#at least 2002 if not earlier

[tavina-writes]

So Yang Kang's biological dad who he now also accepts as his dad is Yang Tiexin. But Yang Tiexin is also Mu Nianci's adoptive father, and she calls Bao Xiruo her mother as well, and Xiruo called her her child when they met. No one's mentioned anything in story suggesting that this is illegal or even odd, so is it really fine or is everyone just really chill about incest while also dismissing Yang Kang as only caring about wealth when he's begging them to please let him light some incest for his mother?

Well Nonny, the situation herein is that:

Nianci is adopted, and her surname is Mu. If she changes her surname to Yang this would then socially qualify as incest again even if Yang Kang was a totally completely unrelated boy she found in a gutter named Yang. Socially KangCi is not incestuous in any way.

also for many reasons, different cultures have different ideas of what is incest, but even if you look at it from our modern American standards, this is not incestuous because they are neither blood related nor raised together as siblings nor do they see each other as siblings despite having only three parents with some overlap between them, but anywho herein and therein.

Also Nonny I hate to point this out but you did say..."please let him light some incest for his mother" 🤣and I'm sorry this answer isn't exactly coherent I'm just (OH NO LARF AND LARF) at that typo.

[david-talks-sw]

Dooku didn't leave because of the Jedi.

At least, if you're going by George Lucas' word.

In deleted scenes of Attack of the Clones, when we learn about Dooku's departure and his values, there's no mention of the Jedi or "the Jedi Order as an institution".

And every time Lucas refers to Dooku's disenchantment and reason for falling, he doesn't mention the Jedi.

"When you realize that Dooku is Darth Tyranus, it explains what Darth Sidious did after Darth Maul was killed: he seduced a Jedi who had become disenchanted with the Republic. He preyed on that disenchantment and converted him to the dark side, which is also a setup for what happens with Anakin." - Mythmaking: Behind the Scenes of Attack of the Clones, 2002

"[Dooku is] one of the few Jedi who became disenchanted with the Republic and left the order and he is leading a separatist movement." - Vanity Fair, 2002

"I wanted a more sophisticated kind of villain. Dooku’s disenchantment with the corruption in the Empire is actually valid. It’s all valid.  So, Chris plays it as, 'Is he really a villain or is he just someone who is disenchanted and trying to make things right?'" - Starlog Magazine #300, 2002

He probably meant the Republic/Senate in that last one, but you get the point. And you're seeing the pattern, right?

Dooku's problem isn't the Jedi, it's the Republic.

He's become disenchanted with a system that - according to Lucas' prologue in the 2004 book Shatterpoint - worked for 1,000 years...

"For a thousand years, the Old Republic prospered and grew under the wise rule of the Senate and the protection of the venerable Jedi Knights."

... but has been rendered ineffective because of 1) senators becoming corrupt and 2) corporations gaining political power.

"But as often happens when wealth and power grow beyond all reasonable proportion, an evil fueled by greed arose. The massive organs of commerce mushroomed in power, the Senate became corrupt, and an ambitious named Palpatine was voted Supreme Chancellor."

That's the message Dooku runs on, when he rallies the systems to form the Separatist Alliance.

"By promising an alternative to the corruption and greed that was rotting the Republic from within, Dooku was able to persuade thousands of star systems to secede from the Republic."

The Jedi aren't really a factor in his decision to leave.

Why would they be? Their political status isn't very high, they're virtually powerless, as illustrated by the film's narrative and stated repeatedly by Lucas.

On the contrary, as we already established in this post, Lucas full-on confirmed that Dooku actually carries the sympathies of most of the Jedi. Again:

Most Jedi agree with Dooku, ideologically.

As far as the Jedi are concerned, the politicians are effing up the Republic, and it sucks because the Jedi see this but aren't allowed to interfere in the political process. They have to resort to looking for loopholes in their mandates to actually get stuff done.

That's what that whole "she's a politician" scene is meant to hint at. In the commentary of Attack of the Clones, Lucas uses a similar turn of phrase as he does with Dooku.

"[This scene gives us] a chance to talk a little bit about politics and the Jedi’s disenchantment with the political process, due to the corruption and the ineffectiveness of the Senate." - Attack of the Clones, Director’s Commentary, 2002

Considering all this, it becomes clear that the intended narrative surrounding Dooku's decision to leave the Order is not:

"The Jedi are dogmatic and asleep at the wheel except for Dooku, who is ahead of the curb and sees the system is flawed, so he left."

It's actually:

"ALL Jedi see the system is flawed, Dooku's the only Jedi who decided to take it a step further and leave the Order so he can try to get into politics himself and change things."

That's why they hesitate to accuse him of murder.

That's why in an earlier draft of the Attack of the Clones script, by the end of the second act, Mace STILL has his doubts that Dooku would sign a treaty with the Trade Federation to attack the Republic.

As far as the Jedi are concerned, Dooku is out there fighting the good fight, making noise because whenever they try to protest it falls on deaf ears... until his betrayal on Geonosis.

After all, let's not get it twisted: the Dooku we're introduced to in the films and The Clone Wars, isn't really just Dooku anymore.

He's Darth Tyranus.

A point Lucas makes sure to highlight in his Shatterpoint prologue:

"Unbeknownst to most of his followers, Dooku was himself a Dark Lord of the Sith, acting in collusion with his master, Darth Sidious, who, over the years, had struck an unholy alliance with the greater forces of commerce and their private droid armies."

It's not about doing the selfless thing for Dooku, anymore. He's knowingly part of the problem.

He's all about ambition, now. His personal goals are things like overthrowing Sidious and becoming the most powerful Jedi.

"[Anakin's] ambition and his dialogue here is the same as Dooku’s. He says “I will become more powerful than every Jedi.” And you’ll hear later on Dooku will say “I have become more powerful than any Jedi.” [...] It is possible for a Jedi to want to become more powerful, and control things." - Attack of the Clones, Director’s Commentary, 2002

"If you put two Sith together, they try to get others to join them to get rid of the other Sith. [When revealing the truth to Obi-Wan], Dooku's ambition is really to get rid of Darth Sidious. He's trying to get Obi-Wan's assistance in that and help in that, so that he and Obi-Wan could overthrow Sidious and take over." - Attack of the Clones, Commentary Track 2, 2002

Y'know? Selfish things.

Dooku - like all other Sith, and like the very corporations and Senators he had sworn to destroy - is consumed by his own greed.

[avayarising]

Deaths of Cassandra Cain

Part of the Batfam Death Project.

Cass has two very definite deaths and one implied death. She also spent several days in the Spirit World. Total time dead: up to a couple of days, plus Spirit World time.

Verifiable deaths

1. Beaten in the chest by Lady Shiva (Batgirl 1:25, 2002)

Cass asked Lady Shiva (her mother, though at this point she didn’t know that) to train her because she was losing her ability to read body language. Shiva agreed, but in return asked for Cass to come back in a year and duel her to the death. Cass agreed to this. When the time came, they fought on a rooftop, and Shiva quickly killed Cass with what looks like a pre-cordial thump.

Cass was raised to life again by Lady Shiva some unspecified time later through some unspecified technique (though she did say she had prepared for years to be able to do it) involving punching her in the chest again.

Time dead: Unclear, but probably of the order of hours. Since the location where Cass was resurrected was not where she died, Shiva must have had to move her corpse, so probably at least a few hours, plus however long it took for Shiva to do whatever she did to resurrect Cass.

2. Took a sword for someone else (Batgirl 1:72–73, April 2006)

So before Cass was born. David Cain made other attempts at creating the Perfect Warrior, and he started out by taking existing children (from Ra’s Al Ghul) to train, rather than attempting to breed one. One of these became known as Mad Dog: very skilled but almost mindless and uncontrolled. In a forest in the middle of nowhere, he attempted to stab someone, Cass leapt in front, and:

Even though it looks from this picture like that big fat knife goes right through her ribcage, heart, and spine, she still managed to kick Mad Dog in the face before collapsing and dying.

After Cass died, she awoke being carried by Steph.

Steph told Cass something she couldn’t have known (that Blüdhaven had just been destroyed), indicating she was really present and not just a near-death hallucination.

Of course, it later turns out that Steph was never actually dead at all, but at this point in time she is dead, and her presence is meant to be an indicator that Cass is truly dead.

Lady Shiva raised her (again), this time via a Lazarus Pit. (At this point, Cass has only very recently found out that Shiva is her mother.)

Cass came out angry with Pit Madness, but Shiva trapped her in a net and coached her through it. Cass calmed down in a matter of minutes.

