#I'm not sure I'll ever forget it

[privatelivebait]

ACME Autumn day 2, things were a little quieter today so I was able to grab some sillier pictures and a lot more cosplayers. Was wonderful seeing everyone's outfits, art and skits. It's something I look forwards to every year and this weekend didnt disappoint! A lot of different fandoms all having a fun time together (and some VERY confused people from the medical conference happening next door). If you recognise any cosplayers from these photos please do tag them! Lots more photos under the cut and a little special mention at the end.

And now for a little aside, in the far-off time of 2022, I attended ACME Autumn with the Regimental Standard's first public outing. We set it up in a corner and let people take photos of us/it in the background. We often make little bits and pieces to hand out to youths and 40k fans, just as a little silly back and forth to help perhaps make the former not quite so scared of the scary masked men and as a fun little keepsake on top of the costuming talk and banter. That year we made some conscription notices from the Uplifting Primer and told those we gave them to that they were to collect a uniform and report to their nearest commissar upon completion. Little did I suspect that anyone would actually do it.

I am frankly overjoyed to show off a sucessful conscript to the Death Korps of Krieg! He told me how much I had inspired him (I'm still reeling from this) on our first meeting and conversation and how much he enjoyed seeing me in the Warhammer Fest lineup the year after, during which he was halfway done with his costume. He had remembered my advice about the coat and had bought the exact kind I mentioned as being very close to the model, he had made his own mask, helmet, pack, bedroll and grenades. He had even bought an actual surplus entrenching tool (though sadly this was refused entry at the door, sometimes security gets very strict with props). He then floored me mentally by asking me for an autograph. Me. Like I was somebody famous or important. I, surely shocking no-one in the audience, have a very poor opinion of myself. I do not consider myself to be worth much. But clearly my actions had counted. Of course I grabbed a pen and signed the requested item (a frag grenade, how very fitting) and tried very hard to come to terms with the reality of what just happened without seeming like a babbling fool. I have yet to fully internalise it. If somehow you see this, little Krieger, thank you for being you. I am certainly VERY proud of your fantastic work and you should be too. I greatly look forwards to seeing how you progress from meeting to meeting and wish you every success in your endeavours. I see you, your actions count and always will. If someone, somehow knows this lad I would implore you to get the above message to him if possible, because I dont know if I communicated how touched I was in the moment and I would like him to know.

[dootznbootz]

Odypen definitely and equivalently adore each other BUT I weirdly can't see them as the type to actually say "I Love you".

They still definitely vocalize their love for each other but it's more so in "My Joy", and "Extraordinary Woman", "Strange Woman/Man", etc. And very cheesy lines (both say some cheesy shit in the Odyssey, and he definitely does in the Iliad as well. "Joy like a drowning sailor seeing land" bit???)

I could see "I adore you" but even then, that's probably during very specific moments but the actual "I love you"??? I just typed it just now for fic shit and... It weirdly just didn't feel right and I don't know why. 😅

Idk maybe it's kind of because I see them as over the top in ways, they love wordplay and riddles and I think they'd almost think "...That's not good enough >:( " about it??? I don't know???😂

[medicinemane]

Should make a pain killer that actually kills (or even touches) pain

[the-magpie-archives]

so i saw your post about finding a dead body and having had even weirder things happen to you... care to elaborate any?

I do indeed care to elaborate! To start off with, all of this is true, but whether or not you believe it, it's pretty interesting.

So for a long time my friends and I have joked that I'm cursed because wherever I am weird stuff tends to happen. Sometimes this is just normal mundane odd things, weird coincidences or accidental predictions, but sometimes it's worse.

On that particular day I mentioned in my previous post I'd just started season 2 of tma and I made a silly joke about kinning Jon, thought nothing of it! This was back when I was in college so I went in for my classes, everything was fine.

Back then myself and a friend would walk around the city every day after class until around pretty late at night, which in hindsight was quite dangerous but we survived so how bad could it really have been!

Anyways, that day we went into Paddington Station to grab a coffee and upon entering saw a very dead man slumped on a bench. I won't go into detail but it was very clear there was nothing we could do for him. I'm as anti cop as the next person but in that situation there's not much else you can really do, so we found an officer, told him what was going on, and carried on going to get coffee. It sounds dismissive but we really had done everything we could do.

That was one of the most memorable times I've heard the 'Inspector Sans please report' announcement. There was never any investigation or report on the death, the guy looked homeless and like he'd overdosed so that's just not the kind of death that's newsworthy in a big city.

