#i really want to talk about the whalers actually

[no-light-left-on]

thinking still about how the Heart calls the Whalers 'puppets' and the amount of mystery there is around them, when playing as Corvo and perceiving them through the Heart, in comparison to how they are in reality.

we see them talk to each other in a manner any people would. they consider insubordination, they talk badly of Daud behind his back, we have Billie betray him. there are some that are loyal, yes, be it because they believe in Daud or because they see gain in this path, but by no means are they a monolyth.

however, we do hear from the Heart about a 'fog that surrounds them and hides their secrets' and it is even confirmed, by Billie (and also Galia in the books) that leaving Daud made them 'think clearly for the first time in years'

I've seen a couple theories and I do want to dive into each, to an extent.

there's the suggestion of the Heart talking badly of them, calling them mindless drones that only kill out of hatred and hurt. which, valid. the Heart also says certain things about Daud, 'why did you bring me here? do you expect me to forgive him?', so it's not unlikely that their attitude towards human lives and their willingness to kill for Daud is repulsive enough that the Heart does not see past it

another option is that the mindless puppets is more of a metaphor and is meant to talk about how the Whalers are, in a sense, a cult. which would be incredibly interesting to explore if we had more information on how the Whalers function. now I do want to point out that by cult I do not mean it in a Secluded Religious Organization but as a sociological thing. a literal cult if you will, with a leader that charms their followers, the seclusion and all the unhealthy attitudes of losing oneself to the group. and, that does check out - the loss of individuality, they are as one, following someone's orders without hesitation, someone they would die for. there are a lot of unsavory implications here (if you know how cults work, you probably had some cross your mind already), but arguably Daud is not charming enough to be a proper cult leader. the appeal is the magic, and his excellent skills as an assassin and a leader. maybe it's because of the time we see the Whalers at, right before a collapse, but Daud is regularly doubted and we see a lot of insubordination. the Whalers are not necessarily loyal to him because of who he is as a person. they want the power, they want the influence, maybe the protection, and the things keeping them from disobeying are fear, rather than loyalty.

the third thought or theory is, then, that many of these symptoms can be explained by the influence of the Void. we know the Void affects people, both physically as we see with Delilah's Witches or the Eyeless, as it influences them mentally, if the high numbers of people going mad because of their worship are something to go by. if, then, the Whalers are bound to the Void through Daud, it only makes sense that they would be influenced by this link to something that messes with people's brains. Galia saying she feels better after her Arcane Bond faded could easily mean that the influence the Void had on her has faded, and the creeping madness of it has subsided significantly.

all of these most likely come into play. one of the Heart's lines in dh2, if we point at a Witch, is reciting some of the recipes the Witches chant before quickly apologising. we do learn significantly more about them than we do about the Whalers, of course, possibly because Jessamine has more ill will towards the Whalers than to the Witches. still we see the Void affect the Heart. there is also a notion that the Witches are 'not quite human' due to their Arcane bond.

there's no real conclusion. it's just interesting

[necronatural]

when you eventually look at the new 000 gregor ID i would love to know how he slots into the rest of the clockroach dynamic, if he even slots in at all

I didnt get him after 58 pulls but his voicelines are up on the wiki so what can you do.

- I think Dante actually has a problem with this one. TH!Gregor is like oh ho hum about it since they work together fine but when he finds out Dante is not only workplace romancing The Gregiverse but one of the Gregs they are okay with is a serial killer cannibal he's like Hold On.... Hey?

-He goes out of his way to be powerful and alluring and charming and suave and all that and Dante just goes .... :/ at him. He is like oh so you don't want me Confident. And Happy. And has it pointed out with him that the most confident and happy Gregor (Zwei) has Dante absolutely sauced but that only makes him more mad

-Twinhooks Gregor has enjoyed the absolute highest level of protection from all conflict through Hook and the Middle and has depended on that coddling for a while so he doesn't actually have conflict resolution skills & he's a little threatened by his burgeoning need to beg for it

-All Twinhook Gregor does is steal cheat and lie and so he opts to pretend to NOT be strong and independent (WHICH HE IS) since Dante wants to be the boss. Begging is ok if its fake. Dante breaks, just as planned, but tragically Gregor surrounds himself with underlings and guardians because he craves coddling and thus being dommed Awakens things within him.

-Most whipped Gregor next to G-Corp. Smug about it though like "ohh sorry but I got people who won't allow me to die 😏". Really lays it on thick schmoozing with Dante, overtly romantic, competitive with Outis for brown-nosing and wants to be The Favourite

-New, unique dynamic of We Have To Kill Them

-Dante acts pretty neutrally with him in public which really distills the comedy I think. This too is a form of domination

-Semi-related he's pretty vocally annoyed they have a Colour Fixer who just hangs out and makes sure Dante's head doesn't need to explode and does nothing else. What is the point of a powerful person being around if it isn't in service of anything <- his existential worldview at this point <- He gets along with the Middle exceptionally well as you might imagine

There is very little room for Dante within the world of U Corp IDs... Here is my most beautiful worlds

-Dante is trying to pay off a guest and has the baffling ability to make money that has delayed the process by months and the hostage is like. Genuinely just a guest at this point because it's taken as a given that Dante will be able to meet the next threshold Somehow. The dynamic has stretched out long enough that basically everyone views it as paying rent to live on the port. Everyone knows Gregor is smitten but he won't admit it he just Hovers. Meaningfully. Looking so Dashing. One time he says he'll forgive the debt if Dante joins the pirates and Dante goes Uhm. No. And it gets under his skin so bad he can't work up the guts to ask them out to casual platonic dinner

-Dante is a whaler and notoriously helps tourists navigate the port streets without getting hostage kidnapped and gives paypigs jobs on their boat once they run out of cash. This is actually a small profit cycle so Hook has never minded it. Gregor starts allowing the paypigs to meet with the guests more often as an excuse to make Dante hang out with him and Talk Shop (putting them in charge of more boats with more people who can't afford to save their guests so Dante will have to spend more time with him). Dante isn't comfortable with being friendly with the Twinhook Pirates so doesn't let it escelate. Again, Gregor has to separate his status from his relationships and beg for it. It drives him crazy that Dante doesn't take advantage of this. Getting them to stop neutrally dismissing his overtures feels like he earned fucking deliverance

[seekdevotion]

*          𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐘𝐌𝐎𝐔𝐒     𝐀𝐒𝐊𝐄𝐃          :          mw fcs & personality types maybe ? this looks so good !

first of all : love you sweat ! i will point you towards 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 meaty mw fc list, bc many good points were made. but ! i'll also take this moment to self advocate and some will b repeats ... i would go absolutely feral for ella purnell ( duh ), laura harrier, jessica chastain, avan jogia, ben barnes, zion moreno, cillian murphy, blanca padilla, oscar isaac, margot robbie, tom hardy, alexa demie, riz ahmed, samara weaving, zendaya, tom holland, mimi keene, logan lerman, adelaide kane, victoria pedretti, andrew garfield, penelope cruz, emma mackey, charles melton, bill skarsgard, adam dimarco, medalion rahimi, natasha liu bordizzo, dua lipa, archie renaux, robert pattinson, freida pinto, florence pugh, dev patel, jessica alexander, oliver jackson cohen, halston sage, kiowa gordon, lily james, madelaine petsch, jordan connor, hande ercel, phoebe tonkin, nick robinson, savannah lee smith, emily alyn lynd, henry golding, rachel zegler, josh heuston, paul mescal ( i actually can't talk about it... ), daisy edgar jones, rami malek, lily rose depp, aron piper, adria arjona, olivia cooke, and that's just off the dome... now as for personality or character types ? why don't you go ahead & read more for some that have come to me ;)

any and all of the bunnies of mona awad's bunny - pretentious and beautiful budding literary icons , diehard devotees of "the aesthetic" ( or part of a cult most likely )

local carmy ? brilliant , celebrated , seemingly stuck in devo due to some unfortunate emotional ( or physical ) ties - maybe managing the diner or cheffin' it up at the whaler

ex - sea captain who is now devoted to hunting for treasure - both geocache and pirate style . some townspeople think they've lost the plot but others have noticed they really have a knack for this . obviously , quite the casanova

a well liked ghost therapist . came to town years ago as a ' spiritualist ' / more of a lowkey con artist medium but really came into their own in this environment

the seraphic matchmaker , wholesome , in love w love , just wants everyone to be happy , strikes gold every time to the point it is giving witchcraft , world's best and most in demand bridesmaid as a result !

charming and charismatic town official , great at drawing in a crowd and overseeing all the best local events . old money ( as much as you can be in this town , bc their family has always been here ) so obviously corrupt w very questionable morals

THE barber who does put everything you say in their chair on blast via their town meme page / finsta but customers stay loyal bc the only competition has a much darker reputation ( plot twist : and they were roommates ! )

ofc , new in towns / tourists with shady motives , to keep the locals on their toes

[justabooknerdposts]

annabeths 19th birthday

Prompt: Annabeth's 19th Birthday (very specific lol)

Annabeth's nineteenth birthday was going well. She and Percy had spent most of the day traveling around Long Island visiting some of its most famous architectural landmarks, including the windmills of East Hampton and Watermill, Old Whaler's church, Sagamore Hill, Old Field Point Lighthouse, and finishing at Montauk Point Light.

