#source: megan you did this

[yeoldenews]

A Guide to Historically Accurate Regency-Era Names

I recently received a message from a historical romance writer asking if I knew any good resources for finding historically accurate Regency-era names for their characters.

Not knowing any off the top of my head, I dug around online a bit and found there really isn’t much out there. The vast majority of search results were Buzzfeed-style listicles which range from accurate-adjacent to really, really, really bad.

I did find a few blog posts with fairly decent name lists, but noticed that even these have very little indication as to each name’s relative popularity as those statistical breakdowns really don't exist.

I began writing up a response with this information, but then I (being a research addict who was currently snowed in after a blizzard) thought hey - if there aren’t any good resources out there why not make one myself?

As I lacked any compiled data to work from, I had to do my own data wrangling on this project. Due to this fact, I limited the scope to what I thought would be the most useful for writers who focus on this era, namely - people of a marriageable age living in the wealthiest areas of London.

So with this in mind - I went through period records and compiled the names of 25,000 couples who were married in the City of Westminster (which includes Mayfair, St. James and Hyde Park) between 1804 to 1821.

So let’s see what all that data tells us…

To begin - I think it’s hard for us in the modern world with our wide and varied abundance of first names to conceive of just how POPULAR popular names of the past were.

If you were to take a modern sample of 25-year-old (born in 1998) American women, the most common name would be Emily with 1.35% of the total population. If you were to add the next four most popular names (Hannah, Samantha, Sarah and Ashley) these top five names would bring you to 5.5% of the total population. (source: Social Security Administration)

If you were to do the same survey in Regency London - the most common name would be Mary with 19.2% of the population. Add the next four most popular names (Elizabeth, Ann, Sarah and Jane) and with just 5 names you would have covered 62% of all women.

To hit 62% of the population in the modern survey it would take the top 400 names.

The top five Regency men’s names (John, William, Thomas, James and George) have nearly identical statistics as the women’s names.

I struggled for the better part of a week with how to present my findings, as a big list in alphabetical order really fails to get across the popularity factor and also isn’t the most tumblr-compatible format. And then my YouTube homepage recommended a random video of someone ranking all the books they’d read last year - and so I present…

The Regency Name Popularity Tier List

The Tiers

S+ - 10% of the population or greater. There is no modern equivalent to this level of popularity. 52% of the population had one of these 7 names.

S - 2-10%. There is still no modern equivalent to this level of popularity. Names in this percentage range in the past have included Mary and William in the 1880s and Jennifer in the late 1970s (topped out at 4%).

A - 1-2%. The top five modern names usually fall in this range. Kids with these names would probably include their last initial in class to avoid confusion. (1998 examples: Emily, Sarah, Ashley, Michael, Christopher, Brandon.)

B - .3-1%. Very common names. Would fall in the top 50 modern names. You would most likely know at least 1 person with these names. (1998 examples: Jessica, Megan, Allison, Justin, Ryan, Eric)

C - .17-.3%. Common names. Would fall in the modern top 100. You would probably know someone with these names, or at least know of them. (1998 examples: Chloe, Grace, Vanessa, Sean, Spencer, Seth)

D - .06-.17%. Less common names. In the modern top 250. You may not personally know someone with these names, but you’re aware of them. (1998 examples: Faith, Cassidy, Summer, Griffin, Dustin, Colby)

E - .02-.06%. Uncommon names. You’re aware these are names, but they are not common. Unusual enough they may be remarked upon. (1998 examples: Calista, Skye, Precious, Fabian, Justice, Lorenzo)

F - .01-.02%. Rare names. You may have heard of these names, but you probably don’t know anyone with one. Extremely unusual, and would likely be remarked upon. (1998 examples: Emerald, Lourdes, Serenity, Dario, Tavian, Adonis)

G - Very rare names. There are only a handful of people with these names in the entire country. You’ve never met anyone with this name.

H - Virtually non-existent. Names that theoretically could have existed in the Regency period (their original source pre-dates the early 19th century) but I found fewer than five (and often no) period examples of them being used in Regency England. (Example names taken from romance novels and online Regency name lists.)

Just to once again reinforce how POPULAR popular names were before we get to the tier lists - statistically, in a ballroom of 100 people in Regency London: 80 would have names from tiers S+/S. An additional 15 people would have names from tiers A/B and C. 4 of the remaining 5 would have names from D/E. Only one would have a name from below tier E.

Women's Names

S+ Mary, Elizabeth, Ann, Sarah      

S - Jane, Mary Ann+, Hannah, Susannah, Margaret, Catherine, Martha, Charlotte, Maria

A - Frances, Harriet, Sophia, Eleanor, Rebecca

B - Alice, Amelia, Bridget~, Caroline, Eliza, Esther, Isabella, Louisa, Lucy, Lydia, Phoebe, Rachel, Susan

C - Ellen, Fanny*, Grace, Henrietta, Hester, Jemima, Matilda, Priscilla

D - Abigail, Agnes, Amy, Augusta, Barbara, Betsy*, Betty*, Cecilia, Christiana, Clarissa, Deborah, Diana, Dinah, Dorothy, Emily, Emma, Georgiana, Helen, Janet^, Joanna, Johanna, Judith, Julia, Kezia, Kitty*, Letitia, Nancy*, Ruth, Winifred>

E - Arabella, Celia, Charity, Clara, Cordelia, Dorcas, Eve, Georgina, Honor, Honora, Jennet^, Jessie*^, Joan, Joyce, Juliana, Juliet, Lavinia, Leah, Margery, Marian, Marianne, Marie, Mercy, Miriam, Naomi, Patience, Penelope, Philadelphia, Phillis, Prudence, Rhoda, Rosanna, Rose, Rosetta, Rosina, Sabina, Selina, Sylvia, Theodosia, Theresa

F - (selected) Alicia, Bethia, Euphemia, Frederica, Helena, Leonora, Mariana, Millicent, Mirah, Olivia, Philippa, Rosamund, Sybella, Tabitha, Temperance, Theophila, Thomasin, Tryphena, Ursula, Virtue, Wilhelmina

G - (selected) Adelaide, Alethia, Angelina, Cassandra, Cherry, Constance, Delilah, Dorinda, Drusilla, Eva, Happy, Jessica, Josephine, Laura, Minerva, Octavia, Parthenia, Theodora, Violet, Zipporah

H - Alberta, Alexandra, Amber, Ashley, Calliope, Calpurnia, Chloe, Cressida, Cynthia, Daisy, Daphne, Elaine, Eloise, Estella, Lilian, Lilias, Francesca, Gabriella, Genevieve, Gwendoline, Hermione, Hyacinth, Inez, Iris, Kathleen, Madeline, Maude, Melody, Portia, Seabright, Seraphina, Sienna, Verity

Men's Names

S+ John, William, Thomas

S - James, George, Joseph, Richard, Robert, Charles, Henry, Edward, Samuel

A - Benjamin, (Mother’s/Grandmother’s maiden name used as first name)#

B - Alexander^, Andrew, Daniel, David>, Edmund, Francis, Frederick, Isaac, Matthew, Michael, Patrick~, Peter, Philip, Stephen, Timothy

C - Abraham, Anthony, Christopher, Hugh>, Jeremiah, Jonathan, Nathaniel, Walter

D - Adam, Arthur, Bartholomew, Cornelius, Dennis, Evan>, Jacob, Job, Josiah, Joshua, Lawrence, Lewis, Luke, Mark, Martin, Moses, Nicholas, Owen>, Paul, Ralph, Simon

E - Aaron, Alfred, Allen, Ambrose, Amos, Archibald, Augustin, Augustus, Barnard, Barney, Bernard, Bryan, Caleb, Christian, Clement, Colin, Duncan^, Ebenezer, Edwin, Emanuel, Felix, Gabriel, Gerard, Gilbert, Giles, Griffith, Harry*, Herbert, Humphrey, Israel, Jabez, Jesse, Joel, Jonas, Lancelot, Matthias, Maurice, Miles, Oliver, Rees, Reuben, Roger, Rowland, Solomon, Theophilus, Valentine, Zachariah

F - (selected) Abel, Barnabus, Benedict, Connor, Elijah, Ernest, Gideon, Godfrey, Gregory, Hector, Horace, Horatio, Isaiah, Jasper, Levi, Marmaduke, Noah, Percival, Shadrach, Vincent

G - (selected) Albion, Darius, Christmas, Cleophas, Enoch, Ethelbert, Gavin, Griffin, Hercules, Hugo, Innocent, Justin, Maximilian, Methuselah, Peregrine, Phineas, Roland, Sebastian, Sylvester, Theodore, Titus, Zephaniah

H - Albinus, Americus, Cassian, Dominic, Eric, Milo, Rollo, Trevor, Tristan, Waldo, Xavier

# Men were sometimes given a family surname (most often their mother's or grandmother's maiden name) as their first name - the most famous example of this being Fitzwilliam Darcy. If you were to combine all surname-based first names as a single 'name' this is where the practice would rank.

*Rank as a given name, not a nickname

+If you count Mary Ann as a separate name from Mary - Mary would remain in S+ even without the Mary Anns included

~Primarily used by people of Irish descent

^Primarily used by people of Scottish descent

>Primarily used by people of Welsh descent

I was going to continue on and write about why Regency-era first names were so uniform, discuss historically accurate surnames, nicknames, and include a little guide to finding 'unique' names that are still historically accurate - but this post is already very, very long, so that will have to wait for a later date.

If anyone has any questions/comments/clarifications in the meantime feel free to message me.

Methodology notes: All data is from marriage records covering six parishes in the City of Westminster between 1804 and 1821. The total sample size was 50,950 individuals.

I chose marriage records rather than births/baptisms as I wanted to focus on individuals who were adults during the Regency era rather than newborns. I think many people make the mistake when researching historical names by using baby name data for the year their story takes place rather than 20 to 30 years prior, and I wanted to avoid that. If you are writing a story that takes place in 1930 you don’t want to research the top names for 1930, you need to be looking at 1910 or earlier if you are naming adult characters.

I combined (for my own sanity) names that are pronounced identically but have minor spelling differences: i.e. the data for Catherine also includes Catharines and Katherines, Susannah includes Susannas, Phoebe includes Phebes, etc.

The compound 'Mother's/Grandmother's maiden name used as first name' designation is an educated guesstimate based on what I recognized as known surnames, as I do not hate myself enough to go through 25,000+ individuals and confirm their mother's maiden names. So if the tally includes any individuals who just happened to be named Fitzroy/Hastings/Townsend/etc. because their parents liked the sound of it and not due to any familial relations - my bad.

I did a small comparative survey of 5,000 individuals in several rural communities in Rutland and Staffordshire (chosen because they had the cleanest data I could find and I was lazy) to see if there were any significant differences between urban and rural naming practices and found the results to be very similar. The most noticeable difference I observed was that the S+ tier names were even MORE popular in rural areas than in London. In Rutland between 1810 and 1820 Elizabeths comprised 21.4% of all brides vs. 15.3% in the London survey. All other S+ names also saw increases of between 1% and 6%. I also observed that the rural communities I surveyed saw a small, but noticeable and fairly consistent, increase in the use of names with Biblical origins.

Sources of the records I used for my survey: 

Ancestry.com. England & Wales Marriages, 1538-1988 [database on-line].

Ancestry.com. Westminster, London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935 [database on-line].

[reality-detective]

The Vatican: Human Trafficking Hub

The Vatican Underground- Cleared

The Dulce Base- Underground Cleared

The Area 51 Underground Base- Cleared

Orion Group ❌ (Defeated)

Ciakharr Group ❌ (Defeated)

Killy Tokurt Group ❌ (Defeated)

These are the three main factions responsible for the

The CIA is connected to the Killy Tokurt Ops. They are the one who specialize in soul scalping. This is how our government leaders were replaced. Removing the light body & soul and replacing it with a physical vessel void of any connection to source.

