#detectives and biographers

[fruitviking]

A while ago I had the idea to write descriptions of Holmeses (detectives) and Watsons (biographers) from across various adaptations, as though you're adopting them from an animal shelter.

Individual descriptions under the cut. Enjoy!

Holmeses:

Mr Brett

Mr Brett is very close to Canon and might throw some things around after being separated. With the right companion, though, he’ll thrive! Would prefer a single occupant home with lots of climbing space.

---

Rathbone

An elegant detective, Rathbone does have a silly side! He loves to play tricks and mess around with rope toys. You will have to watch him while he plays because he will tie himself up more often than not.

---

Howard

A fun-loving, giggly detective, Howard is a softy and very tactile. You will need at least two capes and deerstalkers available to allow for washing time, as he will insist on wearing one wherever he goes.

---

RDJ

RDJ is a very messy detective and goes through terrible moods when he’s on his own. He’s a sweetheart and very heroic, but he will probably follow you into places you don’t want him to be! Buy some locks.

---

Benedict

Benedict is a solitary creature, and has trouble making friends. He can be rude and off-putting but he is fiercely protective of the few people he likes. Might be willing to kill for you - try not to let him.

---

Herlock Sholmes

Herlock Sholmes is very outgoing and enthusiastic! He is constantly seeking companionship and may end up adopting you instead. Will need lots of space for flailing and dancing.

---

Merrison

A very talkative detective, Merrison can appear petulant at times - and he is! Once he knows you well enough he’ll become extremely devoted to you, even if he doesn’t show it very often.

---

Canon

Canon is our most senior detective! He’s been adopted many times but unfortunately keeps returning to us. He may seem cold and aloof, but he's really very friendly and loves to curl up in a comfy chair!

---

22nd Century (22C)

Something of a fish out of water, 22C will appreciate a home with lots of familiar elements he can use to ground himself. Suitable for someone with a regular routine and a space that he can claim as a retreat when he feels lost.

---

Jonny Lee

Jonny Lee is a lap detective, but only once he is comfortable. You will need to let him come to you for affection, as he won’t accept it when offered. Get used to him bringing you “gifts”, even unpleasant ones; it means he likes you!

---

Basil

Our smallest detective is nevertheless a big character! Animated and very quick, Basil would suit a small home as he doesn’t need a lot of space. Give him a few cheese crumpets and he’ll become your best friend.

---

господин Livanov

господин Livanov will come and go as he pleases, but likes to be warm and cosy when he’s at home. He also loves to tease, and enjoys the occasional round of boxing! He would prefer a companion who can speak Russian.

Watsons

Burke & Hardwicke

Our bonded pair of biographers, Burke and Hardwicke are both sweethearts. You’ll rarely find one without the other. Both are very loyal and have a mischievous side. Don’t wake them up too early!

---

Bruce

Bruce is perhaps not our smartest biographer, but he has a wicked sense of humour and is a friend to all. While occasionally clumsy and gruff, he will charge into danger to save you without a second thought.

---

Crawford

Crawford rather enjoys getting into scrapes - though he’d never admit it! He tries to be the responsible one but never really puts his foot down. Make sure to have plenty of arnica on hand for his next black eye.

---

Jude

One of our most independent biographers, Jude is still very loyal and willing to take up arms when asked, even if he seems a bit reluctant. Has a powerful side-eye and a bit of a gambling streak.

---

Martin

Martin has a temper, especially when patronised or underestimated. Needs an experienced companion who can keep him occupied and challenge him. Make sure he feels appreciated or he may wander off.

---

Iris Wilson

Iris is our youngest biographer and extremely intelligent for her age. She is still a child though, and can be a bit selfish and emotional. You will need to be encouraging and help her learn from her mistakes.

---

Williams

Williams is a biographer seeking balance in his life. He is loving and fiercely loyal to Merrison, but he also has a strong independent streak. Usually a very affable character, but if he gets angry, you will know about it!

---

Old Unreliable

Another of our seniors, this biographer can sometimes get confused about dates and the order of events. Just be patient with him and let him write in his own way. You’ll see how much of a conductor of light he can be!

---

Robotson

Robotson didn’t have the best start in life - his previous owners didn’t realise he was a biographer! Thankfully he’s recovered and is now ready to make a home with a new companion. Will need someone dedicated to his routine maintenance.

---

Lucy

Our only other female biographer, Lucy is very intelligent and has a wide range of skills, including hand to hand combat. She is also bilingual! She makes an ideal companion, but watch out for signs of distress e.g. dyeing her hair blonde.

---

David Q. Dawson

This decorated and distinguished pocket-sized biographer would be perfect for a smaller home. David is very polite and will do whatever you ask of him, but he doesn’t respond well to being shouted at. Cat-free household preferred.

---

господин Solomin

Though quite taciturn, господин Solomin is a sweetheart and quick to forgive. He’s very curious - try dropping hints about what you do for a living, and see if he guesses correctly! Provide lots of paper for his notes and doodles.

