#Elizabeth turns 21

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The CFPB is genuinely making America better, and they're going HARD

On June 20, I'm keynoting the LOCUS AWARDS in OAKLAND.

Let's take a sec here and notice something genuinely great happening in the US government: the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau's stunning, unbroken streak of major, muscular victories over the forces of corporate corruption, with the backing of the Supreme Court (yes, that Supreme Court), and which is only speeding up!

A little background. The CFPB was created in 2010. It was Elizabeth Warren's brainchild, an institution that was supposed to regulate finance from the perspective of the American public, not the American finance sector. Rather than fighting to "stabilize" the financial sector (the mission that led to Obama taking his advisor Timothy Geithner's advice to permit the foreclosure crisis to continue in order to "foam the runways" for the banks), the Bureau would fight to defend us from bankers.

The CFPB got off to a rocky start, with challenges to the unique system of long-term leadership appointments meant to depoliticize the office, as well as the sudden resignation of its inaugural boss, who broke his promise to see his term through in order to launch an unsuccessful bid for political office.

But after the 2020 election, the Bureau came into its own, when Biden poached Rohit Chopra from the FTC and put him in charge. Chopra went on a tear, taking on landlords who violated the covid eviction moratorium:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/20/euthanize-rentier-enablers/#cfpb

Then banning payday lenders' scummiest tactics:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/29/planned-obsolescence/#academic-fraud

Then striking at one of fintech's most predatory grifts, the "earned wage access" hustle:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/01/usury/#tech-exceptionalism

Then closing the loophole that let credit reporting bureaus (like Equifax, who doxed every single American in a spectacular 2019 breach) avoid regulation by creating data brokerage divisions and claiming they weren't part of the regulated activity of credit reporting:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

Chopra went on to promise to ban data-brokers altogether:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/13/goulash/#material-misstatement

Then he banned comparison shopping sites where you go to find the best bank accounts and credit cards from accepting bribes and putting more expensive options at the top of the list. Instead, he's requiring banks to send the CFPB regular, accurate lists of all their charges, and standing up a federal operated comparison shopping site that gives only accurate and honest rankings. Finally, he's made an interoperability rule requiring banks to let you transfer to another institution with one click, just like you change phone carriers. That means you can search an honest site to find the best deal on your banking, and then, with a single click, transfer your accounts, your account history, your payees, and all your other banking data to that new bank:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/21/let-my-dollars-go/#personal-financial-data-rights

Somewhere in there, big business got scared. They cooked up a legal theory declaring the CFPB's funding mechanism to be unconstitutional and got the case fast-tracked to the Supreme Court, in a bid to put Chopra and the CFPB permanently out of business. Instead, the Supremes – these Supremes! – upheld the CFPB's funding mechanism in a 7-2 ruling:

https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/05/supreme-court-lets-cfpb-funding-stand/

That ruling was a starter pistol for Chopra and the Bureau. Maybe it seemed like they were taking big swings before, but it turns out all that was just a warmup. Last week on The American Prospect, Robert Kuttner rounded up all the stuff the Bureau is kicking off:

https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-06-07-window-on-corporate-deceptions/

First: regulating Buy Now, Pay Later companies (think: Klarna) as credit-card companies, with all the requirements for disclosure and interest rate caps dictated by the Truth In Lending Act:

https://www.skadden.com/insights/publications/2024/06/cfpb-applies-credit-card-rules

Next: creating a registry of habitual corporate criminals. This rogues gallery will make it harder for other agencies – like the DOJ – and state Attorneys General to offer bullshit "delayed prosecution agreements" to companies that compulsively rip us off:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-creates-registry-to-detect-corporate-repeat-offenders/

Then there's the rule against "fine print deception" – which is when the fine print in a contract lies to you about your rights, like when a mortgage lender forces you waive a right you can't actually waive, or car lenders that make you waive your bankruptcy rights, which, again, you can't waive:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-warns-against-deception-in-contract-fine-print/

As Kuttner writes, the common thread running through all these orders is that they ban deceptive practices – they make it illegal for companies to steal from us by lying to us. Especially in these dying days of class action suits – rapidly becoming obsolete thanks to "mandatory arbitration waivers" that make you sign away your right to join a class action – agencies like the CFPB are our only hope of punishing companies that lie to us to steal from us.

There's a lot of bad stuff going on in the world right now, and much of it – including an active genocide – is coming from the Biden White House.

But there are people in the Biden Administration who care about the American people and who are effective and committed fighters who have our back. What's more, they're winning. That doesn't make all the bad news go away, but sometimes it feels good to take a moment and take the W.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/10/getting-things-done/#deliverism

[no-144444]

stoic much? -o.piastri

Day 21 of fic-tober! fic-tober masterlist

summary: oscar might be too good at the whole 'keeping a secret' thing. like, really good.

୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ

Meeting his fellow drivers’ families was always something that Charles had enjoyed. He liked to see how his competition grew up, how they treated their parents, how they treated their siblings.

He was more than interested to meet his ‘sons’ family, and at the Monaco GP.

୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ

“What time are they coming in?” Logan asked Oscar, the three of them walking the track with their engineers.

“A bit later. They landed like 2 hours ago but Ellie needed a nap,” Oscar explained.

“Have you met them already?” Charles asked Logan.

Logan smiled. “Oh yeah, they’re the best.”

Oscar chuckled. “And mom is coming in tomorrow with Hattie,”

Little did the three of them know, you were walking behind them with Ellie’s hand in yours, ready to sneak up on them. Logan, having a sneaking suspicion that someone important was behind them, glanced back and made eye contact. His grin widened and he stopped in his tracks, turning around and scooping Ellie up and into his arms. He covered her face in kisses as she giggled, him tickling her.

Oscar rushed to you, wrapping his arms around your waist and pressing his lips to yours. “Hey baby,” he smiled. You two hadn’t seen each other in a matter of weeks, both of you too busy with your jobs. You, being one the highest paid lawyers in Monaco, him being an F1 driver.

“Log, calm with Ellie, she just got up!” you called after them, despite Logan already starting to run with her on his back. “She’ll be wired for the whole day!”

“Got it!” he called back, but he didn’t slow down. It didn’t bother you.

“Logan! Bring me back my daughter please?!” Oscar laughed and Logan obliged. As they got closer Logan placed Ellie down and she ran into her dad’s arms, who lifted her up and smiled as bright as he did the day she was born.

“Daddy!” she cheered, holding onto a strand of his hair. “Can we race?” she asked.

You chuckled. “Dad has to talk to Tom about the track first, then we can go race him, Uncle Log, Uncle Zhou, and Uncle Lan, yeah?”

“God, she’s going to be a racer one day,” Logan chuckled.

Oscar shook his head. “Don’t say that.”

You chuckled. “At least now you know how your mom feels.”

He shot you a particularly nasty side-eye after that, but kissed you all the same.

“What the fuck?” Charles stood there stunned. Oscar chuckled, covering Ellie’s ears as she snuggled into her dads neck, completely uninterested in the world around her.

“This is Y/n, my wife,” Oscar introduced.

“Hi Charles, nice to see you again,” you smiled, pulling him in for a hug.

“You two know each other?” Logan asked.

“She’s my lawyer,” Charles explained, stunned. “And you’re married to him?”

You nodded. “4 years and counting.”

“And this is Elizabeth, or ‘Ellie’, our daughter,” Oscar smiled, trying to coax Ellie to wave to Charles. She did, shyly, and his stunned expression broke out into one of joy. Charles loved kids.

“How did I not know this before?” he chuckled.

Oscar shrugged. “No one ever asked.”

୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ

“You have a wife?” Fernando gasped, shocked as everyone else had been that weekend. Charles, ever the gossip, had told Max, who told Checo, who told Carlos, who told Lando (who already knew), who told Alex, who told George, who told Lewis, who told Fernando, who told Lance, who told Esteban, who told Zhou (who already knew), who told Valterri, who told Nico, who told Kevin, who told Yuki, who told Liam, who told Franco.

Oscar nodded. “Yeah I do-”

“You have a kid?!” Alex came up beside them, mouth open. Oscar retrieved his wallet from his trouser pocket and pulled out a polaroid of the three of you at Christmas last year. Decked out in a princess dress, Ellie stood between you and him, both in ‘ugly Christmas t’shirts’. All three of you were smiling like children.

“My wife’s name is Y/n, and my daughter's name is Ellie. Come by Mclaren to meet them,” he offered, then walked ahead to catch up with Lando.

“He’s joking, right?” Alex turned to Fernando.

Fernando chuckled. “You never know with him.”

୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ

He wasn’t kidding. Alex found that out when he finally made the trek over to the McLaren garage and found you, sitting with Logan and Oscar as Lando showed Ellie off to the engineers and other drivers.

“Alex,” he smiled, introducing himself.

“Y/n,” you smiled, shaking his hand.

