#lifeboat library

[pocketramblr]

Just remembered that Kalak led the whole sons of honor thing hoping they'd create a way for him to escape the solar system, which Amaran was a part of, making him just a means to an end being used by his "betters" wearing a title of judge and man it's a shame he never got to suffer knowing that

[tahthetrickster]

some of you who have never experienced how deep the depths of despair can reach may begin to feel especially hopeless in the coming days and weeks and months. i will not say that the anguish and rage and betrayal aren't valid feelings to have under the circumstances, but i will say this:

any reason to stay alive is a good reason.

read that again:

any reason to stay alive is a good reason.

at my lowest, some of the reasons i found myself clinging to:

someone needed to be around to feed my cat

there were rumors a band i liked was making a new album

an upcoming video game looked like it could be fun

i wanted to finish planting the flower garden for my mom

i was in the middle of a project i liked, and leaving it unfinished would annoy me

i wanted to try to make friends with the stray cat at the public library

i just recently found a weird new candy that i liked

a favorite seasonal treat was coming back soon

it really doesn't matter how big or small the reason is. you may even find yourself thinking "this reason is stupid" while clinging to it. but that's okay. reasons to stay aren't lifeboats to get you back to shore, they're life preservers. they're here to keep you afloat. the boats will come later. they always do.

988.

[anim-ttrpgs]

What to Play Next with Eureka.

So, now that the pay-what-you-want/free Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy beta has over 400 downloads at the time of writing this (wow!) and has been up for about 3 weeks, I’m sure at least some people have already played Horror Harry’s Haunted House, the free tutorial adventure module we included with the beta download, and are excited to play more!

To that end, I’ve quickly thrown together a non-comprehensive list of adventure modules to run using Eureka, and where you can find them.

Adventure modules, if you’ve never used them, are a lifesaver for GMs. (And also they’re a different thing from those railroady “adventure paths” and crappy 5e adventures that you might be familiar with.)

Official Eureka Adventures

You can find official Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy adventure modules on our Patreon page. Supporting us is what makes Eureka, and our ongoing promotion of many other TTRPG creators, possible.

Horror Harry’s Haunted House

This is an official Eureka adventure module that comes free with the beta linked above. It is a super low-stakes “tutorial” adventure that sees the PCs solving a “murder” in an interactive escape room. The point of this scenario is to be a short and fun way for players to learn the mechanics of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy without risk of their characters dying.

FORIVA: The Angel Game

This is an official Eureka adventure module by A.N.I.M. currently available only to patreon subscribers. Set in the year 1999, this adventure involves the PCs investigating a mysterious threat targeting teenagers.

The Eye of Neptune

This is an official Eureka adventure module by A.N.I.M. currently available only to patreon subscribers. Set on a skeleton-crewed oil rig in the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, this adventure puts the PCs in a tense situation as members of the crew start to disappear one by one...

Free Call of Cthulhu Adventures

Since we have not had the time (yet) to build up a robust library of official Eureka adventure modules, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy has been playtested the most by using Call of Cthulhu adventure modules, and it is designed to work well with them. In fact, in many cases it actually plays them better and smoother than Call of Cthulhu itself!

Chapter 7 of the Eureka rulebook covers how to convert an adventure module from another game for use with Eureka, and its super easy! The only thing that will need to be adjusted will be the HP values of monsters and we have a formulae for that.

What's In The Cellar, a super short adventure where the PCs will investigate a mysterious cellar.

Scritch Scratch, there's rats.

The Derelict, set in the modern-day in the icy waters of the North Atlantic, the thought of a substantial salvage reward drives the investigators to attempt to rescue the a stranded ship, but in doing so they attract the attention of a strange and deadly monster. 

The Lightless Beacon, the ivestigators are unfortunate passengers on a ship heading for Rockport, Massachusetts, on Monday, April 12th, 1926, the night of the new moon. Due to a malfunction at the lighthouse on Beacon Island, their ship founders on nearby rocks, forcing the investigators to take to a small lifeboat and head to Beacon Island for refuge in the growing storm.

Dead Boarder, a murder investigation, which centers on the discovery of a body in a locked room.

Paid Call of Cthulhu Adventure Modules

Even though they aren’t exactly “indie,” just about any non-WotC company that makes TTRPGs is an ally against the monopoly crushing the entire hobby and art form of TTRPGs, so we would love it if you could support them as well as supporting us. Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy wouldn’t exist without Call of Cthulhu, and especially not without Call of Cthulhu adventure modules! In fact they’re like one of the only “big” names out there that still regularly puts out adventure modules, which seem to be a lost artform seemingly everywhere else despite once being being absolutely synonymous with GMing. They’ve been making new official Call of Cthulhu adventure modules consistently for like forty years, and buying and playing these will encourage them to keep doing that.

New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley (pack of adventures)

The Reeling Midnight, by Tom Lynch. introduces Investigators to Arkham's truly decadent party scene. (I've played this one, pretty good.)

Wasted Youth, by Christopher Smith Adair, explores the roots of juvenile delinquency, culminating in a wild chase through the wilderness.

Spirit of Industry,by Oscar Rios, takes Investigators to the village of Dunwich, where they explore old murders and an ancient mystery.

Proof of Life,by Keith Herber, is a tale of extortion and madness in the Lovecraft Country town of Foxfield.

Malice Everlasting,by Oscar Rios, expores Kingsport and old grudges.

The Night War,by Kevin Ross, sees the author of Kingsport, City in the Mists, revisit his creation when a veteran of the Great War is suddenly haunted by deadly nightmares.

A Mother's Love, by Seth Skorkowsky, author of the Valducan series, takes us to the hidden town Innsmouth, with all its squalor, dangers, and dark corruption in a brand new scenario for New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley, 2nd Edition. (I've played this one, pretty good.)

The Things We Leave Behind (pack of adventures)

Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home, by Jeff Moeller. The investigators search for an abducted child in suburban Cleveland, Ohio, where time becomes a serious concern.

Forget Me Not, by Brian M. Sammons.  An accident in a TV truck in rural Michigan sees the investigators awake in a ditch with no recollection of how they got there.

Roots, by Simon Brake. Inquiries into a missing teen will teach the investigators that some mid-west communities prefer to be left alone.

