#although hereditary IS my number 1

[swallowedabug]

9 favorite films that i watched for the first time in 2023 | tagged by @damnwormholes

Hereditary

The Medium

They Cloned Tyrone

The Lighthouse

Polite Society

The Haunting

The Witch

Color out of Space

Stoker

tagging @strangesmallbard @duckuwu @kshaar @starry-mist @blarblarnyar @occidentaltourist

[pb-dot]

WIP Wednesday: The Coal Wars Pt. 1

Good WIP Wednesday to all. Today I plan to talk a bit about an important bit of lore from the setting of The Clockwork Boy. I generally don't talk much about worldbuilding for my writing unless prompted because it's not something I spend a lot of time on by itself. I'm usually more comfortable with having whatever happened to make the world and the characters the way that they are be explained together with the plot or the characters themselves.

This one bit though is quite pivotal to explain the status quo of the setting, which I will admit is rather unusual. Hopefully the thing will be fine and comprehensible when reading the whole thing, but for my out of context pals here on tumblr dot com, it may be useful to have some info about The Coal Wars.

Note: This turned out considerably longer than I had thought it would, so I won't even get around to the part that's the most relevant for our story this time around. Stay tuned for the conclusion of this particular bit next week!

The city in which our story takes place used to be part of The Imelian Empire, an expansive maritime empire headed by a hereditary bloodline of emperors and empresses, although it was more uncles and third cousins once removed carrying the line as of late as a problem with infertility had plagued the dynasty for some time.

The City was known as Imil in those days, and as the capital of the imperial core regions, it was in many ways the grandest city mankind had ever seen. At the start of what would be the nation's steam era, industry flourished thanks to bountiful ore and coal deposits in the hills and mountains in the north, while the bountiful plains between the city and the sea fed the city's explosively expanding population.

The invention of steam-powered machinery made the then-Kingdom of Imelia enter what could be constituted a golden age, as the increased efficiency of industry freed up sufficient manpower that Imelia was able to wrest much-contested land along its borders away from its neighbors. By the time those neighbors had become part of Imelia proper, the nation was a kingdom no longer but had proudly proclaimed itself as The Imelian Empire. Satirists of the time liked to make hay about how this was because "there was hardly a drop of kingly blood left in our so-called royals" due to a string of rather opaque successions, but the line of Emperors and Empresses nonetheless enjoyed wide popular support in the imperial core all the same.

The source of Imelia's power as an empire was its breadth of steampowered technology that facilitated production and logistic on a level hitherto thought impossible. Fast, durable ships allowed the empire to subjugate and keep tabs on smaller nations across the vast seas, as well as shipping the riches of the imperial periphery back to the core with unmatched efficiency.

The Coal Wars, one could argue, started long before any military conflict. If one were to define the start of a war as the point at which it became an inevitability rather than a possibility, the Coal Wars started once the last coal mine in the Imelian hills was closed due to a tunnel collapse in the last yielding tunnel making retrieving what little coal unprofitable. In the public eye, this piece of news registered as little less than a curious piece of trivia, as the vast coal mines of Pelia, the empire's biggest colony had outproduced Imlish mines for about a decade and showed no sign of slowing down.

In the halls of government, though, worry was brewing as Imelian reliance on colonial goods and resources was already at worrying levels as industrial pollution had rendered many farms and logging operations in the imperial core unviable. To further add to these anxieties, the political landscape in Pelia had grown unstable as the sheer number of native-born Pelians in the colony made whispers of emancipation all but inevitable.

Fearing the loss of Pelian coal functionally crippling the empire, Imelia cracked down hard on the Pelian Independence Movement. Unfortunately, this had the effect of further radicalizing the group, leading to an armed mob delivering an ultimatum to then-viceroy Aron Loams demanding a formal declaration of self-emancipation. Loams complied, giving him the sobriquet of "The Traitor Viceroy" in Imelian media and culture.

Voices in the Imelian government called for a swift and immediate war to chastise the wayward colony, but one very notable voice opposed this. Empress Laiane of Imelia had seen her power wane in favor of the Imperial Council over the last decades, but a firm no from her was still enough to silence the voices of all but the most insistent Warhawks. The empress's solution was to send an elite squad from the 3rd Imelian Steampowered Brigade to apprehend Loams for treason and install a loyal viceroy.

Unfortunately, it matters little whether the empress wished to avoid war for ideological or practical reasons, as her actions hastened war all the same. The attempted apprehending of Loams was thwarted by loyalist forces who drove out the Imelian invaders in the first military action of the cascade of wars that were to be named The Coal Wars. In the heat of the fight, Loams and his wife were both killed, but this cold comfort turned out to be anything but.

In their efforts to removing Loams from power, the Imelians had made him into a martyr, and their attempt at installing a loyal viceroy had failed. The people of Pelia, on the urging of the independence faction, elected its first government, whose platform, nicknamed "The Loams Plan," called for mobilization and a sustained war against their former imperial masters.

This, alone, would prove a sizable headache for Imelia as the rocky coasts and well-guarded harbors of Pelia were a tough nut to crack even under ideal circumstances. Unfortunately, Pelia was not the only colony to rise up. Emboldened by the relative weakness of Imelia and the apparent success of Pelian independence, several of Imelia's smaller and less powerful colonies also seized upon the chance. Not all demanded independence, but the vast majority sent either demands for freedom or strongly worded suggestions for more favorable trade and taxation.

Driven into a fervor by their own war propaganda, the Imelian Imperial council formulated a plan to send its armies on a world tour of subjugation, using apropriated resources from the defeated colonies to reinforce supplies, while Imelia's superior navies would blockade Pelia to "soften them up" for a large-scale invasion.

Fortunately for Imelia's former colonies, this plan did not work as intended, as the technologically superior Imelian troops found themselves stuck in quagmire after quagmire as resistance in even minor colonies turned out difficult to entirely uproot thanks to an emphasis on guerilla tactics and exploiting Imelia's poor standing among colonists to sabotage supply lines. Several of the intended "easy targets" dragged on for so long that even the more prosperous colonies ended up as net losses for the invaders.

Growing frustration with the lack of clear victories was only compounded by the news that the Pelian blockade had very little impact on both morale and logistics of the young nation. Granted, there was not a force in the world that could break the blockade by the top-of-the-line Imelian navy, but Pelia had produced more than it used for decades, and the lack of certain Imelian luxuries did little to dampen the fervor of the Pelian people.

As Imelian coal reserves grew perilously low and the smoke of charcoal burners contributed to Imils already considerable smog problems, the decision to invade Pelia despite both logistical and strategic challenges came up in the Imelian Council. Unlike the last time the topic of war with Pelia came up, no strong voices rose to oppose the motion.

During the prosecution of the war, Empress Laiane had died without an heir, which left the Council as an interim ruling body until a sufficiently relevant member of her dynasty could be located. As the Council called for a full-scale invasion of Pelia, it was with a cold certainty that the age of Emperors and Empresses in Imelia was over.

Tune in next time for the conclusion to the story of The Coal Wars where we cover the rise of capital and the fall of a once great empire, as well as get around to connecting this whole sordid tale to the status quo of The Clockwork Boy

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[chelleztjs18]

Hello you mrs. minion robin hood lefty eyebag 😅

So I was very off with my eye numbers. I guess I am just at a -3.75 for both sides. I got contacts for now until my glasses come in.

How are you? Today was okay for me, although it was very gloomy outside. I was tempted to call in and just go back to sleep lol

Ah that's interesting. So you've had this disorder since birth? Is it hereditary?

Hm, she could be married. 🤔 with kids or kid.

Ah I see. Yeah, you are good with the details for your stories. When I read some of your fics, it makes me feel like it was actually me. I really need to start reading again though, I haven't read anything in awhile because of the move and being sick.

I remember in one of your ask thing, they asked what your sexuality is, and you said you're bi but you lean more towards women, right?

You know how there are butch lesbians, or femme lesbians etc etc. Would you fall more into the femme side then? I don't know if the question makes sense.

- CuriousGeorge

Hiiii you curious bread lover wrapped in contact righty eyebag. :D

I'm glad you are still awake. oh -3.75, that's just like mine, well one of them. my left one's number is lower. how long does it take for ur glasses to be done? can i see the pict of it once it's done? :) I dont like to wear contacts so i feel bad for u. is it a clear contact? I usually wear the colored one, either lighter brown or dark grey. :D

my day was okay, got a little busy n then try harder to write because i really want to finish it n post it n get the rest ready to post before my family vacation starts. i think for that whole week i won't write anything or maybe write just a bit so i can enjoy the vacation more. but dont worry, i will still answer asks n messages :)

oh n then i went for dinner to this nice steak/bbq place. they have a very good dinner rolls with yummy sweet butter. honestly, it reminds me of u because i remember how much u love bread :D i got steak with 12oz ribeye steak with sauteed mushroom and bourbon reduction sauce, and for my sides i got some bacon jam and herb rice. it's so good but 1 thing that kinda disapointing, they overcooked my steak. I ordered medium rare n i got medium. T_T

So did u end up working or called in sick?

no, i dont even know if i have that disorder or not. I have been wondering why loud noise bothers me so much n it even frustrate me, i hate sounds of AM radio or loud speaker phone sounds or loud tv. n i always thinking about it, even my husband got so confused because i have hearing problem n can't really hear but why loud noise bothers me so much. then i saw that video n i google it n i checked a lot of the symptoms. so i dont know if i have been having it for since birht or heriditary. but the doctor said that the condition that i have on my ear bones is a rare genetic condition n unfortunately i got it.

hahah so she could be married and have kid? Sounds like me,, hahaha. just kidding. sorry if it's a bad joke. :D

aaawwww thank you!! I'm really glad that you feel like it was you everytime u read my fic. that's what i was trying to do. oh i forgot to answer ur previous question, about if i got flustered when i write my smut. hopefully this doesnt sound weird but yes i got flustered when i write it. hahha. i sometimes cry too when i write my angst. i sometimes smile like an idiot when i write my fluff. lol.

i forgot to ask u back the same question that you ask me about the top/bottom and dom/sub thing. what about u? which one r u? :D

yes, i remember that ask. i think i could say that i'm bi but i like women so much more. my husband is the only man that i am n will be interested in, sexually or generally. So if in other universe i weren't married, i would definitely date women not men. if you dont mind me asking, wht about ur sexuality?

hmm before i answer this question, did u mean which type that i would fall in love to? or u were asking me which type i am?

Cheerio!

[elen-aranel]

Golden/Alone

The Engineer’s Adventures

1-1 • 1-2 • 2 • 3 • 4

For: @autumnleaves1991-blog Writer Wednesday. I am aware that today is Thursday; this was longer than I expected! Pairing: Captain Christopher Pike x F!Reader (no Y/N) Warnings: violence, references to violence, drug use (kind of), minor character death WC: 7.3k words Tag list: @jusvibbbin - to be added to my Pike x Reader Taglist please let me know <3 A/N: The Engineer is back! And why does she go on away missions? WHY? I genuinely had so much fun writing this. I hope you enjoy!

“If I were piloting, Number One, I would have flown us through the eye of that storm cell. We would have gotten here quicker,” Chris jokes to Number One as they unstrap themselves from the co-pilot and pilot’s seats, respectively.

“And that is precisely why I was flying and not you, Captain. We may have been slower, but I got us here in one piece.”

“Lieutenant, back me up here. My flying was great in that speeder on Eloma.”

“You kept us ahead of our pursuers, yes sir,” you say with a smile.

“And staying ahead of pursuers is not a valuable skill in an atmosphere like this one where we are not being pursued,” Number One states with some finality, as she presses the control to open the back of the shuttle and extend the ramp.

You are on Caylara, for what you hope will be a boring mission. The captain and Number One, along with security officer Ensign James, are here to open negotiations for Caylara to join the Federation.

You are here because of the atmosphere – it is notoriously difficult to traverse. You can’t transport living things through it, unless you want them to be merged, dead, or both, and even flying through it is a challenge because of the electrical storm layers. There are windows of time when it’s safer, when shuttles and communications can get through, and windows when they can’t.

At Louvier’s instruction you had prepared a shuttle (and a backup – you don’t like to take chances) to travel through the atmosphere. Standard procedure for Caylara was to have an engineer accompany the shuttle to perform any repairs needed on the ground. You had tried to argue your preparations were good enough that you wouldn’t be needed, but Chris had seen straight through you.

“You find diplomacy boring and you don’t want a repeat of Eloma. That’s what’s really going on here, isn’t it?” His mouth had twisted into that smile you found irresistible, and even though you pouted, adopting your best puppy-dog expression, he had just laughed. “It’s all right. I won’t make you go to the reception. I won’t even make you wear your dress uniform. You can stay with the shuttle.”

You hang back as the captain and Ensign James pass you, Chris brushing his hand against yours as he passes. You smile a little, and get your tricorder out – you need to check to make sure the shuttle didn’t get damaged and will be all right to make the return trip. You look down the ramp as you scan, seeing the Caylarans for the first time as their delegation greets the away team.

They are very tall. You estimate the shortest is well over two metres and they tower above the away team, even over Ensign James who is tall for a human. But given the slightly lower gravity of Caylara their height isn’t surprising, you think. They have skin varying from very pale through to olive toned. Their faces are smooth but they have scales around their hairline extending down to the rest of their bodies. Well, their hands, at least. They are wearing long robes.

Your tricorder beeps as the away team starts to move away; there seems to be a charge buildup in one of the EPS controllers, but that’s all and it’s an easy fix. You pop the relevant panel and discharge it, without shocking yourself for once, and replace the panel.

Then there’s nothing left to do but wait. The reception is due to last two, perhaps three hours – short enough that you’ll be able to make your return trip through the atmosphere with time to spare before the current window closes.

You’ve brought some reading, of course, but first you want to get to the bottom of why the EPS controller picked up a charge. You take it as a personal insult, really – you were sure you had accounted for everything from the data you were given to prepare. However, when you compare the preliminary data with the scans the shuttle took as it went through the atmosphere you can clearly see the discrepancies. You’re puzzled for a moment – but of course you had enhanced the sensors to the latest specs when you adapted the shuttle, and you don’t know how old the original readings you were working with were. You almost wish Chris had piloted you through the storm cell; then you would have more data to work with.

