#naval drill halls

[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."

[dreamsofg0ld]

The Beatrice Letters (LS to BB #5)

How I will love you even as the world goes on its wicked way

Dusk My dearest darling,

…Always. Continuously. With increasing apprehension, and decreasing hope.

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 reduce fractions, and no matter how difficult it is to memorize the periodic table. I will love you no matter what your locker combination was, or how you decided 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 every 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 you abandon your baticeering, and I will love you if you retire from the theater 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 fetuccini and as the horseradish loves the miyagi, as the tempura loves 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 in 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 whale loves the flavor of naval uniforms. I will love you as a child loves to overhear the conversations of its 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 safekeeping.

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 mechanisms. 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 thief loves a gallery and as a crow loves a 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 shingle falling 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 operator 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 daggerproof tunics, and as a daggerproof 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 of 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 the noise of 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 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 form the handsomest and most susceptible of woods, and until every criminal is handcuffed by the laziest of policemen. I will love you until M. hates snakes and J. hates grammar, and I will love you until C. realizes S. is not worthy of his love and N. realizes he is not worthy of the V. I will love you until the bird hates a nest and the worm hates an apple, and until the apple hates a tree and the tree hates a nest, and until a bird hates a tree and an apple hates a 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 the long, slender spoon, between our lips and fingers respectively. I will love you until the chances of us running into one another slip from skim to zero, and until your face is fogged by 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 me 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 O., or anyone Z. through A., even R. — although sadly I believe it will be quite some time before two women 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.

…I miss you. Who knows when I will see you?

[dameronscopilot]

Boiling Point

Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x f!reader

Summary: A spur of the moment invitation leads you to underestimate what years worth of sexual tension with Rooster will amount to when placed within the stifling square footage of your humble apartment.

Word Count: 2.2k

Rating: 18+ EXPLICIT

Content: NSFW, smut, oral sex (m!receiving), thigh riding, unprotected p in v, rough sex, praise kink, table sex

Part of you knows that if you gave Rooster an inch, he’d take it. If you softened your hard edges just enough to be pliable beneath his callused hands, ones that you can only imagine would trail across your skin with the same deft precision that he utilizes in the cockpit, he’d take you apart piece-by-piece. 

Prompt: The only two people without plans for Christmas might as well spend it together (dedicated to @frankiesbadlanding 💖)

DECK THE HALLS MASTERLIST

“You can’t spend Christmas alone, Bradshaw.”

While you’d certainly meant what you’d said to Rooster days ago as you were trudging across the base—both of you breathing hard and covered in sweat after hours of intensive drills in the air—now that he’s standing here in the middle of your living room with his hands stuffed in his pockets as he observes the collage of artwork spread across your walls, your apartment suddenly feels too goddamn small.

—too small for this.

In the years that you’ve known Bradley, the stifling air that lingers between the two of you has been taut with a simmering tension, spread far too thin to weather much more of the tightrope of uncertainty you’ve both been carefully traipsing across day in and day out. Long before you enrolled in the naval academy, you vowed not to fall into the trap of distractions in the form of tall, handsome pilots with soft eyes and easy smiles—a rule made specifically for men like the one currently trailing his fingertips over the small piano by the window. 

Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw is the definition of a goddamn distraction, through and fucking through. 

For all that you’ve done to earn the designation of “Specter,” a call sign born from your uncanny ability to get the drop on your teammates with a near ghostly grace, Rooster is the one person that makes you stumble without fail once your feet are firmly planted back on the ground. Sometimes, you don’t think he’s even aware of it, the way he catches you off guard with his barking laugh, the way your nerves are set alight whenever he lowers his sunglasses and offers you a lopsided grin from across the room. The way your steady hands will tremble from a mere brush of his fingers. 

It should bother you, really, how easily he gets under your skin. 

How effortlessly he draws you into his orbit. 

How he unceasingly invades your thoughts.

It’s a testament to every adamantly stubborn bone in your body that the two of you haven’t fucked it out yet.

Part of you knows that if you gave Rooster an inch, he’d take it. If you softened your hard edges just enough to be pliable beneath his callused hands, ones that you can only imagine would trail across your skin with the same deft precision that he utilizes in the cockpit, he’d take you apart piece-by-piece. 

He’d work his way into each and every crevice of your being with a white-hot intensity that would rival the manner in which he burns across the skies. 

Bradley would ruin you for anyone else.

Later, after you’ve eaten dinner and left the dishes to soak in a sea of suds in the sink, the last frayed edges of your paper-thin charade are helpless when Rooster speaks up from where he’s casually leaning against the doorway, eyes tracking your movements across the room. 

“Why’d you invite me to spend Christmas with you, Specter?”

You come to a stop beside the kitchen table, fingers briefly drumming across its wooden surface. Too many answers flirt across the tip of your tongue, so you settle on the easiest. “Because I know neither of us have anyone left to celebrate with.”

Pushing off of the wooden frame, he strides toward you, coming to a stop a few feet away. “Is that all?”

Biting your lip, you roll your eyes as you evade the question with one of your own, “Did you really have to wear a Hawaiian shirt on Christmas?” 

He glances down at himself as you gesture toward his pink and green top, which he’s predictably left unbuttoned, aviators snugly tucked into the neck of his white t-shirt. Moving closer, he tilts his head to the side. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“I think I did.”

Another step.

“Are you sure?”

Another.

“What do you want, Rooster?”

Your backside presses against the lip of the table as he comes to a stop in front of you.

“I want to know why I’m here.”

