#CLUNY THOUGH

[spanakorizzo]

More redwall doodles

[montanamp3]

ylsgib spoilers in the tags

//

pov: you are about to get haunted

[thorraborinn]

I know you've said that other Heathens have given you crap for giving Dr. Jackson Crawford even the mildest amount of criticism, but I was wondering if you would be willing to share any more criticism about his videos, especially the ones on the gods and Norse culture? If not, is anyone you know who has critiqued his stuff? I know Dr. MatthIas Nordvig doesn't like him, but he took down all his videos. I'm asking because I as I read a lot of other scholars' work the more I question how he came to some of those conclusions like translating Óðr's girl to Odin's girl. I know he subscribes to the idea that they are one and the same, but I still think it's weird to put in the translation while knowing you're not going to be adding explanations in the book.

Honestly I don't really have any systematic criticisms, just normal ones like I have for basically any scholar. I don't really watch his videos but I think I've agreed with most of what I have seen. It's more that because his content is so easily accessible and viewed by so many people, some of those people seem to have become really emotionally invested in him being an unquestionable authority, and they really shouldn't be doing that to anyone. There isn't a population of heathens who get personally offended and defensive if I say I think Terry Gunnell or Margaret Clunies Ross missed the mark somewhere. I think for many of Crawford's viewers he's the only specialist whose work they are accessing regularly, and if they read some other authors too they would have a better experience.

Come to think of it, some heathens do get really invested in certain authors like Vilhelm Grønbech or Paul Bauschatz, and get very defensive if you criticize them. To an extent this is also true of H.R. Ellis Davidson. For a lot of heathens of my generation her books were the first scholarly works they read, so their relationship to her was probably similar to heathens and Crawford now. And Ellis Davidson did a lot of good work that nonetheless can and should be criticized.

I will say though that Jackson Crawford's translation of the Poetic Edda is almost universally regarded as bad by people who can read the original, so yeah, most scholars would agree with you about that. And nobody seems to be able to wrap their heads around his decision not to include notes and commentary. I get the impression that he wasn't trying to make something that's accurate or suitable for scholars, but trying to produce something that's entertaining and easy to understand for a mass, popular audience with only casual interest. So if someone wants to get an accurate idea of what the source texts are actually saying, they should read Edward Pettit's translation or Carolyne Larrington's (2014, not 1996), just as someone who wants a translation that is highly poetic at the expense of accuracy and clarity might choose Hollander's.

To say any more than this would require me to watch more YouTube than I am willing to.

[sailinghomeward]

Hi everyone, here’s my new Redwall oc!! <3 Her name is Storra and she’s a ferret who once was under the tyrannical rule of Cluny the Scourge. After refusing to hurt a family of woodlanders, Storra ran away from Cluny’s army to live in peace at Redwall Abbey. Though a bit overzealous and headstrong, Storra would do anything to protect her friends and to keep Redwall safe.

[starlight-edith]

Ok Jumblr,

Can I headcannon a character as Jewish even though they’re fairly explicitly not Jewish?

For context, this is Cornflower Fieldmouse

She lives next to Redwall Abbey, and her husband Matthias is an apprentice monk there when they meet.

Later he becomes a warrior but stays tied to the abbey and swears to protect them. So basically he’s still a monk but he’s a warrior monk now.

They have a kid later, which breaks the vow of celibacy, but this is never addressed so I assume he’s just exempt because he’s a ✨warrior monk✨ (it’s possible this is talked about in the later books as I’ve only read the first two out of twelve as well as seeing all three seasons of the show).

But anyway, it is a CRIME that this woman is not Jewish. Can she be Jewish in my heart, as a treat? Or would that be weird because she’s very heavily implied to be a mouse Christian? (Jesus is never mentioned, the devil is implied through Cluny the Scourge, and they mention G-d in passing, but the only other biblical adjacent figure is Martin the Warrior who is Matthias’ predecessor)

[scotianostra]

On 19th August 1560 the Scottish scholar and poet, James Crichton, was born.

Soldier, scholar, poet and athlete, he was a graduate of St Andrews University and a tutor of King James VI. James Crichton, known as the Admirable Crichton, was a Scottish polymath, a latin term that translates to “universal man”, basically he was good at everything!

