#also this is a new reason for him and roberts to fight about things

[viric-dreams]

Something I've been rolling around in my head: Jones is closest to the Great Game for professional reasons, but I think the Game aside, he's actually closest to the Church.

Religion was not something he'd given much thought to on the surface, but in Newgate he had access to only one regular visitor, and one book. It became a stabilising ritual in his life: praying to mark time, keeping count from one holy day to the next, saying grace before meals to prove to himself that he's still civilised, still a person enough to take a moment to reflect and not tear into whatever's in front of him as fast as he can.

The priest had offered to pass on his words back to his family on the surface, let them know how much he missed them. This is how he eventually managed to reestablish contact with the one sister who would still speak to him once he got out.

And when he left Newgate, the local church was one of the first social spaces he had, where he was able to make those first connections with people again and rejoin a community. It's a lot less prominent in his life in London: Prayer is limited to a few moments before bed, and he's still a regular Sunday visitor to the church.

What he actually believes isn't so important, especially in a place where Judgements are demonstrable forces and Hell is real. It's the belief itself, and the rituals that go along with it that give his life structure, and helped him gain a sense of autonomy and control, when for so many years he had none.

This has some particularly interesting implications for his relationship with Nite, a man who fully believes in the Judgements and is working to break the Chain, and eventually tries to persuade Jones to the cause. And his zeal is infectious. Jones is able to hold simultaneously contradictory views. It's not the first or last time that he does.

And though it was the Anglicans and not the Catholics whom he's embraced (in contrast to several of the more religious members of London's Welsh community), he can't help but see the parallels in his work with administering the Rites of St. Joshua. It's the part of his work that he finds the most satisfying--being able to relieve people of their burdens.

[try-set-me-on-fire]

Bed hair for the soft prompts if it inspires :3

@zahlibeth also asked for this one! On ao3 here!

It's easy to rely on habit in times of crisis. It’s been a long while since Athena has been put on security detail but her body still sinks into it, easy. Think of a grocery list, or a mediocre book you read, or try to remember all the rules of Risk — something to keep you from inattentive boredom, but not something so engaging you’ll be distracted. Feet a little apart, legs stiff but not locked, settle into your own bones because you’ll be here awhile.

It’s wrong, though, because if she were actually working she’d be in uniform, and she’d be by the door facing out instead of across the hall looking in, and she’d never be assigned to this room. She isn’t a doctor, there aren’t any hard and fast rules about family members, but any captain worth a damn would bench her for being too close to the situation to keep a clear head.

In the room, Eddie Diaz sets a plastic grocery store bag down on Evan Buckley’s bed. Buck shifts his thigh just a little to make room for it, gazing up at his friend with a smile that Athena can’t quite manage to look at without hurting. Every smile on that boy’s face since he woke up has hurt, for reasons Athena can’t quite explain to herself. Bobby has been shaking with relief, giddy with it, grinning down at the kid in awe whenever he’s in the room. Maybe that’s it; while Buck was unconscious she was needed as a rock, she had to be the solid foundation everyone could build themselves around. It’s okay now. Buck is awake — alive — and still sore, still not well, but he’s going to be okay. They can all relax. But here she is, standing guard, because everyone is alright and she can take her turn giving into paranoia and catastrophe.

She doesn’t think that’s quite it, though. It’s… she’s having trouble with the timeline. The facts of the case don’t feel like they’re adding up right, though she knows they’re true. Sunday afternoon: Evan Buckley was at the home of Robert Nash and Athena Grant. He was there for lunch. He sat at the kitchen table and he laughed, and he smiled. Monday night: Evan Buckley, in the regular course of his job, climbed a ladder to aid in putting out a fire in an apartment building. He was struck by lightning, and he died. Bobby, the one time she convinced him to come home and sleep in a bed, wept that he had again held the body of his son. Thursday morning: After four days in a coma fighting organ failure and other yet unknown effects of being hit by 300 million volts of electricity, Evan Buckley woke up. He woke up. He laughed with his father, with the rest of his family. He smiled, bright as he always has.

He smiled, he died, he’s smiling again. That’s what happened, indisputable, but each part of it feels wrong, feels tainted by the central event. How could he have smiled so happily on Sunday, when that was going to happen the next day? How can he smile so happily now that it has? He was in her house. She shouldn’t have let him leave.

“Alright,” Eddie says, pulling wet wipes, a spray bottle, various other things out of the bag. “I’m not gonna lie to you; after a few days of this your hair is going to feel as disgusting as it does now just in new and exciting ways, but hopefully by then you’ll be home. Or- at least they’ll let you take a real shower.”

Buck laughs, running a finger over the spines of a hair brush. “Dude, anything will be better than this. I feel like I’m made of grease.” He reaches a hand up — to run it through his limp hair, maybe — but winces and lowers it carefully again. Athena holds her breath yards away as Eddie freezes, minutely, just a tiny second of stillness before he’s smiling and opening the wipes.

“Well,” Eddie says, voice just as cheerful as before, “Luckily for you I am a master of the unsatisfying hospital hair cleaning routine.”

Buck almost giggles, shoulders wiggling like the way a child laughs. “Oh, please, show me your ways.”

Eddie holds up the wipe first. “Sorry this smells so flowery, but it’s the wettest brand of wipes I‘ve found.” He starts to hand the damp square to Buck, but hesitates. “Uh- I was going to let you- but it’ll be uncomfortable for- do you want me to just…”

“Sure,” Buck smiles. “I trust you.”

Eddie only made it in the room once while Buck was out, as far as Athena is aware. He’d haunted the hall like a ghost or a watchdog, though she supposes she’s not really one to talk while she’s posted out here. She watches as he directs Buck to scoot closer and stands as far to the back of the bed as he can get so he’s sort of behind Buck. She wonders if he’ll hesitate to touch him. She did. Since he woke up nearly 24 hours ago she has put a hand on his shoulder, once. It had been warm. He’d been moving, a little, half dead and even then unable to keep still. Eddie squeezes the wipe above Buck’s head, dripping faintly floral dampness, and then starts moving the cloth around his curls, and he doesn’t hesitate at all. Athena breathes in and out. Not half dead, she reminds herself. Mostly living.

Buck isn’t moving much now. He looks utterly relaxed as Eddie cleans away days of hospital grime. The man is so gentle about it, movements incredibly soft and slow, a hand supporting Buck’s head any time he needs to reposition to get at a new spot. She’d assumed this is a trick he’d learned after getting shot, but wonders now if this is an older skill, perfected on his child’s curls after any of Christopher’s hospital stays.

“Alright,” Eddie says, several discarded wipes later. He sets the last one on the mattress with a little flourish. “Step one complete.”

Buck opens eyes that drifted shut at some point, laughing quietly. “God, I feel better already.”

“Well, now it’s time for detangling, so don’t be too happy with me yet.”

Buck snorts, gingerly passing back the hair brush. “I’ll be brave, do your worst.”

Buck can’t see Eddie’s face with the way he’s standing, but Athena has a clear view. Sort of sad, kind of frightened. Athena is suddenly sure that he’s only ever going to do his absolute best for the man in the bed before him. “Okay,” he says, a warning before he starts, and she’s surprised that his voice doesn’t shake.

He begins with his fingers, pulling them so very carefully through the knotted strands, and it’s so intimate that Athena looks away on instinct. She counts all the chairs she can see in the waiting room, she reads all the signs on the walls. She doesn’t look in the room again until Buck speaks.

“Thank you.” He’s looking up at Eddie, neck craned as he tilts his head back, and she knows all the jokes about our Buckaroo, resident golden retriever, but it makes her think of a cat she had when she was younger. The tiny thing would plaster herself to your side and lean her head back up against you, so much love in her gaze you couldn’t help but smile back. Eddie smiles back, now.

“It’s no problem, Buck.”

“I can still thank you,” Buck says as Eddie leans over him to grab the spray bottle. Dry shampoo. He mists Buck’s head with it, ruffling his hair to get it evenly coated. “It’s polite.”

Eddie laughs, and Athena hadn’t realized his laughter before had been a little muted. “You don’t have to be polite to me.”

Buck grins. “Fine. Gel me up, peon.”

Eddie laughs again, loud and cackly, as he grabs the last tub from the bag. “Yes, sir. I got a pomade, it’s a little lighter than your normal stuff so hopefully the build up won’t feel so bad.”

“Okay.”

Eddie moves so he can see Buck’s face again, working the product into his hair and doing some light styling. The pomade doesn’t have much hold, his curls remain more prominent than they usually are, but he looks cleaner, a little neater, and definitely happier once Eddie is finished.

“There you are.” Eddie says, sitting back down in the chair pulled up to Buck’s bedside. He raises a pointed eyebrow, lips curved into a smirk. “Remember to leave a five star yelp review.”

Buck throws his head back in laughter, and Eddie sways forward into the orbit of it. The look on his face is- he’s lovestruck. She’d wondered about that — with more and more frequency lately, every story from Buck starting and ending with the other man — but she doesn’t know Eddie as well as some of the others on Bobby’s team and hadn’t wanted to assume. There is no doubt, though, looking at him now. Strangely, it makes Athena feel a little better. She definitely hadn’t known Eddie when his wife had passed but she knows it happened. She remembers Emmet, thinks of Marcy. Michael, and then Bobby. Buck and Eddie. The timeline — smiles, death, smiling again — is one she knows, after all, just in a different context, on a longer timeline.

When Buck leans forward again after his guffaw Eddie hasn’t moved back, so they end up very close to each other, matching grins reflecting between them. Eddie spots a bit of product near Buck’s temple and reaches up with a thumb to wipe it away, and it’s such a casual gesture until, suddenly, Eddie’s breath catches in his throat. When he falls apart he does it with a swift efficiency that something in Athena admires. His face shatters, his whole body slumps forward like a puppet with cut strings, a sob rattles up out of him with no preamble.

Buck’s eyes are wide, but he doesn’t necessarily look surprised. “Oh, Eddie…” he breathes, leaning even closer on his pillow.

“S-sorry,” Eddie gasps, scrubbing at his face like the touch of his palm will put him back together, sucking in air to try and stop the weeping. “Sorry.”

“What are you apologizing for?” Buck’s tone is so gentle, so patient. Athena realizes she still thinks of him as a kid — a fool kid much of the time — but he doesn’t seem so young as he rests a calm hand on Eddie’s arm.

“For- I- I shouldn’t fall apart like this.”

“Why not?” Buck asks, laughing just a little. “You know I was a mess when you- it’s fine, Eds.”

“But-“

“You want me to forgive you?” Buck asks, eyebrows raised, a look on his face like he’d wanted the same, once. “I will. You’re forgiven.”

