#Agnes falls center.

[hannahhook7744]

Can you do a whole "Encanto Next Gen as Vines/ Incorrect Quotes" post? That'd be really funny lol

Character Guide:

(Children of Isabela Rojas Madrigal and Bubo Marquez):

Miguel Melchor Marquez Madrigal Jr/Smiley/MJ. 

Zoey Alejandra Marquez Madrigal.

Arlo Emo Marquez Madrigal.

Avila Brisa Marquez Madrigal.

(Children of Antonio Espinosa Madrigal):

Giovanni Refugio Espinosa Madrigal. 

(Children of Mirabel Rojas Madrigal and Miguel Rivera):

Vera Coco Rivera Madrigal.

Renata Imelda Rivera Madrigal.

Mariana Isabela Luisa Rivera Madrigal.

Marisol Carmela Victoria Rivera Madrigal.

Marcelo Héctor Rivera Madrigal.

(Camilo Espinosa Madrigal and Mina Prepon):

Carlos Manuel Madrigal Prepon.

José Lorenzo Madrigal Prepon.

Hugo Jerónimo Madrigal Prepon.

Sofia Azucena Madrigal Prepon.

Amelia Sadia Madrigal Prepon.

(Children of Dolores Espinosa Madrigal and Mariano Guzmán):

Ligera Juana Guzman Madrigal.

Oscar Candelario Guzmán Madrigal.

Elmira Dorila Guzman Madrigal.

Leta Pepa Guzmán Madrigal.

Princesa Rosetta Guzmán Madrigal.

Fuega Alba Guzmán Madrigal.

Juan Félix Guzmán Madrigal.

Javier Gabriel Guzmán Madrigal. 

(Children of Luisa Rojas Madrigal and Ryder Nattura):

Tito Krsitoff Nattura Madrigal.

Emilia Lydia Nattura Madrigal.

Amada Honeymaren Nattura Madrigal.

Silvia Julieta Nattura Madrigal.

Belinda Petra Nattura Madrigal.

(Children of Bruno Madrigal):

Cesare Bartholomew Colmcille Madrigal Botero (Formerly Frollo).

Cornel Thomas Howard Sebastian Madrigal Botero (Formerly Frollo and Formerly Gaskit). 

Cyriacus Ignatius Vladmir Madrigal Botero (Formerly Frollo).

Richard 'Rick' Perseus Madrigal Botero (Formerly Ratcliffe).

Claudine Esther-Mary Agnes Dymphna Madrigal Botero (Formerly Frollo). 

Rachel Anneliese Madrigal Botero (Formerly Ratcliffe).

Rory Elias Madrigal Botero (Formerly Ratcliffe).

Glendale ‘Glenn’ Hazel Gothel (soon to be Madrigal). 

Mason Primethorn Gothel (soon to be Madrigal). 

Magnolia ‘Gigi’ Marguerite Gothel (soon to be Madrigal). 

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Hugo *falls through ceiling* 

Giovanni, not even phased: Hi Hugo.

Hugo, laying on a pile of rubble—his head resting on the floor, completely: Hi Giovanni. 

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Hugo, quieter: That hurt.

Cesare: Hey I'm back from the market—WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!

Cyriacus, standing in the center of a strangely neat pentagram drawn on Casita's floors and holding a melting candle in one hand, and a book in another: You told me to satanize the house! 

Cesare: Sanitize! I said sanitize! Clean this up before Abuela and the padre get here!

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Princesa: You can trust me! Let's not forget who pulled you out of that river when you were 12!

Fuega: Let's not forget who pushed me in. 

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Miguel Jr *jumps from the second balcony of Casita in a bubble shield, bounces, and breaks something*

Arlo, on his last fucking straw: THIS IS WHY MOM DOESN'T FUCKING LOVE YOU!

Camilo *laughs loudly off screen*

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Arlo: Here’s a fun Christmas idea. We hang mistletoe, but instead of kissing, you have to FIGHT whoever else is under it.

Zoey: Arlo no.

Miguel Jr: Mistlefoe.

Zoey: Please stop encouraging him.

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

Arlo: I trust Zoey.

Miguel Jr: You think they know what they're doing?

Arlo: I wouldn't go that far.

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Arlo: Oscar! My face is on fire!

Oscar: Arlo! Are you ok?!

Arlo: Oh yes, I'm fine. I just said that to make sure you'd come in here quickly.

Oscar: But your face is on fire.

Arlo: Yes. It's much faster than shaving.

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

Oscar: Please, I'm begging you, go to a doctor.

Arlo: I'm sorry is this OUR stab wound? Stay out of it.

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

Arlo: Listen, I can explain…

Zoey: You’re making $500 and you’re only gonna pay me $100?

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

Miguel Jr: You’re getting 100 dollars? I’m getting $20!

Avila: You guys are getting paid?

Marcelo: Ma'am, this is a Wendy’s.

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

Someone random: Wow, are you guys twins?

Marisol *stares at Mariana*

Mariana *stares back*

Marisol and Mariana *scream  in sync* YOU STOLE MY FACE!  *runs away in opposite directions*

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

Hugo: Marcelo, how are those chicken strips?

Marcelo, looking at Hugo's blackened chicken strips: F%#K YA CHICKEN STRIPS.....F%#K ya chicken strips!

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

Rick: You fight like my sister!

José, being a smart ass: I've fought your sister, that's a compliment!

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

Princesa: There is no better feeling than someone playing with your hair. Or running her fingers down your back—

Leta: Unless you thought you were alone.

Oscar: And now, the weather.

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

Renata: Get a real job! And some pants!

Marcelo, who was just walking past: annnnd that's enough of this game. 

Vera, grumbling: I am wearing pants. You just have a stupid power.

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Five year old Sofia *running around during the family barbecue, something shiny in her hands*

Camilo, drink in hand: what you got there, Sof?

Five year old Sofia *smilingly widely* A KNIFE! *runs off*

Camilo *spits out his drink, drops it, and rubs after her* NO!

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

Tito, 15 years old: Yo, how much money do you have?

Amada, 5 years old: 69 cents.

 Tito: AYE, you know what that means?

Amada, sad: I don't have enough money for chicken nuggets.

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

Miguel Jr: Hurricane Katrina? More like Hurricane Tortilla *throws tortilla into Marcelo’s face on accident*

Marcelo, as the tortilla slides slowly down his face: I hate you.

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

Claudine: AHH! Stahhp. I coulda dropped mah croissant.

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

Mason: Mothertrucker, dude, that hurt like a buttcheek on a stick.

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

Cesare: Glendale, can you read number 23 for the class?

Glenn: No, I cannot.... What up? I'm Glenn, I'm 19 and I never fucking learned how to read.

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

Fuega, trying to come out to Ligera: Hey, I'm lesbian.

Ligera, having stayed up all night making shadow puppets with her friends: I thought you were Colombian.

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

Juan: WHAT ARE THOSEEEEE?

Javier: THEY are my crocs!

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

Belinda:  In my defense, I was left unsupervised.

Elmira: Wasn't Silvia with you?

Silvia: In my defense, I was also left unsupervised.

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Rachel, not in the least bit sorry: I think we're gonna have to kill this guy, Cornel.

Cornel, soberly: Damn. 

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

Emilia: You have to apologize to the town!

Oscar: Fine. 'Unfuck you' or whatever.

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Carlos: WHOEVER THREW THAT PAPER, YOUR MOM'S A HOE!

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Amelia, shoots up in bed in the middle of the night: Oh my god, they were roommates.

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Rory: This Bitch Empty, YEET! *Throws bottle*

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Gigi: Mason stop...Mason stop...You're gonna get in trouble. Mason.

[mysticstronomy]

WHAT IS MORE POWERFUL THAN A QUASAR??

Blog#409

Wednesday, June 12th, 2024.

Welcome back,

On July 12th, 2018, researchers announced that they’d caught a single, tiny, high-energy particle called a neutrino that had rained down on Earth from a supermassive black hole some 4 billion light-years away.

Astrophysicists are excited because this is only the third identified cosmic object they’ve managed to collect the elusive particles from — first the Sun, then a supernova that went off in a neighboring galaxy in 1987, and now a blazar.

So, what is a blazar, anyway?

At the center of most galaxies — including our own Milky Way — there’s a gargantuan black hole that can have the mass of millions or even billions of Suns. In some galaxies, this supermassive black hole may collect a swirling disk of gas, dust and stellar debris around it to eat from.

As material in the disk falls toward the black hole, its gravitational energy can be converted to light, making the centers of these galaxies very bright and giving them the name active galactic nuclei (AGN).

Some of these active galactic nuclei also shoot out colossal jets of material that travel close to the speed of light. Scientists call this a quasar.

But when a galaxy happens to be oriented so the jets point toward Earth — and we’re staring right down the barrel of the gun, as it were — it’s called a blazar. It’s the same thing as a quasar, just pointed at a different angle.

