#of smallpox 😭

[defensivelee]

i really get william some days bc if I fumbled a bad bitch like mary i would never recover either

[thetidemice]

what am i thinking about? nothing actually. um. well it's just that bit in the 1977 movie raggedy ann & andy: a musical adventure, during the song candy hearts & paper flowers, when annie says 'oh andrew, that's nice,' between andy's singing

[veikkoalen]

fuck it nensha alan wake

sadako yamamura from ringu was born quite literally from her mother staring at the ocean for too long. in the movie, when sadako killed a guy who talked shit about her mother, she split into two: a good sadako and evil sadako. the first one was just a girl with weird aura around her and the second one bore all the powers inherited from the ocean entity while also being extremely resentful and hateful, being locked away in a well for that. when good sadako was killed, evil sadako escaped, possessed the body and started murdering people who watched the cursed tape, becoming the vengeful spirit – onryō.

so as for the powers – of course, burning the images onto tapes and into people's mind is the primary one: jumpscares, the dark place exhibition photos and scratch' charging attack. see visions of the past/future – saga in the overlaps and the whole inspiration stuff. see dead people – the dark place casey hiiiii. telekinesis – leaves actually fly around scratch during the fight with him. killing people – scratch' forte. anything else – kinda whatever you want. scratch can phase through things as shown with the cell.

also original ringu is actually the series of three books: the ring, the spiral, the loop

why is it an important point that alan is very light sensitive and prone to migranes? other than being a disability rep for those of us who cannot function in broad daylight without sunglasses and explaining why the bright lights in aw1 are such a pain to look at (from alan's point of view) but like. it's important.

we see it in the flashback with alice where alan is hangover and seemingly has his sunglasses next to his bed already - a little weird right? and alice mentions them as well - because this is common. because he often needs them. frankly speaking from experience you don't get to the point where the sunglasses become a mandatory bedside fixture unless it's a really bad day often - which must be the case here. we also see then in 'herald of darkness' where "Dark shades could never save the day" and we see alan in shades. it's common for him. he does it often. mood! anyway mr champion of light being sensitive to light is just a funny coincidence right? wrong.

I also suspect that alan's tendency towards full outfits is also a part of this. no sane human wears that many layers in september, and alan specifically covers pretty much all the skin possible without looking weird.  also a lot of his article shots in rose'.... shrine have sunglasses and thick layers as well. this man is SENSITIVE sensitive to light and that's a coincidence I can't ignore in the remedy!verse.

alan was born (as stated in aw2) in 1977 - we don't know when, or where as he moved to new york later. his mother spent most of his childhood in psychiatric facilities, and his father is not only non existent but highly suspiously fictional (the only object we are told alan has of him is the clicker. the fucking clicker. tom zane's clicker that was definitely written into alan's life before he was born and was not a gift from his father proper. frankly we know the least about alan's childhood compared to all other remedy!verse protags - not knowing where or truly when he was born is important because it leaves options.

Light sensitive could be a coincidence - but we thought that about the nightmares too, and they turned out to be important clues. and hell-  *Scratch* is less sensitive to light than Alan is - only flashbangs and the super steong hand flares make him flinch, direct light seems fine unless super powered and normal flares are nothing. alan actively gets headaches from these things and obviously it hurts him. wtf is up with that? when the protection of the dark presence patches up your weakness you have a issue.

theory time:

we know alan is tied to this god damn lake. zane wrote it so - at very least alan was destined to fall in it at the end of aw1. but what if there is more? we also know that alan's darkness became at least the aw2 dark presence which. fine? an endless cycle of destroying yourself while under the impression that that's not yourself. we don't know if the dark presence in aw1 is also this same one, and if it isn't we now know there can be multiple dark entites (implied by Mr Scratch also). if it is then damn alan has issues.

I don't know if its just me but the fact that the small darkness within someone can be escalated out to being the whole larger dark presence at full power feels... off. that feels like it doesn't work with what we know of the entities- unless there was more darkness in alan then originally suspected fueling this presence. the strength of the dark presence born from him combined with the strength of his light sensitivity makes me very suspicious to how human he was originally, and how much of alan is just lake bullshit. if he was a creature or creation of the darkness forced into a human body (perhaps the 1976 awe the andersons fought back in brightfalls wasn't all it seemed. maybe the dark presence or something else was looking for a crack to escape through. maybe it succeeded, but was reborn as a human who was already showing signs at a young age of being light sensitive and also being a parautiltiarian, and a strong one at that.

maybe there was never a father because there was never a mother - linda wake may have found a child on the lake shore and adopted it as her own, not knowing the truth behind its origins. maybe the torchbearers who operated in brightfalls around that time were involved. maybe the reason alan and tom look identical is the dark entity needed human dna when being reborn as a human and zane was there at the right time. could be why other traits are shared, and zane foresaw and influenced the creation of the dark place to get what he wanted (after all it was borrowing from him his face and personality - at very least it could give him wiggle room to escape?)

alan always had... issues. darkness. a lot for a man. so what if its all supernatural bullshit? no one is looking too closely because there is supernatural stuff going on. I'm not sure this man is human, or at least his soul isn't and never was. some darkness wearing a human skin maybe, sensitive to the light but forced to manage it. I don't know, maybe I'm looking too much into this.

[t-bone-barnes]

SINCE WHEN WAS THERE A SMALLPOX OUTBREAK??????? i fucking ahte this school omfg 😭

[liberty-mutual-138]

Gotta try this 🕯️

DAMN DAWG I JUST POSTED THAT 😭 I ALWAYS LOVE HEARING FROM YOU BUT HOW DO YOU LIKE MY POSTS SO FAST???

