#elizabeth ashbury

[th-xeno]

soo the last few days I was literally obsessed with a dbh+vampyr AU of mine and my friend's. basically. all is the same in the dbh canon BUT

Gavin and Elijah (and also Megan Reed from deus ex but it doesn't matter now) are children of polyam Elizabeth/Jonathan/Geoffrey;

all of them are vampires (parents canonically, Megan from birth, Elijah soon after creating androids with the power of genes) except Gavin that became only after the revolution;

androids were made to be like soy for vampires;

Connor is the only android that is able to remember the mere existence of the vampires (and El's Chloes too but that doesn't matter now too).

so yeah a happy mcre(e)idbury family except they need to deal with a new skal epidemic. good stuff! and I'll probably post more about it in the next days!

also Elizabeth totally named her son after a famous knight you can't convince me other way it's a canonical event (as is dorky nerdy El!!)

[opium-cat]

Картина, портрет Джонатана. Написана Элизабет.

[ophierian-vp]

[rurousha]

Jonathan: I will take whatever advice you can give me about the Ascalon Club.

Elizabeth: They’re sexist, racist, and awful. Just avoid them.

Jonathan: *immediately joins their boy’s club*

Elizabeth: Whatever you do, don’t make them your enemy.

Jonathan: *immediately makes them his enemy*

Jonathan: I’m the best at this!

[jackjolene]

BioShock/Sinking City/Vampyr: The Blood of Alex the Great

Liz and Lady Ashbury make their way to Fontaine Futuristics, aided by a map that Eleanor made for them from Delta's memories. Thankfully, they don't have to contend with Alex the Great controlling the building's security. Instead however, they have to deal with the numerous Mutants walking around.

Fontaine Futuristics was ground zero of the Mutant outbreak, as it was Orrin Lutwidge's original base when he arrived in Rapture, and where he gave the mutated ADAM to his new splicer recruits. The source of that ADAM is what they're here to investigate, as well as any leads on Lutwidge's plans.

Thanks to the large number of Mutants wandering the halls and floors of Fontaine Futuristics, Liz and Elisabeth have to use their stealth abilities to evade their notice. Evidently, Elisabeth has a Peeping Tom plasmid like Liz's, along with her teleportation plasmid. Something's off, though, but Liz can't tell what it is.

After getting through the main building, they don their diving suits again and venture out to the entrance to the secret lab. Outside, they find the bodies of a dozen or so Mutants who tried to make the walk outside without a suit on. What's frightening about this trail of death is the evidence of them evolving.

Each one is further along than the last, having survived the crushing pressure and lack of air longer. The very last one, a few yards from the entrance, wasn't crushed at all, but certainly drowned. On its neck is what appears to the beginnings of a set of gills. Liz can't help but shudder as they walk past.

Time is running out.

In the lab, they instantly become aware of a massive, living thing within the huge tank in the middle of the main room. Its movements and heartbeat suggest that it is asleep, and so Liz and Elisabeth make sure to move carefully and quietly around the tank. The red tinge of the water keeps them from seeing inside, and they're both thankful for that.

In the room to the left, they find out where Lutwidge got the mutated ADAM. Alex the Great wasn't killed when Delta electrocuted him, just very close to death. After Delta left, Alex regenerated, and that's how Lutwidge found him. After figuring out that Alex had essentially mutated into a giant ADAM slug, Lutwidge began extracting ADAM from him to generate new recruits.

Thanks to Alex the Great's mutations, his ADAM is corrupted. There's something more vile in its reactions, something primitive. Reading through Lutwidge's observations, Liz suddenly has another episode, seeing the same gothic city as before, witnessing ordinary people mutating into grotesque monsters, Beasts, like the Mutants.

"We are born of the blood, made men by the blood, undone by the blood. Our eyes are yet to open. Fear the Old Blood."

Those words echo through Liz's mind as the episode progresses. When she comes out of it, her nose bleeding again, Elisabeth tells her that she was saying that phrase. She's looking at Liz strangely now, and her eyes keep dropping down to the blood draining out of Liz's nostrils with something like hunger.

With the origin of the Mutated ADAM discovered, they head over to the room on the other side of the tank. They both can't help but feel like something is watching them, even when they're invisible.

After some searching in the labs where the Big Daddies and Little Sisters were bonded together, they find some notes of Lutwidge's. After the splicers who took Alex the Great's ADAM began turning into Mutants, Lutwidge came up with a plan on how to control them.

Using the same method as Andrew Ryan did to control the splicers and win the Rapture Civil War (mind-control pheromones distributed throughout the city via the ventilation), Lutwidge will take control of the Mutants and continue with his original plan. Blueprints for a prototype that would allow him to keep the Mutants docile in a single area are among the documents they find, explaining how he is able to keep them at bay wherever he sets up shop.

With Lutwidge in Arcadia, the source of Rapture's fresh air, he must be closing in on his goal to take control of the Mutants. Once he does that, he can kill everyone else in Rapture, including the survivors in Minerva's Den, and then plunder the city for its horrifying secrets.

With Lutwidge's plans now in hand, Liz and Elisabeth begin making tracks for the exit. In the main room, Elisabeth grabs a sample of Alex's ADAM, knowing that Jonathan and Tenenbaum will likely want some for analysis. Liz looks over at the tank, just in time to see the massive and distorted silhouette of Alex the Great charging at them, also noticing the huge cracks in the tank's glass for the first time.

The tank's glass shatters as Alex the Great smashes through, great gashes appearing in his skin only to heal in seconds, shards pushed out right after they impale him. His bulbous head appears to have no mouth, until it opens to expose a circular maw of razor sharp teeth like a huge leech's. Laughing, crying, and roaring all at the same time, he lunges at them, pulling himself along with two pairs of elongated arms.

Elisabeth grabs Liz and teleports them both to the airlock. As she hits the button to close the doors and begin cycling the airlock, Alex appears at the end of the corridor and begins pushing his way through the coral to get at them. Just as he's about to reach the airlock, the doors close in his face. Liz and Elisabeth hear his cries from behind the door as they race the rising water to get their helmets on.