Those jets shoot matter at close to the speed of light in our direction and, we now know, produce high-energy neutrinos like the one detected by the IceCube instrument in September 2017.

The first blazar found was originally misidentified as an oddball of a star. In 1929, the German astronomer Cuno Hoffmeister published a catalog of 354 objects he thought were variable stars, or stars that get brighter and fainter over fairly short periods of time. This catalog included an object that was called BL Lacertae, or BL Lac for short, after the constellation it was in — Lacerta, the lizard.

By the late 1960s and 1970s, astronomers began to notice something funny about BL Lac. It did get brighter and fainter, but not in a regular, predictable way, and it seemed to emit a lot of light in the radio wave regime, which was unusual for stars.

Further studies showed that BL Lac was too far away to be a star in the Milky Way galaxy. And in some ways, its behavior looked more like another mysterious object astronomers were finding — called quasars — than it did variable stars.

Eventually, astronomers found that BL Lac was in fact a bright object in the center of a distant galaxy. And they began to find other objects that shared BL Lac’s strange properties, calling them “BL Lac objects.” By 1980, they coined the name blazars, combining “BL Lac objects” with the somewhat similar “quasars.”

Studies in the 1980s and 1990s gave evidence that the bright radio light from blazars came from jets of material moving at relativistic speeds. By the mid-1990s, astronomers determined that blazars, quasars, and some other bright galaxy phenomena they observed were all in the same family of objects: active galactic nuclei.

Originally published on www.astronomy.com

COMING UP!!

(Saturday, June 15th, 2024)

"WHY DO PLANETS ROTATE??"

[sattiereturn]

agatha harkness with regards to astrology, part 1

hello, it's me, your resident agathario stan who also loves astrology. i actually have an entire google spreadsheet of agatha and rio's placements, but decided to start off with my headcanons of what agatha's chart would look like :)

i'm going to dissect her sun, moon, rising, mercury, venus, and mars, since those are considered the "inner" planets. if anyone wants a part 2 of her outer planets, let me know!

ascendant: leo rising

having agatha as a leo rising does several things. it makes her appear to be larger than life, a little egotistical, fiery. leo risings are incredibly charming. leo as a sign adores the spotlight and craves power. all of these leo traits are curated specifically into agatha's looks and perceptions. many astrologers actually consider the rising sign to be more influential than the sun sign, especially considering it dictates your houses. that's actually why i started with it for my delve into agatha's chart.

leo is, of course, represented by a lion. agatha has plenty of the metaphorical traits: pride, a king-of-the-jungle attitude. but she also has the appearance of one. like, her fucking hair. it is literally a mane. she also has an exquisite taste in clothes, which is why i personally find it to be that much more stripping of her power when detective agnes is someone who puts no thought into her appearance and dress. we need more butchgatha fics where she's in a three piece suit; i'm just saying. but, c'mon, we all saw those intricate costumes when she was conning people into giving her their power. she knows that when she's the center of attention, she's gonna look damn good being under that spotlight.

she's also dramatic as hell. i obviously cannot list all of the ways in which she was extra simply because she could be, but she even died theatrically.

sun: aquarius sun (in the 7th house)

i see agatha as an aquarius sun for several reasons. one, she is incredibly intelligent. this is one of the few qualities that, across all the fanfics i've read, even ones that weren't necessarily my cup of tea, agatha possesses. she is fucking smart. aquarius is one of the couple of signs (along with sagittarius and libra) that i find are just... genuinely, innately brilliant. just the right balance of curious, pattern-seeking, inventive, and quick on their feet. agatha also knows this, and it makes her pretentious, which i find to be another aquarian trait.

secondly, the sun in aquarius makes it in detriment, or at its weakest. this is why a lot of pop astrology likes to brand aquarius as the "alien"-- they can feel like outcasts or oddballs. this would be doubly effective for agatha because as a leo rising, her chart ruler would be her sun. putting her sun in her 7th house also makes it at an opposing angle to her rising, which can cause her to feel like there's a battle waging between how people perceive her versus what her dominant personality truly is. this is something we see in canon. people have their perceptions of agatha, and she lets them believe what they want, even and especially if they paint her as the villain. she'd rather people think she traded nicky for power rather than the simpler, uglier truth.

that, coupled with her sacrificing herself for billy, gives her another aquarian trait: self-martyrdom. it sounds contradictory; why would agatha, known selfish bitch and serial killer, put other people's needs before hers? it's important to understand, firstly, that agatha first has to consider the person an important part of her life to do any of that to begin with. we can see this happen because, in the first trial, she refuses to drink the poisoned wine, but by lilia's trial, she's pushing lilia out of the way of a falling sword. somewhere along the way, she deemed these people worth protecting.

agatha will complain the whole way of protecting people to keep up appearances, yes, but agatha absolutely craves human connection. i don't think i can open this can of worms here, because it's too off topic, but agatha changed her opinion of covens in the show and had genuine fuzzy feelings for the coven only to have them slip through her fingers. (i personally do not think she meant to kill alice, which is informative of my reading for her emotional journey through the show.)

i also think it's important to note that agatha's first idea of family-- her mother and the coven that put her on the stake to burn-- is going to immensely screw up how she views relationships and people. imagine you try heroin at 18 and it's so fucking powerful it gives you the powers to kill your narcissistic, abusive bitch of a mother that has controlled you your entire life. we already know power and control, and the ability to keep it, is an integral part of agatha's character. she was set up for failure in this regard, unfortunately. her siphoning powers were designed to protect her, to be a self-defense mechanism, and it ended up being the very thing that alienated her.

and if people are going to view her as a villain for that... why not become the villain? circling back to this. it's also a sign of self-martyrdom. agatha lets everyone hate her because it's easier on their conscience to do so.

i think a part of this personality trait, too, is that aquarius is the rebel sign. it's the revolutionary. and agatha's idea of revolutionary magic is something the world was not prepared for, and she learned to not care that the world wasn't ready for her because that was the only way she could survive and keep control of her life.

anyway, the sun in the 7th house also indicates relationships and couplings, which, as stated before, are key factors in agatha's self. her relationship with nicky, her relationship with rio, and, of course, her reputation as a covenless witch. she is constantly having to fight between being independent and the human interaction she secretly desires.

aquarius is also an air sign, which i see agatha as since air signs constitute flightiness and the desire to think outside of the box. agatha doesn't want to be kept on the ground. and she wasn't kept six feet under it, either!

moon: scorpio moon (in the 4th house)

a lot of agatha-related astrology things i see (admittedly not many lol) like to stick agatha in as a scorpio sun, probably because the idea of a halloween birthdate. and while i don't see that, i do see scorpio as an incredibly important part of her.

i see her as a scorpio moon for several reasons: scorpio moons have a keen sense of inuition, and i think paired with agatha's aquarius sun, makes agatha an extremely perceptive person (rio saying, "i watch you, agatha, just as closely as you watch everyone else" comes to mind here). scorpio moons also can have a turbulent relationship with their own emotions. they crave depth to sink their claws into, but having to show their own underbelly to get there is a different story. it's like the scorpion and the frog proverb. agatha loves cracking open the nuts of the coven she gathered, but she eats the paper with a black heart when billy asks about it.

a moon in the 4th house indicates that agatha feels the most secure with her family. guess what she doesn't have very much of? the moon also rules the mother, which is another blow to agatha's sense of safety. scorpio moons can already be a placement that doesn't place trust easily, and agatha has been hurt many times, not just by evanora, but her first coven, and by rio when she took nicky. in her eyes, she's the only one she has, and she's stuck in this cycle of trusting someone with her back only to be stabbed. like, if the salem seven are the children of the witches in her mother's coven, there's a very good chance she played with them as children, or at least tried to. that's just so insanely heartbreaking.

a moon in the 4th house can actually be a positive placement to have, but with agatha's history of family and loved ones, it burns her. couple that with the fact that a scorpio moon has a complex relationship with showing their emotions to begin with, and agatha's moon is an unfortunate mix for heartache. she wants a stable foundation to fall back on, but she refuses to open up to get there. and who can blame her?

mercury: aquarius mercury (in the 7th house)

one thing to note about mercury (and venus!) signs is that mathematically, they have confines of how far away they can be from a person's sun sign. with agatha as an aquarius sun, it leaves me with three options for her mercury (capricorn, aquarius, pisces) and i find aquarius to be the most fitting for her.

i've already been over aquarian traits, but in terms of mercury, people with mercury in aquarius are sarcastic as fuck. not only is agatha smart in the brain, she's smart in the mouth. she'll dress someone down or drag them within an inch of their lives. and she'll do all of this before someone even finishes their first half-hearted insult at her. she'll say the thing no one else wants to admit.

mercury in the 7th house also indicates being influential, and considering she spun a tale about a song with her son into an actual, breathing mythos, this feels apt.

