#This Day in NC History

[th3-0bjectivist]

Cemeteries in Charlotte, NC 04JUL23

New year, new home. Boston -> Charlotte

At Elmwood Cemetery, I went on a walk to remember the dead.

Also sauntered over to Old Settler's Cemetery.

Let me know if anyone spots any ghosts.

Old city, old gravestones going back to the mid 1700's.

As well as some very interesting and time warped masonry.

Try to recall those that came before you today.

And happy 4th.

[katietrekks]

June 3, 2021

Moores Creek History Trail Moores Creek National Battlefield 1.02 miles 19 ft. Elevation Gain

More historic walking! I actually really liked tis walk. The path was made out of recycled rubber tires so it was squishy under my feet.

[qqueenofhades]

I think the Aaron Sorkin fic people are writing about the convention to be extremely silly. It's going to be Biden. And if Biden's health takes a downturn and he feels the need to step down its going tk be Harris. This fantasy where we skip over her to whip up two random white guys(or like maaaybe Witmer) and somehow cruise to victory instead of fragmenting the party months before the election is simply not going to happen.

Look, I'm just saying, I got an email from the Biden campaign this morning where they seemed pretty darn happy with the actual (i.e. not-bloviating media) results of the debate: $38 million raised in 4 days ($30 million from individual small-dollar donors), 10K new volunteers in a week, 3x surge in campaign volunteers for battleground states, essentially no change or even a modest boost in the polls. So I think at this point, we can cautiously conclude the following things:

The debate looked bad for Biden, perhaps, but doesn't seem to have hurt him nearly as much the incredibly bad-faith BIDEN NEEDS TO STEP DOWN NOW takes being pumped out by the NYT and its other compatriots would suggest. Especially when these same media outlets have been gleefully sabotaging Biden at every turn for years already and whose fake-sanctimonious hand-wringing "for the good of the nation" pieces honestly should get them dropped into Superhell for Bad Journalists;

Biden went to Raleigh NC right after the debate and gave a fiery rally speech that was very well received. Now, I don't know why we didn't have that Biden at the debate, but it was the same night and there clearly was not any "cOgnItiVe dEcLinE" happening there (also Biden has a stutter and has for literally his entire life, and had a cold on debate night, so it was just an unfortunate confluence of factors)

There are very few actually undecided voters in this election (once again: HOW???) and those who tuned into the debate were largely already convinced of which candidate they were voting for and this didn't do much to change their minds. Just like, you know, pretty much every other debate in the history of presidential elections.

Ordinary voters, and not mainstream media outlets with BIDEN IZ BAD goggles clamped over their eyes, were able to see Trump's insane Gish gallops, lies, and full-blown dementia; this isn't going to get any better for him when he's already lost 20%-25% of GOP voters in every state primary and still is going to be sentenced in his criminal trial;

The D.C. political elite screaming about how Biden should step down (FOUR MONTHS BEFORE THE ELECTION) and leave the Democrats to start from scratch with some Star Chamber-selected candidate with no money and no incumbency record and no organization apparatus and a divided party are either fucking weapons grade morons or working secretly for Trump, because that IS in fact the best way to lose the election;

Such speculation seems to fall chiefly on Gavin Newsom, who (to his credit) has shut down any and all suggestion that he should try to step in and take the place of an incumbent who has won every state primary with 90% or more, because he's remotely sane and understands that this year is too important to fuck around with;

I've somehow never seen any suggestion that Biden should step aside for the duly elected (brown, female) Vice President, because everyone seems to think some Young Miraculous White Guy is coming and/or should step in;

All this while SCOTUS is clearly so confident of Trump getting back in that it's willing to grant him Absolute God King status pre- and post-emptively;

Yes, Biden needs to up his game before the next debate (though that's on Fox News iirc, blargh), but I think it's far enough post-debate that we can say it was bad but did not sink him, and if anything, reinforced the fact to many ordinary, non-brainwormed voters that Biden is old (which has been the number one chief theme of news coverage for four years and is no surprise to anyone) but is a decent and principled man doing a good job, while Trump is an absolute gibbering insane orange shitmonger fascist. I don't think he did himself any favors in that regard.

....anyway. The point is, do not be fucking insane people, Biden is not going to step down and frankly shouldn't, don't read the NYT (as noted, they've openly admitted to sabotaging him for personal ego reasons so I don't know why the hell anyone would listen to what they have to say about him), this is still an eminently winnable election, and let's go get those motherfucking fascists. I want Trump in jail and all of SCOTUS and the MAGAGOP fucking crying over it because they fucking suck. Let's go.

[alwaysbewoke]

Stole his adult whole life 😢

After serving 44 years for a rape and burglary he did not commit, 68-year-old Ronnie Long reached a settlement with the state of North Carolina for $25 million - the second largest wrongful conviction settlement in U.S. history. Long was initially given only an insulting $750K in compensation. But after filing a civil lawsuit, he was awarded an additional $25 million along with a formal apology.   In 1976, Long was only 21 years old when an all-white jury that was “hand-picked by local law enforcement” convicted him of raping a “prominent” 54-year-old White woman in Concord, NC. He was given two life sentences. An appeals court finally overturned his conviction in 2020, citing jury tampering by the police chief and false testimonies from detectives. Prosecutors also deliberately suppressed evidence that could have proven his innocence, including: a rape kit that collected 43 different fingerprints and a suspect’s hair that did not match Long’s. Semen samples also “disappeared” from evidence.   After his release, Long was eager to spend time with his family, including wife Ashleigh, who he married from prison in 2014. Sadly, both of Long’s parents died before seeing him freed and exonerated from this American nightmare. His mother passed just 30 days before his release. He told CBS News, “I know my mother and father died with a broken heart...I’m gonna tell them now, when I visit the gravesite, ‘Your son is clear.’”

[mycadences]

Azriel desperately wants his mate. Elain deeply resents her mating bond.

Azriel's work requires him to kill. Elain's gardening brings new life.

Azriel carries out torture. Elain abhors violence.

Azriel lives in shadows. Elain thrives in light.

Neither of them can give any of these up without changing a core part of their identity. They don't need to change. They shouldn't need to change for each other. Their paths are not the same -- not their past, their present, or their future.

Contrast this to:

Azriel thinks he's unworthy of love and believes that his hands are sullied. Gwyn thinks she's unworthy because she failed Catrin and thus does not wear her Invoking Stone.

Azriel is a master strategist and incredibly competitive, as noted by Cassian. Gwyn was determined to be the first to finish the obstacle course, as noted by Nesta.

Azriel answered affirmatively to Gwyn's question of whether he sings. Gwyn has a beautiful voice and sang frequently throughout ACOSF.

Azriel witnessed Gwyn's greatest trauma of her sexual assault which was also the day her twin sister was killed. Gwyn witnessed Azriel's greatest insecurity of what he has to do as the NC's spymaster when he slaughtered all the Hybern soldiers.

Azriel was the first in his year alongside his chosen brothers to reach Ramiel's summit and become Carynthian. Gwyn was the first female in history alongside her chosen sister to reach Ramiel's summit and become Carynthian.

Or even:

Elain said herself that she needed sunshine. Lucien is the son of the High Lord of the Day Court.

Elain has been described as not fitting the Night Court. Lucien is part of the "Band of Exiles", believing he has nowhere to go.

Elain is described as sociable and (prior to her transformation at least) enjoys making friends and attending parties. Lucien was an emissary twice and literally has connections to everyone and everywhere.

Elain is a Seer who sees things no one else can. Lucien's mechanical eye grants him a similar power.

Elain is the fawn. Lucien is the fox.

Or even:

Vassa is one of the mortal queens who has become intertwined with the Fae. Jurian is a former general of a human army who is also involved with the Fae.

Vassa is enslaved to the immortal Death-god Koschei. Jurian was enslaved to the immortal "High Queen" Amarantha.

Vassa's curse binds her to Koschei's lake. Jurian's soul was bound to Amarantha's ring.

Vassa is forced to undergo physical transformations between her avian and human form. Jurian was forced to undergo a physical transformation from an eyeball to a human.

Vassa was betrayed by the other Mortal Queens. Jurian was betrayed (in his eyes) by his lover Miryam.

The parallels between Gwynriel - Elucien - Jassa are really quite obvious. You can't tell me that all of these are unintentional. Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern...

"His name is Lucien" 🤝 "See you later, Shadowsinger" 🤝 "At each other's throats"

[batboyblog]

Less than 60 days out from the election, how do you think we’re doing, considering the recent debate and Taylor Swift unleashing the Swifties?

I'll start this by saying we're with-in the margin of effort, if either side really puts their backs into it, and pushes and shows up, volunteers in big numbers and turns out voters it could go either way.

So having said that, I feel good, right now the national polls are close, but all show Harris ahead. The swing state polls likewise are close but mostly show tied or leaning to Harris. On top of which Senate Democrats (and the candidate for Governor in NC) are running far ahead of her in polling, I hope thats a sign that late undecideds will break Democrat, they often do break toward the incumbent.

On the debate, I'm often skeptical that debates shift things. That said I think anyone watching would say that debate is pretty unique in the history of Presidential debates. The media has been working very hard to uh "sane wash" Trump and what he says. That debate was an unfiltered view of Trump. I'm frankly shocked he brought up the pet eating, the right has been meming about it but I thought he'd only say some dogwhistle to it not just straight up say some of the most racist shit imaginable on live TV. The bar for Trump was very low and he still failed totally to meet it. Likewise Harris had a high bar and met it, she was claim, she was professional, she came across as ready and smart while also serving as the audience surrogate to let us all know "yeah this is as crazy as you think it is"

just briefly here the attack on Haitian Americans is crazy, and racist, and the whole "the immigrants are eating dogs" goes back 100+ years, I've read people accusing NYC Jews in the early 1900s of kidnapping and eating neighborhood cats and dogs. But also its politically crazy too since Florida where Trump and Republican Senator Rick Scott have both been slipping in the polls as America's largest ethnic Haitian community, just over 500,000 or roughly 2% of the state, so great plan to call them pet stealing and eating monsters just before an election.

The other factor is the Laura Loomer. If anyone doesn't know who she is click that link and enjoy, but basically she's a white nationalist and Islamophobe (that's according to her) and the person extreme far right Republicans point to as proof that they're not "that bad" any ways, Loomer seems to have been with Trump, on his plane the day of the debate and every day since, and Republicans are wigging out

MTG, and any number of Trump super supporters are sounding off about how much they don't like this, and the internet is "joking" that Trump and Loomer are sleeping together. Together with his unhinged debate being connected with one of the worst people in American politics might cause serious problems. In any case a campaign of just alt-right memes is not gonna win most Americans.