“I didn’t know you existed,” he chuckled. Pierre, Charles, Lando, Carlos, Fernando, Mark, and Lance were busy playing with Ellie (with both you and Oscar looking at them, you didn’t trust them that much) to pay any attention to you, just how you liked it.

“Not many people did,” you shrugged. “Oscar‘a ashamed of us-“

“Hello? That’s not fair!” Oscar argued, a smile on his lips. “No one asked!”

“We didn’t think we’d have to!” Alex argued back, laughing.

“I wear a wedding ring! I'm wearing my wedding ring!”

“You do wear gloves,” you reminded him.

He rolled his eyes. “I’m done with the two of you.”

“Ellie will just agree with us!” You called after him as he walked over to save his daughter from the eyes of his colleagues.

୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ⋅୨ৎ

navigation for my blog :) (masterlist)

fic-tober masterlist

taglist: @anotherapollokid @theseerbetweenus @simbaaas-stuff @5sospenguinqueen @yootvi

[astromancy-divinare]

Every relationship & marriage you'll ever have is predestined in your natal chart. Don't believe me?

Here are the 7 Upapada Lagnas that accurately describe each of Elizabeth Taylor's 7 marriages from her sidereal natal chart.

Elizabeth Taylor was technically married 8 times but she had 7 husbands. She married actor Richard Burton twice.

The Upapada Lagna is a Vedic astrology technique that reveals details about your future marriage. Your Upapada Lagna can tell you how you'll meet your spouse, what the quality of the marriage will be, whether or not you'll have children together and the longevity of the marriage. This technique is best used in the sidereal natal chart, also known as the D1 natal chart. You must use Whole Sign house system.

To find the first Upapada Lagna in Elizabeth Taylor's D1 natal chart, we locate how many houses away the 12th house lord is from the 12th house. Her 12th house is in Libra. Venus is in the 5th house, so the 12th house lord is 6 houses away. We then count 6 houses from the 12th house lord in the 5th house and end up in Leo in the 10th house.

In Vedic astrology lagna is another word for ascendant, therefore the Upapada Lagna is considered to be the "1st house" of the marriage. We can move the house the Upapada Lagna is in to the 1st house position by selecting it in the 1st House From option above the chart on Astro-Seek.com. The natal chart will then be turned and we'll be able to read this "new chart" to get information regarding her first marriage.

TW: Mention of DV and miscarriage.

1st Upapada Lagna: Leo 10H

First husband: Conrad "Nicky" Hilton Jr. Wedding: May 6, 1950

Neptune is in the Upapada Lagna in Leo: Nicky was a violent alcoholic, which Elizabeth didn't discover until shortly after they got married. The way he portrayed himself beforehand was an illusion. Neptune = addiction & illusion.

Neptune is opposing Sun in the 7th house: The marriage was a disappointment that left Elizabeth feeling disillusioned.

Neptune is opposing Mars in the 7th house: Nicky was very insecure, which made him act aggressively to make up for it.

Malefic planets Sun and Mars are in the 7th house: Divorce indicator.

7th house lord is in the 6th house: Divorce indicator.

5th house lord is in the 12th house: Elizabeth suffered a miscarriage after Nicky kicked her in the stomach. 5th house = children. 12th house = loss.

The house next to the Upapada Lagna shows the longevity of the marriage.

Ketu is in the next house in Virgo: This is a divorce indicator. Ketu is considered to be a malefic planet because it represents detachment.

2nd Upapada Lagna: Pisces 5H

Second husband: Michael Wilding Wedding: February 21, 1952

To find the next Upapada Lagna we count 8 houses away from the first Upapada Lagna and end up in Pisces in the 5th house.

Rahu is in the Upapada Lagna in Pisces: Rahu can represent a spouse from a foreign country. Michael was from England. Having Rahu in the Upapada Lagna is also an indicator of divorce.

Uranus is conjunct Venus in the Upapada Lagna in Pisces: This conjunction can indicate that there was something unusual about the marriage. Michael was 20 years older than her. She was 20 when they got married.

Ketu is in the 7th house: Divorce indicator.

4th house lord is in the 12th house: Divorce indicator.

Cancer is in the 5th house with Jupiter: Elizabeth gave birth to two sons. 5th house = children, Jupiter = male offspring.

5th house lord is in the 8th house: Elizabeth had a cesarean section for both of her pregnancies. 8th house = surgery.

1st house lord is in the 5th house: This marriage was destined to produce children.

The house next to the Upapada Lagna shows the longevity of the marriage.

2nd house lord is in the 12th house: Divorce indicator.

3rd Upapada Lagna: Libra 12H

Third husband: Mike Todd Wedding: February 2, 1957

Moon is in the Upapada Lagna in Libra: This was a happy, loving marriage. Moon is the lord of the 10th house, which means they were both very loyal and dedicated to each other.

8th house lord, Venus, is in the 6th house conjunct Uranus: The 6th house is associated with the loss of marriage because it's 12 houses away from the 7th house. The 8th house is associated with sudden events and death. The 8th house lord is conjunct Uranus in the 6th house, which indicates that the marriage ended suddenly and unexpectedly. The marriage ended when Mike was killed in a plane crash.

Sun, Mars and Mercury are in the 5th house in Aquarius: Elizabeth gave birth to a daughter in this marriage. The 5th house lord is in Capricorn, which indicates that the child born from this marriage would be a girl. Sun and Mars in the 5th house represent Elizabeth's two sons from her previous marriage. The 9th house represents the third child and its lord Mercury is also in the 5th house, representing her daughter from this marriage.

The house next to the Upapada Lagna shows the longevity of the marriage.

2nd house lord is in the 5th house: Mars is the lord of the 2nd house and it's in the 5th house conjunct Mercury. Mars is the significator for accidents and Mercury is the significator for air travel = The marriage ended when Mike was killed in a plane crash.

4th Upapada Lagna: Taurus 7H

Fourth husband: Eddie Fisher Wedding: May 12, 1959

Upapada Lagna lord, Venus, is in the 11th house conjunct Uranus: The 11th house is considered to be the 5th house from the 7th house and therefore can represent affairs. This marriage began as an affair after Elizabeth's third husband died. She and her third husband Mike Todd were friends with Eddie Fisher and his wife Debbie Reynolds (Carrie Fisher's parents, AKA Princess Leia). After Mike died, Eddie comforted Elizabeth and it resulted in them having an affair. Eddie quickly divorced Debbie and married Elizabeth.

Upapada Lagna lord, Venus, is in the 11th house squaring the 7th house co-lord Pluto in the 2nd house: Pluto represents sex, secrets, death and transformation. And the house next to the Upapada Lagna shows the longevity of the marriage, so to have Pluto in that house shows that this marriage began as an affair due to the death of Elizabeth's previous husband, but it also shows that this marriage ended because of an affair Elizabeth had later on with her next husband Richard Burton.

7th house co-lord Ketu is in the 5th house and its dispositor Mercury is in the 10th house: Elizabeth's affair with Eddie Fisher and later her affair with Richard Burton were both VERY public and much talked about.

Ketu is in Virgo in the 5th house: Ketu in the 5th house can indicate adoption and having Mercury or Saturn as the 5th house lord can also indicate adoption. Elizabeth began the process to adopt an orphaned girl from Germany while she was still married to Eddie. She completed the adoption process with her next husband Richard Burton.

5th Upapada Lagna: Sagittarius 2H

Fifth husband: Richard Burton Wedding: March 15, 1964

Upapada Lagna is in Sagittarius: This can indicate a spouse from a foreign country. Richard was from Wales.

Saturn is in Capricorn in the house next to the Upapada Lagna: Saturn can make the couple stay together for a long time when it's in the house next to the Upapada Lagna, especially when it's in the sign it rules. This was Elizabeth's longest marriage. They were married for 10 years and then divorced in 1974 but remarried in 1975 and divorced for the final time in 1976. This Upapada Lagna represents both marriages because Elizabeth wasn't with anyone else in between.

This Upapada Lagna is in Elizabeth's natal 2nd house: This shows that her affair with Richard Burton was the cause for her last marriage with Eddie Fisher ending.

Pluto is in the 7th house in Gemini: This can indicate a powerful and intoxicating romance that is also prone to major transformative highs and lows. Elizabeth had a tumultuous yet passionate relationship with Richard. They had irresistible chemistry with each other. Richard was the second love of her life after Mike Todd who died in a plane crash.

4th house lord is in the 8th house: Divorce indicator.

6th house lord is in the 4th house: Divorce indicator.

6th Upapada Lagna: Cancer 9H

Sixth husband: John Warner Wedding: December 4, 1976

Upapada Lagna lord is in the 4th house: This placement indicates there being a necessity to keep the identity and personality of the marriage and/or spouses private. John Warner was a senator for Virginia at the time and Elizabeth was told to "tone down" her personality and the way she presented herself for the sake of his political career. She was told to get rid of her yacht and Rolls-Royce and to change the way she dressed. She was specifically told to never wear her favorite color purple because it represented royalty and she wasn't supposed to outshine John.

