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amirajones · 3 years

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Forbidden love: The Pirate and the Pirate Princess pt. 6

Pairing: Amira White x Captain Hook/Killian Jones

word count:1600

As we walked back to the ship I wanted to get back as soon as possible, I mingled with a few people and talked to them. I didn't have the guts to pickpocket those who were friends and allies of Derek. We were ready but his question kept ringing in my ears 'are you falling for me? ' I knew the truth that even in this range of attire he was still very attractive. Maybe I was falling for him but I refused to answer right now.

As we got on the ship I saw Analise waiting for me on the side of the deck, the men were wise to know not to mess with her. We went down and I changed back into my pirate attire being mindful of magic uses but I kept them at bay. I always had a feeling about my stepmother that she would be a problem someday. When I came back up on deck dressed as my pirate counterpart Selena Marriott, I heard the sound of someone walking on the docks and I couldn't resist looking out where I saw Derek.

"Wow, I didn't believe you but you do look different, Mira." Derek's voice said clear as day

you followed me to the docks? I guess that's fair you probably wanted to see if I was dressing in pirate attire. I thought

Derek didn't even let me say anything as he walked away and waved bye signaling for me to enjoy my time. I wanted to throw something at him and I turned from him. We all started to get the sails ready and soon we were back out on the sea. Amira looked out at the sea, finding it so calming but then she heard Killian's voice.

"Mr. Smee, get up here." Killian said

I looked back as I saw Killian give Mr. Smee control over the ship, then he walked down. He went over getting one of the loose swords and he tossed it to me where I caught it. He motioned for me to strap it to my outfit so I did and then I saw him pull his sword out.

"Time for your next lesson." Killian said, "Or a test of your skills."

I smiled knowing Father had let me at least try to learn sword fighting and I was pretty good at it. So we both pulled the swords out as we prepared. After we clashed swords a few times I realized my form wasn't so good. He knocked me on my back pretty easily with no effort and I got back up as we went about this for hours during the sunlight. After so long I was getting the hang of it and I was able to keep up with him but I knew he was holding back.

"Not bad Princess." Killian said

"You're holding back!" I yelled

"Of course, Luv. Your father would be angry if you had any bruises or cuts." Killian said

I sighed a bit knowing that he was right but I didn't care if that was what it took, I walked away but not before I had the last word. "Captain hook going soft on a girl." I said as I looked back seeing he didn't like that. "You said I was going to be treated as one of the crew, so train me like you'd train them or there is no point. Other pirates won't hold back."

That seemed to get under his skin and we started back up as he was not holding back. Yet he sheathed his sword and got behind me as he held my wrist on how to hold it properly and the best way to swing it. He worked with me until I was able to get the hang of it. After so long I realized how late it was yet I wasn't tired. Some of the men went down and came up with what food we could eat as I knew Killian and I had eaten at the party but that training was enough to make me hungry again as we made do with what we had. Analise seemed to be taking in what was going on as I couldn't take my eyes off of Killian though my thoughts were pulled away from that when Analise took me downstairs to my cabin.

"You're falling for him, Princess." Analise said

"So what if I am?" I asked her

I think my words caught her off guard and I couldn't deny that Killian was handsome but at the same time I knew he was dangerous. He also had so many women falling for him that I was just one of the crew to him right now. I placed my hand on the necklace thinking about it while I walked over sitting on the bed. Killian did show me attention but he treated me like one of the crew only he protected me because I am a woman and a princess.

"You like him, Amira, what will your father say?" Analise asked and I sighed, "Nothing, Father won't know because I have to make that decision." I said

We didn't speak about it after that as she walked away and I got some sleep before I felt the ship stop and dock. I opened my eyes making myself presentable and walked up as Analise was already up. We headed to town where we did a bunch of pickpocketing and stealing which I indulged in. When we met back on the ship Killian asked to see what I had and when I opened my hands he seemed impressed.

"Jewels and coins, good job Selena." Killian said

When night fell we walked to the tavern, as usual, I was to sit by him while the barmaid brought over drinks. Again another barmaid looked at us with curiosity and more she looked at me, a woman pirate among men. We started to drink and not long after we were there as usual women came over flirting with him. Analise had joined us this time and she noticed I wouldn't even look at him.

After so long I'd had a few drinks and he was still flirting with women, I excused myself to the bathroom where I sat in the stall. I felt stupid for how I was feeling, jealous when he wasn't even mine. He was just helping me with seeing the world. I focused on Snow and Father with pure intention even through my slight drunken haze as I was able to make a portal with light magic to see. I saw my father wasn't looking good and Snow was taking care of him, I wondered if something was happening.