Time dead: between several hours and a couple of days (Shiva had to carry her out of a forest on foot and get to the Lazarus Pit before she could resurrect her).

Bonus extra deaths

(Implied, inferrable, ambiguous and arguable deaths)

1. Probably died in Death Metal along with everyone else (Death Metal 7, 2021)

Cass probably died in battle when the Dark Multiverse invaded and destroyed all the worlds of the multiverse. All the remaining heroes came together in a hopeless fight against an army of their worst nightmares, including an apparently never-ending swarm of groblins (mindless evil Jokerised Robins led by the Robin King, an evil child Bruce Robin).

Cass’s death isn’t shown on panel and neither is her dead body, but she is definitely in the group of Bats standing ready to fight (far right, in an oddly ill-fitting Orphan outfit):

And later Evil Child Bruce Robin tells Batman that everyone else is dead, so that seems like Cass is dead too.

On the other hand, Evil Child Bruce Robin probably doesn’t know what’s going on away from his immediate vicinity, so it’s possible that Cass was drawn away during the battle earlier on and is still out there fighting in a different part of the field.

After this, Wonder Woman persuades the Creators to remake the world and everyone is fine again.

Time dead: unclear; might be up to an hour, or longer if it takes longer to remake the world.

2. Perhaps was shot by Lady Shiva at some point (Spirit World 3, 2023)

Thank you to @fantastic-nonsense for pointing this one out! During Cass’s trip to the Spirit World (see below) she was bitten by a kitsune spirit and regained the memory of a previous encounter in the Spirit World when she was dead. The flashback montage panel shows Shiva shooting Cass in the chest, followed by Cass’s revival in the Lazarus Pit in Batgirl 1:73 with its very distinctive hook and chain.

Although it’s most likely that this is just a conflation and reinterpretation of Cass’s previous two deaths and resurrections, the new method of death suggests that this could be an additional, off-panel, death and resurrection.

More details in @fantastic-nonsense’s original commentary here.

Afterlife visits

1. Pulled into the Spirit World (Lazarus Planet: Dark Fate, 2023; Spirit World, 2023)

When the Lazarus Volcano erupts and rains down Lazarus Water on the whole earth, it stirs up a lot of undead. In a graveyard in Gotham, Cass joins John Constantine and Xanthe Zhou (a ’spirit envoy’ who died as a child and was partially resurrected and is now both living and dead) in a fight against hopping vampires (jiang-shi) and a ‘ghost collective’ (a big ball of angry ghosts).

With Constantine’s and Cass’s help, Xanthe exorcises the collective, but on its way out the collective grabs Cass’s ankle and pulls her into the Spirit World with it.

In the Spirit World, she more or less gets adopted by Xanthe’s granny, who has also adopted another ghost, Bowen. (It’s not clear in this panel, but Po Po is tiny and only comes up to Cass’s waist.)

A kitsune spirit she meets there tells her they have met before, when she was dead, though she clearly doesn’t remember her time dead. (The spirit doesn’t clarify which of Cass’s deaths it is referring to, but since she was with Steph all through her second death, it is likely to be her first – but it might be a completely different one; see above.)

Of course, John and Xanthe go in after her and they eventually reunite. After a great quest, the freeing of the ghosts from their collective, and major reorganisation of the politics of the Spirit World, they all leave together through a portal.

Time in afterlife: several days.

Batfam Death Project Masterpost

[ratlordsarah]

more word girl HCs bc this blog is going dry 💀

miss question, lady redundant woman, and Leslie have girls nights out, but they always end up where they wake up crawling out of a dumpster, wake up in a Forrest completely barefoot in 60 degree F weather swarmed by deer, makes it back to one of the three’s places, all of them drunk-crying about how much they love a dog they saw earlier, wake up with a new stray dog as a pet, or some other form of ominous nuanced way to end the night out. (You will have the time of your life)

Two brains def goes on long car rides during the summer as the sun sets, blasting 80s songs down the highway, and makes it back some time in the middle of the night (bro absolutely lives for that, he sings along with more passion than a passion fruit or something)

the girlie trio mentioned earlier, all 3 of them are abba girlies, no one can change my mind.

sometimes, the girl trio and two brains will do a mix of their activities, and they ride around and two brains is doing drifts all over the city while all 4 of them are singing whatta man by salt n pepa, at the top of their lungs

Charlie and meatloaf love doing anything involved with a disco party (they are 70s babies for life)

the show starts in august of 1999 and ends in February 2002

Toby sings along to all the Eminem songs, but can’t rap so it sounds more like a mumble

(Partly canon) miss question and Brent later get married and has a kid who is a very curious sandwich

chuck has the pack man maze burnt into his screen from playing it so much

Seymour and granny may are either half siblings, or cousins. (I gotta make them related, their chemistry would be absolutely legendary)

Seymour is OLDDD (at least in his 60s)

two brains knows how to speak mouse and because of this, he basically has the basement of his warehouse (or attic) dedicated to the rats and mice of fair city. (A majority of his friends are mice, he will hang out with some of them and genuinely forget they aren’t human)

due to the amount of trials two brains goes through each time he’s arrested, and sally botsford being the district attorney, two brains and sally actually become really good friends

two brains is actually really good at becoming genuine friends with people’s moms, it’s insane.

Timmy Tim Bo later makes a band where he’s a backup singer/ guitarist, and can do a little drums too.

Hal hardbargain and big left hand guy are both functional alcoholics

beau handsome’s parents are French, and is a victim of child acting.

lady redundant woman becomes a crazy cat lady, and adopts like 30 cats

(A lot of people I’ve seen has this hc, no idea where it originated from, but here we go) amazo guy’s name is Adam, and he definitely had a pet golden retriever

on the topic of that, I like to think he also is from lexicon, and he’s wordgirl’s biological father or uncle, and Steven’s original friendship with word girl was asked from amazo guy to try and get closer to his daughter/neice, but they all basically became the bestest of friends (and wordgirl looked up to both amazo and Steven very much)

I also feel like amazo (or Adam ) genuinely loves fighting crime, and basically is like Superman in fair city

fair city is either located in New Jersey or California

Steven’s sister is named Marcy, and his niece is named Maggie (called mags tho)

squeaky was genetically modified and his brain was basically originally fused with a psycho’s brain where it’s basically a human thinking mouse with mouse like tendencies, before Steven bought him, which is why he was on sale (for negative 200$)

The butcher would be girl dad of the year

when Steven is really angry (once in a life time) he does the Italian 🤌 thing, and he grew up in Brooklyn NY

due to him growing up in New York, two brains was certainly most pissed when 9/11 happened out of the villains

chuck grew up in Boston before his family moved to fair city about 7 years prior to the show

idk if I have previously said any of these in an earlier post, so sorry if I have lmao 💀

[yridenergyridenergy]

HD scans from Zappy September 2002 issue. Please DO NOT repost.

Spoilers for the MY BLOODY VAMPIRE shows in January 2024!

I saw on Twitter that an old magazine covered Dir en grey's first series of concerts with that name, actually mixed with a couple that were called "MY BLOODY ZOMBIE" instead. Seeing as we don't have much info from back then I hunted down that magazine in hopes of learning more bout what Dir en grey might do in January 2024. As it turns out, there were quite a few similarities!

Apparently, at first Papa Roach played as background music until the show started. Then, every band member walked on stage one by one as usual, but Kyo showed up with a big white mouse costume head (reminescent of the Child Prey PV? which had come out earlier that year). When the first song started, he took off the mouse head and appeared to have white foam or liquid at his mouth. It grew until he eventually spat out a lot of (fake) blood. That was in the first song, but it didn't stop there. Throughout at least the first part of the concert, Kyo continuously spat out more and more blood. The live reporter commented that whether it was due to the substance being stuck in his throat or not, Kyo was not bent on singing well that night, which he interpreted as a sign of integrity.

The theme that night of 2002 at Zepp Fukuoka, which the live report focused on, was really "blood". A message had been played on the intercom to advise the audience about the risk of being splattered with fake blood, and blue vinyl sheets/tarps had even been laid on the floor between the front row of the audience and the stage, to avoid staining the venue.

For what it's worth, not a trace of Yurameki, Akuro no Oka or Zan was played in that show hahah. It was a mix of Kisou and Six Ugly.

If you have seen some fanart of the band's look in Tour23 Phalaris Final -The scent of a peaceful death-, maybe you noticed that Kyo has been dressing a bit like in the pictures above lately, and he used fake blood similarly in Petit Brabançon's Explode-01 show.

