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softboiledteacozy · 2 months ago

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Resounding of Silence - an aehei horror fic

Leaving you all with a fic I have lost all interest in because of Reasons, but which was still developed enough to make me at least want to share it with you all. Inspired by the recent retro style mystery horror game Bloomtown, this was a Genshin AU where Aether and Lumine spend a creepy summer in their grandfather's remote mountain village in Japan. Here, they befriend Yoimiya, Heizou, Heizou's canonically unnamed friend, Kazuha, and the Kamisato siblings, and they spend a summer looking into a rare occurrence in the woods. Years later, Aether comes back to town, remembering little about the experience, and as he settles down to spend another summer here, mostly alone, he starts to recall bad things that happened that ended in the death of one of the kids, and with dread he realizes that whatever happened back then still haunts him to this day.

Behind the cut is chapter one.

Chapter 1 - Nothing but ivy

The pines in the mountains of Japan filter the sunlight here in ways Aether has never seen anywhere else. The dappled light of the woods takes him for a moment back to his childhood - summers spent running with Lumine through the cedars that grew near their home, through forests that gently sloped into the beach, the gritty pine needle-covered floor giving way to soft sand.

And yet, despite their deceptive similarities upon first impression, it is the air that really feels different. Their childhood home had been heavy with the tang of salt, the murmur of the waves echoing through the thin trunks, the soft susurrations interspersed with their footsteps as they weaved through the trees, laughing, play-fighting with sticks turned swords.

Here, the air is heavy, almost pensive. There is distant birdsong - the sound foreign to Aether's West Coast ears - and a light, thin mountain breeze which brings with it the sharp, fresh scent of pine. Here, it feels as if he's walked into a cathedral of green, submerged in amber light. Aether feels as though time might congeal here, fossilizing everything found within. For a moment, he feels the urge to turn around and leave. But where would he go, trapped alone halfway across the world?

"Aether!" A voice breaks through the silence in a sharp burst, and the moment of oppression is gone, just like that.

"Ms Yoimiya," Aether hums, turning to face the girl running down the trail to meet him. His Japanese feels heavy on the tongue, unpracticed, but he knows it'll pick up the pace fast. "It's been a while."

"Ages!" Yoimiya agrees. She stops short of hugging him, but the way she jumps in place tells Aether his old friend is happy to see him too. "When did your hair get so long?"

Aether runs a hand through his bangs, thinking back for a moment. Behind him, a long braid swings to and fro, as if showing off. "Uh, around high school, I think? It's been pretty long since college, and I think Lumine just kept cutting hers shorter the longer mine got."

"So... she's bald now?" Yoimiya asks in mock horror.

This makes Aether snort. "No, no, nothing quite so drastic. She stopped after an uh... interesting attempt at a bob."

"You can't just say that and not show pictures, Aether!! You're killing me." Yoimiya actually reaches out and starts gently shaking Aether now, prior inhibitions be damned. Still, it's anything but annoying, and Aether good naturedly sways along as he fishes for his phone in his pocket.

"Don't worry, I've got plenty of blackmail mat- er, photographic evidence. Ah- I think I ran out of battery on the way over from Tokyo, but I promise to show you later."

"Is that why you weren't answering your texts? I was worried you didn't have a data plan for Japan yet."

"International traveler plan," Aether flashes his sleek phone at her. "Too bad this is also currently a useless hunk of junk until I-- ah, shit." He stares at the phone as it slips from his hands and falls squarely onto a thick root, the corner colliding and instantly cracking the screen in the process. "...So much for that."

Yoimiya brings both hands to her mouth with a gasp, staring at the scene of the crime with eyes wide. "Oh Aether, I am so sorry. I hope it still works at least."

Aether gingerly picks up the broken remains of the phone and grimaces as he inspects the damage. "I'll honestly be surprised if it even turns on at this rate. I don't suppose there's a repair shop in town?"

With a grimace, Yoimiya shakes her head. "We'd have to take the bus back to the town where you got off at the train station down at the very base of the mountain. Unfortunately, we kind of are in the middle of nowhere up here." She sighs, letting the bad news settle before adding, "Though that has its perks too, you know? You have got to see the stars at night. It'll take your breath away."

Tearing his gaze away from the broken phone, Aether manages an actual smile at that last comment, mostly happy to see that Yoimiya remembers his love of the night sky all these years later. "I'm sure it will."

Yoimiya nods down the path, where the trees seem to thin out and give way to an open area. "Come on. I'll treat you to some ramen, and you'll feel right as rain. Race you!"

She quickly sets off down the path without another word, and Aether can't help but follow at the same pace lest he lose his way. They sprint down the stone path out of the woods, and something in Aether, a deep, base instinct coiled in his gut, is glad they're finally leaving it behind.

* * *

The town has not changed much in the 15 or so years since Aether had first (and last) stepped foot inside. Back then, he and his sister had been sent for the summer to their estranged grandfather's house, where their mother hoped they'd reconnect not only with the old man who knew them only through letters and pictures, but also to their ancestral heritage, as she'd called it. That summer, he and Lumine had followed the old man around town like a pair of golden ducklings, learning how to cultivate his garden and helping him around the small local clinic he managed before they were even allowed to explore town.

At first, Aether and Lumine had seen the trip as a cruel ploy to keep them away from their friends for a whole summer, and a whole ocean away, too! They'd been separated from their home turf, and they were convinced they'd wither like uprooted plants in the secluded mountain village, armed with nothing more than their basic Japanese and each other.

And yet, much to their shared surprise, they'd instead found a new love out on the road - the new sights, the buildings, the food, the people. Everything they saw on their journey brought new wonders each day, and it made them hunger for more.

After that first taste of exploration, of freedom, they'd felt as though they'd been let loose on the world, and they'd never looked back, taking a leap into the unknown to eat the world with nothing but the other's company as a constant. They'd relied on the connections they formed along the way, friendships which seemed to open paths to even more new experiences.

And yet, they hadn't come back to this first stop since. Tokyo, yes, and several other Japanese landmarks, but the quiet mountains of their mother's childhood had remained untouched, unspoken of, and neither of them could really tell what kept them away all these years.

Their grandfather had passed away some years ago, leaving the clinic to an apprentice who had quietly kept it running. Until this year.

A month ago, Lumine and Aether had received an email from Yoimiya - with whom they'd kept constant digital correspondence ever since they'd met that summer - urging them to come back after the doctor staying at their grandfather's old clinic had suddenly packed his bags and left without a word.

They'd decided this was as good a chance as any to inspect the property, and to reconnect with their old friend after years of only exchanging emails and the occasional actual, physical letter.

'We'll make the most of it,' Yoimiya had suggested. 'Come stay for the summer, if you've got the time, so you can enjoy the local late summer festival. It'll be like an extended slumber party!'

Aether had jumped at the opportunity, having just come back from a work trip to Maldives, but Lumine, off in the verdant jungles of South America with a group of recent friends who needed her expertise in picketing, had taken a raincheck, promising to catch up with them once she was done. The festival didn't start until August, after all, and their grandfather's old house probably shouldn't be kept waiting.

"Aether, I'm literally chained to a tree right now," had been Lumine's exact words. Aether had asked for a branch as a souvenir, and Lumine had snorted and hung up on him.

* * *

"It's too bad Lumi couldn't travel with you," Yoimiya sighs. She slides a hearty bowl of ramen Aether's way, and Aether's stomach growls heartily in response.

"I'm used to traveling alone," Aether lies smoothly. The truth is, he misses his sister terribly, especially on milestone journeys like this. It's not so much that they don't travel alone, it's that they know when not to. So yes, maybe Aether is a little sore about it, but he's not about to sour his enjoyment of this trip just because Lumine isn't here to see it with him from the start. He wonders if this makes him less important than a single tree in the whole Amazon. Surely he's more unique than a tree in a forest? He decides to just let this go for now, knowing that way lies madness.

As he takes his chopsticks and cradles the bowl of ramen closer to him still, seeking its warmth even in the warm July day, he finally manages a nonchalant shrug. "Anyway, she'll be here before long. What's the worst that could happen?"

"Other than breaking your phone, you mean?" Yoimiya reminds him with a small laugh. She quickly clamps her mouth as she realizes what she's just said. "Ooh, sorry, sorry, it's too soon to be making jokes, isn't it? Well, if you need to make a call, you can use the landline at my place. Much more reliable than a cellphone up here anyway."

"I was more worried about not being able to take pictures, actually."

"Oh in that case, I might be able to help you! There's a second hand store on main street. I wouldn't put it past them to carry a few old cameras."

"Oh? Analog stuff, huh?" Aether hums.

"Most likely, yeah," Yoimiya agrees with a smile. "I'll lead you there after you settle in, if you like. We made sure your grandpa's house was nice and clean for you and Lumi to use. Honestly though, the guy who was renting it kept it very tidy."

"What was his name again?"

Yoimiya hesitates, tapping her chin a few times. "You know what? For the life of me, I can't remember. I know every single person in this town by name, but this guy... Well, he was a bit of a recluse. Or, well, not quite a recluse. He did keep the clinic running. He was just not a very chatty person, you know?

"We're pretty certain he was some sort of ascetic. Even grew his own food in the garden! Now I'm kind of regretting not getting to know him better before he left."

Aether laughs. "He sounds like the kind of person my grandfather would have left his house to, all right. From what we know about him, he was always very... particular about who he let inside, ever since my mother was little."

"My dad told me much the same thing," Yoimiya agrees with a nod. "I guess he wanted to make sure his place was kept in good shape because it was used as a clinic. Don't want anyone breaking any important vials."

"Probably," Aether chuckles, remembering the earful he and Lumine had gotten once after they accidentally broke a whole batch of some weird green powder. "How's your father doing these days?"

"Getting on in years, but I think he's enjoying retirement. I'm pretty much in charge of the family business these days, but my dad does still enjoy helping me design fireworks for the bigger festivals. And even though he's pretty deaf now, he still loves sitting down to watch the shows up close. "Actually, you'll get to see my work in just a few weeks!" Yoimiya claps once, grinning at Aether with a sparkle in her eye that matches the fireworks Aether remembers seeing light up the night sky 15 years ago. "Ah! I'm so happy you're back for the whole summer! We're going to have an incredible time, Aether."

Aether raises his glass, a matching beer with Yoimiya, and they drink to that. "I'm sure it'll be a blast," he says smoothly, which makes Yoimiya giggle.

"I should make you pay for the meal just because of that pun."

"Now, now, little Yoimiya. It doesn't do to treat guests like that," a distinguished voice cuts their banter short. "This dish is on the house, courtesy of the owner."

Aether turns to find himself face to face with a tall woman in a cook's apron. She wears a kerchief wrapped around her head, light pink dyed hair sticking out in small tufts behind the cloth. The aforementioned owner of this restaurant, Aether surmises, judging from the way she handles herself (and from the fact that her apron bears the logo of the restaurant - a kitsune lounging inside an udon bowl, wearing a block of tofu like a towel over its head).

She looks vaguely familiar, too, though she's definitely too young to have been managing the restaurant the last time Aether was here. Perhaps he met her mother when he was little?

"Ms. Yae!" Yoimiya gasps. "Please, I will happily pay for the meals. I was just teasing my friend here, since he just got here today and-"

"Ah, ah, ah," the woman says, holding up a finger. "I'll have none of that. Young Aether here knows better than to reject a gift freely given, I presume?"

'How does she know my name?' Aether can't help but wonder. All he can do is nod politely as the light shock passes.

"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" Ms Yae hums, leaning closer to Aether as if to sniff him out. "Oh dear, you do still speak Japanese, don't you? You used to be so fluent when you and your sister were little."

This at least confirms his suspicion, though Aether for the life of him can't place this woman. "Y-yes, ma'am, I do. Thank you kindly for the meal."

She nods her head in acknowledgement before glancing Yoimiya's way with a smug smile, as though saying, 'Well, there you go.'

"You come back soon, you hear?" She offers Aether one last teasing smile before turning to leave. Aether raises his hand to wave goodbye, but the mysterious woman is already gone, presumably behind the curtain leading to the kitchen.

"Well aren't you the popular guy," Yoimiya giggles. "I don't think Lady Yae has ever offered anyone a free meal before. Ever!"

"Really? Maybe she just wants to lure the tourist in with some tasty bait," Aether grins, though something about the whole exchange unnerved him.

"Well? Did it work?"

Aether looks down at his empty bowl and nods. "I'll say. If my sisters were here, they'd both have asked for seconds, but I think I'll just have to come back later. I'm stuffed."

"Ready to go back then?"

Aether thinks of the old house, of dark rooms and a small garden, of winding wooden staircases, of their mother's old cozy room, of disjointed flashes of memory which for some reason refuse to connect into a whole picture, and he nods. "Let's go."

* * *

A clinic, Aether reasons as he pauses at a landing, should not be this far uphill. Especially not when the steps are small and made of moss-covered stone and built right into the mountain. He's supposed to be fit, damn it, so why is he getting winded? Especially when Yoimiya is already waiting for him at the very top of the steep stairs, looking as fresh as a summer breeze.

"Sorry, this is a shortcut I tend to take whenever I have to head out this way," she apologizes with a small bow as he finally reaches her. "You can also head over to the temple from here, though you have to go through that patch of woods over there before even reaching the first torii."

Aether stops at the top of the stairs, one hand resting on the railing, and he follows the path with his gaze, squinting at the dense woodland that obscures any glimpses of the temple. Was this place always this overgrown, this dark?

"It's just down this street now, come on! Your grandpa had a nice yellow bicycle, if I remember correctly. I bet you can use that to move around town easier, especially if you'd rather stick to the main road."

"At least it's all downhill from here," Aether sighs, glancing down the slope to the town below. The view is nice, at least, with the small town nestled amidst the pines as if someone had carved a spot for it among the trees and dropped it whole to take root.

"It is, though the festival grounds are higher up still, on temple grounds. I hope you brought your hiking boots." Yoimiya gestures for him to follow, and they make their way down the road.

"Yeah, they're in the bag. Thanks for the suggestion." Aether honestly regretted his earlier choice of white tennis shoes. They'd been great for the plane and the road over, but not so much for uneven paths through the woods, especially considering he'd ended up having to walk a lot longer since the bus stop that reached all the way up to town didn't exist anymore. Lumine would have chided him over it, but Aether wasn't about to sacrifice a good fit even when common sense told him he knew better.

"Here we go, number 28-09," Yoimiya announced almost reverently. "Niwa-san's house."

"This hasn't really been my grandfather's house for years now," Aether grimaces.

But Yoimiya shakes her head adamantly. "Even his apprentice referred to it as Niwa's clinic. You have to remember, Aether, things don't really change in small towns like this."

Aether is quiet for a moment as he mulls over Yoimiya's words. How much has changed since the last time? How much has remained the same? It is a little shocking how little of that summer seems to have stayed in Aether's memories, beyond that urge to keep on moving which had stayed with him and his sister ever since. Did Lumine remember more? Was it just his own memory which was proving faulty? Aether has the urge to call Lumine and ask her, but he realizes with a start that he doesn't have the number to reach her anymore. It hadn't even been her own number he'd called last, since she had left her phone behind to help her remain anonymous in the protest. So much for that twin connection...