What they think about Helina:

Oz: “Now, why in the hell would the government let a fucking Red in on CIA operations? Especially one who previously worked with the biggest threat to the US since goddamn Smallpox. Don’t know this Adler guy, but it seems like he lacks common sense.” (My brother in Christ would be so confused why they let her on missions 💀) (If the CIA called him back to service and they worked together, Oz wouldn’t trust her as far as he could throw her. Too much wartime “nostalgia” with Soviets.) Overall: 3/10

Annika: “The only person I can trust. We’re cut from the same cloth. She’s like a sister to me, and I’d do whatever I can to keep her safe, as I know she’d do the same for me.” 100/10

Abbey: “I don’t understand how a human being could put someone through what she had to experience. She’s strong for being able to overcome the shit they put her through; I know it’s not easy.” (Abbey wouldn’t judge Helina for her past, and would relate to her past experiences with both Perseus and Adler, albeit in different ways.) 6.5/10

How they’d think about Eileen:

Oz: “She’s got a good head on her shoulders. Thank God she doesn’t work at the VA, she could read anyone like a open book. Used to think psychology is a load of horse manure, y’know, hippie-dippie shit till she came around.” (Oz thought psychology was just talking about your feelings and shit like a wimp before she came around. He would really respect her.) 6/10

Annika: “Thank you for helping shitty comb-over man rewrite my brain! Really appreciate it! 👍” -5/10, do I really need to explain?

Abbey: “I want to get close to and trust her, but I’m nervous about every interaction with her being recorded and used against me. She seems like a good one, but it’s just surface deep. She’s on a mission, and I’m not letting her make me lose my job.” (She’d be very mistrusting of Eileen because of her past experiences with psychiatrists. Abbey would understand she’s one of the good ones, but still be paranoid around her. I do think it’s possible for Abbey to push aside her phobia and open up after a while.) 5/10

I hope this is coherent lmao. Thank you again for the ask pookie!

[yazzydream]

JJK Season 2 Episode Predictions

Manga SPOILERS for season 2. Just having fun making predictions for what chapters the episodes will cover. It's been rumored that s2 will have 23 episodes on twitter. No official source yet but it's probably from the next issue of Jump.

Season 1 ended with chapter 63. So, starting off with chapter 64!

1. Ch 64 - A super cute episode covering Ozawa's crush on Yuji. It'll be a nice nostalgic episode establishing of a better time before all our hearts are ripped to shreds later.

Hidden Inventory/Gojo's Past arc

2. Ch 65-67 - Official start of Hidden Inventory/Gojo's Past arc. Ends with the revelation of Riko's bounty.

3. Ch 68-70 - Starts with Toji explaining his plans. Satoru and Suguru deal with the bounty hunters attacking Riko's school. Kuroi gets kidnapped... which was a non-issue, so... Okinawa! Ends with Satoru getting stabbed in the back after returning to the school. Man, I can't believe these animators would be so cruel to end the episode on such a cliffhanger, amirite?

4. Ch 71-73 - Starts with that great Toji flashback.

Just an overall high tension, tragic episode where Toji fucks up all the kids. Ends with him remembering who Megumi is. Lol.

5. 74-75 - I'd start with a scene where Toji is walking away from Suguru and cutting to Satoru's finger twitch that was shown at the end of ch 73 first. Then back to Toji, who drops off Riko's corpse. And we get the iconic battle, round II, Satoru v. Toji.

6. 76-77 - Suguru finds Satoru with Riko's body at the Time Vessal Association. The year of Suguru's downward spiral. Ends on the massacre report.

7. 78-79 - Satoru is shook. The big breakup. Satoru meeting Megumi. Satoru wakes up in the present to the first years.

Post-credits scene where the first years go find Mechamaru. Episode properly ends with Geto and Mahito approaching him.

----

Notes: I can't believe I thought Gojo's past arc would initially only take like 3-4 episodes. It's definitely closer to 5-6 now that I've typed this all up. lol. 16 episodes left now.

Shibuya Incident arc

8. Ch 79-82 - Picking up where we left off, with Mahito and Kenjaku discussing their deal with Kokichi/Mechamaru. Whole episode is just dedicated to the Mechamaru fight. Ends on this ominous scene:

9. Ch 83-85 - Welp, here's Shibuya Incident arc. Begins with incident report lessgoooo. I love this narrative framing device in JJK tbh.

Introducing our allies and antagonists. The absolute massacre that starts in Shibuya station once Satoru is confronted with the disaster curses. Ends partway through ch 85; with Satoru exorcising Hanami.

10. Ch 85-89 - An auxiliary manager explains how the curtain around Shibuya station works. Yuji v. Grasshopper Curse, I expect would be relatively short? Ends with the train packed with transfigured humans coming into the station and Satoru casting Domain. Satoru is exhausted, and then the episode ends with:

11. Ch 90-91 - Opens with the flashback of Kenjaku explaining his plan to the curses. Kenjaku reveals himself to Satoru. Portable Mechamaru appearing on Yuji's ear. Satoru... getting sealed in the Prison Realm. Omg, it's here. Ends with Satoru having "faith in everyone." 😭 Goodbye for at least another season, bby.

12. Ch 92-95 - 9:22PM Allies meeting, concerned that it's been a while since Satoru's gone in. Yuji tells all about the sealing. Ino, Megumi, and Yuji team up. Ep ends with the knowledge that Ogami, that weird grandma, is trying to resurrect Toji.

