#the diary of robert hooke
Note
Re: Your Addams Family Post, I now have the mental image of Gomez pretty much adopting Hob as another brother/cousin/what have you. "Children! Met your new Uncle!"
It starts with the auction.
Hob doesn't think of himself as a collector, but he's also self-aware enough that his doing so is more of a defense mechanism than anything else. Because he does. He collects. He can't help himself -- so much of his life can only be traced backwards through the shapes he's left behind, his self, of a necessity, always needing to vanish into the background. He follows his own history through letters to Dear Robert Gadlyn, portraits painted with one of his hats in the background, an authentic Victorian jacket supposedly worn by Wilde himself, and which Hob vividly remembers shucking from Oscar's shoulders, leaving it to puddle forgotten on the floor while they'd kissed in sweet silence on the settee.
So when he gets an email from his friend Kev at Hansons, a "check this book out mate" sort of deal with an eyes emoji appended to it, Hob is already intrigued. Kev is good at finding him the more esoteric things for his not-collection, and hasn't steered him wrong before, and he's not disappointed when he opens the link to find a listing for a book. A book, specifically, from the 1600s. Being an Account of the Dread Pirate Sylvia, her Ancestors, her Descendants, and Her Pets, it says, though it's not the title that catches his eye so much as the provided scans of some of the pages. The handwriting is beautiful, flowing and elegant and heavy on the page, and it makes his heart ache for a time before keyboards and typewriters, when gorgeous penmanship could be counted as a virtue and not just a hobby. There are sketches of fantastical sea beasts, navigational maps, the most beautifully-rendered charcoal drawing of an orca he's ever seen, and.
And a drawing of him.
Not him as he was in 1699, when this was apparently written, but him in 1374. Him, younger, fresh-faced, just a slip of a beard still, his head tilted back, laughing. Great great etc grandmother's cousin, says a caption beneath it, in that same heavy and flowing hand. Late 1300s? Must track him down
Motherfucker, Hob thinks, and sends a few emails.
Twenty-four hours later, he's the proud owner of a fantastically well-preserved diary/travelogue/grimoire, having shelled out a significant amount of funds to even get the thing, on account of some American trying to outbid him at every turn. He's not surprised, then, when he gets an email shortly after his final bid has been locked in, from the rather posh-sounding [email protected]
The contents of the email, though. Are, to say the least, alarming.
I say my dear boy, it starts, I don't suppose we could come to an agreement as to a different price for Lady Penelope Addams' only surviving diary? If you're interested in antiques of rich and unusual history, I am certain I can provide. Only it contains one of very few references to a lost branch of our family, the Lady Penelope's great great etc grandmother and her kin, and I, being invested in genealogy, am eager to explore this hidden part of our family tree.
Absolutely not, Hob thinks, shutting his laptop with a click. Absolutely buggering bloody fuck not, he thinks, shoving a sweater into his suitcase, because it's winter, and it's Chicago, and he has no idea what sort of weather to expect. This is fucking insanity, he thinks, hands folded in his lap on the plane.
What are you doing? he asks himself, as the door to the grand gothic manor opens, and Hob, who has just trekked a portion of a mile through a swamp and had to kick an alligator to keep it from lunging at his suitcase, looks down at the man who had identified himself in emails as Gomez Addams, his. His relative. Somehow, far distant, but his.
"Robert Gadling," he says, with obvious relish, and Hob feels himself hooked by the crook of his elbow, hauled into the foyer with surprising force. "Come in! Come in! Children! Come meet your new uncle!"
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Welcome to Letters2fiction!
The concept here is to send in a question or a letter request, and you’ll get a response from your fictional character of choice, from the list below. Please stick to the list I’ve made, but of course, you can ask if there’s some other characters I write for, I don’t always remember all the shows, movies or books I’ve consumed over the years and I’m sure I’m missing a lot 😅
Status: New Characters added - Thursday March 21st, 2024
TV SERIES
A Discovery of Witches:
Matthew Clairmont
Baldwin Montclair
Gallowglass de Clermont
Marcus Whitmore
Philippe de Clermont
Jack Blackfriars
Sarah Bishop
Emily Mather
Diana Bishop
Ysabeau de Clermont
Miriam Shepard
Phoebe Taylor
Gerbert D’Aurillac
Peter Knox
Father Andrew Hubbard
Benjamin Fuchs
Satu Järvinen
Meridiana
Law and Order:
Rafael Barba
Sonny Carisi
Joe Velasco
Mike Duarte
Terry Bruno
Peter Stone
Hasim Khaldun
Nick Amaro NEW!
Mike Dodds
Grace Muncy
Kat Tamin
Toni Churlish
Amanda Rollins
Olivia Benson
Rita Calhoun
Casey Novak
Melinda Warner
George Huang
Sam Maroun
Nolan Price
Jamie Whelan
Bobby Reyes
Jet Slootmaekers
Ayanna Bell
Jack McCoy
Elliot Stabler
One Chicago:
Jay Halstead (Could also be Will if you want)
Antonio Dawson
Adam Ruzek
Greg "Mouse" Gerwitz
Dante Torres
Vanessa Rojas
Kevin Atwater
Sean Roman
Matt Casey
Kelly Severide
Joe Cruz
Sylvie Brett
Blake Gallo
Christopher Hermann
"Mouch"
Otis
Violet Mikami
Evan Hawkins
Mayans MC:
Angel Reyes
Miguel
Bishop
Coco
Nestor
911 verse:
Athena Grant
Bobby Nash
Henrietta "Hen" Wilson
Evan "Buck" Buckley
Eddie Diaz
Howie "Chimney" Han
Ravi Panikkar
T.K. Strand
Owen Strand
Carlos Reyes
Marjan Marwani
Paul Strickland
Tommy Vega
Judson "Judd" Ryder
Grace Ryder
Nancy Gillian
Mateo Chavez
The Rookie:
Lucy Chen
Tim Bradford
Celina Juarez
Aaron Thorsen
Nyla Harper
Angela Lopez
Wesley Evers
BBC Sherlock:
Greg Lestrade
Mycroft Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Moriarty
Molly
Bridgerton:
Anthony Bridgerton
Benedict Bridgerton
Simon Basset
Daphne Bridgerton
Eloise Bridgerton
Kate Sharma
Edwina Sharma
Marina Thompson/Crane
Outlander:
Jamie Fraser
Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser
Frank Randall
Black Jack Randall
Brianna Fraser
Roger MacKenzie
Fergus Fraser
Marsali Fraser
Jenny Fraser Murray
Ian Murray Sr.
Ian Fraser Murray
Murtagh Mackenzie
Call The Midwife:
Shelagh Turner / Sister Bernadette
Dr. Patrick Turner
Nurse Trixie Franklin
Nurse Phyllis Crane
Lucille Anderson
Nurse Barbara Gilbert
Chummy
Sister Hilda
Miss Higgins
PC Peter Noakes
Reverend Tom Hereward NEW!
Narcos:
Horacio Carrillo
Peaky Blinders:
Tommy Shelby
Downton Abbey:
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham
Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham
Lady Mary Crawley
Lady Edith Crawley
Lady Sybil Crawley
Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham
Isobel Crawley
Matthew Crawley
Lady Rose MacClare
Lady Rosamund Painswick
Henry Talbot
Tom Branson
Mr. Charles Carson
Mrs. Hughes / Elsie May Carson
John Bates
Anna Bates
Daisy Mason
Thomas Barrow
Joseph Molesley
Land Girl:
Connie Carter
Reverend Henry Jameson (Gwilym Lee's version)
Midsomer Murder:
DCI Tom Barnaby
Joyce Barnaby
Dr. George Bullard
DCI John Barnaby
Sarah Barnaby
DS Ben Jones
DS Jamie Winter
Sgt. Gavin Troy
Fleur Perkins
WPC Gail Stephens
Kate Wilding
DS Charlie Nelson
Sergeant Dan Scott
NEW! Once Upon A Time
Regina / The Evil Queen
Mary Margaret Blanchard / Snow White
David Nolan / Prince Charming
Emma Swan
Killian Jones / Captain Hook
Mr. Gold / Rumplestiltskin
Neal Cassidy / Baelfire
Peter Pan
Sheriff Graham Humbert / The Huntsman
Jefferson / The Mad Hatter
Belle
Robin of Locksley / Robin Hood
Will Scarlet
Zelena / Wicked Witch
Alice (Once in Wonderland)
Cyrus (Once in Wonderland)
Jafar (Once in Wonderland)
Gideon
Tiger Lily
Naveen
Tiana
Granny
Ariel
Prince Eric
Aladdin
Jasmine
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Hercules
Megara
Tinker Bell
Merida
Red Riding Hood
Mulan
Aurora / Sleeping Beauty
Prince Phillip
Cinderella
Prince Thomas
NEW! The Vampire Diaries / The Originals
Stefan Salvatore
Damon Salvatore
Caroline Forbes
Elena Gilbert
Bonnie Bennett
Enzo St. John
Niklaus Mikaelson
Elijah Mikaelson
Kol Mikaelson
Rebekah Mikaelson
Freya Mikaelson
Finn Mikaelson
Mikael
Esther
Marcel Gerard
Davina Claire
MOVIES
The Pirates of the Caribbean:
Captain Jack Sparrow
Barbossa
Will Turner
Elizabeth Swann
James Norrington
Kingsman:
Merlin
Harry Hart
Eggsy Unwin
James Spencer / Lancelot
Alastair / Percival
Roxy Morton / Lancelot
Maximillian Morton / The Shepherd
Orlando Oxford
Jack Daniels / Whiskey
Gin
BOOKS
Dreamland Billionaire series - Lauren Asher:
Declan
Callahan
Rowan
Iris
Alana
Zahra
Dirty Air series - Lauren Asher:
Noah
Liam
Jax
Santiago
Maya
Sophie
Elena
Chloe
Ladies in Stem - Ali Hazelwood books:
Olive
Adam
Bee
Levi
Elsie
Jack
Mara
Liam
Sadie
Erik
Hannah
Ian
Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros:
Xaden Riorson
Dain Aetos
Jack Barlowe
Rhiannan Matthias
Violet Sorrengail
Mira Sorrengail
Lillith Sorrengail
Bodhi Durran
Liam Mairi
#a discovery of witches#law and order svu#law and order#law and order oc#chicago pd#chicago fire#mayans mc#911 abc#911 lone star#the rookie#bbc sherlock#sherlock#bridgerton#outlander#call the midwife#narcos#downton abbey#peaky blinders#land girls#midsomer murders#once upon a time#the vampire diaries#the originals#the pirates of the caribbean#kingsman#dreamland billionaires#dirty air series#love hypothesis#love theoretically#loathe to love you
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2023 reading log
the uncensored picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde / jan. 2-9 / 4 stars
buzz saw: the improbable story of how the washington nationals won the world series by jesse dougherty / jan. 9-11 / 4.5 stars
proposal by meg cabot / jan. 17 / 3 stars
sidelined: sports, culture, and being a woman in america by julie dicaro / jan. 12-17 / 4 stars
remembrance by meg cabot / jan. 18-19 / 3 stars
how sweet it is by dylan newton / jan. 19-20 / 3 stars
daughters of sparta by claire heywood / jan. 21-22 / 3 stars
highly suspicious and unfairly cute by talia hibbert / jan. 22 / 4 stars