Aether. Aether...

"Aetheeeer," Yoimiya's voice breaks through his thoughts once again. This time, she's dangling a keyring in front of his face, perhaps hoping this will catch his attention.

Aether blinks and grabs hold of the keys without a second thought. Aside from the house keys, there's a purple cat charm hanging from the ring too. The work of his grandfather's tenant, he assumes, since the old man had never struck him as the type of person who enjoyed superfluous details like this.

"You okay?" Yoimiya asks him, softly resting a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah," Aether mumbles. "Just tired from the trip, I guess."

"I'll give you some space now, so you can have a look through the house and get some rest. We stocked the fridge and pantry with a few days' worth of food, but if you need anything, there's a market on main street. Big blue roof, can't miss it. And there's a konbini just two blocks away, too."

She starts looking through her bag then, until she pulls out a small notebook and a pen. As she leafs through it to find a blank page, Aether catches glimpses of what he assumes are firework designs, with a lot of technical scribbles hastily jotted down. Once she finds a blank page, Yoimiya draws a crude map of the town, marking the clinic, the shrine, the shortcut, the restaurants and shops, as well as her own house. Once she's done, she rips it out and hands it to Aether.

"Since you don't have your fancy GPS handy right now. Thankfully the town is small enough for pen and paper. Feel free to add anything else you find useful! That second hand shop should be right over here, by the library."

After carefully pocketing the map, Aether nods. "Thanks Yoimiya, for everything, really. You've given me a warmer welcome than I ever would've expected, so I'm grateful for that. I'll see you around tomorrow?"

Yoimiya beams at him and nods. "If you need anything, you know where to find me. I'll tell everyone you're here so tomorrow you can meet up with the others. They'll be so happy to see you again!" Without waiting for a response, Yoimiya waves at him and sets off, pausing only to point out where the old yellow bike is parked.

Aether stands there in the middle of the street for a while, staring at the road blankly.

'Others...?'

#jay writes #jay's genshin tag #fic tag #aehei #aezou

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dailyunsolvedmysteries · 2 years ago

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Jonestown Massacre

The Jonestown massacre was, before 9/11, the largest single incident of intentional civilian death in American history. More than 900 people died, many children. It was also a devastating cultural trauma: the end of the last strains of a certain kind of 1960s idealism and 1970s radicalism. Jonestown’s legacy lives on in the ironic phrase “drink the Kool-Aid”. (In actuality it was Fla-Vor-Aid.)

Although he would later become a symbol of the darker side of the west coast counterculture, Jim Jones was born to a poor family in Indiana. Described as an intelligent and strange child, Jones was instinctively attracted to religion, especially charismatic Christian traditions like Pentecostalism. He cut his teeth as a street preacher, and was, unusually for the time and place, a passionate advocate for racial equality. Jones’s idiosyncratic blend of evangelical Christianity, New Age spirituality and radical social justice attracted an enthusiastic following. He called his burgeoning church the Peoples Temple.

Although Jones’s followers would later be stereotyped as sinister, brainwashed idiots, the journalist Tim Reiterman argues in his seminal book on the subject that many were “decent, hardworking, socially conscious people, some highly educated”, who “wanted to help their fellow man and serve God, not embrace a self-proclaimed deity on earth”. The Peoples Temple advocated socialism and communitarian living and was racially integrated to an exceptional standard rarely matched since.

In 1965, when Jones was in his mid-30s, he ordered the Peoples Temple moved to California. He drifted away from traditional Christian teachings, describing himself in messianic terms and claiming he was the reincarnation of figures like Christ and Buddha. He also claimed that his goal all along was communism, and, in a twist on the famous dictum that religion is the “opiate of the masses”, that religion was merely his way of making Marxism more palatable.

By the 1970s, the Peoples Temple, now based in San Francisco, had gained significant political influence. Jones’s fierce advocacy for the downtrodden earned him the admiration of left-wing icons like Angela Davis and Harvey Milk and the support of groups like the Black Panthers – a tragically misguided political affinity, given that more than two-thirds of Jonestown’s eventual victims were African American.

There were signs, however, of a sinister undercurrent to the Peoples Temple. Followers were expected to devote themselves completely to the church’s utopian project: they turned over their personal wealth, worked long hours of unpaid labor for the church and often broke contact with their families. They were expected to raise their children within the commune. As a show of commitment, Peoples Temple members were asked to sign false testimonials that they had molested their children, which the church kept for potential blackmail.

In his 1980 study of Jonestown, the writer Shiva Naipaul, younger brother of VS Naipaul, argued that the Peoples Temple was at heart a fundamentalist religious project – “obsessed with sin and images of apocalyptic destruction, authoritarian in its innermost impulses, instinctively thinking in terms of the saved and the damned”.

The result, Naipaul wrote, “was neither racial justice nor socialism but a messianic parody of both”.

Jones, who had long believed the US was in danger of imminent nuclear holocaust, had been searching for a place where his church would be “safe” during an apocalyptic event. A magazine article alleging abuse in the Peoples Temple spurred Jones’s desire to relocate. He chose Guyana, a former British colony in South America whose socialist regime was politically sympathetic.

In 1977 the Peoples Temple moved its headquarters to a remote area of Guyanese wilderness. Here, Jones declared, they could build a utopian society without government or media meddling. Battling an oppressive tropical climate and limited resources, they began to convert the dense jungle into a working agricultural commune, soon known as “Jonestown”.

The church delivered Jones’s rambling monologues to Jonestown’s inhabitants by megaphone as they worked. In the evenings they attended mandatory propaganda classes. Jones’s writ was enforced by armed guards called the “Red Brigade”.

Jonestown had little reason to expect interference from Guyana – a “cooperative republic” whose government happily ignored signs of the cult’s authoritarian and paranoid bent. Back in the US, however, parents of Jonestown inhabitants – concerned by the strange letters, or lack of letters, they received from their children – had been lobbying the government to investigate. After a family in the US won a custody order for a child in Jonestown, paranoia escalated. The commune became an armed camp, ringed by volunteers with guns and machetes, threatening to fight outsiders to the death.

During the siege, Black Panthers Huey Newton and Angela Davis spoke to Jonestown inhabitants by radio patch to voice solidarity. Davis told Jonestown inhabitants that they were at the vanguard of revolution, and right to resist what she called “a profound conspiracy” against them.

Sometime during this period Jonestown began drills called “white nights”, in which inhabitants would practice committing mass suicide.

At the behest of concerned family members in the US, the California congressman Leo Ryan organized a delegation of journalists and others to make a fact-finding mission to Jonestown.

The delegation arrived at Jonestown on 17 November 1978 and received a civil audience from Jones, but the visit was hastily called short on 18 November after a member of the commune tried to stab Ryan. The delegation headed back to the airstrip, accompanied by a dozen Jonestown inhabitants who had asked to leave the commune, and escorted by Jones’s watchful deputies.

The delegates never made it off the ground. As they boarded the planes, their escorts drew guns and opened fire. They shot Ryan dead, combing his body with bullets to make certain, and killed four others – including two photographers who captured footage of the attack before dying. Wounded survivors ran or dragged themselves, bleeding, into the forest. (One of Ryan’s aides, Jackie Speier, survived five gunshots and is now a congresswoman representing California’s 14th district.)

Back at Jonestown, Jones announced that it was time to undertake the final “white night”. To quell disagreement, he told inhabitants that Congressman Ryan had already been murdered, sealing the commune’s fate and making “revolutionary suicide” the only possible outcome.

The people of Jonestown, some acceptant and serene, others probably coerced, queued to receive cups of cyanide punch and syringes. The children – more than 300 – were poisoned first, and can be heard crying and wailing on the commune’s own audio tapes, later recovered by the FBI.

When Guyanese troops reached Jonestown the next morning, they discovered an eerie, silent vista, frozen in time and littered with bodies. A tiny number of survivors, mainly people who had hidden during the poisoning, emerged. One elderly woman, who slept through the entire ordeal, awoke to discover everyone dead. Jones was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot.

#Jonestown Massacre #cult #cults #crime #true crime

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dailyunsolvedmysteries-movedd · 1 year ago

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Jonestown Massacre

The result, Naipaul wrote, “was neither racial justice nor socialism but a messianic parody of both”.

Sometime during this period Jonestown began drills called “white nights”, in which inhabitants would practice committing mass suicide.

At the behest of concerned family members in the US, the California congressman Leo Ryan organized a delegation of journalists and others to make a fact-finding mission to Jonestown.

#Jonestown Massacre #cult #cults #crime #true crime

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kulay-ng-banaag · 1 year ago

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Filipino* Hetalians are bothered by how vocal people are to criticize the US state but not CN. We only wished for others to be as critical, because Filipino Hetalians have been criticizing the CN state for trespassing — no, literally violating international law that was settled years ago and ineffectively implemented after our former president elected to court the CN state in the name of anti-US imperialism. The coast guard of the CN state rammed the boats of our fisherfolk — one of the, if not the, poorest sectors of the Philippines. It doesn't matter who you are, if you are in their way, they won't hesitate. Why they do this has more to do with capitalism than racism per se (even while racism is ultimately rooted in capitalism).

We're critical because WE DON'T WANT IT TO ESCALATE INTO A CONFLICT THE LIKES OF PALESTINE RIGHT NOW. The White House is literally intervening because the CN state refuses to take accountability. We are forced to invoke a law that most of us did not even exist to protest before. It doesn't help that they have used the military bases they built here as a jumping point for other wars (one example with the keywords: Clark Air Base, Allen Lawrence Pope, 1958 PRRI/Permesta Rebellion). What happens is we end up holding some level of responsibility for something we as a people did not sign up for. Then, we have to pay reparations but our taxes literally get pocketed, so we only further suffer for the sins of capitalist pigs.

But since no children have died yet, I guess it doesn't matter? Our government is debating over the reimplementation of mandatory ROTC for university students. One student was killed years ago for exposing the hazing rituals that have been normalized in the ROTC system. This is the same ROTC that obliges us into military service when the state calls for our specific names, only this time everyone has to go through it, and therefore anyone can be called on. Of course, that is unlikely unless there is war. Now put that next to our West Philippine Sea issue and you see the dots connect.

You would have known that if you had just listened to Filipino Hetalians from the start, instead of scrambling for excuses and copy-pasting racist rhetoric as a clapback to defend your victim complexes.

Nobody asked for you to explain your trauma. Nobody asked because we're completely aware and SYMPATHIZE with that. That's not our problem. That was never our problem. Your trauma is not our oppression. The problem is a neighboring government refuses to acknowledge and intervene in the aggression of its own resources. Nobody said iT's yOuR fAuLt ThEy'Re DoInG tHiS, it's honestly worrisome how people hear things that were never uttered...

But what are we supposed to expect when you have informants everywhere to keep track of any form of disagreement so you're basically a panopticon over the fandom that nobody wanted in the first place? Do Filipino Hetalians have to go into detail now about how we here are under constant surveillance from the Philippine state because any form of vocal disagreement will get us red-tagged and possibly killed as retaliation for offending the egos of those in power?

You demand we respect your trauma while irrationally labeling someone else's trigger as racism? Did you actually believe that would contribute one step closer to a ceasefire? Be honest with yourselves and think it through realistically: Did you actually believe that your online, inflammatory retaliation will contribute a step towards a ceasefire?

The honest and realistic answer is NO, because you wasted energy that could have been put into organizing on the ground. You wouldn’t have to get snarky about how you spend time helping elsewhere because your lack of training in working with fellow organizers with mental health issues indicates your lack of experience. Your lack of experience indicates you have yet to touch real grass and organize beyond huddling your friends into online harassment campaigns.

You don’t get to sprinkle disclaimers of not harassing people while adding #hater tag. You literally gossiped about me in your circle. You cherry pick receipts in your favor. The worst part is I’m not the first person you’ve done this, and I doubt I will be the last one. You only visibly condemn public harassment in order to wash your hands clean of your private harassment.

And I’m not even white, yet you spit inflammatory statements about me as if I was a white racist. Between us, who’s the Westerner to the other?

This is not about racism from white supremacists anymore. This is elitism, and we Filipino Hetalians have too much of that already. It’s elitism because you constantly enforce your intellectual superiority over us like some evangelizing conqueror holding dominion over the poor, unenlightened savages. It’s elitism because being Asian by blood doesn’t change the fact that you’re entitled to privileges not so within the means of non-migrants. Note that I write “by blood” because tying identities to the state is conclusively dehumanizing. Does my being Filipino automatically make me anti-indigenous? Does someone being American by citizenship make them racist freaks, regardless if they are also black/indigenous/Asian/Pacific Islander?

We’re as upset over the racist-motivated attacks of Chinese people because of the racist framing of the CN state as the source of COVID-19. We’re as ashamed of the lingering sinophobia in SEA. At the same time, we here in SEA are in closer geographical proximity to the CN state puts us in a higher vulnerability to exposure to aggressions on a state level. You could have also learned of our genuine opinions if you had just asked. Instead, you assumed for us. We may both be Asians by blood, but what happened to the whole respecting our nuances because Asians aren’t a monolith? Please understand where the nuances lie.

Elitism is also satisfying your freedom to freely speak of your traumas while policing the traumas of other people not shared by you, because the conditions you have grown under have instilled a hostile and ableist perspective for mental health breaks in general. That is the fault of the normalization of capitalism that every one of us must live under. The good news is that it can be dismantled. The bad news is having a petty fight with someone you dislike because they explained why they disagreed with your fandom opinion on the internet is not going to leave a scratch on the foundation of capitalism we mutually want to destroy.

Lastly, elitism is also the combination of residing in Western countries — all the more in the core of all cores of imperialism today that is the United States of America — and having a significantly larger following, and therefore influence, on social media than most non-migrant SEAsians in the Hetalia fandom. You hold a privilege and leverage over other voices; I mean, just look at how much traction the racebending disk horse received. As far as I can speak for my commentary — though I wasn’t the only one — we only wish for acknowledgement of the nuances alongside the impossibility of total depoliticization of nation-state personifications.

You speak of fighting racism, yet you constantly patronize the people from the communities you demand more representation of. It should not be any harder to realize the unappreciated double standards than the history of racism against diaspora communities in white-majority countries. I hate that it happens. We hate that it happens. But the internet is not restricted to the Western experience alone. The internet is not occupied solely by Westerners. Sheesh, guys, I know the US is even colonizing the digital space but don't give them that validation lmao?

And at the end of the day, this bizarre drama was never about the Chinese identity or the anti-Asian racism or the genocide of Palestinians. It was about a neurodivergent SEAsian expressing that her sudden quiet presence on social media is because she needed to recover from an anxiety attack that was preventing her from functioning, which includes platforming her support for Palestinians and other obligations in her every day life with sincere intentions. Understand that you are enforcing an unwanted power dynamic every time you make everything about you, again and again and again and again.

