#a fucking g u n
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Text
him.
voice and lines by a person on discord (he said he doesn't need the credit :'))
animated by me and this app is horrible on efficiency this app is great when pulling out something right off your head as quickly as possible but it is a p a i n for adding anything else and for cleaning up
idea based on this artwork
wheatley
on a roomba
with a ✨gun✨
144 notes
·
View notes
Text
NPMD best line deliveries
oh shit! oh fuck!! i didnt think thered be a skele'uhn here ?!? im so fucking scared of skele'uhnz!!!
dont frighten him pokey you nasssssty boy
were going to jail...and with my luck no one will even B O T H E R making me their bitch...
🐦 heyus the thing about a bãrbĕqüe...it brings folks together...from awl wawlks of laife...theyres a storhé behand everyh burrghurr...everyh kehbahhb...
but I...called God a sonofa B word...who am iaieEUGHAHuhuuuh...
#honourable mention FUCK YOU CLIVESDALE GO GET FUCKED YOU'RE FUCKING LOSERS AND WE'LL KILL YOU#and ofc W E D O N T G I V E A S H I T A B O U T Y O U R P H O N E#nerdy prudes must die#npmd#starkid#starkid npmd#hatchetfield#hatchetverse#hatchetfield trilogy#tgwdlm#black friday#lords in black#max jagerman#peter spankoffski#grace chasity#richie lipschitz#ruth fleming#steph lauter#nick lang#matt lang#jeff blim#will branner#lauren lopez#jon matteson#mariah rose faith casillas#joey ritcher#kim whalen#angela giarratana#corey dorris#curt mega
5K notes
·
View notes
Text
Son of a bitch
#uhc#uhc shooter#arthrobug#bugbrain#bugbrain bumblings#A FUCKING MCDONALDS MAN#A F U C K I N G M C D O N A L D S#destiel meme
197 notes
·
View notes
Text
just: cry fly
#haikyuu#haikyuu!!#kagehina#hq!!#kageyama tobio#hinata shouyou#OKAY LISTEN;;;;;;;; nothing and i MEAN NOTHING makes me cry faster than fucking chapter 400#where all th FUCKING school banners come up behind each of the players#NOTHING. N O T H I N G#if u ever needed me to cry oN CUE just show me this picture#waterworks. lemme tell you
241 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Fourth Sister walked into a cave, and died there. Lyn Rakish stumbled back into the light, clutching a dying Jedi and determined to save her life. But she has no training, no skill as a healer, and no friends left in the galaxy--and Barriss, as night falls and her fever rises, is running out of time.
#barriss offee#ahsoka tano#lyn rakish#barrissoka#DID YOU THINK YOU WERE SAFE#WE HAVE NOT YET B E G U N TO BE FUCKING BACK BABY#THE PEOPLE ONCE FEARED OUR NAMES#THEY SHALL KNOW FEAR AGAIN--#no but seriously it's a very tender character piece that we're really proud of
75 notes
·
View notes
Text
To be laying beside (or on top) of the short racer king man holding him like a doll cupping his cheek that for some reason feels soft like a marshmallow maybe he programmed it himself who knows, caressing his face with your fingers while kissing him over and over<333 his little giggles and silly noises of "hoohoo~"s as you dote on him since he's not used to getting so close and personal with someone cuz of secret identity I mean what you're not suppose to know that hahaaaa
You lean in down to whisper in his ear "I love seeing you ride on those tracks... has anyone ridden you~?"
#and because he's old from the 80s he doesn't understand#it's 2am and I have t h o u g h t a#haven't rambled about one of these for a while--#I know some people make their Y/N self insert to be his same height#but I fucking laugh (and love) the idea the Y/N is just normal height (think Calhoun I guess) while he's just- like that#ride that short man into oblivion#gonna be like grinding a pillow#I should sleep#king candy#simp rambles#UH NSFT?#king candy x reader#simp writing
67 notes
·
View notes
Text
fucking PRETTY~🎃
#god fucking LOOK at him#fuck fuck fuckfuckfuck f u c k#jesus F U C K I N G christ#hiS CURLS#his fucking jAWLINE#his fucking everything#i am so gone on this whole ass man in his forties#realistically it’s not that bad on my end#that’s only 12 years difference#that’s a thing#if he didn’t have jamia and his two boyfriends#and wasn’t famous#or knew i existed#frnkiebby#frank iero#mcr#mcr5#mcrmy#frnkiero#frnkie#my chemical romance#my chem
212 notes
·
View notes
Text
quick comp of line deliveries (from 5x09) that have been fucking killing me my god
#''I'm trying to save you!'' KILL ME???? KILL ME NOW?????#lmk#lego monkie kid#lmk video#my videos#lmk spoilers#lmk s5#LIKE I DON'T KNOW. IT'S THE FACT THAT HE FIGHTS SO HARD TO KILL HIMSELF AS HIS FAMILY BEGS HIM NOT TO DO IT#JESUS F U C K I N G CHRIST BRO#I feel crazy I feel so fucking crazy dude#my legos
65 notes
·
View notes
Text
Mami is on my intro post and my blog theme icon, I gotta live up to that.
