“Because the truth is, tech doesn’t have an image problem. It doesn’t have a message problem. It has an intention problem. What’s wrong with the axe murderer who broke into my house is not that he hasn’t successfully persuaded me to buy into his narrative. What’s wrong is that he’s trying to kill me with an axe. Similarly, when you launch a product that’s designed to put millions of people out of work, block access to sources of verifiable truth, replace human creativity with slop, and lower the barriers to every sort of atrocity, the problem isn’t that you haven’t told the public a good story about those things. The problem is that you are trying to do them.”
buzz aldrin and neil armstrong liked to do a thing where they’d tell unfunny jokes at parties about being on the moon and when people were confused they’d go “guess you had to have been there”
Panel 1: Imogen is walking through the meadow, hand in hand with Laudna.
Panel 2: But then Laudna is gone.
Panel 3: She looks back to find herself alone, except for the red moon in the darkening sky and the red clouds of a familiar storm beginning to crawl in over the horizon.
Imogen:
No . . . no, no, no, no, no . . .
Panel 4: She wakes with a start to find Laudna bending over her in concern.
Laudna:
Imogen?
Imogen:
No . . .
Laudna:
Are you all right, darling?
Panel 5: Sitting up, Imogen buries her face in her hands while she tries to regain her composure. Laudna fetches her a glass of water.
Laudna:
Shhh, it's all right. You're safe. You were dreaming.
Imogen:
But that's just it. I was hopin' . . . maybe they were gone for good. {sigh} Guess that was stupid of me.
Rounding things off with my final Mighty Nein AU (for now), we've got the Ghost AU! Rejoice!
For those of you who aren't familiar with the various iterations of Ghosts, I'll give you a quick summary here---a couple inherits an old house and they decide to try and convert it into a hotel, but the house is full of ghosts from different time periods who aren't thrilled with this idea. The woman has an accident not too long after they move in, and she wakes up with the ability to see and interact with the ghosts. It started out as a British TV show, but since then, it's had American, German, French, Australian, and Greek adaptations, all of them changed either slightly or dramatically from the original due to the different histories of each countries. And not only is it a very mutable format for shows in different places, it's a very mutable format for fanfics!
SO:
Beau and Yasha, of course, are the couple in question. Yasha's from Scotland and has lived in the U.S. for a while now, while Beau's lived her entire life in New York... which means it's a bit of a surprise when, while she and Yasha are busily house-hunting for a new place now that they're married, she gets a call saying that she's inherited a house in England from a distant great-aunt. (Usually, it's because she's the only living relative, but I decided that her great-aunt specifically left it to Beau in order to spite Thoreau.) Since both of them are sick of apartment-hunting in New York---and the U.S. in general---the two of them move to the foggy seaside village of Cobalt Cove, and into the creaky old halls of Thornwood House... but, of course, their house comes with eight undead roommates. After Beau takes a tumble and wakes up from a small coma with the ability to see the ghosts, she and Yasha realize they've got a lot more to deal with than just the typical old-house issues.
And, as always, the other characters (not just the ghosts!) are under the cut (because oh my god this is long):
Ghosts
Caleb: The oldest ghost in the house (at least, the oldest ghost who actually stays in the house), Caleb was a witch who was burned at the stake in 1629. His affinity for fire and flame got him noticed by the Catholic Church and taken from his parents, but rather than being killed outright, he was then raised to be a witchfinder himself after going through some pretty severe torture in order to "remove" him of his magic. Caleb grew up to see and participate in the horrors of the early Würzburg witch trials, but he fled to England once he was forced to execute his own parents... and, well, he only had a few years of solitude and quiet before the English witchfinders caught him and put him to the pyre. Even though his ghost ability is pretty tame, all things considered---people smell smoke and burning when they pass through him---Caleb is absolutely one of the scariest ghosts in the manor, based on pure intensity alone (and, well, the fact that he's covered soot). Once you break through his walls, though, he's surprisingly sweet, and being able to talk to a Living person definitely helps him with his trauma. (Also, he can still use his magic, but he's still working through all the self-hatred associated with it.)
