#Henry Ford House Before
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This 1939 Pagoda style home in Grosse Ile, Michigan once belonged to Henry Ford & his wife. Probably b/c he was a very rich man, it has security features and secrets. 4bds, 3ba, $989,900.
It has the heavy original front door with a Lotus window. The house does need a lot of work and updating.
This is the main hall. We have the cutest guide for this tour, a little black Scotty dog.
The living room is very large and has a fireplace feature wall. (Are you spotting the Scotty?)
The fireplace holds the first secret: Push in the panel on the mantel and there's a secret compartment- probably for all his money.
The wood paneled library has a large window seat and wall of shelving. The ceilings have interesting shapes, which is a lovely feature.
The library also has secret compartments.
This is the center hall outside the dining room.
The center hall has the stairs that lead to the attic.
The dining room is huge. Guess they had banquets in here for other Detroit automobile moguls.
The kitchen had some updates but it also has mostly original features like the floor, the repainted cabinets, and the green & black tiles.
This is the servant's hall- it's awfully narrow, isn't it?
This large bedroom looks like the primary.
It has a cool large orchid art deco bath.
This is a secondary bedroom.
Another cool retro bath.
Large deck around the house. The home is on the Detroit River.
In the roof of the Pagoda is an "SOS Lamp" to signal the police if there is an intruder. (Nowadays, by the time they see it, assuming that they know what it is, forget it.)
This is the upstairs switch for the SOS light.
And, this is the downstairs switch. (It's such a mess, I'm surprised that it still works.)
These are the basement stairs.
And, that's the door to the boat slip, assuming that you want to swim to it.
Another door in the boat slip opens to the wine cellar/ballroom. That glass block bar looks like it was once beautiful, with the striped awnings and maybe colored lights.
The wine cellar still has some full bottles.
The servant's door is closed off.
And, this is an escape tunnel under the road.
There are 2 acres of property.
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episode nine: the fall
You shake your head at the teen in disappointment. “Never thought I’d have to say this, but please stop licking your sweater, Steve.”
He puts his hands up in surrender, albeit with a slight scoff. “Sue a man for not wasting food.”
Summary: surprise ! life still carries on even with minor brain damage from constant concussions :( on the bright side, you and the gang all become homies. meanwhile, steve grapples with the warm fuzzies and parental issues before his worst nightmare happens: you meet robin. the horrors !
Rating: general, some swearing
Warnings: fem!reader, use of y/n, swearing, mentions of wounds
Words: 9.1k
Before you swing in: this is it !!! last official chapter of season 2 :) this chapter is pure fluff yall. just 9k words of utter disgusting bug n steve, so i hope it makes up for how long it took for them to get to this point lmao. enjoy !
-
True to your promise with Jonathan, nothing necessarily changes between the two of you; things just shift. You stop being so tactile with him out of respect for Nancy, now only reaching for his hand for comfort rather than to have him so near. It takes some trial and error, but eventually the two of you manage to strike up a good balance.
You still spend most of your days either together at his house or yours. Only now, Nancy accompanies you, and it’s lovely.
“Dustin told me that Steve practically drooled over you last night before the Snowball.” Jonathan teases you, hunched over his kitchen table scribbling a half-assed essay that’s already a day late.
Nancy giggles as you throw your pencil at the boy. “That did not happen, mind your own business.”
“I don’t know, Y/N. He kept staring at you today during lunch.” Nancy slides over her paper and taps her pencil on a particular problem she’s stuck on. She’s still getting used to talking about this with you, but she pushes aside her unease and tries anyway. “Do you know the answer for number five?”
Her words cause you to blush, your mind still reeling from your conversation with Steve last night. You told him you’d wait for him, and he looked at you as if you’d promised him the world and more. Then, today at lunch, Steve had boldly found you sitting with Nancy and Jonathan outside and joined.
It was a welcome change, and he sat so close to you that your thighs pressed together underneath the picnic bench you’d been eating at.
“He wasn’t staring at me,” you mumble, embarrassed and still feeling his weight pressed against you, before sliding your paper over to Nancy. “And I got Henry Ford.”
Frowning, Nancy erases her answer. “That makes no sense.”
“My answer or Steve not staring at me?”
“Both.” Nancy and Jonathan say at the same time.
You throw another pencil at Jonathan. “I wasn’t talking to you, write your late essay.”
He ducks, “Would you stop?”
“Not unless you stop speaking.”
“This is my house, bug–”
“And I can call your mom right now and she’d let me stay.” You cross your arms at Jonathan, knowing you’ve already won the argument. “Any more complaints?”
Jonathan goes back to writing his essay, grumbling under his breath about how you can’t keep pulling the mom card, and you giggle at his anger alongside Nancy. He’s the one who wanted the two of you to get along, he should’ve known that you and Nancy would just make his life miserable.
The three of you go back to working quietly at the table, you and Nancy occasionally asking each other for help on certain questions, while Jonathan grows more and more frustrated by his essay. After he’s angrily scribbled out his fifth line, Nancy snatches the paper from him and points towards the back door.
“Out,” she tells him.
Jonathan blinks. “What?”
“Go outside, take a small walk, and calm down. You’re frustrated and won’t get anywhere if you keep this up.”
They stare at each other, Nancy silently daring him to argue with her, and you watch in amusement. She has him wrapped around her finger, and after only a few seconds, Jonathan sighs and gets up from the kitchen table. “I’m doing this because I want to, alright?”
You snort. “Sure, buddy.”
He gives you the finger, presses a kiss to Nancy’s forehead, and then grabs a coat to go outside.
Once he’s gone, Nancy turns to you and sets down her pencil. “So, how long are you planning on pretending that Steve doesn’t like you?”
You whip your head up, dropping your pencil in the process, startled by her forward question. “I’m sorry?”
“You heard me.”
“I…” Though you’ve slowly gotten used to Nancy being with Jonathan, it still feels too soon to talk to her about Steve, even if she’s given you her blessing. It feels too raw, too inappropriate, to discuss it with her. “I don’t think we should talk about this–”
“C’mon, Y/N. It’s obvious he at least feels something for you, and if anyone deserves Steve, it’s you.” Nancy gently takes your hand, her voice sincere. “He came outside for lunch looking for you today, he drove you to the Snowball, he’s been visiting you at work ever since you smiled at him last year.”
You look away from her. “It’s… complicated.”
“It’s not…” Nancy swallows, clears her throat, and looks away as well. It still has taken her time to adjust to the shift between the four of you, to finally understand that it’s now okay to talk about these things with one another. “It’s not because of me, right?”
A beat of silence passes, and when you don’t say anything, Nancy sighs. “Shit.”
“He’s still healing, Nance.” You admit, feeling bad for bringing this upon her. You don’t want her to feel responsible for any of it, it’s not her fault that the boys you’ve loved have loved her first. The wound of it has healed now, though the scar that it has left will never fade.
You both know this, neither one of you want to admit it to the other.
“I’m sorry, Y/N.” She shakes her head, the familiar guilt of somehow always the one hurting you clawing at her. “I wish things had been different between me and him.”
You shrug, you don’t see any reason to blame her. “I don’t.”
“You don’t what?”
“I don’t wish things had been different between the two of you,” you admit, knowing how bizarre it may sound. When Nancy raises her eyebrows, you’re quick to explain. “What I mean is, if Steve had never been with you, who knows who he’d be now? Or if Jonathan had never been my best friend, would you still have found each other?”
Nancy bites her lip, still unconvinced. “I don’t know, Y/N…”
“I think, truthfully, that we all unwound with who we were supposed to.” You’re not sure how to explain this, to express your unusual way of viewing such complex situations. “Without our histories, without being so intertwined with one another, I don’t think we ever would’ve unwound how we were supposed to. Does that make sense?”
“I think so,” Nancy nods, although hesitant. “And Steve is still… Unwinding from me?”
You cringe, knowing how silly it all sounds. “I know it sounds dumb, but he is, and while I’m not saying he doesn’t like me… I told him to take his time.”
“You’d really wait for him?”
“I would.”
Nancy sighs and goes back to her assignment, continuously amazed by your selflessness. “You’re too good.”
You shrug again, now used to being told this by others. It doesn’t bother you like it used to, you’ve come to view your kindness as something wholly yours and no one else’s to understand. It took so much violence to become so kind, and you will never, ever apologize for it now. “It adds to my charm.”
Jonathan walks back in right as Nancy bursts into loud laughter, you do as well, the remaining tension between you and her now gone. He sees the way she clutches her stomach and how you have to grab onto the table so you don’t fall over as you laugh. “Did I miss something?”
You wipe at your eyes, still giggling. “No, bee. Sit down and do your work.”
“Yeah,” Nancy giggles again, feeling breathless. “What Y/N said.”
“You two are the worst.” Jonathan slumps in his seat and goes back to his essay.
“You love us,” you tease, knowing that he hasn’t told Nancy this yet.
He smiles shyly and avoids Nancy’s eye. “Yeah, I do.”
They both blush and there’s a childish energy to them, shy and soft and sweet. You watch them with a warm smile, endlessly happy for them both; they’re sweet to watch, still shy around one another.
As you watch Jonathan and Nancy giggle softly as they help each other with their assignments, looking over at you for help as well, you know that junior year is finally starting to look up.
–
Steve continues to join you, Jonathan, and Nancy for lunch. He makes himself a permanent seat next to you, never once straying far from your side, and eventually he even ends up back in the library with the three of you.
It’s reminiscent of your sophomore year, back when you’d just defeated the Demogorgon and Nancy had gone back to Steve. For a brief few months, you’d all study in the library together and formed your own nice, albeit tense, group.
Then lines and threads became tangled and unspoken feelings became harsh actions.
Now, Nancy and Jonathan are whispering about something, off in their own world, and you’re currently helping Steve with an English assignment.
It’s the last day before winter break, so it’s hard getting him to pay attention to what you’re saying. All he can focus on is the way you’ve pinned your hair up, some pieces of hair falling over your face, and how you look so lovely in your white sweater.
“Are you listening to me?” You ask him, narrowing your eyes.
Steve coughs, knowing he’s been caught. “Yeah, totally.”
“Okay,” you cross your arms and lean back in your seat, distancing yourself from the boy, which only makes him frown. “What did I just say, then?”
“C’mere,” he huffs at you, tugging at your chair so that you’re now pressed flush against him; just the way he likes it. You blush, your stomach flutters wildly at the idea that he can’t be more than five inches away from you. Steve sees this, sends you a wink, and tries to use this to his advantage. “We both know I wasn’t listening, angel.”
Angel.
It’s become his new name for you, though he hasn’t said it since the night of the Snowball; the name drips from his lips as if saturated in sunlight. Although you want to litter his face with kisses and call him lovely and handsome and wonderful, you know that in this instance, Steve has only used the nickname to get on your good side.
And two can play that game.
“I don’t know, honey.” You lean in closer to Steve, angling your head so that you look up at him while you use your own name for him. His breath always hitches when you look up at him like this, when you call him honey again for the first time all sweet and soft. “I was hoping you’d been listening.”
Steve gulps, he’s still not used to the way your voice dips low when you want his attention. How when you call him honey he swears he can taste the residue of it in his mouth. He leans closer as well, your faces inches apart, and he’s forgotten what the two of you are even talking about. “I–I’m sorry?”
As soon as he’s apologized, you pull yourself away, just before Steve’s lips land on yours, and go back to the English assignment. You’re immensely pleased with yourself, especially when Steve almost face plants against the library table when you suddenly move away. “Apology accepted! Now, let’s go back to Shakespeare, shall we?”
Steve’s jaw drops, only now realizing that he’s been tricked. “Oh, that was evil, Y/N.”
“Don’t hate the player, hate the game.” You wink at him, and Steve has never wanted to kiss a smirk off of someone’s face more.
He’s addicted to it, honestly.
Later that day, once school has let out, Steve drives you to work. This was another shift that came with Jonathan and Nancy getting together. While your best friend still drives you to school, it’s now Steve who drives you to work and picks you up.
He enjoys spending the time with you, having you all to himself during the simple ten minute drive to Bookstrordinary. The two of you rarely say much during these drives, and it’s everything Steve could ask for and more; he simply has you with him, nothing else needs to be said or done.
Mrs. Waters greets him with a knowing smile, the woman has become more invested in Steve’s infatuation with you than even your mother. “Hello, young man.”
“Hi, Mrs. Waters.” Steve gives her a wave and walks over to his usual station: behind the counter, waiting for you.
You give your boss a quick hug and clock in. “Any new shipments today?”
“All the new books are in the back, so make sure your handsome man does all the heavy lifting, sweetie.” Mrs. Waters giggles at her own words before she slowly makes her way into her office.
“Well,” you nudge Steve. “You heard the woman, you’re a handsome man. Go do the heavy lifting.”
The compliment, though indirect, still rolls over Steve in slow, warm waves. He smiles bashfully at you. “Handsome, huh?”
“Oh, don’t pretend as if you didn’t know.” You flick his nose and walk over to the back door to start retrieving the new shipment. “Seriously, though. Could you help me with these boxes?”
Steve is quick to run over and help, he will always be happy to help you, but before he picks up a box, a thought occurs to him. Leaning against the doorframe, he smirks at you. “I’ll help, after you explain to me that little stunt you pulled earlier in the library.”
“What stunt?” A huff escapes you as you try to pick up a box, but Mrs. Waters had been right. The shipment is heavy, and Steve is currently useless.
“The whole ‘honey’ thing.”
You look up at Steve, knowing exactly what he’s asking, but you toy with him anyways. “Only if you explain the whole ‘angel’ thing.”
“C’mon, Y/N.” He groans, annoyed that you’re so good at dodging all of his questions. He doesn’t know what makes you Hendersons so great at deception, but it’s a terrifying thing to witness. “You’re an angel, it’s a fitting name for you.”
Though you’d been expecting him to say this, hearing Steve’s explanation still causes you to blush. Normally it bothers you when people call you an angel and act as if you’re some person above everyone else, but with Steve you know that he means it so genuinely. To him, you’re an angel because he knows you so well.
He doesn’t view you as this innocent creature that can do no wrong; Steve knows how you came to be, he knows the anger you once held, and it’s because of this that he has come to view you as angelic. It takes a lot for someone to become kind again, and Steve knows this better than anyone else.
“You’re sweet honey,” you finally respond, your face still warm from the vulnerability. You want to try for him, become okay with the feeling of being seen. “You asked for a nickname, and that’s what I’ve landed on. Any more questions?”
Steve practically melts against the doorway, and you almost giggle at the sight. “I’m honey?”
“Mhm, sweet honey, but honey sounds less dramatic.”
He laughs, his head is spinning and he’s so enamored with you. “Okay, I like that, but can I ask one more question before I agree to helping you?”
You roll your eyes but nod, secretly enjoying this moment with him. “Ask away.”
“Why honey? Not that I’m complaining, but…” Steve shrugs. “Not so creative.”
You gasp, “Are you saying you don’t accept my nickname for you?”
“No! I–” Steve frantically tries to correct what he’s said, but you grab his hand to calm him down.
“Relax, Steve. I was teasing,” you give his hand a squeeze, his fingers are strong against yours, and take a deep breath. The explanation is more intimate than you’d like, but he deserves to know. “Did you know that honey can be used to treat wounds?”
Steve shakes his head, silent as he listens.
“It’s a natural remedy, an unsuspecting cure, disguised as something only sweet.” You’re suddenly shy again, but you offer Steve more of yourself because you can; because he’s here, all warmth and love and summer. He’s healed wounds within you that you hadn’t known existed until you noticed their scars fading—cuts that have littered your skin from abandonment, guilt, and love. “When I was young, my dad would take me to this local farm on my birthday every summer and he would buy me honey. We’d use it to make sweet tea.”
You pause, the memory practically on your tongue as you remember the taste of the local farmer’s honey and how it would drizzle, slow and smooth, into your sweet tea. You remember your father’s laugh, how he would boast to the entire town that his sweet tea could win awards. “I never really liked tea, but my dad’s sweet tea was amazing.”