Once outside, they begin making tracks away from Fontaine Futuristics. They'll walk until they find another airlock and then they'll find a bathysphere to take them back to the Den. They've both had enough of Fontaine's old stomping grounds.

As they walk amongst the ruins of Rapture, Liz begins to realize what's been bothering her about Jonathan and Elisabeth Reid. Not once has she seen them eat food, or drink water or alcohol, and despite the use of their strange plasmids, they don't use EVE hypos.

As she remembers the look in their faces whenever she's gushing blood from her nose after an episode, she recalls a story that Charles told them about his own adventures in Oakmont, about a Mayan priestess brought back from the dead with a taste for blood....

[blood2323]

OK. I have an idea about vampyr, But there is no time to write this. I'll just post a link to the Pinterest board here so people have a relatively clear idea of ​​what they can expect in the distant future.

[dalekofchaos]

Vampyr sequel idea

I thought of going the LIS route of having different stories for each story of the franchise. But after carefully analyzing the game, doing my Embrace everyone playthrough and noticing a certain portrait in the Ashbury Castle. I figured out the perfect story and perfect antagonist for Vampyr 2.

Jacob Blackwood.

For those who don't know, let me explain.

In The West End, you meet Carina Billow, a woman who's mind has been destroyed by a powerful Vampire. Manipulated into eating rats to gain immortality. At first I thought it was just the Ascalon Club fucking with a mentally ill woman. But it's worse.

Carina is being mentally manipulated by a powerful vampire, forcing her to do awful things. She will actually beg you to kill her to put her out of her misery, and will thank you for your kindness if you kill her.

Earlier in the game when Jonathan asks Lady Ashbury about the bodies that have been found in the streets and about how someone seems to be following him (before we know its Mary), she seems anxious and has someone in mind. Most likely she fears Jacob Blackwood has been watching Jonathan, taking an interest.

Blackwood only speaks through Carina Billow once, mildy warning Jonathan off his "toy" but he does not seem to care enough about his little game to actually stop her being embraced. Evidence of his presence occurs when you visit the grave of Carina and find he has piled dead rats all over the poor woman's resting place - one last act of disrespect. I tend to think that doing this is both for his own amusement and a message to Jonathan that he has taken notice. Carina Billow's information when she is embraced suggests Blackwood maybe a member of Ascalon, it might have been interesting to meet him there.

And when you get to the very end of the game inside the Ashbury castle, one of the paintings on the wall was of Elisabeth Blackwood (Lady Ashbury) and Jacob Blackwood.

And when you read William Marshall's old tome before you reach the end of the game, you can see that Marshall holds Blackwood in contempt.

Jacob Blackwood is an interesting character and I wish they had given him more space in the story because it fleshes Elisabeth out a bit, gives her a backstory you can learn about as you get to know her and makes her a more rounded person with her own motivations. So when you get the first of the bad endings and she says "you have betrayed me", you get an idea of why she might react that way - rather than a lot of players being confused.

He definitely has the blood of hate. Blackwood was created after Elizabeth was bitten by Marshal and the two ranged across Europe killing for their own amusement. Even if he was created before Elizabeth has the blood of hate, it is highly likely he would have contracted it anyway. There is the possibly that he was always a bastard though. Perhaps not all the frenzied skals in the city came from Harriet Jones, maybe a few came from him returning to London.

There is so much potential in Jacob Blackwood in a hypothetical sequel. Jacob has the blood of hate, while Jonathan and Elisabeth are working for a cure. So much potential.

So a way to go about it is this.

If you chose the Embrace no one path, embrace some or embrace everyone.

If Jonathan and Elisabeth travel the world. They hear horror stories throughout Europe. Jonathan thinks it's some Ekon gone mad, but Elisabeth knows the truth. Jacob is back and the potential for another Disaster is strong. Their mission is to kill Jacob and find a cure for the blood of hate

If Jonathan and Elisabeth lock themselves in the castle. They spend years working on a cure and that's when Myrddin appears. He tells Jonathan about Jacob and Elisabeth is horrified. They know what they have to do. End the blood of hate

Jonathan embraces one too many people and Elisabeth dies in the "betrayal" ending. Jonathan locks himself away, that's when Myrddin appears. He warns Jonathan of Elisabeth's loose thread. He is causing atrocities across the land and is on the verge of creating a new Disaster. Jonathan will end the blood of hate once and for all for Elisabeth

Jonathan embraces everyone. Jonathan's bloodlust knows no bounds. Jonathan intends to build an empire on blood and there is one person standing in his way, Jacob Blackwood. It's an all out war between Reid and Blackwood and World War II is their battleground. Reid uses the Allies, while Blackwood uses the Nazis.

Ideally I would set the game during WWII with Jacob taking a position with the Nazis or Vichy France, and he uses the war to commit atrocities and spread the blood of hate like a plague.

I'd also have McCullum return. The Guard is reestablished, but it's clear that Reid and McCullum have to put aside their differences to stop Blackwood. Plus I'd just love the idea of Jonathan and McCullum basically saying "Look we have our differences as a Vampire and Hunter, but we draw the line at fucking Nazis"

As for how the Brotherhood of St Paul would return. If you let Swansea bled out/embraced him, then Usher Talltree would be your main ally from the brotherhood. But if you turned Swansea, Swansea would return and would be a very questionable ally.

aka I just want a game of Jonathan killing Nazis and Jacob Blackwood using Nazis to fulfill his goals but also embracing their ideals.

Bonus points. Jacob wears a Vichy France uniform or SS uniform just to drive home the fact that he's a fucking monster.

[vampyrs-and-witchers]

VAMPYR(2018) - OC; “Alisa (Alice) Anya Volkov”

ALIGNMENT:

Neutral Good: Neutral Good individuals do the best they can, working within rules but not feeling bound by them. A kindly person who helps others according to their needs is probably Neutral Good.

