#wakes

[sweet-shut-eye]

Night Light

[manwalksintobar]

Blizzard, South Dakota // Heather Calhoun

Months afterwards, I see the electrical poles piled along the road.

When the blizzard smothered the land, my tribe was displaced. Like shot gun blasts heard in the distance, those poles snapped, weighted by ice.

A month in motels, we ate fast food, while the winter deer meat expired in the basement.

Movie stars flocked to Haiti. We watched the news, wondered about us, about our reservation, about our home.

Those dialysis machines failed without electricity, pushed people farther away, closer to the spirit world.

I still hear those poles ricochet at these wakes.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Hey,

so I have a question that isn't specifically about iwtv (though related) but more a general culture one, because I'm not from the US and this has been bugging me: What exactly is a wake and when does it take place?

The reason I'm asking is that Paul was supposed to have a wake directly after the funeral (same as you would have in my culture tbh) but Lestat also calls it a wake when Florence is laid out the day before her funeral. I get that because of his injuries Paul likely wouldn't been laid out, but does that mean you would normally have both? Or do you pick either?

Thank you and sorry if this is all a bit morbid. 🙈

Mhhhh, I don't think "wakes" are a US based cultural phenomenon. AFAIK wakes come down from cultures before the vikings, which is likely where Lestat's comment "wakes were invented in places where it's cold" comes from.

And I believe wakes differ.

Usually, it's an observance of the deceased, to (literally) observe the body, and you get the chance to pay your respects to them, and the family.

It's rare that the body is displayed at private homes, I think, the ones I have attended were at funeral homes. Sometimes the casket is open, sometimes it is not (depends on the manner of death, and the... "treatment" that the family has wanted for their deceased loved one I believe).

Sometimes, the wake is held on the explicit wish of the deceased... or the family. I've attended ones where the family wanted to have the chance to "fly in and have a last look", for example.

It depends.

In the case of Mama Du Lac I would argue that Grace did that on purpose, to give Louis the chance to say goodbye. Because she knew by then that there was something off about him, though she probably didn't know what exactly. But even though she was on guard (and thx to whatever happened with Benjamin not exactly happy) - he was still her brother. And she wanted him to be able to say goodbye to their mother - just as she meets him at the cemetery later to say goodbye - after dark.

(Also, if anybody wants to add something to the "wakes"...?)

[runningfromadream]

I forget the world; and in the sweet silence I'm calmed by my imagination sweetly, and poetry wakes in me.

Alexander Pushkin

[hansoeii]

the honda odyssey, huh?

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The math just adds up!

[crimeronan]

people who let me wake up to this get a special place in heaven. firefly_fox how does it feel to hold my life in ur hands....

[taffywabbit]

they should invent a new type of "staying in bed for 2-3 hours after you wake up repeatedly opening and closing apps on your phone" where it makes you feel awesome and energized and emotionally fulfilled

[the-gayest-sky-kid]

god i love my friends. shout out to people who love their friends. this is a post for friend lovers

[sweet-shut-eye]

Happy Memory

[valtsv]

obviously people steal things from other people it's one of the oldest tricks in the book but it still always surprises me to learn that people plagiarise because my introduction to the concept was basically being told that if i ever plagiarised anything i would be executed by firing squad and my head would be removed and displayed on a spike outside the walls of the hallowed academic institution i was attending as a warning to others

[eklmrlos]

thinking about their peaceful morning in the cottage

[neo--queen--serenity]

Remember how, in the Touden party, everyone had to swap clothes when they changed races, since that was the only way they could feasibly find clothing that fit them in their new body types under such short notice?

Kabru and Mithrun had to do the same thing, and for the same reasons. They had to swap the bottom halves of their outfits to be able to accommodate to their new forms. Normal enough, right?

Normal enough until you realize that Kabru is still wearing his armor, which looks inordinately large on him. Which begs the question: why didn’t they swap the top halves of their outfits?

It’s because…oh god, I can’t even say it with a straight face…it’s because Mithrun’s upper body is too buff to fit into Kabru’s plate armor. Poor Kabru has to lug that thing around like a huge metal circus tent because Mithrun’s too fucking jacked to fit into it himself.

[rmtomboy17]

Life and Death

At the beginning of May I got a text from my aunt which who lived at my parents’ house April of 2020 through mid-December of 2021 that said that my Mom’s only brother’s wife (my Aunt by marriage) had Stage 4 Brain and Lung Cancer and wouldn’t be seeking treatment. In the text it said that I was only to go through her and not anyone else. That felt weird so I said that I would send a message to my…