#victoria spectre

[esotericas-sims]

Victoria and Constance head home a few weeks later. There are a handful of tearful farewells, and Olive and Connie swear to become penpals, and write each other frequently.

Once all the farewells are done, Ruby hands over Celestin, stricken with guilt. She tries, internally, to convince herself that this is for the best, but she can't help resenting herself for abandoning her son, illegitimate or not.

Playing with SeveralPerson’s Ultimate Decades Challenge Rules

Started: 1800s

Current decade: 1900s

Family tree

Spreadsheet

CC Finds

[another-corpo-rat]

Victoria + Alt? (I realize there may be some... logistical questions here, but also I think they have some shared interests)

oooh Vic and Alt would be interesting Alt certainly fits Victoria's criteria for her one-night stands as she stands as possibly the most interesting person Victoria could ever encounter but actually I see her lusting more over Alt's power in the domain than after Alt herself. If she's a shark in cyberspace, then here she is face-to-face with a leviathan and damn does that not turn her on just a little.

Alt meanwhile probably just sees this bright spec of a person as a means to an end; that means is trying to get a way into the Arasaka's networks internally. A Trojan Horse. She just has to try and get Victoria to agree - or force it upon her somehow without frying her.

it wouldn't be a relationship exactly but the push and pull between them would be fun

got me wondering if cyberspace fucking is a thing now

[nobility-art]

Queen Victoria of England

Artist: George Hayter  (English, 1792–1871) 

Title: Queen Victoria (1819-1901) 

Genre: Portrait

Date: 1840

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Collection: Royal Collection of the United Kingdom

Description

Before his appointment as Queen Victoria’s ‘Painter of History and Portrait’ in 1837, George Hayter had impressed the young Princess with his skill as a portraitist and helped her with her first attempts at oil painting. Hayter was to succeed Sir David Wilkie as Principal Painter in Ordinary to the Queen in 1841. However, he received no royal commissions after 1842 as the Queen came to prefer the work, and personality, of other artists - particularly Sir Edwin Landseer and Franz Xaver Winterhalter. Queen Victoria commissioned this, her State Portrait, from Hayter in 1838. The 19 year-old Queen is depicted as she was at her Coronation in Westminster Abbey on 28 June of that year. Shown seated in her Homage Chair, she wears Coronation Robes and the Imperial State Crown and carries the Sceptre with the Cross.

Hayter’s first background for the painting showed the Queen in Westminster Abbey, but he was to alter this later, placing her in a more generic regal setting. Queen Victoria’s pose, with her upturned face illuminated by a shaft of light, endows the composition with a religious spirit reminiscent of Baroque painting. In fact the day did not proceed smoothly, as the Queen was to relate in her journal. For instance, the Coronation Ring, which had been made to fit her little finger, was forced on to her fourth finger by the Archbishop and the unfortunate Queen had to bathe her hand in iced water after the ceremony before she could remove the ring. There was, according to Lord St John, the Sub-Dean, ‘a continual difficulty and embarrassment, and the Queen never knew what she was to do’. Nevertheless, she described the day as ‘the proudest of my life’.

[victoriadallonfan]

Hi, since I haven't seen anyone mention this on reddit or tumblr, I'd just like to say, as someone whose first language isn't english, Worm's cape names are fucking weird. Are all of them words? Who knows, i read Worm and Ward without knowing Eidolon and Brandish are real words and not made up words. Or they are words i know but idk wich meaning is? Is March like the month or like the organized walking verb? So do all cape names mean something, and say something about the one who chose them? I refuse to google them at this point, but Anelace? Cinereal? Myrrdin? Couldn't they pick more known 2 word combinations? Do parahumans get a discount on thesaurus? Thats all I wanted to say, thanks. PS. Wildbow, the fuck you doing using Califa de Perro as a name, couldn't you ask any Spanish speaker?, i'll kill you.

