#Related Chicago - Feed

[kooldewd123]

I haven't been checking in with the wider Gravity Falls fandom since I've been trying to do a lot of my own analysis so forgive me if this is something that's already been discussed a lot, but this one thing in particular has been really sticking in my mind. Typing "gun" or "oh yes they both" into the terminal provides these two responses:

These are lyrics from the musical Chicago, specifically the song "We Both Reached For The Gun." Here's a clip of the song from the movie adaptation, for reference:

Two immediate things to note here. First, the scene uses heavy puppetry imagery, and the importance of that in relation to Bill should be obvious. And if that wasn't enough, the character actually doing the puppeteering is named Billy. Frankly, that could quite likely be where this reference begins and ends and everything I say from this point onward might be me overthinking this. This could simply be another joke response like "McGucket" just leading to the music video for Cotton Eyed Joe or "Gideon" giving a Google search for sweat resistant bolo ties. What makes this one seem different to me is that unlike those examples, it stays in the terminal and doesn't link to an external site. You wouldn't understand the joke without already knowing the song (honestly, I didn't understand it myself until the previously linked video coincidentally came up in my YouTube recommended feed a few days later), not to mention that the prompts to find it are entirely self-contained as well.

Digging into the song itself, it's a very interesting choice to reference here (Quick disclaimer: I haven't seen this musical before, and most of my research has been fairly cursory, so please correct me if I get something wrong). The context here is that Roxie (the girl being puppeteered) killed the man she was having an affair with when he tried to leave her. In this song, Billy, her lawyer, rewrites the story so that the man was instead a jealous ex threatening her life. Him and Roxie "both reached for the gun," and the murder was actually an act of self-defense. Because of this spin, the false story of Roxie being a sympathetic hero ends up overtaking the reality that she's just a vindictive killer. And the weirdest part is... this kinda mirrors Bill's backstory that we learn about in the Book of Bill? We never solidly find out the truth of what happened to Euclydia. What information we have is at best heavily biased and at worst outright censored. Did Bill truly want to help his dimension or is that just a justification he came up with after the fact? We don't know. We're the reporters in this song, the people who have nothing but the word of the perpetrator to go off of. And I... don't really know what conclusion to make of this. Like, the broad strokes of the two stories are very similar in their themes, but whenever I try to look at the details, they don't map onto each other as well as I'd like. Roxie seems much more unrepentant than Bill, and Bill seems much less, stable? i guess? than Roxie. I really feel like there might be something it's trying to say about Bill here, but whatever it is, it's eluding me.

[marzipanandminutiae]

Now that we are speaking about the old timey pixie cut, I was wondering if it is somehow related to people who were selling their hair for wigs. I guess some of them would sell their hair, specially if it was long before the cut, but do you think it could be one of those fashions where the rich notice the poor looking a certain way because poverty and going "well, if it isn't A Look" and copying it? I don't know the social perceptions of selling your hair, but do you think there is an intersection here somehow?

Interesting thought, especially because fashion rarely moved upwards from the bottom in that way during the 19th century

Selling your hair was seen as terribly noble and Romantic...if done for reasons almost nobody ever had in real life. literary heroines of the time sell their hair to feed their children (Fantine in Les Mis- written later but set around the Directoire era), to bail out an unjustly imprisoned fiance (a magazine story I read once), etc. whereas in real life, the thriving human hair market among hairpiece-makers usually sourced its raw materials from "hair fairs" around the European countryside. peasant women would sell their hair for money to augment their usual incomes- I've read a few cases of women doing it to fund travel to a city, for better job opportunities. some women were even serial hair sellers, growing it out again each time for the sole purpose of cutting it for sale when it was long enough

how aware upper-class women would be of this, when their sole experience of the idea was Selling One's Hair For A Noble Cause, I'm not certain. and it WAS seen as a tragic sacrifice in most of those stories, with commentary of the aftermath confined mostly to the lady's Poor Shorn Head and Steadfast Love rather than "omg so cute! a Lewk!" so it's possible the thought would have held cachet for them based on a fantasy, but that fantasy did little to proclaim the aesthetic qualities of short hair. and to notice it on a poor woman and think positively of it would have required some other inducement from a pre-existing source they had positive associations with, if that makes sense? so I'm personally skeptical that that could have been the origin

apparently, when a brief short hair craze arose in the US and specifically Chicago in the 1880s, there were newspapers theorizing that some lady of fashion may have been ill and cut her hair in the throes of fever, as was commonly thought to vent heat from the brain back then, and either liked the result or put a brave face on to pretend she did. It's possible that that had something to do with the Titus making its jump to women as well, earlier on? or it could just have been getting lost in the neoclassicism sauce, as the name of the style suggests

it's interesting too because it's a unisex style, but you see it in fashion plates and portraits (and later, photographs) of women who are NOT masculine or androgynous at all- to me that's what differentiates Ye Olde Pixie Cut from A Woman With A Men's Hairstyle. it's a different mindset; not trying to look masculine, but adopting an unconventional fashion popular among decidedly feminine women

[heartmix]

Rebel - Kelly Severide

Pairing: Kelly Severide x fem!reader

Word Count: 800+

Warning: One swear word, mention of we*d (the whole fic is about this)

A/N: Just a warning, I've only seen half a season of this show and a full season of Med. So if I get a character wrong, my bad. Also, I mention that the reader is Boden's niece but she doesn't need to be blood-related. She can be a family friend niece or whatever you want to decide.

Masterlist / One Chicago Masterlist

Once in a while, everyone would be in a good enough mood to sit down and have dinner. No excuses about needing to clean the truck or refill the ambo. Also now excuses from Squad 3 that they were having an intense round of cards. Them being free to actually sit and eat together was probably due to the fact that you cooked dinner, something that was rare. Often you were too tired, but today felt different so you decided to do the task of cooking dinner for the firehouse. 

For the first 10 minutes, everyone was quiet. Other than utensils clashing against each other hardly any words were said. Everyone wanted to get a good amount of food in before a call would come through.

Although it wasn't long before someone started up a conversation. In a second the table looks like a real family dinner table, loud. The topic seemed to be reminiscing about being young, before becoming a firefighter. You were one of the youngest at the table so you didn't think they were gonna ask questions about the topic. Your youth wasn't that long ago. 

"What's one thing you miss when you were younger." Sylvie asked you seeing as you were next down the line.

"Smoking weed." You casually said which made everyone look at you with a raised eyebrow. They thought you were joking or not believing you.

"What? I work for the state, I can't do that anymore." You shrugged as if it was no big deal. You really didn't think it was, it was so easy to get the supply so it shouldn't be that shocking.

"You used to smoke weed?" Casey asked again still in disbelief as with everyone else.

"Yeah, who hasn't at last once?" You asked and soon courses of 'me' all spoke at once. Some of them had to be lying right?

"God you guys were boring." 

"Next you're going to tell us you got arrested." Otis quipped which made you gasp.