gentlemen prefer blondes: the diary of a professional lady by anita loos / jan. 23-26 / 3 stars
hell bent by leigh bardugo / jan. 26-31 / 4 stars
all about love: new visions by bell hooks / jan. 22-31 / 4 stars
daisy jones & the six by taylor jenkins reid / jan. 31-feb. 2 / 4 stars
everything i know about love: a memoir by dolly alderton / feb. 2-9 / 4 stars
emma by jane austen / feb. 11-19 / 4 stars
fake it till you bake it by jamie wesley / feb 19-23 / 3.5 stars
my dark vanessa by kate elizabeth russell / feb. 23-26 / 4 stars
throttled by lauren asher / feb. 26-28/ 2 stars
the locker room by meghan quinn / mar. 1-5 / 1 star
come as you are: the surprising new science that will transform your sex life by emily nagoski / feb. 17-mar. 5 / 4.5 stars
pucked by helena hunting / mar. 5-11 / 3 stars
legendborn by tracy deonn / mar 12-23 / 4.5 stars
unadulterated something by m.j. duncan / mar. 23-25 / 4 stars
the fifth season by n.k. jemisin / mar. 26-apr. 15 / 4 stars
how to fake it in hollywood by ava wilder / apr. 16-19 / 3.5 stars
sharp objects by gillian flynn / apr. 19-22 / 4 stars
the homewreckers by mary kay andrews / apr. 22-25 / 3.5 stars
the kiss curse by erin sterling / apr. 25-26 / 3.5 stars
the wedding crasher by mia sosa / apr. 26-27 / 3 stars
let’s get physical: how women discovered exercise and reshaped the world by danielle friedman / mar. 25-apr. 27 / 4 stars
mile high by liz tomforde / apr. 27-may 6 / 1.5 stars
happy place by emily henry / may 6-7 / 5 stars
carrie soto is back by taylor jenkins reid / may 7 / 4 stars
the spanish love deception by elena armas / may 8 / 2 stars
neon gods by katee robert / may 8-9 / 1 star
love in the time of serial killers by alicia thompson / may 9-11 / 4 stars
the bodyguard by katherine center / may 11 / 4 stars
the intimacy experiment by rosie danan / may 11-12 / 3 stars
upgrade by blake crouch / may 12-13 / 4 stars
by any other name by lauren kate / may 13 / 3 stars
the dead romantics by ashley poston / may 15-17 / 4 stars
the ballad of songbirds and snakes by suzanne collins / may 19-28 / 3.5 stars
so many ways to lose: the amazin’ true story of the new york mets—the best worst team in baseball by devin gordon / may 13-jun. 4 / 4 stars
iron widow by xiran jay zhao / jun. 5-7 / 3 stars
the grace year by kim liggett / jun. 7-8 / 4 stars
the last magician by lisa maxwell / jun. 9-11 / 4.5 stars
little fires everywhere by celeste ng / jun. 12-14 / 4 stars
not a happy family by shari lapena / jun. 14-17 / 2.5 stars
the familiars by stacey halls / jun. 17-21 / 3 stars
the girls i’ve been by tess sharpe / jun. 21-22 / 3.5 stars
once more with feeling by elissa sussman / jun. 23 / 3 stars
the cheat sheet by sarah adams / jun. 24-25 / 1 star
how to sell a haunted house by grady hendrix / jun. 26-29 / 3 stars
little thieves by margaret owen / jul. 1-3 / 4.5 stars
this is how you lose the time war by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone / jul. 3-6 / 3 stars
the very secret society of irregular witches by sangu mandanna / jul. 11-12 / 4 stars
the lies of locke lamora by scott lynch / jul. 13-27 / 4.5 stars
seven days in june by tia williams / jul. 28-30 / 4 stars
bloodmarked by tracy deonn / jul. 31-aug. 2 / 4 stars
something wilder by christina lauren / aug. 3-4 / 3 stars
howl’s moving castle by diana wynne jones / aug. 4-5 / 4 stars
dark matter by blake crouch / aug. 12-13 / 3 stars
eat up! food, appetite, and eating what you want by ruby tandoh / jul. 30-aug. 14 / 4 stars
the silent companions by laura purcell / aug. 5-18 / 4 stars
mr. wrong number by lynn painter / aug. 19-20 / 2 stars
romantic comedy by curtis sittenfeld / aug. 20-21 / 4 stars
the last tale of the flower bride by roshani chokshi / aug. 21-23 / 4 stars
the hating game by sally thorne / aug. 23-25 / 2 stars
lessons in chemistry by bonnie garmus / aug. 25-26 / 2.5 stars
the godparent trap by rachel van dyken / aug. 27 / 2 stars
i’m glad my mom died by jennette mccurdy / aug. 27-29 / 4 stars
the atlas six by olivie blake / aug. 29-sep. 9 / 3 stars
wordslut: a feminist guide to taking back the english language by amanda montell / sep. 1-9 / 4 stars
practice makes perfect by sarah adams / sep. 10-11 / 3 stars
all systems red by martha wells / sep. 13-14 / 3 stars
do i know you? by emily wibberly and austin siegemund-broka / sep. 14-16 / 4 stars
same time next summer by annabel monaghan / sep. 17 / 3.5 stars
Ounder the influence by noelle crooks / sep. 18-22 / 4 stars
burn for me by ilona andrews / sep. 22-23 / 4 stars
the littlest library by poppy alexander / sep. 24 / 3 stars
the neighbor favor by kristina forest / sep. 25-27 / 3 stars
satisfaction guaranteed by karelia stetz-waters / sep. 28-oct. 5 / 3 stars
the ex talk by rachel lynn solomon / oct. 5-7 / 4 stars
change of plans by dylan newton / oct. 8-9 / 2 stars
coraline by neil gaiman / oct. 9 / 4 stars
you, again by kate goldbeck / oct. 9-11 / 3 stars
mrs. caliban by rachel ingalls / oct. 12 / 3 stars
summer sons by lee mandelo / oct. 12-19 / 4 stars
the death of jane lawrence by caitlin starling / oct. 19-24 / 3 stars
house of hollow by krystal sutherland / oct. 25-29 / 4 stars
white hot by ilona andrews / oct. 28-nov. 2 / 4.5 stars
twice shy by sarah hogle / nov. 4-5 / 3 stars
sexed up: how society sexualizes us, and how we can fight back by julia serano / nov. 2-10 / 4 stars
artificial condition by martha wells / nov. 11-14 / 4 stars
wildfire by ilona andrews / nov. 14-16 / 4.5 stars
between a fox and a hard place by mary frame / nov. 18 / 3 stars
revolting prostitutes: the fight for sex workers’ rights by molly smith and juno mac / nov. 18-20 / 4 stars
emily wilde’s encyclopaedia of faeries by heather fawcett / nov. 21-24 / 4.5 stars
love and other words by christina lauren / nov. 24-25 / 3 stars
the boyfriend candidate by ashley winstead / nov. 26 / 3.5 stars
the seven year slip by ashley poston / nov. 27-28 / 5 stars
how to fall out of love madly by jana casale / dec. 3-10 / 3 stars
ordinary monsters by j.m. miro / dec. 10-21 / 3 stars
rogue protocol by martha wells / dec. 22-23 / 4 stars
what you wish for by katherine center / dec. 25 / 3 stars
the blonde identity by ally carter / dec. 25-26 / 2.5 stars
just my type by falon ballard / dec. 26-31 / 2 stars
#belatedly jumping on this trend don’t mind me#trying to inject some life back into this blog#allison’s reading log
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books read in 2023
january
sweep in peace by ilona andrews
one fell sweep by ilona andrews
a court of mist and fury by sarah j. maas
sweep of the blade by ilona andrews
sweep with me by ilona andrews
my best friend’s exorcism by grady hendrix
kiss her once for me by alison cochrun
the seven husbands of evelyn hugo by taylor jenkins reid
i’m glad my mom died by jennette mccurdy
love and other words by christina lauren
sweep of the heart by ilona andrews
the only living girl on earth by charles yu
witches get stuff done by molly harper
you had me at hola by alexis daria
her vigilante by lillian lark
inconvenient daughter by lauren j. sharkey
anon pls. by deuxmoi
you are eating an orange. you are naked. by sheung-king
legends & lattes by travis baldree
bad vibes only (and other things i bring to the table) by nora mcinerny
signs of cupidity by raven kennedy
bonds of cupidity by raven kennedy
crimes of cupidity by raven kennedy
read: 23
february
exciting times by naoise dolan
sweethand by n.g. peltier
you made a fool of death with your beauty by akwaeke emezi
something wilder by christina lauren
highly suspicious and unfairly cute by talia hibbert
you deserve each other by sarah hogle
this is how you lose the time war by amal el-mohtar and max goldstone
would you rather by allison ashley
read: 8
march
meet me in the margins by melissa ferguson
king of battle and blood by scarlett st. clair
the exotic by hampton sides
river of shadows by karina halle
alone with you in the ether by olivie blake
lovelight farms by b.k. borison
the soulmate equation by christina lauren
before i let go by kennedy ryan
haunting adeline by h.d. carlson
the lies i tell by julie clark
one jump at a time by nathan chen
our wives under the sea by julia armfield
all systems red (the murderbot diaries #1) by martha wells
before the coffee gets cold by toshikazu kawaguchi
read: 14
april
funny you should ask by elissa sussman
make a scene by mimi grace
sweeter than chocolate by lizzie shane
the kiss quotient by helen hoang
my favorite half-night stand by christina lauren
romantic comedy by curtis sittenfeld
icebreaker by a.l. graziadei
the wedding proposal by john swansiger
circling back to you by julie tieu
by the book by amanda sellet
a lady’s guide to mischief and mayhem by manda collins
love in the time of serial killers by alicia thompson
if the shoe fits by julie murphy
whispers of you by catherine cowles
the kiss curse by erin sterling
by the book by jasmine guillory
honey & spice by bolu babalola
one night on the island by josie silver
the bodyguard by katherine center
the reunion by kayla olson
the neighbor favor by kristina forest
crooked kingdom by leigh bardugo
do i know you? by emily wibberley & austin siegemund-broka
just my type by falon ballard
delilah green doesn’t care by ashley herring blake
happy place by emily henry
dating dr. dil by nisha sharma
icebreaker by hannah grace
count your lucky stars by alexandria bellefleur
stone cold fox by rachel koller croft
fake it till you bake it by jamie wesley
read: 31
may
the dead romantics
motherthing by ainslie hogarth
the woman in the library by sulari gentill
artificial condition (the murderbot diaries #2) by martha wells
the last word by taylor adams
you shouldn’t have come here by jeneva rose
read: 6
june
fourth wing (the empyrean #1) by rebecca yarros
the very secret society of irregular witches by sangu mandanna
love, theoretically by ali hazelwood
read: 3
july
the traitor queen (the bridge kingdom #2) by danielle l. jensen
the beast by katee robert
baldur's gate: descent into avernus by by james introcaso et. al
forget me not by julie soto
the wishing game by meg shaffer
read: 5
august
the true love experiment by christina lauren
pachinko by min jin lee
almond by sohn won-pyung, translated by joosun lee
hook, line, and sinker by tessa bailey
read: 4
september