You busy yourself combining the shuttle’s readings with your existing model, and calculating how much it was off by. After some time you are pretty sure you’ve got to the bottom of where the charge came from, and you modify the shuttle so that it doesn’t happen again.

You also think you may be able to make predictions with your new model, and perhaps refine your timings for the atmospheric windows. The Caylarans know the timings pretty accurately, but you aren’t at the stage of sharing data on that level as yet.

You run a new set of scans, and frown – there’s only ninety minutes until the window closes. You compare with the original estimates and—

Hang on. When did it get so late? You were supposed to be on the way back by now.

“Shuttle Hubble to away team? Come in please?”

Silence.

“Shuttle Hubble to Captain Pike?”

More silence.

Silence when you try to call Number One and James, too.

“Enterprise to Hubble. Come in, please.”

“Shuttle Hubble here, Lieutenant Spock. I was just about to call you – I have lost contact with the rest of the away team. They should have been back here by now, but they aren’t.”

“I have also tried to contact the captain but to no avail. Three unknown craft have appeared in the system, and have locked weapons on to us and the planet. They are not responding to hails. I have placed the Enterprise on yellow alert and raised shields. We cannot get a sensor lock on individual life signs through the atmosphere, and—”

“They’re firing some sort of energy weapon!”

“Taking evasive action!”

“Lieutenant, I—” Spock sounds uncharacteristically strained as he’s interrupted by what sounds like an overloading console.

“I understand. I’ll look for them. I’ll keep you updated.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant. Enterprise out.”

That’s it, you think.

You’re on your own.

You take a deep breath: what do you need? Communicator. Tricorder. Emergency medkit.

Phaser.

You put the medkit in a backpack, and since there’s space you add a water bottle and some emergency rations. You clip the tricorder to a utility belt, and holster the phaser, set to stun. Your communicator goes in your pants pocket; you’ve got your usual tools in your jacket.

Then you remember your terrible luck with communicators, so you grab a spare and shove it in your backpack. That should do it. You can’t carry the kitchen sink and you don’t have time to keep second guessing yourself.

Okay. Plan: find the away team, bring them to safety.

You exit the shuttle and shut the ramp – you don’t need strangers damaging it.

You take in your surroundings next. The shuttle has landed in the grounds of a large building, elevated on a hill in the middle of a city. It’s only three or four storeys high, but quite wide, and you think it extends back a long way. There are decorative metal accents spaced at regular intervals – lightning conductors, you realise, as you head toward the most important looking doorway – you see burnt grass at their bases. This building isn’t tall, but it is the tallest around; the atmosphere must affect Caylaran architecture, you think.

There’s no one around, which surprises you; shouldn’t there be guards?

You push the door and it opens with a whisper. Inside is the most ornate room you have ever been in. The walls are gold coloured stone, there are dozens of columns in mottled golden marble, and there are decorations finished with real gold leaf everywhere. There are bronze statues and hundreds of warm coloured lights. The ceiling is as decorated as the walls, and the whole effect is beautiful. Imposing. Stunning. Overwhelming.

But again, no one is here. You get your tricorder out, but you can’t resolve anything. Perhaps something is blocking the scan? You look at the stairs. The steps are high, designed with Caylarans in mind, and go up before dividing. There are flights down, too. There are corridors to the left and right, and you have to take a moment to weigh all your options. The largest doors are ahead, though, up the main staircase and over. Perhaps that’s where you would take guests that you wanted to impress?

You think back to what you read on Caylara in your mission briefing as you climb the stairs. Their head of state is Crown Princess Nanren, but although the title remains the same, a princess many generations ago passed laws to end the hereditary monarchy. Now a new crown prince or princess is elected for life when the previous one dies, and you think they have an elected senate too.

Beyond that, you don’t really know anything, you think as you reach the top of the stairs. You cross the landing, trying to stay aware of your surroundings. And as you look down the stairs, you lock eyes with the first person you’ve seen.

A guard is sitting on the ground next to the doors. He’s armed, and the stairs in front of him show signs of having been fired on. But he’s slumped back, his green-blue swirled eyes staring up at you.

“Why’s it so dark? I can see you in the dark. Why did you bring the dark with you? You shouldn’t—” he tries to lift his weapon, and you draw your phaser, but his head lolls and he closes his eyes, dropping the weapon in front of him.

That was unsettling.

You proceed slowly down the stairs, but he doesn’t move again. You kick his weapon away and get your tricorder out. You’re not a medic, this isn’t a medical tricorder, and you don’t know much about Caylaran physiology, but you do have field medic training and you can see that something is terribly wrong. You scan him, and then the air. It seems like there are traces of a molecule around that your tricorder program flags up as having features in common with known hallucinogens. It didn’t flag up on your general scan so it’s probably dissipated enough that it won’t affect you, but still you wish you’d put on an EV suit. There’s no time to second guess yourself now, though.

You put the tricorder away in favour of the phaser, and you gently push the next door open.

If you thought the foyer was large, this room is even larger. It’s all gold again, and should be as beautiful, but it looks like there’s been a fight in here and furniture is in haphazard piles on the floor. It makes you think of playing forts with your cousins in your grandparents’ house as a child. You’re not a strategist but you can easily see that these piles aren’t much better than that – they provide barely any cover.

You pick your way over gilded chairs and past carved wooden tables inlaid with gold, keeping an eye out. About a quarter of the way into the room, under a table with two chairs on top you see a Caylaran. She looks young, wearing what looks like it could be a staff uniform – it’s a plain warm toned brown dress with an embroidered hem, far less fancy than the delegates who had welcomed the others of your team. She’s staring straight ahead, hugging her knees to her chest, rocking back and forth. She pays you no attention as you kneel down by her.

“What’s your name?” You ask, softly.

“My name is Lararen and I’m going to kill the queen, going to kill the queen, going to kill the queen. My name is Lararen and I’m going to kill the queen, then the Genai are going to kill me.”

She smiles broadly as she finishes her little song, still staring vacantly straight ahead, and you shudder. You shake her shoulder and she blinks, slowly, but she doesn’t move.

You straighten up, thoughtfully, wondering what the Genai are. Some sort of bogeyman, or an alien race? Not that it matters.

Next you find a pair of guards, asleep, holding hands. You move their weapons out of sight and continue through.

But then you find a dead Caylaran. He looks like someone important, but his red robe embroidered with a golden floral patten has a scorch mark right in the middle of his chest. You’re not sure if that killed him, because there’s a pool of blood beneath him too. Either way, you think as you close his grey-purple eyes, he probably didn’t deserve whatever it was. You take a moment to pay your respects before moving on.

You don’t find any more dead bodies in this room, but you find several more Caylarans, either sleeping or talking nonsense. One male asks you where your flowers are, and tries to give you some from a fallen flower arrangement, but most of the rest are just scared.

You think they probably have good cause, as you push another door open. You pick it because the largest number of guards were close to it, so you figure it probably leads somewhere important.

It leads on to a stair well, small but lavishly decorated with tapestries, depicting Caylarans standing in outdoor scenes, sometimes with animals you don’t recognise. They deaden the sound of your footsteps as you climb the tall stone stairs.

Then two things happen: you pause as you notice one of the hangings is moving a little at the bottom, as though in a breeze. And then you hear voices above you.

“She’s not up here,” says a female voice, annoyed. Lucid.

“Well she’s definitely not down there.” The second voice is male. Defensive. “I’ve got a message from Alara. She wants us to look again.”

“Fine. But I want it noted for the record that this is a waste of time,” the first voice says, sounding suddenly quieter – she’s probably passed through a doorway.

“Like anyone cares, Nerela,” the second voice says. You risk a peek up the stairwell. You don’t get a good look as the second person disappears through the door, but they are definitely not Caylaran – he has blue skin.

You lean against a tapestry. There are aliens here, separate from your away team. There are aliens in orbit, too. The odds are good that they’re the same species. And “she” must be the crown princess. But what are they planning?

Regardless, you still need to find your people. It’s been half an hour; you could get back to the shuttle faster if you went straight there, but there isn’t much time left in this window.

You eye the tapestry again. You’re definitely not going to follow the aliens, and this breeze must be coming from somewhere. You push it aside.

This door is the first plain thing you’ve seen in the building. It stands slightly ajar – hence the breeze – and it’s painted beige to match the stonework, but otherwise it’s featureless. It swings as quietly as all the other doors when you push it, but it has some kind of bolt on the other side. Interesting. You try to work it, but you can’t. You think of the tools in your jacket; you could probably figure it out, but no. There’s no time. You push the door to, making sure it’s as shut as it can be, and continue.

You must have entered the service part of the building, you think, as you walk along a corridor. This is functional and plain, like the door. You feel a little more comfortable here; if you’d been interested in fancy, you would have joined the command track. Or Diplomatic Corps. You get your tricorder out again, but it doesn’t show you anything still and you didn’t expect it to. But then you approach a door, and hear whimpering from the other side.

You have your hand on your phaser as you push the door open. It’s dark compared to the rest of the building; there is a small window but there’s not much light coming through the Caylaran atmosphere right now. You take a moment to let your eyes adjust, then head toward the whimpering.

The room is small; some kind of office, perhaps? There’s a desk in the room, and behind it—

“Number One?” She’s crying. Number One is sitting on the floor crying, hair a mess, dress uniform dirty, cradling Ensign James in her lap.

You can barely believe it, but you squat down, reaching for your tricorder. You can see James breathing, at least. You look around, but Chris isn’t anywhere to be seen.

“Number One?” You scan them both. They both have traces of the drug in their systems, but a lot less than the guard you scanned earlier. As your eyes adjust you can see though that James has hit his head; there’s blood in his hair and on Una’s uniform. He’s also been hit by a energy discharge, but to the side.

“Una? What’s wrong?”

“I failed everyone. I didn’t protect my captain. What first officer doesn’t protect her captain? They’re going to throw me in the brig. They’re going to court martial me. I lost my captain, and he’s dead, I—”

Suddenly you’ve had enough. You slap her, hard. “Number One!”

“Lieutenant! What did you just—”

“Oh my goodness! I’m sorry, I—you—” You breathe. “Are you all right?” You strip your backpack off for your medkit. You’re going to need to try to bring Ensign James round.

“I—I’m not sure. I don’t know what happened; everything was normal and then suddenly it wasn’t. I was so scared, Lieutenant. It was—I can still feel it. But it doesn’t feel like me.” She shakes her head, eyes still a little wide, and you pass her the water bottle. She takes a drink as you inject Ensign James with a hypospray. He starts stirring immediately, which is good, but you still think he needs a proper exam to rule out any brain problems.

“Una, you’ve got fifteen minutes to get back to the shuttle with Ensign James. There are alien ships attacking the Enterprise, and I’ve seen aliens here too. I think they may be called the Genai. You go down the corridor, down the stairs, through the big room, through the foyer, and out. Do you think you can do that?”

“Back to the shuttle. Genai.” She shakes her head again, blinking a few times. She squares her shoulders. “Yes, I think so. I can. What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to find the captain. You can tell the computer to run on autopilot, if you need to – I updated the climate model, so the computer should be able to handle it.”

Together you help Ensign James to his feet.

“Do you have your communicator still?”

“I don’t,” James is still groggy as he pats himself down.

“I do,” Number One brings her communicator out and opens it. “Number One to Enterprise, come in please.”

Static.

“I think there’s a blocking field throughout this building. The tricorder isn’t working for some things either. You’d better get going.”

“Good luck, Lieutenant.”

“Thanks. You too, Commander.”

You put your medkit away as Number One and James leave. You’re relieved that they’re both okay, and you’re confident in Una, now she recognises her fear isn’t hers.

Back in the corridor you check the door to make sure Una shut it. You push it, but it’s locked. Weird. You could probably unlock it, but you don’t want to go that way anyway.

You turn your back on the door and continue along the corridor. Number One had said the captain – had said Chris – was dead. But he can’t be. She wasn’t, and you think she only had blood from Ensign James on her uniform. But... what if he is?

If he is, you do your duty as a Starfleet officer first. Find his body. Survive. Get out of here. Then mourn him second.

You pass three locked doors on the corridor, but the last opens to more stairs. Still functional, but just going down this time. You go down, listening, hand on you phaser.

Back on the ground floor – you think, but it could be a mezzanine level – there are several rooms that are open.

You go into the first one, hand still on your phaser. It’s a bedroom, and there’s a Caylaran male cowering in the corner, wearing the service uniform.

“Have you come to end it?” He asks, staring past you. You don’t answer, but your heart aches; you think he means his life. The next room is empty, bed neatly made up.

You listen at the door to the third room, and you think you hear breathing. You push the door open slowly. You don’t see anyone at first, but as you head into the room you see the edge of a gold robe, protruding out of what must the en-suite. You think you’re getting a feel for Caylaran fashion, and this is easily the fanciest thing you’ve seen so far. The robe is made of gold fabric, whereas all the others you’ve seen have been colours embroidered with gold. This one has gold and silver embroidery, and multicoloured gemstones picking out the centres of the flowers.

“Crown Princess Nanren?” Your pitch your voice low. Gentle. You remember how Chris spoke to you on Earth in the past, when you were panicking, and try to convey that calm, that confidence, to her. And in that moment you know you can no longer focus on looking for him. If this is the crown princess, more hinges on you looking after her.

“Crown Princess? I’m a Lieutenant from the Enterprise. From Starfleet – the Federation. I’m not a dream or a nightmare. I’m here to help. Will you come out?”

“The Genai are here. They’re going to kill me. I—I can’t—”

“We will find somewhere you can call your people. I will look after you. We will call in your people and they will deal with the Genai.” General Order One doesn’t apply here, you think. Not if the Genai are already interfering. Not that you care about diplomacy anyway. You’ll do what’s right now, and face the consequences later.

“I don’t—Why aren’t they here already?”

“I don’t know, Crown Princess. But we will figure it out. Please trust me.” You put all your belief into your tone, all the hope you still have left... and she steps forward.

She looks every bit the princess. She is tall, even compared to the other Caylara you’ve seen, and her dress is as exquisite as you expected from the tiny part you’d seen. You wonder, briefly, how many she has like that and how many months, perhaps years, it took to sew. She has a gauzy golden cloak hanging behind her, also embroidered, and her dark hair is braided and pinned up into an elaborate style. The only things that are not Princess-like about her are her purple-blue swirled eyes. They are wide, and anxious.

You recall your briefing notes, and bow. “Princess,” you say, staring at the floor.

