#character: martha wilson

[terristarstrike]

christmas tree hunting with terrina and the wilsons 🎄 💚 ❤️

[thankstothe]

[superhell]

most annoying house md character tournament

how this is going to go: for the next week? or so? i will be taking suggestions for characters you guys think should be in the bracket. twould be best if you sent these to my inbox. if it’s not a well known character please include a short blurb on what they did. 

characters already in the bracket- house, wilson, cuddy, and all fellows for house (40 fellow bachelorette extravaganza excluded)

following the write in period, the characters will be in day-long polls until the finale, which will run a week. 

credit to ron @superhell for the idea

[fetchmearum420]

1776 characters playing Minecraft:

John Adams: rage quitting when he gets blown up by a creeper

Benjamin Franklin: trolling everyone by becoming invisible and punching them

Thomas Jefferson: builds his own apartment

John Dickinson: thinks minecraft is for babies and doesn’t play

John Hancock: legitimately playing the game in hardcore mode and doing amazing

Edward Rutledge: Keeps killing Adams on purpose

Charles Thomson: plays the tutorial world first

James Wilson: is so scared of the mobs that he cries whenever he sees a zombie in the distance

Richard Henry Lee: only uses creative mode and builds so much shit his computer crashes

Stephen Hopkins: Tries to play but spills rum on his computer and now it’s ruined

Thomas McKean: making all the potions to try to find a cure for Rodney and forgets it’s just a game

Caesar Rodney: too sick to play

George Read: see James Wilson

Roger Sherman: does lots of trades in villages and he doesn’t rob them either

Samuel Chase: collects all the food there is

Lyman Hall: Gets bored not even 5 minutes playing

Lewis Morris: abstains courteously from playing

Josiah Bartlett: screams at Chase for not playing the game properly

Joseph Hewes: the only thing he does in the game is deep sea fishing

Robert Livingston: builds a mansion so his kids could play and live in it

John Witherspoon: thinks the game is sacrilegious and refuses to play

Abigail Adams: Builds the best house and forgets it’s not a competition

Martha Jefferson: plays with TJ and they end up forgetting the game and doing the nasty

Andrew McNair: “Sweet Jesus this Warden is hard to kill…”

Courier: spends the entire time mining for diamonds

[tepkunset]

List of Canon Queer Marvel Characters:

(with at least 10 appearances as of current date - no randos included)

Aaron Fischer

Aikku Jokinen

Akihiro

Alani Ryan

Aldrif Odinsdottir

America Chavez

Aneka

Annabelle Riggs

Avril Kincaid

Ayo

Benji Deeds

Betsy Braddock

Billy Kaplan

Bobby Drake

Brandon Sharpe

Brian Falsworth

Brunnhilde

Carl Valentino

Carmen Cruz

Cessily Kincaid

Christian Frost

Cullen Bloodstone

David Alleyne

Elle Diwa

Ellie Phimister

Felicia Hardy

Gwen Poole

Heather Douglas

Heather Tucker

Hercules

Hiroim

Ian Soo

Irene Adler

Jake Oh

Jean-Paul Beaubier

Jean-Paul Duchamp

Jennifer Kale

Jerry Sledge

Johnny Clay

Jonas Greymalkin

Jovana

Julie Power

Julio Richter

Jumbo Carnation

Karolina Dean

Ken Shiga

Korg

Kyle Jinadu

Loki Laufeyson

Martha Johansson

Miguel Santos

Morgan Red

Nadia Van Dyne

Nathaniel Carver

Nico Minnoru

Noh-Varr

Phyla-Vell

Rachel Summers

Raven Darkholme

Roger Aubrey

Roxy Washington

Rūna

Sera

Shatterstar

Shela Sexton

Simon Lasker

Solem

Sybil Dvorak

Teddy Altman

Theresa Burke

Tommy Shepherd

Toni Ho

Val Ventura

Victoria Hand

Viktor Borkowski

Viv Vision

Wade Wilson

Xavin

Xuân Cao Mạnh

Zoe Zimmer

And yet Marvel Voices: Pride only ever features like, five of the same characters every time.

