#smuggler 2011

[shads-shipposts]

Neil gif appreciation post

[sarksarkos]

Introduction: The Silver Age

Superman #76, published in 1952, is the "first" team-up of Superman and Batman. Why the quotes? Because Superman and Batman had already met through the Justice Society back in the Golden Age.

Comic books famously have "Ages," which is a distinction that's largely academic, which means complete nerds like me absolutely love it and nobody else really cares. The "Golden Age" is considered to be the origin of comic books as they currently exist, short, pulpy magazines, released periodically. We don't need to exhaust ourselves with details, but this is the period where the companies that would become DC and Marvel created characters like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Captain America.

This is where my biases come into play, because I'm very much disinterested in the Golden Age of comics. To my eyes, the material has simply not aged as well as the Silver Age and later. Roy Thomas did some amazing work capturing the spirit of the Golden Age in a more contemporary form at both DC and Marvel, and his work is far more timeless than the original source. I might get into it at some future time but it's way far down on my list.

Gradually, between the end of WWII and the 1960s, the Golden Age became the Silver Age. This period of time went all-in on superhero comics because a variety of factors made them way more profitable than anything else, which is the exact same reason the MCU was so dominant at the box office. Like with most things, there isn't really a point when the Golden Age became the Silver Age, but a good rule of thumb is that whenever a new Age begins, DC comics will reboot their whole universe around it.

This issue, by showing a Superman and a Batman that had never met before, sneakily replaced the characters the audience had been reading about since 1939 with two doppelgangers. These were not the same Superman and Batman that had been on the Justice Society of America together. These weren't even the same Superman and Batman that were in other comics coming out that year. They had accidentally created an entire new universe.

Granted, comics back in the day weren't as concerned with the minutiae of continuity (continuitae) as they are today (todaie). However, Mort Weisinger, the long-time editor of Superman comics, did his best to maintain internal consistency among those titles. Whenever a new character or plot element was introduced, it would remain a fixture of the mythos. That included Batman's relationship with Superman going forward from this point.

These new elements of the Superman mythos also included things like his powers coming from a yellow sun, or Clark Kent having spent time as Superboy in Smallville, or characters like Lana Lang, Supergirl, and the Legion of Super-Heroes. These later elements were meant to expand on Superman as a whole, but as they built up they developed the character of Superman to be different from how he was in 1939. Eventually, it was decided that this Superman was a different person entirely, on an entirely different universe: Earth-One, as opposed to Earth-Two.

I feel that the start of the Silver Age comes here, because with the passing of an age comes a sentiment that the old material is being washed away in place of the new. DC would repeat this in 1985 with the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and in 2011 with the New 52, each one a response to and a creation of a new trend in the comics medium.

The comic itself sets up the pattern for pretty much every Batman and Superman interaction. This is 1952 so they don't try to fight, but there is a tension between the two. The antagonist was just some diamond smugglers, and you get the sense that any one of them could resolve the mess easily, so with both of them it's effortless.

The real conflict in this book comes as a consequence of the two teaming up. If one secret identity is difficult to maintain, two of them are all but impossible, and Lois Lane is not going to give them an inch. Batman and Superman figure they will try to distract her by having Batman feign attraction to Lois and Superman pretend to be jealous, but Lois immediately figures out their plan and turns the tables on them, actually making Superman jealous and nearly uncovering both of their true identities.

I'd call that sort of storytelling "unfair for its day." Lois is always able to intuit Superman's identity and sees through all his cover-ups, but she's presented as more of an interfering busybody. This aspect of her character is presented better in modern works, like My Adventures With Superman, where her intelligence and determination are presented as positive traits and not used to demean her.

I'm not going to be this exhaustive over single issues of comics going forward, except in special cases like this. Additionally, this was one of the first Superman comics I ever read, way back in some hardback black-and-white collection I found at my public library, and I wanted an excuse to look over it again.

This blog is mostly going to look at the silver age and forward, but there is an odd aspect to that era of comics that requires going backwards first. Until next time.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Iraqi museum discovers missing lines from the 'Epic of Gilgamesh'

It's not unusual for fantasy epics to endure for years. (Right, Game of Thrones fans?)

But even George R.R. Martin would be shocked to learn about century-and-a-half wait for a new chapter of the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the world's oldest written stories. 

The Sulaymaniyah Museum in Iraq has discovered 20 new lines to the ancient Babylonian poem, writes Ted Mills for Open Culture. 

The Epic of Gilgamesh, which dates back to 18th Century BC, was pieced together from fragments that tell the story of a Sumerian king who travels with a wild companion named Enkidu.

As Mills explains, scholars were well aware that new fragments of the poem could possibly turn up — modern readers are most familiar with a version discovered in Nineveh in 1853 and during the war in Iraq, as looters pillaged ancient sites.

The Sulaymaniah Museum acquired the tablet in 2011, as part of a collection purchased from a smuggler, according to Osama S.M. Amin at Ancient History Et Cetera.

"The collection was composed of 80-90 tablets of different shapes, contents and sizes.

All of the tablets were, to some degree, still covered with mud. Some were completely intact, while others were fragmented.

The precise location of their excavation is unknown, but it is likely that they were illegally unearthed from what is known today as the southern part of the Babel (Babylon) or Governorate, Iraq (Mesopotamia)."

The tablet is three fragments joined together, dating back nearly 3,000 years to the Neo-Babylonian period.

An analysis by the University of London's Farouk Al-Rawi reveals more details from the poem's fifth chapter, according to Amin.

The new lines include descriptions of a journey into the "Cedar Forest," where Gilgamesh and Enkidu encounter monkeys, birds and insects, then kill a forest demigod named Humbaba.

In a paper for the American Schools of Oriental Research, Al-Rawi describes the significance of these details:

The previously available text made it clear that [Gilgamesh] and Enkidu knew, even before they killed Humbaba, that what they were doing would anger the cosmic forces that governed the world, chiefly the god Enlil.

Their reaction after the event is now tinged with a hint of guilty conscience, when Enkidu remarks ruefully that … "we have reduced the forest [to] a wasteland."

The museum's discovery casts new light on Humbaba, in particular, who had been depicted as a "barbarian ogre" in other tablets. 

As Mills writes:

"Just like a good director’s cut, these extra scenes clear up some muddy character motivation and add an environmental moral to the tale."

[funnypages]

In 2025, Tintin is entering the public domain in the US

The character of Tintin, of The Adventures of Tintin, one of my favorite comics from when I was a kid, is entering the public domain in 2025 (in the US) so I'm rereading the series and thought I'd give some history on the comic, as I dont know how well known he is among younger Americans

Who is Tintin?

Tintin, created 1929 by Belgian cartoonist Hergé (real name Georges Prosper Remi), is an ambiguously young investigative reporter and amateur detective who travels the world investigating criminal networks, hunting for treasure, exploring far away places, and solving mysteries. His enemies include crime bosses, foreign dictators, drug smugglers, human traffickers, and sorcerers. Hergé wrote 23 Tintin Adventures (as well as a partially finished 24th story published a few years after his death) from 1929-1976.

Tintin's allies and recurring cast include (L-R in bottom image): Professor Cuthbert Calculus (Tryphon Tournesol in OG French) a hard of hearing but brilliant scientist, Captain Haddock a foul mouthed alchololic ships captain (and Tintin's closest friend), Snowy (Milou) his smarter than normal dog, Detectives Thomson and Thompson (Dupont et Dupond) bumbling identical twin detectives, and Bianca Castafiore an Italian opera singer who Tintin often bumps into on his travels

Tintin and Spielberg

I would say most Americans, particularly younger ones, if they have heard of Tintin, it is from the 2011 CGI Spielberg movie

The story goes that Spielberg, after the first Indiana Jones movie came out, was on vacation in Europe and was confused about why so many European reviews (positively) compared Indiana Jones to "Tintin." He then read some of the comics, fell in love with them, and go in contact with Hergé, who he discovered was a big fan of his work. This led to an agreement that Spielberg would be the one to adapt his comics into a movie.

Tintin and Racism

Where should I start? So we need to address the elephant in the room about Tintin. Several of the early stories are quit racist, although I will give some more context about them

The most infamous Tintin story is the 2nd one, Tintin in the Congo, involves Tintin going to the 1930s Belgian Congo and encountering indigenous people there. It is just as bad as you would expect (although I have seen some articles from Congolese people, that it is so bad it wraps around to being hilarious, but of course YMMV). In addition the series as a whole does have some problematic portrayals of POC, I would say the worst being Indigenous Americans and Arab/Middle Easterners

That being said, I will give Hergé credit and say that you do see his views evolve over the 60 years he was writing these stories, and he does make a significant shift early on. The 5th Tintin story The Blue Lotus, involves Tintin going to 1930s Shanghai. Hergé knew basically nothing about China and had previously had some very steyoticpal Asian characters in earlier stories, but on the advice of a friend, he decided to get in contact with several Chinese students studying at universities in Brussels. There he met sculptor Zhang Chongren, who became a life long friend of Hergé and educated him on issues of imperialism in China. The end result is The Blue Lotus is (for 1936) a surprisingly nuanced and sympathetic portrayal of China and its people, with the main villains being Japanese and European imperialists, and Zhang even inspiring a character Chang Chong-Chen, who is a recurring character across the whole series.

After this point I would make an argument that you see a much better shift in Hergé's depictions of POC. They are still often of their time, but if you compare them to his earlier stories they are significantly more nuanced and sympathetic. Two examples of this are

The Seven Crystal Balls/Prisoners of the Sun - stories 13-14, that call out and criticize Western archeologists looting Indigenous American artifacts

The Castafiore Emerald - story 21, that has a significant subplot involving a local Roma community, with the characters being disgusted at how they are treated by local people and cops and how they are scapegoated for the central crime of the story. Its honestly a portrayal that would be considered pretty progressive for 2025 Belgium, let alone 1961.

What would I like to see in new Tintin stories?

So it's worth noting that A) Tintin is only in the public domain in the US and B) only characters that appear in the original 1929 comic (i.e. Tintin and Snowy) are entering PD; Haddock, Calculus, and the others wouldn't enter till later.

However here are a few ideas for future Tintin stories I would like to see

Remake the first 2 stories - The first two Tintin stories - Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and Tintin in the Congo - are not good. Not just story wise but they lack the art style and tone of the series as a whole. I would like to see the two stories remade with better sensibilities and tone constant to the rest of the series.

Who Dun Its and Ghost Stories - Go full Agatha Cristie/Scooby Doo and have Tintin solving mysteries and debunking stuff.

Adventure Archeologist - There is a reason why people have made the Indiana Jones/Tintin connection. Some of the best Tintin stories involve him going on treasure hunts and honestly all 5 of the IJ movies could be Tintin stories with some tweaks. Have Tintin go on adventures to find Atlantis, El Dorado, Noah's Ark, and Excalibur.

Lovecraftian Horror - Artist Murray Groat did some great covers years back of Tintin/Lovecraft stories and yeah, I want this. You could easily make At the Mountains of Madness a Tintin story.

[satureja13]

We all know that. There is this game you've played since 2011 but abandoned it for years because you got obsessed with a bunch of weirdos... (see below)

But then you receive an email from that game, that you'll get a fancy new mount if you're a subscriber in january. So you subscribe for a month. Of course you do. Because that said mout is a never-seen-before mount where you can scoop around with your companion AND your pet on board!

Then you think you should visit all you favourite places again, find out that there are new strongholds where you, your companion and your pets can live in and decorate to you liking. Then you're missing a few decorations for your fancy new homes and you start to quest a bit...

This is a pirate hideout! Isn't this cool! And it's mine! There is even a spaceship flying above which you can enter and decorate too!

Ah, the reason why I made this post: So my Bounty Hunter had this task in a cave...

Lord Cytharat joined him. (They'd been flirting before. This was an option in the conversations) (You'll want to click on the pictures to read their flirty conversation)

And after my Bounty Hunter had blown everything up and came back to him, Lord Cytharat was hurt!

Aouwww!

Hahaha that Soldier though! And the look on Lord Cytharat's face ^^'

Yeah, if you like to play a really good and fun game, you can download it -> here There are 8 different stories waiting for you (one for each class/ I like the Smuggler best :3) It's completely free to play and very fair with only a few restrictions. The companion system is really well done. Sadly there are no same sex options in the stories until level 50, but after that there are.

[topbanana-art]

Finally making an OC info post- by no means is this all of them, just ones that are most active and/or live in my head rent free.

First up- Rhys (DnD 5e - Rime of the Frostmaiden)

20 years Old, Half Orc, Half Elf (sweet baby angel) , He/Him

Fighter- Echo Knight

Absolute Ray of Sunshine; Rhys is from Icewind Dale; more specifically the Nomadic Reghed Tribe of the Elk.

He's unfamiliar with the outside world and even includes settlements in his own country

He's a Himbo basically a big dog.

This campaign lead him to leaving his tribe for the first time after an unfortunate accident which turned him into a small 'painted child' and searching for his missing sister. (both these are sorted now!)

*Rhys found an old oil painting of this child, blacked out and next thing he knew he was that small elf child. Her skin and clothing having the texture of painted canvas, and bleeds paint.

For a good chunk of the campaign he was just a totally normal elf- whose shadow didn't match with the body

---

Dhalas (DnD 5e Annalor)

36 Years Old, They/Him, Triton

Drunken Master Monk

Chill surfer dude vibes

Part of a travelling circus, They're a balancing act

Extremely laid back, Dhalas talks like they fight- dancing around, seemingly without rhyme or reason and occasionally clumsy.

---

Foxglove (BG3)

138 Years old (tweaked her age a lil), She/They, Drow

Arcane Trickster Rogue

Guild Artisan Background- Locksmith & Apprentice Finesmith

Chill and sassy, that Tav who talks their way out of shit.

Skews Towards Chaotic Good

Presents Androgynous most of the time

Must lockpick everything- she's not actually super interested what's inside, she just wants to see the workmanship of the locks and trashtalk how bad they are.

Yeah she's smooching the vampire. (and Halsin)

Naturally cares for others, even at the cost of her own wellbeing.

Has a Phobia of anything touching/going near her eyes- so the start of the game is A Time for Fox.

---

Arslan Dhoro (FFXIV)

21 Years Old (as of ARR), He/Them

Xaela AuRa

Dragoon - White Mage Main (All healer classes tbh)

Stoic, Resting Angry Face Himbo

He struggles to show emotion but he's just pretty shy and cautious about opening up to others.

From the Azim Steppe, he left in his early teens with his father after the death of his mother, to explore the world beyond the Steppe.

His Father Died in his late teens, attacked in Coerthas thinking he and Arslan were Dravanians.

He's extremely soft and protective for the Scions/his friends

---

Shiv (DnD 5e Saltmarsh- campaign completed)

Awful, terrible lesbian

68 years old, She/Her, Halfling

Celestial Warlock - Unicorn Patron w/ a Baby Phoenix familiar, Toby

A piece of shit. Is an absolute asshole and wont let you know she cares.

Lowkey magical girl

Ex-smuggler, who's patron is literally 'I can fix her', 'she can be a better person'. Part of the 'Beyond Skeletons' Pirate crew, she's the medic of the crew.

---

Pymmyr Tathnel (DnD 5e)

Pym

85 Years Old, He/They, Drow

Gloomstalker Ranger

Emotional Support Blink Dog, Princess Liquorice

This boy is scared all the time

Doesn't talk much, but speaks in a soft voice

Has disordered 'Sleeping' and Eating :)

His plague mask has tinted lenses to help ease the strain with how bright the surface is

I wont tell too much about them as a lot of their info is spoilers to other players. But this sad Drow just rocks up in my head on the regular.

---

Erebus (Anima Beyond Fantasy)

AKA- My first TTRPG character! circa 2011-2 I think???

Real name Sho Yoshimitsu

22 Years Old, He/Him

Duk'Zarist Nephilim

Assassin

Textbook 'strong silent and intimidating hot man'

But basically a big soft boy if you break past the mile thick ice

Tragic backstory™ , used to using his body for the job

He really enjoys cooking!

Also hopelessly in love with a small soft summoner, Caelum (the one hugging him), They're RedxBlue gays

---

I think I'll leave it there for now!

I may add more later, I hope it was interesting?? and I'm still pretty shy with yelling this much about my characters haha.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far! 💜

[destinysbounty]

Wake up babes, new chapter of Find Something Waiting just dropped!!!

(To everyone unfamiliar, the fic takes place in an AU where Aspheera trapped Zane in her staff instead of banishing him to the Never Realm, but the ninja continue to think he's dead until season 15)

Excerpt:

It takes longer than Skylor would like to admit for her to recognize the woman. But in her defense, it’s been a while since she's seen Pixal's human disguise.

Cole sheepishly waves at her from behind, gingerly stepping around a toolbox left abandoned on the floor. “Hey Pi—”

“I assume you are here because of the vengestone smugglers?” interrupts the woman, and through voice alone dismisses any doubts they may have had that this is actually Pixal.

“We could use your help,” Skylor offers. “Whatever these guys are planning, vengestone always spells trouble. We’re trying to get the team back together, and we can’t do it without you.”

“You could,” she says. “You’ve fought plenty of battles without me before.” There’s a lofty, dismissive air in her voice that says she’s already run this conversation through her simulators a thousand times and is quickly growing bored of it. 

Skylor knows better than to take her dismissiveness too personally. The only reason Pixal would ever run a conversation through her simulators to the point of monotony is if it’s an interaction she deeply, deeply cares about. So in an odd twist of irony, Pixal sounding like she doesn’t care is a surefire indicator that she actually cares a bit too much. 

Cole sighs. “Yeah, well, maybe we want you here.”

Finally, Pixal turns around to face him.

[megamuscle885-blog]

Writing something different - a mercenary tinker who has a mech and everything she makes goes into the mech in some way - and I intend for her to work for Coil. Now, she's been a parahuman and soon after that a cape for ~15-20 years, probably triggering around 1990's. The point of her is that she's been a smuggler and veteran tinker operating in the texas/mexico/columbia/brazil region, and now Coil's secured a meeting with her (probably through a favour owed to Accord since I like that) and she'll be in Brockton Bay around January 2011.

Expect this character to pop up in my feed a lot, since I'm hoping to make this my first released fanfiction (the Faerun character cross is going to take a lot more nerve and workshopping tbh). I'm rambling.

What I'd like some thoughts on; how long has Coil been a parahuman? Nilbog, Lady and Ellisburg was 2001, and Coil must've spent time in prison for his actions there. How long would someone spend in prison for killing a fellow (superior?) officer during a complete FUBAR? No real world situations really compare. Here's an interesting assumption I'll make; Cauldron arranged for Coil's sentence to be commuted in some way, without arousing enough suspicion that he can work in the same department as Piggot. Maybe 5 years in prison? Then he needs maybe 2-3 years minimum to establish himself in competition with the Empire I think. That fits the timeline with regards to Tattletale and the Undersiders, who have been together for a year or so.

I don't think he's been a parahuman for more than 4-5 years by the start of 2011. Probably took his vial around 2006, and I feel that the Merc will pick up on that quickly. She's meant to be OP in certain ways, and one of the justifications for that is being one of the oldest Tinkers around, with a vast horde of upgrades and refining done to her Mech. Only being able to build things that are best used when plugged in, wielded, fired by or grafted onto her Mech will explain why she's not a household name like Dragon or Uppercrust, the same for the fact that she wouldn't waste her time building more than one mech. Being more involved in the micro conflicts of central america will explain why she's not more well known outside of criminal and vigilante circles, and why the public aren't aware of her beyond cape geeks, both because of her obscure stomping grounds and that the PRT scrub non-hero parahuman accomplishments and activities to bolster PR.

I think I'm just rambling here before I go off to work. Coil's usual greed might not work out, and I feel she'd point it out to him. She respects Accord, but she's experienced plenty of criminal mastermind Thinkers, and he should be careful about what he's paying for.

[animasola86]

Nebbia's Origin Story

You might have seen and/or read about my HL MC Nebbia DeLuca, who I kinda revived for my HL playthroughs. But this very OC has been in my brain and in several attempts at writing her story for almost a decade now.

She's also been a shotgun/blood magic wielding Templar in The Secret World/Secret World Legends, or a necromancer with a greatsword and a staff in Guild Wars 2, and a car collecting maniac world explorer in GTA Online. So having "just" a wand was quite the adjustment for her!

But enough about her alter egos, how did she come to be?

She's been in my brain ever since I came into contact with The Last of Us. That game had a serious impact on me and the stories whirling through my head. I've always been a storyteller, have written stories since an early age. I've created a lot of original characters, fleshed out, with detailed backstories, but I was never able to finish their respective stories.

The themes were always pretty similar: younger woman, older man, size difference, gruff but protective male, innocent but feisty female. Side characters were always of the jealous, dangerous kind. I've always loved taboos and kinks, and the above-mentioned dynamic is one of my favorites to write (and read) stories about.

So, inspired by Joel and Ellie's relationship, I wanted to create characters that were similar, but different. My main motive for writing was always: Something's missing in those stories, let's write it myself! It started with adding romance to a thriller, love to a murder mystery, or found family/forbidden feelings to otherwise "innocent" scenarios.

For example, I've written a story about a young woman falling in love with the married father of the kid she's supposed to babysit (I swear there's more to that story than the porn clichés, it ends up turning into a psychological drama about jealousy and domination, mental illness, murder, abduction, what's real, what's not kinda scenes; unfortunately I've never finished my first proper original work that's sitting on a USB-stick somewhere since 2011. One day I'll get to finish your story, Tasja, don't worry. You'll get your happy ending!).

And then, someday in the year 2017, I started writing a story (though the idea is much older) about a post-apocalyptic world, based on an island near my hometown. I've thrown ideas around and around, researching, visiting places, creating characters, always changing something, but the basic idea that stuck was this (I suck at summaries, btw, sorry!):

Twenty years ago, there was a black-out and society collapsed. The people on that island live in groups, as far away from each other as possible to avoid conflict, as they are all stuck there, with no way to leave the island.

Enter Nebbia, born after the End, who is a girl living in an all-female village run by a group of older women called the Elders, whose daughters (creatively named the Daughters) do all their "dirty work". Nebbia is classified as a Motherless, you guessed it, lives without a mother.

And the backstory of that, in short, is: her mother was pregnant when she was found by one of the Daughters and brought to the village, gave birth, and fled the place after she discovered their dark secret (because what's a post-apocalyptic community without a dark secret, eh?), but she left Nebbia there because she knew she would have a safe home in spite of it, that is until she turns 18, when things go really dark.

In short: there's a strange little celebration, all the girls of age are dressed in their best dresses, and then leave the village on their way to another village nearby that is run by the Men... and, uh, well, yeah, society collapsed, so they try to rebuild it, it's a breeding station, oops, you get the idea.

And that is when our male protagonist comes in: Ben, in his late thirties, a gruff, lonesome smuggler/outsider/person who doesn't have a village/group, but works between them. And he is hired by none other than Nebbia's mother, Kira, to get Nebbia and save her from the horrible fate of being bred helping society grow again.

But something happens (there's a mysterious fog that keeps the people from leaving the island, but never mind that, although that is why Nebbia is called Nebbia, because fog=nebbia in Italian, because her mother is half-Italian - also, hey, off-topic, but there's a fitness clothes store called Nebbia in the Slovak Republic, isn't that cool?) and Ben loses his memories, and when he sees Nebbia, he thinks she's Kira... and kinda falls for her, because, of course, him and her were sweethearts before the End (but they had a falling out, but he doesn't remember that yet).

And Nebbia is this innocent girl, who basically worked as a slave her whole life, can't read, can't swim, is treated very poorly, can't exist outside her village, really. (And to have such a character and let her explore the world and learn stuff and blossom would have been so interesting to write!)

So Ben saves kidnaps Nebbia from the village, and they try to find their way back to Kira... and somehow this is where my ideas froze. I wanted to show their journey through the post-apocalyptic world, how their life is, what they do to survive, who they meet, that he slowly regains his memories and realizes his feelings for this girl, and once they get to where they want to go, they find out that Kira is gone/dead/I don't know, something, aaaand their journey continues? I have no idea. I never came to those parts.

I've written so many versions of that story, in German to start with (because the island it's set on is a German island), then tried recreating it in English without the local color, but it never really worked. I didn't know where it would end.

But the characters remained inside my head, I've had so many scenarios for them because I loved their dynamic, but I've never written any of them because back then I thought I needed a full story, something with beginning and end, the whole deal. I've never written one-shots before, or even short stories. I was fixated on the whole "novel" thing, that was my goal, my dream.

But now, after having written sooo many one-shots for a fandom, just snippets of people's lives and what they do in the moment, I feel confident enough to tackle it. To create little short stories centered around those very characters: Ben and Nebbia.

I've also read so many original works on AO3 lately, and seeing how people just put their own ideas out there, for everyone to see, did something to me. I always wanted to keep my ideas to myself, because, maybe, someday, I'll finish a story and could send it to a publisher and one day have my own work in book-form, but honestly, it is such a daunting idea, when all I wanna do is tell stories.

And so now I will just tell stories. I've started by writing for these characters everyone knows and loves (and I'll keep writing Sebastian smut, don't worry!), but now it's time to branch out, give those people inside my head their story, or at least snippets of their lives, and share it with the world.

And as I write this, I am working on an AU of those characters, with a completely different setting, but the same dynamic: older man, younger woman, gruff/protective vs. innocent/feisty, love in dangerous environments. Of course, it's gonna have my usual smut elements, but also world building, side characters, character development, etc. and new things to research!

(Lemme throw in some words I learned that may give a hint to where the story is set: withers, spats, stirrup. As for the time, well, it's actually an era I've already written for, but the place is a lot more... west, way west.)

I feel very inspired, and I hope I can one day (hopefully very soon*) share their story with you.

(I've made a side blog @animasolaoriginal where I'll post it once it's done or I grow too impatient to wait! I'll also post moodboards and inspirations there - eventually! If you'd like to follow me there too, I'd very much appreciate it!)

Thank you for letting me get this out. These characters are very dear to me, and I hope, once I start uploading my original work, I might catch your interest with it, and you will start to like them too!

Edit: *I did it, I posted the first chapter! 🤠

[gokaiju]

Katsuhito Ishii ((Shark Skin Man & Peach Hip Girl (1998) / Party 7 (2000) / Promise in august (1995) / Redline (2009) / Trava First Planet (2003) / Smuggler (2011) / Sorasoi (2008) / Hello! Junichi (2014) / Norioka Workshop (2022) / Hal & Bons (2002)) | Full boxset design by Gokaiju for the french Release by Spectrum Films

[justforbooks]

The film director William Friedkin, who has died aged 87, was slightly older than the “movie brats” group (Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and so on) credited with revolutionising US cinema in the late 1960s and early 70s.

Like Robert Altman and Sidney Lumet, Friedkin had come to cinema through TV and documentary, but made a vital contribution to the American new wave. His double-whammy in the first half of the 1970s, The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist (1973), met with critical acclaim and a level of box-office success that elevated them into pop-culture phenomena. They also managed to overshadow everything else he did.

Nevertheless it would be wrong to characterise his career as a rise and fall. His finest hour was arguably the 1985 cop-and-counterfeiters thriller To Live and Die in LA, while he scored a modest triumph late in the day with his 2011 adaptation of Tracy Letts’s southern-fried noir play Killer Joe. But his steady hand, his timing and his commercial savvy were evident in those early hits. The French Connection, with its preference for hand-held, vérité-style camerawork and on-the-hoof sound recording, sometimes at the expense of intelligibility, took the American policier to a level of authenticity and grittiness to which the genre still aspires today.

Friedkin was never shy of owning up to his mistakes; his 2013 memoir, The Friedkin Connection, opens with an account of various regrettable errors, including passing up the chance to buy an ownership stake in Mike Tyson and throwing away some sketches by the then-unknown artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. To these can be added his reluctance to cast Gene Hackman as The French Connection’s dishevelled antihero, “Popeye” Doyle.

Actor and director fought regularly. “His outbursts [onscreen] were aimed directly at me … more than the drug smugglers.” Among the film’s five Academy Awards was a best actor prize for Hackman’s snarling performance, and one for Friedkin as best director.

The Exorcist followed Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968) in bestowing upon the modern horror movie a new sheen of class and respectability. Friedkin integrated serious themes with extreme gore and intense terror, but rejected the idea that The Exorcist belonged to the horror genre. “I think it deals with issues far more profound than what you find in the average horror film. To be frank with you, Bill [the writer William Peter Blatty] and I never set out to make a horror film. The idea never crossed our minds. To me, The Exorcist was a story about the mystery of faith, and I tried to depict that as realistically as possible.”

His parents and grandparents had fled Kiev (Kyiv) in the early 1900s, making the passage to the US by hiding on freighter ships. William was born and raised in Chicago, the son of Rachel (nee Green), who gave up her job as an operating-room nurse when he was born, and Louis, a former semi-professional softball player turned cigar maker and men’s clothing salesman. Friedkin characterised his own adolescence as one of frustration and thwarted dreams: “From an early age, my ambitions overwhelmed my abilities,” he wrote. “It’s a miracle I didn’t end up in jail or on the streets.”

He graduated from Senn high school in 1953 and got a job in the post-room of a local Chicago television station, WGN-TV. He worked his way up through various positions, acting as floor manager on several hundred shows before a vacancy opened for a director of live drama.

But it was a cinematic experience around the same time that proved formative. One afternoon in the early 60s, Friedkin went to see Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane for the first time, entering the cinema at noon and not leaving until late that evening, having watched the movie five times back-to-back: “No film I’ve seen before or since meant so much to me. I thought, ‘Whatever that is, that’s what I want to do…’ On that Saturday, just three years younger than Welles when he created Kane, I resolved to become a film-maker.”

In 1962, he made The People vs Paul Crump, an award-winning documentary about a man on death row, and also directed an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, before knocking out four features: Good Times (1965), a vehicle for the musical duo Sonny & Cher; the comedy The Night They Raided Minsky’s and an intermittently electrifying screen version of Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party (both 1968); and another theatre adaptation, The Boys in the Band (1970), about a group of gay friends.

In his 1998 book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, the film historian Peter Biskind wrote that on the basis of those last two films, Friedkin had acquired a “reputation for being an art film director, the kiss of death. He was depressed, afraid he would never work again.”

Salvation came in the shape of a screenplay adapted from a factual bestseller about the NYPD’s campaign to smash a drug ring. Friedkin brought an unprecedented level of realism to The French Connection. A key sequence, thrillingly executed by Friedkin, features a seven-minute chase through Brooklyn, with Popeye (in a stolen car) trying to outrun and intercept his quarry, who has hijacked the train speeding along the elevated track above him.

Friedkin was not bashful about his Oscar win: Biskind reported that the director had his chair on the set of The Exorcist emblazoned with the words “An Oscar for The French Connection”. His behaviour had also become harsher and unrulier, even if there was usually a method to his madness (such as slapping a real priest, who had been hired to play an absolution scene, in order to produce the required nervous energy).

The Exorcist was a calculating combination of the portentous and the shrill, mixing highfalutin religious inquiry with brazenly shocking scenes showing Regan (played by the 13-year-old Linda Blair) masturbating with a crucifix, growling obscenities and projectile vomiting. Friedkin’s grasp of tone was sure, though the movie sometimes seemed to be in denial about its own carnivalesque tactics.

These two defining peaks of Friedkin’s career were followed in 1977 by his most conspicuous commercial flop: Sorcerer, a thriller about four men driving a combustible cargo of dynamite through the rainforest. It was based on the same source material as Henri-Georges Clouzot’s masterpiece The Wages of Fear, and while not in the same league it was nonetheless undeserving of its box-office fate.

Various factors were blamed, ranging from Friedkin’s hubris to a release date adjacent to Star Wars. It would not be until a remastered print of Sorcerer was screened at the Venice film festival in 2013 that it would begin to lose its unwarranted taint of failure. He insisted it was the work of his which remained closest to his original vision: “The way I saw the film in my mind’s eye, that is the one that’s pretty much there.”

His usual bluster was absent from his next film, the low-key comedy-thriller The Brink’s Job (1978), a dramatisation of the $3m Brink’s robbery in Boston, which Friedkin made when his proposed film of Born on the Fourth of July (later shot by Oliver Stone) fell through.

The mixture of sensational subject matter and po-faced tone that had served him so well on The Exorcist did not prove so successful with Cruising (1980), a lurid and occasionally objectionable thriller starring Al Pacino as a cop who goes undercover in the gay S&M subculture to catch a murderer.

An early draft of the script had been leaked, prompting an onslaught of objections from the gay press, and by the time the film emerged heavily trimmed by the censor’s scissors, it was something of a tarnished cause célèbre. Though Cruising is more complex and conflicted than some of its detractors would allow, it looks unlikely to undergo the same critical rehabilitation as Sorcerer.

To Live and Die in LA showed that not only had Friedkin’s French Connection-era knack for dynamic action sequences not deserted him, but he could combine it with a slicker, stylised aesthetic. The rest of the 80s, however, was not a fertile time for him. He made Deal of the Century (1983), a listless comedy about the arms race, the TV movie C.A.T. Squad (1986) and the thriller Rampage (1987), which he adapted himself from William P Wood’s book.

The Guardian (1990) returned him to the horror genre. Blue Chips (1994), a drama about the politics of college basketball, was subtle and powerful, with an uncompromising lead performance by Nick Nolte, but it foundered commercially (it went straight to video in the UK). The thriller Jade (1995) earned some notoriety when its extravagantly paid screenwriter Joe Eszterhas complained of the changes made to his script; Friedkin, who was responsible for the rewrites, later named it as his favourite of his own movies.

Rules of Engagement (2000) was a mediocre drama with reactionary overtones, about a court-martial following the massacre of civilians in Yemen. The star of that film, Tommy Lee Jones, was reunited with the director in another thriller, The Hunted (2003). But Friedkin found new momentum of sorts in two adaptations of claustrophobic thrillers by Letts – Bug (2006) and Killer Joe.

In 2013, he returned to Pinter’s The Birthday Party, directing the play for the stage in Los Angeles, with Tim Roth and Steven Berkoff among the cast. However, this was postponed at the 11th hour when Friedkin decided to replace Berkoff in the part of the intimidating inquisitor Goldberg (though Berkoff claimed to have resigned). The production did not find a replacement and was never staged.

In 2018, he was the subject of Friedkin Uncut, which combed through his career and featured interviews with collaborators, celebrity fans and the director himself, who is heard confirming that he only ever asks for one or two takes: “I’m not looking for perfection,” he says.

His final films were The Devil and Father Amorth (2017), a documentary about a real-life exorcist, and The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (2023), an updated adaptation of the Herman Wouk novel first filmed in 1954, starring Kiefer Sutherland. It will premiere next month at the Venice film festival, where the director was honoured in 2013 with a lifetime achievement award.

Friedkin’s reputation as bullish extended to all areas of his life and work. As an interviewee he was comically blunt. Responding to an Independent journalist who complained that the prologue to The Exorcist was baffling, he said: “I don’t have to explain it. You’re free to think of it, or to dismiss it, in any way that you want. It’s called mystery … Jackie Collins writes crisp narrative. I suggest you read all of her books. You will never be in doubt about where the story is going.”

And he rebuffed a Guardian reporter’s suggestion that he subscribed to the auteur theory, which prizes the director as the ultimate author of a film: “Didn’t you hear what I said? Am I talking to deaf ears? No! No! ... The auteur theory is a load of bollocks!”

His first three marriages ended in divorce: that to the actor Jeanne Moreau lasted from 1977 to 1979; that to another actor, Lesley-Anne Down, from 1982 to 1985; and that to the journalist Kelly Lange from 1987 to 1990. The following year he married the former chief executive of Paramount, Sherry Lansing.

She survives him, along with a son, Cedric, from a relationship with Jennifer Nairn-Smith, and a son, Jack (Jackson), from his second marriage.

🔔 William Friedkin, film director, producer and screenwriter, born 29 August 1935; died 7 August 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[ru5t]

How the World Fell Under Darkness: A Zones Timeline

In brief format. Hits the major events, skips so much of the daily tragedies.

50s — post World War II relations and recovery

60s — the Cold War of intelligence and counterintelligence, fear campaigns; the arms race keeps everyone afraid of each other on a global scale

70s [diverging point from actual history]— the conflict goes hot, the world goes ugly; in America, only two large settlements survive the bombings, near LA in the west, and a fortress in the south- Better Living establishments which were protected from the damage in advance, seeing as they built a large number of the weapons used (by both sides)

1980-1984 — radiation is scrubbed from choice locations in the east, and Empire is founded, establishing a port for BL/ind's relations with other surviving entities

1985-1989 — following a health crisis in the south, the Analog Rebellion begins in Fort F.I.S.K. and spreads as people break free of the fort, skirting through what habitable land remains, and group together; the idea catches, and as the numbers of resistance climb, both Battery and FISK are cornered into retaliating

1990-1994 — rebellion continues, escalating into mass casualties on both sides- casualties no one can afford, in a world already post global war

1995-1999 — tenuous ceasefire is declared; it's not peace, but it's not war. the cities build walls, closing themselves in, and those that left the settlements are abandoned to the wilds to eke out whatever life they can without aid from Better Living

2000-2004 — the lands surrounding FISK backslide, and become entirely uninhabitable or navigable without specialized equipment; Empire City receives its first "transfer" from beyond the cities

2005-2009 —the zones around Battery begin to experience more regular patrols and tensions between city folk and desert folk fray

2010-2011 — Better Living develops ReEducation; patrols and raids into the desert become more violent in nature, and zone folk are disappearing (not killed, just gone)

2012 — a series of fire storms -"The Fires of 2012"- start west of the city and sweep the zones all the way to the Fort; both sides experience minimal casualties, but lots of structural and food supply damages

2013 — widespread unrest in the zones and a significant amount of infighting; recovery efforts in the city and a significant amount of infighting

2014 — The Collapse -a yet unexplained mass casualty event- takes place in zone five to the northeast of Battery City, effectively reducing the population of the zones by a third; more die off in the months afterward of bizarre afflictions and injuries, often going mad in the process. the city blames disease, spreading it as anti-zones propaganda among citizens; the desert creates the Destroya mythos; while the desert is distracted, the city creates and new addition to the west of it outer wall, expanding the lower city into an area that would come to be (colloquially) called "the slums"

2015 — the Fabulous Four, though only teenagers, begin to become notorious, making their fame by pushing back violently as Better Living begins to expand its reconstruction efforts in zone one, seeking to reclaim it as part of the city

2016 —killjoys get bold, and the city suffers a sudden unbalancing as a large number of young people find ways into the desert; in-city raids, especially of lower districts, become common as BL/ind cracks down on smugglers and introduce new security measures to the walls surrounding the city

2017 — the Fabulous Four are declared public enemies 1-4. Exterminator Korse is assigned to end the threat

2018 — everyone on the edge of their seats as Korse and the Fab Four are locked in a power struggle that becomes the embodiment of city vs. desert; almost all other directly physical city/desert confrontation has ceased, except in service of aiding their champion(s). Dr Death's broadcasts updating listeners on the events of fights and escapes are the most listened to thing on both sides

2019 — the Fabulous Four destroy the eastern checkpoint, storm the city, and decimate the S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W headquarters before, ultimately, falling in battle; all for one little girl. they become Martyrs.

2020 — the dark year. Better Living seems inescapable, the killjoys are scattered and scared, and a great many are killed or disappear into reEd. some return to the city without being captured. those who remain are more certain than ever they can never give in. despite killjoy interference, part of northern zone 01 is annexed into the city for new farming and production

2021 — the Fab Four reappear in the zones. some say they were never killed after all, a few become suspicious they are reEd's, or android dupes of the originals, but by and large the mythology of their martyrdom lends to another explanation altogether: they've been brought back to life by the desert itself to lead the fight. they are solidified as the Heights of killjoy fame, bulletproof and lauded, even outright worshiped by some; hope returns

2022 — there are several building collapses and series of fires in the newly expanded Neon District; rumors of a rogue city agent as well as stories about Perro -a mythical figure from the zones- being responsible both go flying in all directions. nobody's really sure what happened, other than that a lot of citizens and neutrals died (that is, nobody publicizes what actually happened)

2023 — as part of their recovery efforts, the city attempts to smooth relations with neutrals and claim land in the zones, establishing several greenhouses almost literally overnight; in answer, most are destroyed by the killjoys, the two left standing are claimed by rebel crews and renamed into independent settlements

2024 — emboldened by the destruction of the greenhouses, a killjoy leader of a particularly violent group attacks the city directly; the city retaliates, destroying a peaceful settlement in zone three. both sides are criticized by their allies, the resulting unrest spans both city and zones

2025 — the Destroya Rampage unfolds. zone five and parts of six go dark, nothing but static on every radio for months. entire crews from both sides (local killjoys & investigative excursions from the city) are lost, seeming to turn on their own while within these 'dark zones'. several massive dust storms sweep over Battery City and the surrounding zones, causing blackouts and widespread interference with broadcasts and electronic systems of every type. fighting between the city and desert scales back as the environmental conditions threaten everyone

2026 — the sandstorms are replaced by torrential downpours (which sounds good but isn't, in the desert), some of which are typical rain and some of which burn on contact- relatively normal in the outer zones, but unheard of in the city. city initiatives focus on re-assuming relative control over the city's climate, desert settlements focus on surviving.

2027 — weather patterns gradually begin to stabilize in the city; in the desert, old secrets -uncovered by the winds and rains- begin to surface. whether they lead a new charge against the city or destroy the fragile balance of the desert . . .

2028 — . . . Remains to be seen. The whispers gather, but don't seem to go anywhere. Things have gone still and quiet -as still and as quiet as they get, anymore- and the only sure about a staring contest is that someone has to blink, eventually. something will shift, everyone's waiting for it, waiting to see which direction the world tilts this time

2029-2030s — You Are Here. Don't panic. Keep running.

[beardedmrbean]

BRUSSELS (AP) — Abdesalem Lassoued had been denied residency in four European countries by the time he chased two Swedish men into a building in Brussels this week and gunned them down at close range with a semiautomatic rifle.

The 45-year-old Tunisian arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa in a smuggler’s boat in 2011. He spent jail time in Sweden and was refused entry to Norway. At one point Italy flagged him as a security threat. Two years ago, Belgium rejected his asylum claim and he disappeared off the map.

Until Monday night, that is, when he killed the two Swedes, wounded a third and forced the lockdown of more than 35,000 people in a soccer stadium where they had gathered to watch Belgium play Sweden. In a video posted online, he claimed to be inspired by the Islamic State group.

Within days he has become the new face of the European Union’s campaign to toughen border controls, rapidly deport people and allow the police and security agencies to exchange information more efficiently.

“It’s important that those individuals that could be a security threat to our citizens, to our Union, have to be returned forcefully, immediately,” EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told reporters on Thursday, as EU interior ministers met in Luxembourg.

Only around one in four people whose asylum applications are denied ever leave or are deported from the 27-nation bloc. Often the countries they come from, including Tunisia, are reluctant to take them back.

With EU countries constantly bickering over how to manage migration – their differences lie at the heart of one of the bloc’s biggest political crises – the European Commission has sought to outsource the challenge.

The EU’s executive branch has helped to seal deals with Turkey and Tunisia to persuade these countries to stop people from the Middle East or Africa – not to mention their own nationals – from trying to enter Europe, as they did in large numbers in 2015.

About 25 countries that people leave or transit to get to Europe are of concern. Egypt is the next country on the list. The commission is already helping to locate and pay for new boats for the Egyptian coastguard.

Belgium’s top migration official, Nicole de Moor, said that countries refusing to take back their nationals must be made to cooperate.

“The terrorist that committed an attack in Brussels on Monday had asked for asylum in four different European countries, and every time he was rejected because he did not qualify for protection,” de Moor said.

The EU does have coercive tools at its disposal. The commission has used visas as a lever, making it harder, more time-consuming and costly for the citizens of migration source countries to gain entry to Europe’s ID check-free zone – the 27-country space known as the Schengen area.

Thanks to this, Johansson said, the EU now has “much better cooperation” on deportation with Iraq, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Senegal.

The shooter Lassoued’s case was also marked by other failures. He applied for asylum in Belgium in 2019. His application was rejected a year later, and a deportation order was issued in 2021. Officials said this week that he couldn’t be found, as they had no address for him.

Within a few hours, admittedly with public help, prosecutors conceded, the authorities had discovered where he lived. He was shot dead by police at a café nearby the following morning when they tried to arrest him.

“It turns out that the individual had been convicted and had served time in a Swedish prison, which was unknown to our police and judiciary,” Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden told reporters.

“We need to improve the information exchange on these kinds of things. The man apparently arrived in Italy in 2011 (and) wandered around Europe for 12 years,” she said. Migration services and the police must share information, she said, “to ensure that this cannot happen.”

The clamor for tougher laws and better intelligence sharing are fresh, but the problem is not new. Lassoued’s case resembles that of another Tunisian man, Anis Amri, who drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin in 2016, killing 12 people and injuring 56 others.

German authorities tried to deport Amri after his asylum application was rejected but were unable to because he lacked valid identity papers. Tunisia had denied that he was a citizen.

On Tuesday, after leading security talks throughout the night while the hunt for Lassoued went on, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo loosened his tie from around his collar as he answered a reporter’s thorny question about the failings of Belgium’s police, justice and migration services.

“An order to leave the territory must become more binding that it is now,” De Croo conceded. “We have to respect the decisions that we take.”

[tantricangels]

character hub blog,  21+.  affiliated & private.  dni in general unless you follow corresponding muses.

rules,  blog roll and general information under the cut.  click through for corresponding muse pages, table of contents.

1)        this blog exists for the sole purpose of gathering character information,  visuals and free-writing on one concentrated source for my own purposes.  occasionally,  i will post edits of my characters.  frequently,  i will create character biographics or history posts to be distributed on my roleplay blogs.  often,  i will reblog images and other media with character tags.  of this content,  you can expect heavy nsfw themes and dead dove content  ( including child abuse,  spousal abuse,  csa,  drug abuse,  irredeemable villains,  graphic/sexual situations and more ).  photos will be tagged accordingly,  writing will not be.   2)        don't content mine.  if you're following me from the roleplay community,  i trust that you're interested in my world-building and general writing  —not aesthetics.  please,  pretty please,  don't reblog aesthetic images or other media from me.  offenders will be softblocked.  the only exception for this is in the case where i post edits,  and our muses know one another.  thank you! 3)        i'm hoping to establish a little space for myself to creatively spread out with my characters.  i've been writing these characters since 2011,  and some earlier than that.    abra,  madonna,  gio,  alo,  cee,  and micah are all a part of the same story  —please don't steal anything from that story. 4)        writer is named randy,  educated and stupid dyke of color living less than 200 miles from the mexican / us border.  i have attention issues and am generally anxious,  like an ill-bred chihuahua.  find me on any of the following roleplay blogs at any given moment,

              (  @roznrot,  abra aimes  —  artificial angel.               (  @gutterbrat,  cee livingston  —  human wreck,  dyke               (  @bleadhound,  alo hughes  —  dog monstrosity,  veteran               (  @malfl0ra,  giovanna camacho  —  coyote smuggler,  bad bitch,  mother               (  @delilahcomplex,  madonna  —  the worst woman alive               (  @notfather,  micah  —  tumor with teeth,  hair

[demiurgentg]

Smuggling then

I finished Mark Urban's "The Man Who broke Napoleon's codes" and got started on my smuggling books. Now honestly, I don't intend to read either from cover to cover, but rather to use them as reference tools for how I can make my novel work.

This is easier on Project Gutenberg, where I can Ctrl+F for any term and thereby jump to the relevant information. Sadly, King's Cutters and Smugglers 1700-1855 - while incredibly valuable if I end up including an actual smuggling scene - only has a few sentences which answer my immediate concerns.

Wars are expensive and the government needed more money fast, so raised taxes on imported items. "It was not merely the tobacco, spirits, and tea which in the early years of the nineteenth century were being smuggled into the country, although these were the principal articles. In addition to silks, laces, and other goods, the number of pairs of gloves which clandestinely came in was so great that the manufacture of English gloves was seriously injured."

Smuggling also meant money literally left England - never to return. "The smugglers, after sailing away from England, used to purchase the tea abroad sometimes with money but at other times with wool. That was a serious matter in either alternative if, as was the case, the transactions were carried on to any large extent; for the country simply could not afford to be denuded either of its valuable wool—since that crippled the wool manufactures—or of the coin of the realm, which made for bankruptcy."

And, of course, when at war with the French, smugglers interacting with the French brings additional problems. "England was at war with her neighbours, and the French only too gladly admitted the smuggling vessels into her ports, since these lawless and unpatriotic men were able to give information of the state of affairs in England."

This is all the information I needed for this week! Everything I learn for the rest of the week is gravy. And, since I already mentioned I've looked through my other book as well, I should probably fill you in on my discoveries there.

Richard Platt's "Smuggling in the British Isles, a History" from 2011 has some very inviting chapter headings. "Famous and Infamous smugglers" instantly caught my eye, promising some nice ready-made bit characters. Unfortunately the timing and locations are such I think only one of them was alive, actively smuggling, and in the correct part of England to be usable.

It also has an Index! (I love a good index. They're the Ctrl+F of printed matter.) I obviously looked for "France" which was absent, but "French Revolutionary Wars" was right there and pages 133-135 are all about how smuggling enabled spies to communicate, and ferried gold (hundreds of thousands of £s of bullion, apparently) to fund French armies, alongside the obvious support offered to French industries through buying copious quantities of their brandy.

I suspect smuggling ships were also used to ferry spies back and forth, but that isn't mentioned. Perhaps human cargo took up valuable space and was therefore undesirable? Or perhaps there was a limit of people per boat* and if one of your people is cargo, that reduces how many crew you have available.

This is a brilliant start to my research into smuggling. Astonishingly enough when you consider how few resources there are on the matter, I've got exactly what I wanted almost immediately.

NB* I don't think there was a health and safety limit per boat, even though this kind of reads that way. I just doubt there was much non-working space to just give to a whole person who might need the toilet, or be seasick, or otherwise not contribute to the work that needed to be done.

[coreypettengillmajorstudy]

Mr. Sykes

Like with Ashe I started my work on Mr. Sykes by filling in the silhouettes that got the most love in peer review.

References and Inspiration:

Fabricoftheuniverse. (2025). Kimo-Type 110 Black Kimono Jacket. [online] Fabric of the Universe. Available at: https://www.fabricoftheuniverse.com/collections/techwear-bomber-jackets/products/kimo-type-110-black-kimono-jacket

Fandom. (2019). The Samaritan. [online] Hellboy Wiki. Available at: https://hellboy.fandom.com/wiki/The_Samaritan?file=The_Good_Samaritan.png

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Mahboubi, A. (2022). Blocked Page. [online] Available at: https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/045/721/449/large/alexandre-mahboubi-singed-older-planche.jpg?1643365885

Media-amazon.com. (2025). Available at: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYWNlZjhmY2YtMmUzYy00NTExLWJkZDMtZTU1ZDdiNzczYTAwXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpg

Nocookie.net. (2025). Available at: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/black-sails/images/6/6e/Gates-All_Seeing_Eye.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20210101181331

Photobash.org (2016). PHOTOBASH - High Quality Reference Photos & Masked PNGs for Artists & Creatives. [online] PHOTOBASH - High Quality Reference Photos & Masked PNGs for Artists & Creatives. Available at: https://www.photobash.org/props#/antique-firearms/.

Photos Used:

Abudimir85 (2013). Bog-wood from Sava river. [Photo] Available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bog-wood_from_Sava_river,_BiH.jpg.

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Davis, M. (2013). Actor Mark Ryan attends Schick Hydro and Assassin’s Creed IV Black... [online] Getty Images. Available at: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/actor-mark-ryan-attends-schick-hydro-and-assassins-creed-iv-news-photo/174053416

Defense.gov. (2025). Available at: https://media.defense.gov/2008/Feb/27/2000651288/-1/-1/0/080212-F-3699S-016.JPG

eBay UK. (2025). Han Solo Smuggler Shirt (Black/Grey) by Magnoli Clothiers. [online] Available at: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/332661899138

eBay UK. (2025). Tactical Pants Men Multi-Pocket Outdoor Cargo Pants Military Combat Trousers. [online] Available at: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204593298157

Kambouris, D. (2023). Dave Bautista attends Universal Pictures’ ‘Knock At The Cabin’ World... [online] Getty Images. Available at: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/dave-bautista-attends-universal-pictures-knock-at-the-cabin-news-photo/1460927667?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=iptcurl

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