The honey had been his secret ingredient.
Steve is quiet after you’ve finished your story. He takes his time responding, he allows the story you’ve told to sink in, he rolls it around in his head, memorizes its details. He knows that you don’t like talking about your father, and the fact that you’ve shared a happy memory about him with Steve…
“Thank you,” he says. There’s a weight behind his thanks, he knows he will never be able to put into words how much this means to him. He tries, though, and pours every truth that he can into his words, “I love the nickname.”
The two of you begin unpacking the new shipment of books after that, working silently side by side.
It’s a lovely summer day within Bookstrordinary, even though it’s the middle of winter in Hawkins.
–
This Christmas Eve, you have your entire kitchen on lockdown. No one is allowed to come in, all food and drinks have been thrown onto the dining room table for others to use. Your hair is tied up, your apron is on, and you’ve banished Dustin from even looking at you.
“This is excessive, even for you.” Dustin scoffs from the living room, annoyed that he can’t even sit at the counter and watch.
You’ve just preheated the oven and are now whisking your dry ingredients together for Mike’s favorite brownies. There’s a rack of Will’s oatmeal raisin cookies on the counter cooling off, alongside Mrs. Wheeler’s sugar cookies she loves. “You lost your baking privileges when you mixed up the salt and sugar last year. Those gingerbread cookies were awful.”
“They’re both white! How was I supposed to know?”
“Stop talking and leave,” you point towards the living room with your whisk and some powder flies out of the bowl in the process.
Dustin tries to argue, but then the doorbell rings and he immediately breaks out into a shit eating grin. “Perfect timing.”
“What–” You try to question what your brother is up to, but he’s already run to answer the door. Sighing, you slowly mix in your wet ingredients and mumble to yourself, “I hate him. I really do.”
“Who do we hate?” Steve slides into the kitchen, not a care in the world, and slides right into Jonathan’s peanut butter cups. “Shit!”
“Steve!” You quickly catch the desserts, barely able to hold onto the bowl of brownie batter in your hands. Once the crisis is averted, you turn to Steve and begin hitting him with your batter covered whisk, effectively ruining his sweater. “What are you doing here?”
“I invited him!” Dustin now slides into the kitchen as well, a gleeful look in his eyes.
Meanwhile, Steve looks down at the batter he’s covered in and scraps some off with his finger before bringing it to his mouth. He hums, nods appreciatively, and smacks his lips. “Ya know, why haven’t I had this before?”
“The brownies are for Mike.” Dustin says, sneakily popping a peanut butter cup into his mouth.
“Wheeler should share, this batter is delicious.” Steve licks some more off of his sweater and you and Dustin cringe at him. When he sees this, he simply shrugs at you both. “What? My sweater is clean.”
You shake your head at the teen in disappointment. “Never thought I’d have to say this, but please stop licking your sweater, Steve.”
He puts his hands up in surrender, albeit with a slight scoff. “Sue a man for not wasting food.”
You blow a piece of hair out of your face and go back to the batter. “Again I ask: what are you doing here?”
“Like the kid said, he invited me.” Steve points to Dustin, who sends you a thumbs up. “Didn’t know I’d be walking into a war zone, though.”
“It’s Christmas Eve,” you say, as if this is all the explanation he needs. When Steve only tilts his head at you in confusion, you huff and put down your bowl so you can quickly explain. “I bake everyone their favorite desserts for Christmas, and normally it’s fine. However, now I have Max, Nancy, Hopper, and El to add to my baking list and I…”
You stumble, now suddenly feeling the effects of baking all day catching up to you. You’re slightly woozy, you can’t remember if you had lunch today. “I’m doing great, honestly.”
“She’s going insane.” Dustin loudly whispers to Steve, his fingers circling around his head in a “crazy” motion.
Steve ignores the boy and stands next to you, placing a hand to the small of your back and leans over your shoulder, allowing you to lean back against him. It’s a simple gesture, and you melt immediately against him. “Give me a bowl and recipe, angel. I’ll help you bake.”
You reluctantly move away from Steve and quickly find a piece of paper and a pen to scribble the recipe for Nancy’s chocolate chip cookies. It’s an easy enough recipe, you trust that Steve can handle the basics.
As you hand the recipe to him, Dustin’s jaw drops. “What, no fair! Why can’t I help bake?”
“Salt and sugar, Dustin. Salt and sugar.”
Steve gathers the ingredients he needs. “Do you have a spare apron?”
“I mean, sure,” you show him where one hangs next to the doorway. “But you’re already covered in brownie batter, so I’m not sure why you need one now.”
“Wanna match with you,” Steve quickly ties the strings around his waist, the apron is far too small on him and it makes you giggle.
Dustin, now very much third wheeling, throws his hands up in the air and marches out of the room. “You two are disgusting, ya know that?”
“Love you too!” You call after the boy, who responds by marching even louder towards his room.
With your brother gone and with Steve’s help, you manage to get through the rest of your baking list in no time. While you hadn’t expected Steve to necessarily fail in the kitchen, you were also pleasantly surprised by how comfortable he seemed to be while helping you bake.
“How’d you get so good at measuring sugar?”
Steve doesn’t look up from his measuring cup, too focused on the task at hand as he carefully counts out how many cups he will need. “My mom.”
“Oh,” you breathe out, not having expected the answer. He never really brought his parents up, something that you’ve noticed but never touched on with him. You figured it was like your father, never wanting to talk about someone who has hurt you.
Hesitantly, you try to learn more. “Does she bake with you a lot?”
“She used to,” Steve counts his third cup and mixes it into the bowl, now working on Max’s coconut bites. “Back when I was little, we used to bake her banana bread together all the time.”
His voice is light, the conversation isn’t a painful one for Steve, so you decide it’s safe to press further. “Well, if you can remember the recipe, I’m sure we can bake it today.”
Steve looks up at you, eyes wide. “You mean it?”
“Of course I mean it, dummy.” The way he’s looking at you with such genuine enthusiasm makes your heart hurt; he’s surprised you’ve offered him kindness. “I was going to bake you those caramel banana cookies, so I have some ripe bananas anyways–”
You’re cut off by Steve’s arms wrapping around you. He holds you tight, and he smells of sugar and cinnamon; it’s an addicting scent. “Thank you,” he breathes out, touched that you would do such a thing for him, and you tighten around him, happy that you’re able to give him this.
Later that night, when you walk Steve to his car after a long day of baking, he opens his passenger side door and grabs something from the seat. You watch him, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What are you doing?”
“You think I came all the way here on Christmas Eve without a gift for you?” Steve teases, a smirk on his face as he hides something behind his arms.
You gasp, “You planned this, didn’t you?”
“Dustin called, I answered, and I saw it as the perfect opportunity to surprise you,” he shrugs, as if it’s no big deal. “Plus, I got homemade banana bread out of it, so shush and close your eyes.”
“Fine, but only because I have your gift waiting in my room. The second we’re done here, I’m running inside and bragging about my impeccable gift giving abilities.”
Steve chuckles fondly, knowing that whatever you will give him will ultimately be his favorite gift he’s ever received. “Okay, moron. Close your eyes.”
With a giggle, you close your eyes and eagerly await whatever you’re about to be given. Steve’s gift from last year, a signed poster of the original Spider-Man comic, now hangs on your bedroom wall. You love it dearly, every time you look at it, you smile.
Something soft is placed within your hands. Its texture is woolen, the material is heavy yet lightweight, and while you can’t figure out exactly what it is, you can’t help but notice how expensive it feels. “Okay, open your eyes.”
You do, and when you see what Steve has given you, you gasp. “Oh, it’s beautiful!”
Within your hands is a cardigan. The wool it has been knitted with is a lovely cream color, and you bring the clothing closer to admire all the wonderful details within the knit pattern. With small pieces of wool, hints of baby blues and pinks weave in and out of the cream. Along the front are buttons made from a beautiful dark wood, polished to perfection.
Steve lets out a nervous chuckle and stuffs his hands into his pockets. “Yeah, well. Figured I owed you a new cardigan after basically tearing apart your old one.”
“I was bleeding out, Steve.” Your finger traces over a button, its wood is cool to the touch and so smooth that you can hardly believe it’s real. “If you hadn’t torn my favorite cardigan to stop the bleeding, I wouldn’t be alive today to call you an idiot for even considering I would be mad about that–”
As you admire one of the sleeves, your finger catches on something. Turning the clothing around, you see, within the inside of the sleeve, a messily sewn on patch. The stitches are crooked and horribly uneven, clearly done by someone unskinned with a needle. “What’s this?”
Steve clears his throat, uncharacteristically flustered. “Just… Something I added.”
The patch is small, no bigger than an inch or so, with messy handwriting on it that has become familiar to you through long hours at Bookstrordinary helping you write down all the orders needed for shipments.
S.H.
Steve must mistake your stunned silence for disgust, because he quickly tries to take the cardigan away from you in embarrassment. “Fuck, you–you think it’s weird and you hate it and I went too far–”
He had wanted to give you a piece of himself somehow.
His panicked rambling is cut off by your entire body being thrown against his. Suddenly he has an armful of you, flushed against him in the December chill, and Steve’s heartbeat threatens to beat out of his chest. He has you right where he wants you, in his arms with your perfume swirling around his brain as he buries his face into your hair.
Everything calms within him, all the panic and insecurity he had just been feeling is now gone.
“It’s perfect,” you whisper, not even bothering to hide the fact that you’re now crying. No one has ever made something for you, and the hand sewn patch that now resides on your beautiful cardigan makes everything within you burn.
Steve’s fingers slowly make their way to your hair and he risks pressing a kiss atop of your head. He relishes in the way his lips feel against your hair, how it feels like he’s done this all his life. “You really like it?”
“I love it.” You pull your head from his chest and catch his eye. They shine when they look at you, and you can’t help but think about how similar they look compared to last summer. Last July Steve had looked at you like he’d fall to his knees for you and kiss every crevice of your skin if you’d asked him to, and you had run away, terrified of the feelings you weren’t ready to face.
Now, as Steve stares down at you still as if you’re holding the sun within your hands, all you can think is home.
Home.
What a fascinating concept, being able to find a home within someone’s arms.
And it’s a fall like no other.
“I’m glad you love it,” Steve is breathless, both relieved and in awe that he’s done something to render you this speechless, that he has this effect on you.
Neither of you know how long you stand there wrapped in each other, but eventually you force yourself to detangle from the boy. When Steve groans at the loss of your touch, you gently shove him away with a smile. “I still owe you a gift, dummy.”
He thinks about this for a moment, hums to himself and taps his finger against his chin. You giggle, which is all he wanted to make you do, and finally he seems to come to a decision. “Fine, I will allow this because I wanna know what you got me.”
“Mhm, that’s what I thought.” You flick Steve’s nose and begin walking towards your house. “I’ll be back in a second!”
Steve watches as you run back inside, the cardigan he has gifted you is clutched tightly to your chest, and he knows he’s falling as well. He can feel it, the slight tug within his chest that expands into a warmth that steadily beats alongside his heart.
As you promised, you’re back with a small box wrapped in a simple blue paper within no time. Only this time, you’re now wearing the cardigan and Steve’s heart skips a beat when he sees you.
You’re practically skipping as you return to his side, stupidly excited for Steve to see what you’ve gotten for him; you all but shove the gift into his hands. “Open it!”
He can’t help but laugh at your enthusiasm, though his heartbeat still hasn’t quite settled yet. “So bossy.”
You ignore Steve’s teasing and instead watch the look on his face as he unwraps the box and opens its lid. Within the box, tucked delicately between sheets of tissue paper, is a framed photo of Steve and Dustin.
A mix of emotions cross Steve’s face, from shock to curiosity to pure adoration. His lips part slightly, a slight gasp escapes him. “Y/N…”
You’re beaming, though you shrug as if it’s just another Monday for you. The photo is your favorite, taken the other day while they worked on a robot set that Steve had brought over. “Jonathan left his camera at my place a few weeks ago, and you and Dustin looked incredibly sweet working together, so… I snuck a picture while you two were busy bickering over drill bit sizes.”
In the picture, Dustin’s hands are gesturing wildly at Steve, his eyes manic, yet there’s a genuine smile on both of their faces despite the clear indications that they’re arguing. Tools are scattered around them and a poor, misshapen robot lays discarded on the table in front of them, long forgotten in the midst of their argument.
It’s the perfect photo, honestly.
Steve lets out a wet chuckle, his eyes are shining with fondness. “That kid is such a pain in the ass.”
“Yeah, but you can’t help but love him anyway.” You nudge him, drawing his attention back to you. “It’s not often I see Dustin befriend someone so quickly, ya know.”
Steve ducks his head down, flushed from what you’re implying. “Yeah, well. He’s a good kid.”
“He is.” You stand on your tiptoes and press your lips against his cheek, before whispering into his ear, “and so are you.”
You feel Steve shiver, and he grips at your waist so that you can’t back away again. He pauses for a moment, allows your words to sink in and your kiss to seep throughout his body. There’s more he wants to say, his lips practically beg to be drawn to yours, but he takes a deep breath and says what he knows he can give you. “Merry Christmas, angel.”
“Merry Christmas, honey.” Your lips graze Steve’s ear and he shivers again. This, he knows, is where he was always meant to be.
–
Spring comes, and Steve doesn’t get into any of the colleges he applied for.
It’s a hard blow, and the months you’ve spent trying to rebuild his confidence comes crashing down within seconds.
Steve draws into himself, you don’t see him at school for a few days and he doesn’t stop by your work. He’s embarrassed, hiding from his shame of not being good enough to even get into Tech. He’s everything his father told him he’d be. A failure, an embarrassment to the Harrington name.
You give Steve a few days to himself, trusting that he’ll come back when he’s ready; you know how deeply he carries the weight of his father’s expectations. However, when almost a week goes by without any word from the teen, you decide to take matters into your own hands.
Which leads you to now: knocking on Steve’s door with platters of fresh baked goods, Mike and the others holding their own assortment of snacks and movies for tonight.
It took a lot of bargaining and multiple batches of brownies, but in the end you convinced Dustin and the others to surprise Steve with a movie night at his house. You knew his parents would be out of town this week, they’re hardly ever home anyways.
After a few swift knocks, you don’t have to wait long before Steve opens the door. He looks tired, his hair is a mess and he’s wearing the ratty sweatpants that you absolutely hate on him. It looks like he hasn’t slept in days, and when he sees who is behind his door, he frowns. “Why are you all holding snacks?”
“Well, hello to you too, buddy.” Dustin is the first to enter, shoving past Steve without a care in the world. He looks around and whistles, impressed with the house. “Y/N said you were rich, but damn.”
“Is that a pool?” Lucas makes his way in as well, Max loosely holding his hand as she follows.
El looks up at you. “What is a pool?”
“Mike,” you call for the boy to get his attention. When he turns to you, brownie shoved in his mouth, you point towards El. “Can you explain to her what a pool is while I talk to Steve?”
Mike salutes you and grabs El’s hand, yanking her inside so that you’re left alone with the teen. As soon as they’re gone, Steve lets out an exasperated sigh. “What is this, Y/N?”
“Mandatory movie night!” You exclaim, hoping that your fake enthusiasm will be enough to rub off on him as well. You really, really hope that this plan works.
Steve sighs again, his heart isn’t in it to play along. “Y/N…”
“You’ve missed an entire week of school and Bookstrordinary misses its most loyal customer.” You’re basically pleading now, scared that Steve will turn you and everyone else away. “I just… I miss you and I know you enjoy the kids, even if you try to deny it, and I want you to just spend this one night with us. No worrying about the future, no family drama, just me, you, and the kids as we watch horrible scary movies and eat an unhealthy amount of sugar, okay?”
“But–”
“No, you’re not allowed to argue with me.” Steve stares at you, baffled, but you simply barge past him and enter the home as well. “We’re going to have fun tonight, damn it.”
He watches as you walk inside and start ordering the kids around. Within no time, you’ve arranged a neat row of cookies and brownies and chips and dinosaur nuggets on his dining room table while the kids start making a fort in the living room.
