#Freda Bone

[uwmspeccoll]

Wood Engraving Wednesday

More on Freda Bone

Last week we posted some wood engravings by Freda Bone. We noted then that we could find very little on her life and career, and asked that if anyone had more information to please let us know. Well, one of our followers did indeed turn up a bit more information and passed it on to us (thanks follower!).

It seems that Freda Bone (1905-1991) was actually Scottish and not Irish as we identified in our previous post. She was the eldest child of the noted Scottish Commodore and successful author of nautical fiction Sir David William Bone (1874-1959), who received the Coronation Medal from King George VI in 1937, and was appointed a CBE in 1943. Freda Bone grew up and spent her early adult years in Helensburgh, Scotland, about 33 miles northwest of Glasgow, before leaving for Glasgow to marry John Sprott, also the son of a master mariner.

Bone’s paternal uncle Muirhead Bone was also an artist, and illustrated several of his brother’s novels. Freda Bone also illustrated at least one of her father’s novels, Capstan Bars, originally printed in Glasgow and published in Edinburgh by the Porpoise Press and in London by Faber and Faber in 1931. We don’t hold this book, but our library’s Music Collection holds the first American edition published in New York by Harcourt, Brace in 1932, which we have borrowed for this post (it’s in the Music Collection because it contains a series of essays on sea chanties). We suspect that only the first image presented here is a wood engraving while the rest are woodcuts.

View more posts with work by women wood engravers.

View more Women’s History Month posts.

View more posts with wood engravings!

[illumiera]

welcome back to another edition of Fic Rec Fredas, where I shout out one of the many fabulous fics in this fandom, whether complete or incomplete, ship-focused or not, oneshot or multichapter!

this week, I'm showing some love to:

The Sprouts of Future by @pinessydr

🦋 Rated M | Oneshot | Completed | 4685 words | No pairing | Graphic Depictions of Violence 🦋 summary: Spring is coming to the Reach, beautiful and scary, like the future. What will it be like? Hevnoraak can tell fortunes on grass, blood, and bones, but all he knows for sure is that he must die for the tribe to live. For the sake of his own life, he is ready to go down to the valleys for the first time, to the nords and their dragon bastards. The story of young Hevnoraak, before he became Hevnoraak. A lot about the Reachmen, religion, and love. my rec: if I could, I would rec each and every single one of this author’s works, be they pieces of writing or (beautiful) art, because I truly enjoy how much thought has been put into the sorely neglected dragon priests! though fairly straightforward enemies in-game, Pines fleshes them out into actual characters so well, especially here in a dark yet atmospheric exploration of the inner turmoil of Dibella-worshipping Hevnoraak before he was given the name Hevnoraak.

you can see my past recs here, and remember that my ask box is open for your fic recs, too!

[eliaswoodt]

The Name List

Organized from A-Z (yes I will add more names whenever I find more I like, probably in reblogs)

I currently have 1035 names (and that’s only including the first names. I have a list of last names, too.)

Angel, Atticus, Atlas, Apollo, Ares, Athena, Achilles, Artemis, Adonis, Avery, Aubrey, Aubry, Aceline, Ashlynn, Aislinn, Anjanette, Arthur, Archer, Addison, Arrietty, Amity, Autumn, Alastor, Alastair, Alasdair, Alistair, Alison, Arren, Arin, Astra, Aoife, Adalyn, Adeleine, Astoria, Agnes, Angus, Abigail, Ann, Anne, Ambrose, Adeline, Avarsel, Agatha, Ari, Azariah, Aniyah, Armani, Anastasia, Annabelle, Adah, Adelaide, Avis, Amelia, August, Axel, Adelina, Amir, Amin, Ayala, Arne, Averett, Adil, Astro, Ava, Anti, Ailun, Akemi, Asahi, Akari, Asako, Atsuko, Azumi, Aka, Aren, Akko

Blossom, Bambi, Babs, Bo, Bella, Blair, Bea, Bonnabel, Badeea, Betty, Bailey, Boris, Bee, Bugs, Blaise, Benjamin, Bog, Buford, Beatrice, Bryce, Bryan, Bazil, Brutus, Bellamy, Brigitte, Bailee, Bailey, Bao, Belladona, Belladonna, Bell, Bill, Bishop, Bones, Boneothy, Benno, Behemoth, Barry, Bellynn, Bowie, Bunki

Clover, Canyon, Cleo, Cameron, Celestial, Celestino, Ciro, Camilo, Cain, Charlotte, Clara, Corey, Cin, Charlie, Cassidy, Chiara, Callista, Cisco, Cynthia, Casper Clinton, Celestina, Clement, Christopher, Cornelius, Clifford, Claudius, Carey, Carrie, Coatl, Cyrus, Cyril, Cecil, Caisus, Castiel, Calla, Cosmos, Cherry, Cheryl, Crowley, Crow, Cassius, Cliodna, Clíodhna, Cliona, Conan, Cordelia, Calypso, Cas, Cillian, Chiyo, Chiaki, Chihiro, Calcifer

Danny, Darlene, Dex, Dot, Diana, Daphne, Demeter, Daedalus, Daeddel, Darphel, Dawn, Derrick, Derek, Dravan, Dravid, Drae, Dallas, Dimas, Dominic, Damien, Drew, Delilah, Dakota, Darian, Darius, Darwin, Devan, Darla, Dagmar, Daelyn, Dale, Dae, Dacey, Desmond, Dabria, Daniel, Daniela, Danialla, David, Davis, Donnel, Dennis, Demitrius, Delaney, Daiki, Daiyu

Everest, Emery, Ember, Elliott, Elliot, Earlana, Eliseo, Ezequiel, Emie, Evan, Eloise, Eric, Emmet, Elizabeth, Eugene, Ethan, Eret, Ester, Elias, Eos, Ellis, Edwin, Ebony, Elijah, Eliza, Enzo, Elissa, Edward, Eddalyn, Esther, Eda, Edalyn, Edalynn, Edison, Eddison, Estervan, Emma, Eden, Erfan, Eun-hae, Erytheia, Egan, Errol, Eiichi, Eiji, Eriko, Etsu, Etsuko, Eiichiro, Ezume

Flint, Finn, Fae, Fred, Fritz, Fang, Frankie, Frank, Fermin, Freddie, Freddy, Finley, Freya, Fai, Felix, Freda, Faolan, Frey, Feylynn, Faelynn, Failynn, Felipa, Febby, Febbie, Febie, Feby, Flynn, Fuji, Feiyu, Fukiko, Fumitaka, Fumito, Fuyuko

Griffin, Garnet, Gothi, Gertrude, Gabe, Grant, Giovanni, George, Gage, Gregory, Gabriel, Gabrielle, Guy, Gilbert, Guadalupe, Gerry, Grey, Gray, Gia, Grace, Gracian, Gracis, Gracie, Gretel, Gideon, Griffilow, Ghost, Ghazaleh, Gavin, Gryphon, Griffith, Goliath, Grayson, Greyson

Harmony, Hannah, Harlei, Harlie, Haritha, Haris, Harry, Harlan, Harvey, Hadrian, Harley, Hari, Harlow, Howl, Hank, Harper, Herbert, Humphrey, Hestia, Helios, Hephaestus, Hollis, Hunter, Hero, Henry, Helda, Hajar, Hasta, Hadis, Howard, Howie, Hannan, Haoyu, Hisako, Hachi, Hiroto, Hoshiko, Honoka, Hiroshi, Hiro, Haitao, Hamako, Haruhi, Harue, Hayate, Hide, Hideyo, Hidetaka, Hisaye, Hisayo, Heiji, Higari

Ivy, Ivey, Ivo, Ida, Iris, Ilyssa, Illy, Irene, Iren, Isaiah, Ira, Idelle, Ivan, Illaoi, Isabel, Isabell, Isabelle, Isobell, Isabella, Ismelda, Io, Ismael, Isolt, Icarus, izuru, Isamu, Itona, Ichiro, Ichiko, Ichigo, Isoko, Ishiko, Isaye, Inari, Ikuko, Itsuki, Itsuko, Inosuke