BIOGRAPHY

➜ Full name: Alisa Anya Volkov

Name meaning:

Alisa is a Russian name for girls that means "great happiness". It is a Russian version of the classic name Alice.

Anya means "gracious" or "merciful" and is a diminutive of the name Anna.

Volkov: patronymic from the old personal name or nickname Volk from volk 'wolf'. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): habitational name from any of the places called Volkovo or Volki now in Belarus which in turn are derived from Russian volk 'wolf'. Wiki .

Nickname(s): Alice

Birth: May 22nd, 1888

Death: March 10th, 1918

Age: 26 (death age of physical body), 30 (age since contracting lycanthropy)

Family:

Dimitri Volkov (Father, MIA - Presumed dead)

Akim & Alexei Volkov (Older brothers - twins, presumed alive but missing)

Anastasia Volkov (Mother, deceased)

Sasha & Sofiya Volkov (Older sisters - twins, deceased)

Friends:

Sean Hampton (Good friends, took her in - inadvertently saving her life.)

Hsiao Shun (Friendly, get along.)

Lady Ashbury (Friends, knows she’s a Lycan.)

Other connections:

Jonathan Emmett Reid (Charge & love interest)

Enemies:

Lycaon of Arcadia (Despised, the man who turned her into a Lycan)

Geoffrey McCullum (Despited, leader of the Priwen, his men hunted her down when she was running away.)

Maker: Lycaon of Arcadia

Born: Kinerma - Karelia, Russia

Citizenship: Russian, Russia

Sexual Orientation: Pansexual (male lenient)

Height: 5ft 2in

Weight: 148lbs 67kg

Eye color: Grass Green

Hair color: Brown (Honey blonde)

Species: Lycan, human (previously)

Scars:

CANNON; Across the right side of her neck, extends down to shoulder blades (large, jagged, healed)

CANNON; Inside both wrists, self harm cuts. (varying in sizes, healed)

Body type: Short, skinny, plump in certain places.

Unusual features: None to note.

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OTHER

Affiliation(s): Pack of Arcadia (formerly), Pembroke Hospital (briefly)

Occupation: None

Allies:

Lady Elizabeth Ashbury

Sean Hampton

Jonathan Emmett Reid

Old Bridget

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EARLY LIFE: Alisa Anya Volkov was born into a sizable Russian family of six - now seven. Her early years were shadowed by tragedy when, at the age of twenty six, her mother, Anastasia, and two elder sisters, Sasha and Sofia, were killed in a horrific attack by Lycaon of Arcadia, a creature known as the father of Lycans. The brutality of the event left scars on her father, Dimitri Volkov, who vowed to protect Alisa with a fierceness she would never fully understand. As she grew, Alisa was often reminded of the family she had lost, though her father kept the darkest truths hidden from her, hoping to shield her innocence and allow her to find some semblance of peace.

Seeking a fresh start and better opportunities for his surviving child, Dimitri moved to England. He enlisted in the English army during World War I, joining the fight with fierce determination, and settled into English society to provide Alisa with a secure upbringing and a high-quality education. Although the sorrow of her family's tragic past lingered like an unspoken shadow, Alisa grew into a bright and compassionate young woman, with an inner strength that mirrored her father’s resilience. Her Russian roots remained a source of pride, though she adapted to her new life in England, driven by a desire to honor her family’s legacy and create her own path in a world forever changed by war and loss.

Loosing her father and twin older brothers

After the traumatic loss of her mother and sisters, Alisa found strength in her father, Dimitri Volkov, whose unwavering dedication provided her with a sense of stability as they started their new life in England. But this fragile security was shattered once more when Dimitri enlisted in the English army to fight in World War I. The war brought prolonged separation, but Alisa clung to his letters, each one a lifeline and a promise that he would return. Yet, as the conflict finally subsided and soldiers began to come home, Dimitri did not. Days turned to weeks, and Alisa’s hope was chipped away with each passing moment. Despite her efforts to find information, her father was declared missing, his fate unknown. The void left behind was as brutal as it was unfathomable, leaving Alisa alone, carrying the weight of her family's legacy and the haunting absence of the man who had been her protector and guide.

The sorrow was compounded when her two older brothers, Akim and Alexei, also vanished without explanation. In the wake of her father’s disappearance, her brothers had become her remaining support, and their sudden absence left Alisa with a hollow ache. Alisa, now truly alone, became a person of intense will, quietly haunted yet driven by an unyielding determination to preserve the memory of her loved ones and seek answers to the shadows that had stolen them away.

LYCANTHROPY:

However, her darkest ordeal was yet to come. One night, she was kidnapped by Lycaon himself, the very creature who had destroyed her family, and subjected to the horrifying ritual of transformation into a Lycan. The experience left her physically changed, but it was the mental and emotional scars that cut deepest, shattering what remained of her former life. Held captive and forced to embrace a monstrous form she despised, Alisa suffered in silence, barely holding onto her humanity. After months of torment, she seized a fleeting chance to escape, fleeing through the desolate streets of London until she stumbled upon a compassionate man named Sean Hampton. A devout figure dedicated to helping the lost and the suffering, Sean took Alisa under his care, providing her with the first true sense of safety she had felt in years. His kindness and friendship became her lifeline, grounding her shattered spirit as she began to heal, haunted yet hopeful that she could reclaim her life.

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TRIVIA:

Lycans (colloquially known as Werewolves) have the natural gift to shift their forms into three different appearances, these are: The human (the Lycan’s base appearance, what they look like before transformation and contracting lycanthropy), Timberwolf/Dire wolf (This transformation takes the appearance of a large wolf, typically and often confused for the prehistoric ancestor of wolves), True Vulkod/Volkov (the ‘typical’ appearance of a werewolf as perpetuated by human media.)

What is Lycanthropy? Lycanthropy is a viral infection that can be transmitted from victim to victim by bodily fluids such as semen, vaginal excretion, saliva, tears and blood.