Steve sighs, knowing he’s long lost this battle with you, and joins you to help with grabbing more blankets and pillows for the fort.
One part of the deal for a movie night at Steve’s was allowing all the kids to pick their own movie to watch. You’d been very hesitant to say yes to this, but ultimately Mike’s nagging won in the end. His movie choice goes first, and within the first fifteen minutes of it, a fort has been made and the kids quickly settle within it, a mess of sheets and pillows and blankets.
You’re on the couch, lazily stretched out, knowing that there’s no room for you in the fort with the others. You don’t mind, you honestly prefer having the couch to yourself, and you only further come to enjoy this when Steve makes his way into the living room and looks around.
“Where am I supposed to sit?” He asks, slightly offended that he doesn’t get to share the fort.
“Here,” you pat the couch, though you don’t bother to make any room for him. Your entire body rests on the couch, there isn’t enough space for him to sit comfortably on the edge.
Steve bites his lip. He wants, more than anything, to lay on top of you and melt into your body, but he just isn’t sure what boundaries have been placed between the two of you. When you notice his misplaced hesitation, you simply sigh and tug at his legs, causing him to fall on top of you. “Shit–”
He collapses onto you and your body braces for his impact, the weight of him foreign yet welcome. He’s wearing the cologne you love and you reach for his shirt to tug him closer so that he’s now properly laying on you. You sigh happily, wrapping your arms around Steve. “See, was that so hard?”
“If you wanted to cuddle, you could’ve just asked.” Steve grumbles, but he situates himself so that he’s laying more comfortably on you and scoops you into his own arms as well. He rests his head against your chest and your fingers find their way into his hair, as they always seem to do.
Steve closes his eyes and lets himself enjoy your touch, for once not caring that the kids are just below the two of you in their fort. Normally he’s more reserved around you when they’re near, especially Dustin.
That kid never lets Steve catch a break when it comes to you.
But he’s exhausted and has spent the last week either crying or pretending that he’s someone he isn’t, so Steve indulges in your warmth and relishes in the way your fingers seem to unconsciously draw small circles on his back; he’s so fucking grateful that you exist.
You’re always there to catch him, to remind him of who he can be despite his continuous flaws.
The surprise movie night ends up being everything Steve needs. He laughs at Mike’s horrible jokes, shows El how to use the VHR, he argues with Max about whether peanut butter belongs with chocolate, Dustin throws popcorn at you when you kiss Steve’s cheek, and Lucas even asks him about basketball and if he has any advice for him once he gets to high school.
It’s the most fun Steve has had in a while, and he realizes why you spend so much time with these kids. They’re everything, really. Smart and fucking hilarious and easy to be around. They’re honest with him, they tell him he’s an idiot for not getting into college while in the same breath debating with him about if college is even worth it.
Plus, you litter Steve’s face with more kisses than usual tonight, which only brightens his mood further. You’ve been more affectionate with him lately, holding his hand more often and pressing your lips wherever you can. It’s as if he’s found some key, unlocking all the love you’ve stored within you.
Steve isn’t an idiot, he knows there’s more to it, so do you. However, rather than acknowledge it, you both choose to simply bask in it. It’s not time yet, bringing this into the light. It’s delicate, still forming into something that Steve is sure will be incredible.
For now, he allows his lips to skim across your face while the kids aren’t looking. They’ve been dying to do this ever since he’s known you, and the giggle you let out is more than enough for him.
–
Spring turns to summer and before Steve knows it, he’s graduating.
He rolls over in bed and stares at the ceiling. The Harrington household is quiet. His parents have gone on yet another business trip, his father had scoffed when Steve had asked if they’d be back in time for his ceremony.
“Why should we attend if you’re not going to do anything with that diploma?”
“Right,” Steve had scratched the back of his neck, embarrassed that he had even thought to ask his father to come. “I’m sorry.”
His mother, who had been quiet as they spoke, only stepped forward once her husband had left the room. She brought a hand to his face and tentatively stroked his cheek with her finger. “I’m proud of you, my beautiful boy.”
Steve had smiled at her, knowing that she meant well and yet heartbroken that she couldn’t voice this in front of his father. She smiled sadly at him, as if she sensed what he had been thinking, before following after her husband. As she always does.
The doorbell rings, effectively breaking Steve out of his momentary self pity. He looks at his alarm clock and frowns. It’s early in the morning, he doesn’t know who could be at the door at such an hour.
Sighing, he gets out of bed and makes his way downstairs angry at the world. He’s tired of growing up, his parents suck, he’s almost definitely skipping his graduation ceremony, and now he has to get out of bed to go answer the door.
He opens the door and when he sees that it’s you, his mood drastically improves. You’re dressed in a pretty lavender sundress, a departure from your usual t-shirts and shorts that Steve has come to associate as your summer uniform. By the time he manages to take his eyes off of you, he realizes too late that you’re holding flowers and shoving your way into his home.
“Ready to graduate?” You ask, carefully setting the flowers down on his kitchen table. “You can’t skip it if I’m here, ya know.”
Steve groans. “How did you even know I was going to skip?”
“Because you’re predictable and I enjoy making you do what’s best for you.” You’ve grabbed his hand and are dragging him towards his room. “Now, go find something nice to wear while I put your flowers in a vase.”
“But–”
You don’t give Steve any time to argue as you’ve already left the room to go and take care of the flowers. He lets out another groan, he knows he can’t argue his way out of this one. You’ve dressed up for a graduation, bought Steve flowers, and now he has to put on some stupid outfit to make a smile cross your pretty little face.
He settles on a simple white button down shirt and a pair of nice dress pants, and you return to his room as he’s struggling with the buttons. When you see him, you laugh with affection and walk over to him. “Here, let me see.”
Steve lets you button his shirt, your breath is warm against his chest as your fingers quickly secure the buttons into the place. He admires the cute frown on your face as you concentrate, and he allows his hands to come up to yours and slots your fingers together. You’re taken aback by the sudden affection.
“What are you doing?” You ask, a familiar blush on your face from his touch. You don’t think you’ll ever get used to this.
“Nonthin’.” Steve says, though he lets go of one of your hands and places it on the small of your back as he always does. He uses the hand to push you closer and the other hand remains intertwined with yours. He stares down at you, he’s close enough to count every eyelash that dots along your pretty eyes. “Just admiring you.”
“Is this some ploy to distract me from your graduation?” Though you try to tease him, you’re weak and let out a soft sigh when Steve pulls you even closer, feeling his body against yours. He’s allowed himself to become bolder with you, and as if to prove this, he tucks your hair behind your ear and kisses your brow. You exhale with a shaky breath, your resolve dwindles. “Honey…”
Steve chuckles at your reaction, revels in it. He hopes to one day memorize all the ways he can make you sigh his name and shiver against him. For now, however, he pulls away and finishes getting dressed. “I know, I know. Graduation time.”
The perfectly aimed sandal that you throw at him is enough to solidify to Steve that he is, truly, happy.
–
Dustin is the first one Steve sees in the bleachers, then Mike, and then El, before he realizes that the entire party has managed to make it to his graduation ceremony.
“You invited them?” He turns to you, somehow surprised that you would do such a simple and lovely thing.
“Of course I did.” You kiss his cheek and quickly fix his hair as you adjust his graduation cap. You’ve been fretting over his appearance ever since you left his house, and he hates how giddy he feels whenever you dote on him. “Now, go find your seat and don’t trip on the stage!”
You’re gone in a flash, leaving Steve alone as you go and join the kids in the bleachers with all the other friends and family in attendance. The school’s gym is packed, everyone has someone there for them to see them walk across the stage, and though Steve’s actual family isn’t here, he has you and the kids in the stands cheering for him.
Steve decides, then, that you and the kids are his true family.
The ceremony is long and boring, and Steve spends the entire time sneaking glances at you.
You’re attentive, nodding along to all the boring speeches made by teachers and clapping for every student’s name that is called. He sees you breakup a fight between Mike and Max over something, he guesses it’s probably something dumb, and he laughs when you switch seats with Max in the end.
As he watches you, Steve feels what he felt the first day he ever spoke to you when you almost hit his car with your bike. When he’d gotten out of his car and found you laying in the ditch, he felt what he feels now: a slow, all encompassing wave of sunlight.
He felt it when he drove you home the following week and you’d told him he wasn’t a bad person, and he felt it again when you’d spared him kindness at Jonathan’s while fighting the Demogorgon. Then, in front of the hospital’s vending machine, the sunlight turned into a fireplace within his chest when you’d giggled and told him you were friends.
Since then, the fire has only burned deeper within Steve. It burned when he’d gifted you that poster, when he had spent every day at your job just to be near you. It had burned Steve when you’d left him that summer, the sting of it unbearable as it seared his skin. Then it had dimmed, abandoned, until you came back again and reignited it once more.
When you whispered confessions to Steve in the dark, he felt it then. When you sacrificed your life to save his, leaving a scar on your rib cage that Steve can feel whenever he hugs you, he felt it then as well. The fire was there when you leaned against him, accepted the help he has always tried to provide for you, when he gave you a piggyback ride back inside Jonathan’s and tucked you into bed.
It all comes back to Steve in flashes.
Your promise to him to wait, to stay even though he couldn’t give you what you deserved, what you needed. The gentleness of your promise and the framed photo of him and Dustin that now sits proudly on his bedside table. The surprise movie nights, how you call him “honey” and he calls you “angel”.
It’s always been there.
The warmth had started back before Steve even knew what warmth was, when he first saw you. He had been thirteen and you had been twelve.
Now, at almost seventeen and eighteen, you’re cheering for Steve’s name as it’s called upon the stage and he finally knows what this feeling is. Steve accepts his diploma and shakes hands with his principal and he swears he can hear your voice, screaming his name with pure joy, above everyone else’s; it’s as if his body is attuned to yours.
This, Steve knows, is love.
–
The school year ends and summer break begins.
There’s a new mall in Hawkins, one that’s big and flashy and opens just in time for summer vacation. Dustin spends entire days there with the party before he reluctantly leaves for Camp Know Where. You miss your brother dearly, but you know the camp is good for him.
When you find out that Jonathan and Nancy have become interns at the Hawkins Post, you scream and throw yourself into their arms, incredibly proud of them, yet you’re sad as well. You didn’t realize that you’d be spending your last summer before senior year apart from your best friend, though you know he’s always dreamed of showcasing his photography.
It’s bittersweet, but when Steve gets a job at the new mall, the free ice cream that you get makes up for it.
Plus, his uniform for Scoops Ahoy doesn’t hurt.
“You’re not allowed to laugh.” Steve threatens you, horribly self conscious with how short his shorts are. You made him promise to show you the uniform, but now he’s seriously regretting it as you bite your lip; he sees the laugh before it comes. “I mean it! No laughing, it’s already bad enough that I have to work–”
He’s cut off by your loud, smug laugh. It overtakes your entire body as you hunch over, gasping for breath as you wheeze out, “You look great!”
Steve hides behind the ice cream counter, absolutely mortified. Here he is, being laughed at by the girl he’s so fucking in love with, as he wears a stupid sailor hat and a god damn ascot.
In between your laughs, you see the despair on Steve’s face and you try to calm down. “Okay, I’m sorry,” you wipe tears from your eyes, still slightly giggling. “It’s just… You look so adorable in that uniform!”
Immediately Steve straightens his back and crosses his arms, trying to look more dignified. “One, never call a man adorable. That’s just offensive. Two, I will not get out from behind this counter until you stop giggling at me.”
“Who are we giggling at?” An unfamiliar girl now appears, wearing the exact same uniform that Steve is, and when she sees you standing in front of the teen, she raises her eyebrows in disbelief. “Henderson with Harrington?”
She knows your name, and you quickly wrack your head to try and figure out why she looks so familiar. At the very least, you know she has to be a grade below you, though you can’t quite place her, which you feel bad about. She looks kind.
“Yes, Henderson with Harrington.” You extend your hand out for the girl to shake. “I’m Y/N, though I guess you already knew that.”
“Robin Buckley,” she accepts your handshake, giving you an interested smile. She already seems to like you, which you’re relieved by.
Steve watches this interaction with pure dread. He had met Robin a few days ago during his interview for the job, and she’s made his life a living hell of torment and teasing ever since. Now, with you two meeting, he knows that you’ll only add onto Robin’s incredibly quick wit. “Oh, please don’t become friends.”
“Too late.” You wink at Robin. “Wanna check out this insanely large mall together?”
Robin gasps. “It’d be my pleasure.” She hops over the counter, completely bypassing the door that lets you out, and loops her arm through yours. “Later, dingus!”
“Bye, Steve!”
He stands there, defeated, as you and Robin giggle together while you leave. It only took thirty seconds before you abandoned him like some traitor. Sighing, he picks up a rag and starts wiping down the tables in the ice cream shop.
From the corner of his eye he can see you and Robin running around the mall. You’re giggling as you chase after the girl, your hair is tied in a loose ponytail and one of the straps on your overalls has slid down your arm. You look happy, bright and alive, far from the girl Steve remembers from last winter.
It takes Steve’s breath away.
Then, as if you can sense his eyes on you, you turn. Your eyes connect, your cheeks are flushed from running and you’re breathless as you smile at him. Steve returns your smile, winks, and he can almost hear your giggle.
You finally look away, going back to chasing after Robin as the two of you retreat further into the mall, and as your figure fades in the distance, there’s only one thing on Steve’s mind.
I can’t wait to make her mine.
-
⌑ series masterlist
⌑ if you would like to be added/removed from my taglist, just let me know :)
⌑ taglist: @siriuslysmoking @sheisjoeschateau @thytorturedpoet @innercreationflower @juhdoche @frostandflamesfanfic @goosy-goose @quinnsadilla @munsons-queen @stefansring @rice-elephant @bex22109 @bitchkeery @bex22109 @officerrrfriendly @kazunish @idkitsem @emilieluckwood @ryoujoking @criesinlies @tagakalat @dcnerd98 @sucker-4-angst @kitdjarin1 @onecojg @innazra @areiofhope @spaghetittied @cultish-corner @g8sstuff @videogamesandpoorlifechoices @hsllfirescoops @l0ve-0f-my-life @newyorkangelbaby @aliceespector @chervbs @poppet055 @bookkeeperlove @bellenotthebeast @swiftieblyth @ladyobscurus @moon-flowerss @estaticheart @dreamingofts18 @lanxsee @thecapricunt1616 @aheadfullofsteverogers @marvel-and-music @angie2274 @thescoopstroopers
#steve harrington x henderson!reader#steve harrington x reader#steve harrington x you#stranger things#steve harrington fanfic#stranger things rewrite#slowburn#angst#wtlws#m's writing#i think is my first solely fluffy chapter in come home#my god
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Promo photo for Jazz at the Philharmonic Concert in Paris 1957, NARA ID 20012478.
#OTD 1934: Ella Fitzgerald Debuts at Amateur Night at the Apollo!
First Lady of Song AND Civil Rights activist
By Miriam Kleiman, Public Affairs
On the evening of November 21, 1934, 17 year-old Ella Fitzgerald took the stage on Amateur Night at Harlem’s Apollo Theater and launched her longtime career as the “First Lady of Song.” She sang for presidents, was the first Black woman to win a Grammy (she won 13 Grammy awards) and sold over 40 million albums.
She was also a Civil Rights activist who used her talent to break racial barriers. In recognition of her work she was awarded the NAACP Equal Justice Award and the American Black Achievement Award. The National Archives holds records documenting the discrimination she faced -- and fought.
Ella Fitzgerald et al v. Pan Am: Racism or “honest mistake”?
On tour in 1954 en route to a concert in Australia she was denied the right to board a Pan American flight. She had to spend three days in Hawaii before other transportation to Australia could be secured, and she missed her concert dates.
She sued Pan Am, claiming racism and seeking financial compensation. Pan Am claimed it was “an honest mistake” due to a reservation mix-up. The district judge dismissed the complaint, but the plaintiffs appealed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed that decision, ruling in favor of the plaintiffs.