Hell in Texas, by Scott Dorward. After a suicide at a church's east Texas Halloween haunted house, strange events threaten the lives and sanity of all those in the vicinity, including the investigators.

The Night Season, by Jeff Moeller, shows that fandom in Anchorage, Alaska, can go too far when reality begins to shift.

Occam's Razor (pack of adventures)

A Whole Pack of Trouble - a group of film students have gone missing while shooting a found-footage style movie over college break. 

Eye of the Beholder - five days ago, a young woman disappeared while working on an art project.

Frozen Footsteps - A Wendigo-obsessed professor heads off to Michigan's Upper Peninsula for some rare (for him) fieldwork and discovers far more than he bargained for.

Dark and Deep - A snuff film is making the rounds in which a woman is mauled to death by a Deep One. Are the film's establishing shots enough to track down the lighthouse was filmed at and get to the bottom of things?

Visions from Beyond - A late-night voicemail left by a friend/relative in need of immediate help followed by them not answering their phone 

The Watchers - the investigators are contacted by a single woman who lives alone and is being watched by unknown people.

A Cleansing Flame - Bodies are being discovered, burned to death, with no known fire starter/accelerant present.

Does Love Forgive? (pack of single-PC adventures)

Love You To Death, Chicago: February 15th, 1929. It’s a cold winter’s day when the investigator’s good friend Hattie May appears in their office at the detective agency. Her beloved pet dog, Highball, is scheduled to be destroyed later today and she needs the investigator’s help getting him back from the Chicago Police Department. It doesn’t sound like too difficult a task, does it?

Mask of Desire, New York: September, 1932. The investigator, together with their two close friends Anna Konrad and Lucas Reston, has been invited to a party at wealthy—and notorious—socialite Madame de Tisson’s swanky apartment on the Upper West Side. Anna is somewhat distracted by her audition tomorrow for Nancy Turner, the famous jazz orchestra conductor. What is the link between the audition and a mysterious parcel that arrives the next day? And, why do so many people seem to be interested in the contents of the parcel?

Night Mother's Moon (stand-alone adventure), investigators are New York City’s street homeless who come together to solve the mystery of something that is stalking and killing the members of their community. (Playing this one with Eureka right now actually.)

[jumbleddufus]

I swear it's always "I love you so much!" but never

"I will love you with no regard to the actions of our enemies or the jealousies of actors. I will love you with no regard to the outrage of certain parents or the boredom of certain friends. I will love you no matter what is served in the world's cafeterias or what game is played at each and every recess. I will love you no matter how many fire drills we are all forced to endure, and no matter what is drawn upon the blackboard in a blurring, boring chalk. I will love you no matter how many mistakes I make when trying to divide fractions, and no matter how difficult is it to memorize the periodic table. I will love you no matter what your locker combination was, or how you decide to spend your time during study hall. I will love you no matter how your soccer team performed in the tournament or how many stains I received on my cheerleading uniform.

I will love you if I never see you again, and I will love you if I see you next Tuesday. I will love you if you cut your hair and I will love you if you cut the hair of others. I will love you if abandon your baticeering and I will love you if you retire from the theatre to take up some other, less dangerous occupation. I will love you if you drop your raincoat on the floor instead of hanging it up and I will love you if you betray your father. I will love you even if you announce that the poetry of Edgar Guest is the best in the world and even if you announce that the work of Zilpha Keatley Snyder is unbearably tedious. I will love you if you abandon the theremin and take up the harmonica and I will love you if you donate your marmosets to the zoo and your tree frogs to M. I will love you as the starfish loves a coral reef and as kudzu loves trees, even if the oceans turn to sawdust and the trees fall in the forest without anyone around to hear them. I will love you as the pesto loves the fettuccini and and as the horseradish loves the miyagi, as the tempura loves the the ikura and the pepperoni loves the pizza. I will love you as the manatee loves the head of lettuce and as the dark spot loves the leopard, as the leech loves the ankle of a wader and as a corpse loves the beak of the vulture. I will love you as the doctor loves his sickest patient and a lake loves its thirstiest swimmer.

I will love you as the beard loves the chin, and the crumbs love the beard, and the damp napkin loves the crumbs, and the precious document loves the dampness of the napkin, and the squinting eye of the reader loves the smudged print of the document, and the tears of sadness love the squinting eye as it misreads what is written.

I will love you as the iceberg loves the ship, and the passengers love the lifeboat, and the lifeboat loves the teeth of the sperm whale, and the sperm wale loves the flavor of naval uniforms.

I will love you as a child loves to overhear the conversations of their parents, and the parents love the sound of their own arguing voices, and as the pen loves to write down the words these voices utter in a notebook for safe keeping.

I will love you as a shingle loves falling off a house on a windy day and striking a grumpy person across the chin, and as an oven loves malfunctioning in the middle of roasting a turkey. I will love you as an airplane loves to fall from a clear blue sky and as an escalator loves to entangle expensive scarves in its mechanism. I will love you as a wet paper towel loves to be crumpled into a ball and thrown at a bathroom ceiling and an eraser loves to leave dust in the hairdos of the people who talk too much. I will love you as a cufflink loves to drop from its shirt and explore the party for itself and as a pair of white gloves loves to slip delicately into the punchbowl. I will love you as a taxi loves the muddy splash of a puddle and as a library loves the patient tick of a clock. I will love you as a thief loves a gallery, and as a crow loves murder, as a cloud loves bats and as a range loves braes. I will love you as misfortune loves orphans, as fire loves innocence, and as justice loves to sit and watch while everything goes wrong. I will love you as a battlefield loves young men and as peppermints love your allergies, and I will love you as the banana peel loves the shoe of a man who was just struck by a falling shingle off a house.

I will love you as a volunteer fire department loves rushing into burning buildings and as burning buildings love to chase them back out, and as a parachute loves to leave a blimp, and as a blimp loves to chase after it.

I will love you as a dagger loves a certain person's back, and as a certain person loves to wear dagger proof tunics, and as a dagger proof tunic loves to go to a certain dry cleaning facility, and how a certain employee of a dry cleaning facility loves to stay up late with a pair binoculars, watching a dagger factory for hours in the hopes of catching a burglar, and as a burglar loves sneaking up behind people with binoculars, suddenly realizing that she has left her dagger at home.

I will love you as a drawer loves a secret compartment, and as a secret compartment loves a secret, and as a secret loves to make a person gasp, and as a gasping person loves a glass of brandy to calm their nerves, and as a glass of brandy loves to shatter on the floor, and as a noise of a glass shattering loves to make someone else gasp, and as someone else gasping loves a nearby desk to lean against, even if leaning against it presses a lever that loves to open a drawer and reveal a secret compartment. I will love you until all such compartments are discovered and opened, and until all the secrets have gone gasping out into the world.

I will love you until all the codes and hearts have been broken and until every anagram and egg has been unscrambled. I will love you until every fire is extinguished and until every home is rebuilt from the handsomest and most susceptible of woods, and until every criminal is handcuffed by the laziest policeman. I will love you until M. hates snakes and J. hates grammar, and I will love you until C. realizes that S. is not worthy of his love and N. realizes he is not worthy of V. I will love you until the bird hates the nest and the worm hates the apple, and until the apple hates the tree and the tree hates the nest, although honestly, I cannot imagine that last occurrence no matter how hard I try.

I will love you as we grow older, which has just happened, and has happened again, and happened several days ago, continuously, and then several years before that, and will continue to happen as the spinning hands of every clock and the flipping pages of every calendar mark the passage of time, except for the clocks that people have forgotten to wind and the calendars that people have forgotten to place in a highly visible area. I will love you as we find ourselves farther and farther from one another, where once we were so close that we could slip the curved straw, and that long, slender spoon, between our lips and fingers respectively. I will love you as the chances of us running into each other slip from slim to zero, and until your face is fogged by a distant memory, and your memory faced by distant fog, and your fog memorized by a distant face, and your distance distanced by the memorized memory of a foggy fog. I will love you no matter where you go and who you see, no matter where you avoid and who you don't see, and no matter who sees you avoiding where you go. I will love you no matter what happens to you, and no matter how I discover what happens to you, and no matter what happens to me as I discover this, and no matter how I am discovered after what happens to me, happens to you as I am discovering this. I will love you if you don't marry me. I will love you if you marry someone else—your co-star perhaps, or Y., or even Q. or anyone Z. through A., even R. although sadly I think it will be quite some time before two woman can be allowed to marry—and I will love you if you have a child, and I will love you if you have two children, or three children, or even more, although I personally think three is plenty, and I will love you if you never marry at all and never have children, and spend your years wishing you had married me after all, and I must say that on late, cold nights I prefer this scenario out of all the scenarios I have mentioned.

That Beatrice, is how I will love you even as the world goes on its wicked way. Always. Continuously. With increasing apprehension, and decreasing hope."

[ineffable-doll]

Sick of music that’s always about sex and romance? Me too, man!

Thankfully, there’s TONS of music out there that isn’t. Here are some artists with songs I LOVE LOVE LOVE that aren’t about either of those things to diversify your musical subject matter!

(Every artist is also either BIPOC, queer, or both!)

*Links lead to Spotify, but their music is available on all the other usual platforms, too!

Janani K. Jha 📚🏺

Vibe: like devouring an entire fantasy series in a weekend then blinking awake and realizing the rest of the world still exists somehow and you’re no longer sure what to do with your life

Library Card

Machine Learning

Two Roads

Vienna Teng 🌄🎹

Vibe: like life is a series of ups and downs and you’re softly clinging to hope because there really is so much beautiful about the world that makes it worth living

Never Look Away

Homecoming (Walter’s Song)

The Tower

AURORA ✨️🌙

Vibe: like frolicking barefoot in an early autumn wood with nymphs and fairies and harmonizing with the moon

Blood in the Wine

Runaway

Some Type of Skin

Amythyst Kiah 🪕🌇

Vibe: like whispered confessions that became declarations and using a banjo to try and discover who you are

Firewater

Chained to the Rhythm

Play God and Destroy the World

Mon Rovîa 🫂🌿

Vibe: like being told you’re not alone, and everything will be okay, just lay your head here and rest

City on a Hill

crooked the road.

To Watch the World Spin Without You

MALINDA 🏞💞

Vibe: like sitting by a river, following your dreams even though life is so so hard, and learning to love yourself

Love Letter

It's All True

Everything I Need

Enny Owl 🦉⛰️

Vibe: like hearing a forested mountainside sing you a lullaby as you lay in a bed of moss

Lifeboat

House on a Garden

Mother Earth

Please give these artists a try, they’re all incredible and deserve so much love! Share your favorite songs that aren’t about sex or romance in the tags and comments!

[justforbooks]

Richard Woodman

Writer who drew on his own experience at sea in a series of novels and historical works about the British merchant navy

“The end was anticlimax. We slipped home unnoticed. Britain turned no hair at our arrival, as just as she has turned no hair at our extinction.” When Richard Woodman published Voyage East in 1988, he knew that the mercantile world depicted within it, which he had joined aged 16, was gone.

The first-person novel – which never reads like fiction – describes the voyage of a cargo liner carrying goods and passengers from Liverpool to Singapore, Hong Kong, Kobe and Shanghai in the mid-1960s. There is a moment, off the coast of Borneo, when the captain sees a vessel with half a dozen grey aluminium boxes on her foredeck: “What the devil are they?” he asks the pilot. “‘They’re containers, Captain,’ the Pilot replied, and no one on the bridge heard the sentence of death pronounced upon us.”

Woodman, who has died aged 80, became the memorialist of the merchant fleets. Between 2008 and 2016 he wrote the history of the British merchant navy in five volumes, followed by A Low Set of Blackguards, a two-volume history (2016-17) of the East India Company.

His outstanding contribution came through his three second world war convoy histories: Arctic Convoys (1994), Malta Convoys (2000) and The Real Cruel Sea (2005). These are works of passion, based on experience and scrupulous research.

The loss of life among merchant seamen was proportionately greater than in any of the armed services and the recognition they received far less. From the beginning of the war a seafarer’s pay was stopped the minute his ship was sunk. “Time spent fighting for his life on a float or lifeboat was an unpaid excursion,” wrote Woodman.

While Winston Churchill acknowledged the crucial importance of the Battle of the Atlantic to national survival, it was not until 2012 that those who had served in the Arctic convoys, and had taken the highest casualties of all, were retrospectively honoured.

Born in north London, Richard was the elder son of Rosalie (nee Cann) and Douglas Woodman, a civil service administrator. Though he was far from the sea, his imagination was captured by the works of Arthur Ransome, Daniel Defoe, RM Ballantyne and Alan Villiers, and his enthusiasm nurtured by Sea Scout membership.

He was the youngest member of the Sea Scout crew that sailed the ex-German yawl Nordwind in the 1960 Tall Ships race and, despite failing all but two of his O-levels, he was accepted as an indentured apprentice with the Alfred Holt (Blue Funnel) line in 1960.

His first long trip to Australia came as a midshipman on the SS Glenarty, returning via the US: “I had been round the world before I would have been allowed inside a British pub.” Life on board ship took place in an uncompromising, all-male environment: the almost compulsory swearing, drinking and sexist banter encouraged the development of “a carapace behind which we hid our private selves”.

Woodman responded eagerly to the hands-on education in seamanship and navigation, developed his writing and sketching through the log-keeping and read his way through the excellent ships’ libraries provided by the Marine Society. He completed his four-year apprenticeship and gained his second mate’s certificate. He was, however, in love and hated saying goodbye to his girlfriend, Christine Hite, an art student, for many months at a time.

He left Blue Funnel in the mid-1960s and went to work for the Ocean Weather Service, where he discovered how vicious the North Atlantic winter weather systems could be – and how pitilessly an ex-second world war corvette would roll. Fortunately it was not long before a temporary position became available with Trinity House, the corporation charged with the maintenance of navigation marks around England, Wales and the Channel Islands.

The position became permanent; he and Christine married in 1969 and settled in Harwich, Essex, near the Trinity House east coast depot, and he served the corporation for most of the rest of his life.

The work at sea was varied, challenging, sometimes dangerous. Precise navigation, seamanship and attention to detail were essential qualities, but Woodman also found time to write. His first novel, The Eye of the Fleet, was published in 1981. This introduced a series of 14 adventures featuring the young Nathaniel Drinkwater, a hero somewhat in the Horatio Hornblower mode but bearing the unmistakable stamp of a writer who was also a sailor.

Despite his professional career being in motorised vessels, Woodman loved traditional gaff-rigged yachts, particularly his own Kestrel and then Andromeda, in which he and Christine explored the east coast rivers and beyond. The action of his nautical novels often turns on neat, seamanlike manoeuvres as well as including varied and closely observed seascapes.

His productivity was astonishing. He often wrote two or three novels a year and soon added non-fiction to his output. When he became captain of Trinity House Vessel Patricia, he achieved this by having two desks, one from which he could conduct official business, the other hidden behind a door, with a page from the work in progress always ready in the typewriter.

Meanwhile, in his job he was extremely focused, conscientious and painstaking. Although some remember him as being of the “old school”, Jill Kernick, the first woman in almost 500 years to work at sea for Trinity House, credits him with helping her break through traditional barriers in the early 80s.

In 1997 Woodman retired to write full time, but was soon elected a Younger Brother of Trinity House, and then an Elder Brother, the first time a former employee was accorded this honour. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2003 but there was no let-up in his work rate. His last completed novel, A River in Borneo (2022), harks back to 60s Indonesia but sets its final scene in a Colchester hospice.

He is survived by Christine and their children, Abigail and Edward, and grandson, Arlo.

🔔 Richard Martin Woodman, master mariner and author, born 10 March 1944; died 2 October 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[itslittlemisssunshine]

Incoherent thoughts as and when they come to me (tlm spoilers ahead):

- We need to protect Eric at all costs, somebody give that boy a hug

- Massive fan of this Grimsby Eric probably wishes he’d been adopted by him instead

- Ariel chomping down on everything that’s handed to her is so funny to me

- Ursula’s lair is sick

- Eric guessing Ariel’s name was so cute and so stupid I loved it

- The fact that they basically paused the movie so that Eric could vent in the form of a ballad was so necessary (boy has a lot of feelings)

- The one thing I wish they’d kept was the dynamic of having Ariel and Eric save each other in turn, rather than Ariel being the one to defeat Ursula but I’m not mad about it

- “SHAAHT UP” *yeet*

- It took Eric a whole night to get back to the beach after the battle with Ursula (in which he captained the struggle bus). Did he sleep on those slats of wood? Did he spend the whole night paddling around looking for Ariel? I need to know!

- RIP I lost her once, I’m not gonna lose her again

- “She bewitched you” YES ARIEL, you tell the haters!

- Eric nearly falling off the bowsprit at the beginning and Grimsby being like “Eric be careful I swear to god” and then Eric nearly falling from the same part of the ship again at the end! We love symmetry

- Ariel must have some sort of immunity to hitting the water from a height, because holy shit that drop form the castle!! Also, when she and Eric jump from Ursula she’s completely unfazed and has to drag as less unfazed Eric to the surface

- Love that Ariel gives Max a little helping hand to the lifeboat

- The scene where Ariel turns back into a mermaid wad a massive improvement from the original! Eric holding her tighter and actually trying to stop Ursula despite probably being very freaked out by everything

- The opening at the top of Ariel’s grotto and the skylight in Eric’s library!! The parallels in this film between these two are sublime! They’re both looking up at a world beyond their own

[duchezss]

My favorite details/new moments from The Little Mermaid (2023)

Buckle in this is gonna get long cause i’m obsessedddd

EVERYTHING (jk...kinda) 

Ariel not being allowed to go up to the surface at all in the first place, so when she went up to Eric’s ship during his birthday party it felt that much more defiant from her

That they explained right away that Ariel’s mother was killed by a human, and that helps explain much of Triton’s hatred 

Humans hate/fear mermaids as much as mermaids fear humans, it really makes the divide between Eric and Ariel feel more tense

The fact that the daughters were all getting together for an annual meeting rather than a concert. I really did miss daughters of Triton, but I also really liked how they are portrayed as leaders of the ocean

How Ariel helped Max swim to the lifeboat 😭 😭 

How Eric’s compassion is shown right away, and that’s the main thing that intrigues Ariel, not just his looks

Eric’s mother forbidding him from sailing again after the shipwreck, it makes him feel cut off and mirrors Triton banning Ariel from land

Ariel’s not instantly in love with Eric, she’s taken by him, but her love of the human world is equally acknowledged

That Ursula talks directly to Ariel and it’s not her Eels speaking for her

Can I say the entire sequence of For The First Time? It was so cool to see Ariels inner dialogue and the whole buildup to Eric “meeting” Ariel for the first time was fantastic 

How much Eric’s Library mirrors Ariel’s Grotto, and how their love for their passions really connect them. I loved these scenes because it really felt like they were bonding

Ariel immediately smashing that stone, I felt that really set the stage for how Ariel would open Eric’s eyes to even the simplest of things

“My little mermaid” melts...

That the kingdom was based on Caribbean culture instead of European, I really nice touch that makes the remake have a vibe of it’s own

When Ariel stops and takes notice of how kind and compassionate Eric is, and when Eric stops and takes notice of how curious and lively Ariel is

Jodi Benson’s cameo 😭 😭 

Originally I didn’t like that Ariel couldn’t remember she had to kiss Eric, and thought it just made pointless conflict, but it was actually very cute. It caused both of their feelings to be entirely true, and even caused some cute moments of Eric chasing after Ariel. 

Ariel and Eric sneaking back into the castle and just being silly goofy guys

Eric’s hat had a lot of focus and I thought it was very cute ngl

The symbolism of Ariel’s dress and Eric’s mermaid statue to each other. Both were lost when one thought the other was gone, only for them to come back

How even under Vanessa’s spell Eric still longed for Ariel 

The party being for an engagement instead of a wedding, made it feel more realistic

The party being at the castle instead of on the ship, originally I wasn’t a fan, but I thought it made the scene where Ariel runs to the castle more tense than when she swam for the boat

Grimsby kicking away the ring, what a wingman

Ariel cat fighting with Vanessa for the necklace instead of her being more passive in the fight for the shell

Eric hugging Ariel when he finds out she’s a mermaid instead of standing there in shock, by far my favorite small detail from the movie I love them so much 😭 

Eric trying to stop Ursula when she was coming after Ariel

Ariel yelling for Eric when Ursula grabbed her versus Eric yelling for Ariel in the original

How when they surfaced both of them had to look for each other rather than finding one another right away

Every time they were deep in the water Ariel would grab Eric and help pull him up to the surface 

Ariel saving Eric at the end, I actually found myself liking the change

Even after both of them went back to their respective worlds, they both still longed for each other, I liked this small break rather that her turning back human right away

When they first see each other again, they hug and then kiss, not just go straight for the kiss, that was a slay

Their marriage signifying more of a union between humans and merfolk

THERE WAS JUST SO MANY CUTE THINGS I LOVE THIS MOVIE MWAH

[sanktasansa]

It's just occurred to me that Ariel and Eric kind of "bumping into each other" in the library is essentially their real Meet Cute in the live action adaption. Yes, they "meet" each other the night of the shipwreck but three things complicate that:

Eric only gets an unclear glimpse of Ariel along with a bit of her voice in "siren mode"

At the end of For the First Time, Ariel realizes how much they don't really know each other at all beyond her voice...that she no longer has. The dejection she feel is enough that she doesn't even try (as unsuccessful as it likely would have been) to Charades an explanation of "No, I AM the girl that saved you! I just lost my voice RECENTLY!" She gives up, and sadly sits at her window before falling asleep.

Ariel literally cannot remember that, even she didn't want to pursue a relationship with Eric, she has to get Eric to kiss her in 3 days or her legs are gone and she'll be chained to Ursula forever.

So, when Ariel left her room, it wasn't to find Eric at all; it was out of her dampened-but-still-strong curiosity of the human world. She finds her way into the library, stays there because she is fascinated with the human objects she finds, and then Eric happens go to that room, too. It's important to note that this isn't officially Eric's room: he says "no one ever comes in here", meaning it's meant to be a public space anyone could enter that he had unofficially taken over with his collection. It's just a/the castle library and the both of them happened to cross paths in it. And because Ariel still doesn't remember any reason she HAS to interact with Eric, her efforts to continue their interaction instead of leaving (pick up things for him to explain, showing him new aspects about the things she knows, etc) are 99% if not 100% motivated by her love to learn and share knowledge. And because Eric also loves to learn and share knowledge, he is now intrigued by her in a way that he was not at the end of For the First Time.

So they could have met completely for the first time in that library and they still would have fallen in love because essentially that was the first time they met each other (this is further proven by the fact that Ariel doesn't need or use any of the information about Eric she learned from eavesdropping in the lifeboat to keep his attention; his collection and his enthusiasm for it is enough to gather he loves to exploring new things).

[benoits-neckerchieves]

My local library finally has Daniel’s lifeboat thingy!! :))

[highladyluck]

13 books tag game, tagged by @amemoryofwot and @asha-mage (incidentally I typoed that as "amemeryofwot" which would be an excellent sideblog concept, maybe snatch that one up?)

1) Last book I read:

Mistress of the Empire by Raymond Feist & Janny Wurts (at the time I started filling this out, anyway… I've been working on this ask for several days) This whole trilogy was a delight, thanks to @sixth-light for telling me I would love Mara!

2) A book I recommend:

The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord. It's a quiet little road trip romance exploring grief & diaspora, in a setting that I can best describe as 'if Madeline L'Engle had been in charge of Star Trek worldbuilding'. (If you squint you can see analogues to humans, Vulcans, Romulans, and Orions, but the tone is reminiscent of L'Engle.) There are sequels that follow different characters but this is the first one and it works as a standalone. I feel like it has a lovely light touch on some intense subjects and I appreciate the way each chapter works as a separate story while still fitting into the whole.

3) A book that I couldn’t put down:

I remember staying up past my bedtime for The Monster Baru Cormorant, I think? At the very least, that's where we first get my beloved Tau-Indi, and the pacing on the climax is kinda weird, about 2/3rds in, so I think I would have read through to it without stopping. I don't know if this question is supposed to be about compellingness or pacing? Probably compellingness, I think I'm weirdly fixated on structure when I read things. But sometimes I think books you 'can't put down' are at least partially that way because there's no damn place to breathe, and I don't entirely approve.

4) A book I’ve read twice (or more)

I see from literally everyone who has tagged me in this that this is one of the two free spaces for Wheel of Time, but I'll switch it up: Lifeboats by Diane Duane. It's set between Young Wizards 9 & 10 and deals with an emergency response team permanently evacuating an entire alien population from a natural disaster (RIP their moon and also consequently their planet). This novel is a huge comfort read for me and is undoubtedly the Young Wizards work I've read the most. I don't really know how to explain what it means to me… I wish I had had it when I was living and working in a foreign country.

5) A book on my TBR

A friend recommended Cahokia Jazz (in general, not to me specifically) and it sounds SO MUCH like my jam. I suspect if I can't find it at my library soon, I'll end up buying the ebook.

6) A book I’ve put down

Can't think of a recent one, but if I hadn't forced myself to finish reading it because it was a Hugo Award nominee, I would have DNF'd Project Hail Mary.

7) A book on my wish list

I wish for more Baru Cormorant but I also literally cannot imagine how Seth is going to write that next book. So like, I'm girding my loins for Baru #4 either 15 years from now or never.

8) A favourite book from childhood

When I was really little I loved the Berenstain Bear books and my mom HATED that I loved them ("they were so badly written!" - my mom the children's librarian) but she bought them for me anyway. That's love.

9) A book you would give a friend

You all need to read Middlemarch by George Eliot. I don't care what stage of life you're at, you will find something resonant in it. Read it now, and read it again in 20 years. Give it to recent high school grads. Give it as a wedding present. Take it to the beach. BUT I am specifically recommending it to the WoT contingent, because the characters are so good!

10) The most books you own by a single author

It's actually either Diane Duane or Terry Pratchett, and DD's probably winning because I don't have every Pratchett book but I do have almost every DD book including tie-in novels.

11) A nonfiction book you own

Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age by Annalee Newitz. I don't read a ton of nonfiction but the writing is very engaging and I think cities are neat.

12) what are you currently reading

I'm between books but I just finished The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles (as I am writing this part several days after question 1). I didn't like it as much as the first one, The Mimicking of Known Successes, but I think it's just a taste thing. I didn't like being in Pleiti's POV very much, her overthinking is too much like mine and it alternately stresses me out and makes me angry, because I can see the assumptions/unhelpful thought patterns but I can't fix them. Obviously, to draw that reaction from me the characters are well-defined, and I like everything else about the series, I just hope it goes back to Mossa's POV.

13) what are you planning on reading next?

WHEN WILL 'RED SIDE STORY' BY JASPER FFORDE REACH MY HOUSE??? I have been waiting like 15 years for this sequel to Shades of Grey and the entire point of preordering it was so I could have it ASAP. I could have walked into a bookstore on May 9th and walked out with it, and instead I won't get it until tomorrow. >:(

I think I am supposed to add a shelfie? The organizing principles(s) of this shelf in my bedroom are very weird…. Classics/adventure, fantasy, popular science writing? Someday I need to reshelve everything in the house according to size/favoriteness/genre/theme/vibes (in that order) but I haven’t felt like it.

I think pretty much everyone I was going to tag already got tagged, so whoever want to do it, go ahead!

[starlightwayfinder]

*Walks in with a skip* hey hi Ven and Lauriam brainrot au anon. Would you like to hear another idea that's been buzzing in my brain?

Okay imagine this: the boys take the lifeboat, become xehanorts victims, ven get hurt, lauriam goes insane buuuuuuuut this time lauriam is able to get them both away. And they just both so happen to end up in LoD. Ven is currently losing light and life by the minute and Lauriam is in pretty bad shape. He drags them up the stairs and bangs on the door banging for help. Cue Eraqus answering in surprise, Lauriam who is fading in and out and can't see well in the dark quietly whimpers, "Brain . . . help . . ." before collapsing in a heap with Ven held protectively to his chest.

Eraqus now worried and confused how a random kid knows his grandfathers name calls for his apprentices to help move the boys inside (I imagine Aqua is 17, Terra is 19, and Lauriam is in the middle at 18 and Ven is 12). Ven still manages to connect to Sora's heart but it takes longer than originally but Eraqus and Aqua were able to stabilize his heart before he lost anymore light. Ven falls into a mini coma and Lauriam is out for a few days.

Xehanort shows up at some point asking if Eraqus had seen two young boys, his apprentices had an accident and he's "worried." This can go one of two ways, Eraqus is an idiot and allows Xehanort to come in and see the boys knowing where they are and can manipulate the situation in his favor orrrrr Eraqus deeply concerned how Lauriam and Ven ended up in such a bad state alone at his doorstep so he lies but promises to keep an eye out.

When Lauriam wakes up his memories are fuzzy he just went into straight panic mode when he thought Ven would actually die this time. He's very wary of Eraqus and demands to see Ven refusing to leave his side sleeping in the bed and holding him to his chest. Aqua and Terra are curious about the two mysterious kids that fell on their doorstep but Eraqus keeps them at a distance seeing they've been through a shock.

Things get better when Ven wakes up but Lauriam is distressed to see how empty and traumatized Ven is. He practically has to relearn everything like a baby not just his keyblade training. Eraqus tries to bridge a tentative peace with Lauriam offering to let them stay as long as they need. Slowly Lauriam and Ven find a place for themselves becoming Eraqus' pupils, Lauriam missed having peers around his age and sparring against someone not trying to kill him is surprisingly therapeutic.

Ven recovers and seems to have no memories of the year of hell or daybreak down the union leaders or darkness. Lauriam decides to let Ven be no need to bring old demons back, having Terra and Aqua as additional support which gives Lauriam time to use the library to do research and find his sister and friends. Since Lauriam has had more training he gets to take his mark of mastery sooner and actually passes allowing him to travel and look for more clues. Xehanort eventually shows up depending on what Eraqus does to Terra and Aqua's mark of mastery and Lauriam feels a twinge of fear seeing his abuser again.

Despite his best efforts Lauriam can't stop Xehanort from interfering both in the exam and leading Ven away from home. Lauriam travels the worlds looking for Ven but is always one step behind. Luxu finds Lauriam and decides he'll be useful, this time Lauriam does make it to the keyblade graveyard in time for the final battle just like Strelitzia he can't bring himself to hurt Ven and is mostly on defense. Terra gets taken by Terranort, Ven destroys his heart and lays dying again. Lauriam is desperately trying to save Ven along with Aqua but neither notices Luxu skulking behind until he's right on top of them. Lauriam goes for the attack while Mickey and Aqua take Ven and flee.

Luxu and Lauriam go into an all out brawl but ultimately is defeated by Terranort cutting him down turning him into a nobody. But he's kept imprisoned for a bit before he officially joins the organization. When he goes to CO Marluxia doesn't understand why he feels so agitated (or what he thinks is agitation) why he wants to take the organization down but there's this burning need to. He feels drawn to Sora, he wants him as his puppet but there's a strange feeling of affection as well, he doesn't want to actually hurt him and has to resist the urge to comb his hand through his hair when standing close.

Ven's sleeping heart responds to Marluxia's presence, and Sora feels this longing pain but is also disgusted by Namines abuse. Even though Marluxia can't actively remember Ven some part of him feels he's close. He knows Ven is in danger and is ready to do anything to keep him safe even if it means being obliterated. Hiding away in the chamber of waking Ven's body sheds tears for his brother and Sora is confused when he starts crying as he prepares to go to sleep and fix his memories.

Oh hey, you did find me! 

Thank you for sending me an ask ! 🌟

I love that Lauriam initially mistakes Master Eraqus for Brain. They definitely look alike, and it would be such a shock for Eraqus that someone so young would mention his grandfather! (That would definitely raise some questions,,,)

And Aqua, helping to stabilize Ven’s heart; that sounds like such a frightening moment for all of them—especially since Terra and Aqua are so unused to having any visitors at all. (Also, it’s interesting that Terra and Aqua are closer to their BbS ages, while Ven is closer to his age in UX. I wonder if Ven and Lauriam arrived later in time?)

Hmm… if Lauriam is willing to trust Eraqus, Terra, and Aqua, he might be able to warn them about Xehanort… but there’s a lot of reasons for him to be secretive too. Either way, I think Eraqus knows to at least be cautious, so he’d probably keep them safe, for the time being. 

And it’s cool that Lauriam ends up in the final battle, even if it doesn’t end well for him… I can see how becoming closer with Ven would change his relationship with Sora later on too.

I actually have a question for you, if you’d like to send another ask:

Does Xehanort know that Ven was involved in Strelitzia’s death? If so, does he try to use that to turn Ven and Lauriam against each other?

Thanks again for sending this! Adding Lauriam into BbS makes for a very heart wrenching AU. 

[taraljc]

The thing that pisses me off about people opposing universal basic income is that late stage capitalism and Western civilisation require that people uphold the lie that people deserve the circumstances they are born into--whether that is poverty or generational wealth.

It's impossible for so many to confront the reality that the wealth that allows generations of people to live in comfort and ease was bought at the cost of taking comfort and ease from other people.

That the richest nations on earth subscribe to the idea that there is such a concept as the 'deserving poor'. That poverty is a moral judgment and not the most telling symptom of a sick and decaying society.

Every single time I've tried to talk about how awesome it would be to have $2,000 a month to cover all of my bills so that I can pour all of my energy into actually living my life instead of scrambling to come up with $2,000 each month to pay all of my bills, I hit the brick wall of 'no-one deserves to get something for nothing. everyone should have to work hard for what they get'. from people who are perfectly comfortable with the idea of the 1% getting everything for nothing and not having to work at all for what they get.

In America especially it's like we left a constitutional monarchy for a reason. We rejected the divine right of kings for a reason. We came to another country to have the freedoms to practice our own religion without persecution or genocide. and then we turned around and oppressed the fuck out of everybody else the exact same way we had been oppressed, and the idea that our way was smoothed by the colour of our skin or the Anglo-Saxoness of our names or the acceptance that comes with evangelical Christianity's us-vs-them mentality offends us so deeply that it is rejected out of hand over and over again.

Because it's impossible to recognise the universal unavoidable truth that people do not deserve the circumstances they were born into. There is no moral judgment from God that says anyone deserves to be rich or poor.

However the basic tenants of almost all religions do teach that it is the moral obligation of those with more to give to and protect and raise up those who have less. To literally share the wealth, look after not just our neighbours, but strangers and foreigners and even the people who do not share any of our ideals--and provide shelter, food, and clothing for those in desperate need.

And you have all of these supposed Christians ignoring everything they loudly and frequently profess to believe in, while constantly trying to shove everybody who doesn't meet their arbitrary criteria out of the lifeboats to drown.

And it all comes down to this idea that people are worthy or unworthy not based on their actions or inactions, but simply by existing.

That is so fucked up. How is it the 21st century and we are still acting like bronze age barbarians, raiding our neighbours' villages, raping and killing, trafficking in slave labour, and burning their libraries and places of worship to the ground?

It is all such fucking bullshit.

These thoughts brought to you by the facts that I need a root canal and a crown that cost $2,000 I don't have. I need to bring in at least $2,000 a month to keep the lights on. I need $6,000 to drop out of the sky to wipe out credit card debt. I need to never leave my home state for extended periods of time because I can't get the medications that help me manage my physical and mental health because my Medicaid coverage is limited to the state of Illinois.

[lakecountylibrary]

Happy Black History Month! 1940s actor Canada Lee wants you to register to vote.

This PSA is from the September 22, 1944 issue of the Cleveland Gazette (a Black owned weekly publication that ran for 58 years)! Canada Lee was a professional boxer and later a successful actor, though his career was cut short by Hollywood blacklisting due in large part to his dedication to the civil rights movement.

This clipping is from the digital collection Black Life in America, which includes hundreds of Black-owned publications you can leaf through at your leisure using your LCPL card. (Not an LCPL patron? Your library may also have a subscription - ask them!)

Transcription:

For full employment after the war

REGISTER to VOTE

Canada Lee is registered and he wants people to know it. What's more, Canada wants EVERYONE to register. He points out that you can't vote unless you're registered. And, says Canada, "If you don't vote you're throwing away your most precious right of citizenship - the right to a government of the people, by the people and for the people." The popular actor known to playgoers and movie fans alike for his performances in "Native Son" and "Lifeboat" is currently playing in the all-Negro cast of "Anna Lucasta," latest Broadway hit.

Sources:

"Photograph." Cleveland Gazette (Cleveland, Ohio), September 22, 1944: 5. NewsBank: Black Life in America. https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AAHX&docref=image/v2%3A12B716FE88B82998%40AAHX-12BAB256347DFD00%402431356-12BA05108AAE8710%404-12D5BACC39EE9100%40Photograph.

"Canada Lee." Contemporary Black Biography, vol. 8, Gale, 1994. Gale In Context: Biography, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1606000160/BIC?u=merr17317&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=a8611c44. Accessed 1 Feb. 2024.

[xtruss]

Ships that stopped at Whitby Harbor (Seen here circa 1880) inspired Bram Stoker as he wrote Dracula. Photograph By Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, The Royal Photographic Society Collection/Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Getty Images

The Little-Known Shipwreck That Inspired Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’

Stoker was moved by grim details from the world around him while penning his horror masterpiece. The real fate of a ship called the Dmitry played an outsized role in his imaginings.

— By Melissa Sartore | August 18, 2023

The arrival of the Demeter in Bram Stoker's Dracula serves as a fundamental part of the titular character's story: the ship brings death himself to England.

Stoker drew inspiration for his genre-defining horror novel from his time in Whitby, and the dark 1885 fate of the real ship Dmitry on the town’s shore.

The death and tragedy around Stoker ultimately shaped the story that became one of the most famous pieces of English literature and set the stage for the next century of vampire lore.

The wreck of the Dmitry from Narva, now Estonia, aground on Tate Hill Beach in 1885, Whitby, Yorkshire, UK. Photograph By Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, Colin Waters/Alamy Stock Photo

The Dmitry Becomes the Demeter

During the summer of 1890, Irish novelist Bram Stoker vacationed at the seaside town of Whitby in northeast England. Despite spending only a month in the town, Stoker was enthralled by his surroundings: Grand Mansions and Hotels lined the West Cliff while remains of the seventh century Whitby Abbey towered over the East Cliff. Nearby, the cemetery at the Parish Church also served as inspiration as the story of Dracula came to life.

Stoker was also enchanted by the many ships making harbor here. He reportedly visited the Whitby Museum to explore the history of these vessels, as well as a local library, where he came upon William Wilkinson’s book The Accounts of Principalities of Wallachia and Moldova. Stoker marked in his notes:

DRACULA in the Wallachian language means DEVIL. The Wallachians were, at that time, as they are at present, used to give this as a surname to any person who rendered himself conspicuous either by courage, cruel actions, or cunning.

Stoker reportedly asked around the shore about shipwrecks in Whitby, notably the Dmitry, a ship that had wrecked five years earlier.

The cargo vessel Dmitry had set sail from Narva in Russia (modern-day Estonia) in 1885. On October 24, the Dmitry was one of two ships run ashore at Whitby by “a storm of great violence,” according to contemporary newspaper accounts. The other vessel, the Mary and Agnes, was stranded in the raging sea and a lifeboat was sent to rescue its crew. When the crew of the Mary and Agnes was ferried to the shore, per the Leeds Mercury, “their safe landing [was] the signal for loud huzzas by the thousands of people assembled on shore.”

Those same onlookers watched on to see what would happen with the Dmitry. As reported by the North-Eastern Daily Gazette, the crew remained on board in the hopes they would be able to dock, but “the sea beat savagely against the vessel. Her masts gave way and fell with a crash over her side, and the vessel herself began to break up.”

Though unclear exactly how they were rescued, in the end, all seven members of the Dmitry’s crew were safely brought to shore.

There were several unique aspects to the last voyage of the Dmitry that appear to have stood out to Stoker. The Demeter originated in Varna (an anagram for Narva, where the Dmitry originated), and similarly carried “ballast of silver sand, with only a small amount of cargo—a number of great wooden boxes filled with mould.”

Through conversations with fishermen in Whitby, Stoker learned of an untold number of local deaths at sea. Stoker reportedly made note of some 90 names from gravestones in Whitby for future use in his story, including the surname “Swales.” Soon after the arrival of the Demeter in Dracula, he wrote “Mr. Swales was found dead… his neck being broken.”

What Inspired Dracula’s Canine Form?

In Stoker’s novel, Dracula himself took the form of a dog to make his way from the Demeter to dry land, but there was no dog reported to have been on the Dmitry. According to Mel Ni Mhaolanfaidh and Marlon McGarry in 2021, the dog in Dracula may be an homage to the wreck of the Greyhound in 1770.

The Greyhound sailed from Whitby and sank off the coast of Ireland on December 12, 1770 (120 years prior to Stoker’s arrival in the town). Stoker’s mother, Charlotte, was from Sligo, a town in close proximity to the wreck. When the storm that sank the ship surged again, a young cabin boy was left stranded. The rescue effort failed, with only one out of the some 20 men sent to save him tragically dying in the process.

Stoker made no reference to a dog in his notes until two months after he’d departed from Whitby. On October 15, 1890, Stoker wrote, “When ship ran in to Collier's Hope, big dog jumped off bow & ran over pier - up Kiln Yard & church steps & into churchyard…Local dog found ripped open & graves torn up…” It’s not clear if Stoker learned of these details from the Dmitry wreck, another Whitby wreck, or was his own creation.

In the novel, the arrival of the Demeter was paired with a similarly remarkable incident: “The very instant the shore was touched, an immense dog sprang up on deck from below, as if shot up by the concussion, and running forward, jumped from the bow on the sand.”

The dog, a disguised Dracula, wrought bloodshed and death from that point forward. This dog resembled the barghest, a mythical monster often associated with Yorkshire. Spellings and specific forms of barghest vary but the dog-like being foretold of pain, disaster, or even death to all who saw it. The barghest also elicited howling from dogs in its vicinity, something Dracula protagonist Mina Murray reported took place soon after the arrival of the Demeter.