We decided to carry on with our usual daily walk, not really wanting to hang around the station after that. We ended up playing a fun little manifestation game as we walked, in which you basically decide an intention and walk whichever way you feel is right in the hopes of manifesting what you want. We weren't doing it seriously and my friend said we should try to find a celebrity, so I agreed, and we started. Neither of us said it to eachother at the time but we both felt uneasy about it.

We walked through Hyde Park and came out in Knightsbridge where we carried on walking. At this point the unease reached a peak point and we both admitted to eachother that we felt like something terrible was going to happen. Every car stopping and every person shouting felt like it would be the start of something awful, but what could we do except carry on?

We did carry on, for quite a while too. The feeling changed though, and i couldn't for the life of me shake the feeling that we were being watched, being followed, perhaps even compelled. I'm pretty big on spiritual stuff and I've been ghost hunting for years and this energy was NOT one that I liked at all. My friend was dead set on a certain route, down a particular street, and i DESPERATELY wanted to go that way too, but it just felt wrong. I had no reason to want to go that way, there was nothing interesting there!

At that point I stopped and told her I couldn't say why but that we should turn around. She really didn't want to, and i was worried we'd end up outright arguing in the street, but eventually she agreed. The second we turned round and started walking it started to rain. An insistent, heavy shower. It was weird, but that feeling of being watched left almost as soon as we were off that road.

It was around sunset by then, and we grabbed another coffee before splitting off to head home. My friend left to catch a bus, and i went to try and find the station. It had gotten dark, and Google maps said that Green Park Station was only a couple of minutes away, so I headed towards it, but my GPS was screwed up and I ended up taking a weird loop through the park itself and around the outside of The Ritz before I actually got there.

In that maybe 10 minutes of walking around alone, in the dark, even more strange things happened! For a start, in the park I nearly bumped into someone who was loudly chatting to their friend who just happened to be called Basira! I accidentally followed a cop to a little side entrance of the Ritz, and then managed to arrive at the station just in time to witness the aftermath of a bus accident!

Apologies for the long ramble, but that is the full story of that particular dead body, it's one of many adventures of the sort, and is definitely the sort of thing that made tma even more fun to listen to than it already is!

[nicoroni]

@wrenling tagged me to make a poll of my 5 favourite movies so people can vote on which one most matches my vibes.

(Or something like that - tumblr wouldn't let me copy the text.)

I'm tagging @isleofair @birdblacksocialclub @zimithrus1 @lizzlybonk @trolithfoxyflint and anyone else who wants to play

[airenyah]

i just went to the asian store near my flat and for the first time i actually looked at all the drinks instead of walking straight past them to the shelf i actually wanted to go to and...

help

[mooremars]

Generally I think the 2023 Camelot cast recording does a very good job of conveying the onstage vibe of pretty much all the songs with the dialouge snippets. However in my heart of hearts I truly believe the Simple Joys of Maidenhood feels incomplete without the moment of Arthur realizing Guenevere has run away and right to him after she sings her intro. I'm sure I could choose many hills to die on for cast recording opinions but apparently the one I feel the most is a particularly good delivery of the word shit.

[pearly--rose]

Thanks for the tag @angelowl-fics!

Rules: without naming them, post 10 gifs of your favourite TV Shows, then tag people.

tagging whoever wants to do it!

[seaofreverie]

The Me who bought tickets to see TMBG in february 2023 and the Me who's going to actually go to the show next month are two completely different people

[refinedstorage]

Fave bastard gets his own post

Syndicate 2012

[icewindandboringhorror]

A dramatic lighting sunlight window boye

[whelpimnauthuman]

My current Clangen has had at least five murders (and I will not be surprised if we get more). Which is already wild, but then looking at the revelations I've gotten so far and then coming up for motivations is. Just. Wild

Clangen Murder Lore under the cut

I have one guy, Lupinerustle, who's done the majority of the murder (I think it's 2, maybe 3 other cats? Need to check my notes tho) He's charismatic, so finds it easy to laugh off and deflect any accusations (doesn't help that at least one of his "confessions"was a flashback/nightmare overheard by a kit who didn't understand it.) I don't have a motive yet, but at this point whenever there's a murder I'm like "ah, yeah, that was probably him".

One of them was not subtle at all, brought the guy into camp and damned him to the Dark Forest; he was an apprentice about to graduate so I imagine it was right around the assessment. Not entirely sure method or motive, but he ends up killing the apprentice (I think he name was Rapidpaw?). Debating on having Lupinerustle ambushing Rapidpaw, so he doesn't have a chance to fight back, or Rapidpaw fighting for his life.

Either way, the body is brought back to camp, Lupinerustle claims they were attacked and the apprentice ran, abandoning him and dying in the process. "In the end, he wasn't fit to be a warrior."