On TSwift, I mean the data I've seen showed a really big jump in people exploring registering to vote after her message which is good. I'm again skeptical about how much of an impact she'll have? celebrities in general don't have that big of an impact, basically 90% of famous people are Democrats/liberal, but their fans don't always go along, don't get me wrong I'm happy she endorsed I just am unsure how big an impact it'll end up having.

So to repeat what I said at the top, we're in the margin of effort, if everyone who doesn't want Trump volunteers and puts in the work Harris will win, so

VOLUNTEER

[kp777]

By Jake Johnson

Common Dreams

Sept. 5, 2023

"We are prepared to do whatever it takes, even get arrested in an act of civil disobedience, to stand up for our patients," said one Kaiser Permanente worker.

Dozens of healthcare workers were arrested in Los Angeles on Monday after sitting in the street outside of a Kaiser Permanente facility to demand that providers address dangerously low staffing levels at hospitals in California and across the country.

The civil disobedience came as the workers prepared for what could be the largest healthcare strike in U.S. history. Late last month, 85,000 Kaiser Permanente employees represented by the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions began voting on whether to authorize a strike over the nonprofit hospital system's alleged unfair labor practices during ongoing contract negotiations.

The current contract expires on September 30.

"We are burnt out, stretched thin, and fed up after years of the pandemic and chronic short staffing," Datosha Williams, a service representative at Kaiser Permanente South Bay, said Monday. "Healthcare providers are failing workers and patients, and we are at crisis levels in our hospitals and medical centers."

"Our employers take in billions of dollars in profits, yet they refuse to safely staff their facilities or pay many of their workers a living wage," Williams added. "We are prepared to do whatever it takes, even get arrested in an act of civil disobedience, to stand up for our patients."

Kaiser Permanente reported nearly $3.3 billion in net income during the first half of 2023. In 2021, Kaiser CEO Greg Adams brought in more than $16 million in total compensation.

According to the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, the hospital system "has investments of $113 billion in the U.S. and abroad, including in fossil fuels, casinos, for-profit prisons, alcohol companies, military weapons, and more."

Healthcare workers, meanwhile, say they're being overworked and underpaid, and many are struggling to make ends meet amid high costs of living.

"We have healthcare employees leaving left and right, and we have corporate greed that is trying to pretend that this staffing shortage is not real," Jessica Cruz, a nurse at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center, toldLAist.

"We are risking arrest, and the reason why we're doing it is that we need everyone to know that this crisis is real," said Cruz, who was among the 25 workers arrested during the Labor Day protest.

A recent survey of tens of thousands of healthcare workers across California found that 83% reported understaffing in their departments, and 65% said they have witnessed or heard of care being delayed or denied due to staff shortages.

Additionally, more than 40% of the workers surveyed said they feel pressured to neglect safety protocols and skip breaks or meals due to short staffing.

"It's heartbreaking to see our patients suffer from long wait times for the care they need, all because Kaiser won't put patient and worker safety first," Paula Coleman, a clinical laboratory assistant at Kaiser Permanente in Englewood, Colorado, said in a statement late last month. "We will have no choice but to vote to strike if Kaiser won't bargain in good faith and let us give patients the quality care they deserve."

A local NBC affiliate reported Monday that 99% of Colorado Kaiser employees represented by SEIU Local 105 have voted to authorize a strike.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

[threadtalk]

Nice day for a… blue wedding?

Indeed. Okay, no hate to white dresses here, but hasn't it been a little played out? After all, history is on our side. While white wedding dresses certainly existed before Queen Victoria, the theme still perseveres today to the point of boredom.

Take this gown from 1894. Between that bodice, the taffeta, the lace, and those absolutely over-the-top gigot sleeves, I'm in heaven. With the right hat and flowers, what look that would be coming down the aisle! Plus, you could always use it again later, you know, if things didn't turn out.

That gorgeous blue is, indeed, the product of aniline dyes (which the museum so nicely points out). Though they weren't uncommon by the time, they were still costly and impressive to behold.

Wedding dress, 1894, Wales, maker unknown. Gift of Miss C Rothwell, 1982. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Te Papa (PC002548) - Museum of New Zealand.

[mariacallous]

(CNN) — Mark Robinson, the controversial and socially conservative Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina, made a series of inflammatory comments on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago, in which he referred to himself as a “black NAZI!” and expressed support for reinstating slavery, a CNN KFile investigation found.

Despite a recent history of anti-transgender rhetoric, Robinson said he enjoyed watching transgender pornography, a review of archived messages found in which he also referred to himself as a “perv.”

The comments, which Robinson denies making, predate his entry into politics and current stint as North Carolina’s lieutenant governor. They were made under a username that CNN was able to identify as Robinson by matching a litany of biographical details and a shared email address between the two.

Many of Robinson’s comments were gratuitously sexual and lewd in nature. They were made between 2008 and 2012 on “Nude Africa,” a pornographic website that includes a message board. The comments were made under the username minisoldr, a moniker Robinson used frequently online.

Robinson listed his full name on his profile for Nude Africa, as well as an email address he used on numerous websites across the internet for decades.

CNN is reporting only a small portion of Robinson’s comments on the website given their graphic nature.

Many of Robinson’s comments on Nude Africa stand in contrast to his public stances on issues such as abortion and transgender rights.

Publicly, Robinson has fiercely argued that people should use bathrooms only that correspond to the gender they were assigned at birth. He’s also said transgender women should be arrested for using women’s restrooms.

“If you’re a man on Friday night, and all the sudden Saturday, you feel like a woman, and you want to go in the women’s bathroom in the mall, you will be arrested, or whatever we gotta do to you,” Robinson said at a campaign rally in February 2024. “We’re going to protect our women.”

Yet privately under the username minisoldr on Nude Africa, Robinson graphically described his own sexual arousal as an adult from the memory of secretly “peeping” on women in public gym showers as a 14-year-old. Robinson recounted the story as a memory he said he still fantasized about.

“I came to a spot that was a dead end but had two big vent covers over it! It just so happened it overlooked the showers! I sat there for about an hour and watched as several girls came in and showered,” Robinson wrote on Nude Africa.

CNN is not publishing the graphic sexual details of Robinson’s story.

“I went peeping again the next morning,” Robinson wrote. “but after that I went back the ladder was locked! So those two times where [sic] the only times I got to do it! Ahhhhh memories!!!!”

In other comments on Nude Africa, Robinson discussed his affinity for transgender pornography.

“I like watching tranny on girl porn! That’s f*cking hot! It takes the man out while leaving the man in!” Robinson wrote. “And yeah I’m a ‘perv’ too!”

In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Robinson repeatedly denied that he made the comments on Nude Africa.

“This is not us. These are not our words. And this is not anything that is characteristic of me,” Robinson said. Presented with the litany of evidence connecting him with the minisoldr user name on Nude Africa, Robinson said, “I’m not going to get into the minutia of how somebody manufactured this, these salacious tabloid lies.”

CNN first reached out to Robinson Tuesday morning with evidence connecting him to the comments on Nude Africa. It took his campaign two days to respond and issue a denial.

During his interview with CNN, Robinson repeatedly said the issues that faced North Carolinians were more important than what he called “tabloid trash,” and he steered the conversation toward attacking his opponent in the race, Democrat Josh Stein, the state’s attorney general.

“We are not getting out of this race. There are people who are counting on us to win this race,” Robinson said.

A history of controversial statements

Campaigning for lieutenant governor in 2020, Robinson advocated for a complete abortion ban without exceptions. He later expressed regret in 2022 for paying for his now-wife to have an abortion in the 1980s.

Now campaigning for governor, he says he supports a so-called “heartbeat” bill that would ban abortion when a heartbeat is detected – approximately six weeks – with exceptions for rape, incest and health of the mother.

But writing as minisoldr on Nude Africa in December 2010, Robinson said he did not care about a celebrity having an abortion.

“I don’t care. I just wanna see the sex tape!” Robinson wrote.

In another thread, commenters considered whether to believe the story of a woman who said she was raped by her taxi driver while intoxicated. In response, Robinson wrote, “and the moral of this story….. Don’t f**k a white b*tch!”

Robinson, who would become North Carolina’s first Black governor if elected, also repeatedly maligned civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., attacking him in such intense terms that a user accused him of being a white supremacist.

“Get that f*cking commie bastard off the National Mall!,” Robinson wrote about the dedication of the memorial to King in Washington, DC, by then-President Barack Obama.

“I’m not in the KKK. They don’t let blacks join. If I was in the KKK I would have called him Martin Lucifer Koon!” Robinson responded.

CNN’s reporting on Robinson’s comments comes a few weeks after The Assembly, a North Carolina digital publication, reported that Robinson frequented local video pornography shops in the 1990s and 2000s. The story cited six people who interacted and saw him frequent the stores in Greensboro, North Carolina. A spokesperson for Robinson called the story false and a “complete fiction.”

Despite earning the full endorsement of former President Donald Trump and the North Carolina Republican Party, Robinson faces an uphill battle in the race for governor against Stein.

Robinson’s history of controversial remarks, including mocking school shooting survivors, his past support for total abortion bans without exceptions for rape or incest and disparaging the civil rights movement have been a consistent theme in the race. Recent public polling shows Robinson is losing to Stein.

Identifying minisoldr as Robinson

On the Nude Africa website in both comments and his profile, minisoldr offered numerous details that align precisely with Robinson’s personal history.

In his profile, minisoldr listed his full name as “mark robinson” and disclosed a private email address Robinson used elsewhere online. In 2012, a user responded to a comment by calling minisoldr “Mark.”

Minisoldr mentioned in 2008 being married for 18 years, which corresponds with Robinson’s marriage to Yolanda Hill in 1990. In 2011, minisoldr wrote he had been married 21 years. Minisoldr wrote in a 2011 post that he lived in Greensboro, North Carolina, the same town where Robinson lived at the time and currently lives.

In a post in 2012, minisoldr said he served in the Army in the 1980s, during the same time period as Robinson. In his sexually graphic comments detailing watching women in the showers in 2011, minisoldr wrote that his mother worked at an Historically Black College and University (HBCU). Robinson’s mother worked as a custodian at North Carolina A&T State University, an HBCU located in Greensboro.

Both minisoldr and Robinson often posted about the same topics online, including reviews for remote-controlled helicopters, their attraction to specific celebrities and their favorite “Twilight Zone” episode.