New York Times, 12/31/1954.
Complaint, Ella Fitzgerald, John Lewis, Georgiana Henry, and Norman Granz v. Pan American, Inc., 12/23/1954 Records of U.S. District Courts NARA ID 2641486.
Ella Fitzgerald Performs at Birthday Salute to JFK at Madison Square Garden 5/19/1962, JFK Library ID ST-212-15-62.
President Gerald R. Ford and First Lady Betty Ford with Ella Fitzgerald at White House Bicentennial concert 6/20/1976, Ford Library, NARA ID 7840021.
Ella Fitzgerald Performs at the White House State Dinner for King Juan Carlos I of Spain, 10/13/1981, Reagan Library, NARA ID 75855955.
More online:
See the complaint in the Documented Rights online exhibit under “Challenging Discrimination.”
DocsTeach: Complaint in the Case of Fitzgerald v. Pan American Airways, 12/23/1954
DocsTeach: Judgment in the Case of Fitzgerald v. Pan American World Airways, 1/26/1956.
Hear Fitzgerald discuss this incident, the lawsuit, and her legal victory: Ella Fitzgerald kicked off a plane because of her race: CBC Archives.
#OTD#blm#black lives matter#jazz#jazz history#women's history#equity#civil rights#justice#ford library#reagan library#social justice#black excellence#racial justice#ella fitzgerald#first lady of song#black history
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More than "Sheer Coincidence": The Antisemitism of Disney's Animated Villains
This is a paper I wrote for a Jewish studies class. It was inspired by a tumblr post, so I thought it was fitting to share here. Most will be under a "read more" link, as it is about 25 pages including the bibliography. Please feel free to ask questions, and enjoy.
_______
On June 19, 2022, Tumblr user fantastic-nonsense published a post about Disney’s 2010 animated film Tangled, and the film’s villain, Mother Gothel, which starts, “*sigh* the ‘Mother Gothel is an anti-semitic caricature’ discourse is going around again.” They argue that, because Mother Gothel’s appearance was based on two non-Jewish women, Gothel’s voice actress Donna Murphy and singer Cher, any claim that Mother Gothel’s large nose or dark, curly hair resemble antisemitic caricatures was simply projection. The goal of Gothel’s design was to make her as visually distinct as possible from Rapunzel, not to make her “look Jewish.” They continue with a question:
“[I]f Gothel was blonde with a ‘normal’ nose…but literally nothing else about her changed, would you be saying that she’s an anti-semitic stereotype?...All I’m saying is that Gothel (and thus Tangled) is unreasonably linked to those tropes…There is a very distinct difference between being actively anti-semitic and Tangled, which has anti-semitism being projected on it because its villain bears passing similarity to anti-semitic caricatures out of sheer coincidence.”
The user has since deleted the original post, but a reblog remains further arguing their point. In an attempt to defend the film from criticisms of antisemitism, fantastic-nonsense stumbles upon a fundamental conundrum of analyzing villainous characters such as Mother Gothel: Is it possible to create a villainous character that avoids all potential antisemitic pitfalls? And, despite fantastic-nonsense insisting it’s a “sheer coincidence,” why do so many Disney villains have stereotypically Jewish traits?
Unmasking Antisemitism: The Origins of Disney’s Jewish Villains
Jewish people have long been viewed as villainous in various gentile European cultures, a view brought to the United States through colonization. Accusations of blood libel go back to the 12th century and have been noted from eastern Europe to England. Famous authors and playwrights such as Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare indicate a centuries-long trend of villainous characters defined by their Jewishness, and infamous business magnate Henry Ford published accusations of predatory banking practices and fervent Christian hatred in his pamphlet series The International Jew in the early 1920s, before Disney was a studio. With centuries of association between Jews and villainy as a backdrop, there is little surprise that Disney turned to antisemitic tropes in the construction of one of its earliest villains.
The 1933 short Three Little Pigs is remembered as one of the most successful shorts from Disney’s Silly Symphonies series. Not only was the film the source of the song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” which became an anthem to “Depression-weary audiences,” but the film was a milestone in character development, versus the characters existing only to serve gags. Walt Disney was so proud of the finished film, he said, “At last we have achieved true personality in a whole picture.” Part of developing the characters’ personalities was creating a menacing villain, an archetype Disney would come to be known for, and the Big Bad Wolf is one of its earliest successes on this front. The film follows the typical narrative of the fairy tale, with a trio of pigs each building their own house, one of straw, one of sticks, and one of brick. We see the Wolf approach them as the first two are frolicking after constructing their flimsy houses, drool pouring from his mouth filled with sharp teeth. While the Wolf is able to simply blow away the straw house, the house of sticks proves to be a bit stronger, and he resorts to trickery, pretending to give up and leave the pigs alone before returning dressed as a sheep and asking for shelter. The pigs sees through this disguise, refuse him entry, and his anger gives him the strength to blow down the house of sticks. When the pigs flee to the house of bricks, the Wolf returns with a new disguise: a Jewish peddler.
Wearing a large brown overcoat, green-tinted glasses and a skullcap, and adorned with a fake beard and long nose, the Wolf knocks on the door of the brick house with a rack of brushes around his neck, proclaiming in a Yiddish accent, “I’m the Fuller Brush man, I’m giving a free sample!” The pig from the brick house, quickly seeing through his tricks, proceeds to hit him with said free sample before pulling a welcome mat from beneath the Wolf’s feet, causing him to land on his face and his false nose to bend 90° towards the sky. The Wolf rips off the disguise in anger, and the short continues.
The association of Jews and the peddling profession arose during the 19th century, as peddling helped facilitate the mass migration of Jews across the globe during that time. Peddling was more accessible to poor immigrant Jews than owning a store, and the freedom of self-employment allowed them to maintain their own schedule and keep Shabbat, unlike factory jobs. As most peddlers did not maintain the job for more than a decade, nor pass it down to their sons, peddlers represented a lack of assimilation, perpetually tying the occupation to otherness, which facilitates the villainization of peddlers through their Jewishness.
The stock character of the “Jew peddler” quickly entered popular culture, giving all manner of creatives, from commentators to novelists, a new punching bag in their library of cultural symbols. As Hasia Diner describes the figure in her book Roads Taken: The Great Jewish Migrations to the New World and the Peddlers Who Forged the Way, “Sinister and shadowy, exotic or absurd, he made a good subject for mockery, with his odd accent, his clothing, his lack of a fixed abode, and his distinctive bodily features: in this milieu, a prominent hooked nose was a sure sign of Jewishness, a long beard a likely trait as well.”
Director Burt Gillett created a costume for the Disney short’s villain which ticked off every box in the “Jew peddler” playbook. A symbol of “trickery, otherness, and greed,” and pervasively believed to be dishonest, the peddler costume serves not only as a disguise for the Wolf, but to highlight those traits in his villainous hunt of the pigs. Audiences would have had a pre-existing cultural understanding of the Jewish peddler as a costume. Throughout the 19th and into the early parts of the 20th century in the United States, local newspapers reporting on masquerade parties described “Jew peddler” costumes among princesses and pirates. With his two costumes being a play on the phrase “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” and the known manipulative figure of the Jewish peddler, the characterization of the Wolf is clear: He is so manipulative, even his choice in costumes shows off his deviousness.
There is a more intelligent side to the gag of the Jewish peddler costume; not only would the Wolf seem less threatening dressed as a Jewish peddler, but the pigs would assume he kept kosher and didn’t eat pork, easing their worries. Still, the use of antisemitic stereotypes to emphasize the Wolf’s dangerous and manipulative nature has been recognized as offensive, including by the company itself. A 1948 re-release of the short edited the animation to remove the antisemitic costume. The Wolf still dresses as a peddler, but without any Jewish signifiers, maintaining the overcoat but swapping the skullcap and green-tinted glasses for a bowler hat and clear ones, and forgoing the nose and beard altogether. Initially, the original audio was maintained, as the new animation of the wolf still matches the original dialogue, but a new version of the Wolf’s audio was recorded and replaced the Yiddish accent at a later date. Instead of hawking his wares in a Yiddish accent, the Wolf puts on a low, unintelligent-sounding voice and tells the pigs, “I’m working my way through college!” This is the version of the short that is available on Disney+, where no mention is made of the short’s history or the edits that were made to it. Although the Wolf does not have the same notoriety as many of Disney’s villains from feature-length films, he didn’t fall into complete obscurity, making a cameo in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) alongside the pigs, and appearing in the 2002 direct-to-video film Mickey’s House of Villains. 90 years after his first appearance, the Wolf’s legacy resonates in the designs and characterization, which Walt so highly praised, of the villains who came after him.
Hooked-Nosed Hags and Mincing Manipulators: Jewish-coding in 20th Century Disney Films
Disney took its first leap into feature-length animation in 1937 with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Released only four years after Three Little Pigs, the film displayed a marked improvement in many areas of animation, particularly character design. While previous Disney shorts had largely starred animals, Snow White featured an entirely human or human-like cast. Unable to differentiate between hero and villain by species, designers needed other visual signifiers to indicate a character’s villainy or heroism to the audience. As former Disney character animator Andreas Deja wrote on his blog, where he frequently catalogs stories from Disney’s older films, “[Walt] Disney insisted on strong contrast between good versus evil, and that needed to be clear in the characters' design as well as their acting.”
In 1749, German philosopher and playwright Gotthold Ephraim Lessing wrote in his play Die Juden (The Jews), “And is it not true, their countenance has something that prejudices one against them? It seems to me as if one could read in their eyes their maliciousness, unscrupulousness, selfishness of character, their deceit and perjury.” For centuries, antisemites have posited that Jews not only are evil, but look evil based on their natural physical appearances. This idea quickly made its way into Disney’s understanding of character design. Although Three Little Pigs’ Wolf is the only villain who takes on an explicitly Jewish appearance, Disney has designed its villains with stereotypically Jewish traits as a visual indicator since its first feature film. This notion of visual signifiers of internal traits is derived from race science, a concept the American government had latched onto with the Dillingham Commission, a Congressional committee analyzing immigration in the United States at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. In the Commission’s Statistical Review of Immigration, published in 1911, the “Hebrew” people were the third-lowest ranked group in the “Caucasian race.” As Jews were considered one of the least desirable groups of white people, common traits amongst them were quickly associated with villains, regardless of their background.
Snow White’s Queen Grimhilde does not have many stereotypically Jewish traits upon first glance. This is essential to the story, as the Queen was previously the “fairest one of all” until her title was taken by Snow White, whose beauty outshone hers even while dressed in rags. Because she is also beautiful, she could not be designed with ugly, villainous, “Jewish” traits. However, when she finds out the Huntsman failed to kill Snow White, she adopts a disguise in order to poison her without being recognized, much like the Wolf in The Three Little Pigs. Her disguise transforms her from a beautiful, regal woman into a decrepit witch, with a massive, hooked nose and deep eye bags, both common traits in antisemitic caricatures, marking her new form as Jewish. Her transformation marks her change into a more active villain role, pursuing Snow White herself instead of sending a henchman to find her. By the end of the film, the Queen’s internal ugliness, through her vanity and envy of Snow White, has physically manifested, showing that she was never really as beautiful as the kind-hearted and button-nosed Snow White.
The contrast between the Aryan features of Disney’s leading ladies and the ugly and Jewish-coded traits of their female villains continued for decades. Cinderella’s stepmother, Lady Tremaine, and her daughters are both drawn with large noses compared to Cinderella, who has a button nose similar to Snow White. Lady Tremaine is given a hooked nose and heavy-lidded eyes, just as Queen Grimhilde had in her disguise. Her less exaggerated appearance befits her more realistic villainy, portraying personal greed and child abuse rather than a magically enhanced poisoning plot. The stepsisters, on the other hand, are given bulbous noses, similarly to Snow White’s seven dwarves, largely indicating ugliness rather than Jewishness. In both cases, their designs are “more reminiscent of 101 Dalmatians male villains Horace and Jasper, rather than typical Disney female features.” All three are given features reminiscent of Disney’s male character designs, compared to Cinderella’s “proper” femininity, which, at this point in Disney’s history, was always white.
Maleficent and Aurora’s designs in Sleeping Beauty function similarly. Maleficent’s pointed nose, prominent horns, which Jews are often accused of having, and green skin make her appear inhuman compared to Aurora’s upturned nose and blonde hair. Maleficent’s appearance is also juxtaposed against the film’s good fairies, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, who look entirely human aside from their wings. Sleeping Beauty also furthers the concept of appearance reflecting personality, giving the cruel Maleficent an unnatural skin tone, and displaying her most powerful form, a dragon, at the climax of the film. It is important to note that both Maleficent and Queen Grimhilde use magic and potions in their villainy, while their respective princesses do not use magic on their own. Judaism and witchcraft have long been associated in European Christian concepts of witches, and these films both bring that trope into a new world of storytelling.
While Disney’s early female villains were largely coded as Jewish by their designs and the juxtaposition between them and Disney’s respective female lead’s designs meeting Euro-centric standards of beauty, male villains’ coding comes at the nexus of homosexual and Jewish male stereotypes, alongside their designs. In her description of the coverage of Leopold and Loeb’s 1924 murder trial, Sarah Imhoff wrote that “the press coverage did not often explicitly cite their Jewishness because it did not need to. Journalists and commentators were able to convey Jewishness without stating it directly. Certain characteristics—intellectual, physically weak, not fit for manual labor, perverted, and prone to illness and psychiatric imbalance—painted a gendered portrait of a Jewish man even without reference to race or religion.” Many of Disney’s male villains fit such descriptors, indicating their Jewishness to the audience without the religion ever being mentioned. Additionally, these descriptors–particularly “perverted,” which at the time was a euphemism for both religious and sexual deviance-- are often applied to gay men, while homosexuality was treated as its own psychological issue. Both queer and Jewish men are seen as feminine, not meeting the white Christian ideal of a strong, straight, and stable man. With such overlap, queercoding of male characters often coincides, intentionally or not, with Jewish-coding.
The effeminate, mentally unstable villain can be found as early as the 1950s with Peter Pan’s Captain Hook, a willowy man in a plumed hat prone to comedically anxious outbursts, with black, wavy hair and a large nose. Captain Hook is voiced with a British accent, as many of Disney’s male villains do (including Jafar, Scar, and Governor Ratcliffe, whose fitting British accent stands out against John Smith’s strangely American one), which is not typical of Jewish characters in American media. However, “unlike the good characters of the film, who are endowed with physical features more generally identified with Northern European characters, the Captain Hook character would appear to be more Southern or Eastern European…he is the villain, and the writers and artists chose to give him physical characteristics that somehow reflect his villainy.” The author does not mention Jews in his analysis, but the majority of American Jews are descended from Eastern European Jews, and the comparison is bolstered by the non-visible Jewish stereotypes Hook fits as well. Again, Hook’s features are contrasted against Peter Pan and Wendy’s straight, brown hair and upturned noses, matching his implicitly Jewish characteristics with an implicitly Jewish appearance.
The Disney Renaissance, a period from 1989-1999 which saw massive success for Disney and a notable Broadway influence on the films, also saw a barrage of male villains with notable Jewish-coded traits. While Aladdin’s Princess Jasmine has a slightly larger nose compared to her white princess predecessors, Jafar still has much more prominent and hooked nose and heavy-lidded eyes, traits even more prominent in early iterations of his design. Jafar fits many of the descriptors applied to Leopold and Loeb in lieu of calling them Jewish; he is a manipulative magician with a wiry frame, contrasted by Aladdin’s larger build and ability to run and swing around Agrabah to avoid guards, and becomes mad with power after wishing to become a genie himself. Appearance-wise, in addition to the Jewish-coded traits mentioned above, Jafar’s dress-like robe and elaborate headpiece give him a feminine appearance next to Aladdin’s pants and vest, and bare muscular chest, affirming his masculinity. Imhoff notes that, because of Jews’ intelligence and lack of physical prowess, the prevailing stereotype was that “Jews tended not to commit courageous crimes, but rather chose crimes where they did not have to confront their victims directly.” She extrapolates, “Jewish men’s crimes were crimes of intellect, not passion; manipulation, not aggression; outsmarting, not overpowering.” Jafar displays these methods of criminality multiple times, tricking Aladdin into fetching the genie’s lamp from the Cave of Wonders, lying to Jasmine about Aladdin being sentenced to death, and hypnotizing the Sultan with his staff to steal an heirloom jewel. Although Aladdin uses his wits to defeat Jafar by trapping him in the magic lamp, his physical strength both make him more attractive and capable in Jasmine’s eyes than Jafar, who pursues her for political gain.