“Arise,” she replies, and there’s the ghost of a command tone there. Good.

You straighten, looking up at her again, and pause. This is not how you dress if you might need to make a run for it.

You exhale, surveying the room. It’s a bedroom – a staff bedroom.

“Princess, I can get you out of this, I think. But first... you need to change.”

You find staff robes in the wardrobe that fit her, even if they’re a touch short. And sensible shoes. You have to sit her on the bed to take her hair down, but, you reflect with a little smile that she can’t see, taking her pins out is not unlike taking tiny components out of a circuit board.

“You get used to it, you know,” she says as she stands after you’ve finished. “The pomp and ceremony. The robes. People expect it of their princess, and you get used to it.”

“They are lovely,” you say, following her gaze to where her robes are hung up. “But we should get moving. Where can we call your people?”

“That sort of thing is in the wing on the other side of the Room of State,” she says. Right. The other side of that big room. Of course. And there’s a locked door between you and it.

Even so you retrace your steps. She’s much faster up the stairs than you, and you think bad thoughts about differing alien physiologies. But then, she would find the chairs on the Enterprise a bit small, you think. And the beds.

Soon you’re on the corridor with the door at the end, and you finger your jacket’s zipper as you get closer – it’s time for you to brush off your lock-picking skills. You hope the lock is easy like the ones on Eloma.

But the princess pushes the door and it opens with a whisper.

You can’t say anything. But you thank your lucky stars for small favours.

“Let me,” you say, as you approach the bottom of the stairwell. “If anything happens, go back the way we came.” You look the princess in the eye and she nods.

You crack the door open the tiniest bit, and you hear a voice.

You turn back to the princess, reach out and take her hand. You know it isn’t protocol but you squeeze gently, feeling the scales on her skin and a ring round her finger, hoping the touch will keep her calm.

You push the door open again.

“—everywhere. Yes. Me personally. I don’t care what you—yes I know scanners aren’t working. I wish you hadn’t got voice comms back. But she’s not here; she must be on your floor. Fine, Nerela. She could be in the south wing. No don’t come down here, you idiot. Go round. Ugh. Put Yaima on. Yes tell Nerela she’s being a pain. No, they’re still with our vessel, so she can’t be in the garden. It’s the storm cycle; of course we can’t—To the East, yes. I’ll see you there. But tell Nerela she’s done after this. No I don’t care. Alara out.”

You hear footsteps stalking down the room, getting closer. Your heart is in your mouth, one hand on your phaser, as you hold your breath. The steps falter slightly... and then they continue. You stay frozen until you can’t hear them anymore, then you give it a minute after that before you move the door.

The Room of State has changed since you saw it last; almost all the furniture has been pushed to the sides of the room, apart from a chair cushion in the middle of the floor; that’s what made Alara miss her step.

You take a step forward, and the princess follows, still holding your hand. She gasps, and you follow her gaze; at the end of the room are rows of Caylarans, lying on the floor. You look around, but the coast seems clear. You take your tricorder out one-handed, and you scan them. From here you can pick out their life signs – they may be unconscious but they’re still alive.

“They’re okay. They aren’t dead. Probably stunned with an energy weapon.” You feel the princess relax, and you drop her hand. “We can take care of them later. You need to show me where to go.”

She nods, and you follow her across the room and through the door on the other side. You have time to check on the way across: Number One and James aren’t there. Neither is the captain.

The stairwell on the other side is like the first, except this has paintings rather than tapestries, and your footsteps are louder as you climb.

“I don’t know who any of them are,” the princess says, looking at the paintings on your way up. “I suppose I should, but... they’re not my ancestors, I suppose. Just... predecessors. In a way.”

You resist the impulse to shush her.

On this stairwell a painting opens to the service corridor. You take the lead going through, but the corridor is empty. And when the princess shuts the door, you hear its lock click.

You walk along the corridor, listening carefully, but you can’t hear any signs of life. You have to hustle to keep up with the princess, but you push a couple of doors as you pass them. They’re both locked.

The stairs down at the other end of the corridor carry on further than they do on the other side, and your calves are beginning to ache when you reach the bottom. Your discomfort doesn’t matter, you tell yourself. It’s cooler down here, and you think you must be underground. Some kind of bunker.

“My real office is in my suite. My ceremonial office is downstairs, but this”—she opens the second door you reach—“is for emergencies.”

The office is dark as you go in, but she presses a control and it lights up. You close the door behind you and look around. Unlike the other rooms off the service corridors, this one is lavish once again. The wallpaper has gilded highlights, and the desk is made of a golden brown hardwood and is intricately carved. There’s no window since you’re underground, but the light fittings are made of bronze and remind you of the statues in the foyer. You realise the room is probably this nice in case the princess needs to do an emergency broadcast – her surroundings will still look the part.

The princess sits at the desk, pressing her palm to a sensor. A computer apparatus lifts up, and she enters some commands. You walk round the desk and stand a little way to her side, as a Caylaran man appears on the screen. His expression is blank, confused.

“Is this some kind of joke? At such a time? Using Princess Nanren’s—wait—”

He frowns, tips his head to one side.

“Your highness, is—is that you? The Genai—we were sure they’d killed you. That’s what they said. And the blocking field is on so we couldn’t scan—we had no idea—I—” He closes his eyes and bows his head.

“I am so sorry, your highness. I didn’t want to risk your people on a dangerous mission with no intelligence if you were already dead. But I should have trusted in you, and not believed the Genai without proof.”

Staff robe or not, Crown Princess Nanren straightens up and looks every bit the princess once again.

“Arise. Guard Leader Daymen, I am glad to see you. Please do not apologise; the time for analysing our decisions and learning from this situation is not yet here. First I must survive, and you must take back the palace. The Genai are still here; they have a vessel in the garden and people throughout the palace. Our people have been drugged; most are in the Room of State, but there are likely others dispersed through the palace.”

“They have three vessels in orbit too, I think,” you say, quietly.

“They have vessels in orbit too, although”—she presses a control, and a little data window appears—“they won’t be able to send any reinforcements through the atmosphere for a few more hours. What do you need to retake the building?”

“I will bring my guards now, highness. If you could turn the blocking field off it would make things safer, but—no. You are the most important. Enact the safe-room protocol, and remain where you are until we secure the building.”

“I may be able to lower the blocking field. But I shall keep safe. Do you have any news of our Federation guests?”

“Their shuttle left before the window closed. I was unable to talk to their ship at that time, but...” his expression goes thoughtful. “We use a limited range of communication frequencies. The Genai in orbit could have blocked them.”

You nod to yourself; the Caylaran frequencies had been in your briefing, and they were very different to Federation ones. The blocking field in the Palace was wide-band, but it would take too much power for a block like that over a bigger area. Much more sensible to just block the Caylaran frequencies.

“Thank you. May the skies protect you, Guard Leader.”

“May the skies protect you, highness.” He bows once again and cuts the connection.

“Lieutenant, thank you for all you have done for me so far. May I ask this last favour?”

“To take down the field? Of course, your highness. What do I need to do?”

She slides a ring off her finger and hands it to you. It’s a very narrow band of gold with a small red stone set on it. It’s big for you, though, so you slip it on to your thumb.

“You can use that to gain access to the systems. The security office is down the corridor to the right.”

“Lock the door behind me, your highness.” You smile as you turn to go.

“May the skies protect you, Lieutenant.”

“And you too.” You go through the door, closing it behind you. You hear a loud thunk a moment after you do; it sounds like more than a lock – probably blast doors. At least she’s safe, you think. Even if that means you’re alone.

You wonder about Chris, and where he could be. You have to hold on to hope, don’t you? You can’t think... no. You mustn’t. Instead you think about what he would do in your place. You think he’d be cautious. You’re nearly at your goal, but if you don’t succeed people could get hurt if the Caylaran Guard can’t tell who is who, or where they are. You’ve heard people complain about security officers being trigger happy; you think it’s probably the same for the Guard.

And you’re in a strategically important part of the palace; you don’t know how many Genai there are but they’ll probably find this area eventually. You draw your phaser, and make sure you walk quietly.

There is only one door left between you and where the corridor splits, when you hear a voice. The door opens a little, and you freeze. The voice is familiar – one of the Genai.

“—last time, no. I genuinely, and I am completely sincere on this, do not care what Alara thinks. Not even a tiny little bit! She missed this entire section! Yeah whatever, Yaima, you go tell her what I said. But when I find the Queen—Crown Princess, whatever, and she doesn’t, she’s the one that’ll get fired, not me! Nerela out!”

The door slams open, and Nerela stomps out. It’s her or you, but you are ready and she is not. Her black eyes widen as she sees you, and her weapon is in hand, but before she can aim you shoot. She grunts as she falls back, stunned.

Happily, Genai are shorter than Caylarans, although Nerela is wearing high heeled boots which make her look taller. You drag her back into the room she came out of, take her weapon and communicator and leave her lying in the recovery position. You shut the door behind you and it clicks a second later.

You shake your head; the doors are one mystery too many. You put Nerela’s weapon in your phaser holster, and tuck her communicator into your belt. Then you head to the right, toward the security office.

The first thing you notice as you push the door open are the screens. Dozens of them. The second—

“Chris?” He’s frowning, pointing a phaser at you. He looks at you like he can’t believe his eyes. Like you’ve stepped out of a nightmare.

“Chris it’s me. I’m real. I’m really here.” You take a careful step through the doorway, keeping eye contact with his bloodshot blue eyes, letting the door close behind you.

“You don’t need to be afraid any more.” You think about what Number One had said. “This fear... it isn’t really you.” You stoop down and put your phaser on the floor. You take Nerela’s weapon and put that on the floor too. And as you do, something clicks into place in your mind.

“Chris, you’ve been helping me, haven’t you? Locking doors to keep me safe? To help me get where I needed to go?”

“I’ve been so... afraid. I—I needed to keep her—to keep you safe.” He relaxes his grip on his phaser a little, and you reach for your tricorder.

“You were drugged, Chris.” You scan him. “Number One and James are safe, they got a lower dose than you.” A much lower dose, you realise, looking at the numbers. “I sent them back to the shuttle and they returned to the Enterprise. I’m going to end all this, get us home. But I need you to stop pointing that phaser at me.”

He looks at his hand, holding the phaser, then back at you.

“But is she—are you real?”

Your heart melts for him. You haven’t said these words, but you’ve felt it for a while. And—you worried, you genuinely worried, that you would never get to say them. This may not be the moment you planned, but he has to believe you.

“Chris, I love you. I’m real.”

“I—” he drops the phaser, and it clatters to the floor. The next thing you know you’re in front of him, arms around him, holding him. You can’t think; you can speak. You just hold on, letting your body feel his warmth, his solidity. You may not have been drugged, but you had been so afraid

. After a moment he puts his arms around you, too, and you just stay there for a moment more. Holding him. Letting him hold you.

As much as you’d like to forget everything else right now, you still have a job to do. You pull back, take hold of his hand, and look at the security console. You can see feeds of the Room of State, the foyer, the other rooms you’ve been in, and other places, too. Beneath the monitors is a schematic; this is how Chris was locking and unlocking the doors, you realise. But how did he have the credentials to do so?

You look at the desk and see a ring like the one the Crown Princess gave you, nestled in a groove.

“How did you get that?” You ask.

Chris frowns. “I was in that big room, but I was so afraid. I came through the door. Went upstairs. Along the corridors. Looking for somewhere safe enough. I got here and the Caylaran... we struggled, he tried to shoot but I took his weapon.” You follow his gaze to an energy weapon on the ground. “Then he ran. And I stayed. I could see everything. Not get caught out. And then I saw you.”

You squeeze his hand, and work the controls with your other hand. There is a glyph that looks like a shield; you turn it off. You check your tricorder – finally you can detect life signs. Both Caylaran and Genai. As you do, Nerela’s communicator chirrups to life.

“Nerela? I swear, if this was you—! You have the worst timing! The Caylaran guard are here. Put the blocking field back up immediately. That’s an order! Nerela? Nerela, answer me! Ne—”

It lapses into static for a moment. Then silence.

“The Guard are here, Chris. As soon as the atmosphere clears we can go home.”

*

When you return to the Enterprise you go to the captain’s quarters. You know he won’t be there, but you need the sense of his presence. His smell.

Chris had to stay on the planet to complete the original negotiations and help deal with the Genai; the drug’s effects had faded by the time the atmosphere was passable again, and you’d got some water and rations into him. Spock came down and stayed, but you had only left Chris because he ordered you to.

You have a shower, put on one of his sleep shirts, and curl up on the sofa under his throw blanket to write your report.

*

“Sweetheart?” You wake up to Chris kneeling in front of you, hand on your shoulder. His hair is damp and he’s out of his uniform. Your brow creases for a moment – you don’t remember him using that endearment for you before.

“Chris,” you say, stretching. Pushing the throw away, and leaning into his touch. “You’re back.”

“I am.” His mouth quirks into a smile. “There was a lot to sort out; it seems the Genai and the Caylara have a dispute over a world on a system between them. The Genai thought if Caylara joined the Federation, we would take their colony from them. They thought if they disrupted the negotiation and killed Crown Princess Nanren, either we would give up, or the Caylarans would be too afraid to continue.” He moves his thumb along your shoulder.

“Spock put the fear of God into the Genai in orbit. I’m not sure how,” he adds, at your incredulous look, “but they and the Caylarans have requested mediation. And now the Genai want to work towards joining the Federation, too.”

“I wish they’d chosen to talk to us first,” you say, frowning. Thinking of the dead Caylaran. “These breakthroughs always seem to come at such a cost.”

“They do,” he says, gathering you into his arms. Holding you against him.

You stay in his arms for a while, just breathing. But eventually he pulls back, and moves to sit beside you.

“You were amazing today. You’ll be getting a commendation, but Crown Princess Nanren wanted me to convey her thanks, too. You saved her life.” He reaches into his pocket, then leans forward and fastens a chain round your neck. It’s delicate, golden, and from it hangs the ring that she had lent you for the computer. That you had given back before you left. “She wanted you to have this. But she thought a necklace might work better.”

You shake your head, taking hold of the ring. “Saving her was as much you as me, Chris. Locking those doors.”

He looks at you, thoughtful. “I don’t think so. I—I have never felt fear like I did today. Now I look back at it I can tell it wasn’t real, but at the time, seeing you on those screens, moving with purpose, helping our people and the Caylarans... you gave me hope.”

