#star belanger

[ocean-blue-whump]

Gingerbread Christmas

Cassiel Belanger belongs to @painful-pooch. Merry Christmas, bb. I love you so much <3

Across the Stars and Through the Meadow Masterlist (Cas and Star AU)

Tagging the Star crew: @ashintheairlikesnow @whumpinggrounds @whumptakesthecake @justplainwhump @whumpfessional @winedark-whump

CW: BBU whumpees, Christmas fluff, chronically ill whumpee, whumpees in love

***

Star wipes her forehead, knowing full well she just smeared frosting all over her face, but now she matches the carnage in the rest of the kitchen. There’s bowls of frosting and cookie batter everywhere, candy scattered around the counter. She wipes her hands off on a towel and leans on her cane, admiring her handiwork. 

Her disease has just progressed more and more since they moved to the cabin, and the perfect gingerbread house she dreamt up is…less than perfect. But in her opinion, the gingerbread replica of their cabin is close enough. All that’s left to do is take the two gingerbread people and stick them on the porch. Star softly picks up gingerbread Cas, complete with a small candy guitar, and positions him next to the chair she built. Then, she takes the gingerbread version of herself, snapping her legs off to put her in the chair, and draping a fondant blanket over her “legs.” She’s been spending a lot more time sitting down lately, switching between her rocking chair and her wheelchair, but that’s the price she pays for fighting as hard as she can. 

There. Star steps back, looking at the replica. She tried to get it accurate and make it all edible, even making extra gingerbread so she could cut the burnt pieces off. She slides the gingerbread cabin to the center and moves all her mess to the side, finally picking up the powdered sugar to dust the cabin in snow. They’ve really made this place their home, and Star is grateful every day that they escaped. She never would have been happy with an owner, trapped in a house and forced to serve someone she had no affection for. But Cas...she loves him more than she can breathe, sees him as more than just a barcode or the mutt WRU wanted him to be. 

“Me love?”

Star looks up to see Cas walking down the stairs, rubbing his eyes. “Morning, baby. Merry Christmas.”

“What are ye doin’ up, lass? I thought ye were supposed’t be in bed restin’.”

She shrugs and sets the powder sugar down, watching Cas descend the stairs while carefully avoiding the lift he installed for her. “I woke up early and wanted to make this.” 

He reaches the bottom and walks over to the counter, his eyes so bright and cheerful. “What did ye make…” His eyes latch onto the gingerbread cabin, and all at once, his expression changes and he looks on the verge of tears. “Oh, lassie.”

Star looks away, feeling warmth flood her face. “I…I know it’s not great. My hands aren’t what they used to be, and I can’t do all the details. I can’t do a lot of things that I used to. I know this wasn’t what we were expecting. I know when we met, neither one of us could have imagined that I’d get sick, Cas. And I know I’m supposed to say it’s a nightmare, but you are my wonderful, amazing, handsome husband, and I wouldn’t give up what we have for anything. I’d go through hell for you. Pain…pain is nothing to me because I have the world’s best husband.” She smiles down at the gingerbread cabin. “This is the best gift you could have given me. Our happy ending. Plus…it’s edible. Maybe.”

When her husband stays speechless, she reaches out with her sugar-coated fingers and grabs his hand, still leaning on her cane. “Thank you for being my happiness, Cassiel Belanger. Thank you for the best gift ever–being your wife.”

Cas pulls her in close and she can feel his tears in her hair. “Me love. Ye being around still…ye fightin’ for me…that’s me best gift. Ye will always be the love of me life.”

She looks up at him, resting her head on his chest. “I think we’re both the lucky ones.”

He chuckles and wipes a small piece of frosting from her eyebrow. “Yer so gorgeous, Star. Even with frosting on yer pretty face.”

“Hey!” she says with a smirk and reaches over to get frosting out of a bowl, dotting it on his nose. “There. Gotcha, baby.”

He’s laughing so hard as he tries and fails to lick it off. “Lassie! What was that for?”

She uses her cane to push herself up and kiss his cheek, her heart fluttering. “I love you, Cas.”

He holds her chin and kisses her slowly, full of so much passion that she can feel the love in the air. When he finally pulls back, Star loses herself in his beautiful eyes. “I love ye more, Star. Merry Christmas.”

She leans over and breaks off a piece of the roof, putting it in his mouth. “Merry Christmas, love.”

[noffy96]

Random thought / headcanon about nightmare being turned back to his passive form

I like to think about this situation. Cause nightmare would have become quite reliant on his tentacles in his corrupted state.

I almost never see him use anything else from magic.

So first he's gotta learn how the fuck to do that? Depending on how angsty the story you wanna make it. The bad sanses either leave him. Or stay.

But id think they stay. The boss helped them all those years. It's their turn.

They try a bunch of different things. Using magic to make a weapon. And hand crafting them.

It's quickly apperent crafted won't work. His passive body is way weaker. The corruption using all of it for its own. Leaving the body only to grow. Even the side of nightmares eyes is just a big hole

But making a magic weapon doesn't seem to work either. He can conquer some bone attacks but nothing more impressive than any skeleton. And he needs more defences.

It's killer that comes up with a wild soliton

(okay I dunno if this is true? I only read dreamtale once ages ago...and not sure if this a headcanon or not. )

But Dreams staff/bow was made from a branch from the tree of feelings. Maybe nightmare needs something similar.

So with some difficulty they manage to get there. But it has been centuries. There is only the stump and they cant do things with that.

They search around. Eventually horror finds two thick broken pieces of what was once a great branch. There not very tall. They fit into the palm of his hands.

He brings them back to the boss anyway. Nightmare immediately notices these did belang to his mothers tree the second he holds them.

And he tries to use magic. It takes a couple of frustrating tries. But eventually he is able to turn both of them into weapons

One inta a whip. And one into a Morning star.

(both quite long ranched weapons like his tentacles were.)

At a later date. He learns if he slams the two pieces together. He can transform them into a large pole that he can use to fight. But often uses it to quickly travel over the terrain.

