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saintgoths · 18 days

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ʀɪᴅᴇ ᴀ ᴄᴏᴡʙᴏʏ

ARTHUR MORGAN, SIMON GHOST RILEY AND JOEL MILLER.

SOME PEOPLE MIGHT WONDER WHAT'S GHOST BRITISH ASS HERE FOR AND AHT! IT'S BASED ON HIS COWBOY SKIN.

THIS IS MY THANK YOU FOR 500+ FOLLOWERS POST

WARNING - NASTY SEX, BREEDING KINK AND P!LINKS

ARTHUR MORGAN

He had been so thick you couldn’t help but bite down on the pillow, this isn’t the first time you had him but whenever Arthur was inside of you, you could feel the way you had stretched to adjust to his size, normally when you had fucked men who were in fact bigger than you it was painful, but Arthur, Arthur knew how to use it, to stir you into a swirl of lustful craziness and break you into a whimpering mess.

As reflex, you had tightened around him, your cunt hot as the friction of his beginning motion began to quicken, and when you felt the arch of his cock slip deeper into you, you couldn’t help but push out a trembling sigh. “Oh fuck!” You had moaned, already overstimulated by his embrace, Arthur continued to rock his hips, focused to aid you to reach your high, he had been keen on your every movement, how you would further your arch whenever the tip of his shaft kissed a soft spot and the way you’d tightly grip the bed sheets when your moans would twist into a higher pitch.

It had always been like this, Arthur would at first be silent when it came to fucking you but as time moved on, he’d become more vocal about how good you felt around him, how tight your sex was and how he only wanted you to himself. Arthur barely showed his possessiveness, in shame you’d make fun of him, but if he was aware of how turned on you’d get whenever you would catch him staring down another suitor or belittle them, unconsciously realising he’d be doing it because he craved you, worshiped you and was a love sick fool.

You tucked your bottom lip behind your teeth as you could feel the pad of his thumb stroke your anus, he knew that always shaped you crazy, how your cunt would become wetter and slippery around his girth and how you’d thoughtlessly hump yourself backwards, greedy for his love and eager to feel his cum fill inside of you. “Like that?” Arthur moaned, his voice deep and throaty, rough like pine cones but lewd like the devil himself. “Like that babygirl?” He’d tease and when you’d nod your head, he would move his other hand to your hair, pulling you closer to him while he continued to move his hips forwards.

“Take me,” he whispered into your ear, your eyes blurry as you could feel tears coat your eyes, he was so big, but felt so good, “Take me,” he’d echo while his other hand would slip to one of your breasts, his palm cupped over it as he would circle the nub of your nipple with his thumb and finger. “That’s it,” he’d sooth as your body shook against his. Your moans embarrassingly soared as your nectar would coat around his length and spill against the bed sheets. “That’s it, good girl, cum for me, good girl, yeah? You’re my good girl,” he’d hum as he would continue to fuck you, your mouth wet with your own saliva as you had attempted to sum up words.

Yet, you had sounded so futile, senseless as he fucked his orgasm into you, his semen so hot and filling you had felt some of it leak down your thighs, but you were rapacious, desiring excessively for more of him that when he pulled himself out, you helped his level his wet and sticky cock to your arse.

REFERENCE

SIMON 'GHOST' RILEY

You had lost count on how many times he has made you climaxed under this one showdown, he had just returned back home, impatient but smooth with how he handled you, prior to his return you had sent your boyfriend a plethora of lewd images that had commenced him to fall into his sensual pit, the moment he stepped through the door and closed the exit behind him, he put down his bag and kissed you. Telling you how much he’d take care yet ravage you, and he had always kept his promises.

With his hand underneath your knee, he had continuously rocked his hip forward, with his width had consumed you, you couldn’t help but fall limp within his touch, over-stimulated by the excessive pleasure, you looked at him with watered eyes as you had cried out pleasured wails. “Keep doing that! Keep doing that!” You repeated before he started to moan through your nose you had yelped once you had felt his hand slap against your buttocks.

“Yeah! Oh!” You cried out, beguiled with the hot and dark look that shaded his eyes you had been completely enamoured that he had taken off his mask, revealed everything to you, his body, his scars and the beautiful and comely look he had on his face that had infatuated you every time you took a look at him, you couldn’t believe he was yours, just yours, allowing you to use him for your pleasure as he did to you, he had felt so painfully good you’d whimper whenever you’d feel him slip out of you, dangerously craving for him to fill you up with his cock, there’d be a glint that would briskly sparkle in his eyes once he’d be aware with how much you had wanted him.

“Look at you,” he’d mutter, his heavy voice buried and profound which had set you into another wave of thrill, he had known just the sound of his voice would make you cum and he’d tease you with a comment there and then, but the second he would be set to talking to you while fucking his cock so broad and deep into you, the hearth and wetness of your cunt would profoundly coat his length, making his movements more polished and slick as his cock would begin to throb.

“Taking me like that, you’re such a good girl,” he’d mutter and with your mouth wide open you could feel another crest of orgasm influx and attempt to peak. “You like that? Me fucking you like this, huh?” He’d poke and with a quick nod and eluding words you had gripped your bed sheets, your opening hot as your nectar.

Your eyes tightly screwed shut as you climaxed, agreeing to everything he would say to you. “No one fucked you like this before huh?”

“No! no!” You’d whine, relieved as you would feel his fluids seep into you, his hand that had been under your legs had softened and eventually he pulled himself out of you, his chest heavily moving up and down as he caught his breath fore pressing his lips against your mouth, with a short moan, you had placed your hand against his chest as you returned his embrace, but when you had pulled away, you had looked into his eyes. “Let’s do it again tomorrow.”

“You will be the death of me,” he smiled before he kissed your nose and laid beside you.

REFERENCE

JOEL MILLER

He needed this release, so much pent-up stress and anger he had unconsciously desired to fuck out and you had been there, like a gift for his much tenacious and unyielding force. He had been unsure if you would want him, but the way your eyes looked when you had noticed the hard bulge he had terribly hid beneath his pants, had sent him the green flag, you had actually been the one to make the first move as you had always wanted to fuck him.

He was so big and strong, and you loved the sight of his muscled arms, his muscles arms that had now hung around your waists as you had bounced on his cock, mouth wide open as you had struggled to make noise due to how engulfed you were. You had felt the way his hands had now been placed on your hips as he aided you up and down his length, your sex glazing his cock with its fluids, overwhelmed by how the curve of his cock stroked against your spot, your cunt which had countlessly clenched around him in response to his rugged embrace had commenced you to dig your nails into his muscled chest.

The sounds were so bawdy and erotic, the wet racy noises that were being made by each other’s movements had heated Joel into a further passion, how your breast bounced and how you moved your hips forward as you continuously searched for your orgasm, you were like a bunny in a fever, exposed how much lust you had for him bottled up had moved Joel into an ardent and wistful state, how he had possessively clung onto you as your moans sang into his ears.

“That’s right sweetheart, keep fucking me like that,” he’d groan as he’d screw his eyes shut. “Keep going like that---you feel so good, girl,” he’d whine, his tone gruff and throaty as he could feel himself twitch beneath you, aware how you had moved one of his hands towards your breast, helping him give it a good squeeze before you started to roll your hips, your swift movements compelling Joel into a tranced state as he started to jerk his hips upwards.

He had entered a moment of silence, his mouth opened as he carelessly fucked his cock deep into you, his rough movements had helped you to find your voice again and you squealed due to how heavy and thick he had felt inside of you, how the head of his cock licked your sweet spots thus had sent you into a bubbled trance as you had stopped moving, your figure tense as you had allowed Joel to use your body and milk his cum into you, your eyes rolled backwards as your body had jerked and flinched every second to your own orgasm.

“You good there?” Joel had asked with a smirk and with a brief nod, you had collapsed your body against his.