hey, u up? (for a serious relationship): how to turn your booty call into your emergency contact by emily axford & brian murphy
everyone knows your mother is a witch by rivka galchen
fangs by sarah andersen
a room with a view by e.m. forster
juniper bean resorts to murder by gracie ruth mitchell
one's company by ashley hutson
the mysterious affair at styles by agatha christie
solita: a gothic romance by vivien rainn
you, again by kate goldbeck
the undertaking of hart and mercy by megan bannen
my roommate is a vampire by jenna levine
the picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde
the vampires of el norte by isabel cañas
her body and other parties by carmen maria machado
evil eye by etaf rum
the seven year slip by ashley poston
read: 17
october
keeper of enchanted rooms by charlie n. holmberg
the serpent and the wings of night by carissa broadbent
shy by max porter
down comes the night by allison saft
the unfortunate side effects of heartbreak and magic by breanne randall
the hurricane wars by thea guanzon
read: 6
november
a witch's guide to fake dating a demon by sarah hawley
the wake-up call by beth o'leary
when in rome by sarah adams
the view was exhausting by mikaella clements and onjuli datta
hello stranger by katherine center
practice makes perfect by sarah adams
do your worst by rosie danan
read: 7
december
bookshops & bonedust by travis baldree
the fake mate by lana ferguson
read: 2
final count: 127/100
#kate’s reading log#read in 2023*#a little late but i wanted to get this up here !!#i’ll update as i go so if you don’t want to see this just blacklist kate’s reading log :)#we hit character limit so i had to reformat lol
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The Bracket
Round 3 is underway, links to all current and previous polls beneath read more
Round 3
Group 1 26/6
Dorian Gray vs Elias Bouchard
Shelly De Killer vs Gustavo Fring
Essek Thelyss vs Dracula
Hannibal Lector vs Jean Descole
Group 2 28/6
Ty Betteridge vs Jin Guangyao
The Gentlemen vs Babenon Dosal
The Phantom of the Opera vs Count Dooku
James Moriarty vs Kristoph Gavin
Round 2
Group 1 19/6
The Master vs Dorian Gray
Elias Bouchard vs Peppermint Butler
Silco vs Shelly De Killer
Gustavo Fring vs Elim Garak
Group 2 20/6
Hannibal Lecter vs Toffee
The Gentleman Ghost vs Jean Descole
Sebastian Michaelis vs Essek Thelyss
Doc Scratch vs Dracula
Group 3 21/6
The Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair vs Ty Betteridge
Jin Guangyao vs Jigsaw/John Kramer
Dr Jekyll vs The Gentlemen
Babenon Dosal vs Luxord
Group 4 22/6
Spy vs The Phantom of the Opera
Viren vs Count Dooku
James Moriarty vs Scar
Kristoph Gavin vs The Penguin
Round 1
Group 1
The Master (Robert Delgado portrayal, Doctor Who) vs Dennis Reynolds (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia)
Dorian Gray (The Portrait of Dorian Gray) vs Bill Cipher (Gravity Falls)
Ghirahim (The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword) vs Elias Bouchard (The Magnus Archives)
Fate (Death and Taxes) vs Peppermint Butler (Adventure Time)
Group 2
Silco (Arcane) vs Swain (League of Legends)
Billy Flynn (Chicago) vs Shelly De Killer (Ace Attorney)
Gustavo Fring (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) vs Captain Hook (Peter Pan)
Elim Garak (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) vs Sinestro (DC/Green Lantern)
Group 3
Xu Wenwu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) vs Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs (1991))
Elijah Mikaelson (The Vampire Diaries, The Originals) vs Toffee (Star vs. the Forces of Evil)
Skulduggery Pleasant (Skulduggery Pleasant) vs The Gentleman Ghost (DC)
Jean Descole (Professor Layton) vs Lucifer (The Sandman)
Group 4
Gabriel (Good Omens) vs Sebastian Michaelis (Black Butler)
Lysandre (Pokemon XY) vs Essek Thelyss (Critical Role)
Doc Scratch (Homestuck) vs Aro (Twilight)
Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes) vs Dracula (Dracula)
Group 5
Togami Byakuya (Danganronpa) vs The Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell)
Saruman the White (The Lord of the Rings) vs Hubert von Vestra (Fire Emblem: Three Houses) (vs Ty Betteridge (woe.begone))
Jin Guangyao (Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed) vs Ferdinand (Granblue Fantasy)
August Ruthven (The Case Study of Vanitas) vs Jigsaw/John Kramer (Saw)
Group 6
King Dice (Cuphead) vs Dr Jekyll (Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde)
The Gentlemen (Buffy) vs Griffith (Berserk)
Emet Selch (FFXIV) vs Babenon Dosal (Critical Role)
Luxord (Kingdom Hearts) vs Horde Prime (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)
Group 7
Spy (Team Fortress 2) vs Tywin Lannister (A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones)
Señor Senior, Sr. (Kim Possible) vs The Phantom of the Opera (The Phantom of the Opera)
Walter Strickler (Tales of Arcadia: Trollhunters) vs Viren (The Dragon Prince)
Count Dooku (Star Wars) vs Lestat (Interview with the Vampire)
Group 8
Gentle Criminal (My Hero Academia) vs James Moriarty (Fate/Grand Order)
Scar (The Lion King) vs Magneto (X-Men)
Kristoph Gavin (Ace Attorney) vs Zaroff (The Most Dangerous Game)
The Penguin (Batman) vs The Spider (The Spider and the Fly)
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Characters I Write For
Please message me with any ideas/requests! I need ideas(short fics or series)
Mostly write for fem!readers. I can write fluff, angst, smut, etc. If I’m not comfortable with something I can let you know
Character/Actor List
Favorite Characters/Actors To Write For
Draco Malfoy, Weasley twins
Jesse Pinkman
Paul Dano characters
Josh Hutcherson characters
Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Castiel
Damon Salvatore, Silas, Klaus Mikaelson, Kol Mikaelson
Rodrick Heffley
Bellamy Blake
Ezra Fitz(should probably make it clear I don’t condone)
Ian Duncan(Community)
Charlie(It’s Always Sunny)
Luke Castellan, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase
Finnick Odair
Tommy Shelby
Killian Hook
Paul Dano
Klitz(The Girl Next Door)
Dwayne Hoover(Little Miss Sunshine)
Edward Nashton(The Batman)
Calvin Weir-Fields(Ruby Sparks)
Brian Wilcox(Fast Food Nation)
Joby Taylor(For Ellen)
Nick Flynn(Being Flynn)
Josh Hutcherson
Peeta Mellark(The Hunger Games)
Mike Schmidt(FNAF)
Josh Futturman(Future Man)
Devon Bostick
Rodrick Heffley(Diary of a Wimpy Kid)
Jasper Jordan(The 100)
Cillian Murphy
Tommy Shelby(Peaky Blinders)
Dr. Jonathan Crane(The Dark Knight)
Neil(Watching the Detectives)
Christian Bale
Patrick Bateman(American Psycho)
Bruce Wayne(The Dark Knight)
Breaking Bad
Jesse Pinkman
Jane Margolis
Saul Goodman
Harry Potter(Golden Trio Era)
Harry Potter
Ron Weasley
Hermione Granger
Fred Weasley
George Weasley
Ginny Weasley
Luna Lovegood
Neville Longbottom
Draco Malfoy
Pansy Parkinson
Blaise Zabini
Theodore Nott
Daphne Greengrass
Adrian Pucey
Terence Higgs
Harry Potter(Marauders Era)
James Potter
Remus Lupin
Sirius Black
Lily Potter
Severus Snape
Regulus Black
Lucius Malfoy
Narcissa Malfoy
Bellatrix Lestrange
Arthur Weasley
Harry Potter(Fantastic Beasts Era)
Newt Scamander
Queenie Goldstein
Leta Lestrange
Percy Jackson
Percy Jackson
Annabeth Chase
Luke Castellan
Thalia Grace
Jason Grace
+ Gods
Criminal Minds
Spencer Reid
Aaron Hotchner
Emily Prentiss
Derek Morgan
JJ
Penelope Garcia
David Rossi
Elle Greenaway
Cat Adams
Megan Kane
Supernatural
Dean Winchester
Sam Winchester
John Winchester
Mary Winchester
Castiel
Charlie Bradbury
Rowena McLeod
Adam Milligan
Lucifer
Ruby
Jessica Moore
Gabriel
Benny Lafitte
Bela Talbot
Jo Harvelle
Ellen Harvelle
Gilmore Girls
Lorelai Gilmore
Christopher Hayden
Luke Danes
Logan Huntzberger
Jess Mariano
The Hunger Games
Peeta Mellark
Katniss Everdeen
Gale Hawthorn
Finnick Odair
Johanna Mason
Haymitch Abernathy
Pretty Little Liars
Aria Montgomery
Spencer Hastings
Emily Fields
Hannah Marin
Mona Vanderwaal
Alison Di Laurentis
Jason Di Laurentis
Ezra Fitz
Toby Cavanaugh
Jenna Marshall
Caleb Rivers
The Vampire Diaries
Damon Salvatore
Stefan Salvatore
Katherine Pierce
Elena Gilbert
Jeremy Gilbert
Bonnie Bennett
Caroline Forbes
The Originals
Klaus Mikaelson
Elijah Mikaelson
Kol Mikaelson
Rebekah Mikaelson
Freya Mikaelson
Hayley Marshall
Marcel Gerard
Davina Claire
Twilight
Edward Cullen
Bella Swan
Alice Cullen
Jasper Hale
Rosalie Hale
Emmett Cullen
Victoria
The 100
Bellamy Blake
Octavia Blake
Jasper Jordan
Shameless
Fiona Gallagher
Lip Gallagher
Carl Gallagher
Frank Gallagher
Mandy Milkovich
Kevin Ball
Veronica Fisher
The Bear
Carmy Berzatto
Sydney Adamu
Richie Jerimovich
Suicide Squad
Harley Quinn
Rick Flag
Blackguard
Once Upon A Time
Emma Swan
Regina Mills
Killian Jones
Rumplestiltskin
Robin Hood
Ruby
Hades
Community
Jeff Winger
Abed Nadir
Annie Edison
Troy Barnes
Ian Duncan
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
Charlie Kelly
Dennis Reynolds
Dee Reynolds
Mac
Cricket
House MD
Greg House
Robert Chase
James Wilson
Lisa Cuddy
Parks and Recreation
Ben Wyatt
April Ludgate
Andy Dwyer
MCU, Marvel
Steve Rogers
Tony Stark
Natasha Romanoff
Bruce Banner
Wanda Maximoff
Loki Laufeyson
Peter Parker(Holland, Garfield, Maguire)
Gamora
Peter Quill
Scott Lang
Steven Strange
Jessica Jones
Wade Wilson
DC CW
Oliver Queen
Barry Allen
Felicity Smoak
Laurel Lance
Sara Lance
Malcom Merlyn
John Constantine
Leonard Snart
Ray Palmer
Caitlyn Snow
Julian Albert
Rip Hunter
10 Things I Hate About You
Patrick Verona
Cameron James
New Girl
Jess Day
Nick Miller
Schmidt
Other Characters
Charlie Kelmeckis(Perks Of Being A Wallflower)
Jesse Eisenberg Characters
Dr. Who(10th Doctor)
Will Probably Add More
#draco malfoy#rodrick heffley#josh hutcherson#robert pattinson#cillian murphy#christian bale#paul dano#ezra fitz#marauders era#marauders#percy jackson#finnick odair#supernatural#damon salvatore#luke castellan#loki laufeyson#jesse pinkman#jesse eisenberg#peter parker#tasm peter parker#ian duncan#charlie kelly#jeff winger#logan huntzberger#logan lerman#killian jones#bellamy blake#carmy berzatto#fem!reader#jeremy allen white
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Alexander Skarsgård: ‘There’s a politeness to Swedes. It’s a facade. Deep down we’re animals’
The actor talks about his new film, the explicit sci-fi horror Infinity Pool, why he gave up acting for eight years – and why he likes playing darker, more twisted characters.
