#cupola draws

[chiropteracupola]

imagining the beautiful world of 12th century trains. do you think they'd have the main carriage painted in heraldic colours. or the wagons could be painted on the inside with scenes from the bible. one of these speeds by and you hear an unmistakeable metal rattling akin to a cutlery drawer being opened too fast and you just know it's full of knights

oh imagine...

#answers from the cupola #I held off answering this because I was going to try to draw something but really I think everyone needs to Vividly Imagine With Us

[bubbles-for-all-of-us]

I hope in "A second chance" the reader won't die. 😭I would love to see how Helion helps her get through the traumatic experience of the difficult birth.

A court of Hope and Second chances part IV

It was Madja who had stopped the bleeding. It was Madja who had put the healers in place, drawn from their powers, and did what she did best - save lives. She lingered long into the night, tending to your unconscious body. Making sure you were comfortable and at ease. No sense of discomfort.

Helion hated it all. He hadn't moved from the side of the bed. He had stayed back, allowing them all to do what had to be done. Only interfering when a handful of healers tried to move you from the bed so they could clean the sheets and wash you off all the blood and grime. That was when Helion scooped you up into his arms gently. He hated that he hadn't thought about his daughter or where she was until Madja had told him that the baby must be hungry by now. Another panic set in there. Where was she? Who took her?

"Handed her to lord Vanserra, my high lord", Helion's gut twisted for a moment because the first thing he thought of was Beron and even the thought of that made him want to tear the world apart. But it had to be Lucien. Then again Helion hated that there was this fear deep down. What if Lucien just took her and ran? What if he will never return her? Bring her to Beron himself? He wouldn't, right?

Helion wasn't even sure where he was walking. He allowed his senses to guide him fully. The door he came across was used rarely. It was only you who used them because this place was made purely for you. He was doubtful that he would find Lucien here because he doubted that you had shared this place with him just yet but if his heart was telling him to, he had to check just in case.

Climbing a handful of stairs, Helion submerged from the bottom level. And it didn't take him long. Lucien was there his back slightly turned to Helion. He had picked your favorite spot under the glass cupola. The sound of trickling water up here was soothing and added to the humming that filled the space this almost felt like a sanctuary.

Helion stepped closer. Lucien was rocking from side to side softly. His eyes fixed on the little bundle in his arms. So captivated by it that he didn't even hear anyone approaching. It's the way the little girl looked right at him too. Her big golden eyes stared at him. Not amber like Helion's, no, golden like Lucien's. Her tiny fist firmly gripped her brother's finger. The rest of his palm rested on top of her chest, without a doubt proving a soothing warmth.

Just Helion steps onto a fallen leaf, the crunch making Lucien quickly pull the bundle closer to his chest as he whipped his head up, fangs out as he snarled. So protective. So scared. Like a lost animal protecting the last sacred thing in the world. Helion wondered often how Lucien would be when she was here. He knew that the fireling stuck around because he was excited to have a sibling, to maybe try the concept of the family once more. He assumed the protectiveness was going to kick in eventually but it happened sooner rather than later.

"My boy, it's just me", Helion said softly as he inched closer. Only then did the high lord notice the way Lucien's chest was raising up and down frantically. He was scared. Worried. "I won't lose her", the words sounded broken and Helion's heart ached once more today. He had heard the horrors of his childhood, the things he endured and he hated himself for it. Because he should have stopped it somehow. Should have known, "You won't. She's in your arms, isn't she? It's already one of the safest places she could be". Lucien's eyes welled up with tears as he leaned in pressing a gentle kiss to the baby's cheek.

"Mom?", he asked, drawing back. Helion let out a deep sigh, "Stable and looked after". He hoped that was true. That it will all be okay. That you will wake up and then he was never going to let you go. No harm will ever come your way. There was no life without you for Helion. "We need to...", Lucien rasped, "Yeah... we'll bring her to Y/N", Helion nodded, stepping aside, leaving enough space for Lucien to get up from the floor, "You did very well, Luci", Helion placed his hand on Lucien's shoulder, squeezing it softly, before the two headed back to the bedroom.

The lights were low there. Madja was gently stroking your hair as the two males walked in. Helion for what felt like a thousand times that day had nearly dropped to his knees as he saw you blinking up at the healer. "My love...", he crocked out, you flinched slightly but your eyes met him in an instant. He halted in his movements, he didn't want to frighten you anymore. You still looked so fragile and pale. Cheeks had barely regained the healthy tinge of pink.

"My baby..?!", you muttered, eyes so fearful, Helion wished he could chase it all away. "Waited patiently with he brother to see you, Ma", your eyes fell onto Lucien, expression softening instantly. You reached your hands towards the two and Lucien wasted no time to head over to you. He carefully lowered the babe into your arms who instantly started to sniffle as if she only now realized, only now that she felt you, a big missing part of her. Only now realized just how hungry she was.