The email address associated with minisoldr on Nude Africa was also used by Robinson elsewhere online and social media. On the commenting platform Disqus, a user who joined in April 2011 features Mark Robinson’s photo under the username minisoldr.

Usernames and email addresses from Disqus were publicly leaked online in 2017, according to the company. CNN confirmed that Robinson’s username minisoldr on Disqus shared the same email address as the one used on Nude Africa.

Robinson’s Disqus page is also linked to the Black social networking site Black Planet. The Web Archive shows a user named “minisoldr” described themselves as 40 years old in February 2009 – the same age as Robinson at the time – and living in Greensboro, North Carolina – Robinson’s hometown.

A username often used by Robinson

Robinson has frequently used the username “minisoldr” elsewhere on the internet. On X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Robinson once used the minisoldr username, according to a screenshot he shared on Facebook in 2018 and data in Robinson’s old tweets.

A YouTube playlist for a user named “minisoldr” features exclusively videos of Robinson. On Pinterest, a user “minisoldr” lists his name as “Mark Robinson.”

The “minisoldr” username has also posted reviews of products and places Robinson has also publicly recommended. On Amazon, a user named “minisoldr” reviewed products frequently shared by Robinson on Facebook, including remote-controlled helicopters. And the same email address and username used on Nude Africa also left reviews on Google for two local businesses Robinson later posted on Facebook that he used.

Robinson’s unique choice of language further links him to the “minisoldr” alias on the pornographic forums. Uncommon phrases such as “gag a maggot,” “dunder head,” “I don’t give a frogs a**,” and “I don’t give two shakes of it” were used both by minisoldr on Nude Africa and by Robinson on his personal Facebook page.

Robinson as minisoldr ‘Slavery is not bad’

In the pornographic forums, Robinson revealed his unvarnished thoughts on issues such as race, gender and abortion.

Writing in a forum discussing Black Republicans in October 2010, Robinson stated unprovoked: “I’m a black NAZI!”

That same month, Robinson wrote in another post that he supported the return of slavery.

“Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it (slavery) back. I would certainly buy a few,” he wrote.

In March 2012, Robinson wrote that he preferred the former leader of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler over the leadership in Washington during the administration of Barack Obama.

“I’d take Hitler over any of the sh*t that’s in Washington right now!” he wrote.

Robinson’s comments on Nude Africa often frequently contained derogatory and racial slurs directed at Black, Jewish and Muslim people.

In a series of seven posts in October 2011, Robinson disparaged Martin Luther King in such intense terms, calling him a “commie bastard,” “worse than a maggot,” a “ho f**king, phony,” and a “huckster,” that a user in the thread accused him of being in the KKK. Robinson responded by directing a slur at King.

In October 2010, Robinson used the antisemitic slur “hebe” when discussing how he liked the show “Good Times” developed by Norman Lear, saying “the show itself was a bunch of heb [sic] written liberal bullshit!”

While discussing the Taliban, he referred to Muslims as “little rag-headed bastards” and said that “if Muslims took over liberals would be the 1st ones to be beheaded!”

Robinson also used homophobic slurs frequently, calling other users f*gs.

In a largely positive forum discussion featuring a photo of two men kissing after one returned from a military deployment, Robinson wrote the sole negative comment.

“That’s sum ole sick a** f*ggot bullsh*t!” he wrote.

[theshadowsingersraven]

Actually a huge reason I want Elain out of the Night Court is that I, as a READER, am fucking tired of being there!

We've spent five books in the same fucking place where there are six other Courts to go to! There's a whole other continent! Girly likes to travel and some people lose their fucking mind at the premise of her potentially moving out of the Night Court if it makes her happy--as if Feyre didn't find her HEA with her husband and kid in a new house, living separately from both her sisters?

As if Elain’s interests also don't conveniently align with what would narratively benefit the reader and prevent them from getting bored?

When the Day Court, where people speculate she could end up, is next to the Night Court? It is quite literally the only neighbor that the Night Court has?

This is a world with winnowing where Rhys can just yeet himself across the entire continent from Night to Spring and then back to Night with it taking zero toll on his overall energy and magic. We saw him do it for Feyre.

I'm sure if any of the sisters wanted to see one another, Rhys, the most powerful High Lord in history, can make it happen as easily as if she were two minutes away instead of one territory away.

That's not even mentioning that Elain was going to get married to Graysen, meaning she likely expected to move out of her family's house as a human anyway?

Elain fucked Graysen in his own damn estate and came back to her and Nesta's house glowing, I think she probably had no qualms with moving in with him. Meaning she'd likely never see Feyre again and rarely see Nesta since she hated Graysen.

This whole "people want her away from her family and nephew and that's bad" is so unbelievably infantilizing to her character, which is even worse considering how much SJM has drilled into the narrative that Elain is fostering independence and no one decides what she does and doesn't do. Y'all missed the point, quite completely!

Elain will be fine if she ends up outside the NC. And so will you!

[garadinervi]

Dorothy Counts, fifteen year old, walks into her first day at then all-white Harry Harding High School, Charlotte, NC, September 4, 1957 [Photo: © Don Sturkey / «Charlotte Observer»]

«That's when I saw the photograph. On every newspaper kiosk on that wide, tree-shaped boulevard in Paris were photographs of 15-year-old Dorothy Counts being reviled and spat upon by the mob as she was making her way to school in Charlotte, N.C. There was unutterable pride, tension and anguish in that girl's face as she approached the halls of learning with history jeering at her back. It made me furious. It filled me with both hatred and pity, and it made me ashamed. Some one of us should have been there with her.» ― I Am Not Your Negro, (2016, documentary, 93min), Directed by Raoul Peck, from text by James Baldwin, Velvet Film

[winterchimez]

The Spy Who Loved Me | Lee Sangyeon

SUMMARY: you had a clear mission: find out what happened to the missing submarines and get your hands on the microfilm being sold illegally on the market. it was a fairly straightforward task, and you were certain that you would be able to complete it in no time—that is until you crossed paths with the infamous Agent 007 himself.

PAIRING: 007!Sangyeon x agent f!reader

GENRE: james bond / 007 au, spy, crime, angst, suggestive

WARNINGS: nc-17, its a james bond / 007 au so...expect it to be action-packed, mentions of blood, murder, mentions of gadgets and weaponry (guns, missiles, snipers), petnames (honey, sweetheart, princess), violence, Sangyeon is so goddamn flirty here i had a hard time writing this folks (expect loads of teasing and flirting from him 😃), kissing, making out

WORD COUNT: 9,276

A/N: here is my submission for the 007 files collab!! i've chosen the film the spy who loved me & obviously sangyeon (which later on i realised that i should not have wrote this film for him bcs i was going through a crisis...yall would know why as you read this 🫠) i tried my best...wished i could've executed it better but its done and dusted!! shoutout to @momhwa-agenda for always, ALWAYS, beta reading my works for me & that she's always there for me throughout the entire process 🥹🫶🏻💗

You weren’t too sure how you even managed to get yourself into the mess you were in.

Your mission was as clear as day: find out what happened to the missing submarines that had been stolen from the British and Russian army and to get your hands on the microfilm which contained illicit submarine tracking systems that were being offered for sale on the black market.

It all started out fairly smoothly—leave Russia at 5 in the morning to catch the earliest flight possible to Cairo and meet up with a man named Max Kalba, who apparently has his hands on the microfilm itself. By evening, you had safely arrived at the club after tracking his movements while scouring the bar. Sure enough, you eventually find him sitting at the corner of one of the rooms, enjoying the performance that unfolded right before his eyes.

After a few attempts to talk your way out with the club workers, you finally made your way towards the infamous man himself. You sat beside him and tried your best to coax him into handing over the microfilm.

That was until you heard a thud coming right next to you. The individual took a seat down with his glass of whiskey in hand, spinning his alcoholic beverage. At the same time, he attempted to cut right into the conversation you were having with Mr Kalba.

“Why, good evening, Mr Kalba. I’ve been eager to reach out to you-” he paused momentarily before moving his free hand to pick yours that was laid on the hems of your dress, leaving a gentle kiss on your hand. “It’s also my pleasure to meet such a beautiful young lady like you,” he winked.

The male was dressed in a full tuxedo, the suit tugging on his skin a little tight, which obviously shows that he has been hitting off the gym for quite some time. His brunette hair was parted to the sides, his shiny forehead out and shining brightly. He also paired his look with a pair of glasses, and you could’ve sworn that he probably wore a little lip tint, given the fact that his lips were a little too bright red than the usual men you have come across.

You were used to men swooning over you or using all sorts of methods to impress you because, respectfully, you weren’t labelled as one of the wisest yet most beautiful KGB agents in history. It was also part of your tactic to get them to fall for you first before you eventually turned the tables and used them to your advantage.

However, something in this person’s eyes seemed a lot different than the men you have encountered in the past. Something tells you that this man isn’t someone to be taken lightly off, as he looks back up to you with this malicious intent.

It was as if he was trying to tell you to challenge him.

What was he then? Was he after the microfilm just like you were?

After a few minutes of the male trying his best to break the ice between Mr Kalba, this whole facade that he has been working hard on finally comes to a halt as he leans over, intertwining his fingers, and stares intently at you.

“I would like to purchase the microfilm.”

As far as you knew, only the KGB agents were aware of the missing submarines and the microfilm being sold on the black market. You were certain that the general had made it clear to you that none of the other agencies or associations were aware of this matter, and it was strictly up to the KGB agents to deal with the case privately.

So who was he? Why did he know about your supposed mission?

The adrenaline came rushing all over you, and you needed to do something and act fast before the microfilm fell into the wrong hands.

“I would like to bid for a higher price, Mr Kalba,” you announced, leaning in close to the infamous man to give him a little whiff of your perfume, hoping he would fall for you. Sure enough, the man couldn’t resist the scent or your outfit before responding to the other male waiting patiently at the side.

“I’m sorry, gentleman. You heard the woman, and clearly, you’re at a disadvantage right here, don’t you think?”

“Well then, I suppose I just have to bid higher than the stunning woman herself, no?” he said confidently.

Mr Kalba was certainly intrigued and was ready to hear the male’s proposal before he got interrupted by one of his servants, ushering him out to another room to pick up an urgent call. Once he was out of the room, the male suddenly moved closer towards you, to the point that his shoulders were touching yours, leaving little to no space between you both.

“Who are you exactly?” you bluntly spat out, not giving him the opportunity to start the conversation, at least like normal strangers would.

“Aww sweetheart, that’s some very bold language you’ve got there coming straight out of your mouth. You don’t trust me at all, huh?” He leaned in closer till you felt his hot breath on your bare skin.