Mami!!!
#Im so excited for the new movie like hoooooly fuck#we are EATING next year fellas we are M U N C H I N G#I gotta find a consistent style when drawing the madoka characters but its been so long since ive drawn them waugh#Soooo anyways Mami!!!#Shes always been my favorite! i just like her aesthetic her character her design RAAAAGH#Shes just so cool#also one more thing idk the context behind this drawing i just passed out while on ibispaint and when i woke up it was there soooo#puella magi madoka magica#madoka magica#tomoe mami#mami tomoe#cherris canvas
244 notes
·
View notes
Note
Seems like a certain little moth got caught up in the "web" of a certain virus <3
Merry Christmas Eve/silly
A
AHAHF
AHGH
AHGAHG
AUJAG
HHAGH
HHGAAGD
HHJHSAGF
HHHHAAAGGHFFFS
A
A
A
A
A
AAAAAAAAHAHGAHAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HA G H
HHHHKK
HHHKHFJG
HHJHAKAJJHGSJSHHA
HHGAHAJAGSHDJHRSHGS
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
JKEJEKEJFJEUDBSMAGANSHFIRHEHEHWUDNSJSBJRH
#F UCK#O HY#U#IIIHHAAHGHAGSHAGAH#HEUEBAKHAANH#NCKEIBEKWBAJRHRNSHGRHRGRHRRGRHREHGARAGARAGRAHRHRGRHARAGRAAGRAGARRHGEGRHRGRHRGEHGRARARAGARAGRAGGGRRHRHRGARGARAGARAGARGRHRGEHARGARAH#HHHRRRGGRGHRGRHGRGRWOOFWOOFWOOFWOOFWOOFFFBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBAKRBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARK#HHHEUAAJHEUEHJCNCKWHEJAHENFKWBHDNEHDMWHDNWYSJEUSHWKFHFMWYSNURNWUFWNUDHWKRNRHNCWUHRUHEUWHAURJTMEHNDUWBRUWBRIAHXJRHENDNAJDHRNSHDNIRNEUFJEHAJAU#B L INKS AT YOU SO FUCKING NORMALLY :33333333333333333333333333333333333333 MEOWSMEOWSMEOWSMEOWSSSSSS AT YOU :333333333333333333333333333333#F U CK IN G P OUNCES ON YOU BITESYOU SHAKES YOU AROUND LIKE A DOG TOY FWUAHAHAHAHAGDJDHHDGAHAGAHAGAHGEHRGEUEGSHRGWAHRAGAFRHRGEGSUAGAHAGAHAGH#RAGARAGATAGFRHRGRGRGARAGRAGAFAGARAGRGEHRGHRRAGFRGEGEGARGRGEGARAGGRRGGRAGARAGATAGAGHRGRGRARAGTAHRHRGRHSHRNKFENRJBAGAHAGAGHAGAHSGAHAGAHGAHHAHA#HAGDJRUEHUWGRKFBEMFJEJXHEGRIDBJWGRHAFSKFKEGSBRIDAGSHWGRHHEGEGARGARAGAGRHRGRUUFBFMCNDMVHDNCBEDJWGXJEOSHCBEINSKSHXKEHDNWJXNAKXBAJXJSHDHRIWBDJG#HSHEUEHEKAKDJNTJRBEJDBJSXBNWGSNDHDBEJDB I NEED H I M SOFUCKING BADH ELP ME I CANCF HANG I HARAGRAGARFHRGRGARGRHARAGRAGRGRHRGRHRAGARAHRHRHAR#IM F UCK I NG FLAPPI NGMYHANDS GIGGLFIFN DELERIOUSLY H EEEELPPPPP HAHAHAUAGAGDBFHRJYEBDIEHDJSHRJUEHDISHRJRHAJHDRNIRNRJSHAJSJHEUEURGAIAGUAHEU#HAGARAGATAHAGHRHRVARAHTAAHGRBRGRRAHFRAGARAGRAGAHHGAGAGRAGARAGARAGAHAGARAHTAAHGRHRGRGARGARAGATRHRJRGARAHTAGARAGRHRGEHARAGRAGRHRGRHEGARAGFRHR#AHAGARAGRAGRAGRGRHRGFAHRHGAGAGTAGATAHRJRHRGTAGRRHHRRGRGRAGARAGRAGARGRHRGRARA I N E EDD HIM IN MYBED RIGHT THEF U CKNOW HAGAHAGSHGRRHEGRHGRG#HGEHAYAGARGARAGGRRHGRHARAGARGRHRGETAHTJUAGSGGRRHRAGRAHGRHRGRHRAGARGRHRGARAHARAGRHRHRGRHRGRHGRAGHFRAGARAFARAGAHARARRARGRHRGRHRAHAFAGRHRGGRAGA#HAGAHAGGGGATRBHTRHGRRAHAGHHRHRHEHARAGRAGGHRGRHRGEHTHRHRBCNJCNFKDBRHEGEHATSJFKRJEYHSGAGSRXHSTXHETRHRHHDCKJSGENJFNDHSGXHSRAGTRKHRHJWJSGARAGATR#RAGARGARAGATGRGRHRGRHRAGARAGRRHRGRHGRHRGRHRRATARARAGARARARARAAAAAGGRHRGRHRGARGARAHAGAGAHAHAAAAHGGRRHTEGRAGATHRHRHRRAGATAGATGATRHHRGRRARARRAR#I