It’s a fucking loaded question, one that leaves your blood thrumming in your veins as your mind tries to unravel the implication behind it. The unspoken, shared knowledge that you’ve both traversed this liminal space of willful ignorance for far too long. 

This invitation wasn’t just about the holiday, and he fucking knows it. 

You tell him just that, your response nearly a whisper. “You know why.”

Though you try to focus on a spot over his shoulder, eyes sweeping over the strings of brightly-colored lights strung about in the room beyond, you can’t help but turn your head to meet the weight of his gaze as he replies evenly, “I want to hear you say it.”

Even with the hot caress of his breath dancing across your cheek, you still dig your heels into the tile floor beneath your feet, dizzy as you sway at the precipice of the edge you've always skirted. “Say what, Bradley?”

You swear you can hear the hitch in his breath as his real name leaves your mouth—a rare occurrence. 

He glances up at the ceiling for a moment, biting his cheek and tousling his hair. “Say you’re tired of acting like you don’t want this. Because I sure fucking am.”

Your skin prickles with heat, his words dragging down your spine and reverberating in your ears. Without blinking, you let go—

“I am, too."

Rooster goes entirely still for a moment when you finally relent, eyes widening a fraction in something like surprise, and then his mustache twitches at the behest of the smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. 

“Good,” he murmurs, before leaning in and capturing your lips in a long overdue kiss. 

Your body relaxes into Rooster’s solid form as he slots his mouth against yours, and while one of his hands comes up to cup the back of your head, the other slides down to grasp at your hip, steadying you as your limbs go pliant under his scorching touch.

There’s no uncertainty in the way he holds you, no awkward fumbling of limbs—rather, there’s a deliberate familiarity in the press of each finger against your skin, a whispered reminder of the trust you already share. In the air, there’s a peculiar harmony to be found in the way the two of you fly side-by-side, rhythmically anticipating one another’s moves through the clouds. And here, now, with your feet planted firmly on solid ground, you’ve finally come to realize that this will be no different. 

You tilt your head, and his nose nudges your cheek while his tongue flirts with the seam of your mouth, beckoning you to part your lips for him. When you do, Rooster deepens the kiss, pressing his body firmly against yours and splaying a hand across your lower back. You melt into his body heat, a keening sound escaping your heaving chest at the thrill that runs through you when you press into the muscled thigh he’s planted between your legs. 

Rooster’s fingers slide lower, grazing your ass, and he breaks the kiss, muttering against your lips, “You like that?”

He adjusts his leg, the denim of his jeans rubbing against the apex of your thighs, and you can’t help but nod, letting your head fall against his shoulder as he uses his grip on your backside to increase the pressure. 

“You look so pretty like this,” he observes, kissing your cheek softly as you arch your back, your fingers digging into his shoulders. “Keep going.”

And so you do. Pulling him in for a needy kiss, hands tightly grasping the hairs at the back of his head, your teeth clash as you drag your clothed cunt down his leg.

“Good girl,” he murmurs, and the thumb that’s fluttering across your jawline swipes across your bottom lip. 

There’s something innately shameless about riding Rooster’s thigh in the middle of your kitchen, like you always knew it’d come down to this somehow. There’s no time to waste being shy at the feeling of the sticky pool of arousal gathered in your underwear, and when you reach down to hike your dress up, Rooster’s hands swiftly slide up your thighs and bunch up the skirt, his thumbs digging into your hip bones.

“Bradley…” you whine as you chase the sparks of pleasure with each thrust—it’s not enough, and he knows it.

He groans into your mouth as you say his name again, taking your bottom lip between his teeth when your hand trails over the erection straining against the front of his pants. You make quick work of the button and zipper, slipping a hand inside, and he rolls his hips into your touch when you wrap your fingers around his hard, throbbing cock. His lips messily slide off of yours and run across your cheek as you pull his shaft out and begin to stroke it. In turn, one of his hands leaves your hips, tugging aside your soaked underwear to swipe two digits through your slick folds. 

“Fuck,” he breathes out when he realizes just how wet you are, the tight walls of your cunt easily giving way when he begins to slide his middle finger into your entrance. He quickly inserts another as his mouth finds its way to your neck, nipping and lapping at the sensitive skin there while he begins to pump his fingers in and out of you. 

At the feeling of you eagerly rocking your hips into his hand while tugging at his dick, Rooster chuckles, grazing his teeth over your earlobe. “You want more, Specter?”

“Please.”

“Right here?”

“Yeah, on the table.”

“Tell me how you like it,” he croons, crooking his fingers inside of you as he runs his tongue along the underside of your jaw. 

You pluck his sunglasses from where they’re still dangling precariously from the neck of his shirt, dropping them onto the table. “You don’t need to be gentle.”

No sooner than the words have left your lips, he spins you around, and you find yourself bent over the tabletop, your cheek pressed against the cool wooden surface as Rooster’s hands trail over the globes of your ass. 

He folds his body over yours for a moment, his cock nestled between your cheeks as his mouth hovers near your face. “I should have known you’d like it rough.”  

When stands back up, he nudges your legs further apart and teases your dripping folds with the head of his cock, wiping your arousal along his shaft. He notches himself at your entrance for a moment, and just as you go to take a breath, he plunges inside of you without warning. Both of you moan in unison at the feeling of your walls stretching to accommodate him as he buries himself inside of you, your cunt both weeping and tingling at the thick intrusion splitting you open. 

“You feel so fucking good,” he groans as he pulls his cock almost completely out of you, only to slam it back inside, his balls smacking against your ass.

A choked out sob of pleasure leaves your mouth in response as your muscles tighten at the feeling of Rooster’s shaft massaging your inner walls while he begins to set a punishing rhythm pounding into you.

