#Louis Junker

[patrickprincipe]

Louis Jucker @ La Pointe du Grain

[tehuti88-art]

11/8/24: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's characters from my anthro WWII storyline are Herr von Staden and Frau von Staden (first names never given). They're the parents of Adalard and Constanze. They play a somewhat background role in Adalard's story, which I've mostly gone over already in his Tumblr entry. There'll be more about them later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se.

Regarding their design, they have the same general color pattern as their kids, the dad has a small mustache, and the mother has an ear nick and a scar over her eye.

TUMBLR EDIT: Entry edited to avoid repetition hereafter.

I covered most of the von Stadens' part of the plot in Herr von Staden's entry. There was a little bit I wanted to add that I didn't get to cover there.

I don't know much about the von Stadens yet, how they met, their pasts, aside from that they're minor Junkers with no actual noble titles. They're well off, though not stupid rich like the von Dobermanns, for example. They're rather more modern and forward thinking too, similar to Katharina von Thiel, not stuck in the past like Louis Dobermann. Maybe someday I'll develop their past a bit.

You'll notice they all share a similar fur pattern, light gray with a darker gray sort of "hood" which includes the ears and sometimes extends over the top of the nose, but doesn't form a mask. Other times, as with the von NNs, this might hint at blood relations among them all--including between the parents. This isn't so, unless maybe the older von Stadens are some sort of distant cousins or something--it's possible. But just laying to rest any weird thoughts, no, this isn't a von NN situation.

One more thing is Frau von Staden's uncharacteristic scar and ear nick. I gave her these at the last minute to distinguish her a bit; why would a female Junker have an ear wound, and especially a face scar? I have yet to go over all the details, but I suspect she sustained these injuries in some sort of accident. She's ashamed of her facial scar and tries to conceal it somewhat under her hair; Herr von Staden reassures her constantly that it's nothing to fret over, he doesn't mind it, though it still makes her insecure.

That's about all I have for now. Please see Herr von Staden's entry for more on these two.

[Frau von Staden 2024 [‎Friday, ‎November ‎8, ‎2024, ‏‎12:01:08 AM]]

[bluekidvoid]

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[brookstonalmanac]

Events 12.21

AD 69 – The Roman Senate declares Vespasian emperor of Rome, the last in the Year of the Four Emperors. 1124 – Pope Honorius II is consecrated, having been elected after the controversial dethroning of Pope Celestine II. 1140 – After a siege of several weeks, the city of Weinsberg and its castle surrender to Conrad III of Germany. 1237 – The city of Ryazan is sacked by the Mongol army of Batu Khan. 1361 – The Battle of Linuesa is fought in the context of the Spanish Reconquista between the forces of the Emirate of Granada and the combined army of the Kingdom of Castile and of Jaén resulting in a Castilian victory. 1598 – Battle of Curalaba: The revolting Mapuche, led by cacique Pelentaru, inflict a major defeat on Spanish troops in southern Chile. 1620 – Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts. 1826 – American settlers in Nacogdoches, Mexican Texas, declare their independence, starting the Fredonian Rebellion. 1832 – Egyptian–Ottoman War: Egyptian forces decisively defeat Ottoman troops at the Battle of Konya. 1844 – The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers commences business at its cooperative in Rochdale, England, starting the Cooperative movement. 1861 – Medal of Honor: Public Resolution 82, containing a provision for a Navy Medal of Valor, is signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln. 1872 – Challenger expedition: HMS Challenger, commanded by Captain George Nares, sails from Portsmouth, England. 1879 – World premiere of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark. 1883 – The Royal Canadian Dragoons and The Royal Canadian Regiment, the first Permanent Force cavalry and infantry regiments of the Canadian Army, are formed. 1901–present 1907 – The Chilean Army commits a massacre of at least 2,000 striking saltpeter miners in Iquique, Chile. 1910 – An underground explosion at the Hulton Bank Colliery No. 3 Pit in Over Hulton, Westhoughton, England, kills 344 miners. 1913 – Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World. 1919 – American anarchist Emma Goldman is deported to Russia. 1923 – United Kingdom and Nepal formally sign an agreement of friendship, called the Nepal–Britain Treaty of 1923, which superseded the Treaty of Sugauli signed in 1816. 1934 – Lieutenant Kijé, one of Sergei Prokofiev's best-known works, premiered. 1936 – First flight of the Junkers Ju 88 multi-role combat aircraft. 1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world's first full-length animated feature, premieres at the Carthay Circle Theatre. 1941 – World War II: A Thai-Japanese Pact of Alliance is signed. 1946 – An 8.1 Mw earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Nankaidō, Japan, kills over 1,300 people and destroys over 38,000 homes. 1963 – "Bloody Christmas" begins in Cyprus, ultimately resulting in the displacement of 25,000–30,000 Turkish Cypriots and destruction of more than 100 villages. 1965 – International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination is adopted. 1967 – Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a human-to-human heart transplant, dies in Cape Town, South Africa, having lived for 18 days after the transplant. 1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 is launched from the Kennedy Space Center, placing its crew on a lunar trajectory for the first visit to another celestial body by humans. 1970 – First flight of F-14 multi-role combat aircraft. 1973 – The Geneva Conference on the Arab–Israeli conflict opens. 1979 – Lancaster House Agreement: An independence agreement for Rhodesia is signed in London by Lord Carrington, Sir Ian Gilmour, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and S.C. Mundawarara. 1988 – A bomb explodes on board Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270. This is to date the deadliest air disaster to occur on British soil. 1988 – The first flight of Antonov An-225 Mriya, the largest aircraft in the world. 1992 – A Dutch DC-10, flight Martinair MP 495, crashes at Faro Airport, killing 56. 1995 – The city of Bethlehem passes from Israeli to Palestinian control. 1999 – The Spanish Civil Guard intercepts a van loaded with 950 kg of explosives that ETA intended to use to blow up Torre Picasso in Madrid, Spain. 1999 – Cubana de Aviación Flight 1216 overshoots the runway at La Aurora International Airport, killing 18. 2004 – Iraq War: A suicide bomber kills 22 at the forward operating base next to the main U.S. military airfield at Mosul, Iraq, the single deadliest suicide attack on American soldiers. 2020 – A great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurs, with the two planets separated in the sky by 0.1 degrees. This is the closest conjunction between the two planets since 1623.