It had been great, just the two of them driving around all day, seeing the different architectural monuments. Percy had happily let her drag him by the hand around the various buildings and had seemed to listen to most of what she told him about them. She was glad they saved the Montauk Point Light for last—it made her heart beat faster to watch the way Percy came alive beside the sea, his eyes reflecting the green of the water, his grin turning slow and lazy as he looked out over the waves. She especially liked when he turned that grin to her as he took her hand, his fingers sliding through hers, lacing them together.

"Good birthday?" he asked.

She nodded, drinking him in. Last summer, they'd spent her birthday grieving Jason and the loss of so many in Camp Jupiter and New Rome. The summer before that, they'd spent her birthday in Tartarus. The summer before that, the Titan War was in full swing. The preceding summers it had been the joys of the Labyrinth, the Sea of Monsters, and the Underworld. To just have today, calm and peaceful, after a really great first year of college and looking forward to their second year, was about the best birthday present she could ask for.

"So do you want to walk around the lighthouse and tell me its history and how it was built and everything?" Percy asked her.

"In a minute." She put her free hand on his neck, pulling him closer, and kissed him. For a few wonderful seconds, nothing else existed. She could even briefly push out of her mind the thought that had been bothering her all day and which she was continuing to refuse to look at.

Once Annabeth was actually focusing on the lighthouse, it was even cooler than she'd hoped for. So, yet again, she grabbed Percy's hand and pulled him around the base of the structure, pointing out features and talking about its history. She'd thought by this point in their architectural tour, he'd be completely zoned out, but he still appeared to be listening, even asking her questions and pointing out some things about the nautical benefits of the massive light and why it was important on this spit of land.

Finally, she cracked and said, "I've been talking about architecture all day. How are you still interested?"

Percy actually laughed at that. Then he slipped his arm around her waist and kissed her cheek. "Because I love you. And it's your birthday, so I'm just happy that you're happy." He hesitated, studying her face, then asked, "You are happy, right?"

Again, the thought Annabeth had been ignoring all day rose in her mind, but she shoved it back down as she managed a smile and told Percy, honestly, "I'm very happy. And I love you, too," she added, moving closer to kiss him again.

They headed back to camp for the evening. A lot of their friends had come in to help celebrate Annabeth's birthday. It hadn't been her idea to have a party at camp, but Piper and Rachel had insisted, and enough of the other campers had agreed that Annabeth really had no choice. So, somewhat grudgingly and somewhat gratefully, she had agreed to the party.

Party preparations were in full swing in the dining pavilion when they got back. Annabeth only caught a glimpse, though, before Piper shoved her away. "No way. It's not ready. Go away for a while…like another hour. Drag your boyfriend off and go make out somewhere or something."

"Eewww," a voice nearby squealed. Annabeth turned to see Angelina, one of the newest Athena campers, making a face. When she caught Annabeth looking at her, though, she giggled and jogged off, streamers trailing from her hands. Annabeth was struck by just how young she looked; Angelina, with her glasses, braces, and incredible aptitude for mathematics and chemistry, was only twelve.

The same age Annabeth had been on her first quest. The quest where Luke had gifted Percy some cursed sneakers that had nearly dragged him, Annabeth, and Grover straight into Tartarus.

"You okay?" Piper asked, studying her face. "I'm not trying to kick you out, we're just finishing up—"

"No, it's fine." Annabeth forced a smile. "Just…thinking about something else. This place is looking great. I'll be back in an hour."

Annabeth made her way down to the beach. A few campers were splashing in the ocean, so she headed a little ways farther down from them, until she was hidden by a dune. Then she sat down in the sand, put her arms around her knees, and took a deep breath, letting the sound of the waves wash over her. After a few moments, she closed her eyes and also allowed the thoughts she'd been battling all day to rush over her.

She was nineteen today. An age many demigods didn't get to and which she was very proud and grateful to have achieved.

It was also the age Luke had been when he'd decided to betray Camp Half-Blood. When he'd been willing to send Percy, Grover, and her to Tartarus. When he'd tried multiple times to kill Percy—who had only been twelve. At the time, Annabeth had been deeply hurt and disappointed in Luke, but now, looking at the other campers, some of whom seemed so young, she simply couldn't understand how he could have made those choices. She'd always had a good imagination, but she couldn't imagine choosing to set them up for destruction. The gods hadn't always treated her fairly either, but she would never take that out on the other campers.

"Hey."

Annabeth jumped as Percy appeared around the edge of the dune. "Oh. Hey."

"Can I, uh, join you? Or would you rather be alone?"

In response, Annabeth patted the sand beside her and Percy plopped down, sending sand flying. She made a face at him, but he just shrugged.

Percy leaned back on his hands, eyes on the ocean. "So, what are you doing out here? Just feeling old?"

"Watch it, Seaweed Brain. I'm only a month older than you." Annabeth poked him in the side. "And no. I was just…thinking."

"Uh-oh." Percy shot her a smile. "What's up, Wise Girl?"

Annabeth sighed. She pulled her legs more tightly against her chest and rested her chin on her knees. "I was just thinking that…the summer we did our first quest, Luke was nineteen."

"Oh yeah." Percy frowned, thinking. After a few moments, he glanced at her. "You're not, uh, having similar thoughts, right?"

"No!" Annabeth burst out. "Just the opposite. I can't understand how he could do it." When Percy didn't say anything, Annabeth continued, in a lower voice, "I couldn't do it, Percy. I couldn't hurt kids. We were kids. You, me, Grover…but he still gave you those damn cursed shoes. Plus, almost everyone at camp was younger than him. And he was ready to kill us all. Or, at least, he was okay letting everyone die. What—" her voice caught. "What went wrong?"

Percy was quiet for a long time, looking out at the water. "When we were on the quest to Greece, I kind of started to think that I understood how Luke had felt. Just a little bit. It sucks to be a pawn of the gods over and over again. But I know that they still beat the alternative. And, yeah, I could never turn on my friends. Or camp. I definitely would never hurt kids. If…if you're hurting kids, you're always on the wrong side." He shook his head. "I don't know, Annabeth. I don't think I have a good answer for you. I mean, part of the reason we did what we did in the Titan War was because we couldn't see his side."

"Yeah, that's true." Annabeth wiped a tear off her cheek. "I didn't expect to think about it today, but this morning at breakfast, looking around at all the other campers, they just seemed so young and then I realized I was the same age Luke had been when he'd tried to kill you with that pit scorpion." She shook her head. "And then I just couldn't stop thinking about it. It feels different from this side, you know?"

Percy nodded. He studied her face for a moment, then scooted closer and put his arm around her shoulders. Annabeth leaned into him and drew a shaky breath.

"Sorry to be all blubbery on my birthday," she told him.

"It's fine, babe." Percy kissed her forehead. "Besides, isn't there an old song about it's your birthday and you'll cry if you want to?"

Annabeth gave a watery laugh. "I think it's party, not birthday."

"Close enough." Percy tightened his arm around her shoulders. "Nice sunset."

"It is." Annabeth laid her head on his shoulder. They stayed there, watching the setting sun turn the sky orange and purple until the conch horn sounded for dinner and it was time to head to her party.

*

The party was a lot of fun. Annabeth was able to shake off her morose mood and go back to having fun; talking about her thoughts with Percy had definitely helped, as it usually did.