"Wow just because I smoked weed you make that connection, and no I haven't I just ran from the cops." You mumbled the last part not knowing why you were feeding them this information. Sure you were all one big happy family, but big happy families don't need to know everything about each other.

"What the hell, kid," Hermann said making you give a sheepish smile. The look on his face told you he was never going to look at you the same again.

"It was a different time, I was having the time of my life." You defended yourself. Sure weed wasn't legal in Illinois, but it wasn't bad. It was a herb.

"What else did you do?" Kelly asked who surprisingly has been quiet this whole time. He didn't look as shocked as everyone, but he didn't know you had this side of you.

"Uhh shoplifted?" You said in a questioning tone. Still, you didn't know why you were confessing all this.  

"How did you do a 360?" Sylvie asked impressed. You acted nothing like the girl you were talking about. Their young, sweet, rookie.

"I got sent to live with Boden, that's what happened," 

"I heard my name." You heard the devil himself say from behind you as he made his plate of food. He must have had an important call if he didn't come to eat right away.

"We didn't know your niece was a rebel child," Sylvie said making Chief laugh. He had the pleasure of watching you grow and is a big part of why you are today.

"Yeah, but look at her now." He said in a proud tone making you smile.

"Well he just made stop half the dangerous illegal stuff, I still smoked." You added not thinking much of it, you really didn't know when to stop.

"You what?!" He exclaimed making my eyes go wide.

"I thought you knew this!" You defended yourself. This was your sign to stop talking and not spill anything else about 'the time of your life.'

"No! How long did you do it for?" He asked making me gulp, all of a sudden you felt like you were 16 again.

"I stopped when I got hired." 

"You continued for 5 more years. You were smoking in college?!"

"How did you not smell it, I had some good shit. I thought you let me go since I was doing good in school." You defended for what seemed like the millionth time in just 5 minutes. 

"I'm going back to my office." He shook his head making you laugh. You knew it stressed him, but years have passed. He was just going to have a good laugh about it when he gets over the fact he couldn't tell what was happening in his house.

"Who knew you were such a rebel child," Otis said making the table chuckle.

"Oh like I'm such a good girl now. You older people are a buzzkill." You pipped in taking a jab at them, they were really showing their age. Even the younger ones who weren't that much older than you. 

"You got your hands full Severide," Sylvie said making your boyfriend shake his head in amusement. 

[cure-icy-writes]

Okay so. A lot of people have been making cute little dungeon meshi aus where it's modern, but specifically the cast lives in one place. Figured I should maybe share mine?

Anyways. Dungeon Meshi but it's midwestern.

-Senshi, i think, is a regular presence in the church but is the kind of christian that the pastor has beef with. He has an apron with two fish and five loaves of bread on it, and can be found at pretty much every barbecue and church potluck. No one's sure if he's really devoted to jesus or just heard the story of a guy feeding an entire crowd and started showing up to church to feed people. He has caused two married men to have their bisexual awakenings.

-The town they all live in has an extremely high density of restaurants, meaning the only thing to do around there is go out to eat. The gang goes out to eat new places a lot together!

-Izutsumi is a warrior cats kid who was probably bullied for hissing and biting the other kids. The gang recognizes that she's not mean, she's just badly socialized and also seventeen. She lives in a group home, but has been running away less ever since she got promised regular meals.

-Related: Chilchuk is a union guy who is covertly making sure every restaurant they go to is up to code. He keeps shutting down places for not having adequate safety measures for their employees.

-Izutsumi has decided she's going to hang out with Chilchuk sometimes and will stop by his workplace. He's insistent that he's not adopting any more children, but has been teaching her how to budget, how to lie convincingly enough to get a job, and the most ethical places to shoplift from with the fewest risks because she's going to steal things anyways.

-Marcille has never been to a cornfield in her life. She's a Chicago kid, who really misses her deep dish pizza and that really good Italian place, but she's here to study some rare microorganisms.

-Marcille studies a very weird field of medicine that involves looking for medical uses in odd places. She's looking to eliminate class divides in lifespan by trying to find more affordable medicines for diseases that primarily affect the lower class.

-Her father died of asbestos poisoning from working in unsafe conditions when she was a kid, so she's especially alert for it, and gets a little neurotic around flu season.

-Laios and Falin used to go to the creek behind their house all the time to catch crawdads, and sometimes he'll still do it for old time's sake.

-Laios flunked out of college because they couldn't handle his autism rizz. He's going to trade school for the culinary arts, but he keeps trying to cook things he shouldn't.

-Laios checked out the massive dragon books from the library and cried when he found out they weren't real.

-He does furry commissions online, but he's not the best with customer negotiations and keeps wondering how many nipples someone's fursona has. Chilchuk helped him build his profile to appeal to commissioners who like speculative biology.

-Falin watched her brother flunk and went "hm, I think I will not." she's an apprentice at a local gardening shop. You think she's a normal sweet cottagecore kind of girl but then she starts gushing about soil nutrients and sustainability and you realize. Oh. Oh this is the kind of girl who would romanticize being buried under a tree and having it consume her bones.

-Laios wears shirts with anatomically correct dinosaur skeletons on them, but he has to order them online and frequently complains that there are no good clothing shops nearby. Senshi heard him say this, and introduced him to fabric paint.

[blankvort]

tangentially animal-related hcs 4 the mean girls crew bc i am now responsible for giving a goldfish daddy issues

cady

inexplicably allergic to dogs and always in the first four stages of grief about it. don’t @ me about the medical semantics i just want her to suffer a little

tried to get a job at petco the second she turned eighteen but learned of the above information in the most destructive job interview since janis’s application to be the local coffee shop’s cool gay barista (they were worried that she’d swear at fighter-jet-takeoff volumes if she touched hot coffee) (she did, but only because they started playing a shitty pop cover of one of damian’s fave show tunes) and came out of the building a puddle of mucous and tears

grossly fascinated by the grossest of primitive functions. her insta page is all dope and authentic until you find a selfie taken using the back camera 0.5x with the corpse of an effervescent snail and a bunch of reels telling you how to narrow down what bird species are destroying your garden by the splay of their shit

has a miniature aneurysm whenever movies get stuff wrong about animals. artistic liberties are granted to janis alone. like sure if she’s in the theater she’ll sit through the movie fisting popcorn down her throat but as soon as she gets out of there the entire mall becomes a soapbox for dissecting the bullshit sexual dimorphism of giving female animals eyeliner

thus while i know the headcanon of her loving the lion king is basically canon i think she’s absurdly secretive about it. like she’s burying her merchandise and blu-ray copies under her bed in the dead of night while secreting more sweat than should be possible. she could come out to her parents and elope to antarctica no problem but liking the lion king which implies that lighter manes = stronger lions is a death sentence

probably got banned from a bunch of zoos for interrupting field trips 

janis

had one of those angel/wolf/dragon/whatever hybrid phases as a kid like all good artists. did those like. not quite furry but not quite human animal art commissions on twitter for a while for the funnies but discovered a lucrative market and never turned back

does not know how to hold human or animal babies. like she’s good at taking care of them in terms of general physical and intellectual nourishment but that limp wrist is not supporting any necks properly

mercilessly makes fun of the whole “would you love me if i was a worm” trend. she doesn’t even love most humans what makes you think she has any answer for you regarding that other than that she’d turn you into a super deep art piece museums would purchase for exorbitant amounts

that being said she feels like a vivarium girlie to me. she’s nocturnal like a pillbug and post-canon constantly tries to convince the plastics that her pacman frog is poisonous

feeds her meticulously decorated ant farm gourmet meals every day. anyone else gets microwavable mac and cheese at best

this one probably won’t make sense unless you’re a jenny nicholson fan but she has a fake id for buying wine and turning the corks into those hallmark craft animal sculptures (and selling the open wine bottle to mrs george in back alleys)

damian

his grandma owns the most omnicidal chihuahua in the state of chicago. it’s how he learned to dance with such mental and physical dexterity. how else would he have survived visits to the nursing home