The Lion King’s Scar is a more prominent example of the juxtaposition between the strong but simple hero and the weak but wily villain. After feminizing himself, proclaiming “I shall practice my curtsy,” when his brother King Mufasa tells him that Simba, Mufasa’s son, will one day be Scar’s king, Scar says, “Well, as far as brains go, I got the lion’s share. But when it comes to brute strength, I’m afraid I’m at the shallow end of the gene pool.” While the heroic Mufasa, and later Simba, are muscular and broad, Scar is drawn almost emaciated, his hips swinging with each step in an effeminate manner. Like Jafar, Scar rarely involves himself directly in his crimes, sending his hyena henchmen to do his dirty work while he devises a plan. While animated lions lack the physical traits associated with Jews, Scar’s strangely dark mane contrasts with Mufasa and Simba’s reddish fur, and the dark circles of fur around his eyes resemble both heavy eyelids and eyeshadow, serving as both a feminizing and Jewish trait. When Scar and Simba fight at the climax of the film, Scar resorts to gaslighting, trying to convince Simba that he is responsible for his father’s death, and tricks, throwing burning ashes into Simba’s face, rather than beating him with brute strength.
Pocahontas’ Governor Ratcliffe fits oddly into the field of simultaneously feminized and Jewish-coded villains. His purple outfit, braided hair, and posh mannerisms make him by far one of Disney’s most effeminate villains, and he is one of the most explicitly money-hungry villains in Disney’s film library, singing lyrics such as “It's mine, mine, mine/For the taking/It's mine, boys/Mine me that gold!” blatantly assigning Ratcliffe the stereotype of the greedy Jew. Yet the historical setting of the film, 17th century Virginia, makes it highly unlikely that Ratcliffe could possibly be Jewish. Still, his overwhelming greed and feminine mannerisms insert Jewish stereotypes into even the most unlikely settings, highlighting the pervasiveness of the stereotypes beyond direct acknowledgements of Judaism.
Although Hercules’ Hades is less feminized than his 90s predecessors, his coding is bolstered by frequent use of Yiddish words in his dialogue, describing Hercules as “the one schlemiel who can louse” up his plan, calling him “The yutz with the horse!” when directing the titans to attack him, and convincing Hercules to fall for his scheme by telling him, “We dance, we kiss, we schmooze, we carry on, we go home happy.” Portrayed as a fast-talking swindler, calling back to the fear of peddlers Disney utilized in Three Little Pigs, Hades follows the trend of having a hooked nose and deep-set eyes, as well as being significantly weaker than Hercules, who is characterized throughout the film by his immense strength and lack of forethought. While Hades nearly succeeds in getting Hercules to kill himself by diving into the River Styx to save Megara, once Hercules achieves godhood and becomes immortal, all it takes is a single punch to knock Hades himself into the river and defeat him.
Both Hades and Jafar also play upon fears of not just homosexuality but sexually deviant heterosexuality in their respective films. While Jewish men were characterized as feminine due to circumcision in the late 19th century, “Jews were not thought to endanger society by their supposed homosexuality but rather by their evil heterosexual drives. […] But while family life was intact among the Jews themselves, it was, so racists asserted, directed against the family life of others.’” While neither Jafar nor Hades express genuine attraction toward their female leads, each interferes with their predestined heterosexual relationship with the male lead. When Jafar fails to retrieve the lamp from Aladdin before he uses it, foiling his plan to become Sultan, his parrot henchman Iago suggests that Jafar marry Jasmine as a means of becoming Sultan instead. Jafar proceeds to brainwash the Sultan into pronouncing him Jasmine’s fiance while she builds a relationship with Aladdin, and nearly succeeds in forcing her to marry him, before Aladdin interrupts his plan. Hades gained leverage over Megara after she made a deal with him for a man who left her, and has her woo Hercules only to sacrifice her, using Hercules’ emotions to manipulate him into nearly killing himself trying to save Megara. In both cases, genuine heterosexuality triumphs over “evil heterosexual drives.” Even with Aladdin’s Arabian-inspired setting and multiple mentions of Allah by the Sultan, conceptions of pure heterosexual love shaped by Christian values save the heroines from deviant, and implicitly Jewish, heterosexuality.
Across decades, genders, and settings, Disney has not only continued to rely on antisemitic stereotypes to communicate villainy through character design, but has developed its villains to incorporate increasingly specific stereotypes that have been applied to Jews for decades, if not centuries.
(Not Her) Mother Knows Best: Mother Gothel and the Blood Libel of Tangled
The 2000s was a time of experimentation for Disney Animation. As the success of the Renaissance began to fade, Disney turned to genres and technologies it hadn’t worked with before. The early 2000s saw an onslaught of films with unprecedented science fiction elements, such as Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Treasure Planet, Lilo and Stitch and Meet the Robinsons. Beginning with Dinosaur in 2000, Disney slowly made its way into the field of CGI animation, developing its technology at a rapid pace across films like Chicken Little, Bolt, and the aforementioned Meet the Robinsons. After this decade of experimentation, Disney released a film which combined the musical and princess elements of the Renaissance with the CGI it had been developing, releasing its first CGI princess film: Tangled. A reimagining of the fairytale of Rapunzel, the film has been a topic of discussion since its release for both its villain, Mother Gothel, who embodies a wide variety of traits, both in her design and characterization, that have been negatively associated with Jews; and its story, which bears striking similarity to a long-standing antisemitic canard: blood libel.
Beginning with accusations of using blood in religious rituals in the 12th century, in the 13th century, an additional accusation further vilify Jews: “Jews killed Christian children to obtain their blood, turning ‘ritual murder’ into ‘blood libel’ or ‘ritual cannibalism.’” Jews were not only accused of killing Christian children, but using their bodies for personal gain. Although Tangled forgoes any child killing, its prologue tells a chillingly familiar tale of the kidnapping and exploitation of a beautiful, blonde infant by a dark and curly-haired, crooked-nosed woman, adapting the blood libel narrative for a new audience, just as blood libel narratives have adapted to fit “changing cultural and political climates.”
In developing a story fit for a feature-length movie, Tangled adds magical elements to its narrative absent from the original fairy tale. In the film, a drop of sunlight fell to earth in the form of a flower with incredible healing capabilities. This flower is discovered by Mother Gothel, whom the audience meets as an old woman, who discovers a song which, when sung to the flower, makes her young. Her young appearance incorporates many of the antisemitic archetypes present in previous villains including long, black, curly hair, dark, hooded eyes, and a pointed nose with a bump. Gothel hides the flower to hoard its powers for herself, immediately establishing her as greedy, another common antisemitic trope. When the pregnant queen falls ill, the search party is sent for the mythical flower, hoping it will heal her. It is found, and after drinking a medicine made from it, the queen recovers and gives birth to a healthy girl, Rapunzel, with hair that is inexplicably bright blonde, as both the queen and king have brown hair. Aging and growing desperate, Gothel sneaks into the castle and cuts a lock of Rapunzel’s hair, only to discover that the hair, which has gained the flower’s magic, loses that magic when cut. She decides to kidnap Rapunzel, hiding her away and raising her as her own to continue utilizing the hair’s magic properties.
Many Disney films have utilized the contrast between villains’ and heroes’ character designs to indicate to the audience which role they play, with villains getting Jewish-coded features and heroes largely getting Western European ones. In nearly every way, Rapunzel and Gothel’s designs are completely opposites. Gothel’s frizzy dark hair could never be related to Rapunzel’s blonde, straight, silky mane. Gothel’s eyes are dark and hooded where Rapunzel’s are green and wide. Gothel’s nose is bumpy and hooked where Rapunzel’s is small and turns up. Gothel is curvaceous where Rapunzel is petite. In every way that Rapunzel fits the Aryan ideal, Gothel sits firmly in the category of other, even if both are white. Gothel’s foreign appearance was very intentional by the film’s director. In an interview, co-director Byron Howard said, “So, Gothel is very tall and curvy, she’s very voluptuous, she’s got this very exotic look to her. Even down to that curly hair, we’re trying to say visually that this is not this girl’s mother.” This goal in character design was repeated by him and co-director Nathan Greno in various interviews.
More than simply creating visual difference between Rapunzel and Mother Gothel, Gothel’s “voluptuous,” “exotic look” plays into the classic trope of the “Beautiful Jewess,” an orientalized beauty who tricks others with her alluring appearance, “‘her beauty conceal[ing] her powers of destruction.’” Gothel gaslights Rapunzel to keep her in her tower, convincing her that her naivete makes the outside world too dangerous for her to live in, and the contrast between Gothel’s curvy and sexualized body and Rapunzel’s petite frame only serves to bolster her claims. It is notable that early iterations of Gothel’s design show her without many of the visually “Jewish” traits she has in her final designs, with straighter hair tied back in a low bun, rather than the large curly hair seen in the film. Several designs have long, but not hooked, noses, and higher collars, avoiding the “Jewish seductress” aspect of her design. Yet these designs were rejected in favor of one influenced by two famous women: Donna Murphy, who voiced Mother Gothel, and Cher. Cher in particular was looked to for being “very exotic and Gothic looking,” playing into the orientalization of the Beautiful Jewess, where “the physical beauty and sensuality of the Jewish woman, her dark hair…were almost always described using orientalizing tropes and characteristics.” Although neither Cher nor Murphy is Jewish, both have the dark, curly hair and large noses associated with Jews, and the choice to base Gothel’s appearance off of them, particularly Cher’s “exotic” beauty, plays directly into pre-existing antisemitic tropes, whether intentionally or not.
Like Queen Grimhilde and Jafar before her, Gothel utilizes a disguise as part of her villainy. However, Gothel’s disguise, her false youth, is constant throughout the film, rather than temporary for one evil act. The Beautiful Jewesses’ “imaginary proximity to seduction, sexuality, theater, and dance, as well as to masquerade and costumes, certainly had just as much to do with their femininity—situated outside of bourgeois gender roles—as with their Jewishness.” Both Gothel’s Jewish features and her sexualized femininity play a role in the manipulative nature of her youthful disguise.
Not only do the narrative similarities to blood libel and the design of Mother Gothel play into antisemitic tropes, but more so than previous evil mother figures in Disney films, Gothel fits the “stereotype of the overbearing, over-involved, suffocating Jewish mother.” While Queen Grimhilde and Lady Tremaine force Snow White and Cinderella, respectively, into servanthood, Gothel pretends to care for Rapunzel, as exemplified in the song “Mother Knows Best.” In addition to warning Rapunzel of the dangers of the world outside her tower, she guilts her for wanting to leave her, singing “Me, I'm just your mother, what do I know?/I only bathed and changed and nursed you/Go ahead and leave me, I deserve it/Let me die alone here, be my guest.” Her overbearing and manipulative parenting strategies were a key part of her character, and of Rapunzel’s, according to Howard and Greno. In an interview with Den of Geek, Greno said, “If it’s a story about a girl who’s stuck in a tower, and we wanted Rapunzel to be a smart character, she’s being manipulated. So, if Mother Gothel was a mean villainess…you’d be like, Why is Rapunzel staying in the tower? You needed to buy that this girl would be there for 18 years. Mother Gothel can’t be mean. She has to be very passive-aggressive,” and Howard added, “Gothel has to be more subtle…than a one-note, domineering mother.” By playing on the loving but overbearing Jewish mother trope, Tangled establishes Gothel as a convincingly threatening and manipulative villain. The movie’s narrative tropes, character designs, and character personalities that play upon antisemitic tropes, make it difficult to deny the antisemitism present in Tangled.
The Twist Villain; Or, How Every Villain is a Little Bit Jewish
In the 13 years since Tangled’s release, many of the antisemitic tropes that had become staples of Disney’s villainous characters have been absent from its films. This coincides with a trend often referred to as the “twist villain,” where the film presents a fake villain to the audience, only to reveal that a “good” character was secretly the villain the whole time. Villains like King Candy from Wreck-It Ralph, Hans from Frozen, Robert Callahan from Big Hero 6, and Mayor Bellwether from Zootopia all fall under this trope. Because these characters are not meant to be read by the audience as evil based on their design, they lack the Jewish-coded traits like dark, curly hair, hooked noses, and deep-set eyes that have been used to mark villains as evil in the past. Other films, in lieu of a proper villain, opt for a hero’s internal conflict or a non-malicious antagonistic force to drive the story, such as Moana, Frozen II, and Encanto. These new story structures seem to eliminate the antisemitism present in other Disney films. Yet the trend of villains hiding in plain sight, lulling even the audience into a false sense of security before revealing their true colors, also plays into centuries-old antisemitic tropes.
In 19th century German criminal justice literature, “the ‘Jewish crook’ (jüdischer Gauner), a code term for a type of criminal that could apply to non-Jews as well,” was defined by “dangerous criminality masked by an assumed identity—a falsely benign exterior.” Because Disney has created an association between stereotypically Jewish traits and villainy for decades, priming audiences to read such traits as evil, by creating villains who hide their true character from both audiences and other characters, both through their actions and their non-Jewish-coded appearances, the films which use a “twist villain” both reaffirm the visual villainy of such traits and play upon another antisemitic trope.
In many ways, it seems impossible for Disney to create a villain that avoids some antisemitic trope, if avoiding stereotypically Jewish character designs only leads to affirmation of another trope. Unfortunately, it may very well be impossible. As John Appel notes in Jews in American Caricature: 1820–1914, “Jews, too, have been described as penny-pinching misers, cheats and ostentatious consumers, pushy parvenus and clannish separatists, radical unbelievers and Orthodox fanatics, ‘red’ Communists and arch-capitalists, draft evading slackers and cowardly soldiers and, more recently, bloodthirsty Israeli militarist occupiers of peaceful villages.” Whether a villain is stingy or greedy, cowardly or bloodthirsty, oddly insular or the mastermind controlling everything, they fall into a Jewish stereotype. Especially when the concept of Jews being sneaky or able to trick others comes into play, it is nearly impossible to create a villain who doesn’t hit one stereotype or another. Certainly, designs and narrative beats like the ones in Tangled make the Jewish-coding of villains far more obvious, but history’s view of Jews has permanently branded them as villainous.
That doesn’t mean that every villain is equal. Hans’ duplicity in Frozen does not raise as many alarms as the multi-layered antisemitism in Tangled. Nor does it mean that every Disney film, let alone every piece of fiction influenced by centuries of antisemitism, should be disregarded. But understanding how antisemitism has influenced Disney’s villains, and, by virtue of its films’ success and cultural dominance, impacted how the American public perceives Jews because of these portrayals, these trends can be acknowledged and criticized, instead of being willfully ignored by insisting that 90 years of cinematic history is simply a “sheer coincidence.”
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Hercules. Walt Disney Pictures, 1997.
Imhoff, Sarah. “Bad Jews: The Leopold and Loeb Hearing.” In Masculinity and the Making of American Judaism, 244–69. Indiana University Press, 2017. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt2005vkq.16.
Kim, Jin. “Mother Gothel.” The Art of Jin Kim (blog), May 26, 2017. https://theartofjinkim.wordpress.com/2017/05/26/mother-gothel/.
koreatimes. “Dreams Come True, Disney Style,” May 15, 2011. https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/art/2023/04/689_87009.html.
Matteoni, Francesca. “The Jew, the Blood and the Body in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe.” Folklore 119, no. 2 (2008): 182–200.
McCulloh, John M. “Jewish Ritual Murder: William of Norwich, Thomas of Monmouth, and the Early Dissemination of the Myth.” Speculum 72, no. 3 (1997): 698–740. https://doi.org/10.2307/3040759.
