#and with the Daniel portrait it came with!

[jeksburyofficial]

My Dandies in Danger stickers have arrived!! The only problem is not having something permanent to put them on, but I'll figure it out eventually!

[apoptoses]

do you ever think about how the 80s was the heyday of department store portrait studio shoots, and how inevitably there's a box on night island overflowing with pictures of armand and daniel in weird matching outfits doing awkward poses with a vaseline lens on the camera like

[greeneyeofenvy]

based off that Kyle drawing @/as-thra made

Acanthe when she saw Cassandra:

And extra:

[blueiscoool]

Hundreds of 2,000-Year-Old Gold and Silver Coins Unearthed in Netherlands

Metal Detectorists in the Netherlands Stumbled Onto Hundreds of Looted Coins From the Roman Conquest of Britain.

The 404 coins, including 44 from Britain, are believed to be a mix of military pay and the spoils of war, stashed by a Roman soldier after he returned to the European continent.

As they swept over the muddy fields of Bunnik, a village in the Netherlands’ Utrecht Province that once marked the northern edge of the Roman Empire, in 2023, two metal detectorists unearthed a remarkably extensive and diverse haul of coins from the first century C.E.

There find—a collection of 404 gold and silver coins of Roman, British and North African origin—is the first of its kind unearthed on the European continent, according to a statement.

For Gert-Jan Messelaar and Reinier Koelink, the men with the metal detectors, the historic discovery came as something of an accident. They were combing the fields for a local fruit grower’s lost tractor key in Houten when they decided to give up and go over to a nearby field in Bunnik, where they had previously found a few coins, reports RTV Utrecht’s Bas Teunissen.

Koelink made the first find: a golden Celtic coin resting near the surface of the mud. The pair found a few more loose coins—including the largest Roman coin ever found in the province—but their metal detectors would not stop beeping. Messelaar finally stuck his hand into a shallow hole in the ground, where he uncovered a stash of hundreds of coins. “Bingo,” he recalls thinking, according to RTV Utrecht.

Koelink and Messelaar used clumps of mud to keep the coins together before bringing the haul back home, where they carefully cleaned, sorted and reported their findings to cultural heritage authorities. Then, they celebrated.

“We opened a bottle of champagne,” Messelaar tells the Guardian’s Daniel Boffey. “You never find this.”

Following the detectorists’ initial discovery of 381 coins in the summer of 2023, the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency, with the help of Koelink and Messelaar, conducted additional excavations in the surrounding areas, finding another 23 coins.

Now, the grand total of 404 coins will now join a permanent exhibition titled “The Netherlands in Roman Times” at the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden.

Dated to between 200 B.C.E. and 47 C.E., 360 of the coins are Roman in origin. Of these, 288 are denarii, the standard silver coin, and 72 are aurei, a denser, golden coin that was originally worth 25 denarii.

Many of the Roman coins bear the portrait of Emperor Claudius, who reigned between 41 and 54 C.E. One depicts Julius Caesar, while another even rarer coin shows the likeness of Juba, the ruler of Numidia, a kingdom in northern Africa that roughly corresponds to modern-day Algeria.

Two of the Claudius coins dated to between 46 and 47 C.E. are from identical dies, suggesting they were distributed to Roman soldiers as military pay, write Anton Cruysheer, an archaeologist with the Utrecht Landscape and Heritage Foundation, and Tessa de Groot, an archaeologist with the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, for UtrechtAltijd.

The 44 non-Roman coins are perhaps the most notable of the entire stash. The golden alloy coins, known as staters, bear the inscription “CVNO,” the first four letters of Cunobelinus, the Latin name of Celtic King Cunobelin, who reigned between roughly 10 and 42 C.E. in southeastern Britain.

Cruysheer and de Groot argue that the eclectic composition of the hoard “strongly suggests a connection to the conquest of Britain” under Aulus Plautius, a Roman general who Claudius dispatched to cross the Channel and invade the island in 43 C.E.

The wide range of dates of the Cunobelin staters, including four posthumously issued coins, indicates that the stash was removed from circulation in one fell swoop, like Roman troops looting the newly conquered territory, according to UtrechtAltijd.

Combined with the Roman coins used as military pay, the entire stash strongly resembles spoils of war. Discovered less than a foot beneath the surface, where it was probably buried in a leather pouch that has since decayed, the cache was left in a region where Roman troops were known to have amassed before the invasion of Britain.

“This is the first time that physical evidence of the return of the troops has been found,” Cruysheer tells the Guardian. “Apparently, they came back with all sorts of things. That is new information.”

By Eli Wizevich.

[volkswagonblues]

a bibliography for us Daniel Malloy freaks

(a loosely pulled-together reading list about print journalism, New York, the 1970s & 80's, and the AIDS Crisis. Most of the credit goes to @islandbetweenrivers who started this)

On Daniel Molloy, California Boy

The show never explicitly states if Daniel went to college, but since college students were exempt from the Vietnam draft, which ended officially in 1973, it could be interesting to imagine Daniel in Berkeley.

Slouching Toward Bethlehem by Joan Didion

The White Album by Joan Didion

Berkeley Barb archives (link) -- weekly underground newspaper that ran in Berkeley between '65 to '80

The Daily Cal First 150 Years (link) -- student newspaper at Berkeley

On Journalism

Iphigenia in Forest Hills by Janet Malcolm

From her reporter's seat, Malcolm observes that a trial is merely "a contest between competing narratives". (Guardian review)

The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm

“"Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible," wrote Malcolm in an opening sentence that caused a sensation in the tiny, self-referential world of posh American journalism.” (Guardian review)

The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice by Trisha Romano

“The Voice’s origins were proudly amateurish. One early contributor was a homeless man recruited from a local street; equipment consisted of two battered typewriters, an ink-splattering mimeograph machine and a waste paper basket for rejected submissions. Morale spiked when a staff member discovered that dried pods used in fancy flower arrangements contained opium, which was boiled up in the office when the time came for a coffee break.” (Guardian review)

Note: The Village Voice was THE alt-weekly newspaper and it was run out of Greenwich Village in NYC. Lots of incredible writers start there and then move onto the Times, Vanity Fair, etc. Very much the sort of crowd a young Daniel would be mixed in circa 70's and 80's.

The Night of the Gun, by David Carr

David Carr redefines memoir with the revelatory story of his years as an addict and chronicles his journey from crack-house regular to regular columnist for The New York Times. Built on sixty videotaped interviews, legal and medical records, and three years of reporting, The Night of the Gun is a ferocious tale that uses the tools of journalism to fact-check the past. (amazing rec from @archive-z)

Note: imagine if Daniel did this and then fact-checked his way into remembering that vampires existed

Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks by Patrick Radden Keefe

Keefe can paint complicated portraits of victims and vigilantes alike while covering their lonely pursuit of justice. He intuits why a Dutch woman who has exposed the crimes of her gangster brother might lie about her present whereabouts. He understands why a man who lost his brother in an aeroplane bombing might spend the rest of his life trying to find the culprit. Again and again, Keefe surmises that even the most detailed of investigations can only speculate about human motives. (Guardian review)

Note: the sort of deeply human longform profiles that feels like the sort of writing Daniel does, based on his masterclass clip and what he reveals in his interactions with Louis

On New York, New York (in the 70s)

Notes from Underground, by Eric Bogosian + Perforated Heart, by Eric Bogosian

In four billion years the sun will explode. But before that we'll run out of fresh water and before that we'll all die of some mutation of AIDS that's spread by coughing. It's not my fault anyway. I can't think about this any more today. I'm going to masturbate.

Note: The OG. What else is there to say.

Ladies and Gentleman, the Bronx is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City by Jonathan Mahler

In the long sweep of American history, of course, 1977 is not exactly 1865, 1941, 1968 or 2001. Yet from porn shops to gay bathhouses, from Yankee Stadium to City Hall, from the blackout to Son of Sam, from Rupert Murdoch's New York Post to the rise of SoHo and Studio 54, the city was living through what Mahler convincingly calls "a transformative moment . . . a time of decay but of rehabilitation as well.” (New York Times review)

Remain in Love: Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Tina, by Chris Franz (2020)

Frantz’s account of the early days, when the Heads lived in the pre-gentrified Lower East Side of New York, an almost literal war zone. While searching for a loft to live in, they viewed one building that was on fire. One spring afternoon, Frantz walked over to the now-legendary club CBGB to ask for a gig. The place smelt of “beer, roach spray, dog doo [the owner, Hilly Kristal, had a free-roaming saluki] and Chanel No 5”.