Can Lycans be born? Or are they made? Lycans are typically made not born, if a human infected with lycanthropy were to mate with a human they would infect their partner and unborn child with the disease. There are no known cases of ‘naturally born werewolves’ who transform into humans only the inverse which are humans infected with a virus that allows them to transform into beasts.

Are Lycans ageless? Lycans age at a rate far slower than humans; a Lycan who may physically appear to be twenty-three could very well be a hundred years old. Although, the longest typical recorded age for a Lycan was 202, the first ever created Lycan is rumored to be over several millennia’s old.

Are Lycans mortal? Well typically Lycans age at a rate far slower than humans. They are still very much susceptible to death, infection and injury much like any mortal creature.

What kills a Lycan? Unnaloyed silver, silver gray wormwood, mistletoe, wolfsbane.

Can Lycans mate with humans? What about vampires? Lycans can produce viable offspring with humans but with vampires it’s dependant on the type of subspecies of vampire and what kind of vampirism the recipient suffers from. In most cases no viable offspring can be created as they die in utero. In rare cases offspring can be produced but they are born weak and depending on the level of care can live up to half of the human’s life span or half of either parent’s lifespan.

Can Werewolves (not Lycans) mate with humans? What about vampires? Werewolves can mate with humans and create an offspring, as for vampires see above answer.

What’s the difference between a Lycan and a Werewolf? A Lycan is a human infected with lycanthropy (The power of a human to transform into an animal, such as a wolf. The word comes from the Greek words lykos, meaning “wolf,” and anthrōpos, meaning “human being”.) who can transform into a wolf-man like beast. A werewolf is a sentient and highly intelligent beastial creature who has the ability to transform into a human. In simpler terms it’s would be; one is a human who can turn into a beast (meaning its base form is that of a human) while the other is a beast who can turn into a human (meaning it’s base form is that of a beast).

I still don’t get it, can I get another difference between Lycans and Werewolves? Lycans contract lycanthropy through a viral infection, where as Werewolves are born they cannot be made.

What is a ‘charge’? Though similar to the wiki definition of the word, in the world of Lycans and Werewolves - one can choose a human or vampire to make their charge. A charge is essentially someone who the Lycan or Werewolf chooses to bestow; knowledge of their species to, protect, guide, educate them in all manner of subjects that the Werewolf or Lycan may be versed in, as well as teach them their language and customs.

Vampires need blood to survive, what do Lycans and Werewolves eat to survive? Either species can eat normal human food to survive, though both have a penchant for meat - be that raw or cooked. Lycans unlike their cousins Werewolves - have a special affinity for human flesh - a bleeding human can be a tantalizing target for them to devour or turn.

So, Lycans are also cannibalistic? Yes.

Can Lycans avoid eating humans? That all depends on the will of the Lycan in question.

[tagarfa-art]

Since today is Bram Stoker’s birthday also known as an International Vampire day, I would like to share some corresponding fanart and a couple of OC’s.

1. Astarion from Baldur’s Gate 3.

2. Jonathan Reid from Vampyr.

3. Lady Elizabeth Ashbury from Vampyr.

3. Mary Reid from Vampyr.

4. My OC from a novel in process.

5. Another OC from the novel mentioned above.

These two last ladies are not vampires in a traditional sense but still they are close to the topic.

[triviareads]

I recently read That Scandalous Evening by Christina Dodd and I was wondering if you have read books with that kind of dynamic? Like the hero/heroine wanting to paint/draw/sculp the hero/heroine

I love That Scandalous Evening! Art in HR peaked with that book imho; that nude sculpture with only a little fig leaf covering his bits was inspired, but what really put it over the top was the aftermath when Ransom is ENRAGED and HORNY and clearly into Jane's hero worship but he's also being likened to a DOG and he literally presses her hand to his dick and says "note the difference"— all of which I was completely not expecting so that made it even better. Anyway— artist/muse recs:

My Dirty Duke by Joanna Shupe: Violet is a photographer and uses the camera her dad's best friend Ravensthorpe gifted her to photograph him nude (front and back 👏🏼).

Falling Into Bed with a Duke Lorraine Heath: The hero Ashbury likes to photograph legs and when Minerva Dodger propositions him at a sex club, he jumps at the chance to get those leg pics (I also have in my notes him saying "your foot is flawless" and between this and In Want of a Viscount I'm starting to think Lorraine Heath likes to write in a tasteful foot fetish).

In Which Matilda Halifax Learns the Value of Restraint by Alexandra Vasti: Ashford is Matilda's accidental(?) muse in that her erotic cartoons of dirty profs tying gals up were subliminally inspired by Ashford, but then the publisher took some liberties to make it a more exact likeness, namely adding an ass tat, which is why Ashford hunts down Matilda to "make her pay" or something.

The Marquess Method by Kathleen Ayers: I forget if Theo actually ends up painting a miniature of Haven but she definitely wanted to, so she informs him in the middle of having sex, down to the paint shade she'd use. This is the same woman who painted a miniature of herself with one(?) tit out in order to lure a guy she liked... only to get compromised by Haven.

Sweetest Scoundrel by Elizabeth Hoyt: The funny thing about this one is that Asa is all "oh Eve is suuuuuch a shrew" but then the second she asks to paint him but clarifies it's not a nude, he's super butthurt and is like "is it because I'm a COMMON LOUT? too ugly to be painted naked??" and if that doesn't inform their dynamic idk what else will. Also, there's this whole subplot of Bridget Crumb being *enthralled* by Val's tasteful nudes in his house.

Midnight Ruin by Katee Robert: As of today I can confirm Orpheus did a series of paintings of Eurydice's vaj but kept them private, even after they broke up. There is also a body painting/edging sex scene.

Serving Pleasure by Alisha Rai: Rana kinda stalks Micah but he's aware and very into it and eventually asks her to be his muse for his paintings/fuckbuddy for the duration. It's actually SO HOT and Rana's the kind of crazy heroine I wanna see more South Asian girlies written as.