[irish-dress-history]

Making late Medieval Fringe

Fringe was an important part of 16th and 17th century Irish fashion. In this post, I will discuss the historical evidence for its use and my attempt to reconstruct it.

Fringe shows up on Irish garments in several period works of art.

1680 Portrait of Sir Neil O'Neill by John Michael Wright and the 'Civill' Irish Woman from John Speed's 1611 map of Ireland, both shown wearing a fringed brat (Irish mantle).

Detail from 'Drawn after the Quicke', an anonymous 16th c. English print showing Irish men wearing ionair (Irish short coats) embellished with fringe.

Historical Research:

The Irish use of fringe is mentioned by several period writers. In 1548, Paolo Giovio stated that most Irish men wore, "a soldier’s woollen cloak, with a fringed and variegated edge for elegance" (translation from Harris 2007). Similarly, William Good said Irish men and women wore "mantles or shag-rugs [. . .] fring'd round the edges with divers well mixt colours" (1586/1695). 17th century writers Luke Gernon (1620) and John Lynch (1661/1850) both described how the Irish continued to wear fringed mantles in spite of British colonial laws banning them. Gernon stated that the Irish mantle (ie brat) "differs nothing from a long cloke, but in the fringe at the upper end, which in could weather they [the Irish] weare over their heades for warmth," suggesting that this use of fringe was such an important part of Irish fashion that it was a marker of cultural identity.

This fringe appears to have been a separate trim, typically made of wool or silk, that was added to the garments. This is suggested by John Speed's description of Irish mantles as being "purfled with a deepe Fringe of divers colours" (1611). Applied fringe trim can be seen on the brat in Sir Neil O'Neill's portrait. In his poem "A Vision", 16th c. Irish poet Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn describes a fairy woman wearing, "A purple mantle with satin fringes" (1550-1591/1921). Fringes made of silk and wool are found among recorded imports to Ireland in the late 16th c. (Flavin 2011).

Despite all this period evidence, I sadly do not know of any extant examples of Irish fringe from this period. Since at least some of the fringe used in Ireland was imported, I decided to look at examples from other parts of Europe to determine how Irish fringe might have been made. Looking at 15th-17th c. examples in the V&A, I saw 2 common manufacturing methods: warp-faced plain weave and tablet weave.

I decided to go with tablet weave for this project, because tablet woven bands have been found at earlier Medieval sites in Ireland (Wincott Heckett 2002). Following the historical costuming advice of The Welsh Viking that simple things less likely to be wrong, I used this simple late-15th c. fringe from Sweden as the basis for my pattern. Simple tablet-woven fringes continued to be used into the late 17th or early 18th century.

I used wool yarn for this project, because I wanted something that could have plausibly been made in Ireland and afforded by Irish commoners, instead of a luxury import like silk. Wool also seemed like the best fit for John Lynch's characterization of the fringe on a brat as a practical feature which protected the wearer's neck from the rain (1661/1850). I chose blue based on a combination of the availability of woad in 16th c. Ireland (Flavin 2011), the noted fondness of the Irish for bright colors (McClintock 1943), and personal preference.

My reconstruction:

I used Garnhuset wool weaving yarn I purchased from Vävstuga Weaving School in size 20/2 for the warp and 28/2 for the weft. (Check out this video, if you need an explanation of how tablet weaving works.) I made a box loom out of a cardboard box, although I suspect that any loom type that works for tablet weaving would also work for this.

Also used bamboo chopsticks, tape to cover the rough edges of the cardboard, and a shoelace. Not pretty or historically accurate, but cheap and easy to make.

My tablet weaving pattern uses 6 cards. Cards 1,3,5 are Z threaded. Cards 2,4,6 are S threaded. All 6 cards are turned in the same direction until too much twist is built up on the warp to continue, all 6 cards are then turned in the opposite direction until too much twist is build up to continue. Reverse direction and repeat until you run out of warp.

For the weft, I used 5 strands the of 28/2 yarn run together as if they were a single weft thread. I placed a rectangle of sturdy cardboard against the left side of the warp and looped the weft around it as I wove. I neglected to get a good picture of this on my actual loom, so here is a picture of my test piece setup.

The relevant part here is the light blue and purple threads. Ignore the shuttle of black thread.

As I advanced the warp, I slid the cardboard rectangle forward to continue weaving. After I took the completed fringe off the loom, I took a pair of scissors and cut the bottoms of the weft loops.

If you try this, I strongly recommend covering the long edges of your cardboard rectangle with tape. This will both protect your warp from being chewed up the cardboard and make the cardboard more slippery and easier to to slide forward. Also, make sure you are beating the shed well and pulling your weft tight. Once you cut the loops, the tightness of your weave is the only thing keeping your fringe from pulling out.

Results:

I whipstitched the completed fringe to the edge of my brat. I am extremely happy with how this turned out. I had never done tablet weaving with wool before, so I had no idea what to expect.

This method creates a thick, fluffy fringe which I think does a nice job recreating the look of "Drawn after the Quicke". You do lose quite a bit of length though. The wool yarn is kind of stretchy, and tablet weave is kind of stretchy (similarly to a twill-weave fabric). Between the ends of the warp lost to setting up the loom, and the stretchiness of the finished product, 11 ft (335 cm) of measured warp gave me 92 in (234 cm) of completed fringe. Oh, well. At least my loom can easily accommodate a longer warp, and this piece only used 20% of my 2 skeins of yarn.

I did also make a test piece out of DMC Pearl cotton. The warp is size 8 embroidery thread, and the weft is size 25 embroidery floss with all 6 strands used together. It is slightly easier to work with than the wool, (wool warps do have an annoying tendency to stick to each other), but I don't like the way it looks as much.

Wool fringe above, cotton below. Ignore the purple fringe. It has an extra weft thread that is not part of the fringe, which is why it looks more gappy than the light blue.

The cotton tends to stay in its discrete clumps rather than feathering out to form a nice fluffy, connected whole like the wool does.

I then went to the Ren Fair and located an appropriate sword.

(Yes, that's an English kirtle and smock. I haven't finished making my other Irish garments yet.) Me carrying a sword a la Albrecht Dürer's kern.

I really should have made this fringe longer. It's only 1 in (2.5 cm) long. Looking at the scale of Speed's "Civill" woman, I would estimate that hers is closer to 2 inches long. I may add a longer second layer. John Lynch does say that the brat has a doubled layer of fringe in the neck area (1661/1850). Adding a second color to the weft would probably better match William Good's description of "divers well mixt colours" and Paolo Giovio's "variegated," but I like the way the solid blue looks.

As a bonus, I will say that the wool fringe feels softer and nicer than the cheap coating wool I used to make my brat. I suspect that may be part of the reason the 16th-17th c. Irish were so fond of having thick fringes in the neck area, to protect the skin of their necks from the irritation of a brat made of coarse wool. The léine would have protected most of their body, but it largely left the neck bare.

Irish woman wearing a brat with a deep fringe by Wenceslaus Hollar published 1643

Want to give me a tip? Ko-fi page

Bibliography:

Flavin, Susan (2011). Consumption and Material Culture in Sixteenth-Century Ireland. [Doctoral thesis]. University of Bristol.

Gernon, Luke (1620). A Discourse of Ireland. https://celt.ucc.ie/published/E620001/

Good, William (1695). The Ancient and Modern Customs of the Irish. In W. Camden (ed) Camden's Britannia newly translated into English, with large additions and improvements; publish'd by Edmund Gibson (p. 1042-1048) (Edmund Gibson, Trans.). Edmund Gibson. (Original work published 1586) http://name.umdl.umich.edu/B18452.0001.001

Harris, Jason (2007). Ireland in Europe: Paolo Giovio's "Descriptio" (1548). Irish Historical Studies, 35(139), 265-288.

Lynch, John. (1850). Cambrensis Eversus (Matthew Kelly, Trans.). Dublin: The Celtic society. (Original work published 1660) https://archive.org/details/cambrensisevers04kellgoog/page/200/mode/2up

McClintock, H. F. (1943). Old Irish and Highland Dress. Dundalgan Press, Dundalk.

Ó hUiginn, Tadhg Dall (1921). The bardic poems of Tadhg Dall Ó Huiginn (1550–1591) (Eleanor Knott, Trans.). (Original work published 1550-1591) https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T402563/index.html

Speed, John (1611). The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine: presenting an exact geography of the kingdomes of England, Scotland, Ireland, and the iles adioyning. William Hall, London.

