#captain tracey

[eld0ts]

*cuts to the crew absolutely Decked Out in pride merch*

[kourumi]

Beware, beware! Travel with light by night, lest you receive a great fright!

You wouldn’t want to lose your head after all?

Pumpkin-head Captain Tracey Sahouta, trade for the lovely @eld0ts!!

[dragondawdles]

1 and 2 and 3 and you (and friend !)

[somaligovernment]

Arabella is from captain scarlet right?

[cantsayidont]

Despite its protestations of progressive values, STAR TREK media has always explicitly presented (and, with only fleeting exceptions, consistently celebrated) the Federation as an expansionist imperial power, engaged in a large-scale project of colonialism.

The usual apologia/rationalization for this, both from the franchise itself and from its fans, is that the Federation is also a post-scarcity socialist utopia. However, that is expressly not the case in TOS, despite the attempts of the later series to insist otherwise.

Indeed, the plots of some of the most famous and acclaimed episodes of TOS are specifically about resource extraction and ensuring the Federation's access to crucial resources, including lithium (in "Mudd's Women"), pergium (in "The Devil in the Dark"), and dilithium (in "Mirror, Mirror," et al). We are told repeatedly that the Enterprise has a mandate to use force to secure these resources if gentler methods fail. Moreover, while the Federation has a strategic interest in these resources, it's clear at various points in TOS that their extraction and exploitation are, to a significant extent if not exclusively, overseen by private interests for profit. For instance, in "Mudd's Women," Harry Mudd remarks:

Well, girls, lithium miners. Don't you understand? Lonely, isolated, overworked, rich lithium miners! Girls, do you still want husbands, hmm? Evie, you won't be satisfied with a mere ship's captain. I'll get you a man who can buy you a whole planet. Maggie, you're going to be a countess. Ruth, I'll make you a duchess. And I, I'll be running this starship. Captain James Kirk, the next orders you're taking will be given by Harcourt Fenton Mudd!

In "The Devil in the Dark," Kirk ultimately takes a regulatory position — he will not permit the pergium miners to kill the Horta or continue to destroy her eggs — but at no point does he suggest that stopping the pergium production that threatens the Horta is a viable or even acceptable alternative. The accord he proposes is contingent on the Horta's agreement that she and her children will support the mining efforts on her planet, since Kirk emphasizes that "a dozen planets" are depending on the miners to supply needed pergium. (What would have happened to her if she hadn't agreed is not stated, but the episode strongly suggests that she would have been severely punished for noncompliance with Kirk's mediated solution: forcibly relocated to some kind of Horta reservation away from the main mining operations, perhaps.) When the Horta does agree to this proposal, Kirk assures Vanderberg, "you people are going to be embarrassingly rich," which once again suggests that while the miners may have contractual agreements to delivery pergium to Federation worlds, they are still a private, for-profit business, not a Federation department or nationalized entity.

Profit is also Ron Tracey's motivation for breaking the Prime Directive in "The Omega Glory": He believes that he's discovered a "fountain of youth" that he can own, monopolize, and exploit, and that the value of that resource will be enough to buy his way out of legal trouble for his regulatory violations.

We mostly don't see the Enterprise crew handle money except on away missions in other cultures or times, but there are a number of indications that the Federation in this era has not abandoned money: For instance, Harry Mudd's list of past offenses includes purchasing a space vessel "with counterfeit currency," while in "The Apple," Kirk rhetorically asks if Spock knows how much Starfleet has invested in him, which Spock begins to answer, "One hundred twenty-two thousand two hundred …" before Kirk cuts him off. More tellingly, in "I, Mudd," we have the following exchange:

KIRK: All right, Harry, explain. How did you get here? We left you in custody after that affair on the Rigel mining planet. MUDD: Yes, well, I organized a technical information service bringing modern industrial techniques to backward planets, making available certain valuable patents to struggling young civilizations throughout the galaxy. KIRK: Did you pay royalties to the owners of those patents? MUDD: Well, actually, Kirk, as a defender of the free enterprise system, I found myself in a rather ambiguous conflict as a matter of principle. SPOCK: He did not pay royalties. MUDD: Knowledge, sir, should be free to all. KIRK: Who caught you? MUDD: That, sir, is an outrageous assumption. KIRK: Yes. Who caught you? MUDD: I sold the Denebians all the rights to a Vulcan fuel synthesizer. KIRK: And the Denebians contacted the Vulcans.

Whether Deneb is a member of the Federation at this time is unclear, but Vulcan certainly is, and so we may assume that Vulcan and presumably the Federation itself are also part of "the free enterprise system."

