#alli fitz

[jules-has-notes]

collaboration spotlight — The Tea by Danny Gonzalez

Language is always in flux, and one of the more rapidly changing aspects is slang. Every few years, a new wave of words and phrases comes along to express specific concepts in new ways, and befuddle those not in the know. This love song somehow manages to cram most of the late 2010s popular vernacular into just a few minutes, with a tongue-in-cheek delivery that lets the listener in on the joke. The juxtaposition of an upper-crusty tea party as the setting for the video is simply delightful.

Details:

title: The Tea

performers: Danny Gonzalez, feat. Alli Fitz; Drew Gooden & Kurtis Connor (waiters); Chyna Staggs, Cassandra Ariel, Alexa Coelho, Brittany Dobbs Neff, Chris Ross, Michael Cerasoli, Clay DeHart, Daniel Martinez, Melanie Vanderford, & Joey D'Angelo-LaJoie (partygoers)

written & arranged by: Danny Gonzalez

video produced by: PattyCake Productions

release date: 1 June 2019

My favorite bits:

the earnest delivery as they rattle off compliments that will soon become wildly outdated

Danny's deadpan "Yeet."

the actually sweet sentiment behind ♫ "tryna turn you from by bae to my fam" ♫

all the dance trends they included in the video

Alli's vocal skill as she repeatedly navigates between her head and chest registers

the surprise of everyone's wigs slipping off

Trivia:

The interior shots for this video were filmed at a tapas bar called Ceviche in downtown Orlando. Layne from PattyCake had also filmed VoicePlay's "Attention" music video at the same location two years earlier.

The audio track was included on Danny's "Bump This" EP, which had been released in late April.

As is often the case with modern slang terms, many of these turns of phrase originated in AAVE, and were then adopted into broader usage, losing some of their nuance along the way.

PattyCake fans might recognize a few of the partygoers. Cassandra Ariel has filled several roles across their series, beginning with Megara in the Princess Academy / Villains Lair crossover episode; Chris Ross plays Dr. Facilier in The Villains Lair; and Joey D'Angelo-LaJoie has been their LaFou since "Beauty and the Bieber".

VoicePlay fans may notice the colored globes in some of the rooftop shots, which Layne also used for their "True Colors" video that was released a month later.

[eightdoctor]

you see this excerpt floating around a lot if you hang out in similar circles as i but i think it needs to be stressed that these next two bits happen within like 100 words of it

the doctor really showed up, kissed his boyfriend, told him he looked cute & asked if he’d eaten today in such quick succession i almost got concussed from the whiplash

[lotusishere]

So if gay people would in kotlc…do you think homophobia would exist? Or do we just think they’re still gonna hate not because they’re gay but because they’re a bad match 😭 Cue in The Owl House since where Amity tells her mom Luz is her gf. And her mom was horrified and tells Amity to get a new gf.

[lesbianjudasiscariot]

okay SHE'S STILL SIXTEEN YOU CREEP

[joelletwo]

sleepy tired not the best time to log this thought ive been having about fcl but its soooooo interesting the things it does in a story about conspiracy and surveillance around every corner wanting to hurt or kill u in some way. or implicate u for crimes. layers of conspiracy affecting u specifically directly going decades back b4 u were even aware there was anything to conspiracy about. but also there are hidden allies everywhere who are unflinchingly helping u and solving ur problems w unique skill sets in exactly the nick of time ^_^

its an interesting push-pull theme im dying to know where the ending lands. probably on an optimistic note if im guessing. but itd be wild if it pulled the rug out from me at the last moment after all this.

[davedyecom]

PODCAST: Mary Warlick

I’ve just finished watching ‘Coco Chanel Unbuttoned’. Not only did I discover Coco wasn’t her real name (Gabrielle), I discovered her philosophy. Pre-Coco, high end fashion used the finest, most expensive materials, like silk, lace and satin – a visual display of one’s wealth. Coco chose instead, the basic materials she’d grown up with, poor and in an orphanage. Like jersey, previously used to…

[cryptidlark]

my vision

I figured out why I love this cover so much and it’s because lord golden looks like a glamorous bisexual dressed up for pride while fitz is shadowing him in the back with the hiking backpack+cargo pants combo holding the water bottles and introducing himself as the fool’s straight boyfriend

[alasarys]

Recommended books for the drivers from BookPeople, Austin, Texas (insta)

Daniel Ricciardo: Friday Night Lights – "... every Friday night from September to December, when the Permian High School Panthers play football, this West Texas town becomes a place where dreams can come true."