[seeingteacupsindragons]

for the tropes thing: how about space au + time travel, for william and sherlock...?

I feel like you put Doctor Who in my inbox but I do not Do Doctor Who so I can’t actually give you a Doctor Who au.

I also feel like Superwholock probably did some version of this wayyyyy back in its prime but I didn’t do BBC Sherlock, either.

Anyway, given my ignorance of anything around that other than “it exists”, I acknowledge that anything I come up with is probably going to have some similarities unintentionally and we’re all just going to have to live with that.

So anyway, I guess Sherlock and William are annoying rival ship captains now, except William managed to work his way up through the world and has a nicely decked out ship and a full crew and Sherlock is making things work with a semi-broken down junker and like half the expected crew because he and John (mostly him) take on too many of the other jobs.

The other members of House Moriarty hate that he can somehow still compete with that. William kind of wishes he was on the damn ship with him because how much more of a challenge is it when you don’t have everything you need to make it easy?

(Louis: THEY BARELY HAVE ENOUGH ESCAPE PODS--)

And they keep beating each other out for freelance jobs and setting up dumb competitions for each other while everyone else gets increasingly annoyed because John would like to actually have peace and everyone else is tired of William’s antics until the Moriarty ship breaks and Sherlock’s is the only one even remotely close enough and capable enough to come fix the damn thing before they all run out of food/oxygen/whatever the hell. And there are Life and Death feeling confe--

WAIT TIME TRAVEL WAS SUPPOSED TO BE IN THIS CRAP.

Okay, wait, I can still make that work. Okay. So. The device by which they have FTL travel works by bending time around them to allow them to actually travel those speeds, and that is the thing on William’s ship that broke.

Between William and Sherlock, they manage to fix it, maybe? But they fixed it Wrong and they get sent so far in the past space travel has barely been invented. But fortunately everyone relevant was on the ship when they set the thing off, so they all have each other at least to travel around together on the ship.

[oldfritz]

this was surprisingly hard because half of them I wanted to throw in f, but then felt guilty about it so here’s where we are. explanations under the cut to be nice (fair warning: I’m writing this while tipsy so this is a journey)

