#new England is actually a region

[ivory--raven]

[bread--quest]

i'm definitely doxxing myself with this (/j) but i don't care

if you've never heard of moxie here's its wikipedia page. also if you've had moxie please put in the tags whether you think its good or not. i think its like. not good but not terrible. i will drink it for the bit

[mortalfaerie]

hi here's a little series on what i think the gravity falls kids grew up to do since they're 25 now

Pacifica "Paz" Northwest

after weirdmagedden, she became increasingly disenchanted with her parent's and their worldview, which led her to start questioning the structures around her

though they sold the mansion, her parents had a lot of money in real estate and they live in a condo building they own in town

she took a job at greasy's diner initially as an act of rebellion but stuck around throughout high school because it gave her a refreshing taste of the real world

she got really into politics, also initially as an act of rebellion, but did eventually become a really staunch take-no-shit feminist and went to protests in portland

she reconnected with the twins one summer during their teen years once she had "been cured of her rich girl mentality" (-mabel) and she and mabel became pretty close. things remained a little awkward with dipper when they were teens, but they relaxed once he realized she did actually care about mabel and wasn't going to hurt her

she's actually very analytical and level headed, which makes her a good foil to dipper - who continues seeking out mysteries to solve in gravity falls

she continued competitive golf and even won some local and regional titles in the women's junior division, which gets her an offer to go play golf at UCLA (conveniently, also where dipper goes)

she got access to her trust fund when she turned eighteen, and relies a lot less on her parents after that. she continues to try to have a relationship with them but it very aware of the toll they take on her, leading her to go low-contact with them in university.

she joins a sorority (i think kkg, she feels like a kappa) and probably ends up as treasurer or some other leadership position

she majors in political science, makes the dean's list, and gets an honors degree. she considers becoming a lawyer, but decides she's more interested in public policy & decides to go into policy analysis & international relations

she and dipper have a prolonged will-they-won't-they throughout college, finally getting together in the summer before their senior year. this borrowed from rockslide on ao3 but hilariously, she doesn't realize he's trans until she sees his too surgery scars for the first time because 1) she only ever knew him as a guy and 2) she only saw him in the summers growing up.

her parents disapprove of their relationship and generally the pines family, which is the straw that breaks the camel's back for her to go fully no contact. after that point, she's embraced by the pines family as one of their own.

she graduates magnum cum laude and dipper is her biggest supporter. he gets an offer to do his doctorate in archeology at king's college london, which ends up working perfectly because she gets a job at the us embassy in london.

they move to england together and rent a flat in a new building because even though the historic ones are beautiful, she can't deal with more ghosts.

i think by this point they've been there for two and a half years and they've gotten a cat (named tyrone, or ty for short) and dipper's just made the transition from phd student to phd candidate and started his dissertation.

[leroibobo]

another mena language post - i wanted to talk about judeo-arabic and clarify a little bit about what "judeo-arabic" means

the basics, for those of you who don't know: arabic, being a language that was spread over a large part of the world and has since evolved into many different forms, has many different things that differentiate certain dialects. languages/dialects can be influenced by languages speakers' ancestors spoke before, by the social structure of where speakers live, by languages they come into contact with, and by gradual evolution in pronunciation. (many letters like evolving into ones that are easier to pronounce - this is why arabic has no "p" sound, it eventually evolved into "f" or "b". the same thing happened in germanic languages to some extent, which is why we say "father" in english and "vader" in german while in romance languages it's some variation of "padre" or "père".) many arabic dialects in particular possess different substratum (obvious, traceable influence from languages people spoke in before shifting to the new one).

arabic, being a language that was spread over a large part of the world and has since evolved into many different forms, has many different regional dialects which are different for the reasons i described in the above paragraph. even though there's modern standard arabic (which is the subject of its own post), people speak regional dialects in real life. on top of that, there's a variety of social influences on different types of arabic, such as whether someone's living in the city or in the country, whether someone's sedentary or a bedouin, and in some cases religion.

in the middle east, religion was historically:

not seen as a personal choice, but as something you're born into and a group you're a part of, kind of like ethnicity;

not generally something governments actively wanted everyone to share one of at the penalty of ostracization due to sticking to your group being the more livable way of life in the area, or later, the benefits of things like imposing extra taxes on people who weren't the "correct" religion/branch (this is far from being a "muslim thing" btw, it's been in the area for a while now, i mean look at the assyrians);

an influential factor in where you lived and who you were more likely to interact with because of those two things. (for example, it wasn't uncommon for most of the people living in one village in the countryside to share one religion/branch of a religion. if your village converted, you converted, too. if they didn't, you didn't, either.)

this means that the influence of religion in different types of arabic is due to people of different religions living in or coming from different places, and who people talked to most often.

for example, in bahrain, most sedentary shia bahrainis' ancestors have lived on the island for a very long time, while most sedentary sunni bahrainis' ancestors immigrated from other places in the gulf and iran in the 18th century. therefore, while they've all interacted and shared different aspects of their dialects including loanwords, there are two "types" of bahraini arabic considered distinctive to sunni and shia bahrainis respectively, regardless of how long ago their ancestors got there. despite the differences being marked by the religion of the speakers, they have nothing to do with religion or contact/lack thereof between bahraini sunni and shia, but with the factors affecting the different dialects i mentioned in the first paragraph which influenced either group.

a similar phenomenon to this in english is class differences in accent in england. nothing in received pronunciation is actually something only rich people can say or unintelligible to poor people, it developed by the class differences influencing where rich and poor english people lived and the different pronunciation/linguistic histories in those places, as well with different classes keeping more to themselves.