Understand that in creating a false rumor in mocking someone's trigger, you are establishing that the Hetalia fandom is not a safe space for the neurodivergent.

Understand that in creating a false rumor in mocking someone's trigger, you are establishing that the neurodivergent are useless, and therefore have no right to participate, in the fight for the freedom of Palestine.

UNDERSTAND THAT YOU ARE A VICTIM OF RACISM AS MUCH AS YOU ARE AN ENABLER OF ABLEISM.

THE GOOD NEWS IS THIS: It can be unpacked. Here are some articles on the impact of frequent media exposure to extreme violence. Mental health wellness is as much a part of the peace process.

Media Exposure to Collective Trauma, Mental Health, and Functioning: Does It Matter What You See?

Witnessing images of extreme violence: a psychological study of journalists in the newsroom

Media’s role in broadcasting acute stress following the Boston Marathon bombings

You are free to email the authors to argue about why dedicating time for recovery is morally wrong and a privilege that can never be a right. Don't take it to me or to any other Filipino Hetalian anymore, take it to the specialists in the field. Argue against the foundations of their profession. Shake them to the core, for all we care. Tell them how you think their works supplement racism because you want so desperately to be right about your bad-faith reading. Understand that your stubborn inability to hold others in good faith for once is toxic and destructive.

EDIT (01/09/24): Here are abridged infographics of a webinar addressing mental health and systemic violence, and organized by an advocacy network that works with indigenous communities and environmentalists. To quote them: "mental health must be addressed with collective care that is inseparable from collective action in solidarity with the Palestinian people's national liberation movement." If that still does not humble you, then accept that there are Hetalians — not just the non-migrant Filipinos — who are actually uncomfortable with your constant aggression and you just don't know it because you don't listen when they choose to speak up about it.

Now that that’s all said, take the time to comprehend how our pains now stand as equals in magnitude with respect to our dignities as humans.

*Bluntly, me and my friends and mutuals in the Hetalia fandom who are all non-migrant Filipinos. I don’t want to assume for others not in my circle, but I am extremely tired of all the cop behavior over us. This is not Martial Law.

P.S. Stop using “mainlander” like a slur. Not even as a joke. Stop it before it blows into full-out racism.

#war cw #violence cw #death cw #racism cw #sinophobia cw #ableism cw #mentions of genocide cw #long post

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cyarskaren52 · 1 year ago

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There really is no one like Ice Cube.

The rapper/actor/labelhead/producer/screenwriter/director/pitchman/league commissioner has done just about everything one can do in the world of entertainment. And to think, it all started with a kid from South Central joining a group his friend was starting from the neighborhood. N.W.A. changed everything, but when Cube made the decision to split from Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, MC Ren and DJ Yella, he set in motion one of Hip-Hop's most storied careers.

As a solo artist, Ice Cube's social and political voice was even sharper than what had been hinted at in his old group; and over the course of his three-decade career, he's delivered scathing commentary, party anthems, movie theme songs and straight up gangsta shit. He has albums like AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted and Death Certificate that are among the most revered rap classics ever made; and he's dropped club bangers with the best of them. We wanted to salute the variety of that body of work, so we picked the 25 Dopest Ice Cube Songs (Note: No N.W.A. or Westside Connection or Mt. Westmore songs were included.)

#26

"THE BONNIE & CLYDE THEME" - YO-YO FEAT. ICE CUBE [BONUS SONG]

Our BONUS SONG pick is a celebrated classic guest spot! Yo-Yo and Cube team up against for this banger from her third album, YOU BETTER ASK SOMEBODY.

#25

"PUSHIN' WEIGHT" FEAT. SHORT KHOP

"The Don Mega" and Short Khop teamed up for one of Cube's biggest chart singles in 1997. This N.O. Joe-produced hit raced all the way to No. 26 on Billboard and topped the Rap Singles Charts.

#24

"GANGSTA RAP MADE ME DO IT"

On this standout single from RAW FOOTAGE, Cube blasts the laziness of politicians and watchdogs using gangsta rap as the punching bag for moral handwringing. As true in the 2000s as it had been a generation earlier.

#23

"WHEN I GET TO HEAVEN"

One of Cube's most overtly spiritual songs, it was released when Cube had made his much-publicized conversion to Islam. The track finds him taking aim at Christianity, admonishing it as a tool of oppression in America.

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#22

"AIN'T GOT NO HATERS" FEAT. TOO $HORT

What can you say about icons who have earned a victory lap or two? These two West Coast icons revel in the good life on this breezy track from EVERYTHANG'S CORRUPT.

#21

"DEAD HOMIEZ"

Ice Cube was only 20 years old when he wrote this elegy to friends lost to violence. He couldn't have known how groundbreaking it was at the time, but the South Central native's tribute is one of the earliest examples of a so-called "gangsta rapper" examining the emotional toll of the streets.

#20

"MY SUMMER VACATION"

"Snowfall" in the form of a classic rap song. Cube's gift for storytelling and his razor sharp social commentary are both on full display here; as he breaks down how the crack epidemic in America spread from Los Angeles out to the Midwest and beyond.

#19

"YOU CAN DO IT" FEAT. MACK 10 AND TOYA

As far as singles, Cube definitely had a straight-up party phase, and one of his biggest hits as the Y2K era was set to dawn was this hit theme song for NEXT FRIDAY.

#18

"HELLO" FEAT. DR. DRE AND MC REN

The N.W.A. reunion that fans had been clamoring for finally happened (with the notable absence of the late Eazy-E) on this monstrous single. Even decades later, it feels good to see the Niggaz With Attitudes rolling as a unit like old times.

#17

"FRIDAY"

The movie that made Chris Tucker a star and showed everybody that even a gangsta could make you laugh. Cube's first comedy turned out to be a cult classic, and the soundtrack featured this anthem for the hood.

#16

"GO TO CHURCH"

Lil Jon was virtually everywhere in the early 2000s, and Cube wasn't averse to trying on a new style. The rap vet fired a shot for West Coast/Dirty South collaboration with this crunk hit.

#15

"REALLY DOE"

The sinister opening track for Cube's fourth album LETHAL INJECTION is one of that project's strongest. Cube is in full G'd up mode, and longtime affiliate Lay Law comes strong on this one with the production.

#14

"WHY WE THUGS"

Cube's sociopolitical lens has never left him; and he offered one of his most on-target critiques of American hypocrisy on this epic from 2006s LAUGH NOW CRY LATER.

#13

"JACKIN' FOR BEATS"

One of the most inventive rap tracks ever made, this classic from Cube's KILL AT WILL EP is also one of the most emulated. Cube kicks one of his most aggressive performances over "stolen" tracks; jackin' everybody from Public Enemy to Digital Underground.

#12

"A BIRD IN THE HAND"

One of the greatest story raps of all-time. Ice Cube delivers a stellar performance as he breaks down the struggles of a newly-released felon, in a system that never really wanted to give anyone a second chance.

#11

"SMOKE SOME WEED"

He might not be as well known for chronic anthems as his homies who were on Death Row, but Cube delivered one of the all-time great marijuana songs on this woozy banger from LAUGH NOW, CRY LATER.

#10

"WICKED"

A song that channels the anger of the 1992 Los Angeles riots in sound and spirit; Cube unleashes his fury on this thunderous track. The video famously featured Flea and Anthony Keidis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Cube spits rage at the system following the Rodney King verdict.

"CHECK YO SELF" (REMIX) FEAT. DAS EFX

One of Cube's most famous, and famously controversial, songs, the remix became a monster hit in 1993, with an instant-classic hook from none other than Das EFX, fresh off their own breakthrough a few months earlier.

"WHO'S THE MACK?"

Cube's first solo single features the young rapper examining the game from all angles. As he breaks down everyone from pimps to street hustlers to politicians, Cube makes it clear he's going to a more insightful place than we'd seen in N.W.A.

"THE NIGGA YA LOVE TO HATE"

If Ice Cube has an anthem, it's most definitely this track. Cube gives a breathless performance, highlighting why he's forever going to be controversial—even at this early stage in his career, he knew he'd ruffle feathers.

"TRUE 2 DA GAME"

Cube bodyslams sellouts of all kinds on this classic single from 1991's DEATH CERTIFICATE. There's a pointed MC Hammer reference, an admonishment of Black men who chase white women as status trophies; and a final thumbs down to Black folks overly invested in the politics of respectability.

"ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE PROJECTS"

Even though it's early in his discography, it's the song that sets the standard for Ice Cube's storytelling. A frustrated and flustered Cube recounts a tale about trying to meet up with a girl who lives in the housing projects, only to find himself in the middle of a drug bust.

"YOU KNOW HOW WE DO IT"

Cube's first album was Bomb Squad bombast and his second outing was looser, but still hard. After enjoying mainstream success with singles like "It Was A Good Day" and "Check Yo' Self," Cube dropped his most obviously G-Funk-leaning single in this West Coast classic.

"NO VASELINE"

On the short list of greatest diss songs ever, you will find Ice Cube's incendiary firebomb. With his targets set squarely on his former bandmates in N.W.A., Ice Cube unleashes and unloads, aiming and firing at everyone in the group, saving his most scathing indictments for former friend Eazy-E and former manager Jerry Heller.

"STEADY MOBBIN'"

Before his most famous track (more on that in a sec), Cube delivered this bouncy dedication to riding around the 'hood. His storytelling is forever on-point, as he chops it up with the homies, tries to get laid, and, in one of the great rap overshares of all time, apparently takes one helluva dump.

"IT WAS A GOOD DAY"

There is no other correct No. 1. There just isn't. It's timeless. It's a standard. It's one of the most well-known and beloved songs in the history of Hip-Hop. Cube's ode to a breezy day in South Central, L.A. is the kind of song it seems like everyone can rap word-for-word. That's a rarity, in any genre.

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#hip hop 50 #today in hip hop history #todayinhiphophistory #hiphop #hip-hop #hip hop #hip hop music #hip hop history #hip hop culture #music #history #music history #television #rap #rapper #emcee #mc

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callipraxia · 3 months ago

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Even in Journal 3, Ford relished the thought of his hometown being forced to acknowledge his greatness and of the consternation of the Dean of West Coast Tech when he became "the next Einstein" and was hobnobbing/chatting turtleneck fashion with Carl Sagan. I always read a clear undertone of anger in the way he talked about how oppressively conformist his childhood surroundings were, and his diatribe when Fiddleford first leaves him seems like a pretty clear example of someone who lashes out when sensing a loss of control, channeling fear into high-flown rage. He's also the same person who, upon finding himself homeless, friendless, virtually possession-less, and afloat in a world he hadn't known existed last week, immediately goes straight to "this is in no way an impediment to my plans to kill that triangle," something he refers to as a personal vendetta about as much as he lumps it into saving the world. Bill even identifies Ford's social isolation and emotional instability as reasons why he'd make a good Henchmaniac; combine that with Bill's own backstory as a freak of nature in his home dimension, and there's a low-key commentary here, I think, about how a society can contribute a lot to the creation of its own monsters...but also how it is, ultimately, someone's own choice whether to cross the lines. Bill did; Ford didn't.

Gideon is possibly another example of this; much is made of Gideon's amulet and its possible effects on him, but it's worth noting that he was already a child genius and an apparently straight-leaning guy who also happens to be really emotionally disturbed and to really, really like traditionally 'girly' things. We don't know much about Gideon's interactions with normal children before he became Gideon Gleeful, Child Star, but the combination of his various apparently innate characteristics makes me suspect they were...usually not good. Gideon, much like Ford and Dipper and perhaps even Bill, probably fit in nowhere and with nobody for most of his life because of these two things, and his attachments, when they do form, are correspondingly extreme. It's noteworthy that the healthiest relationships Gideon appears to have developed in his entire life were formed inside a maximum-security prison. The odds are high that all of the Discount Auto Warriors committed violent crimes before they ever met him...just as he was an attempted murderer at least three times over by the time he met them. Prison was probably the closest thing he'd ever had to a peer group that understood him and his way of looking at the world - note that his "hench-angel" Ghost-Eyes is not just a fanatically loyal bruiser, but also spent at least some time in college/university as a philosophy major. Gideon can relate to some degree to him both as a smart person and as a violent criminal, and while Ghost-Eyes is nothing like as effeminate as Gideon, he also enjoys art class in prison, talks to Gideon at one point about making friendship bracelets there, and despite his clear antisocial tendencies, he is clearly capable of feeling affection for/attachment to others and even doing so in a fairly extreme way, based on his stated and demonstrated willingness to follow Gideon into almost certain death. It seems reasonable enough to me to speculate that if Gideon hadn't formed his bonds with the DAWs in prison, he might not have had it in him to let Dipper get through to him, because one of the undertones of the found-family/friendship narratives scattered throughout the show is that isolation is what is apt to drive people to become some of the worst versions of themselves and that it is loving and being loved by one's own community, however small and strange it might be, which enables those whose worst selves can get particularly dark to rise above their instincts.

For an interesting parallel case, Ghost-Eyes declares and demonstrates that he and the gang will follow Gideon anywhere in the same episode where Dipper both states and demonstrates that he'd do the same for/with Ford. Soos is also an exemplar of both stated and demonstrated loyalty to his people; he ignores Stan's sometimes poor treatment of him and is utterly devoted to the man until the point at which he thinks Stan might be trying to kill them all, and he and the Mystery Twins show the most fully reciprocal loyalty relationship in the show - he shows in "Not What He Seems" that he's willing to put himself in harm's way for them (well, to an even greater extent and under more emotional stress than he already had on previous occasions, anyway), and they showed they felt the same way about him in "Blendin's Game." Notawebsite also indicates that the in-universe TBOB regards Soos as incorruptible, which puts him in direct opposition to Bill, who is one of the best depictions of sentient corruption I've ever seen. The Pineses all don't always treat Soos as well as they should, but the only way to turn him even a little against one is to threaten the others. Compare to Bill. Ford demonstrates something of his capacity for loyalty when, upon hearing Bill's backstory, he impulsively offered to go help Bill find and destroy whatever destroyed Bill's home, but Bill shows loyalty to nothing and no-one beyond the shallowest level...and ultimately, this is why nobody stays loyal to Bill. He abandons Gideon in "Dreamscaperers," just as Gideon ultimately abandons him in "Weirdmageddon." Bill repeatedly rants in TBOB about how easily the Henchmaniacs seem to have moved on without him, when he was shown to not care about their well-being in the slightest the second that he stopped getting what he wanted. And, of course, there's Ford, who gets his head on a lot straighter pretty quickly after Bill shows his true colors with his "do what I say, or I will attack your family and continue my series of humiliating and painful assaults on your person" ultimatum. Loyalty is almost always a virtue in Gravity Falls, and loyalty begets loyalty; even Pacifica and Wendy, who are the least developed notable characters in the show and have no real existences outside their relationships to the Pines twins, get in on this theme I just now noticed a little: Wendy gets into fistfights with unicorns over their insulting Mabel after following Mabel into the woods on what Wendy thought was a fool's errand to begin with and is perfectly prepared to go on a mission through Hell on Earth to rescue Mabel during Weirdmageddon, and after Dipper and Mabel have both, on separate occasions, treated Pacifica with basic decency, this helps her, in a stressful situation, override Pavlovian conditioning tied to her father's nasty tendency to be more loyal to some abstract, curated, and outright fabricated idea of what The Northwest Family is than he is to his actual wife and daughter.