Mollet, Tracey Louise. Cartoons in Hard Times: The Animated Shorts of Disney and Warner Brothers in Depression and War 1932-1945. New York, New York, USA: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.
Pocahontas. Walt Disney Pictures, 1995.
Putnam, Amanda. “Mean Ladies: Transgendered Villains.” In Diversity in Disney Films: Critical Essays on Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Sexuality, and Disability, n.d. 2013.
“Rapunzel by the Grimm Brothers: A Comparison of the Versions of 1812 and 1857.” Accessed February 22, 2023. https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm012a.html.
Rowe, Nina. The Jew, the Cathedral and the Medieval City: Synagoga and Ecclesia in the Thirteenth Century. Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Schüler-Springorum, Stefanie. “Gender and the Politics of Anti-Semitism.” AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, 2018.
Schutt, Tatum. “Why Do So Many Disney Villains Look Like Me?” Hey Alma, March 5, 2022. https://www.heyalma.com/why-do-so-many-disney-villains-look-like-me/.
Tangled. Walt Disney Pictures, 2010.
tangledbea. “It’s Bex, Not Bea.” Tumblr. Tumblr (blog). Accessed April 17, 2023. https://tangledbea.tumblr.com/post/687549550733492224/sigh-the-mother-gothel-is-an-anti-semitic.
Teter, Magda. Blood Libel. Harvard University Press, 2020. http://www.jstor.org.remote.slc.edu/stable/j.ctvt1sj9x.
“The Finaly Affair.” TIME Magazine 61, no. 11 (March 16, 1953): 79–80.
The Lion King. Walt Disney Pictures, 1994.
theartofjinkim. “Archaeology (IV): Tangled Early Designs!” The Art of Jin Kim (blog), December 18, 2017. https://theartofjinkim.wordpress.com/2017/12/18/archaeology-iv-tangled-early-designs.
Three Little Pigs. Short. United Artists, 1933.
“Three Little Pigs | Disney+.” Accessed May 1, 2023. https://www.disneyplus.com/movies/tangled/3V3ALy4SHStq.
Wills, John. “Making Disney Magic.” In Disney Culture, 14–51. Rutgers University Press, 2017. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1p0vkn3.4.
#Disney#Tangled#Mother Gothel#Judaism#jumblr#antisemitism#jewish#disney villains#Aladdin#Jafar#Lion King#Scar#Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs#Queen Grimhilde#Cinderella#Lady Tremaine#Sleeping Beauty#Maleficent#Three Little Pigs
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List of Met Galas since 2001
I've gotten a few asks for a list of Met Galas. Technically, the gala has existed since 1948, and been themed since 1973, but I started at 2001 to keep it short (there was no gala in 2000 apparently). If you're interested in every theme that's ever existed, there's a chart on Wikipedia.
Most lists online start somewhere around 2011-2013, since it wasn't covered by the press the same way before then.
2001 Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years
Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Christina and Lindsay Owen-Jones, Annette and Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera Caroline Kennedy and Edwin A. Schlossberg
Sponsor: L'Oreal
2003 Goddess: The Classical Mode
Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Tom Ford, Nicole Kidman
Sponsor: Gucci
2004 Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century
Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Renée Zellweger, Lawrence Stroll, Silas Chou, Edgar Bronfman Jr. Jacob Rothschild, Jayne Wrightsman
Sponsor: Asprey
2005 The House of Chanel
Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Karl Lagerfeld, Nicole Kidman Caroline, Princess of Hanover
Sponsor: Chanel
2006 AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion
Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Christopher Bailey, Sienna Miller Rose Marie Bravo, The Duke of Devonshire
Sponsor: Burberry
2007 Poiret: King of Fashion
Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Cate Blanchett, Nicolas Ghesquière François-Henri Pinault
Sponsor: Balenciaga
2008 Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy
Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Giorgio Armani
Sponsor: Giorgio Armani
2009 The Model As Muse: Embodying Fashion
Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Kate Moss, Justin Timberlake Marc Jacobs
Sponsor: Marc Jacobs
Ticket Price: $7,500
2010 American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity
Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Oprah Winfrey, Patrick Robinson
Sponsor: Gap
2011 Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty
Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Colin Firth, Stella McCartney François-Henri Pinault and Salma Hayek
Sponsor: Alexander McQueen
2012 Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations
Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Carey Mulligan, Miuccia Prada, Jeff Bezos
Sponsor: Amazon
2013 Punk: Chaos to Couture
Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Rooney Mara, Lauren Santo Domingo, Riccardo Tisci Beyoncé
Sponsor: Moda Operandi
Ticket Price: $15,000
2014 Charles James: Beyond Fashion
Co-chairs: Aerin Lauder, Anna Wintour, Bradley Cooper, Oscar de la Renta, Sarah Jessica Parker, Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch
Sponsor: AERIN
Ticket Price: $25,000
Theme Announcement: September 4th, 2013
2015 China: Through the Looking Glass
Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Jennifer Lawrence, Gong Li, Marissa Mayer, Wendi Murdoch, Silas Chou
Sponsor: Yahoo
Ticket Price: $25,000
Theme Announcement: September 11th, 2014
2016 Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology
Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Taylor Swift, Idris Elba, Jonathan Ive Nicolas Ghesquière, Karl Lagerfeld, Miuccia Prada
Sponsor: Apple
Ticket Price: $30,000
Theme Announcement: October 13th, 2015
2017 Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between
Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady, Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams, Rei Kawakubo
Sponsor: Apple, Condé Nast, Farfetch, H&M, Maison Valentino
Ticket Price: $30,000
Theme Announcement: October 21st, 2016
2018 Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination
Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Rihanna, Amal Clooney, Donatella Versace Christine and Stephen A. Schwarzman
Sponsors: Christine and Stephen A. Schwarzman, Versace
Ticket Price: $30,000
Theme Announcement: November 8th, 2017 (currently the latest they've announced the theme)
2019 Camp: Notes on Fashion
Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Lady Gaga, Harry Styles, Serena Williams, Alessandro Michele
Sponsor: Gucci
Ticket Price: $35,000
Theme Announcement: October 9th, 2018
Planned for May 4, 2020 (canceled) About Time: Fashion and Duration
Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Meryl Streep, Emma Stone, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Nicolas Ghesquière
Sponsor: Louis Vuitton
September 2021 In America: A Lexicon of Fashion
Co-chairs: Timothée Chalamet, Billie Eilish, Amanda Gorman, Naomi Osaka, Tom Ford, Adam Mosseri, Anna Wintour
Sponsor: Instagram
Ticket Price: $35,000
2022 In America: An Anthology of Fashion
Co-chairs: Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Regina King, Tom Ford, Adam Mosseri, Anna Wintour
Sponsor: Instagram
Ticket Price: $35,000
2023 Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty
Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Dua Lipa, Michaela Coel, Penélope Cruz, Roger Federer
Sponsors: Chanel, Fendi, Karl Lagerfeld (brand)
Ticket Price: $50,000 (most expensive to date)
Theme Announcement: September 30th, 2022
#met gala#long post#im being generous on when more media outlets started covering the met gala heavily#many only include the past few years
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any chance of an updated list?
Of course!!
Also, this is the NEW and FUCKING IMPROVED LIST, I alphabetized it so it’s even better than before >:3
Currently, we have 340 unique characters (if I counted right) and 487 total submissions. The top three most submitted fandoms are Homestuck, Danganronpa, and One Piece, excluding submissions that were spelt wrong or spelt differently. The top three submitted characters are Haiji Towa, Vriska Serket, and Stella Goeta (stella has so many submissions it’s funny)!
Finally, this is the raw, unedited list of characters submitted so far. Just because they are here doesn’t mean they’ll be in the tournament; it just means they’ve been submitted, regardless of media or what character they are!
as always, list under the cut!
This first list is for characters with two or more submissions. Characters who have three or more submissions will get first dibs in the tournament!
Akechi Goro
Akio Ohtori / Himemiya
Anakin Skywalker
Ansem the Wise
April O’Neil (2012)
Ardyn Izunia
Ayin
Azula
Bill Cipher
Boston
Bramblestar
Buzz McCallister
Caillou
Chibiusa
Childe
Cici
Cullen Rutherford
Darkstalker
Dazai Osamu
Dio
Dio (Zero Escape)
Donald Trump
Donquixote Doflamingo
Dr. John ‘Jack’ Seward
Drannus
Eichi Tenshouin
Elias Bouchard/Jonah Magnus
Eridan Ampora
Evan Hansen
Every Genshin Impact Character Ever
Glenn Quagmire
George Wickham
Greg Heffley
Haiji Towa
Happosai
Her Imperious Condescension
Higashikata Josuke
Huey Emmerich
Ibara Saegusa
Izzy Hands
JD
Jace Herondale / Wayland / Lightwood / Morgenstern
Jin Guangyao
John Gaius
Julia Mazzone
Junko Enoshima
Jurgen Leitner
Katsuki Bakugo
Kokichi Ouma
Kristoph Gavin
Kromer
Kusaka Masato
Kylo Ren
Kyubey
Lance Dubois
Le’garde
Live Action Buggy
Makima
Mal
Marvin Falsettos
Meenah Peixes
Merlin
Micah Bell
Michael
Minoru Mineta
Mr. Bungee
Pierce Hawthorne
Pierre
Princess Daisy
Ranpo Edogawa (Beast)
Regal Farseer
Ronaldo
Rose Quartz
Santa Claus
Sasuke Uchiha
Scrappy Doo
Sentinel Prime
Shiver
Shou Tucker
Simon
Simon Laurent
Sosuke Aizen
Spamton
Stella Goetia
Teddy / Kuma
The Maverick
The Metatron
The Once-Ler
Thistleclaw
Tony Stark
Tsumugi Aoba
Ty Betteridge
Val Velocity
Viren
Vriska Serkat
William Afton
c!Dream
Ōchi Fukuchi
The next list is for characters only submitted once. If you want these characters to have a higher chance of being added to the tournament, feel free to submit more propaganda for them!
Absalom
Abyss Sibling
Adam
Agamemnon
Airy
Akane
Akito Shinonome
Akito Sohma
Alastor
Alexander Hamilton
Ali Lectric
All For One
Aloise Trancy
Anatole Kuragin
Angel Dust
Anne Hathaway
Any Character From Welcome to Nightvale
Anyone From The Locked Tomb
Aranea Serkat
Ashfur
Astarion
Asuka
Bella Swan
Ben Jackson Walker
Betsy Wolfe
Billy
Billy Hargrove
Black Pete
Blackbeard
Blitzo Buckzo
Booker
Box
Bro-Strider
Buck Cluck
Buzz (cheerios)
Byakuya Togami
Caesar Clown
Caliborn / Lord English
Captain Kuro
Cersei Iannister
Chloe Bourgeois
Chris McClain
Chrollo Lucifer
Cicero
Clara Oswald
Coco
Cozy Glow
Cynte
Damian Wayne
Dan Moroboshi
Dean Venture
Dean Winchester
Detective Saracusa
Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd
Disembodied Voice
Don Flamenco
Dr. Henry Miller
Drew
Duke
Edelgard
Elias Ainsworth
Elias Ainsworth
Elon Musk
Equius Zahhak
Erebus
Eric Cartman
Erlina and Brugaves
Eugene Coli
Every Single Country In 1993
Everyone In Romeo And Juliet
Father / Dwarf In The Glass
Feferi Peixes
Five
Five Pebbles
Floch
Foreman Oyun
France (Hetalia)
Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu
Gamzee Makara
Georg Weissmann
God
Goeffry St. John
Gordon Blackwall
Graham Spector
Gra’ha Tia
Haiji Senri
Heath cliff
Henry Miller (OC)
Henry the Eighth
Himiko Toga
Hisoka
Hiyoko Saionji
Holly Blue Agate
House
Huey Laforet
Ianthe Tridentarius
Il Dottore
Inspector Tobias Greyson
Itsuki Shu
Izumi Sena
JJ
Jacopo Bearzatti
James T. Kirk
Jayne Cobb
Jiren
Joe Destefano
Johnny
Jonah Magnus
Jonathan Groff
Judith Ford / Natalie Cook
Judo
Julia
Julie-Sue
Ken
Kevin
Kusunoki Muu
Kyouichi Saionji
Ladd Russo
Lady Catherine de Bourgh
Lebreau Fermet Viralesque
Light Yagami
Liontari
Lotor
Louie
Louis
Luke
Mahiru Koizumi
Makoto Itou
Marie
Marlon
Mary Keay
Master Crown
Matou Shinji
Matpat
Me
Medusa Gorgon
Meredith Rodney McKay
Michael Scott
Miguel O’Hara
Millions Knives
Moash
Moeka Kiryuu
Monokubs (Except Monodam)
Mori Ougai
Morris
Mr. Collins
Ms. Valentine
Muu Kusunoki
Muzan Kibutsuji
Mystery Hunter (Jeremiah Hartley)
Nagito Komaeda
Nanami Kiryuu
Narumi
Natsumi Sakasaki
Nefera DeNile
Nickel
Nikola Tesla
Noor Pradesh
Ocelot
Octavian
Ogai Mori
Orochi
Otto Apocalypse
Paul Von Oberstein
Pencil
Petyr Baelish / Littlefinger
Prince Louis
Queen Scarlet
Quiche
Quill Kipps
Rafal (FEE)
Rafal (SGE)
Rafe Cameron
Randy
Raven Queen
Rebecca Costwolds
Redd White
Riley Finn
Roger
Rohan Kishibe
Roland
Roshi
Rumpelstiltskin
Ruruka Ando
Sakazuki Akainu
Sandy
Sanji
Sebastian Mechaelis
Sheldon Cooper
Shen Jiu
Shiki Tohno/Nanaya
Shinonomes (both)
Shredder
Sigma Klim
Silver Spoon
Skizzleman
Slayer
Solf J. Kimblee
So Sejima
Splinter
Stark Sands
Steven Universe
Stormcaller
Subara Akehoshi
Tatsumi Kazehaya
Teruhashi Makoto
Teruteru
The Eleventh Doctor
The Entirety Of Homestuck
The Groke
The Little Palace Mistress
The Mage
The New Ninja
The Old Palace Master
The Operator
The Pale King
Tim Drake
Tom Wambsgans
Tomaru Sawagoe
Touichiro Suzuki
Trishna
Tumblr Staff
Valens Van Varro
Verstael Besithia
Victor Frankenstein
Vivienne Medranno’s Impsona
Voice In The Calm Ad On Spotify
Volgin
Wanderer/Scaramouche
Wen Chao
Whiteout, Clearsight, and Benjamin
Will Shuester
Willy Stampler
Woodes Rogers
Xisuma
Yoshiharu Hisomu
Yu Ziyuan
Yumichika Ayasegawa
Yuri Briar
Zeke Jaeger
Zenos Galvus
Zhou Zishu
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2023's Best Books
I meant to do this a few days ago so there was more time before the holidays, but here's a quick list of the best books that I read that were released in 2023. Obviously, I didn't read every book that came out this year, and I'm only listing the best books I read that were actually released in the 2023 calendar year.
In my opinion, the two very best books released in 2023 were An Ordinary Man: The Surprising Life and Historic Presidency of Gerald R. Ford by Richard Norton Smith (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO), and True West: Sam Shepard's Life, Work, and Times by Robert Greenfield (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO).
