#source: me because i live near farmers

[crowdiminico]

!!! would love to hear about ur roach headcanons and backstory, I miss him

Hi anon! I miss our bug boy too - but it's what inspired me to make the 'Bloodlines' series!

So, my Roach headcanons, it's a bit long but hey ho:

He's British - born and raised in rural green of East of England.

Accent? He has what is known as a Modern RP British accent (Youtube example) with a hint of "farmer" sometimes thrown in because you can't escape it if you live in the East lmao.

He hold dual nationality (British and US) but uses the British flag.

He is a Royal Marine, specifically apart of the Special Forces Support Group. He joined when he was 17.

He is a K9 handler, chosen to be a part of a new trial of Royal Marine based K9s. This is how he met his dog, Nacho! The trial was scrapped leaving them as the only pair that made it through.

He's a skilled and focused fighter on duty, but off duty he's a friendly, empathic guy who likes to make jokes.

He knows British Sign Language - after his mother's death, he was diagnosed with Selective Mutism. Therapy and counselling helped deal with his grief and he started to speak again but sometimes he uses BSL because he's a little sh*t ;)

His appearance:

He has sandy blonde hair, cut fairly short but has a good ol' fluffy fringe parted on the right.

His eyes are a bluey-green.

Caucasian skin with freckles on his arms.

He's 180cm tall, he's well-built with defined muscle but naturally slim and small.

He has a scar on his right cheek and neck, along with many unseen scars on his chest.

His family:

His father is American, his mother was British.

His father is a high ranked officer in the US Army, he started out in the US Miliatry Police and worked his way up.

His father was stationed as security in the UK at a USAF base, its how he met Roach's mother.

His mother passed away from cancer when he was 9, this strained his relationship with his father.

Roach's uncle is Sandman! Sandman is the younger brother of Roach's father.

Roach considers Sandman his "dad", he stepped up when his biological father didn't and has always been there for Roach.

A big part of Roach's background was being apart of a secretive joint unit between Special Forces Royal Marines and US Marines. The unit only did a handful of missions before it was attacked during a mission to retrieve stolen intel from an enemy compound. The unit were travelling in a convoy when they were swarmed by insurgents - by the time help arrived, only 4 unit members were still alive and Roach was one of them (along with Nacho). This is where he received his scars.

He was sent back to the UK 2 days later to recover in hospital - on arrival he was met by Sandman, who had flown in as soon as he heard about the attack. Roach was offered a place in the SAS but he turned it down as they did not want Nacho to come with him. Instead, Roach and Nacho travel back to America with Sandman, where Roach recovers and spends his days keeping up training.

I've tried to simplify everything down - feel free to ask more questions for more in-depth stuff, Sandman headcanons etc :)

[blueiight]

I want to tell the real story.

In a week's time, in a setting of my choosing, we revisit the project boyish youth prevented us from finishing. Years and thousands of miles removed from the room we shared in San Francisco, I offer, for your journalistic pleasures, my full attention and my life story.

vs.

Props in a play. A play that's been fully designed and rehearsed. And every actor onstage has scripted lines except for us. … Set dressing nailed to the floor.

On one hand, the sham-trial of Louis, Claudia, and Madeleine, is absolutely a mockery of the worst examples of this show’s real-world audience. But in the wider narrative, the trial enriches Louis’s own motivations in 1973 and 2022. Louis wanting to tell the story of his life has an added layer to it simply by the fact that, chronologically, Louis and Claudia, especially Claudia’s, entire lives were made mockeries of on stage first in 1949-1950. The sham-trial is a near-original product of the show, in that what was a straightforward execution in the source material is turned into a public spectacle, where vampires are food to a human audience, and Louis and Claudia are violently silenced as their lives are framed into caricatures of who they were. The rhetoric of two interviews too, are entirely original to the series, but share a common starting point.

Why does Louis, both in 1973 and 2022, choose to begin his life in the year 1910, and not when Louis was a child? Armand opens up his life story with Arun, Lestat tells Paul how he was stolen from the monastery& beaten as a child, Claudia writes in her diaries how her mother died and her father abandoned her to an abusive relative.

It is as much, because Louis truly understands his (and Claudia’s) lives to have restarted with his (their) vampiric turning, as it is the fact that this show-trial takes advantage of Louis’s self-image (and how he relates Claudia in relation to himself) by beginning the story of Louis’s life in 1910, and Claudia’s life in 1917.

Looking at the trial script, and comparing it to the interview in season 1, we see how “the vulnerability within the object” [Louis] is perused. Something to remind is that the sequences I will fixate on are on-script, and therefore, blatantly untrue. The only times we truly go off-script are transparently obvious, even twice-aided with flashbacks, and the only time Louis cedes the narrative to an off-script Lestat only enhance the existing framework of how Louis relates to Claudia.

[SANTIAGO] The accused was a troubled man. A failed sugar farmer, a brothel-keeper.

[LESTAT] Forced into corners by his race, alienated from his own desires. American puritanism mangling his very soul.

[SANTIAGO] Disreputable, cold, violent.

[LESTAT] Louis first accosted me in a pleasure house, and then everywhere I went, as if by happy accident, there was Louis, offering to be my chaperone, his eyes sliding down me. I… a vampire, was being hunted. With every breath, every heartbeat, every sidelong glance, Louis was saying, "Come to me".

In contrast to the scripted debate over Louis’s life, how does Louis relate this aspect of himself to Daniel? Almost as if he’s defending himself, but from who? Daniel who is already familiar with this? The audience of a book in its infancy? Or…The man in the room who pinpointed at the “vulnerability within the object?”.

I was, admittedly, a rougher thing then. You had to be if you wanted to survive. You couldn't look weak on Liberty Street. [ … ] Did I want to pull a knife on my brother? No. But as I alluded to before, you couldn't look weak on Liberty. You never knew who was watching.

I couldn't move. My body was seized with weakness. His gaze tied a string around my lungs, and I found myself immobilized. […] Let the tale seduce you. Just as I was seduced. […] It was a cold winter that year, and Lestat was my coal fire. And I found myself, for the very first time, to anyone other than Paul, confiding my struggles to another man. I was being hunted. And I was completely unaware it was happening.

Here’s Louis on his own race here, Lestat is the one who accosted Louis at the Fair Play Salloon.

Segwaying: This trial is not “Lestat’s point of view”, this is Lestat playing a marionette on stage to revenge himself. His revenge evolves live-on-stage into an attempt to go off-script to save Louis, and only Louis. Lestat breaks script in almost S1 fashion to berate Louis for his reticience to admit his desire, where he admits to making Claudia for Louis, and admits where he broke Louis. [Lestat says the singular “pup”, not “pups”, and this is when Claudia realizes that Lestat did not come for her.] Even bragging about Claudia being the pinnacle of his vampiric self is on-script.

This is Armand, aware of the optics of the kind of men Louis had to wrestle his own legacy from in two lifetimes, creating this script to break & re-shape Louis. “I felt like we were the only two vampires left in the world.” Armand orchestrates this so Claudia & Louis can forever be severed when trying to break Claudia into mad suicide through “My Baby Loves Windows” failed, and Louis still thinks of her even after he turned Madeleine, and Louis can channel his vengeance over his own torture & Claudia’s wrongful death to the coven. What did Armand say in E12… “Don’t you/we have enough to fear from Paris?” Anyways…

If Louis is framed as both the desperate predator and the frigid reticient lover, how does this sham-trial mock Claudia?

Through her words. We are narratively introduced to Claudia’s diaries in Dubai during Episode 4 with Louis out of the room, Armand, docent still as ‘Rashid’, introducing “an alternative perspective on the years of [this interview]’s interest”. Armand in Episode 13 in an attempt to re-gain control over the interview admits to what he and Louis did and did not cut, but to what end? Louis in Dubai has to ask Armand for the missing pages, pages we have yet to see. And chronologically speaking, through the showman Santiago, Armand was the first and last one to use Claudia’s private words to pilfer her narrative and try to break her.

The framing of Claudia as a mad, permanently infantile defect, but also the artfully manipulative entity able to assess Louis & Lestat’s fragile union pinpoints the assumption Armand makes to Louis & Madeleine both: the near inevitability Armand disregards her and treats her end with, throwing her in an infant’s dress to be a character constantly suiciding itself, and Armand calling her a manipulator in the prior episode.

Claudia’s defect caught up to her.

She harmed herself in the sun for attention and followed that up with a killing spree, corpses clogging the bayou, a penchant for human souvenirs.

And what does Louis offer us, in Dubai?

Louis can easily revenge and reclaim his own legacy through the interview, but how can Louis hope to re-pay the smearing and murder of Claudia? Through re-contextualizing the same words she wanted no one but Madeleine to read? “You can put the diaries in their proper context,” he once said. He can never be the one to truly salvage Claudia’s self, which is why the diaries cut out when Claudia finally felt fulfilled, and her last words are kept from our ears. An explanation, to who Claudia once was as a vampire, from Claudia’s own pen, without her will, just as she was turned.

It is through her diaries and Louis’s recollection of her that we realize her trophy-seeking was an evolving project. The boys she killed in New Orleans were her attempt at creating her own vampire companion, only to realize that she cannot create companions of her own bc of the same body she was trapped in, through no will of her own. There is something fascinating about “who” & “when” can make vampires, but that’s another post.

The “artful predator assessing the cracks in [Louis& Lestat’s] union” is in fact, Claudia returning to familiar captivity after being kidnapped and raped repeatedly. What’s interesting is that TdV does not have or launder the pages of the immediate aftermath of her rape, which suggests that Claudia herself tore those pages out [& certainly matches the damage], as ripe predators would see fit to find fault in Claudia for being assaulted.

The showboaters of TdV will die next episode, but what of the architect/s of the trial vs. Louis the architect of this interview? What will be done with Claudia’s diaries after this? The end of this interview poses very interesting questions.

[acti-veg]

Recently I've seen a lot of people argue that the water use of foods like beef are overstated because the majority of its water usage is comprised of green water and I don't really know how to respond

I’d need to see their source (and you should ask for that first) but only about 10% of beef cattle in the US are completely free ranging, and therefore mostly use green water. Most cattle are at least finished in feedlots where water use is intensive, if they’re raised in a factory setting their entire lives.