REFERENCE

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penny-anna · 2 days

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another fun fact about hobbits is that they are very xenophobic. this is kinda touched on in the movies w stuff like the joke about Sam not liking 'foreign food' but is more explicit in the books to the degree that Frodo is flat-out racist against humans. (no joke this is a character flaw he has to overcome early in the narrative)

it's a weird case as this is represented as a deep-seated flaw in hobbit society (credit where it's due, Tolkien had his issues (so many issues) but is actually relatively critical of British society, particularly wrt class)

but late on in the book during the Scouring of the Shire the Shire actually is invaded by outsiders and the result is, in part, an uncomfortable reminder that when it comes to human & hobbit interactions the power dynamic is very heavily stacked against hobbits due to the physical size difference between them. (there's a particularly nasty moment in there when one of Saruman's goons refers to them as 'little rat people')

the text ultimately does come down in favour of 'hobbits should be more open to having contact with outsiders but for their own protection the Shire should remain a no humans zone' and on a purely in-universe level I can't really argue with that!

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damn-it-a-hogwarts-legacy-blog · 8 months

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Late Victorian British Fun (and not-so-fun) Facts

I thought others might be interested in my list of little things I've learned while researching the 1890s for my fics. This is by no means a list of things you should do when writing! Even I don't follow absolutely every single thing—I like to think wizarding society deviated quite a bit from muggle society, after all. If you wanna use this list as a reference, go ahead, but you should write whatever makes you happy. This is just for fun, and I'll probably end up writing down more stuff as I remember it—this is all just the stuff I could think of from the top of my head. :)

Basics

The Victorian Era was from 1837 to 1901. The era before was called the Regency Era (think Jane Austen) and the era after was the Edwardian Era (think Downton Abbey).

Love and Marriage

Even though the marriage age was lowered significantly in 1823, most girls still got married between ages 18 and 23.

The social season refers to the summer months from May to August in which the middle and upper classes left their country homes and stayed in London to attend social events, following the royal family. The main purpose was finding someone to marry.

Courtship, the part of a relationship that was most like dating today, only lasted a few months before progressing to being engaged. But it was common for engagement to last much longer. Dating as we know it today wasn't really a thing until after 1900.

Courtship "dates" that weren't in public often consisted of dinner at the woman's house with her parents (private time between the couple was sometimes afforded after dinners).

There was a paradigm shift in attitudes towards marriage; marrying for love became much more common in this era. But marriages were still pragmatic, too! Marriages based purely on love while ignoring the economic and practical aspects were scandalous.

Queen Victoria popularized white wedding dresses as we know them today.

It wasn't until the late Victorian Era that evening weddings became acceptable.

Snakes were a popular motif for engagement rings in the Victorian Era.

Pregnancy and Children

Victorian women were expected to hide all signs of their pregnancy, as it would imply participation in the act required for pregnancy (yeah, lol).

Husbands weren't allowed to be around for the actual act of childbirth, and it was advised he only stay around for 5 minutes afterward.

Anesthesia was first administered in the mid-1800s.

Fathers were often very involved in their children's lives, contrary to popular opinion.

Teenagers haven't changed much since the Victorian Era—our MCs weren't the only troublemakers. :)

Clothing, Personal Care and Fashion

Eyebrows came in all shapes and sizes; no one style appears to have been particularly coveted. The only exception was an aversion to unibrows.

Natural beauty was the name of the Victorian game. As such, makeup was very un-virtuous and was reserved for prostitutes and actors.

That doesn't mean people didn't use any products, however! Salves for the lips, as well as powders and rouges, started becoming popular towards the end of the era.

Perfumes and colognes were kept subtle, but floral scents were very popular amongst both men and women. Again, emphasizing the natural state of the body was seen as very virtuous.

Shapewear was just as popular back then as it is today. Adding or taking away layers of women's undergarments depended on the effect one wanted to have.

Men's undergarments were much simpler, usually consisting of cotton drawers and a long-sleeved undershirt.

Shorter skirts were appropriate for young girls, but as a girl got older, her skirts generally got longer.

School was still relatively uncommon for girls through the end of the era, but school uniforms for girls generally included aprons to protect their clothes.

Very long hair was desirable for Victorian women and was considered very feminine, but wearing that hair loose was not respectable. Bangs (fringes) weren't very popular.

The 1890s introduced the Gibson Girl look that would carry through the Edwardian Era.

Women wearing trousers was not as uncommon as one might think!

Bathing at least once a day was considered essential, but showering was not yet a thing.

Games, Leisure and Sports

Parlour games were very popular with adults at parties. Charades was an especially prevalent game.

Board games were also very popular for both children and adults.

Football (not American football!) became very popular in the Victorian Era amongst men. Croquet was the game of choice for women.

Cemeteries were popular picnicking spots and were more like sculpture gardens than grim reminders of death.

Food and Cooking

Honestly just go watch English Heritage's Victorian videos for an idea of the recipes and foods that were common back then lol. Mrs. Crocombe is a gem.

Breakfast was often a major event for wealthy Victorian Britons.

Ok that's all I can think of for now. I'm sure there's way more I'm missing. If I can come up with enough, I'll do another post at some point lol. Enjoy!

#victorian era #bonus points if you can recognize the bits I've used in my fics lol #ummmm idk what other tags to use oops #hogwarts legacy #references

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copperbadge · 1 year

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I had a very successful and entertaining day today, as you guys can probably tell from the posts I made. There's a few more queued posts of stuff I didn't get to post in-situ, so enjoy that!

Some anecdotes I did not post about from today:

-- I can't remember the last time I queued for a museum. Mostly because if it's not one of "my" museums, like the Field or the Art Institute where I know the best ways in, I'm attending on a weekday deliberately so that I am not amongst the crowds. The line to get into the British Museum was a full block long, but to be fair it only took me ten minutes from opening to get inside. I was mostly amused by the people who a) didn't understand how museum entry works or b) didn't understand how to stand in a line without also blocking foot traffic on the rest of the sidewalk.

-- Almost got in a fight with someone, a definite first for me in a museum. I got salty with a guy who touched a sculpture when he knew he shouldn't, and he got up in my face, and I think genuinely the fact that I knew what the sculpture was called and he didn't confused him so badly he backed down. So if you're looking to defuse a situation via confusion, the phrase "Hey, don't fucking touch the Lamassu and we won't have a problem" worked for me.

-- The British Museum is great but among other issues (looted objects, weird relics of museum-specific imperialism, etc) it does suffer from poor display design in places. I'm okay with that, I kind of like old museums that are a little fucked up, even as I acknowledge that old fucked-up museums also have old fucked-up messaging. They appear to be trying on that front, but they could use a display placard overhaul. At one point I found an object in a case that appeared to be a carved human leg bone, and while I'm not a Bone Specialist there was also absolutely no placard about the bone at all. (I looked it up in the collection later using other objects in the case as reference, and it's just noted as "bone".)

-- I did have a great time overall; I saw most of the museum and then had a fancy meal, as documented. I was especially pleased to get to sample their coronation chicken since I collect tastings of coronation chicken, and I think they either used molasses in it or the bread had some, and either way it's grist for my mill as I start to develop The Chicken Salad War. After lunch I went on the hunt for a few last things, but I could feel myself getting tired and Becoming Unmedicated so I decided to leave a little early, which was the right choice, and gave me a little time to do some exploring.

-- @neil-gaiman did a post a while ago about stuff to see in London which I saved, and while I mostly planned my own journey, I did stop at Atlantis Books on his recommendation, which was well worth it. The woman working the till left me alone until I was ready to buy my book, then praised my choice (always a good move) and made a few minutes' small talk about my visit from America while she was ringing me up. Also I have never seen such a variety of Tarot decks for sale in my life. It was extremely impressive given the entire shop is roughly the size of my bedroom in Chicago.

All in all an excellent day out in London. Tomorrow I'm traveling to meet up with a friend, so probably fewer photos, but day after tomorrow I'm bound for Amsterdam so expect Rijksmuseum photos! I did not get into the Vermeer exhibit sadly, but I still want to see the museum and I'm on a quest for freshly made stroopwaffels and authentic gjetost, so I'm excited for the journey. I thought this trip might be one small anxiety after another -- would I be okay on the plane, would I get on the right trains, etc -- but I'm feeling more confident now, and I think between my early-bird tendencies and the ADHD meds I kicked the jet lag pretty quickly. I'm off to bed in a few, because tomorrow is an early day, so I guess we'll find out then how much I really kicked it....