Crichton wasnoted for his extraordinary accomplishments in languages, the arts, and sciences. One of the most gifted individuals of the 16th century, James Crichton of Clunie Perthshire, was the son of Robert Crichton of Eliok, Lord Advocate of Scotland, and Elizabeth Stewart, from whose line James could claim Royal descent.

At the age of eight Crichton’s eloquence in his native vernacular was compared with that of Demosthenes and Cicero. By fifteen he knew “perfectly” Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac; and commanded native conversational fluency in Spanish, French, Italian, “Dutch”, Flemish, and, oh, “Sclavonian”, don’t worry I looked it up for us, it’s basically Slovenian.

That was the mere beginning of Crichton’s admirableness. He was also a champion athlete, a horseman, a fencer, a dancer, a singer of rare voice, and the master of most known wind and string instruments. His St. Andrews professor, Rutherford, a noted commentator, judged him to be one of the leading philosophers of the era.

After sucking all the available education to him in Scotland, it was only natural he should start on mainland Europe, he studied in France at the College of Navarre at the University of Paris. Here the young Scotsman cut a broad swath, though according to his jealous fellows his arenas of greatest activity were the tavernia’s and the whorehouses, rather than the lecture hall. Young Crichton did like the ladies, who in turn found him most–admirable.

He may have been liked by the ladies, but nobody likes a big heid, and that is how Crichton must have come across to many, nowadays he would have been one of the Chasers, or an Egghead on our TV screens, but back in the 16th century there were no such outlets for Crichton to show his big heid off, so he had posters printed up declaring that on a day six weeks hence, at nine in the morning, in the main hall of the College of Navarre, he intended to present himself to dispute with all comers all questions put to him regarding any subject. He had these put up on all the appropriate notice boards and church doors, before disappearing into the red light district to prepare himself for the contest. His adversaries had to quit laughing when on the appointed day Crichton appeared as advertised and bested the greatest local experts in grammar, mathematics, geometry, music, astronomy, logic, and theology.

The Crichton Show, having conquered Paris, moved next to the Italian peninsula. The young Scot performed memorable feats of academic disputation first in Rome and then in Venice. There he became fast friends with the famous scholar-printer Aldus Munitius, who is a credible witness to some of his more amazing intellectual performances. One of his ways of showing off was giving off the cuff instances of Comedic verse, a sort of Stand Up routine, but with that Crichton twist, the odes he told were in Latin!

Tradition has it on the street in Mantua one night he was accosted by four swordsmen, with superb sword play Crichton disarmed them all and forced them to show their faces. One of them, their leader indeed, turned out to be one of his pupils and prodigy, Vincenzo Gonzaga who was the son of The Duke of Mantua. Crichton was in the Duke’s employ and the youngster was jealous of the Scot, Crichton was also romantically linked to Vicenzo’s ex mistress. On seeing Vincenzo, Crichton instantly dropped to one knee and presented his sword, hilt first, to the prince, his master’s son. Vincenzo took the blade and with it stabbed Crichton cruelly through the heart, killing him instantly. James Crichton of Cluny was then in his twenty-second year.

There have been many accounts of Crichton in literature through the years since, mostly fictional but with hints of the story, the most famous is arguably the J M Barrie play, but the title of the play is the only semblance to the story of the Scottish Polymath.

[rose-of-redwall]

I am convinced I can write about Redwall forever.

I recently posted that silly little phylogeny exercise, and by the end of the post, I realized that I had written something like nine paragraphs. That was a silly little nothing exercise! But in my head, everything in Redwall means something, and everything in Mossflower history is connected to everything else. My question is why can I write 2 and a half pages about nothing if its Redwall nothing, but I find a normal essay for class so difficult. It is because I am engaged and excited and in charge of this stuff. If I think about more things as Redwallian I will be much more lexic- and pleased with life.

Ridiculous.

Addendum: I am remembering my essay about Redwall and The Rogue Crew that I wrote last year and how I kept saying "I could write a whole book about this one specific detail." The detail was something about Cluny's social symbology. It was interesting that he was so powerful and mysterious, how he created that persona for himself and it later came crashing down through his own insecurities. He held such a high position, but he did not belong to a species that is usually characterized the way he was- except for the being evil part.

This is why all my posts are a task. Again, ridiculous. It is nice to have passion, though 😊

[tricornonthecob]

Oh shit here we go

LK 101 - Boston Spilling the Tea Party (part one)

pt pt2 pt3

Lets be honest, the real reason this series exists: Walter Cronkite as Benji Franx.

why is there only one dude on what appears to be a fucking *frigate* I mean I know why, animation budget, but my point stans

Also fuckin seizure warning on the Atlantic, brah.

