#Also Burr is now three people

[cosmicanemoia]

Kiss and Romance

Amelia Shepherd x Reader

Love Me Till You Leave Me part 7

Even though you're the one who asked Amelia out on a date, it was Amelia's idea to have dinner on a fancy restaurant.

It wasn't your kind of date, though it wasn't your first time having a date in a fancy restaurant. Amelia just assumed this is your usual scene cause you have friends who are doctors. A father who's a high-ranking officer. An ex who was in Boston for a Catherine Fox Award Ceremony. Amelia can't be blamed. You were friends and surrounded by rich people.

During your date, you found out that Amelia have four blood siblings, and she is the youngest of them and two chosen sisters. She has a kid named Scout, whom she co-parent with Link and Owen. She had a brother who was a neurosurgeon who died because someone failed to do a CT scan or burr holes. Three sisters whose name you don't remember because she didn't talk about them with much enthusiasm as she did her brother. She talked about Meredith and Maggie, and you can tell how much she care about them because she talked about them with warmth and gentleness in her voice.

Amelia, on the other hand, found out that you only have one sister. And that you came from a Conservative and religious family, and that you're the black sheep. She thinks that's one thing you have in common except you're better than her, you don't think that, but she knows it. She also found out that you don't stay in the same place for a long time, meaning that you move around a lot. That made her frown a little to herself.

You're now about to have the dessert, but you excuse yourself for a minute and go to the bathroom, amelia followed seconds after without you knowing.

When you come out of the stalls after you pee, you see her washing her hands. You washed your hands too. Right after you dried them, Amelia stops in front of you, which stops you in your tracks. She leaned in to smell you. "You always smell so good. What is your secret?"It's just th--" she cuts you off before you finish your sentence saying, "No. Don't tell me." You chuckled and walked forward, causing Amelia's back to be pushed against the wall. You put your hands on the wall, trapping Amelia, then you lean down, your neck is right in front of her lips, you moved closer, the skin of your neck almost meets her lips. "Here, let me help you," you said. Amelia inhaled as deep as she could inhaling your scent that she had grown to love. Before she exhaled, you moved your face to face hers, so you could kiss her. The kiss is your dessert. You move your hand that was on the wall to cup her face, and you move your other hand down to her waist.

You both were so lost in the moment that no one noticed the phone had rang three times, but you were pulled out of the clouds by a loud banging in the door, someone yelling to hurry up. You pull out from the kiss, and Amelia tries to chase your lips, still wanting for more, but you put your forehead to hers, and you both laugh.

Amelia got another call. This time, she's able to answer it. She's needed in the hospital for an actual emergency this time. You tell her it's okay and give her a quick kiss and push her to go. "Take care, Ames. I had a really good time!" You shouted at her. She gives you a flying kiss and waves at you, shouting, "Me too! Smell you later!"

Amelia went right home after she tended to the emergency and fell asleep right away, with a smile on her face. You wake up later than usual, not because you were tired from last night but because you were so at peace and you were more comfortable than ever.

A couple of days later, you went knocking at Amelia's door. You know she's home because you asked your friend who happens to be her boss, when will she have free time.

"Who the hell is knocking at my door this early in the morning?" She shouted, but it was muffled by the door, so you didn't hear it clearly. When Amelia opened the door, you could see the frustration in her face, but it quickly went away when she realised it was you. "Ames. Good morning! Is this a bad time?" I can co-" "No. No, no. It's fine. What are you doing here? Is everything okay?" Amelia cuts you off. You replied, "Yes, everything is fine. I just want you to come with me. Like on a date, DATE. Since you took me to a fancy restaurant, it's only fair of me to take you somewhere." Amelia asked you to come in and wait for her while she gets ready.

Amelia doesn't have any idea where you're taking her. You don't too, you just got up and decided to take her out on a date.

Your first stop is in your favourite food track. You ordered your favourite food, and you asked Amelia what she wanted. Once you got your food you both sat down at the table, you make jokes, and make each other laugh out loud which turn the heads of some curious people, but you both didn't care if the others are annoyed by your laughter, and you only cared about making each other laugh.

When you finished eating, you rested for a while before heading off to your next destination.

You were aboard the ferry admiring the view. Amelia looks back at the city inhaling the smell of the sea. "What a beautiful view," she said. "So beautiful!" You said while looking at her who was still looking at the city from afar, when she turns to look at you, you turn to look at the waters and let out a small, contended smile.

Moments later. You asked if you could hug her, to which she agreed. Your arms are around her, holding her tightly, your chest pressed against the back of her head. The wind blowing your hair and the sun kissing your skin. It wasn't cold, it wasn't very warm, it was just right, it was cozy.

When the ferry ride was over, you took her hand and dragged her around just sightseeing. You called a taxi and ride till you get to the space needle. Once you get there, it was time for lunch. Once lunch was over and you both had rested, you asked for the check and paid the bill, leaving a generous tip.

You stand up from your seat and hold your hand out for Amelia to take and ask her, "may I have this dance?" Amelia took your hand, she nodded confused, then stood up and said,"But there's no music. " You reached down in your pocket, took your phone out, and your earpods. You walked to the observation deck. You put one of the earpods to her ear and one to yours. You slowed dance for hours.

Amelia felt as if all of her hurt and problems had melted away. She thought to herself that she would want to be at that moment forever, but all things passed, so she engraved this memory to her brain.

Both of your arms are now wrapped around each other, swaying your bodies back and forth. Amelia let out a contented sigh, then chuckles a little before she say "you sure know how to sweep a woman off of her feet." You give her a soft laugh and replied "only the best for the best woman" "I bet you say that to all the ladies" she said sarcastically "only to the woman whom I think deserves it." You replied, sarcasm present in your tone.

You spend the whole day with each other. Not just the day, you also spend the whole night with each other. ;)

#amelia shepherd x reader #amelia shepherd x you #amelia shepherd x y/n #amelia shepherd x femreader #amelia shepherd #x reader #grey's anatomy #sapphic #wlw #lesbian #love me till you leave me part 7

[lightofthemoonglow]

kinktober day seventeen

Threesome or moresome | Fisting | Vore

Buddy Swanson and Sam Wescott

dedicated to the amazing @bisexual-horror-fan

The head counselor. The head cook. The only nurse. The top three positions of authority at this camp. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, she calls them. Sam is their Kirk, being the actual leader that is the glue holding them all together, the balance between the other two. Buddy is their Spock, the pragmatic one that isn’t as expressive, but there’s so much heart to him underneath that exterior. And she’s the McCoy, the whirlwind with a big mouth and bigger emotions. They’re all passionate people though, the three of them somehow having found a way to make it work enough that people want to work with them, the kids want to come back. It’s easy, yet it feels like it takes over everything when they’re all together.

Of course there are rumors. There have been since the first day they had come together, forming the power trio. But only after the whispers had died down did they come true.

–-

“What are you two troublemakers up to?”

Sam ambles over to the lakebed, where a canoe is parked. Steve had asked someone, anyone, to finish testing out the lake gear after he had needed to rest his ankle after incurring an extremely minor injury involving a gopher hole. Lucky for him, Taylor the crafts counselor was helping him in these trying times.

It's the last day of setup before the kids arrive. In fourteen hours, they'll be here and their time will be consumed for the next couple of months. There will be very little personal time for a while.

"We are celebrating a perfect score on the safety inspection." She smiles up at Sam, languid and slow as she beckons him to join her and Buddy on the blanket laid out on the ground. It’s one they’ve laid on countless times, having been ruined by paint and glitter their first summer together. It’s strange how time has become divided between before and after they met. She’s on her back, knees bent as she looks up at the sky as Buddy sits normally, one knee bent and the other leg flat on the ground.

Sam joins them, sitting on her other side. It's a familiar layout, her in the middle. One of the photos on the homepage of the camp website is of the three of them, her arms around their backs as her head rests on Buddy's chest, though she's looking up at Sam, the camera catching her mid-giggle.

"Kids are due tomorrow. Gonna be the last time we have any privacy for weeks." Buddy sighs, gazes out at the water. He shifts around, his head going into her lap, a place he's familiar with. "And then it's back to the city." He's got a fancy restaurant gig lined up at the end of the summer. As it turned out, one of their returning campers had a father who owned this swanky place and constant talk about Buddy's meals had eventually gotten the guy to call him. After years of sticking it out at various places that weren't nearly as nice, it was good for him to have a win. But that would mean not seeing each other for a while, not until around wintertime.

"You make it sound like you're marching to your death." Sam tries to joke, but it is very clear how he feels about the gang splitting up. He moves to grab a bottle of water but pricks his finger on a burr. "Ow!"

"Poor baby. Want me to kiss it better?" She jokes, but it's not really a joke. The time is now, and they all know it. It's now or maybe never because so much could change in the next several months.

"Yeah. I do." Sam's voice is serious, he knows the implications, what it could lead to. But it's dark, the camp is quiet, it feels like they're the only people in the world right now.

Her mouth is soft, gentle against his. Buddy looks up at them, sort of but also not really trapped between their bodies. It's not for long, because Sam pulls back soon, his lips smeared with cotton candy lipsmackers. There's no going back now, it's like Eve biting the apple. The line is gone, all pretense is out the window. It's at the bottom of the lake, alongside the paddle Steve broke last summer.

"I think I…" Buddy can't even come up with a convincing lie, he knows what he wants and they know it too. She leans up, he leans up and he can taste both her and Sam on her mouth, bringing forth a soft moan and Buddy gripping a handful of her hair.

It's not going to be like in a bad porno. It's not a V, it's a triangle. Their first summer, as if to foreshadow what was to come, she had insisted that love triangle was a stupid phrase to refer to two people fighting over another. A triangle is complete, it's when everything flows together perfectly. Those situations are a love V because two points never meet. Buddy and Sam kiss like they've done it for eons, falling together as naturally as she had with them.

If they leave the blanket, the spell will be broken, so that's where they stay. It's where it all began, it is where it will come to the natural conclusion. It could have only ended this way.

She's between them once again, all of their shorts pushed down, her shirt pushed up as Sam's hands grope at her bare tits. No need for a bra in the summer, she'd said over and over again. Buddy's cock is rutting between her thighs as he spits into his hand to jerk Sam off. She's kissing the both of them as much as she can, they're kissing each other, it's a mess of drool and teeth. Sam's hand goes between her legs, searching for her clit.

"Fuck, I'm gonna cum," Buddy grunts, kissing her neck in between words. "Should I -?"

