#dancecards

[thisisaname-whatahappyname]

elliose bridgerton you will aslo always be famous

[bleongambetta]

2024 TTRPG Winter Stovetop

It's cold out there and the orders are stacking up for new ttrpgs so it's time to check the ttrpg stovetop. CHEF, I NEED HANDS

Maybe lost the metaphor a bit there.

TTRPG designers tend to have a lot of games in progress at once and it's useful/nice to be able to check in on those things! Here's what I'm working on!

I'm structuring mine (as I have for a little while) as front burner (active), back burner (paused, but simmering), cold (essentially abandoned, but may pick up again), or done.

I think probably that's also the order of how interesting they are, so I'm going to write them in that order. Feel free to ask me about any of these games or ask if there's something else you know I've worked on!

Front Burner (by approximate time focus)

Pasión de las Pasiones: Tormentas del Corazón

Contract Work That Isn't Public Yet (but a preview is 💀🤹🏽‍♀️)

Towershield/The BL-G Hack/Three Musketeers/Romantasy Roll Under Apasionado por el Apocalipsis Game

Deadly Kobold Racing: Artful Version

Pommel Ball

Back Burner (by approximate interest)

Bottle Episode (to be inserted into long-running campaigns or played as a one shot experience)

RADCrawl Roguelike

Dancecards & Debutantes (may be part of Towershield, etc)

Can't Handle The Heat

XOXO

Cold

Catching the Nice Guy

Luchadorratón

Chase the H0ll0w (hopefully will revive with edits for 2023 Spooky Season?)

Done

Pasión de las Pasiones

Deadly Kobold Racing: Artless Version

If you want to know anything about any of these projects, give me a shout!

[kamitrendz]

Inspired by the iconic hit Netflix series Bridgerton produced by Shonda Rhimes and the popular Bridgerton book, "Romancing Mister Bridgerton" by Julia Quinn, this design features a beautiful dance card with "Dankworth Finch Ball" on it and beautiful, regal, regency-esce illustrations on it, on a sticker. Check out Kamitrendz on @redbubble for more Bridgerton art designs and merch! @redbubbleartists KamiTrendz.redbubble.com #bridgerton #netflix #shondaland #shondarhimes #juliaquinn #romancingmrbridgerton #dancecard #ball #regencyera #polin #dankworthfinchball #ladywhistledown #penelopefeatherington #colinbridgerton #prudencefeatherington #philippafeatherington #portiafeatherington #albionfinch #harrydankworth #sticker #merch #fanart #gift

[nancydrewwouldnever]

HIS DANCECARD IS CURRENTLY FULL 💀you have the funniest responses lmao

I try, really.

But, people do know dance cards were very real things, right? Here's one from 1912:

Women would wear them sometimes on their wrists (sometimes they were in a pouch purse) at formal dances and record who they danced with or schedule their dance partners throughout the night. "Saving the dance" had a very real meaning then.

Also, I think there's a scene with one in it in Scorcese's film adaptation of Age of Innocence, but am not completely sure about that.

[virtuesofcornwall]

once again, his mother had ushered him out the door, failing to realize that percy was on his best behavior when hidden away from the public eye. he promenaded down the street, but it was windy autumn day, and he opted to find shelter rather than continuing to suffer. he ducked into the clubhouse a few buildings down—he was grateful that he remembered to pay his dues and that the other members hadn't voted him out of the club. the valet took his hat, coat, and cane and directed him through the wide mahogany doors. percy was reminded why he'd picked this club all those years ago—towering bookshelves rivaling some in the oxford library, with fireplaces in each corner of the room. when he spotted an old mate from eton, percy waved and wandered over. "lord harcourt. it's been too long." @dancecards

[droppingdonkeys]

“It would be ungentlemanly of me to allow this sorrowful state of affairs to continue.”

@princeisles

Her rather empty dancecard being a sorrowful state of affairs? Ha! At least this way no one would step on her toes. English ladies probably had teensy tiny feet. Luisa allowed herself a tiny smile.