BIG ANALYSIS INCOMING

Eidolon = spectre, phantom, and idolized object/person

Brandish = to flourish and wave about an item, usually a weapon. Also an epitaph for Athena

March = to move in a uniform manner and derivative of the roman god of war, Mars

Anelace = double-sided dagger used by civilians

Cinereal = grey matter of the brain and nervous system

Myrrdin = Too many to count but generally tied to Myrddin Wylt, prophetic folklore bard and a facet of Merlin (genuinely more work than I can ever give on the topic of how insanely intertwined those myths are)

The thing about Wildbow's cape names are two-fold:

In the 80+ years of superhero genre, a LOT of cape names have been chosen and used already. Taylor mentions this to Armsmaster as a meta-joke in the first arc (ironically, DC also has a Skitter, who debuted in 2011.... the same year as Worm), so he has to be creative and sometimes creativity is simplicity.

He loves giving character names multiple meanings.

To go down the list:

Eidolon's name is ironic, because he notably not idolized (and pushed out of the spotlight compared to Legend), and he ends up becoming one of GU's spectres.

Brandish creates weapons, yes, but there's connection to Pallas (brandishing) and Athena accidentally killing him while distracted to Victoria accidentally caving her head in while distracted. (There are several story iterations, including one where they had a parental relationship).

March is about how she organizes her megacluster like an army or marching band, but also reference to her civilian name (May), the Mad March Hare from Alice in Wonderland (which her entire fight with Vista is a huge reference to), and the Ides of March (notorious for the stabby stab stab of Julius Caesar)

Anelace is a master of weapons, but he's notably reluctant about that fact, and is noted to have a healthy civilian life by other characters

Cinereal is the grey matter of the brain. She is the Atlanta Protectorate leader that turns things into grey matter (ash)

Myrddin = See the King Arthur and various clusterfuck of mythos

Even his main characters have this: Taylor tailor makes her outfits and is a silk Weaver, Khepri is an Egyptian god that bring a sunny morning... and she debuted on Gold Morning. Victoria is a Roman Goddess of Victory (Contessa uses her to find "the Path to Victory"), Antares means "Anti-Ares/Rival of Ares/Anti-War" and is the constellation "heart of the scorpion" which is Victoria inside of the wretched forcefield. We can even stretch this to Khepri and Antares: Khepri is a beetle that carries the sun on to a new day. Antares is a binary sun system (with one sun being invisible to the naked eye). In the slaughterhouse 9 fight, Taylor and her beetle (khepri) carry Victoria and the fragile one (antares) to safety (to live another day).

WE CAN EVEN GO FURTHER: Atlas is the man holding up the sky in Greek Mythology, which Taylor names her beetle. Victoria's PHO name is Point_Me_@_The_Sky (which is also a Pink Floyd reference). In Worm, Atlas holds Victoria up in the sky.

Its really fun to analyze.

Califa seems to be a simple goof. Or maybe Taylor just butchered his name.

They can't all be winners.

[mechanicalmechanism]