Helion watched as you softly brushed your finger over her round cheek, before reaching to cup Lucien's face. The fear melting off his bones. Madja didn't want to rush the moment but the babe quickly announced her hunger loudly. The healer quickly helped you up, carefully placing another pillow behind your back. And here Helion started to wonder if you blamed him. Were you mad at him? For everything that happened. Because he felt guilty and he wondered if you knew that? When happy grumbles and suckling filled the room, Helion let himself close his eyes. His body felt uneasy now that he stopped with so much adrenaline still flowing through his body. He felt a warm palm on his chest, he knew it was Lucien before he even opened his eyes, "Look after her, stay here", the younger male said, before slipping away from the room.

The baby was sleeping soundly in your arms, yet Helion hadn't moved from his place at the end of the bed ever since. "You're mad at me?", you had asked after a while. Your voice was so small, Helion couldn't help but hate it. "Me?", he quickly asked, "Why would I be mad?", "Because of everything that happened", your words struck him to the core. The last breathing creature he blamed was you. "You've been standing there all cold and distant... you didn't even...", your eyes filled with tears but you quickly tilted your head back. Helion erased the distance between you two, quickly lowering himself on the side of the bed, "I didn't know if you wanted me here. I thought... I thought you blamed me for it all". You furrowed your eyebrows at him, "Why would I?", "I should have had better healers here, should have been here from the start, should have been able to do more, should have...", you quickly raised your hand, cupping the side of his face, pulling him slightly closer to you. There was still so little energy in your body but you leaned forward, pressing your forehead to your lover's, "You were here, that's all that matters". Helion carefully rested his arms on your hips, breathing in your scent, that now was tightly mixed with the baby's. Listening to the steady sound of your breathing. The way your heart was beating. But Helion equally as much felt the fear that still ran through your body. He noticed the slight shake of your arms as you held your daughter.

"I'm so scared I'll die or she...", you muttered Helion cut in, "You will not, neither of you will, I won't let it happen", now both of his palms cupped your cheeks, making you look up at him. "I'm so scared no one will hear me", you crocked out, pressing the sleeping babe tightly against your chest. "I will always hear you, even when you think that no one will. I will always hear your call".

#second chance universe #helion x you #helion imagine #helion x reader #lucien x helion #lucien vanserra imagine #lucien vanserra x reader

[alliumcola]

🌿

I started on this while drawing the other two pieces inspired by arrietty , i thought ab where i would live as a borrower and thought how cool it would be to sit on the tippy top of a gazebo !! ( apparently the tiny house up there called a "cupola" ) but then i got distracted just having fun with the scenary ...

#cola scribbles #digital aritst #art

[nocturna7]

After dark at Strathisla Distillery, Keith, Moray

Click to see full image

Strathisla distillery is the oldest continuously operating distillery in Scotland. It was founded as the Milltown Distillery by George Taylor and Alexander Milne in 1786 as an alternative to the waning of flax dressing industry.

The Distillery is location right in the middle of Keith (Scottish Gaelic: Baile Chèith, or Cèith Mhaol Rubha (archaic)) a small town in the Moray council area in north east Scotland.

The whole purpose of the structure seen at almost every whisky distillery was to draw air up through the quilt of barley lying on the kiln haircloth below.

Designed by Charles Chree Doig who was, one of the architects of the Scotch whisky world, he is immortalised by his pagoda-like Doig Ventilators – now mainly redundant, but aesthetically very much alive.

Although called Pagoda’s, Cupola is the the correct term.

Adopted by Scottish distillers during the early to mid-19th century, these were mounted on the roofs of distillery kilns. Their function was to draw air up through the kiln and they rotated depending on the direction of the prevailing wind.

Doig’s innovation was born at a site meeting at Dailuaine distillery, a mile from Aberlour, on 3 May 1889 and was soon adopted elsewhere.

credit : Lee Fowlie images

#scotland #🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

hms captain??

hms captain indeed!!

i meant for this to be a short post but oops its really long already and im nowhere near finished so if you wanna learn about this terribly designed warship, join me after the cut; if you dont, enjoy this picture of an oddly designed ship.

the hms captain was a british warship. it was built during a time where shipbuilders were phasing sails out for steam engines, and where warships were being much better armoured. for example, the hms captain was steam-powered with two propellers and had wrought iron armour.

wrought iron armour caused a problem for warships. like think of any pirate media youve seen where theyve got wooden ships with these iron cannonballs; the cannonballs very easily breach the wooden ships. they dont really do that with iron armour. instead, they bounced off.

so the british admiralty, media and public were all in want, to some extent, of a ship with better guns that could breach ship armour. enter cowper phipps cole:

a man who looks like a rasputin prototype and seems to have the charisma to back up the comparison.

