishmen, a pre-eminently French century, even before that crowning French Revolution, the results of which we outsiders, in England as well as Germany, are still trying to acclimatize.

There is no denying it. About the middle of this century, what struck every cultivated foreigner who set up his residence in England, was what he was then bound to consider the religious bigotry and stupidity of the English respectable middle-class. We, at that time, were all materialists, or, at least, very advanced free-thinkers, and to us it appeared inconceivable that almost all educated people in England should believe in all sorts of impossible miracles, and that even geologists like Buckland and Mantell should contort the facts of their science so as not to clash too much with the myths of the book of Genesis; while, in order to find people who dared to use their own intellectual faculties with regard to religious matters, you had to go amongst the uneducated, the "great unwashed", as they were then called, the working people, especially the Owenite Socialists.

But England has been "civilized" since then. The exhibition of 1851 sounded the knell of English insular exclusiveness. England became gradually internationalized, in diet, in manners, in ideas; so much so that I begin to wish that some English manners and customs had made as much headway on the Continent as other Continental habits have made here. Anyhow, the introduction and spread of salad-oil (before 1851 known only to the aristocracy) has been accompanied by a fatal spread of Continental scepticism in matters religious, and it has come to this, that agnosticism, though not yet considered "the thing" quite as much as the Church of England, is yet very nearly on a par, as far as respectability goes, with Baptism, and decidedly ranks above the Salvation Army. And I cannot help believing that under those circumstances it will be consoling to many who sincerely regret and condemn this progress of infidelity to learn that these "new-fangled notions" are not of foreign origin, are not "made in Germany", like so many other articles of daily use, but are undoubtedly Old English, and that their British originators 200 years ago went a good deal further than their descendants now dare to venture.

What, indeed, is agnosticism but, to use an expressive Lancashire term, "shamefaced" materialism? The agnostic's conception of Nature is materialistic throughout. The entire natural world is governed by law, and absolutely excludes the intervention of action from without. But, he adds, we have no means either of ascertaining or of disproving the existence of some Supreme Being beyond the known universe. Now, this might hold good at the time when Laplace, to Napoleon's question, why, in the great astronomer's Treatise on Celestial Mechanics, the Creator was not even mentioned, proudly replied: "I had no need of this hypothesis." But, nowadays, in our evolutionary conception of the universe, there is absolutely no room for either a Creator or a Ruler; and to talk of a Supreme Being shut out from the whole existing world, implies a contradiction in terms, and, as it seems to me, a gratuitous insult to the feelings of religious people.

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[deamcrtis]

⏤ ・navigate . . .𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 . 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 . 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬 .

⏤ ・𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐒 .

birth name : daciana mara avery . nicknames : ciana , mara , little wolf . age : twenty two . date of birth : december 18th . place of birth : cornwall , england . gender & pronouns : cis woman & she + her . blood status : half blood . family : morana avery ( mother , deceased ) avery jnr ( uncle ) , avery snr ( grandfather )

⏤ ・𝐃𝐄����𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐒 .

height : 165 cm / 5'5 ft . hair color : blonde . eye color : green . piercings : n / a . tattoos : n / a . marks / scars : tba . faceclaim : freya allan . house : slytherin . wand : 9½ inches , silver lime , dragon heartstring . boggart : [redacted] . amortentia : tbd . extracurriculars : potions , slug club .

⏤ ・𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒 .

child of an affair, daciana avery is forced to carry the burden of her mother's sins from a young age. she grows up on the outskirts of cornwall, far away from the aristocratic circle of pureblood elite, and is kept secluded from the outside world for most of her childhood. her uncle is a bitter, bleak man, and impurity seems to have no room in a family born of the blood of others. to the public, she's an avery; a poor, little orphan, forced into the role of pureblood heiress way too soon. to her uncle she's the devil, the destruction of his legacy, the corrosion eating away at the walls of his broken kingdom. and to her grandfather, she's a ghost that dwells in the shadows of his mind.

she learns quickly that avoidance is better than invoking wrath, and ignorance is bliss. so daciana spends most of her time holed up inside the walls of the manor, stalking passed mahogany panels dense with portraits of ancestors that sneer as she slips by, or curled in on a window seat inside the library, feet tucked beneath her and an ancient book forgotten in her lap. she becomes used to the slurs and taunts, the idea that her blood is inferior. her uncle tells her she should be grateful for their sacrifice, the myth they'd build for her, their family. he'd emphasize on the importance of their veneer, instruct her to perfect the charade but know her place. she'd struggled with that last part, doing the best that she could but then whispers of the dark lord's return arise and everything changes.

her grandfather perks up the summer before her first year. he'd been an old and gangly man, his skin tinted a dull grey, eyes hollow and gaunt as he withered away in a worn leather chair seated in front of the fireplace. he'd hated her--but he'd loved to talk. prone to ramble about the past, about a better time when they still preyed on muggles, shunned their existance and forsook their kind. he starts to mutter about war and eradication, of revolution and a boy named tom that would be their salvation, their destiny. the more the rumors of an uprising spread, the more his words leave behind an eerie silence that lingers across her skin and settles into her bones.

she sees that same boy depicted once, on a crumpled photograph burried inside an old tome on the back shelf of their library. there is no flash of grandeur, no hint of glory and triumph, or a small gesture that proves his supremacy the way her grandfather had described. instead, he looks almost normal, fine cut and tailored in dark rich vests and excessive coats. if she hadn't known better, she would have assumed he was nothing but a mere boy. --maybe a child of one of the aristocratic families in their pureblood circle.

but there's a darkness that clings to his shape, a sense of harrow and death. he starts to haunt her in her dreams, nightmares filled with the premise of a future no longer ambiguous. an omen of a destiny you can't escape. and for the first time ciana becomes scared of her own power, of the insatiable hunger that makes her yearn for more. her grandfather's stories become a mantra that plagues her judgement. because somewhere in the back of her mind is a voice, a hiss, that wonders; if another half-blood could garner so much prestige, then why couldn't she?

⏤ ・𝐒𝐘𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐒 .

welcome back to hogwarts, DACIANA AVERY ! according to your file, you’re a TWENTY TWO year old HALF BLOOD. as i’m sure you remember, last spring had its challenges, but i’m confident you’ll take your studies more seriously this year. as a FOURTH year SLYTHERIN, focusing on DIVINATION, you’ve got a lot on your plate. our records show that you're PERCEPTIVE and DETERMINED however, they seem to have left off that you're PRIDEFUL and SELFISH. if i’m correct, you’re siding with NEUTRAL, which makes sense considering you’re known around the castle for the distruction of your family's legacy, paying for the sins of your mother, restless nights plagued by dreams that show you the future, the burden of destiny and the fear of becoming your own worst nightmare. let’s hope you make it through the year in one piece.

[ongolecharles]

DAILY SCRIPTURE READINGS (DSR) 📚 Group, Thu July 18th, 2024 ... Thursday of The Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year B

Reading 1

-----------------

Is 26:7-9, 12, 16-19

The way of the just is smooth;

the path of the just you make level.

Yes, for your way and your judgments, O LORD,

we look to you;

Your name and your title

are the desire of our souls.

My soul yearns for you in the night,

yes, my spirit within me keeps vigil for you;

When your judgment dawns upon the earth,

the world's inhabitants learn justice.

O LORD, you mete out peace to us,

for it is you who have accomplished all we have done.

O LORD, oppressed by your punishment,

we cried out in anguish under your chastising.

As a woman about to give birth

writhes and cries out in her pains,

so were we in your presence, O LORD.

We conceived and writhed in pain,

giving birth to wind;

Salvation we have not achieved for the earth,

the inhabitants of the world cannot bring it forth.

But your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise;

awake and sing, you who lie in the dust.

For your dew is a dew of light,

and the land of shades gives birth.

Responsorial Psalm

------------------

Ps 102:13-14ab and 15, 16-18, 19-21

R. (20b) From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.

You, O LORD, abide forever,

and your name through all generations.

You will arise and have mercy on Zion,

for it is time to pity her.

For her stones are dear to your servants,

and her dust moves them to pity.

R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.

The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,

and all the kings of the earth your glory,

When the LORD has rebuilt Zion

and appeared in his glory;

When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,

and not despised their prayer.

R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.

Let this be written for the generation to come,

and let his future creatures praise the LORD:

"The LORD looked down from his holy height,

from heaven he beheld the earth,

To hear the groaning of the prisoners,

to release those doomed to die."

R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.

Alleluia

---------

Mt 11:28

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,

and I will give you rest, says the Lord.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

-----------

Mt 11:28-30

Jesus said:

"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,

and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,

for I am meek and humble of heart;

and you will find rest for yourselves.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."

***

FOCUS AND LITURGY OF THE WORD

Life in all of its fullness with family, careers, travel, as well as beginnings, transitions, and endings brings at times feelings of deep weariness, fatigue, and tiredness. A view of someone’s life from the outside can often be misjudged; a reminder that appearances can be deceiving. 

A satisfying career - A satisfying career has often included years of education, multiple changes in jobs, relocations, a plethora of difficult projects, management of complex work relationships.

Each obstacle has built character, resilience, and discipline.

A well adjusted happy family -  Well adjusted happy families have worked hard on their relationships…perhaps there has been a history of deceit, deception, rejection and bitterness. However their faith in God has enabled them to forgive, to seek help with their relationships and to continue to love each other. 