S-tier

Old Fritz: look me in the eyes. look at me. are you looking? good. where else was I was going to put him? where? in C with the other losers? foolish. I am ruining my life for this man, I’m going to go into debt so I can be moderately qualified to write books on him so Tim Blanning and Christopher Clark don’t boo my off the stage. I sit here sometimes and I’m like ‘y’know, I would start a podcast to talk about his life’ as if I’m some straight white guy who thinks any of you want to listen to me for an hour. he’s a bastard, a smug bastard, and is the epitome of self-destructive tendencies. and, honestly, I wouldn’t mind if he wasn’t so fucking misogynistic all the time. ‘oh women aren’t fit to rule’ shut up Fritz before I time travel to fuck your wife and make her have one night where life feels worthwhile. but he’s funny, I enjoy how he does foreign policy, and he’s unfortunately relatable to me. cheers, Fritz. here’s to never being satisfied from one gay disaster with anger issues to another. may we burn in hell together

A-tier

Friedrich iii: “Suzanne, he was only on the throne for 99 days!! how can he be this high up when some of these bastards refused to die?” I hear you, my friends, and I have answers. I’ll tell you two words you’ll be shocked to hear put together: liberal Hohenzollern. a rare breed, isn’t it? imagine, friends, a world where he got over his throat cancer because he listened to a doctor and we get through the 1910s, 20s, even the 30s without Wilhelm II Electric Boogaloo being in power. Prussia is still on the map, the Anglo-Prussian alliance is strong, and I live in peace. but no. this stupid man had to keep smoking. because he’s selfish and doesn’t care about my needs. you know, he actually loved his wife. rare in this family. loved her and wasn’t abusive. the bar is so low, guys. and his wife is amazing too, Victoria. the world would’ve been in competent hands if they’d been in power longer (and Bismarck would’ve been out of a job still but at least these guys are smart. their son inherited grandma Vicki’s IQ). I would sleep with both of them and would thank them for the honor (when it should always be the other way around, remember that)

B-tier

Friedrich I: if your name is Friedrich and only Friedrich, we’re buds. that’s my rule. I have to give him credit where credit’s due. he was the first. while I agree with Fritz in his proscription that he was ‘small in big ways and big in small ways’ (I may have flipped that around), he wasn’t a bad guy. he just was born into the wrong job for him. I appreciate that he rode on his father’s coattails of proving useful to the Habsburgs and did a little himself to get that sweet, sweet kingship. smart move. I also like that he saw Louis XIV and said to himself “I stan, I kin, on God we’re gonna do that’ and tried. only for have his stupid, ungrateful, unclassy son to do away with that. I, too, am a woman of luxury and self-indulgance and if I had all the riches of Brandenburg and Prussia at the time (not much), I would spend them ridiculously on outfits and music and art. now, what did he do as king? what policy legacy did he leave behind? that’s a good one :)

C-tier

Friedrich Wilhelm III: now as a king he sucks. and I stand by this because, you know, he lost to him *imagine me pretending to be short and saying ‘oui, oui’ in a bad french accent*. and as any proper Englishwoman I can’t support a monarch who goes around losing to the French unless their name is Mary I. but, he’s a pathetic little man. he really is. so indecisive, so unsure of himself. what are you doing little guy? you think because your last name is Hohenzollern, God thinks you’re a good king? well it is like 1805 and, while divine right isn’t really being used as much, it’s as good as any reason on why you’re the chosen one and my family is eating dirt in Sicily and on the Scottish border. he’s really just a dude, nothing extraordinary about him except that his wife was the only one with brains and was the first to establish that (sorry Wilhelm I). he cried when he found out that his children didn’t call him ‘papa’ and went into a deep depressive state when his wife suddenly died. he’s an average man, of average abilities, but of big heart. and the big heart is what bumps him up, for me, from his old place as an F to a C. though, his moralizing is tedious

Friedrich Wilhelm II: this man should have partied with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. everyone’s got that one ruler whose all about sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll. for the US it’s JFK, for the UK it’s Margaret Thatcher Charles II, France has Louis XIV. Prussia has this guy and we should thank him. so many mistresses, so much sex, so much revelry and debauchery and sin! this guy’s personal life is like a treasure trove of political and sexual intrigue. if you’re into that - as I am as a town gossip - you’ll love him. I am constantly amazed by the fact that some STD didn’t kill him. syphilis, herpes, crabs. something, man, anything. but he didn’t. he’s a shit king though. absolutely horrible. all he did was whine that he didn’t get taught anything by Uncle Fritz and, yes, that’s not good if it’s true (but it’s not completely because the treatises are detailed but I guess he didn’t have time to read) but c’mon. actually apply yourself and learn on the job. I know that would’ve required him to not be balls deep somewhere, but unfortunately he’s not Dorian Gray. there’s work that needed to be done and he didn’t do it. boo!!