So yeah

Think those kind of weapons be fun. Maybe I draw a sketch of it someday.

[mappingthemoon]

Books Read 2023

Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations / Mira Jacob

A Grief Observed / C. S. Lewis

Grit Lit: A Rough South Reader / ed. Brian Carpenter & Tom Franklin

Two or Three Things I Know for Sure / Dorothy Allison

Weather: Air Masses, Clouds, Rainfall, Storms, Weather Maps, Climate (A Golden Nature Guide) / Paul E. Lehr, R. Will Burnett, Herbert S. Zim ; Harry McNaught (ill.)

Improbable Memories / Sarah Moon

Endless Endless: A Lo-Fi History of the Elephant 6 Mystery / Adam Clair

The Difference Between / Billy McCall

The Submissive (The Submissive #1) / Tara Sue Me

Last Night at the Casino [v. 1] / Billy McCall

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing / Marie Kondo ; Cathy Hirano (tr.)

Pnin / Vladimir Nabokov

My Heart Is a Chainsaw / Stephen Graham Jones

"Waltz of the Body Snatchers" / Alfred Bester, in Andromeda I: An original SF anthology / ed. Peter Weston

Blue Highways: A Journey Into America / William Least Heat-Moon

The Stars My Destination (The Gregg Press Science Fiction Series) / Alfred Bester

Laughter in the Dark / Vladimir Nabokov

Man and His Symbols / Carl G. Jung

Mysteries of the Unexplained / ed. Carroll C. Calkins

The Westing Game / Ellen Raskin

The Seven Ages / Louise Glück

The Wild Iris / Louise Glück

Vita Nova / Louise Glück

Doctor Who: Impossible Worlds: A 50-Year Treasury of Art and Design / Stephen Nicholas & Mike Tucker

Where's Waldo? (Where's Waldo #1) / Martin Handford

Where's Waldo? The Fantastic Journey (Where's Waldo #3) / Martin Handford

Doctor Who 50 Years #3: The Doctors / ed. Marcus Hearn

Rabbit, Run / John Updike

Mother Night / Kurt Vonnegut

Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Books) / Bibliographic Standards Committee, Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, Association of College and Research Libraries, in collaboration with The Policy Standards Office of the Library of Congress

"Descriptive Bibliography" / Terry Belanger, in Book Collecting: A Modern Guide / ed. Jean Peters

The Essential Doctor Who #2: The TARDIS / ed. Marcus Hearn

Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited / Vladimir Nabokov

Chicago: City on the Make / Nelson Algren

Gustav Klimt, 1862-1918 / Gilles Néret

American Gods: A Novel / Neil Gaiman

Marcel Duchamp, 1887-1968: Art as Anti-Art / Janis Mink

The Empathy Exams: Essays / Leslie Jamison

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: Three Tenant Families / James Agee & Walker Evans

Hallucination Orbit: Psychology in Science Fiction / ed. Isaac Asimov, Charles G. Waugh, Martin H. Greenberg

Dream Street: W. Eugene Smith's Pittsburgh Project / W. Eugene Smith ; ed. Sam Stephenson

Twilight / Gregory Crewdson ; Rick Moody

Magic Eye: A New Way of Looking at the World / N.E. Thing Enterprises

Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns & Moonage Daydreams / Steve Horton & Michael Allred ; Laura Allred (ill.)

After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path / Jack Kornfield

The Gin Closet: A Novel / Leslie Jamison

The New Kid on the Block / Jack Prelutsky ; James Stevenson (ill.)

A Book of Common Prayer / Joan Didion

Mariette in Ecstasy / Ron Hansen

Camp Damascus / Chuck Tingle

The Mass Production of Memory: Travel and Personal Archiving in the Age of the Kodak (Public History in Historical Perspective) / Tammy S. Gordon

Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas / Rebecca Solnit & Rebecca Snedeker

Other Voices, Other Rooms / Truman Capote

Fabulous New Orleans / Lyle Saxon ; E.H. Suydam (ill.)

Weird Pennsylvania: Your Travel Guide to Pennsylvania's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets / Matt Lake

Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence (Griffin & Sabine #1) / Nick Bantock

Sabine's Notebook: In Which The Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Continues (Griffin & Sabine #2) / Nick Bantock

The Golden Mean: In Which The Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Concludes (Griffin & Sabine #3) / Nick Bantock

Breath, Eyes, Memory / Edwidge Danticat

Last Night at the Casino, v. 2 / Billy McCall

What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions / Randall Munroe

Collection-Level Cataloging: Bound-with Books (Third Millennium Cataloging) / Jain Fletcher

Speaking Pittsburghese: The Story of a Dialect (Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics) / Barbara Johnstone

My Misspent Youth: Essays / Meghan Daum

Slender Intuition: Essays on Artist's Block / Brian Hitselberger

The Mister / E L James

Crapalachia: A Biography of a Place / Scott McClanahan

The Transcriptionist: A Novel / Amy Rowland

Explanations/Opinions below the cut:

Ok so I have several reading lists/stacks that I rotate through: my to-read spreadsheet (which has almost 300 titles listed in chronological order by date added, with the oldest being from 8/22/2014), my to-read bookcase/nightstand (which holds ~50 books I’ve acquired over the past few years but haven’t yet read), a stack of oversized unreads that don’t fit on the nightstand shelves (this gets its own list bc I need to read them and find a permanent home for them before the stack gets too tall), and “interruptions” (books that override the list order bc I didn’t want to wait to read them, for whatever reason).

Maybe it’s weird that I’m so attached to reading things “in order”? Idk. I’ve always been like this. It’s only a mild compulsion – obviously, I am perfectly capable of ignoring what’s supposed to be next on the list, in favor of reading something that catches my interest more strongly in the moment, but in general, I like to read things either in the order I added them to the list, or the order I personally acquired a physical copy (if I went by the list only, I’d be drowning in unread books [yay, college town thrift stores], so I gotta stay on top of that pile pretty regularly). So that is why I am often reading things that I first became aware of/added to my list nearly 10 years ago. Sometimes this practice results in feelings like, “Dang, I wish I would’ve actually read this 10 years ago,” but also sometimes, “WOW, I’m so glad I’m reading this RIGHT NOW, as opposed to 10 years ago when I first heard about it!”