"No." She doesn't care, there's no risk. Nothing matters right now, and she encouraged him without uttering a word after her brief insistence that he come all over her thighs. The mess can always be cleaned up after all.

But it's Sam that comes first, shooting off all over her belly and Buddy's hand. She's so close and yet Buddy beats her to the punch, smearing her inner thighs and the blanket with his spend. Before she can even protest, a hand from each of them is between her legs and she's coming with a sharp cry that scares away a small flock of sleeping birds.

There's no awkward silence afterwards, merely some smiles and a suggestion that they clean off in the lake. It was always meant to end this way, after all and now all they need to do is wait for another moment like this to come around.

#sam wescott x reader #buddy swanson x reader #slasher x reader #slasher imagine #kinktober 2023

[iamanonniemouse]

End of Year Book Asks

Okay, @vector-to-the-heavens, to add insult to injury, after I drafted a reply to your ask, and then tumblr wouldn't let me edit my draft but instead queued my incomplete draft, and then forced me to delete the queued post -- THEN it ERASED your ask!!!

the good news is I screenshotted my drafted reply so ALL IS NOT LOST no thanks to tumblr though

Seriously vec why does tumblr hate our friendship so much????

Anyway, you asked for 3, 11, and 16 from this list of books asks!

Putting this under a cut now cuz my ranting took up most of the post lol

3. What were your top five books of the year?

Oh man. VEC. HOW. WHY. God. Lemme see :pulls up list of the 265 books I read in 2023:

Okay, in no particular order:

Babel, by R.F. Kuang Incredible, mind-blowing, heart-breaking, just :flails: The magic in this world is fascinating in its own right but then Kuang turned it into such a pointed look at the results of colonization and how important language is to culture and identity andandand--

American Eden, by Victoria Johnson My friends know I have gotten into an absolute obsession with reading nature-related books, from the history of natural science to biographies about famous nature people to plain old books about birds and bees (literally. really.) This book is one of my favorites, it's the biography of a man who was a ground-breaking surgeon in America after the American Revolution -- who also was a huge botanist and created America's first botanical garden. (He was also the Hamilton's family doctor and was The Doctor present at the Burr-Hamilton duel.) I adored this book on so many levels, truly. It was just incredible to read.

The Scholomance Trilogy, by Naomi Novik (ssh I can absolutely count a trilogy as one book)@silverbrume has been singing this series' praises to me for AGES and I finally read it this year and WOW. It's just so good! Love the world, love the characters, love the found family, lovelovelove that it's a well paced and well tied-together trilogy where things from the first book that seemed like minor mentions turned into major plot points by book three. Just incredible and lovely and I already want to reread it.

The Seed Keeper, by Diana Wilson Really beautiful writing and so delicately handled. Speaks to so much about what America has done to the Native American peoples in terms of cutting off entire generations from their heritage with the boarding schools, and how difficult it is for someone to find their way back home when they feel so separated from it. I'm summarizing this one so bad, but just. Trust me. This book is incredible and you all should read it. I've got my MOM reading it, and she is awful about finishing books, but she is like...80% of the way through it and just keeps telling me how good it is.

Cherryvine, by Marina Vivancos Hey look since I've been reading majority MM romance I need to have at least ONE on here okay?? But more seriously, Vivancos is a phenomenal writer and almost always has stories that involve healing from past trauma/abuse. And what I love about her writing is how much she focuses on the healing process itself, and how gentle it always is. I could write you a laundry list of all the Vivancos books you should read, but that's for another post probably. This one is just beautiful though, really beautiful.

Honorable mention to The Cider House Rules, by John Irving, which honestly should be on this list but since I raved about it in my other ask response it felt like cheating to put it here again. But lemme just say -- JOHN IRVING MY BELOVED.

11. What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?

I answered 11 in this one but I'm going to cheat and answer again because I also read Pride and Prjudice this year and omg it was ADORABLE. I was over the moon with how much I enjoyed it. I am shamelessly obsessed with the 2005 movie (Matthew McFadyen as Darcy my beloved) and I was tickled with how many lines from the book were in the movie! Anyway, 10/10 highly recommend, it was just FABULOUS.

16. What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

Okay, not necessarily over-hyped but I read More Than This, by Patrick Ness. As backstory, I read A Monster Calls years ago and omg. Talk about an incredible book. One of my all-time faves, forever on a recommendation list, just. Really good. And I never read anything else he wrote haha. But I heard a lot about More Than This, so I grabbed it from the library, and it was really intriguing at first. It seemed like some interesting, mind-twisty kind of story, like an inception limbo fic almost. I really really intrigued and I loved it. And then the last third of it just went....totally off the rails. Like what the FUCK. It was wild and whacky and also just so extremely violent??? In the final fight?? Like, in a way that was jarring because everything to that point had been suspenseful and tense but not gory. Anyway, yeah I was very disappointed in that.

#mousie rambles #omg i get asks now #ask thingy #vector to the heavens #books #mousie talks books #look vec i finally got this posted!!!

[warcats-cat]

Midnight Sad

A/N: Hi friends! Short time, no see ;) I’m back with another Floof Fic for the incomparable @muppenthings ! This is actually something I used to do with my mom if I had a nightmare or couldn’t sleep; she would bring some tea upstairs and sit with me for a little bit. (I still had to go to school in the morning, which kind of sucked, but oh well.) 

Also, I have a confession to make. I love tea, but I secretly hate chamomile... I just have a lot of lavender teas now that I drink if I’m sad or sleepy. But chamomile is the one most people are familiar with, so that’s what I’ll use here, lol.

Ok, you guys know the drill! Let me know if I missed any tags, and I hope you enjoy your time!

Read on Ao3 Here!

-------

Soft rumbling of thunder surrounded the house, the patter of determined rain filling the rooms with light background noise. Roman had the lights dimmed in respect of the late hour and his rather odd roommates. 

Virgil was standing in the corner, his wings pulled up over him like a cocoon, and he’d solidified into stone. As clear a sign as any that he was sleeping, and it would take a lot more than thunder to wake him. The muppets were all snuggled up in the run he’d built, cuddling in a dark hide away, presumably also asleep. 

Roman just couldn’t fall asleep himself. 

The thunder and rain should have put him right under. It was the perfect level of background noise for a deep and sound snooze. His little garden friends were all safe inside, taking refuge from their tunnels that were beginning to flood from three days of nonstop rain. Roman had a whole two days off of work with nothing to do except relax. 

He just couldn't sleep.

Roman sat on the couch, setting a warm cup of tea on the table and staring into nothing. Lavender and chamomile for resting. And yet here he was, wide awake as the day. 

Roman spent the time wondering about his miniature roommates; the tiny creatures came and went as they pleased, and seemed largely unbothered by his presence. They even, in their own way, helped him tend the garden itself. 

The four were a daily presence now; the one he called Goldie especially. They spent a good ten minutes every morning on his windowsill, brushing their long tufts of fur clean. When Roman first met them, he could tell the little muppet had been struggling. He’d watched from a distance as the other three would pause what they were doing throughout the day to free their long-furred friend from burrs and leaves; and if Roman woke up early enough, he would find the three carefully picking at Goldie’s fur, attempting to groom out knots that had formed in the night. 

Initially, Roman had only bought one little brush on a whim, something recommended for particularly fluffy cats, and propped it up against the wall while setting out a few Saturday treats for the muppets. Goldie had gone crazy, brushing up against the firm bristles and purring like a toy motorboat. When Roman had tried to walk away, thus letting the brush fall from its position, the little thing had growled. He’d stood at the window for an hour, repositioning the brush occasionally for the miniature diva. 

He’d bought more brushes the next day, and built a self-brushing structure under the muppet’s careful guidance. 

The little purple one, Stormy, was also one to visit as often as possible; usually seeking out treats or ways to fight with Virgil. How he’d managed to find Roman’s wallet and then open it and take out money with his miniscule little paws, Roman would never know. But he’d certainly learned not to leave important things sitting around.

Stormy had quite a sweet tooth, and a penchant for making a mess. Roman found himself constantly trying to protect his tea from the little menace, and was waiting for the day he’d have to take down the butterfly feeders because the fluff-ball had figured out what was inside. 

There were two blue muppets, one a darker blue and one lighter. The darker blue he’d nicknamed Sherlock, because the little guy had a tendency to stick his nose in anything that piqued his curiosity. After the phone incident, Roman had taken to getting whatever puzzle toys he could find, trying to keep the little guy occupied. Sherlock clearly very much wanted the cellphone back, but Roman wasn’t about to allow that after the muppet had called his boss, and he definitely couldn’t afford to give the bug one of his own. 

The puzzle toys seemed to be working for now; a variety of both pet and baby toys were hidden away in the artist’s closet, and he would supply a new one when Sherlock got bored with the one he’d had. 

Thankfully, the curious ball of fluff didn’t seem to mind cycling through toys, as long as the puzzle was refreshed. And Virgil occasionally helped; setting out things for the muppet to find throughout the yard, leaving clues pointing towards new toys and treasures. Although Roman still needed to talk to the gargoyle about maybe not hiding things on the roof. 

The falling treat ball had really hurt when it smacked into his skull.

It was clear, whatever they were, that all four of the muppets were excellent climbers; constantly crawling up the brickwork of the house, wandering along tree branches and occasionally the edge of the fence. If they put their mind to it, they could probably scale the smooth walls inside the house. 

Roman was pulled from his thoughts by soft chirping, and he turned to find the littlest of the muppets, the light blue one he’d been calling Heart based on one of his markings. Heart had climbed the coffee table and was now huddled up in a ball and watching him. This muppet was usually cheery and friendly; the one most likely to wander close to Roman when he worked in the garden, playing with his tiny toy watering can or chasing a feather wand; but tonight, in the dimly lit living room, he almost looked scared. 

The little thing had his hackles raised like a cat’s, the pale blue fluff down his back puffed up. In the dark, he looked more like Stormy than himself. His eyes were glossier than usual, as well, and his ears pulled down in submission, instead of backwards in aggression. 

Well, technically Roman was guessing at a lot of it. He’d learned a lot of their expressions and their body language, but there was still a bit of a learning curve involved.

Roman wondered then, what must he look like in the low light, combined by the flashing and noise of the storm. He carefully set down his teacup, and laid his hand palm up, halfway between them, trying to keep slow for the little guy. 

