#ronald william king

[marmakar]

idk. I spent a long time rendering it, and still couldn't draw it goodly. Sad, but true.

[the-hottest-band-tournament]

Round Two

Commodores

Defeated opponents: Marillion

Formed in: 1968

Genres: Funk, soul

Lineup: Lionel Richie – vocals, saxophones, acoustic piano, keyboards

Milan Williams – keyboards

Thomas McClary – vocals, guitars

Ronald LaPread – bass

Walter Orange – vocals, drums, percussion

William King – trumpet

Albums from the 80s:

Heroes (1980)

In the Pocket (1981)

All the Great Hits (1982)

Commodores 13 (1983)

Nightshift (1985)

United (1986)

Rock Solid (1988)

Propaganda: 

The Go Go’s

Defeated opponents: Kraftwerk

Formed in: 1978

Genres: new wave, power pop, pop rock, punk rock 

Lineup: Belinda Carlisle- vocals 

Jane Weidlin- rhythm guitar

Charlotte Caffey- lead guitar

Gina Schock- drums

Kathy Valentine- bass

Albums from the 80s: 

Beauty and the Beat (1981)

Vacation (1982) 

Talk Show (1984)

Propaganda: While their biggest hits were very bubblegum and upbeat, these girls came up in the LA Punk scene and had the bite to back that up. Rolling Stone ranked the Hardest Partying Bands and The Go Go's came in 3rd, right behind Mötley Crüe and Led Zeppelin. Their songs are certified bops and great to blast on a road trip and their style was pure LA Mall Rat which, frankly, still iconic.

[rainingmusic]

The Commodores-Brick House

[chevaliermalfets]

[thiefkingyall]

Unofficial Year in Review

(Since Tumblr doesn't seem to be doing that this year)

My top 10 posts of 2023:

10. Reaper Christmas Ornaments

Dec 17, 2023 | 49 notes

9. Freckles Plush

Dec 21, 2023 | 55 notes

8. Twisted Wonderland Secret Santa

Jan 8, 2023 | 58 notes

7. Orange and Blue Dragon Share

Sept 3, 2023 | 59 notes

6. TKB With Dreads

Aug 20, 2023 | 67 notes

TOP FIVE

5. Show Them No Shrimpathy

Mar 4, 2023 | 68 notes

4. William T. Spears Art

Sept 4, 2023 | 83 notes

3. Vanilla Extract

Feb 5, 2023 | 89 notes | 856 votes

2. Ronald Knox is Right™

Aug 9, 2023 | 265 notes

1. World's Scrunkliest Little Man (RIP)

May 13, 2023 | 690 notes

[justanemailpigeon]

Mabel: ¿Whats your favorite hair style on a woman?.

Ronald: i like a bob.

King andrias: ill prefer a frank.✨

Undertaker: *se desinfla en español*

Undertaker: thats isn't even a haircut. *se desinfla otra vez*

William: ¿Can someone end with my life please?.

*king andrias and undertaker sounds on the backcround*

[dulcemaiden]

Lord Canopus, revealed

So, we have received confirmation in ch. 204 that Doll is Lord Canopus, as many in the fandom have theorized. I personally believed this too, not because Vega was most likely Layla/Al (and canopus was the only left), but because her personality fits with the japanese chart about blood type personalities. By now we know these canopus/Types B: Lizzie, Doll, Redmond, Lau, Bard, Wolfram, and all the corgi class students like Mabel and Ginny.

"Type B blood people are creative, cheerful, independent, laid-back, and adventurous. They are quick thinkers and spontaneous, as well as passionate and strong-willed. They do things at their own pace, and mostly end up going their own way because they are not good at follow orders, so they are known too as the "rule-breakers". They are honest and caring at heart, and make friends easily because they are loyal and non-pretentious. On the other hand, their negative traits include being “wild,” selfish, unforgiving, irresponsible and unpredictable. When type B blood people focus on something, they put their all into it, and they are unlikely to let go, even if the goal seems unachievable or impractical."

There are interesting things in the symbolism of canopus too:

Canopus was the helmsman of the Argo Navis, the ship of Jason and the Argonauts, who served King Menelaus. Canopus is described as a handsome young man who was loved by a egyptian prophetess, but never reciprocated her feelings. While visiting the Egyptian coast, Canopus was bitten by a serpent and died, and Menelaus then built a monument to his memory on the shore where this happened, around which the town of Canopus later grew up. In this town was worshipped the egiptian god Osiris, under a peculiar form: that of a vase with a human head. Osiris is a god who is in among other things, the Lord of the afterlife, the dead, resurrection and life in ancient Egyptian religion).