see coles was very good at public engagement. when he needed to, he could very easily get the media and public on his side, which is a power he leveraged in order to get hms captain approved, commissioned and built.

his design, oddly enough, goes back to a raft from the crimean war.

this is the lady nancy, constructed in 1855 to aid during the siege of taganrog. it was for shore bombardment which you can see in this illustration of it. while cameras were a thing back then (i think daguerreotypes existed during this time), i dont believe we have any photos of the lady nancy.

coles was a captain in the navy in 1855, and him and a group of sailors constructed it. according to those there, the guns on the raft were protected by some kind of dome structure or a "cupola" as they called it.

hms captain was inspired by the lady nancy, and so, it was also intended for shore bombardment. for this purpose, two big fuck off rotating turrets were mounted inside the hull on the gun deck.

these had been patented by coles himself in 1859 which is partly how he became a consultant for the admiralty when it came to building ships. being the nephew of admiral lord edmund lyons 1st baron lyons gcb gcmg kch, by marriage, twice over certainly also helped.

quick note on that:

its not technically incest, i think, his wife emily pearson was lyons niece and his mom is the sister of lyons wife augusta

i also didnt know what those acronyms meant beforehand, gcb is a british order of chivalry called most honourable order of the bath, gcmg is another one: most distinguished order of saint michael and saint george, kch is a hanoverian order of chivlary called royal guelphic order. yeah thats just gobbledegook.

lyons was important because of his role in the crimean war as commander-in-chief of the mediterranean fleet (suddenly i feel like im reading an icemav fic) and hes credited as ensuring victory for britain.

originally, the admiralty just ordered prototypes of his big fuck off turrets and they were actually impressed with them.

and so the hms prince albert was built with four of them (is that four turrets in your pants or are you just happy to see me) and the hms royal sovereign was converted to be a turret ship. both, however, could only operate as coastal service vessels.

hence, the admiralty allowed coles to draw up plans for a two (2) turret oceangoing ship in 1863, working with nathaniel barnaby who was chief constructor for the navy. keep in mind, coles had little to no experience in ship design.

then, they suspended the project.

but they allowed him to work on a one (1) turret oceangoing ship that was based on the hms pallas with joseph scullard who was head draughtsman in 1864.

and then in 1865, a committee rejected/cancelled his projects, and decided to move forward with a different design for a two (2) turret ship called hms monarch.

this made coles very angry, and an angry coles is not a good thing for the british admiralty.

(i spent an hour making this because im so bad at making things look purposefully bad)

so you know like today where bad actors like andrew tate, tucker carlson, joe rogan and even like graham hancock can just use public platforms and social medias to get a relatively large portion of the population of their side, seemingly with ease, just by talking/communicating confidently, playing into fears and anxieties of the public, and creating an us and them?

yeah so cowper phipps coles was also really good at this. grifters, liars and pretenders have alway existed.

(milo rossi brings discusses this a lot in his series on hancock's ancient apocalypse docuseries, and id 100% recommend the whole series.)

so how did coles do this?

well, he began with a very strong and very harsh attack on robert spencer robinson who was a vice admiral and controller of the navy, and his full title was admiral sir robert spencer robinson kcb frs.

the title admiral sir is very funny, like i want to get a cat called that with the nickname addy. kcb is basically the same as gcb. lyons was general grand cross and robinson was knight commander, because of fucking course its this stupid. frs is an award given to you from the royal society of london; the fellowship of the ring royal society is granted to those who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science, and medical science".

it wasnt just mr admiral sir that coles attacked; he also attacked several other admirals who were on the committee but he really seemed to hate robinson. coles also lobbied parliament and the press, focussing on the flaws he saw in monarchs design and how britain was going to be left behind in the shipping arms race since many other nations were pressing ahead with several oceangoing turret ships. unsurprisingly, it was the united states that were winning the race so far.

around this time, coles' contract as a navy consultant was terminated in january 1866. like thats as hard as he was going, he fully lost his job. of course he had his dear not-quite-incest uncle lord lyons to fall back on. one hell of a safety net, very well entwined.

in response to this professional fuck you, coles simply protested that he had been misunderstood and the man must have rolled a nat 20 on his charisma saving roll because on the 1st march 1886, he was re-employed.

he waited a month and a half to submit his critique of the monarch proposal on the 16th april. he refused to publicly support a vessel that didnt represent his "views of a sea going turret-ship" because He Was Like That™. we're in the cowper karen era. his critique went on to say that hms monarch could not give his "principle a satisfactory and conclusive trial."

now at this point, the admiralty really should have just sent him packing. theyve given him chance after chance after chance despite him having pretty much no experience.

