#as long as i get my gaelic practice in

[lavenderlyncis]

If no one's got me, I know Duo the language owl got me

[calamaroo]

In an art slump and wanna yap, so take this for your travels~~~

Octonauts Culture Headcanons: (mostly Barnacles because he's my favorite) (with a focus on languages):

Be warned, this is long af lol

Barnacles (& his family):

1. I've said it before, but he's Inuit, and was raised to speak Inuktuk (the language is very varied in names, with many dialects, but by my research, that is the broadest term for it)

2. In the Navy, it was mostly drilled out of him, and he practically forgot it for many years until he spent his angst time with Bianca and Tracker and re-learned it. Now, he loves to speak it with them, and sometimes yaps in it with his crew to mess with them (because no one understands it)

3. When the cubs visit, they speak Inuktuk with Barnacles, and often have to be reminded to speak English with the Octonauts (again, because no one understands the language, and they're hyper little children taking 90 mph)

4. Sometimes when Barnacles is talking about/to Bianca, Tracker, or the cubs, he'll use their Inuit names, and anyone else in the conversation has to be like "pause, who was that again?"

5. In the cub scouts, everyone spoke Inuktuk, or Russian, as the cubs all unanimously decided to learn it to surprise Natquik (I imagine it was his birthday or smthn, and they all sprung out and said "Happy Birthday!" In Russian. He cried tears of joy for hours.) --- I headcanon Natquik is half Inuit, and also knows the Russian dialect : Nunik.

6. When Barnacles wants to yap/is homesick but can't get in touch with any other Inuit characters, he gets down in the dumps because no one else will understand him/relate to his culture. So, in an effort to eliminate these sad spells, the crew are trying their best to learn more about Inuit culture and languages.

7. He's good with accents as he's heard hundreds in his travels, and can mimick most of them, including the thickest ones (uses this to bond/mesh with his crew's wide range of accents)

8. Pretty good at Vegimalese, but still sometimes has to ask Shellington what a certain string of chirps and trills meant

Languages/ spoken : AMER English, EURO/UK English, Inuktuk (several dialects), Spanish (for Peso), French, & Scottish Gaelic (he pretty much speaks at least a little of everything from hearing it all over the world)

Kwazii (& Calico Jack):

1. I've toyed around with his background for a long time, but I finally settled (at least for now) that the two pirates are from Barbados. So, they grew up speaking with both pirate slang and Bajun English (Barbados-Cajun English) along with a flurry of other languages because pirates were a giant mixing pot of cultures)

2. Sometimes, Kwazii's Bajun accent will escape, and he has to remind himself to tone it down because it and the many other accents he's accumulated into his speech are so thick that no one can understand him. (Calico Jack is way worse and often goes on and on speaking in utter incomprehensible gibberish)

3. Being a pirate (and because i said so), Kwazii had always been good with pixking up on languages and dialects, so when Peso was still new to the crew and had no one really to talk to (as everyone intimidated him and no one knew Spanish), Kwazii learned it so they could bond (super freaking cute)

4. Calico Jack learned Brazilian Portuguese when stuck in the Amazon, cuz that was the natural language for the animals and such. So he taught it to Kwazii, and they occasionally chit chat in it.

5. When talking to Calico Jack, they speak a hundred different languages, all mingled together at one time (often several la,guages in one scentene), and it gives anyone trying to listen in whiplash. It's a very effective deterrent/security measure when sharing secrets in public.

Languages spoken : AMER English, Spanish, Brazillian Portuguese, Bajun English, Scottish Gaelic, and tidbits of other languages from the pirate mixing pot (he's the most fluent of the crew in Inuktuk, although it's proving to be a challenging language to learn)

Tweak (& Ranger Marsh):

1. Florida people. /j

2. Southern Floridian (very yeehaw, very demure) raised to speak English, but also half Cajun French (on her mom's side) and can speak several dialects of French, but is most comfortable in Cajun French. (Tweak and Kwazii bond over being partly Cajun in language)

Languages spoken : French, AMER English

Dashi (& Ryle):

1. African-Amer-Australian, but hides the thickness of her accent well. When she gets mad, though, she goes crazy with slang (Kwazii thinks it's funny and makes her mad on purpose to hear "her funny words")

2. Shellington is Scottish, and they are besties, so she took it upon herself to learn Scottish Gaelic for him

3. She learned French for Tweak, too, because she's a girl's girl (and a girlboss)

4. Learned Spanish for Peso so they could gossip (pop off besties)

5. Used to be a pilot (which is why she can so easily fly the Octoray) and Japan was her favorite place to travel, so she learned the language.

6. Like Kwazii, she is good at picking up languages (cuz pilot = going everywhere (but isn't as good as Kwazii))

7. When video calling/hanging out with Ryla, her accent gets thicker untentionally

Languages spoken : AUST English, AMER English, EURO/UK English, Scottish Gaelic, French, Spanish, & Japanese (with tidbits of others)

Shellington (& Pearl and Periwinkle):

1. SCOTTISH MAN, SAVE ME SCOTTISH MAN

2. Grew up speaking both EURO/UK English and Scottish Gaelic (very fluent in both)

3. When visiting Pearl and Peri, they all speak Scot. Gaelic. One time, they brought Kwazii along, and out of nowhere, he picked up on the tea-time language and joined in. It freaked the otters out fr

4. Peri forgets to speak English to the Octonauts like the polar bear cubs (they are scout-group friends, change my mind) (I also ship Bianca x Pearl, sooooo they are all kinda step-siblings)

5. The only member to fully understand Vegimalese

Languages spoken : EURO/UK English, AUST English (for Dashi, although his accent isn't very good), Vegimalese, & Scottish Gaelic

Peso (& his family):

1. Hispanic. I will fight you for this. /j (AMERICAN DUB RAAAAH 🦅🦅🦅)

2. He knows a good deal of Bajun for Kwazii and Calico Jack and learned Brazillian Portuguese for CJ, as for the first few years of his Octoagent-cy, it was what he spoke the most

3. A lot like Barnacles in the fact that he knows a ton of languages, but it's mostly just how to ask medical questions and comfort frightened patients

4. Pinto also forgets to speak English with the crew and speaks ONLY Spanish with Peso when they are alone. Peso will try to talk to him in English and Pinto with exclusively respond in Spanish (younger brother activity fr)

5. Learning Gaelic to better listen to Shellington's yap sessions (nerds = best bros) (or bf's, cuz I fw that)

Languages spoken : EURO/UK English, AMER English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, & some Scottish Gaelic.

Inkling (& Min and Natquik):

1. Grew up speaking EURO English, but learned Chinese Mandarin for Min, and sometimes speaks it without realizing.

2. 🗣🗣🗣HE AND NATQUIK ARE GOOD FRIENDS BECAUSE THEY ARE BOTH BARNACLES'S FATHERS. So, he learned Russian to better communicate with Natquik, who forgets to speak English often

3. He learned Gaelic for Shellington because they are scholarly nerd friends, they yap together

Languages spoken : EURO English, Scottish Gaelic, Chinese Mandarin, some Inuktuk (for Barnacles), & Vegimalese

[marsbar17]

Wanna give us a nice lil Halloween one shot? Perhaps Moicy? Some kinky Halloween sex perchance? 🤭

I rushed so much to finish this for Halloween fbsbvhjsbf AND I DIDNT MAKE IT

But anyways, I rushed this and I have a headache now and it's not even good but hush, you're getting fed and you're gonna like it >:(

Mercy x Moira Halloween Oneshot

Contains: witch mercy, lilith moira, NSFW, barely any foreplay, size kink??? Maybe??, witchcraft ooOoOo

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This time, it had to work.

Angela sat on her knees in her living room, the wooden floor boards digging into her shins even through her tights. She drew the summoning circle with a small stick of charcoal, moving with grace and perfection after having done it almost a hundred times before.

The witch was so focused on her task that she almost yelled in surprise as she felt something touch the top of her head. Angela turned around in a panic, just to sigh in relief when the only person she saw was her friend and fellow witch, Kiriko.

"You forgot your hat at my place." Kiriko giggled at Angela's surprise, peering over her shoulder at the mostly completed summoning circle. "You're still trying to summon her? It's been eight months, Angela."

"I know, but I think I have finally perfected the summoning ritual! Plus, today being Samhain will make this the most ideal time to do the ritual." Even though it had been so long without any luck, Angela still felt hopeful looking at her notes that had been scribbled out and rewritten too many times.

"Today is the day. Lady Fareeha will appear before me." Angela smiled, drawing the last stroke to finish her circle.

"Personally, I don't think a Gaelic holiday is the 'most ideal' day to summon an Egyptian God, but whatever you say." Kiriko's eyes were full of doubt as she turned back towards Angela's front door. "Have fun."

Angela was alone once more, humming to herself as she lit the candles along with the sticks of incense that she had adorning the summoning circle. As the heavy amber and cedar scented smoke filled the room, she could practically feel the strong energy in the air.

Opening a sealed jar, Angela grabbed a handful of dried rose petals and spread them over the area. With the physical part of the ritual done, she stood up with her spell book in hand, looking over the neatly written incantation she had worked so hard on.

The summoning circle was easy, she had gotten it perfect within a month. The only reason it had taken so long to get to this point was due to this stupid incantation. Even one mispronounced syllable would ruin the whole ritual. So only after many hours of research and countless attempts, did Mercy finally believe she had gotten it right.

With her spell book in one hand and a long ivory wand in the other, Angela closed her eyes and began to recite the incantation she had worked so hard on. The words had been practiced so many times so that she could feel the sentences in her soul. She could feel the energy flowing around her, her hair whipping in the sudden wind.

As the incantation finished, Angela opened her eyes and watched as the rose petals tumbled around the circle and the candle flames swayed back and forth.

"It is... working! It's working! Hah!" She smiled, embracing the magic flowing through her living room as it became more intense. The wind whipped harder, threatening to blow out the candles, and she had to hold her hat in order to keep it on her head.

Just as Angela felt it was becoming to much, as her pictures and jars started shifting on the shelves and her hat was ripped from her head, everything went dark.

The candles had been blown out, along with every lamp in Angela's small cabin. Fear overtook Angela and she swallowed hard, wondering whether she should call out to whatever she had summoned. She didn't need to though, as the being spoke first.