venus: aries venus (in the 9th house)

we're back to somewhat cruel placements again, sorry. venus in aries is another planet in detriment, and what better planet to give agatha a weakness in than the one of love? i'm not totally mean, though, as this could indicate her sun/mercury having a sextile with her venus, which is a harmonic angle to have.

aries is another fire sign. impulsive, instinctual, passionate. it's giving "i bite during sex". aries venuses love action, and i think that's a very, um, surface-level but accurate way of describing her dynamic with rio. and even with her non-romantic relationships-- she impulsively decides to sacrifice herself for billy, and her relationship with nicky was incredibly adventurous. she loves the experience of sharing an emotional rollercoaster with someone she cares for.

one of the weaknesses an aries venus can posses is the inability to slow down in love. i see that as being a reason as to why agatha loves rio in such an earth-shattering way, because rio is the first person she meets that keeps her on her toes, and even centuries later, still manages to do so. i actually write my agatha POV with this in mind, canon or AU. even with other romantic interests, like wanda or jen (cuz let's be real, her and jen know each other's bodies), these are both women that i would say kept agatha on her feet, albeit temporarily.

venus in the 9th house has to do with travel and philosophy. agatha, of course, has spent most of her covenless days as a wanderer, and while we technically don't know for sure, we can easily assume that travel is worldwide. i also see her having had to deal with rio being a entity that must travel for work all the time a part of this. her essential falling out with rio being the death of her child as a part of her short list of ethical boundaries can also be explained by the 9th house; remember, she didn't kill the salem seven because they were children. she chooses to sacrifice herself for billy. children are a hard line for her. of course, it being her own son doesn't help, but rio taking him when he was so young probably ripped something open in agatha. she doesn't have many morals, and her lover chooses one of the few she has to break over her knee.

mars: sagittarius mars (5th house)

like i've said previously, i find sagittarius to be an inherently intelligent sign, and i absolutely see its influence in agatha. mars rules things such as sexuality, anger, and action. in sagittarius, mars craves freedom. sound familiar? i also see sagiattarius as a sign in mars that can kill someone with words... or a knife, if that's easier and not worth the energy. agatha has no issue doing both.

sagittarius is also a sign that loves to LEARN. one thing i don't think we talk enough about with regards to agatha's character is her hunger for knowledge. it's what got her mother to put her on trial in the first place! now, we don't know whether or not agatha was actually studying dark magic (evanora seems the type to call magic "dark" simply because it was something she didn't want agatha looking into) but such a centric part of her character is that she was punished for wanting to learn. she was put to death for it. and if her own mother decided she should be killed for wanting to learn, why not go big or go home? why not go for the darkhold?

i've also been cruel in this placement again because mars in the 5th house indicates issues with fertility and possibly abortion/miscarriages. oops! (not really. kill your darlings.) but, yes, the 5th house rules romance, creativity, and children. sagittarius is a sign that aligns with morals, and so i think putting this sign in her 5th house can indicate one of her boundaries about killing being children.

the 5th house can also be about mentorship. this is another way i see it working for agatha. jac described her as a mentor, and i actually have other (outer planet) placements that dig into this idea more, but for now, placing her mars in the 5th house makes her a person who, even if she doesn't see it, is a good teacher.

anyway, this is over 2,000 words now, so i'd say i've said my part lol. if anyone has any questions, OR if you'd like to see how i interpret her outer planets, tell me! i also have planets for rio, so there's that, too. but i also am writing several things right now (including a fun little collab with a beloved agathario author) so i want to use my time wisely, lol.

[rada-76]

Ash Yggdrasil

Ясень Иггдрасиль

По-русски ниже. / In Russian further.

In Neil Gaiman's American Gods, there is a giant ash tree, which is the embodiment of the sacred tree Yggdrasil. In Germanic-Scandinavian mythology, this tree is the mystical core of the world, the tree of the world.

In Good Omens, there is also an ash tree. According to Agnes Nutter's prophecy, it was an ash tree that fell on the fence of the airfield. Only because of this, Anathema and Newt were able to enter through the resulting hole into the territory where the Apocalypse was supposed to begin. (The ash tree is mentioned in Agnes's prophecy in both the series and the book.)

Note that in Good Omens, the ash tree - the center of the universe - falls. This completes the terrible picture of the End of the World: the very foundation of the universe is destroyed. By the way, the security guard at the checkpoint who tried to keep Aziraphale, Crowley, Tracy, Shadwell and The Them out of the airfield was reading American Gods when the Four Horsemen drove up to him in a jeep, disguised as surprise inspectors. I guess the guard was American, since this airfield is American.

And the cover of American Gods shows this tree in the guard's hands.

More amazing finds in Good Omens S2 are here.

В книге Нила Геймана «Американские боги» фигурирует гигантский ясень, который является воплощением священного дерева Иггдрасиль. В германо-скандинавской мифологии это дерево является мистическим стержнем мира, древом мироздания.

В «Благих знамениях» ясень тоже встречается. В соответствии с предсказанием Агнес Наттер, именно ясень упал на ограждение аэродрома. Только поэтому Анафема и Ньют смогли зайти через образовавшуюся дыру на территорию, где должен был начаться Апокалипсис. (Ясень упоминается в предсказании Агнес и в сериале, и в книге.)

Обратите внимание, в «Благих знамениях» ясень – центр мироздания – падает. Это дополняет ужасную картину Конца Света: разрушается сама основа мироздания.

Кстати, охранник на пропускном пункте, который пытался не пустить на аэродром Азирафеля, Кроули, Трейси, Шэдвелла и Этих, как раз читал «Американских богов» в тот момент, когда к нему подъехали Четыре Всадника на джипе, замаскированные под внезапных проверяющих. Думаю, охранник был американцем, раз этот аэродром американский.

И на обложке «Американских богов» в руках охранника изображено именно это дерево.

Больше удивительных находок во втором сезоне здесь.

[mylostlenora]

my sapphic tbr🤍 pt. 1

1. Ink Vine, Elizabeth Broadbent:

Stay the hell out of the swamp — the backwater town of Lower Congaree recites it like an eleventh commandment. But when exotic dancer Emmy Joiner sneaks under the dark tree-canopy behind her family trailer, she meets mysterious, tattooed Zara, the first girl she dares to kiss.

But the small-town South hates a woman who dares to dance instead of plucking chickens for minimum wage, and as Emmy’s life falls apart, her relationship with Zara grows more tangled and bizarre. Zara’s offering something beautiful. But while Emmy’s slowly strangling, its price may be more than she’s willing to pay.

Shifting between the green-bright cypress cathedral and the dreamland of a dance club, Broadbent’s unforgettably-voiced debut confronts the brutal realities of poverty in the South, with a sapphic tale both sultry and sinister, gritty and gothic.”

2. My Darling Dreadful Thing, Johanna Van Veen

“Roos Beckman has a spirit companion only she can see. Ruth―strange, corpse-like, and dead for centuries―is the light of Roos' life. That is, until the wealthy young widow Agnes Knoop visits one of Roos' backroom seances, and the two strike up a connection.

Soon, Roos is whisked away to the crumbling estate Agnes inherited upon the death of her husband, where an ill woman haunts the halls, strange smells drift through the air at night, and mysterious stone statues reside in the family chapel. Something dreadful festers in the manor, but still, the attraction between Roos and Agnes is undeniable.

Then, someone is murdered.

Poor, alone, and with a history of 'hysterics', Roos is the obvious culprit. With her sanity and innocence in question, she'll have to prove who―or what―is at fault or lose everything she holds dear.”

3. House of Hunger, Alexis Henderson

“A young woman is drawn into the upper echelons of a society where blood is power in this dark and enthralling Gothic novel from the author of The Year of the Witching.

Marion Shaw has been raised in the slums, where want and deprivation are all she know. Despite longing to leave the city and its miseries, she has no real hope of escape until the day she spots a peculiar listing in the newspaper seeking a bloodmaid.

Though she knows little about the far north—where wealthy nobles live in luxury and drink the blood of those in their service—Marion applies to the position. In a matter of days, she finds herself the newest bloodmaid at the notorious House of Hunger. There, Marion is swept into a world of dark debauchery. At the center of it all is Countess Lisavet.

The countess, who presides over this hedonistic court, is loved and feared in equal measure. She takes a special interest in Marion. Lisavet is magnetic, and Marion is eager to please her new mistress. But when she discovers that the ancient walls of the House of Hunger hide even older secrets, Marion is thrust into a vicious game of cat and mouse. She’ll need to learn the rules of her new home—and fast—or its halls will soon become her grave.”

4. Our Hideous Progeny, C.E. McGill

“Mary is the great-niece of Victor Frankenstein. She knows her great uncle disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the Arctic, but she doesn’t know why or how. . . .