Financial security - Financial security is rare for most individuals/families. Many have had experiences such as bankruptcy, loss of possessions, loss of jobs, inability to support their children.  Financial security was built over time. Their experiences teaching them valuable lessons. 

Meaningful friendships - Meaningful friendships are a true gift. These friendships were often built from painful experiences of losing friends due to selfishness, lack of attention, and lack of nurturing. Each loss brought new insights and learnings. To keep friends you must be a friend. 

In these circumstances the prophet Isiah 26 in the Old Testament and Matthew 11 in the New Testament reminds us to remember God’s love and willingness to bear our burdens which promises to provide us with strength and hope. As faithful believers in God - strength lies in converting our faith to action by caring, loving and helping our family, friends, and neighbors.  

Isaiah 26 reminds us to rely on the strength that God offers.

Matthew 11 reminds us to give Jesus our burdens.

"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,

and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,

for I am meek and humble of heart;

and you will find rest for yourselves.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

Let both scripture readings remind us that we are never alone. 

***

SAINT OF THE DAY

Saint Camillus de Lellis

(1550 – July 14, 1614)

Saint Camillus de Lellis’ Story

Humanly speaking, Camillus was not a likely candidate for sainthood. His mother died when he was a child, his father neglected him, and he grew up with an excessive love for gambling. At 17, he was afflicted with a disease of his leg that remained with him for life. In Rome he entered the San Giacomo Hospital for Incurables as both patient and servant, but was dismissed for quarrelsomeness after nine months. He served in the Venetian army for three years.

Then in the winter of 1574, when he was 24, Camillus gambled away everything he had—savings, weapons, literally down to his shirt. He accepted work at the Capuchin friary at Manfredonia, and was one day so moved by a sermon of the superior that he began a conversion that changed his life. He entered the Capuchin novitiate, but was dismissed because of the apparently incurable sore on his leg. After another stint of service at San Giacomo, he came back to the Capuchins, only to be dismissed again, for the same reason.

Again, back at San Giacomo, his dedication was rewarded by his being made superintendent. Camillus devoted the rest of his life to the care of the sick. Along with Saint John of God he has been named patron of hospitals, nurses, and the sick. With the advice of his friend Saint Philip Neri, he studied for the priesthood and was ordained at the age of 34. Contrary to the advice of his friend, Camillus left San Giacomo and founded a congregation of his own. As superior, he devoted much of his own time to the care of the sick.

Charity was his first concern, but the physical aspects of the hospital also received his diligent attention. Camillus insisted on cleanliness and the technical competence of those who served the sick. The members of his community bound themselves to serve prisoners and persons infected by the plague as well as those dying in private homes. Some of his men were with troops fighting in Hungary and Croatia in 1595, forming the first recorded military field ambulance. In Naples, he and his men went onto the galleys that had plague and were not allowed to land. He discovered that there were people being buried alive, and ordered his brothers to continue the prayers for the dying 15 minutes after apparent death.

Camillus himself suffered the disease of his leg through his life. In his last illness, he left his own bed to see if other patients in the hospital needed help.

Reflection

----------

Saints are created by God. Parents must indeed nurture the faith in their children; husbands and wives must cooperate to deepen their baptismal grace; friends must support each other. But all human effort is only the dispensing of divine power. We must all try as if everything depended on us. But only the power of God can fulfill the plan of God—to make us like himself.

Saint Camillus de Lellis is the Patron Saint of:

Hospitals

Nurses

Healthcare workers

Sick

***

【Build your Faith in Christ Jesus on #dailyscripturereadingsgroup 📚: +256 751 540 524 .. Whatsapp】

[roman-catholic-mass-readings]

18th July >> Mass Readings (Except USA)

Thursday, Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time 

(Liturgical Colour: Green. Year: B(II))

First Reading Isaiah 26:7-9,12,16-19 'Awake and exult, all you who lie in the dust'.

The path of the upright man is straight, you smooth the way of the upright. Following the path of your judgements, we hoped in you, O Lord, your name, your memory are all my soul desires.

At night my soul longs for you and my spirit in me seeks for you; when your judgements appear on earth the inhabitants of the world learn the meaning of integrity.

O Lord, you are giving us peace, since you treat us as our deeds deserve.

Distressed, we search for you, O Lord; the misery of oppression was your punishment for us. As a woman with child near her time writhes and cries out in her pangs,

so are we, O Lord, in your presence: we have conceived, we writhe as if we were giving birth; we have not given the spirit of salvation to the earth, no more inhabitants of the world are born.

Your dead will come to life, their corpses will rise; awake, exult, all you who lie in the dust, for your dew is a radiant dew and the land of ghosts will give birth.

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 101(102):13-21

R/ The Lord looked down from heaven to the earth.

You, O Lord, will endure for ever and your name from age to age. You will arise and have mercy on Zion: for this is the time to have mercy, for your servants love her very stones, are moved with pity even for her dust.

R/ The Lord looked down from heaven to the earth.

The nations shall fear the name of the Lord and all the earth’s kings your glory, when the Lord shall build up Zion again and appear in all his glory. Then he will turn to the prayers of the helpless; he will not despise their prayers.

R/ The Lord looked down from heaven to the earth.

Let this be written for ages to come that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord; for the Lord leaned down from his sanctuary on high. He looked down from heaven to the earth that he might hear the groans of the prisoners and free those condemned to die.

R/ The Lord looked down from heaven to the earth.

Gospel Acclamation cf. Psalm 129:5

Alleluia, alleluia! My soul is waiting for the Lord, I count on his word. Alleluia!

Or: Matthew 11:28

Alleluia, alleluia! Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest, says the Lord. Alleluia!

Gospel Matthew 11:28-30 My yoke is easy and my burden light.

Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.’

The Gospel of the Lord

R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

[dangerousconnoisseurdonut]

Alliance or Destruction idea

It’s been a long time since I posted an idea here, but I’m watching a video on YouTube on top 30 werewolf movies and it has sparked an idea for a fun bit of Gotham smut. This was inspired by seeing movies like Skinwalkers from 2006 or 2007 (can’t remember) and the Underwolrd franchise, so please be aware of similarities.

Many hundreds of years ago, Jim Gordon and Alfred Pennyworth were not only friends, but also secret lovers who knew they could never be open about their love. Things got even worse when, one night while they were meeting, they didn’t notice the full moon in the sky and came across another meeting, though not one of lovers. They are a werewolf and a vampire, trying to destroy one another, as their species always try to do.

In the ensuing struggle, both creatures are killed, but not before the vampire bites Alfred and the werewolf bites Jim, infecting the lovers with enemy DNA. They are found by the Vampire’s Court and taken in, though once they determine Jim’s bite is a werewolf bite and not a vampire bite. Alfred manages to enlist help from Leslie Thompkins to free Jim as he hasn’t done any harm to the vampires and doesn’t deserve to die. The pair manage it and Jim manages to flee, where he is accepted by the pack of the deceased werewolf.

Years go by in the blink of an eye for the immortal lovers who do all they can to look perfect to the elders of their species, so they can be left alone and meet where they can. Things get easier when Alfred becomes a Master Vampire and Jim becomes an Alpha Werewolf who manages to wrangle some land for themselves in Gotham. By the time it’s revealed the pair are still lovers despite being genetic enemies, Head Vampire Kathryn Monroe and Alpha Theo Galavan want to kill them, but they each have their own Court and Pack who will fight to protect their heads.

Jim has a number of wolves who are loyal to him, like Harvey Dent, Harvey Bullock, Sarah Essen, Alvarez, Harper, but his top wolves are Jerome Valeska, Jonathan Crane, Bridgit Pike, Ivy Pepper, and Oswald Cobblepot, all of whom delight in their bloodlust almost as much as Galavan, and are more than ready to burn him if he touches the Alpha who saved them from their abusive families (here, Gertrude died much earlier and, after Elijah found out he had a son, naturally took care of him, but Oswald was hated by his step-mother and siblings. Once Elijah was poisoned, Grace, Charles, and Sasha were even more cruel, until Jim saved him).

Alfred’s Court is smaller, but no less deadly with people like Lee who agreed that the rivalry was stupid when Jim and Alfred were proof the two could get along, and there was also Jeremiah Valeska (who was injured the night Jerome became a werewolf and, by some twist of fate, Jeremiah received a blood transfer from a vampire instead of a human; fellow vampire Hugo Strange was curious as to what would happen and Alfred tore his head off soon after), his partner Ecco, Jervis Tetch, Victor Fries, Victor Zsasz, and Sofia Falcone (the Falcone’s were born werewolves but had a history of occasionally producing a ‘dud’. Sofia was this ‘dud’ when she didn’t transform when she was 13 and was cast out. She deliberately sought out Alfred to turn her instead, which he did when she turned 21).

Things are pretty calm between the respective Court and Pack until Sofia gets news from her wolf brother about a child who has been born in Gotham and will be either the doom or salvation of werewolves and vampires. Their DNA is unique in the fact that it can handle the virus of both lycanthropy and vampirism at the same time; a hybrid. On their 18th birthday, if they are bitten by a vampire, then every werewolf on Earth will die. If they are bitten by a werewolf, then every vampire will die. But, if they are bitten by both species when they turn 18, then not only will both species live, but they shall live in harmony.