^ attempted to adopt the chihuahua’s children to have his own bruiser woods moment. turns out, even with his classically trained tenor voice, puppies and janis respond to the “drop it” command much the same way. that is to say they do not drop it and the puppies ran away with ninety nine per cent of his anastasia-inspired music box memorabilia

has a love-hate relationship with cats the musical. like memory is one of his top ten karaoke songs but he’s not going to admit it until he’s several fruity seltzers into the night. wishes all the actors in the movie had been replaced with real cats picked off the street before anything else was approved

played milky white in a scammy local production of into the woods and so so so embarrassed about it. he had to be on stilts the whole show

stuck a fish in regina’s backpack sometime in sophomore year but found karen feeding it and talking to it about her worst fears and greatest dreams felt too guilty to continue with the next phase of his plan (sticking a very hot picture of janis in regina’s backpack) (karen probably would’ve tried to talk to the photo too)

regina

musical specific but i think she didn’t Exactly do a matching animal costume with gretch and karen because 1) what can you dress up as when your friends are going as a cat and a mouse. cheese? 2) had cady not moved into the neighborhood, she’d have gone as a sexy lion to ease into the prospect of. you know. with shane oman but going as a sexy lion when your shiny new homoerotic frenemy has a lion pin on half her clothing isn’t quite a non-questionable choice

had a warrior cats phase she keeps under lock and key in the very depths of her closet. her closet is an iceberg of issues that goes shein -> homosexuality -> warrior cats and climate change is doing a number on it

fried a couple of janis’s ants alive with a magnifying glass sometime before middle school. she’s never flirted normally in her life

the bulk of janis’s furry commission clientele. she has so many emails for alternate accounts that she could get every american president ever suspended from twitter if national security let her. that’s including the dead ones

remember the nigh-rabid chihuahuas damian had. yeah she’s been raising those in secret for a few years now. mrs george doesn’t notice because regina hides them in her hair and extensions are, like, totally in or whatever

had a horse girl phase. all her drawings of horses came out like this meme tho. the art freaks nickname was born out of jealousy

gretchen

chose to be a sexy cat for halloween to match with karen because she has no sense of identity. also because she remembers regina’s warrior cats phase

actually a guinea pig person. i’ve never met a guinea pig person but she feels like one. they’re both in dire need of daily interaction and likely polyamorous

but also peri-canon gretchen could not keep a pet alive she’d spend every cent of the wieners fortune on buying the animal’s love

speaking of. her family bought a stable to fuel “her” horse girl phase. she just wanted to make regina happy and couldn’t stay on a saddle if there was an escalator that plopped her right on the horse

cares about the puppy bowl more than she cares about the superbowl

instinctively pets cute animals. if they bite her then she deserved it

karen

chose to be a sexy mouse for halloween because tom and jerry was having a media marathon and she’s into that sort of power dynamic

believes in unicorns more than she believes in horses. this is because she had a horse girl phase for the hottest of seconds before realizing that none of the ponies at the apache trail sale had horns and thought they had their horns cut off for aesthetic reasons

animals love her so much. survived a jellyfish attack because the jellyfish sensed she just wanted to pet something shiny and absolutely respected that. pests of all shapes and sizes evict themselves stat when karen says her mom doesn’t appreciate her hundred thousand dollar lotions being invaded by peril-bringing insects. strays follow her 24/7. gretchen is jealous (of the animals)

thinks tigers are very sick zebras

thinks blobfish are cuter when they’re all flesh putty out of their natural habitats but would also break into a zoo if she thought the animals were being mistreated

was banned from australia at the age of eight because she tried to have a sleepover in a kangaroo’s pouch

aaron

mean girls insta described him as a golden retriever so i’m also hcing him as being allergic to dogs <3 equality

becomes deeply fearful of all fauna after falling into a research rabbit hole for the sake of connecting with cady. what do you mean buffalo are some of the deadliest beasts on the planet and not just a type of chicken wing

kevin g

a preteen vsco girl in her granola advocacy era stuck in a teenage boy’s body. he has saved more turtles than any natucate volunteer by repurposing his rejected business cards to make a selfie stick long enough to stick him in the same selfie as gretchen wieners. the selfie stick has been in progress since daycare. he has also gone to the hospital more than any natucate volunteer do not trust this man with shop class equipment

[pjunicornart]

SAW UR POST WAS IMMEDIATELY INTERESTED :3!!1!1!2!211

can u feed us lazy four info, like how did they meet? fav hangout spot? some random stuff they do together? stuff like that :3 if youve had time to develop them??? considering u probs plan on writing lazy wilro.....

SO. 👏

All of the Lazy Four exist within the same universe. So we have Wilbur, who lives in the Robinson estate on the outskirts of the city. Penny is a pop star originally from Chicago, but now lives in the city due to the rich estates and luxuries. Pop star life, y'know. Violet is a skater girl who goes to Wilbur's school. It should be noted that within Lazy Days, the Parrs DO NOT have superpowers. But, I did give them professions/hobbies which elude to them (Mrs. Incredible is a silk ribbon dancer, for example. Keep this in mind). Last but not least, Hiro is a third generation Japanese-American immigrant living in his grandfather's cafe with his older brother and aunt.

How they met: Well, Wilbur, Violet, and Hiro all go to the same school. So they met there. As for how they met Penny, there is a story there. Because of who Cornelius is, he has quite a lot of connections and "high profile clients" as his PA would put it. A couple of years ago, he was sent on a lengthy business trip. He had to bring Leo (Wilbur's baby brother) along since he was only a year old at the time. Wilbur was 13 about to be 14 when this happened. Wilbur tagged along because Neil promised they'd do something awesome for his birthday, and he didn't let work get in the way of that. This was a trip to Norway, so they figured they could do birthday festivities there as a special occasion. But first, Neil had to meet up with his client, who just so happened to be Penny's father, her manager. While the two men were discussing boring business stuff, Penny and Wilbur were able to hang out. At the end of the ordeal, they had exchanged numbers and kept in touch. Back home, Wilbur (over video calls) introduced Vi and Hiro to Penny, and the rest is history.