"Show me Regina." I said quietly to the magic as it switched and I saw Regina was using dark magic in her room.

She better not be using it on father..I'll stop her when I return. I thought

After that was done I walked out as I got to the table seeing Killian wasn't there and I took one of the small containers drinking it fast as I sighed. princesses were not supposed to drink or indulge in stealing. I could think of my mother wanting me to be good and I wasn't hurting anyone. When I got up to leave with Analise, I came face to face with Prince Nicholas as he seemed to be drinking.

a royal who drinks in sorrow. I thought

I figured he wouldn't recognize me, Amira was more proper and Selena was a bit bolder. They were both me, I had come to realize that as I walked over "You seem upset?" I said and he wasn't looking up. "The Princess I desire doesn't want me, she ran off to sail the seas." He said his words slurring a bit. "Well you can't force anyone to like you." I said before I turned from him and I looked around finding Killian. For the first time my heart hurt watching him, Prince Nicholas was no prize and royal life was no longer what I desired.

If I didn't have a father to return to I would stay a pirate forever. I thought

I went to head back to the ship when I bumped into someone, he was a little taller than Killian but he was an attractive man. I looked away a bit ashamed I'd run into him but he talked with me for a bit. My inner magic could tell me that I was being stared at as I was looking at this man laughing and he bought a drink so I had it. We were talking and I could sort of tell this man was flirting as I smiled but he started talking about getting out of there. I couldn't say when he got behind me but suddenly Killian picked me up over his shoulder.

"Sorry, but this is one of my crew and she's not leaving with anyone but me." Killian said

The way he had ahold of me, my heart felt like it was going to break out of my chest. I also felt embarrassed about what was going on. It was clear he started to walk and my head was starting to hurt a little. I also was feeling a bit lightheaded as I was aware he placed me down not long later.

"Selena, what were you thinking?" Killian asked as it seemed like he sobered up and I smiled "Maybe I was just trying to stop the pain I was feeling in my chest." I said before I passed out.

#Colin O'Donoghue #killian jones #killian jones x reader #captain hook #captain hook x oc #once upon a time #Ouat #fanfic

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lissy-strata · 4 years

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Infotext: Whilst climbing over the wall, Derek Smee gashed the middle finger of his left hand on the barbed wire. He was immediately taken to the Central Middlesex Hospital to be treated. Smee refused the large bulky bandage that the hospital were going to apply and insisted on a small flesh-coloured plaster instead, so that he could return to the filming. Once filming was complete for the day, Smee was taken to the surgery at the BBC Television Centre.

#Doctor Who #Classic Who #Spearhead From Space #infotext #Dr Queue

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my-52-weeks-with-christie · 5 years

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Katherine Grey heads to Nice by train, but when she gets there a new acquaintance is found brutally murdered. Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot is drawn into a tale of murder and deceit, focussed on one of the world’s legendary jewels...

First published in 1928, Agatha Christie's thriller is based on a short story from 1923, The Plymouth Express.

Dramatised in six-parts by Michael Bakewell. Stars Maurice Denham as Hercule Poirot, Janet Maw as Katherine Grey, Robert Beatty as Rufus Van Aldin, Avril Clarke as Ruth Kettering, Anthony Smee as Derek Kettering, Avril Clarke as Ruth Kettering, Michael Deacon as Major Knighton, Pauline Letts as Mason, Jonathan Owen as Chubby, Adrian Egan as Monsieur Caux, David Learner as Pavett, Richard Durden as the Train Conductor and Ronald Herdman as the Gendarme.

Director: David Johnston. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1985.

#my 52 weeks with christie #agatha christie #mystery of the blue train #bbc

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mariocki · 1 year

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Man in a Suitcase: The Girl Who Never Was (1.9, ITC, 1967)

"Well, my fee's usually three hundred a week, plus expenses, but... you I'll charge double."

#man in a suitcase #the girl who never was #1967 #robert tronson #donald jonson #richard bradford #bernard lee #priscilla morgan #harold goodwin #annette carell #david garfield #basil dignam #derek smee #raymond smith #jack bligh #vicki woolf #charles laurence #roy vincente #opens with one of the best pre credits sequences itc ever pulled off: a title card tells us it's noon‚ then that we're in San Vincenzo‚ and #only then‚ as the disconcerting image of ww2 soldiers emerging from smoke makes itself clear‚ do we get the year; 1944. what follows is an #impressively staged and presumably fairly costly battle scene‚ all the more bewildering for going straight into the opening titles without #any explanation of how this will involve McGill. it's a tale of wartime intrigue and buried secrets‚ hinging on a looted art treasure worth #a small fortune. Annette Carell is superbly sly as the wicked dealer employing McGill (but just as happy to cut him out of any profits) and #Goodwin a sympathetic traumatised old soldier. it's been a pleasant surprise so far to reference Pixley's bible and in fact find that #contrary to popular opinion‚ many guest stars had a high opinion of Bradford; unfortunately i knew going into this one that it wasn't the #case. Bernard Lee is perhaps the best known of the bust ups Bradford had behind the scenes; Lee was an alcoholic by this point and by #director Tronson's account arrived drunk and belligerent on set. a confrontation occurred‚ the details of which are lost to time (or have #been politely forgotten) but suffice to say that there was no love lost between Bradford and Lee‚ and despite only sharing one scene their #working relationship was so sour that it spiralled both men against each other (Lee's perceived unprofessionalism making Bradford angrier #which made Lee drink more which made Bradford angrier which made Lee drink more...). sadly it does show a little in stilted performances

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saturdaynightmatinee · 3 years

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CALIFICACIÓN PERSONAL: 6.5 / 10

Título Original: Ghostwatch

Año: 1992

Duración: 91 min

País: Reino Unido

Director: Lesley Manning

Guion: Stephen Volk

Música: Philip Appleby

Fotografía: S/ D

Reparto: Michael Parkinson, Sarah Greene, Mike Smith, Craig Charles, Gillian Bevan, Brid Brennan, Michelle Wesson, Cherise Wesson, Chris Miller, Mike Aiton, Mark Lewis, Linda Broughton, Katherine Stark, Derek Smee, Roger Tebb, Colin Stinton, Keith Ferrari, Ruth Sheen, Diana Blackburn, Brendan O'Hea, Mark Drewry

Productora: BBC

Género: Drama, Horror, Mistery

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0200659/

TRAILER:

youtube

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hannahhook7744 · 2 years

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Descendants and ouat edits/scenes part 16;

Chil, Jonnie, and Haudrey edit.

Sad Haudrey edit.

A descendants-ouat crossover sibling edit.

Sad ouat-descendants edit.

Ouat descendants family edit.

Chaudrey friendship edit.

Chaudrey as kids vs. Them as teens.

Harriet Hook consults her friends (Lefou Deux/Lee, Anthony Tremaine, Sammy Smee, Ginny Gothel, Derek Dwarfson, the Gaston twins, and Diego de Vil).

Sad Killian with his kids and Baelfire edit.

Harry Hook Family legacy.

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familymusicnarts · 4 years

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Review: Peter Pan and Wendy at Shakespeare Theatre

Give a girl an inch and she takes a mile, as well she should. Those are words to live by for the young women of Lauren Gunderson’s re-write of the classic J.M. Barrie story, Peter Pan and Wendy, now taking flight in hearts and minds on stage at Shakespeare Theatre’s Sidney Harman Hall.

New twists on old tales are a tricky trope for a theater-lover like me. When I bring my kids to see a favorite show and we are met with some new ideas, I don’t always embrace them fully. STC’s production of Peter Pan and Wendy has depth though, and glitters with hope and consciousness raising in a coming of age story that proves hard to resist.

This time its not just the Lost Boys who find themselves searching for something as they cross paths with Wendy Darling, Tinkerbell or Tiger Lily. Captain Hook, played to perfection by Shakespeare and Broadway stage veteran Derek Smith, is hilariously dazed and confused by this intellectually curious version of Wendy (Sinclair Daniel) an aspiring Marie Curie, as she teams up with the fearless Tiger Lily (Isabella Star LaBlanc) to lead Peter Pan (Justin Mark) and the Boys to a triumphant Pirate defeat. Realizing too late his lust for power was not the answer to his pain, Hook’s loneliness is laid bare. Peter Pan too learns his never grow up act is a cover-up for the loss he feels; emboldened at the end of their battle he abdicates his Neverland throne to Tiger Lily, the J. M. Barrie Indian princess that Gunderson brings forth from the shadows, cast as warrior on behalf of her Native people, a conciliator possessed of diplomacy skills President Trump only wishes he could find in his foreign policy leaders.

Stopping just short of an overt caricature of our illustrious Commander In Chief, with orange blonde hair and some points of view and mannerisms I was hard pressed to distinguish, Smith’s Hook is an unabashedly self absorbed and evil guy for the ages. Not to mention the gold suit he dons as he swaggers about his ship in the last scene, and which eventually serves as means to his end. Hook’s desire to control the dreams of young children everywhere is symbolic of a kind of desire for control over outcomes generally, like trying to stop growing up perhaps, we all must eventually put aside to embrace our humanity.

STC makes all of this a family-friendly experience, which Artistic Director Simon Godwin in his inaugural season clearly is looking to expand on. A version of the play’s program Asides for Kids is a terrific accompaniment to introduce young people to the characters, the costuming and the making of the show. The British accents lend authenticity, the costumes are lovely, and the production is peppered with favorite scenes from the original story, a beautiful London nursery set where Peter Pan enters through tall windows, preceded of course by his shadow, and a funny flight through the stars with Peter. The Lost Boys Neverland hollow is cleverly designed on the flip side of the largest pile of toys ever, the very same found in miniature back in the nursery. Tinkerbell is an instant hit as she enters first in the form of a mischievous flashing light, later garnering laughs in her golden suit and wings together with a sassy attitude that actress Jenni Barber delivers with aplomb. Also making an appearance is Nana, the nursery dog who delights the audience, and a version of the Pirate Smee (Tom Story) who ingratiates himself so expertly to Hook that the pair of them seem to have worked these roles together in more than one lifetime.

Peter Pan and Wendy, a re-imagining of J.M. Barrie’s classic work by Lauren Gunderson, is on stage for its world premiere at Sidney Harman Hall from December 3, 2019-January 12, 2020. 610 F St. NW. 202-547-1122. shakespearetheatre.org. Matinees are at 2 pm on Saturdays and Sundays and youth tickets are available at $35. The show runs approximately two hours with an additional 15 minute intermission.

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ginnyrules27 · 1 year

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Day 25 of the Next Generation Descendants Choosing Series Color Schemes!

Today’s color scheme is...Sebastian!

Sebastian William Smee-Hook is the son and only child of Harriet Hook and Sammy Smee, with assistance from Derek (pirate Derek, not Jacobi). Sebastian is about three years younger than Stephanie and Maurice, and his colors of choice are red and blue!

#disney's descendants #disney descendants #next gen descendants #choosing series #Ginnyrules27 #shadowdraw

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foxhenki-blog · 7 years

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Cthulhu and Medusa Go To The Prom - Part One

Front Matter

Oh boy, I’m sorry, it’s been too long since my last post. Really, the last post was the beginning of last week and now it is the end of, um, this week, but it seems long. I guess that means it has become a habit, eh?

I’ve been on vacation from my Normal secret identity since last Thursday. I haven’t done anything spectacular like traveled to Machu Pichu or conducted a midnight sabbath in a long forgotten stone circle in the peat bogs of Ireland. Nope, I stayed home. My four year old started 4K (which went swimmingly, thanks for the inquiry), and I paid attention to my family and myself. It was needed.

If you read the Gnome School blog then you’ll know that a few weeks back I hit a magical nadir that coincided with the ‘Great American Eclipse’. So, while most of my witchy internet cohort was busy charging devices with eclipse energy and singing orphic hymns to Luna, I was hiding. I hid in books so that I could remain magically adjacent while my cohort practiced.

Last night and this morning, I felt Luna’s call again. Actually, I’ve been feeling it for a few days, calling me back to prayer, back to practice. I’ll begin again tomorrow morning.

While I was busying myself with magically adjacent and, well, non-magical activities like cleaning my garage (how would one make that a magical experience, I ask you? Did Alexandrian magicians have to clean their houses? Probably not…) I updated the site a bit. Just a few tweaks to the design, added a front page and a shop featuring some occult fashions from Ghostly Harmless, and I innovated a slightly new format for the blog.

Instead of one long James Joycean diatribe, the blog will be broken up into at least three sections now. The section you are reading now is called ‘Front Matter’ and will contain some the more connected, grounded material Gnome School offers. You know, life stuff, so that I appear as human as possible. The second section I am calling ‘Imbrications’. An imbrication is a layering of material, most commonly described as how fish scales lay on top of one another. The intention of this second section is to offer found things, people, ideas that layer in some way on top of the Gnome School vision and our magical performative aesthetic. The third section will by the post itself where we dig into theory, practice, and analysis of twenty-first century magic.

Imbrications

The first imbrication I’d like to offer is the work of the band ‘Fungoid Stream’. They are listed as a ‘Funeral Doom’ group (I mean, the deep rabbit hole of metal and experi-metal music taxonomies. If only I could base my librarian career on untangling that Gordian knot.) hailing from Argentina. I really dig their slow grind and think it fits the pace at which one contacts the world of spirits and demons in the beginning of one’s practice, that is slow, plodding, with brief moments of exhilaration and danger.

Check them out...

The Bridge Between the Mundane and the Magical

The title of the series I’m beginning to this week is a reference to a short quote I found in Donna J. Haraway’s ‘Staying with the Trouble’. It is brief and potent:

"Cthulhu and Medusa ('the only mortal Gorgon') are similar shapes…"

It is difficult to take things out of context from Haraway, because it is hard to nail down exactly what her context is to begin with, which is what makes her theory beautiful, if you ask me. To me, this quote helps connect the larger-than-death spirit entity, the High Priest Cthulhu in his dreaming under-ocean city (an ocean that has repeatedly crawled far inland numerous times in the past few weeks) with the human. Medusa, a terrifying and powerful magical being, is the bridge. She bridges the gap between us and the undying and madness-inducing spirit world through her connection to death. The next four weeks I will explore this dance, Cthulhu and Medusa, slow-dancing on an empty dance floor encircled by black cloaked acolytes that are too afraid to look, their hoods pulled low over their eyes, their ears interpreting the shuffling of tentacles and snake coils the best they are able. Haraway has a word for these adepts, she calls them ‘Guman’s’. Again from ‘Staying with the Trouble’:

"Guman are full of indeterminate genders… full of significant others… human is adama/Adam, composted from all available genders and genres… [their world] has kin-making… and SF writer's practices of wordling…"

This dance unfolding in front of us, yes, if you are tuned into Gnome School you are defiantly part of this group listening for voices in the tentacular shuffle on the gym floor in front of you, this dance represents our kin-making with the animal and spirit realms and our connection to those spheres through the very guman act of worldling, of mythopoeia, of journeying through the vehicle of fiction. What are those murmuring pseudo-spirit voices, the product of Cthulhu and Medusa’s awkward fumbling dance saying (Keep those tentacles above the waist, Cthulhu)? As I stand in this stone-petrified crowd of initiates they intimate they existence of edges between the human and the animal. Again from Haraway:

"In human-animal worlds, companion species are ordinary beings-in-encounter in the house, lab, field, zoo, park, truck, office, prison, ranch, arena, village, human hospital, forest, slaughterhouse, estuary, vet clinic, lake, stadium, barn, wildlife preserve, farm, ocean canyon, city streets, factory, and more…"

What Haraway is talking about here is niche-construction. I’ve written about niche construction here and here, but I’ll recap a bit for the purposes of this post.

I came across the idea of niche construction during my undergraduate education. I was capital B I G big into linguistics and in particular American Indian languages at the time (still am, I’m working my way back there, stay tuned). In the book ‘Adam’s Tongue’ by Derek Bickerton. Bickerton takes the evolutionary theory of ecological niche construction off-book and applies it to his argument on how language must have evolved. It is a materialist view, obviously, but I found a lot of useful ideas in Adam’s Tongue, so much so that I sought out his source text, ‘Niche Construction; The Neglected Process In Evolution’ and proceeded to take it even further off-book and see if the theories therein could be used to explain, not the existence of the spirit world, but rather the existence of contact and congress between the human and spirit worlds. Let’s augment my last quote from Haraway a bit to fit this experiment:

"In human-[spirit] worlds, companion [spirits] are [extra-ordinary] beings-in-encounter in the house, lab, field, zoo, park, truck, office, prison, ranch, arena, village, human hospital, forest, slaughterhouse, estuary, vet clinic, lake, stadium, barn, wildlife preserve, farm, ocean canyon, city streets, factory, and more…"

There, that’s better.

Now, let’s connect this improved statement with a quote from “Niche Construction” by Olding-Smee, Laland, and Feldman:

"A focus on niche construction has important implications for the relationship between genetic evolution and cultural processes. One implication is that niche-constructing organisms [in our context that is Haraway's gumans] can no longer be treated as merely 'vehicles' for their genes because they also modify selection pressures in their own and in other [entity's] environments, an in the process they can introduce feedback… [Gumans] can and do modify their environments mainly through cultural processes…"

For our purposes, the most significant cultural process is, of course, magic. Moving a little further down this wormhole:

"The assumption that human cultural inheritance can directly bias human genetic inheritance may also be reasonable even when the source of the natural selection pressure that is modified by cultural activities is no longer human, provided the relationship between whatever cultural information is being expressed and whatever natural selection pressure it is modifying is sufficiently direct."