Mario warns her that there are those on both sides that either want to claim this child or have it killed to protect their species. Some even want to kill it just to avoid the idea of living in harmony with their ‘enemies’. They don’t know the name of the child or even what year it was born; the prophecy merely said that the child was in Gotham, implying that the child has already been born, instead of will be born. The two species go through all the hospital records they can find, hoping to see if they can smell anything different about this prophecy child.

Neither species has any luck finding the child, which leads Kathryn and Galavan to suggest killing all the children, but Alfred and Jim fight back against this idea as that would be over 200,000 deaths (this is based off of the fact that there reportedly almost 210,000 babies born in New York City in 2020); not only would it be monstrous, but it would almost surely expose them to the world. The threat of exposure brings the other packs and courts away from the idea of infanticide and they all agree to keep watch for this prophecy child.

Things are quiet for the next 17 and a half years, until Bridgit, Ecco, Sofia, Lee, and Ivy’s human friend, Selina Kyle, brings a new friend to one of their girls nights out; Bryce Wayne. The quintet of supernatural ladies think nothing of this girl until one guy tries to hit on Ivy and, when he refuses to take no for an answer, going so far as to hit Ivy, Bryce responds by beating the guy up, impressing the werewolves. After the guy is knocked out, Lee helps Bryce stand up and she notices an odd birthmark; what looks like a crescent moon cradling what looks like a vampire’s bite wound.

Later, when Lee tells Alfred and Jim about the mark, they question how the hunters missed Bryce, prompting Jerome and Jeremiah to reveal that Martha had great trouble with her pregnancy, right up until she had to give premature birth to her baby girl and the doctors were reluctant to make any official documentation until there was more of a guarantee the child would live. Furthermore, apparently the hunters focused more on male children like Brant Jones and Tommy Elliot instead of females like Grace Blomdahl or Bryce Wayne.

What cements the idea that Bryce is the prophecy child is when Jonathan and Fries do some calculations and realize that the night of Bryce’s 18th birthday will be a total lunar eclipse, complete with a blood moon. Alfred and Jim know the orphaned girl is the only chance they have at being together without others trying to tear them apart, and have the members of their Pack/Courts befriend the girl and keep her safe, with the Master Vampire and Alpha Werewolf digging into their seldom used magical abilities, and seducing Bryce through her dreams so that, when the time comes, she won’t resist them.

Will their plans work and keep Bryce safe? Will Bryce succumb to Alfred and Jim’s charms? Does anyone think this idea might be worth something more than the space it grew in my smut farm brain?

Likes are appreciated but reblogs let other people see this and possibly give me their opinions, thank you for sticking it out to the bottom of this rather long post.

[opera-ghosts]

Ernestina Poli was born in Ferrara, Italy on 3 April 1879, and she studied for only a few years before making her debut at Bergamo in 1902 as Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera. She had a huge success and was retained for another dozen performances in Il Trovatore and the then very popular Salvator Rosa. She ended the year at Massa. At this point, despite her success, she retreated from the stage for another year of training, after which she debuted at Messina in Andrea Chenier with the tenor Ruggero Randaccio. On 17 Jan, 1904 she sang Micaela for the only time in her career, again with Randaccio as her stage partner. It was not long before the couple announced that they were to be joined in life, and in the summer of 1904, shortly before a tour to South America, they were married. She immediately changed her stage name to Tina Poli Randaccio, and there are interesting and amusing confusions in some South American reviews during the tour of 1904, in which she is listed as the tenor, he the soprano. Poli was assumed to be his first name and Ruggera, hers. 

The tour took the couple to Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro where Tina appeared as Mimi, the Trovatore Leonora, Desdemona, Aida, Maddalena di Coigny, Gioconda and Santuzza. He sang in Boheme, Andrea Chenier and Cavalleria Rusticana. The year ended at Sao Paolo with an opera called Cristo alla Festa di Purim, after which she added La Forza del Destino, Ballo in Maschera and Ernani to her assignments in Brazil. The couple traveled with the company to Manaus and Pernambuco, then returned to Europe where Ruggero announced his retirement from the stage. They decided that he would be her manager and coach, and from about this point his name was never seen on a billboard again. 

On 2 December 1904 Tina debuted at Milan's Teatro Dal Verme in an opera called Jana with Bergamasco and Schiavazzi conducted by Serafin and from there she went to Oporto where she sang in Aida, Il Trovatore, Don Carlo, Pagliacci, Un Ballo in Maschera and Cavalleria Rusticana. After a short respite, the couple sailed for Mexico, and in September 1905 Tina appeared at the capitol in Les Huguenots (in Italian), Aida, Germania, Un Ballo in Maschera and Giordano's recently produced opera Siberia. The company included Virginia Guerrini, Alice Zeppilli, De Marchi and Magini Coletti, and it is not surprising, given those names, that the tour extended for four months and included visits to Guadalajara. 

Turin welcomed her back to Italy when she appeared at the Teatro Vittorio Emanuele as Gioconda in January of 1907. A tour to Bucharest was arranged by Randaccio and on 11 November Tina debuted as Aida in a cast that included De Angelo, Angioletti and Bellat. On the 18th, she sang in Ernani with Angioletti, Titta Ruffo and Torres de Luna. Her season continued into the middle of December with Un Ballo in Maschera and Il Trovatore, both with Ruffo, Les Huguenots, and La Gioconda. A visit was made to Kiev and Odessa, but I have no record of her roles. 

Tina debuted at Parma's Teatro Regio on 6 January 1908 in Mascagni's brand new opera, Amica and after singing in Red Roses and Damnation of Faust, she undertook a four month tour of Italy with the new work, under Mascagni's direction. The cities visited included, Firenze, Bologna, Modena, Verona, Treviso, Trieste, Ravenna, Ancona, Cesena and Forli, where she received a thunderous welcome and was hailed as the greatest soprano seen there in a generation. At Livorno she sang in the composer's Le Maschere and Iris and the tour ended at Rome's Teatro Adriano, where Tina sang eleven performances of Amica and several of Le Maschere, the latter with Juanita Caracciolo and Carlo Galeffi. 

On 26 December, Tina made a much heralded debut at Venice's Teatro la Fenice as Aida with Ladislava Hotkowska and Henderson. The revival was so well received that a scheduled three performances became six. At Fiume, in April, she sang in Ernani and La Gioconda and in October she returned to the Adriano for Tosca, Aida and the world premiere of Raffaelo,by De Lunghi. 

In February 1910 Tina debuted at Madrid's Teatro Real as Gioconda in a cast that included Flora Perini, Giuseppe Taccani and Ruffo, after which she sang ten performances of Aida and six of Loreley at Catania's Masimo Bellini. The spring found the Randaccios back in Brazil, where, at Rio de Janeiro, on 27 May, Tina sang Isolde for the only time in her career, though it was a moderate, if not overwhelming success. At Rio, she also sang in Il Trovatore, La Gioconda, Loreley, Tosca, Aida, and Germania, and at Sao Paolo, she added another new work, Boscaiuola. Tina's tour partners included Anna Gramegna, Krismer, Giraldoni and Viglione-Borghese, and, as had been the case in Mexico, this starry roster resulted in an extended season both in Rio and in Sao Paolo. 

The most important moment of her career had arrived. On 17 December 1910 Tina debuted at La Scala as the Siegfried Brunnhilde, with the inimitable Giuseppe Borgatti in the title role. There were a dozen performances, and the production was a complete success. Fanny Anitua was an unforgettable Erda according to contemporary reviews, and the hero and heroine received memorable ovations every evening. Though hers would not be a major career in the most important of all Italian theaters, it continued at intervals for a good number of years, and included several world premiers. 

In February 1911 Tina returned to Parma for La Gioconda and then took a well needed break from performing. During the summer, she learned the role of Minnie in La Fanciulla del West, and on 10 September, at Puccini's invitation, she sang the first of thirteen performances at Lucca's Teatro del Giglio with Taccani as Dick Johnson. Her success was enormous, in fact, greater than her predecessor, Eugenia Burzio, who had sung in the Italian premiere earlier in the season. Poli was immediately engaged to repeat the opera at Naples' San Carlo with Martinelli and Viglione-Borghese and at Bari's Teatro Petruzzelli with Corti and Mariano Stabile. After a debut at Palermo's Massimo as Gioconda in March 1912, she sang Minnie at Monte Carlo, again with Martinelli and Viglione-Borghese, and in late May she debuted at the Paris Opera as Minnie in a gala performance with Enrico Caruso.

In November, Tina sang in La Gioconda at Genoa and then prepared for the Scala premiere of Fanciulla. There were many sopranos who had vied for the honor, whose partisans had lobbied intensely for them, and the uncertainty had been a major story in Italian newspapers. Burzio reigned at Scala, but it was not to be. Tina's reputation as Minnie was by now so secure that both Scala's management and the composer agreed that she deserved the honor. On 29 December, before a star studded audience, the Milan theater presented La Fanciulla del West for the first time with Poli Randaccio, Martinelli and Galeffi. Tullio Serafin was on the podium, and the clamor was so enormous that the opera was repeated fourteen times.