Wincott Heckett, Elizabeth (2002). Irish Viking Age silks and their place in Hiberno-Norse Society. Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings, 427. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsaconf/427

[amageish]

So, Felicia Hardy mentions having a girlfriend in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and this has resulted in a lot of discussion... I wanna talk about it!

One thing I find really interesting about the conversation is that so many articles discussing it credit Felicia's bisexuality to this moment from 2021, where she and Odessa Drake have an on-panel kiss followed by an off-panel one-night-stand.

While this is pretty friggin' gay and good for them, I feel like reducing the story to "Black Cat kissed a girl in 2021 and that's why she has a girlfriend in the video game" is missing a lot of the larger context... so let's discuss some of the history of Felicia Hardy, AKA the chaotic crime bisexual Black Cat.

Felicia Hardy debuted in 1979. Tamara Blake, her "oldest friend" and female lover, first appeared in 1984, only 5 years later, debuting in the Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual "Cat and Mouse."

Dropping by for a night of "harmless frolic," Tamara robs Felicia, aiming to play a game of cat-and-mouse with her friend. While their relationship is not explicitly romantic in this story, Tamara is portrayed as very close to her ex-partner-in-crime and very familiar with her relationship habits. She is surprised by the reveal that Black Cat is trying to settle down with Spider-Man - and to be skeptical about if Felicia will be able to tie herself down to one man... almost as if she knows Felicia has a pattern of behaviour when it comes to monogamy.

I don't know if this story was intentionally gay or not, but it would be used as a foundation for later queer storytelling about Felicia, so it seems worth mentioning it here!

What is pretty explicit, however, is Felicia's relationship with her partner Diana in the 2002 Spider-Girl series. They are just called partners, not lovers, but the framing and discussion of it is obvious enough that, in my opinion, if you know that gay people exist and can accept the possibility of them being gay, then you probably will read this and go "Oh, yeah, they are gay."

This story does not take place in Earth-616 and is primarily focused on Mayday Parker as Spider-Girl and Felicity Hardy as Scarlet Spider, but Felicity does have two moms - and we love that for her!

Jumping ahead a bit, Tamara returned via flashback in Black Cat #10, released in 2020, and this fleshed out their backstory together. It revealed how they trained together under Black Fox as their mentor and clearly shows them using slight-of-hand to hold hands and canoodle without Fox noticing what they're up to.

This is just a super-cute panel to me. That's such a clever use of slight-of-hand; I love it so much...

The next year, in Black Cat Vol 2 #3, there's a vision of Black Cat surrounded by a harem of her lovers, which includes Tamara and Odessa alongside several of her more famous male affairs.

Shortly thereafter, she kissed Odessa on the lips, as discussed earlier. In case the earlier evidence was not enough for you, Felicia Hardy is now formally unquestionably a girl-kisser. We even later get to see her and Drake's one-night-stand via flashback, in case there was any lingering doubts about what happened.

However, it also doesn't end there. It's not like Felicia just kissed a women, Marvel patted themselves on the back, and now she's been back to dating Peter Parker exclusively. There are plenty of comic characters who have had one defining "queer moment" and mum's been the word on their queerness since then... Felicia, meanwhile, is very loudly bisexual.

Immediately, she got a Pride variant cover in 2021 and has been on at least one cover every year since. My favourite is probably this one from 2022, which is both very poly and also features Peter Parker... I'm sure if you'd ask Marvel corporate they'd say he is just there as an ally, but it's still funny to me.

In 2021, she was the character used for the grand return of Jessie Drake (Felicia really has a thing for women with last names that end with -ake, apparently). Jessie was Marvel's first explicitly transgender character, debuting all the way back in 1992. After getting off to a rocky start, Felicia blows up a building with Jessie's help and they go out for dinner.

(This story was not followed up on as the book it was supposed to lead into got cancelled. Drake has not so much as cameoed since. F in the chat for Jessie Drake).

In 2022, there was an 5-issue mini-series all about Tony Stark and Felicia bonding over their mutual problem of supervillain ex-girlfriends trying to murder them. Of the two halves of the pair, Felicia gets the better deal - Tamara not only teams up with Felicia and Tony to fight Tony's ex, but they do so much flirting that Tony forgets that are not currently dating.

And, finally, in 2023, there was another Felicia story in a Pride issue wherein she hooked up with a pseudo-diety and also worked with Gambit to fuck with some transphobes in the process. Good for them!

This is not by any means a definitive list of everything gay Felicia has done - she famously flirts with MJ and Cindy a lot, for instance - but I hope it provides some larger context to Felicia's sexuality in the game.

Moreover, I hope it shows that queer storytelling isn't always about writing a single gay kiss that generates headlines. A lot of Marvel and DC queer storytelling that goes viral isn't the actual multi-issue multi-comic-run queer stuff; it's the one big kiss or something subtextual that happens to feature MCU heroes with better SEO then people like Felicia have... and I think it's the more under-the-radar stuff that's often more valuable.

[batsplat]

let’s be shallow and objectifying, who’s the most handsome/attractive motogp rider, current grid and from the past, in your opinion??

so, an important caveat here is. I am a lesbian. obviously that means I'm the best-placed to give an accurate assessment on these matters and in many ways am the definitive authority... but there is perhaps a little bit of a tendency to just rate blokes highly if they meet the 'if you squinted could you trick yourself into thinking they were a woman' criterion. also not to get into the ins and outs of how sexuality works too much, but it does become more about persona for me when you've not got the same instant physical attraction? like how much are you into how they behave, into the vibes, into the complete package...

all of this obviously means that valentino automatically has a leg up as certified evil lesbian. everybody knows about the 125cc dyke years, but honestly if I squint I can still see it for much of his career (which btw is why personally the least attractive I think I've ever found him aren't any of the haircuts that everyone hates but his 2002 where he looked like 'just some guy'). shout out to his early yamaha years, definitely could pass as a lesbian. also even when he's got the sideburns I can dirtbag lesbo him in my head. without getting too much into valentino hairstyle rankings, I do also actually like his shaved head eras, it's very lean and mean. very butch realness, if you will. he's in the mancrush territory for me like he is actually quite hot

other retired riders... there's like a very specific time period where casey looks quite nice, in his early ducati years where he's wide eyed and surly and has a good camera smile but is also kinda grumpy a lot of the time. not necessarily attractive but sort of like a doe? skittish. like you kinda want to pat him on the shoulder and tell him to chill out? I think his face is quite nice to look at, but it kinda fades when he goes to honda and falls prey to 'just some guy' syndrome. he looks quite nice post retirement though, *gestures vaguely* rugged but in a nice way. I'm struggling to think of a single other retired rider I find attractive... chris vermeulen in the suzuki leathers looked kinda appealing actually. pre-valentino the sport really was 'just some guy' all the way unfortunately... maybe crivi deserves a shout out

from the current grid... uh. there's some guys I know are objectively attractive but also do nothing for me 99% of the time. marc does sometimes fall into this category unfortunately, like he's got a very compelling face but it's also too perfect? he does more for me these days!! a few more lines, bags under the eyes and all that... back in the day he did just look too much like a cross between a barbie doll and a literal toddler. I WILL SAY he's deeply attractive specifically at misano 2019 when he's got that massive grin while being booed (jerez 2005 important sister moment where valentino looks fantastic too). in general, every time he looks a bit psychotic I go 'yeah I get it' I think? like the motogp unlimited moment where joan is kinda terrified of him and marc looks like he's trying to figure out whether he can muster the energy to eat him, that really makes me go 'OH yeah now I understand'. luca I think is also clearly good looking, but again just a bit too much, he's very ooh look I'm a walking sculpture, good for him and all but also too much. I don't think pecco is attractive, but also his sister clearly does just look like the female version of him and she's INCREDIBLY hot, 12/10 girl call me, so I guess pecco probably is too? might do more for me if he got rid of the facial hair, but he does look quite... idk, soft, like I'd pat him on the head. aleix has a very firm jaw, he can definitely get it. also could be a lesbian without too little adjustment. not that this is the metric, but just saying! uh... fabio looks quite nice? when he had the bisexual leathers earlier this season he moved me, also he's got a nice voice. vinales occasionally has his moments, but it really depends on what he's doing with his hair and facial hair situation at any given time. um. that's it

[philosophicalparadox]

The term “Modern AU” for Naruto fandom needs to die. (Jk, sort of). It needs a new name, for ontologies sake.

Like. There is no consistency to the technological advancement in Naruto at all, but nonetheless, it is a demonstrable product of its initial years of development, which is the 90’s.

