#Tom Shales

[oldshowbiz]

Tom Shales had to change his phone number after giving Rod McKuen a bad review.

[loveboatinsanity]

R.I.P. Tom Shales

[sparrowstarsandsorrow]

Happy 75th birthday, Tom Berenger!!

He's one of my favourite actors when it comes to playing hard ass military men and other similar characters. One thing I really love when he plays these characters is that he can act tough and powerful having everything under control but also put on a sympathetic face like he really feels deeply about the hardship they have to go through and how he wants the audience to feel the same

[oopsabird]

it may seem like an odd niche but whenever i catch myself in despair these days, whenever i think the world has gone to places we will never reel it back from, i think about peregrine falcons.

more specifically, i make myself go read again andy johnson's cornell birds article about peregrines at taughannock. it describes how the diligent decades-long efforts of conservationists working for a future they might never see with their own eyes brought the peregrine falcon back from the absolute brink of extinction in north america, through the lens of their recent re-appearance in an ancestral breeding ground from which they had previously disappeared over fifty years ago:

[...]

On June 9, 2020, the first of the young falcons leapt from the ledge, tak­ing unsteady but successful flight across the gorge and alighting back on the cliff wall below the nest. The others hesi­tantly followed suit later that day. After fledging, the young would return to the nest ledge to roost at night, hunkering back into their familiar sanctuary after long days of exploration and learning. The venturing young birds soon discov­ered a dead hemlock trunk that reached out almost horizontally into the gorge, affording an expansive view from which to rest and preen. As luck would have it, this newfound real estate was on my side of the gorge, jutting out just below my vantage point. As one of the fledglings took flight from the nest ledge, I watched it glide below eye-level straight toward me, crossing the creek far below, and swooping up to land on the near snag, backlit and radi­ant. The adults’ slaty plumage was dusty and worn by this point in the season, but the juvenile seen up close sported buff-colored banding and scalloping on its fresh new feathers, and even a little tuft of down still on its head. It turned on the perch, adjusting its clumsy-taloned grasp and beating its wings to regain tentative balance. While the young bird was still finding its footing, it was every inch a Peregrine Falcon. By August, the gorge was quiet once again. The falcon family had departed on migration, streaks of white guano beneath the empty ledge the only sign left of their return. Months later, deep in the winter of 2021 and well before the first signs of a new spring, two svelte adult peregrines returned to the gorge and began their rituals anew, flying in unison, reorienting to the sensation of shale underfoot, and undertaking the serious work of growing their numbers, a few hard-shelled eggs at a time. As of this printing in late summer 2021, Taughannock’s wild Peregrine Falcons have embarked on their next half-century with a resounding affir­mation of past progress. This year they successfully fledged another four young.

To watch young falcons emerge from the mouth of Taughannock two years in a row, toward new gorges yet to be found, was thanks to a far-reaching and defiant vision. The decades-long recovery—a bold experiment to reel a species back from the brink of extinction with our own hands—was characterized by the uncompromising tenacity of a few peo­ple who had faith in the impossible, and a commitment to ends that might not be realized in the span of a human lifetime.

In February of 2019, at age 91, Dr. Tom Cade passed away, perhaps in the same moment that wild Peregrine Falcons first canvassed Taughannock gorge for nesting. He certainly would have loved to see Peregrine Falcons here in Taughannock, further culmination of a life’s work—a new line of peregrines completing a homecoming of their own accord, and a fully fledged testament to the long span of tireless work poured into recovering their forebears.

[tigereyes45]

Today (Oct. 16th) is my 26th birthday!

As many who have been following me for at least a year now know, I always open my asks to writing prompts from everyone to celebrate my birthday.

This year I'll be accepting requests from October 16th - October 23rd. (My hand has been sore due to a bee sting so this post is a little late. As a result me accepting requests will last a little longer than typical this year.)

