#Classical rendition

[thunderpot]

And so the hero falls, all glory and revenge striped in the briefest of moments, felled by a piercing arrow precise as if guided by the very hands of the Sun.

This one was a very fun one to do tbqh. The Fall of Achilles, after ‘The Fallen Angel’ by Cabanel, for a very dear friend! This baby can fit so many symbolisms, I’m very satisfied with the result! ´v` I hope you like as well!

[arriettyspin]

Since we're posting our Spider-Verse headcanons, Gwen most certainly grew up watching old Barbie movies and now refuses to admit it

It was the only stereotypically girly thing she was into from a young age, and watching 12 Dancing Princesses aged three years old was the push her father needed to get her into ballet

When she and Miles sit with the toddler Billie Mariana watching Life In The Dreamhouse, Gwen can't hide her distaste for this newfangled modern adaptation.

One day she decides that it's time to introduce Billie to the classics, and pulls up at the Morales household with her perfectly preserved VHS tapes.

Billie is delighted, laughing at the creepy animals with their glassy stares and goofy songs, twirling her pink skirts with the princesses on-screen.

At first, Miles laughs at the corniness of it all. But later on he finds himself invested in the simple stories (and Gwen finds his impressions of the melodramatic princes oddly romantic)

Gwen is sure that the animation was not this bad when she was younger? But she enjoys herself anyway, reliving the childhood a life as Spider-Woman tore from her too early.

So much warmth between them... it's here she learns what a family should be like; leaning on Miles's shoulder, Billie plonked at their feet and not a gun in sight.

[cl0wn-tim3]

Me when I remember scooby doo mystery incorporate

[wutaijiemei]

perhapsperhapsperhaps.

[isaut]

𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒐 𝒔𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒏𝒐. 𝑰 𝒊𝒏 𝒈 𝒎𝒂𝒋𝒐𝒓: 𝑰. 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒖𝒅𝒆 — chrollo x f!reader. song

originally posted on my old blog @/saintchrollo after i read anna karenina for the first time. court advisor!chrollo (but you all know he's kuroro to me) and princess!reader. i've been in such a kuroro mood you'll have to forgive me. its something about autumn and schoolin. here is a link to an audiobook of anna karenina so you don't have an excuse to not go read it.

“I thought I might find you here.” 

The voice from behind startles you. You jump slightly in your chair, holding the book you had been reading against your chest. Turning, you relax slightly upon seeing where the voice was coming from. “Lord Lucifuru, you startled me.” 

The black haired man tilts his head to the side as he approaches, hand resting on the back of your armchair. “Are we not on a first name basis anymore, Princesse?” He lilts the title in the accent he’s picked up from his years of council. 

You avoid his gaze, cheeks heating up. The room warms with the memories of the other night. Squirreled away behind a statue, whispered confessions, his lips everywhere they shouldn’t have been— Your lips, your neck, your chest. 

“What if we aren’t alone?” You whisper. If you lose yourself to the daydream enough, you can feel his hands on your hips. 

“I checked,” Kuroro says, voice soft and reassuring. “We are most certainly alone.” 

You straighten up and crane your head around, as if to double check his words. He tilts your head back towards him with a finger under your chin. 

“I’d never steer you wrong,” Kuroro promises, then tacks on, “[First.]” 

It fills you with such warmth to hear your name from his lips, and you have to avert your gaze to keep yourself from melting into a puddle. 

“Are you sure there’s no one else here?” You ask again. 

“And risk my own head?” Kuroro asks, a smile pulling at the left of his lips. 

You suppose he has a point. You relax back into the chair, resting your book on your chest to hold its place. “Have you been searching for me, then, Kuroro?” 

His half smile reaches his eyes. That’s more like it. “I have, actually. All over. I should have started here, it seems. Would of had more time with you.” 

“You should have known I’d be here,” You hum. “After all, I was told this morning over breakfast that my crate of books finally got deemed… What’s the word you use?” 

“They were found to be without ill intent,” Kuroro restates. “We just wanted to be sure that no harm would come to you.” 

“Father coddles me,” You remark, “As do you.” 

“Well, I’d be out of a job if I didn’t do as he told. And you’d be out of a job if you didn’t get coddled. That is under the description of princess.” 

“I do other things,” You protest. 

“I know you do,” Kuroro says, his eyes glancing down at the book splayed across your chest before back to your eyes. 

“What have you come found me for?” You press. 

“Do I always have an ulterior motive with you?” Kuroro returns your question with one of his own. At the raise of your eyebrow, he concedes. “There is a dinner tonight that you are expected to attend. A prince is here to make your acquaintance, in the most casual manner possible.”

Disgust fills your face. “This is what you come to tell me of?” 

“Would you have preferred someone else?” Kuroro asks. 

No, you’d rather have not. “I simply thought… I thought you had come to see me. For no other reason than to see me.”