13. Ch 96-99 - Begins with the curse users' backstory; Satoru's birth. Yuji et al. fight against them. Toji resurrected. Begin Nobara v. Shigemo fight. Episode ends in affirmation of Nobara being a badass and telling Akari to hide; so it's only partway through ch 99.

14. Ch 99-102 - Continue Nobara v. Shigemo. Nanami joins in and wrecks Shigemo's shit. Mei Mei & Ui Ui v. Smallpox Curse. Choso v. Yuji begins ahhh. Ends when Mei Mei wins her fight and Kenjaku comes to compliments her.

15. Ch 103-106 Choso v. Yuji continues. Choso has the memory that never was. End with Mimiko and Nanako finding Yuji; partway through ch 106.

16. Ch 106-109 - Starting partway through ch 106; 10:20PM Naobita, Maki, and Nanami v. Dagon. Megumi to the rescue! Ends with the gang trying to escape Dagon's Domain, only for Toji to pop up like a daisy.

17. Ch 110-112 - Toji kicks Dagon's ass. Megumi separates from the others and the Naobita, Maki, and Nanami face Jogo. Mimiko, Nanako, and Jogo all feed Yuji fingers. Sukuna kills the twins. Ends with Jogo terrified; partway through ch 112.

18. Ch 112-116 - Continuing right where 112 left off; Sukuna asking what Jogo wants. Toji v. Megumi fight. Kusakabe and Panda face Suguru's curse users before they're rudely interrupted by Sukuna v. Jogo. Sukuna and Uraume reunite. Ends with Shigemo freaking out about something Megumi did.

19. Ch 117-121 - An absolutely somber as shit episode. Starts at 11:05PM Shigemo v. Megumi where Megumi initiates Mahoraga. Sukuna summons Domain and destroys Shibuya. Yuji finally regains consciousness and is devastated. Nanami is killed by Mahito, and the episode ends on Yuji's facial reaction.

20. Ch 121-124 - Start off right at that last page on ch 121; Yuji is furious. Mahito v. Yuji. Mahito v. Nobara. It's like "Accomplices" part 2. But then Mahito touches Nobara's face; partway through ch 124.

21. Ch 124-128 - Starts partway through ch 124; Nobara's childhood flashback, adult Saori, the first years hanging out, etc., etc. Mahito beats up a shocked Yuji. Todo and Aarata show up and Todo tells Yuji to get up, which where I imagine the first half of the ep to end.

The Kyoto school are on the train, where the last remnants of Mechamaru talks to Miwa. Yuji and Todo v. Mahito. Episode ends partway through ch 128 where they've "brought out 120% of their potential."

22. Ch 128-132 - Cont. right where we left off ch 128. My absolute favorite sequence where Yuji chases Mahito through the metaphorical snow drift. Can't wait to see this animated.

Episode ends on Kenjaku appearing and offering to save Mahito.

23. Ch 133-136 - Starts with catching up on what everyone was up to until this point. Kenjaku bloodies Yuji up a bit and consumes Mahito. Everyone shows up and teams up against Kenjaku. Including Choso! Then Yuki! Episode/season ends with Kenjaku bouncing with the Prison Realm.

Wow, what a foreboding and depressing end to the season. lmao.

It'll be fun to see how accurate or completely off base I was with how I divided the chapters. Just about 2 weeks left!

[rumble-aint-a-rumble-without-me]

random thought: i can vividly imagine modern!gang doing the "things that would send a victorian era child into a coma" tiktok trend. dallas is listening off juul pod flavours, johnny mentions boba, someone else mentions mcdonald's sprite. ponyboy, who has taken the trend a little TOO literally, is embarrassed at his list: scarlet fever, whooping cough, smallpox, etc. 😭😭😭

Two-Bit reaches over to see what’s Pony’s been scribbling and laughs, clutching at his chest. Steve plucks the paper from the eldest of the gang and scans it quickly.

“You gotta be kiddin’ me,” Steve chuckles, looking between Two-But, who’s laughing so hard he can barely breathe, and Ponyboy, who’s gone about as red as a tomato. “Sodapop, get a’load o’ what your kid brother thought of.”

“C’mon, Steve,” Pony grumbles, trying to reach for the paper before Steve passes it around to everyone else. “Lay off, I was just thinkin’.”

[berryfait]

2 + 16 + 27 ? 🧡🖤

2. Do you drink tea or coffee? How do you take it?

🌸 I drink tea! (I hate coffe lol) I usually drink it with milk and honey, but if its herbal tea i usually just add sugar or honey!

16. Want any tattoos? What of?

🌸 Absolutely, i want tons!! Miku's number, Juuzo's stitches (tokyo ghoul), and a bunch of other cute ones!! (Theres an artist in NYC who does absolutely adorable ones and i want so badly for her to do some of mine!!) I think my dream one though would be a giant madoka magica piece on my back though!

27. What's your favorite book? Or just one you've read a few times?

🌸 Hell Followed With Us by AJ White! I have read that book so many times, i absolutely love it 😭😭 That or these two i had to read for a project but ended up loving- The Demon in the Freezer (Richard Preston, about the eradication of smallpox) and Corpse: Nature, Forensics, and the Struggle to Pinpoint Time of Death (Jessica Snyder Sachs, about the evolution of our usage of forensics to determine when someone died through tons of different methods)!