“Harder,” you pant out.

The feet of the table grunt in protest, skidding a few inches backward as he drives his length into your pussy with fervor, recklessly rutting into you at a brutal pace. Your fingers are in the midst of reaching out to grasp for purchase along the smooth surface of the tabletop when you feel both of your arms being tugged behind your back. Rooster wraps a hand over your wrists, pinning your hands against your lower back as he ravages your hole. 

Sounds of wet, smacking flesh fill the room, and you squirm in his grip as the growing ache between your thighs begins to spread. Noticing the way your legs have begun to tremble, he leans in, using his free hand to toy with your swollen clit. At the feeling of Rooster’s fingers rubbing circles into your sensitive bundle of nerves, the tight coil of pleasure writhing in your gut explodes, your cunt clenching down on his shaft as your orgasm washes over you.

As you relax slightly, Rooster releases your hands, grasping his cock as he slips it out of your hole. You push off of the table, turning around to find him fisting his length, and you drop to your knees, taking him into your mouth.

You hollow your cheeks as you take him deep into your throat, his length coated in your juices. Rooster’s hand comes up to cup the back of your head, and he groans as you suck his cock, one of your hands planted at the base as the other cups his balls. His imminent climax finds him between one breath and the next, his shaft pulsing on your tongue as you swallow down the hot, thick ropes of cum he spills down your throat.

Breathing hard, you pull your lips off of Rooster's spent cock and plop backward onto the floor, stealing a glance up at him to see that he's already on his way down to meet you on the tiles. And even with the lingering traces of his release still lingering on your swollen, spit-soaked lips, he takes your face into his hands and kisses you hard. 

A burning smell begins to fill the kitchen, and you belatedly realize you forgot to set a timer on the oven after tossing in the pie that he'd brought over.

"Shit, the pie—"

Rooster makes a sound of protest as you pull your mouth away from his when you turn to look at the stove.

"Fuck the pie," he mutters, turning your chin back to face him and capturing your lips with his once more.

—

Comments, reblogs, and/or asks are always appreciated!

» BRADLEY BRADSHAW MASTERLIST

[walterdecourceys]

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 reduce fractions, and no matter how difficult it is to memorize the periodic table. I will love you no matter what your locker combination was, or how you decided 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 every 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 you abandon your baticeering, and I will love you if you retire from the theater 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 fetuccini and as the horseradish loves the miyagi, as the tempura loves 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 in 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 whale loves the flavor of naval uniforms. I will love you as a child loves to overhear the conversations of its 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 safekeeping. 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 mechanisms. 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 a 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 shingle falling 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 operator 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 daggerproof tunics, and as a daggerproof 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 of 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 the noise of 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 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 form the handsomest and most susceptible of woods, and until every criminal is handcuffed by the laziest of policemen. I will love you until M. hates snakes and J. hates grammar, and I will love you until C. realizes S. is not worthy of his love and N. realizes he is not worthy of the V. I will love you until the bird hates a nest and the worm hates an apple, and until the apple hates a tree and the tree hates a nest, and until a bird hates a tree and an apple hates a 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 the long, slender spoon, between our lips and fingers respectively. I will love you until the chances of us running into one another slip from skim to zero, and until your face is fogged by 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 me 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 O., or anyone Z. through A., even R. although sadly I believe it will be quite some time before two women 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.

lemony snicket - the beatrice letters

[holiday-7]

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 blurry, boring chalk. I will love you no matter how many mistakes I make when trying to reduce fractions, and no matter how difficult it is to memorize the periodic table. I will love you no matter what your locker combination was, or how you decided 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 every 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 you abandon your baticeering, and I will love you if you if you retire from the theater 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 a starfish loves a coral reef and as a 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 as the horseradish loves the miyagi, as the tempura loves 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 in 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 whale loves the flavor of naval uniforms. i will love you as a child loves to overhear the conversations of its 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 safekeeping. 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 mechanisms. I will love you as a wet paper towel loves to be crumpled into a ball and thrown at a bathroom ceiling and as an eraser loves to leave dust in the hairdos of 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 the taxi loves the muddy splash of a puddle and as a library loves the patient tick of a clock.

[beardedmrbean]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. military is considering putting armed personnel on commercial ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, in what would be an unheard of action aimed at stopping Iran from seizing and harassing civilian vessels, four American officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.

America didn't even take the step during the so-called “Tanker War,” which culminated with the U.S. Navy and Iran fighting a one-day naval battle in 1988 that was the Navy's largest since World War II.

While officials offered few details of the plan, it comes as thousands of Marines and sailors on both the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan and the USS Carter Hall, a landing ship, are on their way to the Persian Gulf. Those Marines and sailors could provide the backbone for any armed guard mission in the strait, through which 20% of all the world’s crude oil passes.

Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the AP about the U.S. proposal.

Four U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the proposal, acknowledged its broad details. The officials stressed no final decision had been made and that discussions continue between U.S. military officials and America's Gulf Arab allies in the region.

Officials said the Marines and Navy sailors would provide the security only at the request of the ships involved. The Bataan and Carter Hall left Norfolk, Virginia, on July 10 on a mission the Pentagon described as being “in response to recent attempts by Iran to threaten the free flow of commerce in the Strait of Hormuz and its surrounding waters.” The Bataan passed through the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea last week on its way to the Mideast.Already, the U.S. has sent A-10 Thunderbolt II warplanes, F-16 and F-35 fighters, as well as the destroyer USS Thomas Hudner, to the region over Iran’s actions at sea. The deployment has captured Iran's attention, with its chief diplomat telling neighboring nations that the region doesn't need “foreigners” providing security. On Wednesday, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched a surprise military drill on disputed islands in the Persian Gulf, with swarms of small fast boats, paratroopers and missile units taking part. The renewed hostilities come as Iran now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels after the collapse of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The U.S. also has pursued ships across the world believed to be carrying sanctioned Iranian oil. Oil industry worries over another seizure by Iran likely has left a ship allegedly carrying Iranian oil stranded off Texas as no company has yet to unload it.