Winter’s Journal, by Paul Auster

Note: To me, Auster is one of the closest real-life Daniel Malloy analogues: born around 1950, literary career in NYC, moved to Paris in the 1970s for a few years, troubled middle-class background. Novelist though, not a journalist. There’s an anecdote in this book about a car crash that feels like a deadass Devil’s Minion fever dream. Crazy stuff. One of my personal favourites

On the AIDS Crisis

And the Band Played On, by Randy Shilts

The book chronicles the discovery and spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) with a special emphasis on government indifference and political infighting—specifically in the United States—to what was then perceived as a specifically gay disease

The Journalist of Castro Street: The Life of Randy Shilts, by Andrew E. Stoner

Biography of Randy Shilts that’s very helpful for imagining Daniel in the early 1980s newsrooms covering Karposi’s sarcoma

How to Survive a Plague: The Story of How Activists and Scientists Tamed AIDS by David France (2017)

It’s not easy to balance solid journalism with intimate understanding of a subject, and even harder to write eloquently about a disease that’s killing your friends and loved ones. France pulls it off, in his own words (his description of finding a college roommate’s panel in the AIDS Memorial Quilt is heartbreaking) and in letting his articulate sources speak for themselves. (SF Gate review)

Timeline of AIDS (link)

Overview of HIV (link)

And some films, just for fun

The Panic in Needle Park (1971): Drama film directed by Jerry Schatzberg. Al Pacino is a heroin addict and small-time dealer in Manhattan who falls in love with another addict.

Serpico (1973): biographical crime drama film directed by Sidney Lumet. Al Pacino is a hippie cop (yes, I know, its part of the plot) with one foot in the 1970s bohemian art scene

American Graffiti (1973): teen movie set in 1973 Modesto ("I'm just a shitty kid from Modesto"--Danny Malloy)

The Taking of Pelham 123 (1974): More grimy 1970s NYC stuff

All the President’s Men (1976): THE ABSOLUTE JOURNALISM MOVIE??

Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)

Cruising (1980): 1980 crime thriller written and directed by William Friedkin. Al Pacino is a cop (again) but this time he goes undercover in NYC gay leather clubs

Almost Famous (2000): Set in 1973, it chronicles the funny and often poignant coming of age of 15-year-old William, an unabashed music fan who gets the chance to write for Rolling Stone

Spotlight (2015): More journalism movies! The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese

everyone say thank you to @islandbetweenrivers for starting this, I just polished up our google docs and posted it on tumblr.

Also if anyone has something to add please let me know!

[island-in-the-shadows]

Apparently some of all y'all hated the finale? Idk man, I had a ball!

Louis on a rampage? Iconic. 10/10 would recommend.

Louis kissing Armand in front of Lestat? Gagged. That was some reality trash TV behaviour and like Ouch Town, Population: Lestat.

The implication of Sam being a Deadmau5 type DJ? Hilarious

Daniel (with some help) taking a final fucking sledgehammer to the sham marriage? My Boomer son came, saw, won 3D chess against my blorbo.

Armand being...you know, Armand? Is that upsetting? That he knew? That he planned it? That he was directly antagonistic to Louis and Claudia? I mean...it's been nearly 50 years. My gremlin blorbo is as my gremlin blorbo does and that's why he's the feral racoon king of my alley aka Little King Trashmouth. Honestly I'm thankful to Louis that he only left him with a couple of scratches to his pretty face.

Louis really changed the locks and took the keys and was like gtfo bitch and he was so real for that. Yes, babe.

The reunion between Loustat? Random millenial being turned aside (cuz wtf was that?), it has been the ONLY moment in 2 seasons that has made me cry. The fact that they are the only two who can mourn their daughter, that they embraced in forgiveness and mourning? I couldn't, it was so lovely. And quite the open door.

Again, my boomer son....listen, this man gave zero fucks while he was still mortal. The fucks that he gives now with his (need to be more) purple eyes and fangs? THEY DO NOT EXIST. I LOVE THIS IDIOT. And lol ok yeah your maker made you out of spite, sure, let's go with that for now. Lol

Love that Daniel and Louis play telephone because tbh they both need a friend lol.

Louis removing the tree but having a portrait of Paul and Claudia's dress? 💔

Louis at them bitches: COME AT ME BITCHES

And now we know Lestat already said this was going to ruin the world tour, so...

Conclusion: It SLAPPED. Had a ball. 10/10 would recommend. I have as many complaints as Daniel has fucks to give.

[iwtvfanevents]

Rewind the Tape —Episode 2

Art of the episode

Just like we did for the pilot, we took note of the art shown and mentioned in the second episode while we rewatched it, and we are sharing our findings with you. Did we miss any? Can you help us put a name to the unidentified ones? Do you have any thoughts about how these references could be interpreted?

Unnamed painting by Marius de Romanus

Created for the show (uncredited artist).

Armand (still "Rashid") tells Daniel that Marius was a contemporary of Tintoretto (1518-1594).

Transformation

Ron Bechet, 2021 [Identified by Gizmodo's Linda Codega, here.]

Bechet is a New Orleans-born visual artist. He's a relative of the early jazz pioneer Sidney Bechet. Exhibition Prospect.5 says about the collection this piece belongs to: "Bechet carefully renders the ways vines wrap themselves around trees for support and access to sunlight. At times, this relationship serves both the vine and the tree. Works such as Transformation depict a harmonious symbiosis, as tree and vine both flourish. (...) Through his immersive compositions, Bechet invites us to see history and ourselves in relationship to the beauty, power, and violence of the natural world." And, from Xula Gallery: "Here, we are gifted with the physical proximity of life and death – How they share the same organic space, how they sleep together as equals. The flora of South Louisiana's natural landscape is cleaved open to expose its roots. (...) Here is botany that has every potential of becoming monstrous. All of these meanderings are used to symbolize the deep historical roots of a family home and exhibits the precariousness of nature, both human and environmental, with all of its nurturing and destructive potential. (...) It is a diaspora body, skin folded back to reveal its elegant and resilient backbone."

Untitled photographs

Vivian Maier, undated

Maier was a street photographer whose work was discovered and distributed after her death —she took more than 150,000 photographs during her life, and never printed or circulated any. You can learn more about how her work came to light here. We don't actually see the self-portrait in the third picture, which hangs to the left, until episode four.

Dancers

Edgar Degas, 1899 [Identified by @nicodelenfent, here.]

Degas produced countless paintings of ballerinas throughout his career. While he is often considered an impressionist, he himself saw himself more as a realist and preferred harsh gritty subjects of working class backgrounds. Ballerinas at the time often came from working class or poor families and worked intense grueling hours.

Berthe Morisot with a Fan

Edouard Manet, 1872 [Identified by @nicodelenfent.]

Manet was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. The portrait in this scene shows his close friend, painter Berthe Morisot, wearing mourning blacks after the death of her father, but wearing a wedding ring —she was engaged to Manet's brother.

Portrait of Erich Lederer

Egon Schiele, 1912 [Identified by @nicodelenfent.]

The Schiele depicts a young Erich Lederer, son of art collectors Serena and August Lederer, whose collection was looted by the Gestapo.

Paddy Flannigan

George Bellows, 1908 [Identified by @nicodelenfent.]

The Bellows depicts a young impoverished boy on the streets of New York.

A Doll's House

Henrik Ibsen, 1879

Lestat tells Louis "They'll seat us late, and we'll miss Nora's entrance with the Christmas tree," which quite a few fans soon identified as a reference to this play, in which a housewife becomes slowly disillusioned with marital life and eventually leaves her husband. This conclusion led to the play being banned in certain countries, such as Germany and Britain, and Ibsen was compelled to write an alternative ending, in which Nora's husband forced her to stay. In the two stage productions pictured above, you can see Kelsey Brennan and Nate Burger on the left, and Assad Zaman and Anjana Vasan on the right.

Unnamed paintings of Papa du Lac and Paul

Created for the show (uncredited artist).

Unidentified painting*

* The running theory is that the woman in this painting is Gabrielle, Lestat's mother; which would mean this is another uncredited prop painted for the show.

Woman in A Fur Coat

Edouard Manet, 1879

Additionally, on the bottom left corner of the frame you can catch a glimpse of another unidentified painting, but we couldn't get any clearer looks of it either.

Autumn at Arkville

Alexander H. Wyant, 1909 [Identified by @vfevermillion.]

The one in the mirror and the one on the other side of the door are too blurry, but we managed to place the one on top of the couch!

The Lone Tenement

George Bellows, 1909 [Identified by @nicodelenfent.]