Cluny the Scourge just hanging out on what I'm assuming is Sarah's bed? Or is that just her pet. Did she have a beloved pet rat?? Was she a rat girl??? This has caused more questions.

Is this her room?? Why is there a bed belowdecks like this? why is her room so massive?? Am I looking too hard into a DIC cartoon?

I love how this girl just canonically vibes with chaos. Alone, 15 years old, going to the colonies, in a fucking storm that even the grizzled sailors are freaked out by, and she's writing to her mom how exciting everything is. She's either dissociating like a champ or she's a legend. Also how are you not seasick??? Oh right you're an accomplished rider and horse girl you got that inner ear

Not gonna lie though, listening to this girl talk about her dad coming home from the wilderness and how they're all gonna have an awesome life is kind of sad. Oh, honeyyyyy. No. Can you imagine being her mom and getting all these letters? Oh god now I've made up more headcanons.

she really has the worst luck with ships, doesn't she.

SuCh SyMbOlIsM

This dork. Also why is his collar so fucking open jfc.

In this house we stan Exasperated Dad!Moses

"When someone wants to know what's on my shirt I can sell 'em a newspaper!" is the kind of idea I'd expect from an ADHD/PTSD madlad. I feel like both Sarah and James vibe and thrive off chaos, but only one of them has a balanced inner ear.

Gotta love Eager Beaver getting knocked down a peg by Exasperated Dad.

The *flair.* The *drama.* The *exasperated and slightly amused adult*

aaaaaaaaaaay the French Fry! The Brains! The feral younger sibling! The one I vibed with the hardest as a feral younger sibling!

Henri: Bitch I'd do it again!!!!

Dear writers: why the fuck did you set up an enemies-to friends-to lovers pipeline so hard like this.

oh my gOdD Moses is such a dilf

Ok is it just me or did they design her as a redhead in the beginning and slowly lighten her to strawberry blonde later on, or am I just losing my mind.

do you think they boinked. Dirty Old Man Franklin absolutely tried to make a move on Lady Phillips.

We all worry about your feral daughter, Lady Phillips.

AND WE'RE ON NICKNAME TERMS? Yeah they boinked.

Sir. SIR. Two of those associates are children.

THEY FUCKING. BOINKED. NEW SHIP FRANKLIN/LADY PHILLIPS WE CALL IT FRILLIPS OH MY GOD NO WAIT THEY'RE A POLYCULE.

They'd absolutely get hammered and watch a Pats game, I'm a little disappointed the directors didn't tell the voice actors to lean into the New England accent. Also why does the guy on the left look like Peter Griffin.

It can't be Boston, there aren't nearly enough maniacal drivers with homicidal intent

*there* it is.

Damn this dude got REAL into it.

He just. Hops over tea chests and pulls himself up over a ship. To interview people. Fucking madlad.

Henri is getting *into it* feral frenchman child.

I don't think that's a normal response. That abandonment/orphandom PTSD does things to a brain.

well somebody sure had fun discovering After Effects transitions.

Yeah your ship's cool and all but does your ship have a meetcute that involves blunt force trauma with weaponized literature.

To be continued because of the 30 image limit

[anotheruserwithnoname]

Victoria - 4 years on

Today (May 12) marks the fourth anniversary of the first UK broadcast of the 3rd season (and possibly series) finale of Jenna Coleman’s Victoria in 2019. It’s amazing it’s been so long!

Of course Jenna has gone on to other work. As the season was finishing up on ITV, she was co-starring in a West End revival of All My Sons. A few months later she’d be in Thailand shooting The Serpent. Then of course C19 arrived (hard to believe, less than a year after Victoria aired!), and after a pause Jenna ended up in The Sandman, Klokkenluider, and other projects.

Is Victoria finished? Wikipedia’s page has it as cancelled, citing a statement by ITV dated from 2021 that there were no plans for a 4th season. I recall one article saying further production was unlikely due to C19 (which would technically put Victoria in the same company as GLOW and a few other series ended due to the pandemic, even though most other shows continued production). Daisy Goodwin, the show’s producer and writer, posted on Instagram sometime in 2019 that she’d written scripts for Series 4. And, of course, Series 3 (spoiler alert) ended on a cliffhanger.

