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daveyjacobss · 5 years

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i’ve waited my whole life

jack kelly x davey jacobs

summary: i want to drive away with you, i want your complications too

(or: jack and davey get caught in a blizzard on the way to the jacobs’ for hanukkah)

a/n: happy hanukkah everyone!! it’s 10:26 pm here which means i officially finished this in time for the first night of hanukkah!!! hope you all enjoy this, as always - i’d love to hear your reactions :) (& yes the title is from paper rings by taylor swift and there will hopefully be a holiday themed mini series with other taylor swift lyrics and other ships)

also - the spacing/formatting of this is showing up really weird for me, so sorry if it shows up like that for you too :/

ao3 | masterlist

__________

It started snowing only a little bit before Jack and Davey left their shared apartment and got into their car. It was just a few flurries, nothing too much to worry about. At least, that's what the weather forecast had said. So they headed out with no worries on their mind, singing loudly to the songs on Jack's playlist. Jack was behind the wheel because Davey was too anxious of a driver, and Jack hadn't wanted to stress him out at all. Which he wasn't, or at least it didn't seem like it. Which was good, obviously. Even if Jack himself was maybe, possibly, more anxious than he'd ever been.

They were on their way to Davey's parents house, with the intention of spending the entire of Hanukkah there. Jack wasn't Jewish, but after so many years of knowing Davey and being welcomed into his family he was fairly familiar with their traditions. And, really, none of that should have made him anxious in the slightest - because he knew Davey's family. He loved the Jacobs, and they loved him. Davey had already made several comments about how excited Les would be to hang out with Jack (the kid practically idolized him) and he and Sarah were good friends, despite the fact that she was dating Jack's sort of ex-girlfriend. (They were fine, though. The break up was mutual, and Katherine and him were still close.) Davey's parents were happy to have him, they always had been from the minute he had befriended Davey back in high school. And he wasn't an anxious driver like Davey. Actually, driving came naturally to him, just like painting. So there was no reason for him to be so stressed.

Except he was. And maybe there was a small, minuscule, barely-there reason. For example, the fact that it had only been a week since Jack had realized that he was in love with his best friend, AKA the guy seated next to him passionately singing along to Paper Rings. Jack wanted to lean over and kiss him senseless, to hell with safe driving. He did not do that, obviously, but the thought was there, and it made him anxious.

They had been watching some Hallmark Christmas movie together on the couch when it happened. They both adored those stupid films, entertaining themselves by making comments and jokes, criticizing every action each character took. The main protagonist in the movie they'd been watching had done something particularly idiotic, and Jack made a comment about how it was dumber than that time Race and Albert has decided to test out whether their tongues would actually stick to a frozen pole. Davey has burst out laughing, spilling some the popcorn out of the bowl that had been resting on his lap. Jack looked over with a smug smile, proud of his joke, but it fell away quickly. Watching as Davey laughed, the light from the TV screen illuminating his face, took Jack's breath away. He looked so...so.... beautiful. And then that was all he could think about, just how fucking gorgeous Davey Jacobs was. Davey seemed none the wiser to Jack's heart-stopping epiphany. But Jack was suddenly hyper aware of how close they were sitting, sharing the same blanket and eating popcorn out of the same bowl, legs touching. He couldn't get himself to pay attention to the rest of the movie, his breath hitching each time Davey moved. Davey fell asleep only a little bit after the next movie started, his head falling on Jack's shoulder.

Jack wanted to run to the window, open it, and scream endlessly into the abyss of the night sky. He could not have a crush on Davey, of all people. Not after all these years of strictly platonic feelings. Except, maybe they hadn't been. The longer he sat there with Davey's head on his shoulder, the more he realized just how long he had been harboring feelings for his roommate. And, with that, came the realization that those feelings were not simply a crush.

So as Davey laughed his way through songs and the snow steadily began to pick up, Jack was extremely anxious. He didn't know how to act around Davey anymore. Try as he might, nothing he said or did felt right. Nothing felt normal. Davey could tell something was off, Jack knew he could, but he was merciful enough to leave it be. Jack joined him in singing along with a Mumford & Sons song, hoping that he didn't look as distraught as he felt. More than anything, he was terrified that Katherine and Sarah would see right through him. They would know.

They were about an hour into the drive when Jack started to grow worried about the snow. The windshield wipers were working like crazy, and they could only see so far ahead of the car. Davey, ever the sensible one, unplugged Jack's phone and switched to a radio channel announcing weather reports. The radio anchor's voice filled the car, somewhat disrupted (which Jack assumed was due to the storm they were driving through).

"No one could have predicted this blizzard!" The guy said, sounding cheerful. Davey and Jack exchanges worried glances, but kept quiet so they could keep listening. "Due to the poor visibility out on the roads, all drivers are being urged to find somewhere to park or pullover, and hopefully make it inside."

"Great," Jack quipped sarcastically, trying to sound unfazed. Davey whipped out his phone, presumably looking up places near them that they could go. Without thinking, Jack reached over and grabbed his hand, squeezing it reassuringly. The last thing he wanted was Davey having a panic attack because of the snow. Jack was a good enough driver, and it wasn't as if they were driving in the middle of nowhere - there was bound to be somewhere they could go. Davey shot him a grateful look before returning his gaze to his phone, sitting up straighter within a few seconds.

"Okay, at the next light we come to turn right. There's a diner not too far down the road and the website says they're open." Jack nodded in affirmation, slowing to a stop at the red light as he turned on his turn signal. The turn itself was bit bumpy, their tires slipping a little on the snow. Davey drew in a sharp breath and his hand shot out to grip tightly onto Jack's arm. Jack hated how his heart skipped a beat at the contact.

The diner in question came into view rather quickly, a warm yellow and red sign composed of neon lights informing them that it was called Frank's. Jack pulled into the parking lot fairly easily, parking in the closest spot to the building available. There was only two other cars in the small lot, so they assumed they wouldn't be getting too much company while they were there. They both zipped up their jackets all the way and did everything they could to cover every inch of themselves to stay protected from the cold. Davey took a deep breath and then looked over at Jack.

"Okay," he said, muffled due to the fact that the bottom of his face was tucked into the neck of his coat. "Let's do this."

They opened their respective car doors and jumped out as quick as they could, slamming the doors behind them as they made a break for the entrance to the building. They burst through doors panting with a gust of wind right behind them. A girl around their age, maybe a little older, looked up from where she stood behind the counter, drinking from a mug. She raised an eyebrow at them with a somewhat amused grin.

"Suppose you boys are looking for somewhere to escape the storm?" She asked, a slight drawl in her voice that made it sound like she had grown up in the south. Jack nodded in response, flexing his hands to try and bring some warmth into his hands. "Well, take any table you like," she instructed. "I'll go grab you some menus." She retreated through a door to what Jack assumed was the kitchen in the back. He followed Davey's lead to a booth by the windows, sliding into the seat opposite him.

"Damn," he sighed, looking out at the snow. "Guess we're gonna be late." Davey let out a very unattractive snort that Jack should not have found endearing in the slightest (except he did).

"Yeah, I'd say so," Davey smiled. The girl returned then, saving Jack from getting too lost in Davey's eyes. Now that she was out from behind the counter, heading toward their booth with menus in hand, he could see that she was wearing a yellow 50s style uniform. It was cute and, as he looked around, he realized that it matched the aesthetic of the rest of the diner as well. There was a jukebox against one of the walls and photos and posters from the 50s scattered through the place. Jack was filled with the urge to sketch it, but all of the art supplies he had brought with him were back in the car.

When the waitress reached their table she laid the menus out in front of them and Jack was able to read on her name tag that her name was Maria.

"Alright, so right now we're technically serving the lunch menu," she pointed to the middle section of Davey's menu, "but we serve breakfast all day, and if y'all want something from the dinner menu, that's fine. Not like we're getting much other business today." She shrugged with an easy smile. "Can I start you off with some drinks? Normally I'd recommend the milkshakes but, well..." she gesture out the window and Jack gave a little laugh. She smiled sweetly at him in response.