D-tier

Wilhelm I: apparently he was a good guy, unlike the other 3 who populate the lowest rungs of Prussian kinghood. so I give him that and I can respect that. but what did he do? what were his own ideas? I thought about putting Bismarck as king instead because, really, he was. Bismarck was a minister who ran around the king’s back to set things up exactly as he liked and it fucking worked because he was the brains. his wife was intelligent too, but theirs wasn’t a wamr and loving marriage. and Bismarck worked to get Wilhelm to distrust her because she was liberal and the fact that Wilhelm would listen to Otto even if it meant allowing himself to be drowned in the Rhine is pathetic. fun party at Versailles though. hope it was worth the war reparations

F-tier (bastard time) I’m going in a different order because I want to go from the ones I hate least to most xoxo

Friedrich Wilhelm IV: “I won’t accept a crown from the gutter” then you won’t accept a crown at all, stupid idiot! god, the smugness. the authoritarian impulses. I know it was the cool thing in 1848 to put down any revolts/protests with as much force as possible, but man, at least the Habsburgs were transparent. homie was like “yeah guys lol I’ll make a constitution and it’ll be epic! you’ll have so many rights! xoxo gossip girl” and then...nope. and AND he wanted the Habsburgs in charge of things too! Mr. ‘I’m Nostalgic For When HRE Was Great And We Blew Austrian Dick!’ grow up man. it’s Prussia time buddy, Austria is beginning to fall apart. don’t look to the past, look to the future, but you didn’t have that vision did you?

Wilhelm II: *banging pots and pans* I blame this man for everything! now, intellectually, does Germany take all the blame for WWI? no, that’s foolish and propaganda of the Allies only. if you’re a European power in 1914, you get to share the blame (ex: why did UK need to make this a naval arms race? Austria should’ve declared war on Serbia sooner if that’s what it wished to do. Russia, please stay out of the Balkans then and forever). but does my irrational hatred of Wilhelm blind me to this truth when I see his stupid face and that ugly fucking mustache that I wish to yank off? my god, yes. I see him and Rule Britannia and The Yanks Are Coming start playing so loud in my head and I’m like ‘yeah, the kaiser’s gonna pay.’ I’m sorry that Bismarck’s ego was bigger than yours but did you have to prove him right by getting incompetent buffoons who were playing checkers when he set the board up for chess to replace him? Did you have to prove Freud right by displacing private problems onto public life with your little tit-for-tat with George IV (VI?) because his mummy loved you more? Why did you need to fuck every naval vessel you saw like an inferior of Peter the Great who believed he was Sir Francis Drake? but that’s just the first war and he lived to see things setting up for the second. wasn’t in convenient for you to be close with the N@zis when you thought they might want a king back on the throne and you could reclaim your little tyrant. like every goddamn Prussian conservative or Junker, you thought you could play the tyrannical cockroach. sure, you figured out earlier that he was no pal, but you still collaborated and you still allowed yourself to get played like the weak man of conscience you are. cheers!

Friedrich Wilhelm I: ladies and gentleman, the moment you’ve all been waiting for! the biggest bastard straight outta Berlin, FW1! and who doesn’t love an abusive father? who doesn’t love a man, so insecure and pathetic, that he needs to terrorize children to be able to look at himself and have a little pride. I understand that it was because he wanted his kids, specifically Fritz, to be best. but being best and perfect meant being miniature versions of him and aren’t we supposed to want our children to be better than a carbon-copy of a small man? honestly, I could live with the occasional smack for this time period. it’s within the norm and, while horrible, isn’t irreparably damaging. this guy really had to beat the shit out of Fritz and Wilhelmina and I’m sure Augustus and Henry and Amalia and all the others (so many kids) didn’t get spared either because if you hit one, you’ll hit ‘em all. and I judge them for their flaws all the same but, for some of them, it gets hard to. because what fighting chance did they have when their father was telling them how worthless they were and beating them senseless and threatening death and life imprisonment on some? I’m constantly impressed by Henry and Fritz and Wilhelmina for amounting to any semblance of maturity, even though it’s always fleeting, because this man didn’t give them the tools to be functioning adults. but each of them managed to be greater than their father, as did Amalia managing a really cool coup in Sweden. and what did FW1 get? he built up his army, had a tall guy fetish, increased the treasury, and made the cabinet and executive offices more efficient. there used to be this one guy on here that would argue that that was all a good king made and that this lowlife didn’t deserve the contempt he got by some on here (an obvious vague of me) for his behavior as a father. and maybe I’m a crackpot, but I believe the quality of a man outshines all those other achievements and that that’s meaningless to me, in my personal life. and when I get to hell, before I go to any of these other men, I’ll go to him and ask him how hell’s fires feel because, if his God was real, it would never love him. and that’s beautiful

[the-busy-ghost]

John Mair talking about gannets returning to the Bass Rock every year in spring, and the human inhabitants of the Bass having to keep quiet and calm for a few days every year while the birds wheel and soar around the rock is just... an utterly exquisite image

Nobody lives on the Bass any more but the colony of Northern Gannets there is thought to be the largest in the world, and their coming and going just seems to epitomise the rolling away of the years.

