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thependragonarchives · 7 months ago

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Ronald Knox -- Personal HCs

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ Specific things I give to Ronnie-Boy in my canon ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

✧ In life, Ronald was the eldest son of six kids, and grew up rather poor. His mother, Tweedie, tried to earn extra funds by having Ron deliver meat pies and bread to the working class.

✧ Ronald committed suicide when he was 22, by jumping from the roof of a factory. He got into legal trouble from gambling, and decided that taking his life would be much, much better than: Getting murdered, going to jail, or disappointing his mother. It was rash- He didn't think it through at ALL, and ended up regretting it right before he hit the ground. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug.

✧ Popular tumblr headcanon, but I'm a FULL supporter of the Knoxcliffe sibling agenda. Ron was Grell's first mentee!! He got to be the younger sibling for once, instead of the firstborn son that has to do everything to protect his family, no more 'man of the house'. Nah, he got trained by the biggest baddie around, and decided 'Man, this is nice, I'm going to annoy the shit out of her.'

✧ Graduated the Academy with decent grades, passed the Final Assessment with flying colors, and was So, So, So excited to finally be able to get his own, custom glasses. Ended up shaking Grell so much from excitement he fainted, and she had to drag him to Medical.

✧ While work is the main focus of his second chance at life, the reason he's so cheerful/prideful/arrogant (depending on who you ask) is because he finally gets to Live Life. No more worrying about if there's enough food on the table, no more worrying about helping to pay rent, no more avoiding simple things like going out, or avoiding buying nice things for himself!

✧ I think the reason he's a playboy is because he wants to experience Everything relationships have to offer before settling down. If he settles down. Ronald doesn't believe he'll settle down anytime soon, though. Give or take 300 years (or retirement!! whatever comes first--). Or, The One, but true love at first sight is ridiculous to him.

✧ His arrogance and pride are his biggest weaknesses. It was arrogance that got him into gambling debt, it was arrogance that got his ass kicked on the Campania, it was arrogance that got his ass kicked by a CHILD. He is talk shit while getting hit. Ronald doesn't know when to SHUT HIS MOUTH. Losing a fight, bloodied and beaten, but still managing a witty one-liner and a wink.

✧ Since reapers, in my canon, are at least 80 years to a century ahead technology wise- Ronald was immediately fascinated on what was possible. On how much more efficient things could be. This ended up with Ronald tinkering with mechanics a lot!! In my modern AUs, he's all 'high trends' and pop culture until you look at Bessie. A beat up, red(?) truck he doesn't want to scrap, so he constantly tinkers with it.

✧ The mower was his pick, solely because it's extremely efficient for collecting Cinematic Records. The blades spin fast enough to cycle through multiple at once, and since observing the records are just protocol at this point, he figured it'd be the best for avoiding OT. Oh, and he doesn't have to walk. The lawnmower was made to carry him. He cares for it 'Like his only child'- William and Grell tease him whenever it gets jammed.

✧ There's a fear of insects/arachnids somewhere. That's a secret surprise for later, though.

✧ Ronald is neurodivergent, we all accept this /j. BUT, in a more serious note, I think one of his specific tics is sharing food/lunches, solely because it's a 'safe' way of sharing affection with those he cares about. Grell makes sure to keep extra room on her tray for when Ron passes half a sandwich or dessert to her. On a rare occasion, and he will NEVER admit this, William let Ronald share a grapefruit during lunch. This was a big sign of trust for their friendship, since William is extremely specific about his lunches and can't let anyone touch them, and Ronald didn't know how exactly to show his feelings.

#ronald knox #kuroshitsuji #black butler #grim reaper #grim reaper dispatch #kuroshitsuji headcanons #black butler headcanons #cw sui mention

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captainrogers-thepatriot · 10 months ago

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The Forgotten Child part 1

Summary: Steve goes on a mission to find a weapon at a Hydra lab and instead discovers a boy with strange powers. The child is found malnourished and badly abused. Steve decides then to take the child home and give him a loving home. Yet things take a turn when they discover other plans had been made for the child by people who wanted to use him for there own gain.

Trigger warning: mention of abuse and neglect

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It had been a total of 60 years since Steve had went back in time to start a life with Peggy. They got married, had children and now the two of them lived together in the home they raised their kids in. Peggy was in her 80s and certainly was begining to look her age. Although Steve still believes she was still the most beautiful woman he ever laid his eyes on. Steve well he looked the same as before. Still fit and looked in his 20s, although he was far from that in years.

When Peggy and him were raising their kids, Peggy worked at shield and Steve was a stay at home dad to their children. Now Peggy had recently retired and Steve was going on missions for shield. Although only high level agents even knew he was still alive.

On a recent mission he rescued a boy. This boy was being used as a lab rat by Hydra. They had injected him with different chemicals and liquid elements hoping to create a super serum of their own. Most of these chemicals only caused the child pain and horrible side effects.

Steve entered his home holding the boy in his arms. The child clinging onto Steve as if he was a life raft. The child was extremely pale and had scars and bruises all over his body. He was extremely thin. Hel looked like he hadn't eaten a good meal in a long time. He had long blonde hair and blue eyes.

Peggy sat in the living room reading when she saw Steve and the child. She couldn't but gasp at the sight of the child. She immediately got up and rushed to them.

“What happened to him?” Peggy asked.

“Hydra. They were experimenting on him, trying to recreate the super serum.” Steve told her.

“Those heartless bastards.” Peggy exclaimed. “I knew they were bad…but this is a new level. This poor. Does he have any family to go to?”

“The mother died. I tried to save her, but she was killed as we were trying to escape.” Steve told her.

As he said that the boy began to cry silently. Peggy put out her arms and motioned for Steve to pass her the child.

She rocked the child and kissed his head.

“Your alright, dearie.” Peggy assured the child. “Your safe here. We won't let anyone hurt you.”

“The father, isn't around. The kid said he never met him.” Steve continued.

“Anyone else? An aunt or uncle.”

“I checked. There's no one else.” Steve answered. “So don't freak out, hear me out. I was thinking we could take him in and raise him. This poor kid has been through hell and the last thing he needs is more term oil. He needs love, a home and family. We can provide that for him. If we're to go into the foster system, it's likely he will get a family that wont care about him, who won't give him the attention he needs. It's a broken system. He also has abilities, ones that he can't control and I'm sure if he went into foster care, he would just be shuffled from home to home. He doesn't need that he needs stability. I know that you just retired and I know that you were looking forward to spending more time together. Especially now that the kids are out of the house. But I really think we need to help this boy. He really needs us and I think-”

“Steve, would you shut up for a second?” Peggy laughed. “Of course we can take him in. I agree he needs a good home, a good family. We can provide that for him. I don't know how many years I have left. But I know I want to continue to make a difference in people's lives until I die.”

“Your the most amazing woman to ever exist. That's a fact.” He replied.

“Aw Darling, your so sweet.” Peggy answered. “Your a good man, with a big heart. It's wonderful that you want to help him. I will be at your side to do that too.”

Peggy set down the kid onto the couch. Then Steve hugged Peggy and kissed her lips. He felt so thankful to have a wife as kind as her.

She then looked to the child with a smile.

“Hello little love, my name is Peggy Rogers.” Peggy began. “Your new friend Steve is my husband.”

The child just stared at her, nervous and unsure about this new person.

“I just made some chocolate chip cookies would you like to try some?” Peggy continued, putting out her hand to the child.

The child looked to Steve. He smiled at him and nodded.

“You can trust her.” Steve told the child. “I have trusted my life to her many times, she has never failed me once.”

The boy moved forward and then took Peggy's hand. She then lead him to the kitchen.

****

Peggy watched as she sat across from the boy and he scarfed down her cookies. It was strange especially cause she was a horrible cook. No one liked her cookies, expect steve. Whom she’d venture only said he liked them to make her happy.

She looked at the little boy up and down, he looked as if he hadn't eaten in days.

“Did they feed you at Hydra?” Peggy questioned.

“One meal a day, it was a protein bar with water.” The boy answered. “My mom would sometimes try to sneak me more food. But they would hurt her if she got caught. I didn't like seeing mommy hurt.”

“Course not.” Peggy answered with sympathy.

“Did you see what happened to your mother?” Peggy asked.

She hoped the answer would be no. This child didn't need more emotional scars.

“Me, and mommy and Mr. Steve were running out of the building. The bad guys they had guns and they shot at us. A bullet came toward me and mommy blocked it. She got hit instead of me.”

“Sounds like she's a very brave woman.” Peggy said. “I wish I could have met her.”

“She was the best. Me and her played lots of games like ‘I Spy’ and ‘Going on a Picnic’. Oh and she loved to tell me stories about heros like Hercules and Robin Hood. She knew lots of stories just from her head.”

“Wow that's really lovely.”

“Do you know any stories?” the boy asked.

“I don't know many by heart. I do have a bookshelf of stories though, that I can read to you.”

“wow that's a lot.” The child remarked.

“Do you have a name by the way?” Peggy asked.

“They called me 2342 at Hydra.”

This saddened Peggy further.

“Well we will have to change that and think of something proper to call you.” Peggy told him.

“Okay.” He answered simply. “Like what?”

“My husband and I, raised all girls. They were wonderful, strong, beautiful girl who grew into extraordinary women. Anyways Steve always said if we had a boy, he'd want to name it James after his best friend.”

“I like that name.” The boy answered.

He was silent for a moment. He appeared to be thinking.

“Are you and Steve going to me my new mommy and daddy?”

“If you want us to. We're going to take care of you. You don't have to call us mommy and daddy if you don't want to you. You can if you’d like too.”

“....Well I never had a Dad so I would like one. I ldon't know if I want a new mom, I really liked the one I had.”

“That's okay, love. I understand.” She told him. “You do what feels right to you.”

“One last thing, do you know how to take a bath? Cause honestly, my love, you stink.”

“What's a bath?” James asked.

“Your gonna find out.” Peggy answered.

Peggy then took the child to the bathroom and drew him a bath. As she took off his clothes she noticed scars on his back. She didn't want to know how or why. She was sure it was a tragic story. They were long scars as if he had been cut. On his arms were red bumps, which she had assumed were injection scars. She cleaned the child. There was layers and layers dirt on his skin, she had to scrub hard to get any of it off.

*****

Steve had been cooking lunch in the kitchen. It was a simple meal of homemade macaroni and cheese.

He had set the table with the macaroni pot in the center of the table. He also had the radio playing the latest baseball game. He loved the LA dodgers, he used to root for the dodgers when they were in Brooklyn.

Peggy then entered the kitchen holding James’s hand. James was dressed in one of Peggy’s pajama tops. It had pink and blue striped with buttons down the front. He wore matching striped pants and a pink robe over the outfit. The clothes were clearly to long for him. The sleeves consumed his arms and he had to roll up the pants legs to be able to walk.

Steve could contain his laugher at seeing the child.

“I didn't have anything in the the house that would fit him.” Peggy explained. “I tried putting him in one of your pajama sets but it was worse.”

“We will have to go into town and buy him some clothes tomorrow.” Steve replied. “For tonight, it's fine, at least he will be warm and clean.”

“Thank you for the clothes. These are comfy.” James spoke. “I like them alot. I didn't get many new clothes before.”

They then sit down and begin to eat.

“Can I ask a question.” James spoke.

“Of course, always.” Steve answered.

“Why did you save me?” he asked looking to Steve.

Steve was taken back by that question. Did he not want to be saved? Wasn't he unhappy living the way he was?

“Well because Hydra was hurting you and I wanted you to be safe and happy.”

“But you didn't even know me. Why would you care about someone you don't know?”

“people are people and they all deserve to live happy lives. They deserve to be shown love and joy. Your no different. When I see someone in trouble, I want to help, I want to help them have a better life.”

“That's really kind.” James answered.

There was silence as they continued eating.

“Also Peggy said you two had daughters. What happened to them?” James asked.

“They grew up, they are still around.” Steve told him. “They just don't live here anymore. One has a family of her own now and the other moved away to follow a job.”

“Oh. Are they nice?”

“Very. ones a school teacher and the other is working as an field agent for the government.” Steve answered. “you will meet them some day.”

“I would like to meet them.” James answered. “There your kids so I'm sure they are really nice.”

“Is there anything you want to know about us?” Steve asked.

“What do you do for work?”

“I'm retired. I used to be the director for a government organization.” Peggy answered.

“I was retired and now I'm working as a agent to a government organization. Which your going to have to keep a secret.”

“I can do that.” James answered.

****

Then suddenly Tony Stark showed up at the home. He has a key since Peggy has always been close with, ever since he was a child. she saw him as a son she never had.

“So we have a bit of a crisis going on.” Tony began. “How come neither one of you answer your phone?”

“There turned off. It's dinner time.” Peggy answered. “You could eat with us if you like, Anthony. Just grab a plate.”

“no thank you Aunt Peggy.” Tony answered. “Although I'm sure the food is great. I'm here on shield business.”

“What's wrong?” Peggy questioned.

Tony noticed the child sitting with them.

“No no no no no! What is wrong with you!?” Tony shouted.

Then he glared at Steve then pointed to him.

“Him. Are you trying to get me fired? Or are you just unwilling to follow any instructions set for you? You were supposed to retrieve him and bring hin back to shield that was what was agreed on. That was your mission.”

#trigger warning mention of abuse and neglect #steve rogers #captain america #marvel #peggy carter #mcu #bucky barnes #marvel comics #tony stark #black widow #shield #hydra #hawkeye #sam wilson #iron man #nick fury #the forgotten child #thread series the forgotten child

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scruffyplayssonic · 2 years ago

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Are the ArchieSonic comics actually an 80's/90's syndicated cartoon? Episode 40: The one episode that's unique to the show's premise and characters (part 4: Spark of Life)

Welcome back to my look at the ArchieSonic comic series, and how it shared a lot of the same story tropes as a typical ‘80s or ‘90s syndicated cartoon. Today I have one last story arc I want to look at for the “episode that’s unique to the show’s premise or characters,” category. It’s the fan-favourite story arc Spark of Life, published in Sonic Universe #71 - 74!

Taking place during the Shattered World crisis adapting Sonic Unleashed post-reboot, Spark of Life saw Sally, Nicole, Tails and Big travel to Isolated Island (from Knuckles’ Chaotix) to answer a digital distress call from Nicole’s creator, Dr Ellidy. Venturing into the digital world, Nicole discovered Dr. Ellidy was being threatened by a rogue A.I. that was interfering with the reprogrammed badniks Ellidy had turned into his housekeepers, and which also tried to get its hands on Ellidy himself when he digitised himself to investigate the problem in Cyberspace. Combined with the continuing threat of the Dark Gaia monsters appearing at night and a shocking revelation about Nicole’s origins, the Freedom Fighters had a lot on their plates for this story.

Spark of Life is one of only a handful of stories written by Aleah Baker (with Aleah writing the script based on her husband Ian Flynn’s plot). Aleah regularly contributed to ArchieSonic for years by doing character designs, colouring, and working on the letter pages’ gag strip, Off Panel, as well as writing a number of stories for the post-reboot era. As well as Spark of Life, this includes the stories Light in the Dark in Sonic #260 - 262, Consequences in Sonic #263, Hidden Costs in Sonic #277 - 279, The Case of the Pirate Princess in Sonic Universe #91 - 94, and Knuckles vs. Break Man in Sonic: Worlds Unite Battles #1. Aleah has unfortunately not been able to write for IDW Sonic yet due to poor health, although last year she did colour an absolutely gorgeous cover for issue #50. I’m sure that I speak for all of us when I wish her all the best and hope that she gets better..

So what makes Spark of Life so special? Well a lot of it has to do with Nicole, and the relationships she has in this arc. By the time of this story Nicole had come a long way from the talking handheld computer she was first introduced as, developing into a real person with feelings, hopes, and dreams. Nicole and her development as a character was a large part of the Iron Dominion arc and its aftermath, but that was partially lost after the comic was rebooted and the Freedom Fighters’ backstories were all rewritten to be similar to the old canon but different enough to be distinguishable. Nicole’s awakening as a sentient being is shown as a flashback in this story, and it’s very similar to how it was pre-reboot, with Nicole creating a hard-light holographic avatar for herself and stargazing with Sally.

But how she got to that point was the big difference, as this time she didn’t have wacky body-swap shenanigans with Sally. She also wasn’t sent back in time to be Sally’s friend by a future Rotor - instead she was given to a young Sally as a present by Dr Ellidy. But it’s only during the events of this story that we find out why Dr Ellidy created Nicole in the first place.

Nicole was actually a failed attempt at creating a digital existence for his daughter Nikki, who was dying of a chronic disease. The idea was that he would be able to preserve Nikki’s mind in the digital world, but all he was able to create before Nikki passed was an A.I. that seemed emotionless and did not have any sense of identity or personality. Heartbroken, Dr. Ellidy decided to leave Mobotropolis and retire to Isolated Island, leaving the AI (now named Nicole by King Nigel) with Sally as a gift. However Dr. Ellidy was apparently more successful than he realised, as over time Nicole developed into an actual person - going from JARVIS to Vision, if you like. Dr. Ellidy lived up to the name of his new home and stayed isolated from the rest of the world for the most part, although he would occasionally make contact with the Kingdom such as when he sent Sally the ring blades that had become a part of her new design post-reboot. But Dr Ellidy wasn’t aware of how much Nicole had grown over the years and so he was naturally shocked when she came to his rescue in the digital world, and harboured some resentment towards her because she reminded him of Nikki.

The other main relationship that was focused on in this story was that of Nicole and Sally, as this issue was the first step on the road for the two of them becoming a couple. More like Spark of Romance, amirite?

…

…anyway! It was subtle and sadly not able to be followed up on before the series was cancelled, but the seeds of the romance that was supposed to come were there. With Sally, we got to see that she cared about Nicole very deeply and was very upset by how Dr Ellidy was treating her as if she were not a real person.

And for Nicole we got to see some character growth for her, as she started out chastising Sally for putting herself at risk at the beginning of the story but later realised she would do the exact same thing for her.

Nicole totally had an, “Oh… she just like me. She just like me FR!” moment there!

Aside from Nicole and how the other characters relate to her, there’s a lot of other great stuff in this story. Another one of my favourite moments from all of ArchieSonic is this incredibly wholesome talk that Sally and Big had.

In this house we stan Big the Cat. I'd go to him if I needed someone to talk about girls with too!

We also were introduced to Phage, the afore-mentioned malicious AI making everyone’s lives difficult.

Phage was a very curious AI who was fascinated by what she did not understand, and had an interesting speech pattern which indicates she may have assimilated a thesaurus at some point. We didn’t find out her whole story at this time, but we did discover that she was created by Eggman and seemed to be looking for a way to get back in his good graces. After Nicole foiled her first attempt on Dr Ellidy, Phage took Nicole hostage instead and demanded that the Freedom Fighters bring her the red star ring and the chaos emerald hidden on the island.

Speaking of, red star rings now became a thing!

While they had technically been introduced the previous year in the Sonic Super Special Magazine, that was only in a five page story of dubious canonicity adapting the mobile game Sonic Dash, and the red star rings hadn’t been seen again since. This story served as their proper introduction, with Dr Ellidy explaining that the island’s Lake of Rings had one day created this instead of the usual standard rings and that he had been researching the increased power it generated compared to them. It was later revealed that the reason the Lake of Rings had started producing red star rings was because a chaos emerald had landed in it.

The best (and most unexpected) thing about the red star rings though is that they granted Nicole a super form!

But if SEGA asks, it’s not a super form, okay? It’s an overclocked form. Totally different. ;)

Dr Ellidy later gave both of the red star rings he’d obtained to Nicole as an olive branch, showing that he did actually want to have an ongoing friendship with her despite how the painful way she reminded him of his lost daughter. It was a nice gesture.

And the last thing I’d like to talk about in Spark of Life is the location. It was really neat to see the Knuckles’ Chaotix game get a shoutout in this way. It’s one of the classic games that is often overlooked (it doesn’t help that unlike most of the classic era games it has never been ported to modern consoles), and considering how different the modern Chaotix are to their classic counterparts, it’s hard to say whether it’s even canon any more. So for a long-time Sonic nerd like myself, it was nice to see it get this kind of representation. We get to see some of the badniks from the game and also the sling-rings, which actually make sense to be in this story.

This is in contrast to the pre-reboot adaptation of Knuckles’ Chaotix where they just came out of nowhere. Dr Ellidy was explained to be a scientist who was researching ring technology and had actually created them (presumably Knuckles and the Chaotix came across them during the events of that game and used them to get around the island). Considering the sling-rings were Chekov’s gun-ed early in the story, it felt a lot more natural for Sally and Nicole to use them against Phage than the way the Chaotix adaptation just jammed them into the story without any setup.

So those are my four choices for most unique story arcs of ArchieSonic: Mike Gallagher’s Mecha Madness, Karl Bollers’ Return to Angel Island, Ian Flynn’s Iron Dominion, and Aleah Baker’s Spark of Life. I’d also like to shout out a couple of other Ian Flynn stories I considered for this category, but that didn’t quite make the cut:

#1: Enerjak Reborn. Ian gets his hands on Ken Penders’ echidna mythos, and like Karl Bollers before him, puts his own spin on it. Also like Karl Bollers before him, he really pisses Ken Penders off in doing so. xD

#2: The Tails Adventure. A very unexpected adaptation of the Game Gear game of the same name, introducing the Battlebird Armada! Tails takes Antoine and Bunnie to Cocoa Island for their long overdue honeymoon and hijinks ensue.

#3: Scrambled. It’s the big showdown between Snively and Eggman! With interesting cameos from the Egg Bosses and Omega, the introduction of Orbot and Cubot, and the long awaited return of the Iron Queen!

#4: Champions. A Sonic the Fighters adaptation in the middle of a Sonic Unleashed adaptation! Reintroducing a bunch of characters from the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon! Only Ian Flynn would be so bold!

youtube

Well as much fun as it’s been writing for this topic, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t relieved to be moving on to some shorter topics now. Hopefully this’ll mean there’s a shorter wait for you between posts too (but I am rather preoccupied trying to find a new home, so no promises).

Next time I’ll be looking at episode 41 of our theoretical 65 episode syndicated cartoon: “Recap the origin story in yet another clip show.” See you next time!

#archiesonic syndicated #Youtube

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whiskeydickclaws · 2 years ago

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It's very likely we will be moving within the year, and I am now pressuring myself to get the One Big Project done before we do so.

My baby girl, a 1910 White Rotary Treadle Sewing Machine.

She was a steal on ebay, at a measily 35$ for a working sewing machine, but no base or cabinet. And then the treadle base was one without the original cabinet and no machine, also in working order, for another 125$ plus 75$ in shipping for a large cast iron base that weighs easily over 60lbs.

I did get a walnut slab for free from my father before cutting contact, so I suppose I can finally say he did one decent thing for me in my life.

The true problem, is that the wood was green when I received it, and has since bowed and cracked. I tried to fix it, but I'm not a woodworker and quite frankly, did a piss poor job.

So I have two large hurdles to get her all put together and working.

I need to get her serviced and cleaned. All her parts work, she moves, and all her bells and whistles are accounted for. I even have the original box with additional feet and needles.

I need to get this wood actually prepared and ready for use.

So the worry now, is finding local craftsmen who are able to do these things better than my poor attempts with minimal knowledge. I do know how to maintain my girl once she's been properly cleaned, but I'm too scared to try and take her apart to full clean and check all the parts myself.

So I've sent off several e-mails to local small businesses, asking about their services and if they believe they can help with my issues.

There is a local man moving into retirement from a life in machining for large companies who has a passion for vintage machines, which I am beyond chuffed about. He's got a blog detailing some of the machines he's worked on, including an absolute gorgeous 1800s Singer. One can only dream of having one in such good condition as those pictures. So I'm certain he'll be the perfect pick for my darling, as she's a simple little machine, and already in good condition.

According to his site, his full service is 100$ plus applicable taxes, and if she needs parts, full cost plus time for the install. I'll likely end up tipping him as well, given he seems like a lovely man.

The wood however is proving more of an issue.

There is one company that seems the best choice, a local cabinetry company that also offers lumber prep on the side. However, they only have pricing listed per foot, and I'm rather certain they will also include labor costs which is not listed at all. They do allow you to bring your own wood, however, and I don't need a full cabinet, just the rescue of this lovely piece of walnut that I have tortured over the past year trying to fix.

All in all, though, even if it's a bit pricier than I expect, the cost of a 1910 White Rotary Treadle Sewing Machine, with all my love, sweat and tears poured into it, will still come out to under 500$, which is quite the steal for a vintage lady that will last not only me, but perhaps future generations as well.

Oh, and my unidentified spinning wheel only requires a single 80$ fly wheel, and a bit of wood glue to fix up. Also rather chuffed about getting her into working condition too.

Pictures will come later, however. I do plan on doing a full detailed post of them both, and my journey with them.

Once I move, though- then we'll be looking at looms. That will be a high price point no matter what I choose to go with, and I'm trembling imagining it.

#base lives life #fabric crafts #vintage machines

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f1 · 2 years ago

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Jean-Pierre Jabouille: First Renault driver to win a Formula 1 grand prix dies aged 80

Jean-Pierre Jabouille, right, with Renault team-mate Rene Arnoux at the 1979 French Grand Prix, where he earned Renault's first victory in Formula 1 Former Grand Prix driver Jean-Pierre Jabouille, the man who took Renault's first Formula 1 win, has died aged 80. The Frenchman was a key part of Renault's 1977 entry into Formula 1 - and they were the first manufacturer to use a turbocharged engine. Jabouille took Renault's maiden win in the 1979 French Grand Prix. His final victory came in Austria in 1980, but his career was ended later that year when he broke a leg in a crash in Canada. He had been in any case due to leave the Renault team because his seat had been taken by rising star Alain Prost for 1981. Jabouille tried to return with the Talbot Ligier team, but was clearly unfit and retired as a driver after failing to qualify for two of his four attempts. The Alpine team, owned by Renault, said in a statement that it was "incredibly saddened" by Jabouille's death. "A humble racing driver, brilliant engineer and a pioneer of our sport. Jean-Pierre was a true racer. "He spearheaded Renault's journey into F1 in 1977 with his resilient and dare-to-do attitude. He was Renault's first Grand Prix winner in 1979, a landmark moment in Renault's journey in Formula 1. "His determination and dedication to succeed inspired many, and these values remain central to the current team in its now blue colours of Alpine. "We are where we are today because of Jean-Pierre and his legacy lives on." Jabouille, an engineer by trade, joined the Renault F1 project from its start to help develop its new turbo engine. At the time, F1 was dominated by naturally aspirated three-litre V8s but Renault was the first to see the potential of an equivalence formula that permitted the use of 1.5-litre turbos. Initially, the car was a laughing stock, dubbed the "yellow teapot" by British rivals because of its poor reliability. But the engine was immediately more powerful than the V8s used by other teams. Assiduous work improved the engine's reliability and, by 1979, the team also had a competitive chassis. Their maiden victory could not have come in more ideal circumstances for a team representing France's national car company: it came on home soil at Dijon-Prenois, with a French driver in a French car with a French engine using French Michelin tyres. Jabouille in the Renault F1 car at the 1979 US Grand Prix The sadness for both Jabouille and Renault is that the race was destined to be more famous for the gripping racing between his team-mate Rene Arnoux and Ferrari's Gilles Villeneuve for second place. One of the greatest duels in F1 history was eventually settled in Villeneuve's favour after a final few laps marked by improbable overtaking moves, regular position swaps, off-track moments and wheel-banging incidents. Jabouille had earlier in the season taken the team's first pole position, aided by the high altitude at the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami, and he took two further poles that year in Germany and Italy, although poor reliability prevented any further wins. In 1980, Jabouille took two more poles along with his win in Austria, while Arnoux won twice in South Africa and Brazil. After his retirement from F1, Jabouille was briefly a manager at the Ligier team, before stepping away. He returned as head of the ill-fated Peugeot engine programme in the 1990s. Peugeot, fresh from winning Le Mans in 1993, joined forces with McLaren for 1994, but the relationship was a tense one and it ended early - after just one season of poor performance and reliability. Peugeot switched to Jordan from 1995-97 and then to Prost's team from 1998 before withdrawing at the end of 2000. via BBC Sport - Formula 1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/

#F1 #Jean-Pierre Jabouille: First Renault driver to win a Formula 1 grand prix dies #aged 80 #Formula 1

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reginaldqueribundus · 3 years ago

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I posted 2,372 times in 2021

598 posts created (25%)

1774 posts reblogged (75%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 3.0 posts.

I added 2,111 tags in 2021

#star trek - 666 posts

#a samuel post™ - 576 posts

#star trek ds9 - 211 posts

#one piece - 136 posts

#this blue hellsite - 127 posts

#oh what a stupid post i have made - 90 posts

#star trek tng - 86 posts

#lol - 80 posts

#tumblr - 75 posts

#star wars - 64 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#it wasn’t his obsidian order implant it was the aggravation of having to watch quark mix horizonal stripes with leopard print day after day

My Top Posts in 2021

One of my all-time favourite Star Trek TNG scenes is when Lal kisses Riker. It’s easy to miss but at the beginning they mention Riker is on leave. So the poor guy has no clue what’s going on. Imagine being William Thomas Riker in that situation. You take some time off work, you come back and pop by Ten Forward for some refreshment and social engagement and as soon as you walk in a young woman you’ve never seen before who’s working behind the bar grabs you with the strength of 20 Nausicaan powerlifters and sticks her tongue down your throat. Then your unmarried, unattached, childless robot coworker (who’s around the same age as you and definitely did not have kids when you left) walks up and announces this grown-ass lady is his daughter and demands to know your “intentions” toward her like he just tumbled out of a sitcom from Earth’s 20th century. You can’t blame Riker for being flustered.

1842 notes • Posted 2021-02-02 17:05:18 GMT

Things about One Piece that crack me tf up

not one single character has worn an eyepatch in over 20 years of this 1,000+ chapter pirate manga

there's like… laser guns and cyborgs and CCTV but everyone's still using sailboats to get around (with square sails no less)

there are canonically three different kinds of furries

Luffy hangs around all day with the only person in the world who knows where the Death Star is, but he doesn't give a shit

Eiichiro Oda has spent more than half of his life so far writing and drawing One Piece. at age 22 he created his first ever manga series and it became the bestselling comic book in history and when it finally ends he can probably just retire

Oda planned One Piece would last about five years. This was in 1997

Oda just casually confirming his universe has SECRET ANCIENT MOON CIVILIZATIONS with ROBOT ARMIES and FUCKING SPACE PIRATES, and possibly ACTUAL ALIENS… in a fucking chapter cover story. And then never mentioning it again for 14 actual real-world years

eat a devil fruit. is it the one that makes you a godlike indestructible force of nature, or the one that makes you a rubber band who can't swim? welp

Sengoku is one of the most serious characters in the whole series, he runs the military, but he has a giant stupid afro and a pet goat that follows him everywhere and he can turn into a giant buddha with an even bigger afro

Chopper was just vibing as an animal and then one day he ate a weird fruit and woke up with self-awareness and hopes and dreams and anxiety and now he has a medical degree? the reindeer, he walks like a man

Dr. Hiliruk is basically one of those hippie moms who tries to cure measles with essential oils and shit but he's also one of the most heroic characters in the entire series

it's one of the goofiest wackiest manga out there but when you look closely the setting is actually a morally grey hellworld mostly run by a corrupt government built on secrets and lies which only exists to support cartoonishly evil aristocrats who live on a mountain beating slaves all day, and the rest is either lawless wastelands or controlled by 10 foot tall invincible psychopaths who could easily take over the rest of the world if they didn't all hate each other

the Celestial Dragons commit horrific atrocities every 0.001 seconds but they all dress like fucking idiots and have Dr. Seuss haircuts

there's a guy named Dragon who has dedicated his life to destroying them

Luffy meets people and goes "you're my friend now" and they have like no choice in the matter

Luffy: I'm not a hero! also Luffy: I will not rest until I crush this cruel tyrant who is taking food away from little kids

his grandpa is a world-famous war hero and his dad is trying to overthrow the entire government but Luffy doesn't even care

characters will show up and be like "I'm an 800-year-old time traveler from a lost period of history" and the story is like "that's neat. time for fifty pages of men crying"

Buggy the stupid fucking circus clown with blue hair and a flying penis, who spent his formative years with the literal greatest pirate in the entire world and yet somehow completely sucks shit, has more screen time than the main character's mentor and beloved elder brother combined. love it.

now that Jinbe has joined the crew Robin finally has another person with more than one brain cell to talk to

Brook became a global rockstar while being a skeleton and his fans just rolled with it

the Marines show up at his concert and accuse him of being a random pirate from 50 years ago and he's like "yes I am that pirate and I'm quitting the music gig to go back to being a pirate, also I work for the guy at the top of your shit list!"

2170 notes • Posted 2021-08-12 21:30:48 GMT

Hello and welcome to Deep Space Nine. We are a space station, not a starship, so you’ll be spending a lot of time with all these delightful side characters like: bisexual fashion lizard. hologram of Frank Sinatra. goblins. goblin comes in 3 varieties: bartender, nephew, and idiot. our doctor is a twink, our commander is antifa and the captain talks to the gods sometimes. our policeman is sometimes a liquid and the science lady is part worm. we have many fine storylines, such as: Goblin Does A Crime, Watch The Irishman Suffer, or The Horrors Of War. As you stroll along our promenade enjoying a raktajino or delicious jumja stick, watch out for our nefarious villains: Pope Karen. clones of Jeffrey Combs. and a horny bastard reptile man who seems convinced this is actually his show. we suspect he may be possessed by demons. Have fun!

Deep Space Nine: now with Worf™!

5821 notes • Posted 2021-04-24 23:20:52 GMT

Keanu Reeves’s career is so funny to me. Like these are the movies he’s famous for:

Himbos save the universe

FBI undercover surfer man

Bus go boom if drive too slow

Reality is a hologram and this guy is the Messiah or something, he knows kung fu

Man loses wife, dog, murders literally everyone

9995 notes • Posted 2021-04-30 22:08:41 GMT

I feel like nobody talks about this but remember Jay’s “job interview” in the original Men in Black movie? Sure, they play it for comedy, he’s a smartass cop surrounded by all these elite military graduates. But he was also literally the only one in the room smart enough to bring the table over so he had something to write on. And he offers it to the other guys too!

And in the shooting test, on the surface it just seems like a goofy joke when he shoots the little girl cutout in the head, but look at the way he responded to the situation.

The test starts immediately without any warning, we can see that everyone is caught off guard. The other candidates immediately open fire on what they perceive to be threats, but Jay takes a second to assess the situation. He sees he isn’t in any immediate danger, and in a handful of seconds he’s able to scope out several minor details about the targets and hit one with a near-perfect headshot. Jay showed he was an innovative, quick thinker with situational awareness, attention to detail and high-level marksmanship skills, and they never say it outright but I think that’s probably why Zed picked him. (Zed never actually says anything negative about Jay’s performance, just that he has a problem with authority.)

This is highly underrated writing but, then again, this is also the movie where Tommy Lee Jones says “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago, everybody knew Earth was the centre of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat and 15 minutes ago, you knew humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.”

28670 notes • Posted 2021-06-12 01:59:20 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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somethingusefulfromflorida · 4 years ago

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Losing candidates of the last 60 years

1960: Richard Nixon, Vice President (1953 - 1961), unsuccessfully ran for governor of California in 1962 after which he threw a piss baby shit fit press conference where he vowed to retire from politics, but rescinded that vow to run for president again in 1968, this time successfully because the Democratic vote was split between liberal northerner Hubert Humphrey and conservative southerner George Wallace (Nixon won with 43.4% of the vote, a record low not broken until Bill Clinton with 43.0% in 1992)

1964: Barry Goldwater, Senator from Arizona (1953 - 1965, 1969 - 1987), segregationist, staunch "states rights" activist, mentor to Ronald Reagan, father of modern conservatism, retired in the 80s, replaced by the more moderate John McCain

1968: Hubert Humphrey, Vice President (1965 - 1969), former senator from Minnesota (49 - 64) father of modern liberalism, would be considered a progressive by today's standards, pro-civil rights, later re-elected to the senate (71 - 78, died in office).

1968b: George Wallace, governor of Alabama (63 - 67), staunch segregationist, made Barry Goldwater look like MLK, famously stood on the school house door to try and stop integration, didn't let black people vote, nearly assassinated in 1972, paralyzed, continued serving as governor (71 - 79, 83 - 87), renounced racism later in life, claimed he was never truly racist, just pretended to be because he supported "states rights" (bullshit). Most recent third-party candidate to win a state.

1972: George McGovern, senator from South Dakota (63 - 81), lost every state but Massachusetts and DC, in part because President Nixon cheated (Watergate scandal, Nixon hired goons to wiretap DNC and steal intel from their HQ, forged a letter to discredit strong candidate Edmund Muskie to he would drop out and give the nomination to weak McGovern, tried to plant McGovern's campaign literature in Wallace's assassins apartment so conservative southerners would associate the attack with the Democratic Party and vote for Nixon instead)

1976: Gerald Ford, President (74 - 77), Republican House leader (65 - 73), became VP in 73 after Spiro Agnew resigned due to a bribery scandal. Democrats controlled Congress, so Nixon nominated Ford because he was a popular bipartisan mediator who the Democrats wouldn't object to, became president when Nixon himself resigned due to Watergate (Ford is the only president who was never elected to the presidency of vice presidency), started out super popular but tanked his credibility when he pardoned Nixon for his crimes

1980: Jimmy Carter, President (77 - 81), governor of Georgia (71 - 75), elected as a Washington outsider, humble peanut farmer, boring, malaise, fumbled Iran thrice (the revolution, recession, and hostage crisis), lost re-election to actor turned governor Ronald Reagan (segregationist Goldwater's protege; started his career giving anti-union speeches in the 60s despite being the president of the Screen Actor's Guild, a major union), had a much more successfully post-presidency than presidency, Habitat for Humanity, philanthropy

1984: Walter Mondale, Vice President (77 - 81), Senator from Minnesota (64 - 76), protege and successor to Hubert Humphrey, decent man, very boring, lost every state but Minnesota and DC, would later become ambassador to Japan under Clinton (93 - 96)

1988: Michael Dukakis, governor of Massachusetts (75 - 79, 83 - 91), army specialist (55 - 57), rode in a tank wearing a bullet proof vest and doofy headphones, looked like an idiot, actually polled ahead of VP Bush for a while, forgettable

1992: George HW Bush, President (89 - 94), VP (81 - 89), relatively moderate before becoming Reagan's VP (referred to trickle down as "voodoo economics"), said "read my lips, no new taxes," then raised taxes, oversaw Gulf War, sent the troops in, Iraq retreated without a fight, war was over in a couple days. Didn't invade Iraq, didn't topple Saddam; his son claims this is why he lost re-election, so he invaded Iraq and toppled Saddam in 2003, to finish what his daddy started. Faced opposition from both Democrats under Clinton and Independents under Perot; Perot didn't win a single state, but took 19% of the vote, the strongest third-party campaign all century

1992b: Ross Perot, businessman, independent, very strong candidate, qualified for debates with the major party candidates, closest thing to a 3-way race we've had since Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 (Wallace won some states in 68, but only had regional appeal; he was only on the ballot in the South, only conservatives liked him, whereas Perot was a nationwide spoiler)

1996: Bob Dole, senator from Kansas (69 - 96) senate majority leader (85 - 87, 95 - 96), fought in WW2, has a bum arm, the senate's version of Newt Gingrich, helped defeat Clinton's healthcare plan (he's part of the reason we can't have nice things). He was VP candidate under Ford in 76; Ford's VP Rockefeller was too liberal (yes, liberal Republicans used to exist, just as conservative Democrats exist), so Ford replaced him with the conservative Dole to appeal to Nixon and Reagan voters (Reagan almost unseated Ford in 76 for the nomination)

1996b: Ross Perot again, Reform Party, didn't get nearly as much support this time around (only 8.4%)

2000: Al Gore, Vice President (93 - 01), senator from Tennessee (85 - 93), very boring, but competent, actually won the election but Bush's brother was governor of Florida and illegally stopped the recount, delaying it until it was too late to restart it (subsequent investigation shows Gore would have won the recount and therefore the presidency), used his post-VP career to be a climate change advocate

2004: John Kerry, senator for Massachusetts (1985 - 2013), unremarkable but competent, lost because Bush started 2 wars and the country didn't want to change horses midstream, later became Secretary of State under Obama (13 - 17), and climate envoy under Biden (a position Biden made up to try and appeal to green advocates, but it doesn't really mean anything because he opposes the green new deal)

2008: John McCain, senator from Arizona (1987 - 2018, died in office), succeeded Goldwater but not nearly as conservative (at least, not a segregationist; he defended Obama as "a good man" when a Karen called him an Arab, got booed for it), Vietnam veteran, war monger (wanted to bomb Iran after Bush bombed Iraq and Afghanistan), actually saved healthcare by voting against Trump and McConnell's Obamacare repeal (he didn't support Obamacare, he just didn't want millions of Americans to lose their insurance; the Republicans didn't have a replacement plan, they were solely dedicated to getting rid of Obama's)

2012: Mitt Romney, governor of Massachusetts (03 - 07), relative moderate (Massachusetts is the bluest state in the country), super Mormon, hates poor people, kind of racist in a grandfatherly way ("oh, peepaw doesn't hate black people, he just grew up in a different era"), once wore brown face to try and appear tan to Hispanic voters, later became senator from Utah (2019 - present), first senator to ever vote to convict a president of their own party in impeachment (twice!)

2016: Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State (09 - 13), senator from New York (01 - 09), First Lady (93 - 01), boring gramma, disingenuous, moderate but pretends to be progressive, wasn't responsible for Benghazi but blamed for it anyway, out of touch, thinks she's the hottest shit since sliced bread, coasted to second place because she thought she didn't have to try, thought she deserved to be President, actually won the popular vote, but lost the electoral college because of low voter turnout, high third-party media coverage, and a major rightward swing in the Rust Belt

2020: Donald Trump, president (17 - 21), no prior experience, dumbest person to ever hold the office (makes George W Bush look like. Rhode's Scholar), diet Fascist: all the ideology, none of the appeal (fascists are usually good speakers, but Trump only had a base of about 35 - 40% of the country, which he couldn't grow, so instead he tried to shrink the opposition by attacking voting rights and calling the election fraudulent), super racist, super sexist, petty, vindictive, cruel, childish, spent the first two years just undoing everything Obama did for no other reason than he just hated the man (there are legitimate reasons to hate Obama, but Trump chose racism and jealousy over valid criticism), first president to be impeached twice, first president to have members of his own party vote to convict him, had a cult-like following among Republicans, close to zero support from everyone else

2024: TBD

#elections #history #American history #us history #long post

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the-kestrels-feather · 5 years ago

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Fuck it 2.0, Stable Owner!Geralt Edition

Alright so if you saw my Modern AU where they go to Pride, you know my headcanon is that Geralt runs a stable so here we go with headcanons

Geralt used to ride under Vesemir, but he bought the stable after Vesemir decided to retire from barn ownership. He keeps a few horses at the barn still though.

Geralt owns the barn and also teaches lessons

New riders and Boarders are absolutely terrified of Geralt when they first meet him, but they take one lesson with him or see him with Jaskier/Ciri and realize he's secretly a big softie who looks intimidating and they losen up

Or they see him feeding the stray cats that inexplicably show up and realize this man is secretly soft

The barn mostly focuses on English riding, especially eventing, but they do have some people who ride Western

Geralt can teach either, but he prefers English

Cross country especially. There's such an amazing feeling about flying through the woods at a gallop and jumping obstacles

He and Roach were quite the force to be reckoned with in their prime, and they'll occasionally still tear it up in competition, but now he's found he really enjoys teaching

Roach is in her mid-late teens and semi-retired from competing. Geralt still rides her, but they very rarely compete anymore.

She's also a good lesson horse, a solid 70-80% of lesson kids learned to jump on her

Ciri loves riding and is very good at it

Though she's head of the show team, showing isn't really her favorite part of owning a horse it's just more of an added bonus.

She mainly goes English because that's usually what she shows in, but also likes Western

She and Kelpie love speed, so they're especially good at Cross Country when riding English and Speed Events when going Western

Poor Jaskier has never ridden a horse in his life before he started dating Geralt, but Pegasus is a calm collected lesson horse who's patient while he learns the ropes

Speaking as a Horse Person who rode for 11 years, I can say that because Horse People are majority conservative a lot of boarders are really uncomfortable when they find out that Geralt and Jask are dating. When they start getting dickish about it they come in the next day to find their horse in a paddock as far away from the front as possible

If they call Geralt on it he blames "pasture rotation" but in reality he just doesn't want homophobes in his barn

Eskel and Lambert also board there, Roach is currently carrying Scorpion's foal even

Yen liked to ride when she and Geralt were dating, but doesn't own a horse.

She takes lessons from Geralt though, and likes taking trail rides with Triss sometimes

Renfri is also an amazing rider, she and her horse Shrike tear it up in the show ring

She and Ciri have a friendly rivalry going on and it's kind of hilarious

They're best friends irl, but in the show ring it's all about who's gonna win

Geralt and Eskel laugh about it because they were the same way when they were young

Ciri has a literal stockpile of saddle pads

Her favorite one is her Bi Pride one

Geralt also has one and it's great

ALSO POLO WRAPS OMG KELPIE HAS SO MANY POLOS

Ciri has a problem and Geralt tries to get her to stop but alas

She, Renfri, and Dara are the Saddle Club-esque trio of the barn. They're all best buds and it's so good

Ciri and Renfri have been best friends since they were kids, but they met Dara he and his horse Florian moved to the barn at age 12 and the three of them hit it off

Basically I just really love this idea of Geralt and everyone being this little family in the barn and it's so good thank you for coming to my Ted talk

#the witcher netflix #the witcher 3 #the witcher #geraskier #geralt of rivia #jaskier #i love this idea filing it under fic that will get written #geralt deserves to own a nice barn with his little family and to just have a good life

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jancynco · 4 years ago

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Remember, I Love You

The Friday after our wedding I was ridiculously excited. All of the unrealistic expectations and ideas of marriage completely consumed my brain. The never-ending happily ever after moments, abundance of success, a ton of sex and great health. Not a worry in my make-shift world. A part of me felt like we cheated the system or something by quietly having a small intimate wedding on a brisk Thursday night away from the world. It was as if by keeping it hush all the plagues of life would miss us and love could be our guise. It wasn’t until this endearing encounter with a gentleman by the name of Mr. Jim at my grandmother’s retirement home that I witnessed unconditional love personified. It quickly changed my perspective of the effort and true longevity necessary for marriage. My husband and I went to visit my grandmother because she was unable to attend our wedding. We decided to spend a couple of hours with her so she could become familiar with Rich’s voice. My grandmother could not speak but from what the nurses observed she was very attentive to Rich. I think because he’s easy on the eyes… something she would say back in her healthier days. But that’s neither here nor there. It was there in the common area that Mr. Jim, this spunky, older white man with a calming southern drawl began to talk to us. He said we looked like we were in love and that Rich had “got him a good one.” I jokingly responded, “he sure did”. He proceeded to tell us about his beloved wife of 60 years and how he took special pride in loving, protecting and raising a family with her. Then he paused and mentioned a young woman he could not take his mind off of. Whoever this woman was she was the most beautiful encounter he had ever experienced. She apparently was everything he wasn’t and her composed, elegant nature was something that intrigued him quite immensely. He continued to let us know that today was the day he was going to marry her and start a new life, family and all. We thought he most certainly was joking with us because we had mentioned we were newlywed the day before and the fact that he was in his mid-80s. He was serious. That day he was awaiting her arrival and if she said yes, they were to be married that very day. He took a deep breath and said “you two look like you are in love. Seems like you picked a good one”. Perplexed, I hesitantly replied with a “sure did” and touched my husband’s knee hinting at this possible lapse in time. It was then that I heard this fragile woman’s voice say that she had to go home and prepare for the wedding. They whispered “I love you” to one another and she repeatedly assured him of her return for the ceremony as she tried to leave.

My heart sank as I realized what just played out in front of me. I found out that Mr. Jim suffered from dementia and his caregiver, his wife of 60 years, the young woman he obsessed over just moments before, enacted this routine every day in order for her to go home after taking care of him, preventing a mental episode. To put a smile on his face and to ease the blow of leaving him every night she promised a wedding to prepare for, as a hopeful focus for him to have peace in. My heart exploded with emotion at what Rich and I had just experienced. It was the saddest and yet most beautiful thing I had ever witnessed. As his nurses helped him to his room he yelled out “see you at the wedding!” and she replied “remember, I love you.”

Over the past couple of weeks that memory has been my alarm clock in the mornings. Trying to push through the health complications, maintain our businesses, endure this pandemic… and just deal with the complexities of life, I think of my husband and feel so safe… anchored. Being loved the right way is overwhelming. It’s an experience within itself. The overflow of someone’s good nature is what we find ourselves enamored by in this euphoric cycle of bliss. It’s what vowels are made of. What intention desires to be and our decisions work so tirelessly to prove. It is to love without condition, force logic to conform into an uncontrollable state and take the risk of betting it all on the faith that someone will fight everything life has to offer with great conviction and dedication with you. It is that thing that will be the last memory of a hopeless romantic that kept a smile on his face through 60 years until his last days.

Nothing in the world mattered to him. The news, featuring countless, heart-wrenching stories leaving everyone with these unsettling anxieties paled in comparison to his thought of her. In my poor attempt of trying to comprehend the full spectrum of the disease that is dementia, I thought it to be both a curse and a blessing of some twisted sorts to have one last memory and it being the love of your life. I also thought of her and the weight of knowing all the fruit that came from that love, yet only acknowledging a particular moment. She is weighted with history while he is stuck in that moment and they are both trying to love each other respectively in time. How do Rich and I get to 60 years? What will influence my decision to wake up every morning and to love him with equal or more intensity than the last day? What do we hold on to when it seems like we are free falling together? What’s a mountain, a mole hill and what’s just another incline to overcome in the grand scheme of things? Bickering about bills, if you put the toilet seat down, who didn’t compliment who if they got a new look, doesn’t matter. At the end of the day… “Remember, I love you.”

#marriage #love #dementia #mentalillness #wedding #family

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supersymmetrys · 3 years ago

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IN THE ANGEL'S CITY, CHASING FORTUNE AND FAME . . .

An introduction post for my main WIP right now

Title: In the Angel's City

Genre: Drama/Adult Fiction

Status: first drafting

Setting: California, 2016 / California, the late 80s and 90s

POV: First Person

Warnings: swearing, alcohol + drug abuse, suicide and death mentions, mild sexual content, and overdosing mention

Synopsis:

When newcomer screenwriter Nadia Pérez is presented with the opportunity to create a mini-series for HBO, with a plot of her choosing, the recent Academy winner has decided she will explore the life and death of forgotten 90s actor Scott Case. With mysterious circumstances surrounding the actor's death and poor media coverage about his life, Nadia relies on one person to help her with her script: Deven Shaw, former actor, and Scott Case's best friend. The only problem? Deven Shaw retired from acting years ago and is now living exiled in god know's where. Is up to Nadia not only to find Deven but also to ask him if he's willing to help her uncover the reason behind Scott Case's death, as well as find out secrets about the actor's life.

"Nadia, it's not just the script anymore. It's finding out what really happened with Scott Case and it's finding Deven Shaw, whom no one has seen in years. You are investigating a giant Hollywood mystery, a mystery that absolutely no one has wanted to uncover. This is bigger than you or me but you have still decided to take the risk of finding out." - Jenna Azaria

Tag: # wip ; in the angel's city

Pinterest Board: Here

Spotify Playlist: Here

Characters: (will add the links for their introduction posts in the future)

Nadia Pérez: (28, she/her) screenwriter and recent oscar winner Nadia Pérez is a cunning, smart, and focused woman, who can be enthusiastic at times, even if she lives in a city that constantly tries to push her down. Despite being talented enough to win awards, she struggles in finding pride in herself Deven Shaw: (49, he/him) Deven used to be a popular teen heartthrob during the late 80s and 90s but he disappeared from the public eye after the death of his best friend, Scott Case. When Nadia finds him, deven has become a reclusive and grumpy middle-aged man, who has to become a mentor of sorts to Nadia against his will. Scott Case: (he/him) Scott Case died of mysterious causes in 2000. Charming and handsome Scott was notoriously famous during the 90s and it was such a striking mystery why no one remembered him until Nadia started investigating. Even though he doesn't really appear in the book, we get to meet Scott through Deven's stories and memories. Jenna Azaria: Nadia's best friend and actress who's rising to fame. Always so cheerful, Jenna is always glad to assist Nadia in her search for the truth. Paul Campbell: Nadia's boyfriend and comedy actor, perhaps the only person other than Jenna that Nadia trusts. Nicole Toledo: A 90s actress who Nadia admires and who used to date Deven Shaw in the past. Alan Barret: A movie producer who Nadia hates, apparently used to move in the social circle as Deven Shaw in the past... Marc Toussaint: A now famous director who used to be good friends with Scott Case.

Taglist (ask to be added) ; @holyatlas @reelvintageworld

#wip ; in the angel's city #writeblr intro #wip introduction #wip intro #wip info #writeblr #writeblr community #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #writers #writing wip

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hey-hamlet · 5 years ago

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BNHA AU Ideas : University Professors (in Love)

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TL;DR:

Due to a long-standing feud between various Law and Science professors, the students from those respective degrees don’t get along very well. What better way to foster some good (or at least non-violent) relations between departments than to start a new science-in-law degree?

Too bad the Law and Science professors - Yamada Hizashi and Aizawa Shouta, respectively - working on the course together hate each other's guts.

(Well, until they fall in love.)

Oh and Izuku and Hitoshi are sleep deprived first years running on noodles and Redbull, but what else is new?

this is at a big ass, top tier university

all might is like, the david attenbourgh of this universe but he got injured on set and moved to teaching, he's not that relevant i just wanted to include him because hes a good man

so, aizawa is under all might in the science faculty hierarchy, but not by much considering how young he is. aizawas the animal physiology teacher and does shit tones of research with zoos and shelters for husbandry studies

now, the two big draws of this campus are like the wet sciences and their law section, but the whole campus is pretty swish: like if gatton and st. lucia were connected with land but still as weird as the other.

Now none of you know anything about my uni, so imagine not quite an Ivy League school, but still one of the fancier collages in your state, with a redneck agricultural campus slapped on. But the rednecks are liberals.

Now imagine they are run by the same people

so one of the law lectures retires and they get a new one! its mic! and now aizawa is already pissed. hes dealt with mic before riding his ass in ethics committees and honestly just making life harder for him than it had to be

and the university tells him to reduce the hostility between the two sides of the campus, they are going to be holding some law classes in the animal side and vice versa and aizawa is piiisssssedddd

and then they fucking, start a new animal science/law degree about animal ethics law and aizawa is flipping his fucking lid because all might is already the vet science-vet tech degree co-ordinator and since aizawa is so new, hes the highest-ranking person to not be a degree coordinator

so of course, hes the new degree coordinator

but oh no, nezu isnt done

hes coordinating with mic, and they are the two primary lecturers for the two first, second and third-year compulsory subjects so aizawa is having a mini breakdown rant at allmight in the staff room when mic bursts in to say hello

allmight shoves aizawa in the cupboard and nervously chats to mic as aizawa tries not to make a noise from where he was quickly shoved into a cupboard of skeletons. hes internally saying sorry to the skeleton of that one tutor who donated himself to the uni. mic leaves, allmight helps him out and aizawa is just caught between pissed and flustered tbh

so the science people band together to allow aizawa to drown his sorrows in the nice food on the other side of the campus

and they have fucking, disguised aizawa

hes in one of nemuri's wigs, a pair of sunglasses from snipe and one of the nice lab techs named inko gave him a big puffy coat

and so this pack of science nerds is penguin huddle sprinting to the one ramen shop they all love, trying to hide aizawa from nezu, hizashi, and other random law students/lecturers hes pissed off

so allmight swears he sees hizashi but its nbd he only waves

so they get there, and all give aizawa sympathetic looks and buy him his lunch even though he insists he has money. inko the lab tech is there too bc i love her and she is aggressively mothering aizawa

when they are done they run back to the science side because no one has the courage needed to stop a hoard of sprinting scientists. also: nemuri is the chem lecturer and you should know that

its like the middle of the school year when this starts, so aizawa and hizashi have to scrap together this degree real fucking quickly

even though the both of them have Opinions about the other, they refuse to let their students suffer bc of how poorly planned this was so they knuckle the fuck down and bust out 1.5 years worth of content before the end of the year. they dont do much in person, mostly just emailing

aizawa is softer on mic bc they guy isn't horrific over email. unknown to him mic has developed a full-on crush on this guy

hes like, crying to joke "hes just,,, he wants to do good for his students you know? he isnt just a lecturer for the research money,,, he c a r e s,,,"

the whole god damn science faculty is mothered by the head lab animal tech, inko and they see her fretting about one day, and its turns out this whole fucking time shes had a son and didn't want to say anything bc she didn't wanna impose

(yagi has a big ol crush on her but nbd)

and so shes surrounded by all these nerds asking ab izuku and how old he is, and what he likes to do and they've never seen her happier rambling about her son. She tells them she let slip ab the new degree a little early, and izuku wants to be in it so badly and everyone is real soft

hes graduating next year, so thats even more motivation for aizawa to buck up and make this degree work bc he knows one of the kids now, and from what inkos told him, the boys a good kid

the entire faculty has already adopted izuku

one thing she hasn't mentioned ab izuku is that hes got chronic fatigue syndrome

aka izuku is constantly exhausted, his immune system is a bit shit, and hes in chronic pain that isnt affected by painkillers, other symptoms can just like, pop up, its pretty not understood

anyway, thats the reason izuku wants to get into animal law, not vet practise, bc hes not sure he'll always be able to physically pick up the animals and he doesnt wanna do them like that

anyway, its near the end of the year and its time to set the OP threshold. I have 0 idea how you guys get into uni, but an OP is basically: your grades are ranked, then your subjects are ranked, then your school is ranked by a fancy test. Your OP is the score from 1-25 you get with all that jazz. 1-5 is like: you can do almost anything. 1 is like doctors, vets, law. 1-15 is pretty respectable, under than you might need to do a little fuckery to get into a course.

mic is pushing for like, 10, bc its a new degree

but aizawa isn't having that. op 2 or he wont sign off on it and mic doesnt understand why and aizawa just turns towards him

"im not having animals suffer lower standards than humans. standard law is an op 1. vet science is an op 1. im already making a concession here."

mic swoons a little tbh, they eventually agree on op 5

anyway, izuku has an op 2 so its nbd for him, inko is so proud of her boy! aizawa has a little "thank fuck" moment bc he really did want this kid to get in bc he sounded like a good kid. also, mic's nephew shinso is in the first class! aizawa is actively trying not to remember the kids name so he isn’t a dick to him for 0 reason

there is like a grand total of 80 people in this degree which honestly isnt that bad

super high rate of externals tho, so there are only 50 students on campus

20 students in the campus dorms

izuku is one of them, he was gonna get in anyway but they put him in and gave him a nice first floor room bc making the poor guy walk up and down stairs for no reason is just mean

hes in self-catered bc while hes not super picky, hes allergic to some stuff, and some other stuff makes him sick, so no dining hall

shinso is his nextdoor neighbour. hes in self-catered bc he put his form in late and thats the only spot they had left! he cant cook so save his actual life.

so, mirio is the ra and hes a big soft 4th-year vet, he works out to give the dogs hugs

amajiki is his neighbour he has a cat - i mean - very loud fish (aka: no pets other than fish allowed)

when mirio likes people, he just,,, puts a cat in their face, and insists its a fish until they get it

that cats name is guppy i don’t make the rules

ok so, izuku and shinso meet and bond a bit in freshers’ week (think hazing, but gentle, with loads of games and forced bonding), but shinso is intimidated bc izuku is smiley and social and has loads of friends

and that does a 180 when he gets back to his room after a late-night walk, seeing izuku crying in the kitchen as he waits for the kettle to boil because a hot water bottle is the only thing that might stop his arms from aching

and shinso like, hides bc he gets not wanting people to know what's wrong but from then one he is SUPER protective of izuku

anyway, end of the week izuku confesses that he has chronic pain so he might be a bit grumpy sometimes and shinsou has to be like "oh its nbd" when one day he almost smacked their other neighbour with a piece of frozen steak bc he was making too much noise in the morning when izuku got to sleep really late

on the weekend they play videogames and make popcorn as the other kids go home, and they get visited by inko and Hizashi

inko is mothering izuku and has two very fat rats in her arms that she dumps on him and he lights up

see: izuku isnt allowed pets. but no one said anything about inko

so she got the two softest, dumbest, babiest rats shes ever seen and they live on her desk now. and shinso is like "SONs" and they have rats in their jumpers while all 3 of them play mariokart

hizashi stops by to help shinso cook bc he admitted hes only been eating frozen shit. izuku is gently telling him off bc he could have helped! but shinso is like "no i needed to maintain my cool vibes" so hizashi gently grabs izuku, sets up the two chairs like fluffy thrones and they order shinso around the kitchen like hes a servant

shinso is loosing his actual mind laughing and so is izuku. they force him to make katsu curry and eat it in the kitchen on their thrones while shinso sits on a shitty box fridge. there are more chairs left, hes being extra

so, first day of classes, they have principals of law first, izuku drags his pained ass out of bed and he and shinso make their way to class, both freezing fucking cold holding mugs of hot drink

they sit down

the lecturer is mic

izuku is losing his shit and shinso is like "oh yeah didnt i tell you?" and izuku is trying not to cackle/punch him. he waves sheepishly at mic who waves back with great enthusiasm

mics first class is just

KAHOOT

it’s not even law-related, it’s just random bs animal facts

shinsos name is c a t s and hizashi is losing his mind bc izuku set his name as d o g s r b e t t e r

the lectures r live-streamed so the external students can join in real-time and monomas on the other end like s n a k e

hizashi is losing his actual m i n d, everyone just has variations of their favourite animal

also pwease during this lecture mic is just chatting w the students ab whats going to happen, sees izukus mug of tea and says

"ok and just so everyone knows, please feel free to eat and drink in my lectures, just dont let anyone know i said that

"sir this is being recorded"

"shhhhh"

pls bakugous that one asshole that whips out a full course meal and starts distributing it amongst his squad. bakugo is just a plain law student, but there are some plain law students taking this course as an elective

mic honestly looks bakugo in the eyes, and orders pizza for everyone but him. hes standing in font of the mic so its fucking recorded too. izuku is cackling

ok so, they have an hour break and go to the cafe, inko crashes and smuggles them outside, and gives them the rats

inko and izuku aren't super well off financially bc they are saving for a service dog and its EXPENSIVE, even tho inko makes ok money, husband divorced her bc izuku was sick, izuku has issues, was bullied in school, has had cfs for ages

so inko has these rats bc she "liberated" them from the end of a cosmetics trial she heped nemuri run and nerumi stood infront of the secruity camera and closed her eyes

anyway, next lecture is aizawa's

shinso has vaguely heard ab the guy from hizashi and desperately wants to sit in the back row. izuku has heard ab the guy vaguely from inko and desperately wants to sit in the front row. izuku wins bc they walked in through the lower door and shinso doesnt wanna make the guy walk up all those steps

aizawa walks in, nicely says hello to shinso, izuku and the over kid in the front row, tells the people in the back row that if they think he cant see or hear them from there they have another thing coming, and immediately starts talking ab how many people working in animal-related fields and in law are depressed

izuku raises his hand, while shinso is aggressively trying to pull it down

"yes, kid?"

"what if you're already depressed, professor?"

aizawa pauses, turns off the mic and loses his shit quietly behind his desk, shinso is red and trying to hide, izuku looks proud of himself. aizawa gets himself together, coughs, and turns the mic back on

"seems we had a bit of a technical difficulty, continuing on"

and the whole room loses their shit, and aizawa is grinning like an idiot but his voice is the same pissed monotone as usual

just have to Be There for aizawas lectures like everyone who doesn’t show up is like :///// idk why y’all like him so much he’s kinda boring and izukus like No you have to Be There

in Person

everyone thinks the guy is a boring old man who keeps breaking his computers. in reality, hes like 26, really tired, and keeps losing his shit so hard he turns off the mic so No One Can Know

one time he walked in in hot pink leggings and when he asked "any questions?" ochako (a vet tech student in the class) ask "sir where did you buy those because they look amazing" "the internet, ochako. any other questions."

and bc you cant hear the students all the externals are trying to work out what the question was. it becomes a meme

last day of lectures they all show up in matching leggings. aizawas soft but he Refuses to show them. they fucking found the site he bought them from, all of them have pink leggings in increasingly vibrant shades

shinso's are like, lilac

izukus are eyebleeding, highlighter pink

anyway! mic likes to share the tea from behind the scenes

and so they learn ab the "really sweet department head with a crush on a lab tech" and izuku loses his shit. puts his hand up, and mic says "yeah?"

izuku clambers out of his seat, asks mic to turn the recording off, takes the mic and stares down the class

"that lab tech in my mum and shes smitten for this guy. totally smitten."

'ooOH SHIT REALLY?"

izuku just grins and nods

"ok class, extra credit. can we go through this uni's stance on dating co-workers. anyone who gives me a quick, sighted explanation of whether or not we can hook these two up gets 5% of their final mark, no questions asked"

fuckin, izuku is so on board with this, and tells hizashi he'll leave the assignments on inkos table at home if he wants, the whole class gets so fucking into it

anyway, after all that jazz izuku spots yagi and inko out for coffee together and reports it as a win, the class cheers

as an aside: hizashi is very open ab the fact hes one of 2 degree coordinators but he hasnt mentioned the second

its also very obvious he has a crush on the second, and that hes a little older than them (hizashi is 32, shouta is 26) now, literally no one thinks aizawa is the other

bc hes 26, and wears fucking pink leggings to lectures. hes like, hes baby. hes so small, so young, takes his cat to class in a backpack

its literally only the externals who think he could be bc they think hes like 50. aizawa has the curse of just having great fucking bone structure, hes really god damn hot. half of their love letters pages is people thirsting over him and hes so mad ab it. he doesnt brush his hair and wears dumb clothes but apparently, that makes him relatable or some shit

anyway, hizashi is off-topic talking ab the lab tech that mothers the other course coordinator and shinso sees izuku perk up

they guy has been looking out of it all morning bc hes having a bad day, but wanted to go to lectures. anyway, after the lecture hes scrambles over to hizashi and asks

"oh my god is the other coordinator professor aizawa”

"damn, what gave it away"

"mum mothers him because he never eats and he apparently looks like hes barely 20, which is false, but thats mum for you"

once they get out of lectures izuku is like

"shinso. shinso"

and shinso looks lost

"you know what this means, shinso""

"no. no i dont"

"MATCH MAKING TIME"

#bnha au #professors in love au #aizawa shouta #aizawa #eraserhead #erasermic #present mic #yamada hizashi #midoriya izuku #midoriya #izuku #shinsou #shinsou hitoshi #shindeku #if you squint

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doomedandstoned · 5 years ago

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Conan Bring Cold Blackened Violence to France

~By Clem Helvete~

For the penultimate show of a European tour that lasted over a month, CONAN played the Westill Festival in Vallet, France. For the occasion, I reached out to Jon and asked him if him and Dave (who was playing bass on this tour) would have a minute to answer a few questions. Although they were both quite tired from a month of hopping from one city to the other, they still managed to make time to talk about the tour, Blackskull Services, guitars, pedals, and amps. We nerded out about gear for a bit, right before Conan went on stage and literally blew up the PA. And I literally mean literally...

So, how did the tour go?

Jon: We’re two shows from the end now, and I could probably still go on a few more shows. I’m a bit tired but we’ve been out a whole month. We’ve been to fifteen countries or more all across Europe. So, it’s been good.

Dave: The tour was great. I haven't done anything like this for 25 years when Fudge Tunnel was touring. The whole thing was fine though, well organised and we had Un and Sixes from the USA along on all but the last two shows so we all made a lot of friends.

Dave, how did you end up playing bass in Conan to occasionally replace Chris?

Dave: I got to know Jon a little via Facebook, as he's a big fan of my old band Fudge Tunnel. Last year he asked me if I fancied filling in on bass for a couple of shows while Chris got married. That went OK, and he asked me to do a few more shows that Chris couldn't make due to his producing commitments. Then earlier this year he asked if I could do a whole four week european tour. Chris and his wife just had a baby, so I'm like "maternity cover" this time out.

Does it bring a different vibe to Conan to have Dave on bass?

Jon: It is a tiny bit different and it’s interesting. Dave and his band have alway been idols to me, so being on stage with him is really great. We’re very comfortable playing and working together, and we get along great. So, it’s brilliant.

You toured with Un and Sixes, which are two bands who have releases on Jon’s label, Black Bow Records. In addition, the whole thing was booked through Blackskull, right?

Jon: I released the first Un album on CD and digital and I think Translation Loss has picked them up for the subsequent release. I distributed Sixes’ more recent album in Europe.

Between Black Bow records, Blackskull Services and Conan, which is a very active band, how do you manage all of this?

Jon: With some difficulty, but it’s fun. I enjoy it, so I keep busy with it. I don’t do everything on my own. Blackskull is myself and my other half, Sarah. There are other people who work within Blackskull, who do the booking. On this particular tour Marie, who does some of the booking with Blackskull, handled all of that. So I can’t take any credit for that really. The tour is going really well and that’s because of Marie, really. She’s been really good at booking everything.

You basically started the booking agency and the name Conan has gotten some momentum, to say the least, over the last few years. It feels like you’re giving back by helping smaller bands.

Jon: I always get asked for advice, and I’m not an expert on everything by any means, but there are a lot of ways that you can help bands get over some of the hurdles, particularly in the early stages. That’s really why it was set up, just to help bands move forward. Obviously there are more serious aspects of what we do, such as negotiating with labels, booking tours, all the transactional things that we do. But on the other hand, we’re here for advice and guidance. I wish I had someone like this when Conan was starting out. There are certain things that we probably wouldn’t have done if we had the correct advice. So you can pass on your experience to other bands and we decided to make a business out of it.

Can you tell us about the bass and guitar you're using in Conan?

Dave: Up until this tour I had been borrowing Chris's Dunable Thunderclapper, which is a beautiful instrument. Conan plays in drop-F and his bass was custom made with that in mind, longer scale etc. As we were going away for a lot longer this time I put something off my own together. It's a P-bass body which I stripped down and re-finished. I put in a DiMarzio DP122 pickup and upgraded the wiring. it has a Gotoh bridge which I set back an extra inch to lengthen the scale. The neck is a fairly cheap jazz style thing which I got on eBay. To make a bass that plays in drop-F you need to use extra thick strings, Rotosound Dropzone+. The thickest string is a 175 and it still flops about and slaps on the fretboard.

I believe Jon started out playing Gibsons and then moved on to EGCs for a while, is that correct?

Jon: The first guitar I started using in Conan was by a British company called Gordon Smith. I had an SG and I recorded the first two albums on that. Over time I’ve used different guitars, I used to have an early ‘80s silverburst Les Paul custom. It’s a beautiful guitar but I didn’t really like the way the strap is bent at a sharp angle the way I wear it. There was once or twice where it actually popped-out of the strap pin. Not cool on a guitar that’s worth about £2,000. Around that time I had an Electrical Guitar Company all aluminium, which is a bit trendy I guess. They are great instruments, but I didn’t want to have two guitars that are worth so much money on the road. I sold that and I ended up noticing Dunable Guitars from Los Angeles, so I bought a couple from him. I have a Dunable R2, I have a Flying V, and I have another guitar that’s being made for me at the moment. It’s like a reverse body clone of a Guild S200. I’ve always loved the shape of this guitar, but not necessary all the switches that are on it. So I wanted that shape but with something more traditional in terms of options, just two pickups, tone and volume.

What about the scale?

Jon: These are not baritones, they are Fender scale [ed. 25.5”]. I’ve always had the Fender scale. The Gibson Les Paul obviously isn't a Fender scale, and the Gordon Smith was also a Gibson scale [ed. 24.75”].

Do you find the Dunables more comfortable to play due to the scale or is it more of an overall thing?

Jon: I find the overall comfortable enough and they hold the tune a little bit better.

Which is important since you guys are way down-tuned.

Jon: Yes, we’re dropped tuned to F. So it’s important that the strings are tight enough so they sound clear enough when you’re playing. So, that little bit of extra length on the neck definitely helps.

What string gauge do you use?

Jon: The bottom one is a .8 and then I go through to 14 I think. Right now I’m using Ernie Ball heavy gauge strings. They do an 8 strings set, which goes from 80 to 11. I use the first four wound strings and then I don’t remember what the 2 thinnest strings are. I don’t really worry about changing them because I don’t really use them when I’m playing. The other day, I replaced all my strings and just did the first four because they’re the only ones I use, like a poor man’s Max Cavalera.

Dave, I assume your rig is a bit different from what you were using in Fudge Tunnel. Are you trying to get close to Chris's sound or are you really just going for your own thing?

Dave: In Fudge Tunnel I used a very different sound. Much more top end, and standard tuning. So I mostly used Marshall solid states or Ampeg SVTs with Fender Jazz, Musician or Rickenbacker. When I play in Conan, I try to make it sound good to my ears. Chris is a producer and has much better ears than me, so it probably doesn't sound the same. He also has a much better beard.

I believe you are using an Orange OB1-300 and QSC RMX 850a (I could be wrong on this one) both rack mounted. Can you tell us a bit about this pairing and how it came to be ?

Dave: My Orange amp is an OB-500, which I really like. It's ridiculously loud and a bit more reliable than a full-on tube amp. The power amp is there just to run the Peavey cab, which is a 1x18. It's Conan's cab, and it's just there for the low end (there's a lot of low end). As far as I know all the speakers are stock. The 8x10 is one that we bought on the road, towards the start of the tour in Copenhagen. The one we brought over was a little worn out, and I managed to blow three of the speakers (oops!), so we upgraded. All three bands were using the 8x10 every night so it had to be done.

I saw that the guitar rig you’re using on this tour is different from the one that you’ve been using for a while now. Can you tell us about your current touring rig?

Jon: Very early on in this tour there was a signal problem with it. I haven’t tried it since so maybe it was my cables. But because of that I’ve switched it to two old Peaveys amps. I’ve had these Peaveys in the studio for years now and I’ve never really used them, but I had to bring them out of retirement for this tour. I actually had them fully overhauled and serviced just before we started the tour. I must have had some sort of premonition or something, like I knew this was going to happen. I started using them in Hamburg, which was only the 4th or 5th show on this tour and I’ve got two shows left and so far it’s been good.

I have the Hilbish rig at home and I’ve got the Peaveys now that all of a sudden have caught my attention, but I’ve just taken delivery of a valve rig made of a separate preamp and a power amp.

Are you going back to tube amps?

Jon: I’m just going to try it and see. I’ve got another band, Ungraven, in which I want to run two full stacks with two 8x10s. For that set up, I’m going to run two full stacks with this new rigs if it sound good. It’s a Mesa Boogie Studio preamp, the same one that Kurt Cobain used, and that is going to be run into a Mesa Boogie 295 power amplifier. This is a stereo power amplifier and each channel is 95 watts. That’s all tube. I’m interested to see how that sounds, I think it’ll sound cool. Then I’ll use the Hilbish or the Peaveys through 8x10s. I’d rather use the Hilbish if I figure out what’s wrong with it. That rig could run two 8x10s very easily so that’s what I’d rather use.

What made you decide that you would switch from tube to solid state? This is not a very popular move within the doom scene.

Jon: On our last album I used the Hilbish rig in which I ran a Boss HM-2 clone. I’m not using that pedal live right now, but I’ve been using it quite a lot. I don’t really know why people would have an issue with solid-state. Some of the coolest albums were recorded and played live with solid-state amps. In Crowbar Kirk uses the Orange solid-state 100 watts head, Jimmy Bower from Eyehategod uses a Randall solid-state. Buzz from the Melvins uses the exact same Hilbish rig I have, it was through him that I’ve heard of this amplifier. I like the versatility of it, I love solid-state.

Speaking of amplification, do you have any issues with volume restrictions? France and Belgium are known for having fairly low limitations.

Jon: It has been an issue in some places. Yesterday in France we were a bit louder than they would have liked. It was around 109 decibels and their limit was 102 or 103dB. Some of the shows it’s a little bit of a restriction but nothing too crazy. We played at this place called Fundbureau in Hamburg, which is actually a techno club, and the PA in there is for techno. It was the most powerful PA we’ve ever played through. Our sound guy is good at making us sound good while respecting the dB restrictions, but when he’s let loose on a loud PA it’s awesome. The sound in this venu was crazy. When we were playing the floor and the stage were vibrating all the time. After the set my feet were tingling. I’m not sure if I enjoyed how it felt but it sounded amazing.

Gear is an important component of your sound, so how do you make sure you have the gear you want when touring the US or Asia for example?

Jon: In America we’ve got our own cabs and I’ve got two Hilbish rigs out there. Friends of ours in a band called Serial Hawk in Seattle keep all of our gear in a storage room. We have a bass rig and two guitar rigs out there. We have three 4x12s and an 8x10. So when we go in America on tour it’s all there for us. It costs us less than we spent renting gear on the first two tours. So it makes sense. Rather than spending a fortune renting it I’d rather have some consistency. A lot of bands use Orange amps, and they’re great amplifiers. If I ever have to rent it, I’d rent Orange for sure. I like owning what I use. I can maintain it myself and I know that nobody abused it a week before. Touring through Asia, we played Japan one time and I just used two Marshall JCM 900 full stacks and on bass we used an Ampeg and an 8x10. Australia and New Zealand we just rent whatever’s there. Last time we went over it was Marshall. But if we can specify what we use, we just go for a cleanish sound and two full stacks. So Marshall can do, Orange would do.

Basically a loud pedal platform.

Jon: Yes, my pedalboard comes with me no matter where we play, so I know that’s always consistent. For distortion I’m using a Fuzzthrone, which is a really high gain Big Muff. It works really well for Metal, it works really well for slow, drony parts. I’ve got it dialed in quite well. Although, when I change my strings it sounds a little bit brighter than normal, so the last couple of shows was a struggle to get the feedback swell the way I like it. As long as it’s a clean sounding, loud amplifier I can probably sound quite consistent through them.

So let’s talk about your pedalboard. You’ve worked with Dunwich Amplification for the Fuzzthrone, how was that?

Jon: It’s a Fuzzface stacked up on a Big Muff tone, but I just told him what my favorite sound was and he made it, but louder and with more power to push the amplifier a little bit more.

You tried out prototypes?

Jon: Yes, he sent me a prototype, then I used that and he sent me the real thing. Since then I’ve had three or four different ones and they all sounded the same. He’s a great pedal builder. Right now I’ve got a Fuzzthrone and I’ve got a Nihilist, which is an HM-2 clone. It’s the same pedal I use on the album. The one I use right now has a clean blend, I think it would make for an amazing bass distortion pedal. I don’t use the clean blend for guitar, though.

I’m guessing your pedalboard hasn’t really changed since what you showed in the video you made a few years back.

Jon: Yes, it’s the same thing.

c/o The Doom Doc (2017)

What about bass effects?

Dave: My pedalboard is pretty simple. I use a T-Rex power supply, MXR bass compressor, Boss tuner and a SansAmp bass driver. There's also a Boss Bass Overdrive just in case the SansAmp dies.

I saw on social media that you picked up Ground FX pedals. Are you using them on this tour?

Jon: No, when we played in Hamburg we went to my friend’s music store and we stayed just above it. This music shop is like a treasure trove. He has amazing instruments in there. I got to play on a late 60s Fender Jaguar and he’s got loads of cool Hiwatt, Orange, and Roost amplifiers. My friend Christian, who runs a festival called Droneburg, told me a friend of his made a couple different pedals and wanted me to try them. So I got one which is a bass distortion and one that is like a Sunn Model T preamp. I tried them out there and it sounded cool, but I wasn’t using my gear. So I’m going to try them once I go back in the UK and see if I can maybe use them on a record.

What piece of gear would you say is at the heart of your sound?

Dave: The modified bass is essential, along with unusual amounts of volume and drive. I wouldn't want to go "unplugged" in Conan.

Jon: Without a doubt the Fuzzthrone. I’ve been using that since Blood Eagle. I love how it sounds and it makes me play a certain way. It’s taken a new lease of life with these Peaveys that I’m using now, which I didn’t really expect. I love how it sounds. It’s a simple pedal and I have my sound dialed in so it stays pretty consistent no matter what amp I use it with.

You don’t play around much with pedals in studio then? Aside from the HM-2 clone on your last album, would you say that you don’t really stray from your sound?

Jon: I used the HM-2 clone mixed with a fuzz pedal. I didn’t use the Fuzzthrone on the last album at all, I used a Meathead [ed. by D*A*M]. I like mixing things up, maybe on this new album I’ll use the Fuzzthrone because it sounds pretty cool at the moment.

Is the new album ready to go?

Jon: Yes, I got some songs written. We just need to rehearse them a little bit and get them ready for the studio.

It’s impressive how active you guys are. It is something a lot of musicians can look up to.

Jon: It’s something I’ve always been interested in since my mid teens. Writing music has always been a goal of mine. Performing kind of took over and became a thing all of its own. I’ve never had any idea of what it would be like to go on tour, I’d never thought for a minute that we’d do that. We tour quite a lot, we’re very lucky. I don’t have a day job holding me back, neither does Chris. He runs his own studio so he’s flexible. Johnny is also very flexible with his work, so the three of us are lucky. It’s like the stars have aligned most of the time. When Chris isn’t available we can call Dave, which is great.

Thanks again to Jon and Dave for their time and for being so friendly and accessible after driving around Europe for a month. It goes without saying, but Conan played loud and hard and I’m very much looking forward to their next show in our neck of the woods.

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#D&S Interviews #Conan #London #England #Doom #Metal #Clem Helvete #Westill Festival #Vallet #France #2019 #Doomed & Stoned

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shakespeareanqueer · 5 years ago

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Tony Stark Bingo Masterlist

So after a bit of a hiccup concerning my email, my card finally arrived! Thank you to @tisfan and the couple people who jumped in my inbox to let me know I was being searched for!

I am making the extremely over-ambitious goal of blacking out my board. I have at least tentatively titled and come up with the concept for all of the fics, so I’ll be posting them here as I have them in my planning doc, with the knowledge that some stuff might change in the next 6 months. Feel free to hop in my inbox and tell me what you’re most excited to see, and it might get bumped up in my to-do list! (List under the cut)

Chapters from two longer fics are included.

Ghost of Unprotected Sex Past - When your daughter gets sick, you finally have to tell Tony Stark he has a kid. How will he react? How will he get involved in your life?

The Avengers Library for the Study of Enhanced Persons and Heroes - When you wake up with no memories in the Avengers compound, Tony takes you under his wing and gives you a job as librarian and archivist for the Avengers. What is this alpha, beta, omega stuff, and why does Bucky Barnes smell so good?

Row 1:

Phobia - Ghost of Unprotected Sex Past - Chapter 11 (Can’t Sleep?)

The End - Ghost of Unprotected Sex Past Chapter 23 (Epilogue)

Image of Maya Hansen & Tony Stark at New Years Eve 1999 Party in Switzerland from IM3 - The First Domino (one-shot) (evening from Maya’s POV)

TY Stone- Ok actually I don’t know what that is and I’m writing to them to have it switched out.

Dares/Bets - Ghost of Unprotected Sex Past Chapter 20 (Saturdays are for the Boys)

Row 2:

AU: 80s Pop Star - Poster Boy (It’s 1985 and Tony sneaks out to see how celebrity crush In concert. He meets her twice more before finally fulfilling his childhood fantasies) (In 1989, Tony attends the concert of an 80s pop star. 15 years later, that pop star attends his party.)

Chore Rotation - Dum E’s Big Day (What happens when Tony tries to pawn off his turn at cleaning the common room onto his poor, clumsy robot?)

Fireplace: Ghost of Unprotected Sex Past - Chapter 10 (Moving Day)

Confessions Under the Influence: Ghost of Unprotected Sex Past Chapter 14 (Confessions Under the Influence)

Writing Format- Fairytale Narration: Ghost of Unprotected Sex Past Chapter 17 (Bedtime Story)

Row 3:

Photoshoot - Ghost of Unprotected Sex Past - Chapter 13 (The Discovery) (Paparazzi)

Afterlife/Ascension: At Rest (Nat, Tony, Pietro, Gamora, and Loki j chillin’ in the afterlife)

Free Space: Ghost of Unprotected Sex Past - Chapter 1 (Three Things)

AU-StarWars: The obvious answer here is an IronDad meets Papalorian but that requires me watching The Mandalorian so stay tuned

Tony Stark/Pepper Potts: Eggshells-CEO (an addition to my Eggshells series of therapy sessions with the Avengers)

Row 4:

Amnesia: Avengers Library for the Study of Enhanced Persons and Heroes Chapter 1 (Welcome to the Land of the Living) Pleasant Dreams, Waking Nightmares (angsty Stony oneshot)

Kidnapped!: Knight in Shining Armor (When Tony sends Peter to save his kidnapped daughter, he doesn’t count on sparks flying)

Abandonment Issues: Forgiveness (Tony has an angsty but ultimately fluffy heart-to-heart with Bucky)

Power Swap: Upgrade (omegaverse one-shot) (Tony Stark is a beta but Iron Man is an alpha. But... Tony Stark is Iron Man. Right?)

Grief: Shiva (angsty/fluffy one-shot) (Tony’s friends and family sit around after his funeral and share their fondest and most bittersweet memories) Grief (Everyone grieves differently. How did those around him grieve Tony?)

Row 5:

Ancient Civilization: Snafu (What happens when the time machine malfunctions, and Tony ends up in ancient Rome?)

Learning To Cook: Ghost of Unprotected Sex Past Chapter 21 (Measure That Shit With Your Heart)

Tony Stark/T’Challa: Vengeance (angsty chat between T’Challa and Tony, post Civil War & Black Panther)

AU- Reincarnation: URSULA -Underground & Retired, Saving Ur Lives Again (Tony was not expecting to be ‘woken up’ this early and brought back into the fray as an AI, but the Avengers are dumbasses and helpless without him)

Cheesy: Ghost of Unprotected Sex Past Chapter 19 (Late Night Cookies)

#my post #marvelll #alloy man #fanfic #writing

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absolxguardian · 5 years ago

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My Characters: The Adrift Vaquero (Light Fingers)

Known as: The Adrift Vaquero | Jack Dominguez | The Cynical Tejano

Addressed as: Sir. Pronouns: he/him.

Character Masterpost

CW: Mentions of violence against sex workers, period typical low level racism, period typical homophobia, and a coercive human trafficking scheme (although it turns out better than the real world version). Jack’s backstory is very much based in history, and mid-1800s America is exactly the same here as it was in our world. It’s just that these are things excluded from Fallen London, so I feel the need to warn for them.

His backstory also ended up double the lengths of everyone else’s, so it’s under the cut.

On the Surface, Jack Domiguez was a Tejano (the Mexicans living in Texas from before it was annexed) cowboy/vaquero.

His grandfather lived in the part of Texas that was disputed between the Republic of Texas/the United States and Mexico. He was a loyal Mexican, and when the Mexican-American War broke out, he served as a cavalry officer in the Mexican army. He was killed, and his small estate pillaged by the American army.

Jack’s father grew up an orphan, and took the lesson of his father’s death to heart. The only way to survive was to keep your head down. Dominguez found his way north into Texas proper and began to work as a vaquero, driving and rounding up wild cattle on the behalf of white ranchers. He learned to keep his head down. He halfheartedly converted to Protestantism, but there was only so much he could assimilate to avoid the racism directed towards him. He was moderately successful, enough to support a wife in town, and soon she gave birth to a son. He gave this son a very anglo name- Jack. Because of his father’s efforts to assimilate, Jack can barely even speak Spanish.

Jack was born in 1868, three years after the end of the American Civil War. While many families were affected by deciding to join the Confederacy, Dominguez learned from his own father’s mistakes and remained neutral. But still, Jack grew up in its shadow, as Texas was flooded with free blacks and white southerners recently stripped of their fortunes. Or as Reconstruction ended and segregation began. But Jack learned from his father the best thing to do was keep his head down, and hope that white racists overlooked him.

Jack learned from his father how to be a vaquero from a young age, and he took. However, when Jack was 15, his father died from Typhoid fever, forcing him to work full time to support his mother, who died a few years later of cholera (again, his backstory is just regular historical fiction).

The increasing industrialization of the west and the invention of barbed wire in the 80s continued to drive Jack west as he sought work wherever he could find it. In 1888, Jack reached California. But by 1890, there simply wasn’t any open range left. He had been increasingly forced to take on more and more stationary ranch hand jobs, and then they were the only ones left.

Jack worked in the San Francisco area, and that was the up and coming town he would go into on his days off. It was there he befriended two twin prostitutes/performers: the women who would become the Fading Music Hall Singer and the Eccentric Opera House Singer, although he was much closer to the former.

It was with them where he first heard tales of the Neath and Fallen London. The sisters were approached by an Italian man who offered them a chance to perform in music halls in London and work as Mister Wines’ ladies. He was tasked with procuring foreign girls and taking them to London. He claimed the sister’s native heritage would allow them to pass as from somewhere more exotic. Of course, this wouldn’t be free, they’d be in debt to him for a good while. But they would be in London, a place where death is more flexible and everyone is too afraid of Mr. Wines to assault a sex-worker.

The Cynical Tejano didn’t want the sisters to agree to the deal. It sounded way too similar to the kind of things men used to lure women to California from China. But after the Eccentric Opera singer was beaten by a client, they realized that the guarantee of protection under the law was too great an opportunity to pass up.

Jack listened to his dad’s advice when it came to political issues. Although, he’s always found a place among the underdogs- free blacks, other Latines, native Americans, and sex workers were more likely to be his short term friends before circumstances separated them. In London, that means he’s found his place among Urchins, Rubbery Men, and the Tomb Colonists. Used to the racial politics of 1800s America, he was pleasantly, but very surprised, that beyond a few side eyes for being American or a newcomer, no one seemed to care that he wasn’t white.

But Jack had trouble listening to his dad’s advice when it came to not getting into trouble. He had a very quick wit, poor impulse control, and a mind for schemes, even if he didn’t have any actual training behind it. It was one of these schemes that began his Worst Year Ever.

Jack decided to start flirting with the son of a wealthy man in San Francisco who clearly showed mutual interest (he’s also very surprised that London doesn’t have homophobia anymore either). He’d had a few casual relationships before, but mostly with other cowboys out in the frontier. That’s just how things happened out there, with no women for miles. And so there was still less judgement when he showed no interest in prostitutes once they were back in town. His relationship with the heir was the same. They were friends with benefits, and he knew his lover would be able to avoid consequences one way or another if they got found out.

One night, instead of doing the usual climbing out of the window trick, Jack tried to take some silverware to make up for the fact he was almost destitute. But that woke up the entire household, forcing him to sprint through the streets of San Francisco and vault onto a ship right as it was leaving port. He still has no idea how his lover fared, but hopefully he was assumed to be a burglar.

And thus began Jack’s Worst Year Ever.

The ship was bound for China. And while the captain took a liking to the Adrift Vaquero, he was unwilling to land somewhere else. So the Adrift Vaquero worked as a deckhand on the ship until they arrived in China.

From there he made his way westward, criss-crossing the East. He could have taken a ship back to California, but all those captains wanted payment. He also risked arrest or immigration problems (he was a naturalized citizen, but non-white and couldn’t prove his citizenship) if he tried to go back to the states right away. So instead he made his way the other direction, alternating stowing away or working as a seaman. In ports, he survived through more theft and schemes, increasing his skills and rapscallioness.

Over the course of most of a year, the Adrift Vaquero finally made it to Egypt. From there, he intended to stowaway on an Italian ship. However, his information was bad, and he didn’t realize that said ship was bound for the Cumean Canal. He was now in the Neath.

The more deserted nature of the Cumean Canal and the Adrift Vaqueco’s bafflement at his new position caused him to be caught by the Admiralty's Port Authority. He was thrown into New Newgate for his crimes and given a do-or-die (but metaphorically) course on London.

Although he wasn’t told, his prison sentence was just a single month, and even that was simply to appease the crew of the ship that brought him down (crews willing to make Neath runs are rare). So even while the Adrift Vaquero was working on his escape plan, he was set loose in London with nothing to do. An outsider to both the Neath and English society in general, he still managed to learn quickly and keep his head down. He became a low level thief, mostly working for the Gracious Widow and simply taking the odd jobs as they come to him.

A few weeks after his release from prison, he received a note from his old friend, the Fading Music Hall Singer. Surprisingly, the man who brought her and her sister to the Neath wasn’t lying about the working conditions, and Mr. Wines made sure that all of his ladies had their food and board taken care of. According to the note, she had recently bought her freedom and retired from sex work, and only preformed in music halls now. There was no mention of her sister. She said that she had received news of a jewel “the size of a cow” and thought that Jack might be able to help her steal it, given his tendency for schemes.

The Adrift Vaquero knew that with such a jewel he could return not just to the Surface, but to the US, and probably even retire with a ranch of his own. (Despite his cynicism and flexibility with work, he also has an honest love of horses). So he sought out the Fading Musical Hall Singer, but he couldn’t find her. Now he’s been drawn into a web of conspiracy involving the Masters themselves. Quickly, a time approaches where keeping his head down will no longer be an option, and he must choose a side.

#fallen london #fl #fallen london ocs #the adrift vaquero

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