Juniper, Jupiter, Jinx, Jamie, Javier, Josiah, Joan, Jake, Julia, Jamil, Jamila, Jesse, Jessie, Jess, Jasper, Janus, Jordan, Joshua, Julian, Juilliard, Julius, Juliana, Jeremiah, Jace, June, Junebug, Jazzy, Jackson, Jackie, Jackalynn, Jodie, Johnnie, Jan, Jaime, Jason, Jorge, Justin, Justice, John, Jay, Janelle, James, Jennifer, Jillion, Jill, Jana, Jonah, Jaycee, Jaxen, Junpei, Jona, Jun, Jin

Kenneth, Kat, Kas, Kris, Keith, Kingston, Kaeton, Kingsley, Kent, Katherine, Kyle, Knox, Kristen, Kristin, Kristeen, Kylie, Kaylee, Kamila, Kehlani, Kendall, Kerry, Kry, Kenny, Kath, Kathleen, Krow, Kix, Kedrick, Kennon, Klaus, Killian, Korallia, Krank, Kaz, Kaede, Kirara, Katsuhiko, Keisuke, Kanako, Kenji, Kaemon, Kamin, Katsu, Kaki, Kazane, Kazuyuki, Kazushige, Kenta, Kei, Kimi, Kin, Kohako, Koichi, Kota, Koji, Koharu, Kosuke, Kuma, Kumi, Kuniko, Kuniyuki, Kideko, Kazuko

Lullaby, Lotte, Lapin, Lorelei, Loralai, Lorelai, Luna, Lily, Lucy, Lee, Liana, Lola, Lethe, Lance, Laurence, Luther, Luca, Lennon, Logan, Lennox, Ilias, Liu, Lui, Luis, Lefu, Liam, Lyall, Lowell, Luella, Leona, Leonie, Leon, Lev, Lincoln, Lin, Link, Laverna, Lazarus, Lewis, Louis, Louise, Levi, Leslie, Lesley, Leilana

Marley, Marlai, Mei, May, Mae, Marceline, Marshall, Marshalee, Millie, Mallorie, Marcela, Melanie, Maddison, Mary, Mirabel, Marsh, Murphy, Montgomery, Mildred, Memphis, Molly, Maverick, Maurice, Muiris, Morgen, Max, Moses, Marion, Merrill, Monroe, Melanthios, Maxwell, Matias, Melissa, Maëlle, Marlene, Meredith, Maybelle, Margaret, Maeve, Moss, Mara, Maria, Myrtle, Mona, Mark, Markus, Michael, Micheal, Michelle, Mahsa, Minoo, Mehdi, Mohammad, Matin, Morpheus, Marlowe, Monica, Marilia, Magnus, Malachi, Malachy, Maggie, Makoto, Megumi, Mio, Maemo, Maemi, Masa, Masaaki, Masashi, Michi, Midori, Michinori, Momo, Motoko

Natasha, Noelle, Noni, Neville, Nixon, Neda, Natalio, Ned, Nausicaä, Noxis, Nova, Nathen, Newt, Noah, Nash, Nox, Nathara, Nathaira, Nathair, Nyoka, Nagisa, Nathan, Nate, Nik, Nick, Naohiro, Naoko, Nara, Natsu, Naoya, Nishi, Nobuko, Nori

Olindo, Ollie, Oliver, Ophelia, Odysseus, Orion, Osono, Oxen, Onyx, Otto, Ottoline, Otitile, Ottavia, Octavio, Olivia-Marie, Oakley, Omar, Olivia, Oscar, Octavian, Octavia, Oz, Octavius, Otta, Oisin, Orson, Orlos, Osiris, Owen, Odalis, Odell, Ozuru

Penelope, Patton, Paddy, Percy, Paulie, Page, Pazu, Phoebe, Phebe, Prairie, Porter, Parlay, Pally, Piper, Parker, Payton, Phil, Paul, Philip, Pyre, Piers, Phylis, Patricia, Payne, Payneton, Pip

Quinn, Quincy, Quil, Quinley, Quinstin, Quinlan, Quillen, Quavon, Quaylon, Quensley, Qing, Qrow, Quilla, Quianna, Quita, Qiao, Quinella, Queenie, Qaylah, Qailah, Qitarah, Quenby, Qadira, Qudsiyah, Quan, Qian, Quinby, Quella

Roseline, Raul, Rahul, Rafael, Roque, Rogelio, Remmy, Rei, Rey, Ray, Robin, Ro, Reika, Rowen, Rowan, Rose, Rosie, Ralsei, Riley, Remus, Rosalyn, Rosalin, Rosaline, Renata, Ron, Rat, Ratt, Reef, Roxy, River, Reed, Rufus, Robbie, Renee, Rivia, Ross, Rex, Ruth, Rosemary, Rosabe, Rosabee, Rosabell, Rosabelle, Rosabel, Rai, Rain, Rosella, Rosalie, Rhody, Robert, Raelinn, Rebane, Ren, Rollin, Ralph, Roxanne, Rox, Roderick, Reginald, Reggie, Rio, Ryu, Ryo, Ryoji, Rinmaru

Sage, Sam, Syd, Selkie, Storig, Sal, Sirius, Summer, Susie, Scott, Sunni, Sosuke, Sophie, Satsuki, Sheeta, San, Sulley, Sully, Savannah, Sappho, Selene, Shaw, Sean, Seán, Shaun, Sawyer, Sabrina, Sebastian, Shane, Stan, Socks, Snom, Stolas, Spencer, Sammie, Stevie, Samus, Sarff, Sullivan, Seth, Susiebell, Susiebelle, Sadreddin, Shellaine, Sverre, Saoirse, Sylvania, Sanae, Silas, Sumi, Shiori, Shinzu, Sile

Toby, Tobias, Teddy, Ted, Tomas, Thomas, Tomothy, Tyche, Taiga, Tundra, Tracy, Timothy, Troy, Tatum, Tommie, Tommy, Theia, Tae, Trix, Trixy, Thanathos, Tod, Todd, Toddy, Tora, Torie, Theodore, Theo, Theophania, Talos, Thanatos, Teddy, Tomohito, Tazu, Tanjirou, Touya

Ulysses, Urijah, Uriyah, Urina, Ukiah, Ulnar, Ursula, Ulric

Virgil, Vanessa, Vito, Venacio, Vylad, Veronica, Valentina, Violet, Velma, Venus, Verna, Veld, Victoria, Victorie, Vinyl, Vincent, Vasuki, Vex, Valor, Valentine, Valerie, Valeria, Valerius, Vitoria, Vic, Victor, Vik, Vikktor, Viktor, Vick, Vicky, Vicke, Vickie, Vidya

Wynn, Willow, Warren, Wilbur, Wylie, Will, Walle, Whisp, Wade, Wendell, Wendy, Willard, Wes, Wallace, Wilber, Wyatt, Wybie, Wynnie, Wennie, Winnie, Wynnston, Wynston, Wynsten, Wiles

Xenophon, Xuan, Xio, Xori, Xanthos, Xander, Xavier

Yen, Yukio, Yae, Yoko, Yume, Yaeko, Yui, Yuzuki

Zane, Zana, Zion, Zachary, Zach, Zachariah, Zander, Ziana, Zoe, Zula, Zenix, Zenith, Zaharia, Zaria, Zack, Zakaeia, Zara, Zakaria, Zev, Zaira, Zanata

[hazel-of-sodor]

Something Holy This Way Comes

Ch.2 Secrets

Other Stories

Other Chapters

Progress on the restoration of the Glain route was progressing quickly with the extra engines. They had reached a small farming village named Tawel, high on the cliff overlooking the sea. Seagulls lined the cliff edge, crying angrily at Screech's presence. One started hopping towards her. Screech opened an eye to stare at the bird. The gull stopped for a moment, but then hopped forward again while looking the giant in the eye.

Thwack

The seagull's flock turned to watch it sail away towards the ocean.

"Screech!" Mali said admonishingly from the station platform

Screech closed her eye.

 "The skyrat should have known better." She said lazily.

The seagull returned and landed on Screech's snowplow, squawking in indignation.

Screech eyed the bird in irritation.

Mali giggled.

 Screech slowly scooped up a pile of snow with her tendrils. The seagull failed to notice the tendrils moving until it was too late.

ploof

 The seagull's head popped up from the snow angrily. 

Screech rumbled in satisfaction. Miss Morgan exited the old station, stopping to take in the sight.

"I see you're getting along with the locals." She said amused.

Screech flicked a tendril at the seagull who hopped over it with a squawk.

Screech glared.