I think my favorites this year were Mariette in Ecstasy; Other Voices, Other Rooms; Crapalachia; and Speak, Memory.

Mild disappointments were the essay collections by Leslie Jamison and Meghan Daum, two authors I’m pretty sure I discovered via popular and relateable quotes reblogged on tumblr ca. 2014, but the collections taken as a whole just had too many moments of cringe – casual classism, arrogant self-absorption, and other annoying and unrelateable qualities typical of privileged 20-something writers (this tone definitely appealed to me when I was a naïve and melodramatic snotty 20-something, so there’s that).

As a kind of memorial, Rachael and I read David’s three favorite books: The Stars My Destination, Mother Night, and American Gods. In all the time I knew him, including all the times we used to sit on the porch together, reading quietly while he drank whiskey, I never thought to ask him his favorites. I kept looking for pieces of him in the stories, wondering what lines stood out, what made a book memorable, what did it say about him that these were his favorites.

Being an elder Millennial, I’m in the stage of nostalgically re-acquiring important artifacts from my childhood, so that’s why there are some children’s books on my list. Where’s Waldo? was one of the most coveted books in my grade-school library! There was always a list of people waiting to check it out, but usually, whoever actually had the book that week would let the other kids gather around and look together.

My Heart Is a Chainsaw was a recommendation from my goth teenaged birthdaughter <3 which I probably read too much personal symbolism into but maybe not!

I thought John Updike was overrated, lol.

Favorite photography book: W. Eugene Smith’s Dream Street. His pictures made me so homesick, and it was wild because he took them from 1955-1957 but they still really, REALLY, to me, looked like the Pittsburgh of my ‘80s/’90s memories (bc Pittsburgh doesn’t change, and also the “idea” or “brand” of Pittsburgh in the ‘80s/’90s was ofc consciously referencing its industrial working-class past). He took over 10,000 photos but was never able to “finish” the project to his intense, obsessive standards of perfection (I KNOW THAT FEEL) and felt it failed to capture the multifaceted essence of the city. WELL, not in my opinion at least!

PS I'm moonmoth on LibraryThing.

[painful-pooch]

The Belanger Masterlist

The Making of Beasts and Atrocities

In a world where animal shifters are beginning to be seen as second class citizens and ostracized for being different, street musician Cassiel Ohazia Belanger finds out in the worst way possible what happens when one is discovered to be a shifter. What hardships will the loving dire wolf shifter face and will he be able to change how the wold views those with an animal inside of them? Can Cassiel be able to fight the Beast that he holds within him without destroying everything he has ever loved and cared about? Will the world change for the better or will there be a war waged between humans and shifters? What truly makes a beast and what turns those to monsters.

CWs for the series (each post will be individually tagged): pet whump, slavery, inequality of race, long term captivity, dehumanization, team whump, death, fighting rings, forced drugging, and a lot of brutality from those in charge of the system, possible bbu adjacent themes

~~~

The Beginning/Training:

A Musician's Morning Routine

A Chilling Reality for the Musician

The Ring of Fangs and Blood:

Beasts Can't Love Anyone

Branding of the Beast

A Road to the Meadows

Colors of Symphony

~~~

Other Writings, Asks, and Extra Information!