It also depends where you are. Most regions where cattle raising is most prominent don’t see enough rain for cattle to use mostly green water. Again I don’t know where these people are talking about, but in the US, beef uses 500 times its weight in blue water alone. That is five times the water intensity of even the thirstiest protein sources, with only almonds coming anywhere near that level.

None of this includes water used for anything other than drinking for cattle. What about the water raised to grow their feed crops? What about waste water run off and contamination, which is infamously high impact. I think I know the study they’re probably referring to here and it only factors in water produced and used by the cattle farmers themselves, not the rest of the supply chain, which is very limited.

It’s interesting that beef and leather advocates are so interested in this particular study, when they have ignored everything else that the Water Footprint Network have ever published. This is how it always goes with environmental science. You have a wide consensus gathered through decades of research, then you get one limited study that seems to contradict that consensus, so those with a vested interest leap on it, at the exclusion of all other established conclusions. This is the ‘one true study’ because I agree with its findings.

When you dig into it though, you figure out that the study doesn’t actually contradict anything, it is just looking at something quite limited, or their conclusion has been massively misunderstood or overstated, as in this case. If they are referring to the study I think they are, they are wildly misrepresenting what it was actually measuring.

If someone raised this to me, I’d start by asking them their source, then I’d ask some questions. This is from 14 years ago, do we think this is still accurate, considering the continued shift to intensive farming, and the fact that the conclusion you’re drawing from is contradicted by more recent studies? What was this study actually measuring? Just farm water use? Where in the world? Are most cattle raised 100% pasture? What about intensive farms and feedlots? Do you the rest of the supply chain might be where a lot of the blue water use is coming from? That should be enough to reveal the obvious weaknesses in drawing big conclusions from limited data sets.

[rudimentary-rutabaga]

I got what I asked for, so here are my Deltarune Yellow Ideas! Feel free to comment or send me askes on these guys/the storyline. I have way more ideas I didn’t list here.

This is… very long, so be warned. Designs coming soon.

DALV

-Nothing changes too much, still socially awkward

-Friends with the Ketsukanes, but nowhere near Starlo’s level.

-The snowdin attack never happened. He was actually friends with the Integrity human, and they would help him look after baby Kanako if Starlo was away.

-That is, until they disappeared out of the blue. Now he has anxiety over that instead.

-Writes books for a living. He also babysat Kanako and Clover when they were younger.

-Used to help out on Starlo’s farm.

-One of Kanako’s friends.

MARTLET

-Design is mostly the same.

-No royal guard to join, so she went to college instead. Now that she’s graduated, she’s currently unemployed and living with her mom.

-Still helps Chujin out with building/carpentry, but doesn’t feel good enough to start a business.

-One of Clover’s friends, like a sister to them.

-Met Asriel at college. They didn’t get along.

STARLO

-A farmer. Takes more pride in farming than his UTY counterpart.

-Still loves cowboys/western media, but he’ll only dress up as them in the safety of his own backyard.

-Still has a crush on Ceroba but knows he’ll most likely never be with her, so he just tries to be the best for Kanako he can be.

-Has his own house now! His ‘posse’ are just his high school friends. They’ll talk about western stuff a lot with him but won’t go much farther than that.

-One of Clover’s friends. Pretty much their dad, but hasn’t been able to officially adopt them.

CEROBA

-Still dresses up the same as in UTY

-Her and Chujin are practically the founders of the town (This is not hometown, by the way.)

-The whole family would be considered intimidating if everyone didn’t know them already.

-Clover lives with her + her family , but they don’t think they consider them family.

-Shows a bit of favoritism towards Kanako, but she’s working on it.

-Stay at home mom.

CHUJIN

-Still an engineer, but when not at work he uses most of his skills for carpentry and woodworking.

-No Snowdin attack, so he isn’t as distrustful of humans. He's just glad Kanako seems happy to have Clover.

-Programmed a video game for Kanako called ‘Belowstory’

KANAKO

-Doesn’t like to dress how she does in UTY. She dressed like that when she was younger, but now prefers to look more like her peers.

-Loved western stuff when she was younger, but sometime after Clover arrived she decided cowboys were lame and she liked superheroes (another predominantly human thing) more.

-Recently decided cowboys actually are better.

-Amazing at art and piano, gets good grades and everybody loves her! Nevermind the fact that she feels stressed and pressured.

-Minor envy issues with Clover. Feels like they don’t have to be impressive to be liked.

-Considers Clover a sibling.

CLOVER

-Considers Kanako a cousin.

-Major jealousy issues with Kanako. Feels like they’ll never be as good and loved as her. They aren’t good with sharing.

-‘Works’ at Starlo’s farm (they volunteer on afternoons and he pays them allowance)

-Shares a room with Kanako.

-The orphanage they escaped from didn’t bother to educate the kids there, so Ceroba homeschools them until they can catch up with others their age.

-Got made co-deputy with Kanako. Felt like their western thing was the only thing separating them from being nothing but ‘Kanako’s friend.’

AXIS

-Yes, he exists.

-Instead of being a royal guard robot, he was made to be Kanako’s companion before Clover came along.

-Currently confined to the basement because of his limited power source.

-Knew Integrity before their sudden disappearance.

[kedreeva]

This might be a shitty ask, so I understand if you don't, or can't!, really answer! I'm in AU, where it's an old farmer's trick to freerange peafowl to eat and scare off snakes. My aunt lives on a farm and she's started talking with great enthusiasm about getting peafowl. She doesn't intend to coop or contain them or have any infrastructure for them at all besides food and water bowls. Even if she had fences- which she doesn't- they wouldn't be more than ordinary wire fences. I've spoken pretty strongly against the idea of freeranging any animals on her property, including her chickens, but she doesn't listen to anyone, and other things (like noise) don't seem to be discouraging her. Other than worming and vaccinating them (which I'll be doing from my own pocket) is there anything at all that I can do to minimise the risk of death, harm, or improve QOL for these poor potential peas? Is there any quirk of training or pea mentality that I can use to keep them in a boundary or radius? If I build them a roost on top of a shed, are they likely to stay within a distance of it? (And yes, I haven't ruled out stealing them, giving them to someone responsible, and telling aunt a feral dog got them)

It's no trouble, and the good news is you won't have to tell your aunt a feral dog got them, because the birds will just leave. If she's that intent on flushing several hundred dollars down the toilet, maybe ask if you can have it instead, and skip the middle man of fussing with the peafowl. She's also welcome to send me the money if she is intent on giving it to someone with peafowl, the result will then mostly be the same! She loses a few hundred bucks and has no peafowl, and someone with peafowl gets a few hundred bucks! The key difference is no birds are harmed in this latter process.

Because here's the thing: your aunt IS 99% going to waste a lot of money purchasing peas and releasing them to free range without first containing them 6-12 months in a standard minimum coop (500 square feet)(and the rule any experienced peafowl owner will tell you is "never free range a bird you can't afford to lose" because even with extended containment first, peafowl often just fuck off when free ranged and they don't look back). They will just leave. it's literally the thing they are known for. I have gotten two free peafowl this year due to idiots near me doing this. Every year people in peafowl groups post about the free birds they just got, when people like your aunt bring them home and let them go. It's a little raffle where you win prizes donated by people who didn't do their research before buying peafowl, or who have more money than sense.

Additionally, even if they stay, they won't scare off snakes. Snakes don't give a shit. The peas will possibly harass or kill one if they see it first and there's a group of them to fuss with it. But in Australia, they are just as likely to die to a snake bite as any other fowl. They have PRETTY fast reflexes, but even in the US I see people lose peas to venomous snakes like rattlers or copperheads.

As for the rest, I don't know if there are any vaccinations that can be given to peafowl in Australia. I know there aren't in the US (I don't think even Marek's is made to be used in peafowl, but DO NOT get that one) because US policy on most fowl illness is to just cull the birds. You also can't effectively treat free range birds for parasites without SOMEWHERE to contain them, because most of the products go in the water and free range may find other sources of water, and the ones that don't you have to repeatedly catch the birds to administer orally.

So yeah. That sucks. Please tell her a peafowl breeder you spoke to thinks she's an idiot if she really thinks she's going to magically convince wild game birds to just hang out upon release with only the enticement of a food and water bowl to keep them around lol

[deliciousangelfestival]

You wanted some ideas for stories.

1. Two are from two different dimensions. Land in a mysterious third one, and the both of them have no idea how to handle it.

2. A woman in her 50s ends up finding out that she's actually a dragon and she literally has to up root her whole family including her very much adult children to go live with dragons.

3. Poor vampires working dead end jobs.

Idk if any of these will help. But sometimes I take two genres that might not go together and see what happens or I try to write something under 1k words. I hope you get rid of writers block soon.

Wow, this is really challenging. To anon who gave me this writing idea. Thank you !!!

1. Different Dimensions

Character: Steve Rogers x Female Reader

Y/N woke up in a mysterious land. Did she just sleepwalking? She only took a nap after taking care of the farm. Suddenly, a screen appeared in front of her.

Y/N L/N

Age: 25 Years Old.

Occupation: Farmer

Skills: Irrigation, Soil Management, etc.

What the heck is this? Did her brother put a VR headset on her head?

She touched her head, but there was nothing.

Y/N read this kind of novel when she had free time to read, and now she got sucked into this book, or she got transported to another universe?

Shit.

Suddenly, the screen appeared again.

Task 1 for player Y/N

Plant corn and potato.

[Equipment: shovel]

[Finish this will get 100 exp]

"....."

Damn to this world. She wants to go home. At least there's a cabin near her. Inside, there's a bed, fireplace, and kitchen. She has a place to stay. Y/N rolled her shirt. "Well, it's time for me to work." She planted the vegetable like the screen told her and saw her EXP bar fill.

On the third day, she saw a portal open. A screaming voice, "Ahhh."

'THUD.'

A person appears. He wore a blue suit. It looks like an armor. And he holds a shield with a star on it.

Wow, he came here more prepared than her.

He looked around and saw her.

"Ma'am. May I know where this is?"

Y/N shrugged her shoulder. "I want to know too. I found myself here when I woke up from my nap."

He was taken aback by her answers.

He murmured, "Damn you, Strange. You sent me to an unknown location again."

"My name is Captain Steve Roger from The Avengers and the supervisor of SHIELD. May I know your name?"