"Any progress with getting a new engine?" Mali asked, hoping to distract Screech before she gave into the whisper's urging to unmake the bird.

Miss Morgan nodded, "Yes, finally. We're negotiating for an engine from the Western Region. They're supposed to arrive middle of next year."

"So long?" Screech asked without looking away from the gull.

"The engine is being sent for overhaul at Swindon," Morgan explained. "They will come here once overhauled and we'll have a chance to buy them if we're satisfied."

"You know they will try something to sabotage the trial."

Miss Morgan locked eyes with the eldritch giant, "which is why you will be watching over our new engine when they arrive."

A smirk slowly dawned on Mali's face, "They don't know about Screech."

The whisper cackled.

Miss Morgan's grin was predatory, "No they don't. I suspect the only reason they are sending the new engine is to find out what's changed on our railway. Before her arrival, we were struggling to keep the trains running."

"And when they find out about me?"

"That's the best part," Morgan smirked, "they'll never believe it. It doesn't matter if their spy sees you, according to their records you were scrapped."

"Because I was." 

Freda spoke up from the cab, "Normally that would mean you were dead. Not on a distant railway with reality-breaking abilities."

"Technically I am dead."

Gwyn snorted, "You're awfully solid for a ghost." He said, rapping his knuckles on the side of her tender.

Screech looked back, unimpressed. "I was cut into pieces by burning axes before those pieces were melted back into raw metal. The fact death failed to drag me beyond does not mean I am alive."

"I would think that's exactly what it means."

Screech locked gazes with Mali, "Little Thief, every second I must hold back my true form or risk reducing your mind and body to ash in an instant. I am no longer of this world, I am of the beyond. Your very being is unable to withstand the true weight of my presence. If I were to ever slip, you would not die, you would be unmade."

Mali swallowed nervously, "So no startling you then."

"It would be unwise."

The seagull squawked in apparent agreement.

Mali went to speak then hesitated.

"What is it, Little Thief?" Screech rumbled.

"You say you confine yourself to your physical shape..."

"Do you not believe me little one?"

Mali shuddered as her bones rattled from Screech's attention. "If that shape is confined...how large are you actually."

Screech rumbled a laugh, the sound's echoes triggering an avalanche on the nearest mountain. Her eyes burned blue as she ever so slightly relaxed her grip on her form.

"Avon is taking on water while Enid complains about her snowplow fitting awkwardly."

Miss Morgan blinked, nonplussed, "Avon should be at Din by now."

"She is."

The humans were silent for a long moment as they understood what she was saying.

Miss Morgan finally shook her head ruefully, "I suppose that keeping anything from you is a lost cause."

"Only if I know to look." Screech admitted as she shifted slightly, "It's why I didn't recognize Tyto's approach. I can only focus on so much at once, although saying my name will normally get my attention.”

Mali jumped, "Wait does that mean you know..."

"Yes," Screech said bluntly

"Oh." Mali sounded very small.

Screech rolled her eyes, "I am hardly in the habit of spilling others' secrets."

"...Thank you," Mali said quietly.

Miss Morgan raised an eyebrow but didn't comment.

Gwyn looked at Screech thoughtfully, "How far can you reach if you try? say..."

"You had better not be asking one of my engines to spy on my meetings with the Other Railway." Miss Morgan said flatly.

"I don't trust them," Gwyn said seriously. "You know they want us gone. Removing you would accomplish that."

"They're not murderers Gwyn." Morgan frowned at him. 

"Screech existence says otherwise," Freda said quietly. There was an awkward silence.

"She has been in no danger." Screech finally said.

"...you were already watching." Miss Morgan sighed in resignation.

"I was."

"...thank you." 

It was quiet for a moment then Mali tentatively asked, "Any progress on the Argol line?"

"We hope to begin work on restoring the Argol Line in the spring. " Miss Morgan said, stretching, "By then Seren will be able to assist, and the first trains could be running by Autumn. They'll only go as far as the first station, but the sooner the lines open, the sooner it can help pay for its renovation.

"Will we have the engines to serve the line by then?" Freda asked.

Miss Morgan nodded, "I spoke with the North Western Region and the Chester and Holyhead board last night. The North Western is sending us another engine to help restore the old lines to Glain. Once the line is reconnected, the CH&R has promised to help run the trains until we're on our feet.

"Do they know about Screech?" Gwyn asked.

"No." Miss Morgan shook her head, "Tyto and Ceri promised to only tell Eagle. Screech will remain our ace in the hole for as long as we can manage."

[delightindarkness]

Being Fredas, the Bannered Mare was busy and bustling, mead and ale being served in earnest. An Elven voice echoes pleasantly through the stone building as a lute could be heard in accompaniment. Farkas lifted his ale to his lips, the voices around him becoming almost too loud to the wolf just under his skin as an Orc and an Argonian at the table behind him got into it; one having accused the other at cheating in Knuckle Bones.

He cast a frustrated glance in their direction, not having paid much attention to the woman beside him, too busy thinking on the death of his alpha the week before...that was until the Orc was sent flying in their direction by a spell cast from the Argonian.

Moving quickly, Farkas jumped up, using his body to shield the woman that had been sitting next to him. A feral sounding growl ripped from his throat as the full weight of the offending creature pummeled him. Turning on his heel, his hand went to his dagger, ready to fight, but already the two were more focused on one another again.

Realizing he was probably far too close to the woman for comfort, he backed up quickly. "Sorry, I hope I didn't startle you..." He breathed, moving back to his own stool. He would feel that tomorrow probably, but for now, it was simple enough to ignore the slight ache in his back.

@dhampiravidi

[traxanaxanos]

I frequently find myself being deeply fascinated and drawn in by background characters in the media I engage with. There's one centaur woman in a battle shot of the Chronicles of Narnia who I was obsessed with when that movie came out; I think frequently and at length about Freda "Where is mama?" Lord of the Rings and her brother (and her mama for that matter - she got back to her kids!! She did it! What did she experience on that perilous and dire journey to reunite with her children??).

This is the same for Star Trek, of course, my first and ever-lasting media obsession. And I've been trying to figure out what the draw is. I think it's partially that those background characters provide a way to poke at the edges the story creates, to push past the boundaries and explore the world a little more, even if only in flights-of-fancy. And, in addition to that ideal dreaming, the what-ifs?, the presence of the characters in the background makes the universe feel whole, feel inhabited, and feel BIG. Deanna Troi is obviously shaken by Daniel Kwan's death, and we see that. But what is Lieutenant Junior Grade Nara up to in the background? How does she cope with that event - she seems composed when Troi talks to her - sad, but in a professional and distant way. Did she grieve privately? Do Canopians grieve differently? Are Starfleet engineers fairly desensitized to the death of a coworker? Her presence brings up so many questions and widens the field of the universe. Lieutenant Stadi doesn't seem particularly flamboyant, nor is she burdened, frustrated, or apathetic about her psychic powers, which is what we've seen of Betazoids so far between Lwaxanna, Tam, and Deanna. Is she then a more everyday citizen of Betazed? Could she have been the Tuvok to Deanna's Spock? Was she the pilot because she was supposed to interface with Voyager's bio-neural gel packs, and would that mean Starfleet was attempting to militarize a planetary population who largely seem violence-averse (because lets be real, Voyager may be a science ship but starfleet is really a military organization). Did she volunteer for this experimental position? We are never going to get answers but aren't the questions fascinating? Doesn't their unanswerable nature make the world of Star Trek seem that much bigger?

What is Zarabeth doing for the rest of her natural life, alone on a freezing planet, trapped in the past, after her sad strange adventure with the men from the future? What was the tyrant Zor Kahn's rule like? Did Zarabeth take part in her family's rebellion against him, or was her banishment merely vengeful punishment against the very existence of her family? Does she get into cave painting? Before the sun of Sarpeidon went super nova, could you have found a cave amidst the ice with a message she tried to leave for those future men (goodbye, I loved you!), for Zor Kahn (I defy you to the last!), for anyone at all (I was here! I loved! I lived!)? People exist and existed outside the adventures of Kirk, Spock, and Bones, and keep on existing after our heroes depart, the trio don't just leave an uninhabited void behind them when they leave for the next adventure (even though we know that they actually do, since they're the characters the show is about and nothing exists beyond the eye of the camera).