Tina repeated Minnie at Monte Carlo in February 1913 with Martinelli and George Baklanov, after which she sang the role at the site of its Italian premiere, the Costanzi of Rome. In the spring there were concerts at Modena in honor of the centenary of Verdi's birth and on 15 December, Tina sang in the world premiere of Mascagni's Parisina at La Scala under the composer's baton. The cast included Luisa Garibaldi, Hipolito Lazaro and Galeffi, and there were twelve performances. 

On 10 February 1914 Poli sang in the world premiere of Smareglia's Abisso and on 2 April in the world premiere of Alfano's Ombra di Don Giovanni, both at La Scala. In May she sang in Tosca at Milan's Teatro Carcano with Garbin and Viglione-Borghese and in October Tina participated in one of this century's most important stage debuts, that of Beniamino Gigli as Enzo, at Rovigo, on 15 October. It was the scene of veritable riots; a star had truly been born, and there were thirteen performances. Tina's year ended with Un Ballo in Maschera at Piacenza, a revival shared with the equally celebrated Celestina Boninsegna. 

Rome's Costanzi welcomed Tina back as Gioconda, Tosca and Minnie in the winter of 1915, and after Gioconda at Naples and Aida at Firenze, she sailed for South America and her debut at the Teatro Colon of Buenos Aires. On 25 May, Poli debuted as Gioconda in a cast that included Perini, Lazaro, and Riccardo Stracciari. La Prensa referred to her as "a major talent whose voice can send shivers down one's spine, so present and immediate is the reaction". On 6 June she sang Santuzza and on the 17th, she sang in a concert with Caruso, Bernardo de Muro, Mario Sammarco and Lazaro. The season ended with Tosca and had included performances with the company at Cordoba and Rosario, where she sang Tosca and Santuzza, and at Tucuman, where she sang Santuzza.

Tina traveled from Argentina to Santiago, Chile, and on 27 August, she opened the season at the Teatro Municipal in La Fanciulla del West. The work was so well received that an additional performance was added; it was the only opera to be seen as many as four times. She stayed at Santiago for two months, singing Tosca, Aida, Gioconda, Santuzza, the Trovatore Leonora and Maddalena di Coigny and appeared as Aida, Tosca, Gioconda and the Trovatore Leonora at Valparaiso. Tina returned to Buenos Aires in late October where, at the Teatro Coliseo, she sang all of her Chilean roles except for Maddalena, and after a brief rest, she undertook a long tour of the Caribbean Basin. World War I was in its most intense period and the safety of the Western Hemisphere certainly seemed more attractive than the dangers of Europe.

On 29 January 1916 Tina debuted at Havana as Aida, and later sang in Tosca, Il Trovatore, Cavalleria Rusticana, Iris, La Gioconda, Les Huguenots, and La Fanciulla del West. Her tenor partners were Lazaro and Zinoviev; Enrico Roggio carried most of the baritone weight and Amelita Galli-Curci appeared with Poli in Les Huguenots (in Italian). The company stayed at the Cuban capitol for nearly two months, then toured to Cienfuegos, Camaguey, Santiago de Cuba, Mananzas and in the late spring, to Costa Rica.

In November Tina returned to Italy for Tosca at Bologna with Aureliano Pertile and Jose Segura-Tallien and in January 1917 she sang at Milan's Dal Verme in a gala concert, including act 3 of Aida and act 4 of La Gioconda. At La Spezia she sang Aida, and in June Tina debuted at Zurich as Tosca with Gubellini and Sammarco. After singing Santuzza at the Swiss theater, she returned to the Dal Verme for Aida and at Genoa, she sang in La Gioconda with Vita Ferluga, Folco-Bottaro and Galeffi. 

Tina decided that the climate in Europe was not what the doctor ordered, and in fact, work was difficult to find for nearly everyone in 1917. Many of Italy's most important theaters were closed, and those that remained open presented very shortened seasons. Havana again beckoned and Tina returned in December for Aida, La Fanciulla del West, Les Huguenots, Tosca, La Gioconda, L'Africaine, La Boheme and a new opera, Doreya. Her colleagues included the tenor, Jose Palet, Edith Mason, Maria Barrientos and the basses, Nicoletti-Korman and Virgilio Lazzari. The tour again included Camaguey, Cienfuegos and Santiago. In mid March 1918, the company moved to San Juan and Ponce for a two month season in Puerto Rico. Poli sang the same roles and added Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera. In June, at Caracas, Venezuela she sang in Aida, Tosca, Les Huguenots, La Gioconda and Cavalleria Rusticana. 

The Great War was over and Tina returned to the safety of a victorious Italy for La Gioconda at Bologna, Milan's Teatro Lirico and Firenze's La Pergola. On 18 December she reappeared in glory for the first of eleven performances of Aida at La Scala. The next few months were spent at Turin with Cavalleria Rusticana and Aida. It was during the revival of Aida that Tancredi Pasero made his absolute opera debut as Il Re, substituting for an indisposed colleague. It is with some pride that the author acknowledges this event, since Pasero's debut has always been listed as at Vicenza in La Sonnambula much later in the year. And with pleasure, I also acknowledge that this information was kindly provided by Robert Tuggle of the Metropolitan Opera Archives. 

After La Fanciulla del West at Trieste's Teatro Rossetti, in late November, Tina debuted as Aida at Barcelona's Liceo and in December she completed her engagement as Gioconda. In January 1920 Tina sang thirteen performances of Aida at Trieste's Teatro Verdi with the stellar cast of Giuseppina Zinetti, Miguel Fleta and Carmelo Maugeri. Rome's Costanzi welcomed Poli back with seven performances of La Gioconda and Genoa saw her as Santuzza in March. May was spent at the Fenice of Venice, where Tina sang in Suor Angelica with Elvira Casazza and in Aida. In June, she traveled to London for a debut at Covent Garden in Tosca with Fernand Ansseau and Dinh Ghilly and was very poorly received by both public and press who recoiled from her strong vibrato and melodramatic impersonations. Tina left London after one performance, never to return.

However, on 31 July she was welcomed with an enormous ovation at the Verona Arena when she sang in Aida with Zinetti and Pertile. After La Gioconda at Turin's Teatro Chiarella, Tina returned for a very long season at Barcelona, appearing in Aida, La Gioconda, Un Ballo in Maschera, Lucrezia Borgia, Cavalleria Rusticana and Ernani, as well as in act two of Tosca during a gala benefit. Her reviews were nothing short of magnificent and in Gioconda, she was heralded by several critics as the greatest that the city had ever seen or heard. The Liceo and Tina Poli Randaccio would continue their love affair over several more seasons. 

In 1921, Tina appeared at Brescia and Trieste for La Gioconda, Palermo for La Gioconda and La Fanciulla del West, Rome for Aida, the Milan Arena for La Gioconda, Vicenza for La Fanciulla del West with Ismaele Voltolini and Stabile, Venice for La Gioconda and at Parma on 29 December in a stellar revival of the Ponchielli work with Giannina Arangi Lombardi as Laura, Irene Minghini Cattaneo as La Cieca, Voltolini as Enzo, Noto as Barnaba and Bruno Carmassi as Alvise. 

The new year found her in revivals of La Fanciulla del West at Naples, Milan's Carcano and at Turin where she was joined by Voltolini and Apollo Granforte. The Dal Verme hosted Tina in Il Trovatore with Zinetti, John O'Sullivan and Benvenuto Franci in October, and after eleven performances of Les Huguenots at Bologna with O'Sullivan, Poli returned to Barcelona for Aida with Aurora Buades and Lazaro, Tosca with Lazaro and Les Huguenots with Cassini and Lazaro.

Tina debuted at Cairo on 27 January 1923 as Gioconda and continued her season as Minnie and Santuzza, after which she repeated all three roles at Alexandria. Santuzza was the role of her return to Milan's Teatro Lirico in May and on 11 August she appeared at Venice's Lido di San Nicola in Aida with the riveting Gabriella Besanzoni. In November, Trieste saw Poli as Gioconda and on the 22nd, she sang in a gala performance of Aida at Rome's Costanzi in honor of the King and Queen of Spain. Zinetti, De Muro and Enrico Molinari completed the stellar cast and the conductor was Mascagni. Tina's year ended at Mantua with four performances of Tosca, after which she appeared at Brescia's Teatro Grande in Loreley. Neapolitan audiences appreciated her Trovatore Leonora and Romans admired her in L'Africaine with Pasini, Giulio Crimi, Molinari and Pasero and in Tosca with Crimi and Stracciari.

In the summer Tina debuted at Vienna as Aida with Maria Gay, Giovanni Zenatello and Viglione-Borghese, a revival that had to be repeated sixteeen times before moving to Kaiserdam, Germany in September. Berlin saw her Santuzza before she returned to Barcelona in November for another daunting season. This time Tina sang in Aida, Les Huguenots, L'Africaine and a new work, Suor Beatrice. Though Tina Poli Randaccio is primarily remembered in Italy as the quintessential Italian dramatic soprano, she had by now appeared in twenty countries, and with the singular exception of England, had been rapturously received in all. There would be a twenty first. 