“You’re a spy; which agency are you working for?”

“That’s too blunt.”

“I’ve got no time to waste,” you replied.

Before the male could even give you a proper response, something made him turn his head immediately towards the other room. He stared at the locked door for a good couple of seconds. He immediately examined the room, not caring about your presence, causing you to trail him from behind.

Once he did manage to pick the lock, the both of you were met by the lifeless body of Mr Kalba, lying in a pool of his blood. The male immediately bent down to examine the body up close, shaking his head when he did not feel a pulse on his wrist. Before he was ready to leave the body, he noticed the marks that were left on the side of his neck, causing his eyes to widen at the sight of it before he began marching down the hallway.

You wouldn’t get your potential witness or suspect off that easily, so you decided to jump onto the vehicle he had stolen from outside the party—a food truck.

As you easily opened the passenger door and slipped right into the vehicle, the male glanced at you before diverting his attention back to the road and driving off into the darkness.

It seemed as if the male could tell that you had so many questions to dump on him, but he beat you to it before you could even open your mouth.

“Major Y/N is working for the KGB. An agent who has never failed a single mission and is always on the hunt for the most notorious criminals across the globe. A seductress, seducing men has always been your primary method to manipulate people and get them to cooperate with you-”

“Okay, you made your point,” you cut him off. “Now, tell me what made you decide that driving into the darkness in the desert is the most plausible reason, given the situation that we’re in now.”

“Honey, you’re a high-ranking agent from the KGB; I’m sure you have noticed the bite marks on the late Mr Kalba’s neck,” he replied nonchalantly.

Bite marks? You were confused. You definitely saw that the source of the blood was oozing out from his neck, but you never did witness bite marks upon the wound with your naked eyes. Could it be that you missed a crucial detail? And how was the man able to catch onto something you couldn’t?

Your stunned behaviour and look gave the male more than enough reason to believe that you couldn’t examine the body up close, so he did you a favour by telling you all about his thoughts and predictions.

“Those bite marks belong to a notorious criminal that you and I have been trying so hard to catch over the past few months, and I’m sure that will certainly ring a bell now.”

Sure enough, it did, and there was only one person you knew of who also committed crimes with the same modus operandi.

“Jaws.”

“That’s right, honey. Let’s go meet our man of the night, shall we?”

After hours of driving through the desert, both of you arrived at a seemingly deserted site filled with tons of broken-down monuments and statues.

There was absolutely no reason for anyone to come here at all, so you knew from the back of your mind that this would be the perfect hunting ground for Jaws as there was also barely any signal out here, making it nearly impossible to contact the headquarters if something tragic were to happen.

As the two of you stepped out of the vehicle, the male immediately took one of his free arms to keep you in place behind him. His other hand was busy reloading a Walther PPK 7.65mm to ensure that he was armed and ready should Jaws ever strike back. You decided it was best to follow in his footsteps while trying to be his other pair of eyes to scour the place.

The place felt eerily silent, almost way too silent. It was an abandoned site, and no one would be in the right mindset to come to a place like this. But the fact that both of you were on the hunt for a wanted criminal paints the situation differently.

Just when the both of you have reached the other end of the site, your sixth sense immediately tells you that something is going to happen within the next few seconds, and that is when you look up to see a brick falling right on top of the both of you. You immediately push both of you out of the way with your quick reflexes before a looming shadow falls upon the male himself.

It was Jaws.

The criminal was already armed with a broken wooden board in hand and began swinging violently at the male to hurt him. The unnamed spy was trying his best to dodge by landing a few punches onto the criminal, which was clearly deemed ineffective, given that Jaws was known for their brute strength and solid defence. Unlucky for the male, he actually took out quite a few hits from the wooden board—you were surprised that he was still standing strong despite having a few cut marks on his bare skin.

You quickly backed away and hid in a corner, trying to take out your revolver where you hid on the holster that was wrapped around your thigh and reloading it with bullets. You have encountered the criminal a couple of times in the past; you knew that normal bullets would do little to no damage to that man; his body was as solid as steel.

Instead, you looked around to see if there was something you could aim at to ensure that the criminal could be stopped momentarily while trying to save the agent who was fighting for his life. A minute passed when you finally landed your eyes upon a rope close to breaking off several metres high from the brawl between Jaws and the agent. There are a few stacks of abandoned materials that would knock them out for a while if they were to fall upon someone.

Quickly running in closer without being detected, you aimed your gun at the rope before mentally counting down for a few seconds before firing the shot. The shot was loud enough to make both males divert their attention towards you, and thankfully, the agent was able to catch on with your doing before he quickly ran towards you and grabbed your wrist to take you away from the site as the wooden boards and abandoned materials came crumbling down directly onto Jaws.

Rushing right back to the vehicle, you offered to drive as you deemed the male himself to be unfit for the driver’s seat (given the injuries he had sustained). As you peered through the rearview mirror, you could tell that Jaws was slowly making his way out from the crumble and would start charging towards you. Not wanting to allow him to do so, you stepped onto the accelerator and quickly sped away from there, not caring if you were going beyond the given limit.

After minutes of driving at full speed, you finally slowed down when you decided you had lost him far enough. Now, you can drive at your own pace while taking in everything that has happened throughout the night until that voice cuts you off from your train of thought.

“Geez, can you female agents not drive at an average speed? Where’s your sympathy for us sitting on the passenger seat?” He sulked.

“I think you owe me a “thank you” instead for what I did back there,” you replied bluntly.

The male could only respond with a smile before he took his hands off the handle and leaned back into his seat. “Actually, I think you might want to thank me instead.”

Right after he finished his sentence, he pulled out a little black USB containing the sole mission you were tasked with for the night.

The microfilm.

But now, it was in the wrong hands, and you needed to negotiate with the agent to find out how he knew precisely about this and who he was working for.

Composing yourself, you took a deep breath before politely asking the male, “What do I have to do to get my hands on the microfilm?”

“Huh, look at you, ready to pounce on me already? Did they not tell you to behave as an agent-”

“Cut off the wild thoughts. I’m only here from the microfilm, and that’s it.”

That was when the male began twirling the USB device on his fingers, giving you a little Yes-I’m-currently-thinking look, trying to rationalise with himself on what to do with you. “How about a glass of red wine while we gaze at the sunrise next morning?”

“What are you, a romanticist?” You growled back, feeling a little annoyed with the answer that he gave.

“Of course, darling. It’s one of the many reasons I always succeed at my job.”

“Clearly, those young ladies need to check their eyesight at the doctors.”

“Now, now…” he pouts before almost laying his hands to rest on your thigh but retracting when he saw that you were giving him the death stare as if you were about to ditch him out here right in the middle of nowhere if he ever had the guts to do so. “Hmph, you’re no fun.”

“What exactly do you want, Mr Agent.”

As you said those words, his flirtatious image began dying down, and he looked at you as if he were being drop-dead serious. You intrigued him, and he was now resting and leaning his arm on the winded-down car windows while he stared right into your soul.

“You’re not bad, Major Y/N. You definitely live up to all the expectations people label you as.”

So, he knew about your identity.

Instantly, you stepped on the break vigorously before pointing your loaded gun right into his face, forcing him to spit out whatever else he was hiding before anything else.

“Time is up. I’ve been patient enough to deal with your nonsense, but I’m done playing pretend. So you better tell me who exactly you are before I pull this damn trigger,” you threatened.

As he looked up and down from the gun to your face, he gently placed two of his fingers right on top of your gun before pushing it down gently so that he could lean in closer so that he was merely inches away from you now.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Major Y/N. The name is Agent 007, better known as Bond. James Bond. You will be coming with me instead, my princess.”

You couldn’t believe it when the general informed you that the Soviet agency would collaborate with British Intelligence. Right after that confrontation in the desert, Agent 007 took over the wheel and drove you both to a secluded area near an oasis, where he informed you that both generals from your respective agencies were already expecting your arrival.

As soon as you both met your superiors, Agent 007 wasted no time briefing the team about what he had found on the microfilm itself (apparently, he could examine it while you were speeding off from Jaws). Unfortunately, the crucial evidence from the film has been removed, and there isn’t much to go on with it.

That was until the infamous agent discovered a faded-off crest at the far end of the film. With Q’s help (the quartermaster of the M16), they could track down the source, which belonged to the famous scientist Karl Stromberg. However, his lab was located in Sardinia, which required a train and a boat ride to reach the island.

Luckily for you, you were pretty familiar with the place itself since you have spent much of your time there hunting down wanted criminals for the past decade, so you practically knew your way around the entire island.

However, it was also unlucky for you that both agencies decided that two brilliant minds like you two would prove to be worthy and crucial for the mission to succeed, causing them to make a pact, and they agreed that both agents would work together to fulfill the mission.

So here you are now, sitting in Agent 007’s car as he drives the both of you up to the highest mansion in Sardinia, making your way towards Mr Stromberg’s lab while posing as Agent 007’s wife.

Yes. Wife.

That idea irked you so much at the beginning, knowing that both of your first encounters with one another weren’t the best, and you certainly did not return the favour of him trying his best to woo and flirt with you. But you knew that taking on multiple identities was part of your job, and so was keeping your personal feelings and emotions out of the way while you were on duty.

With that, you decided to casually guide Agent 007 around the city, securely infiltrate Mr Stromberg’s lab, obtain the necessary information, and quickly leave the islands to return to headquarters.

It shouldn’t be that hard.

Right?

“Say, princess, tell me a little more about yourself.” Agent 007 broke the silence between you two, desperately trying his best to break down the solid wall of ice between you both since that first encounter in Cairo.

Yet, you had no interest in returning the favour and tried your best to turn him down. “I would suggest you drive safely instead. The rocky roads up to Mr Stromberg’s lab are pretty nasty if you’re not careful.”

“Oh, honey, don’t worry about me. I’ve driven pretty much every single vehicle or transport out there. I could take you up in my very own helicopter for a little ride after this whole mission is complete.”

“Don’t bother. I will cut ties with you after we secure the microfilm.”

“Shame. I thought we were getting closer now that we’re partners.”

As soon as you heard the word “partners,” you couldn’t help but feel a sudden wave of anger rise upon you. You began raising your voice to respond to the male while swiftly turning your entire body towards his direction as well.

“You’re insane for thinking that we could ever be partners. Clearly, you don’t prove yourself to be worthy as Agent Seryozha-”

That was when you instantly slapped a hand to cover your mouth, trying your best to calm yourself down as you readjusted your sitting position. You have no idea why on earth this man irks you so much, to the point that you’ve messed up and even brought your lover—well, ex-lover—into the picture.