The 1850s are a time of discovery, and London is ablaze with the latest scientific theories and debates, especially when a spectacular new exhibition of dinosaur sculptures opens at the Crystal Palace. Mary is keen to make her name in this world of science alongside her geologist husband, Henry—but despite her sharp mind and sharper tongue, without wealth and connections their options are limited.

When Mary discovers some old family papers that allude to the shocking truth behind her great-uncle’s past, she thinks she may have found the key to securing her and Henry’s professional and financial future. Their quest takes them to the wilds of Scotland; to Henry’s intriguing but reclusive sister, Maisie; and to a deadly chase with a rival who is out to steal their secret.”

[garden-beans]

I want what 20th century women authors were on

Ok but no literally I was reminded of my favorite (as of right now I am fickle) gothic novel. Which guys let me tell you about Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho. Have you ever wanted to read Jane Austen but like also the plot is on crack a bit? Yeah, I also didn't know I wanted that until I had it.

So like, maybe spoilers but the novel was also published in 1794 so I feel like its fine. I'm going to break the book's plot down into four, and i want emphasize this, very simplified sections.

Part One: Death. We start with the death of our main gal's (her name is Emily) parents, total bummer they were like a super nice family and now she has to go live in the wack castle with her aunt. Stuff does happen before her parents die but for the sake of not ranting too much the most important pre-parental-death facts to know is that the family's fortune was in decline, Emily accompanied her father travelling the world after her mom dies and while journeying she falls in love with this guy named Valancourt. But then her dad dies and it's aunt time. Oh also she meets a woman called Sister Agnes at the convent where her father gets buried, we will come back to her. Classic set up we love to see it nothing too big happening here. But this leads us to the next plot point the castle. You guessed it! It's Udolpho.

Part Two: Udolpho. Ok to be fair im skipping a bunch of stuff but we have to get through this, so straight up gothic castle on a cliff. I could go on a whole rant about the castle being a classic example of a large scary house in gothic novels and how arguably the main character could really be the castle and Emily is just our tour guide but I digress. Emily's Aunt has married this fuck ass guy named Signor Montoni, and he sucks so much ass. He forces Emily to break off her engagement with Valancourt (yeah that happened in the stuff i skipped) by manipulating her aunt. He also before they make it to Udolpho tries to force Emily to marry his creepy old man friend Count Morano and sign over her property to him (her uncle). But then switches up real fast when his friend turns out to be like loosing his money or smth and Montoni and her Aunt drag her off to Udolpho. Ok great they get there and turns out Montoni is like a bandit king/leader guy???? and the castle is their center of operations??? And then the castle is attacked by other people and Morano shows back up and tries to kidnap Emily but fails. Also castle is allegedly mad haunted. Emily finds a creepy black curtain and has a breakdown about a frightful thing she sees behind it, she thinks it is the body of Signora Laurentini di Udolpho who the Count was rumored to be married to before. Emily thinks he killed her and put her body there. Great. Montoni ends up inadvertently killing Emily's aunt cause she won't sign over her property to him and plans on leaving it to Emily, so he locks her in a tower and she just gets sick and dies there. Skipping some more stuff Emily and a few others run away and escape Udolpho which leads to....

Part Three: Chateau-Blanc. Yay! Second haunted house time! They end up nearby where her father died and was buried. Some supernatural shit is happening here too apparently and a servant shows Emily this room with a painting of the Marchioness de Villeroi and tells her about her. Emily is like aw fuck this lady might be my real mom we look crazy related and double fuck because this room is also seemingly very haunted. So another guy is like hey i'll spend the night in here to prove it isnt haunted! and the next day he is straight up gone so that sucks. Emily then ends up going back to the convent and visiting Sister Agnes who is dying now too. And death is a hell of a drug because she confesses her whole life story to Emily and turns out Agnes is Signora Laurentini di Udolpho and had been the Marquis de Villeroi's lover. And she and him conspired to kill the Marchioness de Villeroi who is Emily's aunt not her mom. And like men do the Marquis regretted what he did and blamed it all on Agnes/Signora Laurentini and told her she had to go repent for the rest of her life. And Oops Emily should have all her aunt's land and stuff actually so she is a wealthy woman now once she recovers it all. Also! that guy (Ludovico) who disappeared earlier in the haunted room shows back up! Turns out he was kidnapped by Pirates who were trying to rob the mansion, not ghosts.

Part Four: Final Weddings and Reveals. So the book ends with Emily and Blanche (another character she is important but... you get it)) getting married. Emily to Valancourt after a series of miscommunications I glossed over. Its like a whole romance subplot of 'is he worthy of her love? is he not?' going on during the last part up until they are like 'ooo we are in love lets marry'. Idk the romance isn't why i am here. I'm here because the very end of the novel reveals to us that this whole time the creepy maybe dead body Emily saw behind that curtain was a wax figure. And it like ribs on her for not taking a second more to look, hold on im pulling out the quote for this one “Had she dared to look again, her delusion and her fears would have vanished together, and she would have perceived, that the figure before her was not human, but formed of wax". Like damn ok yeah...

anyway I just really like this novel. Like! It's mentioned by Austen in Northanger Abbey, which is knowingly a parody or satire of the Gothic genre. And Udolpho is used as like this example of a great gothic story in it. But I feel like you could argue that Udolpho is almost a parody or satire in itself? Like Emily is never actually in any danger from supernatural happenings. The worst is her new uncle and some other creepy men. And while that also can fall into the gothic genre there is also this self awareness the story has of its own elaborate craziness. If that makes any sense? Idk it just throws so many plot twists and points at you in the best way.

[jetwhenitsmidnight]

Private Rites by Julia Armfield

Release date: 3 December 2024

Genre: adult literary/speculative/horror fiction

From the award-winning author of Our Wives Under the Sea, a speculative reimagining of King Lear, centering three sisters navigating queer love and loss in a drowning world

It’s been raining for a long time now, so long that the land has reshaped itself and arcane rituals and religions are creeping back into practice. Sisters Isla, Irene, and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their father dies. An architect as cruel as he was revered, his death offers an opportunity for the sisters to come together in a new way. In the grand glass house they grew up in, their father’s most famous creation, the sisters sort through the secrets and memories he left behind, until their fragile bond is shattered by a revelation in his will.

More estranged than ever, the sisters’ lives spin out of control: Irene’s relationship is straining at the seams; Isla’s ex-wife keeps calling; and cynical Agnes is falling in love for the first time. But something even more sinister might be unfolding, something related to their mother’s long-ago disappearance and the strangers who have always seemed unusually interested in the sisters’ lives. Soon, it becomes clear that the sisters have been chosen for a very particular purpose, one with shattering implications for their family and their imperiled world.

Content warnings: death, parental death, grief, child abuse, emotional/verbal, abandonment, violence, blood, suicide, lesbophobia, divorce, alcoholism, eating disorder, vomit, self harm, stalking, gaslighting

Disclaimer: I know nothing about King Lear, other than the fact that the guy has three daughters, so my review will be written without taking into consideration the source material.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC!

Not gonna lie, I sort of struggled with this one. This is a relatively short read, a little under 300 pages, but it took me nearly a week to complete this book. ( I typically finish 300 pages in 2 or 3 days.) I think the main reason for this is that the pacing is slow. Like, really slow. There's not a lot of plot going on, and for the most part, we follow our three main characters going about their day to day lives.

A large focus is on the relationship between the sisters and their parents (or lack thereof). I really resonated with the portrayal of their sibling relationship; there were moments that felt like the author had written down the exact thoughts and feelings I've had about my own siblings. (Although me and my siblings definitely get along better.) The trio's relationship with their parents is less focused upon, but impossible to ignore, especially with the tension caused by their father's death.

The speculative setting feels ever more timely; the city they live in is being gradually submerged by rising waters, which has become so normal that the constant rain and ferry rides is just another aspect of their lives. I loved the sections in between the main story entitled The City; it shows what is going on outside of the main characters and gives the story a different perspective.

This book really captures how boring it is living through the end times. (I hate that this is relatable.) There is a underlying tension caused by the ever-present rain and gradually increasing flooding, but the characters still have to go to work and do chores.

The story isn't entirely miserable; Agnes finds love amidst all the mundanity, and it is ordinary and extraordinary at the same time. In Everything Everywhere All At Once, Ke Huy Quan's character says "In another life, I would have loved doing laundry and taxes with you." I think this sentiment captures Agnes's relationship with Stephanie completely.

I sort of forgot that this is supposed to be a horror novel; aside from a few weird moments plus the overall creepy vibe, this book read more as lit fic than horror. Towards the end, however, the horror elements kick into full gear. There is a huge tonal shift that I am not sure I like? It felt out of place with the rest of the narrative. Maybe I am missing something, but I don't see how the ending fits in with the overall/rest of the book.

