#jed/mary

[jomiddlemarch]

For the five lines meme: "something wicked" for Mary/Jed? Please and thank you!

“Put whatever that knitted farrago is aside, Nurse Mary,” Jed said, grimacing in a manner he hoped she would see as humorous, one which might ease the furrow in her brow and provoke her into a tart rejoinder. Before she could speak, he’d laid the pack of cards down before her.

“I’ve no time to waste being frivolous,” she replied, but there was a bit of a quirk to her lip, one he could fairly construe as wry amusement if he wished. He wished, for that and any number of things.

“Having your fortune told with Matron Brannan’s cards on All Hallow’s Eve is the furthest things from rank frivolity and I should think any self-respecting descendent of the Celts by way of Manchester would already know that and I must admit, I couldn’t get her to let me carve one measly turnip, so this will be the sum total of the night’s observation,” he said, waiting for her to nod and set aside her handwork before he sat down before her.

[twixnmix]

Yves Saint Laurent, François-Marie Banier, Jed Johnson, Pierre Bergé, Jacques Grange and Thadèe Klossowski de Rola at La Mamounia Hotel in Marrakech, 1972.

Photos by Andy Warhol

[fionapplespiano]

So, Wolverine has an ongoing solo, and is going to be on Rogue's team. Storm is getting an ongoing solo, and is going to be on the avengers

[badmovieihave]

Bad movie I have Giantess Attack vs Mecha-Fembot 2019

[remixteaching]

That’s what I like to hear, baby.

[thebuhonerodazorrow]

Mary Jane & Black Cat #5 (2023)

Marvel

[bigbadbruin343]

I can see it now... Co-Queens of Hell, by Jed MacKay.

[storyofwhoiam]

Difficult Person Test

Tagged by: @shieldretired Tagging: @greatrspnsibility @heartsdefine @shcftingpieces @goxinsane

Allie Novak:

You are a very easy person to get along with (20%).

Risk-taking is the propensity to engage in risky behavior for the sake of experiencing thrills. People high in this trait impulsively seek sensations to overcome boredom, and often get pleasure from shocking others with their adventures and stunts. Risk-takers often make those around them ill at ease since their actions may have consequences for others as well as themselves.

Amy Cameron:

You are an easy person to get along with (28.57%).

Aggressiveness is the tendency to behave rudely and with hostility toward others. Aggressiveness may be doubly hurtful to others if combined with callousness, since the aggressive person may thus be both intimidating and unfeeling in their demeanor.

Jed Bartlet:

You are an easy person to get along with (32.86%).

Suspicion is the tendency to harbor a strong and unreasoning distrust of others. Suspicious people often question the motives of even those who act loyally and devotedly toward them. Such people are often reluctant to open up to others and may interpret kind-hearted gestures as attempts to deceive them.

Marie Winter:

You are a very difficult person to get along with (62.86%).

Dominance is the tendency to put on airs of superiority and talk down to others. Domineering individuals have a strong desire to be seen as leaders and often react with combativeness when they cannot get what they want. They frustrate others by meddling in their affairs and with their attempts to control the decisions of those around them.

Manipulativeness is the inclination to exploit others to derive benefits for oneself. Manipulative people take other people for granted and use them to realize their own wishes and goals, thinking little of interpersonal reciprocity or the rights of others. Such people often exhaust and frustrate those around them, since they give little in return for the services and favors they extract from others.

[jomiddlemarch]

Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense

“I’m worried about Matthew,” Mary said, having set down the coffee-pot, every Wedgewood cup filled. The meal might have ended with port or brandy for the men in a household aspiring to be fashionable, but to Jed’s eternal amusement, Mary held fast to her New Hampshirewoman’s disapproval of anything she thought was more for show than purpose and though she was not deeply involved with the temperance movement, she saw limited appeal in spirits, which unlike coffee or even tea, never enlivened the enervated nor hastened industry. Jed spent a good deal of his time trying to impress upon her the value of leisure, but admitted it was a Sisyphean task. She applied her considerable efforts, fussing he called it, to the well-being of those she called friends, so he could not be surprised at her declaration.

“I’m sure you needn’t,” Emma said. This only caused Mary to purse her lips in a manner Jed found adorably kissable, but which indicated she felt Emma was not taking seriously what she deemed a serious matter indeed.

“Why are you worried?” Henry asked. “He’s not written often since he went to New York. At least not to me. Perhaps you’ve heard more from him?”

“If she hasn’t, it’s not for lack of trying,” Jed remarked. “At this rate, we may send Daniel out West to earn his Harvard tuition as his mother’s spent it on postage—”

“It won’t work, Jed, Emma and Henry already know you for a fabulist. You ought to confine your exaggeration to your waistcoats,” Mary replied, sounding very much as she had when they’d first met in Alexandria, all asperity and wit. She turned to face Henry, whose earnestness still matched her own. “It’s not so much what he says as what he omits and there are times I almost feel he’s written me a sermon instead of a letter to a friend.”