Alexander Skarsgård: ‘I’m quite mellow in my disposition.’ Photograph: Charlie Clift
Alexander Skarsgård is an embarrassing creep who tries to coerce women into partying naked with him in hotel suites. Or so it would seem from the version of himself that he played last year in Donald Glover’s comedy Atlanta. “I’m not saying that I dance around in a leopard-print thong in front of girls I don’t know,” he says. “But I’m also not saying that I don’t. That kind of thing works really well when there’s a kernel of truth in it.”
This twinkling, teasing playfulness represents the default setting of the 46-year-old actor. His natural self-deprecation is what makes it so startling when he turns up on screen as another of the brutes and bastards that have become his speciality over the years. There was the violently abusive husband in the HBO series Big Little Lies and the violently abusive cop in War on Everyone; a racist in Passing and a rapist in the Straw Dogs remake, as well as a sad, moustachioed sleazeball who sleeps with his partner’s underage daughter in The Diary of a Teenage Girl. Eric, the vampire he played across all seven series of True Blood, was an absolute catch by comparison.
It could even be argued that Skarsgård looks lost or vague in those roles that don’t supply some darkness to temper his natural sheen. He was ferocious as a mud-caked proto-Hamlet in Robert Eggers’s wild Viking epic The Northman, but as the yodelling vine-swinger in The Legend of Tarzan, there was none of the usual depth present behind his beauty. Whereas his character in the new satirical horror Infinity Pool – directed by Brandon Cronenberg, son of David – is up to his disbelieving eyes in vanity, amorality and rancid privilege.
Skarsgård plays a novelist called James living off the wealth of his wife, Em (Cleopatra Coleman), and struggling to write a second book six years after his debut. In search of inspiration, he and Em visit a luxurious resort in an unnamed country. What begins as a taunting comedy about the awfulness of the 1% veers off into extremity when the couple fall in with the hedonistic Gabi (Mia Goth) and her partner, Alban (Jalil Lespert). All it takes for the impressionable James to be hooked by these reprobates is a few compliments from Gabi followed by a sex act shown in graphic detail. “My job is so hard,” the actor says with a smirk.
Cronenberg and Skarsgård are both the sons of talented men. (Skarsgård’s father is Stellan Skarsgård who, like him, is part of the Lars von Trier Cinematic Universe.) Director and actor also have a certain placid temperament in common. “There’s a politeness to Canadians and Swedes,” says Skarsgård. “But it’s all just a fucking facade. Deep down we’re animals. We’re just very good at concealing it.” He gestures at me. “Brits too. It’s all down there, though. You can just open the tap and let it out. That’s what this movie does.”
Even as the film descends into gruesome horror, Skarsgård remains committed to the idea of his character as a show pony with delusions of being a stallion. “James is arm candy. His wife buys him all these expensive clothes. The two of them look like something out of a travel brochure: the perfect couple on vacation. And he’s trying to play that part while wanting also to be this serious author. But he’s not a Charles Bukowski, he’s not tormented and twisted. He isn’t in touch with the darker side of his personality.”That changes when James finds himself facing the death penalty after accidentally killing a local farmer. He is assured by the police that there is a way out: for a hefty price, a clone of him can be created to take the fall on his behalf. This is no dumb beast, however; the sacrificial lamb will possess all his memories and feelings. It will, in effect, be indistinguishable from him. In a film featuring explicit sex and violence, there is still nothing quite as unnerving as the moment James encounters his own double as it wakes with a shocked gasp in a vat of red goo.
“The film company gave me a prosthetic of the clone’s face with all that goo round it,” he says, shaking his head. “It’s incredibly disturbing. What am I meant to do with it? Should I just hang it on the wall? Put it in the fridge?” He decided to go down the practical joke route. “When I have guests over, I’ll hide it in different places around the house.”
Would he take the clone option himself, I wonder? “One hundred per cent! I don’t blame James for going to the ATM. But it opens up other questions. If the clone retains all his memories, then how will he ever know that he is not the clone? Maybe they’re killing the real James. That fascinated me, and I love that there’s no answer in the movie. To throw another wrench in the works: maybe James has even been to the island already. Maybe he’s done this sort of thing before.”
These questions of authenticity, dilution and duplication are especially intriguing for an actor who proposed that twisted alternate version of himself in Atlanta, and who claims to suffer even now from impostor syndrome. Had you been present in 2008 on the set of Generation Kill, the HBO Iraq war mini-series written by the creators of The Wire and shot in Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa, you might have noticed him sitting off to one side between takes, quietly totting up figures with a pen and paper. “It was my first big job,” he explains. “I was so convinced they were going to fire me that I started calculating the cost of recasting the role once they realised I wasn’t good enough. A month or two in, I was still convinced that every time the phone rang, it was my agent saying: ‘Pack your bags, you’re not cutting it.’ It was only when we’d done some big battle scenes that I knew it would be too expensive to replace me.”
It wasn’t as if he has a history of flunking, though there was the job in the Stockholm bakery that he was sacked from at the age of 16. “We were dipping little biscuits in chocolate for six hours a day in a basement and that was the only thing we got to do,” he says pleadingly, as though mounting the case for his defence. “When you get chocolate on your fingers, it’s tempting to put little stains on your buddy’s white robes. That turned into a bit of a food fight.” He smiles bashfully. Chocolate wouldn’t melt in his mouth.
A few years earlier, he had abandoned a childhood acting career after feeling freaked out by all the attention he received. “When people recognised me, or I thought they did, it made me very uncomfortable. I also believed everything I heard about who I was. Most people at 13 have no idea who they are. I was going from a boy to a man, which is a crazy transformation anyway, but to do it while being in the spotlight was not healthy. That’s why I didn’t work for eight years.” What could he learn now as an actor from his younger self? “There was a lot of joy,” he says. “That makes me sound bitter now! But there was something innocent and lovely and wide-eyed. It’s worth remembering that it can still be a big silly game.”
On Becoming a God in Central Florida. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy
His continuing appetite for comedy bears this out. He was a riot in the opening episode of On Becoming a God in Central Florida, where he played a dope who gets involved with a pyramid scheme before being eaten by an alligator. (His on-screen wife was Kirsten Dunst. For further proof that their marriages never end well, see Von Trier’s apocalyptic Melancholia.) He also goofs around gloriously in the new season of Documentary Now!, in which he stars as a Werner Herzog-esque director shooting an epic in the Urals while simultaneously showrunning a US network comedy pilot called Bachelor Nanny. “I’ve met Herzog a few times over the years, but I don’t know if he’s seen this yet,” he says, slightly sheepishly. “I’m curious to hear what he thinks.”
It was in fact comedy that tempted Skarsgård back to acting again after all those years away. He was on holiday in Los Angeles in the early 00s when his father’s agent suggested he try out for an audition. Six weeks later, he was pootling around New York in the back of a Jeep with Ben Stiller, pouting away happily as gormless Swedish model Meekus in Zoolander. Getting that job was such a breeze that he was crestfallen to be knocked back repeatedly in other Hollywood auditions. He returned to Sweden to continue acting; another six years elapsed before Generation Kill kickstarted his US career.
These days, he seems somehow both ubiquitous and judicious. He is getting ready to make his directorial debut with The Pack, in which he and Florence Pugh star as documentary makers in Alaska. And he will return this month in the fourth and final season of Succession, which reportedly places even greater emphasis on Skarsgård’s character, the tech bro Lukas Matsson. Another bad boy of sorts.
With Brian Cox and Kieran Culkin in Succession. Photograph: Graeme Hunter
“Quite a few of the projects I’ve chosen deal with the juxtaposition of someone trying to function in modern society while also dealing with that atavistic primal question of who he is deep down and what happens when that flares up and can’t be suppressed any longer,” he says. “It’s incredibly cathartic to play those roles. Maybe because I’m quite mellow in my disposition. These darker, more twisted characters give me an opportunity to howl that primal scream and let it out, which I rarely do in everyday life.”
James in Infinity Pool has his head turned by the tiniest compliment; Skarsgård knows that, for all his own protestations about refusing to read what is written about him, he is just as susceptible to praise. “I really don’t read reviews,” he says. “That said, it’s so nice when people enjoy your work enough to come say something or take a photo. I’d prefer that to the alternative, which is crawling around in the mud for seven months and giving it everything and then it’s just … crickets. I like people appreciating what I’ve done. I’m a vain motherfucker!”
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hey besties. this is an indie semi selective multifandom multimuse run by ya girl rissa. you can also call me satan. my pronouns are she / they. i am 29. established 12/22/2018. based in america. rebooted december 2021. this blog’s activity is low.
fandoms include: scream, star wars, marvel, dc, the boys, the vampire diaries universe, chilling adventures of sabrina, zombies, once upon a time, descendants, mythology, video games, game of thrones, euphoria, horror, and more fandoms. canons and ocs contained within. all bios under co. roleplays mainly from mobile but also from the desktop. discord is available upon request to my mutuals only. minors dni. duplicate muse and face claim friendly. crossovers welcomed.
if you want to continue an ask meme, please move it to a new post. do not gross towards my muses who are minors. if you ship minors with adults, do not interact with me. do not attempt to ship men with my lesbian muses. reblog from the source. this includes ask memes and other posts besides posts made for my mutuals or posts with the tag okay to reblog. please read my rules before interacting. triggers on this blog include but are not limited to: blood, gore, violence, murder, manipulation, gaslighting, incest, past abuse mentions, and toxic relationships. everything is tagged. please proceed with caution.