Osiris is the name of the group/company Undertaker was supposedly working with on his bizarre doll/resurrection project during the Campania arc. It is curious too the way Canopus died (it will implicate Doll's fate in the future?... although for now I see it unlikely).

About Doll's role in the plot, I don't think she will be killed (in this arc), because I think our Ciel will see her again, it would be a poor choice on Yana's part to reintroduce Doll just to kill her off so quickly, what would be the point then? And we still don't know why Undertaker revived her either. The "Stars" require a lot of work and huge amount of resources to function properly, and her blood type is rare (not as rare as Sirius but still rare), so why Undertaker gave her such preferential treatment is a mystery. I don't think he has revived her just to mortify OCiel, there must be another reason.

And some things start to make sense now, just at this part. I don't think the relationship between RCiel and Doll is good at all, since RCiel wouldn't tolerate someone who hold such a big grudge against his brother, and Doll wouldn't like the idea of dealing with the brother of the one who killed her and her family. So it makes sense not to mention Canopus as a candidate for his butler.

Besides, the butler of RCiel would need to be a fighter, and unlike Lizzie, strength in combat doesn't seem to be Doll's strong point, who also seems to be in a delicate state. Polaris fought AGNI and won, Layla(Al) almost beat Ronald if it wasn't for William's intervention, but Doll just walk and collapse? Like with RCiel, that could be because of a low blood supply.

What will happen now?

Regarding what will happen next, I was somehow expecting a confrontation between Doll and Finnian, but in her current state that seems impossible, since she probably can barely move, so the whole conflict will happen between Finny and Snake.

Doll is an important part of Snake's character. She is the first person who reached out for him, and in his memories she is the most prominent figure of his "circus family". The worst thing is that Snake has been serving loyally to the one who ordered her death, and him forgiving OCiel after finding out seems unlikely. There are inocent children involved too, so the situation is really complicated. It will all depends on what are Snake's priorities and loyalty, but I wonder if he will bear with the idea of killing Doll, I highly doubt it (I hope he and Finny save the kids though).

On the other hand, I expect Finnian not to die and return to OCiel and Sebastian, but he could learn from Doll the truth about Sebastian's nature. At first obviously not believing her words, but the seed of doubt would be planted, as he could remember Sebastian's strange behavior in the Emerald Witch arc. Finnian could confirm this later, causing a huge conflict between the servants and Sebastian, who would want to protect their master from him, and complicating things for our Ciel.

In addition, we must consider that Meyrin and Bard have already achieved 2 victories for OCiel, will this be the occasion where RCiel will win a game?

[petermorwood]

YA or not YA, that is the question...

This started out as a response to Diane’s post here about YA literature and its long history prior to what some people think inspired it, but got longer (Oh! What a surprise!) and wandered far enough from the initial subject that I decided to post separately.

So here it is.

*****

Many years ago my town library (in Northern Ireland, so following UK library practice, I suppose) had just two sections, Adult and Children. There was no YA section, and the Children’s section covered everything from large-format picture books through to hardback novels and the usual amount of non-fiction.

(Library books were almost always bought in hardback for better wear, and even the softback picture books were rebound with heavy card inserts.)

There were classics like “Treasure Island”,  “Kidnapped”, “King Solomon’s Mines” “Under the Red Robe” and “The Jungle Books”.

There were standalone titles like “The Otterbury Incident”, “The Silver Sword”, “The Sword in the Stone” and “The Stone Cage”.

There were series about characters like William, Biggles, Jennings and his counterpart Molesworth, the Moomins, Narnia and Uncle.

There were authors like Alan Garner, Nicholas Stuart Grey, Rosemary Sutcliffe, Henry Treece, Ronald Welch… And of course there was J.R.R. Tolkien.

The first time I got "The Hobbit", "Farmer Giles of Ham" and "Smith of Wootton Major" they were shelved in the Children's section. This was about 1968-69.

In the early 1970s the library moved to larger premises, which allowed room for Very Young Children (where the picture books now lived) and Children (everything else), still with no YA section, though with more advanced picture books like “Tintin” and “Asterix” * in a sort of no-man’s-land between them.

( * These included editions in the original French, which turned out very useful for making language lessons at school a bit more fun and gaining extra marks in exams through judiciously enhanced vocabulary.)