#sam travels #the cheese tour #british museum

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blueiskewl · 1 year

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The 52-Foot-Long Book of the Dead Papyrus from Ancient Egypt

Egypt has released photos of a newly discovered Book of the Dead from more than 2,000 years ago.

Egyptian officials have released photos of an ancient scroll, the 52-foot-long (16 meters) Book of the Dead papyrus recently discovered in Saqqara. The 10 images show ancient illustrations of gods and scenes from the afterlife, as well as text on the document, which is more than 2,000 years old.

Archaeologists discovered the Book of the Dead papyrus within a coffin in a tomb near the Step Pyramid of Djoser and announced the discovery on Jan. 14 for Egyptian Archaeologists Day, but this is the first time they've released images of the scroll to the public.

It was not unusual for ancient Egyptians to bury the Book of the Dead with the deceased, but they didn't call it that at the time. Rather, modern archaeologists coined the term "Book of the Dead" to refer to a collection of texts that ancient Egyptians thought would help guide the dead in the afterlife.

Papyrus for the dead

The 52-foot-long scroll was found at Saqqara in May 2022. It contains chapters from the Book of the Dead. It was recently restored and translated into Arabic and is now on display at The Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The text is written in hieratic, a script derived from hieroglyphs.

All rolled up

The papyrus was found rolled up in a coffin belonging to a man named Ahmose (not to be confused with a pharaoh who lived in earlier times). The man's name is mentioned in the papyrus about 260 times, the researchers said. He lived around 300 B.C., near the beginning of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a dynasty of pharaohs descended from one of Alexander the Great's generals.

Carefully unrolled

A team of researchers performed extensive conservation work so they could unroll the papyrus. Ahmose's tomb is located south of the step pyramid, built for Djoser, a pharaoh from the third dynasty who ruled from about 2630 B.C. to 2611 B.C. While this pyramid was built long before the time of Ahmose, it wasn't unusual to find Ahmose's tomb there, as people in ancient Egypt sometimes liked to be buried near the pyramids of long dead pharaohs.

Analyzing the scroll

The unrolled papyrus is seen here. It was written in black and red ink, and the quality of the writing indicates that it was written by a professional, researchers said. Despite the size of the scroll, there are longer Book of the Dead texts known from Egypt. For instance, a Book of the Dead papyrus, which is now in the British Museum, was originally 121 feet (37 m) long.

Book of the Dead on display

The unrolled papyrus on display at The Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Ancient illustrations

This Book of the Dead text also contains illustrations. This image appears to show Osiris, the ancient Egyptian god of the underworld. In Egyptian mythology, Osiris' life was ritually restored after he died — something that ancient Egyptians hoped would happen to them in the afterlife.

The deity Osiris

This image shows more details about Osiris. He is shown sitting on a throne while wearing an "Atef" crown, a type of crown often gracing the head of Osiris. There appear to be offerings before him, as well as a creature who may be Ammit, a deity who consumed anyone who was not worthy of being ritually restored in the afterlife.

Husband and wife

This image appears to depict offerings and a scene of a couple venerating Egyptian deities. This couple may be Ahmose and his wife (whose name is not known). Not much is known of Ahmose, but he was wealthy enough to have an elaborate copy of the Book of the Dead made for him.

Leading the cow

A number of scenes are illustrated in this section of the Book of the Dead. At the far left, a cow appears to be led somewhere — perhaps to be given as an offering. A number of images depict boats, which could be used to navigate the underworld.

Weighing against a feather

This close-up shows a creature, possibly Ammit, sitting before Osiris. In ancient Egyptian mythology, the heart of the deceased is weighed against the feather of Maat, a god associated with truth, justice and order. If the person's bad deeds in life were great, their heart would be heavier than the feather, and Ammit would devour the deceased.

By Owen Jarus.

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rebeccathenaturalist · 2 years

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Why Forests Need Salmon

(Originally posted at my blog at https://rebeccalexa.com/why-forests-need-salmon/)

One of my favorite fall activities is to check local streams for salmon runs. Here in the Pacific Northwest, and extending north into Alaska, we have seven species of anadromous Salmonidae: chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta), coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka), pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha), coastal cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii clarkii), and steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss). My favorite run is the chum salmon that run up Ellsworth Creek in southwest Washington each fall, but I’m honestly just happy to see any migrating salmon. And as I hike through stands of ancient western red cedar (Thuja plicata), I like to think about the many ways in which these and other forests need salmon for their ongoing health.

Anadromous fish are those that are born in fresh water, spend much of their adult lives in salt water, and then return to fresh water to spawn. Some, like Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and some populations of American shad (Alosa sapidissima) are iteroparous, meaning they can make this journey multiple times in a lifetime. Pacific salmonids, on the other hand, are semelparous, meaning that they spawn once and then die shortly thereafter. (From here on out I am going to use “salmon” as a general, casual term referring to both the Oncorhynchus species, and the steelhead and cutthroat trout.)

Pacific salmon were originally freshwater fish that inhabited lakes and slow-moving rivers. Somewhere around 25 million years ago, the climate cooled significantly, with average temperatures dropping almost twenty degrees F. We’re not sure at what point after this the salmon began expanding into brackish estuaries and then the Pacific Ocean itself, but when they did they found rich sources of food unlike what they had access to in fresh water. Over time, they evolved a life cycle that let them be born in the relatively safe shelter of freshwater streams, and then go out to the ocean to feast on the banquet found there when they were large enough to have a better chance of survival.

Eventually salmon runs could be found in streams as far inland as eastern Idaho, eastern British Columbia, and the southern two-thirds of Alaska (with some Alaskan runs even crossing over into Canada!) And until the arrival of European colonizers, these streams consistently provided indigenous people all along the Pacific coastline an incredibly important source of food, cultural and economic trade, mythos, and more. Unfortunately, the newcomers overharvested the salmon, dammed and destroyed streams and other habitat, and of course spearheaded the causes of anthropogenic climate change.

Indigenous people fish for salmon at Celilo Falls on the Columbia River. As the single longest continuously inhabited community in North America (over 15,000 years!), this location was a home and hub of cultural activity for many indigenous tribes and communities across the region before it was flooded by the completion of the Dalles Dam in 1957.

All these factors have led to a precipitous decline in the size of both salmon runs, and the salmon themselves. This isn’t just detrimental to indigenous communities, though. It also threatens the health of forests all throughout the salmons’ range.

A forest isn’t just made of trees. It’s composed of entire plant communities, fungi (including mycorrhizal species), and the animals, bacteria, and other living beings that share space with them. When salmon travel up and down the waterways as fry, and then later to spawn as adults, they have a direct impact on that ecosystem.

Salmon fry are an important source of food for larger fish, amphibians, birds, and other beings that seek food in the water. In fact, part of why salmon lay so many eggs (over 5,000 in the case of chinook!) is because most of the fry that hatch will never make it to adulthood. But adult salmon aren’t safe from predation on their return trip to their birthplaces. In fact, they are caught and eaten by a wide variety of animals from bears to eagles, wolves to osprey, sea lions to bobcats.

Bears are of particular interest here. Brown bears (Ursus arctos) are well-known for gorging on summer and fall salmon runs to build up massive amounts of fat in preparation for winter hibernation. (Katmai National Park even celebrates their bears during Fat Bear Week every October!) You can watch video feeds of several bears hanging out in their favorite fishing spots by waterfalls and in the flow of the river.

Imagine that you are a young bear, perhaps recently forced to independence by your mother who is now focused on your younger siblings. You have to not only start catching fish without her protection from bigger bears, but you also need to make sure those stronger bears don’t steal your catch. What’s the best thing to do? Run far away into the woods to eat your salmon in peace, then leave the remains among the trees and head back for more.

If the fishing is good, bears will often eat only the fattiest parts of the salmon like the brains and skin, and then leave the rest behind for scavengers. The nutrients in the salmon then disseminate throughout the forest, whether carried in the digestive systems of animals, or broken down in place by decomposers. This helps make the nutrients available to the plants, particularly trees which may store massive amounts of nutrients in their trunks; when the trees die, they essentially become a food pantry for younger beings like new seedlings, fungi, and so forth.

