#construction!arthur chronicles

[panic-at-the-fiction]

Masterlist

Stories I have written, characters I will write for. If you think the names are cringy you try naming stuff. It’s hard.

Smut🔥

*Series

Prompts list

Stranger Things

Steve Harrington

Drive In🔥

Road Trip

Pizza girl

Eddie Munson

The Death of You

Jonathan Byers

Jump, Then Fall

Vampire Diaries

Kol Mikaelsons

*Hello Darling🔥

Elijah Mikaelson

*Family

*Till Death do us Part

Stefan Salvatore

Jeremy Gilbert

Missing You

Supernatural

Dean Winchester

Various and Sundry Villains

Jack Kline

Reunions

Sherlock

Sherlock Holmes

Merlin

Merlin

Arthur Pendragon

The Irregulars

Billy

You shouldn’t easdrop

I care for you

Big Time Rush

Kendall Knight

One Good Love Song

Once Upon a Time

Jefferson Hatter

True Loves Kiss

The X-men

Peter Maximoff

*1973

*1983

New in Town

Haunted House

Alex Summers

Tattoos🔥

Le t’s Talk about Cuba🔥

Scott Summers

Charles Xavier

Eric Lensher

The Hunger Games

Finnick Odair

Yes they are all bad puns, no I will not be taking constructive criticism right now, only more ideas.

Oh dear

Oh dair he is

The Finnick games

Fic-nnick

Star Wars

Filthy Headcannons🔥

Part one

Part two

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Din Djarin

This is that Way

Anakin Skywalker

Marvel

Any of the hot ones. I’m not gonna type all of their names out if I don’t even have any stories for them yet.

DC

The Flash

Julian Alberts

The office jerk

The Chronicles of Narnia

Peter Pevensie

Adults🔥

Edmund Pevensie

Prince Caspian

Vox Machina

Percy De Rolo

Cowboy like me pt1

Cowboy like me pt 2

Vax’ildan

[fantasybooktournament]

my very biased favoirtes (tm)

kingkiller chronicle baby!! ive been obsessed with this series for half my life now and ive written essays on it for fun. it is deeply special to me.

the tortall books esp the song of the lioness was one of the first books i read on my own that my mom hadnt read. these are my ultimate comfort books and influence the fantasy i read after.

graceling realms by kristin cashore (well the first three at least) is a series i can read over and over. i love the magic system and how it's tied to themes. the main characters are complicated and dynamic, the romances are beautiful .. . absolutely amazing.

the gilded wolves by roshani chokshi is a puzzle book, a historical fantasy. there is a big emphasis on found family, addresses racism and colonialism within europe (esp the upper class), and it is all very cleverly constructed.

legendborn by tracy deonn is worth all the hype is is getting and I hope people continue recognizing its awesomeness. the only book in king arthur canon im attached to. its about grief, it's about legacy, it's about institutional racism, its about parents and children. read for a strong emotional journey, complicated characters, and difficult conversations about king arthur and the united states

in other lands by sarah rees brennan which tbh i read back when it was being published online. perfect for those who love snarky protagonists, commentary on the fantasy genre, you gotta try this book!

the poppy war by rf kuang is one of the few trilogies i have finished in the past few year. its absolutely heart-wrenching. starts as a magic school book, then turns into a magic war book. please look up the trigger warnings beforehand. perfect for those who love epic fantasies tied to historical events.

piranesi by susanna clarke is the strangest book I've read. its not like anything else I've read. you should absolutely try it.

strange the dreamer by laini taylor is beautifully written, clever, and full of amazing themes. i love these characters and worlds and it's very lovely and intense.

elatsoe by darcie little badger is a modern day fantasy and i cannot recommend it enough, it's so clever and kind and theres ghost dogs????

little thieves by margaret owen- my new beloved. this book was written for me, even if the author doesnt know it. sequel comes out in only a few days, perfect time to read it!!

Honorable mentions:

sunshine by robin mckinley- i love robin mckinley's books although this is not my favorite, its a fantastic take on vampires

the bone witch by rin chupeco- amazing world building and beautiful writing, im way overdue to finish the series

nettle and bone by t. kingfisher- a dark, creepy fairy tale feel that has me wanting more from the author

an ember in the ashes by sabaa tahir- another series i absolutely need to finish, has some really interesting morally gray characters.

wayward children by seanan mcguire- these books are so satisfying and i am absolutely the target audience for this series. we love deconstructed portal fantasies

girls made of snow and glass by melissa bashardoust- i will read all fairy tale retellings but this one i bought after because i needed this fantastic version of snow white

the sandsea trilogy by chelsea abdullah- only the first one is out but i am so invested to see where this reimagining of a thousand and one nights goes!

his dark materials by phillip pullman- a classic. your soul is your animal companion. need i say more?

the golem and the jinni by helene wecker- a very recent read but i will be shoving this into peoples hands now. historical fantasy isnt always my jam but when it works, it works.

[z34l0t]

"Dystopias always begin as utopias, and the Chelsea is no different. Though in its current state it bears an unfortunate resemblance to Los Angeles’s Bradbury Building as transfigured in Blade Runner, the Chelsea was originally conceived as a socialist utopian commune. Its architect, Philip Hubert, was raised in a family devoted to the theories of the French philosopher Charles Fourier, who proposed the construction of self-contained settlements that would meet every possible professional and personal need of its inhabitants. After the stock-market crash of 1873, Hubert decided New York was ready for its own Fourierian experiment and devised a plan to build cooperative apartment houses in New York City. Tenants would save money by sharing fuel and services. Hubert’s creations—New York City’s first co-ops—were tremendously successful, and none more so than the Chelsea, which opened in 1884. Keeping with Fourier’s philosophy, Hubert reserved apartments for the people who built the building: its electricians, construction workers, interior designers, and plumbers. Hubert surrounded these laborers with writers, musicians, and actors. The top floor was given over to 15 artist studios. Hudson River School paintings hung in the common dining rooms, and the hallways and ceilings were decorated with natural motifs. At 12 stories, the Chelsea was the tallest building in New York."

[...]

"In its last half-century, the Chelsea was run as an informal artists’ colony. Artists traded paintings for rent, or lived for free, subsidized by the exorbitant rates paid by the troubled children of the hyper-rich—another demographic that has historically been drawn to the hotel. Tourists from all over the world paid for cheerless rooms and the opportunity to sit in the moldering lobby and gawk. The curator of this living museum, the gatekeeper responsible for deciding who should be allowed admittance and for how much, was Stanley Bard. His father, David, had been one of three partners who bought the declining hotel in 1943; Stanley assumed management in the early 1970s. An institution himself, he’s been called everything from “the best loved landlord in history” to “the biggest starfucker of all time.” But six years ago, he was forced out by the heirs of the other two ownership families, who wanted to sell the hotel against his wishes, and two years ago the Chelsea sold to the real-estate magnate Joseph Chetrit for approximately $80 million. Chetrit, who refused to talk to the press, has recently sold the property to King & Grove, a boutique-hotel chain, which is currently overseeing a $40 million renovation."

"So far, the promised “re-invention” of the Chelsea has not gone well. Some of the building’s remaining tenants, alleging that Chetrit had tried to bully them into vacating their apartments, filed a lawsuit alleging hazardous living conditions and intimidation. The tenants’ efforts drew the support of former residents, architectural historians, and local politicians. That suit settled two weeks ago, but the building still resembles a construction site, and tenants who did not receive a settlement complain that little has changed. I set out to chronicle its history in the words of those who have lived, worked, caroused, and died there. This is the story of the Chelsea Hotel as told by its past and future ghosts."

[queenxxxsupreme]

For more Construction Arthur, he and his s/o have a kid (for context I used to do this when my dad went to work but he worked for an auto body shop)

His kid wakes up early like he does but they sneak to the living room and sit on the couch but very sleepy. Arthur comes in to get his boots when he notices his kid on the couch. He gently picks them up so they can sleep with Arthur’s s/o. His kid wants to go to work with him but Arthur says when they are older. He puts them in the bed and lets them sleep.

A/N: OMG I absolutely loved this prompt!!!! It was so cute and so fun to do!! I might have added more to it but I hope you like it nonetheless!! This is my first actual construction!Arthur fic :)

Arthur groaned as he heard the painfully familiar sound of his alarm going off. He turned over with the intention of sleeping just a few more minutes. But a foot rubbed against his shin, urging him to wake up. Then there was a hand on his arm, weakly rocking him back and forth.

“Bear?” You groaned in your sleepy state.

“Hmm. What, pumpkin?”

“The sound is going to wake the kids.”

Arthur blindly reached over to turn the alarm off, successfully finding the button on his third attempt. He was still for a few moments, listening for the sound of movement anywhere in the house. But all was silent.

“What’s on your plate for today?” He turned onto his back and rubbed his eyes. He let out a yawn as he forced himself to open his eyes and stare at the ceiling above. If he kept his eyes shut, he was sure to drift off to sleep again.

“Cleaning the house. Charles and Lucy are comin’ over for dinner. Remember?”

“Ah, yeah.”

“Abigail said that her and John might come over too with the kids.” You shifted around on the bed so that your back was to him.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doin’?” Arthur propped himself up on one elbow and leaned over to kiss at the back of your neck.

“I am trying to go back to sleep, Mr. Morgan! Will you quit it?” You giggled, trying to push him away. Your attempt was weak and pointless, though you weren’t really trying to stop him.

You rolled over on to your back. This put you directly against his body. With Arthur still being propped up on one elbow, he could lean down over you.

“Shhh, pumpkin.” He chuckled, putting his finger over his lips. “Don’t wanna wake the baby.”

“You need to get ready for work before you end up late.” You placed your hand on his chest as he tried to lean down for a kiss.

“How about I just don’t go in today? Maybe spend the day with you instead?” Arthur took your hand from his chest and kissed the underside of your thumb and then the inside of your wrist.

“Then I’d never get to cleanin’.” You tugged your hand away from his lips and grunted as you turned over on to your side so that your back was, once again, to him. “It’s far too early for you to be making reckless decisions, bear.”

“Oh, I don’t think so.” He snickered. “But, if the missus says so then I reckon I can’t go against her word.”

“Wise choice.”

“I’ll come back to give ya a kiss before I leave.” He promised you as he clambered out of bed.

***

A little while later, Arthur Morgan shrugged into a jacket as he walked out into the living room. He was about to cross the room to get his boots when something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention.

Sitting up on the sofa was the eldest of the two Morgan children, Henry. Though he was sitting up, he was dozing off with his head propped up by one little fist underneath his chin.

Arthur shook his head as he approached his son.

“Charles Henry.” He scolded softly, kneeling down in front of the boy. Henry jolted and blinked a few times before bringing his hand up to rub his eyes. “What are you doin’ out of bed at four in the mornin’, little man?”

“I wanna go to work with you, daddy.” He yawned.

A smile tugged at the corners of Arthur’s mouth.

“Sweet boy.” He scooped Henry ip into his arms and began to take him to his own bedroom. “When you’re older, little man. You’ve still got some growin’ to do.”

“Daddy! No!” Henry whined and wriggled in his father’s arms, flailing his arms about.

“Come on now, Henry.” Arthur stopped in the hallway. He didn’t want Henry’s sleepy tantrum to wake up his sister or draw you out of bed.

Arthur placed Henry on his feet, keeping one hand on Henry’s shoulder as he knelt down to be at the four-year-old’s height.

“Now you know a little fella can’t come build things until he’s all big and grown. He needs all his muscles. He needs to be able to lift heavy things and to drive the tractors and things. Little fellas can’t reach the pedals, and that ain’t safe.”

Henry frowned, his bottom lip puckering out to show just how sad and displeased he was.

“Tell you, little man.” Arthur looked down the hall in the direction of the bedroom he shared with you. “Maybe one of these days I can bring you to work and show you around for a little bit. How does that sound?”

“Okay.” Henry nodded his head, bringing his hand up to rub his eye.

“Good. Now let’s get you to bed.” Arthur picked him up and rubbed his back. “‘Sides, if we’re both gone, who’s gonna help momma take care of Daisy?”

As Arthur pushed the door to the room he shared with you open with his shoulder, Henry looked around the room.

At the foot of the king-size bed was Carson, the family dog. He didn’t lift his head, but he wagged his tail at the sight of the father and son.

“You wanna lay in here with momma and Daisy?” Arthur quietly asked Henry, who nodded his head.

Arthur had expected you to be awake since you had woken up with him earlier, but you were sound asleep on your side of the bed.

He placed Henry down on his side of the bed and held the blankets up so the little boy could snuggle underneath them and get closer to his mother.

