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uncloseted · 3 months

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i feel like your taste is so chic and effortlessly cool, so what are your current favorites? anything as far as trinkets, skincare, movies, foods, creators, music ect! I feel like you spend so much time giving advice that it would be fun to learn a lil more about what makes you happy lately! hope you're having a good day!!!

That's so nice of you! I've been collecting the things I've been loving over the past few days and here's what I came up with:

Clothes, makeup, and hair:

Essie Expressie Seize the Minute quick dry nail polish, which is a really nice red with blue undertones

Lisa Says Gah Museo Bianco Elizabeth Dress, which I bought secondhand off Depop. I got it for my trip to Greece but I'm worried it's a little too on the nose so I'm not sure if I'll bring it yet (still very cute though)

Uniqlo Wide Straight Jeans. They're just the right amount of slouchy

This matching set from Amazon. I've been wanting a set like this for a few months now and I ended up being so pleasantly surprised with this one. It ended up being way cuter than in the product pictures and fitting really well

Inkey List Vitamin C Serum. It's made my skin tone way more even and bright, and they're a clean, cruelty free brand

Tir Tir Red Cushion foundation. Mostly I bought it because I think the packaging looks really chic, but the product provides a really nice, buildable coverage as well

Jones Road Miracle Balm in Au Natural. This one I got as a gift and at first I didn't really get how you were supposed to use it, but now I'm really into it. It gives the nicest dewy glow without looking shiny.

Video Essays:

Jenny Nicholson's "The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel". She hated the part of the experience that I worked on as much as I hated working on it, so I feel vindicated 😭. If you've ever wondered what it was like to stay at Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, this answers that question in such intricate detail that by the end of it you'll feel like you actually went

Quinton Reviews' "The Failure of Victorious" and "The End of Victorious". As you might guess from the titles, it's about the Nickelodeon show Victorious and why it was such a failure. Is this the second time I've watched all thirteen hours of this? Yes. Do I regret it? No, not really.

PhilosophyTube in general, but especially her recent video "I Read The Most Misunderstood Philosopher in the World" which is about Judith Butler's philosophy of gender.

Music:

Chappell Roan. It's Pride month, I'm a queer woman, enough said

I've been getting back into Marina lately, especially her newest album, Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land. She's always been my pick out of the Tumblr sad girl musicians and I'm really impressed with how her music (and her public persona) has grown and changed over the years

I Only Have Eyes for You by Tashaki Miyaki. I heard this song years ago and it randomly popped into my head the other day and would not leave. It's just very vibey

TV:

Doctor Who with Ncuti Gatwa. I'm in love with him and I think his take on The Doctor is perfect.

Legion. I mostly started watching this because my girl Lauren Tsai is in the third season, but I love it. I think it's a really unique take on the superhero genre.

Bee and Puppycat. This is a show about a girl named Bee and her best friend/pet who is a mysterious creature who looks kind of like a cat and kind of like a dog. They take temporary jobs so that they can afford to buy snacks and leather jackets. It's a really special show, and I've watched it a few times now. The original series is on YouTube, and there's also a series on Netflix that expands on the original episodes.

Books:

Babel by RF Kuang. I'm reading this for a book club and I'm really enjoying it so far. It's about a child in an alternative-reality 1830s England who is adopted from China and taken to Oxford University to study the art of translation.

Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey. I've actually never read The Odyssey before because I am bad at being Greek and also at being a supposed descendant of Homer. Dr. Wilson is the first woman to translate The Odyssey into English

Games:

I just finished playing Planet of Lana, which is a really gorgeous puzzle-platformer inspired by the aesthetics of Studio Ghibli films and the gameplay of Playdead games such as Limbo and Inside. It has a great story about a girl who's looking for her sister, who has been abducted by hostile alien machines.

Places:

Wasteland secondhand stores in LA. I've been finding a lot of really great pieces there in the past few weeks, and the pieces I've found there have been around 75-90% off their original price.

La La Kind Cafe. I go to these when I need to convince myself to leave my house. They have a good vibe and the drinks are great.

Miscellaneous Stuff:

Nicola Coughlan. I've been watching all of the interviews she's doing for Bridgerton and I'm obsessed with her whole vibe. Her new dark comedy show about a woman with bipolar disorder, Big Mood, is also really great.

Earscapes. I reopened a bunch of old piercings I had and I'm having so much fun trying different combinations of earrings in them. I honestly can't believe I left them closed for so long.

Using lipstick as blush. I have such a hard time finding blush colors that work for me and then finding a blush that goes with my lipstick. So instead what I've been doing lately is putting on my lipstick, blotting it with my finger, and then using the leftover on my cheeks. It works super well and it means I can stop buying new blush products

This sardine tin makeup pouch. I haven't gotten it yet so I can't tell you how it is, but I just thought it looked so cute, and I needed a makeup bag for travel. I'll let you know if it ends up being good

Baths, just as a general concept. My old apartment didn't have enough hot water to fill up a bath, so I never used to take them, but they're so great? I got this full body bath pillow, which has made it was more comfortable to just relax there.

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cosmicspacewidow · 1 year

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Finding a Home

AN: This is the first story I've written in years but a friend of mine convinced me to come back to Tumblr so I thought I could share it here. I've spent years reading fic wonderful fic but most never had a character I could identify with in the fandoms I enjoyed so I made this. This is a made-up story with real-life events weaved in.

Pairing: Scarlett Johannason/ Elizabeth Olsen

Word Count: 5,105

Chapter: 1/?? (32 chapters posted on AO3)

Chapter Trigger/Content Warnings: Mention of Abuse, Violence, Non-Sexual Age Regression, and Bullying.

Summary: After landing the role of a lifetime In the film Black Widow 2, Cade Jones goes to LA where he meets Scarlett Johansson and Elizabeth Olsen. During the summer they film the movie and Cade plays Scarlett's son but over time it's not acting anymore and Scarlett and Lizzie find the missing piece of their family, but not without a lot of bumps along the road. This story is set in a real world with real people mixed in with the MCU movies alternate universe that is also set in an omegaverse, so Alpha Beta and Omega dynamic as well as non-sexual age regression, abuse, and violence. This is a bad summery just give it a read if you want.

ENJOY!

Chapter 1: A New World Beckons

In the ancient times of our ancestral wolf packs were the dominant species. Packs, Everton, Sereno, Trevino, Whitlock, and Villarreal were the five foundational packs from which all wolves trace their lineage. These packs were considered as the true Adam and Eves of the world.

Within the wolf , there existed a select group known as the Prime Wolves. The original Primes being half breds of a wolf and human, these individuals were the largest, strongest, and most highly regarded members of the wolf society. When in their wolf form, Prime Wolves experienced heightened senses, granting them acute perception, heightened awareness, and incredible speed. They were the epitome of physical strength and agility, surpassing even the capabilities of regular wolves and their fellow Primes.

The Primes possessed the remarkable ability to shift freely between their wolf and the other dominant race the human form, exhibiting complete control over their shifting abilities. They were revered as the highest echelon of wolf society.

Among the Prime Wolves, one individual stood out with great renown: Gabriela Villarreal. As a true Prime, akin to the original five, Gabriela possessed even more extraordinary abilities. In addition to the heightened senses of a wolf and the enhanced physical prowess of a Prime Wolf, Gabriela possessed a unique healing ability. With her saliva, she had the power to mend any wound, making her an invaluable healer within her pack and the wider wolf society.

However, as time passed and evolution took its course, the ability to shift and control one's wolf form gradually became dormant in the human form of most wolves. Though the primal connection remains, the majority of wolves nowadays are unable to access their shifting abilities, resembling a mere fraction of the once-powerful Primes.

In this wolf society, a social hierarchy is structured based on status. At the age of 16, individuals undergo testing to determine their place within the hierarchy. The three main statuses are Alpha, Beta, and Omega, which define an individual's rank and role within the pack. Additionally, there are umbrella categories that specify an individual's personality traits and inclinations, such as Dominants, Submissive's, Neutrals, Switches, Caregivers, and Littles.

The lore of the ancestral wolf packs and the legendary Primes adds depth to the understanding of the wolf world. It reveals the extraordinary origins of the wolves and their connection to the primal energy that still resides within them. While the ability to shift and control the wolf form has diminished over time, the legacy of the wolf culture lives on, inspiring curiosity and controversy among those who still have the ability to shift.

Sunday MAY 28th Cade’s POV

I was completely filled to the brim with stress and anxiety today and that was to say a lot since the last month of my life had been so crazy anxiety should be my middle name. In fact, I didn't even know if I had a middle name. The only name I knew was Cadence Jones. I preferred Cade though, no one ever mentioned if I had a middle name. When I was old enough to realize that I was different from other kids I was probably 4. That's when I was first told my parents left me at a random fire station not too long after I was born, just a small pup left on my own, not that I really understood what that really meant at a young age.

I was 5 when my first foster parents took me back to the group home saying something was wrong with me. I was too shy, scared, and stupid to learn anything or even talk. I had said my first word yet and I spent more time crying than anything else. They were looking for a kid that would fit into their alpha pack dynamic better than me. However, that wasn’t the case, at the time I was already reading and writing at an advanced grade level and probably one of the brightest kids in my class. I just couldn’t seem to vocalize anything yet and I was a bit more timid than the other kids my age.

When I was 6 I was adopted by a family that surrendered me back to the care of the state after only a year. That was around the time I really started to express myself and start speaking but barely and instead of wanting to be dressed in dresses and skirts I wanted to wear what my adopted brother was wearing at the time. Shorts, t-shirts, and comfortable clothes so I could go out and play like him. It got to the point I would scream, fight, and cry for hours on end if I put in something I didn't like.

So in turn I was labeled as a temperamental child, crazy even having meltdowns constantly. I typically scared off anyone who showed interest in fostering or adopting me while I was still young. Most couples didn't want to deal with all my issues and were looking for an easy kid to start out with.

I was later diagnosed with a speech impediment, autism, a sensory disorder, anxiety, and selective mutism, as a child and you can’t process these things very well. It becomes hard to function without specialized care and being raised in foster homes as a kid you never really got that.

After about two years living in a group home, I was staying with a nice family in Reno. They openly accepted me and all my perceived issues weren't issues for them and I was slowly becoming part of their pack.

They had even taught me sign language so I could communicate better with others when I wasn't able to speak and put me into speech therapy to help me develop my communication skills and fix my speech impediment. I had the most trouble with R’s,W’s,S’s and still do to this day.

I lived with them from the age 8-14 the longest I had ever stayed with one family. It was great I had made friends and really enjoyed life. Like every other kid my age this was when we all started going through the early stage of puberty and finding out who we were. This is when you typically start to see alpha, omega, or beta traits start to present. I however never showed clear signs.

It wasn't until I was about 11 when I really became self aware and realized to everyone else I was a girl, but I had honestly thought I was a boy until another boy asked me why I acted like a boy if I was a girl. I didn't answer, just ran away but then I knew I was different from others. After that I consciously began identifying outward as a male more, basically as much as I could, but this caused a lot of kids to start picking on me at school. There weren't a lot of transgender kids running around so I stood out from other kids.

My best friend, Preston James Striker the 4th, but most people just called him Striker growing up. He was always hitting stuff when he was little and when he got older he started fighting a lot and was a good one at that. Striker was my true savior most of the time, he would instantly shut down the bullies that tormented me and his family's pack unofficially took in and accepted me as their own. I spent more time with them than with my foster family. Striker’s dad, Preston James Striker the 3rd, owned a fighting and free-running gym called Strike Force Gym, so over those six years I spent most of my time in the gym learning how to defend myself.

They taught multiple fighting styles, having instructors from all over the world teaching their specialized crafts. I liked the styles of martial arts, taekwondo, and jiu jitsu the most. Preston always said I was a true boxer at heart with how powerful my punches actually are and how quick my reflexes were for a kid my size. I was constantly hyper aware of everything all the time so it came easy for me to be extremely instinctive and reactive in a fight.

I was especially good at free-running as whenever I was running and jumping around the gym or out in the city I felt the most relaxed and free from everything else in life. Even though I got quite good at fighting I never seemed to be able to use the skills outside the gym whenever my bullies decided to torment me next.

The foster placement I was with at the time didn't like all the ‘trouble’ I was causing whenever I would get into it with my bullies. Half the time they would do something bad and frame me for it. Then there was the one fight I got into when it couldn't be avoided and that got some police attention.