I think one of my issues with a lot of the new Star Trek properties, even when I like them, is that they lean so heavily on nostalgia, on fan-bait and references, but that rarely works for me. I don't care about seeing Spock or Picard again, their stories ended, and even if there's some lose threads, they're fun to pick at in an idle-thought way, not to unravel, and their stories had solid, fulfilling endings. I don't want to see Riker again, especially if it's to show him once again abandoning his Imzadi, to show that his character growth in marrying Deanna, in committing to something and to her specifically, is paper-thin and so easily cast aside. It shrinks his character. And when Riker is always showing up to save the day in Enterprise, in Star Trek: Online, in Resurgence, and in Lower Decks, when we get the fifth or sixth iteration of Spock, it also shrinks the world. It's the Skywalker problem. The galaxy actually isn't as big as it seems, it really only stretches a few feet past the horizon of these handful of characters. There is no Oz, in the end, and behind the curtain is just a writer's room obsessed with characters who already got their endings. There is no one else who exists in the galaxy except for like 4 men and mayyyyybe the women who are their romantic interests. It removes the dreaming edges of the world, and shows the hands of the creators far too much.

I also don't think its hypocritical to say that when the references do work on me its only if it's a background character. I was legitimately so thrilled when Sonya Gomez showed up on Lower Decks! She scratched that itch, that feeling of newness and boundary-pushing and exploration that is what I love about background characters (and I do have to admit she has always been one of my fave background characters). The life we can imagine for her! The adventures she must have had! All the things that led from her being a bumbling ensign to a capable, compassionate captain! The vastness of the Star Trek universe, that it has room for Sonya Gomez and all her off-screen, unseen, imagined stories. Literally, the possibilities for the life of her character between those two episodes of TNG and the one episode of Lower Decks are infinite. That's the kind of reference, the returning character bait that really works for me, that gets me excited for continuing stories in a universe.

All this to say, in complete earnestness, this is why now, more than ever, we need a Greskgrendrek mini-series.

[umbracirrus]

Here is the start of a little oneshot which is based within the same verse as The Perfect Storm, my Balgruuf/Dragonborn OC Elyse fanfic, but can also be seen as standalone - I'm not involving any of the plot elements from that or writing anything which spoils that beyond the fact that the Elyse is a temporary resident of Dragonsreach instead of Breezehome (though she still uses it for storage!).

It's inspired by an in-game conversation in which Irileth gives Balgruuf a telling off.

The sun was beginning its descent in the skies above Whiterun at the time that the doors to the Dragonreach palace creaked open, its aging hinges clearly indicating that they needed tending to sooner rather than later as a figure confidently walked in with shoulders held high with what appeared to be a slight spring in their step.

In the bright oranges of the dimming light, the woman’s steel armour was clearly covered in grime, mud, and blood (whether it was her own blood was a question for another time). She also had a triumphant smile across her face, the blue in her eyes looking as though it were the Sea of Ghosts set ablaze. The look would have been almost terrifying and disconcerting for those who were unfamiliar with the behaviour of the Dragonborn, however, the denizens of Dragonsreach very much were used to her ways and knew not to think much of it.

Of those in the palace, however, it was the Jarl himself who was most pleased to see her return. She had been gone for little over two days, but that in itself felt an awfully long time given how used he was to seeing her dotted about the palace doing this, that, and the other. The reason for her absence was a simple one – a report had come in from a guard who had been assigned to patrol along the road between the Whiterun proper and Rorikstead to keep an eye out for any attempts from either the Stormcloaks or the Imperials to take claim to any land in the hold for their own purposes. Instead of news on the civil war, however, the guard had reported back on a dragon which had been terrorising the hamlet.

Elyse had overheard the report, and within minutes, she had been armoured up and declared that she would handle the dragon. Balgruuf had been planning on asking her whether she would be able to do so, but clearly it would have been redundant if he had done so. So she had left, in the mid-afternoon of the just gone Middas, to defeat the dragon. It was now early evening of Fredas, an awfully quick time to get to complete such a task, leading to the presumption that she had saved time through travelling on horseback.

A quiet humming could be heard as she made her way up the stairs before the throne, skipping every other step. That humming stopped as she found herself before him. “The dragon which has been hassling the residents of Rorikstead is now dead, you will be happy to know,” she grinned as she addressed him, though her attention was quickly diverted upon the sight of the steward. “Proventus, you’re just the person I was wanting to see - do you know when Adrianne and Ulfberth will be back in town? I promised them that I would bring them some dragon bones and scales a few weeks back, but their store was shut.”

Without so much as a chance to acknowledge her initial statement, Proventus had already started responding to her question before he could talk himself.

“I do not know, I am afraid… I may be Adrianne’s father, but she does not tell me of her every coming and going. All that I know is that both she and her husband will be away in Solitude for a time – take of that what you will.”

“Ah. That’s a shame. I’ll keep them stored at Breezehome for now then, and wait for their return.”

Before there could be too much of a distraction, he stood up from his seat as he cleared his throat, she let out an audible gasp which came with the realisation that she had been distracted, and turned her attention back to him. Proventus took this opportunity to back away, and return to looking through some documents which he had put aside earlier.

“It is good to see you safe and well after your task, Elyse. I presume that the dragon was not too difficult to handle, given that you neglected to take even Lydia along with you?”

With a contemplative hum, she brought her hand up to her chin as she thought. “Well, it was definitely one of the easier dragons which I have handled, though I did need some help with taking it down. I must admit that I forgot to even mention it to Lydia and only realised once I was halfway there. Luckily, there were some people on hand who were willing to help,” she explained, tapping her foot in the process. “The town guards helped quite a lot, but the surprising hero of the day was the son of the Frostfruit Inn’s innkeeper – his name is Erik, and he really could hold his own in battle. It’s a shame that he didn’t have the best equipment for handling a dragon, but his heart was really in there – I’d say he might even have the potential to join the ranks of the guard or become a sword for hire if he managed to get the right equipment.”

That was certainly food for thought, though something which he would certainly consider in the near future – a commendation from the Dragonborn was not something to be taken lightly after all. Right now, he was focussed purely on the fact that she was back and had done something of great import for his hold and seemed to be ignoring her own role in it all – after all, had she not been there to take in its soul, the dragon would simply have returned and sought to destroy Rorikstead once more.

“No matter who was involved, you have the gratitude of both myself and Whiterun for keeping the hold safe yet again. I will ensure that you are appropriately compensated as soon as possible.” He then approached her, and placed a hand on her shoulder as he leaned into her ear. “Meet me alone in the kitchens about an hour after sundown. I would like to personally thank you for all that you have done – particularly with defeating that dragon and returning to the city so hastily,” he stated with a smile, before returning to a much more respectable and decorous distance and nodding at her. “Now, why don’t you go and clean yourself up and take a rest – I don’t doubt that dragon slaying is a tiresome task.”

Returning his nod, she let out a surprised “O-Okay, I will,” before taking a deep breath and heading towards the stairs leading to the Dragonsreach private quarters, letting her hair loose from its tightly coiled updo as she did so. The previous confidence which she had been giving off had all but melted away, it clearly having been a façade which she had put on for when she was ‘on duty’ as Dragonborn, as opposed to simply being herself. That… was a feeling which he could greatly relate to, and in a way, he was glad that she was able to start winding down there, in front of him and everyone else present in the main hall of Dragonsreach, as opposed to waiting until she was in privacy to do so.

Now… he simply had to wait until nightfall, and find a way to get Irileth off his back for a few hours.

[angelloverde]

"Mo Soul" Player Playlist 18 April

L.E.D. - Triste Alegre

Jack McDuff - The Vibrator

Shirley Horn - Big city

Freda Payne - Mother Misery's Favourite Child

Analog Players Society - Just A Day

Mark Farina & Sean Hayes - Dream Machine

The Paolo Achenza Trio - Fez Bossa

Down To The Bone - Greedy Fingers

The Soul Motivators - Live A Lil

Rosalia De Souza - Maria Moita

Les Freres Smith - La Marche Des Smith

Urban Dance Squad - Routine

Chris Joss - Tune Down

Mister T. - Funk Around The Sun

Les Gammas - All Of Me

If you really want to enjoy music and help musicians and bands, buy their lp’s or cd’s and don’t download mp3 formats. There is nothing like good quality sound!!!

(Angel Lo Verde / Mo Soul)

[tastatast]

La Marea de Marcos

Però com és possible?