There’s still hope that the show might return, perhaps as a one-off special. Yes, Jenna and Tom Hughes are no longer a couple - but there’s certainly precedent for exes to continue working together in TV and film, so that’s not necessarily a barrier. There’s certainly no time limit involved - Jenna could return to the role later in life quite easily (much as Judi Dench has done); in real life, Albert didn’t die for real until a decade or so after the events covered in Series 3.

But the fact remains Jenna has moved on. Maybe not into something ongoing (even Sandman S2 might only entail another one-off story, she won’t in in every episode, and The War Rooms is looking to be the TV equivalent of vaporware), but being tied to a TV series might have prevented her from taking on things like Jackdaw or the Lemons play - or whatever she might be doing next. She probably has no burning need or desire to return to Victoria (maybe not to the same degree she appears to be disinterested in reprising Clara Oswald), other than maybe the fact the series leaves viewers hanging so it’ll always remain a bit of “unfinished business” in that regard.

Her co-stars have also moved on. Nell Hudson is now a novelist; Margaret Clunie has been doing mostly independent films; Tom has been in several TV series and movies over the last couple of years.

But what we did get were 3 seasons (plus a Christmas special) of surprisingly light-hearted romantic drama, Vicbourne, Vicbert (I forgot the ship name), Jenna in nearly every scene, plus some great co-stars including Margaret and Nell, Rufus Sewell, and of course fellow Doctor Who-franchise veterans Tommy Knight and Eve Myles and, lest we forget, Diana Rigg also popped in for a visit when she wasn’t poisoning Joffrey Baratheon! LOL! I miss the show but am thankful we got what we got!

[anonarat]

I have been tagged by @evelhak, and it has been a long while since something like that has happened, so let's go:

5 Songs - Gira Gira by Ado. It's on YouTube, please watch it with subtitles if you don't speak Japanese, it is worth it. Gunpowder Tim vs. The Moon Kaiser by The Mechanisms. It gives you a very good idea of what The Mechanisms are about. Birth of a New Witch by Luck Ganriki. My personal favourite track on the Umineko OST, and that's saying a lot because that OST is full of bangers. Song of the Ancients -Atonement- by Keiichi Okabe. Another song from a video game, justice for Devola and Popola! That's why I Gave Up on Music cover by Shiranui Flare. One of the first music tracks uploaded by Flare, and one of the early reasons why I became an elfriend.

Three Ships you Like - Gosh, there are so many to choose from. I think my first is Freezerburn (Weiss/Yang) from RWBY. They have a great dynamic, although content for them isn't exactly plentiful these days, I do believe that it is the best ship for both of them. Next comes KuroMayaNana (Claudine/Maya/Nana) from Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight. KuroMaya is good, throwing Nana in there adds some real spice though. Just think about the dynamic of Maya and Claudine both *knowing* that Nana was stronger than Maya throughout the auditions. Finally... Edeleth (Edelgard/Byleth) from Fire Emblem: Three Houses. I will not defend my actions.

First Ship Ever - Mudshipping (Isaac/Mia) from Golden Sun. Golden Sun was my first true fandom, and mudshipping was the default, because at that point... there weren't many female characters that were as fleshed out.

Favourite Childhood Book - Redwall by Brian Jacques. This is where I fell in love with fantasy. Should I ever get a pair of pet rats, one would be named Cluny (the other would Ratimus Prime).

Currently Reading - Demonic Devourer Book 2 by Aaron Shih. Yeah this one is power-fantasy popcorn, but with the way things are, it lets my brain turn off for a bit during work. I'm not counting the untold half-finished books that I'll get to someday(tm).

Currently Watching - For the first time in a long while, I've been watching a fair bit of anime as it's released, so this'll be a bit long. The Apothecary Diaries best show from last season, though not as strong currently, the last episode was incredible. Shangri-La Frontier continuing from last season, and good mindless fodder. The Witch and The Beast which does monster of the week over 2+ episodes and is great. Both of the protagonists are incredibly compelling. Solo Levelling mostly because it's been hyped up. It hasn't impressed really, but it also hasn't been a tremendous let down. I'll give it the season, but if it doesn't step up its game and gets a second season, I'll probably drop it. A couple of others that I don't really have anything to say about.

Currently Craving - Things that interest me. That's all I ever really crave, because my primary positive to negative emotional spectrum isn't happy to said, but interested to bored.