REBLOG FROM THE SOURCE OR ELSE. this includes ASK MEMES, PSAS, EDITS, GIFS, AESTHETICS, MUSIC, MUSINGS, AND MORE. only things tagged with OKAY TO REBLOG are okay to reblogged from me. multiple offenses of this will result in a soft block to mutuals. non mutual rp blogs will get blocked automatically. non rp blogs will also get blocked automatically.
due to melissa barrera's firing from scream 7, i do not support the movie and any other movie that might follow after it. dni if you support the movie going forward.
most active fandom: scream
most active canons: chad meeks martin. mickey altieri. rey skywalker. leia skywalker / darth lamia. han solo. steve rogers. thor odinson. yelena belova. diana prince. barry allen. sabrina morningstar spellman. jennifer check. maxine minx. tree gelbman. carrie white. evie jackson. tommy jarvis. eve gardner. mazikeen smith. sookie stackhouse. rosalie hale. rebekah mikaelson. stefan salvatore. kol mikaelson. drogon. daenerys targaryen. aemond targaryen. zed necrodopolous. harry hook. evie grimhilde. dante sparda. danny fenton. barbie roberts. ken carson. regina george. finnick odair. annie january / starlight. ciri riannon. killian jones.
most active ocs: ania organa solo. sofia torres. nikia perez. raiden tanaka. aemma velaryon. wren wulfric. alessatia falon. valentina santos. mateo ramirez. ophelia meadows.
links: rules | muses | navi | playlists | head canons | memes | starter calls | opens
affilates: @thvnkpink ( all blogs ), @graunblida, @burdenchaos, @lcveblossomed, @depictedblue ( all blogs ), @spcckystcries, @hopegained, @faeryworlds
blog roll: @loomisheir / @loomiskiller / @neversith / @stardustresource
personal / non rp blogs: do not reblog my threads, ooc posts, ic posts, shit posts, edits, or head canons. i will block you. non mutual rp blogs & personal blogs, reblog from the source or i will block you. this also means sideblogs. if i am not following your sideblog, i WILL block it.
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^_^
updated as of April 12th, 2024
Currently Reading
Notes From Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (rereading for my IB exam)
Started Reading/On Pause For Now
Animorphs #9 by KA Applegate
Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry
Anarchism and Other Essays by Emma Goldman
The Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
The Odyssey by Homer
Misery by Stephen King
The Conquest of Bread by Pyotr Kropotkin
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Paradise Lost by John Milton
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Intimacy by Jean-Paul Sartre
The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson
Dracula by Bram Stoker
It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft
Yeast: the Practical Guide to Beer Fermentation by Jamil Zainasheff and Chris White
Reading List
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Electra by Euripides
The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
Drag King Dreams by Leslie Feinberg
Transgender Liberation: a Movement Whose Time Has Come by Leslie Feinberg
Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault
The History of Sexuality by Michel Foucault
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Feminism is for Everybody by Bell Hooks
The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by Bell Hooks
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Daisy Miller by Henry James
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Children of the Corn by Stephen King
Cujo by Stephen King
Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Becoming a Visible Man by Jamison Green
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
Chicken with Plums by Marjan Sartrapi
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
The Last Man by Mary W. Shelley
Electra by Sophocles
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Perfume: the Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
None Of This Rocks by Joe Trohman
Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Boy With The Thorn In His Side by Pete Wentz
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Armadillo Prophecy by Zerocalcare
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The Drowned World- 7.5/10
Second in the Sara Kingdom Trilogy
*Old Review*
The Drowned World was performed by Jean Marsh, written by Simon Guerrier, and was released in July 2009.
Short Summary: Sara tells another story to Robert with the intention of bringing it to the Elders to help her. Things inevitably go awry and Robert comes back, years later, with another wish…
I really liked the first half of this story. It was strong, intriguing, and I was hooked the whole time. It shocked me when it ended, I thought only a few minutes had passed! I really liked how the first part was structured. Robert writing in a diary about this time he went to see “Sara” to get another adventure out of her so he can take it to the Elders. The cliffhanger was cool, making the Elders wait for the second half while also, in a way, making the audience wait. The actual cliffhanger annoyed and intrigued me. I was quite pissed at Robert for dispersing “Sara” but curious to see how part two would play out. Random point: I quite like how there were multiple references to the Doctor being scared and worried. “The Doctor is worried and genuinely scared over events that are happening” is, in my opinion, one of the most effective scary tropes in DW and I’m so glad they used it.
Onto part 2… I liked this one less. It had a lot of “action” (ie. Sara trying not to die) which is not something I particularly like in an audio drama. I also felt like the way they brought “Sara” was kinda lame. Robert just brought her back by telling her story? If that was the case, why did Home Truths make such a big deal over “Sara” being destroyed?
In the second half specifically, Sara showed a lot of remorse for killing Bret. While that was nice and all, I felt like they dragged it out a bit and brought it up a few too many times.
Now, as for Robert, I don’t know if we were supposed to feel bad for him? He was never very nice to “Sara”. I mean, he practically killed her at the end of part 1 only to bring her back for his own personal gain. And even at the end of all that he was still convinced that she needed to go. What a bitch. There were a lot of similarities between Sara and Robert (Sara killed Bret because of the law, and Robert killed Sara because of the law) which I found interesting. Overall, though, he was just not someone you could feel remorse for.
As for Steven, he wasn’t the one to almost die which is a plus though that implies that he almost lost Sara which… isn’t fun.
7.5/10
Friend Death Count: 0
Steven Tortured Count: 0
The Doc does some messed up shit to Steven Count: 0
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List of All my 2023 Reads
[ ] The Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag
[ ] Penguins Love Color by Sarah Aspinall
[ ] The Bugabees: Friends With Food Allergies by Amy Recob
[ ] A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon
[ ] Stop Monkeying Around by Christine Swift, et. al.
[ ] Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly, et. al.
[ ] The Potty Book for Girls by Alyssa Satin Capucilli, et. al.
[ ] Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss
[ ] Creepy Carrots! by Aaron Reynolds, et. al.
[ ] Creepy Pair of Underwear! Aaron Reynolds, et. al
[ ] Creepy Crayon! by Aaron Reynolds, et. al
[ ] Nickelodeon Blue's Clues & You Learning Series by Phidal Publishing
[ ] Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall, et. al.
[ ] The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
[ ] A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
[ ] The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson, et. al.
[ ] Stay Out of the Basement by R. L. Stine
[ ] Stuck on Murder by Lucy Lawrence
[ ] Barbie Dolls by Nathan Sommer
[ ] Welcome to Dead House by R. L. Stine
[ ] What Is The Constitution? by Patricia Brennan Demuth, et. al.
[ ] Barbie My First Pony by Mona Miller, et. al.
[ ] The Black Queen by Jumata Emill
[ ] The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
[ ] Stinetinglers by R. L. Stine
[ ] A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple, Mayflower, 1620 by Kathryn Lasky
[ ] Stuart Little by E. B. White
[ ] Monster Blood by R. L. Stine
[ ] Make a TikTok Every Day: 365 Prompts for Attention-Grabbing TikTok by Dave Jorgensen
[ ] Richard Scarry's Best Little Word Book Ever!
[ ] Obeying the Law by Kirsten Chang
[ ] Shrek! by William Steig
[ ] The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh (1-4) by A. A. Milne
[ ] Last But Not Leashed by Eileen Brady
[ ] Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
[ ] The House on Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne
[ ] Police Station by Amy McDonald
[ ] What a Desi Girl Wants by Sabina Khan
[ ] The Great Patty Caper by Erica David
[ ] The Amazing SpongeBobini by Steve Banks
[ ] What Were the Twin Towers? by Jim O'Connor
[ ] A Christmas Candy Killer by Christina Romeril
[ ] The Supermarket Mystery by Richard Scarry
[ ] Postman Pig and His Busy Neighbors by Richard Scarry
[ ] How to Catch a Witch by Alice Walstead
[ ] Monsters Unmasked! (Scooby-Doo) by Nicole Johnson
[ ] Alice's Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
[ ] The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
[ ] The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories by P.D.James
[ ] Hooked in Murder by Betty Hechtman
[ ] Here Comes the Body by Maria DiRico
[ ] The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson
[ ] Gossip Girl (#1) by Cecily von Ziegesar
[ ] The Great Banned Books Bake Sale by Aya Khalil et al.
[ ] How to Catch Santa Claus by Alice Walstead
[ ] Indigo and Ida by Heather Murphy Capps
[ ] The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
[ ] Killer Christmas by John Hall
[ ] Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
[ ] Queen Bee by Amalie Howard
[ ] The Between by Tananarive Due
[ ] James and Giant Peach by Roald Dahl et al
[ ] This Book is Banned by Raj Haldar
[ ] Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
[ ] The Nutcracker: The Original Holiday Classic by E. T. A. Hoffmann
[ ] The Christmas Murder Games by Alexandra Benedict
[ ] Kismat Connection by Ananya Devarajan
[ ] The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
[ ] The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
[ ] The Chocolate Sundae Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner
[ ] Finding My Dance by Ria Thundercloud et al
[ ] Halloween Cupckaes Murder by Carlene O' Connor et al
[ ] Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie et al.
[ ] Slime Doesn't Pay by R. L. Stine
[ ] Drive Thru by Erica David
[ ] The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart
[ ] Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard
[ ] What Was the Underground Railroad? by Yona Zeldis McDonough et al
[ ] Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
[ ] Peppa Loves to Bake by Eone
[ ] Where Do We Go From Here : Chaos or Community? by Martin Luther King Jr
[ ] The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
[ ] Halloween at Creepy Castle by Alison Inches et al
[ ] The Christmas Story: Experience the magic of the first Christmas by D. K. Publishing
[ ] ABCs of Kindness at Christmas by Patricia Hegarty et al
[ ] Apple and Pumpkin: The Battle for the Best Fall Treat Is On! by Jeffery Burton
[ ] Winter: A Solstice Story by Kelsey E. Gross et al
[ ] What was the Holocaust? by Gail Herman et al
[ ] Barbie in a Christmas Carol by Mary Man-Kong
[ ] Franklin's Christmas Gift by Paulette Bourgeois et al
[ ] Unicorn Christmas by Diana Murray et al
[ ] Dino-Christmas by Lisa Wheeler et al
[ ] NPR: The First Forty Years
[ ] A Nancy Drew Christmas by Carolyn Keene
[ ] The Christmas Swap by Talia Samuels
[ ] History Smashers: Christopher Columbus and the Taino People by Kate Messner et al
[ ] The Teacher March! by Sandra Neil Wallace
[ ] Christmas Is Here! by Charles M. Schulz
[ ] Mermaid Day by Diana Murray et al
[ ] Four Found Dead by Natalie D. Richards
[ ] Love In Winter Wonderland by Abiola Bello
[ ] The Picture House Murders by Fiona Veitch Smith
[ ] Plankton's Christmas Surprise! by John Cabell et al
[ ] Dashing Through the Snow by Debbie Macomber
[ ] History Smashers: The Mayflower by Kate Messner
[ ] Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
[ ] Miles and Miles of Reptiles by Tish Rabe et al
[ ] Christmas in Camelot by Mary Pope Osborne
#afropuffsstudios#afropuffs studios#booklr#reading list#reading life#reading is life#booknerd#book lover#bookblr#book blogger#book blog#2023 reads#reading app#books and libraries
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'Ever since the atomic genie was unleashed at the end of World War II, popular culture has been hooked to the bomb: part morbid fascination, part coping mechanism, hundreds of films, video games, books, songs, art installations and TV shows have had us gaze upon a mushroom cloud. And for every Mad Max: The Road Warrior or Fallout dreaming up a punk rock, fantastical playground out of the post-nuclear apocalypse, there's the Sheffield-set social horror Threads or American nightmare The Day After, mining disquieting terror out of the brutal truth of nuclear war.