Kuroro hums. He cups your cheek in his hand, thumb smoothing over its softness. You can’t help but lean into his touch, bring your hand to cover his. To keep him close. 

“I offered to come tell you,” Kuroro promises, crouching down by your chair. “I wanted to break the news to you, not someone else.” 

“Will you be at dinner?” You inquire. 

“I’ll be there. I must advise your father that the visiting suitor is not up to your family’s standards. That is my job, after all. As an adivisor and as a lover.” 

Kuroro’s tongue was always so smooth, and if you had more control over your life you’d be wary of it. But, with your sole outlet being the man before you, you ease yourself against his silver words. 

“Lover?” You repeat, eyelashes fluttering at such a title. 

“Should I take it back?” He asks with bated breath. 

You shake your head. “You should tell Father to marry us instead.”

Kuroro’s chuckle is self deprecating. “I am no king.” 

“You could be,” You whisper, getting your hopes up against your best judgement. 

“My best work is done from the shadows, my darling. I crumple under the public eye. And you were made for it. The people adore you.” 

You pout. “You’re going to break my heart.” 

Kuroro smiles gently at you. “You’ve known that, [First.]”

“I wish I didn’t,” You sigh. “I wish I wasn’t so aware.”

Kuroro shifts his hand to take yours in his own, bringing your knuckles to his lips. The gesture is familiar, impersonal now. He rolls your hand over, slides his fingers down your wrist, the underside of your forearm, and presses a kiss into the palm of your hand. 

“It’s for the best you are,” Kuroro says. “Tomorrow I will find time in our schedules for us to take a walk, how does that sound?” 

“A long walk?” 

“A long walk.” 

Your fingers trace Kuroro’s jaw. “Why not tonight? Why not now?” 

“You are not dressed for a walk,” Kuroro says softly. “And you need to get ready for dinner. We do not have time for a walk right now, sweet [First.]” 

“Oh.” Your fingers stop their movements, and you withdraw your hand. 

“Would you like me to walk you to your room?” Kuroro asks. 

“Will you stay while I get ready?” You hope. 

Kuroro sadly shakes his head. “I can go get you something from the kitchen and come back while delivering it.”

“So yes?” You conclude. 

“In a way,” Kuroro says, standing. He holds his hand out for you to take, which you gladly do. 

You look around you, double checking for your solitude. The door would have been audible had it opened. 

“Do you think I could have a kiss?” You whisper. 

“A kiss?” Kuroro hums. Slowly, he lowers his head until his breath mingles with yours. 

“Please?” 

“You should never have to ask for anything,” Kuroro responds, sealing his statement with a solid yet brief press of his lips against yours. “It is cruel that you want what you can’t have.”

There is no second kiss, just a hand on your cheek and Kuroro’s steady breath. A whine leaves your lips. 

Slowly, you open your eyes to look at him. “One more?” 

He obliges, slotting your lips together. The kiss lasts for a breath longer, his tongue gently swiping against your bottom lip before pulling away. 

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to kiss anyone else,” You murmur. 

Kuroro chuckles at that. “I’m sure you’ll kiss many more.” 

You shake your head. “I don’t wish to.” 

“You flatter me,” Kuroro murmurs, “When it should be the other way around.”

This turn, you hum, a little smile flickering across your lips. You pull away, out of the fear that built inside you from the amount of private time you’d had. Someone was bound to come for you any moment. 

Greedily, Kuroro steals another kiss before leading you out of the room. It’s a cold walk down the halls, shoes echoing on the stone, a distinct space left between both of you. The wind from your walk whips through it. The more distance put between yourself and the library, the larger the space becomes. And, as you round the corner of the hall, you can no longer feel the lingering warmth against your lips. 

[sukibenders]

I ultimately wish Bridgerton had just scrapped the idea of racism and racial prejudice from their world and just had a world where that, really, wasn't an issue. Like that within itself would have been perfect because, not only, would it allow poc viewers to see themselves in a show without having to explain or justify how they got there (because whenever poc are in historical fantasies all of a sudden we have to face oppression or else it's not accurate 🙄) but also because...the introduction that racism did exist in their world was very...messily added, to say the least.

[illiana-mystery]

Murder on the Orient Express (2001/2017)

[boag]

There’s this one ice cream truck that comes through my neighborhood everyday blasting a bass-boosted trap remix of like a music box version of Yankee Doodle #justphillythings

[muwitch]

divorcees™️ vs classics

[tanadrin]

One of the random ruler names for the Maya in Age of Empires 2 is Lady Great Skull Zero, and since that’s such a distinctive and interesting name, I’ve been trying this evening to find out what the underlying Maya name is and how it is written. A Google search turns up the Wikipedia page for Lady Eveningstar, whose name is also given as Lady Ik’ Skull of Calakmul. She is the wife of Itzamnaaj B’alam (”Shield Jaguar;” one paper I found gives his regnal number as I, but the Wikipedia page gives it as III; I don’t know why), of the powerful B’alam/Bahlam family, who ruled Yaxchilan. Although not the first wife, her son Yaxun B’alam IV (”Bird Jaguar IV”) succeeded to the throne, after a possible interregnum of ten years or so, in unclear circumstances--most of the history we have here is from monumental inscriptions, and a lot of the details are missing. Ik’ Skull is depicted on Yaxchilan Stela 35.

Yaxun B’alam IV was married to (among others) Ix Chak Joloom, whose name is translated Lady Great Skull. This page shows her name as this:

Incidentally, it shows Ik Skull’s name as this:

While a separate drawing from this collection shows the full name and titles of Ik’ Skull.

It’s really hard for me to tell what are the distinctive features of Maya writing, because each glyph is so complicated, and each square seems to be a combination of 2-3 actual characters, but I think you can identify the basic elements of the short version of the name above in the second square from the left in the larger drawing. Or some of them, at least; there’s a left-facing head with a small mark on the forehead, something that looks like a skull with another symbol on top, and on the right side of the square at the bottom a horizontal glyph that looks like the bottom glyph of the second square on the first drawing. But I’m really not sure! I’d love a more detailed breakdown of how Maya writing functions in practice.

Lady Chak Joloom/Great Skull Zero seems to have been the brother of a sahal, a military chief, also called Chak Joloom/Great Skull Zero. The Chak Joloom lineage seems to have been fairly powerful in Yaxchilan, and may have contributed to Yaxun B’alam IV’s rise to power.

As far as I can tell, “Great Skull Zero” is a fairly literalistic reading of the glyphs that make up the name, not a translation: Mayan glyphs could stand for words, or sounds (usually syllables; but like Linear B, Mayan phonotactics are more complicated than simple CV combinations, so underspelling or overspelling was common), or could be used as phonetic determiners attached to glyphs a la cuneiform, so teasing out which glyph is being used in what way is difficult.

Yaxchilan and Calakmul are both in the southern-middle bit of the Yucatan peninsula. Yaxun B’alam IV succeeded to the rulership of Yaxchilan around 752 CE, at age forty-three; Itzamnaaj B’alam had died around ten years earlier; the nature of the interregnum is not known, and may have involved a power struggle for the throne. In the Old World around this time, the Umayyad Caliphate is being overthrown, and the Ruthwell Cross was being carved in England, just for context.

I’m not sure why Lady Chak Joloom is included in the AoE2 ruler list. She does not seem to have reigned on her own--though it’s conjectured that her mother-in-law, Ik’ Skull, might have been regent during the time between Izamnaaj B’alam’s death and Yaxun B’alam’s accession. I’d also really like to know 1) what the literal meaning of “chak joloom” is, if any; 2) how you get “ik’ skull” from “uh chan” (ix is clear enough--it just means “woman;” sometimes it’s attached to ajaw, “lord” to indicate a noblewoman), and 3) where the “zero” in “Great Skull Zero” comes from. “Eveningstar” as a reading for Ik’ Skull’s name also seems to be a bit of a puzzle--I found a passing reference to a temple inscription involving the phases of Venus? But now I can’t find the page I originally found that on.

[jumpscaregoose]

sitting around a lunch table with my interests like they're the ragtag gang of misfits in a 90s coming of age movie

[cassmouse]

Just over 12 hours until my second maths paper and I am sitting here crying at Liebestraum No. 3

[awek-s]

my favourite thing about bridgerton so far have been the classical rendition of songs 🤭

[fenixburned]

me, realising that two of my favourite historical fiction novels would be PERFECT for the current style of period dramas & yet the movies don’t exist yet:

[umnitsa]

So today I went to Karaoke and I decided to TAKE A FUCKING CHANCE. So I sang Holding Out for a Hero.

And as the first bars chimed, the women in the karaoke shivered together, and they would look at me, and I would look at them. The men in the karaoke looked between themselves.

And this fat non-binary deity on the vocals.

It started fucking well, I hit the notes, the desperation and the fucking moment the words 'streetwise hercules' came out of my mouth, my brain fizzed and decided IT'S PLAY FUCKING TIME

And as I was singing, with all those people, screaming, begging for a hero, I could only think of one fucking dude:

My mind became the most insane thirst trap video of Hopper, as I sang Holding Out for a Hero very proficiently in front of very very horny women who were ready to pounce. And the men were... jealous, I guess? Anyway, they went back to their dates and I went back to my Fictosexuality and I'm sure we'll all have good good sex tonight.

[aloeverawrites]

Everyone's talking about how frail Victorian children were, guys a Victorian child would come to the future and kill you. Just imagine a regular ten year old and then imagine what they would be like raised in that kind of unhinged society, they'd be a complete menace. Frankly I support it.