[notfernintheslighest]

Rewatching Teen Titians Go! To The Movies again (i watched it 3 days ago) and this is literally DC’s Deadpool and Wolverine (and it came out first) so I’m gonna compare them while spoiling Deadpool and Wolverine the least amount possible

The “obscure” character references:

•Challengers of the Unknown

•The Atom

•“That is where the Animaniacs live” (not DC but still Warner Brothers sort of like Marvel and Disney)

•Literally almost everyone in the background of the movie theater scenes

Poking fun at their old movies:

“There was a Green Lantern movie, but we don’t talk about that one”

“My mommy’s name is Martha too”

“Shooting a baby into space what kind of people are you?” “You are the terrible parents!” (referring to superman’s biofamily) + Krypton being saved with EDM

“Golly thanks for taking me to the movies in this dangerous neighborhood, Dad” (Batman’s parents died in crime alley)

The themes of found family

•It’s repeated several times that without Robin, Beastboy would live in a dumpster, Starfire would have to fight in alien gladiator battles, Raven would have to enslave entire planets with her dad and Cyborg would have to play professional football (which he dislikes)

Referring to their characters as characters from the Marvel

“He should be saying he’s not me, I came out like way before him.” “Nah, I’m pretty sure you’re Deadpool.” (this is a whole scene btw and Slade’s intro)

Breaking the fourth wall:

•”Look into the camera and say something inappropriate” (again when calling Deathstroke Deadpool)

•”The prefect plot device”

•Stan Lee’s cameos

•”KIDS! ASK YOUR PARENTS WHERE BABIES COME FROM”

The Meta dancing/songs

•”You need a Upbeat Inspirational Song About Life”

•My Superhero Movie

•Previously mentioned EDM music

🚨🔔 ACTUAL SPOILERS FOR DEADPOOL AND WOLVERINE BELOW BEWARE!!! 🔔🚨

The meta narratives are the main similarity however, in Deadpool and Wolverine the whole “anchor being” thing is just a joke about how Fox’s media company literally died because Hugh Jackman was no longer there to bring them in the big bucks. In Teen Titans Go! To The Movies the narrative is all about the Teen Titians (Go!) characters being too unserious to get a movie, a real complaint people have had since the inception of their show.

Plus Robin and Deadpool both have abandonment issues and low self worth, Robin has a weird Lion King dream where Batman drops him off a building after other superhero’s disapprove of Robin. Deadpool secretly worries that Vanessa doesn’t love him or something???

Also both have the two main villains turn out to be in cahoots in some way, in Deadpool it’s revealed that she works for the TVA, and in Teen Titians Go! To The Movies Slade and Jade Wilson are the same person

[cyrusclouds]

mental disorder headcanons for dsaf characters because i'm bored!! (I KNOW IM NOT A PROFESSIONAL OBVIOUSLY im just here to have fun y'all :3) dave miller - aspd, bpd, cptsd + autism henry miller - aspd, npd, ocpd, bipolar 1, ied, cptsd + autism :3 martha miller - gad jack kennedy - bipolar 2, npd, cptsd + adhd-i dee kennedy - gad, ptsd + adhd-c peter kennedy - ptsd caroline kennedy - mentally stable queen steven stevenson - ppd, gad, ptsd jake wilson - clinical depression, ptsd roger jones - ocd, ptsd rebecca - mentally stable queen walt - ocpd, gad, panic disorder, cptsd, schizophrenia + autism harry - npd, cptsd + autism joe - edd (empathy deficiency disorder), ptsd terrence - mentally stable king (somehow) everett - bipolar 1, ptsd + autism & adhd-c abel - clinical depression, ppd, cptsd matthew virginia - ppd + autism & adhd-h all of these hoes have ptsd. ANYWAYSS i think i got basically everybody... (please mind that 1 in 8 people suffer from mental health disorders and literally most of these characters have been through intense trauma)

[companion-showdown]

Family Feud Nominations, Who is the Best Doctor Who Family

If I've missed a character out of one of the families let me know (within reason, I imagine all these families are massive in the EU, so prioritise tv or significant characters)

Currently, the only rule is no families may inculde anyone who is even ambiguously The Doctor, it'll get super complicated super fast imo

Any characters, eg River, who can link up multiple different families to create a single massive family unit will be treated on a case by case basis. If it is possible to pick one of the smaller family units that they are a part of to include them in while not including them in any of the others (in a way everyone will agree at least makes sense) they will be included in that family only, otherwise they will not be included

Please bare in mind when you are nominating that I am hoping to keep the number of nominations under 64 to run this as a mini-tournament. This is not a hard rule so if nominations do exceed 64 its not a big deal, just something I'd like everyone to bare in mind

Nominees

Foreman-Campbell (Susan, David, Alex)

Chesterton-Wright (Ian, Barbara, implied to be married after they leave)

McCrimmon (Jamie, Heather, V.M.McCrimmon, various others)

Waterfield (Victoria, Edward (father))

Lethbridge-Stewart (Kate, The Brigadier, Doris (Brig's wife in Battlefield), Archibald Hamish (TUAT), Gordon (Kate's son in Downtime), Kadiatu, The Great Intelligence, Lucy Wilson)

Grant/Jones (Jo, Cliff, Santiago (Jo's grandson in Death of the Doctor))