As always you can send as many prompts/requests as you want, for any fandoms/characters/ships/etc. Under the Keep Reading there will be a list of the fandoms I am the most into at this moment in time. As far as shipping goes I'm a multi-shipper and enjoy most ship(s)/ship dynamics. I'll only write smut for the listed star trek shows. My inbox is open and anon is on.

The list includes my current favorite fandoms/shows/ships/characters. However you can also make requests for ships/people/and shows not on the list. So here's what I'm most into writing at the moment:

Star Trek TOS (Mcspirk, Uhotty (uhura x scotty), Chulu)

Star Trek AOS (Mcspirk)

Star Trek Lower Decks (Mariner, T'lyn, Tendi, Rutherford and basically any ship of the core four or any of them plus T'lyn)

Star Trek Voayger (Especially Janeway x Tuvok, Mark x Janeway x Tuvok x t'Pel, T'pel x tuvok x Janeway, and B'Elanna x Tom x Harry)

Star Trek Ds9 (they are such a polycule, in so many shapes and forms, my favorite characters are jadzia, kira, odo, Ben Sisko.)

Star Trek Enterprise ( Trip x Archer, Archer x T'pol x Trip, Mayweather x Hoshi)

Star Wars (Ahsoka, Hera, Kalluzeb, Kanera, Plo Koon, Captain Rex)

Red vs Blue ( I will never not be a grimmons fan though all the other ships are fun too! Not to mention any gen fic of any of these characters is always a blast to write!)

Fire Emblem Awakening (Kellam, Yarne x Lucina, Morgan x Nah)

Fire Emblem Fates (Siegbert)

Fire Emblem 3 Houses (Claude, Raphael, Marianne, Byleth)

The Walking Dead Game (Clementine, Violet, Louis, Lee, Kenny, Nick)

RWBY (Nuts and dolts, Nora, Ren, and Sugar rush)

Mass Effect (shakarian, tail x shepard x garrus, kandros x ryder, vetra x ryder, jaal x vetra, jaal x vetra x ryder)

The Librarians (Cassandra, Jenkins, Fleve)

Merlin (Merwaine my love)

Dragon Age (All games/books, I adore Sten, Shale, Warden Surana, and Varric x Hawke)

Tales of Arcadia (Blinky x Aaarrrgghh, Draal, Barbara)

Fallout (tv series)

Fallout 4

Critical Role (I like campaign 2 the best, Caduceus. Veth, and Caleb)

TMNT (all versions)

[gerardpilled]

!!!

The concept of MTV was anything but what it appeared to be on the surface. MTV was meant to be cool. It was designed to look spontaneous--like something that had just popped up from a cool nightclub, college fraternity house, or the basement of someone you'd want to have as your best friend. The veejays (mostly former FM radio disc jockeys or bit actors) rehearsed their patter about the videos with the goal of making it seem off-the-cuff and unre-hearsed. They were encouraged to ride out mistakes to add to the DIY feel. Sets were meticulously constructed to have a thrift-store look. Graphics used in MTV positioning promos and imaging were cutting edge, flashy, and meant to overload the senses with a feeling of hip euphoria. To appeal to viewer desires for social change and the need to buck the establishment, MTV devoted airtime to trendy causes like USA for Africa and Rock the Vote. MTV knew what its target demographic thought was cool, and that's what MTV delivered.

But under the young, hip exterior was a corporate machine that would have shocked many early fans and viewers. MTV's commitment was to itself and to its own brand preservation. In the words of television critic Tom Shales:

Political and social content is almost entirely missing from MTV because it is built on the illusion that rock music is a political and social system in itself; that the world is divided into pro-rock and anti-rock forces, that to be a fan of the music or of particular groups is somehow to stand for something.!

MTV wasn't trying to buck the establishment-_MTV was the establishment. According to one record-label executive, "The purpose of MTV is not to bring culture to the great unwashed. The purpose of MTV is to make money for MTV."2

[nothing-but-paisley]

Ooh what's Bad Bones?