(The rest of this list is in no particular order)
President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier
C.W. Goodyear (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)
The World: A Family History of Humanity
Simon Sebag Montefiore (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)
France On Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain
Julian Jackson (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)
The Last Island: Discovery, Defiance, and the Most Elusive Tribe on Earth
Adam Goodheart (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)
Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World
Mary Beard (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)
City of Echoes: A New History of Rome, Its Popes, and Its People
Jessica Wärnberg (BOOK | KINDLE)
We Are Your Soldiers: How Gamal Abdel Nasser Remade the Arab World
Alex Rowell (BOOK | KINDLE)
Edison's Ghosts: The Untold Weirdness of History's Greatest Geniuses
Katie Spalding (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)
Waco Rising: David Koresh, the FBI, and the Birth of America's Modern Militias
Kevin Cook (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)
The Summer of 1876: Outlaws, Lawmen, and Legends in the Season That Defined the American West
Chris Wimmer (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)
King: A Life
Jonathan Eig (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)
LBJ's America: The Life and Legacies of Lyndon Baines Johnson
Edited by Mark Atwood Lawrence and Mark K. Updegrove (BOOK | KINDLE)
Who Believes Is Not Alone: My Life Beside Benedict XVI
Georg Gänswein with Saverio Gaeta (BOOK | KINDLE)
Eighteen Days in October: The Yom Kippur War and How It Created the Modern Middle East
Uri Kaufman (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)
The Rough Rider and the Professor: Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, and the Friendship That Changed American History
Laurence Jurdem (BOOK | KINDLE)
White House Wild Child: How Alice Roosevelt Broke All the Rules and Won the Heart of America
Shelley Fraser Mickle (BOOK | KINDLE)
Romney: A Reckoning
McKay Coppins (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)
Founding Partisans: Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, Adams and the Brawling Birth of American Politics
H.W. Brands (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)
The Earth Transformed: An Untold History
Peter Frankopan (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)
LeBron
Jeff Benedict (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)
Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America
Abraham Riesman (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)
The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden's White House
Chris Whipple (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)
#Books#Book Suggestions#Book Recommendations#Best Books of 2023#Best of 2023#An Ordinary Man#President Ford#Richard Norton Smith#True West#Sam Shepard#Robert Greenfield#President Garfield#C.W. Goodyear#The World#Simon Sebag Montefiore#France On Trial#Marshal Pétain#Julian Jackson#The Last Island#Adam Goodheart#Emperor of Rome#Mary Beard#City of Echoes#Jessica Wärnberg#We Are Your Soldiers#Gamel Abdel Nasser#Alex Rowell#Edison's Ghosts#Katie Spalding#Waco Rising
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Their Ending
Pairings: Elijah Mikaelson x GN! Reader, Klaus Mikaelson x GN! Reader x Hope Mikaelson (Platonic)
Warnings: Asshole Elijah, Major Character Death
"Where are you going Niklaus?"
"I'm going to get my daughter!"
****
Klaus walked into the safe house that Hope was in and found her giggling with Y/N playing with her. As the door opened, you raised a hand in warning before lowering it at the sight of Klaus.
"Dahlia is dead then." You stated as they moved away and allowed Klaus to pick Hope up.
"Yes, Y/N/N." As Klaus spoke, you began to flicker. "What's wrong?"
"I...I'll explain. Come to the compound." With this, you faded away, leaving Klaus stunned. With vampire speed, Klaus stood outside the compound before being led towards the back of the house. After 10 minutes of walking, Klaus hit a forcefield. "Place your hand on the forcefield, Nik. Yours and Hope's."
Klaus did as he was told, holding his and Hope's hand against the forcefield, which then dissolved before them. The father-daughter duo walked inside and were met by a still figure laying on the couch, grey veins running up their neck.
"Y/N! What happened?!" Klaus exclaimed as he looked at the figure.
"Bond rot. I'm dying because of bond rot." You stated, sadly smiling at their brother-in-law.
"What?"
"A 1000- year bond, broken then healed. Then a 500-year bond, broken almost completely."
"That's why you're in pain? But Elijah..."
"500 years ago, when Elijah met Katerina... I could feel him falling in love with her. So I closed the bond. He can't feel me anymore."
"...But you can still feel him, can't you?" Klaus finished, tears in his eyes.
"Yes. I could feel him falling for Katarina, Celeste and now Hayley."
"How did you know..."
"...if I left 200 years ago, when he started to see Celeste?" Klaus nodded in response. "I left and 2 years later, I fell in love with a werewolf. We got married after 4 years of courting and had kids."
"Kids?"
"4, to be exact. Henry, Alexandra and twins Jace and Amelia. They then got married, had their own kids. Their kids had kids, one of which was a woman called Mary. Mary got married and kids and grandkids. One of my great-great-great-great-great grandkids is called Jackson. Jackson Kenner."
"No..."
"Yeah. I married Thomas Kenner and we were happy." You smiled sadly again.
"But I don't understand? How are you dying?"
"When Esther came back the first time, during the ball, she told me I had 2-3 years left to live if the bond continued the way it did."
"But it's not been 3 years yet." Klaus whines, holding both Hope and you in his arms.
"But the bond is breaking."
"When?"
"I'll be dead by dawn."
"One last pic?"
"Put the flash on." Klaus takes Ford's phone of the coffee table and takes a picture of himself, Hope and you. The trio then spend the rest of the night together before the sun rose the next morning.
"Y/N? Y/N!"
"Thank you."
****
Elsewhere, Elijah Mikaelson screamed in agony and begun clawing at his chest. He could feel every single, agonising feeling that you had felt in the last 500 years. As he clawed at his chest, with Freya and Rebekah attempting to stop him, a wolf howled at the death of one of his long-lasting family members.
#elijah x reader#elijah mikaelson x y/n#elijah mikaelson x reader#elijah mikaelson#elijah mikaelson imagine
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As a former Michigander, I strongly believe the state would make a great location for Fallout because of the Great Lakes, it’s close ties to Canada (which would allow for more exploration of the in-universe annexation of Canada) and its unique vibes of rural gothic spookiness mixed with Rust Belt industrialization, and since there’s been so little mention of the state in lore, here’s some ideas of my own:
Parts of the state that connect most closely to Canada (such as Port Huron and Detroit) would have logically become highly militarized zones before the Great War, leaving behind a lot of resources for people to fight each other to get their hands on afterwards. I imagine that a lot of people of Canadian descent would have been persecuted in some way before the war, but it would most likely cool off in the many decades afterwards. There would probably be a parody of Tim Horton’s somewhere.
As for Detroit, because of the aforementioned closeness to Canada, the factories there probably would’ve manufactured all kinds of weapons, tech, besides cars. Expect to see roving gangs wearing hockey gear like how the Legion wears football gear. There’s also definitely a Henry Ford analogue who could’ve been a contemporary of Mr. House.
Since cars are the state’s Thing, it probably has the highest amount of working cars outside of the NCR, and fights over fuel are FIERCE. Boat travel would be a lot more common, and a way for people to escape the state by traveling somewhere else along the Great Lakes.
The Midwest is said to be a dust bowl beset by tornadoes, and that probably affects Michigan, too, mostly in the South, while after the war the Upper Peninsula suddenly becomes a lot more of a desirable location, but the Mackinaw Bridge could have been destroyed before or during the war, making travel there a lot more difficult.
Some Lakes could have been more affected by radiation than others and create some terrifying mutant fish. Have you ever seen a sturgeon? Imagine one much bigger and with a taste for human blood.
Very topical jokes about lead in Flint’s water (I’m from Flint, I can make that joke. There’s a great restaurant there called Tia Helita’s you should check out if you’re ever in the area).
Mackinac Island becomes home to a cult of fanatical Luddites who reject all modern technology.
Winter is still fucking cold.
That’s all I got for now, anyone else familiar with Michigan can make their own suggestions.
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Chapter Nine
I huddle behind the till with Petra on the last Friday before Christmas, watching as she tallies up the till for the final time before the new year.
“Okay, so we sold five of these, three of those, and the last eight of those ones… and I’ll have to check the books again but I think I sent twelve to the post office today.” I glance over her shoulder at the long receipt that’s been spit out of the till to confirm. “So that’s almost all of them sold?”
She glances over to the card rack on the wall nearby. “Everything except for, I think, four?”
“Wow.” I say. “I can’t believe people actually wanted them.”
“Oh for goodness sake!” She grins. “Of course they did, you did a beautiful job on those cards. You should be very proud.”
I blush. “I actually am.”
Petra empties the last of the till coins into a plastic bag and locks it into the safe for the bank. “Well you can enjoy the money, my dear, and enjoy your christmas. Have you planned to do anything nice?”
“The usual. I’ll just go to my granny’s house and we’ll have dinner with my aunts and uncles and cousins. We just found out that my uncle’s wife is pregnant again, so that’s something to chat about at the dinner table.”
“Sounds lovely.” She muses, and I suppress a grimace as I zip up my coat. “Yeah, well, have a safe flight home to Spain. I hope you have better weather than we do here.”
“Me too.” She says. “Happy New Year, since I won’t see you before then.” I smile and let myself out onto the dark of the early evening street as the jaunty little bell jingles in the door behind me.
Luke, who owns the coffee shop across the street, is closing his shutters too, and gives me a quick wave and a “merry Christmas, Evie.” as he covers up the window art I did for him a few weeks ago. He liked what I’d done for Mezzotint so much that he asked me to do one for him too. I went out on a limb and asked him for one hundred euros for it, and he paid it without batting an eyelid. All of that money has gone towards Christmas presents, as for the first time in years I’ve been able to afford them. I hop on the Luas and ride it towards the centre of town. It’s jammed with commuters in big coats, the windows fogged up and dripping with condensation. The lights outside blur together through the fog.
I get off at Jervis Street onto pavement that’s still wet with the rain from earlier and wander up towards Henry street, where I buy a hot chocolate from the crepe and coffee kiosk that’s still open, just because I want one, and then head towards Arnotts where I walk around looking at fancy things that I cannot afford for half an hour, just for the sake of doing it. There are discounted Christmas decorations in one section, and I’m drawn to a pair of pink feathered ones with silver beads laced along the ribbons. On sale, they are ten euros each but I buy both of them anyway, because Claire would love them.
On the way out I go to the perfume section and spray Tom Ford on myself. The shop assistant smiles at me like she thinks I might want to buy it, but I avoid eye contact. I will never own perfume like this. I bring my wrists to my nose and inhale the complicated aroma as I head back onto the maniacal December crowds, imagining for a moment how satisfying it must feel to smell like two hundred euro perfume every day, to know that you can throw money at something frivolous, just because you like the smell of it.
When I arrive home, Claire is in her pyjamas and eating a bowl of plain pasta on the couch. She grins at me as I come in and asks me if I want to binge some Christmas films. It feels like a perfect way to spend our last night of the year together before we go back to Tullamore tomorrow. I go upstairs and put on something comfortable. I don’t really have pyjamas in the way that Claire does. Hers are always matching, satin with lace trims, flannel with pockets and buttons down the front, but I don’t have anything like that. Perhaps it says something about my personality. I grab an ancient vest and a pair of jersey shorts and head down to the couch, stashing the wrapped feathered baubles into my half-packed suitcase to give to her tomorrow.
First we watch Miracle on 34th street, because we watch that every year, and then inevitably we put on Love Actually, just to scream about how much we hate every single character except for Sam, and we drink more hot chocolate and eat sweets from a tub until I feel sick. As the credits roll I glance over to her to see a glazed expression on the face. She’s gazing through the window at nothing. Blackness, the sky clouded over leaving no space for the stars to peek through them.
“Are you alright?”
“Mm. Yes.”
I shift in my seat. “I’ve been meaning to ask how things have been with Shane, you know, like, with his college work and the football and all that.”
“Oh, it’s fine. The usual. I don’t think we’ve made any progress, to be honest.”
“And his Christmas exams?”
“I don’t have a clue. He barely studied for them so he’s probably failed them, for all I know.”
“Oh.”
She looks at me then, brows furrowed and voice defensive. “I love him, you know. I still love him. I won’t like, break up with him or anything.”
“I didn’t think you would.”
“Things will get better. All couples go through this kind of thing. It’s what happens when you’ve been together for three years, things just feel a bit less perfect than they used to, and you have to make compromises. Really though, I love him. I’d do anything for him.”
I wonder if it’s only my projection that she sounds a bit like she’s trying to convince herself of those things, not me. “I’m sure the exams went fine.” I say, even though I’m not sure. On every run and every gym session I’ve been to with Shane in the last few months he hasn’t mentioned college once. His twenty-five-grams-of-protein yoghurts and his various friends who injured themselves in various ways from using the machines wrong (like me), he’s mentioned plenty of times, but unless I knew for a fact that he was in college, I’d assume he didn’t go.
Claire is frustrated. “I wish he’d just get it together. That’s all. I’m sick of feeling like I’m nagging him, but it really just feels like common sense… oh!” her phone springs to life on the table in front of us, vibrating loudly against the wood. “I bet this is him now, speak of the devil.” She flips it over in her hand and her brows knit together with confusion. “Oh, it isn’t.”
“Who is it?”
“Um. It’s Jude.” She brings it slowly to her ear, as though it might bite her. “…hello?”
It’s quiet enough in the room to hear his side of the conversation. “Hey. Hey Claire. I’m so sorry to call you. Are you with Shane at the moment?”
Her face screws up. “No. I amn’t, I’m at home with Evie.”
“Ah, right. Do you know if he’s around? I tried to call him a few times and there was no answer.”
“He’s in Tullamore. He’s gone home for Christmas already, he had training at the pitch at seven, sorry.” She glances at the clock in the kitchen. “It’s also almost midnight. I imagine he’s asleep by now.”
“Right, okay. That’s fine… uh. Sorry to call you, I better-”
“Is everything alright?”
“Yeah, yeah, it’s nothing, I’m just home in Dublin for the next week. I misplaced my house keys, I was hoping to crash at his.” A pause. “And also like, maybe because he has a car I was thinking he might be able to drive me to A&E.”
“What?” I exclaim. Claire’s eyes are wide. She doesn’t know what to do. I take the phone. “Jude.” I say. “It’s Evie.”
“Hi Evie, how’s it going?”
“What happened?”
“No, no, no, nothing big, it’s not a big deal, I just might need a couple of stitches.”
“Stitches where?”
“My-” He breaks away and sucks air through his teeth, muttering “Jesus, fuck” under his breath. “- my eyebrow. It’s fine. It can wait, I can just get a taxi back to Clontarf and get my parents to let me in. Hopefully they’re still awake.” He sounds doubtful. “Sorry to disturb you, seriously. I’ll work it out.”
“For God’s sake.” Claire grabs the phone again. “Come here. We can’t drive you to the hospital but we can clean you up. I at least have a first aid kit. Where are you?”
“The docks.”
“You’re only a few minutes away. Can you walk to us?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright.” She gives him our address and they hang up, then she sits there in disbelief, shaking her head. “Bloody men.” She says. “I’m exhausted.” She gets up and heads towards the stairs.
“Where are you going?” I ask her.
“To put on a bra.”
Beginning // Prev // Next
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You know how I love before & after pics. Well, look at this, remember when I posted the Henry Ford pagoda house in Grosse Ile, Michigan? It was so depressing, outdated and creepy? Shellydanger just submitted it and I noticed that it had a redo. Basically, they repainted, lightened and cleared out the rooms. It was also $989,900 and now it's been lowered to $799,999. Check it out, now.
The dingy hallway before.
The hallway now- much brighter light and they removed the curtains. (Worn carpet still remains, thought.)
The living room before.
And, the new, brighter living room. (But, that carpet.)
The very dark library before.
And, the lighter brighter library now.
The dining room before.
The dining room now. New paint and a new floor.
The kitchen had great retro cabinetry and tiles.
Glad they didn't change the retro look, but it still looks like a very commercial kitchen.
The primary bedroom was dark.
They emptied it out and lightened it up.
How did the current owners keep it so dark?
Look at how different the color of the purple bath looks now.
A secondary bedroom.
Pared down and brightened.
The other lovely retro bath.
Basically it just looks like they just turned on all the lights.
The basement stairs and floor got some new paint.
They fixed up this room, but it doesn't look like they did anything with the bar.
The boat slip looks better straightened up and letting the light in.
This isn't shown on the real estate ads, but it was on the house's Facebook page- the lower level wine cellar got spectacular uplighting.
Redoing the exterior.
The exterior is really looking good.
Check out the groovy new lighting. Too see the Before realty ad on the blog, use the tag Henry Ford house before.