“I couldn’t- I couldn’t-“ Eddie takes a few more shuddering breaths and Buck just waits him out. “I couldn’t come in here. You were in here and I couldn’t- I left you alone.”

“I forgive you,” Buck says, easy as anything. Eddie’s face pinches up again, and he shakes his head sort of desperately even as Buck’s hand soothes up and down between wrist and elbow.

“I broke your ribs,” he says, voice cracking like the bones must have under his frantic compressions.

Buck’s free hand travels to his chest, and his fingers tap a little heartbeat rhythm there. “I forgive you, Eddie.”

“I love you,” Eddie says, in a voice Athena has heard in interrogation rooms and the priest’s box after Sunday mass. Buck’s inhale can’t be very loud, but she hears it all the way from the hall.

“I’m not forgiving you for that,” he says, a little winded but very firm. He sits up in his bed, ignoring Eddie’s worried hands hovering around him as he puts his own on either side of Eddie’s face. “I’m not- please, don’t apologize for that.”

“Sorry- I- I mean-“ Eddie smiles like he can’t help it as Buck’s gentle amused huff hits his face, even as tears still stream across his skin. “I won’t. I just wish I’d told you sooner.”

“You can tell me now,” Buck says, sliding a thumb over Eddie’s wet cheek. “Again. You can tell me again, and- and tomorrow, and the next day- I’m right here. It’s not too late, Eddie. I’m right here.”

Eddie nods, breathing unevenly again, and then they sort of fall into each other, holding and being held, so carefully but tight enough that Athena isn’t sure of the force it would take to pull them apart again. She inhales long and exhales slow. She can sort of see Buck’s face, smiling into Eddie’s shoulder, and it still hurts but she can maybe see how it might not, eventually. Right here, and tomorrow and the next day. He’ll still be in the hospital for a little while but- maybe, when he’s settled back at home, he’d like to come over for lunch.

Athena stands up straight, takes one last long look, and leaves Buck in safe hands.

[stars-irises]

A list of details and bits in Peter Pan goes wrong that I really like

Trevor and Annie interaction in the intro (it's literally like three seconds but their friendship means so much to me so I don't care)

Trevor trying to light a cigarette over a bucket that says "Gunpowder, DANGER EXPLOSIVES"

Trevor saying that Dennis's headset won't be noticeable, and then Dennis entering the stage with a giant headset

Dennis reading out all of his lines with no emotion whatsoever

"Liza, the Darling's housekeeper. Different in every way from Mrs. Darling" Enter Annie who plays both Liza and Mrs. Darling

Everyone completely ignoring Robert desperately reaching for his dog ears

Annie having to sing louder and louder as the background noise gets louder and louder (That bit will never not be funny to me)

Trevor giving both the other stage hands (played by Bryony Corrigan and Niall Ransome) a comforting pat on the shoulder after they help cut Robert out of the door

Nancy Zamit's singing voice

Annie accidentally pulling Trevor unto the stage when she jumps in her Tinkerbell dress (They're besties your honour)

Trevor's scream after the blanket lights on fire (Can you tell who my favourite character is??)

The way Sandra looks at Max during the entire play (I love them)

Sandra checking if Lucy is okay

The fact that Dennis actually can remember lines, just not his own

When Trevor is holding up the cards for Dennis all of them are written in a way that makes Dennis insult the show or his cast members, but you can see that the cards clearly have enough space on them to avoid that sort of thing. Which implies that either Trevor is actively trying to insult the show or he is just a himbo.

Dennis wears inflatable armbands when swimming

Just how happy Robert and Chris sound whilst gossiping about their cast members

Robert checking Trevor's pulse because they're all scared that he just straight up died

"Not you Dennis walk away", followed by Dennis holding up his hands as if he's being arrested

Chris insisting on pulling of the cork of the flask with his hook rather than just placing the bottle on the table and pulling it off with his other hand

Everyone's horrified screams when Annie wakes up

Vanessa/Bryony looking incredibly happy after Annie wakes up

The sea shanty. Just that. I love it. It's a great song

When the stage won't stop revolving and we see the stage crew, all of them turn to Trevor because he's the only one of them who's had to deal with everything going completely wrong

Bryony and Niall's characters trying to tape down the stage

Trevor leaping of the stage the moment he hears Chris yell his name

Sandra and Annie actually getting along and not fighting over Annie's kiss with Jonathan. Annie repeatedly apologises but Sandra says that it's not Annie's fault and that it's okay (And the fact that this was a detail added by Charlie and Nancy)

Trevor saving the day

Trevor and the BBC guy still arguing whilst there is an actual fire

Trevor yelling "Happy Christmas mate!" as he sprays the BBC guy with the fire extinguisher

I also really like the fact that we see Trevor and the BBC guy arguing and then the next thing we see of them is them hugging and screaming over the fire

The BBC news guy saying that the BBC has cancelled their Community Choice Project (a.k.a the only reason the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society were even on BBC) as the boat goes by in the background

When Sandra and Max kiss the camera deliberately move so that you can see Trevor and the BBC guy in the background with their arms around each other, and Trevor looks at the BBC guy in such a loving (and gay) way and then he realises that there are cameras and immediately pulls away

Trevor helping the BBC guy down from the bunk bed and then looking after him as he runs of stage (Your honour they're gay)

When the credits roll a bunch of names start falling off and apart, except for the Lightning designer's whose name flickers instead

[atopvisenyashill]

Harrenhal will be the new seat of what’s left of the Seven Kingdoms at the ending.

I know a few people have already said bits and pieces of this but I wanted to get everything in one post for my own sanity lmao. There’s three kind of main branches to this theory: geographical reasons, historical reasons, and reasons specific to King Bran theories.

Geography surrounding Harrenhal

It’s the center of everything! Let me show you on the map because i’m a visual learner:

Ignore the North and Dorne and probably the Iron Islands too, bc the first two are not gonna be part of The Seven Kingdoms anymore and the Iron Islands is…gonna be a fucking mess lmao. Lemme zoom in:

It’s a very centralized point in the Riverlands but it’s also fairly centralized to the Crownlands (which will probably get absorbed into the others), the Stormlands, the Eyrie, the Reach, and the Westerlands. It makes sense, from a geographical standpoint, that if the lords need to choose a new ruling seat - and they will no matter what, because King’s Landing is gonna go boom - that a more centralized location for easier access to the capital would be their decision.

The Riverlands is also an excellent choice in general because geographically, they are always getting screwed due to being right in the middle of everyone. They get fucked during the Dance, the Blackfyre Rebellions, Robert’s Rebellion, AND the War of the Five Kings. The only area that really gets screwed over more during the various wars is probably the Dornish Marches, because of the conflicts between the stony Dornishmen and the Storm and Reacher Lords but you can’t really set up there because it’s too far from the Eyrie and Riverlands.

And the thing about the Riverlands is that part of why it gets fucked up is that it’s right in the middle of everything and has no natural defenses. The Eyrie has the mountains, the North has their snow, the Dornish has their desert. The Reach manages to stay out of a lot of fighting because that’s where the food is (although the Iron Islands are about to screw them, but that’s because the war has spiraled out of control) and while both the Stormlands and the Westerlands have seen big battles, they have some protection in their coasts, which gives them ships that the Riverlands just can’t quite access. Having the King set up in the Riverlands gives the smallfolk of the Riverlands some much needed protection and potentially, a break from all the fighting.

So the Riverlands is a good place to set up shop, but Harrenhal specifically? Well, that’s because it’s huge:

Every child of the Trident knew the tales told of Harrenhal, the vast fortress that King Harren the Black had raised beside the waters of Gods Eye three hundred years past, when the Seven Kingdoms had been seven kingdoms, and the riverlands were ruled by the ironmen from the islands. In his pride, Harren had desired the highest hall and tallest towers in all Westeros. Forty years it had taken, rising like a great shadow on the shore of the lake while Harren's armies plundered his neighbors for stone, lumber, gold, and workers. Thousands of captives died in his quarries, chained to his sledges, or laboring on his five colossal towers. Men froze by winter and sweltered in summer. Weirwoods that had stood three thousand years were cut down for beams and rafters. Harren had beggared the riverlands and the Iron Islands alike to ornament his dream. And when at last Harrenhal stood complete, on the very day King Harren took up residence, Aegon the Conqueror had come ashore at King's Landing.

If it’s going to be the capital, it has to be somewhere that can hold a whole lot of people and Harrenhal is ginormous and perfect for holding lots of people. It’s even happened before; part of why Lord Whent stages his big tourney where Lyanna is crowned queen of love and beauty is because likely because Ser Oswell Whent, his brother on the Kingsguard, asked him to stage an excuse to get all the Lords together so Rhaegar could discuss with them what to do about his father and Harrenhal is the biggest castle they can do that in outside of King’s Landing. From The Kingbreaker chapter:

Old Lord Whent had announced the tourney shortly after a visit from his brother, Ser Oswell Whent of the Kingsguard. With Varys whispering in his ear, King Aerys became convinced that his son was conspiring to depose him, that Whent's tourney was but a ploy to give Rhaegar a pretext for meeting with as many great lords as could be brought together.

It’s also built up to be sturdier than King’s Landing. Whereas King’s Landing was kind of haphazardly thrown together as it built up over the years, Harren the Black had always meant for a lot of people to be housed there. We see how many people can live in it during Arya’s chapters as she runs around inside of it and Harrentown and this is with a ruler who has no interest in keeping a lot of people in it. With a King or Queen living there, it opens itself up to growing in a much more easily defensible way than King’s Landing.

Historical Reasons Harrenhal is Significant

As you can see on the map, it’s built right on the edge of a very important place: The Isle of Faces and the lake that surrounds it, called the Gods Eye.

It’s a key place for the history of Westeros because it’s where the First Men and the Children of the Forest made peace:

Inexorably, the war ground on across generations, until at last the children understood that they could not win. The First Men, perhaps tired of war, also wished to see an end to the fighting. The wisest of both races prevailed, and the chief heroes and rulers of both sides met upon the isle in the Gods Eye to form the Pact…

It’s also notable for being the only place the Andals never managed to conquer:

It is possible that a few [Children of the Forest] survived on the Isle of Faces, as some have written, under the protection of the green men, whom the Andals never succeeded in destroying.

It’s a place associated with peace and negotiations between people, a place to stand strong against war and untouched by its horrors. A monument to what could be, if you will. And Harrenhal sits on its shore; it would add a very rich layer to setting up King’s Landing in a place associated with peace. And this isn’t the only time a succession crisis of sorts is settled there. The Great Council of 101 AC was held there.