the influence of religion on arabic dialects isn't universal and nowhere near as intense as it is with aramaic. some places, especially more cosmopolitan or densely populated places, are less likely to have very noticeable differences or any differences at all. in addition, certain variations of a dialects that may've been influenced by religion in some way (as well as urban dialects) may be standardized through tv/movies/social media or through generally being seen as more "prestigious", making more people who wouldn't have spoken them otherwise more likely to pick it up. (this is why so many arabic speakers can understand egyptian arabic - cairo is like the hollywood of the arabic-speaking world.) this is the case with many if not most countries' official and regional languages/dialects nowadays.

this phenomenon is what "judeo-arabic" refers to generally. like many other jewish diaspora languages, the "jewish" aspect is that it was a specific thing jewish people did to different types of arabic, not that it was isolated, possessed a large enough amount of certain loanwords (though some varieties did have them), or is unintelligible to non-jews. people were generally aware of differences where they existed and navigated between them. (for example, baghdadi jews may've switched to the more prestigious muslim baghdadi dialect when in public.) if you know arabic, listen to this guy speak, you should be able to understand him just fine.

judeo-arabic also often used the hebrew alphabet and some may have been influenced by hebrew syntax and grammar in their spelling. you can also see the use of script for religious identification in persian and urdu using the arabic script, and in english using the latin alphabet. in general, influences of hebrew/aramaic on different types of judeo-arabic aren't consistent. you can read more about that here.

"judeo-arabic" isn't a universal that definitely happened in every arabic-speaking part of the world that had jews in it to the same degrees, but it did definitely exist. some examples:

after the siege of baghdad in 1258, where mongols killed all muslim baghdadis and spared baghdadis of other religions, bedouins from the south gradually resettled the city. this means that the "standard" sedentary dialect in the south is notably bedouin influenced, while dialects in the north are more notably influenced by eastern aramaic. christians and (when they lived there) jews in baghdad have dialects closer to what’s up north. within those, there's specific loans and quirks marking the differences between "christian" and "jewish".

yemenite jews faced some of the most persistent antisemitic persecution in the middle east, so yemeni jewish arabic was more of a city thing and often in the form of passwords/codewords to keep jews safe. jews were usually a lot safer and better-regarded in the countryside, so jewish yemeni arabic was much less of a thing there, and when it was, it was less "serious".

due to the long history of maghrebi immigration to palestine, there's attestation of maghrebi influences in arabic spoken by some palestinian jews with that origin. this was also a thing in cairo to some extent.

(i'd link sources, but most of them are in hebrew, i guess you'll have to trust me on this one??)

still, the phrase "judeo-arabic" is often used with the implication that it was one all encompassing thing (which it wasn't, as you can see), or that jews everywhere had it in some way. many jews who spoke some version of arabic special to their mostly-jewish locale may not have registered it as a specifically "jewish" version of arabic (though they did more often than not). the truth is that research about anything related to middle eastern and north african jews is often sloppy, nonexistent, and often motivated by the desire of the researcher to prove something about israel's colonization of palestine (on either "side" of the issue). this is not me being a centrist about the colonization of palestine, this is me stating that academia is often (even usually) influenced by factors that aren't getting the best and most accurate information about something. i don't think we're going to get anything really "objective" on arabic spoken by jews in that regard for a long while.

for comparison's sake: yiddish is considered a separate language from german due to 19th century yiddishists' efforts to "evolve" yiddish from dialect to language (yiddish-speaking jews were said to speak "corrupted german" historically; on that note sephardim were also said to speak "corrupted spanish"). this was at a time when ethnic nationalism was en vogue in europe and declaring a national language meant declaring your status as a sovereign nation (both metaphorically and literally). for yiddishists to assert that they were speaking a language and not a dialect that intrinsically tied them to germans was to reject the discrimination that they were facing. (besides, german/austrian/swiss jews weren't speaking yiddish (leaving it with the connotation of being the language of those icky ostjuden), yiddish-speaking jews had practically zero other ties to germany/austria/switzerland, and yiddish-speaking jews (let alone the yiddishists) were almost entirely east of germany/austria/switzerland, so it's not like they were pulling this out of their ass.)

whether a jewish person of arabic-speaking descent calls it "arabic", "judeo-arabic", or something like "moroccan"/"syrian"/etc depends on who you're talking to, where they're from (both diaspora origins and today), how old they are, and what they think about zionism. despite "judeo-arabic" being what it's called in academia, on the ground, there's no real strong consensus either way because the social circumstances arabic-speaking jews lived in didn't drive them to form a movement similar to yiddishists. (not because there was no discrimination, but because the political/social/linguistic circumstances were different.) the occupation since made the subject of middle eastern jews’ relation to the middle east a contentious topic considering the political and personal weight behind certain cultural identifiers. the term "judeo-arabic" is modern in comparison - whether it's a distinction dredged up by zionist academics to create separations that didn't really exist or a generally accurate term for a specific linguistic phenomenon is a decision i'll leave you to make.

[agarthanguide]

A question but more of a holy cow! I just noticed that you live in Vermont! I’m a Vermonter myself and have lived here my entire life so when ever I see mention of this little bit of New England I automatically “ !!!” And always find it interesting cause as always support local artists and all that jazz and hope to one day see you at a local artist market!

But now that the bells hells have entered a colder region and us Vermonters being a winter state (if you wanna call it that lol) and have regional knowledge of winter, what are your thoughts on Dorian being the mantra a “ hoe never gets cold “ when it came to his design?

I live in Vermont! I fucking LOVE Vermont- there’s no billboards on the highways, people are kind but respectful of privacy, the dogs are all healthy, and most bathrooms are non-gendered. Hit me up if you are around Burlington and wanna get coffee!