Captives of the Night by Loretta Chase: Leila is an artist and she either does paint Esmonds or wants to paint him.

[avrablake]

Shuffle your favorite playlist and post the first five songs that come up. Then copy/paste this ask to your favorite mutuals. 🎶🎧💜💙🤗

Thank for the ask, always happy to share what music I'm listening to.

I have too many playlists to pick a favorite, but today I'm listening to Thea's playlist

Bleachless by Elizabeth Grace

You Will be Found by Natalie Grant and Corey Ashbury

Wings by Jeff Williams

Alone by Cami-Cat

Stay Alive by Miro

[mixotrophics]

I had some personal-use money set aside because to be honest, I am really really bad at falling into the kind of pseudo-asceticism considered "good" by social default ... a.k.a. work, study, sleep, repeat. & then I ended up buying nonfiction books & theory with that money 💀💀💀 I do struggle with reading fiction, I am very picky(?) and often need personalized recommendations, which leads to. Serious, theory, nonfiction reads which arent a Break per se. maybe it's the auschizm .

got these books, for a few reasons:

Abolish Silicon Valley (W. Liu) and Palo Alto: a History of California, Capitalism, and the World (M. Harris) Silicon Valley (SV) is a morbid fascination of mine. SV is a place stratified into the tech-bourgeois and the precariat who may, on the surface, appear similar. The whole place is a suburb and thus encourages its inhabitants to mask. The same street would have multiple large homes owned by the same family, and small, crumbling homes inhabited by a clown-car of underpaid workers. El Camino Real, a Spanish-colonial road which passes by many tech campuses, is lined on both sides with people living in their cars. San Francisco's queer & hippie communities (the Castro, Haight-Ashbury...) have been evicted by gentrification, and afaik the Tenderloin stands alone as resistant due to its reputation and much of it being non-profit SROs set up for drug addiction rehabilitation and safe homes for queers. People with useful but mundane jobs, people with jobs that keep SV running like farmers, customer service, the miners at the concrete-aggregate mine... all fucked. Desperate. These places get shot up by workers who see terrorism as the only way out. SV belongs to the "unicorn" CEOs, who are given credit for the work done by their employees, who are given money due to their "eccentric genius" appearance regardless of merit -- Elizabeth Holmes, SBF, Elon Musk, so on... -- the rest who keep the lights on might chance into catching some of the economic windfall. It wants entrepreneurs and exceptional individuals only, neoliberal fantasyland, which is falling to pieces because this model is grounded in fantasy. SV is a suburb of massive importance, its main exports being cultural-tech (Netflix, Uber, Google, Facebook/Meta, Tesla) therefore being a driver of The gig economy, Planned obsolescence, Privacy invasion, Streaming/subscription services and Renting things instead of owning them ... it is the nesting-ground of 21st-century hell, the exemplar Annihilatory Suburb where the locus of control shifts externally to idolized oligarchs. and this impact is absolutely not geographically constrained.

Planta Sapiens (P. Calvo, N. Lawrence) Someone on this website recommended this, iirc, so..! Saw it and went !!! Mentioned my animist beliefs here: all things are living entities in some way, and so killing is unavoidable and happens as part of natural cycles ... as beings capable of perceiving this, our responsibility thus becomes to minimize suffering, fear, pain... in animals, we have a better idea of what this entails, IMO due to their human-adjacency (e.g. the UK laws re:animal welfare). But in plants? I personally would like to know more, to know if certain things are thought to cause avoidable suffering or not. But regardless it's fascinating and the general disregard for non-animal intelligence is emblematic of larger trends around human chauvinism as-broadened to fauna chauvinism. why we(generalization) revolt at the idea of culling invasive domestic cats, but don't care about killing weeds in the garden in pursuit of homogeneity.

Transdisciplinary Knowledge Co-Production: a Guide for Sustainable Cities (K. Hemström, D. Simon, H. Palmer, B. Perry, M. Polk) Putting things into categories is useful, because eliminating categories that oversimplify will probably eliminate all categories and make it really hard to actually comprehend things... typically, interest is piqued by a broader concept and then narrows as one discovers more. The education pipeline of, Science --> Biology --> Ecology --> Behavioral ecology --> Behavioral ecology wrt ecotoxicology wrt evo-devo --> The impacts of agent orange on animal development --> Agent orange & one specific species --> ... getting to that endpoint in one leap isn't super feasible, maybe unless you observe that specific endpoint by circumstance, which would basically constrict most people's studies to their own lived experience. As if academia's demographic & topic-focus unbalance needs to be worsened. But categorization is flawed and should not be considered the rule. By putting Things into Subjects, we fail to grasp things that are cross-subjects. Disabilities that affect different organs/systems get ignored by organ/system-specialist doctors. Estuaries get ignored by science for decades, because they're too marine for freshwater scientists, but too freshwater for marine scientists. Concerning ideas like urban sustainability, compartmentalization would be fucking nonsensical. But generally, one needs tools and frameworks to mitigate its effects, and those aren't necessarily common knowledge. Hence why I got this book.

An Unquiet Mind (K. R. Jamison) Growing up I received a lot of support for depression which I didn't really have in an immensely severe capacity. DPDR, delusion, impulsivity, and hypomania are major concerns for my wellbeing, but they're Not the diagnosis I was "allowed"(?) to have. Schizoaffective-like auschizm-auDHD-OCD , idk. Anyways I want to know more about mania, because "mental health advocacy" has diluted into anxiety, depression, and some autistic/ADHD experiences. Jamison has works that have discussed how the idea of bipolar as mania-depression or hypomania-depression is flawed, because many people experience consistent mania with not so much depressive presentation.