There is no more direct and impactful cultural information available to us than spirit contact.

The Loneliness of the Long-Winded Writer

If one were to brave the basilisk gaze of Medusa in her fuschia and teal prom dress, or Cthulhu’s madness-inducing a-bit-too-tight-around-the-middle rented tuxedo and look up towards the gymnasium’s stage, there you would see an even more perplexing sight. Instead of a king and queen, this particular dark prom has four kings standing there, unafraid of the two dancing in the greenish-hued spotlight and acrid mist of stage smoke. The presence of four kings *means what it implies* but we will table that sub current for now and concentrate on the manifestation of these four kings at our ‘Enchantment Under The Sea’ dance.

Since I was off all week, I decided to tackle an analysis of one of Lovecraft’s longer tales, ‘The Whisperer in the Dark’. The four kings on our stage are the four archetypes from that tale that map back to the four kings of the tarot. On stage there is a stoic professor replete with corduroy jacket and arm patches, a grizzled but highly intelligent farmer from high in the near-impassable hills of Vermont, a refined and probably bespectacled trench-coat wearing turn-of-the-century Boston elite, and a steam-punk apparatus of gleaming cylinders, vacuum tubes, primitive electronics, speakers, lenses and dials. Our kings are Professor Albert Wilmarth, Henry Wentworth Akeley, the shadowy Mr. Noyes, and the mysterious B-67.

The Whisperer in Darkness begins in November with the Vermont Flood of 1927. With the current score of man vs nature being a solid 0 to 3 this year, two of those points coming from massive flooding, wind damage, and real human suffering as a result of Hurricane’s Harvey and Irma, I thought it was right off the block the most relevant Lovecraft tale for us to deconstruct.

One of the things that I love the most about Lovecraft is is precision with dates and places and that the majority of these nodes can be visualized in great detail. For reference to the scene he paints in the beginning of Whisperer, we can for example turn to the Vermont Historical Society’s entry on ‘The Flood of ’27’ or amazingly enough, the below YouTube video

in order to see for ourselves the environment where

“huge, light-red [crabs] with many pairs of legs and two great bat-like wings…”

were witnessed by townsfolk floating like bloated corpses in the floodwaters.

Our first of the four kings, and the first to be introduced in ‘Whisperer’ is Dr. Albert Wilmarth, a professor of literature at Miskatonic University. I’ve read that Lovecraft wanted to go on to university but lacked the funds in order to do so. This instance of Albert Wilmarth, among the other archetypal doppleganger’s of Lovecraft himself, I think embodies his regret and angst at never having achieved this goal. I personally emphasize with him in this regard as I felt that way for a very long time before life presented the door that allowed me access to a college education, for what that’s worth.

Wilmarth, within the context of his fictional world and in relation to the other three kings on the stage, maps to the King of Cups, which in turn resides within the sphere of alchemy as a magical path. The keyword for the King of Cups on the reverse of the Etallia deck is ‘Homme en Place’, or Man in Place. Throughout the majority of ‘Whisperer’, Wilmarth remains in place, interacting with the primary action in the story only through letters. The word ‘place’, can be traced etymologically back to the 12 century, in which it meant ‘space’, or ‘dimensional extent’. We will find out later that this aligns with the professor quite well towards the end of the tale.

Benebell Wen’s Holistic Tarot assigns the keyword of ‘Distraction’ to the King of Cups. A word from the mid 15th century that means ‘the drawing away of the mind’. An action that progresses steadily for Albert throughout the tale. Wen also defines the King of Cups as a professional strong in the arts and letters (as a literature professor at Miskatonic University should be) but one often overwhelmed by loneliness. This loneliness manifests in ‘Whisperer’ (and also in Lovecraft’s life) through voluminous letter writing. The prime mover of the plot in the early sections of ‘Whisperer’ describe what is essentially a early twentieth-century Twitter fight with Mr. Wilmarth alleviating his internal solitude through regular arguments in a rural Vermont newspaper about those, as described in the tale:

“pinking things about five feet long; with crustaceous bodies bearing vast pairs of dorsal fins or membraneous wings and several sets of articulated limbs, and with [an] ellipsoid, covered with… very short antennae, where a head would ordinarily be…”

with the concerned citizens of that area and in particular, our second king whom we will investigate in part two of this series, Henry Wentworth Akeley.

#Cthulhu #Lovecraft #niche construction

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