“Be good for momma today, little man.” Arthur leaned down on to the bed, tucking in the side of the blanket that was towards him.

“I’m always good.” Henry giggled.

“I know.” Arthur smiled proudly. “I love you, little man.”

“I love you too, daddy.”

Quietly, Arthur moved back around to your side of the bed. He kissed your cheek and brushed some of your hair out of your face. Next, he moved on to six-month-old Daisy Jane. The side of her crib was lowered, making it possible for Arthur to kiss her forehead and brush his fingertips over the back of her tiny hand.

“Love you, sweetpea.”

Knowing he could spend all day standing over her, watching her and admiring her, Arthur forced himself to leave. He put the side of her crib back into place and made his way out of the room.

He needed to get to work.

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[beardofkamenev]

“Thys is the Rownde table of Kyng Arthur” — The Round Table at Winchester Castle

“Thys is the rownde table of kyng Arthur” begins the inscription at at the centre of the expansive object, suspended high in the Great Hall of Winchester Castle. The object — a tabletop 18 feet in diameter, originally about three-quarters of a tonne in weight — is a familiar reference point in Arthuriana. From the late Middle Ages, it attracted the attention of a range of chroniclers, courtiers, poets, scholars, and publicists. It was mentioned by the English printer William Caxton in his preface to Malory’s La Morte d’Arthur (1485) as one of the great English monuments that verified the historical existence of Arthur.

Arthur’s imperial associations played a fundamental role in his legend since the 12th century, when Geoffrey of Monmouth described Arthur’s “dreams of a promise that his descendants will be sovereigns of the whole world.” The original table may have been constructed at Winchester in the 1270’s at the behest of Edward I following his conquest of Wales and his ambitions for the conquest of all Britain. The Table may have been hung in the Great Hall in the mid-fourteenth century by Edward III, as his plans for a new Round Table fellowship at Windsor evolved into the founding of the Order of the Garter.

The Table gained further significance over a century later upon the birth of Henry VII’s eldest son, Prince Arthur, on 19 September 1486. Claiming descent from Arthur via Britain’s eponymous founder, Brutus of Troy, Henry saw to it that the birth and the christening of his heir would take place at Winchester, where King Arthur’s own Round Table was located. It was later painted over for the first time in the early sixteenth century by Henry VII’s successor, Henry VIII.

At the centre of Henry VIII’s Table is the composite Tudor Rose: an expression of national consolidation and the unity of the houses of York and Lancaster, personified by Henry VIII himself.

The array of expanding green and white band bands — the Tudor livery colours — is dominated by the imposing figure of Arthur, with one hand possessing a sword and the other controlling an orb of sovereignty. Notably, not only is Arthur portrayed wearing a contemporary imperial crown on his head, but the very face of Arthur resembles that of Henry VIII himself. By invoking his authoritative royal predecessor, Henry attempted to legitimise his rule and his drive for imperial power.

The Table had its detractors, to be sure. In 1534, the same year that the Act of Supremacy was passed cementing England’s split from Rome, the Urbino-born humanist Polydore Vergil published his Anglica Historia. It gave a critical reading of British history, shedding doubt on the Brutus foundation myth and considerably down-playing Arthur’s historical significance. 

Whatever its relation to an elusive King Arthur, the Winchester Round Table has for hundreds of years been a fixture of the Arthurian establishment.

Sources: Jon Whitman, ‘National Icon: The Winchester Round Table and the Revelation of Authority,’ Arthuriana Vol. 18, No. 4 (2008); Mary Bateman, ‘“The Native Place of that Great Arthur”: Foreignness and Nativity in Sixteenth-Century Defences of Arthur’ in Arthurian Literature XXXV (2020); David Carlson, ‘King Arthur and Court Poems for the Birth of Arthur Tudor in 1486’, Humanistica Lovaniensia Vol. 36 (1987)

[rockislandadultreads]

Dune Readalikes: Science Fiction, Space Operas, & Mysticism

Nova by Samuel R. Delany

These are [at least some of] the ways you can read NOVA: as a fast-action farflung interstellar adventure; as archetypal mystical/mythical allegory (in which the Tarot and the Grail both figure prominently); as modern myth told in the S-F idiom... the reader observes, recollects, or participates in a range of personal experience including violent pain and disfigurement, sensory deprivation and overload, man-machine communion, the drug experience, the creative experience - and inter-personal relationships which include incest and assassination, father-son, leader-follower, human-pet, and lots more! The balance of galactic power in the 31st century revolves around Illyrion, the most precious energy source in the universe. The varied and exotic crew who sign up with Captain Lorq van Ray know their mission is dangerous, and they soon learn that they are involved in a deadly race with the charismatic but vicious leader of an opposing space federation. But they have no idea of Lorq's secret obsession: to gather Illyrion at the source by flying through the very heart of an imploding star.

Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio

Hadrian Marlowe, a man revered as a hero and despised as a murderer, chronicles his tale in the galaxy-spanning debut of the Sun Eater series, merging the best of space opera and epic fantasy. It was not his war. On the wrong planet, at the right time, for the best reasons, Hadrian Marlowe started down a path that could only end in fire. The galaxy remembers him as a hero: the man who burned every last alien Cielcin from the sky. They remember him as a monster: the devil who destroyed a sun, casually annihilating four billion human lives--even the Emperor himself--against Imperial orders. But Hadrian was not a hero. He was not a monster. He was not even a soldier. Fleeing his father and a future as a torturer, Hadrian finds himself stranded on a strange, backwater world. Forced to fight as a gladiator and into the intrigues of a foreign planetary court, he will find himself fight a war he did not start, for an Empire he does not love, against an enemy he will never understand.

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Here is the magical legend of King Arthur, vividly retold through the eyes and lives of the women who wielded power from behind the throne. A spellbinding novel, an extraordinary literary achievement, THE MISTS OF AVALON will stay with you for a long time to come....

The Abyss Beyond Dreams by Peter F. Hamilton

The year is 3326. Nigel Sheldon, one of the founders of the Commonwealth, receives a visit from the Raiel—self-appointed guardians of the Void, the enigmatic construct at the core of the galaxy that threatens the existence of all that lives. The Raiel convince Nigel to participate in a desperate scheme to infiltrate the Void. Once inside, Nigel discovers that humans are not the only life-forms to have been sucked into the Void, where the laws of physics are subtly different and mental powers indistinguishable from magic are commonplace. The humans trapped there are afflicted by an alien species of biological mimics—the Fallers—that are intelligent but merciless killers. Yet these same aliens may hold the key to destroying the threat of the Void forever—if Nigel can uncover their secrets. As the Fallers’ relentless attacks continue, and the fragile human society splinters into civil war, Nigel must uncover the secrets of the Fallers—before he is killed by the very people he has come to save.

[conradmcguire]

The Mark Twain House and Museum

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, famously known as Mark Twain, is one of America’s most iconic 19th-century novelists. Because of his long-standing popularity, readers and admirers of his works have made trips to sites in the country that influenced his writing. Samuel Clemens grew up in Hannibal, a small town in the northern region of Missouri, just beside the Mississippi River. According to the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum, the writer was born close to Florida, Missouri, although he resided in Hannibal with his family until he turned 17. The author’s formative years in the Midwest are chronicled in the museum’s several buildings, which are open to the public. Additionally, a nearby museum holds several important documents and artifacts relevant to Mark Twain’s career. Samuel Clemens married Olivia “Livy” Clemens in 1870, and a year later, he and his wife relocated to Hartford, Connecticut. Until the couple was ready to build their own house, they leased residences in New England. They hired a New York Architect to create their Hartford Home in 1873, according to The Mark Twain House & Museum. The Mark Twain House & Museum was completed in 1874. It was intended to be a home for the author and his family, but financial difficulties and the loss of their children forced them to abandon it and move to Europe. The Neo-Gothic home was completed in 1873 when Clemens was at the height of his literary fame and fortune. The exterior of the large estate home was intricately detailed, with a gabled roof and picketed red spokes across the broad porch. The house's interior had quarters for his wife and all of their children and various luxurious spaces. The interior was created with Clemens’ help and featured an unusual interior arrangement. The home was also said to be made to seem like a riverboat, though this is not very obvious. Clemens wrote several of his most famous works while residing in the home, including the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. His years in Connecticut were among his happiest, although they were unfortunately short-lived. Clemens and his family moved to Europe in 1891 after losing a large sum of money in a bad printing press investment. When their fortunes changed again, and they could return, Livy Clemens refused to return to Connecticut because the memory of their lost daughter was too much for her. As a result of this, the mansion was sold. The mansion is now a national landmark, and it has been restored by The Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The house has been restored to the grand state it was in when the Clemens family lived there. During the restorations, a museum was constructed, allowing visitors to learn about the author and walk in his footsteps. House tours show visitors most of the rooms in the house. The library is arguably the most noteworthy part of the house. Clemens is supposed to have shared stories and read poems for his friends and family in the library. The Billiard Room, which functioned as the author’s office and a study, is also open to the public. Many of the well-known works of Mark Twain were written in this room.

[asfaltics]

and yet we went on reading

  Flim, sb. Obs. Sc[otch]. A whim; an illusion.       1   in the manufactory of these flimsy things       2 had hung a basket of fodder underneath for these flimsy things       3                                                 Poor indeed are their prospects of continued protection, if they rest upon these flimsy things alone.       4   will you never learn to choose good, useful, lasting articles, instead of these flimsy things that do good to no one, and that a breath       5 took hold of these flimsy things, Oh!       6 the discomfort, the positive misery of these flimsy things       7   wretchedly printed on bad paper, with few or no literary expenses, these flimsy things drag on       8 “These flimsy things don’t last long, they soon break,” said he. “Of course they do!” declared Madame Guibal, with an air of indifference. “I’m tired of having mine mended.”       9 In all her looks the words we see, These flimsy things are not for me And I with them do not agree.       10   of these flimsy things       11       the ice floes ran in under and cut out these flimsy things.       12                         about 12 inch in being evident that these flimsy things are depth, which projects over the top of the difficult       13                           He knew “Well, it’s a good deal warmer than when to leave a man unhindered and to these flimsy things” he said, lifting the       14 attempt to hit some of these flimsy things, you will put your screwdriver through them.       15 You undertake to fix some of these flimsy things and you put a screw driver into them and they go to pieces.       16   You undertake to fix some of these flimsy things and you put a it in the same condition although I know       17                                                                         Lucy gave her skirts a toss “I am getting tired of these flimsy things, and am trying to wear them out”       18 “I must get some more,” he said, “stronger than these flimsy things.”       19   First of all, I know now what it means to travel “light.” These flimsy things       20 These letters, these unintelligible flowers, these bits of lace and of paper, what are they? Around these flimsy things what is there left ?   And yet we went on reading. But something strange is growing gradually greater...       21 “Why, if I put these flimsy things on now they’d be in holes before I ...”                                                                                     Thorough Young Lady enters. Thorough Young Lady — “Good morning... I’d like a dozen”       22   They had seen it as a whim, Agnes knew; a flimsy, floating thing which scientists might examine under a microscope. But if that were what it was she was full of them.       23  

sources (all but the last pre-1923)

