#i couldn't think of a relevant caption

[jimplekins]

I just wanna be part of your skibidiiii ✨✨✨🦄🐬🐬🐬🐬

[the-littlest-goblin]

[pixelnrd]

Mac and Hugo sat out the front of a cafe in Windenburg, sipping their coffee. Their investigation into Schiller had come up short - they still didn't know who Daisy was, or have any lead to another member of the family. They were both disheartened - it felt like they had come here for nothing.

'It feels like the trail has gone cold,' sighed Mac. 'I guess this is as far back as my family history goes.'

'You're retracing your family history?' Mac and Hugo looked up to find the cafe waitress standing next to their table.

'Yeah,' said Mac. 'But I don't think there's anything more for me here in Windenburg.'

'Have you tried checking out the Harrington Museum?' asked the waitress. 'It's got heaps of local history, it's this old mansion up the hill that used to be owned by the Harrington family who were these big rich aristocrats. They pretty much originated with Windenburg.'

Mac had no other leads, and so they and Hugo decided to check out the small history museum. Maybe it would unearth some niche local history relevant to their cause.

They arrived at Harrington Manor, a big beautiful old house that had been restored into a museum. The first foyers were filled with photographs of the historical Harrington family.

'Welcome to the Harrington Museum,' said a woman. 'I'm the current caretaker and curator of the Museum and a direct descendant from the Harrington family. Feel free to ask me any questions!'

'Who were the Harringtons?' asked Hugo.

'The Harringtons were a wealthy family who owned much of the land that is now modern day Windenburg. Back then they managed majority of the landholding in the Windenburg estate and built Windenburg into what it is today. The family had to sell off parts of the estate during the Great Depression, and eventually went bankrupt due to inept management. Even the surname eventually died out. Let me know if you have any more questions!'

Mac and Hugo began to peruse the pictures on the walls. There were handpainted portraits and old, faded photographs. Mac approached one set of photographs, and noted the captions beneath them.

The first photograph they noted was of a young couple. The caption below read:

Wedding of Patrick Thomas Harrington and Marigold Joy Langston, circa 1916

Langston. There was that surname again. How was it connected to it all?

On the left side were some photographs of groups of people. The first photograph showed the same married couple, Patrick and Marigold. The second photograph read:

Wedding of Walter Andrew Harrington and Sybil Helena Langston, circa 1919

Langston, again. But there was no information on who any of the other people in the images were.

Mac traipsed around the room, reading the captions eagerly, searching for more photos of the Harrington men who married Langston women. The next photograph they came across was of a young family in the 1920s. The capton below read:

Walter Harrington, Sybil Harrington, Walter Harrington II and Ruth Langston.

Mac couldn't believe their eyes. There, in the photograph, was a girl named Ruth Langston. The same Ruth Langston whose gravestone they had found in the Henford cemetary with her husband Theodore. The daughter of Daisy. What was she doing in this photograph? How had she come to be here?

And yet, next to the photograph of Ruth was another family photo, this time of Patrick and Marigold again. The caption below read:

James Harrington, Marigold Harrington, Thomas Harrington with Primrose Weston and Daisy Weston.

Here it was. The golden nugget that Mac had been searching for. Daisy Weston, a young girl, immortalised in a faded photograph. She was somehow related to this Harrington family. Primrose was her mother.

But who was Marigold? Why was Ruth a Langston and not a Weston? Why was she with the Harrington family? Mac thought about it long and hard, and soaked in the faces from all the photographs. They thought about what it all must mean.

Leaving the museum with Hugo, feeling like they had at last had a breakthrough, Mac revealed their theories.

'What we know is that Ruth was the daughter of Daisy... and that Daisy was daughter of Primrose. I think Primrose and Marigold are sisters - Langston sisters. If you look at their faces, they seem so alike. So maybe they continued living together - there was no husband in those photos of Primrose's, so she must've been a Great War widow.'

'It makes sense,' said Hugo encouragingly. 'Althought I still don't understand why Ruth was a Langston, living with the Harrington family.'

'Ok ok... hear me out... what if, Ruth was born out of wedlock? And was hidden in secret with the Harringtons? These women were all Langstons, who married Harringtons... they must have used their maiden name to protect her.'

Hugo laughed. 'How salacious,' they smiled. 'Talk about family drama.'

Mac smiled contentedly. 'Yeah it's dramatic but... I dunno, I have a good feeling about this theory.'

As they walked on past the old country houses, Mac knew where their search needed to go next.

'Now we need to figure out who the Langstons were.'

[attleboy]

okay you guys get another little treat today!! i would've just saved it for a doodle dump but if i did it wouldn't be relevant anymore... :P

biblically accurate ragatha valentine a la gooseworx last year... i was bummed i'd probably never get a ragatha one but then i remembered i could literally just make one myself!! so i did!!! however i also remembered i'm not funny and couldn't think of a good caption so i played it straight... sorry if you wanted a silly joke i got nothing

here's a blank one and an alt with a concerned expression in case someone smarter than me wants to take a crack at a funny haha caption

[sapphic-agent]

Eugh. Brother, eugh. What's that? What's that, brother?

It is SO on-brand that this lady is a Bakugou, Endeavor, and Aizawa fan. It is so painfully accurate.

Her original post was a complaint that MHA didn't need to get to 7 seasons. And I actually would have agreed if I hadn't gotten to this fuck-ass caption. Like, girl what is this?

First of all, Endeavor and Bakugou wouldn't have been relevant characters in prior to season 3. Their arcs only get so much focus in seasons 5-7 (Bakugou's does start in season 3 but you could entirely cut it out and it wouldn't change a thing). And they're not even good arcs. So how in the fuck did either of them "make" the show? And that's not even mentioning Aizawa, who's even less of a character than either of them. The Aizawa stans need to hop off his dick, he's so irrelevant past being Horikoshi's mouthpiece.

Imagine thinking that focusing on any of these three made the show good when it's actually exactly what ruined it.

Also, "Deku making friends." I'm sorry? Like, I despise the Final War, but Izuku is not "making friends" with Shigaraki. He saw someone who was being used and abused and wanted to save them. The PURPOSE of MHA has always been saving those in need no matter how "undeserving" they seem. Do MHA fans watch their own show?

(FYI, if it wasn't for Izuku having this mindset your precious Bakugou would be dead)

The only reason this theme seems stale is because Horikoshi failed to account for the systemic and institutional implications of it. He couldn't utilize it to its fullest potential. The thesis was too complex for its author. And he had to dumb down and simplify his protagonist to compensate for that.

Also, NO BAKUGOU SHOULD NOT HAVE GOTTEN ONE FOR ALL. Nothing Bakugou had the ability to do would have earned him OFA. He has never been worthy. Again, do these people not watch their own show?

[onyxbird]

I just finished Season 1 of The Apothecary Diaries, and when it first revealed that Laken is faceblind and pictures people as game pieces, some of which are specific, marked game pieces, I assumed he was using other cues to identify (some) individual people and associate them with roles even though he couldn't recognize their faces. But given Maomao's later (and apparently correct) guess that he doesn't accost Jinshi outside his office because he can't recognize him out-of-context, I guess he genuinely has no clue who this "despicable man" touching Maomao is??

How does he think he's going to plot revenge if he has no idea who the guy is? (Or are we supposed to assume he knows who Jinshi is in the context of his office and separately recognizes this guy in a different context, but thinks they're two different guys?)

In hindsight, the specific pieces chosen may have been intended to suggest that earlier, since when Maomao issued her challenge, the captions translated Gaoshun and Jinshi's pieces (as "bishop" and "advisor," respectively) but other scenes depicting people as labeled game pieces didn't caption them, implying that the specific pieces chosen were relevant in that scene specifically. Based on Wikipedia, it sounds like those two pieces would be right next to the "general," so I'm guessing they were supposed to imply their role in that scene as Maomao's backup?

(Also, I get the logic of the game pieces in place of people's faces, but wow did the animators commit to a bizarre aesthetic when they decided to replace people's entire heads.)

[blicketdabest33]

Y'all remember that MCYT PJO au I asked for help with awhile ago? WELL HERE'S THE CABINS AND MY EXPLINATIONS BEHIND THEM!!

#1 Zeus Cabin: Jimmy, Joel Jimmy: He's a Zeus kid, but everyone somehow forgets about it. Joel: He's competitive and strong. Also, because Jimmy is his half brother through godly parent, i get to make a fun bit about him dating Lizzie. And one of his origins in Afterlife SMP was a thunderborn

#2 Hera Cabin: Scott Scott: Scott's whole thing is loyalty. Hera is the goddess of marriage and is insanely loyal to Zeus. However, I feel like Hera should get at least one affair. So now Scott can use peacocks as weapons.

#3 Poseidon Cabin: Skizz Skizz: Poseidon kids tend to be really, really loyal to a fault and heroic, both qualities I think Skizz possesses.

#4 Demeter Cabin: Sausage, Shelby, Bdubs, Stress Sausage: This man built Sanctuary in a jungle and has flowers in his hair. He sells wood. There is no other place to put him. Shelby: Mushroom gnome, spooky mangrove witch, powerful storm witch, i need not continue. Bdubs: Moss man. Stress: SHE HAS FLOWERS

#5 Ares Cabin: Martyn, False Martyn: His planet is Mars, which is the roman version of Ares. He ended Limited Life in such a violent way, i can't help it. He was also red for the majority of Secret Life. False: I just feel like False should get to kill people more often.

#6 Athena Cabin: Grian, Pix, Owen, Xisuma Grian: This sums it up pretty well

Pix: Smart man. Archeologist and definitely a nerd. I wanna see him skipping out on training just so he can read history books. Owen: He likes to explore and discover new things in Pirates. In Rats, he's a tinkerer. In New Life, he's an explorer who wants to study hybrids. In Empires, he's a Llama who's curious about how humans work. Just a very curious character overall. Xisuma: Admin. I'm not elaborating.

#7 Apollo Cabin: Gem, Oli, Lyarrah Gem: She is an Apollo kid because of her Empire in S2. She's the sunlight princess. Apollo kid. Oli: MUSIC. MAN. Lyarrah: She writes the captions for the hermitcraft recap.

#8 Artemis Cabin: Pearl Pearl: Y'know, Artemis could've just like... had a kid, even though she took that oath. It wouldn't even have to be with a guy. Gods can change to whatever gender they want. Anyway, Pearl gets to be an Artemis kid because her symbolism is moon, she loves dogs, and will commit murder and hunt at night.

#9 Hephaestus Cabin: Doc, Mumbo, Tango, Impulse, Cub, Zedaph, Fwhip, Iskall Doc: Redstone Mumbo: Redstone Tango: Redstone Impulse: Redstone Cub: Redstone Zedaph: Redstone Fwhip: Redstone AND has a red scarf (don't ask me how that's relevant) Iskall: Redstone

#10 Aphrodite Cabin: Keralis Keralis: Okay, I don't know why, but Keralis gives me the vibes of a very charming person. His voice is nice to listen to, so imagine how useful it'd be if I gave him charm speak.