M GOINNA FUCKCIN G EXPLODE YO Y HEKP ME IMSO FUCKING NORMAL ABO U T THIS AHAHAHFAHAHAAAAHHRGRHRGRHRAGARAGGRHRGRHRRAGARAGATARAARHRHRHRHRGAR#HRAGARAGARAGRAGRHRGRGRGRHRGRAGARAGARAGRAGRGRGRGRHRARAGRAGAHGRHGRHRGRGRAGARAGARGERHGWHREHRAGARAGARGARAGARGRHRGRHETSBRJRGNFHENSTAGARAGTRHJFNEK#MALWARE MY BELOVED#FUCK I N F F HAGAHDHRURHEUEHSUSHYARAHRJRGRGRGDJUFBEUFBSJSBATAHTAHSGRHRGEHEFARAGARGARAGARHGRRHRHRHHRGRHRRHRAGARAGARAGGRRHGRHRGARARARAHRGRRHGE#RAGAGAHRGRHRGRHRGRARARARHRHRBRBRGARAGRARARAGRHRGRGRHGRRHRAGARATARRHRHRGEHARATARRAGRHRHRRARARAHAHAHHRRGRHRGRARAGRHRHRRAGAGAHGARARARGRHRGARAGA#RARARARAGRGRHGRHRRGRARARGRHRHRGRHRGERATARAGAHRHRHRHRGARAGRAGAHRHRGRHRRARARAHRGRHRGRHRGGATARATHRHRGRHRGGHGAHRAATRATAHGRHRRGGRHRGRHARARRAARRAA#RARARAAHHRGRGRGRGRRAGARAGATARAARHRGRHRGERARARAAHHAHAGARAGRATARARARAHARATRGRHRGRHRGRARARARARARARRAAHAGAHARARRHRHRHRGRAGRHRHRHARATRRHHRHRHARRA#AHAGGAHAGAHAGAHAGAHHAHAGAGAGAGAGGEHARAFRARARARAGAHAGAGARAGRAGARAGAGAGAHAHAHAGAHRAGARAGAHHARAGARAHAGAHARAGARAGARAGRATARARARARARARARARARARARAH#I AM G OJNG TO KISS AND KISS AND KISS AND KISS AND [REDACTED] AND [BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPP] AND HAGAHSGDHEYEHEUEGHEGAGARGRHRGRRHGDJDHSJDRGHRGA#HAGARAHEGRYRGRURGEJAGSHRHEBIRHSUAHRKRBENSHABXHBRRJFJDNEJSBGASHRZGSRCHJRBTKCHEDJBEICBWJXBAJZGRNJRHEKRHRISBKEGAHXTSJXHRKHWFJJABSUWBXIRBEJSBAJG#I A M ON THEFUCKCING FLOOR HE PLLLLEHRHEUSBSYAGHAAHEHRUEGAHAGAGRAFARAGGRHRGRJDUSGJFBFKEHRJEUAHJAGRRJHRDGARAGARAGARGRRHGRHRGRAGARAGAGHRGRRG
27 notes
·
View notes
Text
All it takes is a wee little nightmare to make you too scared to step foot outside for fear of Bad Things happening, like it’s an omen lol
#also it is p o u r i n g outside and it takes me an hour and fifteen minutes to commute to campus#i'm a good little student but sometimes i just can't be assed#esp with all the crazy stuff that's been happening on public transit and on my campus for that matter#i'm just getting a bad vibe today [insert empath meme here]#warning for me complaining about a graphic nightmare!!!!:#had a few stress dreams(?) last night but one particularly violent one in which a woman got run over by a streetcar--#--and the paramedics were moving people along but i accidentally got a really good look at her and it fucked me up#she looked like she was just sleeping peacefully but i could only really make out the top half of her body#probably because the bottom half was... yeah.#i think i also had another dream that i was being hunted by a sniper?? and they had called my cell and were threatening me + my folks?#and another one where i had to hide some children from... i don't really know what. some dangerous person who wanted to kill all of us#but the kids wouldn't leave me even though i begged them to.#yeah just a normal collection of dreams for me. literally ugh.#i don't even think i'm stressed in my life rn??#not any more than normal lol
501 notes
·
View notes
Text
so yk how in the quirrel comic, he says “little food i need, and little rest” ?