Agent Seryozha unfortunately passed when he was on a mission in Austria, and a week later, the missing submarines happened, and you were sent off to Cairo. Hence, you barely had time to grieve over your actual partner in crime before you had to convince yourself and everyone else that you’re nowhere near as affected by the sudden news.

But your now bright red face proved otherwise, and Agent 007 was able to catch on pretty quickly to what happened, and he immediately handed you a napkin from his side pocket while his other hand was still on the wheel.

“W-What?” You sniffled.

“Take it, honey. Wipe off the teardrop dripping down your face. It doesn’t look good on you.”

That was when you realised you were crying, and you quickly snatched the napkin away from his hands before drying your eyes. Things went quiet for a while, but he decided that you probably needed some comfort after all that had happened over the past several weeks.

Without saying a word, he instantly intertwined his fingers with yours, holding them tight while giving you a little squeeze to let you know that everything would be alright and you were more than welcome to let out those tears if need be. At this point, you desperately needed this for so long, someone who wouldn’t judge you, and that time could slow down for a little bit. With that, you shut your eyes tightly while letting the remaining tears fall straight down onto your hand as well as his, all while you tightened the grip of your hands with his, too.

After a good minute or two, when you finally could calm down, you mustered up all of the courage left within you to give him a simple answer: “T-Thank you…”

“Call me Sangyeon instead; we’ve now made a pact that we’re partners in crime on our new mission together.”

Thankfully, both of you could easily infiltrate Mr Stromberg’s lab without being detected. Once you got out of the car, you immediately showcased your professionalism by taking on the role of Sangyeon’s wife and linking your arms around his. He introduced himself as Lee Sangyeon, a scientist who was also into marine biology like Mr Stromberg. He was eager to share his recent discoveries with the infamous man himself.

Mr Stromberg strictly requested that only a few people enter his lab one at a time, so you had no choice but to stay in the common area with his assistant while your “husband” went off to attend some business.

Before he left, he quickly turned his attention to you and pecked you on the cheeks, which caused them to heat up fairly quickly. Then he smiled and gave you a little wink.

“I’ll be back real soon, honey.”

As Sangyeon and Mr Stromberg entered the elevators and brought them down to his official lab, you sat on the couch and quickly placed your palm on your cheeks to feel the heat. Unfortunately, your actions did not go unnoticed; his assistant remarked on them, making you feel ten times worse.

“Seems like you both are a newlywed couple, huh?” She smirked.

“W-What! No! I-I mean…what makes you say that?” You tried your best to keep your composure.

“Oh, sweetheart, it’s how you both look at one another, especially your husband, as he came back to peck you on your cheeks. And look at you now, trying your best to reduce the redness and heat that’s rapidly rising,” she commented while moving her fist to cover her mouth as she giggled.

As much as you hated how she taunted you, you couldn’t deny every detail she had just pointed out in her speech. It was true, and you hated how Sangyeon was making you feel things and that you weren’t keeping your cool as usual.

You have made out with many men before this because of your mission, so a little peck on the cheeks would prove to be little to no concern for you. But it was different this time. It was the James Bond, his real name being Lee Sangyeon, who was actually making you feel this way, and you’re not sure what exactly your viewpoint on the man himself is anymore.

Not wanting to create more of a scene, you quietly looked down the entire time while playing with the hems of your dress, trying to calm yourself down and not having other unnecessary thoughts. Mentally, all you wanted was for Sangyeon to get the microfilm and get out of there quickly.

Perhaps this is something you have to discuss with Sangyeon about? You certainly can’t be going on like this forever; it would definitely be best if you both came clean and-

Wait. No. Absolutely not.

There’s no way the KGB's Major Y/N would be vulnerable to small matters like this. You have fought armies, destroyed nuclear weapons, and guided the Soviet army into war; there’s no way a little flirting or romance could crumble you like this.

Because that would be humiliating for you.

After what seemed like hours of waiting, Sangyeon finally returned. He immediately approached you, causing you to get up frantically from the couch before clearing your throat to get back into your supposed role.

“H-How was the discussion with Mr Stromberg, my love?”

“Oh, I assure you, honey, that everything went very well, and it’s time for us to move now.”

With that, you linked your arms with his before you bid farewell to the assistant as she showed the way out. Instantly, you both got into the vehicle and drove off from the lab, heading straight to the docks.

Again, it seems as if Sangyeon hasn’t had enough of the breaking-the-ice talks with you. He decided to keep the ball rolling and would constantly come up with something to discuss when all you wanted was peace and quiet.

Especially after what happened back at the lab.

“Honey, you’re still blushing,” he teased.

“Cut the crap, Sangyeon. We’re no longer in our role-plays.”

“Aww, and I thought we were both finally partners now? What’s with the foul mood once again?”

“Shut up and drive, I swear,” you huffed.

“Or else?”

“I will actually throw you right into the ocean right now.”

“Feisty. I love it.”

Oh, hell no, you were definitely frustrated, alright.

Just before you could make your following remark, a bullet instantly grazes through the vehicle, causing you both to turn your heads behind to see that you were now being chased by several vehicles, all of whom were part of Mr Stromberg’s bodyguards.

“Guess the infamous man himself isn’t so dull, after all,” Sangyeon commented before speeding up the vehicle. As he was about to reach for his revolver, which was hidden on the side of his seat, you immediately stopped him by grabbing his wrist.

“Don’t bother, just continue driving up ahead. I’ll keep them busy.”

With that, you instantly took out the gun that was hidden inside your purse and reloaded the weapon within seconds before you peered your head out from the windows and began shooting at the bodyguards.

It was fairly easy for you, being KGB’s best sniper, as you were able to hit all of the vital spots of the vehicles, causing each of them to lose control before either crashing right into the slope of the hill or into the ocean. However, it seemed as if the vehicles kept coming, for you were not coming any closer to knocking them out for good.

“It seems like Stromberg has way too many henchmen on patrol,” you commented before resuming your work.

At this point, Sangyeon has already driven you nearly half the distance to the docks, and you were coming far from eliminating all of them. Suddenly, things were about to get from bad to worse when a big truck came crashing into you, trying its best to damage your vehicle in hopes of attempting that the both of you would surrender. That was when the driver peered their head out from the windows and immediately aimed his gun towards you.

Jaws.

Sangyeon clearly saw what had unfolded, and he quickly swerved the vehicle to the left in hopes that the criminal would miss the shot (which he did) before pressing onto the accelerator once more to head as fast as he could to the docks. At the same time, the sound of a helicopter's thrum came flying in, and you both peered your heads up to see that it was the same assistant from before driving it.

“Agent 007 and Major L/N, I would highly advise you to hand over the microfilm and surrender quietly right now,” the assistant announced out loud through the radios before aiming her gun towards you both.

You both were stuck in a tight-knit situation: a car chase from Jaws and his men while Stromberg’s assistant was above the high ground. Now, there was nowhere to hide or run.

Or so you thought. 

“Say, Y/N. Can you swim?” Sangyeon asked swiftly.

“W-What? What are you saying-”

Before you could respond, Sangyeon quickly pressed one of the many buttons on his steering wheel, causing his vehicle to launch a missile from the back towards Jaws and his men. The missile instantly hit the cars, and they all blew up within seconds before Sangyeon drove the vehicle straight into the ocean.

Once the vehicle came into contact with water, it seemingly transformed itself into a mini-like submarine, making it easy to navigate and drive through underneath the water.

“Well, it also seems that we should eliminate our unwanted guests, no?” Sangyeon questioned before pressing another button. He launched a missile that shot straight up out from the waters and right towards the helicopter, making it explode almost immediately.

Now that all enemies were gone, Sangyeon rolled his shoulders to relax the tension that he had gotten throughout the car chase before driving smoothly through the waters.

Throughout your time as an agent, you have witnessed and experienced crazy things, but nothing came close to what you had just seen with your very own eyes.

Grabbing onto the handle upon your seat, you turned to Sangyeon and let out a little huff before shaking your head. “You’re insane.”

“I know, sweetheart. That’s why people adore me.”

It has been about an hour since the both of you got back to your accommodations, and you were now just writing in your journal as a time to wind down for a little bit. Both you and Sangyeon had a little chat about the findings he had gotten through the microfilm, and talking to Mr Stromberg himself was that he had a hidden supertanker in the ocean called The Liparus and an underwater base named Atlantis. In order to proceed, both of you needed to wait for your next orders from both generals specifically to arrange a much more suitable transport and disguise to head over to the locations.

So here you were, relaxing with your journal while Sangyeon was busy taking a nice hot bath after all the chase from Stromberg’s henchmen hours ago. When you heard the water supply being turned off, the male stepped out of his bathrobe and took a towel to dry his hair as he approached you.

Once again, your cheek began burning red as you took in the sight before you—his hair dripping wet, his bare face as he just got out of the shower, and the slightly exposed chest from the bathrobe.

It’s illegal to look this good, Lee Sangyeon.

“Like what you see, princess?”

With that, you immediately snapped back into reality, clearly your throat, before ducking your head back to your journal. “In your face, you idiot.”

Just when you thought that returning to your journal would help you escape his torments and flirty comments, you suddenly felt the need to lift your head to see what was happening. You felt that someone had been eyeing you up close for a while now.

Turns out your instinct was true, and you could’ve sworn that you were about to explode anytime now due to the immense heat rising rapidly up to your head as Sangyeon had positioned himself entirely on top of you, both of his legs on either side of yours as he leans his head forward, making you lay back down on the couch.

“W-What on earth do you think you’re doing!” You screamed, covering your face with your journal before the man himself removed it.

“You have been acting strangely since this morning, Y/N. Care to share with me why exactly that is?”

“I-It’s none of your business!”

“Unfortunately, now that we’re no longer strangers but partners, I deserve to know every single detail about what’s going on in that little mind of yours,” he retorted while lifting his fingers to rub your nose, making your stomach feel even worse. “Tell me, princess. Pinky promise that we won’t keep any secrets from each other, no?”

“Jokes on you, we’re spies. We’ll always live a double life. You’ll never get to know about my secrets, ever.”

“Hmm, maybe I can make that happen.”

In the blink of an eye, he immediately leans down to kiss your lips directly, slowly increasing the pressure as he lowers his body to yours. You were too stunned to react and could only open your eyes to see the whole thing unfold before you. Within seconds, he pulled away before rubbing his thumb across his lips, savouring your taste on his.

“Hmm, mango lip balm huh? That’s my favourite kind of flavour,” he smirked.