Neptune is in the house next to the Upapada Lagna: Having to fill the role of a senator's supportive wife and hob-knob in Washington D.C. made her incredibly depressed and disillusioned. Elizabeth later said that being a senator's wife turned her into a "drunk and a junkie." Neptune = alcohol/drugs/addiction.

Saturn is in the 7th house in Capricorn: Elizabeth wanted someone to help her get over Richard Burton and she thought she wanted the "normal" life of a farmer's wife (John had a farm) but she soon realized that lifestyle was incredibly restrictive. The marriage felt very Saturnian.

6th house lord is in the Upapada Lagna: This marriage was mostly for the benefit of John's career because Elizabeth brought him a lot more attention and star power. He needed her help in his 1978 bid for Virginia's U.S. Senate seat. Voters clamored to meet her at political rallies.

8th house lord is in the 7th house: Divorce indicator.

2nd house lord is conjunct a malefic planet: Divorce indicator.

7th Upapada Lagna: Aquarius 4H

Seventh husband: Larry Fortensky Wedding: October 6, 1991

Upapada Lagna is in natal 4th house: This was Elizabeth's last marriage, so it's fitting that the Upapada Lagna is in her natal 4th house because the 4th house represents "the end."

Neptune is in the 7th house: Larry was a construction worker that Elizabeth met in rehab. Neptune = addiction.

Malefic planets Sun and Mars are in the Upapada Lagna and are opposing Neptune in the 7th house: Having malefic planets in the Upapada Lagna can create obstacles in the marriage that lead to divorce. Sun and Mars are opposing Neptune in the 7th house = Elizabeth got a divorce because Larry started drinking again and her friends were unimpressed by him.

Saturn is in the 12th house: Elizabeth and Larry met at rehab. The theme of their marriage was trying to stay sober. Saturn = restriction, 12th house = addiction.

Rahu is in the house next to the Upapada Lagna: Divorce indicator.

Uranus conjunct Venus is in the house next to the Upapada Lagna: The differences between Elizabeth and Larry in age, career and life experiences were too vast and too many, which also led them to divorce.

I'm now including a detailed analysis of your Upapada Lagnas in my Future Spouse readings for an additional $5USD!

Future Spouse reading is now $30USD and explains:

If you have placements that promise marriage.

If you have indicators of divorce.

If you have indicators of having more than one marriage.

The characteristics of your future spouse(s) and how/where you'll most likely meet them.

Your most promising Dasha periods for getting married, including the dates when transiting Jupiter and transiting Saturn will aspect the necessary houses and/or planets in your D1 natal chart to activate marriage during a promising Dasha period.

If you would also like to know the approximate year and dates when you'll most likely meet your future spouse(s), it's an additional $15USD.

All of my readings are typed in report format and emailed to you in a PDF file.

DM me if you're interested 💕

[anghraine]

I've been thinking of strong opinions and headcanons I have about some more unimportant matters, and figure I'd just compile them into a grand unified poll of Things That Don't Matter.

I ran out of room on the ones with asterisks!

*More specifically, Darcy is much more like his mother's family in general than like his father in temperament or appearance. Elizabeth is not inventing his physical resemblance to Lady Catherine out of sheer desire to see it; there really is one (if weaker than his resemblance to Lady Anne when she was alive).

**The ANH script says that Leia is around 16; Luke is explicitly stated to be 18. Other materials use different ages, but they're 18 to me.

***Selecting Gil-galad Fingonion in the Silm was a mistake of Christopher Tolkien's and in retrospect, I think it's perfectly clear that JRR Tolkien had settled on Gil-galad Orodrethion. (No slight intended to Christopher, who had a monumental task—it's not surprising that he'd make a few mistakes, and he acknowledged this one.)

****That is, when Elizabeth tells Lady Catherine that she is not 21, she means that she is currently 20 and not yet 21, but at that point she hasn't had her birthday. Darcy has recently turned 28 at that time, but was 27 early in the novel, like Charlotte.

*****By "discovered" I mean that Romulans also experience pon farr, but figured out the solution long before Spock did for obvious Romulan culture reasons. I don't know if this is contradicted by canon I have yet to experience, and I don't care if it is.

[bethanydelleman]

New Year's Resolutions for Jane Austen Characters (mid-novel)

Emma Woodhouse: Find a new man for Harriet Smith No more matchmaking! Admit Knightley (and his brother) were right. Meet Frank Churchill, finally.

George Knightley: Just feeling thankful for everything I have. I don't think my life needs to change.

Mr. Woodhouse: Finally convince Isabella to live at Hartfield instead of with her husband. Poor Isabella!

Harriet Smith: Marry Mr. Elton 💗💗💗 *unable to read tear-stained writing*

John Knightley: Spend more time at home with my beloved wife. Why do people invite us places???

Elinor Dashwood: Find a way to get over the most perfect man I've ever met.

Edward Ferrars: Find an honourable way to get out of the engagement with Lucy (same resolution he's had for three years now)

Robert Ferrars: Build a magnificent cottage

Marianne Dashwood: Marry the most perfect man to grace this earth with his beautiful presence, John Willoughby. Also, read more poetry.

Colonel Brandon: *stares at the paper in despair because he cannot bear to give form to his ambitions which seem already impossible*

Elizabeth Bennet: I don't really think there's anything I need to improve about myself. I'm really a great judge of character.

Fitzwilliam Darcy: Remember that duty comes before ephemeral feelings of affection.

Jane Bennet: Find a way to get over the most perfect man I've ever met.

Charles Bingley: Buy an estate (resolution submitted by Caroline & Louisa)

Caroline Bingley: Encourage Charles to finally buy an estate (not in Hertfordshire), get Charles and Georgiana Darcy engaged, get engaged to Mr. Darcy, attend a party with at least three members of the nobility... (too many goals to record here)

Mrs. Bennet: MARRY OFF AT LEAST ONE OF THESE DARN DAUGHTERS

Anne Elliot: find a way to be less awkward around Captain Wentworth... Prepare myself for Captain Wentworth to marry Louisa... Try to endure Bath with a smile

Captain Wentworth: Get out of the obligation to marry Louisa Musgrove by any fair means. PLEASE GOD I AM BEGGING YOU

Captain Benwick: Mourn Fanny for eternity Marry Louisa Musgrove

Catherine Morland: Henry Tilney 💗💗💗💗 Henry Tilney, Northanger Abbey 💗💗💗💗 Henry Tilney & Mrs. Catherine Tilney 💗💗💗 *doodles ideas for wedding gowns*

Eleanor Tilney: Marry the love of my life (same goal for the past three years)

Henry Tilney: Keep being awesome

Frederick Tilney: Keep being awesome

General Tilney: Have all my children disposed in marriage to wealthy individuals (goal since Frederick turned 21)

Mrs. Allen: Purchase some very fine lace

Fanny Price: marry edmund Be as unnoticed as possible

Edmund Bertram: Marry Miss Crawford

Mary Crawford: Marry Edmund Bertram

Henry Crawford: Promote William Price, marry Fanny Price. Rub my excellent treatment of Fanny in the Bertram's faces.

Tom Bertram: *never wrote anything down, never does his years are always awesome*

Mr. Yates: Finally put on a production of Lovers' Vows third times the charm!

Mrs. Norris: Save more money than last year by furthering economy. Keep Fanny in her place. Become more necessary to the Bertrams.

Lady Bertram: sew a cute little jacket for Pug

Lady Susan: Keep being the best Gaslight Girlboss *kisses paper*

(if Christmas happened within novel, I tried to place the resolutions around it. If not, I made up a time)

[grandmaster-anne]

21 July 2006 Queen Elizabeth II walking onto the Hebridean Princess cruise ship, turning back to call her family members to hurry up. ========== 6 February 2024 Princess Anne during visit to Nottingham West Primary Care Network at Eastwood Primary Care Centre as patron of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists.

[horseshoegirl]

Damn Those Dog Tags - Masterlist

📖 Jake Seresin / Hangman

💛Elizabeth "Liz" Beck

❗️18+ minors DNI. Ageless and blank blogs are blocked without warning.

❗️Reposting of this fic, including designs, line breaks, banners or any graphic materials is strictly forbidden without written consent from me. Be a decent human being and don't steal people's work.

🏷️ slow burn, strong language, troubling family dynamics, death of a parent/sibling, godmother reader, inexperienced/mildly insecure reader, mentions of an abusive relationship, physical violence later on (one scene, maybe two), romance, sexual themes/references (I mean smut!).

🎼 playlist

Summary: Your sister Ridley has passed away, leaving behind her ten-year-old daughter Sadie. The Dagger Squad go out of their way to ensure you and Sadie have people you can count on. Boring Saturday nights turned into game nights, rowdy dinners, and cheering events at Sadie’s soccer games. Any milestone or opportunity they want to be there. But the last to join the group is Hangman. The moment you met Jake Seresin, your heart screamed the cocky pilot was looking for a good time, not a long time. Deciding to keep him at a distance to protect your heart, Sadie has other ideas when she learns he was purposely left out.