“The Hobbit” et cetera were still on the Children shelves, but now that the library was larger and more open-plan, volumes of "The Lord of The Rings", normally in the Adult section, occasionally got shelved there as well by well-meaning non-staff people.

I never saw “The Hobbit” mis-shelved alongside “Lord of the Rings” among the Adults, but Farmer Giles” and “Smith” sometimes turned up there, courtesy of those same well-meaning hands.

It’s probably because the first, with its sometimes complex wordplay and mock-heroic plot, reads like a humorous parody of more serious works, while the second, if read in the right frame of mind, can seem quite adult in the style of Sylvia Townsend Warner’s “Kingdoms of Elfin” - which is in fact a good deal more adult than “Smith of Wootton Major”, even if you squint.

*****

This “Hobbit” / “Rings” confusion is a lightweight version of assuming a particular author writes every book for the same age-group. This is very much not the case.

Sometimes the thickness of the book is a giveaway. Compare, for instance, @neil-gaiman’s “American Gods” with “Coraline” or indeed “Fortunately, The Milk”.

Sometimes the cover is a hint, for example the difference between “Live and Let Die” by Ian Fleming...

...and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, also by Ian Fleming...

...although the original James Bond novels are – apart from some extremely dated attitudes – a lot more weaksauce than many YA books nowadays.

(More weaksauce still now that Fleming, like Roald Dahl and Agatha Christie, has been censored to conceal the extent to which - let's call them Certain Attitudes - were a standard feature in British popular fiction. Apparently (I haven't read any Newspeak Bond so can't confirm) the redaction was done in a curiously slapdash way, removing some things while leaving others.

These novels have become, IMO anyway, period pieces as much as Kipling, Doyle, Dickens and Austen, and erasure probably has less to do with sensitivity - maybe with some "brush it under the rug and they'll forget about it" involved - than with keeping them marketable, so Fleming doesn't go the way of other once-bestselling writers like "Sapper" and Sydney Horler.)

It would also be a mistake, despite advisory wizards Tom and Carl, to think that @dduane’s “Young Wizards” books are meant for the same age-group as her “Middle Kingdoms” series – although, once again, the later YW books and all of the MK slot into what a modern YA audience expects from its fiction.

But sometimes there’s absolutely no doubt that This Book by This Author is not meant for the readership of That Book by The Same Author. I’m thinking of one example which caused a certain amount of amusement.

“Bee Hunter” by Robert Nye is a retelling of the Beowulf story for children, though IIRC occasional bloody episodes as Grendel takes Hrothgar’s housecarls apart make it more suited to older children. 

I’d brought home a copy from the library when much younger, and borrowed it again years later in company with another Nye novel, “Falstaff”...

...which was poetic, historic, melancholic, often bawdy, frequently funny and at all times most emphatically NOT for children, as indicated by some of these chapter headings - I draw your attention to XX, XXII, XXXII and especially XL... ;->

Yes. Quite... :->

*****

I was familiar with card index systems from quite early in my life, because my grandfather’s grocer’s shop had a fairly simple one for keeping track of customers, suppliers, stock and so forth, and since the library’s index card system cross-referenced in the same way, I was already home and dry.

If I could remember a title, I'd find the author, and once found I could track down other titles by that author (which, as shown above, can be educational...) Even if I could only remember the subject - historical, adventure, comedy - I'd still have narrowed my search window more than somewhat.

(This from-here-to-there mindset later became virtual train travel by way of the electronic timetables which SBB – Swiss Railways – used to issue on CD, and which let me “travel” anywhere in Europe, complete with a map. Those CDs are long discontinued, but I can still do virtual travel courtesy of the SBB website. Complete with a map…)

This is the last one we got, kept for sentimental reasons and occasional outdated train-travel on an equally outdated XP netbook.

As you do.

Or as I do, anyway. :->

*****

I also knew about title request cards and interlibrary loans, and was a frequent user - never more so than when I started reading “The Lord of the Rings” for the first time.

The town library didn’t have all three volumes, just “The Fellowship of the Ring” and “The Two Towers”, so I checked them out on a Friday to read over the weekend.

You can already see where this is going… :->

I finished “Fellowship” late on Saturday afternoon, went straight into “Towers” and by Sunday evening was all of a twitter (no, not that one) or as my mum would have said, up to high Doh, as I fretted about Not Knowing What Happened Next.

Fortunately school was no more than a brisk bike ride from the library, so I devoted my Monday morning break to zooming down and filling in one of the most urgent title requests I’ve ever made, then spent the rest of the week on tenterhooks, looking in every lunchtime and each afternoon on my way home.