1 Joseph Wright (1855-1930), The English dialect dictionary (London, 1898) vol. 2 : 405 2 OCR cross-column misread (on forged bank notes, and banks), at The Black Dwarf (“A London weekly publication, edited, printed, and published by T.J. Wooler”; January 13, 1819) : columns 21-22 “The Black Dwarf (1817–1824) was a satirical radical journal... published by Thomas Jonathan Wooler, starting in January 1817 as an eight-page newspaper, then later becoming a 32-page pamphlet. It was priced at 4d a week until the Six Acts brought in by the Government in 1819 to suppress radical unrest forced a price increase to 6d. In 1819 it was selling in issues of roughly 12,000 to working people such as James Wilson at a time when the reputable upper-middle class journal Blackwood’s Magazine sold in issues of roughly 4,000 copies.” wikipedia on Thomas Jonathan Wooler (1786-1853), also see wikipedia 3 OCR cross-column misread, at “Mrs. Perewinkle’s Visit to Boston,” by “Muhitable Holyoke,” in Frank Leslie’s New Family Magazine 3:2 (August 1858) : 161-167 (162) 4 ex The Chronicle (“An insurance journal”) 10:18 (October 31, 1872) : 274 on the mismanagement of The Globe Mutual Life Insurance Company under Frederick A. Freeman, its president, and/or other members of the Freeman family (including Pliny Freeman). 5 ex Out of the world, by M. Healy vol. 2 (of 3; London, 1875) : 27 asides — this would be Mary Healy Bigot (1843-1936), daughter of the painter George P. A Healy (1813-94 *) A brief entry on Mary Healy is found at A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837-1901; rather more, including an extensive list of her publications (journalism, fiction, translations, &c.) is found at her French wikipedia page — “Mary Healy utilisa le pseudonyme de Jeanne Mairet, mais aussi celui de « Madame Charles Bigot » et de « Mary Healy-Bigot ». On trouve des écrits non seulement publiés en français (souvent par Paul Ollendorff), mais aussi en anglais et en allemand. Elle produisit aussi de nombreuses traductions avec parfois l'aide de sa soeur Edith Healy.” in his autobiography is to be found the reason he (and later his daughter after the death of her husband Charles Bigot (1840-93 *)) would move to Chicago — George P. A. Healy, his Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter (Chicago, 1894) : 57 6 ex Alex(ander). Mackenzie, The Life and Speeches of Hon. George Brown (Toronto, 1882), in Chapter 19, The reform convention of 1867. Resolution of thanks to Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown’s reply : 113 7 ex correspondence to the editor (on the subject of “new restrictions in dress”), by “Freedom,” in The Meteor (“Ed. by members of Rugby School”) 175 (May 18, 1882) : 60 8 ex John Bull’s Neighbor in Her True Light : Being an Answer to some recent French criticisms. By a “Brutal Saxon.” Veluti in Speculum. (Third edition. London, 1884), in Chapter 11, The French Press: its Vanity—Le Temps and London Telegraph contrasted—Des Debats—Le Figaro—Le Clairon—Press Laws—Fear of Actions for Libel—Want of Freedom : 87 9 ex conversation about a fan, in Émile Zola (1840-1902 *), The Ladies’ Paradise : A Realistic Novel (London, 1886) : 74 aside — The novel is set in the world of the department store... (wikipedia) 10 “The Village Wedding,” in Poems by Chas. F(rederick). Forshaw, LL.D. (Bradford, 1889) : 28-33 (30) 11 from Act 2, Scene 4 of John Lesslie Hall (1856-1928) his Judas : A Drama in Five Acts (Williamsburg, Virginia; 1894) : 73 aside — “also known as J. Lesslie Hall, was an American literary scholar and poet known for his translation of Beowulf” (wikipedia); (some) papers at the College of William and Mary 12 ex “He saved others” (from Brotherhood Star), at Herald and Presbyter (“A Presbyterian family paper”) 68:46 (Cincinnati and St. Louis, November 17, 1897) : 15 in full — “When ice was running in the North River at New York, a ferryboat was crushed in, under the water line. An employe was sent down to stop the leak, or hold it until the boat could be run into the slip. Bedding, clothing and anything available were passed to him, but the ice floes ran in under and cut out these flimsy things. The boat reached the dock. Passengers were all hastened ashore. The boat was raised up by chains, so that the break was above the water, but the man did not come up on deck. They hastened below and found a bruised body of an unconscious man, pressed close against the opening. Careful nursing brought back life, but broken health and a disfigured body were his. ‘Even Christ pleased not himself.’” 13 OCR cross-column misread at J. B. Fulton, “Faulty Concrete Construction,” in Fireproof 3:6 (December 1903) : 31-33 (32) 14 ex OCR cross-column misread, at Francis Prevost (H. F. P. Battersby, 1862-1949 *), “The Siege of Sar,” in Ainslee’s (“A magazine of clever fiction”) vol. 12 (January 1904) : 1-44 (22) 15 ex Arthur H. Elliott, “The Gas Range in the Kitchen” In Light, Heat and Power 5:12 (February 1906) : 942-946 (944) self-described as “A monthly magazine devoted to the fields of illumination, and also combustion for producing heat and power, wherein the elements employed are natural, artificial, acetylene, gasolene, or petroleum gases.” 16 ex “The Gas Range in the Kitchen," in report of Elliott paper, in The Metal Worker, Plumber and Steam Fitter (March 3, 1906) : 52 17 same as no.s 14 and 15 above, but OCR cross-column misread, at Arthur H. Elliott, “The Gas Range in the Kitchen,” Progressive Age (Gas-Electricity-Water), 24:4 (February 15, 1906) : 96-99 (97) 97 Paper delivered at the First Annual Convention of the National Commercial Gas Association, held at the Cadillac Hotel, New York City, January 24th and 25th, 1906. 18 ex Mrs. Mary Dudeney. All Times Pass Over (London, 1909) : 75 (snippet view only, but entire at hathitrust) aside — little is found, biographically; author of poems, stories, even songs as Mary Du Deney (BL catalogue); are these of the same Mary? — “A novelty appeared in Judge Allen’s court in the shape of a woman, Mrs. Mary du Deney, who sought solace and mental refreshment in a book while her fate was being decided in a divorce proceeding. After reciting the grounds upon which she sought the divorce, the lady was lost to the world until the Judge cut the knot and she again felt the thrill of single blessedness.” (Los Angeles Herald (23 December 1900) : here); and   ◾ “...Old Lady Was Swaying, Fatal Collision with Cyclist At Bridgwater. Returning a verdict of Accidental Death at the inquest on Thursday on Mrg. Mary Du Deney. aged 85, of 2. Holmes Buildings. St. Mary-street, Bridgwater, who died in the hospital on Tuesday...” (Taunton Courier, and Western Advertiser (20 September 1947) : here) 19 ex William Caine (1873-1925 *), The Devil in Solution, (nicely) Illustrated by George Morrow (London, 1911) : 68 (snippet view only, but opens to same page at hathitrust 20 from this longer passage — “First of all, I know now what it means to travel ‘light.’ These flimsy things which the Japanese make are wonderfully serviceable. For instance, I purchased a silk Japanese raincoat which sheds rain perfectly, and yet when not in use I carry it in the pocket of my light overcoat.” ex “Japanese Milling, and Weather,” in Rosenbaum Review 2:39 (Chicago; September 15, 1917) : 8-10 asides — devoted to grain trade; at some point title changes to The Round-Up; published by the J. Rosenbaum Grain Company; this would be Joseph Rosenbaum (1838-1919), whose interesting life is sketched by Arba Nelson Waterman, in “Historical Review of Chicago and Cook County and Selected Biography," found here   ◾ perhaps more interesting is the editor of Rosenbaum Review (and its successor Round-Up), J. Ralph Pickell (1881-1939? *).   ◾ see, for example — “Senate Asks Jardine of Chicago ‘College’” ¶ Secretary Jarine was asked Friday, June 25, by the Senate to explain his connection with the Roundup College of Scientific Price Forecasting of Chicago. ¶ A resolution making the request was offered by Senator Caraway (Dem. Ark.), and adopted. Caraway said the secretary had accepted appoitment as a member of the faculty of the college to teach students “how to speculate and get around the rules of the grain futures act which he administers.” ¶ The resolution asked the Secretary to state whether his information on grain futures markets was obtained as a result of his official connection with the department of agriculture, and what compensation he has received from the college. ¶ The Roundup College school for price broadcasting [sic, should be “forecasting” ?] was held at the Congress Hotel four weeks ago. Secretary Jardine was announced in publicity as the principal speaker. The school is run by J. Ralph Pickell, listed in the telephone book with offices at 1848 West Washington Boulevard and 328 Ashland Boulevard. It is said, however, that the offices have moved to Western Springs, Ill., near Chicago. ¶ Pickell at the time the school was held, said about 500 students would be in attendance. Each student, he said would pay $50 for the course. ex The Illinois Agricultural Association Record (July 1, 1926) : 3 21 ex chapter 23 (the last) in Henri Barbusse (1873-1935 *), Light (Fitzwater Wray, trans.; 1919) : 301 several scans of the same at hathitrust 22 ex Fashions for Men (this passage) and The Swan (in one volume, subtitled Two Plays by Franz Molnar (both comedies in three acts; English texts by Benjamin Glazer); (Liveright, 1922) : 117 Ferenc Molnár (1878-1952), at wikipedia 23 ex Rachel Cusk, Saving Agnes (1993; Picador 1995) : 2

—

subject to change, corrections, &c.  

[galadrieljones]

Fic Writer Meme

Thanks for the tag @thevikingwoman​! This is a little different than others I’ve done in the past. 

Name: gala. I’m galadrieljones on ao3 as well.

Fandoms: The Walking Dead, Red Dead Redemption 2, The Last of Us, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Dragon Age: Inquisition

Most popular oneshot: “Yours, Sadie Adler.” (RDR2, Arthur x Sadie)

Most popular multichapter: The Lily Farm (RDR2, Arthur x Mary Beth)

Actual worst part of writing: Not being able to just sit down and finish all my WiPs, or really control the direction and concentration of my creative energy. I wish I could finish a project before meaningfully moving onto the next, but that’s rarely the case. I am working on better planning though, like for Magnolia, to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand, or go past my initial plans and ambitions for it. This is how I’ve been waylaid in the past, ie: letting projects blow up and go too long and get too big without enough of an energetic plan for how to find the ending.

How you choose your titles: I like to make my titles part of the story and in some ways a little cryptic or playful, foiling major themes or motifs from the story/chapter in some sort of unexpected way. My favorite title lately is for the chapter in Magnolia called “Bullseye.” There is no mention of a bullseye in the story, but it is a veiled reference to three things: 1.) Daryl is an archer and is also fletching an arrow for a large part of the chapter; 2.) Multiple thematically important references to Target; and 3.) Noah guessing that Daryl is in love with Beth, which hits the nail on the head for both Daryl and the reader. Daryl won’t admit it, but he knows it’s true. Bullseye, Noah!

Do you outline: I try to, now. I don’t make charts or anything, but I do like to plan out a general plot and some anchoring scenes to make the plot feel real and workable many chapters in advance. When I say workable I mean like, sometimes a plot point seems interesting, but then when you get there, it doesn’t make sense in-scene. Sketching out hypothetical scenes in advance is how I reconcile this.

Ideas I probably won’t get around to: There are many, but the biggest one is probably my prequel to The Dead Season and sequel to Teen Wolf, which chronicles Solas and Mythal during The Great War in Arlathan. It would be very Shakespearean and unfold in acts that span about ten years, from the time Solas joins Mythal to save his mother’s life all the way to Ghilan’nain’s betrayal, Mythal’s death, and the construction of the Veil. It would also focus on Solas’s friendship with Abelas and his short, tortured reunion with Ghilan’nain when they’re both like 21 years old. Yeah I’ll mostly likely never write it but a girl can dream.

Callouts @ Me: Focus on one project at a time instead of 2-3. You’ll be happier and way less stressed. Also don’t be afraid of letting go of old WiPs. If a story is meant to find its end, it will. 

Best writing traits: I have always been very fast and very prolific. In terms of the writing itself, I feel good about my ability with pacing dialogue and setting scenes, as well as getting in and out of scenes fairly quickly, also knowing when a scene has gone off the rails, and having the discipline necessary to go back as far as I need to in order to get it back on again. Also I like my symbolist tendencies, like planting big meaning in small places via symbols and descriptive motifs. It makes writing more fun.

Spicy Tangential Opinion: The only dialogue tag you actually need is “said.” All of these posts and all this advice from 11th grade English teachers about how “said is dead” or “said is boring” are wrong. If your dialogue is doing enough work, you do not need descriptive or cumbersome tags to modify it. If you need to modify dialogue, use actions, not tags, or description of something the character sees. Tags should be nearly invisible, there for pacing purposes, and to note who is saying what. Most anything other than “said” is distracting and can serve to break the reader’s immersion. If you want to get better at dialogue, force yourself only to use said. Everything else, put in the dialogue itself, or into the character’s actions and/or observations, and you’ll see what I mean. If you disagree with me, that’s your jam. But know that you will never convince me otherwise!

I’ll tag @salexectria @shallow-gravy @a-shakespearean-in-paris @idrelle @roguelioness @justaconsequence @darylbeth and anyone else who’d like to do this. No pressure! <3

[thetudorslovers]

"Leodogran, the King of Cameliard,

Had one fair daughter, and none other child;

And she was fairest of all flesh on earth,

Guinevere, and in her his one delight."

Guinevere is, in Arthurian legend, the wife of King Arthur. In medieval romances, one of the most prominent story arcs is Queen Guinevere’s tragic love affair with her husband’s chief knight, Lancelot. This story first appeared in Chrétien de Troyes’s Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart and became a motif in Arthurian literature, starting with the Lancelot-Grail of the early 13th century and carrying through the Post-Vulgate Cycle and Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d'Arthur. Guinevere and Lancelot’s betrayal of Arthur preceded his eventual defeat at the Battle of Camlann by Mordred. Guinevere has been portrayed as everything from a weak and opportunistic traitor to a fatally flawed but noble and virtuous gentlewoman. In Chrétien de Troyes’s Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, she is praised for her intelligence, friendliness, and gentility, while in Marie de France’s Lanval (and Thomas Chestre’s Middle English version, Sir Launfal), she is a vindictive adulteress, disliked by the protagonist and all well-bred knights. Early chronicles tend to portray her inauspiciously or hardly at all, while later authors use her good and bad qualities to construct a deeper character who played a larger role. 