1925 began at Naples with L'Africaine and on 30 January, Tina returned to the Costanzi for La Fanciulla del West with Crimi and Parvis. After further performances of Tosca and Aida at the San Carlo in February, she returned to Rome for Il Trovatore and Aida. The Lido di San Nicola at Venice feted Tina to a serata di gala on 1 August as the prelude to an engagement as Aida at the Fenice, after which she sang in Tosca at Rimini with Pertile and Viglione-Borghese. In October, she returned to Genoa for La Gioconda, and on Christmas Night 1925, at Bari's Teatro Piccinni, she sang Norma for the first time. Though she sang six performances, it was not a great critical success, and she decided to drop plans for several other planned engagements in the role.

Trieste's Teatro Verdi hosted Tina in Abisso and Il Trovatore at the outset of 1926, after which she sang in La Fanciulla del West at Genoa's Carlo Felice, in Aida and a Benefit Concert at Rome's Costanzi, and in Il Trovatore at Naples' San Carlo, the last with Ebe Stignani. Poli had been singing for a quarter century and it had been an enormously intense and successful twenty five years, but Father Time, as he will, began to play his inevitable role. After Naples, it was not until September that Tina again appeared on a stage, when she debuted at the Athens Arena in Aida with Franco Battaglia. And so, her year ended.

La Scala beckoned one more time, and, on 9 March 1927, Tina sang in the world premiere of Guarino's Madame de Challant with Francesco Merli and Carlo Morelli, and with these three performances she said farewell to the theater that had presented her as its first Minnie, and in four world premieres. 

Naples again welcomed Tina for Il Trovatore and Aida, and she debuted at Modena's Teatro Comunale in April as Gioconda, and, a week later she unveiled the role of Turandot at the Comunale. At Milan's Carcano she sang in Isabeau and at year's end she returned to Barcelona for the last time, appearing in Aida and La Gioconda, with identical casts, Zinetti, Aroldo Lindi, Granforte and Vela. 

In February of 1928 Tina sang in Turandot at the San Carlo and in February, she bade farewell to Naples as Gioconda. In April she returned to Rome, where, at the newly named Teatro Reale, she sang for the last time, when she appeared in Il Trovatore. Her last engagement of 1928 was as Isabeau at Livorno in a revival conducted by Mascagni. 

In 1929, Tina sang Gioconda and Santuzza at Milan's Lirico, Turandot at Nice, which is listed in the program as the French premiere of the Puccini opera, Aida at La Spezia and Tosca at Firenze's Teatro Verdi. In 1930, her only Italian engagements were at Genoa where she sang Isabeau, Aida, and Santuzza, after which she sailed to Caracas for a season as Gioconda, Tosca, Maddalena di Coigny, Santuzza and Elena in Mefistofele. There would be no further engagements outside of Italy, and few enough in her homeland though she continued to appear for another six years. 

In 1931, she sang Santuzza at Bergamo, Gioconda for Italian Radio both at Rome and Turin, Gioconda in Palermo's Teatro Garibaldi, Nedda at Isola, and Aida at Biela and at Rome's Teatro Adriano. In 1932 she sang in Gioconda at Crema and in Tosca at Milan's Teatro Puccini and at Brescia. 1933 found her again at the Puccini for Isabeau, at the Adriano for Minnie and Aida, and at Milan's Politeama for Santuzza.

In 1934 she returned to Norma, which had played so minor a role in her career, and she sang it at both Monza and the Lido of Pesaro. At Pesaro she also sang Santuzza, a role repeated at Milan's Arena. At year's end she sang Aida at Milan's Nazionale and at the Puccini she sang in La Forza del Destino, a role repeated at Foggia in early 1935. At Foggia she also sang Santuzza. The end came in early 1936, where at Asti and finally at Modena Tina Poli Randaccio sang her opera farwell as Santuzza. The career had encompassed nearly fifty roles, and had presented her on the stages of the World over fifteen hundred times, a monumental parade of memories for nearly two generations of opera goers.

After retiring from the stage, Tina abandoned musical life almost entirely, and died at Milan on 10 February 1956.

[laufire]

STACKED100 - FEBRUARY POST

what is stacked100?

It’s something I thought up, inspired in part by “stackednatural”, but mostly by myself doing this with The Vampire Diaries this last year (see my #stackediaries tag). The gist of it is that you watch each episode of the show on the anniversary of their airing date. It “officially” started in October (with only two episodes) and it would end in September 2024. You can see the full schedule here.

what are we supposed to do with this

Whatever the hell you want lmao. Tag whatever post you make #stacked100 and go for it! Gifsets, live blogging, discussions… engage with other people as much or as little as you want. Watch some episodes and not others, for any reason. I’m doing this to have some fun with this VERY polarizing show, seeing how my perspective might be changed with hindsight + this specific way of watching it, and a bit because I miss my little corner of this messy as fuck fandom. But this is something you can do in whichever manner works for you, mate.

episodes to watch this month

I'm putting these after a read more, because now we're really in it.

February 1st.

Season 4, Episode 1, "Echoes". Clarke and her friends struggle with how to proceed after the fate of the world is revealed.

February 4th.

Season 2, Episode 11, "Coup de Grâce". Bellamy receives help from an unlikely source after being captured. Meanwhile, Abby fights to stay in control, and Jasper confronts President Wallace.

Season 3, Episode 3, "Ye Who Enter Here". Now with Clarke in her possession, Lexa has the power to force Skikru to become one with the grounders. Kane and Abby journey to the Polis Summit, while the Ice Nation prepares to draw first blood against Skikru and the other grounder clans.

February 8th.

Season 4, Episode 2, "Heavy Lies the Crown". The burden of leading weighs heavily upon Bellamy (Bob Morley) and Clarke (Eliza Taylor) when different challenges force them to determine who will live and die.

Februarh 11th.

Season 2, Episode 12, "Rubicon". Clarke is faced with a difficult choice and Raven helps Bellamy navigate Mount Weather as Dr. Tsing begins to harvest the 47, while Jaha and Murphy encounter a stranger on their journey to the City of Light.

Season 3, Episode 4, "Watch the Thrones". Clarke discovers the mastermind behind a devious plan, while Kane struggles to keep the peace. Meanwhile, Jasper's grief drives him to reckless behavior.

February 15th.

Season 4, Episode 3, "The Four Horsemen". Jaha leads Clarke and Bellamy on a road to possible salvation, while tensions rise in Arkadia and Polis.

February 18th.

Season 2, Episode 13, "Resurrection". Clarke begins to question Lexa's leadership decisions and Indra continues to push Octavia. Meanwhile, at Mount Weather, Jasper steps up into the role of leader, and Cage throws Maya into a life threatening situation.

Season 3, Episode 5, "Hakeldama". Pike's twisted crusade threatens Clarke's attempts for peace. Raven becomes a target, while Murphy tries to conspire against Jaha.

February 22nd.

Season 4, Episode 4, "A Lie Guarded". Clarke's decision on who gets to live causes tension in Arcadia. Jasper loses his sanity when the Black Rain falls. Bellamy and his friends face judgement for their crimes against the Ice Nation.

February 25th.

Season 2, Episode 14, "Bodyguard of Lies". As Jaha and Murphy encounter a perilous obstacle on their journey, Raven and Wick try to figure out how to disable the acid fog, and Bellamy races against time as his cover is blown.

Season 3, Episode 6, "Bitter Harvest". Clarke struggles with her morality while Abby grows suspicious of Jaha's motives.

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus by William Jay

Morning, April 18th

"I hate vain thoughts." – Psalm 119:113

Vain thoughts are foolish thoughts, wandering thoughts, unbelieving thoughts, worldly thoughts, self-righteous thoughts, sinful thoughts. For observe that vain thoughts here do not mean empty ones, but evil ones; as when our Saviour says, “that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” By “idle words” he does not mean merely frivolous, silly, and trifling words, but words of moral blame, and which will serve to condemn us in the last day. By these “vain thoughts”

David means his own vain thoughts,-not the vain thoughts of others. He could not be conscious of the thoughts of others, but he could know his own. He was forbidden to judge the thoughts of others, but he was bound to examine his own. He was not employed in exploring the vineyards of others while he neglected his own; and it would be much better for us if we lived, morally, more at home, and less abroad with others. It is a fine and striking remark of one whose “private thoughts” have been long before the religious public. “For many years back,” says he, “I have had nothing to do with the faults and failings of others, for I have had too many of my own to engage my time and attention.” Now, with regard to these vain thoughts we are led to notice two things:

First, That he had vain thoughts: and who has not? There are indeed some persons who have not had a vain thought for many years; but they are to be found in heaven, where we read of “the spirits of just men made perfect,” where that which is perfect is come, and where that which is imperfect is done away. But who upon earth are free from these? who can say, “I have made my heart clean; I am free from sin”? Why, “there is not a just man upon earth that does good, and sinneth not.” Why, “in many things we offend all.” We are to pray for our daily pardon as well as for our daily bread. If we take a Christian,-not a novice, but one who has been for years in the school of experience; hear him: “Oh,” says he, “I have good objects enough to command and engross my attention, especially my God and Saviour, who is all my salvation and all my desire, my glory and my joy; the ‘chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely.’

‘Why should I cleave to things below, And let my God, my Saviour, go?’

