#I'm pretty sure it's illegal in this part of England to do that

[bonefall]

Bonefall, what about wild cats? Like servals, ocelots, water cats.ect? How does your worldbuilding effect them? People own them as exotic pets, so it would be possible for them to learn townmew and maybe clanmew as well-

Personally I will be ruling No in my own rewrite. Chimpanzees can't speak no matter how hard we try to force them (the sign language thing is baloney) so why would humans keeping exotic felines allow them to speak Townmew?

It's deeply unethical to both own exotic pets, and to attempt crossing them with domestic counterparts. I won't write legitimacy of that practice into the BFRW by saying those solitary animals are perfectly capable of acquiring and speaking language, and can happily join a Clan

They aren't domestic pets. They are wild animals. They should be in an accredited zoo, well-funded sanctuary, or back in their natural habitat.

They don't naturally have a concept of society, or of language like cats in this area do. If a hybrid joined a Clan, then it's capable of some language, but should be treated as half-man, half-gorilla.

[mariana-oconnor]

The Copper Beeches pt 2

I observed that he sat frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever have accepted such a situation.

Holmes is worried. He really does seem to always worry about women in potentially abusive situations. This is also why the werid Enola Holmes law suit was weird, btw. The argument for that was that Holmes wasn't depicted as caring about women until the later works, which were not out of copyright, yet this was published in 1892. He's literally referencing a theoretical sister here in a way that clearly shows he would be a concerned brother.

"Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER.

I love the tone of this telegram. It's got that 'please' at the beginning, to be polite, but then at the end it's less 'I'm scared' and more exasperation.

"That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the morning."

Alas, the acetones will have to wait. Holmes is both willing to postpone his chemistry, but also concerned that he will need to be his best.

By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the old English capital.

Such a weird little historical note there. London's been the capital city of England since... Idk... around the Normal conquest in 1066? I don't know if there's an exact date. Most people these days wouldn't even know that Winchester used to be an important city, but Watson's just slipping that in there.

Holmes had been buried in the morning papers all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light green of the new foliage.

Another lovely description of the scenery and the weather. Everything's so nice. What a lovely day to prevent a crime. And Holmes taking time to look at the scenery.

"You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there."

Holmes is super optimistic. This entire speech about the country is why Midsomer Murders exists. Lolol. Look at the idyllic countryside, just full of crime and violence.

"But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law."

I feel like that's a little rude of you. I'm pretty sure that even in the countryside people know that murder and theft are illegal.

"I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would cover the facts as far as we know them."

I want to know what these seven explanations are. I really do.

"In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, with no actual ill-treatment from Mr and Mrs Rucastle."

I feel like this is more luck than anything else. The man is very creepy. We have not yet met the wife, but if she is anything like her husbad described her, she too is very creepy.

"I have gathered that they have been married about seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother."

The fact that she's a stepmother doesn't fill me with confidence in this matter. Still not sure Alice isn't buried under the floorboards. Not to malign stepparents, but in stories like this, they're often the bad guys.

"Mrs Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every little want and forestalling it if possible."

This is the most insulting description of a person. She's just nothingness personified. Although this in itself is unsettling. The fact that her husband seems to have such a big personality and she just fades into the background and tries to pre-empt his needs. Eeeh... I'm getting weird vibes. Maybe she's just a naturally retiring and quiet person. But it feels more like a woman who is scared of upsetting her husband. We once again have only the husband's reported word that Alice left because of her.

And sometimes she's just found crying?

Yeeeah. I'm not into this. Nope. Not good.

More than once I have surprised her in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning the capture of mice, little birds, and insects.

Ah, our earlier suspicions about the child are accurate, it seems. This is a serial killer in the making. If this were a modern story he would have killed his older sister by pushing her down the stairs and his parents would be covering it up.

I don't know where the creepy servants come in. Maybe they just don't like the Rucastles because they're serial killers?

"'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should both be extremely obliged.'"

Creeeeepy creepy creepy creepy. Just skin-crawlingly creepy. Don't comment on her appearance, dickhead. This is just a whole pile of weird.

"The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige"

I've looked up beige but I still don't really understand what this means, because yes it did used to refer to a fabric, but the fabric was specifically undyed wool. This fabric is definitely dyed, so... Is it a woollen dress?