#11 Hermes Cabin: Scar, Etho, Joe Scar: Trader Scar, scammer extraordinar. Etho: All i must say is Shady-E's. I get "jack-of-all-trades, master of none, often better than master of one" vibes from him. He's funny, he's mischievous, it just works. Joe: Comedy man. Excellent delivery. And, yet again, i look at this man and go "That right there is a multi-talented man with a habit for mischief."

#12 Dionysus Cabin: Joey, Beef Joey: *points at his season one empires theme* i need not say more Beef: Idk, food. I don't really have a reason. I don't know too much about Beef.

#13 Hades Cabin: Zloy Zloy: Zombie man. He writes the Hermitcraft recaps in the dark at 2am with nothing but pure spite.

#14 Iris Cabin: Katherine Katherine: SHE. HAS. COLORS. and also I couldn't put her in Demeter cabin because Shelby is already there and i am NOT excluding Nature Wives from this au

#15 Hypnos Cabin: Bigb, XB, Wels Bigb: Sleepy stuff, right? WRONG. Gaslight. Go in everyones dreams, make fake prophecies, peace out, and cause chaos. XB: I look at his fanon design, I see an alien, and I go "aha he sleeps" Wels: This guy (@dingdinghq) said so and i completely agree. Something about sleeping in S6.

#16 Nemesis Cabin: Edit: wels not here no more

#17 Nike Cabin: Ren Ren: VICTORY. I don't know much about Ren's story in the Life Series, but I look at this man and see someone who has won a lot.

#18 Hebe Cabin: 

#19 Tyche Cabin: TFC TFC: Man goes mining and gets really lucky. That's it.

#20 Hecate Cabin: Lizzie, Cleo, Jevin Lizzie: Witchy vibes. Also, Arson. Cleo: Arson. She uses her magic for Arson. Jevin: He's a magic slime. Also, Arson. All Hecate kids love Arson.

[ikamigami]

I think that Elliot didn't make Poppy and the Prototype completely on his own.

I'm pretty sure that Harley Sawyer was somehow involved in this.

Because why we still don't know when Elliot started Young Geniuses Program? It's even more weird if the Doctor would be truly dead.

Cause why would they still keep the date when YGP started secret if it's solely related to Harley Sawyer?

If he's actually dead there's no reason to keep something like that secret. Unless...

The Doctor is more important to the story than his haters people thought and his time at YGP is more relevant than people assumed.

The only other dates that we're missing (despite some related minor things) are when Poppy and the Prototype were made.

Poppy was definitely made after death of Elliot's daughter in 60's. For the Prototype it's more complicated cause we don't even know if he was made before or after Poppy. But he was made before BBI for sure (we know that from Lockhart's investigation on Theodore).

I'm sure that Elliot made them but if he was the one who was capable to successfully bring the dead back then why Leith didn't order Dr White to plug Elliot's brain to the computer?

If Elliot was the actual genius behind the successful experiments it wouldn't make sense to let him just die. Cause they could try to force information out of him the same way they did it with Harley.

I'm not buying that they couldn't plug Elliot's brain cause this isn't the same type of experimentation like the rest cause they just have to plug brain to the computer and put it and rest of organs in tubes which would keep it alive.

It's definitely easier to do that than tranfer those to different made up bodies and make it function normally. Hence why Dr White could do that while he wasn't able to make working experiments like Dr Sawyer could. Hence why they needed Sawyer's brain.

So if Elliot was such a genius why they needed Sawyer's brain then?

That's why I think that Elliot stole young Sawyer's project with poppy gel especially cause it's assumed that Harley was the one that wrote a note about rat experiment.

At first I thought that maybe it was Elliot who wrote it because it was on desk in his office but handwriting is more similar to Sawyer's (after better inspection cause at first I thought it was different lol). And then I realized that maybe that note was on Elliot's desk cause he was trying to understand Sawyer's project.

I get it that we don't know why only Poppy and the Prototype are successful experiments as they don't need to eat to live unlike the rest of them.

But why then Elliot wasn't turned into experiment? Why they needed Sawyer's brain?

And to answer why I connecting Poppy and the Prototype's creation with Young Geniuses Program is because we don't know when these things happened.

Why it's understandable why we don't know when Poppy and the Prototype were made I don't see any reason to why we don't know when Elliot started YGP.

I'm connecting those two because these are the only dates we don't know (related to major stuff).

Elliot had to have a better reason to why he gave up on Harley. It couldn't be simply because Sawyer was a problematic child cause it'd mean that Elliot wasn't good with kids. And even if it might be the case I doubt it.

I think that Elliot was afraid that young Harley was doing such experiments without any real purpose beside progress. Elliot on the other hand wanted to make progress to help others. He wanted to save his daughter.

I just think that there was more to what happened between the two cause why then devs felt the need to add the caption to Sawyer's YGP removal letter "The Monsters We Make..."?

Elliot broke Harley. He was sent back home where he didn't have a good life cause even Elliot saw that Harley didn't miss his home. I'm assuming that Harley was treated poorly in his home. So imagine what happened when someone he thought he could trust, someone he thought that cared about him betrayed him and sent him back home that he more than likely hated?

Harley was still just a kid back then. Even if he was a teenager at best it doesn't change much considering how emotionally stunted he is most likely due to how he was raised.

Elliot saw that Harley needed good influence to not stray to dark path and yet he kicked him out from YGP and sent him back home.

And later he used his project to bring his daughter back. Cause like I said I'm pretty sure that Elliot didn't come up with all of this on his own cause if he was such a genius we would see his brain being plugged into computer.

Also I think that Young Geniuses Program date was on Elliot's tape but it was cut off by the Doctor cause he doesn't want to remember about anything related to his past with Elliot. Cause it was stated that something happened then on the fateful year. What else could happen then that could be put on promotional tape about Elliot Ludwig's life? And YGP was a huge thing back in its days

All of this makes it even more obvious that it's important and that the Doctor can't be dead cause finding out about it after his death would be just disappointing and it'd be poor writing (sorry).

[hermitw]

I've been thinking about this reblog of yours for months and I finally figured out how to respond to it.

I went and read No Longer Human by Junji Ito and it was a very upsetting thing to go through. I don't think I can read it again. However, I came out of it thinking that Gege was probably inspired by it.

When Yozo is first introduced, I noticed that Takaba's backstory was very similar. Feeling isolated from others, he decided to become a clown to gain acceptance from others. (Citations in Image Captions)

And later when Yozo was caught "cheating" (it's in quotes because those women are child rapists), I noticed that her face was really similar to the one Higuruma's client made when he felt betrayed by the trial outcome.

There's probably a lot more to say about how themes surrounding CSA and suicide in this work are echoed in JJK, but I'm not able to make the post myself. No Longer Human is too far out of my comfort zone in terms of graphic depiction to delve into it deeper.

But you seem strong enough to handle it, so... Idk maybe run with this some more.

Ohhh this is so interesting! I could definitely read No Longer Human again - tbh I read Junji Ito's version years ago. This year I listened to the audio book and bought a copy - but it's like, a draft in the author's handwriting (bc I thought it would help me study Japanese and if I had an English translation that I'd read it on repeat lmao). But you're real for that - I forget how disturbed people tend to be trying to read through it, I'm sorry that was rough.

I did go back to read the reblog and idk how relevant all that was - I've reread the manga since and felt like, oh I might have been misremembering some things like Uraume - idk if they actually had a freeze response in ch. 219, since they did tell Yorozu to back off though it took a minute - but it's also interesting how their CT deals with ice. Like to have a fight response, they freeze others? It's so interesting but I can't be sure whether it's there at all. (ik that yap II inspired some more coherent posts, like how it influenced Choso's self-image, etc., I linked but didn't tag you back then bc I felt Annoying especially w heavy topics but I can definitely go back and find them if you'd like.)

On a twin peaks note (without spoiling it), I feel like it inspired jjk to some extent - I've been feeling like the last chapter will end the way s2 did. Or at least - with the weird dreamy themes, "we are the dreamer who dreams and who lives inside the dream", etc...

But you're right - Yozo and the others' reactions resemble more jjk characters than I would think to connect. Takaba's jokes are truly a shield... And now I have an excuse to read Junji Ito's version again? Thank u so much (also isn't it funny how September 28 Uzumaki airs and September 30 jjk ends?).

I think gege gets inspired by the most tragic stories, I wonder how much of that is accurate but I can't always be convinced otherwise.... Especially when anime / manga series that he's confirmed as influences often deal with autonomy in ways that I couldn't handle (Evangelion, the night beyond the tricornered window).

By the way - ik we've mentioned elfen lied before, but in the first episode, you know that coffee mug? How it looks like jjk foreshadowing? Even has snail head Mahito - cut off-, the baseball, Panda, the worm (also cut off).... and later the newborn babies that look just like Yuuji...

I swear that elfen lied, Kagewani, and banana fish influenced jjk. It seems so obvious w those, maybe Vampire Princess Miyu as well.

Sorry for getting off topic - I've been looking into why Momotaro keeps coming up in jujutsu kaisen, and in the end it came back full circle to that damn coffee cup. Invest in a baseball team? A zoo? I'm going insane.

All this to say - rereading Junji Ito's version and seeing if I notice similarities between manga panels is so exciting. Gege even made a note that he asked for permission before drawing - I think it was the Uzumaki CT - So we know he's a big fan of Junji Ito. And it seems like there is a rly good chance No Longer Human inspired him as well (though I feel like characters with similar traumas having similar reactions is inevitable to some extent, if they're written in a believable way, it should be clearer when I'm reading both stories in the same format) based on the stories he has officially referenced.

[a-solitary-sea-rover-backup]

Interview with Erica Lush, 28 April 2025

Erica Lush and I grew up on opposite sides of Long Island Sound and both went to Boston University in the early 2010s, but we didn't actually cross paths until 2022. It's been incredible over the past few years to watch a fellow Terrier alumna break into the offshore sailing world, and at the end of last month, we did this remote interview in the midst of her training for the Solitaire du Figaro, the famous launchpad of French offshore racing. Just two weeks after we spoke, Erica officially qualified for this summer's competition! Click the link to hear us discuss Boston winters, books, bioluminescence, 80s hair, and "really big toilet paper".

Timestamps:

0:18: The horrible crazy day

3:24: An offshore family legacy

4:18: Early days and inspirations

11:28: BU memories

16:35: Job searching and lucky breaks

18:50: The Magenta Project

21:32: Maiden

26:16: The Ocean Globe Race

38:43: From crewed to double-handed to solo racing

43:01: First solo race

51:52: To be a Figarist

58:37: French Figaro fandom

1:06:31: Summer plans

1:10:10: Best, worst, and strangest

1:14:20: Tour of Erica's boat

The autogenerated captions on Vimeo are fairly accurate, but there are some howlers, especially in the transcription of French words, so I also have a transcript below the cut for the hearing-impaired:

KaiYves (KY): Hey everyone, this is Kai Yves from a Solitary Sea Rover and I'm talking here with Erica-- Ocean Racer Erica Lush, who is currently in training for the Solitaire Du Figaro. Is that correct?