Just In Case.

Some kindly librarian must have pulled strings or stamped the request "Expedite Soonest", because when I went back to school after Thursday lunch, I had “The Return of the King” burning a hole in my saddlebag.

I wanted to start reading it at once, but good sense prevailed; imagine getting caught between chapters at the back of a boring Geography lesson and Having The Book Confiscated…

I didn’t pay much attention in class on Friday, due to being half-asleep after starting “Return” in the evening after prep and finishing it in the wee hours of the morning.

But being tired didn’t prevent me from starting with “Fellowship” again on Friday night, and this time being able to read right through to the end without needing to stop.

It Was Great…

[monstrous-tournament]

Ankh-Morpork Movers and Shakers

(minus the Big Wukwuks Havelock Vetinari, Moist von Lipwig, and all Watch or Unseen University characters (they'll each get their own bracket, don't worry!)

Now, who are these Movers and Shakers?

These are (mostly) citizens of Ankh-Morpork, with some few visitors sprinkled in, who overtly or covertly move Ankh-Morpork's politics, fate, social landscape etc. etc. in good or bad ways (or both!)

This is going to be a big one, friends, with 32 contenders in the first round, and thus 16 brackets to vote in!!

These are as follows:

Lady Sybil Ramkin, Duchess of Ankh vs. Dr. Whiteface, Fools' Guild

Adora Belle Dearheart vs. Mr. Boggins, Thieves' Guild

William de Worde vs. Lord Selachii

Gaspode the Wonder Dog vs. Lord Venturi

Dragon King of Arms vs. Ronald Rust

Willikins the Butler vs. Topsy Lavish

Sacharissa Cripslock vs. Malvolio Bent

Mrs. Rosemary Palm, Guild of Seamstresses vs. Thomas Silverfish, Alchemists' Guild

Lady Roberta "Madam" Meserole vs. Lord Downey, Assassin's Guild

Leonard of Quirm vs. Cosmo Lavish

Carcer vs. Grag Bashfulsson

Reacher Gilt vs. Gunilla Goodmountain

Harry King vs. Mr. Slant

Mr Shine vs. Grag Ardent

Victor Tugelbend (aka Victor Maraschino) vs. Lupine Wonse

Theda Withel (aka "Ginger" and "Delores De Syn") vs. Queen Molly, Beggars' Guild

[marmakar]

Daniel Harris. Sometimes he seems like a capybara – friends with everyone and always relaxed. He is also a good friend to Asami Yano and to Ronald Wiilam King, always supporting him emotionally. Arts by me. 2022-2024.

Arts by various artists (look via ALT, some artists have been lost). I love ALL this arts sm!

Lets mix the post with shipping. Daniel Harris and Ronald William King. Arts by me. 2021-2023.

And wonderful arts by betypilka

[deadpresidents]

2 and a half weeks until JC passes Cactus Jack!

It took me a little bit to figure out what you were referencing, but yes, Jimmy Carter will pass John Nance Garner as the longest-living President or Vice President in American history on September 18th. And if he is still with us on October 1st, Carter will be the first President or Vice President in American history to celebrate their 99th birthday.