[e350tb]

Red Alert - Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen: Game Plan

The Liberty Day Thirty-One

For more than a week, the Liberty had been operating under radio silence.

US High Command in Omaha was, quite wisely, hesitant to use radio communications - after all, nearly all their ciphers were in the enemy’s hands, signals intelligence had been nearly completely compromised, and there was the very real threat of the PsiCorps listening in on the airwaves. The new system of dispatch runners, augmented in some cases by pigeons and even heliographs, would have been recognisable to the commanders of the First World War - even if the helicopter had replaced the horse and the motorbike.

Command at Omaha, led by a committee of general officers such as Townes, Fuller, and even the octogenarian General Bradley, would draft an order that would be encoded by a Vigenère cipher, which would be divided into three separate parts. These three parts and the code phrase would be dispatched individually by four separate messengers in light helicopters, who were under strict orders to take an indirect route to their destination, and to destroy their messages in the event of the capture. Once they reached their destination, the message would be translated and put back together and then delivered to the officer commanding the destination unit.

This meant the Soviets couldn’t decode the entire US cipher - even if they intercepted all the fragments of the message and the code phrase, they had only cracked one order. The downside was that it meant a significant lag between orders dispatched and orders received, and thus commanders in the field had to learn very quickly to be as self-sufficient as possible. This had already invited disaster - a delay in orders, combined with Dugan’s announcement and a shaky commander who had taken over from his wounded superior had led to the surrender of Mobile, allowing the Soviets to link their Southern and Texan fronts and cut the Americans from the Gulf of Mexico. Only New Orleans and Baton Rouge now held out.

The situation was bleak in the east - nearly a third of the United States forces, willing or otherwise, had now surrendered to the Soviet Union. Some governors and state legislatures in the midwest were clamouring for an armistice, lest their states be ravaged next, and there had even been civilian protest against the war. Yet there was cause for hope - the Soviet offensive in California was still going poorly, and before his promotion to senior command in Omaha, Fuller had rolled up the Soviet beachheads in Seattle. The Americans liberated a ruin, but it was considered a victory regardless. There was even hope of reinforcements - after one ‘accidental’ airstrike over the border too many, the Canadian Army was starting to mobilise.

It was impossible to hide a flying carrier like the Liberty, but it was possible to keep it out of harm's way. For the past three days it had rested on a field in central Minnesota, quietly waiting for Gunter and his team to return - and for any orders Omaha might send their way. The crew and troops aboard had had little to do for a while now, and morale was starting to fray.

“Your men need something to do, Biggs,” said Hawthorne bluntly.

“I beg your pardon?”

Biggs had just walked into the Colonel’s quarters, where he had been met by Hawthorne and a large, stern-faced naval petty officer. The latter’s arms were crossed, and his square jaw was set in a frown - he didn’t look amused.

“Chief O’Hanlon?” said Hawthorne.

“I’ve had to break up sixteen fights between my crew and your men this past week,” snapped O’Hanlon. “You need to get the dozy bastards out of the mess hall and into work. Ain’t you ever heard o’ drillin’ or anything?”

“We do drill,” replied Biggs testily. “Daily. Drill and exercises. I’m doing the best I can here…”

“Well it’s clearly not good enough,” said Hawthorne. “I’ve had to put twenty-three men on charges this past week alone - six confined to quarters, one in the brig. Your men have been restless and churlish, and it won’t stand.”

“Ma’am, what am I supposed to do?” demanded Biggs. “Apart from the Cowboys, none of my regiment have fought a significant action in two weeks. The only thing they ever hear is bad news. They can’t exactly call their families because there’s a big Soviet Army in New York, and…”

“They’re your regiment, Major Biggs,” snapped Hawthorne. “I don’t want excuses for them. You might have noticed that everyone aboard this ship is operating under the same pressures, yet the 69th Regiment has accumulated more incident reports than the rest of this battlegroup combined. You will clean this up.”

“Major, I-”

“Dismissed, Major.”

Biggs gritted his teeth, turned and marched away.

“Chief O’Hanlon, cancel all leave for the 69th Regiment,” ordered Hawthorne. “Officers included.”

“Yes ma’am!” O’Hanlon saluted. “I have three outstanding arrest warrants, by the way - there was a fight in the mess hall again. Should I place them under arrest?”

Hawthorne pondered for a moment.

“O’Hanlon,” she asked, “are they all soldiers?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Have you ever charged a sailor for one of these fights?” she asked. “Or an airman?”

“No ma’am, it’s always the GIs.”

Hawthorne nodded.

“Let it go this time,” she said. “We don’t want the men to believe we’re singling them out.”

“Yes ma’am, of course ma’am.”

“Dismissed, Chief O’Hanlon.”

O’Hanlon saluted and marched out - as he did, Jackson and his colleague entered.

“Colonel Hawthorne,” said Jackson evenly.

“Jackson,” nodded Hawthorne. “Agent Hudson.”

“Von Esling just returned,” said Jackson. “The defector, unfortunately, did not make it, but he handed us some… interesting documents.”