i wonder if that’s because monomon was protecting him…
#HMMMMM#i like to think that after everything; when he goes to set off on his travels again;#he’s surprised at how fast he gets worn out; and how much more difficult it is now#and he’s like “how did i manage to do this before??”#(boy it’s cus monomon was looking after u; and u were making it HARD FUCKING WORK#she was probably in the dream realm b e g g i n g u t o e a t . or s l e e p .#m y g u y . g i v e h e r a b r e a k .)#(i mean not anymore she’s dead now it’s too late but u get the point)#hollow knight#quirrel#headcanons#stan’s forum
59 notes
·
View notes
Note
Does your narrator have a name? ^^
I don’t think he’ll come up with anything good anytime soon tho… and there’s only so much one can suggest and think about
Poor Stanley tho
#he does!#but also dosnt AKWNAJWJS#I am s t r u g g l i n g#his name is not pronounace able#*pronounable#only by him#and technically the curator lol#rip Narry stop getting so worked up over a make#I fucking love doodle responses#also helps me train in loser sketches haha so ya all getting more of these with my responses lmao#inbox#Quinn talks#tspstuff#tsp#the stanley parable#tsp narrator#🐈💜🎨
21 notes
·
View notes
Text
Just saw wet GVF footage and I can say with uppermost utmost confidence that I am no better than a man
#THEYRE FUCKING W E T#SOPPING#THERE IS WATER. THERE IS DRIPPAGE. THERE IS DROPLETS BEING S L U N G#greta van fleet#josh kiszka#jake kiszka#sam kiszka#danny wagner#gvf#josh gvf#jake gvf#sam gvf#danny gvf
32 notes
·
View notes
Text
i used to freehand comics all the time as a child and since the part i liked was the drawing part i would just draw panel after panel because i didn't want to stop drawing to think about icky icky words, plus the story TOTALLY still made perfect sense! to me! and noone else, but 'whoooo caaaaares omgggg its not like comics and sequantial art are a communicative meeediummmm lmaoooooo'. i spent my entire childhood telling myself stuff like "oh pfft I know this story by heart- ill SIMPLY remember the dialogue and write it later" ...and. I can't help but admire baby maiora's (call that a minora ba tm tsk) fucking audacity? hubris? confident wrongness? kid couldn't even remember to finish the comics in the first place? INCREDIBLE levels of unearned self assurance, wish that were me, genuinely- what an icon!!! anyway i think i have forever cursed myself
#maiora garrulates#the maiora overthinks the process of writing dialogue saga continues!!!!!!!#im so tired. i have been overthinking this shit in circles i have not been making any progress in any which way lmao!#im bitching and moaning for funsies this is not that serious in the Grand Scheme Of Things i just wanna improve at my fav thing#and ❤️ Unfortunately ❤️ my favorite thing in the world involves learning MY MOST HATED *NEMESIS*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! verbal communication. ew#words are fun! i LOVE words! toys!!!!! im using words right now and i didn't combust!!!!! wow look at that!!!!!!!!!!!!!#putting words in SEQUENCE? multiple times?? filtering THOUGHTS into SENTENCES???? sentences that a character would or wouldn't SAY???#AND THEN THERE'S ANOTHER CHARACTER SOMETIMES???? AND THAT BITCH ALSO HAS THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS????? AND THEY ALL HAVE PERSONAL IDIOLECTS#AND TONES THAT S U P P O S E D L Y ARE IMPLICATED BY MANNERISMS AND VERBAL HABITS AND CIRCUMSTANCES (AND THERE'S WRONG ANSWERS! ALSO!!)#AND THEY'RE IN A CONTEXT!! AND THEY'RE INTERACTING WITH EACH OTHER AND INFLUENCING EACH OTHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#THE CONVERSATION COULD VARY GIVEN ENERGY LEVELS WHETER OR NOT SOMEONE'S FOOT IS FALLING ASLEEP THE F U C K I N G WEATHER#“oh dialogue is easy just say it out loud to yourself until it 'sounds normal' ^^”#screaming crying throwing up NONE OF THIS IS INTUITIVE TO MEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....!#ok dramatics over its out of my system! for now!!!#this is all easily explained bc i just. draw a lot more than i talk to people. so like. OBVIOUSLY i have more practice drawing#so drawing comes natural! talking does not! subsequently dialogue is Hard! No FUCKING Shit Sherlock!!!!! (affectionate)#so yeah. im using y'all (the tumblr void) as practice! hi!!! words at you!!!!!!!!!!#so yeah thanks for baring with me while passing by my corner of the internet#i do love self indulgence this is fun check out my navel gazing actually no do not look at my belly button#anyway i just think this is mildly interesting. some of my writer buds have the same “not good enough” allergy towards visuals#but they use it to be mean2me >:( same bitch that “omg i cant i suck at drawing i can't do this-” does the “uhm. just write? lol.” 2 meeee#we could have peace and love on planet earth and a common experience and yet you KICK miette for being bad at words!!!1!!! </3 heartbreak!!#what the fuck was i talking about even#oh yeah. perfectionism within creatives i guess. LMAO JK i am talking about NOTHIN!!!!G i am just putting Words Out Here ehehehehehe#its practice >;)c#all this bc ive been doodling comics for myself again and im V!! PROUD OF THE ART!!!! wanna share- but DIALOGUE!*⚡sfx!!*....... so! options#a) leaving it blank. no there are NO microphones in the budget. b) leaving blank *balloons* so that the Rythm is there. implied convo!!!#c) ...doing it badly. (tragic)(heartwrenching)(teeny tiny bruise 2 the ego) *dramatic single tear cleches fists * its the only way.........#...we shall see! literally none of this is all that serious i am procrastinating!! <3 playing with my tuoys!!!!!!!! silly time!!!#/all lh! am reaching 30 tags so that is all for THIS episode of the maiora bitches about dialogue saga thank you for joining me!!okilyBuhBY
