#and he paid the price

[tmnt-obsessed-ace]

Having thoughts about Timothy so...

I kinda wanna make an au where Timothy gets fixed.

Getting turned human again is out of the question. I headcanon that he got turned into...that because the mutagen was expired, which makes it borderline unusable. It creates the most unstable mutations and is considered a biohazard in Dimension X.

So the Kraang decided to give some to the Shredder before their alliance was strengthened.

As Timothy was mutated with expired mutagen he can't be turned human again, his flesh was turned into acidic slime, leaving only his organs behind.

No matter how much Donnie tried he couldn't reverse the mutation, and the few imes he got close Timothy almost flatlined.

(And with all the insanity of seasons 3-4 there wasn't any time to focus on finding a cure, Timothy just kept getting pushed further and further on the back burner.)

However eventually Donnie found a solution, he couldn't turn Timothy into a human but he could turn him into a different mutant.

It took months of carefully performing mutagen transfusions for Timothy to mutate into something else, something he could actually live as.

You see Donnie used his own DNA to help stabilize the mutation.

Timothy turned into a mutant turtle.

Not a normal mutant turtle. He is about thirty percent transparent, his organs are visible through his plastron. His shell and plastron are much softer than the other turtles (even a little bit gooey) He has five fingers instead of three (but he does have the turtle feet) his eyes are glowing teal from the mutagen.

Point is he is a mutant turtle, just like he originally wanted.

Just like his idols.

When he wakes up, the first time not in a weird haze since mutation (he became less and less lucid as time went on) the first person he sees is Donnie.

A much different, much more worn Donnie. A bit taller, heavily scarred, near permanant bags under his eyes.

They have so much to discuss.

Timothy missed so much.

[nightswatchdisbandmentera]

Rhaegar Targaryen is easily one of GRRM’s best deconstructions of the genre and we don’t talk about it enough. He’s prince living in a world full of magic and wonder that has dwindled over time. His own family had a great monopoly on one of the most magical phenomena (dragons) to ever exist, but they lost this control over time and it was due to their own faults. But there’s an all encompassing hope that this magic, these dragons, will come back. They all live within the promise that it will all be back and with a huge bang. It’s all so romantic. Magical forces of ice and fire battling it out in a song.

Then there’s Rhaegar, a prince born for the sole purpose of being this song’s romantic hero. He already has his destiny mapped out and it will be a great one, greater than any other man who ever lived. It’s a song of ice and fire, and Rhaegar is its bard. You’d expect this to give him joy. Yet by all accounts, he was depressed as fuck. I think he’s unfairly earned the reputation of having an ego so big to think that he will be the hero….but that’s quite literally the point of his existence. He was born to be the hero. He paid the price at birth to be the hero. How can he revel and glory in this destiny when he has no say in it?

So it’s genuinely funny that when given the chance, Rhaegar immediately pivots to someone else taking on this burden. But how tragic for him that he cannot escape it too far. Because it will be none other than his own son who, under a “bleeding star”, is marked at conception for this great destiny without a say. More than his ego, Rhaegar is marked by the inability to escape this duty. His whole life is dedicated to fulfilling a duty he can never escape. He isn’t just a future king, prophecy dictates that the world’s survival is placed squarely on his shoulders. Even when he isn’t the hero, he’s now responsible for raising him…

…but then he makes one decision and it all comes crumbling like a pack of biscuits. He escapes this burden…but dies. And his successor dies too. And now the ones who will inherit his legacy are two people who never knew him. They never knew of his burdens, of this prophecy. But they too cannot escape its jaws. I think this does bring up some interesting questions about the nature of fate and destiny in the world of ice and fire. Can you really escape it? Rhaegar tried to, and paid the price for his defiance, but he never truly made it out because the burden instead jumped to the son (and sister) he never knew. Funny thing is that in a bizarre (and tragic, in its own way) twist of fate, this son was brought up entirely without the trappings of power that depressed Rhaegar. Rhaegar was a dazzling prince, Jon is a bastard. Rhaegar was marked by his great inheritance, Jon is marked by the lack thereof. Does fate say “well the first one got too depressed by having too much so let’s give the next one nothing?” Even Dany, who grows up a princess does not have the privileges that Rhaegar did. So how does upbringing craft a hero and the choices they make? Welll, GRRM had given us two versions of Rhaegar’s tragedy in Jon and Dany for us to see.