The National Gallery of Art says about this painting: "Bellows has imbued the composition with a sense of eerie wistfulness, recording the precarious positions of those who were being displaced to make way for the future."

Don Pascuale

Gaetano Donizetti, 1842

The opera that Louis and Lestat go to at the end of the episode follows an elderly bachelor, who gets conned by his nephew Ernesto and his friend Malatesta into marrying the nephew's lover, Norina, under false pretenses. You can find a complete synopsis here.

The Storm On The Sea Of Galilee

Rembrandt van Rijn, 1633 [Identified by Gizmodo's Linda Codega.]

Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch Baroque painter and printmaker from the 17th century, is best known for his biblical and allegorical pieces. Rembrandt's only seascape was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston on March 18th, 1990, alongside other 12 works of art. The case remains unsolved.

If you spot or put a name to any other references, let us know if you'd like us to add them with credit to the post!

This week, we will be rewatching and discussing Episode 3, Is My Very Nature That of a Devil. We can't wait to hear your thoughts!

And, if you're just getting caught up, learn all about our group rewatch here ►

[carnadelions]

I really like your takes on the Loustat dynmics, do you read fanfic? If so, you got any recs?

cleave/tie by vampdf

“Oh, look at you,” he crooned. “You’re hungry. Hasn’t anyone taught you how to eat yet?”

daddy lessons by vampdf

The need was damning. But he was damned. A creature caught between worlds: man and not, saint and killer. Absolution would come for him, but not in Lestat’s hands. fatherhood is a fickle thing.

Family Portrait, c. 1840, oil on canvas by littlerhymes

Lestat's latest favourite is a painter.

Fearfully Changing by Cesare

Things are changing at Rue Royale as Claudia grows more independent, making Louis more cautious and leaving Lestat feeling estranged; he pursues a distraction that ultimately reminds him how much he values his family.

the hour of lead by boltcutters

He came in the door like a hurricane, her father. / Claudia, in a mouthful of interludes.

Roadkill by baberainbow, nlbv

pieta by baberainbow

A family trip to the circus ends with a satisfying supper and an attempt to fill Louis' belly.

During the Chateau de Lioncourt's renovation, Louis and his mother-in-law come to an understanding.

Mr and Mrs Lioncourt by weathermood:

Lestat and Louis have been married for five years. Lestat thinks Louis is an English teacher. Louis thinks Lestat works in finance. It isn't until Lestat has Louis in the crosshairs of his sniper rifle that their respective lies, resentments and desires are exposed over one dangerous night.

see-through by verseau

Lestat and Louis have been divorced for eight years. Against all odds, this is a love story.

The Painting by laila555

Louis and Lestat take a trip to visit Marius in New York City, sometime after the events of Memnoch.

stage directions by rainbowfantasy

“Luchina says you’re driving yourself mad back here. I tried to tell her you’d always been mad, but I supposed I'd better come and see it for myself.” Lestat was given new lines specifically and the nerves are making him jittery. Luckily, Nicki is good at distractions.

Children of Disobedience by HannaM

After Akasha's death, no one seems to know what to do next, least of all Armand. Marius wants to pretend the last few centuries never happened, Louis and Gabrielle are fighting, Daniel is just happy to be alive and in the company of vampires and Lestat has locked himself away from the rest to write all the things he won't say to anyone out loud. Well, if Louis and Gabrielle can't help Lestat, maybe Armand can.

[blackjackkent]

Quick wander around the Weisshaupt library, which has a couple of nice bits of fan service, and as we all know, I am a fan who likes to be serviced.

The blacksmith, whose name is Holden, says that he can probably fix the eluvian to give us an exit strategy.

Holden> "Once this is over, there's an old eluvian here that could be our escape." Helena> "Yeah, it, uh, kinda fell out of the building." Holden> "Oh? Well, if I can borrow some of your people, we'll get it right again."

So I guess that explains what everyone else will be up to while I'm busy punching a dragon. Nice that he's so confident about it. Frankly, I think Helena is undergoing major doubt that she's going to survive to see an exit strategy - but she's at least hoping her friends can get out okay, as well as some of the civilians.

Daniel's Joining chalice is here! :O

So are a lot of blight pustules.

Getting through the library is basically a small puzzle sequence of blowing up pustules in the right order to clear all of the blocked off areas; some of them reveal treasure and some reveal a path forward.

Another throwback!

Eyyy, Kristoff! This note does seem to imply that the Wardens were not a huge fan of watching their comrade's dead body walk around puppeted by Justice, and you know what - I don't blame them, actually.

Bellara is the one to bring up the $64,000 question.

Bellara> "When we trap this archdemon, doesn't a Grey Warden have to kill it? Isn't that how it works?" Davrin> "It's true. And die doing it." Bellara> "What?" Davrin> "It's complicated. But every Warden is prepared for the sacrifice. I'm ready." Bellara> "To die?" Davrin> "Who knows? Maybe they'll hang my portrait in here someday." Helena> "It's not over yet." Davrin> "Will be soon enough."

:(

Given how casually Helena dropped "Davrin kills it" in her speech at the end of the last scene, I'm fairly sure she knew that a Warden has to kill the archdemon, but not the rest of it. Seemingly that's not common knowledge. So she's also definitely pretty rattled to hear this, and would probably be objecting a lot more loudly if she hadn't also just volunteered to climb straight into the cannon's mouth.

( @springagainafter has noted that Rook is equally casual about "Davrin kills it" even if Rook is a Warden and could theoretically take the sacrifice themselves, which is a hilarious oversight. XD )

Another throwback, this one to DA2!

I'm a little unclear who this is meant to have been written by, but I'm guessing it's Janeka, the Warden from Legacy, who wanted to use Malcolm Hawke's blood to free Corypheus and use him to end the blights.

Further strategic discussion in between smashing blight pustules:

Bellara> "What about Lucanis? Is he still supposed to kill the Ghilan'nain cloud?" Helena> "That's why we came here." Bellara> "But how? She's in the sky." Helena> "One impossible thing at a time."

I actually kind of feel bad for Bellara here. Helena has made it clear that she's viewing this as a suicide mission and Davrin has now just made it clear he feels the same way, which means that she's the only one in the team currently operating on the hope of getting out of this mess.

I think that there are little angsty romance seeds blooming here because both Helena and Bellara are realizing they don't want each other to die. And Helena is definitely taking strength from Bellara's presence right now as they fight side by side. Bellara is still, I think, hanging on to the optimism that Helena is really struggling with right now.

On that note, a thought...

"We can do this, you know," Bellara says abruptly to Helena as they clamber through one of the holes left behind by the blight.

"Yeah," Helena says absently.

"No-- Helena, I mean it. We can do this."

Helena pauses, looks over her shoulder and is surprised to find that Bellara is looking at her very intently. And for a moment, she isn't entirely sure what to say.

"Yeah," she finally says again, more steadily.

Bellara climbs through the hole slowly behind her and straightens up, wringing her hands together. "It isn't over yet," she says. "You don't have to give up."

"I haven't given up," Helena says, a little defensively. "I'm right here leading the charge, aren't I?"

"But you think you're going to die," Bellara says flatly.

Helena looks away from her, raises her bow and sends an arrow crashing into an other pustule. "I said I would do whatever it takes," she says.

"I know." At her side, Bellara shifts, and for one bewildering, dizzying moment Helena thinks the other woman is about to take her hand. But she doesn't, just shifts to pull out her own bow as well, checking its balance. "Sometimes the serials have happy endings," the young elf says after a moment's silence. "You told me that, remember? Even when Neve didn't think they could."

Helena goes still for a moment, staring down at the floor of the corridor ahead of them. Then she lifts her eyes to Bellara and nods slightly, mustering a true smile just for a moment. "Maybe they do," she mutters gruffly. "I guess we'll see."