[starlightseraph]

efforts to rid my dash of the rpf blogs have been going well, but, alas, there are always more, so i’m gonna get my thoughts out about the most recent things i’ve seen.

so i was looking at a post i very much agree with, only to see this in the comments:

…

firstly, where did op mention david/michael shipping? they didn’t. at all. they were talking about the boundless “analysis” (stalking), and how it’s creepy no matter its target; whether it’s predicting the end of a relationship, finding “evidence” of baby trapping or abuse, or insisting on an unconfirmed relationship. all of this is weird.

it’s still equally as weird when the subjects of this wild speculation are f/f or not same sex. i can think of multiple heterosexual examples (it happened in the doctor who fandom, also in the house fandom, although these incidents were both well before my time. i’m using old instances because they’re less likely to ignite a fight, but there are current ones too). our discomfort with this insanity has nothing to do with the shipping being m/m. like nothing. it has everything to do with the fact that none of us know anything about these people, yet you act as though you’re their closest friends and gossiping with them behind the high school bleachers.

i am not assuming that they’re straight, most of us aren’t assuming that. i’m not assuming one way or the other at all until they explicitly describe the situation, which they probably won’t, because their lives are likely far less exciting than you all imagine, and they have no obligation to tell us anything at all.

with regards to the “it’s not speculation when they say it themselves”: georgia’s ig caption genuinely seems like it’s part of a bit to me. like this is totally something that can and does happen platonically, all the time. if she posted something on her story saying “yes david and michael are in a relationship together,” then that’d be enough for me. but everything we’ve seen thus far is just as (or actually far more) likely to be platonic. her caption was worded ambiguously, in a way that’s frequently used to describe friends with no romantic interest in each other. regardless, they know each other’s boundaries, we don’t.

oh, and, since it’s perfectly fine to make up your own “interpretations” of real people existing objectively outside the realm of your perception: my interpretation of the rpf blogs is that it’s pure wishful thinking. you guys see characters with a strong attraction, played by 2 people with a strong connection, and superimpose your desire for the characters’ relationship onto the real people. but, since you don’t see the actors’ lives in the way you see a characters’ story, you pick apart every snippet that you can find and piece together a narrative. it’s fine when you make up a fun story or write a made up fic on ao3, i don’t have any real ethical objections to fictional rp shipping. however, you guys go way beyond that, and you present your story as an investigation and as an analysis of real life.

that’s what’s creepy. that’s what we don’t like. the absolute worst part is when you go after the kids. sincerely fuck off with that. who do you think you are that you can speculate that david and michael wanted to leave their partners but that georgia and anna “strategically” got pregnant. i have seen people saying that georgia and anna are baby trappers, abusive to their partners and kids, stupid, and manipulative. i have seen people using these exact words to describe georgia and anna in relation to their parenting and the existence of their children. i have seen people say that their children hate them. none of that is excusable no matter what it’s presented as. at the very least, leave their children out of it, please.

[warrenwaskilledbyadeer]

I recently finished rereading the entire Sherlock Holmes canon and I already want to read it again

[schlock-luster-video]

On December 5, 1973, Serpico debuted in the United States.

Here's a new punk patch design inspired by the film's Japanese poster typography!

[mockerycrow]

are you good at character analysis? I wanna know what your analysis would be for Gaz, I’m trying to figure out his story since he’s my favorite out of TF 141

KYLE GAZ GARRICK

BASIC OVERVIEW — BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Kyle “Gaz” Garrick is a British Black man who enlisted into the British Army around 2008 or 2014 (unfortunately, the developers have inconsistencies). His operator biography states 2008 while the official activision website in a blog post about MW2019 states 2014, however it does make sense for him to enlist in 2008. He would have been at least sixteen years old which is the minimum age requirement to enlist. I would like to quickly throw in that Gaz is indeed older than Soap, as this is a misconception that I surprisingly see a lot! Gaz’s blood type is B- and he currently ranks as sergeant (which according to the official British Army website, it typically takes at least twelve years in the service, however it implies it also depends on the person’s abilities).

Gaz spent four years in the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment. During these four years going through a multitude of tests and challenges before passing selection for Special Air Service (SAS). The activision blog says during MW2019, it’s his sixth year serving as a sergeant. However, as Gaz had been selected for TF141, I believe their ranks have paused in time. Gaz has mostly spent his time in anti-terrorism in his military career. He’s an expert in demolitions, VIP escorting, weapons tactics, covert surveillance, and target elimination. He’s been awarded multiple medals, and earned his Parachute Wings whilst spending time at Camp Lejeune in the U.S. whilst collaborating with Navy SEALs. Kyle is a master of evasion and deception, being the only candidate in his entire class to escape capture from the facility and evade detection during resistance training. 

When Gaz first meets Cpt. Price, Gaz is currently assigned to an SAS specific counter-terrorism program in the UK who collaborate with the police, which is another misconception that Gaz was a police sergeant at one point (he was not! I believe some people think this because at E3, Gaz was wearing a police baseball cap).

CHARACTER OVERVIEW

Like true to the original Gaz, he is Price’s protege, being his student. Gaz is overall a serious and hardworking man, loyal and unbreaking. He knows when to joke and he knows when to reload. However, Gaz is not perfect and he does lose his cool (we see subtle development with this later down the road). While being loyal, Gaz does not hesitate to question Price’s choices and actions. We see this multiple times during the series, the most prime example being in MW2019 when Price and Gaz are interrogating The Butcher with Yegor. The Butcher taunts Gaz, causing Gaz to lunge and Price to send him off to fetch.. “The package”. The package being, The Butcher’s family. The reboot games, you have choices, so I’ll give the very basic run down. 