Lando Norris: Assassin's Apprentice – "Fitz ... must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin."

Alex Albon: My Brilliant Friend – "... a rich, intense and generous-hearted story about two friends ... a touching meditation on the nature of friendship."

Logan Sargeant: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – "hilarious, delicious, and brutal"

Yuki Tsunoda: A Cook's Tour – "the unpredictable adventures of America's boldest and bravest chef."

Carlos Sainz: Great American Golf Stories – "some of the best classic writings, both fact and realistic fiction, that reflect the rich history, tradition, agony, and ecstasy of one of our most enduring and endearing pastimes."

Oscar Piastri: Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting – "It turns out that talking to strangers can teach you about the world around you--and even more about yourself."

Lance Stroll: Infinite Jest – "Set in an addicts' halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwed-up family to come along in recent fiction, Infinite Jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment affects our need to connect with other people; and about what the pleasures we choose say about who we are."

Charles Leclerc: Every Good Boy Does Fine – "[Denk] reminds us that we must never stop asking questions about music and its purposes: consolation, an armor against disillusionment, pure pleasure, a diversion, a refuge, and a vehicle for empathy."

Lewis Hamilton: The Boy with a Bird in his Chest – "A heartbreaking yet hopeful novel about the things that make us unique and lovable, The Boy with a Bird in His Chest grapples with the fear, depression, and feelings of isolation that come with believing that we will never be loved, let alone accepted, for who we truly are, and learning to live fully and openly regardless."

Max Verstappen: Atomic Habits – "Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship ..."

Zhou Guanyu: A Visible Man – "When Edward Enninful became the first Black editor-in-chief of British Vogue, few in the world of fashion wanted to confront how it failed to represent the world we live in. But Edward, a champion of inclusion throughout his life, rapidly changed that."

Pierre Gasly: Misery – "He's a bestselling novelist who has finally met his biggest fan. Her name is Annie Wilkes and she is more than a rabid reader – she is Paul's nurse, tending his shattered body after an automobile accident. But she is also his captor, keeping him prisoner in her isolated house."

Valtteri Bottas: Foundryside – "To have a chance at surviving ... Sancia will have to marshal unlikely allies ... and undergo her own transformation ..."

Fernando Alonso: The House of the Spirits – "an enthralling saga that spans decades and lives, twining the personal and the political into an epic novel of love, magic, and fate."

Kevin Magnussen: The Daily Dad – "366 Meditations on Parenting, Love, and Raising Great Kids"

Sergio Perez: Bad Feminist – "an inspiring call-to-arms of all the ways we still need to do better"

Building on the excellent work by @vegasgrandprix and @kritischetheologie

[whencyclopedia]

Chepstow Castle

Chepstow Castle, located in Monmouthshire, South Wales, was first built c. 1067 by William FitzOsbern and then significantly improved c. 1190 CE by Sir William Marshal (c. 1146-1219 CE), one of England's greatest ever knights who served four kings and acted as regent for Henry III of England (r. 1216-1272 CE). Chepstow Castle then became the home of a succession of rich and powerful medieval and Tudor nobles. Despite its innovative design, and the expense of its formidable defensive features - or perhaps because of them, the castle was never attacked in the medieval period. Chepstow is today a fine example of 11-13th-century CE castle architecture and boasts the oldest castle doors in Europe.

Early History

Chepstow Castle was first built from around 1067 CE by Earl William FitzOsbern, an ally of William the Conqueror (r. 1066-1087 CE). As with any medieval castle, the location was an important consideration for the castle's future defence and its strategic value. Accordingly, Chepstow Castle was built at one of the gateways to Wales on a limestone cliff overlooking the River Wye. The dramatic curve here in that river gave the castle its Welsh name - Striguil, meaning 'the bend'. Domesday Book (1086-7 CE) records Chepstow Castle as an asset (one of only two castles to be so categorised) because its owner could outweigh the heavy costs of its upkeep by charging a toll on crossing river traffic.

The Norman castle was one of the first to be built in stone, and it is also unusual for not being located near an urban centre. The solid rock base made the castle impregnable to undermining, and its high walls and towers made any attack by siege engines next to impossible. It is perhaps no surprise then that the castle was never attacked in the Middle Ages but it was largely intended as a fortified base from which to attack southern Wales rather than a point of defensive retreat.