At the campfire later that evening, Harley and some of the other Hephaestus campers, with help from Leo, who was back for the summer, set off a pretty impressive display of fireworks because, as Harley said brightly, "Annabeth is old."

"She is," Percy agreed solemnly.

Annabeth smacked her boyfriend, but high-fived Harley and thanked him for the awesome fireworks show. He grinned and ran off to join his friends, who were roasting marshmallows over the fire. Annabeth had to smile as she watched them, then popped a marshmallow into her mouth; it was gooey and smoky from the campfire—perfect. She didn't love being called "old" (especially when she was only nineteen, which was still pretty young—she couldn't even legally drink yet!), but the way Harley had said it, with hope, reminded her how nice it was, now, that demigods knew they could grow old. Bringing New Rome into the picture hadn't just been good for her and Percy; it could be a source of hope for all demigods. Life was still difficult. It always had been and always would be for demigods, but there was also hope for a future. And that made the impossibly hard things she and Percy and their friends had been through worth it.

Maybe that was what Luke had lost. He'd given up hope. Annabeth thought that was probably true, and she ached for him. That must have been terrible, to lose sight of hope. Annabeth was determined to never make the same mistake.

So she leaned into Percy's arm, lacing her fingers through his, and letting herself smile at the brilliant flashes of light from the second round of fireworks. Apparently, the Hephaestus cabin had been having a lot of fun with explosives, helped out by a few Hermes and Ares campers.

When Percy kissed her forehead, Annabeth felt a hopeful flutter in her chest.

Hope.

That was the magic word.

She had graduated from high school. She had completed her first year of college. Both of those things seemed as incredible and had once seemed as unlikely as the fact that she had managed to survive being on the front lines of two wars. And now, she was hoping for a future she had once never even dared to dream about.

It felt good to be nineteen.

[chesthighwater]

daud for the character ask <3

First impression: FUCK that guy. CANNOT STAND HIS ASS. bro he killed my wife and kidnapped my child!!! the fucking plague is worse because of him!! OUR STATE'S INTELLIGENCE AGENCY PUT A TYRANT ON THE THRONE BECAUSE OF THIS GUY i am killing him the second i see him. on fucking sight. 0 mercy. kill kill murder kill (and i did. did not even let him finish the speech, just immediate "fuck you and die". i remember having discussed this with friends at the time and everyone being like "yeah no way that motherfucker gets to live, what the hell" LMAO)

Impression now: oh how the turn tables! um. im very normal about him. i have a normal amount of thoughts. it takes like centuries to get to the core of whatever the fuck his deal is. despite appearances, he operates internally from a collective "we" and doesn't know what to do with himself when it's gone. he very much tears himself apart but not in a tortured angsty way because he's totally fine and normal ok. grit teeth and push through survival attitude. more pretentious than he lets on, perhaps. he has so many fucking issues and he acknowledges 0 of them. saviour of orphans maker of orphans a frog in a boiling pot a cynically willing pawn a man of practicalities the shadow the heel the knife you already know all this

Favorite moment: excellent question! the most memorable things for me i think are the little first person cutscenes in the dlcs- him waking up (and potentially almost decapitating a whaler), putting on the overseer mask, interrogating the brigmore witch... and- i've talked about this before- i really like moments of him being very casually cruel. because that sort of thing comes so easy to him.

Idea for a story: ......my brainrot document which is pretty much just tiny ideas and snippets is currently 25 pages long and literally all of them save for a few involve daud. and that's not at all counting the offshoots in separate documents that are on their way to becoming actual fics. so yeah, idea for a story is right

Unpopular opinion: this is always a tough question to answer because i dont want to imply i know anything about what opinions are popular. but i guess. i slightly prefer high chaos Murder Enjoyer absolute bastard daud, and it takes me slightly more effort to get into low chaos grief stricken change of heart daud. i think the latter needs to be handled with a certain finesse (that i personally for instance lack LMAO)

Favorite relationship: it's almost overkill to answer this question. but daudmartin.

Favorite headcanon: ahahaha i have many :'D here let's go for something silly: he has an almost drill sergeant like attitude if a new whaler is REALLY going through it. hes not gonna NOT comfort them, but he's also. not really gonna comfort them. yknow very "okay i know this is tough and you hate me a little right now, but it's way worse out there, alright? so you have to get your shit together right here right now, or you'll die on an actual mission." it's not exactly tough love but it sure is something.

ask me characters and stuff<3

[corvuserpens]

So yeah, yesterday I decided to FINALLY watched The Meg bc everyone kept saying it was a silly fun shark movie... AND THEY WERE RIGHT. It was AWESOME.

I went in expecting practically nothing, and it blew me away. The story premise is ridiculous and it totally feels like the director, actors and crew 100% knew that and embraced it! The movie never takes itself too seriously, it practically tells you to just kick back and enjoy it for what it is, which is exactly what makes it so much fun. It's an exciting comedy horror about a giant prehistoric shark in present day Earth, the CGI is dubious but the cinematography makes up for it with some great, well composed shots. For example, when Suyin is in the trench and is being attacked by a giant squid? That in itself is pretty cool imagery, but then you see the Megalodon swimming over her sub with the squid in its mouth in the gloom, illuminated from below?? WOW????

Then the characters are like, surprisingly deep? They have interesting backstories that inform us on who they are and while Jonas is the only one who gets some screen time for his Big Trauma, we later learn that Lori might have blown up a whaler ship for an environment organization and that's how she learned to pilot? And that Suyin had a tough relationship with her dad but they love each other so much that with his dying breath he tells her how proud he is, that she already surpassed him as a scientist and he hopes Meying will grow up to be just like her? And we get all of that with some very organic, short dialog or like 3-4 minute scenes, which is rare these days. Legit good writing where it is most needed, all the more sober scenes are well-acted and so immersive, the characters are so likable I ended up rooting for all of them to survive (except that billionaire whose name I didn't bother to learn, everyone else I remember except him, FUCK that guy). Even the side characters, though flat, were interesting because the actors gave them so much personality!

And, WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE'S A WHOLESOME CISHET SHIP WITH JASON STATHAM WITH VERY LITTLE SEXUAL TENSION BUT A LOT OF ROMANTIC TENSION?? WHAT IS THIS WITCHCRAFT??? Seriously, I was shipping Jonas and Suyin so hard, their interactions were adorable. How he goes from being the typical Tough Manly Man Who Is Super Competent And Punches All The Bad Guys While Wearing The Same Tough Guy Face All Movie to genuinely caring for the whole Mana One crew and respecting Suyin as an accomplished female scientist in her own right who knows what she's doing and is also brave and headstrong herself... Much 'aww'ing' was done.

Not to make this too long a rant, I love talking about movies I enjoyed, sorry, but a few other small things I liked about it: that Lori and Jonas remained good friends who care and support each other, and want the other's happiness even being divorced, we need more of that! And Dr. Heller apologizing to Jonas and meaning it for saying he was crazy and basically ruining his life (plus Jonas forgiving him in the end), definitely wanna see more of that! Jonas' friendship with Meying, THAT WAS SO CUTE, I COULDN'T GET ENOUGH OF THEM!! The gags were all genuinely funny, I was laughing through most of the movie, and the jump scares got me more than a couple of times (though that might be a fault on my part, I'm a big wussy and I am not afraid to admit it). The action is so. DUMB. But it's the kind that it's so dumb it's good, y'know?

Final note, I gotta say, let Jason actually act more because he's really good and directors keep hiring him to play a stoic emotionless hero when he can do so much more? He has impeccable comedic timing, his line delivery no matter how bonkers, always lands, he's REALLY CHARMING and y'all are wasting his potential imo. Given, I haven't really watched many of his movies after the Transporter franchise, but for example, I loved him in The Italian Job and a couple of weeks ago I started watching Homefront and I was enjoying it because he gets to play a widower with a young daughter in a new town, and now I definitely need to finish it bc I'm a sucker for father/daughter dynamics.

Anyway, yeah, if you like sharks, B-movies or just something fun to watch that will make you laugh, go watch The Meg. It's good enough to convince me to go watch the sequel next August. Can't wait!

[measured-words]

Today once again we see demonstrated Melville/Ishmael’s great capacity to damn with faint praise and praise with faint damnation at the same time.  I have read this section so many times now, so for Book Club, here’s my attempt to unpack it - just talking about the section on Ahab at the end, the rest is more straightforward (just “more” though).