He pauses, blue eyes meeting yours. Hand reaching out to touch your face.

“When we were down there... I remember what you said to me. I love you too.”

You lean forward, meeting him for a kiss, gentle at first but it goes passionate almost immediately, both of you pouring your feelings for each other into the connection between you. You didn’t know it could feel like this, you think, before he pulls you into his lap and thoughts flee away.

*

“Lieutenant, I want to thank you.” Number One says, sitting at her desk. “I was not myself down on Caylara, but you did yourself proud. You saved us.”

“You’re welcome, Commander.” You smile. “I’d say any time, but right now I’d be happy if I never left the ship again.”

“That being said, if you tell anyone—”

“If I tell anyone you were crying, I can expect to spend the next month of duty shifts degaussing the transporter with a microresonator?”

“Oh that’s a good one. I must remember that. Yes. You will be degaussing, Lieutenant.”

“Understood.”

[what-goesaround-comesaround]

Let's talk about some Irish newsies-

Hey! So I thought it'd be cool to look into the research I've found indicationg that some of the newsies might have Irish ties! (I'm Irish so that might explain my interest) I'm not an expert at all or anything, this is just the research I've collminated while scouring through newsies facts.

Oh course this isn't set in stone, this is just information I've found so if I've got anything wrong, please tell me! I was inspired by this post to do my own research. (A lot of my research has to do with the original movie but stick around for some fun facts about surnames?)

And now, onto Jack Kelly :

^This is David's description of Jack in Newsies : a novel by Jonathan Fast which can be found here on pg 9. Both surnames "Kelly" and "Sullivan" have their roots in Irish history.

^on pg 27 of the same book David describes Jack again as "an Irish boy". I just thought this would be worth noting, seeing how David wants to make it obvious to us, the reader that Jack appears to be Irish or of Irish descent.

"Kelly", originally anglicized from the Gaelic "Ó Ceallaigh" meaning 'descendant of Ceallach', an ancient Irish personal name, originally a byname meaning 'bright-headed' or 'troublesome' (fitting huh?) Source found here.

Fun fact for you livesies fans, the reigning chieftain of Ui Maine (mid Galway, South Roscommon, sometimes referred to as "O'Kelly's Country") O'Ceallaigh (c1351), was a renowned patron of the arts. Source found here.

Another fun fact : Jack means Seán in Irish.

Bet you weren't expecting that. Or maybe you were. Anyway, source is found here. I also remember it being a topic of conversation in 3rd class Irish class. Wonder how Spot and Jack would feel about that.

^On pg 23 of the original 1992 movie script found here Jack describes himself as a "mick" which was a commonly used derogatory term used against those of Irish decent/Irish immigrants at the time. However this line was not included in the movie. Source found here.

Now for "Sullivan". The original Irish for the surname Sullivan is O'Suileabhain, however the actual derivation of the name is debated. There is no doubt that the root word is 'suil' meaning eye, but whether it is to be taken as 'one-eyed' or 'hawk-eyed' is usually left an open question. Sources found here and here.

The surname is associated with the southwestern part of Ireland and was originally found in County Tipperary before the Anglo-Norman invasion. Source found here

Also, in both movie and stage versions Jack tells us his father "taught me not to starve" indicating his father may have taught Jack about the horrors of the Famine/An Drochshaol/The Great Hunger that plagued Irish families for years after. Source is found here.

Okay! On to Spot Conlon :

^This is David's description of Spot Conlon from the same book, pg 51 (okay he may not outright say he's Irish but they really said "throw all the stereotypes at him like red hair". But seriously in the Hard Promises script and the Newsies script he's described the same way. I guess they really invisioned that red hair huh?)

Spot is interesting seeing as he is the leader of the Brooklyn newsies, Brooklyn being an infamously known place for Irish immigrants to live due to the Great Hunger/An Drochshaol (translated meaning "Hard Times") or as it's more commonly known as "the potato famine" between 1845-1852. Source found here. At least 1 million people died from this and another 1 million immigrated, a lot to America (although the exact numbers are disputed.) Around this time New York becoming the busiest port city in the world. There was labor work to be had in Brooklyn, in the manufacturing and loading and unloading of goods to be sent around the country and around the world. Irish immigrants who had been left poor and malnourished by the famine had no other option but to take on this manual labour to earn money. Many took jobs by the ports and settled by the Watershed i.e. near the ports. This could be a reason to why we're first introduced to Spot and his "cronies" at the port in the movie. Source is found here and here.

Supposing Spot was born between 1880-1886 (he's quoted to be 14 in real life in this article however it's stated in the Newsies Novel on pg 51 to "be around Jack's age" and it's stated in original script before Newsies was rewritten to be a musical and was still a drama, "Hard Promises" he's quoted to be 19 on pg 28. So take this with a grain of salt.) the U.S. census, which counted both place of birth and parents’ birth place as well, estimated that one-third of all New Yorkers were of Irish parentage. By 1890 as Brooklyn neighborhoods were expanding east and south, the amount of people with Irish stock is at 196,372. Source found here.

Also how people will usually use the name "Seán" or sometimes "Patrick" for Spot (one of the fandom wiki pages cites it as his real name here but admits to having no proof of it). Both of these are traditional Irish first names, Patrick being popularised by the patron saint of Ireland St. Patrick/Pádraig. Might have heard of it-

Now for his surname.

Conlon is an Irish family name, it being a variation of the anglicised version of Ó Connalláin. The name may be derived from two Irish Gaelic words "Con" (the genitive case of Cú, meaning "hound") and "Lón" meaning lion - thereby implying a person who has the characteristics of a lion born of a hound - strength and speed. Source found here.

Conlon had a Gaelic form of Ó Conallain or Ó Coinghiollan in Connacht however it's Ó Caoindealbhain in Munster and Leinster. Fun fact, Connal or Connall is claimed to be a pet name for a sprout or little sprout. Source found here.

The history regarding the Conlon surname is complicated to say the least- however it can be traced back to County Meath, where the Conlon descendants are from an important sept near Trim, which traces back to Laoghaire, King of Ireland circa 432. O'Coindealbhain was also anglicised 'Quinlivan' in Munster. Source is found here and here.

This post isn't letting me include the video of Jack, David and Boots going to Brooklyn to negotiate with Spot and the Irish traditional music in the background but I'll make a separate post about that.

Now, onto Racetrack Higgins.

I'm going to keep this kind of brief. We know Racetrack is described as "tall, skinny gambling Italian beanpole" in the Hard Promises script on pg 1 and he's described as "an Italian beanpole" on pg 5 of the Newsies Script. However the surname "Higgins" is Irish as far as my research has told me, not Italian.

The real Ed "Racetrack" Higgins lived in Brooklyn and is quoted to be the real leader of the Brooklyn union, and was elected vice-president of the general union after Kid Blink and David Simmons were accused of selling out. Source found here. I haven't been able to find much information about Racetrack Higgin's life after the strike or his family life which could connect him to Ireland however I thought it would be interesting. If anyone is curious about the real Racetrack Higgins this source has been really useful!

'Higgins" is an Irish family name with ancient royal connections. It is an anglicisation of O'hUigin, from the Irish word 'uiginn' meaning Viking. The original holder of the name was a grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages, High King of Tara, and all of the O'Higgins claim a common descent from him. Ancient records show that several members of the O'Higgins claimed a hereditary right to be file or poet in the courts of the Irish Chiefs and Kings. Source is found here and here.

Because of their loyalty to Gaelic culture and religion, the Higgins suffered under the English Crown in Ireland and had lost all their lands in Sligo and Westmeath by 1654. Some of them remained in Ireland as tenants on their own lands, but many of them migrated to Spain where they achieved high office in the service of the King. Source is found here.

Fun fact, Racetrack has the same surname as the current (9th) President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins!

Lastly, on to Crutchy/ie Morris!

^This is from the 1991 original script of Newsies when it was called Hard Promises and was written to be a drama. Obviously this wasn't the movie that we have today but I thought this would be a cool add on. I couldn't find a lot of information about the real Crutch Morris, whom Crutchy/ie is based on. The surname Morris isn't strictly Irish, it's a popular surname throughout the British Isles however with this piece of information I thought it would make sense to research it anyway.

"Morris" (Ó Muiris in Irish) was introduced to Ireland by the Normans, along with the variant Firzmaurice (Mac Muiris). A branch of these Morrises moved to Galway in 1485 CE and later became one of the Tribes Of Galway. The name may also have been an abbreviation of Morrissey (Ó Muireasa), a branch of the Uí Fiachrach clan. Sources found here and here.

The ancient Irish name Ó Muirgheasa (variant Ó Muirghis), a personal name thought to derive from muir, meaning "sea" and geas, meaning "taboo" or "prohibition." Source found here.

The Morris family does have an Irish family crest/coat of arms which I'll post at a later date, further cementing themselves in Irish history.

This is most of the information I have regarding the origins of the characters and their surnames however I could go on about the music in Newsies, the family crests, the housing circumstances of poor Irish immigrants in New York at the turn of the 19th century ect.

If you want to learn more about what life was like for Irish immigrants in New York I recommend reading the non-fiction book The Gangs Of New York (or watching the movie. It isn't completely historically accurate but give a decent overview of what was life) or reading this article by the Irish Times.

I've barely scratched the surface of this topic and hope to go into it father in the future!

May I leave you with this gif of the boys doing some Irish (inspired) dancing and David with his twirl combo!

Ps. If the links aren't working for you I'd be happy to provide a list of the resources I’ve used throughout my research on a separate post if needs be.

pps. @maggs-is-a-muppet @annihilatedthenightstalker @newsies-bun @letter-from-the-refuge thanks for the motivation last night 😌

[hair-beautytips]

Hypothyroidism And Hair Loss

Hair loss is something that affects a vast number of individuals, till it affects you hair loss is some thing that truly isn’t that essential. Hair loss in one form or an additional affects more than 80 million Americans. Not just is hair loss definitely genetic however it may also be brought about by other self-inflicted factors. What these elements can differ in individuals. This write-up will look at a few of the causes of hair loss, and also present a treatment for one particular cause, thyroid disorder, or hypothyroidism.

Hair loss may be very scary; it can generally be the very first sign that someone is actually ill. It can also be very difficult to predict. The medical name for hair loss and some baldness is Alopecia. Because about 90% of the hair on your scalp is growing at any 1 time, it really does mean that your body requirements to be in great operating order for this to continue usually. Just like skin continuously re generates, hair is usually growing. Sometimes you do not really stop to consider this and few understand that it’s time to get a haircut.

Just like a number of other diseases, there may be many causes attributed to hair loss. Most people know that chemotherapy will cause this, and sadly that is something that we still have no cure for. With particular other factors however, there’s help accessible. A common cause of hair loss in individuals is hypothyroidism, although with hypothyroidism in general this really is 1 of the less typical symptoms. This may usually not be the only symptom if your thyroid is causing your hair to leave you.

The regular factor for you to do when you notice any sign of symptom or disease or a feeling of being ill, would be to consult your doctor. This is no various when it comes to hair loss. You will find numerous tests a physician can perform to determine what is the cause of your particular problem. If you’re experiencing some of the following symptoms also as a loss of hair, it would be a good thought to have your thyroid checked. Unexplained weight acquire or weight reduction, being unable to handle the cold, stiffness or cramping in the muscles and joints, and in ladies even a heavier than normal period. Whilst an under active thyroid can cause depression and hair loss, hair loss is something that will be brought about by depression alone.

Unfortunately nobody is secure from losing his or her hair. This definitely doesn’t mean that everybody will, but you can do everything right and nonetheless be affected. Simply the reality that losing your hair can be hereditary means that at any time you can start to notice problems. When you have consulted a doctor or believe that your hair loss is in relation to your thyroid, then it’s time you took some action.

Remember that most hair loss can be treated, a therapy becoming increasingly more popular when it is in relation to your thyroid is really a natural thyroid treatment named Thyromine. The ingredients in Thyromine function to stimulate your metabolism that can be a key factor in losing hair. It also stimulates the immune program and increases the production of necessary thyroid hormones.

Please visit my other article How to Stop Hair Loss and Hair Loss In Women Causes

[iliveinprocrasti-nation]

Hi! Wanna share your research on cannibalism? I literally know nothing on the subject. So if you have time, I’d love to learn more.

hi!!! i absolutely do want to share my research because this has been fascinating me for days. this is also likely not edited and just comes from my brain, so if something is confusing/incomprehensible/incorrect please tell me and i’ll do my best to fix it

to anyone who might see this: please don’t hesitate to tell me if you want a tag or another trigger warning on this post or the other (although i might end up making a blog for this type of stuff? my friends can only hear so much about epidemiology and cannibalism science and all that so tell me what you think about me making a sideblog for my interests). trigger warning for cannibalism, death, sickness, ulcers, necrosis, pus

The biggest issue with cannibalism come in the form of prions. Prions are made of a protein called PrP, which is found in perfectly healthy people. PrP^C is the normal protein that’s found in cell membranes (we don’t really know what PrP does, but it might have to do with the brain’s cell to cell communication). The infectious form of PrP is PrP^Sc (called a prion). Prions happen when PrP proteins fold over themselves, which messes up how the proteins connect to each other. Usually, your body will use enzymes to break down proteins, which would fix this problem, but prions are very much resistant to them. Prions also don’t have nucleic acid (DNA/RNA). Prion diseases can be hereditary, infectious, or sporadic (so they can run in the family, or you can contract them, or your PrP just decides one day to fold itself into a prion).

Cannibalism has to do more with the infectious prions. Prions, once they happen, start affecting other proteins like some really messed up game of group tag, causing them to fold and become prions as well, causing clumps of misfolded proteins in your brain (remember how I said they might have to do with brain communication? what we do know is that prion diseases really mess up your brain. i think prions can also be found in the nervous system as well so do with that what you will). From what I remember, these prion clumps can also damage and/or kill nerve cells, which leads to your brain getting these small holes, and becomes somewhat akin to a sponge when looked at under a microscope (prion diseases are also known as “spongiform encephalopathies” for a reason). The thing is, spongy brains with holes in them also means majour brain damage, which is seen in the symptoms. 