[br1ghtestlight]

reincarnation/finding each other in different lifetimes fanfics get me so emotional that i dont usually read them or even enjoy them bcuz im just sobbing 😭😭 but when i rewatch that episode where bob and linda go to the 1900s roleplay castle and dress up sometimes i pretend that its like Real and that this is a past life or something and they dont know that maybe someday in the future they'll have kids and restaurant together instead of being servants who will probably die of like smallpox at 36. sorry is this too weird

[always-andromeda]

Meda, i am well and truly SOBBING 😭😭🥰🥰 your words in your response to my last ask were so so so so so incredibly sweet and I can't even express to you how much it meant to me to read them 🥹🥹☺️😭

and HELL YEAH WEIRD KIDS UNITE!!!!!! I was also majorly into the titanic (and shipwrecks in general) and I actually got that enormous lego titanic and it takes up the top of like two of my bookshelves 😅

in terms of weirdness, my specialty tends to be in macabre history, so I'll bring the stories about body snatching and that time I almost could have gotten Certified Vintage Victorian Smallpox™️ and you can tell me all about the Kennedy assassinations and true crime cases!! and we can bake treats while we do it!! ☺️☺️ honestly sounds like a dream 🥰

this is also a super random story but it's related to being The Weird Kid and really made me laugh: so at the end of the semester I asked my students what was one thing they learned from the class. it didn't have to be like a dry academic fact or anything, just something super cool or shocking or mind-blowing or whatever - something they would remember after the course ends. and in one of my sections I had one student say "I don't think I can ever forget how you told us that the Victorians ate mummies" and another one who said "pretty sure I'm always going to remember that time when you explained how they buried too many bodies in the cemeteries of Edinburgh and when it rained that one time all the decomposing corpses just floated out into the street." like, I am so incredibly proud that this is my legacy 😂😂

I think that's about all I have for the moment, but I hope you are doing well and taking care of yourself! I made a chocolate cake yesterday and I'm about to frost it with my famous Nutella frosting, so I'm cutting a slice and virtually sharing it with you 🥰🥰

love and hugs always,

charlotte 🎨

I owe you a massive apology, Charlotte, for taking so long to get to this!! I’ve been sick for the last week and this ask just got buried in my notifications and I didn’t see it until recently. So apologies for that and thanking you endlessly for the virtual cake!! I’m sure it was absolutely delicious!! 🥰

(Putting a read more cut because I ended up typing up a lot more than I thought I would lol)

That all being said, you talking about your Lego Titanic reminded me of a little memory I have. When I was thirteen and on a trip to Las Vegas, there was this Titanic exhibit at one of the hotels on the Vegas Strip. They had recreations of various rooms from the ship and even a little section of the ship itself?? I’ll include pictures because I swear, it was one of the coolest experiences ever. It was equal parts euphoric because it was a hyperfixation of mine at the time and I was going into such overload but also kind of haunting because of this one detail.

When you started the experience, they’d give you a ticket with the name and information of some random passenger. You’d get to see details of where on the ship they were staying, who they were traveling with, where they were going and everything. Then by the end of the whole experience, they had these massive walls that had the names of who died and who lived through the sinking. And I remember the card I got was for a woman who was traveling with her father and stayed in the servants quarters. And she didn’t make it.

So being like…thirteen years old. It was this haunting experience sitting there and realizing that I now knew the existence of this woman that may have otherwise been inconsequential if she hadn’t died the way she did.

I’ve had a few different little experiences like that with certain museums and they’re certainly very emotionally heavy, but they’re meaningful to me. They fuel this want in me to be more connected with humanity? Which sounds super alien to say lol. But I just…it blows my mind sometimes knowing that as vast as the human experience is, it’s also so unifying to see how people before us experienced it.

Anyhoo, long ramble aside, UGH, I LOVE THAT STORY ABOUT YOUR STUDENTS. Sometimes I think that’s one of the greatest things about being neurodivergent. Just having the largest mental catalogue of absolutely bonkers information like that that almost no one else knows?? Like that’s how you get people interested in learning lmao.

I always love our little chats, Charlotte 🫶🏻🥺 I’m planning on making some brown butter chocolate chip cookies soon so just know that I’m saving a few to send to you virtually as well, dear. Take care of yourself!! So looking forward to the next time I hear from you!! 💛

[xinnic]

My body is a trainwreck right now.

Okay. So I come back to work after being on holiday to find there's been an outbreak of hand foot and mouth disease. Okay, it's childcare that's going to happen. I work for a week and a half. On my Friday off I wake up shivering at 5am. My next two days are just me having a fever. Not fun, 0/10 would recommend, I demand a refund and to speak to the manager.

I'm feeling fine by Sunday, but just as I'm wondering what the mysterious fever with no other symptoms was about I notice some little red dots on my hand. Oh, fun. I've got hand foot and mouth disease, a children's disease which adults can theoretically get but in practice it's treated as not a risk of transmission from children.

By Monday my hands are coming up in blisters and it's painful to move them. It is painful even without moving them. My period comes a whole two weeks early, I guess because the fever was bad enough my body decided the whole uterine lining thing was a waste of resources and pressed the eject button.

I wake up on Tuesday. There's blood under my nails and I guess that's why my fingertips felt so tight I couldn't press buttons yesterday, there must have been blisters under my nails and I guess I might lose a few of those soon, that's a thing I've read happens to kids with HFMD sometimes. Fun.

My hands are worse, there are blisters forming on my feet now and I can feel them when I stand. And it's not just my hands, feet and mouth, oh no! Every wound on my body is a hfmd blister now! The ingrown hair in my leg? That's a blister now! The dry skin on my arm? Blister! My ear piercings, the ones that have been closed over for years? You guessed it! And best of all, the hormonal acne my panic-induced period caused? Yep! I look like a smallpox patient!

Most of these haven't even burst yet. I can't wait until I start weeping gunk everywhere! Fun!