“They match pretty well with the latest message from Omaha,” added Jackson’s bald colleague - Hudson - “The Russians are up to something big in Chicago.”

“I would recommend calling a council of war,” finished Jackson.

Hawthorne pinched the bridge of her nose.

“I wish you’d told me that before I disciplined Major Biggs,” she sighed. “Very well, gather the senior officers and tell them to meet me in the war room in ten minutes.”

------

For all the technological advancements of the Liberty, the war room looked to all the world like a regular boardroom.

The ship’s officers and various unit commanders were gathered around a long rectangular table, Colonel Hawthorne standing at the end. The lights were dimmed, and a projector had been set up on the table before her - she stood to the side to allow it to project onto the grey wall behind her.

“This is the Lazar Kaganovich,” said Hawthorne. “It is the command ship of General Anatoly Cherdenko. Until today, the Kaganovich was only of interest to us due to its position as a mobile Soviet headquarters, an intelligence nexus, and it’s unofficial position as the Soviet Army’s largest unofficial brothel.”

Biggs’ eyebrows shot up. “Largest what now?”

“Cherdenko’s headquarters is a hotbed of hedonism,” said Jackson. “His staff swim in prostitutes, drugs and liquor. It’s had a marked effect on performance - when we ranked the various staffs of the Soviet commanders, we put Cherdenko’s last.”

“But Cherdenko’s good at the political game,” Weathers added. “More to the point, Vladimir likes him. Otherwise this job would probably have gone to Khabarov.”

“Based on Major Kyrylenko’s information and the recent dispatch from Omaha, we now believe that several high value prisoners are being held in the brig of the Kaganovich,” said Hawthorne. “Including - potentially - the President.”

There were whispers around the table.

“Do we know for certain?” asked Biggs. “This did come from a Ruskie.”

“Kyrylenko gave his life to give us this information, Herr Major,” said Gunter. “He was Ukrainian, he had no love for the Russians. Why would he play along with some kind of spy ruse - especially one that required his death?”

“It doesn’t really matter if we believe him, Biggs,” Weathers shrugged. “This one comes from the top.”

“CENTCOM has ordered a hit and run raid on the Kaganovich,” said Hawthorne. “We’re to get in, take the prisoners and any sensitive information we can, and then we get out.”

“That includes papers on this Chicago Project thing?” asked Tanya, leaning in.

Hawthorne and Jackson exchanged looks.

“Chicago Project?” Colonel Nicholson’s lips pursed together.

“We’ll discuss a little thing called OPSEC later, Agent,” growled Hudson.

“Jackson,” said Hawthorne. “Brief them.”

Jackson frowned, but did so.

“Until now, the Soviets have been using a network of Psionic Beacons to exert control over American minds,” he said. “This system is imperfect - the beacons must be constantly operational, and even a short interruption of power could free thousands of… ‘thralls,’ we’ll call them. Kyrylenko’s intelligence, corroborated with U2 flyovers of the city of Chicago, indicate that the Soviets are building a larger psionic weapon - the next generation, as it were.”

“So it’s bigger?” asked Biggs. “Affects more people?”

“The Psionic Beacons control minds,” explained Jackson. “But this… Psychic Dominator works at a deeper, fundamental level. It effectively rewrites the human consciousness. Once it is activated, it will not matter if we shut it down or even destroy it. It’s effects would be… quite permanent.”

An eerie silence fell over the room.

“So,” said Eva at last. “They’re in control of those people for good?”

“With the Psychic Dominator, they could seize America,” said Jackson. “Mind, body and, if you’d like, soul.”

“Our game plan going forward is to make sure Ivan never turns that thing on,” said Hudson. “Whatever it takes. That means taking risks.”

“We can’t infiltrate the Kaganovich quietly,” added Hawthorne. “We will need to put our men, our resources, even this ship at risk to pull this off. We need to hit them quickly and violently. I need everyone to be playing at their best. Am I making myself clear?”

Her gaze turned on Biggs. The Major snorted and crossed his arms.

“Crystal, ma’am,” he replied.

His eyes narrowed at his commanding officer.

“Crystal.”

[calliopesink]

246th NROTCU Cadets Showcase Skills at Local Annual General Tactical Inspection 

The 246th NROTCU held their Local Annual General Tactical Inspection (LAGTI) led by LCDR MAY GLICELL LAGANG PN,  Deputy Commander at the Naval Reserve Center at Adamson University last Saturday, April 27, 2024.

Amidst the scorching heat, the Corps of Cadets showcased their learned skills from a year’s worth of lectures and training— Military Science 1 to Military Science 2. Through this inspection,  the proficiency and capabilities of every ROTC Unit throughout the region is assessed and showcased in front of esteemed military inspectors thereby, assessing the quality of education provided to the cadets and cadettes taking ROTC as their National Service Training Program (NSTP). 

Following the demonstration of various special units, the first unit executed Close Order Drills in front of the Saint Vincent (SV) Facade. This was followed by  demonstration of the Raids and Ambush or Small Unit Tactics and Semaphore Flag Signalling. On the third floor of the SV building, cadets exhibited exceptional performances in Map Reading, Morse Code, Flag Identification, and Knot tying. In the SV Hall, the Comprehensive Examination Units carry out their theoretical knowledge. The Medics presented first aid and rescue procedures.

Jr/S Lowellane Anne Advento, one of the participants in the Morse Code Special Unit stated “It was such a huge privilege and great experience for me to be participating in what is known to be one of the hardest special units, as it tested the knowledge that I gained from the past training that I went through. That alone is my pride, but the overall experience was fun, from the training we underwent, the bond I built with other cadets, and also being able to learn something that I can use in case of emergencies. And to be able to represent our unit and school only makes all the efforts worth it.”