-on the whole, on Whaling ships, there is less strict division between lower officers and men behind the mast (or forecastle men), mostly because they live in such closed quarters for so freaking long. -There is still division and in some cases, some whaling Captains actually make the distinction of *their* rank greater and like to dress and act the part -Ahab mostly doesn't bother with this explicitly, but when he does it is usually in the interest of getting people to obey him - see for example the exchange with Stubb, though, re addressing people in unusual terms either condescendingly or to terrorize them into obedience. -he absolutely knows, as a captain, what is expected of hims and what he can get away with in terms of exerting his authority -he will used these expectations to get what he wants even when it is not related to doing his actual job - see him riling ppl up to go hunt Moby Dick -The bit about Sultanism is some classic Orientalism 'foreign types of governments where one person has all the power are bad' (vs American Democracy) and Ahab has a bit of this in him, and this is how it comes out. -even smart dudes can't just inherently make people obey them, there is always some kind of manipulation required, and this includes Ahab -even stupid people can be good at this kind of manipulation, even if they're not trying, because of how they are positioned in society -when smart and powerful people are good at this manipulation, fuckin' watch out -Ahab is in some ways, one of these guys.  Also : take note, this isn't necessarily a good thing, hint hint.  We know what happened to the fuckin' Czar. -But also he's still just a whaler, in the end, so power is relative -but this is the only level of this kind of power that I, Ishmael, am ever likely to actually engage with, so he may as well be a fuckin' emperor -But still, I'm kinda grasping to talk him up a bit, his greatness isn't really inherent, it's contextual. But Ahab is also grasping at these things in the world to create his own greatness.

That’s my interpretation, anyway.  This books is such a trip.

[rayless-reblogs]

"Get to Know You Better Meme"

I got this from @runicmagitek, thank you for that.

Last song. "I Need Nothing Else" by Sophie B Hawkins. I used to listen to her Whaler album back in the 2000s, then forgot about it for years. She has a fun, headlong, early 90s style that's extremely catchy.

Favorite color. I really like deep jewel tones, teals and wine-reds, also burnt orange. There's this really great magenta-touched purple that I use in some of my art that never scans correctly. We'll go with burnt orange today.

Currently watching. The Nanny, just started season 3. I've never seen it before, but I was lured in by the clothes.

Sweet/savory/spicy. Yes to sweet and savory, no to any but the most mild spices. I have wimpy taste buds, but I'm trying to build them up some. When I crave something, it's usually sweet, though often with savory undertones -- like a banana bread or Tollhouse pie with lots of walnuts in it.

Relationship status.

Current obsession. I'm focusing hard on the Next Book right now. I'm between edits, which has me antsy because I feel like I'm being "lazy". But the truth is, I have to take these breaks or I lose perspective on what I'm doing. But this month I'm going to be working on things like the cover and blurb and just going over how I want to talk about the book and present it to people. The process has its stressful moments, but I also really love the book, so it has its own kind of pleasure, thinking about it, preparing for it.

Last thing you googled. "greek epiousion". I just saw a post talking about how the Greek word epiousion only appears in the Lord's Prayer and its definition is a bit mysterious. It's the word we translate as "daily", as in "daily bread", but it's not the word the Greeks typically used for "daily", and the definition may actually be closer to "superessential". I think it's fascinating, and a little eerie, that things can feel so omnipresent and taken for granted, even when we have these gaps in our knowledge. What prayer, at least Christian prayer, is more omnipresent than the Lord's Prayer? And yet here it is, this strange, only semi-known thing right in the middle of it.

Also, all these centuries, we could have been bandying around a word like superessential like it's nothing, why can't we have that?

No tagging, but please do this if you're so inclined!

[meta-squash]

I love how many of Ishmael’s digressions could be serious or tongue-in-cheek and it’s so hard to tell sometimes. Any of the digressions where he’s talking about human nature in particular are mostly serious, but the identification of whales as fish (a whale is a fish because it’s not a walrus, etc) with all its false information is so hilarious.

And combined with some of the other tangents like the phrenology of whales, and the one where he claims St George and the Dragon is actually about a whale, it feels like some of these are at least slightly humorous.

Which I think is actually really cool because his more philosophical musings and those discussions of human nature and all the religious symbolism give it a lot of layers and there’s so much going on, but then you get to a moment like “the dragon St George fought was actually a whale and maybe the horse he was riding was actually a seal” and it’s Melville going “Haha! Gotcha! Remember this whole thing is a story being told by a sailor suffering from grief and trauma and desperately wanting the tale of his crew to be really important and for every detail to seem like something he’s Thought A Lot About. Except that sometimes those thoughts are ridiculous because he just really needs to believe it’s all worth it and able to be turned into something Epic (of the literal definition) instead of just one more guy telling a tale.

(sorry going on a different tangent that just came into my head here)

Also compare this whole story to all the sailors he encounters in the inn at the very beginning who pointedly Do Not Talk Or Tell Stories when they eat together, and how surprised Ishmael is when they don’t swap stories with each other and instead are totally silent. Him recording this story is the opposite of that silence. He gets to tell his entire tale, uninterrupted by other sailors. And he gets to spin it how he wants; other sailors might have opinions or thoughts about whales/whaling/practices/peoples that would cause them to question him. But he’s telling his tale to people who are not whalers, so he gets to tell it how he wants to.

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

1, 3, 9 & 16

1, list 3 positive things about your current fandom(s) is

The first is definitely the people I have gotten to interact with, you are all lovely and I enjoy your creative works and headcanons and jokes and just chatting about things in general. Second, it has got me writing again, even just a little bit. Swapping RP mini-fic has been very rewarding. Third, being a long-running comics fan means that you never really run out of material, there's always a chance that your fave that is dead or ruined will come back into the spotlight when another writer gets their hands on them, and even when all the material sucks you can still direct people to that handful of issues when your fave was written extremely well, and is of course, the only real canon for that character.

3, a character that fandom has helped you appreciate

Quite a few, just from talking with people here. Fabian Cortez, Sebastian and Shinobi Shaw, Haven, Unus, Blob, Monet

9, a ship that isn't your OTP but that you enjoy

Several ships for Pyro, really - Pyro/Avalanche is my real OTP, but I have come to really appreciate Pyro/Iceman (in the comics, I already appreciated the ship in the movies), Pyro/Shinobi, and some little bit of me wants to see Pyro/Bishop just for a fun little fling. Pyro is one of those characters that I will ship with many people, I just think he's neat.

I also want to say Sam/Bucky, because I only came around to that one from seeing fandom stuff (and pretty much ALL of their interactions in Falcon and the Winter Soldier), but that one has become an OTP for me.

16, a tiny detail in canon that you want more people to appreciate

Pyro's background as a journalist, pretty much never comes up in comics, although a few people at least acknowledge him as a romance novelist. Let my man do some reporting or at least help to gather information. I think the closest we have come to that was X-Men Green, with Pyro sending Nature Girl and Curse information about whalers inserted pretty blatantly into one of his novels, which was both an interesting idea, and also completely stupid and impossible (even bang-'em-out-fast romances take at least SOME time from "finished manuscript" to "book on store shelves," and if Pyro is going an actual book tour, he's probably not writing that kind.)

(I appreciate you particularly giving me Pyro the reporter in your last fanfic)

[focsle]

Night falls, so it’s time for a longass wooey post as usual.

I shared, in a much more prose-y capacity the trajectory of Mr. Martin’s life, but there was a significant chunk I didn’t include in that old post because I hadn’t dug into it yet. And there might be yet another additional Life Chapter that I’m not currently aware of, but so far everything I’ve learned from him falls in one of three categories: childhood, whaling, and the Cook Islands. He didn’t have a long life and certainly didn’t think much good about his first 21 years, so that may be it. But the fact that his time on Aitutaki takes such a prominent place in his memories when it was a really brief part of his life is poignant to me. 