And since I'm a huge dork who finds this stuff interesting, here's the big, complete list of longest-living to shortest-living Presidents and Vice Presidents in American history: (Presidents are in bold text, Vice Presidents are in italics, and those who served as both POTUS and VP are in bold italics.) John Nance Garner: 98 years, 351 days Jimmy Carter: 98 years, 337 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Levi P. Morton: 96 years, 0 days George H.W. Bush: 94 years, 171 days Gerald R. Ford: 93 years, 165 days Ronald Reagan: 93 years, 120 days Walter Mondale: 93 years, 81 days John Adams: 90 years, 247 days Herbert Hoover: 90 years, 71 days Harry S. Truman: 88 years, 232 days Charles G. Dawes: 85 years, 239 days James Madison: 85 years, 104 days Thomas Jefferson: 83 years, 82 days Dick Cheney: 82 years, 216 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Hannibal Hamlin: 81 years, 311 days Richard Nixon: 81 years, 104 days Joe Biden: 80 years, 287 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) John Quincy Adams: 80 years, 227 days Aaron Burr: 80 years, 220 days Martin Van Buren: 79 years, 231 days Adlai E. Stevenson: 78 years, 234 days Dwight D. Eisenhower: 78 years, 165 days Alben W. Barkley: 78 years, 157 days Andrew Jackson: 78 years, 85 days Spiro Agnew: 77 years, 261 days Donald Trump: 77 years, 81 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) George W. Bush: 77 years, 59 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Henry A. Wallace: 77 years, 42 days James Buchanan: 77 years, 39 days Bill Clinton: 77 years, 15 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Dan Quayle: 76 years, 211 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Charles Curtis: 76 years, 14 days Al Gore: 75 years, 156 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Millard Fillmore: 74 years, 60 days James Monroe: 73 years, 67 days George Clinton: 72 years, 268 days George M. Dallas: 72 years, 174 days William Howard Taft: 72 years, 174 days John Tyler: 71 years, 295 days Grover Cleveland: 71 years, 98 days Thomas R. Marshall: 71 years, 79 days Nelson Rockefeller: 70 years, 202 days Elbridge Gerry: 70 years, 129 days Rutherford B. Hayes: 70 years, 105 days Richard M. Johnson: 70 years, 33 days William Henry Harrison: 68 years, 54 days John C. Calhoun: 68 years, 13 days William A. Wheeler: 67 years, 339 days George Washington: 67 years, 295 days Benjamin Harrison: 67 years, 205 days Woodrow Wilson: 67 years, 36 days William R. King: 67 years, 11 days Hubert H. Humphrey: 66 years, 231 days Andrew Johnson: 66 years, 214 days Thomas A. Hendricks: 66 years, 79 days Charles W. Fairbanks: 66 years, 24 days Zachary Taylor: 65 years, 227 days Franklin Pierce: 64 years, 319 days Lyndon B. Johnson: 64 years, 148 days Mike Pence: 64 years, 88 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Henry Wilson: 63 years, 279 days Ulysses S. Grant: 63 years, 87 days Franklin D. Roosevelt: 63 years, 72 days Barack Obama: 62 years, 30 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Schuyler Colfax: 61 years, 296 days Calvin Coolidge: 60 years, 185 days Theodore Roosevelt: 60 years, 71 days Kamala Harris: 58 years, 318 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) William McKinley: 58 years, 228 days Warren G. Harding: 57 years, 273 days Chester A. Arthur: 57 years, 44 days James S. Sherman: 57 years, 6 days Abraham Lincoln: 56 years, 62 days Garret A. Hobart: 55 years, 171 days John C. Breckinridge: 54 years, 116 days James K. Polk: 53 years, 225 days Daniel D. Tompkins: 50 years, 355 days James Garfield: 49 years, 304 days John F. Kennedy: 46 years, 177 days

[lxmitlxss]

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ Mobile Friendly Muse List

as of 08/29/24

Canon Characters

Pandora Hearts:

Xerxes Break

Gilbert Nightray

Vincent Nightray

Elliot Nightray

Levi Baskerville

Vanitas no Carte:

Noé Archiviste

Vanitas

D. Grey Man:

Allen Walker

Lavi Bookman

Marian Cross

Tikki Mikk

The Ancient Magus Bride:

Elias Answorth

Ruth

The Millionaire Detective: BALANCE UNLIMITED:

Haru Kato

Moriarty the Patriot:

William James Moriarty

Sherlock Holmes

Angels of Death:

Zack

Trigun/Trigun STAMPEDE:

Vash the Stampede ( both versions )

Nicholas D. Wolfwood ( both )

Millions Knives

Meryl Stryfe

One Piece:

Sanji Vinsmoke

Zoro Roronoa

Trafalgar Law

My Hero Academia:

Izuku Midoriya

Shoto Todoroki

Denki Kaminari

Shouta Aizawa

Keigo Takami (Hawks)

Dabi

Jujutsu Kaisen

Yuji Itadori

Megumi Fushiguro

Nobara Kugisaki

Satoru Gojo

Suguru Geto

Yeah I haven't finished this one so BE KIIIIIIND

K Project

Yashiro Isana

Saruhiko Fushimi

Reisi Munakata

Izumo Kusanagi

Durarara!:

Izaya Orihara

Shizuo Heiwajima

Shinra Kishitani

Masaomi Kida

Bungou Stray Dogs

Osamu Dazai

Doppo Kunikida

Chuuya Nakahara

Atsushi Nakajima

Sigma

Jouno Saigiku

Tetchou Suehiro

Honkai Star Rail

Trailblazer

Dan Heng

Welt Yang

Aventurine

Veritas Ratio

Kafka

Boothill

Gallagher

Serval Landau

Sampo Koski

Seele

Huohuo

Genshin Impact

Tartaglia

Kaveh

Albedo

Baizhu

Bennett

Xingqiu

Heizou

Venti

Detroit Become Human

Gavin Reed/GV900

PROMARE

Lio Fotia

Lucia Fex

Bluelock

Rensuke Kunigami

Wataru Kuon

Reo Mikage

Hyouma Chigiri

Danganronpa

Byakuya Togami

Junko Enoshima

Leon Kuwata

Yugioh

Yugi Mutou

Yami Yugi

Joey Wheeler / Katsuya Jonouchi

Seto Kaiba

Ryou Bakura

Yami Bakura / Bakura

Duke Devlin / Ryuji Otogi

Jaden Yuki / Judai Yuki

Syrus Truesdale / Sho Marufuji

Yusei Fudo

Crow Hogan

Leo / Lua

Marvel

Tony Stark

Loki

Hawkeye

Bucky Barnes

Clint Barton

Moon Knight ( Marc & Steven )

Steve Rogers

Thor

Phil Coulson

Bruce Banner

Peter Quill

Rocket Racoon

Steven Strange

Eddie Brock ( mix comic/Sony )

Full Metal Alchemist

Edward Elric

Alphonse Elric

Winry Rockbell

Van Hohenheim

Maes Hughes

Alex Louis Armstrong

King Bradley

Lust

Greed

Envy

Final Fantasy

Cloud Strife

Reno

Squall Leonhart

Vivi Ornitier

Tidus

Yuna

Rikku

Paine

Vaan

Balthier

Prompto Argentum

Ignis Scientia

Servamp

Lawless

Shadowhunters

Magnus Bane

Supernatural

Castiel

Doctor Who

Tenth

Jack Harkness ( req only, might end up discord only )

BBC Sherlock

John Watson

Black Butler

Sebastian Michaelis

Ciel Phantomhive

Alois Trancy

Finnian

Mey-rin

Ronald Knox

Mashle: Magic and Muscles

Mash Burnedead

Dot Barrett

Ghost Hunt

Kazuya " Naru " Shibuya

Hazbin Hotel

Sir Pentious

Magi

Judar

Yunan

Sinbad

Jafar

Aladdin

Mythical Detective Loki Ragnorok

Loki

Dragon Age

Male Mage Hawke

Fenris

Persona

Joker/Ren Amamiya

Sojiro Sakura

Munehisa Iwai

Yu Narukami

Makoto Yuki

Tatsuya Suou ( req, discord prefered )

Princess Tutu

Ahiru/Duck

Fakir

Mr. Cat

Droccelmeyr

Pike & Lillie

Pretear

Himeno Awayuki

Hayate

Sasame

Kei

Go

Mannen

Hajime

Shin

Petite Princess Yucie

Arrow/Arc

Gaga

Cube

Soul Eater

Soul Evans

Death the Kid

Dr. Stein

OCs can be found over on @beyondlxmits

[blondeaxolotl]

okay then who do you ship the reapers with

Grell - Sebastian, Othello, Madame Red, Mey-Rin, Agni (Grell x Hannah would slap too ngl) Ronald - Mey-Rin (for some reason I don't have many Ronald ships) William - No one, Willy-poo is aromantic to me, this guy only shares platonic love and his love for birds (no romance, friendship is power) Othello - Grell, Sebastian, Agni, Underthello is cool too, prefer them platonically though Undertaker - No one, Aroace king!! though ships like Riantaker is funny to me Sascha - no one Ludger - no one at the moment

[xzerosparrowx]

Current wip of a steddie fic. So this is like a little excerpt of the first chapter.

✨️🩷✨️🩷✨️

Eddie Munson is a lot of things; poor, a liar, a drug dealer, a coward, an asshole, he's Allen Munson's kid, King of the Freaks and on the wrong side of the tracks.

Which is why he finds himself in a toilet cubicle of a nightclub - the AV club to be exact - on a Sunday night. His old black lunch box sitting on the toilet behind him, handing out ‘candy’ to whichever rich asshole is too fucked out to notice him overcharging for a couple of tabs and pills. He knows that one day someone is going to notice and probably beat the shit out of him, but Eddie has too many mouths to feed and bills to pay to really care about some hypothetical future problem.

Plus, that shithead Ronald Reagan keeps talking about ‘trickle-down economics,’ so Eddie is just facilitating where that money trickles down to.