Throughout pt1 and Shippuden, we get a weird and nonsensical mix of Showa era (all of it, from 1886-1949) postwar period (1947-1980 thereabouts, though Wikipedia will disagree with me on that) and mid-late 90’s tech boom.

Now you could solidly argue for a “modern” interpretation of the Showa-era systems and customs, although that very much interferes with 1. the Uchiha as a clan, because they are 100% late Showa / WW2 period culturally. Hyuuga are more representative of the earlier Showa era, like 1920’s or so. SO yes you could do away with that, but frankly those clans are not themselves outside of that satirical context. (And I do actually think Kishimoto meant it to be satire, or at least his editor, who came up with most of the Uchiha premise, did). And

2. The whole Shinobi premise, which had still-living threads during that time period despite Shinobi as a profession supposedly dying in the 1850’s. (Pfffffft, Like mercenaries went anywhere during the European renaissance; they simply went from mercs to commissioned officers. Title change but not role change. Same idea.)

Furthering this, if you take them out of the dirt, so to speak, then they cease to have the in-universe function that they do. They don’t have to — you can still absolutely mock up a Mercenary-Paramilitary-Mage Caste for the “modern” world, by which is typically meant: In Japan/Our World, not the NarutoVerse.

Yes I know I’m being pedantic, but to say “modern” implies “past” and while there’s lots of that in Naruto, there’s also:

90’s Telephones (why doesn’t the Hokage have one in their office??? Landline is pretty darn secure.)

90’s Electricity

Computers (90’s era, but clunky things with limited functionality but can store data)

Floppy Disks to go with the above

Security cameras

Polaroids (again, 90’s era)

The cutting-edge-of-its-time (90’s again) radio collars

Industrial production of steel (how? We don’t know. But they can build 80’s-90’s skyscrapers, somehow.)

Steam engine (not that impressive or modern, but like, Where Are The Trains. We got 90’s steam boats in Kiri, but no locomotives? How? Why?)

Medical devices. Oh the list I could make about that. All like mid- late 90’s, at least in Konoha/Orochimaru and Co. The iron lung does not exist, replaced by stately 1999-2002 ventilators. (Kimmimaro) The concept of IV nutrition exists and is applicable, even if Kishi did an absolutely abysmal job of demonstrating that. (On Kakashi) (the reality: So. Many. Ports.) That little innovation didn’t exist until 1982, and didn’t actually work until 1996. (Because figuring out how to synthesize metabolic fats and proteins was really hard); you’ve got Ostomy tubes and bags that belong in 1995, (Kimmimaro again) and don’t even get me started on Lab equipment. Do you know how long it took to produce incubators that didn’t take up a quarter of a room? Do you have any idea what the world of cloning looked like in the 90’s? (Actually, it was a lot more advanced at that point than it is in Naruto, which is stuck in like, 1980’s with that notion).

And I could go on!

And there is just as many examples of the inverse, too, where there’s things juxtaposed to the past level. Example:

Psychiatric care. Granted we don’t see a lot of that outside of Kakashi’s little stint, but it is very 1940’s-1950’s type BS.

Similar to that, most the stuff in the Interrogation Unit. From attitudes to technology, but mostly in just the very weird, 1930-1950’s way the whole thing operates. Kishimoto did not do his research there, very obviously (Torture does not work like that), but nonetheless they give me Nazi vibes. (Well, Inaba and Ibiki do, respectively). That part might be intentional, but it still doesn’t really make sense in the bigger scope. (Why doesn’t the village know things when they are a SHINOBI VILLAGE. A postwar village no less! Make it make sense Kishi!)

Some elements of medicine. There’s a very weird divide there, between synthesized chemicals that are complex poisons, which SHOULD mean complex medicines exist, (because the only difference between medicine and poison is the dose and many toxins have medical value) and the demonstration of this, which relies upon herbalism. I suppose both those would exist in a Shinobi’s world, but there’s a bizarre element of “only the bad guys actually have good medicine” going on, which again is a very 1940-1950’s thing.

Idk, I feel like “modern” sort of fits? But not entirely. Because fundamentally the NarutoVerse is a completely separate dimension, a twisted alternate reality that is very removed from our own yet also very like it.

Gahhhhh the world building in this series is hot, messy garbage 🤣

I would love to see an AU where it’s more homogeneous, like smack-dab postwar all over the board. Or even just bring her up to the 90’s. That would be actual modern-NarutoVerse.

But using Modern to mean “Our World” has always just been a small thing to bugger me. Use what you want, because I don’t think the term is going anywhere, but if I can’t share this anywhere else I can share it here.

[flip-fop]

Caroline Daye

I said I was posting her I warned you.

I like to pick and choose what counts as canon especially in shows like FOP where a lot of things are repeatedly contradicted and retconned, so I am guilty of ignoring a lot of seasons 9-10 for the sake of being more faithful to the canon of the earlier seasons. However. Mr. Bitch Fartman You can NOT have Denzel Quincy Crocker say out loud "he's my estranged half-sister's kid" and never do anything with the estranged half sister I have been losing my mind.

Enter Caroline Daye, Legally Caroline Daye-Crocker until she could afford to change it. Born in 1973, had Kevin in 1993 at age 20. She was raising him in northern California and working as a librarian until their house burnt down, and she sent him to stay with her mother and half-brother as a last resort while she figured out how to rebuild their life. She has occupied my every waking thought for over a week now. Please be nice me.

Full info and timeline under the cut. Seriously it's a lot. There are footnotes

Like I said I pick and choose pretty liberally from the later seasons but I really, really wanted to find a way to make this mystery sister work. I LOVE this weird messed up family and their definite witch blood (I will talk about witch blood in a different post) and I think adding another player to the board could be So so so interesting.

Here's some things we know:

-Crocker Family genes are Insanely Prominent, all of these people look frighteningly alike. Given the fact that Kevin fits the standard mold to a T, it's likely that his mother is Dolores' daughter, as opposed to the daughter of whoever Denzel's father was. I'm giving that more credibility than last naming conventions.

-In The Secret Origins of Denzel Crocker the snippets of his life we see are separated by 10 year intervals, we do not see a lot of flashbacks outside of that¹. We only see a snapshot of the March 15ths of 1972, 1982, and 1992. If his sister were older than him but not out of the house, why would Vic be babysitting and not her? If she were old enough to be out of the house in 1972 And far enough away at college to never be around, Dolores would've had her as a teenager or very young adult, which Is plausible, but chronologically doesn't align with them being half-siblings². So it's likely that she was born after 1972.

-Dolores is most likely not single by choice. Denzel's father is never mentioned or in the picture, and is presumably already absent by 1972 considering she's working 3+ jobs. But we do see her pursue multiple men over the course of the series even as a woman in her 70s³. We see her get married at least twice on screen⁴, and the first time is to Ricky, who I am going to Generously assume is 18-19⁴, but even so that's pretty messed up.The point is, Dolores strikes me as a serial monogamist, at least by the time the law allows².

-Kevin, in Dimmsdale's Got Talent? does threaten to tell his mother that Denzel is making him dress up like a ventriloquist dummy and play the part, and in Hare Raiser, Denzel outright says she'll be upset if she finds out anything happened to Kevin, meaning that not only does she care about her son's well being, but she does have a say in his situation as well. Despite the "estrangement" she's on speaking terms with at least her half-brother if not their mother too, so it's not likely she just dropped Kevin off to avoid being a parent or is a negligent mother, and I'm guessing this arrangement was not her first choice.

-Denzel has noticeably gotten Worse over time. Not as in how he's written over the series, that's a different kind of worse and an issue for a different post, but worse between 1972 and 2002 as a functioning person. He made it through college and people were still willing to show up at his presentation before knowing what it was about. Geraldine was somehow Shocked that she was 'in love with a psychotic moron⁵', He has canonically opened a portal to fairy world multiple times, I think he has gotten his memory wiped even more than we see on screen, but I think even for awhile after 1972 he was capable of at least holding a reasonable conversation and had some semblance of impulse control unless there was a direct trigger.

-Back to picking and choosing in canon, as much as we see Denzel taking on the general role of Being A Dick To Children, he does consistently show favoritism. Originally towards AJ up until March 15th, when he's just being Like That to everyone, then later towards Peri in Bad Heir Day, to the point of passing up literally his entire life purpose? For Peri to be safe? God don't talk to me. And later still we see it towards Chloe and then Kevin. Combining this with the above point it's possible he actually had a somewhat decent relationship with his sister early on, which might be why she's willing to let him watch her kid at all.

About Caroline:

¹I'm ignoring Let Sleeper Dogs Lie because it basically throws Denzel's entire backstory out the window and I hate that.

