I Refuse To Believe That Jedi Younglings, Before They Learned Proper Shielding, Didn't Accidentally Broadcast

*finds angsty fic*

*whines every 5 minutes*

*screams intensely*

*leaps out of window whilst holding laptop*

*rolls in blood and tears*

*dies*

that was really good i’m gonna read it again 

Just listened to a much-garbled but still understandable recording of Queen Victoria speaking. As someone historically interested, the thing that saddens me most is the fact that we'll never know what these people sounded like. Did Abraham Lincoln really sound as high-pitched as contemporary accounts said he did? What was it like to hear Harriet Tubman speak? There's a few seconds of silent video of Anne Frank, but what did she sound like? Every so often I find myself looking up videos of people like Eva Peron and I listen to her speak and she's alive to me in a way a lot of these people aren't and it's all because I can listen to her voice.

Honestly, one of the only things I have to complain about about Spielberg’s Lincoln is minuscule and people will probably roll their eyes but I’m a Civil War nerd, and it BUGS ME:

Ulysses S Grant’s uniform is entirely TOO CLEAN. 

Just look at him. This is a commander who literally came from the battlefield, and all accounts remember him to be wearing a private’s borrowed jacket and splattered with mud. Does anything about that uniform/costume look remotely dirty?

(I mean, kudos to Lee’s clean crisp uniform. Historically he showed up looking like the commander he was, thinking he may become Grant’s prisoner.

Spoiler alert: he wasn’t.)

It’s a small detail, I know, but the more I learn about Grant, the more little missed details like this bothers me. Grant’s untidy, messy appearance showed just what sort of a soldier he truly was, and why he was, ultimately, the general who won the war: he didn’t care about personal appearances or advancements, he was there to get the job done.

That little detail aside, I truly loved Lincoln a lot, Daniel Day-Lewis is absolute PERFECTION playing our titular President, Sally Fields is fantastic as Mary Lincoln, Tommy Lee Jones was brilliant as always, and Jared Harris is my favorite Ulysses S Grant so far depicted in either television or film.

She'd never really noticed how often Daisy spoke to her father with her hands. It simply wasn't any of Ellie's concern and she had other things to worry about, like her job and her boys, and whether or not she would eventually snap and murder Hardy when he was being a knob. And today she was absolutely furious as she walked through her front door.

The absolute nerve of him! Brushing off that boy's concern like it didnt matter at all, practically ignoring him and handing it to Ellie to handle. Where did he get off acting like that? Her mood was not improved when she realized she didn't have anything for dinner, and that meant going to the store to buy something. With a curse, she grabbed her coat and headed back outside without even having had the chance to take her shoes off.

The store was on the other side of town, and of course she was caught in traffic on the way. Cursing to herself at this blatant ill luck granted to her by the cosmos, she happened to spy two familiar figures walking down the sidewalk: Hardy and Daisy, out buying fish and chips together. Daisy was in full conversational mode, engaged with her story-- but then Ellie noticed her mouth wasn't moving.

Her hands were. Quickly, precisely, and so casually that it was clearly habit, and what was even more amazing was that Hardy was doing it right back.

Ellie sat with her mouth open until a car behind her beeped for not moving forward.

She finally understood what it was Daisy did with her hands, and it wasn't simply gesturing.

*****

"So why do you need to use sign language with your dad, Daisy?"

She said it easily, without judgment, the next time she stopped by the Hardy residence. By chance, he wasn't home yet but Daisy was, which made it the perfect time to ask her questions.

Daisy wide-eyed her, sizing her up. "I don't know," she said smoothly, "why does someone need to know sign language?"

"Don't be so sarcastic," Ellie said, " that's your dad's job. My guess would be that you use it to talk to him because he's deaf, but he wouldnt be a detective if that were the case--"

"Partially deaf. It was an accident years ago, I guess on a previous call out. He suffered an ear injury, and he's almost eighty percent deaf in his right ear, a little below forty in his left. He's gotten really good at reading lips and studying body language, but it's easiest to talk to him using sign language. He doesn't have to work so hard to understand that way."

"Why didnt he say anything, the knob?"

"He didnt want you to think less of him, this ability to do his job because he's so hard of hearing. Are you going to be?"

"I--" Ellie paused before she tried to use some excuse. Of course she would have judged him; she was a little judgmental now, but she was also hurt. They'd known each other a long time now-- did he still not think he could trust her? "Do you have any books on how to learn sign language, Daisy?"

The sunny smile she got for that question told her she'd asked exactly the right thing. "I'll give you lessons."

*****

Of course she didn't tell Hardy she knew about his deafness, but the day she approached him and signed, How are you today, sir?, the way his whole countenance lit up was well worth the surprise.

so idk why but I headcanon Alec Hardy as deaf/hard of hearing but I cannot, for the life of me, find a fanfic about it! So if anyone comes across one or even writes one, please send it my way. I just love the idea of him using sign language with Daisy and Miller seeing and finding out he's deaf/hard of hearing and learning sign language to communicate with him. I'd write it myself but I don't think i'd do it justice!

Jenny ran into the mysterious woman quite by accident in the streets of the planet Earth, which she had learned through her various journeys that her father often frequented. It was a busy, curious place, this third rock from the sun, and she thought maybe she could understand why he liked it so much.

“Oh! Excuse me, seems I lost track of where my feet were going. Entirely my fault.”

The woman was dressed rather oddly, with a long lilac-colored overcoat and a dark shirt with suspenders. But it was the large eyes staring back at her that caught her attention the most. They were old. Incredibly old. Old, and wise, and shining with an inner fire that Jenny instantly recognized. 

And the woman seemed to know she would run into Jenny, because she quite simply held out a hand and handed her a bouquet of flowers.

“Violets,” she explained. “They represent remembrance. And I never forgot about you for a day, Jenny.”

An electric shock seemed to shiver down Jenny’s spine. It would be too cliche to ask how this woman knew her name; besides, she began to suspect she knew already. She barely dared to hope. It should be impossible. 

Shouldn’t it?

“Who are you?” She asked anyway, because those eyes were too familiar even if they weren’t the deep brown she remembered. 

And the woman smiled, a wide unfettered smile. “I’m the Doctor.”

The Outsiders (1983) dir. Francis Ford Coppola

Okay, whatever else I am COMPLETELY behind the Good Omens soundtrack.

RED SKELTON’S CELLPHONE

A thought: Good Omens, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and Welcome to Night Vale each give off distinct, yet related energies.