"...then Mr Rucastle, walking up and down on the other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary."

So he wants her to dress up pretty and listen to his stand-up routine?

"They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of the glass in my handkerchief."

I'm always so happy when the people who come to Holmes do their own detective work. Like Mr Melas in the last story, getting the information out of poor Paul under the villains' noses. Miss Hunter here is not just accepting what's going on, she's trying to actively decipher it. Alas, her subterfuge is discovered and she is turned into an active participant in whatever game the Rucastles are playing on the man in the street outside.

Interesting that Mrs Rucastle is the one who takes the initiative here. Clearly she's not as silent a partner in this as she appears.

"'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life is worth.'"

Ah good. Animal cruelty and oblique threats to her life. That's what we like to see. 'We essentially starve our dog to make sure he's aggressive' is such a dick move. I can see where little Edward gets his animal cruelty from. A chip off the old block, that one.

This family is just so messed up.

Holmes has connections with loads of people, he must know someone who needs a governess and isn't a complete nightmare of a person.

"The very first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never guess what it was. It was my coil of hair."

Yep, that's Alice's hair. I don't think I remember Alice being buried under the floorboards, but I honestly wouldn't put it past these people.

"There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked."

Oooooh. Alice is locked in the secret wing of the house. How very Bluebeard.

I once saw him carrying a large black linen bag with him through the door.

The mind does automatically go to 'body', doesn't it? I don't think it is a body, but that is what I thought immediately on reading this.

Violet Hunter does pretty much all the leg work in this story. She works out that there's someone behind her, she discovers the forbidden rooms, she sneaks into them. She gets so close to discovering the truth and then...

I turned and ran—ran as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, and straight into the arms of Mr Rucastle, who was waiting outside.

Well... this isn't going to end well.

"'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'—you cannot think how caressing and soothing his manner was—'and what has frightened you, my dear young lady?' "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I was keenly on my guard against him."

Glad to see that she's finally seeing through him and has the sense not to tell him what she saw. Although she probably shouldn't have left the door open.

"'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over that threshold again'—here in an instant the smile hardened into a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a demon—'I'll throw you to the mastiff.'"

Ah, there it is, a direct threat to her life. His illusions of civility are peeled back and he's no longer just creepy, but actively horrible.

I do like Violet Hunter, she's such an active participant in events. She doesn't just present a puzzle and then let Holmes tell her what's up, she sniffs around and tries to work out what's going on. And what's going on is a whole lot of bad news.

I'm not sure why Alice is locked in the forbidden wing of the house, but that really doesn't matter. I didn't think she was in Philadelphia. It might be a story a little similar to Miss Sutherland's. She has an inheritance and if she marries, her father and stepmother will no longer have access to it, so locked in her rooms she must be and a doppelganger brought out to pretend that Alice is still happy and healthy.

A whole house full of horrible people. And that poor dog.

I wonder what happened to Alice's mother.

[arsonaetcuh]

Incorrect Hetalia Quotes part 6/? Romerica/Americano/Roaring 20s Trio edition (very long)

Lithuania: How did you and Romano get together? America: I almost beat him up when he was trying to clean Lithuania: America: It was love at first fight.

Romano: Alfredo is too tall for me to kiss on the lips. What should I do? Prussia: Punch him in the stomach and kiss him when he doubles over in pain. Lithuania: Kick him in the shins  America, sobbing: just ask me to lean down.

Romano: What are you, five? America: Yeah, five heads taller than you! America: I'm so sorry please don't kill me-

America: I think I just figured something out. I got to go. Romano: Aren’t you forgetting something? America: Uhh… *hesitantly kisses Romano's forehead before running out*. Romano: No, bastard! Pay your bill! Damn, who raised you?

America: isn't this wonderful? Romano: Yeah, it's just me, you, and the moon. Lithuania, as the moon: HEY, YOU TWO SHOULD KISS

Lithuania: Hey, Romano, are you free on Friday? Like, around 8pm on Friday? Romano: Si? Lithuania: What about you? America: Yeah, I am. Lithuania: Great! Because I’m not. You two go out without me. Enjoy your date! America: Did he just-

Romano: WHICH ONE OF YOU BASTARDS TOUTCHA MY SPAGHETTI?? I AM GOING TO KI- America: *raises hand* Romano: -iss you and bring you some more spaghetti. Do you want cheese on top?