You have the option to opt into the interrogation or to opt out of it. If you opt out, Price bursts out of the room with the information (if you go near the door, you hear The Butcher’s family sobbing). If you opt in, you have so many options. At the end of the day, Gaz is mostly silent and follows orders from Price. In the police cruiser scene, Gaz questions Price in the car—he did not expect to be using women and children as bargaining chips and he makes that clear, and this is a big teaching moment between Gaz and Price. We have to remember that Gaz is young and considering everything, inexperienced to an extent. Price makes up for that inexperience, teaching him along the way. During the interrogation scene, Price makes a remark: “We’ve taken the gloves off.” This is because Gaz lashed out. Later in the car, Price says “When you take the gloves off, you get blood on your hands, Kyle. That’s how it works.” after Gaz questions him.

CONCLUSION

Overall, Gaz is a very complex character and I enjoyed watching his development during these games. I’ve seen people claim Gaz is boring or plain, but I genuinely do not believe that to be the case. Gaz, in my opinion, is also the most relatable character. He’s young, ambitious, and determined. He’s charismatic and efficient. I don’t believe a character has to be extremely traumatized, or look very very unique to be a well-crafted character and Gaz is a great example for this. 

Gaz is just a man who enlisted; someone who is smart and well-rounded (as much as an SAS member can be), he’s quick on his feet and he molds into group work fantastically. He’s extremely versatile and is a quick learner—and wants to learn. He has his flaws that make him human. Gaz develops great self control, is level-minded and is able to think for himself. A great student questions their mentor in everything and you see this with Gaz. 

You see Gaz struggle with morality in the series in a sea of characters who kill and do things without a second thought. We see him question things, we see his emotions and his extreme reluctance. We definitely see some development down the road as Gaz becomes more ruthless, but he never quite forgets his humanity in a way, compared to Price where he can easily disconnect humanity (ex. Calling The Butcher’s wife and son “the package/leverage”). 

Along with this, we see him struggle with the rules in place. I also think this is why Gaz and Price’s dynamic is great. There are rules for a reason, and both Price and Gaz know when to break them—but Gaz learns that breaking some rules doesn’t always happen for the most heroic of actions (again, Price’s quote about bloodying your hands after taking the gloves off). Gaz wants to save people and keep the peace, we see this in Piccadilly during the terrorist attacks and the aftermath scene with Price where Gaz lets the Captain know that he and his unit had actionable intel on the terrorist cell who committed the act. Of course, we see later down the road that taking the gloves off removes all limits, not just some of them. We also see a glimpse of Gaz’s conflicting feelings when 141, Farah & Alex, as well as Laswell learn about Hadir and his plans, as well as when Farah’s forces are deemed a terrorist organization.

I think I rambled on a lot about him, hopefully this is understandable! 

Sources: price & gaz activision blog intros (2019), inconsistency in enlistment date, cod fandom wiki, gaz scenes mwi & mwii, official british army website.

[amberarmedheart]

In Defense of John Watson and the Importance of the Besotted Narrator

Every couple of years, the world as a collective likes to ruminate and come up with a new adaptation of the stories of Sherlock Holmes, every single new one promising to be either "The Ultimate Adaptation" or "Holmes for the New Era", there is no in-between. And it is understandable, this amazement and awe we hold for the beloved mysteries, they are classics for a reason.

And despite that, time and again I see creators of tv shows, pastiches, and movies, neglect the most important aspect in every single Sherlock Holmes' story: the immovable presence of John Watson. Some even going as far as turning Watson into a villain, a caricature of himself, or even erasing him completely from the narrative. "After all, the important one is Holmes, isn't he? He is the genius, and Watson is there just his biographer."

That is the capital omission to me when it comes to any of the adaptations, because it ignores the vital part that Watson plays in Holmes' life. Watson is the companion, he is the bridge between the "normal" world and the genius that is Holmes' deductive brain. He is, for a lack of a better descriptor, the translator between what jumps in judgement and reasoning Holmes' brilliant mind comes up with, and the layman's language.

There is a reason why we as readers come up with the idea that Holmes is smart beyond his quirks and his drug addiction, beyond his ignorance of anything and everything that in his opinion doesn't help him solve the cases that distract him from the boredom of normal life... and that reason is that John Watson is the person narrating the whole thing. We are not introduced to Holmes through an omnipresent, anonymous narrator which is the case with other books. We are thrown in the middle of a mystery from the start the same way that Watson is unexpectedly thrown in 221b.

What we think of Holmes, what we feel for him, it is all because Watson wishes us to experience. The stories themselves carry with them one of the best storytelling devices graciously blended into the narrative, which is the fact that Watson is an incredibly good writer, so much that the public gazes into the spotlight where Holmes is and in most cases ignores that the one shining it down is Watson himself.

Creators who like to ignore Watson and his function in the narrative tend to see Holmes as their own self-insert: a super smart man whose genius cannot compare with the mediocre world population and who can barely tolerate their stupidity, basically a gift to men from god and who has to be worshipped for it... When the reality is that every single thing we perceive from Holmes is because of how Watson sees him.

Watson is our unreliable narrator, his descriptions and impressions of Holmes are the ones that are weaved into the story; even goes as far as giving us a glimpse of Holmes' opinion about it through the way the consultant detective sometimes accuses Watson of adding too many embellishments to his narrations. If we see Holmes as an incredible genius, as someone whose intelligence is above the rest of the world, it is because Watson says so. With every passing story, we come across different characters that every once in a while whose first impression of Holmes has been influenced by what they themselves read in Watson's stories... All in all, the in-universe characters falling under the same influence we, as readers, are.