"You know what?" He asked. "I'll still take a milkshake. Black and white, please."

"And for you, doll?" She turned Davey. Jack watched as his cheeks tinted pink at the nickname and simultaneously wanted to tease him and tell Maria to back off (not that he had any right to do that, but he wanted to be the one making Davey blush).

"I'll have a Oreo milkshake, please," he spoke quietly.

"Sure thing," she grinned at the both of them. "They'll be right out."

They sat in silence for a few moments, simply enjoying the peaceful atmosphere of the diner. Jack watched Davey's face as the other man gazed at the falling snow with an almost childlike wonder. He had always known that Davey was the out-of-this-world type beautiful, even from the first moment he saw him - but what he hadn't realized was that, overtime, those foreign elements of beauty had instead become familiar and comforting, giving him a new type of artistry. His eyes, once mysterious, were now read as easily as a book. He hadn't realized how long he had simply been ogling at Davey until Maria came back with their shakes in hand.

"Here ya go," she grinned, setting their glasses down in front of them. Her smile turned sheepish as they both grinned back at her. "Would y'all mind if I just hung out in the kitchen for now? My girlfriend's back there making food for us." A warm feeling bloomed in Jack's chest. No matter how old he got, he didn't think he would ever get past the joy that came with hearing someone else talk so casually about not being straight.

"It's no problem at all," Davey said at the same time as Jack opened his mouth to say "Of course."

"Thank you," Maria beamed. "If y'all need anything you have full permission to go into the kitchen." With that, she was practically skipping off.

"Well, that was nice" Davey chuckled softly. Jack focused on his milkshake so as not to find himself captivated by the way Davey's face had softened at the mention of the waitress's girlfriend.

__________

They'd been at the diner for a few hours, talking and playing games to pass the time. They hadn't seen a lot of Maria, but they had met her girlfriend, Abigail, who had greeted them with one of the biggest, friendliest smiles Jack had ever seen.

"Okay, so," Jack began. "In the future, would you rather there be flying cards or actual hoverboards like in Back to the Future?" Davey, who was laying on one of the booth seat with his head hanging upside down facing Jack laying in a booth opposite him, tilted his head with a questioning look on his face.

"Are there hoverboards in Back to the Future?" He asked. Jack took a pause to think.

"Pretty sure, yeah. 'S been a while since I've seen it."

"I don't think I've watched it since I was a kid and my parents showed it to me and Sarah."

"We're getting off topic here, Dave." Davey's cheeks went rosy in response to the nickname and Jack grinned.

"Alright, I suppose I'd want flying cars," Davey finally answered.

"Why?"

"I'd probably fall off of a hoverboard, to be honest." Jack burst out laughing at his answer, and Davey smiled at him when he did.

"Oh, you definitely would!" Jack giggled. "You'd call right on your face, oh my god!" Davey sat up to grab a napkin of the table before crumbling it up and throwing it at Jack. It hit him right on the forehead and his laughter only increased in volume, Davey joining in.

"Okay, okay," Davey heaved, still catching his breath. "In the future." Jack motioned for him to continue, still slightly laughing. "In the future, how many kids do you want?"

"Not sure I want any really, not when I'm basically already a father for all of the boys," Jack smirked. Davey smiled fondly at him.

"Don't think that's gonna work," Davey chuckled. "I've already got tons of baby name options for us." He smiled at Jack, all bright eyes and messy hair and flushed cheeks with the snowy world in the window behind him and just from looking at it Jack could tell it was so, so cold but Davey was right there and he was nothing but warmth.

Us.

Jack couldn't breath.

And Davey was still just sat there, smiling at him like he hadn't just sent Jack's heart running directly out of his chest.

"Us?" He finally managed to ask, voice barely even a whisper. Davey's smile dropped and his blush deepened, his eyes immediately leaving Jack's face in favor of staring at the wall to his right. "David," Jack tried again, voice a little bit stronger. "What did you by 'us'?" Davey glanced quickly at him before looking away again as if his life depended on it.

"I just-" He started, but his voice gave out on him slightly and he paused to breath, and then gulped in a cartoonish way that Jack would have teased him about at any other time. "Whenever I think about the future, I think about us. Together." Davey's face was red to a concerning degree and his hands were shaking and fidgeting in a way that made it clear to Jack that his anxiety was kicking in at full force. But Jack wasn't supposed to be someone that Davey got anxious around, he was supposed to be the one who kept Davey grounded, who held his hand when he needed a physical anchor and counted his breaths for him. Davey was sat there, all bright eyes and messy hair and flushed cheeks. He was beautiful and familiar and warm and he was home. And Jack was so unbelievably irreversibly in love with him.

Davey opened his mouth to start speaking again, but before he even got the chance Jack had crossed the space between their opposite booths and had practically tackled him down into the cushioned booth seat.

Kissing Davey was easy. Kissing Davey was breathtaking and warm and fuzzy and happy. Kissing Davey was all Jack had wanted to do for years, even if he hadn't known it. And Davey was kissing him back. Davey was grabbing his shoulders and his hair and pulling closer and Jack could kiss him for the rest of time and never grow tired of it. They were in the middle of a blizzard in a 50s themed diner, laying down tangled up in one of the booths, and it wasn't where Jack had pictured it happening. In all of his daydreams, he'd never pictured where they would end up - where it would happen. But when they pulled apart and they were both panting and Davey beamed up after him with a look of pure elation Jack didn't even give it a second thought before saying it.

“I'm in love with you."

Davey's smile only widened as he pulled Jack in for another kiss.

"I'm in love with you too, you dork." Jack laughed and then so did Davey and everything felt so absolutely right. They spent the rest of their time in the diner cuddled up in that booth, talking quietly with flushed cheeks and ecstatic smiles.

When the storm cleared enough for it to be safe to get back on the road, they bid Maria and Abigail a cheerful goodbye. The car ride the rest of the way to Davey's parents' house was charged with a new type of energy. They debated whether or not to tell everyone right away, given they had quite literally just gotten together, and decided against saying anything immediately - if only because they wanted to see whether Sarah or Katherine would figure it out first.

And, despite his normal anxiousness on the road, Davey held Jack's hand the whole time.

_________

taglist:

@isarants @tomanybandstolove @seriously-ceci @bens-platt @earlyjunes @broadway-trashh @interwebseriesfan24 @returnoftheborle @cozykleinman @timesarehardfornewsies @jackclyde @last-an-eon @annabethgranger123 @musi-xals @notyouraveragegryffindoor @magic-made-by-melody @i-also-miss-our-talks

@linfuckingmirandaaa @shatteringinprogress @storytellersun @psych-stereo @books-cats-sprinkles @me-andthe-sky @connor-is-my-sunshine @merediths2003 @papesfordavey @larryisinfactnotstraight @casifer-is-cute @gem-evieve @actually-lizzy @broadwayobsessedteen @majo16199 @sarkitsm @suffering-bi @tommy-braccoli @starryrevelations @woolfhrd @thesleepingandthedead @cruelnatalie @bencookisagod

#javid #jack kelly x davey jacobs #newsies #javid fic #newsies fic #bambi can kinda write

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laughingpinecone · 4 years

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For the fandom ask thingy, tell me all bout Coop/Albert and Harry/Albert, please!

OH DEAR. OH BOY

When I started shipping them: a few months after s2&movie, when I turned to Tumblr to look for Albert meta as a crutch for a D&D character in a campaign that never happened. Tumblr meta was persuasive! Fics also nailed what I felt was the characterization of both and found me heartily agreeing

My thoughts: they could be the best of what Blue Rose aspires to be… if not for those pesky (checks notes) defining character flaws. I can see them overcoming them if I squint, but it’s a lot of work and they haven’t even started

What makes me happy about them: the understanding between them (early s2, movie scenes etc), the complementary sense of humor, the mutual grounding. As a fanartist coming from a fandom where my OTP is shaped like two croissants, may I say the silliest thing? The way their profiles match

What makes me sad about them: really? REALLY? Let’s go with “doppelCoop used him and Coop didn’t even apologize” for a start? I can go on all night. “I hope to come back to a better timeline” is not a valid excuse for not apologizing. Conversely, I’m more and more convinced that all the characters’ metaphysical disappearances are shorthand for crushing pain that no-one else around the character truly saw. Within this framework, Coop was a hot mess (also outside of this framework but you know what I mean) and Albert was one of the very few people who could see it and didn’t do enough. Nobody did.

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: I can’t see plots about saving Coop anymore. Coop saves himself or disappears not even trying… whoosh… …nope, there he goes. Uncritical “I am the FBI” moments also not welcome

Things I look for in fanfic: bittersweet moments knowing that they lost so many years. Office shenanigans back in the day feat. everyone else too! Fond exasperation at each other’s methods knowing that when all is said and done, they’re working toward the same goals

My wishlist: hahahahahaha OH BOY. Coop gets a grip! Albert resigns and also gets a grip!

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Harry!! I’m also fine with Coop not ending up with anyone, sorting himself out with Laura and that’s that on that. Albert though I wish could find someone. By which I mostly mean Harry. I haven’t considered anyone else among the canon characters (maybe there’s someone I haven’t considered, though?) but I think I accidentally made a somewhat convincing argument for Albert and fellow grump C.W. from Obduction. Also my RP Cabanela once smooched a Coop but that’s another story for another time and I can’t see it long-term anyway.

My happily ever after for them: well for one they’re in the same reality and there’s maybe no more than three of each of them around,

When I started shipping them: not long after my first love Coop/Albert! Again, thanks to fic and meta

My thoughts: it may take them the better part of 25 years to get over Coop but they’re so so so good for each other. Distance and career are capital letter Issues but maybe less so in the present time, when Harry is forcibly removed from his position and I myself am going to forcibly remove Albert from his job if no-one else will

What makes me happy about them: how they can relax around each other. They are both trustworthy to an incredible degree and they can chill. They also have different understandings of the assorted eldritch forces that surround us all and they’re both very grounded about it, which is a welcome change of pace!

What makes me sad about them: well one’s got cancer and the other one threw away his life in a wild goose chase nobody even briefed him on so there’s that

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: when the plot of the fic is about saving Coop (see above, alas) and in the end Coop is written off as quickly as possible?

Things I look for in fanfic: making the most of their time together, long phone calls, Albert disdainfully adapting to small town life and fighting to improve the community, plenty of barn animals. Ethereal whooshings but they’re solid enough to withstand them

My wishlist: not ONE whiff of a season 4 for obvious reasons. S3 ended with them both alive and a little lost and I’d like for things to stay that way, canonically

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Coop, theoretically.

My happily ever after for them: Harry in remission and Albert enjoying retirement! He makes quick friends with Doris. They shout a lot, it’s therapeutic. It’s a weirder relationship with Frank but there’s some level of mutual appreciation. Hawk finally, FINALLY gets the snarking partner he deserves. Tammy sends her love

#dye ann #tp #meme.#OH DEAR

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dark-and-twisty-01 · 5 years

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Anastasia, Albert mobster and murder victim (1957)

A native Italian, born Umberto Anastasio in 1903, Albert Anastasia entered the United States illegally sometime between 1917 and 1920 (reports vary). With brother Anthony ("Tough Tony") Anastasio, he soon muscled his way into labor activities on the Brooklyn docks and rose to a leadership position in the longshoreman's union. Anastasia committed his first known murder of a fellow longshoreman in the early 1920s and was sentenced to die in the electric chair at Sing Sing, but a new trial was granted on appeal and Anastasia was acquitted after four key witnesses vanished without a trace.

That pattern of eradicating witnesses became Anastasia's trademark, expressed to underworld cohorts as a simple motto: "If you ain't got no witness, you ain't got no case." In the late 1920s Anastasia aligned himself with up and coming mobsters Charles ("Lucky") Luciano and Frank Costello, soon emerging as their primary hit man in the war between Mafia bosses Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. Luciano's group first betrayed Masseria (show while dining with Luciano on April 15, 1931), and then eliminated Maranzano (killed in his office on September 10, 1931) to consolidate their rule over the New York City underworld.

Luciano's victory placed Anastasia in charge (with Mafia allet Louis Buchalter) of a Brooklyn-based hit team later nicknamed "Murder Incorporated" by sensational journalists. The same reporters dubbed Anastasia the "Lord High Executioner," while some who knew him better spoke of him (behind his back) as "The Mad Hatter." Psychotic rages notwithstanding, Anastasia served the syndicate loyally for decades, and he was duly rewarded. In 1951, with Luciano deported to Italy and Costello trapped in the spotlight of televised hearings on organized crime, Anastasia was elevated to lead his own "family," formally led by Vincent Mangano (another permanently missing person).

Anastasia survived only six years as one of the Big Apple's five Mafia bosses. With virtual absolute power in hand , he became too aggressive and erratic for the other mob leaders to trust or tolerate. On the morning of October 25, 1957, two masked gunmen entered the Park Sheraton Hotel's barbershop, where Anastasia was getting a shave, and killed him in a blaze of pistol fire. Underworld rumors named the shooters as Joseph Gallo and his brother Larry, but no suspects were ever formally identified.

Suggested motives for the Anastasia rubout are diverse. Some authors believe he was killed by a rival mob boss Vito Genovese, while others blame Anastasia's first lieutenant (and successor) Carlo Gambino. Yet another theory has both mobsters collaborating against Anastasia for mutual benefit. A fourth theory contends that Florida mobster Santos Trafficante teamed wirth Jewish gangsters Meyer Lansky and Moe Dalitz to eliminate Anastasia, after Anastasia demanded a share of their gambling interests in Cuba. Whatever the truth, it is known that a national conclave of Mafia bosses was scheduled for November 14, 1957, with an explanation for Anastasia's murder topping the agenda. (He was accused, among other things, of selling Mafia memberships to "undesirable" subjects.) New York state police raided the meeting at Apalachin amd jailed 58 mobsters on various chargers (mostly dismissed), while dozens more escaped the dragnet. The raid and attendant publicity finally forced J. Edgar Hoover's FBI to acknowledge the existence of organized crime in America.

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jack-kellys · 6 years

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Mutuals as

oh gosh I get to choose

okay

mutuals as percy jackson people yeet

ok percy is @suddenly-im-respecsable cause you’re both good at what you do but really big fucking messes but ends up on top of their shit mostly in the end

annabeth is gonna be @alberts-cigar just cause. i mean. so much yes all the yes

will solace goes to @spot-conlon-king-of-brooklyn since you’re just a bright ray of sunshine :)

hazel goes to @well-the-kids-do-too cause you both are adorable but secretly kinda dark

@tommy-s-s0cks is Dionysus I don’t make the rules

@night-is-my-time-of-day is nico di angelo change my mind

@bencookisagod gives me jason vibes in a good way. but you won’t get hit with a brick I promise. also we out here loving Jason grace tbh I fuckin love that dude aw man

@fameworks-quicker piper!!! so many good piper vibes we LOVE

@thomasbeingthomas for a sec I was like....shit who’s frank zhang...BUT ITS YOU ITS SO YOU YOU’RE SO FRANK AHAHA

and then there’s me, who is highkey leo valdez.

—

thanks anoooon sorry if not all of you know percy Jackson/heroes of Olympus too well but ah these are all true so deal with it

#this might be a perfect post #mutuals #fizz answers #not newsies #percy jackson #i urge yall to look up your person

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k00263287 · 4 years

Quote

By linking to the fungal network they can help out their neighbours by sharing nutrients and information – or sabotage unwelcome plants by spreading toxic chemicals through the network. This "wood wide web", it turns out, even has its own version of cybercrime. Around 90% of land plants are in mutually-beneficial relationships with fungi. The 19th-century German biologist Albert Bernard Frank coined the word "mycorrhiza" to describe these partnerships, in which the fungus colonises the roots of the plant. In mycorrhizal associations, plants provide fungi with food in the form of carbohydrates. In exchange, the fungi help the plants suck up water, and provide nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen, via their mycelia. Since the 1960s, it has been clear that mycorrhizae help individual plants to grow.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141111-plants-have-a-hidden-internet

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garudabluffs · 5 years

Photo

How a Guy From a Montana Trailer Park Overturned 150 Years of Biology

Biology textbooks tell us that lichens are alliances between two organisms—a fungus and an alga. They are wrong.

“This kind of mutually beneficial relationship was unheard of, and required a new word. Two Germans, Albert Frank and Anton de Bary, provided the perfect one—symbiosis, from the Greek for ‘together’ and ‘living’. “ “ He has shown that largest and most species-rich group of lichens are not alliances between two organisms, as every scientist since Schwendener has claimed. Instead, they’re alliances between three. All this time, a second type of fungus has been hiding in plain view.”

READ MORE https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-a-guy-from-a-montana-trailer-park-overturned-150-years-of-biology?utm_source=pocket-newtab

#lichen

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thewidowstanton · 5 years

Text

Archive feature 2012: Pulling Strings, Frank Mumford, marionettist

To mark the unveiling of our friend Frank Mumford’s most famous puppet – Mademoiselle Zizi, with her accompanist Fyodor – as part of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s permanent collection in London, we are posting this archive feature about him and his wife Maisie, and their amazing showbusiness lives.

By Liz Arratoon

Flicking through my aunt’s Contact the Elderly newsletter, I noticed an old photo of an extremely stylish couple holding two extraordinary puppets. They turned out to be Frank and Maisie Mumford, who, from the 1940s to 1970s, performed with their internationally acclaimed marionette troupe. Though Maisie died in 1985, Frank – now in his nineties – is living in the same tiny London mews flat they shared since 1946. He has lost none of his charm or humour and, with perfect recall, he explains: “My nearest sister, the youngest of three, was ten when I was born, so I was a loner. I grew up with Somerset Maugham and HG Wells’ books and started to create a world of my own.”

Recovering from mumps when he was six, he converted a Maynard’s sweet box into a miniature theatre and, fascinated by cinema, saved up for a Pathe Kid projector and started making films. “I cut a proscenium in the front and had curtains and cut figures out of magazines with hairpins to hold them.” But it was when his English/drama teacher gave him the American puppeteer Tony Sarg’s book, Marionettes and How to Make Them, that his life’s work took off. Originally billed as Master Mumford and His Marionettes – he played London’s Wood Green Empire at 14.

“I had a stand of puppets at the School Boys’ Exhibition at Alexandra Palace from 1933-36. I got a job at Edmonds of Wood Green in display and had a permanent puppet theatre, performing afternoon shows and special ones at Christmas to bring people in. I learnt and learnt and learnt with a captive audience. At about 15 I began to have friends who were professional sculptors, painters and musicians. When I was 16 or 17 we formed the first Puppet Productions and played all London’s small theatres.” From opera to ballet, nothing was beyond their scope.

In 1938 Maisie Tierney joined the troupe, but it disbanded at the outbreak of war in 1939. They married in July 1944, and that September Frank was taken prisoner at Arnhem. “She thought I’d gone for good,” he says. But on his release he joined the Central Pool of Artists and created the two-hour touring show Stars on Strings. After his demob in 1946, they developed a more practical two-handed act. With Frank making all the puppets, hand-carving their wooden heads, their glamorous, fast-paced act was born. “The puppets we’d been using were fine for small theatres. They were about 18” high with seven-foot strings, but to play a place like Hackney Empire, they needed to be bigger, about two feet tall. I designed a bigger head and scaled the body down and it worked.”

They played the Moss Empires’ circuit, top London nightclubs – including Edmundo Ros’ Coconut Grove – and variety shows and cabarets around the world. From the Moulin Rouge to the Casino de Paris, and from the London Palladium to the Sporting Club in Monte Carlo, the Mumfords’ speciality act was there. Before a show the puppets had to be groomed and mechanically set. Roughly nine were used in a music hall or nightclub spot but between 12 and 30 might be needed for plays. Each of their four cabaret spots lasted about 15 minutes, “depending on the applause”, but the shows ran to an hour and 45 minutes.

Ideally the puppets had to be seen from about ten or 15 feet away. The lighting had to exclude the puppeteers’ hands and had to be very powerful, but Frank says proudly: “We had theatre craft, so people didn’t look at us. They applauded the puppets.” He worked constantly on improvements and even changed his shoes to black suede, to eliminate reflections.

A typical cabaret programme would include scenes of different pairs of puppets: two hippos doing a routine, two skeletons doing another, a bullfight, with a bull and a matador, a belly dancer with a man at her feet, Javanese dancers… and then there would be the delectable Zizi, their undoubted star. Introduced in 1947, Mademoiselle Zizi – modelled on Lana Turner and Gypsy Rose Lee – was an instant success. The diminutive chanteuse was always immaculate, with dresses – one designed by Schiaparelli and lined with her trademark shocking pink – made by Frank, who also made her jewellery. Her delicately carved fingers had painted red nails. “After a show in Juans les Pins, her measurements were given in a write-up as 36, 28, 36 and she was named ‘Miss Venus of the Cote d’Azur’,” Frank remembers fondly. But she was also labelled ‘Sex Appeal on Strings’ by the Manchester Herald, and later banned for kissing men in the audience at the Birmingham Hippodrome. Such was the allure of the Mumford puppets!

Indeed, those who fell under Zizi’s spell included another glamorous couple; the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Frank cites a private party for the Duke’s birthday given by socialite Margaret Thompson Biddle in Paris as their most prestigious date. “Our agent said, ‘We’ve got a booking and we can’t send just anybody. We want someone with style’. She had a beautiful old house on the Left Bank and we did the show in the garden. Afterwards, out of the darkness, the Duke’s equerry emerged and said, ‘The Duke wants to see Zizi again’, so we had to unpack her. The Duke always looked haggard in photos but face-to-face he looked fantastic. He was about 50. Mrs Simpson appeared, too, in a Balmain dress. She wasn’t going to be left out.” The Duke rebooked them six months later for a party he gave in the same house for the Norwegian ambassador.

And at Christmas 1961 they did shows for the royal family, their friends and municipal workers in Monaco. “We arrived on le Train Bleu at 8am and were met by a chauffeur in a Mercedes saloon, which was ours for the week. They had a bijou throne room at the palace. Princess Grace hardly spoke, but Prince Rainier was absolutely easy to chat to. He was the one I had to go to for Zizi to kiss but after about ten shows he got fed up with it.” Later someone asked what Zizi thought of Princess Grace? The answer came: “Well, she’s kissed a prince but I’ve kissed kings.”

I, however, was not the first to unearth the Mumfords’ glittering past. The award-winning film maker Richard Butchins was introduced to Frank by a mutual friend, and finding that he still had all the puppets in his attic – where they’d lain lifelessly for years – and roll upon roll of archive film of their shows and TV appearances, decided to make a documentary. He hopes to finish it by September, depending on finance – the money has come via crowdfunding campaigns on indiegogo – but it hasn’t been easy. Butchins says: “All of their performances on British TV have gone because nothing was archived until the 70s. Basically, the late 40s, 50s and 60s is the part I’m particularly in love with but I’m looking for stuff from Spanish TV in the 50s, and German and Japanese TV in the 70s. I discovered about 20 minutes of film in the French national archives from the late 40s or early 50s, this beautiful black and white film, but they want an absolute fortune to use it.”

Frank describes this as a “smidgen” of their story, which he is documenting in a book, and is determined Maisie should not be forgotten. “It’s come about that it’s all about me, but Maisie contributed an enormous amount. During the bad times you get in showbusiness she was always terribly supportive. She was very beautiful and had charisma in bucketfuls. She had a wonderful personality, like sunshine. We spent 24 hours of every day together and fortunately we were very good friends.”