Additionally, the unit already received numerous awards in the Local Annual General Tactical (LAGTI). In 2017 they were awarded Best in Semaphore Flag Signalling and Best in Flag Identification along with others.  

Written by: Bianca Heraldo

Pubmat by: Francheska Ivana Piñon

[michaelcosio]

Premiered Aug 11, 2020

#RTC, UH and NAVFAC work together to transform drill halls into barracks,#NAVFAC,#RTC,#Recruit Training Command,#Naval Station Great Lakes,#Barracks,#Naval Facilities Engineering Command,#Navy,#Great Lakes,#US Navy,#COVID-19,#Drill Halls

from Defense Flash News

[empirelomo]

Tech victory march

#TECH VICTORY MARCH FREE#

The original Skipper is currently located in the Holtzman Alumni Center museum, located at 901 Prices Fork Rd., until the new Corps Leadership and Military Science building opens. In 1984, Paul Huffman, Jr., a Virginia Tech alumnus whose father’s foundry had created the original Skipper, volunteered to design and create a new Skipper for the Corps of Cadets at no charge as his father had done. To this day Skipper continues the tradition outset by its founders, serving as a guide for the corps, alumni, fans, and all of Hokie nation.Īfter serving proudly for 19 years, the original Skipper suffered a blowout in 1982. The cannon is a symbol of family, tradition, and Hokie pride.Īt the beginning of every game and at every Hokie score, the rumble of the nearly 1,000 pound cannon can be heard throughout the Blacksburg community. Soon after on Thanksgiving Day, the annual VMI versus VPI game was held and Skipper was first introduced, in spectacular fashion, as the Corps of Cadets game cannon.įor the next 50 years, Skipper and those cadets that maintain it’s legacy, the Skipper Crew, became embedded within the tradition of Virginia Tech, becoming one of the most recognizable icons of the Corps of Cadets and the university. In Kennedy's honor, the first firing of Skipper was a 50-volley salute, a military tradition to honor the death of a president. 22, 1963, while driving back to Blacksburg after picking up the barrel and carriage, the cadets learned that President Kennedy had been shot. Upon learning of his death, Kennedy’s legacy and naval background would inspire the naming of the cannon now known as Skipper. The Highty-Tighties, the regimental band, will provide music for the ceremony. the Gregory Guard, the Corps of Cadets precision rifle drill team, will execute the first two volleys and then the seventh rifleman will yield the honor of the 21st round to Skipper during the third volley. Kennedy on this 50th anniversary year of his death and the creation of Skipper. No tickets are required.įollowing the presentation in Burruss Hall, the celebration will move to the Drillfield in front of War Memorial chapel, located at 601 Drillfield Dr., for a special 21-volley salute in honor of President John F. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts.

#TECH VICTORY MARCH FREE#

The event is free and open to the public. How about, at the end of the tech tree is a repeatable tech you can do, 5000 or 7500 or x amount of tech Press J to jump to the feed. All are welcome to join today's Corps of Cadets to learn about Skipper from those who were there when it all began. The event will begin in the Burruss Hall Auditorium, located at 800 Drillfield Dr., at 3:30 p.m. 31, the Corps of Cadets will commemorate 50 years of tradition by holding an anniversary celebration for Skipper. It does not store any personal data.On Thursday, Oct. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The next day, Londoners went back to keeping calm and carrying on. The evening ended nigh on midnight with the firing of 50 shells and the national anthem. Fireworks were launched from barges on the Thames River, where coloured water spouted from jets on floats and barges. Floodlights illuminated bridges and searchlights picked out aircraft overhead. Newsreels captured boisterous cheering that must have left many people hoarse.Īfterwards, the crowd adjourned to parks throughout the city to dance and listen to bands and orchestras and watch free entertainment, including a performance of Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.” Then massed pipers led a marching column of more than 20,000 men and women representing military and civilian services that contributed to victory, interlaced with an assortment of bands. The parade, which was about 6.5 kilometres long, started with a mechanized column featuring every manner of war machine that could be driven or pulled. an open carriage carrying the Royal Family slowly proceeded from Buckingham Palace to the reviewing stand on The Mall, where military commanders and heads of state from many countries awaited, including Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.

[bookloversofbath]

Always Ready: The Drill Halls of Britain's Volunteer Forces :: Mike Osborne

Always Ready: The Drill Halls of Britain’s Volunteer Forces :: Mike Osborne

Always Ready: The Drill Halls of Britain’s Volunteer Forces :: Mike Osborne soon to be presented for sale on the excellent BookLovers of Bath web site! Leigh-on-Sea: Partizan Press, 2006, Hardback in dust wrapper. Includes: Floor plans; Black & white photographs; Colour photographs; List of abbreviations; References; 2-column text; Appendices (7); From the cover: This book explores the form,…

[ice-fire-or-clear]

Further On The Edge, I.

Tom “Iceman” Kazansky x f!Reader (callsign Siren)

Word count: 1.6k

A/N: Ah yes, first Top Gun fic, let’s gooo. Before there was Hangman, there was Iceman. Not enough Ice fics out there so I decided to give it a try. The timeline is the same but more stretched out than in the movie. This will be the first in a multi-part series, so enjoy :)

masterlist I part 2

CW: Sexism, alcohol, Ice being a dick, secondhand embarrassment because Maverick, etc, etc.

—

“The uh, plaque for the alternates is down in the ladies’ room.”