Now–what’s so special about the nutrients in salmon? Well, remember that these fish spend years out in the ocean. And the ocean has an entirely different balance of nutrients floating around in it compared to what’s found in fresh water or on land. The salmon are essentially the only way these ocean-borne nutrients can make their way into the forest in any meaningful amount, and they do so on a regular basis each year. The trees near salmon runs fished by bears may be 300% larger than usual, and salmon also provide nearly three quarters of the nitrogen in the forest. That’s a pretty impressive contribution!

This isn’t just about how forests need salmon; it’s a reciprocal relationship. While the salmon’s immediate habitats are aquatic, these streams, rivers, and other waterways are directly affected by what happens on the land around them.

Every waterway has a watershed–an area of land from which precipitation drains into that waterway. These watersheds nest within each other; the watersheds of small streams are nested within the watersheds of the rivers the streams feed into. That water carries things with it, from soil to pollutants. So the health of the land has a direct impact on what is found in the water.

But it goes beyond what’s washed downstream, and into how it’s washed down. In a healthy forest, for example, the soil is able to absorb a significant amount of precipitation that falls throughout the year, keeping it from simply cascading down hillsides to create flooding and landslides. Water is also stored in the various living beings in the forest; again trees are often the champions with their great size, but smaller plants help with water retention quite a bit as well, both through internal storage and preventing evaporation from soil. A forest that is badly damaged, such as through a clearcut or wildfire, won’t hold water as well. This can lead to floods, landslides and other erosion, and increase the impact of summer droughts as the land simply can’t store as much water, or for as long.

All of this affects the salmon directly. If the watershed is no longer holding and releasing snowmelt, rain, and other water in a controlled manner, this can lead to flooding in waterways which can wash away salmon eggs and fry. Increased erosion buries the gravel that salmon lay eggs in with silt, smothering the eggs so they never hatch. When a riparian zone–the land along a waterway–is stripped of vegetation, the water loses crucial shaded areas that keep temperatures cool. Salmon easily overheat when temperatures rise even a few degrees. And drought can dry up smaller streams, stranding and even killing young salmon while preventing adults from reaching their spawning grounds.

While not every single salmon run exclusively travels through forests, many of them do. And many spawning grounds are found in forests, or at least areas with significant tree cover in riparian zones. Salmon must have healthy forests in order to continue to survive, and the loss of these forests is just one of many factors contributing to their severe decline.

Thankfully, I am far from the only person concerned about the safety of our wild Pacific salmon. There are numerous organizations working to protect and restore salmon habitat through dam removal, preservation and restoration of aquatic habitat and surrounding land, regulations on salmon fishing, and educating people about sustainable seafood options (or just not eating seafood at all.) And even habitat restoration efforts that aren’t directly in salmon-inhabited waterways still have a positive impact on the forest ecosystem as a whole.

We know that forests need salmon, and salmon need forests. To protect one is to protect the other, and long may they both thrive.

Did you enjoy this post? Consider taking one of my online foraging and natural history classes, checking out my other articles, or picking up a paperback or ebook I’ve written! You can even buy me a coffee here!

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prince-kallisto · 1 year

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Larry’s Suit Style Analysis

After making my Tucked-In Tie post, I started to analyze Larry’s suit because I’m not normal for him. Long story short, it’s a cheap average suit haha. But if you want a thorough analysis and some suit facts, continue!

Quick disclaimer, I’m not an expert at suits, fabric, or tailoring. This is an analysis based on the in-game models, official art, and my own knowledge. If I missed something or got something wrong, please let me know!

Larry is wearing an American cut, single vented, three buttoned suit with a notched lapel. The American cut suit was the first type of suit to be mass produced and affordable to the working class. It’s a modern suit compared to the traditional British cut and the sleek Italian cut, so most business men wear this type of suit. It’s referred to as the “sack suit” because of its shapelessness. American cut suits are often off-the-rack (OTR), meaning they are cheap and mass produced with ‘average’ measurements. OTR suits will always need tailoring to fit you perfectly.

I love how he wears a three buttoned suit!! It’s hard to see on his 3D model, but the official art confirms its there. Three buttons aren’t as flattering on most people because it isn’t as slimming and elegant as one or two buttoned suits. Tall and thin people are recommended to go for this type to suit if they want to “fill themselves out” visually. I don’t know Larry’s height, I’m terrible at comparing models haha. My guess is near 6 feet because he towers over the player character, and he slouches a lot. No matter his height, it’s an very interesting choice to add that extra button and I love it. A singular button can make a huge difference for a suit.

Edit: In case you’re curious, the BIGGEST rule of wearing suits is that you NEVER button the last button. This rule is so important that modern suits are deliberately designed and cut to not button the last button, or else the suit will be incredibly uncomfortable and awkward looking. Weird, right? But it’s why Larry has 3 buttons, but only 2 are actually buttoned.

He has three cuff buttons, which look nonfunctional. Two buttons is considered casual (Hassel) and four buttons is formal (Geeta), so three is an in-between. It’s expensive to have functional cuff buttons, so OTR business suits will almost never have functional buttons.

There’s minimal padding in the shoulders. It’s another standard for OTR suits because it works on most people’s shoulders. Larry has sloping shoulders, so the padding on his shoulders help support his upper body silhouette a bit.

Am I going crazy (yes), or am I seeing the stitches in his shoulder seams? It’s something that’s caught my eye since I first saw his 3D model. If it’s actual the thread becoming visible, then his suit is falling apart! Whatever it is, I really love the detail of it!

Edit: Notes pointed out his Pokéball throw, which makes sense why the threads are so strained! He has a really aggressive arm movement, so that plus the cheap and old suit isn’t a good combination haha

Depending on his pose and angle, his shoulders look like they have divots. If this is the case, then he probably has a hard time finding suits that fit his shoulders properly. Shoulder divots can happen for a variety of reasons, most commonly with athletic people because their biceps don’t fit the arm hole. But people with bent postures also need to have their suits accommodate them, because their shoulders will likely not match up with the suit shoulders. This is probably Larry’s case.

The suit looks like its made of cheaper polyester/polyblend fabric, which is really textured and very shiny. I love the detail on his model, but his suit immediately looked on the cheaper side to me, which was probably the point haha.

His suit is also a bit wrinkled; it’s not tailored specifically for him. Tailored suits aren’t necessarily form-fitting and slim, but they aren’t supposed to be creasing the way Larry’s is. Although suits can generally fit your size, an OTR suit will never fit you perfectly. His suit in the 2D official art isn’t wrinkled at all, so…I guess this just applies to his 3D model haha.

My theory is that he had some tailoring done to the lapel, which can pop out if it isn’t tailored (a bad lapel is one of the first signs of a cheap OTR suit). Minimal tailoring is a lot cheaper than tailoring the entire suit, especially if the suit was cheap and ill-fitting to begin with. He also has triangle embroidery on the lapel, which I interpret as foreshadowing for his Elite Four status! I wonder if Geeta asked the tailor to do that so Larry’s outfit could have something special about it haha

His dress shirt is way oversized, or at least has bad shoulders for his body type and posture. The shoulder seam is way lower than it should be. It’s really not worth it to tailor the shoulders in dress suits/shirts, it’s pretty much impossible unless you want to shell out a fortune. Your dress shirt and suit should at least have properly fitting shoulders, because every else can be tailored.

Of course, I want to mention how his tie is tucked into his shirt in the concept art! It’s not considered the be “proper” to do this, at least according to suit fanatics. Many people do this when they’re doing something messy or eating, and Larry eats a lot! I love this detail!

Larry wearing quarter-break pants. When the suit pant creases as it meets the shoe, this is considered a ‘break.’ A quarter-break has a very subtle crease and shows a hint of your socks. This style is considered modern but not trendy or flashy, so it’s very fitting for businessmen. Quarter-break also works well for tall and/or thin people! Geeta has no-break pants, which is very trendy and youthful, and Hassel has full-break pants, which is older and traditional. Hnnn the details!!!

He’s also wearing casual business loafers, and they look pretty worn out and dusty at the edges, especially in the official art. He seems to walk a lot between his three jobs, so his loafers probably get a lot of wear and tear.