Erica Lush (EL): Yes, that's right.

KY: We met about three years ago now. I can't believe it's been that long.

EL: I know.

KY: When you were with Maiden during the world tour in New England and I was, I was having a really, really crazy day... I was having to go home from where I was working in Boston to my parents' home on Long Island to go for a dentist’s appointment and my phone had died at the last minute. So I had to call up Amtrak manually on someone else's phone and get the tickets. So it was crazy stuff, but it happened that the train pulled in right across from the dock in New London, the ferry dock, right where you guys were docked. And I was like, "Oh my God, I didn't think they were going to be here!" And I ran up to see and I had a great conversation with you and—

EL: What a crazy little moment of fate of you, all that crazy stuff happening for you to go see a cool boat.

KY: You guys made my day there. That was really the highlight and you took pictures and then... Oh, a week later, I got to have a more formal, organized visit, more relaxed circumstances, when you guys were at Mystic Seaport.

EL: Yes. Yeah, yeah.

KY: And it came up when we talked, or maybe made a little later when we were connected on LinkedIn, that you had also gone to Boston University and we were actually there at the same time.

EL: That's wild. Yeah.

KY: It's been really exciting over the past few years, formal, as we've been mutuals on there, to see everything that you've been able to achieve in all that time.

EL: Thank you.

KY: So it's really exciting, to just see that you've been able to do these things. And I see that you're on board your boat now?

EL: Yes, just-- the wind shut off on me. I was out training, so I'm a little behind schedule. So I thought I'd show you on board ‘cause I couldn't make it home.

KY: I hope I'm not getting in your way.

EL: No, no, no, no, not at all. Just, yeah, sorry for the funny background.

KY: Oh, no, it's-- it's exciting. I like it. It's perfect.

EL: It's relevant anyway.

KY: Is it-- is it warm there?

EL: Yeah, today in particular is a super warm day. I'm, you know, just wearing a tank top. So it's the first day I've sailed without my foulies. So it's just kind of amazing.

KY: Yeah. I mean, it's been pretty warm here on the East Coast too, the past few days, except for yesterday! Yesterday it was super windy and it was like about 15 degrees colder than it actually was.

EL: I've heard about the wind.

KY: So, well, I'm just gonna get the jokes out of the way now. You are not the heir to the bath bomb fortune, is that correct?

EL: Oh, yeah, no. But they did buy their URL from my mother.

KY: Right.

EL: Who previously owned "lush (dot com)".

KY: Oh, really?

EL: Yeah, yeah.

KY: I'm sure you've heard that joke before.

EL: Yeah.

KY: But your father was a solo sailor, correct?

EL: Yeah, yeah, well before I was born, but those were the stories I grew up with.

KY: He did the British Overseas Challenge [actually the British Oxygen Corporation Challenge] in the 80s, I believe.

EL: Yep, he did a few OSTAR races, which is what you're mentioning, and then also the first BOC Challenge.

KY: Across the Atlantic, the O-star?

EL: Yeah, yeah.

KY: And so, did you learn to sail from your parents?

EL: Yeah, initially my parents both learned to sail as adults, so they were really passionate about it when they had kids and... So with my parents we’re all lucky to grow up learning to sail on their small keelboat. And then of course where we grew up right next to Newport, so there's tons of sailing clubs around. And we also got to take classes once we were old enough.

KY: And how many siblings did you have?

EL: Just one brother.

KY: OK, yeah. So they encouraged you in-- to sail and to practice.

EL: Oh, for sure, yeah. I think at one in point I was riding horses and sailing and they were like, “This is not an economically viable two hobbies to have, you're gonna have to choose one.” So--

KY: Oh, definitely not.

EL: I stuck with sailing, at that point, it was more accessible.

KY: (laughs) You don't usually hear that it's the more accessible one.

EL: Yeah, crazy, right? But in-- in Newport, it kind of is.

KY: Yeah. I mean, it must have been quite an experience to have these things going on everywhere around you.

EL: Yeah, I don't think I really knew it until I was out of college and working on the boats in Newport, cause I was kind of oblivious to the fact that super yachts existed. I knew what the 12-Metres were because we tried not to get run over by them when we were in Optis, but that was the extent of my real knowledge of the full history of Newport and the industry that exists there. So I kind of learned when I got thrown into it, out of school.

KY: Would you say that you perhaps had a heightened awareness of sailing compared to other places in the United States because you grew up in Newport?

EL: Well, sure, yeah. And also the fact that I was learning it as a pastime from a young age.

KY: Yeah.

EL: I think a lot of people would love it if they had a chance like that.

KY: You know, I was just thinking, you know, that when I think about when I grew up, I was, you know, there was not on my radar at all… I was not really aware that this was a sport. Even though I lived in a coastal community here on Long Island, you know? It was… I read books about the Olympics and normal books about the Olympics do mention it like once, but it's not on TV in the Olympics. And I guess I would say there were a few, in National Geographic Adventure magazine, there were a few interviews with Ellen MacArthur when I was a kid, but that was about all I ever saw.

EL: Yeah.

KY: So I had really no awareness.

EL: It's really not in the mainstream media much, sometimes in films or something. But it's you're right, it’s we really... In other countries, it's not always true, but in the US it's like, yeah, if you're not out doing it, you don't hear about it. It's kind of crazy.

KY: But was there, you know, more discussion of events going on in Newport among-- because especially if you were in those circles, you were at clubs like as a kid, right?

EL: I mean, I was just, like, part of the junior sailing program. So there was a group, how would you call it… It's called the Narragansett Bay Yachting Association, I think NBYA. It's funny that they call it yachting cause it's just dinghies, but for the little kids. But basically it's an association for all the clubs in Rhode Island to communicate and host regattas and disseminate all that information amongst all the sailors. So, you know, it doesn't take much to know what's happening in the area. It's a small, small area.

KY: And did your dad tell you stories about the things he'd done?

EL: Yeah, I think not as much as I might have imagined because my mom by that point, by the time they had kids, was pretty tired of hearing them. So we didn't hear them as much as you might think. But for sure we've, you know, heard it. The biggest story was that he lost his boat in the BOC and he was rescued by a competitor. So that, you know, that story's been told and once in a while they come out, which is always a nice treat.

KY: So did you have heroes as a kid when you were starting to sail?

EL: Yeah, I think I was in 3rd grade, I read a book called Come Hell or High Water by Clare Francis. She was the first British woman to race across the Atlantic. I think she actually raced in the ’76 OSTAR that my dad did. So maybe not that surprising that the book landed in front of me! But that was a wild story to take in in the third grade, you know, and that started to… It was like the first female role model besides my mom of a woman who was sailing-- the only one I had for a long time-- of a woman who was sailing offshore that I knew about. So that was cool.

KY: And so did you have other interests and other things that were ambitions at the time when you were a kid?

EL: I always had a million interests and a million ambitions, yeah. It always changes so much as you grow up.

KY: You know, I've been moving around a lot for work now in the past few years. So I've been packing up and moving things, going through boxes and I find stuff from when I was a kid and I was like, oh yeah, I wanted to be detective and a scientist—

EL: I love it!

KY: And I wanted to be an Impressionist painter at one point and just things like that.

EL: Yeah, it's so good. You never know what’ll stick.

KY: You look back on a little ambitions, yeah. So of course, eventually you ended up at Boston University. You were class of 2014, so I think a year ahead of me?

EL: Yeah.

KY: And you studied linguistics, I believe.

EL: Yes.

KY: So you were also in CAS.

EL: Yep.

KY: Big, big Gothic building on Comm Ave.

EL: Yeah.

KY: And you were sailing at the little pavilion that's down on the river, right?

EL: Yes. Yeah. Crazy, shifty Charles River.

KY: I am, you know, I, I, I walked by there all the time when I was at BU and I knew some people who, I think they managed… or they worked on the boats or whatever. But you know, there's always these campus legends. And I had heard from someone, they were like, “do you know how dirty the water is?” And they would say all these things about how dirty the water was. And I was scared about the Charles River for most of the time I was there! I mean, I'd done cleanups with some of the environmental groups on campus. So I'd be like, yeah, I've seen diapers, I've seen syringes, I've seen… (laughs)

EL: Yeah, it was not a clean river. You don't see stuff floating all the time, but you were never like… If you fell in, you're like-- you're now got both the embarrassment of having fallen in and the concern for your health. I don't know if it's still that bad, but—

KY: Was it true that you had to get shots to be on the sailing team?

EL: No. (laughs) But it might not have been a bad idea.

KY: Those were the campus legends. But yeah, like people are like, “Oh, do you know, the water's so scary?” And I I feel bad that I didn't, that I never tried, you know? To just do the lessons that they had, that it was a gym option. Because it would have been free if I'd learned in college. But from the legends I learned, I was too scared of the river.

EL: Oh, no! Aw, that’s too bad!

KY: And so I, yeah, so I had to learn in grad school. Not at NYU, because we didn't have a program there, but back home in my hometown through a town program. And since then I've been volunteering on race night at clubs in the various places I've worked for the Park Service.

EL: Nice. Oh, that's cool. So you still managed to get your opportunity.

KY: Yeah. You know, right now I'm looking at places in New York City now that I'm working there, and it's very expensive in Lower Manhattan to find a club.

EL: Yeah, I can imagine.

KY: Especially the places that won't let you race if you're not a member.

EL: Yeah.

KY: So, you know, we were there on campus at the same time, and that's just so weird to me.

EL: It's such a big university. What do we have, 30,000 undergrads or something?

KY: Thousands of people.

EL: And then there's a Graduate School too. It's really crazy how big that campus was.

KY: Yeah, it is. It was a huge walk from one end to the other.

EL: All in a straight line. Everything took forever to walk to.

KY: And in the winter when the wind was blowing!

EL: Al the way down Comm Ave!

KY: Oh, it was horrible! It was horrible. I’d get up for class and I'd be bundled up and I'd be wearing like 4 layers and I'd be going outside...

EL: I don't think I've ever had a such a bad winter since. I really don't like the cold that much, like that level of cold. But BU had some cold, cold winters.

KY: Yeah, my first year there, you know, when you're a freshman, you don't really know how to do things? I wore the same sweater over whatever clothes I was wearing and the same sweatpants over whatever I was wearing for the whole winter. So I guess to everyone, it looked like I wore the same clothes every day. Which I didn't! But those were just my outer layers.

EL: Oh, that's funny. Yes, but I probably do that now.

KY: When you’re offshore, you probably do wear the same clothes everyday.

EL: Well, yeah, yes, for sure.

KY: And you never went to the observatory, you said.

EL: No.

KY: Yeah, I was in astronomy club. So after graduation, you worked in India and the Middle East, I think?