Around this time my foster mother was diagnosed with cancer and my foster father struggled with taking care of his sick wife and a preteen with special needs that was getting into trouble with the law and his older son who was away at college but struggling. So eventually he sat me down and explained that my social worker Melinda Gordon was going to be picking me up at the end of the week and I would be leaving and being placed with another couple.

I was 14 when I was placed into the care of The Davis’s. I've been staying with Kenneth and Joyce Davis for two years now. It was better than a group home because it was just the three of us but most of the time I was forgotten or pushed aside by the couple at the beginning.

They were mostly in it for the check the government sent and Joyce loved to parade me around like some kind of charity case for all her friends to see. She once told me I was sent to them by god so they could fix me so I could once again be a healthy and natural child of god.

The Davis are what they’d like to call Holy Folk. They were heavily involved in the community as Kenneth was a generational police officer and Joyce worked at the church and community center. I'm pretty sure they met in church when they were young and their parents arranged their marriage and lives from that moment on. Everyone loved them around the small town they lived in here in Idaho and thought they were just the best people on the Earth. In reality the second I was deemed out of line and nobody else was around the couple's sweet heavenly nature could turn in an instant.

They thought that the devil was inside of me and made me act this way and that they were god disciples reborn to cleanse my soul. I had major sensory issues, an anxiety disorder paired with selective mutism all on top of being a transgender child so naturally they thought I was possessed. They really had no education or awareness of any kind of how to properly care for an autistic child.

I remember my first Christmas with them. Their whole family pack was there and the loud party was in full swing when Kenneth’s mothers gave me a gift she made. She had knit me a wool sweater but upon putting it on it made my skin feel like it was on fire and I had immediately gotten pushed over the edge and into sensory overload and had a panic attack running to my room for the rest of the night. That night after everyone had left Kenneth had beaten me with the brand new belt he’d had gotten from one of his brothers. I had prayed to God that night before bed that it was the first and last time that would happen, unfortunate it was only the beginning.

It has only gotten worse for me in these last 5 months. When I turned 16 just like everyone else Joyce and Kennth took me in to get a status test. By then your traits should've already been presenting but this was the way to get the official status when your brain was developed enough.

Not everyone got tested right away as it was your free choice but most people do it. The human race was all originally evolved from the wolf so we all fell in the the dynamics of Alpha, Omega, and Beta and then you could fall under any of these six categories; Dominant, Submissive, Neutrals, Switch, Caregivers, and Littles. Sometimes people would have multiple classifications but mostly one prominent one that would stand above the rest. Now a days most people didn’t have the ability to shift like our ancestors did as it was a lost skill as modern civilization took over 100s over years ago. However there was a select few people that had pure enough wolf blood where they could shift. These wolfs were called Primes.

Kenneth was a Dominant Alpha and thought that any other status was basically unholy trash unless you were a married submissive Omega like Joyce was. When I took the test whether I was an Alpha, Omega, or Beta came out inconclusive and this made Kenneth pissed. Not only did I have an anxiety disorder and could barely speak but I was inconclusive basically a status in itself. One Kenneth hated and he never let me forget it.

It didn't happen often but there was about 15% of the world population that go a inconclusive status result so i wasn't the only one out there and most people that were inclusive later tested again in life and got a different result. That however didn't matter to the Davis as they were part of a proud pack that never had an inconclusive among them, so it was a big embarrassment for them.

It got to the point where I never really got a chance to be myself without the fear of getting beaten for it. There was really no expressing myself at all except for the perfect Cadence they wanted to see. I wasn’t allowed to join any training gyms because fighting wasn’t ladylike.

Skateboarding was another hobby I’d picked up but I wasn't allowed to do that either as it was a boys sport. I really only went to school, then headed to the community center where I’d help Joyce at her job, and then go back home after that. I had to be a good quiet girl that obeyed adults no matter what and if I did, then I just might be able to go to heaven and not suffer in hell for eternity.

I shook my head focusing back on the present situation at hand. I was currently on the train to LA. I had ended up in a car all to myself for the ride which was a lifesaver so I could panic in peace. It was a little longer than a two day train ride from Idaho to Los Angeles, but it was cheaper than the $469 plane tickets it would’ve been. I could barely afford the $211 train tickets, using all the money I had saved over the years. Whenever I did sn odd jobs for Joyce at the community center the Lady’s there would always hand me some money secretly without Joyce ever noticing, sometimes I wondered if they knew what was happening behind the facade Joyce and Kenneth put up. I never got that answer though.

As I sat and looked out the window I thought about the last month. Striker had sent me a casting call his dad had shown him. Marvel Studios had put out a call for a young man or woman between the age 13-19 who had skills in combat style fighting, gymnastics, and, or dancing. It was a completely open casting call for anyone to submit to either in person in LA or submit a tape online.

After Striker’s non stop badgering over text and calls I submitted an audition and sent in a video of me, Striker and some of the other guys at the gym free-running from back when I lived with them and a new sample of myself now free-running. After sending in the audition and not too long after I had gotten a call asking if I could do a couple more callback auditions over zoom. Then I was told I got the part. That’s when I found out I was going to be playing Anton Romanov, the son of the Black Widow Natasha Romanov and a mutant that Dreykov kidnapped for his powers. They told me that I needed to be in LA the next week.

That was today, there was going to be a dinner tonight for the cast, as a way to get together and all meet each other officially before filming started the following week.

The train came to a stop at union station in Los Angeles i heard over the speaker so I grabbed my duffle bag containing basically everything I owned, which wasn’t much just clothes, books, and my skateboard, a gift from Striker he secretly sent me when I turned 15 last year and I got off the train. It was 3pm and dinner wasn’t until 8pm. I checked my phone and saw that the restaurant we were supposed to meet at was in Hollywood that was about an hour or two away from here on my board. I pulled my wired headphones out of my bag, placing each bud in my ear and pulled the duffel bag over my shoulder pulling the straps tight to my body before heading off. As I was skating I called Striker.

“Brother! What’s up?” He said over the phone I could hear him clicking away at his playstation controller. Striker was a huge video game guy, he had collected probably every game console he possibly could.

“Hey Striker. I made it to LA.” I told him as I cruised down the city streets.

“Awesome! I'm jealous my parents would never let me go to LA all by myself.” He confessed as he paused his video game.

“Come on, you know Joyce and Kenneth have no idea I'm here. You're the one who made the fake website, what did you name it? Faithful Haven Camp and Retreat for Troubled Teens?” I told him with a laugh. Striker was probably one of the only people to see the true me and he felt like the safest person i had ever met. He was definitely the only person I could talk to without issue but he still respected the time I wasn't verbal and never pushed me to talk.

“Oh right? You're welcome by the way. So how is it? Have you seen anyone famous yet?” he asked.

“No, I've just only got here. Plus it's not like they're just running around everywhere. I'd assume they do their best to hide from the public.”

“Fair, you got me there. Just promise me when you meet all these famous marvel actors you get me every single one of their signatures for me okay?”

“We’ll see about that.” I told him Striker was just as much of a marvel fan as I was but he was just a lot more excitable about it.

“Preston James Striker. YOU better not be playing video games up there when I know you have homework.” I heard Striker's Mom yell, Charlotte Striker was a very sweet woman and one of the only people I could hear yell and not have it scare me because I knew she really meant no harm whatsoever.

“MOOOM, i'm on the phone with Cade and we haven't talked in weeks.” I rolled my eyes as he called out back, using me as an excuse to get him out of trouble as always.

“Tell him we say hi and bye. He might be on summer vacation but he didn't fail algebra 1 and has summer school to do.” I heard her say back and I chuckled. Striker groaned.

“Mrs. Harris, definitely had it out for me cause I'm great at math bro.” he told me and I laughed again.

“Well maybe if you paid attention in class I'd believe that.” When I went to school with Striker he could never sit still in class.

He was incredibly smart and we both were in a couple advanced classes together but everything bored him with school where I loved to learn new things and take on new information. I had an amazing memory where if I saw something or heard it long enough I could easily mimic or copy it. It was like I didn't have a speech impediment at all when I was consciously trying not to but when I talked naturally it always came back. I think this was the only reason I was able to act because it was easy to memorize the lines and become a different person than myself.

“Hey! you are supposed to be on my side, I'm hanging up now.” He said

“ Okay you're right she did sound like a bitch, is that what you want to hear?” I joked with him.

“Yess thank you my friend. Now I should go before my mom comes up here and she's me playing video games.” he told me.

“Okay i'll text you later. Bye.” Striker said goodbye and I heard the click of the phone call ending and my music started playing as I continued skating.

I was told that marvel would be putting me up in special accommodations or at least that was what it said in my contract. I figured that tonight someone would be able to show me where to go. So I just decided to head to the restaurant and hang out in that area until dinner.

After two hours I made it to Hollywood and was just hanging at a skatepark nearby to kill time. When I got there the bowl was empty so I headed in for a session.

I was really just messing around doing hand plants on the rims of the bowl or just throwing tricks as I skated around. As I came up over the edge for another hand plant, just as I’m upside down I see a blur and feel something collide with my board and I’m being knocked off course and falling into the bowl.

As I came crashing down I heard I chorus of laughter gasp and oohs. Not realizing that I had an audience as my body smacks the concrete hard and for a second all the wind is knocked out of me. An immediate pain in my left side radiates through my body and I groan. Taking a second to get my bearings, I see mine and another skateboard rolling around and there are a couple people on the edge of the bowl looking down at me.

“Hey, can you pass me my board?!” A shaggy blonde haired guy yelled down at me and started laughing at me with a couple others. I stood up and moved over to the boards. I threw the other board up and over the edge and then did the same with mine before running up the side of the bowl and hopping out. I stumbled a bit because of the pain in my side but got my balance quickly after.

“Sorry about that, it just slipped out of my hand?” I heard the blonde guy's voice say behind me and I turned to see him looking at me with a smirk. He didn’t seem very sorry and the way the board hit mine it had a lot more force than something that slipped.

Not saying anything I just was going to grab my stuff and leave. I knew how this worked. I've moved around enough to know that every once in a while there was always some territorial guy whether it was school, sports, or the skatepark that didn’t like the new kids coming in and messing with their system so I wasn’t even gonna fight him.

“Hey are you deaf or something?” He yelled in a dominating alpha voice causing my body to tense and freeze for a second. Him and his delinquent friends snickered and I rolled my eyes and continued on. Since i was inconclusive if any alpha used their Alpha voice it sometimes could affect me like it would an omega or submissive and It wasn't the first time I’d heard that one. I continued to ignore him and pick up my bag until I felt hands grab my arm and pull me back and around. I was quick to pull my arm out of the grasp but I soon realized I was face to face with the blonde and he was shoving me down to the ground.

“Well? are you deaf or just fucking dumb?” he said, towering over me pushing threatening pheromones out into the air. I quickly got back up and stood back trying to get out of his space but he followed my steps. I got into the side pocket of my bag and pulled out a laminated card I always have on hand trying to defuse the situation.

"It read: Hi I’m Cade I have an anxiety disorder called selective mutism. I am unable to speak in certain social situations. This is not a choice, it's an involuntary response, I’m not being rude."

I showed it to him and him and his buddies to read.

“ Okay, so just dumb. Either way I’ll make it simple for you. THIS. IS. MY. PARK. YOU. LEAVE.” He said to me slowing himself down like I couldn’t understand him. I rolled my eyes and just walked off. That's literally what I was trying to do.

“Dick.” I thought to myself as I was starting to calm down a bit. I hadn’t realized my heart was racing until I walked away and could hear my heart beat pounding in my ears. I found a bench on a random corner and sat down for a bit to calm down.

Once I was calm I noticed I still had some time to kill so I just mindlessly skated the city streets. It was one of my other favorite escapes, cruising down the streets weaving around traffic always calmed my mind just like free-running. LA was different from back in Idaho, the streets were busier and the drivers were a bit more erratic so I stuck to the sidewalks mostly but even the pedestrians didn't like me on the sidewalks. It wasn’t until I had to make a sudden stop for a car that was running a red light nearly running me over did I realize how late it had gotten.

It was 7:48pm and I was probably 30 minutes away from the restaurant now so I quickly headed that direction. I made it to the restaurant and it was 8:23 pm meaning I was late. My anxiety spiked but I tried not to think about it but as I looked at the fancy building across the street I thought I might be way in over my head. I quickly ducked down into an alleyway and dug through my bag looking for something better to wear then the now dirty plaid shirt and now ripped jeans from my fall I had on. I switched it for a navy blue long sleeve sweater and a pair of black pants.

I groaned a bit as I changed seeing that my left side was starting to bruise from the fall and the pain radiating from that side slowed me down but I tried to go as fast as possible. Once I changed I made my way up to the front and entered the restaurant.

I stood by the door for a second and scanned the room for any familiar faces but I didn't see any.

“Hi there, can I help you?” The woman at the host desk noticed me and I headed toward her pulling out the same card as I did before. I had practiced this sentence many times in my head. I learned that if I could memorize whatever I needed to say it was easier to say it but I knew it was going to be a struggle to speak tonight with all the anxiety coursing through me.

“H-hi i’m here to-o me...” I started to say but gave up and put the card infront of her. As she read the card I opened my voice to speech app and typed out something for her.

“I'm here to meet a group for dinner. I'm late but it was supposed to be a private dinner under the name Kevin Feige.” the voice said for me and the woman smiled.

“Oh yes! I was told to expect you. The rest of your party is already here so I’ll take you on up.” She said and I followed her up a staircase away from where the regular customers were dining and upstairs to a loft where they held their private parties and events.

“You can leave that here if you like.” She said to me as we got to the top of the stairs and there was a coat check station on the side before entering into the private dining room. I passed my bag and board over to the guy at the counter and he gave me a small piece of paper with a number on it for when I was done. I could hear talking and laughter on the other side of the door and my anxiety grew, doubling in size inside my chest.

The host led me into the dining room and like that the room quieted down and everyone turned to look at us, she quickly exited the room leaving me standing there, unsure of what to do.

#wandanat #scarlett johansson #elizabeth olsen #ao3 fanfic #natasha romanov #wanda maximoff #orignal character #transgendercharacter #POC #Marvel #black widow #mcu #alternate universe #age regression #omegaverse #wandanat's son #fluff #wandanat fanfiction

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if-you-fan-a-fire · 1 year

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On November 14, 1929, a serious prison strike nearly broke out at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert. Only by the narrowest of chances was the plot discovered by staff and the strike averted. The strike leaders were two convicts, Ashton and Jones, who referred to themselves in furtive notes as “sweethearts” and “lovers” - they dreamed of escaping to be together. Two hatchet-men from Ottawa were sent to clean up, senior officers of the penitentiary were dismissed, and the whole affair hushed up, save for a few stories in the newspapers. This is part of my rambling, fully informal, draft attempts to understand the origins and course and impact of the 1930s ‘convict revolt’ in Canada, and other issues related to criminality and incarceration Canadian history. (More here.)

Saskatchewan Penitentiary was, at the time, the newest federal penitentiary in Canada. Opened in 1911, to replace the territorial jail at Regina, parts of it were still under construction in 1929. UBC penologist C. W. Topping praised Sask. Pen as “the finest in the Dominion,” with supposedly ‘modern’ features in the cell-block and workshops, including an up-to-date brick factory that produced for federal buildings in the Prairies. Discipline and the organization of staff and inmates was functionally the same as everywhere else in Canada, however: forced labour, the silence system, limited privileges and entertainments, a semi-military staff force, and an isolated location far from major population centres.

The majority of inmates were sentenced from Saskatchewan and Alberta, but throughout the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, Saskatchewan Penitentiary was used as an overflow facility from overcrowded Eastern prisons. In April 1929, dozens of mostly malcontent prisoners were transferred from Kingston Penitentiary. A “row” was expected with these men, but they were not closely watched or segregated from the main population. In November 1929, there were 430 prisoners at Saskatchewan Penitentiary – almost 60 were from Kingston.

The staff at Saskatchewan Penitentiary were warned on the morning of November 14, 1929, by a ‘stool pigeon’ that all work crews (called gangs) would refuse to leave their places of work “until all their demands were met with.” The stool pigeon had no idea who the ringleaders were or the demands, but the Deputy Warden, Robert Wyllie, ordered his officers to keep “a sharp lookout” for suspicious actions. Over 70 prisoners were working outside the walls in two large groups - building a road and laying sewage pipe - and they were supposed to be the epicentre of the strike. Indeed, the whole day of the 14th staff had observed them talking and passing hand gestures. Other warnings came in throughout the day, so Wyllie ordered the penitentiary locked down and the next day interviewed several inmates at random who confessed they had no idea how word about the strike leaked out. For reasons we’ll get into, they were "amazed at being locked in their cells" and surprised by the swift reaction from the Deputy Warden. During the morning of the 15th, one man named Ford was strapped 24 times for attempting to incite a disturbance in his cell block. Noise and shouting echoed throughout the ranges.

Prisoners working on a building foundation at Saskatchewan Penitentiary, c. 1927 In a state of growing panic, Wyllie first phoned Warden W. J. McLeod, on medical leave since September and so sick he could barely answer the phone. Wyllie then telegraphed Ottawa in a vague way, indicating a “serious situation” and asking for someone to come and take charge. Unsure of what was going on, the Superintendent of Penitentiaries, W. St. Pierre Hughes, dispatched five trusted officers from Manitoba Penitentiary, summoned the nearest RCMP detachment, and ordered his personal hatchet-man, Inspector of Penitentiaries E. R. Jackson, to proceed to Prince Albert and take charge. Jackson would be accompanied by R. M. Allan, Structural Engineer, who had worked at Saskatchewan Penitentiary for a decade in the 1910s and "who knew the prison from long experience."

Almost everything in the historical record about this episode comes from Jackson and Allan’s investigation. Their personalities and prerogatives colour completely the available accounts. They were not great record keepers. They were, like many civil servants of the era, bitchy gossips. Both men were known as severe disciplinarians. Jackson, though only appointed as an Inspector in 1924, had become an indispensable figure to Superintendent Hughes. Jackson would be sent to institutions that Hughes viewed as insufficiently following his regulations, or where inmate unrest posed a problem. Jackson was sent to handle a riot at St. Vincent de Paul Penitentiary in December 1925, ordering a brutal round of lashings against accused agitators. He headed the British Columbia Penitentiary for a year and a half when Hughes fired the warden on spurious ground.

It was at B.C. Pen that Jackson met Allan, then the Chief Industrial Officer, and the two would work together closely not just at Prince Albert but also in the construction and opening of Collin’s Bay Penitentiary in Kingston. Jackson also was acting warden at Kingston Penitentiary in summer 1930. One KP lifer testified in 1932 that Jackson was “a mean son of a bitch” who ordered draconian punishments for relatively minor offences. Allan would himself become warden of Kingston Penitentiary in mid-1934, and held that position until 1954.

In short, these were not men sympathetic to prison officers they viewed as incompetent or remotely curious about inmate complaints. Their investigation was about establishing blame and getting things back to ‘normal.’ They concurred with Hughes that "men never rebel where there is a tight grip retained of them by management." There is some truth to this, as sociologist Bert Useem has repeatedly argued in his work on American prison riots: a ruthless but effective and well organized prison staff is likely to stop even the best organized prisoner protest.

In a strictly hierarchical, patrimonial system like an early 20th century penitentiary, where all authority rests with a few men at the top, failures of leadership are often critical. This is a factor often overlooked in popular and academic histories of prisoner resistance and riots (rightly so, perhaps, as we should focus on the actions of the incarcerated, nor their jailers). Of course, strikes and riots in prisons, as elsewhere, never just happen – as Hughes himself noted, this “must have been developing for sometime - [revolts] never occur in a day or two."

This photo shows the chief officers involved in this event. From left to right: Saskatchewan Penitentiary Deputy Warden R. Wyllie and Warden W. J. Macleod, Superintendent of Penitentiaries W. S. Hughes, Accountant G. Dillon, Inspector of Penitentiaries E. R. Jackson.

Jackson quickly fixed blamed on Deputy Warden Wyllie. They were "very much surprised by the lack of initiative" of Wyllie, who seemed to have been cowed by the fifty men working on the outside that had tried to strike. This despite the presence of almost a dozen armed officers nearby! Wyllie had had a nervous breakdown from stress, and had allowed, in Jackson’s eyes, a “lack of efficiency and discipline” to pervade the prison. He was "indecisive" in giving punishments at Warden’s Court, causing “the inmates to gloat over and ridicule the officers…" Inmates charged with fighting, insolence, or swearing at officers were warned or reprimanded, the least severe punishment for such severe infractions of the rules. Several officers felt that “there was no use of reporting the inmates” and so they "closed their eyes to a lot of infractions." Another officer thought that since September 1929 "inmates had became cocky … would laugh in the my face and...tell me to report him when he liked...for it would do no good." This situation was very similar to Kingston Penitentiary before the riot in October 1932, and, indeed, typified the crisis of the 1970s in federal prisons as well.

The November 14-15 disturbance was actually not the first strike episode at Saskatchewan Penitentiary that year. There had been unrest or talk of strikes among the prisoners since early September, with a general atmosphere of defiance and mockery of authorities. Many inmates resisted by going “through the motion of working" but not actually completing tasks. There had been a work refusal in late September, and two other strikes or work refusals in the middle of October. In these cases Wyllie intervened personally, but did not investigate, punish the strikers, or rectify the situation. There are not even reports on file about these events, and the record of reports against inmates for violating rules bears out this feeling that prisoners would “have their own way” and no ‘effective’ action would be taken against their rebellions. That is, effective by the standards of guards, who expected their commands to be obeyed absolutely.

Few demands were discovered – or least Jackson did not think the ones he turned up were worth elaborating on. There seemed to have been general opposition to the Steward's department – the “grub” was satisfactory, but apparently not distributed fairly, according to the inmates. The Steward and Deputy Warden had allowed inmates to place “special instructions” for their meals, and they would shout out their orders like they were at a diner, or exchanged their tickets to swap meals. The queued, single file, food line, with no talking and the same meal for everyone, had disappeared, and restoring this system was Jackson’s first act when he took over. Of course, food in prisoner protests stands in for more than just a meal, while also representing a very basic need that is one of the few things to look forward to during days of monotonous labour.

Much of the unrest centred on certain work crews, whose officers were resented, and communication with family, better work arrangements, socializing, access to newspapers, all are mentioned in passing in the investigation files. The “Kingston boys” were also the loudest supporters or organizers of the strikes, and they apparently resented being exiled to Saskatchewan. At least one inmate, Radke, told other inmates he wanted the strike to force a Royal Commission to investigate the prison. This kind of demand would be repeated again and again in 1932 and 1933 during prison riots across Canada.

Cell block in 1930 at Saskatchewan Penitentiary. The beds in the corridors are due to severe overcrowding.

George Ashton was singled out as one of the organizers of the abortive strike. Serving a term for armed robbery, he was one of the Kingston transfers. On November 15, 1929, he was caught trying to throw a letter away. This letter is addressed to another inmate who he had hoped to escape with. Ashton, "a troublesome, Smart Alec kid,” was sentenced to be shackled for ten days to his cell bars and to spend sixty days in isolation. Typical of Jackson’s more ‘effective’ regime.

Ashton’s note was addressed to his 'Pal', Allen, alias Bertram Allen Jones. Both worked in different work crews labouring outside the walls. Ashton’s letter to Jones identifies him as his sweetheart and lover, and promised that "he'll not get into trouble again because of these screws...I will sincerely try to refrain from letting my emotions run riot....My nature is not one which will allow me to lay down and be trodden upon forever without making some squawk." Ashton indicated he wanted to "make the time elapsing between your release and our reunion as sort as possible." He asked how Jones’ time was going, and ended by expressing his longing and desire to be with Jones:

"OH hawt dawg mamma won't we make up for the time of our separation??? Sweetheart I'll be loving you..." Say what's the answer to that companionate [sic] marriage idea? Thinking of accepting or am I such a damn bothersome person that your going to turn me down?.....there'll be a time when we're happy and gay (in each other arms).”

This was apparently one of many letters the two had exchanged, and contrary to the usual arrangements of wolves and punks in early 20th century prisons, where older men ‘protect’ younger inmates, often to extract sexual favours, this was apparently a consensual and sincere relationship. Not as uncommon as might be expected, of course, but it’s unusual to find such boldly expressed desire and love in this period of the archival record. Of course, Hughes thought this letter confirmed that Ashton was "a low bestial sort." Jones was identified as one of the other ringleaders, and he and Ashton had been seen talking to each other and making hand gestures several times in the months leading up to their strike attempt.

Who these men were and what happened to them after their time in prison I don’t know, yet.

Transcript of Ashton's letter to Jones, the only part of their correspondence that survives today

Inspector Jackson stayed in charge for another two months at Saskatchewan Penitentiary. An attempt to start on insurrection on November 20, 1929, was broken by strapping four of the leaders: “since then the Prison is absolutely quiet." Always full of himself, Jackson included letters of thanks from officers who praised his leadership, including the prison doctor: "We were drifting badly, discipline had practically ceased...now we are back and a Prison once more." He felt satisfied that retiring Wyllie and Warden Macleod had solved the problem, and left Allan in charge starting in mid-December 1929.