This could be a coincidence, but in Japan there’s a very well known apparel company called AOKI. AOKI was established in the late 1950s, and their goal was to make suits affordable to the average Japanese man. Even today, AOKI is best recognized for their suits for salarymen. Larry’s name in Japanese is Aoki! Again, it’s probably a coincidence but it’s a fun one nonetheless!

I don’t know what the point of this was haha (*ﾟ∀ﾟ*) I just adore the character designs in Scarlet and Violet, and despite how plain Larry’s outfit is, there’s so much to be revealed in the details! I hope you liked this analysis!

#pokemon sv #pokemon larry #gym leader larry #elite four larry #long post #I’m normal about this man #real talk tho if I don’t make these insane posts who will #i am cringe but i am free #kallistopost #theory post

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scotianostra · 7 months

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On October 15th 1902 Edinburgh's Balmoral Hotel opened its doors for the first time.

Look out for my own connections to this grand old hotel, both in a personal sense and through my home town of Loanhead.

Back then it was called The North British and in Edinburgh a lot of people, myself included, still refer to it by the initials NB.

On Wednesday 15 October, 1902, on the front page of The Scotsman newspaper, a small advert appeared: “North British Station Hotel. This hotel in direct communication with Waverley Station is now open F.T. Burcher, hotel manager.”

According to the hotel’s official history, the North British was “a vanguard for the railway company which built it, a surrogate for the grand station they had never been permitted to erect in the sensitive site between Old and New Town.” The architecture, executed in golden sandstone, features towers and balconies galore. It’s a glorious mash-up of influences from across northern Europe. Expensive to build as well as to run – it gobbled upwards of 200 tons of coal every month – the hotel was seen as a “sign of the future heralded by the railways, the newly opened Forth Bridge and the electric lights switched on in Princes Street just seven years earlier”.

Nevertheless, some believed the Caledonian, which opened a year later, boasted the more advantageous location. And some detractors found the sheer size of the hotel gauche, complaining “it is coarse and obstructive at once”.

The hotel – working name “Waverley Station Hotel” – was the brainchild of George Wieland, a former NBR company secretary who retired to its board in 1890. Having toured some of the most lavish hotels in the world – where he realised the importance of having a banqueting hall to bring in business – he hired W Hamilton Beattie to draw up plans for Edinburgh. The hotel would have 300 bedrooms, 52 bathrooms, and 70 lavatories, and was designed to encourage the circulation of fresh air. Lifts shot people straight from the station into the hotel’s foyer, and beyond that, to rooms furnished with mahogany, leather and crimson moquette. It’s said that the bill for plants and flowers exceeded the bill for gas, and there was even a special machine to burnish the silver. Weiland made sure the new hotel’s cellars were full of the finest champagnes, hocks, ports, and whisky, the better to entice his ideal customers – wealthy, landed families moving between their multiple residences.

In 1922, the hotel became part of the London and North Eastern Railway Company and by all accounts the hotel sparkled from top to bottom, but after the Second World War, when the railways were nationalised, and Prestwick airport began getting transatlantic traffic, things began a slow downward trajectory. Even so, the hotel remained the destination for Edinburgh society events, be they corporate or personal. In 1983, British Rail sold off its rather faded North British Hotel. In 1988, it closed for refurbishment, it was in dire need of this, some of the rooms were looking a wee bit shabby, the wooden window frames unable to open fully, and how do I know this? Well I used to be the window cleaner in the hotel and the windows that didn't open meant I had to find one close by and edge along the crumbling sandstone ledges, the worst affected, and highest were on the south of the hotel and there was a six storey drop down to the train station below.

At the start of the 1990s, Balmoral International Hotels, an Edinburgh based company, bought the venue. In 1997, the Balmoral became the first hotel bought by Sir Rocco Forte as he assembled his portfolio of hotels. It currently boasts Scotland’s only Bollinger Bar, as well as the Michelin-starred Number One restaurant run by executive chef Jeff Bland, a spa, and ten function rooms accommodating up to 450 people.

Famous guests over the years have included Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Palin, Beyoncé and JK Rowling, who finished the last Harry Potter novel here, on 11 January, 2007, and then daubed her signature on a bust in her room.

A second wee link with the hotel, is Charles Forte, Grandfather of the present owner began his working life in my home town of Loanhead when he moved to Scotland from Italy.

#scotland #scottish #history #edinburgh #Hotel #Princes street

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bakawitch · 3 months

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I was thinking of drawing some art of the student council in Kakeoh, but I'm not sure what some (like personified obelisk the tormentor) look like, do you have any references for them?

Aww! That would be awesome! I'm glad the au piqued your interest enough for that XD

So these are extremely sketchy, but here are the current season 1 designs for the student council members

Close ups and lore tidbits below cut

• Otogi Ryuji - Treasurer of Student Council (Manyuda Kaede/Otogi Ryuji)

Pretty similar to canon Kaede but with a little Duke-ish charm

Also wants to become the student council president

Recommended Risa for the student council

• Kaminaga Dei - Student Council Member/President of Beautification Council (Ikishima Midari/Yami Malik)

Psycho gun guy who gets really excited about gambling

Huge one-sided crush on Yamiko

Joey's face makes him want to throw up for some reason

Has no loyalty towards Kaibami whatsoever

• Nosaka Miho - Head of Public Relations (Yumemite Yumemi/Nosaka Miho)

Her signature symbol is a pink strawberry

Will eventually get a boyfriend

Still hates her fans (Yugi is one of them)

•Ob Bhakta - Secretary of Student Council/Kaibami Seto's Personal Assistant (Igarashi Sayaka/Obelisk the Tormentor)

Hopelessly devoted/in love with Kaibami, gets jealous easily, but keeps it to himself

Comes from a working class family, has really low self-worth

Doesn't gamble a lot but is a borderline genious

Less emotional outwardly than Sayaka

•Kaibami Seto - President of Student Council (Momobami Kirari/Kaiba Seto)

Dramatic, calculated bitch, not above murder

He introduced the housepet system

Besides his twin he has a younger brother

Will eventually cut his hair

Mommy and daddy issues, my guy's a mess

Weirdly obsessed with Yamiko and his fun sized boyfriend thing

•Kaibami Eto - Vice President of Student Council (Momobami Ririka/Kisara)

Younger twin, literally named after her brother

Her name sort of sounds like echo because she's basically just an echo of her twin

Sometimes wears the male uniform so people aren't too quick to catch on when her and Seto switch places

Has very little confidence without her mask

Sometimes finds it easier to be Seto rather than herself

• Dartz Atlan - Student Council Member/Head of Antiques Club (Nishinotoun Yuriko/Dartz)

Has basically the same hairstyle as canon, but a bit shorter and more blond toned

Has heterochromia

All his club members are very loyal to him, loyal enough to fix odds

His club runs a den

Insanely petty

• Fiona Sheldon - Student Council Member/Leader of the Election Committee (Yomozuki Runa/Fiona the Doll)

Daughter of a British count

Has an extensive doll collection

Enjoys sweets and sewing (mostly dresses and accessories for her dolls)

Legit no one knows wtf is going on inside her head

The Election Committee wears pink sweaters and differently styled bonnet hats

• Kageyama Risa - Student Council Junior Member (Sumeragi Itsuki/Kageyama Risa)

Still collects nails

Extremely privileged and spoiled but easily manipulated

Has a crush on Otogi

Doesn't have any sisters

Still kind of into witchcraft

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qqueenofhades · 1 year

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Oh darling fandom grandma, do you have any current recs for some good fiction books? Something kind of like Tamora Pierce's tortall books? (sorry if you haven't read those books, was the only series that I could think of to reference)

Perhaps surprisingly, I have never actually read any Tamora Pierce books, but I am going to categorize this request, hopefully not inaccurately, as "imaginative, diverse, feminist/female-centered fantasy." In which case, you are in luck, because that is also My Jam, and I have the following enthusiastic recs, many of which are doorstopper-size and should keep you busy for a while:

The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty (City of Brass, Kingdom of Copper, Empire of Gold). Set in both 18th-century Egypt and the magical djinn kingdom of Daevabad; complex and morally grey female main characters; lots of garbage men; all characters are people of color; political intrigue, magic, sass, adventure out the wazoo, and Muntadhir al-Qahtani my most beloved, I NEED MORE PEOPLE TO READ THESE BOOKS

The Rook and Rose trilogy by M.A. Carrick (only the first two books are out: The Mask of Mirrors and The Liar's Knot). A lush Venetian-inspired fantasy setting, a con-artist female main character, family intrigue, political manipulation, complicated plots, exploration of colonization and cultural appropriation; MORE PEOPLE LIKEWISE NEED TO JOIN ME IN SHIPPING REN/VARGO/GREY;

The Bone Season series by Samantha Shannon (The Bone Season, The Mime Order, The Song Rising, The Mask Falling): set in an alternate-history future England with sci-fi, telekinetics, fallen angels, a ruined Oxford, underground resistance groups in London, a badass female main character; generally one of the most imaginative spec-fic series I have ever read;

The Priory of the Orange Tree, also by Samantha Shannon; I recommended this book in a separate post recently because I love it. Tons of historically-inspired settings, lots of female, queer, POC characters; ASOIAF-style political intrigue and dragons without the Male Author grossness;

The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud (The Amulet of Samarkand, The Golem's Eye, Ptolemy's Gate, plus prequel The Ring of Solomon). This series was formative for me as a teenager, all right. F O R M A T I V E. If you have not read it you need to do so right away, and I don't care how old you are. Stroud absolutely rips the British Empire to pieces, dismantles the Special White Boy fantasy trope, explores slavery and imperialism and cultural genocide, and is also both incredibly funny and incredibly heartbreaking in the course of three YA books.

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri; lush female-led epic fantasy set in a fantasy world based on ancient India; supposed to be the first one of a series so there are more to come;

Uprooted and Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik; retellings of fairytales with a cast of diverse female characters, especially Spinning Silver which is a reimagining of Rumpelstiltskin in an Imperial Russian-inspired world with a Jewish main character;

The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger (Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, Heartless, Timeless); set in steampunk Victorian London with vampires and werewolves; badass female main character; Absolutely Everyone Is Queer; like Jane Austen crossed with P.G. Wodehouse;

Anyway, there are possibly more that I could think of, but these are what came to mind after an initial perusal of my own bookshelves, and should be enough to get you started. Happy reading. :)

#rhymeswithtessa #ask #book recs #bookblr

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mask131 · 4 months

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Can I ask this question?

What's the deal with Pére Noel?

Do you any information about him?

I really found very few information about Pere Noel before he was synchronized with Britain's Father Christmas and US' Santa Claus.

Was he just a french version of Father Christmas, focused in adult festivities and merrymaking before becoming a gift-bringer like Santa and St. Nicolas?

Is he today any different from Santa and Father Christmas?

I read that in some parts of France St Nicholas is still the main gift-bringer figure, so I'm confused about the events that led to Pere Noel being a major holiday figure in the French context.

This ask actually needs a very long and complex answer that I will provide below, because the topic of the "Père Noël" is extremely complex...

My guess is that you are referring to the "Père Noël" that appeared in Chris Schweizer's set of "Father Christmas cards" - which appears here if you want the original post, but to clarify I will copy the art below for the sake of the explanation -

This is not the current day "Père Noël". You will NOT see this guy around in the streets today. In modern France, "Père Noël" is the name of the French version of Santa Claus. Or rather, French people call Santa Claus "Père Noël". Current day's Père Noël is just a Santa Claus copypaste. Now, "Père Noël" literaly means "Father Christmas" in French, so one would expect him to be much closer to the British Father Christmas... But yes and no. Yes because it is another incarnation of Father Christmas that predated the American Santa Claus, but no because the French Père Noël has a different (though similar) iconography than the British Father Christmas.

Overall, if you recall my previous post, it is the same thing as with the "proto-Santa Claus/Kris Kringle" of 19th America (mischievious elf-like figure wrapped in brown furs) versus the 20th century American Santa Claus (jolly old man in red and white). "Père Noël" was the figure that was the placeholder of the gift-giver before the arrival of the American Santa Claus in the post WWII world (as with all things American in France, it was imported by the Americans that helped set France free). The earliest records of Père Noël appearing are from the mid-19th century - George Sand writes in her 1855 biography that as a kid she was waiting for "little father Christmas", this "good elder with his white beard", that dropped at midnight from the chimney to place shoes in the "petits souliers" (little slippers" of the kid) ; while an humoristic newspaper of 1848 wrote a dialogue where Père Noël knocks at someone's door - only for the person not to believe them, and saying he should be entering by the chimney not the door. Here, despite the name linking him to the British Father Christmas, he bears the marks of the proto-Santa Claus/Kris Kringle of 19th century America (such as the small size, explaining why he fits through chimneys). But it is all unclear as the figure was definitively not set in stone. In fact, in the second half of the 19th century, there was a certain fleeting between "Père Noël" (Father Christmas), "Bonhomme Noël" (Old Man Christmas/Christmas Man) and "Petit Noël" (Little Christmas, aka a variation of "Little Jésus", a French variant of the German Christkindl).

The thing with France is that it is a cultural crossroad - and this explains the diversity of Noël/Christmas traditions. For example in Provence there is a strong focus on the Epiphany and the Rois Mages (the Three Magi), similar to the traditions of the Reyes Magos in Spain ; while Eastern France truly kept alive the Saint Nicholas tradition typical of Central Europe (Netherlands, Germany, etc). And that's without counting local figures like Tante Arie... Anyway. So yes, saint Nicholas was a very popular gift-giver in France for a long time because France was a deeply Christian country (First Daughter of the Church), and the tradition stayed in the "Germanic" or Dutch-influenced parts of France (North, North-East). But in the rest of the country, Père Noël emerged. A continuation of Saint Nicholas-Sinterklass (still an old man, still with a donkey/horse, carrying gifts in a wicker basket), but with less religious symbols (while he still looks like a monk in some depictions, he never looks like a bishop and never has any overt Christian symbols). There's also the whole Père Fouettard as the French evil counterpart of Père Noël, the same way Saint-Nicholas/Sinterklaas has many "dark companions", but that's another story...

That all being said, the reason Père Noël was so easily "morphed" or "transformed" into the American Santa Claus is because, while he existed as a figure of Christmas folklore in France, he was not actually... defined. There was no specific image of him, no specific attribute, no lasting tradition - he existed as an archetype, as a general image, as a figure everybody knew by name but nobody agreed on how to depict. Sometimes he was closer to Saint Nicholas/Sinterklass by appearing as a thin monk-like old man with his donkey ; other times he was similar to the British Father Christmas by being a larger man dressed in green ; other times yet he was rather similar to the traditional embodiments of winter by appearing as a being wrapped in a grey or white large cloak... You've got some fleshy red-dressed Père Noël with fur-lined clothes similar to the future Santa Claus, just as much as you have skinny brown, blue or purple Père Noëls. There was a father Christmas but more as a general idea. And it is this inconsistency, this "freedom" of depiction that led to the American image of Santa Claus easily becoming the new face of Père Noël.

For example, here are various images of what the pre-Americanization Père Noël looked like:

You will notably notice that many of the visuals used in these Christmas pictures can also be found in England as the Father Christmas there tried out and found various looks - which is why it is sometimes hard to differentiate Victorian Christmas cards from French ones, and shows again how the French Père Noël is basically a cross between Father Christmas and Saint Nicholas.

In conclusion, long story short, Père Noël is not actually truly "French". It is a French figure, but born of the arrival of the British Father Christmas figure into a very Catholic France that fused him slightly with Saint Nicholas, hence a slightly more "religious" look ; and threw in some traditional Father Winter/Old Man Winter imagery to the lot. Overall, when you say "Father Christmas", you also speak of "Père Noël" as they are basically the same figure, with no massive difference, just slight alterations and a different cultural context.

And today Père Noël is just Santa Claus. BUT some elements that were part of the "old" Père Noël legend stuck around even in the modern Americanized incarnation, such as the habit of referring to "petits souliers" (little slippers) as the place he is supposed to leave gifts.

