My Worlds Colliding

my worlds colliding 🤩

"These are their stories." DUN-DUN. ⚖️ ✨ | (a purely self-indulgent Law & Order AU)

And breaking news from Ice! 🙌

Please make a post about the story of the RMS Carpathia, because it's something that's almost beyond belief and more people should know about it.

Carpathia received Titanic’s distress signal at 12:20am, April 15th, 1912. She was 58 miles away, a distance that absolutely could not be covered in less than four hours.

(Californian’s exact position at the time is…controversial. She was close enough to have helped. By all accounts she was close enough to see Titanic’s distress rockets. It’s uncertain to this day why her crew did not respond, or how many might not have been lost if she had been there. This is not the place for what-ifs. This is about what was done.)

Carpathia’s Captain Rostron had, yes, rolled out of bed instantly when woken by his radio operator, ordered his ship to Titanic’s aid and confirmed the signal before he was fully dressed. The man had never in his life responded to an emergency call. His goal tonight was to make sure nobody who heard that fact would ever believe it.

All of Carpathia’s lifeboats were swung out ready for deployment. Oil was set up to be poured off the side of the ship in case the sea turned choppy; oil would coat and calm the water near Carpathia if that happened, making it safer for lifeboats to draw up alongside her. He ordered lights to be rigged along the side of the ship so survivors could see it better, and had nets and ladders rigged along her sides ready to be dropped when they arrived, in order to let as many survivors as possible climb aboard at once.

I don’t know if his making provisions for there still being survivors in the water was optimism or not. I think he knew they were never going to get there in time for that. I think he did it anyway because, god, you have to hope.

Carpathia had three dining rooms, which were immediately converted into triage and first aid stations. Each had a doctor assigned to it. Hot soup, coffee, and tea were prepared in bulk in each dining room, and blankets and warm clothes were collected to be ready to hand out. By this time, many of the passengers were awake–prepping a ship for disaster relief isn’t quiet–and all of them stepped up to help, many donating their own clothes and blankets.

And then he did something I tend to refer to as diverting all power from life support.

Here’s the thing about steamships: They run on steam. Shocking, I know; but that steam powers everything on the ship, and right now, Carpathia needed power. So Rostron turned off hot water and central heating, which bled valuable steam power, to everywhere but the dining rooms–which, of course, were being used to make hot drinks and receive survivors. He woke up all the engineers, all the stokers and firemen, diverted all that steam back into the engines, and asked his ship to go as fast as she possibly could. And when she’d done that, he asked her to go faster.

I need you to understand that you simply can’t push a ship very far past its top speed. Pushing that much sheer tonnage through the water becomes harder with each extra knot past the speed it was designed for. Pushing a ship past its rated speed is not only reckless–it’s difficult to maneuver–but it puts an incredible amount of strain on the engines. Ships are not designed to exceed their top speed by even one knot. They can’t do it. It can’t be done.

Carpathia’s absolute do-or-die, the-engines-can’t-take-this-forever top speed was fourteen knots. Dodging icebergs, in the dark and the cold, surrounded by mist, she sustained a speed of almost seventeen and a half.

No one would have asked this of them. It wasn’t expected. They were almost sixty miles away, with icebergs in their path. They had a respondibility to respond; they did not have a responsibility to do the impossible and do it well. No one would have faulted them for taking more time to confirm the severity of the issue. No one would have blamed them for a slow and cautious approach. No one but themselves.

They damn near broke the laws of physics, galloping north headlong into the dark in the desperate hope that if they could shave an hour, half an hour, five minutes off their arrival time, maybe for one more person those five minutes would make the difference. I say: three people had died by the time they were lifted from the lifeboats. For all we know, in another hour it might have been more. I say they made all the difference in the world.

This ship and her crew received a message from a location they could not hope to reach in under four hours. Just barely over three hours later, they arrived at Titanic’s last known coordinates. Half an hour after that, at 4am, they would finally find the first of the lifeboats. it would take until 8:30 in the morning for the last survivor to be brought onboard. Passengers from Carpathia universally gave up their berths, staterooms, and clothing to the survivors, assisting the crew at every turn and sitting with the sobbing rescuees to offer whatever comfort they could.

In total, 705 people of Titanic’s original 2208 were brought onto Carpathia alive. No other ship would find survivors.