#Henry Ford Pagoda house#Henry Ford house#Henry Ford house before & after#houses#historic houses#house tours#home tour
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Hey, your companion reacts are pretty good. If you want a suggestion, maybe F Sole finds some old book about famous landmarks (manmade, natural, or both) around the world and shows her friends all the cool ones and see which ones they like the best.
A/N: A little late for Memorial Day, but this is kind of like a nice thing for it. Talking about some landmarks from this great country is the perfect way to celebrate it imo 💙💛
Hope you enjoy!
Cait - Las Vegas. She'd really like to go there and see if it looks anything like the pictures in F!Sole's book. While she does not drink and do chems like she used to, she is still interested in seeing if there's a good fight to be had. She might look at a bit of the scenery along the way, too.
Piper - White House. She wants to see what secrets they're hiding in there. She knows that there's more to it than Pre-War people knew and that most Wastelanders know, and she wants to go in and see for herself.
Curie - Craters of the Moon National Monument and Reserve. She loves a place that has some scientific purpose, and she would greatly enjoy taking the time to study the area.
MacCready - Disney World. He claims that it would be a great place for Duncan to go and have fun, but everyone knows that MacCready would have just as much fun as his son. He's a big kid at heart.
Deacon - Hollywood sign. With his flair for the dramatic, dress-up, and deception? He was definitely meant to be an actor in another life, and having the chance to see the Hollywood sign has been a longtime fixture on his bucket list.
Codsworth - Space Needle. It reminds him of the buildings in Boston with how tall it is and the design, and it comforts him to think of home. He has a tendency to lean toward things that are familiar to him.
Hancock - Fort McHenry. He would absolutely love to see it because it is the place that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the "Star Spangled Banner." And if that isn't patriotic, then Hancock doesn't know what is.
Danse - The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. He would eat that Pre-War stuff up. He just loves nerding out over technology and Pre-War invention, and this museum would be the perfect place because it tells the story of various American milestones and occurrences before the war.
Preston - Statue of Liberty. Despite what Piper says about its true origins and her evidence that she has found about what it truly represents, he still treasures it as something that meant freedom to people from the old world.
Valentine - Atlantic City Boardwalk. He feels like it'd be a nice place to walk around and enjoy just for the leisure of it. Add in a few cigarettes and a sunset, and it would be perfect.
X6-88 - Alcatraz. Has some sort of fascination with prisons and things of the sort and thinks it could be useful for the Institute to create some such place as that for holding specimens from the Commonwealth.
Dogmeat - Cloud Gate. He could see himself in it and he would really like running around and looking into it as he views the world in a different way.
Strong - Mesa Verde National Park. He thinks those cliffside dwellings would be a good, safe fort for supermutants to live in and shoot the little humans on the ground.
#fallout 4#fallout#fo4#piper wright#f!sole#female sole survivor#sole survivor#fallout 4 companions#fallout companions#dogmeat#hancock#danse#maccready#deacon#paladin danse#john hancock#mayor hancock#curie#cait#codsworth#nick valentine#valentine#preston garvey#x6-88#companion reacts#companion reactions#fallout 4 companion react#fallout 4 companion reacts
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The Man from Black Water, Chapter 11
A/N This is the scene from the movie I was most excited to put into words (and into Scotland), and I’m really happy with how it turned out. In it, Claire learns just how inhospitable the Highlands can be.
Also, I belatedly noticed that I’d left Rollo out of the action in Chapter 10. I’ll be going back to fix that oversight, but only on the AO3 version of the story.
“I don’t understand,” Henry Beauchamp said plaintively, mostly to himself. “She’s never done anything like this before.”
Netherton Estate had been in an uproar since breakfast time when Claire’s absence was discovered. A search of the outbuildings yielded no sign of the young woman save for an empty stall where her riding horse was usually found.
“I want the men saddled up and ready to ride in twenty minutes,” Henry demanded of Dougal Mackenzie.
“They’ll be nae use tae us,” Dougal explained with a shake of his head.
“The weather is starting to turn,” Henry muttered, continuing to stride towards the stables. When Dougal didn’t immediately follow, he wheeled on him.
“What are you waiting for, a written invitation?”
“The men arenna any use tae us. They’ve been drinking since they got back from the muster.”
Furious, the landowner stalked into the bunkhouse. As predicted, the stockhands were in various stages of unconsciousness. Henry lifted Angus from his bunk by his waistcoat and shook him hard, but the small man showed no signs of life beyond a noxious belch.
Black Jack snored loudly in his bunk, but the fact he was beneath his blankets showed some promise.
“Wake up, Auld Man,” Dougal shouted as he grasped the worker by the shoulder.
Coming to wakefulness in one startled gasp, Black Jack had his knife against the overseer’s throat before his eyes were fully open.
“It wasna me!” he asserted.
Dougal coolly brushed the knife away.
“Ye best be careful what ye say in yer sleep,” he advised. “Claire has gone an’ got herself lost. I need a tracker, and ye’re it.”
“I canna see tae find my boots,” Black Jack protested as he stumbled to his feet.
“Then go without them!”
***
As the morning wore on, Claire frequently glanced back down the long glen, trying to determine if she was being followed. While Jamie had described his farm as “up the Black Water”, she had no idea just how great that distance might be. She was riding along the side of the old military road, which in turn followed the western bank of the swiftly flowing River Shee. Stopping at noontime to eat some bread and cheese pilfered from the Netherton kitchen, Claire considered her plight.
There was no way to know where Jamie had gone to search for her father’s cattle. In the absence of a fixed destination, she’d been navigating blindly in the direction of his croft, hoping by some miracle to run across him, or at least another Highlander who might know his whereabouts.
Instead, the valley stretched endless and empty. The mountains on either side of the road grew in height until they obscured the rapidly setting sun, and the lowland housed only herds of sheep and the occasional stone ruin, the hollow remnants of a community long since scattered. To make matters worse, it was getting steadily colder, with a sharp wind that sliced straight through her fur-trimmed winter cloak. An occasional snowflake melted as it met her cheek.
After countless miles, the military road veered sharply north, fording the river on an elegant stone bridge before rising into a steep-sided vale. A narrow track followed the river as it continued westward, and it was on this that Claire turned, certain that Jamie hadn’t mentioned crossing a mountain pass to reach his home. The track forked, then forked again. With each split it grew fainter, the heather and gorse on either side rising above Kip’s knees.
A sudden gust of icy wind blew back the hood of Claire’s cloak. Lifting her eyes from the futile search for a clear path, she realized with dismay that it was nearly dark, and that it had begun to snow heavily. Eerie howls came out of the dark, scaring Kip, who began to toss her head and whicker in fear.
“Come on, Kip” Claire called into the wind, trying to urge the terrified horse forward. Normally docile as a lamb, the grey mare locked her knees, refusing to budge another step.
Now truly alarmed, Claire dismounted and tried to drag her mount forward by the reins. The storm had descended with incredible ferocity, submerging the pair in constant eddies of white. Claire thought she could make out a solid black shadow just off the path, its outlines reminiscent of a house.
“Jamie!” she cried, even though no light emerged from the structure. Only the shriek of the wind answered back.
“Kip, we have to go!” Claire leaned into the wind, desperately trying to drag her horse forwards. The mare reared, rolling her eyes in terror. The reins gave way, and Claire fell backwards. Instead of solid earth, she descended through space, arms windmilling wildly and a truncated scream frozen in her throat.
The ground rose up from the dark abyss. She landed hard against her back, knocking the air from her lungs. All around was a vast emptiness that she knew instinctively signified death. Clinging to the rock face beneath her body with every ounce of strength she possessed, Claire Beauchamp began to pray.
***
His plaid was covered with four inches of fresh snow when Jamie and Rollo woke the following morning, but the sky was iridescent blue. The storm had blown itself out and the Highlands were adorned in their finest silver raiment.
After a hasty cup of coffee and a bannock for breakfast, the young man saddled Donas and began the slow descent into the valley below, letting Rollo driving the cows before them. The snow would slow their progress, but Jamie couldn’t find it in himself to mind.
If he hadn’t been looking about him at the majesty of his birthplace, he might have missed the footprints, obscured as they were by windblown drifts. A single horse passing over the mountain during the night was an oddity, but these tracks indicated an animal moving at great speed along the edge of a steep corrie. Unable to quell a chill of dread, Jamie abandoned the cows to Rollo’s care and followed the mysterious trail.
A quarter mile later, he came across the body of a dead horse at the base of a small cliff. As he approached, horror rose in his throat as he recognized the familiar saddle and dapple-grey markings of Claire Beauchamp’s favourite mare.
“Claire?” he wheezed, spinning around in circles as though she might suddenly materialize from the rock.
“Claire!” he cried out, heart racing so quickly he could feel his pulse hammering in his neck.
Spurring Donas uphill, he retraced his steps, galloping heedless through the herd of cattle and scattering them like thistle down. Rollo barked madly and chased after him.
Kip’s hoofprints followed the contour of the plateau, softly rounded to the east but falling away sharply away to a steep north facing cliff.
“Claire!” he screamed repeatedly, wame churning with utter devastation as he thought of her being lost, injured, or worse.
“Claire!” he bellowed from the ridgetop. “Sassenach!” Rollo sniffed the air and whined.
“Help,” a gust of air replied, so faint he thought he might have imagined it. “Help me,” the air pled, slightly louder.
Jamie rushed towards the sound, struggling not to slip and fall over the cliff himself. Louder and louder the cries for aid grew until at last they rose from directly beneath his feet. Lying on his belly in the snow, Jamie peered over the edge and was met by the most glorious sight of his young life. Golden eyes, framed by wild knots of brown hair, stared back up at him from a narrow ledge some ten feet down. Beyond the ledge lay emptiness, the valley floor far below.
“Sassenach! Dinna move. I’ll pull ye up.”
Running on numb legs, Jamie fetched his stock whip from his saddle and returned to the cliff. Wrapping the thong several times around his wrist, he lowered the butt end carefully until it was within reach of Claire’s icy hands. Using every ounce of his strength, he steadily pulled backwards until her body lay beside him the snow, both gasping and crying by turns.
“Are ye alright, Sassenach?” he asked frantically. “Ye’re no’ hurt?”
Claire shook her head where it lay on his outstretched arm, but her lips were an alarming shade of blue against the parchment white of her skin. Her pupils were so large they almost obscured the golden rim, and she stared at him with disbelief, as though he might be a ghost.
“Come, lass,” he urged. “We must get ye someplace warm.”
Lifting the young Englishwoman onto Donas’ back, Jamie steered his horse down the long ridge and towards the glen floor, his ever-loyal dog in tow. He spoke constantly, in Gaelic, English and Latin; anything to tether the frozen woman to consciousness. For her part, Claire mumbled indistinctly and shivered so hard it made his teeth rattle. Occasionally she would jolt as though stung and call out his name.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked in a rare moment of lucidity.
“Back home,” Jamie replied. “I’m takin’ ye tae Lallybroch.”
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About time I finished her. Here's Nanoka Matsumoto!
I procrastinated on this so much, it's not even funny. She was the HARDEST character so far, but at least I got it
Also, I went out to the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn with my parents earlier today, & it was incredible! Let me know if you want a photo dump later, cuz I'm down
Alright, meet Nanoka! She's one of the greatest kunoichi in Japan & is even a little famous because of it. Before she became one, she was, trigger warning, SA'd by a drunk man & she suddenly jumped him & killed him. Only with a single kunai. She's fully recovered from that by now & has used that power to put her where she is now
She's lived in the entertainment district her entire life. Because of this, she knows the area like the back of her hand. To the point where she knew something was wrong when Gyutaro & Daki came into the picture. BTW, about the Moonlit reunions arc with Koku & Zakiko, I'm changing it to take place during that arc instead of the swordsmith village arc. My bad! ^^"
She wasn't too keen on being arranged to three husbands all at once, so she hated all of them at first. Eventually, she just let her guard down around them & now she'll do anything for them
She & her hubbys actually help out Tengen, Yuzuki, & the kids when things get bad with upper six, so they hold off Gyutaro for a bit
Because of her beauty, she always gets hit on & asked to "have fun" with people. But, she's a loyal girl to her boys & she can & will stick a kunai down your gullet, so keep your hands to yourself
No doodle, but here's a close up of her hubbys!
Daichi was actually the biggest help with Gyu & Daki because he laid low under the radar, jumping from house to house to see what was happening
& I'm far too lazy to explain the boys right now, so I'll either edit this or direct you to @batmansbae1600 because I told her about them when she wanted to know about them. So, if you wanna know, either wait until I decide to edit this or just ask J
What I will tell you about them is that they look like they mean business, & they do, but they're always just a bunch of flustered kitties with Lady Nanoka (Yes, I'm gonna draw that at some point >:3)
Thank you for voting for her in that one poll so I can get her out of the way, she was so hard to do qwp
Okimi is next! Stay tuned!
----------------------------------------
Nanoka, Daichi, Keiko, & Senko Matsumoto by: Me
Demon slayer by: Koyoharu Gotouge & Ufotable
Do not steal, trace or copy.
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Headed Straight to the Worst Part of Hell! Criminal Boak Bollocks Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State to Richard Nixon, Dead at 100. Stay, Rest, Rot and Burn 🔥 in Hell Forever.
A Republican party giant and Nobel peace prize winner, the former national security adviser was a key architect of US foreign policy
— Martin Pengelly in New York | The Guardian USA | November 29, 2023
Henry Kissinger after receiving an award at the Pentagon in 2016. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
The War Criminal Henry Kissinger, who was national security adviser and secretary of state to Richard Nixon before becoming an eminence grise of world affairs, has died. He was 100.
His consulting firm Kissinger Associates announced his passing in a statement on Wednesday evening, but did not disclose a cause of death.
A giant of the Republican party, Kissinger remained influential until the end of his life, in large part thanks to his founding in 1982 of Kissinger Associates, a geopolitical consulting firm based in New York City, and the authorship of several books on international affairs.
He even made an appearance in Siege, Michael Wolff’s Trump exposé which was published in 2019. According to Wolff, Kissinger regularly advised Jared Kushner. At one point, the book said, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser even suggested that Kissinger, well into his 90s, should return as secretary of state.
Wolff also quoted Kissinger as being witheringly critical of a Trump foreign policy “based on a single unstable individual’s reaction to perceptions of slights or flattery”.
Kissinger was a Harvard academic before becoming national security adviser when Nixon won the White House in 1968. Working closely with the president, he was influential in momentous decisions regarding the Vietnam war including the secret bombing of Cambodia in 1969 and 1970. That was part of what Nixon called the “madman theory”, an attempt to make North Vietnam believe the US president would do absolutely anything to end the war.
As secretary of state, Kissinger did achieve peace in Vietnam, although not before initiating a heavy bombing campaign at Christmas 1972, while talks continued.
He survived Nixon’s downfall in the Watergate scandal and served Gerald Ford, leaving government after Jimmy Carter’s election win in 1976. Kissinger’s policy towards the Soviet Union was not confrontational enough for the Reagan administration, precluding any thought of a 1980s comeback.
Famously, the Singer-satirist Tom Lehrer Responded: “Political Satire Became Obsolete When Criminal Henry Kissinger Was Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.”
On the political and intellectual right and left, Kissinger’s legacy differs.
On the right, he is seen as a brilliant statesman, a master diplomat, an exponent of power politics deployed to the benefit of America, the country to which his family fled on leaving Germany in 1938.
On the left, hostility burns over his record on Chile, where the CIA instigated the overthrow of Salvatore Allende; on Pakistan, where he and Nixon turned a blind eye to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands; on the Middle East; on Cyprus; on East Timor and more.
In the early 2000s, Kissinger supported the administration of George W Bush in its invasion of Iraq.
Another supporter of that war, the Journalist Christopher Hitchens, famously wrote that Kissinger should be tried for war crimes.
In fact, for negotiating the Paris treaty which ended the Vietnam war, Kissinger and Le Duc Tho were awarded a shared Nobel prize, although the North Vietnamese negotiator refused to accept the honour.
Famously, the Singer-satirist Tom Lehrer responded: “Political Satire Became Obsolete When Henry Kissinger Was Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.”
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