²I don't see Dolores as someone who wouldn't pull her baby daddy, willing or not, into marriage, especially in 1950-1954. No-fault divorce was not legalized in the U.S until 1969, and by 1972 she is single. Unless she could prove both her first AND second husbands guilty of spousal wrongdoing, she would likely not have gone through 2 of them in that amount of time, it's possible one or both of them died, but it's my free real estate oc and I say she was born in 1973

³Later in the series they say Dolores is 80 but the series timeline also shifts around character ages and birth dates a LOT post like season 6 and a little before because the show ran for 16 years and couldn't commit to a year to be set in.

⁴The validity of both marriages is questionable at best, but supposing Ricky was of legal age to get married, as he did do so on paper, 18-19/70 is still a Very creepy relationship. Vicky was 16, so having an 18-19 year old boyfriend still makes sense.

⁵I do NOT think he was entirely stable up until this point I think Geraldine was in denial but my thoughts on their relationship are ALSO for a different post

After Denzel's initial breakdown, Dolores didn't feel safe leaving him at home alone or with a babysitter, but she also wasn't about to admit anything was wrong with her baby¹. Her solution was to get remarried and spend more time at home. In the summer of 1972 she married Carl Daye², and Caroline was born in the spring of 1973.

The family was never stable, given the circumstances, and after a bout of infidelity and a few rounds of failed marriage counseling, Carl and Dolores divorced in 1980 when Caroline was 7 and Denzel was about 17-18, they had a relatively ok sibling relationship until then, but that lead to the initial rift between them. The custody battle over Caroline was messy, and in the end Carl only retained visitation rights. Caroline didn't take this very well, becoming much more closed off, less energetic, and more negative towards her family as a whole.

Denzel, being himself, decided her self isolation meant one of two things, either his little sister had been replaced by a changeling, done by FAIRIES, or, she was miserable enough that she had probably been given FAIRIES. Neither of these things were true, unfortunately he learned this by pushing her off the roof in full confidence that she would not hit the ground. Not only did she hit the ground but she shattered her wrist to the point it still bends crooked to this day. He did drive her to the hospital afterwards, and agreed to do all of her chores for the rest of the time they lived together if she didn't tell Dolores³. Still, she was significantly less trusting of him after that.

All three of them were on shaky ground for the next 9 years, Dolores having flipped from her prior absentee parenting to being overbearing and micromanaging, as well as being just enough of a toxic boymom for Caroline to know she was the least favorite. There were moments that were ok⁴, but not nearly enough as time went on.

Her relationship with Dolores was never good, and while it didn't go the `creepy codependent simultaneously berating each other but with the undertones of really upsetting emotional inc3st` direction Denzel's did it felt more like living with a landlord that cultivated dependency while simultaneously chipping away at her self esteem than like living with a parent. In 1985 Dolores remarried again. To Victor Walsh. Yes that Vic, yes the babysitter, yes he was 26 at the time but yes it was still very unnerving.

The marriage only lasted 2 years, but by the end of it Caroline had gone through trying to convince her father to reposition for custody once, would convince him to again over the next two years, and would finally self emancipate and just move in with him, and away from Dimmsdale, at age 16, going no-contact with her mother and very low contact with her brother.

Carl worked at a publishing company, and was able to get Caroline a part time secretary position, which turned full time when she finished high-school. She had Kevin at age 20, he was not planned and she never married his father, but she does love her son very much. They both lived with Carl for another 2 years until she was able to get them their own place and take on a permanent position at the local library.

In 2003, their house caught fire, and while there was potential to rebuild, the choice was complicated by costs and the two of them were without a place to live. Carl having since moved to an assisted living facility, couldn't house them for more than a night. Not wanting Kevin to have to live out of her car or a cheap motel room, she very, very begrudgingly reached out to her brother.

I have a LOT more to say about her and this family tree and also their weird witch blood lore I made up believe it or not this was the short version. Anyway if you made it this far I love you here's her playlist

¹One of my most favoritest depictions of her trying to deal with them can be read here

²Yes this is where Dolores Day/e Crocker comes from yes I know they just parodied Doris Day but I don't care

³He did not anticipate never actually moving out

⁴Caroline is definitely the one who pierced Denzel's ears when she was a teenager, also I will make ANOTHER different post about how gender he is but for now I will leave it as having a little sister is actually a really convenient excuse to let her do your makeup and Fine, if his 6 year old sister HAS to have a princess party and he HAS to wear a dress because he HAS NO CHOICE- he is already in the dress. The dress is already on. It is not coming off.

[dailycass-cain]

I'm just as surprised as you are to find out Cass had an appearance in DC's How to Lose a Guy Gardner in 10 Days #1, and not in the way I was expecting.

Was it good or a pass?

Well...

Cass appears in "Date Night" in the anthology story which is more a Dick/Babs story about well the two of them going out on a date. Cass and Steph are basically on a mission checking out something Babs had an inkling things would be bad.

Things do end up being bad.

Alright, I'll just jump in about said bad.

Yeah, this is a supporting role for Cass (along with Steph) in the story. I don't really mind that. Dick/Babs are the leads in this and I'm okay with that.

What I'm not okay with is how the story treats the two Batgirls as amateurs.

Okay, I get the "Scarecrow got the drop on them" opening because neither knew Crane was behind this until fear gas canisters were being loaded.

So that I don't mind. Mainly it's the sections of panels like above saying, "Make sure you do things like Dick is doing."

I didn't like it when Batgirls pulled this off in #5 when Babs showed up and it wore out its welcome in #7-8 (and the Catwoman #45 tie-in).

I get Cass/Steph are younger compared to Dick/Babs but they aren't "rookies". The year is 2024 not 2002.

Just cut down the dialogue to the first sentence. Bam, gripe solved. It's simple word fixing that gets fans of said characters off-backs because it at least treats the characters as being experienced rather than not.

We do get one whole page of Cass/Steph busting the criminals introduced earlier looking to take advantage of Scarecrow's schemes (aka the B-protags taking out the B-antags).

In all honesty, I think the reverse should've occurred. Dick/Babs taking out the B-antags (as they were introduced via being a few tables from them) and well Scarecrow gets his comeuppance from Steph-- AGAIN (or them/Dick being him with Bruce/Helena/Kate in "Shadow of the Bat".

I'm done being nitpicky so I'm gonna talk about the positives aka that whole page and how artist Leonardo Rodrigues draws a nice old-school Cass. No white eyes and we even get the bat fins on her gloves.

NICE.

I think the one detail I loved most was the yellow stitching which does make Cass's mask more striking.

The one page is also a nice little touch showcasing Cass/Steph getting SOME measure of respect by owning the B-antags.

In the end, this is a harmless "fluff" tale that's not gonna be much looked at like Cass's entry from Beast World Tour: Gotham a few months back. Both are kind of forgettable save the latter's being the first mention of her old origin (Steph's story really stole that one-shot).

I'd be more frustrated if this was Cass's only showing this week (it isn't) and really it's because of THE OTHER comic that makes me less cross.

Stephanie fans?

Oh, they deserve to criticize MORE on this.

As for it being a Dick/Babs story?

It's alright.

Nothing memorable as to "why" they work as a couple. They were both paranoid enough to know their date night was gonna get ruined. But at least they're both Bat enough to have "plans within plans."

So yeah, this story is just "there". Doesn't give us adequate Cass/Steph (because it isn't their story), and Dick/Babs stuff is "middle of the road".

Given where both characters are at the moment, yeah "middle of the road" will do.

[mxlfoydraco]

Hii! I've had this idea for so long of what would've happened if Draco accepted Dumbledore's help in HP6 and the Death Eaters hadn't come? I need to read something that explores it and I've no idea how to look for it, so do you perhaps have any fic recs where this happens?? Could also be something similar of like Draco leaving the Dark side earlier in the story while they're still in school

Thank you in advance! 😊

Hi! I have lists for Spy Draco and War Fics, there are a lot of good fics that fit the theme in those (maybe some from the Pre War too?). I can add on some "switching sides" here,

9 ½ Days by @magpiefngrl (69k)

After the events at the Manor, Harry and Draco find themselves stranded in the countryside with a broken wand and Death Eaters on their tail. This is the story of an uneasy truce, featuring faerie forests, seaside caves, Romani camps, kind old ladies, and a shared bed in an attic.

Or how two boys fell in love in the midst of a bloody coup.