I moved here after ten years in Arizona (I’m originally from Wisconsin) and I was so soft and miserable my first winter back north. But now I’m like “hoes DON’T get cold, actually.” As evidenced by the fact that the heat is off as soon as outside temps hit like 50.

But this is fun- NO ONE TOLD ME THEY WERE GOING TO AEOR. I had no reason to believe the outfits would be for cold weather! I see the new episodes at the same time as everyone else, so if they don’t mention something to me, I simply don’t hear it. That’s being said- I’m not sure I would want to arbitrarily warm up their outfits. Dorian has sheer everything, like I did when I came to Vermont from Arizona. So layer up those linens and borrow Ash’s old jacket, babe! I hope you learned something.

Enjoy some alternate universe Dorian hair. I’m looking at all my sketches for this round, and all of the, have slutty sheer shirts. It must have been in the brief!

[mammonscheeks]

demon brothers + dateables as destinations in the human world

✎ a/n: these are my opinions! i'm south and west asian, so i am most knowlegeable about those countries, please correct me if i've said anything incorrect!

LUCIFER

new york city, usa. he likes the cold, industrial corporate feel of nyc. it helps him avoid his feelings.

anywhere in germany. he likes their no-nonsense culture and unspoken social rules.

MAMMON

las vegas, nevada, usa. he always begs mc to take him there. the flashy lights and casinos are right up his alley.

dubai, uae. he loves the luxurious feel of it, and how its the center of celebrity gatherings, vacations, and parties.

LEVIATHAN

tokyo, japan (especially the akihabara/electronic district). he's always updated on pop culture and the newest technology/games.

seychelles island, africa. he likes swimming, but not socializing on the beach. that's why he likes isolated islands.

SATAN

london, england. he's interested in their medival history and seeing the places that inspired novels like harry potter and the sherlock holmes franchise.

cat island in japan, or any mediterranean country where cats freely roam.

ASMODEUS

paris, france. he'd love paris fashion week. he also just seems french to me, idk.

seoul, south korea. he'd adore seoul's culture, everything from the modern sappy kdramas to traditional dresses, like hanbok. he would bring an empty suitcase to stuff it with beauty products.

BEELZEBUB

mumbai, india. this metropolitan city in india offers so many different kinds of food. he would love to eat his way through the city, if not the entire country.

every city in mexico. he'd try the regional cuisine, but also hang out at the beach with his brothers and mc (so cute).

BELPHEGOR

cairo, egypt. he was once fascinated with humans, and often watched them build civilizations from heaven when he was an angel. he would enjoy the historical wonders of egypt.

reykjavic, iceland. idk why he just gives me iceland vibes. life there can be slow and cold, and it often gets less light than other countries.

DIAVOLO

transylvania, romania. he loves its breathtaking castles and culture, and is intrigued with all the pop culture references of vampires.

petra, jordan. this is a significant place in abrahamic religions, known for being haunted by demons, or jinn. diavolo would be fascinated by this history, whether its actually haunted or not. i know he'd eat up those scary ghost tours (insert fic about that here) and even probably try and scare a few tourist groups, despite barbatos advising him against it.

BARBATOS

istanbul, turkiye. istanbul has well-maintained structures from the byzantine empire, the ottoman empire, and even "newer and hip" neighborhoods. barbatos, being able to see the past and future, would appreciate the blend of it all here, like he's walking through time.

kathmandu, nepal. he'd enjoy the peace of monasteries and mountains, which are as old as the earth itself.

SIMEON

tuscany, italy. he'd enjoy the vast fields, heavenly sunsets, small towns and historic churches. he would find tuscany a peaceful place to write, but appreciates the community feel of small italian towns. would definitely be so friendly he'd get invited to eat dinner at a random family's house.

thessaloniki, greece. he would absolutely love seeing all the greek orthodox churches there, with their blue and white colors and dome roofs. he is just amused to see the religious structures humans have created. he'd also probably be interested in greek mythology, even though he's an angel.

LUKE

cape town, south africa. he would be so excited to see penguins at the beach and would enjoy the burst of color south africa offers. he'd also enjoy the modern bakeries and desserts in south africa.

lyon, france. the country is known for desserts. luke would probably take a baking class there to learn how to bake more things.

SOLOMON

salem, or just any small town in massachusetts. as a sorcerer, he's intrigued with their history of "witch hunting" and the paranormal.

lalibela, ethiopia. being old, he's intrigued with how ancient cities like lalibela have changed since biblical times. he also probably enjoys learning about different cultural practices and what they have in common with his sorcery. he also wants to learn how to cook more dishes from different countries, but fails miserably

[marzipanandminutiae]

What’s the New England vampire panic?

:D

:D :D :D

IT. IS. FUN.