EL: Yeah, well, I had wanted to really work in the Middle East and use the Arabic that I studied, but I couldn't get a job in Arabic. Basically if you hadn't had an unpaid internship in DC, people wouldn't hire you. So without being able to go and work an unpaid internship in DC, I was a bit out of luck. And so I landed back in my hometown and I started sailing to work basically and I got a taste of that world a little bit. And I tried for two or three years, I was translating Arabic on a volunteer basis, just trying to keep those skills up and really trying to chase that pathway, and it just never came through for me. And at the same time I was… I always like to be challenged and things like that. And I was just facing a lot of sexism in sailing and I wasn't being challenged and that was frustrating on top of not being able to work in my field. So I just, I took as many opportunities as I could to be challenged more in sailing, to have my capabilities sort of pushed further. And I got lucky with an amazing mentor after a couple of years, who took me under his wing and helped me learn to drive the 12-Metres. And then shortly after that, I got a gig on Maiden, which I was with on and off for five years so, you know, there's been a lot of things in between, but those were two critical points that really launched me into getting a lot of experience.

KY: That's actually what I was just about to ask, how you joined the Magenta project.

EL: Magenta was… I had heard... well, so you know Liz, of course, who was a previous skipper on Maiden? Liz had mentioned the Solitare du Figaro, which I'm now trying to compete in, back in 2019, and I had never heard of the race before. And she was… I was so intrigued. You know how in France there's these training camps and there's this amazing race and da, da, da, da, all these cool things. And I was like, cool, how do I do that? And she's like, well, I don't know that you can because you really need to speak French. And she had spoken French cause she grew up in PNG, so she was already fluent. So it kind of worked for her. And she was like, I don't know if you can, but maybe try Oakcliff in Long Island? ‘Cause that's the only training program for any offshore stuff that we really had at the time in the US that Liz knew about and that I really knew about. So I went to Oakcliff just to do my first double-handed event and I really started to do the double-handed stuff at that point. So anyway, long answer to a short question! How did I get into The Magenta Project? I heard about it after around the same time I had decided to start sailing double-handed. I hadn't wrapped my head around solo [racing] yet. I thought it was still a bit mad to not sleep. (sneezes) Excuse me. So basically I signed up, I applied, I said, look, I've got a ton of offshore experience, but I want to be pushing myself further in racing and how can I do that? And I got matched up with an amazing woman who I just who I keep in touch with-- I was just on the phone with her earlier today. Her name is Sharon Ferris Choate. She was also a skipper on Maiden at one point and she lives in New Zealand. And she helps me to sort of break down these interests into more concrete goals and steps. So I'm still following those steps now, but I've come a long way thanks to that, thanks to the sort of framework that we were able to develop through the Magenta Project’s initiative.

KY: So had you heard of Maiden before you became part of the crew?

EL: Shockingly, no. I don't know how I wasn't… I mean, Tracy's ‘89-90 race, that was two years before I was born. You’d think it was pretty recent to when I was young. You’d think that maybe one of her books I would have read, as I was a bookworm. I think that one would have landed across my desk. But somehow I had never heard of Tracy Edwards until she called me and asked me to by chance be a delivery crew for Maiden on this short leg, which turned into a much, much longer stint with the boat. But yeah, shockingly, no, I had not heard of Maiden before joining the crew.

KY: You were part of Maiden during the world tour and you literally did go from port to port all around the world for I think, was it 2 years?

EL: It was two years until COVID hit. And then we had a second world tour after COVID and that morphed into the Ocean Globe race after that. So it's like a total of five years of Maiden stuff.

KY: So you know, what was it like? Living on board for the-- for this time period?

EL: Oh, all kinds of answers to that. I mean it's amazing cause you're we were covering so many miles. We were spending more time at sea than we were on land for the first year. Really long, often 30 day, passages and then you'd be on shore for a couple of weeks or less and then back to it again. So really it was a huge amount of time on the water. And what an incredible, I mean there's no other time in my life that I expect I'll be spending that many days in one year-- you know, it's wild! And then at the same time it was also intense to be around that many people in close quarters for that long a time. And then you have new people coming on board. And you're never at home, you're always in an Airbnb or something like that if you're not on the boat. So it was… I think after several years of that, I'm really happy right now to have an apartment and a place where my things are. It's like extremely comforting in a way that I didn't realize I'd missed for so long.

KY: You've got an actual bed that's not an air mattress.

EL: Yeah, yeah.

KY: And you've got a bookshelf that's not a cardboard box.

EL: Yeah. No one's above or below me in pipe berths.

KY: Yes. I've been talking with other people in the Park Service about being a seasonal Ranger where you move from park to park. And it's the same thing. They're like, it's a big milestone to actually say, I'm going to put my books on a shelf and not in a box.

EL: Yeah, it's a commitment.

KY: Yes, so, did you, as part of the world tour, visit any countries where you were able to use languages you’d learned?

EL: Yeah, actually, well, we went through the Suez Canal twice and so we got to go to Egypt and use a bit of Arabic and we were in Dubai for a couple of months as well. Although Dubai, shockingly… I mean, we were just in the Marina and most of the people in the Marina are foreigners living there, so I wasn't using Arabic very much in Dubai. It was a bit disappointing, but I got to use it in Egypt and as well when we were in Palma when I was using Spanish, but most of the time we were… Yeah, there was only a few opportunities to use the languages I learned.

KY: So the Ocean Globe Race was a replication of the pre-1990s Whitbread Races with period boats. And you know, there were jokes about that at the time. You know, how much of it is… “Is it a reenactment?”, “Do you have to have 80s hair?”, “Do you have to have, do I have to listen to my music on a Walkman or can I bring an iPhone on it?” So what was that like? That it's like a reproduction, but it's not like you're in a Civil War reenactment or anything.

EL: Yeah, I mean they didn't, they didn't influence our hairstyles, but we did have to listen to cassettes and I had to relearn how to burn a cassette or a mixtape. So really funny to have cassettes with modern music on them. And of course we were also not-- we didn't have use of our GPS. So it was wild to… I wasn't the one in charge of the nav. I was more like taking the radio information and synthesizing the weather info we were receiving. I took a few sights but my math’s not… I haven't mastered the math part of it. So basically I'm super impressed with the girls for getting us around the world with such accuracy, ‘cause we had to pass some waypoints quite closely. And we'd be in the Southern Ocean, there'd be, you know, clouds for a week at a time, there's no sights to take, and they managed. We were diligent with our dead reckoning and took the sights they made. They took good sights every time we had a chance. And super impressive that they're able to navigate so well around the world.

KY: Yeah. And so it differed from your previous experiences where you were on modern boats, where there were no technological limits like that?

EL: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, behind me you can see I've got a chart up and it's a, you know, super in-depth routing software where I can download grids and weather information and do routings based on different parameters. And you know, the technology is amazing today and to totally forget about that and not even have GPS was definitely… It's kind of nice, like you gain a more… just a better feeling for the systems and how the beginning of a front, the middle of a front, and the back of it feels like and you know how it's all working. It's a little bit… because when the technology, you can get really bogged down in the details and we had to be a big picture, you know, we knew there was a low pressure about here and it's moving about here and positioning ourselves according to that. And it was a great sort of boot camp just for remembering the basics, relearning the basics almost in a way that's really applicable moving forward.

KY: Was it nice to sort of be disconnected for a little bit, especially nowadays?

EL: Yeah. It's always nice to go to sea and not have the connectivity. And now, you know, you often keep the connectivity. So yeah, it's definitely a nice street to go and be in in the wild.

KY: You're not getting all the news every day and everything.

EL: Yeah, Yeah.

KY: Did it feel particularly special to you, in a race that was supposed to replicate the conditions of the period where your dad was competing?

EL: Yeah, yeah, it was interesting. It's definitely… I have a high end appreciation of how mad his adventures were really because you know, it's wild for people to go and do an Atlantic crossing solo. Or around the world solo today, but that's with all the technology and all the safety. I mean, when he lost his boat, I'm not sure, he must have had a life raft on board? But it certainly wasn't like at the forefront in his story as it was. And often it wasn't until recent decades that your life raft had to be accessible and not at the bottom of a pile somewhere. So the safety that's available now, even… We carry personal AIS beacons in our foul weather gear or in our life jackets, so if you do fall overboard you know, you show up as obvious as a ship on the charts for other vessels to see you. And yeah I just… it's so safe now and it's so much easier to avoid bad conditions. Sorry, there's a there's a VHF going on.

KY: I couldn't even hear now. It's fine. So what was it like as part of to visit places you'd read about in books previously? You know, to do the Southern Ocean crossing and all these things that are in all of the memoirs and so on?

EL: I mean, for me, I never remembered the-- what they talked about in port. I just remembered like the roaring 40s and stuff like that, you know, the weather conditions. So I was, I was pretty nervous. I joined the race as an alternate. So I kind of showed up with not much notice and I hadn't sailed with most of the girls before and we're gonna leave Cape Town and be sailing for a month in the famous Southern Ocean. And I was expecting to be in conditions at times with, you know, all the sails down and a drogue out behind you. I was mentally prepared for all of that. And I was pretty nervous, like almost shaking, leaving the dock, just thinking like, s---, I know like two of these girls. I have no idea what the other girls know. Like, I know the boat, but I haven't seen the drogue. I don't know, I don't know. Yeah, there were a lot of unknowns. But thankfully, you know, a few days into it, well, we had our first gale and the girls were awesome, of course. So, the nerves went away and we just got down to it and we never had conditions as bad as I had envisioned.

KY: Were there places where you thought, you know, “This is this is just like in that book!”, or stuff like that?

EL: Most of my reading of sailing was really when I was quite young. I don't read that much about sailing unless it's technical stuff anymore. But I, you know, the most recent sailing book I read was when I was reading Tracy's autobiography on Maiden, when I joined in 2019 just to figure out where the hell I was and what-- and what significance it had. So yeah, I didn't have any like, oh, I read that in a book moment, I don't think.

KY: Well, I can imagine, you want to read about something else. You want to change, right?

EL: Yeah, yeah, fine. People read about sailing when they're dreaming about it, but if you're doing it, then you’ve gotta dream about something else.

KY: Well, what do you like to read?

EL: Ooof… I like fictional books, especially if they have a bit of, like, historical fiction, but not… Yeah, just fiction. Just interesting stories, especially if… I really like [that] sailing is a funny world because you often cross paths with unexpected people and find these crazy connections. And I've read a few books in recent years that sort of filtered their characters like that, when they were living different lives when they crossed paths. And I just find that so interesting. It's a real reflection of life.

KY: I noticed that I never see people get asked this in the sailing interviews, but you know, just—I’m curious! I think there's like one, there's like one bit where Chris Dickson is like, yeah, I'm reading Michael Crichton. And then there's, like, Jimmy Spithill who reads airport thrillers, he posts about them on Instagram sometimes. But otherwise I never, I don't know what the people I follow read and I'm curious about that, so.

EL: Yeah, yeah.

KY: So in a way, with the Ocean Globe Race, you were the-- you guys came to Auckland at a time when there were not many other major events happening there because of the… just the various procedural stuff. So what was it like coming in there?

EL: To Auckland? Yeah, I mean it was a big moment. Because actually that, for me, that was my first leg with the girls, the first Southern Ocean leg. So it was a big, you know, a big feeling of accomplishment of, all right, well, we've done, we've done this, we've done a good job, proud of our result. And three boats arrived pretty, pretty close to each other. And so we had a, you know-- the celebrations on the dock were certainly memorable. Everyone was so proud of each other and thrilled to be there and it's really cool.