Changing Tides by @carpemermaidtales (109k)

Draco has spent half of his life spouting the things his father has taught him without much thought about how he feels about what he says. When he unexpectedly comes face to face with the Dark Lord, he grapples with the harsh realities of the world and struggles with his changing views on life. Instead of doing what’s expected of him fifth year, he joins Dumbledore’s Army and learns how to defend himself, how to make his own choices, and how he can be something greater than his father’s example as he grows into his own man rather than his father’s shadow. The choices he makes change both his and Harry’s fates, intertwining their paths until they converge.

Twist of Fate by Oakstone730 (302k)

Draco asks Harry to help him beat the Imperius curse during 4th year. The lessons turn into more than either expected. A story of redemption and forgiveness. Pairings: HP/DM (Slash) Timeframe: 1994-2002 Goblet to 4 yrs post-DH EWE Rating T for language, high angst, content.

Love Found by @peachpety (7k)

During Harry’s sixth year, Draco Malfoy joins the Order as a double-agent and continues with his task to get the Death Eaters into the castle as assigned by Voldemort.Draco succeeds with his mission the evening Harry returns from the caves with Dumbledore. The boys reunite on the Astronomy Tower and, with the Death Eater’s arrival, are forced to engage in a fight, driving Harry to come to terms with his feelings about true friendship and romantic love.

Eclipse by Mijan (287k)

“You’re dead, Potter… I’m going to make you pay…” Draco swore his revenge on Harry for Lucius’s imprisonment, and Harry all but laughed at him. But Draco is planning more than schoolyard pranks this time. The old rivalry turns deadly when Draco abducts Harry for Voldemort. It’s the perfect plan, guaranteeing revenge, power, and prestige, all in one blow. But when Draco’s world turns upside down, the fight to save himself and Harry begins, and the battle will take them both through hell and back. If they come back.

Speak (and may the world come undone) by @shealwaysreads (26k)

The war is on in earnest, and the hunt for the Horcruxes has begun. Harry receives help from the least expected person, and must decide whether he can trust the enemy he knows best. A story of grey-tinged loyalty, the silver of trust in the darkness, the agony of courage, the unexpected richness of secrets, and the vast unknown of survival.

Abraxan Wings by khalulu (14k)

AU following the confrontation in the bathroom, which in this fic takes place around the middle of year 6. When the Sectumsempra curse severs a nerve at the base of Draco’s spine, he loses some abilities he may never recover. It isn’t the end of the road, though – just the beginning of a major change of course. A mostly serious but not gloomy coming of age /romance /adventure story, featuring the Room of Parole, Mme Maxime, Rosemonde the flying horse, and Harry Potter on sax.

For Every Action orphaned (8k)

When Harry wins a second bottle of Felix Felicis from Dean Thomas, he is instructed to take it the very next morning. What happens then, and how it basically all comes down to Draco Malfoy, is up to the laws of the universe.

The Light More Beautiful by @firethesound (81k)

Thirteen years after Draco accepts Potter's help escaping the horror of his sixth year, he returns to England where he makes the unfortunate discovery that Potter is still as obnoxious as ever. And worse, more than a decade overseas hasn't been enough to dim Draco's obsession with him.

Starts with a Spin by Maxine (120k)

It started with the spin of a bottle, and now Harry and Draco have gotten themselves so far into their own game there’s almost no way out again. Except to keep playing.

Vulnera Sanentur by dreaminginfiction (164k)

Vulnera Sanentur: The counter curse to Sectumsempra. What if on that fateful day in the bathroom, Harry hesitates before casting the curse? Maybe Draco Malfoy isn't the person Harry had always thought he was and maybe Harry sometimes hates being Harry Potter and all the crap that comes with it. This is a story of Harry and Draco learning to understand each other and change their stories.

Erosmancy by astolat (11k)

Blaise was immune to whatever it was people usually felt around his mother, for which he was profoundly grateful, since no one needed an Oedipal complex on quite that spectacular a scale, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have a thorough respect for her gift.

Circumpolar by @lower-east-side (8k)

After their duel in the bathroom, Draco's wounds are much worse than Harry anticipated, which prompts a turning point for both of them.

Reflection by @owlswithfins (84k)

Harry wakes up in Draco's body moments before he's supposed to take the Dark Mark. When they switch back, he assumes things will return to the way they were before. It turns out it's a lot harder to hate someone after taking a walk in their shoes.

The White Pawn by Soupy_George (80k)

When eighteen-year-old Draco Malfoy finds himself back at Hogwarts on the eve of Voldemort's infamous return, he is confronted with the most difficult decision he's ever had to make: Relive the 6th year at school he's tried so hard to forget, or do the unthinkable and ally himself with Potter's lot...

Even From Opposite Ends of the Universe by @kbrick (173k, WIP)

In sixth year, Harry begins obsessively tracking Draco Malfoy's every move, telling himself it's the only way to prevent Malfoy from carrying out his dark plans. But as the year progresses, fist fights and mutual animosity gradually give way to a swirling, complicated intimacy that neither boy expects or understands, even as they desperately try to shield it from the outside world.

The Bound Prince series by slashpervert (991k)

In HBP, there is a pivotal moment where things could have gone very differently for Harry and Draco. In the bathroom sixth year, Draco is upset that Harry has caught him crying and throws a hex. It escalates and ends in blood, with Harry nearly killing Draco by accident. But in this timeline, things go differently.

In this story, instead, unvoiced attraction to Harry motivates Draco to take a chance and kiss him. Once sparked, their mutual desire and exploration becomes the driving force in the alternative ending to the series. Over seven books, we follow them as they fight, fuck, and love, taking on the Wizarding War with the help of friends and family.

[sealochs]

oh can I be nosy about the jazz readings? (disclaimer: I discovered I loved jazz through a MA module on music and literature which had Woolf’s “The String Quartet” and The Waves back to back with Toni Morrison’s Jazz and I cannot recommend the experience enough, amazing works to pair together)

yes, of course you can! literally i only went looking for some readings to give myself an informed background for a comparison i want to make between a description by gerald brenan of bloomsbury conversation evenings & early 20thc jazz, but everything i read directed me to at least three more things as is always the way. so far i've looked at :

for overview, emily j. lordi's chapter on 'jazz & blues modernisms' in the cambridge companion to the american modernist novel (2015); and jed rasula's earlier chapter on 'jazz & american modernism' in the cambridge companion to american modernism (2005)

from there, i've gone to: a chapter on jazz in genevieve abravanel's americanizing britain: the rise of modernism in the age of the entertainment empire (2012); tyler stovall's chapter on 'black modernism and the making of the 20th century' in afromodernisms: paris, harlem and the avant-garde (2013); an article by bethan jones on literary legacies of 1920s jazz in the yearbook of english studies 50 (2020); rob wallace's improvisation and the making of american literary modernism (2010); and ingrid t. monson's saying something: jazz improvisation and interaction (1996).

today, i still need to look at: paul berliner's thinking in jazz: the infinite art of improvisation (1994); alfred appel's jazz modernism (2002); catherine parsonage's the evolution of jazz in britain (2005); hilary moore's inside british jazz (2007); and craig werner's playing the changes: from afro-modernism to the jazz impulse (1994)

& that sounds like a wonderful pairing, & a brilliantly structured ma module! part of the reason i've let myself read so much for what will likely be one (1) footnote is that i'm also teaching t.s. eliot's the waste land, sam selvon's the lonely londoners and jackie kay's trumpet this semester, so deepening my understanding of the relationships between jazz and modernism and literary forms seems like a good idea (plus i love jazz & i've been writing solidly for a few months, so taking a reading reprieve to delve into something i'm interested in has been lovely)

[iowriteswords]

Io's Writing List, June 2024

1. When Pinioned Birds Take Flight - finished, last few chapters posting on AO3 over next few weeks

(Their dad is dead. Their brother is gone. All three of them are fugitives. Is now a good time to adopt two zombie children? No. Will that stop them? No.)

2. Untitled BATB retelling - in progress, currently being shared for free on Patreon

(He's not looking for a way out of the curse. He's just trying to help the girl he found crying in the woods. The curse protects him; he doesn't want it broken. But he does want Mira to love him, and he can't have one without the other.)

3. Take Off Your Happy Face - in  progress, will start posting on AO3 in the fall

(With Batman and the Joker dead, Harley takes Robin and runs. She doesn't know how to be a mother; she barely knows how to be an adult. But she's all he has, so she'll have to figure it out.)

4. When the War Ends - in progress, will be published in 2025 or 2026

(Nine years ago, Eloise's lover betrayed her, launching their kingdom into a three way war. Now, Eloise has been kidnapped, and her captor has offered a way to end the war. But can she trust the future of her country to a man who's hurt her so much?)