Did the gannets nest there when the Gododdin held the fort at Traprain Law two thousand years ago? Were they there when the Earl’s ferry carried mediaeval pilgrims and English soldiers across the Forth? What about when James V besieged the Red Douglases in Tantallon- was the Bass visible from the castle on that day as it is now, and was it already white because of the birds? We know that Robert Louis Stevenson saw them in the nineteenth century, and we know they were there when Spitfires and Junkers outflew the birds themselves eighty years ago. But when the eleven year old James I sheltered on the Bass Rock in March 1406, waiting for the boat that would (never) take him to safety in France, did he see the gannets returning that spring? 

And do any of these human things matter when birds come and go as they have done for centuries?

[tehuti88-art]

9/20/24: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's characters from my anthro WWII storyline are Frau and Herr von Thiel (first names never given). They're the parents of Katharina von Thiel. They're deceased by the time of the main story but play a small background role in the friendship between Katharina and Louis Dobermann. I've already gone over them in her Tumblr entry (can't link here, it gets marked as spam) though there'll be more about them later there and on Toyhou.se.

Regarding their design, they're white poodles, Edwardian period.

TUMBLR EDIT: I haven't much to say regarding the Junker parents of Katharina von Thiel; their personalities are covered somewhat in her entry. Her mother is rather fussy, old fashioned, overly defensive, and easily offended by minor things, while her father seems more laid back and indulgent; they both take part, along with Ilse and Rudolf von Dobermann, in attempting to set up their children for a potential marriage alliance, then all react in vastly different ways when the effort falls through. Frau von Thiel throws a fit at what she deems to be terribly inappropriate (yet completely platonic) behavior on the teenagers' part, blames Louis for corrupting her sweet innocent daughter, and forbids them from seeing each other again, blaming his parents for his behavior; Herr von Thiel, meanwhile, is baffled by his wife's reaction, saying well, didn't we WANT them to fool around with each other, wasn't that the whole point? Later when it becomes clear Louis and Katharina are only interested in being friends, Frau von Thiel huffily asks, what, isn't her daughter good enough for that boy?--and Herr von Thiel makes this exasperated comment that summarizes his personality perfectly: "Oh, meine Liebe, bitte, do just stop."

The von Thiels don't survive to the main story; they die in a house fire prior to the Great War, despite Katharina's and the von Dobermanns' efforts to help. Their bodies are recovered intact in their bed; from the looks of it, they simply succumbed to the smoke, and never woke up. Although devastated, Katharina takes this as a sign to grow up and look after herself now, since no one else will; and then Louis decides to follow the same path, breaking out of his family's shadow and enlisting in the army when the war starts. Unfortunately, his fate is similar to Katharina's in more than one way; his entire family succumbs to the flu while he's away, leaving him orphaned as a young adult and the last living member of his family--just like Katharina. Although Dobermann ends up with Inga, he and Katharina remain close lifelong friends, with her family and experiences having a major impact on him (and then later on Inga herself).

So far, I haven't developed any significant backstory regarding the von Thiels, how they met, their own romance, etc. I have no real intention to do so as they're relatively minor background characters--I decided not even to give them proper names, which I'm not sure how to deal with when creating profiles on Toyhou.se--yet that could change someday, who knows.

Check out Herr von Thiel's entry, and especially Katharina's, for further info.

[Frau von Thiel 2024 [‎Friday, ‎September ‎20, ‎2024, ‏‎12:00:07 AM]]

[incoramsanctissimo]

Guys I got tagged in something this hasn’t happened since 2016 ahhhh

*ahem*

Thanks, @thewanderingzeppelin!

Rule 1: Always post the rules.

Rule 2: Answer questions that are given to you and then write 11 new ones.

Rule 3: Tag 11 people

Rule 4: Let them know you tagged them.

Rule 5: Don’t change the rules.