Name Suggestions 〜 Vampires ✦

꒰ NAMES ꒱ 〜 Adelaide , Akasha , Akeldama , Alaric , Alcide , Allure , Alluria , Allurine , Ammar , Amaraso , Ambrose , Ambrosia , Amelie , Anatasia , Apparitor , Apparor , Apparitir , Apparitionor , Arius , Armand , Asphodel , Astaroth , Asylum , Augustine , Baital , Ballad , Ballade , Banpiroa , Baobhan , Barnabas , Batre , Bella , Belladonna , Belle , Bianca , Blackwell , Blade , Bloodrop , Blooddrop , Callidora , Carrie , Carrion , Cariste , Carmilla , Cassius , Castor , Celeste , Celia , Claudia , Cion , Cionne , Clareth , Coven , Count , Countte , Countess , Cravensworth , Cruor , Dame , Dames , Darion , Delemore , Dominik , Dorian , Drucilla , Drusilla , Eestelte , Eerie , Eeriely , Elisabeta , Elmir , Esduette , Esme , Essie , Ensanguine , Eztli , Fang , Fangge , Faust , Faustus , Felix , Gesyt , Himo , Ichabod , Immortelle , Jezebel , Kieran , Lac , Lacce , Laccere , Laszlo , Lazarus , Lilith , Liz , Lizette , Louis , Luci , Lucie , Lucielle , Luciel , Luciette , Lucius , Lucy , Luther , Magnus , Marceline , Marcy , Mary , Maryse , Melchior , Mercy , Merlot , Morticia , Mortician , Nadja , Necro , Nerezza , Noctis , Orpheus , Paranoir , Pisaca , Pointe , Remilia , Remus , Reyes , Rook , Rosalind , Rosaline , Salvatore , Sanglure , Sangre , Sangue , Savamp , Selene , Silas , Sire , Sith , Sithette , Spectt , Spect , Specttrila , Spectre , Spectrille , Spellyne , Suco , Syth , Sythette , Tempest , Valenetta , Valentine , Vamine , Vamistte , Vamp , Vampe , Vampiir , Vampid , Vampier , Vampinne , Vampiress , Vampiresse , Vampirine , Vampmir , Vampyra , Vampyre , Vampyyri , Vasanguine , Vesper , Veurinne , Victor , Victoria , Victorine , Vikramaditya , Viktoria , Vileiur , Vilette , Vladmir , Vlaude , Von , Vylad , Vympyre

[fatehbaz]

Seventy-five years after two nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan — killing hundreds of thousands of people in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — one small community in the Northwest Territories is still haunted by its connection to the blasts. Across Great Bear Lake from the 533-person hamlet of Délı̨nę sits the historic mining site of Port Radium. [...] [T]he Canadian government quietly called for uranium production as part of the country's involvement in the Manhattan Project. That uranium was sent south to help the United States with the race to build a nuclear bomb. [...] [N]ear Great Bear Lake, workers would eventually wonder about the risks they took delivering sacks of ore on their backs as they sent it south — without being told what they were about to be complicit in. [...] Days after the blasts, the Canadian government announced the country's role in the explosions, citing the Great Bear Lake mine's uranium as a key ingredient for the project, said Geoffrey Bird, a professor at Royal Roads University in Victoria who studies tourism and the history of remembrance. An English-language sign connecting Port Radium to the atomic bomb was photographed in Délı̨nę in December 1945. [...] While the Canadian government hasn't apologized to Délı̨nę, the community has apologized to Japan. [...] Locals in Délı̨nę say many ore workers and their family members developed cancer later in life. [...] In the book If Only We Had Known, which tells the story of Port Radium from the eyes of the Sahtúot'ine, elders remember workers' clothing covered with dust, windy days when ore was caught up in the air and children playing games in mine tailings.

Text by: Katie Toth. “Spectre of atomic bomb still looms over N.W.T. community 75 years after Hiroshima.” CBC News. 5 August 2020.