Second murderer is his mate, Frozenmane. She grew up as kind of the golden child; I imagine her and her sister Icystem having a relationship similar to Dovewing and Ivypool, where Frozenmane was able to get away with almost anything - sneaking out to the Twolegplace and eating their food, going missing for weeks on end, even returning with one of their collars - and still managed to graduate on time, yet Icystem was held back despite doing everything right. To add insult to injury, around the time Icystem graduated, the medicine cats received a prophecy. Frozenmane overheard it and thought it must be talking about her, and her sister wasn't exactly pleased when she went to tell her. "You couldn't even let me have this (my graduation/ceremony), without somehow making yourself special, could you?"

A few moons pass, and Icystem (along with a few other cats) are taken by two legs. Famine strikes, the old deputy dies and is replaced, and Frozenmane... Lives life as normal. She finds a mate, has kits (Icystem, ironically, returns the same moon her kits are born). Her mate dies, her kits grow, and she's just... A common warrior.

And it kills her inside. Wasn't she meant to be special? Hadn't Starclan chosen her? Wasn't she the favorite?

I'm not entirely sure her motive for killing this (seemingly random?) warrior, but I feel like it's related to that; her victim, Toadflood, was everything she wasn't: a relatively laid-back warrior who was just. Enjoying life. Didn't care about being special, or raising in ranks (I think they were actually from outside the Clan originally). They weren't holding themself to such a high standard, and Frozenmane hated it.

The murder just adds on to everything tho. There's that combination of horror and guilt, but also... Lupinerustle has killed at least one cat by now, and can recognize there's something off about her. TL;DR they bond over murder and become mates, honestly probably enabling each other? (Considering, y'know, Lupe is still murdering his Clanmates)

Frozenmane is eventually confronted by Falconheart, a younger warrior (and one of the deputy's current mates), who plans on sharing the revelation with the Clan (preferably after their mate becomes leader, as Antlerstar is on his last life, and Frozenmane is a well-trusted warrior; it's basically the equivalent of Firestar accusing Tigerclaw). Falconheart is hoping to find guilt, remorse, maybe to hear it was an accident, anything to keep from reporting this. Instead, Frozenmane simply replies "So? Plenty of cats - good cats - die or go missing all the time. Why does it matter now?"

After all, Frozenmane was chosen by Starclan, she can't be wrong. Her killing a Clanmate is 100% okay, at least, in her mind.

Final murder is Antlerstar, who's currently on his last life. He's old, and quite honestly seen a lot, being the Clan's first leader (and one of two founders remaining). He's actually lost all but one of his other lives to famine, so has no problem giving for his Clan; however, he's no pushover, having led his Clan to war as well.

He was once a wise and noble leader, but age, as well as the trials of leading a Clan, have made him more feeble and hesitant; he fears leading his Clan astray, causing more loss and pain. He's plagued by nightmares, mistakes and visions from his past. It's not uncommon for him to get lost in a memory, or awake from a nightmare unaware of when or where he is.

His murder of (*checks notes*) was accidental, having lost himself to one such memory. The realization of what he'd done haunts him, and he's mostly confined himself to his den, only being visited by his deputy, Cinderfeather, and his medicine cat, fellow founder and friend, Foxpath.

[medicinemane]

Honestly a lot of the time, it's not even about people having to agree with me, it's about needing to know that they actually heard and listened to what I had to say even if it didn't persuade them

Just... some basic indication that there's enough respect to give a shit about what I said, and also to make sure that they disagree because they actually disagree and not cause they just didn't bother listening

It's all I really ask

[keeps-ache]

microdosing on pinterest by looking at the pictures they send me in the emails and nothing else

[edennill]

Headcanons for Aragorn and Arwen's kids

Eldarion:

So, he's the 100% canonical one... and I haven't got that much to say about him? Probably because he's canon, but...

He's known he'll one day be king since birth and it's always seemed the most natural thing in the world. He wears his heirship like well-worn coat; it's just that obvious a thing for him.

I don't mean he's entitled, by no means. If he lost this surety, he'd be disoriented, but he'd survive. As is, however, he knows he'll be king and it's as much a truth of life for him as grass being green or anything.

He's got this very specific air about him that's been common to all the half-elven boys (of his line at least, if there are more somewhere). It's not really definable, but if you stood him up next to Elladan/Elrohir/Elros/Elrond/even Eärendil at his age, it would have been obvious they're related.

Visually, he mostly takes after Arwen.