21 notes
·
View notes
Text
Attempt at a Comprehensive List of
Alexander von Humboldtʼs Potential Boyfriends
When if not now that Alex came 2nd in the @napoleonic-sexyman-tournament (what a time to be alive) would be the perfect time to finally thoroughly pick his private life apart. Strangely it has always been a mystery even to me (and of course overall it will remain a mystery until the end of times), but I still thought it was about time to at least get some order in the few things that we do know – mainly for myself but also, I dare say, for the public. You (the public!) will find a short text for every friend under the cut ↓.
disclaimers:
a) I tried to pick the most appropriate picture of everyone but please imagine especially the first ones a lot younger than they are in the pictures
b) it’s a potential boyfriends list, meaning: I’m not saying Alex definitely had romantic and/or sexual relationships with any let alone all of these men, it’s just a list of men where it seems at least possible; but ultimately, of course, we do not know and will never know
c) Alex lived for almost 90 years, and even though his textual remains can seem infinite, there is a lot we don’t know about him, especially his private life, not least because he habitually destroyed almost all of his private letters (which is also why for all of his correspondences we only know the letters he wrote but almost never the ones he received) − so I don’t think there’s any way this list is exhaustive (let me know if you think anyone is missing?)
d) Bonpland is not in this because Alex went out of his way to specifically state that his relationship with Bonpland was purely scientific
e) the point of this post isn’t to determine his sexuality, but since it has already come up, just a couple of words on him being on the asexual spectrum: that is perfectly possible and maybe not even unlikely, he said things about himself that could be interpreted as such (not wanting to marry, not having sensual needs); but I think it’s good to keep two things in mind about that: 1. not wanting to get married was a big thing in 1800, something you had to explain yourself for and not wanting to get married as a man also obviously meant not wanting a wife, it was by no means a question on whether or not wanting a significant other and/or sex; 2. the narrative of his sex-less life at least partly derives from the (mainly 19th/20th century) wish for him not to have been (actively) homosexual
f) I hate to be that person, but it has to be said: language and culture back then were much more emotional and expressive than we are used to today, so not everything that sounds super intimate or even romantic to us (language-wise) has to actually have been meant that way; of course this doesn’t rule out anything either but it’s a thing to keep in mind
g) if anyone is interested in sources or further reading on anything particular, do not hesitate to hit me up! But i’m not adding any of that to this post because 1. it’s already 2 km long and 2. this is tumblr dot com
Wilhelm Gabriel Wegener (1767-1837)
18-year-old Alex met Wilhelm in 1787 during the one semester he studied at the University of Frankfurt (Oder). Wilhelm was a (protestant) theology student and on 13 February 1788 they made a “holy” oath to “eternal brotherly love”. They wrote each other very cheesy letters, very much in the Empfindsamkeit fashion of the time, proclaiming their eternal and ever-growing love for each other. There was no one on earth, Alex wrote to him once (and in Italian no less), whom he loved as ardently as him (“Non vi è uomo sopra la terra ch'io amì così ardammente che lei…”). He also told him that, ever since he had met him, it seemed to him that God had created people only in pairs, because no one else could ever compare to what he meant to him. In his letters Alex also repeatedly refers to the many hours spent together (“chatting”) in a certain armchair in Frankfurt and proclaims that he has never been happier than in that very chair.
They kept contact for a couple of years after their time in Frankfurt, but at some point their friendship faded out.
Carl Ludwig Willdenow (1765-1812)
Willdenow (a published botanist) and Alex met in 1788 in Berlin, when Alex had one day decided to just call at his house to ask him to teach him botany. Willdenow agreed and they became friends quickly, spent a lot of time together, and when Alex wandered through Berlin on his own to collect plants, he would afterwards bring them to Willdenow who would then identify them for him.