The first indication that the Federation does not use money is in STAR TREK IV, and it's not obvious there if Kirk's remark that "They're still using money" is talking about money more broadly or just physical currency, which the Federation may have phased out even if it still uses credit or electronic transfers of monetary value. (Certainly, McCoy's attempt in STAR TREK III to charter a starship indicates that he had some means of paying for passage, since the captain of the ship specifically demands more money upon learning of the intended destination.)

If we accept at face value the assertion of TNG and DS9 that the Federation has genuinely abandoned the use of money, rather than simply going cashless, the most reasonable Watsonian explanation is that this has been a relatively recent development during the 70–80 years between the TOS cast movies and TNG, most likely related to the development of replication technology (which the Federation did not yet have in Kirk's time).

Of course, from a Doylist standpoint, we could chalk up some of this incidental dialogue to the franchise's evolving construction of its own setting, in the same manner as anomalous references to Vulcans as "Vulcanians." Roddenberry and his apologists might also insist that he always meant to depict a socialist utopia, but was prevented by the nattering nabobs of negativity (i.e., the network's BS&P); I'm very skeptical of such claims, but the writers were acutely aware that depicting what Earth is like in Kirk's time would be opening a can of worms, which is why we didn't actually see 23rd century Earth (even briefly) until the movies.

However, the focus on resource extraction and its ramifications is such a load-bearing story element in TOS that the revisionist assertion that the Federation was already a post-scarcity socialist utopia in Kirk's time (as both DISCOVERY and STRANGE NEW WORLDS have attempted to claim) would require really substantial retcons of the original show, perhaps to the extent of insisting that some of those events never took place at all, or happened radically differently than what's in the TOS episodes most STAR TREK fans have seen. For me, anyway, that crosses a line from willing suspension of disbelief to "don't trust your lying eyes," and suggests a frustrating and somewhat disturbing determination to insist that TOS is something much purer and nobler than it is rather than grapple with its actual conceptual flaws and ideological shortcomings.

[daydreaming-away-reality]

Shared Suffering

Cedric Diggory x Reader | ☁️ | 1.5k | Soulmate AU

When you had woken up this morning, you had felt sore everywhere. It was the kind of feeling of having pushed yourself too hard while doing a physical activity the day before and all your muscles hurt the next day kind of feeling.

Which you had done nothing of that sort yesterday - having spent the day studying at the library.

So this could only mean one thing.

Letting out a groan, you rolled over in bed, trying to find a comfortable position. Looks like this weekend was going to just be trying to recover from the pain that wasn’t yours.

Whose pain were you experiencing you may ask?

Your soulmate’s.

After your first year of studying at Hogwarts, the feeling of being sore or even in pain at times was a common occurrence for you.

It took a while, but you had soon deduced that your soulmate was an athlete. There was no other possible explanation besides them being a big klutz. But even then, who periodically gets hurt like that on a timely manner?

Having deduced this, you had always made sure that you were always careful not to add to their existing constant soreness.

It didn’t mean you were happy with this situation though.

The frown on your face deepened as you sat up.

As you slowly moved around to get ready for the day, the sound of knocking on your door halted your actions.

“Good morning, (Y/N)!” 

Tracey stuck her head into your room, her signature bright smile adorning her face.

“Not a good morning,” you responded, shaking your head a small smile on your face.

“Whaaat?” Tracey asked, bouncing her way in. She immediately made herself at home in your room. “Is it your soulmate again?”

You nodded. “I’m literally sore everywhere. Maybe I should have stayed in bed today.”

“You promised to come with me to watch the Quidditch match though!” Tracey protested. “Should I beat up your soulmate when you find out who they are? They deserve it for putting you through so much pain.”

“Appreciated. But then I’d feel it too,” you said.

Tracey made a face. “Unfortunate. Well, we should get going!”

You stifled back a yawn as Tracey looped her arm around yours. “Where do you get all your energy from?”

Tracey just laughed as she pulled you off.

Through the flurry of breakfast and chatting with other friends, the morning went by quickly as your soreness faded. Lucky for you, your soulmate must have decided they had enough training from yesterday.

It wasn’t long before Tracey and your other friends noticed the time and hurried you all off to the Quidditch field where the match was going to take place.

Slytherin vs Hufflepuff.

Pulled into the already busy stands that were filled with yellow and black, you looked around. You honestly weren’t too big on sports, so in the first few years of Hogwarts, you would drop by to watch the odd match. Ever since finding out your soulmate was potentially an athlete, you began to show up more frequently. 