Long later, his first child is a daughter and Aragorn manages to get the law changed to allow for Ruling Queens in the future, citing the fact that his straight line of descent from Elros leads through two women who were unfairly passed over for the throne.

Gilraen Larinquë

For some reason I've decided the daughters both have a Sindarin and Quenya name each. Eldarion should also have one more name then, tbh, but I haven't come up with any.

"Gilraen" (S) is self explanatory. "Larinquë" (Q) popped into my head without explanation one day and associated itself very tightly with the character. It's the name of a tree that grew in Númenor ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

She usually goes by Larinquë.

She's got golden hair, which surprised literally everyone, because people of the line of Lúthien are typically dark. Her parents decide she must take after Galadriel, because that's the last person in her family tree to be blonde (actually there's also Eärendil but neither Arwen nor Aragorn ever saw him), but at some point Glorfindel pronounces her a carbon copy of Indis.

No one knows how come. The half-elven are famous for yielding people that look identical to their ancestors, but it's usually Lúthien. Still, Glorfindel should know so they shrug and move on.

Her character doesn't entirely fit in with the rest of the family either. No one knows where she got that certain primness and an exaggerated sense of what is proper, but she is like that.

They don't understand her, but respect her nonetheless.

When it comes to opinions on certain extended relatives, she absolutely loathes Fëanor & Sons in all the tales. She doesn't even think them narratively fascinating, just infuriating.

All of A&A's children are very musical (it took like a dozen generations of descent from Melian for the house of Elros to first produce someone who wasn't), but she's the most accomplished at playing the largest variety of instruments. Like virtuoso-level accomplished.

People are very surprised when after being quite suspicious of "those barbaric peoples in the South" she strikes up a friendship with the daughter of an ambassador.

Look, she knows how to admit she was wrong. That she now knows better. And she's always been too well-behaved to ever be impolite to somebody's face, that too, so turning a new leaf comes easily enough.

In fact the ambassador's daughter becomes her best friend and she visits her homeland with her one day.

And gets engaged to her cousin.

He's a scholar and they end up living in Minas Tirith where he translates things back and forth, sometimes official stuff, but also a lot of art, and dabbles in anthropology.

Eireniel Elrenë

"Eireniel" (S) means "daughter of kings", and tbh it's very appropriate, because there's few people descended from more kings in the world.

If it's formed analogously to "Eirenion"... well, that was a coincidence, thought it's not like Arwen is loath to commemorate her father's one-time best friend.

"Elrenë" (Q) means "memory of elves" and it might be a mothername of foresight actually??

Arwen spends a lot of time telling her children of the house of Finwë. Like, a lot.

But it's not just, or even mostly the legends. So much of it is composed of the stories Galadriel had told her once, of those little moments that never made it into history books, of who was like what in childhood... She doesn't think it should be forgotten.

And songs. Arwen knows a lot of songs that would mostly be scholarly interest at this point. And she teaches them to her kids, but mostly to Eireniel. Eireniel walks around Minas Tirith singing old songs of Doriath and Dorthonion in archaic dialects.

And one day, after Arwen is gone, she will decides to wrote those things up. And she does. It's not a typical history book, but it depicts everyone concerned as actual flesh-and-bone people. It becomes pretty popular for that.

On a different note, she also takes after Arwen and forms another link in the grand tradition of being Lúthien look-alikes.

Ok, it's not that simple actually. She does take after her father significantly and isn't identical to her mother. But when Celeborn first sees her after she goes through puberty, he takes a step back and exclaims "another one!". So the ressemblance is definitely there.

She and Eldarion are very close. Yes, poor Larinquë is the odd one out in this equation.

When it comes to musicality, she may not be as accomplished a player as her sister, but she really lives and breathes and thinks in music.

You know how people in ME are said to sometimes hear echoes of the Ainulindalë in the sea? Well, this is way stronger in Melian's descendants and doesn't only pertain to qater. In Eireniel's generation it's significantly weakend, but it's still there, and it shows.

Eireniel is just slightly weird.

There was this one time she stood in front of the sea somewhere in the coastal regions, and sang, and... things happened. There were people around, and they were intrigued to say the least.

She ends up marrying a son of the Lord of Dol Amroth and moving to the coast. She likes it there.

She has two children, Ëarnil and Eärwen and they're both silver haired. This is possibly even rarer than Larinquë's gold.

Two last completely random headcanons are that she enjoys sparring and has a funny habit of imitating birdcalls, which ability she bargained with a gardener to teach her as a child.

[running-in-the-dark]

tbh I think finding a program that automatically exports all frames from a video sequence was really not good for me. I don't need this! I don't need it! I already take too many screenshots!