Smith (Sarah-Jane, Lavinia (aunt), Brendan Richards, Luke, Sky, Mr Smith, K9 (they are her family and I will not be hearing otherwise), Barbara, Eddie (parents in Temptation of Sarah-Jane Smith))

Leela, Andred, Veega, Rayo

Adric and Varsh (brothers)

Nyssa, Tremas, and Kassia (daughter, father, step-mother)

Jovanka (Tegan, Vanessa (aunt in Logopolis), Colin (cousin in Arc of Infinity))

Turlough (Vislor, Malkon (brother in Planet of Fire))

McShane (Ace, Audrey (mother), Kathleen (grandmother), Liam (brother))

Tyler (Rose, Jackie, Pete, Tony (baby mentioned in Journey's End), no I will not be adding the metacrisis to this list)

Another Smith (Mickey, Rita (grandmother))

Slitheen

Harkness (Jack, Grey, parents, Alice Carter (daughter), Steven Carter(grandson))

Isolas (Fear Her)

Jones (Martha, Francine, Clive, Tish, Leo, Leo has a baby as well, Adeola Oshodi)

The Family of Blood

Redfern-Smith (Joan, John (various), possible dream children and grandchildren)

Shafe Kanes (from Utopia, Kristane, Beltone)

Mott-Noble-Temple (Donna, Sylvia, Wilf, Shaun, Rose)

The Adipose

Pond-Williams (Amy, Rory, River, Brian, Anthony, Amy's aunt and parents)

Owens: (Craig, Sophie, Stormageddon Dark Lord of All)

Gillyflower (Mrs Gillyflower, Ada)

Paternoster (Jenny, Vastra, Strax)

Oswald (Clara, Ellie, Dave (parents), grandmother, and I'm going to say Danny makes the cut, Orson)

Potts (Bill, Mother, Moira (foster mother))

O'Brien-Sinclair (Graham, Ryan, Grace, Aaron (Ryan's father))

Khan (Yaz, Najia (mother), Hakim (father), Sonya (sister), Umbreen (grandmother))

Lewis (Dan, Eileen (mother), Neville (father))

Swarm and Azure

Bel, Vinder and their as yet unborn child

Sunday (Ruby, Carla, Cherry, many many foster siblings)

The TARDIS and Lolita

Little House of Cwej

The House of Lungbarrow (Grandfater Paradox, Qenceus, Inocet, various cousins, Irving Braxiatel, Maggie Matsumoto, Ulysses, Penelope GAte, Anna Joyce)

The House of Dvora (Morbius, The War King, Thessalia, Romana, various others)

Langer (Clyde, Carla (mother), Paul (father))

Jackson (Maria, Alan, Chrissie)

Chandra (Rani, Haresh, Gita)

The Wu Diaspora (Cindy Wu and her clones)

Munmeth and Mutmunna (Medicine Man)

Ada and Alice Obiefune

Who (Susan, Barbara, Louise)

Jones-Davies (Ianto, Rhiannon, Johnny, David, Mica)

Summerfield (Bernice, Issac, Claire, Jason Kane, Peter, Wolsey, Keith, Rebecca, Cousin Eliza, Benedict I-IV, Christine)

Miller (Lucie, Pat (aunt))

Schofield (Hex, Cassie, Hilda)

House of Witforge (Narvin, Lenaris, Helico, Narvin's father, Rexin)

Faction Paradox

Pollard (Charley, Louisa, Richard, Margaret, Edward Grove, The Sound Creature)

Mesh Cos, Lon Shel, Julian White Mammoth Tusk

Cooper-Williams (Gwen, Rhys, Anwen, Geraint, Mary (Gwen's parents))

Chenka (Liv, Tula, Kal, Garlon Rosh)

Sinclair (Helen, Albie, Trev Bailey)

Forrester

Proctor (Cleo, Jordan, parents)

Nominations will be open until Midday Friday (03/05, 12:00 BST (GMT/UTC +1)), I will try and give a more specific time then

[abigailspinach]

My mind goes to Murderbot. It claims to be a loner, to not need friends. Yet it forms a deep attachment to a sentient research vessel. Later, it even offers one of its human companions a hug. Of all her characters, Wells has said, Murderbot is the one she’s put the most of herself into. It’s a surprising claim, until it’s not. It’s obvious that Wells feels a distance from other humans, even as she’s spent a life trying to relate to them, to understand them.

After dinner, Wells and Wilson head home to play the fantasy game Pathfinder online with a group of friends across Texas and California. Wells, who plays as a human ranger, got an actual longbow for her birthday last year (though she’s still trying to get her arm back in shape post-surgery). When the cohort last signed off, a concerned sorcerer had teleported an outmatched cleric right into a giant crocodile’s mouth. They managed to pull the cleric out of danger right before teleporting into a hallway with a tentacle monster.