The first version of the main rectangular stone castle keep (donjon) was built c. 1072 CE, one of the earliest to be built in England and Wales. The tower cleverly saved costs by having a thinner wall on the river side, and it had the main entrance on the first floor, a typical defensive feature of the period. Another cost-saving device was to reuse locally-found old Roman bricks and tiles in the lower courses, a reminder that the border region between England and Wales had a long history of conflict. Either side of the tower two enclosed courtyards or baileys (aka wards) were built. After FitzOsbern's son Roger de Breteuil participated in a rebellion against William the Conqueror, the Crown took possession of the castle. Sometime before 1119 CE Henry I of England (r. 1100-1135 CE) then gave Chepstow to a loyal follower, one Walter de Clare. Walter's nephew Gilbert Fitz Gilbert de Clare so impressed King Stephen of England (r. 1135-1154 CE) with his martial qualities that he was made, in 1138 CE, the Earl of Pembroke and the castle became thereafter attached to that title.

Continue reading...

[myfairkatiecat]

This post has a niche audience of about three existing people BUT.

The Benedict Twins as the Vacker brothers anyone? (Bods if you see this, this is your fault)

The Benedict twins as born-to-an-influential-Elvin-family is already a HUGELY interesting concept given the fact that twins are greatly prejudiced against in the KOTLC universe. So if the Benedict family was like the Vackers they might try to pull something like the Songs did where they just pretend the brothers aren’t twins, and one is slightly older than the other.

Nathaniel was the one allowed to exist a year before Nicholas was “born,” so he always holds his “extra experience” (of being a baby) over Nicholas’ head. They look identical, yes, theoretically, but they style themselves so completely differently that they are able to pretend Nicholas is a year younger and no one questions it for the longest time.

Now in order to get to the Fitz-and-Alvar model I’m working towards, Nicholas obviously joins the Black Swan and Nathaniel joins the Neverseen. (Nathaniel joined the neverseen first and much longer before Nicholas got involved, so it’s a shock and a betrayal to see his brother for the first time on the other side.) and this makes PERFECT SENSE, because of how the tmbs characters would handle twin bias in the lost cities.

Nathaniel sees it as a grand injustice, and develops a grudge against his family for trying to hide the “imperfection” of their children, similar to Alvar’s grudge against the Vacker legacy.

Nicholas sees us as something that needs to change, but allies with the people trying to work somewhat with the council. He doesn’t want to cause a commotion or send a message—he just wants things fixed.

I think if Nathaniel was sedated with soporidine and had his memories wiped when he became no longer useful (like Alvar did) he would remain equally as angry especially since he’s the type of guy to want to be in charge? And I think when he goes through his whole “whoever did all that, it wasn’t me, I don’t remember it” phase, unlike fitz, Nicholas isn’t angry at all. He WANTS to believe it, so he does, and they go back to being brothers, and…

…Nathaniel gets his memories back. And just like Alvar, a switch is flipped. Now he’s livid at his family AND at the neverseen. I foresee him playing a Lady Gisela move and just… making his own neverseen branch. But instead of immediately trying to kill him, Nicholas pleads with him to come back. It doesn’t work.

But the real question is, in a mutant troll hive, if Nathaniel were to fall into a pod and Nicholas was frantically pressing buttons, trying to figure out how it worked, and suddenly the pod closed up and started filling with toxic orange goo, and Nathaniel was banging on the glass and yelling, screaming, pleading with his brother to save his life despite his obsession with dignity…

…would Nicholas keep pressing buttons?

I think he would.

I don’t think he would let his brother die.

Because he has the opposite of Fitz’s character flaws. He always sees the best in people. Especially his brother.

Nathaniel escapes. But he wonders, for the first time, if maybe Nicholas isn’t the traitor.

Just some Benedict brothers kotlc Vacker family au thoughts that no one asked for.

[fairweathermyth]

It only took 60 years but Fitz has finally become a vocal ally of the gender nonconforming. Bless!

[multi-fandom-lunatic]

ITS TIME. FOR KOTLC CHARACTER SEXUALITY HEADCANONS:

(PS. i completely ignore canon you're welcome)

Sophie: (she/they), aromantic.