(to research- it was probably horrifying to live through. just so we're clear)

basiclly, it was a series of incidents in response to tuberculosis outbreaks throughout New England (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont) during the late 18th and 19th centuries. it wasn't actually a single event, but rather isolated cases of TB being blamed on revenants rather than disease. where this belief prevailed, people frequently exhumed the alleged vampire, burned their heart or another organ on a blacksmith's anvil, and mixed the ashes into water for living consumptive people to drink

unsurprisingly, this never worked

though the earliest documented incident was in 1793, most people's awareness of this phenomenon coalesces around the 1892 death and exhumation of Mercy Lena Brown, of Exeter, Rhode Island. after dying of TB at age 19, Mercy was posthumously accused of afflicting her brother with the disease. despite drinking the ashes of her heart and liver in water, he- shocker! -died. the Brown case reached the popular press, who reacted to it with a sort of morbid fascination. "look what these crazy backwards Country People did" energy. Brown's grave has become a popular site for legend-tripping among Exeter teens since then- the game is to stand there and say, "Mercy Lena Brown, are you a vampire?" and see what happens

aforementioned classism and/or regional prejudice is a fascinating aspect of the Vampire Panic(s). like I said, a lot of the commentary- even going back to the 18th century -takes a tone of bemused horror that such superstitions could still exist, and of judgment on the intelligence of those involved

but honestly, before widespread understanding of TB bacteria...it COULD have been vampires, for all people knew. most of them were aware that it wasn't, but when your choices are "it's a disease; do nothing and watch your loved one die" vs. "it's vampires; do this thing and your loved one might not die, even though there's no proof it works," one might want to feel like one was at least trying

and unlike other mass hysteria cases a la Salem, nobody actually got killed because of a Vampire Panic. just saying

(there's a theory that Bram Stoker may have been partially inspired by the Brown case in writing Dracula, but I've seen no compelling evidence that it inspired him any more or less than any other vampire story)

[samwisethewitch]

Friendly reminder to witches and pagans who want to incorporate ancestral beliefs into their practice: be mindful that a lot of modern nations and their current dominant culture are relatively new, and even the concept of a national identity is very, very modern. Modern borders may not necessarily reflect the world your ancestors lived in.

For example: immigration documents record my great-great-great grandparents immigrating from Germany in the 1870s. But my ancestors weren't German -- they were Bavarian. They were both born in the country of Bavaria and fled to the USA after the unification of the German Reich (no, not that one). They wouldn't have spoken German as a first language -- they would have spoken Bavarian. And if I wanted to incorporate their culture into my practice, I would need to narrow my search to Bavarian folk practices. Other regional practices from other parts of modern Germany wouldn't have been relevant to my ancestors.

There's a similar situation with another great-great-great grandfather, who immigrated in the 1850s iirc. He was from Lombardy, near Milan, and was fleeing the unification of the Kingdom of Italy. He probably very much did not identify as Italian.

And on the other side of my family we have a Northern English line we've been able to trace back to the 1100s, and those ancestors from the Middle Ages probably identified as Northumbrian rather than as English. My "Scottish" ancestry probably actually comes from that same line, because Northumbria was a border state between England and Scotland.

Modern resources like Ancestry.com and other genealogy sites will use modern country names and borders, which can sometimes give us false understandings of where our ancestors actually came from. This is why it's important to do your own research and fact-check outside the ancestry documents.

[fusionbolts]

"Oh, those, right... To be honest, I don't know what we used to call 'em. I think Galar took to calling them 'Navy Beans,' I guess because they're good for sailors. Easy to store a lot of for long travel and such. Guess the name just stuck..."

He ponders the question for a second, giving Isandro a once-over. "I mean, no, but you also don't look that healthy, either, you know? You're not going to drop dead or anything, but you do look a little anemic to me. Maybe some more grains would do you good."

——— "I do rather well with it, I'd like to think. Those... beans you have here, what do you call them? They've made me feel more energized lately." He says, not realizing that the food the Paldeans stole from their land might be a hot-button issue.

"I don't look that sickly, do I?"

[mewtwoandme]

Where are your comics based? I think Kanto but like…the outskirts of Pallet Town or Viridian City?

Ryme City, though I don't think it was actually ever confirmed what location its based in, it's unknown. So, I guess it can be left to interpretation. Ryme City is like a combo between New York, London, and Tokyo it terms of its architecture and lights. But personally, I theorize it's somewhere in the Galar region. Only because it's based on the UK and the majority of film locations they went to for Detective Pikachu were in England and Scotland.

My characters live in the countryside near the city.

[dimity-lawn]

I don't know how to best arrange this poll, because once you get past the 5 basic regions of the 48 contiguous states that everyone can agree on, it seems that everyone wants to draw different boundaries and set different criteria to classify the different regions.

For the sake of staying on the same page, please refer to the map below before answering.

As always, feel free to elaborate and/or answer at any time in the notes*, even if you’ve missed the poll.

If any of you feel like including your state or other area, you can include that in the notes*, but I don’t expect anyone to actually do so.

*Or, I suppose you could message me if you don’t want everyone to know , or send an anonymous ask if for some reason you want to do that but don’t want to say who you are, but I’m guessing that at that point you simply wouldn’t bother.

[nekrosmos]

I just woke up from a what’s supposed to be a 20 minutes nap but became 3 hours nap after taking my meds today 😂 can barely open my eyes as I type this

Here’s something random Price HC for you to distract you, not proof read so if it has errors my bad:

Price cared for a small plot of plant at the furthest region of the base he was stationed in. It started with one stubborn patch of green which looked half-crushed by careless boots and was barely clinging to life. Price noticed it one morning during his usual patrol. He paused, crouched down, knees cracking and he’s groaning like an old man he is and studied the struggling little plant. “Tough little bugger,” he thinks.

For some reason, he came back afterwards and poured some water on the poor shrub, and then again the next day, and again on the next next day, watching as the plant loses its yellowing green and grow new sprouts.

He could hardly consider this “farming” or “gardening”, but slowly he started getting more stuff for this routine of his. Like a broken mug as a way to scoop the dirt or picking up a random stray’s dung and pat it into the ground as fertilizer.

The men sometimes caught him lingering by the plants, but no one questioned it. They just assumed their captain was doing some sort of “tactical assessment” of the terrain. If anyone noticed the occasional frost-free patch or the odd green shoot looking a little healthier than before, they chalked it up to luck or nature, when actually it has been the Captain who’s been taking care of the plants on that place.