There’s always a tentacle monster, isn’t there? A scary illness. Career doldrums. The constant fight for recognition. To this day, most people—even in College Station—still don’t know who Martha Wells is. Local newspapers ignore press releases about her latest award. The Barnes and Noble down the street has never invited her to its Star Wars Day, even though she has written a Star Wars novel. She did a signing in town once where nobody showed up.

Whatever. Murderbot wouldn’t care, and besides, there are more books to write. Just after I leave Texas, Wells learns that both Witch King and System Collapse, her second Murderbot novel, have been nominated for Hugos. She declines the Murderbot nomination. This time, she wants someone else’s name to be called.

[partywithponies]

well off your post, which women do you headcanon to be autistic? i love 2 talk about autistic women <3

Ooh me too!

Just off the top of my head. Dana Scully from X Files for sure. And Mary, Kitty, and Fanny from Ghosts. Starlight Glimmer from MLP:FiM and Minty from MLP G3. Jean Slater and Sonia Fowler from Eastenders, and possibly Anna Knight too. Bunty from Father Brown and DCI Macdonald from Macdonald and Dodds. Matilda Wormwood from all versions of Matilda but especially the musical. Tash from Jam and Jerusalem. Ruby from Demons though that's mainly pure vibes and projection because I love her. 😂 Several Jacqueline Wilson characters but especially Martha from Hetty Feather, Matty and Tilly from Rent-a-Bridesmaid, and Violet from Midnight. Sara Crewe from A Little Princess. Dodo and Susan from Doctor Who. And Peridot from Steven Universe and Entrapta from She-Ra though those two are pretty much canon. 😅

[tinie-alien]

🛸👽 Agere Board Masterpost 👽🛸

Order: Other Stuff, The Doctor (Doctor Who), Companions & other Doctor Who characters, Torchwood characters, Marvel characters

🌟 Other Stuff:

🔤 ABCs of Doctor Who - An agere board collection (Masterlist)

🐹 Assigning DW characters to my Littlest Pet Shops Boards (Masterlist)

🐇 Doctor Who/Torchwood Agere Fursonas (my art)

🪽🐍 Ocean-themed Crowley & Aziraphale (Good Omens) Agere Boards

🔎 CG! Alec Hardy (Broadchurch) Agere Board (req)

💗 Nimona Agere Board

-

🦹‍♂️ Marvel/X-Men Characters:

💨🎪 Sleepy regressor! Peter Maximoff & Carer! Kurt Wagner Board

🧲💨 Carer! Erik Lehnsherr & sleepy regressor! Peter Maximoff Board (req)

💨 Quicksilver/Peter Maximoff Agere Board

🎪 Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner Agere Board

🧠🍺 Carer! Charles Xavier with a cozy theme & Carer! Wolverine/Logan Howlett with an outdoorsy theme Boards (req)

↪️🧠- The same carer! Charles board with a cozy theme but it's actually finished lol 🤦

🧲 Magneto/Erik Lehnsherr Board

⚔️🍺 Regressor! Deadpool/Wade Wilson who colors & Carer! Wolverine/Logan Howlett who cooks/bakes Boards

⚔️🍺 Regressor! Deadpool/Wade & Puppy Regressor! Wolverine/Logan Board

🛡️🦾 Captain America/Steve Rogers & Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes Board

-

⭐ If you're wondering why I haven't made any content for certain DW characters, I likely haven't gotten to them in the show yet! I'm currently slowly working my way through Season 9! I've watched the 60th anniversary specials, but I'm saving anything else to do with the Fifteenth Doctor until I'm caught up (ie. finished watching 12 & 13). ☺️

🌟 The Doctor:

🕘 Nostalgia-themed Ninth Doctor Board

🕘🌹 Valentine's Day-themed Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler Board

🕘🌹 Outdoor Playtime-themed CGs Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler Board (req)

🕘🌹🧥 Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler/Jack Harkness Board (old)

🕙 Regressor! Tenth Doctor Board (req)

🕙 Tenth Doctor Collage Board

🕙 Tenth Doctor Board

🕙 Tenth Doctor Board (w/ board template & picrew)

🕚 Eleventh Doctor Collage Board

🕚 CG! Eleventh Doctor Board (req)

🕚 Rainbow-themed CG! Eleventh Doctor Board (req)

🕚 Bedtime-themed CG! Eleventh Doctor Board (req)