You knew enough of the game to tell when a team scored, and that was good enough for you. 

A blur of robes flew by the stands, causing everyone around you to erupt in cheers. 

“Here we go!” Tracey exclaimed, hanging onto you.

With the excitement in the air, you watched the game in quiet awe as the players soared around the field. Points were being scored and the game was looking rather close.

It was drawing close to late game when a sparkle caught your eye - the golden snitch.

Clearly that was when the seeker of the Hufflepuff team noticed it as well, as he went after it quickly. 

Cedric Diggory - the Hufflepuff prefect, Quidditch team captain, and the ideal student. 

Someone like him always felt pretty distant with how much he was accomplishing despite how friendly he was with everyone.

Sure, he was captivating and managed to catch a lot of attention. And right now, he had your full attention. 

Or at least the attention you could manage after feeling like you’ve been punched in the stomach and the wind knocked out of you.

“- and Diggory is hit by a Bludger, yikes, that one looked rough...”

“(Y/N)?” Tracey asked, noticing you bent over and hugging your stomach. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” you wheezed, keeping an eye on the Seeker. He had placed a hand on his stomach and had a grimace on his face, but was already getting himself back into the game. “I think I found my soulmate.”

“We won!”

“Woohoo!”

The cheers of the Hufflepuff house filled the entire stadium and continued into the Common Room as everyone celebrated the victory. 

Cedric felt his teammates clap his back as they congratulated him for catching the snitch that helped win the game.

“Sorry about the Bludger, mate,” Anthony apologized. “You feeling okay?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” Cedric reassured. 

Anthony shook his head with a smile. “Your poor soulmate.”

Cedric awkwardly laughed. Caught up with Quidditch practice and games, he often let it slip past his thoughts that his soulmate experienced his pain too. 

Making his way through the Common Room with quite a bit of trouble from the excited Hufflepuffs, he managed to leave the room only to bump into someone else.

The figure in front of him had moved back and the sound of them banging into something filled the air.

It wasn’t the noise that caught Cedric’s attention. Rather, it was the jolt of feeling as if he had run his elbow into something. 

“I’m so sorry,” he apologized, reaching out to stabilize the girl he bumped into.

She looked up, (E/C) eyes meeting his. “It’s fine, Cedric, I wasn’t really looking where I was going either.”

Just out of the corner of his eye, he could see she was cradling her elbow. 

The same elbow he had felt hurt - even if it was temporarily. 

You awkwardly waited as Cedric still held onto you at an arm’s length. Accidentally bumping into him was not part of your plan. In fact, you weren’t sure what your plan was let him know you were his soulmate.

After apologizing to you, the head boy had simply frozen in front of you. 

“Um, Cedric?” you quietly asked.

Your voice broke him out of his trance as he took one of your hands in his own.

“Come with me.”

Without any additional warnings, he pulled you off. You could feel your cheeks heating up as you noticed others were noticing the situation you were in as the two of you maneuvered through the hallways. If this kept up, everyone would soon be talking about how the Hufflepuff Quidditch captain dragged a girl - you - off somewhere after winning the match.

Once the two of you were away from everyone else, Cedric took a step towards you. 

Flustered, you halted, watching the situation unfold.

“Your elbow...” He quietly gestured towards the elbow that you had bumped earlier with a nod of head. “Sorry about that.”

Hearing this made you immediately realize that he knew. He had felt it too. 

He knew.

“I’m sorry about before as well - you felt that during the game, didn’t you?”

You were hesitant, but you gave him a small nod.

“It’s okay though,” you immediately reassured him with a wave of your hands. “I know to expect these feelings.”

You could see the downward tug on his lips that made his charming face look sad. Before you had the chance to even think of another way to reassure the Hufflepuff Head Boy, he pulled you into a warm embrace. 

“I’m sorry I put you through all that,” he murmured.

The sound of his heartbeat racing and the genuine tone of his voice made you melt. Slowly lifting up your arms, you held onto him. Once Cedric felt this, you could feel him relax as well. 

Perhaps finally finding and being with your soulmate stirred up feelings in you, but at the moment, there was no where else you would rather be. Being so close to him, you could smell his sweat from just winning the Quidditch match, along with something else you couldn’t name, but whatever it was, it was very calming.

“Have you known long?” Cedric asked.

You shook your head. “That Bludger today was actually what made me realize it was you.”

Cedric made a mental note to thank Anthony later. 

“Take it easy during practices please,” you mumbled into his chest. “I was so sore this morning.”