The Aitutaki bits I saw from him were some of the most interesting to me, because it was something that I had no prior knowledge of (unlike whaling, where I always had a some doubt that because I knew so much of the history I was just making a string of lucky guesses). With the culture and language of the Cook Islands I didn’t know anything, and when I started to research more into it after the fact, I found so many things that matched what I saw. How houses were constructed, what certain homegoods and tools were, specific dishes and how they were presented and eaten, what people wore, what their names were, words in a language I had no familiarity with but ended up being Actual Words that contextually worked with the situation…

He didn’t finish out his third voyage. On the last leg of the journey, he requested a discharge at the Cook Islands just after his 27th birthday had passed (*somewhat corroborated. The logbook said 6 men came for their discharge and it was granted, and they were dropped off ashore but the log doesn’t list their names). His motivation was that he didn’t see the point of going all the way back to New Bedford just to ship out again. He had no love for New England, and didn’t want to spend months of boredom and bad weather leaving the cruising grounds just to go back to them. He didn’t want to round Cape Horn twice again. Since he was in the South Pacific already, he thought it’d be good to cut to the chase and just sign on with another vessel that was halfway through its voyage and looking for additional recruits. Like always, it had nothing to do with money—he knew he’d whale til the end, so he was fine cutting whatever losses may have come from taking a discharge pay instead of a cut of his ship’s profits. His plan was to recover on the island and then ship out with another whaler that touched down there. The fact that he thought it looked warm and beautiful helped elevate it over the prospect of sailing around the Horn again, too. But Aitutaki became so much more important to him than a temporary stopping point.

He lived there for a few weeks, no more than a month and a half. He stayed with a family—a young couple with two very small children who were maybe 2 & 3 years old. He traded some things with them, a shirt, a fid, and earned his keep by helping them (and other community members) with tasks around the island. He’d go out with a group of other men and help knock breadfruit out of trees with poles; as a harpooner he had a good arm for it. He’d help set up fishing nets and corral the fish into them. He’d carry baskets of drinking coconuts back to the home, or materials needed for repairs, or stones for fires. He laughed a lot with this couple, enjoyed their company. There was a language barrier but he didn’t mind it. He never talked much anyway, so being able to communicate more through pantomime, through body language, through not having to talk at all but just allowing for contented quiet was refreshing to him. Their little kids found him quite a novelty. They’d climb on him, pull his hair, shrill and run around him. He tolerated it, was amused by it. And he liked seeing how these parents interacted with their children. He had a bad home life growing up, had an awful relationship with his own parents so it was bittersweet seeing this one. Seeing what that relationship was supposed to look like. It bummed him out a little, but he liked seeing the warmth.

The first night he arrived on the island he met a girl. Gave her a roll of blue fabric from his seachest by way of introduction. She was the one who later introduced him to the above family when he asked if there might be a place for him to stay in the interim while waiting for another ship. He thought her very charming, and over the weeks that he was there they carried on an intimate relationship, albeit not in a way that they made known to her community. She was gentle with him—he’d never known anyone who’d treated him with such gentleness. It was the first time that he felt like he could actually let his guard down with someone, just a little. He felt cared for by her, and wanted to care for her in turn during the time he was there.

Between her, the couple he stayed with, and other community members he worked and played around with, was a brief window where he felt like he almost had a family for the first time in his life. His sense of belonging on whaleships, while so very strong and so much a part of him, wasn’t connected to people. It was connected to the work and his skill and sense of purpose in that work. In Aitutaki it was the people. He felt safe there. I don’t know if he’d ever felt safe before then. He was of course at ease and confident on a whaleship and ports of call, but that’s not the same as feeling ‘safe’. It was a different sort of belonging he felt here. When he laid in the family’s kikua by the door in the dark and quiet, and could hear the breeze rustling the trees and the thatch on the cottage, and the ocean, and the gentle snoring of the parents sleeping further inside with their children, he felt a different sort of home. 

Once I was looking at videos of the lagoon in Aitutaki and they just like…grabbed my throat, seeing them.  I told him he could’ve stayed there, that he may have lived longer if he did. But he had never seen that as an option. He didn’t even consider it because it was so different from the life he knew, no matter how content it made him in the moment. There was always an unsettled restless undercurrent within him while he stayed there because he felt so sure that it was temporary, that he couldn’t stay. What he knew and what he built his life out of was on those ships. Overhauling that belief never really crossed his mind.

Eventually a ship made a provision stop there—he called it a ‘French’ ship, but also said he was on the ‘Napoleon’ which was a Nantucket vessel. I don’t know if it was a real French ship he took passage on to a port to sign onto an American whaler, or if he was conflating the ‘French’ name of this American ship in his memory of it. Either way, Martin sought out the girl who had done him so many kindnesses, kindnesses more significant to him than he thinks she knew, and bid her farewell. He went to the couple’s home to collect his belongings—the mother was there and he thanked her for allowing him to stay. The father wasn’t there, and with time pressing Martin wasn’t able to say goodbye to him…that beat him up a bit because he’d grown quite close to him.

He signed on with an American whaler that had stopped there mid voyage, just as he planned. At first it felt good and comfortable to be back aboard. But soon after he started to wonder if he’d made the right decision. He felt off kilter from the rest of the crew, being new. He didn’t have the same reputation or leverage he would’ve had had he signed on to a new ship with an advanced rank at the start of a voyage. He had to prove himself all over again, which he did quickly enough, but it still made him unsure of where he stood there. He once again felt emotionally distant from his shipmates in a way that definitely wasn’t a new experience, but suddenly it bothered him a bit. There were times that he missed the people he left on Aitutaki. He wondered after them sometimes.

As it’s nearing the date I got for his birthday, I asked him to show me one. I got his 28th, which would’ve been a year after he first went to Aitutaki. This was also the last birthday he’d live to see. He’s on this fourth vessel—this vessel I have no historical record connecting him to like the others, but feels like it happened. It’s dark and he’s laying in his bunk, holding his protection certificates. I ask what he feels on his birthday, and I just get a dull loneliness. Late that evening he’s taking stock of his life. He didn’t tell anyone it was his birthday, he never does because he doesn’t see the point in doing so. They were never much of a big deal, but this one’s a somber reflective moment for him. He feels pride in being a whaleman; it’s the only thing he’s proud of, but it’s getting hard on him. He feels proud, but he’s lonely, he misses the islands sometimes, he sometimes regrets signing on to a ship mid voyage, and whaling is getting hard on his body. He’s starting to hurt, he’s starting to get tired. It’s a sort of resignation that in that moment he doesn’t feel sure in his decision for being here like he did on the other ships. Those feelings always go away when he’s in his element and in the thick of the work, and the world feels right to him again. But that night on his birthday as he’s getting older and knows that he’s going to one day die out there in this world, he feels a twinge of sadness.

The last 7 years of his life really meant something to him, but that handful of weeks he spent in Aitutaki held a similar weight to the 7 years where he found his sense of self as a whaler. And I wonder sometimes how the people he knew on the island fared in their own lives. I wonder how his life may have gone had there been more time for him to mull over how that handful of weeks changed him. It makes me sad, but in a way that I’m happy that he was able to find something like that before the end of it.

[areax]

Here's a couple 🔪👁‍🗨 🌆 👥

🔪 How did you choose to handle your targets in (DH, DH2, KOD, BW, DOTO)?

i usually choose the non lethal option. i think the only person i killed on purpose on my first playthrough was ummm havelock because i was like WHERES MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH. in knife of dunwall and brigmore witches i was much less merciful bc i figured it fit with daud's character better. and actually my first time i killed daud because i was like ok you still killed my wife though i don't care that you're sad about it

👁‍🗨 Stealth or combat?

stealth because in combat i get so so scared. i'll do combat if i'm really forced into it like if theres just one or two guards that spot me i can do it but usually i simply run

🌆 Dunwall or Karnaca? Why?

dunwall is The Place it's the iconic one but if i had to choose a place to visit between the two i would go to karnaca

👥 Do you have any OC(s) or fan characters? Talk about them a little! If you don’t, share a headcanon about your favorite character.

marinus is my beloved but i also have other dishonored ocs, one is siobhan who is a whaler (in the daud sense) but thinks he’s a pussy for being sad about killing the empress so she eventually leaves them and goes and becomes a bar owner. she is very sexy and everyone wants her, she’s like jolene from jolene. the other is ianthe desjardens who is marinus’ patron once they arrive in the isles. she has hysterical woman disease (officially diagnosed) and collects a lot of trinkets and artifacts

[the-firebird69]

SBD World’s Strongest Man | Vroom vroom 🏎️💨 @eddiejowilliams 🇦🇺 | #WSM2024 | Instagram