Never heard of that institution. Perhaps a secret organization.

"Y/N L/N, just a farmer." She raised the shovel in her hand.

Suddenly, they saw a light coming from beside the cabin.

Y/N rolled her eyes. "What is this time?" She went to the source of light, and Steve followed her lead.

There, they saw a plant coming out from the soil. Oh, it's a flower.

"What the fuck?" Steve cursed because a transparent screen suddenly appeared in front of him.

Class S Task.

Protect the flower for 100 days from sickness and monsters.

[This flower's main ingredient for eternal life.]

Protect it for 100 days, then both players could return to their own world.

'Go home.'

That's the two words Y/N and Steve like to hear. 'Growl.' A growled voice was heard near the tree. Y/N as a farmer, Y/N could find out what the creature is, and Steve, too, since he used to live in the forest because of World War II.

Y/n lifts her shovel and looks at Steve who raises his shield "Well Captain Steve. We need to work together so we could go home."

2. Dragon Birthday

Character: Female Reader

"I'm exhausted..." Today's work from your boss drained all your energy.

But she needs the extra money for life expenses and her son's college tuition. Since her messy divorce, her husband doesn't really care about them.

So she needs to do it alone. Before, she always went home after work, but now she's going to visit her mother's grave.

Before Y/N's mother died of old age, her mother told her to visit her grave on Y/N's 50th birthday.

Today is her 50th birthday, so she visits her mother's grave.

Deep down, she hoped her mother had a gift for her, like money? She really needs that right now.

Y/n put down the flower to her mother's tomb. "Mom, just like you said you want me to visit you on jy 50th birthday. Im alone, I didn't bring your grandson, and your son in law well... we separated."

Her husband choose work than his family. He didn't even say anything after signing the divorce paper and left for Egypt.

Y/N sighed. Sometime she wish that she could be awesome like her mother. But she's nothing like her mother.

Suddenly, the temperature at the graveyard turned cold. It's impossible when it's still summer.

"Who dare for disrespecting with my descendants???" A loud voice echoes in her ears.

What?? A dragon? Are you hallucinating because because you got overworked?

"Y/N L/N, one my of descendants."

Wow, the dragon really talks towards her.

"My descendants will get their power when they reach age of 50."

"What will I get if I accepted the power?" If she didn't get any gold today, at least she got a superpower.

"Strength, wisdom, and giving order."

She raised her eyebrows.

"I'll give you this power for 3 days. If you like it, come back here again. If you don't like it, just ignore it.

The next day, she tested the power. Y/N doesn't know how effective the power is. Her boss, who always gives a ridiculous task, she finally talks back, "You do it."

Her boss didn't say anything and did the job. When she called her ex-husband to pick up his stuff, he did. Even though he was in a different country when she called him, the next day, he was at the house carrying a moving box. Her ex is an archeologist, and his stuff removes all her space.

Y/N never thought this power could be helpful. So, on the 3rd day, she saw the dragon again. With this power, she loves the feeling of being confident.

"I'll accept the power."

"Excellent. If you want to make the power last longer you need to find other follower."

"There's more?"

"Yes."

"Where can I find them?"

Suddenly there's a stone appears on her hand.

"If you getting closer to the descendant the stone will glow. I gave you my blessing."

This means Y/N will go on an adventure; she could feel her blood boiling. It's time for her to be selfish; all this time, she always gives in and has low esteem. She never thought the gift when she reached 50 could be this good.

3. Poor Vampire

Character: Bucky Barnes x platonic!reader "Uh, Excuse me..James." A nervous blue collar holding a document towards his co-worker. "Yes?" "The deadline for this already passed but could you do this?" "Fine." The co-worker accepts the file without looking at the other person. "Fiuh, I thought he's going to kill me." "Ah yeah, our gatekeeper accountant. He always been like that but he does his job really well. I think he sleep at the office." "I never see him go home after 5 p.m." "Ouch, Y/N." Both employees touched their heads because someone hit them with a document.

"That's because he's fixing all the mistakes you guys made."

Y/N returned to her seat; she has worked in this company for 6 months. She notices one particular co-worker, James Buchanan Barnes. He's the most hardworking employee in this company and always works overtime. Y/N felt bad about him because others were taking advantage of him. Y/n wishes James could say no when people shove their work on him. She has seen bullying in the office multiple times. "Ehem, Y/N?" Speaking of him, James suddenly called her, she answered "Yes?" James talks without lifting his head from his monitor. "I've sent the file to your e-mail. Could you check it?" "Give me a minute." "Take your time." James, or his nickname Bucky, is blushing. He doesn't know if he wants to laugh or cry. The truth is that Bucky is a vampire, and he has a superpower: reading someone's mind. He could read everyone's thoughts, including Y/N. In this office, only she felt sorry for him and never asked him to do her job. But he wants to tell the truth to Y/N that he works overtime because of the extra money. He's poor as f**k. Vampire is a nocturnal being, so he doesn't need sleep. The reason why Bucky went bankrupt is because he trusted the wrong person. His butler, or the perfect word to describe it, is a thief. Bucky, a former butler, stole his money when he went to sleep for 30 years. When Bucky woke up, he owned nothing. Bucky's only goal is to save money and get revenge on his former butler, who stole his fortune.

[northernmariette]

A bit more about Bernadotte, a tiny little crumb about Mortier

Just about a year ago, just before Bernadotte's birthday, I kept coming across new discoveries regarding the previous birthday boy, Ney. Well, discoveries new to me, anyway.

This year, coming up on Mortier's birthday, I keep coming across new discoveries regarding the previous birthday boy, Bernadotte. This latest one is from "Journal du comte Rodolphe Apponyi, attaché de l'ambassade d'Autriche-Hongrie à Paris", to be found on Gallica. Silly me, I forgot to note the page but it's round about page 15, and it's for the year 1844. It is shortish, so I will transcribe the extract in its entirety, followed by my own rough translation:

"Le roi de Suède est toujours mourant. Il a été si mal, ces derniers temps, que malgré sa défense expresse de ne jamais le saigner, de le laisser mourir plutôt que de faire cette opération, on l'a fait par ordre exprès de la reine, mais quel ne fut pas l'etonnement des assistants, en voyant sur ce bras royal quantité de tatouages cabalistiques et surtout, du haut en bas la phrase suivante en grosses lettres: "Liberté. Égalité. Vive la République!"

On m'a raconté, �� ce propos, que lorsque Bernadotte a été en Corse, il a voulu épouser la fille d'un fermier parce qu'elle avait quelque argent; les parents de la jeune fille ne la lui ont pas accordée parce que lui n'en avait point et qu'il n'était que simple soldat. Cette femme vit encore: elle est si pauvre qu'elle est servante dans une petite maison bourgeoise où elle porte de l'eau et fait le gros ouvrage dans la cuisine!"

The King of Sweden is Bernadotte, of course. He did die in 1844, after spending 34 years successfully ruling Sweden, unofficially as the Crown Prince since 1810, then as the actual King from 1818.

Here is my translation of the preceding French text:

"The King of Sweden is still near death. He has been so ill of late that in spite of his formal command never to bleed him, to let him die rather than to carry out this procedure, the Queen ordered it to be done; but the medical assistants were astonished to see on the royal arm a multitude of cabalistic tattoos but especially, from top to bottom, the following phrase in large lettering: "Liberty. Equality. Long live the Republic!"

I have been told that when Bernadotte was stationed in Corsica, he had wanted to marry the daughter of a farmer because she had some money; her parents refused to grant his request, because he had no money of his own and because he was but a soldier. The woman in question is still alive: she is so poor that she is now a servant in a small bourgeois household, where she fetches water and works as a scullery maid."

Bernadotte did serve in Corsica before the Révolution. At the time, Corsica had not been part of France for very long and the political situation there was not terribly stable. I have not looked into this, but I wonder if he and Napoleon might have been there at the same time in the 1780s. I wonder too if Bernadotte knew about the Bonaparte family at least by reputation, as it had at least some degree of prominence on the island, and certainly much prominence in Ajaccio.

Regarding Bernadotte's tattoos, I have seen different versions of what the exact wording was - "Death to Kings" is what I have read elsewhere - where this particular tattoo was located (arm? chest?), and the reason for Bernadotte's reticence. I think it makes more sense that he did not want to be bled than the reason I have seen elsewhere, namely that he was embarrassed that his doctor would see the tattoo. By the time he was at death's door, somehow I doubt he would have cared that much about his doctor's opinion about very old tattoos - including the cabalistic ones, which I think referred to freemasonry symbols.

Now on to the Mortier crumblet.

I am still reading Philip Mansel's "The Eagle in Splendour" with pleasure and interest. I do have a bone to pick with him, which is that he does not sufficiently quote his sources. This drives me nuts when I want to find out more about any particular aspect of his book. I have no idea where the following information comes from, and it does leave me wondering.

On page 59, Mansel writes, concerning Napoleon's marriage to Marie-Louise:

"Throughout the round of glittering ceremonies, the Emperor and Empress were surrounded by members of the imperial family and, above all, of the court. Duroc, Berthier, Montesquiou and Marshal Mortier were especially prominent (...)."

Huh? Why was Mortier especially prominent at the time of Napoleon's second wedding? Why he, among all the Marshals? No surprise about Berthier, who had been sent to Vienna to finalise the marriage agreement and who had actually married Marie-Louise by proxy; but Mortier? And in what role? This doesn't seem to be something I will find out from Mansel. Not cool.

[sreegs]

Do you know much about ciders? I'm somewhat new to drinking and I find I much prefer them to beer (all the beers I try just feel really bitter to me?)

Haven't really tried many spirits or cocktails either tbh. I live near a pretty nice store so sourcing isn't an issue so much as paying for the stuff. Anything simple and relatively cheap you might recommend to an amateur drink mixer? Maybe on the sweeter end like fruity/minty?

I tried to get into ciders, I honestly can't say I learned much but I do like to drink them seasonally. I don't know good national brands off the top of my head because cider never caught on here in America during the beer resurgence. I know that cider is much more popular in the UK for example, so if you're there and not here, then you have more options.

I do like a local cider though. Since I live in NYC I'm in apple country. Farmers markets have them and there's cideries not too far outside the city (if anyone here is an NYC resident, go check out Penning's near Warwick).