On watching The Day After, broadcast to 100 million Americans in 1983, Ronald Reagan wrote in his diary: “It's very effective and left my greatly depressed. […] My own reaction was one of having to do all we can to have a deterrent and to see there is never a nuclear war.” You'd imagine he had more than a few sleepless nights over it.
There's a unique fear factor to nuke movies, after all: they depict an unthinkable, terrifying possibility. Perhaps it was more appreciable an anxiety at the height of the Cold War, but global events of the last eighteen months have reminded us that nukes never went anywhere. Most recently, Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, a biopic of the “father of the atomic bomb,” has brought nuclear nightmares back to mass audiences, no doubt compounded by the macabre kismet of releasing in the shadow of the Ukraine conflict. Literal nightmares, according to some reports.
So how can we tackle our renewed, burgeoning fears of the bomb? Some might suggest you run a thousand miles in the other direction and try to find a nice, comfy bunker before the end days come, but we're proponents for tackling terror head-on, with a little cinematic exposure therapy...
8. Oppenheimer (2023)
Oppenheimer is essentially a prequel to the rest of the films listed here — the one that started them all! For better or worse. Christopher Nolan's three-hour biopic covers the life and times of the American nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, credited to his later chagrin as the father of the atomic bomb. Part film about men who speak to each other urgently in shadowy rooms, part court drama, Oppenheimer doesn't drop its horror bomb until right at the end, but when it does, it hits with shockwave force. Tormented by his invention, Oppenheimer imagines nuclear war as not a possibility but the terrible inevitability of the weapon he has unleashed upon the world. In his mind's eye, the world is consumed by a gluttonous blaze, like an unending forest fire, until nothing's left. It's a staggering ending that'll have you forcibly removing your clammy, grip-locked hands from your armrests...'
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“The brightest star on the darkest night.”
Six.
.・゜゜・ ・゜゜・．
Tw: blood and injuries
July 19th, 1978
Dear Diary, today seems different. Odd even, its a lot colder today I have this white dress I could wear it's kinda warm. But something feels off, I have no idea why but it just does.
I kissed Nick yesterday! I'm so happy, plus todays the color war so that's pretty fun. I have to help organize the Shadysider's part of the event so that'll be cool, I think we are blue! Which is one of the best colors to have so suck on that Sunnyvale!╭∩╮
Super stoked for today.
- yours truly, Maxine.
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Max hopped off the bed, Joan stirring in the bed across the room "too early." She whined.
"Joan," she looked at her watch "it's actually like nine a.m,, so not that early." She smiled.
"Still too early, I get the earth woke you up early but I didn't wake me up early today..for once,, actually that's pretty dang in your face about it, earth!" The hippie sat up a bit upset.
"You tell the earth that!" She gave her a thumbs up as she got ready, slipping on the white dress well not entirely white, it was off-white due to its age and how well loved it was, her beat up converse came next.
Taking a tan cardigan she put it on and left the cabin with a smile, she was gonna start this day off right.
-
Ziggy got in trouble, shocker right?
"She BURNED you?" Max gasped.
"Yeah! That bitch."
"I'll teach her something," the brunette began to lift her sleeve up, ready for a fight.
"You just turned eighteen earlier this year, you can't get into a fight you'll get arrested and charged with child endangerment." The ginger stated.
"I hate when you're right." Max sat back down.
"Yeah I know," she looked at the burn a little closer. "Shelia is a really bitch."
"I know,,"
"Go to nurse Lane and get that patched up, please?"
"Your boyfriend already told me to, considering he's the one who helped get me NOT kicked out."
"Oh that's hot of him."
"..ew." Ziggy scowled in disgust.
"What? I can't say that but you can say that about Robert Hooks?"
"Obviously have you seen Robert Hooks?"
"I have, not my cup of tea."
"White mans whore." The girl gasped and hit Ziggy arm.
"Hey! You also like Roger Taylor!"
"I do, he's a pimp."
"Oh god you are infuriating." She laughed.
"Always," she winked standing up. "Now I'm off to see our lovely Nurse Lane,"
"Don't get into a brawl."
"No promises!" She exited the room.
Max laughed to herself for a moment, Ziggy Berman was going to be the death of her.
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"Nurse Lane did what?" She stared at Nick.
"She attacked Tommy out of no where, she's being brought to the hospital... that dress is.." he was staring, she snapped her fingers together.
"Hey! Focus, Dork." He looked back up at her and nodded.
"Sorry,, you just look so angelic.."
"Aw that's sweet,, I hope nurse Lane is alright though," she frowned.
"Same, she's a really nice lady.." he held Max's hand. "Can I get a kiss?"
"Oh my god," she laughed pressing a kiss to his cheek.
"On the lips please?" He had a pleading look.
"You really are yanking my chain here." She giggled pressing a kiss to his lips.
"The only chain you have is the one your cross sits on."
"Very true," she touched the golden necklace on her neck. "Jesus is watching you." She joked.
"My not very religious, girl-friend."
"Oh indeed," she smiled.
"You excited about the color war?"
"Uh yeah we are kicking your Sunnyvale ass, Goode." She flicked his nose.
"That's what you think, missy." He winked stepping back.
"Uh huh, sure." She laughed turning away from him. "You can kiss my Shadysider butt later when we win."
"Oh I hope you win then." He smiled "now I am off to go be the best counselor ever."
"I'm the favorite here, Nicky boy."
ੈ✩‧₊˚
"You sure you got it, Jeremy?" The boy nodded his head happily, Tommy seemed out of it.
"I'm good,"
"Alright then head out you little fiends! Get your butts to winning!!" She smiled brightly watching them scatter, her eyes drifted towards the older teen. "You okay?"
"..huh? Oh yeah I'm okay just... a little foggy." Max placed a cool hand to his very warm skin.
"You are burning up, you should really lay down, Tommy."
"No- no,, it's nothing I'll be okay."
"I will call, Cindy over here if I have to."
"You are infuriating sometimes." He laughed lightly.
"And you seem to be the center of attention recently, Mr.Nearly got stabbed."
"Oh you hush." He rolled his eyes, he sighed a bit as he leaned against one of the cabins. "I'll be okay, you go do your own thing, okay?"
"Yeah I will." She laughed.
ੈ✩‧₊˚
The girl patrolled around a bit, her eyes searching for any lost campers when she watched Nick run slightly away from the outhouse seemingly locking it.
"Nick?" Her voice reaching his ears as a camper screamed inside.
"Max! Hey,, you didn't see that."
"Oh,, but I did." She giggled a bit. "Who's in there?"
"Sheila." Ziggy's voice met her ears, she turned to her.
"You guys locked her in there!? Oh my goodness." She laughed a bit. "What did you both do?"
"We Carrie'd her with bugs." The ginger looked proud of herself.
"With BUGS?" Max covered her mouth still giggling. "That's evil."
"Oh extremely, that's why it was my idea." Nick chirped up.
"You two- are assholes." She rolled her eyes, "don't do anything more stupid than this,, please." She kissed his cheek.
"I won't I promise," he smiled softly, she turned to Ziggy.
"You are probably gonna get kicked out for this one huh?"
"Not unless your boyfriend chooses to help me out of this again."
"My hero," she giggled cupping Nicks face.
"I like the sound of that." He hummed.
-
The girl had left the two only a few minutes ago, she was still just patrolling around so that no campers would get hurt or anything you know, her job. The sound of crunching leaves had her turning towards the sound. "Hello?"
Her eyes drifted towards a figure only a few feet away from where she was standing. "Who's there?" She called out. The eyes just trained on her, she could recognize that stature of who it was. "Tommy? You are being awfully quiet,, it's a little scary." She joked lightly.
He began to step forward, closer to the lights. That's when she took notice of the red that stained his face, the bloody axe in his hands. She was frozen, her eyes widened. "Tommy?" She needed to run, it was as if her feet were just stuck to the ground but the moment he got too close for comfort she began to run.
Terror, pure terror was all she could think about, her heart was pounding in her ears, she didn't even feel the scream leave her throat when she felt the warmth of the metal colliding with her left arm. She flew sideways hitting a wooden cabin wall. "Ow- fuck fuck-" she cried her eyes drifting towards her soon to be killer.
"Tommy- please," she felt tears weld in her eyes as he lifted the axe upwards she had to make a choice in that moment, die or attempt to run away. She's a pretty small person as is, she's about five feet, pretty lanky with her limbs and there was a small opening so..
Her body moved faster than her mind could handle it, the axe hit the cabin as she moved out of the way her hair getting slightly chopped in the process, she was running towards well anywhere else just horrified. "Help! Someone please!" She cried.
She held onto her arm, her tan cardigan now staining crimson as tears rolled down her cheeks. Her eyes narrowed towards the woods. Could be worse, she didn't see anyone not a single soul, like the camp had been abandoned.
The brunette ran a bit faster, huffing a little bit as she leaned against a tree she was farther away from, Tommy. She winced a bit as she moved her hand away from the wound "oh this is so fucked.. oh fuck.." she closed her eyes as she heard screams. "The campers." Her eyes widened as she leaned forward adjusting herself.
"Get out of the woods! This isn't apart-" she moved forward a small painful gasp left her lips. "This isn't apart of the game! Get to the mess hall, hell get somewhere safe please!" She screamed.
ੈ✩‧₊˚
She doesn't know how long she had been walking or just telling campers to get out of the woods.
"Max?" until she heard Nick's voice, he seemed to be searching for the counselor, yet it was like heaven to her to know he was okay.
"Cindy! Kurt! Alice?? Joan?" He called out.
"Nick.." she whispered weakly as she was getting closer to him.
"Where the fuck is everyone!?" He turned his flashlight pointed towards her, his eyes widened as he ran toward her. "Max, holy shit.." he cupped her face, "oh baby,," his brows furrowed.
"Nicky,," she smiled softly her head slightly narrowed downward as she practically fell towards him.
"You- you are bleeding out.."
"I'm aware," she said breathlessly. He got on his knees as she just curled up towards him.
"Don't you dare die on me, Heartford!"
"Nick, what would you do without me if I died?" She laughed through her tears.
"I'd probably be found dead in a ditch." He laughed sadly, tears filling his eyes.
"My dress,," she swallowed dryly, "tear the bottom.."
"What?"
"Quick- quick bandage.. I'm going to die if I bleed out,, I don't want to die here,, I refuse to."
"Imagine- Camp Nightwing victim aged eighteen, Nick Goode's hot girl-friend," the male lightly joked as he tore the bottom hem of her dress off, taking the scrapped pieces and wrapping them around her wounded upper arm, she winced out in pain but it gave her some energy.