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Justin Timberlake so our son wants to change this then he wants to add a special gearing system so when you pedal it's storing the energy and the instances you would have to pedal how reduced give me time to recover. And we to see this scum. So it's a great idea and see me of doing it for like a drag course and where where it's like 100 yards and see who goes the farthest fastest and it's a great idea the terrific idea and it will work it's a technology they always wanted to try and get to work he doesn't really work that great but it would if they kept trying it and the strong men are for it so you can do with a Volkswagen but he says it has to be just the Volkswagen frame and like the back end of it in the top so I can see his legs and see him struggling and see how big the muscles are huge muscles in these guys and people think they're not strong because they struggle with it that they're doing many reps since a great idea and it would look a lot of fun too it would be a lot of fun and we could have them try out the scooters maybe a little heavier duty and people think they can't do it it will make a smaller one and they'll think they can but these guys will get those scooters up to and over 100 mph pretty easily

I'm running this office and idea to do and we're going to sign it try and get people going on it they plan one more stupid f****** thing around him parents really sick of their attitude and stuff but okay

There's some boats down here I thought they're pretty nice I'm Boston whalers probably the only vote you can do that with cuz it will float no matter what you do to it and has a side Ransom it's pretty nice

And some kids came down and we were talking smack to the guy no it's really odd questions lame and he answered him hoping they would go away and it was actually impatient with our son you know sounds good I can sells a lot of boats and he's wondering why since I sit down here and people want to have they want to sleep and it says that's ridiculous he's looking at who you are and stuff even though he knows and he says you know it's actually true so it went okay and he remembers the Carver and how sturdy it was in the water the guy's a Sea Ray fan he says different boat for a different application but with the whaler you can do both and he just told him and the guy didn't figure it out it's like oh I'll see you six dockside you go out and you do whatever you want with the boat it's more seaworthy and you can stay on it and entertain on it and have these seats on the wailer now but they have them in the back it's pretty much a great all around boat and it's good for your lobstering fishing crabbing quahog and more even hauling stuff but interestingly enough you cannot have a inboard here because it's the motor will rot I found it interesting you would do it you knew about it and it looks like the guy from Rhode Island a little things related there's some other stuff this crime is rude no matter what you do love is by accident a lot of it's on purpose but it's rude I mean very rude and they were sick of it

To decent day it's decent out if you want to get oxygen and doing that after the mall to kind of suffocates you there's a lot going on here A bunch of people and some different people but mostly the same they're having a little party tonight it's food and vendors and stuff finally I really just not much for him to do there's nobody to talk to nobody is a friend and doing on purpose so you're going to be out soon this movie is about the warlock trying after a minority more like ships. And it seems that they're possibly going to try that first instead of the pseudo empire you think so but it doesn't make sense or already attacking the pseudo empire and it is Dave and Trump who try to take over USA they're doing that to go after minority warlock but it looks like they're going after Small potatoes first and the Small potatoes kick their ass and push them out and they do that might even be on purpose to take his stuff and money and ships don't think they fail so it's like a side thing it's not really the Big show but it probably kicks off the Macklemore lock going after the pseudo empire ships because that shouldn't really happen that way and we think that it's kind of an obscure thing it's kind of a remote thing it's just doesn't sound like chance but it's probably what it is.

-and those further news there are a huge number of people coming down from Georgia and Alabama get some mix it's almost 50/50 and they have been doing that and you think they'd fill up Florida yeah they come down and fight and yeah it disappear and they're going to tonight and they sent 1500 up from Charlotte county all of them are kernels and generals and 300 died 200 are in critical condition and not expected to make it in the horrified again there are probably 100 more that are teetering with that leaves 900 they're out of those 400 are injured 300 badly so it was horrible and they didn't repel many and the other side is losing too and statistics

-the Mac morlock together were 11.5 2 and 1/2 weeks ago and now they're down to 7.5% for real and falling and on the islands they were 15% and now they are about 13% so it's bad there but they just started to go down aftermax.

-the pseudo empire was 7.5% last week they dropped the percent to 6.5% and their losses are huge on both sides that's a lot of people but the battles have just started beginning there's huge battles in there over giant things oh and they have just begun and they're getting behind a little they lost their fleets that's not a ton of people in there but that their support system is getting beat up for the fuel depots and more by the pseudo empire and they're trying to take the ships back when they attack them and it's not going out very well is a huge war now and yeah this thing with Trump and Dan is like a Segway but they're trying to mess up several things our son is one of them and we can't have it this show is going to go on this weekend we can see DC is kind of shut down and they're in there trying to make decisions and things like that this is a rulership house it is that of Dave and Carol and there are things down below that they didn't see they do want to go there because of that it's one of the major reasons and they don't get to look below they do a few more movies trying their son said this probably something there that's where the rule from tunnels directly to the big ships or indirectly and they got that and said wow so it's going on now that people are going crazy about this stuff they'll find out that our son is somebody and maybe not a player in this game or anything but he is kind of a big wheel so there's some respects but these two are nasty and they can have who's doing this running around stuff there's another aspect to it

-they keep on saying that they're going to hit him and that is unacceptable they're going to go down fairly soon within a couple days they're going to be gone from saying all this s*** guarantee and people say it too A lot of people say you're around here a lot of them planet this big groups now going after the trumps they're very obnoxious and lame and steal everything they have everything off our son they need to pay it's not our plan to do that or anyone else's it's this idiot

-we're going to go ahead and make sure that he's better we need to get this guy off and

-for the more we need to do it now I want a huge project started on this and it's called salvation for our people in our son and daughter and Terminator salvation sounds great I do understand why

-we've had enough of this your week and stuff so we're going to pummel you

-we also have a war going on the pseudo empire took a beating in the eastern hemisphere you're not down too far but they're on 75% of capacity across the board in the same of the West they're having a war but they lost people but it's only a percent but right now people are going to go to the Continental cavities that are open and those would be Australia and New Zealand Nova Scotia is really Newfoundland Iceland and the thousand Islands people are looking at the Marshall Islands and they are connected with Kauai and there's a huge cabin there and I think it's empty and that would be a problem it's hard to see anything it's like 10 million people there and that's it so BG got the word out and people are checking and found all sorts of stuff and bja tries to go out there and battleship and gets ruined and it's a war and a very bad one

-couple more things a son keeps getting threat after threat after threat and have had it we need to weed people out I want people who do that and do it well to report to duty now and right now

- there are people are going to have to get rid of and that guy's and that guy passing by is on the list but think it's throwing stuff and then you might be so it's over for him.

-not only did the huge Continental caverns skit investigated over the past few days they were investigated. By the warlock and the minority morlock and foreigners even we went down and other ends they are now experiencing a second wave which consists of troops to verify the information using all sorts of different methods and to report it in using much more concrete systems it was a preliminary investigation now they're doing a real one they'll find them down there and it's going to be a war

-people are interested in the clay they're going there now and they heard it will be useful against a few things and they really need that right now and so they're checking into it and reviewing it and they're going to most likely start building things with it and they do appreciate it they said it's so damn solid that it could go through anything and that's the point that the fuselage itself will drive a warhead into something due to mass and inertia and how solid it is and reinforcing weakens it most reinforcing would do almost all don't put anything in it and you bake it slowly it had several experiments someone made a 10-ft warhead and you fired off and it works and the warhead is kind of projectile in it it's it's a engine and it flies itself and it smashed through a wall it's about 40 ft thick and it went right through almost with ease and usually they stop at 5 ft so you can make it go faster hotter and burn it almost as hot as you want and nothing pretty much nothing will do it and do anything to it and it goes they've got them up to 400,000 miles an hour in the atmosphere and the stone where it says ablative and they measured what they think is about an inch before impact after like 10 miles so it's much more dangerous to us and other groups are going to fight over that clay and is beginning now

-along with those fines they're finding that the max are at these locations and it's scaring the s*** out of them and it should they don't know if they're fighting each other or Giants or the clams or us and have to get to work immediately they also know anyone can pretend to them like also the clans and they would be screwed they're going as fast as they can finally and it's awful they seem lethargic and they're just trying and they get sick and they get cranky and it looks like the same thing so we're going to publish there's a couple more wars that are huge developing

Thor Freya

Olympus

[mobydicks203-briancarew]

Insurance by Day, Whaler by Night? Maybe Not so Exactly.