Your soulmate leaned back so he could look at you properly. You were his soulmate and nothing could make him happier. Even though he had just met you, Cedric knew that this was going to be the start to something beautiful. The smile he had on his face - one you would soon learn that it was meant only for you - lit up the dim hallway. 

“I’ll try my best. Anything for my soulmate.”

[holylulusworld]

Nrfth (1) - Dreams do come true

Summary: A dream shattered. A heart broken.

Pairing: Chris Evans x Actress!Reader

Characters: OC Tracey

Warnings: fangirling, nervous reader, language

A/N: This series is a “short” chapter story. It contains of a collection of drabbles.

>> Prologue

“You’ve got this babe. Go in there, show them what they are sign up for if they hire you, and blow their minds,” Tracey is as excited as you are. “I knew you are going to film movies with Chris Evans one day.”

“Trace, it’s only thanks to you and Noah. He’s…a genius. I looked like a movie star in his movie. I’ll be forever grateful for the chance I got because of you two.”

“Babe, invite me to one red-carpet event, call me your favorite bitch when they ask you who I am, and we are even,” she snickers. 

“Fuck, I’m so nervous,” you chew on your lower lip. “What if I fuck this up? This could be the only chance to land a role in the Marvel universe. If I fail now, everyone will remember.”

“I’ll tell you this only once,” Tracy says. She cups your face and forces you to breathe with her. “You are beautiful, strong, talented, and the biggest bitch in the Marvel universe. You can kick ass.”

“I can’t kick ass during the casting,” you laugh at Tracey’s determined look. She believes in you like no one else. “But I’ll give my all to land the role. And, if I walk over the red carpet for the first time, you’ll be by my side.”

The door finally opens again. Another disappointed-looking girl steps outside, sighing deeply. She’s prettier than you, and you remember her face from a show you watched a few weeks ago. If she didn’t land the role. How shall you get it?

“Next,” the annoyed voice of the woman hosting the audition catches your attention. You tear your eyes away from the girl leaving without the role and focus on your chance. 

“That’s me,” you confidentially say. This is it. Your chance to land a role. 

If you do this right, you can film next to Chris Evans. Or at least be on the same set. Your agent said it’s possible that you never even meet Chris. 

It doesn’t matter, though. Even if it’s a small role, you can say you made it. “Hi. I’m Y/N Y/L/N. You called my agent and—”

She raises her hand to stop you from talking too much. “Follow me. This way.”

She guides you toward a different room. You sigh. Maybe you don’t even get the chance to show them that you are a great actress.

“I-I thought you wanted me to come here.”

You follow her along the hallways, sighing as she won’t talk to you. “Go in there and read the lines we sent to your agent.” She finally says. The woman looks you up and down and gives you a half-smile. “Don’t freak out, okay? He’s only an actor.”

Holy fuck…no…really…holy fuck. Your breath hitches in your throat when you enter the room as Chris Evans stands there, holding the script in his hands.

“Ms. Y/L/N, welcome to the audition. You got the script we hope,” another woman asks.

“Yeah. Uh—thank you for giving me this chance. I got the script and practiced the lines,” you say.

Taking a deep breath, you open your bag to get the script out.  

“Alright, can you read the first lines? Just to get into the scene?” the woman from earlier asks. She gives you a quick smile, knowing that you must be nervous around the star of the Marvel universe.

“Sure,” you hastily say. “I’ll enter the room, check the surroundings, and get my gun out,” you recite the entrance scene of your character. “Things get heated, I’m surrounded by Hydra agents, and then…a bullet hits me. The agents storm toward me right when…”

“I break through the wall,” Chris uses his captain voice. He strides towards you, looking you straight in the eyes. “Miss? Miss, are you alright?”

It’s Captain America looking at you, not the actor behind him.

“Captain America?” you fall into the roll. You pant and clutch your lower abdomen. “I got shot,” you fall to your knees, just like described in the script. “My partner…I need to find him, Captain.”

“You got hurt.” 

“I can do this…” you whisper, faking losing consciousness. “Please, Captain. Don’t let them get him.”

That’s the end of the script for you. You want to end the scene and get back up. But Chris drops the script in his hands to pick up in bridal style.

It’s a struggle to not squeal, swoon, or drool when he carries you toward the couch in the room. He’s still in his role when he looks at you in his arms.

“I’ve got you,” he ends the scene with his line, and you are sure your heart stops beating for a moment when he leans closer to whisper. “I can do this all day…”

“HOLY FUCK BABE!” Tracey raises her glass at you. “You are going to be a famous movie star and bang Chris Evans.”