You focus your glare resolutely down at your notebook, ignoring the jeers of the surrounding aviators as they twist in their seats, gleeful to see your reaction. You will your face not to flush as you stand up, reaching for your bag, carefully to avoid any eye contact or show any hint of a reaction. Unfortunately, it all goes to shit when one of your fellow classmates bumps your elbow on their way up the steps, and startled, your head snaps up, allowing him to catch your eye.

Iceman stares back at you with an expectant smirk, fiddling with his ever-present toothpick with his tongue. He flashes those pearly whites at you, eager to see you rise to his bait.

Luckily, you’re saved by shrieking, hysteric laughter. You turn your head to see Goose at the top of the classroom with his pilot, Maverick, at his elbow, possibly the only two people in the room that Ice has more disdain for than you.

Iceman’s gaze slips away from you to glare at the two of them, the moment forgotten. You take the opportunity to make your exit, weaving through the crowd of dispersing pilots on their way to the cafeteria hall. Swimming upstream, your mind floods with snarky comebacks to iceman’s remark only five minutes too late. Part of you wishes you could see his face when you hit him with, “Spending a lot of time in the ladies’ room these days, Ice?” or “Well, if that’s the only way you can get women to notice you.”

Arrogant, cocky assholes aren’t anything you haven’t already dealt with in your years in the Navy. But something about Ice always threatens to snap your guarded, unbothered persona.

Fuckin’ Kazansky.

-

Several hours later, after a frustrating afternoon of uncoordinated dog-fighting and sloppy fieldwork, you hunch over the desk in your assigned dormitory, pouring over your copy of the F-14 NATOPS. It’s not like you haven’t read the document cover-to-cover many times before, but you’re still looking for something. Anything to help you better understand what went wrong on your last run, and how you can prevent it tomorrow.

You knew the other aviators were out enjoying their evening, sinking a few beers at any number of the local bars, or engaging in a game of ill-advised, jean-clad beach volleyball, but that didn’t faze you one bit. Even if you wanted (or trusted) their company, you would still be in the same place you are now: trying to find something that could give you an edge, because God knows being able to fly as fast and steady as the rest of them wasn’t enough to acknowledge you to actually being one of them.

Being the only woman in room full of male aviators and instructors put a target on your back, and that didn’t even begin to describe what went down during training drills. It had been that way for your entire career, and you weren’t naive enough to think simply being a good pilot would be enough to shake it. There was no room for error; no allowances for natural flaws or weaknesses. The simple fact of your gender worked as a magnifying glass, amplifying any faults and diminishing any merits.

The clatter of your pen on the desk snapped you out of your reverie, making you scowl as you realized you had been twirling it between you fingers. That simple action reminded you of Ice, who had been threatening to throw you into a mental tailspin ever since your arrival at Miramar.

You had heard of him long before your actual introduction; the world of Naval aviation wasn’t so large after all. He was the best of the best, and he knew it. He prided himself on the way he flew- ice cold, no mistakes, hence the callsign. Originally you held a sense of respect towards him, given that you had been trying to cultivate those same attributes, albeit for very different reasons. You had actually been looking forward to flying alongside him during your time at Top Gun, excited to be working with a like-minded pilot. Of course, that had all evaporated the moment you actually met him.

--

Weeks earlier, you had spent your first full day in North Island unpacking your belongings and acquainting yourself with the base that you would be calling home for the next five weeks. After reaffirming your belief that all bases were more or less the same, you decided to visit The O, one of the local bars that you had heard was popular among the on-base aviators. After years of exposure, you already had a good idea of what the other pilots would be like, but that didn’t stop you from holding out hope that maybe the best of the best would be different.

Leaning against the bar, you absent-mindedly flattened the cuff on your shorts with the hand not occupied with your drink. You sipped it slowly as you took in the lively scene before you, sailors, civilians, and pilots alike swirling together. you had lost count of all of the smirking white uniforms dancing, buying drinks, and attempting to dazzle all the women surrounding them. You had always found it a bit too… self-important, wearing summer whites to a bar that was bound to be full of civilians. Hence, your high-waisted denim shorts and oversized white button down. More exciting than your service uniform, but casual enough to indicate you weren’t exactly interested in company.

Jostled out of your internal monologue by a brush against your left elbow, you came back down to earth in time to hear the bartender say, “What’ll it be, Ice?”

Involuntarily, your head snapped towards the tall man who had materialized at your side, the length of his right bicep resting against your left. Here he was. The best pilot in the Navy. After glimpsing enough of the letters on his name tag to confirm it really was him, you lifted your face towards his. Taking in his broad-shouldered form up close, you almost wanted to retract your earlier statement about the uniforms. Cocky, sure, but it worked on him. For once, you dropped your untouchable demeanor, smiling as you started to introduce yourself to the pilot you had heard so much about.

Of course, that just would have been too easy.

“Hi, sweetheart.” He flashed you a grin, looking down at you. You could feel his gaze travel almost imperceptibly down the length of your body, almost as if you had imagined it.

After pausing on your face for another half-second, his smile widened a fraction of an inch. He turned back to the bartender just as the other man slid a few beers over the counter. “And another one for the lady, please.”

“What? No, that’s not what I-“

Iceman chuckled, taking a sip of his beer. “Don’t worry about it, sweetheart. I won’t tell your boyfriend, okay? Our little secret.” The arrogant bastard had the nerve to wink at you before disappearing back into the crowd.

What the hell?

It took you the rest of your first drink to fully process what the fuck had just happened. The best of the best, the legendary Iceman, blatantly hitting on you without letting you get a single word in otherwise? Iceman making the pigheaded assumption that you were just so enamored with him that he should buy you a drink without even getting your name? And what the hell was he doing buying drinks for women that were supposedly “taken” anyway?