I love the Lord’s day, and call ‘the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of the Lord, honourable.’ And I know that I am commanded not to walk in my own ways nor to think my own thoughts. But, alas! how will these intruders invade my golden hours! I enter my closet, and I wish to exclude the world; but, before I can shut to the door, in rushes a rabble along with them and often fills the best part of the room. I love the habitation of God’s house, and repair to the place where his honour dwelleth; but there often I find it to be what he called the temple in the days of his flesh,-‘a house of merchandise,’ or ‘a den of thieves.’ I then repaired to his table. If any thing could fix my roving heart, surely it must be my dying God before me, when Jesus Christ is evidently set forth crucified among us; and yet even there I cannot wait upon the Lord without distraction; even then I am more concerned with the ‘outward and visible sign’ than with the ‘inward and spiritual grace.’”

Secondly, Here is something else: he not only had vain thoughts, but he hated them:-“I hate vain thoughts.” This is the difference between the naturally and spiritually minded. Evil thoughts are common to both; but let us mark the distinction. The natural man loves these thoughts; he therefore encourages them: the spiritually minded man hates them. But how can a man evince that, though he has vain thoughts, he hates them? Why, he will be sure to be humbled before God; and then he will be sure to pray against them; and if these prayers be sincere and importunate, why, then he will strive against them.

[sundersea]

TOP COMICS OF 2022 - PART 1 So this was the year I discovered the Webtoon app which completely ruined my life and reading habits for the past three months. The upside? So many brilliant new comics to sink my teeth into! This is essentially a list of all my favorite graphic novels, webtoons, webcomics, and manga from 2022. Happy reading!

The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere (Graphic Novel) A...young man’s immersive reckoning with identity, racism, clumsy teen love and belonging in an isolated California desert, and a search for salvation and community through punk. A really moving, thoughtful examination of a young, Black teenager finding home in the punk scene in a hostile environment. I love stories that make full use of the story’s location and reading this felt like pulling back a flap into the past

Inhibit (Webcomic) As a kid, Victor dreamed of training to be a superhero. That didn't go so well. I’m usually a superhero hater because superpowers rarely ever feel integrated into the world of the story...which is why I loved Inhibit so much! It’s a really grounded look at how superpowers might give rise to institutional failure and repression. Also features some of the best comic dialogue I’ve read in ages

Talentless Nana (Manga) In the near future, mysterious monsters begin to appear, and with it so do children with supernatural powers called the "Talented". To prepare them for the upcoming battle, all the Talented are sent to a school located on a deserted island. One day, a new student named Nana Hiiragi arrives at the school. BNHA if Izuku had snapped in middle school. So iconic, with one of the coolest female protagonists I’ve read this year and several fun, inventive murder mystery scenarios. The dichotomy between Nana’s moeblob appearance and her actual zealous, desperate, grief-driven character makes this manga worth it. (cw: some weird twin stuff in the later chapters. just skip it)

The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya (Webcomic) A two-volume Eisner-nominated graphic novel set in 17th century Istanbul and 18th century England,  about a carpet merchant's reconcilitation with faith, love and home in the aftermath of his death by a vampire. The one comic on this list that actually made me cry. Every single page was so full of care for its characters, for Turkish Muslim art and culture, for its paneling, for everything. If there’s one comic on this list you read, read this one!

This Isekai Maid is Forming a Union! (Webtoon) Bridgette is a young woman who has been Isekai'd 10 times as a maid, and she has had enough of Otome protagonists abusing their power, slapping maids, and using them as pawns to do their dirty work. Her solution? Form a union, protect her coworkers, and bring the worst house down! Damn....I actually haven’t read that many otome isekais and I feel like I can’t even start because none of them are going to hold up against this one. Read for an epic anticapitalist, anticolonial isekai story!

Stick & Poke (Webtoon) Mal Hassan is just a girl living on her mom's farm, but when she is offered a once in a lifetime chance to work with her favorite band, she drops everything to follow them on tour. How could she pass up her one chance to hook up with that hot guitarist? ALERT! STRAIGHT TRANS GIRL ROMANCE PROTAGONIST!! A total hidden gem with really incredible art, a lovely story, and the cutest female lead ever!! This comic makes color theory its bitch btw

Tiger Tiger (Webcomic) Tiger, Tiger is a story of a young noble lady, who steals her brother's identity and his ship to sail across the world to find love and adventure, and to write a book about her favourite subject: the fascinating life cycle of sea sponges! Yeah, this 100% deserved an Eisner. Brilliant art, incredible comic timing, hot butch monstergod girls, and a mystery of the deeps unfolding at its core.

Never Ending Darling (Webtoon) Ha-im Yun lives in a world where people register their DNA into cloning databases, invented by her boyfriend of five years, Geunhu Ji. Their relationship isn’t perfect, but they make it work -- or so Ha-im thinks, until she finds her dead body at her boyfriend’s house...her body! The next day, she finds a note from herself in her room… “Ha-im, if you’re reading this, you’re a clone.” We all love to see girls outsmarting their abusive partners. Especially if said partner can literally clone you forever. WILL have you on the edge of your seat.

Castle Swimmer (Webtoon) What happens when your entire life is ruled by a prophecy? Such is the story of two young sea creatures. One believed to be a guiding light, a Beacon who will lead them to a bright, prosperous future. The other a teenage prince for who’s destiny is to KILL the Beacon. When both reject the course set for them, it leads to a raucous adventure as big and unpredictable as the ocean itself – and a romance that nobody could have predicted. I’m not going to lie - I did judge this book by its cover. Like, I fully thought this was going to be some cringe timepass fantasy where the author just wanted to see anime mermaid boys kiss or whatever. Which just....no. Get ready for the emotional thrill ride of your life.

The Croaking (Webtoon)  The Roost - the world’s most prestigious military academy - has never accepted a Crow into its ranks. Until now. However, the conditions surrounding Scra’s acceptance are shrouded in conspiracy, and his new roommate Ky won’t rest until he finds out just where he goes every night. Scra, Ky and Ree must band together to uncover the truth about their utopia and the whispers of a superweapon - “The Croaking” - that are seeping from the cracks. AGAIN, I thought this was going to be some cringe timepass fantasy where this time, the author just wanted to see winged guys kiss. Yeah, no. Get ready for the most intricate political thriller you’re ever going to read on webtoon. 

Okay, that’s it! There’s definitely more, but we’ll save that for next year!

[tnyj-3]

In-depth review of Year Zero for the TNYJ-3 Remedy.

This year has been an extremely bizarre experience for me on a very personal level, due to multiple factors, the first of which being this sudden switch in my overall mindset and overall sense of absolute hope and willpower on December 30th, 2021, despite the mental devastation the year caused me. Throughout the course of this year, I have grown to attribute the sudden switch in both mindset and outlook to be the initial hope I had from very early 2020. The second reason for this is because of the very powerful drive and motivation I had during the first sixth of the year, from January to February. I was so driven to make progress that by March, I was burnt out on a physical level. Speaking of March, on March 7th, 2022, the first notable negative event occurred, where my great-grandmother, Margret Hurworth-Seal died in her sleep of sepsis at age 92. At first, I was neutral about it, until March 8th and 9th, when it really began to sink in. Due to this event, three songs were composed by each of the following aliases: Hades Vortexium, Vantablack and Spectralon. The first two composing two individual works in direct response, whilst Spectralon went on to participate in a collaborative piece between itself, Hades Vortexium and Vantablack. By late-March, things began to stagnate a little due to the massive burnout caused by overworking myself a month prior.

In April, not much worth of note occurred, other than the fact that I wanted to document my entire life in musical form. The things I did in April, if I can actually recall, were several shop runs, helping out around the house every now-and-then and that’s basically it. The succeeding month, however, May, was a completely different story. Possibly the most bizarre month of this year, in terms of the earlier side.

In May, I started cataloguing the songs and sounds for my own Life Mixtapes and separated my entire life lived thus far, into five distinct phases, dubbing them “TNYJ-0”, “TNYJ-1”, “TNYJ-2”, “TNYJ-3” and “TNYJ-4” respectively. All five phases (also named “stages”) spanning all of my years lived so far. The cataloguing specifically began on May 20th, 2022 and is ongoing to this day. May was also a bizarre month for the fact that I revisited Gram’s house for the first time in over 15 years and the weirder fact that the entire place, despite the renovations taking place at the time of the revisit, it felt very familiar. The revisit was specifically on May 22nd, merely 48 hours after the initial Life Mixtape cataloguing, which also proved my now weird and bizarre depth of memory. Then on the final day of the month, May 31st, I visited my Nana’s house on my own and in the complete absence of my parents for the first time in about 16 years.

In June, nothing much happened aside from the fact that my more ““known”” Hypertone career turned 2 years old and the commitment of doing shop runs along with the occasional housework.

July was a weird month, akin to May. It was the final month at the college and the first month of having short hair for the first time in about a year. Outside of that, July was the first time I ever hung out with a close friend outside of school in over five years. At home, I (mostly) sat in my room, occasionally spending time with family and doing housework.

In August, my final ever Hypertone song as “Vortex Reaper” hit 2K views on YouTube, thanks to some kid named “DJ Jayden” sampling it in an FnF song for a mod. As a celebration of the anniversary, I did a remix EP for it and it was released on August 26th, 2022.

In September, school picked up again, and thus started “18th year - Salvation - Stage 5: Academic Continuation”. However, the one (good) thing about September is that the debut EP from my duo band project “TeaL” was completed after almost two entire months. As well as the implementation of “Phantom Vibrations”, an alias that focuses on Infinitesimal Slow Music (ISM). Then the most bizarre event of this decade so far (since the outbreak of COVID-19) happened: Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, died. It will probably be the weirdest notable event of mine and everyone else’s (who lived to *witness it (hear about it, at least)) life.