like say you have a blocked toilet that you cant unblock, but instead of calling a plumber, you ask your friends nephew whos an art curator who really wants to give this plumbing thing a go. then his first attempt makes it worse; now the taps in your bath turn on everytime you use the kitchen sink and your toilets still blocked. but you give him another go and now theres a shower curtain stuck in your toilet which is still blocked. and now youre fingers are hovering over the call button on a plumbers number when your friend calls and asks you to give their nephew another go. its only been three weeks and theres a 24 hours mcdonalds up the road that you can go to for the bathroom and youve got a shower at work you can use, so you think, okay, sure. and then he accidentally rips your kitchen sink out and you still have a blocked toilet and a non-working shower and your bath taps are running 24/7, and your friend asks you again to give him a "second chance."

like youre not giving him another chance, theres a goddamn shower curtain in your toilet and your kitchen sink is in your fucking living room. of course, youre not giving him another chance.

but say everyone in your street and everyone in your friend group is on his side because hes been telling little lies and charming them all with his aunts baked goods and his knowledge of local art and history. and everyone else is rooting for him and they all believe this is the chance.

thats the situation first naval lord admiral frederick grey (full title: admiral the hon. sir frederick william grey gcb) found himself in. obviously coles should not be given another chance, but the whole country believes he should.

so on the 21st april (thats me moms birthday :)) he agreed that coles should be allowed to build his "perfect" oceangoing turret ship.

and so the hms captain was born

the ship was to be built on a private shipyard and coles selected laird brothers' chesire yard on the 8th may 1866.

one of the biggest problems ship designers had with turret ships is that ships tend to have quite a lot of rigging that gets in the way of the turrets. this was a genuine design flaw for the hms monarch, it was brought up by the chief designer sir edward james reed kcb rfs, but he was overuled. he didnt think a turret ship should have either a forecastle or poop deck.

on a typical warship, youll see a small rise on either end of the ship. at the front/bow, you have the forecastle which was typically used as a defensive measure. at the back/stern, youd typically have the captain quarters within the hull and the roof of that is the poop deck. it would be used for either the captain or a helmsman or a first mate maybe to supervise the crew and their work.

reed, very correctly, did not want these measures because they interfered with the turrets. he also wanted much less rigging because the more wooden beams and rope and sail youve got, the less room the turrets have to fire.

he wrote that "the middle of the upper deck of a full-rigged ship is not a very eligible place for fighting large guns."

and coles and the lairds seemed to agree with this sentiment because their design corrected these flaws.

their solutions were to erect a hurricane deck to place the rigging on. this is an upper deck that is above the frame of the hull. they also used tripod masts to reduce rigging. they also placed the turrets within the hull in their own special gun deck.

now, just because youve corrected for some flaws doesnt mean you havent introduced several of your own which spoiler, the captain had a lot of flaws which we will be getting into.

captain had a length of 320ft or 97.54m; she had a beam (width at the widest part) of 53ft3 or 16.23m; her draught (the distance between the waterline and the keel/bottom of the hull) was 24ft10 or 7.57m; and her top speed was 15 knots which is about 17mph.

in a futile attempt at a balanced view, i will say that the speed was fairly impressive. most other ships had top speeds of 10-12 knots or about 11-14mph. the use of double propellers was a good choice.

one of the very few good choices.

see the captain was designed to displace or essentially weigh 6910 long tons, and was expected to have a freeboard of about 8ft or 2.4m.

a ships freeboard is the distance between her exposed upper deck and the waterline. typically, warships have high freeboards. its not quite as simple as the higher the freeboard, the more stable your ship is, but in general, higher freeboards do offer more stability. this is something the captain needed

see, most of her weight was high up in the ship which meant she had a low metacentric height. to not get into all of the complicated science that im not entirely sure i understand (dyspraxic nation rise up), lower metacentric heights tend to make ships more unstable.

[from wikipedia:]

so all of this is a bad design. apart from her impressive speed, she seemed like a ship with poor stability and a real risk of flooding because of the exposed gun decks. and with flooding, you might just fucking capsize 🚢⬆️↗️↘️🌊☠️

mr admiral sir robert spencer robins already raised concerns at the design stage in regards to the low freeboard and flooding. reed also raised concerns about the ship being too heavy and having too high a centre of gravity, but they were ignored.

if i had a nickel for every time edward james reed was overruled after raising a legitimate concern about the design of a turret ship, id have two nickels, but its weird its happened twice.

still, first lord of the admiralty (genuinely feel like this is a made up job) sir john pakington approved the design on the 23rd july 1866, though he did note that coles and the lairds would be held responsible for any failures.

if youre interested, john pakingtons full title is john somerset pakington 1st baron hampton gcb pc frs and he was a fucking tory, and the right honourable lord hampton, which okay, dude, you overcompensating for anything over there? pc means he was a member of his majestys most honourable privy council, who are all advisors yes-men to whichever bellend is on the crown.