Fjord: He's a sailor who spent his whole life traveling the world as part of a crew of pirates before he was unceremoniously struck by lightning in 1731 after a shipwreck. For a wanderer like Fjord, being stuck in one place forever is very much not ideal (especially since he has proof that not every ghost is trapped where they die, more on that later), and the fact that he was scared shitless of Caleb at first didn't exactly help matters, but he did get to see the manor house get built, and he likes having a roof over his head. Even though Fjord was only first mate on the ship, he has a lot of leadership skills that he's kept with him in death, which means he's kind of fallen into an older brother role for most of the ghosts. That being said, he's still a pirate, and he's down for a little bit of mischief-making every now and then. It usually involves his ability to mess with electricity.
Molly: A circus performer mauled to death by an escaped lion in 1786---just a few years prior to the manor being built---Molly is definitely one of the friendliest ghosts, and they're the social glue that Fjord and Caleb desperately needed in order to become actual friends. He tells a lot of outlandish stories about his life before the circus, many of which are very hard to confirm, but the one thing that does appear to be true is that he used to be some sort of soothsayer for a noble family... and it definitely ended in disgrace. During the course of the story, Molly figures out that she's non-binary and genderfluid---which she always kind of knew, she was very into crossdressing and died in a pretty androgynous outfit, but she obviously didn't have the words for it until now. Also, Molly can visit people's dreams, which means that they are very much able to become friends with Yasha. (Yasha probably gets to see the ghosts at some point, or at least has limited interactions with them, but Molly's the first one she meets and gets close to.)
Fearne (yes, Fearne!): She's a flighty, adventurous, and drama-obsessed young lady who died of consumption in the latter half of 1819, only a short while before she was supposed to get married. Her parents were the ones who'd commissioned the house to be built, and by Regency nobility standards, they were actually pretty chill---they let Fearne have a wide range of interests, encouraged her love of studying the natural world, and were even going to let her be a spinster and have her cousin inherit the house instead---but they eventually fell on money troubles, and the only way out was for Fearne to marry rich. Of course, that never came to pass, but thankfully, her cousin was able to provide for the two of them after her death. To everyone's misfortune, Fearne happens to be a poltergeist, and she's gotten very good at using her powers to steal things, move things, and cause general mayhem around the house. She's also a shameless flirt, which Beau learns almost immediately after she's able to see the ghosts. Thankfully, Fearne also knows when to take the hint.
Essek: A distant relative of Fearne's, Essek was the victim of a "mysterious death" in 1871. His grandmother, Fearne's long-lost aunt, cut ties with the Calloway family after marrying a Black man and immigrating to Greece, where her daughter grew up and had two sons... and by the time Essek was fifteen, all of them were dead, either from illness or old age. His long-lost cousin heard about this and took him in, making sure that he had the best opportunities that he could get---nice clothes, a steady allowance, and a top-notch university education, where Essek was able to fulfill his dream of becoming an astronomer. However, during a party held at Thornwood House, Essek was drinking in the corner when he suddenly fell ill and died... and one of the first things he witnessed as a ghost was a doctor confirming that he had been poisoned, and his benefactor's son telling the doctor to rule it as a heart attack instead. Essek still holds a lot of resentment over his murder being covered up, and one of the first things he requests from Beau is for her to solve it proper---even if he's ninety percent sure it was his second cousin who did the deed, he'd pissed off enough people in academia for there to be a fairly long list. He's also very deep in the closet, but he's been harboring a pretty significant crush on Caleb for the past century or so. (Also, he can show up in photographs. Pretty cool stuff.)
Jester: Fearne's afterlife BFF and the self-proclaimed "life of the party," Jester's a cheerful flapper from the city of Zadar who died in 1925. She and her mother moved to England after WWI, and it didn't take very long for Jester to become friends with a lot of wealthy girls her age---granted, she still had to deal with a lot of "jokes" about her mom's occupation, but she considered them friends even if they weren't the nicest people in the world. One fateful Halloween, Jester was invited to a party at her friend Effie Thornwood's country estate, and she had an incredible time... right up until she walked in on one of the neighbors, Lord Sharpe, in the middle of a very steamy affair with Effie's widowed mother. Sharpe freaked out and shoved Jester down the stairs, and her death was ruled as an accidental fall caused by drinking too much liquor. Despite her more grisly end, Jester still keeps her bubbly and upbeat spirit, which tends to... clash with her ability to induce terror-fueled hallucinations onto unsuspecting Livings. She mostly just uses it to make the eyes in paintings move, but she can go full horror movie when pushed.