John Watson's love for Holmes is one of the main plot points in the story, we see its evolution the same way as one normally goes through different stages of falling in love. We see Watson's first infatuation, his interest in what makes Holmes what he is, first in a superficial way and later on with every new story. We see them have misunderstandings, which most of the time end up in a deeper appreciation of Holmes as a person.

All culminating in the incredible rendition of The Final Problem, which could easily be seen, without little effort, as Holmes' planning his own death. By what means we are never completely sure, to be honest, since we can only see it through Watson's deep grief. It is true that Arthur Conan Doyle's plans were to end Holmes' adventures with the short story, but even with the author's motivations being the main recourse behind its inception, there is no doubt when reading the story that the focus of the narrative is Holmes' spending his last moments with Watson.

The subsequent creation of The Empty House and further adventures after that, diluted partially the importance of the whole ordeal, but gave us a different insight of Holmes and Watson's relationship. Through that lens, we as readers witness the evolution of it, the toll that Holmes' fake death had in both his biographer and his own author, adding depth through the strain put by the facade.

E. W. Hornung made one of my favorite homages to Holmes and Watson through his stories of The Gentleman Thief, and put a greater emphasis on the strained relationship between the two characters after the fake death. He gave his besotted narrator another source of turmoil: the fact that while Raffles (our stand-in Holmes) was away living life and even having a romantic interest, Bunny (his Watson) ends up falling in disgrace after being sent to jail.

A.J. Raffles' stories lean on the importance of the unreliable, uselessly enamored narrator, to the point that Hornung didn't shy away from having Bunny refer to Raffles as handsome and attractive in many different instances. He understood how there is no Holmes without a Watson to appreciate him, how their dynamic is the fuel behind the success of the whole series.

And ultimately, that it is impossible to have a good story without a good storyteller.

[teaspoonnebula]

Enjoy receiving emails from besotted biographers about their genius associates?

Then have I got some email bookclubs starting in 2024 for you!

[IMG A cartoon of Holmes and Watson running side by side, dressed in country tweeds. Holmes is pointing. Lettering reads Letters from Watson, the Novels]

Letters from Watson is reading through the Sherlock Holmes short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle throughout 2023.

In 2024 we'll be reading the novels starting January 1st, with A Study in Scarlet. Hold on for more mystery and adventure with the Great Detective and his dashing doctor.

[IMG A cartoon of Raffles and Bunny running side by side, dressed in formal suits and top hats and wearing masks. Raffles is clutching some pearls and has jewels in his pockets. Lettering reads Letters from Bunny]

But perhaps you'd rather take a little trip to the other side of the law?

Letters from Bunny will be reading the Raffles stories by EW Hornung, featuring gentleman thief (and cricketer) AJ Raffles and his burglar companion Bunny Manders, from the Ides of March (March 15th)

[IMG A cartoon of Jeeves and Wooster walking side by side, Wooster dressed in colourful clothes and a boater, Jeeves in a monocrome suit. Lettering reads 'Letters Regarding Jeeves']

For something a little lighter, Letters Regarding Jeeves will be reading the uproarously funny public domain stories featuring chap about town Bertie Wooster and his bulging-brained valet Jeeves, starting February 14th.

Reblogs appreciated to spread the word!

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Hey, sorry if you already answered this question before, but I would like to enjoy some Welsh media, like songs, tv-shows/movies or books. Do you have any recommendations? Also, happy holidays and a happy new year!

Hello! I hope your holidays were happy.

I'm assuming you're asking for Welsh-language media specifically, so that's what I'll offer; if you want anything from the rest of Wales, give me a shout.

Music - so, my personal Welsh-language playlist on Spotify is here, which may contain things to interest you as a sort of jumping-off point to explore an artist more. I'll also put my Welsh music tag on this post, though, so you can check that and see what recommendations others have made on my posts in the past. You'll find people recommending Adwaith and Gwenno and people like that, see, neither of whom I particularly like and so don't have on my list, but are pretty popular. The true cultural tour-de-force for young Welsh speakers is Sebona Fi, by Yws Gwynedd - if you listen to no other, listen to that one.

TV and Film - tricky because availability is difficult. I gave some recent recs here; others to consider are Ar y Ffin (the big current drama on S4C), 35 Diwrnod (sort of a thriller - each series focuses on a murder, which you see in the opening minutes, and then rewinds to 35 days before it happened. You then watch the events play out. Kind of murder mystery, but no detectives), and...

Actually, maybe check out Hansh across its various platforms? It specialises in little short pieces (a few minutes each) that could be comedy skits, documentary shorts about a social issue, cultural round ups of the various gigs happening this week in Wales, etc. Very diverse. Their target audience is, basically, Millennials And A Bit Under. They also do longer form variety things on S4C, but the shorter stuff is on FB, YouTube, etc.

Oh, and my husband has a kids variety show coming out in the next few months! I don't know what I'm allowed to say yet, but I'll definitely blog about it closer to the time.

Books - Obviously I don't know your tastes in books, but my recs:

Absolutely anything by Mihangel Morgan. He's the gold standard if you're learning, because his language is lovely and accessible; but also if you're a fluent speaker, because he writes mundane sci-fi and slightly absurd horror and things like that, all with an undercurrent of social commentary, and his stuff is absolutely fantastic. Dan Gadarn Goncrit is my husband's favourite book of all time in any language; meanwhile, I was given Saith Pechod Marwol at A Level and fucking loved it. I believe he's had one book translated into English, too - Melog. I've not read it in either, but I've heard great things.