Speaking of prion disease symptoms, they are very much not fun (i looked these up btw, i haven’t memorised the specific symptoms yet). They progress, starting smaller and creating minor inconveniences, to progressing enough to be debilitating. There are:

Memory issues and dementia

Difficulty walking/balancing

Behaviour/psychological changes

Hallucinations

Muscle stiffness/loss of muscle control

Seizures

Vision problems

Confusion

Fatigue

Insomnia

Difficulty speaking/swallowing

I know what you might be thinking. “I want a specific example of a time cannibalism lead a prion disease enough to be an epidemic like you said in one of your other answers to an ask.” Well, welcome to kuru (which means “to shake” in the Fore language), a disease that ravaged through the Fore people of Papua New Guinea (who had a cultural practice of funerary cannibalism) and their neighbours. This epidemic peaked in the 1950s, when 2% of all Fore deaths were because of kuru (hitting women and children the hardest). At this time, it was the leading cause of death among women in the Fore. The fact it was only 2% of all deaths makes it seem small, but some villages “became almost devoid of women” (this quote is from an article from medical news today that i used to get the kuru symptoms and information, and it’s a really interesting read! https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/311277#Symptoms-of-kuru). The reason it hit women and children the hardest was because they were the ones who would prepare the bodies; also, men believed that, during conflict, eating human meat could weaken them, so they consumed less than women and children. Kuru has a pretty long asymptomatic period that lasts years, but once symptoms present themselves they progress much faster and can kill in only a couple months (symptoms can be present for up to two years before death, although that’s still less than half the time of the incubation period, if not 1/10 of the time). Once symptoms appear, there are three stages of symptom progression a person goes through. 

1. When symptoms are inconveniences:

Headaches

Joint pain

Shaking

Loss of balance

Speech deterioration

Loss of muscle control

2. When symptoms have bigger effects:

Inability to walk

Loss of muscle coordination

Severe tremors

Emotional instability (depression with outbursts of uncontrollable laughter)

3. When symptoms become severe

Inability to sit without support

Little to no muscle coordination

Inability to speak

Difficulty swallowing

Unresponsive to surroundings

Ulcerations (which will have necrosis, which is tissue death, and pus)

Symptoms lead to death, though the cause of death is usually pneumonia or severely infected pressures. This is no longer an issue for the Fore people, as the the practice was reduced. Kuru is likely extinct, and the last person is thought to have died from it in 2005.

So prion diseases have only had one epidemic, and they’re relatively rare, so why are they an issue? It’s because they can’t be cured, and (at this point in time) will always be fatal. They can be slowed, but symptoms will continue to progress. Remember how prions don’t have nucleic acid? This means they’re also resistant to radiation that would normally destroy/inactivate these types of things when enzymes might not be able to. There are usually about 350 new cases of prion diseases every year, so all things considered, they’re not common. However, cannibalism would almost certainly up the numbers. Cannibalism being a cultural practice is of course a more difficult subject, but I’m more here for the science. 

Note to people who might read this and might want to comment about how “cannibalism would fix overpopulation tho” or “oh cannibalism is so horrible and bad how could someone do that”: personally, the morality behind whether or not cannibalism is “good” or “bad” doesn’t especially matter to me since science has shown negative effects, so please don’t bring any of that onto this post.

[uncoordinated-house-cat]

pls rant about nicholas ii 👀

dude i am so glad u asked. i mean, u didn’t ask for the entire rant about both russian revolutions, but here u are anyway. (but also im a teenager history student so this is very biased and i checked most of my facts but not all of them so don’t quote me and if a history person who actually knows what they’re doing finds a mistake don’t @ me) ok so nicholas ii was an absolute ********** and had an iq of -1000 and he was still super convinced that he could run all of russia, which is like a freaking huge country with millions of people who are super poor (peasants made up 85% of the population in 1905 when the first revolution happened, the number of people below the poverty line was probably way higher when the actual revolution happened and he got overthrown but bitch had it cOMING) 

so here’s the thing. nick, a spoiled child who let’s say is twelve years old when his dad alexander dies of assassination (omg i googled the dates and HE WAS TWELVE I WAS RIGHT FHDSJKLAFHSD) has been told, since he was a tiny but no less annoying baby, that he was amazing and very smart and was absolutely entitled to rule all of russia and he was like ‘hell yeah bro this is my divine right wahoo guess i don’t have to pay attention in my ‘how to be a good leader’ lessons cos god chose me to be the tsar so i already am one #thuglife’ 

so he met this girl named alix, who was princess of somewhere irrelevant and incredibly religious (and also deluded but that becomes important later) and he falls in love with her and they get married, which is nice but probably not a good long-term decision because through her friend, nick meets rasputin (and i love the ra ra rasputin song but rasputin was very very problematic) and that’s one of the many, many, many stupid things he does that makes literally every single person in russia (again, lots of people) mad at him. but nick is in love, and he marries alix, and this is all very nice if russia was a substantially smaller and easier country to run and nick was actually a competent leader then maybe there wouldn’t have been a revolution! but alas, this was not the case. 

so as we all know, russia is fucking enormous. for people who have never looked at a map in their entire life, this is russia

and it has more landmass than several continents put together. chonky boi. and the capital city where the royal family lives? well, you’d assume it’s somewhere in the middle ish, since russia’s such a huge country and you kinda need to be in the middle in order to have literally any idea what’s going on and stop your people from revolting under your freaking nose, so put it in the middle. 

but nOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. they put the capital in st. petersburg, a place that’s like five minutes drive from finland, estona, latvia, ukraine (although that would probably take a while but u get the point) and LITERALLY NOWHERE NEAR ANYWHERE IN RUSSIA. ARGH. 

i’m pretty sure the reasoning for this was ‘it’s been there since forever and everything was fine then so we don’t need to change it’ cos back when russia was actually a country-sized country instead of the mammoth it is now (we’re talking 1539, and by country-sized country it was still bigger than most of western europe put together), the country was all the way over to the left, where st. petersburg is, so they probably had the capital there foreeeeeeever. even after they expanded and became mcfreaking enormous bc sOmEoNe (not naming names *cough cough* ivan the terrible *cough cough*) decided it would be an awesome idea to have some expansionist policy, yay, and now we’ve ended up with this monstrosity. and while you might think that having a big country is great, it’s not. here’s why:

- so many people. soooo many people

- how u gonna keep track of all of them?? it takes like 8 years to get from one side of this bad boy to the other

- since nobody can control russia cos of all the land and all the people, the culture just goes absolutely backward. the peasants are too poor to afford food, let alone an education, and it’s not as if nicky is gonna build free public schools or raise wages or anything, lol, so the collective russian mindset is a bit of a dumpsterfire

- if, say, a revolution were to happen, which of course it can’t hahaha everybody know’s nick’s the divine ruler and overthrowing him wouldn’t be possible cos everyone’s so thrilled with their life in a very cold place with no food, awful policies, terrible wages and working conditions and a tsar who cares more about hanging out with his family than actually doing his duty as leader of the biggest country in the world?? then the tsar wOULDN’T KNOW THE REVOLUTION WAS HAPPENING UNTIL IT WAS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY AND SOMEONE WAS HOLDING A GUN TO HIS STUPID TINY PEABRAIN HEAD

and nick did not do a lot to help the russian people to live unproblematic, non-poverty-stricken lives. in the early 1900s, there was a big move to the cities cos everyone was moving to the cities which meant there were more educated people getting jobs or going to university and going ‘hey, our wages are shit, nobody has any food and it seems like the tsar is doing a really bad job and just living in the lap of luxury while his entire country suffers?? should we do something about this??’

but he did do something. oh, boy. nicky, looking at all his ancestors going ‘bro aren’t u gonna expand the country that’s literally the one thing russia is good at u can’t break our streak’ went and conquered siberia. then he built a railway, cos he needed a water outlet for trade and stuff. he called it the trans-siberian railway. he wanted to make it really big, and cross over into manchuria, so he had a bit of a war with china which he won and then he built the railway in manchuria. 

meanwhile, japan has been practising their war tactics a lot recently and while they don’t have much of a reputation in the west (like at all, nobody takes them seriously) and they also want to expand and flex their fighting skills a bit, they cross into manchuria and are like ‘i want this land. gimme’ and nick is like ‘nah fam i’m good’ and japan is like ‘>:( one last warning’ and nick is like ‘lol ur country is tiny and my country is huge have u seen all these buff russian soldiers i have guarding the railway i could crush u with my boot’ and then the japanese launch a surprise attack! on the russian squadron at port arthur. nick made the pikachu face, then the russo-japanese war started. 

uh oh, bad decision! looks like the russians are losing and even tho there’s lots of them there are more japanese and they have better battle tactics, so nick sends more soldiers. thing is, everyone in russia is already super poor so they can’t afford to have the [relatively] healthy, working men go off to war and die, cos that’s not practical at all and now they have even less money and food. fast forward, russia loses the war, nick makes the pikachu face again, stays in his nice mansion while the rest of russia starts going ‘grrr’ as well as ‘brrrr’.

and then this dude called gapon who’s a nice priest guy goes to petition the tsar to have better working conditions, fairer wages, a bunch of other stuff but they’re all very fair and reasonable. nick is like ‘nooooo!!’ and his uncle is like ‘nOoOoO!!!!!!1!!!’ and orders the army to shoot the peaceful protesters, so it gets called bloody sunday. this makes everyone really unhappy again, and it’s called the russian revolution of 1905 cos there are a lot of strikes and even while nick is like ‘haha this isn't happening’ they don’t reeeally accomplish much bc nick stays on the throne, and the russians are very mad but not mad or coordinated enough to overthrow the autocracy. there was this new parliament thingo called the duma, because nick’s only competent political adviser, count witte, was like ‘bro u literally have no choice but to form a new democratic government’ and nick was like ‘oh ok what if i made a government but it’s not really democratic or effective bc they have very limited power’ and witte was like ‘nick nO’ and nick was like ‘hehe nick yes’ and the duma was formed

--fast forward to 1917-- *time vworp noises*

so russia is poor. again. everyone is mad. again. all the men have been sent off to war. again. this time, it’s because of world war 1! 

and yikes, the russian army have it bad. like seriously, those dude were suffering lots and lots. very ouchy, no food, too cold, everyone is dying. it wasn’t great.

nick was like ‘hmm this war seems to be going well anyway look at my children aren’t they cute one of them broke an expensive vase today that’s so funny!!!’ (i made that up but he really didn’t care much and spent a lot of money u get the gist)

lots of strikes are happening. nobody is happy, and this time there are actually some organised people who can channel the rage into a revolution that might actually get something done this time. 

by the way, rasputin has turned up!! *cue the ra ras*

so rasputin introduces himself to some lady who’s a friend of alix, and alix, being super religious and super deluded and also having a sick son -

oh yeah, she had like five kids (was it five? not sure it was a lot) and the first four of them were girls and she was like ‘oh my god who’s gonna rule the country i have to have a boy’ and then she finally had a boy and his name was alexei and everything was great until they discovered that he had haemophilia, which is a hereditary illness that means ur skin is super weak or smth and whenever u, like, bump a table and u would normally get a little bruise, instead u start bleeding like you’ve been shot and yeah it was super problematic and it meant alexei was constantly sick and bleeding

- and so alix said to rasputin, who proclaimed to heal people like he was basically jesus, ‘yo dude can u pls heal my son it’s pretty urgent ngl’ and rasputin was like ‘uh huh lemme just take a look at him’ and he had a check up with alexei who somehow healed?? i don’t know how, he just sorta did, (he still had the haemophilia but alix was convinced it was gone for good) and so she turned into rasputin’s Number One Fan and started spouting all his very false religious conspiracy theories and made him a very important member of politics which was Not Good

and then count witte, the sensible one, was like ‘hmm this rasputin fellow seems kinda shady also he has thousands of STIs i don’t think it’s a good look if ur wife is hanging out with him all the time bc there are lots of rumours and he just seems super sketchy i reckon we should get rid of him’ and nick was like ‘no U’

he just uno reverse-carded him. witte tried to investigate rasputin and then nick was like ‘hmm i guess i’ll dissolve the duma cos ur being annoying’ and witte resigned like two days later. fair. if i had to deal with nick on a daily basis, there would probably be a lot of punching (of him, by me, in case u couldn’t tell bc im full of rage)

and there were a lot of rumours going around about alix & rasputin (which was kinda fair, because they hung out all the time and rasputin was a very sus person) so alix’s credibility was questioned and she was accused of selling secrets to the enemy, which was a bit dramatic (im pretty sure it was because she came from germany, and she was called ‘the german woman’ by a lot of the public)

--- also this isn’t very relevant to nick but i thought it was incredibly funny how rasputin died and it was time for a break from all that serious stuff so ~INTERLUDE~ --- 

note: start listen to rasputin by boney m cos this is where it gets hilarious (and the song also narrates his assassination lol)

so nobody liked rasputin. he had a lot of sex with pretty much everyone, he was very religious but also spouted a lot of nonsense, he was involved in some very dubious stuff and he was in favour of a lot of policies that the general public did not want at all. so a lot of people tried to murder him. and nearly all of them failed!! turns out, rasputin is really difficult to assassinate. there were a bunch of attempts on his life, all failed, before this one dude was like ‘bro i gotta put a stop to this’ so he invited rasputin to his house cos he was rsaputin’s bud (his name was yusupov btw)

dude gave him some cakes. they were laced with cyanide (poison) and rasputin was like cronch cronch, nom nom. did not die. ate a lot of cake. 

yusupov was like ?????????????

gave him some wine. wine was also poisoned. rasputin was like ‘dude this wine is good where can i get some more’ and he drank three glasses of it. the wine was poisoned with cyanide as well, btw. and the doctors who had helped plan this had carefully put enough cyanide in each glass to kill SEVERAL MEN. still not dead somehow???? 

so yusupov went ‘ok time for plan c’ and shot him. rasputin was like ‘ow’ and fell over. yusupov checked his pulse, there was now, he was like ‘ok good job’

and then while they were discussing their cover story upstairs, yusupov went back down to check on rasputin’s body and dude was sTILL ALIVE.

so they shot him again, tied him up, shot him one more time for good measure (and they shot him in the forehead at some point but apparently he was still alive???) and then they threw him into a frozen river. where he died of hypothermia, after having consumed enough cyanide to kill dozens of men and being shot three times, one of which was literally in his head. hhhh.