Rhaegar’s impact on the meta-narrative is honestly so massive. Like I’d put him right up there with Quentyn, Sansa, and Bran as one of the best genre deconstructions in the series and no one can tell me otherwise.

[suntails]

🍎⚔️

this is a piece from my silver artbook, currently accepting preorders!! u can get a copy here!

non-UK: suntails.bigcartel.com

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[nexahexagon]

Fire-cat Tango as a treat,, with a not-too-happy Skizzly

[harrietvane]

So, in Busman’s Homeymoon, Lord Peter buys Harriet Vane a mink cloak worth 950 pounds (according to the Dowager Duchess’ journal entry), but he buys Tallboys for “only” 650 pounds.

Even bearing in mind that real estate really did used to be cheaper, do you understand how that is possible? Or how to find out more about relative purchasing power? I used an online calculator website which gave me some figures, but it still seems insane that one could buy an entire Elizabethan farmhouse for 2/3 the price of a garment! Very curious to learn from others who understand this better than I do.

Ah, I see my esteemed colleague @oldshrewsburyian has also had some interesting thoughts on this, so I'll link that here as well before I begin.

So, it's a legitmate question, and there's no catch-all simple answer (in the gotcha sense of 'why didn't i know that bit of cultural Truth'), but there are mitigating factors that take it from a ridiculous price comparison, to merely outlandish. Even taking into account that the coat is quoted in guineas, not pounds, and that PW says the bank valued Talboys at £800 via a mortgage (the paid price was a discount, for paying in cash quickly, which is Plot Relevant), it gets us to roughly the same place, value-wise. Or shall we say PRICE-wise, rather than value, as I'll get into below. There's several factors at play here - they mainly relate to class, and spending power:

-The house is Not That Great, in terms of the kind of property that PW would usually be buying. I mean it is still a large-ish house, big enough to have 2 adults and small children in, but it's not what would be on his radar normally. The only reason they know about it, it that it's near a place where HARRIET grew up as a child. It's not getting any high marks in particular Beauty, Convenience, or Quality - the main reason HV's drawn to it is sentiment, rather than anything else. They both know that they will have to significantly add to it, and alter it, in order for it to be a comfortable home. That would usually be out-of-budget for someone in Harriet's position, who would expect to buy something that meets her needs 'as-is'. Most people looking at buying that house would be Harriets not Peters, so it might be a tough sell.

-The house has no power, and limited plumbing: There's dark references to DRAINS by the dowager duchess, it's entirely possible that this house has no modern plumbing at all - they make the comparison that the huge palace the Wimseys grew up in wasn't plumbed until recently, but then again they do have about 800 servants, whereas Talboys is just a regular house: they will have Bunter alone (at first), with an assist from Mrs Ruddle. There's mention of "a cistern" with some basic valves, but the scullery is mentioned as having a copper, from which hot water is "scooped into a large bath-can" - a copper being, simply, a large metal basin over a fire, in effect. No running hot water, maybe no flushable loos - it's a factor. They also talk specifially about having to electrify Talboys themselves - it's candles and lamps until then. It's fancy camping. By the mid-1930s, a lot of middle-class buyers would expect a little more convenience in both water and wiring, unless they had significant support staff, which Talboys would not be expected to house.