"Dear me, being rescued from being a wallflower by a gentleman such as yourself. I shall remember to write you a thank you note in the coming week." If he couldn't appreciate her tongue-in-cheek wit, than that was on him. Luisa was here to have fun.

[countrymadefoods]

6 Weird Dating Traditions In History That Might Actually Make You Grateful For Tinder

“We hear a lot about the so-called "golden age" of dating — the early '50s and '60s, where men brought flowers, opened doors, and generally behaved as if their date was a piece of fine china without any agency — and how modern casual attitudes have made the process both less formal and less magical...Throughout history, people have concocted all kinds of ways to express love and propose marriage in the confines of their societies — and they've had to get very inventive.

Medieval romantic tradition, for instance, was dominated by courtly love, which required men to poetically idealize ladies who were completely inaccessible or out of their league (which usually meant either "married" or "dead"). They'd express their abject servitude to their lady at great length, and enjoy the dramas of an impossible love, without actually requiring anybody to do anything. And from 1740 to 1820, English literature was flooded with novels by women about how confusing courtship was, and how to do it properly.

Men Whittling Love Spoons

Welsh "love spoons" date back to the early 17th century, and were designed to be made out of a single piece of wood to demonstrate the carver's prowess...There was a language to these love spoons: Flowers, hearts and locks and keys were pretty self-explanatory, but a wheel meant "I will work for you," while putting a twist in the wood meant "togetherness 4ever."

Year-Long Competitions

One of the most famous bride competitions, from the historian Herodotus, involved the king Cleisthenes, who made his daughter's suitors compete for an entire year.

Coded Fan Language

In the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe, a "fan language" developed for women to be able to communicate to interested parties without opening their mouths. Folding hand fans were used to send signals as various as "Do not betray our secret" (covering your left ear with an open fan)...and "Do you love me?" (presenting a shut fan).

Sack Cuddling

[A] practice called bundling appeared in the 19th century (supposedly in the Netherlands before spreading to Britain and Pennsylvania) involving putting prospective couples in two sacks and letting them "sleep" together. It was actually rather kind; rather than letting two strangers marry, each partner was put inside a sack, and they were allowed to get to know each other, talk, and even spoon — without any premarital hanky-panky.

Victorian Dance Cards

Nobody did regimented courtship like the Victorians...The most common courting ritual was the giving of cards at dances, which were the main mixing grounds for different genders among the Victorian English. Men filled out their names on a woman's dance card (basically a roster), which she wore delicately tied around her wrist, and left their personal calling cards if they wished to call on her at home at a later point.If the woman liked what she saw, she gave him her card, and the courtship was on.

 Sexy Belts

There was a trend in the Italian Renaissance for prospective lovers to give their lady friends erotically inscribed belts. Belts pop up in a lot of poetry of the time, as symbols of sexuality and beauty which women of all societal positions could wear and receive as gifts: at one point in Boccaccio's Decameron , a woman seduces a man by giving him her belt...There's a particularly famous belt from Italy which was presumably given to a woman, with a highly erotic poem embroidered on the inside; it begins "I will burn even as a phoenix/with the fire of your kisses/and will die."

Lonely hearts and holiday flings: a history of dating

“[T]he history of dating...how similar the problems of today are to the 1930s, the 1840s, and even the 1780s. From worrying about a partner’s financial standing, or whether someone was going to stick around long enough for you to have children with them, to persuading your parents they are indeed a good fit, the means by which we go about finding love may have changed, but not the hopes, dreams and anxieties we’ve had about discovering it.

In the Regency era, for example, the advice was clear: looks matter but value them at the peril of your long-term happiness...throughout history, grooming and dressing as well as you possibly can has always been a better strategy than ruminating on what you don’t have.”