“You got any molly?” a freckelled brunette man asks, leaning against the doorframe wearing a fucking designer polo and a familiar maroon letterman jacket. Chicago University basketball team, Eddie can spot those assholes a mile away.

“I can do one-fifty for three grams,” Eddie answers easily, taking out a little plastic bag from his lunch box.

“A hundred-and-fifty dollars, are you fucking serious?” The man sputters, looming over Eddie.

“If there is another dealer in your area, by all means, use them. Otherwise, kindly fuck off so you're not holding up the line,” he counters, gesturing to the growing queue.

Eddie watches the brunette chew on his anger for a moment until the man rolls his eyes “fine.” He groans loudly, taking out his wallet and shoving the bills into Eddie's hand, mumbling “jerk,” for good measure. The bathroom door bangs open.

“Security!” Garth shouts, and Eddie springs into action, ditching the bag of pills at the brunette, and grabbing his lunch box just as he hears a pair of large footsteps hit the tiles.

He sprints forward, shoving the brunette aside, barely missing the security guard’s large hand when he skids across the floor. He laughs manically when he sees a couple of people getting in the way of Frank, a huge dude, chasing after him, saluting them when he hears an encouraging “run Eddie!”

The music in the club is loud, lights flashing across the dancefloor, bodies moving to the pop rhythm, and Eddie grins when he hears Deneice Williams shouting out to the boys. He bobs and weaves through the crowd, spills drinks, ignores people swearing at him, and ducks out of the way of large fists trying to grab at him. He sprints out of the club, barely looks as he crosses the street, hearing the angry beeping of the taxis that have to stop abruptly.

“Fuck you Munson! If I see you here again I'm gonna fuckin' beat the shit outta you!” bellows Frank, standing at the entrance to the club, breathing heavy with his hands on his knees.

“Ok, I'll see you next week!” he calls back, laughing when Frank flips him the bird.

[citizenscreen]

Hollywood Cricket Club, 1932. (Back) CS Greaves, C Harper, N Madison, JV Murphy, CH Abbott, G Farmer, E Cross, M Harpe. (Middle) JL Williams, Boris Karloff, Clive Brook, CA Smith, Ronald Colman, HB Warner, D Roberts. (Front) M Kinnell, RC Sheriff, ED Cummins, LE Francis, C King.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Michael de Adder :: @deAdder:: All the King's men

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 28, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 29, 2024

On Friday, in an interview with CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, Trump’s former attorney general William Barr brushed off the recent news that Trump, furious that the story he had taken refuge in a bunker during the Black Lives Matter protests in summer 2020 had leaked, called for the White House leaker to be executed. 

“I remember him being very mad about that. I actually don’t remember him saying ‘executing,’ but I wouldn‘t dispute it, you know,” Barr said to Collins when she asked him about it. “The president would lose his temper and say things like that. I doubt he would’ve actually carried it out.”

Collins followed up, asking if Trump would call for executions on other occasions. “He would say things similar to that on occasions to blow off steam. But I wouldn’t take them literally every time he did it,” Barr answered.

Why not? Collins asked. 

“Because at the end of the day, it wouldn’t be carried out and you could talk sense into him,” Barr said. “I don’t think he would actually go and kill political rivals and things like that.” Barr said he intends to vote for Trump. 

“Just to be clear,” Collins said, “you’re voting for someone who you believe tried to subvert the peaceful transfer of power, that can’t even achieve his own policies, that lied about the election even after his attorney general told him that the election wasn’t stolen.… You’re going to vote for someone who is facing 88 criminal counts?”

“The answer to the question is yes,” Barr said. “I think the real threat to democracy is the progressive movement and the Biden administration.”

The contention of the former attorney general—who had been responsible for enforcing the rule of law in the United States of America—that a man who has demanded the execution of people he dislikes is a better candidate for the presidency than a man who is using the power of the federal government to create jobs for ordinary people, combat climate change, protect the environment, and promote health and education, illustrates that Republican leaders have abandoned democracy.

In November 2019, in a speech to the right-wing Federalist Society, Barr ignored the Declaration of Independence, which is a list of complaints against King George III, to argue that Americans had rebelled in 1776 not against the king, but rather against Parliament. In the modern world, Barr argued, Congress has grown far too strong. The president should be able to act on his own initiative and not be checked by either congressional or judicial oversight.

That theory is known as the theory of the “unitary executive,” and it says that because the president is the head of one of the three unique branches of government, any oversight of that office by Congress or the courts is unconstitutional, although in fact presidents since George Washington have accepted congressional oversight. 