-There's probably no farm! It's a farm house - not a wider land purchase. People like PW's brother the Duke are wealthy primarily because they own land, not because of the big palace they have (which eats money, rather than generates it). The land is what gives them spending power, because other people are paying them rent to live on it, farm on it, or both. PW's own personal 'younger sibling' wealth is also mentioned somewhere to be primarily in real estate (assumed to be in London) - sad to say: he's a landlord, and that's why he's rich. Talboys, on the other hand, as a purchase, would not, in almost any way, be expected to generate revenue through either farming, agriculture, or charging rent. Until they invent house flipping in 80 years, or until the motorway goes through in 40 years, there's not much expectation that Talboys would increase all that much in value.

-Lastly, there's a massive disparity in what The Market Will Bear when we compare a basic residence vs a luxury item (like a mink coat) in the mid-1930s. This is not particular to that time, though. Like any first-year economics student will tell you, the price of something is not it's intrinsic value, it's what someone is WILLING to pay for it. If someone is willing to pay such a price, that's the price it will be. So, we're not comapring Objects, we're comparing Buyers: the the main purchasers of a slightly run-down farmhouse located nowhere special are Harriets, and main purchasers of mink coats are Peters. Talboys is priced for Harriets. The mink coat is priced for Peters.

Compare for example, a contemporary parallel: the Hermes Birkin bag. It's a leather handbag with a starting retail price of about USD 11,400. Just for the bag. Then, you have fancier versions of the fancy bag, eg wikipedia tells me one version sold at auction for USD 380,000 in Hong Kong in 2017. Now, the Harriets of today are not buying a Hermes Birkin handbag, but they are probably trying to buy slightly run-down houses outside urban centers for (one hopes) slightly less than 380k. The Wimseys of the worlds are clearly buying Birkin bags. In that way, it's actually pretty easy to get to a place where Person A might buy a single luxury item for X pounds, and Person B might buy a whole residence for X pounds, and neither feel like they'd done something insane. The key here is in a Wimsey/Vane marriage, they run up against this concept immediately, and repeatedly.

There's a good reason the first epistolary section of the novel is almost entirely taken up with money chat - the ring, the purchase of shirts from Burlington Arcade, the marriage settlement, the gift from the bride to the groom, the mink coat, the bitchy exchange between Helen and Harriet about HV being allowed "six free copies of her book" to distribute. These people come from 2 fundamentally different experiences of the world. They might have gotten engaged using the word 'Magistra', specifically to emphasise their fundamental equality (in the context of learning and the mind, to begin with), but it can't be denied: there's gaps that need to be bridged. They both know parts of their married life will be spent in attempting to do that, hopefully to their mutual satisfaction. Mention of a mink coat for 950 guineas is a nice, neat shorthand for illustrating what's still at play between them here.

[yrsonpurpose]

I was tame, I was gentle 'til the circus life made me mean.

[seagull-scribbles]

You're out of touch

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[here-comes-the-moose]

When I’m writing my Modern AU but then try to figure out and calculate how the life I gave the Batch is financially possible:

[angelclouve]

The overworked moms ghouls trio, on their way to go bar-hopping and taste-testing new liquors outside Darkwick :)

(because the dads and the children have stressed them enough today that they decided to hold the drinking session in places faraway from home oops)

Putting the silliness aside... if we only consider the different backgrounds and personalities, these trio are actually quite an unusual housewife friend group 🤔

Not counting the fact they entered Darkwick on the same year and knew each other's name during The Weighing of Souls... when and where they first actually meet and get to know each other? I can only think of them getting assigned to a mission together and it ended with a success, thus a celebratory drink in a bar somewhere outside Darkwick? And maybe as they spent time sharing alcohol and chatting with each other, they eventually also bonded through their similar experiences as people who always end up dealing with troubles happening inside their dorms 💭

(Speaking of "people who always end up dealing with troubles happening inside their dorms", there are two certain vice-captains that also fit this criteria... makes me wonder if they also used to be part of this friend group before The Clash and the whole spy shenanigans fucked up relationships among some ghouls)

[starry-skies-writes]

I keep thinking of Viren

How in his final moments, he still had to do Dark Magic, something he wished to put behind him since it caused him and his family so much pain that it broke him and his daughter and, just his family APART.