The renewed interest in their work has, for example, given Frank the chance to see old films he shot for the BBC for the first time. He says: “It’s fantastic, but tiring having to deal with my Beethoven effect.” His hearing may be lost but, thanks to Butchins, Frank and Maisie’s important contribution to the UK’s variety heritage never will be.

youtube

Mademoiselle Zizi and Fyodor are on display in the Theatre and Performance Galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London

Sadly, Frank died in 2014, and here’s his obituary in The Sunday Telegraph, also by Liz Arratoon

Pictures: Courtesy of the Frank Mumford Archive

This feature first appeared in The Stage in 2012

#frank mumford #Frank and Maisie Mumford #variety feature #puppets #marionettist #mademoiselle zizi #richard butchins #an attic full of puppets #victoria and albert museum #mumford puppets

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lynchgirl90 · 7 years

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#TwinPeaks @Kyle_MacLachlan Actually, no one in the cast know what's going to happen!

'Twin Peaks': David Lynch and Kyle MacLachlan on the Revival's Secretive Nature

It is happening again — and that's just about all David Lynch is willing to say on the subject of the Twin Peaks revival.

The legendary filmmaker, who along with co-creator Mark Frost serves as the key creative mind behind Peaks, one of the strangest and most surreal series in television history, returns to the Pacific Northwest for another proverbial slice of cherry pie in Showtime's upcoming revival. Much like it was in the damn good coffee glory days, the new iteration of the series comes shrouded in secrecy. Trailers and teasers have revealed almost nothing about the plot, except for the fact that some of those familiar gumshoes you liked are back in style, including Kyle MacLachlan as Agent Dale Cooper, the late Miguel Ferrer as the blunt but brilliant Agent Albert Rosenfield, and Lynch himself as the hard-of-hearing Gordon Cole.

Beyond that? Fans are in the dark, trapped in a Black Lodge of sorts as they wait to find out what exactly happened to Agent Cooper after the brutal cliffhanger that closed out season two. For frustrated fans looking for someone to blame for all the secrecy, look no further than Lynch.

"It comes from my own personal desire to not know anything before I see a film," Lynch tells The Hollywood Reporter about why he's keeping the story under such tight wraps, an ethos so serious that several of the cast and crew won't be permitted to speak about Peaks on the record until after the season ends in September. "I want to experience it in a pure way and be taken into a world, letting it go where it takes you. It takes you where it wants to take you, and it's a beautiful, beautiful experience. It's very precious, and the more you know, it sort of takes away from that full experience."

Lynch is so committed to keeping the show's secrets that he won't say whether the upcoming season paves the way for another. ("I'm not allowed to speak about this," he says.) He won't weigh in on any of the new characters, either. ("I don't know if I can really get into that," he offers coyly, punctuating the mystery with a quick laugh.) He's tight-lipped on the casting process, too, with the series involving more than 200 actors, including franchise newcomers (albeit Lynch veterans) Laura Dern and Naomi Watts.

"You try to get the right person for the part, and that's it," he says. "Pure and simple. So much of filmmaking is common sense."

It's common sense that Peaks is returning now, given the events of the initial series. In season one's unforgettable third episode, Agent Cooper experiences a vision of an older version of himself sitting inside the infamous Red Room, where he sees the backwards-speaking Man From Another Place (Michael J. Anderson) and a woman who is a dead-ringer for the dead Laura Palmer. "I'll see you again in 25 years," she later tells Cooper — and at least on that one plot point, Lynch confirms that Laura's promise has been upheld.

"It's 25 years after" the original run, Lynch says about when the series takes place. "It was spoken about in the original series, and it just so happened to be about that time [in real time], so Mark and I got together and started talking. One thing led to another, and here we are." Lynch adds that he and Frost didn't write that line originally with the intention of returning to this story all these years later: "It wasn't really something you can plan, but then again, there it was."

How will the 25 years of story and real time between seasons impact what viewers are about to see when they return to the Great Northern and the Bang Bang Bar? Again, here comes Lynch with another riddle: "I'll say that many things are the same, and many things are different, just like in real life." Take Agent Cooper as an example of that dichotomy. It's clear that Kyle MacLachlan is once again locked and loaded to lead the charge on Twin Peaks, but it's not clear that he'll be reprising the eternally optimistic Cooper, at least not in the traditional form. The final episode of the series ended with Cooper's soul trapped inside the Black Lodge, with the murderous spirit Killer BOB (played by the late Frank Silva) now occupying Cooper's mortal form in the real world.

"It was kind of like, the engine's revved up again," MacLachlan tells THR about that nightmarish ending. "There's a great question of, 'What's going to happen now?' Unfortunately, it was too late — which is why it's so beautiful that we're able to return after all of this time and pick the story up and move forward and hopefully have some answers."

Alas, those answers will have to wait, as MacLachlan happily abides by Lynch's policy.

"I think it's terrific," says MacLachlan. "I'm excited about the idea. I'm actually thrilled about the idea, that we've been able to keep it under wraps, which was the idea from the very, very beginning. When I had my first reading of the script, I read it at the studio in a room by myself. Of course, I didn't tell them I took photographs of every page…."

(He's kidding, of course, in case Mr. Lynch is reading.)

"They let me read it all the way through, and then I had to pass the script back," he continues. "The pages were then distributed out, and I was one of the ones who had most of the script, which I needed. Most people just received what was pertinent to them. Again, it was an effort to keep things contained, and also to help us. That way, if anyone asks us about the story, we could say, 'I don't really know!' As opposed to feeling an obligation to say something, or maybe you would feel compelled out of your own sense of whatever to say it's about this or this. There were no opportunities for that. I love that people are going to be embarking on this fresh. For something that's so well known, it's going to be a whole new journey. I think that's wonderful."

When it comes to speaking about Peaks from a structural standpoint, Lynch and MacLachlan are much more open than they are about the story. The series is set to air across 18 episodes, all of which were directed by Lynch, who prefers to view them as 18 hours of one sprawling movie.

"I see it as a film," he says. "I think if you think about it as one whole that's been divided, it's a little different than thinking about it as one episode after another. It's just a little bit different."

"It was definitely a different structure," MacLachlan agrees. "Instead of traditional episodes that were handed out one by one, this came as a very long feature. He's made a point of calling them 'hours' or 'parts.' In his mind, he's directed an 18-hour movie that was fractured into 18 installments. It's different in the telling of the story; maybe not different in the playing, because the scripts were already broken into scenes, anyway. You're concentrating on smaller pieces. But when you go to assemble it? I'm sure the editors were looking at it and going, 'What are we going to do!' The assemblage, I'm sure, was very different."

The structure may be very different, but several other ingredients are very familiar, starting with the man who plays Cooper and the man who created the character. Twin Peaks' long-awaited return serves as the long-awaited reunion of Lynch and MacLachlan, who first worked together on the 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune. After more than 30 years of knowing each other and collaborating on films like Blue Velvet, few individuals are better positioned to weigh in on Lynch's mysterious ways than MacLachlan.

"He's unlike anything else," says the actor. "The environment he creates for us is so supportive. There's a lot of humor involved. There's tremendous focus. There's a clarity of vision. If for some reason he's not sure about something, he sits and thinks about it until he's sure. There's no forward steps without knowing where we're going. But that's not to say he's not open to happy accidents, as well. That's one of the catchphrases about David's process: If there's something that happens that's unexpected or accidental, as opposed to rejecting it outright, oftentimes he welcomes it in. He counts it as life. Those things can be very revealing and important. There's room for that in the creative process. It's a real pleasure working with him, whether you're talking to an old-timer like me or people who have just come on for the first time. To a person, they'll say that it was one of the best working experiences they have ever had."

To MacLachlan and the hundreds of actors appearing this year in Twin Peaks, rest assured: the feeling is mutual.

"I love these characters, and I love the actors and actresses," says Lynch. "This was like getting together for a family reunion."

link (TP)

#David Lynch #Kyle MacLachlan #The Hollywood Reporter #Twin Peaks

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lichenloglichenblog · 7 years

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How a Guy From a Montana Trailer Park Overturned 150 Years of Biology

We here at the lichenloglichenblog encourage you to read this.