KY: Because they had missed out on hosting The Ocean Race stopover in that edition.

EL: Oh yeah, OK, yes.

KY: And then of course, you guys won.

EL: Yes. Yeah, but I wasn't on the last leg. So I wasn't at the-- on the crossing the finish line per se. But for sure it was super impressive. And that last leg was really difficult. There was not a lot of wind and all of the boats had a hard time. And in fact we—they-- we didn't know when they crossed the line that they had won. Because it was actually due to, well, they basically had to wait for a boat behind them to cross in order to know the time, the time handicap. So you know, it was, it was super impressive and I'm really proud of the team.

KY: Yeah. Which again is how it was in the old days when they were not all one design.

EL: Yeah.

KY: Alright, so after the Ocean Globe race, you did double-handed competition offshore, is that right?

EL: Yes, I did. For the second time, I had an opportunity to go represent the US in a double-handed world championship. This time it was in Lorient, France, last fall.

KY: And you were also part of the double-handed division in the last Newport Bermuda race last year.

EL: Yes, Yep. Unfortunately we had to drop out halfway. We were doing very well, but our sails ripped. All of our headsails, it was a manufacturing defect and we had to go back to port.

KY: So you went from doing-- as part of a full crew, to being double-handed and now you're practicing for solo races. Is that a psychological adjustment?

EL: Uh, psychological adjustment? No. I mean, it's quite similar to double-handed. In a lot of the just having to plan out your maneuvers a bit more than you do fully-crewed, and it takes longer. But I think just the psychological side, it just took a while to reckon that I was willing to go without sleep really for a couple of days. But I had my first solo race about a month ago and I survived. So I think I'm hooked.

KY: It's a different mindset. It's different, different things you have to expect? You know, you were talking about the experience of being with so many people aboard the Maiden. And you know, the mindset you have to have for that, versus the mindset if it's two people or one people-- one person-- just delegating everything and I guess having to pay attention to more things that way.

EL: Yeah, yeah, it really forces you to, you know, challenges you to be aware of everything. If you're not aware of it, you know you're gonna make a mistake probably. So yeah, it's… on one side, you can never do anything perfectly because you've got so much to do. But it's amazing ‘cause you have to do everything. So as far as development is concerned and improving yourself as a sailor and all of that, it's super intense but very rewarding.

KY: And so, you know, I would imagine that the fewer people there are, the more important it becomes to double check everything and to have just, you know, being absolutely aware of where everything goes and things like that.

EL: Yeah, especially as the race goes on and you get more tired. It's easier to make those mistakes. So you've really got to make a habit of, yeah, checking everything.

KY: I see you've got, is that toilet paper or paper towels up there?

EL: It's paper towels. Really big for toilet paper.

KY: Yeah. Well, you can't tell from the perspective.

EL: That's true.

KY: And so that's where you keep that? And then you can get your navigation screen back there. And so this is the boat that you're doing the practicing in France with, right?

EL: Yes, yeah, it's a bit of a mess right now ‘cause I just came in from practice. But yeah, and there's more stuff on it than I would race with.

KY: And you, this is the one that you did the race a month ago in?

EL: Yeah, yeah, same one.

KY: So what was the race like, a month ago?

EL: I got lucky that it wasn't crazy windy, so I was like 12 to 15 knots for most of the race and then 20 nights, but nothing, nothing wild. So it was… I took, like, a level of stress out of the equation. It was like, OK, I don't have to worry about, you know, as the wind increases, the risk of something breaking or mistakes become more serious. So it was nice to have a pretty average, like nice wind event. I could just focus on the real challenges that I was reckoning with in my first solo offshore, which was sleep management and going the right direction as quickly as I could.

KY: What was the course?

EL: We left the port where we were. We basically… near the port where we were staying, we had a short upwind, like an offset mark, so maybe one or two miles upwind and then a long… we had a sort of one to-- Now I'm thinking of the last race I did which is not solo! But basically, it wasn't that different. We went upwind and then we actually had to-- we had to continue upwind, but like really on the side of the—like, close to the rocks as we went along because the tide was against us. So. everyone was going as close to these rocks as they could and through some, like, fish farms. It was what this is famous for. French racing is famous for this-- we're really sailing in very rocky, in between rocks, it's a bit ridiculous. So lots of tacking and figuring out if you're gonna hit something or not. And then finally we rounded a cape and we—they… Basically, it's like a point of land, and then a bay, and then another point of land. So we were going from one point to the other point, expecting the breeze to turn. So I positioned myself to the right of the fleet, hoping to be able to go to a code sail from a jib to a code sail and pass some people. But that shift never came, so we stayed upwind till the next mark and then it was a downwind for a day. It was like, from, from… it was still dark when we hoisted the kites, and we rounded the mark and then it was-- we had the whole day, and then it got dark again before we rounded the leeward mark. So it was like a whole day downwind sailing. ‘Started in really light wind, and then super foggy, like you couldn't see anything. And at one point I had a competitor near me. And I could, like, sometimes see their spinnaker, but it was white in white fog. It was really wild. So as like the fog was wafting past, you kind of like boat, no boat, boat. And like, how am I doing on this boat?

KY: That's pretty tense.

EL: And it was crazy, yeah. And I had dolphins that first night downwind and they were, I've never heard them like whistling before. But they were whistling super loudly. You could hear them like they were right next to you and down, down below. It was just like this crazy noise, what is going on? That was really amazing. A little, little pinch of wildlife in there. And then the wind picked up before the leeward mark. So we had a couple of jibes. And then when it was dark, dark and lower visibility and windy, of course. And then, oh, and then-- it's quite an interesting-- that the next morning the wind shut off, and it was like a shutdown. So this often happens in multi-day races, but it's an amazing opportunity to pass people because, like, the fleet condenses because everyone's slow. So if you happen to be fast in in that condition, it's a nice opportunity. And I was really fast, so I was like starting to pass people. It's going great and I was passing people so I thought, OK, I'll just go the extra mile and I'll loosen my rig and make it a little faster. And then but then the wind started to pick up not to anything windy, but just a normal, think wind you might be able to sail in. And I-- and we had to do a tight reach with the code sail, and I didn't retouch in my rig and I could not point. Everyone else was, I had a good mark rounding. I passed two boats, everything was great. And then the boat in front of me kept their code sail. I thought I was going to go to a jib, but they kept theirs. So I was OK. I was like, keep mine. But I couldn't point. Everyone, they were-- I just they were going in the right direction and I was going lower and lower and lower and I was too stubborn to switch to a jib. Because I-- there was no reason I shouldn't be able to point. But I hadn't figured out that it was because my rig tension was too loose. So I was super late in deciding to go to a jib. And I lost boats there. That was really upsetting because I was so tired. Just, I didn't realize it. And then finally, by the time we got to the bay, where we needed to turn upwind into the bay to finish, it was-- there was a huge front coming through and we had 30 knots upwind for the final bit. And I just kind of, I had my race sail on. And the last time I was 30 knots upwind, I had my practice main and I was able to sail upwind with that pretty well. But I just couldn't get it going with my race main and it was driving me nuts. So I was, like, tired. My sail was flogging, basically. I couldn't get it to-- I couldn't find a groove and I was going insane and I started... Then the wind dropped after the front pass, right before the finish line. So I was trying to get there and I was, started to actually lose my mind. That was two days, almost no sleep. And I was, I was yelling-- I was, like, yelling at the wind to turn left so I could tack, like really yelling at it. So yeah, in very interesting ways, I think I found my limit for sleep. I need a little bit more than I was giving myself.

KY: It sounds brutal.

EL: It was brutal. Yeah, but really great practice.

KY: And you're having to sort of have your own schedule. You know, you're having to remember to eat in the midst of all this, and everything too, right?

EL: Yeah, yeah, that's something I'm thinking about for this next race is how to, like, even have like a protein shake or something that's easy, that keeps you going if you don't have time to go and cook a freeze-dried… Just something that's substantial that'll keep you, keep your brain working for a little longer.

KY: But you, you're really glad that you did it?

EL: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Can't wait for the next one.

KY: So you're practicing for the Solitaire du Figaro, which is this very famous circuit that goes around the coast of France in relatively small boats. It's very popular there, and it's considered the starting ground for French offshore racing. There’s many people who've done that when they were younger, who have gone on to become the big names in the offshore world.

EL: Yeah, yep, pretty good summary.

KY: And that's why that appeals to you?

EL: Yeah, it's just there's no other-- I really think one just one design racing and solo sailing are two of the best development platforms you can have in offshore racing, and this is both. It's the only one design fleet in the world right now that's really competitive now that the Volvo 60 fives are no longer competing in a fleet. And, yeah, it's just incredibly competitive and because you're alone, you're forced—you, it's an opportunity, but you're forced to make all these decisions and tune the boat, and you know, you're pushing every aspect of racing. So you really do-- you're gonna develop whether you like it or not, you know?

KY: And so how many competitors were there in the past or in the last race you were in?

EL I think there were-- oh, last race I was in?

KY: Yeah.

EL: Um, I think it was 30?

KY: OK. And then looking towards the Figaro, how many is that?

EL: 35?

KY: Yeah. So pretty, pretty big.

EL: Yeah. Yeah, it's a lot of boats on the line, especially if we're all alone. Starts are a bit hectic, yeah.

KY: And so now you're there in Brittany and you're practicing? You said you're practicing today?

EL: Yeah. Well, we start practicing again with the with the training group tomorrow and it's I I just did some racing with our crew, so I wanted to get back, you know, freshen up again before I went out with our training group.

KY: And you said you're living in an apartment that's-- on the waterfront, probably, right?

EL: Yeah, not far, not far.

KY: And so you're not living in the boatyard like some of the people have done, I've heard?

EL: No, thankfully. But rent's actually-- it's common to just have roommates here. So I've got-- I'm in a house with, uh, five people. So rent's not that expensive.

KY: And are they also, are they also sailors or just people?

EL: Yeah, actually they all… one of them, not so much, but he's he still works in a boatyard. So otherwise, you know, everyone is all around boats.

KY: I can imagine it could be very weird if if it's just someone who's like, you know, a bank teller or whatever, and they come home--

EL: I almost chose a room share with someone-- with two people, who didn't sail. I thought it would, might have been interesting, to like… sometimes it's nice to not talk about sailing, but in fact it's nice to be with sailors too.

KY: So you know, you're not “Emily in Paris”, you're “Erica in Brittany”, but you are an American in France. So have there been things that you've had to adapt to because of that?

EL: Well, I think any foreigner in France, there's it's, you know, there's a lot of culture here and you've got to, you've got to assimilate. They appreciate your making the effort. So the language is a big part of that. I think most of the cultural stuff is just being polite, which is easy enough. But yeah, the getting a grip on French is super important and yeah, has practical repercussions as well. So that's just the hardest part, but—

KY: So did it help that you had a linguistics background and you had previously worked in other countries?