While I have no doubt that Deputy Warden Wyllie was responsible for the growth of an inmate strike movement, I don’t believe it is purely a case of his incompetence allowing inmates to organize. Rather, he proved himself to be an open door to prisoners already planning protests, and his inability to act with the severity expected by prisoners and staff alike encouraged further protests. Like a lot of federal civil servants, Wyllie was likely promoted above his abilities, with his loyalty to Hughes, seniority, indispensability to superior officers, and local influence helping to further his career. This was Jackson’s trajectory as well, ironically – once Hughes retired in early 1932, Jackson was on the outs, transferred to clerical duties in Ottawa, and he was dismissed in December 1932 as part of the purge initiated of penitentiary officers by the new Superintendent.

Additionally, it is clear to me that the issues at Saskatchewan Penitentiary extended beyond one officer – and indeed blaming Wyllie absolved a bunch of other officers of corruption and incompetence. Serious issues in the Hospital, Kitchen, School, and Workshops, were identified by Allan when he took over, with trafficking and contraband in cigarette papers, pipes, lighters, smuggled cigarettes, photographs and letters widespread. The Boiler House, where “considerable contraband has been located,” had seven inmate workers, who laboured "without direct supervision...” These men resented the crackdown and refused to work in February 1930 – which revealed to Allan the danger of allowing inmates to have full control of the power plant of the penitentiary.

Allan fired the officer in charge of the boiler house, the hospital overseer, the storekeeper, and reprimanded other officers for failing to confiscate contraband items. Fake keys were found throughout the prison, likely to be used in escapes or smuggling. Inmates had been allowed for years to order magazines direct from the publisher – and did not have them passed through the censor. Another mass strike was attempted in January 1930, apparently to protest Allan cracking down on these deviations from the regulations. As always, it should be recalled that what the officers saw as corruption or smuggling against regulations were all activities that made 'doing time' easier.

Why care about this episode, beyond some of the points I’ve already raised? One aspect of historical study I am most interested in are the precursors to a major event - the struggles, organizing, movements, victories and defeats that (sometimes with hindsight, sometimes without) shape a more influential and decisive event. This is especially difficult when writing the history of prisoner resistance, which often appears a discontinuous history, full of gaps and seemingly sudden flare-ups. The 1930s were a decade of prison riots, strikes, escapes and protests in federal and provincial prisons, but obviously these did not arise from nothing. The 1929 strike attempt at Saskatchewan Penitentiary is a transitional event – similar to earlier strikes and protests going back to the late 19th century, but occurring at the very start of the Great Depression, a premonition of things to come.

#prince albert penitentiary #prince albert #prison strike #prison riot #convict revolt #prisoner organzing #prison administration #prison management #causes of prison riots #my writing #dominion penitentiaries #saskatchewan history #queer history #history of homosexuality in canada #great depression in canada #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada

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thecottoncandylamb · 7 months

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Reunions (Or Lamb is terrible at titles)

Here it is. The first of the many, many one shots that I wrote because I'm mentally ill and just want Jones and the Foundation to be in love.

It had been almost 3 years since they had seen each other, and Jones’ world couldn’t be more different. After altering time, the former IO agent had found himself on a new version of the Island, filled to the brim with unfamiliar faces and voices. This time, it carried the name “Helios”, and like every other Island before it, it was in a war for its life. Filled with Loopers and factions, citizens and militaristic groups, it felt the same as every place he had been before. He couldn’t recognize anyone here, nor did anyone recognize him. His only companion here was Peely who got sucked through time with him. Almost immediately upon arrival, the banana was snatched away by the Society, one of the large factions that ruled Helios, when their leader, Valeria, realized Jones could have helpful information related to some box she was looking for.

Since then, Jones has been absolutely *done*. Hope, the leader of the local renegade group known as the “Underground” had been nice enough to let him stay in the abandoned subway she used as a Headquarters, but her kindness and good nature did little to soothe his frazzled nerves, and, like most things, came at a price. Help her defeat the Society while she lent him resources to find Peely. Tit for tat, or so they say, and he was more than willing to return the favor, but Jones was *tired*. He was sick of saving everyone, time and time again just for it to go straight back to shit. He wanted a break, wanted just to have the chance to *actually* enjoy the small moments of peace his actions brought to the island and its inhabitants. A bitter part of him guessed that an eternity of fighting was his punishment for the sins of his past, and he didn’t even bother to stuff that nasty thought away, he just let himself wallow and fester in it.

Standing in front of his corkboard, which Hope so lovingly dubbed his “conspiracy board”, he glares up at the pictures of the Society Leader’s faces, each pinned up near the rough blueprints of their appropriate bases. The group had caught on to his investigation and started moving the banana between their bases. Letting out a frustrated groan, Jones shoves his fingers under his sunglasses to rub his tired eyes. Deciding to turn in for the night, he shrugs out of his coat and starts making his way toward the pale blue couch he had claimed as his own. Tugging his sweater over his head, he crawls onto the cushion, uses his scarf to cover his eyes, and tries to force himself to relax. Under the mocking glares from the Society members, he turns his back to the board and tries to force himself into a fitful sleep.

Meanwhile, the Foundation was surprised by how different the Island had become in his absence. New settlements had formed, the land itself had changed, and the home of the Zero Point had a new name; Helios. The leader of the 7 walked slowly down a beaten-up road, the night sky stretching above him. A small building to his right held the smallest trace of a heat signature, an indication that someone had been here recently. Pressing a button on the side of his helmet, he scanned the building, and it seemed to have a passage to the sewers below the streets. Making a mental note to check the schematics of the Island later, he almost leaves the run-down little building behind before *something* stops him. Like a little voice in his ear, something pushed him to investigate further.

Slowly pushing the door open, he barely acknowledges the loud creak it makes. Let it serve as a warning, he thinks before stepping to look down into the steep drop. A heavy cable hangs from a support beam above him, nearly reaching the floor below. Curling a gloved hand around the cable, the large man lets gravity pull him towards the ground, that annoying little voice in the back of his head urging him to “go go go”. Something was down here, and he wouldn’t stop until he found it.

A faint signal, like a fluttering pulse, was slowly growing visible to the sensitive scanners in his visor. Taking steady steps, the usually collected man could feel his heart rate accelerate in anticipation. This energy was familiar to him, he’d recognize it anywhere. He’d followed it countless times before, and in this new place filled with unfamiliar faces and voices, he’d be the first to admit that he was excited to see a friendly face. After all of these years, Jones’ bright face was exactly what he needed to feel *normal* again.

Finally, the signature narrows in, becoming stronger and brighter the further down he descends down a large flight of stairs. Soon, the Foundation entered a large, dilapidated subway station where rubble blocked off most of the entrances and covered large portions of the floor. The ceiling is covered in a plethora of colors, the stained glass painting a rainbow beneath it as dim lights twinkle above it. The room was a cluttered mess: weapons, targets, and old pizza boxes are scattered on tables and the floor, and a heavy rug beneath one of the tables. A large board, covered in pictures and maps stands to his left, reminding him of the early days of manning the 7, when their organization was little more than a small renegade group in his basement. He can’t help but smile at the memory. In the back of the room, almost directly across from the stairs he used to enter the room, there was a pale blue couch with a dark blanket tossed over the back of it. Its back faced him, and he quietly wondered how long the person on the other side had been there.

The energy signal was all over the room, mixing and mingling with several others, each pacing around the room, back and forth between each object, and he followed it almost eagerly. Rolling his eyes at the frequent circles that were made in front of the board, the energy belonging to Jones didn’t surprise him in the slightest, he watched as eventually, the energy stopped by the couch. Taking strides, he hates the eager warmth in his chest at the thought of seeing Jones again. Worried that the man might be sleeping, the large man carefully leaned over the back of the couch and finally released the breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding.

Laying curled on the cushions was Jones, the exact person he had been looking for, he realized. The man looked awful: his eyes were heavy with dark bags, his sunshine hair was oily and messy, pressed up at awkward angles from the way his head was shoved under the scarf that was slowly tangling with his neck and arms. His face was covered in dark stubble, another clear sign that he wasn’t taking care of himself. Taking a moment to simply enjoy looking at the man, he felt an angry ball form in the pit of his stomach.

In their time together, he had seen more than his fair share of the former agent in various stages of undress, so seeing Jones topless was nothing *new* to him. He had almost every inch of this man’s torso memorized (he would never admit to this) and today, Jones looked like a whole new man. Numerous scars, some fairly new, littered the man’s pale skin, making a map of pain and torment the hero should never have gone through. Tightly gripping the back of the couch, his focus on the visible burns on his skin, nasty and dark, in the shape of someone’s hands, some of the prints are curled around Jones’ neck, others pressed against his chest and side. They looked like brands, and he had to stop himself from jerking the sleeping man up and demanding to know who or what had dared to lay their hands on him.

The Foundation was immediately ripped back into reality by the click of a pistol and the barrel of a gun being pressed to the back of his helmet.

“You have 3 fucking seconds to convince me not to blow your brains out.” A woman’s voice, harsh and angry, comes from behind him.

Ignoring her, he lifts the blanket off of the back of the couch, draping it over Jones’ sleeping form.

“Don’t fucking touch him.” She hisses pushing the pistol forward again to make her threat known.

“Trust me, that little thing won’t even make a dent in my armor.” He growls, standing up to turn towards the woman. She was short, but compared to him, who wasn’t? Her blue hair was pinned up to the back of her head, her eyes a dark blue, glaring up at him from over her dark sunglasses.

“Try me. I think you’ll find that in my hands, this gun is more than enough.” She warns, not even flinching at the much larger, armored man looming over her, “Now get the fuck away from him. He has too much on his plate to deal with some freaky peeping tom bothering him.”

If his visor had been down, she would have seen both of his brows raise high at the way she addressed him, “Lower your gun, girl. I’m no threat to Agent Jones. I’m an old friend.” he huffs out, almost embarrassed at being called out for watching the sleeping man.

“Agent Jones?” The blue-haired woman only raises her gun higher, an angry scowl on her painted lips, “The only friend of his that addresses him like that around here is Peely. Did the Society send you? If so, you’re not making it out of here alive.” with little hesitation she pulls the trigger.

Right as she shoots, his arm shoots out, pushing the gun upward and yanking the petite woman into a chokehold. Rainbow glass rained down around them as the sound of the gun firing echoed around the subway station. The sound is obviously loud enough to startle Jones wake. Ever the dutiful agent, he has a gun in his hands aimed at the two of them before he even emerges from the other side of the couch. The Foundation keeps his grip on the woman as she claws his armor, making the blonde panic.

“Woah woah! Hey put her down!” Leaping over the back of the couch, Jones drops his gun, raising his hands palm up and stepping into the armored man’s line of sight. “Hey, hey it’s okay. Hope is a friend.”

“Your *friend* tried to shoot me.” The Foundation grumbles but complies, dropping the woman, Hope, onto the floor.

Jones tries to ignore the butterflies that erupt in his stomach at the other man’s deep, rumbling voice. How long had it been since he’d heard someone this familiar and comforting, even if said person was angry and trying to choke one of his closest friends?

“Well, to the average person you’re pretty intimidating, Big Guy.” The nickname rolls off of his tongue easily, and for a moment it feels like the years rolled away as he tries to soothe the other man.

Kneeling to help Hope up, he rubs the back of his head. “Sorry about that. Hope, this is the Foundation, he’s a friend from back home. Foundation, this is Hope, she’s leading the good fight here on Helios.”

Glaring up at him, Hope rubs her neck, not liking this mysterious “friend” one bit, but Jones hasn’t let her down yet, so she bites her tongue and offers her hand in greeting. “I guess it’s good to meet you. Jones has been a big help, so any friend of his is a friend of the Underground.”

Grunting softly under his breath, the Foundation begrudgingly takes her hand giving it a firm shake, “Likewise. You have a good ally here. I hope you’re taking good care of him.” the warning is subtle, but he can tell by the look in her eyes that she understood it loud and clear; if anything happened to Jones she would be the first to face the consequences.

Taking a small breath, Jones was glad to see the two get along, his eyes unable to look away from the Foundation. God, he looked good. Well, as good as a guy in armor could look. Suddenly aware of his own rugged appearance, he moves over to the couch, tugging his sweater up and pulling it on over his head. He didn’t know how long the other man was staying and he wanted to make sure he could get a few moments just to enjoy his old friend’s company. A gloved hand catches his shoulder, causing him to flinch at the sudden contact, but the hand remains steady, holding him in place. In a way, he expected to freak him out, but the comfort was undeniable.

“Jones. What happened while I was away?” The Foundation *knew* Jones, and knew when the man wasn’t acting right, “What happened to you?”

Hope, in that moment, felt like she was intruding on a truly intimate moment. Jones let his head hang down while the larger man slowly circles his fingers around his wrist. Slowly, the blonde reaches up and before he can do anything, he’s pulled into a tight hug. He didn’t even care that his face was smushed against the hard plating of the bigger man’s armor, his hands immediately finding purchase on the back of his old friend’s shoulders.

“I’m so fucking tired…” the former agent hated how much his voice shook, how each word wanted to tumble out with a thousand more. How long had it been since he was the weak one?

“I know Jones. I’m so sorry for leaving like that. I should have come back sooner.” Letting his visor lift off of his face, he gives into temptation, burying his face into the blonde’s dirty hair.

The shorter man tried to fight the quivering of his shoulders, but what could he really hide from the man holding him? A large hand rubbed small circles into his back, pulling a tired sigh from his lips as he slowly relaxed in the comforting embrace. The Foundation holds him like he’s scared he’ll disappear, and Jones thinks that maybe he has been for a long time, but in this moment he felt more real than he had in years.

“You need rest, Jones. Lay back down. I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

Jones is too tired to argue, the comfort of the familiar scent and voice of someone who *remembered* lulled him into a cozy warmth he thought he lost ages ago.

“You promise?” Too tired to be embarrassed by how pathetic he sounds, the blonde lets The Foundation guide him back to the couch.

“Of course, Jones. Even Geno himself couldn’t make me leave this time.” Tugging his cape off of his shoulder, he slowly bunches and rolls it up into a makeshift pillow, letting Jones rest his head on it while the large man drapes the blanket up over him.

He stays leaning over the back of the couch for a long while, watching and petting the blonde man’s hair until his blue eyes slowly drift shut. Hope watches in silence for a long while, not wanting to interrupt this soft moment that her friend never gets to have. Once she’s sure Jones is asleep, the Underground leader clears her throat to get the big man’s attention.

“I’m…look I’m sorry. I just know a lot of people want to hurt him. I didn’t want to take any chances on the Society getting their hands on him again.” Rubbing the back of her neck she sighs, “Hell, when I first met him I had to rescue him from one of their torture rooms..” she jumps as the Foundation nearly crushes the back of the couch.

“I’m here now. And you were just trying to protect him. So, thank you, Hope. He’s more important than you know.” and the people who dared to hurt him would know his wrath.

#fortnite jonesy #fortnite jones #fortnite the foundation #foundajones #jonesdation #jones x the foundation #your honor they're in love #hurt and comfort #hope fortnie #this will have like #2 or three more that are connected to it #but i have more drafted you'll see #uwu #lamb writes #my writing

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franceselsieshea · 6 months

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"Paulette Jones grew up in the area. She was in the same class as Frances (Shea Kray) at Randal Cremer at one stage when they were both aged 8. She vividly recalled, most of all, Frances' abundant mass of hair.

'She was quite plump with longish dark curly hair' Paulette recalled. 'We always called her Franny or Fran. After Randal Cremer we went off to different grammar schools. I went to Central Foundation at Liverpool Street and Frances went to Dalston County, a girls school on Shacklewell Lane, off Newington Road.

I can still see her in my minds eye in a dark belted raincoat and a hat perched on the back of her head, because of the amount of hair she had. The coat and hat would have been part of the uniform for Dalston County. I wanted to go with Franny and some of the others to Dalston County but my mother said Central Foundation was a better school."

#frances shea #reggie kray #frances kray #frances shea kray #the kray twins #childhood

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theholmwoodfoundation · 29 days

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THE HOLMWOOD FOUNDATION PILOT EPISODE CAST/CREW - PART ONE

REBECCA ROOT - MADDIE TOWNSEND/MINA HARKER

Rebecca trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. Theatre credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time for the National Theatre (UK and Ireland tour); Rathmines Road for Fishamble at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin; Trans Scripts at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts; The Bear / The Proposal at the Young Vic; and Hamlet at the Gielgud Theatre and Athens International Festival. TV, Film and Video Game credits include Monsieur Spade, This Is Christmas, Irvine Welsh’s Crime, Hogwarts Legacy, Horizon Forbidden West, Heartstopper, Annika, The Rising, Sex Education, The Gallery, The Queen’s Gambit, Finding Alice, Creation Stories, Last Christmas, The Sisters Brothers, Colette, The Danish Girl, Flack, The Romanoffs, Moominvalley, Hank Zipzer, Boy Meets Girl, Doctors, Casualty, The Detectives, and Keeping Up Appearances. Radio credits include Clare In The Community, Life Lines, The Hotel, and 1977 for BBC Radio 4. Guest appearances include Woman’s Hour, Front Row, Loose Ends, Saturday Live, and A Good Read. She plays Tania Bell in the award-winning Doctor Who: Stranded audio dramas. Rebecca has also recorded numerous documentary narrations, audiobooks, and voice-overs. Rebecca is also a voice and speech coach, holding the MA in Voice Studies from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

SEAN CARLSEN - JEREMY LARKIN/ JONATHAN HARKER

Born in South Wales, Seán trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. He has worked extensively in audio drama, television, theatre and film. Seán is perhaps best known to Doctor Who fans as Narvin in the Doctor Who audio series Gallifrey and has appeared on TV in Doctor Who - The Christmas Invasion and Torchwood. Recent TV credits include Mudtown (BBCiplayer/S4C), Dal y Mellt (Netflix), His Dark Materials (BBC1), All Creatures Great and Small (Channel 5), A Mother's Love (Channel 4) and Series 5 of Stella (Sky1). Films include supporting leads in Boudica - Rise of the Warrior Queen, cult horror The Cleansing, the lead in Forgotten Journeys and John Sheedy’s forthcoming film ‘Never Never Never’

SAM CLEMENS - ARTHUR JONES

Samuel Clemens trained at the Drama Centre London and is an award-winning director with over twenty years’ experience. Samuel has recently written and directed his debut feature film ‘The Waterhouse’ with Take The Shot Films & Featuristic Films and represented by Raven Banner Entertainment, which is due for release this coming year. In addition, he has directed fourteen short films, winning awards all over the world including shorts ‘Surgery (multi-award winning), A Bad Day To Propose (Straight 8 winner 2021), Say No & Dress Rehearsal’. Samuel also directs critically acclaimed number one UK stage tours and fringe shows (Rose Theatre Kingston, Swansea Grand, Eastbourne, Yvonne Arnaud, Waterloo East Theatre) and commercials include clients JD Sports, Shell and Space NK. Samuel is also a regular producer and director for Big Finish Productions & Anderson Entertainment. He has cast, directed, produced and post supervised numerous productions of ‘Doctor Who – (BBC), The Avengers (Studio Canal), Thunderbirds, Stingray (Anderson Entertainment), Callan, Missy, Gallifrey’& Shilling & Sixpence Investigate’ and many more. Samuel has directed world class talent such as, Sir Roger Moore, Ben Miles, Tom Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Alex Kingston, Frank Skinner, Rita Ora, Rosie Huntingdon-Whiteley, Rufus Hound, David Warner, Celia Imrie, Samuel West, Youssef Kerkour, Sophie Aldred, Ian McNiece, Colin Baker, Olivia Poulet, Stephen Wight, Jade Anouka, Mimi Ndwendi, Michelle Gomez, Peter Davidson, Paul O’Grady and many more. Samuel is one of the founding members and directors at Take The Shot Films Ltd and is Head of Artistic Creation and Direction. Lastly, Samuel is a regular tutor at The London Film Academy, The Giles Foreman Centre for Acting & The Rose Youth Theatre and is a member of The Directors Guild UK. As for upcoming projects, Sam is currently in pre-production on his next feature film “On The Edge of Darkness”, which is based on his dad’s stage play “Strictly Murder”.

ATTILA PUSKAS - DRACULA

Attila Puskás is a native Hungarian Voice Actor born in Transylvania – Romania, so Romanian is in his bag of tricks too, but most of his work is done in English, in a Transatlantic Eastern European Accent, but is quite capable of Hungarian, Romanian and International Eastern European accents, plus Standard American. His voice range is Adult to Middle Aged (30-40+) due to his deep voice. Vocal styles can range from authoritive, brooding to calming and reassuring and much more. He’s most experienced in character work, like Animations and Games, but his skills encompass Commercials to Narration as well. He’s received training through classes and workshops, pushing him to the next level to achieve higher standards. Now on a journey to perfect these skills and put them to good use!

PART TWO: HERE

PART THREE: HERE

#A lengthier look at our cast and crew!#The Holmwood Foundation #the holmwood foundation podcast #jeremy larkin #maddie townsend #Rebecca Root #Sean Carlsen #arthur f jones #production updates #Dracula #Sam Clemens #Attila Puskas #cast announcement #podcast #horror fiction podcast #fiction podcast #Q

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mysterycharacterbracket · 6 months

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FINAL RECAP POST

Tier 1 - First 44

300. 260. Puff Puff from Your Favorite Martian

299. 160. Maxil of Gallifrey from Doctor Who Arc of Infinity

298. 88. Nobody from scp foundation

297. 64. Jubei from Video Game (Blazblue)

296. 131. Nyssa from Doctor Who fused with Bulbasaur from Pokémon

295. 242. Rarity from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

294. 148. Garwin Chang from Kotlc

293. 103. William from Chad Smith: Life of a rich boy (webtoon), and more coming soon TBD

292. 244. Benrey from Half-life VR but the AI is self aware

291. 15. Flavio Who from the submitter's own memes

290. 70. Vislor Turlough from Doctor who (-_-)

289. 293. Lee Ping from Detentionaire

288. 19. Clay Puppington from Moral Orel

287. 211. The Puppeteer from Steldomo (aka an oc in a story the submitter wants to write)

286. 43. hatsune miku; colorful stage

285. 167. Hugtan / Hagumi / Cure Tomorrow from Hugtto Precure

284. 164. Dr Frankistein from Frankenstein (the book)

283. 60. Dr. Zoidberg from Futurama

282. 175. Sho Minamimoto from The World Ends With You

281. 28. Stacy Hirano from Phineas and Ferb!

280. 199. Dib Membrane from Invader Zim

279. 25. Loras Tyrell from A Song of Ice and Fire (NOT the show they fuckijgbmassacred his character)

278. 74. Candyman from Lethal League Blaze

277. 31. Kikiu from Tess of the Road

276. 191. Dazai Osamu from Bungou stray dogs

275. 185. Juta Tachibana from Otomen

274. 85. Jenny Jergens from Detentionnaire

273. 119. Theodore from The House in the Cerulean Sea

272. 95. Shirou Emiya from Fate/Stay Night

271. 124. Puss in Boots from Shrek

270. 137. Phantom Horn from Two Best Brothers Bitch About Ponies/Slime and Punishment/RowdyFuckers CopKillers Endless War (indirectly originatined in Sonichu as well, as slime and punushment is the cannonical ending to Sonichu, TBBBAP, and while not the end, is a cannonical story in RFCK)

269. 8. Greenland from Plague, Inc.