To resolve the matter of his heir once and for all, Jaehaerys called the first Great Council in the year 101 AC, to put the matter before the lords of the realm. And from all corners of the realm the lords came. No castle could hold so many save for Harrenhal, so it was there that they gathered. The lords, great and small, came with their trains of bannermen, knights, squires, grooms, and servants. And behind them came yet more—the camp followers and washerwomen, the hawkers and smiths and carters. Thousands of tents sprang up over the moons, until the castle town of Harrenton was accounted the fourth largest city of the Realm.

Once again, we have Harrenhal associated with peace and negotiation in its history. However, that’s not all it’s associated with; there are several very significant battles that take place near the Gods Eye - again, it is in the middle of everything. It’s a place with lots of history and lots of ties to everyone in Westeros. There’s the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye between Maegor and Aegon the Uncrowned, The Battle of the Lake Shore and The Battle Over the Gods Eye during the Dance, as well as the story of Addam Velaryon landing Seasmoke on the Isle of Faces to take counsel from the green men after being accused of treason. It is, all in all, a very significant place in Westeros.

But that’s not the only reason Harrenhal is talked about. Basically every single time Harrenhal is brought up, someone will mention that it’s haunted. This belief comes because of Aegon the Conquerer and Harren the Black. While Orys Baratheon and Rhaenys march for the Stormlands & Daemon Velaryon and Visenya left for the Vale, Aegon himself first turns towards Harren the Black and the Riverlands. All three face opposition but Aegon conquers the Riverlands first because Harren is so ill loved:

So now the riverlands rose against him, led by Lord Edmyn Tully of Riverrun. Summoned to the defense of Harrenhal, Tully declared for House Targaryen instead, raised the dragon banner over his castle, and rode forth with his knights and archers to join his strength to Aegon’s. His defiance gave heart to the other riverlords. One by one, the lords of the Trident renounced Harren and declared for Aegon the Dragon. Blackwoods, Mallisters, Vances, Brackens, Pipers, Freys, Strongs … summoning their levies, they descended on Harrenhal.

And he makes very quick work of Harrenhal, making it the first Kingdom to become part of the Seven Kingdoms:

The riverlords outside the castle walls said later that the towers of Harrenhal glowed red against the night, like five great candles … and like candles, they began to twist and melt, as runnels of molten stone ran down their sides.

Ever since the burning of Harrenhal, no House has been able to hold it without going extinct soon after. For House Targaryen’s rule in Westeros to start with Harren the Black’s hubris and the fall of Harrenhal, and end with Harrenhal becoming the new seat of the King of the Four (??) Kingdoms is a really neat connection.

Reasons Why It Works With King Bran

But wait! you say. Didn’t you just say that Harrenhal is cursed??

Why yes I did. HOWEVER. There is one family that the Curse of Harrenhal supposedly never touched: The Whents.

You see, from Harren the Black up until the Whents, every other House in charge of it has gone extinct.

House Hoare? That’s Harren’s house and we all know what happened there - they don’t call him Balerion the Black Dread for no reason.

House Qoherys? Dead less than three decades later.

House Harroway? Wiped out a decade later.

House Towers? died out within two decades, ending with sickly Maegor Towers and then old and tired Rhaena Targaryen, until the two odd friends died and the holdings were free again.

House Strong? Well…between the fire that kills Harwin and Lyonel, Larys’ shenanigans getting him merced by Cregan, and Aemond just straight committing a minor genocide in the Riverlands, they all died out (except maybe Alys Rivers’ baby but we don’t have any info there).

House Lothston? Interestingly, they hold the castle for several decades, but they too went completely extinct under King Maekar.

So we come to House Whent. They’ve held it for about 6 ish decades and though they’ve also had some bad luck, they’ve had their people grow old - Walter Whent who threw the tourney is called “Old Lord Whent” by Barristan, and Shella Whent is old when she dies. But the most interesting thing is Minisa Whent.

We don’t know a lot about the Whent line, only that Shella refused to bend the knee to Joffrey, fled Harrenhal when it was attacked, and later died. You could say the curse still got them but in every other case, the whole line dies, not just the main line! Even Janos Slynt has no descendants and Littlefinger will have none to inherit either. But the Whents do: they have House Tully. Minisa Whent married Hoster Tully and had Catelyn and Edmure. The Whents are known for their sharp cheekbones and both Catelyn and Sansa, funny enough, are described as having sharp cheekbones. This very close relation could mean that the Starklings have a claim to Harrenhal through their mother.

This fits with King Bran because we know the lords are perfectly fine fudging things and going through the female line if it fits their needs. They did the same thing with Robert and his grandmother Rhaelle Targaryen, who married Ormund Targaryen, Steffon’s mother. Renly says here:

Oh, there was talk of the blood ties between Baratheon and Targaryen, of weddings a hundred years past, of second sons and elder daughters. No one but the maesters care about any of it.

The maesters love a loophole inheritance.

And remember that the odds of surviving the books for the Baratheons and Targaryens is very, very low. It’s pretty much just bastards all the way down (on both sides lmao, because I do not think either Young Griff or Dany are gonna survive). And whenever the inheritance isn’t clear, a Great Council is called. Catelyn even suggested it while parlying with the Baratheons:

Let the three of you call for a Great Council, such as the realm has not seen for a hundred years. We will send to Winterfell, so Bran may tell his tale and all men may know the Lannisters for the true usurpers. Let the assembled lords of the Seven Kingdoms choose who shall rule them.

Mentioning Bran, of course. A lot of people think it’s far fetched and while I do think him being so young is gonna be a hard sell now that the time jump is gone, I don’t think it’s that far fetched that the lords of the Stormlands, The Reach, the Eyrie, and The Westerlands would be convinced to choose Hoster Tully’s grandson and Ned Stark’s baby boy to rule over them.

And finally, Robb wasn’t called “Robb Stark, King in the North” he was also explicitly called “King of the Trident.” All the talk about who is Robb’s heir but look at how they all think of themselves - “as brave as Robb” “as strong as Robb” or they’ll have sons and name them Robb. Whereas Who Rules The North is all tied up in Robb’s legacy, the Iron Throne isn’t! If King Bran rules from the Riverlands, however, it gives Bran that tie to Robb; he gets to protect and rule from the lands Robb swore to protect, the lands he ultimately fought and died in. For Bran, he still gets to be Robb’s heir, at least in spirit, and I think that would be, to Bran, something very bittersweet.

[agentrouka-blog]

Cersei is very much like Tywin. She is as dumb as he is (by that I mean, they are not actually dumb but blinded but their own faults and insecurities) the only difference between them is that he was a man so he was trained to be a good administrator and she had no training.

(post referenced)

Let's also remember that Cersei lost her mother at a young age. That's the person who would have been best suited and most responsible for educating her daughter in administrative matters, and after her death Tywin neither remarried nor likely paid that much attention to Cersei's specific education. It was enough that she was uncommonly beautiful and reasonably obedient to him.

We saw how she treated Tyrion's nursemaid. While she may have treated her Septa Saranella with more basic poiliteness, I doubt she felt the same deference that Sansa did for Mordane, especially given her resentment of the differences in her education compared to Jaime.

The queen's face was hard and angry. "Would that I could take a sword to their necks myself." Her voice was starting to slur. "When we were little, Jaime and I were so much alike that even our lord father could not tell us apart. Sometimes as a lark we would dress in each other's clothes and spend a whole day each as the other. Yet even so, when Jaime was given his first sword, there was none for me. 'What do I get?' I remember asking. We were so much alike, I could never understand why they treated us so differently. Jaime learned to fight with sword and lance and mace, while I was taught to smile and sing and please. (ACOK, Sansa VI)

Sansa seems to have been taught alongside the boys at least for part of her education, given she knows she is better at reading and writing than any of her brothers. No such recollection for Cersei. And note the emphasis on fighting for Jaime. Doubtlessly, he was taught by very experienced and competent teachers in everything pertaining to matters of warfare and knighthood. But he's not exactly a bright light when it comes to history, politics or the art of administration either. (Unless it's his special interest The Kingsguard.)

Cersei herself is hilariously aghast at his ignorance at one point.

"And Ossifer Plumm was much too dead, but that did not stop him fathering a child, did it?" Her brother looked lost. "Who was Ossifer Plumm? Was he Lord Philip's father, or . . . who?" He is near as ignorant as Robert. All his wits were in his sword hand. (AFFC, Cersei III)

Tyrion knew what he was about when he emphasized the importance of books and independent reading.

Alas, I was born a Lannister of Casterly Rock, and the grotesqueries are all the poorer. Things are expected of me. My father was the Hand of the King for twenty years. My brother later killed that very same king, as it turns out, but life is full of these little ironies. My sister married the new king and my repulsive nephew will be king after him. I must do my part for the honor of my House, wouldn't you agree? Yet how? Well, my legs may be too small for my body, but my head is too large, although I prefer to think it is just large enough for my mind. I have a realistic grasp of my own strengths and weaknesses. My mind is my weapon. My brother has his sword, King Robert has his warhammer, and I have my mind … and a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge." Tyrion tapped the leather cover of the book. "That's why I read so much, Jon Snow." (AGOT, Tyrion II)

If Tyrion had been born able-bodied he might be as much of a "dumb" disaster as the rest of his siblings. As opposed to the clever disaster he is now.

[songsandsagas]

Midnight Campaign - Session 0

System: Loner: Another Solo RPG, 2nd Ed., by Roberto Bisceglie

Today, I did the thing I usually do when I can't think of how to proceed with one of my solo games: I started a brand new solo game.

I wanted to use a super simple system, and it doesn't get much simpler than Loner: Another Solo RPG, 2nd Ed., by Roberto Bisceglie. Character creation is as easy as choosing a character concept, two major character skills, a character frailty or drawback, and two major pieces of gear. That's it. Boom! A character is born.

I wanted to explore the campaign world of Midnight: Legacy of Darkness, by Greg Benage and Robert Vaughn. Think of a high fantasy setting like Middle Earth, only in this world, the Big Bad Evil Guy won and became the world's only living god, forever closing off the world from the influence of other divine beings. While I won't be using the Ampersand Game, 5th Ed., rules for which the campaign world was designed, I will use the book as a setting and flavor guide for my adventures.

The Mythic Game Master Emulator, 2nd Ed., has become an indispensable tool for my solo games. I'm going to leave out Mythic's Chaos mechanic in favor of Loner's Twist mechanic, but I will use the Mythic d100 tables extensively to generate new situations and encounters.