I don’t know where this is going, but I just think it’s funny to imagine Price walking around and going, “wait, have I watered that bugger today” or like imagining him squatting and fussing about some random plants, talking to it like he’s talking to another soldier.

Something something him being tender to the things no one cares about something something…anyways!! Hope this is enough to distract bud, I’ve yet to catch on on you and Jack’s stuff which I will do later or tomorrow myehehe

Oh this is adorable Gomz !!! Love Price talking to a plant like he's talking to his soldiers. Lots of threats. A (gentle) pat on the leaves. He's so proud when the thing starts getting bigger and stronger. Tough bugger alright. Whenever John is annoyed by his superiors or by bureaucracy, he goes outside and takes care of that plant. Beats yelling at some wide-eyed recruits some days.

Maybe this unlocks something in his brain and he starts to enjoy gardening ?? Nik notices and buys him the required tools next time they're on break together. Price has a small house somewhere in England, with a small garden but he always kept it as practical as he could, nothing fancy. Now he's thinking of growing some plants, some veggies, maybe get his own food so Nik can cook him some homemade meal with homegrown vegetable.

It's a nice little hobby he grows to enjoy, takes his mind out of the job for a few hours and makes him spend some energy (which he always has too much of whenever he's not at work.). Nik loves to sit on a garden chair outside and watch him work while enjoying some tea. It's nice to see John take some time off.

[britneyshakespeare]

like i am not a snob about fast food by any means. but i've never heard someone get giddy and excited about a new mcdonald's or kfc opening up near them or offering new menu items. so many ppl are like yeah whatever this company directly supports queerphobic causes but it tassstes good. i need to emphasize this so i don't seem to be apathetic while i order chicken prepared in a way that you can get at half a dozen other fast food places within a 10 mile radius.

do you ever feel like people only like chick-fil-a so much because they're not supposed to

[ananiel]

Thank You for The request @kanroji-san , hope You like this

Witch! Lisa! Reader from genshin impact x yandere mtp

(if anyone has any more request, feel Free to send them)

TW : yandere themes, death, manipulation, fake situation, electricity usage as a weapon (Reader’s vision)

—-------------———---------———-----------—

It was common knowledge that, across the seas, there's a group of people living in a world named Teyvat. Many people tried to get there, and those that did wrote books about the magical place that was filled with different creatures, technology and most importantly, vision holders.

This Discovery of a new, much better in the eyes of some, world became to spread as wildfire, so much so that the people of many countries such as England decided that the best way to secure an alliance with this people would be to gathered some people to go to their region, and also have some come to theirs.

Reader, a very important librarian from Mondstadt, was one of them. Oh, and what a sight was she to be hold, with her soft eyes and pretty smirk, how can he not fall for someone like her?

How can he not want to own her? To have her as his, to keep her away from the danger of the world.

-—-----———------———-----——--—---—----

Mycroft Holmes

Very skeptical at first, not only of you, but of the whole situation in general. I mean, he's the governement, he needs to be on guard, always neat and at best version of himself.

But damn don't You hold him on his toes. You were hired as a secretary for him, to "help" with his workload, as You showed that You were in fact, very smart, but only think could equal your smartness, and that is lazyness.

He was getting frustrated with You, he could tell You were smart, he could tell that You knew what he meant when he asked You to do a certain thing, but You were lazy, and acted on it. He saw You napping on the desk, flutering the pages of that floating book of yours and what annoyed him the most : your flirting.

"can you-" "no dearie, i simply can not" he groaned, and You playfully zaped him with a little electicity

You. Drove. Him. Nuts.

IT was so annoying and so... And so... Why are You calling some lowly workers "dearie"? He thought he was Your dearie, no one else, him, You can't just replace him!

But it's okay, he can play the waiting game, he can, spread false rumours, watch them grow, isolate You from others.

But that cursed iteligence of yours, You caught up, too bad that before You could run back to Teyvat, he had already set up a trap

You were smart, he couldn't deny it, maybe as smart as him, but he had the whole country, You had nothing on your name side from what was given to You by him.

That secured his place as dearie, yours and yours alone, just like you were now his

Albert james moriarty

A new addition to the M16, You were clearly something else, and Albert saw that very quick. You were smart, You were difrent, You were a breath of fresh air... But You were lazy, and so flirty.

You reminded him of Moran so much...

He loved being called "cutie" it made him feel... Warm. And what i think is that you could see through his polițe smile that hides malice of the society pretty well, and You weren't trying to hide that fact, quite the contrar actually

You teased him, You teased his patience by being so careless, he was scared to leave You go one mission alone, afraid You would die and he would have your blood on his hands... Not that it was his deepest concern if You were hurt, but You were important to the country, your death could atract undesired attention to him and his brothers. He couldn't risk it.

So he stayed close, thinking that as a lady, you'd easily fall for his charm, and he could move You to the side, to make sure nothing wrong happens.

How wrong he was.

The more time he spent with You, the more did he start liking those nicknames, those stolem glances and the way You would lazily let the book float around You, that was his adiction. You

You were the air he needed, sweeter than any wine, difrent than any women he had seen faun over him.

Speaking about wine... He's so so glad You accepted his invitation for a drink... After all, a drug taken in wine is much harder to notice, even with your inteligence

Sherlock Holmes

It was not often that he visited mycroft's place, but when he did, he certainly wasn't expecting You, lazily looking at him as You leaned on the railway of the stairs.

You were so breath taking, John noted, but sherlock didn't really pay to mind, he was more preocupied with the shiny purple thing that You had, the vision, as You said, when You followed his gaze.