No suggested number of tags, so if anyone else wants a go, feel free. I will, however, send a few tags out with no pressure: @mellowdarkness; @castaras; @shoujospirit

[rapier-roach]

Which Redwall Villains could've won their fights, Part 1

Does anybody else feel a little proud when one of the Redwall villains puts up a good fight in the Climax? Considering how often they just end up getting killed accidentally by falling into a hole or being killed by something getting dropped on them, it's nice seeing them do a decent job. So I'm gonna see which ones had an actual chance of winning.

In 1 on 1 duels, this is pretty straight forward, but for fights where they flee due to numbers, I'll go off of a win/loss ratio depending on how many they could beat individually, as if they had managed to split them up. No tricks, just their regular weapons.

The first one that comes to mind is, of course, Cluny the Scourge. Perhaps one of the only fights in the Series where the Combatants were well-matched. Of course, though Matthias was buffed by Martin's spirit, he still wasn't quite up to snuff. If it hadn't been for his quick thinking, Cluny probably would've become ruler of Mossflower. At least until the Long Patrol showed up. That's a point to the vermin.

I wonder who the Badger Lord/Lady was at the time? Mara, perhaps? I doubt she would still be around.

Tsarmina severely injured Martin, but she still fled like a coward and drowned. Even if she didn't flee, Martin would've won anyway though he might've died in the process. Point to the Redwallers due to Martin's Chad energy overpowering her mind.

Honestly, Slagar didn't have any options other than running when the Gang started chasing him. But he still died like a chump. Got bitten by Asmodeus Poisonteeth and survived, but died because he forgot fall damage was a thing. Even if he could fight any of them one-on-one, he'd lose 3/5 of those fights. Because Cheek is a kid, and if Slagar is good at anything, it's beating those up. Jabez Stump is just kind of a guy. Slagar was always more of a schemer than a fighter. Point to the Redwallers, due to being completely outclassed by Matthias the Warrior, Orlando the Axe, and Basil Stag Hare.

Gabool the Wild was gonna die, no matter what happened here. Much like Slagar, he also had no other choice but to run. Also alike to Slagar, he also fell into a hole, but this time he died because he got killed by the Scorpion lurking in that pit. That was the first time a Villain accidentally died by their own hand. He still gets a better score in the win/loss ratio because I think he has a better chance of taking on any member of the Group individually. About 2/3, since Mariel, Dandin, and Durry are still inexperienced. Joseph, much like Jabez, is just a guy. Rawnblade and Tarquin, though? Tarquin might have invested in bard stuff, but he's still Long Patrol. He could probably kill him. That's gonna be a point to the Vermin.

Total Vermin Points: 2

Total Redwaller Points: 2

Point Ratio: 1 to 1.

See ya in Part 2.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

SAINT OF THE DAY (May 25)

On May 25, the Catholic Church celebrates Pope St. Gregory VII, who sought to reform the Church and secure its freedom against the intrusion of civil rulers during his 11th-century pontificate.

Born in the Italian region of Tuscany sometime between 1020 and 1025, the future Pope Gregory VII was originally named Hildebrand.

His father Bonzio is thought to have been a carpenter or peasant farmer, while his mother's name is unknown. His uncle Laurentius was abbot of a monastery in Rome.

Sent to the school run by his uncle's monastery, Hildebrand entered a world of discipline and fervent devotion.

After his primary education, he entered religious life as a monk.

Hildebrand served as chaplain to his mentor John Gratian who had a brief and turbulent reign as Pope Gregory VI.

In 1046, Hildebrand left Rome for Cologne along with Gratian, who was forced to leave Rome and resign from the Papacy.

After the former Pope's death in 1047, Hildebrand left for France and spent more than a year in the monastery at Cluny.

During 1049, he made the acquaintance of Bruno of Toul, who would soon become Pope Leo IX.

Under his reign, Hildebrand was put in charge of a historic monastery, which he rescued from structural and administrative ruin through a series of reforms.

Hildebrand served Leo IX as an adviser and legate until the Pope's death in 1054.

While others considered him a possible successor to Leo, Hildebrand did not wish to be elected, though he continued his work as an influential and respected cardinal during several subsequent pontificates.

In April 1073, Hildebrand was finally elected as Pope Gregory VII.

Though he still did not want the office, his electors praised him as “a devout man … mighty in human and divine knowledge, a distinguished lover of equity and justice, a man firm in adversity and temperate in prosperity.”