EL: Definitely, yeah. It's still, it's not the same as having studied French growing up, but it definitely helps to make all the connections from languages I've previously studied. That helps you learn it a little quicker.

KY: What would you say has been the biggest adaptation you've had to make?

EL: The biggest adaptation? I-- honestly, it's just the amount of language. Like, it's full on, like, our training sessions are all in French. The coach, the coach will, if he's addressing me specifically, will speak in English over the VHF, but it's in a very strong French accent and VHF is not very clear to hear. Super hard! And then we have a-- like an hour or longer debrief afterwards in a classroom and that's all in French. So it's really mentally taxing to-- and you're, you know, you're also tired cause you're sailing all day. So it, it just takes a lot out of you, but it gets a little easier as time goes on. Looking forward to the day that it's easy.

KY: And are you the only non non-native French speaker there?

EL: I am at the moment. There were three of us, but two of them are sailing together on the-- there's a transatlantic and the Figaro's every two years and that's going on right now. So they're racing.

KY: And what-- what countries were they from?

EL: They're both from the UK.

KY: OK. So you know, it's definitely, you know, very much a part of the culture. I think we said that before in France, there's just this awareness of the Figaro, but also the other events. I was, I was very surprised, you know, during the past Vendée Globe, I was looking at some of the options, the shop things… like, they have trading cards like, they're… the kids can actually buy trading cards that have, like, the skippers [on them]!

EL: That's amazing! I did not know that.

KY: And comic books, too! And you know that's, that's just an incredible level of popularity that seems so strange to us as Americans.

EL: Yeah, it's wild. I once had a guy pick me up in a… there's a like a ride share app here in France, it's very common to use if you're going from one place to another. And I had a two hour car ride with this random guy and his daughter and he asked me what I was there for. “I'm here for work.” “What do you do for work?” “Oh, I am an offshore sailor.” “And he's like, oh, like the Vendée Globe.” And then he named the only American who's done a Vendée Globe, because that person, that individual had gone to his daughter's school when she was young and given a talk.

KY: Rich Wilson?

EL: Yeah, he was like, oh, do you know Rich Wilson? Like, he gave a talk at my daughter's school when she was young. What? This is crazy-- this guy just picked me up in Paris and he's not driving to Lorient, he's not a sailor. And he knows what the Vendée Globe is. He knows Rich Wilson by name. And it was like, no, almost no Americans know Rich Wilson’s name, but he's famous in France.

KY: I mean, I know they have, like, the kids’ website and it was very cute during the 2016 one where they had the profiles and it was like, “This is Rich Wilson, he's from the United States!”

EL: Aww.

KY: And it was like… what was kind of weird was the fun fact was… “In America, there are many churches!” And I was like… yeah, OK, I don't know if that's the most notable thing, but OK…?

EL: Oh, interesting? They said that on the, like teaching…

KY: On the kids’ [site], that was the fun fact.

EL: “In America, there are many churches…?” Interesting, OK. There's a lot of churches here, too. Oh, funny.

KY: Yeah. But I mean, he's… he was a teacher, so I'm sure that he would… He loves, you know, doing those talks at school.

EL: Oh, yeah, yeah, he loves the education side.

KY: And… but yeah, so people recognize you and that that must be so strange.

EL: Yeah, well, not me, but they recognize the sport.

KY: Well, they recognize, they recognize what you're doing.

EL: Yeah, it's amazing.

KY: And are they surprised that that you're an American doing this?

EL: Yeah, the first, first group of French people that I told of last—when I met them last fall, I told them my goal this year and their first reaction was that they kind of turned to each other and said, wouldn't it be so cool if an American won the Solitaire? And I was so amazed that that was their first reaction. First of all, ‘cause it's so unlikely because I was such an underdog.

KY: Yes.

EL: But second of all, that that they relished the-- that as an option, you know? I was really surprised by that in a positive way. But yeah, so it’s—it’s super cool that people know about it.

KY: But I guess in in some of the other things you've done before, you know, there are not as many Americans also.

EL: Yeah, I'm pretty used to being a-- an odd duck out.

KY: Have you ever been tempted to fake an accent?

EL: Not intentionally, but I think I do what's called linguistic assimilation, which is when you speak more like the person who's speaking to you to be more easily understood. Because I'm often in a group like on Maiden and we were always had, you know, Aussie or British people on board too. So you kind of adapt your accent to be more easily understood. Or less easily made fun of by your peers just to function, you know. And I started using words that we don't use in the US because it didn't, didn't…. It was just easier, you know. So yeah, sometimes I go home and people are like, where are you from? Or, you know, where is your accent from? “What accent? I'm from here! I just, I just travel a lot.”

KY: I thought it was… there was an interview with, I think it was either the last Volvo or the one before that, where there's a Dutch guy and he was talking in English and he was using so many Australian words. Like, words an American, you would think , are Australian specific words. But these are just this is the people he learned English from. So he's like, “Oh yeah, I have a Barbie in my backyard” and it's—

EL: Oh, it’s so funny.

KY: It was a Dutch guy using Australian slang. It was very cute.

EL: It's so interesting how like you know English is so varied on region and it's really does change a lot from where you're from. They're almost different languages sometimes.

KY: But yeah, but you're never like, “Oh, you know, maybe I'll they’ll take more seriously if I do a British accent” or—

EL: No, no.

KY: Not like that, no. So what is, what is the training schedule like?

EL: It was most intense when I first got here. It was really, fully training all the time from January through until the first race. And then after the first race, they-- it was a bit of a break because everyone was doing… the focus really turned to the Transat and preparations for the Transat. So I instead of, you know, I wasn't going to not do anything. So I went and signed up for a double-handed race on my boat and then I did a crewed race as well on my boat. So I had, you know, two weeks of racing just with more people on board. Which was really nice to just keep improving tactically and then now, suddenly, you know haven't trained with this group in a session with our coach in a few weeks, maybe even 4 weeks now. So it's cool, it's exciting to go back and train with the group starting tomorrow.

KY: So then what is the schedule for the summer and the rest of the year in terms of the things you want to do?

EL: Well, yeah. So I have kind of a break coming up after I finish this next qualifier. I break from my contract for the boat rental for two months because there's no solo racing going on and it's expensive every month. So I'm basically taking a break so that I can, I'm going to be doing some racing back in the US and also, you know, continuing to look for sponsorship and do some fundraising. So anything I can do to get myself to the start line in September. But hopefully I'll be back in France by the end of July and ready to take the boat back and practice again before the solitaire.

KY: OK, you know, we'll have to see if if I'm… if we're in the same place at the same time, we can say hi.

EL: Yeah, yeah.

KY: I know that I want to try to get to Newport to watch the 12-Metre Worlds.

EL: Cool. Do you know what month it is?

KY: That's end of June, I think.

EL: OK, nice.

KY: So then, do you have any thoughts that what you might want to do after the Figaro or are you just focused on that now?

EL: I'm super focused on September, ha ha. My relatives were asking me what I'm doing for Thanksgiving. I have no idea after September 30th what my life will be like. But I mean, I would love to do it again. I'd love to do it again next year and keep getting better. And in a bigger picture, I'd like to move on to Class 40s as well. But there's a much bigger budget for that. So I need to sort of gain the experience with sponsors first and prove some ROI. ‘Cause U.S. companies aren't used to sailing being a viable option for sports marketing. But I really think it is now, in the last five years, with the improved technology for storytelling. So I'm just trying to work that edge until I can find a sponsor ready to go with me, yeah.

KY: I had that conversation with Dawn when I spoke with her-- that there's been sort of over our lifetime, sort of a falling off of the awareness, and that is related to the sponsorship.

EL: Yeah, yeah. It's-- I don't know which is the chicken and the egg, but it's yeah, it's a tough, it's a tough egg to crack. Tough nut to crack.

KY: Everyone's got theories about why and things like that and—

EL: Yeah.

KY: “Is it because Mike Plant died? Is it because of this? Is it because the—"

EL: I don't think it's because Mike Plant died. I think there's enough other reasons.

KY: But you know, just, you know, is it the change in media landscape? And is it that the extreme sports craze of the 90s died out after 9/11, or-- but just that's anthropological. That's much bigger than…

EL: Yeah.

KY: So what moment in your sailing career would you say has been the best?

EL: Oh, I can't answer that one. Oh, there's amazing moments. And I don't like to rank things, but yeah, there's some incredible moments out there.

KY: So what, what are some of your favorite moments?

EL: I mean, just this last race, having those dolphins and that boat in the fog, that was incredible. Southern Ocean last winter was wild. There was a-- one night it was really windy and we were sailing along just managing the boat in in that wind and I'd been at the helm for a couple of hours or something. It was, it was tough conditions, and I finally got relieved and I went forward and I… when you were standing at the helm, there were, are instruments that are-- they have a backlight so they kill your night vision. You can see the boat, but-- and I can see the instruments-- but I can't really see. I didn't know what I couldn't see. But when I went forward of those lights, I had no idea that the water was completely filled with phosphorescence and bioluminescence.

KY: Oh…

EL: Which we see offshore kind of frequently. But or you know, it's not… It's something offshore sailors really like and we like when we see it. And we do, we do see it, but I never expected to see it in a huge storm in the Southern Ocean. Like, it went from this, like, sort of Armageddon dealing with the elements to, wow, that is spectacular. And that was quite cool.

KY: You know, in Apollo 13-- in the movie, but Jim Lovell, this happened [to him] in real life too-- he talks about how he was able to land on an aircraft carrier by watching the phosphorescence in its wake that got stirred up.

EL: Whoa, that's quite impressive.

KY: And then what would you say have been some of the worst moments?

EL: Oh, the worst moments. I mean…

KY: Only if you're comfortable about them.

EL: I just, I think the worst moments are when you're, you know, you're down, you're behind and there's something's broken, and you can't figure out how to fix it, and you're tired and you know that those kinds of things they-- they've… they all tend to happen at once. So you end up having lows just because all this s---'s going wrong at the same time and you're tired and hungry or whatever. Yeah, I think those are the lows normally. Couple of scary moments, too. But you know, that not the norm. It's just part of the game.

KY: What are some things that were strange or unexpected that have stuck with you?

EL: Strange and unexpected… Well, I'm, now, I'm thinking about scary moments and because I just mentioned it… and I had a collision last year with a whale at a high speed and that was unexpected and absolutely terrifying. Yeah.

KY: And then is there anything else you would like to share?

EL: No, I'm OK on my end. Thanks for the questions.

KY: OK. Well, it's been great to talk with you.

EL: You, too.

KY: And I don't want to keep you. I know you should probably go and rest since you were training.

EL: Yeah, I gotta go swap the main sail.

KY: All right. Can I just see around in your boat? If-- if that's OK?

EL: Yeah. Sorry, it's a little… it's not super-super clean, but yeah.

KY: You got the pipe berth, you got the berth over there.

EL: One here and then just up forward, some more sails, and those are bags of safety stuff up forward. That's not much.

KY: Yeah. Then that's going up to the top.

EL: You wanna see it?