moving past that cag-mag of a man, lets talk about how this mess got even worse. and you might be asking, "kai, how can it get worse? havent you already told me that the ship can easily sink?"

and you know, fair point, but you can always make your ship even more likely to sink.

see coles came down with an illness during the building of the ship. im not sure what it was; i cant find anything on it, but whatever it was, it meant he couldnt supervise the building of his ship. now, im not sure how much that would help considering he was the art curator turned amateur plumber in the metaphor, but maybe it would have done some good.

because when she was finished, she did not displace 6910 long tons. no, she displaced 7767 long tons. and her 8ft freeboard turned into a 6ft6 or 1.98m freeboard. she was floating 22 inches deeper than expected. oh, and her centre of gravity raised by 10 inches!

reed didnt just raise hell over this, he dragged heaven down too. and its not like he was wrong. the ship was a floating disaster.

hms captain had an angle of list of 21°. this means of she listed 21° or more, she would capsize.

now, theres no real average angle of list, but most people would say 40-50° as a reasonable yardstick. for some vessels, it might dip into the 30s°, but 21° is a ridiculously low angle of list.

for reference, this is a 20° angle.

its not much of an angle, is it?

and remember, the captain is meant to be an oceangoing vessel. the oceans dont exactly have a reputation for being calm.

unless youve got a direct telegram to poseidon and are in a place where you can ask him to calm down, the captains not gonna have fun.

and of course when reed raised his concerns, he was overuled.

if i had a nickel for every time edward james reed was overruled after raising a legitimate concern about the design of a turret ship, id have three nickels, and its kinda concerning that its happened three times.

instead, she was commissioned on the 30th april 1870 under captain hugh talbot burgoyne vc. to commission a ship is simply to place it into active service. also vc simply means burgoyne received the victoria cross whatever that one is.

anyway, she underwent several trials in the months after this and i guess everyone had pre-ordered their rose-coloured glasses because the captain won many supporters and was considered everything that coles had promised.

part of these trials were the gunnery trials. these took place in vigo and the captain was against both hms monarch and hms hercules, a non-turret ship. their target was a 600ft long, 60ft high rock. they each had 5 minutes of continuous firing.

all three ships had problems with aiming after the first few shots because the smoke emitted from the weapons meant they couldnt fucking see anything.

still, hms hercules had an accuracy rate of 65%, while hms monarch came in with a 40% rate and hms captain limped in with a 35% rate.

and im not just using "limped" as an exaggeration, these trials showed that when the turrets fired, it caused the ship to list and the list was 20°.

im sure you can see the problem there.

if you can, youre better than the admiralty who just ignored it and was like fantastic, she works. coles straight up had the entire admiralty hostage and the only person speaking up was reed.

if i had a nickel for every time edward james reed was overruled after raising a legitimate concern about the design of a turret ship, id have four nickels, which is great and all but id rather give reed a hug at this point.

-

now the 35% accuracy didnt really matter if the captain was going to be used for shore bombardment. most of the time, youre not aiming for anything specific, youre just trying to cause as much damage as possible.

but that 20° list? that mattered.

it mattered a lot because on the 7th september 1870, she capsized.

shocking i know. only five months after being commissioned and everything.

that day, she was running trials in the bay of biscay during a storm when she was hit by a gale of wind. she rolled over and capsized.

there were over 500 people on board and only 18 survived. coles was among the dead. i hope their souls were able to find peace.

theres a memorial for them in st paul's cathedral in london if youd ever like to pay your respect to them.

now theres not much else to say about the captain other than the inquiry into the sinking blame the public for it.

they concluded that "the captain was built in deference to public opinion expressed in parliament and through other channels, and in opposition to views and opinions of the controller and his department" and this was pretty significant in victorian britain as it was unprecedented.

but realistically, it wasnt wrong. they were the ones backing coles the whole time.

so i guess if theres something to learn from this mess, its that if youre going to support a public figure, whether it be a celebrity or politician or scientist or whatever, take a step back and ask yourself "do i agree with what theyre saying or are they just very good at talking?"

im sure someones said it better than me, but you know, that sentiment. we can also laugh at how much of a disaster hms captain was.

#anon #kai rambles #ships #hms captain #warships #warship #british warships #history #shipping history #history of ships #ship history #idk what to tag here honestly #shipposting

[oldshrewsburyian]

I am in book-seeking despair. This may not be your area of expertise, but do you have any recommendations for a historical (or pseudo historical) novel with court intrigue and, possibly, a smidgen of swashbuckling, great escapes, high stakes, etc.? Sort of the three musketeers but if the court intrigue were at the center of the plot rather than the musketeers' (admittedly great) adventures? I need some backstabbing & equivocating courtiers on the page right now. Any recs appreciated!