"Oh dear, you're shaking~"

That wasn't her voice. Something went wrong.

Realizing this, Angela quickly lit a small flame in the palm of her hand in order to see. The being in front of her was tall, so much taller than she expected. The fabric of her clothing was black, the skirt and sleeves were long and majestic. Bringing her eyes higher up, Angela could see that her corset was adorned in gold scale-like adornments and her neck was too. The being's face was pale, but her eyes were surrounded by dark eyeshadow. One eye was a dark blue while the other was a piercing silver, and her pupils were slits. She had five long horns emerging from the top of her head, curling gracefully in a way that framed her face perfectly.

"You... You aren't Lady Fareeha." Angela whispered nervously, those sharp eyes following her every move. The demon rolled her eyes, scoffing in annoyance.

"No, I am not. You, like many many others before you, have mistaken my summoning ritual for the one of that wretched God." The more the demon spoke, the clearer Angela could hear her Irish accent. Feeling absolutely defeated, she sighed and lowered herself back down to the floor.

"So then... you would be?" Angela asked, holding her head in her hands and rubbing her temples.

"Lady Moira." The demon spoke, now towering over Angela's shrunken form.

"Well, Lady Moira. I sincerely apologize for wasting your time-"

"You haven't wasted my time." Moira interrupted, stepping closer to Angela and leaning down. "After all, the night has only just begun."

Angela brought her head up to meet Moira's eyes, feeling fearful once again. She was oddly beautiful up close, and Angela could see that it wasn't bloodlust in her eyes, but a certain mischievous look instead.

"What do you mean?" She asked, her voice small and timid.

"Well, I am the demon of lust and pleasure." Moira leaned in even closer, holding Angela's jaw with one pale hand. "And you, my dear, are an absolutely stunning woman. How about a deal?" Moira drew her hand back and stepped away, walking back into the summoning circle on the floor. "I forget about how you interrupted my day off, so long as you let me absolutely ravish you. Or we could just to the basic 'give me something you deeply cherish' thing, but this will be a lot more fun for us both."

Surprised and flustered, Angela looked away. Having sex with a demon? That was not the plan at all. But did she really have anything better to do? Moira was hot, painfully hot, and maybe she could distract Angela from the disappointment of her failure to summon Lady Fareeha. After an embarrassingly short amount of time, Angela looked back up at the demon standing in her living room.

"I'll take your offer."

"My my, that took you no time at all. Eager, darling?" A smirk appears on Moira's face as she sauntered back over to Angela, reaching out and pulling her to her feet.

"No! I mean... maybe. Look I just- I need- ugh!"

"No need to explain, pet. Just let me make you feel good." Moira backed Angela up until she was pressed against an empty wall before slipping her arms under the witch's thighs and hoisting her into the air. Angela's crotch was at face level for the demon who used that to her advantage and bit into her tights and panties, pulling her head back to rip a hole in them both. She groaned at the sight of Angela's glistening lips and twitching hole.

Angela gasped, hands flying to grasp at the horns on Moira's head before she realized that might be disrespectful and pulled them back to her sides.

"You can grab them. I don't mind, my dear." Moira's voice was so smooth and sensual that Angela couldn't help but obey, placing her hands gently back onto Moira's horns and biting her lip. Moira's hot breath fanning out against her most sensitive parts made her whimper quietly.

After a few more moments of simply admiring the witch laid out before her, Moira leaned in and placed a soft kiss against Angela's clit, making the witch squirm. She looked down to watch Moira place a couple more kisses before opening her mouth to show off her unusually long, forked tongue that was shiny with saliva. If Angela wasn't wet before, she sure was now.

"I can't wait to hear you scream, pet." Moira smirked before licking a long stripe all the way from Angela's wet hole to the tip of her clit. Angela moaned and tightened her grip on the other's horns.

Moira ate her out like she was desperate, like she couldn't live without the taste of Angela's lips. It was messy, with drool and slick dripping down Moira's chin and nails pressed into Angela's thighs. It was so much all at once and Angela couldn't stop moaning and whimpering, and she swore this was way better than anything Lady Fareeha could've given her.

"Moira! It's so much~" Angela moaned lewdly, squirming and panting like her breath had been stolen. She could feel every movement of Moira's tongue inside of her and every once in a while it slid up to circle her clit, making her whine. She could feel the heat in her core getting more intense, and she couldn't believe that her orgasm was approaching this fast. All the sensations all at once, Moira's impossibly skillful tongue, her hands gripping Angela's thighs, it was too much for her to handle.

"I need- Moira I can't. I'm gonna~"

"Cum for me, darling."

Angela fell apart, eyes rolled back, knuckles white, mouth agape, the sweetest sounds falling from her lips. Moira drank her all in, pleasing her through her orgasm and even after she finished. She lapped lazily at the witches hole, causing Angela to twitch with aftershocks. Eventually Moira pulled away, letting Angela relax as she was slowly lowered down until they were face to face once again, but her feet weren't on the floor.

Moira used one hand to hold Angela up while she shifted her skirt with the other, exposing her crotch to the air. She had a neatly kept bush hiding her from Angela's eyes, but that didn't stop the witch from yearning to taste her.

"Not today, my sweet. I will have you on your knees for me next time." Moira teased, as if she had read Angela's mind. Not even thinking about the fact that she had said "next time," Angela just whined and ground her hips forward, trying to get any friction she could. Moira simply laughed, grinding her own hips forward too.

Angela's eyes widened as she felt something press against her thigh and she looked down to see a black colored, silicone strap on between Moira's legs. She was even more surprised to see that it was one she recognized from her bedside drawer.

"How did you...?"

"Magic, now hush." Moira simply smiled, reaching her hand down to position the plastic object at Angela's entrance.

"W-wait! It's too big! I haven't been prepared-"

"Oh darling, you can take it~"

Angela could feel the head of the strap enter her and she bit back a yell at the intrusion. The stretch stung, but Moira's lips caressing her neck made it all go away. Moira placed open mouth kisses all along her neck and jaw, sucking on the skin occasionally to leave marks. It melted Angela's mind and made her even wetter around the silicone inside her.

As Moira started pushing further inside of her, Angela whimpered and clutched at the demon's shoulders. Her lips were covered and her moans were stifled by Moira's mouth pressing against her own. When she pulled away, Angela could see something that almost looked like adoration in Moira's eyes... right before she quickly thrusted the last few inches of the strap deep into her.

Angela yelped in surprise before hiding her face in the crook of Moira's neck, panting hard. Moira just laughed, pulling her hips back and thrusting forwards once more.

"That's right~ Taking me so well, like a good pet~" Moira whispered, moving her hips at a steady pace. She wasn't fast, but she was deep. It was just what Angela needed.

Moira used her hands to wrap Angela's legs around her waist, pressing her harder against the wall so Moira could let go and grab Angela's wrists instead, lifting them over her head. Now immobilized, she couldn't do anything other than weakly shift her hips around, successfully getting Moira to hit that sweet spot deep inside of her.

"Moira~ I'm still sensitive~ I can't take it." Angela sobbed, tears welling up in her eyes. Moira didn't stop though. She thrust her hips faster, bringing one hand down to wrap around Angela's throat, squeezing in just the right spots to make her brain go fuzzy.

"You can do it, you can cum again for me." Moira rasped, breathing heavily at the effort to maintain pace. Angela could feel it, the sweet tightening of her core, the anticipation that made her hold her breath and shut her eyes.

"Please! Please, please, please, Moira!"

It felt like she was floating, all of her senses were overwhelmed by the sensations flowing through her. She didn't make any noise, her mouth was stuck open in a silent scream. Her back arched, pushing her chest against Moira's so hard that she could feel her heartbeat. Moira cooed in her ear, whispering sweet nothings while Angela fell apart in her arms.

"Too much!" Angela felt the tears falling down her cheeks as Moira kept moving. She was overstimulated, twitching and crying as the demon eventually slowed down. Even so, Angela still sobbed into the cloth on Moira's shoulder, feeling overwhelmed by all of the sensations.

"Shhh, quiet, pretty thing. I've got you." Moira's voice was surprisingly soft and calming. Angela stopped crying, trying to calm her breathing. She dried her tears, looking up into Moira's eyes once again. One blue, one silver.

Moira pulled her body away, slowly pulling the strap from Angela's sopping cunt. She lowered her until she was sat on the floor. Again, Moira stood over her shriveled form. This time, she didn't look at the witch like she was a pathetic mortal, instead she looked at her with fondness.

Aftercare was a blur to Angela, but before she knew it she was clean, in new clothes, and tucked into the warmth of her bed. Moira sat beside her, stroking her cheek with her thumb.

"It's time for me to go, pet."

"...Goodbye... Moira."

"Goodbye Angela, I will be back soon."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Whew, that was hard. Thank you for reading this whole thing!

Remember, liking and reblogging my work takes like 10 seconds and really helps me grow as a creator. Also, sending me requests gives me the motivation to write, so literally request anything that comes to your mind.

[that-one-vangogh-painting]

‼️Blood under the cut‼️

Finally posting some details about one of my D&D characters--Foxtrot. Apologies in advance, this is gonna be a long one. He's partly a Watership Down oc because I can't make a Harengon character and NOT make everything about Watership Down, so for anyone who isn't familiar with the conlang in that book I'll put translations for every Lapine word I use! I won't go into too much detail about everything, partly because no one wants to read that and partly because my D&D party follows me here and there's still a few secrets I want to keep.

Foxtrot's Lapine name is Homba-Suíl (pronounced "HOM-bah shool"). Homba means fox, but since there isn't any Lapine word for "trot" or anything similar I took the Gaelic word "suíl," meaning "speed" or "movement". I've always felt that Lapine sounds like it needs to be spoken in an Irish accent, so it only made sense to draw inspiration from that language. His name is meant to mean "speed of a fox," which is actually an insult from his mother (rabbits are of course much faster than foxes), who never saw any potential in him when he was born.