Biology textbooks tell us that lichens are alliances between two organisms—a fungus and an alga. They are wrong.

ED YONG, JUL 21, 2016 SCIENCE

In 1995, if you had told Toby Spribille that he’d eventually overthrow a scientific idea that’s been the stuff of textbooks for 150 years, he would have laughed at you. Back then, his life seemed constrained to a very different path. He was raised in a Montana trailer park, and home-schooled by what he now describes as a “fundamentalist cult.” At a young age, he fell in love with science, but had no way of feeding that love. He longed to break away from his roots and get a proper education.

At 19, he got a job at a local forestry service. Within a few years, he had earned enough to leave home. His meager savings and non-existent grades meant that no American university would take him, so Spribille looked to Europe.

Thanks to his family background, he could speak German, and he had heard that many universities there charged no tuition fees. His missing qualifications were still a problem, but one that the University of Gottingen decided to overlook. “They said that under exceptional circumstances, they could enroll a few people every year without transcripts,” says Spribille. “That was the bottleneck of my life.”

Throughout his undergraduate and postgraduate work, Spribille became an expert on the organisms that had grabbed his attention during his time in the Montana forests—lichens.

You’ve seen lichens before, but unlike Spribille, you may have ignored them. They grow on logs, cling to bark, smother stones. At first glance, they look messy and undeserving of attention. On closer inspection, they are astonishingly beautiful. They can look like flecks of peeling paint, or coralline branches, or dustings of powder, or lettuce-like fronds, or wriggling worms, or cups that a pixie might drink from. They’re also extremely tough. They grow in the most inhospitable parts of the planet, where no plant or animal can survive.

Lichens have an important place in biology. In the 1860s, scientists thought that they were plants. But in 1868, a Swiss botanist named Simon Schwendener revealed that they’re composite organisms, consisting of fungi that live in partnership with microscopic algae. This “dual hypothesis” was met with indignation: it went against the impetus to put living things in clear and discrete buckets. The backlash only collapsed when Schwendener and others, with good microscopes and careful hands, managed to tease the two partners apart.

Schwendener wrongly thought that the fungus had “enslaved” the alga, but others showed that the two cooperate. The alga uses sunlight to make nutrients for the fungus, while the fungus provides minerals, water, and shelter. This kind of mutually beneficial relationship was unheard of, and required a new word. Two Germans, Albert Frank and Anton de Bary, provided the perfect one—symbiosis, from the Greek for ‘together’ and ‘living’.

“That was the eureka moment. That’s when I leaned back in my chair.”

When we think about the microbes that influence the health of humans and other animals, the algae that provide coral reefs with energy, the mitochondria that power our cells, the gut bacteria that allow cows to digest their food, or the probiotic products that line supermarket shelves—all of that can be traced to the birth of the symbiosis as a concept. And symbiosis, in turn, began with lichens.

In the 150 years since Schwendener, biologists have tried in vain to grow lichens in laboratories. Whenever they artificially united the fungus and the alga, the two partners would never fully recreate their natural structures. It was as if something was missing—and Spribille might have discovered it.

He has shown that largest and most species-rich group of lichens are not alliances between two organisms, as every scientist since Schwendener has claimed. Instead, they’re alliances between three. All this time, a second type of fungus has been hiding in plain view.

“There’s been over 140 years of microscopy,” says Spribille. “The idea that there’s something so fundamental that people have been missing is stunning.”

The path to this discovery began in 2011, when Spribille, now armed with a doctorate, returned to Montana. He joined the lab of symbiosis specialist John McCutcheon, who convinced him to supplement his formidable natural history skills with some know-how in modern genetics.

The duo started studying two local lichens that are common in local forests and hang from branches like unruly wigs. One is yellow because it makes a strong poison called vulpinic acid; the other lacks this toxin and is dark brown. They clearly look different, and had been classified as separate species for almost a century. But recent studies had suggested that they’re actually the same fungus, partnered with the same alga. So why are they different?

To find out, Spribille analyzed which genes the two lichens were activating. He found no differences. Then, he realized that he was searching too narrowly. Lichenologists all thought that the fungi in the partnership belonged to a group called the ascomycetes—so Spribille had only searched for ascomycete genes. Almost on a whim, he broadened his search to the entire fungal kingdom, and found something bizarre. A lot of the genes that were activated in the lichens belonged to a fungus from an entirely different group—the basidiomycetes. “That didn’t look right,” says McCutcheon. “It took a lot of time to figure out.”

At first, the duo figured that a basidiomycete fungus was growing on the lichens. Perhaps it was just a contaminant, a speck of microbial fluff that had landed on the specimens. Or it might have been a pathogen, a fungus that was infecting the lichens and causing disease. It might simply have been a false alarm. (Such things happen: genetic algorithms have misidentified plague bacteria on the New York subway, platypuses in Virginia tomato fields, and seals in Vietnamese forests.)

But when Spribille removed all the basidiomycete genes from his data, everything that related to the presence of vulpinic acid also disappeared. “That was the eureka moment,” he says. “That’s when I leaned back in my chair.” That’s when he began to suspect that the basidiomycete was actually part of the lichens—present in both types, but especially abundant in the yellow toxic one.

“Toby took huge risks for many years. And he changed the field.”

And not just in these two types, either. Throughout his career, Spribille had collected some 45,000 samples of lichens. He began screening these, from many different lineages and continents. And in almost all the macrolichens—the world’s most species-rich group—he found the genes of basidiomycete fungi. They were everywhere. Now, he needed to see them with his own eyes.

Down a microscope, a lichen looks like a loaf of ciabatta: it has a stiff, dense crust surrounding a spongy, loose interior. The alga is embedded in the thick crust. The familiar ascomycete fungus is there too, but it branches inwards, creating the spongy interior. And the basidiomycetes? They’re in the outermost part of the crust, surrounding the other two partners. “They’re everywhere in that outer layer,” says Spribille.

Despite their seemingly obvious location, it took around five years to find them. They’re embedded in a matrix of sugars, as if someone had plastered over them. To see them, Spribille bought laundry detergent from Wal-Mart and used it to very carefully strip that matrix away.

And even when the basidiomycetes were exposed, they weren’t easy to identify. They look exactly like a cross-section from one of the ascomycete branches. Unless you know what you’re looking for, there’s no reason why you’d think there are two fungi there, rather than one—which is why no one realised for 150 years. Spribille only worked out what was happening by labeling each of the three partners with different fluorescent molecules, which glowed red, green, and blue respectively. Only then did the trinity become clear.

“The findings overthrow the two-organism paradigm,” says Sarah Watkinson from the University of Oxford. “Textbook definitions of lichens may have to be revised.”

“It makes lichens all the more remarkable,” adds Nick Talbot from the University of Exeter. “We now see that they require two different kinds of fungi and an algal species. If the right combination meet together on a rock or twig, then a lichen will form, and this will result in the large and complex plant-like organisms that we see on trees and rocks very commonly. The mechanism by which this symbiotic association occurs is completely unknown and remains a real mystery.”

Based on the locations of the two fungi, it’s possible that the basidiomycete influences the growth of the other fungus, inducing it to create the lichen’s stiff crust. Perhaps by using all three partners, lichenologists will finally be able to grow these organisms in the lab.

In the Montana lichens that Spribille studied, the basidiomycete obviously goes hand-in-hand with vulpinic acid. But is it eating the acid, manufacturing it, or unlocking the ability to make it in the other fungus? If it’s the latter, “the implications go beyond lichenology,” says Watkinson. Lichens are alluring targets for ‘bioprospectors’, who scour nature for substances that might be medically useful to us. And new basidiomycetes are part of an entirely new group, separated from their closest known relatives by 200 million years ago. All kinds of beneficial chemicals might lie within their cells.

“But really, we don’t know what they do,” says McCutcheon. “And given their existence, we don’t really know what the ascomycetes do, either.” Everything that’s been attributed to them might actually be due to the other fungus. Many of the fundamentals of lichenology will need to be checked, and perhaps re-written. “Toby took huge risks for many years,” says McCutcheon. “And he changed the field.”