A03 | Wattpad

Masterlist:

Part 1 - Be Still

Part 2 - Hello, I love you

Part 3 - Southern Nights

Part 4 - Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress

Part 5 - Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Part 6 - Three Little Birds

Part 7 - Oh What A Night

Part 8 - Drift Away

Part 9 - Hang on, Hang On

Part 10 - Let's Dance

Part 11 - Dream On

Part 12 - Blue Healer

Part 13 - Sons and Daughters

Part 13. 5 - Bradley Bradshaw Oneshot - Way Down we Go

Part 14 - Sex on Fire

Part 15 - Have you ever seen the rain?

Part 16 - In the Blood

Part 17 - Come a little bit closer

Part 18 - Sapling

Part 19 - An Evening I Will Not Forget

Part 20 - Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

Part 21 - My Fair Lady

Part 22 - Jump

Part 23 - Sleep Deprivation

Art Work:

BookCover For DTDT's One-Year Anniversary

Moodboards:

Mood Board For Part Four - By @desert-fern

Mood Board for Part Ten - By @teacupsandtopgun

Main Masterlist for all my works

[misscherrys-world]

༒Here’s hcs no one asked for.

James Patrick March.

Ladies and gentlemen.

Warnings: murder, drugs, blasphemy, nsfw themes.

Sorry if there’s any misspelling or grammatical mistakes I wrote this after midnight.

I will make it a habit to put the song I listen to while writing.

Please kiss his dimples.

He listens to indie rock sometimes. Secretly

He says he hates pets, but you’ll catch him petting a stray cat. American Psycho reference

He went heavy on cocain in early 30s, right before he died.

He likes to fuck religious people before killing them. In a way that mocks god and the Bible. I’m really sorry

He had multiple affairs while he was married to Elizabeth.

Although he thought all these years Elizabeth turned him to the police he still loved her. But when Mrs. Evers admitted it was her he never spoke to her again. For eternity.

James likes age gaps, I think he married Elizabeth when she was 21/22 and he was 30 I guess correct me with accurate numbers if I got it wrong.

Unlike Kai he wouldn’t kill his lover yet alone lay a single finger on her. If she simply did something wrong he will correct her in private. After defending her in any situation of course.

Or simply by punishing her while having intimate time. Light spanking. Nothing more.

If someone did you wrong or got on your bad side, whether you’re his lover or friend, consider that person gone forever.

He cares deeply for his circle and students.

He didn’t miss a single devil’s night.

He likes the sound of screaming late at night while wandering through the hotel’s hallways.

He’s a night owl.

When he was alive he enjoyed car rides at night and did it a lot while hunting for someone to kill.

He loved the ocean but hated the sand.

He knows all the casino games. And a skilled player too.

He knew he was going to hell. And he believed there’s a God who trapped him for eternity in the hotel.

He plays the piano.

He refused to use a smart phone until the Countess told him she would follow him on instagram. Simp

He loves talking shit about other ghosts and judges them all the time.

He was racist until he met Queeny.

He hated Jews too.

[grace-williams-xo]

ALRIGHT. I had time to kill waiting for an appointment so I have dug through countless pages on the Julia Quinn wiki, the Bridgerton wiki and used a ss from Julia’s fb to compile the most comprehensive list of as many characters as possibles birthdays and middle names. No point in keeping it to myself let’s go.

Canon (probably) Bridgerton biographical info:

Middle names

This is the birth name of everyone I could find a middle name for. Scratching at the walls for Julia Quinn to tell us the children’s middle names (though I have headcanons)

Violet Elizabeth Ledger

Simon Arthur Henry Fitzranulph Basset

Katharine Grace Sheffield (Kathani Sharma’s middle name isn’t confirmed anywhere)

Sophia Maria Beckett

Penelope Anne Featherington

Michael Stuart Stirling

Lucy Margaret Catherine Abernathy

Gareth William St. Clair

Birthdates

This is very messy because some idk, some vary between show and book and some are inconsistent everywhere (Colin I’m looking at you)

This is the fb post in question. (Julia Quinn how dare you tell us you have all their birthday’s written down and not tell us ���)

Edmund: 1764–1803 (was 38 at death, meaning his birthday was later in the year than May ish when he died) [EDIT: his tombstone in the show says he died in May]

Violet: 11th April 1766 (Aries)

Anthony: 17th September, 1784

Benedict: July/August, 1786

Colin: 2nd March, 1791 (books) 1792 or 1793 or 1794 (tv) [okay, so, both wiki sites say show Colin’s born 1792 or 1793 and it has broken my brain because he is canonically one year older than Daphne and in a copy of the pilot script I found online Daphne is listed as 18 (which fits with her debut) and him 19 but for him to be 19 in the social season he would’ve had to have just turned 19 (bc start of March birthday) and that would make him also born in 1994 but it is clearly not possible for Violet to birth two children in six months furthermore in s2 Benedict outright says that Colin is 21 which would have made him 20 in s1 and thus born 1792; so Colin was born in 1793 or 1792 or maybe even 1794 or inside a fucking void idk anymore but show Colin’s birthday probably isn’t March]

Daphne: August/September, 1792 (books) 1794 or 1795 (tv) [I think 1794 because she is listed as being 18 in a copy of the pilot script I found online, and she is debuting, so she would’ve been 18 turning 19 born in 1794]

Eloise: April (before 22nd) 1796

Francesca: April (before 22nd) 1797

Gregory: January/February (I think February), 1801

Hyacinth: May/June, 1803 [EDIT: Edmund’s tombstone in the show says he died in May, making Hyacinth’s birthday likely in June imo but I actually have no basis for that guess other than vibes]

Kate: 1793 (books) 1788 (tv)

Sophie: 1794

Penelope: 8th April 1796 (Aries)

Simon: 1784

Phillip: 1794

John: 1792

Michael: 1791

Lucy: 1807

Gareth: March 1797

If you made it this far, good job! If you have any info to add, please do so in the replies/reblogs.

[book--brackets]

Summaries under the cut

The Cat Ate My Gymsuit by Paula Danzinger

Marcy Lewis is bored by school, she knows she's never going to be thin, and she is dead sure she'll never have a date. Life at home isn't great either, since her father bosses her and her mother around. Then along comes Ms. Finney, an English teacher who'll try anything in the classroom and actually treats kids like human beings. Now that she's found a teacher who sees Marcy as more than a name on an attendance sheet, Marcy realizes her life could mean something. When Ms. Finney is suspended, Marcy knows she's got to take a stand. But is this new independence worth the price she'll pay at school and at home?

Magic Shop by Bruce Coville

Russell Crannaker, a rather timid boy who is eager to frighten the school bully on Halloween night, acquires a magic ring and the power to change himself into a hideous monster.

Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright

When Garnet finds a silver thimble in the sand by the river, she is sure it’s magical. But is it magical enough to help her pig, Timmy, win a blue ribbon on Fair Day?

The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart

Fourteen-year-old Quint Verginix is the only remaining son of famous sky-pirate Wind Jackal. He and his father have journeyed to the city of Sanctaphrax – a great floating rock, bound to the ground below by a chain, its inhabitants living with their heads literally in the clouds.

But the city hides a dangerous secret: deep inside the great rock, something horrible lurks. With his father away, Quint may be the only one who can save Sanctaphrax from the dreaded curse of the gloamglozer . . .

School of Fear by Gitty Daneshvari

Everyone is afraid of something...

Madeleine Masterson is deathly afraid of bugs, especially spiders.

Theodore Bartholomew is petrified of dying.

Lulu Punchalower is scared of confined spaces.

Garrison Feldman is terrified of deep water.

With very few options left, the parents of these four twelve year-olds send them to the highly elusive and exclusive School of Fear to help them overcome their phobias. But when their peculiar teacher, Mrs. Wellington, and her unconventional teaching methods turn out to be more frightening than even their fears, the foursome realize that this just may be the scariest summer of their lives.

Pillage by Obert Skye

Upon his mother's death, fifteen-year-old Beck Phillips is sent to live with an eccentric uncle he had never met in a remote manor house, where he learns that his family suffers from a curse that allows him to make plants grow on command and dragon eggs hatch.

The Blackwell Pages by K. L. Armstrong

In Viking times, Norse myths predicted the end of the world, an event called Ragnarok, that only the gods can stop. When this apocalypse happens, the gods must battle the monsters--wolves the size of the sun, serpents that span the seabeds, all bent on destroying the world.

The gods died a long time ago.

Matt Thorsen knows every Norse myth, saga, and god as if it was family history--because it is family history. Most people in the modern-day town of Blackwell, South Dakota, in fact, are direct descendants of either Thor or Loki, including Matt's classmates Fen and Laurie Brekke.