It's a short story I'm kicking around. This baby's got it all:

generational trauma

nature-as-gothic

heavily symbolic dead steel mills

a shit ton of rivers

just rust belt things

goth lesbians

a murder mystery

home remodeling (i learned it from you, anne)

Thank you for the ask! Sorry it's not vc related 😅

Excerpt:

These Appalachian foothills are older than the Atlantic Ocean, which sundered them from what are now the Scottish Highlands. Older than the moon, maybe. They might have been taller than the Himalayas once, worn down over unthinkable eons, and the fossils inside them are ancient and strange. I used to go hunting for them in the shale, a serious and lonely child, splitting rocks to find the ghosts of ferns. Seeing the skeletal ridges of land again after months or years away, I can always feel their age.

Anna looks over at me from the driver’s seat and grins at the song that’s just come on the radio (Tom Petty's "American Girl"), her black hair caught in the hot green-smelling wind. Soon we’ll be poking around the hundred-year-old rooms of all the little houses we can maybe afford in the city, old frame constructions of the kind realtors call good bones.

As we crawl up the winding tree-lined way to Mt. Washington for a showing, Anna points out a derelict red brick house crawling with weeds and honeysuckle, the rotting front porch sagging like skin, a blue tarp hanging from the upper window like the tattered sail of a ghost ship.

“Good bones,” she drawls in a vampire voice and bites at my shoulder through dark denim, making me laugh.

“Mm, yeah.” The weather is unusually sunny, and the scent of grass and hot pavement is making me crave a cigarette, an old adolescent vice. “Meat’s a little stringy though.”

Just past this neighborhood, at the western peak of the ridge across the river from the lean dark skyscrapers of downtown, is an area called Duquesne Heights, once known as Coal Hill. Its houses are notorious for foundation issues caused by mine subsidence. My grandmother’s house was built in a similarly precarious place, on top of abandoned coal pits that could swallow a house without warning. Once after a lightning storm, the old strip mines caught fire underground and coal smoke rose up from unseen holes in the ground like the mouth of hell was open. I remember being terrified of falling through the sweet grassy earth and into the burning coal. It was a fear that never really went away.

My dad always avoided the basement of his childhood home—bad bones down there.

[acheronist]

list of the most heartbreaking (TO ME) surviving excerpt lines from the peglar pages

[ and we have his new boots in the middel watch, as we have got some very hard ground to heave. ]

passing the same pair of boots around between coworkers before they have to go fuck around in the shale for the most futile "staying busy before we die" ass reasons ever... doesn't this sound so fucking awful.... henry was captain of the foretop so he signed up for this expedition expecting to be in the ropes and sails on open water. i would be so mad if suddenly my job was "moving arctic shale around all day while i die of starvation and scurvy"..... i guess they could have been digging the graves at beechy early on also, that's technically heaving ground, but i feel like this must be about the hauling supplies

[ all my (he)art, tom, for I dont think for ]

ALL MY HEART????? TOM???????!?!!????? which fucking tom theres about 15 of them on board with you rn bestie

[ gentelmin that made his apearenc wos a marine by the cut of his ]

i just think the observational diary entries are so inchresting... eyeing up the marines trying to be tougher than they were. lol. lmao, even.

[ whose is this coffee. brekfast to be short rations ]

when the lead poisoning brainfog and low supplies depression combo starts to get to you over breakfast.....

[ I went wander maney a night in whale boat ]

i'm inclined to think this was a little rhyme or hum or smth but for how long they were stuck there?? i wander many a night in the arctic watching things get more and more desperate.... and while the terror/erebus were never whale boats, henry did serve on the hms wanderer previously in his sailing career and that WAS a whale boat. so then it's like oh god my poor dude is freezing his ass off in the arctic trying to remember his time aboard ships that were sailing in warmer climates... we have to get this dead british sailor a blanket and a warm meal STAT

[ hms erebus / you are peglar / on bord and okay / the terror camp clear ]

positive affirmations!!!!!!! *one thousand crying emojis*

[ o death wheare is thy sting / the grave at comfort cove]

how many men on board died before he started keeping a guideline for what to say as burial rites . just wondering.