1.  What is your favorite month of the year and why?

It kinda depends on where I’m living, but in general it’s October. It’s my birth month and it’s cooler and bright and colorful and just all together very enjoyable, and I used to enjoy being in the swing of the school year at that point, too. Now it’s also my wedding month so yay! On the other hand, I lived in Arizona for two years and February there was beautiful, full of lemon blossoms and breezes and actual Rainy Days.

2.  If you could have any car, free of charge, given to you in mint condition, what would you choose?

A black 2011 Honda Fit. That was my first car and I loved it and miss it terribly. (Short story, I totaled it and have been driving junkers since.)

3.  If you could live anywhere (with unlimited resources for visits to family if needed), where would it be?

Boy howdy I’ve been puzzling this one a lot lately. I moved from Virginia to Colorado and am starting to wonder if I don’t actually rather dislike the latter, but I don’t know where I would actually want to be. I feel a bit homeless, to be honest.

4.  What book have you read recently that gave you really strong feelings, either good or bad?

I read Louis de Wohl’s life of St Augustine, and while I don’t think it was a particularly amazing piece of literature really (just read the Confessions, it’s so much better) it made an impact on me because I was struggling with certain sins and I felt like Augustine understood. I don’t know that it caused a tangible difference in my actions but it saved me from a degree of despair.

5.  When you are feeling frustrated/aggravated about life, what do you do to help yourself feel better?

Light candles, eat food, and read a book. (Totally taking recommendations btw)

6.  What is your favorite dessert?

Cheesecake/flan. I also love all kinds of cookies but I kinda lived on them at certain points while in school and it has sadly decreased my appetite for them.

7.  What toy did you have has a child that still gives you a warm fuzzy to remember it?

The little beanie baby kitty I had as a 3-year-old that I put in the box of donations for the poor because I was deeply touched by my mom’s explanation that some families didn’t have enough money to buy toys for their little ones. I carried that kitty everywhere with me, but I never regretted it. I have a very clear memory of putting it carefully in the box, petting its head and telling it to be a good kitty for some other little girl. I think my mom cried.

8. What is your favorite time of day?

Early morning or dusk.

9.  What are some words of wisdom you like to live by?

“Thy will be done.” I don’t always like to live by that but I try, and it does help.

10.  What’s a quick and easy meal you like?  (No, seriously, I’m looking for recipes all the time haha)

Pasta. I use jar sauce cause I’m a terrible Italian, but it’s sooo quick. Red sauce with ground sausage is the bestest. I also do a lot of quesadillas.

11.  What is another tumblr blog that you follow that you really enjoy their posts?

I enjoy so many of you guys, it’s hard to pick one. Hm. @why-bless-your-heart is pretty awesome. 😊

My questions:

1. When you were a child, what did you imagine your adult life would be like? Does it bear any similarity to reality?

2. What’s the best gift someone could give you?

3. Favorite holiday tradition? (For any holiday)

4. Do you plan a monthly budget? If so, what’s the highest priority on it?

5. Has a single person ever changed your life? If so, how?

6. Ideal weather?

7. Favorite pastime?

8. How do you feel about getting into debates, especially ones in which your opponent(s) are unlikely to give in regardless of the outcome?

9. Name a movie that you loved as a kid and feel differently about as an adult

10. Do you have dream house? What’s it like?

11. Is it meaningful for you if someone brings you flowers?

Well that was fun. I’ll tag @joan-of-heart, @catherine-of-alexandria @halfasaint, @iamfitzwilliamdarcy, @roccondil, @windflowerfairy, @sicutcervus, @when-the-saints, and anyone else interested. For those tagged, no obligation, only if you feel like it!

[proxylott]

Title: Watchdog Pairing: Explosive Hearts ( @snagg-ships ) Summary: Louis needs a Junker name

If James understood the concept of being stealthy, he would be lethal.

By nature, he was as rambunctious as an upstart crow; loud, noisy, boisterous, and completely incapable of being able to sit still. No matter how he was sitting or how quiet he was trying to be, some part of him would be moving or making a sound - be it the twitch of a finger, the tap of his prosthetic, or a subtle, steady hum in the back of his throat that he hardly ever seemed to be aware he was making.

But he was also something of a genius. You would never guess it if you spoke to him in any normal setting; his slang and his accent tended to dampen the effect of his words, and more often than not he sounded like half of a comedy duo with half the brains to show for it. Searching under his words for meaning, however, revealed something far more surprising than most would expect.

He was an absolute fucking mastermind.