En un local com La Marea de Marcos que, a priori, semblava que tenien un bon producte i que el cuinaven mínimament per a no alterar-lo gaire, ens vam trobar que tots i cada un dels plats tenien un excés de sal i, a més, sal gruixuda per sobre, com si d’en Nusret Gökce es tractés.

Asseguts en un carreró del centre de Jerez de la Frontera vam menjar el següent:

Ensaladilla de gambas:

En un principi, diuen que la prepara la Teresa García, la companya d’en Marcos González, qui porta la gerència des del 2011, quan va prendre el relleu dels seus pares.

Una ensaladilla servida poc freda, amb gamba blanca i unes patates molt bones. Un dels plats estrella de la casa que, per desgràcia, no vam poder gaudir amb el primer impacte de la sal, servida a dojo.

Tomate aliñadao:

Un tomàquet de l’hort que en Marcos té a casa seva, a San José del Valle, a prop de Jerez. Molt ben amanit amb oli i vinagre i, una vegada més, amb una quantitat ingent de sal per sobre.

Camarones cocidos:

Uns camarones servits calents, cuits (no queda clar si escaldats o bullits) i amb molta sal gruixuda per sobre. Ben poc gustosos, va quedar claríssim que la sal no potencia el sabor. 

Bocas de la isla:

Un petit detall que ens va servir en Marcos. Es tracta de les pinces del cranc barrilete (Uca tangeri), molt apreciades a la zona i amb la particularitat que són l’única part comestible del mascle d’aquesta espècie que, a més, pot regenerar diverses vegades. És ben bé com menjar pipes (de gira-sol).

Moro negro a la plancha:

Una meitat de Moro negro (Umbrina ronchus) que ja tenia tallada, feta a la planxa sense cap mena de gràcia. La pell estava cremada i la cua estava crua. I, com ja ens vam imaginar, també amb una muntanya de sal per sobre. Fins i tot l’enciam que van servir per a acompanyar el peix portava sal gruixuda. Increïble.

Per postres, un tocinillo del cielo i una teja de almendra. Va ser el millor de l’àpat; però és clar, tampoc costava gaire que les postres fossin millor que el que havíem menjat.

Un àpat que recordarem durant molt de temps.

[uwmspeccoll]

Wood Engraving Wednesday

FREDA BONE

This week we present wood engravings by Irish painter, illustrator, and wood engraver Freda Bone (1905-1991) from a 1932 edition of early 17th-century playwrights Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher’s play The Maides Tragedy, printed in an edition of 1200 copies by Richard W. Ellis for Cheshire House in New York. Unfortunately, we can find very little about Freda Bone’s life and career, even though she was a much sought after woodcut and wood-engraving illustrator. Still, we are delighted by the energy and symmetry of her compositions. If anyone has more information on Bone, we would appreciate if you would contact us.

View more posts with work by women wood engravers.

View more Women’s History Month posts.

View more posts with wood engravings!

[illumiera]

welcome back to another edition of Fic Rec Fredas, where I shout out one of the many fabulous fics in this fandom, whether complete or incomplete, ship-focused or not, oneshot or multichapter!

this time, I'm showing some love to:

EVER-BOUND: FIRST AND LAST AND ALWAYS by @miraakcultist

🐲 Rated M | Multichapter | Complete | 10358 words | Miraak/LDB (Lorelei) | No Archive Warnings Apply 🐲 summary: Powered by spite and destiny both, the Last Dragonborn breathes life into the bones of the First, unaware of the consequences. my rec: okay, technically I'm being a little sneaky here, because in actuality, I rec the whole series, Continuum — Tales of Dragonfires (there's a very interesting original character indeed in the fourth installment)! this is a well-written look at what might happen in the aftermath of the Dragonborn defying Mora and resurrecting Miraak using Alduin's Shout, and I really enjoyed following along with Miraak and Lorelei as they dealt with the implications of their bond, grew together, and fell in love.

[taylorfennersbookishworld]

The Friday 56: The Bones of the Story

The Friday 56 is a weekly blog meme hosted by Freda’s Voice. How to participate: Grab a book, any book. Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay. Find a snippet, short and sweet. Post it, and link up on Freda’s Voice so everyone knows to visit. This week I’m participating with: The Bones of the Story by Carol Goodman Blurb: The twisty locked-room mystery…

[purple-puffball]

IDs under the cut

[image 1: a digital painting of Vaermina, a humanoid “creature” with a yellow crescent shaped head (spikes pointed up) with two more pairs of spikes under the top most one . They have orange eyes in a V-shape under the top most crescent. They have bird-leg-like arms coming to talon like hands, also yellow). One of the hands is raised menacingly, open as if holding an invisible crystal ball. The other hand is holding a staff, with the top end sculpted to look like a “screaming” snake head. They are wearing green robes with a design of their own face on the chest in a lighter green. They are “wearing” a yellow snake, who is making a similar face to that of the staff, like a boa scarf. /end id]

[image 2: a digital painting where Vaermina’s face is visible but the entire image is shrouded in darkness. There are at least two snakes surrounding them, around their neck. Words are surrounding them, reading, “sparkle off” (above their right horn [our left]), “it’s Fredas” (right of their left horn), and “forget who you are” (on the bottom left, under the snakes). /end id]

[image 3: a digital painting of Vaermina holding the face of one of her dreamers and her staff. Her dreamer is likely an elf due to their sharp ears but other-wise doesn’t have features that might tell us their race. The dreamer has short hair and is wearing a robe or a dress that goes down to their knees. Vaermina is saying to them, “you’ve been such a good dreamer lately. tell me what is your dream blunt rotation?” /end id]

[image 4: a digital painting of Dagoth Ur under covers and on a pillow, sleeping, Only Dagoth Ur’s mask and hands are visible, his hands’ fingers look similar to Vaermina’s and they are gripping the covers, as if pulling them up to his shoulders. His mask is an circle with three pillars coming out from the top of it. On the circle is a face design with three eyes a nose and very defined cheek bones. His mask is expressing discomfort like that of a nightmare, all three “eyes” are shut and he has one eyebrow over both of his regular eyes pointed down on the inside of the face (like that of anger). His third “eye” has “monobrow” over it also pointed down in the center. His mouth is closed and is forming an “M” shape (😖). He is dreaming of Vaermina looking like they’re trying to escape the dream by banging on the boundaries of the dream and yelling at him. Only Vaermina’s upper half is visible and they aren’t holding their staff anymore. They are screaming, “NOOO YOU CANT NAME YOUR FOLLOWERS [‘]DREAMERS[’]. THATS MY THING!!” /end id]

Vaermina nightmare blunt rotation

[jiubilant]

17 and/or 29 for the worldbuilding prompts <3

29. a baffling fashion trend among the youth

4.E. 40

It is not unusual, on the island of Alcaire, for the rain to blow in sideways for a week or more. Two weeks is to be expected. Three, thinks the young clerk squishing up the chateau stairs, is some god’s vendetta against fur coats.

“Excuse me, madam,” he calls to the lady at the stairtop, and holds up the sodden wad of roadkill that had slithered off her shoulders outside. It is, to the best of his knowledge, a sable stole. Or was. “Excuse—ah, pardonnez-moi, madam—”

The lady, a powdery-faced matron whose gown glistens with cabochons, twists in her chaperone’s silk-sleeved arm. She blinks down at him.

Then she laughs. “It’s only mink, poor dear. Keep it.”

The clerk, standing soaked in his thin tabard, squidges his mouth to one side. He slings the stole over one shoulder.

Fredas nights are when the factor, the man who sometimes pays him, throws his soirees. He’s hosting some Colovy merchants tonight, if the clerk remembers right; he opens the drawing-room door to an explosion of clinking cups, laughter, and the sweet strains of someone torturing the spinet. Men in dagged sleeves embroidered with fleurs twirl local women—daughters of Company men, a few wealthy widows—adorned with scrimshaw beads. Someone’s brat runs by with a toy harpoon. The air shimmers with perfume and the deep, fishy smoke of whale-oil lamps.

The clerk slips in minklike, unnoticed. He spots the factor at table, his moustaches glazed with grease, crunching businesslike through a plate of ortolans on toast. On his left, a lady tolerates his hand on her shoulder, shivering when he toys with her necklace of pearls. On his right, a man in a fur-lined houppelande puts his nose in a cup of wine. The clerk arranges his face to look polite and unassuming, then leans between them to murmur the day’s exchange rates in the factor’s ear—

The man with the wine jumps, spilling it. Then he turns to the factor with a laugh. “You employ such sinister sorts.”