All very pretty...but since the show is better than just giving us a simple moral, we also see the consequences of conflicted loyalties, though admittedly not in as much detail as I might have liked - it very much frustrates me that Soos' conflict of loyalties in "Not What He Seems" is never explored further after the first few minutes of "A Tale of Two Stans," for instance. The best examples of cases where the show does try to address the issue, though, are probably with Ford and Fiddleford: Ford has incompatible loyalties between Fiddleford and Bill, and this ultimately leads to his being abandoned by them both, while Fiddleford's inability to balance his partnership with Ford with his loyalty to his wife and son leads to him losing them all as well and then falling into madness while disintegrating into something near villainy when he pulls stunts like lashing out with his robots both when Emma-May leaves him and when Tate refuses to speak to him. In both of these cases, there's also an element of a desire to flee responsibility: by the time Ford's prepared to admit that yes, he did have another collaborator who he was keeping secret and that he'd made some serious errors in judgment, Fiddleford is just done with that whole situation, and Fiddleford's addiction to the memory gun results in part from his reluctance to confront the problems his attempts to serve two masters were causing in his life - per Hirsch, he wanted very much to 'please' Ford and be a 'better partner,' so he kept hiding things and trying to make them just go away until it was too late to have any chance of fixing them, and after that, his whole life spiraled out of control within a year.

...yeah, Fiddleford really does have enough baggage to be the lead of his own tragic drama, doesn't he? And now that I get back to him, I remember that he was involved in what I was originally responding to! Which was something about how his revenge robots combined with Ford's mad scientist tendencies could have been pretty darn destructive completely sans Bill, in another world. To that, I'd add that I've gathered the impression from the published books and notawebsite that Ford may have been something of a bad influence on Fiddleford in that way, maybe - not in the sense of encouraging him to construct murder bots, of course, but in encouraging him to the kind of destructive confidence, based on some mix of spite and anger and self-righteousness, that can lead, with the right person, to murder bots. Apparently, College Freshman Fiddleford was ready to drop out of school on the first day after a few things went wrong for him, and he expresses amazement at Ford entering a room "like he owned the place" when the room in question was, er, also Ford's, so to the extent it counts when it's a dormitory, he did half-own the place (1). The evening proceeds to Fiddleford ingesting...something...that he doesn't want his grandma to know about, and Fiddleford dropping the thought of leaving the school in favor of the thought of having adventures. There's also a potential parallel between two scenes of Ford and Bill's and two scenes of Ford and Fiddleford's: in the post about Ford's birthday one year, Bill repeatedly offers dream intoxicants despite Ford having declined, and soon enough, Ford's too hammered to spell his own name, while Fiddleford initially declines the offer of 'nog' only to later, after a disappointing attempt to visit home, end up apparently drinking...a heck of a lot of eggnog, considering Ford stated that the plan was to get drunk on the stuff? I don't know, I've never had eggnog that had booze in it, seems like a waste of a perfectly good spiced custard drink to me, but I was under the vague impression that it isn't exactly *that* easy to get drunk on even when it is alcoholic. And, of course, it's Ford who has the brilliant idea to go "hey, ditch the little woman and let's play Physics Olympics in the woods for the next however-long!", and it's Ford's encouragement to solve his problems with Science, along with Fiddleford's apparent efforts to keep his face on after Ford is baffled by his perfectly rational fears and concerns, that leads to the memory gun, which leads to Fiddleford forming a cult with a depressed carny and some of the town's more desperate natives before things even get really bad and Fiddleford starts dealing with his problems by applying his skills as an engineer to the construction of would-be murder bots. So, without Bill, I'm not sure if Fiddleford ever would have realized his inner murder bot potential or not, though that's far from conclusive, of course.

(1) Though in the interests of fairness and thoroughness, I will note that "like he/she owned the place" is a feature of the Southern vernacular; someone who "barges in like he owns the place" would either be insultingly casual (visiting someone's parents for the first time and putting your feet on the table, as if you owned it and were well within your rights to risk dirtying or damaging their furniture) or else a little overwhelmingly present - the sort of person who, to use a phrase I can't quite remember where I picked up, suffers from a certain excess of personality. I...strongly suspect Ford fell into the second category, and Fiddleford was therefore bemused by the sort of steamroller confidence that both of the Stan Twins use in different ways when they're on potentially thin ice and are counting on getting through a situation via Sheer Audacity, though Ford's possible lack of pants in the post-mathfest photograph means there might have been a bit of "I disapprove of how casual this person's behavior in a new environment is" in Fiddleford's use of the expression as well.

one of the funniest things to come out of tbob is that i'm now reevaluating my estimate of how much of Bill's interest in Ford is because Ford worships him versus because Stanford "why did Rudolph not simply kill the other reindeer" Pines is a barely-restrained vengeful mad scientist.

#gravity falls #gravity falls characters #gravity falls analysis #ford pines #fiddleford mcgucket #bill cipher #gideon gleeful #dipper pines #soos ramirez #impromptu essay #essay in the reblogs #that got a little off-track...#wendy corduroy #pacifica northwest #the book of bill #notawebsitedotcom.com

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libraryofcirclaria · 4 months ago

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820 BCE

Library of Circlaria

Remikra Timeline

Preface

As trade grew with the "Quartz Trail," more wealth poured into the Kitalan and Totian states. As a result, each society grew in prosperity as territories continued to expand.

Totia

With an ongoing trade deal, the Totians did not oppress the Camarans, who roamed the lands to the West and South of the Inland Sea. However, more of this land fell under Totian Emperor Alec, who was relentless in his pursuit for additional wealth and power. And this began a sentiment of unease among the Camarans and Tahns. In 821 BCE, they pushed a treaty with the Totians to not claim land West of a meridian between the Wilderlands and the beginning of the Jo Reneed River, an agreement that Alec reluctantly signed.

The land between this meridian and the East Coast of the Inland Sea was relatively low-lying with small, rolling hills like in present-day Ereautea. The land was even lower and with less hills further South, with the Jo Reneed Valley bisecting the region. However, to the South and East of the Jo Reneed Valley rose the Chemkan Mountains, long and jagged ridges extending to just below the cloudline. In only one place, near the Southeastern bend of the Jo Reneed Valley, was there a navigable mountain pass, which opened up to the warm, gentle, sandy beaches lining the Circlarian Coast. Temperate vegetation, grasses, and trees dominated this region with exception to just South of the Chemkan Mountains, where there were hints of tropical life. In this Southern region, the Circlarian waters were extremely warm and brought wet weather during the summer. When warm, moist air blew in, the air current would be divided by the Chemkan Mountains. Hurricanes and tropical storms would brush up against the coastal side, while on the other side, the current would meet with cold air from the Magnumarian Shield and form rotating supercell thunderstorms, which would crop up throughout the Jo Reneed region. As the Totians noted, some of these storms would blow out into the Inland Sea and manifest into cyclones.

Up to this point, the inhabitants of Totia, originally North Circlarians, had mixed with the neighboring indigenous nomad groups to form the recognizable Totian ethnicity. As the Totians made their way into the lands South of the Inland Sea, they mixed with the Camarans, giving rise to what would become the Chemkan ethnicity. A regional dialect comprising of both the Totian and Camaran tongue began to emerge. Eventually, it would become its own language: Chemkan Vernacular. Along with language and ethnicity emerged also an influence on religion. Across the Totian Empire but originating from present-day Chemko emerged the belief that there was one Divine Being who ruled over the other Divine Beings, and that this one Divine Being was in command of the winds and the weather. From this arose the belief that a person could receive a blessing for ascending Mount Talphon, the highest peak in the Chemkan range, and spending three days there without eating. This gave inspiration to "Contalson," a fictional drama about a Watch Officer who received a blessing to defeat a rival over a piece of valuable land.

Emperor Alec granted liberties for Watch Officers presiding over various regions to enforce their own laws according to their needs. For example, many places through which treewalkers and traders would travel were frequented by bandits, comprised of outlaws and resisting nomadic factions, who would raid traveller camps, murdering the travellers and taking their valuables. In response to numerous reports of such occurrences, a Head Watch Officer had a right to enforce certain preventable measures such as requiring a traveller to have an escort and travellers not being permitted to have campfires.

Across the Chemkan range facing away from the Ocean sprung up new crops of cotton and hemp. Young men would be sent here from the North to work for wealthy landowners who had settled here, until the workers attained enough wealth in compensation to return to Totia and live comfortably.

Hemp had been utilized in trade and consumption during the pre-Ashen Years, and had been in circulation among the indigenous nomad groups since. However, the Totian Empire was the first settled society since the Ashen Years to cultivate it, noting its value and versatility. Another new crop used by the Camarans was cotton, which they collected along their migration routes and became the first to utilize it as a form of insulation during cold weather in the North. As wheat and barley crops grew North of the Inland Sea, fruits from South of the Chemkan Mountains were delivered by traders to Totia in exchange for large amounts of wealth.

Traditionally, bandits along the land routes would be found and executed by the Totian authorities. However, as time went on, Totian authorities began to discover the value of subjecting these bandits to a certain period of involuntary labor, creating a benefit for the landowners who did not need to expend wealth for workers from Totia. Such captives, though, were hard to come by.

Numerous incidents occurred where a message would not be delivered to a desired party owing to the fact that such a message would be subject to a variety of means of transit, making it easier to lose the message in the process. In 817 BCE, to address this, Emperor Alec issued a decree that all messages were to be carried on horseback to certain planned locations. This was arguably the establishment of the first official postal service in Remikra.

There was no uniform way to travel from North to South by land, unless one could do so on horseback. But horses were unaffordable for most Totian inhabitants. The most convenient and relatively affordable form of transit was by ship. Totian ships could sail South against the wind with a tacking strategy discovered by the Totians, and could sail North with the prevailing winds. Taking a ship was also safer, as those with ill intentions could be seen from afar at sea.

By 820 BCE, Emperor Alec fortified Totian land borders with Watches and Legions, as well as Totian water boundaries with Totian Navy and mercenary ships. As a result, the Empire continued to pass through an era of peace and prosperity.

Spellfire scrolls from the Library of the Citadel and various places around the known regions of Remikra continued to be collected and sent back to the main Library in Totia, where seventeen scholars and clerics gathered to study them. The scrolls were read, interpreted, and organized; and before long, a consensus was formed among the seventeen scholars that the Citadel Librarians of the distant past were trying to "build something." However, seventeen different postulations emerged as to what the actual agenda was, beginning a long and educational debate. Knowing that a consensus on one theory was either a long time in the future or would never happen, these scholars formed the College of Citadel Scholars in 811 BCE. Today the institution is named Cales University. Its curriculum is still based on the study of the Citadel Library Scrolls; and the debate on the mysterious agenda of the Citadel Library is still ongoing.

Kitalos

A handful of Kitalan explorers set out on a quest to climb the Escarpments and enter into the Interior Desert of Southern Remikra, where they encountered the Tahns. The Tahns maintained a neutral attitude toward the Kitalans and did not wish to integrate into Kitalan society. However, they allowed the Kitalans to have jurisdiction over some portions of desert territory, where the Kitalans were attracted to the Tahnish art of crafting sandstone into glass. Meanwhile, Kitalan territory along the Coast to the South and East continued to expand.

The ridge lines surrounding the Interior Desert were windy and cold. The Desert, itself, was dry year-around, with soaring temperatures in the summer and mild temperatures in the winter. The terrain was hilly, but not comprised of sand dunes like in other parts of the world. Low-lying vegetation was sparse and seldom green, with exception for occasional communities of cactus species. The new coastline claimed in the South and East was, like the surrounding coastline, very tropical in nature. The downward slope of the Escarpments gave way to beaches and low-lying territory, with the former crowded with palm trees and a variety of plant species. A wet and dry season prevailed here, with the former yielding relentless tropical rains.

The Kitalans continued to have contact with the Quitzdodalans and the Tahns, as well as even the Camarans in the East. However, there is speculation even today that the Kitalans may have come into contact with a group known as the Morsians, the existence of whom is a matter of debate among present-day scholars. The Morsians, according to written claims, were known to cast spellfire from their fingertips. Accordingly, they resided along the stretch of coastline between Kitalos and Totian territories. However, after numerous studies of the area, no conclusive evidence gathered by researchers suggests that the Morsians even existed. Nevertheless, history theorists and religious groups of modern society insist that they did.

By the 820s BCE, trade in the Kitalan territories had grown exponentially, with trade routes well-established. Kitalan merchants began to gain large amounts of wealth, with some merchants becoming more fortunate than others. The wealthier traders began buying not just more goods, but other merchant "businesses," forming conglomerates, or guilds. Guildowners were referred to as "high merchants" while the rest were known as "traveling merchants" because of the former's tendency to settle and simply collect wealth. This created issues for the Kitalan economy, for "high merchants," charging high fees for their "traveling merchant" memberships, also began charging higher prices for goods. In 829 BCE, the "traveling merchant" and working classes rebelled. The "high merchants" responded with violence via paid mercenaries from relatively neutral nomad groups. This did not bode well for "high merchants" when it came to Council elections. But then, in 821 BCE, the aristocracy, increasingly upset with high taxes, mastered its political sway by pitting working class factions against each other via paid promotions for the nomination of figureheads who disagreed among each other. As a result, an overwhelming majority of Council seats were won over by aristocratic favorites, who altered the Kitalan Tax Code to shift the tax burden to the "traveling merchants." Over the years, the burden would also be shared by other Kitalan workers. The aristocratic majority then voted to entitle the land "The Free State of Kitalos," celebrating the liberties enjoyed by the "high merchants."

Nevertheless, Kitalan trade continued to follow the "Quartz Trail."