Y Llyfrgell, by Fflur Dafydd (the author is also on my music playlist). Here's the blurb:

On a cold February morning, in the year 2020, Dan, a porter at the National Library of Wales, is committing his daily offence against the regime. Greeting him at the door is Eben, a biographer, itching to be admitted. But, they are both unaware that Ana and Nan, two librarians intent on revenge, are on the brink of changing the history of the National Library of Wales forever. This novel transforms the peaceful atmosphere of the National Library into a theatrical set full of possibilities - where bullets cut through the silence, the Reading Room is a cell, and the Library itself is an anti-hero of our literature...

Spectacular book, won the Gwobr Goffa Daniel Owen at the Eisteddfod in 2009.

I hope anything in there is useful!

[quill-of-thoth]

Letters from Watson: The Final Problem.

Publication Order, AKA Watson's grieving process: Part 1

Prior to Holmes' death, Watson had not published a single short story. Let that sink in. All mentions of Watson being Holmes' biographer in the stories we have covered so far have been on the strength of A Study in Scarlet, unless they occurred in 1890, when The Sign of the Four was being serialized. All that the magazine-reading public knows of Holmes, unless they follow the newspapers, is a serialized novel about my brilliant roommate the detective, and it's sequel, my brilliant roommate helps me meet my beloved wife. The moment Watson is without Holmes, the floodgates open. And the format and genre changes.

Neither Study nor Sign are exactly detective novels. They're adventures / dramas with lots of detective elements. Watson spends as much, or more, time dramatizing the lives of the principal characters within the crimes as he does on the detective work. Holmes is also cast as an adventure protagonist: in addition to being the ultimate mind, he is also a gentleman of action. A shipboard gunfight down the Thames is very much the province of an adventure novel, for example. These elements never leave: Holmes is often instrumental in the capture of a criminal, noted for his physical prowess, or engineers a thrilling denouement in order to bring forward proof. But the short stories have a pattern that solidified the detective genre: a case intrudes into the life of the detective and his inner circle, clues are sought, there is at least one possible false conclusion for the audience (and often also the police, the client, or Watson) to cling to, and then, after some action or emotional moment, all is revealed. Cue some return to comforting normality: even if no one's problems are precisely solved, we often return to the domestic comforts of a sitting room, or the consolation of an outing to take in some culture, or at least food. I think this is because there has been a fundamental change in what Watson wants. Young, ill, unemployed Watson longs for a contribution to greatness, such as being Holmes' biographer. Happily married but professionally bored / frustrated Watson longs for adventure.

Now, Watson just wants his friend back.

[strawberry-jan]

Back in late 2022, I started working on a long story about Ishin: a tale of two dummies whose weird one-night stand blossoms into a surprisingly caring relationship even as a (mostly) canon-compliant series of tragedies plays out around them. It’s a now-complete series in approximately 125,000 words and three parts, and you can read the whole thing right now on AO3: The Glorious and Bloody Deeds of Okita Soji, Volume 1: Okita Soji Versus the Scoundrel Saito Hajime; The Secret History of Saito Hajime, Volume 2: The Shiraume Incident; and, finally, Brief Notes on the Domestic Life of one Saito Hajime.

Taken as a whole, it's a story about identity and history and the stories that people tell each other and themselves about those things. And it's a story about one guy getting way too into weird Edo-era egg dishes, and another guy finding himself embroiled in an extended detective sequence, and a third guy composing a series of corny haiku that (almost) nobody wants to read. And, of course, it's also a story about people who are shamelessly and sometimes explicitly in love (so you probably shouldn't read it at work).

This whole big, sprawling thing has been a labour of love on my part: it turns out that I adore writing historical fiction and finding excuses to read books and journal articles in order to write it better. In addition to making not one but four little illustrations to celebrate the fic's completion (and please look at them up-close; I hand-inked all those kimono patterns), I've drawn up a list of some of the sources that I consulted for my writing, and you can find those under the cut.

This is not an absolutely exhaustive list of sources; I don’t think it’s super useful to catalogue the extremely nitty-gritty stuff, like that time that I felt compelled to find out what the state of strawberry cultivation was in 1860s Japan, or when I needed to picture exactly what it looked like when Haruka was repairing Ryoma’s kimono. That being said, I’ve added a couple of things that are really particular to my stories but that I thought were cool enough to share.

Foster, Michael Dylan. The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore. U of California P, 2015. (This one was a really fun read – it combines a short history of yokai in folklore with a little catalogue of yokai.)

Jansen, Marius B. Sakamoto Ryoma and the Meiji Restoration. Stanford UP, 1971. (Super useful as an introduction to the Bakumatsu era and for biographical details about Ryoma and the figures around him.)

“Japanese Wiki Corpus.” https://www.japanesewiki.com/. (This is a machine-translated collection of articles on the Japanese side of Wikipedia related to Kyoto. As with a lot of things on Wikipedia, the citations on these articles tend to be poor or nonexistent, but it’s a useful starting point for information on figures and events that don’t have an English wiki equivalent. Definitely more useful if you can then head over to the original wiki articles and parse them out yourself.)

“Kabuki21” and “The Noh.” https://www.kabuki21.com/section.php, https://www.the-noh.com/en/plays/index.html. (I’m lumping these two together because I tended to consult them in tandem. Without getting too much into my personal details I am – among other things – a non-practicing theatre scholar, so whenever I wanted to have characters in my old-timey fics refer to something cultural, my first stop was old plays. These sites have, respectively, summaries of kabuki plays and full texts of Noh plays available for you to browse. If you’ve read my other fics you will probably have seen that I referred to the kabuki play “Fuwa” in 亀が如く.)

Katsu, Kokichi. Musui’s Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai. Translated by Teruko Craig. U of Arizona P, 1988. (A book that needs to be taken with a grain of salt because it’s an autobiography written by a guy who sounds like a real blowhard, but it’s still a really fascinating look into the daily life of a low-ranking samurai.)

Leupp, Gary P. and Tao, De-min. The Tokugawa World. Routledge, 2022. (Of particular interest is Kimura Sachihiko’s essay, “The Shinsengumi: Shadows and light in the last days of the Tokugawa shogunate” [1104-1124], which gave me a bunch of incidental details about the Roshigumi that I incorporated into the sections of this series that were told from Inoue and Hijikata’s perspectives.)

“Old Photos of Japan.” https://www.oldphotosjapan.com/. (Pretty self-explanatory. Very useful as a resource for picturing scenes!)

“Shinsengumi Archives.” https://shinsengumi-archives.tumblr.com/. (A long-running tumblr dedicated to cataloguing resources about the Shinsengumi. There’s an absolute wealth of information collected here, and best of all, the creator cites their sources and even provides links to the original texts. Although it’s focused on the Shinsengumi, it’s impossible to overstate how useful this site is for prospective Bakumatsu-era fic writers in general. The collection of Hijikata’s poems with links to others’ translations and commentary is here: https://shinsengumi-archives.tumblr.com/post/683071924948058112/hijikata-toshizos-haiku-poems. The creator of the blog also links to a translation of Nagakura’s and Shimada’s diaries, and while the document is machine-translated, it’s still a great source of historical details: https://shinsengumi-archives.tumblr.com/post/678083336614428672/where-can-you-read-the-memoirs.)

Smits, Gregory. “Warding off Calamity in Japan: A Comparison of the 1855 Catfish Prints and the 1862 Measles Prints.” EASTM 30 (2009): 9-31. (Okay, this one is highly specific to my fic – it comes up in Part 2 when Okita tells his story about Kashima and again a couple of chapters later when his pile of remedies includes a crudely-drawn picture meant to ward off indigestion – but I love little details like this so I did want to make a point of sharing it here.)

“Tamago Hyakuchin” and “Tofu Hyakuchin.” http://codh.rois.ac.jp/edo-cooking/tamago-hyakuchin/recipe/, https://toyama-tofu.jp/tofuhyakutin.html. (These are collections of Edo-era egg- and tofu-based recipes. They’re two of the sources cited in Cookpad’s collection of modernized Edo-era recipes: https://cookpad.com/recipe/list/14604664.)

Vaporis, Constantine N. “Linking the Realm: The Gokaido Highway Network in Early Modern Japan (1603-1868).” Highways, Byways and Road Systems in the Pre-Modern World. Ed. Susan E. Alcock, John Bodel, and Richard J. A. Talbert. Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. 90-105. (Some of the works cited in this article also sound interesting, but I didn’t have a chance to dig any deeper as I just wanted to know a bit about the Tokugawa-era roads. Also interesting in this vein is Jilly Traganou’s book The Tokaido Road: Travelling and Representation in Edo and Meiji Japan [2004].)

Wert, Michael. Meiji Restoration Losers. Harvard UP, 2013. (Not directly useful as a source for writing about Ishin – it’s about later events and it mostly tracks the posthumous construction of one specific Tokugawa magistrate’s history – but it was an engaging read and I found it interesting as an exploration of how people continue to look back on the Bakumatsu era and the Meiji Restoration, which is something that the game is, of course, also doing.)

Yamakawa, Kikue. Women of the Mito Domain: Recollections of Samurai Family Life. Translated by Kate Wildman Nakai. U of Tokyo P, 1992. (Another one of those bits of essential reading on everyday life for low-ranking samurai, this time with a focus on women’s lives and households more generally. I didn’t use a lot of from this book in my fic, but it has everything from translations of songs to records of families’ financial transactions, and it’s fascinating to read about all the turmoil in Mito playing out in the background of these families’ lives.)

“Yokai.com.” https://yokai.com/. (The creators of this site make a point of not going into detail about their sources, and they’re very careful to state that they don’t intend for the project to be “the final authority” on yokai, but I enjoyed browsing the site to get some ideas for Okita’s stories – and once you know the name of a particular yokai that you’re interested in, it’s easy enough to go look up other sources on them.)

[janeiscompletelyfine]

Okay but just imagine with me for a minute. Rumored s*domite Sherlock Holmes and his life partner Watson are being cut out from the police, so Watson takes every opportunity possible to mention his wife as possible in his publishings to the Strand, creating the illusion of several wives in various states of life and confuses the fuck out of everyone. As it dissuades the suspicion of what the detective and his biographer are doing behind closed doors, they're perfectly happy-- as is Watson's actual wife, reported co-chair of the sapphist movement Mary Morstan.

[imitationgame77]

Detective Gene?

John H Watson (photo below, right)

Invalided out of the army from Afghanistan, and becomes a biographer and partner of a famous private detective.

Cormoran Strike (photo below, right)

Invalided out of military service after losing half of his right leg in Afghanistan, and becomes a famous private detective.

Over a century apart.

But thirst for seeking truth and adventure runs in family...

[thegildedbee]

Intimidate: May 9 Prompt from @calaisreno

John Watson’s unfailing refusal to be intimidated by himself has always been a source of irritation to Mycroft.

He had revisited the issue at suitable intervals over the course of their acquaintance, seeking to satisfy his desire to arrive at a definitive answer to this conundrum, the better to remediate this deficiency in Watson. 

(That he has yet to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion about the phenomenon is one of the few failures that he allows himself to admit – within the confines of his own head, of course. It is a ridiculous state of affairs. After all, he has a much-loved panoply of tactics at his disposal for intimidating entire countries. Which he uses. Frequently. Successfully.)

(At one point he had toyed with the idea of writing up Person X’s behavior on this score to use as a “hypothetical” example in a training exercise for the department’s analysts to see if they could detect any meaningful clues he had inexplicably overlooked. He had quickly decided, however, that it would be prudent to set this idea aside, as the acquaintance of his department’s personnel with Sherlock’s sphere could unmask the pretense of a fictional model, without any compensatory insights having been generated.)

Given current circumstances, it is time to tick off this item on his list of outstanding actions. He gathers himself mentally, and begins a review of his previously generated list of candidate explanations. 

Initially, he had believed that Watson’s apparent imperviousness to his exercises of power was stupidity, advertised as bravery. After all, a cognitively-endowed individual encountering Mycroft in the key of intimidation would make a sound assessment of possible consequences and respond appropriately, as in “a word to the wise is sufficient.” For those with a deficit in intelligence, a simple recalibration in leaving less to subtext in conveying his meanings typically sufficed. And yet, not so with Watson. Strikethrough that premise.

Early on he had posited that the problem was aggression due to his military training – and yet Watson’s service file indicated he had no trouble following orders. Strikethrough that premise.

A later supposition was that Watson’s behavior is due to his being of small stature – the compensatory demeanor of a man to appear larger, as in a cat with an arched back and its hair standing up, or when a puffer fish expands like a balloon. And yet there are no other indications that Watson finds his physical limits of concern to support this supposition. Strikethrough that premise.

He had also considered that Watson’s attitude was the consequence of being a man with nothing to lose. While this fact might have powered his non-responsiveness to displays of power at one time, he had not appeared to be in such a state for quite some time -- and yet his obstinacy continued. Strikethrough that premise.

One explanation of which he is rather fond is that the man has a perverse enjoyment of being contrary for the sake of being contrary. And yet, sadly, this premise must also be committed to the strikethrough rubbish bin, as this attitude is not on display in other situations, as it would be if it was a personality characteristic.

A recurring conjecture has been that the biographical detail of Watson being a medical professional is relevant – that he has a caretaker complex. This rationale, he believes, has some merit. But it seems insubstantial as a complete explanation for why Watson appears to be uncowed while being on the receiving end of intimidation by one such as himself (not that there is another one such as himself known to him. But it is always a possibility; a vanishingly slight one, but a possibility nonetheless).

It is always at this point in the analysis that he comes up against a factor that seems inescapably relevant, but that he finds he is resistant to giving way to: that Watson’s imperviousness to intimidation is causally related to his association with his brother, rather than to circumstances that are solely Watson's own.

It is as if Watson’s insubordination is in the service of establishing a demilitarized zone around Sherlock, with Watson patrolling its perimeter, to repel and/or neutralize anything that he considers to be a threat. Well, was in the service of.

But why such a dedicated defense of his brother, such that Mycroft's intent to intimidate falls flat? This assertive stance had appeared within a very short period of time – Watson had become very loyal, very quickly. Scarcely a day after being informed of Sherlock’s existence he had killed a man – with an illegal weapon – because he believed his life was threatened, even while unable to hear what was happening, and the only evidence being that of viewing the unfolding of a pantomime.

Mycroft purses his lips in impatience and blinks his eyes to refocus them. No more time can be expended on the Watson question today – there are many urgent matters of international importance needing to be put right. And now that Sherlock has been removed from Watson’s life, Mycroft's listed item re analyzing Watson’s motivations can indeed be ticked off, due to that reality. 

Yes, Mycroft points out to himself, even Watson, needs must, be intimidated by death, and come to display submission to its dictates. It is unlikely that he will need to experience yet again Watson’s non-cooperative, headstrong, insolent manner (at least not any time soon). Indeed, with Sherlock "dead," there is no need to ponder the question further.  ........................................................ @calaisreno @totallysilvergirl @friday411 @peanitbear @original-welovethebeekeeper rest of the @s in the tags, which will work for communication purposes, I hope? just say the word if you want to be untagged or tagged xoxoxo

[callmebrycelee]

man crush monday

andrew garfield

full name andrew russell garfield

date of birth: august 20, 1983

place of birth: los angeles, california

age: 41

sign: leo

best known for: Portraying Eduardo Saverin in the biographical drama The Social Network; Peter Parker/Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and Spider-Man: No Way Home; Jonathan Larson in Tick, Tick... Boom!, Jim Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and Detective Jeb Pyre in the true crime drama miniseries Under the Banner of Heaven.

height: 5 feet and 10 inches tall

[dross-the-fish]

The Motley Crew. From the top: Quincey Harker [Oldest son of the Harker family and by all accounts a nice boy] Henry Jekyll [Well respected doctor, very shady] Edward Hyde [same as the person above but even worse] John Watson [Doctor and biographer to the worlds greatest detective] Adam Frankenstein [8 foot tall homunculus. Daddy issues like you wouldn't believe] Theo Kipp [Thesbian vampire. Needs a hug] Lawrence Talbot [Neurotic werewolf. Self-made orphan. Needs a hug even more] Selma Morris [Vampire hunter. Best sharp shooter in all of Texas. Needs a nap] Erik [No last name, says he's a ghost. Drama queen.]