“He scares the crows,” the factor says amiably. “Diverting little fellow, too. Je suis ravi—that’s what he says when he introduces himself.” He pats the clerk on the shoulder. “Go on, then, Ravi.”

Polite, the clerk reminds himself. Unassuming. “Monsieur?”

“You’re at a party,” says the factor. “There’s drink. There’s dancing.” He fishes a kerchief from his pocket, shakes it out, and dabs a drib of gristle from his chin with the gold-embroidered corner. “Does Veloth let you dance?”

The clerk tries on a smile. The lady, a long-faced woman in the silliest plumed hat that the clerk has ever seen, stands and curtseys to him.

“You had better ask me,” she says gravely, “now that I am up.”

“Er,” says the clerk, eyeing the hat like a birdwatcher. Its feathers tremble. He half-wonders if it will take flight. “Ah. Yes, um—”

“Um,” the lady agrees with great sobriety, and takes his dripping arm.

She has wobbled him, on wine-sweet nights when the factor is away, through a few giggling steps of a valse. Now the factor is here, watching. The clerk checks that the man is looking, then plays the plouc by stumbling over his partner’s shoes. When the laughter at the factor’s table dies down, he waits for a beat—polite, unassuming—then dares to look the lady in the face.

“I hope,” she says, “he chokes on a bone.”

The clerk raises his eyebrows. He’s holding her at arm’s length, gingerly, like a botellier holding a birdcage; he would like to do otherwise, but he is conscious of his audience. “You’re cross with him.”

“I always am,” says the lady, smiling. “Not least when he treats us like prize puppies.”

The clerk smiles, too. His face is stiff from smiling. “Woof.”

“Arf. Do you like my hat?”

“Is it wise,” says the factor’s clerk, “to do this in front of him—”

“You’re always,” says the factor’s wife, “putting questions to questions.”

The clerk firms his mouth and twirls her. A feather brushes his cheek like a kiss.

“Suppose,” he says under his breath when she’s spun back again, “we run for it.”

“Now?” The lady is breathless from dancing. The lamplight pirouettes in her eyes, in the pearls at her bright throat. “Here?”

“Now,” the clerk agrees, straight-faced. He looks over her shoulder at the factor, who is deep in conversation. “Here.”

She laughs, of course, as usual. Her laugh is like a cool hand on a bruise. “We’d live on stale bread.”

“Mm.”

“I would grow old,” says the lady, and tucks the clerk’s hair behind his pointed ear. “And lose all my teeth. You’d have to chew my food for me.”

“Mm.” The clerk smiles. He can’t help it. “Your stale bread, yes. Though we might indulge in some gruel.”

“You don’t even like my hat—”

The music stops. In the busy hush that follows—the rustling of damasks and soft silks, the polite murmurs as their fellow dancers trade partners—the clerk and the factor’s wife stare at each other.

“All right,” says the lady. Beneath her hat, her face is set and pale. “Now.”

“Yes,” says the clerk. He feels as though the rain has washed something out of him. “Now.”

Neither of them move. They look instead to the factor, placing the last ortolan in his mouth, snapping small bones between his teeth.

[33 worldbuilding prompts]

[mst3kproject]

Caltiki, the Immortal Monster

We've talked about how there are an awful lot of fishman movies.  There are way too many Bigfoot movies.  There are even a surprising number of movies about monsters named Paul, but one thing I swear I never thought would be in two different movies is growing space blobs in the Mexican jungle.  Yet here we, are following up The Flame Barrier with Caltiki, the Immortal Monster. The cast includes Gérard Herter from Secret Agent Super Dragon and Daniele Vargas from Hercules Unchained. Mario Bava insists he didn't direct this but Riccardo Freda says he did, while most film websites blame both of them.

Long, long ago, the Maya were doing math and building pyramids in Mexico when a sudden unknown cataclysm forced them to abandon their cities. In the present (or at least the 60s), a group of scientists have come to the ruins to see if they can solve this mystery.  Two of them venture into a cave, and only one returns, raving about Caltiki, a Mayan goddess.  The rest of the party set out to find out what happened and perhaps rescue the other man, but instead discover a huge carnivorous blob monster!  Most of this beast is destroyed by crashing a gasoline truck into it, but they take a sample back to Mexico City with them for analysis.  Because that's a great idea that won't bite them in the ass at all.

The opening titles of this movie tell us that it is 'based on an ancient Mexican legend'.  I don't know anything about Mexican folklore but I did look through the List of Mayan Gods and Supernatural Beings page on Wikipedia and there are no names there that you can remotely bend into 'Caltiki'.  I'm going to assume this movie has about as much to do with ancient Mexican legends as Village of the Giants has to do with H. G. Wells' Food of the Gods. The same credits also tell us that the dancer we see ripping her own clothes off in some 'native ceremony' was a woman named Gay Pearl. The early 60's was around when the word 'gay' stopped being used to mean anything other than 'homosexual', so I suspect she changed it shortly thereafter.

Although the basic premise of a growing space blob in the jungles of Mexico is strongly reminiscent of The Flame Barrier, in several ways Caltiki, the Immortal Monster takes an opposite approach to telling the story.  One of the things that made The Flame Barrier kind of annoying was how it puttered around in the jungle with character-driven stuff for ages before it even introduced the monster.  Caltiki goes almost entirely in the other direction.  The first thing we see is the aftermath of a monster attack, with the dying archaeologist staggering back to camp.  In the minutes that follow, we watch the rest of the expedition puzzle over what happened to their colleagues, but we have almost no idea of who they are.  Most of the character development has to wait until they get back to Mexico City.

Unfortunately, the characters are really not very interesting people.  Our supposed hero is the dishwater-dull Dr. John Fielding, who is one of those movie science guys whose significant other whines because he would rather look down a microscope than gaze into her eyes.  Fielding promises his wife Ellen that he'll pay more attention to her, and I guess he does because next time we see him he appears to be happy with her and their little daughter, but if I were to call the issue 'minimally addressed' I would be giving it way too much credit.  The other subplot in the movie is about a mixed-race woman named Linda (repeatedly described as a 'half-breed') and her relationship with one of the archaeologists, Max.  Max was a dick to begin with, and when he goes mad with pain after being attacked by the blob monster he only gets worse.  He never seems very interesting or threatening, and since the audience knows there's a blob monster coming, we feel our time is being wasted.  Linda, as the only major character who isn't white, is killed when Max decides she is no longer useful to him.

Another place where Caltiki does exactly what The Flame Barrier didn't, but with far better results, is with the monster itself.  In The Flame Barrier the space blob was immobile and basically just looked like somebody spilled a truckload of petroleum jelly.  The blob of Caltiki, however, truly is the coolest thing in the movie.  It's a pulsating, leathery mass that reproduces by stickily dividing in two, and dissolves people's flesh to leave only their skeletons.  There were worse monsters on Star Trek: the Next Generation nearly thirty years later.  Not only that, but the blobs are active, able to roll around and grow to engulf screaming victims, with a satisfying sense of weight and volume to their movements.  There are also some pretty good gore effects, my favourite of which is a guy who's still breathing despite having had his face dissolved.

The Flame Barrier kept its blob in the distant jungle, where the only people it was menacing were three explorers and a chimp.  We were told about the threat of its exponential growth, but that was fairly abstract.  In Caltiki we still don't get the city-smashing rampage depicted in one of the posters, but just knowing that the city is there and having Fielding's wife and daughter around to be chased by swarms of blobs makes the threat feel far more concrete.

So this movie gets right a lot of things the other Mexican Space Blob movie got wrong, but I wouldn't be reviewing it if it wasn't still a bad movie.  The dull characters and the refusal to deal with their arcs is one big problem.  Another is the poor picture quality.  The lighting is mostly good enough that you can tell where people are and what they're doing, but the film stock itself is not very good, which makes for a loss of detail.  In some of the wide shots you can't tell who's supposed to be talking because it's impossible to see whose mouths are moving.  In another, Fielding consults a book that appears to consist entirely of blank pages.