The Divided Self (R. D. Laing) I knew about Laing via my correspondence with Austrian-Scottish antipsych collectives which draw from Laing and Art Brut Center Gugging. Laing is a progenitor of the idea of schizospec experience as a normal psychological adjustment to the fucked up world we live in. Laing advocated for those in his residences to explore an "anarchy of experience", not being forced into medication and institutionalization, instead pursuing things they actually wanted ... people like Mary Barnes underwent regression therapy after reaching out to Laing on their own accord, with Barnes beginning to paint with her own faeces on the walls ... instead of denying this art-urge, she was given similar-texture materials (grease crayons) to continue to explore art in a way that doesn't have so much of a disease risk for herself. So Laing's ideas and treatments and communities were pretty remarkable for his contemporaries, and is important in the pushback against the "medical model of mental illness" -- which is why I got this book. Laing was kind of shitty though sometimes, taking advantage of the vulnerable people in his care ... so part of my interest also lays in identifying remnants/reflections of that aspect in his ideology.

Disability Praxis: the Body as a Site of Struggle (B. Williams-Findlay) "Trespass! Protest! Blockade!" "Spend time outside in your community, spend time in nature, learn self-sufficiency to reduce reliance on oppressive systems, boycott certain brands...!" all good advice, considering the amount of people who can and should do these things but do not. but the capacity of the disabled community to do these things is generally an afterthought. When I see it discussed, it's usually providing financial aid (since when were disabled ppl known to have tons of disposable income...?), or doing online emotional support & advocacy (which are rightfully critiqued as many people do nothing more than that, but catches disabled people who can't do more in the crossfire). ...obviously do these things is you can. it'll be nice to see what this has to say about disability praxis because honestly I feel modern (physically?)-abled-driven rhetoric is gonna kill me, even though private discussions in collectives do not reflect the public rhetoric.

Living with the Dead (V. M. Viestad, A. Viestad) hashtag, death positivity

In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction (G. Maté) a thread tangled with other things discussed in the above texts & also more. Addiction rhetoric exemplifies the idea of victim-blaming. Then there is the idea of medicalization, of how taking amphetamines is good if you have the Right Diagnosis and bad if you Don't, regardless of barriers to diagnosis. There is racism, there is anti-leftism, there is the War on Drugs. There is Purdue's OxyContin and the exploitation of the fallible human body and the desire to accumulate capital driving deadly crises.

...

so Yippee I look forward to these. I have other books first though.

I got these books soon after having an infuriating conversation with a nonviolence-fetishist (after A. Malm) centrist friend of mine, and in doing so I was like oh shit maybe I can write (nonfiction/theory)books too ... and when I thought this, my brain swapped from My main goal is to blow up and then act like I dont know nobodyyyy to Ok! book :] calm now.

[fairyfindr]

Anne Ashberry

The Fairy Godmother of Miniature Gardens

🧚‍♂️🧚‍♀️✨🪴🌹🌸🌻🌵🌱👩��🌾⛲️

In the marvelous and magical world of miniature gardens, there are few names more revered or influential as Anne Ashberry!

Born as Hannah Annenberg, her Jewish family changed their names and surname to Ashberry to avoid anti-Semitic violence during WWII. Her name has also been misspelled or mis-reported as “Anne Ashbury”.

Early Years:

Born on March 9, 1894, Anne grew up with a natural affinity for both engineering and gardening. Her early exposure to these innate interests laid the foundation for her remarkable career as the pioneer of miniature container gardening! With her curious mind and keen eye for detail, she began exploring the world of miniature gardens, a realm that would become her enduring passion, after finding herself in a small living space craving the ability to nurture gardens once again.

She began to build small miniature garden landscapes in her window sills that quickly bloomed into a business of making and selling miniature gardens and terrariums to others, especially disabled gardeners or those who also lived in small flats.

Pioneering Works:

Anne Ashbury's contributions to the world of miniature gardens were nothing short of groundbreaking. Through her books and articles, she shared her extensive knowledge and innovative ideas, inspiring countless garden and miniature enthusiasts and hobbyists to embark on building and creating their own miniature gardens!

Her works became essential references for beginners and experienced gardeners alike, as she carefully detailed techniques, plant choices, and design principles. You can see more photos of her work and some excerpts from her book here and a few pictured below.

Blending the Art Forms of Engineering and Gardening:

What set Anne Ashberry apart was her ability to blend her engineering expertise with her love for gardening and her problem solving skills when she knew she wanted to garden but had very little space besides her window sills. She approached miniature garden design with a meticulous eye for structure and beauty, incorporating architectural elements that elevated the gardening artform creating what has formed into what we now know as fairy gardens or miniature gardens. Her attention to detail and precision in creating miniature landscapes were unparalleled, resulting in breathtaking container gardens, terrariums, and miniature landscapes that captivated the imaginations of everyone she met and anyone who had the opportunity to see her work with their own eyes! She even created a miniature garden for Queen Elizabeth II while she was still a princess (pictured below- bottom photo).

The Growing Popularity of Anne Ashberry’s Miniature Landscapes in the 1950’s:

As Anne’s career blossomed, she played a pivotal role in the transformation of miniature gardens into magical fairy gardens we know and love today. Anne thoroughly enjoyed more than just the design and building aspects of miniature gardening. So when her business started growing and she started experiencing difficulties in finding the right mini plants in the quantities that she required, she began propagating on her own, eventually opening her own nursery specialising in alpines and miniature conifers.

In 1952 there was a mini-documentary made about Anne’s miniature gardens by Pathe News that further skyrocketed her into local fame as a miniaturist and the pioneer of a new frontier in miniature container gardening!

Anne enjoyed further success in 1953 after having the opportunity to have her miniature gardens featured by a soap and perfume manufacturer, Cussons, in an advertising campaign in popular magazines like Tatler and Queen.

Legacy and Influence:

Anne Ashberry's legacy continues to inspire and guide miniature garden enthusiasts to this day. Her innovative techniques and imaginative designs have become the building blocks for countless miniature landscapes worldwide. The spirit of her work lives on through the gardens created by her admirers, each one a testament to her enduring influence.