I can't even go back to work while I've got this going on. I was meant to be saving money right now 😭

[zeussim]

I have 3 makeup looks: 1) raccoon, 2) soft Barbie and 3) vibrant colours

[yr-obedt-cicero]

do you know anything about angelica hamilton? there’s so little information on the hamilton kids and i don’t have my books 😭😭 tysm your blog is so helpful <3333

If you want I can recommend some books!

Angelica Hamilton was born in New York City, September 25, 1784. She was the second child and eldest daughter of Elizabeth ‘Schuyler’ Hamilton and Alexander Hamilton.

Marquis de Lafayette wrote to Hamilton on the 8th of October, 1784, from Albany about Angelica's birth;

“With all the warmth of my long and tender friendship I Congratulate You Upon the Birth of Your daughter, and Beg leave to present Mrs Hamilton With my most Affectionate Respects.”

(source)

In 1786, Angelica and her younger brother, Alexander Hamilton Jr., would be inoculated for the smallpox disease that had been going around;

“We have been Innoculating Angelica and Alexander. The first as before has escaped without any appearance of Infection. The last has had a pretty good share of the disease but is now, I may say, well.”

(source)

Contrary to the claims of author and biographer, Ron Chernow, Angelica was not actually baptized as an infant — unlike her brother Philip — she was baptized at Trinity Church (Picture below) in Manhattan at the age of four, on October 12th, 1788, with her brother Alexander Jr. Her sponsors had been her grandparents, father, and Elizabeth's older sister, whom Angelica was named after, Angelica Schuyler Church.

(Trinity Church)

(Church records of Hamilton's children being baptized, Angelica Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton Jr., and James Alexander Hamilton)

Philip Schuyler, her grandfather, wrote of Angelica and described her as “My Angelica is perfectly happy, And very lively.” She was commonly said to be a sensitive and lively girl, and had great musical talent. She was said to resemble in beauty of her maternal aunt Angelica Schuyler. Allan McLane Hamilton, her nephew (Son of Philip II's), described her as “a very beautiful girl” and “a charming character.”

In 1793, Angelica, at the age of nine, was taken to Albany to escape the Yellow Fever outbreak alongside her three brothers (Philip, Alexander Jr., and James), as their parents had contracted it while they were in Philadelphia. During this time, Angelica would begin French lessons, as mentioned in a letter from her father sometime in November;

“I was very glad to learn, my dear daughter, that you were going to begin the study of the French language. We hope you will in every respect behave in such a manner as will secure to you the good-will and regard of all those with whom you are. If you happen to displease any of them, be always ready to make a frank apology. But the best way is to act with so much politeness, good manners, and circumspection, as never to have occasion to make any apology. Your mother joins in best love to you. Adieu, my very dear daughter.”

(source)

Her brothers would eventually return home without her, as she stayed behind to continue in her lessons. Also that same year, her aunts — 17 year old Cornelia, and 12 year old Caty — were taking lessons with an Albany tutor. It's unknown if Angelica took lessons with them or from a family member, but it's worth noting at the possibility.

She played the piano and harp, and even sometimes sung with her father, Hamilton, while she played, as recalled by her younger brother James Alexander Hamilton in his memoirs;

“Hamilton's gentle nature rendered his house a joyous one to his children and friends. He accompanied His daughter Angelica when she played and sang the piano.”

(source)

At the end of the year, Angelica Church promised for her niece that “Angelica shall have the very best piano that can be made in London, by the person who made her sisters I mean her cousins.”

The beloved piano is still around to this day, and is free to see at the Grange historical estate.

The Hamilton family was also quite close with their neighboring friends, the Washington's. And would often visit, or the children would have playdates together for a majority of their days. Angelica would make good friends and playmates with Nelly Custis (Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis, she was a granddaughter of Martha Washington and a step-granddaughter and adopted daughter of George Washington). Martha Washington would also take Angelica and her younger adopted sister, Frances Antill, to dancing lessons twice a week;

“When Gen. Hamilton was Secretary of the Treasury, and Gen. Washington, President of the United States, they lived opposite to each other in Philadelphia, and the children of the two families were together every day. Mrs. Washington took the Custis children, and Angelica Hamilton, and Fanny Antill, (my mother,) in her carriage to dancing-school twice a week. She stayed with them through the lesson and brought them home.”

(source)

Angelica grew to be a very lovable member in her family. She was very close to her aunt Church, grandparents, and was said to have been very close with her brother Philip, whom was two years older than her. Angelica had spent a lot of time with her grandparents during her childhood. In August of 1797, Philip Schuyler wrote to Elizabeth that “Angelica is a good and attentive child, pleases her Grandmama and me very much” And then in 1799, he begged Eliza to "send at least Angelica & JA [James Alexander Hamilton]” And then in July of 1803, he wrote to Elizabeth that Angelica's “endearing and unremitted attention hence sank deep into my heart, there and the amusement she afforded me has relieved many a painful moment and blunted the edge of reflection which in defiance of effort still arises.”

It appears Angelica had a teasing and close bond with her father, as Hamilton wrote with jest to Elizabeth sometime in 1801;

“Give my love to Angelica & assure [her] that I did not leave her pye out of resentment for her having changed its original destination; but because it was impossible to take it with us without abandonning a basket of Crabs which was sent to my care for Mrs. Rensselaer. It has always been my creed that a lady’s pleasure is of more importance than a Gentleman’s, so the pye gave way to the Crabs. It was a nice question, but after mature reflection I decided in favour of the latter. Perhaps as a Creole I had some sympathy with them.”