Goddamn you, Lee Sangyeon.

“I swear you’re so-”

Before you could finish your sentence, a knock was heard from the front door, and Sangyeon immediately got up from you and headed towards the source of the sound. He then unlocked the door to see that a messenger had arrived to pass him a note.

As you squint your eyes to examine the letter from afar, you clearly see the stamp on it, and you know that it is time to cut off all of this nonsense and get back to work as soon as possible.

Sangyeon immediately returns to the living space and opens up to read the letter in his hands. Thanks to Q’s examination, it seemed that The Liparus and Atlantis were keeping something far more threatening, and it was up to you two to head there as quickly as you could before it was too late. The two of you were to board a US submarine that would be passing back to Sardinia early the next morning, with the general already informing the crew abroad about your presence.

“Alright, that seems plausible,” Sangyeon replied before burning the letter into the fireplace (it was what spies usually do after receiving a message about the next mission or crucial evidence anyway).

As you took on the next mission, you stood up before heading back towards your room to pack up for the trip before Sangyeon stopped you in your tracks by posing a question.

“That nightgown sure does look pretty on you.”

You figured you were done trying to escape his comments, so you took a deep breath and tried your best to respond properly. “Yeah, I got it in Austria a few weeks prior. It’s such a beautiful place.”

“Indeed. I miss travelling there; I’ll have to head back there soon.”

“Oh? So you have been to Austria? When was your last trip?” You asked.

“Two weeks ago.”

Just then, that comment suddenly rang a bell in your head. Sangyeon was there two weeks ago, just like you did, but both knew very little about the other. But what if…there was a possibility that he knew about your ex-lover? You were all spies; surely you must’ve known about one another, even in an auditory manner.

Instantly, you marched towards Sangyeon, pulling up a picture of your ex-lover and shovelling it into his face. You desperately wanted to find answers and a conclusion to the case. “Do you recognise this man?”

It took Sangyeon a while to look at him before he stepped away and started pacing around the room. “No, what makes you say that?”

“He was Agent Seryozha, my lover,” you bluntly replied.

After a few moments of what seemed like Sangyeon trying to find the right words to respond to your comment, he placed both hands on his hips and slowly walked towards you.

“Hear this out, Y/N. If you’re out trying to enjoy your little break and someone comes up behind you in an attempt to murder you, you don’t always have the time to remember who the individual may look like. In other words, agents like us must always be prepared to give up our lives in the line of duty. If I knew that, then so did he.”

With one final step in front of you, he stares down at your face before he humbly whispers to you with a “Yes, I did kill him”.

Your facial expression immediately sank and tightened. Both hands balled up into fists, resisting the urge to lose your cool for the millionth time before him. Instead, you calmly tip-toed up to bring his neck down with your hands as you leaned into his ear.

“Well then, thanks for finally putting a closure to this case. So when this mission is finally over, I will kill you with my own bare hands.”

Once you had made your point, you immediately shoved him away and stomped towards your room, slamming the door shut loudly before leaning against it. Taking a deep breath, you just wished this nightmare would end soon.

Just when things finally looked good for us, Sangyeon.

You knew from the back of your mind that kiss meant something, or at least you thought it was. Sure, he was a womaniser, but the Sangyeon you knew wouldn’t go around kissing random women like that. As much as you wanted to ask him about it, you had your ego and pride to keep, not wanting to show that he was winning the little game that he was playing. Hence, you kept your mouth shut and spared little to no glance at the man since the day before, even as you were slowly let down into the submarine sent by both of the generals for you to board to head to Stromberg’s The Liparus to find out what exactly he was hiding truly.

The commander was surprised to see a woman like you on board, but Sangyeon jumped into your defence, and you were immediately let loose, given that they were now aware you were the Major L/N of KGB. After some time of meticulous planning of how everyone would proceed, the alarm started going off immediately, sending everyone on the submarine into a frenzy.

It wasn’t long before you and Sangyeon realised that the tanker had captured the submarine, the vehicle slowly rising from the waters to the docks. Immediately, Sangyeon nudged your shoulders and quietly said that the missing submarines had been found, each hanging up on both sides of the docks.

Now, you have plenty of evidence that Stromberg was the man behind the disappearance of the submarines and the illegal distribution of microfilms.

But the question of why Stromberg did it still remains a mystery.

Why?

“All crew members of the USS Wayne, surrender yourselves immediately with your hands behind your back right this second,” one of the commanders announced out loud from the speakers.

This was when you knew it was time to put your feelings aside and that working with Sangyeon for now was best. You both needed to devise a plan to release the two submarines and save the crew simultaneously. Time was ticking as you were now being escorted out of the submarine to the docks, but Sangyeon managed to take off his cap and place it right on your head, pushing it down to ensure it was intact.

“Stay close to me; I’ll keep you safe from Stromberg’s men.”

You didn’t give him a proper response but managed to walk right in front of him as you exited the submarine, lining up with the crew as Stromberg’s men carefully examined every single one of you. They pulled out batons and immediately started landing a few blows directly onto the crew members as if to torture and humiliate them.

Your blood was boiling, and you couldn’t wait to take these men down with your bare hands. You have done it countless times, taking out an entire army alone; it was easy for you. However, Sangyeon notices that you are about to jump right onto the men and perform a takedown; he snakes his hand to intertwine with yours from behind, putting a slight pressure to tell you this wouldn’t be a good idea for now.

The only thing was: were you going to take up his advice?

As one of the men stood before you, he looked suspiciously at you, examining you from top to bottom before commenting on your body: “You look far too slim and weak to be in the navy, youngster.” Just then, he took his baton to lift your cap, causing all of your long, brown, wavy hair to fall straight down to your shoulders, and his eyes widened upon the sight.

Within seconds, you quickly landed a strong punch into his abdomen before running to do the same to the other men, instantly knocking them out cold. All of the other henchmen on duty on higher grounds quickly started aiming their snipers towards you, shooting recklessly in hopes of one of the bullets hitting you eventually. Little did they know that you are the best sniper in KGB, so obviously, reading and sensing where the bullets were coming from was a breeze in the park.

When you have taken down all of the men at the docks, a shadowy figure emerges upon you, yanking both your arms behind your back, leaving you no room for escape. Suddenly, you felt that familiar breath hit the back of your neck, and you slowly turned behind to look at the familiar figure.

“Jaws.”

“My my! What a sight that was!” Another shadow emerges on the top of the deck, accompanied by a hand-clapping sound that the individual was producing. It was the infamous man himself. “I’ve always wanted to see the infamous Major L/N in action with my own eyes.”

This can’t be good.

“Now, it’s very brave of a woman like you to board my tanker, but I think you’ll be far more useful if you quietly come with me. I could definitely use some help in my office.” He steps in front of you and takes a strand of your hair before he starts twirling it around his finger. As much as you want to retaliate and land a blow into his face to break his jaw, you are stuck and unable to move even in the slightest.

Jaws indeed was an exceptional human being.

“Hate to be the party pooper, but I’m sure I could be of better use to you than she will be, Mr Stromberg,” Sangyeon cuts in as he slowly makes his way towards you both, aiming his revolver right at the mastermind himself.

Mentally, you were sending him death stares, thinking that he was out of his mind to aim his gun at Stromberg when dozens of snipers were already aiming right at him from above. Instead of putting up another joke to ease the situation (which he usually did to tease you), he glared right into your eyes, signalling a code only high-ranking agents like you could understand from the get-go.

Don’t miss my signal, and do it right away.

With a gulp, you carefully examined his body movements and speech, studying his demeanour to explore the opening that would let you know that you could finally retaliate and defeat the criminals themselves.

“Ah, Mr Bond. Your disguise as Dr. Lee the other day certainly did not go unnoticed. I assure you that my men are far more ready to deal with whatever tricks you are about to pull,” Stromberg responded confidently.

“Now, that makes me so happy to hear you have been expecting my arrival. But I must first and foremost deeply apologise, for I probably would not be meeting your expectations.”

That sent a confused look in Stromberg’s eyes, and it was then Sangyeon pointed his gun up and fired a shot, causing the entire electricity to go off in the tanker, making all of the henchmen panic and lose their cool.

Now that it was dark, you had a bigger advantage of taking down the criminals, starting with Jaws. You lifted your legs to land a solid kick up on his thighs, causing him to yelp in pain as he released you from his grip. You quickly climbed up to Jaws and gave him a headlock, knocking him out temporarily so that you had time to deal with the other henchmen for now.

Before you could even make your way up, you noticed Sangyeon’s absence and began hearing multiple men grunting on the upper docks. This gave you more than enough hints that your partner was up there dealing with the mess.

Instead, you decided to follow and hunt down Stromberg, following his faint shadows as he disappeared into the bottom deck. Many obstacles were in the way, such as laser fields and sleeping gas. Still, thanks to your flexibility and agility, you avoided each one, narrowing the distance between you and the mastermind.

Eventually, you reached the control room, where the man stood before the panel, his hands inches away from pushing down on a huge red button.

Aiming the gun right at him, you weren’t going to waste any more time and let him run loose again, and you were finally going to get him to spill all of the motives and deeds he had done up till this point.

“You want to know why I stole the two submarines in the first place, sweetheart? I am going to use the missiles in both submarines to destroy Moscow and New York City and create a whole new underwater world where people could reside.”

“You’re just going to trigger a global nuclear war.”

“And what about it? As long as I have the Atlantis, it’ll all be possible!” He screamed, inches away from pushing the button down any second now. “So say your last prayers to these beloved cities, and join us to start a new civilisation underwater!”

No, you don’t.

Without a thought to spare, you instantly aimed and pulled the trigger at his wrist, the bullet penetrating right through the skin and causing him to pull back as he yelped in pain. You weren’t going to let him live just like that, and you were more than ready to throw the man right into the cold, rising ocean water that was now slowly filling up the tanker.

Right when you were just about to do the deed, someone grabbed your wrist and held you back. It was Sangyeon. “Women like you shouldn’t get your hands dirty; let me do the honours.” With one swift push, he was immediately thrown into the waters, trying to survive the best that he could until the water completely engulfed him.

Sangyeon then turned his head back and walked straight to the panel, typing in a few things that you could barely make out yourself. This made you squint your eyes and try your best to read his fingers on the letters he was typing.

“Don’t do that; it doesn’t look pretty on your face.”

“Mind your own business; what exactly are you doing now?”

“Honey, I’m trying my best to contact the respective submarines to pull back and not fire the missiles, but it turns out that it’s not really plausible since the missiles are already loaded and ready to go.”

“So, what do you plan to do now?”