Sherry Shriner covered this in many videos/audios. Megan Rose spoke about this in one of her books. Corey Goode is also another source who spoke on the caste system of the Ciakharr who are the top elite in their race.

Remember when I mentioned that people were not ready once they found out who have been eating the children? Guess what was the capitol for the "Child Sex Trafficking" breeding hub?

The Vatican.

Do you remember the story or report that came out in July of 2019 where thousands of bones was unearthed in two ossuaries discovered in the Vatican City, as part of an ongoing search for clues into the disappearance of a 15-year-old girl more than three decades ago in 1983?

Do you remember the mass grave full of baby bones found along the shores of Israel's Mediterranean coast, in the ancient seaport of Ashkelon in 2014?

Do you remember An Indigenous group said the remains of as many as 751 people, mainly children, had been found in unmarked graves on the site of a former boarding school in Saskatchewan?

As a matter of fact that was a 2,300 page document that leaked that verified Pope Francis’ cover up of a Vatican Pedophile Ring. Did you know 20 Chilean Priests who went public on their connection to that very same Pedophile Ring, were killed in a plane crash right after their meeting with Pope Francis?

Back on July 20 2014 the International Common Law Court of Justice in Brussels found defendants Pope Francis Bergoglio, Catholic Jesuit Superior General Adolfo Pachon and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby guilty of rape, torture, murder and the trafficking of children. (Nothing Is Happening?)

I highly doubt it.

Two adolescent women told the ICLCJ Court that Pope Francis raped them while participating in child sacrifices during the Springs of 2009 and 2010 in rural Holland and Belgium. According to a former employee of the Curia in Rome, rapes and murders of children also took place at the Carnarvon Castle in Wales and an undisclosed French Chateau.

A Prosecutor introduced notarized affidavits by eight others claiming to witness these same crimes organized by the Vatican. Another witness testified that they were present during meetings with the then Argentine priest and Bishop Francis and the military Junta during Argentine’s 1970′s Dirty War.

According to the witness, Francis helped traffic 30,000 children of missing political prisoners into the Vatican Pedophile Ring.

Do you know why this has taken so long? If you knew how vast these underground tunnels are you would understand why certain EOs signed by D. Trump kept getting extensions.

The Military at some point will disclose the battles that went underground.

The weapons used.

The strategies used.

The entries/exits used.

The medical technology used.

The portals/gateways that were used.

You got a glimpse of this during the fight that went on underground with the Phil Schneider lectures that still can be found on YouTube about the Dulce extraterrestrial confrontation that resulted in lives being lost and him being scarred from it.

People are only looking at the human aspect of this process. They are not looking at this as governments officials serving a unknown species that want world dominion who is an entire different secret government whose base are in these DUMBS-(Deep Underground Military Bases) who control all of our 3 letter agencies who are middlemen/conduits who these covert species use to control Washington. 🤔

Julian Assange

[kentstoji]

— jonathan price with his first girlfriend. both were young, just starting their respective careers. john was still getting used to the responsibilities that came with adulthood.

— she, on the other hand, was reveling in the freedom the adulthood had brought her. finally free from the suffocating grip of her conservative parents, it was a much-needed breath of fresh air.

— at first, they were happy, content, even with the demanding routine of john's work. they were together, and that’s what mattered.

— john's extended family loved his girlfriend as if she were already one of them, as if she was part of their family.

— the modest ring john carried with him everywhere was also a symbol of that love.

— but she wasn’t ready. she didn’t want to live the same life as her parents. she didn’t want to become her mother and hated the idea that john would turn into her father, indifferent and always with a beer bottle in hand.

— the rejection was hard on John, and the breakup even worse.

— john threw himself into work as a way to cope. BUT imagine his shock when, just a year later, his ex-girlfriend showed up flaunting an engagement ring.

— and the fiancé in question was john's younger brother.

— what had changed? where did he go wrong? was he not enough?

— john stood frozen for what felt like endless minutes, watching the happiness that radiated from his ex-girlfriend's face. she looked glowing, joyful, like a painting worthy of being remembered.

— but that night, after forcing a smile for the happy couple, he decided it was time to close that chapter and respect his family ties, respect his brother.

— and years later, megan (the woman who had once almost been jonathan price’s wife) had to watch and feign sympathy when he brought someone to meet the family.

— for the first time in years, John seemed genuinely happy and finally at ease. and it was painful to admit that she wasn’t the source of that joy.

— it was you, who in her eyes, was definitely not his type. yet, you fit comfortably under john's arm.

— you, who wore dog tags around your neck, proudly.

— you, who not only had John wrapped around your little finger but had also won over the entire price family.

[bxtxnx]

The one and only piece on T-squares you will ever need to read, because I know this thing the best.

I was just looking up posts on T-squares yet again to see if I can find the answer to dealing with them, since I have two in my chart and let me tell you, it's rough.

Alsa, no matter how much I search, nothing especially note-worthy comes up and it further proved to me that I know this placement better than anyone.

So listen up, girls, guys and other persons of interest. Because no one else knows the T-squares as well as I do.

To get the formalities out of the way for those that don't know - a T-square is formed by two planets that are in an opposition to each other, plus a third planet forming a square to both of these planets. This ends up looking like a nice, big, red triangle in your chart.

Some people say that the solution to the T-square is in the so called "empty leg", others say that you need to look for positive aspects to the T-square (sextiles and trines), because they are the solution and the fix for the T-square, which causes a person to remain stagnant in their life, unable to achieve anything no matter how much effort they put in.

That's wrong.

The empty leg won't help you, a positive aspect won't help you either.

With the T-square, you have to go to the eye of the storm, you have to deal with it head on. The solution to the T-square is in it's apex, it's focal point, aka the planet that is forming a square to the other two planets.

When a planet is at the apex of the T-square, it becomes so prominent, that it starts acting like a personal placement. Having Mars at the apex of a T-square affects you in the same way an Aries Sun will. And you deal with MAJOR issues related to that planet. That planet is a source of great struggles related to it's nature, but it also brings you your greatest success and achievements.

Make sure you remember the following keywords:

Mars: aggression, violence, competition, being the first, ambition

Saturn: challenges, delays, limitation, positions of high status, high positions in the hierarchy

Pluto: transformations, crisis, critical life and death situations, sexual things

Uranus: society, standing out and being unique, groups of people

Oprah Winfrey has a T-square with Mars at the apex, Soyeon of (G)-IDLE has one with Saturn at the apex, Megan Thee Stallion - a T-square with Pluto at the apex, BTS - Uranus at the apex.

Oprah with her Mars at the apex of her T-square has dealt with violence and assaults since was a child. Her bio online says "...she is a living symbol of the self-made person in spite of all odds." This one sentence alone shows the manifestation of her Mars apex - her fighting spirit.

She has won beauty pageants while in university, her Mars once again acting up (but in a positive way), by helping her thrive in competitions.

After leaving college, she became the first female and first black newscaster in Nashville. See the pattern?

Soyeon of (G)-IDLE with her Saturn at the apex of her T-square and her fellow members of the group weren't able to debut, because their label didn't give them a song fitting for the group. One song after the other, no song was a good fit for the group to record and make their debut with. A delay and a challenge, courtesy of Saturn.

So, what did Soyeon do? Decided to write her own song and pitch it to the label. In the end, (G)-IDLE debuted with the song LATATA, written by Soyeon.

Over the years, Soyeon has been the producer of the group, creating and overseeing the recording of the songs; she has been the creative director of the group, coming up with and overseeing the concepts, among many other things she has been doing.

All of this shows how impactful Saturn at the apex of her T-square is - she deals with struggles and challenges in her path and she takes the difficult path of dealing with them on her own, even when she is surrounded by people more competent in a particular sphere. She deals with the issues and assumes high positions in the hierarchy (in her case - producer / creative director) and becomes an authority in her sphere.

Pluto at the apex of Megan Thee Stallion's T-square has forced her to deal with some pretty traumatizing things. Losing her mother and great-grandmother in the same month, getting shot and dealing with a lawsuit and problems with her label which affected her work.

Despite all of this, Megan has proven to be a survivor, being able to get out of various crises fairly well, enough to be able to keep moving forward. This shows the true power of Pluto, being able to survive and thrive after the darkest of times. The sexual nature of her lyrics is also another way Pluto is able to drive Megan to success.

BTS with their T-square having Uranus at the apex are the epitome of all things Uranuan. Just the fact that they are a group of seven members is one step to Uranus bringing them success.

That success didn't come immediately though. When the group first debuted, they stood out but not in a good way. They were ostracized and made fun of both by the public and by their colleagues in the industry.

Because they came from a small entertainment company which didn't have a lot of funds, the group wasn't able to receive the type of promotions and marketing other groups from more established companies do, so the group took a different approach to marketing themselves with vlogs and videos of the members dancing and singing, plus other types of videos.

In the end, BTS' unique sound, plus their songs full of social commentary took them where they are today, while the promotional content the group made, made them stand out and become the blueprint for promotional marketing of K-pop groups, with many other groups following in their footsteps and doing the same types of content and shows that they did.

This is why I say the apex of the T-square is extremely important in a chart. It's as important as your Sun. It is what brings you the biggest challenges, but also the biggest rewards.

If you have a Mars apex, you need to live like an Aries by being a fighter and always chasing the next achievement, if you have a Jupiter apex, you need to live like a Sagittarius - constantly absorbing new knowledge to the point you become a walking encyclopedia and being loud and flamboyant.

This is it. While the other planets in the T-square also play their roles and have their influence, this is how a T-square works and is dealt with. This is how a T-square goes from keeping you stagnant, running in one place, to the fastest vehicle that takes you to the greatest heights. ☽

[bucksboobs]

genuine question from someone new to the show — did the characters/actresses of buck’s former love interests get the same kinda hate online as tommy/lou is getting? because it seems particularly vitriolic, and i can’t decide if it makes me more sad if it’s normalised or if it’s just par for the course for this fandom.

The one that got it the worst of Taylor Kelly/Megan West. Like Tommy, her character had an antagonistic role in her first appearance. When she showed back up it raised a lot of eyebrows but people were kind of like “oh Buck is getting a friend outside the 118? Weird that it’s Taylor of all people but sure.” It wasn’t until they kissed after Eddie was shot that the hate really picked up. In hindsight it kind of feels like a prologue to what happened with Tommy/Lou, “BT Bones” was a common refrain every episode she was in, and when she continued to show up, the hatred continued to get more amplified. It especially wasn’t taken well by fandom especially that she was very quick to bluntly call out Buck’s flaws in ways that weren’t very tactful (“you are so needy”, “it’s not always about you”) and she also continued to have moments where she was still the ruthless pursuer of truth she was introduced as, the flaw that would eventually sink the relationship as she nearly gets Buck fired after using him as an anonymous source for a scoop. There was a lot of misogyny aimed her way and it’s honestly embarrassing to look back at and realize I wasn’t calling it out the way I should have been, but as for how it compares to what happened to Tommy? I really think it cranked up to 11, especially post 710. Though I’d be happy to know what other old heads remember

[ofmdrecaps]

11/29-30/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; David Jenkins; Rhys Darby; Taika Waititi; Con O'Neill; Nathan Foad; Ruibo Qian; David Fane; Megan Vertelle BTS; Fan Spotlight: One More Song Drag; Articles; Love Notes;

= David Jenkins =

Chaos Dad is out helping to fuel the clowning! The big point of that interview that @adoptourcrew was kind enough to point out was that Rhys is absolutely ready to hop back into ofmd.

Source: David Jenkins Bsky

= Rhys Darby =

- Daily Darby Doodles -

More Daily Doodles from the Darbs!

Source: Rhys Free Substack

And Rhys doing a little advertising, and getting heckled by the kids.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The CryptidFactor podcast (@thecryptidfactor)

Source: TheCryptidFactor Instagram

Rhys also did a short video while at the StarFury Event in the UK for his paid Substack.