[ I love the C I love the C / when I whare I wish to be with / and and silence whare never go / if a swell should come and make the meek / What matter what matter I can ride or sleep / when I was on old england shore / I like the young C more and more / and offtimes flew to a shelltering place / like a bird that seek it mother case/ and a H she was and oft to me / for I love a young and Hopen C ]

either this is a horny sailor parody invented to pass the time and have a laugh at OR its a miserable exhausted dying man who was kind of dyslexic and barely literate anyways trying to recall home / what made him ever step on a boat in the first place. either way

[silverclangen]

Year 1 Moon 6

Sunpaw earns his warrior name

After he bravely fought of the dog to save the new warrior Breeze last moon, Dancingstar and Raggedfern agree that Sunpaw has proved himself a capable cat and is ready to become a warrior. They hold the ceremony on a sunny day baked in the late Greenleaf heat in the middle of camp. Sunpaw is praised for his boldness and quick thinking, and is named Suncharge in honor of his daring rescue.

Falconshade has a dream...?

Falconshade woke up in the depths of the night when the camp was silent. She thought she heard someone outside, so she walked to the middle of camp. She spotted a flash of movement in one of the rock pools and went to investigate, but when she got there, the water was still and black. She blinked, and two gleaming eyes like silver moons suddenly appeared on the surface. She startled awake. (Start of post Here)

Yellowspots encourages Raggedfern to take a break

Shortly after her apprentice graduates, Raggedfern falls ill with heatstroke in the last of the Greenleaf sun. Yellowspots chides the molly for overworking herself as soon as she didn't have an apprentice to look after, but gets to work helping her quickly. Heatstroke is the worst condition anyone has had in the clan so far, and Yellowspots is so concerned that she scrapes her paw pads on the rough shale of the Eastern beach trying to find herbs to help. She tries to hide it from Raggedfern since she just told her off for the same thing.

Medics don't fight!

Yellowspots also had to deal with Breeze this moon. The tom was trying to settle into clan life one of the few ways he knew how - challenging everyone to a friendly scrap. Yellowspots had been busy healing Raggedfern, but eventually Breeze cornered her and tried to start up a tussle. Yellowspots laughed and explained to Breeze that because she was a medic she was a worse opponent than the newly apprenticed Sprucepaw. Breeze was confused and dropped the issue, considering the conversation to be Yellowspot's forfeit.

[general-sleepy]

Shale's hatred of birds seems silly in Origins, until you meet those monsters the Inquisition are sending out everywhere. Yeah, those creatures are to fear hated and feared. I'm convinced, I'm ready to go full Tom Lehrer.

[marine-indie-gal]

Greek/Roman Pantheon Headcanon Voices

Ok, so after having much retconning headcanon thoughts, I’ve decided to make up a new and improve list of some headcanon voices that I had in mind for each of the Gods from both the Greek and Roman Pantheon if they were to appear in SpongeBob SquarePants.

Greek Pantheon

King Cronus - Gerald Butler (Stoick The Vast from "How To Train Your Dragon")

Queen Rhea - Angelina Jolie (Maleficent)

Salacia - Anya Taylor-Joy (Princess Peach from "The Super Mario Bros. Movie")

Emperor Zeus - Tom Ellis (Lucifer Morningstar from "Lucifer")

Lord Hades - Alan Cumming (Bog King from "Strange Magic")

Empress Hera - Cissy Jones (Lilith Clawthorne from "The Owl House")

Demeter - Helena Bonham Carter (Mayrin from "The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance")

Hestia - Deedee Magno (Pearl from "Steven Universe")

Lady Persephone -  Amy Adams (Giselle from "Enchanted")