“Once you were suitably styled, you needed to get a date’s attention. The Georgians were mad for ‘lonely hearts’ adverts, which they would write and post via newspapers including the Times, later in matrimonial gazettes, circulated around London’s coffee houses, while the Victorians settled on the idea of the marriage bureau, an agency designed to match the middle classes, via photos and details about their hobbies.

In the flesh, of course, the best seduction tool has always been dancing. From Regency square dancing to secret Victorian drag balls, from the 1920s ‘turkey trot’ to the 1990s acid house rave scene, the vertical expression of the horizontal desire has rarely failed a trier.”

“But if you couldn’t dance, witty conversation and excellent manners have always served as a good substitute. Meeting a lady on the street in Victorian England was a fraught business...Middle-class Victorians embraced a complicated ritual of giving out calling cards, and of making home visits according to a strict etiquette. However, even if you succeeded getting an audience with your potential amour, you would never be left unattended. Chaperones were in full force until the First World War, when the exodus of Britain’s young men left women to parry and party on their own.”

“When we think of the early 20th century, we may imagine courting couples meeting one another on realistic terms, their expectations untroubled by the imagery of dream homes and impossibly honed bodies that haunt contemporary media. However, we’ve always idealised glamour. From the birth of the celebrity-courted gossip column in the 1920s and the boom in cinema from the 1930s, our aspiration to marry the richest and most beautiful has long intruded upon our daily contentment...the Victorians even had the own version of Instagram, exchanging carte de visites – small portrait prints which would be organised into albums also containing images of celebrities and royalty. These albums were exchanged in flirtation but also as a means of asserting one’s social standing. The trick was to guess whether someone showcasing a royal portrait had in fact met the royal in question.”

“Perhaps the biggest surprise about our dating history is that pre-marital sex has often been the norm for most people. Apart from the revival of a long-practised behaviour called ‘bundling’ – cuddling with clothes on – which was a response to the 1834 Poor Law penalising women who found themselves pregnant as single mothers...Marie Stopes wrote her sex manual Married Love in 1918...advocated the benefits of conjugal love, and physical pleasure within marriage. “I paid such a terrible price for sex-ignorance...that I feel knowledge gained at such a cost should be placed at the service of humanity.”

“In the 1930s, Marjorie Hillis, the author of Live Alone and Like it...acknowledging that plenty of single ladies were inviting gentleman callers back to their homes at night, and that societal attitudes were changing: “A woman’s honour is no longer mentioned with bated breath and protected by her father, her brother and the community. It is now her own affair.”

Meanwhile, in the 1960s, ‘the pill’ didn’t quite provide the immediate revolution it has been credited with. Originally it was only prescribed to married women, and even in the 1970s, doctors could refuse women a prescription on moral grounds...the downside of women procuring the pill was that men, who had originally assumed responsibility for acquiring condoms, stopped taking as much responsibility for contraception.”

“The bicycle, meanwhile, also improved romantic opportunities. Contrary to the tricycle, which saw women wearing full skirts and accompanied by a chaperone...Etiquette guides of the period recognised that people could now pay “surprise visits … by moonlight” and that seaside flirtations could be enhanced by romantic bike rides together. While there was fear about exactly what kind of excitations might be invoked by the bike riding, 1897’s Manners for Men advised that men encountering female cyclists “help ladies as much as possible by pushing their machines up the hills for them”.

“In the 1930s middle-class women that found themselves ‘left on the shelf’ still travelled to colonial India in search of husbands. Nicknamed ‘the fishing fleet’, these women travelled by boat to colonial outposts along with ambitious young men seeking work. In some cases, they’d often coupled up before the vessel had even docked...Later, the film Shirley Valentine would inspire a flock of similarly inclined women, including female sex tourists who were courted by young Caribbean men called ‘rastitudes’, and men who sought mail-order brides, on a ‘no-try-before-buy’ basis.”

”As for the future of dating? Well, there’s one thing for sure – it’s not in decline like marriage, which, in 2013, was nearly back down to its 2008 all-time lowest level since 1895. Instead, dating is fast becoming our favourite global hobby. And in an increasingly competitive marketplace, we’ll need new tricks up our sleeves in order to compete for the best paramours.”