However, knowing the legends and completely believing them are two different things. When the rune readers reveal that Ragnarok is coming and kids--led by Matt--will stand in for the gods in the final battle, he can hardly believe it. Matt, Laurie, and Fen's lives will never be the same as they race to put together an unstoppable team to prevent the end of the world.

The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson

Annika is happy living in the servants' quarters of a house owned by three eccentric professors. She adores Ellie and Sigrid, the cook and housemaid who found her as a baby, abandoned on a church doorstep. In the eleven years since, they have taught her how to bake and clean to perfection. Then one day a glamorous stranger arrives, claiming to be Annika's mother. Annika is no servant, she learns, but an aristocrat whose true home is an ancient castle. But at crumbling Spittal, Annika discovers that all is not as it seems in the lives of her newfound family. . .

The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit

Jerry, Jimmy, and Cathy stumble upon a mysterious castle with a beautiful princess asleep in the garden. The princess is really Mabel, the housekeeper's niece, who is only pretending to be royalty. But when she shows them a secret room filled with treasure where they discover a magical ring, enchantment becomes a reality.

Fairy Oak by Elizabetta Gnone

Fairy Oak is the name of a village that grew up in the shade of a talking oak tree, an imaginary place, lost in the mists of time immemorial, overlooking a stormy sea, next to uplands covered in snow in winter, surrounded by enchanted woods, vast meadows, crystal clear rivers and lakes. A healthy and uncontaminated nature, which dominates and envelops the worlds in which the stories unfold. Within the walls of the old village there lives an equally old community, a mixed bag of funny characters, with the rituals, customs, habits and familiarity of a serene, cheerful, lively people. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent twins Vanilla and Lavender. To save their people, menaced by a cruel enemy, they go on a long journey deep into the labyrinths of their powers. Since the girls are very young, at first lots of things go wrong. Some are frightening. In short, it’s not going to be easy at all! But someone and something will help them.

[mischievouslittlecreature]

Part 21: The Shadow of the Abattoir

Fandom: Peaky Blinders

Pairing: Tommy Shelby x OC

Summary: Lucy sets out to prove her usefulness to the company. 

Word Count: 4,122

Notes: Apologies if the action in this chapter isn't written very well. I always struggle with it and feel like it's one of my weakest points as a writer. Warnings for depictions of blood and violence.

Previous Chapter • Series • Fic • Next Chapter

Chapter 12: Red

Her hands squeezed tightly around the handbag clutched in them, the intricate beading sewn into the cloth digging into her palms. The blonde wig covering her hair itched terribly, and her front was particularly warm from the balled up handkerchiefs she had stuffed into her bra to try to better imitate Elizabeth’s significant bust. Her face felt heavy with makeup.

She came to the door of the flat, hand unsteady as she raised it to adjust the wide-brimmed hat on her head so that it more properly hid the top half of her face. From perhaps a distance she could pass as Elizabeth, but if anyone got a good look at her face, the jig would be up. Pulling open the door, she began to climb the stairs, eyes scanning the numbers on each one until she found the one she was looking for. 

It had occurred to her that some of the neighbors could be in on hiding the Italians out, but Isiah had said their boys hadn’t spotted anything that indicated that.

Hesitating just before she would be within eyeline of the door, she slipped her hand into her handbag, fingers curling tightly around the gun concealed within, cocking it. She tugged Elizabeth’s coat tighter around herself, took a deep, slow breath to steady herself, and knocked twice on the door. 

There was an agonizing moment of nothing. She turned herself half away, as if simply looking idly down the hall, while also tilting her head so the brim of her hat and the blonde locks of the wig hid her face almost entirely from view. 

It was always possible that they had some sort of password system established with Elizabeth, but in that case, she could always just break down the door. It may have been worth it to have had a talk with her, but Lucy had been worried about spooking her and having her either skip town or run to the Italians with a warning that they knew about them. From Clara’s account, it sounded like she was in love with one of them. And people in love did stupid things. 

From the other side of the door, she heard footsteps, and then the sound of a lock clicking. The door opened just a crack, a dark eye peeking out. When the man saw her blonde hair and Elizabeth’s coat, he pushed the door open wider with a smile. 

“Elizabeth, darling, what’re you doing here–?”

She had shifted the handbag subtly at an angle when she’d knocked, and when she pulled the trigger of her revolver, the bottom fabric of the handbag was torn away as the bullet exited, propelling forward and into the Italian’s jaw at an upward angle, blasting through his skull and coming to rest somewhere inside his brain. 

It was an old trick that Grace had taught her; the same one she’d used to put a bullet in Campbell’s leg, all those years ago. 

The arm that the Italian had braced against the door went limp, allowing it to swing open the remainder of the way. His body moved to fall backways into the entryway, but she caught him by the front of the shirt, letting the handbag fall away, revolver still clutched in one hand. She could hear shouting in Italian from deeper into the apartment.

Adjusting her grip on the first guard’s body, she hauled it up and raced forward, using it as a shield as she burst through the entryway.

The apartment opened up into a living room, decorated with a couch and two big armchairs situated around a rectangular table. To her left, there was a kitchen, and to the right, she could see three doors, one ajar and the room inside dark, although she could just make out a toilet in the corner. The other two seemed to lead to what she was assuming were bedrooms. A hallway cut between those and the bathroom, leading to another room tucked deeper into the apartment. 

The second guard was in the living room, half risen out of the armchair he’d been seated in when she came bursting in. She fired at him, but he dove behind the chair, and she missed. Lucy ducked behind the couch, dropping the first guard’s body unceremoniously while her eyes scanned behind her and to the sides, checking the angles where she would be most in danger if an enemy was there. 

She yanked off her hat and wig, to avoid either becoming a nuisance or hindering her ability to see, tossing them to the floor. A few bullets struck the couch and the wall behind her as the second guard fired. There was someone yelling in Italian from the room that the hallway led into. 

“Who is it!?”

Lucy chanced a peek up over the edge of the couch, and almost immediately had to duck down again to avoid being struck with another barrage of bullets. 

“It’s the red-haired bitch! Stay hidden!” the second guard shouted back. Lucy doubted that they realized that she spoke Italian. 

“The Red Demon? Hah!” the other voice–Alessio, she was assuming–cackled. “Luca said not to worry about her.”

Her brows knitted, an idea suddenly forming. It was a gamble, but if they really were underestimating her…

“She killed Lorenzo!”

“Just take care of her!”

“What the fuck do you think I’m trying to do!?”

She grabbed the ankle of the first guard, pulling him a little closer to her, then readjusted her position, bouncing slightly on her legs in preparation. 

This next time she popped up, she lingered a moment longer, dropping down with a theatrical yelp just as the second guard started firing at her again. Reaching out hastily, she dipped her hand in the first guard’s bloodied head, and then spread the hot, red liquid across her throat, chest, and the underside of her jaw. 

She laid down on her back, and made another sound, this time a garling, choking noise. 

“Did you get her?” Alessio called from the other room.

“I-I think so,” the second guard said, and she could hear him slowly rising to his feet, footsteps approaching the couch. Her fingers flexed around her gun, raising her free hand to clutch at her throat, as if pressing on a bullet wound. “Stay there until I say it’s safe.”

He came around the couch, gun held in both hands and pointed outwards, but his confidence that she was actually injured made him slow and unprepared. She didn’t even know if he realized that he hadn’t actually hit her before she squeezed the trigger of her revolver. The bullet tore through one of his eyes and exited through the back of his head, leaving a spray of blood on the floor and wall behind him. She had to roll hastily out of the way when his body began to drop, to avoid it landing on her when he crumpled. 

With a grunt, she pulled herself to her feet, shucking off Elizabeth’s coat, holding her revolver in both hands while she began to move, slow and quiet, towards the hall where Alessio’s voice had sounded. He was calling the second guard’s name, asking if he had actually killed her or not. She slunk along the wall, listening, ready to drop anyone who stepped out of the door that was only slightly ajar. The hall ended at a dead end, the door in the left wall. That gave her an advantage of being able to hug the wall, rather than try coming at the door directly. 

She came to a stop at the edge of the door frame, head cocked and listening. There was the distinct sound of a window sliding open, and then what sounded like rain. 

Had it started raining since she’d come in? She hadn’t noticed.

With a quick movement, she turned the corner, gun raised. Alessio was just raising a leg to climb through it, and as she rushed towards him, she put a bullet in his kneecap. The leg buckled, and he went crashing down with a scream. She managed to grab him by the tie before he could fall out the window, tossing him onto the hard floor, slamming the window slut.

Turning back to him, she cocked her head. He was laying on the floor, clutching at his knee and whimpering. Holstering her gun, she walked towards him slowly until she was standing directly over him, then lowered herself until she was straddling his chest, her knees pinning both of his arms to the floor in case he decided to try anything. 