---

[O]n 6 August 1998, 10 members of the small Sahtugot’ine Dene community of Deline (Fort Franklin) in the ‘Northwest Territories’ apologized in Hiroshima for the atomic destruction of that city – and the death of over 200,000 civilians – exactly 53 years earlier [...]. Eldorado Gold Mines Ltd. [was] placed under state control during World War Two. They [the Dene] were allowed only to help it [uranium] on its long and winding way, 3,000 miles by river, lake, road and air, from Port Radium on Great Bear Lake to Port Hope on Lake Ontario, where, from 1942-45, the suddenly precious ore – the ‘new gold’ of the atomic age – was, together with ‘Belgian’ uranium from the Congo, refined and dispatched to Los Alamos, the desert lab in New Mexico secretly building the new, city-smashing Superweapon. [...] Beginning in the 1970s, and spiking sharply in the 1980s, many of the men who had handled and carried the ore – and the men who had mined it – began to die from cancer [...]. The “Dene,” the CBC ‘revealed,’ “were never told of the health hazards they faced, even though the government knew … as early as 1932 that precautions should be taken in handling radioactive materials”. Instead [...] “workers [were] dressed in casual clothes and uranium dust [...] covered the men like flour.” [...] [A]s detailed in a December 1998 article [...] in First Nations Drum: [...] [T]he mine was kept running at a very high pace [...]. The Dene were employed as ‘coolies’ packing 45-kilogram sacks of radioactive ore for three dollars a day, working 12 hours a day, six days a week. This at a time when the ore was worth over $70,000 a gram. [...] In 1998, the Déline Dene Band Uranium Committee released a 160-page [...] report, “They Never Told Us These Things.” In a 2011 article in Maisonneuve, Salverson recounts a community meeting in Deline to discuss the report, “where [non-Dene] lawyers delivered a year’s worth of uranium-impact research from the archives in Ottawa,” revealing that in “the mountain of papers we dug up … there is not one mention of the Dene, your people.”

Text by: Sean Howard. “Canada’s Uranium Highway: Victims and Perpetrators.” Cape Breton Spectator. 7 August 2019.

[art-that-fucks-you-up-tournament]

SET SEVEN - ROUND ONE - MATCH FIVE

"Survival Series: "In a Dream You Saw a Way"" (1998 - Jenny Holzer) / ""Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre"  相馬の古内裏 妖怪がしゃどくろと戦う大宅太郎光圀 or Mitsukuni Defying the Skeleton Spectre Invoked by Princess Takiyasha" (c.1844 - Utagawa Kuniyoshi 歌川 国芳)

SURVIVAL SERIES: IN A DREAM YOU SAW A WAY: [no additional commentary] (anonymous)

TAKIYASHA THE WITCH AND THE SKELETON SPECTRE: [no additional commentary] (your mod team)

("Survival Series" is a series of works by American artist Jenny Holzer, which consists of texts written on different objects. This bench, "In a Dream You Saw a Way to Survive and You Were Full of Joy", is made of white marble and measures 17 x 24 x 17 in. (43.2 x 61 x 43.2 cm.)

"Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre"  相馬の古内裏 妖怪がしゃどくろと戦う大宅太郎光圀 or Mitsukuni Defying the Skeleton Spectre Invoked by Princess Takiyasha" is a woodblock print and triptych by Utagawa Kuniyoshi. Copies of this print are held in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and Honolulu Museum of Art.) 

[chryza]

How do I explain why I’m obsessed with Horn and Harmonie

To understand their relationship (though in canon they are kept away from each other deliberately) you must first recognize that they once were other women. They were named Rita and Rosalie and they were young and idealistic and they loved each other as they dreamed of becoming defenders of Victoria like their beloved mentor. To leave behind the world of pointless garden parties and plotting nobility and actually do something worthwhile.

And then their mentor died in disgrace, catalyzing the inexorable destruction not only of their dreams but of Rita and Rosalie themselves.

I think for a while Rosalie tried to hold onto the dream she had of nobly defending her country, but the illusion of grandeur she’d held for her mentor was shattered. If even the person she looked up to the most was motivated by greed, had used her to do so, then what was the fucking point? There was still Rita, incorruptible Rita standing against it all like a fortress, but she was the outlier. By the time the Victorian army began pressuring her to join their intelligence network she already constructed a worldview that everyone, including herself, was merely a pawn in others’ games. She became Harmonie easily—Rosalie had been dead for a long time anyway.

Rita spent ten years, if not more, most likely believing her friend had died or disappeared. Sure Harmonie could have kept in contact with her but it was so difficult as a spy to maintain relationships, and surely Harmonie would never do anything to endanger her best friend. Rita carried on bearing all the weight of their dreams—she wasn’t affected by their mentor’s death after all. She went on believing there were still generals worth looking up to, officers in the Victorian army who were as pure in ideology as she.