(via Lonely hearts and holiday flings: a history of dating - History Extra)

Put down that phone! Here’s how to meet potential dates without apps.

“If you want to meet someone “in the wild,” putting some effort into making that introduction happen and not just hoping for a chance encounter is key. Here are a few tips:

Don’t rely on serendipity

“counting on serendipity to meet someone isn’t always fruitful...If you go into every situation with the expectation of meeting the love of your life, you’re most likely going to be let down. Instead, focus on expanding your social network and giving yourself opportunities to meet people.”

Sign up for an (ideally new) activity

“If you want to meet someone organically, increase the chances of it actually happening by going to places that open you up to meeting people with shared interests.”

Go to events alone

“While bringing a friend along may seem like the most natural thing to do when going to a social event...You’re more likely to get out of your comfort zone and talk to people if you have to.”

Use body language that’ll help

“The key to meeting someone is looking like you actually want to meet someone...First things first – smile...“Who cares if you look like you have nothing to do...It’s amazing what you can do when you’re not looking at your phone...You can have a more intimate conversation when you’re closer, next to each other...Across feels more like an interview.” 

If you’re stuck for a pickup line, look around you

“If someone does catch your eye, try starting a conversation that’s relevant to the situation. Typically, people will be pretty transparent about their feelings. “If they talk to you for a long period of time, they’re probably interested...And if they’re in a relationship, they’ll probably bring up their significant other in conversation.” When in doubt, you can always just flat out ask them out...”

Take risks

“[D]on’t expect that the first person you approach is going to end up being the father of your child, or you’ll be sorely disappointed. The most important part of being open to meeting people is being open to rejection...After all, all you need is one to work out.”

(via Put down that phone! Here’s how to meet potential dates without apps. | The Washington Post)

[neuxue]

Have you read A Practical Guide To Evil before? I'd say it's a pretty good option for a liveblog whenever you're done Wheel of Time. By the by, liveblogging the Wheel of Time? Insane, crazy, that's awesome.

I have not, though I think it’s been recommended to me before. At a glance it seems perhaps adjacent-to-but-not-quite my kind of thing, but I’ve been wrong before!

And yes. Liveblogging WoT is... arguably all of those things, and yet! Here I Am!

[bleongambetta]

I think every designer has a dozen projects that they are ostensibly working on and after seeing @temporalhiccup's list, I absolutely had to think on my own.

I'm structuring mine (as I have for a little while) as front burner (active), back burner (paused, but simmering), cold (essentially abandoned, but may pick up again), or done.

I think probably that's also the order of how interesting they are, so I'm going to write them in that order. Feel free to ask me about any of these games or ask if there's something else you know I've worked on!

Front Burner (by approximate time focus)

Pasión de las Pasiones: Tormentas del Corazón

Deadly Kobold Racing

The BL-G Hack

RADCrawl Skirmish

Pommel Ball

Back Burner (by approximate interest)

Hades Style Shared Journaling Game

RADCrawl Roguelike

Bottle Episode

Dancecards & Debutantes

Can't Handle The Heat

XOXO

Cold

Catching the Nice Guy

Three Musketeers Game

Luchadorratón

Tower Shield (has largely become BL-G Hack and RADCrawl Roguelike)

Chase the H0ll0w (hopefully will revive with edits for 2023 Spooky Season?)

Done

Pasión de las Pasiones

[livingonfanficseyra]

Lady Danbury: May I present to you Miss Sharma, my Lord. Miss Sharma, Lord Anthony Bridgerton.

Kate: *curtsies* My Lord.

Anthony: Ms. Sharma, will you do me the honour of marrying me? *horrified* I apologize. I mean, will you do me the honour of joining me on the dance floor?

Kate: *smirks and gives him her dancecard* Yes, I shall be happy to join you for a waltz, my Lord.