Oh no, despair! As it happens, I do indeed have recs. And I suppressed the impish impulse to suggest A Game of Kings (friends don't let friends reread Lymond without emotional support.)

Ellen Kushner, Swordspoint, is historically-inspired fantasy which, if I'm remembering correctly, gets very close to what you're looking for. For my own tastes, it had not enough swashbuckling, too much drawing room drama, but the protagonist is great. And there is so much equivocation! Equivocation is, in fact, a survival skill.

Sherwood Smith's Crown Duel is a book with swords and court intrigue that I loved so much when I was 12 that I have not dared to revisit it since. I do remember that it involved both swords and the language of flowers.

Have you read Sabatini's Bellarion the Fortunate? Maybe not quite enough court intrigue for you, but there are a lot of intrigues. It's just that they sometimes happen in back rooms, and over chess games, and in military tents, and in half-painted cupolas, and around long tables with titled noblemen. Also, the romance between a steely, scheming princess and a nameless ex-scholar who decides 5 minutes after meeting her that he's going to save her life or die trying makes me want to scream. It's amazing this book didn't cause a conscious bi awakening when I was 15, but anyway.

I presume that, from my extended flailing over Prince of Foxes, you have a pretty good idea of whether or not that would be enough court intrigue for you or not.

I don't know if you've read Laurent Binet's Civilizations yet but I am about 2/3 of the way through and loving it, and I think it might fit the bill! There is a lot of discussion of 16th-century European politics, and the more you already know about e.g. Erasmus and More, and the dissolution of the monasteries, and the Schmalkaldic League, and the Edict of Nantes, the funnier and more interesting it is.

There's also a historical (fantasy, I think?) epistolary novel set in Napoleonic Europe and co-authored. It might be called something like... Blood and Ink? Steel and Ink? Noun and Noun. If anyone reading this post can remember what this is and why I think this might be a good recommendation for this, please chime in.

#historical fiction #historical fantasy #ellen kushner #laurent binet #rafael sabatini #bellarion the fortunate #civilizations #swordspoint #prince of foxes #samuel shellabarger #sherwood smith #crown duel #book recommendations #asks and answers #booklr

[themuseumwithoutwalls]

MWW Artwork of the Day (1/14/24) Aubrey Beardsley (British, 1872-1898) The Toilet (from "The Rape of the Lock" by Alexander Pope)(c. 1895-96) Pen & black ink w/ traces of graphite underdrawing, 25.6 x 17.4 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art (Dudley P. Allen Fund)

In this tour de force of pen and ink work, Beardsley illustrates an early scene in Alexander Pope’s satirical masterpiece "The Rape of the Lock" in which the heroine, Belinda, primps in her boudoir. Reflecting the poem’s emphasis on contrived rather than natural beauty, the drawing is densely layered with artifice. A view of an idyllic garden with a cupola-topped pavilion is glimpsed not through a window as it would first seem, but on a folding screen. Bejeweled bottles litter the table, emblems of Belinda’s vanity.

#british artist

[foxboyclit]

nest full of trinkets

for day 2 of @flufftober (and i might've accidentally combined it with day 23 whoops~)

read on ao3 here

Miskit rummages through a scrapheap, digging for any junk worth repurposing. The lenses in his mask scan for still-usable parts- an old robotic arm catches his eye. Yanking it out, they find the old augmentation’s in surprisingly good shape: not rusted to hell, hand miraculously still attached, functional with a few tweaks. They hold it over his head, making it wave. It catches one of Fiver’s many eyes, and the older scavenger smiles.

“Good find, Kit! ’M sure Sock will find good use for that.”

The lights adorning his mask flicker, and he tucks the folded limb in one of his large coat pockets.

It’s one of Zenia’s bad days, and Miskit has offered to keep her company. What better way to spend a low-energy day than craft night in bed? Neither of them speak, it’s too hard right now, so they make do with pointing to whatever plastic bead they cannot reach. Zenia gestures to his wrist, and Miskit holds it out, letting her slide on a bracelet. The beads are rust orange and green, and in between them is a charm of a long-dead bird. It’s not the right one, but that’s okay-an owl shaped charm probably doesn’t exist, and the thought finds him all the same. He gives her a bracelet in exchange: whatever shades of purple he could find, complete with a flower charm, and she smiles as she turns it over in her hand. 

From that day on, Miskit’s not dressed for the day without the bracelet. 

  A lover presents a swiped ring as an anniversary gift, a friend lends him a book and moves away before it’s returned, and even after they’re gone, the items still take up space in Miskit’s room. There is no paper trail for his birth family, but there can be for others in his life, nevermind the walkable space they eat up.