“Hey, muppet.” he greeted softly, “It’s just me. See?” He wiggled his fingers a little as Heart came closer; the little creature immediately nuzzled against his hand and purred once close enough. Roman noticed, though, that the sound was off; there were interruptions like hiccups, and his ears were still pulled down. 

Roman carefully flipped his hand over, and Heart crawled right into the little tunnel shape he created. Roman could feel tiny heartbeats and a slight shivering. He ran his thumb over the creature’s head, which caused Heart to lean into the touch. 

“What’s wrong, little buddy?” Roman asked softly, continuing to pet his tiny friend. “Is it the storm?”

Heart stopped for a minute to look up and tilt his head in question, before shaking it.

No. Not the thunder then.

Roman sighed, giving the muppet a slightly rueful smile as he went back to stroking Heart’s ears. 

“Just sad, then? Can’t sleep?” he asked.

Heart squeaked sadly, and the hiccup noise returned; probably their form of crying. They sat like that for a while, with muppet resolutely staying in the curl of his hand, and Roman carefully stroking the unmoving little fluffball. 

After a while, he looked down at his tea and sighed again. 

“Yeah. Me too.” he said softly. “Sometimes I guess, you’re just sad.” He looked back to Heart, who churred in response and bumped his little head against the underside of Roman’s fingers. It was sweet; thinking that this little creature from the garden was sad and still wanted to comfort him too. He smiled softly, and carefully removed his hand, much to Heart’s disappointment.

“Sorry, one second. Let me get something.” he said softly, and the creature seemed to understand. Heart curled up next to the loop of the warm teacup to watch as Roman moved to the kitchen. 

He’d found these neat little teacups at the store a few weeks ago; shallow Asian-style dishes that had painted koi fish in them. It was low and shallow enough that Roman had thought it would work for Stormy’s treat on Saturdays, and had worked like a charm for the grumpy (and messy) little nugget. 

His tea was cooled enough, so he set the dish next to Heart and very carefully poured some from his own cup. He dribbled a little on the table, oh well, and watched as the muppet tilted his head questioningly. 

“It’s chamomile and lavender. It’s supposed to help you sleep. But it’s also just nice.” he answered softly. Heart sniffed the liquid before licking up a few drops, watching again as Roman took a sip of his own tea. “My mom used to do this when me and Remus were kids.” he said, spoken more into the distance than actually directed to Heart, but the muppet knew what he meant. Probably…

“She called it the Midnight Sad. You needed something warm and to have some good company with you to drive them away. So she made something warm; usually tea, although every once in a while we got hot chocolate. And we just kind of sat together.” he looked down at Heart, who was now watching him much more intently. He smiled and ran his fingertips over the creature again; this time, when he nudged his face into Roman’s hand, there were no hiccups. 

“It’s a lot easier to be sad when you're alone, isn’t it?” he asked, and Heart made a low, almost grumbly chirr, seeming to sniffle a little. The little creature took another taste of his own tea, but his eyes watched Roman over the dish as much as possible. 

“It’s ok,” Roman whispered, “we’ll be ok.” Heart offered him a trill at that, and Roman decided to just watch him for a while. He set his tea aside once again, and set his chin on his arms. 

He hadn’t realized he’d begun to drift off until something soft nosed at his jaw, and he tilted a little to the side to see Heart nuzzling his tiny face into Roman’s cheek, purring lowly. Roman couldn’t help it, he broke into a greater smile than before. When the little guy moved back, at the gardener’s own movement, he just smiled, offering a soft, “Thanks” to the creature.

In the morning, his back would hurt like actual hell from sleeping seated on the floor and leaning on the coffee table. Remus, coming to try and convince his twin to go to some weird art exhibition his friend was putting on, would take at least three up close pictures of Roman drooling on said table, which would act as blackmail for weeks. The other muppets, especially Stormy, would kick up a very noisy fuss that their fourth wasn’t tucked safely in their den. (And then, Stormy would kick up even more of a fuss that Heart had gotten tea and he hadn’t, and Roman would find him swimming in the human-sized cup of now very cold tea with his little butt up in the air like a fluffy purple heathen!) 

But that could all be handled later. They would both be fine.

-----

This has a Part Two now! 

#warcats writes #muppen floof au #floof au #sanders sides au #ts Roman #ts Patton #sanders sides fanfic #i love these little fluffballs #Theyre very relaxing to write #fluff #fluff without plot #tw thunderstorms

[dirtytransmasc]

question, from someone who just really sat and watched Hamilton (I've seen it before but couldn't get into, then I saw it live and now I'm invested)

how do people truly like Hamilton, not enjoy his character, not be intrigued by his legacy, but like him? that on its own confuses me, but then people dislike burr. it genuinely confuses me. and this isn't to shit on anyone who likes him, i just want to know how.

I see him as a selfish, impulsive, haphazardly caring (he cares when it's convenient and will hide his feelings from himself when it's necessary to keep climbing up. he actively keeps himself from what he wants by not thinking a step ahead. he wants to lead a battalion, yet proves he's too impulsive by going against this Generals word and helps lead a duel, then gets pissy when he can't have what he wants. he trashes all three of his meaningful relationships, Burr, Eliza, Phillip just so he can get in top, yet pity's himself when he has nothing left. he lacks the complexity necessary to make him enjoyable. (I will admit, a few tweaks to his character could change my mind so I'm not sure where my dislikes of his personality ends and my dislikes of his characterization begin).

now burr is no angel, but there is a clear meaning to madness. protect yourself, make change, pick the lesser evil lesser danger, prolong your legacy for the sake of your country. he isn't perfect, but i would take him over Hamilton. he sticks behind his women even if he can't use her as a social peice, even if it is in the public's mind wrong. he strives to create world fit for his daughter. he holds himself back for the greater good, doesn't let his need to be impulsive cause harm. every fight with Hamilton has a reason, one Hamilton created most of the time, that or it was a misunderstanding blown out of proportion yet again by Hamilton (my perspective). he caused much less damage, even in his indecisive nature. he is emotionally complex, he cares about more then just climbing, more then the competition. i reckon even in his hatred of Hamilton he still cares about him, you have to care about someone at one point to hate them (my perspective). he wishes to strive just lkem Hamilton, but life is more then the climb to him.

I find him much more bearable, his flaws are the same as Hamiltons, but he still has his strengths, his positive attributes. I honestly find there is much more to like in him then hate. especially his ability to live and smile so fully. his ability to see the whole story (up until the end when he's honestly losing it and his grasp on reality is fading quickly) and care about even his enemy.

gonna make 1 major edit to this. I don't give 2 fucks about the crusty old men that actually existed in history. in this post I'm talking solely about the men we see in the musical and the actions we see on screen, that's it. i don't care about who they were or what they did in real life.

this is all my perspective (as I've stated a million times to hopefully spare myself some hate) and if you disagree thats fine, I actually love hearing other people's sides of things, and even if my wording sounds harsh i mean it with genuine curiosity. do keep in mind I've only watched it 3 times and every time I notice something new. my memory is also pretty spotty so I have probably forgotten some details since the last time I watched it. I also wrote this pretty quickly, and didn't put much thought into it, just wanted to get it down so it's probably not the most cohesive of writing's. this is just something that's stuck with me, irked me a bit, so I thought I'd put it on the internet.

#Hamilton #alexander hamilton #aaron burr #dirtytransmasc

[ordinaryschmuck]

Hamilton "Worst" to Best

Salutations, random people on the internet who certainly won’t read this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

And happy 4th of July, a day that celebrates the birth of a country built on racism, sexism, and possibly even homophobia! But, hey…at least we have a kickass musical.

I think it’s safe to say that Hamilton will go down as one of the greatest musicals of all time. Why do I say that? Well, as far as I can tell, there’s not really a person who says they hate it. Even people who can’t get into Hamilton respectfully say that it’s not for them while still accepting that it’s ok for others to like it. And how can you blame them when you listen to Hamilton’s soundtrack? Every song is well-performed, well-orchestrated, and even well-choreographed if you’ve seen the show. The music makes the musical stand out, and trust me when I say ranking the soundtrack from worst to best–Sorry–”worst” to best is a difficult job.

Yet I did it anyway. Because I’m a f**king lunatic, apparently.

Something to consider before we get started, though: I am not a music major. I’ve never really studied the art of music as I have the art of animation, and my expertise doesn’t go further than “this sounds good.” So, my ranking of these songs won’t go farther than what I like more in terms of how good they sound and how they work in the story. If you take issue of where I placed which song, you’re more than justified. Just know that I did my best when it came to a musical where even the “worst” of the soundtrack isn’t even bad, it’s just not good as others.

I’m also going to keep things brief. This musical is nothing but songs, and it’s a three hour long with forty-seven, meaning there’s a lot to talk about so bear with me.

With that said, let’s dive on in, shall we?

Spoilers for the musical ahead. But, like, just listen to the soundtrack. You’re only missing the choreography if you do.

#47. “Schuyler Defeated”-This is just filler. It sounds great, but I always forget its existence and, odds are, you do too. Case in point, you probably didn’t even know what song this was until you looked it up and gave it a listen. Not bad, but not exactly memorable.

#46. “The Adams Administration”-This is also filler, but it’s added with the humor of King George dancing in the background and Hamilton swearing out President Adams. Now that’s how you make filler memorable.

#45. “Farmer Refuted”-It’s just fun seeing Hamilton mess with the messenger.

#44. “A Winter’s Ball”-Not much to it, but it is pretty cool how smoothly it transitions to “Helpless.”

#42. “Story of Tonight”-This is just singing the same lyrics over and over. They’re sung beautifully, mind you, but it always bothers me that they just sang the same thing.

#43. “Story of Tonight (Reprise)”-The reprise gets bonus points for having more lyrics and having Laurens, Lafayette, and “Hercules” Mulligan screwing around.

#41. “Laurens Interlude”-The one song that’s not on the soundtrack and it’s a real tragedy. It’s a send off to a character using lyrics from what one could say was his and his friends’ song of comradery, thus adding more to the sadness of his death. Hm. Maybe that’s why the lyrics kept getting repeated. All to hammer in the importance of this interlude…Eh. Still keeping it where it is, though.

#40. “Aaron Burr, Sir”-A fun way to introduce more of our characters, starting with Aaron Burr and his mentality then following it up with Laurens, Lafayette, and “Hercules” Mulligan’s bombastic personalities. All well-done.

#39. “Best of Wives and Best of Women”-A slow, quiet, and sweet final moment between Hamilton and Eliza. Possibly the intention given what happens next.