[theonyxpath]

Now available in ebook and print from Storytellers Vault: Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras 2!

For millennia, monsters have hunted and fought alongside us… 

Rebellions swell and vampires feed. Casualties of war draw Reapers to blood-soaked battlefields. Gilded ages benefit mortals and monsters alike. 

How? Why? What role do the monsters play with us —- and each other? 

Dark Eras 2 explores 13 new eras scattered throughout the history of the Chronicles of Darkness. Each chapter features two to three game lines which include Vampire: The Requiem, Mage: The Awakening, Hunter: The Vigil, Changeling: The Lost, and more!

The rules in this book are compatible with second edition Chronicles of Darkness. Each terrifying time period and location is examined through the supernatural creatures that dwell there.

Unlock the past. Find out what hides in the shadows. 

Inside, you’ll find: 

Historically inspired settings and story hooks 

Character-creation tips and gameplay advice 

New Tilts, Conditions, and era-appropriate rules 

Because of general quarantine conditions, we wanted to make it easier for you to get the stuff you wanted in order to play your games, so like Dark Eras 1, we also broke out the individual chapters as separate products:

1806 BCE: Hunger in the Black Land (Werewolf: The Forsaken, Promethean: The Created, Beast: The Primordial)

286-226 BCE: The Seven Wonders (Promethean: The Created, Changeling: The Lost)

400-500 CE: Arthur’s Britannia (Vampire: The Requiem, Changeling: The Lost, Hunter: The Vigil)

832 CE: One Thousand and One Nightmares (Vampire: The Requiem, Beast: The Primordial)

1337-1347 CE: Empire of Gold and Dust (Hunter: The Vigil, Demon: The Descent)

1630-1640 CE: Light of the Sun (Mage: The Awakening, Demon: The Descent, Deviant: The Renegades)

1644-1661 CE: Rise of the Last Imperials (Hunter: The Vigil, Mummy: The Curse)

1608-1698 CE: The Scandinavian Witch Trials (Geist: The Sin-Eaters, Mummy: The Curse)

1716-1717 CE: The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (Mage: The Awakening, Geist: The Sin-Eaters)

1793-1794 CE: The Reign of Terror (Vampire: The Requiem, Mummy: The Curse, Demon: The Descent)

1874 CE: Mysterious Frontiers (Mage: The Awakening, Changeling: The Lost)

1914-1918 CE: The Great War (Werewolf: The Forsaken, Promethean: The Created, Geist: The Sin-Eaters)

1938-1947 CE: Fear and the Golden Promise of Tomorrow (Werewolf: The Forsaken, Deviant: The Renegades)

Also available, last week’s Geist anthology, Death is Not the End, is now available via Amazon for the Kindle and B&N for the Nook!

Sales

Scion: Origin is one of dozens of products available in this COVID-19 charity bundle from DriveThruRPG! Over $600 of product for only $20, with all proceeds going to the World Food Programme!

Indie Press Revolution has a number of great bundle deals up until May 24th, or while supplies last!

Kickstarter Update

Our Technocracy Reloaded Kickstarter for Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition launched last week! We hit our $35,000 goal in just 45 minutes! We’re currently at $145,751, or 416% of our original goal, thanks to our 1,730 backers. Wow!

We’ve hit a bunch of stretch goals already, including:

Technocracy Reloaded ST Screen

Technocracy Player’s Companion: Constructs and Symposiums Expanded, Digital Web 3.0.2, Technomancer’s Toybox 20: Q Division, Unlikely Allies III,

Technocratic Union PDF bundle

Backer T-shirt

Technocracy Digital Wallpaper

Mage20 Cookbook PDF added to rewards

Art of Mage20 PDF added to rewards

Did you miss one of our previous Kickstarters? The following Kickstarted products are still open for preorders via BackerKit:

Scarred Lands: Creature Collection 5e

They Came from Beneath the Sea!: They Came from Beneath the Sea! rulebook

Trinity Continuum: Trinity Continuum: Aberrant

Realms of Pugmire: Pirates of Pugmire

Exalted: Lunars: Fangs at the Gate

Chronicles of Darkness: Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras 2

Chronicles of Darkness: The Contagion Chronicle

Chronicles of Darkness: Deviant: The Renegades

Chronicles of Darkness: Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition

Chronicles of Darkness: Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition

Community Spotlight

The following community-created content for Scarred Lands has been added to the Slarecian Vault in the last week:

Your product could be here! Have you considered creating your own to sell?

The following community-created content for Realms of Pugmire has been added to Canis Minor in the last week:

Your product could be here! Have you considered creating your own to sell?

The following community-created content for Storypath has been added to the Storypath Nexus in the last week:

Scion: Mantles of Washington

Your product could be here! Have you considered creating your own to sell?

[bec-writez]

Chapters: 2/? Fandom: The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare, Shadowhunters, TSC Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Clary/Jace, Alec/Magnus, Izzy/Simon, emma/julian, Mark Blackthorn/Kieran/Cristina Rosales, jem/tessa/will, kit/ty, dru/ash, jocelyn/luke, james herondale/hope lightwoodbane, will herondale/arthur blackthorn-kingson-rosales, charlie herondale/livvy carstairs-blackthorn/ned castel, tessa herondale/eleanor blackthorn-kingson-rosales, sibling relationships - Relationship, Gay Relationships - Relationship, lesbian relationships - Relationship, parent & children relationships, uncle & niece relationships, aunt & niece relationships, uncle & nephew relationships, aunt & nephew relationships, more tags later - Relationship, cousin palatonic relationships, Clace - Relationship, Malec - Relationship, sizzy, jemma, keirarktina, herongarystairs, Kitty - Relationship Characters: Clary Fairchild, Jace Herondale, Alec Lightwood-Bane - Character, Magnus Lightwood-Bane - Character, Isabelle Lightwood, simon lovelace-lightwood, emma carstairs-blackthorn, julian carstairs-blackthorn, Mark Blackthorn, Kieran, Cristina Rosales, Jem Carstairs, Tessa Gray, ghost will herondale, Kit Herondale, ty blackthorn, dru blackthorn-fairchild, ash blackthorn-fairchild, Jocelyn Fairchild, Luke Garroway, charlie herondale - Character, livvy carstairs-blackthorn, ned castel, James Herondale, Hope Lightwood-Bane, Will Herondale, arthur blackthorn-kingson-rosales, tessa herondale, eleanor blackthorn-kingson-rosales, Maryse Lightwood, mina gray-carstairs, Max Lightwood-Bane, Rafael Lightwood-Bane, andrew blackthorn-kingson-rosales, jamie herondale, henry herondale, Céline Herondale, matthew herondale, Ella Herondale, alexa herondale, Sophie Lightwood, robb lightwood, becky lightwood, cordelia carstairs-blackthorn, john carstairs-blackthorn, more to add later - Character Additional Tags: Implied Sexual Content, War, Demons, Shadowhunters - Freeform, Romance, Fighting, Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Wholesome family content, Family Drama, Love, A little angst, Next Gen, takes place after the wicked powers, some bad stuff happend Summary:

hey everyone this is a fic that is about the next gen, i wanted to write a story about the tsc couples current and future children, the characters do not belong to me they belong to their fightful owner cassandra clare and where the series, the clace children and sizzy children and keirarktina children and kitty chidren and the two lightwood-bane daughters and the jemma children, and sorry if this is messy it's my first time writing a fanfic and sorry my grammar is bad, so please bear with me and be nice and constructive criticism is welcome.

[soveryanon]

Reviewing time for MAG145 X_X/

- Aaaaaaaaaand I had considered it but disregarded it immediately, and yet: the episode was (more or less) about Agnes again, so soon /o/

- The biggest reveal in this episode, for me, was probably to learn that The Web actually had a deep connection with the Archives (and the previous Archivist) waaaay before Jon was even born. We know that Jon encountered it as a kid, we know that spiders have been… extremely present around the Archives and Jon during his era – but we didn’t have anything about Gertrude yet, except for the fact that she was apparently working together with Adelard Dekker, who had been able to bind the Not!Them to the Hill Top Road table (and the whole ordeal was Web-y, though that could have been all thanks to the table):

(MAG145) ARTHUR: Alright. Agnes: how’d you do it? Never did understand it, not really. GERTRUDE: Ah. That’s a fair enough question. [PAUSE] It was… The Web. I didn’t know it at the time, of course, and I would call it an accident – but it never is, with them. It’s only after the fact that you can see all the subtle manipulations. I was very new to it all, of course. I mean, I was, what? Can’t have been older than… twenty-five. […] Like I said, mm, I was young. Naïve. I somehow found just the right books, made just the right connections, and even got what I thought was a piece of blind good luck, when I found a tin box in the ashes of Hilltop Road, containing some perfectly preserved cuttings of her hair. Of course, what I thought was a “banishment ritual” turned out… not to be. The circle I constructed was more of a… an invitation. It let the Mother of Puppets bind me to Agnes, interweave our existences at some… metaphysical level, as it had with Fielding and the house. … It was the most painful experience of my life.

Gertrude uses the phrase “Mother of Puppets”, too! Eugene and Peter had used it so far, so it sounds like it’s a term favoured by Avatars-in-the-known? Oliver had also referred to it as a “she”.

- We have a description of a young Archivist, in her 20s, getting pushed by The Web in a specific direction, made to unwillingly serve Her interests, even though it deeply hurt said Archivist.

… which. Sounds like what might be happening to Jon right now, except he didn’t (can’t?) make the connection.

- Gertrude’s description of her researches and how they had been manipulated is also very much reminiscent of… what is happening with Jon, especially in season 4, when he’s pushed towards this or that tape or statement, which was once again the case this episode:

(MAG145) ARCHIVIST: And here? I reached out, I took another tape, eh!, hoping for a bit of guidance, but… [HUFF] To be honest, this hasn’t helped.

We… still don’t know for sure if it’s The Eye guiding him (/something having to do with the fact that he’s The Archivist and the information and statements are his Archives) or The Web. (How many of the statements Jon read in seasons 1 to 3 were actually “sent” to him by The Web, too?) With how The Web made itself transparent in MAG130 (sending one of Gertrude’s tapes covered in cobwebs) and how this statement explained how The Web proceeds, I’m… beginning to expect Jon to eventually get a (face-to-face) visit from Annabelle Cane or a Web-related person? It sounds like these bits are supposed to introduce Jon to the idea that yes, The Web has Her eyes on him, too, and yes, is monitoring him, and yes, has plans for him.

- … But then: Gertrude experienced The Desolation through her binding to Agnes. And The Web encouraged Jon to find an “anchor” to go inside the coffin, where he experienced The Buried, and potentially got Martin to lead him out. Even back in season 1: it might have been The Web which got Martin to come back to Carlos Vittery’s building a second time (MAG022, Martin: “And then I remembered that I'd seen quite a lot of spider webs in the brief time I was down there, and maybe I should check it out again.” + how he didn’t really think when he crushed the first worm), attracting Jane Prentiss’s attention towards the Archives, and it was a spider which unleashed the attack on the Archives (Jon trying to crush it and discovering the worms behind the wall… when they weren’t completely ready yet). Which means The Web is reaaaaaaaaaally not against having Archivists experiencing the other Fears, and Elias has said that it’s supposed to be the Archivist’s role (MAG092, Elias: “It is your job to chronicle these things, to experience them, whether first-hand or through the eyes of others. To simply be told, well…”).

What is The Web’s stance on The Watcher’s Crown? We know it’s involved in ritual-stopping: Peter highlighted that it prefers the world as is, Gertrude evoked the possibility of The Slaughter’s ritual getting stopped by “spiderwebs”, and there were cobwebs in the wax museum at The Unknowing (+ it sent Jon a tape about how The Flesh had been stopped, and possibly monitored his researches about rituals a bit). From what Peter said, it shouldn’t want a ritual to succeed; yet, if Experiencing The Fears is a must-do for an Archivist… the Web is also contributing to this…?

- And same as Jon, re:Gertrude’s powers!