Plans carried out between him and Roadhog were thought out to the very bone, no stone left out of place and no small amount of jewels left unaccounted for. Though their techniques were certainly lacking - “explode your way in, explode your way out” was a fair percentage of the reason they were so well known by several media outlets and law enforcement around the world, after all - no true flaw could be found in their plans except the execution.

And that was entirely down to who James was as a person. He never knew when to shut up.

Louis mulled over his thoughts as he contemplated the not-quite conundrum of his partner, eyes flickering back and forth between his latest project - something to tinker with and to keep his skills sharp, rather than something for any genuine purpose - and the man in question.

James had been staring at him for the past twenty minutes. There was a rhythm to the tap of his prosthetic against the floor that suggested impatience, and a high note to his throaty hum that boarded on overwhelming excitement. His fingers had been gradually tightening on the sharp slopes of his knees the longer he stared, an action bubbling up within him that he was slowly turning into a plan, desire twisting into movement.

He had yet to actually move, but Louis could tell it was coming. It was one of James’ worst flaws, and the one true drawback that stopped him from being an all-powerful genius; he was terrible at keeping secrets, and wore his thoughts exposed in the motions of his body.

Watching him from the corner of his eye, Louis waited for the explosion as if James were a soda bottle filled with Mentos, freshly shaken. The way he trembled with excitement like an overgrown Chihuahua had him unconvinced that his partner wasn’t actually going to explode if he didn’t speak his mind soon.

Cautiously, he turned back to his work.

The project was simple but effective. There were lots of small parts that needed to be carefully slotted together, complex mechanisms that required his rapt attention to see the tiniest issue in, and big, moving parts that demanded constant tweaking whenever he rearranged something else, no matter how minute. At most it was going to become a little exploding robot, something that might make James howl with laughter when he saw it in action, but chances were he’d just toss it aside for James to play with later, hopefully enough to distract him from the things he was really working on.

Five minutes passed. Louis flickered his gaze back over towards his partner - and startled ever so slightly, the screwdriver falling from his hands. He struggled not to drop the project, too, but saved it after a precarious moment of slippery fingers.  

James had the most devious grin on his face. It was the sort of grin that suggested he’d cooked up something he thought was going to be really good, though whether or not anyone else agreed would be up for debate. He’d stopped his tapping to shove his hands between his legs, his fingers curling under the rim of the chair seat to push himself forward and into Louis’ space, neck extended out as far as he could stretch it, his shoulders trembling from the strain. Only his foot continued to move, tapping against the ground in a rhythm that skipped beats and held no pattern - he’d finally decided now was the time to speak his mind.

An uneasy feeling settled in Louis’ gut. He sat up a little straighter and carefully put his project down on the seat beside him, trying not to show his nerves as James’ giddy grin and squinted eyes pierced through him.

This didn’t feel like a plan that would affect him, nor did it feel like a plan that would end with explosions and chaos and catastrophe. It wasn’t a heist, nor was it a prank that would inevitably lead to Roadhog suffering in silence, mask concealing a tired rage. It felt much more… subdued, somehow; much less physical than James’ plans tended to be. It didn’t feel like any sort of plan Louis could put any sort of name to, and the thought of not knowing was a thought he didn’t like at all.

Luckily, he didn’t have to wait long to find out what it would be. He braced himself as James took in a deep breath, a wide grin splitting across his face, crinkling crows-feet around his eyes, and -

“You need’a Junker name!”

Louis blinked. “What?”

“A Junker name!” James howled with a sporadic burst of laughter, slamming one of his hands down against his knee. The action offset his other arm, still clutching at the chair, and sent him keeling over to collide with the floor, yelping at Louis’ feet.

“You’ve been with us for - bugger knows how long,” he continued as he pulled himself up to his feet, groaning softly and rubbing at his head. Louis may have felt a pang of pity for the poor sod, and almost did, but the pure and utter bewilderment he was stuck in masked any other feelings he could have felt. His mind had come to a halt - and that was a rare occurrence indeed. “So we’ve gotta get you a proper Junker name!”

“Oh.” Slipped numbly from Louis’ lips. He listened to James clamber back onto the chair, grumbling to himself and laughing at seemingly random intervals, and tried to process the idea that had been posited to him.

A Junker name? James wasn’t even part of Junkertown anymore - exiled for some unknown offence, or maybe one that James just wasn’t of the mind to remember beyond the fact that it had happened - and the concept of taking a name for an organisation none of them had any part of settled oddly in Louis’ mind.