Foxtrot is albino, making him naturally disadvantaged because he has poor eyesight and his coat makes it hard for him to hide. He's also a very small rabbit, so everyone in his warren always expected him to die pretty early. Ironically, despite the name he was given, Foxtrot grew up to be the fastest runner in the warren. This caught the attention of the chief rabbit Marlirah (MAR-lee-rah, "mother queen"), who invited Foxtrot to join her owsla (military force, similar to a king's guard). He was the youngest and smallest member of the owsla, and the other officers didn't take kindly to him being there </3 Foxtrot didn't really get upset about not having any friends though. He was completely and totally devoted to Marlirah, and as long as he had the chance to serve her he was the luckiest rabbit alive. All of the rabbits in the warren practically worshiped Marlirah, but Foxtrot had a particular love for her because she had believed in him when no one else did.

One day during a particularly brutal battle, Foxtrot received a devastating head injury, and woke up to find that he had been separated from Marlirah and the rest of the officers. His memories were pretty scrambled, and he spent the next year or so wandering around searching aimlessly for the others. He doesn't remember most of the period after waking up. The party found him sometime during this wandering period, after his wound had mostly healed but his amnesia was still very present.

Now my little level two fighter has to fight vampires with these crazy jackasses. Oh how the times have changed.

[enquiringangel]

Do you think the Boys have any long-term goals? Things that requite years to learn like languages, instruments, maybe mechanics? Do you ever think they'd leave Santa Carla - or what might MAKE them leave?

Santa Carla is home, it’s like this nexus where all these dispossessed teens are drawn together and where they made a family. It’s comforting and familiar and it’s the stage where they act out their performance of eternal youth. In the movie I get the impression that they very much live in the moment. Like, almost aggressively so. It’s like they are caught in a bubble of time where the past is meaningless and the future doesn’t exist. To an extent I think they are all avoiding the deeper implications of potentially living forever.

If something—say, the events of the movie—were to come along and burst the bubble, I think there would be a lot of navel-gazing going on. Which is something I will be exploring in my David Lives AU ;-)

So Big long-term goals: no. Leaving Santa Carla? Yes possibly, if there was a drastic shake-up to their way of unlife. During the events of the movie they’re kind of stuck since I can’t see Max allowing them to go wandering.

But despite all that meta talk they would get bored if they did the same thing over and over again, so they have made an attempt to keep stuff interesting.

Languages - I feel like they would go through periods of being really into this, listening to teaching cassettes and attempting to practice on native speakers and on each other, but also fallow periods where they drop it for ages and pick it up again later. I can see Paul wanting to learn French because it’s a romance language and he thought that it would be sexy. But he got unexpectedly into it and started learning other languages from there. He’s also the most willing to accost random humans to practice speaking with them, whereas Dwayne’s collection of half-learned languages is mostly written word focused. This is in comparison to David whose linguistic skills are pretty abysmal. (There is some very rusty Gaelic knocking around in that noggin’ though.) Marko is usually Paul’s guinea pig so he picks up a fair bit from him.

Instrument-wise Paul is the most musical but he taught the others to play guitar. (As a child he was made to learn violin. There is one gathering dust in the cave somewhere.) Marko is tone deaf and cannot tell the difference between notes of music to save his life. Dwayne is passable but lacks interest to commit to it, though he taught himself to play piano. David picked up the most from Paul’s instruction and is fairly good, actually. Sometimes Paul gets him to come and jam.

For a very brief time, there was a drum set down in the cave. Very brief.

Mechanics-wise they are all interested in things that go vroom vroom but Dwayne and David are the most mechanically minded. They strip engines down together and reassemble them. Dwayne is more handy at fixing stuff but David can look at a car and know all the specs for that make and model. Sometimes he steals them to take them for test drives and rate their performance. In the cave there is a pile of tattered and soggy car magazines sandwiched between old editions of playboy and men’s ‘physique magazines’.

Marko is always knee-deep in some art project or another, which may or may not get abandoned before it is finished. He once tried to build a model of the hotel in its heyday using matchsticks.

Also Dwayne once introduced Marko to the theories of the Behaviorist B. F. Skinner, whose work in operant conditioning included training pigeons. One of the things they were taught to do was play ping-pong. Marko took a look at the wild birds hanging out in the hotel and immediately decided to try it.

[aikoiya]

LoZ - My HCs on Ordonian Culture

Ordon Town can be found in Ordona, which in BotW & TotK, translates into the Faron Grasslands. Ordon Village originally being located around the Lake of the Horse God with Ordon Ranch being settled within Ibara Butte.

The Village has since expanded to Fural Plain (once the South Faron Woods) around the Fardona Spirit Lake, canonically known as Haran Lake, & has become a small town. It had once been a simple spring, but something had happened to the Faron Spring to cause Faron to migrate down to Ordona's Spring where the 2 merged & became Fardona. This resulted in the spring growing large & becoming a sacred lake.

Ordona encompasses the entirety of the Faron Grasslands, including the area west of Cora Lake & Menoat River. This includes the Parache Plains, Papetto Grove, & Darybon Plains. Which I believe used to be the Deep Faron Woods & Sacred Grove areas in TP.

---

Ordon homes tend to be either the typical farm house or resemble Hobbit Holes, so smials. The smials are also known for having trees growing out the tops of them which later become incorporated into later families' homes.

As for their overall culture & architecture, Ordon has a rural ranching feel & might be inspired by a southern agricultural town in Italy called Ordona. So, maybe rural Italy with American South mannerisms & sensibilities. Maybe with a bit of Welsh in there too. Sometimes in certain words, such as Hiraeth & Cariaeth. Which, Cariaeth is a word I made up that has much a similar meaning to Hiraeth, but instead of being for a place, it's for a person or people. Both are just words that there really is no English equivalent for.

At the same time, I also get Irish Gaelic & small-town English countryside vibes as opposed to the Scottish Gaelic ones I get from Hateno.

---

Ordon is mostly populated by Ovelians (humans with rounded ears) & Lupáns, but has the occasional Hylian, Sheikah, & Gerudo here & there.

While not many Goron visit the area, when they do, they tend to get on well with the locals as they have a lot of similar values.

For more on Lupáns, see my Wolf Link & the Búralupán Race post.

—

Ordon's main religion mainly surrounds the Light Spirits, Fardona the Long-Tailed Calopus, Eldin the Raptor Bird, & Lanayru the Gator-Headed Snake. Fardona being one of their 2 main patrons alongside Malanya (referred to as Meiléina here), both of whom are said to have blessed Ordon Ranch.

(Calopus being a Mythological Medieval creature resembling a horned wolf. In the original myth, it also had the face of a cat, but that doesn't apply here.)

It is said that Ordona the Calopus & Faron the Bushy-Tailed Monkey had originally been one entity, but due to necessity, had split themselves into 2 in order to subdue an enemy, protect the lands' light, & properly guide an ancient hero. Once their tasks as 2 separate entities were truly concluded, they merged once more into their original form. Thus becoming Fardona the Long-Tailed Calopus.

Ordonians never really worshipped the Golden Goddesses as a triumferate (in fact, practically no one in modern society does anymore) or Hylia. Rather, their religion mostly revolves around the Light Spirits, who have a much closer & more personal connection to Ordon itself, considering how between 2-3 of them are so close to Ordon.

They also worship Karina, the Goddess of Love, Passion, Marriage, Pudicity, & Healthy Relationships. Though, in Ordona, she is referred to as Karridwena, where she is very prominently worshipped as a fae moon goddess of the wild hunt (thus coming across as more of a Celtic version of Artemis) & is strongly associated with inspiration.

On the other hand, Farore does still have a fairly recognized role in Ordonian religion as Fayrah, fae goddess of the wild things & fortune.

Though, they also recognize Farore's husband, Hebrogar, as the bringer of winter, hunters, & survival, Hebarngán.

The full moons of the fall are referred to as Hunter's Moons & it is said that Hebarngán takes his family out on hunts on those nights. The Búraló-síth act as their hunting dogs.

—

In Ordon weddings, the bride & groom traditionally wear clothes inspired by the Light Spirits & crowns meant to resemble Ordona's horns. - This idea comes from @smilesrobotlover, who originally had the idea!

A number of elderly Ordonian men tend to take up horn carving in their old age. It isn't uncommon for goats to lose a horn at times, so why not find a use for them?

The designs are often Celtic as most don't start carving with much intent, rather preferring to just allow inspiration to drive them.

They often come out looking quite lovely.

Sometimes, they'll even carve bukkehorns from them.

It's believed that a crown carved from the horns of young kids are considered sacred to the Light Spirit, Fardona, which is why it's believed that if a young goat loses their horns before a wedding, that the union was given Fardona's blessing.

Traditionally speaking, it's supposed to be the fathers of the bride & groom who're supposed to carve them. This is supposed to act as their own blessings for the union as well.

Extremely rarely, a pair of faintly glowing horn shards will suddenly appear before a truly blessed by fate pair. It is believed that they may be the peeled pieces of Fardona's own horns, which is considered a sign of a truly sacred union. These pieces are often polished, causing them to shine like gemstones, before being embedded into the crowns themselves to act as centerpieces.

Rusl & Uli still have the crowns from their own wedding hung up over their mantel.

---

Goats are very important to Ordon. As such, their horns are used a lot.

For instance, Ordon blacksmiths tend to inlay their weapons with the shed horns of Ordon Goats & often have them carved into the handles.

---

Ordon is primarily a ranching town focused on the Ordon Goat, Horses, & Cuccos. As such, they tend to use mostly goat products.

Ordon Goats being unique in that they are much larger than normal goats with blueish-gray fur & have horns that form a large, complete circle or oval atop their heads. Their milk has a distinct taste that separates it from that of other goats.

Goat milk is generally said to taste somewhat sweet & mild with little to no aftertaste. Goat butter tastes sweet & tangy & has a smooth, creamy texture. While goat cheese is considered to be mild & buttery.

Ordon Goat dairy products are these things as well, but they are also consistently richer & slightly sweeter with a somewhat earthy undertone to them that other goat dairy products simply don't have. Ordona Cheese specifically also being slightly tart with no soapy aftertaste like some goat cheeses can have.

Ordon is also known for their famous Gilded Cuccos. These Gilded Cuccos can be found anywhere in Hyrule, but are extremely rare & mostly found in Ordon. The reason being that the hatching of a Gilded Cucco is considered the mark of an exceptional cucco farmer. Technically, one can be hatched anywhere depending on how well its mother was raised, it just so happens that Ordon tends to produce these more often than other places.

It's said that a Gilded Egg is lain when a hen is positively brimming with happiness & contentment & love for its farmer. Thus, having one is considered a point of pride amongst cucco farmers. If that Gilded Egg happens to be fertilized, then it can hatch a Gilded Cucco. And if that Gilded Cucco is a hen as well, it too will produce Gilded Eggs. Though, rarely will those eggs be fertilized, only happening when that Gilded Hen has reached that same threshold as their mother did before & a Gilded Cucco can only lay one fertilized Gilded Egg in its entire life.

No one knows why their fertility rates are so much lower than the typical Cucco, but a lot of old ranchers & chicken farmers say that it's to keep ya from getting complacent or a big head.

It's also said that hatching & raising a Gilded Cucco causes a blessing to be placed upon the farmer's family & land that only leaves it if the cuccos are ever treated badly. It's nothing too extreme, just more good luck, higher yields, higher quality products, longer harvests, shorter winters, stuff like that. You'd barely notice unless you were paying real close attention.

All the same, these little things do tend to add up.

Gilded Eggs are very nutritious & delicious, even more so than the typical egg, which is already considered a super food, & are known for the sparkling, pale gold-like sheen to them. Their yolks being known to shimmer slightly & are the absolute best when done over medium so that the whites are cooked, but the yolk remains runny. These eggs are considered a luxury & are often sought after by the rich.

A single ranching community typically can't have more than 3 Gilded Cuccos at once. Though, even still, it is insanely rare to get more than 1.

—

Ordona has this legend about fae wolves. They're called the Búraló-síth (Pronounced: bura-low-she). Which are based off of real world Irish & Scottish folk creatures called Cú-síth (Pronounced: coo-she).

IRL, they are described as large dog-like creatures that have shaggy, green fur & are known to be as large as a small cow. But in Ordona folklore, they are wolves instead of dogs & only extremely old Búraló-síth become so large. They also come in a variety of colors instead of just green. Though, they are marked by peculiar patterns.

Anyway, Búraló-síth are also known for taking souls to the afterlife, same as Cú-síth. So, they are a type of Psychopomp.

They are also said to protect lost children.

(A not so subtle reference to TP.)

---

Ordon is also known for its apple orchard on the east side of Fural Plain. This orchard is known for producing a higher than average amount of Golden Apples.

There is also the large amount of Courser Bee hives populating the nearby forest. This forest is known as an apiarist forest as the bees there are allowed to live naturally & the beekeepers only interfere to take excess honey while making sure to leave enough for the bees.

—

Ordonians quite like wry wit. So, their toasts tend to reflect this. They also have a distinct brewing & drinking culture.

Toasts include:

"Confusion to our enemies!"

"Here's to the liver!"

"May you be in the Beckonwyld half an hour before the Demon King knows you're dead."

"Here's to your death. May I build your coffin myself from the wood of a hundred year old oak tree that I will plant... tomorrow."

"To the ladies. May we fall into their arms without falling into their hands."

Ordonians also quite enjoy singing when they drink, being a jolly bunch.

Such includes:

"Health & a long life to you.

Land without rent to you.

A child every year to you.

And if you can't go to the Beckonwyld,

May you at least die in Ordona."

- Inspired by an Irish toast.

"She offered her honor,

I honored her offer.

And all the night long,

I was on her & off her."

- Best used when drinking with "the guys."

---

One of the things that they're known for is their food & their brewing. And instead of an inn, Ordon has a tavern instead known as The Tangled Capaill (based on an old Ordonian folktale about a drunken horse: here). Which gets them a good amount of adventurers & researchers.

Ordon also has a fairly large baking community & they are known for their use of Ordon dairy products, honey, apples, & pumpkins in their baking.

For more on Ordon's Food Culture, go here.

---

Ordon is also known for sports such as sumo wrestling, step dance, caber toss, hurling, & boxing.

However, Ordon & Mabe also have an annual baking competition & the role of host alternates each year. It's mainly between them, but anyone from anywhere can join.

Ordon also enters the Hyrule Rodeo in the summer, which features horseback riding/racing, saddle bronc, bareback, bull riding, steer wrestling, tie-down roping, team roping, barrel racing, breakaway roping, goat tying, & other events. This rodeo is generally held near Hateno in Olvi Plain, just south of Nirvata Lake.

---

Ordon also has its own festivals that it enjoys, such as the Harvest Festival in the fall, specifically held to give thanks for autumn's bounty. The 1st few days are an actual festival with food stalls, music, games, but the last day of the festival's activities is more for those who don't have families of their own as that day is specifically meant to focus on family togetherness in a similar way to Thanksgiving & is called the Feast of Family. The Feast of Family is, traditionally, a potluck. During the Feast, large tables are set up in the town squares for them. It's also tradition for local farmers, brewers, families, & businesses to donate a very small portion of their harvests/food/alcohol so that those individuals without families get to have a feast of their own together in case they don't have the means to bring anything themselves.

Some families will even invite friends without their own over to celebrate with them & they are treated as part of the family. That last day, you are intended to give thanks for all the blessings in your life. This is actually a Hyrule-wide celebrated holiday, but it's also very important to Ordon specifically.

There's also the Festival of Light in winter. An Ordon festival dedicated to honoring the Light Spirits, specifically Fardona. Kakariko also holds it too for Eldin, but no one celebrates it quite like Ordon.

It's tradition to gather Brightblooms & Starlight Rosemary & for the kids to weave them together into garlands, wreaths, & streamers to decorate the town with.

They also celebrate Bondsday, which takes place at the beginning of spring. It's a Hyrule-wide celebration, but specifically has roots in Faron, Ordona, & Necluda. So, it's considered part of their culture. It's considered the Hyrule equivalent of Valentine's day, Family day, & Friendship day. It is held to honor Karina. However, she is specifically a goddess of healthy relationships & not just romance. So, daytime is spent with friends & family, while nighttime is spent with either immediate family or romantic partners. Family is generally celebrated throughout the day.

Other things Ordon participates in is the Hyrule Fair, which is held in Windvane Meadow. It's basically just your typical county fair sort of thing. With blue ribbons & all that. Has a bunch of agricultural & ranching contests.

They also celebrate Remembrance Day, which is a holiday founded by TotK's Zelda to honor & mourn the lives that were lost during the Calamity. Special attention is given to remember the sacrifices of the soldiers & Champions who died protecting Hyrule. (It's basically like if you combined Veteran's Day with the Jewish holiday, Yom HaShoah, a.k.a. Holocaust Remembrance Day.) - Each individual race also has their own individual day to celebrate the lives of their specific Champion in their own ways. Always held on that Champion's birthday. However, since Ordon didn't have a specific Champion, they simply mourn the soldiers & Champions as a unit.

LoZ Cultural Masterlist

[amourdeslangues]

hello there!

not exactly sure how to start this blog lmao - but since this is a langblr, i'll just kick it off with an introduction of my progress with each language i'm currently learning. (mostly leaving english and german out of it for now, because those are my native languages, but i speak those as well ofc)

français /// french

on commence avec le français! une de mes langues préferées et définitivement la langue étrangère que je parle le mieux. je l'apprends depuis environ 7 ans maintenant. à cause d'un voyage en france avec ma famille et d'un guide de la langue que j'avais trouvé dans un magasin, j'ai commencé à apprendre indépendamment quand je n'avais que neuf ou dix ans, mais le début de mes études du français dans un context scolaire - ça veut dire, d'une manière plus structurée mdr - suivait bientôt après cela. maintenant, je pense qu'on peut dire que je parle le français couramment. pas dans le sens qu'on pourrait me confondre avec une locuteuse native, mais je peux me débrouiller dans toutes sortes de situations presque aussi bien que dans mes langues maternelles. comme but, je veux maintenir un niveau assez bien pour (1) passer mon examen oral de l'Abitur (bac) en français avec la meilleure note possible et (2) étudier les sciences de la littérature en france après l'école.

svenska /// swedish

Hej allihoppa, trevligt att träffas! Jag kan inte säga precis när jag började lära mig svenska - jag började att intresserar mig för språket för 3-4 år sedan, men jag pluggade (?) inte verkligen aktivt förrän våren detta år. Tidigare kunde jag bara säga några små fraser, men jag kunde inte uttrycka mig på svenska. Jag tror att jag [made a lot of progress?] sedan dess. Jag älskar särskilt ljudet av svenska språket, det är väldigt melodiskt och unikt. Mitt [long-term?] mål är att tala flytande svenska. Just nu vill jag:

Läsa en hel roman på svenska för första gången ("I ljuset från gryningen", en deckare som jag köpte för två dagar sedan)

Lära mig nya ord

Bli mer självsäker när jag pratar svenska ([unfortunately?] känner jag inga människor från Sverige, men jag har en vän som läser språket också. Han är nästa flytande och vi pratar ibland på svenska med varandra, men trots att jag förstår nästan allt vad han säger är jag osäker att min uttal är för dålig att förstå när jag säger någonting själv 😅 så jag behöver mer övning med att tala)

farsi (persian) and gaeilge (irish gaelic)

i'm lumping these two into one part (written in english) because i'm not sufficiently fluent in either language to be able to write a full text, lmao

i technically started learning persian about a year ago, but since i keep getting interrupted because of things like having to do too much schoolwork, i'm still at a very low level. i also feel like it's more difficult than learning swedish, for example, because it's from a different language family than any of the languages i speak rn - less loanwords, words related to each other, structural similarities etc. that would help me understand! at least i mostly know the alphabet now, but practically i'm only able to say a few simple things: hello, good morning, how are you etc. however, it's a really interesting language and i'd love to get into actively studying it again! my next goal is to reach A1 level in reading, writing, listening and speaking... let's see how that goes ^^

also, if anyone knows any good resources for learning farsi, please let me know! i'm currently using a combination of a textbook directed at german speakers (called با هم), the Persian course on Memrise and the youtube channels Chai & Conversation and Persian Learning, but it's a bit difficult to find learning materials... (i'm salty that duolingo doesn't have it lmfao)

as for irish gaelic, i (hyper)focused on it for a couple of months in 2021, in particular because part of my family is irish - nobody taught me the language and i'm not really close with my paternal relatives, but i'm still interested in it because... heritage reasons, y'know. also, there are so many fascinating aspects of the language - unique little grammar quirks, pronunciation, all that! i kind of stopped practicing though because i had too little time, so now i just remember random little phrases i learnt off duolingo: dia duit, comhghairdeas (i'm proud of remembering how to spell it lol), ithim cáis (an extremely useful sentence in daily life, i know)...

right now, i don't anticipate irish being a major focus of this blog, but i'm going to dublin in two days (aaaa!!!) and maybe that'll reactivate my slight obsession with the language, so who knows...

about me

i love everything related to languages - obviously foreign languages, but also things like linguistics and literature... i also write a lot in my free time!

on the rare occasions where i'm not doing anything language-related, i'm also very interested in chemistry. i like listening to music (i mean, who doesn't) & my favourite genres are rock, indie and melodic death metal - but i'll listen to almost anything, especially if it's in one of my target languages (really into swedish and persian pop rn). i enjoy hiking and cycling, and i've been learning how to dance for about a year.

i'm really looking forward to getting to know other people in the langblr community and exchanging ideas, progress, tips for learning... on y va :D

[fortressofserenity]

Sadly, she doesn’t speak Scots

When it comes to minority language speaker representation in the X-Men stories, it seems like there’s almost so few, if any, characters who speak a minority language that they’re underrpresented in a way redheads aren’t, which is saying when it comes to characters like Jean Grey, Rachel Summers, Cessily Kincaid, Theresa and Sean Cassidy, Shatterstar, Mystique, Firestar, Sapphire Styx, Hope Summers and even Alison Blaire at some point, if you consider strawberry blond to be a shade of red. Within the X-Men stories, there’s practically only one minority language speaker and that’s Kate Pryde whenever she does speak a word in Yiddish at all.

It’s already pretty disproportionate that within the world of the X-Men stories there are more redheads than there are minority language speakers, you might say I’m generalising things and that some languages are harder to learn. But I personally believe the latter belief undermines any sincere efforts at revitalising a dying tongue, especially if it’s been endangered for so long and the odd possibility that somebody else would learn such a language with ease and effort. That’s from my experience bothering to learn some Scottish Gaelic, with my father finding that language difficult or something. But the thing here is that even if some languages are tricky to learn, there will always be somebody eager to learn it anyways.

But it seems almost none of the X-Men writers are minority language speakers, none of them are eager to learn a minority language which undermines efforts at using mutants as a metaphor for ethnic discrimination. Especially when almost none of the mutants themselves speak a minority language that they’re going to be really underrepresented in a way redheads aren’t, that it must be a pretty sad situation where we could’ve gotten minority language speaker representation with more mutants onboard. Rahne Sinclair could’ve been a Gaelic speaker, but I could settle for her speaking in Scots. Sadly neither language gets represented in any of the X-Men stories.

It would’ve been nice to see more mutants speaking in languages like Scots, Frisian, Scottish Gaelic, Comanche, Cheyenne, Lakota and Apache, but I suppose that’s going to take more effort and actual enthusiasm for any minority language to have it take off big time. Like I said before it’s kind of unfortunate that there’s not a lot of minority language speaker representation in the X-Men stories, which is ironic because X-Men writers love pushing the minority angle yet have no real interest in or experience with minority languages themselves. That only makes it worse really.

We could have characters sparking people’s interest in learning a minority language, like what Scottish and Irish folk music did for me before. Some characters like Rahne Sinclair again could be reimagined as speaking in a minority language like Scots, but it’s the road that’s barely ever taken by both X-Men writers and X-Men fans. X-Men writers want to advocate for minorities, but when it comes to other aspects of the ethnic minority experience language is one of the things they don’t do much so far. Even if it could help revitalise a language, so it wouldn’t hurt if she spoke Scottish Gaelic for instance. Or for another matter, have Pixie speak Welsh.

Or even Theresa and Sean speaking Irish, but it doesn’t just have to be Celtic language speakers that need representation.

[munsonfamilyband]

I know I promised this last week but my life is Insanity currently. So, here is part 1 of my Captain America AU. If you want to be in the taglist, let me know! I do have more of this written but it’s mostly snippets rather than coherent story so it may take a bit to get the next part - I also want to update my Different Meeting AU before I post part 2 of this.

———————

Steve had met Eddie when he was just 7 years old. It was lunchtime during school and Steve had seen Charlie O’Connor picking on Betty Simmons. Now, despite his numerous health issues, Steve refused to let someone else get hurt if he could stop it. So, he stood up and marched himself over to Charlie and shoved him as hard as he could. It wasn’t very hard but it made him stumble, which was just enough of a distraction for Betty to run off. Charlie had been furious and, predictably, turned his anger onto Steve. When Eddie showed up Steve had been knocked onto his ass again, nose already bleeding. All Steve could see from his position was a taller boy with curly hair stepping in between him and Charlie and telling him to go pick on someone his own size. Eddie had turned to Steve and held out a hand to help him up.

Steve pointedly refused it and pushed himself to his feet, grumbling that he had him on the ropes. Eddie had paused, looked over Steve for a second, and then smiled before saying that he knew that but he didn’t want Charlie to embarrass himself.

Eddie never left his side after that day, even though it took Steve about a week to finally warm up to him. They started spending all of their spare time together - Steve meeting Eddie’s parents and his sisters, and Eddie meeting Steve’s ma. Steve started teaching Eddie some Gaelic and all about the Irish traditions that he and his ma practiced. Eddie taught Steve about his ma’s Romani heritage and his dad, Wayne, taught Steve about their religion. That first year after they became friends was the first time Eddie celebrated Christmas and the first time Steve celebrated Hanukah.

As they grew up together people stopped thinking of them as Eddie and Steve, rather they were EddieandSteve. Everyone in their neighborhoods knew that where one was, the other was close behind. Steve’s ma certainly appreciated it because Eddie kept Steve from picking as many fights, and the ones he couldn’t stop, Eddie helped finish. They were a team, tied at the hip and puberty didn’t change that.

Steve realized that he was in love with Eddie when he was 13. Because Eddie was a year older than him they weren’t at the same school that year, with Eddie starting high school. Steve had left his school and walked down the block to meet Eddie so they could walk home together and when he arrived he saw Eddie standing under a tree with a girl. Steve didn’t know who the girl was, he didn’t really care, what he did care about was the fact that her and Eddie were kissing. Steve felt his whole chest tighten, which is something he is used to feeling but this time was different. This time the tightness didn’t feel like an asthma attack, it felt like someone gripping his heart in this fist and squeezing as tight as they could. Steve ran before Eddie saw him, his chest still tight and his eyes growing wet for reasons he couldn’t understand. That night, when he was lying in bed, he realized what he was feeling. He was angry, not at Eddie, but at the girl because he wanted to be in her place. When Eddie knocked on his window from the fire escape that night, Steve pretended that he was already asleep. He managed to keep up the act for a few days before Eddie got the jump on him and was standing outside of school when Steve got out. Eddie followed him home, refusing to give up no matter how long Steve pretended not to hear him. When they got back to Steve’s apartment, he blew up - their first actual fight. Even years later Steve couldn’t tell you how it had gone from them screaming to Eddie holding his face in his hands and kissing him. It was one of the best moments of Steve’s life.

After his ma died when Steve was 17, he and Eddie got a place together in the Queer neighborhood. Brooklyn was a haven then, full of people like them who never asked questions. Eddie got a job at the docks and Steve started doing art for people around them. His odd jobs are what led them to discovering their favorite place - Sammy’s was a bar that had a secret basement for people like them. He and Eddie would go to Sammy’s every Friday night, usually with Steve dressed up in one of his ma’s old dresses and heels to avoid suspicion, and they would spend the night together dancing and drinking like any regular couple out there. Sammy’s was where Eddie slipped a ring on Steve’s finger on his 18th birthday. Sammy’s was where they went the day Eddie’s draft notice came in the mail. Steve and Eddie both hated that draft notice. Eddie hated it because he didn’t want to go fight in the war, no matter how it was affecting his people. Steve hated it because he wanted to go fight but the army wouldn’t accept him with all of his health problems. It led to a few fights between them before they settled their differences about it and just avoided discussing Eddie’s impending departure for war.

The months after Eddie left for basic went by in a blur for Steve. He kept busy to avoid thinking about how lonely he felt. He avoided it so well that he forgot when Eddie was coming home from basic, up until Eddie showed up and sent the other guy running. Eddie was complaining about Steve liking to get beat up but Steve was just glad he was home. Finding out that he was only home for a day though? That ruined the joy of their reunion a little.

Eddie dragged him to the Stark expo, telling him that they were going to see the future but all they really saw was a failed attempt at a flying car. The night only got worse when Eddie saw two girls all alone and invited them to join them. Steve didn’t want to ruin the mood, Eddie was clearly enjoying being back in the city, but all he wanted to do was go home and be alone with Eddie for the last time for who knows how long. He slipped away from the group and wandered around before he found a recruitment hall set up and he walked in. It wasn’t the first time he had lied to a recruitment officer, he just had to keep trying. Normally he would be brought back to the exam room and then a doctor would come tell him that he’s not fit for the army and he would be sent home with another rejection. This time was different though, a man walked in and he introduced himself as Dr. Abraham Erskine before telling Steve that he knew he had lied on his forms. Even more surprising though was that he approved Steve for basic training. He had asked Steve why he wanted to fight, and then he had smiled when Steve said he didn’t like bullies. Steve left the recruitment office with a notice to attend basic training folded up in his pocket and a grin on his face.

Basic was terrible for the most part. The other guys were rude and everything smelled. The training sessions were grueling and Steve barely stayed on his feet most days. The one nice thing was the only woman there - Agent Chrissy Cunningham had come all the way from England to work with Dr. Erskine on… something, no one actually knew why she was there. Steve adored her though, she was smart and terrifying, none of the guys tried anything with her after the first day. One of the men had asked her to get them their lunches and she walked right up to him and punched him square in the jaw. Steve had never seen anything quite like it.

He wrote to Eddie as much as he could, though some letters he just folded up and tucked in his bible. He knew that the army searched every piece of mail going in or out so he couldn’t say anything too explicit or romantic without hurting both of them.

A few weeks into basic they were given a new task during their morning run - get the flag down off the flag pole, the first one to get it was able to ride in the jeep with Agent Cunningham the rest of the way. All of the men scrambled over each other to try and climb the pole, all sliding down it after a few feet. Once they had all tried and deemed it impossible, they started running again but Steve stayed behind. He walked up to the flag pole and studied the base for a moment before finding the right pin and pulling, sending the flag pole toppling over to the ground. Everyone froze when it clapped against the dirt but Steve just walked over, unclipped the flag and handed it to the Colonel before climbing into the jeep. Out of the corner of his eye he swore he saw Agent Cunningham grin at him but it was gone before he could turn to her.

After that day Erskine started showing up for training sessions almost daily. It was clear that he was studying something but no one would explain anything. He finally learned what was going on after a particular training drill.

They were doing exercises in the center of camp when he heard someone yell “GRENADE!” Quickly looking around, Steve spotted it only 5 feet away. Everyone was running but there were still people too close, so instead of trying to run away, he ran toward the grenade and jumped on top of it, wrapping his body around it as tight as he could. If he was about to die, at least he might absorb some of the blast. But then - nothing happened. He slowly unclenched from his ball and looked around, realizing that it had been a dud. The Colonel was looking at him like he was crazy, Chrissy had something like surprise on her face, and Erskine look thrilled. He was pulled aside that night by Erskine who told him about Project Rebirth and the Redskull and his plans to make a super soldier.

Steve didn’t wait before saying yes.

The night before he was set to get the serum, he sat down at a desk and wrote a long letter to Eddie. He hadn’t told Eddie about being in basic, making up stories from home so that he wouldn’t worry. Steve knew that there was a possibility he could die tomorrow, and he didn’t want to leave Eddie without telling him the truth somehow. In the morning he handed the letter to Chrissy and asked her to get it to Sergeant James Edward Munson in the 107th if he didn’t make it.

Getting the serum was one of the most painful experiences of his life. He could feel his body growing and changing, his skin stretching and his bones elongating. When the doors to the chamber opened with a hiss he was laying limp against the back of it, breathing deeply for the first time in his life. It felt like he was drunk, his whole body tingling with the lack of pain he felt. Before he could even fully settle himself though there were gunshots and screaming. Erskine was dead and Steve was chasing a Nazi through Brooklyn.

[misssakuramochi]

Hello! Could I please get a matchup for Baldur's Gate 3? 🥺 I'm an autistic she/they enby, I'm fine with any gender, and while I currently work at a library I'm hoping to become a professor of celtic languages and a linguist someday, so I'm learning Scottish Gaelic, Irish and Welsh. I'm super short, only 4' 10" (147 cm), with long wavy auburn hair, glasses, pale freckled skin and a boyish fashion sense. I also have some chronic illnesses like scoliosis, joint pain and asthma. I'm really polite and very friendly with everyone I meet, but I'm also very protective over my loved ones and can be sassy when I feel it's deserved. While I'm generally an anxious person, I'm not afraid to make the first move because I basically tell myself that the moment could slip away, but I will be having heart palpitations while doing that lol. My special interests include linguistics, science, magic (I practice witchcraft irl), cooking, video games, plant identification and a bunch of other stuff, though honestly I'm down to learn about whatever is available (within reason). I've been described as "homely" and "wise beyond my years" since I give good advice and am very self aware. I really enjoy taking care of people but can get flustered if the sentiment is returned.

Thank you so so much, I hope you're doing well! Take care!

I match you with...

ASTARION

○ You have very complimentary skills. On one hand, you're very book smart - keep him from eating the poisonous animals and such. He's the street smart half, protecting you from nefarious faces you miss in the crowd. He reads others intentions well, you know your own; you help him trust and he helps you doscern. He helps you learn in some ways, you help him in others. You both grow well together.

○ Believe it or not, you make Astarion feel protected. Maybe not physically, exactly, but your willingness to sass and back talk when someone messes with him warms his heart. Knowing you care enough to protect his emotional self means more to him than he can express - even if he complains at you when that sass gets you in trouble.

○ Astarion loves that you always surprise him. When you first showed your firey side, when you were the one to ask him out first. He never knows what you'll do or say next in a positive way. You're exciting and full of life to him, which makes him feel more alive ironically.

○ Knowing you're generally anxious, Astarion doesn't hesitate to step up in situations where you're stressed. Much as he loves to make you squirm, he's the only one allowed to. He loves when you stand up for yourself and he encourages and emboldens you, but when things are too much he's always there.

HEADCANONS

○ I won't lie - Astarions intentions with you are not wholesome at first. Being quiet and well-mannered, maybe a little awkward even, he thinks he can manipulate you. When you first get firey, either in his behalf or at him, it lights a spark of genuine intrigue. Tell himself as he might that he's in it for his own goals, he starts genuinely falling in love with you from then on

○ Astarion pretends not to listen to you. When you infodump about languages, plants, ect. He often pretends to get distracted - usually by saying he can't help but get caught up by how beautiful you are when you speak (which he means more than his tone indicates) It can be irritating, but down the line when he reiterates facts you'd taught him, you realize he was genuinely hearing you. At least ad best he could. Honestly it takes him time, but he learns a few basic sentences in your interest languages to impress you, just based on you telling him about them.

○ You play friendly one upping games in teasing one another, but Astarion wins literally every time. You flirt with him, and when he reciprocates he does so with 10x intensity just to make you blush and stutter. He lives(?) for fluttering you. Even as you get brave enough to keep up more, and flirt further, he'll always take it to a higher level just to get those cheeks pink. (Always within your boundaries ofc)

○ Sometimes, with you being so intelligent, goal-driven, and passionate, he would get discouraged in the beginning because he genuinely didn't feel good enough. After many a long talk and a little time, he finally finds his place in supporting you - emotionally and physically. You teach him that you rely on him too, and that goes from something scary to something that gives him purpose. Cooking, cleaning -- he's more surprised than you are to find himself helping with those things after you've passed out from a day of work and research.

----

Alright my friend! Tysvm for doing this trade with me! It is my pleasure to hand over my precious man to you - please treat him well. Like please he needs it

[zoeyslayter]

Remaking my RWBY OCs: Team KYNT

IDC if this is cringe I made these almost 4 years ago and I'm probably going to write the fanfiction soon if I can get the motivation.

Team KYNT (Kyanite) consists of Kelly Greene, Yale Taivas, Noire Deces, and Tawny Erimos. They attend Beacon Academy in their second year, one year ahead of team RWBY and JNPR.

I'm not an artist so I made the pictures here

Kelly Greene

Name meaning: Kelly is a shade of green and also means warrior and bright-minded in Gaelic. Greene is a different spelling of the word green, while also meaning at the green, a grassy plot used by the village common.

Semblance: Banshee's Cry; she can let out a supersonic screech. This takes up a lot of aura, so in battle she only uses it in a dire emergency. One scream and she's out, two on maybe a really good day.

Weapon: Mandolin; a musical instrument with a different type of dust ingrained into each string. The colors are always changing, implying that she regularly changed the strings on her instrument before and after battle.

Background: Kelly was born in Sanus, but traveled around Remnant for most of her life. Her parents were famous musicians who would preform from big cities like Atlas to small villages outside of the protection of guarding huntsmen. It was at one of these shows where a Grimm attack took place and she got separated from her parents in the chaos. Faced with an Elk-like Grimm, she screamed for help and out came a piercing shriek that knocked the Grimm back, destroying it. This left her weak, confused, and stranded until her parents found her and packed her up along with their belongings. This traumatic experience drove Kelly to want to attend Beacon academy.

Personality: Kelly is a soft-spoken woman, avoiding large crowds when she can and keeping to herself. If you wish to find her you usually can by looking for her in an empty lecture room practicing her music or in the library reading. She values her solitude, which is challenging when met with the responsibility of being team leader. Her performance background has helped in being able to mask this, however even this can only help her so much.

Additional notes: Dating Coco Adel of Team CVFY. I don't remember if I added this before or after her sexuality was made canon but I've loved Coco ever since her debut in Volume 2. Also she absolutely has an Irish accent, North Dublin to be exact

I didn't expect this to be this long so I guess I'll put the other three in their own separate posts too.

[mysteriawrites]

Hello! If you do Baldur's Gate 3 matchups, could I please get one? I'm an autistic she/they enby, I'm fine with any gender, and while I currently work at a library I'm hoping to become a professor of celtic languages and a linguist someday, so I'm learning Scottish Gaelic, Irish and Welsh. I'm super short, only 4' 10" (147 cm), with long wavy auburn hair, glasses, pale freckled skin and a boyish fashion sense. I also have some chronic illnesses like scoliosis, joint pain and asthma. I'm really polite and very friendly with everyone I meet, but I'm also very protective over my loved ones and can be sassy when I feel it's deserved. While I'm generally an anxious person, I'm not afraid to make the first move because I basically tell myself that the moment could slip away, but I will be having heart palpitations while doing that lol. My special interests include linguistics, science, magic (I practice witchcraft irl), cooking, video games, plant identification and a bunch of other stuff, though honestly I'm down to learn about whatever is available (within reason). I've been described as "homely" and "wise beyond my years" since I give good advice and am very self aware. I really enjoy taking care of people but can get flustered if the sentiment is returned.

Thank you so so much, take care of yourself and Happy Holidays sweetie!

We Interupt your regularly scheduled program for.......A MATCHUP TRADE WITH: @tolkien-fantasy

An: i haven’t finished bg3 so bear with me please

Gale of Waterdeep!!!

I’m just gonna say it. You two are fuckin nerds, but that’s part of what makes your relationship work so well. Gale is overjoyed to have someone who is not only as passionate about things as he is, but also shares the same passions. You guys also have similar views and personalities in general.

I’m not gonna go into how yall met since the game p much does that for me so I’m just gonna ramble about your relationship until i run out of ideas lol.

So Gale takes every opportunity he can to visit the library you work at. It’s killing two birds with one stone really: he gets the books he’s looking for and he gets to see his darling girlfriend.

On the topic of books you guys absolutely have reading dates. Whether it’s in his tower, your house, or at the library during your break you two will just sit together and read. Sharing notes on whatever the subject the book is about.

You guys also do joint magic research together. Lots of books and papers scattered everywhere, potions bubbling and brewing in cauldrons, blackboards covered in chalk. It’s basically your mad scientist lair.

Although you know how to not take things too far and we all know Gale needs someone to restrain him sometimes.

Gale enjoys you teaching him about your type of magic. He finds it fascinating and gives you his full attention when you’re explaining it. He also asks a loooooooooot of questions.

Given your knowledge on practically every language in faerun, you make his research so much easier by decoding ancient text for him. What would take him months to do would take you at most a week, although he does force you to take breaks if you ever get too into it and forget to eat or sleep.

You guys absolutely have a garden together. Not only to grow magical plants for your spells and potions, but also just some for cooking and because it’s a calming hobby/past time.

On that more domestic note, you do most of the cooking. It’s not that he doesn’t know how to cook, but he’s the type who would live off instant food and microwave meals so more time could be devoted to his research.

He does try to help though and he finds it very enjoyable to cook with you. It makes him look up from his books and attaining knowledge for a moment and appreciate what’s right there in front of him: you.

I feel like you guys would have a cat. Although you adopt Scratch the dog and the Owlbear on your adventure, I feel like he would really like a cat.

Also imagining that cat causing havoc in your lab by knocking stuff over, sleeping on your notes, and trying to steal your attention away from your work is hilarious to me but shhhh

Part of why he does so much reading and researching, is to try and heal some of your aches and pains. Even if he can’t take your problems away completely (though he’ll never stop looking and trying) he does want to at least make your life a bit easier and the pain more bearable if not non existent.

I’d like to think of Gale as an ambivert. He doesn’t get tired out by socializing, but also appreciates his alone time. So if you guys are ever at a social event he’ll be able to take the initiative for once and make up an excuse for you guys to leave when your social battery is low or you’re getting overstimulated.

He thinks your height is the cutest thing ever. How you have to get stool or latter to reach the higher shelves in the tower. He doesn’t mind having to reach them for you, in fact he enjoys it. He also likes wrapping his big frame around you when you guys cuddle.

Speaking of cuddling, while he doesn’t mind being the little spoon (despite your small frame he feels very comforted in your arms) he’s usually the big spoon. He’s nice and warm and likes having his arms around you.

He wants you to feel the same love, care, and protection that you give to others.

[bethnalgreen]

The Preston and Child Books

Welcome to my corner of Tumblr, and my first-ever post. Sorry about the length!

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

I can't even remember when I first read "Relic," the first novel in what became the Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. It was probably sometime in the 1990s. I do have specific memories of reading "The Cabinet of Curiosities" in the summer of 2002. My sister and I had just moved to New York City, and I was working at Barnes & Noble. You could borrow any hardcover book from B&N to read as long as you put a protective book cover on it. I spent several late nights reading it in our sublet, scared half to death and definitely entertained.

For the next six years, I was a passionate fan of these books. I even managed to snag an audiobook version of "The Book of the Dead" before its official release date (not from B&N) because I was going to be on a plane that day and wanted desperately to read it ASAP.

It's hard to believe that's been almost 15 years ago. I'm still reading the P/C books, and looking forward to them, but I've found myself increasingly disappointed in them.

I don't want to just dump on them. I write for fun but have never finished a story, and I truly applaud the imagination and dedication evident in even the books I truly dislike. (And there have been a few. I give every P/C book a second chance, but it doesn't always make me like it more. The novels I love have been read at least half a dozen times.)

The sticking point for me in the last half-dozen books or so has been the character of Constance Greene (she's so special she can't just be a Green, she has to be a Greene.) She's like a female version of Agent Pendergast, minus the empathy, charm, and any other personality trait that makes him tolerable.

Pendergast can be a pill, that's for sure. But I always manage to root for him, because he does occasionally show signs that he's human. Constance may as well be a robot ... actually, that could explain a lot. Pendergast's outrageous intellectual and physical feats can be explained to some degree by his wealth, his education, his experience in special forces, and his FBI training.

Constance, on the other hand, was picked up off the street at age six by a sociopath. He molded her into exactly what he wanted in a companion. She had more than a century to practice the harpsichord, study languages (Gaelic, really? How convenient), and read hundreds of books on esoteric subjects. She apparently never left the house during that time, which is why her physical feats really beggar belief.

As much as I like "The Book of the Dead," this crap with Constance started then. She'd been a long-term shut-in, but she somehow was able to track Diogenes all around the world, get the better of him in Florence despite his meticulous planning, and outthink him on the slopes of Stromboli.

From there, it's only gotten worse. She's become an "all-knowing ninja," to quote someone on Reddit. She can fire a machine gun after watching (with ill-concealed boredom, no doubt) a man show off the weapon for a few minutes. She can swim, even though she couldn't just a few weeks earlier. She becomes an adept at Chongg Ran after a few lessons (of course she does!).

And what makes it all worse is this gross quasi-romance that's taken up too much time in the series. Constance has convinced herself that she's in love with Pendergast, and she won't take no for an answer. (He's told her "no," with words and body language, more than once.)

If Pendergast has to have a romantic partner, doesn't he deserve better than a short-tempered, monomaniacal sociopath? This woman threatened to kill him in "Blue Labyrinth" for reminding her about her dalliance with Diogenes, then planned her own suicide as he lay dying in the hospital. She saves his life because she's obsessed with him and is dependent on him.

I haven't yet read "The Cabinet of Dr. Leng" -- given how Constance-centric it sounds, I've decided to get it from the library instead of spending my hard-earned money on it -- but I'm hoping the trilogy is a way to gracefully get rid of her. Have her fall for a man back in the 1880s and stay there. Hell, have Diogenes pilot a spaceship from Area 51 back into the 1880s and whisk her off to Mars!

She's taken up enough space in this series. Please, guys, just ditch her already ...

Favorite P/C Novels

Relic, Thunderhead, The Cabinet of Curiosities, Still Life with Crows, The Book of the Dead, Fever Dream, White Fire

Least Favorite P/C Novels

Brimstone, Cemetery Dance, Crimson Shore, Obsidian Chamber, City of Endless Night, Crooked River, Bloodless

[mediocre-eternity]

It is 28 November 2022

Back at Trinity Gate. I’m beginning to really hate coming back to it but I was blessed with an empty house. I shouldn’t say empty because the people I care about the most are here with me. Daniel and Benji. And Jesse. She’s been using the house as her own as of late and stopped renting her apartment in Boston. I hadn’t seen her in about five years before that but she actually somehow maintained a mortal’s job in that city. She lost it after the pandemic and shortly after that accused one of our own of stalking her. We all believe her which is why she’s welcome to stay here as long as she desires. I might go into that later because I’m actually really annoyed by the whole situation.

I’ll go into it now. The more I sit here and contemplate, the worse the feeling gets. There are Certain Immortals who have been allowed to live in our coven’s presence whose lives don’t have much worth and therefore gain their worth by stalking, terrifying, harming and otherwise wasting space around others. There are vampires who have survived way too long in the company of those who claim to care deeply for the one’s they’ve tortured but are allowed to survive around them. Oh, please, give me a reason because I can pull the thoughts from thousands of immortals, sometimes at once, and I’ve never come up with a rhyme or reason for their seemingly endless stream of forgiveness and patience. I’m demonized by the atrocities created by me so I find new avenues and try to live by updated moral qualms within my own existence. But every night I sit with a young immortal who’s literally been petrified to move from New York in over two years? Some vampires quite literally call me The Devil, which I wear with pride because I deal with the demons at hand, but the one who gave me to the Devil survived for hundreds of years? Insanity. And these “ancient” immortals are content to never “give a fuck” because it might alter their bureaucracy over others in the clan. I pray every night over and over in rapture for these reasons that my maker cannot see into my mind.

I think these poisoned thoughts are the reason fate told me to bring Daniel to the Blood because not being in his mind kills me a little more every night I wake. Maybe I should learn to be more empathetic.

Besides the point, the vampire in question is a vampire named Mael. If people really are reading this and people really have read every single book I believe he makes an appearance in Queen of the Damned but I’m not quite sure after that. Oh, he was in my maker’s novel because those two are literally the same vampire repackaged in different colored robes. The last time I saw Mael was here in New York City and unfortunately I got to him before my maker could. Of course he was looking for poor Jesse. This was around July 2020 and I remember that because he remarked on how few humans were around. I lied and I told him I hadn’t seen Jesse in probably as long as he had and how dare he come anywhere close to me after the harm he caused Daniel. He boils over whenever he remembers I’m much more practiced in the Mind Gift than he is despite being thousands of years my elder. I’m not sure if he could tell I was lying but he definitely knew he couldn’t penetrate the mental walls I put up around us. Everything was evident in his face. I’ve never met a vampire of his age with skills that equal less than that of a common diary cow but he somehow exists. I bet I could have ripped his head clean off with my speed and thrown it out the window so it could smash on the pavement like the shrunken Jack O Lantern it is and if I were lucky it would be hit by a passing truck. He called me something in Gaelic so I called him a “fear gorta” which even the vaguest amount of knowledge around Irish mythology impressed him. I told him it took me nine minutes to learn how to use the internet, surely it’s not below him to google something. My maker showed up out shortly after that. I haven’t seen Mael since but Jesse’s still quite a bit paranoid. I try to reassure her that she’s a powerful immortal, though young, and always I tell her that her grasp on the Mind Gift rivals mine thanks in part to her genetics but also the Blood that was given to her. She’s a very lucky vampire with such unique capabilities. I truly adore her so much and I’m glad to call her a friend. She also deserves to be at peace and not feel the need to watch her own back all the time which wouldn’t be an issue of Mael was simply destroyed. The fact that my maker so claims to despise him too confounds me.

I drilled my master on this and dismissively he cooed “I know, my child, your hatred of him does not end with you,” or some such shit. “He is an enemy of mine as well.” Sure. Yet if I were to ask Jesse to meet me on Night Island she’d refuse. I’m glad Daniel doesn’t share the same fears as her. I so admire him for his ability to flow through his darkest moments and take experience from them. It will serve him for the rest of his eternity.

My anger will leave me soon enough. Don’t read this and believe I’m truly someone who spits venom about others all the time. But I have been frustrated by the lack of consideration toward one of our youngest. Sybelle and Benji are even younger than Jesse and Daniel. What should happen to them if there is never repercussions because our clan can’t seem to self regulate and dispose of those who shouldn’t be around us? I feel as though I’m arguing my point through writing because I know it should be a universal truth and nobody ever divulges their motivations to me. Well, not consensually anyway. This is part of the reason I tend to keep myself and my loved ones in solitude because not only is it easier— it’s much more safe. Though nobody seems to understand the practicality in having to euthanize some few outliers. But here I am rambling and angry with knowledge that in time I will be kissing my maker all over his face like the horrid little creature of terrible habits I am.

Daniel and Jesse are off on their own right now, which is relieving for multiple reasons but mostly because I can trust to leave Daniel on his own. Benji decided to pitter around in The Rockefeller as he often does. This leaves me alone in this giant Victorian home. The place is completely dark except for the little light emanating from my laptop and the towering windows that surround me and keep me contained like a doll in a dollhouse. New York City is like an great big monstrous organism that breathes around me and consumes me. It’s never changed— only become more efficient in it’s isolation. That makes me feel very safe tonight, actually.

[freedformwriter]

Diary of a Baggage Train: Day 9

I wake up on the West Highland Way Practically. From my hotel window, I can see a small tent encampment on the other side of the river and beyond that the grass and scree-covered slope of Meall Bhalach. This should be themoment in which I nestle down into the soft mattress and clean linens and gaze lovingly at the electric kettle. Instead, I’m consumed with jealously. Because, however grubby their sleeping bags and however much their morning porridge tastes like the spag bol from the night before, the campers have something I don’t: air. Heaps and heaps of glorious Glencoe air. I’ve spent the night sprawled on top of the duvet as a Dyson fan buffeting my body – it is quite a fancy hotel – because we’re not allowed to open the window. The Kingshouse Hotel is a stunning, secluded, fancy-as-fuck wilderness retreat… I’m so happy to be out of there and back with the cavalcade of touring roadsters. We’re on the stretch used for the car chase in Skyfall and are consequently creeping along, stopping at every pullover. I love how different my Roadtrippers are from the backpackers. Determined to get the best photos by climbing everything, they treat every rock as a major impediment, frequently banding together to pull each other up and over as if their sheer numbers will make up for their ill-suited footwear. A woman gestures to her victorious partner to throw his arms wide to celebrate his ascent. He insists on posing with one hand on his chin with his other hand on his elbow, a pose perhaps best suited to dated portraiture than to long-distance nature photography.

The film at Glencoe Visitor Centre tells a simple tale with a tumultuous beginning, a tragic middle, and a happy end. In the beginning, 400 million years ago, were the volcanos. The land the fire formed was hard and unforgiving, and it made life hard and unforgiving for the people who eventually settled there. We move swiftly on to 300 years ago and the focus of the bespoke film: the Glencoe Massacre. By animating some simple pen and ink illustration, layering in a lot of snow and blood, and adding a sonorous narrator, the film evokes the treachery of the King’s troops turning on their hosts, the MacDonalds. That the government of the new Hanoverian king signed an order to slay every member of the clan under the age of seventy appears almost secondary to the most heinous crime: the soldiers stayed twelve days under the MacDonald roofs before murdering them. From this frozen genocide, we hop over the final Jacobite rebellion and skip to the Romantic artists, who could always use some Highland tragedy to whet their whistle. The last act is the estimable work of the National Trust for Scotland to preserve the land and keep it as sparsely populated as it was then, but also as welcoming.

I move past tourists taking selfies with Highland cattle and step into the recreated MacDonald hut. As building Highland huts is no longer a lucrative trade, some creative researchers have played about with how one weaves daub and wattle walls and thatches with heather. I love an imaginative exercise put to a practical purpose. The door illuminates a stone-floor hut woven like a basket and insulated with cut blocks of turf. Recordings of chopping wood, stomping hooves and the conservation of the Gaelic-speaking inhabitants filter in. It’s quite roomy, but if you filled one half with livestock and nestled an entire family around the fire along with whatever backstabbing King’s troops were in the area, I imagine it would feel a good deal cosier. The government justified their eradication of the MacDonalds by their failure to sign a fealty oath to the new king; their actual crime was being poor and going in for a little cattle reiving. Stealing from wealthier neighbours who lived on more fertile terrain was what Rob Roy and the MacGregors did too. The trick was to not do it too much and not against too powerful a person. For Rob Roy, he turned outlaw after making an enemy of the Duke of Montrose. For the MacDonalds, the head of their old enemies, the Campbells, would do what it took to keep his earldom.

Later at the shop, I spot a local headline exalting that Glencoe’s greatest eyesore is set for demolition. Jimmy Saville’s much-vandalised cottage will be ‘erased from the landscape’. In its place, the new owner will build a luxury home. They plan to name the new house after the famous mountaineer, Hamish MacInnes. Nobody could object to that.

[nancypullen]

Delightful Dingle

I know I'm moving like a sloth getting these posts up, and I can't even promise that they'll be worth it. Still, aren't they better than me droning on about my gardens or another recipe? Besides, I have something on a back burner that just might turn things around on the ol' blog. I might be making some life changes. MIGHT. Not counting any chickens before they hatch, but I'm a little bit excited. More on that later. For now, let's talk about Dingle! Dingle. It's fun to say and even more fun to visit. Of all of the castles, incredible views, ancient sites, and islands frozen in time - our day in Dingle was my favorite. The mister and I vacation differently. He is happiest when hiking up to a scenic vista, capturing an incredible snap of a cliff, tree, waterfall (oh, how he loves a waterfall), or meadow. I also love nature in all her glory, but I can get a lot of that at home. When I visit a foreign country I want to talk to people, find out what they do, what they eat, what's playing on the radio, how they spend their time. I absolutely love striking up a conversation with a stranger and getting a taste of normal life in wherever I might be. I was able to do that with a wonderful gentleman and artist in Waterville -Leo Quinlan, retired Irish Army major. He was a cadet sent by Ireland to JFK's funeral, now he paints. You can find him on Instagram! lqart.ie

Anyway, that's what I do. I will talk to people in shops, cafes, public restrooms, train stations, you name it. I don't think I've ever received more delightful responses than I did in Ireland. The warmth and openness of the people we met was exceptional. There's a reason that you see "Cead mile failte" posted near practically every door. It's Gaelic for "100,000 welcomes". They actually mean it. Our visit to Dingle was a chance for me to talk and talk and talk to locals. It was also a chance for me to take my fingernails out of the dashboard. You see, much of what you want to see in Ireland is found along "The Wild Atlantic Way". A little two lane road, much of it perched cliffside with the Atlantic crashing against rocks below. We didn't drive the whole thing, it's something like 1600 miles, winding along the west coast of Ireland. We did enough of it. I have very few pictures and no video because I was too busy hyperventilating. Here's a taste.

My blood pressure goes up just watching that. Flashbacks. I know that Mickey is capable driver. I don't know if anyone else is. Factor in that he was driving from the right side of the car and on the left side of the road and I get jittery. In my defense, I was once a passenger in a van (driven by a high school drivers ed teacher) that rolled off the side of a mountain. I lived to tell the tale, but I've never forgotten the sensation of tipping over the edge. It was all because the driver was distracted, so when I'm in the passenger seat and I see Mickey's eyes darting all over framing photos in his mind, I get nervous. I probably should have dealt with that bit of PTSD decades ago, but you can just add that to the long list of things that make me weird interesting. I do feel sorry for Mickey when I'm along, because he loves a good, twisty drive. We've been on too many. And I did enjoy some of the views (when I opened my eyes). This was at a lower elevation, almost to Dingle.

That was a long-winded way of explaining why a day spent walking around a beautiful town and talking to friendly people was so welcome. Dingle was an oasis in the desert for me. Hello, Dingle!

Its a lovely seaside town with a very artsy vibe. There were lots of pubs and restaurants, plenty of pretty boutiques, art galleries, gift shops, book stores, and ice cream shops. Apparently, Dingle is semi-famous for their ice cream. There's also a statue near the harbor dedicated to Fungie, a local dolphin whose antics delighted fishermen and tourists. He sought out human contact and chose to live alone in the waters near Dingle, enjoying his interactions, rather than join a pod. He was first spotted in 1983 and is believed to have died in 2020. His legend lives on.

Everything about this sweet town was fun. I don't blame Fungie for staying.

I sent the mister off to snap photos and I roamed up and down the streets. Murphy's was the most popular ice cream spot.

We also ate lunch at Murphy's Pub. I'm seeing a pattern.

One of my favorite stops was this little shop.

Do you see what I see inside the shop, just past the painted cat?

Of course I had to go inside and pet her. She was a bit chunkier than when her portrait was painted. Bless her fluffy heart, I understand.

I walked and walked...

popping in and out of shops and talking to everyone. It was so much fun. Little chats, interesting tidbits, not a stranger in sight. I felt that I was actually experiencing Ireland. Not just the many, many beautiful sights, but the heartbeat of the country - her wonderful people! I had so many little sacks with me when I finally met Mickey for a late lunch, I had scattered my money in every corner of town. Irish linen sachets filled with Irish lavender, tea towels decorated with happy Irish sheep, a fascinating book on the potato famine from a charming book store, a beautiful print from a gallery, two very pretty coffee mugs for two coffee lovers I know, and even a wedge of cheese from this little shop.

We enjoyed a wedge of Wilma's Gouda. Wilma O'Connor is a Dutch woman who married an Irish fellow, and in the 1980's began making the gouda of her homeland with Irish cow's milk. It was a hit and Wilma is now famous. Tasty cheese, well-deserved fame. Bonus points for the sign in English. I knew what I was getting before I walked in. Most shops had signs I couldn't read, if the window display didn't provide enough clues, I had to go inside, right?

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. By entering every shop I experienced everything from local pottery to a tobacco shop that smelled like my Grandpa Holtz. Even better, each shop had a friendly face inside just waiting to chat with me. Delightful. I really loved Dingle.

I met up with this guy for a bite.

Then I suggested we walk off our late lunch (I wasn't ready to leave!) and before we strolled back to the harbor where our car was parked.

For the mister that also meant a stop at Murphy's for ice cream. So yes, we saw amazing castles, we visited the Hill of Tara where Irish kings have ruled for centuries, we saw natural and manmade beauty around every corner. But my day in Dingle, talking and laughing with the warm and wonderful folks of a colorful, happy town - best day of all! That said, there's more to come. I swear I'll wrap this up. I'll be back to talk about more castles, ancient sites, and snails...so many snails. Until tomorrow, stay safe, stay well. XOXO, Nancy