Nick Ruickoldt is one of the owners of the new bar Moby Dick’s in West Haven, CT on Campbell Ave. Moby Dick’s opened as an upscale oyster bar on August 18, 2022. The bar was made to resemble the inside of a whaler's ship, hence the name which was the name of the place about 50 years before. Ruickoldt and the rest of the team tried their best to keep the original pieces of the bar intact. For example, the authentic paintings inside each porthole, the wood beams going across the ceiling, and the same copper bar with all the carvings of people’s names and so what  in the wood going around it. Moby Dick’s obviously isn’t just known for their looks, but their food and drinks as well. Any of the bartenders can make you a one-of-a-kind espresso martini while you enjoy Chef Jeff Lamberti’s signature dish of the week, his classic cast iron mac and cheese, or go raw bar and have some fresh oysters. Ruickoldt explained that he believes the community has taken a liking to Moby Dick’s because of the aesthetics, food and drinks, and the “home feel” the business gives off. Although Ruickoldt has been somewhat successful in the bar business so far, this is not his main interest or where his main income comes from. As a graduate of Merrimack College in 2008 Ruickoldt found himself in the insurance world. He started working at The Russell Agency in 2009 and in 2013 Ruickoldt was elected to West Haven’s city council as a representative of the second district. However, that term came to end but Ruickoldt still stays in touch with many of the other representatives. 

Interview

Q: What is your typical day like? 

Ruickoldt: “My primary living is in insurance. My real estate ventures and Moby Dick’s are side interests. So I have an ownership stake in it, but we have employees and managers that run day-to-day operations.”

Q: So you would say you are not there on scene front and center?

Ruickoldt: “Yes, exactly. My model is to find other really good people that can manage these things for me on a day-to-day basis and then just report up to me in various capacities.”

Q: What made you get into your extracurricular activities, like the city council position? 

Ruickoldt: “I got involved there because I had some issues that I wanted to work on so I decided to run for office to make those changes on that level. I really learned to love it and got more involved. Other opportunities opened up and I was able to serve in multiple different capacities.”

Q: What specific issues were you concerned about?

Ruickoldt: “The two major ones were economic development and how our beachfront was being handled and taken care of.”

Q: When talking to you about how the customers enjoyed the place, you used the term “home feel”. Where does the feeling come from?

Ruickoldt: “I believe the feeling mainly comes from the great staff that has become a close-knit community. We try and have our employees remember as many names as possible and I think that makes a huge difference in customer satisfaction.” 

Q: Can you tell me about the trivia night you recently started doing?

Ruickoldt:  “The trivia night idea was an attempt to try and bring in more business. We have it every Wednesday and have various topics ranging from 80s music, sports, and close to St. Patty’s Day we did an “All things Irish” edition as a fundraiser for the Greater New Haven St. Patrick's Day Parade Committee.”

Q: Is there anything else you did for St. Patrick’s Day?

Ruickoldt: “Yes actually we had a leprechaun hide bags of gold around the city with the hopes of the public going out and finding them and bringing them to Moby Dick’s on St. Patrick’s Day to win a prize. The people loved the idea. So many people saw the leprechaun and gave him compliments or wanted to take a picture with him. Doing events like these definitely add to the “home feel” we were talking about before.” 

Q: What have been the main obstacles you have faced when opening the bar?

Ruickoldt:  “It's always people right, in any business. I think the biggest hurdle is always finding the right people. The ones with the right skill sets. It’s finding the right people to bring together because ultimately it’s your people who are going to make or break your business. Dealing with permits, construction, delays, and cost increases due to covid are all other things you have to deal with but I think they are pretty manageable and just a part of the business.”

Q: What is a piece of advice you would give someone who is filling your shoes?

Ruickoldt: “People, Process, Product. We buy the best fish and shellfish that money can buy. We try to pay our people the most we can and still run a business and we are still looking to figure out the best process. That's another obstacle we've encountered is the process. Fine-tuning that process to one, be efficient, and control costs but to give our customers the best experience possible to make a safe environment for your employees.”

[fandomwriterstuff]

“We’re a well-oiled team of military-grade kindergarteners,” his best friend, and the only other human on the ship who would understand what kindergarten was, continued chastising him and his companions. “The level of education and training among the three of you eclipses that of the entire rest of the members of this operation,” Annabeth continued, pointing her finger individually at himself, his pilot Jason, and his Chief Science Officer Nico. “You know, I’m not that surprised with you, Percy, but you are our XO so you should really be more responsible,” he winced at that, still feeling a bit of imposter syndrome at being the Commander of the USS Olympus. “Jason, shouldn’t you be piloting a ship or something?” At that, he saluted her and did an about face before scampering off to get into more trouble. “And you, you’re definitely way too responsible to have gotten mixed up with this Seaweed Brain and Sparky, so what’s in this tomfoolery for you?”

Nico, the only Neptunian on the ship, shifted his large black wings self consciously under the scrutiny of their Chief of Operations. Percy, as the Commander of the vessel, felt obligated to protect his usually stoic and well-behaved… acquaintance? Di Angelo was reserved, almost standoffish, and resented anyone who tried to stick up for him for some reason, but that didn’t stop Percy’s stupid seaweed brain from doing so. Hence the acquaintance. Percy was 99% sure Di Angelo didn’t consider him a friend. But he was nice to Percy and a great officer, so Percy considered him his friend.

“It was my fault, Annie,” he used her childhood nickname carefully, not knowing whether it would soften her up or piss her off more. He was hoping for softening. “It was just another one of Jason and my dumb ideas that we thought we would need a scientist to help with, and we didn’t want to piss off Leo by involving him in it. You know how he is about his engineer and warp cores and whatnot,” Percy held his hands up placatingly. “Leave Di Angelo out of this, he has sciencey things to do, isn’t that right?” Percy side-eyed his companion who (not surprisingly) rolled his eyes.

“I try not to get involved with human pranks or even Jovian mischief, but Officer Grace and First Officer Jackson were about to be meddling with my linguistics team. It isn’t my duty to tell my superiors what to do, so I sought out the next best option, supervising and ensuring no lasting damage was done to the physical or emotional state of the linguistics team. Now,” Here Percy held in a smirk as Di Angelo shrugged. “If they caused interference with the machinery of the ship, that wouldn’t be my expertise, so I allowed it to happen and-” Percy held back a laugh as the other male started speaking even faster to get everything out as Annabeth turned redder and redder. “I’m very sorry about that, truly, but I had no control over the situation.”

“No control over the situation? You three broke our LIT machine and now we have to go back to Earth as soon as we pass close enough to fix it. Soon enough nobody on this ship will understand each other,” the woman across from them crossed her arms and Percy shrunk back a bit.

“I want to make a joke about a machine being called “LIT,” but I feel like it isn’t the right time,” he muttered. “I know the Linguistic Inhibition Technology is important, but most of us have a working understanding of at least one other language, so it shouldn’t be a huge issue, right?”

“You know it works by connecting to the implant technology in our brains, so as it shuts down one by one, members of this ship from spaces stations and planets far and wide will have no clue why they suddenly can’t understand their XO, or their Chief Officer, or their best friend. So you better explain this. And you have to tell them that we’re going straight back to Earth to fix it because no nearby planets have the same brain implant tech as us. Damn Terrans and their brand name technology copyrights,” Annabeth grumbled and finally turned around to walk off.

“Hey, you’re Terran, too!” Percy shouted after her, but she just flipped him the bird.

“She can do that?” Di Angelo asked, side-eyeing Percy.

“Yeah, she’s been my best friend since we were twelve. As long as she doesn’t undermine my authority in front of everyone else, I don’t really care. I’ve done way worse to her,” Percy laughed at the other man’s frown. “Nothing bad, just pranks and things of that sort. Maybe when we get back to Earth we can show you where we’re from. You never set foot off of the training grounds while you were in school.”

“I would… like that,” Di Angelo paused and gave Percy a soft smile.

“Great,” Percy patted the younger male on the shoulder and made his way to the Command Center.

Percy sat himself down in the rotating chair and pressed on the comms device.

“Gooooood evening crew of the USS Olympus, this is your Commanding Officer, Percy Jackson, speaking,” he smiled at the engineering crew that was scuttling by, only for one of them to pause and look at him like he was speaking a different language… Whoops.