Other than the ending, this book as a whole is gorgeous and lyrical and relatable, and will definitely be staying with me for some time.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

An image of the spiral galaxy NGC 1086 obtained by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope

Active galactic nuclei are supermassive black holes at the center of certain galaxies. As matter falls into these black holes, enormous amounts of energy are released, making active galactic nuclei, or AGN, one of the most energetic phenomena that can be observed in space. University of Arizona astronomers have now produced the highest resolution direct images ever taken of an AGN in the infrared, using the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer. 

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany were also involved in the study. The findings are published in the journal Nature Astronomy. 

"The Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer can be considered the first extremely large telescope, so it's very exciting to prove this is possible," said Jacob Isbell, a postdoctoral research associate at the U of A Steward Observatory and lead author of the Nature Astronomy paper. 

Every galaxy has a supermassive black hole at the center. Some of them are considered active while others are inactive, depending on how quickly material is falling onto them, Isbell said. There's a disk around the black hole that glows more brightly the more material there is. If this accretion disk glows brightly enough, it's called an active supermassive black hole. The AGN that exists in galaxy NGC 1068, which neighbors the Milky Way, is one of the nearest ones that is considered active. 

The Large Binocular Telescope is located on Mount Graham northeast of Tucson. It operates its two 8.4-meter mirrors independently, essentially functioning as two separate telescopes mounted side by side. The Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer combines the light from both mirrors, allowing for much higher resolution observations than would be possible with each mirror on its own. This imaging technique has been successfully used in the past to study volcanoes on the surface of Jupiter's moon Io. The Jupiter results encouraged the researchers to use the interferometer to look at an AGN. 

"The AGN within the galaxy NGC 1068 is especially bright, so it was the perfect opportunity to test this method," Isbell said. "These are the highest resolution direct images of an AGN taken so far."

The Large Binocular Interferometer Team is led by Steve Ertel, associate astronomer of Steward Observatory. Through the interferometer, the team was able to observe several cosmic phenomena going on simultaneously in the AGN. 

The bright disk around the supermassive black hole releases a lot of light, which pushes dust away like many tiny sails, a phenomenon known as radiation pressure. The images revealed a dusty, outflowing wind caused by radiation pressure. Simultaneously, farther out, there was a lot of material that was way brighter than it should have been, considering it was illuminated only by the bright accretion disk. By comparing the new images to past observations, the researchers were able to tie this finding to a radio jet that's blasting through the galaxy, hitting and heating up clouds of molecular gas and dust. Radio jet feedback is the interaction between powerful jets of radiation and particles emitted from supermassive black holes and their surrounding environment.

Direct imaging with extremely large telescopes such as the Larger Binocular Telescope Interferometer and the upcoming 83.5 feet Giant Magellan Telescope located in Chile makes it possible to distinguish feedback from the radio jet and dusty wind simultaneously. Previously, the various processes were blended due to low resolution, but now it is possible to view their individual impact, Isbell said.

The study shows that the environments of AGN can be complex, and the new findings help better understand AGN's interaction with their host galaxies.

"This type of imaging can be used on any astronomical object," Isbell said. "We've already started looking at disks around stars or very large, evolved stars, which have dusty envelopes around them." 

IMAGE: An image of the spiral galaxy NGC 1086 obtained by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). The galaxy has a distance of 47 million light-years and is one of the nearest galaxies with an active galactic nucleus. Credit European Southern Observatory

[k-llewellin-novelist-news-feed]

"AGN radiation can have a paradoxically nurturing effect on life. Rather than doom a species to oblivion, it can help assure its success."

[specialagentartemis]

it is BANDCAMP FRIDAY

Once again, Bandcamp Friday is upon us! Despite the change in ownership, Bandcamp remains committed to holding Bandcamp Friday 6 times in 2024 - so if you have any indie music you've been eyeing, get it now!

Some albums I love that deserve more love:

Badinyaa Kumoo by Sona Jobarteh. Jobarteh is a Gambian musician from a traditional griot family, and her music that centers the kora is excellent.

Asw​â​t by Djazia Satour. Jazzy and poppy French/Algerian fusion.

The Quiet Has Something To Tell You by Joelle Moushati. I love this one so much. It's so ethereal, dreamy, and melancholy.

Agnes by Jane Bruckner. Soft, soothing, peaceful ambient. I like to fall asleep to this one.

Of Timelessness and Space by Lillie Blue. Sweet, fun, and evocative instrumentals.

Trinity by Luer Verte. Synthwave single of all time.

and the music I bought today:

Beacon by Jane Bruckner. Even more ambient musical soundscapes.

Giver Taker by Anjimile. A mournful, thoughtful, reflective, ultimately hopeful meditation on identity, loss, being trans, and making yourself.

The single Hearts and the "bot-quadrilogy" Gigabot, Terrabot, Megabot, Exabot by Waveshaper. MORE SYNTHWAVE.

[the-nexverse]

@thicc-pirate hiii, happy STS! thanks for the ask!

Agnes: is it REALLY mandatory? ugh, fine. she finds an isolated corner or room to pass the time (preferably with an alcoholic drink and a cig), making no effort to interact with anyone and dispatching anyone who dares approach her. absolutely NOT a fan of social events, will endure until the first opportunity to book it. what a waste of time

Ryan: the life of the party! walks around, participates in every conversation, tells jokes, you name it! he thrives in social situations, he was MADE for this!

Lisabel: starts slow, analysing everyone in the party. once she's assigned a profile to everyone, she decides who's the best for her social experiments. blends in perfectly like an octopus, doesn't make herself the center of attention but everyone definetely notices her presence. depending on the person, some might be attracted to her style and vibes while others might be put off. something's definetely weird about the way she talks and smiles... it's a gut feeling they can't shake off

Eric: he's there to have a good time, but also to chill. participates in group conversations and simply is a nice presence to have around

Léan: chaos incarnate. goes under the tables, runs around, fills their pockets with as many snacks as possible, probably knocks something off said tables accidentally, there's a pool? definetely falls in at some point. when she burns all his energy, it's Eric's turn to take care of them, either finding a spot where she can nap or going home

Rask'r: loud drinker! probably challenges people to drinking games and contests, hopefully taking advantage that argonians are more resistant to alcohol than humans/elves. won't stop him from getting a bit wasted at the end tho!

Raz: not the best at social events, but tries anyways. not a fan of crowds, so he participates from a safe distance. will occassionally chat if people approach him, but that's the most he'll do

Donovan: leaves you on read and doesn't show up. i don't know what else you expected

Lee: oh man he's gonna get overstimulated. oh man he's gonna run around and knock everything and everyone down. oh man the animonster emergency services are on their way

Vreytus: what's the purpose of this. he got invited so he feels obligated to attend, but he doesn't know what to do once he's there. he's too intimidating for anyone to try to approach him, so he spends the time standing still. how fun

Bug: the weirdo who didn't get invited but showed up anyways. they're not here for the party, they're here to explore the host's house. and possibly steal something

Voirdy: FREE FOOD FREE FOOD FREE FOOD!!! don't mind the ghost birds roosting on the roof. this isn't a costume party either, what's up with the bird helmet? who invited this guy??

Chad: definetely WANTS to be the center of attention. it's a competition to him, actually. will insert himself in everyone's conversations, loudly share his opinion on any topics, drink a lot and participate in any and all events planned. he's having fun!! as for the others... welp, 😐

Lewis: nervous wreck. doesn't know what to do or how to participate, so he stands awkwardly away from the main group of people, strangling his little red cup. although if someone goes out of their way to include him in a conversation, that would be enough for him to loosen up, relax a bit and start opening up. it's that initial step that he finds the most difficult

Storyteller Saturday asks are on!

[butmakeitgayblog]

Okay so I tried watching TLFOAH and throughout the first episode I got this really crappy vibe (not from the performances) and it didn't match with the book. At all. I watched through to the end and walked away for a bit. It it hit me what the problem was. Male director. This series is not really from the point of view of any one woman or her experiences or her pain. It took the apologetic parts of the novel and centered them by making the suffering of the women especially Alice seem incidental. Nobody's fault. Generational trauma. Repetative. I know not everyone will share that opinion but the fact that they put a totally unnecessary sex scene in (none of it from Alice's point of view she's an object) nullified the whole story for me. Alice is a pretty object through the whole thing. She's an object to her grandmother. She's an object to the men around her. She's an object to herself. The series doesn't reckon with any of that, it just gives a patent "happy" ending. This really seems to be the trajectory of ADC's career too. Pretty object, patented storytelling. This story really could have benefited from a woman director who gets it what a shame.