“I thought you boys were supposed to be good at this kind of thing,” she said. Alessio bared his teeth and cursed at her in Italian. “Luca made such extravagant claims about how superior your organization’s level of security was…but then again, I’m guessing you weren’t exactly the smartest of the family, were you?”

He spat at her, but she jerked her head back calmly. Reaching into her belt, she pulled out the large hunting knife that she’d been carrying with her since the vendetta started, twirling it once between her fingers.

“Tell me where Luca is.”  

He laughed, chest shaking with it. And Lucy could see that, duller than a spoon as he might’ve been, Alessio would not talk. She could do whatever she liked: rip his fingernails out, chop off little bits of him, whip him, or worse…and he wouldn’t say a word.

“You stupid cunt,” he spat at her in Italian. “You’re all going to die.”

Lucy sighed, adjusting the grip on her knife, slowly rising off of him, stepping around so that she was near his head. He kept on laughing. 

“You won’t ever find him, do you hear me? Not ever. He’s going to kill you, and then he’s going to kill your lover, and he’s going to make sure that it hurts–”

She cut him off with one great arc from her knife, bringing it down hard on neck. The huge, freshly sharpened blade cut through flesh, then blood, then bone like butter, and with one quick, slight turn of her wrist, she fully removed Alessio’s head from his shoulders.

For a moment, she stood there, staring down at her handiwork, listening to the drops of blood lingering on the blade of her knife drip down onto the floorboards. With a deep breath, she cleaned it off with her handkerchief, then sheathed it back into her belt. She raised both hands to her forehead, rubbing it with the heels of her palms, head tilting up to stare at the ceiling. 

Fucking hell. 

Could have gone worse. But could have gone better, too. She had really been hoping that Alessio could have led her to Luca. 

With a sniff, she stepped over Alessio’s body, and went back into the other room, first going to the door, which was still half open. A few neighbors were poking their heads out of their apartments to investigate all the commotion.

“Stay in your homes,” she told them. “Don’t speak of this to anyone. By order of the Peaky Blinders.”

That had them all shuffling quickly back into their houses, shutting and locking the doors. Lucy stepped back into the apartment, closing the door and locking it behind her. 

Next she went to the phone, dialing the line for the betting shop, lighting a cigarette while it rang until Skudboat picked up. 

“Skudboat, hi. It’s Lucy.”

“Lucy! Where are you? Tommy’s been getting worried…”

“I’m fine. Tell him I’ll be back soon. Listen, I’m gonna give you an address. I need you to send a clean-up crew.”

“Alright.”

“Got a pen?”

“Yeah.”

She sounded off the address and a few instructions, and then hung up. Rifling through the Italians’ belongings didn’t turn much up that was useful. No matter. The clean-up boys could go through it all more thoroughly later anyway.

She dragged the two guards’ bodies into the bedroom Alessio was in, and scoured the closet until she found a bag big enough for her intentions. 

She moved towards the bodies, and pulled out her hunting knife again. 

∗ ∗ ∗ 

She was just stuffing the last of the things she intended to take with her back to the betting shop into the bag when she heard a creak on the floorboards and looked up, and was met with the wide, horrified eyes of Alessio Changretta’s wife. 

Shit. With everything else, she’d forgotten that the woman always came home by three in the afternoon. 

The woman’s mouth had dropped open, creating a little o, eyes so huge with terror that it was a wonder they didn’t pop out of their skull. Her face was pale as paper, a bag filled with books and knitting supplies still clutched in one hand. For several seconds, she and Lucy just stared at each other. Lucy cocked her head, giving her a look of warning. 

“Don’t run.”  

The woman’s eyes snapped away from where they’d been focused on the bag Lucy had been filling to her face, and she started to shake like a leaf, lips trembling. Lucy gave her a small shake of her head. 

The woman ran from the room.

Lucy let out a frustrated groan, picking up her knife where she’d set it down on the bed. 

They could never just make it easy, could they?

Sudden, yet as inevitable as a clap of thunder chasing a bolt of lightning, she took off after the woman. 

She would not make the same mistake that John did by leaving loose ends. He had let Audrey Changretta live, and look where they were now: in the middle of a war, and all that was left of John was but a memory and ashes scattered in the wind.  

The woman managed to make it almost to the middle of the living room before Lucy caught up to her. And when she did, the woman let out this little sound; not a scream, but a little, terrified cry, and then all noise she could have made was promptly silenced by Lucy’s blade ripping through her throat, blood spurting out all over the expensive gray rug, her cries transformed into nothing but quiet gurgles. 

Lucy held her tight, the hand not holding the hunting knife to her throat wrapping firmly around her waist, holding her until she went limp, the weight of her increasing steadily as she died. Lucy listened to the way her breaths rattled wetly in her chest, body shuttering as it tried in vain to fight against the hands of death closing in around it. 

When the woman was nothing but a cold weight in her arms, Lucy dragged her backwards and into the bedroom they’d just left. 

She finished up what she’d been doing before the woman interrupted her, adding a new, unexpected addition to her bag, and then went into the bathroom to clean the blood and makeup off of her. The cool water felt nice on her face, helping to soothe the shakes that were beginning to shudder through her hands. 

The clean-up crew arrived just as she was drying off her face. She let them in, giving a few instructions before picking up her bag, pulling her peaky cap onto her head, and leaving the apartment. 

It was still raining, big droplets of water beating down onto her and the cobblestones. It pricked at her already frayed nerves, leaving her jittery. Rain reminded her of bad memories. 

Adjusting her grip on the dripping bag, she forced herself forward.

She was almost back to the shop when the rain finally started to ease off. 

Of course it’s done raining after I’m almost home and soaked to the bone, she grumbled internally, shooting a glare up towards the sky. 

“Lucy.”

She jumped at Charlie Strong’s voice. He was walking in the opposite direction as her, probably on his way back to the yard after being up at the shop. 

“Hey, Charlie.”

“We were all wondering where you’d disappeared off to after that big blow up at the meeting.”

She suddenly felt bad for running off with no warning or explanation. “Is Tommy upset?”

“With you? No, just worried. He’s mad as all hell with Linda, though.”

She cringed. “Was it bad?”

“There was a whole lot of yelling between them after you left.”

Guilt twisted in her like a knife. She shouldn’t have left Tommy alone to deal with that all on his own. 

“Is Linda still there?” she asked, quietly. 

“At the shop? Yeah, she’s working with Polly. They’re all closed up for the day already, just counting the takings, I think.”

A small smile pulled at her lips. “Good,” she gave him a small nod. “I’ll see you later?”

“Sure thing, kiddo.”  

With a nod goodbye, she continued on her way towards the shop, pushing wet hair out of her face and fingers flexing around the bag. It was still dripping, and not just with rain water.

She slammed open the doors that led into the shop with a crash, striding in with thunderous footfalls. Polly and Linda were seated at a table, counting out money. Finn was drinking tea by the bar. Arthur was pouring himself a glass of whiskey. They all got quiet when they saw her.

At least they’d already seen all of the patrons for the day. What she was about to do would probably have chased some of them away.

But, well…she did have a point to make. 

Ada was seated at a table that was a straight shot from the door Lucy had entered through, pointing to something on the papers clutched in her hands. Tommy was standing over her, one hand on the table and the other on his hip. His head had snapped up at the sound of Lucy’s entrance, eyes widening when he saw her, soaked with rainwater and holding a large, dripping back in one hand. 

Lucy strode directly to him, and before he or anyone else could say anything, she heaved up the heavy bag and dumped its contents out onto the table in front of him, like a cat proudly presenting its owner with the mouse it had just killed.

The four heads of her victims fell wetly out of the bag, landing on the table with dead, audible thumps. Blank eyes, ajar mouths, and bloodied stumps where she had severed them from their bodies at the neck stared back at them. 

Linda screamed, jumping out of her chair. Ada scrambled away to retch into a nearby wastebasket. Polly stood with a hand clasped over her mouth. Finn had gone a little pale. Arthur was looking at the entire display with a numb, if mildly impressed expression on his face.

Tommy only looked at the heads for a moment, and then his eyes were back on hers, nothing but relief and mild concern in them. Lucy was able to meet his gaze for only a moment before dropping her eyes away, instead shooting a glare of contempt around the office that she fixed pointedly onto Linda for a long moment. 

That’s what I do for this company.

Satisfied that she’d gotten the message across, she turned her gaze away from all of them. Still clutching the empty, blood and rainwater soaked bag in one hand, she rounded and went for the stairs, climbing them hastily and ducking into the bedroom she was sharing with Tommy.

Tossing the bag away into the wastebasket, she groaned quietly to herself, rubbing the heels of her hands into her eyes. She suddenly very badly wanted a cup of tea or a glass of whiskey, but she couldn’t exactly go back downstairs after such a marvelous display.

Her mind was beginning to catch up with the rest of her. And with that, came an intensity to the trembling in her palms and a heavy exhaustion in her bones. It made her both feel like she needed to move about to dispel the shaky energy inside of her, and lie still and rest for a few thousand years.   

“Lucy?”

She jumped when the door was pushed cautiously open, just enough for Tommy to step inside and then close it behind him. He moved to her quickly, hands resting on her arms, looking her up and down, searching for anywhere that she might have been hurt. 

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. I didn’t…I barely even got a scratch. Just a little shaky, now.” A shudder went through her, and his grip on her tightened. “I…” she stuttered, staring at the center of his chest, then forced herself to look up into his face. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have just run off like that…”

“Hey, hey, no, it’s…it’s fine,” he touched her cheek. “I’m just glad you’re alright,” he cracked a small smile, eyes flickering with fond amusement. “I think you made your point down there.”

She let out a shaky laugh. “You think?”

“Mhm. Everyone remembers how terrifying you are.”

She sniffed, and he hugged her. Lucy’s eyes closed in relief at the familiar scent of him surrounding her, his chest warm where her cheek squished against him. Locking her arms around his middle, she hugged him back.

“Terrifying, hm?” she mused, craning her head up to look at him. “Does that include you?”

“Oh, yes,” he drew her in closer with a mischievous, cheeky grin. “You could almost say that I’m scared stiff.”

She almost choked. “That’s…that’s the worst joke you’ve ever made…”

He chuckled and kissed her temple, giving her another squeeze.

“I am sorry,” she added, more seriously after another moment. “Both for going out to deal with Alessio on my own and for leaving you to deal with Linda by yourself. I just…” she trailed off, biting her lip. Tommy raised an eyebrow.

“Wanted to prove that you could do it?” he suggested. 

“Maybe? I don’t know. I keep feeling like I could be doing more to help.”

“You help plenty.”

“Sometimes I feel like I’m a little useless. She wasn’t wrong, after all,” her voice dropped. “I do just end up following you around a lot of the time.”

His brows pinched, expression changing as if the mere suggestion was the most absurd thing he had ever heard. “You’re not useless.”

She shrugged, lowering her eyes. He touched her chin, tilting it up until she was looking in stern blue eyes. 

“You’re not,” he insisted. “I mean it. I don’t know what I’d do without you. And not just ‘cos I love you.” His expression was hard and unwavering. “You’re important to this company.”

She flattened her palm on his chest, rubbing up and down gratefully. “Thank you,” she whispered. He kissed her forehead, and she leaned into him again. “Skudboat and Charlie both said you were worried…”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “I figured Alessio was where you had gone after you didn’t come back right away.”

“You didn’t send Arthur or anyone to come drag me back kicking and screaming?”

“Oh, I thought about it,” she smiled at that, patting his chest affectionately. “But like I said, it was never an issue of me thinking that you couldn’t handle it…” he shrugged, and rested his forehead against hers. “I suppose I just want you with me as much as possible, these days.”

“I’m sorry…”

He rubbed her back, dropping a few kisses onto her shoulder. “It’s alright. You made it back in one piece. That’s all I care about,” he hesitated, and then, in a quieter voice, added, “just…don’t do it again, okay?”

“Okay,” she agreed. He kissed her, not an intensely deep kiss, but not exactly what she would call a chaste peck either. 

“You did really well. Four Italians dead…and one of them a direct relative of Luca’s at that…he isn’t going to be happy. Even though I’m pretty sure you traumatized Linda a little with that stunt you pulled with the bag of heads.”

“Good. She deserved it.”

He chuckled. “You’re terrible.”

“You were thinking the same thing! Besides, I needed to remind everyone here that I haven’t lost my touch.” 

He hid his grin against her neck, lips brushing across the sensitive skin. “Think that you’ve gotten things out of your system, now?”

She raised a disbelieving eyebrow when he pulled back to look at her, smiling roguishly. “Not even a little bit.”

He looked delighted. “You’re unhinged.”

Her hands shifted to rest at the nape of his neck, pulling his face down closer to hers. “You love it.”

“I do,” he concurred, the back of his hand stroking down her cheek before falling to rest on her hip before he dipped his head down to kiss her tenderly. “I really do.”

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[leaky-heart]

so uh can you tell us some facts about your version of Michael Afton?

Yeah sure rhrhr

So he’s the oldest of the Afton siblings, Evan next, Elizabeth last. He used to go along well with his mom, she taught him makeup. She died giving birth to Elizabeth. On the other hand he never really got along with William, he was also jealous that William would prefer Evan to him or Elizabeth. He came out as trans when he was around 12 and that didn’t really go well with Will which basically resulted in Mike having really complicated feeling toward Christianity

He ran away from home on his 18th birthday (so June 11 1984) In 87, he’s 21 ! He dropped out of highschool and so didn’t go to college and instead found a job at an electronic repair shop were he used the skills he learned while helping with the animatronics at the dinner. He doesn’t like talking much, especially with strangers. The one time he was at the register was a disaster cause he was way to blunt with the clients and getting angry at them so now he just always stays at the back for repair stuff. He met his two best friends, Fritz and Annura (oc) through this job tho ! He doesn’t have a lot of friends but he cherishes them. He would rather keep a small circle of close friends rather being friend with everyone. He doesn’t really open much about his past (so before running away) the only person who really knows what happened is Annura

He has a shit sleeping schedule as well cause he draws until late, saying he’s more productive at night, or is woken up by nightmares. He took the habit of turning the tv on when he wakes up and put on whatever soap opera he finds until he falls back asleep.

He’s a goth, his favorite bands are The Cure, Sisters of Mercy and Bauhaus ! He also likes the Stooges cause it was one of his mom’s fav. He likes makeup and goth fashion but generally dresses more casual cause of sensory issues. He did get Jeremy into makeup tho !

He’s supposed to be wearing glasses but doesn’t cause he ressembles William too much when he wears them. He also doesn’t wear contacts cause it makes him sick so perpetually seeing blurry (he’s nearsighted). His hair is graying already so he dies it (thanks to jeremy explaining to him how). He conceals his British accent but it comes back whenever he’s in a bad mood so it’s really easy to tell whenever it’s the case. He loves cat and used to have one named Kit

[american-satan]

It was the middle of the night when little Cailan heard his human mother's screams. He immediately realized what had happened and rushed to her to help her. But the little boy could only watch as his mother was brutally murdered by the hunters who wanted him. They wanted to have the little hybrid for themselves to experiment on and torture him. All they managed to do was torture him with their daggers and take blood samples from him, but then William, Cailan's dad, thwarted their plan and slaughtered them all. But that didn't bring his mother Elizabeth back. He was something very special, a being of darkness and light at the same time. Half human, half vampire slumbered in the poet who was immortal. He would no longer age and would forever look like a man in his mid-20s. Cailan can be seductive, dark and mysterious at the same time. He let others feel it when he didn't like them and sometimes when he felt really bad because of all the memories, it could happen that he slaughtered people as if they were animals in a slaughterhouse. However, his psychopathic streak comes to the fore less and less as he tries to control himself. And since he met Lena, his wife, his world has been turned upside down. She had so much power over him and knew how to calm his inner storms. Lena is his soulmate, his life and she makes him a better man, one who can get through anything. Cailan has been successful all over the world with his band The Relentless for a few years. He is now living his dream as a musician and rock star because it is what he has always wanted. He was heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol for many years, but thanks to Lena he managed to gain more and more distance and slowly come back to his senses.

⛧ Hybrid human-vampire ⛧ Born Dec 26th 1997, 26 years old ⛧ American Satan/Paradise City character ⛧ Bad boy and psychopath ⛧ novelist ⛧ wire: meagainstthedevil ⛧ married to his beautiful wife Laena Indra Kennedy:⠀@vxmpswxn 🦇🥀 with her, he has a little daughter named Nova Chloe Kennedy ⛧

semi active / mdni 21+ / english preffered, german is also okay / open for plotting, but selective / always in character

Lena to Cailan: „Our soul is one, separated by chance of destiny and therefore, destined to find each other to become one heart again, my beloved angel.“

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

⸸ 𝓡𝓸𝓬𝓴'𝓷'𝓡𝓸𝓵𝓵 𝓲𝓼 𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓰𝓸𝓭 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓭𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓵 𝓼𝓱𝓪𝓴𝓮 𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓭𝓼. ⸸

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

THIS WEDNESDAY (October 23) at 7PM, I'll be in DECATUR, GEORGIA, presenting my novel THE BEZZLE at EAGLE EYE BOOKS.