“Babe, I won’t bang anyone. And my role is still small. I don’t even know if my character will survive the first episode,” you try to make her see, this role can mean your breakthrough or just a few bucks on your bank account. “You know how it is. The sidekick always ends up dead…”

>> Part 2

Tags in reblog.

[wishmaster]

Girls Locker Room

Trevor had come up with the perfect plan to infiltrate the girls locker room. He went to the curators corner nd purchased the perfect curse costume that would transform him into the perfect girl.

After he slipped it on the changes were almost instant. Trevor was now Tracey the new sexy head cheerleader who had just transferred to his school. He found himself surrounded by beautiful girls but his plan seemed to have a fault, while Trevor loved girls Tracy was more of a slut for boys, the only thing she was for girls was jealous of Tina's tits and Leah's ass

they headed out to cheer on the team, Tracey couldn't wait for the game to be over, tonight she was going to let the captain fuck her brains out.

Luke was Trevor's best friend but all Tracy could think of now was how he was going to have his dick deep inside her before the night was over. Trevor had gotten access to the girls locker room with his disguise, but his disguise had totally changed his reasons for being there.

[lulu2992]

Who is the voice of the female Deputy?

When I saw this question, I decided to try to find an answer.

I looked up all the actors listed in the credits, listened to their voices (in interviews, demo reels, or other videos), and… I’m still not sure who played the female Deputy.

While I usually find it relatively easy to recognize voice actors in French, my native language, it turns out that’s much harder for me to do in English. Also, it doesn’t help that they’re usually very good at changing their voice/accent and that, in real life, most of them don’t sound like the characters they play.

I still believe the person who played the female Deputy is also “Cult Follower Female 5” (CFF5), but it seems to me the actor used a different accent and tone so the cultist sounds a bit “villainous”. In any case, I didn’t find anyone that sounded exactly like the two characters…

According to my ears, though, the female Deputy and the female Captain from New Dawn have the same voice. Outside of cutscenes, the Deputy has 314 lines in Far Cry 5 (which you can listen to here, here, here, here, and here) and the audio files were all reused for the Captain. In cutscenes, so the “lines” that were specifically recorded for New Dawn, the character sounds exactly the same to me, which means the voice actor must have worked on both games.

I looked at the names that appeared in the credits of the two games and narrowed the list down to the 15 (+1; see below) likeliest candidates, so here are the people who, in my opinion, could potentially be the voice of the female Deputy, as well as, when the information was available, either in the game or on IMDb, which character(s) they played:

Claire Armstrong

Kailea Banka

Carolina Bartczak (Cult Follower in FC5; apparently not in FCND, but you never know)

Kimberly D. Brooks (Gun for Hire)

Nicki Burke (Cult Follower in FC5, Selene in FCND)

Lucinda Davis

Stacey DePass (Nana in FCND)

Amber Goldfarb (voice of Faith’s Priestesses, “Cult Follower Female 3”, and, I believe, Rae-Rae)*

Julianne Jain

Mara Junot (Sherri Woodhouse, “Civilian Female 6”)

Helen King

Erica Linbeck (voice of Anne, but also this and this)

Cynthia Kaye McWilliams (Resistance Soldier)

Debra Wilson

Kim Yarborough

Mayko Nguyen, who plays Kim Rye, was credited a second time as a “voice talent” in Far Cry 5, which implies she may have also played one of several NPC. Since she worked on New Dawn, she too could be the female Deputy’s voice.

Again, English isn’t my first language, and after spending two days listening to all those voices, everyone started to sound the same to me :’) If you’re a native English speaker and/or have a great ear, though, maybe you’ll be able to more easily solve the mystery! We can do it!

*IMDb says Amber Goldfarb played “Noodle’s owner” (the woman who called Ms. Mable for her pet snake) but the files tell me the voice is actually “Civilian Female 6”, so Mara Junot.

And under the cut, just in case, I included all the other female voices who appear in the credits.