“There was a malfunction with the Linguistic Inhibition Technology and we will be returning to Earth henceforth to repair it before the damage becomes problematic. You may experience glitches with your implant technology and may revert to only understanding your first language and those you have studied extensively. If somebody looks like they’re not understanding what I’m saying right now, please escort them to the linguistics team in Science Bay 3. Carry on. Jackson, out.” He clicked again and the mic turned off.

He sighed, this would be one of his bigger mistakes. They were supposed to be exploring, but they couldn’t do that if nobody could speak to one another. One trip home couldn’t hurt him, and he was sure Annabeth would be happy to see her father.

It wasn’t until later after the Chief Officer meeting when someone finally asked Percy about Earth. For many of the non-humans on the ship, Earth was a place to get education and training to go out in the star fleet, and they never set foot outside the campus grounds, just like Di Angelo. But people had stopped asking him questions because Earth was basically “Space Australia,” as Annabeth had explained to him. The adaptability of humans and their need to pack bond astounded many and horrified many others. So, he stopped talking about home.

It was a new member of their ship, Novax (a Vulcan who was a part of Leo’s engineering team), who asked him about it first.

“I hear Earth is 75% made of pure salt water, and is filled with animals of all kinds. Do you have a favorite water animal?” he asked Percy excitedly.

“Definitely dolphins, though they aren’t underwater creatures. Like humans they need oxygen to breathe, and come up for air very often. My favorite actual underwater species would have to be a hippocampus from Neptune. I’ve always wanted to go and see one, but my human anatomy prevents me from going on-planet,” Percy explained and sipped on his hot tea.

“There are a million creatures in the ocean and you pick one that doesn’t breathe underwater?” Clarisse grunted. His Chief Tactical Officer was a brutish Martian, but very specialized in weapons. “And your second favorite isn’t even Terran.”

“What else do you know about the ‘ocean’?” Novax breathed, leaning forward.

“Eh, not much,” Percy shrugged.

“I’m not sure I heard that correctly, maybe my LIT unit isn’t functioning well,” another member of engineering asked, Nyssa. “Your planet is 75% water and you don’t even know what is inside it?”

“I could tell you about the people who spend their life learning about what survives in the deep depths,” Percy looked up, knowing he had all of the non-Terrans hooked on every word. Even Di Angelo had paused in his note taking and was staring wide-eyed at Percy. “But I don’t know if you’d want to know.”

“No we do!” Nyssa exclaimed. “There are people who dedicate their lives to a place that’s literally not navigable by humans, the main inhabitants of the planet?”

“Well as you said, most of the planet is water. Which means that coastal communities are filled with fisherman, whalers, swimmers, and more. I could tell you about some of those. I could also tell you about the scientists that spend years of their lives building bots that can’t even come close to withstanding the pressure at the deepest depths without imploding, or I could tell you about those that do come close,” he shrugged.

“What happened to those?”

“The video feed cut out after only seeing multiple rows of sharp, jagged teeth,” Annabeth answered, her sharp grin frightening those who hadn’t noticed her. Some forgot that she was Terran, because she was also half Minervan.

“I could tell you about whales. Beautiful, they come in black and white or grey or blue. But they can be as big as almost 100 feet long. That’s as long as most pirate ships. And they could fit about 400 average sized humans in their mouths. You don’t want to cross one of them. And they only live on the surface. The things that live in the deep,” Percy shuddered for effect. There were no Neptunians on the ship, so there were no natural water dwellers there, so all of his rapt listeners were shocked by this information. “There’s the anglerfish. They light up the dark with an antenna on top of their heads, and the light lures in prey. But it’s so dim elsewhere that you don’t see their big sharp teeth until you’re right up against them,” he murmured. “Giant squids are almost as big as whales but not nearly as peaceful and beautiful. They have eight arms and two tentacles that could wrap around any boat and crush it.”

“Ten limbs?” Nyssa whispered, clearly disturbed.

“Plus, the Portuguese Man o’ War,” Percy shrugged nonchalantly. “Also known as the floating terror. It’s like a big blue jellyfish that sits innocently on top of the water with huge blue tentacles that sit just underneath with a sting strong enough to kill a full grown human.”

“Don’t worry,” Annabeth grinned that shark grin again. “Percy won’t tell you about the stories of the old days. He doesn’t want to scare you.”

“That was the not scary part?” Novax gulped.

“Anyway, I just got notified that we’ll be back on Earth in a few days, so brace yourselves,” and with that, she stood and left them all staring after her. When the door clicked shut, Percy had all eyes back on him. He shrugged.

“Don’t look at me. I wasn’t going to tell you about the kr- nevermind,” he stood. “Di Angelo, with me,” the younger officer stood, back to business and was at Percy’s side again in a moment. “Clear your schedule, you’re spending shore leave with me, pal.”

“Great,” came the deadpan reply.

“Don’t sound so somber,” Percy rolled his eyes. “I’m just going to show you the beach and maybe a good gay bar. You need to let off some steam my dude.”

The other male reddened.

“That is so… That is…” he huffed. “Highly inappropriate.” he glared down at the ground and Percy felt a little bad, maybe the guy wasn’t out? But it was clear he had a preference for males. Oh well, that foot was already in Percy’s mouth.

“Fine. But I will be attending and I am a great dancer so you’re missing out,” he winked at the flustered officer and made his way back to his cabin. It would be an interesting few days.

He made a plan with Annabeth. Day one before shore leave, Percy would spread a rumor to Novax about the kraken. Bigger than a giant squid and meaner. Known to crush entire pirate ships in the olden days.

Day two, Annabeth would mention sirens to Nyssa. Hideous creatures that could lure you in with their voices and lead you to believe you were bringing your ship in to everything you ever wanted, when in reality you would crash your ships and then drown.

Day three, Percy would tell Leo about the Megalodon. A definitely very real shark so big you couldn’t even imagine it. Percy shuddered at that one.

“But, there are some good things,” Percy was speaking to Nico Di Angelo from his Commander chair, in ear shot of some of the participants of the conversation a few nights prior. “Mermaids, the siren’s nicer cousin species. And the lost city of Atlantis. Known to be a great and bountiful city, lost to the sea and cursed by the gods to be stuck down there forever. Some believe it still exists, but it’s within the Bermuda Triangle.”

“What, pray tell, is the Bermuda Triangle,” Clarisse sighed.

“Hard to explain. Ships just… go in… and they never come out,” Annabeth shrugged. “Planes go down. Ships wreck. People who go in don’t come back out, so we don’t know if Atlantis is really there or not.”

“That’s… terrifying,” Novax whispered as he walked by.

Percy was sure he had created a healthy fear of Earth’s oceans in his crew. And he meant to, because while he loved the beach and swimming, he did want to make them shy away from the depths. They wouldn’t do well to explore it.

[ltwilliammowett]

The unlucky Captain Pollard Jr.

Since we just talked about unlucky people on board a ship. Here I have someone who has really leased the bad luck. Captain George Pollard Jr. was first captain on the infamous Whaler Essex, which was first rammed twice by a Sperm Whale and then sank.

Pollard were in poor mental health (dissociative) after 93 days at sea in the whaleboat. They were transferred to Two Brothers another whaler which was heading to Valparaíso, Chile.

The whaleship "Essex" leaves Nantucket, August 12th, 1819, by A.D. Blake (x)

After recovering, he actually became captain of a ship again, of the previously named Two Brothers, he was joined by Thomas Nickerson Essex former cabin boy and now boatswain. She set sail for the Pacific in November 1821, where she remained until February 1823.

Two Brothers illustration, by James Abundis (x)

On the 11th of the month she was caught in a storm together with the Martha, another whaler. Both ships tried to stay within sight of each other, but lost each other during the night. Soon the Two Brothers ran aground and sank on a reef near French Frigate Shoals. Captain Pollard did not want to abandon ship, but his crew pleaded with him, and they clung to small boats through the night. The next morning they were rescued by Martha. Pollard's reputation was already tarnished because of the cannibalism that had set in after the Essex incident and the fact that Pollard's mental health was not the best, which the Two Brothers incident may have reinforced. He gave up his career, made only one more trip with a merchant vessel and then became a night watchman on Nantucket, until he died in 1870.

The wrack of the Two Brothers was found in 2008.

One of Two Brothers anchors (x)