🕚 Dinosaur-themed Eleventh Doctor Board

🕛 CG! Twelfth Doctor Board

🕛 Galaxy/Bedtime-themed CG! Twelfth Doctor Board & Rockstar-themed Twelfth Doctor Board (req)

🕛 Purple & Black Space-themed CG! Twelfth Doctor Board (req)

🕐🕔 Petre Puppy Regressor Fifteenth Doctor Board (req)

✨ Agere Flag Icons for the Fourteenth Doctor, the Fifteenth Doctor, Donna Noble, Rose Noble & Shaun Temple

-

🌟 Companions & Other Characters:

🌹 Rose Tyler Board

🌹Rose Tyler Board (w/ board template & picrew)

🌹 Pink Alternative Regressor! Rose Tyler Board

🌹 Princess Regressor! Rose Tyler Icons (req)

🧥 Jack Harkness Board

🌕 Martha Jones Board

🥁 Black & Red-themed Simm!Master Petre/Agere Board

🐝 Donna Noble Board

🐝 Cozy-themed CG! Donna Noble Board (req)

🛡️ Knight CG! Rory Williams Icons

🌻🛡️ Amy Pond/Rory Williams Board

👾 Dalek Board (req)

💾 The Editor Board (req)

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🌟 Torchwood Characters:

🔫 Blue-themed Gwen Cooper Board

🖥️ Toshiko Sato Board

☕ Ianto Jones Collage Board

☕ Ianto Jones Board

☕ Ianto Jones Board (w/ template & picrew)

🧥☕ Regressors/CGs Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones Icons

🧥☕ Red & Blue-themed Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones Board

🧥☕ Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones Board (old)

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⭐ Request Information (Open!) ⭐

(please let me know if i made any mistakes with the links!)

[terristarstrike]

Your Mother And Mine

Get ready, folks! I haven't been talking about Bailey's presumed stepmother, Martha, so I think it's time to get this idea of mine off my chest, and for those who were wondering why Athene was absent from Bailynn’s life or why she would leave Bailynn on Irwin’s doorstep, I think I found a pretty big answer to that question… 

GIANT-SIZED SPOILERS AHEAD

Pink Text = Bailey

Green Text = Martha

Purple Text = Athene

Bailey had heard stories about Athene Lo-Shanta, her biological mother, a gorgeous and intelligent Jotuzon who was blessed with big purple eyes and beautiful brown hair. She was one of the smartest giants to ever live, and one who lost her life in a tragic lab accident, and left her daughter stranded on Earth. Bailey stayed up all night thinking about what happened to her mother. Whatever did happened to her? Why would she abandon her? Was there something that prevented her from being there?

Bailey quietly went down the stairs to see her stepmother Martha busy on her laptop. Martha was a no-nonsensical woman with freckled skin, green eyes with a big blonde beehive hairdo. She didn’t ask much questions to the manager of the local diner, she was a busy manager and a busy mother, but she knew that Martha knew a little something about Athene.

“Mom, did you know about this?” Bailey pulled out her Jotu-Bracelet into Martha’s view.  “What is this, sweetie?” Martha asked. “It’s my Jotu-Bracelet. Terri has one too.” 

Martha gently touched her daughter’s bracelet with feelings of strange reminiscence. “Wait.. I remember this.”

“But how?” Bailey was puzzled. “You know nothing about the Giants. You told me they were just fake, that they don’t exist. You didn’t believe in anything.” Martha tried to explain, but Bailey couldn’t hold in her frustration, her body trembling with confusion and guilt and excitement, all at once. “I was completely alone my entire life. My parents died, and my brother hates me, but now, I have this amazing girlfriend and now I just found out I’m a giant alien from another planet, and you never said anything, you didn’t even know!” “But I did!…I was just trying to be normal.” 

Martha finally spoke up, but Bailey wasn’t falling for it. She would never believe that someone as mundane as her own stepmother was trying to be normal. “Mom…. You were the most normal person I know. Is there something you’re not telling me?”

Martha felt immense guilt and anxiety in her stomach. She didn’t want to face this, but one way or another, she had to confess. “Bailey, I didn’t know how to tell you this but…”

Bailey took a deep breath and brought herself back to being calm. She had enough twists and turns in her life, so she knew she was strong enough to accept another twist. “Can’t you just tell me? Can you please be real with me? Just tell me everything. I promise I won’t get upset, I won’t.”

Martha didn’t want to tell her, but if Bailey was strong enough to accept her true self, then she knew she had to speak about what really happened to Athene. “Bailey, your mother never died.”

Bailey’s eyes went wide in pure shock. In her mind, she came to a potential conclusion that her mother chose to abandon her while she was still alive, but she know that she would never be abandoned by her own mother. “So where is she now? What happened to her?”