Anne Ashberry, who I have proudly named the “Fairy Godmother of Miniature Gardens”, left an inexplicable mark on this hobby. Through her engineering skills, gardening expertise, and boundless creativity and thinking outside-of-the-box -or inside the box I guess, she transformed the art of miniature gardens into a realm of magic and wonder. Her books and pioneering works have paved the way for generations of miniature gardeners to explore their imaginations and create their own whimsical and tiny worlds. As we tend to our own miniature gardens, we can't help but feel gratitude for Anne Ashberry’s lasting contributions and the enchantment she brought into our lives by being on the forefront of the miniature and fairy garden movement!

I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about the woman who founded and pioneered the ancient yet modern twist on container gardening and miniature world landscapes that have transformed into the fairy gardens of today.

May you be blessed by the fairies,

ADHDalex the FairyFindr

You can follow @fairyfindr on Instagram, Facebook & DeviantArt, and here on Tumblr.

[gigslist]

Megan Markel Is The Racist

Today’s lesson my weird lovelies is about All Lives Matter. FYI: BLM was screamed out of Haight Ashbury. A white girl BLMer swung a baseball bat at me. Lucky time to remember my dance and tai chi trainings ;)

“Race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society.” Wikipedia

“Racism: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group.” Oxford Dictionary

Something I don’t normally tell people, because I was brought up to it. In my family it’s just matter of fact. Nothing to get excited about. Are you ready for this? Harry and I share Great Great Great Grandparents on Queen Elizabeth’s side. Along with a few on Prince Philip’s side. I’m a Duchess by birth. Technically a double Duchess. A double D like my bra size.

My Dad went to boarding school with King Charles III in New Zealand. Said he was a lonely boy and had his ears pulled a lot. My nieces, and a cousin’s kids, went to Banff in Canada with Harry and Megan. My sister and I were rebels and bowed out of the royal scene before we married anybody. I became an artist and performer, modern dance and cabaret, my sister a hotelier and organic farmer.

As blood royals we start volunteer community work as kids. At 12 years old I was teaching disabled kids how to ride ponies. As an adult I volunteered at 4zzzFM in Australia, great learning curve on media and how to do paperwork. I helped save a sacred site in Australia, consulted on a youth arts venue and cofounded an outdoor community arts venue IQ.org.au  Leave no trace, everything hand hauled in and out.

In San Francisco I did a whisper campaign to a court judge, former entertainment lawyer, and a high level nurse, clarinetist, and some politicians and retired celebs in San Francisco. To raise awareness about the living conditions of disabled people in residential care in the USA. We got a federal investigation ( Thank You Whisper Tribe <3 )

For San Francisco arts I put the e in How Weird Street Faire, according to their lawyer, now the court judge. I’m currently designing an online festival for Haight Ashbury and San Francisco arts. My disability gives me brain gaps, hence I use computers a lot. Also little notebooks, I keep finding pages of celeb contacts from gigs. Angela Bowie the other day, a book signing I organized for her in San Francisco. I remember Angela has a fabulous jaded sense of humor.

This is the stuff I do when I’m burned out from GigsList. Community work is what royals do all their lives, with and without titles, we’re brought up that way. The Monarchs that built the billionaire castles also funded the building of the local villages and gave the villagers  homes, incomes, doctors and schools. Royals rarely advertise it, they just do it.

Royals all share a DNA line that goes back to ancient ancient Egypt and and ice age ancient ancient Aryans and beyond. We are physically different, because Royals are mostly farmers and bought up on good food. We have our own cultures, customs, educations and beliefs. Genetically and culturally we are an individual race, but of different colors. Statistically we are a dying race. Like the legends of the angels and fairies dying out. Our race is so old that the legends of angels and fairies and Gods and Goddesses are allegories about their lives. There’s already a cult of Princess Diana and a shrine to her. The UK has always had a Pagan bent.

You can only be born with Royal Blood. On paper doesn’t count. Same as you can only be born a First Nations Australian or Native American. Royals are also tribal. Royal rites and rituals and art about them are their culture. Our culture. All tribal peoples around the world are Monarchies. Their Queens and Kings are who the newagers call “Elders.” When you bash any Monarchy anywhere you are being racist to native tribes of all colors. Those are the standard definitions of race and racism, yes?

The hats, jewels and dresses and waving on hands from horse carriages are pantomime to please the people. Bright happy fantasy moments to replay in one’s mind on cloudy days. The Royal obsessions with etiquette, uprightness, chivalry, politeness and gentleness are to be good role models for people. The etiquette, over education and making high connections, working stealth, opens more minds and doors to help more people.

Royal titles have caveats. If you marry outside of your race, being a Royal, you loose your title. If you have kids, you’ve diluted the indigenous line. The same as being half Native Australian or two thirds Native American. I married a non-royal, so I lost my title. The same goes for Harry. Megan and her kids’ titles are only paper. It doesn’t make them full blood royals. If Harry married a blood royal, he’d still have his title regardless of family conflicts. If Harry and I divorce and marry royals of our blood rank, we get our titles back, no questions asked.

The pomp and pantomime is optional. As I write this most people and their kids watch sex and violence on hypnotizing screens for moral guidance and how to treat people and the environment. Over and over again throughout history it’s non-royals that cause suffering, destroy the planet and peoples lives. Like on the daily news streams today. Who’s kidding who? If you don’t know history you are doomed to repeat it.

Modern Royals work stealth, because decades of experience since little kids it gets them more trust and better ins. An allegory would be backstage at rock concerts. If you want to get the good gossip and recommendations, hang out with the wives. They see everything sitting there just watching and know everybody and who’s who and what’s what. Without advertising it. They just sit in the backstage background and watch and gossip.

I know the possible consequences of writing this. I am defending my race and tribe, the race of all blood Monarchies. We are an endangered race, in all colors, because of racist antimonarchists presented as Megan Markel.

Who doesn’t get a bit snippy when their race and tribes are being targeted and consequently dying out? Our race, Royals, have been around so long that our crowns of feathers and grass string have, from thousands of years of peaceful trade, evolved into diamonds, rubies and pearls. Same as upgrading your iPhone. Who doesn’t get a bit jealous of somebody else’s new iPhone? But do you publicly bash an iPhone owner’s family and whole race for it on Oprah?