We do not know a lot about their friendship during that time (and maybe I only included him in this because I needed 9 tiles) but at least one phrase in Alex’s autobiography fragment calls our attention, not least because it’s highlighted by what I like to call a Streisand strike-through: “I became enthusiastically fond of him” or “I grew to love him enthusiastically” (“Ich gewann ihn enthusiatisch lieb”, written in 1801 and crossed out roughly 50 years later).
They stayed in contact even after Alex had left Berlin a couple of months later: in 1795 Alex became godfather of Willdenow’s son and in 1810 he convinced him to come to Paris to work on his botanical collections from the South America trip. Sadly, Willdenow fell ill in 1811 and died in 1812 in Berlin.
Karl Freiesleben (1774-1846)
Alex met Karl in 1791 in Freiberg, where both studied geology and mining at the renowned Bergakademie. Karl was the son of a local mining family and Alex learnt a lot from him about his new profession. They both were nerdy about stones and minerals in ways you couldn’t even begin to imagine. They gifted each other minerals, went down into the mines together, and in August 1791 they made a 200 km long geological expedition through the mountains of Bohemia on foot. But aside from pages-long enthusiastic rants about geology, Alex’s letters to Karl are also full of sentimental love declarations. He called him Herzens-Freisesleben, Herzens-Karl or Herzensjunge (roughly “my heart’s Freiesleben/Karl/boy”) and once finished a letter with: “going to bed now and I’ll be happy when I dream of you” — a passage Karl thoroughly struck through later, probably so no one else could read it, but someone deciphered almost all the struck through passages anyway (not all heroes wear capes!).
Karl and Alex stayed (sporadic and long-distance) friends for the rest of Karl’s life.
Reinhard von Haeften (1772-1803)
The above picture shows a snippet from one of Alex’s travel journals where he noted Reinhard’s birthday (“14 Mai R.”) because sadly we don’t have a picture of Reinhard. But let’s hear how Alex described him:
“This Reinhard v. Haeften has been my only and hourly company for a year now. I live with him, he visits me in the mountains. [...] I have already ridden 8 miles [60 km] just to see him for a couple of hours. He is very tall, taller than most men and he’s only 22 years old but looks more mature than me [at 25]. He has a very remarkable face and everyone finds him to be one of the most beautiful men, and I too think he’s beautiful, but most importantly I have never seen purity of the soul, kindness and courtesy being reflected in anyone’s features as much as in his.”
Alex and Reinhard met in 1793 in Bayreuth (where Alex now worked as a mining official) and they quickly moved in together. However, shortly before meeting Alex, Reinhard had also managed to make a baby with a married woman 4 years older than him. Alex was friendly with Christiane, the child’s mother and helped to keep the birth a secret. The boy (named Friedrich Gustav Alexander, Alex’s godson and surely named after him) had to spend the first years away from his parents. In the meantime, Reinhard continued to live with Alex, accompanied him on business trips and mineralogical expeditions and in 1795 they went on a two-month trip through Northern Italy and Switzerland. It was only with and through him, Alex wrote to Reinhard once, that he could live, only close to him that he could be fully happy.
Later, after Reinhard and Christiane had finally gotten married (and reunited with their son), Alex wrote him a very long letter, proposing for the three of them to (continue to?) live together with Reinhard as head of the family and to settle for quiet life in Switzerland, Italy, or some small town in the west of Germany. That plan never worked out, but “Rein” (as Alex called him), Christiane, their by now two children and Alex lived and travelled together for another two years while Alex was already preparing for his big journey.
After he had sailed for the Americas in 1799, he tried his best to stay in contact with them. In his letters, he called them his “Herzensmenschen” (again, roughly: “his heart’s humans”), wrote them that he was dreaming about them day and night and how much he wished that his – their – Rein could be with him to see all the marvels, too. But cross-atlantic communication was bad during that time and in both directions most letters never arrived.
Sadly, Reinhard unexpectedly died in 1803 while Alex was still in America, meaning they never got to meet again. Alex stayed in contact with Christiane and the children − the only survivors of the shipwreck, as he put it − and wrote Christiane how he still remembered their time together, along with all the hopes and dreams that they had had and that despite the “all-robbing fate”, there was something unalterable in the depth of their love, that could only die with them. When Christiane remarried and had another son in 1806, she named him Gustave Louis Reinhard Alexandre. Alex continued to financially support Christiane and the children and in 1813, Reinhard’s son Fritz (Alex’s godson) visited Alex in Paris for three months.
Carlos Montúfar (1780-1816)
Alex met Carlos in 1802 in Quito and despite him having no scientific qualifications whatsoever, Alex chose Carlos to accompany him on his further journey. This decision offended botanist, geographer and astronomer Francisco José de Caldas (who himself had hoped to join the expedition) so much that he, in a letter to botanist José Celestino Mutis, famously called Carlos “[señor Barón de Humboldt’s] Adonis”, probably insinuating that Alex had picked Carlos purely for his looks, or even more.