After looking through the campaign source book, I decided to make an Erunsil (snow elf) character. The Erunsil elves fight with special serrated knives and icewood bows. I don't know what icewood is yet, but it sounds cool.

I named my Erunsil elf Eredath. Eredath's skills are combat and survival. Whenever he performs a combat or survival related task, he rolls an additional Chance die. Eredath's frailty is his gruff and unfriendly nature. Whenever he attempts to charm or compel someone, he rolls an additional Risk die. His two major pieces of gear are a set of Erunsil knives (Erunsil elves favor fighting with a knife in each hand) and his icewood bow. Eredath also wears fur armor and carries a leather backpack with some basic pieces of adventuring gear. I usually don't bother with writing out a full inventory when I create a character for my solo games. I just assume the character has most of the gear he would need to survive in the wilderness for about a week or so.

Despite the name of the system being called Loner, and despite the idea of having a solo survivalist hero braving the dangers of a fantasy world, the only way I know how to make a character like Eredath work is to give him a companion. Eredath needs to converse with someone who balances out his cold exterior and grim determination.

He needs a faerie.

I created Arella, his faerie companion. I immediately thought of Link being healed by faeries in The Legend of Zelda, so I decided Arella will have access to healing magic. I want Eredath to handle most of the heroic action, so Arella will assist Eredath with a little bit of magic and historical knowledge, though she isn't much of a combatant.

I decided on the nature of Eredath and Arella's relationship. I'm not sure yet how they initially met, but I like the idea of them having traveled together for some time. In their travels, their bond has taken a para-romantic turn. Arella has occasionally used potions to assume a "giant" form on nights when the pair are caught up in an amorous mood. There ya go. A sprinkling of sexual tension to keep things interesting.

Of course, Eredath and Arella must have a quest. Looking through the Midnight campaign source book, I found a passage about the Foul Bog of Eris Aman, located in the Veradeen, the lands of the Erunsil elves: "The Foul Bog is a dangerous place, and there is never good enough reason to venture into its terrible wilds."

A dangerous, foul swamp that promises certain death. Perfect. Except for the fact that "never" is a long time, and the only reason someone would have for venturing into a dangerous place must be a good reason, indeed.

I decided that a medicinal herb named gossamer, also known as ghost petal, grows in the swamp. More importantly, gossamer is the main ingredient of potions of healing, a necessary item in the war against Izrador, the aforementioned Big Bad Evil Guy of the setting.

And there I have it, the start of a new adventure.

[owllamb]

wyll pirate au

a continuation of one of my other posts, just a big dump of ideas i had

-wyll had a very adventurous spirit as a kid, specifically as it relates to the sea (he almost drowned trying to find mermaids in the harbour, etc.) and always had this dream in the back of his mind of leaving baldurs gate and adventuring all across faerun

-despite daydreaming of adventure free from obligation, he accepts that he has a duty to his father and city as its Grand Duke, which would require similar degrees of travel (i think?) anyways

-when he gets disowned by his father, wyll joins an exploring voyage, partially out of complete loss of other ideas, he's spent his whole life training to succeed his father

-the ship gets ambushed by pirates!!!!!!!!!!! yarrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-young wyll gets captured, spared, accepted into the crew by the pirate captain dread-pirate-roberts style, and fucking flourishes, since he's agile, can swashbuckle, has dramatic flair, etc. and bonds really well with the crew and captain

-also, he hides his sending stone eye, a symbol of his connection with mizora, which he can't get out, with a sick eyepatch (yarrr!!!!)

-he gets the position of captain, as the former, who wants to retire, made a really good living pirating and wyll inherits the title of the blade of high seas, scourge of the sword coast (or smth like that), dread-pirate-roberts style again

-also maybe they have like a found-father-son sword fight as a ceremonial thing of him inheriting it

-'the blade' is a really notorious name in the pirating world, with few knowing their true identity, only that they've had a LONG and storied career, and rumors float around about them being all kinds of things, a mask wyll can hide behind easily

-he cares deeply for his crew, but is still controlled to mizora to a degree. so, she uses them as leverage against him to get him to take out the odd enemy of hers when the ship reaches port

-he also tries to conceal signs of his pact, trying not to use warlock powers unless he needs to, covering the eye, etc. (his horns aren't there yet, unless he refuses to kill someone for mizora, which would make the horns a warning sign before bringing harm to his crew)

-he feels horrifically guilty about that, and tries to make up for it by being a sort of gentleman pirate figure in faerun, stealing and pillaging only from the deserving, but with great ruthlessness

-him and his crew are very notorious, to the point where they're equal parts criminal and celebrity (kinda), sort of inspirational robin hood figures if you get my drift

-if we're going by the main bg3 game storyline, his ship would encounter the mind flayer airship, and wyll would be snatched away in the middle of the storm, having to search for members/news of his crew along with his father, with tav/others discovering that he's a pirate, a warlock, the blade, and THE SON OF THE GRAND DUKE in that order

-otherwhise, the tadpole gang each get recruited or board the ship individually for some other reason idk i didnt think about this that much

other cool stuff:

-the ship has a merperson (maybe w/ horns? idk) as a figurehead

-wyll has a little pet dragon instead of a parrot

-romantic swordfight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-he 'secretly' loves dancing/ cheesy romance novels but tries to hide it from his crew so they think he's tough (they totally know but won't say anything bc they want him to have his fun)

-also long hair. this is a very important detail.

[maryonaccross]

Can you explain your point of view about luke's usurpation? Because technically you usurp something when you take something which is not yours with force, but luke was named heir by corlys, he choose to name luke and not baela or rhaena. At this time there is nothing that rhaenyra can do, everyone in her position would accept. The best thing to do was marry luke and rhaena so her blood (and laena's one) will rule drifmark. The other option if not luke was vaemond, so baela or rhaena would not rule either, they never been an option. I want to ask also in what way do you think that war can be avoid? In a situation like episode 8 so both group formed and in a situation like ep 4 so group not formed and rhaenyra and alicent still friends

So, as far as I understand Corlys didn’t actively name Luke as his heir. He became heir automatically because Rhaenyra presented him as Leanor’s son. Because it is tradition that the elders son’s firstborn son (in their circumstances second son) automatically becomes heir.

He didn’t have to chose him because that isn’t what the head of house does. The laws of inheritance are set by precedent of the great council. (Which is exactly why I think that Viserys’ decision to name Rhaenyra his heir doesn’t hold more weight than the laws of inheritance that state that a son inherits before an older sister. Now, if Viserys had changed the laws and set a new precedent case by naming Rhaenyra heir and changed the laws of succession that all the houses in Westeros abide by that would have been a different matter. But he didn’t. He never fully committed to naming her heir and didn’t solidify the inheritance of his other children and instead left everything in uncertainty).

Therefore, Corlys couldn’t just name a new heir without publicly stating that Luke isn’t Leanor’s biological son. Which he didn’t want to do for obvious reasons seeing as Viserys remained blind to Rhaenyra breaking the law and punished everyone who spoke the truth. Therefore he had to make due with what he had because he didn’t dare challenge the crown.

It’s literally the same as if Viserys said that Aegon should inherit the Eyrie because he used to be married to Aemma and no one being brave enough to argue.

Corlys not being brave enough to confront Rhaenyra and the crown to fight for his own house does not make Luke the heir.

Especially when other members of his house, like Veamond, are brave enough to question the usurpation of their house and call out Luke on obviously not being Leanor’s son.

Joffrey Baratheon was named heir by Robert Baratheon and Robert didn’t change his mind about it until he died. Is Joffrey still considered Roberts heir despite being a bastard? No. Because he’s not a Baratheon.

[adarkrainbow]

Should we include Lovecraft among fairytale authors?

This question might surprise you, and yet it should be asked.

Today when people speak of Lovecraft's work or Lovecraftian horror, they mostly think of the type of fiction popularized by games like "Arkham Horror" or the Call of Cthulhu RPG. People of the 1910s, 1920s, 1930s USA, mostly the East Coast, mostly New-England, fighting eldritch monsters, alien abominations and other multi-eyed blobs while investigating creepy cults, ancient witchraft (well... ancient usually means "Salems' trial) and other star-alignments. Not very fairytale-y.

And yet, Lovecraft wasn't just all this. Lovecraft is usually considered one of the early fantasy authors, and he has an entire set of works not taking place in our world, but rather in fictional cities, otherwordly civilizations, alien planets - and all being... well pure fantasy of gods, sorcerers, strange monsters and fictional wanderers in a world of ghosts, magic and curses. They are still famous to this day, and they are an essential part of his "mythos" and yet people seem to completely forget about them. The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kaddath, The Quest of Iranon, The Other Gods, The White Ship, The Doom that Came to Sarnath, The Cats of Ulthar... Much more dark fantasy than what people associate Lovecraft with today.

In this "fantasy" side of his (that fans of the mythos sometimes classify as the "Dreamlands"), we see the HUGE influence of Lord Dunsany, that Lovecraft admired and tried to imitate, but also the influence of... The One Thousand and One Nights. One of the main reasons Lovecraft had such an "Orientalist" obsession was because he was a huge fan of The Arabian Nights, and tried to recreate them in his own work. This Orientalist obsession was also caused in him by Beckford's Vathek, the unique "Oriental Gothic" novel that marked literature (Edgar Allan Poe, Lord Byron, Thomas Moore, John Keats, they all paid homage to Vathek) - but we fall back on our fairytale topic, because Vathek itself was meant to be a Gothic horror version of the One Thousand and One Nights (and quite fittingly it was published in the 1780s, aka the end of the "fairytale era" in France, the time when literary fairytales only existed in parodies, deconstructions or subversions).

Due to this huge influence, the question should be asked: Should Lovecrfantasy works, his Ulthar, Sarnath, Iranon, Kaddath, be considered part of a fairytale-verse?

Well my answer is no. No, Lovecraft doesn't write fairytale-like things and I never saw fairytale vibes in his work.

But then why am I making a whole damn post? Because of Clark Ashton Smith.

There's a lot of things people ignore or go wrong with when it comes to Lovecraftian fiction or the "Cthulhu mythos". This is because The Cthulhu mythos was built out of many rewrites, derivative works, adaptations and pop-culture vibes. People forget the mythos was originally called "Yog-Sothoth mythos". People forget Cthulhu wasn't the focus of the mythos. People forget water was supposed to be Cthulhu's main bane and enemy, as it was the sea that trapped him and prevented his powers from working - so making him a sort of sea-god is the opposite of what Lovecraft intended. Lot of stuff like that.