How in his final moments, he tried to save his son while suffering sacrifice, as he’d done once before.

How in his final moments, he sacrificed himself for the kingdom, as he should’ve done once before.

“I—am a servant. I am a servant.”

His words finally ring true.

[bioethicists]

irt poverty/homelessness + alcohol use (esp with @butchfeygela‘s tags on my post)- people really underestimate the function that substance use/alcohol use can have for someone who is unhoused. being unhoused is boring, cold, painful, + lonely. substances can allow the 8 hours panhandling to get the $45 you need for a motel to fly by. alcohol reduces your perception of the cold + can knock you out whben you can’t sleep. substances can help you cope with the physical deterioration from malnutrition, constant stress, + sleeping outside. substances can provide social connection with others who you would otherwise not enjoy or help you cope with being alone.

not only that but- many unhoused people are stuck in a seemingly inescapable position. the pathway to financial stability or even housing is difficult or even impossible. in the wake of that hopelessness, the downsides of substance use start to seem insignificant. arrest? you’re getting arrested anyway for sleeping outside, peeing outside, standing in the wrong place, etc. physical danger? you’re already beat the fuck up, anyway, right? loss of relationships? you’ve lost most people already. inability to keep a job? nobody will hire you + you can’t stay employed, anyway, because you have no car + no shower.

perhaps for you or me, the cons of heroin use or binge drinking nightly greatly outweigh the pros. that isn’t the case for everyone. if we are really serious about ending overdose/addiction, we need to start looking at giving people lives worth recovering into instead of shaming them for their own hopelessness.

[completeoveranalysis]

[5]

WAIT I'M NOT OVER THIS YET

How SO MUCH of Tsubasa (and xxxHolic) is based around trades. About giving up things in exchange for what you want or what you need. About willingly (or unwillingly) giving up something important in order to get something you want even more.

How this is the first time any character has essentially been given a refund. How the magic was stolen from him - but it also kind of wasn't.

How in Acid Tokyo Fai let his eye get eaten in an attempt to help repair Syaoran's soul. He essentially GAVE his eye and magic to Syaoran on purpose to save him.

And it worked, in a way, eventually! Syaoran had a soul in the end! He was in there! He was making choices! He was alive!

BUT NOW HE'S NOT AND FAI JUST, GETS THE MAGIC BACK. THE PRICE HE PAID IS JUST GIVEN RIGHT BACK TO HIM AS IF NONE OF IT EVER HAPPENED - SYAORAN IS JUST AS DEAD AND GONE AS WHEN HIS SOUL BROKE IN ACID TOKYO, BUT WORSE NOW, BECAUSE NOW THEY ALL KNOW HE CAN'T BE SAVED.

HOW FAI WOULD HAVE BEEN HAPPY IF HE NEVER HAD THAT MAGIC BACK, IF IT MEANT SYAORAN GOT TO LIVE.

HOW HE LOVED HIS SON AND WANTED HIM TO LIVE AND THAT WAS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE MAGIC THAT HAD DEFINED HIS WHOLE LIFE. IT WAS A TRADE HE MADE ON PURPOSE.

AND NOW HE JUST... GETS IT BACK.

AND IT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED.

[newgroundstier]

i am once again missing niklaus hendrix [NARRATOR VOICE: SHE HAS NEVER LEFT THIS STATE]

[bleedingcoffee42]

2nd Battalion. McMillian and Dean look so tired.

Speirs has his classic Bastonge pic but please look at how much hair this man has lost by Joigny jump less than a year later in Sept '45. Easy Company ages you.

[rickybaby]

Money Badger strikes again!!

[nightfal1n]

"I miss you"

"I miss both of you"

+ Timelapse