Together with the rest of the party, Alex and his supposed “Adonis” travelled what today is Ecuador (where they climbed the Chimborazo), Peru, Mexico, Cuba and the USA. At least once during that journey (but perhaps regularly?) they shared a bed (as in some kind of temporary/mobile accomodation) which we know because Alex explicitly says so in his travel journal when he describes a night in which Carlos had very bad stomach cramps which Alex tried to ease by heating handkerchiefs over the fire for him in the middle of the night.
Carlos accompanied Alex back to Europe in 1804 and stayed with him in Paris for a couple of months (where they most likely both attended Napoleon’s coronation) until he ultimately left to go to Madrid. But since Carlos had trouble getting money from South America, he still had to rely on Alex’s support. However, over time his contact to Alex seems to have broken off, because in a letter from 1806, Carlos complained about Alex not answering him anymore (“¡Qué largo silencio!”) and then told him, quite dramatically, that he was running out of money, and that he, Alex, was his only friend, his only hope, and the only person he knew in Europe who could tell him what to do. Whether all of Alex’s letters had gotten lost in the mail and whether Alex ended up helping him out or not, I think we don’t know. (But knowing him as I do and since he after all kept that letter, I’m sure that he did.)
Later, Carlos went back to South America, where he (alongside Símon Bolívar) fought to liberate the continent from the Spanish Crown − a fight he unfortunately didn’t survive: he was captured and executed by the Spanish in 1816.
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1778-1850)
Alex and Gay (that’s what Alex called him, no pun intended) first met in 1804 in Paris, just after Alex’s return from America. Before, Gay had done two things: 1. contributed to a harsh critique on one of Alex’s papers, 2. ascended 7016 m in a hot-air balloon to investigate the air up there − a world record at the time and more than 1000 m higher than Alex had been on the Chimborazo, which had then also been a world record (in recorded European history).
Evidently, these were the best conditions for them to totally hit it off: they almost immediately started to work on the evaluation of Gay’s balloon ascent and often spent entire days working together in Gay’s room, from 9 am until after midnight. In a letter to his father, Gay wrote that Alex was the man with the best heart he had ever known, that their tastes and sentiments were absolutely the same − and that their hearts felt a great need to see each other very often.
After the publication of their paper (in which they, without fully realising it, also first identified the chemical composition of water: H2O), they (and another friend) went on a six-month field trip through Switzerland and Italy − where they were lucky enough to witness both an earthquake and a resulting Vesuvius eruption. They ended their journey in Berlin where Gay stayed at Alex’s for a couple of months and even started to learn German until he unexpectedly had to leave for Paris. His absence, Alex wrote after Gay had left, pained him a lot.
When Alex finally returned to Paris as well, they shared a single room at the École Polytechnique and even after Gay became a father in 1808 and married in 1809, Alex continued to (at least occasionaly) live with his family for many years. Gay’s first son (born in 1810) was named Jules Alexandre and while I have no proof that he was named after Alex, I think it’s safe to assume. Alex seems to have also been very intimately integrated into the family life, because he once wrote to Willdenow (with a humorous undertone of course): “We are always pregnant and just had a girl again. Right now we’re not feeling anything though.” Alex was also there to help when an explosion in a laboratory accident injured Gay’s eyes so badly that Alex and another friend had to take him home in a blindfold.
No letters between the two have survived (that we know of), but we do know that in the years after they first met, Alex considered Gay his best friend and “one of the kindest beings in the world”, that he named an American plant genus after him (Gaylussacia), and that they used “tu” with each other (which was very uncommon in France at the time except for childhood friends and family). They stayed friends for the rest of their lives and formed a kind of trio with Arago (see below).
Karl von Steuben (1788-1856)
We don’t know when exactly they first met but according to Alex they started to see each other daily in 1812 at the studio of painter François Gérard, where Alex had then started to take drawing lessons. Steuben, a young aspiring artist, lived and worked at Gérard’s studio. According to Alex, they “drew and painted” together “daily” for at least one or two years. Withdrawn from all other society, he wrote, this was now his “only joy” (interestingly almost the exact same wording he had used to describe his relationship with Reinhard 20 years earlier). However, it had perhaps been one of Alex’s exaggerations because he at least seems to have attended the famous salons Gérard held at his studio, where all the cool Paris people came to hang out. Alex reportedly talked incessantly, stayed late into the night (the main thing usually didn’t get going until midnight) and was found there again, freshly dressed and shaved, already at 7 in the morning.
In the meantime, Alex had started to torment basically everyone around him to commission Steuben to paint them, their sons, daughters, fiancés etc. to help Steuben support his poor mother in St. Petersburg. In 1814, even Alex’s brother noted that Alex had suddenly become strangely interested in art. In the same year, Alex became godfather to Steuben’s newborn son Alexander.