FAR CRY 5

MAIN CAST Beryl Bain (Tracey Lader) Sarah Booth (Tammy Barnes and, according to IMDb, a “Civilian”) Luisa D’Oliveira (Deputy Joey Hudson) Jenessa Grant (Faith Seed) Debra McGrath (Nancy) Tasya Teles (Mary May Fairgrave)

VOICE TALENTS Carolina Bartczak (Cult Follower) Lauren Jackson (Skylar Kohrs) Erin Mathews Julie Nathanson (Jess Black) Kristen Peace Murry Peeters (Grace Armstrong) Claire Rankin Cara Ricketts (Dr. Sarah Perkins in FC5, Mickey in FCND) Charlotte Rogers Paula Shaw (Ms. Wilhelmina Mable) Jane Wheeler (Adelaide Drubman)

PERFORMERS (I’m not sure they recorded voices and they apparently didn’t work on FCND) Michela Cannon Roanna Cochrane (Cult Follower) Athena Karkanis Karen Knox Janet Porter Melissa Robertson Alyssa Trask Brandi Marie Ward

FAR CRY NEW DAWN

MAIN CAST Reina Hardesty (Carmina Rye) Leslie Miller (Lou)

VOICE TALENTS Rylee Alazraqui Mary Faber (in the “Additional Thanks” section in the FC5 credits and in Lost on Mars according to IMDb) Camryn Jones Rachel Kimsey Melanie Minichino (Gina Guerra) Carolyn Ratteray Marisha Ray Nadia Verrucci

PERFORMANCE CAPTURE PERFORMERS (again, I don’t know if they recorded voices in FCND) Ava Augustin Tamara Brown Jenny Raven Ajanae Stephenson Lydia Zadel (also credited in the “Additional Thanks” section in FC5 and a voice in Lost on Mars according to IMDb)

Good luck!

[eld0ts]

horror tropes uquiz!!

thanks so much to @the-lastcall for tagging me!! it genuinely means a lot 💕

TRACEY SAHOTA

THE LOVER

love has brought you to this place, and it will not let you leave. fear clutches you, constricts you, and it will have you killed - and yet, it is still no match for the bounty of your heart. you will try as hard as you can to protect the object of your affections. evil is nothing in the face of your warmth. even if you are successful in protecting your lover, that does not guarantee your own survival. your heart has doomed you, but what greater death is there than dying for love?

i haven’t interacted with many people as of late (to my great shame i’m SORRY!!) so i’m gonna tag @mediocre-life-span (no pressure) as well as anyone else who’d like to take part!! here’s the link!!

[socially-awkward-skeleton]

This isn’t really a request, but what are some headcanons either for COD characters or Far Cry 5 characters that you love? And what’s your favorite piece of lore about your OCs?

Also I love your fics so much, WHERE did you learn to write like that

First of all, OH MY GOD THANK YOU SO MUCH!! 💜💜💜💜. The way this ask made my whole week and the compliment on top of it, consider me forever in your debt.

I have been writing stories since I was 4, read books and watched movies voraciously that were way out of my age range and thus my brain chemistry was forever rewired to be a bit strange to answer the last question lol

My headcanons are usually pretty boring in the grand scheme and relate back to my ocs a lot and how they interact with the verse, but here's some general ones:

fc5:

- Faith and Tracey are lesbian ex-gfs, true in my heart

- Staci Pratt would be the type of guy to have a mirror hanging on the ceiling above his bed

- as far as i'm concerned, God is real in the world of FC5 (but also yes there is A LOT of mental illness and trauma going on)

- the mystery meat served in Jacob's cages is 100% grade A people who failed the trials

cod (or more accurately a few of my Captain Price hcs):

- Price is from Liverpool -- idc if he's not, he is (thank you Mr. Sloane for your wonderful voice and Scouser accent)

- Price grew up working class, single mom, military family, dad died in combat, joins up at 16 to honor his father and grandfather (*this is 100% a personal hc)

-Price is the type of guy to know the difference between scotch, whiskey and whisky and will come down on your ass if you try and pass one off as the other

Favorite OC lore:

Kit - Bliss has the opposite effect on her. Basically results in a bad trip every time if someone isn't guiding her through it (guess she shouldn't have gotten rid of Faith)

Rory - forgot to mention this in the oc name post for her before, but her last name is a direct reference to Sinclair Centre, which is a heritage building in Vancouver, BC (my hometown and hers, she may or may not be my most self insert-y of OCs)

[mercurygray]

Currently Reading - November 2023

Gosh, it's been a little while since I did one of these!

The Year of Peril: America in 1942 - Tracey Campbell . Found this one at the library booksale just after I finished the 1942 podcast series. The book is excellent so far and really flipping some interesting issues over.

Just Finished Reading:

Millions Like Us: Women's Lives during the Second World War by Virgina Nicolson - This was excellent and I strongly recommend it. I got a lot of inspiration for the end of TDS in it and there's a lot of material that I think will come in handy for MOTA.