The dubbing is also not great.  Fielding and his wife have very bland voices, which is a big contributor to them seeming like very bland characters.  The guy voicing Max gnaws on the scenery, sounding like a villain from an old Disney movie.  Fielding's daughter Jenny has the voice of an adult woman trying to talk like a child, and it sounds even worse than the same thing did in Manos: the Hands of Fate.

The script is pretty ham-fisted at times, particularly in the character scenes that tell us things far more often than they show us.  Much of this is the fault of whoever wrote the English dialogue, but there's also the series of ridiculous plot devices that prevent anyone from warning Ellen Fielding that the blob in her basement has begun to grow.  First, Max escapes from the hospital and goes to the house to get help from Linda, and pulls out the phone cord so nobody can turn him in.  One of the scientists, finding no answer on the phone, tries to drive out to the house to talk to Ellen, but gets into a car crash.  The police block the road off while they investigate the wreck, and Fielding runs the road block in his own haste to get home, leading him to be arrested and thrown into jail!  I have to admit, it was pretty funny just watching these contrived events pile up.

As far as having a point to make goes, Caltiki, the Immortal Monster kind of shaves by one in two different places, but never quite gets there.  For starters, there's the idea of archaeology as a treasure hunt.  When the diver first ventures into Caltiki's sacred underground lake, he finds the bottom littered with bones but also with the gold jewelry the sacrificial victims were wearing.  He returns to the surface and does not even mention the skeletons, but brings fistfuls of gold and goes back for more despite the risk of running out of oxygen.  I suppose he is punished for this, as is Max when he tries to retrieve a piece somebody else dropped, since they're both attacked by the blob.  It doesn't really qualify as a thematic thread, though, since the gold is never mentioned again. For the rest of the movie, the characters are motivated by scientific interest in the blob itself.

This leads into what's sort of a second motif, people disregarding the danger posed by the blob.  Fielding has a sample he wants to study (the movie has no idea what kind of scientist he is.  An archaeologist?  A microbiologist?), and upon discovering that radiation makes it grow, he pumps more into it to see what happens.  He and his colleagues are admittedly more cautious about this than the characters  in Reptilicus, but the idea's still there: scientists who think they have everything under control, but don't understand how dangerous what they're working with really is.  Again, this doesn't really go anywhere.  At the end they about-face and insist on destroying every scrap, not even leaving enough for an “... or is it?” ending.

Caltiki, the Immortal Monster comes very close to being so bad it's good.  There's plenty of stuff to laugh at, while the actual monster is threatening and well-executed enough to be entertaining in the way it was intended to be.  If the film-makers had diverted a little of that money into better film stock, I probably would have enjoyed the movie very much.

[frustrated-writer-skyeknight]

Afterstory

Read here

For a moment, can we just talk about how Tony pretty much claimed a home not his as his new boyfriend’s family’s home? This kid is living the thug life lol.

"Thank you for letting us stay here, till the next birthday, Frederick. Oh, and do tell if you're planning on snacking on the humans. I call dibs on the adorable munchkin."

Rudolph placed a hand on his forehead, with Tony hiding behind his shoulder. "Auntie, for the last time; they're friends. Besides, we have that 'no biting humans' rule, right?"

"Wasn't that for before? When we were lying low, right?"

Frederick chuckles, "Regardless, the rule still stands." he says.

"We just made our peace with the mortals," Freda interjects, "no need to start it up again." she says.

After the interesting events that transpired for the last three days, Tony managed to convince his parents to prolong their stay, and  the Sackville-Bagg family got used to their new home and the old couple more or less come to terms that the vampires are not so bad. It took a while and a whole lot convincing (Anna not to do it using her spell, included.) But after a few nights, and with their necks still free from being bitten, they came to a compromise, thanks to Tony; that every Halloween, the family would act out and role play to attract some tourists annually, insinuating that they would be moving statues or vampire actors, similar to the attraction in Disneyland, so that The Bed and the Breakfast could attract more tourists. Tony was already begging his parents to let him take a week off from school to come visit during Halloween for their debut. Rudolph was just glad that the old humans let his family stay without reporting them to any vampire hunter.

Considering they got Rookery thrown into a mental asylum with his claims of vampires are real, it wasn't really a problem. Nevertheless, Frederick and Freda found that they liked their new home.

The Thompsons were more or less accepting the fact that vampires exists at all.

Tony Thompson was more or less psyched about the entire thing. Definitely more.

(Except when Rudolph's relatives tried biting him the first few times. But that was an understandable exception.)

────────────────────────────────────

Rudolph and Tony were now hanging out in the human's room. Apparently, Rudolph hasn't chosen a room for himself yet. While his friend was there, he decided to stay with him. The only change was that they got an actual coffin for Rudolph now. They were exchanging stories... well, the vampire was. Tony's sharing was mostly information, some explained in anecdotes. Half the time, he had to stop in the middle of it to explain some expressions.

"Okay, how about this." Tony starts, nibbling on some chips. He got Rudolph to fly him into the nearest town to buy snacks that this castle was severely lacking. "he looks like one, and she looks like one, but just to confirm, is your father an alpha, and mother, an omega?"

Rudolph frowns, scratching his head. He was only familiar with that term when it came to werewolves, and even he hasn't met an actual one yet. "My parents are vampires; those terms are used on those canine creatures. A counterpart to our patriarch and matriarch term referring to male and female heads of family."

"Ah, no, no. Not that kind of alpha, omega." Tony said, waving his head dismissively. "Hmm, maybe it doesn't really apply to vampires, anyway. I can explain it better if we just have some internet, and I can show you this link that popped out on my Facebook News feed just before coming here..."

Every time Tony says something, Rudolph has a new word to learn. "Facebook?"

"Oh, and this is what we call Facebook." Tony explains, showing the vampire his phone and pointing at an icon. "I can't use it right now because I don't have any data, and this castle doesn't have any internet. Well, yet. I heard mom and dad convincing those old folks to get it installed since tourists would be expecting that in order to post on their timeline. Or Instagram it, which is getting popular these days."

Rudolph nods, "Hmm, interesting technology. But," he frowns, "what is internet? And... 'Instagram'?"

"Heh, we should have one day where I dedicate explaining internet and apps alone." Tony chuckles, "Basically, it's some special features on a this device we call mobile phones."

Rudolph examines the device, "So these days, humans don't use phones for calling?"

"We do, but we also use it for other stuff. Like... Well, just think of it as... a very advance phone. You've seen phones, right?"

Rudolph hums, "A bit... But yours is way different than what I saw before father moved us to the vault, and pretty much just stayed there since. So I never really got to use it since I wasn't human anymore by then." he shrugs.

"Huh, human..." Tony repeats, thoughtful. "you say that... So that means you weren't a vampire from the start. And your parents...?"

Rudolph turns to Tony, "Still my parents. Only ones I've ever known, anyway." He says, "Whoever my parents were, they couldn't keep us. Too poor, or so Gregory remembers. I definitely don't remember, not after being turned anyway, only wondered if I've ever met them at all. Gregory was the only one who really cared for me and Anna, till our parents, the ones now, took us in."

"Oh, I didn't think that... I'm sorry, Rudolph."

However, the vampire just raised a brow at this. "Why do you apologize?"

"Well, it's just that... You're technically all dead, after all." Tony points out, "and it's a shame; somehow... you never got to meet your parents."

Rudolph just shrugs, "Don't know if it even counts as being dead, we still sort of do what the 'alive' does. As for my birth parents, well, no point on dwelling on what I never knew. Older brother was sent to the workhouse at one point. We never saw him again until after he was turned, and had father change us as well so we could be a family with Frederick and Freda Sackville-Bagg. Those were my parents then, and they're still my parents."

"Well, if you say so," Tony manages to smile, "it's kinda cool, that you all look alike even if you aren't related. Well, to your parents, that is."

Rudolph shrugs, "Father says that those turned tend to develop some semblance to the one who turned them." he says.

"So how about your parents then, who turned them?"

"In their case, they were born as vampires." Rudolph told him.

Tony frowns, "Born... As in babies?" he repeats, "I thought vampires don't age. Aren't you guys stuck the way you were when you're turned?"

"How do you explain me being thirteen then?" Rudolph made a look, "of course we age, just differently. Have you seen my aunts and uncles?"

Tony scratched the back of his head, "Yeah, that did raise some questions for me." he admitted. "But how does aging work for you guys? I mean, I really thought vampires were immortal. Timeless."