I tell ya, I read this about 4 times, each time myself walking away for a but to kind of think it over, and I'm still just not coming up with the same conclusions you are. First and foremost, that line about her career? Totally unnecessary. It was tasteless, and I'm not sure if it was just rage bait or some personal bone you have to pick with women being unapologetically attractive, but frankly you can leave that shit at the door because I'm not gonna entertain it. She's an actress. Actresses by and large get paid to be pretty. If you don't like that, fair enough, but that's something you need to take up with Hollywood casting, not actresses trying to make a living. She's going to take the roles she likes (such as this one, which also happens to be the best role of hers to date), but also the ones she gets cast in. It's not like every actress has the luxury of turning down jobs no matter what your personal preferences are. You talk about being reductive and objectification in the rest of your message, yet really treaded the line on some sexist/misogynist sounding bullshit right there. Be better. That said, I'm not flat out saying you are wrong in regards to this show, but I don't think I got that impression of it at all.

I mean, it was stated from the start that the show is about generational trauma. It's about how victims of abuse can end up falling into and continuing cycles of abuse. I can't side by side compare to the book, but taking the show at face value, that's exactly what it did, so I'm not entirely sure what it is that you wanted from it.

Fundamentally, I'm not even sure what you're talking about the suffering being incidental and not painted as anyone's fault? It was. In her childhood years, it was Clem. In her adult years, it was June and Dylan. There was no ambiguity there. They were all shown as manipulative people who hurt those around them. June's motives may have been different, but she was still shown in a harsh light. In fact something I appreciated was that they didn't write Clem any sort of boo-hoo-woe-is-me sad boy backstory as a kind of way to write off or pseudo-excuse why he did what he did. He was just an abuser. He liked to hurt people, particularly the women in his life, plain and simple. He abused and took advantage of Candy, then June, then Agnes and his daughter, and there was no attempt to try and soften him to pull away from that fact.

Another thing that I appreciated was the fact that they didn't focus the show on the abuse itself, but rather the damage that's left it's in its wake, and the healing process that needs to be done. I don't think that approach lends itself to rendering the trauma itself incidental, but rather it shifts the focus from the violent acts themselves and more toward the victims left to pick up the pieces and move on with their lives. Too often in these cases people get so caught up in the story of the abuser and the whys and the whats and the white noise that comes with those high octane emotions. But the reality is that those scars last long after the dust has settled, and unfortunately by then usually nobody's really paying attention to the victims anymore because it all becomes about the sensationalism of the violence and the abuser. (*Cough* D3pp and Heard *cough* Tory and Meg *cough*)

That's what I think, in part, this show was trying to portray.

Now, switching gears here, while I had my own issues with the sex scene, I do somewhat have to push back on what you're saying here because while I could've lived without it, I do see what it was saying. I don't think Alice was being used as just a visual sexual object, but rather it was giving insight into where she was emotionally. Only, what? Days prior? A week or two at most? She had found out the man she loved - her childhood best friend mind you - had fallen in love with someone else. And that's after months of thinking he'd just left her behind, only to find out it was her own grandmother who had betrayed her and sent him away "for her own good". The girl was emotionally flailing and desperately searching for some sort of connection. She was desperate to find solace and comfort and thus, glommed on to whoever made her feel something that wasn't pain and betrayal.

That's a very understandable human emotion given the situation.

Enter Dylan, shithead extraordinaire, who she immediately thinks is hot. They have an instant attraction and he pursues her just as hard as she pursues him, and in the unstable emotional space she was in, it's entirely understandable that she'd latch on to someone like him. He makes her feel wanted and desirable, he's a fresh start and a way to leave behind her past. It would be so easy to fall into someone like him when you're already looking for a place to land to begin with.

However, really look at that sex scene.

Really evaluate it.

She's not even looking at him.

She's not holding him close or wrapping her legs around him, there's no prolonged eye contact or heavy kissing. Nothing that speaks of actual intimacy. She's disconnected from him and the moment. To me that is Alice's point of view.

You may take that as her being portrayed as just a sex object, but in my opinion it spoke volumes about what was actually going on with her internally, even if she herself was not entirely aware of it (although tbh I think she was.) Even the upside down camera shot leaves the viewer feeling off kilter, almost as though it's mirroring just how off balance and desperate she is, right along with how everything between them was from the start.

I don't think it's fair to reduce Alice down to just an object because at no time did I get that impression of her at at all. She is young woman who has had everything in her life ripped away from her over and over again. She's not stupid, just unsure of exactly who she is. She thinks she's a murderer, she thinks everyone who has ever loved her either hurt her, left her, or betrayed her. But even through that, she's cunning, and clever, she thinks on her feet and has a will to keep going. Just because she makes some bad decisions, that doesn't negate all those character traits.

And again, they don't soften Dylan as a character. I've actually had A Lot of conversations about the portrayal of Dylan and I think I've landed somewhere around: I didn't need to know much more about him. Would I have liked to maybe see more of the building blocks of their relationship? Yes. But in the same breath I think that might've only given them space to try and paint him in a more forgivable light when that did not need to happen. Because in the end this story isn't about the abusers. It's about the women who have to escape them. It's about the quiet after the storm and what they do to pick up the pieces. And I liked that they didn't try and make these women, Alice included, into these fake af perfect renditions of what we think victims should look or act like. Sometimes they're messy, sometimes they make bad choices, sometimes they're strong and resilient fighters who never turn back. Sometimes they do. One is not more worthy of sympathy or safety over another. They make their own choices and they're still allowed to be humans who are imperfect and none of that somehow diminishes what it is they go through even after the abuse is over.

And honestly I'm not sure of you and I watched the same finale. The whole point of June's letters and the Flowers burning down her statue that Clem made was about Alice and June and all the other women taking back their power and their stories from those who hurt them. It was point blank saying that not only is this June giving Alice back that power she had so mistakenly taken away as a family member who loved her and thought she was doing best but had gotten it so so wrong, but also it was her passing the torch on to Alice. Giving her the ability to literally burn Clem and Dylan, even June herself if Alice so chooses, out of her life and start over from the ashes (the Phoenix metaphor from the very beginning.) To start writing her own story.

I don't actually see that as a happy ending per se, but more a hopeful one. So very few times in life are we given the chance to wrap up our traumas and wounds in a pretty bow and have everything feel perfectly resolved. More often than not the people who hurt us don't ever have to answer for it. More often than not the worst people in this world don't suffer any sort of repercussions for their actions or are made to pay a price. What usually happens is we're left with the scars and the frayed edges of what we went through, and we do our best just to keep going, trying to make peace with it through the pain and injustice. I feel like that was a much more realistic - albiet whimsical for narrative purposes - ending than a lot of other options that I'm sure got tossed around the writer's room.

Now all that being said, yeah I think it would've been interesting to see a woman's directorial take on it. I'm not sure the changes they would've made but for the sake of it, it would've been interesting. Knowing what's been said though, I feel like this director cared a lot about the story as it was, not just what he wanted it to be, and added elements that I loved that weren't in the original script (such as the ending fire that tied up all the symbolism.) But also considering the author herself was hands-on through the entire process and the fact that the showrunner and producer was a woman (actually there were 6 women executive producers on this as well 3 women screenwritersand 2 women editors) worked closely with Holly, I think what got into the show was more or less what the author wanted. I don't think the director skewed what the overall message was, at least not in the author's eyes it seems. So while I may read the book down the line and adjust my views accordingly, for now I'm going to trust that Holly Ringland and Sarah Lambert had a very steady hand on the reins of this thing.

[buubblezz]

I felt that F had something for him in her and Maltes Ungdum podcast when he was a guest. They were total opposites when it came to values and how to act towards other people, but she did praise him for his professionalism and acting, although he wasn’t bad ass enough for her and she wanted him to back her up more in that fight incident. And he said he wanted to be friends first before falling in love with someone and that he didn’t want to date. Then there’s this savior complex he seems to have, and the need to please others and to be accepted. She was with the bad boys and he felt a need to be seen as one as well, something other then the good and wholesome guy (that he is and that everyone loves). I do think I happened during the filming. In Regelboken podcast in January she said she went all in with that character and basically was and felt like her even in private for months after and that made her burn out. And her character was in love with E’s character, so there you are. Bla bla bla

nah sorry i’m not convinced at all anon. she’s just the type to love being mens center of attention and edvin was in his successful era. something probably appealing to her. not him. but what it means.

also i dont believe one word of what she said about her process for agnes lol. she just wanted to appear as a deep actor lmao which she’s not.

the fact that edvin needs to be friends first before anything else is one thing. but coming to her as i said it was more about convenience that anything else. also he might feel that way now but it doesn’t mean he can never experiment the love at the first sight.

i understand that you tried to connect dots but genuinely this is not it.

[simmetrycal]

oc facts and tidbits! ⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

just little(ish) things about everyone.

a/n: hi friends! haven’t written in a few long days so chew on this until i can finish up chapter three!