#38. “Meet Me Inside”-The intensity of Washington chewing out Hamilton is top notch, especially as it slowly but surely builds to Hamilton’s outburst. Really gets the blood pressure going.

#37. “Stay Alive”-It’s awesome and it shows both the intensity and exhaustion that war brings to people, but, I don’t know. I just feel like the reprise might actually be a lot better than the original.

#36. “Ten Duel Commandments”-Did you ever want to learn what a duel is like? Well, this will teach you. And it’s a good thing too, as it helps us understand how future duels work while being a catchy song to boot.

#35. “History Has Its Eyes on You”-A well sung, well orchestrated number that shows us the pressure that Washington has and why he didn’t want Hamilton to be overcome by that same pressure. My only complaint is that it feels too short.

#34. “Blow Us All Away”-A (mostly) fun jingle that shows us how much Philip is like his father for better and worse. Mostly worse.

#33. “Obedient Servant”-This song is equally tense and fun, watching Hamilton and Burr dance around the subject of the final solution they both know is inevitable.

#32. “What’d I Miss?”-A solid introduction to Jefferson, perfectly encapsulating the cocky showboat that he is.

#31. “Cabinet Battle #1”-This is an idea that either sells you or puts you off. Turning a Cabinet meeting into a rap battle is funny and unique, but it could turn people away if rap battles aren’t their thing…which makes me question why they bother watching the show.

#30. “Cabinet Battle #2”-Slightly better because of how layered Jefferson is in this, what with his anger at no one seeming to want to help the French.

#29. “The Election of 1800”-Meanwhile, this song shows us the bastard he truly is, turning his back on Burr and willing to change the rules of the Vice Presidency just as payback for running against him. While also rubbing more salt in the wound of knowing that Hamilton would rather endorse someone he hates over an old friend with no beliefs.

#28. “Alexander Hamilton”-An OUTSTANDING opening number, summarizing Alexander Hamilton’s life before immigrating to America while hinting at what’s to come in the future.

#27. “Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)”-An epic song that shows the grandness of victory in war.

#26. “Guns and Ships”-One word: LAFAYETTE!

Admit it. The second I said that, you immediately started humming the words. That’s how much power that name and this song has.

#25. “Right Hand Man”-This song does a lot. It introduces George Washington, furthers the conflict between Burr and Hamilton, and establishes the strength Hamilton has as Washington’s right hand man. All while being a powerful and kick-ass number.

#24. “What Comes Next”-King George has three great songs, each of them holding a special place in my heart due to the insanity this character has. “What Comes Next” shows his petty side as he’s mad that America won and refuses to accept that they’ll do alright without him.

#23. “I Know Him”-This is him being petty too, but it’s much more fun seeing George get excited over John Adams’ failure. So good.

#22. “You’ll Be Back”-But nothing can top the masterpiece that was his first number. It’s over the top and crazy, while also sucking me in with how catchy it is.

#21. “Washington On Your Side”-A solid song of Hamilton’s enemies realizing that if they band together, they can keep Hamilton and his smart mouth out of office. It’s pretty devious and catchy at the same time.

#20. “One Last Time”-A great and emotional send off to our first president…who may or may not have tricked slaves with freedom so they can fight in the war.

Americans: *Cocks guns*

I mean, what? No he didn’t! Haha…look, next song!

#19. “Wait For It”-A powerful number that illustrates perfectly why Burr is the way that he is.

#18. “The Room Where It Happens”-While this one shows us what he wants so desperately, to the point where he begins to doubt if his way of thinking is the right course of action.

#17. “Hurricane”-On stage, this song is a spectacle, as everything flies around Hamilton like a literal hurricane. As for the song itself, it’s pretty good, explaining why he has this “write like you’re running out of time” mentality and why he thinks he can trust it again in this time of need.

#16. “Dear Theodosia”-It’s here that we see that Burr and Hamilton are two sides of the same coin, going through so much at such a young age and not wanting their kids to go through the same thing. The differences lie in how they go about this and how they “succeeded.”

#15. “Stay Alive (Reprise)”-Turns out that Hamilton didn’t do that great of a job with his kid (Too soon?)

Ok, jokes aside, this song is devastating, aided in the performances of the actors as Hamilton and Eliza panic over their son’s safety while Philip tries to keep them calm, trying to do the best thing despite being in the worst situation. It all really hits you where it hurts.

#14. “That Would Be Enough”-A lovely song that shows Eliza’s dedication to Hamilton and how being his wife is enough for her, regardless of his accomplishments or lack thereof.

#13. “It’s Quiet Uptown”-And this is a heartbreaking song as Hamilton tries to convey his own dedication to Eliza and make up for past sins. Whether you believe he deserves forgiveness or not is up to you. But you cannot deny the strong emotions radiating off this song.

#12 “The Schuyler Sisters”-A great way to introduce the Schuyler sisters and their personalities. Angelica is quick to state what she believes and matches wits with Burr, Eliza is wide eyed with wonder at everything around her, and Peggy…is so insignificant that she doesn’t even sing her own name.

Poor Peggy. Somewhere in the multiverse there’s a musical where you’ve done something.

#11 and #10. “Helpless”/”Satisfied”-Yeah, you really got to lump these two together. “Helpless” and “Satisfied” are songs that showcase the love both Eliza and Angelica have for Hamilton, albeit in different ways. “Helpless” is a bop that shows how upbeat Eliza’s feelings for Hamilton are while “Satisfied” focuses more on showing the tragedy of Angelica handing him off to Eliza. Both are great in their own right, and to pick one over the other seems redundant due to how well they complement one another.

#9. “Take A Break”-This song also shows their love, but this time there’s tragedy as Hamilton is too driven on his work to pay any attention to either, despite how desperately they plead.

#8. “Non Stop”-Just a solid finale to Act One. Nothing more.

#7. “Say No to This”-THIS is why I love Hamilton. It may have romanized one of our founding fathers, but it still acknowledges that he’s a scumbag who cheated on his wife multiple times, in their own house, and blamed the other woman for being dishonest about how “helpless” she is. And the fallout that comes from it only furthers the point that he’s a piece of s**t.

#6. “We Know”-When backed into a corner, thinking that it’d ruin his legacy, Hamilton tries to explain that he wasn’t a s**ty person who used government funds selfishly. He was just a guy who cheated on his wife.

Yeah, you see the issue in his logic here?

#5. “The Reynolds Pamphlet”-And when Hamilton publishes what he’s done to the public, the reactions people have are perfect. Burr, Jefferson, and Madison are obviously ecstatic, rubbing it in people’s faces. Meanwhile, everyone else is either betrayed, disgusted, and even downright angry at Hamilton for what he’s done, with Angelica being a good mix of the three as she verbally slaps him for his stupidity.

#4. “Burn”-Then there’s Eliza. The woman who was dedicated to loving Hamilton only to have her heart broken and decides to burn all the letters that he wrote to her, now seeing them as lies for how much he loved her. The mix of heartbreak and anger is phenomenal, selling how much of an awful deed Hamilton did in cheating on her.

#3. “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story”-Yet, despite the heartbreak, Eliza is still the one who carried on Hamilton’s legacy, bringing the message home that the ones who love us carry our story onwards for years to come, despite the things we’ve done. It makes for a good finale…but…

#2. “The World Was Wide Enough”-I just feel like this is a stronger song to end on. The buildup to Burr killing Hamilton is great, Hamilton’s monologue delivers the message and implies what “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story” shows, and Burr’s final words would have been chilling and tragic words to end on. It would have been a perfect end to a perfect musical.

But, let’s be honest, as perfect as “The World Was Wide Enough” is, there’s one song we all know is #1.

#1. “My Shot”-This. This is the song that gets you hooked into Hamilton. The high energy is contagious, making it the one musical number on the soundtrack that I can see the audience singing along to. Heck, I feel like, at a specific point, it’s encouraged that you sing along to it. “My Shot” is early on, but it is the moment where you realize that you are hooked into Hamilton. That no matter what happens next, you are in for the whole shebang, just as long as everything else can be as strong as this moment. The good news is, it was.

Hamilton’s soundtrack really is like no other. Take note that it doesn’t take long before I’m saying more positives than negatives when talking about the songs in this list. That’s because every song, even at its “worst,” still is amazing in many ways even if some are just a little better. If you haven’t listened to the soundtrack or even watched the stage recording on Disney+, I highly recommend you give it a shot. It’s just too good to miss.

#hamilton #what i thought about

[litcityblues]

'Before They Are Hanged' --A Review

I listened to the episode of The Legendarium that covered the first half of 'The Blade Itself' (and now have to go back and listen to the second half and both halves of this book) and one of the things they mentioned that made me curious was how excellent the character work on the Audiobook was.

So, with free credit in hand and not all planning on finishing this trilogy this year, I plunged headlong into the second volume of the First Law Trilogy, Before They Are Hanged.

And you know what? They were right. The character work was excellent. Steven Pacey deserves all the flowers and plaudits for his work on this because he made the book come alive in a way I was not at all expecting. This was more engrossing than any streaming show I could think of and more entertaining to boot- and a large portion of that was down to the excellent character work and narration. So four-star narration for the audiobook.

One tiny question I have though: have I been pronouncing 'grimace' wrong my entire life? When I say, I think of this guy. When Pacey says it, it's closer to one of these.

Also, I'm going to give full credit to the Audiobook narration for completely turning me around on one of the characters, Sand Dan Glokta. In the first book, I found him interesting, but he wasn't my favorite. Pacey's narration of him here, however, takes him to another level. His world-weary cynicism and suspicion and hatred of stairs are captured perfectly and honestly, I got through this book so quickly mainly because I wanted to get back around to a Glokta chapter again.

The second volume of the trilogy picks up with the remnants of Logen's crew (Three Trees, Dogman, and company) heading south to the Union forces, trying to get away from Bethod. They soon find them but are turned away- but eventually, win employment with the Union forces and Colonel West/Marshall Burr as scouts. While Burr goes north to find Bethod and trap his forces, West is to stay behind with Crown Prince Ladislaw- who wants glory for himself and in an incredibly incompetent way leads his forces into a bloodbath and is eventually pushed off a cliff by West who stops him raping a woman, Kathil, who has joined their company. In a final confrontation with Bethod's forces, the Union emerges victorious-but Three Trees is killed in the final battle and it is Dogman who is elected as Chief of their band of Northmen.