(MAG145) ARTHUR: Shut it! I don’t have to listen to this! GERTRUDE: Hm! [CHUCKLE] Then, feel free to try and leave. ARTHUR: [BEGINS TO BREATHE HEAVILY] GERTRUDE: Mm! Now. Here’s the problem for you, Arthur. […] “Do I…” what? ARTHUR: Have something for me. So I end up like Eugene. GERTRUDE: [CHUCKLE] Why don’t you try to leave and find out…? ARTHUR: [BREATHING DEEPENING, STRUGGLING] [SILENCE] GERTRUDE: Good~! Now, we can have a proper conversation.

… Arthur needed her permission to leave, but what did she do, at that moment? There wasn’t any static, only a bass sound – was it a plain cosmetic sound-effect, or was Gertrude doing something, perhaps similar to when Jon told Breekon to “stop” back in MAG128? I’m still unsure about the whole thing about “giving orders” and “preventing people from leaving” being a Beholding power since it… feels very active, and it’s about entrapment? And we’ve heard Web-victims mention having no choice but to obey? (Though in The Web’s case, it sounded more subtle and “making you think you’re willing”: Jon and now potentially Gertrude are coercing, violently… although there is the case of regular statements, during which people don’t actually have a choice whether or not to tell their story and aren’t aware of it, except for the woman from MAG142. Even Daisy had rationalised that Jon had probably “caught her in a good mood” in MAG061, before she later realised that she hadn’t been willing.)

… And somethingsomething about how MMMMMMMMMM, there is still the Mystery of why Gertrude recorded the specific statements she did (reading aloud or interviewing) – tape recorders have been explicitly associated with Jon in season 4, and they had been used by Gertrude before, and both of them had been entangled in The Web’s schemes, so MMMMMMM…

- A bit of the conversation between Gertrude and Arthur I’m ? about is that “him upstairs”:

(MAG145) ARTHUR: You’ve never really had to bother with it, have you? You got him upstairs to point the way as often as not, and the rest of the time you’re just figuring out people – or things that used to be people. You never try to talk with that Eye of yours. You never had to second-guess a god.

Was Arthur referring to The Eye or… to Elias? Arthur used “it” to referred to his own god (/“them” for the fears), so the “him” was a bit surprising, and Elias’s office is canonically upstairs compared to the Archives… But at the same time, it would be saying that Elias was giving directions to Gertrude/that they were collaborating at some point, and as much as I had thought about the possibility (Gertrude had also mentioned that she could tell Elias about Mary’s visit, and Mary had bitten back that Elias “wasn’t too big on action”, implying that yeah, Elias&Gertrude… were communicating, at least), that would be Big News in the canon…?

- And Gertrude’s way of not Falling Deep into her patron was apparently because she was a bit of a stoic and not curious enough?

(MAG145) ARTHUR: […] That’s the trouble with overthinking any of this: you ignore your gut. And to my mind, that’s the only part any of Them Beyond… actually care about. They don’t give a toss about your “rules”, or “systems”. They only care about what feels right, what freezes your belly with terror. GERTRUDE: Hm. I rather like to think I’ve managed. ARTHUR: [SCOFF] Yeah. … But you don’t actually care about Them, do you? Not really. You forget, we’ve been watching you a long time, and I know you, Gertrude. You don’t actually care about… the Fears. You’re too practical. All your energy is focused down here, on monsters and… murderers, and all the things doing the dirty work for Them Beyond. You know plenty, sure! But you don’t have that obsession, that stupid urge to try and understand and… classify things that use logic and reality like weapons. GERTRUDE: Hm. Per–perhaps. ARTHUR: [CHUCKLE] Always respected you for that. Takes a strong stomach to not give a shit. GERTRUDE: Eh! You’ll forgive me if I’m not overjoyed at the compliment? ARTHUR: Suit yourself.

1°) And Jon is aaaaall about classifying and understanding, and is currently desperate for Answers at the moment, which. Oops. Very different from Gertrude, indeed. (Who occasionally threw out a few hypotheses here and there, indeed, but was also “practical”.)

2°) And Jon is also Very Afraid overall, even reminded us of that in MAG132 when going in the coffin (“When does the fear go away…?”)

3°) If Gertrude wasn’t letting fear get a hold on her… there is still the matter of Oliver’s dream/prediction, which pictured her as absolutely terrified (MAG011, Oliver: “I saw the face was uncovered. It was your face and the expression upon it was far more fearful than any I had seen in eight years of wandering this twilight city. That was when I awoke.”) – still the good old questions of “what happened around Gertrude’s death”…?

- Hello, it’s Arthur hours, I LOVED HIM… WHAT A TERRIBLE MAN… Voice acting was stellar, so funny, so seething, so… carnivorous? Defeated and yet still harmful, still utterly terrible, although he was able to pinpoint some of his mistakes (notably about how they had raised Agnes and how he was missing her). His rant about theology and Diego, and giving Too Much Information was incredible:

(MAG145) ARTHUR: But I was an idiot. Saw it as… attacking my leadership. Burnt the thing. Diego wasn’t happy. [PAUSE] Well, he’s in charge now! Of all of us that are… left, at least. He can look for the answers in whatever books he likes, no skin off my bones! GERTRUDE: I didn’t actually ask. ARTHUR: [INHALE] Figure if you’re gonna pull this stuff out of me, I, I might as well get some of it off my chest anyway…! Not like I can vent to the others about what a prat Diego is! Got a lot of funny ideas. Still calls The Lightless Flame “Asag”, like he was when he was first researching it. I just want to tell him to get over it – I mean, [FASTER AND FASTER] Asag was traditionally a force of destruction, sure, but as a church, we very much settled on burning in terms of the… face we worship, and some… fish-boiling Sumerian demon doesn’t really match up, does it?! Plus, there’s a lot of disease imagery with Asag that I’ll reckon is… way too close to Filth for my taste, but, but no, he read it in some ~ancient tome~, so that’s that– GERTRUDE: Well, I can’t say I– ARTHUR: –reckons he always knows best, ‘cause he’s read a few books, well. Big. Deal! Way I see it, if a writer can’t even save themselves, they probably don’t have a lot worth knowing! Find me one so-called “expert” on all of this who didn’t end up regretting all of it! […] Found a mass of the Crawling Rot growing, a while back. Managed to get a hold of the property before it became too big. Gotta wait ‘til it blossoms before we can properly burn it. So until then… just playing landlord. It’s alright, I guess. You’d be surprised the misery and pain you can cause, when you have control over someone’s home….! If you’re careful, if you’re smart, you can burn their life to ashes as thoroughly as any fire, and worse comes to worst, you can still do it the old-fashioned way. Had an elderly tenant last year. Oh, [CHUCKLING] she was in a terrible state. I had her trapped, too poor and immobile to do anything but… sit there. Then, I broke her boiler, so the cold started to get her. Not exactly my usual, but… agony is agony. But then, her son and his wife moved in with her to help her out. Not much I could do against that. So I just waited until all three were home, and set the place ablaze. They went up nicely. Screaming all the way as the flames started to reach them. Doors were locked, and handles too hot, so they didn’t have a hope of escape– GERTRUDE: Yes, that’s quite enough, I think. ARTHUR: Oh, I’m sorry. There I was, thinking you liked the gory details! My mistake. GERTRUDE: I think we’re just about done here.

And OUUUCH, the story about the family was incredibly nasty and… really vicious. Describing the story of how he abused and tortured an old woman right in front of Gertrude? Definitely on purpose to try to get at her.

- Diego was once again associated with books, and mmm, I wonder if we’ll get his statement at some point (though we know that Gerry killed him before beginning to work with Gertrude)? Turned out he had actually tried to use childcare books to raise Agnes, which is… still better than the other cultists:

(MAG145) ARTHUR: You might be right. But Agnes did. That’s the thing about an… “incarnation”, isn’t it? She was a child and… person as much as she was a god. And we messed that right up…! … I still remember when Diego brought us a book on childcare. [CHUCKLING] Roger’s body was still in her room, blackened and smoking from… when he tried to feed her. I thought for a moment he’d brought another one of his damn Leitners, but no! It was just a… regular ol’ book on looking after children…! But I was an idiot. Saw it as… attacking my leadership. Burnt the thing. Diego wasn’t happy.

(I wonder if Arthur didn’t take Leitner as the one writing the books, too? Since his later comment (“Way I see it, if a writer can’t even save themselves, they probably don’t have a lot worth knowing! Find me one so-called “expert” on all of this who didn’t end up regretting all of it!”) was also targeted at Diego. Not sure that Leitner had begun to put his seal on the books in the 60s, though, so maybe Arthur retrospectively associated the books to Leitner although they weren’t bearing his name back then?)

- Eugene had it coming, and WOW did it come for him. Gertrude…

(MAG145) GERTRUDE: Oh! I assume you haven’t checked on… Eugene, then? ARTHUR: … What? GERTRUDE: Eugene. Well, whatever his name was, “Vanderbelt” or some such. You sent him to intimidate me a couple of years ago. You must remember? Of course you know him. Used to live in Beckingham, but moved out to that flat in… Ilford, last year. ARTHUR: Yeah. GERTRUDE: Well! He hasn’t been at your “little meetings” the last two weeks, has he…? I suppose no one’s looked into it yet. Not surprising – he seemed a thoroughly unpleasant little man. ARTHUR: Are you… [CLOTHES SHUFFLING] Di– GERTRUDE: Tell you what. Why don’t you make a few calls? [CLATTERING ON THE TABLE] Check it out, and then we can continue our, er, little “discussion”. Alright~? [CLICK.] [CLICK–] GERTRUDE: Well? [CLATTERING ON THE TABLE] ARTHUR: [INHALE] … How did you do it? GERTRUDE: [SCOFF] You don’t need to know that. What you do need to know is I can do it again, if I need to. To you, or… any of your “lackeys”, if I need to. […] ARTHUR: Eugene. It… hurt him. GERTRUDE: [CHUCKLING] Oh, yes. I’m sure your master was delighted with how… awful his death was.

[…] ARCHIVIST: Apparently, he disappeared in late 2009, leaving behind only one thing: a life-sized statue of himself, crafted from candlewax and sawdust. Missing its head. … I wish I didn’t know how painful it must be, to be alive while your whole being is infused with… agonising grit. But, as I was investigating, it… came to me. Eugene is still alive, frozen in place by the razor-sharp particles that are mixed up into what he chose instead of flesh. I don’t know where Gertrude stored his head. But I do know he desperately wants to scream.

AOUCH. 1°) Sarah-the-Anglerfish had left “sawdust” behind her in MAG096, though grit makes me thing of The Buried… Or it could have been a plain regular thing? 2°) hhhh over the fact that Gertrude, who got told that she had been watched BOTH by Arthur-from-the-Desolation and Manuela-from-the-Dark… was shown to absolutely know about them, too, and to be ready to make her moves when needed. 3°) ………………. Some people have pointed out that hum. Thanks to Patreon bonus content: it’s possible that Eugene’s head is actually in the Institute (and we know where, if it is that). (4°) That “delighted” pun… Gertrude… (And Diego used “burning questions” towards her later! Avatars punning about their patrons and others’.))

- Given how Gertrude handled them and talked about them with such disdain (“And you’re all lazy fools! So used to it being easy, to picking off the vulnerable and the unprepared, you can barely conceive of anyone actively working against you. Of being ready.”), she reaaaally despised them and… was that because of their methods in themselves, the glee they take in destruction? Or because the fact that they were the first she really encountered, in her young years, and that had scarred her deeply? Or because she had a childhood encounter with the Desolation even before that and it was exceptionally personal? Jon had The Web, Michael Shelley had The Spiral, Tim (although he was an adult already) had The Stranger + Melanie had The Slaughter (multiple times), Basira&Daisy got multiple stories… lots of people working in the Archives had encountered the Fears before working for the Institute, so maybe it was the case for Gertrude, too?

- I love how “coffeeshop twit” is Jack Barnabas’s official nickname from everyone.

(MAG139, Eugene Vanderstock) “Of course, none of us suspected what was actually going to sink it all. I mean, if you’d told me, I’d have laughed at you. … That stupid coffeeshop twit. I honestly don’t know why Arthur allowed it, or why Jude didn’t step in – she’s usually so jealous!”

(MAG145) ARTHUR: Well, that’s the thing about a fall from grace, innit? Makes you look at things from a… “new angle”. … I miss her. [SCOFF] I’ll tell you that for nothing. Wish I… [PAUSE] I don’t know. I’d actually known her, when she was… alive. Maybe that coffeeshop twit did have a point after all. Could tell you what I saw, at least.

You know that there were sessions of collective ranting about him amongst The Desolation folks, and it stuck.