The tempest platoon was that dream, I think, for Rita made manifest. She knew the army was corrupt, but she could cut through the rot and defend the people of Victoria against that corruption.

The County Hillock barracks and Dublinn didn’t just kill her friends and comrades—it obliterated her faith in her dream. Rita Skamandros died in County Hillock and all that was left was Horn, the last remaining member of the Second Tempest Platoon. There was no faith, no dream, only a festering rage and a raw guilt that forced her into living for her fallen comrades if nothing else.

The rub of all of it is that Harmonie is both the reason she was imprisoned, and the reason she was alive. It was the joint schemes of both Harmonie and the Elocutionist that brought the Spectre Force to County Hillock. It was Harmonie who coldly assessed that Horn was worth something to Dublinn alive. Perhaps her actions were driven by sentiment anyway. She stuck her neck out for Mandragora too, after all.

And at the end, both safe now at Rhodes Island, what reckoning awaits them? Horn, the shell of a soldier putting on a front of normalcy in a desperate attempt to conceal the fury and sorrow that drives her? Harmonie, running from everything in her life since Horley’s death finally face to face with the past she tried to leave behind?

Perhaps there is some atonement waiting for Harmonie and perhaps there is some comfort waiting for Horn. Horn just wants to protect something and Harmonie finally can be saved. Harmonie isn’t the idealistic girl she once was, she’s a cunning and manipulative schemer who is still so often blinded by sentiment nonetheless. There is still something left perhaps of that old life she tried to kill—her darling Rita. They are enemies now. The list of things Harmonie has done that hurt Horn is long, but there is reconciliation to be had, to be wanted. There is still something to save.

[jellicle-chants]

I know you’re still working on that speakeasy AU so no pressure, but I’m really interested in the circus background. What were their acts? Are they the same acts now or did they change things? What kind of costumes do they wear? Aghhh it’s so interesting!!

Great question! All of them are still doing some version of what they did in the circus: the twins read fortunes, Cass has a contortionist act, and Misto does stage magic, with some dancing and acrobatics thrown in. (He used to do aerial silks with the circus, but the theatre doesn’t have the setup for it.)

Costume ideas/reference photos are below the cut for length.

Here's what I think Cass' costume would look like:

(More images here, courtesy of the NYPL. The woman pictured is Edith Lambelle Langerfeld AKA "La Sylphe", a real contortionist/exotic dancer from the time period.)

Unfortunately, a lot of period fortuneteller costumes are just racist caricatures of different types (a problem I also had with the contortionist outfits), but I tried to find a few that weren't extremely flagrant in that department.

(Unfortunately, there were no photos of male fortunetellers that made my cut, so I guess Cori has to be a clown 😅)

There were also disappointingly few photos of male acrobats/circus dancers I could find, but I love these posters for Misto's acrobat outfit.

As for his magician costume, I found this image of the actor Hubert Marischka in costume for the operetta "The Circus Princess" from 1926:

I also found this gorgeous bespoke costume jacket (sold on Ebay!) which, while a little out-of-date, just works so perfectly for him.

This isn't the right era either, but I think Victoria's "magician's assistant" would look something like this, to go with Misto's.

Ballet costumes are tricky because again photos are hard to come by, but here are a few that I like:

(Tamara Karsavina and Vaslav Nijinsky, Le Spectre de la rose, 1913, colorized)

(Anna Pavlova, The Dying Swan, 1905)

I hope this answered your question! I love Edwardian-era clothing and especially costumes, so this was a whole lot of fun for me.