Then, in the advent of this (current) month, the anniversary of my descent into madness is coming up. Because of what has occurred in my country (and around the world at large, for that matter), which have all been negative events, back-to-back. This has resulted in an internal battle between my two primary thought processes and outlooks on life and reality: Nihilistic pessimism from last year and hopeful optimism from this year. Resulting in very sudden switches between the two, of which are fighting for control. So far, this month has been great, with the implementation of Herja Sonus, on October 1st, the alias focusing on unnerving music and compositions. At home (so far), I have been doing housework, unfortunately not spending time with family too much (as I should be doing). This aspect is harder to fix than one might realise, since we are in a post-COVID-19 age, where the lockdowns from 2020 and early-mid 2021 outright killed in-person interactions from within the homes of countless families due to the self-isolation policies enforced by the governments and health agencies. However, despite this truth, I will continue the attempts to remedy this, because I want to be an infinitely better person than I was during TNYJ-3.

Another thing (of utmost importance) that I forgot to note is the growing independence I have acquired. In late August, I cooked myself dinner completely independently. That is, to date, the absolute pinnacle of this year, in terms of practical function.

- TNYJ.

- YEAR ZERO

- 18th year - Salvation.

- 38D

- 18th Year - Salvation. - Day 282 - Week 40 - Day 6 - Month 10 - Week 1 - Day 2

Next update: 31/10/22 or 11/22.

[uroborosymphony]

   Huntress,

   2024, February 14th. Unsent letter to Sarang.

I walked by the edge of the mortal and immortal realms. Quests, obsessions, delusions, that, for as long as my endless days have been haunting me, have known no salvation, no redemption. To perish. All I ever wished for was to be buried to the ground. For the grand, violent, merciless death of Thanathos and Moros to turn me into ashes. It all changed, when you found me again.

The sound of your arrows rattling against the cold of my blade echoes in the core of the night, a vibration in the crystal of my bones, the awakening of a passion that burnt inside me through the centuries. Do I renounce, surrender to what I have been chasing for 600 years : the wish to never feel alive. You make me feel alive. Alive, when the black blood of my iron veins tremble to the sound of your velvet voice, to the warmth of your core, to the darkness of your eye. I do not wish to break your heart, Adored, yet I am aware these irrational desires of mine, the prayers for my own end - I aware of the doubts and the trouble is rises within you. They follows us, the shadows of my own madnesses, they're running aft'er Us. I myself broke my own heart, Beloved, realizing I never learned how to live outside of the idea that death would be better than any of this.

I am scared. I must admit. Scared to accept this immortality and acknowledge that I became this monstrosity my own blood made of me. Have my crusade been in vain? Have the lives I took, the generations of underworld creatures I exterminated... was all this loss in vain? I tainted the colors of my soul, sold it to the depths of hell, for a mortality that will never be mine? I attempted to grieve, for many years, to grieve this dream of lying still, lifeless. And then I see you, and this pain I have been holding onto, it vanishes. How selfish can I remain, if I deny this second chance the Olympians have given me, the chance of sharing the rest of this immortality with You.

Will you keep me in your soul?

Along with the rivers of guts and blood that have washed over my martial hands and my serpentine coils?

Will you hold my wrath in the palms of your tender hands? Will you treat oh so gently the madness that poison my viscera?

I was a coward, running away after the Grand War in the 18th century. I was a coward, disappearing from your sight after our truce in the 19th century, I was a coward, escaping after reuniting with you in San Francisco in the 20th century. A coward : I do not wish to be one any longer. In the nights I must suffer from your absence, I remember the tips of your fingers against the timidity of my neck and I pray, to my Mother Hecate, to forgive me and I beg, for all my punishments to crease, and I beg, for You.

Will you spend another eternity with me?

⠀⠀⠀⠀An unsent letter to @mythvoiced. From Calista.

[opulaences]

࣪𓏲ּ   ֶָ   𝑤𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑠𝒕𝒗   ⁝               announcing   the   arrival   of   AERINA   of   house   DAGAREON,   the   PRINCESS   of   ESSOS.   whispers   among   the   court   name   them   to   be   both   GENUINE   and   BLUNT   in   disposition,   and   those   closest   to   them   speak   to   their   interests   in   hawking  &  playing  the  instruments.   if   we   bards   could   compose   a   song   for   them,   it   might   tell   stories   of      quiet  waves  crashing  against  aged  stone  ,  a  single  candle  flickering  in  a  dark  library  ,  pearls  scattered  on  marble  floor  .   the   seven   whisper   to   their   most   devout   queen   as   she   sleeps,   making   her   question   where   their   loyalties   truly   lie.   are   they   right   to   whisper?   for   their   loyalties   truly   lie   with   THE   EMPEROR   OF   ESSOS 

━━  𝒅𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒆𝒓 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜  𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧  : full  name  :  aerina  dagareon age  :  twenty  seven  years  old date  of  birth:  the  18th  of  the  seventh  turn  (  july  )  hometown  :  empire  of  essos gender  &  pronouns  :  cis  male  +  she  /  her orientation  :  heterosexual  +  heteroromantic religion  :  the  lord  of  light titles  &  occupation  :  princess  of  essos    𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥  𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞  : hair  colour  :  black eye  colour  :  dark  brown height  :  1.65  m  /  5'5  ft face  claim  :  julie  anne  san  jose 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲  𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐭  : moral  alignment  :  chaotic  good positive  traits  :  genuine  ,  patient  ,  intuitive negative  traits  :  blunt  ,  sensitive  ,  impulsive hobbies  :  hawking  ,  playing  the  instrument  character  inspos  :  peggy  schuyler  ,  rory  gilmore  ,  kitty  bennet  ,  lucy  pevensie  ,  rapunzel    𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 : father  :  emperor  illyrio  dagaeron mother  :  empress  selara  dagareon siblings  :  prince  utp  dagareon  ,  princess  utp  dagareron  ,  princess  catraena  dagareon  ,  prince  utp  dagareon   𝐛𝐢𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐲: from  the  moment  aerina  was  born  ,  it  was  evident  that  she  was  fragile  and  sickly  .  her  parents  spared  no  expense  or  effort  in  their  quest  to  restore  aerina  to  health  .  they  consulted  healers  from  every  corner  of  essos,  sought  the  guidance  of  maesters  and  medicine  men,  and  even  delved  into  the  mystic  arts  of  the  east.  Yet,  despite  their  wealth  and  influence,  the  young  princess's  condition  only  worsened.  desperate  for  a  solution,  the  empress  turned  to  the  varied  religions  that  dotted  the  vast  landscape  of  essos  .  yet,  it  was  the  red  temple  of  r’hllor  that  held  the  key  to  aerina's  salvation  .      as  the  princess  grew  older  she  still  carries  the  weight  of  her  early  fragility  ,  the  specter  of  respiratory  troubles  still  lingering  .  her  parents  still  cast  a  protective  gaze  upon  their  youngest,  unable  to  shake  the  fear  that  lingered  from  the  days  when  aerina's  health  hung  in  precarious  balance  .  her  chambers  are  adorned  with  medicine  and  herbs  ,  physicians  and  healers  still  visit  her  constantly  ,  monitoring  her  health  .  while  she  is  aware  of  her  own  vulnerability  ,   aerina  has  grown  ever  curious  and  adventurous  spirit  .  her  time  with  maesters  and  healers  contributed  to  her  thirst  for  knowledge  .  her  parents  indulged  aerina  in  her  hobbies  ,  hoping  to  give  their  daughter  a  sense  of  normalcy  .    never  has  aerina  imagined  that  she  find  herself  thrust  into  the  heart  of  a  realm  beyond  essos  .  her  older  sister’s  betrothal  to  the  targaryens  sought  a  strategic  alliance  between  essos  and  westeros  ,  an  occasion  that  demanded  the  presence  of  the  entire  royal  family  .  aerina  saw  this  as  an  opportunity  to  finally  see  the  world  beyond  the  borders  of  her  family’s  empire  .  for  once  ,  the  princess  has  decided  to  stop  letting  her  fears  and  fragility  define  her  .   

𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬  :

was  a  timid  child  who  followed  her  older  sister  around  ,  wishing  to  be  like  them  when  she  grew  up  .  aerina  would  not  deny  the  fact  that  she  was  jealous  of  them  and  their  freedom  . 

she’s  not  as  sickly  as  the  people  paint  her  out  to  be  but  she  is  very  conscious  about  her  health  and  knows  her  limitations  to  things  . 

enjoys  hawking  very  much  as  she  gets  to  spend  time  outdoors  .  when  she  was  twelve  she  was  gifted  a  hawk  that  she  named  zenith  .  she  is  an  excellent  harp  player  ,  tutored  by  one  of  the  best  musicians  in  essos  .  often  times  she  plays  for  her  parents  and  their  guests  . 

aerina  was  a  timid  child  growing  up  .  this  is  something  she  is  trying  to  break  out  of  now  that  she  is  an  adult  ,  realizing  that  she’s  missed  out  on  so  many  things  .  kind  of  in  her  #fuckit  era  . 

knowledgable  in  healing  and  medicine  (  this  is  what  she  gets  for  spending  time  with  too  many  maesters  ) 

devout  follower  of  r'hollor  (  she  promises  not  to  scare  people  with  the  whole  the  night  is  dark  and  full  of  terrors  thing  or  give  birth  to  shadow  babies  )

𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝  𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬  : 

westerosi  companion  (  wc  )  :  they  would  be  assigned  to  be  her  companion  when  the  essosi  first  arrived  in  westeros  .  preferably  from  a  ruling  /  prominent  house  .  they  are  there  to  help  her  assimilate  with  the  westerosi  culture  and  overall  so  she  does  not  feel  lost  and  lonely  in  kings  landing  .

