i can’t stand it when people complain about how expensive printer ink is, like it’s “”capitalism’s fault”“. do you have any idea how hard it is to milk a squid
In the ideal modern lotr au, all locations should have an eery, abandoned vibe (like they do in the books). The kind of locations you stumble over on a road trip and are haunted by for the rest of your life.
Tom Bombadil’s house as an old tourist trap that hasn’t been altered since the 70s run by a too-friendly owner and his suspiciously beautiful wife.
Weathertop as a giant factory that became redundant decades ago and was left to rot.
Rivendell as a breathtakingly beautiful hotel that was fully booked every night in its heydey, but now is lucky to have more than two guests at a time.
Moria as an abandoned subway system… but is it abandoned?
Lothlórien as a fairytale themed amusement park built in the 50s that went out of business and was reclaimed by nature.
Dragon Age 4: Solas succeeds in tearing down the Veil. Hawke tumbles out like “whatever just happened IT WASNT ME i didnt do it” and everyone blames hawke anyway
every so often a british writer has a character call ‘shotgun’ for a situation not involving a car, or even a mode of travel at all, and for some reason i find this absolutely adorable.
i thought of making a post to explain the history and usage of the term, but if i did that they might stop.
i’m an american and i don’t know the history. i guess it’s because people drive with a shotgun next to them?
nope.
ok i’ve been informed by a couple people that outside america, it just means ‘dibs’, so it’s unlikely they’ll give up being cute about it if i explain, so imma explain.
it comes from this:
see, once upon a time, the american west was very sparsely settled, and between the few towns there were lay hundreds of miles of wild animals, criminals, desperate ex-confederate soldiers with raging ptsd and more ammo than food, and semi-nomadic first nations bands who at any moment might be at war with the us government, each other, and/or local landowners, or just looking to make their name by taking some trophies and bragging rights.
so if you wanted to get mail, goods, or passengers from one place to another, you better be prepared to defend yourself and run like hell at the same time.
enter the shotgun rider.
see in the picture, the fella that’s not holding the reins has a long gun over his knee? he must be confident, that’s a bit longer than the usual coach gun. you’d load with shot instead of slugs because you wanted scatter – aiming from a galloping coach isn’t easy even for a sharpshooter, and the intent was to deter, not kill. you’d aim for your attackers’ horses if you were smart. a man with buckshot in him might chase you harder in anger, but a horse with a peppered flank was goddamn done with your nonsense.
of course, such exciting episodes weren’t going to occur on every trip. so as a matter of practicality, while keeping watch for attackers, the shotgun rider was also navigator, relief driver, snack-fetcher, and in charge of entertaining you so you didn’t nod off and drive your horses in a circle all night.
the modern usage is sometimes just ‘dibs the front passenger seat’, so i see how it became just for claiming stuff across the pond. but the general connotation is also that you’re the main support guy. the co-pilot, the map-decipherer, the one who phones ahead and asks mom if you need to pick anything up on the way back. it’s not just about getting to ride up front, it’s about being in charge of stuff, which is very appealing but also a responsibility.
and that’s why you don’t call ‘shotgun’ for things other than driving. because that’s the only situation, really, where you’re calling dibs on being somebody’s right-hand guy for a task.
driver still picks the music, tho. that’s a cosmic law.
Passenger shuts his cakehole
it’s the American Way
Tbh it didn’t occur to me until I read it that anyone would take the passenger seat and NOT act as the right-hand of the driver.
Like, I’ve hand-fed my friends chips when we were on a long trip, so they wouldn’t have to take their hands off the wheel. Helped zip through the radio stations to find one that wasn’t static, or fiddle with the tech until bluetooth worked.
Passenger is in charge of making sure google maps or waze is working properly. In charge of answering any texts or calls to the driver. Checking in to make sure the driver isn’t tired on long trips, volunteering to take over if they are. Coordinating bathroom breaks if we have other passengers in the back, and figuring out where we should stop to eat or the nearest gas station.
Shotgun is a very important position on longer trips (and keep in mind, driving across the U.S. takes several days of driving. Twice a year I drive 7 straight hours from my house to visit my parents for Christmas, and I’ve driven westward on a 17-hour trip before.)
Driver’s responsibility is driving safely and maybe pumping gas.
ANYTHING else is for Shotgun.
Shorter trips, it’s not as big of a deal, but if it’s over an hour or two, you’ve got responsibilities
a fine addition.
it occurs to me that part of why the nuance gets lost in europe and new zealand is y’all don’t take car trips long enough to need a shotgun rider. or when you do, it’s a big damn deal, so you probably overprepare and take lots of breaks.
around here we’re like “hey let’s go up the lake this weekend” and next thing you know we’re off on a 260 mile daytrip with two cans of redbull and a joke mixtape from high school. i’ve soloed one of those and by the time you get to silver bay you’re speaking in tongues. you need a copilot if you’re going to be in any shape for fishing on arrival.
DustAndFundamentalists 