268. 233. Link from The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap

267. 223. Scooby doo from Scooby doo

266. 156. Cricket from Wings of Fire

265. 10. Wilbur the pig from Charlotte's Web

264. 1. Cleopatra the 7th from Real life

263. 189. Colin Frazer from Doctor Who Arc of Infinity

262. 79. Peter Pan from Once Upon a Time

261. 240. Shiho Kobayakawa from Private Actress

260. 277. The Human Faced Fish from Shingi: The Spirit's Playbook

259. 84. Chopfyt (The Tin Man) from Oz

258. 250. Albedo from Ben 10

257. 257. Sam Lloyd/Sergei Lubovitch from The Diviners series

Tier 2 - Round of 256

256. 254. Andrew Ryan from Buoshck

255. 216. Nyssa õf Traken from Doctor who

254. 228. Asha from Iji

253. 22. Whisper Schnee from Boldores and Boomsticks

252. 253. Chuuya Nakahara from Bungou stray dogs

251. 18. Mapleshade from warrior cats

250. 190. Andrew Eldritch from real life

249. 120. sans undertale from undertale

248. 219. T-Rex from Jurassic Park

247. 141. Karkat Vantas from Homestuck

246. 53. Rasputin IV from X-Men

245. 20. Hunter | The Golden Guard from The Owl House

244. 7. Kim Dokja from Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

243. 50. Death from Darksiders

242. 266. Dave Miller from Dsaf

241. 174. Dr. Miranda Jones from Star Trek: The Original Series

240. 274. donquixote doflamingo from one piece

239. 92. Hyakunosuke Ogata from Golden Kamuy

238. 11. Kha'Nel from Dragens Øye

237. 139. George Costanza from Seinfeld

236. 121. Rampage from Beast Wars

235. 62. ε (epsilon) from Mathematics, real life (kinda? Not sure maths qualifies as real life) ) (common phrase: Let ε>0 be any real number)

234. 134. BoJack Horseman from BoJack Horseman

233. 291. Juleka Couffaine from Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir

232. 129. Flavio Rezza (MC Flava) from real life

231. 215. Goodtimewithscar or Scar for short (the minecraft youtuber)

230. 186. Percy Weasley from Harry Potter

229. 170. claude frollo from the hunchback of notre dame (specifically the stage musical)

228. 217. Grian from Life Series (3rd/Last/Double/Limited Life)

227. 168. the submitter from real life

226. 269. Mizi from Alien Stage

225. 96. Robin Stuart from Arc of Infinity (Doctor Who)

224. 172. Tessa Minsky from Imogen, Obviously

223. 267. Ea-nasir (real life copper merchant - 1750 BCE)

222. 37. Kokichi Ouma from Danganronpa V3

221. 147. Rose Lavillant from Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir

220. 135. Fiver from Watership down

219. 251. Keith Kogane from Voltron

218. 63. Cricket from Wings of Fire

217. 146. Adric of Alzarius from Doctor Who

216. 177. Mort from the Madagascar Movies/All Hail King Julian

215. 59. Edward Elric from Fullmetal metal alchemist

214. 290. Jimmy Solidarity from The Empires smp

213. 259. rayla from the dragon prince

212. 205. Starfy from The Legendary Starfy

211. 232. Taako from The Adventure Zone

210. 188. Hatsune Miku from Vocaloid

209/208. 182. Matt Murdock from Daredevil (Netflix)

209/208. 107. Ted Kord from DC comics

207. 86. Juleka Couffaine from Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir

206. 27. Sailor Saturn from Sailor Moon

205. 197. Marc Anciel from Miraculous Ladybug

204. 159. Yona from Yona of the Dawn

203. 220. David Chiem from Danganronpa: Despair Time

202. 125. Tynan from Aurora Webcomic

201. 169. Kid Blink from Newsies

200. 128. π (pi) from Mathematics (as in half a circle of radius 1)

199. 275. Zee from Total Drama 2023

198. 278. Flynn Moore from Echo (the furry vn)

197. 270. Caim Tivh from Mørkalven

196. 195. Grendel, The Grimm General from Boldores and Boomsticks

195. 280. Hermie the Unworthy from Dungeons and Daddies

194. 181. Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way from My Immortal

193. 247. Monkey D Luffy from One Piece

Tier 3 - Round of 192

192. 68. Jacopo Bearzatti from The House in Fata Morgana

191. 117. Pugsley Guttman from From the animated series Dead End: Paranormal Park

190. 57. Maglor from the Silmarillion

189. 203. Al-An from Subnautica: Below Zero

188. 112. Hercule Poirot from Agatha Christie-verse (???)

187. 122. Rampage from Beast Wars

186. 284. Callie Cuttlefish from Splatoon 1-3

185. 61. Ranpo Edogawa from Bungou Stray Dogs

184. 123. Emil from Nier series

183. 157. vriska from homestuck

182. 213. Brainy Smurf from The Smurfs

181. 36. Doppo Kannonzaka from Hypnosis Mic

180. 38. Diane Nguyen from BoJack Horseman

179. 32. Serial Designation N from Murder Drones

178. 29. Morgrem from Pokemon

177. 17. Joy Wang/Jobu Tupaki from Everything Everywhere All at Once

176. 54. Rex Salazar from Generator Rex

175. 161. Huan from The Silmarillion

174. 225. meg from megahex comic series

173. 136. [redacted] / trivia murder party host from jackbox; trivia murder party

172. 42. Toshiko Sato from Torchwood

171. 106. Veeva Dash from Stampy's Lovely World

170. 39. gaheris from arthuriana

169. 287. waylon smithers jr from the simpsons

168. 77. Nathaniel Kurtzberg from Miraculous Ladybug

167. 89. Pit from Kid Icarus

166. 82. Tsurugi Kyousuke / Victor Blade from Inazuma Eleven GO

165. 171. Danhausen from Professional wrestling

164. 3. Maia Drahzar/Edrehasivar VII from The Goblin Emperor

163. 165. Taranee Cook from W.i.t.c.h.

162. 207. Ardyn "Izunia" Lucis Caelum from Final Fantasy XV

161. 132. Invader Zim from Invader Zim

160. 94. Mumbo Jumbo from Real Life/Mcyt

159. 208. Garwin Chang from Keeper of the Lost Cities

158. 78. Aya Burnstein from Dancing In The Devils Auditorium, by xxangelxbl00dxx(the OP) on ao3

157. 230. Nintendo EShop Bag from Nintendo EShop

156. 234. Logan(Logic) from Sanders Sides

155. 261. Eridan Ampora from Homestuck

154. 235. Markiplier from Real Life

153. 138. Hajime Hinata from Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

152. 264. Bao-Dur from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2

151. 71. Fabian Seacaster from Fantasy High (Dimension 20)

150. 283. Bruno Madrigal from Encanto

149. 13. The Fifth Doctor from Doctor Who

148. 155. Tegan Jovanka from Doctor Who

147. 273. Lynne from Ghost Trick

146. 130. Hoshina Hikaru (Cure Star) from Star Twinkle Pretty Cure

145. 81. Damon of Gallifrey from Doctor Who Arc of Infinity

144. 239. "Phoenix" from iiRitW, the OP's ORIGINAL (sob) wip videogame

143. 115. Sound Saran from My School President

142. 149. data from star trek the next generation

141. 2. Iruma-kun from Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun

140. 256. Akane Kurashiki from Zero Escape

139. 104. Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon from Sailor Moon

138. 91. Kuromi from Sanrio

137. 158. Corazón de Ballena from Oxventure

136. 192. Milo Murphy from Milo Murphy's Law

135. 105. Alice Price Healy from Incryptid

134. 48. Raven Scofflaw from the submitter's OC from a wip that currently has the filler title 'Family'

133. 187. Vash the Stampede from Trigun

132. 206. Ben from the submitter's OC with almost zero information about lmao (this will change once I update artfight?)

131. 66. Natsuki Subaru from Re:Zero

130. 126. Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher

129. 255. Kevin from Ghost Host Ghost House

Tier 4 - Round of 128

128. 116. Pancho from All Hail King Julien!

127. 110. Kento from Payday 2

126. 113. Grantaire from Les Miserables

125. 65. Lexcanium from Wasteland 2

124. 297. Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars

123. 263. Chocolat Aizawa from Chocolat no Mahou

121/122. 153. Syv from Snøkattprinsen/The Snowcat Prince

121/122. 299. Adam Tyler from the Firewatching series

120. 83. Imogen Scott from Imogen, Obviously

119. 152. Garwin Chang from Keeper of the Lost Cities

118. 198. Sylvio Sawatari from Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc V

117. 295. Pheonix Wright from Ace Attorney

116. 221. Prince Tarte (full name so long even he can't remember all of it) from Fresh Precure

115. 286. Ingo from Pokemon Legends Arceus

114. 279. The Collector from The Owl House

113. 227. Guildmaster Wigglytuff from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky

112. 99. Nanako Dojima from Persona 4

111. 262. Lunar from The sun and moon show

110. 143. the doctor (could just be the 10th doctor if thats too broad) from doctor who

109. 108. Don Quixote from Limbus Company

108. 46. Chiono from Steldomo (aka an oc in a story the submitter wants to write)

107. 236. the Doctor from Doctor Who

106. 45. Hao Asakura from Shaman King

105. 16. Tatsuya Suou from Persona 2

104. 194. Magic Brian from The Adventure Zone: Balance

103. 229. ronan lynch from the raven cycle

102. 58. Todd Chavez from BoJack Horseman

101. 252. Susan Sto Helit from The Discworld series

100. 12. Baljeet Tjinder from Phineas and Ferb

99. 271. Manga Fukidashi from My hero academia

98. 238. Cure Lovely/Megumi Aino from Happiness Charge Precure

97. 154. Nate Ford from Leverage

Tier 5 - Round of 96

96. 210. Melanie King from The Magnus Archives

95. 241. Vriska Serket from Homestuck

94. 93. Cure Passion from Fresh Precure

93. 44. Stanford Pines from Gravity Falls

92. 265. Otome from Video game (Gnosia)

91. 173. Lucian Lockhart from the submitter's imagination

90. 4. Pyotr 'Pierre' Bezukhov from War and Peace

89. 6. Mia "Maps" Mizoguchi from Gotham Academy/DC Comics

88. 76. Meridius from Venom

87. 268. daniil dankovsky from pathologic

86. 55. Nona from Nona the Ninth (book)

85. 24. Prince Peasely from Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga

84. 298. IMOGEN from stellar firma

83. 52. Jordyn Khaos from The chronicles of Destiny

82. 166. Gideon Nav from The Locked Tomb

81. 282. Obi from Snow White with the Red Hair

80. 281. Dalinar Kholin from Stormlight Archive

79. 140. Tim Drake from DC Comics, Batman Comics

78. 248. Brightheart from Warriors

77. 23. Garwin Chang from Keeper of the Lost cities

76. 109. Roy Mustang from Fullmetal Alchemist

75. 289. Ken Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul

74. 114. Vinnie Dakota from Milo Murphy's Law

73. 14. Jin Macchiato from Fuga: Melodies of Steel

72. 101. Hendry Lowe from All of Us Villains

71. 212. Annabel McAllistair from Dolls of new albion

70. 258. Sanji from One piece

69. 214. God from the Bible

68. 73. Kosane Kiriha from Null Magical Girl

67. 218. Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit

66. 118. anakin skywalker from star wars

65. 90. Adina Astra from Lost Constellation (Night in the Woods Supplemental)

Tier 6 - Round of 64

64. 35. Larten Crepsley from The Saga of Darren Shan

63. 49. Eda Clawthorne from The Owl House

62. 26. Perona from One Piece

61. 47. Bain from Payday: the Heist and Payday 2

60. 144. Heiji Hattori from Detective Conan

59. 41. Maglor from The Silmarillion

58. 237. Carrot from The Discworld series

57. 179. John from Malevolent (podcast)

56. 226. Katarina Claes from My Next Life as a Villianess

55. 127. five hargreeves from the umbrella academy

54. 196. Dragon from Parahumans

53. 102. Vanessa Santoro from Fablehaven book series

52. 150. James Flint from Black Sails

51. 180. Sasha Rackett from Rusty Quill Gaming

50. 249. Donna Noble from Doctor Who

49. 178. Beauregard Lionett from Critical Role

Tier 7 - Second bracket

48. 151. Zisu from Pokemon Legends Arceus

47. 209. Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender

46. 56. Canute from Vinland Saga

45. 183. otto octavius / doc ock from spiderman 2

44. 204. Kim Dokja from Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

43. 33. Mihashi Ren from Ookiku Furikabutte (Big Windup!)

42. 100. The original char aznable from Gundam

41. 51. Percy Weasley from Harry Potter

40. 292. akagi shigeru from akagi

39. 202. Douglas F. Eiffel from Wolf 359

38. 80. Marty Mikalski from The Cabin in the Woods, 2011

37. 142. The Reaper from Death's door

36. 184. Thors from Vinland Saga

35. 200. Ryoma Hoshi from Danganronpa

34. 75. Darth Maul from Star Wars

33. 243. Kim Theerapanyakul from Kinnporsche The Series

Tier 8 - Round of 32

32. 34. Godzilla from Godzilla

31. 300 Baljeet Tjinder from Phineas and Ferb

30. 245. Duck Newton from The Adventure Zone: Amnesty

29. 145. Gakushuu Asano from Assassination Classroom

28. 30. Natsume Takashi from Natsume's Book of Friends

27. 276. Nona from The Locked Tomb series

26. 87. Cordelia Gallo from Gosick

25. 162. Richard Spender from Paranatural

Tier 9 - Round of 24

24. 296. Horse from Centaurworld

23. 40. charlie kelly from its always sunny in philadelphia

22. 294. Warren Peace from Sky High

21. 176. Percy Weasley from Harry Potter

20. 285. Daisy Wells from Murder Most Unladylike (book series)

19. 201. zane from lego ninjago

18. 9. Tin from Triage

17. 111. Kelsier from Mistborn

Tier 10 - Sweet 16

16. 98. Fujiwara no Sai from Hikaru no Go

15. 133. Megamind from Megamind

14. 97. V from Devil May Cry

13. 69. Vegas Theerapanyakul from Kinnporsche: The Series

Tier 11 - Top Twelve

12. 193. The Obituary Writer from Death By Dying

11. 163. hollyleaf from warrior cats

10. 72. King Clawthorne from The Owl House

9. 288. Vin from Mistborn

Tier 12 - Elite Eight

8. 222. Galacta Knight from Kirby

7. 224. Metal Sonic from Sonic Series

Tier 13 - Final bracket

6. 272. Ilke from Phenomena

5. 231. Maika Halfwolf from Monstress

Tier 14 - Final Four

4. 246. Phoenix Wright from Ace Attorney

Tier 15 - Thrilling Three

3. 21. Olenna Tyrell from A Song of Ice and Fire

Tier 16 - Top Two

2. 5. Parker from Leverage

Tier 17 - Only One

1. 67. Sophie Foster from Keeper of the lost cities

#mystery character bracket #character review

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finishinglinepress · 10 months

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NEW FROM FINISHING LINE PRESS: Questions in Jamaican Patois by Yasmin Morais

On SALE now! Pre-order Price Guarantee: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/questions-in-jamaican-patois-by-yasmin-morais/

Questions in Jamaican Patois presents the perspective of a #Jamaican Canadian American woman as she ponders her past, present and the pasts of the strong #women who preceded her. Her poems provide a window into the everyday human experience as she grapples with the meaning of love, loss, heartbreak, nostalgia, adjustment, and survival. It is through her questions that the answers are ultimately found. #poetry

Yasmin Morais was born in Jamaica and later lived in Canada and now the United States. Her poems have been published in Nursing Science Quarterly, The Potomac, and Pen and Prosper. Yasmin also self-published her first poetry collection, From Cane Field to the Sea. Her short story, Rashida’s Letter, placed third in the Tallahassee Writer’s Association competition and was published in the Seven Hills Review. See link: https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Review-Tallahassee-Writers-Association/dp/1481148818 To showcase the works of Caribbean poets, she created the blog, Poets of the Caribbean: poetsofthecaribbean.blogspot.com She enjoys traveling, badminton and running in her spare time.

PRAISE FOR Questions in Jamaican Patois by Yasmin Morais Questions in Jamaican Patois by Yasmin Morais

Yasmin’s poetry is powerful, purposeful, poised! In her new collection, “Questions in Jamaican Patois”, she connects with audiences through clever word choices, timely topics, and great emotional range. Readers will become fast fans! From page one, until it’s done, this eclectic collection captivates the mind and captures the heart. Yasmin Morais is an immense talent, and “Questions in Jamaican Patois” is a must-read.

–Jennifer Brown Banks, FOUNDER/PRESIDENT OF POETS UNITED TO ADVANCE THE ARTS

In Questions in Jamaican Patois, poet Yasmin Morais calls us to walk with her along many roads. They’re pavers made of her words. On this journey, we walk along with Morais while seeing and feeling what she sees and feels. Each poem acts as a door to a residence. She walks us to the knob to turn it and look inside the building. Her construction of moments and memories creates a foundation of rich and strong imagery. She takes us there. Her poems introduce us to meaningful topics such as racial issues, health, morality, identity and history. Whether it’s a welcomed piece said in patois, we don’t want to leave. Her reflections of breast cancer feeds us well to sit by her and just listen to her journey. We’re there. We feel drawn and motivated to comfort the warrior. Though she provides the real healing power from her words. Poem after poem there’s a desire to read and see more. Her voice of poignant patois resonates directness and wisdom. Her spirit seems ancient with clarity. She brings a sharp focus and understanding of life experiences which translates well. Morais doesn’t let go as we continue the journey to her last poem. In the end, we’re full like eating a delicious meal. At our table, those questions of life are a part of us. We have some answers and more questions but that’s okay. That’s the meaning of life. She let’s us know with this unforgettable depth as long as we walk together we’ll reach an understanding between each other.

–Henry L. Jones, Inaugural Poet Laureate, of Hendersonville, Tennessee

Please share/repost #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #read #poems #literature #poetry

#poetry #flp authors #preorder #flp #poets on tumblr #chapbook #chapbooks #finishing line press #small press

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reasoningdaily · 1 year

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The portraits of Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Frederick Douglass hang on the walls of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture on September 24, 2016, in Washington, DC

In August 1619, the first ship with “20 and odd” enslaved Africans arrived on the shores of Virginia. Four hundred years later, we look back at this moment as the start of an enduring relationship between the founding of the United States and the unconscionable exploitation of the enslaved.

In a sweeping project published by the New York Times Magazine in August 2019 exploring the legacy of slavery, Nikole Hannah-Jones wrote, “[The enslaved] and their descendants transformed the lands to which they’d been brought into some of the most successful colonies in the British Empire. ... But it would be historically inaccurate to reduce the contributions of black people to the vast material wealth created by our bondage. Black Americans have also been, and continue to be, foundational to the idea of American freedom.”

Yet centuries later, the lasting impact of slavery continues to be minimized and myths continue to flourish. For instance, there’s the erasure of the many slave revolts and rebellions that happened throughout the nation, perpetuating the lie that the enslaved were docile or satisfied with their conditions. There’s also the persistent idea that black labor exploitation is over, when mass incarceration still keeps millions of black Americans behind bars and often working for “wages” that amount to less than $1 an hour. Then there’s the idea that our understanding of slavery is accurate based on what we learned in history textbooks, when in reality, misinformation continues to be taught in our public schools about slavery’s legacy.

To unpack what often gets mistold or misunderstood, we asked five historians to debunk the biggest myths about slavery. Here’s what they said, in their own words.

1) The myth that slaves never rebelled

Miseducation surrounding slavery in the US has led to an elaborate mythology of half truths and missing information. One key piece of missing history concerns slave revolts: Few history books or popular media portrayals of the trans-Atlantic slave trade discuss the many slave rebellions that occurred throughout America’s early history.

C.L.R. James’s A History of Pan African Revolt describes many small rebellions such as the Stono Plantation insurgence of September 1739 in the South Carolina colony, where a small group of enslaved Africans first killed two guards. Others joined them as they moved to nearby plantations, setting them afire and killing about two dozen enslavers, especially violent overseers. Nat Turner’s August 1831 uprising in Southampton, Virginia, where some 55 to 65 enslavers were killed and their plantations burned, serves as another example.

A country road follows the trail of Nat Turner’s 1831 slave rebellion in rural southeastern Virginia, June 5, 2010. On either side, farms were burned and slavers murdered as Nat Turner and his followers marched toward the town of Jerusalem, now renamed Courtland. Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

Enslaved Africans resisted and rebelled against individual slave holders and the system of slavery as a whole. Some slipped away secretly to learn to read. Many simply escaped. Others joined the abolitionist movements, wrote books, and gave lectures to the public about their experiences in captivity. And others led or participated in open combat against their captors.

Omitting or minimizing these stories of rebellion helps hide the violent and traumatic experiences enslaved Africans endured at the hands of enslavers, which prompted such revolts. If we are unaware of resistance, it is easier for us to believe the enslaved were happy, docile, or that their conditions were not inhumane. It then becomes easier to dismiss economic and epigenetic legacies of the transatlantic slave system.

Dale Allender is an associate professor at California State University, Sacramento.

2) The myth that house slaves had it better than field slaves

While physical labor in the fields was excruciating for the enslaved — clearing land, planting, and harvesting that often destroyed their bodies — that didn’t negate the physical and emotional violence enslaved women, and sometimes men and children, suffered at the hands of enslavers in their homes.

In fact, rape of black women by white enslavers was so prevalent that a 2016 study revealed 16.7 percent of African Americans’ ancestors can be traced back to Europe. One of the study’s authors concludes that the first African Americans to leave the South were those genetically related to the men who raped their mothers, grandmothers, and/or great-grandmothers. These were the enslaved African Americans within the closest proximity to and who spent the longest durations with white men: the ones who toiled in the houses of slave owners.

An unidentified woman poses with a book in her hands, circa 1850. The original caption identifies her only as a “freed slave.” Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images

A 2015 study determined that 50 percent of rape survivors develop PTSD. It is hard to imagine that enslaved and freedom-seeking African American survivors of rape — female, male, old, young, no matter their physical or mental abilities — did not experience further anxiety, fear, and shame associated with a condition they could not control in a situation out of control. Those African Americans with the most European ancestry, those tormented mentally, physically, emotionally, and genetically in the house, knew they had to get out. In fact, they fled the farthest — Southern whites are more closely related to blacks now living in the North than the South.

Jason Allen is a public historian and dialogue facilitator working at nonprofits, hospitals, and businesses in New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia.

3) The myth that abolition was the end of racism

A common myth about American slavery is that when it ended, white supremacy or racism in America also ended.

Recently, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell offered a familiar variant of this myth when he said he opposed reparations “for something that happened 150 years ago.” To the Kentucky Republican, a descendant of enslavers, slavery simply was, and then it just wasn’t, as though the battlefield had leveled the playing field when it came to race.

But the truth is that long after the Civil War, white Americans continue to carry the same set of white supremacist beliefs that governed their thoughts and actions during slavery and into the post-emancipation era.

In the South, especially, whites retained an enslaver’s mentality. They embraced sharecropping and convict leasing to control black labor in late 19th century, enacted Jim Crow laws to regulate black behavior in the early 20th century, and use racial terror to police the color line to this day.

In this undated photo, two men use segregated drinking fountains in the American South. Getty Images

In the North, whites also rejected racial equality. After emancipation, they refused to make abandoned and confiscated land available to freedmen because they believed that African Americans would not work without white supervision. And when African Americans began fleeing Dixie during the Great Migration, white Northerners instituted their own brand of Jim Crow, segregating neighborhoods and refusing to hire black workers on a nondiscriminatory basis.

Slavery’s legacy is white supremacy. The ideology, which rationalized bondage for 250 years, has justified the discriminatory treatment of African Americans for the 150 years since the war ended. The belief that black people are less than white people has made segregated schools acceptable, mass incarceration possible, and police violence permissible.

This makes the myth that slavery had no lasting impact extremely consequential — denying the persistence and existence of white supremacy obscures the root causes of the problems that continue to plague African Americans. As a result, policymakers fixate on fixing black people instead of trying to undo the discriminatory systems and structures that have resulted in separate and unequal education, voter suppression, health disparities, and a wealth gap.

Something did “happen” 150 years ago: Slavery ended. But the institution’s influence on American racism and its continued impact on African Americans is still felt today.

Hasan Kwame Jeffries is an associate professor at Ohio State University.

4) The myth that history class taught us everything we needed to know about slavery

Many of us first learned about slavery in our middle or high school history classes, but some of us learned much earlier — in elementary school, through children’s books, or even Black History Month curriculum and programs. Unfortunately, we don’t always learn the entire story.

Most of us only learned partial truths about slavery in the United States. After the Civil War and Reconstruction, many in the North and South wanted to put an end to continuing tensions. But this wasn’t done just through the Compromise of 1877, when the federal government pulled the last troops out of the South; it was also done by suppressing the rights of black Americans and elevating the so-called “Lost Cause” of the enslavers.

The Tennessee-based group “New Confederate State of America” held a protest in support of retaining a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee located on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, September 16, 2017. Win McNamee/Getty Images

The Lost Cause is a distorted version of Civil War history. In the decades after the war, a number of Southern historians began to write that slaveholders were noble and had the right to secede from the Union when the North wished to interfere with their way of life. Due to efforts by a group of Southern socialites known as the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Lost Cause ideology influenced history textbooks as well as books for children and adults. The accomplishments of black Americans involved in the abolition movement, such as Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Maria W. Stewart, Henry Highland Garnet, and William Still, were downplayed. Union generals like Ulysses S. Grant were denigrated, as were anti-racist whites from John Brown to William Lloyd Garrison. Generations later, there are still many people around the country who believe the Civil War was about states’ rights and that slaves who had good masters were treated well.

Even an accurate historical curriculum emphasizes progress, triumph, and optimism for the country as a whole, without taking into account how slavery continues to affect black Americans and influence present-day domestic policy from urban planning to health care. It does not emphasize that 12 of the first 18 presidents were enslavers, that enslaved Africans from particular cultures were prized for their skills from rice cultivation to metallurgy, and that enslaved people used every tool at their disposal to resist bondage and seek freedom. From slavery to Jim Crow to civil rights to the first black president, the black American story is forced into the story of the unassailable American dream — even when the truth is more complicated.

Given what we learn about slavery, when we learn it, and how, it is clear that everyone still has much more to learn. Teaching Tolerance and Teaching for Change are two organizations that have been wrestling with how we introduce this topic to our young. And what they’re learning is that the way forward is to unlearn.

Ebony Elizabeth Thomas is an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

5) The myth that slavery doesn’t exist today

One of the greatest myths about slavery is that it ended. In fact, it evolved into its modern form: mass incarceration.

The United States has the highest prison population in the world. More than 2.2 million Americans are incarcerated; 4.5 million are on probation or parole. African Americans make up roughly 13 percent of the general population. But black men, women, and youth have outsize representation in the criminal justice system, where they make up 34 percent of the 6.8 million people who are under its control. Their labor is used to produce goods and services for businesses that profit from prison labor.

Prisoners at the Ferguson Unit, a large prison along the Trinity River in Texas, actively work the farm the prison runs, which includes planting and harvesting an annual cotton crop, 1997. The prison is located on a former cotton slave plantation. Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

For those of us who study the early history of mass incarceration in America, these statistics are not surprising. From the late 1860s through the 1920s, over 90 percent of the prison and jail populations of the South were black. Thousands of incarcerated men, women, and children were hired out by the state to private factories and farms for a fee. From sunup to sundown, they worked under the watchful eye of brutal “whipping bosses” who flogged, mauled, and murdered them. They earned nothing for their toil. Today, labor exploitation, the denial of human dignity and the right to citizenship, family separation, and violent punishment define our criminal justice system in ways that mirror slavery.

Hundreds of thousands of incarcerated people work. According to a 2017 report published by the Prison Policy Initiative, “the average of the minimum daily wages paid to incarcerated workers for non-industry prison jobs is now 86 cents.” Those assigned to work for state-owned businesses (correctional industries) earn between 33 cents and $1.41 per hour. In 2018, incarcerated Americans held a nationwide strike to end “prison slavery.” In a list of demands, striking individuals called for “all persons imprisoned in any place of detention under United States jurisdiction” to be “paid the prevailing wage in their state or territory for their labor.”

This is a year to remember slavery’s origins. It is also an opportunity to critique its legacies. Let’s not get so caught up in our efforts to commemorate slavery’s beginning that we fail to advocate for its end.

Talitha LeFlouria is the Lisa Smith Discovery Associate Professor at the University of Virginia.

Correction: An earlier version misstated the range of presidents who were enslavers. It was 12 of the first 18 presidents, not 12 of the first 16.

#5 Things People Still Get Wrong About Slavery #american racism #slavery of Black people in america #white supremacy #systemic racism #white lies about american enslavement of Black people #Black LIves Matter #White lies matter #white hate #homegrown terrorism #white lies #13th amendment #jim crow #jim crow laws #reconstruction #slavery exists in america today

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macaronis-telegraph · 2 years

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23 books for 2023

As follows are 23 books I think I'd like to get to this year. This list pretty much just the unread books I already have sitting on my shelves, although there's a few on there that I don't own yet but would like to... This list also does not include the two books I'm currently reading. In no particular order except for alphabetical.

The Absolutist, John Boyne

Address Unknown, Kathrine Kressmann Taylor

Alf, Bruno Vogel

At Night All Blood is Black, David Diop

Bertram Cope’s Year, Henry Blake Fuller

Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh

Catch-22, Joseph Heller

Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata

Germinal, Émile Zola

The Great War and Modern Memory, Paul Fussell

Hell’s Foundations, Geoffrey Moorhouse

The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing, Mary Paulson-Ellis

In Parenthesis, David Jones

Love, Tommy, Andrew Roberts

The Memorial, Christopher Isherwood

The Military Orchid, Jocelyn Brooke

Nevada, Imogen Binnie

Our Lady of the Flowers, Jean Genet

A Paradise Built in Hell, Rebecca Solnit

The Road Back, Erich Maria Remarque

Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut

True Sex: The Lives of Trans Men at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Emily Skidmore

The Watch that Ends the Night, Allan Wolf

Let me know if there's anything on here you think I should get to first! Hopefully I can return to this in a year's time and say I've read all of these.

#or alternatively if there’s anything I’m better off avoiding #books #bookish #2023 tbr #thoughts

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totally-lit-road-trips · 1 year

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Chapter 22: Farm & Orchard

Welcome back to my Totally Lit Road Trip blog, where the lit stands for literary!

Today’s adventures took us all around Concord, MA, as we learned about Henry David Thoreau and Louisa May Alcott, as well their relationships with each other and other authors in the area. I think it says a lot about the authors that despite age and gender differences, they inspired each other’s writing and played a role in each other’s lives.

Jess and I started our morning at Thoreau Farm, where we were treated to a private tour, because we were the only ones there. Our tour guide, Barbara, is an amazing historian who told us the saga of the Thoreau family’s life on this farm. Even though Henry David Thoreau only lived there for eight months after he was born, the farm played a large role in his writing due to the stories his mother told him about the place. His grandmother, Mary Jones, was living in the house with her husband, and when he died, the “widow’s third” rule went into effect, meaning that even though she couldn’t own the house, she could legally continue living in 1/3 of it. Mary “swapped” homes with her daughter Cynthia (Thoreau’s mother), since she was younger and would have an easier time farming the land to make a profit. This is how Thoreau came to be born on a farm not technically owned by anyone in his family.

In 1995, when the last living owner of the house passed away, developers wanted to purchase the land and build condos. This prompted a group of historians and literature lovers to create a trust and raise the nearly $1M needed to purchase the land and restore the house. Rather than restoring it to its original form, as a lot of historical societies do with old houses, the trust wanted to refurbish in a way that would honor Thoreau’s memory and lifestyle. Given that he was a huge proponent of finding harmony in nature, the house was refurbished using recycled material and environmentally friendly paint, and uses solar panels to provide most of its electricity.

One interesting tidbit about the house is that its original foundation was about 300 yards away from where it lies now, and no one really knows why it was moved. It certainly would have been easier to just build a new house on the place where it is now, and historians have not discovered a reason for its move.

Inside the house you can see most of the original floorboards and walls, which were repainted to match the original colors in the house, although they left a few spots un-painted for comparison.

On our tour, Barbara told us about Thoreau and his siblings. He and his brother John both (unsuccessfully) proposed to the same woman. A few weeks later, John cut himself shaving and ultimately died of lockjaw. Thoreau was so distraught over the death of this brother that he wound up developing what we now know were psychosomatic symptoms which mirrored John’s so strongly that his family was convinced Thoreau must have cut himself as well. He eventually recovered, and went on to write A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, about a boat trip he took with John before his passing.

Thoreau’s younger sister Sophia (pronounced So-Fye-Uh) was an accomplished artist, and drew the cover art used for Walden, the book for which Thoreau is probably most well-known. Additionally, the family were abolitionists, and his older sister, Helen, founded the first woman’s abolitionist group.

Thoreau Farm is also still a fully functional farm, and volunteers from a non-profit organization called Gaining Ground farm the land and donate all the produce to local food pantries and meal programs. We took a few minutes to stroll around their crops, and it was really impressive.

My favorite new plant discovery came in the form of Egyptian Walking Onions, which were growing in one of the small garden plots near the house. When I said I wondered how they tasted, Barbara gave us permission to pick a few, if we would try them and let her know what they tasted like. Can confirm they tasted like red onions, just in miniature form! The Egyptian Walking Onions are an heirloom plant, meaning the seeds were from Thoreau’s time period.

(The little purple buds in the phot above are actually the Egyptian Walking Onions! They’re very small, but very tasty!)

After a quick and delicious lunch at Nashoba Brook Bakery, we headed over to Orchard House, the family home of Louisa May Alcott.

As you approach the house, the first thing that stands out is the lovely little garden out front, which is planted with the same plants and flowers that each of the four March sisters plants in her own little garden plot in Little Women. The plots are labeled accordingly with the sisters’ names - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy.

The first part of the tour takes place in the Concord School of Philosophy building, which Alcott’s father built in 1879. He was a Transcendentalist, who believed in education reformation. He believed in things like recess and field trips, and opposed corporal punishment, which was widely used at the time.

In the Concord School of Philosophy, you’ll find benches that were created for the schoolhouse scenes in the 2019 Little Woman film, and donated to Orchard House after filming. You can sit on them as you view a short documentary about Orchard House, narrated by a very compelling “Louisa May Alcott”, played by Jan Turnquist. You can watch the documentary here, if you are a member of Thirteen PBS.

After viewing the documentary, it was time to tour the house. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed, so if you want to see the residence in all its glory and fine detail, you’ve got to come visit for yourself.

We learned that the family bought Orchard House when Louisa was 25 years old. Prior to that, the family had lived in 29 houses over a span of 30 years, which sounds exhausting. After purchasing the house, which was only a few rooms, Alcott’s father had a nearby tenant house rolled in using logs, and attached it to the main house, making the whole residence much more spacious for his family. Louisa and her sisters helped with painting and setting up the house, although her sister Beth died before the family officially moved in. Beth’s melodium (a reed organ that resembles a small keyboard) and her portrait reside in one of the sitting rooms.

Due to the success of Alcott’s writing, she was able to furnish the family home with a lot of nice things, many of which are still present in the house today. She was also able to finance her youngest sister May’s art lessons in Europe, which were necessary because in America, art was not seen as a viable career for a woman. May had a small studio room in Orchard House where she gave art lessons, and one of her students, Daniel Chester French, eventually went on to design the Lincoln Memorial.

May spent many years in Europe learning art from the masters, eventually marrying and having a daughter, whom she named after her sister Louisa. Unfortunately, May passed a way shortly after giving birth, and then Lulu was sent back to America to be raised by Louisa for about nine years. Lulu eventually moved to Switzerland, where she lived until her death in 1975 at the age of 95.

May’s artwork lives on, however, as it can be found in every room in the house. From sketches to paintings to ink drawings all over the windowsills and walls, May’s art gives visitors glimpses into the lives of the Alcotts and the art styles of the time period. Due to a current art exhibit with the Concord Library, more of May’s art was on display than usual, including a silk dress which she hand painted. In addition, the wedding dress of the eldest sister, Anna, was also on special display in Louisa’s bedroom. The silvery gray silk was certainly unlike any modern wedding dress you’d see today, but it had a very sophisticated look nonetheless.

Some other items of note in the house were Louisa’s boots and writing desk. The boots are kept in a costume trunk from when the sisters and their friends would put on plays. The very same boots are mentioned in Little Women as belonging to Jo, who wears them to play Roderigo, the same role Louisa wore the boots for in real life. Louisa’s writing desk, though small in size, was large in what it represented - her family’s faith in her writing ability. During her lifetime, it was unfitting for a woman to have her own writing desk, as writing wasn’t seen as an appropriate career for them, similar to art. Louisa’s father build the desk for her, showing how strongly he believed in her.

Something I already knew before visiting Orchard House, but that I still think is interesting and important to mention is that when Alcott was writing Little Women, she fully intended for Jo, the character modeled after herself, to remain a “spinster,” just as Alcott was. However, her publisher absolutely forbid that, so as a “compromise,” Alcott created a sort of unexpected character for Jo to marry, rather than the fan favorite pick, Laurie.

One thing I didn’t know before our tour was how involved the Concord authors were in each other’s lives. Nathanial Hawthorne lived next door to the Alcotts, and Thoreau and Emerson were contemporaries of Louisa’s father, Amos Bronson. They even joined the family for Anna’s wedding.

After our tour of Orchard House, Jess and I explored downtown Concord a bit, and visited a few antique stores, a chocolate shop, and a cheese shop. Then we went back to our hotel to unwind for a bit before heading to Copper House Tavern for dinner. We both had fancy burgers that were quite scrumptious, and very satisfying. Now we’re back at the hotel resting up for tomorrow. We’ve got a lot planned, and it looks like rain all day, but luckily most of our adventuring will take place in doors.

Tune in tomorrow for some more literary adventures in Concord!

<3 Theresa

#totally lit road trip #totallylitroadtrip #concord #henry david thoreau #louisa may alcott #massachusetts #totallylitroadtrips #totally lit road trips #little women #walden

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