Some stuff they do: They mostly hang around the Robinson estate, because the family is fun. Well, also the hot tub and theater. Individually, Violet hangs out at the skate park, Wilbur in the home library, Penny in her garden, and Hiro wherever food is, tbh. Boy can't get enough of sweets. Not related to the kiddos, but Neil became good friends with Helen because they were in the same silk ribbon dancing class. Vi thinks her mother is better/more flexible, but Wilbur laughs in his father being a gymnast, yogi, pole dancer, and silk ribbon dancer. Take that Vi!

Miscellaneous points: - Wilbur is always reading something. Sometimes, he just can't shut up about the newest book he's reading. - Tadashi is still alive! Because I like him. The fire still happened, so Tadashi does have severe burns he has to treat every day. Luckily, Wilbur's father knows a thing or two about treating burns. - Sometimes Violet secretly wishes her siblings could be like Wilbur's. Quiet and polite! - It's pretty well known that Leo only likes to be held by/in the presence of Neil. However, he tolerates Penny and Wilbur. Probably because they were there when he was away from Neil for the meeting. - All of them are babies when it comes to horror. Except for Violet. She loves horror, especially psychological horror akin to Cooking Companions or That's Not My Neighbor. - Penny has three dogs. Bolt (duh), Lightning, and Shock. - If we're talking about Wilro, Wilbur calls Hiro "mio dolce." Half of Wilbur's family is Italian, so he knows some words/phrases. "Mio dolce" is a pet name. It can mean "my sweet", "my love", or "my cake." - Whenever all four of them are in Hiro's aunt's cafe, they ask for the day old donuts. - Violet can't whistle or snap her fingers. - Hiro is only slightly terrified of Wilbur's little sister's (Mazie) pet snake. Its name is Bananaconda. - Yes, Hiro knows how to bake! Instead of being a prodigy in inventing like his bro, he's an advanced baker with very intricate techniques. All figured out by the time he was nine. - Penny became a pop star when she was twelve. She mostly did kid's TV beforehand, before she got her career in music. Think... Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande, just without the gross tongue stuff and home wrecking. - Violet does name her skateboards. Her favorite is Pico. - Wilbur is canonically bisexual, Hiro is pansexual, Penny is a straight ally, and Violet is a demigirl lesbian. - Bit of a sad point here, but Wilbur did struggle with an eating disorder (anorexia) when he was 12 and 13. Unfortunately, he inherited his father's body dysmorphia.

In regards to the Wilro fic... It will be inspired by the one Wilro image I did. It will also be pure fluff, since these are teenagers and I'm not about that gross shit! =D They'll be in the Robinson estate, and I'm unsure if we'll see any more Robinsons. We'll see. I gotta do some planning.

[zerogate]

An ant is born with all the genetic equipment it needs to take on any role in society. If it is fed one mixture of food by the colony’s nurses, it turns into a soldier—a powerful beast far larger than normal size, equipped with savage jaws, and designed to defend the colony against attack. If it is fed another mixture, it becomes a worker, a small but nimble creature capable of carrying loads many times its own weight. And if it is fed a rare potion reserved for the select few, it can blossom into a queen—the one central creature toward whose preservation all efforts are directed, the only ant who gets the privilege of having children.

Though an ant may have been hatched as a lowly worker, the blueprints for soldier and queen still lie dormant within her. In fact, if the colony’s ruler is killed by marauders or disease, a worker may suddenly blossom with the reproductive powers fate has denied her all her life. She will begin to lay eggs. Leaving her food gathering and housecleaning chores behind, she will exude a substance that instills in passing ants the urge to feed and serve her, for she has ascended to royalty.

In some ways, it is the social organism and its needs that determine the role each of us will play and the many more roles that each of us will never be given the power to act out. How the demands of the larger social beast determine our fate is hinted at by another aspect of the life of ants. Some of these Hymenoptera are lazy and sit around all day doing very little; others work their tails off in the interest of the community. But try separating the ne’er-do-wells from the industrious and setting them up as two new colonies—one composed exclusively of layabouts and the other made up entirely of nose-to-the-grindstone types.

A strange thing happens. In the community of laggards, a large proportion of the lazy little beasts suddenly become imbued with a furious sense of industry. They turn into workers. On the other hand, in the community composed completely of workers, a small portion of the formerly zealous toilers seem overcome with boredom and settle down to spend their days doing nothing. They become the new leisure lovers. Each new colony takes on the shape of the old one.

Human groups go through a similar process. Researcher Richard Savin-Williams spent a season watching summer campers interact. In June, the bunk-mates met for the first time. For roughly an hour, the campers felt each other out, probing each other’s strengths and weaknesses, deciding who would be friends with whom. Then they quickly sorted themselves into a superorganism with a head, limbs, and a tail. One camper became the “alpha male,” the dominant individual, the group leader. Another became the “bully,” a big, strong brute nobody particularly liked. A third became the “joker,” everybody’s good-natured sidekick. And one became the “nerd,” the unathletic, overly eager sort that everyone else felt free to kick around. Like the ants and the embryonic cells, each boy had taken his place in a kind of preordained social blueprint.

Just how preordained that blueprirt was and how much of his potential each boy had to sacrifice to assume his role became clear when another researcher tried an experiment. The scientist assembled a cabin composed entirely of “leaders,” boys who had been dominant, “alpha males” in their old groups. Very quickly, the new cluster sorted itself out according to the familiar pattern. One of the leaders took charge. Another became the bully. A third became the group joker. And one of the formerly commanding lads even became the new group’s nerd.

When the researchers went through the scientific literature to find other data related to their work, they discovered that studies of Chicago gangs in the 1920s had shown these long-gone groups arranging themselves according to an almost identical unconscious plan. The gang members of a bygone era also had their leaders, bullies, jokers, and nerds. Each individual had taken up a position in the superorganism’s unfolding structure. And each had shaped his personality to fit the spot in which he landed.

-- Howard Bloom, The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History

[anarchotahdigism]

Seattle, at Bruce Harrell's personal urging, is deploying new police surveillance around the city, including the nefarious and notoriously its unreliable Shotspotter, which police regularly use in other areas to justify deadly force and police response, as well as evidence tampering. Shotspotter allows police to update, modify, and delete its files and triggers on the fly as police decide.

"As an alerting system, ShotSpotter exacerbates police violence by sending police on high alert into our neighborhoods. A 2021 report by the Chicago Office of Inspector General showed that “evidence of a gun-related crime” was only found in “9.1% of CPD responses to ShotSpotter alerts”.

But for each of the other 90.9% of alerts, police are still dispatched. A video from 2023 showed a heavy SPD response to a 911 caller alleging shots fired, showing officers pointing their rifles toward an unarmed man in crisis. Officers finally left after a tense standoff with intervening community members. Every false positive is another possibly deadly encounter.