America: YOU’RE UNDER ARREST FOR ROBBERY Romano: WAIT NO BUT WHAT DID I STEAL? America: My heart.

America: *whispers in Romano's ear* This place is pretty dangerous, want me to hold your hand... just in case? Romano: *rolls his eyes playfully and grabs America's hand, intertwining their fingers together* Lithuania: …We’re at the mall, what is wrong with you two???

Romano: Your smile? It makes my day. America: Your happiness? I live for that. Lithuania: A room? Just get one.

America: Oh c’mon, I didn’t drink that much last night! Lithuania: You were flirting with Romano. America: So what? He's my boyfriend. Lithuania: You asked if he was single…  Lithuania: And then cried when he said he wasn't

America: Oh c’mon, I didn’t drink that much last night! Lithuania: You were flirting with Romano. America: So what? He's my boyfriend. Lithuania: You asked if he was single…  Lithuania: And then cried when he said he wasn't

England: If you wanna marry America, you're gonna have to ask for my blessing.

Romano: Ok. May I have your-

Netherlands: And mine.

Romano: What?

France: And mine.

Romano:

Spain: And mine

Romano: You're supposed to be my dad!

Norway: And my blessing.

Sweden: And mine

Finland: And mine

Romano:

Denmark: Don't forget mine!

Canada: And mine!

Romano: *nervous sweating*

Lithuania: Alfred F. Jones, do you take Giacomo Vargas as your lawfully wedded husband? America: I Scooby-Dooby-Doo. Romano: I want a divorce.

America: Be the bigger person. Romano: No! I’m 170cm and bitter. You be the bigger person.

America, singing: This woman is my destiny. She said; Nyo!Romano, singing: Ooo oo oo ooh, shut up- Nyo!Romano, normal voice: Just shut up!

America: Making my way downtown. America: Walking fast. America: America: Walking slower to match my pace with Romano's because he's short.

America: For self defence purposes, imagine this scenario: I have a gun to your face and say "Your money or your life!" What would you do? Romano: Bold of you to assume I have money. Lithuania: Bold of you to assume I want to live.

Romano: So, bastard, what’s Alfredo's type? Lithuania: Hazel eyes, brown hair, oblivious, likes food, rude as hell Romano: Sounds kinda like me... Too bad we’re just friends! Lithuania: Did I mention oblivious? Romano: Si, why? Lithuania: Okay, just making sure.

Romano: I'm cooking my brother America: ok Romano: *for Romano: I love how you would've believed me.

Romano: What time is it? America: *rips off normal clothes to reveal revolutionary uniform* SHOWTIME Lithuania: I'm so sorry America: SHOWTIME SHOWTIME YO--

*After an argument between Romano and America* Lithuania: Alright, now America, do you have anything nice to say about Romano? America: …I've seen... shorter people.

Lithuania: So, why is America mad at you? Romano: He sneezed and I accidentally said “shut the fuck up” instead of “bless you.” Lithuania: How do you accidentally say “shut the fuck up”?!

America: So we went to the only person we could trust— Lithuania. Romano: But he told us our plan was way too devious. America: And illegal.

Romano: This is torture. You're torturing me. Stop trying to seduce me, it's not going to work. America: -literally just washing the dishes-

Romano: Anyone above 170cm doesn’t deserve happiness America: I’m sorry could you say that a bit louder? Couldn’t hear that from up here. Do you need a ladder? I can get you a ladder.

*Watching a horror movie* America: Are you scared? Romano: In this economy, who wouldn’t be?

Romano and America: Can you feel the lo- Lithuania, joining in: love tonight- America: Really? Lithuania: I'll shut up now

America, singing(???): IT'S THE EYE OF THE TIGER IT'S THE THRILL OF THE FIGHT! Romano: *unsheathes sword* Lithuania: *stops him* America: RISING UP TO THE CHALLENGE OF OUR RIVAL!!!