Martha sighed, and she sat her daughter down on the sofa. “I’m gonna tell you a story that I should’ve told you earlier. Do you remember when we told you about how you ended up on our doorstep, and we took you in?” “Yeah, why?” Bailey asked…

“The truth is this. Athene fell deeply in love with your father Irwin, they were soulmates, but like you and Terrina, their worlds were very different from each other. Athene wanted to leave her old world behind to be with her one true love, so they procreated a child.” “Who was me?” “Yeah.” Martha chuckled. “The night you were born, your mom insisted that she would have you here in Westshore, with Irwin. The garage where Irwin did all his studies and building, Athene built that garage so that she could live with him. It’s the also the garage where she brought you into the world. But she knew that it would be impossible to raise a Jotuzon child in a world that won’t accept her kind. So Athene decided to disguise herself and you into humans, so that you would be familiarized with the human world, and her father gave you the name of Bailey Wilson so that you could be integrated into human society. The Jotuzons thought your mom died in a tragic lab accident, but she faked her death, so that she would finally leave El-Doe behind for a life amongst humans. She never died, in fact, I happened to know her very well. Athene Lo-Shanta was always.. me.”

Bailey went totally catatonic over hearing Martha’s words. Her body was completely shaking, and a range of emotions began to completely overwhelm her. Feelings of confusion, happiness, relief and complete shock all began to collide with each other. Then, Martha finally took off her green-tinted glasses and her beehive wig to reveal a head of beautiful brown hair flowing down to her shoulders, and began to show off an soft and emotional smile of long-lost confidence.

Bailey was so overwhelmed with joy, that she jumped off the sofa to embrace her mom with tears flowing from her eyes. For Bailey, 15 years of self-doubt and second guessing and feeling like an orphan have finally faded away, and for Athene, 15 years of hiding her own identity have finally faded away as well. “I don’t need you to show me your true form anyway, you just might end up destroying the house.” Bailey joked through her tears, but there was another question she had in mind. “So what about that story you made up about how I ended up on the doorstep on my first birthday? Was that like a total lie? Cuz I don’t need another one.” “Pretty much.” Athene shrugged with a laugh. “But I promise you, there’s no need to lie about who we are anymore. As your mother, I wanted to tell that.. I’m so sorry for everything. For hiding, lying, trying to make you normal. It’s just that the world might never accept Jotuzons like us.” “But at least now, we can try.” "I just want you to know.. I am so proud of you, Bailynn Lo-Shanta!" Bailynn beamed at the sound of her mother calling her by her true name. "And I'm proud of you, too, Mother!" Bailynn kept her birth mother wrapped up in her hug for as long as she could. Despite the two of them being in human form, the mother and daughter of the Lo-Shanta family finally felt free from hiding, and embracing the warmth of Jotuzon unity, or at least, spiritual Jotuzon unity.

[coochiequeens]

Since that post about Martha Gellhorn is popular here's a post about another writer who is more interesting than Hemingway.

Dawn Powell on the beach, circa 1914.

Tim Page, the Estate of Dawn Powell

This is the third story in The Unmarked Graveyard: Stories from Hart Island series from Radio Diaries. You can listen to the next installment on All Things Considered next Monday, and read and listen to previous stories in the series here.

Dawn Powell infiltrated the writing world by hanging out in bars and taverns around New York's Greenwich Village in the 1920s, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Edmund Wilson.

"She came from nowhere, she was no one," writer Fran Lebowitz told Radio Diaries.

But Powell had a voice. She had style. And she rose from obscurity by turning her gaze on the city of New York itself and its cast of characters. Over the coming decades, Powell wrote novels, diaries and more than a dozen plays — earning her renown, and even a National Book Award nomination.

Then, in 1965, she died. What happened next didn't go according to script.

A voice lost to the world

Powell had been clear in her will: she wanted her body to be donated to the Weill Cornell Medical Center for research. Yet five years after her death, when Cornell asked her executor, Jacqueline Rice, what to do with her remains, Rice left the decision up to the center.

So, unbeknownst to her family and friends, Powell was buried on New York's Hart Island — America's largest public cemetery. Then, all of her work went out of print.

A generational talent of New York was buried in its heart, but lost to the world and those who knew her.

Powell circa 1930, and an entry in her diary circa 1914.

Tim Page, the Estate of Dawn Powell

Hart Island, located off the coast of the Bronx, has no headstones and no plaques. It's often seen as a place for those who went unrecognized in their lifetime — not for well-known writers.

Powell had been writing stories since she was a child. Growing up in Ohio, she endured considerable emotional abuse from her stepmother and often used writing as an escape. In 1918, she left Ohio for New York City, with dreams of being a writer.