˚ · .

ash

he’s the type of mf to put a tampon up his nostril when he has a bloody nose

^“what?” with his nasally ass voice. “it works!”

played hockey in highschool and was a goalie for most of it but when he started losing weight he was center and left winger

one of his favorite things to do is just drive. like drive around the backroads in his audi listening to music.

he LOVES nicki minaj. especially barbie drip remix

he falls up the stairs

one time chantelle recorded him while he was eating salami wrapped around a cheese stick and he went “hm! it’s actually a bit fruity!” and the audio got really popular on tiktok

always keeps quarters in his pockets for vending machines

calls chantelle’s girlfriend an opossum bc he thinks she looks like one

his dad likes to keep him humble so for his first car he got him a total rust bucket

and he drove it to school. everyday.

and to work— he used to work at a grocery store.

his best/worst memory from the grocery store was getting deathly scared by a danny devito cardboard cutout that was around the corner

he does pilates once a week

has a pastel pink yoga mat for it and he ties his hair up into tiny pigtails

his dalmatian rocky is a fucking menace. absolute bark boy and does zoomies on the furniture but ash loves him way too much

he bought his sister kylie a white jeep off the lot when she turned 16.

called agnes raggedy anne one time as a joke. she wasn’t happy.

one time got sick from inhaling so many helium balloons

he’s obsessed with ludacris. the guy. he’s met him twice.

hes a shorts in the winter guy. “i’m not even cold bro.”

he has a bubble butt

he never remembers to check his pockets before he does his laundry. so much melted paper and coins are at the bottom of the dryer when he’s done.

messy handwriting

certified top of the doorframe slapper

he’s been on first name basis’ with all moms since middle school.

after he bought a bape bearbrick 1000 raymond manages ash’s finances. he only gets a certain allowance from his paycheck and the rest goes to his savings account which he isn’t allow to touch.

constantly bouncing his leg.

this man LOVES slumber parties. all aspects! the snacks, the movies, the skincare, the pillow fights! he goes crazy

super messy eater. his sloppy ass hotdogs slip out of the bun and land on his lap 7/10 times.

better at dancing that you’d ever think

likes taking picture of donuts just as much as he likes eating them

he knows how to crochet and somewhat how to play the guitar

can’t handle spicy food at all! bro is absolutely red, teary eyes, salivating, everything

really likes despicable me and minions

he is fucking feral at trampoline parks

^he has a video of himself that’s super sped up jumping around there really fast and doing flips and it makes him laugh everytime he watches it

he has shirts that say nerf or nothing on them.

when he was fourteen he shaved his head and bleached it.

lays on his belly all the time

broken so many bones in his life. bro was always in a cast or crutches. (he got hella signatures)

he likes red gatorade. a lot. he got that red circle around his lips

he often forgets to rerack his weights

bought a handicap parking pass on amazon, put it in his glovebox, and he takes it out when he wants to park somewhere easily (he knows he shouldn’t)

he makes your mom jokes maybe too often

he’s a sneaker head

^laying on his office couch like “chantelle should i buy these?” and they’re like some absurdly priced resale of travis scott jordans

his phone lock screen is rocky

he can’t use chopsticks.

says his favorite video game is call of duty black ops but secretly the real answer is roblox.

his favorite roblox game is meep city.

he bought an nft one time and it plummeted

he has never even been close to being in a car accident

he tries to come to all his sisters’ volleyball games. cora his stepmom is always there and ash doesn’t exactly like her but he’s so so kind and he always strikes up conversations with her.

he’s a cheerer and a clapper

his favorite color is blue

he always has a blue phone case

gets so so sunburnt everytime he goes to the beach

he has a ton of freckles on his back but not much in other places

^“i feel like one of them has to be cancerous right?”

a lot of people think he’s a picky eater bc he likes mcdonald’s so much but he’s actually got a pretty refined pallet. he’s a big fan of scallops

used to go to random mechanics for car stuff but for the past few months he’s been coming to chantelle’s girlfriends cousin’s shop.

he keeps coming in because he thinks oaklynns cousin, jericho, is cute but if he ever told chantelle she’d beat him to a pulp

at this point he’s getting unnecessary upgrades to his car. frequently. a tiny rock hit the windshield? shii guess he gotta replaced the whole thing.

“come here often? what am i saying— you work here.” he says, flustered over jericho. he can barely see his face half the time with it being masked by pairs of shiny sunglasses

he collects rap snacks

he likes to play hide and seek but when he hides he always goes behind a curtain and you can see his feet

bros the type of guy to open a bag of chips with scissors

has a pic of him and nardwuar.

he always downloads the games in the mobile ads

he has hundreds of games on his phone

bro always falls for the shit like “somebody wrote gullible on the ceiling” and “gayboysaywhat”

he quotes movies and shows ALL the dang time

he can’t cook for shit

his favorite video ever is that one old guy smoking a cigar in a car with the song no auto durk

˚ · .

chantelle

she’s quick to block someone

worked for an insurance company and she absolutely hated it. that place was the bane of her existence.

one thing she loves more than anything is going on vacation— especially tropical ones

“ash did you take your adderal today?” (always keeps extra in her purse)

her favorite flowers are blue hydrangeas

hates when ash just clocks out whenever he wants but there’s no stopping him

drives a 2022 toyota camry and she has one of those like corny rhinestone ignition button decals but now it’s stuck on there

she’s allergic to dogs (no rocky babysitting for her (grateful))

her girlfriend is chronically short

number one sza fan

single-handedly keeping vaseline in production

when she’s not in business clothes she wears like 3xl t shirts and like cheetah print booty shorts

˚ · .

raymond

bros a total chef.

would have vanessa do his sleeve tattoo when he’s a dad

secretly (maybe not so secretly) really insecure.

despite looking like a tough guy he’s a total square. always doing what he’s told no matter what.

he oversees payroll as well as company finances

he doesn’t mind commercials or ads, sometimes he even enjoys them

he is left handed

jia and him went to the same college (penn state)

he played basketball there and got quite good

he’s really interested in planes

loves loves loves food videos

he doesn’t do cardio kind of ever..? he only works his legs, arms, back, and shoulders, and doesnt really run a lot.

his favorite workout is doing deadlifts

raymond’s mom can only speak cantonese and she’s 4’11

his dad is as tall as raymond and speaks decent english

part of the reason why he’s such a good cook is because jia gets hangry and he wants no drama.

raymond’s aftershave is one of the sexiest smells you can ever possibly imagine.

he can be bold sometimes. confidence comes from nowhere and it’s shortlived

he’s very very patient

˚ · .

facts about side characters:

agnes used to be a stripper and everyone in the office knows about it.

headphone guy got his pinkie cut off by a yakuza member.

eli calls raymond “raymin” and everyone thinks it’s very cute.

oaklynn, chantelle’s girlfriend, is a florist and she drives a volkswagen rabbit that ash can never quit laughing at.

oaklynn doesn’t like ash.

ash’s sisters on his dads side kylie and parker don’t often get along (on kylie’s account) but parker gets along with ash’s sister on his moms side, eva. parker and eva each lunch in the library together

eva’s very secretive, she had a boyfriend that nobody knew about. one day ash found out and she broke up with him, scared that he was gonna tell their mom (he would never).

eva doesn’t drive bc of anxiety, but if she did ash would be quick to get her a car for her birthday. he thinks a miata would suit her.

vanessa used to be a biker

jia has a naturally high stress level perpetually, which makes her cranky.

ty for reading! not proofed so ignore any spelling errors, grammar issues, punctuation mistakes, and weird formatting

love yall!

jericho copyright dylan

vanessa and eli copyright yume

[raymond-reddington-ruminations]

This post contains all the spoilers about 10.21 and 10.22. Ye be warned.

Another Warning; I'm about to bitch.   I started writing this about 45 minutes after the final episode ended. I was going to write it in a few days, but I really need to vent if I'm going to get any sleep tonight.

It should be said that while I still love the show and the characters, and the final episodes were not objectively terrible, I had a list of things that I wanted and I got none of them. So I'm going to sound off on that.

It doesn't change how I feel about the show overall, and I'll go back to saying positive things about the show afterwards, but at the moment that I'm writing this I'm pissed, and I'm going to express it.

I remember one of the producers was quoted as saying that Ressler would be front and center when Reddington's fate was decided. What? There was no decision here. Who decided something?? Not Ressler.

And it did feel like that was coming. It looked like Ressler would be the one to catch up with him and decide whether to take him in or let him go. And I'm not just talking about the last 15 minutes, it felt like that all the way through. The other characters kind of had to declare where they stood, to some degree (dembe and Harold got off the hook) and Ressler didn't really do that. I feel cheated.

I feel cheated on many levels. From 8 years of mysteries laid out that were never answered, to dodging the central question of the show's premise, to ditching the Red/Dembe relationship which was simply the most beautiful male friendship and defined both characters, and finally, no mention of Elizabeth in the end.