In Chicago, a ShotSpotter alert has already led to an officer shooting and killing 13-year-old Adam Toledo in 2021." ..... "

Just as concerning though, are the other two technologies the City is requesting: CCTV cameras and Real-Time Crime Center (RTCC) software.

The SIR proposes to not just install city-owned CCTV cameras, but also to allow “privately-owned security systems […] to voluntarily share video of storefronts and areas where the public has access” with the City. This would be a massive expansion of police surveillance, giving police potentially real-time surveillance video from any/every business concerned with petty theft or houseless people.

These feeds would then be integrated into Real-Time Crime Center software, which “provides a centralized location for real-time information and analysis” and “integrates dispatch, camera, officer location, gunshot detection, 911 calls, records management systems, and other information into one ‘pane of glass’ (a single view).”

Additionally, the RTCC software for CCTV cameras 'can also provide in-application video analytics that use machine-learned algorithms to analyze camera feeds and, using object recognition, locate specific items, people based on clothing, or vehicles based on description.' " Harrell, a proud Trump supporter, is entrusting a massive panopticon to the same police department that sent the most number of police officers to participate in the 1/06 insurrection and is one of the most brutal PDs in the US. SPD is a threat to Seattle, and with its regular training exchanges with the IOF, a threat to Palestinians as well.

[feastonkings]

boyd holbrook / he/him ——— no way is that FINNEGAN ‘FINN’ O’CONNOR.. they’re a 37-year-old HUMAN notoriously known for being ABRASIVE & UNHINGED but there are some people who have seen them being LOYAL & DEPENDABLE. if you ask me, they remind me a lot of a blood tinted smile, embracing the darkness to become limitless, the roar of a beast within hungry for more, fanning the flames of violence, and a taunting laugh, but that could just be because they’re considered the BLOOD KNIGHT around town. just keep an eye on them & see if their true colors shine through..

GENERAL.

full name: finnegan patrick o'connor nicknames: ireland, finn (preferred name) classification: enhanced human gender / pronouns: cis man, he/him age / birthday: 37, march 27th orientations: bisexual, homoromantic occupation: capo for skyport mafia & co-owner of exposed circuits location: middle district status: single family: patrick o'connor (father), margaret march (mother, unknown), kirby (half sibling), several half siblings and cousins strengths: hard-working, loyal, dependable, stoic, protective weaknesses: abrasive, unhinged, sadistic, violent, stubborn character inspo: tba

BIOGRAPHY.

tw: violence, child abuse, addiction, murder, implied homophobia, neglect

born in a chicago prison to a drug addicted sex worker, finnegan o'connor was destined to walk the wrong path from the beginning. patrick o’connor, his father, escaped as a fugitive to america from ireland. He was on the run after being arrested on suspicions of his involvement with the irish mafia. very true accusations, hence why he ran.

in the states, patrick kept his ties with his mafia family back home, running weapons, taking people out, making explosives, and getting rid of whatever other contraband they needed to move outside the country. by the time the guards handed him finn, he had already become a well known name in chicago for all the wrong reasons.

with his father knee deep in international crime, one would assume that they had money but it never seemed like Ffnn or any of his siblings got any benefit from it. they lived in the southside, in a house that should have been condemned long before they occupied it but there were not many city workers brave enough to enter their area.

his mother was non-existent, most of his younger siblings related to him through his father. if finn were to sit down and think about it, he probably has a lot more brothers and sisters out there. the money for food Patrick gave whatever woman he was seeing at the time rarely made it into the kitchen. they were expected to eat what was there, or find some other way to feed themselves. it was a damn miracle any of them survived at all but somehow they managed.

once they were all old enough for school, they had a system down and were already involved in the family business in one way or another.

his volatile home environment offered little nurture there and love was non-existent. he only ever learned a few things: don’t talk to the cops, don’t ask stupid questions, protect the family, and do whatever his father says. the last one was key, because if you didn’t listen you were sure to feel it. which may happen regardless if his father was in one of his moods.

he would claim finn needed to learn some lessons and over time, it became normal. crying or showing any type of emotion made you weak in his eyes so finn learned early on to bottle it up and find other ways to express pain. usually it was through violence, picking fights with anyone who would oblige him. by his teen years he would add substances into the mix to drown the demons or induce a short period of numbness to escape.

finn went to school when he felt like it and wasn’t much of the academic type. as far as he was concerned, by the time he hit ninth grade he had learned everything he needed to for life. he spent most of his time terrorizing fellow students, stealing what he wanted from them and beating the piss out of anyone who messed with family or looked at him wrong. his fuse has always been short, and his first reaction was and often still is violence, it excited him.

otherwise, he was doing work for the family business or running around in the streets of chicago. sometimes this meant partying with friends and associates, other times it meant running and hiding from the cops. he ran from cops like he ran from his feelings and he was damn good at it, for the most part.

things changed when patrick was arrested and five of the children currently living with him were put into the system. finn tried to get as many paired off as possible to keep them together. he'd done his best to look out for his younger siblings when he could, as the oldest he took a bit of responsibility in it, only a little bit though. over time they all had their own agenda and were angry and bitter just like him.

the plan had always been to get out of chicago. once he turned eighteen he could take a sibling or two and they could head anywhere and start over. get a better life with clean air and sunshine in a place where the name o'connor had nothing attached to it. dreams were just dreams, though and at the end of the day finn should've known patrick would find a way to fuck it all up.

all he'd wanted was to take advantage of the empty house for once and then get what was his before his father returned. instead, he was interrupted mid-session with his boyfriend axel who he'd been seeing for awhile. drunk, hateful, and barely coherent, a mixture of strong irish laced slurs fell from his father's mouth. no son of mine is going to end up becoming a string of gay slurs and other remarks. where was everyone else? he had a business to run, was this why wasn't finn taking care of it while he was gone? a worthless failure just like the rest of his offspring.

finn tried to push axel out while his father rambled on. he wouldn't admit it, but axel was the first person he made an attempt at some real kind of relationship that wasn't filled with toxic sewer waste with. his father stopped axel from leaving, and threw him across the room like a ragdoll. he hit finn with several strong fists and pulled his gun on both of them, forcing them to stay in the room.

when patrick returned, he brought a woman with him who happened to be a sex worker. he gave him the ultimatum to sleep with her and 'prove he was a man'. knowing his trigger happy pops, finn did as he said trying not to look at his frightened boyfriend still sitting in the room. he regretted it, because the other got up and once again tried to flee. finn stopped what he was doing to try and prevent his father from doing anything but it was pointless.

patrick beat finn to the brink of unconsciousness, just before things went black he watched him unload the pistol into axel. when he came to the body was gone and he was forced to clean up the mess left behind. his father screamed at him, calling him every slur in the book and told him to get his shit together or he wasn’t his son. for some reason finn stayed around for another month, practically a drone while he healed, blocking out everything around him.

it wasn't long before patrick noticed and confronted finn again. when finn started to pay attention to what he was saying, it was like he woke up. he pushed the older man away from him. patrick stepped forward and raised an empty bottle in his hand to strike, but this time a hand caught his wrist.