KY: Yeah, sure. If that's OK with you.

EL: Yeah. Do-do-do…

KY: Camera's there.

EL: See if I can switch my screen…

KY: Oh, is that-- What's the animal behind you? The cute little thing?

EL: This is… my friend gave me this octopus. It's particularly funny cause it has a mood change. If it's, uh, I don't know if I can do this while I hold the phone… Basically, you flip it inside out and it becomes unhappy.

KY: Ohh, that's very cute. Does that have a name?

EL: It does have a name. I forgot its name, though. Maybe I need a new name. Oh, I think his name was Simon.

KY: Simon, OK.

EL: Maybe it should be Simone. It's French now.

KY: OK.

EL: It's messy up here from training.

KY: It's OK! It’s cool to see the process!

EL: Yeah, I’m switching… The sun is just going down.

KY: Yep.

EL: And yeah.

KY: These are all boats of the same type, all around?

EL: The left is a older Beneteau, but the ones on the right are Figaro Threes as well.

KY: Yeah. There’s one that’s in Boston.

EL: The ones with the that are all white with blue. Those aren't Figaros, but there's the yellow one and one on the other side of them.

KY: OK. And that's looking inwards towards the boat yard and stuff.

EL: Yeah. You can see the big Lorient la Base in the distance.

KY: Yeah, over there. Is that a submarine?

EL: Yep. Yeah, a submarine.

KY: Oh, right, ‘cause it’s Lorient, it was a submarine base, too.

EL: Exactly. Yeah. So all the old submarine hangers are now used, well, most of them are now used for boat storage.

KY: Well, thank you very much.

EL: No problem.

KY: Have a good day.

EL: Thanks for talking to me.

KY: Good luck with everything!

EL: Thanks. You, too.

[starlitangels]

Why I'm 'The' Avior Fan

for @plaqying's little Awards event!

I have quite a few reasons

The first is that he's been my favorite character since I first heard his playlist and made myself obnoxious on this blog about that fact

Basically, the brainrot took hold and I was one of the ones who was constantly thinking about his story and proposing potential theories for where his plotline was going

I listened to his playlist so many times, trying to pick out any tiny little obscure details for lore and hints and clues, and I made a lot of posts about it

Another big reason I could be considered "the" Avior fan is that I have had people tag me in Avior fan art that others had done with captions like "Star, I think you'll want to see this" (I did). My reputation for being That One Person who was Unbelievably Down Bad/Obsessed had spread enough that people would see Avior and one of their thoughts when they reblogged it was to tag me because they knew I'd go wild over it (I did)

Does crying my eyes out for the entire 45 minute Truth audio count as a reason? Because my investment was so deep and my heartbreak was so much that I literally couldn't stop? Thank the heavens I was home alone at the time my husband would have been so confused lol

I don't know if I've written the most Avior fanfiction out there but I definitely wrote a lot and quite a few of them got a lot of response about being pretty good, so I'll take that

I also wrote some heartbreakingly angsty Avior headcanons that got me (affectionately) yelled at iirc

Also, I started learning how to draw again after a... multi-year hiatus because I specifically wanted to draw pieces of Avior and Starlight's story #Dedication

My profile picture has almost always been some variation of my version of Starlight

You could literally ask anyone who are regulars in my notes "Which Redacted voiced character do you associate with Star" and I guarantee most of them would say Avior maybe Elliott if they found me during that one specific era last spring but that's beside the point

A very kind soul on my birthday one year drew a doodle of Avior giving me a cupcake. Said kind soul didn't even have to ask who would make me the happiest to receive a cupcake from

I am, literally, like, The Avior Person to a lot of people around here and you can ask around and they would probably tell you that immediately

Lastly, my energy for keeping up with Redacted kinda faded in this last little while it will be back, I guarantee you but even when I was starting to feel myself pulling away a little, I will still drop everything and run to grab my headphones when Avior gets his rare uploads

Oh did I say lastly? Too bad I'm still going I literally have done more fan art for Avior than any other character in the history of me learning how to draw. I also consistently tag posts about him with "Sarcastic Demon my beloved" because, again, he is my beloved XD

This one specific character just kinda grabbed me and refused to let go and there were many days of washing dishes filled with me relistening to Sovereign State over and over and over again

Also Erik dropped Other Side by Anberlin as "a song with Avior vibes" and it immediately got added to like three playlists of mine because it slapped and also broke my heart but that was right before the Truth audio and it still breaks my heart but this is slightly less relevant

[bishiglomper]

I'm super sad, disappointed and frustrated that I'm not gonna see many deafie/ASL fics/headcannons with Alastor because, well, ....the obvious. The whole radio thing.

There is ONE little ficlet someone posted here about a deaf oc that has a hypnotic siren voice they don't like using so they use ASL. I'm honestly impressed it exists but also sad because I haven't seen updates about it.. 👀

Present Mic wasn't my favorite character in MHA but omg I ate up Mic/deafie fics. LOVED those. Didn't know I needed deafie SO fics in my life before that.

I'm only hard of hearing so I don't feel like it's my place to make those fics (╥ᆺ╥；)

But also how would that even work.

If someone put me in the middle of Alastor and Vox's "which media is better " discourse of course I have no choice but to pick TV. Because then there's visual context and the possibilities of captions.

Which is where it gets personal for me because I can't stand audio. I always have audio off, it's overstimulating especially when half of it is just noise and nothing contextually relevant (like tiktoks). I don't ever listen to music because even if I can hear the words I also have audio processing disorder so even if its clear I still get garbled garbage. I need written words in front of me to fill in the blanks.

And I never listen to music unless I'm entirely alone or people know my attention is off limits. Because that 1 earbud renders me 100% deaf to the world. Completely unaware of sound. It's terribly inconvenient for everyone.

So I don't even know what I expect by putting one of those people next to the Radio Demon LOL

He doesn't strike me as someone who would learn ASL for anyone. They can't listen to his broadcast or even his own voice (which is like half his whole thing) so I see him having absolutely 0 interest if he can't get anything interesting out of those interactions.

I mean, maybe to place them by him as a specific annoyance. 🤔 a mini rival/enemy. A Vox knockoff. 🤣

"what is that noise" - "Shut up, your voice is annoying." - "Sorry I couldn't understand a word you said under that garbled mess." (It could be such fun 😗)

Bonus headcannon:

Can you imagine trying to have a conversation in sign language with Angel? He could have 3 convos going at once 🤭

I mean, I doubt he'd have the brain power to pull that off but the possibilities. 🤌

Imagine having a spicy conversation with Angel in front of Alastor and obviously he can distinguish some gestures (👉👌) but not have the full scope and yall are just giggling. I think it would irritate him to no end. 😈🤣

You know, THAT might be enough to get him interested in learning ASL

Just to have that moment to one day, out of the blue, respond with perfect ASL to their bullshit.

I love comebacks like that.

I can't decide which would be better: a whole thought out paragraph in response or something simple and concise like: "Never going to happen." And he just walks away.

But alas. I'm never gonna get it. 🙃

Argh why my favorite blorbo gotta be such a niche asshole? 🙄

[ladysolitaire]

I'm rewatching the LOST S4 finale because I'm writing something. And I've noticed a few new things.

The scene at the beginning of 4x12 where Kate pointed out Jack's tell when he's lying made me think of this scene in 3x15:

KATE: Did he say that to you? JULIET: Sorry? KATE: That I broke his heart. JULIET: He didn't have to. KATE: You don't know anything about him. JULIET: I know where he was born. I know what his parents did for a living. I know that he was married. And who he was married to. I know why he got a divorce. I know how his father died. I know his height, his weight, his birthday, and his blood type. What do you know about him, Kate? KATE: [Pauses] Let's go.

Source: Lostpedia

I need a full series rewatch but, from what I remember, most of what Kate knows about Jack are things she's observed or things he told her as opposed to Juliet knowing the above about him from his file. So much has happened between 3x15 and 4x12 and Jack has probably told Juliet things about himself that Kate doesn't know or Juliet has probably observed more things about him by this point. But it makes my shipper heart happy that Kate knows him so well and that she could point out that he's lying and he'd just laugh it off. Because he was so obviously lying his ass off here.

2. When the Oceanic Six arrived in Honolulu and they were welcomed by their families, Kate and Aaron were standing by themselves as Diane was likely too sick to travel to Honolulu (and would likely question if Aaron was really her son). I like to think that Jack introduced Kate and Aaron to his mom offscreen. Also, Hurley would have also introduced her to his parents, like he did with Sayid, because that's how he is. I don't like the idea that Kate and Aaron were completely alone and she didn't talk to anyone until the press conference.

3. When Carole talked to Jack after Christian's memorial service, Jack must have been so discombobulated and guilty. Not only did he get definitive proof that his father cheated on his mother, he found out that Claire was his half-sister. On the Island, when Sawyer told them that Claire had disappeared, Jack was visibly distressed and concerned, but he didn't have the bandwidth to look for her because of the larger and more immediate threat to the survivors. But I like to think that he's felt guilty that he didn't look for her (among other stuff he feels guilty about) since then and, in the back of his mind, wonders if he should've done more to find her. Then he finds out that she's his half-sister? I believe his guilt increased tenfold, which is why he couldn't see Aaron.

4. In 4x13, when the A-Team reunited at the helicopter, both Jack and Sawyer were happy to see Kate. Despite some mild flirting though, Kate went to Jack to check his bleeding wound. (I always notice this when I rewatch this episode and I'm always happy to point this out.)

5. The Disney+ version now has closed captions for the last part of what Sawyer whispered to Kate before he kissed her and jumped off the chopper:

I want you to find her, tell her I'm sorry.

(The trivia section of the episode on Lostpedia has the full version.)

Anyhoo, the look on Jack's face as he watched them hurts every time I watch this episode.

6. Sayid's longer hair in 4x14 is hot as hell.

7. Yunjin Kim's performance on the chopper when the freighter blew up should've earned her all the nominations and awards.

8. After Ben moved the Island (including Hydra Island) and Lapidus told them to put their life jackets on, Jack helped Kate put on her life jacket first. He didn't even get to put his on before the chopper landed in the ocean.

9. I love that Jack's tell is 100% relevant to the Oceanic Six narrative.

10. The Penmond reunion is still one of the best things this show gave us.

11. That little Jate moment after they were "rescued" always warms my heart.

12. I'll never understand why Jack owns such an ugly car. He could've bought a nicer car with his settlement money from Oceanic Airlines.

Anyhoo, I'm off to finish the fic. I have to polish it and post it by the end of the week!

[asterlizard]

UK Trip April 2025 (Part 1)

ngl this trip could have been planned a little better. If I had my way, I would have done things differently, but in the end we had to work around the schedule of a family friend, whose schedule was already tight as it was. Despite the setbacks, I still had a good trip.

Things started out more or less the same as last time. We used the rideshare service we tried previously, and had to wake up early to get ready for it. (prepping for the trip was already stressful, at least for mum, because we couldn't pack until the night before we left, so it felt like we were postponing it, and therefore not getting it done. Packing usually isn't supposed to happen until the day before, unfortunately!)