#10yrsago Mercilessly pricking the bubbles of AI, Big Data, machine learning https://spectrum.ieee.org/machinelearning-maestro-michael-jordan-on-the-delusions-of-big-data-and-other-huge-engineering-efforts

#10yrsago American businesses devour themselves to enrich the 1% https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/10/goldman-makes-it-official-that-the-stock-market-is-manipulated-buybacks-drive-valuations.html

#10yrsago WATCH: top Scientologists heaping abuse on apostate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG70fhg0wL4

#5yrsago Griefer terrorizes baby by taking over their Nest babycam…again https://www.siliconvalley.com/2019/10/18/the-voice-from-our-nest-camera-threatened-to-steal-our-baby/

#5yrsago It’s dismayingly easy to make an app that turns a smart-speaker into a password-stealing listening device and sneak it past the manufacturer’s security checks https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/10/alexa-and-google-home-abused-to-eavesdrop-and-phish-passwords/

#5yrsago A shrewd guess about the Haunted Mansion’s mysterious Squeaky Door Ghost https://longforgottenhauntedmansion.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-squeaky-door-ghost.html

#5yrsago Rep Katie Porter: an Elizabeth Warren protege and single mom who destroys bumbling, mediocre rich guys in Congressional hearings https://newrepublic.com/article/155268/house-representative-katie-porter-schools-ben-carson-orea-jamie-dimon

#5yrsago Haunted Mansion/Ikea mashup tee https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/4196890-haunted-mansion-ikea-instructions

#1yrago The internet's original sin https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/21/the-internets-original-sin/

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

[princessanneftw]

Why Princess Anne will be the King’s bedrock of support

The royal world has changed once again – but the industrious Princess Royal will keep the show on the road

By Camilla Tominey for the Daily Telegraph

Over the years, she has tumbled down the line of succession to a lowly 17th place in the Windsor pecking order.

On paper, the Princess Royal may not be the most prominent royal, lagging well behind her nephew Prince Harry and her brother the Duke of York – even though they are no longer “working” royals.

But when it comes to putting in the hours on behalf of the family Firm, few could dispute Princess Anne’s status as one of the King’s most stalwart supporters.

As the 75-year-old monarch on Monday began what Buckingham Palace has described as a “schedule of regular treatments” following his cancer diagnosis, his 73-year-old sister was the first to ride to the royal rescue.

With typical gusto, the grandmother-of-five put her best foot forward to carry out an investiture at Windsor Castle at 11am on Tuesday, before turning her attention to three further royal engagements.

After handing out gongs to the likes of media doyenne Elisabeth Murdoch, conductor Ivor Bolton, tenor Nicky Spence and wheelchair rugby league player James Simpson, the Princess made her way up to the Midlands for yet more pressing of the flesh.

On Tuesday afternoon, she was due to visit Nottingham West Primary Care Network at Eastwood Primary Care Centre in her capacity as patron of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists, as well as popping in on woolmaker GH Hurt and Son.

She then plans to travel the 128 miles back to London to present The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering at the Science Museum.

Although the jobs will have been in the royal diary for months, they reiterate the importance of the Princess’s role as the Royal family’s resident trooper.

Last year, she was once again crowned the hardest-working royal, clocking up an impressive 457 engagements, 32 more than the 425 carried out by the King.

Not that there is any sibling rivalry between the pair. Although they used to “fight like cats and dogs” when they were little, according to Ingrid Seward, the veteran royal author and commentator: “Charles and Anne’s relationship is very good now.

“They have a great mutual respect. Before the prospect of Charles marrying Camilla became a possibility, the late Queen always thought it would be Anne at Charles’s side, acting as a sort of incognito Queen. Elizabeth II always had that vision – that Anne would play a hugely significant supporting role.”

Her bond with the King was plain to see during their mother’s funeral, when the Princess was the only woman to join the solemn march behind the coffin for the procession to Westminster Abbey.

As her brother’s eyes threatened to overflow with tears, his characteristically calm and collected sister looked him straight in the eye with a silent show of support.

In her 2022 book The Palace Papers, the journalist Tina Brown even went so far as to suggest that “there are plenty in palace circles who believe she is the best king we will never have”.

Stalwart, straightforward and surprisingly down to earth (despite being an unapologetic stickler for royal protocol), the Princess’s popularity within the household and beyond has been built on her reputation for getting on with it with little fuss or fanfare.

As Valentine Low explained in his 2022 book, Courtiers: “That was Harry and Meghan’s downfall – there was too much ego. Anne has no ego. She recognises that this is the job, and you just get on with it.”

It is a testament to the Princess’s work ethic that Buckingham Palace has stressed that the King will not need to use counsellors of state – royals authorised to carry out the monarch’s official duties should they be incapacitated or overseas.

Historically, they are the sovereign’s spouse and the next four people in the line of succession who are over the age of 21. Until recently, the King’s were Queen Camilla, Prince William, Prince Harry, Prince Andrew and Princess Beatrice.

Amid concern that Princes Harry and Andrew no longer undertake official royal duties and that the former does not even live in the country, a change was made to the Regency Act of 1937 to include the Princess along with her youngest brother, Prince Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh.

Both will be expected to increase their workload in light of the King’s cancer diagnosis, which has forced him to cancel all forward-facing public engagements to minimise any health risks.

As heir to the throne, the Prince of Wales will also undertake royal engagements on behalf of his father along with the Queen.

Yet with the Princess of Wales also out of action until after Easter after undergoing abdominal surgery, the monarchy has never looked more “slimmed down”.

Naturally Anne was one of the first to identify the potential pitfalls of stripping back the number of “working” royals.

“Well, I think the ‘slimmed-down’ [monarchy] was said in a day when there were a few more people around to make that seem like a justifiable comment,” she said in an interview last year.

When it was put to her that the world changes, she added: “It changes a bit. I mean, it doesn’t sound like a good idea from where I’m standing, I have to say. I’m not quite sure what else, you know, we can do.”

The royal world has changed once again – and as ever, industrious Princess Anne is front and centre of efforts to keep the show on the road.

[justforbooks]

Sir Roger George Moore,

KBE (14 October 1927 – 23 May 2017) was an English actor. He was the third actor to portray fictional secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions/MGM Studios film series, playing the character in seven feature films: Live and Let Die (1973), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), and A View to a Kill (1985). Moore's seven appearances as Bond are the most of any actor in the Eon-produced entries.

On television, Moore played the lead role of Simon Templar, the title character in the British mystery thriller series The Saint (1962–1969). He also had roles in American series, including Beau Maverick on the Western Maverick (1960–1961), in which he replaced James Garner as the lead, and a co-lead, with Tony Curtis, in the action-comedy The Persuaders! (1971–1972). Continuing to act on screen in the decades after his retirement from the Bond franchise, Moore's final appearance was in a pilot for a new Saint series that became a 2017 television film.

Moore was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1991 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003 for services to charity. In 2007, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the film industry. He was made a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 2008.

Moore was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1999 New Year Honours and was promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 2003 Birthday Honours for charitable services, especially UNICEF and latterly Kiwanis International, which had dominated his public life for more than a decade. On being knighted, Moore said that the citation "meant far more to me than if I had got it for acting... I was proud because I received it on behalf of UNICEF as a whole and for all it has achieved over the years".

On 11 October 2007, three days before he turned 80, Moore was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work on television and in film. Attending the ceremony were family, friends, and Richard Kiel, with whom he had acted in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. Moore's star was the 2,350th star installed, and is appropriately located at 7007 Hollywood Boulevard.

On 28 October 2008, the French government appointed Moore a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. On 21 November 2012, Moore was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Hertfordshire for his outstanding contributions to the UK film and television industry for over 50 years, in particular film and television productions in Hertfordshire.

After his death, the Roger Moore Stage was opened at Pinewood Studios at a ceremony held in October 2017 to celebrate his life and work. His wife and family were in attendance along with Bond producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, and guests at the event included Joan Collins, Michael Caine, Stephen Fry, Tim Rice and Stefanie Powers.

In the 2018 film My Dinner with Hervé, Moore was portrayed by actor Mark Umbers.

Moore became a tax exile from the United Kingdom in 1978, originally to Switzerland, and divided his year between his four homes: an apartment in Monte Carlo, a holiday house in the coastal Tuscan town of Castiglione della Pescaia, a chalet in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, and a home in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. Moore became a resident of Monaco, having been appointed a Goodwill Ambassador of Monaco by Prince Albert II for his efforts in internationally promoting and publicising the principality. Moore was scathing of the Russian population in Monaco, saying, "I'm afraid we're overstuffed with Russians. All the restaurant menus are in Russian now."

Moore was vocal in his defence of his tax exile status, saying that in the 1970s, with taxes levied on top earners under the Labour government of James Callaghan, he had been urged by his "accountants, agents, and lawyers" to move abroad because, "At that point we were taxed up to 98% on unearned income, so you would never be able to save enough to ensure that you had any sort of livelihood if you didn't work." Moore said in 2011 that his decision to live abroad was "not about tax. That's a serious part of it. I come back to England often enough not to miss it, to see the changes, to find some of the changes good...I paid my taxes at the time that I was earning a decent income, so I've paid my due".

✔ Roger Moore is contentiously credited with inspiring the Walls Magnum ice cream. In the 1960s, he reportedly said that his one wish would be for a choc ice on a stick. Walls created this product and sent one to Moore. They later launched the Magnum in 1989, which is now the world's top-selling ice cream brand.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?