At some Point, You weren't even sure if he was staring at the vision, or your chest.

You did... Help him in some way, well, You told him where that thing that he wanted was, but other than that, You simply watched.

He's a Detective, it's normal for him to be courious, he tells himself as he walks up to mycroft's house again, having "forggoten" a piece of paper there, and seeing You again

He is a Detective, is normal to start questioning things about You, and try deducting some.

Soon, he knew more about You than he knew about himself, and he still felt like it wasn't enough, he felt that... He felt like... He felt like those monsters from Mondstadt don't deserve You.

AND neither does his brother! Have You seen how much he insults You?! Everytime he does it, sherlock wants to slap him.

He's a Detective, he feels that You, his darling, as he is yours, are so so precious, when You see him bloody, bloody with Milvertron's blood, and his corpse at your feet.

Why are You acting like that darling? He was protecting You! That man was spreading false rumours about You! He HAD to do something!

William james moriarty

Oh, oh, look at you, his sweet, sweet salvation, making him forget about being the lord of crime!

He met You at Durham university, You were the New librarian after the first one retired.

He heard rumours going on around about You

"the New librarian is so beautifull!"

"She calls me her cutie! Oh, i wish father would accept me marrying a vision user!"

That was all he heard his students talking about, and as they say, curiosity killed the cat.

He told himself that he needed some books too, and that would be the best way he would meet you.

With You lazily snoring on the librarian table, he couldn't help but stare at You, taking in each and everyone of your features.

(He couldn't blame his students for talking so much about You, he would be joining them, if it weren't for them talking about his colague)

His hand moves a stray hair away from your face, and that's when You woke up, You chated, if the maybe 4 lines could be considered a chat, and that's when You dropped that sweet nickname "dear one"

He told himself that what made him seem You out so much was that You were from a whole difrent world, that he could learn some things, Yes, Yes, that's why he was following you, why he spent all of his breaks at the library, and why, when he heard that Milvertron was trying to take You out of the country... He couldn't ignore it, You were nice, You were sweet, You didn't deserve that.

You were so sweet, so cute, backing away from him when You witnessed him murdering the man, when You threathened to use the your electro vision on him, but no amunt of thunder would make him let go of your hand, as he pulled You softly, closely to him and kissing your forehead.

Why are You so scared? It's your dear one!

Louis james moriarty

Hm, this one shall happen in the three years where Louis is alone, i mean, without his brothers.

I mean, he saw You around before that, he even has a nickname "sweetie pie", but he couldn't aford getting to close to You, he would lose his focus and make faults, after all, his brother needed him and he couldn't aford to let him down

Yes... He won't lie and say that he didn't, push his knife one-two many times in the stomach of the man that had tried to hurt you, but that was nothing, that was nothing, he was still loyal to William

After William is gone tho... He knows that he needs someone smart to help him with strategies, sure, You were lazy, but You were smart, and he needed You.

Needed You for mission, certainly not for his own sick pleasure, certainly not to watch You sleep, and if You wake up to him he would brush it of as saying "i need help with the plan, now if possible"

He quickly grew protective of the fact that You were difrent, difrent was bad in those times, You could get hurt, burned to the stake, Louis couldn't have that.

Also... Acidents happend with your... Slightly revealing clothes, a thief strangly only stole yours, Louis Accidently spilled something that might not come off... Yeah, accidents, but oh don't worry... He can lend You those beautifull clothes... What? What do You mean they have some traits on them that make people think You are his wife?

Very weird, indeed.

Oh no, he came bloody from a mission, Yes, a mission. If he heard of the death of the one that wanted to go on a date with You? Oh no, no he didn't.

He smiles, petting your back as he walks back to the basement, the man sitting tied up on the floor, a bag full of weapons close to him, but before he could grab any-

"Sweetie pie, Louis! The door is locked and i can't find the key!"

He Will returned to the man, but right now, his darling needs him

[transit-fag]

Do you think taking the train is a viable option for foreigners visiting the U.S. on vacation? Say, NY state and New England?

Absolutely, it is the best and fastest way to get around the Northeast. The Northeast Regional between DC, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston is a great service which is actually pretty affordable when scheduled in advance

[usafphantom2]

SR-71 OL-Griffiss AFB

OL-Griffiss AFB

Rome, New York

1973

Yom Kippur War

The Yom Kippur War SR-71 operation provided a series of 11.4 hour round-robin sorties to the Middle East. Plans were originally made to fly these flights from Beale AFB to the Middle East and recover at Mildenhall, United Kingdom. Upon arrival at Mildenhall to set up recovery operations, Colonel Patrick Halloran, 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing Commander, was informed that the British Government had second thoughts about the operation and denied authority to operate from the United Kingdom. The UK's reasoning was a possible Arab oil embargo against their nation. Two SR-71's were assigned to performed the historic 11.4 hour flights, tail numbers #964 and #979. These flights to the Middle East were code named:

"Giant Reach"

(Photo courtesy Tom Pugh)

On 13 October 1973, Pilot Jim Shelton and RSO Gary Coleman in #979, departed Griffiss AFB on the first of a series of flights to the Middle East. After 11.13 hours of flight time involving 6 refuelings and more than five hours of flight above Mach 3.0, Jim Shelton landed SR #979 back at Griffiss AFB, NY. The "Photo Take" was highly successful and provided Defense Analysts and the President of the United States with information about the actual Syrian military situation.

On 25 October 1973, Pilot Al Joersz and RSO John Fuller flew SR #979 on another 11.13 hour non-stop round robin sortie to assess the ground situation around the Sinai and Galilee.