The theory took root in 1986, when Samuel Alito, then a 35-year-old lawyer for the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice, proposed the use of “signing statements” to take from Congress the sole power to make laws by giving the president the power to “interpret” them. In 1987, president Ronald Reagan issued a signing statement to a debt bill, declaring his right to interpret it as he wished and saying the president could not be forced “to follow the orders of a subordinate.” 

In 2004, when Congress outlawed the newly-revealed U.S. torture program at remote sites around the world, President George W. Bush issued a signing statement rejecting any limitation on “the unitary executive branch.” In April 2020, to justify his demands for states to reopen in the face of the deadly pandemic, Trump told reporters, “When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total….” Now, in 2024, Trump’s lawyers are in court arguing that the president has criminal immunity for his behavior in the White House, possibly including his right to order the executions of those he sees as enemies. 

As Republicans have embraced unlimited power for the president, they have also turned against the right of American citizens to have a say in their government. Beginning with so-called ballot integrity measures in 1986, they embraced methods to knock voters off the voting rolls. That policy intensified after Democrats passed the so-called Motor-Voter Law in 1993, making it easier to register to vote. 

After voters nonetheless elected Democrat Barack Obama in 2008, the Supreme Court handed down the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, permitting unlimited donations to political campaigns, and corporate money flowed into them. In that same year, Republican operatives launched Operation REDMAP to elect Republicans to state legislatures ahead of the redistricting required after the 2010 census. Operation REDMAP resulted in extreme partisan gerrymandering that would make it virtually impossible for Democrats to win elections even if they won a majority of the vote. 

Then, in 2013, the Supreme Court decided Shelby County v. Holder, which gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That law had required states with a history of racial discrimination to get clearance from the Department of Justice before they changed their voting laws. The court said that preclearance was no longer necessary. Within hours of the decision, Republican-dominated states proposed new laws that discriminate against voters of color.   

In 2019, Barr explained to an audience at the University of Notre Dame the ideology behind the strong executive and weakened representation. Rejecting the clear words of the Constitution’s framers, Barr said that the U.S. was never meant to be a secular democracy. When the nation’s founders had spoken so extensively about self-government, he said, they had not meant the right to elect representatives of their own choosing. Instead, he said, the founders meant the ability of individuals to “restrain and govern themselves.” And, because people are willful, the only way to achieve self-government is through religion. 

Those who believe the United States is a secular country, he said, are destroying the nation. It was imperative, he said, to reject those values and embrace religion as the basis for American government. 

The idea that the United States must become a Christian nation has apparently led Barr to accept the idea that a man who has called for the execution of those he sees as enemies should be president, apparently because he is expected to usher in an authoritarian Christian state, in preference to a man who is using the power of the government to help ordinary Americans.  

Saturday night, journalists, politicians, and celebrities gathered for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, an annual fundraiser for the White House Correspondents’ Association, which protects press passes for journalists who regularly cover the White House, assigns seats in the briefing room, funds scholarships for aspiring journalists, and gives awards for outstanding journalism. It is traditionally an evening of comedy, but last night, after a humorous speech, President Joe Biden implored the press to take the threat of dictatorship seriously. 

“I’m sincerely not asking of you to take sides but asking you to rise up to the seriousness of the moment; move past the horse race numbers and the gotcha moments and the distractions, the sideshows that have come to dominate and sensationalize our politics; and focus on what’s actually at stake,” he said. “Every single one of us has…a serious role to play in making sure democracy endures….  I have my role, but, with all due respect, so do you.” 

George Stephanopoulos of ABC’s This Week apparently took this reminder to heart. “Until now,” he said in the show’s opener on Sunday, “[n]o American president had ever faced a criminal trial. No American president had ever faced a federal indictment for retaining and concealing classified documents. No American president had ever faced a federal indictment or a state indictment for trying to overturn an election, or been named an unindicted co-conspirator in two other states for the same crime. No American president ever faced hundreds of millions of dollars in judgments for business fraud, defamation, and sexual abuse….

“The scale of the abnormality is so staggering, that it can actually become numbing. It’s all too easy to fall into reflexive habits, to treat this as a normal campaign, where both sides embrace the rule of law, where both sides are dedicated to a debate based on facts and the peaceful transfer of power. But, that is not what’s happening this election year. Those bedrock tenets of our democracy are being tested in a way we haven’t seen since the Civil War. It’s a test for the candidates, for those of us in the media, and for all of us as citizens.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON