#Sunday World Herald
Text
Lillian Gish ''Why I've Never Married'' Sunday World Herald - Omaha NB January 16, 1938
762 notes
·
View notes
Text
strawberries
mammon hears you're missing something from the human world. so, he decides to fetch it for you.
content + warnings: just some cute (implied) x reader, can be read as platonic, normal mammon tsundere shenanigans, fluff
word count: 952
[longer oc version coming soon?]
mammon doesn't particularly think he's a nosy person. if you're having a conversation within earshot, then surely you're comfortable with someone nearby listening in. and when it comes to matters involving you-- well, surely your first man deserves to know more about you than anyone else, right?
while casually "passing by" (and definitely not stopping outside the door to the kitchen to listen in when he hears your voice get all soft and sentimental), mammon hears you talking to beel. you're talking about something you used to eat as a kid, laughing as you share how you used to make yourself sick on summer nights eating your fill. you paint a picture with your words of yourself several decades previous, with sweet red juice dripping down your chin, leafy tops discarded in the yard as you played long into the sunset. beel eventually has to ask you to stop-- he's actively eating his own meal, but your descriptions are so colorful that his stomach howls with want anyways.
mammon's lost in thought by the time he wanders off. what were these splendorous fruits you spoke so highly of? did they have a devildom equivalent? he didn't even catch its name...
part of him wants to grab these magical fruits and use them to turn a profit. since the exchange program had been initially proposed, a small but growing faction of demons had become obsessed with anything relating to the human realm. food, clothes, entertainment, etc-- all of it was heralded as exciting and mystifying. but the other part of him wants to see if you really liked them as much as you said. he wants to hear the stories directly from you, not overheard in the hallway, on how much you loved these little fruits.
a plan begins to form in his head. he'd be flying by the seat of his pants, but...
"they're a summer-y red human fruit. y'know, with the juice that gets all over ya?"
two teenage employees stare at mammon, trying to understand what the hell he's describing. he's speaking cryptically, like he doesn't even know what he's looking for.
"sir, can you be more specific?" the employee with flaming red hair asks.
"you said a summer fruit?" the other employee, an older blonde girl, asks. "like, maybe... watermelon chunks?"
"I don't know, maybe?" mammon's face is just as befuddled as before.
"here," the ginger proposes. "how about we go get some samples and have him taste everything? maybe he'll be able to figure it out then."
mammon is left standing alone as the young girls dart off towards another market stall, whispering and plotting as they scurry together. he feels like an idiot, truly. damn you. damn you and your pretty words, your smile, the way you make him feel so in love with you that he's willing to brave a human world market by himself on a busy sunday just to make you happy. his cheeks feel warm just thinking about it.
the girls return as quick at they left, a little basket of fruit donated by some nearby stalls to help the poor confused man nearby find fruit for his beloved (a bit dramatic of a marketing pitch-- but they're not exactly wrong). they eagerly beckon him to try all of what they brought. after all, helping someone is much more interesting than, say, doing the more boring tasks in their job description.
watermelon are nice, but the moment he see the actual size of the whole fruit, he knows he's got the wrong one. cherries are too tart. he can't imagine you gleefully popping them into mouth as a child without choking and dying on a pit (humans are so fragile). raspberries are close, but he isn't quite convinced...
then he sees them pull out a fruit with the leafy green top-- if only he'd remembered that earlier-- and he knows he's found what he needed.
"what are these called?" he asks.
"strawberries?"
there's a sense of awe in your voice as you look down at the little container. your favorite childhood snack is staring back at you, and they look just as wonderful as ever. mammon's face is red as he shrugs noncommittally.
"yeah, well, whatever. those lousy witches gave 'em to me while i was up in the human realm. i figured you'd know what to do with 'em."
he's lying. you could tell he would before he even opened his mouth, but you don't mind. the berries are vibrant and pretty under the kitchen lights.
"would you like to share them with me?"
"huh?"
his confusion only makes you laugh. you take your time washing them off, telling him the stories of how much you loved eating strawberries and running around your back yard at night. you have a feeling he knows these already. but he listens intently, arms crossed as he leans back against the counter and watches you, sprinkling in some commentary now and again about how human children are strange. there's a soft look on his face as he watches you work.
finally, you back to the counter and sprinkle a light dusting of sugar on the strawberry, then hold it up for him to try. his fingers brush against yours, but you make a noise and open your mouth-- you want him to do the same. he gets red again, eyes darting around for a good several moments, before hesitantly leaning in to take a bite.
a dribble of juice trails from the corner of his lips. you smile, chest warm, and thank him for caring so much about you. his sheepish smile only makes the strawberry taste that much sweeter as you take a bite yourself.
#the post-series writers block is kicking my ass already#this is not my best piece but. i like it enough anyways#obey me#obey me shall we date#obey me swd#obey me nightbringer#obey me nb#otome#obey me mammon#obey me mammon x reader
416 notes
·
View notes
Text
YOU’RE STUCK WITH ME (chapter two)
Main Navigation || Please follow @your-eternal-library for all my fanfiction updates.
PAIRING — Steve Rogers x f!Reader
SUMMARY — As his perfectly normal civilian neighbour, you’ve always been secretly curious about the Captain. Getting to know him while trapped together in your building’s elevator, however, definitely wasn’t on the agenda.
WARNINGS — May be uncomfortable for claustrophobics, but there’s not much else.
YOU’RE STUCK WITH ME
CHAPTER TWO
IS IT WARM IN HERE OR WHAT?
Steve maintains a polite distance as he stands side by side with you in front of the elevator. He notices you tapping your fingers impatiently against the edge of your laundry basket, but he says nothing. He’s kind of gotten used to people being nervous in his presence; he’d always thought it was the uniform, but clearly not.
“Big plans for the day?” He asks, trying to make small talk. He’s seen you around the building plenty of times, but the two of you aren’t close or anything. You exchange polite hellos and brief nods, but that’s essentially it.
“Um, just conquering Mount Laundry,” you joke, lifting the basket a little in gesture. “What about you?”
“Just out for a coffee run,” he says, keeping his voice light, lacking the commanding tone he uses when rallying his fellow agents.
“No saving the world again today?” You ask, attempting to keep the conversation afloat.
“It’s my day off,” Steve replies with a shrug. But before either of you can say any more, the elevator’s chime heralds its arrival. The doors slide open with a soft whoosh, and Steve gestures for you to go in first.
You do so quickly, hoisting your basket—a motley collection of faded concert tees and mismatched socks—and step inside the steel box with him in tow.
Steve presses the basement button for you, the first floor button for himself, his arm inadvertently brushing past yours. You both lapse back into an awkward silence as the numbers above the elevator doors count down the floors.
“So, do superheroes do their own washing, or does Tony Stark have an intern for that kind of thing?” You say, and Steve hazards a glance over at you. He wonders if he’s reading into it too much, because he still hasn’t really learned how to read these sorts of social cues.
Suspended in the limbo of waiting, Steve ponders how you can make even mundane laundry talk feel like… something.
Maybe not a flirtation, obviously—he reminds himself, trying not to sound delusional—but certainly a moment.
“Of course,” Steve says, clasping his hands in front of him and turning back to the front of the elevator. “Can’t trust just anyone with the Captain’s uniform. What if they shrink it?”
Evidently, the mental image of him in an outfit of shrunken spandex is too much, and you let out a loud snort of laughter. You slap a hand over your mouth in surprise, eyes round as you glance over at him in embarrassment, but Steve just smiles really wide.
And then, the universe, in its infinite jest, chooses that exact moment for the elevator to shudder and halt mid-descent. The fleeting serenity shatters like the screen of a dropped smartphone, and Steve exhales exasperatedly.
“Oh, seriously?” He sighs, trying to keep the annoyance in his voice as mild as a decaf latte.
“Of all the damn times,” you mutter under your breath. “Sundays—the day of rest, my ass.”
“Looks like we’re taking an unexpected break,” Steve observes, the corner of his mouth twitching in mild annoyance.
“Great,” you manage, your voice an octave higher than usual. While you aren’t necessarily claustrophobic, the thought of spending any extended period of time in an enclosed steel box isn’t exactly your idea of fun.
“Hey, we’re okay,” Steve says, looking at you with those piercing blue eyes that somehow manages to be both commanding and soothing. “We’ll figure this out.”
You nod, your laundry basket now abandoned in the corner of the elevator, watching patiently as Steve fishes his phone out of the pocket of his jeans.
“Signal’s jammed,” he says, his brows furrowed and a hint of frustration lacing his otherwise steady voice. He presses the emergency call button, but there’s just a steady stream of static and nothing else. “Alright, Plan B then.”
“Which is?” You sidestep a bit as he steps around you.
“Stand back,” he warns before shrugging off his jacket and handing it to you, positioning himself in front of the doors. His fingers find purchase in the slim gap between them, his muscles flexing as they strain against the metal.
“Wait, are you kidding me?” You chuckle breathlessly, trying not to focus too hard the way the veins on his arms stand out like steel cables beneath his skin.
Uh… Claustrophobia, who? You resist the urge to start fanning your face.
“Wow, do you do kids’ parties too?” You joke, trying to focus on anything but marvel in the face of his sheer strength.
“All… part of the service…” he manages to grit, bringing the corners of your lips up into a smile, before the doors give under his manipulation.
Your heart soars with hope, but it falls just as quickly when the reality sinks in: you’re stuck between floors, most of the space between the doors opening up to an unforgiving slab of concrete.
There is a small gap near the top of the doors, a mere whisper of space, barely enough for a deep breath, let alone a daring escape.
“Okay, so crawling out through there is off the table,” he mutters, more to himself than to you, as he seems to be assessing the risk.
“Hey, I’ve done yoga in closets smaller than this,” you chime in, your voice laced with an edge of bravado that you don’t quite feel. “Plus, you’ve got the muscles; I’ve got the flexibility. Between the two of us, we’re practically one whole escape artist.”
“Off. The. Table.” Steve repeats, looking you dead in the eye, leaving absolutely no room for argument.
After holding his gaze briefly, you slump against the wall in relief. “Okay, good, because I wasn’t exactly keen on reenacting a scene from Die Hard today.”
“Alright, daredevil,” Steve snorts, giving you a wry smile. “Those noodle arms of yours would snap.”
Your mouth drops open in surprise and mock offence, and the sound of Steve’s laughter seems to bounce whimsically off the walls.
« Chapter 1 || Chapter 3 »
Taglist — My taglist has been discontinued. Please follow @your-eternal-library and turn on notifications for all my fanfiction updates.
Notes — I know I said updates every Monday, but that seemed like such an eternity for me lol. I’m updating the posting schedule for this series to every Mon/Thu.
#steve rogers x reader#steve rogers x female reader#steve rogers x f!reader#steve rogers x you#steve rogers fanfiction#steve rogers series#steve rogers fluff#summer’s fics
100 notes
·
View notes
Text
The convergence of signs is off the charts right now.
And while we didn't see Beth, we actually did get off-screen proof of her coming.
As Father Gabriel said (when we thought we were watching Beth's funeral, but we weren't)
2 Corinthians 4.18
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen (off-screen), since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Where's Beth?
She's with Gabriel, the archangel who heralds the coming of Christ (and the Antichrist)
Read more on that here
Gabriel was front and center just before and after Beth died, so it's a good sign that Seth and his character are heavily promoted right now.
And after the coming of Christ, what comes next?
Beth with Daryl.
Enter the Lydia (Daryl) and Beth panel in the Netherlands. XX (chromosomes) 10.10.
We all saw the Daryl/Beth parallels with Lydia and Henry, and this is an unseen way of saying we are getting a repeat of that Whisperers story but with Daryl and Beth.
We all know the Whisperers were connected to the episode Morning Star 🌟 so the lineup of these panels was not random.
Netherlands is known for their windmills, which is a hint to the Moulin Rouge of France and romance between Beth and Daryl.
The windmill symbolism also fulfills the X coda, + car, and cross symbolism we see around Beth.
I've mentioned before how the Alexandria windmill became a representation of the Moulin Rouge during season 11 with Leah and the Meridians, and the tower mentioned in that episode was a play on the Eiffel tower.
You can read about that here
The host at this panel asks Emily and Cassady if they went to the red light district while visiting the Netherlands. Hinting at the Moulin Rouge and Daryl and Beth doing the deed. 🫣☺️🤭
Lydia and Beth, together like this, are a shadow of Daryl and Beth past and future.
Beginning to end.
So, no, we didn't get Beth on resurrection Sunday, but actually, we did get Beth on resurrection Sunday when you look at what is unseen or off-screen.
Thanks to everyone who shared the different panel videos. They are amazing. 👏 🤩
We got a whole lot more on and off-screen hints pointing to her imminent return, and I'll try to work through some of the biggest clues now.
It's still the season of her return, and that hasn't changed and the biblical links pointing to that are numerous.
All the signs I've talked about, including the A eclipse, are still at play, and here's why.
We are currently in a crossover time between episode A 416 and episode 501, "No sanctuary" of Terminus.
The A = beginning and Terminus = end
Jesus is Alpha and Omega, beginning to end, and that's why Rick and Beth's story are mirror images of each other.
They are telling the same story beginning to end for one, and end to beginning for the other.
We have just seen Rick as Jesus getting a resurrection and reunion with family, which is linked to the second coming of Christ.
So we should see practically the same mirror story with Beth as Jesus.
The episode A is the marker for the switching over of the sheriffs hat from Rick to Beth.
The A eclipse is a marker for that switch, too.
Consider this break between TOWL and The book of Carol as the middle point of infinity ♾️ or A.
One of the other biblical signs of the coming of Christ is that there will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars 🌟
Luke talks about this in Luke 21.25-36
“There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.
We already have the star Sirius symbolism used to depict Christ (Beth) return, and the eclipse that we saw Leah and Daryl look at was a clue to look up to the sun and moon also.
If you think about the story-line from the episodes A 416 (Alpha) with the sheriffs hat, all the way to the Terminus (Omega end) in 501.
Those two episodes were split over two seasons, and so is this Sheriffs hat "A" and the Jesus, beginning to end switch.
TOWL ♾️The Book of Carol
A
The flow of the story is moving in infinity ♾️ this is hard to explain, but basically Rick is on one side of the side of the story, moving towards the A sheriffs hat moment to take it off and give to Beth, and Beth is on the other (unseen) side of the story moving towards the sheriffs hat A switch.
Each side of episode "A" or the A eclipse, we will get a different Sheriff wearing the hat and a resurrection.
Rick ♾️ Beth
This means the Easter resurrection symbolism is still at play for Beth, too, even if it's further into the year. Her return/resurrection will coincidence with the dog days of summer ☀️ and Sirius rising.
Rick at the CRM blew it up like (The book of Carol blew) up Terminus.
The CRM are all about "us first, always" like the people at Terminus were, and when Rick destroyed it, the CRM became No Sanctuary.
The Terminus people were cannibals (eat their own) a similar theme to the CRM who kill their own.
That's why we got so much Terminus symbolism in the final, including railway tracks.
All roads lead to Terminus, and it was after Terminus Carol and Daryl find a clue to Beth.
Beth's story will be a combination of all the symbolism that we see with Rick, but add in the CDC symbolism (also blows up in a similar manner) with a bigger focus on experiments and cures.
It will circle back to season 1 and the choice between going to the CDC or Fort Benning (real and fake cure), as mentioned in season 1 by Rick and Shane.
Conversely, for Rick we see a flashback in episode A416 of Rick on the other end of the Terminus (CRM) story.
In this flashback, Rick hangs up the sheriffs hat (law enforcement/CRM) and becomes a farmer.
Which seemingly is what Rick will now do, having hung up his CRM law enforcement hat and arrived at the Commonwealth.
Now that he's home with his family, he's repeating the time at the prison where he started farming, and it's then we got hints at a cure/fake cure story beginning and working backwards to the CDC.
I've talked about that here if you want to read more.
I went back and started to watch episode A again and wanted to mention this car that drove into the prison at the very beginning of the episode "A".
Zack's Ram charger with no number plate.
It's a twin to this car...
I mentioned how the yellow Nissan points to the Jewish New Year and the A eclipse here and here
The Rams Horns were seen around Rick and Beth and are linked to the angel Gabrielle as well, but they definitely reminded me of an Infinity symbol, which is interesting because the brand Nissan also has a car brand called Infiniti ♾️
The fact that it's Zack's car (old boyfriend) ties it to Beth and Daryl and the damn romance novel to come back around.
What happens during an eclipse? The moon 🌙 blocks out the sun 🌞
And these two book end cars being black and yellow depict the "A" eclipse of the sun being blocked by the moon, and also the switching of the sheriffs hats at A.
Solar eclipses also make a golden ring 💍
This speaks to the marriage/ring symbolism we have seen with Rick and Michonne, and why now the CRM has changed its logo to one ring as seen on the on the helicopters at the end of the episode. 🚁
We will see this with Beth and Daryl too.
It's linked biblically to the bride of Christ (Christ's followers) and his return.
Revelation 19.7
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;
When Christ returns, there is a wedding between the bride of Christ and his followers. It's symbolic of an unbreakable bond.
So, the return of Christ is also linked to marriage.
We see Rick and Michonne in a helicopter 🚁 (which represents being in heaven or from "above"). While the focus on the wedding ring.
While we see this, we hear the talk of reform and a new age (Millennium) to begin.
To end it all, we see this beautiful depiction of Christ returning to earth from the helicopter 🚁 of heaven with his bride. 👰♀
And they combine that with the symbolism of believers who knew he'd return.
The dad comment is a play on this verse...
John 1.12
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God
A few extra off-screen signs of Beth's return...
The panel content gave us more hints.
Firstly, one huge theory circulating back in season 4-5 as to where Beth got taken in Alone was that she was with Father Gabriel. Emily being with Seth at the panel is another sign of her return. ✅️
Secondly, another big theory was that she would bring a cure. Which Emily brings up in her panel with Seth ✅️
Thirdly, Emily mentions Beth becoming a leader. Wearing the Sheriffs hat ✅️
Lastly, a big part of the conversation in season 4 and 5 was the talk of Emily looking like Luna Lovegood. Which Emily brings up in the panels also. ✅️
🇫🇷 ❤️🚁💍♾️💍🚁❤️🇫🇷
#team delusional#team defiance#bethyl#team beth lives#beth greene#beth is alive#beth is coming#beth greene lives#td#beth x daryl#What is unseen#return of christ#angel gabriel#millennium
18 notes
·
View notes
Text
Worm Moon - March 25, 2024
The world is thawing and spring will soon be sprung. Dust off your garden tools and get ready for the Worm Moon!
Worm Moon
The Worm Moon is the name given to the full moon which occurs in the month of March in the Northern Hemisphere. Most sources claim this name is taken from the renewed visible presence of vermicast (worm droppings) and earthworms themselves, as the spring thaw allows them to emerge from the soil.
There is a possible alternative explanation, involving a colonial explorer's notes about the Naudowessie (Dakota) observation of emerging worm-like beetle larvae from the bark of trees. "Every month has with them a name expressive of its season; for instance, they call the month of March (in which their year generally begins at the first New Moon after the vernal Equinox) the Worm Month or Moon; because at this time the worms quit their retreats in the bark of the trees, wood, &c. where they have sheltered themselves during the winter." (It's entirely possible that this "worm" in this instance is a mistranslation of an indigenous word for "larva," since it refers to the larval state of certain beetles. Without knowing whether the language in question makes a distinction between larval worms and earthworms, it's impossible to tell, and I was unable to find further sources.)
Other North American Indigenous names for this moon include Goose Moon (Algonquin and Cree) and Crow Comes Back Moon (Northern Ojibwe), in reference to the reappearance of migratory birds, and Sugar Moon (Ojibwe) and Sap Moon (Shawnee), in reference to the season in which the maple sap begins to run and can be tapped for the production of maple syrup.
Fun Fact: The term "Worm Moon" only occurs in southerly indigenous nations. The March moon is commonly named for trees or birds in more northerly areas of North America because in those places, the native species of earthworms went extinct during the period when glaciers covered that portion of the continent. About 12,000 years ago when the glaciers receded, the forest grew back without earthworms. The species which now inhabit those areas are invasive or introduced specimens originating from Europe and Asia.
The March moon, if it occurs prior to the spring equinox, is also the Lenten Moon, named for the Christian holiday of Lent. If it occurs after the equinox, it is called the Paschal Full Moon, corresponding with the Christian holiday of Easter, or Paschal Sunday (This year's Worm Moon will occur the week after the equinox and Easter Sunday will be March 31st.)
What Does It Mean For Witches?
Full moons are both the beginning and end of the lunar cycle. With the Worm Moon, we can look forward to the beginning of spring and the yearly harvest cycle. So now is the perfect time for seasonal divination, plans for the coming months, and the setting of goals for the future, both short-term and long-term. You can also check in with goals you may have set back in January and record your progress. (Remember - even a little progress is still progress!)
Consider also how you can change or begin new routines and habits to improve your life, make better choices, streamline your schedule, or just give yourself a much-needed break. If there’s something hanging around that no longer serves you, now is the time to consider bidding it adieu and moving forward to a new path.
What Witchy Things Can We Do?
The Worm Moon heralds the imminent start of the planting season. If you’ve got green fingers, now is the time to begin planning your garden for the season. Prepare your sprouting trays and browse your favorite seed catalog for inspiration.
It’s also time for that all-important spring cleaning, so open up those windows on a warm day and air out all the staleness from winter. As you scrub and dust and declutter, you can also magically cleanse your space of stagnant, disruptive, or unwanted things, replacing them with your own energy and your good wishes and goals for the upcoming season.
This is also an excellent time for spells focused on fertility, optimism, and new growth. It’s important to remember that fertility spells don’t just have to focus on procreation. They can also be geared toward planting, creating, opportunity, inspiration, motivation, prosperity, abundance, and anything that requires nurturing and productivity.
The season of growth and renewal is upon us, so it’s time to Ready, Set, GROW!
Happy Worm Moon, witches! 🌕🌱
Further Reading:
Worm Moon: Full Moon for March 2024, The Old Farmer’s Almanac.
Worm Moon: The Stunning Full Moon of March 2024, The Peculiar Brunette.
Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, in the Years 1766, 1767 and 1768, Capt. Jonathan Carver, London, 1781. (Text available on Project Gutenberg)
The Next Full Moon is a "Supermoon" Crow Moon, NASA, March 5 2020.
Easter and the Paschal Full Moon: Determining the Date of Easter, The Old Farmer's Almanac.
Everyday Moon Magic: Spells & Rituals for Abundant Living, Dorothy Morrison, Llewellyn Publications, 2004.
(If you’re enjoying my content, please feel free to drop a little something in the tip jar or check out my published works on Amazon or in the Willow Wings Witch Shop. 😊)
#witchcraft#witchblr#witch community#lunar calendar#full moon#worm moon#moon magic#lunar magic#i thought i'd forgotten this but it was buried in my drafts soooo here it is a week late??? enjoy
9 notes
·
View notes
Text
MASTERPOST: enstars! summary project
THE ENTIRE ENSTARS! EVENT LORE SUMMARISED:
for those who want to speedrun enstars! lore
here is a timeline of all the events in enstars!
this project will aim to summarise as many enstars! stories as possible so u can get the gist of the event stories without having to read through 100 eichi monologues
credits: timeline is copied from wiki
will be updated with links after every story summary!
[PRESENT DAY: year = !]
** events will be referred to by "<season> + <index>
春 SPRING: (C)
Shiny First Years
The Flag's Honor ✻ Crowned Flower Festival
Revival Festival☆Easter Night
Palace of the Ocean
Marching Band
Spring Storm! Dancing Petals, Sakura Festival!
Gang
Sweets Patisserie
Pyjamas
Mail Delivery
-> spring section 1 summary
Devil's Mansion
Spring Breeze＊Iconic Book Fair
Lift the Curtains! Yumenosaki Circus
Sacrifice◆Resurrection Sunday of the Undying
Falling Cherry Blossoms＊Wisteria Purple of May
Toy Box
Angel's Wings
Card Battler
Runway
Dream Coloured Prince
-> spring section 2 summary
In the Rose Garden
Fresh Green Martial Arts
Yell✳︎Sprawling Happy Spring
Evening Banquet ♪ Band Ensemble
Performance! The Tragicomedy of Romeo and Juliet
Secret Labyrinth
At Your Service! UNDEAD Cafe
Leap! Principal of the Lake's Surface
Play Your Part! Cinderella's Grand Stage
Terror! Tamayori's Haunted Dollhouse
School Festival★The Scramble of a Startup Hero
Billiards
-> spring section 3 summary
夏 SUMMER: (X)
Ukiyo Air Ride
Merc Storia
Hero Show
Biblio
The Rainy Season's Blossoms
Breakthrough! The Revolutionary Live Which Heralds the Dawn
Chinatown
Nuclear Ignition ☆ A Sparkling Quintuple-Color Supernova
-> summer section 1 summary
Victoria
Amusement☆The Live Party of Cats and Rabbits
Gondola
Judge! Black and White Duel
Round Game
Devotion! Brocade of Driving Away the Rainy Season
Gunmen of the Wilderness
Bridal
-> summer section 2 summary
Symphony＊Magnolia of Blessings
Seven-Colored＊Sunshower Festa
Saga＊Rushing Up Rainbow Stage
Pool Opening
Comic World
Shot☆Splash Pool!
Challenge! Tanabata Festival Wishes
Dance Performance! Thoughts That Bridge the Milky Way
Facing One Another! The Celestial Globe of the Night the Stars Meet
Dance Floor
-> summer section 3 summary
Dogfight
Ghost Stories
The Seven Faces of the Shapeshifting Youkai
Little Kings
Frozen Ice
Summer of Clear Skies! Summer Camp
Concerto
Set Sail! Pirates at Sea Festival
-> summer section 4 summary
Kiseki☆The Preliminary Match of the Summer Live
Radiant! Sunflower Live of Smiles
Scorching Hot! The Scenery of Southern Lands and Summer Vacation
Surfing Ocean
Stars★Glitter of the Prism
Summer Flowers
Late Summer Lesson
-> summer section 5 summary
Luminescence＊Summer Night Festival
Yumenosaki Restaurant
Remember! A Midsummer Night's Dream
Best Shot
Holiday
Scorching Heat ☆ A Seaside Beach Match
Buddy
-> summer section 6 summary
Farewell! Festival of Memories and Quarrels
Launch! The Night Sky of the Shooting Star Festival
Carmen of Passion
Lost Star＊Wavering Light, Pleiades Night
Deep Sea Mystery
Drop＊The Far Sea and the Aquarium
Summer Sky＊Galloping Cheval Live
-> summer section 7 summary
Onibi
Burning Up! Yumenosaki Academy Sports Festival
Fight! Yumenosaki Academy Sports Festival 2
Competition! Yumenosaki Academy Sports Festival 3
Cinema Theater
1001 Nights
-> summer section 8 summary
Blue Filament
Cooking
Brilliant Star Air Force
Police Man
-> summer section 9 summary
秋 AUTUMN (Q)
Kung Fu
Night of the Full Moon ＊ Hopping Moonlight Luna
The Coloured Flower Cards
Special Training! Mismatched Pair Lessons
Doctor
Rebellion! The King's Horseback Ride
Kiseki★Blitzkrieg Autumn Live
Robin Hood
-> autumn section 1 summary
Science
Fruits Parlour
Happening◆Music Festa of Reversals
Secret Acts! The Moonlight Scroll of the Elements
Festival＊Graceful Fleur De Lis
Toryumon
Rosicrucian Story
Showtime
Howl★The Rockin' Star of the Night Sky
-> autumn section 2 summary
Afternoon
Boutique
Raising Curtains! Dark Night Halloween
React★Magical Halloween
Lots of Monsters☆Sweet Halloween
Cacophony◆Whirling Horror Night Halloween
-> autumn section 3 summary
Enjoyment♪ Autumn School Trip
Invitation★Black Blood Banquet
The Golden Wind＊Wishing Live of Encouragement
Teddy Bear
Colourful Autumn
Meikyoushisui
Hot-Blooded Tough Guy
BADBOYS
-> autumn section 4 summary
Scramble ＊ Toyland in a Dream
The Songbird’s Song＊Soirée in the Canary Hall
Underdoctor
Autumn Forest
Discovery! Steampunk Museum
-> autumn section 5 summary
冬 winter (D)
The Wolf and Red Riding Hood
Greek Legends
Philosopher's Guidance
SnowboardDream of the Butterfly
Rail◆The Cat in the Snowy Winter and the Camellia Train
-> winter section 1 summary
Nocturne
Snow Globe
Agents
Snowflake❄Street Performance Of The Falling Stars
Shine! A Sparkling Starry Night Festival!
Winter Santa
-> winter section 2 summary
Brilliance★Knights' Starlight Festival
Noel＊The Angels' Starlight Festival
Carol＊White Snow and the Christmas Eve Starlight Festival
Radiant☆Hot Holiday Party
Throwing! A Snowy Silver-White Snowfight
Eccentric
-> winter section 3 summary
Kiseki☆Winter Live Showdown
Winter's New Year Shrine Visit
First Dream Tales (Part One)
First Dream Tales (Part Two)
-> winter section 4 summary
Zodiac (Part One)
Amusement Park Show
Zodiac (Part Two)
Daikagura! Celebratory New Years Live
Showdown! Magnificent Phantom Thief VS Detective Brigade
Transparency and Masks
-> winter section 5 summary
Clash of Arms! Opera of Moonlight Romance
Dance on Ice
Depart☆Blue Skies Dream Travel
Opening★The Fortune Banquet Live
Saga＊Clashing Rebirth Live
Revival☆Dream Diner Live
Shoufuku＊The Ogres and Brothers' Setsubun Festival
-> winter section 6 summary
Last Period
Jewel Candy
Poison À La Mode
Tea Party
The Four Beasts of Fistfighting
Salon de Thé
-> winter section 7 summary
Sincerely! Bitter Chocolat Festival
Melty❤Sweetly Unraveling Chocolat Festival
Decorate♥Crimson Chocolat Festival
Marble ♥ Heartfelt Chocolat Festival
Home Party
Onigashima
-> winter section 8 summary
Yumenosaki Youth Radio♪
Military
Cunning ◆ Wonder Game
Beauties of Nature
Flutter! Chick and Emperor's Triumphant Return
-> winter section 9 summary
[NEXT YEAR: year = !+1]
!+1 spring i think?
(context: third years in ! are graduating)
Beasts
Memorial◆Class Live We Make Together
Noble Game
Chuunibyou Trouble
Bouquet of Desire
Chorus★Operetta of Beginnings
-> !! spring section 1 summary
Every Pitch With All One’s Heart! Youthful Play Ball
Clash! Recollect--A Festival of Giving Back
Baton Pass! Repayment Festival of Tears and Bonds
Moment＊The Repayment Festival of Moving Forward Toward the Future
Requiem＊Sword of Oaths and the Repayment Festival
Link♪The Symphony that Starts from Here
-> !! spring section 2 summary
!+1 post-graduation stories
Photoshoot! Warm Athletics
Puppy Mischief Picnic
Bounce! Hearts and Flowers Bloom--Mall Live
Strawberry Picking
-> post-graduation summary
[BACKSTORIES: read with caution *** recommended reading is from year = enstars!]
(year: !-12)
(1) Rainbow
(2) Revival - 20
(year: !-several)
(3) Gang: Midnight Gangster
(year: !-2)
(4) Zodiac
(5) Meteor Impact
(6) Jingle Bells
(year: !-1)
(7) Reminiscence＊The Crossroads of Each One
(8) Reminiscence＊Monochrome Checkmate
(9) Reminiscence＊Spring Cherry Blossoms and a Night's Encounter
(10) Reminiscence＊Ryusei Bonfire
(11) Reminiscence ＊ End of the Marionette's Strings
(12) Reminiscence＊Gathering of the Three Magicians
-> all backstories summary
AND... THAT'S IT! THATS THE ENTIRE ENSTARS! SUMMARISED
a few things to note:
main story not included -- because it should be read before everything
CN/TW exclusive not included
timeline is definitely shaky but overall flow of stories should still be okay
-project start date: 17 Oct 2022-
-last updated: 22 Mar 2023-
#enstars#ensemble stars#enstars textpost#will add the summaries as we read through the stories#completion will probably be biased towards knights and fine#will this projected ever be completed? who knows#entire enstars! summary
152 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Sunday, April 21
SPIKE: Hey! Hey, let's be reasonable about this.
(Riley slams him up against a pillar.)
RILEY: You may have noticed, Spike...
(he punches Spike in the face)
RILEY: I left reasonable about three exits back.
~~Into the Woods~~
[Drabbles & Short Fiction]
Pillow Talk by veronyxk84 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)
Five times Angel made chocolates for Buffy and the one time she made some for him by Liana_Medea (Buffy/Angel, G)
For Emergencies by Bobbie23 (Giles/Jenny, G)
By a whisker by squiddz (Spike & original cat character, Buffy/Spike, T)
Brick by Boring Brick by Wretched_Little_Words (Buffy & Kendra, G)
Это уже не смешно by B_E_S (Buffy/Angel, G, in Russian)
Riley's Special Spike (the plastic one, you ninny) by InvariablyStupidIdeas (Spike/Riley, M)
On a subway? by scooby-group-texts (Spike, Dawn, not rated - mentions of canon violence)
Something Red by Maxine Eden (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)
Pillow Talk by VeroNyxK84 (Buffy/Spike, anthology rated PG-13)
[Chaptered Fiction]
Going Astral - Chapter 1 by Geliot99 (Buffy/Spike, M)
Across Ages, Ch. 27 by Isabeau (Buffy/Spike, R)
Ties to the World, Ch. 33 by The Danish Bird (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)
Love Bites, Ch. 4 by cawthraven (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)
Truth and Consequences, Ch. 14 by JamesMFan (Buffy/Spike, R)
In Any Life, Ch. 12 by Spikelover4ever (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)
Hand in Flightless Hand, Ch. 4 by tragic (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)
Afterburn: In The Dark, Ch. 3 by Melme1325 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)
Sweet Dreams (Or A Beautiful Nightmare) Ch. 2 by goodbyetoyou (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)
The Tortured Slayer Department, Ch. 1 by BewitchedXx (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)
A Ripple In Time, Ch. 1 by CheekyKitten (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)
To All We Guard, Ch. 12 by simmony (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)
Gargoyle, Ch. 4 by ClowniestLivEver (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)
Centerfold, Ch. 2 by all choseny, Passion4Spike, MissLuci (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)
[Images, Audio & Video]
Something Blue painting by novivi (Buffy/Spike, worksafe)
Fanvid: Look What You Made Me Do by starryeyesxx (Buffy)
Gifset: The Albatross by detectivedawnsummers (Buffy/Spike, worksafe, includes canon death scenes)
spike + textposts by spikespeaches ()
[Reviews & Recaps]
Re: Can’t decide between S2 & S3 as the best season of Buffy by occidentaltourist
the dichotomy of band candy by shiteatinggrin
BTVS/Angel Rewatch Chronicles: Seasons 5/2, Part Four by QualifiedApathetic
Coming to the end of my 16th rewatch by Xandertheokay
[Recs & In Search Of]
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Fanfic Rec – a list by alwaysakin
[Fandom Discussions]
Contextless Jenny musing #47 by hal-1500
Re: you have to work on a group project with Oz, how does it go? by momsforroadhead
I cannot with s4 ending with Xander as “the heart.” by nicnacsnonsense
Crack Fic Idea: Bucky x Reader x Spike Love Triangle [Marvel crossover] by scoonsalicious
Okay, just some musing about Buffy Summers by deus--auri
When someone tells me "I normally don't like Riley but I like the way you write him." by riley-summers
Drusilla (the incredible layers of Drusilla added to the scene in Destiny) by thedeathscar
If you were to use one episode to represent each couple which would you use? by jdpm1991
What is your favourite headcanon that you one-hundred percent believe in? hosted by RavenNight789
Did anyone else feel Faith's arc would be played wildly differently if it had somehow continued on Buffy by sadhungryandvirgin
Full 180 on Dawn by Stellz04
Angelus in s2 out-Spikes Spike by Due_Resolution_8551
Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!
Join the editor team :)
8 notes
·
View notes
Text
It’s an Oscar tradition: a serious political speech pierces the bubble of glamour and self-congratulation. Warring responses ensue. Some proclaim the speech an example of artists at their culture-shifting best; others an egotistical usurpation of an otherwise celebratory night. Then everyone moves on.
Yet I suspect that the impact of Jonathan Glazer’s time-stopping speech at last Sunday’s Academy Awards will be significantly more lasting, with its meaning and import analyzed for many years to come.
Glazer was accepting the award for best international film for The Zone of Interest, which is inspired by the real life of Rudolf Höss, commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The film follows Höss’s idyllic domestic life with his wife and children, which unfolds in a stately home and garden immediately adjacent to the concentration camp. Glazer has described his characters not as monsters but as “non-thinking, bourgeois, aspirational-careerist horrors”, people who manage to turn profound evil into white noise.
Before Sunday’s ceremony, Zone had already been heralded by several deities of the film world. Alfonso Cuarón, the Oscar-winning director of Roma, called it “probably the most important film of this century”. Steven Spielberg declared it “the best Holocaust movie I’ve witnessed since my own” – a reference to Schindler’s List, which swept the Oscars 30 years ago.
But while Schindler List’s triumph represented a moment of profound validation and unity for the mainstream Jewish community, Zone arrives at a very different juncture. Debates are raging about how the Nazi atrocities should be remembered: should the Holocaust be seen exclusively as a Jewish catastrophe, or something more universal, with greater recognition for all the groups targeted for extermination? Was the Holocaust a unique rupture in European history, or a homecoming of earlier colonial genocides, along with a return of the techniques, logics and bogus race theories they developed and deployed? Does “never again” mean never again to anyone, or never again to the Jews, a pledge for which Israel is imagined as a kind of untouchable guarantee?
These wars over universalism, proprietary trauma, exceptionalism and comparison are at the heart of South Africa’s landmark genocide case against Israel at the international court of justice, and they are also ripping through Jewish communities, congregations and families around the world. In one action-packed minute, and in our moment of stifling self-censorship, Glazer fearlessly took clear positions on each of these controversies.
“All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present – not to say, ‘Look what they did then’; rather, ‘Look what we do now,’” Glazer said, quickly dispatching with the notion that comparing present-day horrors to Nazi crimes is inherently minimizing or relativizing, and leaving no doubt that his explicit intention was to draw out continuities between the monstrous past and our monstrous present.
And he went further: “We stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of 7 October in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza.” For Glazer, Israel does not get a pass, nor is it ethical to use intergenerational Jewish trauma from the Holocaust as justification or cover for atrocities committed by the Israeli state today.
Others have made these points before, of course, and many have paid dearly, particularly if they are Palestinian, Arab, or Muslim. Glazer, interestingly, dropped his rhetorical bombs protected by the identity-equivalent of a suit of armor, standing before the glittering crowd as a successful white Jewish man – flanked by two other successful white Jewish men – who had, together, just made a film about the Holocaust. And that phalanx of privilege still didn’t save him from the flood of smears and distortions that misrepresented his words to wrongly claim that he had repudiated his Jewishness, which only served to underline Glazer’s point about those who turn victimhood into a weapon.
Equally significant was what we might think of as the speech’s meta-context: what preceded it and immediately followed. Those who only watched clips online missed this part of the experience, and that’s too bad. Because as soon as Glazer wrapped up his speech – dedicating the award to Aleksandra Bystroń-Kołodziejczyk, a Polish woman who secretly fed Auschwitz prisoners and fought the Nazis as a member of the Polish underground army – out came actors Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. Without so much as a commercial break to allow us to emotionally recover, we were instantly jettisoned into a “Barbenheimer” bit, with Gosling telling Blunt that her film about the invention of a weapon of mass destruction had ridden Barbie’s pink coat tails to box-office success, and Blunt accusing Gosling of painting on his abs.
At first, I feared that this impossible juxtaposition would undercut Glazer’s intervention: how could the mournful and wrenching realities he had just invoked coexist with that kind of California high-school prom energy? Then it hit me: like the fuming defenders of Israel’s “right to defend itself”, the sparkly artifice that encased the speech was also helping to make his point.
“Genocide becomes ambient to their lives”: that is how Glazer has described the atmosphere he attempted to capture in his film, in which his characters attend to their daily dramas – sleepless kids, a hard-to-please mother, casual infidelities – in the shadow of smokestacks belching out human remains. It’s not that these people don’t know that an industrial-scale killing machine whirs just beyond their garden wall. They have simply learned to lead contented lives with ambient genocide.
It is this that feels most contemporary, most of this terrible moment, about Glazer’s staggering film. More than five months into the daily slaughter in Gaza, and with Israel brazenly ignoring the orders of the international court of justice, and western governments gently scolding Israel while shipping it more arms, genocide is becoming ambient once more – at least for those of us fortunate enough to live on the safe sides of the many walls that carve up our world. We face the risk of it grinding on, becoming the soundtrack of modern life. Not even the main event.
Glazer has repeatedly stressed that his film’s subject is not the Holocaust, with its well-known horrors and historical particularities, but something more enduring and pervasive: the human capacity to live with holocausts and other atrocities, to make peace with them, draw benefit from them.
When the film premiered last May, before Hamas’s 7 October attack and before Israel’s unending assault on Gaza, this was a thought experiment that could be contemplated with a degree of intellectual distance. The audience members at the Cannes film festival who gave The Zone of Interest a rapturous six-minute standing ovation likely felt safe toying with Glazer’s challenge. Perhaps some looked out at the azure Mediterranean and considered how they had themselves gotten comfortable with, even uninterested in, news of boats packed with desperate people being left to drown just down the coast. Or maybe they thought about the private jets they had taken to France, and the way flight emissions are entangled in the disappearance of food sources for impoverished people far away, or the extinction of species, or the potential disappearance of entire nations.
Glazer wanted his film to provoke these kinds of uneasy thoughts. He has said that he saw “the darkening world around us, and I had a feeling I had to do something about our similarities to the perpetrators rather than the victims.” He wanted to remind us that annihilation is never as far away as we might think.
But by the time Zone made it into theatres in December, Glazer’s subtle challenge for audiences to contemplate their inner Hösses cut a lot closer to the bone. Most artists try desperately to tap into the zeitgeist, but Zone, whose theatrical release has been muted given the initial response, may well have suffered from something rare in the history of cinema: a surplus of relevance, an oversupply of up-to-the-minuteness.
One of the film’s most memorable scenes comes when a package filled with clothing and lingerie stolen from the camp’s prisoners arrives at the Höss home. The commandant’s wife, Hedwig (played almost too convincingly by Sandra Hüller), decrees that everyone, including the servants, can choose one item. She keeps a fur coat for herself, even trying on the lipstick she finds in a pocket.
It is the intimacy of the entanglements with the dead that are so chilling. And I have no idea how anyone can watch that scene and not think of the Israeli soldiers who have filmed themselves rifling through the lingerie of Palestinians whose homes they are occupying in Gaza, or boasting of stealing shoes and jewelry for their fiances and girlfriends, or taking group selfies with Gaza’s rubble as the backdrop. (One such photo went viral after the writer Benjamin Kunkel added the caption “The Zone of Pinterest”.)
There are so many such echoes that, today, Glazer’s masterpiece feels more like a documentary than a metaphor. It’s almost as if, by filming Zone in the style of a reality show, with hidden cameras throughout the house and garden (Glazer has referred to it as “Big Brother in the Nazi House”), the movie anticipated the first live-streamed genocide, the version filmed by its perpetrators.
Zone offers an extreme portrait of a family whose placid and pretty life flows directly from the machinery devouring human life next door. This is most emphatically not a portrait of people in denial: they know what is happening on the other side of the wall, and even the kids play with scavenged human teeth. The concentration camp and the family home are not separate entities; they are conjoined. The wall of the family’s garden – creating an enclosed space for the children to play, and shade for the pool – is the same wall that, on the other side, encloses the camp.
Everyone I know who has seen the film can think of little but Gaza. To say this is not to claim a one-to-one equation or comparison with Auschwitz. No two genocides are identical: Gaza is not a factory deliberately designed for mass murder, nor are we close to the scale of the Nazi death toll. But the whole reason the postwar edifice of international humanitarian law was erected was so that we would have the tools to collectively identify patterns before history repeats at scale. And some of the patterns – the wall, the ghetto, the mass killing, the repeatedly stated eliminationist intent, the mass starvation, the pillaging, the joyful dehumanization, and the deliberate humiliation – are repeating.
So, too, are the ways that genocide becomes ambient, the way those of us a little further away from the walls can block the images, and tune out the cries, and just … carry on. That’s why the Academy made Glazer’s point for him when it hard-cut to Barbenheimer – itself a trivialization of mass slaughter – without missing a beat. Atrocity is once again becoming ambient. (One might see the entire Oscar spectacle as a kind of live-action extension of The Zone of Interest, a sort of Denialism on Ice.)
What do we do to interrupt the momentum of trivialization and normalization? That is the question so many of us are struggling with right now. My students ask me. I ask my friends and comrades. So many are offering their responses with relentless protests, civil disobedience, “uncommitted” votes, event interruptions, aid convoys to Gaza, fundraising for refugees, works of radical art. But it’s not enough.
And as genocide fades further into the background of our culture, some people grow too desperate for any of these efforts. Watching the Oscars on Sunday, where Glazer was alone among the parade of wealthy and powerful speakers across the podium to so much as mention Gaza, I remembered that exactly two weeks had passed since Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old member of the US air force, self-immolated outside the Israeli embassy in Washington.
I don’t want anyone else to deploy that horrifying protest tactic; there has already been far too much death. But we should spend some time sitting with the statement that Bushnell left, words I have come to view as a haunting, contemporary coda to Glazer’s film:
“Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow south? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.”
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
STORY: A Place in the Country
Part 2
For Part 1 wait next Sunday (same time)
The thick blankets thrown off, Tom lay there in his sumptuous bed, naked.
Though I might confess in weaker moments I had imagined such a scene, I felt nothing now but terror. I quivered, the blood drained from my face, and I thought I might pass out right there.
Tom's manhood had turned as black as ebony, and gleamed like polished marble. It was larger than a normal man's now, as thick as his wrist at the base, and longer too. At its end, the familiar accoutrements of the uncircumcised male member had been changed somehow in a way I had trouble at first recognizing.
From Tom's groin the black was spreading, obvioulsy through arteries and veins, down his muscular legs and up into his flat stomach. One or two conduits of blood stood out for their discoloration in his shoulder and bicep, heralding that whatever change was overtaking him was spreading fast already.
"Well Win, do you still say it's a dream? Is a psychoanalyst going to cure this?"
Tom's challenge to me was fair enough. I nodded my assent, tried to speak, and no words came out. Fumbling, I stepped backwards until my hands found the armrests of the easy chair by the window of Tom's bedroom, into which I slumped as if my body had taken leave of my mind entirely.
Tom was more frustrated than ever by my silence. "You're an educated man, Win. What do you make of it?"
"Make of it?" I repeated back, trying to bring a cigarette to my lips to light, and failing. Fear and surprise had done their work in rendering me a simpleton.
My stupor only made Tom more upset. "Yes, make of it. Anyone can gawk at my affliction, but I brought my friend here to offer some kind of--"
Finally placing the cigarette on my lips but not lighting it, I pointed towards the tips of the penis, enlarged and engorged, standing as up right as a post. "That's a locking mechanism," I concluded. "I recognize it from a mechanical tool I saw in the company's mill. "The bulb there at the end, expands to hold...another body there in place, I would imagine until the work of procreation is done."
Not able to bear hearing my observation, Tom put his hands over his eyes as if his palms could make the offending genital go away. "But that's madness! What matter of people in the world have such a body? What matter of disease could produce such a damned bizarre effect? It makes no sense."
I was beginning to calm now. "Perhaps the theories of Charles Darwin, outre as they are, offer some help. If he is correct, every trait that exists among living things first came into being as a mutation that first appeared in some or other prior generation of living thing. Perhaps this is...a mutation."
"What absolute rubbish! Win, I will remind you I am a Christian gentleman, and we will have no talk such as that here!"
Resigned, I sunk back against the chair. "Well if you will roar at me for saying nothing and roar at me for speaking my mind, you have indeed brought me here for no purpose."
Suddenly Tom sighed, abashed, and brought his hands down from his face. "I, I'm sorry."
It was then we were overtaken by an awkward silence that lasted some minutes, neither of us sure what to say to the other that would not cause anguish, or guilt, or fear. Eventually I realized my eyes had been fixed on Tom's newly outsized phallus some while. For a while my jaw worked, and I tried to say something, but I could not find my voice.
I started to get up from the chair and approach Win. Suddenly I was feeling overwhelmed by a need to give worship. It seemed I was losing control of my body.
"Win, what is it?"
Immediately, like a sleepwalker receiving a pinch, I was awake again. "Tom, cover yourself up."
"Oh yes, ghastly business that." And with that he began rebuilding the pile of covers and pillows that had been concealing his transformation from the servants for the time being.
"You know Win, there is something you can do for me."
"What?" My answer was quicker and more eager than was prudent, I'll confess.
Very carefully and deliberately, Tom began to explain. "On the estate there is a man. His name is Bailey. He's the mechanic--"
"Tom, what good's a mechanic going to be for this? Perhaps you should just accede to the butler's request to fetch doctor, at that--"
Frustrated, he nonetheless continued. "Bailey has been, over the past several years, a good...friend to me. And the morning I was first brought in from the encounter I just described to you, he came to visit me, in bed. At that point, I did not have these symptoms, that I just showed you. As far as we knew, I had just been outside too long, and he in a somewhat playful manner, endeavored to...restore me."
"Tom..."
"I was awake for the whole business less than half an hour, and exhausted by the effort, immediately went back to sleep. When I woke up, some hours later, he was gone, and the situation in my groin, such as you just saw, had begun." Now it was my turn to bury my face in my hands. Still unlit, I took the cigarette out of my mouth.
Tom continued. "And I have not seen Bailey since. You see, it could be entirely possible he awoke to find me...in the grip of this condition, and unable to contain his fear, fled. If he did, I need to know that he's not spoken to anyone, either of it, or our prior...previous friendship."
"And what if he saw it, Tom? What if he is frightened? What if he is fleeing or has already fled?"
"Christ," Tom swore and bit his lip. "I don't even want to think of it."
"If you can find him, tell him I want to see him. Tell him I alright. Tell him I am me. That I...care about him."
"All that's rather nice, but you understand, don't you, that if he is terrified of what he encountered in this room, and does not want to hear what I have to say on the matter, there's no way I can manhandle him into coming to you, or doing anything whatsoever? You understand that, don't you?"
Now it was Tom's turn to wither beneath his friend's displeasure. "Oh Win please, just do the best you can. Just let me know where he is and his state of mind. I turned over to him old Mr. Tanner's cottage. You remember where it is?" "Where we took whiskey those nights when we were fourteen, because it was vacant and so far from the house we wouldn't be discovered?"
"Yes, which was precisely why I chose it for him."
Angry, flush, eager to be on my way, I rose so fast that my unsteady leg almost betrayed me. I rounded and started on it.
Finally, Tom smiled. "Oh Win. Thank you so much for this. And thank you for understanding."
There was something about his smile at that moment, even as handsome and meet as it always was, that made my annoyance flash into a rage that I could not silence. "Don't thank me! Don't thank me for any of this! To think, all those nights we lay next to each other, as chaste as nuns, and I would have begged for your touch, because I truly love you, and instead you, hire a servant for it?
Like you would have someone make your eggs and wash your sheets and do your laundry?" I don't know when in this the tears started rolling down my face.
"Am I that loathsome to you? Is my body that distasteful? I was never one of your most athletic friends. Did some of them get your favors too and I not find out about it. All this time, I flattered myself that you loved me! That you could not act on it, but that you loved me! And now I find out it was all, what, pity?"
Hearing all this, Tom's face was more horrified than when he was looking at his transformed cock. There was a very long pause as he worked through what I had said, like it was a troublesome maths problem.
"Win, there is so much we have to talk about. I will tell you everything. Doubt not but that if you can see what you have seen in this room, and still be my friend, you deserve for me to tell you everything. But know this: I do love you. These feelings I have, when they first came upon me, I thought they were the vilest corruption. I thought they were horrible. I thought I was damned. I couldn't stand the thought of corrupting you with them. And as much as I wanted to, the idea of satisfying my lusts on your body was a shame I couldn't bear."
I was wiping away my tears as I stood at the door. "So you hired a mechanic for the purpose?"
"I am on the board of a charity in the east that employed Mr. Bailey. He was arrested for unavisedly soliciting a policeman. The notice was in the papers, he had to be let go, but secretly I offered him employment here, where no one knew his shame, and gave him the chance to start over. He's a good man, at heart. Not the best wit, I'll confess, but a good enough man. If I can't have you."
Slowly I felt my heartsick pathos dissipate. "And Dorothea? He's why she has left and taken the children?"
"Dorothea found the news clipping, and guessed the rest. She has lied to herself more than a little, but in her heart she was always wise to me."
I relented. "Alright then, I'll fetch you your mechanic."
"If anyone asks why you seek Mr. Bailey, just tell them I am asking after arrangements to get the car moved from where I crashed it."
"Oh," I said, raising my eyebrows, "that's a very plausible story."
"You have no idea how practiced I have become at making them up."
With that, not bearing to say any more, I opened the door and exited onto Fitzroy's upstair hall. I almost ran headlong into Peterson and one of the footmen, each bearing a breakfast tray under a silver cloche.
"Sir, we have your and Mr. Fitzroy's breakfasts ready."
"That is quite alright, Peterson. Mr. Fitzroy is asking after his car and wants me to see to it immediately, and in any case somehow I have lost my appetite."
+
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
Sunday, June 18, 2023
Good morning, Lovelies. Prepare to be Victorious and Lauded for your efforts, today!
Tarot of the Day: Six of Wands
This Six heralds triumph, victory, and success in your endeavours. You may have been inundated with troubles and worried that you are overmatched by them but, this Six indicates that you will have a victorious overcoming of the hurdles you have been jumping and the dragons you have been slaying.
It is also a gentle reminder that grace and magnanimity should accompany your success. Ensure you don’t get so lost in your celebrations that you alienate the ones who supported and believed in you; give credit where it’s owed and deserved.
💚 At work, the Six of Wands heralds an increase in remuneration or recognition. Both are currency; spend it and save it wisely.
💙 If your relationship; or lack of of one, is your focus, today, take heart. This card shows barriers being overcome and a close and happy bond.
🧡 Wherever the Six speaks to you, the message is the same: you are where you are because you slay dragons, overcome demons, and do the right thing. Embrace the sense of accomplishment and joy, and share it. The world needs the gifts that only YOU can offer.
Gun a-màireach (until tomorrow), Lovelies
Peace out
28 notes
·
View notes
Text
WIP Sunday
Tagged by @nightwingshero
My first time writing smut. Feel free to critique. Honesty is always good. Not proofread.
Tagging no pressure of course @neverthesameneveranother @trench-rot @turbo-virgins @deputyshaw
@havingsomemorejohnlarks @wrathfulrook @poisonedtruth @redreart @g0dspeeed @strangefable @socially-awkward-skeleton @purplehairsecretlair @hopecountyisforlovers @josephseedismyfather @voidika @direwombat @deputyash @inafieldofdaisies @beautiful-delirium @baldurrs @inquisitors-grave @aceghosts anyone else I may have missed.
Smut under the read more
My First, My Only
JohnxEsther
John sat hunched over his desk, irritated. There was always so much work to be done for the project. It was ceaseless and exhausting. And though he was excited to marry Esther, Joseph had somehow managed to translate the happy occasion into even more work for him.
As much as John was happy to be the face of the project he sometimes resented the artifice of it. Nothing in his life was just his. It reminded him of his childhood. The sports, and clubs. Parties and tutors and private lessons. Dance, voice and music. All of it for the benefit of his parents. So they could parade him around like a show pony and show the world what wonderful parents they were. Look how smart our boy is and handsome and talented. How lucky he is that we chose him.
Sometimes it felt the same with Joseph. Fake for the benefit of the project. And it seemed this would be for the project as well. Everything for the project. A marriage of one the heralds should be celebrated. Nevermind how he felt about it. Never anything that he could say was just his.
He took off his glasses, eyes tired from the strain of reading the many notes and plans laid out across his normally tidy desk. Sinking back into his chair, pinching the bridge of his nose he yawned.
Small hands squeezed his shoulders, attempting to rid him of the tension there. He moaned softly, grinning.
"I didn't hear you come in little bumblebee."
Esther leaned forward wrapping her arms around him. Her hand reached under his shirt raking her nails lightly across his chest. "It's late hummingbird. Come to bed."
She nipped at his ear, her hand gradually making its way down his chest. He pulled her hand away squeezing her wrist harder than he intended. He normally enjoyed her teasing. The make outs and heavy petting made him feel like stupid needy teenager again. But not tonight.
He growled a little as he stood. "Fine. I'll come to bed but just stop okay. Please."
She followed close behind as he headed upstairs to their bedroom. She sat on the bed and watched him change to finally get some sleep. He sighed heavily glancing over at her. Taking note of the confused, dejected look on her face.
"I'm sorry Esther. It's just been a very long day." Sitting beside her he played with the of her nightie idly. "I love you but I'm just really not in the mood to be teased."
Grinning wryly, she pulled herself closer to him till she was nestled in his lap, to straddle him. Her hands trailing his bare chest. "Who said I was teasing hummingbird."
Peppering soft kisses along his neck, she rocked her hips, pressing against his already hardening length. He thrust his hips involuntarily, gripping her tightly.
"I thought you wanted to wait? His voice was husky with restrained desire. "I don't want you to regret this, to give me anything you're not not ready to give."
She stopped her kisses, looking up at him. The blue of his eyes nothing but thin rings surrounding blown pupils.
"You're the only person I've ever wanted to..." She held his face in her hands. "I don't want to wait. You're the only man I'll ever love. My first...my only."
She leaned back, grabbing at the hem of her nightie, pulling it over her head and tossing it to the floor. Leaving herself bare, she bit her lip, feeling shy and nervous she couldn't speak above a whisper.
"Make love to me John."
He wrapped his arm around her waist, kissing her as he brought his free hand up to cup her full breast. His tongue parted her soft lips exploring her mouth.
She moaned into him when he grazed her pert nipple with his thumb. His other hand trailing from her waist up her back till his fingers tangled in her hair, pulling her head back to kiss and nip at her neck. She gasped when he bit down before running his tongue over the fresh mark to soothe the tender skin.
She raked her fingernails down his back eliciting a sharp hiss from him. He laughed when she fumbled at his waistband, losing her balance and slipping from his lap to the bed.
"No rush little bumblebee."
He moved to lean over her. He ignored his throbbing cock straining against the fabric of his boxer shorts. As much as he wanted to bury himself deep inside her, it'd been too long since he'd slept with someone, he knew he wouldn't last long. And he wanted this to be a good experience for her.
Taking her nipple into his mouth, sucking it, he trailed his hand up her thigh, hooking thumb in the waistband of her ruffled panties to pull them off.
She made a strangled little noise when he caught her nipple between his teeth biting lightly. Watching him as he kissed a trail of fire down to her abdomen, whining when he stopped to look at her, grinning that frustrating smug grin of his. Mischief in his eyes.
He was teasing her, licking and kissing her thigh and stomach. Everywhere but where she most wanted him. Enjoying the way she squirmed beneath him, her skin flushing with arousal.
"John...please" she pleaded.
He ran his fingers up her slick folds pausing to rub small circles over her clit with not nearly enough pressure, before slipping a finger inside. Slowly moving it in and out, till he found just the right spot to make her thrust her hips into his hand.
"Oh God yes"
He wet his lips, eager to taste her as ran his tongue over her clit, adding another finger. Working them inside her while he lapped and sucked. Her hands went to his head, her fingers gripping his hair as she felt her orgasm slowly build.
His free hand pressed against her thigh to hold her in place while he worked to bring her closer and closer to the edge. His own growing need aching as she panted, and moaned.
"Yes...god yes... JOHN!"
She tensed, her back arching, her hands fisting in his hair pulling harshly.
Her breath was shaky as she slowly came down, her grip on his hair releasing, jerking when he occasionally lightly flicked his tongue over her swollen and sensitive clit.
He moved away from her removing his fingers to lewdly lick them clean. She sat up on her elbows watching him slip his underwear off, releasing his cock precum already glistening on the tip. She swallowed hard, eyes widening and bit her lip. Nervous, it was larger and thicker than she expected.
Seeing her hesitation he leaned forward kissing her lightly and whispering.
"We can stop here Esther." His voice was hoarse, his gaze meeting hers. "It's okay really. If you're not ready."
Her skin shone, her hair a wild tangled mess, plastering her mouth to his, pulling him down with her as she lay back. Opening his mouth with her tongue eliciting a deep groan from him.
His hand on her breast, his thumb grazing her nipple, he settles between her legs. The thick head of his hard cock pressed against her opening, he freezes.
"Yes" she moans into his mouth, cradling his hips with her thighs. Overwhelmed by sensation somewhere between pain and pleasure as he slowly slides into her.
Pulling away from the kiss to whisper, his breath hot against the shell of her ear, sending shivers down her spine.
"Are you alright?" He sounded as though he were fighting for control, to hold himself in check. As if took all of his will to do so. Searching her face for any sign of doubt or hesitation. She raked her nails over his chest, arching beneath him to bring him deeper inside.Her velvety walls warm and wet around him.
"Fuck...so...tight." he made a strangled noise deep in his throat.
His head dropping to the crook of her neck to nip and bite at the soft flesh. Swiping his tongue over each new mark left by his devouring mouth. Reaching his hand between their bodies to find her already oversensitive clit, rubbing it in small circles.
She cried out, lost in the feeling that he was now hers, and she his. Entirely, utterly and completely. Their sweat slick bodies sliding together, his thrusts gaining a steady tempo, her hips moving to meet his pace.
Knowing he wouldn't last much longer his fingers worked her clit as he kissed her again. Deep, demanding, dominating. Claiming her, allowing himself to be claimed mind, body and soul by her.
Her moans and cries grew as fire pooled deep in her belly. A string of expletives and blasphemous declarations escaping her sweet mouth, bucking against him. Her muscle pulled taut, her head thrown back as she came undone beneath him.
Her walls pulsed and fluttered tightly around him like a vice grip. Almost painfully drawing a fierce growl from him. His thrusts losing their rhythm as his own climax approached.
He cried out, her name falling from his lips like a desperate needy prayer as he suddenly stilled. Shuddering, buried deep inside her, filling her to the brim.
They stayed like that, panting heavily, their faces glowing from sweet release, till his arms gave out and he collapsed beside her.
Drowsy from the exertion, he drew the covers up around them as he pulled her close. Basking in the hazy afterglow, both smiling dreamily as she nuzzled his neck. Eventually drifting off to sated, contented slumber.
#oc:esther seed#john seed#fic:roses on my barren soul#smut#now let me go hide in the corner#embarrassed 😳😳😳
28 notes
·
View notes
Text
Remembering Kurt Cobain 🕊🤍🙏
(20 February 1967 - 5 April 1994)
Kurt Cobain was an American rock musician who rose to fame as the lead singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter for the seminal grunge band Nirvana. Through his angst-fueled songwriting and anti-establishment persona, Cobain's compositions widened the thematic conventions of mainstream rock music. He was often heralded as a spokesman of Generation X (a title that he was never comfortable with) and is considered to be one of the most influential musicians in the history of alternative rock.
Kurt greatly admired Freddie Mercury and Queen at an impressionable age and even blamed the band for car troubles….
There were songs that Kurt wanted to listen to repeatedly until the car battery ran out. In most cases he knew the words by heart. His favorite album was Queen's 'News Of The World', one song in particular struck him: 'We Are The Champions'.