Sisters in Arms: British Army Nurses Tell Their Story, by Nicola Tyrer - Another super excellent book that filled in a serious knowledge gap I had about British nursing. Might come in handy for future SAS:RH productions.

An Unladylike Profession: American Women War Correspondents in World War I by Chris Dubbs - This was an impulse purchase on thriftbooks and was very interesting.

The Call of the Wrens, by Jenni Walsh. Fiction. Glad this was only a library book - it was just okay. I'm not a big fan of time jumps as a narrative device - it feels thin.

Cassiel's Servant, by Jacqueline Carey. Fiction. It was really fun to go back to Terre D'Ange for this one, and interesting to see Joscelin's side of things. Realized Joscelin may be why/how I write Dick the way I do.

Ashes under water : the SS Eastland and the shipwreck that shook America, by Michael McCarthy. This was a book club pick that I ended up not being able to join discussion on. A really interesting story, if you're into maritime disasters.

Prisoners of the castle : an epic story of survival and escape from Colditz, the Nazis' fortress prison, by Ben Macintyre. This was on the shelf at the library and I was reading mostly for mentions of David Stirling. Still - very interesting, especially when paired with...

Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat, by Giles Milton. This book was fascinating. A lot of backstory behind the stuff that made the war work.

The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot. A book club pick that I'm really glad I read.

Just Finished Watching:

Our Miracle Years (Unsere wunderbaren Jahre, Das Erste/PBS) - follows the life of one family in the post-war period. Some good food for thought here.

A Place to Call Home, Season 1 (Foxtel/ Hoopla) - More post-war, this time in Australia, which I started just as something to watch and am now very embroiled in. (Fair warning, this show contains conversation therapy, a miscarriage, and antisemitism, and may probably be triggering for some.)

World On Fire, Season 2 (BBC/PBS) - I came, I brought my Passport subscription, I tried...and after all six episodes I still don't like this show. I don't feel like we spend enough time with any of the characters to really appreciate them. It feels like everyone's there to make a point.

Outlander Season 7 (STARZ) - This was just fun. I'm not a huge fan of the books, but the TV series is really enjoyable for me.

Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951) - This has been on my list for a while and it popped up recently on Hoopla. I like Peck's nervousness in the role.

Dalgliesh, Season 2 (Acorn/Hoopla) - Bertie Carvel continues to do great in this role. I kind of wish there was a crossover involving him and Morse.

To Walk Invisible (BBC/ PBS)- It was really fun to watch this back to back with Emily.

Emily (2022) - Getting two mostly recent takes on the Bronte sisters so close together was really interesting.

Farewell My Queen (2012) - watched this while on vacation in Williamsburg. A nice 18th century drama.

[dragondawdles]

capm

[minks-country-club]

A list of dates/names to keep track of for TRMILY! (may be updated/added to)

DOB:

Blaise: 1st September 1979

Crabbe: 22nd October 1979

Goyle: 2nd November 1979

Theo: 3rd December 1979

Millie: 15th January 1980

Tracey: 20th April 1980

Daphne: 27th May 1980

Draco: 5th June 1980

Harry: 31st July 1980

Pansy: 10th August 1980

Luna: 13th February 1981

Slytherin Quidditch Team:

Beaters: Heidi Ruskin, Graham Montague

Chasers: Markus Flint (Captain), Draco Malfoy, Adrian Pucey

Keeper: Miles Bletchley

Seeker: Harry Potter

[cantsayidont]

Mirror, Mirror

I said before that STAR TREK TOS is explicitly not a post-scarcity socialist utopia, but rather a liberal imperial state preoccupied with resource extraction, which is a central issue throughout much of TOS. One of the clearest statements of the tensions this produces between the Federation's expressed values and its actual strategic priorities is in "Mirror, Mirror," the Mirror Universe episode, written by Jerome Bixby, where a transporter accident sends Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura to a parallel universe where the Federation is a brutal Terran Empire and Starfleet full of ruthless backstabbers who seem to rise through the ranks primarily via assassination. What viewers (and later STAR TREK writers) seem to take from this episode is mostly the way it lets the regular cast ham it up as sluttier, more evil versions of themselves, but it's instructive to also consider what's actually happening in the plot.