In the South, Glokta is charged with mounting a defense of Dagoska, the Union's sole remaining outpost in the South. He, along with Severard and Vitari set about attempting to find the traitor in Dagoska (they do) and find out what happened to his predecessor (they do)-- eventually, he is recalled and Dagoska falls- but he is congratulated by Archlector Sult on mounting an effective defense of the city and gets back in time to assist West's sister, Ardee (whom he promised to protect) and blunder into a succession struggle as the other Crown Prince gets murdered.

On the quest, Bayaz, Logen, Ferro, Quai, Jezal, and Longfoot travel to the literal ends of the earth, searching for an ancient weapon that Kannadius, the Master Maker supposedly hid that could help them defeat Kalhoul and his forces. Along the way, Jezal learns to get along with people and that courage is something you have to work at and it might not come naturally the first few times. Ferro and Logen start a romance of sorts and then end their romance of sorts and Quai just sort of offers up information and stories now and again (I have a sneaking suspicion about him, but we'll see if the next book proves me right) and Longfoot remains their helpful navigator. Because this is the second volume of the trilogy and the Empire must strike back, it turns out they don't find what they're looking for-- and what that means is something that will have to wait for the last book.

Overall: I've seen these books described as grimdark and I'm not entirely sure why. They're not dark, I would say they're sort of pulpy? Hyper-realistic? It's refreshing in a way- so many fantasy depictions of fighting and battles sort of gloss over the blood and guts aspect of it (I mean, think of Minas Tirith-- sure, Theoden charges and dies, but you have to think that a lot of the Rohirrim die in horrible, horrible ways- but we don't see that in Tolkien because glory and mythmaking come first.) Abercrombie doesn't do that-- the fights are brutal because they often were in real life. The characters-- especially the Northmen vs. Union speak different languages and have distinct cultures. The supernatural aspects aren't overcooked-- you don't need a learner's manual to figure it out, which again, is the kind of magic system I appreciate (Don't Eat People seems to be the only hard and fast rule so far) and these books are just excellent. The Blade Itself was enough to hook me, Before They Are Hanged is enough to reel me in. This wasn't the trilogy I had planned on reading this year, but you better believe I'm going to finish this one and soon. My Grade: **** out of ****

#before they are hanged #first law trilogy #abercrombie #book review

[hamiltrash-thoughts]

Random vent here

Guys you don't u n d e r s t a n d what I'm craving for.

I don't know what you think about this, but I am really craving for some John Laurens/Lafayette/Hercules Mulligan content

Like, THEM AS A TRIO before they met Hamilton.

I think they hadn't known each other for long before that, but honestly, I look at those three together and can only think "Look how good friends they are!!! They probably exploded some place together before, and could possibly sink a ship if they wanted to."

Yep, purely and utterly c h a o s.

They most likely met because of the revolution, and bonded over their will of kicking some redcoats' asses.

I like to believe Lafayette was the one to introduce Laurens and Mulligan to each other, and honestly, I think even himself regrets this a little sometimes.

Most of their time together, they'll just hang around, cursing the British and talking about their plans to the future when the US becomes an independent nation. Other times, they'll just get drunk and talk a lot of shit and laugh like there's no tomorrow. At this point, people are just used to how loud they are.

Laurens probably proclaimed himself as the leader of their trio, and sometimes the other two will look at him like "John you are not our leader pls stop" but mostly they leave him be. Ah, and since I got cursed with the Workshop version of the musical, I just now got the headcanon that Laurens is the type of person that will say "shit" at every chance he gets.

Lafayette, you could say, is probably the most sensible one out of the three. I mean, yes, he loves to get into confusion with his friends, and will probably laugh at them if they or someone else do something really stupid. But if he knows when things will get serious, he's just like "hahaha non." He also curses a lot in French when he's irritated. Laurens and Mulligan get the poker face when this happens.

If you thought that Laurens and Hamilton were obnoxious, oh look who we have here, HERCULES MULLIGAN!!! The man likes some fight and confusion, since he's just tired of his life as a tailor's apprentice. He's that one friend who'll make fun of you if you give him the slightest chance, but if someone else even DARES to mess with you, he'll be like "YOU WANNA FIGHT, MAN?! YOU MESS WITH MY BROS, YOU MESS WITH ME!!!!". He basically calls himself the "bodyguard" of the gang. Oh, and since he's the oldest of the three, he also will say he has some authority over them. Laurens most of the time will fight him against it. Lafayette will either stand to the side watching them kill each other and make fun of them, or will join the fight (most of this stuff happens when they're way too drunk).

You can imagine at this point that, by the time Hamilton joins them, things will just get MESSIER. It's difficult to say if they corrupted the poor young man, or if it was him that made them even worse. And poor Burr a lot of times has to deal with these four together and he just wants to disappear.

• Alexander once bet with Lafayette who knew more curses in French. Again, Lafayette. A French native speaker. And Hamilton dared him anyway. Believe it or not, they got in this discussion for hours, and in the end, they decided it ended in a draw. But just because Hamilton was way too stubborn.

• In "Right Hand Man — Workshop ver.", Hamilton clearly says himself to be the "leader of the gang", and all the others answered "Yes, indeed". It was just seconds after that Laurens noticed it and turned to Mulligan and Lafayette saying "Why when he's the one declaring himself as leader, we just agree with it????" and they're like "We dunno, we just want to shoot some redcoats".

• I bet Lafayette and Herc noticed the sexual tension between Laurens and Hamilton even before they two.

• Mulligan must look intimidating, but really, he gives the best and strongest hugs. Once Hamilton got out of breath in a hug with him. Because, compared to Herc, Alex is t i n y.

• Oh, yeah, the three of them won't spare HamHam from the height jokes. Once, Laurens jokingly said he looked cute when angry, because he had a "baby face". Alexander proceeded to lecture, not only him, but Lafayette and Mulligan too, for the next three hours, saying that: 1 — Laurens was barely some centimeters taller than him; 2 — "Get some beard before you talk about 'baby face', bitch"; 3 — He points out that, it doesn't matter his height compared to them, it didn't stop him from fitting his shoe into their asses.

• When drunk, these four get very clingy. And when I say very, it's because it's VERY. It won't be uncommon to see them either hugging each other, singing a drinking song together, patting each other in the back, giving funny nicknames to each other, and stuff like this.

So... yes. Very chaotic group of friends.

I fucking love them.

#hamilton the musical #hamilsquad #alexander hamilton #john laurens #lafayette #hercules mulligan #lams I guess? #just drunk revolutionaries doing shit together and having a good time #rip burr for dealing with them #nobody stops them #the hamilsquad share one braincell #i absolutely live for this #hamilsquad shenanigans

[arewelemmings]

If you live in North Carolina, I wrote this for you. Why? Because I care. It's important, so please bear with me.

Here's a look at the North Carolina Senate Race, one week out: Twp candidates are vying for the Senate seat made available by the retiring Republican Senator Richard Burr.

Former Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court of North Carolina, Cheri Beasley, is running as a Democrat for this opening Congressional seat in the Senate, against Trump-endorsed Republican, Ted Budd. This hasn't been getting a lot of national attention, but it's an important race. Let's take a moment to familiarize ourselves with this contest.

Firstly, Ted Budd is somebody you certainly don't want in charge of anything you care about. As early voting began in North Carolina, stumping began in earnest. "People are furious right now about three, three main things," Budd said in an interview with National Public Radio. "It depends on how you divide it: It's inflation, it's crime, and it's education." It's interesting that he cites these three issues as worrisome to Republican voters, and voters who have yet to decide. Inflation is actually controlled by the heads of industry and the financial big wigs at the top of Wall Street, who line the pockets of Republican candidates, knowing these "lawmakers" will open doors of privilege for them at the expense of the working class. Donald Trump's rhetoric and actions have riled the most vile tendencies of the deplorables, encouraging them to be more vile, outrageous and criminal right out in the open. Any rise in crime is directly attributable to the cheating traitor who stole the 2016 presidential election. Our failing educational system is also a direct result of Republican policies, old and new. First, teachers have seen their paychecks decrease over time while the schools they teach in have gone terribly underfunded. Now they ban books and write laws forbidding the teaching of truth to American students in Republican run states, all because they believe it easier to control the ignorant, and therefore, work to keep them ignorant. So, as you can clearly see, all three of these issues are tied to Republican policies and/or social and cultural manipulation. Yet, Ted Budd speaks of them as if Democrats created these problems he alludes to. At best, he is disingenuous, but I would call him a liar, a man not to be trusted in a seat of power.

On the other hand, Cheri Beasley is a champion of Justice, dignity and human rights, honed for leadership in a capacity of lawmaking from her years of practicing law, and her time on the bench in the highest court in North Carolina. She has recently been quoted as saying, "People really are excited about this race. They understand the sense of urgency around it." And she's right; we also need to understand the urgency of this election. Women's rights are on the ballot this November 8th, along with easing the struggles of the working class, strengthening the rights of minorities and the disenfranchised, in fact, the survival of our democracy itself hinges upon the ballots cast during this election. A vote for Beasley is a vote to restore women's reproductive rights, which Republicans have been fighting to steal for decades. A vote for Beasley is a vote against racism, hatred, inequality, injustice, corruption, and all that has been going wrong in America these days. And it's important to note that Beasley and Budd are running nearly neck and neck, so we need to mobilize and get voters to the polls, and early ballots in the hands of voters. A win for Beasley is a win for us all, and another step toward saving democracy and American freedom from the destructive, conservative forces of the Republicans.

If I lived in North Carolina, I would be casting my vote for Cheri Beasley, and voting blue all the way down the ballot.

[ecclectricity]

@svnsworn​ asked: 👀 + Three Hopes Claude, Azure Gleam (because I'm not done with GW yet): Between your options, would you have preferred teaming up with the kingdom or the empire? One falls more in line with your beliefs surrounding the central Church, but does that feel like the option that would feel the best for you? 

    “You truly weren’t gonna make this easy for me, huh?”

    He gave a broad shrug. “The truth is that this answer isn’t as clear cut as it sounds. I’ve got a buncha lives to protect, a border on all sides of this conflict, the clearest route to the Church or anyone on one of my least stable borders, and a-” Claude cleared his throat. “. . .  an eclectic group of men to combat every step of the way to making a decision. Whatever I want doesn’t really play much into reality. I go where the tide of combat does. If the Kingdom seems to have the leg up, I’ll throw in my hat and join them. If the Empire has a corner on the war, I’ll swing wide. 