[patchodraws]

i am once again asking for an official post-bae story that challenges — then doubles down on — the morality of max choosing to save chloe even if it means plenty of other people might get hurt or perish in the storm.

don’t get me wrong, i want it to be messy. i want people - victims - to confront max about her decision. i want steph to get angry that max’s decision killed her mom and best friend’s brother. i want david to sail in despair that his wife died and he was left with her bratty daughter. i want victoria to call max out for prioritizing one life over the hundreds she also knew. i want max to wonder the what-ifs of lives without chloe, to think she couldn’t live without chloe and that makes her decision selfish. i want chloe to blame her, to indulge her, to argue with her. i want chloe to wonder if the world would actually have been better with her gone, and i want chloe to forsake max because look at the wonderful life they’ve built together.

i want max to really wonder if she made the right choice.

and then i want her to decide that yes, she did. she made the right choice. that this world is better for having her and chloe in it, even if it’s missing some other parts.

i want the story to ask every post-bae question that’s been on everyone’s mind since 2015 then reject the idea that that’s the wrong ending. the bad ending. the worst ending.

i want that story. i want that spectre to be lifted from the fandom forever. i want chloe and max to have a future they know they’re welcome to be a part of, even if it cost them so much to be there.

i want that chapter closed, officially. and i want it to end with that positive message.

[anotheruserwithnoname]

And here goes Yahoo AGAIN recycling. Click the link and you'll see the story dates from 2016. This was back when, after the release of Spectre, Daniel Craig said he didn't want to do another Bond. Of course, he did. Now, of course, they actually are looking for a new Bond. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is reportedly the front-runner (we've heard that before - it'll likely be someone not on anyone's radar, like how Craig was predicted by vritually no one - or Peter Capaldi was never considered a contender for Doctor Who until whispers emerged the night before the announcement). Still one wonders how Tom might approach the part today.

Seriously, though, although it cannot be denied it got clicks (look what I just did), why is Yahoo flooding Google News searches with nearly decade-old news? Next thing you know they'll be running "breaking news" about some guy named Lazenby being named the new 007.

[esotericas-sims]

Across the Atlantic, Celestin seems to be settling into his new home well. Constance has some doubts about her new baby brother, but she knows better than to ask her mother too many questions.

Playing with SeveralPerson’s Ultimate Decades Challenge Rules

Started: 1800s

Current decade: 1900s

Family tree

Spreadsheet

CC Finds

[rosella-writes]

Happy Fridayyyy! For DADWC, how about “get behind me. now.” for Solas/Cassandra?

For you!! Post-Trespasser battle! With Divine Victoria Cassandra Pentaghast! Thanks 🥰 @dadrunkwriting