[bikenesmith]

# wednesday spoilers

posting this for the cherik lot who don't read comics because i think its very funny whenever there's just randomly a cherik fix-it premise in canon

context: this is from jean grey (2023) #1, which just came out (aug 23). jean's recently died again (i guess? you know how it is), and this mini series is about her floating between life and death, psychically exploring her past and trying to see where things went "wrong" (both for herself and for mutantkind). What If...?: Jean Grey, or: Jean Writes AU Fanfiction About Herself. it slaps so far!

in this issue she wonders what would've happened if her younger self hadn't erased her own and the other original x-men's memories of their journey into the future, and if she'd kept the expanded abilities she gained during it

that thought experiment doesn't go great! jean basically lobotomizes erik, aiming to ensure that he is no longer a threat to mutantkind's chances of survival. charles "hits the roof" over this + assumedly either kicks the o5 out or makes so much of an issue that the o5 feel the need to cut ties. things progressively go more and more off the rails as jean tries to use mind control and memory wiping to fix every problem.

at one point, the o5 abduct some children they met as adults in the future (kitty pryde, danielle moonstar, and sam guthrie) "for their safety". they go back to the mansion to give them to charles to take care of....who is with erik!! bc he took him back to the mansion!! + put his mind back together as best he could!! 😭 erik is physically disabled from the attack + uses a wheelchair like charles'.

also lets take a moment to zero in on this painting of erik on the wall.

how much time has passed? when did charles get this commissioned? could charles have painted it???? or is it a self portrait that erik painted while recovering????? SO many questions

[ravennawritesfanfiction]

Beauty From Darkness Part 5

Pairings/ Characters: Lestat de Lioncourt x Louis de Pointe du Lac, Armand x Reader, Gabrielle de Lioncourt, Marius de Romanus, Daniel Molloy.

Word Count: 2433

Summary: After discovering your childhood home, renovations begin that lead to dark truths that the Vampire Quartet must acknowledge and choose to forgive or harbor.

Returning to reality was a welcomed change of pace for both you and Armand. After discovering that your family home still stood and was amazingly in good repair considering how long it had stood empty, Armand purchased the home. Thus began the restoration process. Everything had been meticulously photographed and cataloged so that it could be stored. The family portrait was taken to Paris for restoration by Armand since your appearance in the image would have raised unnecessary questions. Broken items were thrown out. The whole process was thoroughly painful. 

Somehow all this had been made worse during groundskeeping when a private cemetery you could not recall was uncovered within some overgrown thicket. Only two headstones were revealed; the names heart wrenching. Your mother’s name, deeply carved into the stone, bore the same death year as your transformation. The second stone, your own. Somehow, they had gotten word that you had died and chose to bury you too. You hadn’t expected that. 

With the discovery of the family cemetery, Armand decided that it was only right to add a headstone for your father, since by now he was surely gone. Research turned up nothing of his life after he left the house; like he had ceased to exist with the filling in of the graves. The family bible, which you had found while cataloging, gave a date of birth for him; Armand made sure it was etched into the stone when it was placed. 

Now you were blissfully back in Los Angeles and you were left feeling like you could sleep for a month if only your phone hadn’t started ringing the moment you stepped foot in your house. The universe had jokes. To your surprise, it was Lestat on the other end of the call, using an actual phone like a human. Apparently since the wedding, he had been working on a new album and really wanted you on it with him. 

If someone had told you a year ago that you would be working with your ex-husband, you would have offered them a padded room and a jacket that helps you hug yourself. You’d call them nuts. Yet here you were, sending lyrics and demos back and forth. The universe never ceased to amaze you with the things it came up with. Or the curve balls it throws. 

Armand was beyond supportive. You trusted each other completely. You all knew who you were each going home to and that Lestat and you neither one thought of the other that way. You still felt weird when it came to the planning of the music videos. Since his overall theme had been love, the music videos were slated to be romantic. With the two of you being the voices of the tracks, you would be expected to star in the videos. So, Lestat knew exactly what to do when it came time to hire directors. Despite the fact they had not kissed and made up, Armand was his first call. He had seen your videos and though he would never tell Armand this, they were really good. Armand accepted immediately. 

Lestat also hired Gabrielle as wardrobe director for the project, but almost instantly regretted it when his previous wardrobe vanished and was replaced with sensible outfits. He was disgusted, but opted not to bring it up. You confirmed that that was probably for the best. 

During the creative meeting for the set design of the first music video on the docket, Armand’s phone rang. He typically would let it go to voicemail, but he noticed that the caller ID stated it was coming from France. He excused himself and answered, taking the call out to the hallway. The meeting paused in the director’s absence. Gabrielle took the opportunity to stretch and begin pacing while Lestat decided his feet looked better on the table. Gabrielle went off about raising him better than that and you gave her a questioning look. Did you though? Armand was not gone long and when he returned, he was visibly upset. 

“(Y/N), a word in private please?” Armand walked you out to the hallway he had just occupied and resorted to pacing. He was fidgety. Which means he was coming up with how to break bad news. 

“That was the local law enforcement. During renovations, the contractors uncovered human remains where they had planned to put the step down patio.” you were perplexed. He was still anxious so clearly that wasn’t even the bad part. “They are a male’s remains, mid to late fifties. They are putting the rough time of death about two hundred and fifty years ago.” you were shaking. You could already tell where he was going with this. 

“A musket was found with the remains. They are operating with the assumption that this was a suicide. They also suspect that the remains are likely the owner’s remains.” you were shaking your head and muttering no over and over. “My love, it’s your father. I told them we are on our way.” you were sobbing. Armand called to Gabrielle who rushed out of the conference room with Lestat hot on her tail.

They insisted on going to France with you and Armand. So did Daniel, Louis, and Marius. Their girl was not going to go through this alone. You were despondent. The TSA agent was concerned that you were being abducted until literally everyone in the group informed them that you had just learned of your father’s death and that’s why they were all going to France. You wouldn’t let go of Armand. You wouldn’t speak. Wouldn’t sleep on the flight. Everyone was worried about you. The calm and rational one.

You had known he was gone. You’d accepted that everyone you’d known and loved was long dead a century ago. The fact he was dead wasn’t what had bothered you so deeply, but rather how he had left the world. And the fact that he stayed where he lay for two centuries, the only burial he received was the one mother nature provided. You were horrified. You were heart broken. You couldn’t understand why he would do it. You never imagined this end for your family.

Armand, Lestat, and Louis were the ones to go to Paris to retrieve the remains. They stated that there was an old family plot from the era that was likely his family, so they thought it would be nice to lay him to rest with his loved ones. No one argued, though they were up against two vampires known for mind games; it would have ended this way anyways. You decided that he likely died the day he buried your mother. June 30, 1787, was the date that had been recorded in the Bible. He had buried his whole family that year. Marius tried to convince you that he was in a better place; you didn’t feel as though he believed his own words. 

They returned with a beautiful casket. Armand wouldn’t let you see the musket, since all of his personal belongings had also been released to Armand. He did give you the ring that had been found still on his finger. They’d cleaned it for identification purposes, but you knew in that moment that this was absolutely your father; his wedding ring now in the palm of your hand. You slipped the ring on Armand’s finger as you wiped tears from your cheeks. He pulled you close and refused to leave your side. 

Marius, Louis, Lestat, and Daniel all worked to dig a grave; your father in this life helping to bury your father from your previous life. It was unlike anything you could have thought up. You sobbed harder. He peeked into your thoughts to find that you were blaming yourself. He couldn’t for the life of him figure out how you could think that this was in any way your fault. Lestat’s maybe, but not yours. 

“Listen to me, My Love. This is NOT your fault. You did not cause this. He lost the love of his life and he didn’t want to live without her.” he tried to calm you down. “She got sick and he couldn’t save her.” you sniffled and looked up at him. 

“Do you really believe that?” you squeaked out. Your first words since he had told you.

“With every fiber of my being, because I would do the same damn thing if something ever happened to you.” you kissed him and stayed nestled in his coat until it was announced that the grave was ready. 

Armand and Marius lowered that casket down and Lestat and Louis helped them back out of the hole. Daniel came over and gave you an understanding hug. His memory of losing his parent’s was far fresher than the others present. You loved him for this. You loved them all for this. 

“Would you like to say a few words?” Marius asked you from the grave’s edge.

“Where to begin. I never thought I would get this chance.” you thought for a moment about all of the things that you wanted to say. “He was not an easy man to love or live with. Then again, I don’t think any of the men from that time were. He made a lot of choices in life that were not great. But I like to think that they were made out of a place of love. I look back at the things he taught me, like how to shoot and how to ride a horse. I remember mother asking if he was trying to raise a son. I am angry about how he chose to leave this world, but I hope that somehow he found what he was looking for.” you threw a fistful of dirt onto the casket below. 

“I didn’t know him well, in fact, I spoke to him only once in my life. I came to tell him that you were gone; he kicked my ass for letting anything happen to you. Never doubt that they both loved you.” Lestat added before tossing in his own fistfull. You hadn’t known that it was Lestat that had come to inform your parent’s, you’d just assumed that it was Gabrielle or the Marquis. 

“He checked on you regularly. He begged us to release you from your marriage and to let you come home. I confess that I kept you there so that I wouldn’t be left alone again. You were such a comfort to me.” Gabrielle was crying as she threw her fistful in. Lestat was angry and trying very desperately to hold in his anger for you. “I let you down, Phileppe.” she took a step back from the group. 