    “Rest assured, though.” He paused, as if conceiving the best honest way to answer this without giving too much. “. . . I’ll protect the Alliance. And have a slew of my own interests here, too. Personal preference isn’t a luxury I have anymore. If I did. . .”

    Claude shook his head. “I’d rather not even give it consideration. I’ll have to make a decision eventually, after all, and don’t want to cloud my judgement when the time comes.”

----

    Now for my answer, which is entirely headcanon and not at all what Claude would say even honestly lol.

    Kingdom. 1000% Kingdom. While he does not approve of, endorse, or even show much more than tolerance toward the Church, the thing that always sticks in my head is that to me, Claude is above all else a diplomat. If he has an option with the least bloodshed in his wake, he’s going to take it. And Edelgard’s methods seem a bit too razed earth for I think Claude to want to take up arms with her so easily. He’s not of the mind that scorched earth grows back better with blood, and despite Edelgard’s best intentions, I find the idea, personally, that taking out anyone in defiance of your ideals is, while certainly the quickest way, not really the least bloody. ( I say this as someone who actually really likes the nuance of her character, but I find it a bit hard to palette people thinking that a character who continuously and consciously tells the players that she’s steeped in blood and out loud ruminates that she will be touted as a tyrant to some historians is a faultless and bloodless route lol she’s a great character and a great conceptualization of ends justifying any means, but that does not mean her foresight is completely as pragmatic as her in the moment reasoning; then again this game’s politics are so ludicrous it’s almost impossible to wade through so lol ). My interpretation of Claude would prefer to leave as little blood on the ground behind him as he can on the way to his new world, and also can see the issue with creating such a massive and abrupt power vacuum in a country that has been dominated so wholly by this force for so long. Toppling it entirely and in one fell swoop could just result in one power rushing in and causing either more conflict now or an inflation of power that leads future generations to ruin. 

    It’s certainly not impossible for him to want to work with the Empire, and I do think that at the end of the day, he’s less ‘weather vane loyalty’ and more Burr and taking his time to choose what is best for his people. Leicester has no long-standing allegiance to either side, so taking a step onto the back foot to wait which side serves him better, personally, is just tactical and, frankly, smart. But at least my version of Claude would rather work with the Kingdom, slowly restructure the way the Church holds power and sway and delegate it back out to smaller factions with less irons in everyone’s fire, and work to equal people out from the bottom up. That’s the way to obtain long lasting change that can’t be toppled by meritocratic idealism. The country becoming an ouroboros every generation will hardly greenlight him to move to opening borders and getting the peace he so yearns for, after all. Claude’s not looking for a change overnight - he wants history’s total course to change, and the groundwork for that is immense. Foresight is, thankfully, his strength, and his dedication to what he wants has deep roots. 

    tl;dr church needs to heckin go, but ignoring it’s weight and structural pillars for favor of speed means you’re in for a baaaad time

Side note: does anyone else desperately want to hear a Roundtable conference between Milla Maxwell, Gaius, Jude Mathis, Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude, because I find that this would be fascinating.

#svnsworn #// ʜᴏᴘᴇ ᴛʜɪꜱ ʜᴇʟᴘꜱ! { ᴀꜱᴋ ᴀɴꜱᴡᴇʀᴇᴅ } #;; ᴍᴀꜱᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴀᴄᴛɪᴄɪᴀɴ { ɪᴄ - ᴄʟᴀᴜᴅᴇ } #;; ɪ’ᴠᴇ ɢᴏᴛ ᴀᴍʙɪᴛɪᴏɴꜱ - ʀᴇᴀʟ ᴏɴᴇꜱ { ᴛʜʀᴇᴇ ʜᴏᴘᴇꜱ } #;; ᴀɴᴅ ɴᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪ ᴋɴᴏᴡ. . . ɪ ᴡᴏɴ'ᴛ ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴀᴍᴇ ᴍɪꜱᴛᴀᴋᴇ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ { ʜᴄ } #;; fe3hopes spoilers #{ honestly just tagging for safety but I don't think there's anything spoilery in here #god I'm steeped in my FEELINGS though #I kinda ranted a bit I'm sorry lol fjkdsa;fkds #I hope this works! Thank you for the ask! } #{ also this is 100% opinion so I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people disagree with me #yikes I'm nervous lol }

[conradscrime]

The Manhattan Well Mystery

July 06, 2022

Gulielma (Elma) Sands was a woman living in a boardinghouse at 208 Greenwich Street, in December of 1799. The boardinghouse was run by a couple named Catherine and Elias Ring, Catherine being Elma’s cousin. During this time, six other people were living there - including cousin Hope Sands, Margaret Clark, and a man named Levi Weeks, who was a carpenter. 

Levi Weeks was somewhat of a player, it was known that he had shared an interest in both Hope and Margaret, but it was also said that he had been visiting Elma’s room late at night. On December 22, 1799, Elma had told her cousin Hope that she and Levi were planning to get married in secret that very night. 

That evening, Elma planned to go out with Levi, and Mrs. Ring helped her get dressed. Mrs. Ring did not actually witness the pair leaving the house, but later stated that she heard the door shut around 8pm, believing the two had left together. At 10pm, Levi came back to the boardinghouse, and was surprised that Elma was out so late by herself. Levi claimed that he did not leave the boardinghouse with Elma earlier around 8, like Mrs. Ring had thought. 

Because it was December, the entire city was covered in snow. Multiple witnesses claimed to have seen Elma riding a one-horse sleigh with two men the night of December 22. Ezra Weeks, Levi’s brother, owned a one-horse sleigh, and had a horse that resembled the one witnesses claimed to have seen Elma with. 

On January 2, 1800, some boys were playing near the Manhattan Well at the intersection of Greene and Spring Streets. While they were playing they found a ladies muff floating in the well, which was soon identified as having belonged to Elma Sands. 

Eventually, the body of a young woman was pulled out of the well and identified as being Elma. A coroner’s inquest was held and an autopsy was performed, specifically to find out if Elma had been pregnant, though she was not. The jury ruled that Elma had been murdered, and suspicions fell on Levi Weeks. He was then indicted. 

A man named Richard Croucher, who also lived at the boardinghouse, began spreading the story that Levi had killed Elma, claiming that an accomplice from New Jersey had confessed to it. 

At this time, those accused of a crime did not have the right to council, but with a judge’s permission they would be allowed to discuss law with an attorney. Levi Weeks changed this, by showing up to court with three very prominent attorneys in New York City. Levi’s brother, Ezra, who was very wealthy, hired Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and Brockholst Livingston to come to his brother’s defence. 

Aaron Burr was actually the founder of the Manhattan Company that owned the well that Elma’s body was found in, which some believe gave him more motive to come to Levi’s defence.

The Rings who owned the boardinghouse and the other tenants, testified about Elma and Levi’s relationship, and brought to light their plans to get married. One of the men who had pulled Elma’s body out of the well testified that her clothing had been torn and her neck seemed to be broken. 

A dentist who saw Elma’s body after the inquest claimed that there were scratches and bruises on her body, including a ring of bruises around her neck, suggesting she had been strangled. 

The defense argued that Elma Sands had committed suicide, with the physicians who examined the body (who had ruled her death a murder) now changing their minds and believing Elma had jumped into the well. Some of Elma’s acquaintances described her as melancholy, with one person saying Elma had talked about killing herself using laudanum. 

The defense further tried to ruin Elma’s reputation by claiming that she had been sleeping with her cousin’s husband, Elias Ring. Levi Weeks also had a strong alibi for the time Elma was murdered, claiming to be at his brother Ezra’s house which Ezra and others backed his alibi up. 

Back in 1800, it was rare for a criminal trial to last more than one day. The prosecution was not finished after 15 hours and at 1am on April 1, 1800, the jurors requested an adjournment because they were falling asleep. The next day, the case was argued until 2:25 am, where another adjournment was requested by the prosecutor who said he would give his closing statement the next day, though the judge denied this saying there was no need for a closing statement. 

The jury then deliberated for 5 minutes before coming back with a verdict of not guilty. 

Though the verdict was not guilty, the public had bad opinions of Levi Weeks in New York and he was forced to leave the city, first moving to Massachusetts, but the story followed him and he had to flee to Ohio, then Kentucky, and then finally Mississippi where he worked as an architect. 

The presidential election of 1800 between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr resulted in a tie. Alexander Hamilton’s influence actually helped Jefferson get elected, which resulted in more animosity between Hamilton and Burr, as they were already political enemies before Levi Weeks’ trial, despite them working together in his defense. 

On July 11, 1804, Hamilton and Burr fought a duel which resulted in the death of Hamilton. 

In 1861, over 60 years since Elma had been found in the well, it was reported that eerie sights and sounds were heard coming from the Manhattan Well. Witnesses reported hearing shrieks and saw flashes in the sky along with what appeared to be a figure draped in white. 

Many believe that is the ghost of Elma Sands, still haunting the Manhattan Well, perhaps unable to rest knowing that her most likely murder was never solved. 

#UNSOLVED MYSTERIES #unsolved #unsolved case #unsolved murder #unsolved true crime #true crime #Crime #murder #manhattan #well #new york

[dankusner]

GIMME SHELTER Who Is Meant To Throw Louis C.K. His Comeback Party?

a charming Shelter Island cottage, nicknamed Primrose and once lived in by Babe Ruth, l

5:50

You know what I would really like?

I would really like it if certain older male comedians could just stop freaking whining all of the time about how it’s just not fair that people’s taste in comedy is changing with the times for the very first time in all of history.

Earlier this month we had Jerry Seinfeld out here talking about how you can’t make edgy shows like “Seinfeld” and “Mary Tyler Moore” anymore because of the “extreme Left and PC crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people” in the same damn interview in which he explained that George Costanza, a character based on Larry David, with a father played by Jerry Stiller, had to be made Italian because the president of NBC and noted “Saved By the Bell” guest star Brandon Tartikoff was concerned that the show would be “too Jewish” for Middle America.

(Is this yet another way in which Fran Drescher is a radical?)

He also complained about how you couldn’t do certain episodes of “Seinfeld” now.

To be fair, that’s very true. The Chinese restaurant episode would be about three minutes long now that we all have cell phones.

Then, this week we were treated to Bill Maher and Bill Burr (whom I generally like!) sounding off about how unfair it is that Louis C.K. is still canceled and how “people” need to welcome him back.