- Arthur’s personal way of referring to the Fears seem to be “Them Beyond”? He used it twice:

(MAG145) ARTHUR: That’s the trouble with overthinking any of this: you ignore your gut. And to my mind, that’s the only part any of Them Beyond… actually care about. […] All your energy is focused down here, on monsters and… murderers, and all the things doing the dirty work for Them Beyond.

… I found his tirade about the lack of direction and the fact they’re just scrambling around to try to guess their patron’s intent really interesting, but at the same time… presenting their life as So Hard And So Tragic, when they choose to hurt and abuse and torture and kill to feel good and make their patron feel good? Meh. Which is probably why Gertrude, too, was exceptionally unimpressed? Given Oliver’s and Elias’s insistences on choice and free will, I doubt that the bottom line of it is that the Fears change you (“warp you”) into someone else entirely; I think there are still many choices to be made when avataring, and that each victim… is a conscious, deliberate decision?

(… Gertrude’s reaction was also Wow., since, saving the world or not, she herself wasn’t against causing civilian casualties and sacrificing people to achieve her own goals. Maybe that’s the thing with Gertrude, and she thought of herself as the better person since her actions had, in theory, nothing to do with elation, but were about sheer practicality? The way she described the explosion of The Last Feast, however, was… strikingly gleeful. She felt good about hurting avatars and stopping rituals, too.)

- The bits about Agnes were very sad, once again:

(MAG145) GERTRUDE: What was Agnes like? ARTHUR: … What? GERTRUDE: Well, for all The Web bound us together, I never actually met her. What was she like? ARTHUR: I… [PAUSE] I don’t know. Not really. You got as many answers to that as… folks who met her. Never really knew what she felt ‘bout any of it! Not really. Not in her own words. Guess that’s the thing about being the… Chosen One, or… I mean, Agnes was always quiet; but even if you spend all day, every day, throwing out commandments and… laying down parables… At the end of it, you’re always just the… point of someone else’s story. Everyone clamouring to say what you were, what you meant, and… your thoughts on it… all don’t mean nothing.

Agnes is… still a character who was born (/birthed) without a choice. We saw how Gerry had made the most of it, despite his education: he chose to neutralise Leitners, saved civilians here and there even when he was doing it passively. Agnes had never chosen this life, and although Arthur highlighted the fact that there were as many Agnes as people who met her/wanted something from her… I’m really feeling like we’re missing her voice about all of this. She’s a tragic figure, but it would sound a bit off to never have access to her voice, to her thoughts, when all the people describing her so far have been male characters and/or people romantically interested in her (Jack Barnabas, Jude Perry, Eugene, now Arthur).

But, unless she lied, Gertrude never met or discussed with her before she died, so… there probably isn’t any recording of her anywhere. (Unless we could somehow have a tape of Agnes talking with someone else? Ivo Lensik also had visions of a little girl at Hill Top Road before she even died, and we know that the place was messed up: maybe there is still a trace of her left behind, who could speak…?)

(- And YES, OBVIOUSLY, I was “wow.” and welcoming the Agnes/Gertrude as a new Fated By Fears ship. She was calling Gertrude “her anchor”!! They were soulmates!!! The Desolation protected Gertrude to make sure that Agnes wouldn’t suffer from it!! Gertrude was curious about her!!)

(- AND ALSO, YES, OBVIOUSLY, HHHHHHHHHH GERTRUDE HOT WHEN IN CONTROL AND LOOKING DOWN ON AVATARS…)

(- Of course, Arthur’s words about the perception one has of someone… was also very reminiscent of Jon’s whole being…? Though, at the same time, we have a direct access to his voice thanks to the tapes. He can lie, he can dissimulate, he can be a hypocrite… but it will always be a bit more “him” than second-hand accounts.

Presumably.

Because the woman from MAG142 had a very different version of Jon to share, someone we… got a glimpse of in MAG141, but it seems that others Archival characters haven’t noticed a change or that he’s been acting different lately…?)

- !!! So the circle from MAG037 was made by Gertrude, initially to banish Agnes, and in the end a bit modified to alleviate “side-effects”:

(MAG145) GERTRUDE: I really thought you were unique, special, an infernal cult raising their demon Messiah to bring about hell on Earth…! […] I somehow found just the right books, made just the right connections, and even got what I thought was a piece of blind good luck, when I found a tin box in the ashes of Hilltop Road, containing some perfectly preserved cuttings of her hair. Of course, what I thought was a “banishment ritual” turned out… not to be. The circle I constructed was more of a… an invitation. It let the Mother of Puppets bind me to Agnes, interweave our existences at some… metaphysical level, as it had with Fielding and the house. … It was the most painful experience of my life. I mean… I’m sure it’s nothing to you, but I’d never had my lungs try to burn me alive from the inside out before. I survived, though. And you know the rest. I’m not sure exactly how it manifested on your end; you certainly seemed to get the message. I kept the circle over the years, laced it through with signs and symbology of The Desolation to ward off the worst of the side effects and… keep its attentions elsewhere.

And with Jason North’s description in mind:

(MAG037, Jason North) “What was inside each one seemed to vary, some had pine needles and twigs, some were full of dirt, and one or two even held what appeared to be rainwater, though looking closer I could see that it bubbled very gently inside those bottles in an endless simmer. In each I could also see a small photograph, half-buried in dirt or almost boiled clean. They all looked to be the same photograph, though it was hard to tell for sure. An old woman, probably in her fifties or sixties, wearing reading glasses and grey hair curled into a tight bun. She stared out disapprovingly from every bottle. Weirdest of all, on the bottom of each was tied a lock of hair. It was long and grey, in poor condition, and I reckon it must have belonged to the woman in the photograph. It was tied up with the same new string as held the bottles, except for the fact that it was burned, ever so slightly at the ends.”

[…] ARCHIVIST: Mr. North did include with his statement the picture he found in the bottle. It is a photograph of Gertrude Robinson, my predecessor at the Magnus Institute, circa 2002 as best I can tell.

So: 1°) it wasn’t Gertrude’s hair! (And did they grey because Agnes was dead? Or because the hair aged “normally” once removed from her?), 2°) Was Gertrude regularly changing her pictures with updated ones, or were these… updating themselves in the bottles?

- Alright, so, actualising the timeline of events around Agnes and Hill Top Road/Lightless Flame cultists’ involvement with Gertrude:

* Agnes was sent to Hill Top Road to deal with The Web sometime around 1965, when Ronald Sinclair was turning 18 (he said he was born in the late 40s). Agnes was described as “younger than the other kids, maybe ten or eleven years old, and didn’t talk much”. She (playfully) freed Ronald from Raymond Fielding’s influence. (MAG059)

* The house got slowly depopulated until only Agnes and Raymond remained; Raymond disappeared when Agnes “must have been 18 or 19”, Agnes claiming that “he had gone away and that the house was hers”. (Ivo Lensik, MAG008)

* In 1974, a five-year-old boy goes missing in the area. People are suspicious of Agnes, the house burns, Ray’s body is found, missing his right hand, and there is no sign of Agnes. (MAG008)

=> It must be around that time that Gertrude tied her existence to Agnes, as she mentioned “ashes” and her own young age:

(MAG145) GERTRUDE: I was very new to it all, of course. I mean, I was, what? Can’t have been older than… twenty-five. […] I somehow found just the right books, made just the right connections, and even got what I thought was a piece of blind good luck, when I found a tin box in the ashes of Hilltop Road, containing some perfectly preserved cuttings of her hair.

(+ in MAG137, Gertrude pointed out that “The Risen War failed a few years before I was even born.”, and that was one was in late 1942. So all this would put Gertrude’s date of birth at 1949 or after, but not before.)

* Gertrude entwined her and Agnes’s existences – was it related to the fact that Agnes also got tied to Hill Top Road, or was that binding unrelated? On the one hand, Gertrude only mentioned that Agnes was connected to her and compared that binding to Fielding and the house; on the other hand, Eugene insisted that Agnes had been “tied” to Hill Top Road, and Agnes indeed clearly felt something when Ivo Lensik killed the tree that was still there:

(MAG139, Eugene Vanderstock) “As far as we could tell, she had destroyed the place utterly. And yet, she remained bound to it, tied to it in some vital way. I knew, when Arthur told she had kept Raymond Fielding’s hand, that he was worried.”

(MAG145) GERTRUDE: Of course, what I thought was a “banishment ritual” turned out… not to be. The circle I constructed was more of a… an invitation. It let the Mother of Puppets bind me to Agnes, interweave our existences at some… metaphysical level, as it had with Fielding and the house.

* Agnes began to frequent the Canyon Café in the 90s as, by November 2006, she had been visiting for “a decade and a half” (MAG067). She waited, they all waited.

* In autumn 2006, Jack Barnabas confessed to Agnes and they went on a few dates. (MAG067)

* On November 23rd 2006, Ivo Lensik uprooted the tree at Hill Top Road, freeing spiders from the apple buried under it; Agnes felt it, said that she had to finish something, gathered the members of the cult, and at her request, they hanged her, with Ray’s hand tied to her waist. (MAG067, MAG139)

* On November 30th 2006, Arthur sent Eugene Vanderstock to give his statement to Gertrude, threatening her about the fact they didn’t have any more reason to keep her alive (MAG139: “As for you… Whatever you did, and whatever protection it might have afforded you is severed, with Agnes’s death. Arthur has told us not to harm you yet, but this whole thing has really rather weakened his authority, and many of us are now looking towards Diego for leadership. But we shall see, I suppose.”)

* In January 2009, Gertrude took care of Eugene (MAG145, Gertrude: “Well! He hasn’t been at your “little meetings” the last two weeks, has he…? I suppose no one’s looked into it yet.”)

* On February 2nd 2009, Arthur and Gertrude “discussed”, with Gertrude threatening the rest of the cult with what she had done to Eugene if they were to try and harm her. (MAG145)

* On August 6th 2009, Jason North gave his statement about disturbing a ritual site near Loch Glass in Scotland. (MAG037)

* Eugene was officially declared missing in late 2009 (MAG145, Jon: “I did some more digging into Eugene Vanderstock. I thought he was still alive and… working at the steel plant, but it looks like he’s just listed on one of the old directory pages on their website. […] Apparently, he disappeared in late 2009, leaving behind only one thing: a life-sized statue of himself, crafted from candlewax and sawdust. Missing its head.”)

* Until late February/early March 2014, Jane Prentiss, Arthur’s tenant, got taken over by The Hive. On the day of her hospitalisation, Arthur called Pest Control Service to take care of the “wasps’ nest” (whatever the price would be); Jordan Kennedy went, pumped insecticide into the thing, and witnessed Arthur setting himself (and the whole house) on fire. (MAG032, MAG055)

- So, two main things. First, the… dates, once again. I can believe that Eugene’s disappearance wasn’t discovered by public authority until much later than his actual “death”, no problem. But the dates around Gertrude’s circles are a bit weird, since Jason North had mentioned that his wife had burnt not even a week after he had disrupted the site (and before that, his car had broken, etc.); it… doesn’t sound like he had encountered the circle months or years before he gave his statement and tried to find a way to protect his son Ethan – he immolated himself shortly after giving his statement, he was pressed by time, it was an urgency happening in the Summer 2009. Yet… Gertrude and Arthur had been referring to someone disrupting the site some time before… in February 2009.

(MAG145) GERTRUDE: Mm! Now. Here’s the problem for you, Arthur. The way I see it, you came here believing that whatever defences or… assurances I might have had, died with Agnes, or had broken along with the circle. […] I kept the circle over the years, laced it through with signs and symbology of The Desolation to ward off the worst of the side effects and… keep its attentions elsewhere. ARTHUR: [CHUCKLING] Don’t envy whoever broke it! GERTRUDE: Yes. It went very badly for them, indeed. ARTHUR: So where was it, in the end? I spent years looking for it. GERTRUDE: Hm! Nowhere special. The middle of a forest, in the Scottish highlands. Furthest place I could find, from anything, and anyone.

So…? Had Jason North been cursed for a few months before giving his statement, and Ethan had somehow managed to escape The Desolation curse? Is it Jonny mixing dates again (and MAG037 took place in 2008 instead of 2009 or something)?

Is it that… someone else had disrupted the circle before Jason?

… Or has someone/something been messing with dates in the Archives? We’re getting a lot of cases of Potentially Impossible Timelines in season 4 (Neil Lagorio’s two deaths, Jason North’s; there is the matter of Gertrude’s tape from MAG087, when she was supposed to be dead, etc.); is or was someone/something trying to conceal information this way…?

(- Relistening to Jason’s statement and. Hum. About the circle’s location, he finished with:

(MAG137, Jason North) “I asked about who might have gone to the area, but aside from some middle-aged businessmen on a hiking trip, no-one’s been anywhere near that clearing for years. There is no reason this is happening, but I’m still going to lose everything. I am so scared.”