<- 825 BCE <- || -> 805 BCE (Coming Soon) ->

#LOC-RemikraTimeline

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the-firebird69 · 8 months ago

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At the current rate of removal of small ships and the three tunnels to the northwest of the Florida peninsula within the elbow and at Tallahassee they will probably be empty approximately tomorrow noon. That is all three tunnels they did some mining of the very huge ones in three locations on the West Coast and that shelf is depressurizing and shortly it will collapse and it will create destruction along the coast of the beach front and they'll have to move it or lose it most likely at this time they'll lose it some people will move and it requires huge trucks and they're not allowed here or ships and they're not allowed to do that so they'll be arguing and my husband says they can use rail and some people think that worse they're extremely heavy but they do move the space shuttle by rail and it weighs a lot more and you're simply put down several rails with hydraulically adjusted carrying things to you level the rails the same plane and you move it back and you keep leapfrogging until it's done I said it's not a bad idea they're going to be fighting over access to the tunnels in order to take the diamonds out that's going to be a hell of a show and everybody is going to be up and ready to fight over it not necessarily ready but they'll be up and fighting and they need to retrofit and they put in better engines and they sometimes attach the old ones to the outside and they put in a new power supply and they reuse the old ones so I'm transports and it is quite a job it is non-stop work and they're all starting to work and being less and they're fighting each other there's someone limited basis on a summer and it's really not as heavy but it is heavy outside of this place and very heavy and they're probably not going to do well in other news

-we are feeling a bit claustrophobic with these people that other people are more oppressive they have us expressing things we don't necessarily think or feel that was yelling things and they are getting us angry all day long in order to threaten and they need to leave and they will shortly as they are going to have fights here real ones and both parties are horrible all three actually Trump the morlock or Max and the pseudo empire are ridiculous people and heinous and stupid very very stupid we got away with a lot of stuff and it's hard to push them off when we see the progress we've made very tough decisions.

-there are things to weigh and consider but we are seeing this happen now that they're fighting and they're pulling those ships out and it's going very very fast as a matter of fact other places on Earth are seeing it and Florida and the siphoning has worked and they put in a string of siphons the length of the first tunnel system from the middle of Florida out is probably about only 40 miles and they put in three strings this morning and added five to each tunnel so there's eight strings to tunnel and they string up about 10 ships and right now they are they were about 20 miles from the center now at about 5 miles out and they just started this morning and it's about eight times or 10 times faster or more that's incredible progress so everybody is now doing it and yeah they string them together and they just siphon into the next 10 and then they string the 10 and siphon to the next end and it's really effective and they start pulling them out it gets easier to see how's the day goes on today they'll be able to go faster and will probably include 15 in a string and it'll be faster and faster and before you know it it's going to be all done and really there are clusters for the small ships but boy does it work his idea is great and weird. Now we're moving out but this is one thing this really great happening

-the shelf is not settled that much and we said it did and said we're doing all this excavation said they were and really it has not and that's what the water keeps backing up these three tunnels are going fast people see it and in Florida they started about 10 more there's seven on the West Coast all the way down to Sarasota and three of the East Coast so we going to publish

Hera

Olympus

Zues

Our son helps Hera on this one and they work together and they had a great idea together this is one of the smoothest things I've ever seen and we know how to do it and we would have strung them all together and takes a day or something then you're done but this is a great idea and it requires a lot less effort than what they were doing

Thor Freya

We actually might recover with this and it's really not bad

Tommy Allen

I don't know how he thought of it and he says it's probably a plan of someone and then people forgot and he thinks the empire but no he had the idea can we see why and he should be commended and rewarded instead of chastise harassed blocked at the grocery store this is what we're doing work and the more work you do you'll see what Max and others are up to and I agree with that you said it before it started working

Trump

Olympus

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maniculum · 2 years ago

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As mentioned in the previous post, I'm testing something by including a link here. And by posting something from our Halloween episode in December. But, no reason not to include the blog itself anyway. I'll put a cut after the teaser & image.

Happy Samhain, listeners! For our Halloween special, we’ll be showing you how to adapt four spooky medieval tales of the undead into quest adventures for your next TTRPG! Whether you’re looking for a political drama, a new character idea, or a hack'n'slash against a zombie hoard, this episode has something for you!

These tales are taken from a variety of sources, each one presumed to be a work of “history.” While these record are more tale than truth, each one is supposedly recorded from a firsthand account.

The first comes from John Audelay’s Poems and Carols.

During a boar hunt, three kings were among the host. They then got lost in the woods as a mist fell upon them and it fell dark. The three kings were greatly frightened, and the first one wanted to take cover and rest until the darkness passed.

Then, as they went forward, they came upon a meadow that was bright and full of flowers. Then three figures came forth from a bush ahead of them - limbs skinny and frail, with their innards pouring from their stomachs and without lips.

The three kings all stop --

The first king recognized the three men -- either as the dead or specifically one of the dead men. He says they cannot go forward and must stop. The next king declares they must charge forward and investigate or attack. The final king holds his head in his hands and declares they flee.

The three dead kings stand before them and declare that they are the “earthly fathers” of the three living kings - whether this means they are the kings’ literal fathers or simply ancestors is unclear. The first dead king declares that these kings have sinned against them -- they have not honored the dead kings, and neither do they rule justly.

The second dead king declares that though the three kings look fair and have wealth now, they too shall become like the three dead kings if they do not repent, honor Christ, and cast aside their fleshly desires.

The final king declares that he was once a great king but one who lived in sin, and now he is cursed with the two others to wander around the countryside as a corpse, with no one to honor him. He warns the three living kings that this will be their fate as well should they fail to repent from their greedy, sinful ways.

The three ghosts then depart and fade into the sun, and the three kings sigh in relief and ride back to their kingdoms, ruling justly and never again oppressing their peoples. In the ends of their days, they founded a monastery and on the wall painted this encounter.

The next of our zombie stories comes from the 13th century German Dialogue on Miracles, written by Caesarius of Heisterbach. It's quite short.

A certain man had a sweet voice, and when a church man showed up he heard this voice and declared that it was so sweet it was not of man but a devil. He adjured the devil to come out of the man, which it did, and when this happened, the body of the man collapsed and became putrid.

The following is an excerpt from The Gothic Wars by Procopius, a 6th-century Byzantine historian.

In the Island of Brittia, there was a large wall, and the land on either side of the wall is very different. To the east of the wall there is a salubrious air, and much fruits, and abundant corn and springs. And on the west side, there are only wild serpents and no one can survive more than 30 minutes over the wall.

The following tale comes from this place. The souls of men who die come to this place, and it is said that along the coast that borders Brittia there are fishing villages. At night, in a stupor, a voice calls them to go to shore, and there they see skiffs made ready for them. The men row these boats easily even though they are laden with passengers, but see no one. After only one hour, they come to Brittia, and hear a voice from the island calling those who have died and their positions of honor. Yet these men still see no one, and return home. Each night different men are called to make this journey.

Our final two tales are accounts written in William of Newburgh’s Historia rerum Anglicarum.

William writes a warning that the dead are coming back now more than ever, especially because there have been more accounts of the dead walking lately and the ancients didn’t write about it that often. He records the following account:

There was a corrupt chaplain who was so addicted to hunting that he was known as the “dog-priest.” After his death, he came back and wandered around the bedchamber of his mistress. The mistress became upset over this matter, and told the friar of the monastery and begged him to help her. The friar gathered a few brothers of the monastery and had them all stand watch in the cemetery for the moment that this dead man rose up in the night.

Three of the brothers grew tired of waiting and went indoors to warm up. As soon as this happened, the dog-priest rose himself and sought to terrify the friar. The friar struck the draugr with his axe and charged him back into his tomb. The other brothers, hearing this, helped the brother return the corpse to its tomb and when morning came, they carefully dug the creature up and burned it to keep it from returning.

Another event happened in Anantis, told directly to William from an old monk.

An evil man became a baron there, and married an equally wicked wife. This man soon heard rumor that his wife was cheating on him, and made pretense to go away traveling. With the help of a maidservant in on the secret, however, he came into his room and hid on a crossbeam in the rafters.

Then, beholding his wife with a young man in the act of fornication and so overcome with anger, he fell from the rafter and dashed his head on the ground. The young man fled, while his wife gently rose her husband up. She gaslights him into thinking nothing had happened but that he was ill instead. The wound was so dire, however, that the baron was unable to take Eucharist before he died that night.

Because of his evil nature and un-Christian burial, the baron came back from the dead to haunt the town, trying get revenge on his adulterous wife. The townsfolk were so afraid that they did not go out at night for fear of being beaten by this draugr. The town soon became infected with the disease of this man, so that many suffered and died.

The monk of the town, unhappy with this matter, summoned a council of other learned Christian men to town that Palm Sunday to settle the matter. While these men were banqueting, two brothers in the town who lost their father to the disease, decided to take matters into their own hands by digging up the body and burning it.

The brothers took a dull spade and dug the body up, and found it swollen with blood. The brothers stuck the body and it seeped blood. They dragged the body beyond the village and built a pyre. One brother decided to ensure the body would burn by removing the corpse’s heart. The brother stuffed his hand in the body and tore its heart out, whereupon they burned the body. The two brothers then charged into the monastery and declared the problem had been solved, and the town returned to normal.

No matter what kind of undead you encounter this year (whether in game or in real life), we hope that you’ve found a successful way to deal with them in these adventures. Happy Halloween!

Thanks for joining us in this week's episode of The Maniculum Podcast. Looking for more? Check out our Master List series for the full collection of segments at the end of our show, and for more gaming and world building ideas, check out The Gaming Table section of our blog, Marginalia!

Searching for our sources? Read John Audelay' Poems & Carols here, Caesaris' Dialogue on Miracles here, William of Newburgh's History here, and check out our Library for more! More references for interested scholars:

Audelay, John. Poems and Carols (Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Douce 302), edited by Susanna Greer Fein. TEAMS Middle English Texts, Medieval Institute Publications, 2009.

Audelay, John. The Poems of John Audelay, edited by Ella Keats Whiting. Early English Text Society, Oxford University Press, 1931.

Caesarius of Heisterbach. The Dialogue On Miracles. Translated by H. von E. Scott and C. C. Swinton Bland, vol. 2. Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1929.

The Chronicle of Lanercost. Translated by Herbert Maxwell. James MacLehose and Sons, 1913.

Fein, Susanna Greer. The Middle English Alliterative Tradition of the Allegorical “Chanson D’aventure”: A Critical Edition of “De Tribus Regibus Mortuis,” “Somer Soneday,” “The Foure Leues of the Trewlufe,” and “Death and Liffe”. 1985. Harvard University, PhD Dissertation.

Grant, A. J. “Twelve Medieval Ghost Stories.” The Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 363-79.

Jennings, Margaret. “Tutivillus: The Literary Career of the Recording Demon.” Studies in Philology, vol. 74, no. 5, 1977, pp. 1–95.

Map, Walter. De Nugis Curialium (Courtiers’ Trifles). Translated by Frederick Tupper and Marbury Bladen Ogle. Macmillan, 1924.

McIntosh, Angus. “Some Notes on the Text of the Middle English Poem ‘De Tribus Regibus Mortuis.’” The Review of English Studies, vol. 28, no. 112, 1977, pp. 385–92. DOI: 10.1093/res/XXVIII.112.385.

Procopius. Translated by H.B. Dewing, vol. 5, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1962.

Saxo Grammaticus, The Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus. Translated by Oliver Elton, vol. 2. Norrœna Society, 1905.

Stanley, Eric. “The Alliterative ‘Three Dead Kings’ in John Audelay’s MS Douce 302.” My Wyl and My Wrytyng : Essays on John the Blind Audelay, edited by Susanna Greer Fein, Medieval Institute Publications, 2009, pp. 249-93.

William of Malmesbury. The History of the Kings of England and the Modern History of William of Malmesbury. Translated by John Sharpe. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1815.

William of Newburgh. “The History of William of Newburgh.” The Church Historians of England, edited and translated by Joseph Stevenson, vol. 4. Seeleys, 1856.

We do our best to accurately research, source, and cite the works we use, and make them available to you, too!Each episode has a corresponding blog post which includes further breakdowns of the big ideas in each text as well as cites our sources and references. We also have the Maniculum Library, which actively collects resources and recommendations for writers, scholars, and geeks alike! We update our collection of Master Lists after each new episode, so be sure subscribe and stay updated!

Are we missing something? Let us know! We'd love to add more knowledge to our ever-growing compendium. Chat with us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Thanks for checking us out! If you like our content, please share it! If you want to support us, rate and review on iTunes, find us on Patreon, or buy us a coffee so we can keep making content you love. You can also find some cool merch to rep your love for medievalism and support us here!

#medieval literature #medieval #halloween #undead #zombie #vampire #podcast

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idlespright · 1 year ago

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CUTTING FROM "THE DAILYGRAPH", 8th AUGUST

(PASTED IN MINA MURRAY'S JOURNAL)

From a correspondent.

Whitby.

One of the greatest and suddenest storms on record has just been experienced here, with results both strange and unique. The weather had been somewhat sultry, but not to any degree uncommon in the month of August. Saturday evening was as fine as was ever known, and the great body of holiday-makers laid out yesterday for visits to Mulgrave Woods, Robin Hood's Bay, Rig Mill, Runswick, Staithes, and the various trips in the neighborhood of Whitby. The steamers Emma and Scarborough made trips up and down the coast, and there was an unusual amount of 'tripping' both to and from Whitby. The day was unusually fine till the afternoon, when some of the gossips who frequent the East Cliff churchyard, and from the commanding eminence watch the wide sweep of sea visible to the north and east, called attention to a sudden show of 'mares tails' high in the sky to the northwest. The wind was then blowing from the south-west in the mild degree which in barometrical language is ranked 'No. 2, light breeze.'

The coastguard on duty at once made report, and one old fisherman, who for more than half a century has kept watch on weather signs from the East Cliff, foretold in an emphatic manner the coming of a sudden storm. The approach of sunset was so very beautiful, so grand in its masses of splendidly coloured clouds, that there was quite an assemblage on the walk along the cliff in the old churchyard to enjoy the beauty. Before the sun dipped below the black mass of Kettleness, standing boldly athwart the western sky, its downward way was marked by myriad clouds of every sunset colour, flame, purple, pink, green, violet, and all the tints of gold, with here and there masses not large, but of seemingly absolute blackness, in all sorts of shapes, as well outlined as colossal silhouettes. The experience was not lost on the painters, and doubtless some of the sketches of the 'Prelude to the Great Storm' will grace the R. A and R. I. walls in May next.

More than one captain made up his mind then and there that his 'cobble' or his 'mule', as they term the different classes of boats, would remain in the harbour till the storm had passed. The wind fell away entirely during the evening, and at midnight there was a dead calm, a sultry heat, and that prevailing intensity which, on the approach of thunder, affects persons of a sensitive nature.

There were but few lights in sight at sea, for even the coasting steamers, which usually hug the shore so closely, kept well to seaward, and but few fishing boats were in sight. The only sail noticeable was a foreign schooner with all sails set, which was seemingly going westwards. The foolhardiness or ignorance of her officers was a prolific theme for comment whilst she remained in sight, and efforts were made to signal her to reduce sail in the face of her danger. Before the night shut down she was seen with sails idly flapping as she gently rolled on the undulating swell of the sea.

"As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean."

Shortly before ten o'clock the stillness of the air grew quite oppressive, and the silence was so marked that the bleating of a sheep inland or the barking of a dog in the town was distinctly heard, and the band on the pier, with its lively French air, was like a dischord in the great harmony of nature's silence. A little after midnight came a strange sound from over the sea, and high overhead the air began to carry a strange, faint, hollow booming.