Hermes - Ashton Kutcher (Elliot from "Open Season")

Ares - Ansel Elgort (Tommy Ross from "Carrie")

Hephaestus - Herman Tømmeraas

Aphrodite - Sydney Sweeney

Dionysus - Rhys Darby (Hypno-Potamus from "Rise of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles")

Apollo - Robert Sheehan (Klaus Hargreeves from "The Umbrella Academy")

Artemis - Hailee Steinfeld (Vi from "Arcane")

Athena - Toks Olagundoye (Mel Medarda from "Arcane")

Eris - Kristin Chenoweth (Maleficent from "Descendants")

Hecate - Bette Midler (Winifred Sanderson from "Hocus Pocus")

Hebe - Kyla Kowalewski (Anais Watterson from "The Amazing World of Gumball")

Eileithyia - Tati Gabrielle (Willow Park from "The Owl House")

Enyo - Jessica Darrow (Luisa Madrigal from "Encanto")

Zagreus - Rider Strong (Tom Lucitor from "Star vs. The Forces of Evil")

Melinoe - Claire Corlette (Sweetie Belle from "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic")

Pan - David Tennant (Crowley from "Good Omens")

Roman Pantheon

Lord Saturn - Idris Elba (Shere Khan from "The Jungle Book")

Lady Ops - Tilda Swinton (Alithea from "Three Thousand Years of Longing")

Emperor Jupiter - Kerry Shale (Harold Wilson from "The Amazing World of Gumball)

Lord Pluto - Brian Stokes Mitchell (Elktaur from "Centaurworld")

Empress Juno - Georgina Leahy (Stella Goetia from "Helluva Boss")

Ceres -  Anne Hathaway (Queen Mirana from "Alice in Wonderland")

Vesta - Ella Kenion (Delilah from "101 Dalmatian Street")

Lady Proserpina - Mia Wasikowska (Alice from "Alice in Wonderland")

Mercury - Alex Hirsch (King from "The Owl House")

Mars - Michael Kovach (Niles from "SMG4")

Vulcan - Daniel Sharman (Troy Otto from "Fear The Walking Dead")

Venus - Natasia Demetriou (Cala Maria from "The Cuphead Show")

Bacchus - Dana Snyder (Gazpacho from "Chowder")

Phoebus - Marcus Scribner (Bow from "She-Ra and The Princess of Power")

Diana - Zendaya

Minerva - Tabitha St. Germain (Princess Luna from "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic")

Discordia - Zoe Moss (Baroness Von Bon Bon from "The Cuphead Show")

Trivia - Miranda Richardson (Lady Van Tassel from "Sleepy Hollow")

Juventas - Andrea Libman (Fluttershy from "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic")

Lucina - Erica Lindbeck (Emira Blight from "The Owl House")

Bellona - Elizabeth Banks (Lucy "Wyldstyle" from "The Lego Movie")

Plutus - Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy from the "Harry Potter" film series)

Macaria - Lilly Bartlam (Skye from "Paw Patrol")

Faunus - Kayvan Novak (Nandor from "What We Do In The Shadows")

Sea Heirs

Proteus - Jack Dylan Grazer (Alberto Scorfano from "Luca")

Benthesikyme - Elle Fanning (Aurora from "Maleficent")

Kymopoleia - Sophia Lillis (Beverly Marsh from "IT")

Rhode - Dakota Fanning (Coraline Jones from "Coraline")

Isabelle - Anna Kendrick (Poppy from "Trolls")

Ruby - Sofia Carson (Pipp Petals from "My Little Pony: A New Generation")

[paulinawoodpecker]

Watership down: a horror story

Coming soon

Cast:

Sandlefords:

Hazel: James corden

Fiver: Jacob tremblay

Bigwig: Trevor white

Blackberry: rob paulsen

Pipkin: Ciara bravo

Dandelion: Jospeh Balderrama

Hawkbit: frank mele

Clover: Diane Keaton

Bluebell: timothee chalamet

Sliver: Sam smith

Holly: Tom cruise

Toadflax: don cheadle

Violet: Anne Hathaway

The threarah: Hugh jackman

Speedwell: viola davis

Acorn: Tiffany haddish

Buckthorn: Jim Carrey

Cowslip’s Warren:

Cowslip: Alec Baldwin

Strawberry: Alex Kelly

Silverweed: Ryan gosling

Efrafra:

General woundwort: Gary Martin

Hyzenthlay: pippa Bennett Warner

Campion: Joe mele

Vervain: Seth rogen

Orchis: sean Austin

Blackavar: Jung kook

Groundsel: Chris hemsworth

Thethuninnang: Emma stone

Nelthilta: Katie Higgins

Vilthurill: Julia Roberts

Chervil: Pedro pascal

Mystical characters:

Frith: Ed Sheeran

El-ahrairah: will smith

Rabscuttle: Ryan renolds

Prince rainbow: Adam James

The black rabbit of inle: Lizzo

Hufsa: Tom Kenny

King Darzin: Keanu reeves

Rowsby wolf: Justin Timberlake

Yona the hedgehog: Gwen Stefani

Other voices:

Keehar: Peter capaldi

Laurel: SIA

Boxwood: Anna Kendrick

Haystack: Renee Rapp

The mouse: Cathy Ang

Flyarith: Angela basset

Stone crop: Dwayne Johnson

Spartina: Andra day

Granite: Ethan hawke

Shale: Tom holland

Feldspar: Michael Peña

Bark: Margot Robbie

The weasel: will Farrell

[taleofturtleclan]

MOON 0

Dustjump awoke, cold and sore, long before the other survivors. Her sleep had been poor despite her exhaustion. She could not seem to escape the awful sounds of her twolegs wailing, struggling as the waves pulled them under. She would have helped them if she could. She had wanted to help. But they were too heavy, and she too small. Perhaps they had made it to shore after her?

Dustjump slid out of the hollow the cats had sheltered in, careful not to wake her companions. If they were able to rest, then they should. She was sure that last night was the worst experience any of them had ever endured.

Dustjump padded along the damp shoreline, her jaws spread to search for a trace of scent on the breeze. It was no use. The smell of fish and salt overwhelmed everything. She lashed her tail in annoyance. Her eyes would have to do, she supposed.

Dustjump wasn’t sure how far she walked before she decided to give up and turn back, but by the time she returned to the wreck, the sun was well over the horizon line. No hope of slipping back into their makeshift camp unnoticed now. As she made her way over the dunes, a flash of color caught her eye. Her heart rose and then plummeted. Caught up against a rock was a scrap of bright fabric, torn and crusted with salt. She knew that fabric. It had been part of the pelt the old female twoleg had been wearing when the ship went down. She could not help the wail that escaped her jaws as she rushed over to the scrap. She buried her face in it, searching for any trace of her twoleg’s scent. Nothing but the smell of the cruel ocean. 

Dustjump remained there, her face buried in the scrap, until a warm pelt brushed against her own. She looked up into the concerned face of Shale. The black tabby molly had become a close friend over the course of their voyage, spending most of her time basking in the sun with Dustjump when she was not hunting rats on the ship. Dustjump was grateful for the comfort of her presence now, in this time of loss. At least she still had a friend. 

The muted sound of paws slipping on sand made her turn her head. The other survivors, save for the youngest kit, were making their way down a steep dune to her. Jasper, the skinny cream and white tom, was the first to reach her. “We were worried,” he mewed, “when we woke and you were gone. We followed your scent trail to the shore, but since there was no fear-scent or blood, we decided to wait until you came back. Did you... find anyone else?” His tone was bleak, despite the hopeful words. Dustjump simply shook her head. “I didn’t think so,” Jasper whispered sadly.