“I thought it would be easy enough for him, in New York. They’re not known for their propriety as Boston is,” Emma said. She had found it more difficult than she expected to gain acceptance, even as Mrs. Reverend Hopkins, her soft drawl a lesser issue than the myriad small faux pas she made, which she discovered only through a raised eyebrow or a short, barely audible sniff. When Mary’s efforts at consolation had proven ineffective, she’d brought Emma to Margaret Brook and then to the Bhaers’ exercise in utopia. She’d left with a hand-printed program of “The Pirate’s Fearsome Revenge and Also, His Parrot Makes a Freind” as a talisman against disappointment. “No Lowells, no Cabots, it might as well be a children’s garden party at Plumfield.”

“Evidently the von Rhijns and the Astors would make the Cabots and Lowells quail,” Mary said. “There’s a brazenness in New York society that’s frowned upon in Boston and Matthew mentioned that some of the newer families, the Russells in particular, are rather given to excess, even though that is reflected in their charitable giving as well as their millinery.”

“You are concerned Matthew will be caught up in the battles between old and new money?” Henry asked. “That he may be diverted from his ministry and his neediest parishioners?”

“The man survived five holiday bazaars, including the one the former Miss Hastings attended,” Jed said. “Have some faith—”

“He was at home then,” Mary said. “He knew the players and he knew who he might call upon as allies, should he need them.”

“You make it all sound quite cut-throat,” Jed said. “Not that I don’t think Anne brought a Bowie knife to that sewing bee you hosted. I expect she spiked the punch from her trusty flask as well.”

“No one serves punch at a sewing bee,” Emma said.

“I’m afraid Matthew’s affections are becoming improperly engaged,” Mary interrupted. Henry frowned but Jed let out a low whistle, one his sons had all learned to replicate. He was teaching the girls in secret.

“Improperly engaged! Given the source of such an assessment, I can only assume our esteemed Reverend Forte is enamored of a circus performer or perhaps his inamorata is a lady aeronaut,” Jed said, making little effort to restrain himself. He was, after all, among friends.

“Do be serious,” Emma said, an exhortation Mary knew better than to ever bother with. Henry, uxuoriousness undimmed by nearly twenty years of marriage, patted his wife’s hand. Mary rolled her eyes, but Jed could tell she was equally amused by his playfulness and Emma’s exasperation. There was little latitude granted to a minister’s wife in Massachusetts and Emma’s thirsts for gossip and the latest fashion were generally unquenched. 

“Not a widow of means, then?” Henry said.

“He writes almost effusively about a Miss Brook and no, Jedediah, there is little chance she’s any relation to Mrs. John Brook, the surname is common enough,” Mary said.

“What makes an engagement an improper one then, Molly?” Jed asked.

“As her title suggests, she is unmarried, but not fresh from the schoolroom. She is a lady of some years—”

“An elderly spinster,” Jed remarked. “Probably poor as a church mouse, though I’d defer to Henry to explain why all the mice who make churches their residence are doomed to being impoverished. Not much opportunity for cheese, I suppose—"

“Hush!” Mary exclaimed. “She is of middle years and unmarried but what makes the engagement risky—”

“Not risqué,” Jed muttered under his breath, low enough Henry could claim he hadn’t heard but loud enough he’d grinned.

“Is her connection to the van Rhijn family,” Mary went on.

“Is she a second cousin? A cadet branch? A companion?” Emma asked, speaking the word companion as she might say harlot.

“She is Mrs. van Rhijn’s only sister,” Mary said. “He was invited to luncheon at the van Rhijn house. They had New England clam chowder. Miss Brook admitted amidst the guests that she’d had it specially prepared to remind him of home.”

Emma looked aghast.

Henry looked as surprised as he had when his eldest daughter Lydia had announced her intention of studying Ancient Greek at Wellesley College the day after the school’s charter was announced. She had been five at the time and was already halfway through Cicero.

Mary looked concerned and also divinely self-satisfied, largely due to the expressions on the faces of both Hopkins and the near-absolute silence that had descended on the sitting room. Jed could only barely make out the sound of the boys arguing, Rebecca wheedling cakes from Mrs. Hudson for Beatrice and the Hopkins girls. They were dear to him, these three, and though he could not share in the apprehension over Matthew Forte’s affections and reputation, he was fond of the minister in his own way.

“As it’s evident the three of you believe Reverend Forte shortly to be torn limb from limb, either figuratively or literally, with the likelihood of a new iteration of New England chowder featuring a man of God, his frock coat, and quantity of diced potatoes doused in cream soon to be presented at the van Rhijn table, I would suggest a course of action,” Jed said, allowing himself to wax, if not rhapsodic, then comedically melodramatic. Mary might take him to task later, but they were all so earnest and Emma, in particular, needed to be reminded there was life outside the parlor and parish hall, life she had once lived, most threatening with her swinging hoopskirt. It was always fraught, to refer to the War, each of them carrying their own burdens, each of them managing in the best way they knew how, but they had once attended or performed in the dramas of the Mansion House Players and given the clear desire to make a tragedy out of a few lines in Matthew’s letter, their previous experience would be well to be evoked.