“I am truly sorry for the pain that (y/n)’s death caused you, but I will forever be grateful that you brought her into this world. You gave me my star in my eternal night, thank you.” Armand stated before adding yet another handful on the casket.

The grave was filled in after that. The sun was rising and all of the non ancient vampires were forced to abandon that gravesite and seek shelter. Armand and Marius remained to finish the task for you. You avoided Gabrielle. Lestat was disgusted and banned her from being near him. 

Marius and Armand returned about an hour later to find you were the only one still awake. Armand scooped you up onto his lap to cushion you from the hard ground below. You fell asleep quickly like that. He couldn’t sleep. He was angry. Gabrielle had let you suffer so she didn’t have to suffer alone. Then it had been Lestat to tell your parents. Would they have ever known if left to Gabrielle? The one who played mother. The one mad at Lestat for something she could have ended. Your  dreams echoed his thoughts. As did Lestat’s, who was reliving your death in nightmarish detail. He’d urge you to relieve her from her position later. 

That night, Lestat’s temper exploded. He screamed at Gabrielle for her cruelty; it seemed to go on for hours. No one stopped him. They were all thinking the same, but he said it. Your father, you learned, didn’t just kick his ass when he heard; he tried to kill him. He was nearly successful. Lestat had taken it because he thought he was solely responsible. Gabrielle let him believe it. 

You went to the graves. Armand had finished the headstone for you. You sat there alone for the rest of the night. You talked about your life, the people you loved. You told them about Armand; how he’s the love of your life. You told them about making something of yourself and how you hoped they would be proud. 

You joined everyone in the cellar at daybreak. Marius had taken to protecting Gabrielle so you could only guess that the fight had gotten heated. You thought about her all day. The way you saw it, you had forgiven your abuser, you were even good friends with him now. You forgave Gabrielle her own fear and actions and told her at nightfall. You explained her action’s impact on Lestat, only he could forgive that. 

It was your last night and almost everything had been returned to their rightful places within the house. You were thankful the windows had been installed allowing you to move freely during the day. You spent the day going through old memories; everyone joining in. You were glad you’d be moving in here soon, at least part time. 

Armand was excited too. You had decided that you would live in what had always been your room; your parents’ room would be converted to a guest room that everyone promptly called dibs on. All you could do was laugh at the frenzy of “me first” and “I already called it”s that filled the space. 

While looking through things, you found Gabrielle’s letters to your parents tucked in an atlas. After memorizing them, you showed them to Lestat and Armand. They read them and handed them back; Lestat snarled in disgust at the blatant lies contained on the pages. Armand was sad that the lies nowhere near mirrored the truth of the pain you’d endured. Once they were back in your possession, you burned them. It was over. It had happened. The only regret you carried now was the pain caused to Lestat. You yourself decided that you would do it all over again for the chance at eternity with Armand. What’s eleven years to a Vampire anyways?

[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

... A Thousand Words: Part One

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.6k

Summary: A man commits suicide and leaves behind tattoos that tell a story about the victims he's killed, and the one that's still alive.

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Season Five Masterlist

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them.

x

"A sincere artist tries to create something which is, in itself, a living thing." - Painter William Dobell

It's the weekend and you're really excited to get off. You have something special planned for Spencer, a date. You bought some food you get to cook together, candles, flowers, the whole nine yards. After dinner, you'll watch a romantic movie that you've been wanting him to see with you.

"Hey, are you ready to go?" Spencer asks.

"Of course. I can't wait to make dinner with you. We'd watch a movie and probably wouldn't even make it to the end." Spencer pulls you in by your waist and you wrap your arms around his neck. "I'd take you to bed and have my way with you."

Spencer leans down and kisses you.

"More like I'd have my way with you," he mumbles against your lips.

You can't help but giggle at his words. Bedroom!Spencer is a lot different than Public!Spencer. You like that only you get to see that version of it.

"Hey, what are you two doing?" You pull away from Spencer and see Derek walking into the bullpen. "You know what, don't answer that."

"We're having date night tonight."

"You might have to put that off," JJ says. "We have a case that just came in."

"Are you serious?" you groan.

"We'll have date night when we come back."

"Fine," you sigh.

"There goes my sin-to-win weekend in Atlantic City," Emily sighs.

"Sin-to-win?" Derek asks.

All she does is smirk. All of you walk to the briefing room to discuss the case.

"I talked to a Tallahassee detective who's been working on a missing woman case, Rebecca Daniels. She went missing while jogging near the FSU campus three weeks ago."

She passes out the file that was sent to her which includes photos of Rebecca and an unknown male with blood on his face. His entire body is covered with tattoos. Some are portraits of women and dates underneath their pictures and vines and branches spread out over his body. 

"Who is this?"

"Florida state police responded to an apparent suicide an hour and a half ago for a middle-aged male. Those are photos of him postmortem."

"What's with the tattoos?"

"He's covered with them. That's why they requested our presence. The tattoos are portraits of previously missing women with the years of death or the years the remains were recovered. The tattoos correlate to faces on a wall next to the body with information on the women going back ten years. Rebecca is also shown on that wall but there's no image of her on the body. The detective thinks that that may mean that she's alive somewhere."

"He called in his own suicide, didn't he?" you ask.

"Yeah, how did you--"

"He staged all this. No reason to put on a show without an audience," you shrug. 

"Tell them to leave the body where it is," Hotch says. "We need to see it exactly how he wanted it seen. If this girl's still out there, the only one who knows where she is is dead."

After arriving in Florida, you drive to the small cabin where the man killed himself. Hotch parks and you face the hot and humid Florida weather. Virginia doesn't get as bad as Florida so you're not used to feeling this humid heat. You step out of the car and feel like you've just gotten out of a shower.

"Oh, this heat is brutal," Derek groans.

"You know, it isn't so much the heat as it is the humidity," Spencer says.

"At some point, it doesn't matter how you look at it. It all sucks."

"FBI?" An older white man approaches your team. "I'm John Barton, Tallahassee PD. I'm the primary on the missing girl, Rebecca Daniels. I got my files in the car if you need them."

"I'm Agent Hotchner. This is Agents Rossi, Prentiss, Morgan, Jareau, Y/N, and Dr. Reid."

"Thank you for coming out so quickly. I appreciate that. I've also confirmed that all the women on his body are victims from around Southeast Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, and Alabama."

"Rebecca's the only woman on the wall who isn't on his body?"

"Yeah, she's the only one. Hope you have a strong stomach."

He takes you into the small cabin and the stench of death hits you like a freight train. You have to stop yourself from bending over and emptying your stomach. It's like if someone left out something to spoil in the sun but turned up the smell a thousand notches. All of your team covers their noses to block out the smell but it doesn't help much. The man is sitting in a chair in the middle of the room with his back turned to you. If you didn't know he was dead, you would have thought he was just sitting there. There is a small bulletin board to the right of his body that has pictures of all the missing women that are tattooed onto his body except for Rebecca. She's on the wall but she isn't on his body.

"The chair was turned like that? This is exactly the way you found him?" Hotch asks.

"Yeah. There are also a couple of boxes with journals and composition books." He points to the boxes in the corner of the room. "They're filled with writing. We haven't been through them yet other than to dust them for prints."

You grab some gloves and walk around to face the man. You have a much clearer view of his tattoos, and you bend over slightly to see them better.

"Have you identified him?" you ask.

"We're working on it. We got a rush on the DNa and the prints. He's cleared locally but it's gonna take some time to get the national records."

"What about property records?"

"I talked to the owner of this cabin. She said she rented it a couple of weeks ago to a quiet, normal-looking guy named Bob. He said he wanted to store some equipment and paid in cash."

"Yeah, they're always normal," Rossi scoffs.

"Did he sign a lease?"

"Not with month-to-month. Out here in the boonies, you don't get a lot of record-keeping types, especially when it comes to cash transactions."

"He's no kid yet the missings go back only ten years?"

"As far as I can tell," John nods. "Do you see this a lot? Guys killing themselves?"

"Most serial killers who commit suicide do it in prison after they're caught," you answer.

"JJ, gather as much information about the prior victims as you can. Morgan and Prentiss, take the journals. Y/N and Reid, the tattoos and see if he left any clues about where Rebecca might be," Hotch orders.

"Do you think there is a chance she might be alive?" John asks.

"It's probably better not to speculate. May I take a look at the case files you have on Miss Daniels, please?"

"Yeah, no problem."

You look at the ceiling to see blood on the chandelier right above the man. He shot upward so his blood and brains would have been splattered on the light above.