To refresh your memory: For years, Louis C.K. was known to ask up-and-coming female comedians if he could take out his dick and masturbate in front of them. It was an open secret in the comedy scene. It was reported as a very obvious blind item by Gawker in 2012 and was brought up as a non-blind-item multiple times afterwards throughout the years (and C.K. was repeatedly asked about it as well).

It didn’t become a thing that anyone actually cared about, however, until #MeToo happened and The New York Times did an exposé in 2017.

“Don’t get me started on that,” Maher told Burr, in regards to C.K. “Isn’t it time everyone just went ‘Okay, it wasn’t a cool thing to do, but it’s been long enough and welcome back!’”

Who is it, specifically, that is supposed to do this? Everyone? Like, are we all, collectively, as a people, supposed to get together and throw Louis C.K. a ReDebutante ball to reintroduce him to society? Or is it just women in general? Female comedians? Barbie?

“They took $50 million, I think they punished him,” Burr added. To be clear, no one “took” $50 million from him in some class action suit, so I assume he’s referring to the $35 million he said he lost when his movie got pulled on account of people being grossed out by his behavior.

“Enough!” Maher added. “I mean for Christ’s sake, it’s not the end of the world. People have done so much worse things and gotten less. There’s no rhyme or reason to the #MeToo-type punishments.”

Okay, but what if it’s not a fucking “punishment”? What if some of us are simply repulsed by the idea of a man who feels so free to ask women he has no existing romantic relationship with if he can masturbate in front of them? Because I will tell you, I don’t hear those stories and just think “Burn the witch!” — I hear them and I feel tired. I feel nauseated. I feel fucking annoyed.

I don’t really feel like laughing. Especially when there are so many people out there who actually do make me laugh and whom I would prefer to give my money, attention and support to. Is that allowed?

For the record, Louis C.K. is hardly being punished. The New York Times article about him came out in November of 2017, and by August of 2018 he was back doing comedy, with the support of an absolute shit ton of his celebrity friends. He won a Grammy, in 2022, for Best Comedy Album … for his comedy album about being cancelled. He’s been on tour, he’s put out four comedy specials, one of which was a live taping of his sold out show at Madison Square Garden.

If that’s “being canceled,” sign me up, because I’d say he’s doing okay! In fact, I would say that he is doing much better than the vast majority of people out there who have never just come out and asked anyone if they could masturbate in front of them before.

But it’s not really about that, is it? No one is worried about him starving to death, no one is worried about his ability to make money, they’re not even really worried about his ability to do comedy — because let’s be real, there is a built-in audience for men with such “credentials.”

Hell, half percent of Bill Maher’s entire career at this point is literally just whining about this shit (the other half being whining about college students and trans people). If it weren’t for cancel culture, he wouldn’t have no culture at all.

To his credit, Bill Burr did point out to Maher that people don’t really, actually get canceled anymore (if they ever really did), which Maher was not at all interested in hearing — insisting, in a truly incredible display of self-awareness, that if either of them said ever anything wrong they could lose their careers “in two minutes.”

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The idea of “cancel culture” has allowed a lot of people to give themselves passes on bad behavior or to explain away why they didn’t stay a huge celebrity forever. It’s not that they really did anything wrong, it’s not that they repulsed people to the point where they just weren’t interested in watching them do stand-up or star in movies or host late night shows, it’s that people are hopping on a cool bandwagon and destroying their lives because it’s trendy. It’s like saying that people don’t like you because they’re “just jealous.”

Bill Maher has an absolutely massive platform. He is absolutely free, if he likes, to invite Louis C.K. to be on his show — which you will notice he has not done since 2011.

Who’s doing the cancel culture now?

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[deannacornell]

The Hopeful Master Gardener

I'm so excited to share with you that I've FINALLY begun my journey to becoming a Texas Master Gardener. I kind of consider myself an accidental gardener or a lucky gardener. Because if it worked - it was either an accident or a complete stroke of luck. My mother could grow anything - but we also lived close to the coast with lots of rain, humidity and sunshine. I think she could've grown anything anywhere. She definitely had a very, very green thumb.

You might ask "what exactly is a Master Gardener?"

"The Texas Master Gardener program trains and supports a network of volunteers to provide horticultural-related information within their communities.

The Texas Master Gardener program’s strength lies in its ability to meet the diverse needs of the individual communities it serves. By combining statewide guidelines with local direction and administration, the program offers the flexibility necessary to keep it a vital and responsive organization that serves all of Texas.

Master Gardeners are members of the local community who take an active interest in their lawns, trees, shrubs, flowers and gardens. They are enthusiastic, willing to learn and to help others, and able to communicate with diverse groups of people.

After completing special training in horticulture, persons who become Master Gardeners contribute time as volunteers, working through their AgriLife Extension office to provide horticultural-related information to their communities."

Quoted from the Texas A & M Agrilife Extension Service.

There was an application process, a fee, a background check and a phone interview to get into the program. I'm in! Classes started in early January and so far my head is spinning with all this new knowledge. I'm so grateful to be learning and happy to share. There is 3 hours of class time and 3 hours of Zoom meetings each week (January through April). Then we will have to perform 100 hours of volunteer service to be certified.

The first thing I can say is what we all actually already know - foundation is key. As in SOIL. If we don't start out with the right foundation (insert your favorite cliche`). You get the point.

So I will be very busy (if the wind ever stops blowing) amending my soil in my flower beds as best I can. I worked in them yesterday, which happened to be a beautiful day, and there are a bunch of perennials making their appearance already. That is always so fun to discover.

The first lecture was given by a lovely woman by the name of Mrs. Harrington and the title was Yes, You Can (garden in the panhandle). She was a fount of knowledge. She does a lot of container gardening, hence she has perfect soil. She also had absolutely stunning flower beds. I plan on adding some containers in my flower gardens and paying special attention to what grows well in our heat and wind. My favorite in my flower beds right now is Gaura. I've called it whirling butterfly flower for quite some time, but it hasn't held it against me. Other names are Beeblossom, Whirling Butterflies and Wand Flower. Wand flower is so fitting because they grow tall and wispy and "wave" in the wind. They are super hardy and have spread and performed beautifully for three years in my less than desirable soil. That's Gaura below - the beautiful white, wispy flower. They spread as well! There is also a dwarf gaura variety that has a dark red leaf and pink flowers. It grows well here also.

What can we do right now while we wait for the weather to play nice?

Start working on your soil (cotton burr compost is your friend)

Plant onions and potatoes.

Start some seeds inside and you'll be way ahead of the game!

Put down pre-emergent grass and weed barrier on your lawn

That's all for now. I hope you'll follow along and in the meantime go play in the dirt!

~ Deanna

#master gardener #home & lifestyle

[floripire]

a quick and dirty event guide featuring important episodes and plot points: season 1.

note: the events of the show happen as they do, albeit tweaked and a little darker and more mature; the salvatore boarding school looks like a regular boarding school but behind closed doors, vampires are feeding off other students despite technically not being allowed to do so; witches use their abilities outside of the classrooms and are practicing forbidden magic, etc.

flori hacks into triad industries but doesn't cover her tracks well enough; veronica greasley finds out and orders a hit but flori isn't home when that happens so triad makes an example out of her parents instead.

flori accidentally gets turned by derek machado - he buries her in a shallow grave and flees the scene.

flori digs herself out of the grave and goes to sue's birthday party where she accidentally drains sue dry.

flori flees and goes back home to find her parents dead and her house ransacked on veronica greasley's orders.

flori gets taken to the triad industries detention center by burr and his squad.

flori escapes the triad detention center by befriending (and feeding on and ultimately compelling) a security guard called caleb smallwood.

flori gets dropped off in grove hill by a good samaritan.

jeremy gilbert finds her in grove hill's trauma center, feasting on bloodbags.

flori becomes a year-rounder at the salvatore school.

in 1x01, flori is present at the party at the old mill.

in 1x02, flori is present at the football game between the timberwolves and the salvatore stallions; flori gets in trouble because a few timberwolves catch stuff on camera when they're not supposed to and flori scrubs the footage.

in 1x03, flori also has to do community service; when connor throws the milkshake on lizzie, mia gets hit as well and flori leaves with her.

in 1x06, flori's mom gets briefly resurrected by the necromancer. they spend time together. flori's mom crumbles into dust at the end of the episode.

in 1x07, flori's ex-something sue carson also gets resurrected but while her mom took everything in stride, sue freaks out and wants nothing to do with flori.

in 1x09, flori has a lot of exam stress and has nightmares: flashes of when derek turned her, flashes of her time spent in the triad industries detention center, flashes of sue's mangled body, flashes of her parents' bodies, unmoving. it is during this episode that dorian gently suggests seeing emma for weekly sessions.

in 1x10, flori appears in all three alternate realities: in the first, she's a member of the salvatore school without funds; in the second, she is a member of the mikaelson school and splits her time between new orleans and wherever the harmans are; in the third, she's escaped the triad industries detention facility and is now making her way to the resistance.

in 1x11, flori is one of the people who gets infected by the slugs. she also joins the vampires when they do a sit down and is of the opinion that kaleb and mg should have won over the witches, even if josie's song genuinely brought tears to her eyes.

in 1x12, flori is the one to tell josie about the ball of yarn. it is revealed that flori hails from maple hollows.

the girl who does not remember where she came from will never reach her destination: flori's backstory is partially revealed in this extra episode.

in 1x13, flori joins the impromptu roadtrip to mg's parents but she doesn't come back.

veronica remembers and recognizes flori; she knocks her out with vervain and flori wakes up in the basement of the greasley house. veronica questions her, telling her that she's not above getting her hands dirty and using extreme methods if necessary. at some point after the interrogation, flori blacks out.

in 1x14, wade starts a rescue mission when it becomes apparent that flori has been taken.

in 1x15, flori awakens at triad industries next to landon, once again coming face to face with veronica greasley who reveals that  she’s the one who ordered the hit on her parents after she caught flori hacking into the database; she actually wanted flori dead for her transgressions but when it turned out she wasn’t home, she ordered her firing squad to take out flori’s parents instead, to make an example out of them. to send a message. out of the goodness of her heart, she told them to make it look like an accident, too. veronica didn’t have to do that, but she did. because she’s no monster. and really, if flori hadn’t been snooping, none of this would have happened in the first place.

she tells clarke to prep flori for transport back to the triad industries detention facility and flori goes ballistic until veronica leaves and clarke unties landon, who in turn unties flori.

clarke escapes with landon and flori gets rescued by wade.

in 1x16, flori runs into kaleb during the siege of salvatore and helps him to get the kids onto the bus. bonnie comes back to teach in the fall after alaric gets booted out.