I’m not banking on it, but. Elias was confirmed to be meant to sound “middle-aged” in the season 3 Q&A. So. Uh. Uh. Were these people, like. Peter and Elias on a hiking trip.)

- Regarding Arthur’s connection to The Hive: I… have much trouble picturing that Gertrude did not use what she had learned in MAG145 to somehow make him regret Everything.

(MAG145) ARTHUR: Not like I can vent to the others about what a prat Diego is! Got a lot of funny ideas. Still calls The Lightless Flame “Asag”, like he was when he was first researching it. I just want to tell him to get over it – I mean, [FASTER AND FASTER] Asag was traditionally a force of destruction, sure, but as a church, we very much settled on burning in terms of the… face we worship, and some… fish-boiling Sumerian demon doesn’t really match up, does it?! Plus, there’s a lot of disease imagery with Asag that I’ll reckon is… way too close to Filth for my taste […]. GERTRUDE: So. Now, Diego has taken over… Where does that leave you? ARTHUR: [SNORT] Slumlording over a nest. GERTRUDE: Oh. A nest of… what? ARTHUR: Found a mass of the Crawling Rot growing, a while back. Managed to get a hold of the property before it became too big. Gotta wait ‘til it blossoms before we can properly burn it. So until then… just playing landlord.

I would be really surprised if no one (Gertrude or someone else) had used the fact that Arthur hated Corruption and wanted to wait a bit before killing one of its monsters because it needed to get big enough (practical reasons or hubris there?). Because there is the Question of why did Arthur set himself ablaze when Jane Prentiss got taken over:

(MAG055) JORDAN: At one point, he shook his head and mumbled something about hoping it wouldn’t get this far, but he didn’t seem to be saying it to me. […] Time seemed to move slowly as he reached for the ashtray on the arm of the chair and picked up a pack of matches. He struck one and without even looking at me, he gently pressed the small flame to the centre of the scar. His flesh caught fire, immediately, the flames spreading across his body like rippling water. The armchair caught, then the floor, and then I was running out of the building before the rolling inferno could come at me as well.

Why couldn’t Arthur just… leave? Unless he was fearing that The Hive would come after him, and he was too weak nowadays to be able to properly face it, and he decided to bow out on his own terms? No idea what Gertrude could have done, though; tossing Jane Prentiss in the direction of that house? Or… maybe binding Arthur to the house itself, as revenge/torture, since she did know the ritual to tie herself to someone and had compared it to the binding linking Fielding to the house…?

- Surprisingly, Arthur didn’t mention that he was there the night Agnes had died:

(MAG067, Jack Barnabas) “They were all dressed in rough work clothes and wore severe expressions. One of them, a big guy with a shaved head, was holding an unlit lantern, and speaking to the others that I think was Spanish or Portuguese. Another held a bag that seemed to be full of candles, while a third had a clear plastic container filled with hundred of tiny spiders. None of them paid me any attention, and I was rapidly feeling like I was falling into something that I really didn’t want to.”

(MAG067) ARCHIVIST: […] If the bald man with the lantern is as I suspect Diego Molina, it would indicate a link between his notable obsession with burning, and… Agnes, who apparently had not inconsiderable abilities in that area. I can’t help but wonder if Arthur Nolan, The Hive’s landlord, was one of the other members of that little group.

(+ the man holding candles would be Eugene Vanderstock, as he was revealed to have a thing with candles in MAG139.)

… Same as with Eugene: how come Arthur… barely mentioned any spiders around Agnes? Eugene had been able to point out that Hill Top Road had been a “stronghold” of The Web, but Arthur didn’t mention them at all in his conversation with Gertrude (it was Gertrude who connected her actions to The Web, but Arthur made no reference whatsoever to Agnes’s) – and especially not… the spiders he (if it was indeed him) was carrying on the night of Agnes’s death. Did those spiders do the same trick as with Jon through his lighter, making people’s attention slip right over them…?

(Especially given that! Jane herself had mentioned that there were spiders in the house:

(MAG032, Jane Prentiss) “Was it the spiders? There were webs in the corners, around the entryway into the attic. I would watch them scurry and disappear in between the wooden boards. ‘Where are you going, little spiders?’ I would think. ‘What are you seeing in the dark? Is it food? Prey? Predators?’ I wondered if it was the spiders that made the gentle buzzing song. It was not. Webs have a song as well, of course, but it is not the song of The Hive.”

To what extent was Arthur tangled in threads, too…?)

- Arthur confirmed (after Eugene) that Desolation folks had mostly No Idea What They Were Doing. We saw it with The Dark, too (when… they just put Faith in things and hoped it would work out), a bit with The Slaughter (given how things didn’t proceed as they should have) – Arthur did highlight that becoming an avatar meant being burdened with the craving of getting closer to their patron, and Jon, judging from how he echoes some of Arthur’s arguments (about cultists fighting over how to act), couuuuld be implying that it’s the same for him nowadays:

(MAG145) ARTHUR: You never had to second-guess a god. ‘Cause that’s what it comes down to, isn’t it? We feel Its joy and Its… anger; It warps us, and changes us, and feeds on us, though not in the ways we expect. The one thing It never does is just… tell us what to do. It seeds us with this… aching, impossible desire to change the world, to bring It to us. Then, It leaves us to guess and bicker and fight over how the hell you can actually do it. … If it’s possible. Sometimes, I think They understand us as… little as we understand Them. We don’t think like They do.

(MAG145) ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] The more I listen and learn, the more it seems to me we’re all just… “groping about”. Trying desperately to find out what we’re actually meant to be doing. [PAUSE] These things that… loom so large over our lives trap us, and push us, and… sometimes kill us. But they never actually tell us what we’re supposed to be doing. So we scheme and we plot, lash out at each other without ever really knowing why. … I think Gertrude knew this. Knew to… focus her attention on those parts that could be understood, and… Well. And killed.

1°) … But at the same time, Not All Avatars: Jared Hopworth told us in MAG131 that he was perfectly satisfied with the world as is, and actively refused to participate in his own ritual, with no apparent adverse effects on him. So… it’s possible to go “Nop.” over those.

2°) Again, I don’t think that the main point is that no ritual is achievable: it… would lower the stakes too much? Sarah/the Anglerfish had also told Nikola, in MAG119, that the in-between wasn’t comfortable for all the monsters, and to hurry up with the Dance to complete the ceremony. Some things went wrong here and there, we didn’t get the whole stories… but I still think that it must be possible to carry a ritual until its culmination, and that The Watcher’s Crown is still a very real looming threat…?

3°) And what is Jon’s actual stance about The Watcher’s Crown and being responsible for hurting people nowadaaaaays…?

- It was… a weird thing to experience: Gertrude, practical, cold-blooded, doubtless Gertrude was the one actually… more or less on the side of protecting innocents, here? While Jon did not care at all, even included himself amongst Other Avatars:

(MAG145) GERTRUDE: And you’re all lazy fools! So used to it being easy, to picking off the vulnerable and the unprepared, you can barely conceive of anyone actively working against you. Of being ready. You honestly thought, when she died, I’d just be struck dumb with terror – just waiting for one of you to finally get around to revenge, paralysed with fear, because that’s all you’ve ever known. […] You tell the others. Make sure they know what happened to Eugene. ARTHUR: Sure. Can’t make any promises, though. ‘Specially for Jude. She really hates you. GERTRUDE: Tell her she’s welcome to try. Oh…! And tell them I’m extending my protection to young Mr. Barnabas. They hurt him any more, then what happened to Eugene will seem like a mercy. ARTHUR: … You’re really pushing it. You know that? GERTRUDE: Hm! Feel free to push back. But until then, get out of my Archives.

Gertrude neutralised Eugene, she talked Arthur down, she protected Jack Barnabas (and in the same breath: acknowledged that it had gone badly for the one disrupting her circle, but didn’t sound too heartbroken about it).

Meanwhile, Jon? Still hasn’t shared a word about the new additions to his collection of traumatised victims, and is sighing and complaining about his own whole situation.

- And worse: in this episode Jon actually humanised… avatars, of all people???

(MAG145) ARCHIVIST: We’ve been back in London for just over a week, now. I’m… more or less recovered physically. It’s just this nagging sense of unease that won’t leave me. … I was so sure I’d find something up there. But instead, it was just another broken person trying to come to terms with the wreckage of their life.

I’m not sure if by “up there”, he was talking about the Svalbard trip and Manuela, or if it was about the new tape and Arthur, but…??? It definitely doesn’t seem like it’s about Floyd??? And whether it’s Manuela or Arthur, who both confessed to multiple murders and torture and absolutely Do Not Feel Sorry About That Part Of Their Life, how do they deserve to be called a “broken person” – what about the persons they broke, what about the persons YOU are breaking, Jon???

(And there was the whole “we avatars”, including himself in it, at the beginning of his rant, which… sounds very much like Jon feels more connected to Their Tragic Situation than to the people they wreck, which is… ew.)

- Overall: I’m really surprised at how abruptly casually unsympathetic I’ve been finding Jon since MAG141, how I’m absolutely unable to feel sorry for him now? Because, lamenting about his lack of direction, his place, his whole existence was delightful and very sad and tragic, indeed! … until we got the reveal that oh, he himself was currently torturing people and feeding from them.

Jon hasn’t had one word about his victims, since then. No concern, no regret, no preoccupation. And I find it so hard to like him right now? It sounds like a string of me-me-me, which… only works as long as he’s not actively hurting others, or as long as he’s trying to find ways to stop it or to mitigate the damage? And it was the same with his string of lies to Georgie (not acknowledging, until she pressed on, that no, he was in “deep”; pretending that Melanie had “told” him about her therapy when the truth is that he had compelled her, although on accident; saying he had some “close calls” when UUUH… I wouldn’t say Floyd and the woman from MAG142 were “close” calls, at all????):

(MAG145) ARCHIVIST: A–all right. [SPLUTTERS] W–why are you, uh… well. Here? I–if it’s not too personal a question. [SILENCE] GEORGIE: … It is a bit. It’s not really my place to discuss it. ARCHIVIST: Oh, uh, therapy! You’re taking her to therapy! GEORGIE: She… told you, then? ARCHIVIST: Uh, yes. Yeah. […] GEORGIE: So… How are you doing? ARCHIVIST: I’m… I’m alright. I’m trying to, uh… rest up a bit. Take it easy. [HUFF] GEORGIE: Really? ‘Cause… I’m pretty sure I heard talking about a screaming headless corpse just now. ARCHIVIST: Oh… Oh. W–were you… listening? GEORGIE: Oh, uh. Didn’t mean to. You know. These… doors are not that thick. ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] … Fine. I’m deep in it. Had some… “close calls”. [SILENCE] GEORGIE: I’m sorry to hear that. [PAUSE] … You should probably get some therapy too. ARCHIVIST: [HUFF] Would you go with me as well? GEORGIE: … No. ARCHIVIST: Yeah. … No, I thought as much.

And… bitterly highlighting that Georgie wouldn’t Hold His Hand And Lead Him Through Therapy (and a bit implying that he would go if she was helping him, but only then)… felt like a really… bad thing to say? What has he done for Georgie for the past year and a half? She housed him for months! She gave him advice! She watched over him while he was in a coma! I find it astoundingly rude of him to even word the possibility of her helping him to get therapy because… yeah, he clearly was expecting a negative answer, but he put her in a position when she was the one who had to officially shoot him down. I understand the sadness and the bitterness but, honestly, with the knowledge that Jon is actually hurting people to feed on the sideline in order to feel good… it gives me the same vibe as entitled males expecting you to do their emotional labour and to sob over their life, who expect you to Accept Them For Who They Are although they’re doing terrible shit here and there.

(And it was… a typical Jon thing, too, but: he didn’t really ask Georgie how she was doing lately, on her side. And the more I see of them, the more, yeah, I understand perfectly why they might have broken up, or why Georgie just… doesn’t want to take care of him anymore, because she used to, and it’s always a one-sided relationship.)

(And it’s so easy to forget, also, in the way Jon interacts with Georgie… that he pulled her into his nightmare zoo. He might have still been unaware at the time he took her statement, but still: he did that to her, and never acknowledged it to her, although we had confirmation that He Knows about it, and knows what causes the dreams now. How could Georgie trust him, if he doesn’t even acknowledge it nor apologise to her for it…?)