Rating: T

~~~

The will of this alien being pressed upon her, all-encompassing in its might. The bones of her skull felt as if they ground against one another, like tectonic plates sliding under the force of their own momentum. She could barely open her eyes. 

Cassandra Pentaghast pushed back against the might that crushed her mind. She reached for her deep well of Faith, the well she had nurtured and sustained through the death of Anthony, the murder of Justinia, the betrayal of her lover and her friend. She pushed, purging this might from her body, with sheer force of will. 

Only when its pressure relented, only so slightly, did she realise she was sobbing. 

“Andraste,” she cried out, “Bride of the Maker, hear my plea.”

The voice that responded was not divine — it slid, like stone against stone, so ancient and terrible and unknowable that she wished to wither away in the face of it. She could not understand its words, but could sense its disgust. 

Her eyes cracked open. Her lashes were crusted with blood or salted tears or both. The world beyond them swirled with green, and she was reminded of those terrible hours locked in the Fade at the Inquisitor’s side. But even when facing the spectre of Justinia, she had had a cool, large hand in hers — even when facing down the Nightmare, she had had her friend and love at her side. 

Now she was alone. 

She could not gaze upon the source of her pain, for it was too large, too terrible, to be known. She received only the impression of reaching arms, eyes, and darkness — tendrils that laced through the air like seaweed through water, darting pupils within wet, shifting, fleshy orbs upon the air. And she, a mere human woman, stood against it. 

Her bronze-plated boots squelched in the mud. It was not rain that had soaked the earth of the Dales — it was blood, churned into the topsoil by the struggle of elf against man, elf against elf, spirit against demon against elf against man. She knew she should not be here, facing the Void and the beings that poured forth from it, but she had never done as she had been told. Being called Divine would not see her shirk her place, not when her blade was so sorely needed. 

Across the field, Cassandra knew that Bryn struggled, locked in a fight of their own. The former Inquisitor faced monsters spawned from the Fade, and Cassandra was on her own. 

Cassandra thrust forth her sword, and it felt as if she lifted it through the pounding pressure of a waterfall. 

Pain spiked through her mind. 

She took a step, sure only of her need to keep going, to not give up, to endure. 

The dripping icicle that was agony thrust deeper through her skull.

Her eyes nearly rolled back in her head, but she focused them on the being before her. It regarded her through its many lenses as a child regards ants — she was puny, worthless. She wondered that it even wasted time attempting to stall her progress across the field of battle. 

But just as she felt her grasp on her will slip — just as that well of Faith seemed to dredge dry — she felt the familiar prickle of magic across her skin. 

This was not the latent power that poured through the shattered Veil, nor was it residual energy from spirits or a purposeful attack by the creature that faced her now. This power was familiar, as her own breaths were familiar. She had learned its touch time and time again, in a world far removed from this one. 

This had always been how he had asked. 

Once, the apostate mage had cast barriers as a presumptuous matter of course. Cassandra set him straight, naturally — one could not cast barriers without warning, upon Seekers no less. He had learned, with time, to ask first with a soft, hesitant prodding of his will. This was not so soft as it had been then, but she knew it. She knew it well. 

Cassandra sobbed with relief and cried out a lone, plaintive, “Please.”

And magic poured over her, body and soul. 

She staggered and fell to one knee, giddy at the sudden lifting of that immense pain. She felt as if she could breathe for the first time, and dragged in greedy breath after greedy breath. When she looked up, the simple form of a man stood over her. 

Cassandra could feel the power that the figure exuded. Though he appeared to be a mere man, just as he had in the days following the Conclave, the magic he sent forth by his mere proximity to her body was like standing against the tide. Wave after wave of it crashed over her psyche, strengthening the barrier over her body that protected her from the malice that peered through the shattered Veil. 

“Get behind me,” Solas said. It was not a command, not even when he glanced over his shoulder at her and met her eye, not even when he emphasised it with a firm, “Now.” It was a request she could ignore, just as the permission he had sought for before wrapping her in his barrier had been. 

But to deny him would mean death. 

In this moment, Cassandra was in more danger than she had ever been in her life. She was at the Dread Wolf’s mercy, and she knew it. He was all that stood between her and the Void, between her and this creature that sought to crush her like so much dirt. 

But Cassandra Pentaghast, Divine Victoria of the Chantry, had reached out to Andraste — she had invoked the Maker’s bride, and she had sent her a miracle. 

She reached now for the well of Faith that she had drained and found it to be full. She rose to her feet, protected by the Veil of he who stood between her and darkness, and felt not vulnerable, nor weak, but strong. Cassandra tightened her hand around her sword, sent a surge of her Seeker’s will through her weapon, and stood at the Dread Wolf’s side. 