America and Romano: *making out in the kitchen* Lithuania, casually walking by while eating cereal: Oh hey am I interrupting anything

Link to part 5

[darkling-er]

Far Cry 5 ( or more like OCS) AU

Victorian au

Takes place in England, around 1880. London's sreets are ruled by a gang called Peggies. It's been almost a decade since they took over the railroads, factories and bigger trader corporations. But a new gang started forming in the nights, called the Resitance who want power and getting out of the hands of the Peggies. Meanwhile people around town want to stay out of the gang wars, with more or less success. Strange things happen at night, and there's talk of a stranger around Whitechapel's streets...

OC's Role:

Adam Roberts - The Ripper

He's an avenger of the night, or maybe a sadist, no one really knows the Ripper's motives

He hates women, easy women in particular

He likes the attention from people after a while, but he won't lose himself to the media and he'll keep focuse on his plan

By daylight he seems like a fine gentlemen, as fine one can be these days

He doesn't care for the gang wars much, but if they cross him in any way, he'll get his revenge

Jericho Winters - The Rookie

She's a new member to the Resistance, she spies on the Peggies as a double agent

She was reluctant at first joining the gang, but she wants to keep her little brother safe and rescue him from the other gang

Rhea Jessop - The Nun

She's been part of the church for a long time

She gathers information about the Peggies and keeps the Resitance well informed in their plans and activities around Whitechapel

She helps taking care of those in need and making sure there's a safe house for everyone at St. Mary Matfelon's

dr. Malcolm Callum - Outcast Scientist

He's not a member of the medical society anymore due to his experiments and having no regard of following rules - rules of man or God that is

Nowdays he's handing out illegal prescriptions to people who need it.. And people who pay for it

His tragic childhood and failures led him to abuse drugs, and making bold decisions about trying out his own experimental medicines

It's all because he lost someone close to him... But not for long, not if he can finally help it, he just needs some money to fund his idea... And some fresh corpses

Tabitha Myers - Escaped Child Slave

She was 'took in' as an orphan by the Peggies

She was only used as a slave, making her work

The older men liked her the best...

She escaped by mere luck and tries to avoid any of the gang members in case one of them recognises her and would want to take her back

Trinity-Hope Johnson - Lady of the Night

She's been living on the streets since her parents died

As a woman she wasn't allowed to learn or work properly so she did what every girl could do around Whitechapel

She hates her job and childishly wishes someone would fall in love with her and take her away from this awful place to somewhere in the country side

The other girls make fun of her because of that

She's mostly afraid of the Peggies as they often come and go and they like to be aggressive, except for one returning customer maybe

Adriel Hamilton - Hustler

He's kind of an aloof character

He's part of the Resistance but people think he would leave them in any second

He's kind of insane, and he knows it

Most people are weirded out by him or annoyed

He seems like he can't hurt a fly but anyone messes with him or his associates and skulls are gonna break

His skills are in selling the worst junk for money

Thomas Enderby - Priest

He's the priest at St. Mary Matfelon's

He's been sent there to keep an eye out for any Resistance spies amongs the church

He's a true believer of God, but he will always choose his loyalty for the Peggies

He's a drunk so his information gathering skills are pretty dull

Noah Winters - M̴r̵.̴ ̸H̸y̶d̷e̸

He has a debt that he owes to the Peggies so he works for them

It was either being a pet for their experiments with drugs or his family being murdered

It's not like he ever cared for his own mental or physical health ever

He sometimes has to beat people up for debts, which he also hates

And there are times when he can't remember what's he's been doing

He tells himself it's the guilt making him forget

Or maybe one of the drugs... No they didn't do much to him other than hallucinate sometimes

E̶x̸c̷e̵p̶t̷ ̴f̴o̵r̷ ̸o̷n̷e̸

tags: @onl-you I'm gonna update this later but have this for a while and feel free to add with your ocs I can't wait 👀 also please ignore Adam and do write Emmanuel as the Ripper I'm really interested like wgfwhjsfah

[grison-in-space]

I've often thought as an adult that Jack London is really romanticizing specifically the brutality of the North--you said this yourself, obviously, but I think sometimes people don't realize that you can absolutely romanticize aspects of an era that aren't actually pleasant or positive, and that's very much what London does in a way that is quite recognizable among literature of his genre and era. He's impressed by the "savagery" he encounters in a really incredibly racist way!