"We are immortal, in the sense that time means nothing to us." Rudolph waves a dismissive hand, "as for why my aunts and uncles look like who you humans would call the 'elderly' is because of the blood they've consumed. I don't drink blood except for animals', both mother and father haven't had a drop since... well, since they turned us."

Tony raised a brow, "Blood ages you?"

"Not exactly. We choose the form we wish to stay as, which is why I've been thirteen all my immortal life so far. It's a bit like that expression you said the other day, uh, 'Time flies when you're having fun?' Did I say it right?"

Tony nods, "So... you guys don't age when you don't have... fun?"

"No, not that either. But it's like the breeze, sometimes you don't notice it among other more visible things in your surroundings. Especially in our case, nothing special ever happens, as if we're stuck doing the same thing all over again when the next moon rises." Rudolph tells him, "Basically, we can choose not to rush our aging. According to Gregory, mother was in the form of a fifteen year old till she met father." Rudolph says, "But human blood, while a pleasurable nourishment to us, also acts like a drug. Likewise, too much of it weakens the willpower needed to maintain the form of our choice." Tony still looks thoroughly confused. "All right. Think of it this way. You mortals have lifelines, think of the numbers of age a human would miss out on once they're drank, or turned." he explains further, "the 'growing old' part of mortal living transfers to the vampire who drank it's blood. My aunts and uncles can no longer will themselves to maintain a youthful appearance because some of them drank too much human blood. Then again, not so bad a thing; that's why our clan is so big. However, for the same reason, father and mother don't like having human blood as much anymore, Well, aside from the initial plan of maintaining a low profile. They prefer and are contented with their form right now."

Tony nods, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I get it now... I guess." he says.

"Hmm, that reminds me..." Rudolph starts, frowning suddenly. "you're gonna die someday, too, right?"

Tony gapes, staring at his friend. "Wow, this took a bleak turn fast." he says. "But yeah, technically. Still young though, so my lifespan still has some ways to go." he elbows Rudolph. "you're gonna see me hanging around for at least a hundred years, if I'm lucky to live that long."

"Huh, yeah..."

Rudolph suddenly felt apprehensive, something he hasn't felt in a long time. That thing he dealt with when Rookery invaded his old home didn't compare. Even while he was afraid for his family, some small part inside him still knew he wasn't going to lose his family and maybe Tony had something to do with that small part. But the thing with Tony being human, like others, growing old and eventually dying, being buried while vampires wait for their bones to disintegrate to occupy their coffins... It left a cold ache in him.

He didn't want Tony to be reduced to that.

After being turned, Rudolph never knew anyone close to his age. Or sort of his age, in Tony's case. He had Anna, sure, but she was his sister. She was family, like Gregory was, and like the whole Sackville-Bagg clan was. But he never had a friend, a real friend like Tony. Someone who would go through lengths to help him without family ties and responsibility compelling him to. Even when they just met, and even when Tony didn't know exactly what he was getting into by fighting against vampire hunters, he still did. Because Tony had a good heart. Which was one of the things that Rudolph loved about him.

Loved? Rudolph blinks, shaking his head. He blushes, No, like... It's like. Friends like each other after all...

Which was why he was thoroughly annoyed with Anna, who tried stealing his friend with her spell, didn't even let it come naturally. Rudolph may not remember much of his old human life, but he does remember that it wasn't right. Besides, Tony was his not hers... his friend and not hers. And Rudolph knew there was only one way he could keep his friend for a very, very long time.

But Rudolph had a feeling that Tony wouldn't agree to that idea, not just yet. Plus, there were his parents to think about. And while Tony seemed to find vampires cool, it didn't seem like he wanted to be one himself. For one thing, while the blond enjoyed their night excursions, Tony would probably miss going out in daylight freely. He did want to drag him and Anna to swim down the lake earlier in the morning till he remembered that vampires burn in the sun.

So maybe not now, Rudolph thought. But... maybe someday.

Because for some reasons, after meeting Tony, even while he couldn't explain why, Rudolph couldn't imagine spending more than one hundreds without him.

"Hey look, I think the sun's going down." Tony approached the curtains, and opened them. True enough, the sun has finally set. He grins, turning towards Rudolph. "Hey, I just remember the old lady mentioning something about a natural hot spring somewhere up the mountains. Better than the chilly lake those jerks dumped me in last week; how about that swim, huh?"

Rudolph grins, getting on his feet. He walk towards the window and they both pushed it open. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's fly."

"Right on! Oh," Tony pauses, thinking. "how about your sister? She might want to join—woah!"

The blond didn't get to finish his sentence as Rudolph drags him out into the night.

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The weeks of summer seemed like days by how fast they went by, and the next thing Tony knew, it was time to return to America. While he was disappointed that summer was coming to an end, like most boys his age would be, he was especially upset now. After everything he's been through... Everything he and Rudolph's been through, it was hard for Tony to imagine going back to his normal reality.

More to the point, it was hard that he needed to say good bye to Rudolph.

He's never had a friend, not quite like Rudolph, and not just because said guy was a freaking vampire. While he did have some friends back home, no one really understood his obsession with vampires. He didn't understand it himself, to be honest. Most kids his age didn't strongly believe in the supernatural anymore, unless they were conspiracy theorists or the like. But even Tony knew that wasn't it; he was drawn to the concept of vampires. Even his mom said his first word was vampire. (Vam-vam, technically.) And while he would cry easily when anybody tried scaring him when he was a baby, seeing vampire movies just made him laugh, even the not-safe-for-kids type of movies.

He even wished his future soulmate would be a vampire at one point, no matter how his parents kept telling him that they didn't exist.

Speaking of, it was almost his time for that. Although it didn't necessarily happen every single time, but a person would usually end up meeting a soul mate prospect by the age of fourteen, since fourteen was the age people usually started presenting their secondary gender. More often than not, the first prospect doesn't always work out because both individuals weren't mature enough to understand the concept of soul mates, so they break it off by mutual agreement. And just like that, the link is broken, giving the individuals freedom from the bond, and to find the next prospect without ties to the past. But the thing about soul mates is that the first prospect is the most ideal, if it was managed properly the first time.

Nowadays, most people don't end up with their ideal soul mates. Tony knew his parents weren't each others' ideals, after all. But maybe it came with his obsession with the supernatural, but Tony was hoping to get it right the first time. At first, he thought it had been Anna. But when he looks at her, when she wasn't looking back at her or talking to him to use her spell, he didn't really feel connected to her at all, not the way his mom would describe the soul link sensation.

Then again, he wasn't fourteen and has yet to present as a beta, like his parents, or the unlikelihood of being an alpha or omega.

"Tony, dear, hurry." Dottie Thompson calls out to her son, "we need to catch our flight."

Tony waves at her from where he still stood, near the castle's entrance. "Give me another minute, mom!" he turns back to the Sackville-Bagg family, but mostly Rudolph. "So, remember how to log into Skype. Cause that's the only way we're talking till next summer."

"Or Halloween." Rudolph says insistently.

Tony chuckles, "Fingers-crossed." he literally did just that. He saw the confusion on, not only Rudolph's, but the family's faces. "Oh, uh, it means... Something along the lines of 'Hopefully, it happens'."

"Oh, well, in that case," Anna smiles, showing off her perfectly white teeth, "Fingers crossed."

Tony smiles back at her, enchanted for a moment again. Gregory rolls his eyes before purposefully getting between his sister and the mortal, to which Anna made an opposing cry. Undeterred, Rudolph steps forward and holds Tony in an embrace. The first time the vampire did it, the human was too startled by the gesture to react, and maybe a little awkward. But this time, Tony returned the hug, finding that he was already missing the vampire, and he hasn't even left yet.

Rudolph pulled back first, "I'll see you in the skies." he says.

"It's Skype, but pretty close." Tony chuckled before stepping back, practically walking backwards to the car until finally reaching it. He inhales, and turns towards his parents. "Can I please—"

Bob Thompson sighed, expecting. "Your mom and I discussed it, yes, we'll let you off for Halloween IF" he pauses, "you get mostly A's or A+'s on your card before then."

"But that's—" Tony starts before sighing, "Fine." He gets in, and Bob drives off as the first ray of dawn starts showing.

The youngest looks back to the castle, already shrinking as they got farther and farther into the road. He wished to catch one more glance of his friend, but he knew the family already returned into the castle for refuge from the sun.

Soon... Fingers-crossed.