At the very beginning of the episode, Kirk is negotiating with the Halkan Council regarding the possibility of the Federation mining dilithium on their world, which the Halkans refuse to permit. Kirk's arguments have hinged on offering historical evidence of the Federation's benevolence and commitment to peace, but the Halkans aren't convinced, making the reasonable argument that even if the Federation is presently benign, it may not remain so, and that they are firmly morally opposed to fueling the Federation's war machine "even to the extent of the taking of one life." Kirk is plainly frustrated by this, and I think we're supposed to sympathize — by the time this episode aired in October 1967, viewers had been conditioned to reflexively impute likely counterarguments (e.g., "Starfleet weapons are defensive!" or "The Enterprise defends innocent Federation colonists from alien aggression and monsters!") — but the Halkans make a compelling point, and there's nothing in TOS to meaningfully contradict it.

When the characters shift to the Mirror Universe, we learn that mirror-Kirk is dealing with substantially the same dilemma: His Enterprise has also been sent to secure access to Halkan dilithium, and the structure of the plot strongly implies that just before the transporter accident, he's had a similar confrontation with the Halkan Council which presumably left him as frustrated as prime-Kirk is. "Mirror, Mirror" repeatedly emphasizes that the Mirror Universe is a close parallel to the Prime Universe in most respects (down to McCoy's realization that his counterpart had spilled a beaker of acid in the same place prime-McCoy had days earlier), and that the Terran Empire is a close counterpart of the Federation, differing primarily in (superficial) ideology and methodology rather than in strategic objectives. The Empire needs dilithium for precisely the same reasons the Federation and Starfleet do: to expand and secure the borders of the imperial state and to maintain its internal order. (That's what the entire franchise is primarily about!)

The plot of "Mirror, Mirror" creates a ticking clock with the revelation that mirror-Kirk has orders to use the Enterprise to bombard the Halkans from orbit if they don't cooperate, committing genocide as an example for other worlds. This raises unsettling questions about what prime-Kirk's orders say, which we're never actually told. Presumably, prime-Starfleet, as the good guys, would never explicitly order a retaliatory genocide to secure a strategic resource … but, we see throughout TOS that Starfleet gives starship captains a great deal of leeway to accomplish their missions, and is willing to accept or overlook a certain amount of shenanigans if the strategic objective is achieved. Indeed, in "The Omega Glory," Ron Tracey, captain of the Exeter, is firmly convinced that the "fountain of youth" he thinks he's discovered will be of such value that his deliberate violation of the Prime Directive (along with the literally hundreds of natives he has killed in that violation) can and will be reconciled. So, even if prime-Starfleet has not told Kirk that genocide is on the table, they have likely told him to get the dilithium however he deems appropriate, leaving the means to Kirk's discretion. It's clear throughout STAR TREK that the Enterprise and ships of its class would be formidable terror-weapons, and in several TOS episodes, Kirk uses explicit threats of planetary bombardment as a negotiating tactic. "Mirror, Mirror" essentially confirms that the Enterprise IS equipped and its crew trained for that purpose, even if prime-Starfleet is more reluctant than its Mirror Universe counterpart to exercise it.

Kirk's eventual argument in this episode for doing things the Federation's way (i.e., peacefully and cooperatively if possible) is not that it's more morally righteous, but that it's more efficient as a means of resource extraction and of securing the survival of the imperial state. As Kirk famously argues to mirror-Spock:

SPOCK: You have two minutes and ten seconds. KIRK: In that time I have something to say. How long before the Halkan prediction of galactic revolt is realized? SPOCK: Approximately two hundred and forty years. KIRK: The inevitable outcome? SPOCK: The Empire shall be overthrown, of course. KIRK: The illogic of waste, Mister Spock. The waste of lives, potential, resources, time. I submit to you that your Empire is illogical because it cannot endure. I submit that you are illogical to be a willing part of it. SPOCK: You have one minute and twenty three seconds. KIRK: If change is inevitable, predictable, beneficial, doesn't logic demand that you be a part of it?

In this ethical schema, not seeking to punish the Prime Universe Halkans for their refusal to cooperate with the Federation is not primarily a moral decision, but a practical one: It's in the Federation's strategic interests to maintain its veneer of benevolence and civility because doing otherwise would eventually trigger costly resistance that the state would not ultimately survive. If the Halkans continue to refuse to cooperate, we can probably reasonably assume that Kirk will argue to Starfleet that allowing the Halkans to say no will have strategic advantage, demonstrating to other worlds the Federation's beneficence, just as annihilating them would demonstrate the Empire's ruthlessness and resolve — a parallel objective rather than an oppositional one.

We aren't told what comes of Kirk's negotiations with the prime-Halkans, but the episode is nonetheless very revealing of what role prime-Starfleet and the Enterprise play in promoting and defending the economic and strategic interests of the imperial state, which is quite explicitly a liberal vision rather than a progressive one — and a fairly ugly one if you look past the speechifying.