5. Ozma: the Boy Queen - in progress, earlier drafts of first 2 parts on AO3

("Rescued" from his mother and unwillingly restored to his original form, Tip is made queen of Oz. Unable to return to his old life or his old body, he--she?--works with what he has. At least Dorothy is cool.)

6. Talon!Cass - in progress, title pending

(Sandra Woosan takes in her daughter from an alternate universe. She has zero experience with children. Her daughter is a zombified assassin who can't speak or understand any language Sandra knows. What could possibly go wrong?)

7. Talon!Steph - in progress, title pending

(A Talonized Stephanie Brown joins Oracle, Huntress, and Black Canary in New Gotham. Set in the world of the 2002 Birds of Prey TV show.)

8. Talon!Carrie - in progress, title pending

(Martha's baby is dead, and her sanity is shaky at best. Thomas is seriously considering a future in vigilante justice. Alfred only took this job as a favor to his father, and he thought he would be managing a household, not babysitting adults. A brainwashed teenager can't possibly improve this situation, but, well. She's here now.)

9. The Talon and the Clown - in progress, title pending

(Duela and Talon are home with their parents. Owlman is dead, and Gotham is healing. But Talon's been through twenty years of brainwashing and torture, and recovery isn't easy.)

10. The Sun and the Moon - upcoming

(Siri sells herself to a talking bear to save her starving family. When she learns that her best friend and fellow prisoner Mikkel is actually the bear in another form, she wants to be angry, but she'll have to rescue him from his evil troll stepmother before she can yell at him.)

11. Flightless Birds part 4 - upcoming, title pending

(A speedster and an alien arrive. A junior superhero team forms. Secret identities are revealed. Tim and Jason reconnect with their families.)

12. Silence - upcoming/in progress

(Unexpectedly deprived of fins and gills, a mermaid learns to be human.)

[chromatic-mediant]

Disney, you need to #RenewTheAcolyte

The other day, I was talking to a non-Star Wars fan who hadn't seen the Acolyte and they didn't know anything about it except for the review bombing. When they asked me if the show was good, here's how I explained it. This show is pre-2002 Christina Aguilera. She did release some truly great songs in that era. You can clearly see she's a talented artist with a powerhouse voice, but the biggest problem was that her label didn't give her enough room to grow. When they finally gave her more creative control on Stripped, she released one of the greatest pop albums of the decade.

Right now, the Acolyte feels like that great artist who's being strangled by their record label, because the biggest problem with the show isn't the actual story, but the way it's told. So much of it could've been improved by showing instead of telling, but that would've required more episodes or at least longer running times than 30 minutes. That's not the writers' fault, or even the directors; it's the higher-ups at Disney. For example, as much as I liked that scene where we got to meet Senator Rayencourt in episode 8, I think he should've been introduced earlier. Remember that scene in episode 1 where Vernestra and Sol are talking about the senate not trusting them? That would've hit so much harder if we had seen Rayencourt or the other senators breathing down their necks, or maybe if, much like Clone Wars, there had been a story about the way regular people perceive the Jedi.

I don't know why Disney is hell bent on this 8 episode limit, but if Star Wars fans are telling them again and again that the show needs more time for the story to breathe, they need to get their act together and listen. Season 2 has so much potential to be great. I really hope they don't axe it before it even has a chance to grow.

[batsplat]

Brno 2003: Sete Gibernau sprays champagne at race winner Valentino Rossi, who is holding up his ball and chain that symbolises how he is 'condemned to win'.

From Rossi's autobiography:

In the summer of 2003, HRC sent over new exhaust pipes. I chose not to use it, precisely because I was sick and tired of hearing that I had an edge over everybody else. But, partly because of the stress, partly because I was also in negotiations with Yamaha, Honda and Ducati, I was in far from perfect form. Sometimes I would lose concentration and make mistakes. When I famously missed that turn in Barcelona and ended up in the run-off area, it was a result of the fact that I was napping behind Capirossi. This incident, and others, caused people to say that my bike was so much better that I could afford the luxury of sitting back and simply turning on the juice late in the race, beating everyone in the final lap. Obviously this was not the case. If I have the chance to pull away, I pull away. Always. Because if you hold out for the last lap you're taking a huge risk: you might finish second! Whereas if you can pull away at an earlier point in the race, you can avoid trouble later on. I only ever sit and wait when there is no alternative. That's when, for me, lying in wait is a good tactic and the best way to win. In Germany, for example, I made a mistake on the last lap and Gibernau made me pay for it. But it's not as if I was planning to wait for the end, as a way of humiliating my opponents. I simply made the mistake of not passing him earlier, so that I could then build a gap. It was a tactical error. After losing that race in that way, because of a distraction, I got so angry that on my way home I told myself, "Enough! From now on, I'm taking no prisoners!" So from that moment on I raced with the aim of dominating every lap and I won five of the last six races of the season. The only one where I finished second was the Grand Prix of the Pacific, in Motegi. But as you know, that day I raced after getting virtually no sleep the night before, because that was the night I had decided to leave Honda. As you can imagine, I wasn't totally focused, to say the least.

The race at the Sachsenring in 2003 was a particularly painful loss. Rossi had overtaken Gibernau on the penultimate corner, but had made a mistake into the final corner that let Gibernau get a better run to the line and beat him by a mere 0.06 seconds. He was criticised by the Italian press in the aftermath, as had become increasingly common that year. Despite leading the championship by a healthy margin, this was widely perceived to be a weaker season than his overwhelmingly dominant 2002, not least because he had achieved only three race victories to Gibernau's four. He had already felt disillusioned with Honda from the start of the year, sick of a culture of winning he found as oppressive as it was relentless. Sachsenring was the last race before the summer break, and he went off to Ibiza to clear his head and get a new haircut.

^The new haircut in question.

Excerpt from the Brno race commentary:

Rossi hasn’t won for four races*. He is desperate to win here this weekend. He turned up at the circuit this Thursday with a bright red haircut that he got on the beach at Ibiza - he was feeling very jovial, very relaxed, and… Well, it’s been suggested in some quarters that it’s a psychological thing he’s trying to pull on the other riders, because he’s coming under mounting pressure from the press and the fans - and Rossi just wanting to show he’s still the party animal he always was and he’s having fun out there on the bike.

*His results during that time were P2 P3 P3 P2.

Fresh from his time off, Rossi got involved in a tight five-way battle with Bayliss, Gibernau, Biaggi (in the first half of the race), and Capirossi. His victory was far from inevitable, and when Rossi managed to get in front for the first time he was unable to make a break for it. After the group of riders fought it out for most of the race, the contest for the win eventually came down to a direct duel between Rossi and Gibernau. With one and a half laps to go, Rossi ran it wide and let Gibernau get back in front once again - and made another mistake that seemed to give Gibernau the decisive advantage. Rossi made the overtake for the win with only a few corners to go.

^Gibernau congratulating Rossi, at a time when the two were still good friends. According to the commentary, the two of them had partied together over the summer break on Ibiza.

^From Rossi's autobiography: "This gag was supposed to be ironic, underscoring my situation with Honda. Everybody expected victory from me. So I was a condemned man, condemned to win..." (See here for gifs of the celebration.)

Rossi finished 0.042s ahead of Gibernau, with another close run to the line... so the elaborate celebrations could very easily have not come to pass. He ended up breaking the circuit record on the last lap - and went on to win all but one of the remaining races that season.

From Mat Oxley's Valentino Rossi: All His Races:

And then his first post-race theatrics in a while: he wore a prison inmate's hat and ball and chain to poke fun at the Italian media. "They said I was in crisis because I'd been beaten at the last four races. Leading the championship and finishing on the podium obviously isn't enough for them, so now I must work on the chain gang!" And beneath the striped cap was a new red hairdo, which restarted the Ducati rumours. In fact, nothing could have been further from the truth. During a secret midnight meeting in the paddock, Vale told Yamaha that he would ride for them in 2004.

An excerpt from the commentary at the next race in Estoril:

Well Valentino Rossi arrived in Brno three weeks ago with a bright red hairstyle and a lot of criticism from the Italian press saying he wasn't as focused as he had been last year; he'd just lost that race at the Sachsenring in Germany. He's fought back in the best possible way.

^Rossi's fans at Sepang 2003.

When he sealed the title in Sepang that year, he brought back the convict celebrations, this time equipped with a big novelty lock and key - so that he could free himself of his shackles at last. He left Honda at the end of the year to embark on a new adventure with Yamaha.