something snapped inside finn, he was not going to take any more of his father's bullshit. years of pent up rage, resentment, and pure unadulterated anger poured out of him as he laid into the only man he'd ever feared. blinded by the rage, he didn’t remember who pulled him off his father or if he stopped on his own. all he noticed was patrick didn’t appear to be breathing and a female voice yelling she’d called 911. the next thing he heard was the sirens.

he got up and ran as fast as he could, but this time he couldn’t hide from the pursuit of the police. they caught up with him hiding behind a local bar and threw him to the ground, arresting him. the charges were attempted murder and possession of an illegal firearm. “so, the asshole lived?” was the only response he gave and laughed as they put him into the car.

since he was seventeen, they were able to charge him as an adult. he had a chance to change that if he was willing to give them information on patrick and his involvement with the mob. of course, even after everything the man had done to him and his siblings, finn was no snitch. the judge took the long history provided by the social worker assigned to the o’connor family into account, giving him a sentence of only five years versus the max of fifteen.

he took the sentence with a smile, going away for five years wasn't hard. prison was not that bad of a place in comparison to what he was used to. it was clean, full of people he could relate to, and he was served three hot meals a day. he was cold and numb for the first few months, but soon enough he'd built a reputation for himself as someone who could get any job done and wasn’t to be messed with.

he made some quick money once he was free and a car, not looking to go back home ever again. finn took off to texas, with the promise of a job he'd be good at from his cell mate who'd been involved with the mob down there. soon enough he was in dallas, with new documents and a capo position with the skyport mafia.

over the next several years he built up his name again, as someone who is ruthless, sadistic, and to be feared with enemies. to some he was a protector and others just saw him as a weapon. truly finn could give a fuck less what anyone thought.

he co-owns exposed circuits and enjoys the services they're able to provide the public. some of his siblings, even ones he hadn't known before, have popped out of the woodwork and some cousins too. finn looks out from them from afar, but he's not much of the loving type. protective if they deserve it, and cold otherwise.

HEADCANONS.

has an all black with dark green leather interior vintage dodge charger named morticia

among his many tattoos his body is riddled with scars both old and new, the worst being on his back from the times he was whipped with the buckle side of a belt

he has a hard time looking in the mirror long because he has his father's eyes and similar features

he hasn't had any sort of real relationship since before he went to prison.

finn prefers knives to guns, despite being a hell of a shot. he likes to drag out his encounters, even when it doesn't call for it.

more to come

[misscammiedawn]

75 and 76?

From this Ask Meme

75. What’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for you?

Gosh--

I am lucky to be with the most lovely human beings and have had wonderful people in our past

I could go through every small thing-- any of the personalized items handcrafted designed to represent a specific relationship with each of the 5 (known/present) parts of our system; the letters that we treasure; the gifts that melt our heart; the dates; the traveling long distance to hold our hand after surgery; surprise meals when not expecting it; treating our fantasies like a wish list; giving me a home and a family when we needed them; loving us in general.

But truly?

Honestly?

The answer that means the most?

They called me by my name.

...it doesn't matter if it's 2018-2019 when we were finally coming out as trans, 2022-2023 when our therapist was helping us accept we were a system or the days when we were a username on a webforum and our name being something that needed to be earned through friendship and trust?

Hearing our name spoken with recognition, love and acceptance means the world-- showing that you see me and care is the sweetest thing I can imagine

The gestures are just window dressing to that sentiment

76. What’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever done for someone?

I dunno?

I don't think we're good at reciprocating-- Daja would likely say otherwise-- but it's something we lost when the previous stage of our life ended

In the married era we used to do big romantic gestures, we wore a tuxedo into Chicago and came to a concert performance at Civic Opera House that our ex was performing at with a bouquet of roses-- we had our silly little Valentines ritual where we both worked retail and hit Denny's at 2am and we put a flower inside a styrofoam cup with a kitty smile on (a reference to a novel I wrote for her)

Our little Family meant the world to me back then and I tried to do sweet things to our detriment-- especially as I was always better at doing it for some members of the family than others and that would have given a dramatically skewed perspective; in hindsight a "advent calendar" of OC art commissions is only as sweet as it is knowing that others did not receive that

I think that's why we stopped doing the dramatic sweet gestures in current life-- they were built up from a lens of monogamy and they were kind of self-serving? Like we wanted to feed on the enthusiasm and joy of the reactions and that lead to trying to find something that would get a reaction and from the ones who gave the best reactions which favored those with more extroverted expression and those who wore their passion on their sleeves

We just don't wanna alienate our shyer/reserved partners by pouring into the ones who react brightly-- y'know? It's unfair

We still do nice things-- we will read entire book series' to get closer to those we love-- we'll learn all the lore and music of a band to attend a concert with them-- we'll go halvsies with their spouse-human to get a piece of merchandise that is perfect for them

But these days what we have learned is to share a language with them-- to be able to craft intimate and appropriate gestures that are part of the relationship we have-- whether it be coffee dates-- a hypnosis session just for them-- a gift related to a personal experience we shared or just promises of things we'll share in a future that may or may not ever come

I just want to be sweet-- not do sweet things

I feel our life would have been better from the start if we learned that sweetness and kindness were not performative gestures

[nancypullen]

Hit 'Em Where They Ain't, Boys

Over the years I've expressed my love for the sport of baseball. Love it. I've always had a favorite team to watch...the Fairbanks Goldpanners, the Nashville Sounds, and always, always the Atlanta Braves. The Braves are on my television right now battling with Chicago. They're up by one run in the second inning and I'm cheering them on. Apologies to my favorite diehard Cubs fan, Dina. All of that explains why I couldn't be more excited to share that we have tickets to see the Braves play the Nationals in D.C. on June 9th! An afternoon game in June, what's better than that? Nuttin'! We'll cross the bridge and catch the Metro which will drop us right at the stadium. No fighting traffic or looking for parking, hooray! I can't wait! As I've also mentioned a few hundred times I love the 1988 movie, Bull Durham. Baseball, steamy romance, big laughs, great music - what else do you need?

Kevin Costner. Need I say more?

I could relate to Annie Savoy. I mean, not because she's leggy and gorgeous, I'm neither, but her love of the game and commitment to the season. I used to have her opening (PG) monologue memorized.

I believe in the Church of Baseball. I've tried all the major religions and most of the minor ones. I've worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. (sigh) But it just didn't work out between us. The Lord laid too much guilt on me. I prefer metaphysics to theology.

You see, there's no guilt in baseball, and it's never borin' - which makes it like sex. There's never been a ballplayer slept with me who didn't have the best year of his career. Makin' love is like hittin' a baseball. You just gotta relax and concentrate. Besides, I'd never sleep with a player hittin' under .250, unless he had a lot of RBIs or was a great glove man up the middle.