At 12:20am April 15th, 1912, there was a miracle on the North Atlantic. And it happened because a group of humans, some of them strangers, many of them only passengers on a small and unimpressive steam liner, looked at each other and decided: I cannot live with myself if I do anything less.

I think the least we can do is remember them for it.

SONNY CARISI APPRECIATION WEEK will be hosted by @dailysvu and will be taking place from June 20th - June 26th.

We will be tracking both the #Carisi Week and #dailysvu tags, so please tag us in everything so we can reblog!

Prompts for Artists (gifsets, graphics, moodboards, wallpapers, etc):

Day 1 (Sunday June 20) - Favorite Sonny Carisi moment

Day 2 (Monday June 21) - Favorite relationship (romantic or platonic)

Day 3 (Tuesday June 22) - Carisi + hard vs soft

Day 4 (Wednesday June 23) - Carisi + colors

Day 5 (Thursday June 24) - Carisi as a cop or a lawyer?

Day 6 (Friday June 25) - Pampered up or battered?

Day 7 (Saturday June 26) - A quote, either about, by, or relating to Carisi

Bonus prompt: Your favorite thing Carisi does

Prompts for Writers (fanfiction, drabbles, headcanons, metas, etc):

Day 1 (Sunday June 20) - Heartbeat

Day 2 (Monday June 21) - Off Duty

Day 3 (Tuesday June 22) - Trust

Day 4 (Wednesday June 23) - “What is this between us?”

Day 5 (Thursday June 24) - “Are you okay?”

Day 6 (Friday June 25) - Nightmare

Day 7 (Saturday June 26) - Secrets

Bonus prompt: Shower

The Bonus Prompt is just for the fun of it. You can choose to do it after the seven main prompts or you can use it to replace one of the themes of the day of your choice.

As always, you can have as many entries per date as you wish. If you want to write a fanfiction and make a gifset, a fanart and a playlist, or any combination of anything, just do it. The more the merrier.

How to submit your creations: post them to your blog and tag them with #Carisi Week and we will reblog them. Simple as that.

REMEMBER: You can’t post your creation(s) earlier, but you can post them later. So if you are gonna mix up the themes, make sure you’re not posting anything before the day of its prompt.

We can’t wait to see what you guys have planned!

The week will officially begin on June 20.

HERE’S THE FAQ

RULES & GUIDELINES

If you have any questions at all feel free to send us a message!

Have fun and ENJOY!

Chapter 1

Spending a crisp, early autumn, Monday night in formalwear was not Larissa Vasquez‘s idea of a perfect evening, but it was what the charity circuit demanded of her tonight. Sure, it felt good to be philanthropic, and an open bar was nice, as was the distraction of the beautiful modern art displays that surrounded her and her handsome “date”, her father, Raul, who had recruited Larissa as his plus one when her mother came down with the flu a few days prior, but it wasn’t exactly cozy, was it?

It was nice to spend this time alone with her dear dad though. Her parents, siblings, niece, and nephews shared a tight knit bond, and it was always amazing how present and devoted a man Raul was to his family, but it was a rarity to spend one on one time together, just because.

“More bubbles for you?” Raul asked his daughter as he stood from the table they shared with several other Platinum-level donors, mostly his own colleagues.

Larissa shook her head “no” and remained seated, picking at her tiramisu, “I’ll float away if I have any more.” she smiled.

After a few minutes of making small talk with her table mates, Larissa also excused herself for a bit of people watching. That’s when she saw him.

Could it be? Badge # 0188? The café cop? She didn’t know his name, but for the last few months she had shared a weekly round of smiles and innocent flirtation with a cop at the gourmet coffee shop between her home and the new hospital where she worked.

Despite the fact that she knew next to nothing about him, she thought about him more than she cared to admit. And why shouldn’t she enjoy a nice fantasy now and then? She was single (AF as her teenage nephew would say) And he was tall, with gorgeous blue eyes, and a perfectly coiffed head of hair. There was something about their brief, under-caffeinated interactions that had her thinking he was unlike any man she had known. But neither of them had the courage to pursue things beyond the café. Until, tonight.

This guy was slightly more put together than she had ever seen in the coffee cop, but it was a formal event. She was certain it was him. And he would have to recognize her too. Right?

Larissa grabbed some liquid courage from a passing tray and tried, as casually as possible, to approach the detective, who was, thankfully, alone, admiring a sculpture.

“Ahem” a slightly dramatic throat clearing alerted the detective to a beautiful woman standing next to him. He secretly hoped it was his attention she was trying to get.