But he didn’t work alone, Watkinson notes. His discovery wouldn’t have been possible without the entire team, who combined their individual expertise in natural history, genomics, microscopy, and more. That’s a theme that resonates throughout the history of symbiosis research—it takes an alliance of researchers to uncover nature’s most intimate partnerships.

This part is from Lichenloglichenblog:

Lichen on!

#no photos today just shocking info #lichen

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laughingpinecone · 5 years

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Letter!

Trick or Treat time!

I am laughingpineapple on AO3

It’s a long list of characters so the specific requests aren’t overly detailed, please draw at will from my general likes and general fandom likes in addition or as an alternative to any of those!

All requests are art or fic - for art, the stuff I like is the kind that depicts the characters doing something. I’ll aways be happier with a very simple drawing of two characters walking together or sharing a cup of coffee than with an ambitious composition that looks like an Avengers poster.

They are also all for tricks and treats, except for The Swapper which is just tricks, but ignore at will for extra gifts.

Likes: worldbuilding, slice of life (doubly so if the event the fic focuses on is made up but canon-specific), missing moments, 5+1 and similar formats, bonding and emotional support/intimacy, physical intimacy, lingering touches, loyalty, casefic, surrealism, magical realism, established relationships, future fic, hurt/comfort or just comfort from the ample canon hurt, throwing characters into non-canon environments, banter, functional relationships between dysfunctional individuals, unexplained mysteries, bittersweet moods, journal/epistolary fic, dreams and memories and identities, canon-adjacent tropey plots, outsider POV, UST, exploration of secondary bits of canon, leaning on the uniqueness of the canon setting/mood, found families, characters reuniting after a long and/or harrowing time, friends-to-lovers, road trips, maps, mutual pining, cuddling, wintry moods, the feeling of flannel and other fabrics, ridiculous concepts played straight, sensory details, sickfic, places being haunted, people being haunted, the mystery of the woods, small hopes in bleak worlds, electricity, places that don’t quite add up, mismatched memories, caves and deep places, distant city lights at night

Cool with: any tense, any pov, any rating, plotty, not plotty, IF, nerdy canon references, unrequested characters popping up

DNW: non-canonical rape, non-canonical children, unrequested ships, canon retellings, consent issues

Twin Peaks: Harry Truman, James Hurley, Frank Truman, Albert Rosenfield, Tammy Preston, Monica Bellucci, Margaret Lanterman, Denise Bryson, Cynthia Knox, Constance Talbot, Bosomy Woman, Annie Blackburn, Jade, Wally Brando, Diane Evans, Doris Truman, Lucy Moran

The mystery of the woods. How do they relate to the woods, what do they gain and what do they lose in the woods. Case fic but they don’t find out jack shit, someone disappears, David Bowie was there, it’s complicated. Fragmented, shifted, mirrored identities. New Lodge spaces. The risks of staring into the void for too long. Gentle illusions. Transcendence. The moon. Static buzzing. Any title from the s3 ethereal whooshing compilation used as a prompt, actually. For treats, all these spooky things can remain in the background while the warmer hues of canon (all the food and cute friendships and Canadian geese and sparks of joy) take center place!

AUs and fusion AUs are great for this fandom! I have Final Fantasy on my mind a lot recently so any FFVI, VII, T, IX, X, XII or XIII reimagining would be fantastic, but also regular fantasy, space opera, sci-fantasy… anything fancy!

I ship Coop/Albert/Harry and all sides thereof, Laura/Donna, Tammy/Cynthia, Lucy/Andy, Gordon/Phillip, Chet/Sam. I love & for all of the above and Harry&Frank, Bookhouse Boys in general, Margaret&Hawk, James&Shelly, Margaret&Trumans, Albert&Frank, Albert&Doris, Tammy&Albert, Tammy&literally any woman in the cast, Denise&any Blue Rose, Cynthia&Constance, Constance&Twin Peaks cast, Annie&Audrey, Annie&Shelly, Wally&Coop&Laura, Diane&Albert, Diane&Phillip, Lucy&Margaret. $character&Laura is the free space here, when in doubt add Laura.

Canon-specific DNWs: any singular Dreamer being the ‘source’ of canon, BOB (let alone Judy) being forever defeated in the finale, Judy being an active malevolent presence in the characters’ lives, clear explanations for canonical ambiguities, ‘Odessaverse’ being the reality layer, the Fireman’s House by the Sea being the White Lodge

Harry Truman: his life in remission or something with animals Frank Truman: maybe he’s a tulpa or maybe he came back to a town he doesn’t recognize anymore Albert Rosenfield: splitting identities post-canon, leaving the FBI, something about his jazz collection Tammy Preston: Tammy infodumping 101, meeting legacy characters, trying not to implode like previous generations of blue rose Monica Bellucci: just give me your headcanons about whatever the hell that was about, possibly not as a retelling. Was she actual Monica, a masking memory for a different spirit, something else entirely... Margaret Lanterman: playing off any character we never see her share a scene with in canon, environmental activist, saplings enthusiast Denise Bryson: actual undercover FBI means she’s now part of office shenanigans, right? Or coming back to Twin Peaks years later Cynthia Knox: Garland’s legacy in the USAF is a heavy burden. going through an initiation of her own not unlike Tammy Constance Talbot: visiting Twin Peaks for whatever reason, being shaken by some supernatural event Bosomy Woman: who is she, where does she come from. is she friends with Phil. I’m down with her being Lois Duffy or not Jade: two things I love about her are that she comes out unscathed from a brush-in with the supernatural and that "Jade” is an alias she got from Invitation to Love. Expanding on either topic would be great (Invitation to Love fandom fic?) Wally Brando: the absolute coolest. That is unironically all. Tell me more about how cool he is, in the woods or on the road. Diane Evans: defragmenting her self somehow, in and out of the red room Doris Truman: what’s she like, who is she friends with. A coincidence in Hastings’ website makes me wonder if she’s an UFO enthusiast and interested in the zone Lucy Moran: Lucy's way of perceiving the world as a gateway to deeper truths which she may or may not be aware of. Also raccoons.

Ghost Trick: Cabanela, Jowd, Alma, Pigeon Man, Emma, Bailey

I am very interested in various characters finding about the erased timeline, but not getting their memories back, and having to live with being told about what they did but never remembering it. All what-ifs welcome (what if they managed an acceptable happy ending but didn’t reset the timeline, what if a different party went back to the past and kept their memories, what if Alma’s ghost stuck around…) Also open to AUs here, especially for generic fantasy or sci-fi settings or the Final Fantasy ones I prompted for Yuletide .

I ship Alma/Cabanela/Jowd, Alma/Jowd and Cabanela/Jowd and like all the & relationships in the game and more. Lots of love to Sissel and Missile always. (and Alma/Cabanela if Jowd isn’t around for some reason! Just don’t ignore him please!)

Cabanela: graciously accepting some type of defeat, or being rightfully stubborn about something. Maybe situations in which he knows he doesn’t have to lead Jowd: time-displaced and touch-starved, or getting to the bottom of the morbid humor barrel. Knowing he’s at the center of everyone’s attention. (for the record, that beard is at the center of my attention. it is very nice) Alma: would be nice if she had a personality of her own. Ghost Alma with or without powers? Teaming up with Cabanela or Lynne? Maybe she has trouble communicating with them but she’s there? Pigeon Man: how do he and Lovey take to Sissel. Friendship with Cabanela in the new timeline. Emma: her plotting process, or her activist leanings, or both. Is she friends with Alma? Bailey: I like how simple he is, and his panic dance of course. Throw him at another character of your choice and see what happens? Cabanela, for example?