The room at the very top of the base is his, attached like a cupola, which is lovingly referred to as The Nest. The namesake doesn’t just apply to the tall view; the amount of boxes and jars filled with random bobbles and spare parts are something the crows would’ve envied. It’s maddening, the walls may as well have been crafted from dying plants and suncatchers and pinned up drawings. If you are not Miskit, there’s no chance in hell you’re finding anything in that room. He, somehow, keeps track of it all. Tickets to a mechfight months ago are pointed out as easily as clouds against a bright sky, and when asked why they’re still kept, his expression suggests the answer should be obvious: it was a good memory, it must be saved.

Miskit has no memory of the life he lost, but this new one offers plenty of proof.

#flufftober 2023 #day 2 #cyberpunk #original character #legacy of the shattered #fox's writing

[valoisfulcanellideux]

These Stones Remember - XXII

"History is truly the witness of times past, the light of truth, the life of memory, the teacher of life, the messenger of antiquity." — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Beneath bright awnings, cooking oils by the jug and dried fruits by the waxen bag, seeds by the pouch for planting, buttons by the cone and ribbons by the measure of thumb to elbow. Beneath the llama statue, women crowded to haggle for the best and brightest from water-filled buckets of colourful flowers.

Moving through the bustling crowd, delights at every turn, Paix gloried in the beauty and heart of humanity that thronged this place. Hawkers cried their wares, flattered and wheedled and flirted with their customers for another sale, jugglers and tumbling acrobats somehow managed to keep both a space about them and an entertained audience distracted before them. Devotees sang and sold wine and sugar beneath a floating quartz cupola that defied both gravity and sensibility. A redstone trickster held a small gaggle of onlookers rapt while his light-fingered accomplice relieved their pockets of coin. Mummers performed a comedic play, drawing roars of laughter from those crowded around their antics.

Paix was offered samples of wine by the singing devotees, juicy hunks of roasted pork by odd little squat folk whose cloak hoods flared widely on either side of their heads and who tried to press him for an additional purchase of copper ingots, giggling when he demurred since he had nothing with which to pay them. More wine, followed by a hand thrusting a crescent-shaped meat pie toward him with a broad grin and a bellowed word that was lost amid the general clamour on the Greatbridge.

Read it in full at AO3: These Stones Remember - XXII

Artwork by Sabira/floweroflaurelin (used with permission) - see my pinned post for links to their work.

#these stones remember #being the journal of onorait paix al-lareiff #empires smp #empiresblr #pixlriffs #empires pixlriffs #empires fanfic #mcytblr #mcyt #the ancient capital #pixandria #the copper king

[lahilden]

Halton House

Halton House is located in the village of Halton in Buckinghamshire, England. The French Renaissance-style country home was built between 1880-83 for Alfred Freiherr de Rothschild. After Alfred’s death, the house was bequeathed to his nephew Lionel Nathan de Rothschild, who sold the estate, along with its contents, in 1918. Currently, the house is owned by the Air Ministry and serves as the officer’s mess for the Royal Air Force. The interior has a grand salon, two drawing rooms, a billiards room with 18th century paneling, and a paneled plaster staircase. The house boasts gables, spires, and a cupola. The exterior boasts 1,500 acres with gardens, a pond, a domed conservatory attached to the house through a corridor with stone columns and niches, and stables that serve as a riding school. The location has been used in many films. 

#country houses #england #chiltern hills #halton village #buckinghamshire #bridgerton #the crown #downton abbey #pride and predujice

[neomedievalist]

Franz Kline, Cupola. 1958-1960.

Franz Kline once claimed that he painted not just what he saw, but rather "the feelings aroused in [him] by that looking." Though this work might appear to be the result of a spontaneous outburst, Kline began by projecting a small drawing onto the large canvas, then placed a second drawing over top and repeated the process. He kept revising the painting for two years, aiming not only to depect the movement, agitation, and even violence of the modern city, but to be a part of it.

#data #now that im done ranting abt how much i hate toronto. well i was there to see the art gallery #if youll allow me a bit of pretentiousness for a second. lol #this painting is absolutely incredible. i cant even describe the feeling when i first saw it #it drowns out everything else in the room. it commands your attention completely #it knocked the breath out of me #i know to people who dont like modern art i sound like such a hack rn lol. to them i say: die perhaps. why dont you appreciate something out #of the ordinary. bitch. #why dont you watch the youtube video who's afraid of modern art then maybe youll calm down #flavour text is from the description next to the painting btw

[chiropteracupola]

gave my dad a copy of @emilybeemartin's national parks artbook, but he has not figured out the real similarity between the two of us, which is that we will be on tumblr posting sean bean like it's our job

#the cupola report #it has been. Years since I have drawn boromir. really ought to fix that. #my brain is starting to scramble from covid booster goofery so I am draw some silly anecdotes as a little treat #also it is v funny that the only recurring characters in my autobio comics other than me seem to be my dad and the cat

[shadowstar1919]

Simulation, I decided VR is one of the best things to do and lately I have bee obsessed with space and the ISS so I decided to draw the cupola module also the earth is never eay to draw. Hope you enjoy.