"She knew that she was smart enough, good enough to be very good in New York, which is the most competitive place in the world," Lebowitz said.

Powell's humble beginnings in the bars of Greenwich Village turned into a career. In the coming years, she wrote witty pieces on New York life for magazines like The New Yorker and Esquire. Her career picked up steam when she began writing novels about New York: satirical, risque fiction about people who'd come to the city from a small town and indulged in its joys and vices. Her most well known novels include A Time to Be Born (1942) and The Wicked Pavilion (1954).

"She was a very smart, tough, sarcastic, woman who put all of that into her books," said Tim Page, a critic and author of Dawn Powell: A Biography. "She made fun of millionaires and communists. She basically thought human beings were silly and frivolous, but she loved them."

Powell's writing reflected her personal life. Her characters were often young people who ached for success and recognition, but rarely got it. Though her work was in the public eye (her last novel, The Golden Spur, was a finalist for the 1963 National Book Award), she did not reach the level of fame of other writers, male or female, in her era.

"Some critics thought she was mean," Page said. "All the very famous women writers were usually ending their stories with a man and a woman falling in love and living happily thereafter. Dawn had seen enough of life to realize, well, sometimes that's the case but it's not what usually happens in the world."

Powell's diary, December 1932.

Tim Page, the Estate of Dawn Powell

Powell struggled with money for much of her life. She and her husband, Joseph Gousha, had a disabled son who needed costly medical care. By the end of her life, she also needed medical care of her own. She developed intestinal cancer, which led to her death.

While her will was specific about her body going to the Weill Cornell Medical Center, it didn't specify what to do with her body after its donation. In addition to being Powell's general executor, Jacqueline Rice was also her literary co-executor, largely responsible for her literary estate. When her client died, Rice simply stopped responding to inquiries from publishers and filmmakers. It was some time before Rice told Powell's family about where she had ended up.

Years later, Powell's great-niece Vicki Johnson was told by her mother about the burial on Hart Island, also known as a Potter's Field.

"My mom told me it was a Potter's Field, and it was just a place where people are buried who didn't have any money or no family to take care of them," Johnson said. "My grandparents would have certainly found a better resting place for her than where she was buried."

The effort to bring Powell's work back

Powell isn't the only well-known person buried on Hart Island. There's former child actor Bobby Driscoll, who starred in some of the most iconic Disney films of the time, like Treasure Island and Peter Pan — and even won a Juvenile Oscar by the age of 13.

Driscol fell into a pattern of substance abuse and run-ins with the law in his teenage years, ranging from drug smuggling to assault. He was found dead in his Greenwich Village apartment at 31. When no one claimed his body, he ended up on Hart Island.

The cemetery is also home to Rachel Humphreys — the muse and lover to Lou Reed, and the inspiration for several songs on his album Coney Island Baby. Though her official cause of death remains unknown, Humphreys died at the age of 37 at St. Clare's hospital, known for housing AIDS patients. Hers was among the many bodies sent to Hart Island during the AIDS epidemic.

Johnson and others insist Powell wouldn't have minded being buried at Hart Island.

"I think she'd be a little amused by the fact that she's buried with a Disney star and a rock and roller," Page said. "She loved New York. She told the truth about New York and I'm not sure she'd want to be anywhere else."

Dawn Powell circa late 1940s, early 1950s.

Tim Page, the Estate of Dawn Powell

Though Powell's descendants have chosen not to remove her body from Hart Island, there has been a considerable effort to unbury her work. In 1987, her writer and friend, Gore Vidal, published an article in The New York Review of Books, praising Powell as one of American literature's lost greats. The article ignited interest in Powell in the writing world.

Steerforth Press also published a volume of Powell's diaries, edited by Page, in 1998. The Library of America put nine of her novels back in print in 2001.

These days, Powell has gained a cult-like following. Celebrities like Julia Roberts and Anjelica Huston have tried turning her books into films, and she's gotten a shout-out on the TV show Gilmore Girls.

"There will come a time when people will realize that she's one of America's greatest writers," Page said.

This story was produced by Mycah Hazel of Radio Diaries. It was edited by Deborah George, Ben Shapiro and Joe Richman. Thanks also to Nellie Gilles, Alissa Escarce, and Lena Engelstein of Radio Diaries.

This story is the third in a series called The Unmarked Graveyard: Stories from Hart Island. You can find other stories from Hart Island on the Radio Diaries Podcast.