From a practicality perspective, the husbandry of the dogs as depicted seems likely to result in a fair amount of waste--dogs frequently injured by serious dog fights, for example. On the one hand, traditional methods of animal handling aren't always the best--consider for example the pre-two-point jumping position on horseback as practiced by the European cavalry and foxhunting tradition. This involved the human leaning back and pulling strongly on the horse's reins as the animal goes over fences, which has the effect of putting a lot of pressure on the animal's kidneys and mouth and making jumping much more uncomfortable for the horse!

On the other hand, animal management practices vary pretty significantly culturally, and values surrounding those practices can often be really culturally mediated, right? Like, I'm sure you're totally aware of the reason that the dog carting tradition in England died, but for reference for other folks: draught dogs used to be very common among poor Victorian English folks, which itself was a very brutal culture for poor and working class people. Lots of child labor and jobs that ate workers' bodies up and spat them out. The dogs were therefore treated fairly variably depending on the values of the poor person who handled them. When the RSPCA was founded by wealthier people, one of their very first targets of animal cruelty was the draught dogs, in part because they associated brutality with lower-class people, and the fledgling RSPCA successfully campaigned to make using dogs for draft purposes illegal. Whereupon the poor people who used them for that purpose mostly couldn't afford to keep them anymore and, ah, most of the dogs wound up killed outright....

So all that is me winding up to the question: insofar as we know, historically how were dogs managed and kept both by Indigenous and European mushers of the era? How much was London embellishing, and where? Do you happen to know any of that or where to go looking for the information?

(I also love Winterdance, which is hilarious, but Paulsen is so clearly portraying himself as trying to figure shit out as he goes along and absolutely does not Know What He Is Doing or even get a lot of information before he starts trying to figure shit out. This is the source for a lot of the humor! So it's not necessarily a great source for figuring out historical practices about how people who Did Know What They Were Doing Thanks did things.)

(on the other hand, the image of Paulsen hitching up three or four well conditioned long distance racing dogs to his bicycle, none of which have any respect for his ability to set boundaries, and expecting this to not be a giant disaster--idk, I just about pee myself every time...)

I am asking for ONE historical dog sledding movie to feature accurate harnesses PLEASE.

[desperatelyseekingdennis]

A new Twitter scam

So a woman in England is highly qualified for a technically demanding job, but gets rejected. Obviously, it's because she's a woman and and her lady brain just can't handle it. Hashtag ThisIsWhyWeNeedFeminism

That's terrible, right? But there could be any number of reasons she wasn't offered the job. Maybe there were just a lot of applicants, or the offering was just a formality and they were going to Hornberger the person they planned on hiring from the start. It doesn't have to be sexism.

Oh. They literally said females are unable to handle the job, and apparently suggested she should become a teacher? That's... that's pretty cut and dry.

Maybe it's different in the UK, but I doubt it. In the US day one of HR class is "don't discriminate." In fact, it's day two and three as well. It's practically the entire course, except for a bit at the end about sexual harassment after the hiring process is complete.

So this is pretty openly illegal, heads will roll lawsuits you name it. All she has to do is name the company.

Which she won't do.

Because then she'd be a whistleblower and nobody hires whistleblowers. She just wants to start a dialogue and make people aware that sexism still exists, but doesn't actually want to do anything to stop it.

And frankly, I don't buy it. Does sexism exist? Sure, absolutely. Would she be punished for whistleblowing? Possibly. But she's already a whistleblower. If I'm there sort of person that's not going to hire somebody because they brought to light a competitor's blatantly illegal behavior, am I really going to give this woman a pass because she didn't name names? She's obviously a troublemaker, willing to air dirty laundry for personal fame. And that's at best; at worst she's a liar who can't be trusted.

And let's be real: there's no way that email is authentic. It's too perfect. The only thing it's missing is her snappy comeback that causes the entire coffee shop to break into applause.

But that's what Twitter is for. She's getting her coffee shop full of applause in the form of supportive retweets and offers of assistance.

And that's where the scam comes in. Within a week one of two things are going to happen: she's going to be very publicly hired by some woke firm that values female engineers, or she's going to announce some grand project to support women in music that will make a million pounds in donations overnight but never really goes anywhere.

Part of me hopes I'm wrong. I don't like thinking this poorly of people. I want to believe that she's being honest. But if I'm wrong, then she's complicit in that sexism. She's okay with that company flagrantly breaking the law. Either way, she's pretty selfishly using justifiable public outrage to increase her own brand.