Better late than never. lol Sorry got caught up with work and adulting. P.S. No I didn’t die lol. 

#simulation #Danny Phantom #space vibes #dannymay2022

[rolandopujol]

America’s last Howard Johnson’s restaurant, in Lake George, New York, has closed. It’s a moment that seemed unthinkable in the early 1980s, when my parents had their choice of two Howard Johnson’s near our home to celebrate my grade-school birthdays. The first HoJo’s restaurant opened in 1925, and at one point, there were over 1,000. A HoJo’s down the road – pitched orange roof, Simple Simon and the Pieman weathervane atop a turquoise cupola – represented a dependable place to dine with your family, especially while on vacation, when the pickings could be slim or scary. Tendersweet clams, ice cream and other treats awaited. The decline was imperceptible at first, but managerial miscues, the rise of fast food and changing tastes contributed. With the central commissary long gone, these last restaurants were more HoJo’s in name only, some more faithful to the concept than others. On July 4, 2008, I first visited the HoJo’s in Lake George. With fireworks over the lake and the bustle of tourists in this Adirondack town, it was a memorable day. Two subsequent visits here were disappointing, the restaurant clearly in decline. Another HoJo’s in Lake Placid closed in 2015, and when the Howard Johnson’s in Bangor, Maine, closed the next year, the Lake George restaurant was the last one. (Note: The restaurants were no longer connected to the HoJo’s lodging business, which is operated by Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and still thriving.) The DeSantis family opened this location in 1953, and they still own the property but lease it out. In 2017, this restaurant made news for disturbing reasons: A new operator was arrested — and later convicted — of sexually harassing at least 15 staffers, reports the Times-Union. The restaurant continued under different management. Today, the space can be leased for a mere $10; the newspaper explains this is a tactic to draw interest to “difficult properties.” Conceivably, it could reopen as a HoJo’s if the DeSantis family continues to own the property. A new owner would not have the rights to use that name. Another possibility: Could Wyndham revive the restaurants? Regardless, it’s a sad end after 97 years. #retrologist (at Lake George, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/CeUlwXvr31h/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#retrologist

[realcatalina]

Bit of architecture

I have recently been through album of architecture which British Library has on Flicker and decided to show you few interesting pieces I saw there.

The most interesting here is the cupola/skylight.

It might surprise you but those were already part of Tudor architecture, usually located in roof of the Great Hall. It is not as if all Tudor halls had them, but some did.

Second image is wharf and houses on bank of Thames:

While this is from 17th century, big chunks of riverside London used to look like this in Tudor times also. I donnt mean the style of the houses, but what is before them.

-The wooden wharfs, various piers leading to the river-sometimes combined with bridge, lots of small boats being used. River was truly one of the major ways of transport.

Third picture shows Palacio del Infantado, Guadalajara in Spain:

This was built in 1480-1483. That entire upper gallery and massive portal are great examples of Isabelline Gothic. Although the drawing cannot show how elaborate the stonework is in real life, because it is not photograph and there is simply too many little details of this elaborate style.

But when Catherine would be very little, the wealthy in Spain would be building such elaborate houses and her parents would also order buildings in such style.

[armstrongsteelbuildings]

Designing a Metal Garage That Fits Your Lifestyle

Metal buildings and garages are ideal for a wide range of uses, from storing vehicles and equipment to providing extra space for your business or hobby. Armstrong Steel Building Systems demonstrates the durability, cost-effectiveness, versatility, and longevity of these structures with high-quality metal building kits that are quick and easy to assemble. They can even tailor these structures to meet both your aesthetic and functional needs.   Armstrong Steel’s seasoned building consultants will eliminate the guesswork from designing your building your metal structure by working closely with you throughout the design process.  Below are a few tips to help you design the best metal garage for your needs:  Start with a quote.   Get a custom estimate for metal buildings and garages at Armstrong Steel and wait for one of their building experts to get in touch to discuss your unique needs, objectives, and budget. This is an important step when designing your garage because it gives you an accurate estimate of how much you can expect to spend on your project and what options are available. Don’t hesitate to ask questions so you can decide if their building system suits your current needs.   Place your order  Armstrong Steel’s detailing and engineering teams will work on your approval drawings as soon as you place your order.   Check the drawings before approving them.   Take the time to review your project’s approval drawings when you get them. If you like the design, you can approve them as they are. Otherwise, use red ink to mark your drawings and submit them to your project manager. This is your chance to make changes, add or remove openings, or add ridge vents, cupolas, or insulation to your custom metal buildings and garages. Be sure to check Armstrong Steel’s Dealer Catalog for features you can add to your garage.