However, the biggest commission Alex got Steuben was a life-sized full-body painting of himself, which he intended to gift to his sister-in-law. It took 7 years to finish and in the end Alex’s brother had to pay for transport and framing because Alex had run out of money. Neither his brother nor his sister-in-law were overly enthusiastic about the likeness of the painting or Steuben’s talent in general but they still put it up in their home because after all, as his brother put it, they loved Alex and always liked a picture of him around.
Alex and Steuben stayed in at least loose contact for many years and Alex occasionally even still tried to get him commissions. Steuben’s painting of Alex hung in the Humboldt residence in Tegel for over a century before it was ultimately destroyed in WWII. Apparently though, another Alex portrait by Steuben from 1815 still exists in a private collection somewhere.
François Arago (1786-1853)
Arago, a young astronomer, was on a scientific expedition through Spain when he got entangled in the Peninsular War: mistaken for a French spy, he got arrested and incarcerated, managed to flee, was captured again, transferred, released, drifted off at sea to Algeria, all the while managing to hold on to his most valuable possession: his scientific records, which he kept hidden under his shirt at all times. When Alex heard about this (the two had never met before), he was so impressed by his courage and determination that he sent a letter to congratulate him — and to offer him his friendship. And in fact, one of the first things Arago did when he finally returned to Paris in 1809 was to go and meet Alex. It was the beginning of a 44-year-long friendship. They saw each other almost daily, worked together at the observatory, planned an expedition to Tibet (which never happened), and actually travelled at least to London in 1817 to visit Alex’s brother, who commented to his wife: “Alexander has arrived yesterday. But he isn't staying with me, even though his room had already been prepared. You know his passion to always be with one person who is his favourite at that time. Now he has the astronomer Arago who he doesn't want to part with (...) So they're staying at a nearby inn.” Just as with Gay, Alex and Arago used “tu” with each other and after Arago had gotten married in 1811, Alex was close with his wife and children as well as with his siblings, nieces and nephews — in some letters he even considered himself part of the Arago family.
When Alex was forced to move back to Berlin in 1827 to work for the king, he wrote Arago desperate letters on how much their separation pained him, how much he missed him every hour of every day. In the following 26 years, Alex’s letters to him were full of yearning pleas for just a couple of lines of his hand, which, as he wrote, always made his heart flutter. However, Arago often didn’t respond for months, but when he did, he at least knew to reassure Alex, writing things like: “Outside my family, you are, without any comparison, the person I love most tenderly in this world.” Alex kept a portrait and a large Arago bust in his study in Berlin, and until his late seventies, he travelled to Paris regularly (that is, every few years), first and foremost to see Arago. (Actual quote from 78-year-old Alex in a letter to his niece: “Every morning at half past eight without interruption, I’ve been at Arago’s in the observatory, today for the 62nd time.”) According to Arago, he and Alex have only been angry with each other one single time in all those decades and even that went over in an instant.
They saw each other for the last time in January 1848, on the last night of Alex’s last stay in Paris. When Arago fell ill five years later, his family informed Alex of his worsening condition — but Alex couldn’t travel to Paris to see him one last time. Even over a year after Arago’s death, Alex wrote that the memory of those last moments in January 1848 vividly came back to him during the night at least once a week. He outlived his friend by 6 years.
#alexander von humboldt#alejandro#i'm so sorry alex ://#but this is the part about the mortifying ordeal of being known#(and we're all here to love you for it!!!)#all of this happened because i had a strange and unsatisfying conversation on this that got interrupted and never finished#and i couldn't stop rotating all i wanted to say in my head for literal weeks#and this (an in-depth and overly well researched overview of his 'intimate special friends') isn't at all what i would have wanted to say#but i think it still helped me to finally let go of that conversation#and a bonus: they're all my sons-in-law now🥺#lastly there's a lot i would have to add to this#(for instance did Friedrich Gustav Alexander von Haeften; Jules Alexandre Gay-Lussac;#Alexander von Steuben and Gustave Louis Reinhard Alexandre de Vernejoul ever meet I need to know????)#(or that the portrait i chose for arago was painted by steuben.... 🌝 (the one alex had in berlin was by scheffer though))#(or: it matters it matters it matters it matters it matters it matters it matters it matters it matters it matters it matters)#but actually i'm just going to say this one single thing:#gay-lussacs balloon ascent was a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e I N S A N I T Y#imagine being in a hot air ballon#ON YOUR OWN#SEVEN KILOMETRES from the ground#(that's a plane 25 (TWENTYFIVE!) mins before landing)#in 1804#(e i g h t e e n h u n d r e d f o u r)#and not to be a pioneer in aviation#but to MEASURE AIR#????????#holy fucking shit
14 notes
·
View notes