I’m still really hoping that there is a twist, that this is all leading to something (Jon was awful in season 2, too! (Though called out on it, and it was in self-defence, because he thought a murderer was after him) – and the point is, he hurt Tim in the process, and this is why it was important narratively for Tim… to never forgive him), though ;; I’m fearing that it’s just wishful-thinking from me, because I… don’t… like… Jon… at all… at the moment… and am hoping that some bits are fake and/or will get improved… (It feels like… such a step back, with all the character development he had gotten in season 3? And it happened around the time he was getting closer to Daisy, who was helping him lighten up…?)

In that vein, the nagging about Elias could lead to something:

(MAG145) ARCHIVIST: Elias always seemed to know what was going on, to have a plan, but… I sometimes wonder how orchestrated some of it really was. … [SIGH]

(Every time Jon lamented about his lack of direction in this season, Elias pointed in a direction: removing Basira to get Jon to go inside of the coffin, sending Jon&Basira to Svalbard after Jon had been unable to See if The Dark was still a threat. So Elias might react to that one jab, and I would like to hope that Jon has picked up on the pattern and is beginning to guess that Elias is Basira’s intel… But at the same time, it’s Jon, he tends to Miss Big Points.)

- Georgie did the “Knock-knock”! ;w; It was something Melanie had done to Elias, and Elias did it to Tim&Martin afterwards… Melanie and Georgie are friends, is that a habit they got from each other?

- Jon dramatically minimised his own current actions to Georgie (pretending, at first, that he was… more in control and taking care, although LOL, it’s been a Power Feast since he woke up – even without taking into consideration the statements he has extorted recently), casually hid the fact that he only knew about Melanie’s therapy because he had compelled her… but Georgie also lied about the fact that she had “accidentally” walked on Jon:

(MAG145) [KNOCK–KNOCK–KNOCK.] [DOOR OPENS.] GEORGIE: Knock–knock! ARCHIVIST: Oh, G… G–Georgie… Wh– GEORGIE: Oh! Uh… ARCHIVIST: What a… You… GEORGIE: Sorry, I thought, em… Is Melanie about? […] ARCHIVIST: I’m… I’m alright. I’m trying to, uh… rest up a bit. Take it easy. [HUFF] GEORGIE: Really? ‘Cause… I’m pretty sure I heard talking about a screaming headless corpse just now. ARCHIVIST: Oh… Oh. W–were you… listening? GEORGIE: Oh, uh. Didn’t mean to. You know. These… doors are not that thick.

So she knew he was inside, and pretended otherwise to get a pretext to talk to him a bit… and yet, we clearly see that the bridge is broken between them at the moment. They’re still curious about the other, there is still something, that would need repair… and I’m not sure it ever will be. (And at the moment, I can definitely understand why it doesn’t work between them: because Jon is craving for a clutch, and doesn’t have… much to give, to people who are not having an Exceptionally Great Time either, and are survivors themselves. It’s one thing for them to offer their help, like Daisy did (and back then, Jon had been able to tell that the Archives team was “traumatised” and that a lot of is was because of him). But they don’t owe Jon anything, especially if he’s not working on improving or healing himself, and it’s really not their fault if Jon is allowing himself to sink at the moment – especially after Daisy had worked on pulling him up.)

- Hey! It’s “sad about Sasha” hours.

(MAG145) ARCHIVIST: I did some more digging into Eugene Vanderstock. I thought he was still alive and… working at the steel plant, but it looks like he’s just listed on one of the old directory pages on their website. … I really miss having people who know their way around a computer better than I do…! [PAUSE] A bit more digging found a rather… bizarre case.

Hacker of the group who used to dig things up so easily… ;; (And Tim could flirt his way into info.)

- Melanie is doing Amazing, sweetie ;w;

(MAG145) GEORGIE: Sorry, I thought, em… Is Melanie about? ARCHIVIST: Melanie…? Uh… Yeah, I… saw her a couple of hours ago. Uh, in the other office, I–I can show you…? GEORGIE: Oh, I’m… sure I can find it. Don’t worry yourself. ARCHIVIST: A–all right. [SPLUTTERS] W–why are you, uh… well. Here? I–if it’s not too personal a question. [SILENCE] GEORGIE: … It is a bit. It’s not really my place to discuss it. ARCHIVIST: Oh, uh, therapy! You’re taking her to therapy! GEORGIE: She… told you, then? ARCHIVIST: Uh, yes. Yeah. GEORGIE: … Well, you don’t need to sound quite so psyched about it. She gets… nervous travelling there alone. ARCHIVIST: [INHALE] Yes, o–o–of course. I–I forget you two know each other.

On the one hand: yes, that therapist gave me the creeps, the whole tape recorder thing was suspicious as hell, we haven’t heard from Melanie directly since then, she’s been described as “quiet”, the fact that she doesn’t like to go there alone… all are worrisome and screaming “Web!” a bit.

On the other hand: Melanie has been going outside, is calmer, is able to call on a willing friend for help… and it sounds like Actual Therapy Actually Helping Her To Get Some Inner Peace?

So wait&see, but I wouldn’t rule out (entirely) that it might be actual therapy at work, here.

(A detail on the Archives’ landscape, too: there are actually two offices! Jon’s and… another.)

- HMMMM, so: the whole episode contained the fact that The Web manipulated an Archivist, an Archivist who was resisting against their own patron and got tied to another avatar who also might have had Reservations about their own god (so two Fears neutralising each other?); avatars who were roughly the same age; one of them being described as an “anchor” for the other, despite the distance…

… Martin, where are you, and does The Web have plans for you and Jon, too…

MAG146 is out and OUUUUUUUUUUUUUFFFFF, siren alarms, I guess??? Especially when it’s about the potential second meaning (… though, at this point, with Jon-since-MAG141, I’d think we’re way past “that point” from MAG146′s title, and deeper than this).

Interesting concept because it appeared on multiple occasions: it was because of it that Naomi started to see the Lonely field in MAG013, Albrecht had noticed a change around it in MAG023, Jason North’s doom started with it in MAG037, Philip Brown pointed out that The Dark was beginning with it in MAG052, Tim mentioned things changing starting around it in MAG104… And, of course, it screams Jon-Jon-Jon (heck, Elias even described Jon’s behaviour around metaphorical ones in MAG092 in his Speech about how Jon had chosen everything (INFORMED CONSENT SAID HI, BASTARD.)); or The Distortion, since the concept had appeared a lot around it (things changing with it in MAG047; Michael using it to describe his Becoming in MAG101; Helen mentioning it in relation to Jon and his fears in MAG143).

So. Spiral statement? Or something about resistance/tolerance? … Jon visiting Elias in prison? *weeps* (Second meaning potentially ;; if it is about Jon…)

[beclynn-herondale]

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare, Shadowhunters, TSC Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Clary/Jace, Alec/Magnus, Izzy/Simon, emma/julian, Mark Blackthorn/Kieran/Cristina Rosales, jem/tessa/will, kit/ty, dru/ash, jocelyn/luke, james herondale/hope lightwoodbane, will herondale/arthur blackthorn-kingson-rosales, charlie herondale/livvy carstairs-blackthorn/ned castel, tessa herondale/eleanor blackthorn-kingson-rosales, sibling relationships - Relationship, Gay Relationships - Relationship, lesbian relationships - Relationship, parent & children relationships, uncle & niece relationships, aunt & niece relationships, uncle & nephew relationships, aunt & nephew relationships, more tags later - Relationship, cousin palatonic relationships, Clace - Relationship, Malec - Relationship, sizzy, jemma, keirarktina, herongarystairs, Kitty - Relationship Characters: Clary Fairchild, Jace Herondale, Alec Lightwood-Bane - Character, Magnus Lightwood-Bane - Character, Isabelle Lightwood, simon lovelace-lightwood, emma carstairs-blackthorn, julian carstairs-blackthorn, Mark Blackthorn, Kieran, Cristina Rosales, Jem Carstairs, Tessa Gray, ghost will herondale, Kit Herondale, ty blackthorn, dru blackthorn-fairchild, ash blackthorn-fairchild, Jocelyn Fairchild, Luke Garroway, charlie herondale - Character, livvy carstairs-blackthorn, ned castel, James Herondale, Hope Lightwood-Bane, Will Herondale, arthur blackthorn-kingson-rosales, tessa herondale, eleanor blackthorn-kingson-rosales, Maryse Lightwood, mina gray-carstairs, Max Lightwood-Bane, Rafael Lightwood-Bane, andrew blackthorn-kingson-rosales, jamie herondale, henry herondale, Céline Herondale, matthew herondale, Ella Herondale, alexa herondale, Sophie Lightwood, robb lightwood, becky lightwood, cordelia carstairs-blackthorn, john carstairs-blackthorn, more to add later - Character Additional Tags: Implied Sexual Content, War, Demons, Shadowhunters - Freeform, Romance, Fighting, Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Wholesome family content, Family Drama, Love, A little angst, Next Gen, takes place after the wicked powers, some bad stuff happend Summary:

hey everyone this is a fic that is about the next gen, i wanted to write a story about the tsc couples current and future children, the characters do not belong to me they belong to their fightful owner cassandra clare and where the series, the clace children and sizzy children and keirarktina children and kitty chidren and the two lightwood-bane daughters and the jemma children, and sorry if this is messy it’s my first time writing a fanfic and sorry my grammar is bad, so please bear with me and be nice and constructive criticism is welcome.

[queenxxxsupreme]

We need more of Construction Worker! Arthur Morgan. Especially if he has an s/o who often times makes his lunches or brings him his lunch if he forgot to take it to work

His S/O totally makes sure he has lunch! They either pack it for him in the morning before he goes or they take it to him at whatever site he's at. His S/O always always writes him little notes in his lunch that vary from what their plans are for the day to just a simple 'I love you' on a sticky note.

When Arthur's S/O brings his lunch to the site, they make sure to pack enough for a few of the others who they know don't always bring lunch. The Van Der Linde crew will tease him for the rest of the day after his S/O has left the site.

[beardofkamenev]

1. Photo of the Great Gatehouse of Richmond Palace at Richmond Green, London 2. Sketch of Richmond Palace by Antony van den Wyngaerde (1562) 3. Engraving by James Basire, “based on an ancient drawing” (1765)

In some circles, Henry VII has a reputation for being miserly, but several expenditures contradict this image, including his luxury items and his domestic building works. The Tudor royal residence that most strongly stated magnificence was Sheen Palace, which Henry VII renamed “Richmond” in honour of the earldom that he held when he won the crown at Bosworth Field. The original stone keep, with its stacked royal living quarters, stood apart as the heart of the complex. However, on 21 December 1498, as Henry VII’s family gathered for Christmas, a fire broke out that destroyed many of the buildings, along with untold valuable possessions.

Henry VII’s reconstruction, modelled after Burgundian architecture and employing many Burgundian artisans, largely followed the inward focus of medieval castles, with towers, turrets, crenellations, and a leaden roof. A magnificent great hall with an ornate hammer-beam ceiling – finished by 1501 and measuring 4000 sq. feet (1219 sq. metres) – formed the centrepiece of the new complex. Significantly, the palace also followed Burgundian innovations in the building material: brick. The expediency of brick construction and the standardisation that Henry VII imposed on its production enabled him to rebuild the palace in two years. Distinguishing the new construction from medieval buildings was not only the ornate brickwork, with complex mouldings and patterns, but also the profusion of large oriel windows filled with leaded glass panes – a highly visible sign of wealth. Richmond was the last such royal palace. Only a fraction of it now remains, including a brick gate emblazoned with Henry VII’s coat-of-arms of and some of the wardrobe buildings.

The most innovative feature of the palace included a stone, two-storey passageway that linked the Great Hall and the chapel. This enclosed, fenestrated gallery extended 200 feet long (24.4 metres), and successfully combined utilitarian and recreational uses with magnificence. From the north side, guests could watch jousts and other court events; on the south side, they could enjoy a fine view of the river Thames. The gallery also provided a pleasant place for exercise in inclement weather. Confirmation of Richmond’s exceptional magnificence exists from a guest at the wedding of Katherine of Aragon and Henry’s eldest son, Prince Arthur, who described Richmond’s “commodious” galleries with their many windows on each side of the court. Contemporary chroniclers also described the palace’s exotic gardens, fountains, sculptures, and tapestries, most notably a series depicting the Trojan War. 

Henry VII and his son, Henry VIII, would replicate Richmond’s double-storey, multi-purpose galleries at other royal residences, such as Bridewell, Hampton Court, and Nonsuch. Although Richmond now represents the end of an era, the palace boasted all of the most up-to-date conveniences and innovations which set the trend for English palatial living for the next 30 years.

Source: Sara N. James, Art in England: The Saxons to the Tudors: 600-1600 (2016)