‘  it’s  your  choice  ,  ace  .  people  can  live  a  hundred  years  without  really  living  for  a  minute  ‘   :if  you  watch  gilmore  girls  ,  you  know  whose  line  this  belongs  to  .  yes,  i  was  team  logan  blah  —   but  i  def  someone  who  brings  out  aerina’s  adventurous  side  .  they  would  be  the  exact  opposite  of  aerina  and  kind  of  becomes  a  semi  bad  influence  .  (  romantic  ) 

new  friends  /  acquaintances  :  someone  new  she  meets  while  she  is  in  westeros  !  gimme  friends  pls  she  needs  em  .

good-bad-influence  friends  :  help  her  live  a  little  !

 possibly  ones  that  she  couldve  turned  into  best  friends 

prospective  betrothal  ? 

adversaries  ,  people  who  are  against  the  essosi  in  westeros 

crushes  ,  flings  ,  and  the  likes 

anything  under  the  sun  rly 

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"PRISONER WAVED A FAREWELL TO FAMILY," Toronto Star. March 11, 1913. Page 14. --- Wife and Baby in Corridor When He Was Sent Down Into the Cells. --- CASES IN POLICE COURT ---- Man Accused of Beating Wife Begs for Mercy, But Fails to Get Freedom. ---- Walter Heald, who pleaded guilty to stealing a quantity of jewelry from his employer, Thomas Cuff, was dismissed by Magistrate Denison to-day on the assurance of Mr. Cuff that he would take Heald back into his employ, and watch over him and see that he could get even with the game again.

"I shall discharge you," said the magistrate, "because the spirit evinced by your employer is so rare that it would be a shame to discourage it."

Solomon Siegel, accused of picking pockets, was committed for trial before a jury, and was let out on bail of $1,000.

Wife Complains. John Andrews' sobbing in the dock moved everyone in the court-room but Alice Andrews, his wife, who laid a charge against him for doing bodily harm to her.

"I worship my wife," cried Andrews, "and I don't know why I scratched her. She was nagging because I had taken a couple of drinks, and got me into a rage."

"I'll send you down for three days, and we will examine the case in the meantime."

Andrews clung to the rail, and begged the magistrate, the constables, and the prisoners not to torture him "down there." Both he and his wife are young, married not more than two years.

Arthur Francis, the young man who is accused of passing bogus checks on boarding house landladies, was committed for trial on the charge of forgery, and is remanded in Jail until his trial. During the time he was in the dock Francis was peering out the door of the court-room, where his wife and two-year-old baby were sitting in the corridor. Francis antics to catch the baby's eye, and his waving and kiss-throwing were pathetic in the extreme, and even the court-room constables, whose thundering "sit down!" greets any movement on the part of prisoners, were touched a little, and cleared a path for the baby to see through.

Only One Woman. There was only one sentence handed out in the Women's Police Court to-day, and that was to Bertha Jacobs, who was sent to the Mercer for three months, for keeping a house of ill-fame.

An unfortunate case is that of Alex McPherson, who pleaded guilty to vagrancy, and who was handed over to the Salvation Army. McPherson has been suffering from heart weakness for years, and came to this city two weeks ago from a farm district around Galt and Berlin, to find some relatives he thought were here. Now he wants to get back to the farms, and the Salvation Army will find him some work, to enable him to pay his way.

Domestic Trouble. "I married Henry Chapman five years ago," said Mrs. Mary Chapman. in giving her evidence in a case of non-support. "He gets drunk and he deserted me for three weeks-left me alone to feed twenty-three starving chickens."

"Do you want to go back to your husband?"

"Yes! I was married for life and not for five years!"

Chapman claims that his wife was always nagging at him, and the case was adjourned till the 18th.

Robert H. Wood was committed for trial on a charge of committing assaults on two little girls, four and six years old.

After being set up in the plumbing business by William Marshall, George Brown started signing his friend's name to notes and L.LO.U's and defrauded Marshall out of $13.50, for which Brown was given a month in jail.

"I bought him a horse and wagon," said Marshall, "and put him on to the game in the plumbing business. Then I began to receive notes with my name forged."

Preyed On a Woman. Three months in the Central Prison were given to Wilber Ryan, for being an inmate of a house of ill-fame kept by Mary Howard. The Morality Department put forward facts showing that Ryan was keeping the Howard girl, who is still quite young, for immoral purposes. The house was raided, the girl sentenced and frequenters fined.

Ryan lived at the house, and had no visible means of support beyond what money was earned by Mary Howard.

The Department's record shows that this girl had a baby a couple of years Lago, and that since then she has been identified with houses run by Ryan.

"Three months in Central," said Magistrate Denison," and hereafter an eye will be kept on you! We will look for further light on your life."

[m1g3l1t0]

Spidersona

(made with picrew)

Name: Esmeralda Rodriguez

Nicknames: Esme

Alias: Jumping Spider

Pronouns: she/they/it

Gender: demigirl

Rom-Orientation: aroflux, demiromantic

Sex-Orientation: omnisexual, acespec

Birthday: October 13th

Age: 18 (when bitten); 19 (currently)

Height: 153cm (5'0'')

Bloodtype: AB

Alingment: chaotic neutral

Origin: Los Angeles (CA, USA)

Occupation: Spider Society Member

Family:

unnamed parents (deceased)

unnamed orphanage director

unkown relatives

Friends:

Miguel O'Hara (secret spouse)

Gwen Stacy

Hobie Brown

Allies:

Spider Society

LAPD

Enemies:

various

Hobbies:

bothering Miguel

playing horror video games

Goals:

helping people in a way she thinks is right

Type of Hero: Byronic Hero

Favourites

Holiday: Halloween

Animal: cat

Artist: Takayan

Food: dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets

Drink: Monster

Color: black

Movie: Scream Series

TV Series: American Horror Stories

Game: Resident Evil Series

Book: Tomie by Junji Ito

Backstory

(tw: d3ath; sh; su1c1d3 thoughts)

Esmeralda was born into an Mexican immigrant family in Los Angeles, California.

With only a year old her parents died in a horrible accident. Adrunk driver had lost control of his steering wheel and car, killing her parents a few other civilians by crashing into a bus station.

After the police put the drunk driver into prison they tried to make out Esmeralda's family in Mexico. But none of them wanted to take her in since their parents had left the country and got married without their families permission. Thus they had no other choice than to put her into an orphanage.

Growing up in the orphanage wasn't easy for Esmeralda. She often got bullied by the other kids in the orphanage. Even when telling the director he didn't do anything against it.

Not having enough money they couldn't afford many things, making Esmeralda grow up under the national minimum wage.

When she enrolled in a public school she got bullied by her classmates for her heritage, being a Latina and not knowing a single word of Spanish.

At the young age of 11 she started to self-harm herself in various ways, but mostly by cutting her wrists, often wishing she was dead and not alive, thinking suicide would be the only salvation for her.

With 14 she began to work a part time job to earn some money. She wasn't treated very well in her job as well and the bullying didn't stop in middle school. If even it became only more.

Two years later, with 16, she ran away from the orphanage and started living in a run-down apartment, her landlord not caring about her age and letting her sign the contract, just wanting the money. In those two years she started to skip school more and more until she got expelled for too many absences.

Not having to worry about school anymore she signed up for one shady job after another, at one point working almost 24/7 just so she can keep her apartment and eat at least cheap things.

A year later, on a rainy day, she found two little kittens in a box when she was on her way back home after work. She just couldn't let them stay there and die. She didn't want to be like her family and the orphanage director. So she took them in.

Since then all her self harming and suicidal tendencies had stopped, the little kittens having giving her a reason to keep going and live.

Shortly after her 18th birthday she got bitten by a radioactive spider, making her her cities one and only Spiderman. After having acquired spider-like powers she took it upon herself to rid Los Angeles of all the bad.

Not much later the police noticed her and since they have worked together with her, providing her with an apartment and a monthly salary.

With 19 then she got recruited by the Spider Society, becoming a part time member and helping whenever she has the time.

Powers

Webshooters

Superhuman Jumping Power

Superhuman Agility

Enhanced Absorbtion Spectra

Trivia

she always wears long sleeves (the reason only Miguel knows)

within the year between working with the police and getting recruited for the Spider Society she binge watched and played various horror themed movies, tv shows and games

her cats are two males whose names are Sherlock and Mycroft based on the Holmes brothers from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes"

her Spider Powers are based on Jumping Spiders

Miguel taught her how to drive, but refuses to get driven around by her (he's scared he'll die)

At the request of Esmeralda, Miguel teaches her Spanish

she sleeps between 3 and 5 hours a night

she cannot cook and almost burned the kitchen a few too many times