Overwhelming challenges confronted the new Pope – including scandalous corruption among the clergy, a hardening schism between the churches of Rome and Constantinople, and a struggle against civil rulers who claimed a right to choose the Church's clergy and control its properties.

In March 1074, Gregory promulgated a sweeping set of reforming decrees. These met with widespread opposition, but the Pope stood his ground.

The resulting standoff pitted him against the German Emperor Henry IV, who sought to depose the Pope when threatened with excommunication.

The Pope carried out his threat and declared that the emperor's subjects were no longer bound to obey him as their ruler.

In 1077, the emperor was forced to come before the Pope as a penitent, spending three days waiting in the snow before he was received and given the conditions of his reconciliation.

Though temporarily reconciled, Henry was excommunicated for later attacks, which included supporting a rival pope and invading Rome.

Gregory never gave up his pontificate but was forced to flee the city in 1084.

“I have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile,” he proclaimed, just before his death in Salerno on 25 May 1085.

Remembered as a champion of the Church's freedom against state intrusion, Gregory VII was beatified by Pope Gregory XIII in 1584. He was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII on 24 May 1728.

[winderlylandchime]

Yall pray for me because i was woken up today by my brother blasting Chiquitita at 5 in the morning screaming the lyrics on top of his lungs saying he had a dream about Britin and then proceeded to just describe the ep he watched yesterday.

First of I apologize for making you have tears stream down your face before your meetings, i hope all went well and you still kicked ass. You can imagine how it is for me with all the in between that I can’t write in because it would be a length of a book.

Also to answer some of your questions. The man is fucked up on way too much coffee, pain pills and let’s be real…weed, so i am surprised that he even remembers past episodes at times. Part of me hopes they get him off the strong stuff soon but the other part (as his sister) is enjoying everything too much. Don’t get me wrong though, he is the himbo of all himbos so i think majority of stuff would still be said and done without the drugs! Our whole family is surprised on how he’s made it this far in life.

And i had to ask him because it was bugging me all day, what nerd he meant yesterday and he said he was talking about Mel and Michael. Now idk how the actress that plays Mel is irl about Mel but i feel like he was kind of spot on with hal..

And i asked him your question about Brian and Iron Man and he got real quiet while eating cereal and looked at me and said ‘let me get back to you on that’ and then afterwards went outside for a smoke, came inside and went ‘this is a very tough spot you put me in..why would you ask me such question. I mean tony is dead! And Brian is alive and healthy. But they are both so troubled and constantly sacrificing their own happiness..this is tough, i don think i want to answer that out of the respect for the dead *sends a kiss up in the air like iron man is in heaven or something*. He made me pinky promise that we will watch the show after i come home from work and then he pushed me out of the way and went up to my neighbor and all i heard was ‘have you ever seen this show about these two dudes?’ I swear he is treating qaf like a pyramid scheme. Safe to say I am worried what i will return home to.

Dear sweet anon, he’s treating qaf like a pyramid scheme! I’m dying… he’s definitely trying to recruit or convert people to the fandom. He’s like me - I try to drag people into whatever I’ve gotten into. Very relatable.

The funny thing about Hal is that he and Sharon probably have had the biggest careers of anyone on the cast. The most I know about Michelle Clunie outside of her playing Melanie is that she has a kid with Bryan Singer. For some reason I thought he was talking about Sharon yesterday.

I’m sorry for having you bring up Iron Man to him. It’s clearly a sore subject and he is still in mourning. Sorry Brother Anon. And sorry Anon.

Thinking about you today and I hope you don’t come home to too much of disaster.

[therapardalis]

[Holiday Meme from @watcheradampierson.]

🔥 Our muses sit in front of a fire together. ------------

Thera's apartment on Rue de Cluny, Yule Eve 1997 ...

Quiet moments happened more often than one might think. Take them at face value, an ancient Guardian and an even more ancient ... whatever he was and it might not seem possible, but one of the benefits of time was, well ... time. That and their long ingrained habits of just keeping their heads down.

Thera stretched herself out on the couch, head resting on Methos' thigh as he sat at one end, bowl of popcorn balanced on the padded arm. Her own bowl sat within reach, though how successful she would be at eating from it in that position remained to be seen. The fire crackled, not quite covering the wail of snowy wind outside, and the TV burbled a rush of last-minute 'gift idea' commercials at breakneck speed.