"Why is it when men kill themselves it gets everywhere, but women don't leave a mess like they were never there?" an officer asks.

"Women worry about who has to clean up. Men don't give a damn," you answer.

"JJ, what have you found?"

You look over and see Hotch and JJ by the bulletin board.

"The earliest clipping is from ten years ago, and they're in order, oldest to newest. Brenda Carlyle first, Rebecca last. One victim a year for ten years straight. Each girl's remains were recovered in a well-traveled wooded area. All were strangled and repeatedly sexually assaulted, and then about a week later, another woman went missing."

"Did the new abductions happen before the previous bodies were found?"

"No, never."

"So, he has a year-long cycle. He uses them up and he gets a newer model. He won't take another girl until the last body's been found. He's telling a story and he can't start a new one until the old one's over."

"Look at this." You turn back to Spencer. You lean in to see what he's looking at and see a rose tattoo on the man's right forearm. "At the turn of the 16th century, rose tattoos were put on men who were sentenced to death. If they escaped, it served to identify them. Now, roses pretty much symbolize pure love."

Your rose looks better than this. He must have gotten it a really long time ago since it's faded and the lines have started to blend together.

"Pure love," you scoff, "right before he kills them."

"Have you read 'The Illustrated Man'?" Spencer asks you.

"Yes," you smirk. "You read it to me. Remember? I couldn't fall asleep so you picked a book out and read to me until I fell asleep."

The book is a collection of short stories written by Ray Bradbury based on the metafictive device of a man who is covered in tattoos drawn by a woman from the future. At night, the tattoos come to life and tell a story. You fell asleep in the middle of him reading it to you so you don't know how it ends.

"Right," Spencer blushes. "Well, my point is that these tattoos tell a story."

"Check this out."

The officer turns the man slightly so you can see his back. On his shoulder blade is an empty spot surrounded by tree branches. Nothing is in the spot. Was this meant to be for Rebecca once she was killed?

"Why would he leave that space blank?"

"Maybe this guy's just a psycho."

"If it were that simple, we'd all be out of a job," you chuckle.

"Hey, Reid," Derek calls from the stacks of journals. You smirk already knowing what they want from him. Spencer leaves your side and walks over to them, and they are close enough for you to hear what they're saying. "Our man here was a prolific journalist with teeny tiny handwriting."

"He probably had counseling at some point when journaling was part of his therapy."

It's cute how he doesn't get what they're silently asking. He's such a sweetheart.

"That's what we were thinking," Emily nods.

Spencer's eyes narrow in suspicion. "And?"

"Well, you know, with the two of us, it would take us like three days to read all of this stuff."

Recognition comes over Spencer's face. He sighs and grabs the notebook from Derek.

"You guys owe me."

"Trust me, I think Y/N will do the thanking for us later," Derek smirks and winks at you.

Spencer sits down on an empty crate and begins reading through the journals as fast as he can. His brain has never failed to amaze you. You truly have a one-of-a-kind.

"It's no wonder no one ever connected these cases. They're from different states and different jurisdictions," JJ says, pulling you back into focus.

"It's probably no accident. He knows the system."

"Why kill himself now? He wasn't on anyone's radar."

"Something changed." Everyone gathers around Hotch and the dead man except for Spencer who is flying through the notebooks. "So, what do we know so far?"

"He wanted the police here. He wanted us to see all this, and he was definitely a sadist. From what we saw, his journals were graphic and meticulous," Derek says.

"Covering himself with his victims' likeness is methodical and possessive. He'll always own them, and the suicide shows commitment."

"He's organized and compulsive. The crimes are on an annual cycle. The computer printouts on the board were all printed on the same day, two weeks ago."

"That's when he rented this building," John says, "and proceeded to move everything into it. It's a history of his crimes."

"He did all of this in two weeks?" you ask.

"He got away with it for ten years. He could have kept going, but he decided to end it all and hand everything to us."

"That's it." Spencer jumps up and approaches the group. "Everything. His body, the tattoos, the clippings, the printouts, and the journals. He moved it all into one room. He wanted us to see all of it. See all of him... his work... the women... He put them in chronological order. He wants us to look at him."

"Yeah, we know," Rossi says.

"No, but think about it. If you take a step back, it sort of makes sense. It's just a confession. A giant, flashy confession. What would we say if an unsub turned himself into the police before they were even onto him?"

"He was trying to hide something... or someone," you say.

"He made a mistake in his third book. I almost missed it but then I caught it." Spencer flips the pages and begins reading. "I thought it would take longer but today was my lucky day. She almost walked right by, and I almost missed her completely. At the last moment, we found our latest guest."

"We?"

"He has a partner. He put everything in this room so we wouldn't look further and wouldn't dig even deeper."

"If he has a partner, he's still out there, and he's got Rebecca."

There is commotion outside and you look through the window to see that the media has arrived. JJ immediately leaves to deal with the press while you walk outside to watch her.

"What is she doing down there?" John asks from behind you.

You turn to see him, Hotch, Derek, and Emily outside.

"She's trying to keep the media from running the story right now."

"Wouldn't that help us get it out there and put some pressure on the partner?"

"If the partner didn't know about the suicide, he might dispose of Rebecca and disappear," you answer. "If anyone can stop the media from running something, it's JJ."

"Let's profile the partner. We know that the unsub was a dominant personality and an alpha. Can any of you guys think of a case where a dominant unsub committed suicide to protect a submissive partner?" Emily asks.

"No."

"So, the partner must be an equal in some way, or at least not a competitor, not somebody that he needed to feel dominance over. Maybe it was someone he cared about?"

"It would be hard for a sadistic psychopath to care about anybody," Hotch says, "which would make the partner all that much more important to him."

"Could it be a woman?" you ask.

"Maybe," Hotch nods. "What about the tattoo artist? He couldn't have done those by himself. Maybe that's the role of the partner. It would certainly make him important."

"What the hell does any of this have to do with Becky?" John's anger seeps out of him like a mist he can't control. "I mean, isn't there something we should be doing, damn it?"

"Detective, may I speak with you for a moment?"

Hotch takes John off to the side just as JJ joins your group.

"So, we have until the evening news at six tonight."

"How much do they know?"

"Oh, the troopers told them everything."

You walk back inside the cabin and call Penelope since you're going to need her help if you're going to accomplish anything before six.

"Agent Y/N, please tell me you called because the case is over and I can erase this freaky freak off my otherwise uber-delicious desktops."

"Long way to go, sugar."

"I am into epiderm artistry as much as the next gen-xer, but this guy... eesh. I'm just glad he's not breathing the same air as you, my fine furry friends."

"Agreed. What have you found out about tattoo artists down here?"

"That the state of Florida requires licensing for all skin illustrators. I am not going to elaborate on how I know this but not everyone in the body art lifestyle goes through official channels."

"Oh, you're definitely telling that story when we get back," you joke. "Uh, start with the legit ones and see if anyone recognizes the work."

"I shall send you the list to your PDA."

"Send them to Rossi. Thanks." You look at Spencer who is running his finger down the page before turning it and doing the same exact thing. "Baby?" Spencer looks up. "Are you good?"

"Yeah," he smiles and goes back to reading.

You walk back outside and join the group that now has Rossi in it.

x

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[scotianostra]

On March 22nd 1727 Niel Gow, was first of a famous family of Fiddle players and composers, born at Inver, near Dunkeld, Perthshire.

Niel was essentially a self-taught musician, though at the age of thirteen he did receive some instruction, from John Cameron of Grandtully. He undoubtedly had a flair for fiddling and was an admired and respected exponent of the art by the time he was twenty. Having forsaken the trade of plaid weaving for a career as a musician, Niel Gow travelled extensively throughout Scotland , performing in most major towns and cities at parties and balls in the grand homes of the wealthy.

Such was his reputation, he was always in great demand, and nowhere more so than on his home ground, where he would regularly be called upon to perform at Dunkeld House and at Blair Castle for the Duke and Duchess of Atholl (by whom he was paid an annuity of five pounds).

Niel Gow married twice. His Eight children, three daughters and five sons, all came from his first marriage, to Margaret Wiseman. Four of Niel's sons took up the fiddle. (His fifth son Daniel, died in infancy.) Nathaniel, born in 1763, in particular made a name for himself as a performer and composer, and started a successful music publishing business in Edinburgh.

Niel Gow's second wife, Margaret Urquhart, died in 1805. He himself died on 1st March 1807, just three weeks short of his eightieth birthday. He lies buried in the little Dunkeld churchyard.