Ashton: He's a foulmouthed, opinionated punk who snuck into Thornwood House on a dare in 1974, only to fall out of a third-story window in an attempt to avoid being caught by the lady who lived there. Despite their rather lackluster death, Ashton doesn't really mind being a ghost, and their only complaint---besides not being able to leave---is that they've still got to deal with echos of the chronic pain that plagued them in life ("it was a joint thing, for fuck's sake, how can you have joint pain when you don't have any joints?"). Even though he's one of the younger ghosts in terms of years lived, Ashton has some of the wildest stories, and unlike with Molly, the ghosts are ninety percent sure that most of them are true. Their ability to interfere with radio systems---which ranges from being able to change the frequency a few degrees to straight-up being able to speak through a radio---means that they've been able to both introduce the ghosts to their favorite artists and keep their own musical taste fairly current. Ashton's still pretty loyal to the old-school stuff, of course.
Veth: A camp counselor who died in a canoeing accident in 1998, Veth is in the unfortunate position of both being the most recently dead and the only one who died past the age of forty. Despite the fact that she's only been dead for less than thirty years, she's kind of the unofficial leader of the group---mostly because, well, she was a mother of two who worked with kids on the regular, and in her experience, long-dead ghosts tend to act very similar to preteens. Veth's authority is partially motivated by the fact that she died wearing her counselor whistle around her neck (and she uses it so frequently that Beau has given up on setting an alarm), but she's also pretty understanding when it counts, and she's fiercely protective of her friends. Since she died in the freezing cold water of the property's lake, Veth can make the space she's in colder... though she doesn't really do it that often, since she's still a little traumatized about her death. Yeza and the kids live in town and visit the estate every year on her deathday, but they start visiting more frequently once Beau and Yasha befriend them.
Artagan: The actual oldest ghost on the property, Artagan is an old Celtic druid who presumably died of natural causes sometime in the British Iron Age. Due to several mysteries he practiced in life and his deep connection to the fey spirits that used to roam the area, he has one of the rarest ghost abilities of all---to be able to leave the place where he died, and to freely wander the earth. Artagan's been a roamer long enough that he doesn't strictly need to return to Thornwood House, but he shows up every now and then, mostly to check in on the other ghosts. He and Jester in particular have a pretty special connection, mainly due to their shared love of chaos.
Livings
Caduceus: While he's known by the town as one of the resident witches (though they all think it's a spiritual thing instead of an actual magic thing), Caduceus is known by the ghosts as one of the only Livings---besides Beau---who can see them and interact with them. He's been able to see ghosts ever since he got into a car accident as a teenager, and he's become pretty popular with the local ghost population... mainly because he works at his parents's funeral home, and is able to fulfill funerary specifications for the recently dead. Since there's so many ghosts and most of them are fairly friendly, Thornwood House is Caduceus's favorite one to visit, but prior to Beau and Yasha moving in, he had to be a little sneaky about it. It doesn't take him very long for the two of them to integrate him into their routine, and he's got a lot of tips on how to go about life when you can see dead people everywhere. Also, Caduceus's whole family lives in town, though he's the only one who wants to take over the funeral home (his aunt and older sister are the town doctors, his brother's the local pastor, and his younger sister is a freelance artist).
Imogen & Laudna: The two of them run a witchy coffee shop in town, and they're the only other townsfolk who are aware of the existence of ghosts---Imogen's a psychic and has always been able to see them, while Laudna's been able to see them since she fell out of a tree as a kid. (Laudna is also a witch, but most witches need near-death experiences in order to see ghosts, just like regular people.) Imogen and Beau get lumped together by the town at first as the two American lesbians, so it takes Beau a bit to actually like her... and, well, she initially thinks that Imogen's a fraud, so there's a bit of a kerfuffle when she attempts to expose her and then finds out that she's the real deal. Despite the rocky start, the two couples do eventually become actual friends. It helps that Laudna's cinnamon rolls are borderline addictive.
Percy & Vex: While it's customary for the living couple in a Ghosts story to have annoying rich neighbors, I decided that Beau and Yasha should also have some nicer rich neighbors, so... Percy and Vex are the current owners of de Rolo House, Beau and Yasha's neighbors to the right. Neither of them are aware of the ghosts---or the fact that their own house is populated by several restless de Rolos who were all brutally murdered, hence why Beau always insists that they have dinner at her place instead---but between Vex's eye for style and Percy's skills with both mechanics and finances, they're always happy to lend a hand to help the Thornwood B&B get going. When they're not busy dealing with all their kids, that is. (Also, Laudna used to be friends with Cassandra when the two were young, and the accident that led her to see ghosts happened on the de Rolo property. So... yeah, bit of a traumatic awakening.)
Mr. and Mrs. Osgood Sharpe: Unlike Percy and Vex, Beau and Yasha's neighbors to the left are very conceited, very out-of-touch, and very, very, very irritating. Neither of them approve of the B&B---or the lesbian couple who inherited it---and while they do act all nice and fake-friendly, they're always trying to find some way to interfere with the work going on. And, of course, Osgood happens to be directly descended from Jester's murderer, which means there's some extra tension mixed in there on the spiritual side... though, after a few unwelcome visits, Jester makes sure that the Sharpes know when to stay out.
And after that very long cast of characters... I think that's it!
"I am a Sister to a dead god. I don't take offense to the things people say anymore."
This is a really interesting to me as a standalone quote. She is a *Sister* to the Green *Mother.* Sylandri would've fucking HATED a sisterhood that called themselves her EQUALS. Sylandri's siblings were the other gods.
With some of the later quotes I wonder if every Sister of Sylandri is actually a sister to one of the elves that died defending Sylandri and that's why they even thought they could name themselves sisters rather than daughters while still believing themselves at all devout.
It was a huge milestone of scientific and technological advancement. (Plus, at the time, politically significant). Humanity went to space! We set foot on a celestial body that was not earth for the first time in human history! That’s a big deal! I’ve never thought about it before but now that I have, it’s ridiculous to me that that’s not part of our everyday lives and the public consciousness anymore. Why don’t we have a public holiday and a family barbecue about it. Why have I never seen the original broadcast of the moon landing? It should be all over the news every year!
It’s July 20th. That’s the day of the moon landing. Next year is going to be the 54th anniversary. I’m ordering astronaut shaped cookie cutters on Etsy and I’m going to have a goddamn potluck. You’re all invited.
But wait this is actually freaking me out though, it raises so many questions about the otherwise incomprehensible meaning of life as a collective whole versus personal sustenance and longevity
Imagine if one day you were given a choice: Become immortal and indestructible for eternity, unable to be harmed by anything ever again, and get to live forever.
However, in order to achieve that you must give up whatever your purpose in life is. Whatever it is that you were always meant to do, what you were supposed to contribute to the overall scheme and future of the life of the universe, your purpose… the whole reason you were even created, even born in the first place. You must give that up. You don’t know what that is. You’ll never know; But, regardless, you say yes.
Perhaps you assume you wouldn’t have made any sort of significant difference anyway. That butterfly effect theory or whatever they call it? Nah, you call bullshit. It doesn’t matter - you don’t matter, at least not to anything outside of your immediate connections - and it’ll all be fine, and you’ll just live forever with minimal (or maybe even no) consequences.
So, yay! You’re now immortal. You’ll never die or get hurt ever again. Wee!
But then, centuries and centuries later (not to mention that by this point you’ve gone through horrible heartbreak and misery and despair because every loved one you ever had, every friend you ever made, ever person you barely got to know, has passed away, died as you lived on long without them, helpless to do anything for them as you watched them perish, unable to ever go with them or ever see them again. But I digress), now, you learn you actually were important in the grand scheme of things. You were supposed to be a key factor in the world’s survival, long ago; but, because of the choice you made (immortality over individual purpose), you were never given the knowledge or awareness or resources or ability to save the world that you were always supposed to obtain, before you unknowingly made the wrongest choice to ever wrong.