The cats sat in silence for some time. Finally, Marty, the ginger tom kit, broke the quiet. “What happens now?” he mewed, trying to hide the tremor in his voice. “Where do we go?” The cats exchanged uncertain glances, shifting uncomfortably before eventually turning their attention to Shale. She had acquitted herself well last night, and it was clear that the others looked to her as the de-facto leader. Dustjump was fine with that. She wouldn’t have wanted that job even if she wasn’t grieving.

Shale drew herself up, trying to project confidence. “Go...” she murmured, almost to herself. “I’m not sure. We could try and find new twolegs. Try to go back to the way we were before, somehow.”

“And forget what happened last night? Pretend like it never happened?” Panko hissed. His friend Algernon swept his tail over his spine, smoothing down spiked fur. “Easy, Pan,” he murmured, “no cat will ever forget what happened last night, what we lost.” He turned to the rest of the group. “But he does have a point. Can we really just... move on?”

No cat spoke.

“Then we stay together,” Shale meowed. “Perhaps other cats washed up further along the beach. If we stay near here, maybe we’ll run into them. Or perhaps some of our twolegs survived. They could come looking for us. Either way, it seems that remaining here is the best course of action. Are we... all agreed?” One by one, the survivors nodded their heads. Silence fell upon the group once more. This time, Jasper was the one to break it. “I... have an idea,” he mewed hesitantly. “Maybe its silly but... I feel like so much has changed in just this last day. I don’t... feel like the same cat anymore. And I-I don’t want the same name. It feels... wrong. I’d like to be called Sand, from now on.”

Sand’s proclamation stirred the survivors. “I want to be Current, then,” Marty piped up. “I’m not the same either.” Privately, Dustjump thought the little tom kit didn’t really understand Sand’s reasoning and was mostly interested in having a new, fun name, but she held her tongue. 

“It does feel right, to begin our new lives with new names,” Shale meowed. “I’d like to be called Shell.” 

“Call me Foam, from now on,” Algernon piped up.

“Splash,” Panko muttered.

The survivors turned to look at Dustjump, and she felt the fur along her spine prickle. “I’ll keep my name,” she said firmly. She didn’t want to be anyone other than Dustjump. Perhaps her life had changed, but that didn’t mean she would just leave behind everything she was before. Dustjump had always been her name, and it always would be. She buried her nose in the salty scrap of fabric again, mourning all that had been lost.

One by one, the survivors padded off, to hunt, or to rest, or to care for the tiny kit they had saved from the waves. Finally it was just Dustjump and Shale--Shell, now, she supposed. Shell pressed close against her. “I’m so sorry, Dustjump,” she mewed. “I’d give anything to take your pain away.” Dustjump leaned against her friend, taking comfort in the warmth of her pelt against hers.

The sun was high in the sky when Dustjump was startled awake by movement at her side. She hadn’t even realized she had fallen asleep, but Shell’s tensing muscles and prickling fur brought her guard up instantly. Dustjump opened her jaws to taste the air. A foreign tom-scent hit the roof of her mouth. Not one of the survivors, and not one of the cats that had been on the ship. This was someone entirely new. 

A huge, silver tom with odd spots padded out from the dune grass, his expression neutral. Dustjump slid her claws out, preparing for trouble, but the newcomer’s fur was flat, his posture relaxed.

“Peace, strangers,” he meowed in a lilting accent. “I mean you no harm. I saw the wreck, and thought I would come search for survivors. You can call me Tidechaser.”

[sparrowstarsandsorrow]

Tom Berenger in 'The substitute'(1996), dir. Robert Mandel

[bilgewater01]

dundy soup

(a corncobian short piece)

(intended to be read in Tom Waits monologue voice, at least the last line. also posted on ao3 if you care)

He had not been moving for the past day or so. They would eat today again, they thought, and a man took a knife, and staggered into the other tent.