On 02 November 1973, Pilot Bob Helt and RSO Larry Elliott in SR #979,flew a similar Trans-Atlantic sortie to the Yom Kippur War zone in 11.22 hours of flight.

The last flight from Griffiss AFB was 11 November 1973. Blackbird #964 was flown by Pilot Jim Wilson and RSO Bruce Douglass and landed at Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina. This sortie lasted 10.49 hours. As snow fell in Rome New York, Colonel Pat Halloran opted for a warmer climate and moved operations to Seymour Johnson AFB, NC.

These SR-71 Reconnaissance flights were instrumental in defusing the war and provided positive intelligence photos to the deeply distrusting Israelis and Arabs. With the shooting war over, OL-SB, Seymour Johnson became the base of operation for continued surveillance of the war zone to insure compliance with the peace accord.

OL-SB

Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina

SR-71 "Giant Reach" Operations

On 02 December, 1973, Pilot Jim Sullivan and RSO Noel Widdifield flew the first SR-71 to the Middle East from the Seymour Johnson AFB location. In aircraft #964, this crew flew the round-robin sortie to the Sinai region and returned to Seymour Johnson in 9.56 hours.

On 10 December, 1973, Pilot Pat Bledsoe and RSO Reggie Blackwell flew SR #979 to the Middle East and back in 10.0 hours.

On 25 January, 1974, Pilot Buck Adams and RSO Bill Machorek flew SR #971 in a around-robin sortie to the Middle East in 10.04 hours.

On 07 March, 1974 Pilot Ty Judkins and RSO John Morgan flew SR #979 in 9.45 hours

The final "Giant Reach" flight occurred on 06 April, 1974. SR-71 #979, Piloted by Lee Ransom and RSO Tom Allocca flew to the Middle East and returned to Seymour Johnson AFB in 9.46 hours.

In all, four Sorties were flown from Griffiss AFB, NY averaging 11.4 hours each flight and five Sorties from Seymour Johnson AFB, NC averaging 10 hours each .

SR-71 pilot, Colonel Jim Wilson's recollection of one of the historic SR-71 flights to the Middle East during the Yom Kippur War in 1973 is reproduced below for the Blackbird Community.

Mort Jarvis adds: The whole history of this operation is pretty interesting, like flying the Detachment Package into England and than saying the SR can't land in England and turning around and going to Griffiss, NY. If the SR was still flying with the Real Time down link of Recon intelligence, which the SR was modified to carry prior to retirement, the target take could of been in the command function hands within seconds of the take. I still think the SR-71 could do a better job than what Intel is being obtained now.

Col. Jim Wilson, USAF ( Ret.) Writes:

On Oct 6th 1973, Egypt and Syria opened an offensive against Israel on two fronts, launching a coordinated series of air, armored and artillery attacks into the Sinai and Golan Heights . The preemptive strike came as a result of a failure to resolve territorial disputes arising from the Arab-Israeli War of 1967.

Since no diplomatic progress was being made toward peace, Egypt 's Sadat was convinced that to gain legitimacy at home, he must initiate a war with limited objectives.

Along the Suez Canal, 80,000 well-equipped members of the Egyptian army crossed the Suez and attacked fewer than 500 Israeli defenders. And in the Golan Heights , approximately 180 Israeli tanks faced an onslaught of 1,400 Syrian tanks.

Initial Israeli military losses were significant. And assistance was requested from the USA .

At that time, our reconnaissance satellites didn't have the capability to provide the intelligence needed to sufficiently assess the situation. So, we were alerted to prepare to fly SR-71 missions over the area of conflict, then recover in England . It was a mission within the design capability of the aircraft, although such a long, logistically-difficult mission never previously accomplished.

Within the first few days of the conflict, the supporting Arab nations initiated an oil embargo, making oil a weapon of war and contributed to a decision by the British government to deny us a recovery any place in England .

A Plan B was rapidly drawn up to fly the SR-71 out of the East Coast, then recover back in New York at Griffiss AFB. These newly planned 12,000 mile missions would require (5) five air to air refuelings from (16)sixteen KC-135 tankers based in Spain .

In the utmost secrecy, we mobilized and deployed. A few days later, our first photo/electronic reconnaissance mission was successfully completed.

I was a fairly young pilot in the squadron, with only 120 hours of SR-71 time under my belt. I was assigned to fly a backup SR-71 and to stay at Griffiss in an alert posture, and be prepared to fly follow-on missions. Then I served as back-up alert on two more successful missions.

My turn to be the primary aircraft came up next. The excitement level was high. And I certainly wanted to be part of another success.

Takeoff was at 2AM on a brisk and clear autumn night with about fifteen inches of snow already on the ground. It was peacefully calm . . until I lit both of the 34,000 lb. thrust afterburners.

The first 450 miles had to be flown subsonic at .9 Mach, since we had to clear the commercial aircraft flight tracks off the East Coast before I could safely re-fuel. Most pilots don't know the true meaning of dark until they've been in a situation like this. You might compare it to refueling in an inkwell. I then made made three radio silent electronic rendezvous with three tankers out over the North Atlantic before dawn . . taking on 10,000 gallons of fuel.

After completing a few post-refueling checks, I lit the afterburners and started my acceleration to a leisurely Mach 3 cruise across the Atlantic . The airplane performed flawlessly, thanks to the extra special effort by the maintenance guys.

About 2000 miles across the Atlantic , I watched with excitement as the sun came up right in my face, giving me a nice vantage point.

The next refueling was a couple hundred miles north of the Azores . I took on another 10,000 gallons from a couple more tankers.

I started my second acceleration and headed for Gibraltar . At 80,000 feet, cruising through the center of the narrow straits with clear weather and 100 miles of visibility on both sides. Spectacular.