Keefe: (he/him) the most useless bisexual ever. finger guns 24/7. frog themed everything.

Fitz: (he/him) asexual. queer, prefers men.

Dex: (he/they) pansexual. prefers fitz (ahem-)

Biana: (she/her) sapphic.

Marella: (all) lesbian.

Linh: (she/they) lesbian.

Tam: (he/him) gay and asexual.

Maruca: (all) aro ace.

Wylie: (he/him) ally.

[ahoyimlosingmymind]

Fitz only took two tries for the Black Swan oath “I will do everything in my power to help my world.” He stuck to that, even when it made people turn him into a bit of a monster.

I disagree that it turned him into a monster. Atp, I genuinely think he's just more realistic about what they're up against than the rest of the Keeper crew.

But yeah, he's a character who's loyal to a fault. It makes him an amazing ally, but a horrible enemy if you have betrayed his trust. He considers what people do over what they say. You can see that in the way he's often skeptical of people. He second guesses Sophie when she says she likes him, but her actions are her going to see Keefe. He doesn't believe Alvar's words, over what he knows his brother has done. Whereas a lot of his friends and the adults in his life were fooled.

So it makes sense that when he makes an oath like that, it's pretty black and white to him. He's about action, and doing what he says he will.

[seraphtrevs]

Since I’m a huge fan of your writing, I’m curious: who are some your favorite writers and what are some of your favorite books or short stories??

Oh man, I've done so much reading over my life that it's hard to narrow down. Like I'm for sure going to leave people out.

For fiction: some of my favorite authors are the Bronte sisters (slight preference for Charlotte - Jane Eyre was one of my first loves and hugely shaped me as a reader and a writer), Daphne du Maurier (favorite of her books - Rebecca), Sarah Waters (can't decide between Fingersmith and The Paying Guests), Angela Carter (The Bloody Chamber), Susanna Clarke (Jonathon Strange and Mr Norell), Toni Morrison (Beloved), Robin Hobb (the Farseer trilogy and Fitz's further adventures, but I've heard good things about the Liveship Trader books!), Terry Pratchett (the Tiffany Aching books are particular favorites), and Anne Rice (well, depending on the book tbh, she's not very consistent lol - the first three Vampire Chronicle books are my favs from her), with special shout-outs to Robin McKinley (Beauty), Avi (The True Confession of Charlotte Doyle), LM Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables), Frank L Baum (I have read every single Oz book - there are a ton of them!) and Madeleine L'Engle (A Wrinkle in Time), who were my favs when I was a kid (along with the Babysitter's Club book lol - but they're mostly ghostwritten so I'm not sure who to credit!)

Right now, I'm re-reading (for the millionth time) The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter, which is a collection of fairy tale retellings - but that feels like a really inadequate way to describe it. It's very visceral, primal, and poetic. My favorite story from the collection is "The Bloody Chamber," which is a Bluebeard retelling. Bluebeard is one of my favorite fairy tales, but it understandably doesn't get a lot of adaptation. (I'm very curious what Disney's Bluebeard would look like lmao)

I'm also listening to the audiobook of The Vampire Lestat, which is the reason that Anne Rice is on that list. She really lost me with her later books, but listening to TVL reminded me that actually, she can be very good! She really excels at evocative descriptions and conveying emotion - she's very shameless, in a good way. A woman who always writes with her entire pussy, whatever else you might say about her.

But I actually read more nonfiction than fiction. I'm a big fan of memoirs - not celebrity memoirs (although Jennette McCurdy's I'm Glad My Mom Died was probably my favorite book I've read this year), but memoirs that are more about someone grappling with the human experience - like, sometimes the author has been through something horrible and they've done a lot of mediation on what they've been through, or sometimes the author is just a very astute and entertaining observer of their own (and other people's) ridiculousness. Some of my favorites are Mary Karr, Caroline Knapp, David Sedaris, Cheryl Strayed, Jeanette Walls, Tara Westover, and Allie Brosh.

If I had to pick one to recommend - all of David Sedaris's books are extremely funny. He writes humorous personal essays, so I guess his books aren't really memoirs exactly (google says he's a humorist), but he usually writes about himself so I'm lumping him in this category lol. Me Talk Pretty One Day is a good place to start with his stuff - you will cry laughing.