“Well, there’s only one option left. And that is to make both submarines destroy one another.”

Destroy one another? You have got to be joking. Your mission was to find out the locations of both missing submarines to ensure your respective agencies were safe and sound. So why destroy them now?

“Because that’s the only way to prevent a war from happening, sweetheart. It’s now or never,” Sangyeon made his point loud and clear, and he would not take no as an option. Reluctantly, you finally accepted his decision and gave him a nod, allowing him to proceed with what he was doing.

That was until Jaws interrupted you both once again, this time holding a broken piece of cement from the flood on the upper floors. He quickly aimed and hit you with it, but you dodged it swiftly. It seemed like he wouldn’t go down without a fight, and you certainly couldn’t let him distract Sangyeon while he was trying his best to send coordinates to both submarine commanders.

Then, you noticed an opening where a wired fence had broken apart, leaving a hole that someone could easily fall into if they weren’t careful. Then you decided to take the chance, moving slowly towards that spot while still dodging Jaws’ attacks.

Slowly but surely, you finally began to see an opening, and you immediately moved out of the way, causing Jaws to run right towards the edge of the opening. He started to lose his balance before finally falling straight into Stromberg’s shark tank, which he kept handy while running his illegal business.

After ensuring that Jaws was busy with the shark in the tank, you quickly ran back to Sangyeon, who was now staring intently at the screen with his arms crossed. With that, you clearly got the message that he had successfully sent the respective coordinates and was now waiting for both submarines to launch the missile against one another instead.

“How much longer?” You asked the male.

“Hmm, I’d say in T minus…10 seconds.”

“W-What? 10 seconds? Then-”

“Yes, sweetheart. It’s time to get the hell out of here.”

Immediately, Sangyeon quickly grabbed your wrist and pulled you away. He returned to the docks and found the nearest exit before jumping straight into the escape pod. Sangyeon wasted no time navigating and getting the thing to work as you both quickly got the hell out of the tanker that was about to sink.

Apparently, he could also free the other crew members beforehand while you were busy chasing down Stromberg and had them returned to their submarine. With his signal, the commander on board was to shoot down both The Liparus and Atlantis. In order to do that, both of you needed to get far away enough to make it happen.

After navigating through the open waters for about ten minutes, Sangyeon sent the commander a set of coordinates via the mini-control panel on the side of the escape pod. Two missiles were then launched immediately, shooting down both Stromberg’s hideouts.

It all happened so quickly. Now that both submarines were destroyed, and so was Stromberg’s valued tanker and hideout, the mission was finally accomplished.

Or was it?

Instantly, you pulled out a revolver from your holster and pushed it right towards Sangyeon’s skull. You have always kept true to your promise, after all.

“What is this all about, princess?”

“Like I’ve said before. Once the mission is over, and so will we, I will kill you for what you have done to my past lover.”

Sangyeon immediately shut his eyes and took a deep breath. “Sweetheart, you clearly said that it was your past lover. Would killing me do any good or bring him back to life?”

You hated how much his words stung your heart. You were too blinded by rage and revenge to determine right and wrong. Since the beginning, Sangyeon has always been there and kept you safe while completing the mission. Sure, he was a womaniser and could be a pain in the ass sometimes, but he always kept his word, no matter what he did.

If it wasn’t for him, you weren’t sure you could complete this whole mission alone. Yet, you couldn’t bring it out from your mouth to actually acknowledge his presence in your life and how he was somehow able to give you a sense of comfort throughout the past couple of weeks as you mourned over the death of your ex-partner.

Your grip on the revolver loosened, and Sangyeon made a move to grab hold of your wrist and slowly pull it down. It was evident by now that your tears began flowing again, and he reached out to brush them off with his thumbs before lifting your chin with his fingers to make you look straight into his eyes.

“You have done so well, Major Y/N. I couldn’t be more proud of you as a partner.”

“P-Partner?” You sniffled.

Instantly, his eyes brightened, and he leaned in close to you. “Unless you would like to proceed further than that?”

Not wanting to lose the fight, you placed both hands behind his neck, pulling him in closer to you so that both lips were now inches apart. “Don’t be stupid.”

You had no idea what made you return the favour this time when you have been actively rejecting his comfort and touch for so long. Perhaps it was because you have finally decided to accept reality and move on with life; you didn’t even know much about yourself. But you needed one thing so badly: to feel his lips on yours again.

You couldn’t enjoy it much during your first time with him (well, it was his fault for teasing you and thinking that it would be a good idea somehow to manipulate your thoughts and emotions in a bathrobe). Still, he also wore a cologne that smelled way too good for him, one that would lure you in if you weren’t careful enough.

His lips, god. Never in a million years would his nasty mouth actually hold such plump and flavourful lips, and he definitely knew his way around kissing a woman. He knew the right pace, movement and pressure to please someone, and he was also wearing a mango-flavoured lip balm, very similar to the one you would often wear yourself.

When you both finally broke apart for some air, Sangyeon gave you a grin, and you returned the favour with a slap on his shoulders, knowing that he was going to say something about you.

“So you finally admitted your feelings for me, princess? It took you long enough to do so,” he teased. 

You knew all along that your feelings for Sangyeon weren’t normal. It definitely did seem like Sangyeon was an escape for you to get over your ex, but eventually, it blossomed into something more, and you fell for his charms. At this point, you knew there was no longer a way to hide your feelings, and it was time to face reality the way it is. 

“You could’ve just told me you wanted me this badly, Y/N,” he continued. 

“I’m still going to kill you someday, Sangyeon. Don’t get all cocky,” you deadpanned.

However, the male wasn’t affected in the slightest, and he leans back down to reconnect your lips with his once more.

“Tempting, and I’ll very much look forward to the day when it happens.”

the 007 files masterlist

masterlist

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[th3-0bjectivist]

My visit to the NASCAR Hall of Fame (Charlotte, NC - JUN 29 2024)

Every year for a few years now, I try to do an Independence Day post where I walk around a few cemeteries and snap some cool photos. But this is an election year, and I'm concerned that I'm going to have to soft-block some political zealot high on their own farts that will leave intellectual gems in the comments like 'Drumpf IZ Hitler!' or 'down with left-cucks in 24!'. So instead, I'm going to share some pictures that I took at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, and you can leave all the unrelated jabbering political frivolity that you'd like in the comments section.

For the record, I'm not into NASCAR at all. I haven't watched a full single race in my lifetime, and I tend to associate it with rednecks driving in circles. Which, to my chagrin, I was dead wrong in my interpretation on. Well, except for the redneck part. There's a hell of a lot more to these beautiful cars than I thought. My visit to this specialized museum was a delicate mix of history, art and science lessons!

The first thing I learned is that although these cars look fully assembled from the outside, they have nearly all the standard parts taken out (the radio, the average driver wheel, the headlights, etc.) and the bodies are composed of a flat sheet of durable metal. These days the car panels, which are composite materials like plastic coated with fibreglass, are then painted over to make a colorful, and often very corporate piece of art that is ready to drive at breakneck speeds. This all makes the modified car as light and agile as possible on the speedway.

In the U.S. south, where I reside these days, stock car racing's roots took hold from prohibition. Stock car racing wasn't just about competition; it was about taking your very fast car and running moonshine and illegally imported booze to different regions around Appalachia. Getting away from highway patrol meant stripping your car of excessive weight and parts, allowing for maximum maneuverability around hairpin turns and extreme acceleration up and down steep hills… all while a 1000-pound barrel of booze was strapped down in the back seat.

This is a picture I snapped inside the Hall of Honor, and that man is Richard 'the King' Petty. As a non-NASCAR fan, his face is the face I most associate with NASCAR, as his signature moustache, glasses and hat stand out to me as a truly memorable and iconic driver. But it’s not just the driver that participates. In NASCAR, your team is composed of a chief, who spots opportunities from television monitors and signals the driver through radio to execute specific moves to win the race, all while managing the rest of the team.

The pit crew consists of mechanics, a jackman (runs around the car with a heavy jack to raise the automobile during a maintenance pit stop), a cut-off valve attendant for refuelling, and a driver attendant who helps the driver get in and out of the car. It doesn't just take an individual driver, but a full team to assist the driver in winning the race. Drivers have suffered concussions, bone fractures, severe burns, whiplash, traumatic bodily injuries and death. Talk about bleeding for your craft!

And now for some art! Pictured above is a full-scale clay model of a Next Gen Ford Mustang. These days, clay models of racing cars are developed from digital designs and used to capture approvals from companies to lay down a final design for a race-worthy automobile. Once you pack a V-8 engine into one of these babies and recreate it out of a steel tube frame, you've got a vehicle that can reach speeds above 200 miles per hour.

Here's my pops, Dave, who I took to this museum as a birthday present. He's a NASCAR freak, and this little excursion to the Hall of Fame actually made him cry for a beat as he recalled decades worth of memories of racers, historic moments, and images of historic back-to-back victories for drivers and their teams.

Every car has the potential to be a race car. It just takes some weight-loss surgery or a good initial design, some driver safety features, and a colorful skin to make the whole thing faster, more agile, and more appealing to the eye. I have to say I never expected to absorb so much from the NASCAR HoF. I was grateful for my visit and wanted to share a portion of what I learned to Tumblr as a fun little sidebar.

I hope you enjoyed this post. And rest assured, you will never see another NASCAR post on my page ever again… y'know, unless it’s a meme or something!

Happy 4th,

th3-0bjectivist (Luke)

[ADDENDUM (07/05/2024): Tumblr ryanthedemiboy pointed out to me in the comments that the third paragraph in this post probably needed some modifications regarding the actual description of the panels, which I originally and ignorantly described as an ‘outer metal hull’. While this might have been the case with older NASCAR vehicles, in modern times the panels are at best ‘metal-skinned’, if that, and manufactured from carbon fibre. Also, older NASCAR vehicles were painted and repainted, but ever since the early 2000’s these vehicles are simply wrapped in a vinyl skin. Thank you for your insight ryanthedemiboy, I will ‘stay in my lane’ so to speak in the future and give these topics, that are alien to me, the research they deserve before I post!]

[eri-pl]

Tengwar <3

It's the best thing Feanor made. Seriously. Nobody will murder you for using Tengwar. Nobody will hack your brain when you use Tengwar in the wrong moment. (The lamps are ok, but kinda meh, Tengwar is better)

Did you know, just did you know, that every consonant has a name, and the name is a noun, and some are really cool (and foreshadowing)? (chart and translations below the cut)

So, if you want a chart, here is a chart. And the names are (I don't have diacritics, so I just double the long vowels) (Quenya mode, with some historical notes from LotR appendix and elvish.org):

"Normal stuff Feanor had on his desk" row:

T tinco - metal

P parma - book

K calma - lamp (like those Feanor made? Or... like those Aule made)

Q quesse - feather (birds are important!)