At the end of the waltz

Kate: *whispers in his ear* I will consider the other question when I see you down on one knee, holding a ring, Anthony. *straightens* Have a good evening, my Lord.

Anthony: *bows down, his eyes widened in disbelief as the beautiful woman walks away elegantly, as if she just did not turn his entire world upside down*

More stupid incorrect bridgerton quotes here :P

[mccalllib]

A full dance card from the 1898 Knights of Terpsichore ball. Order of Myths Collection, Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama.

[kelasparmak]

@martimweek day 5 ‘sleepover’ prompt, one from each of @arborealoverlords‘ dancecard multiverse fics

[id: first image - martin sleeping on his side on a campbed wearing a t-shirt and boxers; tim is sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed, leaning back against it and watching martin. he’s wearing a floral printed shirt and slacks and looks somewhere between fond and worried.

second image - tim is sitting on a chair with one leg tucked under him, reading to martin with an amused expression and a biro tucked behind his ear. he’s wearing a cactus-printed shirt and slacks. this martin has grey streaks in his hair and is sitting opposite on a sofa with a blanket over him, wearing flannel over a plain t-shirt, and watching tim read with a similarly sad/fond expression.]

[themalhambird]

Bushy is the one in the Christmas Jumper, because he’s too sweet to do that someone.  Green  is Hugh Jackman and Bagot is the guy doing the thumbs up. 

Joke’s on Bagot and Green, though, because Richard loves Christmas jumpers. Cheesy lines about unwrapping presents will be said, and Bushy will get all the kissing. 

@vancityreynolds: These fucking assholes said it was a sweater party. 🎄

[norringtxn]

[ @witchaotics​ || appearances ]

There was little that commodore James Norrington wouldn’t change about his life in Port Royal. The parties and balls that the social elite seemed obsessed with throwing at every given opportunity were something he could very well do without. Dreadfully tedious they had become to him, a waste of time he could have been spending on something much more productive, like reviewing reports and organising his document. Alas, that was not to be. A man of his rank such as he was always expected to be present to these events. Would be terribly rude not to be.

And so, here he was, a glass of wine in one hand and leaning against a wall, clearly avoiding any sort of small talk or invitations to dance. It was a strategy that did not always prove to be effective, but so far he had yet to be trapped into dull conversation or made to sign his name on the dancecard of many of the eligible yong women that prowled the ballroom, hunting with keen and predatorial eyes for a husband.

James falsely believed himself safe from any social interaction whatsoever, until the approaching clicking of heels against marbled floor caught his attention.

Well, his strategy wasn’t meant to last forever, and he had been lucky enough so far. Gaze lifted to meet keen eyes, and any dismissals that he had at the ready in his repertoir caught in his throat as he was graced in her presence.

“G-Good evening, Miss.” He greeted her with a bow of head and shoulders, stumbling over his words and nearly spilling his wine in the process. Apparently he must have dropped his elegance and grace on the way to the Governor’s estate.

[tyneoconnell]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tyne O'Connell (@tyneoconnell)

I feel the breath of #history upon my cheek as I pull the long white #kidskingloves over my elbow. Mended in #tears across the centuries, rows of tiny #pearlbuttons that run along the wrists which #catheters now defile, reminding me of all the silken cords attached to #dancecards for reserving dances. Fashion evokes a tug on the heart from ALL the invisible silken cords that connect us to the history of that infinite yearning for the artistry of ideas!” Exert From #MAYFAIR NIGHTS by #tyneoconnell performed at @southbankcentre @timyipstime #Clouds #fashionasart @suekreitzman @daniellismore @meihuiliu8 #braintumour #photography by @muirvidler #neckshrines by @velveteccentric (at Southbank Centre) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2h3C2NgWaw/?igshid=1eyewb0sq4cgf

[birchbritches]

Drawing in a Guardian

Lining my pockets with dockets and drivel, dancecards and stays, any edict

drifted to the street in dying wind, I amend each in pen with a watching face.

- B B Pine