What the hell is going on with Dembe? He was asked how he felt about what he was doing, and he couldn't answer. And he never did explain why. What exactly did he think would happen when Reddington was brought in? The man's already been sentenced to death.  Argh.  Makes no sense. In the end the core of Dembe's character makes no sense because they didn't explain it, or address his original stated purpose of wanting to save Reddington's soul.  The monologue covered the past, but not the present.  Bad job.

When that story of The Matador first came up, and the allusion was made that Reddington needs to risk his life to feel alive, I cried bullshit at the time. That's not the character that I've been watching. He is content with whatever life brings, he is fearless, but he does not need to seek risk to make life worthwhile. He is just as happy with peace and quiet, WHICH THEY SPENT A LOT OF TIME DEMONSTRATING IN THE LAST HALF HOUR.

So this ultimate ending with the bull just sucks balls. They're trying to imply that he chose the risk, and chose the manner of  his death, because risk is his thing, like the Matador.

Hell to the no.

And where does that leave Agnes?? God damn it, that's too much tragedy.  No, I cannot presume she's going to be okay with losing him.  I want to kick something. The show ended so very far away from what the first eight years were about; Red's relationship with Liz, and thereafter with Agnes.

I'm going to have to get my ass in gear and actually write some fanfiction. I've done only a handful of longer pieces over the last 20 years, and I recognize that I'm neither good nor proficient at it. But I don't think I can let this rest.

I'm still wound up in The Blacklist, and I don't see myself getting another fandom anytime soon. I get burnt out at the end. After many years they end in ways that aren't satisfying and I wonder why I should let myself get emotionally involved in another story.  There are some showrunners whose names I have learned because of this and will actively not watch a show they produce. I don't think that's the case here, but it might be quite some time, if ever, that I let myself fall in love with fiction like this again. Why do they need to b**** slap us, the audience who followed them for years, in the end??  Is there some kind of perception that a happy ending is somehow detrimental to their audience??

It affects the rewatchability of the show, you know? It's hard to get invested in something when you know the ending is disappointing.

Ok, ok.  It may not be the writer's fault. They always said they were going to concretely reveal Red's identity, and that didn't happen. I believe that is the network interfering with the writers. And I feel like that may have happened on more than just Red's identity. I mean... A bull.  As in, we can't write what we want to, so here's some b*******. If that was the deliberate choice, kudos to the writers. Well played. If it wasn't their intention to draw in that phrase...well. They walked right into that one.

I realize there probably isn't much of an audience for what I'll be writing, but I need to write it for myself.  It is sad to me that the fandom for The Blacklist seems to be so small. There was so much material here, and so many of the people I've known for my past fandoms could have loved it as passionately as I did, and written far more and far better than I ever could. I think if they had confirmed Redarina directly it actually would have accomplished that. The people I've been close to in past fandoms are wildly supportive of LGBTQ and would have been attracted to this character's story based on his being trans.  What are missed opportunity.

Can we get this to be a George RR Martin situation?  Where the original Creator puts out a book that contains his own ending and ignores this one?

I'm going to see about getting that first fiction written as quickly as I can. But until then, let this be said for the record;

Donald Ressler got Reddington to a hospital, and after a lengthy recovery, during which Weecha concluded that life with Reddington is not for her, Red walked free, called Agnes, and welcomed Dembe back to his side, as Red had retired from crime. They both went in search of, and found, Anne.

Addition; posting this the following morning. I did not get any sleep. I need to stop letting fiction do that to me.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

How black holes could nurture life

A new study co-led by Dartmouth researchers shows how radiation from black holes could have a nurturing effect on life.

At the center of most large galaxies, including our own Milky Way, sits a supermassive black hole. Interstellar gas periodically falls into the orbit of these bottomless pits, switching the black hole into active galactic nucleus (AGN)-mode, blasting high-energy radiation across the galaxy.

It's not an environment you'd expect a plant or animal to thrive in. But in a surprising new study in the Astrophysical Journal, researchers at Dartmouth and the University of Exeter show that AGN radiation can have a paradoxically nurturing effect on life. Rather than doom a species to oblivion, it can help ensure its success.

The study may be the first to concretely measure, via computer simulations, how an AGN's ultraviolet radiation can transform a planet's atmosphere to help or hinder life. Consistent with studies looking at the effects of solar radiation, the researchers found that the benefits—or harms—depend on how close the planet is to the source of the radiation, and whether life has already gained a toehold.

"Once life exists, and has oxygenated the atmosphere, the radiation becomes less devastating and possibly even a good thing," says the study's lead author, Kendall Sippy, who graduated from Dartmouth last year. "Once that bridge is crossed, the planet becomes more resilient to UV radiation and protected from potential extinction events."

The researchers simulated the effects of AGN radiation on not only Earth, but Earth-like planets of varying atmospheric composition. If oxygen was already present, they found, the radiation would set off chemical reactions causing the planet's protective ozone layer to grow. The more oxygenated the atmosphere, the greater the effect.

High-energy light reacts readily with oxygen, splitting the molecule into single atoms that recombine to form ozone. As ozone builds up in the upper atmosphere, it deflects more and more dangerous radiation back into space. Earth owes its favorable climate to a similar process that happened about 2 billion years ago with the first oxygen-producing microbes.

Radiation from the sun helped Earth's fledgling life oxygenate, and add ozone, to the atmosphere. As our planet's protective ozone blanket thickened, it allowed life to flourish, producing more oxygen, and yet more ozone. Under the Gaia hypothesis, these beneficial feedback loops allowed complex life to emerge.

"If life can quickly oxygenate a planet's atmosphere, ozone can help regulate the atmosphere to favor the conditions life needs to grow," says study co-author Jake Eager-Nash, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Victoria. "Without a climate-regulating feedback mechanisms, life may die out fast."

Earth, in real life, is not close enough to its resident black hole, Sagittarius A, to feel its effects, even in AGN-mode. But the researchers wanted to see what could happen if Earth were much closer to a hypothetical AGN, and thus exposed to radiation billions of times greater.

Recreating Earth's oxygen-free atmosphere in the Archean, they found that the radiation would all but preclude life from developing. But as oxygen levels rose, nearing modern levels, Earth's ozone layer would grow and shield the ground below from dangerous radiation.

"With modern oxygen levels, this would take a few days, which would hopefully mean that life could survive," Eager-Nash says. "We were surprised by how quickly ozone levels would respond."

When they looked at what could happen on an Earth-like planet in an older galaxy with stars clustered closer to its AGN, they found a much different picture. In a "red nugget relic" galaxy like NGC 1277, the effects would be lethal. Stars in more massive galaxies with an elliptical shape, like Messier-87, or our spiral Milky Way, are spread out more, and thus, farther from an AGN's dangerous radiation.

The stars align aboard the Queen Mary 2

Sippy came to Dartmouth with a keen interest in black holes, and by the end of second term, had joined the lab of study co-author Ryan Hickox, professor and chair of physics and astronomy. Later, while debating a potential senior project on AGN radiation, fate intervened.

Heading to England for a sabbatical in 2023, Hickox booked a trip on the Queen Mary 2 so he could bring his dog, Benjamin. Aboard the ship, he got to chatting with an astrophysicist from Exeter, Nathan Mayne, who was a guest speaker on the ship. They quickly realized they had a mutual interest in radiation, and that the PALEO software Mayne had been using to model solar radiation on exoplanet atmospheres could be applied to the more powerful rays of an AGN.

The encounter would clear the way for Sippy to work with Eager-Nash, then a PhD student in Mayne's lab. Using the programing language Julia, they input into their model the initial concentrations of oxygen, and other atmospheric gases, on their Earth-like planet.

"It models every chemical reaction that could take place," says Sippy. "It returns plots of how much radiation is hitting the surface at different wavelengths, and the concentration of each gas in your model atmosphere, at different points in time."

The feedback loop they discovered in an oxygenated atmosphere was unexpected. "Our collaborators don't work on black hole radiation so they were unfamiliar with the spectrum of a black hole and how much brighter an AGN could get than a star depending how close you are to it," says Hickox.

Without the kismet that brought the two labs together, the project might never have happened. "It's the kind of insight you can only really get by combining different sets of expertise," he adds.

After graduating from Dartmouth, Sippy left for Middlebury College, to work as a post-baccalaureate researcher in the lab of McKinley Brumback, who worked in Hickox's lab as a PhD student and is now an assistant professor of physics at Middlebury studying accreting neutron star X-ray binaries.

She brought a unique perspective to the project. In the X-ray binaries that she studies, a neutron star pulls matter from a normal star, causing in-falling material to heat up and emit X-rays.

While an AGN can take up to millions of years to flip between active and inactive states, X-ray binaries can change in mere days to months. "A lot of the same physics that applies to AGNs applies to X-ray binaries, but the time scales are much faster than for an AGN," she says.

Brumback contributed to the AGN analysis and served as a "slightly removed reader" to make sure the paper was accessible to non-experts, she says.

"Thanks to Kendall's excellent writing, it definitely was!"