Then without warning the tempest broke. With a rapidity which, at the time, seemed incredible, and even afterwards is impossible to realize, the whole aspect of nature at once became convulsed. The waves rose in growing fury, each over-topping its fellow, till in a very few minutes the lately glassy sea was like a roaring and devouring monster. White-crested waves beat madly on the level sands and rushed up the shelving cliffs. Others broke over the piers, and with their spume swept the lanthorns of the lighthouses which rise from the end of either pier of Whitby Harbour.

The wind roared like thunder, and blew with such force that it was with difficulty that even strong men kept their feet, or clung with grim clasp to the iron stanchions. It was found necessary to clear the entire pier from the mass of onlookers, or else the fatalities of the night would have increased manifold. To add to the difficulties and dangers of the time, masses of sea-fog came drifting inland. White, wet clouds, which swept by in ghostly fashion, so dank and damp and cold that it needed but little effort of imagination to think that the spirits of those lost at sea were touching their living brethren with the clammy hands of death, and many a one shuddered as the wreaths of sea-mist swept by.

At times the mist cleared, and the sea for some distance could be seen in the glare of the lightning, which came thick and fast, followed by such peals of thunder that the whole sky overhead seemed trembling under the shock of the footsteps of the storm.

Some of the scenes thus revealed were of immeasurable grandeur and of absorbing interest. The sea, running mountains high, threw skywards with each wave mighty masses of white foam, which the tempest seemed to snatch at and whirl away into space. Here and there a fishing boat, with a rag of sail, running madly for shelter before the blast, now and again the white wings of a storm-tossed seabird. On the summit of the East Cliff the new searchlight was ready for experiment, but had not yet been tried. The officers in charge of it got it into working order, and in the pauses of onrushing mist swept with it the surface of the sea. Once or twice its service was most effective, as when a fishing boat, with gunwale under water, rushed into the harbour, able, by the guidance of the sheltering light, to avoid the danger of dashing against the piers. As each boat achieved the safety of the port there was a shout of joy from the mass of people on the shore, a shout which for a moment seemed to cleave the gale and was then swept away in its rush.

Before long the searchlight discovered some distance away a schooner with all sails set, apparently the same vessel which had been noticed earlier in the evening. The wind had by this time backed to the east, and there was a shudder amongst the watchers on the cliff as they realized the terrible danger in which she now was.

Between her and the port lay the great flat reef on which so many good ships have from time to time suffered, and, with the wind blowing from its present quarter, it would be quite impossible that she should fetch the entrance of the harbour.

It was now nearly the hour of high tide, but the waves were so great that in their troughs the shallows of the shore were almost visible, and the schooner, with all sails set, was rushing with such speed that, in the words of one old salt, "she must fetch up somewhere, if it was only in hell". Then came another rush of sea-fog, greater than any hitherto, a mass of dank mist, which seemed to close on all things like a gray pall, and left available to men only the organ of hearing, for the roar of the tempest, and the crash of the thunder, and the booming of the mighty billows came through the damp oblivion even louder than before. The rays of the searchlight were kept fixed on the harbour mouth across the East Pier, where the shock was expected, and men waited breathless.

The wind suddenly shifted to the northeast, and the remnant of the sea fog melted in the blast. And then, mirabile dictu, between the piers, leaping from wave to wave as it rushed at headlong speed, swept the strange schooner before the blast, with all sail set, and gained the safety of the harbour. The searchlight followed her, and a shudder ran through all who saw her, for lashed to the helm was a corpse, with drooping head, which swung horribly to and fro at each motion of the ship. No other form could be seen on the deck at all.

A great awe came on all as they realised that the ship, as if by a miracle, had found the harbour, unsteered save by the hand of a dead man! However, all took place more quickly than it takes to write these words. The schooner paused not, but rushing across the harbour, pitched herself on that accumulation of sand and gravel washed by many tides and many storms into the southeast corner of the pier jutting under the East Cliff, known locally as Tate Hill Pier.

There was of course a considerable concussion as the vessel drove up on the sand heap. Every spar, rope, and stay was strained, and some of the 'top-hammer' came crashing down. But, strangest of all, the very instant the shore was touched, an immense dog sprang up on deck from below, as if shot up by the concussion, and running forward, jumped from the bow on the sand.

Making straight for the steep cliff, where the churchyard hangs over the laneway to the East Pier so steeply that some of the flat tombstones, thruffsteans or through-stones, as they call them in Whitby vernacular, actually project over where the sustaining cliff has fallen away, it disappeared in the darkness, which seemed intensified just beyond the focus of the searchlight.

It so happened that there was no one at the moment on Tate Hill Pier, as all those whose houses are in close proximity were either in bed or were out on the heights above. Thus the coastguard on duty on the eastern side of the harbour, who at once ran down to the little pier, was the first to climb aboard. The men working the searchlight, after scouring the entrance of the harbour without seeing anything, then turned the light on the derelict and kept it there. The coastguard ran aft, and when he came beside the wheel, bent over to examine it, and recoiled at once as though under some sudden emotion. This seemed to pique general curiosity, and quite a number of people began to run.

It is a good way round from the West Cliff by the Draw-bridge to Tate Hill Pier, but your correspondent is a fairly good runner, and came well ahead of the crowd. When I arrived, however, I found already assembled on the pier a crowd, whom the coastguard and police refused to allow to come on board. By the courtesy of the chief boatman, I was, as your correspondent, permitted to climb on deck, and was one of a small group who saw the dead seaman whilst actually lashed to the wheel.

It was no wonder that the coastguard was surprised, or even awed, for not often can such a sight have been seen. The man was simply fastened by his hands, tied one over the other, to a spoke of the wheel. Between the inner hand and the wood was a crucifix, the set of beads on which it was fastened being around both wrists and wheel, and all kept fast by the binding cords. The poor fellow may have been seated at one time, but the flapping and buffeting of the sails had worked through the rudder of the wheel and had dragged him to and fro, so that the cords with which he was tied had cut the flesh to the bone.

Accurate note was made of the state of things, and a doctor, Surgeon J. M. Caffyn, of 33, East Elliot Place, who came immediately after me, declared, after making examination, that the man must have been dead for quite two days.

In his pocket was a bottle, carefully corked, empty save for a little roll of paper, which proved to be the addendum to the log.

The coastguard said the man must have tied up his own hands, fastening the knots with his teeth. The fact that a coastguard was the first on board may save some complications later on, in the Admiralty Court, for coastguards cannot claim the salvage which is the right of the first civilian entering on a derelict. Already, however, the legal tongues are wagging, and one young law student is loudly asserting that the rights of the owner are already completely sacrificed, his property being held in contravention of the statues of mortmain, since the tiller, as emblemship, if not proof, of delegated possession, is held in a dead hand.

It is needless to say that the dead steersman has been reverently removed from the place where he held his honourable watch and ward till death, a steadfastness as noble as that of the young Casabianca, and placed in the mortuary to await inquest.

Already the sudden storm is passing, and its fierceness is abating. Crowds are scattering backward, and the sky is beginning to redden over the Yorkshire wolds.

I shall send, in time for your next issue, further details of the derelict ship which found her way so miraculously into harbour in the storm.

Ok but where is the novel about the optimistic aspiring gothic lit novelist forced to work as a weather correspondent for the local Whitby newspaper to feed their family and who spends their days writing over the top intense descriptions of the weather until one day a storm brings in a strange ship steered by a dead man and they just know that if they write the most florid most intense most descriptive account of them all this could be the break they need to make it as a fiction writer. Coming this summer to theaters near you: The Correspondent

#dracula daily #dracula #chapter 7 #mina murray #correspondent #the article in question #bram stoker

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caught-in-a-seesaw-stigma · 4 years ago

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Caught Recommendations

Author’s Note: I’m trying to keep track of the amazing BTS-themed series and fics that I’m reading on Tumblr, so I decided to create this post with some short reviews (so I can have them all in one place). These writers are amazing and they keep me coming back for more. They are all smutty as hell and full of amazing characters and conflicts. This is by no means a comprehensive list, and I will be adding them as more catch my eye. Check them out if you get a chance!

Mafia AUs

The Birdcage & the sequel The Lion’s Den by @untaemedqueen

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Mafia AU; Jimin x Reader

What You Need to Know: Jimin-heavy series (and sequel) that dives into Seoul and Busan mafia underground, violence, guns, knives, bombs, pregnancies, and OH so much drama - the writer creates some fascinating characters that we root for and fall in love with over and over again.

Thou Shall Not Steal by @xherxx

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Mafia AU, OT7

What You Need to Know: The richest mafia lord in the industry throws a huge yet twisted deal before he retires and every gang out there wants to get their hands on his riches. - The drama is real in this one and there is plenty of hot, steamy scenes that will make you tingle.

Don’t Care If It Hurts by @hollyhomburg

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Mafia AU, Jimin x Reader

What You Need to Know: After a rival gang makes an attempt on your life, Your older brother, the infamous leader of Seoul’s largest gang; Kim Namjoon, gets you a guard hybrid; Park Jimin, The reigning champion of Seoul’s underground hybrid fighting ring. - Yeah, this is also a hybrid series, but the mafia background is much more prominent. The OC is also smart as a whip and Namjoon as the angry leader and older brother is something to behold. The other members feature as well skilled companions and are very good at their jobs.

Omertà by @lamourche

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Mafia AU, Namjoon x Reader

What You Need to Know: A story about an unlikely mob boss and his mafia princess wife. This is a love story set in a brutal world. - Namjoon and his crew are tight knit and set to take over the mafia underground. In a true Romeo and Juliet twist, you are from an opposing family and are desperate to get away from their oppressive clutches. As an added bonus, you and Namjoon fall in love and build up his empire together.

Blackjack by @kpopfanfictrash

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Mafia AU, Jungkook x Reader

What You Need to Know: Bangtan is one of the most vicious mafias on the west coast. Only six members are known by name though, with a mysterious seventh member dubbed only as 'the shadow.' When you become indebted to the worst of the worst - how, exactly can you find a way out? - Jungkook is such a gem in this fic and the action is amped up to 11 throughout the series.

College/Business AUs

Thesis-It (and the sequel) Prove It by @xherxx

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, College/Career AU, OT7

What You Need to Know: “When life gives you lemons, make cocktails! It doesn’t solve any problems, but then again neither do lemonades. Besides, it has the word cock in it, just like what the Bangtan boys have on them. So, why don’t you just suit yourself?” - This series was a ROLLERCOASTER of emotion, even when it hurts, you keep going back for more. The sequel takes place AFTER college, but the characters still act like college idiots. LOVE THEM!

Fear & Dumplings by @softyoongiionly

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, College AU, Yoongi x reader

What You Need to Know: You’re in your final semester at University when your Abnormal Psychology professor assigns you a partnered project surrounding your greatest fears. Lucky for you, your partner just so happens to be a cute boy named Min Yoongi. - The build up to this relationship is just wonderful and you will be completely enamored by Yoongi in this fic. He’s such a soft precious bean and I want to ruin him.

The Gentlemen by @honeymoonjin

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Reality Show AU, OT7

What You Need to Know: Sick of unsatisfying hookups, boring relationships or the company of your own hand? Apply today for the chance to be on bangasm.com’s very first reality show! Seven attractive young gentlemen will be vying for your choice of who is best in bed. All from different backgrounds, these men claim they’ll be able to rock your world, so don’t hesitate! Apply now! - BEST REALITY SHOW EVER! The characters are vivid and entertaining and the smut scenes are on point. I dare you not to fall in love with every single one of these eligible bachelors.

Tease by @adonis-koo

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Stripper AU, Jungkook x reader

What You Need to Know: You came with the intentions of your best friend landing a job as a stripper. You never meant to catch the eyes of the king stripper of the establishment- Jeon Jungkook, yourself. With what was supposed to be a harmless way of paying off college debt faster you find yourself falling into a very odd and passionate relationship with your new mentor. Between infidelity, passion and jealousy there’s never a dull moment at Cherry Bomb. - Jungkook starts off arrogant and difficult, but as the relationship progresses, he starts embracing his softness for his new trainee. There is also some hot Big-Little action going on here.

No Strings by @kpopfanfictrash

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, College AU, Jimin x reader

What You Need to Know: You voice your concern that you are bad in bed and Jimin offers to test that theory. What ensues is an angsty friends with benefits situation that threatens to tear your friend group apart. You may want to smack Jimin around a bit, but I promise you will not be disappointed in the end.

The Holi-Date by @kpopfanfictrash

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Career AU, Taehyung x reader

What You Need to Know: When your ex-boyfriend becomes engaged to his new girlfriend at your annual Holiday party, you admittedly are not in the best place. Which explains why you down six shots of alcohol, enthusiastically drop it low on the dance floor and - oh, yeah - tell everyone you are also dating someone. The only problem? You are obviously not. Good thing your neighbor happens to be cute and in need of a ride to work every morning. - I absolutely LOVE Taehyung in this fic; he’s playful, sweet, passionate, and funny.

Hybrid AUs

The Mark of Yun-Ki by @ladyartemesia

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Historical Hybrid AU; Yoongi x Reader

What You Need to Know: This story was wonderfully crafted and if a Tiger-hybrid Yoongi full of ferocity and passion and admiration doesn’t do it for you, I don’t know what will.

Reasons Wretched & Divine by @hollyhomburg

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Hybrid AU; Namjoon x Reader x Jimin x Yoongi

What You Need to Know: You live on an isolated but sprawling farm with your abusive husband, but things start to change for the better when your husband adopts a retired police dog hybrid named Namjoon. - There are definitely some trigger warnings you should read at the top, but the series is full of mental and physical healing that endears the characters to the reader. The other members are also present as side characters and are hella sweet.

Abundance by @angelicyoongie

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Hybrid AU; OT7

What You Need to Know: You never expected that you would end up adopting a hybrid, and if someone had told you that you would end up with seven? Well, you would have thought they were crazy. But here you are, with three different packs of hybrids that don’t get along – but all want to stay with you. Yeah, turns out crazy is an understatement. - This is a sweet complicated hybrid situation where three different groups have to find a way to live together. It takes some time, but they all eventual pull together as a family.

Jackrabbit by @jamaisjoons

Genre: Pure Smut; Hybrid AU; Jungkook x reader

What You Need to Know: On a university-wide Easter egg hunt, Jungkook decides to educate you on just how wrong you are about him. - this one shot will have your thighs rubbing together vigorously wishing that you could get a few minutes alone with this domineering bun (just don’t call him that unless you want to get punished).

Strawberry Cream & BBQ by @thatmultifandomhoe

Genre: Angst, Fluff, Smut; Hybrid AU; Hoseok x reader

What You Need to Know: Your best friend knows she can count on you for anything, so when she asks you to watch her hybrid while she’s gone for a study abroad trip for four months, you can’t say no. But when these four months are over, things have changed in a way no one expected. - The relationship between Hoseok and the OC is so sweet and the drama that erupts after they get together pulls on the heartstrings.

Sci-Fi AUs

Void by @btssavedmylifeblr

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Space AU, OT7

What You Need to Know: You are the only female crew member on a 12 year space mission with seven handsome men. - The sexual tension is real, y’all. The OC is sassy and hilarious, the other crew members provide colorful commentary and conflicts that keep the reading salivating for more.