I also love pop science and pop history - Mary Roach is a super approachable science writer with a quirky sense of humor. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers is so funny and candid - she asks every question you've ever had about dead bodies and then some. I also love Bill Bryson - another very accessible and funny writer - I really loved his A Short History of Nearly Everything, which covers exactly what it says. I ADORE Oliver Sacks - he was a neurologist who wrote so movingly about what it means to be human through the experiences of his patients - The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat reads more like a book of short stories, and I weep like a baby every time I read it (I actually started tearing up thinking of a few cases.) (Btw he's also written beautiful memoirs but I like his science writing best so I'm putting him here. Bill Bryson has written memoir too.) Carl Sagan is also approachable and humane - This Demon Haunted World is my favorite of his. Andrew Solomon's The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression is required reading for anyone who's dealt with mental illness, although it's difficult and painful at times (his Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity is also really good, but also difficult and painful - but worth it!)Diane Ackerman's A Natural History of the Senses has gorgeous prose and is a great book for artists and writers imo - it gets you thinking deeply about how we interact with the world.

For history, I am obsessed with this book called "The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow - it will completely upend everything you think you know about the history of homo sapians. Mike Duncan got his start podcasting - his series Revolutions is about major world revolutions and is essentially like listening to an audiobook, so it's not a surprise his books are pretty fun too. Sarah Vowell has some really fun books about quirky historical topics - her Assassination Vacation is great (she goes on a roadtrip to visit locations in America where famous assassinations took place).

And here are a few other miscellaneous non-fiction writers I enjoy - Sebastian Junger (just finished his In My Time of Dying about his near death experience - super thought-provoking - but it was A Perfect Storm that made me love him), Hunter S. Thompson (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), Jon Krakauer (Into the Wild), Jon Ronson (The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry)

This was a fun question to think about! I hadn't realized I had such a strong preference for female writers until I actually listed all my favs out, which is an interesting thing to know about myself, so thanks for asking!

[miirshroom]

Farseer and Tawny Man Trilogies

Thinking about the Magics

Finished re-reading Fool's Fate and appreciating how the chain of cause and effect is handled in this series. FitzChivalry is a mess of a person who swings wildly between making pragmatic decisions and irrational decisions as a consequence of everything that was done to him, and his clashing poorly-trained mental magical abilities. He's self aware enough to be introspective about agonizing over the choices made or not made and the sum of life experience and mistakes that make up the whole of a person. But since the accounting is written from his own perspective it's hard to tell sometimes if his bias is giving himself more or less grace than he deserves.

It's also interesting how the Tawny Man trilogy brings into sharper focus that mind magic is a kind of neuro-divergency. Like, because of these magical senses Fitz literally sees the world in different ways from other people, ways which he is constantly having to mask and which makes him unpredictable and distant even from most of his friends and allies because they can't follow his internal logic. And this is another layer on top of all the other physical and mental trauma.

The Effect of the Skill on the Mind

How could the Skill not be tied to mental reasoning, considering that it allows the user to rummage around inside the minds of other people? The Skill can be used to know a person on an impossible level that is beyond such imprecise things as words. It can be used to walk outside of a person's own body and step into the life of another person with the sensitivity, as a passive rider or active force. However that is only of practical use between Skill users, who are still just as fallible when interpreting the experience into words that non-Skill users can understand. The Skill has many fantastical and horrifying uses, but for practicality the choice of the Skill coterie through Fool's Fate is to generally limit its use to a private and long-distance communication channel - using the skill like a magical phone line in favour of exploring the abstract connectivity of the Skill current, Thick's music, or Nettle's dreamscapes.

The friendship and frustration between Fitz and Thick throughout Golden Fool and Fool's Fate is part of developing this theme - in some ways Thick is a more extreme version of Fitz. Thick has powerful mental abilities, but what non-magical people see first are the differences in his outwards appearance and his power with the Skill is linked to a fundamental difference in how his mind works. He is an inconvenience and would have been more easily disposed of similar to the way that Queen Desire wanted Fitz the Bastard killed as a visible reminder of the abdicated Prince Chivalry. Instead, Thick is won over with patience and gentle encouragement, despite Fitz struggling over his internalized cultural biases against people with physical and mental disabilities, and the way that other less tolerant people disparage him by proxy of his caring for Thick. He's not perfect, but it's a conscious effort to do better than the previous generation.