Source: Rhys' Paid Substack

= Taika Waititi =

A little blep from Taika's Interior Chinatown interview!

Source: YulYY4 Bsky

Rita crumbs of Taika and his goofy self.

And some rugby going on with friends! You can see David Fane and Robbie Magasiva there too!

Source: Marsgee13

= Con O'Neill =

Some more pictures of Con from the Republic of Pirates that were posted after the con!

Source: Starfury Events

= Nathan Foad =

Nathan keeping us entertained with bratwurst, I love this man.

Source: Nathan's Instagram Stories

= Ruibo Qian =

A quick sketch of our lovely Pirate Queen out on the town with a friend.

Source: Ruibo Qian's Instagram Stories

= David Fane =

Looks like David Fane's old work Bro'town (with Oscar Knightly and so many others) has some new swag up! If you're interested, check it out on their Redbubble!

Source: David Fane's Instagram

= Megan Vertelle =

Our sweet Set Decorator Megan Vertelle was kind enough to give us some more BTS of Mary and Anne's antique shop! You can view them all here: OFMD Renewal Repo or on Megan Vertelle's Instagram

Source: Megan Vertelle's Instagram

== Fan Spotlight ==

= One More Song =

This is actually happening as we speak in Columbus OH because this recap is very very very late. For those of you who end up attending, please let us know how it was! It sounds absolutely phenomenal, so many great crew member (and even VICO!) joining this fabulous Drag & Variety Show! Wanna learn more about these awesome performers? Check out their Instagram posts (linked below) for their socials and introductions!

Vico Suave! / V.C. De Arte

Polly Amour / Zalestorm

Krill Collins / Polly Cocktail

Snake / Honeybee

BBQ Guo / Elixir Kant

G Wiz / Gagatha Christea

Keela Mann / Irritable Brat Syndrome

Source: One More Song OFMD Instagram

== Articles ==

Thank you to @adoptourcrew for continuing to keep us apprised of ofmd related articles!

Source: AdoptOurCrew

== Love Notes ==

Hey there lovelies. These are so late and I'm very sorry for that-- but I'll be honest I've been dealing with a lot at home and it's been hard to get to them. I still think of you all every day, and I hope you're hanging in there. Remember to take some time for yourself if you need it. Sending love <3

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A post shared by @thelatestkate

Source: The Latest Kate's Instagram

[solarwynd]

It's funny how armys will say pjms are bad at streaming when the US, which is the country that gives Jimin the most amount of streams and is the most stable, is also the country that has the most amount of pjms. And the countries that are the least stable when it comes to streaming are SEA countries and they're the countries with the least amount of pjms (we all know those countries are mostly filled with taekookers, so not only are they not Jimin solos, they're not even Jimin biased). Those countries are the ones that can't seem to be able to stream for more than a day and are always giving the members these huge drops. Thailand and Vietnam alone are responsible for 64% of the 1.5m drop Running Wild just had today. And they're also the ones responsible for more than half of the big drop Who had recently, the drop that he's currently being dragged for. Nodoby is even surprised anymore, every single time there's a new release people dread the now infamous 'Thailand Second Day Drop'. Meanwhile the US, even when they decrease, never decrease this much. They don't even drop 500k let alone 1m the way Thailand does.

And armys can't even try to say that the US isn't basically pjm land because look at how much they have been complaining about US streams this year. Even armys, who normally act like solos don't even know what Spotify is, have started admitting US fans are mostly Jimin solos. And that's because it became too obvious to ignore. I mean, every member except for Yoongi (though the same thing would've likely happened to him) has released songs and albums this year, and every single one except for Jimin has failed to chart in the US (let's be honest and admit Neva Play charted because of Megan who is already popular in the US, if it was because of Namjoon CBTM and Lost would've charted too). Jimin charted more songs in the US than every member combined and multiple by 5. Streaming only for one member is the definition of solo, so what else are we supposed to call US fans if not Jimin solos?

Armys might wanna say it's gp and Who does have some gp (though more in the beginning) but we all know gp weren't the ones responsible for CTT, SGMB and Be Mine charting in the US. Neither did they all randomly decide to start listening to LC again right before it turned 1 year old and got 1b streams then continued to consistently stream it for 5 months straight only to suddenly stop the day before Who came out. That's very clearly fan behavior.

Most of Jimin's US streams are undeniably come from fans, but those fans can't be armys otherwise they would stream for the other members as well, so they have to be solo fans. In contrast, most of Jimin's SEA streams are coming from armys, which is made clear by the fact that, unlike the US, they stream for every member. Before the drop, Thailand gave Running Wild 1.5m streams, Vietnam gave it 500k and the US, which has a Spotify userbase that is 100x times (not exaggerating) bigger than Thailand's, couldn't even give it 300k.

So to recap, the country with the most amount of pjms is also the country that gives Jimin the most amount of streams and do that without dropping it all after one day. And the countries that have the least amount of pjms are the countries that are the messiest streamers, the ones that have given him 1m drops multiple times.

And I'm not trying to say that armys don't know how to stream at all, because they do, and they're even who a lot of pjms learned to stream from since most pjms are ex-armys. And SEA countries are a bit of an exception, most armys in other countries are more consistent. No, my point here is that this narrative of 'pjms suck at streaming' doesn't hold up when you start to actually look at the facts.

I believe the main issue here is that most armys don't thoroughly check pjms account so they depend on those few armys lurkers to tell them what pjms are like. The problem with that should be obvious: If your only source of information on a group of people is coming from someone who hates that group of people, then that information is mostly likely heavily biased and inaccurate.

Pjms are actually very good at streaming challenges. They've slow down now, but they used to often get 20k 30k and once even 60k (half from twitter, half from discord) streaming screenshots (also, as someone who has participated multiple times in these challenges I can confirm that the playlists provided by the accounts that made these challenges were all good and with no looping). But if you've seen armys streaming challenges for Jimin you would know that, unfortunately, they'll be luck to get even 1k. A similar thing can be said about voting. My timeline has been almost exclusively about voting for the past few weeks, it's honestly a little tiring and the same thing happened last year during TMA. With buying is the same thing. Armys were even making similar complaints to the US one about the UK because they were struggling to give other members a #1 on iTunes (including finally getting SNTY that #1 it's missing), all while Jimin got 7 #1s back to back in a few days because pjms decided to give a #1 to all the remixes of Who. And honestly, JiminFunds (who recently got suspended for no reason, though thankfully it's back) is one of, if not the best solo funding account. Actually, Jimin solos fanbases are all pretty competent and professional (Which cannot be said about JK's fanbases who keep unnecessarily shading Jimin. Honestly, what the hell is up with them? It's one thing for fans personal accounts to be messy, but fanbases?). Then there's the whole Deezer situation. When LC started getting all those records on Deezer armys straight up admited to not even knowing what Deezer was. They only found out about the whole thing when the Deezer official twitter account gave credit to pjms in a reply to a tweet congratulating Jimin for the records and armys got so angry they made Deezer delete their tweet. Also the reply got more interactions than the actual main tweet, which is just sad. But regardless of how much armys may hate pjms, credits should be where credits are due. This was a project made by pjms and armys where not even aware of it until after the goal was achieved. It's honestly embarrassing to try to claim credit for something you didn't even know was happening, let alone contribute anything towards. Also, a fun fact: BTS used to not have a Deezer fanbase, but one was created after this and then other members started charting on the platform, so armys can thank pjms for that.

Now, how much of what I just described in the last paragraph would an average army know about? And in comparison, how many times would they have seen a tweet complaining about pjms with a screenshot of a tweet with 50 likes from a pjm account with 100 followers? Do you see what I mean about information being heavily biased and inaccurate? And I'm not saying pjms have never done anything bad, but what I'm saying is that to try to paint pjms as exclusively bad people how never do anything thing good ever is just disingenuous. Every fandom has it's toxic fans, armys themselves being a prime example of that. Because while how bad armys are can be exaggerated, they didn't get their reputation as one of the most toxic fandoms for no reason. So I'm sorry, but complaining about another fandom being toxic and spending a lot of their time fighting is very rich coming from armys. Other k-pop fandoms also have this biased view of armys where they only see the bad and never acknowledge the good and I have seem many armys complain about this, but do they not realize they're doing the exact same thing to pjms?

And I know armys would say "How can you defend solos when they say bad things about the members?" and first of all, the same way that it's not all armys it's not all solos either (a good amount of pjms say nothing about the other members) and second, I have to say once again, this is rich coming from armys. They do understand that there's no difference between saying bad things about a BTS member and saying bad things about any other idol, right? Armys think there is a difference but that's just them being biased. The person you're fan of is not more deserving of basic respect just because they're the person you're a fan of. These idols are all just people doing their jobs and solos disrespecting the other members is just as bad as armys disrespecting other idols, which we all know they are very fond of doing.

And I know the next argument would be "It's worse because solos are saying bad things about people the guy they're a fan of is friends with", but unfortunately that argument doesn't work either because armys have never held back from doing the same thing. Despite what some armys like to say, the BTS members do in fact have other friends outside the group and a lot of those friends are other idols armys have never stopped themselves from talking shit about. Remember them dragging Taemin last year for allegedly coping Taehyung only for him to almost immediately after appear on Suchwita and remind everyone that him and Jimin are still friends. And speaking of Taehyung, if (and taekookers please calm down, this is a hypothetical situation) after the whole Paris situation Taehyung came and out of his own mouth admited that him and Jennie were dating and that he was very much in love with her, does anyone honesty think that would've stopped armys from saying disgusting things about her the moment it came time for their bi-weekly fight with blinks? And regardless of whether or not the members are friends with an idol, they would never approve of the things armys say about these idols on a daily basis. So what right do armys have to call solos bad when they're just as bad, if not worse due to sheer size?

And the final argument would be "The members don't want solo fans" but I'm afraid they've never actually said that. The closest thing they've said to that is that one time Taehyung said something along the lines of "Love all of us" but three things about that: One, he was saying that to armys (who by definition should love all members) not to any other fans they may have. Two, that was years ago before then were even considering putting the group in a hiatus and focusing on solo work. And three, that's Taehyung saying that, not Jimin. But you wanna know what Jimin himself has said? Then have this quote from the second Mini & Moni Music video where he's talking about MUSE: "I hope that ARMY really likes it and if other people enjoy listening to it I couldn't ask for more". That's the official subtitle but just for fun here's the Google translation for the original Korean: "I really hope ARMYs enjoy it the most, and if the public enjoys listening to it too, it would be even better". To Jimin people other than armys listening to his music would be even better than if it was just armys. Does that sound like someone who doesn't want any fans who aren't armys? Because it sure doesn't sound like it.