Cider is usually graded along the dry/sweet axis much like wine. There can also be sour ciders as well. This heavily depends on the type of apple and the aging and oxidation that occurs. Additionally it's not unusual to have ciders with added honey that are weird cider/mead hybrids. Those will also be sweet.

Sweet ciders are straightforward: they'll have a profile closer to non-alcoholic cider. Bright and fruity. Dry ciders are called as such because they're, well, not sweet. It's the absence of sweetness. They're not bitter, they may also be described as "tangy" but not always. Really dry ciders make your mouth feel dry after sipping. I've enjoyed ciders up and down the sweet/dry axis, can't say I have a favorite.

Sour ciders are similar to sour beers. They range from "that's a little funky" to "is this komboucha?". I find sours are a love-it-or-hate-it kind of thing so if you find one and you're unsure, buy the smallest amount possible.

Fun fact: cider was once the most popular alcohol in western Europe and more coveted than champagne. Colonial Americans were drinking cider when they weren't stealing land from the natives and committing genocide. Cider and rum, mostly. And beer. Please note this was not cider's fault.

Simple, sweet, fruity, minty. A couple options depending on what you consider easy. I'll give you a couple "proper" recipes as well as the easy way to make them. Oh actually, three. Let's start with the really simple one. Fernet and cola. Don't cringe, it's great. Start with 1 oz of fernet to 8 oz of cola (or 1.5oz to 12 oz if you're using a whole can of coke). serve with lots of ice and a lemon slice. If you like it, increase the Fernet. A proper pour is 5 oz of fernet with a enough cola added to top off the glass. Use bottled cane sugar cola if you can get it. Oh, and make sure it's Fernet Branca. Don't be tempted by Branca Menta, you'll be over-minted.

Try a Mojito. The making of a mojito requires muddling but it needs to be done with finesse as to not pulverize the leaves. Muddle 3-5 mint leaves at the bottom of a shaker with 1/2 oz of simple syrup. Add 2 oz of white rum and 3/4 oz of lime juice. Pour in the ice, shake gently, serve on the rocks topped with club soda/seltzer and a fresh mint sprig.

If you're new to muddling, don't muddle this drink. Muddling too hard will break the leaves make the drink bitter. Grab a sprig or two of mint leaves in one hand and slap the leaves against your other wrist a few times. This will bruise the leaves and express the oils enough without having to muddle. Pluck the leaves and toss them in the shaker with the simple syrup and the rest of the ingredients. Make the same way as above.

Now, if it's the middle of the summer and you just want a drink that's practically whiskey mint snow cone, make a Mint Julep. This is best made in an "old fashioned" style glass (wide, squat glass that holds 8-12 oz) if you don't have the traditional metal cups. Same techniques for the mint as above for the start except you're muddling the mint alone (or doing the wrist slap + pluck the leaves trick). Bruised/muddled mint in the bottom of the glass. Cover with lots of crushed or pebble ice, like a snowcone basically. Pour in 2 ounces of bourbon. Pour over, slowly, one ounce of simple syrup. Let it sit for a minute, garnish with more mint, drink with a straw, stirring as needed.

If you don't have crushed ice, take regular ice cubes and crush them in a clean cotton cloth with something heavy. If you don't even want to bother, just stir for 30 seconds before serving. The trick is, since the crushed ice has more surface area, it melts faster than whole cubes and helps meld the flavors together. This is definitely the hardest of the three drinks to make and it's the most that's "best if done right". But a little elbow grease is enough to make this a great drink.

[istalauuu]

Ola, everyone!! It’s me, Crista! So for today’s blog, I'll introduce myself, where I came from, and how my life actually went.

I am Angelie Crista, but I prefer to be called Crista, especially by my closest friends. In contrast, people that I don’t know just call me by my surname, which is Brita. I hated to be called Angelie because I just don’t like it, and I find it cringe and a little bit weird. But lately, my mom told me the reason why she named me that, and I found out that it is a female French name that means "Messenger of God". like wow?!?!?! At first, I wouldn't believe her, and she even made me search for it on Google. BUT GIRL, IT IS. (sarcastically crying). Going back, I am 19 and currently residing in Brgy. Nena San Julian, but I grew up in Paranaque City, Metro Manila. Let’s get to know it, and here’s the history of my hometown..

PARANAQUE CITY

Is a highly-urbanized city was once just a simple fishing barangay during the Pre-Spanish days of the Philippines.

When Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and his group of Spanish colonizers landed in Manila, it is said that they discovered a small community who lived near the Manila Bay where fishing or “paglalayag” were their only source of income. But on the other side of the community called Muntinlupa, the natives, who were living on rice farming, were called “taga-Palayan”. These two groups of people intermingled with each other, often on little celebrations.

It was said that once upon a time, these two groups had a feast to decide what the name of their place would be. The rice farmers wanted to name the place “Palalayan”, but the fishermen protested and wanted the place to be named “Palalayag”. In order to reach a conclusion, both parties agreed to a compromise and instead decided to name the place “Palanyag”.

Several years later during the Spanish era, the placed was renamed “Para Aniya Ake” because of several instances where Spanish soldiers would tell the native coachman “Para aqui, para aqui (Stop here, stop here)” whenever they reached Palanyag. These native coachmen would tell their humorous versions of this story until the name stuck in the hearts and minds of the inhabitants of old Paranaque.

Paranaque City is also known as the fashion capital of Metro Manila and is home to the largest fashion boutiques and shops.

Just so you know, guys, my life there is quite adventurous and fun. Serving me the things I wanted and making it easier for me to do the things I needed. Spoiling myself almost every day by going to the malls or even with friends. That’s why my money only lasts for a few minutes. Yes, I am too irresponsible when it comes to handling money.

But for some reason, that life I had vanished when my parents decided to let me study here in our province, which is located in Brgy. Nena San Julian, Eastern Samar. So, moving forward, as a girl who grew up in a city, I am having a hard time, especially since I am new to this place. I find it difficult here since there are big differences between the place where I grew up and the place I am today.

But since this is the new chapter that God gave me and a life that I needed to take, I don’t have a choice but to accept and love where I am today. I made adjustments, and it’s not easy to do. The transportation here is so hard. It’s like I am more tired of the transportation than of my classes. Also, the grocery stores are too far, and it’s quite tiring. The things I used to do were gone, and I came to a point where I badly wanted to graduate immediately so I could go back to Manila. Sounds ridiculous, right?

But after staying here for a month, a realization hit me. I should’ve been enjoying my life here and being content. I should let things flow and love every single moment that I have here. And, so, little by little, I didn’t notice that I'd been falling in love with nature and appreciating its beauty more than before. The fresh wind that blows within my hair, the calmness it gives, and the silence of every corner of the trees.. oh! I'm in love with this nature, which captured my heart softly. Too dramatic, am I?

But anyway, what I also love about this place are the beaches. The waves that slowly moving, making a little sound. Bringing my soul into peace and letting my inner self to be healed.

Finally, I can say that I am doing great today and am hoping for the next day to come. I will probably end my blog here, and I hope you like and enjoyed it. Again, I am Crista, and I hope to see you on my next blog! Bye, everyone, and have a great day ahead!

Source:

[prismadog]

guess who just finished the refined line-art for their Jimnoth au...that's right, it's me, I got the character concepts drawn. they're still uncolored (and they'll probably remain that way for a long time, but hey, I got them drawn at least)

I also plan at a later date to make some posts regarding the characters' backgrounds, not seriously long posts like this (hopefully), but kinda just the basics like their family or empire - there is SO much that's locked up in my brain that needs to be spilled.

there's several images below - the full height chart plus close-ups - and I'm going to include some details below each image. this is going to be a bit of a long post, but hope y'all enjoy!

[from left to right] row 1: Shrub, Katherine, Joel, Fwhip, Gem, Joey, Sausage row 2: Pixlriffs, Pearl, Scott, Xornoth, Jimmy, Lizzie

Shrub - 4'3" / 129.5 Katherine - 5'4" / 162.6 Joel - 5'8" / 172.7

Shrub

Shrub has many scars from her childhood because she grew up in the Nether in a crimson forest. she was raised as a farmer but knew a good deal about fighting because a close friend used to be a warrior.

the piercings she has on her ears are made of gold - gold keeps piglins calm, though her earrings wouldn't have been enough. before coming to the Overworld, she had gold bands on her wrists.

the mushroom hat and boots are just for aesthetics because of where she grew up [these may be colored like the crimson mushrooms later on]. the gnomes of her village had mushroom accessories to help them blend in with their surroundings.

she has a very distinct lack of breasts due to her being a part of a very androgynous, "sexless" race - they still have the concept of gender but they don't have the male/female sexes. this means that Shrub essentially has pecs instead of breasts, very muscled ones because she is a tiny strong boi who could bench press an average man

Katherine

Katherine is a faerie with cat features - it is very common for the faeries of the Overgrown to have features of some sort of animal.

she walks around barefoot because she likes the feel of the grass on her feet, but also because it makes her feel grounded - she will wear shoes on occasion, specifically when she's going to other empires

Katherine has several piercings, something that was influenced by her childhood friend Scott - some are silver and some are gold.

the bands she wears are engraved with blessings from her people - long life, love, good will, strength, and courage. this is a common type of gift from one faerie to another.

due to her cat-eyes, she can see very well in the dark, and she has exceptional hearing thanks to her large ears.

Joel

Joel is a very chill guy who wears light, but very detailed clothing - those of Mezalea live in a hot and humid area and believe it would be suicidal to wear heavy clothing (like the real King of Mezalea on the youtubes)

he doesn't care much about shoes because he likes the feel of the clay and moss on his feet - he will however wear shoes on occasion if he's traveling to any cold biome (ie Scott's empire).

the symbol of his people and his empire is the Mother Tree [design was inspired by the Celtic tree of life] and he wears it proudly - it was the Mother Tree who allowed Mezalea to blossom and it was also the Mother Tree that breathed life into Joel himself [more on this later in a future post]

he is a bit on the thicker side due not only to how bountiful the food is in Mezalea - their main food source is horse - but also because he works a lot with large, heavy blocks of clay and moves statues around near-daily. [not shown] his hands and clothes are often stained with clay because he likes to sculpt figures and statues.

Fwhip - 5'10" / 177.8 Gem - 5'11" / 180.3

Fwhip

Fwhip is a mischievous guy that wears quite a bit of clothing for not only aesthetic but also out of necessity because of his work in the labs - the scarf was made by his (and his siblings') mother when he was little.

he, like his twin Gem and his little brother Sausage, have some form of dragon features because while their mother was human, their father was not - however, for much of Fwhip's life, he only had the horns, the wings came later on when the Grimlands blessed him with power when Xornoth tried to corrupt the land.

Fwhip broke his right horn in a lab accident when he was a teen - he thinks it makes him look badass.

[not pictured] he has some scarring in multiple places - burns and cuts - from various incidents during his experiments.

Gem

Gem wears thicker clothing because the Crystal Cliffs can get quite cold - any hats she may wear all have holes made in them to allow room for her horns.

unlike her twin, Gem does not have wings, but instead she has a near-endless supply of magic, something that neither of her bothers naturally possess - this was a point of contention between them all in their younger years.

the moon and stars she wears represent her empire of the Crystal Cliffs

she carries around a Wither Rose that's been preserved with magic - it's something that she and her brothers share, though they have their roses in safe-keeping in their homes.

Joey - 5'11" / 180.3 Sausage - 6'0" / 182.9

Joey

Joey is an avian with multi-colored wings [not shown] - his family is the only one in the Maztec empire that is avian, everyone else is a cat-person.

he is also fairly light, not bird-light, but just much lighter than the average person due to being an avian.

he wears very little, very loose clothing because 1) it makes him look hot as fuck and 2) the jungle he resides in is hot as fuck

the bands and other jewelry are common-place in the Maztec empire, as well as tattoos - tattoos are seen as a sign of strength and beauty, strength because it takes a strong person to endure the tattooing process and beauty because they're just into that.

the symbol that adorns all of Joey's clothing represents everlasting life - something his people worship unconditionally. the other symbol that sometimes accompanies the symbol of immortality [the flame/heart thing on the sash] represents the Eternal Flame, the Heart of the Maztec empire.

Sausage

Sausage, like his siblings, has dragon horns, though his are much smaller than theirs' because he's several years younger than they are - the three hellions of the Wither Rose Alliance are a few years older than one would assume.

the scar on his face was given to him in a training accident when he was a child - he almost lost his eye but thanks to the clerics and mages in Mythland, they were able to heal his eye.

he's a bit heavier than his siblings because Mythland loves their feasts and festivals, also he has quite a bit of muscle from how hard he trains with a sword.

the symbols on his gloves are a sign of his contract with Xornoth - he gave up his soul to the demon just as the demon gave their soul to Exor.

Pixlriffs - 6'0" / 182.9 Pearl - 6'4" / 193.0

Pixlriffs

Pixlriffs looks older than the other rulers, but that doesn't mean he's the oldest by any means, or does it? he plays the role of father to not only Pixandria but also his family/alliance members - Joel, Lizzie, and Jimmy.

he has lightning markings from his right hand down to his left foot - these aren't scars or tattoos but actually a blessing from the thunder gods marking him as their Champion. he is also blessed by the Goddess of Death and is Her prophet, though, he doesn't have any markings to represent that, not that he needs any. She instead gives him visions and a deep connection with the Vigil.

the clothing of Pixandria is simple, lightweight, and usually colored in neutral tones, specifically in the range of white to sand-colored. the designs are embroidered by hand and many include the symbol of Pixandria - the Death's-head Hawkmoth.

each of the charms and symbols on his clothing, minus the star on his headpiece and the copper symbol on his bands, are designs taken from the Death's-head Hawkmoth itself.

[extra fact] as well as beekeeping, Pixandria is home to Death's-head Hawkmoths and vultures, and both are seen as sacred creatures.

Pearlescent Moon

Pearl was originally a scarecrow built from cloth and straw, made by a lonely farmer who wanted to protect his crops. she spent many years protecting his fields and wished desperately to return the love the farmer had shown her through his tributes and gifts - the most extravagant being a simple pearl that he fashioned into a necklace.

the God of the Sun and of Life, granted her wish and she became the Guardian of the Harvest. from then on she watched over the farmer's fields, and later the fields of anyone who settled nearby. the people gave her the title "Queen" because they saw her as the protector and ruler of Guilded Hilanthia.

she has large golden wings that grew over time due to the magic in the land and the blessings of the Harvest. they, like the rest of her, are speckled from being under the sun for countless hours.

her clothes are very simple and light for ease of movement, whether she's strolling through the fields or protecting her lands and people from danger.

her symbols are the moon for the pearl around her neck, and sunflowers for her loyalty to her people and because it symbolizes the harvest.

Scott - 6'9" / 205.7 Xornoth - 6'9" / 205.7

Scott

Scott is an elf with large snowy owl wings, something that is fairly common in his family - there are other elves that have wings but they are the minority. unlike Joey, he is not an avian, he's just a winged elf.

the symmetrical golden antlers are a blessing from Aeor and mark Scott as His Champion.

beauty and fashion are very important to the elves of Rivendell and many will wear as much jewelry as they can. Scott is no exception - he has multiple piercings with glittering diamond charms, and to match his earrings, he had charms and jewelry crafted for his antlers.

the clothing of Rivendell is thick and trimmed in fur because while the elves are a hardy people, they can still get cold from living high up in the mountains. for most outfits, there are symbols of Aeor and Rivendell stitched into the clothing.

Scott, while being on the thinner side, is actually quite toned beneath the layers of warm clothing - he needs to be in order to support his large wings and fly with them.

Xornoth

Xornoth is currently a demon, though, they once were an elf just like their younger twin Scott. and like their brother, they once had snowy owl wings, but those were stolen by the God Exor - [not shown] there are ragged scars on Xornoth's back where their wings used to be.

Exor also blessed Xornoth with their own set of antlers, though unlike Scott's, their antlers are twisted and covered in thorn-like spines. after they were blessed by the dark god and became His Champion, their body twisted as well and transformed into that of a demon.

they have several piercings, a product of their previous life as an elf of Rivendell, though the jewelry they wear is far from fancy - it's just simple silver and gold. the bands they wear are engraved with their contract to Exor. the rings on their fingers are the only thing they kept after becoming Champion - the one on their left index finger is actually a gift from their brother.

Xornoth has many scars due to the hundreds of years they spent in exile in the Nether. they literally fought to survive, but was eventually able to become a force to be reckoned with that no resident of the Nether wanted to fight, save of course, for Shrub who's village was terrorized by the demon.

there's not many options to get new clothes so they wear a simple, stitched together skirt that they made with their own hands, not that they really care that much anymore about modesty. [I didn't wanna draw demon dick, hence, skirt]

Jimmy - 7'4" / 223.5 Lizzie - 8'0" / 243.8

Jimmy

Jimmy is one of two eggs remaining from a batch of hundreds - their parent was a mighty eldritch beast blessed by the Deity that ruled over the Ocean and the singular batch of eggs was a sign of their bond. sadly, the war between the gods Aeor and Exor killed their eldritch parent and crushed their seablings' eggs. he was raised by his elder sister, Lizzie, who hatched several years before he did.

[not shown] his hair is colored yellow to better fit in with the cod people but his actual hair color is a soft pink (much like Lizzie's minecraft skin), which goes well with the pearlescent pink scales that cover his body.

like his sister, he has quite a few scars gathered over the years from fights against the salmon, the worst one being the spiderweb scar over his left eye. this scar was one of the first he got, during the first salmon war when he was still a child, and because of it, he is actually blind in his left eye.

he's fairly muscular because swimming around in the ocean for hundreds, if not thousands, of years can really build up a person's body. though, he does actually have a bit of fat because the ocean is also a very cold place and fat is a natural defense against the cold.

his outfit is simple and lightweight, and fairly loose because he has the ability to transform his legs into a tail. he also has the ability to change his size, though it really only happens when he takes on his merfolk form [more on this in a future post]. he wears rain boots because 1) he thinks they're fashionable, 2) they're easy to take on and off, and 3) he lives in a swamp. as for his leggings, those were specially made for him and are designed to represent the Cod Empire.

he doesn't wear many accessories but what he does wear mean a lot to him - the cloth bracelet is stitched with symbols of his family/alliance - Lizzie, Joel, and Pixlriffs. the pins on his top and the buckle on his belt are gifts from the cod people, and the gold circlet on his head is a sign of his being the Cod Empire's ruler. the circlet is a direct replacement after the cod mask and helmet were stolen from him.

Lizzie

Lizzie is the eldest of the two remaining eggs from their parents, and has deemed herself Jimmy's guardian and caretaker - she did raise him from a hatchling afterall. she is actually the healthier of the two because during the destruction of the batch of eggs, Jimmy's was damaged and her's was not.

[not shown] her hair is sort of two-toned where soft pink gradiates into a soft blue. the scales that cover her skin are a pearlescent blue instead of pink like her brother's.

she's covered in scars from all the many years that she's lived in the oceans and fought off any dangers that would threaten her or her brother - the dangers in question are mostly from battles with the salmon that terrorize the ocean, but also fisherman and pirates.

because she's a merfolk, she doesn't have breasts like a human female would - there's no need for breasts, nor nipples to that extent, because merfolk hatch from eggs. she does, however, have what is essentially a nice set of pecs because she's very strong and gets quite the workout from swimming around the ocean.

her outfit is very loose and quite revealing because she, like many merfolk, doesn't really care much about being modest - they usually have tails anyway instead of legs so there's not really anything to hide. she really only wears shoes when she visits other empires, specifically those with more extreme biomes, ie, Rivendell, Pixandria, the Maztec empire, etc.

she doesn't wear much for jewelry but she does have a few pins - an axolotl and one from the Cod Empire. she also likes the fishing lures that she finds in the ocean - the hooks on the lures are filed down to a point where they're no longer dangerous. she does, however, have one main accessory that she cherishes and that's the cloth bracelet stitched with the symbols of her family/alliance - Jimmy, Joel, and Pixlriffs.

[fcklouie]

(—) ★ spotted!! LOUIE WILEY on the cover of this week’s most recent tabloid! many say that the THIRTY-NINE  year old looks like CHRIS HEMSWORTH, but i don’t really see it. while the ACTOR is known for being ASSERTIVE my inside sources say that they have a tendency to be CALLOUS i swear, every time i think of them, i hear the song WITHOUT ME- EMINEM  {he/him / cismale} - penned by laice again!

basics

full name: louie ryan wiley nickname: lou, lewis age: thirty-nine gender: cismale pronouns: he/him hair color: brunette sometimes with blonde highlights eye color: blue sexual and romantic orientation: hetero occupation: actor tattoos: same as fc favorite season: summer favorite color: purple favorite music: rock favorite animal: sloths fears: being poor. hobbies: rock climbing, hiking, mountain biking.

biography

louie grew up in melbourne australia, he was born to two farmers and lived on a very small ranch. he had nothing growing up and he hated it. he always yearned for more. he resented his parents for having a child they could barely afford, he resented them even more when they had a second. it meant they had even less for him. he knew from a very young age that he was going to do whatever it took to make it big and be able to roll around in his money. 

he auditioned for many, many tv shows and films, and got a few cameos here and there, appeared on neighbours like every aussie who made it big did. but his first big break was when he was cast as jack in titanic. and from there his career just sky rocketed, and everything he’d ever wished for came true. 

of course to the public perception and the media he was a golden boy, he was hot, australian, the ‘nice guy’ in interviews, the one who made everyone laugh. he had it down to a tee, but that was simply not true behind close doors. anyone in the industry or who knew him personally knew he was downright evil. he cared about one thing only and that was making more money. he wasn’t generous or kind or caring. he only thought about himself and he made sure everyone knew what he thought of them. 

he never dates over thirty. he prefers whatever hot, young model was on the scene next. and he always got away with it because he was a heartthrob. and as soon as they aged out of his category he was onto the next and he always found a way to make it seem like it was their fault. of course they tried to slander his name in public, but somehow everyone usually took his side, he was the dream man after all, how could he not be perfect?

he is a father to one son who he never sees. he sends the checks for child support and calls it a day. he never intended to be a dad and as far as he was concerned that child was an accident and a huge mistake. he wants nothing to do with him, another thing that wasn’t surprising for anyone who knew him personally. he was too selfish to care about a child. 

wanted connections

baby mama- the person he got knocked up and now is a single mother to their son. he actively avoids her as much as he can, doesn’t show up to any baseball games, birthday parties or christmases. he’d call her his biggest regret of a relationship 

the current hookup/gf- they’d have to be in the 21-30 age range, if they’re nearing 30 they’re getting close to getting the boot and being replaced. he would shower them in gifts while gaslighting them constantly 

partner in crime- another asshole he can be an asshole with, preferably around his age. 

costars- i’m going to have his filmography up in a bit but it’s going to have a leo dicaprio/ryan reynolds/bit of chris hemsworth vibes. 

the one who calls him out on his shit- either they’re friends and they do it or they hate each other and they do it, i don’t mind which

the ex he runs back to- i wouldn’t use the term run really, just if he figures it’s time to cheat he calls them up. 

[choppedcowboydinosaur]

Times Supermarket: It's close to my house and I normally went there for my whole life. It's good for local food, asian food and the usual supermarket food products. Ever since it got bought out by Don Quijote it put more emphasis on Japanese food. I'm okay with that since I like Japanese food. Also, they sell cooking equipment from Japan now. And also, specialty items from Japan. They even have a gacha ball machine now. Also, they installed self-checkout a few years ago so that's nice. I don't quite go as much nowadays because the parking lot has gotten too crowded ever since they opened up the Goodwill and 7/11 near it.

Foodland: Close to my house but not as close as Times. Stil pretty good. Especially, if you want more local and Hawaiian food. Especially locally sourced meat and vegetables from farmers and ranchers. They also make plate lunches, sandwiches and have excellent fried chicken. Also, they sell prepared garlic bread you can take and bake. I love garlic bread so this is great for me.

Longs Drugs: Not really a grocery store but more like a general store/drug store. It has basic food if you need to eat something basic but if you want more complex stuff like spices or meats then you're out of luck.

Safeway: It's more mainland oriented in terms of food so you don't get much local or Hawaiian food. But the food they do have is good quality. I don't go there often but on occasion I will go there if I'm feeling fancy.

Target: It surprisingly has a grocery store in it. It opened up around last year in my hometown at the mall. For a store like it it has surprisingly good quality. Like Safeway it's more mainland oriented rather than local style though you can occasionally find some local foods like kalua pig or kalbi ribs in the freezer section. The food they have is surprisingly good quality and is the closest to feeling bougie I have ever felt. I feel like I'm on the mainland and not in Hawaii when I'm there. I mean this in a good way since it gives me a glimpse of the food they eat in the mainland. I only go if I need something since it's part of the mall.

Costco: My family would go here when I was younger for buying food in bulk for our family. It's good for pre made stuff and they do have local food. The main benefit is buying in bulk which is good for living in a suburban house. Not so much for an urban apartment. I would go there monthly on my own sometimes to get food I need. Nowadays I don't go as much because the parking is nuts but also the traffic is a nightmare for the location I go to. There's a lot of construction around the Costco I normally go to and it's not worth at this point. Even for the gas which is the cheapest on the island because the line for it is all backed up. The pizza is good and so are the hotdogs and chicken bakes. Though I noticed they have changed the chicken bakes in recent years so it's skinnier now and doesn't have as much food inside of it.

curious with USAmericans in mind but feel free to answer regardless: what’s ur go to supermarket chain

[walkonpooh]

The Uninvited - Clive Harold Review

The Uninvited by Clive Harold purports to be nonfiction book about a series of UFO events that happen in the lives of the Coombs family, primarily on their farm in 1977. It begins fairly innocuously strange lights in the sky, malfunctions in electronics in their house. Then it begins to escalate; their cows show up multiple times in a neighboring farmers field, despite them being unable to find a single hoof print or human print around the cows that would indicate someone would have moved the cows. And it escalates to a direct encounter with extra terrestrials. So The Uninvited is a super interesting book to me. I think it was good. It's a good horror story, regardless of whether or not the events described are true so if that's what you care about, then I highly recommend this book. It's a creepy book. Chilling events happen. What I want to primarily talk about is whether or not the case of the Coombs family *is* true. When I'm writing my reviews, I try to do like at least a smidgen of research about the book to make sure none of the information I'm giving out is not factual. Looking up The Uninvited, any smidgen of information about this case, would lead back to this book. Which is interesting to me, because in the back of the edition of the book I read, there's a section where Clive Harold talks about interviewing the family, so clearly the primary source that Harold relied on is the Coombs family. As a nonfiction book, if The Uninvited is that, I found the book really, really lacking. There is no sourced information. None. Zero. Supposedly policemen in the area investigated these events, there's no interviews by the author with these policemen. The area is said to be a hotbed of UFO activity, with tons of other people around the area supposedly saw similar events and with rare exception, the book seems uninterested in that. I guess what I'm trying to say is there's no corroboration of the Coombs family, we're just supposed to take them at their word. Trying to find information about the case online, leads you back to The Uninvited. Every. Single. Place. I. Looked. Google. Bing. YouTube. Amazon. Goodreads. UFO sites. You name it. I want to take this a step further. Looking into the author, Clive Harold, correct me if I'm wrong, I'm more than willing to be corrected on this. I can't find anything about the author that doesn't directly tie back into this book. He was supposedly a journalist, but there's no articles or anything online written by him, every single shred of information I could find about this Harold led me back to The Uninvited. Which leads me to my conclusion, I think Clive Harold is a pseudonym for someone and that The Uninvited is a fictional story. Maybe based on an article or something that this person read, that's cool, that happens all the time. Authors, myself included, see something, are inspired and write an idea. I'm not even mad thinking this is a fictional story, because as I said, it's a creepy horror story and "based on a true story" was all the rage back in the 1970s (Texas Chain Saw, Amityville). It *just* feels to me like if this story were true, there'd be more interest because the claims in it are so extraordinary. More investigations into what happen that don't lead back to The Uninvited. There's way more detail than other cases like probably the most famous UFO case, the UFO crashing near Roswell. Right down to what individual members of the Coombs family were thinking years previous. I don't know about you, but I can't remember *exactly* what I was thinking two minutes ago while I was writing this. So do I recommend The Uninvited? Yes. With the above in mind. As a fictional UFO horror story, it's one of the better ones that I've read. There's some chilling ideas in here. And hey, if I'm wrong, then I'm wrong and am willing to be proven wrong. If I'm wrong and this *is* a true story, then it's even more terrifying than I previously thought and I think the *possibility* of it being true makes it a worthwhile read. 

4/5

[phoenixyfriend]

👀 PLease tell us your thoughts about the Jedi babies re-growing up among different cultural contexts.

Oh fuck okay

Context: original post, chrono The specific post this ask is referencing: here

Summary of the AU: Disaster lineage got tossed back in time. Anakin stayed 21-ish, but Obi-Wan and Ahsoka got deaged, took new names for time-travel reasons (Ylliben and Sokanth, or Ben and Soka), are now staying with the True Mandalorians under Jaster Mereel because the Force said to, go back to the Temple after about a decade. They grabbed Shmi about three months after arriving.

So as far as the cultural background goes, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka had similar upbringings. She spent a few years on Shili first, but both spent the majority of their childhoods up to age 13/14 being raised in the creche. So that's the basis that they would default to, in a vacuum.

Nobody is raised in a vacuum.

Along with the Jedi cultural background, they're being raised by Tatooine natives in a Mandalorian environment.

Shmi and Anakin are both former slaves who have desert survival baked into their bones. The longer Anakin spends around her, the more his accent slips, the more he talks about old folktales, the more he uses idioms that don't exist on a cityplanet like Coruscant. All the things that he tamped down to be a Jedi come floating back to the surface, and Shmi's never known anything else. Anakin's knowledge of slave customs make her feel more comfortable, which in turn makes him feel better, and so on.

Mandalore is just... the culture they're living in. You don't grow up in a new culture with a new language without picking up on it personally. (Source: I moved to the US when I was a little under two years old.)

I think the thing I'm going to focus on as an example is the way each of these cultures approaches family, and then maybe how they approach the keeping of peace/what peace means.

Jedi: Where you come from means little, only the legacy you leave behind in your students. Mandalore: You protect your clan and your children; adoption is a major cultural value, if not actually practiced consistently. Tatooine: You can lose your family at any time, so you value what you have in all its forms. You don’t forget where and who you came from, to family of blood and family of choice alike. You cling to your memories and what little you still have of them, to what your master cannot take away.

These are all valid ways to approach family, and each of these approaches can have significant meaning to different people. But they do all, to a certain degree, conflict with one another, despite all three being fairly communal cultures.

The Jedi have a culture, one that’s built on a shared ability and religion over thousands of years. It’s not just an organization, but a continuous community with legends and traditions and art and records. But it’s one that is built on new blood coming in from the outside, volunteers who join because the religion speaks to them (near literally, given the nature of Force Sensitivity), given up by families who couldn’t or wouldn’t teach them in a way that let their talents flourish instead of pushing it all down.

For the Jedi, a culture built on people coming together due to something they have in common intrinsically that their families of blood do not, it makes sense to put emphasis on letting go of that past when they can, and to place importance on teaching lineages. It’s not just the official master-padawan pairs, either, but that’s the most obvious and easily paralleled element. Moreover, a lot of the Jedi culture is about gaining knowledge, so obviously spreading it is good, and also on supporting the galaxy to make it a better place; to view the Jedi order as a heavily communal culture would make sense, since their values are all about selfless betterment of the universe, which on a larger scale is about the galactic conflicts, but on a smaller scale is about supporting their own community, the children and the ill and elderly.

So that is the specific culture that Obi-Wan and Ahsoka grew up in, one that holds blood family as relevant but not particularly crucial to one’s identity, but is structured so people leave behind legacies through education in a manner that often becomes adoptive family (depending on your definition, I guess). Jedi are encouraged to connect to their home cultures, if not their families, with practices like the coming of age hunt for Togruta leading to the young Jedi taking a trip out to Shili to engage in that cultural milestone. This can also be viewed as a way for the Jedi to maintain personal connections to the wider universe, a (not entirely successful, but certainly attempted) way of keeping them from becoming too isolated and insular from the universe at large, and losing touch from what the galaxy actually needs of them.

They’re now growing up with two cultures that do place emphasis on blood and found family.

Mandalore, as presented in The Mandalorian, has their traditional values set as being heavily associated with their armor, battle skills, and childcare. While that’s clearly a set of values that aren’t actually followed by everyone with full sincerity, we can assume that these stated cultural values do have at least some impact on the way the society is structured, since we do see more traditional characters (Jaster, Din) adopt orphaned children and then have the Mandalorian elements of their immediate circles support that claim.

(We’ll ignore Jango and the whole clone army thing because the amount of Sith influence is up for debate and also holy trauma, Batman.)

However, we also see that a lot of Mandalorian culture is built on their family histories. On the New Mandalorian side, we see emphasis placed on the fact that Satine is House Kryze and that she’s a duchess. Her bloodline is relevant, though not the most important thing about her. On the Death Watch side, we have Pre and Tor placing emphasis on the fact that they’re Clan Vizsla, descended from Tarre, that this is important to why they deserve what the darksaber represents, this is part of why they not only deserve to lead, but should for the good of Mandalore.

Bo-Katan’s armor is a family heirloom. Boba’s armor was Jango’s, but before being Jango’s, it was Jaster’s. Armor is important enough to pass to family, but the family can be adopted. This all tracks.

The resol’nare specifies loyalty and care for the clan/tribe among the six tenets.

These two elements seem relatively well-balanced: the importance of adoption and the importance of family as a larger unit on the level of a house or clan.

And then you have Tatooine, which also balances blood and adoption, but for entirely different reasons, that being this: it can always be taken from you.

For all that a Mandalorian could historically expect their family to die in battle, and a Jedi could expect to lose their master the same way if things went poorly, those were usually choices. A Mandalorian was raised to walk into battle, and then they could make that choice to do so. It wasn’t often much of a choice, but they could feasibly turn their back and choose to be a farmer or a doctor or something, and support the people who went out to do battle instead of being the one on the field themselves. A Jedi could choose to be a healer or an archivist or join one of the Corps.

A slave does not get that choice. A slave can be killed or sold on a whim from their master. It’s not a one-time trauma, but an ever-present fear. Your parent, your child, your sibling, your spouse, all of them can be separated from you at any time. You can always lose them, and you have no choice but to grin and bear it, or try to run and die before you reach freedom.

In a context like that, I imagine Tatooine places a very heavy emphasis on family, both of blood and of choice, and on treasuring what you have while you have it. A person is always aware that they can lose whoever they have in their life, and so they make the most of their times together, have clear and consistent ways of expressing that love (I imagine primarily direct verbal confirmations and physical contact, practical gifts like water and fruit). Childcare is important, elders are venerated. Those who survived that far have valuable wisdom, and the children are to be given what happiness they can have before reality wipes that ability from them.

The family ‘networks’ among Tatooine slaves are smaller and tighter knit. There’s less trust for outsiders, but once you’re in, you’re in until you are taken away. Still, families are torn apart regularly, and often can’t contact each other after being separated if they’re sold far enough away, so families stay small because they’re always being broken up. Unlike Mandalore’s tribe/clan system, or the Jedi’s wide, loosely-structured community, Tatooine’s slaves form smaller groups that cling for as long as they can, and try to support each other. (There are selfish ones, of course, especially the newbies, but... well. Most try.)

Tatooine is also much more likely to assign a familial role (e.g. referring to an elder as ‘grandmother’). It’s not uncommon in the others (multiple Jedi refer to their masters as a parent or sibling, like Anakin’s “you’re like a father to me” line), but it’s not as baked-in that such a role should be given.

So on a structural level, we have two people from a community culture with little emphasis on blood family or formal familial roles are now being raised in a community that has them asking “what can you do for the people around you first, and then the wider world?” by people who tell them “your family, blood and found, is the most important thing you have; never let anyone take more from you than they possibly can.”

And that shit has an effect.

For all that Sokanth and Ylliben were once raised with a knowledge that their duty, their goal, was to better the galaxy as a whole, they are now being told that the community that raises them asks their loyalty back, because societies are built on support networks, and if you support the tribe, it will support you. There are parallels to that kind of thinking among Jedi, because it is basic social theory, but it’s not presented as the same kind of cultural value. It’s not given as something to strive for, just a basic fact.

This, for instance, means that once they’re back at the Temple, they have a tendency towards suggesting study groups and other ways of supporting people in their immediate circle, often structured in very unfamiliar ways. Again, this isn’t uncommon among Jedi, but it’s not done in the same way, or with the same emphasis. The Jedi also often approach problem-solving in a different order, so the step of “meditate on it and you may find your solution” often comes before “gather information from people who know more about it than you do,” while Ben and Soka have by this point learned to do it the other way around, because that’s what the Mandalorian system taught them: rely on your family first.

Meanwhile, the Tatooine element of their upbringing has them being much more willing to just... casually refer to ‘my dad’ and ‘my sister’ and so on. They use those words. It’s not just “my master is like a father to me,” but “this is my father.” They don’t hesitate to talk about the family they had and still have in Mandalorian space. None of the Jedi begrudge them it, really, but it’s always a shock to hear for the first time, and between the Tatooine refusal to pretend the connection is gone and the Mandalorian tendency to err on the side of roughhousing as affection, they’re just... odd. It’s not like none of the other Jedi know family outside the Order--some of the old books had Obi-Wan visiting his brother on Stewjon once in a while--or like none of the active Jedi are loud or boisterous, but the specific manner in which Soka and Ben interact with the Order, especially when their dad is around, is very weird.

More Soka than Ben, really, but that’s mostly just because Ben’s a very quiet person until he gets a little older, so it’s harder to notice on him.

Point is, while they still hold to their duty to the wider galaxy and will continue to keep that duty above almost anything else in their lives, the way they talk and act about the subject of family, especially in private, is heavily influenced by their new cultures.

This is already very long but I promised I’d talk about peace so let’s go:

The Jedi seek peace as an absence of war and conflict in the portion of the galaxy under their purview, in hopes that they will prevent as much suffering and death as they can.

The Mandalorians are varied, but Jaster Mereel’s group (which is the community the Skywalkers are with) is likely to view peace as unrealistic to achieve in the long term. They do not seek war, but they know the world they live in, and are prepared to protect against violence as their first resort. They always expect an attack, even if they don’t seek it.

The Slaves of Tatooine view peace as the calm in a storm. It is the status quo. Nobody has escaped tonight, for the guards aren’t searching, but neither is anyone dead. The Master you have is in a good enough mood to not sell you, to not kill you, to not beat you. Peace as an absence of suffering is impossible, so you seek for your master to be peaceful, that is to say: not raging at you.

The scope of each of these narrows significantly. From the known galaxy, to the wars that meet Mandalorian space, to the household one serves.

A community like the Jedi can choose to address peace as something to be sought on a large scale as an absence of war. They primarily function within the borders of the Republic, which has its problems but is largely structured to prevent such things from occurring until the Sith interfere. The Jedi have a structure that allows them to address peace as an ideal to be sought, at least within the borders of the territory they serve.

Mandalore, meanwhile, has been at war on and off for... ever. When they are not at war with themselves, they’re at war with someone else. ‘Peace’ is just the time between wars, and they know that if they do not attack first, they will be forced to defend. Jaster Mereel was known as the Reformer, and part of that was that instituting a code of honor, one that was intended to prevent Mandalorian warriors from acting as raiders and brigands, but rather acting as honorable hired soldiers, or taking roles such as the Journeyman Protectors. Given that, I imagine that he views war as something inevitable, but also something that can be mitigated.

War doesn’t touch Tatooine.

Oh, it might raise taxes and import rates. It might prevent visitors who come for the races. It can do a lot of things.

But to a slave, these are nothing. The only thing war does is affect the master, the person who chooses when their slaves get water, when they get beaten, when they are no longer useful enough to keep around or keep alive.

The peace of a slave’s live is dictated by how much abuse they are subjected to by the person who owns them.

What this means for Soka and Ben is... well, they are viewed as war-hungry by the people who don’t know them very well. They have armor. They focus on fighting, both with and without their sabers. They know tactics better than most masters. They claim that war is coming, and don’t seem too sad about it.

(It is a fact to them. War will come. All they can do is meet it. They’ve already done their mourning once.)

They also... well, Shmi tells them things in hidden corners. How to duck their head to hide the hate or fear in their eyes. How to watch for the anger in the tendons of a hand. The laugh of someone who enjoys the pain they’ve caused, not just the adrenaline of a fight. She is free, and so are they, but she has not forgotten how to hide in the shadows until the master’s ire has turned elsewhere. How to be small and quiet and unseen until the danger passes.

A Jedi’s first resort is words. Their second is their saber. But the Jeedai hold their heads high, and the Mandalorians do the same.

“You rely on the Force, and you have your pride,” she tells them, her hands on their own. “But there will come a time when you will not be able to remind people that you are free. You will not be able to say that you are a person, that you deserve the respect of a living sentient. Perhaps it will be a politician who treats everyone like that. Perhaps you will be captured by an enemy. Perhaps you will be undercover. You will not be able to fight, with words or with weapons, and you will have to know how to survive.”

Tatooine does not have peace. Tatooine only has survival.

And while Jedi fight for the survival and peace of the universe, they are refined and composed. Mando’ade fight like warriors of old, and Tatooine slaves fight like cornered, rabid anooba.

The galaxy comes first, but when the chips are down and the Sith come out to play, Soka and Ben do not need refinement, because they know how to toss aside their pride and live.

[theknightlywolfe]

I like gamey meat, I like mutton and buffalo and goat and elk and pigeon. Oh, love pigeon. But I am half Chinese, my earliest food memory is home made curry from the Indian maid when we lived in the middle east, buffalo was available near my uni, and my father used to hunt elk. And I have always made sure to live someplace where there is a decent Asian market for stewing hens and duck and geese.

I am lucky enough to live in an agricultural area now where I get my meat from a grass fed beef guy in town and heritage breed pork from a farmer a 30min drive away, both for less than I can get from the grocery store when there isn't a sale on. I can get venison from local abattoirs where people take their homestead hogs to prep for winter store and a farmer grows llama and yak. There is also a local source for beefalo, but I find the taste too watered down compared to regular buffalo. Still working on lamb, hogget, and mutton because sheep here are grown for wool and milk (the artsy sheeps milk soap craze here is a thing™).

And I had been getting all my cook at home meat from these local producers practically since I found out about them unless Whole Foods had the organically and ethically raised stuff on sale because then it would end up slightly cheaper. Until I was at Costco the other day and figured what the heck, the ribeye were on sale. So I got a tray, packaged all but one for freezing, and then pan seared it for dinner. It was just so much less tasty.

And it's not me being a snob about it and considering it less than, growing up our every day meat was from the Costco meat section, even until I moved to my current area most of my beef and pork came from Costco. Also I do have a developed palette, my drinking buddies are sommeliers and beer judges, I no longer buy charcutnovo brand fresh sausages because I could taste that they are adulterating their meat content without mentioning it on their ingredients list which means that it cannot be trusted for anything. I even pissed off an aunt because didn't believe me and put me through a blind taste test of ketchup and I got it all correct.

The US mass market meat is so focused on quantity quickly over quality. And a lot of the blandification of US meat comes from this because it means a grain diet. Grain is easier, cheaper, and faster and the corn industry has such a chokehold on things that a lot of that grain is corn and that doesn't do anything to develop flavour.

Is "Uh, nope" a frequent US response to lamb?

Or is US lamb somehow different?

This is just a vaguely mystified response to some comments here.

I'm guessing the "G-word" is gamey. I've smelt gamey meat, I don't like it, and Irish lamb definitely isn't that. Also, most people I know don't need to screw up their courage before cooking or eating it.

Mutton, mature sheep-meat, has - or so I've been told, because I've never found it in any local butcher - a much fuller flavour, still not gamey, but more ... robust, pronounced, emphatic, choose your descriptor. It is, after all, a more mature meat.

For terminology reference (though this may not be current any more), "lamb" is up to one year old, "hogget" - remember the farmer's name in "Babe"? - is up to two years old, and "mutton" is over two years.

*****

As I said, I haven't seen mutton anywhere, and haven't HEARD of hogget.

This might be, as I hinted, because terminology has been simplified and all meat from sheep is now "lamb" - and that may answer my own question. Sometimes US lamb has a fuller flavour than, say, Wicklow lamb in Ireland, because sometimes US lamb is hogget or mutton instead.

If so, it restores a possible original meaning to "mutton dressed as lamb". That's now best known as "an older woman dressed inappropriately young", and though the meaning has been around for a long time (this Rowlandson print is dated 1810)...

..."dressing" is also the term for preparing meat for sale.

And THAT makes me wonder if the critical phrase goes beyond fashion into the fine old tradition of adulterating food, and wily butchers transforming elderly sheep into the semblance of younger lamb then charging undiscerning customers accordingly.

I don't know how they might have done it, but if they could then they would. The ways in which 18th-19th century foods were fiddled with is amazing, and more than a bit Yuck.

Or in this case, Ew.

Comments, corrections, criticisms and all the rest are cordially invited.

:->

*****

Side-note; in keeping with the way nicknames get attached to surnames - "Chalky" White, "Dusty" Miller etc. - anyone called Curry usually ended up as "Mutton".

Two brothers at my school had this happen; Tom Curry, the older one, had been "Mutton" for a couple of years, and when his kid brother Will started school he became, of course, "Lamb".

Oh, how we laffed...

*****

ETA: @bellyoftheblast just messaged me this:

It turns out, and I only learned this very recently (I think it's in Hannah Glasse) that "dressed" used to mean "cooked" rather than "prepared for sale". Which would mean "mutton dressed as lamb" would be fast-cooked and thus greasy, unpleasantly tough and decidedly stringy. (Meanwhile I'll never waste good lamb on stew again now that I have a source for mutton -- MUCH better flavour for slow cooking).

Thanks for this snippet! We've got the Prospect Books facsimile of Hannah Glasse 1st ed, so I pulled it down, blew off the dust - it's been a while - and yes indeed, I found the following recipes in just four successive pages:

"To dreſs a Leg of Mutton à la Royale",

"To dreſs a Leg of Mutton to eat like Veniſon",

"To dreſs Mutton the Turkiſh Way"

"To dreſs Veal à la Bourgoiſe"

Mutton dressed (or dreſsed) as Lamb doesn't get mentioned, probably because Mistress Glasse knew better, though that business of Mutton to eat (taste) like Venison is interesting.

It involves cutting the leg of mutton "in the shape of a Haunch of Veniſon" then steeping it in the sheep's blood "for five or six Hours" before wrapping it in layers of buttered paper and roasting it, basted frequently with butter or beef dripping.

Not quite mutton as lamb, but still mutton disguised as something more expensive...

[eco-friendly-ecology]

My struggles with the label vegan :

I don't eat meat, I don't purchase any animal products brand new in supermarkets and I avoid cosmetic products tested on animals. However I will butcher my own roadkill occasionally, and I will buy secondhand leather and vintage furs, I also buy ethically sourced animal bones/taxidermy/pelts/feathers etc from people I personally know or from people they trust.

I own horses, I ride my horses, I spend most of my time working to pay for my horses. I have spent 2 years building trust with my rescue racehorse who was abused severely once he came off the track, I have done everything at his pace and I listen to him when he says no, he used to be terrified of saddles and bridles due to the previous abuse. With painstakingly slow desensitisation training he can now wear a light saddle and bitless bridle without any signs of fear. He wouldn't let me stroke him when I first got him but now he seeks out affection and is confident/has positive reactions when I ride him (mostly bareback). Including tack I don't weigh more than 15% of his bodyweight, and i don't use spurs or whips (i would be dead if i tried to hold a whip on him). I ride him out on hacks as a form of enrichment and to boost his confidence when dealing with new things, I will school him in both flatwork and jumps on occasion to keep him occupied and to help build up more of his muscles and keep him in shape. Yes, I could lunge him or handwalk him to do the same thing but I can't run as fast as he can, working him on a lungeline will cause him to focus more on one side (the inside) than the other and not use all of his body correctly, and it's near impossible to assess a horses canter when you're the one leading them in a straight line and there's very rarely anyone to help me. Does this mean I'm 'exploiting an animal for my own benefit' ?

It is possible to farm animals with high welfare standards, it is possible to have meat/dairy/fur/wool farms that treat their animals with the kindness they deserve. Sometimes it's not the farmers abusing the animals, sometimes it's the actual slaughterhouses and abattoirs that are cruel and cause unnecessary suffering. I am not against farming/farmers, I am against the industrialisation of agriculture, I'm just not in a position to be able to support the farms I want to because they are more expensive and harder to trace.

I will forever put animal welfare above animal rights. You can't have animal rights that are beneficial for all animals without having a strong foundation of animal welfare legislation that is specialised to each species. (I am aware of the five freedoms but there's too many loopholes in them for me)

I own rescue snakes, geckos and frogs. They need to eat other animals to have a healthy life, so I have a section of my freezer dedicated to frozen rats/mice/quails and I have boxes of live cockroaches/crickets/mealworms.

I would rather kill an animal than force them to go through painful surgeries and treatments that reduce their quality of life.

I don't support most honey brands, because of the impact domestic bees have on wild populations (spreading diseases, purposefully putting hives in ecologically fragile locations such as lowland heathland etc)

Deforestation isn't inherently bad, it depends on the location and the type of forest. Huge man-made monoculture forests should be removed, and yes it will look like a post-apocalypse for a while but you soon see a variety of native plants sprouting (especially in areas where it used to have a dense canopy)

I will never call farmers evil and I will never advocate for the abolishment of all animal farms in the uk. I will advocate for more transparency in slaughterhouses, for easier tracing for the consumer so we know exactly where the animal products came from (not just a red tractor certified farm), for putting the animals welfare first, for paying farmers fairly, for more economic help for farmers to encourage sustainable and ecologically friendly methods (cover crops, woodland pastures, hedges>fences)

It is not beneficial to encourage human-wildlife interactions but understanding human impacts on wildlife is essential. Having foxes and badgers come to your back door isn't cute, it's an accident waiting to happen. Releasing 'rescued' invasive species ,like grey squirrels and mink, doesn't make you a wildlife warrior, it means you're uneducated and don't understand basic ecosystems.

(There's alot more but I needed this off my chest rn, so will be making a part 2)