This is where I am dumping writings where it’s either an AU or an ask. Some of the asks are actually writings and part of the story and will have already been sorted out above. This is mostly for extra information and what not that you would like to know.

~~~

AUs:

Cas and the Lamb (BBU Collab with @ocean-blue-whump)

Across the Stars and Through the Meadows (BBU Collab with @ocean-blue-whump)

Reference Pictures:

Character Sheet and Art

Asks:

Cas and Strangers // Cas and Verna // Cas and Arthur //

Cas and Tom and Runa // Insulting Cas (prompt) // Are you Smart //

Taking Advantage // Cas Meadows // Scream in the Bar (Prompt) //

Worst Thing to Ever Happen // A Secret Kept // Color of Screams //

What Are You Thankful For? (Prompt) // Cas Tells the Truth

[alldancersaretalented]

KAR Nationals Statistics

Amount of Titles won by studios: (Top 10)

Triple Threat Performing Arts (24)

The Element Dance Center (21)

Rising Stars Dance Academy (18)

Yoko's Dance, C&C Dance Co (14)

Cutting Edge Dance Center, WCSA, OCPAA (13)

Soul Shock Dance Company @ PDC (12)

Starz Elite Dance Center, Avi's Dance Project, South Carolina Dance Company (11)

Karen's School of Dance, Creative Dance (10)

Signature Dance Academy (9)

Studio J Dance Company, Gotta Dance Academy, GTB Australia, Studio 84, Dance Deluxe, Acapriccio Dance Company (8)

Most titles won by an individual:

4 Titles:

Nick Farris (Performers Edge Dance Company)

3 Titles:

Alexander Mateo (Rising Stars Dance Academy)

Brooke Shaw (WCSA)

Crystal Huang (Yoko's, The Rock Center For Dance)

Damian Seymour (Nancy's School of Dance)

Diego Gonzales (La Bella Dance Company)

Dylan Rogers (Michelle's Academy)

Jennilee Soares (Rising Stars Dance Academy)

Josh Escover (Lana's Dance Studio)

Justin Renaud (Yoko's)

Lauryn Martin (The Element Dance Center)

Macy Waters (Ashley's Dance Company)

Mia Barone (South Tulsa Dance Company, Creative Dance)

Michelle Cheng (OCPAA)

Olivia Beauchamp (Dance Expressions, Viva Dance Co

2 Titles:

Alex Dominguez (Art In Motion Dance Academy)

Andrew Van Allen (And A 5678 Studio of Dance)

Ansley Hare (Soul Shock Dance Academy @ PDC)

Audrey Stone (Avi's Dance Project)

Avery Wyatt (Ashley's Dance Company)

Berlynn Gonzales (Avi's Dance Project)

Brandy Baker (WCSA)

Brendan Farris (Performers Edge Dance Company)

Brooke Wendel (Cutting Edge Dance Center)

Calvin Biesecker (Starz Elite Dance Center)

Carter Cliff (GTB Australia)

Chris Critelli (TJE Dance Force)

Christian Harmston (Starz Elite Dance Center)

Christina Crocker (Avi's Dance Project)

Coco Backshell (Triple Threat Performing Arts)

Darius Stokes (Candy Apple's Dance Center)

Diego Moreno (Triple Threat Performing Arts)

Easton Kinsey (Acapriccio Dance Company)

Easton Bright (Joni's Dance Centre, BC Dance)

Easton Mahoney (The Dance Connection)

Ellary Day Szyndlar (Yoko's)

Emmy Cheung (WCSA)

Ethan Huang (Yoko's)

Gavin Davis (Dance Deluxe)

Giuliana Damato (The Dream Center Dance Aca.)

Isabel Jones (Triple Threat Performing Arts)

Isabella Rayborn (A Touch of Class Performing Arts)

Jack Schofield (Elite Academy of Dance)

Jacob Piattoni (Cutting Edge Dance Center)

Jayden Marquez (La Bella Dance Company)

Jaylaen Higgins (Yoko's Dance)

Jayse Gillott (Forever Dance Lake Tahoe)

Jessica Sutton (Avi's Dance Project)

Joey Mato (TJE Dance Force)

Jolie Bermas (South Caroline Dance Company)

Julian Bargas (Studio J Dance Company, The Stage Dance Academy)

Justin Pham (The Element Dance Center, Murrieta Dance Project)

Kadin Mestas (Denver Dance Starz)

Kairi Devera (Triple Threat Performing Arts)

Kamryn Smith (Soul Shock Dance Company @ PDC)

Kayla Chan (Triple Threat Performing Arts)

Kelsey Young (The Dance Connection)

Kianna Gachett (Cutting Edge Dance Center)

Kyler Durrence (Centre for Performing Arts)

Lana Baird (Just Dance!)

Lance McDougal (Studio J Dance Company)

Lauren Shaw (WCSA)

Mackenzie Belanger (Karen's School of Dance)

Maddux Ellison (Cutting Edge Dance Center)

Madeline Underwood (Starz Elite Dance Center)

Mariah Humphrey (The Element Dance Center, Signature Dance Academy)

Mary Smith (Prestige DSOD Copped Dance Company)

Morgan Perschy (Triple Threat Dance Company)

Nathan Pringle (Triple Threat Performing Arts)

Pablo Cabrera (Rising Stars Dance Academy)

Paisley French (Tammy Jo's Studio, The Studio of Dance Kentucky)

Rachael Reese (Creative Dance)

Reese Gabran (Jordan Center Dance)

Sabrina Huang (Gravity C Dance LLC, Academy of Ballet Arts)

Sari Thaler (Rising Stars Dance Academy)

Scarlett Adlam (JEM Dance)

Sophia Laufer (The Rage)

Susie Miller (Soul Shock Dance Company @ PDC)

Taylor Valadez (The Element Dance Center, Just Plain Dancin')

Vanessa Soto (Dance Deluxe)

Vaughn Ramirez (360 Dance)

Zeb Hanson (Studio 84)

Zoey Guillette (South Carolina Dance Company)

[booksandchainmail]

Pale 10.a

“Three groups,” Horseman said.  The snow caught on his eyebrows, and his breath fogged.  “There’s the group responsible for the hillbilly truck out front.  Been here for a while.  Possible PMC.”

is he a Dog of War? One of John's old group?

“Yes, might have some PMC in them.  Yes, they’re yours.”

ah yeah, group of War Dogs incoming

“You got a last name now,” Horseman said, voice low, as he stepped close, his face inches from John’s.  “Good eyes, those.  Except they’re too sad to suit your old nickname though, Carnivore.”

the way that Dogs of War only gain selfhood (including a sense of morality) through more killing is sad and fucked up!

“You want mercy?  Anything but what you’ve got coming to you?  All pity choked with custom of fell deeds,” the POI said.

looked it up, and the bit in italics comes from the same Shakespeare speech as "Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war". And it is about war breaking out to a degree that all normal decency gets forgotten

“We’re you, your deeds made manifest, from the uncounted dead.”

metal line

John shook his head.  “According to the words he used, only a member of their family can bring back any of those four, and they’d still be bound.”

I wonder if John still has those tags in the present day? Could be worth a try to bring them back and contact the Leonard family to arrange favorable terms.

Songbird would be their official, unofficial commanding officer.  She would give them someone to spoil, would be one who cared from the outset, instead of picking up that caring from among a Dog’s scraps, like John had.  They had war as their starting point and built up from there.  She started from the sympathetic.

I hadn't put together before that part of why John's been such a good ally to the Kennet Trio is that he was built around protecting and following a young girl who was an innocent pushed into combat.

They wore bright colors, painted stalls and shops and had decorated the metal tiles with an irregular pattern of three stars, the eclipsed crescent, the sun, and the cross inside the circle to represent earth, painted in iridescent red.

I think this is John seeing the tiles as patterned rather than color-coded

It was hard to shake the mental image of Lucy’s face, that night he’d put a bullet into Alexander Belanger.  How small her shoulders had been.

:(

Lucy was talking back and forth with Verona, and John had a hard time dissociating her from the fresh mental image of Yalda.  Which was strange, because the two were so very different.  Yalda sang and Lucy listened.  Yalda had retreated into being a child and Lucy fought so hard to be like an adult.  Yalda had been bright and cheery, sympathetic and open, with moments of sadness, but she’d been dangerous, a killer even by accident, sowing wrongs wherever she went.  Lucy was tougher, more walled off, seemingly perpetually upset at things, but with moments of brightness like this one, here.  And as walled off or grim or serious as she might seem to be, Lucy had fought so hard against the wrongs of Alexander and Bristow, rallying others.

I hate Alexander so damn much right now for cutting this bond

A true end to the cycle of violence.  Being an actual dog would be nice.  Sitting in the sun.  Warm touches from family.  He could become human when he desired, and play his guitar, in a mediocre way.  He could sing songs he’d learned from Yalda, very poorly.  He could let his guard down.  He could rest.

John as an actual dog would be really nice

Nicolette put her hands over her ears, even though the sounds of the pipes and train whistle were dying down.

right, she'd also have Wolf trauma

“Are you sure?” Lucy asked.  “John?  This is dangerous.” “Tell me not to and I won’t,” he told her. “I don’t deserve that trust,” she said. “I don’t know enough about any of this.”

yeah, he's fully slotted Lucy in as his commanding officer

“Ropes and clocks, what else?” Verona asked.  “Nicolette!”

hey, that's two of the five objects! What do you want to bet that knife, coin, and skull would effect things? Actually, if clock controls movement timing, and rope I'm not entirely sure but is letting the wolf fuck with everyone, could each of these items be different exception/aspect of the rules of this place? With coin as the market stalls, and skull as the smiling Others? In which case knife is left to try now, and John seems well suited to that.

Knives cleaved closer to connections, to Self, to personal power.  Momentum and physics didn’t always matter, and to many, a bullet was simply a smaller amount of metal than a knife or sword, with less meaning and history ascribed to it.

an elegant weapon!

He would have seen the goblin, the Faerie warrior, the burning ghost-spirit, Miss, and the practitioners Matthew Moss and Charles Abrams.

which makes all of these suspects, since they were around for Yalda's death after which the Choir was made. I wonder which goblin?

“Infants quartered with the hands of war,” the Wolf told John, catching his wrist.

also a quote from that Shakespeare passage

Timepiece for Time, cable for the threads of Fate.  The edge…

I was right about the theming! Wrong about the particulars though it looks

“Don’t hold anything back,” he whispered.  “It’s not as if I’ll need to draw on you again past this summer.”

:(

God I hope John makes it. I think he'd be a good Carmine Judge.

“This is what you are.  Either you’ll be a sacrifice, or you’ll perpetuate the cycle of violence and loss.  Whichever you do, whatever you do to those girls, they’ll cry and they’ll lose more innocence, more childhood.  The closer you are to them, the more it will take from them to lose you.”

I think that is going to happen to the girls regardless

But he couldn’t tie her to him when there was a very real chance that he could pull the trigger one day and see that expression on her face again, that he could pull the trigger at some point and not see that expression, because he’d allowed his presence and violence to change her like he’d allowed it to change Yalda, or the look on her face at the end of that road, when he had to shoot her because of what she’d become.

I think all the various types of Black Dogs are tied to conflict, so Yalda would have ended up there regardless of John. But on a subconscious level I don't think his presence as a Dog of War is what he is blaming: rather, the actions of the soldiers from whom he exists, taken on a civilian population from whom in turn Yalda as a Famine Dog was born

[beardedmrbean]

BARCELONA, Spain — In an effort to ease traffic congestion and curb greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change, municipalities from Barcelona to Brussels have embarked on what has been called a “transportation revolution.” Urban centers across the continent have adopted a host of innovative schemes designed to steer vehicles out of crowded downtowns, creating so-called 15-minute cities — where cars aren’t needed and services like banks, barbers, grocery stores and doctors are a short stroll or bike ride away.

But a fierce backlash has emerged in recent months against the restrictions and plans to all but rid cities of the bulk of their automobiles.

“There’s a new aggressiveness in some of the pushback we’re witnessing,” said Barbara Stoll, director of the Clean Cities Campaign, which works with municipal governments to reduce incoming traffic. “A lot of that opposition is from a very loud minority, largely composed of men who rely on the car, which has on multiple occasions escalated into physical violence and threats to public officials.”

In response to objections from business groups and political opponents, who have demanded that economic assessments be conducted prior to converting more neighborhoods to traffic-free zones, the Barcelona City Council in December froze in place its “superblock” program. A plan to keep cars out of one district in Berlin is also up in the air after candidates opposed to the idea fared well in last week’s elections in Germany.

In sprawling Brussels, where traffic-calming measures that are part of the city’s Good Move mobility plan have created construction quagmires, some politicians are voicing loud dissatisfaction, with one party, the hard-right Vlaams Belang, launching a sarcasm-laden campaign called No Move.

“The only thing that the Brussels government has managed to do is aggravate the traffic situation in our city, which was already disastrous,” the group says on its Facebook page.

David Leisterh, a member of Belgium’s Reform Party, told Yahoo News he now believes that the Good Move plan should go forward only if more than 50% of the city’s population supports it.

“I’m not against the idea,” Leisterh told Yahoo News about anti-congestion measures. “I’m against the way it’s been done so far.”