(source)

In the November of 1801, when Angelica was 17 years old, she would hear the tragic news of her oldest brother's death. Phillip having died in a duel against George I. Eacker, after him and — his classmate and friend — Stephen Price, intruded into Eacker's theatre box while he had company and made obnoxious and sardonic remarks against his Fourth of July speech, which supposedly had defamed, his father, Hamilton and hailed Burr, his father's political rival. Eacker and the two boys would escort the box and go to the lobby, where Eacker would confront them on their public display. He called them ‘Rascals’ and surely after much if their drunk behavior and a debate at a nearby Playhouse (A bar, basically) Eacker challenged them both to duels. Price and Eacker would make it out unharmed and alive, but unfortunately not for Philip. In the next duel, Philip aimed for the sky as his father demanded, and so had Eacker for a moment, but after sometime Eacker eventually shot Philip through the hip as the bullet lodged into his arm. He would die the next day in his mother's arms, with his devastated father laying besides him.

The news of her closest brother and his death had supposedly triggered a mental breakdown from the shock that left Angelica in a state described as “eternal childhood”, and often unable even to recognize her own family members. Angelica's nephew, psychiatrist Allan McLane Hamilton, claimed his aunt to be an “invalid” and her condition as a type of “insanity”. Though it is unknown what truly would have been the diagnosis, as 18th century mental medical standards were not ethical, nor proper at all. There is a masterpost theorizing the possibility it may have been schizophrenia, but take it with a grain of salt as we do not know all the details of her state in the aftermath. As the Hamilton family did not discuss much of Angelica's condition, nor really knew how to help. So we know very little knowledge of what had truly happened. But McLane writes of the incident as so;

“Upon receipt of the news of her brother’s death in the Eacker duel, she suffered so great a shock that her mind became permanently impaired, and although taken care of by her devoted mother for a long time there was no amelioration in her condition, and she was finally placed under the care Dr. MacDonald of Flushing, and remained in his charge until her death at the age of seventy-three. During her latter life she constantly referred to the dear brother so nearly her own age as if alive. Her music, that her father used to oversee and encourage, stayed by her all these years. To the end she played the same old-fashioned songes and minuets upon the venerable piano that had been bought for her, many years before, in London, by Angelica Church, during her girlhood, and was sent to New York through a friend of her father.”

(source)

Nothing seems to indicate Angelica having any kind of mental health issues up to this point, she generally seemed to be a talented, happy, and smart young girl. McLane is the only source who appears to pinpoint the cause of time of Angelica's breakdown. Though AMH was rarely writing from first hand experience, his father, Phil II, does seem to have maintained the closest relationship with Angelica out of his siblings (Aside from maybe Holly), and she was possibly living with him at a period of time. So it is very possible McLane met his aunt, and/or knew her story from the rest of his family. And therefore, I find him to be a fairly credible source.

It is my belief Angelica's mental health deteriorate through time, especially with her aunt Margret and grandfather's death so close to Philip's. With descriptions of her being in a “child like state” it's my guess she stopped comprehending much of anything past Philip's death, as she was said to refer to him as if he was still alive and continuously play the old tunes she was taught as a little girl. Perhaps the deaths of her beloved family members was too much and so she retreated into a happier mindset of more joyous times. But that is purely speculation, and has no real ground to it considering I'm not in any medical field of profession. Interestingly, many records of Angelica's condition vary through witnesses.

As on April 26, 1804, James Kent — a judge of the New York Supreme Court — describes his visit to the Grange in the following letter to his wife, Elizabeth. But he also mentions of Angelica;

“His daughter, who is nineteen years old, has a very uncommon simplicity and modesty of deportment, and he appeared in his domestic state the plain, modest, and affectionate father and husband.”

(source)

While with far less kindness, another visitor at the Grange, whom was recorded only as ‘Mrs. Q’, referred to Angelica merely as “a deranged daughter.”

Despite Angelica's worsening condition, her parents remained there for her. Hamilton bought a few birds for his Angelica, as she was “very fond of” them. As said in a letter to his friend, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, dated the 29th of December, 1802;

“My daughter adds another request, which is for three or four of your peroquets. She is very fond of birds.”

(source)

Though unfortunately, in July of 1804, Alexander Hamilton was killed dueling Aaron Burr. During Hamilton's last dying moments on the bed, Elizabeth would line up her, and her surviving siblings, at the foot of his bed before he would pass.

“The great source of his anxiety seemed to be in his sympathy with his half distracted wife and children. He spoke to me frequently of them—“My beloved wife and children,” were always his expressions. But his fortitude triumphed over his situation, dreadful as it was; once, indeed, at the sight of his children brought to the bed-side together, seven in number, his utterance forsook him; he opened his eyes, gave them one look, and closed them again, till they were taken away.”

(source)

And alongside herself, Elizabeth, her younger sister, Eliza Hamilton Holly, and baby brother, Philip Hamilton II, she did not attend their father's funeral.

Shortly after, Angelica, her younger siblings, and their mother, went to Albany at Philip Schuyler’s request. Sadly, when they left the Schuyler Mansion, they would never see Philip Schuyler again, as he died just a few months later.

After 1804, there are not many records of Angelica or how her condition continued. There are references to Angelica traveling to visit family, at an undated time (likely the 1820s-30s).

Interestingly, Angelica appeared to have had a close relationship with her youngest brother, Philip Hamilton II. As a letter from Elizabeth to her Little Phil (As he was often nicknamed) dated the 23rd of May, 1837, just shy of her 80th birthday, she was on a trip out west of the country to visit her fifth son, William Stephen Hamilton. That or she was living with him at the time. She asks him particularly how Angelica is doing;

“Let me hear from you, particularly respecting Angelica and all the family.”

(source)

Eventually, Angelica's aging mother could no longer care for her, and with her siblings having moved on with their lives (Some passed and others with families to tend to). Angelica was soon placed in the care of a Dr. MacDonald of Flushing, Queens, where she remained for the rest of her life.

(The Sanford Hall mental institution for the wealthy in Flushing)

In 1848, Angelica's sister Eliza Hamilton Holly moved their 91 year old mother from New York to Washington, D.C., where she died in 1854 at the age of 97. Elizabeth requested in her will that her other children be “kind, affectionate, and attentive to my unfortunate daughter Angelica.”

Only three years after her mother's death, in February of 1857, Angelica died, marriage-less and without any children, in New York at the age of 72. She was buried alongside her sister, Eliza Hamilton Holly, in Westchester County, New York at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

Eliza Hamilton Holly wrote about her death in the following letter;

“I thank you kindly for your letter of sympathy & though, however we must feel parting with our own, we yet are bound to rejoice in her great relief, her from the precarious care of strangers. Kind as Mr. Macdonald, Mrs. Camp and the nurses have ever been—her Heavenly Father will be kinder—her youth, her beauty, her intelligence in the spirit home, will once more be all that it was before I knew her—such as I hope and believe will be an abundant reward for the darkness of fifty years. My Beloved Mother always wished to have her depart before herself.”

(source)

[captain-athos]

Updated my Reanimator western AU drawing so sorry to inflict this on all of you again 😭 I just love cowboys

Herbert West is the new doctor in town. He’s fucking scary at first because he yells at his patients and doesn’t give a singular flying fuck how scared the kids he’s jabbing in the arm for smallpox are, but also he’s really fucking good at what he does. He’s driven by a need to succeed, to surpass the limitations of the medical science available to him and the resources he’s able to scrape together wherever he goes. Does Doctor West actually care about healing his patients, or is he just looking to prove himself right, time and time again? The town is kind of divided on that one. But people definitely survive his treatment a lot better than they did with previous doctors, so that’s enough for them.

Dan Cain is the local gravedigger, and caretaker at the cemetery. He looks after peoples’ final resting places, and makes sure that everybody who is buried there has someone to mourn them. His devotion to keeping alive the memories of the people he buries is his life’s work. He goes on walks and picks flowers for the graves. Sometimes he talks to them. He’s a nice, handsome young man who has an odd kind of morbid streak that means he’s not as popular in town as he might otherwise be. Mayor Halsey thinks he’s a nice enough boy, but would rather his daughter Meg didn’t spend quite so much time with him.

Dan knows of Herbert, and though most of the people in town tend to avoid the new doctor unless they need his help, Dan is kind of fascinated by him. Anyone who is that good at healing the sick and injured is alright in his book. The two of them keep odd hours, and Dan passes by the main street at night sometimes and sees Herbert’s candles burning low while he paces, or scratches words feverishly into a big notebook, or talks to himself, threading his fingers through his hair and tugging in frustration. Of course, Herbert isn’t infallible, and soon enough his anger at losing a patient crosses paths with Dan’s sorrow at another life snuffed out too soon.

Herbert is silent and morose, but for some reason he insists on sticking around while Dan makes the preparations for burial.

“I’m sorry,” Dan says softly to the dead man. He’s past caring what people think of him anymore.

“He’s the one who should be sorry,” says Herbert with a sneer, “I told him he needed to stop moving, he was shaking the whole table, I could barely get a grip properly-”

“You did everything you could,” says Dan kindly, “I’m sure of it. Don’t beat yourself up.”

Herbert splutters for a moment, caught off guard, but he recovers.

“I am not ‘beating myself up,’ and even if I were, I would not take advice on the matter from the man who seems to think it’s his responsibility to grieve every single body that makes its way through here.”

The barb doesn’t hurt - not because Dan’s numb to those kinds of comments by now, but he’s just never heard it delivered like that. Frustrated, though entirely unperturbed by the strangeness of it. Is West concerned? Dan doesn’t know where he stands in that debate just yet.  

“Some of these people don’t have anybody else to grieve for them,” says Dan, “somebody’s got to do it.”

Herbert takes his wrist. Dan’s holding some wildflowers he’d picked to put on the grave. Herbert brings the hand that holds them up to his face; inspects them like he might a broken leg or an infected cut.

“Mr Cain,” says Herbert West, “what if I told you that someday, you might not have to after all?

[arctic-hands]

I can't get the smallpox vaccine and neither can anyone around me 😭😭

[empirearchives]

Yeah, no worries. I think wars tend to be more dominant in historical memory, which makes sense. But, it’s important to note that the wars were not started by him. It’s always been wrong to frame Napoleon as the main driver of the wars. The wars actually began in 1792 under the French Revolutionary government, which was before Napoleon was even in power. When he became head of the French State in 1799, he immediately tried to make peace and achieved it with the Peace of Amiens. But Britain broke the peace treaty and declared war on France, restarting the conflict. The other European sovereigns joined in the war against France. These groups of alliances are called the coalitions. In total, they formed 7 coalitions against France from 1792 to 1815. Napoleon’s military actions are direct responses to aggression, hostility and declarations of war.

About Napoleon’s popularity as a ruler: Napoleon definitively ended a massive and deadly civil war that had been going on in France and reunified the country. Napoleon also defended France from all of Europe for 20 years. Even Napoleon’s enemies had a begrudging admiration for these things.