Another part of him latched onto the idea. He’d been with the Junkers just under a year. Maybe this was a sign, the one he’d been waiting for with a sense of anticipation the past few months - maybe he really was part of the group, the triad the three of them had working together. It would be nice to cover his old identity with something new, too; a new start, an escape from the fact that he had been branded a traitor.

He wouldn’t be a traitor anymore. An odd sense of warmth overcame him, edging just a bit too close to sentimentality. He’d just be a guy in a small group of three, chasing after whatever valuable thing lured James in and trying his best not to die along the way in some explosive-based mishap.

“Okay,” he cut James’ grumbling off, giving him a small nod. There was a beat of silence as James turned to him, eyes squinted in confusion and mouth very slightly agape. Louis gave him the few moments he needed to remember what he’d been talking about prior to his grumbling, and allowed himself a small smile beneath his mask when James whopped with glee.

“Perfect! ‘Cos I got the best name for ya right here!”

He flung himself up from the chair with his arms stretched out above his head, completely unaware of the crash behind him as the chair toppled over. A wide, giddy grin stretched across his lips as he fanned his fingers out wide and threw his head back, bellowing out as loud as he could,

“TRASHLIZARD!”

“No.”

Louis’ curt response was quick and sharp, and James crumbled under the force of his disapproval.

“But that’s a good Junker name!” He whined, hunched in on himself as he glared poutily at the floor. He looked every part the kicked puppy.

The sight was a little bit more pathetic than Louis could handle. With a heavy sigh, he rubbed at the bridge of his nose, counted to ten, and scoured every recess of his mind for something that sounded appropriate enough for both of their tastes - not to mention his own standards.

After a few long moments a name finally came to mind. Peering down at the betrodden form of his partner on the floor, Louis said with a sense of finality, “Watchdog”.  

James mulled it over for a moment. “Watchdog,” he muttered, stroking his chin and furrowing his brow as he stared intently at the floor. “Watchdog… Yeah... Yeah! Watchdog!” His face lit up and he shot up off the floor, snatching Louis’ hands from his lap and giving them a firm but gentle squeeze. Up close his grin was blinding, and Louis could see a bright glimmer of excitement in his eyes that made his heart clench. “Got a good ring to it, that!”

Louis gave him a tentative nod, a lump in his throat ceasing any attempts of speech. He could feel heat rise to his cheeks as James squeezed his hands again and grinned even wider, dipping in to rest his forehead against Louis’ with a rusty laugh.

It should have felt uncomfortable, having someone so close in his personal space.

It didn’t.

“That suits ya. Watchdog. I’ve gotta tell Roadie - he’ll get a fuckin’ kick outta this!”

Like a whirlwind James dashed from the room, whooping and hollaring, scattering piles of junk across the floor in his excitement.

Louis’ heart slowly settled its pace; the further James’ voice faded away, the less his heart felt like it was going to burst from his chest. He released a soft breath and ran his fingers through his hair, willing the flush from his cheeks as he scraped his nails against his scalp, thankful for the mask and his gloves as he closed his eyes.

Watchdog. He repeated the name is his head like a mantra until he could have sworn James was sitting next to him, whispering it soflty into his ear. Watchdog. Watchdog.

The more he said it, the more it fit, until eventually he felt something click into place.

Watchdog opened his eyes.

With a renewed sense of purpose and a plan in mind, he picked up his project, popped open the cover hiding the mechanisms, and rummaged around in the bucket of junk beside him, his gaze focused intently on the shell of his maneuverable explosive.

With any luck, it would be just as loud and obnoxious as the man it was being made to please.

[newslux]

Residential Junk Removal 8/1/2023

At American Junkers, we are dedicated to providing professional, efficient, and respectful Residential Junk Removal services to the St. Louis area. We understand that everyone has different needs, which is why we offer a wide range of services to fit any situation. Whether you need brush and debris removal, light demolition, furniture removal, bulk trash pickup, appliance recycling, or hoarding cleanup and removal, our team is equipped to handle it all.Our team is fully licensed and insured, and we pride ourselves on our commitment to customer service. We strive to make the junk hauling process as stress-free as possible for our customers, and we always operate in a respectful and professional manner. Contact us to schedule a convenient time for our team to come out and assess your junk. Our team will arrive at your home or business and provide you with an accurate quote for the cost of removal. You can sit back and relax while we handle the heavy lifting and disposal of your unwanted items.

[timelinetreassures]

Demolition Service 06/23

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Out with the old and in with the new! Letting things go shouldn't bring stress. Instead, you should unwind and allow professionals to handle it.