The Last Remnant: Kate, Pagus, Emma, David Nassau, Zolean, Sibal, Maddox

I’m very interested in post-game exploration, and getting a clearer feeling of any of the cities and assorted places. I like characterization based on battle quotes, red bubble dialogues, and even their unique stat (‘authority’ is a natural fit for David but ‘romance’ tells me something new about Sibal!) Character interaction. Bit of worldbuilding. What’s another festival they celebrate? Do they erect something else instead of the Valeria Heart? Any fun discoveries down in Siebenbur? Where the hell IS Veyriel, anyway, do they go look for it and if so what do they find out? End of an age. Old bonds.

I ship David/Rush (wouldn’t want it as the main focus of a David fic, but as background there or anywhere it’s great) and Pagus/Sibal/Maddox. David&Rush and Pagus&Sibal&Maddox are also great. I also love Torgal, Caedmon, Allan, Irina, Glenys, Sheryl, Roberto and the Duke of Ghor, but everyone, really.

Kate: any expansion of her tulpa narrative? Maybe while she makes a friend of your choice? Pagus: my history-loving nerd. I’m also not over the fact that it’s stated canon that for a Qsiti, he’s an absolute catch. What a babe. Emma: let her be grumpy at someone... maybe teaming up with David à la good cop bad cop David Nassau: nice things happening to David postcanon, please? He’s been through a lot and I love him. Who can understand him, what can give him purpose? Zolean: I need someone to adopt this sad fish now that he knows that his friend is gone. Military experience and lost friends preferred but not required. Sibal and/or Maddox: give me all the Qsiti worldbuilding, Siebenbur worldbuilding, Remnant daydreaming, backstory with Pagus, old men reunions after the ending...

Dark Souls: Solaire, Siegmeyer, Sieglinde, Logan, Gough, Artorias

I’m only familiar with the first game! It’s probably relevant to mention that I think that linking the fire is kind of a dumbass move, Gwyn is an ass, Kaathe has his own agenda and there’s no winning move in this world, or at least no obvious one. Feel free to deviate from anyone’s canon endings, to make things happen that’ll stave off their hollowing. I am interested in any of these people meeting and possibly striking up a friendship, and also in exploring Lordran’s temporal/dimensional fuckery, where it’s possible to meet people who have been gone for ages...

Solaire: tragic, lovable, doomed, pure of heart dumb of ass and all. Ways in which his search for his sun intersects with the bigger mysteries and tragedies? What if he accidentally talked to Kaathe instead of Frampt in his quest? Siegmeyer: just let him be jovial and helpful? Traveling with someone and being a good buddy? Sieglinde: (almost) unstoppable can of whoop-ass, what’s it like to be basically the only non-undead in Lordran? Logan: he grump. Maybe he learns something interesting in the Archives. I am also interested in deets on him going mad there, at the end of his quest for knowledge. Sounds eldritch, poignant and intriguing. Gough: get him out of gay baby jail, poor thing, what’d he do! Or, at least: who goes to visit him, what does he feel for his people who appear to be more or less enslaved. Why does Gwyn allow him to languish in that tower? Artorias: much like with Solaire, I am intrigued by this paragon of virtue in a world that's really harsh on that sort of thing. He’s also... not human? Sif and Alvina always welcome.

Pyre: Oralech, Sandra, Bertrude, Molten Milithe, Celeste, Volfred, Tariq, Pamitha

Oh the burning found family feelings, the revolutionary passion, the divide between topside social constraints (moreso for liberated exiles, thrust into heroic roles after the revolution) and the kind of freedom allowed by the downside! Mere distance cannot separate our spirits! Noxalas! ...any cutesy activity lifted from the game would be great, like X doing laundry with Y. Thoughts about the Plan, about the Scribes, about being considered the reincarnation of the Scribes, about finding oneself at the end of an age, as everything crumbles down to form something new. The titan stars. Exploring literally any corner of the Downside. Any postcanon very welcome with any combination of endings as long as the revolution was peaceful. I love everyone so much. Please do lean in on the xeno details if you’re writing nonhumans! Even for gen, I like to read what it’s like to be something other than human.

I ship Volfred/Tariq, Volfred/Oralech, some form of Oralech/Volfred/Tariq (more of a Volfred-centric V but I would like to be convinced of the Oralech/Tariq side of things), Celeste/Jodariel, Reader/Sandra, Hedwyn/Fikani and Pamitha/Bertrude. All & pairs welcome. I do NOT ship Jodi/Ignarius, Celeste/Tariq and *ae/Almer.

Oralech: so many intense emotions, just pick one and run with it! His topside ending made me cry. Finding the pristine blackwagon, books and sigil he would deem the True Nightwings’? Learning to let go of he bundle of hatred and prejudice he’d used as a shield, one thread at a time? Bonding with a character of your choice? Sandra: butting heads with any character of your choice, ideologically and also because she’s understandably pissed off 24/7? Volfred was Reader before us, what was their relationship like? And I’m sure that post-game the Reader brings her along to Nightwings meetings when she feels like it? Bertrude: witchy snek doing witchy snek things please. Her reluctant bonding is great Milithe: also witchy snek doing witchy snek things but on a grander, more primeval scale? Her drive to explore the Downside touches me. Celeste: the fixed star learning not to be fixed anymore, and being a person, while her counterpart has something of a 830 years head start and no-one seems to be on her wavelength. She’s intense and burning and uncompromising and how do you live like that? Volfred: early days in exile, bonding with any of the old Nightwings, or living as prime minister giving his all to the new society he’s building, which has to be demanding and tiresome. Idealistic, self-assured and a little manipulative is one of my ideals so just send him Volfred-ing around and I’ll be happy. Tariq: he keeps it all under the surface and if you get a peek past it there’s something of an eldritch depth to him and isn’t that so sweet. I think we need more Tariq whump but also Tariq nursing sick Nightwings, Tariq having nice days and just all-around more Tariq, is all. Pamitha: it’s hard to break that self-loathing but she could get a break maybe? If she stays Downside, what does she find at the far borders of this land?

The Last Guardian: any

The boy & the very good boy… I’d like to read about a distant reunion. I was surprised by the boy being the combo breaker after the former Ueda protagonists cast their societies behind. He gets to live his life with his people, apparently, but what makes him leave and find Trico again? What’s their bond like, years later? Or is it Trico who comes back to search for him?

And what about the being in the coffin? Got any headcanons on the relationship between it, the master of the valley, the alien-looking white tower and the rest of the vall... well, crater, presumably? Are they dead? Does some part of their conscience stick around? Were they in some sort of cryostasis and the destruction of the master of the valley woke them up?

I really like the setting of the game so laying it thick with the environmental focus is always appreciated.

As an aside and since SotC and ICO are in the tagset, I don’t generally like to think about direct, rational connections between the three games, placing them in a timeline etc. Even so, if you read the TLG artbook: what the hell was Ueda going on about, talking about SotC “as if through a mirror” or whatever that quote went like? Iirc he was talking about TLG’s mirror and SotC’s pool having some sort of symbolic... inverted... connection...? If you have ideas about some crackpot surrealist connection between TLG and SotC, the kind fever dreams are made of, I’m all ears!

The Swapper: any

I fell in love early on with this indie gem and its take on cloning, communication and the loss of self and I’m thrilled to see it in the tagset. I love narratives that explore solitude, alien mindsets, rejection of society, fractured consciousness - you can see how The Swapper struck a chord (the stellar puzzles and graphics helped). So the first thing I’d like to read in this nonexistent fandom with no fic is something, anything, focused on any of these themes. What of our protagonist, or what is left of her (WHAT is left of her?), after the ‘planet’ ending? But an exploration of the 'spaceship’ ending also works, keeping in mind that I see it as by far the creepiest and less consolatory option (not that the plot has any business being consolatory or black and white in the fist place, but if I HAD to slap a ‘good end’ ‘bad end’ label, planet ending is the good ending for me). What interests me about the Scavenger - I’m mostly talking about the main playable character(s), but the original one is also very interesting - is mostly what the game puts her through. Delving into her background, not so much. I would also love any setup that offers a focus on the Watchers, just… exploring their point of view on this whole business and on life, the universe and everything as a whole. Luv me them rocks. I’d really like to get into their mindset. The two scientists can come too of course.

#letter #trick or treat 2019

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