A little bit about Napoleon’s reforms: Napoleon ended the age of feudalism in Europe. This means guilds were abolished and broken up, seigneurial dues and services were abolished, privileges were abolished, serfdom was abolished, monasteries were either dissolved or separated from the state, and freedom of religion was proclaimed. Napoleon created the modern state. There was new taxation and judicial reforms. Trade was regulated and logistics were modernized. He introduced constitutions, created financial institutions (central bank, chamber of commerce, auditor court, etc), introduced public education, reopened the Universities which had previously been shut down, created public health institutions, commissioned the land registry, the prefects. He introduced the Napoleonic Code (Code Napoléon), which is a civil law code, and it is currently the most widespread law code in the world, and in place in various forms in over 120 countries today. According to the historian Robert Holtman (from The Napoleonic Revolution), “the Code Napoléon for the first time in modern history gave a nation a unified system of law applicable to all citizens without distinction” and it was so influential that it ushered in an age of law codification all over the world. Since these things happened across Europe, there are varying degrees of the types of reforms and longevity.

And then there are the more day-to-day things which provide for the average citizen’s welfare that occurred during Napoleon’s rule, such as providing clean and accessible water, affordable food, pensions, distributing vaccines against smallpox, developing fire departments, public works, job programs, sewage systems, and even choosing last names and many other things like that.

Anyway, I’m sorry my reply became kind of longish. Hopefully not too long-winded 😭

Napoleon and Water

Excerpt from the book Aaron Burr in Exile: A Pariah in Paris, 1810-1811, by Jane Merrill and John Endicott

Aaron Burr lived in Paris for 15 months, and this book goes into detail about those years living under Napoleon’s rule. This part focuses on Napoleon’s water related reforms.

———

Napoleon’s fountains gave drinking water to the population, that is, children drank water, not beer. The water was free, not purchased. And the apartment would have had a separate water closet equipped with squat toilets (adopted from the Turks) and a bucket to wash it after use. Some restaurants and cafes had W.C.s, even one for ladies and one for gents. These were hooked into the sewer system that branched under each important street.

Napoleon merits points for delivering fresh water to Paris. If serving Paris with water from the d'Ourcq River by canals was not be a consummate success, Paris gained 40 new fountains, and the emperor commanded that fountains run all day (instead of a few limited hours) and that the water be free of charge.

Perhaps the most laudable of Napoleon’s policies were utilitarian city works, especially bringing clean water and sanitation to Paris. The improvements to infrastructure included new quays to prevent floods, new gutters and pavement, new aqueducts and fountains, and relocating cemeteries and slaughterhouses to the outskirts of the city. This was also a way of keeping up employment. An Austrian aristocrat in town during Napoleon’s wedding to Marie-Louise wrote his mother, in Vienna: “Nothing can give an idea of the immense projects undertaken simultaneously in Paris. The incoherence of it is incredible; one cannot imagine that the life of a single man would be enough to finish them.”

It was a tall order. Previous rulers had been aware of the problems and one big engineering initiative, a failed marvel, had been the waterworks at Marly, located on the banks of the Seine about seven miles from Paris. Louis XIV had it constructed to pump water from the river to his chateaux of Versailles and Marly. This was the machine marvel of its age, with 250 pumps that forced river water up a 500-foot rise to an aqueduct, and it was a sight Burr mentions going to see. By 1817 the “Marly machine” had deteriorated because it was made of wood, and the waterworks were abandoned.

Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve, the prominent 19th century literary critic, wrote that there had been “ten years of anarchy, sedition and laxity, during which no useful work had been undertaken, not a street had been cleaned, not a residence repaired nothing improved or cleansed.” Postrevolutionary Paris was at a nadir in terms of both the inadequate, disease-ridden water supply and the filthy streets, which were basically open sewers, deep with black mud and refuse.

“Napoleon,” writes Alistair Horne, “was obsessed by the water of Paris, and everything to do with it.”

Parisians had mostly been getting their water directly from the Seine or lining up at the scant pay fountains. In 1806, nineteen new wells for fountains were dug that flowed day and night and were free. Napoleon had a canal built 60 miles from the River Ourcq, ordering 500 men to dig it, while still a consul in 1801. It brought water to the Bassin de la Villette, opening in 1808. Some doubted the wisdom of having such an abundance of water—an oriental luxury that might incur moral decay. Now the supply of water for firefighting was also much improved. The canal had light boats, as Napoleon tried to make back some of the huge expenditure by licensing navigation, and a circular aqueduct from which underground conduits went to the central city. In 1810, there were still many water porters wheeling barrels through the city.

Now Napoleon attacked the problem of the Seine as a catchall for pollution. Parisians were so used to it that men swam naked in the river and a contemporary guidebook advised merely that the water of the Seine had no ill effects on foreigners so long as they drank it mixed with wine or a drop of vinegar. Thus houses on bridges were demolished and an immense push began to clean and modernize the city sewers.

As this book is about Aaron Burr, here is section about Burr taking inspiration by a new water related invention during his time in Paris:

Remarkably for someone who was very aware of his health, he never complained of the water. He did, however, take an interest in an invention to make it easier to dig a well. When the inventor of a process to make vinegar from the sap of any tree was not in his shop, Burr and a friend, “Crede”, went to see another invention: “We went then to see Mons. Cagniard, and his new invention of raising water and performing any mechanical operation. His apparatus is a screw of Archimedes turned the reverse, air, water, and quick silver. Cagniard was abroad; but we saw a model, and worked it, and got the report of a committee of the Institute on the subject. If the thing performs what is said I will apply it to give water to Charleston.”

[Bold italics for quotations by me]