The portrait of Gow, resplendent in his trews was painted by Sir Henry Raeburn in 1787 and along with his chair and other exhibits can be seen at Blair Castle.

The Niel Gow Festival was held online over the weekend, but it hopes to be back on the 18th to 20th March 2022 in the beautiful and historic Perthshire village of Dunkeld.

[lostinhistory]

Heritage News of the Week

Discoveries!

Archaeologists suggest ‘woodhenge’ was built between 2600 and 1600BC on similar axis to English stone circle

Man's brain turned to glass by hot Vesuvius ash cloud

Nearly 2,000 years after a young man died in the Vesuvius volcanic eruption, scientists have discovered that his brain was preserved when it turned to glass in an extremely hot cloud of ash.

New Pompeii excavations reveal frescoes depicting a mysterious ritual

A downright bacchanalian frieze has just been unearthed in Pompeii, one so large it spans three walls of a massive banquet room.

From destruction to discovery: Ancient Greek tombstone discovered in Libya after Storm ‘Daniel’

The Libyan Antiquities Authority has officially confirmed that an ancient artifact uncovered in the torrents caused by Storm “Daniel” in the city of Shahat is a Greek tombstone made of limestone, located in the northern cemetery area.

'Nailed-head ritual' in Iron Age Spain was more 'complex than initially thought,' severed skulls reveal

An analysis of the origins of seven severed skulls with nails through them shows that some people treated this way in Iron Age Spain were local while others came from afar.

A new study hints at the origins of an ancient Easter Island script

The language could have predated the arrival of the Europeans.

Archaeologists reveal a 3,000-year-old gold processing complex

Archaeologists from the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) have completed a two-year project to uncover a 3,000-year-old gold processing complex at Jabal Sukari, southwest of Marsa Alam City in Egypt’s Red Sea Governorate.

Ancient DNA reveals mysterious origins of the Huns who sacked Rome

The origin of the European Huns, a nomadic group that helped topple the Roman Empire, has been shrouded in mystery — until now. A new study of ancient DNA from fifth- to sixth-century Hun skeletons suggests they were a motley crew of mixed origin with a few connections to the Xiongnu Empire in Mongolia.

Neanderthal 'population bottleneck' around 110,000 years ago may have contributed to their extinction

A study of the inner ear bones of Neanderthals shows a significant loss of diversity in their shape around 110,000 years ago, suggesting a genetic bottleneck that contributed to Neanderthals' decline.

New insights into Inca pilgrimages to volcanic peaks

Archaeologists have examined the ritual landscape the Inca used during their pilgrimages to perform capacocha rituals on volcanic peaks.

Royal mosaic house found in Pergamon

Turkish archaeologists discovered a large and elaborately decorated Roman-era building at the site of Pergamon in Izmir.

1,800-year-old mini portrait of Alexander the Great turns up in surprising location

Today, Alexander the Great is widely considered antiquity’s preeminent military commander. As it turns out, his battleground fame was so far flung that, even 500 years after his death, Alexander was being venerated in lands untouched by his blistering campaigns.

Over 7,000-year-old traces of life discovered in Ratina Cave on Šćedro Island, Croatia

Recent archaeological excavations on Šćedro Island, located south of Hvar, have unveiled significant findings that challenge previous understandings of the island’s prehistoric past. The Ratina Cave, a site of interest since the early 20th century, has revealed evidence of human activity dating back to the late Neolithic period, approximately 3000 years earlier than previously believed.

20,000-year-old evidence of ancient 'vehicles' discovered in New Mexico

Ancient footprints and drag marks at White Sands National Park in New Mexico suggest the earliest known Americans dragged wooden travois-like vehicles.

Medieval church discovered beneath Eschwege car park

Construction works to transform a former car park into a public space has revealed the remains of a medieval church.

150,000-year-old stone tools reveal humans lived in tropical rainforests much earlier than thought

Researchers have discovered that humans lived in tropical rainforests 150,000 years ago, around 100,000 years earlier than previous evidence suggested.

Oldest example of writing in northern Iberia

Archaeologists uncovered a small inscribed object at the Iron Age settlement of La Peña del Castro that bears evidence of one of the oldest examples of writing ever found in northern Iberia.

Researchers uncover stories of Black Londoners who escaped slavery

The untold stories of Black Londoners who escaped slavery in the capital and joined free communities in the East End have been uncovered by researchers who draw comparisons with the Underground Railroad in the US.

Museums

Amid ceaseless attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, art institutions have a responsibility to center and support their queer and trans staff and visitors.

Stonewall National Museum says its financial future is shaky

The Stonewall National Museum, Archives & Library in South Florida claims that state and federal anti-LGBTQ policies have siphoned off the institution’s operating budget and scared off corporate investors, leaving the museum in financial peril.

“Exhaust all options”: City council holds hearing on Brooklyn Museum layoffs

Museum workers and union representatives urged the institution to explore alternatives before cutting nearly 50 full- and part-time staff.

Buffy Sainte-Marie removed from Canadian Museum for Human Rights exhibit

Buffy Sainte-Marie has been scrubbed out of an exhibit at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights because of questions surrounding the folk singer and activist's claims of First Nations identity.

First Leonardo da Vinci museum in the US coming this fall

The Colorado museum will focus on the artist’s engineering endeavors, bringing his drawings, text, and experiments to life through interactive models.

Horn heist: B.C. train museum gets railroaded by targeted thefts

Pictures of priceless horn found circulating on a Discord server in the U.S. prior to theft

Repatriation

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has repatriated a 7th-century bronze head donated by a former trustee head to Greece following a review internally of it’s provenance records. The museum’s researchers concluded it was likely illegally removed from the Archaeological Museum of Olympia in the 1930s, though details of the removal aren’t known.

Nigeria works to reclaim Benin Bronzes, with a change of custodian

The country’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments will now be responsible for retrieving and housing the looted works, according to Reuters. This is a shift away from the 2023 presidential decree that named the Oba of Benin, the traditional ruler of the Edo people, as their rightful owner and custodian.

Ancient artifacts worth $2.2m recovered by Manhattan DA’s office will be returned to Greece and Italy

The Manhattan District Attorney‘s Office recently announced the recovery of two groups of ancient artifacts which would be returned to Greece and Italy.

Heritage at risk

Experts worry for the future of vital preservation programs as the US State Department reviews its policies.

Odds and ends

Howard Carter's luggage is still covered in the sand of the Valley of the Kings, according to a local antiques expert.

This First Nation is recruiting its members to do archaeology and prove their oral history is true

Chipewyan Prairie First Nation has taken part in archaeological digs in its territory for several years now, according to Shaun Janvier, director of Chipewyan Prairie Industry Relations, who says the work proves what the community's always known.

Edward II: Did a gay love affair spark a 14th-century royal crisis?

A new revival of Christopher Marlowe's pioneering play about the 14th-Century King of England puts the spotlight back on his relationship with his male "favourite" Piers Gaveston.

Is there graffiti of a legendary film star under the Lincoln Memorial?

A sketch hidden on concrete walls for over a century may depict early film star Theda Bara.

We stan a goth queen

‘We’re being treated as grifters or terrorists’: US federal workers on the fear and chaos of their firings

An educator, archaeologist and scientist were among the thousands of government workers culled by Musk’s agency

[deramin2]

If you're loving the moral complexity of Critical Role Campaign 3, and enjoy Bell's Hells making agonized interesting character-driven choices that may not "right," here's a list of films I saw within the last few months to get more of that. (All of these ended up being at least a bit queer because queer people just make better films.)

Queer (2024)

My Own Private Idaho (1991)

Wicked: Part 1 (2024)

How To Blow Up A Pipeline (2022)

Hundreds of Beavers (2022)

I Saw The TV Glow (2024)

National Anthem (2023)

The Green Knight (2021)

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Carol (2015)

Elevator pitches under the cut.

Queer (2024)

Based on a 1985 novella by Beat Generation writer William S. Burroughs, it's a portrait of a middle-aged American gay writer named William Lee (played by Daniel Craig) living in Mexico City in the 1950s who becomes infatuated with a younger man named Eugene Allerton. He struggles with alcohol and heroin addiction, and is obsessed with telepathy. Eventually he invites Allerton with him to Ecuador seeking an experience with the hallucinogen yagé (ayahuasca), which little is known about outside local Indigenous medicine.