*sigh of relief* he finally died. fINALLY. the dudes who assassinated him got exiled but nothing worse than that because everyone in russia was like ‘well someone had to do it’

~~END OF INTERLUDE~~

now shit is getting rEAL. i mean, not for nick, obviously. but everyone else is like ‘ohmygosh rasputin is dead we actually got something done yay!!!’ 

so it’s february 1917 in petrograd. nick is on holiday with his family 800km away with literally no idea what’s going on. 15 million russians were away at war, and 1.7 million had died. lots of strikes and protests are happening. bIG protests. people were breaking into stores to get food, because of the awful food shortages, and it was very very cold so everyone was slightly extra mad. the police shot at some of the people who had gotten up onto the rooftops, so they protests turned into riots. all the people who were on strike from work joined the riots, and the women workers who had come out for international women’s day marched around the nearby factories and got another 50,000 people (including students and teachers) to join the riots (which was A Lot) and by the 25th of february the riots had gotten so big that pretty much every business in petrograd was shut down. literally everyone was rioting. 

the tsar was like ‘hmm that doesn’t look good’ and ordered his army to shut the riots down. there were about 180k troops in the city, but only about 12k were actually able to fight bc the rest of them were all injured from the war. they didn’t want to suppress the riots by force bc a lot of women were in the crowds (guess chivalry isn’t dead?) so when the tsar was like ‘no u gotta do it’ the troops were like ‘fuck u’ and either joined the riots or yeeted outta there. hooray!! 

the tsar was like ‘ok everything is under control’ (partly bc his official informant gave him the wrong info rip) and didn’t accede to any of the rioter’s demandsor do anything for a while. and here’s the thing. the tsar’s cabinet sent a telegram to nick saying ‘bro u gotta resign, we’re literally on the verge of revolution’ and nick read it, wrote ‘lol’ in his diary and refused to answer. 

the next day, there was another telegram saying ‘bro, u GOTTA resign. the revolution is happening now. if u don’t resign, the entire monarchy will be overthrown and ur reign will be o-v-e-r’ 

and nick wrote an entry in his diary saying ‘what nonsense is this? i can’t believe they’re sending me telegrams about this rubbish, as if i’m going to do anything’ (and im paraphrasing bc i don’t have my book w me but he definitely used the word “nonsense” and wrote a bunch of awful stuff about it) 

the next day, nick got another telegram that basically said ‘welp. country’s over. good while it lasted, revolution is happening now and it’s too late for you to do anything about it bc u didn’t listen to my numerous warnings to resign’ and nick was like ‘wait should i... do something about this??? hmm... yeah!! i’ll go up to petrograd and show ‘em who’s boss!! can’t defeat the absolute power of the tsar, huzzah!!’ 

and he went up to petrograd and got arrested. he had no choice but to abdicate, adn then he and the rest of his family were put under house arrest. there was a bit of an argument about whether they should be exiled to some western country, but all the western europeans were like ‘we don’t want nick u can keep him’ so they put him under house arrest in one of his palaces, where nick pretty much just chilled out with his family until they were all executed because everyone in russia was still very mad at them. 

(and in 1981 nick and his family were recognised as ‘martyred saints’, which is fine for the rest of them but nick absolutely did not deserve it)

thus concludes my very, very long rant. i spent way too long writing this, but my history teacher would be proud of me.

[countessdelannoy]

Morgan’s Top 10 Favorite Royal(ish) Wedding Gowns

Once again, @claireofluxembourg​, @queensonjas​, and @wonderfullyroyal​ (and everyone else who’s doing this now) have both inspired me and reminded me that I have opinions about royal/noble wedding gowns.

This round was more fun, because who doesn’t love a fabulous gown? As with last time, this is called “favorite” and not “best” because these are 100% my own opinions and also my own bias. Again, these are all from the 2000′s, although doing a top 10 favorite gowns from before the 2000′s would be...an interesting challenge.

Bonus Round: Queen Jetsun Pema of Bhutan

This list (like the last one) is very European royal-centric, but we have to give a major shout-out and honorable mention to the most ridiculously attractive couple on the planet, the King and Queen of Bhutan. It’s almost not fair to compare this wedding look to every other one on this list because it’s so different, but this gets a mention for the sheer colorfulness and intricacy of the embroidery and weaving - it’s incredible.

10. Princess Eugenie of York

Not a gown I’d wear myself, but Eugenie looks fabulous and this gown is beautiful, both on her and in general. Maybe my favorite part is the low-cut back designed to show the scar from her scoliosis surgery. I love the non-sheer long sleeves, something we don’t see often enough among royal brides these days, and also that Greville Emerald tiara. Eugenie rocks a major tiara just like I knew she would (three cheers for a colorful bridal tiara).

9. Princess Elisabetta, Archduchess of Austria-Este

Listen, I really love this gown. Are the lace-lined seams on the bodice and sleeves kind of weird? Yeah, but I think it works on Lili and she looks fabulous. I actually really like the point d’esprit (the little dots on the lace) and I think it lightens it up for her really well. The veil is beautiful, and I love, love, love that tiara. We won’t talk about Lili’s husband, but she looks fabulous, and I love this gown fight me.

8. Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway

Something of an oldie, but still a goodie - we just won’t talk about how young and nerdy Haakon looks here. This is only number 8 on this list but that shouldn’t fool you because I love this gown. It’s so simple but done so well, and makes it look like she’s floating on a cloud or something. I love the veil and I’m iffy on the tiara, but this is so Mette-Marit and I love it.

7. Princess Claire of Luxembourg

An Elie Saab and Luxembourg gown so far down on the list? I know, I’m surprised myself. But seriously, she looks beautiful and the gown is fab - Elie Saab is incredible and the lace and embroidery on this one is so intricate. I also love that you can actually see the lace on the skirt - so often it gets lost if you’re not looking at close-up shots, but not here. Beautiful bride, beautiful tiara, beautiful gown.

6. Duchess of Sussex

Tailoring and fit issues aside, this is a beautiful gown, and I would wear one just like this in a heartbeat. The sort of off-the-shoulder neckline is really flattering on Meghan, and as always I give three cheers for a gown with non-lace, non-sheer long sleeves (and also a waist!). The veil is beautiful, and I love anyone who goes digging around in the family jewel vault for a tiara we haven’t seen in years. I love a good lace gown, but this was perfect for Meghan and looks fabulous.

5. Princess Viktoria of Bourbon-Parma

Moving into the royal-ish part of this list, Viktoria is married to Prince Jaime of Bourbon-Parma, one of Willem-Alexander’s cousins - Jaime’s mother is Princess Irene, younger sister of Princess Beatrix. Family trees aside, this is a beautiful gown, although I feel like this might be a little but of an unpopular opinion. It’s very simple, except for the (admittedly odd) textured embroidery along the hem - I think they’re flowers? But like Meghan’s gown, I’d wear this one in a heartbeat, and Viktoria looked great - special shout out to the Ears of Wheat tiara and her beautiful veil.

4. Princess Marie-Gabrielle of Nassau

Another gown with another relatively simple, long-sleeved front - are you sensing a theme here? Seriously, y’all are sleeping on Marie-Gabrielle. The back of the skirt is embroidered with flowers and sparklies and I love it. What I also love? That sapphire tiara - we don’t see nearly enough colorful bridal tiaras for my taste. This is another royal-ish entry - Marie-Gabrielle is the daughter of Prince Jean of Luxembourg, younger brother of Grand Duke Henri.

3. Beatrice Borromeo

Not quite royal, and also not traditional white. Beatrice wore like 5 dresses over the course of her wedding celebrations and looked fabulous in all of them (I’m a huge sucker for her reception gown after the religious ceremony) but for this list I’m absolutely in love with this Valentino gown for the civil ceremony, flower crown and all. It’s pretty and boho and a really nice color, and I’d love it if we could make gowns a thing for more civil royal weddings.

2. Princess Carolina of Bourbon-Parma

One more royal-ish gown - Princess Carolina of Bourbon-Parma, another one of Willem-Alexander’s cousins (Princess Irene’s daughter). This is just so pretty - it’s light and flowy and apparently includes heirloom family lace that Irene wore at her own wedding, which is always a nice touch. Another showing for the Ears of Wheat tiara and a beautiful lace veil - I really love this one.

1.  Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie of Luxembourg

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Stephanie’s Elie Saab gown is coming in first here. Come one now, you didn’t really think I’d pick anything else ;) I don’t even know what to say about this one that I haven’t gushed about before, but - the lace! the embroidery! the train! the veil! the Lannoy tiara! her hair! This is a royal wedding gown if ever there was one, and I love that about it.

[fantasmalforces]

You should probably put a trigger warning on your bios: Marigold's was so atrocious. The gross association of African people with animals was bad enough, but then you pretty much wrote this cat lady miscarrying a whole littler of kittens. Like, how is 12 miscarriages even a rational number? You have no sensitivity for people who actually lose children during pregnancy and you're using these traumas as props for your bad writing. What a terrible blog.

// Holy shit, I got my first Anon Hate today!

// Gotta give you a round of applause for writing all that out at least because you really thought you did something. Now please allow me the next hour or so of my life to explain to you all the reasons why you’re wrong. Ahem.

// “You should put a trigger warning on your bios”. I have put a general warning on the muse directory list + each muse has applicable content warning above their bio. Admittedly, I probably haven’t put all of them down for every muse because you know... I’m only human and I’m liable to make mistakes. Which is why I encourage people to let me know if they need specific things to be tagged so jot these down-

// “The gross association of African people with animals” HUH???

// First off, I will openly admit that I am no professor or expert on the people of Africa, nor the many, many, many diverse cultures that make up the continent (although as a side note, I am currently taking two courses to study and learn more amount them and culture in general, and I do appreciate learning anything that might help better my understanding and portrayals as a result .) But Marigold is in no way meant to be any type of caricature or statement on US-indigenous or African people.

// I’d be able to see why you’re upset if Marigold was the only OC I had that was like this... but she’s not. She’s well beyond the 10th OC who’s main trait is the ability to change forms between two different species, all of which vary in ethnicity and background. So honestly, I don’t know how you came to that conclusion considering the first tab on my account is literally a long list of independent OCs, 90% of which are capable of turning into animals. But judging by the fact you chose to pick out her specifically, I’m going to assume you didn’t bother to even glance at those other characters before jumping to conclusions. Because why do any research when simply pointing at someone and calling them a racist is so much easier?

// “Like how is 12 miscarriages an actual rational number”

// Ooh! Now I get to put my medical knowledge to good use! According to most sources, Lions will have anywhere between 1 and 6 cubs. Factoring in that she has the ability to turn into a human, a more reasonable number for Lionfolk (at least in my canon) would be between 1 and 3 cubs. With simple math, it can easily be reasoned that the 12 miscarriages were not 12 separate events. They could have easily just been between 4-8 failed pregnancies. Now it’s briefly mentioned in her bio that Marigold’s struggle to keep a child is not a spontaneous occurrence in her family- her mother before her had lost several cubs before she was born. So already there is a mentioned hereditary factor that causes her to struggle to keep a child past conception (endometriosis for example is a hereditary condition that can sharply increase the risk of miscarriages and infertility). Moving forward, Marigold’s tribe was in the middle of a war with the Legion- a very stressful experience which would take a toll on even a healthy woman trying to have a baby. So that’s two strikes. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Marigold is a Fallout character- specifically, a character of Fallout New Vegas. Her pride lives in an irradiated wasteland plain full of irradiated animals, irradiated water, and very few resources that don’t carry some trace of radiation. On top of the severe bottle-necking that occurred as a result of the war and the vault lockdowns? Yeah, she has three strikes against her.

// Additionally, this is not even considered an irrational number for humans. Here are multiple cases of women who endured painstaking numbers of miscarriages. So uhhh... damn, Anon. Way to make every person who has suffered from recurring miscarriages to feel even more like shit than they already do after losing so many children. That’s gonna be a yikes from me!

// “You have no sensitivity for people who actually lose children during pregnancy and you're using these traumas as props for your bad writing.”

// Not that this is any of your damn business, but I happen to have quite a few family members who have had the terrible misfortune of suffering from miscarriages. Some even repeatedly. I’ve been there by their side, trying to understand what they’re going through, supporting them and helping them through the traumatic experience of losing a child before they’re even born. I can understand another person’s pain despite having never experienced it myself. In fact, that’s kind of a big part of what my job as being a nurse will entail. Acknowledging that these things happen, that they are real issues that people face, despite never having experienced them first hand is an important part of being human. Sympathy, empathy, and compassion are all very important parts of being human. 

// Likewise, choosing to write this topic, or any other serious or dark topic with characters like this does not mean that I, or anyone else writing it, are callous to the subject. We’re not making light of it or taking away from the victims in any way, shape, or form simply by mentioning. And as far as actually writing it goes, so long as it is well-researched and presented in a manner that does not glorify it, make light of it, or insults/belittles any people that have actually suffered from it, there is nothing wrong with exploring these topics. If anything, writing these types of things with proper research and representation is actually good for the people that have experienced it. People that have suffered from this type of trauma often feel comforted by seeing representations of themselves in media. It is comforting to see accurate representations of their struggles, their feelings— it reminds them that they are not alone and offers a window into their world to the people around them that are trying to help (again-- provided that it is seriously considered and accurately portrayed). And for those that do not wish to be reminded of it, I have miscarriages and pregnancy tagged as trigger warnings on my blogs.

// In terms of how this applies to Marigold, I’ve done my research, I’ve had my experiences, and I make sure to apply all that I have learned about this particular topic in a way that is respectful and accurate both to people who have been through multiple miscarriages and realistic to her particular situation as a Fallout character. Given that they happened so long ago compared to how old she currently is, the miscarriages do not have the same effect on her character anymore, but they were a critical part of her development and they still carry a weight on her. It was a very traumatic series of events that came from a terrible period in her life that she still thinks on in certain scenarios. It will never leave her completely, but she’s learned to work through it and move past it to keep surviving in the wastes, even if it still hurts sometimes.

// “What a terrible blog.”

// You’re certainly entitled to your opinion, even if it is ill-informed and based on nothing more than your examination of one character’s biography and a couple of inaccurate and irrational assumptions about me as a person. In any case, I have more fun things to do than argue with someone who values making assumptive claims and engaging in purity culture solely for the sake of feeling like the morally-superior person, rather than hearing the perspectives of others and understanding that by trying to speak for the people they claim to care so much for they are actually talking over them and doing more harm than good by trying to purify media and take creative and accurate representation from the one’s that need it most. The only reason I’m addressing this at all is because I hope that you at least learn something from this: that just because someone writes something doesn’t mean they condone it or are trying to bastardize the topic in question. Do a little more research before before making claims about people you know nothing about, especially when all you have to go off of is literal fictional content that has no bearing or basis in reality.

// And if you really feel that way, do us both a favor and just go ahead and block me. Although I can tell that you already have. I know who you are after all. :)

[birdlord]

Everything I Watched in 2019

Movies

The number in parentheses is year of release, asterisks denote a re-watch, and titles in bold are my favourite watches of the year. 

01 The Death of Stalin (17) does a neat trick of building goodwill for Steve Buscemi’s Krushchev, then brutally pays that off in the last few minutes. 

02 Sorry to Bother You (18)

03 Support the Girls (18)

04 Paddington (14)*

05 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (16)

06 Eighth Grade (18) probably the most terrifying movie I watched all year, if you didn’t watch it through your fingers, who even are you?

07 Morvern Callar (02) much less bleak than the book, but then, nearly anything would be

08 The Favourite (18) revolting and beautiful. 

09 Columbus (17) a really lovely movie about architecture and parent-child relationships.

10 Bring it On (00)*

11 The Land of Steady Habits (18) feels wackier than your average Holofcener, but still a good watch. 

12 Spotlight (15) i was really bowled over by this, and wasn’t expecting to be. Workmanlike filmmaking, but an extraordinary story, well-told.

13 The Killing of a Sacred Deer (17) Barry Keoghan is a blank, but somehow compelling screen presence. This one has an ending that made me bark with laughter.

14 Legends of the Fall (94)

15 Moneyball (11)* if you don’t feel like watching anything in particular, you can always watch Moneyball

16 If Beale St Could Talk (18) very beautiful, but I failed to connect with it on any other level. 

17 For Keeps (88)

18 Abducted in Plain Sight (17)

19 Oscar Shorts (Animated) (18) the offerings were very sappy this year, but the winner was decent! Lots of Toronto content (weird). 

20 Oscar Shorts (Live Action) (18) *unquestionably* the worst one of these won ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

21 Velvet Buzzsaw (19)

22 Vice (18) ugh

23 Friends with Money (06)

24 Can You Ever Forgive Me (18)

25 Bohemian Rhapsody (18) haha what. was. that.

26 Mars Attacks (96)*

27 Paddington 2 (18)

28 Buffy the Vampire Slayer (92)*

29 Shoplifters (18)

30 Blindspotting (18) jacked Ethan Embry in a supporting role?! Whither? Howso? Wherefore?

31 Witness (85)

32 Harry & the Hendersons (87)*

33 The Matrix (99)*

34 T2 Trainspotting (17)

35 Blockers (18)

36 The Slums of Beverly Hills (98)

37 Can’t Hardly Wait (98)*

38 Avengers: Infinity War (18)

39 Iron Man II (10)

40 Isle of Dogs (18)

41 Chinatown (74)*

42 To Live & Die in LA (85)

43 Age of Innocence (93) Daniel Day-Lewis manages to make Newland Archer compelling, where in the novel he’s...the worst?!

44 Shopgirl (05)*

45 The House (17) didn’t sustain all the way through, but then, that’s how mainstream comedies often go. 

46 The Beguiled (17)

47 Badlands (73)*

48 Poetic Justice (93)

49 The Empire Strikes Back (80)*

50 Calibre (18)

51 The Kindergarten Teacher (18)

52 Hounds of Love (17) a nice little Aussie thriller, set in the 80s

53 Kicking & Screaming (95)*

54 Octopussy (83)*

55 Jaws (79)*

56 Lover Come Back (61)

57 Frenzy (72)

58 Always Be My Maybe (19)

59 Certain Women (16) took a while to get to this one, but it’s as great as they say it is. 

60 Baby Driver (17) all flash, little substance.

61 Sneakers (92)

62 Roadhouse (87)*

63 Bull Durham (88)*

64 Ghostbusters (84)*

65 Booksmart (19) I think this will improve on multiple viewings, though I loved the soundtrack and the mix of characters. 

66 Hereditary (18)

67 Rebecca (40) George Sanders as Rebecca’s cousin is BRILLIANT

68 Vertigo (58)*

69 The Dead Don’t Die (19)

70 Crawl (19)

71 Dazed & Confused (93)* If you don’t watch this once a summer, what is wrong with you?

72 Jackie Brown (97)

73 Talk Radio (88)

74 The Guilty (18)

75 Killing Heydrich (17)

76 Lady Bird (17)*

77 Billy Elliot (00)*

78 White House Down (13)* Channing Potatum saves the White House!

79 The Film Worker (17)

80 Whitney (18)

81 Mascot (16)

82 Apocalypse Now (79)* technically I’d only seen the Redux version from the early 2000s, so the regular cut is new to me. 

83 Apollo 13 (95)*

84 Psycho 2 (83) the twist is very guessable, but there are a couple of nice-looking scenes.

85 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (04)*

86 The Bodyguard (92)*

87 Murder Mystery (19)

88 Wildlife (18)

89 The Stepford Wives (75)*

90 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (71)*

91 The Natural (84)

92 The Other Boleyn Girl (08)

93 Speed (94)*

94 Opera (87)

95 That’s my Boy (12) haha what?!

96 The Big Short (15)

97 Elizabeth the Golden Age (07)

98 The Glass Castle (17) when I read the book, I genuinely thought it was fiction, it’s so insane. 

99 Dawn of the Dead (78)*

100 All About Eve (50) lady on lady violence is a special thing

101 La La Land (16)

102 Morning Glory (10) remember Rachel McAdams?

103 Casino (95)*

104 Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (06)

105 Pet Sematary (19)

106 Clue (85)*

107 Her Smell (18) amazing soundtrack and the songs were well-chosen. Heartbreaking musical moment in the final act. 

108 Bobby Sands: 66 Days (16)

109 She’s Gotta Have it (86)

110 Good Morning (59)

111 Hustlers (19) I didn’t connect with this as much as the reviews led me to believe I might. 

112 Nocturnal Animals (16)

113 Kill Bill Vol 1 (03) I’d only ever seen the second one before, being a non-Tarantino completionist.

114 Fried Green Tomatoes (91)* I watch this more than anticipated...

115 Steel Magnolias (89)

116 Notting Hill (99)*

117 A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (19) the tiny city models were inspired!

118 National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (89)*

119 Let It Snow (19)

120 Frozen (13)

121 The Irishman (19) most interesting as a sort of pastiche/reckoning on the part of Scorsese about his other gangster films. Really outmoded view of unions. Definitely could have been edited down if anyone were able to come to it without undue reverence, but I did love the bit about the fish.

122 Girls Trip (17) actual plot is beside the point. 

123 About a Boy (02)* I always think of this as the “vomit and sweaters” movie, anyone else?

124 Animal House (78)*

DOCUMENTARY : FICTION - 4:120

THEATRE : HOME - 9:115

TV Series

01 Russian Doll - I think I would have enjoyed this more if it hadn’t been bingeable - would have made a nice week-by-week discussion sort of show. I loved to watch the changes between re-ups of our major characters, and I think the actual plotting would reward re-watches. 

02 Catastrophe S4 - A satisfying ending to an excellent show, with very charismatic leads (and deeply weird supporting characters). Had to write around Carrie Fisher’s death, and I’m sure did a better job of it than Star Wars did. 

03 Friends from College S2 - More of the same, which is what I was after. A show like cotton candy (but with more infidelity). 

04 High Maintenance S3 - A lot more of this season took place outside of New York City, which was a great change of pace. And a great deal more information about The Guy and his own life; both difficulties and successes included. 

05 Losers - This was a great little docuseries on Netflix that I didn’t hear a lot of people talking about - it’s about sports losses, but unusual sports ie curling, figure skating and the like. You’d think it would get repetitive, being as it’s always about recovering after loss, but it doesn’t! I wish they would make another season….

06 Shrill - a tight six episode dramedy about an alt-weekly journalist in the Pacific Northwest, based on Lindy West’s memoir of the same name. John Cameron Mitchell as her boss (based on Dan Savage) stands out of the ensemble cast, as does Annie’s roommate played by a British standup Lolly Adefope.

07 Broad City S5 - I haven’t always kept up with Broad City, but I came back to it for its final season, and thought it did a good job of setting its characters up for big changes in their lives. 

08 I Think You Should Leave - It’s easy to assume that all sketch comedy is terrible and always will be, but then you see this, and throw your TV out the window (due to all the laffs)

09 Fleabag S2 - Everything you’ve heard is true, this season is goddamn hilarious and ridiculously sexy. A huge step up from the first season, which was already pretty fantastic and incisive. 

10 Fosse/Verdon - Musicals are not particularly my bag, so I’m sure there was a lot that I missed in terms of references, but the lead performances ably carried me through all of the time jumps and various performances. 

11 Stranger Things S3 - Say it after me: d-i-m-i-n-i-s-h-i-n-g r-e-t-u-r-n-s! Maya Hawke kills it, though. 

12 Big Little Lies S2 - Unnecessary, and (if possible) even sillier than the first season.

13 Lorena - Part of the ongoing quest to rehabilitate the maligned women of the 1990s, this gave me tons of context that I had no idea about at the time, due to being a dumb kid. 

14 Glow S3 - I felt like I was losing steam on this series this year, but episodes like the camping ep kept me coming back. A great ensemble, though some unusual character choices (like a certain kiss *cough*) took me out of it by times. 

15 Lodge 49 S1-3 - I’d kept hearing about this show, so I finally sought it out. I can’t say it was amazingly compelling (I almost dropped it after the first season) but it’s definitely an oddball of a show, slipping from setpiece to setpiece with little regard for logic. For me, a background show. 

16 Chernobyl - This show really gave me the Bad Feeling, humans were definitely A Mistake.

17 On Becoming a God in Central Florida - Kiki in a trashy mode, not as infinitely appealing as the version she pulled off in the second season of Fargo, but scrappy and industrious nonetheless.

18 Show Me a Hero - I’d put off watching this for years, it felt like it was going to be too dull (housing policy in Yonkers?) but it’s great, and larded up with Bruce Springsteen songs, obvs.

19 Great British Bake Off S9-S10 - I’d also held off on watching this for a long time, out of loyalty to Mel, Sue, and Mary Berry. But I needed some comfort viewing towards the end of the summer, and the new hosts and judge do an able job, although the show’s tropes are feeling a bit well-worn at this point. 

20 Righteous Gemstones S1 - A rollicking ride for sure, with a great cast. Your mileage/patience with Danny McBride may vary, so keep that in mind, naturally. 

21 This Way Up S1 - A small show starring the fabulous Aisling Bea, about mental health and families and some nice comic physical acting. Oh, and in case you were watching The Crown and crushing on Tobias Menzies’ version of Prince Phillip, he plays a hot dad love interest in this, which gives you all the Tobias you’re looking for, without the PP racisms. 

22 The Crown S3 - This is the first season of the big cast switchover, and I thought it stuck reasonably well, once we were in it an episode or two. This season concentrated even less on Elizabeth herself, preferring her sister, husband, and (newly!) her children.

[dyns33]

T is for "team", not "tournament"

Crimeverse! Duncan loves four things : Michael, Reader, Money and Being the Best. Take one of this thing from him, and you will have serious problems... even if you are his two precious lovers. Michael knows that. Reader doesn’t. 

Duncan had no addiction. Well, no lethal addiction. Like all good drug sellers, he almost never used drugs. He only drank to relax (and when he was very sad, but there were only two people in the world who knew about it), but he was rarely drunk. He was smoking with the other bosses, but he had never really liked that. Duncan was very careful about his body and his health. About sex... at one time, he fucked every day. Okay, he always fucked every day, but now he was in a real relationship, and his drug was more his two lovers, than the act itself. He was not even sure to be able to cum with a stranger, it would not be the same. Yet Duncan had an addiction, without even realizing it. An addiction that was hereditary in the family, and that the Shepherds called "courage", "perseverance", "entrepreneurship". Normal people called it "competitive spirit," and the Shepherds were known to be very bad losers (although they rarely lost). Michael and the rest of the office had quickly noticed this character trait and were doing everything to channel it and steer it in the right direction : towards the enemies. This meant that although some were better than Duncan in some areas, they should not boast about it in front of him, and if the boss realized it, they had to do everything to prove to him that if he tried (which was ABSOLUTELY not necessary), no one doubted that it would be number 1. If only they had thought to prevent (Y / N)...

           The evening was quiet, a little romantic. For no reason, Duncan had prepared a succulent candlelight dinner, with classical music and priceless gifts. They had all been a bit drunk and as they were getting to the best of the evening, while Michael was undressing and Duncan started slipping between her legs, he had asked her a question : "Who's the best in bed, my kitten ?" It was not a real question, he did not really want her to answer. She could say "you're both great !" or tell him he was silly by pulling him against her cunt to silence him.And if he had asked her when she was completely intoxicated by the excitement, she would have answered "You !" without thinking, and everything would have ended well. But she said nothing, bit her lip and looked at Michael, who was now completely naked. Understanding what was happening, he tried to make her understand by signs and grimaces that she had to answer "Duncan", always "Duncan",or else a misfortune would have happened. But it was too late and Duncan was in shock. He jumped up to face Michael.

           "YOU ! I... NEVER !" He turned to (Y / N). "NEVER !" He repeated, "it's ME !"

Then he left the bedroom. Michael sighed. It was the beginning of a LONG period of stupid and tiring duels, aimed at proving that Duncan was the best. It seemed to amuse (Y / N), who would probably be the judge of this little contest. Naughty lucky bitch.

           In their relationship, (Y / N) was the most reasonable, Michael the most melancholy and Duncan was... a baby. A real big baby who was doing quirks. For the other two, the personal problems had to remain in the apartment, they separated quite easily the private life and the public life. Duncan did not have the same mentality and the next day the entire office knew something had happened. When (Y / N) was sitting in front of her computer, Jeff and Mutt came running to her : "The boss came to tell us that he was like us, and that, we are quoting, "fucking darling Mikey" was like you, what did he mean ? He looked a little upset, but we were in the bad trip, so we are not sure." She smiled, rolling her eyes. The two morons took several days to understand that Duncan was talking about sex. As he checked the loading of the boats, Kai and Madison giggled when Michael was surprised to lean that he have to deal with the reception of Cordelia Goode and her Coven, to talk about a future partnership with her girls.            