"Imagine,," she laughed dryly.
He helped her up, holding onto her sides. "We are going to be okay,"
"We are probably going to die."
"That's not very cheery of you."
"Nick,, I'm INJURED."
"..true."
"Mhm."
#angst#oc story#oc stuff#right person not enough time#oc x canon#soulmates#nick goode x oc#nick goode#gore#kurt fear street#gary fear street#joan fear street#fear street 1978#fear street#Arnie fear street#alice hart#blood#cindy berman#ziggy berman#child death#getting injured#tommy slater#murder#camp killers#camp nightwing#friends to lovers trope#star crossed lovers#70s horror#idk what tags to use#cw: gore
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I feel a sort of reverence in going over these scenes in this most beautiful country, which I am proud to call my own, where there was such devoted loyalty to the family of my ancestors – for Stuart blood is in my veins.
- Queen Victoria on Scotland
For a British monarch, Queen Victoria was extremely quick off the mark in making her first visit to Scotland in 1842, only five years after her coronation as Queen. Hooked on the stories of Sir Walter Scott, Queen Victoria toured the country with Prince Albert, spending several days in the capital at Edinburgh.
Then in September 1844 she returned to Scotland with Prince Albert and her young daughter Vicky at her side. This time she visited Blair Castle in Perthshire. They all enjoyed not only Scottish oatmeal porridge but its spectacular fresh landscapes, especially the Highlands, which captivated them both and inspired a rich new adoption of ideas. Later, they took on Highland life in the fullness of its tastes and traditions, something which was recorded in a wealth of artwork, not least in the Queen’s watercolours.
Victoria and Albert loved Scotland so much they inspired a trend for tartan and tweed across the kingdom. They returned over and over again, and after taking possession of Balmoral in 1848 they actually built a castle of their own.
Queen Victoria was a keen diarist and kept detailed records of her stays in Scotland, writing exhaustively about what happened each day: whether Albert’s hunting trips had been successful, who they dined with, her thoughts on the landscape, Highland pony riding, plans for scenes to sketch, details of the people she met, whether she liked them or not.
One of the most common urband legends of Victoria’s time in Scotland is that she and Albert got lost in the Highlands and sought shelter and hospitality in a poor family’s cottage.
Queen Victoria certainly never mentioned getting lost in the forest alone with Prince Albert on horseback, as depicted in the recent British drama series Victoria.
Queen Victoria never mentioned being forced to seek shelter with a kindly poor couple who cooked delicious trout over an open fire and let them stay the night, and there’s no record of her hiding her identity as Queen and learning to darn a sock like a “normal” person.
Still – you can see where this fanciful storyline came from. What we do see in her journal is that, for her, the wild Scottish Highlands were an escape from reality.
“After the constant trying publicity we are accustomed to, it is so pleasant & refreshing, to be able, amidst such beautiful surrounding, to enjoying such complete privacy & such a simple life,” she wrote in her diary.
And while and Albert avoided getting lost, they did have an idyllic pony ride accompanied by only one servant – as close to privacy as the monarch could really get.
“When I awoke the sun was shining brightly & it lit up the mountains so beautifully,” she wrote. “At 9, we set off, both, on ponies, attended only by Lord Glenlyon’s excellent servant, Sandy McAra, in his Highland dress, to go up one of the hills.
“We went through a ford, Sandy leading my pony, and Albert following closely, and then went up the hill of Tulloch straight over a very steep cabbage field, afterwards going round zigzag to the very top, the ponies scrambling up over stones & heather, & never once making a false step. The view all round was splendid & so beautifully lit up. From the top it was quite like a panorama.
“We could see the Falls of Bruar, the Pass of Killiecrankie, Ben y Gloe, and the whole range of hills behind, in the direction of Tay mouth. The house itself & the houses in the village looked like toys, from the height at which we were. It was very wonderful. We got off once or twice, & walked about. There was not a house or creature near us, only pretty Highland, black faced sheep.”
She added: “It was the most delightful, and most romantic ride and walk, I had ever had.”
Another time they cut it fine on a pony ride, with the Queen suddenly becoming worried about nightfall – “Got alarmed at seeing the sun sinking, for fear of our being benighted, & we called anxiously for Sandy to give a signal to Albert to come back. At length we got on the move, skirting the hill & the ponies went as safely & securely as possible.”
But they made it home just in time: “A long day indeed, but one which I shall not easily forget.”
And as for visiting a couple of unsuspecting-yet-kindly Highlanders at their cottage?
The only mentions of a “cottage” make clear this is no poor man’s house: “We got out at the Cottage, which is pretty & beautifully situated. There are some good Landseers in the room we went into.” With paintings by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer on the walls this is not exactly a poor man’s hut…
As she prepared to leave at the end of September, Victoria reflected on her time in Scotland: “I am so sad at thinking of leaving this charming place, & the quiet, liberty, & the pure air we have enjoyed. The action life we have been leading, peculiar in its way, has been so delightful.”
Having already lost her beloved husband Albert, Victoria found solace in Scotland and its people. John Brown was famously associated with Queen Victoria.
The Queen first mentioned Brown in her Journal on 11 September 1849, and from 1851 John Brown, at Albert's suggestion, took on the role of leading Queen Victoria's pony. In 1858, Brown became the personal ghillie (shooting guide and gun-loader) of Prince Albert.
After Prince Albert died in 1861, Queen Victoria went into deep mourning, becoming almost a recluse. In 1864, her daughter, Princess Alice, noted that the Queen had always been happy at Balmoral, especially when taking a ride in her pony cart. Why couldn't pony cart rides be made available at Windsor and at Osborne (the Queen's home on the Isle of Wight), with the Queen in the care of the man who so effectively led her pony at Balmoral? The Queen agreed and in December 1864 John Brown became a full-time servant. He was, as Queen Victoria put it in her journal, "indefatigable in his attendance and care".
By 1866 gossip about the relationship between the Queen and her extremely informal servant had started. Brown was the only person around Victoria prepared to "tell it like it was", and he often proved abrasive with members of the Royal Household: even, it is said, on at least one occasion giving the Prince of Wales the rough edge of his tongue. Rumours soon spread more widely, and Brown was featured in the satirical magazine Punch on 30 June 1866, and Queen Victoria came to be referred to by some members of her household (behind her back) as "Mrs Brown".
Speculation about Queen Victoria's 20 year relationship with Brown, following the early death of her husband Albert in 1861, started in court circles almost as soon as the unlikely friendship itself did when the queen was in her mid-forties.
Victoria's daughters joked about "Mama's lover", and the then Duke of Edinburgh (the queen's second son) claimed he had been evicted from Buckingham Palace because he refused to shake the servant's hand.
The news of 1866 carried a piece in the Gazette de Lausanne, a Swiss paper, that read, “On dit…that with Brown and by him she consoles herself for Prince Albert, and they go even further. They add that she is in an interesting condition, and that if she was not present for the Volunteers Review, and at the inauguration of the monument to Prince Albert, it was only in order to hide her pregnancy. I hasten to add that the Queen has been morganatically married to her attendant for a long time, which diminishes the gravity of the thing.” Most assuredly, no British paper carried such a tale, but once the word spread of the Queen’s supposed affair, there was no reining it back in.
In the United Kingdom it was Alexander Robertson’s pamphlet “John Brown: A Correspondence with the Lord Chancellor, Regarding a Charge of Fraud and Embezzlement Preferred Against His Grace the Duke of Atholl K. T. of 1873” that first openly suggested that Queen Victoria and John Brown had married morganatically - this being related to, or being a marriage between a member of a royal or noble family and a person of inferior rank in which the rank of the inferior partner remains unchanged and the children of the marriage do not succeed to the titles, fiefs, or entailed property of the parent of higher rank.
Citing one Charles Christie, ‘House Servant to the Dowager Duchess of Athole at Dunkeld House,’ Robertson claimed that John Brown was regularly noted as entering Queen Victoria’s bedroom when the rest of the household was asleep. Robert purported that Victoria married Brown at Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1868, with Duchess Anne standing as witness. The Duchess of Atholl vehemently denied Robertson’s allegations. Robertson went on to make other incendiary allegations without any proof including that Brown and Queen Victoria had a love child which as given up for adoption in Vaux, Switzerland.
Meanwhile, in our more recent times various newspaper revelations went as far as suggesting that the two had actually married based on newly unocvered letters from Victoria’s courtiers. Indeed a film was even made: "Mrs Brown" became the title of a 1997 film about the relationship, starring Dame Judi Dench as Queen Victoria and Billy Connolly as John Brown.
In 1872 John Brown knocked down a would-be assassin in what was the fifth attempt on Victoria's life. John died at Windsor Castle on 27 March 1883, aged 56, by some accounts because he was too devoted to Victoria. It is suggested that had he taken to his sick bed at the first sign of a chill, he would have survived, but his sense of duty was such that he carried on working until it was too late. He was buried at Crathie.
Were Queen Victoria and John Brown married? Historians are divided over this contentious claim. Those that have believe it have based their views on four pieces of information, none of which is in itself conclusive. But they believe that, when taken together, help swing the balance of probability in favour of a wedding having taken place:
After Victoria's death, two sets of mementos were placed in her coffin, at her request. On one side was placed one of Prince Albert's dressing gowns, while on the other was placed a lock of Brown's hair, along with a picture of him and a ring worn by Brown's mother and given to Victoria by Brown.
The published diary of the Liberal MP, the 1st Viscount Harcourt, for 17 February 1885 related a second-hand story told to his father, the then Home Secretary, by a renowned gossip, that on his deathbed in 1872 the Revd Dr Norman Macleod, the chaplain to Queen Victoria,stated that he had conducted a marriage ceremony between John Brown and Queen Victoria.
The Daily Mail on 2 September 2006 reported a similarly second-hand story in which a late senior member of the Royal Family had said that documents confirming a marriage had many years earlier turned up in the Royal archives at Windsor, and been destroyed.
After Victoria's death (a full 18 years after John Brown's own death), Edward VII tried to destroy everything connected with Brown, including busts and photographs. A life-size statue of Brown at Balmoral, commissioned by Queen Victoria after his death, was only saved by being moved to an obscure part of the estate where Edward was unlikely to find it.
My own view is that it’s a much ado about nothing. Although much of the gossip about John Brown and Queen Victoria was seen as ridiculous steps were taken to suppress information, for instance, when Queen Victoria died her daughter Princess Beatrice removed pages from the queen’s journal ‘that might cause pain” in her own words. People have msiread the intent behind such actions. The Royal family down the ages have always doused more petrol on the fire by simply trying to quell any rumours of impropriety that it invites unfounded wilder speculative tittle tattle.
It is clear, despite public gossip, there was nothing immoral in Queen Victoria’s relationship with John Brown. Queen Victoria would never have contemplated sex with a servant. People forget how rigid social roles really were and how seriously people viewed them in Victoria’s age despite the hypocrisy we have come to see them with.