Even while focusing on the evil before them, he was able to turn a measure of acknowledgement upon her. As he had in the Fade, when the truth of Justinia’s death had proven too much, he reached out and took her spare hand and squeezed it tight.

[intheshadowofwar]

Goodbye-eee!

Sydney

27 May 2023

The journey of a thousand miles, it seems, begins with a half-dozen trains.

We left Canberra just before 7am, travelling by the Xplorer train service as far as Campbelltown. Normally this service would take us all the way into Sydney, but the spectre of trackwork loomed over us and we had to change to the suburban network. We caught a train from Campbelltown to Wolli Creek, changed there, and carried on to Hurstville, which was to be our base of operations for the weekend. We left our stuff there and returned to the station, catching a fourth train to Town Hall.

I am something of a regular at Peter Nathan Toy Soldiers, by which I mean I go there maybe twice a year. I am sure this counts as being a regular. One might perhaps find it paradoxical that I wax philosophical about the horrors of war while collecting my little pewter troopers. My response is to paraphrase the great author H. G. Wells, who, when the paradox of his being a pacifist and an avid miniature wargamer was brought up, responded that ‘tin soldiers do not leave tin widows and tin orphans.’ And I like to think I have a bit of taste as to what I collect - I don’t collect wounded soldiers (as much as I tease Mum about getting that bayoneted Jacobite - she likes Outlander, you see), and the SS are completely verboten, thank you very much. But I am also keenly aware that this hobby attracts what we might charitably call oddballs. I overheard the owner in a discussion about how the most popular topics for toy soldier collection are Romans and the Nazis. Make of that what you will.

Perhaps I’m being too judgemental. I’m sure there are people who think my collection of British redcoats is problematic. Not everyone with an interest in the Nazi military is a neo-Nazi - but these days, I find it helps to maintain a healthy scepticism.

After this, I headed down to Darling Harbour and walked around the precinct of the National Maritime Museum. There’s little WWI-related there, of course - I’m not certain a single WWI Australian ship survives - but it’s still always well worth a look. One thing that annoys me is the new ‘action stations’ building - I’m sure it’s an excellent educational aid, but it blocks what used to be a good photographic angle of HMAS Vampire’s port side. I had hoped to see the replica of Janzoon’s Dufkyen, but it seems it was at sea when I was there. The submarine Onslow and the patrol boat Advance seemed in good order, and the Endeavour replica was a delight to look over as always. Of particular note was the Krait, a captured Japanese fishing boat used by Australian and British commandos in a sabotage operation in Singapore harbour - it tends to be obscured by something when I go to the museum, so it was nice to see it unobstructed today.

After that, I walked back to the Queen Victoria Building via JB-HI-FI, where I picked up a bluetooth mouse that doesn’t work. I suppose that’s twenty dollars I’ll never see again. We caught the train back to Hurstville, picked up some groceries and some KFC, and returned to the hotel, where I write this now. Tomorrow, we’ll be heading in to Hyde Park Barracks and the Anzac Memorial, and taking a trip on the ferry to Manly. I’m sure I’ll have a little more to say about all that.

[roamwithahungryheart]

Ted Lasso 3x02 Episode Review

There's a lot to say about this episode, so I'll do my best to be as concise as possible! Time for another episode review!

Read below the cut.

We're only two episodes into the new season, and so much has happened already. With a longer episode runtime, we get to spend more time with the characters and gain deeper insight into their personal journeys. But it's immediately clear that change won't happen overnight. We have a long road ahead.

The character development this season is born from conflict and torment. It feels darker, but out of darkness comes the light. And episode 2, (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea, brings us slowly back to the bright, bold Richmond we once knew. The comedic timing (especially during the homage to the classic 'who's on first?' sketch) is pitch perfect, the dynamic between Rebecca, Ted & Leslie reminiscent of the previous season.

However, the spectres of their past continue to haunt them - Ted is still wrestling with his indecision, Beard is still in a relationship with Jane, Rebecca still can't shake free from Rupert's hold.

The main arc of this episode centres around Roy's trauma and insecurities. It shows us a side of him we've never seen before. The notoriously rough, gruff Roy Kent has started to open up. He's vulnerable. His emotional growth comes from confronting his own trauma, and it's a beautifully nuanced performance from Brett.

Ted's influence on AFC Richmond really shines through in 3x02, from Keeley's attempt to bond with her CFO to the team's collaboration at half time. They're firmly planting their roots as a found family - something that's further echoed by Ted referring to Trent as 'sport'.

Episode one posed the question why are we here?

Episode two presents us with a follow-up question - where do we go from here?

The intention may still be to win the whole fucking thing, but this season stays true to the AFC Richmond motto - Gradarius Firmus Victoria - slow and steady wins the race.

[theparkerpapers]

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