Then I proceeded down the Mediterranean toward Israel where the weather was becoming worse as per flight plan's forecast.

The third air refueling south of Crete , although in poor weather, went along as scheduled. Now packing in a full load of 80,000 lbs of JP-7 fuel, I lit the afterburners and started the acceleration toward the target area.

At maximum fuel flow in full afterburner, a RED engine oil quantity low light illuminated steady on my emergency warning panel.

In almost unbelief . . I momentarily stared at it !

I instantly scanned oil pressure, rpm, exhaust gas temperature, nozzle position for other indications of trouble. Although there were no confirming indications of problems, I couldn’t just ignore the situation and continue on into the target area with the possibility of an engine failure at supersonic speed out over the Sinai.

We had no viable emergency airfields that could handle the SR-71. And I certainly did not want to be a no-notice, no-flight plan, single engine emergency arrival at David Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. Especially, since the Israeli government had not been told about our missions, and they were focused on major battles for their own survival.

I took the engines out of afterburner to access the situation, and think about the best course of action.

Then I had a pleasant surprise.

After coming out of afterburner the critical red warning light went out. I became fairly-well convinced that it was a false momentary indication.

But it had cost me roughly 400 gallons of critically needed fuel. My tankers were now 80 miles behind me . . and they were moving further away each second. And re-joining them to top off fuel, would present a whole new set of problems [ I won't get into.]

I decided to re-light the burners and press on. I had a 5 second flash of the same red light during acceleration. Then it went out. Stayed out.

My flight track went down the Suez past Cairo before making a left turn at Mach 3.15 to cross the battle lines in the Sinai. With panoramic and specific point cameras providing imagery of hundreds of targets on both sides of the SR-71, I flew North across the Dead Sea and Golan Heights . Approaching Lebanon , I made a sweeping right turn out over Syria and then back to the Sinai on a parallel flight path for maximum coverage. The airplane was running well. I pushed it up a bit to Mach 3.2 before exiting Egypt near Port Said .

Once out over the Mediterranean , I started a descent to 25,000 feet to hit my fourth set of refuelers.

But as fate would have it, I was not only beong low on fuel because of my previous oil low warning problem, but now a thunderstorm had reached up and it was now enclosing the air re-fueling contact point.

Using our internal electronic azimuth and distance measuring equipment, my backseater got me to within less than a mile behind my tanker. But now, visibility was so poor that I could not see it.

In lousy weather, very low on fuel, I continued twenty miles down the refueling track. By this time, there was just one-half mile and 1000 feet of separation from the tanker.

Small break between the clouds. Hooked up.

I had less than 15 minutes of fuel left, when we made re-fueling contact with the tanker and started transferring. The nearest emergency runway was roughly 100 miles away on Crete .

Needless to say, I was very thankful to my tanker buddies, backseater, and good equipment for that rendezvous. What a relief ! It gave me an entirely new meaning to ' finding a gas station ' . . when I really needed one.

We completed a fifth 10,000 gallon air refueling near the Azores before proceeding on a leisurely Mach 3 flight across the mid-Atlantic to a landing at Seymour Johnson.

Within 20 minutes, our people had the photo and electronic intelligence equipment downloaded, then onboard a dedicated AF courier flight to a Photo Interpretation Center in D.C.

Including 6 hours 41 minutes of supersonic speed, the round-trip flight covered more than 12,000 miles in 10 hours 49 minutes.

After landing, I remember wondering what Lindbergh would have thought about the amazing advancements in aviation technology.

These missions were not declassified until the early 1990's when the SR-71 program was closed at the end of the Cold War. Most of the remaining birds are now in various museums.

The one I flew is the centerpiece at SAC's Air and Space museum near Omaha .

Col. Jim Wilson, USAF ( Ret.)

[abridged ]

SR-71 Photo Archive taken at Seymour Johnson AFB during the Yom Kippur War Operation "OLSB"

Entire SR-71 crew at Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina during the Yom Kippur War 1973.

The following personnel participated in the first missions flown out of OLSB. Additional crewmembers (not listed) also participated in these missions. This is the manifest for the Wing Staff personnel on the left and Maintenance on the right.

The following photos are the only ones known to exist of the SR-71 Operations at Seymour Johnson from October, 1973 to April, 1974. At the time, Seymour Johnson was in the process of an ORI (Operational Readiness Inspection) with their B-52's and KC-135's. The Seymour Johnson Wing Commander was not the least bit impressed when we showed up with a DOD directed mission (Yom Kippur War Flights). He was irate about usage of his facilities (We cleared out one of his large hangars and put the two SR's, KC-135Q and our mobile film processing center in the hangar). Additionally, he complained of fuel usage from his facilities by the 9th SRW. A phone call to the Pentagon by 9th SRW Commander Colonel Patrick Halloran resulted in the following, as Pat said: "The problems just went away". The critical war assessment missions were flown as scheduled and we departed Seymour Johnson in April of 1974. I am sure they were glad to see us go home.

The photos show the trailer which was purchased and moved into the hangar for SR-71 Operational Control and the Photo Processing Center which was comprised of 2X4's and plastic sheeting to keep the dust out. The two SR's were parked side by side in the hangar with the KC-135Q tanker opposite the Blackbirds. The flights lasted 10 or 11 hours and in one instance, the Pilot had to be assisted out of the Blackbird. The photo reconnaissance "Take" resulted in conclusive evidence of the location of Arab and Israeli forces. The photos provided the President and Defense Analysts with firm decision making capabilities to help defuse the Yom Kippur War.

OL-SB Photo Archive