.🎯

[transmutationisms]

You’ve introduced me to so many topics in theory but there are days when I have no idea what you’re talking about and i twirl my hair and kick my feet while I’m lying on my bed and giggle like omg tell me more

hi megan <3 this is fair also sometimes i am truly talking out my ass and making zero effort to make a thought comprehensible to anyone else lol but i remember you've read some of the 'speculative materialists' so you would probably get a kick out of this:

basically i was mostly just drafting a paragraph explaining how the french 'idéologues' in the 1790s-1810s conceived of sense perception and access to external phenomena, and i used kant as a compare/contrast because he's an easy reference point on this topic/time period:

Idéologie itself was never a singular scientific method, but described a loose methodological family (often referred to by ‘Idéologues,’ such as Cabanis, as analysis) that aimed to uncover the deeper truths and universal laws that structured phenomenal observations. It was this quality that led the historian of medicine George Rosen to describe idéologie as a meeting point of empiricism and the “passive psychology” of Étienne Bonnot de Condillac (1714–1780). For Condillac and his followers, including Cabanis, all ideas of the human mind had their origin in sensations—that is, in the impressions made by external objects upon the sensory organs. Thus, an idea could always be broken down to its component sensations, which could be traced back to their external sources. There were no human ideas or mental faculties that did not ultimately take their source from sensory impressions; human understanding could be studied, corrected, and eventually refashioned by careful application of the ‘analytical’ method. Whereas Kant, whose first Critique was published in 1781, defended a distinction between a priori and a posteriori judgments, the Idéologues considered even an inherited tendency or instinct to be ultimately and strictly a product of sensation. If Kantian transcendental idealism dictated that human observation could never directly access the external phenomena in-themselves, idéologie instead embraced the naïve realist position that the external objects could truly be known and described—but only by precise analysis of their noumenal representations.

and then i was like well condillac died in 1780 and cabanis's most famous treatise was published in 1802 so basically the timing lines up really well for this comparison to kant, and what you would need to do is derive these different attitudes toward things-in-themselves from the political-economic contexts that they're embedded in & patterned on. which would be extremely easy to do on the french side because cabanis was 1) a politician and 2) explicitly openly concerned about the health of the workforce as a means of ensuring the continued production of french national wealth, such that my argument about him is essentially that we should be reading him as espousing proto eugenic positions and as verbalising much of the biopolitical remit of the revolutionary and postrevolutionary french state. like essentially, analogous to the way that c. darwin 'found' capitalist competition in nature, you would say something like, cabanis 'found' (naturalised) the need for management and alteration of the labourer's body & physiology in his medico-philosophical treatises.

anyway i would need to brush up on kant biography stuff but given his interest in physical anthropology and specifically his racial essentialism, it would be easy also to argue that his 'correlationist' thinking derived from how he patterned psychology on a teleological racial-hierarchical view of human biology. which is in turn ofc an economic and political argument. so what i would want to prove here is that both these positions, while seemingly disparate, are ultimately just different bourgeois ideologies & follow superstructurally from the material alienation of capitalist labour relations etc etc. i would do this more elegantly and thoroughly in an actual article but this is tumblr.dashboard :-)

[mastersoftheair]

"Masters of the Air details: Part 1-Graphics

"[...]I had the pleasure of working with the graphics department on many topics from navigation to mission planning, forms, manuals, research and just plain answering questions.

"Dan Burke was the department head but I mostly worked with Megan Jones and her wonderful pup Indy.

"When on set, like in one of the offices that you have seen in the first two episodes or anywhere else in the series, you will see bulletin boards, clip boards, file folders and in/out trays and typewriters filled with paperwork. If you were able to pick up one of these documents you will find actual 100th BG documents faithfully recreated and they are also pertinent to the specific time of the scene. And I am not just talking a page on top but all the way through the stack!

"The mission orders came in to the bomb groups via teletype machines and were printed out on special sized roll paper. Meg found a guy who had working WWII teletypes and then she found the exact paper. She printed up the correct mission reports and they were coming out of the machines and looked great!

"One of the things that Meg asked me about was the navigation paperwork. Crosby had several scenes where he was navigating and just what kind of paperwork would he have had?

"Charts, maps and navigators logs was the answer to begin with and I had brought examples of those with me to teach the actors how to look like they could navigate. I even had some of my Dad's paperwork and nav kit along. Meg recreated his bare nav log to use with Crosby's scenes.

"We then looked in to the mission routes so we could fill out the nav logs and mark the charts and big briefing wall map accurately. I dove in to the archives mission files that they had procured from sources in the US but since this was deep in the middle of COVID the archives were closed down and getting additional research information was problematic. The National Archives in the UK opened up and I was there on the weekend doing research. Instead of the multi generation degraded copies that production received from the US these files were all original and in perfect condition. Incredible stuff for sure with all of the photos complete with Air Ministry water marks on the back of the paper.

"In the mission files were the planned route of the mission and also the actual route flown which were often quite different. I dug in to the files and was able to plot out the planned and actual mission routes on charts that Meg had reproduced. For the pilot types reading this I also plotted all of the routes on ForeFlight to help with quick calculations for the headings as we actually put in the winds that were encountered and reported in the mission file. Meg ended up getting Foreflight so we could share the plots and work out the future missions.

"One of the things that I hadn't realized but was revealed in the reports was just how much time was spent in forming up the whole attacking armada. Each bomb group would all take off and form up over their own air field. Then they would go to specific assembly areas and form up the wings and full task force. It took two, three or more hours of flying just to do this over the UK before they headed toward fortress Europe. Amazing really and it explains why so many aircrew died during this from collisions climbing through the ugly weather. Hundreds and then thousands of aircraft all coming up through the heavy cloud layer on instruments trying not to hit each other. A lot of them did and a near miss sequence is depicted in the series.

"So when you see the paperwork, posters, maps, teletypes and amazing other details you can appreciate the efforts of Megan and the graphics department. And all of the other departments, Some of which I will try to highlight in future posts if this is of interest." - (Taigh Ramey on Facebook)

[pouroverpaloma]

hello 👋🏻 i’m donnatella over on ao3! (i thought this might be easier than going back and forth in the comments.) i wanted to ask what class you’d give daphne as an actual tav in bg3? i have thoughts (artificer… why did they abandon you my beloved) but i keep wondering!! also very curious which other songs are on the daphne playlist 👀 if you care to share

Hi hi!! Oh my god, that’s the question. It’s haunted me. Because you’re right she’d be an artificer but that’s not a Tav option! I know she’d have a Guild Artisan background, but otherwise argh

I guess if Gale, a wizard, is a highly educated academic in this setting, Daphne could be a sorcerer? Because her work is more creative and internally sourced? I also considered saying a cleric of Oghma but we both know she’s never prayed to anyone a day in her life and she’s not about to start

Other highlights from the Daphne playlist include Freak Nasty (obviously) and Where Them Girls at by Megan, Go To Town by Doja Cat, and a Russian song by an all-girl pop punk band about how the internet made them gay. She still doesn’t speak Russian but I feel like Astarion would have shown it to her because it’s so up her street

[taybatwo2]

Monster High IDW Comics Review: Part 5 of ?: Monster High Pride 2024 Issue (“I Put a Spell on You”)

Okay, now we can actually look at the comic. Bring it in boys!!!

Beautiful! Thank you boys.

Part 1:

https://www.tumblr.com/taybatwo2/754406016295321600/monster-high-idw-comics-review-part-13-the-fcbd?source=share

Part 2:

https://www.tumblr.com/taybatwo2/754406053729452032/monster-high-idw-comics-review-part-2-of?source=share

Part 3:

https://www.tumblr.com/taybatwo2/754555603918127104/monster-high-idw-comics-review-part-3-of?source=share

Part 4:

https://www.tumblr.com/taybatwo2/754946130507333632/monster-high-idw-comics-review-part-4-of?source=share

First off, the info:

“I Put a Spell on You” is written by Megan Brown (she/her, has her own website and is on “x” @ megan_mb. She has done a lot of other writing on IDW comics). The art is done by Bowen McCurdy (she/her, her BEAUTIFUL artwork can be seen on her Instagram @ bonesbunns).

The fantastic coloring was by Bex Glendining (she/they, they have their own website, and you can see their artwork on Instagram @ Igions). The front cover’s art was done by Céli Godfried (they/she, they have their own website, are on tumblr @ pianta)

None of these people worked on the previous IDW Monster High comics.

Both this and Summer Fangout and the IDW Free Comic Book Day comics had Kielamel Sibal as the letterer (she/her, another artist on Instagram @ labis_lemaleik), Riley Farmer as the editor (she/her, I think, I can’t access her LinkedIn profile), and production and design done by Johanna Nattalie (she/her and has worked on a lot of IDW Sonic titles). All three had worked previously on the FCBD issue.

It is 10 pages long Vs the twice as long “Summer Fangout.” Which is a shame.

Synopsis (spoilers below).

“I Put a Spell on You” has Spelldon try to become friends with Draculaura on his road to bettering himself. He is so upset by her not wanting to fang out with him that he asks Spelldon to remove all of his love emotions through a potion. They track down the three ingredients, Valentine catches feels for Spelldon (who already had them for Valentine) and last minute decides he doesn’t need the potion. Spelldon drinks it and tells him it was just a “murktail” (“mocktail”), and they begin dating (YESSS).

My personal thoughts/feelings/breakdown and more photos under the cut:

Like the previous comic, I will be whiting out the speech bubbles to try and circumvent the copyright on these pages I’m uploading.

On with the comic!

page 1:

It starts off with Valentine talking with Whisp (whom he’d become friends with in his SDCC doll diary) about how he wants to turn his life around. The first step is asking Draculaura if she’d be friends with him and he’s SO NERVOUS (Look how is hand is shaking! Fangtastic detail). So nervous that he walks head first into a locker (can relate - that hurts). Whisp sees this as a perfect opportunity to duck out (I love her so much).

Pros:

(Most of these are just going to be me gushing over the artwork. I absolutely adore it and REALLY wish the other IDW comics had her as their artist and kept the same colorist).

I like how his voice’s accent shows through the writing and “turning over a new grave” is a great pun.  The reactions are pretty good too (the RIP sound effect, mwah). 

And the angle on his face while in the floor is beautiful! He even has a little nose scrunch.

Call backs:

They mention him getting knocked into the pit of “eternal body odor” again (I believe he also dealt with those ramifications in his diary). 

I already mentioned it, but I like how he is friends with Whisp in this (like in his SDCC release/diary).

Other:

They did lightly alter Valentine’s outfit (I assume so it was easier to draw -it had a lot of detail on it in his 3D model and SDCC doll), his sleeves are a bit shorter, he is missing cravat, they gave him black nails and more maroon colored hair instead with some reddish streaks instead of pure black with red streaks. :)

page 2:

After being knocked on the floor, Valentine rights himself and quickly asks Draculaura (first in his normal accent and then in his southern swagger) if she’d like to be friends/see a show together “to rekindle our- er-our friendship.” She says she can’t (it sounds like she’s not necessarily against it), she has a full schedule. I saw someone mention that they took at as her trying to blow him off by mentioning all these things, but I read it as she was actually that busy *shrugs.* And Valentine takes this really hard, because he’s replaying that conversation back in his head in class. 

Pros:

Again, I love all the facial expressions!  Also, look at those hands! Look at the use of shadow and they even painted both of their nails. FANTASTIC!

Also, good use of paneling to show that was a flashback.

Call Backs:

The inside of the school looks like the webisodes’ school interior (so maybe these are not following the IDW comics? They used the CGI model of the school).

But, Draculaura being overwhelmed with duties/work does sound like it’s keeping in line with this G1 “Once Bitten” canon.

Nitpick…kinda:

Valentine is REALLY taking it hard that Draculaura is not wanting to hang out with him right that second. Is he just overthinking it? Does he think she’s blowing him off? He probably feels like he keeps failing and can’t make up for his past misdeeds.

Not that the comic has any room for this, but what if the first scene stayed the same, she tentatively says, “yeah, I think we could try being friends.” Then it’s a montage of him trying to fang out/help her and he has just the worst luck (he interrupts her in the middle of fear practice and it topples their human pyramid, he knocks over a vase of flowers he brought her all over her creative writing assignment, maybe he’s forgot how she reacts to blood and gets her some chocolate covered blooded jelly truffles)??? After a week of mess ups, and Draculaura not answering his texts anymore (because she feels overwhelmed-but he doesn’t know), then he can feel like he majorly blew it (but maybe that is too much of a retread on what happened in “Only Have Eye for You”).

Maybe he is overthinking it because his emotional vampire side is hangry (his SDCC diary mentions that he gets energy off of people’s love -more so if it is freely given - so maybe he’s running on low. I know I get a bit dramatic and paranoid when I’m low on fuel).

Valentine is drawn a bit too short/Draculaura is too tall(Draculaura’s head shouldn’t reach above his shoulders and her lipstick and fangs are missing). 

page 3:

He is snapped out of it by Spelldon. After Spelldon takes one of the roses, Valentine laments to Spelldon about his lack of emotional intelligence and how his love for others have only brought him “pain and suffering.” AND he tells Spelldon he no longer “like likes” girls. Which is really sweet, but again, I would love it if in the PRIDE ISSUE we could get a full on: “I am GAY Spelldon.” Instead of a “You know what I mean!!”

Pros: Valentines’ face in the sixth panel is well drawn.

Valentine being over dramatic is a nice touch. Kid is spiraling. Maybe he’s hangry…?  The background continues to be great. I like the background posters of the fanged mouth.

We get the long awaited appearance of SPELLDON. I really like his design (how he has black features, his pointed ears, his outfit, his sparkly shirt). I would love to break down his appearance in another review, and compare it to how fanon (and Garrett Sander) had designed him (and how it’s evolved over the years).

Call Back:

Spelldon apparently likes black roses. :) Which is great because those seem to be Valentine’s specialty (besides in the movie, those were pink).

They name drop “lap dragons,” which are one of the pets that Valentine took care of in his SDCC diary for Mrs. Goblin (which ties back to him wanting to take an interest in Biteology to be a vet).

page 4:

Spelldon (begrudgingly) is talked into making a potion to make Valentine stop feeling all the feels. 

Pros:

Spelldon is so much taller than Valentine (“he sure is big,” isn’t he Valentine?).

The passing of time is well done in the paneling (and the zoom-in to the book is also great).

More great facial expressions and HANDS!!

There is some great foreshadowing with the book. See how Spelldon’s right hand is covering most of the page (like he doesn’t want Valentine to see what it says), and Valentine is not paying attention to the title of the tome? Well, the tome says: “Party Potions,” which doesn’t sound like a title heavy enough to contain an emotion erasing potion.

It also implies that this comic takes the span of about a week.

Nitpicks: Valentine calls Spelldon a magician? Hahaha, sounds like he does stage magic. Just call him a witch Valentine. :)

page 5:

Valentine and Spelldon go to the store to get a “Hydra Heart Scale.” Apparently they are both Elissabat stans and go to see her movie off screen-err page (I would have LOVED to have seen this).

Pros:

I love the look of the background of the store. It’s nicely faded out, the casual inclusion of rib cages (symbolizing where the heart lays and the other new character that had appeared in “Why do Ghouls fall in Love:” Cupid), bat wings, and even some hockey masks like a certain mama’s boy, camp serial killer might be known for wearing. 

This conversation on how much they should get is done SO MUCH better here than in Clawdeen’s/Toralei’s previous short story (in my opinion).

Spelldon looks really cute in the third and forth panel, and Valentine looks really good in the fifth and last panel. I like the hatching they add to Spelldon’s hair shade. I like that they have a little lore drop in here as well about what Spelldon is good at (top of the class in Potion-Crafting) and what Valentine is (really) good at (Biteology).

Call Backs:

The goblin lady he helped during the summer is from SDCC diary and the “unfortunate birthday party incident (is from “Why Do Ghouls Fall in Love?”). Honey, you almost made Draculaura an empty, unfeeling husk FOREVER, I think that would be a bit more than unfortunate.

Nitpicks: Apparently Elissabat the Vampire Queen and movie star is taking up sponsorships for Fake Blood Murktails (I’m not really feeing that pun….?).

And while Elissabat is a fun cameo, it feels a bit off here, but I know they already wanted to hint at Murktails being a thing.

But, why murktails? Are mock-tails popular with today’s youth?? Why not smoothies…boo-thies? I know flavored/carbonated waters and energy drinks are popular…

Maybe have Elissabat in a new costume in a promotional outfit for the “Cracking Dusk” movie mentioned here

(I would have loved to see a new design on her, like they did for her Vampire Heart movie poster in “Frights, Camera, Action,” and the Draculaura Maul Monsteristas dress).

Also, I wish that the last speech bubble in the second panel was moved over and down a bit more, so you could see Valentine’s hand counting down “two” (I saw their line art on the artist’s page -serious check out their Instagram and I think it’s a shame to cover up such lovely hand artwork, also, you can see how the background line art doesn’t touch the character’s line art, helping them not get lost in the panel).

page 6:

The next thing they have to get is “Himalayan Ice Malt from the Lair or a Yeti.” Valentine and Spelldon….well I actually don’t know what happens. I originally flipped back and forth several times to see if I skipped a page because it just didn’t seem to flow as well, and what happens to cause a distraction for the yeti to leave his office -and his malt- is a bit unclear (to me).

Spelldon mentions that having skates would ruin the plan, Valentine trips stepping forward, but then looks like he’s falling back and the next (BEAUTIFUL PANEL) he’s kneeled down,

gripping his shoulder in pain, leaning over Spelldon, while Spelldon is laying under him (I LOVE his pose), and an explosion is going off. Did Spelldon sneak over to the fishing hole and summon the sea monsters/put an explosive potion in the hole?? Unknown. Then the panel jumps back up and see a bunch of monster fish trying to come out of the fishing hole. 

Am I missing something??? Anyways, the Dreddy the Yeti is distracted and both boys run into his unprotected office and steal the malt.

Pros:

Dreddy running out to fix the problem has some funny dialogue and I love Spelldon’s and Valentine’s conspiratorial look they give one another. 

Again, lovely shading (on the neck, cheeks, and hands especially), even the way the clothes lay on them is great (look at those clothing folds). 

I like the Yeti’s design (the horns, furry arms and legs, the tail is cute, but I’m not sure if it fits….maybe he has some Norwegian Troll blood in his veins). His cardboard cut out is really fun.

Nitpicks: The colorist forgot to color in Spelldon’s jacket’s studs.

page 7:

“And a grave chalice to drink it from,” is the last ingredient. Before they do, Spelldon slips into his Southern twanged accent and Spelldon questions him on why he does that, he doesn’t do it around him. Valentine shrugs and says he doesn’t know but maybe it’s because he feels more comfortable around Spelldon. Spelldon and Valentine go to a mausoleum to get the chalice and instead of Scarah coming in clutch to scare Valentine into Spelldon’s arms, Spelldon somehow trips and bonks his head. 

Pros:

I love the Chibi art for them! It’s so cute!!

Scarah shows up!! I wonder if she could hear Spelldon’s feelings for Valentine and wanted to help?

I love the opening panel. It’s very lovely, and I love the coffin lights and the soft glow they emit (it’s handled here much better than the coffin lights I the previous short).

The part where Spelldon questions Valentine’s accent is a nice addition and fun to see. I like the idea that Valentine puts on the southern gentlemanly air because he thinks it makes him cooler, is funny and the fact that he feels so at ease with Spelldon, he doesn’t bother with it, is also sweet.

I had headcanoned that when going to school in Transylvania, Valentine was getting crap for being a new world American vampire -so uncool and uncivilized for the Transylvanian pure breed Vampires. He was (literally) starving for love/friendship, so he adopted the “perfect” romantic, southern gentleman person. Roughly akin to southern gentleman trope maker: Rhett Butler from “Gone with The Wind,” (it doesn’t really fit with that time period of Valentine living Transylvania being Edwardian/Victorian -the movie came out in 1939- but was one of the highest grossing movies ever and really catapulted the southern gentlemen into public conscious and Monster High timelines are a mess anyways). And it worked great in giving him all the emotions he could feast on.

Nitpicks:

This one I like better than the previous page, but I still feel like it’s a bit out of order. I feel like the panels where Spelldon is asking Valentine about his “bad southern accent” should have been right under the first panel. Then it has Valentine asking Spelldon “what’s the plan?”.

page 8:

It cuts to them finally mixing all the ingredients together in the library, Valentine second guesses and then decides against drinking the potion and Spelldon chucks it back. 

Pros:

Once again, I love the opening panel (Valentine’s face is great on the opening, fourth and seventh panel).

You get some close ups of that rose he took from Valentine’s bouquet as a bracelet and it hasn’t died yet. :D

And Spelldon still has his poor head wrapped. 

Call Back:

I like that Valentine says he has been bettering himself after the “incident” (in which he nearly made Draculaura an emotionless husk).

Nitpick:

Valentine mentions he already considers Draculaura a friend here???? So he IS just upset that she won’t hang out with him/is really busy? >:P

page 9:

Next page! Spelldon reveals that it’s just a Murktail and that he cares for and “likes hanging out with” Valentine. Valentine admits he likes fanging out with Spelldon too and then THIS CUTE PANEL where they flirt. Aaaaand no kiss….again!!! >:/ 

Pros:

Again, I love this artwork (Spelldon looks down-right gorgeous in that last panel) and the two boys admitting that they like each other.

Their facial expressions and how Valentine grabs Spelldon’s shirt is just SO GOOD.

Nitpicks:

Also in that last panel, it looks like the three “…” were accidentally copied into Spelldon’s bandaged head. Haha.

I just wish they were more blatant and we got a dang kiss! 

page 10:

The last page again fast forwards again to sometime later and Valentine and Spelldon are holding hands down the hallways of Monster High. Draculaura runs up and apologizes to Spelldon on how much she thinks he has the wrong impression, she does want to be friends, she just has a lot going on (what’s going on with you in this TIMELINE ghoulie…??!?).

I do like that Valentine catches himself slipping back into his southern drawl (I like that it’s pretty obvious when he falls back into it- but does anyone else have a hard time trying to remember what his voice sounds like without it or is that just me). 

It ends on a great note (calling back to how Valentine does have friends now - with Whisp calling him to ask about his new boo-friend and Spelldon asking how he’s feeling now). 

Pros:

THE ART! All the art. It’s all so good!! The hands in the first panel, the shading on all of them! The little heart drawn on the bottom of Valentines’s shoe. <3 Valentine’s realization he’s slipping into past habits in the third panel. So good!

Nitpicks:

Valentine DOES think they’re already friends, so maybe Draculaura should have ran up and said she thought about it and he does seem to be turning over a new leaf and she does want to fang out with him and maybe try being friends. If he would like, she’s free on -insert day here- maybe even for a double date. Valentine blushes and says he would like that. (CAN YOU IMAGINE A DOUBLE DATE WITH THESE GUYS?!?)

Spelldon’s jacket studs are missing in the fifth panel.

Draculaura is still draw a bit too tall here.

Overall:

I’ve already said it a million times, but I think the artwork is SO MUCH better in this comic than the others. The emotions seem to flow better, the characters are not as stiff, the line work varies, the color story is complimentary, the space doesn’t feel empty, the paneling flows together better. Just on a whole other level than what the previous comics are doing.

The colorist did an AMAZING job on the whole short story, she just elevated the already great line work. It’s FANGTASTIC! I’ll be curious to see where the characters go from here and if they will get dolls (please oh please oh please oh please) or at least another doll that is SDCC exclusives only…

I LOVED seeing Spelldon. Spelldon played more of a supporting role here to Valentine, but I think it worked well as an introduction. His personality seemed a bit quiet and mature, very observant and kind, and he has some wit and sarcasm to him. It’s a nice contrast to the more emotionally turbulent Valentine.  I still wish it was longer, and Valentine getting upset over the fact that Draculaura is friends with him but is too busy to fang out with him (but she implied she didn’t know they were already friends: “of course I want to be friends with you!”) is a bit “eh.” And I would have liked to see at LEAST one kiss.

I could see this short story fitting right into the main G1 canon (even with Draculaura still being suspiciously busy and not her bubbly self, which seems to be part of the new-“Once Bitten”/IDW comic-G1-verse canon).

This took a lot longer than I thought to make, but I managed to do it!

I’m still thinking about maybe doing a Spelldon fanon to canon evolution post, but it might take awhile to compile stuff. I find how the whole fandom basically willed this character into existence and all the different interpretations fascinating. Perhaps I will read the new issue of the IDW comic when it drops in August and make a post (to give the comic an actual fair chance). But I can’t see myself doing it to every issue due to me not collecting floppies (I’d rather wait for them to be all collected first, my cat has already stepped on and badly wrinkled my Pride Comic).

Maybe I’ll begrudgingly picking up the new “Once Bitten” book (I’d really rather get that on a super sale then give them full price for THAT) and report on that. TT^TT

What were your thoughts and feelings? Did I miss something? Have horrible takes? Did I mention the beautiful artwork too much?? Let me know. :) 

[the-orange-solace]

We've been seeing a lot of posts about headmates who do identify with their sources' wrongs and wanted to add on by describing our experiences with headmates who have done horrible things in their memories and before arriving here.

Yes, we do have headmates who have done bad things since forming, but they're not the focus of this post.

Our newest headmate in his source killed innocents and tried to change the injustices of the world he's from through murder. He was responsible for killing his entire family and wearing their dead limbs on his own body as a reminder. In headspace he identifies with these memories and admits he, in fact, did experience and choose everything he did in source.

He is the exact same headmate that fronts when Pressurelicious by Megan Thee Stallion plays or when videogames are involved, when we get pick wounds or imperfections on our body. He doesn't aggravate anyone in headspace and whenever he fronts he is very hard to pinpoint because of how much he drifts in and out of having a presence when we don't sense his emotions.

Does he feel bad about what he did in source? No. Would be change what he did in source? No. Would he do what he did in source within this system inside or out? Also no. He did what he did, and he doesn't linger on it unlike some of our other headmates.

He was a part of something horrible but doesn't do anything now, he doesn't even seem to be the same person to some, but he is still very similar to his source self for us who hear and interact with him in headspace.

Just because a headmate did bad things doesn't mean they should be shunned or treated terribly now, everyone deserves respect and understanding, even for things that in this world you would never forgive them for. But that's just the thing, they aren't doing anything now, so why linger on their past when they're now part of a pretty decent group of people just trying to live together.

[wumblr]

that guy in the “not gonna tell you who i support” screenshot …. as if anyone but zionists calls it “the I/P situation”💀

they're currently on about how stealing baby formula is used to cut drugs. on a screenshot criticizing serialunaliver for not providing a source when she said "i work at a grocery store and stealing from self checkout is not why prices go up"

did you notice which other claim here is unsourced? like i know i'm the first person to point out that this is about in-group lockstep, and it couldn't matter less what any of the talking points are... but yeesh. hypocrisy beyond parody. (that's siryouarebeingmocked's comment. what a fun bedfellow!)

if, for some reason, you wanted a source on the claim that prices don't go up because of shoplifting, i posted one from census.gov on the megan fox article like yesterday or the day before (total value of shrink $112 billion = 1.6% of total value of retail industry at $7041 billion; prices have risen 8% this year. lmao. trivial! it must be hard to be that stupid!)

or maybe it's just cover to behave monstrously. who can say?

but in any case you are correct

[hiddenwritingsintheworld]

Cruel Summer Ch. 5

Donations | Thoughts & Feelings | Cruel Summer Series | Chapter 4

(Thank you all so much for being patient as I worked through personal issues!! I'm trying to write and get new chapters out for you guys. I'm still dealing with personal issues but for now, I'll push through, thank you all so much for always sending kind supportive messages. Love you guys! Enjoy!

P.S. you can find clues about future chapters if you read through the tags ;) )

-Chapter 5-

You stared at him before giggling, “Funny Chris, you know….. about us…now that we’re…ya know…gonna be public and all that.” you smiled as he chuckled. “Baby…you know we could never be public…I can't ditch the perfect, good girl next door, to go out with an old co star…besides, we’d never work out publicly, we're better this way. Private, just you and me, locked away in a bedroom somewhere.” he leaned in to kiss you again, but you pulled back feeling bile rise in your throat. “You never planned on leaving her for me…did you?” you asked, staring at the bed. “Babygirl,” he walked around the bed to sit by you on your side of the bed. 

He pulled your chin up kissing your lips before you pulled back, he only had a moment to see your eyes before you slapped him as hard as you could. “Get out. Get the fuck out!” you glared at him before you moved quickly off the other side of the bed. “Sweethear-” “FUCK YOU!” you screamed. “GET OUT!!” you grabbed his clothes throwing them at him, he ducked as his shoes flew at his head. 

The door busted open, your security guards and Megan stood there. “Oh Y/N…” She said softly as Chris stood up after sliding his jeans on. “Y/N! Baby come on! Knock it off, let's talk about this!” he snapped back at you. You raced off into the bathroom, locking the door as the tears fell. You started the shower, a sob leaving your lips as you slid down to the floor crying. 

A few weeks later

“And in other news mega worldwide Popstar Y/N, has deleted all posts from her social media. Sources say, She’s “Blacking out any and all communication on tour, and while she loves sharing her life with her fans, touring has taken a toll on her, she’ll return eventually, but for now. She’s got to focus on herself.” wow, so no more thank you posts to all her concert goers? That’s gonna feel like a slap to the face.” the news reporter stated as her co-star started in on you and your reputation. You sat by the window staring out over the city, thankful that no one could see you all the way up here. “Turn it off.” you grumbled out, “You know it's interesting, one former Avenger star announces his wedding date with pictures of his fiance’ the same time another former Avenger star blacks out her social media? I smell drama!” he chuckled as she gasped. 

“I don’t need to hear how Lacey and Simon think I’m some big fuck up for not wanting to be on social media right now.” you said getting up and grabbing your phone. “I’m going down to the gym, maybe running will clear my head.” you said matter of factly before grabbing your headphones. “Maybe you shouldn’t go alone?” Megan asked as she stood up. Your phone had been blowing up from friends and family checking in on you, wondering why you’d gone radio silent. 

You felt your phone go off as you exited your room and felt the corners of your mouth turn up for the first time in what felt like forever. 

Hemsworthy: ‘This place is super boring without you here.’ 

Y/N: ‘Tell me about it. I wish you were here. Life fucking sucks right now.’ 

Hemsworthy: ‘Heard you went black out on socials….you doin okay? 

Y/N: ‘Yep…got a lot going on & I don’t want to see anything online…just, want to focus back on friends and myself for a while…’ 

You sighed as you sent the message, heading into the gym where you began to walk on the treadmill. You thought back over all your time with Chris lately, before he left for South America. The movie nights eating ice cream, playing new songs for him, talking him through his depression when it came to the divorce. You felt tears in your eyes, how could you have been so fucking stupid. 

Were you this desperate to fall in love and be with someone? You’d mistook your friendship with Chris, the things that friends did, as romantic interest and felt yourself developing feelings for him. He was just recently divorced…why would he even think about dating anyone; you needed serious help. 

Hemsworthy: ‘You know if you keep running on the treadmill, you’re gonna burn holes in those tennis shoes missy. :P’ 

You glanced at the message before you did a double take; you didn’t remember telling him you were going to work out to clear your head. “If I have to stand back here any longer I’m gonna go insane.” his thick Australian accent startled you, causing you to whip around as you pulled your headphones off. “Oh my god!” you dashed over to him jumping into his arms as he laughed and hugged you tight. “I missed you popstar,” he mumbled in your ear as you buried your face into his hoodie, breathing in his scent. “I missed you too,” you whispered against his shoulder. 

You jumped down smiling up at him, “Let’s go order some room service and catch up,” he chuckled and cleared his throat, “Uh…I wanted to see if you wanted to go to dinner tonight, with me?” he smiled softly. “Somewhere nice?” he asked as you grinned and nodded, “yeah! That sounds fun!” you said as you both walked to the Elevators. “I have this super cute outfit I’ve been wanting to wear anyways!” you grinned as he chuckled. “I’m sure you’re going to look as beautiful as you always do,” Chris smiled at you, his eyes twinkled softly as you talked about your upcoming show, which was a couple of nights away and Chris was thrilled he was going to attend it. 

When he was touring with you, he would stay back at the hotel, usually cooking a meal for the two of you and picking out a couple of movies for you guys to watch and relax after your shows. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go to your shows, it was just easier to avoid the press. After the divorce, anytime they had the opportunity to print something about him or his ex wife, they jumped on it.  

Once you guys made it back up to the hotel suite, you got ready for the evening, excited to have a nice dinner with someone who didn’t give a shit how famous you were, or what was happening in your life. You looked in the mirror and smiled at the black sequinned dress, which looked like a night sky, with clouds and a half moon on it. You wore strappy black heels and a fur jacket; and paired it with a silver flashy purse with a diamond studded necklace. 

Chris grinned as he saw you come from your bedroom, “Whoa…you look…..incredible,” he held his hand out spinning you around as you giggled softly, “Thank you. My friend Kayleigh had this made for me, and I hadn't found the right occasion to wear it yet, but thought tonight was perfect.” you smiled as he smiled tenderly at you. “Well it’s perfect, come, I’ve made reservations for us.” he chuckled as you giggled excitedly. “Yay! It’s going to be so nice just…going to dinner and relaxing,” you said as you both headed to the car. 

Pulling up to your favorite restaurant you sighed softly, the paparazzi were covering the street and you looked at Chris. “I’m sorry…I know you want to avoid them, I can go first…maybe see if they have a back entrance you can come through?” you said as he reached over and grabbed your hand, smiling softly. “I think I can manage a few photos with a beautiful girl before we go to dinner.” 

The way he smiled at you, something felt different, you were starting to convince yourself that it was all in your head, but a small part of you wanted him to be into you. You knew you were developing feelings for him. “Y/N! Over here! Over here!” several voices shouted at you as you climbed out of the SUV and made your way around to the sidewalk. You smiled, waved at them, clearly not showing annoyance that you held toward them sometimes and even asked a few of them how they were doing this evening. 

You stopped and posed for a couple of photos, when the other door opened and Chris got out smiling and waving at them for a moment before he put his hand on the small of your back as he walked with you to the door. The camera clicks intensified as he placed his hand on your back and you could hear them shouting more questions as you walked in together.

Tag List:

@notebooks-of-nonsense @fdl305 @bval-1 @calimoi @syntheticavenger @mrsjenniferwinchester @chaneajoyyy @mommad @ellen-reincarnated1967 @adriellej @coffeebooksandfandom @patzammit @posiemax @auriel187 @ladybug05 @stoneyggirl2 @fallenoutofrose @mrspeacem1nusone @teamfreewill-imagine @inlovewith3 @auvisanspeur @whiskeytangofoxtrot555 @leaveitbythewave @sleutherclaw @sandlee44 @aaqua-tofana @nohumanswereharmed @msgrandma49 @traceyaudette @cevansbaby-dove

[levi501ackerman]

Steel Heart Chapter 21:

Power at Play

Hange x Reader Chapter Index Masterlist AO3

Megan's Note: Thank you so much for your patience and for reading. Honestly, my life was a little rough I had two exams and the new job I started? I had to resign which was very emotional for me. I've written little by little everyday. Forgive me <3 Not a day went by where I wanted to sit on my couch and write. Steel Heart consumes my thoughts. Thank you for staying with me and I am so excited for the last half of this story. Just a reminder this story is dark and acts 3 & 4 are more angsty and violent. Thank you so much. Posted: 9/27/24

Word Count: 5k

 

Three Weeks Later

Shades of angry grey clouds hovered in the sky, yet they were the only light source dimming through the opened arched window. The dark stones that lined the walls and flooring of the room rendered an illusion of darkness. He called the room ‘luxurious’ because of its privacy and view.

The room was in the tallest tower of the temple, overlooking a desolate, foggy, dark land and the rest of the temple. Thorns of sharp stibnite coiled and surrounded the temple, ready to gash and latch onto flesh. Stibnite thorns penetrate the skin and break down to microscopic needles. Leaving a pinching sensation of itching for days. Normal scratching does not appease the itch. Only the cuts of blades satisfy and relieve the ache. Those who are desperate enough to satisfy the itch slice their flesh, littering their body with wounds seeping out blood. 

The sky was your only form of entertainment as the ‘luxurious’ room only had a bed. Sitting on the stone flooring and resting your head on your arms while overlooking the temple was your only activity to choose from. With tears in your eyes and an ache in your heart, you imagined Hange on their white horse, charging toward the temple. You dreamed of Hange rescuing you and returning to being safe in their arms. The same imagery of Hange valiantly fighting and killing anyone who got in the way of you replayed for hours in your mind. The thought sparked hope and you craved the hit of dopamine that was released while daydreaming. 

It wasn’t enough. 

The man who was assigned to join Levi’s camp, Reiner Braun, brought you breakfast, lunch, and dinner for nineteen days. Each time he entered your room, you glared at the knight you once thought was on your side. A knight that the late Commander Lobov assigned to join Levi’s group of knights to escort you to Mitras Castle. 

The Marleyan Cult gave you a balanced diet because they wanted you to be in the healthiest condition when it came time for the ritual on your quarter birthday. The burly blonde man encouraged you to eat, but you starved out of spite for a while. But the twisting knot in your stomach and the weak, lethargic feeling made you bitterly give in to eating their food. Sometime around the two-week mark, Reiner brought a bowl of steaming potato soup and an unsettling thought dawned on you. You realized the bowl of soup was hot enough to cause harm. The astonishing urge to throw the soup into Reiner’s face made your appetite disappear. How could you think of doing a violent act? He was giving you food and you wanted to burn the flesh around his face off?! That’s not ladylike. Reiner had not tried to hurt you. No one had. But Reiner did betray you.

Gazing out the large arch opening in the room became dreary and hopeless. Not a knight in sight. Hange wouldn’t forget about you. Levi wouldn’t . . . they all couldn’t. You are the Princess, the heir to the throne. Did they know where you were? You didn’t even know where you were. 

The chains rattled as you shifted onto your side in the small bed. Reiner had to put a cuff on your left wrist and right ankle. He only did it yesterday. For nineteen days, they let you roam ‘free’ locked away in the room of the tallest tower. It became unbearable with the arched opening providing a dismal view and your thoughts left to entertain you. The dwelling fantasies of Hange rescuing you became hopeless and fleeting. Each evening the sun went down; tears fell from your eyes. 

Not a day went by where you didn’t berate yourself for the choices you made. You had a twisted feeling that if Levi were ever to see you again, he’d lay right into you. Embarrassment festered within you because of the consequences of believing you alone could have saved Jean. Being abducted was another instance that proved you were weak and not able to fight if needed. You’ll always need to rely on someone’s strength for survival because you’re a pathetic, weak girl. You wanted to step outside your body and slap yourself. You figured Fairy Godmother Christa would have if she heard you strayed away from your protectors. 

By the twentieth day, no hope was left to feed your imagination. The thought of Hange’s body lying in a field of grass tormented you. Perhaps that was why Hange, Levi, and the rest of the camp haven’t come to save you? Maybe, after being abducted, Flegel’s farm was attacked by a ward of the Marleyan Cult. Flies are swarming around the bodies and maggots are crawling out of the knight’s flesh. They can’t save you because they are dead. Hange’s dead. 

On the twentieth day of being locked in the tower, you cried into the dirty white cotton sleeves of Hange’s shirt. Your heart ached at the idea that Hange was murdered. It was unbearable to imagine the person who was the light in the dark, your guardian angel, and the person who you held a special bond in your heart as dead. On the twentieth day, the memory of being with Hange ran through your mind. 

“Did you know swans mate for life?” Their voice was barely a whisper and Hange’s fact tugged a smile around your lips. You remembered sitting on Hange’s lap on the bed in Flegel’s Farm. The flutter in your chest as Hange alluded to being beautiful swans and their doe eye fondly meeting your gaze. 

“That is a beautiful fact,” you whispered, stroking their hair again. Hange’s beautiful like a swan, though they didn’t think they were. 

“You are like a swan . . . pure, innocent, and beautiful . . .” Hange leaned forward.

“I was thinking the same thing about you . . .” you rested your forehead on theirs and wrapped your arms around Hange’s neck. Two swans.

“Do you know why they call it a swan dive?” 

“Why?”

“When a swan loses their mate, the swan flies to the highest point in the sky and dives to the ground—killing themselves.”

The tops of the temple building and the open stone rooftops had guards and Marleyan Cultists peering out into the fog. There was an odd curiosity as you stood on the open ledge, peering down at the temple. What a far drop for a swan. Does the swan dive hurt? You wouldn’t do it because deep inside, you knew Hange would rescue you. Hange will come. Your guardian angel will arrive eventually.

Arms around your waist ripped you backward and you screamed as you were lifted away from the arched window. You writhed and kicked against the man, gruffing and you screamed at him to let you go. He forced you onto the bed and held you down with one arm. Your chest was against the mattress and thrashed more, feeling vulnerable and helpless against his strength. Reiner was cursing under his breath as he grabbed the chains and cuffed your wrist and ankle. He was yelling at you, frustrated about why you were going to hurt yourself. You heaved and turned over in the bed, noticing Reiner was catching his breath—struggling just as much as you were. Tears were in your eyes as you explained you were only looking. Reiner muttered and left the room. 

Since you were away from the stone arch of the window, the rest of the day and the following day crawled by. The room's stone ceiling was boring and old to look at. If only Reiner hadn’t caught you, you could have looked out the arched opening at the same mundane view.

The door opened and your heart leaped out of your chest. The blonde man who abducted you was standing in the doorway, along with a man with darker hair. The blonde man was wearing a white dress shirt and slacks. The clothes were fitted to him and there wasn’t a single wrinkle. The jeweled sword was gleaming and hanging on his hip. You sprung into a sitting position from where you laid. Your back was pressed against the wall as the two men approached closer.

“My Princess, why would you try such a horrid thing?” The blonde man’s long hair was combed and appeared soft. His hair was brushed and laid neatly on his shoulders. The blonde man sat on the edge of the bed and the other man, who was tall and lanky, stood against the wall. You scowled at the man who took you away from Hange. Then, you crossed your arms and looked through the door's threshold. “Did you really want to hurt yourself?”

Out of spite, you stared at the descending stairs leading down the tower. The blonde man stood from the bed and motioned to the dark-haired man. He began uncuffing you and then he pulled you from the bed. The blonde man started walking down the stairs and the dark-haired man had a firm grasp on your bicep. His large hand pulled you through the door and you bitterly complied. You were forced to walk down a long spiral staircase. Curiosity piqued as you didn’t see how you came to be in the tallest tower or the temple—only remembering the sensation of being lifted and the wind in your face. Your face contorted at the realization of your memories. Why were you lifted off the ground so high? It felt like you were flying . . .

The staircase led out to a grand dark stone room, with the Marleyan Cultist guarding the openings of different hallways leading elsewhere. There were torches on the wall, but the stone room was dim. The wall’s lack of windows or openings created the suffocating feeling of being underground. The eyes of the cultists made the hair on your neck stand. Their eyes gawked at you like you were a rare gem or they were starving wolves and you were the vulnerable bunny. The men were larger and scarier, and fighting against them was useless. 

The blonde and dark-haired man led you through large metal doors that two cultists opened. The doors led to a mezzanine overlooking the upper bailey of the temple. It opened to the sky and had stone walls short enough for the average person to peer over. In the middle of the dark stone rooftop were stacks of logs crackling and burning bright emerald green fire—the hottest flames. 

The Marleyan Cultists danced around the fire and threw flags onto the emerald flames. One flag was dark green and had a symbol of a steel heater-shaped shield with a graphic of blue and white wings. The other flag was red with a gold heater-shaped shield and the image of golden lions wearing opulent crowns on each side. 

One man pointed up to the mezzanine you stood and the heads of the cultist locked on you. Their faces glowed green as they jeered and snarled incoherently to you. When you tried to step away from their view, the dark-haired man’s grasp on your arm kept you in place. The blonde man sat on a chair; he sat tall and sighed, enjoying the celebration. 

“Bertolt, fetch a chair for our Princess,” The blonde man said, not taking his eyes off the emerald fire. The man named Bertolt’s hand released your arm, and he hastily went through the large metal doors. More men were guarding both sides of the door. “You will not get far in your attempt to escape.”

Your breath hitched as you whipped your head to his smooth voice. Then you shook your head and stumbled over your words, stunned at his accusation. 

“I—”

“I have been told you were denying meals . . .” he craned his head toward you and his eyes were sharper, unpleased. There was a sinking feeling in your chest like you were being dragged under deep water, but with all the effort, you wouldn’t reach the surface. His blue eyes were fixed on your cowering form. “Tell me this . . . why do you neglect your health?” 

“I’m sorry I—” your thoughts interrupted you. You didn’t owe him an explanation. The man doesn’t deserve one. This man was someone who took you away from Hange. He’ll hold you captive until the ritual on your twenty-fifth birthday, and then . . . what? You closed your eyes and inhaled, ignoring the men below hollering at your presence. Before you exhaled, you vowed you wouldn’t apologize ever again. “No . . . tell me this,” you gritted and opened your eyes. “Did you kill my protectors? The night you took me from them, did you kill them after?”

You were taken aback by his sudden chuckle and tried to remain serious. Then he turned to admire the cultists celebrating and dancing around the emerald fire.  

“I want us to develop a relationship, my Princess, so I will answer you: no, unfortunately, they are alive.” 

“They’ll come for me! My knights—”

“The Knights of the Royal King’s Guard,” he sneered, “What a title. What an honor . . . I hope they come. I hope they all do.”

“A chair, my Princess?” Bertolt placed a chair next to the blonde man’s throne. Then he motioned for you to sit. When you stayed firm in your place, the blonde man's challenging gaze eyed you. You fixated on his eyes, daring not to look away—not to give in.

“No. I’ll stand.”

“Sit.” He demanded.

“No.”

“I do not obey you and you can’t make me!”

“ I can not?” His deep voice hummed and the melody of his voice had a mischievous ring. 

“I know you won't! You want me healthy for the ritual right? I know you’re not—” An immediate sharp and jarring sensation landed on your left cheek. The sudden stinging threw you off, and you gasped, feeling hands on your shoulders pushing you back. The loss of your balance made you stumble backward, landing in the chair. Your hair landed in your face, shielding your vision for what may come. Your heart pounded in your throat and you swallowed, catching your breath. Hair covered your eyes and the man's shadow stood tall before you. You swept your hair behind your ears and, once again, the man peered down at you. He towered over you and dominated your vision—demanding your focus to be paid only to him. 

“Do you have manners?” He placed a hand on your left cheek, caressing the place he just smacked. “I know you will be obedient . . . Your twenty-fifth birthday is in a while, so you will have time to heal . . .” You gasped at his threatening implications. He took his hand off your cheek and returned to his throne. You stared at the grey clouds drifting across the sky. Your breath was shaky, and your eyes shifted to Bertolt, who stared at the celebration as if he hadn’t seen you get smacked. 

The men cheering around the emerald fire festered a distasteful feeling. How could the cult leader who has sought you out and highly valued you for his ritual mistreat you? A pressure behind your nose built and you blinked furiously, out of spite, not wanting him to see you cry. You swallowed, looking down at your lap. Hange’s tan slacks and the dirty white cotton shirt may be the only things you have left of them. They’ll come. They wouldn’t forget about you.

“ . . . What is all this for?” You breathed out. You were trapped in a corner and forced to accept your fate. The fire burned through the red and green flags, cutting through the emblems and leaving black, crisp fabric behind. “Why do you need me for a ritual? What’s your ultimate weapon? What is all this for? ”

The emerald fire burned what was left of the two flags and more logs were thrown onto the pile. 

“Would you like me to show you?” You furrowed your eyebrows, and the cult leader stood. He offered a hand to you like a gentleman, but the polite gesture was precariously unnerving. The hand that—moments ago—struck you. 

“What are you showing me?”

“The ritual.” With your heart pounding, you froze and attempted to disguise your fear. He brought his hand closer to you, egging you to accept the invitation. Was the man going to show you a sort of torture device that would be used to kill you? The ritual is what you have been wondering since the night you fled from Shiganshina with Sir Miche Zacharius. What happens in the ritual? 

“LORD WILLY TYBUR!” Reiner burst through the large metal doors. The man named Willy Tybur froze.

“Reiner? What’s wrong?” Bertolt asked. Reiner’s face was pink, and sweat was dripping down his face. Reiner huffed and struggled to catch his breath. The crescendo of voices from the celebration overwhelmed your ears and Reiner inhaled a large breath. He stood straight and pointed over the stone railing of the mezzanine, over the upper bailey and at the foggy, desolate valley. 

“A single horse was spotted coming from the south. A chestnut Arabian—the common horse used by the Royal Military!” You sprang from your chair, longing to see the horse. You were practically leaning over the stone railing and searching for any sign of the knights. The valley was still, and you couldn’t find the horse Reiner had described. A hand grabbed your bicep and pulled you back from the railing. You gasped at the sudden contact. Willy Tybur firmly held you and there was a smirk on his face as he addressed Reiner. 

“Tell Tarhos Kovacs to ready the defense ward and at the next sign of the knights . . . release the mutts.” Lord Willy Tybur pulled you as he walked toward the metal doors. Your heart pounded at the memories of the malicious canines that attacked you on the way to the Karanese District. Your chest heaved at the realization that Dame Hange Zoe and their squad hadn’t encountered the dogs yet. You craned your neck, looking over your shoulder at the valley, hoping to see a sign of the knights. 

As Cult Leader Willy Tybur forced you back inside, you stared at the stone floor, worrying about a mutt pouncing onto Hange and knocking them off their horse. There was a thick lump in your throat thinking of a mutt biting into Hange’s neck and possibly killing them. Hange has to live. Hange has to rescue you.

Warm tears blurred your vision, and Willy Tybur pulled you down a spiral staircase. Your violent imagination was clouding your sense of direction. It was getting colder and Willy Tybur was leading you down windowless halls, stairs and large rooms. The stone was getting darker and the torches were dimmer. A sudden thought came to the forefront of your mind . . . Willy Tybur must have been preparing for the moment the Knights of the Royal King’s Guard came to rescue you . . . What did he mean when he hoped they all would come? The thought of Hange coming to rescue you was once a hopeful thought, but now dread was born and festering. A swan will dive if Hange does not live. 

“What did you mean when you said you hoped all the Knights of the Royal King’s Guard would come for me?! Let go of me!” Your voice echoed off the stone walls and you pulled your arm from him, but his grip was unyielding. Snot filled your right nostril and your face was hot. “Let go of me! You won! You have me and I’m trapped here! You won! I can’t escape so let me walk freely!” 

His hypnotizing blue eyes peered down on you and one of his thin eyebrows perked up. Willy Tybur’s smug smile made you clench your jaw. It felt like you were deep in the lower part of the temple and even if he were to drop dead, the way to escape from the temple was like an unknown labyrinth. He released his hold on your bicep and eyed you, rubbing the area he held you. Though his physical hold on you was gone, he knew you were still under his control. 

“Do you know what your blood possesses?” His smooth voice spilled from his lips. 

“What did you mean when you said you hoped all—” 

“I have been waiting for the day your knights come. I will take their lives and the five jeweled swords.” He spat and you cringed at his declaration. Willy Tybur’s booming voice forced you to submit to him. “Once I am in possession of all six gemstones. No person will be able to stop the power of the nine from dominating the entire world!”

You furrowed your eyebrows at his words. The power of the nine? What was he talking about? Then another realization sprouted in your mind: the six gemstones . . . ?

“Gemstones . . .?”

“Follow me.” Cult Leader Willy Tybur pivoted and continued walking through the empty stone hall. You choked on your words and followed him toward a metal door. “Do you recall that knight’s story?” You gazed at his face while he stared straight ahead.

“What knight’s story?”

“The dame you kissed by the river.” He sneered and the air was sucked out of your lungs. The Cult leader saw you in an intimate moment with Hange. A fond moment of your first romantic connection with Hange was now tainted with the thought of your captor watching, loomed over you. The man was watching—following you. All the way to Flegel’s Farm. How long has he been watching you . . . ? Was it before that night you saw him in the forest? “The Legend of the Titans is not only a scary story for children but a truth to the history of our world . . .”

“Titans are real?” You whispered, mostly to yourself. 

“There were nine intelligent titans and hundreds of pure titans. They ruled the world and improved it vastly. Only the nine intelligent titans could shift between human and titan forms.” Willy Tybur’s confident voice rang through the stone hallway and the dread of reaching the metal door crept into your mind. What was behind the door? “After the battle between the power of the nine and the world, the world killed all but one. The most important one: The Founder.”

“The Founder . . . ?” You eyed the orange sword at his hip. If only you had the strength to wield the sword. “Is that where you’re taking me? Where the Founding titan is being kept?” In the distance, there was a booming sound and dust fell from the ceiling of the stone hallway. The knights couldn’t have entered the temple so soon . . . what was going on above the surface?

“Do you not listen? I told you I am showing you the ritual,” he taunted. The whites of your eyes were red and you glared at Lord Willy Tybur. His long blonde hair masked the side of his face from your view and there was a twisted, foreboding feeling in your chest. 

In the distance, a sound made the hairs on your neck stand up. A faint howl from above echoed from another part of the temple. Your heart was in your throat and Cult Leader Willy Tybur’s words ran through your mind. ‘At the next sign of the knights, release the mutts’. The shock of the realization that the knights have been spotted petrified you. Hange truly is coming to rescue you. 

“They’re here?!” You looked to the stone ceiling as if you were going to hear another sign of the knights. Willy Tybur pulled a chain from under his white dress shirt. Around the chain was a bright silver key gleaming in the torch's dull light. The door unlocked with a click, and he turned to you.

“My Princess . . .” Willy Tybur opened the door and gestured for you to enter. You held your breath and his sharp eyes demanded you to comply. “ . . . Ladies, first.”

As you entered, chilling air hit your chest and abdomen. Behind the door wasn’t a titan and it wasn’t a dark room lit by ominous candles. Behind the door was a grand staircase descending against the side of a vast room. From floor to ceiling, the room was made of shiny light blue crystal shimmering white iridescent dust with a purple haze. The chamber of hardened crystal was like an ethereal icy glacier. The glow of the room was unlike anything you’ve ever seen. 

The stairs descended another hundred feet. On the other side of the room, two staircases met in the middle, forming a hovering platform that jetted toward the middle. On the tip of the platform was something you couldn’t quite make out. From the distance, you could see a circular shape in the dark figure. 

As you stepped inside, you couldn’t take your eyes off the sudden drop. If Cult Leader Willy Tybur wanted to kill you, he could push you off the stairs and smash you against the crystalized ground from the hundred-foot drop. He shut the door behind you and you jumped, feeling trapped—almost suffocated. Then, he encouraged you to continue down the stairs. What if the knights enter the temple, but you’re too deep in it for them to find you?

“What is this place?”

“Each of the nine had magnificent powers,” his voice echoed and you stayed close to the wall as you stepped down the stairs. “The Warhammer Titan made weapons out of thin air. The Jaw was fast and had inhumane mandible strength. The Cart had the endurance to stay in their titan form over long periods of time. The Beast Titan surpasses the power of a hundred catapults. The Colossal Titan was like a nuclear explosion. The Attack titan was the fighter and had the power to send memories to previous inheritors. The Armored Titan was a shield, and the Female Titan was agile and versatile with her combat skills, ability to harden, and the power to summon pure titans. The Founder was the first titan and when the Founding Titan has its full potential, it can do anything.”

You continued down the stairs and couldn’t figure out which thought to explore. The idea that there were once gigantic people with special powers who ruled the earth was daunting. The memory of Hange telling you the story of the Legends of the Titans crossed your mind. In their story, they mention only eight of the bodies were found, and one titan was left alive. 

“And the Founder wants to rebuild the power of the titans just like in the story. . .”

“Correct.”

“What does this have to do with me . . . ?” Lord Willy Tybur descended past you. His chin was held high and a charming smile appeared on his lips.

“Centuries went by since the war and the Founding Titan was passed down every thirteen years. The Marleyan Cult stole the Founder from the Royal Family centuries ago and wanted the power for themselves. The Marleyan Cult soon realized the power of the Founder could not revive the eight without royal blood. The Founding Titan’s power was weakened and nearly obsolete. 

“Years went by and the knowledge of the power faded away. New humans were born and the world forgot about the Power of the Nine. Time continued and five hundred years ago, the world was stormed with famine and disease. The Royal Family within the walls sent the best doctors from the castle into all the districts and provided their hefty food rations to the public. The Districts obeyed, followed, and respected the Royal Family stronger than before. 

“When a baby was born on the day of the coordinate, the Marleyan Cult grew in numbers. The birth of the child was the single belief that the Power of the Nine was beginning to return to the Founder. Since the day you were born, you were destined to be the key to the rebirth of the Founding Titan’s full power and on your twenty-fifth birthday, the Marleyan Cult will possess the power of the Founder.”

Your words were lodged in your throat. The idea that thousands of years ago, events that had nothing to do with you and the date of your birthday led up to the belief that you were worth sacrificing. As Lord Willy Tybur reached the bottom of the stairs, you followed him toward the double stairs on the other side of the room. The figure on the hovering platform was clearer and you furrowed your eyes at the sight of a spindle. A spindle? 

“So power? That’s why I am needed. Just for the Marleyan Cult to have power?” You followed Willy Tybur up the stairs and eyed the spindle. 

“Some are born with power and some obtain power.”

“I didn’t know I was a Princess until recently.”

“And what do you plan to do with your power?”

“ . . . I don’t know . . . I-I want to help people in some way—” 

“Help people or help yourself?” Willy Tybur clipped and you sensed he had already made up his mind about your intentions. It was like he thought you secretly enjoyed the power you were born into. But you haven’t thought about what you will do as a Queen or with your power. You’ve been told you would be producing an heir, but the main things you have focused on were not dying, avoiding the Marleyan Cult, and Hange. What is power? Is Power having people at your command, or is it the ability to make your own choices?

“I didn’t know I was a Princess—I didn’t want this!” You plead your case and Cult Leader Willy Tybur turned his attention to the spindle when he reached the top of the stairs. He swiftly walked toward the spindle and his eyes gleamed in awe. The needle of the spindle was long and sharp. Willy Tybur grazed the spindle wheel with his fingertips and you stayed behind him, not wanting to be near the long needle. 

“The power of the Founder can not reach its full potential without royal blood.” Willy Tybur looked over his shoulder at your form. You looked down at your legs and realized your right leg was trembling. With just a look from Willy Tybur, you knew he was aching for this. A future moment on your twenty-fifth birthday. It was like he was imagining you in the true moment—not the present. “You’ll prick your finger on the spindle and your blood shall spill.”

next chapter: Chapter 22: White Mustang

chapter index masterlist

[melachanart]

Death can dance...

(Video source here)

... and he’s damn good. Actually I have no idea how he would react for real. I drew him all flustered and blushing just for fun ~

I didn’t know about the Megan Dance before seeing this so I was even more wtf-ed.

Of course, I still and will always respect Death. But the dance did shook me up. When I said I wanted to see more of Death in the future, I did not expect that !!

Death the Wolf from Puss in Boots : The Last Wish (Dreamworks)

Fanarts by @melachanart​

Do not repost/steal please. Thank you.