But what people forget the most is that the "Cthulhu mythos" we know today wasn't created just by Lovecraft himself - but by the "Lovecraftian circle". Yes, Lovecraft invented it all first, created and oversaw the whole thing - but he encouraged and asked his friends and pen-pals to include in their writings elements and characters of his fictional worlds so as to "expand" the mythos, and in return said friends and pen-pals created their own dark gods and evil sorcerers and cursed tomes that Lovecraft included in his own works, to form a full circle. The Lovecraftian circle.

For example, it might surprise people to learn that Conan the Barbarian is part of the Cthulhu mythos. And yet he is! Robert E. Howard was one of the most prominent members of the Lovecraftian circle, inventing several important parts of the mythos as we know it today - and his most famous heroes, like Conan the Barbarian or Solomon Kane, all had to face a part of the "Lovecraftian mythos" at one point or another. Today we don't associate the prototype of heroic fantasy with "eldritch horror", and yet it was - but Robert E. Howard had a quite different take on the monstrous gods of Lovecraft, who were much more physical and... let's say killable Xp In fact that's one of the things with the Lovecraftian circle: each author had its own take and vibes on the eldritch deities of Lovecraft's pantheons. Sometimes the emphasis was put on them being alien beings and physical monsters, sometimes they were more like the classical gods of Antiquity (just uglier), other times yet they were more abstract ideas and concepts...

And the third important author of the circle, outside of Lovecraft and Howard, was Clark Ashton Smith, who was REALLY much more of a fantasy author than the other two. And he also was VERY much into fairytales - a lot of the same Arabian Nights as Lovecraft (heck, Smith even wrote a sequel to Vathek!), but he also was a big fan of Andersen and madame d'Aulnoy fairytales as a kid. And, if you ask me, you can feel a lot the "dark Arabian Nights" vibe into his Zothique work.

As I am writing these lines, I am reading compiled works of Smith. Smith was very prolific and created several "cycles" covering various alternate periods of Earth. There's the Hyperborean cycle, set on the fictional Hyperborea country of legends, and in the Prehistoric era before the Ice Age - this is where many of the "classics" gods of the Cthulhu mythos comes from, like Atlach-Nacha, Abhoth or Tsathoggua. There's the Poseidonis setting, an island meant to be the last remaining part of Atlantis after its sinking. There's the Averoigne cycle, which I am looking forward to explore because Averoigne is a fictional region of medieval Southern France infested with witches of all sorts. But the compiled volume I am reading currently is his Zothique collection - set in the continent of Zothique. It is supposed to be the last remaining continent of Earth, a new Pangea that reformed itself at the end of the planet's history, and where all the "ancient gods, old demons and primal magics" resurfaced after being forgotten and ignored for many civilizations. And despite being located in a far-far future, Zothique is heavily Arabian Nights inspired - as Smith intended the Zothique continent to be what remained in the future of "Asia Minor, Arabia, Persia, India" plus North and Eastern Africa.

If you want to check the "horror Arabian Nights" vibe of this setting, just read "The Dark Eidolon" which is very much 1001 Nights-like. (Interestingly The Dark Eidolon was one of the inspirations of Michael Moorcock, famous for setting up the modern dark fantasy with works like The Elric Saga)

[winchesterwild78]

Chance Meeting pt 19

Master list

18+ Minors DO NOT interact

Please be kind and all mistakes are my own. All work is mine. Please don’t take or copy it.

Warnings: Angst, heart break, physical assault, SMUT

A/N: This chapter is another ride. Stay with it. I promise happiness is on the way. It’s also a bit of a roller coaster. I haven’t mentioned the kids names or his ex for a reason. This is fiction and I don’t want any disrespect towards Jensen’s family. I adore him and this is just fiction. However, because he’s older it made sense for him to be divorced and with children. I edited this quickly, so please overlook any errors.

———————————————————————

*Time Jump 5 Days*

You sat beside Jensen nervously with your leg bouncing. Jensen placed his hand on your leg trying to calm you down. You looked at him and he gave you a soft smile. His attorney was looking over some things and the three of you were trying to figure out how to deal with the current situation with Ashley and the baby. “So Jensen, you said you didn’t sleep with her but you did wake up in bed with her, right” his attorney asked. You felt sick to your stomach thinking about it. Jensen looked over at you and then said “yes” softly. “Okay, so we need to petition for a DNA test to see if the baby is yours. I believe we can push to have an amniocentesis done and DNA extracted that way. We should have the results soon” he said typing away.

You tensed up and Jensen felt it. He looked over at you and you were fighting tears back. “You okay baby” Jensen asked leaning over. You shook your head no. You stood, cleared your throat and excused yourself. You went to the bathroom and went into a stall. You covered your mouth and let out a sob. The idea of this child being his broke your heart. You knew if he did sleep with her it was before you met, but it still hurt. Even though he said he didn’t remember it, it still hurt. You tried to compose yourself but it took a few minutes. Your cell phone went off, it was a text from Jensen.

J: you sure you’re okay baby. We can leave if you want to.

Me: No, I’m fine. I just needed a minute. You keep talking. I’ll be back soon.

J: Okay. I love you. ❤️

You let out a soft sob

Me: I love you too, Jensen. So much.

You finally got yourself together and walked to the sink. You heard the bathroom door open and a woman say hello. You didn’t look up but said hello back. You took some paper towels and wet them, washing your face.

The woman walked up to the sink and stood there for a minute. You started to walk away and she said “hello y/n” and you spun on your heels. You looked at her and knew it was Ashley. “Are you enjoying your time with my future husband” she said as she stepped closer to you. “I saw his cute little post. Isn’t that sweet. He felt guilty and asked you to marry him. Don’t worry once he realizes he wants to be with me and our baby you will be yesterday’s news.” She said as she stepped even closer to you.

You took a step back. You saw her pregnant belly and your heart broke a little more. She really is pregnant you thought to yourself. “Jensen doesn’t love you and if that baby is his then he will step up, but as far as Jensen and I we are solid and nothing is going to change that. We are getting married and there is nothing you can do about it.” You said as you walked towards the door. Just as your hand was on the handle you felt something hard hit you and your head hurt. Then everything went black.

You woke up to the sounds of steady beeping. You felt a hand on yours and your head hurt really bad. Your eyes fluttered open and you saw Jensen sitting beside you. “Hey babe” you said in a weak voice. Jensen’s eyes looked over at you and went wide. “Oh my god, y/n. You’re awake. Let me get the doctor” he said standing up. Before you could say anything else he was out the door. You waited until Jensen returned with a doctor and a nurse. “Hello Miss Y/L/N, I’m Dr Roberts. How are you feeling” the middle aged man said stepping towards you. “I’m okay. My head hurts bad and I’m really tired” you said. The doctor took some vitals and the nurse checked your IV and drew some blood.

“Well you took quite a bump on the head. I’d be surprised if it didn’t hurt. You’ve got a concussion and a big knot on your head. I want to keep you another night and we will see how you’re doing tomorrow.” The doctor said before giving you a soft smile. “Wait, how long have I bet out” you asked. “Almost 4 days” Jensen said. You looked at him with wide eyes. You whispered “oh wow”.

The doctor and the nurse left and Jensen took your hand. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days. “Jensen, have you slept” you asked him rubbing his hand. “Not really, I couldn’t leave your side. I’m so sorry this happened to you” Jensen said with tears in his eyes. “It’s not your fault, Jensen.” You said looking at him. “Please tell me she’s been arrested or something. I don’t even know what happened for sure. I just know she was in the bathroom and we had a little back and forth about you and the next thing I know I’m waking up here. What the hell did she hit me with” you asked him.

Jensen’s face dropped and he whispered out “a metal pipe”. Well that explains why I have a headache you thought. “Was Ashley caught” you asked. He shook his head no. “I’m so sorry baby. When you were gone for as long as you were and not responding to my texts we went to the bathroom and found you on the floor in a puddle of blood. I was terrified I lost you. There is a warrant out for her. They lifted her prints off the pipe and there is surveillance footage showing her entering and exiting the bathroom. You and her were the only ones on the video going into the bathroom. I’ve called Clif and he’s gonna hang around for a while until we can make sure you’re safe. He said hugging you.

“Jensen how can this woman do this? If you broke it off why is she still so convinced you’re hers and the baby is too.” You asked choking back tears. “She’s just obsessed and needs professional help. If the baby is mine we will figure it out. Until then I want you to rest. Don’t stress and don’t think about her or the baby” he said kissing your head.

Your head was spinning with all the thoughts of Ashley, the attack, Jensen possibly being the father of the baby, how his kids would react to a new baby, if you’re still going to get married if the baby is his. Ugh! Your head wouldn’t stop. The only sound in the room was the steady beeping of the machine. You could feel the tension and you just wanted to cry. You pushed the call button and the nurse came in. “Yes ma’am, how can I help you” she said with a soft smile. “Um my head really hurts is there anything I can take for it” you asked not looking at Jensen. “Yeah, I’ll go grab it and be right back” she said and she left.

Jensen looked at you and said “baby, everything is going to be okay. I promise” he kissed your hand. The nurse came back and you took some medicine. When she left you looked at Jensen and said “you can’t promise that. I thought I would have been safe in an attorney’s office, but somehow I was attacked. I love you, but I’m scared. She won’t stop until I’m out of the picture.” You said as the tears broke loose. He reached for you but you turned over. Sobbing you asked him to leave. You wanted nothing more than for him to stay, but your heart was breaking and you were scared for you and anyone who loved him. You loved him so much but how could you compete with the baby if it’s his. You would never make him choose between you and his children. He’s an amazing father and he would be to this child. If you’re in the picture she might not let him see the baby or she would stop at nothing to drive a wedge between you two. Or worse, she might get you out of the picture permanently.

You heard the door shut and you just cried. The medicine finally kicked in and you fell asleep. When you woke up it was dark out. There was a soft light coming in from under the door and the television was on. You rolled over and reached for the light. Your heart was hoping Jensen would be there when you woke up but you knew he would give you space.

You grabbed your phone to send him a text. Picking up your phone you noticed you had a few missed texts. A few were people texting to check on, a few were from Jensen, and then there was two that made your blood run cold. It was Ashley.

Ashley: I told you he was mine. That was just a taste of what I’m going to do if you don’t leave him

Ashley: *picture* (it was a picture of Jensen leaving the hospital. He looked like he was crying.) Why is he so upset. Maybe I’ll follow him and make it all better. I can’t wait to feel his arms around me again.

You felt sick. The picture of Jensen had to have been taken after you told him to leave.

You: Jens, baby I’m sorry. Please call me when you get this. I love you.

You looked at the time. It was a little after 11pm. He shouldn’t be asleep. You waited for a text or phone call. Nothing. You started to get worried. You sent another text.

Me: Babe, please answer me. You don’t have to call me but please just tell me you’re okay. I got another text from her and I’m scared for you.

Still nothing. You tried to call but he didn’t answer. You texted Gen and Jared and asked one of them to call you. Gen called you right away. “Y/N is everything okay” she asked. “No, I got a threatening text from Ashley and Jensen isn’t answering my texts or calls. I’m really worried.” You started crying. “I told him to leave Gen. I’m so scared someone is going to get hurt because of my relationship with him. I was trying to keep him safe.” You said through sobs. Jared grabbed his keys and took off towards your’s and Jensen’s house. Gen told you she’d stay on the phone with you until we heard back from Jared.

You talked to her about your fears and she did her best to calm you down. “I’m sure he’s okay, y/n. When he spilt with his ex we found him passed out cold many nights. I’m sure that is what’s going on.” She said reassuring you. About 20 minutes later you heard Jared in the background. Gen told you Jensen was fine and Jared brought him back to their house. He had been drinking but he wasn’t passed out he just didn’t take his phone outside with him.

You finally let out the breath you had been holding. “Okay. Thank you, Gen. Please tell Jared thank you too, and tell Jensen I love him and I will talk to him tomorrow.” You said She told Jensen you said you loved him and you heard him giggle and say “hey guys I’m gonna marry her. Shhh don’t tell her” You smiled and told Gen thank you again and hung up.

At least he was safe and you could rest a little easier. Your mind kept playing what he said over and over again. He wanted YOU and he wanted to marry you. He LOVED you, not her. Even if the baby was his you two would figure it out. You decided she was not going to win. Jensen loved you, you loved him and the two of you were going to get married. He had room in his heart for you and all of his children. You two were going to be fine.

The next morning when you woke up Jensen was sitting beside you. As soon as you saw him you let out a sob. “I’m so sorry Jensen. I was scared and thought I was protecting everyone. I know we are better together and we will figure this out. I love you so much.” Jensen stood up and wrapped his arms around you. Kissing the top of your head trying to calm you down. “I know baby. I was hurt but I know why you did it. I’m sorry you got hurt because of me. I love you and I can’t wait to marry you. We will tackle whatever comes our way together.” Then he kissed your lips.

A few minutes later the doctor came in and said you were good to go home but you needed to rest and take care of yourself. Since you have a concussion there were certain things you couldn’t do according to the paper. Jensen looked over at you and looked at the doctor. “I’ll make sure she’s taken care of Doc. So what about sex, can she have sex” Jensen asked smirking at you. You turned red. The doctor chuckled and said yes as long as there weren’t any acrobatics involved. Jensen said “well, I guess I can resist acrobatics for now”. You playfully slapped hit arm and he kissed you.

The doctor left and Jensen helped you get up and get dressed. Once you were ready he helped you out of the hospital and into his car. When he got in the drivers seat he took your hand and kissed it. “I’m so glad you’re okay baby and you’re coming home. We’ve missed you so much.” Jensen said looking at you.

“Oh Jens, I’ve missed all of you too. How are the kids doing” you asked. “They are okay. They’ve missed you and can’t wait to see you. We told them that you got hurt by a bad person but were going to be okay. Little man was really upset. He cried for almost an hour. It was heartbreaking but in a weird way made my heart melt to see how much he loves you.” Jensen said. “Oh poor little guy. I hope he knows how much I love him too. I love all of you very much.” You said giving a soft smile to him.

When you finally arrived home Jensen helped you into the house. You went upstairs to o your room and decided to take a shower. Jensen was walking in your shared room and saw you getting undressed. “Need any help sweetheart” he asked with a grin. “I don’t know Mr Ackles. Are you talking about my clothes or something else” you said with a smirk and a wink. Jensen growled and attacked your lips.

You got undressed and so did Jensen. He helped you in the shower and he stepped in. You leaned back standing under the falling water. Jensen moved in close and put his arms around you. You missed his touch. You missed his lips, and everything about him. He kissed your lips and started kissing a line across your cheek, down your jaw, onto your neck. A shiver ran through your body at the touch of his lips. He kissed down to your breasts and one of his hands cupped the breast not currently being teased by his tongue. You moaned and called his name.

Your hands were running over his body and you found your way to his hardening cock. When you took it in your hand Jensen moaned.

Jensen spun you around and gently pinned you to the wall. His hand finding your folds and running in between your folds. His hand was met with a dripping wet pussy. “Damn baby you’re ready for me” he said into your mouth as his lips ghosted over yours. You moaned and nodded your head yes. He started to rub your clit and as he rubbed his fingers pushed inside. You gasped and moaned as you felt your core tightening and your release building. You knew it wouldn’t take long because it had been awhile since he touched you. He could feel you getting closer and helped push you over the edge. As you came he crashed his lips to yours helping you ride out your release.

Jensen turned off the water and grabbed the towels. You both dried off quickly and he led you to the bed. He gently laid you down and positioned himself between your legs. “You okay with this sweetheart” he asked leaning down to kiss you. You nodded your head. He took his length in his hand and lined himself up. He pushed in slowly letting you get used to his size. You gripped his biceps and moved your hips a little. His size and girth took your breath away. It was a pain and pleasure you craved. You looked at him and said “move baby”. He nodded and with one thrust he bottomed out. You gasped as he set a steady pace.

You knew he wasn’t going to last as long as he normally did because it had been awhile for him too. You wrapped your legs around him and pulled him closer. He leaned down capturing your lips in a passionate kiss. You could feel his thrusts getting sloppier and you knew he was close. “Cum for me Jensen” you whispered into his ear. That was all it took before he was coating your walls with his warm seed. As he softened he kissed you and got up to get a washcloth to clean you up. He returned and cleaned you gently and once he was clean he crawled in bed with you.

He put his arms around you and pulled you close. “I’ve missed this baby, and I’ve missed you. I’m so glad you’re safe and home” Jensen said kissing you gently. You smiled and snuggled in his arms. “I’ve missed this too and I’m glad I’m home. I love you, Jensen” you said kissing him. “I love you too, y/n. Now, one last thing.” He said sitting up. He opened the bedside table and pulled out something. Tears filled your eyes when you saw it. “I had to bring this home when you were in the hospital. Every night I would hold it and pray you would get to have it again. I’m thankful I can give it back to you.” Jensen took your hand and slid your engagement ring back on your finger. A tear slipped down your face as you looked at it. You were glad to have it back, but you were more glad to be back in Jensen’s arms.

Forever tags: @nescaveckdaily @nescaveckwriter @kr804573 @jensengirl83 @k-slla @jackles010378 @jawritter @xx-spooky-little-vampire-xx @roseblue373

[elizabethsaige]

been reading a lot of Stobin headcanons and wanted to share my own because I cannot stop thinking about SteveandRobin

these are just some, I do have many more

enjoy !

- their entire relationship is essentially Robin calling Steve things like “dingus” and “idiot” and just being such a menace to him, but the second anyone else says anything slightly mean to him, she is ripping them a new one so fast, ready to lay them out the second they open their mouths

- she frequently disciplines Dustin, Mike, and Max any time they are rude to Steve, even if it’s a joke (and by discipline, I mean telling them “hey shut the fuck up, i’m the only one thats allowed to be mean to him”)

- Robin “he asked for no pickles” and Steve “Robin, it’s fine”

- the first time Robin goes on a date with a girl, Steve is sitting by the phone waiting for Robin to call and give him every single detail

- Steve gets so warm and fuzzy inside any time he looks at Robin when she doesn’t know he’s looking because he just loves her so much it hurts

- when Robin finally notices, she gives him a weird look and says, “what the fuck are you looking at dingus?”

- (Robin looks at him the same way, he just doesn’t know it)

- Robin and Steve’s children together are Max and Will, but Steve’s children-from-another-marriage are Dustin, Erica, and El and Robin’s are Lucas and Mike

- speaking of Mike, he is like obsessed with Robin. he thinks she’s the coolest person ever. any time they hang out in the group, Mike always wants to be in her conversations or wants her to join in on any games the kids are playing, and he LOVES when she roasts people in other languages, he asks her to teach him the words every time

- every time Robin sleeps at Steve’s house, he judges him for the ugly wallpaper and ugly matching drapes in his bedroom and begs him to change it

- sometimes Steve really doubts his place in the group, worrying that he isn’t important to anyone and is just used as a babysitter or a ride, and on days like this, Robin will hold him and run her hands through his hair and tell him every reason why everyone in The Party loves him and just how important he is, especially to her

- Steve is Stevie and Robin is Robbie, but also Steve is Steven and Robin is Rob, and sometimes Steve is Evie and Robin is Robert, but most of the time Steve is Dingus and Robin is Birdie

- Joyce and Hopper were the last to find out that they are both queer and not dating each other. but before they found out, Joyce gave Steve the ‘you better not hurt her’ talk because, well, she knew his old reputation and she figured it was necessary. and Hopper gave Robin the ‘i know he had a reputation but he’s my son and he’s actually a good guy now’ talk (not realizing that Robin already knew all of this because duh they’re best friends) and then Robin and Steve told each other what was said to them and laughed their heads off

- they throw the absolute best birthday parties together for the kids. they want them to feel so special and so loved on their birthdays because both Steve and Robin dislike their birthdays and never really felt special during any of them as kids

- when Robin is reading and she’s with Steve, she reads out loud so Steve can join in on the story even if he doesn’t always understand what’s going on if she’s halfway through a book (asks many questions and Robin pretends to be annoyed about having to answer them but does anyway

- when Steve doesn’t understand something, Robin is so kind and gentle in explaining it to him and making sure he doesn’t feel dumb (unless she’s overwhelmed, then she kind of gets an attitude about it)

- Robin can actually sing and Steve isn’t the first person to find out (Nancy is - on accident) and they get into a really big fight about it because Steve feels betrayed and it ends with Robin confessing how self conscious about it she is so she doesn’t let other people hear her

[shinobicyrus]

Old Bad Movies I Enjoyed Recently (And So Can You!)

TUFF TURF (1985) I am torn about Tuff Turf, because this short movie is confused in tone, bouncing between badly written romance, teen shenanigans like crashing the buffet tables of country clubs, rad rock concerts, and...oh... intimate partner violence and attempted murder. James Spader is a bicycle vigilante rocker who gets on the bad side of his new school's local bully/gang leader. Things do not improve when Spader also decides that he simply must charm said gang leader's girlfriend. What tension!

Honestly, the only reason this movie sticks with me is the presence of a young Robert Downey Jr, who is, I apologize to say, fucking hot. He plays the drums at a rock concert shirtless using handcuffs as belts for his leather pants. Look it up. Rather than the main romance, the more interesting chemistry is the friendship of RDJ's and Spader's characters (insert Ultron fanfic joke here), which borders on the intensely homoerotic. Really, Tuff Turf makes me yearn for a more interesting film that would have removed the "fighting over a girl" element of the story and just had RDJ and Spader as rad rocker/vigilante boyfriends partners.

IRON EAGLE (1986) This movie about fighter jets actually predates Top Gun by a few months - only instead of Tom Cruise and very heterosexual volleyball matches it's about a group of military brats living on a US Military base. The main character's dad is a pilot who was shot down over a non-specific (but definitely evil) Middle Eastern country, but since the mean adults don't want to do anything, it's up to the kids to steal an F-16 fighter jet and rescue him! This film is only the Purest 80s Reagan Americana where you get to see classic Teen Movie shenanigans evolve into "and then the main character committed war crimes."

A ridiculous, awful film. Did this movie change my life? Possibly.

AMERICA 3000 (1986) A strange, weird, absurd film set in the post apocalypse, where nuclear war has set humans back to the stone age and Amazon women rule over (mostly) intellectually inferior men. My friends and I couldn't decide whether the slang they invented and used copiously in this film was annoying or not. Hilariously, it being in the 80s, the dumbest thing about this whole film is that despite the tyrannical Amazons hating men and only reluctantly using them for breeding, this film also stubbornly refuses to acknowledge even a hint of the existence of homosexuality. Which is probably a blessing, to be honest.

I found it tolerably bizarre enough to watch. Once. Your results may vary.

HACKERS (1995) We now jump into the 90s, and have you heard of these new-fangled things called computers? Standing out as one of Angelie Jolie's earliest movies and a real breakout role for her (it's also where she meets her future ex-husband, Johnny Lee Miller - who most people on this site will recognize as Sherlock Holmes in Elementary). The movie is essentially about a group of high-school hackers with ridiculous handles who run afoul of a corporate conspiracy, are framed, and must dodge the Secret Service while trying to clear their names. But the plot doesn't really matter all that much. What makes this movie shine is the dialogue, the characters, the costumes, and the✨ vibes ✨. This movie is a cult classic for a reason, and the queer coding of all the hackers is undeniable to a modern audience.

It's not a good movie, but its imperfections are what make it so strange, hilarious, and unique. I felt the oddest sense of nostalgia watching this movie, despite the fact that the bizarre pseudo-futuristic world it depicts never actually existed. It made such an impression that I instantly acquired a physical copy of Hackers after my first viewing of it. Hack the Planet!

Space Truckers (1996) To round us off we have Dennis Hopper starring in this film with surprisingly good production values (for the time) failing utterly at everything it attempts to do. Ostensibly about down-to-earth (ha) blue collar space truckers just trying to make an honest living hauling goods across a solar system being increasingly corporatized and hostile to independent workers.

Throw in an evil corporation, space pirates, and a plot to overthrow earth's government with night-unstoppable killer robots, and you have all the elements for what could be a decent movie, but none of them really mesh and are soured by some pretty uncomfortable "romance" elements that have not aged well.

It's a movie that fails in so many ways, but it is at least interesting in its attempt. The people who made Space Truckers took a risk, and in this age of constant sequels and reboots even a failure like this feels...refreshing.

[mister-mickey]

I would like to hear your Shepard headcanons 🙏🏽

Lol I’m so glad you asked, I started writing out the whole backstory and had to make a new note because it wasn’t what you asked for lmao

But!!

Tim is the oldest, when he’s like three, Angela is born, when Angela is 10 months old, curly is born.

Tim was excited for Angela, as any three year old getting a new baby sibling would be, but was NOT happy when curly was born (curly was a surprise baby lmao)

Angela and curly are super close though and often leave tim out of stuff. They share a bedroom (their house has two bedrooms and nobody wants to share a room with their mom and stepdad ofc) and often cover for each other when one wants to do bad things

Tim sleeps on the couch in the living room because he doesn’t have a bed

Tim looks like his dad, Angela looks like a mix between their dad and their mom, curly (affair baby) looks like their mom.

And yes, curly is an affair baby lolol.

Curly’s real name is Robert but nobody is allowed to call him that because he hates it. Tim calls him that when he’s being a little monster

“Robert Joseph Shepard get over here!” And stuff like that

Tim flips between “I don’t care what they do, I’m their brother not their dad.” And “HOW DARE THEY DO THAT!” He is confused on his role. He has not accepted the “parent” role as much as darry has, but he does know that he’s the only one available for them

Bryon was actually Angela’s first bf 🤭 she got a little cocky when she broke up with him for pony. She still likes him

Tim dates both dally and Sylvia on and off but only actually likes dally. (He’s gay but too stubborn to realize)

Curly has a huge crush on dally, bryon and soda (dumb gay 💔) he doesn’t talk to Tim about it, only angela

Angela (like soda becuase I think the idea of them being a foil to the curtis family is funny) is the bridge between Curly and Tim. She is bffs with curly, but she can talk to Tim without pissing him off.

Tim jokes about hating curly. Curly thinks he’s serious. Tim has no clue. Angela knows both sides and thinks it’s funny

Curly is very touchy, he’s got to be holding onto someone at all times. Tim is incredibly touch averse (unless it’s fighting) because if this, Tim gets curly a cat.

(The cats name is Batman because curly really likes Batman. The cat is a girl)

Angela is a really good singer!! She sings all the time and it drives everyone else nuts

They all hate their stepdad Jerry. For good reason. Jerry is an asshole who claims to own the house (it’s their mothers house. Jerry is a leech) he kicks tim out randomly.

Also it’s Curly’s fault jerry is their stepdad because when he was a little tot he ran off and met Jerry. Jerry thought he was cute and flirted with their mom.

Tim, when he decides to be a “parent” is super strict. Like, curly and Angela get chores to do, they aren’t allowed to stay out at all, they aren’t allowed to go anywhere without permission. Which isn’t strict but for them it is.

He gets really bored after about a week every time and gives up. This is a monthly thing

Another monthly thing tim does is get really religious randomly. This usually is at the same time as his “parent” phase. He starts making them go to church on Sunday and pray and stuff.

Curly and Angela HATE it. Tim is the only religious one. He is such a bad catholic 😩

Angela calls curly her baby brother because he hates it

Tim is a super sappy drunk, so even though he rarely gets drunk, when he does he comes home and hangs out with them. Curly and Angela just deal with it

But they do love each other. Tim cares about them a lot but really sucks when it comes to showing it. Angela really loves them both but can’t help but be sassy and rude any chance she gets. Curly looks up to Tim and relies on angela, but enjoys making them mad

[jibbi]

After: Tessa is just as toxic as Hardin

I'm totally late on getting into the After series, but I recently watched all the movies and am now reading the third book (don't come for me. I know I should've read all the books first lol). I am very passionate about this series, including all the extremely messed up parts of it. I could talk about it for days lol

I think something that isn't talked about is Tessa being just as toxic as Hardin when she absolutely is.

As a disclaimer, yes, Hardin is absolutely awful for how often he changes his mind, yells, breaks things, and punches people in his own family when he feels hurt by what they did. Completely unforgivable behavior, and so incredibly unhealthy. But, at least we have a full understanding of why Hardin's mental and emotional health is as terrible as it is - he has an immense amount of family and personal issues, and he keeps finding out more terrible things as the series continues. To clarify, it does NOT by any means excuse his behavior, I am not saying it does - he is still 100% accountable for his own behavior and not taking care of it - but his background gives understanding as to why he tends to act so terribly.

As for Tessa, although we're given a backstory about her controlling mother and alcoholic/druggie father which gives reason to her behavior, she's somehow liked so much more than Hardin and gets away with a lot. Sure, she doesn't get violent and break things when she's upset, but her emotional behavior and communication skills are absolutely horrendous, plus she sometimes DOES get drunk like Hardin as a coping mechanism. She also often tells Hardin that she doesn't trust him, when Hardin shouldn't be trusting her either. Why? Well let's get into it.

Tessa cheats

Tessa started off her relationship with Hardin by cheating on her boyfriend from home and lying to him about seeing Hardin. She DID realize she was mainly staying with Noah because she feels she owes it to him. She also wanted a serious relationship which Noah was providing while Hardin was still screwing around, and she was the ultimate people pleaser towards her mom who got along with Noah.

Not only did she cheat on Noah, but she was being flirtatious with other guys and allowing other guys to be flirty towards her while she was still with Hardin. God forbid they got into a fight and she anticipated a breakup in the near future, Tessa would be so quick to jump to another guy. There was Trevor, Zed, and Robert the waiter who she got flirty with real quick once there were issues between her and Hardin. She even forced a kiss upon a random guy at the New Year's Eve party in After We Collided, just because she jumped to the conclusion that Hardin was cheating on her (when he wasn't)!

Tessa is so quick to assume Hardin is cheating on her on so many occasions, yet she herself has cheated multiple times. It's so ridiculously hypocritical.

Tessa hides things from Hardin

Despite Tessa calling Hardin out for hiding things from her and snooping through his things to find evidence, she does the same thing. I'll give a couple of examples.

Tessa hid the fact that she was keeping in contact with Zed despite Hardin making it very clear to her that he doesn't feel comfortable having her talk to Zed. Yes, Tessa can be friends with whoever she wants since Hardin doesn't control her life, however, the difference is that Zed has feelings for her and Tessa flirted with him at one point. I feel it's pretty normal to not want your partner to spend time with someone who likes you as more than a friend. Hardin of course could've been much less controlling when it came to this, but I can't blame him for being upset over it, especially since Tessa would most likely react the same way (just less violently) if Hardin was hanging out with a girl who had feelings for him.

Tessa also hid the fact that she was moving all the way to Seattle, and he figured out by accident that she made this decision. That is a HUGE thing to keep from your significant other. Deciding to move to an entirely different city two hours away when you're in a committed relationship while NOT telling your significant other is crazy. I get they weren't together for a short span of time, which is when Tessa made the decision to move to Seattle. But, once she got back with Hardin, telling him would've been the right thing to do.

Tessa doesn't compromise

Speaking of her deciding to move to Seattle, Tessa automatically assumes Hardin will oblige and come with her, or eventually change his mind. Hardin always made it very clear that he had no intention of moving to Seattle, despite it being where Tessa dreamed of living.

Both Hardin AND Tessa did not want to come to any sort of compromise despite dreaming of a future together. Hardin wanted to move back to London, Tessa wanted to move to Seattle. Neither were willing to come to any sort of compromise on where they should live, even though they're so in love with each other.

What's also terrible is that so many people are siding with Tessa that he should've moved with her and Hardin is in the wrong for not sticking by her, knowing Seattle was her dream. Yes, Hardin was absolutely wrong for going behind her back to call her real estate agent and destroy her potential housing plans in Seattle. BUT, he wasn't given a choice in the first place, it was either move there with her or never see her again. That's crazy. Despite him doing such a terrible thing, Tessa was not right for the lack of compromise either.

Conclusion

I love this series, but it has been bothering me a lot how Tessa is seen as such a "good girl" and doesn't see herself as a big problem in the relationship too. I had to rant about it.

Anyhow, thank you for reading this. I'm willing to debate characters or any part of this series. Go off if you want to LOL

[therealadothamilton]

Some quotes from one of my favorite articles:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-american-studies/article/erotic-charisma-of-alexander-hamilton/BC911E604C376A4F3CCBFB6F3731B3A0

“During the long intervals between fighting, young ladies of quality often visited army headquarters to flirt and exchange patriotic sentiments with the dashing young officers. In youth and maturity Hamilton loved the ladies and they him; there was scarce a one he could not charm, and none who could not deceive him. They were susceptible to him because of his attentiveness and flirtatious pleasantries, his polished manners, his gracefulness as a dancer, his wit, and his good looks. He was, in the phrase of the time, a very pretty fellow. He had auburn hair, ‘deep blue- almost violet’ eyes, fair skin, and rosy red cheeks. His male friends called him ‘little Hammy’ or ‘the little lion’ - not because he was short, since at 5 feet 7 inches he was of average height or perhaps an inch taller, but because he was light of frame in an age of fat people. Women doubtless called him little things more intimate, and were smitten with his slender elegance and boyish appearance. As for his gullibility in dealing with women, it derived from his romantic exultation of them and from his belief that they found him irresistible.”

‘Hamilton's admirers like him for many reasons, major and minor, and most of these reasons are unknown to his detractors. “He was evidently very attractive,” wrote Henry Cabot Lodge in his 1882 biography, “and must have possessed a great charm of manners, address, and conversation.”’

‘Hamilton was a firebrand – John Adams complained of his “effervescence” – but the common characterization of him as arrogant and domineering does not do him justice. Off the political battlefield he was, his friends testify, cheerful, charming, and witty. A particularly close and longtime friend, Robert Troup (1757–1832), remembered that “his heart was noble, generous, kind, and free from hypocrisy, envy, and jealousy.” Another friend, Judge James Kent (1763–1834), praised Hamilton's personal qualities in the strongest terms: “He was blessed with a very amiable, generous, tender, and charitable disposition, and he had the most artless simplicity of any man I ever knew. It was impossible not to love as well as respect and admire him.”’

‘Hamilton's contemporaries admired his manners and his appearance. His good friend and fellow Federalist Fisher Ames (1758–1808) rhapsodized about him, particularly admiring his eyes (“of a deep azure, eminently beautiful”) and his physical deportment (“one of the most elegant of mortals” with “easy, graceful, and polished movements”). A male contemporary wrote of Hamilton, “His complexion was exceedingly fair and varying from this only by the almost feminine rosiness of his cheeks. His might be considered, as to figure and color, an uncommonly handsome face.”’

'Historians and novelists have echoed such descriptions. In the opening chapter of Founding Brothers, “The Duel,” Joseph Ellis vividly imagines Hamilton and his nemesis Aaron Burr as opposites in both coloring and temperament:

Burr had the dark and severe coloring of his Edwards ancestry, with black hair receding from the forehead and dark brown, almost black, eyes … Hamilton had a light peaches and cream complexion with violet-blue eyes and auburn-red hair, all of which came together to suggest an animated beam of light to Burr's somewhat stationary shadow. Whereas Burr's overall demeanor seemed subdued, as if the compressed energies of New England Puritanism were coiled up inside him, waiting for the opportunity to explode, Hamilton conveyed kinetic energy incessantly expressing itself in bursts of conspicuous brilliance.

In a History Channel special, Gore Vidal also remarked upon the contrast in the two men's coloring, comparing them to checkers on a game board. In his novel Burr, Vidal has Aaron Burr describe his future victim through a gay lens: “As a youth, Hamilton was physically most attractive, with red-gold hair and bright blue eyes and a small but strong body.”

HAMILTON WAS HOT

“Hamilton is the only Founder whose sexual appeal has transcended the eighteenth century,” quipped filmmaker Ric Burns at a 2004 New-York Historical Society panel entitled “Whose Hamilton?”. Testimony to Burns's observation abounds on the Internet. Here Hamilton's heterosexual appeal survives. He seems to be particularly popular among young women, such as college students and women academics (the latter is what prompted Burns's quip). One admirer writes,

Man, looking closely at a ten dollar bill, I noticed that Alexander Hamilton is pretty hot. I mean, beautiful eyes framed by bold eyebrows, great skin, a strong jawline, perfect chin, and very kissable lips. Yes, that man was quite a hottie.

On another website, a young woman confided,

I'm posting two little known portraits of one of my historical crushes and fave dead guys, Alexander Hamilton. The sensual mouth he has in these pics almost makes one want to swoon … Imagine being the lucky woman (or women in his case) to kiss that mouth. He looks so divine in blue!

In another post entitled “Alexander Hamilton Was Hot,” Angie confided to her readers,

About seven years ago I was in New York for a wedding when I walked by Alexander Hamilton's grave at Trinity Church and told my friend Jennifer that I thought Alexander Hamilton was hot … why the Alexander Hamilton story? Because I'm a gigantic dork with next to no life, tonight I'm watching Alexander Hamilton's American Experience thingie and I'm super-excited about it

This post inspired a sympathetic comment from dav (female):

From the faint memory of my American history, I'm thinking Hamilton was a pretty good guy though he and Jefferson fundamentally couldn't get along … Oh, and he was totally hot.

On her Facebook page, a student named Alex began a long discussion with the following post:

Let's face it, he was pretty freakin' sweet. He was a cynical, illegitimate son of a rich nobleman, he was raised in poverty. and he was the only founding father who wasn't technically american. not to mention, he got killed in a duel A DUEL! HE'S AWESOME! To clinch my deal: find one of the new 10$ bills. Look at his portrait: have you ever seen such a foxy founding father? I say Nay. Alexander Hamilton was HOT. HOT and a BADASS. Who's with me?

The long discussion ended with this post from a Hong Kong admirer named Crystal:

Completely and utterly in love with him. Despise Aaron Burr with passion.

History and biography are present in these encomia, but clearly Hamilton has become a celebrity. The romance of his life story increases his allure. Once historical figures become transhistorical celebrities, their popularity is enhanced, but their complexity and contradictions are diminished. We are accustomed to a kind of celebrity necrophilia in which living people fall in love with dead movie stars and entertainers. James Dean and Marilyn Monroe are icons of doomed desire. It is all the more interesting, therefore, that a historical figure whose voice, smile, and physical movements have long been extinguished and were never recorded on celluloid can continue to generate an erotic charge.

[tallmadgeandtea]

Turn Week 2023:

If I Could Change One Thing

Turn Week 2023 is already over! This week has flown by, and I hope everyone who participated had a wonderful time. I appreciate all the love on my first Dragoons post- and yes, I'm back with another one. This time, I am not sorry.

Tallmadge vs Tarleton

As I mentioned in my last post, after the Philadelphia Campaign ended, Major Benjamin Tallmadge and his 2nd Dragoons stayed up north, while other cavalry regiments went to fight in the Southern Campaign- where they arguably had most of their combat experience. Why did Tallmadge stay up north? Two reasons are that the dragoons were still needed for scouting and raiding the British forces in strongholds like New York- keeping the Hudson River in Patriot hands- and that by now, he was General Washington's spymaster for the Culper Ring in Long Island and New York City.

But that doesn't mean that Tallmadge didn't have his saber drawn in battles or skirmishes.

On July 2, 1779, Tallmadge and the 2nd Dragoons were camped in Pound Ridge, New York. They were suddenly ambushed by "two hundred British and loyalist cavalry." Although the 2nd Dragoons had strengthened forces thanks to Washington sending Moylan's 4th Dragoons, the British received a letter saying so. Leading the charge was Lieutenant-Colonel Banastre Tarleton, a British dragoon who would eventually become one of the most famous cavalrymen of the Revolution. Before 1779 and the Southern campaigns, one of his known escapades included being present at the capture of General Charles Lee.

Tallmadge and Tarleton's forces fought each other in front of the Presbyterian Meeting House during the Battle of Poundridge, going from on horseback to fighting on foot. When Tarleton's men and the 17th Dragoons entered the fray, it was clear that Tallmadge and Colonel Sheldon's 2nd Dragoons would not win the day. They retreated with the British pursuing them.

Along with his victory, Tarleton now had the 2nd Dragoon's regimental flag. But, especially unfortunate for Tallmadge, there were a "dozen causalities," and a dozen horses taken. One of these horses belonged to Tallmadge himself. Like any cavalryman, he kept his essentials in his saddlebags. Now they were in the enemy's hands. In those bags were, according to author Alexander Rose (doesn't that name sound familiar?) "twenty guineas" from Washington to Abe Woodhull as payment for his spying, and intelligence papers related to the ring.

How does this relate to Turn?

Season three of Turn takes place between 1778-1780. During this season, they did include the Battle of Stony Point- important in its own right- but why would they not include something that involves not only losing a battle, but information about the ring being stolen from Benjamin?

I think that instead of filling up screentime with the, frankly, at this point, ridiculous Robert Rogers and Abe doing what the hell they did plotline, they could've included the Battle of Poundridge. Could you imagine Benjamin's reaction to losing his horse and intelligence? And if they wanted to show Washington losing faith in the ring, wouldn't this be a good example? Instead, we had Robert Rogers and Abe running around in his little rat hole.

Also, if they wanted to use historical figures like Hamilton and Martha Washington to boost ratings and be like "please give us a fourth season," Banastre Tarleton is a pretty popular guy. Just saying.

And, lastly, you're probably like, "Amanda, are you saying that you, Benjamin Tallmadge's PR manager, want to see him get his ass beat?!" Yes. Yes, I do.

Further Reading:

Cavalry of the American Revolution - Jim Piecuch - Westholme Publishing (Cavlary Action at Poundridge, New York by John M. Hutchins.)

Tarleton: Before He Became "Bloody Ban" - Journal of the American Revolution (allthingsliberty.com)

Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring by Alexander Rose, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)

Memoir of Col. Benjamin Tallmadge : Tallmadge, Benjamin, 1754-1835 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive