#at the gates of Downing Street

[sharess-festhall]

I would get bunt chugley pregnant

[rosepetalsthings]

Tim deserves so much praise

Like his speech and inflections are just so Orin at the end it's uncanny. You can tell how fun he had doing it.

Also fun fact, you can't have Gale be kidnapped if you romance him. Coincidentally you also can't perma kill Yenna before this

[innytoes]

You have one of those 12 foot skeletons in your yard and you caught me trying to take selfies with it / Sweet Tarts

Also for @invisibleraven who asked for the exact same thing. Who knew this prompt had Carrie/Reggie vibes?

When the Wilsons celebrated, they went hard. Their birthday blow-outs were legendary from the time Carrie had been in kindergarten. Their Fourth of July drones show (fireworks were so 90s) was epic and set to their favourite music. Christmas? Their mansion was covered in so many lights they had their own generator, and every room had a Christmas tree. (The one in Carrie's room was all pink, of course.)

So of course they went all out for Halloween, too. It was pretty hard to convert a sleek white modern mansion into a spooky old Victorian house, so instead they went all out with other kinds of decorations. Like the skeletons that hung out in front of the large windows on the second floor, having cocktails. Or the ghosts hanging from the trees and railings. Or the spooky lights and glowing orbs in the pool. Or the gazillion decorative pumpkins around the place. (Again, the ones in Carrie's room were pink.)

This year's new showstopper, though, was a twelve foot skeleton that her dad brought home. He showed it off, jazz hands and all, like the dork he was, and she could only barely hide her smile even as she eye-rolled at him.

"Not cool enough?" Dad asked her. "Don't worry, I thought of that."

And then he pulled out a pair of giant novelty sunglasses from somewhere. That got her to crack, and she laughed, which made her dad beam, which made her feel gooey inside. Out in public, they had to be perfect, and cool, and flawless, but when it was just the two of them, they could goof around and be dorks.

Now, while all of October was Go Hard On The Spooky Stuff, their Halloween basically had two big nights. The first was their Big Halloween Bash, where dad invited all his famous friends and people he worked with and Carrie got to invite some of her friends as long as they all promised to be cool.

The second, which deep down Carrie liked much better, was Trick or Treating. Because what was the point of living in the rich neighbourhood if not to show off all your badass decorations and costumes and spooky playlists and wow kids with amazing treats.

Full sized candy bars? Pah, those were for the old money losers down the street. Carrie and her dad got custom made edible crystals. Kids could pick out their own colour and shape, and eat something that looked like it shouldn't be eaten. Did you want a neon green orb, or a jagged piece of quartz, or even a candy beetle encased in 'amber'?

Carrie, of course, made sure to grab some in all her Candi's colours and put them aside. (And a few pink ones for herself.)

But the big holiday bash had come and gone, and trick or treating wasn't until tomorrow, so what the hell was this guy doing in their yard?

"Aren't you a little old to be trick or treating?" she asked as she flung the door open. Usually, if someone was lurking around like that, she'd call security, but this guy didn't seem to be paparazzi or a crazed fan who wanted to murder her dad. Also, she'd shoved her taser in the pocket of her cardigan before opening the door. (It was pink. And bedazzled.)

The boy, who seemed to be about her age, yelped and flailed, nearly dropping his crappy little phone. "Sorry, I'm sorry!" he stammered. "I thought nobody was home!"

Carrie raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow. "Is that supposed to make it better?" she asked in her nastiest mean-girl-voice.

He flushed, looking ashamed of himself. Suddenly, even with the leather jacket, he seemed a lot smaller. "I'm sorry," he said miserably. "It's just that this is the first time I've seen one of these giant skeletons in real life and I really wanted to take a selfie with it. I mean, he's wearing sunglasses and everything."

He looked so sad, like a kicked puppy, and really, she couldn't begrudge him too much. Their skeleton was pretty awesome. And he was pretty cute.

"You're never going to get all of him in frame with you like that," she rolled her eyes, grabbing her keys and demonstratively pulling the door closed behind her so he couldn't slip inside in case this was just a ruse.

She made sure to keep her hand on her taser as she passed him, but he just gaped at her. When she was far enough away to get all of the skeleton into the picture, she pulled out her phone. "Smile!" she said, and on instinct, he did. She snapped a picture, and when he realised what happened, he beamed, begging for another one.

She had to admit that the one hugging Skeletor's leg (yes, her dad had named their giant skeleton Skeletor like a massive dork) was pretty funny. As was the one where he was bowing down before it. And pretending to run away from it.

They had a little photo shoot for like two minutes, before he seemed to run out of ideas, and thanked her profusely, before moving to leave.

"Hey!" she shouted after him, and he froze in his tracks. "You have to give me your number so I can send these to you!" Okay, so he was cute but not very bright. She could work with that.

He looked a little flustered, but gave her his number to put in her phone. She sent him a test text, and his entire face lit up when he saw the first picture appear on his own screen.

And if maybe she texted him again the next day inviting him over to try one of their gourmet crystals and see the whole yard done up right for trick or treating, well, she just wanted to share the holiday spirit.

[the-master-of-space-and-time]

Hi!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We’re here!!!!!!! Look, I’ve got a hat!!!!

🎩

🐍

Omg, I figured out how to hack the CIA account! What shall we post?

-Zerlan

[catominor]

one thing that was really funny about the masters of rome books (at least the first three i havent read the rest yet) was how fail she writes pompey

[sipsoftea]

I had a dream last night that if you let astarion feed on you enough you become half a vampire spawn, and the only thing you gained from it was the ability to summon 4 or 5 random guys to your location at any given time, and every time you summon them a booming voice echoes from the sky saying "NO HOMO" before the men would spawn.

[fadeintoyou1993]

woke up again. had another nightmare AGAIN

[aelric]

'larry the cat is the only political candidate that matters' 'larry is the only politician i'd vote for' FOOLS. Larry is clearly a long-suffering Civil Servant.

[wampabampa]

I’ve been sitting here for 3 hours about to be 4..

[droughtofapathy]

Suffs: Broadway and off-Broadway

Changes I Liked:

The tighter story. The off-Broadway version was good, but the pacing often felt chaotic and scattered. They shaved fifteen minutes off the runtime, and it needed that trim. Though perhaps not so much...

More of Carrie Chapman Catt and Mollie Haye's rumored romance weaved throughout the show. It's now pretty implicitly clear they're involved. They get a kiss. I love it.

Grace McLean in a short grey wig looking like a soft butch lesbian.

Emily Skinner as Alva Belmont/Phoebe Burn. I loved Aisha de Haas, and I loved the wink-wink, nudge-nudge of the "every grassroots movement needs a rich white broad," line. But I love Emily Skinner and I'm so glad she's back on Broadway and gets to strut around in big hats and furs. She doesn't get to do much, but she's doing great ensemble work.

Hannah Cruz is great as Inez Milholland, so I guess I can accept we lost one Asian featured player.

Changes I'm Still Not Sure Of:

Per above, we got Kim Blanck as Ruza Wenclawska, the role Hannah Cruz played before. I'm not sure I fully like the new interpretation. Hannah really set the bar. And hey, an Asian featured player.

I know they had to cut for time. I get why these moments were cut. But there were moments off-Broadway that gave nod to the non-white movements. During the March, there was a Chinese mother who brought her baby. "...your audacious Chinese mother marching so you could be free..." was a line that split me wide open. I'm not Chinese, but I'm a different kind of Asian, and just having that sort-of representation was wonderful. Off-Broadway also had the character Nina Otero-Warren give a rousing speech "your vote counts, your vote matters, use your power, get out and vote," in both English and Spanish, and I loved that. I know they cut because they couldn't delve deeper, but still.

The ensemble is smaller. The big group numbers feel quieter. I think a lot of the lost bite comes from losing this sheer presence on stage. The ensemble numbers also cut certain actors like Grace McLean from playing other suffragists, so the numbers are even thinner now.

I get why they cut it, but I really liked the punch of "I Wasn't There," a song about how the 19th Amendment was signed, but there's no actual documentation of the day itself. No photo-ops, no throng of reporters, and none of the women who worked tirelessly to shake hands and witness the signing. It was like this slap in the face.

There's a new song about Alice contemplating a life with a husband and child to illustrate all she was willing to give up in the name of the cause, and that's all well and good, but I don't care.

Speeding up the pacing meant losing some of the building tension. Suddenly it's the march, and suddenly it's all over, and suddenly we're--and it goes on like that. I'd have been fine taking back an extra five minutes to just stay in one of the big moments.

Most of the vaudeville type numbers were cut. Makes sense. Solid choice. But it does mean musically the songs are less diverse. The vaudeville numbers were also big ensemble pieces that filled the space.

[schrankartoons]

My cartoon for The Times on 20/3/23. Boris Johnson is about to face the Commons Privileges Committee in their investigation into parties at Number 10, and whether Johnson might have lied to parliament

[ares857]

internet find

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[fingertipsmp3]

Men are so weird!!!!

[david-watts]

it's a bit rich coming from me. so fucking useless that I haven't managed to do anything worse than leave words that appear on my arms when I get out of the shower and some cognitive decline in so many years of trying and threatening. but I genuinely believe it would be better for everyone involved if I weren't here

[lottaham]

Not to sound like but a beggar peasant buuuut feel free to leave a little trinket in my Strawpage if you feel so inclined. Talk to me about your scrunklos recommend things that’d tickle my fancy draw crude stick figures anything goes

[synonymroll648]

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