Needless to say, you’ve fucked up big time.
The entire universe as we know it is destroyed soon after this horrifying revelation. It implodes, collapses in on itself, essentially forming a massive black hole or something. Stars, nebulae, galaxies, solar systems and planets, worlds and worlds of living people and things, and light-years of time and space and life, all sucked up into absolute, indefinite nothingness.
But you remain.
Just you. Floating amongst, spiraling around, rocketing through, suspended in… nothing. With a feeling of such unbelievable loneliness that your feeble brain can hardly perceive, can’t possibly hope to comprehend. Not only are you the only living thing left, you don’t even have one inanimate object to keep you company. You have literally. Nothing. And you are literally nowhere. I mean, technically, you are now the universe - if it would bring you petty comfort to think about it that way. You. Only you. With nothing, no one, nowhere. Forever. And ever. And ever.
All because you thought you didn’t matter. That you had no real, meaningful purpose. That you could never possibly make a difference.
But you did. And now look what you’ve gotten yourself into, you silly nugget. You’re gonna be pretty bored and lonely for that eternity, huh?
Or maybe it was out of selfishness. Maybe this wasn’t because you felt useless, but because you simply only cared about prolonging your own life and nothing else. Hm.
The moral here? Be selfless, and always know and remember that you matter.
Or else, one day, you might destroy the universe. And be left to suffer, and be tortured horribly and endlessly by the void of nothingness that has consumed you. With no way to escape. Ever.
Other moral because I got sidetracked from my initial point - all things considered, would you choose longevity over purpose? Immortality over meaning?
OR, IDK, MAYBE SOME IDIOT JUST LAMINATED A STUPID PIECE OF PAPER TOWEL FOR NO GOOD REASON
AND MAYBE I SHOULDNT BE LOOKING FOR THE ANSWERS TO THE MEANING OF OUR SHORT, FRAGILE LIVES IN
STORYTIME. Last February, I sold a mug on Etsy. Common occurrence. Great. After it arrived at its new home, I got an email from the woman who bought it. She thanked me for the beautiful piece and remarked that the handle was perfect—she struggles with arthritis and finds many mugs difficult to hold. I was so touched!
Fast forward to six weeks ago—I receive an email from her husband, explaining he broke the mug (lol) and asking if I’d be willing to take on a commission to replace it. He reiterates how she has arthritis but also shares she used to make pottery, herself, but can only really paint, now. I say of course! Come to find out, he wants a WHOLE SET of mugs to replace the broken one. Even better! I end up making the whole set twice (I wasn’t satisfied with the first attempt), but finally get them packed up and sent off across the country.
I just received the kindest message from the husband, saying “It is not often in today's world that someone does 100% of what they have promised,” thanking me profusely, and sharing that his wife is already happily using the new mugs.
Anyway, I guess the point is that making art is hard. And commissions always cause me a lot of undue stress, but things like this remind me why I love creating and connecting with people. 💙
If I was a thinking woman, clearly I would've been more strategic in the picture I chose to include haha. But, of course! Happy to share more pics! I was simply too enamored by the glaze to not post that close-up...
all the rights that come with marriage you should be able to have without marriage btw. you should be able to designate a person who can visit you in the hospital regardless of your relationship to that person.
People in the notes are saying "You can!" referring just to the hospital visitation part, and sure (depending). But people should have access to ALL of the benefits of marriage without needing to be married.
You should be able to add anyone you want on your health insurance plan.
You should be able to sponsor the visa of anyone you choose to move to your home country.
You should be able to name anyone you choose as the legal-from-birth legal coparent of any child you give birth to.
You should be able to apply for student aid on your own at any age.
And yes, yes, ideally healthcare and college should be free, international migration should be unrestricted, and the entire concept of legal parenthood should be rewritten from the ground up. But right now we're talking about marriage benefits.
gracieabrams
dailybridgerton
kianamaiart
origamiaround