The person who picked us up this time was actually the lady who picked us up from the airport to our house last time! (I wouldn't have known then, because I was way too tired from the plane trip to notice, but at least mum picked up on it!) We had a nice chat during the journey, which almost went smoothly, aside from a brief traffic break at one point.

Dropping off our luggage at the airport was also quick and easy, and at this point, we had a couple hours at our disposal. After eating sandwiches, we decided to explore the exhibits before doing the security check. One of them was about the AIDS quilt, and reading up about it was rather moving. There was another exhibit about tiles that were used during Spanish colonial times, with designs such as flowers and birds, but we didn't have as much time to look at it.

The security check also went smoothly and quickly (I don't think I've ever seen such an empty queue before!) My computer was packed in our carry-on bag, and I didn't need to take it out at all. I did have to take off my shoes though.

On the other side, we passed the time by walking some more, and looking at the large murals above each gate (in particular "Mondrian Meets the Beatles", which I've joked multiple times where the UK flights ought to depart from, and "Everywhere a Color", composed solely of colour bands, each representing an aspect of SF (the Golden Gate, morning fog, Castro, even the parakeets!), which I thought was pretty cool) Alas, once again I wasn't hungry enough to want to eat at the restaurants despite being curious about them.

At one point, we decided to sit down and do some plane spotting. A man then sat nearby us, coughing and sniffling a lot. For the sake of our health, we decided to move.

I also saw a group of pilots in their fancy outfits walking along and I made the comment, 'Those are pilots! They're wearing hats!' which mum found really funny for some reason.

Eventually we decided to go to our gate, and somehow we were the last ones to board again!

It was somewhat on the full side, and unfortunately they did away with the bottles of hand sanitizer near the loos (though they did give out plenty of sanitizing wipes before departure)

Oh no! Our plane's in the water!

Just kidding, we took off fine.

This was almost a cool shot of the entire Golden Gate, but camera refused to focus and then the plane tilted 🙃 Oh well...

Hard to tell with this camera, but that's an entire field of wind turbines!

The pilot kindly told our side of the plane to look out the window to see the beautiful snow covered peaks of Mt. Lassen and its neighbours, though I was already looking long before then :P

I wish this was more in focus, but this plane in the distance flew past us like a shot, it surprised me!

As for entertainment, I watched two things, a film and a TV series:

The sequel to this obscure series called Shrek? You may have heard of it (I used to own the DVD, but it got misplaced somehow, and I was in the mood to watch it again)

Emerald Isles by Ardal O'Hanlon (it's a documentary series about these lesser known little islands off the coast of Ireland, which wasn't relevant at all to my upcoming visit to Ireland, but it was still really interesting. The captions were atrocious though, so I had to turn them off. As of this post, the episodes can be found on YT!)

And of course, I listened to some music from the 80s and 90s collection. Although I didn't listen to the 00s collection, they had classic favourites like... Huey Lewis's "Power of Love" and "Sweet Dreams" by Eurythmics (who curated this list????)

tbh this wasn't the most comfortable flight, only due to personal reasons rather than any fault with the plane or crew. Once again, I ate the pasta meal, which was pretty tasty, but didn't want to eat anything else afterwards. Mum and I also felt ill towards the end of the flight, and for once, I actually looked forward to being on the ground again. Towards the end of the flight, my eyes began to sting, so it was hard to see, which was frustrating. This has been a somewhat new problem I've been having a couple times recently, and can only guess it was a dehydration problem (I try to drink lots of water, but it's annoying when the body says it's still not enough 🙃) I fixed it for the time being by flushing out my eyes with water.

This must have been somewhere over coastal Ireland (I'm surprised at how blue it is!)

Now this is approaching London. You can actually see the morning mist on the land!

We really got some great views of London!

Finally we land!

HSBC always has charming and memorable adverts at the airport, and this is no exception!

Mum felt pretty ill off the flight, but after a bit of recovery, she was fine. But we still felt pretty bleh for a while though.

Picking up our luggage was quick, we pretty much saw it immediately on the carousel, picked it up, and left. We took the E line to Charing Cross and rested before we caught the train to go to our friend's house.

I got to observe a very needy (young?) pigeon pestering another pigeon, who kept flying away from it.

We had a lot of time on our hands, so we went outside to hang out at Trafalgar Square for a bit. It was a lovely sunny day!

The National Gallery was still in the middle of celebrating 200 years of existence, but we didn't have enough time to visit. Would have been interesting though!

These two fellas enjoyed swimming laps around the fountain and avoiding jets of water

At some point it was time to head back to the train station, and after getting lost for a bit, we made it back and waited some more.

One of the observations I made was that the guy behind the info desk looked a bit like a bulldog: he had a rather unimpressed/bored sorta look, complete with a beanie that just reached to the top of his eyes. Then along comes an older lady, gently dancing with a paper umbrella in the middle of the station, singing 'A Spoonful of Sugar'. She then turned to the info guy and sang to him, and he had a big smile of delight on his face. It was a beautiful moment (I really want to replicate this in a drawing!)

ngl of all the times I visited London, idk if I've even been this close to Big Ben

Daffodils! (the ones at home have pretty much gone already, so it's a treat to still see some thriving!)

We arrive at our friend's house in part 2: [link]

[creatorbiaze]

had a weird dream again

so ut started on Tumblr, w/ a vide of the Pyramids of Egypt, abt how lightning will strike everywhere around the Giza pyramid except ON it or directly around it,, & it had a caption of like "Zeus be like "you'd be destroyed by now if your gods let me""

& then in the reblogs there was a long super wholesome stickman comic strip made by a couple different users contributing to each other's comic. completely unrelated to the vid

So jump forward. I'm outside for some reason. going to a park. hitch a ride with a family of 4. the mother was driving , oldest (10 yr?) son in the passenger seat beside her. the young daughter (young toddler, couldn't properly speak yet) & the father were sitting in the back, I was between them

so the daughter had a tiny lego set thing & the father was trying to get her to build more of the Lego set than just the lego person. and also kept trying to make her stop making normal baby noises. he was monotonous and to the point

so i go "... but thosere normal baby sounds..?"

"Exactly. I don't like that."

"That she's.. normal?"

"Exactly"

the older brother gives snacks to us in the back

so fast forward to where we get to the park/garden (small walled in patch of land with a pond) and i realize my parents have no idea where I am

and i step near tbe pond, the water lap at my feet, and i realize 1) I'm in danger, and 2) I'm dreaming.

So i turn around to face the family, on guard and trying to force myself to wake up or at least change the dream. I for some reason have a knife in my pocket, and slash at the father since he's closest.

i black out from there & when I 'wake up' I'm in a house I don't recognize, in 3rd person pov. a lady explains to someone that they found me in a warehouse, I was covered in blood that wasn't my own, and I'd killed the girl in my sleep bc I'd somehow realized something was wrong. she was dead

i didn't feel bad in the slightest since it was self defense

someone who was apparently a family member or a close friend came in & i went back to first person while they talk super fast and panicky.

then I was wandering through a hospital for some reason (apparently I'd been brought there o think?) & i learn the girl was specifically sliced through her vocal chords. apparently thats relevant somehow. person also says it's weird I didn't wake up earlier.

after more wandering i 'woke up for real' & started writing this Tumblr post, except i had the thread open so I could copy it down to explain it (except it got the comic thread all wrong) ans rhen I felt super sleepy and.. actually woke up for real

[definitelymyselfreallyiswear]

Alright. I want to post something. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe there's something appealing about getting these words from my head out into the world. There are a lot of things in my mind today. Well, there always are. So this post will likely be a jumble, jumping from topic to topic. What can I say? I have an ADHD diagnosis. That's probably relevant at this stage. I suppose the most forthright comment pinging around in there is the consideration to increase my antidepressant medication dose. Surprise surprise, the person rambling into Tumblr with no tags or followers is in a depression spiral. Original, isn't it? Ever a trailblazer. And at that, it has happened again. The thing that keeps derailing my thought patterns and ambushing my endeavours. The thing that grips me around the waist and wrenches me into another universe. Well - another time, anyway. Trauma. That fucking poster. If it can be called a poster. It was a photograph, with a caption, inside a frame. I suppose it was a photo print. Whatever. An image of a man walking alone towards the peak of a sand dune, footsteps visible in the sand behind him, his back to the frame. Orange was the overwhelming winner for feature colour in that piece, exceeding even the paper upon which it was printed - the frame was a ghastly shade of orange which attempted to draw the eye away from the piece and instead to its surroundings; and what a relief that would have been. Below the image, the caption, "Always set the trail. Never follow the path." That is burned into my mind. Whoever thinks that artwork in homes has no impact has clearly not lived through the ages of No Internet. I stared at that piece in every possible configuration. I stared at it while lying on the floor, feeling the harsh red fibres of the rug against my skin and the small stones of dirt in my hair. I needed to vacuum. My abdomen was exposed in this position. But at least my back was not turned, this time around. I stared at it while hanging upside down from the seat of the couch, my heels over the backrest and my head centimetres from the floor. My brother wouldn't stop giggling, which meant that we could be found at any moment and punished for waking the sleeping dragon. I stared at it from the dinner table while robotically chewing spaghetti, cheddar cheese and as little mince meat sauce as I could get away with without a punishment. There was yelling of course, but that was a given. Everything I did elicited yelling. Also, everything I didn't do. And everything in general. I stared at it from the hallway, while stalling my entrance to the living space. The longer I could stay out of arm's reach of the prime couch seat, the better. If pretending to be disproportionately engaged in the piece would allow me to spend a further few minutes with calm, cool skin and a lack of red, smarting handprints, then sign me up. Yes, I would love to know more about this photo. Where is it from? Where is the footpath that he abandoned? I stared at it sideways, from a makeshift pillow while home alone, sick with the flu. I couldn't stand without shaking, this time around. I had sick in my hair, but I couldn't get in the bath without my teeth chattering so hard that it hurt my face. It wasn't until 20 years later that I learned that was not the flu. I still don't know what it was. I stared at it from beneath, standing as close as I dared to the gas heater beneath the mantle. Or the ‘mantle piece,’ as we called it then. From here, especially as I grew taller, I could make out the fine lines of detail in the sand dunes; the way the folds gave way to the influence of the wind.

From this short distance, I studied the man in the centre, wondering if it was in fact the dragon as a young man – an adventurer, somebody of great conviction and ambition.

Slyly, slowly, with small, inconspicuous movements, I raised my hands to the 'mantle piece.' I gripped the ledge and stretched my elbows upwards - just enough that they were not in view of the television, but that I was able to slouch down and place my head beneath the level of my right elbow and peer through the gap. A way to glance, quickly, briefly, at the dragon, without notice or consequence. I promptly straightened, having confirmed my suspicions. No, the dragon was not the adventurer in a past life. It was not the same man. The man in the picture was another ideal; a deity to strive towards but never reach. And the dragon was not holy.

Today, the flashbacks are winning. They are relentless, after all. And my opportunity for reprieve was removed. I suppose I chose to spread this joy instead. Enjoy, ether.