Claiming that the implementation of Good Move resulted in an 80% reduction in business, Christophe Durieux, who owned the upscale Brussels restaurant Le Rabassier, closed down the popular eatery late last year. “My customers tell me themselves, they will no longer come to my restaurant because it is too complicated,” Durieux told radio station BX1 in September. “It is becoming unbearable.”

Other downtown business owners have taken issue with Good Move. According to a poll conducted by the Neutral Union for the Self-Employed, two-thirds of small and medium-sized businesses in Brussels were considering moving due to the program. “This is a disaster for the vast majority of the self-employed and SMEs [small- and medium-sized enterprises],” the union told the Brussels Times in response to the survey. “If two-thirds of them already found traffic difficult before Good Move, more than 90% feel it is even worse now.”

Traffic barriers set up throughout Brussels have been vandalized and ripped out, and City Council meetings have turned increasingly testy, with protesters storming one recent meeting and making violent threats against the district councillor in charge of the mobility plan. At another meeting, a protest leader shocked attendees when she likened the plight of cars to Jews during the Holocaust.

“Are you planning to stick colored stars on our vehicles so that we can identify the ‘foreigners’ of the neighborhood ... the invaders, those who should be deported somewhere else?” asked Brussels resident Roxane Henry. “Someone had the same idea in the 1940s.”

In late October, demonstrations against Good Move turned violent with more attacks on traffic barriers. Seeking to control the crowd of roughly 100 demonstrators, several police officers were injured in the melee.

“Our will is to create social cohesion through dialogue and not confrontation,” Brussels City Councillor Vincent Vanhaleweyn, a supporter of Good Move, told Belga News Agency after the incident. “Our will is not to bury the project, but to bring together those for and against it in five months and find a solution for everyone.” Thus far, that hasn’t happened.

In several districts in Brussels, Good Move construction has not only stopped — it has reversed, with crews restoring streets to their original design, as planners go back to their drawing boards.

Even residents who support limiting traffic are ambivalent. “On the one hand, it’s good for the environment, and for reducing time spent in traffic jams — and the reduction of noise is good for residents,” said PR director Catherine Couplan. “But it’s bad for the residents living in streets where traffic is being redirected, and it’s bad for city shopkeepers, whose revenue is being severely impacted.” And while the idea of the city going greener is a long-term plan that Couplan supports, she said the everyday reality of the changes underway simply “creates chaos.”

“The protests seem to be the results of a combination of different factors,” said Stoll, pointing to issues from a “resistance to change” and “the current cost-of-living crisis” to feelings that low-income residents are being unfairly burdened by measures curtailing the use of cars.

In Oxford, England, problems started in late November, when county councillors approved a trial program to restrict traffic on six clogged arteries, a move that would help bolster the 15-minute-city concept. In 2024, officials plan to install traffic cameras and six “traffic filters” — boxes with signs on them informing motorists that traffic is restricted for private automobiles between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. According to the council, the plan is meant to reduce private car traffic on busy streets during business hours; residents will be issued permits to allow them free passage, but nonresident vehicles that drive past filters will be subject to a 70-pound (about $85) fine during the restricted times. After the plan was announced, council members started receiving death threats.

“Staff and councillors have been subjected to abuse due to inaccurate information being circulated online,” Katariina Valkeinen, senior communications officer of the Oxfordshire County Council, told Yahoo News.

That “inaccurate information” began on Nov. 30 in an article by the independent British News outlet Vision News, with the headline “Oxfordshire County Council Pass Climate Lockdown 'trial' to Begin in 2024.” The article claimed the council planned to “lock residents into one of six zones” and keep them confined as part of a lockdown to fight global warming. And from there the fallacious rumors snowballed, portraying the 15-minute-city concept as akin to forced imprisonment in an effort to battle climate change.

In January, a group called Not Our Future began leafleting Oxford homes, warning locals that they were about to become guinea pigs. The group’s founder, David Fleming, was not from Oxford, but he did have a knack for stirring up anxiety. In 2020, he founded another group whose goal was the elimination of all COVID restrictions. A month after the leaflets appeared, several thousand demonstrators took to the streets to protest what they saw as the first steps in a climate lookdown.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“BANK TELLER ADMITS EMBEZZLING $8,200,” Montreal Star. February 19, 1931. Page 3. --- Michel Cambraggio Will Be Deported After Sentence ----- Frankly admitting that during the past seven or eight months he embezzled $8,200 of the bank's money and lost it in a St. Denis street gaming house playing "barbotte," Michel Cambraggio, dapper young Italian teller of the Royal Bank of Canada branch at St. Denis and Belanger streets, was sentenced to two years less one day in jail by Judge Marin this morning. At the end of his sentence he will be deported to Italy.

Cambraggio, who is said to be the scion of a prominent Italian family, was one of the employes in the bank when it was recently held up by five men, who escaped with $6,000.

A few days after the holdup. Cambraggio was arrested on charges of stealing $1,000, but no mention was made of the $8.200 he admitted having taken this morning.

[kwebtv]

Urban Angel -  CBC  -  February 8, 1991  -  February 4, 1992

Drama (15 episodes)

Running Time:  60 minutes

Stars:

Justin Louis (Louis Ferreira) as Victor Torres

Paula de Vasconcelos as Christina

Vittorio Rossi as Dino Moroni

Dorothée Berryman as Francine Primeau

Vlasta Vrána as Lt. Drayback

Arthur Grosser as Bill Pack

Ellen David as Rachel Kane

Michael Rudder as Hubie

Macha Grenon as Denise Vincent

Sophie Lorain as Sylvie Belanger

[wickdcreatures]