She sighed, shifted around onto her side so she could both see the screen and, just possibly, snuggle herself in. One hand fished the remote from under the cushion, and she peered at it a moment in the dimmed light. "Ready?" A slightly tentative click started the VCR, the ubiquitous and 'do not copy and sell this movie' starting on the screen.

"We're allowed to heckle this one, right?"

[ladyanthropologie]

June 28th, 2023

Today was a nice day to walk around the city. After breakfast, some friends and I travelled to the Sainte-Chapelle, the royal chapel. The gothic design paired with the amazing stained glass truly made it the residence of the Kings.

Afterwards, we walked to Notre Dame. Even though it was still under repairs, and we couldn't go inside, it was still something to be at her feet. We were able to go inside the crypt underneath Notre Dame. It was a very cool space to see that I don't think many people know about. All along the crypt, it was giving the history, of not only Notre Dame, but of also that whole little island. It used to be a military town believe it or not! I also didn't know that the Notre Dame wasn't this huge famous landmark until after the publishing of The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. Due to the success of the book, which romanticized the cathedral, the people of Paris couldn't bear to see the place demolished (before the publishing, it was on track to be destroyed) and instead they repaired and renewed it. There is even a special gargoyle high up on one of her balconies that encompasses all the characters of the book - The Hunchback, Esmeralda, and Frollo. It was cool to read this history and see how the view of Notre Dame changed over the years. While it is still under heavy construction, Paris has plans to complete the work on Notre Dame in time for the Olympics next summer - the opening ceremony and parade are going to take place on the Seine! It's going to be a very public affair, which is going to be awesome!

After Notre Dame, we went to the Latin Quarter, home of the Sorbonne, or the University of Paris. We went inside the Église Saint-Étienne-du-Mont and tried to go inside the Pantheon, but sadly it was closed to a unforeseen emergency. It was still cool to see outside it though, and to see the Sorbonne. We ate lunch at this little poke place (first time I had poke and sushi, not bad) and then continued on to the Cluny Museum.

At the Cluny Museum (or the Middle Ages Musuem), we saw the Golden Rose, the Roman Baths, and many religious artifacts and artwork. The best part was seeing the tapestry The Lady and the Unicorn. Did you know The Lady and the Unicorn are not the only one? It's actually the ending of a series of 6 tapestries - each of the 5 before depicting a different sense: Taste, Touch, Sight, Smell, and Hearing. Actually, The Lady and the Unicorn is the name of the set, the one everyone knows as The Lady and the Unicorn is actually titled "À mon seul désir" or "To My Only Desire" and it's depicting a mysterious sixth sense, and it has caused many theories as to the true nature and depiction of the tapestry.

After the Cluny Musuem, we traveled to the famous confiserie that inspired the home of the main character in Miraculous Ladybug, a French TV show (that is really good! It has a movie releasing on July 5th!) and got some pastries (delicious!). Afterwards, my friend and I split off from the group and travelled to The Basilica of Sacré Coeur de Montmartre and went inside and climbed to the top. Once again, it was a lot of winding steps, but the view was worth it! I thought the view from the Arc de Triomphe was gorgeous, but this view was absolutely breathtaking! Enjoy a video of the view as I walk around the top of the Basilica!

[emmybrown]

4, 6 & 17!

heyy!!! thank you for the ask, i already answered number 17, so im going to skip that

4. 3 topics you’d love to learn more about

gothic literature. ive read some books, but very few, and i really loved them, so i wanna read and learn more about it.

sewing. technically more of a skill than a topic, but i really want to learn how to start sewing

classic hollywood. yes, i've been in the fandom for over a year now. yes, i've watched hundreds of movies. yes, i've read many books. yes, i have literal thousands of pictures on my phone. i literally carry a little rebecca sticker on my wallet. there are pictures of laurence olivier, merle oberon, jean arthur and charles boyer in my house. it doesn't feel like enough though, and i think that's what makes old hollywood so exciting. there will always be more actors, more movies, more directors, more history for you to discover. it keeps me hooked. i love it.

6. 3 characters that inspire you

cluny brown - i love how genuine and full of life she is. the world may try to shame cluny, but she still keeps trues to herself no matter what. as someone who struggles with social anxiety, it feels inspiring.

george bailey - it's a wonderful life in general just makes me want to be a better person.

jane eyre - she gets shit done and she is a weird girl! love that for her