Cobain said: “My father’s idea of a father-and-son day out would be to take me to work on Saturdays and Sundays and I would sit in his office while he went and counted logs. It’s really a quite exciting weekend. I drew pictures, I made prank phone calls….And then I would take a nap in the van and listen to Queen — “News of the World” on eight-track, over and over again, and drain the battery on the van. Then we’d be stuck. That happened a few times — we’d get stuck after work with a dead battery because I listened to Queen too much.”
It was widely known by his friends and fans that he suffered deeply from depression and drug addiction. Tragically, after several years of critical acclaim with Nirvana, Cobain took his own life on April 5, 1994. His body was discovered by an electrician who was installing a security system in his home several days later.
He left a suicide letter found stabbed to a pile of potting soil with a red ballpoint pen nearby his body in the greenhouse on his Lake Washington property.
He made a heartbreaking reference to the legendary Freddie Mercury:
“When we're back stage and the lights go out and the manic roar of the crowds begins, it doesn't affect me the way in which it did for Freddie Mercury, who seemed to love, relish in the the love and adoration from the crowd which is something I totally admire and envy.
The fact is, I can't fool you, any one of you. It simply isn't fair to you or me. The worst crime I can think of would be to rip people off by faking it and pretending as if I'm having 100% fun.
Sometimes I feel as if I should have a punch-in time clock before I walk out on stage. I’ve tried everything within my power to appreciate it (and I do, God, believe me I do, but it's not enough). I appreciate the fact that I and we [Nirvana] have affected and entertained a lot of people.
It must be one of those narcissists who only appreciate things when they're gone. I'm too sensitive. I need to be slightly numb in order to regain the enthusiasms I once had as a child.” 🥺
The Cobain Estate released a picture Kurt drew of Freddie Mercury while he was on tour in Europe on 23rd November 1991, the day it was announced that Mercury had contracted HIV and was suffering from AIDS
#freddie mercury#queen band#brian may#j’adore#roger taylor#jhon deacon#musique#music#queen#original character
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Six Sentence "Sunday" (or rather Tuesday)
Thanks @a-world-of-whimsy-5 and @niennawept for the tags! I know I'm incredibly late (as some of you know I'm currently unfortunately forced to take things slow), but I didn't want to leave this one unanswered!
Snippet under the cut - it's not smut, but leading up to it.
It wasn't the first time they found themselves in a situation like this. They'd had many encounters in the past that their peers on both sides would find strange, yet an unspoken understanding had slowly blossomed between them. Eönwë had tried his usual spiel in the beginning, the kind of pompous and pretentious words one would expect from the Elder King's banner-bearer and herald, but Gothmog had never been impressed with him; and soon both had realized that they wanted different things altogether.
While Eönwë felt oddly attracted to the idea that a powerful warrior spirit like himself could so easily withstand his authority and even usurp it, Gothmog was very much intrigued by the prospect of making such a proud creature submit to him. Whenever they met, it was a game of him trying to break down the facade while the heroic herald did his best to resist, be it for his conscience or his own enjoyment, before he ultimately gave in.
This time, Gothmog had won swiftly.
Open tag (for next Sunday, if you prefer that)!
6 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Joy Hester (1920 – 1960) was an Australian artist. She was a member of the Angry Penguins movement and the Heide Circle who played an integral role in the development of Australian Modernism. Hester is best known for her bold and expressive ink drawings. Her work was charged with a heightened awareness of mortality due to the death of her father during her childhood, the threat of war, and her personal experience with Hodgkin's Disease.
In 1938 Hester met fellow artist Albert Tucker and began living with him intermittently in East Melbourne. During the same year Hester became a founding member of the Contemporary Art Society (CAS), exhibiting with them annually. Hester met Melbourne-based art patron Sunday Reed in 1939 at the Herald Exhibition, which brought British and French artworks to Australia for the first time. The two became friends, with Reed nurturing Hester’s artistic talent. Spending much of her time at Heide with Sunday and her husband John Reed, Hester became a member of the Heide Circle. She was a contemporary of Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, Charles Blackman, John Perceval, Yosl Bergner and Danila Vassilieff during this period. The Heide Circle worked as an extension of the Angry Penguins magazine. Hester was the only woman to be featured in the Angry Penguins publication.
By the mid 40s, Hester relinquished her interest in oil painting to concentrate solely on watercolor and inks. Her focus shifted towards the motif of the human face, specifically the expression in the eyes. Using minimal and assertive ink strokes, she rendered her figures with emotional intensity. A Frightened Woman (1945) served as a seminal point in establishing Hester’s style and media moving forward. Hester works aimed to capture the psychological horror of World War II.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_Hester
13 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Angel Gabrielle heralds the arrival of Christ but also the prior arrival of the antichrist.
What an incredible episode!
Yes, she's coming soon, and all the very detailed Beth and Daryl call-backs, of which there are too many to count, just show us that all the signs are there, as Daryl said!
I'm going to focus on what comes next in this post more than the obvious repeats of their story.
Having Father Gabrielle be the very first thing we see was symbolically huge.
So is the fact that Seth will be with Emily in France on resurrection Sunday at comic con, I'll go into that a bit later.
I'm going to break down the meaning of this introductory scene because it tells us what comes next.
We first see Gabrielle's face as he looks upward after hearing the sound of a helicopter flying overhead.
The helicopter 🚁 symbolism In this show is always a depiction of God or a celestial body from the spiritual realm.
Here it's depicting God giving the Angel Gabrielle, a message.
As Gabriel said in 509, we look at what is unseen because what is unseen is eternal. We don't actually see the helicopter, so it's a hint at its eternal nature.
To understand what they are showing us here, we need to know a little about the angel Gabrielle.
In the Bible, the angel Gabrielle is known as the messenger Angel.
Gabrielle is given a message by God to go tell Mary that she is going to have a baby and that baby would be the saviour of the world - Christ.
Gabriel is the one that brings or heralds the Good News (music box) of the coming Christ.
This very first scene of episode 105 - The ones who live - is depicting that message and Beth's arrival to come soon.
The good news music box is about to play again...
Gabriel then kills a walker, which represents the fall of mankind.
Christ's sacrifice will remove the fall and bring redemption for those who accept the cure, so this message Gabriel gets, is about defeating death, and that's symbolised by his message the double edge sword defeating this walker.
The tool used to defeat death is Christ's sacrifice, which is the word of God, or good news, and it's symbolic of a two edged sword.
The other thing that Angel Gabriel is known for is interpreting a vision for the prophet Daniel about the end times.
That vision is known as the vision of the Ram and the Goat from Daniel 8.
A Ram is a male sheep, and we definitely got some more in your face, Ram/sheep symbolism in this episode.
I've talked about the sheep and the goat judgements of the Millennial kingdom quite a lot recently.
Well, this vision plays into that same theme...
It's symbolic and important, so I highly suggest you read more about it first, and this will make more sense.
Read more on the sheep and goats info I've already covered here and here
This vision that Daniel has is interpreted by the angel Gabriel, and its meaning is about the coming 7 year antichrist Kingdom, which is followed by the Millennial kingdom of Christ.
To represent this vision, we see Gabriel hear the helicopter a second time 🚁
He is getting a second message from God, and this second message is about the coming antichrist kingdom and the millennial kingdom to follow...
It's no coincidence that as this second message gets delivered, Gabriel starts saying the Lords prayer.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, THY KINGDOM COME, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
This prayer is a prayer that asks God to come back and set up his Millennial kingdom on earth. So it's referencing the return of Christ, which by extension references the antichrist kingdom that comes first.
This vision of Daniel's that Gabriel interprets, shows what the antichrist will do when he is in power for 7 years.
As I've already talked about, the A's (non followers) are killed, while the followers of antichrist take the mark of the Beast, which will circle around to be what begins the Zombie outbreak to begin with.
The Pharmakon "cure" is the poison
The beginning is the end.
One other thing Daniel's vision portrays is that the antichrist will also commit what's called the abomination that causes desolation, this is an act that is linked to sacrificing a pig (which is considered unclean) in the temple of God, and while doing this, he declares himself to be god.
What's this got to do with the walking dead?
Well, we have already seen a depiction of this in season 4. Believe it or not, it's related to the pig called Violet.
Purple or violet is the colour of royalty, so the pig called violet that Rick sacrificed was a depiction of this vision.
We know that team Violet played a part in the beginning of the outbreak, and ultimately, playing god (violet) and making humans (the temple of God/made in his image) unclean (pig) will be the abomination that is the beginning of it all.
Carl calls the pig violet, and Rick tells him not to name them. They're food (a hint at the cannibalism aspect of the abomination)
We see Carl tell Lizzy almost the exact same thing about the walkers. Don't name them. They're not pets, and they're not people.
Violet seems unwell, and we get our first look at the first symptoms of what this mark of the beast does...
We see Rick feed the violet pigs to the walkers (cannibals), the duel symbolism of this abomination circles back on itself.
There are two kingdoms at play here, and both Christ and the antichrist are linked to the colour purple.
One is God, and the other wants to be god, so he declares himself god and creates a new species in his image.
That's why the pig in season 4 is called violet, and that's why team Violet had a hand in starting the outbreak to being with. They play god and cause human abominations that are no longer human, as Dr Jenner from the CDC says.
And that's where the A and the B, sheep and goat symbolism comes in again. 🐑 🐐
A's are labelled as such because they aren't followers of the Antichrist, don't take the violet unclean mark so they get killed.
B's are followers, so they live.
The same but opposite it true for the Millennial kingdom.
A's are labelled as such because they aren't followers of Christ. They took the unclean violet mark, so they aren't allowed into the Millennium kingdom.
B's are followers so they live.
The symbolism for both kingdoms is so similar that it's given to both the CRM and team family at the same time in this show.
The antichrist mimics Christ with a false light.
2 Corinthians 11.14
And no wonder, since Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
While Beth and Rick have Christ symbolism, they also have antichrist symbolism.
One thing that happens to the Antichrist is that he receives a fatal wound to the head but is healed from it, and this miraculous healing will make the whole world follow him.
So you see, the two kingdoms are being mirrored at the same time in this show.
Now we suddenly have purple connected to Beth on Resurrection Sunday.
On that, I want to talk about light
John 12 Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
We know Beth has been described as light before, so I want to look at the light colour spectrum.
Purple is the Royal colour, but it's also the colour associated with the return of the King.
The quickest frequency of light is purple...
12 “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”
Emily at ComicCon in France, depicted with purple and on resurrection Sunday is huge, add to that she's with Gabriel, means Beth will take part in either a real cure or a fake cure.
Which one, we will have to wait and see...
#team delusional#team defiance#bethyl#team beth lives#beth greene#beth is alive#beth is coming#beth greene lives#td#beth x daryl#end times#mark of the beast#beginning and end#angel gabriel
12 notes
·
View notes
Text
Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence: The difference for me, personally, was I was determined to stay in the Navy and I was able to do that. That gave me a career in addition to supporting my wife for many years.
By Robert Hardman | Published 17 August 2019
There has always been an other-worldly quality to Tintagel Castle, the mighty fortress of Arthurian legend which straddles its clifftop ravine on the North Cornish coast.