Chade mentions early in Assassin's Apprentice that Fitz has some strange blind spots, and deep into Fool's Fate Chade is still frequently perplexed by how the boy that he trained can have such disagreeing opinions. Their minds just don't work the same way. On one level it's that Chade doesn't have the same trauma - he learned and used his assassin's trade in a time of relative peace and his own status was as illegitimate brother to a King-in-Waiting close in age to himself, compared to Fitz being brought at a younger age and to a more volatile court. And on the other level, Chade has no experience with the Wit and his desire for the Skill blinds him to the drawbacks. Chade thinks of the Skill as a tool for use of the King and struggles to understand it as a thing that can become an addictive obsession or break a mind in other ways. He tolerates the Wit, but doesn't really understand that it is the supernatural sense of connection between people that keeps Fitz loyal to the Farseers, despite Fitz having different opinions about what specific actions would be best for the collective survival.

Overall the use of the Skill has done MORE damage to Fitz than the Wit, as it was through the Skill that he partially forged away some of his emotions.

Regal, Why are you Like This?

And then there is Regal. In counterpoint to the characters who are born with magical abilities and learn to handle both advantages and drawbacks, Regal was not educated in his weak Skill ability. He was handed a Skill coterie formed of members who had great potential once, but were mentally abused and weakened until they would accept being used by a parasite with no trained ability of his own.

Regal is a product of his environment as much as Fitz - his name means "suitable to be a king" and he was influenced by his mother "Desire" to believe that his claim to being king was better than either of his older brothers. He had the mentorship of his King father "Shrewd" who employed spies and assassins and underhanded techniques in general to achieve political goals. And so Regal learned paranoia when his mother died and also endeavored to be shrewd and use subterfuge to undermine his older brothers. He clung to the idea that his mother was poisoned in a denial of the truth that led to him falling into the same recreational drug habits that had damaged her brain and judgement.

Regal's lack of self control combined with egotistical need to be in control of other people and accumulate power and luxury by any means necessary is stronger than his bonds to family or duty to the people of his country. He is as arrogant as the stone dragons that he covets and the real dragons that are presently absent from the world - all products of the Skill and associated with ideas of immortality. Regal despises users of the Wit magic who are much maligned but essentially just have supernatural awareness of what it is to be a living, reproducing, and dying organism.

Also the irony: last time the Farseer line went seeking the aid of the Elderlings against Raiders was in the time of King Wisdom. Who obviously had the Wit magic, or had someone loyal to him that had it. The stone dragons are awoken by combined use of the Skill and the Wit and Blood. King Shrewd asked Regal once what he would make of Fitz, and Regal made Fitz his enemy. The one living Farseer who has the Wit magic and could have woken the dragons in the service of any King who treated him kindly.

The Piebalds and the Wit Magic

The Old Blood have a fairly codified set of traditions in their sub-society, and both Burrich and Fitz are outsiders to them. The traditions were designed to keep them as invisible as possible for fear of persecution, but no matter how well-intentioned the idea it only takes a few rogue agents to set off fear of the Witted again. Burrich's grandmother was a former slave in Chalced - how likely that the Old Blood comes from her part of the family but her knowledge of how to use it responsibly was lost upon being disconnected from her culture and enslaved? Burrich had no community to teach him and re-created from tales the Witted magic that can heal a body and bring a person back from the dead - the exact kind of thing that the Old Blood's don't practice because it's the part of the magic that drives people to such fear that they hang, quarter, and burn the bodies of the Witted.

The Piebalds are inspired by the Witted Bastard because he does with the Wit the things that they were taught not to do. Through Royal Assassin and Assassin's Quest Nighteyes learns too much of being human, fights alongside his partner for human causes, and does not live as a wild creature should. Fitz bonds far too closely with his wolf - close enough to hold his mind while his body is dead. Fitz breaks the rules of the Old Blood society, and it keeps him alive. The Old Blood folk experienced new rounds of persecution started by Regal and continuing in the years after as a consequence of Fitz breaking those rules. And so in response the Piebalds use the same techniques as Fitz - most notably with Peladine and Laudwine escaping into their Wit beasts when their human bodies die.