"Things that keep you trapped" row:

ND ando - gate (like... the Door of Night?)

MB umbar - doom (doesn't need a comment...)

NG anga - iron (also, used in sword names, even for non-iron swords)

NGW (in TA changed to NW) ungwe - spider's web (foreshadowingsight on Feanor's part? :) )

"Mountain things???" row

S suule - spirit or breath (Manwe Sulimo... king of winds and stuff...) | TH thuule - spirit or breath, but I'm a Feanorian, or at least I'm a linguistics geek and love the phonetic scheme (me! but otoh it sounds dumb :( ), or I love the Teleri and/or Sindar, who use it as th (Finarfin, iirc).

F formen - north

H (h before t) harma (voiceless velar fricative phonetically /x/... I think. the sources are confusing. In TA mostly softened into a breath h.) - treasure (my precious Silmarills...) | aha (later renamed, idk when) - rage (my Silmarils! and, even more importantly, my father!)

HW (like "wh" in "why" especially the fancy British way of saying it where it's actyally h-w, not w-h) hwesta - breeze

"We need to name a row after places of articulation" row

NT anto - mouth (couldn't you think of a better name? I get it's a place-of-articulation row, but i don't like it anyway)

MP ampa - hook

NC anca - jaw

NQ unque - hole

"Things that Melkor likes" row:

N nuumen - west (Numenor...)

M malta - gold

NG (by TA: N) noldo - Noldo, as in type of Elf. Yes, it was initially Ngoldo. I mean, initially initially it was a gnome, so...

NW nwalme - tornment

"I have no idea but vaguely positive-metaphysical?..." row

R (pre-consonant or end-of-the-word R | non-vibrating r, whatever this means. My bet is that it's "r" as in Japanese --- position like "r", movement like "d") oore - heart (or: rising. Guess whose name includes this component. funny that it's the same word as heart, especially given that heart is also defined as conscience here)

V vala - power (duh.)

Y (? it has some history) [there was a consonant here]anna - gift (totally not made into a sus word by now...)

W/V (Initially W, by TA changed to V) wilya - air / lower sky (funny how those two names are next to one another. )

"Really, I think Feanor ran out of ideas for coherent name sets" row

R (vibrating, typpical "rrr") romen - east (the same sound being written with "East" and with a word alternatively translating to "heart" or part of Melkor's name --- I love it! Why? See my recent post. I love that. Call it a coincidence, but I love it)

RD arda - realm

L lambe - speech

LD alda - tree (!)

Now we are not in regular rows, so, the extra letters:

S silme - starlight (or... metaphysically important light in general? because guess what word is connected to this one. Also, funny how it's just after "tree"). It's always S, never TH.

(nuquerma is just "flipped" or something I guess)

Z aaze - day / sunlight (in Noldorin changed to Z - aare) | SS esse (Numenor and later, because they did not use the "z" sound, I think) - name

HY (Numenor and later: H) hywarmen - south

I yanta - bridge

U uure - heat

(doesn't have a sound, in Sindarin it's A) osse - terror (I guess he isn't a very nice Maia?)

H (voiceless h: /h/ not /x/; in TA replaced by harmen) halla - tall | gasdil - stop

(short wovel carrier) telco - stem

(long carrier) aara - dawn

The Tengwa names after directions are also used as marks in the compass (like we use NSWE) And snarky comments aside, I love the schema and how the names connect into many interesting and often Silm-events-related patterns. I love how each (almost) row is named after a set of similar things.

I'm not an expert, and if I made some mistakes, I'll be grateful for corrections.

[jurakan]

I got a weird prompting to ask for a fun fact about someone who came up with a whole system of writing and then just disappeared. Odd, I know.

Well, you came to the right place, friendo! Today You Learned about Sequoyah.

[I had hoped to do this around Thanksgiving, or for Indigenous Peoples Month, but no one asked for it then so better late than never!]

Okay, maybe you have heard of the man. But if not, here ya go: Sequoyah was a Cherokee man born in Tennessee around the year 1770. When he grew up, his day job was actually being a silversmith, trading with trappers and merchants that came through Cherokee territory. He was pretty darn good at it too, and signed off on all of his work.

Something he noticed, though, was that the Europeans who went through had a written language, and that it was helpful for recording information and talking to people far away. That’s handy, Sequoyah thought. We should have our own written language. Because at that point, Cherokee didn’t have a written language. So, apparently, this man decided to just… make one up.

I say “make one up” as if he came up with it on the spot without thought. No, that’s not what happened. In 1809, Sequoyah began to study English, Greek, and Hebrew, and developed a written system for the Cherokee language. Each symbol represents a syllable, rather than a letter like in the English writing system, leading to a total of over 80 symbols for the alphabet.

Everyone thought he was crazy, but I want to be clear: he did it. This man, a silversmith by trade, created a written language system that within twenty years of its creation became the official written language of the Cherokee Nation. 

That’s insane, guys! Where is this guy’s biopic? If you lived in a place with heavy Cherokee history, like the Carolinas, chances are you’ve heard of him–the NC Museum has a small exhibit on him in their section on Cherokee history, and we covered him in school in an article/essay/non-fiction story (I don’t know what we call those things) called “Sequoyah and the Riddle of the Talking Leaves”, but it’s nuts to me that he’s not a more famous figure in American history, considering this.

Sequoyah actually taught the language to his daughter Ayokeh first, so that he could prove that it worked and made sense. Then he spent a ton of time traveling through Cherokee territory to get people to see its usefulness and learn it. Apparently, it worked.

So the US government thought this was awesome and gave Sequoyah a mansion to live in, right? [/sarcasm] No, you can probably guess from the timeline what happened. He went to Washington D.C. to protest and argue with other Native American leaders against the Indian Removal laws the government was enacting, but wasn’t successful, leading to the Trail of Tears. His interactions with other nations led him to decide to try to create another system of writing for all indigenous Americans to use. I don’t think it ever got completed, but someone with more knowledge on the subject can probably tell you more.

He died in Mexico, on an expedition based on the rumor that some Cherokee had gone there–the reunification of the Cherokee people was a big deal to him, after all.

We think he died there, anyway.

See, we don’t actually know where his body is. Officially, he died in 1845 of a lung infection; we don’t know where his body is. The Cherokee funded an expedition to find his grave in the 20th century, but while they found a grave in Coahuila, Mexico, they aren’t sure if it’s his. In 2011, a newspaper argued that actually he wasn’t buried, his skeleton was found in 1903 in a cave in Oklahoma. 

I found this out by seeing that he’s listed on Wikipedia’s “List of People Who Disappeared” (which I do not recommend reading if you are sitting alone in a house at night).

Well, he’s still an important national figure. He’s got some recognition–his statue is in the US Capitol, he’s got a sculpture in front of the Cherokee Museum in North Carolina, and! Along with several figures from world cultures credited with inventing/teaching writing, he’s on the doors of the John Adams Building of the Library of Congress.

YMMV may vary on whether or not it’s good that he’s on there with a bunch of mythological figures.

[whencyclopedia]

Battle of Bir Hakeim

The defence by Free French forces of the remote desert watering hole of Bir Hakeim (Hacheim) in Libya, North Africa in May-June 1942 during the Second World War (1939-45) is one of the most heroic episodes in French military history. Although ultimately unsuccessful, the defenders, which included units of the famed French Foreign Legion, held out for 15 days against four German and Italian divisions commanded by no less a figure than General Erwin Rommel (1891-1944).

The Axis forces attacked Bir Hakeim because it was part of the Allied Gazala Line defences, which protected the approach to the vital port of Tobruk. When finally overwhelmed, 2,700 Free French troops from an original garrison of 3,700 still managed to escape Bir Hakeim to fight another day. Meanwhile, Rommel defeated the rest of the Allied forces at the Battle of Gazala and captured Tobruk in June 1942, his greatest victory in North Africa.

French Foreign Legion, Bir Hakeim

Leonard Chetwyn - Imperial War Museums (CC BY-NC-SA)

The Western Desert Campaigns

In the first years of the second year of WWII, the Allies, then principally British and Commonwealth forces, were especially keen to protect the Suez Canal from falling into enemy hands, that is into the control of the Axis powers Germany and Italy. North Africa was also strategically important if either side wished to control and protect vital Mediterranean shipping routes. The island of Malta was crucial in this role, and holding the island fortress (then in British hands) was another reason to control potential airfields in the North African desert. Finally, North Africa was, at this stage of the conflict, the only place where British and French troops could fight a land war against Germany and Italy. After the embarrassing debacle of the Dunkirk Evacuation and the humiliating Fall of France in 1940, any military victories at all would be a vital morale boost to the Allies.

For all of the above reasons, a series of desert battles ensued, which are collectively known as the Western Desert Campaigns (Jun 1940 to Jan 1943). At first, the British Eighth Army faced poorly equipped Italian forces, but these were soon considerably boosted by German troops with superior armour, weapons, and training. From January 1941, the Axis forces in Africa benefitted from the considerable command abilities of General Erwin Rommel, a man who had already gained a reputation as a master of fast armour tactics during the Fall of France in 1940. Rommel first commanded the specialised Deutsche Afrika Korps (DAK) and proved his worth by capturing El Agheila in March 1941 and then Mersa Brega on 1 April. By July, Rommel was in overall practical command of all German and Italian forces in North Africa, although he was still technically under the ultimate authority of the Italian high command. Two victories against Allied offensives in May and June (code-named Brevity and Battleaxe, respectively) were followed by defeat in a third offensive in November, code-named Crusader. Rommel's two persistent problems were insufficient manpower and lack of supplies (especially food, fuel, and ammunition), but by January 1942, this situation improved significantly, and the German general, ignoring his orders to emphasise defence, went on the attack.

The British Eighth Army, which was composed of a range of British, British Empire, and Free French troops, was commanded by Lieutenant-General Neil Ritchie (1897-1985). The overall commander of Allied troops in the Middle East was General Claude Auchinleck (1884-1981). Unfortunately, at this stage of the Western Desert Campaigns, the British Army was poorly equipped, poorly trained, and poorly led. In contrast, "Rommel's force was numerically inferior, but his troops were more professional, better led, and thoroughly steeped in the cooperation of all arms" (Dear, 992).

General Rommel on Campaign

Imperial War Museums (CC BY-NC-SA)

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