It's also about both of their very complex and painful experiences of queerness at a time when it was highly stigmatized and illegal. Including saying they reject the label as more of a political identity. The novella is loosely based on Burroughs own life and experiences. He's often excluded from the "queer canon" precisely because his relationship with homosexuality was too messy politically, despite being so open about it he's one of the Beat writers sued for obscenity that helped overturn those laws and allow every queer story after him to be published. (An astute viewer may note the symbolism of main characters refusing the label of queer in a work that explicitly labels them as queer as told by a "queer but it's complicated" author known for his semi-autobiographical work with unreliable narrators.)

My Own Private Idaho (1991)

A loose adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry IV from the perspective of Ned Poins. It moves the action to early 1990s Portland, Oregon where Ned becomes Mike Waters, a gay survival sex worker with narcolepsy trying to get by in a cruel and ableist world with a little help from his fellow hustler and degenerate friends. They live in an abandoned building with the newly returned king of the nest Bob Pigeon. With a little drug use and mugging to pass the time.

His best friend and crush is Scott Favor, a rebellious mayor's son who aims to disappoint so that his "miraculous" change into a redeemed son upon his father's death will finally earn his family's admiration. They travel together to Idaho and then Italy on a quest for Mike's estranged mother.

Genuinely some of the best bits of gay, sex worker, and disability in the 1990s. A really great look at how marginalization can be intersectional and the people ground under the heels of the powerful in the class war. When the Shakespeare really shines through it hits with the forceful immortality of the human condition as he saw it long ago.

Wicked: Part 1 (2024)

Based on both the book and musical Wicked. It tells the story of how the much-ostracized and green-skinned Elphaba came to be the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz. The film is in deep dialogue with how people are marginalized and made scapegoats in our current world in order to maintain the power of its rulers.

As told by Glinda The Good, her former roommate homoerotic frenemy who she was in a nebulous polyamorous triad or love triangle with (even they don't know which).

Also if Paul Tazewel doesn't win every award possible for his costume designs it will be biggest robbery since the British Museum. Look at this fucking spiral quilted vest that was worn in one scene near the beginning in low light while close-up dancing and seen basically only from the back to avoid identifying the wearer. Look at Elphaba's gorgeous goddamn dress on a green dress form so the could get the colors through the sheer gathered chiffon just right! These are some of the most gorgeous pieces of clothing ever made and required the technical precision of rocket scientists to make. 140 costumers worked on this film in the same building so they could build off each other's creativity. Even if it wasn't the best musical to be made in decades with technicolor enthusiasm and masterful film-making matching The Wizard of Oz (1939), it would be worth it just to see all the costumes. The Met Gala wishes it had costumes as good as the background actors.

How To Blow Up A Pipeline (2022)

A group of young environmental activists deeply harmed by the oil and gas industry (through land theft, climate change, and environmental poisoning) decide to take direct action by blowing up a pipeline in West Texas to drive up prices. Brought together by anger, love, righteousness, and chance, they set out to teach themselves to build a bomb to save the world from powerful capitalist overlords.

It's got the framework of a heist action film going between the main events and flashbacks showing what radicalized them. Incredibly powerful story about what's right and wrong in the face of a dire climate crisis driven by class war, racism, and greed.

Hundreds of Beavers (2022)

A no-dialogue black and white slapstick comedy about a 19th century Canadian applejack (alcohol) salesman who becomes a fur trapper for survival after beavers ruin his business. After many Wile E. Coyote like attempts to hunt rabbits for food, he befriends an expert trapper. Like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, he slowly learns to string all his bad ideas into Rube Goldberg type contraptions to succeed in his hunts and goes to war with the beavers for the love of a girl. All the animals are wearing literal mascot costumes. Mix of live action, 2-D animation, practical effects, and light CGI. It's the Who Framed Rodger Rabbit (1988) of our time.

One of the funniest movies I've ever seen. If you've ever wondered what would happen if you combined Charlie Chaplin, silly Japanese game shows, Loony Toons, and Mario Kart, look no further! It wears a hundred media influences proudly on its sleeve while also being one of the most original films of all time.

I Saw The TV Glow (2024)

Alienated and isolated teenage Owen is introduced to the cheesy 1990s late-night kids show The Pink Opaque by his classmate Maddy, and he becomes obsessed with it. He especially connects to the female main character in ways he can't express.

When Maddy tells him she's running away to escape her abusive stepfather, Owen refuses the call to go with her. The film checked in on him at two other points into adulthood as he's locked into the gravity well of denying his inner self.

This is a tragic psychedelic horror film about how psychologically deep the closet can go for trans people, even to themselves. (The clear subtext is that Owen is trans woman, but I use he/him pronouns because his inability to face that fact, let alone rethink his pronouns, is the fundamental dread of the film.) A perfect example of why horror can be such a deep cathartic scream for marginalized creators. Nothing's ever come close to describing how soul-crushing it is to commit to pretending you're cis.

National Anthem (2023)

21-year-old Dylan is adrift in life working construction jobs in rural New Mexico. In this way he comes to work at a queer rodeo ranch. He didn't know such a thing existed and has never really had contact with any queer community. There he meets Sky, the most beautiful women he's ever seen in his life, who's a trans barrel racer.

She draws him into the commune polycule and introduces him to parts of his heart, gender, and sexuality that he never knew existed. Their love is tested against the fierce storms of family (natal + found), nature, and identity.

Absolutely breathtaking film about a queer subculture many people are unaware even exists. Wonderful to see films about confident trans women played by trans women. If you're a fan of Anthony Hurd's paintings, you must see this film.

The Green Knight (2021)

A masterful modern psychedelic adaptation of the famous Medieval poem. On Christmas Day the Green Knight visits King Arthur's court and proposes a game: a contestant may use his great axe to land one blow on him. However light or powerful, it will be returned onto that person in one year's time. King Arthur's headstrong nephew, and aspiring knight, Gawain takes up the challenge and cuts off his head. When it's done, the slain Green knight picks up his head and tells Gawain that for his honor must seek the Green Knight out for the return blow in one year.

We follow Sir Gawain's journey the next year to confront his duty, his honor, and his fate as various trials beset him. What awaits Gawain in his heart is heavier than any weapon. All using strong metaphor and red-green colors to get at the emotional and philosophical heart of this timeless tale of man's dominion vs. nature's. A literary symbolism bonanza.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Zero Moustafa is a lobby boy in a famed European hotel in 1932. He's an illegal refugee fleeing a violent government. The hotel's flamboyant concierge, Monsieur Gustave H.. is known far and wide for impeccable service and among the hotel staff for his affairs with wealthy old clients. Gustave ends up taking Zero under his wing making him his protégé.

One of of Gustave's affairs spanned nearly two decades with the dowager Madame Céline Villeneuve Desgoffe-und-Taxis. When she mysteriously dies, it sends Zero and Gustave on a caper for a stolen painting, a family fortune, and Zero's affections for a clever girl, as fascism closes in around them.

Carol (2015)

This is the "Harold, they're lesbians" film. In the Christmas season of 1952, a young clerk and aspiring photographer named Therese Belivet is noticed by a gorgeous older women named Carol Aird who is looking for a gift for her beloved little girl. Carol is trying to divorce her abusive husband (who's only grown more possessive and controlling after discovering her homosexuality). Meanwhile Therese's boyfriend Richard is trying to convince her to come away with him to France and get married.

Carol slowly draws Therese into her first lesbian love affair, and helps her develop and thrive. But as the stakes of the divorce are raised and their relationship gets increasingly complicated, they must choose between the risks of their truth or the gilded cage of straightness.

[disarmd]

can you tell us more about lando trinkets? are the drawings oscar’s?

ooh, totally! lando's trinkets, my most beloved. so i imagined McLaren Manner as their equivalent of MTC, where there are a ton of people working there plus all the companion trainees, plus soldiers/mercenaries like daniel who'd come and go. in between being sexually tormented, lando made a lot of friends and was very well liked ... to his chagrin, damn his likeable nature making him so well suited to be a companion. over the many years that he was there, he got a lot of gifts that he didn't give a fuck about (what do you know, he left the bejewelled nipple clamps behind). but i also imagined him like a magpie collecting these little things that meant a lot to him. like poorly-carved dice that they used to play games with, even though the sides were uneven, so the four came up 10x more than any other number. just to dwell a little on the fact that lando could convince people to play a game where his favourite number came up all the time. ANYWAY. the drawings were from a whole bunch of different people, but, yes, some of them were from oscar! People kept giving lando drawings of himself, but he was like, wtf am i going to do with pictures of ME i don't want this. so he'd ask people to draw portraits of the people he cared about, and that's what most of the drawings were. plus other stupid things, like silly sketches making fun of their trainers.

daniel's crumpled up drawing is the first thing he kept that someone else drew of him.