You see, there's a certain amount of life wisdom I give these boys. I can expand their minds. Sometimes when I've got a ballplayer alone, I'll just read Emily Dickinson or Walt Whitman to him. And the guys are so sweet, they always stay and listen. Of course, a guy'll listen to anything if he thinks it's foreplay. I make them feel confident, and they make me feel safe - and pretty. Of course, what I give them lasts a lifetime. What they give me lasts 142 games. Sometimes it seems like a bad trade, but bad trades are part of baseball. I mean, who can forget Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas, for God's sake? It's a long season and you gotta trust it. I've tried 'em all, I really have. And the only church that truly feeds the soul - day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball.

I agree, Annie. Which is why I made this shirt to wear to the game.

I need to look good while I yell at the ump and call balls and strikes. I know they appreciate my help. Trying to decide which earrings to wear, of course the big earrings appeal to me.

I'll probably just wear the beaded hoops on the far left. Ponytail, hoops in Braves colors, and a Church of Baseball tee. If that doesn't spell crazy fan I don't know what does. Whoohoo, let's go, Braves! I don't want to hear a word about my craziness. It's fun to have something to look forward to - and if there's a rainout I may cry.

Alright, that's enough silliness from me for one night. I don't expect you to share my passion for baseball or my love of Bull Durham. I do hope that you can share a bit of my excitement for something fun on the horizon. When we don't have things to look forward to, life becomes drudgery. It doesn't have to be anything big - for me it can be a trip to a garden center or a shopping trip with my sister. Life needs to be sprinkled with occasional treats. So send good juju out to the universe for fair weather on June 9th, then tune in to the Braves game. I'll be the wackadoodle in the red shirt (that should narrow it down). Sending out heaps of love tonight, take what you need and pass it on. Stay safe, stay well. XOXO, Nancy P.S. Go watch Bull Durham. You're welcome.

[whencyclopedia]

Women, Peace and Welfare: A Suppressed History of Social Reform, 1880-1920

From the outset, Ann Oakley’s Women, Peace and Welfare: A Suppressed History of Social Reform, 1880-1920 sets an ambitious goal of recovering the memory of the female reformers active during these years who made important contributions to a wide number of reform movements. Oakley is uniquely qualified to undertake a project of this sort. She has, in the course of nearly 50 years, amassed a body of sociological research and writing focused on sex and gender. In this work, she eschews a focus on the popular suffrage movement and famous names of the period, although some of them, such as the Pankhursts and Ida B. Wells, do make an appearance. Rather, Oakley’s goal is to uncritically present the stories of women forgotten by male historians across different disciplines. To this end, the author presents a panorama of the intersectional and transnational networks created by female reformers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

This book accomplishes its goal of bringing to the forefront the names and accomplishments of women who have been overlooked.

While the book covers several areas of reform agitation - pacifism, labor reform, and municipal sanitation, just to name a few - they are all grouped under a single rubric: the women studied here leveraged their reform work to claim space in the public sphere in the years before gaining the vote. Indeed, Oakley demonstrates how the featured reformers used the connection between the issues related above and the private sphere of the home to claim authority and an active role in the wider world. For example, since women were considered responsible for feeding their families, the sanitary conditions of places like Chicago's meat-packing plants came legitimately under their purview. Oakley, however, points out one caveat, and that was inclusivity was mostly limited to women of the middle and upper classes. Of all the numerous women who are mentioned in this study, few came from the working classes.

Continue reading...

[trashworldblog]

For the ask game, 2 and 4!

2: did you watch bfu or worth it before?

yes!! big buzzfeed unsolved true crime fan since way early. i remember watching the db cooper episode and laughing my ass off and immediately thinking that i had to see what these guys are up to. i always kept semi up to date on new seasons, but with the way buzzfeed is set up, i never actually knew when a new season was coming out, and i didnt really give a shit about what buzzfeed was doing at that point. i cared earlier, but by 2016/2018ish i moved on from the feed, besides them, the worth it boys, saf, and the try guys.

i do remember having some favorite buzzfeed videos, and when i went back to watch them after watching bfu and worth it i started recognizing that some of them were made/hosted by shane/ryan/steven and being really suprized that i had seen their work before

i never really joined the fandom either! (i was busy in the phandom)

also fun fact: when i started watching bfu (in middleschool) i didnt watch supernatural because i was scared and actually belived in ghosts. and now im a complete shaniac and get to easily watch ghost files and bfu supernatural

i watched worth it quite a bit too. back when the trending page was good, id look through it and worth it was basically always up there and was always a good watch. but again i had no clue when their seasons stopped and ended. so i probably havent seen everything. i had traveled around the states quite a bit, and had eaten a lot of local food, so it was fun to recognize a cuisine i had tried before. its nice to remember a vacation while watching a video from that location.

4: do you have a favorite co founder?

how dare you ask me this question /joking

ummmmm yeahh

well

okay its hard to answer and not feel bad

ill say i have a bias because that feels better

so my bias is shane because he is the most relateable to me. someone on pod watcher will ask a question and me and shane answer the exact same way. idk why, maybe because we're both chicago suburbanites who went to columbia? we both love the schaumburg mall? idk i guess we're just similar which is fun cus he just gets it. we love a creative, artistic, and funny guy

of course, steven and ryan are absolutely incredible. i love how steven will fully commit to a bit, its so funny, he's incredible. and ryan is the kind of guy im often inspired by, he has such great and funny ideas, how?

[thebemoon]

what are some of your favorite words/sentences you’ve written this month?

Oooooh, I love this question SO much, but I'm incapable of just posting a sentence, so here are two scenes.

I haven't been working on my Dramione WIP this month (Bad Thebe!). Instead I'm messing around with my Draco/Original Female Character fic, which I plan to finish before I start posting. So here are a few bits from that.

The story is about an American witch named Chloe who doesn't know much about the war with Voldemort. She shows up in Britain about seven years after the war and starts up a secret affair with Draco, whom she doesn't always take very seriously. ("Oh! Were you a Dark Beater?")

Here's Chloe the first night she met Draco at the Leaky Cauldron:

---------------------------------------------------------

“So what do you do now?” I asked the blond wizard. “Do you work?”

He looked appalled. “Malfoys don’t work.”

“So what do you do, Draco?”

The wizard raised an eyebrow at my use of his first name, but he allowed it.

“Traditionally, we peddle our influence and wealth for power,” he said. “Sadly, this is no longer an option.”

“So you just sit around alone in weird pubs," I said.

He frowned. “You disapprove."

“No, no, that’s fine if you like it,” I said brightly. “At least you’re not building a criminal empire.”

“How do you know I’m not?”

“You wouldn’t be sitting here talking to me,” I said. “I don’t have the connections.”

“True,” he admitted. 

“I mean, I just got here.”

------------------------------------------------------

And here's something I wrote a week ago.

Chloe works in the American Embassy at the Ministry of Magic, and here she is in a Floo call with her boss Armistead Salem, the Magical Secretary of State:

------------------------------------------------------

“WHAT THE SAM HILL ARE YOU ALL DOING OVER THERE?” Salem yelled at us.