A girlish shriek pealed through the camp. It is become apparent that the Lieutenant was not as dead as they thought him, and when they began to butcher him he woke and shrilled. It was a mighty cry for a man who had been deathly feeble for weeks now — for a man who appeared by now dead. Presently he appeared even deader, with the blood trickling from his neck, for the butcher graciously began his work with decapitation, so that for the rest of his work he would no longer be reminded that this is a Lieutenant whom he is butchering; the half-dead Lieutenant was shuddering and moving, no longer screaming now, he’d lost his voice now, he is moving so weakly and miserably that all who see think that he would find a better dignity in death. The other Lieutenant, that is Lieutenant Little, crawled out from his tent and looked. Would he give an order to let him go, or to mercifully finish the job which was started? But Lieutenant Little, though he speaks, is not heard. His voice has no strength to travel these few yards between himself and the butcher. And so he crawls closer and speaks directly into the butcher’s ear: “An hour.” “I’m hungry,” says the butcher. “He will die. Wait. You shall not murder your officer.”

Lieutenant Little sees Lieutenant Le Vesconte looking. His eyes are dark and yellow, and the expression in them is inscrutable. He takes it for gratitude. His knees hurt badly with every motion and he moves himself a little closer to Lieutenant Le Vesconte and holds his hand.

“What are you thinking, Henry?”

Lieutenant Le Vesconte mouths a response. Lieutenant Little pretends he understands it.

The gash in Le Vesconte’s neck is half of an inch deep. His blood is very red. Tempting, as wine. Would you drink his blood? But Lieutenant Little is still human and he takes his kerchief and presses it to the wound. He speaks to Le Vesconte and Le Vesconte gives his soundless answers, until he is tired and when he is probed again with a knife he gives no answer. “He was a good man,” Lieutenant Little says this little in the way of an eulogy. He never thought Le Vesconte a truly good man, not after this and not after that, and also by now all virtual notions of goodness have largely lost their meaning — still, it is only customary to give a good word for a man who passed. “God rest your soul, Henry.” He is still holding Le Vesconte’s hand, a gesture loving or greedy, but unthought of. The butcher asks if he can proceed now. “Yes,” Lieutenant Little says.

It still appears as if the Lieutenant’s decrepit sinews spasm and cringe at being cut — yet he doesn’t open his eyes nor his mouth. His head falls to the shale. His body is divided into pieces. He used to be a beautiful man with beautiful face and beautiful hair and beautiful body once. They all used to be beautiful even a year ago. They kindle a little fire and they put the Lieutenant’s parts into the pot, the pot is hanging from a support of three muskets tied by their barrels. The most impatient of the men take their portion raw. Though sickly in life (not in his whole life, only in the final stretch of it), in death he is delicious, more so than the previous man they’ve eaten, it appears to them. They had similar thoughts about the previous one: each man appears more luscious than the other.

And they are hungry, but they shall not murder each other for meat. They are dying on their own quickly enough to last them.

And why does Lieutenant Little have those golden chains in his face?

[woodchoc-magnum]

✨top 9 books✨

tagged by @tripleaxeldiaz 😘💋

(I’m counting a whole series as one book, that’s absolutely not cheating)

Also my tastes are many and varied 🤷‍♀️

World War Z by Max Brooks

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Holding the Man by Timothy Conigrave (this will rip your heart out and destroy you)

The Sookie Stackhouse series by Charmaine Harris

The Stand by Stephen King

Live From New York- the complete uncensored history of Saturday Night Live by Tom Shales

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Marley and Me by John Grogan

Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews (oh yeah that’s right I stand by it too, this is why my writing is full of DRAMA. THIS IS WHAT I GREW UP READING)

Honourable mentions to the Baby-Sitters Club and Sweet Valley High, even though I haven’t read them in years they still hold a special place in my heart ♥️

Tagging @tawaifeddiediaz @cinematicnomad @catdadeddie @buttercupbuck @thisissirius @sevensoulmates and anyone else 😊