#floribeth dalisay / character study. #floribeth dalisay / headcanons; metas and world building. #queue.

[talenlee]

USP-09: September's Custom Cards

New Post has been published on PRESS.exe: USP-09: September's Custom Cards

Do you remember?

Do you remember those ancient stirrings, things in the vast, the great shadows cast along us?

Do you remember what it was like to look at the rolling ocean, and recognise your own smallness? The way that the strongest person you knew was probably still nothing compared to the ferocious power of storms and nature and the horrors of our own fears?

Warning: Wizards employees, this post contains unsolicited designs of custom magic cards.

The theme of September was twenty one.

Eh, see, now that’s a little more odd than the other months, isn’t it?

Every card in this month’s collection in some way references or creates the number 21. There are a lot of ways to do that; 2/1 creatures do it, things that grant +2/+1, those are obvious. And if you know that hint, then it’s easy to look at cards that straight up just mention 21; making a creature a 21/21, milling twenty one cards, that kinda thing. But also, if you want to get to 21, you can get there with multiplying 7 by 3 (hence 7/3 creatures, or dealing 7 damage to three targets).

There’s this idea in Man Play & Games of reasons people play, and it gets expanded later by Astrid Ensslin to include the idea of rhythmos: That sometimes, people play games because the intricate, smooth interaction of rules themselves is inherently interesting. I really like that and I think it forms a big part of how these cards got designed; like there’s my Thalia style card designs, where a ‘fair’ 2-mana artifact or land can be a 2/1 legendary creature in a ‘fair’ world (and there are three of those in this month!). But there are other cards as well, which are about me considering specific wording options, like the way we have the tech ‘whenever a player attacks you,’ and how that leaves a hole open for ‘planeswalkers you control.’ These are all things that I find interesting and that means this particular month of designs is just stuff I find intriguing.

And now, this far through the year, a bunch of things that have been introduced are paying off, or you’re seeing names in the flavour text that you’ve already seen before now, right? Like hey, get a load of that – remember Altansarnai? She had a Command!

And well, let’s talk about Altansarnai! Because of all the factional groupings in the setting, there’s no clear ‘green white’ grouping; green white is just people who have some memories of the forests, some connection to the land, but some other connection holding them together. While the Barren Crawlers crept the Scourged lands and tried to find people who were enraged at the Palace boats, on every level, they could find people who wanted restoration more than they wanted justice.

And those are the people who Altansarnai is caring for.

There’s a belief, especially amongst the refugees, in the memory of what they had. There’s a vision that the forests can be restored, that maybe the vast, spilling hydras bursting up out of the ground are a sign that something is wrong, not that nature heals through destruction. And they’re not entirely wrong. Altansarnai is a Satyr, who seeing the devotion that the Barrens people had to this idea, was struck by the story shaped around a knight. And so, the easiest way to tell a story was to live it. A reckless, joyful satyr took up a sword, and told those around her that she had learned a lesson from the moon – because that’s a good story.

It is entirely made up, but that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t have to be true to be real.

Ganbaatar is the hatred of the Palace itself, given a frame, as it seeks to find some way, any way to rid itself of Gansukh. There’s something wrong, a burr in the eye of the nature of death in this world, and with the Usurper in place, that irritation has formed a pearl. Is Ganbaatar there to become the new attendant when Gansukh is destroyed? Perhaps. But maybe they’re a side effect, something created out of that drive, and without Gansukh, it might just… dissolve.

Finally, there’s Eloi. Eloi is a researcher who went to the Ice Palace – you know, that city sized building carved in an iceberg that sprung up out of the water – who wants to delve into why the ice is so magically strange, and also why all the wizards and artists who come to the iceberg wind up turning all a little weird in the head. You can’t go live in the Ice Palace just by being interested, though, so you have to have some art you contribute; Eloi’s contribution is attenuated lenses, which they do with bright, shining crystals that they just happen to also be able to use to look closely at things.

This was a month where a lot of cards wound up landing because they represented effects I decided in the set skeleton I wanted, like utility effects, ‘draftable’ commons and niche effects that you should try to fit in a set to make sure you can represent mechanics you don’t necessarily think of off the top of your head. Like, you know, recurrent rare-level life gain:

There’s always a concern when you design game items that you’re designing them for entirely cute reasons. This is definitely a game item I think of as cute because its primary job is to express the number 21 in a way that is a reasonable amount of life to gain on a one-mana spell. This card, if you cast it naturally every time you draw it, gains you 1+2+3+4+5+6 life, and if you’re the kind of dork who knows stories about how Gauss annoyed his teachers, you’ll realise that’s 3*7 again, or 21.

In a 20 life, 60-card 4-ofs deck, Yet Hope Endures does present a weird thing, though, where every card after the first is just one mana for 6 life with no recursion (and the recursion is one of the reasons to want it). Compare to Chaplain's Blessing.

And if you know that the sum of all numbers up to 6 is 21, you’ll probably notice that 21 can also be made out of a 6, a 7 and an 8. That means this card, which is absolutely big dumb splashy effects, a secret 21 card.

Oh and it’s also one of those ‘hey, look, the Vast is a terrifying place‘ cards!

The Usurper’s Palace (USP) is a collection of Custom Magic cards made with the general structure of a commander draft set. The cards are posted, one per day with different themes every month, to the Custom Magic subreddit, on my Mastodon and Cohost. Follow along for more!

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#2023CustomMagicCards #CustomMagicCards #UsurperSPalace

#2023 Custom Magic Cards #Custom Magic Cards #Usurper's Palace #Games #Magic: The Gathering

[shawn1245]

Drink Delectable Coffee With These Tips And Tricks

Drink Delectable Coffee With These Tips And Tricks

Anyone who enjoyed coffee for any length of time understands how home brewing can save money. But many find that Starbucks coffee drinks are a special treat, and find they have trouble copying that same taste at home. Continue reading for some helpful hints regarding improving the taste of the coffee you brew.

It might be wise to purchase a Keruig maker for those times when you just want one cup of coffee. It will let you make just one cup of coffee, of any kind that you want. This company offers a complete line of coffee makers, each with a different assortment of features.

A wide range of coffees are now available. A lot of people like a darker or a fuller flavored coffee. Flavored coffees, such as hazelnut and raspberry, are abundant as well. Understand, however, that flavoring with creamer may produce better results than using flavored coffee.

Don't keep coffee in the freezer longer than three months. If it stays there longer, the quality will go down.

For the best results from an older coffee maker, first brew some hot water before you make any coffee. Then, add the heated water to the machine after you place the grounds in. This ensures that you get the hottest and thus most flavorful brew possible.

Use the correct amount of water when making coffee. If you don't use enough water, your coffee is going to be very strong. But adding too much water will leave you with weak coffee. Generally, a good rule of thumb is to put two cups of water in for each cup of coffee you are making. How to Clean Coffee Grinder

Consider purchasing a coffee grinder that has conical or flat grinding burrs. Either of these mechanisms reduce the heat generated during grinding. They also help your coffee stay tasty. Grinders that have blades are not very consistent. These tend to get too hot, running the risk of burnt beans.

You can make froth for your coffee from milk at home! Simply heat the milk in a microwave-safe mug or measuring cup until just steaming. Using a whisk, use your palms to rub the handle forwards and back very fast. Continue until the milk becomes foamy. 2 percent milk, half and half, or whole milk yields the best results.

You shouldn't store coffee near an oven. Heat can easily destroy your coffee's quality. Avoid placing your coffee canister near the stove, microwave or heating vents.

Coffee that is fair trade is a great way to benefit the planet. While it's a little more pricey, it tastes better. Besides, you will be helping out small farmer cooperatives from developing countries.

You might really want to drink your coffee when you wake up, but resist the urge to do so until the pot has finished brewing. Your coffee will not be as good if you do this. Think about getting one that has a timer. This would allow your coffee to be ready when you arise.

Artificial sweeteners may not be improving the taste of your coffee as much as you think. These things alter your coffee's flavor and cause it to taste bland. Try drinking your coffee black or using a small quantity of raw sugar for a better flavor. If sweetener is a must, think about using just a small amount. Best Coffee Grinder 2023

If you cannot find a variety of coffee that offers the flavor you desire, try a blend that combines several flavors. Either experiment with mixing beans on your own, or visit a coffee shop where a barista can help you choose the blend that is best suited to your taste.

For a bit of a change, flavor your coffee with sweeteners and various flavors. Various new sugars on the market can really change up the flavor of your brew. Other flavors like cinnamon, vanilla extract, cocoa and nutmeg enhance the coffee flavor as well. Almond, coconut, soy and rice milks come in a variety of flavors and can be used as a substitution for regular creamers. Cuisinart DCC-3200 Review – Perfectemp Coffee Maker

Remove the coffee pot from your coffee maker after you have finished brewing. When you leave the coffee on too long, the flavors will evaporate. If you want to keep it hot, use an insulated container, which will seal in the flavors.

Do not drink coffee after 3pm. Although coffee tastes good, the caffeine inside can inspire many sleepless nights. Therefore, you should refrain from drinking coffee after 3 P.M. so that you can sleep good at night.

Does your coffee taste too harsh or otherwise undrinkable without milk in it? You can use milk in a variety of ways for coffee. Using hot or cold milk can create different textures. Add flavored syrups like the coffee shops do, for a change you might just fall in love with.

You can experiment with adding different flavors to your coffee without buying different beans. You might want to try a different creamer of flavoring. If you're feeling adventurous, you can try flavored or soy milk. Also, different syrups are great for adding some extra flavor to your coffee.

The amount of time you spend making your coffee will have a great bearing on the taste of it. Coffee should brew for 4-5 minutes in order to provide a full-flavored brew. If you do not brew for this length of time, your coffee may be weak and have a bitter taste.

Coffee is thought to help in weight loss. You will experience greater energy, and a minimal boost in your metabolism. Although drinking coffee alone will not make you lose weight, it can if it is incorporated with an active lifestyle.

Never brew extra coffee to reheat for later. Brewing an entire pot of coffee for just yourself usually results in the pot sitting on the coffee maker all day. That helps save you some time, but you might sacrifice taste. Coffee that is fresh has better taste; therefore, brew in small quantities only.

It can be very tough to make coffee at home that has that same panache as the coffee at the corner store. Instead of giving up and spending your hard earned cash, use the tips you've learned here to improve your coffee brewing abilities.

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