#french folklore #christmas lore #santa claus #father christmas #père noël #saint nicholas #the evolution of santa claus #the evolution of Christmas #christmas #noël

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jbaileyfansite · 7 months

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Fellow Travelers Article by Entertaintment Weekly (2023)

Time works differently on the set of Fellow Travelers. It's not what we typically think of as linear. It's as if the past, the present, and the future are all unfolding simultaneously. That sensation feels most apparent one particular Wednesday afternoon in Toronto in early November.

Magic Mike's Matt Bomer and Bridgerton's Jonathan Bailey, the two stars of Showtime's decades-spanning love story, prepare for a scene that plays out in 1950s Washington, D.C. The backdrop is the Lavender Scare, Senator Joseph McCarthy (Chris Bauer) and chief legal counsel Roy Cohn's (Will Brill) purge of homosexuals from government jobs. It's deep into the relationship of Hawkins Fuller (Bomer) and Tim Laughlin (Bailey), two closeted men on the Hill whose private lives are consumed with intoxicating sex and fluctuating power dynamics. Tim, marked by his signature full-rim glasses and a polka-dot short-sleeve button-up, is packing a suitcase in his practically doll-sized apartment, ready to leave town and never look back. Then Hawk, fedora in hand, knocks at the door and…

"It smells like soup," Bailey remarks in between takes. Bomer can't seem to smell anything, but his costar insists the savory aroma is there. "Is that what's on my fingers?" Bailey wonders, slipping back into his British accent as he thrusts his hands underneath his scene partner's nose. Bomer doesn't flinch, but promptly takes a whiff — a sign of the immense comfort and intimacy the two actors have developed while making this period piece. As it happens, chicken noodle soup is the very meal Hawk and Tim share on their first date, which was shot in the same apartment set on which the actors now find themselves. Does the smell actually still linger days later or is it a sensory echo? "Déjà vu. Chicken noodle soup," Bailey remarks — and then the cameras roll for their fourth take.

While Fellow Travelers begins with Hawk and Tim falling for each other during a terrifying time for queer people in America, the limited series, told over eight episodes, tracks their waxing-and-waning relationship through pivotal moments of queer history, such as the Harvey Milk era of the '70s and the AIDS crisis of the '80s. "It becomes difficult not only for the actors, but the directors to keep track of everything," admits producer Robbie Rogers, who says the crew worked across three-to-four different stages on any given day in their Toronto studio. As we speak, another star, M3GAN's Allison Williams, dressed in a '50s-era tartan dress and pearl necklace, is running accent drills off in another set designed for a '70s-style San Francisco apartment. "Because we shoot out of order, and there were times in which we were shooting multiple decades back to back, they did rely on me to keep track of where they were in their lives," adds series creator and showrunner Ron Nyswaner, the Oscar-nominated scribe of Philadelphia.

A story like Fellow Travelers feels somewhat revolutionary, even now in 2023 when it can seem as though history is repeating itself. (Former President Donald Trump, whom Nyswaner refers to as "the antichrist," considered the late Roy Cohn as a mentor, and the two share similar rhetoric.) Inspired by Thomas Mallon's 2007 novel of the same name, the series offers an unflinching look at gay relationships at a time when they were forced into hiding. Yes, that includes some of the most erotic depictions of same-sex sex ever put to screen on a premium television network at a time when politicians are once again trying to tell LGBTQ Americans to keep their "lifestyles" behind closed doors. Says Nyswaner, "Our goal was to really tell the story from an LGBTQIA perspective of what happened in the '50s and then to take it past the '50s."

A love for the ages

Nyswaner deviated from Mallon's book quite a bit, incorporating the other decades to the piece, but he says the essence of Hawk and Tim came directly from the source material. "It haunted me for years," Nyswaner says of the novel. (The creator spoke with EW in August for an interview coordinated through his personal PR team in accordance with WGA strike guidelines.) The writer sat with the concept for years, only returning to it with the help of Rogers after his work on Ray Donovan and Homeland, so it's not surprising that Nyswaner thinks of Fellow Travelers as a hybrid of both those shows, part "fixer thriller" and part "political thriller."

Daniel Minahan, who directed a pivotal bottle episode of Ray Donovan, sees a similarity between Liev Schreiber's performance and Bomer's Hawk. "They're both fixers," he says. "Ray's someone who has his own moral code and is immoral. Hawk has his own moral code, but it's very specific to being a closeted gay man." Hawk, a war hero, exudes a classical man-about-town image as an always-suited, charming State Department official courting Lucy Smith (Williams), the daughter of a prominent U.S. senator. In his private life, he discreetly prowls for other gay men in dark-cornered cruising grounds to satiate his hunger for sexual dominance.

"I find sometimes that gay characters are made too clean," Nyswaner reflects. "They're made too noble. I'm just tired of that. Hawkins Fuller certainly is a very complicated, sometimes unlikeable antihero. I'd marry him in a second and then regret it probably in a few days, but there's something fascinating about watching someone who is in charge and you don't like him, but you kind of enjoy it. I think that helps us get away with a lot."

Bailey's Tim is more gentle and naive than Hawk, especially when the Irish Fordham University graduate and devout Catholic first arrives on the Hill. Rogers met Bailey on his past project when filmmaker Michael Grandage was scouting for the role of Patrick opposite Harry Styles in My Policeman, a part that ultimately went to David Dawson. "Things didn't work out for a number of reasons, but I remember being really interested in him as an actor," the producer says. There's an inherent delight in now seeing the Bridgerton heartthrob play someone a few shades geekier, complete with a fondness for milk that Tim will order at bars without shame. "Jonny's character in Bridgeton is a little bit like Hawkins Fuller. He's kind of ruthless and he's in charge," Nyswaner points out. "Jonny's version of Tim is so vulnerable. You just don't know if you want Tim to get away from [Hawk] or stay with him and change him."

The two stars got together over Zoom for a chemistry read. Bomer (already attached as an executive producer) called in from L.A., Bailey from London, and Nyswaner from Toronto. The showrunner remembers, "It was electric." The pair were reading Hawk and Tim's first proper meeting: flirting with each other on a park bench in the days after clocking eyes at a political soiree. "I got a text from one of the executives who said, 'Well, that's the first time I've cried in a chemistry read.'"

There are two other core relationships explored in Fellow Travelers. One is Hawk and Lucy, both hiding parts of themselves from each other. The other is one Nyswaner developed just for the series, another gay couple entwined in the lives of Hawk and Tim: Marcus Hooks (Jelani Alladin), a Black journalist covering the Senate beat, and Frankie Hines (Noah J. Ricketts), a drag performer working at the Cozy Corner underground gay bar.

On the set in November, Alladin offers a tour of Marcus' San Francisco apartment in the '80s setting. The character's story is reflected in the props that adorn the space, from the Jean-Baptiste painting on the wall to the writerly awards spotted on the shelves. "He goes from this closeted man, not loving himself, to completely in love and embracing not only Black culture, but the fact that he's a homosexual man," the actor says.

It's "that struggle of, where is my loyalty? I have to be a Black man first because that's what is needed and expected of me from my community," Nyswaner adds. "Jelani and I had conversations where he would read to me from his journal that he kept in the voice of Marcus. Sometimes I would say, 'Can I put that in the scene?' So, that was a really beautiful collaboration."

Marcus remains in stark contrast to his love, Frankie, who, according to Ricketts, is all about being authentic to oneself at all times. "What I love about Frankie is that sometimes he feels like putting on a jacket and being butch and going out into the world, and other times he feels like painting his nails and letting his hair out," Ricketts says.

And, the actor notes, "every drag queen has a drag mother." For him, that would be costume designer Joseph La Corte, who's been Emmy nominated for work on Fosse/Verdon, Boardwalk Empire, and The Sopranos. "Joseph was the one who taught me how to hide and tuck and get rid of everything that I needed to discreetly put away."