[mariacallous]

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is paying software company Palantir $30 million to provide the agency with “near real-time visibility” on people self-deporting from the United States, according to a contract justification published in a federal register on Thursday. The tool would also help ICE choose who to deport, giving special priority to “visa overstays,” the document shows.

Palantir has been an ICE contractor since 2011, but the document published Thursday indicates that Palantir wants to provide brand-new capabilities to ICE. The agency currently does not have any publicly known tools for tracking self-deportation in near real-time. The agency does have a tool for tracking self-reported deportations, but Thursday’s document, which was first reported by Business Insider, does not say to what degree this new tool may rely on self-reported data. ICE also has “insufficient technology” to detect people overstaying their visas, according to the Department of Homeland Security. This is particularly due to challenges in collecting "biographic and biometric" data from departing travelers, especially if they leave over land, according to Customs and Border Protection.

The agency says in the document that these new capabilities will be under a wholly new platform called the Immigration Lifecycle Operating System, or ImmigrationOS. Palantir is expected to provide a prototype of ImmigrationOS by September 25, 2025, and the contract is scheduled to last at least through September 2027. ICE’s update to the contract comes as the Trump administration is demanding that thousands of immigrants “self-deport,” or leave the US voluntarily.

ICE and Palantir did not respond for comment.

According to the document, ImmigrationOS is intended to have three core functions. Its “Targeting and Enforcement Prioritization” capability would streamline the “selection and apprehension operations of illegal aliens.” People prioritized for removal, ICE says, should be “violent criminals,” gang members, and “visa overstays.”

Its “Self-Deportation Tracking” function would have “near real-time visibility into instances of self-deporation,” the document says. The document does not say what data Palantir would use for such a system, but ICE says it aims to “accurately report metrics of alien departures from the United States.” The agency stipulates that this tool should also integrate with “enforcement prioritization systems to inform policy” but does not elaborate on these systems or policies.

Meanwhile, the “Immigration Lifecycle Process” function would streamline the “identification” of aliens and their “removal” from the United States, with the goal of making "deportation logistics” more efficient.

In a “rationale” section, ICE claims that it has an “urgent and compelling” need for ImmigrationOS’s capabilities. Without them, ICE claims, it would be “severely” limited in its ability to target the gangs MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, and abide by President Donald Trump’s executive order to expedite deportations.

Palantir, ICE claims, is “the only source that can provide the required capabilities and prototype of ImmogrationOS [sic] without causing unacceptable delays.” ICE says the company has developed “deep institutional knowledge of the agency’s operations over more than a decade of support.”

“No other vendor could meet these timeframes of having the infrastructure in place to meet this urgent requirement and deliver a prototype in less than six months,” ICE says in the document.

ICE’s document does not specify the data sources Palantir would pull from to power ImmigrationOS. However, it says that Palantir could “configure” the case management system that it has provided to ICE since 2014.

Palantir has done work at various other government agencies as early as 2007. Aside from ICE, it has worked with the US Army, Air Force, Navy, Internal Revenue Service, and Federal Bureau of Investigation. As reported by WIRED, Palantir is currently helping Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) build a brand-new “mega API” at the IRS that could search for records across all the different databases that the agency maintains.

Last week, 404 Media reported that a recent version of Palantir’s case-management system for ICE allows agents to search for people based on “hundreds of different, highly specific categories,” including how a person entered the country, their current legal status, and their country of origin. It also includes a person’s hair and eye color, whether they have scars or tattoos, and their license-plate reader data, which would provide detailed location data about where that person travels by car.

These functionalities have been mentioned in a government privacy assessment published in 2016, and it’s not clear what new information may have been integrated into the case management system over the past four years.

This week’s $30 million award is an addition to an existing Palantir contract penned in 2022, originally worth about $17 million, for work on ICE’s case management system. The agency has increased the value of the contract five times prior to this month; the largest was a $19 million increase in September 2023.

The contract’s ImmigrationOS update was first documented on April 11 in a government-run database tracking federal spending. The entry had a 248-character description of the change. The five-page document ICE published Thursday, meanwhile, has a more detailed description of Palantir’s expected services for the agency.

The contract update comes as the Trump administration deputizes ICE and other government agencies to drastically escalate the tactics and scale of deportations from the US. In recent weeks, immigration authorities have arrested and detained people with student visas and green cards, and deported at least 238 people to a brutal megaprison in El Salvador, some of whom have not been able to speak with a lawyer or have due process.

As part of its efforts to push people to self-deport, DHS in late March revoked the temporary parole of more than half a million people and demanded that they self-deport in about a month, despite having been granted authorization to live in the US after fleeing dangerous or unstable situations in Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela under the so-called “CHNV parole programs.”

Last week, the Social Security Administration listed more than 6,000 of these people as dead, a tactic meant to end their financial lives. DHS, meanwhile, sent emails to an unknown number of people declaring that their parole had been revoked and demanding that they self-deport. Several US citizens, including immigration attorneys, received the email.

On Monday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s move to revoke people’s authorization to live in the US under the CHNV programs. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt called the judge’s ruling “rogue.”