“Um, uh," I stammered, "there was this busload of Chicago tourists who were turned into frogs in the Cotswolds —”

“I JUST GOT A LETTER FROM THE BRITISH MINISTRY!” the Secretary shouted. “They’re threatening to break off diplomatic relations unless they can feed their panda pigs! What the f*** are panda pigs?”

“Well, as the name suggests, it’s a hybrid between a panda and a—”

“DO YOU KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING IN WIZARDING WASHINGTON RIGHT NOW?” Salem asked. “A MACUSA investigation into covert activities abroad! And I had to leave a Senate hearing to deal with BAMBOO???!!!"

I shifted on my knees. “Yes, well, our tariffs doubled earlier this year, and the British just want to know why —”

“WHY? I’LL TELL YOU WHY!” cried the Secretary. “We can’t afford to continue subsidizing plant and iron exports, so any countries affected are going to have to take it and like it! What has keeping tariffs low gotten us? Jack shit! What the f*** has the Ministry of Magic ever done for the U.S.?”

“Well, they did defeat Voldemort —”

“OH GREAT GLINDA YOU SOUND LIKE THEM NOW!" Salem yelled. "I’m THIS close to turning my Red Sox cap into a Horcrux and flying over there and scaring the shit out of all of them!"

The Secretary glared at me through the Floo flames. "Take care of this, or I swear to Oz I’ll sever relations with the Ministry and fire every one of you!!!!”

The Floo call ended in a puff of green smoke and I looked at my coworker.

“Wow,” I said. “That must be some Senate hearing.”

-----------------------------------------

Hope you liked it!

Thebe

[dustedmagazine]

Drazek Fuscaldo — June 22 (Astral Spirits/Feeding Tube)

Chicago residents Przemyslaw Krys Drazek and Brent Fuscaldo have been musical partners since 2007, but this is only the second recording to come out under their respective names. It probably won’t be the last, though. About a year ago they retired their old monicker, Mako Sica, after a decade and a half, having concluded that it might not be respectful for a couple Caucasian guys to use a Lakota name. But in recent times their music has charted a growth trajectory, due in no small part to their choice to persistently team up with elder musicians whose presence and example lights a fire to the core duo’s feet.

You don’t invite Hamid Drake, Joshua Abrams, Tatsu Aoki and Thymme Jones into your circle if you feel like coasting. On June 22, each plays with a degree of attunement and imagination that elevates and fills out Drazek and Fuscaldo’s open-ended, skeletal themes with rhythmic undercurrents and nationality-transcending melodic inventions. The duo have also have used a recording methodology, in which live performances are lightly shaped during post-production, that corresponds to the way Abrams records the Natural Information Society. Finally, a poke from Drake resulted in one of the album’s more remarkable aspects, at least in relation to the rest of the Mako Sica discography. After a concert at the Hideout in 2019, the drummer had suggested to Fuscaldo that he incorporate comprehensible messages into his usually wordless singing, which often sounds rather like that of a guy singing remembered fragments from a Gregorian chant while he takes a nighttime stroll past a graveyard with a bad reputation. The way he binds prayerful cadences to reverential sentiments on “Weaving Tongues,” which takes up the LP’s first side, might make it harder to assign such fanciful projections, but it invests the music with a gravity that suits the times in which it was made.

Parts of “Weaving Tongues,” were drawn from the same session at Promusica, a studio situated within a high-end audio component shop, that yielded last year’s Formless CD. The rest of the album comes from a second session held at Electrical Audio just ten days later. Both occurred in December 2020, when concerts weren’t happening in Chicago, so each gathering was a release from the prevailing COVID circumstances, and the push and pull of twinned basses and percussion underneath echo-laden, questing trumpet lines on “The Coyote Messenger” evokes the way that the vibe of the tines tinged even opportunities for genuine liberation with a sense of inhibition.

A word of caution; the vinyl edition of June 22 only contains about half of the album’s music. Side two of the LP contains edited versions of two tracks, and a fourth, the tersely propulsive “Mirror Beams,” can only be heard on the download. So, be sure to cash in that Bandcamp code.

Bill Meyer

[gregorygerwitz]

i know you’ve already mentioned a little about will, but do you have ideas for other characters from med or fire in the hockey!au?

Hi, Nonny!

I actually have very little planned and thought out for other characters, but I'll touch on the few I have vague ideas for so far. (in my defense, this is definitely a more PD-based AU and Will is only thought out as much as he is because he's Jay's immediate family)

Connor

I'm predictable, and I will be including Rhodestead in my gay little AU. But I don't actually want to change much about Connor from canon? I really liked his motivations for becoming a doctor, and pushing away from the family expectations, and making a name for himself separate from his last name (as much as he could, with that last name), so I'm keeping that. He's still a doctor, but not nearly a fellow yet. With my headcanons for birthdays and some math (Will is 21 when he starts at the coffee shop, so it's a few years before they meet, since Connor wouldn't even be a med student doing a clinical rotation until he's... 24/25ish? the summer/fall he's 24, soon to be 25, according to my quick google search), he's in his 2nd year rotations about a year after Will starts working at the hospital. So their paths cross pretty early on.

He gets his stupid little drinky drink every morning from the hospital coffee shop, with all the extra syrups and flavors and sugar, so he can't even taste the coffee itself (he's the only one who gets me). And, eventually, that tall, ginger barista (whose nametag says 'Will' in that stupid curly font that's hard to read but feeds into the """aesthetic""" so that's what all the menu headers are in, too) starts to have his drink ready for him before he even gets to the counter each morning.

Will, with all his own abandoned doctor dreams, absolutely teases him for his stupid coffee order. And then there's the obligatory teasing that turns into flirting that turns into Will giving him free drinks every once in a while and it turns into... something more. Eventually. Connor wouldn't want anything serious until he's done with med school and at least settled into a residency. But Will likes his coffee job, and it pays the bills, and he gets to see the cute soon-to-be surgeon every day so he's fine with it.

I've played with the idea of Connor's father also owning a small hockey team but I don't know where I stand on it anymore. I gave Will a barista job so it's not needed for the plot. Cornelius can do whatever he wants I don't control him.

Hannah

This was kind of a joke but I ended up thinking about it more after mentioning it offhandedly to @avasrhodes last night. I'm not doing any timeline math for this one, but she's dating Erin in this universe. They're pretty bisexuals who kiss each other and go out on cheesy dinner dates. And sometimes Hannah gives little talks at Erin's substance abuse community outreach center. They're living happy lives and just vibing. Hannah is still a doctor unless she ever decides to do the public speaking thing full time. I don't make that choice, I'll see what she decides to do as I continue to develop this universe.

And that's what I've got. If you want to force me (not the right words but I can't come up with better ones right now) to think about other characters in the One Chicago universe in relation to this AU, I welcome more asks! I love thinking about this AU it's fun.

Also! If you see anything incorrect about my above math re:Connor's doctoring timeline, please let me know! I googled. I didn't deep dive or anything. I tried to be accurate but I have no idea if I succeeded.

[ ask me about the hockey au ]