Shock gave way to indignation, anger, and embarrassment as you downed the last drops of your drink. You stared at the untouched beer on the bar top in front of you, condensation visible on the glass. You half-debated not drinking it on principle, but no. If Iceman was so self-important as to buy you that beer, then you were gonna let him waste his money and take advantage of the free alcohol.

By the time you set the empty bottle back down on the wood, your head was spinning every so slightly in that pleasant way and you felt untouchable once again. Your own sense of aviator pride and self-assuredness began to work it’s way out of you, as it always did after a few drinks. You had just started to stand, clutching the bar top, when you heard the music cut out and someone start singing- badly- over the speakers. Swinging your head to glance over at the other side of the bar, you watched as more of the white uniforms began to surround the singer, focusing their attention on a bewildered snd slightly embarrassed woman. You decided that you definitely didn’t want to know, and took that as your cue to leave.

As you made your way back to your dorm that night, you thought about what would go down when Ice first saw you on the tarmac with him. At first, you imagined the scene that would play out with dread and a sense of embarrassment, but then it struck you that you hadn’t come this far in your career to be put to shame by a man who couldn’t keep it in his pants.

Absolutely not, you decided. Instead you vowed that you would never let any of them, but especially the Iceman, get to you like that again. You would let your hard-won skills speak for you, and there would be no goddamned room for anyone to say anything else.

--

masterlist I part 2

A/N: Stay tuned for part 2 and let me know what you thought, I suppose :)

[im-tempted]

for @mamie-eisenhower

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 reduce fractions, and no matter how difficult it is to memorize the periodic table. I will love you no matter what your locker combination was, or how you decided 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 every 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 you abandon your baticeering, and I will love you if you retire from the theater 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 fetuccini and as the horseradish loves the miyagi, as the tempura loves 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 in 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 whale loves the flavor of naval uniforms. I will love you as a child loves to overhear the conversations of its 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 safekeeping. 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 mechanisms. 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 a 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 shingle falling 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 operator 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 daggerproof tunics, and as a daggerproof 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 of 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 the noise of 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 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 form the handsomest and most susceptible of woods, and until every criminal is handcuffed by the laziest of policemen. I will love you until M. hates snakes and J. hates grammar, and I will love you until C. realizes S. is not worthy of his love and N. realizes he is not worthy of the V. I will love you until the bird hates a nest and the worm hates an apple, and until the apple hates a tree and the tree hates a nest, and until a bird hates a tree and an apple hates a 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 the long, slender spoon, between our lips and fingers respectively. I will love you until the chances of us running into one another slip from skim to zero, and until your face is fogged by 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 me 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 O., or anyone Z. through A., even R. although sadly I believe it will be quite some time before two women 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.

[starfull-m]

I Don’t Think There’s Ever Been A More Beautiful Love Letter Than “The Beatrice Letters”

Always. Continuously. With increasing apprehension, and decreasing hope.

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 reduce fractions, and no matter how difficult it is to memorize the periodic table. I will love you no matter what your locker combination was, or how you decided 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 every 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 you abandon your baticeering, and I will love you if you retire from the theater 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 fetuccini and as the horseradish loves the miyagi, as the tempura loves 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 in 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 whale loves the flavor of naval uniforms. I will love you as a child loves to overhear the conversations of its 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 safekeeping. 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 mechanisms. 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 a 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 shingle falling 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 operator 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 daggerproof tunics, and as a daggerproof 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 of 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 the noise of 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 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 form the handsomest and most susceptible of woods, and until every criminal is handcuffed by the laziest of policemen. I will love you until M. hates snakes and J. hates grammar, and I will love you until C. realizes S. is not worthy of his love and N. realizes he is not worthy of the V. I will love you until the bird hates a nest and the worm hates an apple, and until the apple hates a tree and the tree hates a nest, and until a bird hates a tree and an apple hates a 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 the long, slender spoon, between our lips and fingers respectively. I will love you until the chances of us running into one another slip from skim to zero, and until your face is fogged by 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 me 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 O., or anyone Z. through A., even R. although sadly I believe it will be quite some time before two women 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.

[esotericakit]

“Hey yeah I’d like to order a pizza for Erin please. It’s spelled E for elephant, R for root beer, I for 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 reduce fractions, and no matter how difficult it is to memorize the periodic table. I will love you no matter what your locker combination was, or how you decided 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 every 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 you abandon your baticeering, and I will love you if you retire from the theater 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 fetuccini and as the horseradish loves the miyagi, as the tempura loves 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 in 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 whale loves the flavor of naval uniforms. I will love you as a child loves to overhear the conversations of its 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 safekeeping. 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 mechanisms. 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 a 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 shingle falling 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 operator 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 daggerproof tunics, and as a daggerproof 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 of 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 the noise of 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 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 form the handsomest and most susceptible of woods, and until every criminal is handcuffed by the laziest of policemen. I will love you until M. hates snakes and J. hates grammar, and I will love you until C. realizes S. is not worthy of his love and N. realizes he is not worthy of the V. I will love you until the bird hates a nest and the worm hates an apple, and until the apple hates a tree and the tree hates a nest, and until a bird hates a tree and an apple hates a 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 the long, slender spoon, between our lips and fingers respectively. I will love you until the chances of us running into one another slip from skim to zero, and until your face is fogged by 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 me 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 O., or anyone Z. through A., even R. although sadly I believe it will be quite some time before two women 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. And then N for noodle.”