i'm going to write out a whole bio for her at some point but her is april belanger, a housecleaner to the stars, ex-cultist and ex-convict who got away with the murder of her older brother conrad belanger (who can be found @stridshundar when i decide to revamp that blog lmao)

[ocean-blue-whump]

Tiny Lights and Tortellini

For @flufftober Day 6: Candles, Lanterns, Fairy Lights

Cassiel Belanger belongs to @painful-pooch

Across the Stars and Through the Meadow Masterlist (Cas and Star AU)

Tagging the Star crew: @ashintheairlikesnow @whumpinggrounds @whumptakesthecake @justplainwhump @whumpfessional @winedark-whump

CW: BBU (vaguely mentioned), chronic illness, FLUFF! Actual sweet fluff for the Belangers

***

Star’s eyes flutter open, looking out their window at the night sky. She rolls over with a groan, buried under a heated blanket in her and Cas’s bed. He’s not with her anymore, but he sat with her at the beginning of her nap until she fell asleep. 

She winces as she sits up, leaning against her headboard and grabbing the tiny cup of pills off her nightside table and knocking them back with some water. She way overslept, but she’s grateful to her husband for not waking her up. 

Her stomach rumbles a little bit and she swings her legs to the edge of the bed, wondering if Cas made something good for dinner. God, she hopes so. She didn’t marry a good cook for no reason, after all. 

Star grabs Cas’s flannel off the end of the bed and drapes it on herself. Still smells like him, a little bit woodsy and sweet. She wears his clothes more than her own most of the time. 

She reaches for her forearm crutches, sliding her arms in and using them to stand up. A few years ago, she never could have admitted that she needed help, never would have used crutches to get around. She never could have accepted that it’s okay to use aids to help with her illness without her husband. This is all because she wants to enjoy however many years she has left and have as much freedom as possible. 

She’s happy. She’s really fucking happy. She loves her life here, her wonderful, happy little existence with her husband in their cabin. 

Star gets out of bed, using the crutches for balance as she makes her way to the door and pushes it open, but…

She stops in her tracks, staring at the floor. The hallway is dark except for a long cord of fairy lights training down the hallway. “Cas?” she calls out, but gets no answer. 

Her curiosity kicks into overdrive and she follows the strand of lights down the hall to the stairs, where the lights end and turn into a small scattering of fake tea candles. She limps down the stairs, continuing to follow the lights. 

It doesn’t end when she reaches the ground floor. There’s more lights on the ground floor making a trail towards the back porch. Star looks around, but Cas is nowhere in sight, so she presses forward, going onto the back porch and then all the way outside. 

The night air is crisp and just cold enough to be comfy, the leaves crushing underneath her slippers and crutches. The tea lights stop but are replaced by glowing lanterns and…

Cas is at the end of the trail, turning the wood over in a firepit to keep it going. 

She smiles to herself. This beautiful, crazy man, setting all this up while she was asleep. She walks forward, following the lights to her husband. 

He looks up when he sees her, smiling so brightly that Star feels like she could explode. “Lassie, yer going to get cold,” he chides her, placing one hand on her back and guiding her to a wooden chair. “Sit down, me love.”

Star blushes and sits down, feeling so incredibly warm as Cas moves the chair closer towards the fire and drapes a blanket over her. “What’s all this for?” she asks. 

Cas kisses her forehead, walking back over to a small table. “Just spoiling ye, lass. Ye deserve it.” He fiddles with something, and Star watches him closely. 

“The lights are pretty,” she says, setting her crutches next to her and snuggling up under the blanket. “And I love when you spoil me, baby.”

He walks back over holding a plate, and he sets it on the arm of the chair. “I figured ye were hungry. If not, don’t worry, lass. Me feelings aren’t hurt, ye just need to get enough food in ye.”

Star looks down at the plate, seeing a hearty serving of tri-colored tortellini and pesto cream sauce. “I’m starving, Cas. I literally could eat my own arm now, but this looks so much better.”

Cas looks flustered and he kisses her cheek. “Ye haven’t even tried it yet.”

Star gives him a look, spearing a tortellini with a fork and putting it in her mouth. “So fucking good. You’re the best cook ever.”

He takes his own plate and sits next to her, nuzzling her softly. “Nah, lassie. Yer too good to me.”

Star’s heart feels so calm and content, looking at her husband, the man she wants to spend the rest of her life with. She loves him. She loved him from the moment she saw him even if she didn’t realize it, she loved him from the white walls of the Facility to the alley they hid in to the bar to their apartment to here and to the Meadows once they’re both gone. The love they feel for each other is eternal. “No. I’m telling the truth. I love you, Cassiel Belanger. Thank you so much for doing this for me.”

Cas holds her to him and kisses her forehead, his face bright red. “I love ye more, Star Belanger. Me gorgeous wife.”

“My handsome husband,” she murmurs back, holding his hand while she picks her fork up again, her eyes sparkling with joy. “I’m so happy, Cas. I love my life with you.”

“All I want to do is make ye smile and laugh…especially since…”

She cuts him off, kissing him on the lips. “Shush. Not tonight, darling. Let’s just enjoy the moment.” 

Cas nods and kisses her again before going back to eating, and she catches him glancing at her every few seconds. 

We can think about the sad stuff later, my love. Tonight, let’s just be here. With us, how we are with each other. Let’s think about you, setting up a trail of lights to lead me here. You, cooking brightly colored pasta you know would make me smile. You, thinking of everything to make me happy all the time, and me by your side, being a loving wife for as long as I can. 

Sure, Cas. We know this won’t last forever and we don’t know how much time I have left. But we’re here tonight and you led me to you and I will always, always find my way home. 

I’ll always be here, Cas. In your heart and your soul and the lights around us. 

The sad stuff will come, but we’ll be ready for it. You and me against the world, dearest husband of mine. We’ll face it all together because this just shows how much you love me. We’re going to be okay. Even when the lights go off, we’ll be okay and we’ll find our way back to each other and this moment will be frozen in time together. 