“Well, out with it,” Mary said. “You’re overdoing the dramatic pause, Jedediah. If Timothy and John were with us, you wouldn’t escape so lightly—”

He nodded. The two younger boys had his same taste for mockery and were only slightly reined in by Daniel’s steadiness, so like his mother’s, and Bea’s innocence. Rebecca would only egg them on. Mary could quell them all with a glance but only if she chose. 

“Matthew needs an ally. Reinforcements. The introduction of an unexpected character from the wings, kitted out with a shield and sword. And flask,” Jed said. Henry and Emma still had blank expressions but a light came into Mary’s dark eyes as he spoke and he loved her for it. “Mrs. Frederick Morris—”

“Nurse Hastings?” 

“Anne?”

“I may quibble with your approach, but I must admit, this is a pretty solution. A surgeon’s intervention,” Mary said. “No one can deny Anne has the acuity and aim of a scalpel. She’s impervious to shame, while being well-aware of its impact on those around her. And she has the resources to allow her to make a splash in New York society, though her money’s old enough she will merit some respect. I shall write her in the morning.”

“And if she does not succeed?” Emma said.

“I suppose Dr. Foster may find it necessary to visit Mrs. Manson Mingott and make sure she has been taking her tonics as prescribed,” Mary said, smiling. “Or then, Newport is lovely in the summer and we’d be happy to have you and the girls come to stay for a few weeks, Emma. Henry, if you can’t get away, you needn’t fret. We shall have it all well in hand and Mrs. Brook and Mrs. Laurence will make sure you don’t expire while living as a bachelor.”

“I notice you don’t leave Henry to Jo Bhaer’s tender mercies,” Jed remarked.

“I shouldn’t think he’d survive the theatricals at Plumfield,” Mary said. “And she has quite a heavy hand with caraway, which I know makes Henry dyspeptic.”

“Shouldn’t we just send you to Matthew’s side? Within a week, you’d have wedding bells rung for the lovesick couple and Mrs. van Rhijn ringing them herself as well as all the receipts for Delmonico’s menu for Mrs. Hudson to improve upon,” Jed said. 

Henry nodded. 

Emma smiled.

“I’m far too busy here at the moment,” Mary said. “And Anne is likely in need of some diversion.”

“Heaven help Mrs. van Rhijn,” Jed said.

“I believe Matthew must be trying his best in that regard,” Henry said. 

“Unless she has already dispatched him for chowder,” Emma added, making them all laugh.

[twixnmix]

François-Marie Banier, Jed Johnson and Clara Saint photographed by Andy Warhol, 1972.

[letterboxd-loggd]

Guilty Bystander (1950) Joseph Lerner

February 6th 2023

[tortoisesshells]

could I please request #37 "eyes" for...the first fandom on your ao3! (or dealer's choice)

of course! Mercy Street was my first AO3 fandom, so here's some fluff of dubious canonical status. I guess it fits in somewhere in between 1x05 and 2x01?

“That’s enough of that, Nurse Mary,” said Jed Foster, high-handedly taking the latest Frank Leslie’s Illustrated from her drooping hands, “The light’s bad – you’ll strain your eyes worse than our spirits, if that is possible.”

For her part, Mary made a half-hearted gesture that the paper ought to be returned, but, sleep-addled as she was, she could scarcely remember what she had just read about the port of New Orleans, or what was happening there now; her protest was very easily turned aside, and it was hard not to let herself be amused by Jed’s sharp-edged care.

He continued: “If you insist on doing damage to your own features – and with our own equipment and supplies in such a state, I would have an easier time finding tincture of laudanum in Little Napoleon’s camp than here – I’ll be forced to requisition glasses from some unsuspecting soul. For the good of the Union – I think, perhaps, I might be able to convince our stout-hearted chaplain of the necessity with such a line.”

“Jed – oh, don’t – but do I believe you would,” Mary replied, already nodding off.

Send me a number and a fandom/pairing/character(s), and get a five sentence ficlet in return!

[graphicpolicy]

Mary Jane wins big in her first appearance as Jackpot in Amazing Spider-Man #31

Mary Jane wins big in her first appearance as Jackpot in Amazing Spider-Man #31 #comics #comicbooks #spiderman

Next month’s Amazing Spider-Man #31 will be a special over-sized issue packed with surprises! A host of all-star talent will join Zeb Wells and John Romita Jr. to set up their exciting second year on the title with story preludes, glimpses of some of the biggest upcoming Spider-projects and awesome extra bonus stories including a tale by writer Celeste Bronfman and artist Alba Glez that launches…

[emotionsofateen]

Selena Gomez Via Instagram Story June 8th! She won JED’s 2023 Voice of Mental Health Award and I’m so proud of her 🥹🫶🏼

[dust-in-her-face]

“I met Abbey.”

goddamn. that still fucks with me.

just as much

“I can’t live without her.”

does.

these fucking fictional wife guys.

Why did you go to Notre Dame?

The West Wing (1999-2006) | 2x07 "The Portland Trip"

[thebuhonerodazorrow]

Mary Jane & Black Cat #5 (2023)

Marvel