The Turing Test by @fortunexkookie

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Android AU, Jungkook x reader

What You Need to Know: You are an engineer who created an advanced form of Artificial Intelligence named Jungkook, but with every technological advance, there are always some bugs to work out (and not all of them deal with the creator or the creation).

Parenting AUs

Gingerbread Man by @btsracket

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Jungkook x Reader

What You Need to Know: Jungkook (a recent widower) is a fantastic baker who owns his own shop. The reader bounces in to place an emergency order and fate takes over from there. Jungkook’s son, Jude, is absolutely adorable and all of the angst and drama derived from moving on from an unexpected spousal death makes for one incredible recipe for success.

The Stand-In by @yoonia

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Namjoon x Reader

What You Need to Know: Gaining the courage to leave a loveless marriage was hard enough, but is it really a good idea to run to your best friend for help? And would you refuse him when he offers you another kind of ‘help’? - The themes revolving around infertility and then a sudden pregnancy catapult these characters into a wonderful relationship full of love and possibilities. Plus, Daddy Joon is always a yes on my list.

Intro: Her by @jamaisjoons

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Namjoon x Reader

What You Need to Know: You enter Namjoon’s life in the most unexpected of ways, but will you be able to stay, especially when he comes with three adorable but chaotic children, even more chaotic best friends and a bitch of an ex-wife? not to mention your own emotional baggage. - Namjoon is raising his three boys Jimin, Taehyung, and Jungkook as you enter his life as a marine biologist. The kids are sweet and sassy, Namjoon is a total mess, but a sweetheart. I never wanted to be a mother to children more than these tots, and the bonus would be snuggling into Daddy Joon’s arms.

Idol AUs

Let Me Hold Them by @jjungkookislife

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; OT7

What You Need to Know: An OT7 series that includes mxm, threesomes, open relationships, polyamory, and angst. Please read at your own discretion & the warnings on each chapter. - It starts off small, and then it escalates quickly. I promise, you will not be disappointed. Read on!

Slight Changes by @jiminimoon

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Taehyung x reader; Jimin x reader

What You Need to Know: Your relationship with Taehyung takes a nose dive when his infidelity is exposed. Luckily, the other members (especially Jimin) step in to make sure you don’t suffer alone. Prepare for angsty chapters and a lot of soul searching in this fic.

The Studio Sessions by @getitinbusan

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Yoongi x reader; OT7 x reader

What You Need to Know: It’s Min Yoongi’s birthday and you’re ready to give him whatever he wants. When he makes a sarcastic wish while blowing out the candles he didn’t think you’d take it seriously. But he’s glad you did. When word spreads about these special “Studio Sessions” everyone wants to collaborate. - You start with one and work your way through the rest without blinking an eye. It’s a smutty paradise.

Love Well Done by @oraclemarie

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Yoongi x reader

What You Need to Know: You are the executive chef of your very own fine dining restaurant. A big company makes you the offer of a lifetime, setting you on a path straight to Min Yoongi-your drunken hook up. - once these two start admitting their love for one another, it ups the drama; people can let jealousy turn them into monsters.

Soulmate AUs

A Thousand Springs by @whitesparrows97

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, OT7

What You Need to Know: Life is short. Eternity is long. Why you in particular are approached by a super attractive man in a club, you did not understand. You understood even less why he wanted to kill you. Fortunately, seven young, also incredibly handsome men show up to help you with this little problem. Purely by coincidence, of course. Or do you really believe in fate? - This fic is action packed with crazy conflicts, special powers, and spicy smut scenes.

The Immortals by @bang-tan-bitches

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, OT7

What You Need to Know: Sometimes, you find your destiny. And sometimes, your destiny does whatever it takes to keep you. - There are some amazing things happening in this fic and I just want to crawl onto that giant bed with all of them and their mysterious golden powers.

Fantasy AUs

Blood Moon Rising by @yoonia

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Vampire/Werewolf AU; Jimin x Reader

What You Need to Know: As beings from ancient times, the Vampire Clan has undergone numerous changes to thrive in the Modern Age after surviving the Ancient Blood War. As a part of the traveller family in his clan, Jimin has parted ways from the coven until the day his Lords warned him of the lurking danger from inside the clan. And all so suddenly, he was pulled out of his solitary, only to have given the responsibility he had never wished to have, along with the threats that come as a part of the deal.

Born as youngest yet having lost so much, you have given your family your loyalty, your protection, and had been given their love and support that had become the only thing that keeps you going. But what happens when the only people you have put your trust in only repay you with betrayal?

This series expands beyond this world and into a whole universe of shifter characters. This storyline also includes characters from her other Shifter Series. The storylines are rich and beautifully crafted, and you will love the way the characters stick together on this magnificent adventure.

Of Fire and Love by @hollyhomburg

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Dragon-Hybrid AU; Yoongi x Reader

What You Need to Know: When Dragon Yoongi finds baby Jungkook in the wreckage of a house he burned down, he can’t bring himself to kill the child. Months after someone drops off a baby at your door, you start to notice something- or someone, lurking at the edge of the woods. - This fantasy world just keeps growing in each chapter and you also get to enjoy a baby Jungkook and a baby dragon Hobi. Beware of fairy Jimin - they’re a sneaky one.

Faerie Realm by @ddaengyoonmin

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Fairy Video Game AU; Jungkook x Reader

What You Need to Know: Your mother gifts you a video game set that allows you to fully enter the brand new virtual world of Faerie Realm on the first day of its launch. You lack any of the skills or knowledge of playing video games, but you end up having fun thanks to skilled player you meet named Kookie! You are lucky to have met him, because this deadly game is not what it seems.- Based on Sword Art Online, but I think it’s better. The other members become a part of the group and drama ensues.

Sweeter than Sweet by @gimmesumsuga

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Vampire AU; Jimin x reader; OT7, eventually

What You Need to Know: You never would have expected someone like Park Jimin to notice you. As handsome and beguiling as he is deadly, you’re enthralled from the very moment you meet. Addicted to his kiss and his bite, Jimin opens up your eyes to a whole new world of love, lust and seduction. - this is a LONG series, but it is TOTALLY WORTH IT. Once you dive into the story, there is no resurfacing until you finish.

A Court of Curses & A Court of Moonlight by @readyplayerhobi

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Vampire/Witch/Werewolf AU; Hoseok x reader; Yoongi x reader

What You Need to Know: (ACOC) For millennia, the vampires and witches have hated one another and war has raged between the two. When tensions flare up once more and spill into neutral land, peace is forced upon the two by the faeries. The price of peace sees the Witch Queen married to the Vampire Prince. One hundred years later, how have things changed? (ACOM) As Prince Hoseok’s personal attendant, you travel with him on a diplomatic visit to Lunatis, home of the werewolves. There, you meet the enigmatic and intriguing werewolf prince, Min Yoongi, and discover more than you expected as a mere attendant. - this world is so full of magical wonder and I am so invested in seeing how everything comes together. It also makes me soft when I see how loving Prince Hoseok is toward his family.

Caught-in-a-seesaw-stigma’s MASTERLIST

#bts fic #recommended reading #bts series #bts fanfic #bts smut #BTS au #bts angst #bangtan #bts bangtan sonyeondan #fanfiction recommendation

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benevolentbirdgal · 4 years ago

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“Thirteen” Tips on Writing Jewish Characters / Some Jewish Identity Stuff Explained

So you want to write a Jewish character, but don’t want to write a caricature? Or are worried they won’t register as Jewish to readers, or something will be off or wrong? Well I, friendly (virtual) neighborhood Jewish professional, am here to help!

Note: The Jewish community is made up of roughly 14 million people worldwide with all sorts of backgrounds, practices, life circumstances, and beliefs. I’m just one American Jew, but I’ve had exposure to Jewishness in many forms after living in 3.5 states (at several different population densities/layouts), attending Jewish day school and youth groups, doing Jewish college stuff, and landing a job at a Jewish non-profit. I’m speaking specifically in an American or Americanish context, though some of this will apply elsewhere as well.

Let’s start with the word “Jew.” It’s not inherently a slur, but can absolutely be used as one. I am a Jew. You can call me a Jew, just not a Jew. Like most minority groups, there are slurs against us, but Jew is the proper demonym. It can be used disrespectfully as a noun, but isn’t inherently disrespectful. Think “Chava is a Jew” versus “You’re being such a Jew.” 1a. Any use of Jew as a verb by gentiles (non-Jews) is not okay. Your Jewish characters should be horrified by someone telling them they “Jewed down the price.” 1b. Any use of Jewess by gentiles is not okay and your Jewish character should not be cool with it. 1c. Many Jews would actively prefer to be called such because that’s what we are and “Jewish person” is stepping away from our Jewishness. But I get that not everybody is going to be comfortable calling us Jews. That’s okay, and “Jewish person/people” or “X is Jewish” is TOTALLY ACCEPTABLE. 1d. With that said, Jewish people refers to ourselves as Jews. If Sarah is Jewish but is squicked about referring to herself as a Jew, your Jewish readers will immediately know she’s written by a gentile. 1e. Actual slurs against Jews is a post for another time (did you know K*ke literally means circle?).

Your Jewish-American character likely does not speak Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, or any other Judeo-Language (languages that are a mix of Hebrew and at least one other language, typically written in the Hebrew abjad). Three notes on this, however: 2a. If your character is an immigrant or the child of an immigrant, they might speak the Judeo-language of the old country. The most common will be Israeli-Americans speaking Hebrew, but families still speaking Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Arabic, and other families do still exist. The children of Jewish immigrants might also speak another language that isn’t a Jewish one, like Russian or Spanish. 2b. If they are in a VERY religious Ashkenazi community, they might speak Yiddish at home and in the community. 2c. Odds are decent, however, that your American Jew can read but not understand Hebrew. If your character went to Jewish Day School or Yeshiva, they definitely read Hebrew, and will have some understanding of it (but likely not fluency).

Despite what I just said above, your Jewish-American character likely drops a lot of Yiddish words and phrases into their day-to-day speech. Which words/phrases in probably a list for another time, but the most common will be foods, family names (i.e. “Zayde” instead of Grandpa), and sassy expressions. They may incorporate some Hebrew to a lesser extent.

There’s not just one version of kosher. There’s kosher, kosher-style, Halav Yisrael, glatt kosher, etc. Depending on your character’s level of kosher, they’ve need a hecksher (kosher mark) on any given item or only eat at kosher restaurants, although not all Jews keep kosher and many keep “kosher-style” (i.e. only eat theoretically kosher things).

Your Jewish character should be a whole character, both in general and in relation to their Jewishness. This means, among other things, that they aren’t obsessed with Israel and I/P discourse one way or the other and that while writing you remember that not all Israelis are Jews and not all Jews are Israelis. Your Jewish character is not constantly agonizing over the I/P situation, has a life outside of their Jewishness, and shouldn’t be a cardboard stand-in for your desire to discuss the middle east.

The Jewish experience varies dramatically with geography. Jews living in Omaha, Richmond, Philly, Kansas City, Boca Raton, and New York City are all American Jews. They will have drastically different Jewish experiences. I strongly recommend doing research on the Jews in the specific place your story takes places, but generally: 6a. The closer you are to the northeast coast and NYC (except south Florida) the better and more varied your Jewish resources. 6b. NYC has the highest Jewish population of any city on the planet. Big cities like Boston, Chicago, and L.A., as well as just outside of NYC in NJ and NYS, and suburban/exburb south Florida will have lots of Jewish resources: day schools (Jewish + secular education mix), maybe Yeshivas (Jewish focus), multiple synagogues, a Jewish Community Center, Jewish dating services, social stuff, Jewish charities, and youth activities. Your character will have other Jewish friends and their gentile friends will likely know other Jews. Antisemitism is still a problem and usually takes the form of excluding Jews from activism, thinly-veiled stereotyping or excusing antisemitism from people from other oppressed groups, but it’s usually not as overt as elsewhere. Almost always safe to disclose Jewishness. 6c. Small and mid-size cities Denver, Virginia Beach, Charleston, and Harrisburg will have a JCC or Jewish federation, multiple synagogues, and maybe a Jewish day school. Your character is not the only Jew their gentile peers have met, but the bagels are meh. They will have other Jews to bond and commiserate with. Antisemitism here is mostly like that in big cities with occasional burst of overt incidents and attacks. It is generally physically safe for them to disclose Jewishness. 6d. Big towns and small cities in the south or mid-west will have maybe one synagogue - probably reform or Chabad. Your character will have to seek out Jewish spaces, but they will be easy to find. They will not be everybody’s First Jew, but it will be unusual. Antisemitism here is mostly overt - most of the antisemites your character deals with will be very obvious and many will be violent. Jews in such situations will not hide their Jewishness per se, but will be more selective in choosing to disclose it. 6e. Rural areas and small-small towns will not have a synagogue. Your character and their family may be the only Jews or there might be a small group that meets on occasion or carpools to the nearest synagogue. They will have to actively seek out the others Jews and they will be difficult to find. Disclosing their Jewishness is a serious consideration and not always safe. Odds are they are many people’s First Jew, which gets really weird real fast. Beyond the harmless ignorant-but-trying-to-learn-from-their-first-Jew types your character will interact with, there’s also violent and overt antisemitism here. 6f. If your character is in college, they will likely have a Chabad and/or a Hillel on campus if they are at a large school or a school with a significant Jewish population.

Related: when Jews meet each other for the first time, a game of “Jewish geography” ensues as they try and trace people they know in the other person’s state/city/community.

Jews come in all shapes, colors, sizes, genders, sexualities, politics, and religious beliefs. There are all sorts of Jewish people with tons of different intersecting identities. Don’t box yourself in to writing one kind of Jew. Just research a ton on the particular subsection of the Jewish community your character is a part of - a Mizrachi-Jewish Persian-American bisexual woman is going to have a different experience than a straight Ethiopian-American Jewish man who is going to have different experience from a queer Ashkenazi-Jewish-American girl with non-Jewish family. 8a. Jews with Ashkenazi (eastern/northern European) ancestry and customs are the biggest group in the U.S., but by no means the only group or representative of every Jew. Sephardi (Spanish/southern European/north Africa), and Mizrachi (north Africa and the middle east) are the next biggest groups. It would not be unusual for your character to have Polish-Jewish, Iraqi-Jewish, Moroccan-Jewish, or Russian Jewish ancestry or a mix. 8b. Each of these groups have their own customs, Judeo-languages, local holidays, and local historic tragedies. Generally, historic Sephardi communities were linked between themselves, historic Ashkenazi communities were linked between themselves, and historic Mizarchi communities were linked between themselves. The three had some, but limited contact. Additionally, all three major groups have subdivisions within them. 8c. There are also smaller groups that don’t fall within the three traditional categories, like the Ethiopian Jews, the Cochin Jews (India), Chinese Jews, Gruzim (Georgian), and more. Most of these smaller groups were not in contact with the wider Jewish world. 8d. All Jewish groups start from the same base texts (the written Torah), and the majority include the oral Torah as well. Local interpretations and traditions develop, these are referred to as minhag(im) (customs). For example, the biblical commandment is to not boil a baby goat in its mother’s milk. Some communities extend this to mean no chicken and milk, others reason that chickens don’t produce milk so the mixture is acceptable. Both are equally valid interpretations rooted in tradition, but they are different. 8e. Marrying between Jewish subgroups in the U.S. is super common and outside of extreme or really intense groups is not frowned upon. Traditionally, the father’s minhagim are followed, i.e. a Syrian-Jewish father and a Spanish-Jewish mother would follow the Syrian-Jewish minhagim with their children. Many modern couples choose the mother’s traditions or mix them up, but that’s the traditional route.