Last Sunday, the two sides were reunited for the first time in centuries thanks to a new £5million bridge straight out of a fantasy novel.
It was in Tudor times that the narrow strip of land which once connected the mainland part of 'King Arthur's Castle' to its island citadel fell into the sea.
Since then, any visitors have been forced to scale 148 steps cut in to the rock. For the old and infirm, it was out of the question.
Now, though, Tintagel is reunited — much to the relief of the locals. Up to a quarter of a million tourists each year are now expected to use this 21st century drawbridge — as I have just done.
With a gentle bounce underfoot and an alarming gap in the middle, it is an exhilarating experience.
But this crossing also heralds an important new era for many of this country's greatest historic treasures. And supervising it all is the Queen's son-in-law.
Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, husband of the Princess Royal, is one of the most low-profile members of the Royal Family but, as chairman of English Heritage, he is in charge of some of the most famous structures in the world.
He is the chief custodian of more than 400 hallowed national sites — ranging from Stonehenge and the Battlefield of Hastings to Shropshire's Iron Bridge and Osborne House — not to mention all those blue plaques on the homes of bygone greats.
On his watch, the whole lot has been turned into a new charity. And it has never attempted anything quite like the new bridge to 'King Arthur's Castle'.
So, ahead of the opening, I sat down for a rare and wide-ranging interview with the boss to discuss a range of issues, from government subsidies and HS2 to marrying in to the Royal Family, the prospects of a new Royal Yacht ('not now') and the pain of losing friends on active service.
What is instantly clear is that Sir Tim is much more than a figurehead. 'We're very ambitious.
We want to do things that are a bit spectacular,' he tells me as we study the plans for Tintagel. 'This is a leap. The whole point about it is accessibility.'
He recalls his first visit to Tintagel, negotiating the cliff in deep winter. 'I first went down on a wet January day and I think it's one of the most dangerous things I've ever done climbing down those steps!'
People had been mulling over the idea of a bridge for years, to no avail, until Sir Tim's arrival.
He got in touch with his friends Julia and Hans Rausing, members of the Swedish Tetra Pak clan, though he is modest about his part.
'I know the Rausing family and made an initial contact,' he says. The family trust made a generous grant of £2.5 million, the largest in the organisation's history. What had been a nebulous idea could suddenly take shape.
One might expect to find a risk-averse, steady-as-she-goes approach from a retired admiral in charge of a lot of old buildings (particularly one whose official address is Buckingham Palace).
Sir Tim, however, speaks frankly and clearly feels he is on a mission — against the clock.
He was appointed chairman of English Heritage as it was being cut loose from the state.
Pre-2015, it had been a public sector body with two roles: running historic sites such as Old Sarum and Audley End but also acting as the planning regulator for all listed buildings.
Then the Government split it up. A new state agency, Historic England, took on the regulation while all the historic sites went to a charity under Sir Tim.
It would retain the 'English Heritage' title but was given a grant of £80 million to get started. After that, it would be on its own.
Since most of English Heritage's sites — hill forts, remote ruins and so on — are open and free, it falls to a minority of paying landmarks such as Tintagel to subsidise the rest.
'When we get to the end of our capital grant in 2023, we've got to produce enough running income to cover our running costs plus additional income to invest,' says Sir Tim.
He might talk like the chairman of a FTSE100 company but his position at English Heritage is unpaid.
Yet he clearly loves it and has just been appointed for a second four-year term. And he is not afraid to get political defending his patch.
For example, he is adamant that the Government should slash VAT on conservation work.
'I would love to see VAT reduced on historic buildings. We've been fighting that battle for a long time.
'It would make a huge difference to the historic fabric of this country and it would provide a lot of extra jobs.'
He rattles off tourism statistics — £30 billion gross added value to the economy — and wishes ministers would listen. 'I'm pleading on behalf of the historic environment.
'I don't think the Government is "anti" but I think it could be more "pro". This is not a loss to the Treasury. There are benefits to the Treasury.'
He is also a fan of big, contentious projects such as the proposed road tunnel beneath Stonehenge and HS2.
'I'm supportive of HS2 — so long as we can do it in a way that is sympathetic to the countryside — because I believe very strongly in linking the North and the South of the United Kingdom.'
Having risen to the top of the Royal Navy during his 37-year career, Sir Tim has taken a number of public and private sector roles.
Aged 64, he maintains a schedule on a par with that of his famously busy wife (with 518 public duties in 2018, the Princess Royal still tops the Royal Family's league table of engagements).
Until his term of office finished this summer, Sir Tim was also vice-chairman and de facto head of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission which maintains the memorials and graves of 1.7 million men and women all over the world.
There, too, he ushered in a programme of innovations. The son of a Royal Navy officer who served in World War I, Sir Tim is keen to ensure we never forget those killed in all conflicts.
In 1982, he was serving as navigation officer in the destroyer HMS Sheffield, when he was summoned to Northern Ireland to lead a maritime patrol against IRA gun-runners.
In his absence, Sheffield headed to the South Atlantic without him. On May 4, 1982, she became the first major casualty of the Falklands War when an Argentine Exocet missile killed 20 men and sent the ship to the bottom of the sea. 'I vividly remember watching the news,' he says.
'My first thoughts were of friends. Several officers were killed, all of whom I knew.'
They are always in his mind when he attends the Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph (a monument which, oddly, is maintained by English Heritage rather than the War Graves Commission).
At the age of 28, Lieutenant Laurence received a Mention in Despatches for his work in Northern Ireland and was marked out for higher things.
He was seconded to be Equerry to the Queen in 1986 (meeting his future wife in the process) before returning to sea in command of his own frigate.
In December 1992, he married the Princess Royal in a low-key winter ceremony at Balmoral (a moment of respite at the end of what the Queen had, days earlier, called her 'annus horribilis').
'Everybody who marries a member of the Royal Family has to craft their own way of doing things,' says Sir Tim.
'There's no book of how to behave when you marry the Royal Family.' The experience has left him with a deep admiration for two royal consorts.
'I'm a huge fan of Prince Albert. He designed and built Osborne with William Cubitt. He also designed and built Balmoral Castle.
He had an incredible mind. Bearing in mind how young he was when he died and what he achieved, he was an extraordinary man.'
So is Albert his inspiration? He smiles and points to a more recent role model. 'I think I've gained more from the Duke of Edinburgh obviously because I know him very well.
He is somebody who has supported the Monarch, but also done a huge amount in his own right.
Think of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme and the number of young people who have been through that.'
The Duke had been one of the Navy's rising stars when the sudden death of George VI put a stop to all that.
Sir Tim has great sympathy for his father-in-law. 'The difference for me, personally, was I was determined to stay in the Navy and I was able to do that.
That gave me a career in addition to supporting my wife for many years. It was suggested that the Duke should leave the Navy when the Queen became Monarch.
'I think, looking back, it might have been possible for him to stay for a bit which might have been good. But anyway, that's what happened.'
Sir Tim's first close encounter with the Royal Family came during a short stint in Britannia as a young 'season' officer.
He joined the Royal Yacht in the Gulf in 1979, with an early setback. 'I came back through the Suez Canal on my back because I'd picked up a stomach bug in Saudi Arabia.' His favourite memories are simply of making an entrance.
'The impact of the Royal Yacht coming in with the Queen on board is unbelievable,' he says.
It is now more than 20 years since Britannia was decommissioned to become a tourist attraction in Leith. Millions of us would dearly love to see a replacement.
Sir Tim thinks it could be a long wait. 'I don't think, at the moment, it could work,' he says. 'I won't say that it won't in the future because the tradition of royal yachts goes back to Charles II.
'The Queen is probably not going to do trips in the way that she has done in Britannia in the past. In a new reign, perhaps the moment may come when they say: 'Well, come on, We're a maritime nation.
'We are good at the sea. We connect with the world through the sea. Perhaps we should have a ship in some form that can represent our nation overseas.'
Britannia, like the monarchy, the English language and so much else — including our great historic sites — are examples of soft power. So do we make the most of them?
'Probably not. I think we could make more of them,' Sir Tim reflects.
'The story that we try to tell through our English Heritage properties is of a nation developing from its roots, developing the rule of law, developing good governance, developing civilised structures.
'I think that is something which most countries overseas appreciate more than many people in Britain actually.'
He points to some conversations he had during this summer's state visit at the Palace.
'I spoke to several people in President Trump's camp who appreciate what Britain has contributed and can contribute.'
Does it bother him when, say, a hectic royal tour with the Princess goes unnoticed back home?
As one who never sought the limelight in the first place, he is relaxed. 'My observation of those trips is that they have an impact overseas, which is very significant and not always appreciated.
'There's a great poem called the Laws Of The Navy, written in about 1900. One of the verses is: 'If you win through an African jungle/ unmentioned at home in the Press/ Trouble not, no man sees the piston/ But it driveth the ship, none the less.' I love that.
Sometimes you have to go overseas and do your bit and just accept that people won't notice it. It's part of life — as frustrating as the fact that it rains on Mondays!'
So what next after spanning the chasm at Tintagel Castle? Sir Tim is keen to see a broader range of names on Britain's blue plaques. As for new sites, he'd like to take on some 'brilliant' old Lancashire cotton mills, despite friendly competition with the National Trust.
And he would dearly love to house the Bayeux Tapestry at a purpose-built site at the Battle of Hastings in Sussex when it makes its long-awaited first visit to Britain in the next few years.
He sees no reason why the capital should hog it. 'It's good for people to get out of London — and Battle is not that far.' He also wants to see English Heritage push its £5-a-month membership scheme — with free entry to all sites — over the one million mark.
Some might lament the fact that great landmarks such as Stonehenge, the Cenotaph or Dover Castle depend on rattling a tin.
Sir Tim sees it as an opportunity: 'It's much clearer, now that we are a charity, for people to know what they are giving money to and how we're using it.'
At Tintagel, the results are plain to see. Sir Tim believes the new bridge would probably never have happened in the days of state control. 'It would have been difficult,' he says. 'We needed the independence of thought.'
Walking across the slate-lined pathway over the dizzying void — in fact it consists of two bridges with a three-inch gap in the middle for thermal expansion — I have no doubt this will be a splendid addition to the Cornish landscape.
Project manager Reuben Briggs points to the steel 'dampers' which will prevent a wobble like that which plagued London's Millennium Bridge and says that the design can withstand a hurricane.
The main problem I foresee will be the queues flocking to pay homage to King Arthur, Sir Lancelot, Sir Galahad and the other knights of the Round Table.
Being gallant chaps, I trust they'll make a space for Sir Tim.
46 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
markusbellyround
belly Markus round
hollywoodrppsa
! PSA !
best-lock-screens
Lock Screens
fandomfoodiedancer
Thought I'd be happy but I'm barely breathing
mattidwan
les réflexions du noir