I love you, Cas. I love your cooking and your laugh and your smile, I love your snoring and your hugs and your amber eyes. I love how you love me, how you see the whole world with a glowing brightness and make me see it too. I love everything about you. 

You’re my whole world. You’re my guiding light. All I can do is say it, over and over again because I can’t believe I got lucky enough for this to be my life. 

I love you, Cas. 

I love you.

I love you.

[regioonlineofficial]

Roosendaal kleurt geel tijdens Wereld Alzheimer Dag. Op zaterdag 21 september is het Wereld Alzheimer Dag, een dag waarop wereldwijd aandacht wordt gevraagd voor dementie. Dit jaar staat Wereld Alzheimer Dag in het teken van het thema 'Samen in beweging', waarbij beweging centraal staat – niet alleen voor een gezond lichaam, maar ook voor een gezond brein. In Roosendaal worden op 20 en 21 september verschillende activiteiten georganiseerd om het belang van beweging en bewustwording rondom dementie onder de aandacht te brengen. Dementie, waaronder de ziekte van Alzheimer, raakt een steeds groter deel van de Nederlandse bevolking. In Nederland krijgen jaarlijks zo'n 50.000 mensen te maken met deze hersenaandoening, waarvoor nog geen medicijn bestaat. Onderzoek van Alzheimer Nederland voorspelt dat in 2050 maar liefst 625.000 Nederlanders met dementie zullen leven – een stijging van 121% ten opzichte van 2020. Dit maakt het van essentieel belang om zowel lokaal als landelijk actie te ondernemen en dementie bespreekbaar te maken. Activiteiten in Roosendaal Op 20 en 21 september worden in Roosendaal verschillende activiteiten georganiseerd om stil te staan bij het onderwerp met het thema: 'Samen in beweging'. Deze activiteiten zijn gericht op mensen met dementie en hun mantelzorgers. Het doel is niet alleen om hen te stimuleren actief te blijven, maar ook om de gemeenschap bewuster te maken van de impact van dementie en het belang van een dementievriendelijke samenleving. "Met het thema 'Samen in beweging' willen we in Roosendaal laten zien hoe belangrijk het is om zowel letterlijk als figuurlijk in actie te komen. Door samen te bewegen, werken we aan een dementievriendelijke gemeenschap waarin we oog hebben voor elkaar, en waar mensen met dementie en hun mantelzorgers de steun krijgen die ze verdienen", deelt Evelien van der Star wethouder Welzijn. Wereld Alzheimer Dag Het Alzheimer Café Roosendaal werkt samen met diverse lokale partners, waaronder het Odensehuis, de Bibliotheek West-Brabant, het Geheugenhuis, SNNB, Thor, scouting Baden Powell, Cultuur Compaan en de gemeente Roosendaal. Op verschillende locaties worden beweegactiviteiten en bijeenkomsten georganiseerd, waarin zowel ontspanning als voorlichting centraal staan. De buurthuizen en zorgorganisaties in Roosendaal zullen speciaal voor deze gelegenheid de Wereld Alzheimer Dag vlag hijsen en de stad kleurt geel om solidariteit met de strijd tegen dementie te tonen. Bekijk het volledige programma van Wereld Alzheimer Dag in Roosendaal via www.alzheimer-nederland.nl.

[halfbakedspuds]

(English summary for foreigners or people who aren't as fluent in Afrikaans who are wondering what this is about: I'm just asking if any Afrikaans speakers would be interested in reading YA scifi in Afrikaans or if they'd prefer it in English to gauge whether or not I should bother translating)

[desysydesy]

si Paling Tidak Bisa Disentuh, dideketin biasanya langsung lari

si Paling Suka nempel, suka banget pangku

kamu dapet shuttlecock dari mana deh

Lanjut tidur aja ya, aku cuma numpang foto kok

Star of this moment

Dari bayi kalau tidur suka umpel umpelan

bisa baru sadar kemarin kalau belang sama oren ternyata jantan

[cyrilbelange]

Finest Russian Deliver Order Wedding brides & One Russian Women Thus Far Online | Cyril Belange

Finest Russian Deliver Order Wedding brides & One Russian Women Thus Far Online

Content material For Non-monogamous Daters: Feeld Why Stay On Themailorderbridecom To Discover A Bride? Jollyromance — Very best For Social Media Customers Several legitimate mail buy bride marriages happen every day all over the world. All mail order star of the wedding websites happen to be better selections to search out a worldwide bride than […] - Cyril Belange | Interprète de conférence Paris - Nice

INTERPRETATION MULTILINGUE : Mon expérience d'interprète de conférence à Genève au milieu des Nations Unies, mon travail en free-lance et ma contribution à FIFA 2019 Women's Planet Mug m'ont amenée à gérer des missions d'interprétation simultanée multilingue, de la création du simple, au choix des interprètes et des produits, en passant par la fourniture du soutien vivant. Grâce à mon expérience pratique, j'ai découvert un certain nombre de contextes et de scénarios d'interprétation simultanée multilingue. Une nouvelle technologie a récemment fait son apparition sur ce marché. Je suis typiquement la seule personne de la région Provence Alpes-Côte d'Azur capable de vous conseiller sur le bon choix de l'interprétation simultanée. Le remède standard, avec des interprètes à jour et utilisant le bon équipement mp3, est considéré comme le plus cher mais le plus fiable. L'interprétation simultanée ou l'interprétation en direct via les smartphones des participants permet de réaliser des économies considérables, mais elle n'est adaptée qu'à des types d'activités très spécifiques. Vous pouvez me demander à ce sujet. Cette innovation technologique de l'interprétation simultanée est impressionnante et innovante, mais elle ne remplace pas les interprètes de conférence. Le but de ces solutions est simplement d'améliorer l'aide fournie. La composante humaine reste la clé de la fonction. C'est pourquoi je prends toujours autant de plaisir à me rendre au gymnase les plans pour les tâches, de votre côté, en m'efforçant d'apprendre vos spécifications et exigences et celles des gens. Occasionnellement, je vous proposerai des options qui ne nécessitent pas d'équipement, en utilisant soit l'interprétation séquentielle, soit l'interprétation chuchotée pour présenter le ton de la voix à la tâche. Dans certains cas, je peux également conseiller des interprètes de sexe féminin ou masculin, avec des registres de chant particuliers et une expérience pratique adaptée à votre projet. Encore une fois, il s'agit exactement de trouver votre discours. #interprete #conference #traduction #traductionsimultanee #traductionlive #multilingue #interpretation #evenement #Paris #Nice #France

[brucedinsman]

Book Review: The Lady's Refuge by Naomi Rawlings

The Lady’s Refuge (Belanger Family Saga #1) The Lady’s Refuge  by Naomi RawlingsMy rating: 5 of 5 stars KindleHistory fleshed out A fictional look at the French Revolution from the perspective of a nobleman’s daughter on the run, assaulted by brigands acting like soldiers with authority and taken from n by a farmer who has been abused by the same nobility but finds himself falling for the young…