[arwainian]

Reading This Week 2024 #31

hello hello! I listened to a Lot of audiobooks this past week, to the point where I'm like "that can't be right. i can't have read that much" but i did. i in fact Mostly read this week because i didn't have many other plans, but i accomplished something fun, which was reading the additional chapters of some academic texts i read a portion of for school reasons last year

Finished:

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle, audiobook read by Mara Wilson follows a girl in a sort faux-Mormon Christian cult who is being haunted by a demon that punishes her for thinking gay thoughts. it got it's job done, but personally, since I already had my Big Gay Feelings about leaving the church, and felt those very viscerally, I always find myself pretty much ambivalent to fiction that is trying to tell that story? i already lived that so anything that puts it down on page just doesn't live up to the experience

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu, audiobook read by James Yaegashi I liked where the experimental style of this went around the middle, with large blank pages and long footnotes. sort meh on it otherwise but its did its "introspective scifi about having to live your own life" job just fine

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo, read by Cindy Kay cool to check this out a few years after all the hype for it, the fictional history it tells makes your heart ache

Extravagant Abjection: Blackness, Power, and Sexuality in the African American Literary Imagination by Darieck Scott I think I got the most for my work out of the sections I read last year, but it was good to get the context of the rest of the book to see what Scott is arguing as a whole work

Nimona by N.D. Stevenson wow! Stevenson's art just harmonizes so perfectly with the story he's telling here

"Theorizing Yes: An Essay on Feminism, Law, and Desire" by Katherine M. Franke in Feminist and Queer Legal Thory: Intimate Encounters, Uncomfortable Conversations edited by Martha Albertson Fineman et al.

The Appeal by Janice Hallett, audiobook read by Daniel Philpott, Aysha Kala, Rachel Adedeji, & Sid Sagar such a fun ride! I read this on a recommendation from some dear friends and I'm very glad I did. Absolutely sings in audiobook format so I accidentally dedicated a whole day to it... whoops! it was great tho and I'm excited to check out Hallett's other mysteries

The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists by Naomi Klein, audiobook read by Erin Bennett

Saga, Chapter Sixty-Seven written by Brain K. Vaughn, illustrated by Fiona Staples I just so happened to go to two comicbook stores the day after this issue released, completely unaware that it was back from it's short hiatus. so excited to see more of the character from the last page

Blooming Into You, Vol. 1 by Nakatani Nio, translated by Jenny McKeon what an interesting approach to a lesbian love story. insta-love for the older girl, slow burn for the younger

"The Impossibility of Feminism" by Andrea Long Chu

Side Affects: On Being Trans and Feeling Bad by Hil Malatino, audiobook read by the author also an academic work i was finishing after reading a few chapters last year. when i read it last year i was a little "hmm i dont think this feeling is as trans specific as it is being made out to be" but i think the other chapters make a better arguments for these bad trans feelings

Started/Ongoing:

Foucault, Feminism, and Sex Crimes: An Anti-Carceral Analysis by Chloë Taylor

Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg (mostly just found the point I had read up to for school a few years back)

[fetchmearum420]

1776 characters playing FNAF:

John Adams: he punches the computer when he gets jumpscared

Benjamin Franklin: knows every single piece of lore there is and has beaten every game 5+ times

Thomas Jefferson: jumpscares don’t phase him at all

John Dickinson: doesn’t understand that he needs to stop having the doors closed the whole time

John Hancock: gets one jumpscare and starts sweating and complains about the heat

Stephen Hopkins: accidentally spills rum all over his laptop after being jump scared

Charles Thomson: plays one night and never plays again

James Wilson: has genuine nightmares for weeks after playing

Richard Henry Lee: tries to befriend the animatronics

Lyman Hall: claims he’ll never play but he secretly plays on his iPad every night in bed

Col. Thomas McKean: shoots his musket at the computer every time he gets scared

Caesar Rodney: a jump scared lands him in the hospital (but he ends up recovering like a bad ass and beating all the games)

George Read: sobs the whole time

Roger Sherman: calls every animatronic “brother”

Samuel Chase: claims the game isn’t scary but he has panic attacks over the game in private

Lewis Morris: abstains courteously from playing

Josiah Bartlett: doesn’t play because he thinks the game is for kids

Joseph Hewes: is too busy fishing to play

Robert Livingston: plays with his kids

John Witherspoon: prays for the souls of the 💀 kids who were stuffed into the suits

Abigail Adams: the best at the game. Knows every secret to playing the games

Martha Jefferson: faints every time she gets jump scared

Andrew McNair: yells “sweet Jesus” every 10 seconds

Courier: knows all the cheats

[nevermindirah]

choose between my babies!?!

make a poll with five of your all time favorite characters and then tag five people to do the same. see which character is everyone's favorite

thank you @sindirimba for tagging me! I'm tagging @laviejaguardia @gaal-dornick @hazelnut-rosewater-pomegranate @mrsd-writes @mongoose-bite

can you tell I like traumatized paragons 😭