           "The boss said you were more talented than him with women," said Madison.

           "According to him, you know how to please them," Kai added.

Michael hated the negotiations, he was a man of action and staying for hours locked in a room to find a deal that everyone liked was really not his forte. Despite his burial head, Cordelia Goode accepted his offer, because at least, unlike "this dear Shepherd", he did not make any sexist allusion.The worst thing was that Duncan was not concentrated at all during the work. As soon as Michael went by, he looked at him with big eyes, never blinking, as if to ensure his superiority. And when (Y / N) went by... he took sexy poses for her, not caring about the people who could see him. He made the customers laugh a lot.

           At home, as soon as Michael had his back turned, Duncan was throwing himself on (Y / N). He wanted to compare everything, to know if Michael was better than him in general, or if it was only about details :

           "I kiss better than him. When I kiss you, I squeeze your neck a little because I know you like it, so it counts, right ?"

           "I'm the best to make you cum only by touching your boobs, I'm sure of it ! I love your boobs, I know them by heart !"

            "Now that I know what a clit is, you are necessarily satisfied with my performance."

The situation was no longer amusing (Y / N). She thought Duncan would stop by himself, but no, she could tell him that he was the best, that Michael was good but nothing more, he did not believe her.

           "It's because he has a bigger dick than me, that's it ? Size does not matter, I have a lot more experience ! I know how to use it !"

He really spoke as if he had something to sell, as if he was in front of business leaders and wanted to be hired at all costs. Impossible to have sex, since not only did he repel Michael (poor Michael, who did nothing and did not ask anything to anyone), but above all he just wanted to prove a point, he was not of everything in the mood. He was completely hysterical when (Y / N) asked him to stop.

           "You do not need me then ? If it's sooooo much better with Mikey, then I leave you kitten. Do not pay attention to me ! Have fun together !"

Michael knew very well that Duncan had to be stopped because he had no limit. He took (Y / N) by the hand and they went to see their lover who was pouring a drink.

           "Duncan," Michael began, "all this must stop, that's ridiculous."

He grimaced before swallowing his glass. Shepherds, bad losers ? Nah. (Y / N) grabbed the bottle. They had to discuss seriously.

           "You ARE important Duncan, really."

           "Liar ! Bad kitten ! You prefer Michael. I made you two meet, and now you love each others and you will throw me away."

           "In a way, Michael is better at you, because he is attentive and thinks first of all about our pleasure. You are selfish. You've improved, it's true, but it's still important that YOU ejaculate. Otherwise everything is ruined. But it's also thanks to you that Michael knows what to do, because unlike him, you explore, you try new things, you dare and sometimes... no, often, you do wonders. But you do not remember the next time. HE does. And he also notices when you do something that is not pleasant. Michael compensates, but it's like a dance, you two work as a team. Without you, it will not be the same... Do you understand ?"

That summed up the reality pretty well and Michael really hoped Duncan would understand and accept it. Anyway, it was out of the question to fuck without him.

           "What about you ?" Duncan asked, "Are not you on the team ?"

           "Me ?" says (Y / N), "I'm the cheerleader, the kitten who serves as the mascot, and the coach. I get a lot of fun, for a minimum of effort. "

Duncan leaned toward her.

           "Would not you be a little... selfish?"

           "Oh, but in bed I'm the worst. A problem with that, Daddy ?"

He grabbed her neck and let out a slight moan.

           "Since you're a naughty girl and Michael is doing so much for us, tonight you'll make him happy, and while I'm taking him you'll suck him. If he's generous, he'll take care of you, but he does not have to. And at the end I'll cum in him and you'll have to lick everything. Understood, little kitten ?"

She could not speak, and she could hardly stand up. She nodded before trying to kiss Duncan, who pushed her away.

           "No kiss for me, it's Michael's night. He was wrongly punished because of you."

So he turned her sharply and began to undress her, staring at Michael. Then he undressed and finally they were naked in front of their bewildered lover, who was not used to being the center of attention. He was going to open his mouth to protest, but Duncan raised his hand.

           "No talking. On the bed. Now."

He obeyed. They may have been a team, but in the end, Duncan was always the leader.

[lucifers-cuvette]

Scary Movie Meme!

Tagged ages ago by the delicious and scaaaaaaaary @zeroatthebone​!  Tagging the following in return: @kelcipher​, @astarhot​, @darby-crash-bandicoot​, @it-is-almost-legal​, and @fatalism-and-villainy��.

Pick out 5 of your favorite scary movies, perform a GIF search on Tumblr, and post.

Although I can pick out a number of favorite scary movies from the past 30 to 40 plus (!) years, here are my favorite 5 horror/psychodramas of the last few years from 3 talented directors. Also, in no particular order.

1. The VVitch: A New England Folktale (2015; Robert Eggers, director)

2. Get Out (2017; Jordan Peele, director)

3. Hereditary (2018; Ari Aster, director)

4. Us (2019; Jordan Peele, director)

5. Midsommar (2019; Ari Aster, director)

Robert Eggers’ new film (just released), The Lighthouse w/ Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattison, looks bizarrely promising.

But I am really, really, REALLY looking forward to Jordan Peele’s pending HBO adaptation of Lovecraft Country!

[undeadwicchan]

What really happened to Summer Rose? And why did it lead to Ozpin’s apparent protectiveness over Ruby.

@xstonehill‘s recent analysis post on Summer, the poem “Thus I kindly Scatter”, and what happened in today’s episode of RWBY has gotten me thinking about two things. Summer’s fate and how in the first two volumes of RWBY, we see Ozpin just always right there at the right moment for Ruby when she’s doubting herself or/and down in the dumps. Always keeping an eye on her with his scroll. It’s starting to click much more now thanks to the recent episode. 

Firstly on Summer’s case. After learning from Hazel stating they’ve dealt with them before I would assume that the SEWs would come across them in battle to stop Salem’s advances on Remnant. But, no we receive the possible much darker truth about Hazel words.

Those who bear silver eyes are non-stop being HUNTED down by Salem, like Maria was hunted down by Tock and lost her eyes in the process. Which is why Qrow said to Ruby about how ‘special’ she is. How it’s a extremely rare trait to have silver eyes. Instead of being a hereditary rare occasion, what if silver eyes used to be a uncommon trait but, not rare? But, Salem decided to hunt them all down after becoming much of a threat to her plans, dwindling their numbers down incredibly so. Just imagining the thought of someone like Tyrian chasing you down like he chased after Ruby for having silver eye is bringing shivers to my spine. It’s even more spine-chilling considering how mentally unstable he is that I feel the ultimate sympathy for any SEW that had to try and fight him back. However, this is about Summer and her fate. How instead of dying in a glorious fight against Salem’s force. She was merely hunted down perhaps in the middle of a simple mission with Qrow, after all the latter did mumble out loud along the lines of “She’s not coming back, Tai...” while in his sick state. While songs aren’t typically canon, they do convey feelings of emotions for said character towards a being of another or themselves. Hence why Red Like Roses II is being brought in for this.

“I never planned that I would leave you there alone I was sure that I would see you when I made it back home And all the times I swore that it would be okay Now I'm nothing but a liar, and you're thrown into the fray”

Now what can now be inferred is that before Summer left on a mission with most likely having Qrow with her under Ozpin’s orders to protect Summer from any of Salem’s forces. She told little Ruby that she’ll be okay and she’ll see her soon, and the mission was a success, but of course she ended up being hunted down and killed on the way back to Patch. And now Ruby being perhaps one of that last or the only one to have silver eyes is automatically under Salem’s radar for the way she’s born.

Now this is where Ozpin comes in for my second point, he didn’t know Ruby had silver eyes at first. But, after hearing what happened to Summer and knowing that her daughter may be next. He probably had the Xiao Longs moved somewhere much more isolated in Patch first of all. Secondly he most likely placed Qrow under the guise of being a teacher at Signal Academy to keep a closer eye on Ruby, although, he didn’t expect Qrow to teach Ruby how to wield a scythe. And then the day would finally come where Ruby captures the attention of Roman and Cinder who the latter happens to work for Salem and making it on the news as the girl who stopped a Dust store robbery. Which most definitely caught the attention of Salem. Oh, and this definitely needs to be said right now for the sake of this theory and analysis.

Ozpin didn’t let Ruby in two years early just for her skills in combat, he let her in so she can be safe from Salem with himself being able to keep a watchful eye on her and becoming protective of her well being.

He’s constantly making sure Ruby makes it through the Initiation since there is the possibility that she’s not ready for such training to become a Huntress and also the fact she could die during the Initiation since there are Grimm like Death Stalkers and Nevermores out there. And this isn’t the first time we see him checking on her using his scroll.

He does it again in the last episode of Volume 1, before getting a message from Qrow. Making sure once again she’s safe.

Also can we talk about quickly he pops in to cheer up Ruby? Once again this happens more than once.

And then there’s Ozpin’s speech towards the students before they get sent out on missions.

“But matter what path you choose, remember to be safe, remember your training, and remember to do your very best”

While he telling this to everyone, He is more than once was looking towards the direction of where his students were at mainly. And I can’t help but, think he was looking directly at Ruby as he said those words. To be safe.

Which is why he was okay with them going on a mission not meant for first years. He was aware of what they’ve done during their time at Beacon thus far, and he knew which huntsman was going with them on their mission. Additionally, he was aware that Oobleck would sent them back if they didn’t meet his standards.

However, his protectiveness of Ruby isn’t overbearing at all. In Volume 3, he knows how strong Ruby is now, and how he help taught her and his other students the importance of teamwork and unity. So that’s why he didn’t go directly for her during the Fall of Beacon. Because he has faith in her, and he trusts himself and Ruby that she’ll come back alive.

The reason for this desire to protect Ruby? Well Salem has been hunting her kind down constantly, and Summer and Ozpin were most likely good friends. He just... didn’t want more blood spilled because he failed in protecting those he cares about. He already said he’s made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child. And Ruby’s fate was certainly not going to be one of them.

[midgethetree]

Hi! Is there a way I can edit your Hereditary Supernaturalism mod to allow only certain supernaturalisms to be passed on? Say I only wanted lycanthropy or only witchiness to inheritable, what would I need to edit in order to do that? If it's too difficult to explain, don't worry about it! Thank you!

It’s just a matter of changing the “set supernatural bhav to skip the parts handling the inheritance of lifestates you don’t want inherited. In the standard version, the BHAV can be chopped up by supernatural lifestate into

under “Am I a Teen?”:

0x04-0x0F (”Witch - Is Witch?” to “Witch - Become Witch”) - witches

under “Am I a Child?”:

0x11-0x23 (”Local 0x0002 := Literal 0x0000” to “My PersonData Flags 1 Set Flag Literal 0x0006″) - werewolves

0x24 to 0x28 (”Manage Inventory (Set To Next Token of GUID 0x008E278B)” to “Generic Sims Call (Apply Special Outfit)”) - applies mermaid scales to sims with the mermaid trait upon aging to child if the overlay has been downloaded

under “Am I a Toddler?”

0x2A-0x31 (”Plantsim - Is Sim Plantsim?” to “Plantsim - Become Plantsim”) - plantsims

0x32-0x44 (”Local 0x0002 := Literal 0x0000” to “Vampire - Become Vampire″) - vampires

0x45-0x4E (”Local 0x0002 := Literal 0x0000” to “Manage Inventory (Add Token of GUID 0x008E2775)”) - genies

0x4F-0x5D (”Local 0x0002 := Literal 0x0000” to “Generic Sims Call (Apply Special Outfit)”) - fairies

0x5E-0x68 (”Local 0x0002 := Literal 0x0000” to “Manage Inventory (Add Token of GUID 0x008E278B)”) - mermaids

Although for the other versions, the vampire and/or werewolf segments have been moved to be found under “is teen?” and numbers have been shifted accordingly, but the nodes are still labeled with the same words.

For your examples: To make only witchism inheritable, change the false target of “am I a teen?” to be “return true”, so that the game never reads the nodes after it and tries to assign the other lifestates. For only werewolves, change the true target of “am I a teen?” to be “return true” (so it doesn’t try to assign witchiness), the false target of “am I a child?” to be “return true” (so the toddler lifestates are ignored), and if you have my scales overlay and mermaid trait and don’t want toddlers with the mermaid trait to gain scales when they grow up, change any targets leading to node 0x24 to “return true” instead: so the true targets of 0x21 and 0x23, and the false target of 0x22.

Basically, the goal is to bypass the segments of the BHAV dealing with supernatural types you don’t want sims to inherit. Sometimes this will look more complicated: For instance, if you want toddlers to be able to inherit vampirism but not plantsimism, you need to change the true target of “am I a toddler?” from 0x2A to 0x32, so it skips the plantsim section.

Hopefully that made some sense? Anyone who attempts this can feel free to send me screenshots of their changes if they want confirmation they haven’t messed up.

[orlissa]

Dear @wizivizi,

In any other case, I’d just reply to the post itself, but your ignorance, the very thing you’re accusing me for, warrants a public reply.

1, I’m Hungarian. It’s literally the second thing in my handle. And my country is ~70% Catholic (like, not necessarily practicing Catholic, but hereditary), my family included, not that they practice.

2, I also have an MA in American Studies, and teach American Culture in a prestigious university in Hungary, so I’m not exactly blind to what’s going on there. So I know that

3, One of your country’s fundamental documents grants freedom of religion. This includes non-Abrahamic religions as well.

4, There’s a rapid rise in the US in those who do not belong to any religious group (although 68% of them say they believe in God, but consider themselves spiritual, not religious). 20% of adults and one third of people under 30 are on this opinion. This bit is actually lifted from the textbook I teach.

5, You know what’s the most dinamically growing religion in the US right now?According to Trinity College, it’s witchcraft and other pagan religions. Their numbers have risen from around 8000 in 1990 to approx. 340.000 in 2008 and 1,5 million in 2018.

6, I also have a whole semester of Bible study under my belt, so I know what I don’t want and what I am not.

In conclusion, it’s awesome if you’re Christian. Good for you. It doesn’t mean others, like me, have to follow your lead. We have our own path, which is just as awesome.

Blessed be.