Unless they are VERY religious, your character’s family is unlikely to be particularly wound up about them being LGBTQ the way a comparably Christian family might, at least not because they’re Jewish. Samuel’s Jewish mother is likely unconcerned he likes boys and is much more empathetic than he must marry a Jewish boy and raise any kids Jewish.

There are so many Jewish holidays, and they are not all celebrated the same or with the same intensity. Probably enough material for its own post, but the ones most likely celebrated by your character: 10a. Shabbat and/or Havdalah. Shabbat starts Friday nights with candles, wine/grape juice and challah bread, Havdalah ends Shabbat with a braided candle, wine, and aromatic spices. Shabbat dinner is usually a meat meal and it is common to invite guests or eat with friends and family (in normal times). 10b. The “High Holidays” - Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. Jewish students often skip school for these. Yom Kippur is a 25 hour fast with services all day, Rosh HaShanah has services in the evening and morning. 10c. Passover - arguably the most important holiday. Celebrated with two sometimes agonizingly long Seders (ritual meals), family gatherings, and abstaining from leavened bread for 7/8 days. 10d. Hanukkah - Not actually that spiritually important, but culturally important for American Jews. Typically celebrated with candle lighting, presents, visits to family members, and greasy food.

There’s a lot of wine involved in Jewish ritual, so it’s unlikely your character’s Jewish family are teetotalers.

Jewish families tend to be very intense, loud, opinioned, caring, and involved, compared to many other assimilated American families. Shabbat dinner is not quiet. Dissent is a Jewish value - differing opinions are allowed (and expected in many circles), as is the ability to argue/defend competently.

Jewishness can mean ethnic identity, cultural identity, and/or religion. There are several major denominations religiously, although that needs to be its own post in detail. The noteworthy movements at this point are Orthodox (further subdivided into Ultraorthodox and Modern Orthodox), Conservative (middle of the road, no relation to conservative politics), Reform, and Reconstructionist (both very “choose your own/your community’s adventure).

Probably will write more parts in the future, but this is heinously long already! Hope this is helpful!

#jewish #jewish writing #jewishwriting #jewblr #writeblr #writing advice #jewish identity #jews #jewishidentity #super long post sorry not sorry #writing jewish characters #writing jews #jewish writing help #jumblr

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paladin-of-nerd-fandom65 · 4 years ago

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Little Robin and Momma Bird

In honor of First Day of Spring 2021 which for comic fans is the birth date of Richard John-Grayson Wayne, Member of the Flying Graysons, Bruce Wayne’s Adopted Son, Barbara Gordon’s classmate, Wally West and Roy Harper’s best friend, Princess Koriand’r’s true love, the first Robin, The Boy Wonder, Leader and founding member of the Teen Titans, Nightwing, Protector of the City of Bludhaven, Renegade, Ex Apprentice of Slade Wilson, Agent 37, Big Brother to Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Cassandra Cain, Duke Thomas, and Damian Wayne, in varying times and places Father of Mar’i ‘Nightstar’ and Jacob ‘Jake’ Grayson and above all else and beyond all those titles, son of John Grayson and Mary Elizabeth Lloyd Grayson; here’s what I hope is something short and sweet.

Now with long intro out of the way, the following is dedicated to @mothnem @lightdusk96 @hood-ex @thattimdrakeguy @tarisilmarwen @fireflyxrebel-writes @nightglider124 @nyxqueen97 @wisegirlandseaweedbrainforever @arabian-batboy @meara-eldestofthemall @robxstar @bluerene and so many others for being my friends in light of this occasion. Please like, comment and especially reblog for any corrections and constructive criticisms. It’ll be very appreciated.

Please Enjoy....

The sun gleaming and bright rays shone through the small trailer window, lighting the small bedroom with many bright colors of its own decorated throughout. The beige carpet, still an ever bit of simple yet practical use of being the floor, was littered with small shapes of varying sizes, almost all being made of plastic. In particular, these spread out toys were action figures, representing the recent phenomena of spandex clad and awe inspiring individuals that are the ‘Superman’ from Metropolis and the rest being merely the few robotic and unnatural opponents he faces in protecting the oppressed and those in need. The resident of this small bedroom was for all accounts a fan of Superman, something not too unprecedented given the caped champion’s crusades in correcting the wrongs and dangers Metropolis and the larger world face the best he can ever since his first day to the public.

And given these are action figures of Superman, it shall be of no surprise said resident was indeed very young; a small acrobat of the famous Haly’s Circus currently asleep and softly snoring away in this room’s bed, blankets draped and covering almost every part of him, even his face. It’s his 7th birthday as of today, this wonderful first day of Spring. Now if only something or someone can get him awake to enjoy such a day. That’s where a certain Mrs. Mary Grayson enters our picture.

As she gently pries open her son’s bedroom door as to not awaken him, clad only in a grey t-shirt and black pants as used for pajamas last night, Mary carefully trudges across the beige carpet towards the bed being occupied by said son. Sure, both her and him have slept in until nearly 9:30 am as of now since their family group, the Flying Graysons, have a day off from practice for today, but frankly had Dick remembered that today’s his birthday from earlier, he would been by now sneaking into his parents’ neighboring room, awaking them both his father John and her up about said day, probably the best he can think of for a gentle reminder. But due to recent influx of performances across the West Coast, Dick lost count so now it was Mary’s turn to gently remind him and in the best way she knows how.

As Mary’s bare feet carefully skirt around the action figures spread across the floor, even picking some up along the way (maybe reminding Dick to next time pick up his toys before bed will come in later tonight), she eventually reaches her son’s twin sized bed and the red, green and yellow pattern blanket that draped over the little guy overnight. In her right hand was a blue fine point marker pen with washable ink while her left gently leans to one end of the blanket where a small tuff of black hair sticks out. Gently caressing her left hand the black mass, Mary can hear a content giggle coming from under the blanket, no doubt her son feeling the familiar, loving motion John and her regularly do as parents can. On normal moments this happens, Dick would playfully push the hand ruffling his black hair away. This time, he just simply lightly giggles in his sleep. Mary was sort of banking the hair ruffling being enough to awaken her son to this bright and beautiful first day of Spring. As soon as her hand though stops with the affectionate ruffling and once more snores are heard coming from Dick, her lips turn into a soft yet mischievous smile; it was time for Plan B. Sure Enough, when looking over to the other end of the blanket and seeing her son’s own two feet, so far socked but with her there not for too long. That marker in her hand has its cap screw off.

On some occasions when she was basically passed out from a long night on the trapeze, Mary wold wake to find the soles of her feet with scribbles and doodles all across, most of them featuring the Flying Graysons logo prominently. She almost immediately knew the culprit behind such drawing but often times just leaves it be and even walks on her two feet with drawing and all since the marker ink easily comes off so it was overall no big deal. Besides, her son was just having some harmless fun so why would she dare try ruining that; sure she was strict on some parts of his behavior but this ain’t one of the them. Now though, as she lightly tugs the two socks off her sleeping son as to not awake him, revealing two velvet soles and the ten toes and with her marker in hand, it was time for payback if you may.

Starting with lightly drawing smiley faces on his big toes, Dick’s reaction was almost immediate as a slightly louder giggle comes from the blankets and his toes clench. Mary briefly backs off the marker until the toes relaxing and using her free hand, she lightly grabs unto the big ones, leaving his feet still. With that, she can proceed with the rest as sure enough, various other faces across his other toes are drawn along with flowers and even an elephant on the arch of his right foot. As for that last one, the giggling had reached its loudest and looking upward, Mary couldn’t help but smile at the results. Plan B was a success, Dick was awake and laughing his head off due to the scribbling.

“Momma!” he yells between hearty giggles, “That tickles!”

Mary grins a bit, “Oh really?”

She continues with that elephant on Dick’s right foot, now holding him still with arm entrapping his ankles tightly, making sure he can’t pull his feet back from that blue marker as it continued its path. Though Mary notes that even then, Dick wouldn’t want to. He had not once told her to stop, indicating that he was enjoying this instead. Frankly, after a long time doing this to her, she couldn’t blame him. All Dick does on his part is lay his head on the pillows, the blankets off of him, allowing Mary to see him clad in a similar style of PJs to hers only with the coloring being a blue t shirt and grey sweat pants instead. To the left of him was his precious stuffed elephant Peanut; ever since being first given that on his 4th birthday, he keeps it close to him whenever going to bed. All this time afterwards, Mary still hasn’t been able in getting her son a second stuffed toy like Peanut much to her disappointment but hey that’s a thought for another time, she has one more spot to draw before she can move on for the rest of the day, the arch on Dick’s left foot.

At first, Mary thought of drawing the Flying Graysons logo for the finishing touch but instead opts for a more casually yet fitting wording. With that in mind, her blue marker makes contact with the velvet of her son’s arch and starts its ink dripped path. By now, the 7 year old was still in full hysterics over his Momma’s drawings but he will admit, at least it was better waking up from his trapeze swinging dreams like this rather than the sun’s rays shining on him as it usually happens. Finally though, he feels the marker stop and opening his ocean blue eyes, sees his mother put the cap back on. Putting the marker away in her pocket, Mary places a soft kiss on her son’s forehead while giving him another hair ruffle. This time, now fully awake, Dick gently pushes her hand away.

His blue eyes meet his mother’s own blue eyes and a wide smile stretches on his face.

“Thanks Momma” he chirps happily in Romani Chib.

Another motherly kiss, this time his cheek, “You’re welcome, Just wanted to make sure you didn’t forget about your special day today, My Little Robin”

As Mary stands and makes her way back to the door, Dick stretches his arms, letting out a yawn from his mouth doing so.

“Breakfast will be ready in 5 minutes” Mary states with a warm smile on her face.

“Cereal, Momma?”

“Any type you like that we have of course”

“I’ll be there soon” Dick says, a wide grin on his face.

Mary has a humming giggle of her own before making her own to the kitchen to no doubt prepare her son and her’s bowls for the day. Though of course, they were just getting started.

Dick swings his feet to step off his bed and begin trudging to his breakfast, he briefly wonders on what his mother drew on him before putting the marker away. As such, flexing his leg to where he can see the soles and toes of his two feet, Dick smiles of all nice stuff Momma left. Indeed, there were flowers on the balls of his arches, goofy faces on each of his ten toes, what looks like a circus ball on his right heel, a trapeze bar on his left heel, a short yet cute elephant on right foot’s arch and at least the words on his left arch.

‘Happy 7th B-Day Little Robin, Love Momma’

Now that was love from a mother alright. Dick certainly will never forget this. Now to get the table without stepping on his toys on the floor.

#dick grayson #mary grayson #first day of spring #fanfic #my posts #family fluff

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sagemonsters · 1 year ago

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This is a complicated question that doesn’t have an easy answer. Although I can’t point you towards a specific resource, I can do my best to tell you how to figure it out for yourself rather than relying on outside sources that might be biased/inaccurate.

For a start, I would recommend looking closely at any creature from a mythological tradition (as opposed to, say, run of the mill cryptids like the Jersey Devil in America) and doing research into them on a case by case basis. Off the top of my head…

Christian demons & angels are okay. People have been writing about and using demons in various pieces of media since time immemorial (example: the character Mephistopheles from Dr. Faustus, a piece of literature from the European Renaissance). Succubi and incubi are also good examples of this.

Jewish demons & angels are not okay to use. Judaism is a closed religion (I would highly recommend looking up the difference between closed and open religious traditions if you don't already know) that has been oppressed and appropriated from for a very long time; nobody with a conscience wants to continue that.

W*ndigo and Sk*nwalkers are both from Native American cultures that are 100% closed to outsiders. Don’t use them unless you belong to those traditions. Likewise, avoid indigenous Australian creatures such as the rainbow serpent unless you’re an indigenous Australian person.

If you are white, anything involving African folklore is probably a bad idea.

Nagas and rakshasas are creatures from Hindu folklore. You’re on shakier ground here if you aren’t Hindu yourself; Hinduism is a semi-open religion, but that doesn’t mean you can cherrypick monsters from it willy-nilly and expect everyone to be cool with it. If you want to use these creatures, I would suggest researching Hinduism and thinking carefully about what (if any) stereotypes you are perpetuating by the way you characterize these creatures in your fiction.

Yetis specifically are part of Nepalese folklore. Again, tread carefully.

Yokai are of course creatures from Shinto, the most famous (in the West) of which is the kitsune. A lot of Western media appropriates and sexualizes kitsune characters when they are featured, which is part of a greater problem involving the fetishization of Asian people and their culture(s).

Dragons, dragonborn, orcs, goblins, drow, kobolds, etc, are fine! A good resource to mine for monster romance creatures would be anything contained in the Open Gaming License published by Wizards of the Coast for Dungeons & Dragons. I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from those, and since they’re mostly public domain creatures you don’t need to worry about copyright nonsense.

Creatures from Greek, Roman, Celtic, Germanic, Scandinavian, and Ancient Egyptian mythology are also fine! Although there are absolutely modern pagans who practice these religions, they aren’t closed traditions. Think about Thor being used by Marvel Comics (and now Disney) and how nobody raised the hew and cry over “disrespectful” depictions of Norse mythology in film. It’s fine.

Slavic mythology is more iffy. I’ve heard people say that Slavic paganism and their creatures (such as the domovoi and bannick from Russia, and the leshiy from Poland) are part of closed traditions due to how heavily oppressed the historical Slavic pagans were during the Baltic Crusades of centuries past, but I’ve also heard others say that that tradition is open. There’s also a problem with white supremacy and Russian/Polish nationalism in those pagan communities, so I’m not wholly sure that the “Slavic paganism is a closed tradition” attitude isn’t just white supremacists trying to keep out POC.

That’s just off the top of my head. Again—research is your friend! When in doubt, ask a few people from that religious/cultural tradition if the creature you have in mind is (for lack of a better phrase) available to the public domain. Own up to your mistakes if you make ‘em, but it’s not the end of the world if you do. You’ve got this! Happy writing <3

Would anyone have any resources or could point me in the direction of some information on supernatural beings that *don't* belong in media? I'm talking like sacred figures like the w*ndigo, or I think the original bigfoot legend is considered a sacred tale to some native groups?

I'm worldbuilding for my next book and I want to include as many cultures' mythologies as I can, but I'd hate to step on any toes out of ignorance

#sage speaks

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