The likes of Megan Markel are law suit happy. But GigsList doesn’t make any money. I have a disability. I do GigsList volunteer to help the arts. Every now and then I get burned out and go make some art myself. Megan Markel’s legal and PR team can yap on their own conscience.

And another thing, if you work in the industry on the West Coast for a few years you know this very well. Harry’s admission of taking psychedelics and reports of Megan being “bloody bossy,” to put it politely. You know how Harry and I are brought up, you’ve seen him turn on his own race, worse his own family. My family! It’s not a good symptom. It’s also how some people end up on the streets and out of their minds in San Francisco. Ask a Deadhead. How do you think Prince Andrew got setup by the Jeffrey Epstein party? The Jeffrey Epstein party are also personal friends of Megan Markel. Doesn’t take an expert statistician to do the math on that.

Don’t click on Megan and she will melt away like the wicked witch she is.

I put the e in How Weird Street Faire :) I’ve lived here 23 years, long enough to say “Bitch, please! I’m from San Francisco!” (t-shirt I saw on Haight Street)

Deborah

Duchess of Haight Ashbury <3 :)

[jackjolene]

BioShock/Sinking City/Vampyr: The Plan

While Andrew Ryan looks out onto the remains of his city and contemplates what his dream has become, Jack, Liz, Porter, Eleanor, Tenenbaum, Artemis, Reid, and Ashbury have a meeting to discuss their next move.

There are four factions now in play in Rapture, including their group in Minerva's Den. The most concerning of these is Orrin Lutwidge, and his hired killers, the Diamond Partners. The rumor mill says that Lutwidge is working on some big project. They are currently holed up in Arcadia, despite the fact that it's crawling with Mutants.

The dissolution of the Rapture Family saw most of its members return to their previous existence as roaming splicers, each on their own and hungry for ADAM. Most of these either became Mutants, or victims of the Mutants.

However, a good number of former Rapture Family members have created a new cult: The Church of the Son of Ryan. Based off a series of audio diaries by the late Simon Wales (Before the Lamb I-V), the Children believe that a piece of God left Him to become the Demiurge and jumpstart life on Earth and the bloody, painful process of Evolution.

After God learned of the Demiurge's actions, He banished it to the ocean. After thousands of years, Andrew Ryan came along and built Rapture right by the Demiurge's resting place. The ADAM slugs came from the Demiurge, allowing the citizens of Rapture to splice themselves and gain power, hastening the fall of Rapture. Now, with Eleanor Lamb having abandoned the Rapture Family, the members of the Church of the Son of Ryan have put their faith in Jack, that he will return to Rapture to save them.

The last and most mysterious group in Rapture is the remaining Big Sisters. They keep completely to themselves in the Little Sister Orphanages, and anyone who ventures inside is never seen again.

The end goal of Jack and Co. is to cure the remaining splicers and the Mutants, if possible, then evacuate everyone to the surface, and finally activate Rapture's self-destruct, ending the nightmare once and for all.

With the first version of SERPENT killing Mutants, Tenenbaum needs to make a new version of it that will cure them as well as the Splicers. Thankfully, she has Dr. Reid, who has been studying the new ADAM responsible for the Mutants, and also the original Thinker to aid her.

Also, rather than going through Rapture building by building and curing each Splicer and Mutant with a dart, it would be much simpler to create an aerosol version of SERPENT and distribute it throughout all of Rapture using the ventilation systems in Arcadia. Just as producing a drinkable plasmid takes ten times as much ADAM as making an injectable plasmid, so making an aerosol ADAM product uses ten times as much ADAM again!

Thankfully, through the efforts of Subject Artemis and the robotic Little Sisters, they have an absolutely disgusting amount of ADAM to work with. In fact, they have enough to not only make enough SERPENT 2.0 to cure all of Rapture, but they've got enough for Jack, Eleanor, and Porter to splice with the stronger plasmids and become every bit as powerful as Artemis is.

Their main goal is to cure Rapture's surviving Splicers and Mutants. To accomplish that goal, they will need all the help they can get to overcome Lutwidge, the Diamond Partners, and the Mutants in Arcadia to put the new SERPENT into the air supply. The plan is four-fold.

Tenenbaum and Dr. Reid will stay in Minerva's Den to work on the new SERPENT and to be the "chair guys" of the rest of Jack and Co.

While there are eight of them, Jack and Co. will need more on their side if they want to take Arcadia from Lutwidge and his people. To that effect, Jack intends on recruiting the Church of the Son of Ryan to their side. After all, he is actually there to save them. Though if things go wrong, Artemis will be there to help him.

The Big Sisters would be a great asset to their side, and as Eleanor is one herself, she may be able to convince them to aid Jack and Co. If that falls through, however, Porter will be her back-up.

And finally, they need to learn just what Lutwidge is up to. In the months prior to Jack and Co.'s return to Rapture, Lutwidge has been moving around a lot and sending his Diamond Partners out on missions all over Rapture. And yet, the Mutants in each new base haven't wiped them out. Somehow, Lutwidge is keeping them from going after him and the Diamond Partners.

To find out why, Liz and Lady Ashbury, will be going out and using their talents in stealth and infiltration to uncover Lutwidge's secrets and learn what he is planning. Neither Jack or Dr. Reid are fans of the idea, but they need answers, and the "Elizabeths" are the best they've got for the job.

After resupplying and Jack, Eleanor, and Porter splicing up to reach Artemis' level, the four groups say their goodbyes and go out into Rapture, Tenenbaum and Dr. Reid watching along with the other denizens of Minerva's Den. Andrew Ryan himself watches silently as his son goes back out into the nightmare he has created.

[poetic-poltergeist]

PETE (People for the Ethical Treatment of Edgar) memes for the Pembroke server.

Part 1 of ?