The politics of sex

The first glimpse the public saw of Fellow Travelers came unexpectedly in September 2022. It was another ripple in time: Bailey, sporting a '70s stache, flaunted his pronounced pectorals alongside Bomer on the shores of Lake Ontario, which doubled for the waves of Fire Island. Rogers says they had to shoot those scenes first by necessity as winter wasn't far off. Little did they know, paparazzi were hiding out nearby. Rogers was admittedly stressed at first when photos of the scene spread online. "My first reaction was, 'Is this gonna affect shooting going forward?' I had that experience with Harry Styles in England when we did My Policeman. So, maybe I was traumatized," he recalls, laughing.

The leak ended up being the best thing for Fellow Travelers. People couldn't help but thirst over two shirtless Hollywood hunks in their prime, gleefully wrestling with each other in the water. A cheeky Nyswaner agrees, "It was not a bad thing that those images came out." Even now, however, the series is going to prove sexier than some might be prepared for. In one scene that occurs early on, Hawk is prepping for a party thrown by Senator McCarthy. Tim, letting his partner's hand linger over the hairs on his chest, wants to go but doesn't have an invite. "I'm your boy, right?" Bailey's Tim says, already working his seductive magic. "And your boy wants to go to the party." Regarding what happens next, let's just say, if Ben Shapiro doesn't go on a three-hour diatribe afterwards, it will be a shock.

Minahan speaks of this specific moment from the breakfast nook of his Gramercy apartment in New York City, where a plump peach sits on a dish among croissants and morning sweets — an appropriate image given the subject matter. "What sets these sex scenes apart is that they are moving the story forward," he explains. "The way they're moving the story forward is by the transference of power that happens between [the characters]."

There were many rules on the set of Fellow Travelers, particularly when it came to sex, which involved intimacy coordinators and lots of rehearsals. Nyswaner quotes the great queer poet Oscar Wilde, who said, "Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power." That was one rule. "The other rule," Nyswaner continues, "was that we wouldn't do the same sexual act more than once, or the same combination." That proved to be harder than they all realized. "I remember when we were writing episode 8, my co-writers and I said, 'What haven't we done?'"

Minahan, who directs the first episode, ended up setting that tone for the whole show. "What I was going for in those first two hours was this idea of Tim, who's not particularly sexually experienced, having this almost transcendent experience with Hawk which imprints on him," he says. "He becomes almost obsessive about his attachment, but whether Hawk's in love with the power that he has over him or actually has this love for him is part of the tension of the piece. His life and sexuality is so compartmentalized. It's like, this is when I do sex, this is when I'm at work, this is when I have my girlfriend."

This kind of material meant that Bomer and Bailey were going to be in each other's personal spaces for a significant part of filming. The pair have previously spoken about finding that trust and comfort with each other as scene partners, and Rogers could feel it. "They were gonna be there for each other the whole production and keep each other safe," he says. "It's actors finding that with each other and feeling safe on set, feeling safe with us. Whatever the cut we present to the studio and network, we have their best interest and the show's best interest in mind."

Ripples through time

Rogers knows viewers will pay a lot of attention to the sex on Fellow Travelers for obvious reasons, but he says it wasn't their goal to be "too salacious," noting, "It's quite an emotional and powerful show."

All three of the producers who spoke with EW, including Minahan and Nyswaner, felt the weight of time, and more specifically history, while making the miniseries. Rogers, a former international soccer star, formed a deeply personal connection to the material, having come out as gay in 2013 when few professional athletes were doing so. "If your secret was revealed, your life could be ruined. I slightly felt that way in my past career," he recalls.

Minahan's connection, meanwhile, came from growing up gay through the '80s. "I think we put ourselves in things in ways we don't even know," Nyswaner remarks. "I came of age in the '60s and then as a young teenager in the '70s, moved to New York in 1978, came out, really enjoyed some of that celebration of being liberated in a limited way, and then, of course, the cold shower of the AIDS crisis."

Nyswaner lost friends and loved ones to the disease over the years, including his nephew, for whom he would write 1993's Philadelphia, starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington. He felt similarly compelled to include that time period in Fellow Travelers. "Since it's a part of my life, I just couldn't let that go," he says. But the drama feels richer for expanding well beyond the '50s setting of Mallon's novel. Nyswaner adds, "If you have a chance to tell a story like this, I wanted to tell as much of it as possible."

Perhaps he'll get the chance to tell even more. Both Nyswaner and Rogers confirm they are already talking about the possibility of turning the miniseries into an anthology series that would track different queer fellow travelers across history. The current Hollywood writer and actor strikes, however, are putting those early talks on hold.

"How about if I just say...? Yes, I think that there are many stories to be told, and Robbie and I have spoken in detail. Because of the strike, we haven't spoken to any of our studio executives about it. When the strike ends, that'll be a conversation that I hope to have immediately with them. Even maybe taking one or two of the characters from this season who weren't [featured] as prominently as Hawk and Tim."

That seems to be yet another rule of Fellow Travelers.

Source

#fellow travelers #jonathan bailey #jonny bailey #jonathanbailey #matt bomer #jelani alladin #noah j. ricketts #allison williams #ron nyswaner #daniel minahan #robbie rogers #showtime #paramount plus #paramount+#lgbtq #gay romance #ft spoilers #NEW!

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exhibit-of-the-century · 6 months

Text

Checklist For Writing Essay:

Masterlist

BUY ME A COFFEE

More of a person note for me, when polishing off an essay to double check the criteria.

Times New Roman

Size 12

10% of word count over if needed.

Italicize works of art.

“_” for chapters/books.

Name of Artwork, Artist name, Date, Size, Location

Try to find images of the work with people/in the gallery space.

Spell out any number below 100 (eg. Three dimensional)

Double Spaced

(Not cheating to share your work with someone on the course and discuss)

Must use Footnotes, MHRA refrencing style

Footnotes sometimes count in word count DOUBLE CHECK

Footnote numbers should always appear after the full stop at the end of the relevant sentence, even when they refer to a point made midsentence.

When writing visual analysis, consider closing your eyes as someone reads back what you’ve written about the artwork, and consider if you can clearly visualise in your mind from what you’ve written.

Paragraph organisation by: Intro/ paragraphs on separate ideas/ conclusion

Online walkthrough gallery. Make arguments/convince when writing, of what you see/ how you understand it.

Talk about materials used.

Space it inhabits and effect on observer.

Academic sources must be used.

Short comings in the essay/academic paper to be discussed and evaluated.

JSTOR

Website and access to academic papers usually needed to have uni library sign in. Some museums have sources too. Browse library or articles in library database.

Find interesting texts, then use and write about it. Footnotes included in work count.

Museum repository, Wikipedia to start.

WHAT IS MOST SIGNIFICANT TO YOU?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

London Metropolitan Archives picture library, aka 'Collage' - all things London

London Metropolitan Archives youtube channel

BFI Player film archive - shorts and features from the BFI, national and regional archives

BFI Player - Britain on Film, with searchable map

RibaPix - UK's largest architectural photo library

Pathe Newsreel - great way of quickly diving into historical news items, and fascinating for the visuals as well as the thorough textual transcripts

British Cartoon Archive - 200,000 British editorial, socio-political, and pocket cartoons covering 200 years

Black in the Day - A submission based archive documenting the lives of black people living in the UK

Wellcome Library - not all but many items are digitised

For those students with a particular interest in museums and museum studies, check out our very own Mapping Museums website:

https://museweb.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/home

Researching Online: A Guide

Below are worked examples of how to do an essay or research project using only online resources.

Don’t spend ages looking for one article or book unless it is really essential and even then, you may not be able to get it, but you will find something related.

Vary your search terms, e.g. for the examples below: early modern, renaissance, reformation, sixteenth century might all be relevant.

Follow links in articles and on collections – often, footnotes in journals online may be hyperlinked to the item (especially in more recent publications), you can see similar items, or who has cited that work. For primary sources/collections, catalogues may suggest similar items too.

There will be dead ends and frustrations but persevere – there is lots of material out there.

Save things using a citation programme like Zotero or Mendeley

If you find something interesting and potentially useful for another topic, bank it for later

Be creative and use sources you might not have thought about before, for example the sound archive in the British Library and think across period and geography.

Google Scholar and on JSTOR/other platforms, Project Muse which is another very good platform with loads of open access material.

USTC: the USTC is a database of early modern printed books across Europe

Interesting source:

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