The persecution of the Wit Magic seems to combine ethnic discrimination with the traditions of witchcraft and werewolf stories. Fitz points out to hedge witch Jinna that it could just as easily be her craft that is seen as dangerous and evil. To say that just because a man is bonded to a beast means that he must have nefarious purpose is little different from accusing anyone with an extensive knowledge of herbs of being a poisoner. Fitz just happens to be both Witted and poisoner, and even when it is the assassin training that makes him an effective killer his acts are blamed on being Witted just because that's the part of his identity that is more openly known.

The Relationship between Fitz and Beloved

And the last of my hot takes* is that the expression of Fitz's Wit magic puts a wrench in the subtext reading of a sexual relationship between Fitz and the Fool. It is constantly emphasized by Nighteyes that the Fool is the "Scentless One" and no Wit presence - meaning that Fitz gets no pheromones and thus no attraction that way. The women who sleep with Fitz are described by scent to varying degrees depending on his attraction. Even the Pale Woman is described as having a scent (although an artificial one) when she is trying seduction. Instead, Fitz and the Fool have a Skill link and it is through the Skill that their relationship is expressed. This kindof seems to be the deal with all Skill Coteries - close groups of comrades who become dragons together forever. Overall, Fitz and Beloved have an aesthetic and intellectual attachment to each other, which seems like the ideal of philia love friendship - different from erotic love.

Neither Fitz or the Fool are faultless for the way that their relationship deteriorated in Golden Fool. Fitz being uncomfortable with the social stigma of homosexuality does have an impact, but the greater problem is the breakdown of communication.

The Fool struggles with speaking plainly. This has always been the cases since his fondness for riddles in Assassin's Apprentice. Like, the nature of being a prophet is to know that certain things will be true in the future, so he is disconnected from humans who would prefer to have information laid out clearly for them in the present so that they can react and make informed decisions. And Fitz is both slow to pick up on social cues, and then views it as a betrayal of trust that his friend would lead people to make assumptions about the nature of their relationship without his knowledge or consent. He wants to put words to abstract concepts like the exact kind of relationship shared by two people. He did 3 books worth of writing in an attempt to put his thoughts about himself into words. What Fitz struggles with is the idea that words will be misinterpreted no matter how plainly or poetically they are said - people fill in gaps in understanding with their own beliefs and/or prejudices.

Fool's Errand begins with the Fool reading all of Fitz's accounts and thoughts that he put on paper, which I assume to be effectively an in-universe version of the text of the first trilogy. And then in further conversation Fitz opens up about everything that he has done for the past 15 years. But the Fool doesn't similarly discuss being Amber or carving the Liveship Paragon or the whole story of the dragons until forced by circumstance. It was an unbalanced relationship that was going to come to a breaking point sooner or later. But after airing out all the hurt and betrayal and secrets they did manage to mend things by the end of Fool's Fate.

*I haven't read the Fitz and the Fool trilogy other than some summaries. So, this is like 90% my impression as of the end of the Tawny Man Trilogy.

[eclecticmuses]

After Heartbreak

Author: @eclecticmuses​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Rating: Explicit Chapters: 15 Relationships/Characters: Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons, Leo Fitz's Mother, Jemma's Parents, Milton, Other Original Characters Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Romance and Angst, Childhood Sweethearts, Second Chances, Class Differences, Angst With A Happy Ending, Explicit Sexual Content Summary: February, 1945. Jemma Simmons is working as a nurse at a Red Cross convalescent hospital in the south of England caring for wounded soldiers when she runs into a ghost from her past: Leo Fitz, her childhood sweetheart, who was cruelly ripped away from her by her disapproving parents several years prior. Can they rekindle their friendship and find something new? Or will Jemma's responsibilities and family ruin their chance at love once and for all?

Excerpt from Chapter 1:

Jemma Simmons’ eyes opened to darkness.

Her long-established routine immediately kicked in: silence the shrill alarm rattling away on the bedside table, switch on the lamp, then lie back in bed and blink up at the ceiling as her eyesight adjusted to the dim light that bathed her attic bedroom. She allowed herself one moment to be still and enjoy the comforts of her small bed before she stretched and got up, heading downstairs to the bathroom to begin the rest of her morning ritual. Time to face another day.

It was February, 1945. The Allies had long since pushed onto the Continent and were beating the Germans back, but they were suffering heavy losses along the way. As a nurse, Jemma had seen the worst of the casualties coming back to British soil from the front and even some that resulted from attacks at home—all of the blood and guts and gristle that were a part of wartime. Thankfully, she no longer dealt with death. Now she worked in recovery.

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