Furthermore, she was never alone to carry out an affair having court ladies always within shouting distance. That was the whole point of having a royal court and doting ladies in waiting about the place.
The significance of Queen Victoria’s attraction to John Brown was that he - at worst - made a career out of her. He never married, had few holidays and devoted his life to the queen, and he was a walking encyclopedia of her like, dislikes, moods and needs. As a downright selfish person this greatly appealed to the queen. She liked him because she needed to be fussed, cosseted and spoiled. He told her the truth, spoke boldly to her and importantly too; unlike her family and senior courtiers, he was not afraid of her. Above all, when Prince Albert died Queen Victoria needed a male friend — she never really made close friendships with women — and someone to lean on. John Brown supplied all that.
Victoria’s visited Balmoral in her beloved Scottish Highlands in the late autumn of 1900. The Queen could not know it, but it was the last time that she would see the new castle which Prince Albert had erected in her words as his ‘own work… as at Osborne’ and which had become a box of intensely personal memories.
So deeply did the Queen feel her first visit to Balmoral after Prince Albert’s death in May 1862 (in pouring rain) that she wrote with painful dread to her eldest daughter, the Crown Princess of Prussia of the strange reality of everything: ‘Oh! Darling child… the stag’s heads – the rooms – blessed, darling Papa’s room – then his coats – his caps – kilts – all, all convulsed my poor shattered frame!’ (cit., Delia Millar, Queen Victoria’s Life in the Scottish Highlands, 101). Even the Queen’s lonely pursuit of spinning wool, which later became synonymous with her early widowhood, had been a vigorously traditional Highland activity (Ibid, 76). Now her widowhood of waiting was drawing to an end, forty years later, with the Queen’s approaching death.
The Queen’s unknowing leave-taking of Scotland took place gradually, over these last days at Balmoral. Touchingly, she was still referring to ‘tea’ – although by now, it consisted only of arrowroot and milk – drinking it at her secluded Highland retreat of Alt-na-giubhsaich. Queen Victoria’s last day included luncheon in Prince Albert’s rooms with her youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice and her Battenberg children. She left Balmoral fittingly, with the weather ‘wretchedly gloomy & dark’ whilst with her, she had a wreath to take back to Windsor, to place on the tomb of the Prince Consort at Frogmore; possibly it also contained the Balmoral heather she loved so much. Perhaps there may have been a presentiment, within the sentimental.
The Queen’s trusted doctor, Sir James Reid was with her at Osborne when she died, so presumably, the Queen would have had the comfort of a Scottish voice at her side, in between her lingering states of consciousness.
After her death, the Prince of Wales spoke a moving sentence of gratitude for Reid’s devoted service: ‘You are an honest straightforward Scotchman… I shall never forget all you did for the Queen’ (read Christopher Hibbert, Queen Victoria: A Personal History, pg. 494).
Significantly, the Queen instructed amongst the many sentimental items to be put in her coffin ‘some of which none of her family were to see’, a photograph of her devoted Highland servant, John Brown, which she ordered to be placed in her left and, with a lock of his hair. These were both tactfully hidden inside a silken case, the handiwork of the Queen’s late wardrobe maid Annie MacDonald, wrapped in tissue paper.
Afterwards, the Queen’s left hand was covered with Queen Alexandra’s flowers. Also put into the Queen’s coffin was a simple sprig of Balmoral heather, which Sir James Reid covered with a quilted cushion – made especially to fit the coffin – to preserve the Queen’s privacy in death.
Scotland was at her funeral, in the form of her Highland ghillies, as the Queen’s German grandson, Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse, wrote in his private memoirs: ‘[The moment] when her coffin was lowered in the mausoleum at Frogmore, remains unforgettable to me… I remained a moment there alone. When I looked about me, there were kneeling near me all of her ghillies [Highland servants] from Scotland, all strong, sturdy men, who were weeping there uncontrollably like sons for their mother…’ For her funeral, the Funeral March by Handel was substituted as per the Queen’s instructions, for music by Chopin and Beethoven and importantly, Highland dirges.
The sarcophagus or tomb chest was hewn from a flawless block of grey Aberdeen granite from the quarries at Cairngall in Scotland. Three attempts were made before this one was successfully carved out and it is purportedly the largest of its kind ever to have been hewn for such a use.
It was an appropriate Scotch bed for the Queen’s final sleep. Upon this sarcophagus, the effigies of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria lie still, a more sublime rendering of their marriage bed, staring into the beyond. Touchingly though, the head of Queen Victoria’s effigy is half-turned towards that of Prince Albert, as if it somehow suggesting that he died before she did. As in life, she is leaning, straining after the beloved husband that she mourned for half of her life.
The fact that their sarcophagus was quarried in Scotland is an appropriate choice for a royal couple who loved that country so much, becoming a little more Scotch with every visit. Appropriately for the Queen, parts of Eastern Central Scotland still celebrate Victoria Day, the last Monday before or on 24 May, Queen Victoria’s birthday.
Scotland was indeed with them, in the end. And continues to be with the House of Windsor.
#queen victoria#quote#monarchy#royalty#scotland#balmoral#queen#prince albert#highlands#tartan#victoria day#john brown#history#british#britain
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have any other actors updated their imdbs for diary??
Not much in the way of big new updates which is surprising since S2 is only a week away. There's actually an old update that I only just noticed now, the actor who plays Davis the racist white tennis guy from the rival team who made fun of the accent on Cañero is in eps 2x01 and 2x06. I hadn't noticed because I didn't recognize the actor. I don’t think his character will be super important but it is interesting that Davis’ last appearance is in 2x06 which is CJ’s first appearance. There’s a good chance that Davis will say something, probably racist, to Bobby or CJ and I could see Bobby standing up for CJ or vice versa and that’s their first big interaction ( I could definitely see Davis making fun of CJ’s afro but we’ll see).
The actor who plays Craig, Sam and Gabi’s married gay co-worker had updated his imdb a while back and he’s only in 2x07 this season. Dr. Cooper’s actor just updated his imdb and he’s in eps 2x01, 2x07, and 2x10. There’s a character named Adrienne who I think was one of Elena’s classmates in S1 who’s in eps 2x02, 2x05, 2x09, and 2x10. Another classmate named Flip is in eps 2x02, 2x05, and 2x06. A brand new character named Clara is in eps 2x04, 2x06, and 2x10. A new character named Hannah is only in ep 2x01. There’s a freshman girl character credited for 2x05, maybe a girl one of Bobby’s crew talks with in the background or something since she doesn’t get a name. Most of the mains and major recurring characters haven’t updated yet though so we might not know how many eps Cami or Jessica or Joey are in until the season is out.
Also for any fans of doafp out there, I highly recommend you check out the smash hit New Zealand rugby series Head High which just premiered the first ep of its 8 ep S2 run. It’s a great show that tackles a lot of important subjects and has a very engaging gay story line with Tai Roberts the star rugby player and his crush on his openly gay classmate Steven Grimstone. If you need a link for the 6 ep S1 or for 2x01 you can send an off anon message to santiagonex on tumblr and rumour has it he might be able to hook you up.
#Diary of a Future President#Doafp#Bobby Cañero-Reed#CJ#Cobby#Head High NZ#Taiven#Doafp Asks#Asks#Answered
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It’s Disney’s Investor’s Day and news of their projects just keep rolling out.
Disney bought LucasFilm for $4 billion so it’s no surprise they are going to exploit that IP the way Darth Vader....honestly, I don’t know. I’m not a “Star Wars” fan - I have nowhere to go with this analogy.
Just know they’re going to use it. Besides the STAR WARS-verse series previously announced like Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi series -
now complete with Hayden Christensen.
I hope he didn’t compel his daughter over to the dark side.
and Diego Luna’s ANDOR
is the announcement of 10 more Star Wars and 10 more Marvel series including two THE MANDALORIAN spin-offs RANGERS OF THE NEW REPUBLIC and AHSOKA.
STAR WARS THE ACOLYTE:
The Acolyte is a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.
A Lando Calrissian limited series, LANDO from Justin Simien (DEAR WHITE PEOPLE).
Film ROGUE SQUADRON helmed by WONDER WOMAN and WONDER WOMAN 1984 director Patty Jenkins.
The animated film RAYA and THE LAST DRAGON will have a day and date drop with a theatrical release and Disney+ Premier Access drop (like they did with MULAN) on March 5th.
IDisney and Pan-African entertainment company Kugali’s science fiction series Iwájú.
- FOX / FX news: Four more seasons of IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA and a new season of the Ron Howard produced GENIUS; this time focused on Martin Luther King Jr.
An ALIENS series from Noah Hawley (FARGO, LEGION) set on Earth; and early talks about a series about the formation of The Rolling Stones focusing on the group from the 1960s to 1972.
A final INDIANA JONES film (and I hope they kill that miserable bastard off). Directed by James Mangold, at least it will look good.
NatGeo unscripted series from The Kardashians, Chris Hemsworth and Will Smith.
Two series involving director Jon Chu (CRAZY RICH ASIANS). He and Ron Moore are conceiving a series based on THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON and Chu will direct the first episode of the series WILLOW based on the Ron Howard film. Warwick Davis returns to the role.
More sequels and retreads: PETER PAN & WENDY starring Yara Shahidi (Grown-ish) as TinekerBell and Jude Law as (sexy) Captain Hook; live-action PINOCCHIO with Tom Hanks a Gepetto and directed by Robert Zemekis; THE MIGHTY DUCKS: GAMECHANGERS with Emilio Estevez returning as the coach and a Josh Peck led TURNER AND HOOCH reboot. HOCUS POCUS 2 directed by Adam Shankman (HAIRSPRAY: THE MOVIE MUSICAL); SISTER ACT 3 with Whoopi Goldberg returning and produced by Tyler Perry; a prequel to THE LION KING from Barry Jenkins (MOONLIGHT) with music from Hans Zimmer, Nicholas Brittell (SUCCESSION) and Pharrell Williams; THREE MEN & A BABY starring Zac Efron; a CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN reboot from Kenya Barris (black-ish). An animated DIARY OF A WIMPY KID, an animated NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM, a hybrid live action CHIP & DALE: RESCUE RANGERS film starring John Mulaney and Andy Samberg,
series focused on TIANA and one on MOANA; a BIG HERO 6 continuation series BAYMAX; and ICE AGE: ADVENTURES OF BUCK WILD featuring the voicework of Simon Pegg.
Say what now?
Final confirmation of THE LITTLE MERMAID live-action cast.
The one I’ve been waiting on: a sequel to 2007′s ENCHANTED starring Amy Adams. But it is titled DISENCHANTED which doesn’t bode well for the relationship between Adam’s Giselle and Patrick Dempsey’s Robert.
#Disney#disney+#star wars#obi wan kenobi#ewan mcgregor#diego luna#cassian andor#andor#the mandalorian#fox#tv talk#entertainment news#movies#film#it's always sunny in philadelphia#lando#lando calrissian#indiana jones#hayden christensen#willow#the mighty ducks#amy adams#enchanted#the little mermaid#zac efron#night at the museum#fx#john mulaney#andy samberg#cheaper by the dozen
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