He took a sip from his beer bottle, flashed his best smile, and motioned to the sculpture before them.

“What do you think?”

Larissa smiled back, but didn’t turn to look back at the sculpture. “You don’t recognize me, do you?”

Shit, Sonny thought. He was usually so good with faces. It was part of his job to be observant. I’m supposed to know her!?

Reading his slightly puzzled face, Larissa offered a hint. “Have any good bear claws lately?” she teased, making reference to their last interaction where she had unknowingly ordered the last one from the bakery case and he audibly groaned in line behind her.

The lightbulb went off immediately. “The Daily Grind!” Sonny exclaimed, with a wag of the finger. “I’m sorry, I guess it’s sometimes true what they say about a face out of place.”

“Not that I’m usually wearing this much face on my way to work in the morning.” she said with a laugh, motioning to her slightly more done up hair and make up appearance.

“I don’t know; you always look great to me.” Sonny stated, softly and genuinely.

She smiled and batted her lashes in appreciation of the compliment, but also took the opportunity to joke: “It's part of my plan to meet men in their most vulnerable and uncaffeinated state. Everything looks like a step up after that.”

Before Sonny could return the banter, a second man joined them. “There you are, darling. You really did float away.” said Raul to Larissa with a wink, motioning to her glass of champagne.

“Daddy, hi!” she said with a slight blush and cringe. Oh, God she thought What am I doing? I don’t even know this guy’s name to introduce him. I’m here trying to drunkenly flirt in front of my father and all his friends from work that I’ve known since childhood.

As if reading her mind, Raul suavely extended his hand and introduced himself to the detective. “Raul Vasquez” he said with a firm, but warm shake. “My daughter is not usually at such a loss for words.”

The introduction turned out not to be necessary. The famously wordy detective quickly went full fanboy. “Sonny Carisi, sir. It’s a pleasure. We’ve met before, actually. When I was a student at Fordham a couple years back, you gave a lecture to my Intellectual Property class. We spoke briefly about your firm’s pro bono work.”

Raul took a minute to size him up, trying to remember the interaction he described. “You were working in sex crimes. It was an evening class. You knew my friend, Mr. Ellis, from the Innocence Project, is that right?”

“Yes, sir. He has a great relationship with my lieutenant.”

“He is Larissa’s godfather.” he said proudly, motioning back to his daughter, the member of their little group they had briefly forgotten about while engaging in mutual admiration and shop talk.

“Larissa” Sonny repeated, as he extended his hand and looked smitten all over again by the beautiful blonde. “I’m very glad we met.”

“Carisi!” a slightly buzzed Chief Dodds interrupted from the bar a few yards away. “There’s someone you’ve got to meet.”

“Yeah, Chief, I’m coming.” he called back with a slight roll of the eye and sip of his beer, not wanting to break away from his present company. “Well, duty calls. You both get home safely.”

“Good night” Larissa returned with a slightly heartbroken smile.

After all that, they were no further along than they had been at the coffee shop! They knew each other’s names now, but there was no phone number exchange, or plan to meet. What if they never saw each other again?

Of course, she understood. He couldn’t exactly be seen flirting so shamelessly in front of her father. It was just bad timing. At least they had the promise of the café later this week. Right?

As she watched Sonny walk away, her rambling thoughts were interrupted by her father. “Shall we get our coats, darling? I think I’ve had enough philanthropy for one evening.”

“Yes” she nodded. “Let’s do it.”

I think all content creators can relate to this.

In my opinion, I don’t think followers really understand how much your requests/likes/reblogs/etc. and random asks mean to me. It’s just so refreshing and nice to know that people enjoy what I’m doing and support me.

People that go the extra mile and send an ask or message letting me know they liked my stuff honestly makes my day. I love reading tags and stuff…it’s honestly so cute….

And people who ask about how I’m doing or send me random questions or cute asks….I just want you guys to know it honestly makes my day. I just love all the interaction and such. It makes running a blog so much more enjoyable.

And Fanart/Fanwork? Honestly that’s one of the greatest things to receive. To everyone that draws or writes, please don’t feel too insecure to send it end! No one is going to criticize you over quality. It’s so sweet that you even thought about making something…I will always appreciate it no matter what, and I’m sure all other content creators feel the same.

So, in conclusion, don’t be afraid to talk to your favorite blogs and show them some love, guys! We always appreciate it! ☺️